THE LIBRARY
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THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
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LIFE OF CAEDINAL MANNING
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HENRY EDWARD MANNING,
\l;. HDl'AiON 'IF ( HICHHSTEK.
LIFE OF
CAEDINAL MANNING
AKCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER
EDMUND SHERIDAN PURCELL
MEMBER OF THE ROMAN ACADEMY OF LETTERS
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
MANNING AS AN ANGLICAN
TToXXd rd deiva Kovdiv dvdpunrov Seivhrepov iriXu
Antigone.
iLotttion
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1895
All rights reserved
BX
V. 1
47^5
\S'i5
PREFACE
In the years 1886-90, Cardinal Manning gave me constant
opportunities of learning from his own lips the story of his
life from its earliest beginnings to its close. In the first
instance it was his desire and hope that the volume treating
of his Anglican life should be published during his lifetime.
To write fully and faithfully during his Kfetime a story
so complicated, so full of personal incidents, and self-
revelations presented, as I soon discovered, insurmountable
obstacles. Besides there was the primary objection that
to divide the " Life " into two separate parts must needs
break the unity and continuity of the work. Indeed, on
one occasion, I remember Cardinal Manning saying that " to
write my life, while I am still alive, is like putting me into
my cof&n before I am dead."
In the prime of his life, in the fulness of his fame as
Archbishop of Westminster and a Father of the Vatican
Council, Archbishop Manning resolved that what he had
done in his Anglican days — the days before the " flood " as
he called them — when he was still " in the twilight "
should be buried and forgotten. " Let the dead bury their
dead." But as life began to wane, his heart reverted with a
strange yearning to the days of old ; to the memories of the
past. The closed book of his Anglican life was opened : its
pages were perused with a fresh and youthful delight ; the
dust of the dead years, literally as well as metaphorically,
14S66S0
VI CARDINAL MANNING
after the lapse of half a lifetime was swept aside. In
placing in my hands his earliest Diary, written in his
Lavington days, Cardinal Manning said, " The eye of no
man has seen this little book. It has never before passed
out of my keeping." ^ This Diary, in which were recorded
his innermost thoughts ; his sorrows of heart ; his loneliness
at Lavington ; his confessions ; his trials and temptations,
had evidently never been opened by Cardinal Manning
since the day he left Lavington for ever ; for the dust of
time, and faded flowers, and bookmarkers that had lost
their once brilliant colours, mementoes of the past, lay
between its pages. Before, however, this intimate record of
his early life was finally given to me for the purposes of the
Biography, Cardinal Manning carefully and wisely removed
from its pages every record or reflection or statement which
he did not consider fit or expedient to be laid before the
public eye.
But besides and beyond his Letters and Diaries, Cardinal
Manning himself was a living source, fons ct origo, of
information. When the mood or the inspiration came he
opened his mind and spoke without reserve.
In like manner and for a like purpose, all his other
Diaries, Journals, and autobiographical Notes in accordance
with his wish and will passed into my possession. I did
not attempt to revise or reverse Cardinal Manning's directions.
In his Diaries, Journals, and Notes he told' the story of his
own life ; laid bare the workings of his heart, its trials and
temptations, sometimes its secrets and sorrows. It was not
for me by suppressions to amend or to blur his handiwork.
On the contrary, it was my duty and my delight to let the
chief actor in this complex drama tell the tale of his own
life, and, as far as may be, in his own words.
1 In a letter, dated November 5, 1888, referring to this Diary, Cardinal
Manning wrote as follows : " It is the first time I have ever allowed this little
book to pass out of ray hands ; no one but you has ever seen it."
PREFACE vii
Hence I have not omitted or suppressed a single letter,
document, or autobiographical Note essential to a faithful
presentation of character, or to the true story of events,
with one sole exception. This exception is an autobio-
graphical Note, written by Cardinal Manning in 1890, on
the corporate action of the Society of Jesus in England
and in Eome. It was considered wise or expedient to
omit, at all events for the present, this Note of five or
six pages, on the ground that it might give pain to
persons still living, or provoke controversy at home or
abroad.
Second only in interest to the self-revelations and con-
fessions contained in his numerous Diaries and Notes, is
the voluminous correspondence to which Cardinal Manning
especially directed the attention of his biographer, as form-
ing materials essential to the true presentation of his life.
This correspondence falls into three periods. The first is
Manning's letters from Oxford to his brother-in-law John
Anderdon ; the second his letters to Laprimaudaye his
curate at Lavington and to Robert Wilberforce ; and the
last series to Mgr. Talbot, the private chamberlain of Pope
Pius IX. at the Vatican.
Every one of these letters of material interest or import-
ance appears in the " Life " without alteration or omission,
for they form a rich source of information in regard to the
character, the acts and motives of Cardinal Manning, alike
in his Anglican and Catholic days.
Hour after hour, on many an evening in these years I
am referring to. Cardinal Manning gave a most graphic and
interesting account of his early days at Totteridge, his first
home and birthplace ; of his oratorical triumphs at the
Oxford Union ; of his intimacy in the prime of life with
men eminent in Church and State and Letters.
Incidents and details ever fresh and sparkling welled up
from the fountains of Cardinal Manning's memory illustrating,
VUl CARDINAL MANNING
as he told the tale of his life, Anglican or Catholic, the
motives which prompted him to action ; the high aims and
ideals which he aspired to ; the disappointments and
hindrances which early or late he had to encounter. It is
perhaps not unnatural that in all the incidents, all the
stories and reminiscences related by Cardinal Manning of
his life, the chief interest is found to lie in their relation to
his own acts or words and works. To a biographer liis hero
is the object of supreme and special interest, and under the
circumstances no one ought to take it much amiss if the
aroma of a refined and subtle seK-love might seem more or
less to pervade Cardinal Manning's reminiscences.
To the Eight Hon. W, E. Gladstone I am deeply indebted
for the kind and active interest which he has taken in the
preparation of Cardinal Manning^s Life. As far back as
1887, he supplied me with information, known to himself
alone, concerning incidents connected with Manning's Anglican
life. On one occasion, I think it was at Dollis Hill, where
he was staying in the summer of 1887, Mr. Gladstone said :
" You are only just not too late with Manning's Biography.
No one was so intimate with him as I was in his Anglican
days. We were in close and constant communication. I
remember well incidents and conversations which show
what a high opinion was entertained of Manning by men
whose judgment is worth recording. I have not committed
those opinions to writing ; I have never spoken of what was
said about him to me by men of great eminence, even to
Manning himself. Had you not come to-day, the incidents
I am about to relate would never have been told, for they
would have been in a few years buried with me."
Mr. Gladstone then related many interesting incidents
which are recorded in the pages of the following volumes.
On mentioning to Cardinal Manning the facts related by
]\Ir. Gladstone, what gave the Cardinal supreme satisfaction
was the opinion entertained by Sir James Fitzstephens,
PREFACE ix
the historian : " Manning is the wisest man I ever knew."
What gave almost equal satisfaction was what Bishop
Phillpotts of Exeter said to Mr. Gladstone : " No power on
earth can keep Manning from the Bench of Bishops." The
opinions also entertained of Manning by other men, for
instance by Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone told me I
might publish on his authority, for he could vouch not only
for the accuracy of their statements, but of their very
words. On congratulating him on his splendid memory, Mr.
Gladstone replied, as I think I have recorded in its proper
place, " No: my memory is a patchwork memory; I remember
the things which I ought to forget, and forget the things
which I ought to remember."
Cardinal Manning and Mr. Gladstone differed in opinion
as to the character of the termination or suspension of their
mutual intimacy in 1851. Mr. Gladstone said to me : " On
Manning becoming a Eoman Catholic our friendship died a
natural death, for outside of the Anglican Church and its
concerns we had no ideas or interests in common." Cardinal
Manning, on the other hand, maintained that his friendship
for Mr. Gladstone survived as of old ; though its expression
was interrupted by external circumstances.
With singular selflessness and sympathetic interest, Mr.
Gladstone devoted much time and thought, even at a time
when as Prime Minister he was weighted by the cares of
State, to the subject of Cardinal Manning's Biography. By
correspondence, and in conversation at Downing Street, and
at Whitehall Gardens, as late as the beginning of this year,
Mr. Gladstone related to me, as he said, without reserve
every fact, every incident, every opinion of which he had
personal knowledge relating, early or late in life, to
Manning's career and character. " I have now told you,"
Mr. Gladstone said in his last conversation with me, " every-
thing I know about IManning ; I have held nothing back as I
did in our earlier conversations during his lifetime. I have
X CARDINAL MANNING
also given my opinion on some acts in his career ; and my
views of some of the religious and political principles which
he maintained. You have my authority for repeating all
- ^^ A jyhat I have said about Manning ; but I leave to you the
responsibility of publication."
All the facts related by Mr. Gladstone I have published
in due place and order, and incidentally many of his opinions,
some favourable, some adverse, concerning Cardinal Manning's
tone of thought or line of action, both as an Anglican and
as a Catholic.
Mr. Gladstone added still another favour and aid to the
work he had at heart, by allowing the publication of such
of his letters as throw light upon events in Cardinal
Manning's career, or illustrate his character, his relations
to the Anglican Church, or his religious opinions or teachings.
The correspondence which passed between Manning and
Mr. Gladstone forms one of the most interesting episodes
recorded in the " Life." The only pity is that all the letters
written in his Anglican days to Mr. Gladstone were sup-
pressed by Cardinal Manning because, as he told me, he did
not think, for various reasons, their publication would be
expedient.
Mr. Gladstone, who set great store on Manning's Anglican
letters, was very indignant on hearing from me of their
fate.
The late Charles "Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, a
playmate of Manning's at Combe Bank ; a schoolfellow at
Harrow ; and for a year his private tutor at Oxford, supplied
many interesting details of the latter's early life, habits of
mind, and moral nature. To many other of his friends or
associates at Oxford, who were familiar with him in his
undergraduate days, I owe no little of the details and local
colour which their reminiscences imparted to his personality
and career.
To Mrs. Austen, Cardinal Manning's devoted sister, the
PREFACE XI
sole survivor of all his brothers and sisters, I owe more than
I can easily express. It was from long conversations with
her, and from numerous letters, I learnt much about the
family relations, the loving kindliness of " dear Henry's
nature " ; and of the deep affectionate love which he had
ever felt and shown for every member of his family. Some
of her letters to me relating to her brother I would gladly
have made use of had I not known her aversion to such
publicity. At first she refused to allow the publication of
Cardinal Manning's letters to herself. She exclaimed " I
am a burner of letters ; you shall not have one of dear
Henry's letters to me ; I have left directions that at my
death they shall all be burnt." But happily these interesting
letters by Mrs. Austen's kind consent form a part of her
brother's biography. Her death in 1893, before the publica-
tion of the " Life," I deeply regret, as her interest in it
was so great that a few months before her death she offered
to read the proofs of the early chapters.
The Lady Herbert of Lea has rendered invaluable assist-
ance, by communicating many interesting facts and details
derived from her long and uninterrupted intimacy with
Cardinal Manning, in his Anglican as in his Catholic days.
The numerous letters addressed to herself and to Mr. Sidney
Herbert, as he then was, by Cardinal Manning are, from
their contents and character, of an unique interest.
In like manner, the letters of Mr. Odo Eussell, written to
Archbishop Manning during the Vatican Council, are of the
highest importance and of historic value. To the kindness
of his widow. Lady Ampthill, I am indebted for permitting
their publication.
I owe an expression of gratitude to many others, alike
Catholic and non-CathoUc, for their aid and advice ; for
their communications and contributions and letters, some
of which have not fallen within the purpose or plan of
this work.
XU CARDINAL MANNING
Unfortunately, until the " Life " was completed, I did not
enjoy the advantage of the kind and judicious advice of the
late Mr. David Lewis of Arundel. But he read the proof
sheets from beginning to end ; and was especially pleased
that all the Diaries, documents, and letters entrusted to me
by Cardinal Manning had been freely and fully made use
of. From his intimate acquaintance with the leaders of
the Oxford Movement, — for Mr. Lewis was curate to John
Henry Newman at St. Mary's in 1843, — and from his per-
sonal knowledge of Cardinal Manning alike in his Anglican
and Catholic days, he was in a position to offer suggestions
or explanations which are embodied in the work in the
form of notes.
From two or three learned and judicious priests, seculars
or regulars, whose names I am not at liberty to mention, I
have received much valuable information and salutary
advice.
To his Eminence, Cardinal Vaughau, I venture to express
my deep sense of respectful gratitude for the encouragement
which in the first instance, soon after his eminent pre-
decessor's death, he gave me in the arduous and responsible
work intrusted to me by Cardinal Manning.
Cardinal Manning, in speaking of his Biography, said to
me, " I do not wish to see, either in MS. or in proof, a single
page of the ' Life ' with the exception of one early episode ;
for were I to read it I should in a measure be responsible
for the work." Mindful of this warning I have refrained
from asking Cardinal Vaughan, in his kindness to look at a
leaf or line of the " Life " of his predecessor. Advice on
one or two points offered by his Eminence I felt bound to
obey ; but in regard to suggestions of another kind or
character I was constrained to follow, whether rightly or
wrongly, my unfettered discretion.
Perhaps I may be allowed here to repeat a sentence of
Cardinal Manning's which seems to me to give the keynote
PREFACE xiii
of bis public life and action. Speaking of bis earliest days
he said : " I never was, like Newman, a student or a recluse.
Newman from tbe beginning to tbe end was a recluse — at
Oriel, Littlemore, and Edgbaston ; but I from tbe beginning
was pitcbed head over heels into public life, and I have
lived ever since in the full glare of day,"
There is no need of an Introduction to this Biography of
Cardinal Manning, since he has told the story of his own
life ; therefore for the most part, and as far as may be, the
tale is told in his own words.
It would be a supreme satisfaction to me and my best
reward if, by the unreserved publication of all Cardinal
Manning's Diaries, Journals, and autobiographical Notes,
his real character, the workings of his heart and soul, his
inner life, are made manifest in the fulness and simplicity of
truth.
From the beginning a conflict or wrestling with self, as
his Diaries bear witness, was going on in his heart and soul,
a struggle to square God's will with his own.
The human side of his character was developed and dis-
played to the fullest : self- will, a despotic temper and love
of power.
But the Supernatural side of his character was still more
strongly marked and more potent : a vivid belief in the
Divine Presence, in the Voice of God speaking almost
audibly, to use Cardinal Manning's own words, to his soul,
and in the perpetual guidance of the Holy Ghost.
In the dark and crucial hour of trial his vivid Faith
illumined his soul, and in spite of human weaknesses or wil-
fulnesses he was constrained by the grace and guidance of
the Holy Ghost to submit absolutely and unreservedly his
will to the Will of God. It was the triumph in his soul of
the Supernatural over the natural.
Not the soul of Cardinal Manning only was exposed to
such wrestlings with self; for many a saint or martyr
xiv CARDINAL MANNING
whose name is numbered iu the glorious beadroU of Heaven
had to wrestle like Cardinal Manning with their turbulent,
stubborn, or ambitious natures ; " to light the good fight,"
before they won their Crown of Glory.
E. S. P.
St. Michael's Day, 1895.
CONTENTS
CHAPTEE I
1807-1821
PAGE
Birth and Parentage — Home and School ... l
CHAPTER II
1822-1826
Harrow — Defective Studies — a Private Tutor . . 16
CHAPTER III
Oxford — an Undergraduate at the Union, 1829 . . 29
CHAPTER IV
1827-1830
In the Schools — Letters to John Anderdon . . 43
CHAPTER V
1831
The Colonial Office — "Love in Idleness" . . 70
XVI CARDINAL MANNING
CHAPTEE VI
1832-1833
PAGE
Holy Orders and Matrimony . . . . . 85
CHAPTER VII
1833-1837
The Rector op Lavington — Early Work — Death op his
Wife 106
CHAPTEE VIII
1838
Development of his Religious Opinions . . . 126
CHAPTEE IX
1839-1840
His active Work at Chichester — its Success and Reward 152
CHAPTEE X
1841-1843
The Archdeacon op Chichester . . . . .192
CHAPTEE XI
i
1836-1845
His Relations with Nkwman and the Tractarian
Party . . . . . . . . .215
CONTENTS XVU
CHAPTEE XII
1843-1846
PAGE
A Period of "Declension" — Diary 1844-47 . . . 240
CHAPTEE XIII
1841-1846
Public Life and Temptations to Seoul arity . , 261
CHAPTEE XIV
1844-1846
A Holiday — Ward's Degradation — the Maynooth Grant 285
CHAPTEE XV
1845
Newman's Conversion — its effects on Manning . . 305
CHAPTEE XVI
1847
Facing Death — a New Life .323
CHAPTEE XVII
1847-1848
A Spiritual Retreat in Catholic Countries . . 343
XVlll CARDINAL MANNING
CHAPTEE XVIII
1847
PAGE
The Archdeacon of Chichester on his way to Rome . 355
CHAPTEE XIX
28;;^ November 1847 to llth May 1848
In Rome — in its Churches and Monasteries — at the
CiRCOLO Romano . . . . . . .362
CHAPTEE XX
1849
The Committee of Privy Council on Education and
THE National Society — Rules for Spiritual Life
in his Sermons — Mr. Gladstone's Criticisms . . 418
CHAPTEE XXI
1833-1851
Life and Home at Lavington . . . . .440
CHAPTEE XXII
1846-1851
Conflicting Claims op Conscience, or the Outer and
Inner Man ........ 461
CHAPTEE XXIII
1841-1851
Anglo-Catholic Doctrines and Devotions . . . 489
CONTENTS XIX
CHAPTEE XXIV
1845-1850 (26th February)
PAGE
Unsettlement in Faith — His Letters to Egbert
WiLBERFORCE . . . • . • .500
CHAPTEE XXV
1850
The Gorham Judgment — the "Papal Aggression" . 522
CHAPTEE XXVI
March to December 1850
The Day of Hesitation — His Letters to Robert
WiLBERFORCE AFTER THE GORHAM JUDGMENT . . 552
CHAPTEE XXVII
1851
The Day of Decision ....... 593
CHAPTEE XXVIII
An Aftermath, Summer and Autumn 1851 — Winter,
Studying Theology in Rome . . . . .629
CHAPTEE XXIX
A retrospect
Caedinal Wiseman's Life and Work in England :
Catholic Emancipation : the Restoration op the
Hierarchy 641
NOTES 693
ERRATA
Vol. I.
P. viii. last line, read " Fitzstephen " for "Fitzstephens."
P. 39. L. 9, read "R. I. Wilberforce " for "R. W. Wilberforce. "
P. 64. L. 18, read "Canon" for "Dean."
P. 99. L. 15, read "dimissory" for "demissory."
P. 101. L. 16, read " Brightstone " for " Brighstone."
P. 147. L. 14, read "J. Keble" for "T. Keble."
P. 237. L. 16 from below, read " Stinchcombe " for "Stinckcombe."
P. 251. Footnote 1. 3, read "St. John's" for "St. John."
P. 361. L. 22, read ^^Misericordia" for " 3Iisericorda."
L. 35, read " Fopolo" for '^ Fopulo."
P. 372. L. 18 from below, read " Non" for " Vere."
P. 374. L. 19, read "Piazza" for "Piazzo."
P. 380. L. 17, read "Castel," for "Castil."
P. 390. L. 16, read "refettorio" for " refettoria."
P. 391. L. 7 from below, read "Chierici" for "Chicerici."
P. 396. L. 26, read " Ara Coeli" for " Scala Coeli."
P. 398. L. 9 from below, read "camera" for " comeres."
P. 406. L. 9 from below, read " Inghilterra" for "■ Ingleterra"
P. 442. L. 8 from below, read " Clewer " for "Clewes."
P. 443. L. 12 from below, read " but the latter " for "but he."
P. 530 and 531. L. 15 from below, read "Canon" for "Archdeacon."
P. 560. L. 6, read " T. W. Allies" for "T. M. Allies."
P. 604. L. 13, read " avTOKicpaXoi," for " avroKparels."
P. 613. Last line, read "T. T. Carter" for " T. C. Carter."
P. 631. L. 18 from below, read "Canon Kerr" for "Archdeacon Ker.
P. 693. Footnote, read "23" for "24."
CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND PAEENTAGE HOME AND SCHOOL
1807-1821
Henry Edward Manning was born at Copped Hall,
Hertfordshire, on the 15th of July 1807.^ He was the
youngest son of William Manning, M.P., and of Mary his
wife. His father, who was born 1st December 1763, was
twice married. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of
Abel Smith, banker of Nottingham, and sister of Robert,
created Lord Carrington. Of this marriage there were
two daughters : Elizabeth, who died unmarried ; and Mary,
who was married to Major-General Thomas Carey, of the
Guernsey family of that name. About three years after
the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, William Manning
married secondly, in 1792, Mary, the daughter of Henry
Leroy Hunter of Beech Hill, Reading. William Manning
died in 1835, and was buried at Sundridge, Kent, where
Mary, his wife, who was born 4th July 1771, and died
12th May 1847, was likewise buried. Four sons and four
daughters were the issue of the second marriage. Henry,
the youngest, enjoyed the benefit of having many brothers
and sisters.
The early years of the future Cardinal were spent in
his father's home, first at Totteridge, and then at Combe
Bank, near Sundridge, Kent. As the youngest child he
was his mother's darling and somewhat spoilt. His
favourite and constant companion before he went to
^ See Note A at end of the volume.
VOL. I S& B
2 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Harrow was his sister Harriet. His other brothers and
sisters were much older, and before Henry had reached a
companionable age they had dispersed from his father's
home ; one brother and one sister had died, and two
sisters had married. The early death of his favourite
sister Harriet was the first trial to a loving heart — later on
so sorely tried — the first death he had witnessed, for when
his eldest brother William died, Henry was scarcely five.^
The first hindrance or stumbling-block to the spiritual
life of the future Cardinal was the delay of nearly two years
in his baptism. Strange to say, in his numerous records,
journals, and note-books, full of references to and recol-
lections of his early days and of the circumstances of his
home life at Totteridge, Cardinal Manning, unlike his old
friend and contemporary, the late Charles Wordsworth,
Bishop of St. Andrews,^ so strict on the point of early
baptism, makes no allusion to the fact that he was
left unbaptized from the day of his birth, 15th of July
1807, to the 25th of May 1809. Henry Edward
Manning was baptized in the church of St. Martin-in-the-
Fields, London, by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The
following is the transcript of Cardinal Manning's baptismal
registry : " Register of Baptisms, St. Martin-in-the-Fields,
25th May 1809, Henry Edward Manning, son of William
Manning, Esq., and Mary his wife, born 15th July."
The year was omitted : the column of births was headed
1809 : there were other dates entered, one preceding that
of Manning's register by three or four was " 1806." In
those days the name of the priest or bishop who conferred
the sacrament of baptism was not recorded in the register
as it is now. The fact that Henry Edward was baptized
by the Bishop of Bath and Wells is to be found in the
family records. In like manner, more than a year after
her birth, his sister Harriet was baptized by the Bishop of
Gloucester.
1 William Manning, born July 1793, died 1812.
2 The late Charles Wordsworth, in the Annals of my Early Life, dilates
with satisfaction on the blessing which he and his brothers enjoyed on
receiving early baptism.
I BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 3
Mr. William Manning, in those days at the height of
his prosperity, was not a little prone to ostentation ; ^ and
his ambition was not satisfied apparently unless he had a
bishop to baptize his children. The convenience of so
important a personage had, of course, to be studied, and
that may account for the delay. In those days and even
in a generation later, as Keble bears witness, there was
great laxity in regard to the early baptism of children.
William Manning occupied Copped Hall, Totteridge, soon
after his marriage in 1792, in the first instance as tenant ;
subsequently he purchased it. This first home for eight
years of his life left so deep and abiding an impression upon
his heart and mind, that sixty-five years afterwards Cardinal
Manning gave the following vivid account of it in a letter
addressed to Mrs. Austen, his sole surviving sister : — ^
Archbishop's House, Westminster, S.W.,
19(7!, July 1881.
My dear Caroline — I must tell you of a visit I made
yesterday.
Our old home at Totteridge, after passing through the hands
of the Halls, Marjoribanks, and Lord Lytton, belongs now to
Mr. Boulton. He invited me to come and see it, and I went
yesterday afternoon for three hours.
The house has been enlarged and ornamented, but the old
interior remains. I went all over it. The gardens are enlarged
and greatl}^ improved, but the old outlines remain, — a new con-
servatory where the old was, the dairy unchanged, the rosary —
but another and larger beyond it. In front of the house the
iron fence is moved far down the field, so as to make a level
terrace before the windows, and then a bank and a lower lawn.
The trees are preserved everywhere, and are very fine. A garden
road runs down all round the water, and returns to the west of
the house. I do not know when I have seen anything so beauti-
ful within so small a space. But what interested me most is
the memories of my dear father and mother. They knew all
^ William Manning was in the habit of driving every morning from
Totteridge to the city, a distance of eight miles, in a coach and four, some-
what after the style and fashion of his kinsman, "Bob" Smith, well
known in his day.
- Mrs. Austen, who survived her brother. Cardinal Manning, nearly two
years, died at the end of the year 1893, in her 93rd year.
4 CARDINAL MANNING chap
about her laying out the garden, and told me that when the
brook Dolis was widened out into the lake, as it is called, my
mother is said to have spread sheets over the fields to see where
the view of the water would be best seen from the house.
They showed me the clump planted by my father in 1810,
for the King's Jubilee (G. III.), and the oaks on the lawn, said
to be planted by my father and each one of us. True enough
there are seven, the eighth is gone."^ They stand so —
^ ... (wanting).
I told them of " Creasy " - climbing up to the owl's nest in the
avenue and tumbling down. They asked me to point out the
tree ; I fixed on the second, or third, near the house. They told
me that in the second tree there is a family of owls to this day.
So we go, and the owls remain. The little boudoir between
the library and the conservatory has a stained glass window.
The border blue, with roses on green, and the crossings
green. My memory is that our brother William did it, and
that he painted the roses, can you remember 1 Mr. Boulton
said he hoped you would come and see Totteridge. I told him
that you would be most glad if it were possible.
The family is most pleasing, highly educated, with a genius
for music.
I hope you are well. — Believe me always your affectionate
brother, H.E., C.A.
In this home, described in his old age with such graphic
touches of pathos and playfulness, the boy had grown up
amidst pleasant surroundings and in loving companionship,
under a father's eye and a mother's tender care. This home
of his boyhood, to which the Cardinal ever looked back with
love and reverence, was one of those happy homes which
are to be found scattered up and down in such rich and
blessed profusion all over the country, in park and village
and hamlet, in busy town even, and crowded city — homes
which are in literal truth not only the joy, but the real
honour and glory of England — the classic land of happy
domestic life.
Mr. S. B. Boulton of Copped Hall, Totteridge, has, at
^ Martha, one of the eight " planters " of the oaks, died early.
^ Creasy was one of the old domestics or farm labourers.
I BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 5
my request, given the following interesting reminiscences
of Cardinal Manning's first visit to his old home : —
My first personal acquaintance with the Cardinal arose from
my being informed that he had expressed a strong desire to
revisit my house, the place of his birth, Copped Hall, Totteridge.
I accordingly sent him an invitation, which he cordially accepted.
I found that he described this first visit very graphically, and at
some length, in a letter which he wrote at the time to his sister,
Mrs. Austen, which letter, by the courtesy of that lady, was
shown to me after his death. He took a lively interest in the
house, and in various featui^es of the estate, showing an astonish-
ing memory as to details, considering that he had not seen the
place for more than seventy years. He pointed out the room
in which he was born, told me correctly where certain doors
formerly stood, the position of which I had altered, also the
suppression of a door in the Tapestry Room. He pointed out
the spot whereon his uncle, when he was a child, read to the
assembled family the first news of the Battle of Waterloo, and
the list of oflBcers killed and wounded. He showed in the
avenue an old elm tree, which was, during his father's lifetime,
and still is, the abode of white owls, relating how one of his
father's laboiu:ers fell down from it and broke his leg in trying
to procure him a young owlet from the nest. The seven trees
on the lawn planted for seven members of the Manning family,
and the stained-glass window placed in a corridor by his eldest
brother, are described in his letter to Mrs. Austen already
alluded to. I took him to see the spinney planted by his
father in commemoration of the jubilee year of George IH. ;
and also the " Lake," a piece of ornamental water of about foui'
and a half acres, laid out by his mother ; also the summer-house
in which Bulwer Lytton wrote some of his novels. He also
visited the chiu-ch, and gave the history of the picture by Peters
which hangs there, and which was presented by his father ; and
he pointed out in the churchyard the tombs of his grandfather
and of his eldest brother.
The village church at Totteridge in which the future
Cardinal first took part in public worship, has no pretensions
to architectural beauty ; its services which were, as was but
too common in those days of religious slackness, infrequent
and slovenly in character, left no impress on his youthful
mind. Over the communion-table, as the altar was called
in those days, hung for a long time a picture representing
6 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
a cluster of cherubs. It was generally supposed that
William Manning's children were the original, and the more
imaginative even detected in the smallest cherub a likeness
to Henry Edward. The delusion was only dissipated in
after years, when the fact leaked out that William Manning
had won the picture at a lottery in London. Mr. William
IVIanning was a munificent patron of church and parish work.
In one of the lists of local charities is the following entry —
" Master Henry Edward Manning, Is." In this church there
are the tombs of the Cardinal's grandfather, who died in
1791, and of his eldest brother, William Manning. In the
church at Totteridge there are no monuments of the ]\Iau-
nings ; but in one of the City churches there is a tablet in
memory of his grandmother, with the following inscription : —
Sacred to the memory of
Elizabeth Manning,
Wife of William Manning, Esq., Merchant of London.
Died the 3rd of January 1780,
And was buried
Within the Walls of this Church.
This Tablet is erected by her Son,
William Manning, Esq.,
As an affectionate Tribute to her
Exemplary Virtues.^
On his father's death in 1791, William Manning, the
Cardinal's father, succeeded to the business, which was carried
on in New Bank Buildings, City, at a later period, in partner-
ship with Mr. John Anderdon, and made a handsome fortune
in the palmy days of West Indian prosperity. In those days
^ In the parish church of St. Giles, Speen, near Newbury, is to be found
the marriage register of tlie Cardinal's grandfather, William Manning, and
Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary Ryan of St. Kitts, West Indies : —
Elizabeth Ryan, baptized on 6th November 1732, at the parish church of
St. George, Basseterre, St. Kitts, married at Speen, Berks, 1st October 1751, to
William Manning. Elizabeth Ryan was the owner of two estates in St.
Kitts, and soon after the marriage her husband, Mr. AVilliam Manning,
founded the great West Indian house, afterwards known as Manning and
Anderdon. It is said that he first started in business at Bristol, where
he became accjuaiuted witli Isaac Disraeli, the father of Lord Bcaconsfield.
Subsequently he was established as a West Indian merchant at St. Mary
Axe, London, and lived at Billiter Square, City.
I BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 7
the "West Indian interest was a factor in the political world ;
accordingly William Manning entered Parliament as member
for Plympton Earle in 1790. In 1807 — the year his
youngest son, Henry Edward, was born — he was elected
member for Evesham ; he represented afterwards Penryn,
and supported West Indian and commercial interests in the
House of Commons for about thirty-nine years. He was
highly respected in the City ; was for many years a director
of the Bank of England, and was governor in the years
1812-13. The late Mr. Thomson Hankey, E.G.S., head at
one time of the great West Indian house of that name, told
me a year or two ago, that he knew William Manning, who
enjoyed a high reputation in the City, as well as his son
Charles, and that he likewise had some acquaintance with
the Cardinal.^
Cardinal Manning's own description of his father's
character and career, though long, is too graphic and noble
a tribute of gratitude and reverence to be omitted.
My dear father was one of the justest, most benevolent,
most generous men I ever knew. His refinement and delicacy
of mind was such, that I never heard out of his mouth a word
which might not have been spoken in the presence of the most
pure and sensitive, except once. He was then forced by others
to repeat a negro story which, though free from all evil de sextu,
was indelicate. He did it with gi-eat resistance. His example
gave me a hatred of all such talk. He was of the Old Church
Established religion ; a friend of the bishops, many of whom were
his close personal friends, such as Porteus of London, Bardon
of Bath and Wells, and Pelham of Lincoln, who had been, I
think, at school with him. It was under their influence that he
decided for me from my childhood, that I should be a clergy-
man. My brothers used to call me " the Parson," which made
me hate the thought of it. But I used to ride my pony in the
Park with the Bishop of Lincoln, and I passively submitted to
the destiny. I remember that I used to ride with my father
through the Horse Guards to the House of Commons, and go
^ Mr. Hankey was unable, in answer to the Cardinal's inquiries, to give
any information respecting his grandfather, Mr. William Manning. In his
letter to Jlr. Hankey, Cardinal Manning said he made these inquiries not on
his owTi account, but on behalf of some one else. To me Mr. Hankey wrote :
" I fear that 1 can give you no information respecting Cardinal Manning's
family which could possibly be of use to you."
8 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
in and sit under the gallery. This was when I was about twelve
or thirteen, my father was then member for Evesham, after-
wards he sat for Lymington. He was in the House from 1790
to 1829, in all nearly forty years. I remember hearing him speak
once in the House, from the second bench below the gangway,
I fancy, on the Opposition side ; l)ut how I cannot explain, for
he supported the Tor}'- Government, and they were in till the
year 1830. He spoke ^vith his arms folded, with perfect fluency,
never recalling a word, with great clearness, and with a pleasant
voice. He was listened to with great attention. It was very
high speaking, but not oratory, but he had in him so much
emotion, that I believe he could if he had been roused, speak
with true natural oratory. But he was too refined, modest, and
sensitive to make a display, or to overdo anything. He was in
danger of underdoing what he did from fear of display. He
was fond of reading, and had a wonderful memory, but his life
was so active, busy, kindly, and, in later years, so anxious, that
he had little time to read. After the peace of 1815, the great
incomes of our merchants began to fall. The West Indian
commerce suffered first and most. This shook his commercial
house, and from 1820 to 1830 he had great cares, which ended
at last in complete ruin. During those years he was in London
most days in the week. "\Mien he came down to Combe Bank,
he was worn and weary. He Avas fond of fishing, and would
stand for hours by the water at Combe Bank. He used to tell
me that his chief delight was the perfect quiet after the strain
and restlessness of London. We used to ride often together,
but his time was too much broken, and his mind too full to
allow of conversation on any subjects beyond the commonest.
Therefore, he never taught, or roused my mind on any kinds of
knowledge. But I owe to him more than this, he was a most
loving, generous, noble-minded man, I never knew him do any-
thing little, or say anything unworthy. He was both resjiected
and loved by all who knew him ! and his range of friends in his
long parliamentary and city life was very wide. Till late years
men used constantly to speak of him to me with affection ; many
with, great gratitude for kindnesses ; but his contemporaries are
all gone now — as mine also are going fast.^
The following account of his mother, written by Cardinal
Manning ten or twelve years before his death, will be read
by all with interest.
My dear mother taught me my letters, my Catechism, and
' Cardinal Manning's Journal, 1878-82
1 HOME AND SCHOOL 9
the beginning of Latin grammar. She was, for those times, well
educated, and had great facilities for all kinds of woman's work,
even to making little shoes ior me. She was a great reader, but
not of higher subjects. She had a great taste in anything about
the house, and in gardening, and was very fond of flowers. I
used to talk more with her, than with my father, and saw more
of her ; but our talk was not on topics of education. The good
she did me was that she urged me to work. I remember her
saying a thing to me which did me a signal service. I was
reading for honors at Oxford, and I told her that I had no hope
of succeeding, she said very gi-avely, and without a sign of mere
encouragement ; "I never knew you undertake anything you
did not do." This came to me as strength, I was unconscious
of ever having done anything ; and it sent me back over my
school days. She had watched me more than I knew, and there
was more truth in what she said than I had ever known. I
never was satisfied with anything I had done, and I had a clear
sight of my own deficiencies and of the greater abilities and
attainments of others. So much for my dearest mother, who
loved me too much as the youngest, but she always told me of
faults, and what I ought to do. She was generous, and large-
handed as my father, and cared for the poor.
Speaking of his first home at Totteridge, Cardinal
Manning, in an autobiographical Note dated 1882, wrote
as follows : —
My personal memories are few, but very deep. One is that
in a little room off the library a cousin of mine, about two years
older, when I was about four, told me that God had a book in
which He Avrote down everything we did wrong. This so
terrified me for days that I remember being found by my
mother sitting under a kind of writing-table in great fear. I
never forgot this at any time in my life, and it has been a great
grace to me, and kept me from the greatest dangers.
I remember, also, a great fire in an oil-mill on the Thames
near London Bridge. I was then, perhaps, scarcely four. It
was at night, and the reflection in the sky was visible at
Totteridge ten miles off. I remember being held up at the
drawing-room window to look at it. The effect on me was
fear. I remember, also, that one day I came in from the farm-
yard, and my mother asked me whether I had seen the peacock.
I said yes, and the nurse said no, and my mother made me
kneel down and beg God to forgive me for not speaking the
truth. This also fixed itself in my mind. I have one other
10 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
recollection, and that is of my annt, who lived close by, coming
in to tell my mother of the Battle of Waterloo. This was just
before we went to Combe Bank. More than this I cannot
remember at Totteridge, except that my mother taught me to
read out of a book called The Ladder to Learning, of which I do
not remember a word. She also began to teach me Latin
grammar when I was six or seven.
But my father had a house at 1 4 New Street, Spring Gardens,
and I have a memory there of a lady in deep mourning coming
to my mother and crying and swaying up and down with her
handkerchief in her hand. She was the widow of Captain
Hood, who was killed, I think, at Bayonne. This was before
Waterloo, and about 1812. I was then hardly four.^
Cardinal Manning speaks elsewhere of his mother's
having given him, before he went to school in 1816, a
diamond New Testament, and says : — " I remember that I
devoured the Apocalypse, and I never all through my life
forgot the ' lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.'
That verse has kept me like an audible voice through all
my life, and through worlds of danger in my youth."
In his tenth year, 1817, Henry Manning was sent to
school at Streatham, kept by a Welshman of the name of
Davies, a clergyman of the old sort, as the Cardinal used
to describe him. He had as his assistant his nephew David
Jones ; and as usher a man named Eees. Owing to illness,
Henry Manning remained only two years at tliis school.
In 1820, when he was thirteen years of age, he was
removed to a school at Totteridge, kept by the Rev. Abel
Lendon, curate of Totteridge, which then was, and still is,
a hamlet of Hatfield. At this school boys were prepared
for Westminster. But young Manning scarcely spent two
years there, for he left it in 1821. It is not surprising
that on going to Harrow in 1822, the fragmentary character
of his education put him at a great disadvantage. Had he
applied his mind to serious studies, his natural abilities
would soon have enabled him to recover lost ground.
In the last eight or ten years of his life, Cardinal Man-
ning's mind reverted with increasing ardour to the days of his
^ Manning was then about seven years old. The battle of Bayonne was
fought in 1814, and he was born July 15, 1807.
I HOME AND SCHOOL 11
youth ; to his early home ; to his boyish ambitions. He
was in the habit not only of recording the memories of the
past in copious journals, note-books, and memoranda, treat-
ing not of events only, but of persons. Events that had
happened ten, twenty, forty, sixty, or seventy years ago to
him personally, or touching him nearly in home or in heart,
are recorded in the light of the present ; the impressions of
to-day are the interpreters of the events of yesterday —
though that yesterday be more than half a century ago.
All that I need point out — and I dare not omit the caution,
where grave events or the character of men are concerned —
is that the impressions recorded or judgments pronounced
are not possessed of the virtue or value of contemporaneous
evidence. They are after-thoughts or after-judgments put
on record as future witnesses on his own behalf.^ In the
reminiscences of a lighter character or concern it is only
necessary to observe that Cardinal Manning in putting them
down even under the form of autobiographical notes trusted
simply to his memory ; hence, in the following most interest-
ing reminiscences of his school-days, or the days of his
boyhood, there are several mistakes as to dates and ages.
Speaking of the first school which he attended, the
Cardinal, about the year 1883, wrote as follows : —
My only recollections are of my first lessons in Mrs.
Barbauld's Hymns, and of walking about in the playground
trying to think what there was before the world M^as made.
The school was not bad in itself, but a bad boy had been in it
who left a trail of immorality behind him. I was there only
about two years, for I fell ill and was fetched home to Combe
Bank, and when I got there I fell asleep before the fire, with
my head on a footstool, and was insensible for more than thirty
days in fever. The first words I spoke after that long time
were to ask for an egg, which before I fell ill I always abhorred,
and would never taste. I remember that I had wanderings and
thought there was a robin in the room. When I was first put
to sit in a chair my head dropped from Aveakness, and my night-
^ In reference to these autobiographical records Cardinal Manning wTote
in one of his Journals, dated 15th Jan. 1882 : — " I hope I have never thought
of the future, but of the present : not of how men will judge hereafter, but
of how God judges now."
12 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
cap was pinned to the back of the arm-chair to keep my head
up ; I was about ten years old ^ and was long getting well, and
then in about a year after I went to a school at Totteridge
where I was born, and stayed there until I was in my fifteenth
year, and then went to Harrow.
Cardinal Manning "ave the following account of the
school at Totteridge, which he described as fairly good, and
of its master, the Eev, Abel Lendon : —
He was a disciplinarian and regular. I will not say that he
was ill-tempered or harsh, but he was austere and we were
afraid of him, with a wholesome fear. I was there about four
years and during that time I do not remember anything of
immorality in the school, except that one of the elder boys used
to go to London with one of the ushers, and it was afterwards
believed that they frequented bad company. But among the
boys I do not remember any instance of immorality, or of
dangerous intimacy, or of immodest language, or of foul talk ;
excepting on one occasion from an insolent boy. The dormi-
tories Avere well watched, and I never remember any case of
disorder. Looking back upon that school, it stands out in
marked contrast to the first I Avas at. I do not knoAv that there
was more religion, but there was more moral purity, refinement,
and civilisation. Also I remember that I used to have great
pleasure in going to Totteridge Church, and I really tried to
pray. The friendships were good, and had a higher tone. As
to studies, of course being older I learned more, but to my cost
I was made to learn the Westminster Greek Grammar, so that
when I Avent to Harrow where the Eton Greek Grammar was
used, I Avas thrown out, and had to begin all over again, Avhich
in the end did me good. I was put too high at first coming,
and was kept back a remove at the end of the first half before
Christmas. When I went home I spent my holidays at Combe
Bank. I got up every morning at five, or before, and lighted
my fire, and made my breakfast, and read till eight o'clock, then
got my pony and rode to the Curate of Sundridge, the parish of
Combe Bank, and read AA'ith him both Latin and Greek. This
did me immense good. It made me like getting up in the dark
for the rest of my life ; and it was the beginning of self-education.
But my danger ahvays Avas doing things too easily. A friend at
Oxford used to say that " I Avas the idlest hard-reading man,
and the hardest-reading idle man " that he ever kneAv. To my
^ In writing these reminiscences, Cardinal Manning was under the im-
pression that he was born in the year 1808.
I HOME AND SCHOOL 13
cost I know it was true. But, great as my advantages have
been, I had not the great blessing of being intellectually
awakened and guided by my excellent father and mother. They
gave me every advantage of schools, college, tutors, and the like,
but they did not awaken and instruct me themselves ; and yet
I cannot fail to speak of them both with reverence and
gratitude.^
In another of his Notes or Eeminiscences is the
following passage : —
While I was at school at Totteridge, I went over to be
confirmed at Hatfield by Bishop Pelham of Lincoln. I remember
that he recognised me and shook hands with me, there and then,
his kindness overcoming his dignity.
I remember that James Cholmondeley, Sidney Herbert, and
Henry Brand, who were, I believe, at a private tutor's together,
came to Totteridge '^ to be prepared for confirmation. This was
my first meeting Avith Sidney Herbert. It was about 1825-6.^
We were afterwards at Harrow and Oxford together.
Although Cardinal Manning loved his home at Totteridge
most, he had pleasant recollections of Combe Bank, where
his father, on selling his house at Totteridge in 1815,
bought an estate belonging to the Argyll family, in the
parish of Sundridge, three miles from Sevenoaks. The
rector of Sundridge was Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, who
estimated that the settling down in the parish with his
family of so considerable a man as Manning, added largely
to the market value of the living. Dr. Wordsworth belonged
to the High and Dry Church party of that day of lifeless
formalism. Manning and his family imbibed at Combe
Bank, if they had not done so before, like religious views.
Speaking of this period in one of his Notes, Cardinal Man-
ning said : " My family was strictly Church of England of
the old High school of Dr. Wordsworth, Mant, and D'Oyly.
1 Cardinal Manning's Journal, 1878-82.
- At Totteridge the sons of Bagot, Bishop of Oxford, were schoolfellows
of Manning. In a letter to Manning in 1842 Bishop Bagot hoped the Arch-
deacon of Chichester would come to meet his old schoolfellows.
^ The date is given in error. Manning left Totteridge School in 1821.
In 1825 or 1826 both Manning and Sidney Herbert were at Harrow. Sidney
Herbert, I believe, was at a school at Streatham.
14 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The first and the last were Eectors of Sundridge, and behold
they were very dry. But we always went regularly to
church ; never missing in the morning, often going in the
afternoon, and going also to communion at times. My
father read prayers and a sermon on Sunday nights, my
brothers and sisters all went to church and were religious.
I never heard or saw anything irreligious."
It was evidently not from his family or from the Eector
of Sundridge that Henry Edward Manning imbibed his
early Puritanism.
At Combe Bank, Manning made friends with the Eector's
two sons, Charles and Christopher Wordsworth.^ Charles
was about a year older and Christopher a year younger
than Manning. In his autobiographical Notes, Manning
does not mention Charles or Christopher Wordsworth even
by name.^ But, on the other hand, he gives a lively account
of his own doings and even of what books he was fond of
reading.
In recording his boyish pastimes. Cardinal Manning, in
his Notes, sometimes touched a deeper chord and revived
memories of later life : —
As a boy my pleasure at Combe Bank was making boats
in the carpenter's shop, firing brass cannons, and all like mischief.
1 This friendship is recorded by Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St.
Andrews, in the following passage: — "And thus it was that in early boj'-
hood I became acquainted with Henry Manning, now Cardinal Archbishop of
Westminster — an acquaintance ripened into friendship), first at Harrow,
where we were schoolfellows, though I was somewhat the senior ; and after-
wards at Oxford, and still maiutained, I believe I may say, by mutual
all'eetion and occasional correspondence, though not (unhappily) by actual
intercourse." — Annals of my Early Life, 1806-1846, Charles Wordsworth,
Bishop of St. Andrews. London : Longmans, 1891.
" However, to "an interviewer" at a later period he gives the following
story : — " As a boy at Combe Bank, Christopher Wordsworth, late Bishop of
Lincoln, and Charles Wordsworth, liishop of St. Andrews, were my play-
fellows. I frankly admit 1 was very mischievous. The two Wordsworths
and I conceived the wicked intention of robbing the vinery. The door was
always kei)t locked, and there was nothing for it but to enter through the
roof. Tliere was a dinner party that day and there were no grapes. This is
probably the only case on record where three future Bishops were guilty of
larceny. Were we punished ? No, we were discreet. We gave ourselves up
ami were forgiven." — Strand Magazine, July 1891.
I HOME AND SCHOOL 15
One day the ball went through the coach-house door, and hardly
missed the family coach. Rowing on the water and tumbling
into the pond ; and riding with Edward Douglas on ponies when
he was a delicate boy, hardly likely to live ; and now a
Redemptionist Father of singular gravity and sweetness of
mind and life in Rome. How little we could have thought
when he gave me a beautiful model ship, how he and I should
end our lives together.
CHAPTER II
HARROW
1822-26
In the year 1822 Manning went to Harrow, where, in the
house of his tutor, Eev. B. Evans, in Hog Lane, he spent
four years ; but made no mark in the schools. His con-
temporaries at Harrow as afterwards at Oxford do not
appear to have been impressed by the gentle and somewhat
reserved and shy boy ; or even to have detected any
promise of the successes which awaited the future Cardinal,
and which have made his name famous in his generation,
in and out of England.
The late Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews,
at the time of the Cardinal's death, one of the three survivors
of Manning's school-fellows at Harrow, in a letter dated
1891, says : —
"My old friend, Heiu-y Manning, was about two years my
junior ; ^ and consequently at Harrow two or three removes
below me. But, so far as I remember, your statement is quite
correct that he was not distinguished as a student."
In his published Annals of My Early Life, Bishop
Wordsworth, speaking of Manning, says " At Harrow he
had made little or no figure."
In his Annals Bishop Wordsworth relates the following
escapade of which he and Manning were the heroes. It
was customary for parties of the boys on a Sunday to
make a sort of promenade of the public road between
" Northwicks " as it was called and the turnpike gate
' Charles Wordsworth was born iu 1806 ; Manning, 15th Jnly 1807.
CHAP. II HARROW 17
on the road to London. We met on the road two mid-
shipmen, out for a holiday, with more money in their
pockets than they knew what to do with. They invited
us to champagne at the King's Head inn. The inn and
the gardens at- the back were out of bounds. The
Doctor and Mrs. Butler were coming along the road and
saw two of his boys going into the forbidden ground.
Bishop Wordsworth remarks, with a touch of sarcasm, that
Dr. Butler, the headmaster of Harrow, had not the wisdom
to wink at the offence. He then relates how the startled
waiter bringing in the bottle of champagne said : " The
Doctor has seen you, and is coming in ! " " Up sprang
Manning and I like startled hares. We jumped over the
hedge at the back of the garden. We reached Hog Lane,
where Manning's tutor, Evans lived."
The entrance of Dr. Butler, and his inquiries, soon
cleared up to the mystified midshipmen the cause of their
guests' hurried departure. No sooner was the ground clear
than the audacious boys returned with all the greater zest
to their untasted champagne. At locking -up time, eight
o'clock, Dr. Butler made inquiries as to the names of the
boys, and Charles Wordsworth, having as senior to read
them out, did so with becoming gravity. Dr. Butler, finding
all were within bounds, was nonplussed, and the delinquents
escaped.
At Harrow, Manning's youthful fondness for dress and
personal adornment was conspicuous. Mr. Eichmond, the
great painter, who knew him as well as many of his earliest
contemporaries, says : "In his Harrow days Manning was
a ' buck ' of the first water, as dandies or ' heavy swells '
were then called. Among other adornments he sported
Hessian top-boots with tassels, rather an extreme piece of
foppery in a Harrow boy." ^
Perhaps, as compounding for the foibles of his youth.
Manning as Cardinal regarded with too careless or in-
^ Some twenty years before. Manning's eldest brother, William, was much
put out that another boy in the village (Totteridge) wore top-boots before
himself. To wear top-boots then was, like putting off the Eton jacket now,
a symbol of budding manhood. In Manning's Harrow days wearing top-
boots was, however, no longer fashion but foppery.
VOL. I C
18 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
different an eye his somewhat soiled biretta or faded scarlet
robe.^ In truth the Cardinal was a great admirer of manly
simplicity in dress ; and I have heard him point out the
Duke of Norfolk as a model in this direction.
It is somewhat singular that ]\Ianning in all his
reminiscences of Harrow and his school -boy days, re-
corded late in life, has not a word to say, good, bad, or
indifferent, of his school-fellows, even of those who in after
life became intimate friends. Sidney Herbert, for instance,
is dismissed with a line ; to Charles Thornton, or to
Popham there is not even an allusion ; Twisleton, one of
his closest friends at Oxford and later, is barely referred to.
But we have ample compensation for this neglect in the
copious and minute accounts, which Manning gives of
himself and of his inner life. To us he is far and away
the most interesting personage, if indeed he was not so to
himself as well.
Besides recording with natural satisfaction his prowess
at cricket, and the fact that he had twice taken part in the
Eton and Harrow match at Lords', though in spite of fine
play on the part of Harrow he was on both occasions on
the losing side. Cardinal Manning has left on record the
following interesting account of his life at Harrow : —
My time at Harrow was my first launch into Hfe. We had a
liberty almost as great as at Oxford, but it was the liberty of
boys; and therefore not less dangerous, though of a diff"erent
kind. We were literally Avithout religious guidance, or forma-
tion. The services in the church were for most of the boys
worse than useless. The public religious instruction was read-
ing Waller's Catechism on Sunday morning for an hour in school;
and in private at Evans' Ave read Palcy's Evidences or Leslie on
Deism. These two stuck by me and did my head good. I
took in the whole argument, and I thank God that nothing has
ever shaken it. If history is a foundation of certainty,
Christianity, even by human evidence, is certain. This has
been with me through life, in every state and age and in-
tellectual condition. Also the Book of Revelations, I read
^ In his recently -published Travels Signer Bonghi speaks of Cardinal
Manning's faded scarlet robes and soiled biretta as surprising, at any rate in
an English Cardinal.
II HARROW 19
at Totteridge, and the "lake that burneth with fire and brim-
stone," never even faded in my memory. They were vivid and
powerful truths ; and motives which forwarded and governed me,
I owe to them more than will ever be known till the Last day.
Without them I should in all probability have never Avritten
these words. My mother must have taught me my prayers,
for they run up beyond the memory of man, like all the
greatest laws, and so far as I can remember, there was never
a time when I left off to say them. At school and college I
never failed, so far as memory serves me, even for a day.
But how they were said, God knows, I can also in part re-
member. Harrow was certainly the least religious time of my
life : I had faith, a great fear of hell, and said my prayers ;
beyond, all was a blank. On Sunday mornings Butler used
to walk up and down in the great school and call upon us to
read. I only remember one thing he once said, but it did me
good, that when we were laughed at for religion angels were
rejoicing over us. As to school work, after the first half I had
no difficulty, and only too little. I liked the classics, especially
the poets, and I liked composition. We had to write Latin and
English essays, and Latin and Greek verse. I found a quantity
of Latin Alcaics and Greek Iambics some time ago and burnt
them with a shame at my idleness. Harrow was a pleasant
place, and my life there a pleasant time, but I look back on it
with, sadness. God was miraculously good to me ; for He knew
my darkness. I was fond of cricket and played in the eleven
two or three years ; and two years at Lords' against Eton and
Winchester, in which we were beaten. In truth our numbers
at Harrow had fallen to about 200, when Eton still retained
about 600. I passed through the upper fourth and fifth form.
Left in the upper sixth, that is, about fourteenth or fifteenth in
the school. — Cardinal Manning's Journal, 1878-82.
In another " Note " on Harrow, Cardinal Manning wrote
as follows : —
Cricket and walking was my only recreation. All the rest of
my time was spent in reading something, and in writing to my
brother-in-law, John Anderdon, who was fourteen or fifteen
years older ; but I was always old of my age, and we became
companions, and in the end in a way equals. He was the only
person who ever took pains with me. He taught me English,
as his letters and mine will show. He taught me more than
this, for his man's mind drew me out of boyhood into manhood.
My letters to him from Harrow are chiefly lessons in English
for correction.
20 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
There are many references to Lord Byron and his works.
All Harrow boys were Byronican by tradition. Byron died
while I was at Harrow about 1826. The head-master preached
in the parish church on the abuse of natural gifts as soon as the
news came. I gave up Byron at Oxford. I was convinced of
the immorality and the dcemon Triditkc that dwelt in him. At
that date Byron was in the ascendant, as George Sand is now.
And his recent death filled many minds. Edward Twisleton
gave me a bound set of Wordsworth to cure me. I was cured
of Byron ; but to this day I have never been able to read
Wordsworth as his admirers do.
On leaving Harrow at Christmas 1826, Manning, who
had spent most of his time in indolent or desultory reading,
for he took no part in the sports or games of the boys,
except indeed in cricket, in which he took high rank — no
mean distinction at Harrow, — was but ill prepared to go up
to Oxford. His father and his eldest brother Frederick were
greatly disappointed ; for Henry Manning had from the first
been destined for the Church, and in consequence for a
university education, which none of his elder brothers
enjoyed.^ There was for a time some idea, since his studies
at Harrow had been so unprofitable, of putting Henry
Manning into his father's house of business as preparation
for a commercial career. This determination was a great
disappointment to the idle but clever boy. Besides his
unprofitable studies at Harrow, there was another difficulty
about a university education. His father had no idea of
the expense of living at Oxford. He had allowed his son
£260 a year at Harrow, and had no intention of allowing
him more at Oxford — no idea even that more was necessary.
Manning had long foreseen this difficulty, but, instead of
enlightening his father betimes on the subject, had kept
his own counsel. On leaving Harrow, when the question
of his going up to Oxford was under discussion, this further
difficulty as to expense had to be faced. In this emergency
he had recourse to his brother-in-law, John Lavercourt
1 His elder brother, Charles Manning, went, however, to Harrow, but left
two years before his brother came ; he resided at the same tutor's house.
Rev. B. Evans, in Hog Lane, where Henry Manning passed four happy years.
II HARROW 21
Anderdon, who had married Henry Manning's eldest sister,
Maria, and was his staunch friend, protector, and guide. To
his assistance Manning appeals in the following letter : —
Harrow, Tuesday night.
My dear John — This day has a fear, which I have long
entertained in silence, heen verified. Until this morning, my
father had no conception that my financial matters would be on
a different scale at Oxford. He supposed that I should be on
the same plan as at Harrow. My mother first informed him,
in part, and recommended him to write to Charles Bosanquet,
who had two or three sons at Balliol. I do not think he would
afford as good information as Simon Taylor, because the one can
have no idea of the expenditure of his sons. If it were greater
than his yearly allowance, he would, I should strongly suppose, be
the least likely to know it. I spoke to Paulson (a Balliol man) to
day. He, as you are aware, was at no public school, and conse-
quently went as an individual unknown, and (no conceit) unsought.
He confessed that he had a good deal of mauvaise lionte and
on that account kept up no acquaintance. He said that living as
close as he could, having no pursuit, no hobby, no hook collecting,
he lived upon about £260 a year. Now for my case — let the
word be said that it is necessary for me to give up my Harrow
and all other connections, my books, etc., and it shall he done, even
to the utmost letter. (I am not "undecided or irresolute.) You may
imagine that I should prefer continuing as I have lived already.
I am not willingly expensive ; and have every wish, as I little
need tell you, of living as quietly and cheaply as lies in my power.
Paulson added that he thought I might live very well on £350.
At all events let me try ; every superabundant soxls shall be
conscientiously refunded. I should suppose that there are few
who have made more connections at Harrow and elsewhere than
I have, but as I told you when I saw you last, I care not for
above five and twenty people alive. Do not think from what I
say, that I wish to keep up all my acquaintances (it is a mean term,
but I know of none to express myself better) or to live " gaily " ;
but I can not live in the same manner as I did at Harrow, on
£260 (which I trust was not too expensive) (pardon parentheses,
I am almost as bad as Clarendon), the stipend Paulson received.
Once for all, to sum up, as Bovk : says, the whole, — if it be
necessary, I will give up everything except the shirt on my back,
and the bread in my mouth. You would do me a kindness to
mention this subject to my father, he vnW require the most
succinct explanation of every point, since he has no idea, not the
22 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
most remote conception of Oxford afiairs. You may state the
sentiments contained in this, although, perhaps, it were well
should you not show the positive autograph. — Adieu.
H. E. M.
John Auderdou's personal influence, backed up by his
explanation of the wide difference between the cost of a
boy's education at Harrow and the expenses of an Oxford
man, prevailed with Manning's father. The Harrow yearly
allowance was largely increased. But no sooner had this
difficulty been surmounted than another of a like pecuniary
character arose. Manning knew how ill prepared he was to
go up to Oxford ; and that, in order to avoid being " plucked,"
it was absolutely necessary for him to be " coached " by a
private tutor. Summoning up courage, the truant Harrow
boy appealed to his father on the subject, but, as appears
from the following letter to John Anderdon, did not make it
clear what kind of " coaching " he needed.
Harrow, 1th November.
My dear John — I yesterday received a letter from my
father, enclosing three notes from Lord Colchester, in one of
which his lordship gives the postscript of a letter from a Mr.
Wright, in Northamptonshire, saying, he fears he shall have no
vacancy for Christmas, evidently implying that he takes several
pupils, and indeed he afterwards mentions the circumstance.
From this, I fear that either my father did not quite comprehend
the force of my wishing to be by myself from my letter to him,
or that Lord Colchester does not quite perceive my father's
intentions. I have been considerably alarmed by this disclosure,
and wrote immediately to my father to exjDlain the circumstance,
referring him to you, that you might more fully make known
my reasons to him. I should consider the six months lost, were
they to be spent with a houseful of pupils, "svith any tutor.
Harrow would be far preferable. Explain it. — I remain, your
affectionate brother,
fFrite soon. H. E. Manning.
John Anderdon was again a successful negotiator with
Manning's father, and ended by convincing him that nothing
short of the undivided attention of a private tutor for nine
months would enable his son to acquit himself creditably
at the University.
II HARROW 23
Fortunately for himself and for Oxford and for the
Catholic Church in England, Manning's father was prevailed
upon to give the bright, indolent, but clever boy another
chance. Instead, however, of going up at once to Oxford,
Manning, as soon as the Christmas holidays were over,
was sent to be " coached," like many another idle boy before
and since, to a private tutor, Canon Fisher, at Poulshot,
Devizes.^ He was a good scholar and painstaking tutor ;
for just before Manning's arrival at Poulshot he had trained
another idle Harrow boy. Lord Ashley, so successfully as to
enable him to obtain his first class.^
Poulshot, 14th July 1827.
Dear Johnny — You are an old muddleheaded philosopher,
and seem to look upon me and mine as a satiated elephant
would upon a bottle of soda water. When I received your
polite overthrow, "I cried havock, and let slip all the
doggrels," (Q. diminutive ?) that my kennel could afford me.
I send the composition to you that you may cast your
eye over it, but this is not the principal reason. I send
it to you that you may enclose it to F. L. Popham, Esq.,
Rev. H. Drury's, Harrow, by second post, for whom it was
intended and written. I do not wish you to suppose that I
^ lu the first of his letters from Poulshot to John Anderdon, Manning
says : — " It rained heavily during the fifty-six miles of my journey down here.
I was on the outside of course, and eminently miserable and cold." In a
letter dated 8th June 1827, he speaks of "the three Wordsworths' unparalleled
success, both at Oxford and Cambridge. The two at Cambridge have got
five out of the seven prizes, and the Harrow "Wordsworth has got the Latin
Verse at Oxford." In another letter he thanks John Anderdon for his
kindness to the " Devils," a nickname for his Harrow school friends the
Deffells.
2 In an autobiographical Note dated 1882, Cardinal Manning wrote of
Canon Fisher and Poulshot as follows : — Canon Fisher had been a Student of
Christ Church, Oxford, and a second-class man. But he was a thorough scholar.
Lord Ashley (Shaftesbury) came to him from Harrow, he told me, hardly able
to construe the Anabasis. But he trained him into his first class, as he did
me also ; for to him I ascribe aU the accurate scholarship I ever got. He
showed me how to read, and what books to use, and how to make up for the
inaccurate studies of Harrow. I was at Poulshot nine months reading
Latin and Greek and learning French and Italian, reading and writing
poetry. I can say I never lost a moment — up early and very late to bed.
It was the turn of my life, and the beginning of my second or self-education.
We kept up our affectionate friendship till his death a few years ago. Many
letters and much doggerel of that period are in the packet marked 1827.
24 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
state my own sentiments in this new production : should you
find anything misanthropic be assiu-ed it was composed by my
intimate friend Timon, he of Athens ; anything wrong, by
Melchisedeck, King of Salem ; anything stupid, by John L.
Andcrdon, Esq. ; and anything amusing, clever, literary, and
talented, by Henry Edward Manning, Esq., a hopeful aspirant to
the Roxburgh and a first class ; an Oxford prize poem, and a
niche in the temple of the muses, situated between Lord Byron
and my friend, the aforesaid i^hilosopher. I shall not be able to
handle your proposition before next week. It is one I am
particularly fond of discussing, and which interests me very
much. What news from Hering ? On reading your letter again
I find a few words that please me, in which you say that my
"letters, verses, and lucubrations interest you very much."
Nothing can compliment me more,
Si te forte mese gravis urit sarcina chartse
Abjicito.
I had a copy of Lucian's epigrams in my hand about an hour
ago. I translated one or two. I send you one ; which I think
pretty literally rendered. I won't send you Greek.
Rough Richard to the barber came,
To cut his hair, and thin it.
But Dick from head to foot's the same ;
Pray where should Suds begin it ?
Another, and no more.
Black Mungo fanned spare Rosalind,
As slumbered she one day ;
So thin the dame, so rough the wind,
He blew her clean away !
What did you think of my "Vision" 1 did you ever see the like ?
I picked up a book to-day in Devizes for a few shillings.
Chalmers's Estimate of the Strength of Gh'eat Britain, I daresay you
know it well. Have you seen Moore's Epicurean ? (Which, by
the by, the little blackguard — I am glad Charles will not see this
— disowned, as I told you at Brighton.) I heard it very highly
spoken of to-day by one who should be a judge.
I find I must send two covers or I shall not be able to convey
all my gravis sarcina chartce aforementioned. Please to make
them into a parcel yourself. Odi profanum vulgus. There will
be two sheets and a note.
By the way you will break your neck over some old ac-
quaintances, in my stanzas ; but you must excuse it.
Nearly twelve o'clock Saturday night. I take up my pen
merely to finish this note. A few minutes more, ay, a very
11 HARROW 25
few will elapse before I am ushered into my twentieth year. I
fancy myself prematurely old in feeling. — Good night, and
believe me, my dear John, ever your affectionate brother,
Henry E. Manning.
That Christmastide was in every way a sad one for
Manning, for on arriving home from Harrow he found his
favourite sister, Harriet, on the point of death. Half a
century after her death Cardinal Manning spoke of her
as follows : —
My youngest sister, Avho "was my companion, hardly a year
older, was so decidedly religious that I used to call her a
Methodist. She died about the age of twenty, about 1827.^
After her death I found prayers she had written for herself.
She was innocent, gentle, harmless, of singular modesty and
self-control ; her death was a gi'eat loss to me, and left me
alone ; the others being so much older as to be no companions
to me. I was then about nineteen, and leaving Harrow.^
Manning's own account of this critical turning-point in
his life shows what a deep impression this threatened dis-
aster — for to forfeit of his own fault a university career,
was to one of his temperament almost akin to a disgrace ^
— produced upon his mind and character. For the first
time he began to study seriously. His great natural
abilities and aptitude at acquiring knowledge were quickened
into life by the sense of shame at his indolence, as well as
by the fear of losing his chance in life.
Writing in 1882 of this episode in the life of the
Harrow boy, Cardinal Manning paid a just tribute to the
^ Harriet died in 1826, aged twenty.
- Manning left Harrow at Christmas 1826. The following account of his
own pursuits is put on record : —
' ' I had no daily companion and few friends near me, yet through all this
my head was not empty. The library at Combe Bank was a beautiful lonely
room full of books, and I spent hours and days there by myself ; taking down
book after book, and reading much of many, and a little of most of them.
Those that fastened on me most were Naval ArcMtcdure, The Naval Annals,
Strutt's Manners and Customs, Spenser's Fairie Quccne, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
above all ; Tasso, of which I never read much ; Johnson's Dictionary in two
vols., full of quotations, now in our library at Bayswater ; and the Encyclo-
pwdia Britannica, which I hunted up and down. It was all idle enough,
but not useless."— Cardinal Manning's Journal, 1878-82.
3 See Chapter xvi, p. 335, "Ten Special Mercies."
26 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
successful exertions of Canon Fisher in preparing him for
Oxford :—
At Poulshot I really began to read. And I began to know
both Latin and Greek more critically. I gained the method of
study and of self-ediication which, dunce as I am, I have never
left off. Down to this day I keep my grammars and books
around me, and constantly go over them. AVm. Fisher was a
pleasant, manly, and good companion for me. I OAve him
much. And as late as eight or nine years ago, just before he
died, we interchanged most affectionate letters full of old Poul-
shot days. I ascribe to him all that I did at Oxford. When I
went up to Balliol I began at once to read for a first class
This, too, I owe to him. And though I read idly, and played
cricket, and rowed, rode, and learned Italian, I still kept at
work. — Autobiographical Notes.
Since Charles Wordsworth's lamented death, and that
of Bishop Oxenden, there is now only one of Manning's
Harrow school -fellows sur\iving — the Hon. and Eev.
Canon Phipps, Owing to a break-up at the house of one
of the masters where he and his friend George Irby, after-
wards Lord Boston, resided, they went to the house of the
Eev. B. Evans, and shared with Manning the rooms in Hog
Lane. Canon Phipps, though eighty-eight, still vigorous in
mind and body, remembers Manning well ; but did not
remember him, as he did George Irby, as " a hearty good
fellow."
In The History of My Life, Bishop Oxenden said of
Manning, " He did not then appear to be a boy of unusual
promise, but he was steady and well conducted. Many is
the game of cricket we have played together ; but now
there is a divergence between us which is never likely to
be rectified in this world."
In this testimony all his contemporaries at Oxford, as
well as at Harrow, are of one mind. He led a blameless
life ; not that he was not by nature open to temptations,
but because his conduct was governed by religious principles,
early instilled into his heart by his mother, and fostered
by a well-regulated home life. Another of his Harrow
school-fellows, Sidney Herbert, who lived and died in closest
intimacy with him, bore like testimony to Manning's early
11 HARROW 27
religious-mindedness. Mrs. Harrison, the widow of Arch-
deacon Harrison, Manning's closest friend, in a letter ad-
dressed to me shortly after her husband's death, said : —
" At Harrow the Cardinal and my brother ^ (afterwards
Incumbent of Margaret Street Chapel) walked together as
friends ; and in after years at Christ Church — my husband
— those three were as brothers." ^
Bishop Oxenden, in the History of My Life, judiciously
fills in the shades which were wanting in the picture left
of Manning by others of his Harrow contemporaries. That
he was averse to real and serious study, his friend Charles
Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, has granted ; but it
was left to Bishop Oxenden, clearer of eye, or perhaps less
partial, to put on record the early blossoming of one of
Manning's chief characteristics, which grew with his growth
and strengthened with his strength. Bishop Oxenden
wrote as follows : —
There was, even in those early days, a little self-assertion
in his character. On one occasion he was invited to dinner at
Mr. Cuningham's, the vicar of the parish. On his return at
night one of his friends questioned him as to whom he had met,
whether he had enjoyed his evening, and especially as to what
^ The Rev. Charles Thornton, one of the predecessors of Frederick Oakeley
at Margaret Street Chapel,
2 Of the state of his mind and heart in regard to religion at Harrow
Cardinal Manning has left the following record : — " It was not a good time
with me. I do not think I ever ceased to pray all through my time at
Harrow. I said my prayers, such as I had learned, I suppose, from my
mother. I had always a fear of judgment and of the pool burning with fire.
The verse in Apocalypse xxi. 8, was fixed in my whole mind from the time I
was eight or nine years old, ^ confixit cariiem meam timore,' and kept me as
boy and youth and man in the midst of all evil, and in all occasions remote
and proximate ; and in great temptations ; and in a perilous and unchecked
liberty. God held me by my will against my will. If I had fallen I might
have run the whole career of evil. In the midst of everything I had a
veneration for religion. The thought of it was sweet to me, and I lived in
the hope and temptation of being religious one day before I died. I never
went to church unwillingly ; and I always liked hearing sermons, which was
my state when I went to Oxford. My first school was a dangerous time.
My second was not so. Harrow was my greatest danger. Poulshot less so.
Oxford was not dangerous to me. I had gained self-control. I had a high
and hard work for which I lived ; I never once, so far as I remember, went
into dangers." — Autobiogi-aphical Notes, 1832.
28 CARDINAL MANNING chap, il
part he had taken in the general conversation. To these in-
quii'ies he answered that he had spent the evening pleasantly-
enough, but that he had said but little, and indeed had been
almost silent, for there were two or three superior persons
present ; and, he added, " You know that my motto is, Aut
Ccesar aut nulhis, I therefore held my tongue and listened."
Bishop Oxenden adds : —
This was characteristic of the after man. I was with him
also at Oxford ; and I hope I may still reckon him as a friend,
though on one subject, and that a momentous one, we are, alas,
and ever must be, far apart. We have met but once since his
secession to Eome ; but that was enough to show that our
affection for each other had not died out.^
Though I do not for a moment deny Manning's self-asser-
tion, yet there is another explanation of his silence on that
occasion. He was — although I believe it has not been
pointed out, or perhaps discovered, by his critics — very shy
by nature, and unwilling to commit himself before strangers.
It was only by long habit and strength of will, that he
succeeded in overcoming or concealing his natural shyness
and timidity.
^ The History of my Life: An Autohiography. By the Right Rev.
Ashton Oxenden, D. D. London, Longmans, 1891.
CHAPTEE III
OXFOED AN UNDERGEADUATE AT THE UNION, 1829
"The child is father of the man." — Wordsworth.
On the 12th of March in the year 1829, an Under-
graduate, young in years, if not in audacity, rose to speak
for the first time at the Union in Oxford ; rose to speak in
opposition to a Tory of Tories in the hot-bed of Torpsm ;
rose to negative a resolution, moved by Sir John Hanmer, an
owner of broad acres and many flocks in Wales, to the effect
that the importation of foreign wool would lead to the ruin
of England ; and, what perhaps touched him more nearly,
rose to try the metal and temper of the sword with which
he already aspired to carve his way to fame and fortune.
The aspiring undergraduate, who did not as yet, in joke
or earnest, call himself a Eadical, Mosaic ^ or otherwise, saw
in the bearding of the Tory lion in his den a quick and
ready way of winning distinction ; and with the instinctive
tact which never deserted him, seized and made the most of
his opportunity. Though somewhat boyish in appearance,
he was strikingly handsome, graceful in bearing, and gifted
with a clear musical voice. He rose, as the veteran orator
without a blush once confessed, in fear and trembling to
speak his first speech. The sound of his own voice sent a
chill to his heart : he stopped short — was on the brink of
breaking down — but for a moment only. The next moment,
he stood like David with sling and stone, fearless and
^ In describing his latest development in polities, Cardinal Manning on
one occasion in 1889 said :— " I am a Mosaic Radical. My watchword is, For
God and the people."
30 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
unabashed before the Goliath of triumphant Toryism. His
heart rose high ; his eyes shone with unwonted lustre ; his
tongue was unloosed ; and carried away by the oratorical
spirit which possessed him, he spoke out his whole heart.
His hearers, amazed at his audacity, were at first silent ;
but stirred to enthusiasm at the musical flow of words,
most of them were in ecstasies of delight before he had
finished. The speech was a brilliant success. Next day
the name of Henry Edward Manning was known throughout
the University.-^
After this first event in a life destined to be so eventful
and so full of surprises, it was noted by his contemporaries
that Manning ever wore a look of self-consciousness ; he
seemed to fancy as he walked through the halls and corridors,
or sat in the common room, that every eye regarded him
either with admiration or in envy ; oblivious that there
were great men at Oxford, or at the Union even, before
Agamemnon. It was said in jest in those days, that
]Manning was self-conscious even in his night-cap. " The
boy is father of the man." SeK-consciousness like a garment
clung to him unto the last ; it may have been woven on
the day of his first triumph at the Union ; but I shrewdly
suspect it might have been discovered in the web and woof
of his swaddling-clothes.
To win distinction as a successful speaker at the Union
is a prize rarely coveted by the ambitious and more
capable among the undergraduates. Yet, if it be a short
cut to fame in the University, the ordeal to the under-
graduate, rising for the first time to speak at the Union, is
second only in intensity to that of making a maiden speech
in the House of Commons.
^ Speaking of his first speech at the Union in an autobiographical Note,
Cardinal Manning ^v^ote as follows : — " I was half-dead with fright, and when
I got up saw notliing but the President's head out of a white mist. But I
rattled on and got a majority. I thought I had failed ; and never knew till
next day what others thought. After this I spoke from time to time, and
became interested in politics, and made acquaintance with men going on into
pu])lic life, and my whole mind was drawn that way. I began reading
Burke and political economy. I had read Ricardo before I talked about
wool. I had always disliked the thought of being a clergyman, and this,
political aspiration finished.
Ill AT THE UNION, OXFORD, 1829 31
"What the Vatican Council was to Cardinal Manning in
the high tide of his life, the Union was to his youthful
ambition when the tide which led him to fame was at its
first flood. It was a fitting field for the display of his
oratorical powers. It brought him into contact or conflict,
if not, as at the Vatican Council, with the Fathers of the
Church, known in every land, yet with men destined to
become illustrious in the future, in church or state. What
wonder, then, that Manning became a constant speaker at
the Union ? He spoke well, therefore he loved speaking, as
he did to the last, whether on platform or pulpit. Again
we see how " The boy is father of the man." The Union
nursed his oratorical spirit ; fed the fires of his ambition ;
and inspired in his heart a wistful craving for parliamentary
hfe.
What Parhament is to England, the Union is to Oxford.
It is the cradle of eloquence, or rather, since eloquence
implies sense, and nonsense is often talked at the Union, of
that gift which enables a man to think on his feet. Call it
self-assurance, or vanity in action, or by any other name, it
is a useful quality, not too common among Englishmen ; and
because not common rated, perhaps, beyond its proper
intellectual value. The Union, if not the nurse of men of
lofty aims and aspirations, — the theologian, the man of
science, the philosopher, the poet, — is the centre and rally-
ing- place for those that feel called upon to lift up their
voices ; or who have a message to deliver to the world ;
or who feel or fancy that they are the born rulers of men
— the statesmen, the teachers and preachers of the future ;
or again, perhaps, of men to whom immediate recognition
and public applause, denied of necessity in the schools, is
as the breath of their nostrils.
The Union Debating Society owed its origin to S.
Wilberforce and Patten, afterwards Lord Winmarleigh. It
was frowned upon by the Dons, as Manning once said with
a smile of pity, as "likely to lead young men to form
premature ideas." The Union at first had no habitation of
its own. " We used to meet in one another's rooms, which
were small, for we were much pressed for space." On one
32 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
occasion, Cardinal Manning told me, the Proctor's bull-dog
put in an appearance when S. Wilberforce was speaking,
and Patten occupied the chair. " Gentlemen," said he, " the
Proctor desires that you should disperse and retire each to
your own college."
Patten rose up from the chair and spoke with great calm-
ness and dignity. He said : " Sir, the house has received
the Proctor's message and will send an answer to the
summons by an officer of its own."
This quiet and dignified attitude of the Union had its
desired effect. Its members were never hereafter troubled
with the Proctor's polite or impoUte attentions. Cardinal
Manning said this incident occurred just before he went up
to Oxford ; and later in life he spoke to Lord Winmarleigh
who confirmed the anecdote.
When Manning first joined the Union, men still met for
the debates in each other's room ; but soon afterwards it
found a more convenient habitation of its own. " It was at
the Union " said the Cardinal " I learnt to think on my
feet."
During the earlier period of his residence, Mr. Gladstone
does not appear to have been a frequenter of the Union,
for he only heard Manning speak once. In a conversation
with him on the subject he said to the present writer,
" Upon one memorable occasion I remember how Manning
distinguished himself at the Union as the champion
of Oxford. I will relate the history of that famous
speech," continued Mr. Gladstone. " There was an in-
vasion of barbarians among civilised men, or of civilised
men among barbarians. Cambridge men used to look
down upon us at Oxford as prim and behind the times.
A deputation from the Society of the Apostles at Cam-
bridge, consisting of Monckton Milnes and Henry HaUam
and Sunderland, came to set up amongst us the cult
of Shelley ; or, at any rate, to introduce the school of
Shelley as against the Byronic school at Oxford, — SheUey,
that is, not in his negative but in his spiritual side."
" I knew Hallam," remarked Mr. Gladstone, " at Eton,
and I believe I was the intermediary in bringing about the
Ill AT THE UNION, OXFORD, 1S29 33
discussion. We vied with each other in entertaining our
Cambridge assailants. I beheve, I know, in that, at least, I
took a foremost part ; but I did not take part in the dis-
cussion at the Union. Manning was the champion of
Byron, and he acquitted himself with singular ability in the
defence of a lost cause. . . ." In reference to Manning's
claim, that he took up from the beginning the spiritual side,
Mr. Gladstone remarked, " That to champion Byron was not
to take up the higher or spiritual side ; had he taken up, if
not Shelley, Wordsworth or Scott, I should have thought it
more in character." On a remark that, since that day, the
Byronic school had almost disappeared, Mr. Gladstone
replied, " Oh yes, of course, Wordsworth and Shelley are the
greater poets." In referring again to the Cambridge
deputation from " The Society of the Apostles," Mr. Glad-
stone said " Sunderland was a most remarkable man ; but
had disappeared long since from public life, that is to say,
from visible life. I don't know what became of him."
Cardinal Manning well remembered the incident Mr.
Gladstone spoke of on the memorable occasion of the
barbarian irruption. " Yes," said the Cardinal, " Mr.
Gladstone was the author of all the mischief in bringing
the barbarians from Cambridge down upon us. . . ."
Manning, about twenty-j&ve years ago, gave himself an
account of this event in answer to a letter which appeared
in the papers by Lord Houghton — the Monckton Milnes of
the discussion — on the debate on Shelley's merits at Oxford,
in which he ascribed the rash challenge to Manniner.
In his reply Manning said : —
Nevertheless, I do not believe that I was guilty of the rash-
ness of throwing the javelin over the Cam. It was, I think,
a passage of arms got up by the Eton men of the two Unions.
My share, if any, was only as a member of the august
committee of the green baize table. I can, however, remember
the irruption of the three Cambridge orators. We Oxford men
were precise, orderly, and morbidly afraid of excess in Avord or
manner. The Cambridge oratory came in like a flood into a
mill-pond. Both Monckton Milnes and Henry Hallam took us
aback by the boldness and freedom of their manner. But I
remember the effect of Sunderland's declamation and action to
VOL. I D
34 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
this day.^ It had never been seen or heard before among us ;
we cowered like birds, and ran like sheep. I was reminding the
other day, the Secretary of the India Board (Herman Merivale)
of the damage he did me. He was my private tutor, and was
terrifically sitting right opposite to me. I had just rounded a
period when I saw him make, as I believed in my agony, a sign
of contempt, which all but brought me down. I acknowledge
that we were utterly routed. Lord Houghton's beautiful
revi\ing of those old days has in it something fragrant and
sweet, and brings back old faces and old friendships, very dear
as life is drawing to its close. jj^ -£, Manning.
3rd November 1866.
Manning, it must be confessed, joined the Union at a
lucky moment. S. Wilberforce had just quitted Oxford ;
and Mr. Gladstone had not as yet arrived. S. Wilberforce
had reigned without a rival at the Union. His musical
voice and persuasive speech, and sympathetic tone and touch
of mind, not only carried away his hearers, but excited in
the undergraduates a love and admiration of eloquence.
Manning was equal to the occasion ; he combined ambition
and boldness with considerable tact and a conciliatory
manner. He from the beginning was not one to hide his
light under a bushel S. Wilberforce's place at the Union
was vacant. Without a moment's hesitation Manning stepped
into it. How well he acquitted himself let his contempor-
aries at the Union bear witness.
Thomas Mozley in his Reminiscences of Oriel, speaking of
Manning, says : —
I had known him as a friend of the Wilberforces from his
first coming to Oxford, and had frequently heard him at the
^ Arthur Hallam, whose name has been immortalised by Tennyson in his
III Memoriam, died at Vienna, at twenty-one years of age. Sunderland's fate is
related in somewhat stilted fashion by Sir Francis Doyle in his Eeminis-
cences: — "Sunderland's fate, alas, was more appalling than that of Arthur
Hallam. Just as he was issuing forth into life — all the stormy hopes, all the
struggling energies, all the tumultuous inspirations of his impassioned soul
were suddenly arrested by the grasp of some mysterious brain disease. For
forty years he remained dumb, torpid, and motionless, recalling to our minds
that mighty image suggesting itself to the poet among the glaciers at
Switzerland,
' A cataract,
Frozen in an instant.' "
Ill AT THE UNION, OXFORD, 1829 35
Union. When S. Wilberforce left Oxford, Manning seemed to
drop quietly into his place at the Union. He spoke at every
meeting, on all subjects, at length, with unfailing fluency and
propriety of expression.
On another occasion he writes : —
There are occasions that seem to defy eloquence ; but
Manning was more than equal to them. Some one came to me
one evening and observed that Manning had just made a
veiy good speech, an hoiu* long. On what subject ? I asked.
The question was the reduction of the number of American
newspapers taken in at the Union, not a half of Avhich was
ever read. Manning arose and began by deprecating any
retrograde step on the progress of political knowledge and
international sj^mpathy. " Did we know," he said, " too much
about the United States ? Did we care too much for them ? It
was the order of Providence that we should all be as one. If
we could not be under the same Government, yet we had a
common blood, common faith, and common institutions.
America was rimning a race with us in literature, in science, and
in art, and if we ceased to learn from her Avhat she could teach
us, we should find ourselves some day much behindhand." His
hearers were bewitched.
Any of us, I may remark, who have heard and been
bewitched by Cardinal Manning's platform speeches in
favour of the progress of political knowledge ; or of closer
international intercourse ; or of sympathy with the toiling
masses, w^ill easily recognise in the speaker at the Oxford
Union the future philanthropist who claimed to have been a
freetrader at the Union before Cobden.-^ Surely the boy
was father to the man,
Thomas Mozley makes some general observations in
explanation of the enthusiasm which Manning's speeches
excited in the Union that are worth repeating : —
It is a thing elders don't sufficiently l^ear in mind, that there
is nothing young people like better than talk. There is no
music sweeter to them than a musical voice that never flags.
^ Cardinal Manning said to me a few years ago, ' ' I was a freetrader, at
least in wool, before Richard Cobden."
36 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
They can bear any amount of it, so as it does not offend the
taste. Indifferent speakers and disappointed speakers may
sneer at it, but they have to admit that all the world except
themselves run after it, and cleave to it.
In his discursive and gossiping Reminiscences, Sir
Francis Doyle, another of Manning's contemporaries at the
Union, bears similar testimony to his success as a speaker,
and ascribes his ascendency over his fellow-undergraduates
in part to his fine presence and impressive manner. Sir
Francis Doyle, writing his Beminiscenxies more than forty
years after the time he used to meet him at the Union,
must have drawn the description of Manning's appearance
and manner, not so much from a memory of those early
Oxford days, as from impressions received later in life. At
any rate, Thomas Mozley describes Manning at the Union,
as " a very nice-looking, rather boyish freshman." Ten or
a dozen years later, indeed, Henry Wilberforce used
laughingly to complain that he was often told when he rose
with Manning to speak at public gatherings, to sit down
and give place to his seniors, whereas, in reality, he was a
year older than Manning, whose venerable appearance assured
for him precedence on every occasion.
Speaking of Manning at the Union, Sir Francis Doyle
says : —
Before Mr. Gladstone paid much attention to the Debating-
Society, the leader of our house was Manning (the present
Archbishop and Cardinal). Besides possessing great natural
talents, he was, I think, having been at first intended for a
different career, rather older than his average contemporaries.
He would always have Ijeen in the ascendant, but his greater
maturity, as might have been expected, increased that
ascendency. He possessed a fine presence, and his delivery was
effective. These qualities, joined to an impressive and somewhat
imposing manner, enaliled him to speak as one having authority;
and drew into his orbit a certain number of satellites who
revolved round him, and looked up to him, with as much
reverence as if he had been the actual pope, instead of only an
embryo cardinal. These innocent adulations led him into his
most obvious weakness — an assumption of omniscience which now
and then overshot itself."
Ill AT THE UNION, OXFORD, 1829 37
Sir Francis Doyle then relates an anecdote in illustra-
tion of Manning's inclination, even in those early days, to
pose as an authority on subjects beyond his ken : —
There was a story illustrative of this floating about Oxford
in my time, for the accuracy of which I will not vouch. In
the debate on the first Reform Bill (at the Union) Mr. Glad-
stone attacked the Whigs for their administrative incapacity.
At that period he was not disposed to make much allow-
ance for Liberal weaknesses and vacillations. He therefore
enumerated a lot of trumpery failures in succession, always
driving the imputation home with this galling question : If they
cannot say the — the whole — and nothing but the — how dare
they thrust upon the people of England as if it were a chapter
out of their infallible Whig Khoran, the Bill — the whole Bill —
and nothing but the Bill ? One of these reiterated formulas, was
the barilla duty — the whole barilla duty, and nothing but the
barilla duty, in the fixing of which some hitch, I suppose, had taken
place. Stephen Denison, then a yovmg undergraduate of Balliol,^
and one of Manning's most devoted vassals, puzzled himself, and
small blame to him, over this expression, new and strange to a
boy. Accordingly in all humbleness he sought out his pope, and
asked him for an explanation of the unknoAvn word. " Dear me,"
replied Manning (this at least is the tradition), " not know what
barilla means, I will explain it to you at once. You see, in
commerce " (now Manning had been intended for a commercial
career), "there are two methods of proceeding. At one time
you load your ship with a particular commodity, such as tea,
wine, or tobacco, at other times you select a variety of articles
suitable for the port of destination, and in the language of trade
we denominate this latter operation ' barilla.' "
Stephen Denison, thus carefully instructed, went his way, but
in a week or so he found out that barilla meant burnt sea-weed,
or its equivalent, and his faith in Manning's infalliljility was no
longer the same.
This Oxford legend may be a mere fable, but even if a fable
it shows where his Oxford contemporaries thought that the weak
point in the future Cardinal's armour might be looked for.
As soon as Mr. Gladstone dawned upon the Union, which
was not in the earlier days of his undergraduateship, he took
the first place. How far this pre-eminence was gained by
eclipsing his predecessor Manning, and how far, because Manning,
1 Archdeacon Denison, in a letter dated 1890, says—" My brother Stephen,
long since dead, was an intimate friend of Manning's at Oxford."
38 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
whose degree time was approaching, -wdthdrew from our debates,
to fall upon his books, I do not precisely remember. My
impression, at any rate, is that the two were not in full activity
long together.^
The Oxford Union Debating Society, like every other
stimulus and spur to youthful intellect and ambition, may
have had its attendant temptations and dangers. Croakers
in that day, as before and since, were apt to fear, and to
prophesy evil things of every good gift given to man. The
Oxford authorities looked askance at the Union as tending
to the formation of premature opinions ; Sir Francis Doyle
said, that it encouraged, at any rate m a typical instance,
an assumption of omniscience. Wilberforce, the philanthropist,
and himself the mightiest of orators, cautioned his son, S.
Wilberforce, in regard to the Union, in the most solemn
words, against the danger of ambition. Of all the men
vv'ho have passed from out the Union, S. "Wilberforce was
without question the vainest of his oratorical powers. In
after-life, it is well known how vanity and straining after
effect, whether learnt at the Union or no, marred the
beauty of his natural gifts. Wilberforce's warning to his
son is characteristic : —
Watch, my dear Samuel, with jealousy whether you find
yourself unduly solicitous about acquitting yourself ; whether
you are too much chagrined when you fail, or are puffed up by
your success. Undue solicitude about popular estimation is
a weakness against which all real Christians must guard with
the most jealous watchfulness. The more you can retain the
impression of your being surroimded by a cloud of witnesses of
thu invisible world, to use the Scripture phrase, the more you
will be armed against this besetting sin — for such it is — though
styled the last infirmity of noble minds.
Perhaps the passage on undue solicitude about popular
estimation in Wilberforce's letter to his son might, not
without reason, have been addressed to Manning.^
^ Sir Francis Doyle's Eeminiscences.
^ It wa-s not only at the Union or in his letters to John Anderdon, or
the line of action which he adopted on the condemnation of Tract 90,
that Manning betrayed solicitude about popular estimation. Later in life,
as Archbishop of Westminster, I have often heard his great friend and
Ill AT THE UNION, OXFORD, 1829 39
On the memorable occasion of Manning's first oratorical
triumph at the Union, many of his more distinguished
contemporaries were present, all were within earshot, if not
materially at any rate metaphorically. Among his con-
temporaries at Oxford were Mr. Gladstone, Canning, after-
wards Governor-General of India, Bruce, Elgin, Sidney
Herbert, Mill, Gaskell, Sir John Hanmer, afterwards Lord
Hanmer, Tait, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, James
Hope, Cardwell, H. Wilberforce, R W. Wilberforce, John
Henry Newman, Edward Twisleton, Lord Lincoln, afterwards
Duke of Newcastle, Dalhousie, Governor-General of India,
Charles Wordsworth, tutor to Mr. Gladstone, and Frederick
Oakeley.
In recounting these names, with the exception of
Frederick Oakeley's, which he had apparently forgotten, in
the order given above, Cardinal Manning, with a touch of
sadness in his voice, said, " They have nearly all gone before
me." Of all these men who rose to distinction in Church
or State or Letters three only were li\dng on that day in
1887 when Cardinal Manning uttered his pathetic lament ;
and those three survivors — without question the greatest of
their Oxford contemporaries — were John Henry Newman,
W. E. Gladstone, and Henry Edward Manning. To-day
Newman is gone. Cardinal Manning is gone — Mr. Gladstone
remains the sole survivor.
How little did the small band of his since illustrious
contemporaries, who criticised or applauded an unknown
undergraduate's first oratorical success at the Union, or on
the morrow heard of his fame, dream of his or their ^'^n
future career in life ! And yet men say that the future is
in mercy hid from our eyes ; mercifully, perhaps, from the
eyes of dunces or sinners, but scarcely in mercy hid from
saints and sages.
Wlio shall tell the confusion and surprise of the forlorn
prentice lad, when on the sudden, while standing on
Highgate Hill to take a last wistful gaze of the mighty city
supporter, Dr. Ward, complain that Manning's desire to stand well with
popular opinion in England led him at times into adopting a weak and
conciliatory policy.
40 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
he was fleeing from in despair, he heard the chimes of Bow
Bells ring out, " Turn, turn, Dick Whittiiigton, thrice Lord
Mayor of London." But infinitely greater would the amaze-
ment, and anguish perhaps in part, have been, had the bells
of the city of Spires been alike gifted with prophetic tongues,
and had proclaimed to the eighteen or nineteen young men
of mark, present in body or in spirit at the Oxford Union
on that memorable day, that out of their scanty number —
the pick of the University, I grant — one would be thrice
Prime Minister of England, disestablish a Church and
attempt to wreck the unity of the Empire ; three become
Cabinet Ministers ; three Governors-General of India ; one
Archbishop of Canterbury ; six forsake the Anglican for the
Catholic Church ; and, wonder of wonders, two, without
forfeiting the respect and reverence of their countrymen,
become Cardinals of the Holy Eoman Church !
Newman, perhaps, with Ms keen questioning intellect,
his early searchings of heart, and his quick, vivid imagina-
tion, might have lent a troubled ear to the awful prophecy,
and striven in passionate anguish of heart to solve a riddle
as mysterious then to him as any conveyed in the Sibylline
leaves to the heathen of old. But Manning, with his calm,
unruffled faith in the Church of his baptism, with his sober
judgment, and with his gift of prudence, worldly or other-
wise, would unquestionably have repudiated with infinite
scorn the false prophets prophesying things of ill ; and
banned the voices of the alluring bells as tongues of the Evil
Spirit.
Gladstone, Ttwre suo, would undoubtedly have put an
interpretation of his own on the ambiguous prophecy, have
accepted the version wliich was agreeable to his ambition,
drawing a subtle distinction between its different parts, if
to no one else's, to his own satisfaction. As already a
distinguished Oxford man, the ablest speaker of the Union,
he would naturally consider that he might and ought to be
in the future Prime Minister of England, not for once, twice,
or thrice only, but — for his country's good — to the end of
his life. As alike High Tory and High Churchman it was,
however, morally impossible for him to disestablish a Church
Ill AT THE UNION, OXFORD, 1829 41
or disrupt an Empire ; hence this part of the prophecy was
at fault or beyond human understandmg, and could only,
like the prophecies in the Apocalypse, be interpreted aright
by the event.
Both before and since Dick Whittington voices, if not
bells, in the air have spoken to the children of men, and
shall speak unto the end of time, or until hope ceases to
visit the heart, or ambition to vex the soul of man. Thrice
blessed are those voices, at least for them who have the ear
to discern spiritual intimations. How many a man, inspired
like Dick Whittington, has not risen up out of the slough
of despond and returned in triumph to the battle of life !
Be that, however, as it may, young Manning, full of
hope and promise and purpose, set his foot, on the day of
his maiden speech at the Union, on the first rung of the
ladder which led him, step by step, each step taken with
prudent circumspection, to the eminence — not of his own
choosing, but allotted to him under the action of divine
grace — which unto the end he so nobly occupied, not only
for the benefit of those entrusted to his spiritual charge,
but for the moral and material wellbeing of the toiling
masses of his fellow-countrymen, in whose cause Cardinal
Manning was one of the foremost workers of the day.
But the uses of the Debating Society surely outbalance
the danger of its abuse. Sir Francis Doyle characteristic-
ally dilated on its social advantages. " Had it not been,"
he says, " for the Debating Society (at Eton), I should have
known nothing of Mr, Gladstone, or of my beloved friend
Arthur Hallam, Bruce, Canning, Sir John Hanmer, Gaskell."
Had it not been for the Union, Mr. Gladstone would not
have found, at any rate not so readily and rapidly found, a
seat in Parliament. The Duke of Newcastle wave one of
his pocket boroughs to Mr. Gladstone on the strength of his
speech at the Union against the Eeform Bill, a speech
which completely electrified his hearers, among whom was
Lord Lincoln, the Duke of Newcastle's eldest son.
Had it not been for the reputation which he earned as a
speaker at the Union, Henry Manning, when he left Oxford,
might never have returned to take Orders, and thus have
42 CARDINAL MANNING chap, hi
missed the chance — at one period almost a certainty — of
an Anglican mitre ; missed that far higher badge of dis-
tmction, a cardinal's hat, conferred upon him in reward for
his services at the Vatican Council.
If, in presenting the picture of Manning as an aspiring
underOTaduate winnino- brilliant successes at the Union,
second only to those of Samuel Wilberforce and ]\Ir. Glad-
stone, I may seem to overlook or underrate his more solid
achievements in the schools, it is only because Manning's
name was best known to his contemporaries at Oxford, as
their published reminiscences amply bear witness, as a
speaker at the Union.
Let me, however, make amends now by recording in a
more methodical order Manninsf's career in the Schools.
CHAPTEE IV
IN THE SCHOOLS
1827-1830
Heney Edward Manning went up to Oxford in 1827, the
year after Samuel Wilberforce took his degree, and the year
before Mr. Gladstone's name was entered on the books of
Christ Church. In the month of April 1827, he went up
from Poulshot, near Devizes, the rectory of William Fisher,
Canon of SaHsbury, to matriculate at Balliol. Posting across
country to Wantage, he came into Oxford after nightfall, and
went straight to Merton, to Edgar Estcourt,^ then Fellow
of Merton, as Manning himself became in 1832. After
matriculation he returned to Poulshot to continue his
studies under Canon Fisher.-
Manning went into residence in the Michaelmas term
1827. At that date John Henry Newman was Fellow
^ Edgar Edmirnd Estcourt followed Newman into the Catholic Church,
and became Canon of Birmingham. He died in 1884.
^ In one of his autobiographical Notes Cardinal Manning gave the fol-
lowing account of his entrance into Oxford : — My first entrance into Oxford
I shall never forget. I arrived after dark. The streets and Colleges by
lamplight seemed to me a fairyland. I went straight to Merton, and was
shown up into the common room, about eight or half-past eight o'clock, after
the Fellows' dinner. Edmund Estcourt had undertaken to look after me.
There I saw Edward Denison, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Brakley (E. S.
Rankine's father-in-law), Tyndall, Hammond, and others. It seemed to me
awful and stately and beautiful; a sort of intellectual Elysium — as Oxford is
to me in looking back to this day. After matriculation I went back to
Poulshot and read hard. In the October following I went up to Balliol.
Soon after I met the Rev. Henry Woodgatc, whom I knew before in Kent, in
Pailling the bookseller's shop. He asked me, "Do you wish for a good
private tutor ? " I said yes, who is he ? " A good knowledge of logic."
44 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
of Oriel; a centre of attraction for men of like views.
From liis residence at Christ Church dates the life -long
friendship between Mr. Gladstone and Newman.^ Man-
ning's intimacy with Mr. Gladstone was of a later date.
Cardinal Manning had to the last a vivid recollection of
the Eev. Eichard Jenkyns, Master of Balliol ; of his great
capacity of governing, and of his profound knowledge of
men. It was to this gift, possessed in a singular degree,
rather than to any great intellectual power, the Cardinal
ascribed the rapid progress which Balliol made under his
government. It ended, as Cardinal Manning once said, " in
eclipsing Oriel by the number of distinguished men it turned
out, too well known to need enumerating ; but," the Cardinal
added in a tone of regret and pain, " I am afraid it has
already lost, and is still losing, ground, both in repute and
numbers, owing to the development of Eationalism and
Scepticism under the influence of Jowett."
In 1826, Frank Newman was Fellow of Balliol, but there
is no record that Manning came into contact with him.
Frederick Oakeley, who was all through his long life an
intimate friend and disciple of Newman's, as well as a friend
of Mr. Gladstone's, and, at any rate at a later period when
both were Catholics, of Manning's, was likewise a Fellow of
Balliol ; and so was Herman Merivale, the elder brother of
the historian. In 1828, having just passed through the
schools, Herman Merivale became Manning's private tutor.
In after life, the two men remained steadfast friends.
To the end of his life, Cardinal Manning retained a lively
recollection of his first friend and counsellor at Balliol.
" I never knew in all my life," he told me in 1886 or 1887,
" a man so ready of speech or possessed of such intuitive know-
ledge as Herman Merivale." As an illustration of his aptness
of speech, Cardinal Manning quoted from memory Herman
^ The last overt act of this friendship, on the one ]iart, was the following
note, written in a feeble hand by Cardinal Newman on the occasion of Mr.
Gladstone's visit to Birmingham, 5th November 1888 : — " My dear Gladstone,
I cannot let this opportunity jiass by without writing to you ; I am very ill :
God bless you. — Yours veiy affectionately, John H. Gaud. Newman." And
on the other part, Mr. Gladstone, who was much affected by this letter,
called at the Oratory, leaving with his own hand a letter for Newman.
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 45
Merivale's description of Lord Grey. Merivale was at that
time secretary to the Indian Board, and was brought into
close contact with Lord Grey, who was then secretary to the
Colonies. " Lord Grey's mind," he said to Manning, " is
remarkable alike for its great force and its great minuteness ;
it might be compared to the proboscis of an elephant, able to
pick up a pin and pull up a tree."
At the University Manning was not, like Newman, a
leader of men, devoted heart and soul to the study of religious
questions ; nor an earnest student, devoted almost exclusively
to his books, like Mr. Gladstone. Manning seemed to play
a double part ; he was to be seen everywhere ; always spruce
and smart, in striking contrast to Mr. Gladstone's somewhat
slouching gait and careless attire. Manning took part in all
the sports ; was present on every festive occasion ; but,
though his conciliatory manners made him popular, he does
not appear, owing, perhaps, to his natural reserve, to have
entered into any intimate friendships at Oxford. He was,
however, always busy and on the alert ; devoting much time
and study to the debates at the Union. When or how he
managed to find time for the schools no one knew. When
Mr. Gladstone, who belonged exclusively to the studious set,
took a double first, no one, who knew anything about him
at the University, was surprised ; as almost every one was,
when in the Michaelmas term 1830, Manning took his
B.A. degree and a first class in classics.
The truth is Manning possessed not only considerable
powers of concentration and singular readiness in acquiring
and assimilating knowledge, but pursued a strict method
in his studies which he first acquired during his nine
months' sojourn at the Eectory, Poulshot, before going up to
Oxford. Under the severe training and discipline of Canon
Fisher, if not effectually cured of his idle habit of desultory
and miscellaneous reading, Manning had learnt how to
concentrate his mind. Undoubtedly the successes which
he afterwards achieved in the schools were, as Cardinal
Manning a few years ago gratefully acknowledged, due to
the training he received at the hands of Canon Fisher.
Avoiding, then, discursive reading even in regard to
46 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
collateral branches of his main studies, Manning attained,
somewhat at the expense perhaps of richness and variety
of knowledge, the distinguished position in his college he
aimed at. Of his contemporaries at Oxford few survive.
In some published records, for instance, in the reminiscences
of the Kev. Thomas Mozley and of the late Sir Francis
Doyle, his name is mentioned, but chiefly in connection
with the debates at the Union. Frederick Oakeley, well
known in his day as Incumbent of ]\Iargaret Street Chapel,
and afterwards as Canon of Westminster, was Fellow of
Balliol, yet I never heard him make more than a passing
allusion to Manning's Oxford career. Mr. Gladstone, who
knew a great deal about him at a later period, when they
were thrown much together in the pursuit of a common
aim, tells me to-day, that not belonging to the same college,
he came very little in contact with Manning, who was his
senior at the University.
" Manning," he said, " kept very much to himself. I don't
know any one with whom he was intimate. He was not
intimate vdih Henry Wilberforce, nor mth Robert, Avho was
tutor at Oriel — afterwards, as his brothers-in-law, he became
intimate with them — nor ^vith James Hope, nor Avith Frederick
Oakeley — with all of whom I was on intimate terms. He was
not intimate with Newman ; how could he be ? Newman was
Fellow of Oriel and occupied no public office in the University.
I was intimate A\dth Newman, but then we had many views
in common. Manning and I, however," he added, " were on
friendly terms when we met in the University, but I had formed
no opinion, one way or the other, about his abihties. There may
be others who knew him better than I did in his imiversity days."
Besides his natural reserve or shyness, another cause,
which in no small measure deprived him of the opportunity
of forming acquaintances or of cultivating friendships, was
that owing to his state of health — he suffered from asthma
— Manning never dined in hall.
Mr. Herman Merivale, his private tutor at Balliol,
who, of course, had the best opportunity of forming a
judgment of Manning's abilities, has published no records,
left no letters that I have seen or heard of about his
distinguished pupil. In preparing Cardinal Manning's
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 47
biography I have read many hundreds of letters relating
to his Anglican as well as his Catholic days, which he had
carefully preserved ; and yet I have not found a single
letter of Herman Merivale's.
The contemporary at Oxford who knew him better than
Mr. Gladstone did was the late Charles Wordsworth,
Bishop of St. Andrews, a playfellow of Manning's at
Combe Bank, and a school-fellow at Harrow. From him
I learnt that Manning took to hard reading about the time
of his father's failure, withdrawing from the debates at the
Union, and from social life, in order to prepare himself for
the schools.^ During the long vacation, 1830, he stayed up
to read for his final examination. In that year. Manning
became a pupil of Charles Wordsworth ; ^ and at his rooms
met, for the first time, Mr. Gladstone, who used also to read
for an hour every morning with Charles Wordsworth. In
a letter, written when he was a Cardinal, to the Bishop
of St. Andrews, Manning deplored the time he had wasted
in Oxford, and expressed a wish that he might once more
read — and to better purpose — with his old friend and
master.
The following letter was the first written by Manning
after going into residence in the Michaelmas term 1827,
to John Anderdon. The letter was undated.
[Balliol, 1827.]
My dear John — The Preacher saith in his Proverbs, " the
beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water " — likewise
^ In a letter to John Anderdon, dated 3rd December 1829, Manning said : —
"I have written a letter to my father on the subject of a private tutor ; I
have not the dibs without application to his generosity."
- In The Annals of My Early Life 1806-1846, the late Charles Wordsworth,
Bishop of St. Andrews, Avrote of Manning as follows : — "About the time of
his entering Oxford he had, through no fault of his own, to suffer disappoint-
ments — serious disappointments of more than one kind — arising out of the
change in the worldly circumstances of his father, who had been a large
West Indian proprietor, but they had an ennobling effect upon his character,
for whereas at Harrow he had made little or no figure, he was now driven
to throw himself upon his own inward resources in a way he might not
otherwise have done. He withdrew almost entirely from society, became
a thoughtful, hard-reading man, and eventually took a first in classics,
Michaelmas 1830.
48 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
is it with letter-^vriting. Five have I successively absolved, and
lo, out pops a sixth. You have never answered my last, which
I admit Avas a bolus for no ordinary digestion. As " big thinkers
require big words, so do long letters require long answers," and
that speedily.
I must set you a thesis, on which you need compose nothing,
but send me your dicta in about a dozen pithy canons. How
is simplicity and strength of style to be acquired ? Our language
has lost force by the importation of anglicised Greek, Latin,
French, etc.
I am very well and sticking to it. I'll bother them some
day, heaven willing, albeit they bother me now. And " woe be
to the day of retribution." Hang me, Jack, if I do anything by
halves hereafter. I will endeavour to be Csesar, I know I can
be nullus. But never will I be NuUoccesar, which is an amalgam
of craving ambition and yielding softness, inadequate exertion
and harassed tranquillity. Just enough of one to make one
miserable, and too little of the other to succeed in any attempt.
Read the 40th chap, of Ecclus. It is your favourite. Let us
both have it by heart the next time we meet.
I bought your Butler the day after my arrival, but have de-
tained it in order that I might receive advices from you, should
you think of any work in addition.
I want a bottle of spirits of wine, my last being broken en
route, also a great roll, like Caesar's Anticato, which is to be dis-
covered in Harley Street in my dormitory.
My father is about to send me a ])resent of wine : the above
may be concomitants.
I shall send you a copy of the Common Prayer, which I
esteem a gem, unless I receive an interdict. — Yours.
In the summer vacation of 1828 Manning enjoyed
his first experience of foreign travel. He went abroad
with his father and Mr. Herman Merivale to Holland — the
first of his travellings innumerable, as his twenty-second
visit to Eome in 1883, more than lialf a century later, was
his last. After journeying through Holland, up the Ehine
to Geneva, his father returned home, and Manning travelled
into Savoy with Herman Merivale. They were nearly lost on
the lake of Geneva in crossing from St. Glugolth to Lausanne
in bad weather, and contrary to the advice of the boatmen.
As there were only a man and a boy in the boat. Manning,
who had fortunately learned rowing at Oxford, had to lend
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 49
a hand. In one of his autobiographical Notes, in speaking
of his first visit to Paris on this occasion, Manning says : —
I went home by Paris, and in Paris I went to the opera or a
theatre, I do not know which ; but something made me resolve
never to put my foot into a theatre again. And I never have.
What made me make this resolution I do not know. There was
nothing bad in the play itself, so far as I can remember ; but I
had been reading and thinking more on matters of right and
wrong. Perhaps illness had something to do in it ; I had
suftered nmch from asthma. But I thank God for the reso-
lution, which has helped me through life.
This resolution, taken apparently without rhyme or
reason, and which, in the course of half a century, de-
veloped into an unreasoning abhorrence of theatres, is
characteristic of the tenacity of Manning's prejudices. As
time went on, playgoing became an abomination in his eye.
" Theatres," he once declared, " from the penny gaff to the
Italian Opera, are unbroken links in Satan's chain." ^
Perhaps as a result of his foreign travels, Manning on
his return to Oxford set to work to study Italian, In
an autobiographical Note Cardinal Manning wrote as
follows : —
I went on with French and Italian at Oxford. I have now
a chart of the Irregular Italian Verbs which I stuck up over my
washing basin, and learned while I was getting up. I little
knew what it was to end in. Before I went to Rome in 1838 and
1848, I knew Italian, and used to speak it with Cardi at Oxford
— badly enough no doubt.
In his earlier letters from Balliol to John Anderdon,
Manning gives no account of his studies, his companions, or
of life in Oxford outside the Union. It is only in the last
year, when his examination was drawing near, that they
become interesting as showing an earnest purpose. In the
following letter to John Anderdon, however, dated 1st
September 1827, from Poulshot, where, just before entering
into residence, he was studying under his private tutor,
^ The late W. G. Ward, whom I had on one occasion accompanied to the
opera, begged me not to mention it to Manning, as the Cardinal would be
scandalised.
VOL. I E
50 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Canon Fisher, Manning expressed a hope that he might be
able to take a second class : —
My dear John — I am an unprofitable hound, and deserve
no better name. While you are working for ^l.s all, my best
endeavours can but be for myself. What am I to do 1 I trust
to be able to take a second class at Oxford, Avhich, if well done,
confers much greater honour than fifty middling firsts, on this
account, that a man is supposed to do that, in style, for which he
has been working. I am very anxious to be a good logician,
and that Avill I be. Don't read Cant, it is unworthy of you ;
only a few humdrum rhymes ; burn 'em, bvnn 'em. As to
Myricus, I am glad you like it, truly more than I do. Pray
keep it, I want not to see it again.
You have taken the very line for Coeur de Lion which I had
proposed to myself. The Crusades and the Holy Land have
been written on and talked about usque ad tiauseam; anything
respecting the other events of his reign would be better suited.
I have an idea or two for something, but I ■\\all not give way ;
I will retain them for some otiose moments.
I want to see you ; I shall be up at the end of this month ;
shall you be in London or at Combe Bank? — Good night.
Believe me, yours very afiiectionately, jj^ j]_ y^
PouiiSHOT, 1st Sept. 1827.
I should like to see Forster's Essay. Where did you get
your little seal of Hercules ?
In the beginning of 1829, as the following letter shows,
his mind was still undisturbed by fears or anxieties about
the final examination in the Schools : —
Balliol, I2th February 1829.
My DEAR John — I shall be inclined to predicate well of
things on considering that you have had leisure of late, sufficient
to cope with Channing's sophisms. A beautiful chapter on the
Trinity is trolling with a killing bait, read and digest it, in
order that I may profit by it hereafter.
Foster's essays have been a real comfort to me lately, yet do
not think that I read them for the first time, ... I am afraid
(no, not afraid — pardon the parenthesis) I am throwing for high
stakes, and giving my adversary odds ; but a letter of Foster's
generally inspirits me, especially as a friend of mine some time
ago, when asked, held me up as a decided character. My only
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 51
corollary is, " do it ! " I'll get up, or die in the breach ; so
there Ave'll leave it.
What do you think of civil and religious liberty ? The old
drones will come lagging out of the hive before long.
I will promise to write to you as soon as the powder ignites,
until then keep drying it by an occasional line. I listen for the
old postman's knock, with as much expectancy as you wait for a
Leeward Island packet. . . .
Virtue is virtue, and he's a lucky fellow who had it and died
o' Wednesday. Adieu. — Yours, M.
At the end of the year, at the close of a long letter,
dated 3rd November 1829, Manning gives John Anderdon
reassuring news, as follows : —
My dear John — . . . My class troubles me not, I look to
things beyond it. I am, therefore, not getting information, but
constructing my machine for future purposes. This state
multiplies my chance in the Schools into itself. — Yours,
M.
The following letter is a month later : —
Balliol, December, Kal. III., 1829.
My dear John — You charge me of secretiveness ; you are
right in so doing ; were it to make confession of my errors and
deficiencies, you should have them.
Busticus expedat dum defluat amnis, yet I am backward in
speaking of anything that may entail a false estimate of myself ;
there is nothing so levelling as to find others entertain a cheaper
opinion of you, than your amour propre has been wont to
suggest. Wait our meeting. I have just cast my eye on
La Rochefoucauld's maxims, among which I find one which
suggests comfort after my above declaration. Nous plaisons plus
souvent dans la commerce de la tie, par tws ddfauts que par tws
bonnes qaaliUs. You know Toilus but ill, if you think in the
Huncka-muncka of your last letter, you disturb his philosophic
indifference.
You won't know me when I come home, I am grown fat, idle,
and impudent. I only hope that you may have been the same,
on the true Aristotelian principle of " like loves like." — Yours
ever, M.
P.S. — Love to Molly and the Piccaninny.
In answer to John Anderdon's reproaches or fears, that
he was wasting his time in writing " poetry " or " jargon
52 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
letters," instead of preparing for his approaching examina-
tion by serious reading, Manning in the following letter
shows how hard he was studying : —
Balliol, Tuesday night, 12 o'clock, 1830.
My DEAR John — . . . For the matter of the Gradus, 'twas
but curiosity that made me ask for it. The Hora Ion. I thank
you for. The Aldus tickles my gills excessively, and I shall
not fail of duly dreaming of it. I think it beautiful ; but
observed what you mention at first, however, I am very fully
satisfied and pleased.
You talk of severe studies : I must take honours, and they
shall be in classics ; when that is over I'm ready for you, from
Locke to Mrs. Barbaukl's Hymns. My leisure hours during my
residence at Oxford shall not be thrown away, you old Zeuo.
Go to a nunnery, go — More to-morrow.
Wednesday morning. — I collect from your hurried, worried,
and disjointed sentences that you suppose my French and
Itahan would prevent some of my other reading ; they can only
be as a recreation during those hours in which I should other-
^vise be at leisure, I mean either in the afternoon or evening ;
morning and night being /u//. In case you should think that I
waste my time here, on what you compliment by calling
" poetry," and in writing jargon to you, I can only say that, for
five months, I have rarely had more, but very frequently less
than six hours sleep at night. Until the beginning of July I
never went to bed before three in the morning. I found the
ill effects of this to such a degree that I was obliged to forego
that which gave me the greatest of pleasures. Now I go to bed
at twelve, and am called at six or half-past. How to squander
the remaining eighteen hours, I know not. But perhaps you
may inform mo.^ — Adieu.
In the following letter to his brother-in-law, John
Anderdon, dated Balliol, 18th September 1830, about two
months before his final examination in the Schools, Manning
gives an account of his studies, and in a desponding mood
attributes to his Harrow days the failure which he predicts : —
My DEAR John — I send you some notes rough and ready.
I have broken ground ; and manage to arrive at or near ten
^ The above letter, like others at the time, has no signature or date.
Generally Manning's letters at this period are signed with an " M " almost
lost in flourishes.
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 53
hours a day. How profitable this may be I dare not predict.
I find myself very much altered, and so far as Oxford is con-
cerned not much for the better. I am sensibly less able to
contend with matter of which I see not the rationale. I have
been somewhat compromised between real life — laugh not — and
Oxford life. In the one, I am compelled to estimate things by
their intrinsic importance, in the other, to attribute an impor-
tance which belongs not to them. I thank heaven my time is
nigh, and feel no hesitation in saying so, seeing that I am con-
vinced the longer I delay my examination the further I am from
the highest honours. This I am enabled to explain. I have had
opportunity of late to analyse my budget, and I find the truest
exemplification of the old dogma, that everything has its result,
and every hour we spend has an unknown and distinct influence
over our future times. On examining my own state, I find my-
self thus situated. In all the reading proper to that age during
which a boy is at school, I am insecure, even to the foundation.
Exertions must be made subsequently, and some I have endea-
voured since leaving HarroAv to make, but the seed-time was
passed, and all the acquisition I was enabled to make fell very
short of what I ought already to have mastered. These very
exertions, being late in themselves, were relatively misapplied in
that they should have been directed to the studies proper to the
period at which I had arrived. " There is a time for all things,"
and in matters of study (as regards the University at least)
" there is a thing for all times." Disarrange this, by attempting
late in life to be a boy, and you walk on imcertain footing —
incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso. In all the most of the
reading proper to my university course I feel myself more con-
fident, I have not done amiss with it, save where the attempt to
make good old deficiencies has interrupted my attention. This
gives me comfort as regards my own power of application and
comprehension. I must fail here, although I neither despond
nor despair, you know my sentiments too well to need much
asseveration on this point. I almost fear I am too indifferent ; yet
I pledge myself to work it through. I said I must fail, and my
failure will be a result of my Harrow days. Inattention then
causes deficiency now, and so it is. Jack, through life. — Yours,
M.
In the following letter Manning shows that he has
recovered his self-confidence, and writes in a hopeful tone
and in high spirits : —
Saturday Night, IQth October 1830.
My dear John — ... In bodily health I never was
54 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
better, and, if possible, my mental convalescence is the more
worthy of marvel. I assure you I never have been so quiet, so
imperturbable and happy, for years. Why, I scarcely dare com-
mence to explain. I look forward to my examination with just
so much confidence as you would desire, and misgiving as I
deem ine\dtable. Some of my books, and they the most difficult
and important, I think I shall most unimpeachably maintain.
Butler, Aristotle, and Demosthenes. These are the only points
to which inclination as well as prudence have powerfully led
me, and I do not think I shall greatly disgrace myself when I
render account of my intimacy with them. I confess I delight
in them. Two of the greatest masters of ratiocination, and one
the single orator of six thousand years — barring (Chrysostom and)
St. Paul alone. Of my other books, my Greek poetry and history,
it must be a very illiberal selection of indocile passages greatly to
discompose me. Of my di\anity I have not much fear, although
it is an inexhaustible and perilous subject. So far so good, of
papers, essays, and translations, I hope to keep my way ; of such
matters as Virgil and Livy, in which my younger days should
have been well saturated, I say nothing. We must hope for the
best. All the most difficult parts of my list, I expect to find
my strong points. I have freely given you my thoughts in the
confidence that you neither communicate nor misconstrue them.
Now for the other side, contingencies such as examiners, with
their respective \'iews, theories, crotchets, picked passages, and
talents, more or less, are amply sufficient to throw the odds
against the best prepared of men. That am I not. I am the nil
fuit unquam tarn dispar tihi. Disproportionately strong in some
parts and weak in others. Mine is a bold manoeuvre, strength-
ening some points of my line, and confiding in the success of my
tactics. You will see I am somewhat buoyant, not expectant
note me, this I will explain ; so much for intellectualism. . . .
In another letter about the same date, Manning wrote
as follows : —
My DEAR John — My buoyancy is the result of a due and
deliberate investigation of my own ability, and a recognition
of consistency in observing a specific line of operation. I have
worked very steadily, and I may almost dare to add effectively.
I have at least discovered that I am not of so weak a purpose, as
I myself, nor so unmanned, as you, thought fit to deem me some
months ago. All the confidence, I ever felt in looking forward,
has returned upon me tenfold, and if I be not insuperably ob-
structed I will approve my convictions. I do not expect so
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 55
much as to falter in the Schools ; this is a moral, not an intel-
lectual principle. I have seen many men pleading ill-health, or
nervelessness, or such like pretexts. I will none of them. To
say so and to do so is equally an act of volition. No false
estimate shall be made of me. If I fail, I will fail in Livy, not
in steadiness of principle. If my hopes are ever realised, if the
aspirations I dare entertain are ever met, I shall stand in many
a more perilous position ; such as will require not only in-
tellectual acquirements, but moral courage to collect and employ
them. I will try and take a first in this, if not in Uteris
humanioribus.
A circumstance happened this evening, scarcely worth record-
ing although in my present state it struck me forcibly. You
will remember opening the Bible on passages, as it were of an
appropriate signification, to gain their state of mind. This
evening it so fell out that I was the senior undergraduate in
chapel, an occurrence to me for the first time, it was con-
sequently my duty to read the lessons ; the first of which was
the eighth chapter of the Book of Wisdom. Turn you to it.
It is the precise theory I have been long revolving. Look
more especially at the verses 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, which my mind
unhesitatingly incorporated with the Utopian aspirations seldom
absent from my mind. That chapter contains the perfection of
human character. I was so struck that, although I proceeded
in the orthodox tone of voice, I had little thought of my con-
gregation. To seek assimilation with such an exemplar is a
calling transcendently glorious. I feel the inadequacy of
language to figure out to you the ineffable resolves elicited by
the entire chapter. But whither are we tending ?
Hope not a life from grief and troubles free,
Nor think the doom of man reversed for thee.
Deign on the passing world to cast your eyes,
And pause awhile from letters to be wise.
This wisdom is to know such theories are theories still. Stub-
born circumstance and slender abilities, vain conceits and mis-
guided imaginations, these are the amalgam of oiu" nature and
its sphere of action. I almost fear the moral of the chapter to
be — son of man, thou seest how high the heaven is above the
earth, so high is His wisdom above thy wisdom, and this glory
He alone can give, above that which thou canst attain to.
Time flies, I must to bed. In six or seven weeks we will
discuss not correspond. — Yours truly, M.
P.S. — I wrote this late last night what time I was " filled
as the moon at the full." If it be rabid or rampant, forgive me.
56 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Full of his approaching examinations in the Schools,
Manning wrote again as follows : —
Balliol, 2Uh October 1830.
]\Iy dear John — ... In the commencement of December
my examination ■will in all probability be at an end. During
the last week I shall do but little. I hope to have closed all
my books in about three weeks from the present moment. No
great gun, but charged as far as his present opportunities permit.
I will not again express my own impertui^bed state of mind. I
see that nothing can be done very materially to alter my case,
what can be effected will be effected — a bold guarantee. I deem
my present trial more one of moral courage and presence of
mind. In neither of these WILL I be wanting. I fear it not,
I await it not -with dread or anxiety. If my future hopes be
realised, many will be the more difficult positions in which I
shall be placed. I have gained of late an estimate of my own
power (forgive the word) of which before I did not dream, and
finally I discover the nearer my cause of perturbation approaches
the more confirmed my own collectedness becomes. From the
day on which I ceased to vegetate, 1827, to the present moment
I never felt so really happy. The decision of others may deprive
me of the object for which I have run. I impugn not its equity,
and scarce entertain a regret as to its character ; moreover, the
only regret is that some who take an interest in my attempt may
be through my instrumentality disappointed. Of this, however,
nothing can deprive me, the reflection that, during nearly four
years, I have maintained a steady course ; there have been a few
voluntary derelictions, a few involuntary deviations, some have
been the result of our weak moral nature, some of our treacher-
ous physical constitution. By the latter, are you aware I have
been made somewhat eccentric ? I hope, however, a short
period of more active life, a change of scenes and thoughts and
pursuits, may exterminate all remnants of a troublesome ailment.
Write as often as you are able, and ])clieve me, etc., M.
The above letters, written at the close of his Oxford
career, redeem Manning's voluminous correspondence with
John Anderdon from the reproach of flippancy, love of
ostentation and egotism. They show forth in a striking
fashion the chief qualities and strength of his character —
will-power, tenacity of purpose, self-confidence and self-
control, readiness of resource, and a rare capacity of making
the most of his talents and opportunities. In these moral
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 57
qualities, as he said of himself — " I will at all events take
a first class." And so he did. It was these qualities,
more than intellectual attainments, which obtained for him
a first class. They did far more ; they stood him in good
stead in many a difficulty in the battle of life ; they
obtained for him many a victory. Their possession, in a
word, was the secret of his success in after-life.
In the following autobiographical Note, Cardinal Manning
gives an account of his relations with his brother-in-law,
John Anderdon, and explains the cause of the stilted
style of his letters : —
My letters are a strange mixture of wild wandering — some-
times grave, mostly jocular — in an undergraduate slang of
grandiloquence, which if it had been serious would have been
conceited. John Anderdon was always telling me that I was
irresolute, undecided, and over-cautious. I was so, for I had
not found either my end or my way in life. This did me much
good. Indeed, I owe to him all the moral guidance I ever had.
The life of Oxford Avas delightful to me. I read hard and yet
idled. R. B.^ said I was the idlest hard-reading man and the
hardest-reading idle man he ever knew. It is very true. I
had made up my mind at Poulshot to read for a first class in
classics. I was always fond of mathematics, but had read so
little that I could not read more than was required for the first
examination. I much regret this now. I went on with French
and Italian at Oxford. I have now a chart of irregular Italian
verbs which I stuck over my washing basin, and learned whilst I
was getting up. I little knew what it was to end in. Before I
went to Rome in 1838 and 1848 I knew Italian and used
to speak it with Cardi at Oxford, badly enough no doubt.
During my years there, the only record remaining is in my
letters to John Anderdon. I was learning English that made
me write in a style which reads like grandiloquent self-con-
sciousness. But the truth is that I was reading the old seven-
teenth-century English, and knew no other ; my great delight
was Barrow's Sermons which are Latinistic and formal to excess,
but equally grand. Later on I read Hooker, Jeremy Taylor,
and the like. They filled my head with Latin-English, and
polysyllabic words. My letters are full of dpm'eia, saying half
my meaning, and ashamed of saying too much, and yet saying
^ Robert Bevan, brother of Miss Bevan, Manning's "spiritual mother"
in those days.
58 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
too much, and thinking aloud about myself, in a Avay that would
be intolerably egotistical if it had not been to a brother-in-law,
who was like a physician to a patient. To him I thought aloud
about myself, my future, and my aspirations. To anybody else
it would have been egotism and vain-glory. But to him it was
a kind of manifestation of conscience. — Cardinal Manning's
Reminiscences.
About Manning's undergraduate pursuits, the late Master
of Balliol, in the follov?ing letter, named the only person
now living at all likely to be able to give information : —
Balliol College, 21st July 1893.
Dear Mr. Purcell — I send you what I have been able to
learn about Cardinal Manning. The only person at all likely
to know anything about his undergraduate days is the Rev. E.
D. Wickham, an old member of the College, who has told me
that he used to box with the Cardinal in the days of his youth ;
also Sir Thomas Acland and Lord SelbouiTxC.^ — I remain, dear
sir, yours truly, B. JowETT.
The Rev. E. D. Wickham speaks of Manning in bis
undergi'aduate days as follows : —
The Holmwood Vicarage,
Dorking, 29th August 1893.
Dear Sir — I fear I can be of no use to you, as you so
naturally wish in your biographical position. Sixty-five years
have passed since my first entrance into Balliol, and our
excellent master credits me with, rather more intimacy vrith
Manning than I really had. His rooms were on the ground-
floor on the first staircase to the right on entering, under the
tower. Immediately over him was Mr. Round, the tutor. Then
Toogood, an undergraduate, and in the garret above, myself as a
freshman.^ Manning was about a year older in standing than I
was, but, living on the same staircase, wc knew one another, and
it may amuse you to know that my memories of om* intercourse
are chiefly " combative " ! That is, we engaged a certain
^ lu a letter, dated September 1893, Lord Selbourne said — "I had left
Oxford before Cardinal Manning came, and was not acquainted with him,
to my regret, in after-life. My brother, William Palmer, was a contemporary
and friend of his at Oxford."
^ The party of four inhabiting rooms on the same staircase — Mr. Round,
the tutor. Manning and Toogood, undergraduates, and the happy freshman
in the garret— were known in Oxford as "The happy family."
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 59
notorious pugilist to teach us what was then esteemed as the
" noble art of self-defence." This was a way in which under-
graduates then took exercise, and it was partly necessary from
the disgraceful " Town and Gown " skirmishes which were then
frequent — so Manning and I often boxed together; and so I
have said in joke, in after-life, that I had proved my Pro-
testantism practically by striking Cardinal Manning, I remem-
ber his once saying to me in connection with this exercise, " It
is a good thing to learn boxing, for it will make one cautious of
picking a quarrel with a small cad who might be more than a
match for our skill." I can only add that the future Cardinal
was a very quiet and well-conducted undergraduate. He gave
no token of special ability, but his conduct was irreproachable —
unless you consider " boxing " a reproach.
Manning was too steady, I think, to have part in some of the
proceedings recorded in my recently published Old Memories of
Balliol—Yonvs truly, E. D. Wickham.
In the midst of his hopes and fears about the result of
his examination, to make an " oration " at the Union was
still a temptation to the aspiring undergraduate, as the
following letter shows : —
Smiday, 7th November 1830.
Dear John — Do not think me selfish in begging you to
write to me, if it be but ten lines, with some condensed pabulum
animi.
I long to make an oration in our society, they have enlarged
the room, and it is very respectable. Party runs very high,
and I anticipate great amusement. I almost fear the approach
of the vac. before I get well free. — Yours, M.
Thursday Evening, 25th November 1830.
My dear John — I write in great haste, only to desire you
to think of me at half-past ten o'clock, by which time I shall be
weU buckled to. I have passed two days of my examination —
on paper. It began earlier than I expected.
I am very well, and begin to look to the end. I have thus
far verified all my promises about coolness, and at this moment,
although someAvhat subdued, I admit, am very philosophic and
unperturbed. Write to me a letter in the morning — cheer me
up. — Yours, H. E. M.
The late INIaster of Balliol, Professor Jowett, kindly gave
me every information to be obtained at Balliol about
Manning from the date of his matriculation, 2nd April
60
CARDINAL MANNING
1827, to his final examination in the Schools. Professor
Jowett gave me also a copy of the class list, Michaelmas
Term 1830, together with a fuller list in Latin,^ containing
the names of the examiners, among whom was Eobert
Wilberforce, who in later years was Manning's most
intimate friend.
Class List, Michaelmas Term 1830.
In Literis Hunianioribus.
Anstice, J.,
Hamilton, W. K.,
Manning, H. E., .
Palmer, "\V.,
Walker, J. K, .
Wilberforce, H. W
Christ Chm-ch.
Christ Church.
Balliol.
Magdalene.
Balhol.
Oriel.
B.A. Degree, Michaelmas Term 1830.
On successfully passing his examination, and obtaining
a first class in Classics,^ Manning wrote to his father
^ Nomina Candidatokum
Termino Michaelis a.d. Mdcccxxx. Qui honore digni sunt habiti, in
unaquaque classe secundum ordiuem alpliabeticuni disposita.
IN LITERIS HUMANIORIBUS.
Classis I.
Anstice Josephus ex Mdo Christi.
Hamilton Gualterus ex ^de Christi.
Manning Henricus E. e Coll. Ball.
Palmer Gulielmus e Coll. Magd.
Walker Joannes E. e Coll. Ball.
Wilberforce Henricus G. e Coll. Oriel.
IN DISCIPLINIS MATHEMATICIS
ET PHYSICIS.
Classis I.
Anstice Josephus ex .^de Christi.
Classis II.
Wilberforce Henricus G. e Coll. Oriel.
J. Williams
J. Gakbett
R. Martin
R. I. Wilberforce t
C. H. Cox
G. Moberly I
Exaniina-
tores in
Literis
Huniani-
oribus.
G. Kay
Examinatores
„ „ L ^" Disciplinis
U. KIGGS h IMathcmaticis
H. Reynolds J et Physicis.
^ In his Journal 1878-82, Cardinal Manning wrote as follows : — "In the
schools Wm. Palmer and I sat side by side at the same table writing.
Of the six in that first class, unless Walker l)e living, wliich I do not know,
I alone survive. Anstice soon went ; Hamilton, H. Wilberforce, and Palmer
are gone."
rv IN THE SCHOOLS 61
the gratifying news. The letter was duly endorsed as
follows : —
To-day my son Henry puts on the bachelor's gown at
Oxford.
In a letter to which I have already referred, Charles
Wordsworth said : — " On leaving Oxford, Manning's religious
opinions were quite unformed." This statement was con-
firmed by Cardinal Manning, who, in one of his autobio-
graphical Notes, referring to this period of his life, said :
— " I had never given a thought to Orders or Apostolical
Succession, and had but a vague conception of the Church ;
but I had always believed in Baptismal Eegeneration,"
Unlike " the band of earnest young men " who used to
meet in Newman's rooms at Oriel,^ Manning had formed no
religious opinions, one way or the other. He never took
part in what Newman called the conciliabula, often held in
the common rooms of different colleges. Ecclesiastical
questions ; or rather the study and attempts at solving
profound problems affecting religious faith or Church
government, which were stirring the hearts and minds of
Newman and Hurrell Froude and their immediate followers,
the future leaders of, or fellow-workers in, the Tractarian
movement, had no interest for Manning. His heart was
in the Union. To talk or teach politics to admiring
disciples like Stephen Denison ^ was his delight. For this
purpose — out of the Schools — his reading was directed to
writers on political economy like Eicardo and Adam Smith.
Though he used occasionally to attend Newman's famous
sermons at St. Mary's — sermons which exercised so pro-
found and far-reaching an influence — and though he even
enjoyed the advantage — at least during his last term — of
personal intercourse with Newman, it was not within the
walls of Oxford that Manning fell under the influence of
religion. It was not the pulpit of St. Mary's, not the
voice of Newman, that first aroused the deeper sense of
religious life in the heart of Manning. Misfortunes of a
^ Newman at that time was one of the greatest Dons at Oxford, and was
intimate only with those who shared his views and ecclesiastical tastes.
^ Brother to Edward Denison, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury.
62 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
twofold kind, according to the testimony of the one of all
his contemporaries who knew him best at Oxford, had
prepared the way for a change of heart. It was not at
Oxford under the stir and stress of intellectual discussions
or controversial inquiries that what Manning himself
described as his " conversion," took place, but in the quietude
of a country house under the benign influence of a pious
Evangelical lady. " At Trent Park, near to us at Kipperton,
my brother Henry," his sole surviving sister ^ once told me,
" used often to spend his vacations with the Bevans, friends
of ours." Eobert Bevan (afterwards a great banker) was a
zealous Evangelical, and one of j\Ianning's friends at Oxford ;
he was likewise a friend and fellow -worker with John
Anderdon, Manning's brother-in-law, in the great Evangelical
cause, in which Miss Bevan, Robert's sister, was even more
deeply interested.
In that day, before the Tractarian JMovement had
awakened the Church of England out of its long lethargy ;
before the ardour, faith, and inspiring genius of Newman had
transformed the High and Dry Churchism of that dismal
period into a life-breathing body, the Evangelical party
alone preserved and kept alive — whatever else they may
have neglected or rejected — active belief in the Atonement
and a personal love of the Lord. Robert Bevan and his
sister were of this school of pious opinion, and into their
hands Manning, who, as we have seen, had no formed
religious opinions of his own, surrendered himself.
The happy influence which Miss Bevan, whom he used
to call his " spiritual mother," exercised over his mind in
that time of sorrow, depression of heart, and disappointment
was well described in a letter, which the late Lord Forester,
Dean of York, wrote to the Times, dated 20th January 1892,
a few days after Cardinal Manning's death. The following
extracts show the spiritual influence exercised over Henry
Manning's mind by Miss Bevan : —
. . . Henry Manning was a schoolfellow of Miss Bevan's
^ Since these pages were in type, Mrs. Austen, who survived Cardinal
Manning nearly two years, has passed away.
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 63
brother Robert, and was wont to spend the greater part of his
holidays at Trent Park. She told me they were as brother and
sister, " so much so, that if he were to come into this room now I
should talk to him like my brother." His great desire was to
enter Parliament, but his father having lost all his property, his
prospects in that direction were dashed to the ground. His
chief failing, in those days, was excessive ambition. He would
say that what he should like, if in the House of Commons, would
be to take up some great cause alone, to have the whole Senate
against him, but, by dint of persevering advocacy, to conquer
and carry his point. These were his dreams. After his father's
losses, which changed his whole career, when he next came to
Trent, she perceived how depressed he was : in their walks
together she endeavoured to cheer him, telling him there were
higher aims still that he had not thought of. " What are they ? "
She replied " The kingdom of Heaven ; heavenly ambitions are
not closed against you." He listened, and said, in reply, he did
not know but she was right. She suggested reading the Bible
together, saying that she was sure her brother Robert would
join them. This they did during the whole of that Vacation,
every morning after breakfast. It was her conviction that this
was the beginning of Henry Manning's religious life. He always
used to speak of her as his spiritual mother. When the time
came for him and her brother Robert to return to Oxford, she
proposed that they should continue reading the same portions
together, he and her brother at Oxford, and she at Trent, and
they were to correspond on the subjects. The result was that
she had piles of his letters. After his change of faith, and
when she was living at Broseley, he ^vrote to her, asking her to
return him his letters, as he said they might compromise him.
With regret she sent them all back to him, asking him, at the
same time, to return hers to her. In reply, he said, if she
would allow him to keep them he would wish to do so. I
recollect when she told me she had consented, she added, " I
think I Avas wrong ; it was vanity, perhaps, that induced me, I
have thought since that he might make an unfair use of them."
This correspondence, if still in existence, from two such persons
as Henry Manning and my friend Mrs. T. Mortimer would be
most interesting. She was a remarkable woman, full of anecdote,
and the most agreeable conversational companion it was ever my
lot to meet. Her residence, as my neighbour, at Broseley, was a
great gain to me, and she was invaluable as a help in the parish.
In those early days, when she saw a good deal of Manning,
he would go with her to hear preachers whom she thought
highly of. She took him to hear Dr. M'Neile in his palmy days.
64 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
He was much taken with M'Neile's eloquence, thinking it
of a higher order than Canning's. He went with her to hear
William Howells of Longacre Episcopal Chapel, a very popular
and striking preacher of that date. Of him, he said he was
unintelligible. If he did not agree with any writer he would
get quite angry with any statements put forth, and think it was
easy to refute them. Some points in the theology of Thomas
Scott, the Commentator, quite stirred him with anger. ^
The fact that in his numerous letters to John Anderdon
the subject of religious belief was not discussed, though they
were filled with talks about politics, philosophy, poetry, and
" orations " at the Union, is accounted for by the evidence
of Miss Bevan as given by the late Lord Forester, Dean of
York. In an autobiographical Note Cardinal Manning
gives the date of his conversion as 1830, and alludes with
^ In the conclusion of his letter Lord Forester refers to his ovm relations
with Cardinal Manning as follows: — "About three or four years before
Mrs. Mortimer came to reside at Broseley I myself had some interesting
correspondence with Mr. Manning at the time he was Archdeacon of
Chichester. It ceased when he crossed the border. In the last letter
I wrote to him about that date, I referred to the rumour, and entreated
him, before he finally made up his mind, that he would have some con-
versation with good R. "Waldo Sibtliorp, who had become a Roman Catholic
and returned to the Church of England. He promised me he would, but
remarked that he knew exactly what were R. W. Sibthorp's views ; still,
if the opportunity presented itself, he would see hira. Again I opened a
correspondence with him after the lapse of some thirty years, the occasion of
which was that a brother-in-law of mine wanted a copy of a particular number
of the Dublin Review, which he had in vain tried to get from the publisher.
It contained the story of the life of a somewhat remarkable man, who had
been a friend of ours. He was English born ; began life as a servant of the
Pope's, became a Dissenting minister in Lincolnshire, and afterwards joined
the Roman Communion again. J\Iy brother asked me to get this volume for
him if I coiild. I accordingly wrote to the Cardinal to ask if he could help
me to the volume. I said his old friend ]\Irs. Mortimer and I had often
talked him over. In reply he said ' he knew Jlrs. Mortimer well in former
years ; she was a veiy pious woman.' He sent me the volume. The last
letter I received from him is the following, dated October 1839 : —
' My dear Lord — Very often I have thought of you, not knowing whether
you are still in this world. To us both a long life of many years has been
granted. I hope we shall not break the pitcher at the fountain. We have
had a multitude of mercies, and I hope they are the pledges of His love and
of His keeping to the end. Many thanks for this beautiful letter, and the
little pieties wliich show how her soul was united with God. ... If you
come to London let us meet again. — Yours faithfully in J. C,
Henky E. Card. Manning.'"
TV IN THE SCHOOLS 65
gratitude, though without naming them, to Miss Bevan and
her brother. The voluminous correspondence between two
such people so eminent in their different ways in after-life
as Henry Manning and Mrs. Mortimer on the subject of
personal religion and on religious belief could not have
failed to be of singular interest. But the whole correspond-
ence has been destroyed.^ The fact, however, remains that
in the year when he was suffering under the misfortune of
his father's loss of fortune and the shipwreck of his own
ambitious prospects, he found an awakening of conscience
under the personal influence of two such pious and God-fearing
persons as Eobert Bevan and his sister. In his subsequent
letters to John Anderdon, from Oxford and from the Colonial
Office, Manning did not speak a word of his " conversion "
at Trent Park, nor of Miss Bevan, his " spiritual mother."
During his last year at Oxford, however. Manning,
under the guidance of John Anderdon, studied the seven-
teenth-century divines, to whose style both John Anderdon
and Manning were very partial ; and, under the influence
perhaps of Miss Bevan and her brother, read some of the
old Puritan writers.
His contemporary letters to his brother-in-law, John
Anderdon, which in their fulness and freedom give a graphic
picture of Manning's mind at the time, contain no reference
to the subject of religion, or to the Church of England, or
to ecclesiastical questions. Metaphysics, philosophy, politics
are discussed in rather a wild and random fashion. Litera-
ture and poetry are alluded to. Byron's poetry is extolled
beyond measure. Of Scott, Manning only said, " I wish he
had never written a line of poetry." The study of style
and English composition, second only to his " Orations at
the Union," seemed most to occupy his mind. His letters
are often grotesque and rhapsodical.^ The only serious
^ On Manning's becoming a Catholic, he wrote to Miss Bevan, or Mrs.
Thomas Mortimer, as she then was, begging the return of all the letters he
had written to her. Of these letters to his " spiritual mother ", not one has
been preserved. Of hers, not one has escaped the flames to bear witness to
the source and origin of Manning's early Puritanism.
2 In reading over my letters from Harrow, Poulshot, and Oxford, that is,
from the time I was sixteen or seventeen to twenty-two, to John Anderdon,
VOL. I F
66 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
purpose they reveal is anxiety about olitaining his degree,
and regret at the backward state of his earlier education.
Miss Bevan's, then, is the only contemporary evidence
we are in possession of as to the state of Manning's religious
opinions at Oxford — for from Bishop Charles Wordsworth
we only learn that his mind was stiU unformed — yet we
have, in one sense, the weightiest of all evidence — Cardinal
Manning's own reminiscences — as to his life at Oxford.
Though of the deepest interest, it is not, however, a con-
temporary record, but a statement written fifty-seven years
after the time. In default, however, of the slightest
evidence as to his religious views or opinions, in his con-
temporary letters to John Anderdon, we can only fall back
on " Notes and Eeminiscences " of his Oxford life, written
by the Cardinal a few years before his death.
First, in reference to Balliol, Cardinal Manning points
out that
There were two sets in Balliol — one a rowing and one a
reading set. I knew some of both, but I lived with the latter.
Herman Merivale, Oakeley, Moberly now of SaHsbury, were
Fellows. Round, Ogilvie, and Mitchell were tutors — the first,
a good and honest pleasant man ; the second, good, but too formal
to be genial ; the third, one of the most bright, innocent, and
lovable of men.
I never knew how kindly he thought of me till six months
ago, when he died and his words about me and Archbishop Tait
were pubhshed in the Tivies}
In the next Note there is a short reference to the
Union : —
I am more convinced than I ever was of the debt I owe to him in teaching
me to write. He took endless pains, as his letters correcting mine will show.
At first the effect of it was to make me write in a stilted, self-conscious style,
which is intolerable. But really I did half know it. I thought it was better
English. I do not think I had then any literary vanity ; and have said
somewhere in this book I had it for a time after publishing the first volume
of sermons. But in the second I deliberately and consciously resolved to
break with it. — Cardinal Manning's Journal, 1878-82.
^ Mr. Mitchell spoke in high terms of Manning and Tait, both pupils of
his at the University. Ho predicted that both of them would become arch,
bishops. It did not, however, enter into Mr. Mitchell's prophetic head that
Manning would become Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
IV IN THE SCHOOLS 67
My time at Oxford was very happy. As it went on I grew
less inclined to waste my time. I had been attacked with
asthma, brought on by a cold caught at cricket at Harrow. It
became severe, and I got permission not to dine in hall. My
dinner was what was allowed for luncheon — cold meat and
bread — and on this I lived all through my time. Gradually
I read harder. I belonged to the Union, and, linguce instigante
petulantia, I made a speech in favour of free trade in wool ;
in moving an amendment to a motion of Sir John Hanmer — an
owner of broad acres and many flocks — on the importation of
foreign wool. This launched me into a new life, and I, for a
year or so, joined in this very harmless and very useful anticipa-
tion of real speech.
But I found that it took too much time from my reading,
and I gave it up. Finally, I stayed up the last long vacation
and went into the schools in the November following.
I left Oxford the day I was out of the schools, not knowing
the result for some time. I went into Wiltshire to a friend, so
dead beat that I fell asleep at dinner, went up to bed and slei^t
till nine next morning, when he came and opened my window in
the month of December, It was during that last long vacation
that I became first at all intimate with Newman.^ He was at
Oriel, and had St, Mary's, where I used to go for Evensong and
his sermon.
The third Note refers to the religious change which
came over him at Oxford,
During my time at Oxford a religious change had come over
me. First the daily chapel became very soothing, especially the
Psalms and lessons. Next, for the first time, I really studied
the Old and New Testament, We had to analyse and con-
dense the historical books in writing ; next, to answer cate-
chetical questions in the chapel in writing ; further, to read the
Greek Testament in lecture. Meanwhile, I had begun to read
Barrow's Sermons with great care ; then Butler's Analogy, and
his Sermons with still greater care. It began to take a powerful
hold of me ; and yet the thought of being a clergyman had so
utterly passed from me, and the desire of political life so fully
possessed me, that I wrote to my father and told him that it was
impossible. I have his answer, which for tenderness and wisdom
is beautiful. He felt it much, but would not gainsay it by a word.
^ Manning, in one of his Journals, has put on record that at this time he
was once asked by Newman to dine at his rooms in Oriel, so familiar to his
intimate friends.
68 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
In a fuller Note of a later date Cardinal Manning
wrote as follows : —
I used to like going to chapel. The Psalms and the lessons
were always a delight to me. The verse, " AVhy art thou cast
down, my soul, etc." always seemed a voice to me. Every
day in the daily Mass it comes back to me. I stayed up at
Oxford diiring, I think, two vacations, either summer or one
Christmas.^ By that time, I had become really in earnest in
religion. I had read and re-read Butler's Sermons and the
Analogy. They formed my mind and conscience. Also, as I
have said, Barrow. I had read also Scott's Force of Truth, and
other devotional books, as Archbishop Leighton's Sermons. "We
were required to analyse in writing the Old Testament history ;
and I read the Greek Testament carefully. By that time I
may say, I began a real turning to God. I read also Irving's
books on prophecy, and went to hear him preach ; and a cracked-
voiced Welshman in Longacre of the name of Howell, a
wonderful and original thinker, who gi'eatly arrested me. John
Anderdon, being on the brink of bankruptcy, was in great sorrow,
and read in the same direction ; and oux reading and talking
powerfully determined me in turning to God. I also was
intimate with a Puritan family descended from Quakers. ^ The
mother, and a daughter between thirty and forty were remarkable
women. They lent me, or gave me the names of Puritan books
which I read, as Owen, Chandler, Howe, Flavel, and the like.
These showed me a side of religion which the Anglican writers,
except J. Taylor and Bishop Hall, seemed unconscious of. I
have ahvays believed that Anglicanism and Puritanism are the
ruins of the outer and the inner life of the Catholic Church,
from which they separated at the Reformation and then split
asunder. This accounts for the dryness of Anglicanism, and
the disembodied vagueness of evangelical pietism.
I was in this state when I took my degree. My letters to
John Anderdon from 1829 to 1831 will say all I know about
that period. I believe I may say that I had never in my life
turned away from God, though I had offended much and often,
and had wavered and varied from time to time, in periods or
^ Henry Manning stayed up at Oxford during liis last vacation, 1830 ; but
the previous vacation was spent with the Bevans at Trent Park. It was to
Miss Bevan, whom he called " his spiritual mother," that Manning ascribed
his "conversion," which took place during that visit.
^ The name of the Puritan family is not given. Was it the Bevans ? But
Miss Bevan, afterwards Mrs. Mortimer, in 1829 was between 20 and 30 years
of age.
rv IN THE SCHOOLS 69
times of greater or less thoughtfulness about God. Still at this
time I decidedly turned to him and read many books, and
studied and analysed the Greek Testament, especially the
Epistle to the Romans in its bearing upon election and free-will
and the Apocalypse. But none of this drew me from the desire
of public life. I had a drawing to Christian piety ; but a
revulsion from the Anglican Church. I thought it secular,
pedantic, and unspiritual. I remember the disgust with which
I saw a dignitary in Cockspur Street in his shovel and gaiters.
These interesting revelations of, or glimpses into, his
inner life ; this record of the deeper studies which engaged
his mind, however much they may teach us to appreciate
the higher motives which inspired his action, do not alter
the fact that Manning's reputation at Oxford rests in the
main on his achievements as a ready and agreeable speaker
at the Union. At this famous Debating Society, open to
men of every college, and the centre, if not of literary or
theological, of public and political activity, Manning appears
to have been most at home, and to have formed acquaint-
ance or friendship with men, many of whose names were,
like his own, destined to become famous in church or state
or letters.
CHAPTEE V
THE COLONIAL OFFICE "LOVE IN IDLENESS"
1831
On taking his degree in the Michaelmas term, 1830,
Manning left Oxford and returned to his father's home.
There was an end to the day-dreams of his boyish ambition.
Inspired by his successes as a fluent speaker, he had hoped
to enter Parliament and make a name for himself in the
House of Commons, as he had done at Oxford. He had
been destined from his boyhood for the Church ; he was
called by his brothers even in his school days " the
Parson." In this view he had been sent by his father to
Oxford; but now the Church seemed to him a dull and
tame profession. To confine his speech to the pulpit, per-
haps of a country village, seemed to the aspiring under-
graduate a waste of his gifts and opportunities. At last,
on manifesting his aversion to the Church as a profession,
his father, though deeply disappointed and pained, kindly
acquiesced in his son's desire to be released from the
bondage of a clerical career.
Henry Manning on leaving Oxford had no longer a
home ; no longer a profession. The comparative luxury in
which he had been born and lived was his no more. By
his father's bankruptcy he lost all chance of entering upon
a political career. But how deeply he felt the breaking up
of his old home the following Note shows : —
When the ruin was coining near they all left Combe Bank,
and I spent my long vacation there all alone. The beauty and
sadness of that time I shall never forget. I read all day and
CHAP. V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 71
slept little, and did not seem to need it, or to wish to sleep.
The wonderful beauty of the place, which to my memory and to
my eyes, even to this day, is the most perfect country home of
gardens and terraces, and wood and water, kept me in a sort of
dream. I wrote lots of poetry, all happily burnt. ^
In 1831 Combe Bank was sold, and Mr. William
Manning, resigning his directorship at the Bank of Eng-
land, retired altogether from business and public life. But
he retained a name untarnished, as well as many firm and
influential friends. The closing scene in this drama, which
not only shows the sad and premature extinction of his
father's public life, but which altogether altered his own
career, is graphically and sympathetically described, fifty
years after the event, by the son : —
Just after I had taken my degree in the winter 1830-1831
the ruin came. I was with my father in 3 New Bank Build-
ings. John Anderdon, my brother-in-law, and I were in the
principal room together, and I heard him say to one of the
correspondents of the house who came for business that " the
house had suspended payments." After that all went into
bankruptcy, and I went with my father to Guildhall, before
a Commissioner in Bankruptcy, and saw him surrender his last
possession in the world, his gold watch, chain, and seals, which
he laid down on the table. It was returned to him as the
custom is. After that I took him away, leaning on my arm.
I remember some time before his saying to me with much feel-
ing, " I have belonged to men with whom bankruptcy was
synonymous with death." It was so to him. Though his honour
was unimpeached, and his friends generously kind, for they
bought in his life interest in my dear mother's marriage settle-
ment, and subscribed an income for him, yet he declined from
that time. Combe Bank was sold. He lived for a while at
1 2 Gower Street ; after that at a little cottage at Tillington near
Petworth; but in the year 1835 he died in Gower Street. He
was buried at Combe Bank, and I remember the reverence and
aflfection of the people at his burial was very true and visible.^
The pressing question for Manning now was not that
of making a name or fortune, but of earning a livelihood.
For in his changed circumstances Mr. WiUiam Manning
^ Some of his verses, however, have escaped the flames. Among them a
long poem entitled "A Canterbury Tale" has been carefully preserved.
^ Autobiographical Notes, 1878-82.
72 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
was no longer in a position to provide an independent
income for his youngest son. Under the circumstances,
the best that could be done for Henry Manning was to
obtain for him an appointment in the Civil Service.
Manning's friends applied to Lord Goderich (father of the
present Marquis of Ripon), Colonial Secretary. The only
appointment, however, which he could bestow was a super-
numerary clerkship in the Colonial Office.^ Manning had
to reckon with the res angustce domi ; and in the view of
supplementing the slender pay of his clerkship he wisely
set at once to work to make use of his Oxford connections.
During one of the periods when his services at the office
were dispensed with, he went up to Oxford to pursue an
active canvass of the resident Fellows of Merton for a vacant
Fellowship. But he was confronted with the primary ob-
jection that he was not in Orders ; for though, of course,
unmarried laymen are eligible, clergymen are preferred.
In a letter to John Anderdon, Manning reports the un-
successful results of his canvassing at Oxford thus : —
Do not be sanguine for Merton. The objection against my
laity has been repeatedly and strongly urged. It has reached
me with significant concomitants twice or thrice. This very
day the Warden of Merton, on whom I called, asked whether I
had decided on my profession. I said I had negatively decided
against the Chmrch.
In another passage, in answer to John Anderdon's asser-
tion that " you are wanting in the pursuit of disinterested
ambition. Manning says :
You are wrong in denying me this possession. You are right
in thinking some part of my nature an impediment to my rise.
It is the excess of pride. Not that which makes every offence
a rankling wound, but that which precludes my presenting myself
as a suitor. It revolts me to write, as I have this morning been
employed in writing — ut candidati personam suscipiam, me henevo-
lentiw vestrce committam. I know it is folly, but undisguisedly
confess I had rather forego a Fellowship than solicit a favour
thus purely gratuitous. . . .
^ A supernumerary clerkship in the Colonial OflQce conferred no right of
regular employment. The supernumerary clerk only attended at the office
when his services, for a longer or shorter period, were required.
V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 73
I wrote to you expressing an odd state of existence. It is
only from a wish to get back. I have no interest — not even
that of self-improvement — to attract me here. With you I have
much. I hope, though our professions diverge at right angles,
we may still live in some sort together. Real presence we may
be partially denied ; the intercourse of subtle fluids cannot be
wholly cut off. A community of thought, sentiment, feeling,
conviction, and interest, must ever defy, while we like, the
attempt to intercept it. For this reason I want to be at home
again.
Manning, in the concluding passage of this long letter,
defends himself against the charge of writing in a slovenly
style. In his letter John Anderdon had said, among other
criticisms, " You have no idea of your deficiency in writing
English " : —
I have been paying considerable attention to English compo-
sition, and think I am improving. — I am, your affectionate
^rot^er, Henry E. Manning.
Oxford, bth April 1831.
Under a somewhat angry frame of mind, irritated by the
final appeal of his family assembled in conclave calling upon
him to go up to Oxford and qualify for Orders, Manning
wrote the following letter to John Anderdon : —
13th March 1831.
My dear John — Pray send the accompanying letter to
Lombard Street. Your lines were very epididic. I could see
the whole group, yourself and your note, and my father and his
watch and the frank, and all the subordinate concomitants.
I thank you for your advocacy, not omitting to estimate
"your convictions." Suppose I were to begin twaddling about
convictions — not another word.
Your argument of apprenticeship is based on false analogy;
and Lucian's dialogue in misapprehension.
An apprentice is articled to his trade, and from the hour he,
laying down his worldly capital, enters upon his calling, is an
incipient bootmaker. His education is in the bootmaker's shop,
and his acquirements are made by actual employment on the
subject matter of his future eminence. I leave you to supply
the close and inevitable parallel to political initiation ; with a
caution that in future you avoid such suicidal analogies.
74 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Again as to Liician's dialogue, the young man was desirous of
legislating before he had learned how ; I wish to learn how
before I legislate. The Athenian agora was no school for states-
men ; the British house of parliament, the only one. The
former was precisely like a district meeting to petition Parlia-
ment ; the latter is the only initiation to itself. Your Avords ten
days ago were, on my asking why, how long should a man be
learning the practices of the house ? Twenty years ! Marvel ;
this is but the practice contradistinguished from the matter in
debate. However it was thi-ough the same backward spirit —
I accuse no one, except myself — it was through the same back-
ward spirit that I had to commence my education at eighteen
instead of eight years. I am now seriously called upon, con-
sistently enough, I admit, to delay my initiation into the very
elements of public life, until I be, not three and twenty, but
thirty. I say, and religiously believe, that the next seven years,
without a positive, definite, specific, and immediate duty, are
lost, entailing not only a loss of seven years, but an incalculable
diminution of my ultimate chance of success. In whatever race
I run, I will never voluntarily carry weight ; in whatever contest
I engage, I aWU never bind one arm behind my back : I know,
from experience, what is an uphill game ; I have played one,
gained one, and suffered by one. Did I think my present views
entailed upon me the same degree of stress of mind and body,
the same ill health, the same attendant circumstances, which
you can neither know nor appreciate, while I both feel and
suffer from them, I would never gravely propound to myself the
attempt. I have, by an accelerated pace, recovered my lost
ground ; and am now advised to relax my arms, and retrograde
with the current, that I may again pull up — a process having in
all human })robability no conclusion other than disappointment ;
but possibly a termination you little anticipate. My resolves
were spoken long since. You know my purposes. If my
family, I say not my father, from a knowledge of his character,
will lend me their aid to my endeavours ; in asking which, I
only ask what a man unintroduced in life may fairly expect ; I
shall cheerfully abide by the result. I ask no sacrifice from
any individual member of the stock. I only wish a cordial
sanction ; and a sincerely exerted influence among those they
are able to incline in my behalf. But if in the place of sanction,
I meet disapprobation, if when I ask for encouragement, I am
hindered by opposition, I may be excused for abstaining to
solicit their opinion with their assistance ; and for considering
.such conduct a liberation from consulting further with them on
matters individually my own.
V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 75
Do not think any expression intended to convey asperity. I
am incapable of it. I speak strongly because I feel strongly.
If I be competent to undertake public life — for the sake of
reason give me such encouragement as may hearten me, while it
puts others to no expense ; at the least, do not deny assistance,
and augment difficulties besides.
If I be incompetent, let me be told so, I will believe it.
But not by such an argument as this, " You are inexperienced,
while we are consistently endeavouring to prevent your acquisi-
tion of that experience," and above all by no stolidity about
"too young." None are "too young" to begin but fools. —
Yours, dear Jack, M.
This eager letter, written in a spirit of vexation, was but
natural in a young man of twenty-four, disappointed at
finding that his father, who, especially since the loss of his
fortune, knew the value of money — and his brother Frederick,
and even John Anderdon, his special patron and advocate, —
were alike convinced that for a man without money or
prospects to aspire to a parliamentary life was an idle day-
dream. It was worse, for they insisted that it was waste of
time, of energies, and of the chance of earning a livelihood
in another calling or profession. All this, indeed, is very
true — the simple dictates of common-sense ; but who is
there that does not sympathise with Henry Manning in
that day of bitter disappointment ? His success as a
speaker at the Oxford Union first inspired him with a desire
for Parliament. Friends like Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, and
Lord Lincoln were destined, as he knew, on leaving Oxford
for public life. Before his father's bankruptcy, he might,
perhaps, without blame have indulged in such ambitious
hopes. To forgo the life which he had pictured to himself
was a hard trial to a man of his ambitious temperament ; it
was not in Manning's nature, however, lightly to give
Tip plans he had once formed. Perhaps his father and
eldest brother were too rigid in their ideas, that since he
had enjoyed a University education for the express purpose
of becoming a clergyman, he ought now, since under
changed circumstances a public career was out of question,
to take Orders.
It was a difficult task, even for John Anderdon, to con
76 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
vince Manuing against his will. All that he got for his
pains was to be flouted at as " Old Square-toes," or " Puzzle-
headed Christian."
Unfortunately for him, as a supernumerary clerk Manning
had only intermittent employment in the Colonial Office.
Therefore, when his services were dispensed with at the
office, unless he had pleasanter engagements in town or at
Harrow, Manning, in the idlest year of his life, used to spend
his days at Combe Bank, which, before it was sold, was in
the charge of a caretaker. He amused himself during his
absence from the Colonial Office by very miscellaneous reading,
as is described in the following letter to John Anderdon : —
Combe Bank, April iii. mdcccxxxl
My dear John — I have not heard of thee lately. Art busy,
man? or dolorous, or idle, or uxorious, or contemplative, or
among autographs protuberant, or with hot cross buns dyspeptic,
or, what the devil art thou ? What though I know not what
thou art anent ; full well I know my own perilous and passing
strange condition.
I have dabbled to an infinitesimal shallow degree in multi-
tudinous books on manifold topics ; and all this in a state of
perverse and pertinacious indolence. I am now enveloped in
metaphysics pure, writing for the essay, of which product I
expect neither your approbation nor perusal.
I am very cynical and resolute, without which virtues never
could I outlive my present routine of nonentitous existence.
Have a bed ready for me on Saturday night in New Bank
Buildings, and a letter by the return of the next post. Faith, I
have an half mind to inflict certain scourges on thy cuticle, to
the end of expelling somnolency.
Six months of this rustic vegetation, and my cerebellum
would put forth mustard and cress. If I abide here much
longer, je deviendrai bientot fou. — Yours, M.
Manning, after his father's home was broken up, lived
at first with his brother-in-law, Mr. John Anderdon, in
Upper Harley Street then with his brother Frederick, who
at that time lived in Wyndham Place, Bryanston Square ;
finally he took lodgings at 32 Mount Street.'
1 In a letter to John Anderdon he describes his rooms as small but neat
and clean. He had taken them for three weeks at £2 per week.
V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 77
By all accounts he was most orderly and punctual in his
attendance at the Colonial Office. His friends were busy
in seeking to promote his interests at headquarters. The
most intimate of them all, S. F. Wood, who through his
eldest brother, afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer, had
influence at the Treasury, wrote to Manning asking how his
interests at the Office might be best served, and what were
the names of his co-secretaries.
Other friends, like Lady Stanhope, were less judicious
or more patronising. Cardinal Manning's sister, Mrs.
Austen, on one occasion said : — " No doubt I must have
been indignant at Lady Stanhope's patronising remark — ' I
am glad to hear that your brother writes a good hand ' —
when I made the saucy retort : ' Yes, and knows a little
arithmetic' "
Here on the very threshold of action or public life, we
come across one of those strange myths which so frequently
grow up in the course of time about the early beginnings
of the careers of great men. Since Manning became
famous in the world, it appears to have been thought
necessary by officious or flattering scribes to invent a
theory to account for so commonplace a beginning in the
career of their hero.
The theory invented for the occasion was that Mr.
Manning entered the Colonial Office in 1831 in preparation
for a political career, which had always had a fascination
for him, and for which he fitted himself by a close study
of constitutional law and of political history.
What a fancy picture ! The real story of that brief,
but in one especial sense eventful, period wears quite a
different complexion. The year 1831, I verily believe,
was the only idle year in Manning's busy life.
Happening on one occasion to mention this " theory" to
Mr. Gladstone, he at once scouted the idea as absurd,
saying : —
Had Manning entertained any intention of entering upon a
political career, he would not have sought such an appointment
in the Colonial Office, but have acted as I did ; would have
come up to London to take active part in political pursuits ;
78 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
make political friends ; and seek an opportunity of finding his
way into Parliament.^
Mr. Gladstone expressed his belief that this appoint-
ment was obtained for Manning owing to his father's
bankruptcy ; " but," he said by way of caution, " don't
mention this in the ' Life,' unless you find the statement
confirmed by other authority." He then added, " A sub-
ordinate post in the Colonial Ofl&ce must have been intol-
erable to a man of Manning's great mental powers."
Fortunately for himself, and for the Church of England,
to which, even though eventually abandoned on dictates
of conscience, he was an ornament and an honour, and
fortunately most of all for Catholics in England, he was
not destined to pass his days in the drudgery of the
Colonial Office.
It is idle to speculate what the result would have been
to Manning himself if the river of his life had been diverted
from its natural course. But this at least may be said,
that had he followed a career dictated rather by adverse
circumstances than by natural selection, there can be no
doubt that, with his great talents, energy of character, and
worldly wisdom, he would have risen to a high post in
the Civil Service. But Oxford would have known him no
more, and the Anghcan Church would have lost one of its
most eloquent and persuasive preachers. Beyond the reach
of the Tractarian movement, and relieved from the painful
necessity, induced by the great Oxford conflict, of examin-
ing afresh the title-deeds of the Church of England,
Manning would in all human probability have Hved and
died a pious Protestant of the Evangelical type. The
Catholic Church in England, too, would have lost in her
hour of need one of her truest and boldest defenders ; the
Vatican Council, the foremost champion of Papal Infalli-
Ijility ; and the sacred College of Cardinals, one of the most
eminent of its members.
But man proposes and God disposes. Divine Provi-
^ Mr. Gladstone, in allusion to his own pursuits on coming up to London,
said, "On leaving Oxford I finished my education, at least as regards foreign
languages and literature. "
V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 79
dence had other ends in view for its chosen servant. God
often chooses strange instruments to work out his in-
scrutable designs. Love with its vicissitudes — as the hves
of saints, or of men who were all but saints, amply show
— is a not uncommon instrument in the hands of Divine
Providence.
Manning was only too glad to escape from the restraint
and drudgery of office hours, and from the tedious work of
copying letters, and instead of poring over musty books on
poKtical economy, revisited Harrow ; renewed old acquaint-
ances ; made new friends, and passed many a delightful
summer evening in the neighbourhood of the place he loved
so well. Even in those early days, Harrow was proud
of her gifted son, fresh from his triumphs at Oxford.
Mr. Oxenham, second master at Harrow, was always
glad to welcome Manning; and at Harrow he met again,
on more than one occasion, his two old school-fellows ^ the
Deffells.
In his An7ials of My Early Life, the Bishop of St.
Andrews, the late Charles Wordsworth, Manning's oldest
friend and contemporary, made a casual allusion to mis-
fortunes different in kind which had befallen Manning in
1831, that sufficiently indicated, to those at least who
knew the story, that the Bishop was familiar with his
friend's first disappointment in love.
In a letter dated Easter day 1892, Bishop Wordsworth,
in giving his early reminiscences of his old friend Henry
Manning, explains the allusion he had made in his Annals
to the twofold misfortunes which befell Manning in 1830-31.
The Bishop's letter is as follows : —
^ A year or two ago, Cardinal Manning's sister, Mrs. Austen, said, " I
knew the Deffells, two charming boys, school-fellows of my brother Henry at
Harrow. He used often to bring them to spend their holidays with us."
The "two charming boys" had two charming sisters who were frequent
guests at Mr. Oxenham's house at Harrow. The late Rev. H. N. Oxenham,
son of the second master at Harrow, as a boy often saw at his father's house
Henry Manning in the year 1831 ; and, like Charles Wordsworth, Manning's
school-fellow and oldest friend, knew all about the unhappy love affair
between Jliss Deffell and Henry Manning. Twenty-six years later, in 1857,
H. N. Oxenham, curate of St. "Thomas, Oxford, was received into the Church
by Mgr. Manning.
80 CARDINAL MANNING ohap.
KiLRTMONT, St. Andrews, Easter Day, 1892.
My DEAR Mr. Purcell — When I have completed the
second volume of my Annals — which cannot be for some
months, as I have been again thrown back by illness (a severe
neuralgic disorder, from which I have been suffering during the
■whole winter) — I will do the best I can to comply with your
request about my old friend Henry Manning's letters. At
present I require them for my own use. I have not many — not
more than six or eight ; they contain little or nothing of public
interest. Almost all the earlier letters I received from him, i.e.
up to 1846, are given in my volume already published.
He was about two years my junior, and consequently at
Harrow two or three removes below me. But, so far as I
remember, your impression is quite correct that he was not
distinguished as a student either there or at Oxford, until
external circumstances drove him to his books, which was, I
think, very soon after he went to Oxford. Like Gladstone, I
only heard him speak once at the Union (viz. in the Shelley-
Byron debate) and I doubt whether he was a frequent speaker.
As to his religious opinions, they were quite unformed till
he was settled at Lavington, where I paid him two visits, both
after his wife's death.
My " allusion," about which you inquire, was to the way in
which he was jilted by Miss DefFell.
No Deffell, so far as I know, was a Master at Harrow.
Oxenham was. — I am, yours faithfully, q Wordsworth
Bishop of St. Andrews.
Bishop Wordsworth, I think, was mistaken in saying
that Miss Deffell " jilted Manning." It was the other way
about ; at least according to the testimony of Mr. Oxenham,
who was an intimate friend of the Deffells as well as of
Manning. Whilst he was in the Colonial Office, Manning,
who naturally saw a great deal of the Deffells who were
friends of Mr. John Anderdon,^ fell in love, whether with
or without the knowledge of his brother-in-law, at
whose house he was staying, with the younger Miss
Deffell. The attentions and attractions of a young man
of such prepossessing manners and appearance were well
received and responded to by the young lady. But " the
1 Miss Anderdon, Cardinal Manning's niece, said to me a year or two
ago, — "When we were living in Upper Harley Street we were friends of the
Deffells who lived in Grosvenor Street."
V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 81
course of true love never did run smooth." An angry-
father intervened and parted the happy pair in the heyday
of their love-making. Besides entertaining eccentric views on
the subject of marriage, Mr. Deffell was opposed to the match
on the practical grounds that Mr. Manning's position in the
Colonial Office and prospects in life were not such as to
warrant proposals of marriage. The young lady's father —
his dull eye not seeing visions of future greatness in
Manning's brow — forbade a formal engagement, though
permitting to the disconsolate lovers the consolation of
correspondence.
Thus Henry Manning's first love affair came in the early
summer to an untimely end ; for love, at least a man's
love, does not long thrive on mere letters. The woman
was faithful unto the end to her first love ; for Miss
Deffell, though her elder sister married, lived and died for
Manning's sake in single blessedness. Unlike Father
Faber, who declared that to be crossed in love was a
blessing in disguise to the heart of man, and who as a
poet glorified the human instrument which led to his own
conversion, Manning never either in verse or prose bewailed
the sorrows of the old, old story, unless, indeed, in an
indirect fashion in letters to his brother-in-law.
The two following letters to John Anderdon, bespeak at
any rate the emotions of Manning's mind under disturbing
influences : now in the seventh heaven of delights, singing
out his heart in joy ; now under the sting of disappoint-
ment, incoherently railing out of the depths of his heart's
despair against everything under the sun, against everybody,
himself and his unfortunate brother-in-law included : —
Combe Bank, 22nd May 1831.
My dear John — . . . You need not designate my last as
" rigmarole " for it was in matter deliberate, and in execution not
divested of method, however unable you were to descry it.
I have enjoyed the last few days most royally. I have lived
in the library, or strolling by myself . . . enjoyed a most
illimitable wandering through regions of general literature — all
ages, subjects, dialects. I have been hunting down every game
that came afoot, following through all the mazes of association.
VOL. I G
82 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
To crown all, I have gone a-fishing by evening light ; catching
not many fishes, but a store of pleasing thoughts.
At night the air has vibrated with nightingales. The bushes
under the terrace are peopled densely by them " Making their
summer lives one endless song." And then anon, a bird from
out the brakes bursts into voice a moment, then is still ! You
see to what development all this hastens. I have succumbed to
an ancient weakness and poured me forth in poesie. Thus then
with studying, strolling, rhyming, reflecting, and angling, I have
lived happily, nobly, and quietly as a poet, philosopher, moralist,
fisher, and rex denique regium. — Yours, M.
The following letter tells its own tale : —
Mount Street, 13(/t June 1831.
My DEAR Jack — You will laugh at receiving a hrutumfulmenf
The fact is somewhat has disquieted me to bring me up ! I
know not what. This morning I slaughtered the remains of the
subordinate magistrates ; smote the aliens, denizens, and natural-
born subjects hip and thigh, but pursuing my victorious career
through the clergy, got a fall, horse and man, at the spear point
of the obstinate and arrogant prelate, ArchbishojD Anselm ; I
was utterly turned over. My head went round, my courage and
attention left me, and I, by turns, took in hand every book within
my reach and could not follow three consecutive lines. I
rummaged my porte-feuille ; tore some letters ; read some verses,
but nothing would do. So I finally subsided into this half
sheet which I purpose to fill, liberating you on the payment of
twopence from the task of reading the same.
I have not a single particle of application. How long I may
remain so, I dare not contemplate, but of this I am assured, that
my present services are not worth the minutest fraction of the
national coin. I am splenetic, sick, savage, sour, rabid, indolent,
useless, and ill at ease. I want to be anywhere but where I
am, do anything but what I do, see anybody but whom I see,
hear anything but what I hear, recollect anything but what I
recollect, hope anything but what I hope, feel anything but
what I feel, know anything but what I know, care for anybody
but whom I care for (there you go) ; in fine, be anything, body,
monster, beast, or creature, but what I am. If for this you
think me discontented, you Avill at least acquit me of self-love.
By the way — I don't know what I was going to write. I'll
fall to abusing you and your philosophick coxcombry : ' Study
to be quiet,' ' contemplate,' and catch gudgeons. Talk tran-
scendentalism, and torture fish. Read Barrow's sermons and
V THE COLONIAL OFFICE 83
practise pilfering. Screw sanctimonious grimaces and your
customers' pockets. " Keep j^our sales-book with all diligence,"
and your heart with the remainder. You talk of doing your
own business who art up to your neck in pragmaticalness and
naughty meddling six days out of the week, and art restive on
the seventh. '"Tis eight o'clock, saith the fool, and in an hour
more it will be nine." Certes, thou art supereminently sagacious.
Perdition catch my soul, but thou'lt turn a silver penny to pay
the brushing of thy straight hairs for a Michaelmasse sermon.
Oh I could divide myself and go to buffets and it would be a
tough time for my left-handed moiety, perdy. Brother Jack,
thou art as paradoxical as thou art pugnacious. Nay, by the
rood thou art ; so think not to put me by as a ribald scoffer.
I can do nothing under heaven but rail, rail, rail. Now for a
requiem. My watch says it is half-past three, but I would not
believe it on its oath. All things are false, whether made of
body and soul, or cog-wheels and claptraps. Deceitful, proud,
and desperately wicked.
Why look ye now, there's philosophy, vitce Magistra, dodrin-
arum excultrix, artium indagatrix, with as many superincumbent
polysyllables of collaudation as His Imperial Mightiness of Ava,
Siam, and Regia. When all is snug and warm and comfortable,
She's the trustiest friend, companion, counsellor, comforter, and
protector ; but when matters take an angry aspect — whiff, she's
oflF "with her tail in the air, like a robustious cow in sultry
weather.
Timon will to the woods.
I have more to say that I have thought upon. — Yours, M.
lu another letter a day or two afterwards, Manning tells
his brother-in-law that he had yielded " to an ancient weak-
ness and had composed reams of poesie." In another letter
he avowed his supreme contempt for Walter Scott's poetry.
Byronic rapture or despair was, perhaps naturally, in those
days of disappointment, his admiration and delight.
In so venerable and austere an ecclesiastic of a celibate
Church as Cardinal Manning, it was perhaps not unnatural
to shrink with extreme sensitiveness from the avowal of
human passions, which, in compiling or recording the
reminiscences of his early life, might have seemed to him,
and, perhaps, to many besides, out of keeping with his
spiritual character, lofty aims, and ascetic appearance.
Unlike Faber again, Manning did not recognise, at least
84 CARDINAL MANNING chap, v
as yet, love's sorrows as a blessing in disguise. His spiritual
eye was still unopened ; he did not as yet see the pointing
of God's finger; hear the call of the Divine voice; for in an
unspiritual or human fashion he sought and, found a year
or two later, consolation for love's first disappointment in
marriage with another lady.
CHAPTEE VI
HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY
1832-1833
The misfortunes, twofold in kind, which befell Manning in the
untoward years 1830 and 1831, not only exerted a chastening
effect upon his character, but were not without important
results in regard to his career in life. For these disappoint-
ments, aided as we have been told by a growing sense of
Ms duty towards religion, induced him to resign his irksome
post in the Colonial Office ; and, acting on the advice of his
friends Samuel and Henry Wilberforce, to return to Oxford
in the view of qualifying for Orders. In those days the fact
of taking Orders did not of necessity imply what is understood
in the Catholic Church as a vocation to ecclesiastic life. The
Church, like the Bar, or the army or navy, was one of the
recognised professions to which on leaving the University
a young man, even though of no great promise, has a right
to look as a convenient opening into active life.
Neither was the necessity imposed of long preparation
or trial as to fitness for sacerdotal life or of special theo-
logical study or training. A man, who had taken his degree
and was prepared to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles was
entitled, on finding a curacy, to present himself for Orders.
Manning was in every way fitted by character and by godly
repute as well as by mental gifts for the position to which he
aspired. He was better than his environments, had far higher
views than most of his contemporaries in that day of spiritual
dulness ; for, as the following letter to his brother Frederick
shows, he did not regard the Church as a mere profession : —
86 CARDIXAL MANNING CHAP.
Downing Street, 1st February 1832.
My dear Frederick — When we parted I promised you that
my next letter should contain as few unnecessary words as
possible.
While I made that promise the subject I now write on was
not absent from my mind. I trust you Anil not hear Avith dis-
approbation that I have at length resolved to follow the advice
you have uniformly and Avithout variation offered to me, I mean,
to take Orders.
I was -withheld by motives I will not now discuss. They
were altogether of a conscientious nature ; and I trust they
would upon fair consideration be pronounced correct. I shall be
ready at any moment to state them should you desire it, but as
they now cease to oppose any obstacle to my acting as you have
advised, I ■will pass them over in silence.
I do not regret the delay I have thus occasioned, indeed I
cannot avoid remarking by the Avay that I am by six months
only qualified to take Orders, for my mind has settled into a
preference for the Church ; Avithout Avhich feeling I never could
have discharged its duties otherAvise than as an irksome and
unpleasant labour.
I have communicated this change in my views to my father,
and mother ; and I am anxious to hear from you with Avhat
feelings you receive my letter.
Since the period of my leaving Oxford we have been brought
more together than at any period I can remember. The kind-
ness I have at all times received from you, both in word and
act ; and the warm interest you haA'e shoAvn in conversing with
me on my prospects in life, render rae necessarily desirous to
hear you approve and sanction the decision I have made.
It AYOuld indeed be to me a source of great pain and disquiet
were you to see cause to censure and condemn the course I pro-
pose to adopt.
Pray communicate this letter Avith my love to Edmunda ; as
I owe to her that I should desire her approbation also.
I Avill add one Avord more : you may sec cause to regret that
I accepted my present situation, but believe me it is this only
that has removed from my mind the main objection I have so
frequently stated to you.
I trust this Avill cancel any reason you may have to regret
that event. Believe me, dear Frederick, ever your affectionate
brother, Henry E. Manning.
In answer to his brother Frederick's remonstrance at
throwing up on the sudden, an appointment which had been
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 87
obtained for him not without difficulty, Manning gives the
following explanation : —
I may seem to have been precipitate in acting upon my
altered view, but I did so under the belief that I well knew
yoxir mind, and that it was due to Lord Goderich to give
immediate notice of my intention, that he might not be incon-
venienced by my leaving the Office, and that he might proceed
at once to serve some other of his friends, by appointing him in
my room.
I was very kindly assured that there existed no need for me
to continue any longer in the Office ; and I left it on such a
footing with all I had there known, that I can never recur to
the last few weeks without sincere gratification.
All that now remains is to make inquiries for a curacy, with-
out which I am not qualified to be ordained, I should desire to
commence about Michaelmas next, so gaining seven or eight
months to prepare myself, before I enter upon an active discharge
of the duties of my profession.
To his grave eldest brother, Manning naturally refrained
from alluding to the disappointment of heart, which together
with higher or more spiritual motives sent him back a wiser,
if sadder man to Oxford, and to the Church which in his
undergraduate days he had abandoned as a profession.
If to his brother Frederick, Manning wrote under reserve,
or only told half his mind, or that part of his mind in
regard to qualifying for Orders, which would be most agree-
able, in his letters to John Anderdon, on the other hand,
he poured out without reserve heart and soul. From these
letters, it is clear that Manning was driven against his will
to take up the Church as a profession. His inclinations
were all the other way — for life in the world, in Parliament.
He complained of opposition on the part of his family, of
their backward spirit in refusing to give him a chance of
entering into public life. What he wanted, and asked for
in vain, was help to enable him to prepare or pave his way
into Parliament : the influence of his friends to obtain for
him a start in life, or, at any rate, their cordial sanction of
his hopes and plans, instead of opposition and obstruction.
Had Manning succeeded in his canvass, whilst at the
Colonial Office, for a Fellowship at Mertou he might perhaps
88 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
have resisted the importunity of his friends. At any rate,
the emoluments of the office would have secured for him a
more independent position, and relieved him from the
necessity of entering the Church as a profession.
Even after he had gone up to Oxford and was qualifying
for Orders, Manning in the following letter to John Anderdon
expresses a fear that he has taken too precipitate a step : —
Oxford, 9th March 1832.
My DEAR John — . . . I think the whole step has been too
precipitate. I have rather allowed the instance of my friends,
and the allurements of an agreeable curacy in many respects, to
get the better of my sober judgment.
The " agreeable curacy," which Henry Wilberforce, who
was engaged to one of the rector's daughters, had painted in
such glowing colours as an inducement to his friend to
come up to Oxford was that of Lavington, Another obstacle
which stood in Manning's way was the difficulty of coming
forward a second time as a candidate for a Merton Fellow-
ship. Last year, on finding, after a canvass of the resident
Fellows, that he had no chance of success as a layman, he
had announced his intention of withdrawing his candidature.
But now, having adopted the Church as a profession, he con-
sulted his friends whether he should put himself forward again
as a candidate. In the following passage of a letter to John
Anderdon he gives the gratifying results of his inquiries : —
I have been induced by the strong expression of opinion
from many of my friends, in addition to more than one intima-
tion from Fellows, or friends of Fellows of Merton to submit
my case to my friend Ogilvie. I frankly gave him to under-
stand my scruple in respect of becoming a candidate. Upon a
full consideration he unhesitatingly urged me to stand again. I
afterwards spoke to other of my friends, and in consequence of
their concurrent advice I have determined to revoke my former
intention.
Another difficulty of a more serious or higher nature
was the unwillingness he felt to enter upon a profession of
such responsibility as the Church without more mature
preparation. This reluctance speaks well for the conscien-
tiousness of Manning's character.
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 89
On this point he wrote as follows to John Anderdon : —
There is another subject of material importance, requiring
immediate consideration. From what I have seen of my own
attainments in theology, although I might satisfy the Bishop of
London's chaplain, I should by no means satisfy myself by June
next. I do not think I can possibly enter upon a profession of
such responsibility without a mucli more mature preparation. 1
did not know till I came hither how greatly deficient I am, and
I should feel myself highly culpable were I to press forward
without more solid acquirements and deliberate study.
After an active canvass carried on among the Fellows,
resident and not resident, of Merton by his friends the
Wilberforces and S. F. Wood, Manning was elected at Easter
Fellow of Merton. The emoluments attached to the Fellow-
ship, about £200 per annum, fortunately relieved Manning
from the necessity of pressing forward for Orders, and
enabled him to study theology for nine instead of three
months quietly at Merton.
In one of his Journals, Cardinal Manning, speaking of
this time, said : — " It was a quiet time, and Merton is the
most perfect resting-place in the natural order. I read
' acres of Anglican writers.' " ^
In another passage of his " Journal " he likewise
related how he began to analyse the Epistles of St. Paul
and the doctrines of predestination and grace, and declared
that he never in his life accepted Calvinism, even in its
most mitigated form :
The ethics of Aristotle and the nature of the will to morality
always made it impossible to me. I analysed the Epistle to the
Eomans, and the result was in the main exactly the Catholic
doctrine. I tried also to analyse the Apocalypse, but with no
other result than to believe that the Protestant interpretations
are untenable.
In spite of all this reading, or perhaps in consequence of
it, Manning's religious opinions on finally leaving Oxford
were, according to all contemporary testimony, in a state of
confusion or flux. In a letter already quoted, the late
Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, speaking of
^ In a sketch of Bishop Hamilton's life occurs the above phrase.
90 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Manning, said : " As to his religious opinions, they were
quite unformed till he was settled at Lavington, where I
paid hini two visits, both after his wife's death."
Before Henry Wilberforce had obtained a home for him
at Lavington, Manning's mind was troubled, as the following
letters show, about a suitable curacy : —
^^^^^^- 2nd March 1832.
My dear John — The haste in which I left London prevented
my making such inquiries in respect of the parish of All-hallows,
as it is indispensably necessary I should satisfy.
I would write directly to the Dean of Chester, but I am
anxious not to trouble him further at present. I intend, however,
to call upon him on Wednesday week. I should nevertheless be
glad if you could ascertain for me some particulars : the number
of inhal)itants I believe to be about 1700. It is very material
in what rank of life they may be. Such a population of poor
would be far more than any man, and verj' far more than one
with my health and strength, could undertake.
If one half were poor it would be a grave responsibility for a
novice to assume. It is not as if I were of several years' ex-
perience. To visit, and to become acquainted with such numbers
is an office of no ordinary labour. Indeed the occasional duty
such as burials, christenings, etc., can be no light employment ;
and sufficient to preoccupy my time from the acquisition of much
indispensable knowledge.
Now make inquiry, and report with candour. I am canvassing the
question in a grave point of view. I should be guilty of a heavy
offence, were I to allow any secondary inducement so to influence
me, in such a case as this, as to overlook the spiritual evil likely
to result upon others from my determination. I have health and
strength far less than I have hitherto had, and some time will
elapse before I am qualified to discharge any office of much labour,
I shall return on Tuesday week. The Bishop of London has
desired to see me on the Thursday following. — Yours affection-
^*^^y' Henry E. Manning.
Ath March 1832.
My DEAR John — I send you a scratch. As usual the transi-
tion from London to the country indulged me with a sHght touch
of asthma. This really makes me very anxious. I think it
highly questionable whether for some years I shall be able to
live out of London. This is the third or fourth time I have
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 91
been visited in like manner. Do not mention this, as my
mother will conjure up phantoms of suffocation and asphyxia.
If I could get a curacy in London, I should accept it;
provided it were not in some parts of the town to which
neither my health or strength are equal. — Yours, M.
Whilst he was qualifying for Orders, Manning complained
to S. r. Wood ^ about his uneasy state of mind, to which,
in a letter, dated 26th May 1832, Wood replied —
Consider how much the state you complain of may be owing
to what I often find myself doing — lowering my own feelings
to those of my companions ; and try to counteract this by
remembering to what higher things you are called.
In another letter, dated 15th June 1832, Wood added —
That you do not feel comfortable of course pains me ; but
separated as we now are, I shrink from offering any comment not
^ During these months of trial. Manning confided his troubles and uneasy
state of mind to Wood, who sought, as the following extracts from his letters
show, to console his unhappy friend by reminding him that they had both
alike to give up the career they had chosen for themselves ; and that it was
their duty to conform their hearts to God's will : — •
"May 26, 1832.
"My dear Manning — "What a blessing is Christian friendship ! I feel
as if the thought suggested by your letter should doubly endear us to each
other, dear as I trust we are already, I mean the thought of how our
heavenly Father in His great love for our eternal welfare has taken from us
the course each of lis had fondly shaped for himself, and given it to the
other. I do indeed discern His hand most especially in this matter, and
may we both conform ourselves to His will, and run with patience the race
that is set before us. Most truly and wisely do you say that the lot which
has been apportioned to us is for our spiritual benefit.
" I think I see plainly how yoior change is for your good."
From aiiotlicr Letter.
"But here I find even the present blessing of the choice we have been
enabled, praised be God, to make. We have chosen not ourselves but
Christ. And this places us above self-seeking and high aims which lead to
these disappointments, and gives a singleness and straight-forwardness to
our schemes, which in the cheerfulness and fixedness it brings with it is its
own exceeding great reward. L says ' 0, it is a comfortable
thing to have an upright mind, and to love God for Himself, and love life for
His sake, and not for its own things.' "
" The Temple, Friday, 1832.
" I will get Rutherford's Letters, as you advise, which I never saw ; — I
remember while reading Baxter's Saint's Rest, how strongly the feelings of
my own deadness and coldness of spirit pressed upon me."
92 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
founded on due grounds. I know you weigh what I say, as not
said lightly, and nothing in a case like this can ensure against
its adapting itself to the wrong scale. . . . When you come to
town you must go to William Dodsworth's Church (Margaret's,
Weymouth Street). I have not heard such sound doctrine for
some time.
At that date W. Dodsworth was an Evangelical, as indeed
were "Wood and Manning. In another letter about this date
is a passage with a full Evangelical flavour. Wood writes : —
my dear friend, how suffocating is the sense of our own
vileness when one loses sight of the fountain opened for sin and
for uncleanness, and "with what a "dimness of anguish" would
our eyes strain to the Christian pattern of purity were it not for
the blessed strengthenings of the Holy Spirit.
His leaving the Colonial Office and his return to
Oxford were events in Manning's life which, naturally
uncommunicative, he did not care to discuss or canvass with
his friends. If even so intimate a friend as S. F. Wood only
heard of Manning's sudden change of ideas in regard to the
Church as a profession, after his return to Oxford, it is not
surprising that Edward Twisleton, another friend, was left
to learn from common report, as the following letter shows,
of his friend's approaching ordination : —
54 Jertmn Street, lith December 1832.
Dear Manning — I have heard of you from many quarters,
more especially from Popham, who tells me that you are shortly
to be ordained and to take a curacy in Somersetshire — and I
cannot refrain from writing to assure you that you carry with you
my best wishes and warmest sympathies. I am convinced that
you will never regret having "chosen the better part"; and I
trust that many years hence you will look back with pleasure to
the day when we walked together on Waterloo Bridge — the day,
I believe, on which you finally determined to enter the Chiu-ch.
After you have been settled some time in your curacy, you must
give me an account of yourself — I prophesy that you will find
the retirement of a village curacy highly charming at first — for
you know you have naturally a mixture of the recluse in your
disposition— but I hope you Avill quietly look forward to a more
active sphere of exertion, and will not suffer your energies to lie
dormant. — Believe me, yours very sincerely, j^ Twisleton.
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 93
In an autobiographical Note, written more than half a
century after the event of taking Orders — which he justly
describes as a turning-point in his life — Cardinal Manning
recounts the motives which induced him in the year 1832
to resign his post in the Colonial Oflice and become a
clergyman in the Church of England : —
At this time I came to know Henry Blunt of Chelsea, and
found him not only earnest but highly intelligent. He had
been, I think, twelfth or fourteenth wrangler. All this made a
new thought spring up in me — not to be a clergyman in the
sense of my old destiny, but to give up the world and to Hve
for God, and for souls. This grew on me daily. I had been
long praying much, and going habitually to churches. It was a
turning-point in my life. I wrote and asked Henry Blunt to
come to me at the Colonial Office. He did so ; and, after a long
weighing of the case, I resolved to resign, and to give myself to the
service of God, and of souls. My doubt was whether God had
called me ; and I had a great fear of going uncalled. It was as
purely a call from God as all that He has given me since. It was a
call ad veritatem et ad seipsum. As such I tested it, and followed it.
These are very solemn words — a statement capable of
the highest spiritual signification — " Purely a call from
God : a call to Truth, and to Himself."
At first sight, at all events, such a statement seems
strange and startling.
Most men, it should seem, familiar with the events
of Manning's life in 1831-32, and who had read his con-
fidential letters to John Anderdon, would naturally come
to the conclusion that he took Orders, not of his own choice
and will, but under force of adverse circumstances. In his
numerous letters to his brother-in-law there is no allusion,
not a hint even, that in giving up his passion for politics he
was acting simply from spiritual motives, far less in obedi-
ence to a Divine call. John Anderdon was a religious-
minded man, a pious Evangelical devoted to the Church, or
at least to his section of it, yet in all Manning's letters from
Harrow, Poulshot, Oxford, and the Colonial Office religious
subjects found no place. Even in 1832, when he was
qualifying for Orders, he still speaks of the Church as a
" profession," describes his hurrying up to Oxford for this
94 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
purpose as " a precipitate step," " as allowing the instance of
friends to get the better of sober judgment." Where the call
from God comes iu is not so apparent as to render needless
explanation or qualification of some sort. If Manning was
quickened to action by ambition, he was endowed, at the
same time, with great practical sagacity. He knew how to
devise means to attain the ends he desired ; failure in one
direction only sharpened his wits to discover a road to
success in another. After a sharp struggle, he had recog-
nised the fact that his father's bankruptcy put an end to
his hopes of a parliamentary career. The only question
was, What other walk in life should he look to ? A
subordinate post in the Colonial Office did not count for
much, as he was painfully reminded by Miss Deffell's
father in 1831. The Civil Service was a slow career, and
in its lower ranks unprofitable. Manning could not afford
to wait. Neither temperament nor circumstances allowed
of a waiting game. In 1832 he was twenty -five years
of age. He was drifting to the leeward in comparison, at
least, with the high hopes he had so long given way to.
He was still dependent on the bounty of his family.^ His
university education and Oxford connections pointed to the
Church as a profession nearest at hand, and readiest of
acquisition, for in three months he could, at a pinch, make
himself fit for Orders. Undoubtedly it was a wrench to
his heart to give up his political aspirations. But there
was no help for it, for he knew now that they had no
material bottom. To become a clergyman was a sacrifice —
a sacrifice, however, not of his own choice, but imposed
upon him by the necessity of things.
If the broad outlines of his life in youth were impressed
on the mind of Cardinal Manning, in his old age the details
had long since faded from his memory. The fact, however,
remained embedded in his mind that in becoming a clergy-
man he had sacrificed the desire that lay nearest to his
' After his father's failure his mother used to allow him £100 per ann%i,m,
even after he was Rector of Lavington and archdeacon. In acknowledging,
on one occasion, the receipt of the quarterly sum of £25, Archdeacon Manning
wrote to his mother expressing his hope and trust that this gift was not out
of her necessities, but out of lier superfluities.
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 95
heart — the desire of a parliamentary career. What more
natural than to attribute the self-sacrifice made in his youth
to the spiritual motives and ideas with which his mind had
since become so deeply imbued ? He was conscious of the
potentiality in himself of such a sacrifice. It was only a
lapse of memory to convert the potential into the actual.
Cardinal Manning's statement, taken in the broader sense,
that by God's intervention he had been saved from a life in
the world, and had been called as a clergyman to His service
for the salvation of his own soul and of the souls of others,
is in closer accord with the facts of the case than the words
made use of by Cardinal Manning in his Journal in 1881.
Yet this view of a special call is reiterated in a Note
of a later date, 1883, in the following words : —
I was met at the moment of my aspirations with the ruin of
my father's fortunes. Public life without a penny is a hopeless
trade. I do not think that this in any Avay slackened my desire
for public life. It was the only thing I longed for. I shrunk
from everything else — especially from the life of a clergyman.
I read constitutional law, etc., and in a letter to John Anderdon I
said, "I am revelling in Bolingbroke's Patriot King" about 1831-2.
Nevertheless there was growing up in me a feeling or a
thought that I must save my own soul, and that I ought to try
to save others. I would have willingly preached in the open
air. Of Apostolical Succession, and Orders, I had little know-
ledge or thought. But I believed in the regeneration of
Baptism. This feeling that God was calling me worked con-
tinually. I spoke of it to no one. I could not lay it. Every
day it grew upon me and I found myself face to face with this
choice : To leave all that I was attracted to, and to take all
that I shrunk from. If I ever made a choice in my life in
which my superior will controlled my inferior will, it was when
I gave up all the desires, hopes, aspirations after pubUc life at
the dictate of my reason and my conscience.
The main difference between the two interpretations lies in
this, that " God's call ad veritatem ct ad seipsum," according
to one interpretation, took the indirect form of external
circumstances, and not of interior intimations, conveyed
directly to the soul, as asserted by the other. Of this latter
interpretation, at all events, there is no contemporary evi-
dence given by Manning in his letters to John Anderdon, or
96 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
suggested even in any other form ; on the contrary, the
evidence, as, for instance, in S. F. Wood's letters, points
the other way. His exhortations to Manning to conform
himself to God's will, and run with patience the race that
is set before him, indicate the struggle which was still
going on in his heart, even during the time he was qualify-
ing for Orders — a struggle like unto that of Saul kicking
against the goad. From the known facts and circumstances
and contemporary records, the natural conclusion seems to
be, that Manning, in becoming a clergyman, was actuated,
as men often are, by mixed motives.
In this autobiographical Note, from which I have
just quoted, on the eventful year 1831 — a turning-point in
his life — Cardinal Manning observed a silence like unto
that of the grave, touching his first disappointment in love.
In compensation, as it were, he gives a full description of
the interior motives which induced him to become a clergy-
man, as well as an amusing account of the contempt with
which he regarded bishops of the Established Church ; he
makes besides a solemn declaration that in becoming a
clergyman he had not a spark of ecclesiastical ambition.
The autobiographical Note continues as follows : —
In a day or so I saw Lord Gooderich, and resigned ; but the
giving up of poUtical life was an enormous wrench to me. I
felt it through my whole mind, for I had lived for it, and had
been reading political economy, constitutional law, history,
and such books as Burke, Bolingbroke, Lord Somers, and the
like. When I left the Colonial Office, which was, I believe, on
3rd February 1832, as I walked away I met one of the door-
keepers of the House of Commons, whom I had known, and
who had known me for years. This brought back over me the
whole flood of political thoughts and aspirations which began in
the Union at Oxford.
Moreover the thought of being a clergyman was positively
repulsive to me. I had an intense recoil from the secularity of
the Established Church. I can say as before God, that I had
not a spark of ecclesiastical ambition. The sight of an apron
and a shovel hat literally provoked me. The title " Father in
God," applied to bishops living in ease irritated me. I remember
saying I shall be a proscribed minister. My one thought was
to obey God's will, to save my soul and the souls of others.
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 97
This feeling had been greatly increased by some very good, but
very extreme friends.^ I owe very much to them. Nobody
ever sought ordination with less attraction to anything but God ;
His Word, so far as I knew it, and souls.
In Manning's letters to his brother or to his father and
mother, perhaps very naturally, not the remotest hint is
given that the sight of an apron and shovel hat provoked
him to laughter, or that the title "Father in God," moved
him to anger. But it is more strange that not a trace of
this contemptuous aversion to the outward honours and
dignity of an Anglican bishop is to be found in contemporary
evidence. Far from exhibiting such aversion, Mr. Gladstone
says : — " Manning was always most loyal to the Church, and
spoke of its bishops with great reverence. I remember on
the occasion of an address of sympathy being presented to
Archbishop Howley, Manning spoke of the Archbishop of
Canterbury as being the head of the Church." Some
demurred to the use of the term " head." " But," added Mr.
Gladstone, laughing, " head is a very elastic word." Then
he suggested as an explanation, " that Manning, who was
always very ascetic, might have objected to bishops on
account of their wealth and pomp."
On Manning's being elected Fellow of Merton, he
hastened to communicate the good news to his mother in
the following letter : —
Balliol, 9th April 1832.
My dear Mother — Although much hurried I cannot omit to
send you a few lines, so gratified was I with your affectionate
letter of this morning. God has indeed been bountiful to us all
from the hour in which our former resom-ces were annihilated.
I have watched the gradual return of prosperity with feelings of
reverence, and now that I myself am thus happily provided for.
I am anxious still to preserve in my mind a due gratitude and
thoughtfulness of the Giver.
It is a hard task : and unhappily the easier our lot the less
we think of Him that disposes it.
My pet iron bed, and some other matters I shall want at
Merton. — Believe me, my dear Mother, your affectionate Son,
Henry E. Manning.
1 Miss Bevan and Robert her brother, to whom Manning owed his
"conversion," as he called it, at Oxford.
VOL. I H
98 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Catholic Emancipation and the Eeform Bill were the two
great political events of that day. About Emancipation
Henry Manning did not trouble his head ; but on the Eeform
Bill he wrote to his brother-in-law as follows : —
Merton, 1832.
M\ DEAR John — I send you a few lines to thank you for
your letter of this morning. The Merton election being on the
8th of April, I shall leave Oxford on the following day.
So the great question has passed one important inquisition.
I wish it well as to its integrity. Some of the details, should
they have an unfavoui'able tendency, I should be glad to see
remodelled. I wish to see the most efficient and most trust-
worthy men elected to Parliament. I wish to see the unconsti-
tutional influence of the aristocracy and hovon^- mongers
extinguished. I wish to see the expenses of election, and
thereby the corruption, annihilated. I ^vish to see the franchise
vested in the most intelligent, moral, and stable members of the
community : such men as have interests in securing public order
and power to repress democratic turbulence. I wish to see our
virtual representation improved by an approximation to actual
representation. I wish to see the large towns teeming with
interests and swelling with riches, return their members to serve
in Parliament. I wish to see ditches, walls, mounds, and
corn-fields cease to stultify the people of England by claiming
representatives, where nought is to represent. These are my
wishes. I hate democracy, because I hate tyranny. The tyranny
of licentiousness is more intolerable than the tyranny of despotism.
I hate democrats because they are reckless and desperate men,
trusting to their own cunning to save their necks, and to their
irredeemable indigence to secure them possessions ; behold the
democratic security of person and property. I hate universal
suffrage, annual Parliaments, secret voting, Parliamentary
societies, potwalloping constituencies like Penryn because they
have each in its proportion a tendency to the above. — Yours
truly, H. M.
But home-thoughts as well as politics occupied Manning's
mind. The following letter to his sister Maria, wife of
John Anderdon, was written just a month before he took
Orders : —
Merton, 23rd Nov. 1832.
To his very excellent and dear Sister Maria, and to her two
younger daughters, the old Monk sends peace and good wishes.
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 99
Whereas he has promised to wiite to them all three this week,
and whereas he is not altogether at leisure, and whereas there is
no post to-morrow, he is compelled to write a sweeper to-day,
Let each take her own.
My dear Sister —
... I suppose your husband is pottering on in his own old
way. We now and then fire a squib at each other ; but are not
quite as good correspondents as in days agone. You do not tell
me anything about your revolutionary household, when I left you
I remember there was much reform needed, and no little un-
pleasant examination to be made. . . . You may read on, but as
I have to answer Fanny's theological queries, I must wish you
good-bye. — Believe me, your affectionate brother, H. M.^
On the 23rd of December 1832, Manning was ordained
by Dr. Bagot, Bishop of Oxford, through letters demissory
from the Bishop of Eochester, on the title of his Fellowship at
Merton. His first sermon ^ was preached on Christmas day,
as Cardinal Manning told me five or six years ago, at the
Church of Cuddesdon, where Mr. George Anthony Denison,
now Archdeacon of Taunton, was curate, on the text,
" Surge illuminare Jerusalem."
The venerable Archdeacon Denison, in a letter dated
2nd February 1889, says :—
The Cardinal recalled to me not very long ago his first
preaching for me, then curate of Cuddesdon, in dear Bishop
Bagot's time, 1832-8. I have no memoranda enabling me to
answer your first question put to me about my impressions in
regard to the Cardinal in early days of my life — nothing
certainly unfavourable. I became acquainted with him at first
as an acquaintance only ; afterwards we came nearer together in
public action. He was an intimate friend of my dear brother
Stephen at Oxford. My brother is long since dead.
In regard to his first sermon, Cardinal Manning wrote
to his sister Mrs. Austen, in a letter dated
Archbishop's House, Westminster, S.W.,
^th January 1882.
My dear Caroline . . . This is the fiftieth year since I
1 Other letters follow to his young nieces which need not be given.
- His first sermon as a Catholic, twenty years afterwards, was preached at
a little church in Horseferrj' Road, under the charge of the Jesuits, then, if
not now, in the slums of Westminster,
100 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
began to preach. Last night I preached on the same words
which were my first text on Christmas day 1832, Isaiah Ix.
1, 2, 3. I hope we may enter into that light.^
The tables show that the 8th of January 1882 was a
Sunday, the Sunday within the octave of the Epiphany ;
the sermon was preached at the Italian Church, Hatton
Garden.
On 3rd January 1833, Manning went to Lavington
as curate to the Kev. John Sargent, Eector of Lavington
and Graffham. Henry Wilberforce, who expected to take
orders about Easter or midsummer, had no difficulty in
arranging with the Sargents, that at any rate in the interim
until his own ordination, Manning should act as curate.
He also had the charge of a very small twelfth-century
church on the Downs at Upwaltham — a hamlet about two
miles from Lavington, with less than 100 people, chiefly
shepherds and farm labourers. The little church held less
than forty people ; not more than a dozen attended on
Sundays Manning's ministrations or sermons.^ Manning's
half-sister, Mrs. Carey, was living at Graffham ; the rector
with his wife and daughters occupied Graffham Eectory.
Mrs. Sargent, daughter and heiress of Eichard Bettesworth,
and widow of John Sargent, M.P. for Seaford, who died the
year before (1831), lived at Lavington House and was
patron of the benefice. Manning had the good fortune to
be invited by Mr. Sargent to reside as curate with the family
at the Eectory House. His friend, S. F. Wood, wrote to
congratulate him on the happy arrangement, which he had
heard of from Henry Wilberforce.
That the young curate fulfilled his duties with zeal and
alacrity goes without saying. He was indefatigable in his
walks over the Downs to Upwaltham, talking to the stray
shepherds on the hillsides, or seeking out their wives and
children. It was in every sense of the word an uphill
^ Private letters.
- When I went there I fully expected to return to Oxford before the
summer, I had nothing before me, I disliked tho whole state of the Church
of England ; and felt drawn to nothing but preaching the Word of God in
public or in private. — Autobiographical Notes 1881.
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 101
work. Rarely were more than teu or a dozen people
gathered of a Sunday morning at Upwaltham Church. The
handsome young curate's graceful sermons were, however,
listened to with special pleasure, on Sunday morning or
evening, at Graffham or Lavington. Mr. Sargent himself
took pleasure in Manning's varied conversation, and the
zealous and learned Evangelical rector, not an unworthy
disciple of Simeon under whose influence he fell at
Cambridge, was perfectly satisfied with the theological
soundness of his young curate who, though fresh from
Oxford, brought down to Lavington no High Church views
or pretensions.
In 1829, about three years before Manning came as
curate to Lavington, Emily, the eldest of the four Miss
Sargents, was married to Samuel Wilberforce, then rector of
Brighstone, Isle of Wight. She, like her sisters, on the
death of her father and of his two sons, who died early,
became entitled to a fortune. Her three unmarried sisters,
of whom Caroline was the third, were living at the
Graffham Rectory. The handsome young curate, as
fascinating in manners as he was religious-minded, soon
made himself quite at home with Mrs. Sargent and her charm-
ing daughters. Mrs. Sargent was beloved by all her family,
especially by her son-in-law, Samuel Wilberforce, in whose
house she lived, after the death of his wife in 1841, for
twenty years.
Speaking of the Miss Sargents, Thomas Mozley says : —
"In 1829 1 met all the four celebrated sisters together at
breakfast at Robert Wilberforce's, and looked at them with a
strong mixture of curiosity and admiration. Mrs. S. Wilber-
force was a bride in her first year. The brighter constellation
must have eclipsed the brothers from my memory — I
remember Samuel. The youngest seemed a mere child,
indeed, she looked hardly more, when I saw her at Hanbury
in Staffordshire, seven years after, as Mrs. Dudley Ryder — a
very sylph in form as in feature.. I met Mrs. S. Wilberforce
not two years before her death ; she was still beautiful, but
her strength was evidently declining." ^
1 Reminisceiices of Oriel, vol. i. p. 131.
102 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
As friends of the Wilberforces and as frequent visitors
to Oxford there can be but little doubt that the four Miss
Sargents were acquainted with Manning in his under-
graduate days. But to meet girls up in Oxford at the
festivities of Commemoration is quite a different thing from
becoming intimately acquainted with them in their own
homes, as Manning became with the Miss Sargents at
Lavington,^ under the piloting hand of Henry Wilberforce,
who was engaged to marry Mary Sargent. In those days
of early love Henry Wilberforce frequently ran down from
Oxford and formed one of the bright, genial, and happy
party who used to assemble of an evening in the Graffham
Rectory, after a pleasant stroll on a bright Spring day over
the South Downs, on a visit, perhaps, to the curate's little
church at Upwaltham. On such favourable occasions, the
fondness for speaking which he first learnt at the Union, still
strong upon him — as it was indeed to the end of his life —
Manning was led to deliver to the admiring girls and to
Henry Wilberforce, listening with wonted reverence, little
lectures, more or less learned, on the beauties of twelfth-
century architecture. If Manning himself in after-life was
silent on the events of those days of hope and joy and
love, Henry Wilberforce to the last was never tired of
telling pleasant stories of the double courtship ; or of
marvelling, whilst making faces at himself in the glass,
" how the most beautiful woman in the world could have
loved and married such an ugly fellow as I am."
Under such favouring circumstances of time and tide,
the fascinating young Curate of Lavington and Graffham
^ On entering upon the duties of his curacy S. F. Wood wrote as
follows : —
''March 17, 1833.
"My dear Manning — I rejoice for your sake that you are acquiring —
however bitter be the lesson — the most precious knowledge of your own
heart, and I rejoice, too, that the means which discover it to you are such
as lead you to the active and social duties of holiness rather than (what I
think we both inclined to) to secret brooding and repining over it."
From tlie Same.
"Let us not faint, my dear friend, but pray to the same Spirit who dis-
covers to us the root of bitterness, for strength to pluck it out."
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 103
made his choice; and in the spring-time of 1833, not very
long after the death of her father, Caroline Sargent accepted
Manning as her husband. On the death of the Eev. John
Sargent^ on the 3rd of May 1833, from consumption,
accelerated by an attack of influenza, which was in that year
as prevalent, if not as fatal, as it was a year or two ago, Mrs.
Sargent of Lavington House, as patron of the benefice, pre-
sented the living to Manning, as she had presented it twenty-
seven years before to her son, the late rector. In June he
was formally inducted into the living by Samuel Wilberforce.
With his wonted reserve. Manning had not communi-
cated his approaching marriage with Caroline Sargent even
to so intimate a friend as S. F. Wood, but, hearing the news
from Henry Wilberforce, the most communicative of men.
Wood congratulates Manning in the following terms : —
12 Paper Buildings, Temple, Sunday.
My dear Manning — I was truly grieved that we did not
meet during the few days you were in town ; we had so much of
interest to talk about. It is very delightful to be able to go
further than the commonplaces of congratulation on your present
prospects to know that the engagement, being entered into in all its
sacredness, brings along with it the pledged blessing of God, and
a new and more extended range of true Christian joy. Such
an opinion founded on what I know of you, and all I have heard
of the Sargents, is better than a thousand idle wishes, and I
believe (I need not say I hope) that your marriage will be a very
holy, and a very happy one. When you write, pray let me know
when it is to take place, and any communication about it or your
plans, which your feelings allow you to make, will be read with
very great interest.
I had heard of it from H. Wilberforce, who spoke with his
usual affectionate and self-regardless spirit on the subject.
I do not suppose that public news Avill much interest you at
present. Believe me, very affectionately yours,
S. F. Wood.
None of the numerous letters of congratulation which
^ On the death of the Rev. John Sargent, Rector of Lavington, in May
1833, S. F. Wood writes to Manning as follows : "May we find each other,
my dear friend, stablished by every trial in holiness, growing up into the
full proportions and refreshed (as is due to this season) by the abundant
power of the Holy Ghost ! "
104 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Manning received on the auspicious occasion of his marriage
with Caroline Sargent have been preserved, except the above
characteristic letter of Wood's. It is not, however, to be
regarded as the survival of the fittest, for I am afraid it was
only by accident or oversight that it escaped the flames or
the scissors.'^
On the 7th of November 1833, Manning, Eector of
Lavington, married Caroline, the third daughter of Mrs.
John Sargent, and grand-daughter of Mrs. Sargent of Lav-
ington House and Manor. The marriage ceremony was
performed at Lavington Church by Samuel Wilberforce, then
Eector of Brighstone, Isle of Wight, Manning and Wilberforce
thus becoming brothers-in-law. Owing to the recent death
of the bride's father, the Eev. John Sargent, the wedding
was celebrated in a very quiet fashion. Manning and his
wife took up their residence at Lavington Eectory.
By this marriage the designs of Providence in regard to
the future Cardinal of the Holy Eoman Church seemed to
have been frustrated. But Providence has a long arm, and
God in his wisdom^ took to Himself, in the fourth year of
her marriage, the wife of Henry Edward Manning — the
cardinal priest to be.^
About his marriage Cardinal Manning always observed a
singular reticence. In his Anglican days, the death of his
wife produced in his heart and whole nature a grief so pro-
found and abiding, as to forbid even the mention of her
name. As a Priest and Cardinal of the Holy Eoman Church,
he never alluded to his marriage, either because the fact of
liis having once been a married man was personally painful ;
or because he feared that the common knowledge of his
early marriage, strange as it may seem, might produce,
somehow or other, among his Catholic flock, especially
* On his death in the year 1880, Frederick Manning bequeathed to his
brother Henry two volumes of his letters extending over a period of twenty
years, 1830-50, but Cardinal Manning's ruthless scissors destroyed all the
letters, 1833-37, covering the interesting period of his married life.
2 In Manning's Diary, dated 1844-47, among "God's Ten Special
Mercies," is to be found the date "1837," the year of his wife's death ; see Diary.
3 If, instead of marrying Caroline, Manning had married either of the
other two unmarried daughters of Mrs. Sargent, who did not die young, what
a different life would not bis have been !
VI HOLY ORDERS AND MATRIMONY 105
priests, monks, and nuns, an unpleasant impression deroga-
tory to his high ecclesiastical dignity and position. So
effectually was the story of his marriage suppressed, that on
his death. Catholics with one or two exceptions, as well as the
general public, knew nothing about his married life.
In all the late Cardinal Manning's letters innumerable,
in his journals, diaries, note-books, and memoranda ; in his
most intimate communications, not the remotest allusion is
made to his marriage, except in one brief record written
obviously for after-publication, about the year 1880. This
autobiographical Note may be aptly described as Manning's
apologia pro matrimonio sua. It is as follows : —
Suddenly, on 3rd May 1833, Mr. Sargent, the Rector (of
Lavington and Grafi'ham) died, and the livings were given to me.
At that time I was as ignorant of the Catholic Church — of its
faith, its priesthood, its counsels, its instincts — as the dead. I
was never opposed to the Catholic Church, for I had not been
reared in that way. I knew absolutely nothing about it. I had
grown up as an Englishman, and had turned with all my soul to
God, and had given up political life for His service.^ In this
state of mind and light, knowing nothing of the Catholic life, or
instincts, or perfections ; in November 1833, I married, and in
July 1837, found mj'^self again in the state in which I have been
for more than forty years. The cause of death was not what some
writer has imagined, but consumption, which had already carried
off two of the family, an elder brother and a sister.^
Cardinal Manning chronicles his marriage and its dis-
solution by death in one brief sentence. But the first four
years of the happy married life and ministerial work of
the Eector of Lavington cannot be so summarily dismissed.
^ In his " Reminiscences," written late in life, Cardinal Manning seems to
have "caught on" to the idea that in resigning his clerkship in the Colonial
OflBce, he was giving up " political life," whereas, in reality, he was only
giving up the Civil Service. For the Colonial Office is no more a school for
politics than the Foreign Office or Somerset House, or the Post Office. His
chance of entering into political life was lost by his father's bankruptcy
in 1831. " Politics," as the Cardinal himself said in regard to his own case,
"without a penny in one's pocket, is a bad trade."
- Mrs. Manning's elder brother predeceased her, but her sister, Mrs. S.
Wilberforce, did not die until 1841.
CHAPTEK VII
THE RECTOK OF LAVINGTON EARLY WORK DEATH OF HIS WIFE
1833-1837
"When Manning left Oxford," as Mr. Thomas Mozley
relates in his Reminiscences of Oriel, " he passed rapidly and
completely from politics to a high part. He was heard of
as a great speaker at religious meetings." The young
undergraduate of three years ago, the fluent debater at the
Union, was now transformed into a grave ecclesiastic ; but,
true to the bent of his nature, he made use of his great
gifts as a speaker, not now to excite the enthusiastic
applause of his fellow undergraduates, but to win the hearts
of grown-up men and women to the cause of religion. His
voice was as persuasive and captivating — if not at Exeter
Hall, at religious meetings in the country of the type
common in that day of Evangelical ascendency — as it had
been at the Union.
It speaks well for his earnestness of character and great
adaptability to circumstances that Manning, at the age of
twenty-six, should have so readily made himself at home in
a little country village, and endeared himself so soon as their
spiritual friend and teacher to the rustics and shepherds of
Lavington parish. The late rector, the Eev. John Sargent,
was an earnest Evangelical, imbued with the spirit of
Simeon, weU known as one of the leaders and shining lights
of the Evangelical party. For twenty-seven years he had
lived and laboured in the united parishes of Lavington and
Graffham. Parish and parsonage were imbued with his
spirit. He handed on to his successor the pious traditions
CHAP. VII THE RECTOR OF LAVINGTON 107
of the Evangelical School, already at the beginning of its
decline. Like Manning, John Sargent was a scholar and,
what his successor at Lavington was not, a poet.
Fortunately for the peace of the parishioners, and of the
Sargent family and household at the Eectory at Graffham,
and of Mrs. Sargent, the mother of the late rector, at
Lavington House, Manning had no novel views to expound
in religion. He did not bring down with him to Lavington
the infection, in its seed-time, of Puseyism, as it was called
in those days. His mind was free from all doubt or
trouble about the Primitive Church or the Church of Eome,
or about the relation of the Church of England to antiquity
and tradition, or about the Thirty-nine Articles and the
nature and extent of their authority. By such questions or
controversies, which were perplexing the heart of Newman
and his disciples at Oxford, Manning set no store.^ Still
less was his spirit vexed by the faintest misgiving as to the
" blessed results of the Eeformation," as he was wont, in his
Evangelical zeal, to describe the fatal work of the Eeformers.
Cranmer, Eidley, and Latimer were, indeed, men after his
own, and — as he stoutly maintained — after God's heart.
When Manning was qualifying for Orders in 1832 the
Tracts for the Times had not yet been started. Newman
indeed was writing a series of Letters ^ in the Record, to the
setting up of which well-known Evangelical paper he had
subscribed a few years before a small sum. But Manning
knew nothing of the great religious movement that was
going on. During his last year at Oxford, when he was
^ In speaking last year of his undergraduate days and Manning's, Mr.
Gladstone said, " On one occasion, Henry Wilberforce told me in liis abrupt
fashion that he was a High Churchman. I certainly was surprised that one
bearing his name had given up Evangelicalism. His father, the great
philanthropist, was indignant beyond measure, and, fearing that the name
would be degraded, was about to forbid his son Henry taking Orders ; but,
having a high opinion of Manning's piety and good sense, consulted him on
the point. Manning said, ' Let him become a clergyman ; work among the
poor, and the visiting of the sick and dying will soon knock such High Church
nonsense out of his head."
^ Newman's Letters, in reply to attacks on and misrepresentations of his
religious opinions, were so mauled and mutilated by the editor of the Record
that Newman refused to continue the series.
108 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
qualifying for Orders, he did not, as he has recorded, even
once meet Newman. The echoes of Keble's famous sermon
on National Apostasy — a sermon which roused the hearts
of men, and stirred Oxford to its depths, and to which
Newman assigned the origin of the Tractarian movement
— could scarcely have reached, since there are times and
seasons for all things, during those happy summer months
of 1833, the preoccupied heart of the young Eector of
Lavington. Manning, indeed, was comfortably settled some
three or four months at the rectory, on the eve of his
marriage with Caroline Sargent, when the future leader of
the Oxford Movement opened the Tracts for the Times on
the 9 th of September with the memorable words : " I am
but one of yourselves, and a Presbyter."
Like Mr. Gladstone, Manning had left Oxford after
taking his degree without knowing, without even a sus-
picion, of the religious ferment going on in the minds of
Newman and Hurrell Froude, and of those under their
immediate influence.
" When I left Oxford," Mr. Gladstone tells me to-day,
" I should have said we were on smooth waters : there was
no indication of the coming storm. From Thomas Mozley's
Beminiscences I first learnt that in Oriel there was a move-
ment going on at the time. I cannot say whether I knew
Hurrell Froude of Oriel ; I think I did ; I am not sure.^
But Manning knew nothing of Froude. I don't believe he
was on terms of intimacy with Newman." Then he added ;
" How could he be ? Newman was Fellow of Oriel, and held
no office in the University, and Manning was an under-
graduate belonging to another college."
Manning's personal piety was beyond question. He was
a devout believer in God and in the Bible. To preach His
Word to the poor and to the ignorant was the aim and
delight of his life at Lavington. This Evangelical spirit,
quite in keeping with that of their late rector, endeared
him to his parishioners. It was not so much the substance
' In tlje course of conversation Mr. Gladstone said, " I was disappointed
with Fronde's EeviaiTis ; he was distinguished not so much by intellectual
power as by force of character. That accounts for his undoubted influence."
VII THE RECTOR OF LAVINGTON 109
of his sermons as his impressive and earnest manner that
attracted those who came to hear him or those unto whom
he went out to preach. In after-life he disclaimed the
title of Tractarian, of High Churchman, and of Low Church-
man alike ; if he is to be called by any religious party
name, we can not do better than accept his own definition.
As a Catholic he said of himself : " I was a Pietist until I
accepted the Tridentine Decrees."
For twenty-seven years his predecessor had laboured in
what he delighted to call "the Lord's vineyard" at Lavington.
The Kev. John Sargent was a man of culture, of varied read-
ing, and the author of "The Vision of Stonehenge," and other
poems of no mean order. His heart and mind were devoted
to his little parish. He was content within its narrow-
bounds, and sought no preferment. Manning followed in
his footsteps. It was not long before the rector knew not
merely by sight but by name every one of his scattered
flock. He visited their homes and established Bible
readings. The Rector's wife, imbued by a like spirit of
Evangelical piety, took her part in every good work. She
was his constant companion, accompanying him on his visits
to the poor, or sitting by his side whilst he was composing
his sermons, or reading over with interest and admiration
the neatly written sheets.
Fortunately, I can call the best of all evidence as to the
way in which Manning discharged his ministerial duties as
Eector of Lavington, and with what zeal he tended to the
spiritual interests and temporal wants of his little rustic
flock — the evidence of still-living witnesses. One of these,
Mr. Richmond, R.A., the celebrated painter, whose unbroken
friendship with Manning began in the thirties, describes
Lavington as a model parish : the gentle influence of the
Rector was everywhere felt ; his administrative skill was
apparent in every detail in the management of the parish
as in the order and arrangement of the church. His
kindness of heart and sympathy drew by degrees almost
the whole parish to the little church. This eye-witness,
who, in those far-off days, was a frequent visitor at the
rectory, speaks with high appreciation of the aid offered to
110 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the Kector of Lavington by his wife in tending to tlie
wants, spiritual and temporal, of the villagers and shepherds,
in visiting and comforting the sick or the afHicted, and in
looking after the village school. Daily morning prayers
were the rule in the little church. In the preface to the
Prayer Book it is directed that " the curate that ministereth
in every parish church or chapel shall say morning and
evening prayer, and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto
a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come
to hear God's Word and to pray with him." " It was a
picturesque sight," says this friend of Manning in his
Lavington days, " to watch the zealous and stately rector,
vested in surplice, himself tolling the bell, whilst in the
grey of a winter's morning the straggling villagers hurried
to morning prayer before going out to their daily toil in
the fields."
To inculcate the duty of daily prayer in the parish
church was a task, which Manning set himself to with
characteristic zeal. His simple and persuasive words, more
than the tolling of the bell, drew by degrees the villagers
to the little church for morning or evening prayer. It
was one of the happiest results of his pastoral work. " The
language of the English liturgy," as the Cardinal once
remarked, " was no more and no less intelligible to my
rustic congregation than would have been the Latin offices
of the Catholic Church."
Mr. Eichmond well remembers the Eector of Lavington's
beautiful young wife. On one occasion, in the Spring of
1837, she gave him a first sitting for her portrait, but
died before she could give a second. The unfinished sketch
mysteriously disappeared, or, as Mr. Eichmond says, he
would have completed it from memory.
On the other hand, the Eector of Lavington was a
somewhat strict disciplinarian ; he might almost be called
an ecclesiastical martinet in regard to his church and
parish. Among other rules, he insisted that none had a
right to take part in the service unless they had joined
in the confession and received absolution. A little of his
ancient discipline would not have been amiss at a later
VII THE RECTOR OF LAVINGTON 111
period of his life in the churches under the Cardinal's
jurisdiction, where the dropping-in of late-comers on Sunday
mornings is much more common than in the Anglican
churches. To mark his displeasure at the late ones, the
Kector of Lavington made a practice of stopping till they
were seated, and had presumably done penance for their
remissness. " On one occasion," as Mr. Mozley relates, " the
church door opened. Mr. Manning stopped. An old lady
was heard tottering to her pew. There was a terrible fall.
It was Mr. Manning's own mother, who had vainly en-
deavoured to hurry her pace during the reader's awful
pause." ^
There is another living witness to Manning's work
at Lavington — Mr. Gladstone. In a conversation a
few years ago on this subject, Mr. Gladstone said :
" Manning's devotion to his pastoral work had the most
successful results. The population of the parish was small,
but Manning on one occasion told me that almost every
parishioner was a communicant. That," added Mr. Glad-
stone, " was as it ought to be." Referring to the nature
of his work, Mr. Gladstone said : — " Manning did not, of
course, as rector of a small, unimportant parish, advocate
any special views ; his sermons at Lavington, both as rector
and afterwards as archdeacon, were simple, moral discourses.
Of course they were not printed. There is another witness,"
Mr. Gladstone added, " who knew more of him than I did
in his early days at Lavington, and that is Lord Chichester.
He was an Evangelical, not only at that time, but he
remained an Evangelical to the end ; and he told me that
Manning was the most exemplary clergyman he had ever
known, both for his pastoral zeal and personal holiness."
As yet Manning had made no mark in the Church he
loved so well. His love and labours were confined to
the narrow limits of his own parish. The controversies
which the Tracts for the Times were exciting in Oxford
and in the religious world beyond, had not, as yet, ruffled
the surface of Manning's mind, or disturbed the happy
serenity of Lavington, where the pious Evangelicalism of
^ Thomas Mozley's Reminiscences of Oriel, vol, i. p. 426.
112 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the rector's wife found a counterpart and crown in the
zealous Pietism of the rector. I cannot do better than
recite Manning's own account of his religious opinions in
those early Lavington days, 1833-37.
In an autobiographical Note in his "Journal," dated
1878-82, Cardinal Manning wrote as follows: —
The state of my religious belief in 1833 was profound faith
in the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation, in the Redemption by
the Passion of our Lord, and in the work of the Holy Spirit,
and the conversion of the soul. I believed in baptismal regenera-
tion, and in a spiritual, but real, receiving of our Lord in Holy
Communion. As to the Church, I had no definite conception.
I had rejected the whole idea of the Established Church.
Erastianism was hateful to me. The royal supremacy was, in
my mind, an invasion of the Headship of our Lord. In truth,
I had thought and read myself out of contact with every system
known to me. Anglicanism was formal and dry, Evangeli-
calism illogical, and at variance with the New Testament,
Nonconformity was to me mere disorder. Of the Catholic
Church I knew nothing. I was completely isolated. But I
held intensely to the "Word of God," and the work of souls.
In this state I began preaching to the poor in church, and in
their homes.
The first question that rose in my mind was. What right
have you to be teaching, admonishing, reforming, rebuking
others ? By what authority do you lift the latch of a poor
man's door and enter and sit down and begin to instruct or to
correct him ? This train of thought forced me to see that no
culture or knowledge of Greek or Latin would suffice for this.
That if I was not a messenger sent from God, I was an intruder
and impertinent.
As time went on, and the Oxford Movement grew in
volume and intensity, and penetrated even the quiet pre-
cincts of Chichester, though ruled by the lowest of Low
Church bishops, Manning's religious opinions were beginning
to take a more definite form. His sermons in those early
days were not printed, but I learn from contemporary
sources that they only advocated, even if preached beyond
range of his own parish, such doctrines and guiding prin-
ciples of the Church of England as were commonly accepted
at that date by all parties within the Church. But in -Tuly
VII THE RECTOR OF LAVINGTON 113
1835 Manning was invited by Archdeacon Webber to
preach at Chichester Cathedral. This, his first published
sermon, was entitled, Tlie English Church : its Succession
and Witness for Christ, and was preached on the occasion
of an archidiaconal visitation at the Cathedral of Chichester,
7th, July 1835. His selection as preacher on such an
occasion was a high tribute to his oratorical repute. The
object of the sermon was to prove the apostolic succession,
and to show that the English bishops were the successors
in lineal descent of the apostles. The argument was
apparently directed against what Churchmen in those days
regarded as the arrogant claims advanced by Dissent and
its supporters in and out of Parliament to be put on a level
with the Church of England.
I will recite the opening passage of this sermon as
characteristic : —
In obeying the call to address you, my reverend brethren,
it seemed right to select a topic of the simplest nature, and of
the most extended interest as being the fittest for me to handle,
and, therefore, the worthiest for you to hear. Leaving, then,
for others the more perfect wisdom and the higher mysteries of
our holy faith, I have chosen a subject with which to be
familiar is a prerequisite to the r6le of our sacred ministry.
For the first fifteen hundred years of Christian antiquity, Christ's
earthly Church was one, and His ministry one, till apostolic
unity of faith and practice withered away in the hollow sameness
of the Roman ceremonial. Now, for three hundred years men
have seemed to sicken of the very name of unity, and to con-
template the unhealthy self -production of sect and divisions
within the bosom of the Church with a spurious charity, a cold
indifference, and even a misguided satisfaction. At length it
has come to pass that every one of the self-separated fragments
of the body catholic has successfully preferred a claim for itself
and its teachers to be regarded as the Church and ministry
of Christ.
The preacher, addressing a sympathetic congregation of
clergy assembled at the visitation, then put the pregnant
question — " Our commission to witness for Christ hangs on
this question, Are the bishops of our Church the successors
in lineal descent of the Lord's apostles ? " The question
was answered to the satisfaction alike of the preacher and
VOL I I
114 CAKDINAL MANNING chap.
the congregation. The subject matter of the sermon as
well as the stately manner of its delivery obtained for the
preacher the well -deserved recognition of a request for
its publication. Apostolic succession is a doctrine not
ungrateful even to Evangelical clergy or a Low Church
bishop. Manning's first essay in dogmatic religion was a
success. It was published with copious notes and learned
quotations from the Fathers and Anglican divines of the
seventeenth century. His brother-in-law, Mr. John Ander-
don, the author of the Life of BisJiop Ken, wrote in part,
in part revised Manning's first published sermon.
On this sermon Cardinal Manning has the following
Note : —
At the visitation of September 1835, I preached a sermon
on the " Succession and the Evidences of the Church." The
Oxford Tracts had been coming out for some years. I agreed
with them in outHne, and in the main, but remotely, and so as
to make me unable to identify myself with them. My only
participation in them was to send a catena of quotations on
tradition from Anglican ^vriters, which was incorporated in a
larger list.
The appointment of Dr. Hampden to the Eegius Pro-
fessorship of Divinity in 1836 roused strong feeling in
Oxford. Tractarians and Evangelicals, at daggers-drawn on
every other question, were of one mind and one heart in oppos-
ing L-. Hampden, who was denounced as a Semi-Arian. His
Bampton Lectures^ — The Scholastic TJieology : considered
in its Relations to Christian Theology — were attacked on
all sides, and the author was charged with Eationalism and
Socinianism. In order, it was hoped, to render his appoint-
ment as Regius Professor of Divinity impossible, a motion
was made before Convocation to condemn his Bampton
Lectures. " Puseyites and Peculiars " ^ stood shoulder to
shoulder on this unique occasion.
^ The Bampton Lectures were founded by the Rev. John Bampton, Canon
of Salisbury, in 1780. These lectures, eight in number, are delivered
annually at St. Mary's, Oxford, the foundation being vested in the University
of Oxford. The subjects of the lectures are mainly connected with the
Christian evidences.
"^ "Peculiars " was a nickname given at Oxford to the Low Church party.
VII EARLY WORK 115
Cardinal Manning, in the year 1887, related to me how
he and his old Oxford friend, Edward Twisleton, went up
to Oxford together to give their vote : — " When the voting
took place Twisleton walked first and I followed him ;
passing by the proctor into a circular gallery, he voted
against the condemnation, I for. On coming out, Twisleton
said, in explanation of his vote, 'Dr. Hampden to-day;
to-morrow it will be Neander's (Newman) turn.^ There
is a party of German Eationalists rising up in the Univer-
sity which will carry all before it.' " Cardinal Manning
told this anecdote in illustration of his friend's singular
perspicacity and foresight, adding, " Twisleton was a Commis-
sioner under the Poor Law ; I was in constant communica-
tion with him. He was a good man ; he died about fifteen
years ago."
In those days the meeting place of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge was the battle-ground for
many a stout fight between the Evangelicals and the High-
Church party. The Low Church party, harassed at
Oxford and losing their ancient influence in the country,
disputed every inch of ground. They had laid hands on
the S.P.C.K. High Churchmen, as well as moderate
Evangelicals, resolved to rescue the management of the
Society from the undue control exercised over it by an
extreme faction. For this purpose the Archbishop of
Canterbury was prevailed upon in 1835 to convene a
meeting of the society at 23 Lincoln's Inn Fields. Eager or
zealous country clergymen, as their wont was in those days,
on critical occasions, hastened up to London, to attend, as
it was called, the Archbishop's meeting. The Record, the
1 "Neander was born (1789) at Gbttingen, and died 14th July 1850. The
first volume of Neander's great work. The History of the Christian Religion
and Chnrch, appeared in 1825, soon afterwards it was translated into English.
With Neander, theology was not as it is with too many both at home and
abroad, a mere profession. The purity of his daily life — his devotion to
Christian labour, the self-denial which was his soul's habit — proved how
genuinely he believed the truth of his favourite motto, that it is neither the
profoundest learning, nor the most vigorous intellect, nor most fervid
eloquence, but yicdus est quod facit theologimi — ' It is the heart which makes
the theologian.' " — "Neander," Biographical Treasury. In the early days of
the Tractarian movement Newman was often called Neander.
116 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
mouthpiece of the more extreme Evangelical party, had
sounded the trumpet, and raised the rallying cry, " Evan-
gelicals to the rescue." The echo of that trumpet had
reached the silences and solitudes of Lavington.^ The voice
of the Eector's wife pleaded, perhaps for the last time —
for the shadow of death was already upon her — for the
cause and traditions so dear to her heart.
It was on the occasion of this meeting that Mr. Glad-
stone met Manning for the first time since their Oxford
days. Speaking with me January twelvemonth of Manning's
early days Mr. Gladstone said : —
On our leaving Oxford we naturally lost sight of each other ;
Manning went down into the country in chai'ge of a small parish
and I lived in London following political pursmts and finishing
my education — at least as regards foreign languages and literature.
It was only several years later that I met Manning by accident.
It was on the occasion of a great meeting in 1835 or 1836 I think,
called by Archbishop Howley — a revered man - — in connection
with the Christian Knowledge Society. The extreme section of
the Evangelicals had been getting too much the upper hand, and
the object of the meeting was to put restraint on their action.
I was walking with Lord Cholmondeley, a leading man among the
Evangelicals but not a factionist, on our way to the meeting, with
the view of supporting the Ai'chbishop, when, in tiu-ning out of
Queen Street into Lincoln's Inn Fields, we rubbed shoulders with
Manning. After a friendly interchange of greetings and
questionings, I asked Manning what had brought him, a country
clergyman, up to town. " To defend," was his answer, " the
Evangelical cause against the attempts of the Archbishop."
*' This shows," added Mr. Gladstone, " that Manning belonged at
that time to the section of the extreme Evangelicals."
In 1836-37, before definitely breaking with the Evan-
gelicals, Manning made some tentative approaches to the
great leader of the Tractarian movement, as will be set
1 Manning in those days was a regular reader of the Record.
2 Speaking of Archbishop Howley, Mr. Gladstone said : — "Though plain
of feature, Archbishop Howley had the most remarkable countenance I have
ever seen, a truly ecclesiastical, a highly spiritual countenance. You must
not think because ho was a friend of mine that I am unduly setting him up
above other men." Cardinal Manning once said to me, "Mr. Gladstone's
geese are all swans." This, however, had no reference to Archbishop Howley.
Vll EARLY WORK 117
out at large in the correspondence given in a subsequent
chapter.
In the meanwhile, the Eector of Lavington kept up
active and friendly relations with the Evangelical party, if
not at Oxford, in his own Diocese of Chichester. His
Bishop, Dr. Maltby, out of the fulness of his ostentatious
zeal — for he was prone to pomp and show — for the pro-
pagation of the Bible in foreign parts, was anxious to
establish a diocesan society in aid of the Foreign Trans-
lation Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. To effect this a public meeting was held in
December 1836, at the Council Chamber, Chichester, of
which Manning was .one of the secretaries. It fell to his
share to arrange preliminary measures, and to write circulars
inviting co-operation.
The fine flowing hand of Manning may be traced in
those passages of the circular especially in which he speaks
with unction " of the duty of the Church at large to bear
witness to the Scriptures ; and more especially of the
Church of England, as being the mother of many churches
in the colonies, and in a peculiar way the ark of the pure
and apostolic faith amid the various and conflicting errors
of the Church elsewhere." The excellence of the English
version of the Bible, as well as the German version of
Luther, is spoken of with praise ; mention is likewise made
of the praiseworthy results obtained in France, Italy, and
Spain by the translation of the Bible.
The Record of 2nd January 1837 gave a long report of
the meeting, saying " That the Dean, Dr. Chandler, pro-
posed, and the Eev. H. E. Manning, in an excellent speech,
seconded, the first resolution."
In those days the Record, the mouthpiece of the Evan-
gelical party, stiU bestowed its mild benedictions on
Manning, against whom, later on, it pronounced its
anathema.
Manning's activity was not confined to his services as
secretary to the Society for Propagating the Bible in
Foreign Parts. He was ambitious of trying his hand at
controversy in the press, and adroitly seized on a favourable
118 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
opportunity. In the year 1836 Dr. Wiseman first made
his mark in England by a series of lectures delivered in St.
Mary's, Moorfields, on the doctrinal differences between the
CathoKc Church and Protestantism. These lectures were
widely discussed and criticised in newspapers, magazines,
and tracts. The Record at once fell foul of the Eoman
champion. Protestant prejudices were aroused. To do
battle with so formidable an antagonist as Dr. Wiseman
was Manning's opportunity. Accordingly, in an elaborate
article or letter in the British Magazine, under the title,
" Dr. Wiseman's Errors or Unfairness," he charged, among
other strictures, Dr. Wiseman with deliberate unfairness ;
for the writer of the article could not conceive it possible
that " Dr. W., with his high pretensions to learning, was
ignorant of the essential difference between the Church of
England and other Protestant or Dissenting bodies. The
assumption of the exclusive right to the name ' Catholic '
for the Church of Eome, and the confounding the Church
of England with other Protestant bodies, was," he con-
tinued, " on the part of Dr. W. an unworthy controversial
artifice."
In entering the lists for the first time against Wiseman
and the Catholic Church, Manning wore his vizor down,
for he wrote under a nom de guerre, "A Catholic Priest."
But this " letter " provoked a remonstrance from his
intimate friend and familiar correspondent, S. F. Wood.
Wood, who was making a holiday excursion in Ireland, after
giving a graphic account of the country and people,^ wrote
as follows : —
Temple, Zrd Nov. 1836.
My DEAR Fkiend —
... A letter in the last British Magazine on Wiseman, signed
" A Catholic Priest," has just met my eye. From its clearness and
ability, and from a Httle talk we had together in August, I have
a slight suspicion of the author. If I am right, I know he will
forgive and consider of thus much : — Agreeing with him most
fully that the AngHcan Church's idea of the rule of faith is as he
states, and earnestly longing for its actual development in our
^ For S. F. Wood's account of Protestantism and the Catholic Church in
Ireland in 1836, see a note at the end of the volume.
VII EARLY WORK 119
day, I still think, that viewing our Church as an outward historical
fact, looking at its tendencies and connections for the last ten or
twenty years, its living preachers and members. Dr. Wiseman
had a right as a controversialist, with his principles, etc., to group
it with Biblical Protestants. And that it would be more wise,
more humble, more truthful, and more Xtianlike to confess our
practical defection from our principles, and to warn and to recall
men to them, than hastily to tax him with unfairness. — Ever, my
dear Manning, your affectionate S. F. Wood.
Manning rather resented this criticism, as denying the
Catholicity of the Anglican Church, and, after publishing in
the British Magazine a second article attacking Dr. Wiseman,
wrote to S. F. Wood, expressing regret at his untimely
defence of the Eoman champion.
In reply Wood wrote as follows : —
Temple, Saturday, 2nd Dec. 1836.
My dear Friend — Not feeling the least vocation to defend
Dr. Wiseman, and having but a low opinion of his personal
truthfulness, I had much rather drop the subject altogether, but
your kind reply calls for a few words, and they shall be as few
as I can. I never denied (God forbid) the comparative
Catholicity of our Mother the Anglican Church, in the general,
and as to this very point, " the Rule of Faith," I consider her
notion is practically modified by her reception of the Nicene and
Athanasian Creeds and by her Liturgy, and as expounded by her
greatest Doctors, the best of any Church. But I still think there
is sufficient ambiguity in her own symbolical and formal exhibi-
tion of the rule, and quite sufficient contrariety in the expounders
of it, to justify an hostile controversialist, with the present temper
of the living Church members before his eyes, in taking (more or
less) Wiseman's line, and the very obvious irregularity of the
witnesses he calls rather proves to me, that he thought habemus
confitentem reum and I need not labour the point, for surely
if he had wished to blind he might have got up a very respect-
able catena on his side. Take first, §§ 1, 2, and 3 of the
Dissuasive, Pt. 1, B. 1 (not in one or two detached places, which
we owe to a more or less really Catholic 7)^0?) but in their whole
scope and line of argument; take Chillingworth's notorious axiom,
take Tilletson and Burnet and twenty other low people in high
places, take lastly Bishop Mant's just come out Churches of Borne
and England Compared, p. 12, where he distinctly lays down the
Bible as the Rule, and I think candour will allow this. . . .^
^ In the course of the above letter "Wood said, "Newman comes to town
120 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
If his ecclesiastical career was prosperous and promising,
this period of his life brought upon Manning two domestic
sorrows : one, the death of his father at a ripe age ; the
other, the premature death, in the fulness of her young
life, of Caroline, his wife.
His father died on Good Friday, the l7th of April
1835, at his house in Lower Gower Street. In that house
of mourning Manning found assembled, on his arrival from
Laviugton, his mother and his brothers Frederick and
Charles, and his sisters Maria and Caroline. On the
morning of the funeral, 24th April, Frederick Manning says
in his Diary: — "We joined together around the remains
of our dear parent in prayer, which dear Henry was kind
enough to give us." John Anderdon, with his eldest son
William, and Colonel Austen, Manning's two brothers-in-law,
attended the funeral at Sundridge Church, near Combe Bank,
the home of his prosperous days. The funeral service was
performed by the Rector of Sundridge, Dr. D'Oyly, an old
friend of the family. William Manning was laid to rest in
the vault where his daughter Harriet was buried in 1826.
The following inscription was placed on the tomb of Mr.
William Manning : —
In a vault beneath are deposited the Remains of
WILLIAM MANNING, Esq.
Formerly of Combe Bank, in this Parish,
Born December 1st, 1763,
And in a firm reliance on the merits of his Redeemer,
Departed this life on Good Friday, April 17th, 1835.
He was forty years a Director of the Bank of England and a
Member of Parliament for nearly an equal period. His meekness,
purity, benevolence, and unwearied endeavour
For the welfare and happiness of all around him, Avill be long
remembered by an extensive circle of grateful Friends, but chiefly
by his own Family, who deeply feeling their bereavement.
Desire to record by this Tablet
Their reverential and pious affection for the best of Fathers.
on Monday to spend a week with R. I. Williams, and I hope to see and talk
with him a good deal. We are mustering stronger in town, though I suppose
the framework of society here must preclude one's having much iulluence
collectively."
VII DEATH OF HIS WIFE 121
The following memorandum, as a witness of the day,
was written by Henry Manning on the day of his father's
funeral : —
My dearest Father was 71, born 1st Dec. 1764 ; Died 17th
April 1835, Good Friday. Buried 24th April 1835, to-day, at
Combe Bank.
I ■write this as a witness of this day, which has been full of
a complication of strange and painful and consolatory feelings.
"We carried him over his own former possessions, by the road he
made himself. May this date a new life to me and mine.
The details of to-day I will put down when less overwhelmed
by fatigue.
24:th April 1835.
But the sorrow of his life, of which Manning never
spoke to a living soul in his Anglican or his Catholic days,
was the death of his wife. His shy and sensitive nature
shrank from the expression of a grief of the heart so deep
and so abiding. Her death, though not unexpected, came at
the end almost with the suddenness of a surprise. Her
mother, Mrs. John Sargent, had been unremitting in her
attendance on, and tender care of, her dying daughter.
Her last words to her mother were : " Take care of Henry."
Mrs. John Sargent fulfilled, with all her heart, her daugh-
ter's last wishes. Until the death of her elder daughter,
the wife of Samuel Wilberforce, she " took care of Henry,"
was his constant and watchful companion, and kept house
for him until she was called upon to discharge similar
offices of care and kindness to her elder son-in-law on the
death of his wife in 1841.
The sermon which Manning preached at the beloved
little church at Lavington on the occasion of his wife's
death touched every heart by its simple pathos, and still
more by the certitude of the high hopes which it expressed
of the heavenly joys that awaited the child of election in
the home of her Eternal Father. The touching sermon was
never published in full ; but large extracts from it have
been preserved. With the omission of the more personal
references, the substance of the sermon has been published
under the title, Thoiights for those that Mourn.
122 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The following passages, iu their tenderness and hopeful-
ness, indicate the sources from which Manning, in his great
grief, drew comfort and consolation : —
Had you not rather bear yourself all the affliction of anxiety
and grief which clouds a season of death ?
The hopes, fears, blights, faintings, and recoils of cold blood
on the overwhelmed heart, the quick step, sudden message, hasty
summons, the agony of lingering expectation, somebody must
bear, for it is appointed unto all men once to die, and you must
die too at the last. Would you not that they should he spared
all you suffer ?
Is the solitude of bereavement afflicting 1
Would you not rather endure it and let them enter into the
fellowship of saints and angels 1 The heavy days, long evenings,
leisure changed into loneliness. The sad nights and sadder days
when the reality of our bereavement breaks in upon us. Sleep,
much more dreaming, puts us back where we were, but working
thrusts us again into the present.
Is death terrible and its avenues rough ?
Will you not rejoice for them that they have got their trial
well over, and that now there remains for them no more suffering
and sickness, because no more sin : that the spirit is now
enfranchised, the body laid up for renewal ? They shall be
restored, not with the hollow eye and sharp severe crisis of
distress, but in a transfigured perfection of all that they once
were. Death has dominion only while we are dying. They are
born to a new life when the spirit passes forth.
Is it blessed to enter into rest ?
Then do you not rejoice that they have entered — ay, so soon ?
Would you not give way to them, and yield any greater blessing
to them ? And will you not rejoice that they have entered into
that rest at the cost of your sorrow and solitude ? This is
only the greatest act of self-denial you have ever been called to,
for their sakes.
The death of Caroline, his wife, young in years, in the
high tide of happiness in the natural order, was not merely
an earthly sorrow, but an event in the providence of God
which effected an entire change in the course and character
of Manning's life. God's designs in regard to the future of
His elected servant were undreamt of by him at the time,
which lends an additional pathos to that scene of earthly
sorrow.
vn DEATH OF HIS WIFE 123
The happy home at Lavington, with its pleasant ways,
its simple joys, its tranquillity and gladness of heart and
deep domestic affection, which for well-nigh four years had
made it a paradise on earth, was turned into a house of
mourning, a home for ever after widowed of its earthly joys.
It has rarely fallen to the lot of any of the sons of man to
endure such a deep, abiding and unspeakable anguish of
heart as befell the Eector of Lavington on the death of
his young, sympathetic, and pure -hearted wife. In that
sorrowful summer and autumn of 1837, when even the
flowers of Lavington, which he loved so well and loved to
the last — for they were constantly sent to him unto the
end of his days as memorials of his early home — lay faded
at his feet, widowed of their ancient gladness. He was
wont, after his first anguish of heart had subsided, to sit for
hours, day by day, at the grave of his wife, and compose
his sermons,^ " The great thought," as he wrote to Newman,
a month or two later, " is before me night and day, but I have
long since become unable either to speak or write of it. . . .
All I can do now is to keep at work. There is a sort of rush
into my mind when unoccupied, I can hardly bear."
To a near relative he described it as " a sort of grapple
with what was crushing me." When at last he rose up
from that silent grave, it was with sealed heart —
with sealed lips — for henceforth he never more breathed
her name to a living being. Not even to his nearest and
dearest relatives in the intimacies of life did he ever once
allude to his wife or utter her name in joy or sorrow. He
was very reticent indeed, even during her lifetime. Seven or
eight years ago, in a conversation with Mr. Gladstone on
Manning's Anglican days, I happened to mention that this
interesting episode in his life was a sealed book, unknown
to all except a very few, who had a more intimate acquaint-
ance with the Cardinal's life, or with his few surviving
^ Speaking some six or seven years ago with Mr. Richmond, R.A., on
Manning's married life at Lavington, and on the deep grief he felt at the
death of his wife, Mr. Richmond said : — " Yes, his grief was great and abid-
ing — too great for words ; he never spoke of her. I was a frequent visitor
at Lavington in those days of sorrow, and often found Manning seated by the
grave-side of his wife, composing his sermons."
124 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
contemporaries. lu reply Mr. Gladstone said : " I am not
in the least surprised ; Manning never spoke to me about
his family or friends ; and, intimate as I was with him for
a time, he never once alluded to his wife, excepting in a
few lines announcing her death."
In the frequent and intimate conversations I had with
the Cardinal about his Anglican days, he only alluded to
the subject twice, and that in an indirect fashion. Once
he said : " You may write just as you think fit about me in
the ' Life ' ; I don't wish to see a page. But there is one
episode early in life which I wish to see in manuscript
before it goes to the printers." Of course that passage, I
knew, referred to his marriage.
On another occasion Cardinal Manning told me that he
had received a letter from the churchwardens, announcing
that the grave at Lavington was falling into decay, and
asking for instructions about putting and keeping it in
repair. " My reply was : ' It is best so ; let it be. Time
effaces aU things.' "
After long years, even unto the end of his life, Lavington
still remained green in Manning's memory, still dear to his
heart. But it was characteristically associated in his mind,
not with the days of stress and storm, but with the early
beginnings of his life, when the little church of Lavington
was his pride, his hope, and the joy of his heart ; when his
home, under the shelter of the Sussex Downs — " an abode
amid calm streams and green woody hills," of higher beauty
still, I may add — an abode of peace and piety, dearer far
to him than life, as the home for nigh upon four years of
the ministering angel of his heart and hearth, the copartner
of his joys and sorrows.
They, who have so often read the Cardinal's touching
description of his home at Lavington, now that the veil
over that hidden episode of his life — from that glad day in
November 1833, when he was married to Caroline Sargent,
to the dark day in July 1837, when he followed her to the
grave in Lavington Churchyard — has, with reverent hand,
been lifted in part, will discover in those words, now that
their " true inwardness " has been revealed, an additional
VII DEATH OF HIS WIFE 125
and deeper pathos : " I loved , , . the little church under
a green hillside, where the morning and evening prayer,
and the music of the English Bible, for seventeen years
became a part of my soul. Nothing is more beautiful in
the natural order; and if there were no eternal world, I
could have made it my home."
The following lines seem to have a true and touching
application to widowed Lavington, and to the sword which
severed the natural bonds that bound Manning to a life of
learned leisure and earthly happiness : —
" Alas ! for Thou must learn,
Thou guileless One ! rough is the holy hand ;
Runs not the Word of Truth through every land,
A sword to sever and a fire to burn 1
If blessed Paul had stayed
In cot or learned shade,
With the priest's white attire.
And the Saints' tuneful choir ;
Men had not gnashed their teeth, nor risen to slay,
But Thou hadst been a heathen in thy day."^
^ Newman, Verses on Various Occasions, Ixxiii. ' ' Warfare, " ' ' Freely ye
have received ; freely give," p. 119.
CHAPTEE VIII
DEVELOPMENT OF MANNING'S KELIGIOUS OPINIONS
1838
Up to the year 1838 the Eector of La\dngtoii's heart and
mind were devoted to pastoral work, to the teaching of the
poor and ignorant, to inculcating holiness of life and the
spirit of prayer. Outside the parish church, his voice was
heard at religious meetings pleading on behalf of the Bible
Society for Foreign Missions, or defending on public plat-
forms by speech or vote the Evangelical cause against the
encroachments or attacks of its enemies, even if headed, as
I have already shown, by the highest of his ecclesiastical
superiors. On special occasions, so highly was he esteemed
that he was invited by his old friend the Dean, Dr.
Chandler, to preach at the cathedral of Chichester.
But in the year 1838 the Tracts for the Times, which
for five years had kept Oxford in a ferment, were producing
an effect and evoking a response in the outer world,
iSTewman's voice reached even the seclusion of Lavington.
In one of his autobiographical Notes, Manning acknow-
ledges that, though not identifying himself with the Tract-
arian movement, he had at least read some of the Tracts.^
When he first began to preach and teach in Sussex,
dogmatic religion, which it was the work and aim of the
Tracts for the Times to inculcate, was to Manning a
closed book. But now, under favouring circumstances, he
^ This scant acknowledgment somewhat minimises the extent and nature
of Manning's relations — at least from 1836-40 — with Newman and the
Tractarian party, as a reference to letters, pp. 219-237, will show.
CHAP, viii DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 127
began to emancipate himself from the influence of his
Evangelical surroundings, and from the earlier tendency of
his own mind towards a system of vague undefined Pietism.
Indeed, from his copious correspondence with S. F. Wood of
Oriel, the earliest and most intimate of his Oxford friends,
it is abundantly clear that Manning's mind was no longer
satisfied with the narrow and undogmatic teachings and
traditions of the Evangelical school, Tractarianism was " in
the air " ; and the electric shock of Newman's personality
was conveyed to Manning in his seclusion at Lavington by
his constant communications with S. E. Wood, once, like
Manning himself, an ardent Evangelical, but now a
disciple and an apologist, as his letters show, of the
Tractarian movement.
It was one of the most marked elements of Manning's
mind to ponder long — even for years — on the changes
which his religious opinions were undergoing or had under-
gone. In private letters, in confidential conversations, he
would discuss and profess changes in his religious convic-
tions long before he made them manifest in public speech
or act. Owing to this slow deliberation or prudent circum-
spection, it was only in 1838 that Manning passed out of
the slough of Evangelicalism, and incurred the anathema of
the Becord newspaper.
Among the first effects of the Tracts for the Times
was to force men, if not indeed to choose sides, at least to
know their own minds. The theory of dogmatic belief had
to be faced. The Evangelicals were up in arms; the High-
and-Dry Church party of the school of Hook, mistrusting
the tendency and spirit of Puseyism, held aloof. At Oxford,
the dons and heads of houses feared and hated the Tract-
arian movement. The dignitaries of the Church looked
upon Newman and his disciples as disturbers of the peace,
which was to them the jewel beyond price. The bishops
frowned upon the movement, but in the beginning held
their tongues, except the more extreme Evangelical bishops ;
or such a Bishop as Edward Maltby of Chichester, who,
knowing little of, and caring less for, religious principles,
whether High Church or Low, regarded the Established
128 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Church with pride and affection, simply and solely as
a State Institution.^ But, happily for Manning in that
day of trial and transition, the translation to Durham
of Edward Maltby, the first of the four Bishops of Chichester
under whom Manning served, removed a stumbling-block
from his path. It was forgotten even by Mr. Gladstone ^
that the Eector of Lavington's first " Father in God "
was that Bishop of Durham to whom Lord John Eussell
addressed, in the year of the so-called " Papal Aggression,"
his notorious " No Popery " letter, which for a while
set all England ablaze with the frenzy of religious
fanaticism.
The charge of the diocese of Chichester rested henceforth
on the easy sloping shoulders of a bishop of no religious
opinions in particular. Bishop Otter, the new bishop, was
described by his contemporaries as being "neither fish,
flesh, nor fowl," partly as a pun on his name, partly on
account of the vagueness of his religious views, for he was
neither High Church, Low Church, nor Broad. Kuled no
longer by a bishop of pronounced Low Church views. Manning
had a free hand, and made use of his opportunities to the
fullest. Favouring circumstances helped the young Eector
of Lavington onwards and upwards. He was quick in
discerning that the Tractarian movement was becoming a
power in the land. His mind was no longer satisfied with
the vague and undogmatic views of Evangelicalism. High
Church doctrines, as taught at Oxford by the Tractarians,
though held in a spirit of moderation, conjoined with
becoming reverence for the Keformers and gratitude for
" the blessed results " of the Reformation, approved them-
selves to his heart and mind. It was a great transition
period in the revival of religion. The hearts and souls of
men were being quickened into life.
1 With such a bishop Manning had no relations. As a quiet country
parson he kept aloof from Chichester, and wisely made no attempt to approach
the bishop or his palace.
2 A year or two &<^o Mr. Gladstone told mc that "Manning served under
three bishops — William Otter, Shuttleworth, and Gilbert — with each of
whom, though of different religious opinions, he was always on excellent
terms."
Till DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 129
"In June 1838," writes an eye-witness of the religious
movement, " Hook preached on the text ' Hear the Church '
before the Queen and her Court at the Chapel Royal.^ The
sermon set all the reading world talking, thinking, and
feeling too. Manning, long known as an eloquent and
agreeable speaker at Oxford, became now more widely
known as the preacher of a learned sermon at Chichester
on the " Eule of Faith." ^ This sermon was preached by the
Eector of Lavington in the cathedral of Chichester on 13 th
June 1838, at the primary visitation of William (Otter)
Bishop of Chichester.
The Rule of Faith, with its appendix and notes,
considerably more than thrice the length of the sermon
itself as originally delivered, is in every way an interesting
work. First of all, it is a clear and precise declaration by
Manning of his religious opinions ; secondly, it is his primary
essay in controversy. For the first, and I may say for the
last time, at any rate as an Anglican, Manning descends
into the common arena, and does battle with adversaries on
equal terms. He supports his theories by arguments, meets
objectors and their contentions face to face, challenges con-
tradiction and provokes controversy. Assailing now the
position of " popular Protestantism," now the pretensions of
" Eomanism," quoting the writings of those whom he attacked
and naming their names, he fearlessly laid himself open to
retort. At any rate he stung popular Protestantism to the
quick, and brought a hornets' nest about his ears.
The work was distinguished by the author's character-
istic moderation and prudence, for though avowing for the
first time High Church principles, he was careful not in
any way to commit himself to Tractarianism. He steered
a middle course between what was called in that day — and
by such a witness, for instance, as Mr. Gladstone — High-
and-Dry Anglicanism and Tractarianism. Hook, who repre-
sented the High-and-Dry Anglicans, pleased no one ; he
ofiended popular Protestantism, and perhaps still more by
^ Hook's sermon gave great offence to the Queen. S. Wilbei'force, in his
Diary, says, "The Queen at once drew the curtain of her pew."
"^ Thomas Mozley's Reminiscences of Oriel, vol. i. p. 446.
VOL, I K
130 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
his shallowness, his half-heartedness, and time-serving spirit,
the Tractarian party. Unlike Hook, IManning, by the
earnestness and deeper religious zeal which he displayed,
gained the confidence and esteem of the Tractarian leaders,
and was even invited by Newman to write for the British
Critic. It was indeed a time of such searching conflict and
controversy that men who aspired to take a leading part in
the struggles of the Church were forced, in order to obtain
a hearing, to define their position, or at any rate to show
their colours. Unlike the writers for the Tracts for the
Times and the British Critic, Manning still retained a
great reverence for the reformers. At the very moment
when Newman and Pusey and Keble were refusing to
countenance the memorial which was being got up by the
Low Church Party at Oxford in honour of Latimer, Cranmer,
and Kidley,^ Manning, in the Bule of Faith pronounces a
blessing on Cranmer ,2 and speaks of " his pretended degrada-
tion," and cites him " as foremost in rank, and second to
none in experience among many witnesses," to show " that
the rule of faith, Scripture and antiquity, or Scripture and
the creed, attested by universal tradition, is the recognised
principle of the Reformed Church of England, and also of
the Church of primitive times. Cranmer and Ridley and
Latimer, Manning puts on a line, as witnesses to the faith,
with the fathers of the Primitive Church. The gist of
Manning's profession of faith is the acceptance of the rule
laid down by Bishop Ridley at his last examination. After
referring to the wise counsel of Vincentius Lerinensis that
" when one part (of the Church) is corrupted with heresies,
then prefer the whole world before that part ; but if the
greatest part be infected, then prefer antiquity," Ridley
goes on as follows : —
^ In one of his letters, S. Wilberforce said, "I have been urging in vain
Newman and Pusey to subscribe a small sum to the testimonial."
Again, in a letter to Charles Anderson, "I am very sorry that Newman
and Pusey set themselves against it. It was just the opportunity they ought
to have seized for doing away some of the evil of dear Froude's book ; but
they are bent on their own way." — Life of Bishop Wilberforce, vol. i. p. 130.
2 "All the good I know of Cranmer is that he burnt well." — Hurrell
Frotide.
vin DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OriNIONS 131
In like sort now when I perceive the greatest part of
Christianity to be infected with the poison of the see of Rome, I
repair to the usage of the Primitive Church, which I find clean
contrary to the pope's decrees, as in that the priest receiveth
alone, that it is made unlawful to the laity to receive in both kinds,
and such like, wherefore it requireth, that I prefer the antiquity
of the Primitive Church before the novelty of the Church of
Rome." 1
To this profession of faith, Manning's sermon and
appendix is a long-drawn-out amen.
Between the delivery of the Rule of Faith and its publica-
tion with appendix and notes, which convert an ordinary
learned sermon into a controversial treatise of special
interest, an article had appeared in the Dublin Review^
criticising and challenging the position taken up by Keble
and other Tractarian leaders on the subject of private
judgment, and Article VI. of the Thirty-Nine Articles. This
Review, an able Catholic quarterly, published in London,
was the organ of Dr. Wiseman, the foremost champion
of the Catholic cause in those days of eager controversy.
Full of sympathy with the Tractarian movement and
characteristically hopeful of its results, he watched and
criticised every step, every position taken up by the
Tractarian writers.
This Catholic criticism in the Dublin Review of Keble's
sermon, attacking the position taken up by Anglicans, as
representing the faith of the Primitive Church, incidentally
assailed and upset Manning's theory of the identity between
the rule of faith in the Reformed Church of England
and in the Primitive Church. Thus challenged by Dr.
Wiseman and the Dublin Review, Manning buckled on his
armour and entered for the first time publicly into the
arena of controversy.
After having established to his own satisfaction the
identity between the rule of faith distinctly recognised by the
English Church, and that of the Primitive Church, the author
goes on to confirm his proposition " by considering two
fallacious rules, which have been, in later ages, adopted by
1 Ridley's Life, pp. 613, 614. 2 jujy jgss.
132 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the Church ; both, therefore, modern, and condemned as
novel, by universal tradition : I mean the rule of the Eoman
Church ; and the rule that is held by all Protestant bodies,
except the British and American Churches. The former
may, for distinctness, be called the Roman, and the latter
from its extreme novelty the New." ^
Manning then deduces " from a work in great repute
among the Eoman Catholics in this country," ^ the following
propositions : —
1. That there is a living judge of interpretations, guided by
an inspiration the same in kind vnih. that which dictated the
Holy Scriptures.
2. That the rule by which the judge shall proceed, is " what
was anciently received."
3. That some points of helief Avhich, if it means anything
more than the sixth Article of the Church of England, must
mean of necessary faith, were not committed to writing in Holy
Scripture, but rest on wal tradition alone.
Acting on this rule, the Church of E,ome, at the Council of
Trent, added to the Nicene or Constantinopolitan creed many
doctrines which cannot be proved from Holy Scripture ; e.g.
transubstantiation, purgatory, invocation of saints, veneration of
images, indulgences.
4. A profession of this faith she requires as necessary for
communion.
Manning, then, having defined the Eoman Eule,^
contrasts it with the Catholic [Anglican] in this way :
The Church of Eome asserts that oral tradition is a sufficient
proof of points of necessary belief.
The Church of England, that Scripture is the only sufficient
proof of necessary faith.
The Church of Eome says, that the doctrinal articles added
to Pope Pius's creed, may be proved from Scripture, but need
not.
The Church of England, that they ought to be proved from
Scripture, but cannot.
The Church of Eome maintains that they are binding,
because they are Apostolical traditions.
* Rule of Faith, Appendix, p. 81.
2 Berington and Kirk, Faith of [Roman] Catholics, p. 100.
* Rule of Faith, Appendi.T, p. 83.
viii DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 133
The Church of England denies that they are Apostolical
traditions, in as much as they will not stand the Catholic test ; not
being primitive, nor have they even been universal, nor held with
consent of all Churches.
The Eector of Lavington then defines what he calls the
" new rule," the rule of faith of popular Protestantism,
and contrasts it with the Anglican as follows : —
The other fallacious rule is as follows :
That Holy Scripture needs no interpreter, but is plain to
all.
But this is felt to be so evidently untenable, that it is
generally stated in this form :
That the Holy Spirit, which dictated the Scripture, noAv
guides all who seek the truth into a right understanding of it.
Now here is exactly the same fallacy as in the Roman rule
above given. The Church of England carefully distinguishes
between the immediate guidance of inspiration, and that guidance
which leads men through the means God has ordained for the
conveyance of truth.
After contrasting the two fallacious rules of faith with
the true [the Anglican], he says : —
But we must go on to a still more instructive topic, namely,
the close agreement of these two principles, notwithstanding
their seeming irreconcilable opposition.
In the following six points they closely agree : —
1. Both exalt the living judge or interpreter above the
written rule.
2. Both claim a special guidance.
3. Both argue a priori.
4. Both oppose antiquity and universal tradition. And, as
a natural consequence of all these,
5. Both introduce new doctrines.
6. Both, in eflFect, undermine the foundation of faith. ^
The Rector of Lavington having thus summoned the
Evangelical party and the Catholic Church before the
bar of his own infallible judgment, passes sentence alike on
the Evangelical party, which he had just left, and on the
Catholic Church to whose tribunal in after years he sub-
mitted his mind and wUl.
1 JRule of Faith, pp. 84, 85.
134 CARDINAL I\IANNIXG CHAP.
Both the Roman and the new rule exalt the living judge or
interpreter above the written rule. That this is so, many
decrees of councils and popes will sufficiently prove. We
need not quote the profane sayings of bygone controversy,
expressing in too homely a way the malleableness of Scripture
in the hands of the living Church. The maxim Scripturie
sequuntur Eccledam is enough. They have been made to
follow the living Church with too ductile a pliancy. For it is
plain that the meaning of a mute document, if it is tied to
follow the utterance of a living voice, which shall claim the
supreme right of interpretation, must vary with its living
expositor. And in this lies the real danger of the Roman
doctrine of infallibility.^
Manning then quotes and makes his own long passages
from Chillingworth, in which that apostate priest describes
" the pope as the real enemy of Christ, who under the pretence
of interpreting the law of Christ, doth in many parts
evacuate and dissolve it ; so dethroning Christ from his
dominion over men's consciences, and instead of Christ
setting up himself" "
On this Manning remarks :
Although this investing of the pope with infallibility is the
Italian doctrine, the Gallican and British Romanists placing it in
the Chiu-ch assembled in council, I have quoted the whole
passage for a twofold reason. First, because it is equally
applicable to the interpretation of the living Church in council ;
and secondly, because, in the rashness of controversy, this
passage, levelled against the infallibility of the living judge,
whether pope or Church, is turned against the very ground on
which Chillingworth stood when he wrote it, i.e. piimitive and
universal tradition.^
Manning then contends that antiquity was sacrificed by
modern Protestants, in order to establish the right of
private judgment, and that the rejection of universal
tradition has led to schism and Socinianism, but that the
Church of England, reviving ;it the Reformation the rule
of faith of the Primitive Church, resists both Calvinism and
Romanism by appeal to universal tradition.
^ Rule of Faith, Appendix, p. 86.
2 Chillingworth, vol. i. pp. 11, 12, 13.
' Rule of Faith, Appendix, p. 87.
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 135
In this controversial appendix to a learned sermon, it is
curious and interesting to note that the future Cardinal
Archbishop of Westminster, one of the most active fathers
of a council convoked to define the dogma of Papal Infalli-
bility, speaks, as Eector of Lavington, his first word on " the
Eoman doctrine of the infallibility of the pope." Between
the preacher on the Anglican rule of faith in Chichester
Cathedral in 1838, and the father of the Vatican Council
in 1870, what a gulf; what a difference between his first
word on papal infallibility and his last !
That the publication of the Rule of Faith excited not
only wide-spread interest, but no little criticism, there is
abundant evidence. The sermon itself gave great offence to
the Low Church clergy of Chichester, who naturally were
Manning's chief friends. For five years they had looked
upon him as one of themselves ; for had he not followed
reverentially and lovingly in the footsteps of his predecessor
the Eev. John Sargent? The declaration of religious principles
contained in the Rule of Faith came upon them like a
surprise. The Eector of Lavington was attacked in print
and at public meetings.^ Still worse, complaint was laid
against him with the bishop. Bishop Otter had no
sympathy with the Evangelicals, quite the contrary; nor,
indeed, with the Tractarians ; what he valued most was
peace, and the quiet dignity of an Established Church.
His first and natural impulse was an attempt to induce
Manning to keep the peace, and offer for charity sake his
cheek to the smiter. To this end, in the hope of stopping
the pubhcation of a controversial Appendix, Bishop Otter
wrote as follows : —
My dear Mr. Manning — Since I wrote to you last I have
reflected somewhat more upon the state of mind which has been
produced amongst us by the incipient controversy, and I cannot
but think that, unless you are quite convinced that your Appen-
1 In an autobiograpMcal Note, referring to the period 1837, Cardinal
Manning says : — "When in 1837 (1838 ?), at the next visitation, I preached
on tradition or the rule of faith, I was attacked by a clergyman named
Davies. But he had many of the so-called Evangelicals behind him. I
defended it in an appendix. From that time they gave me up."
136 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
dix is very important under some large view, you had better
reserve it for some more convenient season. You have yourself
taken much pains to bring the Evangelical party in this part of
the diocese into a more harmonious co-operation with the rest,
and with good effect. Are Ave (sic) not now undoing this good,
and that, too, without necessity ? Some allowance is to be made
to persons situated as they are, and have been. And the peace
of the Church is of much more advantage than any advance
even to a good cause, which can only be attained at the expense
of peace. I say this under a fear that, be as cautious as you
may, you will find it difficult to avoid saying something that
excited minds may take ofifence at. I throw this out hastily
for your consideration ; for after all, you may have weightier
reasons in your mind for proceeding. I have seen Mr. Herbert
and Mr. Davies respecting the meeting — they will come — besides
these Grible and others. I am sincerely anxious for your own
health, which requires tranquillity. Try to consider this, for
there are many who estimate your services at a high price. —
Yours sincerely, W. Chichester.
P.S. — I hear you are going to preach two sermons on Sunday.
You are doing too much. Will you come here to luncheon at
2 P.M., and to sleep ?
Manning succeeded in persuading the bishop that it
was best to let things take their course. The Appendix
was published. The controversy in Chichester broke out
afresh.^ Its writer had made up his mind to break with
his old friends the Evangelicals, perhaps on the axiom — I
tremble lest I should be thought profane or frivolous — " It
is well to be off with the old love before you are on with
the new."
It was Manning's invariable habit, early and late in life,
to distribute among his friends and to send to men of
repute in letters or politics his sermons or tracts. To those
who were more intimate with him, or whom he wished to
attract or conciliate, he often sent his proof-sheets. He
accordingly sent his sermon, Bute of Faith, before it had
been enriched by " Notes " and " Appendix," to Newman,
^ The Eule of Faith and the Appendix were fiercely attacked by Mr.
Bowdler. He published a book exposing Manning's "errors " as a " betrayal
of Gospel truth." The "sermon was bad enough, but tlie Appendix was
abominable."
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELICxIOUS OPINIONS 137
who acknowledged the gift as follows in a letter dated 9 th
August 1838.
I like your sermon (It. of F.), and thank you for the sight of
it. The part about the creeds, p. 33, seems to me particularly
useful. It was much wanted. Are you quite safe in the note
on p. 282 ? If the canon of Scripture was formed, as you say,
in the second century, how could the Roman Church doubt of
the Epistle to the Hebrews up to Jerome's time, and the Greeks
of the fourth century keep a most pregnant silence as regards
the Apocalypse ? . . . I see you have adopted the old style ; it
takes off somewhat from perspicuity, though it is fuller.
Two months or so later Manning sent the Appendix
or postscript to the Bule of Faith in proof-sheets to Newman.
In reply Newman writes : —
HuRSLET, 24:th October 1838.
(I go back on the 26tli. )
I return through G. and R. the two first sheets of your post-
script. The beginning is rather hard, e.g. I do not see how
Paley's Evidences have to do with the the "rule of faith," in
any sense in which the words are or can fairly be used, i.e. I do
not see the meaning or drift of calling " the grounds and proofs
of revelation " the rule of faith. Nor do I think it subserves
the part of exhausting the divisions of the subject which seems
to have led to your noticing it. Again, I think this obscure.
[Another passage marked.]
Bating this objection in the outset, I think all that follows
very good ; the twenty objections are valuable and happy, par-
ticularly the last, and the whole is clearly and well worked out.
As to Chillingworth, I should consider him a shuffler ; but I do
not see why we should not use the better sayings of shufflers
against their worse. It was a homage they paid to truth, and
both exposes them and stultifies their admirers — two worthy
ends.
In a letter undated Keble also writes as follows : —
My dear Mr. Manning — I am much obliged by your sending
me the sheets of your pamphlet, which I have read with great
interest, and think most seasonable both in matter and spirit.
The few remarks Avhich have occurred to me you will find on
the other side. ... I shall wait with great interest for your
Appendix. I hoj^e I am right in gathering from your note that
the Bishop of Chichester has no dislike to yoar views.
138 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
If his own bishop, for peace and quiet sake, viewed with
some concern and misgiving the development of Manning's
rehgious opinions, the Bishop of Chester, a man of sterner
stuff and of decided Evangelical views, lost no time in con-
demning the Rule of Faith and Appendix. S. W. Trower
(afterwards Canon, then Bishop of Gibraltar), an intimate
friend of Manning's, and, as will appear later on, a confidant
of Samuel Wilberforce, in a letter dated 26 th December
1838, writes as follows: —
My DEAR Manning — The Bishop of Chester, I am sorry to
hear, is pubhshing a diatribe against you. You will smile at
my saying against you. What a world of strife we live in !
To a man of peace and goodwill towards all men, like
Manning, it must needs have seemed strange to be attacked,
and, above all, by a bishop. To be accused of falling from
Gospel truth by the Record might be met with a smile ;
but to be hauled over the coals by a bishop was no laughing
matter to the peace- and bishop-loving Eector of Lavington.
Having been requested by Manning before starting for
Eome to report how his pamphlet had been received,
Trower could not well avoid sending him the rough with
the smooth. In the following passage he gives his own
criticism : —
I was thinking the other day of writing to you and beginning
my letter by inquiring what was become of your Appendix, when
the door opened and in it came. I have read the last part aloud
to the ladies, and was not disappointed in my expectations of
finding there very pithy reading. I cannot tell you how en-
tirely I agi'ee with you, nor was my fair audience, I hope,
wholly impersuaded — albeit not the most persuadable part of
creation. I cannot, however, report the opinion of others on
the work, having seen no one since it was out. There is an
opinion often expressed of your style, and I own, me judice, with
some correctness, that it is obscure in many passages. It is
said that the impressiveness of your manner in preaching carries
it off, but when read it is found less correctly Avritten than had
been supposed. For my own part, while I confess that I allow
some truth in this, I only wonder how you could have written
in such a hurry, so correctly and so logically.
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 139
J. W. Trower relates in this letter an amusing story
about some of the Chichester Evangelicals and Manning's
sermon : —
I could not but smile, even in the midst of that most melan-
choly matter, at breaking in once or twice on a conclave to
which Barhut appeared to have been descanting on a theme of
no little interest, to judge from his flushed cheek and eager
manner ; I only caught the words, ' They say it is all verbiage,'
or something like them, but watched with much amusement his
eyes stealing up from under their lids at me whenever he gave
utterance to any of his crudities.
Speaking of a clergyman of this school, who " had just
lost his wife under very sad circumstances," Trower says : —
Poor James, none, I am sure, will feel for him more truly
than yourself. . . . Spoke to me to-day much of your kindness
in allowing his visiting an outlying part of yoiu* parish.
Manning, it should seem, in those early days was more
tolerant than later in allowing a dissenting interloper or
ecclesiastical " poacher " into his parish.
Even three years and more after the publication of
Manning's first controversial treatise, Samuel Wilberforce
wrote to Miss M. S. Elliott in answer to her as to his views
on Manning's book, the following letter : —
I8th May 1842.
I believe the Bible and the Bible only to be the rule of faith;
and I believe that to bring this strongly and sharply out is a
matter of the greatest moment. I think the whole school of
the Tract- writers fail here ; that they speak, and seem to love to
speak, ambiguously of the necessity of tradition, and the tendency
of all which (even if they do not mean what is positively erron-
eous) must be, I think, and is (1) to lead men to undervalue
God's Word (a tendency on which I enlarged in one of my
Oxford sermons) ; (2) to lead men to regard the Romish view
of tradition without suspicion and dread.
Now, to these objections I do honestly think some of my
dear brother-in-law's statements are exposed, and I could not,
therefore, have written as he has done ; but when I have talked
with him I have found it difficult to fix him to any meaning
beyond what all Churchmen hold.^
^ In S. Wilberforce's Diary is a letter dated 7th December 1838 to Charles
140 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Manning, it should seem, stood at that time somewhat
in awe of his catechising archidiaconal brother-in-law.
In these days when the spirit of Erastianism prevailed
in high places, not only in the State but in the Church,
the creation of the Ecclesiastical Commission in 1 8 3 8 raised
a most determined opposition, not only on the part of the
Tractarian leaders, but of the bishops and cathedral digni-
taries. The royal commission, appointed by the Govern-
ment to inquire into and report on Ecclesiastical property,
was naturally denounced on the one side by Newman,
Pusey, Keble, and others, "as a claim on the part of the
civil power of supreme " ownership and administration ;
whilst it was opposed with even greater warmth, on the other,
by the bishops and cathedral authorities, touched in their
tenderest point. The approval given by the Archbishop of
Canterbury (Howley) to the Eoyal Commission only added
fuel to the fire. The Tractarians held him up as a terrible
example of the Erastian spirit which prevailed in the high
places of the Church, whilst the bishops looked upon him as a
betrayer, instead of being the highest guardian, as he ought
to have been, of ecclesiastical property. What the appoint-
ment, two years before, of Dr. Hampden as Eegius Professor
had failed to effect, was brought about by the appointment
of the royal commission ; the bishops no longer reclined
inert on their episcopal thrones, but sprang to their feet
like one man in defence, if not of the faith, of the property
of the Church. Perhaps the most energetic, most active,
and certainly the most persistent of the opponents of the
Church Commission in the House of Peers was Bishop
Otter of Chichester, Manning's own bishop. His constant
attendance at the House of Lords in opposition to the
measure, especially in the year 1840, when he was in weak
health, accelerated his death.
With the aid of his old friend, Dean Chandler, Manning,
Anderson, in which the following passage occurs, " Henry Manning is gone
to Rome for the winter : the Bishop of London wickedly says he thought he
had been there ever since publishing his last volume of sermons." Manning's
last volume was the Eule of Faith. Bishop Blomfield must have been
morbidly alive to such apprehensions if he could detect any "Romanising"
tendencies in that sermon of Manning's.
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS Ul
under such favouring circumstances succeeded in setting up
friendly relations with his bishop in spite of the fact that
they had little or nothing in common in their religious
opinions. But now a bond of union and work in common
brought them together — resistance to the encroachments
and usurpations of the civil power. To this congenial
work Manning, henceforth and to the close of his Anglican
life, devoted himself heart and soul. To free the Church of
England from the bondage of the State was the desire of
his heart, the end and aim of all his public labours. If
the motive which roused Bishop Otter and his Episcopal
brethren to action, was love for the temporalities of the
Church, Manning was inspired by the far higher and purer
motive of safeguarding its spiritualities. Another advantage
then had presented itself, another opportunity which he
was quick to make use of: in opposing the Ecclesiastical
Commission he was, on the one hand, following the lead of
Newman and co-operating with the Tractarian party at
Oxford ; whilst, on the other, he was carrying out the work
on which his own bishop had set his heart, and acting
in common with almost all the bishops and dignitaries of
the Church.
His active opposition to the Ecclesiastical Commission
brought the name of the Eector of Lavington for the first
time into public notice ; it earned for him the regard and
approbation of the bishops and cathedral authorities on the
one part, and of Newman and the Tractarian party on the
other. It was an uncommon event and of happy omen to
be spoken well of by the British Critic at Oxford, and to
receive in London the benign blessings of the Record.
Manning's first step in those prolific days of tract-writing
was to write and publish a tract entitled TJie Principle of
the Ecclesiastical Commission examined in a Letter to the
Bishop of Chichester, 1838. The next step was to send his
little book to bishops, deans, archdeacons, to peers, members
of the House of Commons, as weU as to Newman and
Pusey and the leading Tractarians. In acknowledgment,
Newman, in a letter dated Oriel, 12th January 1838,
writes as follows : —
142 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
My DEAR Manning — I like your pamphlet much, and so does
Pusey, and trust and believe it will be useful. I have nothing
to find fault ^vith, but a few grammatical and other points which
I have marked.
After stating that in the next number of the British
Critic Pusey is to write a strong article on the Church
Commission, Newman goes on : —
By the bye, I rely on your article too, on Justin Martyr,
It must be ready by the end of February at latest.
N.B. — I see no notes to your pamphlet, except one or two
shabby little ones at the foot of the page. I cannot read what
you say about Misopapisticus — who, and where is he?i — Ever
yours affectionately, J. H. NE^^^^IAN.
P.S. — Why don't you date your letter 1 -
Manning's pamphlet was a success. It was a stout
defence of the right of the Church to the independent
control of its own affairs, spiritualities as well as tempor-
alities. Had it even been known that the Eector of
Lavington was in close correspondence with Newman, and
a writer in the British Critic, abhorred alike by Evangelicals
and by bishops, what bishop so bigoted as not to condone
the offence, when he turned a grateful ear to Manning,
exalting in his " letter " not only his own bishop, but the
whole Episcopal Body in the following glowing terms : —
In our minds, your lordship is not only one of the Apo-
stolical Body to whose united wisdom and equal authority the
Church in this land is, by a divine commission, put in charge,
but also the sole consecrated ruler and guardian of the Church,
and diocese to which we belong. Our bishop is to us the source
of authority, and the centre of unity in order, deliberation, and
discipline. In his suffrage our assent and dissent is \artually
expressed. We believe that no power, spiritual or ecclesiastical,
excepting only collective authority of the whole Episcopal Order,
to which supreme jiurisdiction all bishops are severally subject,
^ A violent anti-Catholic and anti-Tractarian pamphlet under the name
of Misopapinticus was published in 1838 by Scely, the Low Church publisher,
- The pernicious habit of sending undated letters was very common at the
above period, for of the hundreds of letters which I have had to read or
decipher, the vast majority with the exception of Newman's were either
wholly or in part undated.
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 143
can reach us, unless it pass through his express permission. Your
lordship is therefore both the natural protector of our privileges,
and the natural depository of our fears.
He adds, what was undoubtedly true, that : —
We have been told that the greater proportion of the clergy
are in favour of the commission ; that they have expressed their
consent by their silence ; that the cathedral bodies indeed as
persons interested oppose, but that the parochial clergy tacitly
approve the recommendation of the Ecclesiastical Commission.
Again the Evangelicals would not take amiss from
Manning's lips many passages of stately and ornate diction,
written for their edification. The following is significant : —
We have once well seen the corruption of the Church in
discipline and faith from the supremacy of the Roman patriarch.
We have now another supremacy to beware of. The two
swords have passed from the pope to the king, from the king
to the people. The next patriarch of the English Church will
be Parliament, and on its vote will hang our orders, mission,
discipline, and faith ; and the pontificate of Parliament is but
the modern voluntary principle in disguise.
In another passage, Manning appeals directly to the
principles taught and upheld by the Tractarians.
Better far to undergo another exile from our hearths and
altars, to wear out in patient waiting the long delays of another
twelve years' oppression, than to yield for peace or policy one
tittle of Apostolical Order.
For two years the Rector of Lavington aided his bishop ;
was in constant communication with him as to the steps to
be taken in the House of Lords in organising opposition to the
Ecclesiastical Commission. Such a state of things naturally
led to Manning's being a not infrequent visitor at the
bishop's palace at Chichester.
The clergy of the diocese of Chichester were in due
course invited to meet at the two archdeaconries, Lewes
and Chichester, to present addresses against the Ecclesiastical
Commission to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Ven.
C. Webber, Archdeacon of Chichester, was too old and
infirm, or was thought to be so, for the special work in
144 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
hand. Dean Chandler, with the clergy of the archdeaconry,
met to choose in the consistory of the cathedral a proctor
for Convocation. Manning had drawn up an address to the
archbishop. He read it to the assembled clergy ; it was
accepted unanimously, and Manning was elected as proctor
and instructed to present it to Convocation.
Speaking of the presentation, Manning, in one of his
Notes, says : —
In the Convocation we had a hot debate. I said what I had
wi'itten ; and I heard a voice say, "1525." It was Sydney
Smith in a corner invoking Henry VIII. But he really agreed
with what I said, and joined afterwards publicly and did not
much like it.
The Tractarians were taking active steps to defeat the
object of the Ecclesiastical Commission by insisting, in their
own uncompromising fashion, on the restoration of the
right of the clergy to meet and confer upon the affairs of
the Church as in old times. In this view a petition was
projected in the form of an amendment to the address of
the two Houses of Convocation to be presented to the Crown
on the occasion of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne.
Manning, hearing that a petition of this kind was in circula-
tion, wrote to Keble expressing a wish to see it. In reply,
Keble, in a letter dated Hursley, 11th December 1837,
wrote as follows : —
My DEAR Mr. Manning — I find I have the foul copy of the
paper you wished to see, which I have accordingly sent you by
a friend who is going to Oxford. You will see that it is rather
a stretch of words to represent that which is in circulation as
being in any sense my production. Perhaps you will disapprove
of the proposed address leaving it doubtful who the proper organs
of the Church are. The reason of our doing so was the certainty
of creating endless discussions and losing many signatures,
whether the bishops in Synod or Convocation were specified,
and I like to fancy the Queen on reading the address inquiring
who are the proper organs, and receiving from the bishop Avho
should present it, a full and true statement. But I am told that
in fact no address comes near her.
Pray remember me kindly to Newman, Pusey, Harrison,
vm DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 145
Copeland, Williams and Co. Wilson and I are very anxious to
know what is to be done with the British Critic. I am, dear
Mr. Manning, most truly yours, j^ Keble.^
In his Reminiscences of Oriel, the Eev. Thomas Mozley,
Eector of Cholderton near Salisbury, who was putting about
a form of amendment to the address to the effect of making
Convocation a reality, says : —
Among others to whom I sent the proposed amendment
was Manning, who had lately become a widower, and was said
to be entering warmly into the coming struggle for the in-
dependence of the Church.
To this appeal for his co-operation in the proposal to
make Convocation a reality instead of being " a pure piece
of lumber dragged out one day and dragged back into its
closet the next," ^ Manning wrote as follows : —
My dear Mozley — I have been many times at the point of
writing to you to thank you for your letter, and the draft of
the amendment, and also to ask you to consider whether a
somewhat different line would not more surely attain our
purpose ; and that is to move your amendment, substituting
for the prayer of licence to debate in Convocation, either a
petition that no measure of the Ecclesiastical Commission should
be laid before Parliament until it shall have received the assent
of the Church in a council of the province, or offering both
this and your proposal as an alternative, of which without
doubt, if either, the provincial council would be most favourably
received. Perhaps the expressed alternative of Convocation
might have a very good effect in that way.
The reasons for suggesting this are : —
1. That Convocation probably contains three parties. One
against all change ; the second hot for Convocation ; the third
against Convocation but anxious for some active measure. The
two last, if combined, will be a majority ; if disunited, altogether
defeated. I cannot say decidedly that I could vote for your
amendment as it stands. For the alternative I could ; and so
would the Convocation men.
2. The bishops would to a man resist your proposal, but a
^ This letter of Keble's shows that Manning was already in 1837 entering
upon friendly relations with the Tractarian party.
^ Reminiscences of Oriel, vol. i. p. 426.
VOL. I ^
146 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
larger number would vote for a provincial council ; probably
all who are so opposed to the Commission ; and in this Avay the
amendment would probably pass both Houses, and for once
unite them.
3. However, many laymen in and out of Parliament are
ready to support a measure to obtain the consent of the Chui'ch,
and to restore some canonical council, but not Convocation.
These are some of the reasons why I believe the amendment, as
it stands, would be both defeated in Convocation and un-
palatable out of it. I write in great haste ; pray let me hear
how it strikes you, and what is doing in your diocese. In our
archdeaconry the address is going very successfully — forty-five
replies and only five refusals, and that in about a fortnight.
It is also in circulation through the proctor in the other arch-
deaconry (Lewes) and I know of some approvals. — Believe me,
my dear Mozley, yours very sincerely, ^ jj. Manning.
P.S. — Do you know Mr. Strutt, who married the Bishop of
Chichester's daughter ? Tell me if you know anything of his
religious opinions.
Festival op All Saints.
The line of argument pursued by Manning in his reply
to Mozley 's proposition about Convocation, is in accord
with Keble's views as expressed, two or three months
previously, in the following letter : —
HuRSLET, 25th September 1837.
My dear Mr. Manning — I palliate to myself my indolence
in not sooner replying to your interesting letter by two con-
siderations : — 1. I have not yet received your promised proof-
sheet of a petition. 2. It was only yesterday that I was able
to find the number of Blanco White's Review, which I send with
this. I fear you will hardly find much in it ; but it struck me
from memory as a curious admission on the part of so lax a
churchman of the anomaly and inequity of our present ecclesi-
astical government. Yoiu: plan of operations appears to me
at once decided and prudent, and I do not know that I can
suggest anything to improve on it. One thing which I especially
like is the way in which you have steered clear of anything like
a request for the opening of Convocation. I fear that in some
other quarters there has not been so much reserve. Mozley (of
Oriel), I understand, has prevailed on one of the Wiltshire
proctors to pledge himself to move an amendment to the
Address, to the same effect as your petition to the archbishop.
vni DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 147
Would it not be well to communicate with some one in that
quarter as soon as your address is fixed on, and try if you can
get them to shape their proceedings accordingly ? I shall do
what I can with Vaux, who is one of the Winchester proctors.
He showed me the Act the other day, by which it appeared
that the real veto on discussion, if any, rests with the arch-
bishop in consequence of his prerogative of proroguing the
Upper House, which is understood to imply a prorogation of
the Lower House also. The Act itself referring only to legis-
lation. This renders it the more desirable to render the
archbishop thoroughly aware that we do not want to have
Convocation let loose if it can be helped. Mozley had no wish
of that kind, but it would not occur to him how to proceed
otherwise. — Yours ever most sincerely, T. Keble.
On being made one of the Eural Deans in 1837,
Manning made an opportunity to signalise his advent by
moving a resolution at a meeting of the Eural Deans at
Chichester to appoint a small correspondence committee
to consider the following proposition : — That all Church
matters ought to be administered by the Church alone, i.e.
by bishops, clergy, king, and laity in communion with the
Church.
In the busy year 1838, whilst the leading young men
of the High Church party, S. F. Wood, Thomas Acland,
W. E. Gladstone, Matheson and others, were actively
engaged in London in resisting the attempts of the State
in favour of a national system of secular education.
Manning was co-operating with them in Chichester in
defence of the religious education of the people. In a
sermon preached in Chichester Cathedral, 31st May 1838,
Manning vigorously denounced the contentions of the
irreligious party — the Eadicals and Secularists of that day
— that the secular education of the people should be carried
on by the State, whilst the teaching of religion might be
cared for out of school by the clergy of the Church of
England and Dissenting ministers. Against the godless
system of education Manning from first to last was the
most consistent and uncompromising opponent. He said of
himself that he was not naturally attracted to the question
of education, but it was imposed upon him as a duty by
us CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Bishop Otter. How well he fulfilled this duty the history
of his life shows.^ The first word which he spoke in favour
of national education being based on religion, was this
sermon delivered in 1838. In order to meet the public
need, caused by the growth of population — " a new popula-
tion of millions for whom we have no education," he
contended that cathedral institutions should be utilised ; a
superior class of teachers provided, and the zeal of the
clergy awakened anew until, " with the Universities for the
keystone of the arch and the parochial schools for the
basis," the Church would be enabled to provide for the
religious education of the people. From this sermon, the
following characteristic passage will suffice : —
There is but one law for all men, whatsoever may be their
after-part in the great spectacle of life, in the pomp of courts
and parliaments, in crowded cities or in lonely hamlets, high
born or low, lettered or unlettered, ruling or obeying, lu-ging
on the advances of science or plying some unheeded craft, for
all men of all ranks, characters, and destinies. There is one
and only one great idea running through all, the first aim and
ground-work of education, the vital element and perfecter of the
whole work, and that is the right determination of the will,
confirmed by the formation of Christian habits, for God's service
here and for salvation hereafter.
On the 9 th of November S. F. Wood wrote to Manning
as follows: —
What has become of your education sermon ? We are going
to issue a circular to our local boards, pressing upon them
the importance of bringing in the middle class to the Church,
and this will be the time to send round your sermon if it is
ready.
In another passage he writes —
Pray tell me soon, my dear Manning, how you ai'e, for I
feel very uneasy at some things people have said about you.^
^ On two occasions, however, in 1849 as an Anglican, and in 1871 as a
Catholic, Manning made default, at any rate in a timely or efficient defence
against the encroachments of the civil power on the rights of religious
education.
'^ Manning's state of health at that time caused much anxiety among his
friends.
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OriNIONS 149
With his friends, S. F. Wood, T. Acland, Matheson, and
Mr. Gladstone, who were labouring so zealously in the
work of estabHshing diocesan boards in connection with
the " National Society," Manning was in constant com-
munication.^ His friend, S. F. Wood, in a letter dated
"Temple, St. Mark's Day," presumably in the year 1838,
says : —
Carissime — As to your Sermon: what may well and pro-
perly be said in it will depend so much on the result of our
conference with the " National Society " on Saturday, that I will
suspend any remark till we meet.
He then explains to Manning the plan and principles on
which he and Matheson are working in establishing diocesan
boards and asks Manning's co-operation : —
Diocesan seminaries and a central college are our key-notes :
the former to be closely connected with the cathedral and its
officers, and to be the sole academy for ordinary masters. But
a few of the ablest and most deserving should come to the
central college to complete their education and fit them for the
higher situations : the cathedrals and others, to found exhibitions
to maintain them while in term at little expense, and in a
monastic mode of life. The college to be, if possible, a branch
of King's College. Rose is inclined to favour this.
Then I have a further private notion that all these superior
masters might be in deacons' orders, so providing one element
for a permanent diaconate. How much better it would be, e.g.
at Christ Church (Dodsworth's), for him to have an older man
stationary, acting, in fact, as the curate, and supervising the
school, than smart young prigs from Oxford, who are going off
continually, as soon as they have vented their inexperience on
the district.
If you thought this a good basis to build upon, get me up a
working plan of it by Monday : considering the objections and
difficulties and furnishing a solution of them. — Yours afi'ec-
tionately, g, p. Wood.
In a letter, undated, presumably a few days later, Wood
1 In a letter to Charles Anderson, dated 7th December 1838, Samuel
Wilberforce says : — ' ' We are very busy at Oxford ordering a diocesan board
for national education after the notions of Acland, Wood, Gladstone, and all
that party of young men who have been moving on that subject in London."
Life of Bishop Wilberforce.
150 CARDINAL MANNING chaf.
tells Manning that " The National Society have gulped our
whole plan, accepted our services, and we are formed
(together with certain members of the N. S. and chapter
clergy, viz. your dean and Drs. Spry and Butler) into a
committee of inquiry and correspondence to carry out our
plans." He then promises to send Manning a lithographed
statement, meant to interest influential persons in what they
had done and were doing.
In another letter, dated 8th February 1839, addressed to
Manning in Eome, S. F. Wood says : —
As to education, since I last wrote, there have been great
meetings at Lichfield and Warrington, to form boards for
Lichfield and Chester dioceses ; at the former, Peel, at the latter
Stanley, spoke ; the last with brilliant eloquence. Chichester
meets to form a board to-morrow. We have issued our appeal
for funds for the central establishment, and in a few days have
got about £300 in donations, and £200 annual : the nobility
have as yet not been applied to, and I am sanguine of our
getting enough to begin. The Archbishop of Canterbury has
given a donation of £200 and £100 annual to his own diocesan
board. . . . Please tell Matheson all this if you see him, with
my afi'ectionate regards. . . }
The fourth Keport of the Church Commissioners is to be
made into a bill.
In his gossiping style S. F. Wood tells Manning that,
" Bunsen says that Gladstone's book has given a standing
place whereon to form a Church party in the House of
Commons ; he is delighted with the book itself, and has sent
it to be translated for the Crown Prince of Prussia. I met
him at breakfast at Acland's, and was much struck with
his mental energy, and hearty affectionateness ; he has a noble
head and countenance. He has been at Oxford, and is
drawing nearer towards our friends there ; still he is and
will be plerU Teutonicus. . . . Study hard at your Deutsch."
The establishment of colleges in connection with the
diocesan boards for training candidates for orders was to
be the crown of the work. The chief difficulty which Wood
and his friends had to encounter, after securing a suitable
^ Matheson, suffering from consumption, was in Rome.
VIII DEVELOPMENT OF HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 151
candidate as principal of the training college, was to obtain
the bishop's assent to his nomination. In reference to this
difficulty at Chichester, Newman, in a letter to Manning,
dated Oriel, 6th March, 1838, says: —
"Your College scheme seems good. As to a head to it,
Pusey suggests Ward, the Bishop of Sodor and Man's son — which
I do not much fancy, as I told him. I suggested Seager, which
he seems to think plausible. He also suggests your Dean himself,
if you can trust him — What say you to this? It would be a
means of studying cathedrals."
The candidate eventually selected, and after many
months' hesitation accepted by Bishop Otter, was the Rev.
Charles Marriott.^ He was warmly supported by the Tract-
arians. Manning acted wisely, and with his usual pru-
dence, in decKning to tie himself down to such an office.
In recognition of his services in the cause of education
and of his aid in establishing diocesan boards, Bishop Otter
appointed Manning secretary to the Diocesan Board of
Chichester. This appointment brought him not only into
closer personal relations with the bishop, but gave the
Eector of Lavington a public position among the clergy of
the diocese.^
^ In a letter to Manning about this date, S. F. Wood says : — "I have long
had you in my mind's eye for our first principal."
2 Speaking of the foundation of the Diocesan College for Holy Orders in
Chichester, Cardinal Manning, in one of his journals, said :— " It was the first
that was founded. Wilts claimed precedence, but I think we were first.
Bishop Otter was strongly in its favour, his successor against it ; Charles
Marriott of Oriel was the first principal. The first £50 given to me to begin
it was from W. E. Gladstone.
CHAPTEK IX
manning's active WOKK ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD
1839-1840
Bishop Otter's anxiety about Manning's health was not
unwarranted. In August, and again in September, he had
suffered from severe attacks of asthma, which had left him
very weak ; and, as winter approached, he was ordered by
his doctor to go to the south of Europe. He was one of a
little party of invalids destined to spend the winter of
1838-39 in Eome. His intimate friend, Benjamin Harri-
son, afterwards archdeacon, writes, in a letter to Manning,
dated " Christchurch, Oxford, 5th November 1838: — I
hope Marriott has not been ' reckoning,' as they say, ' without
his host,' or the captain of his party in asking my brother
to join it. I know well he could not out-reckon you in
kindness in such a proposal, but he may have out-reckoned
the conveniences and possibilities of things."
Harrison also suggested " that Gladstone would be
returning from Rome for the meeting of Parliament, besides
the chance of Marriott's coming back, so that, supposing
there were any reason for his brother's not continuing
abroad, there would be an opportunity of his returning
in good hands." In the same letter Harrison acknowledges
a parcel of proof-sheets (the appendix), which Manning had
sent him for revision.
Mrs. Harrison, the archdeacon's widow, speaks to - day
with the liveliest gratitude of the devoted care and kind-
ness which Manning had shown at Rome to her husband's
younger brother, an invalid, who soon afterwards died of
CHAP. IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 153
consumption. Another friend, John Pearson of Balliol,
gives the names of several of their common friends going
to spend the winter at Eome ; among them, John Deffell,
Manning's old schoolmate of Harrow, " suffering," as Pear-
son wrote, " for some time from heart complaint." Miss
Deffell, also suffering from a heart complaint of another
kind and character, fortunately, perhaps, did not accompany
her brother to Eome that winter.
Newman writes : —
My dear Manning, I add to Marriott's letter a brief note
to say : — First, how I rejoice you are going abroad ; next, how
I envy yom^ going to Rome ; thirdly, how I hope you will
thoroughly convert Rose whom you will meet there.
And again, writing from Oriel in festo S. Car. 1838, is
this message : —
And now vive valeque, my dear Manning, as wishes and
prays yours affectionately, John H. Newman.
With the well -wishes and prayers of many friends.
Manning, seeking shelter in the south from the cold and
fog of an English November, departs on his first visit to
Rome — the first of some twenty visits. Wood begged him
to take " notes," especially of religious matters in Rome ; but
the new fire was not yet kindled in Manning's heart in
regard to Catholic faith or Catholic worship or religious
observances. In a letter written a few years after this
visit to Rome, he expressly declared that, far from attract-
ing him, Roman devotions and practices were actually
repugnant to his mind and heart. He visited, indeed, the
churches of Rome ; admired St. Peter's with a critical eye ;
and, with severe but just taste, condemned the music in the
churches — not in St. Peter's only — as offending against
ecclesiastical propriety and devotional feeling. It was in
his heart to be a reformer of church music in Rome. If
this purifying fire was kindled in the green wood, it died
out, strange to say, in the dry ; for Manning, when in after-
life he became Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster,
tolerated in some of the best known of his churches —
154 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
thougli in all he banished women from the choir — the
most secular and operatic of music.
In Eome, Manning met Mr. Gladstone and Sir Stephen
Glynne, whom, one of his friends in a letter reminded him
he might have seen at Christchurch, Oxford, and the two
Miss Glynnes, as well as Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Eichmond,
a frequent visitor in Manning's married days at Lavington,
was at that time studying art in Eome ; and the famous
painter to-day remembers well acting the grateful part of
cicerone to his, even at that early day, not undistinguished
friends. Mr. Gladstone, he tells me, manifested a keen,
eager, and discerning curiosity in the ancient grandeurs and
glories of Eome, papal and pagan ; whilst Manning
exhibited a lively interest in primitive Christian art, and
was a warm admirer of Gothic architecture — not, indeed, of
the bastard Gothic of Eome, but of that purer style to be
found in such glorious profusion in the northern cities of
Italy. " On one occasion," Mr. Eichmond said, " Manning
told me that his mind had been formed by the study of
Dante and of Christian art in Italy." Manning and Mr.
Gladstone passed many an hour in the young painter's
studio in Eome ; on one occasion Mr. Gladstone commis-
sioned him to copy a famous painting for a church in
England, but on learning the figure it would come to, the
future Chancellor of the Exchequer demurred, and the com-
mission fell through ; though, as Mr. Eichmond explains,
the price would have barely covered the expense of staying
in Eome and keeping on his studio two months longer than
he had intended.
At the time of their visit to Eome in 1838, both
]\Ianning and Mr. Gladstone spoke Italian fairly well ; but
even during his second prolonged stay at Eome, ten years
later, Cardinal Manning once said, in allusion to that time,
" When I was in a passion — one of the ' Berserker rages '
— I used to break out into French, but, later on, I learnt
to be angry in Italian." Both men improved their
familiarity with the language by attending sermons. " Ask
Gladstone," the Cardinal once said, whether he remembers
standing side by side with me in the Church of S. Luigi
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 155
dei Francesi, listening to the sermon of a Dominican friar,
and saying to me, ' Such preachers we want at home —
eloquent and impassioned, yet singularly dogmatic in their
teachings.'" This incident Mr. Gladstone remembered
well. "Ask the Cardinal," he said in retort, " if he
remembers how, when we were walking together one Sun-
day morning in the Piazza dei Fiore, he rebuked me for
buying apples on a Sunday. The Cardinal Archbishop,"
he added with a smile, " is, I fancy, far more tolerant than
the straitlaced parson of that day."
Mr. Kichmond says that what always struck him most
in Manning were, " grace of mind and grace of manner."
" He was in those days," added the great painter — to whose
singular skill we owe the fine portrait on the frontispiece
of this volume — " strikingly handsome, and as graceful as
a stag in every movement and motion." In speaking of
this remark to Cardinal Manning, he said, with a humorous
smile, " It only shows what nonsense clever men will some-
times talk."
It was in Eome, during the winter of 1838, that
Manning met Dr. Wiseman for the first time. The great
champion of the Church, the author of those controversial
lectures, which made no little stir in 1836, had not the
faintest idea that the young Protestant Rector of Lavingtou,
who in company with Mr. Gladstone paid him a visit at
the English College, had two years before, writing under
the pseudonym " A Catholic Priest," publicly impugned the
veracity of the great Catholic controversialist. Had he
even known it, Wiseman was by far too large-hearted a man
to have remembered against Manning his youthful fliippancy.
In an autobiographical Note Cardinal Manning
related that —
On St. Thomas of Canterbury's Day in 1838, Gladstone and
I called on Mgr. Wiseman as Rector of the English College.
The capella cardinalizia was going to begin. He sent for a
student to take us into the chapel. It was Thomas Grant,
afterwards Bishop of Southwark. We stood together under the
Avindow on the court side of the chapel behind the cardinals.
On St. Agnes Day 1839, Mgr. Wiseman and I walked out
15G CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to see the lambs blessed at S. Agnese fuori le Mure. He was
not even a bishop. How little we thought that he and I should
have the two first palliums in a new hierarchy of England.
Cardinal Manning perhaps did not remember what
impression Mgr. Wiseman of 1838 had made upon Mr.
Gladstone and himself ; for surely, otherwise, he would not
have failed to put on record " the figure of the man " with
whom in after - life he was so closely associated — his
illustrious predecessor in the See of Westminster.
Mr. Gladstone and his party, fortunately not, like
Manning, invalided, left Eome long before he did. Mr.
Eichmond soon followed them to England.
Manning was never idle ; never lost an opportunity of
adding to his store of knowledge, or of attaining such arts
and acquirements as might be most serviceable to him in
life. In this view, during his leisure time in Eome he
improved his knowledge of French by taking lessons from
an apostate French priest, who had left France, married and
set up in Eome as teacher of French. Manning appears to
have taken special interest in this apostate priest ; to have
initiated him into the mysteries of " Anglo - Catholic prin-
ciples " ; and even to have invited him to Lavington.
In the following year, the too -confiding rector appealed
to Newman to provide, if possible, a home or some work
at Oxford for his precious convert ; in whose stability
as a " converted Galilean," Manning, in spite of his
friendly feelings, showed no very great confidence. In
bringing back from Eome, as a legacy of his first visit,
an apostate priest, the over - zealous rector too soon dis-
covered that he had brought a white elephant to Lavington.
His attempt to shift his burden on to Newman's shoulders
at Oxford, met with no favourable response ; for Sydney
Smith's warning that " the pope throws his weeds over our
garden wall," was too fresh to be neglected.
Manning's description of his " converted Galilean " is
too racy and too true of the whole tribe of apostate priests,
who want to be provided for in the Church of England, to
be passed over.
Manning's letter to Newman is as follows : —
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 157
Lavington, 12th August 1839.
My dear Newman — If I had not something better to
write about, I should give you a rare scolding for not writing
to tell me how you prosper. I daresay you will be shameless
enough to retort this objurgation ; but, be that as it may.
I write to you to put a matter for your considera-
tion. M. , a priest of the Galilean Church, after
going through the usual course of incredulity, left France,
married, and went to Rome ; lived there eight years as
teacher of French ; has worked his way back to a Christian
belief, and by the help of our prayer book, etc., to an avowed
rejection of Romanism and confession of Anglo -Catholic prin-
ciples. He is a converted Gallican. On this profession the
Bishop of London has received him into the Church and recog-
nised his orders. He is anxious to study and feels his want of
it, has right and promising dispositions of mind, is tractable
by those that have his confidence. His abilities are consider-
able. He is capable of being disgusted and unsettled by
injudicious or improper treatment at this moment, and capable
also of being disciplined and formed into a good and useful man.
Is earnest for work.
He has an ofiFer as French teacher to a school, the master of
which is a "Christian " — small salary, worry, no time for his own
studies (on which he is extremely bent), and likely to get a
false and mischievous idea of the Anglican doctrine — and I am
endeavouring to find a home and some work for him at
Chichester, but have small hope. Is such a thing possible at
Oxford ? He could not want much to live upon, as he is very
careful. Pray consider this, and if you can send me Marriott's
present direction by return of post I will write to him. He
knows M. well, and I knew him all the time I was at
Rome. He has been with me here, and I think very well of
him and hope much — but fear too — not only for him but for the
Bishop of London, and her the bishop represents. I have
written openly about him, but confidentially in several points,
so pray oblige me by not communicating all except to such as
you trust. . . ,
I have been meaning to write to you, but you will not
measure my real and heartfelt friendship by this silence. —
Believe me, my dear Newman, ever yours affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
In the following letter to his brother Frederick, the
Rector of Lavington describes his journey to Rome and his
158 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
first impressions of the Eternal City, But, in writing to his
grave elder brother, Manning seems — and not in this letter
only — rather stiff and formal, as if he was writing under
restraint : —
Rome, 23rd December 1838.
My dear Frederick — It is full time to redeem my pledge
that I would write to you from Rome. I hope you have not
thought me slack in not ^VTiting to you before to thank you for
your affectionate letter. I trust you have by this time recovered
altogether the effects of yoiu* accident. You will believe that
I am unfeignedly thankful that you were so mercifully saved,
and spared to us all.
I have had no letter (except one from Christopher Words-
worth) since I left England.
Our journey to Rome was very prosperous. We did it in
twenty-five days, spending two at Paris and the Sundays at
Breteuil, Chalons, Nice, Civita Vecchia, and sleeping in our beds
every night.
I hope to see Rome thoroughly. In fact I care more to see
Rome completely than all other places. The city as a whole
quite fulfils my anticipations, except only that the hills are not,
or do not appear sufficiently marked to satisfy one's classical
notions of the site. I have seen the Vatican several times with
increased pleasure. The small collection of pictures (they are
only thirty-five) is richer than anything I have ever seen.
There is one by Perugino of the Madonna and Child on a
throne and four saints standing by, which in execution is
wonderful. I have seen St. Peter's twice. The outside dis-
appointed me, and I do not get over it. The facade is heavy
and hinders the dome's being seen, but the inside is beyond
anything one can imagine ; I cannot, however, admit even its
splendid interior into a comparison with the Gothic of the North
of Europe. Stone and stained glass seemed to me capable of
an effect far beyond marble and gilding. Although I confess,
I do not know where to find any building as a whole sufficiently
perfect in its kind to be a fair sample.
I find here a good many people I know, and among them
Gladstone, which is a great pleasure to me ; he will stay another
month.
The new French Bishop of Algiers is here for his consecration.
I have heard him preach nearly every day last week in the
church of S. Luigi dei Francesi ; and very fair his sermons
have been. The last very good. He seems a thoroughly
earnest and good man. Nothing can exceed the unfitness of
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 159
the music at that church. (I believe it is the same everywhere.)
It is in the modern Italian style, often beautiful, but light and
out of all keeping with the place and purpose.
Gladstone and I found by the Tiber to-day, at two o'clock,
ice two inches thick, not in the river but in the ruts by the
side. The weather is beautiful, but cold. — Believe me, my
dearest Frederick, your most affectionate brother, H. E. M.
Manning returned from his winter's sojourn in Eome,
refreshed in body and mind, eager to take up again the
dropped threads of his numerous schemes and plans for the
advancement of Christian education and for the defence of
the independence of the Anglican Church, of its rights and
property, against the encroachments and usurpations, as he
used to regard them, of the civil power. He had not yet
learnt, like Pusey and Keble, to draw a distinction between
the Church and the Establishment ; or to stand aside and
leave the Establishment to its fate.^
On returning once more to his home, to widowed
Lavington, Manning's grief was renewed ; for though he
never spoke a word to a living soul of his abiding sorrow,
yet it was now, as in the long years to come, ever in his
heart like a living presence.
On the second anniversary of his wife's death in 1839,
on visiting the room ever held sacred to her memory, it
was beyond his power to master the outward signs and
tokens of his exceeding great grief.
In a letter to her eldest daughter, the wife of Samuel
Wilberforce, Mrs. John Sargent, the mother of Manning's
wife, wrote on the occasion as follows : —
This has been a week of much painful feeling to dear
Henry, and he has wished to spend it exclusively in religious
exercises and in his parish. On Wednesday we went soon after
breakfast to the shepherd, and dearest Henry administered the
sacrament to him and Mrs. Graysmark, and Mrs. Reeves and me.
He then shut himself up in his room, and after some hours
he called me to give me some memorials for which I had once
asked. He was in quite an agony of tears, and only in the
evening appeared, in the calmest state of mind, and we had
^ In a letter of Keble's to Pusey such an opinion was expressed.
160 CARDINAL MANNING ohap.
service in the church as the Eve of St. James.^ Yesterday we
had two sei'vices ; in tlie morning here, evening at Graff ham,
and two nice little lectures ; as we were going into the church
Henry said, " My dear friend Gladstone is just now going to be
married " ; and upon my saying something of the strange
difTerences in the lot of those we love, he said in the most
plaintive voice : " Yes, but it all leads to the same blessed
end."
In order to seek distraction or relief from the effects of
this overmastering sorrow, the widower of Lavington had
two years ago devoted himself to incessant work of a nature
to absorb his thoughts and take up all his time. He never
allowed his mind to dwell on the memory of the past
except in direct acts of devotion at church or still more at
home. Manning was no recluse or scholar, finding deb'ght
in contemplation or in abstruse or profound speculations,
but a man of action. In active work, therefore, he passed
his busy life. The first impulse which drove him to seek
distraction in work soon became a habit, which, added to
his native energies, both of mind and body, made him what
he was to the end of his life — a man never happy unless
absorbed from brain to finger-tips in work. The work he
loved best at Lavington was to promote the honour and
glory of the Church he loved so well ; to reform abuses
and amend the ways of men ; to cultivate the good will of
his brother clergy in Chichester; to be on good terms with
the dignitaries of the Church, and to stand well with his
bishop. It was not in the nature of the Eector of
Lavington to be content with ineffectual desires ; what he
greatly desired he took infinite pains to bring about; he
studied the means as well as the end, and followed them
up with indomitable patience and perseverance. It was
this method or habit of mind which, humanly speaking,
was the secret of his success in life.
If, on the one side, the secretary of the Diocesan Board
of Chichester was an active and, if so be, an ambitious
churchman, busy, like Martha, about many things ; on the
other, the pious and loving pastor of his flock, like Mary,
' St. James's Eve was the day of Mrs. Manning's death.
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 161
as it were, anointed the feet of the Christ in staunchiua
the moral wounds and assuaging the material sufferings of
the rustics and shepherds of Lavington. Manning's zeal
for the spiritual instruction and weKare, his sympathy with
the wants and afflictions, of these day-labourers, whose toil
was unbroken all the year through, from dawn to dusk,
and whose lives were unbrightened by a ray of joy, or even
of hope, may be traced in the kindly words of hope and
comfort he addressed to them in a series of homely lectures
delivered at this date (I7th September 1840) at the little
chapel of Graffham, about two miles from Lavington.
A few passages from these simple lectures — printed as a
tract and circulated by a tract society — will suffice to
show Manning's early acquaintance with the agricultural
labourers, among whom he lived and worked, his knowledge
of their failings and of their good qualities : —
Time must be redeemed for the poor man. The world is too
hard upon him and makes him pay too heavy a tale out of his
short Hfe. Except Sunday and one or two other days — such
as Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Ascension Day,^ which
through Christian kindness of many landlords and farmers in
this neighbourhood, has of late, without loss of wages, been
given to their labourers — our poor have no days of relaxation
for body and mind.
Those who have lived as it is our blessing to do among the
agricultural poor will know that with some rudeness of address
and with faults not to be denied, they are still a noble-hearted
race, whose sincerity, simplicity, and patience we should buy
cheap at the cost of our refinements. But little is needed to
make their holiday. The green fields and tools idle for a day,
the church bell, an active game, simple fare, the sport of their
children, the kindly presence and patient ear of superiors, is
enough to make a village festival.^
In another lecture, The Daily Service, a subject dear to
his heart from the time he first came to Lavington, Manning
^ "When I first worked in Sussex," Cardinal Manning once told me,
"Ascension Day was observed nowhere in England."
2 In a note in a later publication (1845), on Lord John Manners's (now
Duke of Rutland) letter pleading for a national holiday, Manning said, " It
exhibits a happy example of true English benevolence, and of that highest
nobleness, a lowly and loving care for the poor of Christ's flock."
VOL. I M
162 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
dwelt with simple eloquence on the beauty and benefit of
morning and evening prayer. In the following passage
he strikes a higher note : —
It is a remarkable and instructive fact, that, while the
Catholic Churches in the east and the west, from the beginning
to this hour, had retained their daily service, they had — in the
midst of whatever corruptions in doctrine and practice may
otherwise be alleged against them — nevertheless retained also a
visible and conscious unity ; while certain portions of the Western
Church, which in the last three centuries have abandoned the
daily service, have lost their visible and conscious unity. They
broke the bond and trampled under foot the symbol of unity,
which is perpetual, visible worship. And the end of this we
see. Unity departed first, and truth followed speedily. The
daily sacrifice Avas taken away, and they were broken up ; and
churches fell into fragments — into congregations, ever changing,
ever resolving themselves into new forms.
The Rector of Lavington had a great horror of dissent
and dissenters and their multiplying schisms, " fragments "
of the Church of England, " congregations ever changing."
If the loving and careful pastor of his flock did not
spare himself in the service of the rustics and shepherds of
Lavington and GraS'ham, neither was the zealous church-
man idle in the service of his bishop, defending in
Chichester capitular institutions and property threatened
with suppression and confiscation by what Henry Wilber-
force called " The Sacrilege Bill."
As in 1838 Manning wrote a letter addressed to his
bishop against the appointment by Government of the
Ecclesiastical Commission, so now, in 1840, he was busy
in preparing another letter to the Bishop of Chichester, as
well as in drafting a petition to the House of Lords, on the
Bill for the Suppression of Prebendal Stalls.
In preparing this pamphlet he sought the aid of his
archdeacon, the Ven. Charles Webber, in the following
letter : —
Lavington, 5th July 1840.
My dear Auchdeacon — I write a line after my day's work
to ask of you a favour. I have on me the caco'ethes pamphletandi,
and for the throwing out of the disease I want to know (1)
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AXD REWARD 1G3
How many clergy signed your cathedral petition ? (2) How
many clergy there are in the archdeaconry 1 and also to have a
copy of the petition, or at least the last paragraph.
Would 3^ou kindly send mc, as speedily as possible, what you
can in aid of this. — And always believe me, yours very sincerely,
H. E. Manning.
In a letter to Archdeacon Hare, Manning wrote : —
Your letter has been forwarded to me in this Maelstrom ;
and I send you, as I promised yesterday, a draft which I beg
you to castigate. ... I wish I had more time to draw up the
" Petition." All I could do was to try to get in the strongest
reasons. Let me hear next week what you propose and
advise. . . .
Keally the line taken by the archbishop and the Bishop of
London about the cathedrals is incomprehensible. . . .
I revolve my great soul in my bosom about Episcopacy till
I can come, as Hobbes says, to handstrokes with you. — Yours
most sincerely, H. E. Manning.
In the Petition to " The Lords Spiritual and Temporal
assembled in Parliament," drawn up by Manning, the last
clause is characteristically chivalrous and disinterested.
After declaring, among other things, the duty of maintaining
at the cathedral city a body of tried and experienced
clergy, to whom the various diocesan offices may be en-
trusted, and of attaching to the mother church a certain
number of the parocliial clergy, thereby giving unity to the
whole of the second order of the clergy at the episcopal
see, the petition ends with the following heroic clause : —
That, if finally the alienation of all revenues except such as
are reserved for the offices of a dean and four canons in each
cathedral severally, should be resolved, that all the stalls,
residentiary and non-residentiary, and all existing dignities
without any revenue or emolument be still preserved, that their
functions may be freely and gratuitously discharged for high
moral and spiritual welfare of the Church.
The tract in defence of prebendal stalls, addressed in
the form of a " letter " to the Bishop of Chichester, con-
ceived in a like lofty spirit, insisted on the right of the
Church to manage without let or hindrance its own ecclesi-
164 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
astical affairs, and resented with force and spirit State
interference with capitular institutions and cathedral
property. The Eector of Lavington received the following
letter of commendation from his bishop : —
London, 24f/i July 1840.
My DEAR Mr, Manning — I read your letter, which is quite
unobjectionable, and very forcible and conclusive as far as it
goes. I have given it to several persons, and I am sure there is
nothing in it that would not be satisfactory to those who oppose
the bill, and command the respect of those who promote it.
Yesterday I was in good heart. The Duke of Wellington's
declaration in the House has frightened me, and I have now httle
hope of a successful resistance to the principle of the bill. Mr.
Knight's argument was not very good. I am told Mr. Hope's
is likely to be better. — I am faithfully yours,
W. Chichester.
Rev. H. Manning.
In another letter, dated ten days earlier, the bishop
wrote —
Dear Mr. Manning — ... I hope and trust that the
Government and the National Society are now coming to some
understanding. The bishops had some reason to complain of
the " Corresponding Committee," but I believe that will be now
conducted Avith a better understanding and more caution.
There is a great want of cordial union amongst the bishops who
oppose the Cathedral Bill. They are most of them dispersed,
and I find no one ready to stand by me thoroughly, but the
bishop of Salisbury (Denison). The lay peers are very little
awake upon the subject. . . . — Faithfully yours,
W. Chichester.
The Corresponding Committee of the National Society,
of whom the bishop complains, were Manning's friends
S. F. Wood, Thomas Acland, and the rest. Perhaps the
delay in appointing their nominee, Eev. C. Marriott, as
Principal of the Theological College at Chichester, of which
Newman, in a letter to Manning, so bitterly complained,
may have arisen from the Bishop's suspicions of their
zeal as being more or less closely connected with the
Tractarian movement, as well as from Manning's hesita-
tion in pressing the appointment on his reluctant bishop.
IX HIS ACTIVE WOKK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 165
Warmer than the mild episcopal commendation on the
tract Preservation of Unendowed Canonries, are the
following words from a letter of S. F. Wood's, dated
Temple, 9th August 1840 : —
Carissime — I had already bought your beautiful little
letter on Unendowed Canonries, but I do not value the less
your own membrance of me. Alas ! that such things as this,
and as Hope's speech, should pass away like the cunning sound
of an instrument, and men who have heard them should talk in
the way the Bishop of London did last night. If pettiness and
loss of temper indicate, as they surely do, a self-suspicion and
consciousness that one is not doing right, one cannot help
fearing that he and the Archbishop of Canterbury (who was
most unusually cross in the committee upstairs) are in this
predicament. We owe great thanks to the Bishop of Sarum,
who has stood up nobly and almost single-handed against
them.
In another letter, Bishop Otter admonishes Manning
among other things for the obscurity of his style in two
sermons presented to the bishop. There seems to have
been, indeed, an almost general consensus of opinion — from
Newman downwards — as to the faults at this period of
Manning's style in writing : — ^
My DEAR Mr. Manning — This morning I have just read
your education sermon ; with much in the book I am much
pleased. It is not much to say that there are parts which I
should have been glad to have written myself ; but, then, others
are to my mind a little too strong — especially where you lay
so much stress upon the old way, namely our public schools and
universities, where in fact you find little religion was practically
taught. There are parts, too, in point of style a little too
ambitious and not always clear. Of these things I will talk to
you hereafter. ^
Last night I read your other sermon too,^ of which I will
say, I think that if it had been only read by myself and such
persons as yourself, it might have done good and good only —
but, as the case stands, I fear it was not the place or season. I
^ Later on Wood congratulated Manning for imitating Newman's style.
^ Not a few priests in the diocese of Westminster will smile on learn-
ing that Manning, too, in his day as an Anglican priest, had to undergo the
ordeal of being "talked to " by his bishop. ^ The Rule of Faith.
166 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
have seen Mr. Davies. I cannot say a word more now because
I wish you to receive this to-day, and I have only a minute. —
God bless you, W. C.
The tact, temper of mind, and conciliatory manners which
enabled Manning to win his way so early among men of the
most opposite religious schools, from the Low Churchmen
who ruled at Chichester to the Tractarians of Oxford, may
perhaps be exemplified in the most effectual manner by
showing the mode and method of his dealings with the
Archdeacon of Lewes. Archdeacon Hare was from begin-
ning to end a staunch Low Churchman. Far from seeking
to dissemble or minimise his views, he was rather prone,
on the contrary, to proclaim them in a bold if not even
aggressive spirit. The two men, however, became intimate
friends, not by avoiding the discussion of religious differ-
ences — for their letters were filled with such topics — but
by the good-humoured and moderate way in which their
views — more especially on Manning's part — were stated.
In his letters to Archdeacon Hare, Manning always sought
not points of difference, but points of contact. It was not
in his nature or cast of mind to raise difficulties or widen
differences by startling paradoxes as was the favourite
habit both in his Anglican and Catholic days of his friend
of a later period, W. G. Ward. On the contrary, in his
talk and correspondence with Archdeacon Hare, as a few
passages from the letters will show. Manning sought to
make it appear (as far as possible) that their differences in
religious opinion were more apparent than real. The
passages I am now reciting from Manning's letters to
Archdeacon Hare were all written in the autumn of 1840.
In a letter, dated 17th September 1840, occurs the follow-
ing passage : —
I wish I could have a book -talk with you. As a step
towards it, send me the names of some theological works which
you think true in principle and reasoning.
(It was at any rate modest in a disciple of Newman's and
a writer in the British Critic to seek theological counsel from
an Evangelical archdeacon.)
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 167
I have so confident a feeling that we are radically one, that I
should like to reduce our ^atvd/ticva, (^avrao-iat, and etSwAa to
some analytical test.
In another letter is the following passage : —
Though in opinion we may differ, we have a solid oneness
in our desire for brotherly love among the clergy — and this is a
pledge of all things running clear at last.
In a letter, dated 24th August 1840, in answer to a
criticism of Archdeacon Hare's, Manning writes as fol-
lows : —
I am too much of a Platonist to hold truth moderately. I
should as soon think of holding the multiplication table in
moderation. As to the moral habits with which I would deal
with opponents or indoctrinable listeners, I hope I should let my
cTTtetKeta be known unto all men.
Then another passage : —
As to Gal. vi. 15, loe cannot differ. You know who talks about
diflferent men being different order of the same man's head ]
With a man who reads and reasons I can have no con-
troversy ; and you do both. We only have not adjusted our
tariff of equivalents.
Again, in a letter dated 11th November 1840 : —
Don't be so startly, or you will frighten me, for I protest
that when I was in Rome they did not offer me the first tonsure,
nor so much as a pair of red stockings.
In a letter dated 8th October 1840 : —
Why do you think Matins would startle people more than
Evensong 1 The latter a blessed bit of English, and the former
a word of sweet sound that I have loved still more since I
have read
Indi come orologio, che ne chiami
Neir ora che la sposa di Dio surge
A mattinar lo sposo, perche Taini,
Che I'una parte e I'altra tira ed urge,
Tintin sonando con si dolce nota
Che '1 ben disposto spirito d'amor turge.
However you shall have true submission of the exterior
man to anything which may be determined. My desire is to do
what our brotherhood may most heartily join in.
168 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Did space allow, many more quotations might be given
in proof of the conciliatory character of Manning's dealings
with Archdeacon Hare.
Manning's controversial letters to Archdeacon Hare were
written sometimes in a playful, always in a conciliatory
spirit, and if not calculated to convince or convert his
Evangelical controversialist, they conciliated and captured
the man.
Another illustration of the successful method adopted by
Manning in dealing with men may be found in the
following letter which he addressed to his own archdeacon,
the Ven. Charles Webber, stricken in years, feeble and
indolent. In this letter, the Eector of Lavington contrived
at first thoroughly to arouse and alarm the Archdeacon of
Chichester at the backward state of diocesan business — all
the more alarming as in the near prospect of a new bishop,
a new broom might too surely be feared — and then adroitly
succeeded in soothing and winning his goodwill and grati-
tude. The letter, like that of a diplomatist, starts well;
for as an excuse for his delay in writing. Manning pleads
that —
I have had to reply at length to a long indirect letter of a
poor friend who is all but perverted to Romanism. My answer
was critical and delay was likely to do much harm. This will, I
hope, plead excuse for me.
It did more: it showed the archdeacon, incidentally, that
the Eector of Lavington was actively hostile to " Eoman-
ism." Manning then sends " forms which he had drawn
up, as if accompanied by the archdeacon's lists of parishes ;
circulars (which are already put in type), standing minutes
(and other materials for the archdeacon's use), with all of
which he says, " Pray deal as trenchantly as you will."
Then he adds —
I send you also a letter from the secretary of the National
Society (which I have answered), that you may see how necessary
it is for us to be doing something. The " Queries " addressed
to the local board may be easily used by us for the rural
deaneries. The secretary has also sent me reports of six diocesan
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 169
boards and as many more district societies, from which I un-
hesitatingly believe, that we are behindhand in almost every
point, except the training school, in which we seem as forward
as any but Exeter and London.
The poor sleepy old archdeacon must needs have been
nearly shaken out of his wits by the whirlstream of activities
poured in upon him by the energetic and restless rector of
Lavington.
Manning continues the awakening process by declaring
that he fully believes that the twenty-six rural deans, if
they would be active, and if they were thoroughly well
instructed as to the particular points of their work, would
more effectually raise and extend the education of the
diocese than ten or twelve local boards. " But this seems
hardly to be hoped for," he adds, " without some full
directions from the bishop." But, in the meantime Manning
forwards shoals of forms with columns and headings for the
rural deans to fill up. All of which were to be submitted
to the archdeacon.
Poor archdeacon ! ! ! ^
Having thoroughly stirred up his old and venerable
friend, Manning with the tact and diplomatic skill which
seemed part of his nature, hastened, at the close of his
letter, to apply the most soothing of moral balms as
follows : —
"I do not remember any other point of business at this
moment : and therefore I may add a word or two cr^i^oAacrTiKws.
The day you spent with me gave me a joy which has set my
boats afloat again. I find the want of such opportunities of
conversation a very great torporific. Perhaps it is one of our
greatest lets in the way of study that we are so dotted about
as never or seldom to become confluent."
Again : —
I have been reading your sermons with much interest. I
have done what you would have a right to scold me for, that is
1 What wonder that on the death of Bishop Otter, Archdeacon Webber,
on resigning his office, said to the new bishop, indicating Manning, ' ' Give
him the office for he has done all the work."
170 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I have chosen out the sermons instead of comincicmdo dal comin-
ciamento. The visitation sermon I read -with great pleasure.
What you say of our actual state and the doctrine of theology
speaks my most exact feelings. It is odd that the same year I
preached at Chichester ; and my sermon %yould seem to go
against the only point in yours, where, as Brunk is Avont to say,
' totus hcesito.' I have not a copy of it ; and do not think I
can get one ; or I would send it you. My paper is too full to
begin on the matter, so I will keep it for next time I write.
Believe me, my dear archdeacon, yours most sincerely,
H. E. Manning.
It was with the Dean of Chichester, however, that
Manning kept up the closest and most intimate relations ;
from Dean Chandler soon came ill -tidings to Lavington
— Bishop Otter was dying in Loudon.
The dean's letter was as follows : —
Mortimer Street, Friday.
My dear Manning — I grieve to say your accounts accord
with mine. I heard yesterday from Mrs. Otter, and to-day, on
sending to inquire at Montagu Place, the answer was from Mr.
Trotter himself ; the bishop was somewhat better, but they had
no hopes that he could live. I am quite miserable. I did hope
that the good bishop would have been spared to us a few years
longer. My great consolation is that, even at the worst, the
system of the diocese has been so far established, that I think
no future bishop will hastily demolish it. . . . But whom are
we likely to have 1 I cannot bear to think of it.
In a letter a few days later, the dean announces the
bishop's death, and asks Manning to come to the deanery,
adding : — " Of course there are not even rumours yet abroad
respecting our new bishop. I agree with you in taking
a happier view of the case; but cannot recover the blow
inflicted by the departure of our excellent friend."
Manning, on the bishop's death, wrote a most proper and
pathetic letter to his widow. In her reply full of gratitude
for his kindly appreciation of her husband's noble qualities,
Mrs. Otter gladly accepted Manning's offer to pay her a visit
of condolence ; though she remarks that it must needs be
painful to her to meet one whom she had been accustomed
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 171
to see so often at the palace during her husband's life-
time.^
To Archdeacon Hare the Eector of Lavington also
wrote a pathetic letter on the death of their bishop, and
paid a high tribute to the memory of his many virtues.
In this style of composition Manning excelled, though on
occasions it might almost seem as if sober truth and the
reality of things were sometimes sacrificed to beauty of
expression. But such tributes, like epitaphs on tombstones,
have an interpretation or reading of their own. The letter
is as follows : —
24th Aug^lst 1840.
My DEAR Friend — Long ago we have both heard the end of all
our fears. I fvilly know how you grieve, and you can tell better
than most how I grieve for him. I feel to have lost in my time
two fathers. It goes against me to use great words, to you it is
not needful, for you know with how filial an affection I loved
him ; and how my chief happiness was to do anything which
could please him or relieve his anxious labours. This is one of
the paradoxes in God's providence. When a man seems most
precious, most full of promise, and the centre of a large move-
ment, that he should be taken away. One thing may it do for
us. He brought us together in his life by deliberate principles
of union, may our common love to him, our common sorrow, the
remembrance of his gentle, equitable, forbearing, peaceful temper,
and of the great master wish of his heart, draw us all into a
closer brotherhood, as a loyalty to him that is gone.
I feel very little minded to write on other matters, and can
hardly write on this. . . . Good-bye, my dear friend, the
recollection of our loss comes back on me and brings me to
a stand. — Believe me, yours most sincerely,
H. E. Manning.
^ In her letter, dated Tuesday, 18tli September 1840, The Palace, Mrs.
Otter says : — " My dear Mr. Manning — I am much obliged to you for your kind
wish of seeing us, and I beg that you will believe that I shall feel desirous of
keeping up the acquaintance and still more the friendship and good-will of the
clergy of the diocese of my dear departed husband. . . . You know well, that
the first meeting with any one, whom those we mourn regarded, whom we
have been in the habit of often seeing in happy days, must be most painful at
any time. I think it will be as much so a year hence as now and therefore I
should feel glad to have the first over, and to know that I have still a
friend in one who was so frequently with us. — Believe me, my dear Mr.
Manning, yours very truly, M. Otter.
172 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Manning's relations and friends were naturally much
distressed by the untimely death of Bishop Otter, with
whom, for the last two years, the Eector of Lavington had
been on terms of friendly personal intercourse. But this
anxiety was turned into alarm when Lord John Eussell,
practically under the laissez-faire premiership of Lord
Melbourne, the giver of mitres, made Dr. Shuttleworth, the
Warden of New College, Oxford, Bishop of Chichester. The
Warden was a Low Churchman and an anti-Tractarian.
Where, now, were Manning's chances of preferment ? Some
of his more intimate friends wrote to him fearing lest he
might not even be able to maintain the position he had
already attained in the diocese.
In reply to a letter of Manning's on the appointment of
the new bishop, Dean Chandler wrote as follows : —
Deal, \1th September (1840).
My dear Manning — You are discreet, I observe, on the
subject of our new bishop ; so I shall say as little ; excepting
this, that as things have turned out, I am extremely glad that
Hare is the Archdeacon of Lewes. He will have much more
weight and influence with Shuttleworth than Simpson or any
other man in the diocese could have had at once, if ever. I have
not yet heard from him ; but have written to invite him to the
deanery when he first visits Chichester, or to meet him elsewhere
at once if he should desire it. I shall not think it necessary,
under the present circumstances, to attend the chapter of election.^
It is not in human nature, or, at any fate, in the nature
of deans, or of archdeacons -expectant, to be devoid of
curiosity in regard to the character, temper, or religious
views of their bishop-elect. From this weakness, if it be a
weakness, Manning was not exempt. On the contrary, it
was in the nature of his cautious and forecasting tempera-
ment to study betimes the lie of the land through which his
pathway led ; to avoid pitfalls ; to remove slowly or by
degrees obstacles in his way ; and to seek in prudence and
^ In the dean's letter is the following reference to Sydney Smith's well-
deserved castigation of Dr. Blomfield : — "I hate to see any of our bishops
so shown-uj) ; but it is not in human nature to be much displeased with the
castigation inflicted on the Bishop of London by Sydney Smith in his letter
in the Times of last Saturday. Have you seen it ? "
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 173
by tentative steps the goal of his desires or ambitions. The
untimely death of Bishop Otter was a sore disappointment
to Manning. He had become in many ways, if not a
necessity, an aid to his bishop. He was, at any rate during
the last year or two, at home in the episcopal palace at
Chichester. Now the work had to be begun all afresh.
Bishop Shuttleworth, a Low Churchman, though not a
Unitarian or semi -Unitarian like his first bishop. Dr.
Maltby, was not a very hopeful or profitable subject for
Manning to work upon. Fresh from the battlefields of
Oxford, the late Warden of New College was not an easy-
going, tolerant man like the late bishop. Unfortunately,
too, for Manning, some inkling, more or less accurate, of his
confidential communications with Newman and Keble, and
of his contributions to the British Critic, during the last
three or four years, had reached the new bishop's ears.
During those days of religious strife at Oxford, men but
too freely fed on suspicion and waxed fat on prejudice.
The period between the death of Bishop Otter and the
enthronement of Bishop Shuttleworth was naturally a time
of misgivings and anxious speculation. Conscious of his
personal influence and grace of manner, Manning was
anxious to have an early opportunity of meeting the new
bishop. In answer to inquiries on this subject, his cautious
friend. Dean Chandler, wrote as follows : —
*■ Deanery, Friday.
(Post-mark 2nd October 1840.)
My dear Manning — I have at length heard from our new-
bishop. He has now received his summons to Claremont to do
homage on Saturday ; and on Monday he will be here, to stay,
as he says, at present only till Wednesday ; but it may be for a
day more. I will tell you fairly that I quite enter into the
feelings you have expressed to me. Merely as a clergyman of
the diocese, I think you are not called on to pay your respects
to him yet, more especially as he tells me he wishes now to be
private ; and as the Secretary of the Diocesan Board, you should
be summoned to him. Still my hope and expectation is that
such a summons will be given ; and I trust you will hold your-
self in readiness to come over if required, even during the short
visit that the bishop now proposes to make. Indeed if he
174 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
means to countenance the Diocesan Board (and I cannot entertain
one moment's doubt on that point) he must put himself in com-
munication with the secretary. I think the case of Archdeacon
Hare is somewhat different, and to him I have written to be
here on Tuesday. If you think it worth while to ride over from
Lavington to visit me, I shall be most happy to see you to-
morrow, or for your chop -dinner on Monday. . . . Yours
sincerely, G. Chandler.
lu writing to his intimate friend, Archdeacon Hare of
Lewes, Manning did not think it necessary to be as discreet
in his strictures on the new bishop as in communicating
with the Dean of Chichester. The prospects of the diocese
under Bishop Shuttleworth no longer seemed hopeful to
Manning ; no longer was he eager, as a week ago he had
seemed to Dean Chandler, to meet the new bishop.
Manning's disappointment at not being summoned by
the new bishop, as he had expected or hoped, to Chichester,
is clearly indicated in the following letter : —
lli/i October 1840.
My DEAR Friend — A letter from our good dean had pre-
pared me for yours, but I read it with a sadness of heart — not
that it told me anything new, or anything I had not made up
my mind to hear. You and the dean have it now in your
hands to hold fast or let slip our dear bishop's bequest of good-
will and peace. May you be able to keep it. . . . Let us
continue to use in our family the prayer (lately appointed — the
3rd of June) for unity, and that in the Consecration Service,
the end beginning, " Most merciful Father." It was a dis-
appointment to me not to see you, as amid all our theological
din, we have grown to know each other well. But the dean
told you why I did not come. I could not brook to be thought
forward, or indeed careful to be employed by Shuttleworth.
He shall ever have, when he asks it, my most hearty, cheerful
service, and I will not spare myself or my own to do his bidding
where I can ; but I can never stand in the relation of a son to a
father, as I used, with any other man.
As to the diocese, I have always said I have not much fear.
Things may be checked and chilled for a time, but they will
work themselves round again. ... I will write to Newman
about the British Critic} When I think about the diocese I feel
' Bishop Otter had been permitted by Newman to contribute occasionally,
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 175
as a man does on an autumn afternoon when the sun has gone
in, or as I do after my Evensong when the sun is gone down.
But, thank God, it is His ordinance, like the covenant with day
and night, that His Church shall not want a man to stand
before Him, and quit the man that shall do His work. Perhaps
we have had our day's growth, and a night's check may be what
Ave need as a disci])line and a trial. . . .
With kind regards to Mrs. Augustus Hare, believe me, my
dear friend, yours very sincerely, H. E. Manning.
I have forgot to say that I rejoice you will take the stall.
You ought, and the bishop could not do less than oflfer it to you
before all.
About a month later, Manning again brings before
Archdeacon Hare his troubles and difficulties, not this
time about the new bishop, but about the old Archdeacon
of Chichester. In a letter dated 20th November 1840,
Lavington, he writes : —
My dear Friend — I have done my best to get some chapters
summoned, and I have got five, or perhaps six, in motion. But
to speak out to you my card is a difficult one. Nothing but the
unchecked kindliness between most of the rural deans and myself
would keep things as they are. Our archdeacon is kind and
willing, but age has done its own work on him, as I trust it may
on us, in subduing and calling his mind off from the effort to
set them aworking. He is most kind to me, but the grasshopper
to him is a burden. I shall see him next week, and will endeavour
to do more.
If even the light weight of the grasshopper was a
burden to the aged Archdeacon of Chichester, what a
burden on his soul, in that day when " desire shall fail :
because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go
about the streets,"^ were now the almost daily appeals
and reproaches — more especially since the death of Bishop
Otter — of the Eector of Lavington. Manning's restless
and rousing energy ever kept him in action in one direction
or the other.
like Manning, S. F. Wood, and others, not theological, but literary or
historic articles to the British Critic, and his representatives wanted permis-
sion to republish them.
^ Ecclesiastes xii. 5.
176 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The variety of his labours shows not only the
almost inexhaustible energy of his character, but the
courageous hopefulness of his heart. His misgivings
about the new bishop, far from taking off the edge of his
appetite for work, seemed to whet it all the more. His
heart was attracted to every plan or scheme set afloat by
himself or his friends for the advancement of the Church.
His hand was put in help to every man's plough. His pen
was ever at work, week after week, all the year through ;
now throwing out hints or suggestions to deans and arch-
deacons ; now drawing up petitions to the Crown or to the
Lords Temporal and Spiritual ; now submitting ideas or
plans to his bishop. As Secretary to the Diocesan Board
his energies were no longer confined to a small rural parish.
It is, or he makes it, his duty to draw up circulars for the
guidance or enlightenment of rural deans, to be printed and
distributed in shoals. He is busy, now at Brighton — before
the days of Arthur Wagner, low-toned and worldly-minded
— rousing the torpid, imparting to them his own zeal for
church -building ; now at Horsham and Hastings and
Bexhill, waging war against the system of pews ; and now
aiding his friend Archdeacon Hare at Lewes in the work of
establishing middle schools. Again he is busily at work
on his more ambitious scheme of eventually substituting
for the system of public meeting and platform oratory
pursued by the Brighton Church Association, the order and
gravity of a Diocesan Synod, Manning characteristically
condemns, in a letter to Archdeacon Hare, " the democratic
and exciting system of platform oratory as most injurious to
such gravity and order."
Unlike his friend Wood and others, the Eector of
Lavington shows his practical sense and business capacity
by reducing their visionary ideas and schemes into working
order. S. F. Wood, for instance, was ambitious of establish-
ing a guild of architects to be attached to the cathedrals,
living under a kind of monastic rule ; but Manning is con-
tent with establishing an architectural committee attached
as members to the Church Association of Brighton. Writing
to his dear friend Archdeacon Hare, Manning says : —
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 177
I will send you some project about the architectural com-
mittee, which I thought a most hap})y idea of yours, but my
project must only provoke you into giving form to your own
notion.
In another letter he writes : —
As to the architectural committee, it seems that we shall
need a vote of the general meeting at Brighton, For at present
the members of the committee must be members of the associa-
tion ; and the architects whom I should wish to include are not
members.
Manning overcomes this difficulty by making the archi-
tects honorary members. He then sets himself to work to
tind an architect in Chichester, Brighton, and Hastings, to
attend quarterly meetings of the association. In another
letter to Archdeacon Hare he speaks of " an architect whom
he knows at Chichester with some knowledge and sympathy
with Gothic " : —
Mr. Elliott the architect, I think, has a correct feeling about
Gothic, and so much knowledge of it that I am not able to
criticise him, but that does not prove anything. He is, how-
ever, at work on the right principle, i.e. chronological truth in
architecture.
This architectural committee would be requested to
report and recommend a scheme for the future ; and
Manning hopes that —
Some day it may get legs and go as an ambulatory commission
to survey and codify the laws of Churchwarden Gothic, beginning
from the hat-pegs and wooden mullions at Bexhill.
In those days, high boxed -in pews, like the "black
gown " in the pulpit, were outward and visible signs of
Evangelical righteousness, beloved of Low Churchmen ;
whereas, to their jaundiced eyes, open benches, like the
white surplice, betrayed a " Eomanising " tendency. Man-
ning raised his axe, sharpened, like every instrument he
made use of, to the finest edge, against curtained pews and
hat-pegs.
To his " dear friend," the staunch Evangelical Archdeacon
VOL. I N
178 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
of Lewes, in answer to a remonstrance, Manning wrote an
apologetic letter minimising the extent of his misdeeds
among the pews (especially in a church at Brighton).
16^/1 October 1840.
My dear Friend — I did not exchange pews for open
benches, but got the pews (the same in number) moved from
the nave of the church to the walls of the side aisles, so that
the whole of the church has a regular arrangement of open
benches, which (irregularly) existed before. Iping Church has
just been rebuilt, and there will hardly be a pew in it — perhaps
four or five. Before, I think, there were no open benches. I
don't remember any other case. . . .
I am not to-day quite well, so farewell, with much regard. —
Yours ever, H. E. M.
In a previous letter, speaking about his architectural
committee and the duty of making rules as to pews —
" for their extinction if possible, if not, to control their size
and shape," — forgetful, perha]3s, of his wonted prudence,
Manning told Archdeacon Hare, "I did try this last March
at Brighton."
The wars between pews and open benches ; between the
black gown and the white, though forgotten now, occupied
in their fierce day no little of Manning's busy time.^
But what most filled his mind was the establishment of
Middle Schools. To Archdeacon Hare, in a letter dated
26th October 1840, he wrote as follows: —
I am very anxious about our next Brighton meeting. Some-
thing effectual must be either done or prepared in the matter of
education. Nearly two years will thence be gone by since the
first move, and not four new schools established. This is tardy
work. I have my fears how the bishop may feel on the
subject. I have an idea that he is not zealous on this point,
but I have no right to say so till he has given me the proof of
it. I will see him this week, and let you hear.
About the meeting itself, I have always thought that it has
been smothered. We seldom get more than 150 people, and
of that number the greater part clergy. Where are our lay
^ See Notes at end of the volume for extracts from Manning's Charge on
church-building.
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 179
brethren ? And how shall we get them to attend 1 Do write
me what you propose about this. Kobert Anderson would be a
good man to ask for counsel in any Brighton business. I am
glad to hear about Shoreham, in which case I feel good hope of
your success. I know what you mean by saying you cannot
feel as confident of the same cordial support.^ But I suppose
Horace would not exclude archdeacons from " qui sibi fidit, Dux
regit examen." I shall always be glad to swarm with you. —
Yours very sincerely, H. E. M.
From his friend, Dean Chandler, Manning was quick
enough to discover that he was not a persona grata to
Bishop Shuttleworth who, on first coming to Chichester,
looked on him as a " Eomaniser " in disguise. It was a
duty which the Eector of Lavington owed to himself, to dis-
abuse the bishop of so unworthy a suspicion. Such a work
must needs be done, not by himself, but by his friends.
All that the timid and courteous dean could do was to speak
a good word in season, or when opportunity offered, drop
a hint or two in his friend's behalf. Speaking to Manning
of Dean Chandler, S. F. Wood once described him as "your
roundheaded little Dean, rubbing his hands pleasantly,
promises everything, but does nothing." Still in Dean
Chandler, Manning knew he had an amicus curice at
Chichester. The value of such a permanent whisper at a
bishop's ear, or a pope's, as at a king's, is known to every
diplomatist, secular or ecclesiastic.
But far greater influence was exercised by Archdeacon
Hare over the Bishop of Chichester. The bishop put faith
in so well-known and pronounced an anti-Tractarian, and
when he spoke as he did in Manning's favour, his words
were like seeds well sown. The bishop was slow of decision
and kept his own counsel. In writing to Manning, Dean
Chandler said, " I never in all my life knew a man out of
whom it is so difficult to get a rescript as Dr. Shuttle-
worth." During these four critical months at Chichester in
the autumn of 1 840, had Archdeacon Hare shown — as indeed
for all that is known he may well have done — Manning's
^ In a letter to Manning, Archdeacon Hare had expressed doubts about
the new bishop's zeal in regard to the proposed schools.
180 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
frequent letters to himself during that time, to the Bishup
of Chichester, their perusal, or extracts from them, would,
no doubt, have done no little to abate or remove the bishop's
suspicions of Manning's " Eomanising " tendencies.
Be that, however, as it may, Manning's good repute
among the clergy of Chichester ; his religious zeal, earnest-
ness, self-denial, as well as his administrative capacity, were
sufficient warrant of his fitness for office. The Eector of
Lavington and his friends, though they knew that the
bishop's early prejudices had greatly abated, still had little
trust or hope of his favour. Manning, however, trusted
much — and wisely — to his personal influence. He carefully
abstained from obtruding on the bishop at Chichester.
But, when a favourable opportunity offered, the Eector of
Lavington made it a point to meet the bishop, on business
or otherwise, at Brighton.
Things turned out better than Manning and his friends
anticipated, or even dreamed of. The new bishop, Low
Churchman though he was, did what the late bishop,
though friendly to Manning, and indifferent as to religious
views, was too easy-going or indolent even to contemplate.
Bishop Shuttleworth in his wisdom made Manning Arch-
deacon of Chichester. It was an act of just recognition of
the indefatigable and useful labours of the Eector of
Lavington in the church work of the diocese. But such
acts of justice were not too common in those days when
party feeling ran so high in the Church of England. As
one of Manning's friends, in congratulating him, justly said,
" I really think the bishop has done himself great credit by
his first appointment. Principle has triumphed over
prejudice." -^
On Christmas Eve, 1840, Manning received from the
Bishop of Chichester the following letter : —
^ The Rev. Mr. Tierney, a well-known priest, a friend and contemporary
of Lingard the historian, told a friend at the time of the occurrence, that
"Manning received from his bishop a promise of the archdeaconry in a
drive home to Chichester from Brij^hton. That night was a very sad one
for poor Bishop Shuttlewortli, for Mrs. Shuttlewortli stormed like a fury at
the promotion — whether she disliked the man, or had a candidate of her own,
was not stated."
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 181
Chichester, 24th December.
My dear Sir — I yesterday had a call from Archdeacon
Webber to say that, from his advanced years, he was desirous of
resigning his office. Will you oblige me by undertaking it ? I
can conceive it is one of great anxiety, but I know no one better
calculated to fill it than yourself. If you can do me this favour,
perhaps you will undertake also to arrange with the archdeacon
when he wishes to retire. He will be glad to have so useful a
successor ; and I have no doubt that he will gladly consult your
wishes, as you will, of course, consult his in this arrangement.
. . . . — Believe me, dear sir, very truly yours.
Ph. N. Chichester.
This unexpected gift was a veritable Christmas-box from
the bishop — a cause of rejoicing and delight to Manning
and his friends ; second only to that excited by Pius IX.'s
bestowal on him, in 1865, of the Archbishopric of West-
minster.
The floodgates of congratulations were opened on that
memorable Christmas Day. Piles on piles of letters of
congratulation have been carefully preserved to this hour.
The first person to whom, in filial love, Manning imparted
the good tidings was his own mother ; though with char-
acteristic caution and reserve he enjoined her to put his
letter under lock and key.
His mother, who was spending the Christmas at Brighton
with the Anderdons, congratulated her beloved son in the
following letter : —
Christmas Bay, 1840.
You can better imagine my surprise and joy, my beloved
child, than I can describe it. You shall indeed have my prayers
for your success, and also that your health may stand the
increase of business you will have with such an enlarged field for
exertion. Will you have any residence 1 If you have, and you
could be at Chichester in the dead part of the winter, it would
agree with you better than Lavington. . . .
I have locked up the letter and you may depend upon my
silence ; but I shall long for another letter. ... I hope you
make constant use of the carriage. . . .
God bless you, my dearest Henry. Ever your affectionate
mother, Mary Manning.
182 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The next letter which follows in the order of family
precedence, as the writer himself would have said, was from
the new archdeacon's eldest brother, Frederick Manning : —
Douglas House, Leamington, Saturday.
My DEAREST Henry — I am much gratified by the fresh
proof of the estimate in which you are held in your profession,
and I earnestly pray God that you may long continue to dis-
charge the office of his ministry in the same manner. I have
had much discomfort lately, and this has come to me as a great
delight. With our united kindest love, I remain, my dear
brother, most affectionately yours, Frederick Manning.
The second brother, Charles Manning, wrote from Wimble-
don in substance as follows : —
The letter which brought the news of your appointment as
archdeacon came to us as we were assembled at our Christmas
dinner, and was the greatest of our Christmas delights. It was
a great surprise, for we had had now no expectations of your
preferment under the new regime at Chichester ; we were even
afraid that you would not be able to keep your position in the
diocese. The new bishop is not so bad as we had thought.
All the family united in congratulating the new arch-
deacon.
His brother-in-law, John Anderdon, in a characteristic
letter, did his best by counsel and prayer " to improve the
occasion," as follows : —
Brighton, 27th December 1840.
My dearest Henry — I can only be thankful for your
appointment in the Church, and pray that you may be indued
with strength from above to perform the higher functions, as
you have, under God's directing grace, the more subordinate. I
rejoice, my dearest brother, on your account, — I rejoice on your
account and that of all the family — but above all, that you will
have enlarged scope. Oh may this, with its temptations and
difficulties, redound to Almighty God's Glory (for has He not
permitted even to us worms to promote that which is already
perfect?), by His enlarging the powers and means of grace to
the full measure of the field which He assigns to you to cultivate.
Nothing within my powers to control will prevent my meeting
you here on the 14th. I had been long anxious to ask many
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 183
questions, which are already answered by the event on which
we all congratulate ourselves, which are nevertheless even more
interesting than before.
May every blessing be yours, dearest Henry, and accept the
heartfelt congratulations of your devoted brother,
John L. Anderdon.
From bis sister, Mrs. Austen, came a most warm-
hearted and lively letter, full of affection and gratitude, and
of hopes for her brother's more extended usefulness in the
work of the Church. " She hopes the new archdeacon won't
be shocked at her ignorance ; but she would like to know
what constitute the component parts of an archdeacon
besides shovel hat and gaiters,"
My dearest and most Venerable Henry — I cannot allow
a post to escape without congratulating you on what must be a
source of gratification to you, and I think far more so from the
present bishop than the latter, as it proves he thinks you have
been a faithful labourer in the vineyard, where I hope you may
long continue to exercise your holy duties, and to enjoy your
dignities.
I am sorry to say I know very little of the component parts
of an archdeacon, but I hope a shovel hat and Apron are some
of the outward signs. When you have a little time pray let me
know all about it, and also whether it enables you to see a little
more of your relations ; if so I shall have more cause to
rejoice, for really you are of very little good to me. We are
almost frozen up, but our hearts are still warm enough to rejoice
with you, and Maria the younger desires to join in it also.
I have just been reading with the greatest delight your poor
friend, Mr. Rose's sermons. The first in the book is by far the
most interesting sermon I ever read. — Now adieu ; ever your
attached Sister, C. C. Austen.
Henry Wilberforce, Manning's brother-in-law, was almost
as delighted at the good news as their mother-in-law,
Mrs. John Sargent, as his letter shows : —
Bransgrove, St. Stephen's Day, 1840.
My DEAREST Manning — I can hardly say how delighted I
was (and really my astonishment was hardly less) at your note,
having heard from Wood of the prejudice that my lord showed
on first coming to Chichester (altho' I also heard from him that
184 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
it was a good deal mitigated), I could never have imagined it so
entirely removed in so few weeks. Well, I am glad indeed, and
trust we may rejoice safely both for your sake and that of the
Church.
Still I am not sure that the thing which first struck me was
not how very peculiarly indeed dearest INIrs. John Sargent would
feel it. One archdeacon almost turned her head, I think two
will clean upset it.
Cannot you spare time to tell me how all this came about 1
fFJiy did Webber resign ? Did he know who would come in his
place ] Does this lead of necessity, or in probability, to a stall
at Chichester 1 If I remember right they continue elective
while any of the existing chapter survive ; if so, will they not
elect the new archdeacon on a vacancy,^ or does the Sacrilege
Bill annex one in prospect 1 — Your most affectionate and much
delighted brother, Henry (Wilberforce).
Mary Wilberforce, his wife and Manning's sister-in-law,
was equally effusive.
My dearest Brother Archdeacon the Second — How
pleased we were to receive your letter this morning, no pen or
tongue can express, it was such a surprise, for we did not know
the old archdeacon had resigned. May it please God to bless
you, you dear creatiu-e, in this great and important post. H.
(Henry Wilberforce) must write a line ; his joy is very great,
I am sorry to say his throat and chest are very far from strong ;
he has been forced to give up the daily service for a cough which
I trust is now going. — How is your head? — Ever your very
affectionate sister, Mary Wilberforce.
Robert Wilberforce who, after Manning's great illness in
1847, became his closest friend and most intimate cor-
respondent, wrote as follows : —
Burton Agnes,
DuFFiELD, 4th January 1841.
My dear Manning — To-day's paper tells me that which I
hear with very great pleasure, that you are to be appointed
Archdeacon of Chichester. Indeed, I don't know that I ought
not at once to address you by that appellation ; but, however,
I will still profit by m}' not being assured of the fact to write
to you not as to a dreadful pillar of the Chmxh, but as to an
^ The stall vacated by his predecessor did not go to Manning, but was
given to Archdeacon Hare of Lewes.
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 185
affectionate friend and equal. Had I been assured that you had
attained the fastigium diaconaMs, I should feel compelled to
copy out a part of the orations of Gregory Nazianzen which I
was reading this morning, and address you as he does the most
reverend Exarch of Ca^sarea.
So soon as I saw the statement in the papers I said I must
write and congratulate you, but my wife very properly suggested
that I must rather congratulate the diocese, for that such dignities,
to those who view them rightly, are rather burthens to be borne
than to be joyed in. But I cannot but feel that having for so
long done all the work of the diocese, it is most fitting that you
should be raised to a post in which you can do it with greater
comfort, because with a feeling that you are not stepping into
another's office, but discharging your own.
May God bless you, my dear Manning, in this your new
labour, and all your undertakings. — So prays your affectionate
friend, Egbert Wilberforce.
Mr, Gladstone, exceedingly rejoiced at the good news of
Manning's appointment, wrote as follows : —
Hawardex, Chester, 2nd January 1841.
My DEAR Manning — I have received with the liveliest
pleasure your note of Christmas day — coming to my hands
(after a long winter tour) only this morning, it most agreeably
confirms a paragraph I had seen in the paper ten minutes before
and thought almost too good to be true. I rejoice on your
account personally ; but more for the sake of the Church, and I
do not know whether the best aspect of all is not that in which
we may consider your promotion a sure sign of an enlarged and
far-sighted spirit in your new bishop, of whom I shall now, with
great confidence, anticipate everything that is good. All my
brothers-in-law are here and scarcely less delighted than I am ;
my wife is not behind them. With great glee am I about to
write your new address ; but the occasion really calls for higher
sentiments ; and sure am I that you are one of the men to whom
it is especially given to develop the solution of that great prob-
lem, how all our minor distractions are to be either abandoned,
absorbed, or harmonised, through the might of the great principle
of communion in the body of Christ ; may you have the gifts of
God in proportion to all the exigencies of your position.
With regard to your proposed use of my name, we know one
another too well for me to waste words in saying how much I
shall rejoice to be associated with any work of yours ; on this
occasion however, though I hold you to be a canny or prudent
186 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
man, I will caution even you, if you persist in wishing to
exhibit me, to let my name stand in its own insignificance and
without additions. I have acted in my dedication to Lyttelton
on the principle I now suggest ; the (on every ground) less you
say of me the better. I am never afraid of being misunderstood
by you, and need add no more. — Ever affectionately 3'ours,
W. E. Gladstone.
The following letter of Newman's, congratulating: Manning
on his appointment as archdeacon, was almost the last of
the correspondence which took place between Newman and
Manning in their Anglican days : —
Oriel, 3rd January 1840.
My dear Manning — My best congratulations to you. I
hope it will turn out all that your own anxieties can wish, or the
Church anticipate. I had had a report of it from Charles
Marriott, but hardly knew, as he, whether to believe it. I will
not forget your wish. . . . — Ever yours, with the best wishes of
the season, J. H. Newman.
One bishop, at all events, a distinguished and decided
High Churchman, Edward Denison of Salisbury, rejoiced
at Manning's being made an archdeacon : —
Palace, Sallsbury, 5th January 1841.
My dear Manning — I have only just learnt your appoint-
ment, and cannot delay in writing one hearty line to express the
satisfaction which it gives me. I do not doubt that is what our
dear lamented friend would have wished. — With the sincere hope
that you may be made an instrument of usefulness in this im-
portant post, believe me, very faithfully yours, E. Sarum.
It would seem from Bishop Denison's letter that, during
the last two years of his rule at Chichester, Bishop Otter had
profited much from the Eector of Lavington's quiet but
assiduous influence. In a letter dated 1838, Newman had
bidden Manning to lay hands on his bishop, saying : " I
hope you will get as tight a hold of your diocesan as you
can, and make him take a line, ut deed Fpiscopum." And
two years later said in a postscript, " you give me good news
of the bishop." Perhaps had the bishop lived longer
Manning might have succeeded in inducing him to take a
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 187
more decided line. It would seem, too, from the following
letter of Bishop Otter's son, that his father had wished to
make Manning an archdeacon : —
Carfold, nth January 1841.
My DEAR Sir — Although not within your archdeaconry you
will allow me the pleasure of offering my sincere congratulations
on your late appointment, at which I rejoice for two reasons —
because I have good cause to believe that one wish of my dear
father respecting his diocese is thereby fulfilled, and because I
anticipate much honour to yourself and much benefit to the
Church from your exertions in the office. I fear I have said
more upon this subject than my slight personal acquaintance
with you may justly warrant, but I feel irresistibly drawn
towards those whom my father loved and esteemed. — Believe me,
dear sir, yours very truly, W. B. Otter.
Two of the congratulatory letters, among the most valued,
were those of George Moberly of Balliol, and Selwyn, In
after years Manning often spoke with kind interest of both
of them ; and under their respective signatures, G. A. Selwyn
and George Moberly, Cardinal Manning wrote the words,
" Afterwards Bishop of New Zealand, then of Lichfield " ;
and " Afterwards Bishop of Salisbury."
In his letter Selwyn said : —
A few model archdeacons, such as Archdeacons Wilber force,
Hare, Lear, and yourself may, by God's help, be enabled to
exhibit, must promote, in a degree which we cannot now estimate,
the stability of the Church by the compacting of " that which
every joint supplieth."
In congratulating the archdeacon on his " new accession
of dignity," George Moberly said : —
Indeed, I am not less surprised than rejoiced at the appoint-
ment, and I do really believe that it is likely to promote the
wellbeing of your most important diocese.
As Bishop Denison paid a tribute to Manning's late
bishop, so did Moberly pay a compliment, though perhaps
rather a left-handed one, to the new Bishop of Chichester : —
188 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I trust that really your new bishop is very right at heart ;
he is one of those who should not trust himself with his reasons,
his conclusions are well enough ; at least so Marriott tells me.
It was said at the time that the reason, which Bishop
Shuttleworth alleged for making Manning archdeacon, was
that such an accession of dignity would act as a restraint
and add balance to his mind. By such a pronounced Low
Churchman as the late warden of New College, few things
would be accounted more ill -balanced than a tendency
towards Tractarianism.^
William Dodsworth, one of the most intimate of Man-
ning's friends, was likewise infinitely surprised at the bishop's
appointment. In a letter of congratulation to Manning he
says : —
I have just parted with the Dean of Chichester, who has given
me the whole account of the matter, which must be gratifying to
all your friends, as it is honourable to you. I confess when I
heard of Shuttleworth's appointment to the bishopric, I gi'ieved
at the thought that it shut you out from all chance of prefer-
ment, and from all influence except that which you will always
have from your principles and character, the result therefore is
as surprising as it is gratifying.
It would be almost as bad as leaving Hamlet out of the
play were I to omit from this chorus of congratulations the
venerable ex-Archdeacon Webber, the primal cause of all
these rejoicings on the part of High Churchmen ; of all the
bickerings and heart-burnings of the Low Church party.
For if Manning's appointment was warmly acclaimed by the
Christian Eemenibrancer, it was as hotly denounced by the
Hecord.
The late archdeacon wrote as follows : —
^ Bishop Shuttleworth, a friend writes, "was never looked upon at
Oxford as Evangelical — far otherwise ; he was a Low Churchman of the Whig
school, and I should think hated the Evangelicals as much as he hated the
Tractarians, wliora he ridiculed after he was a bishop ; for, in writing to his
friends at Oxford, he began his letters ' Palace, Chichester, Washing-day,' or
any other menial service, out of contempt for the Tractarian practice of some,
who dated their letters — S. So and So. I knew of one of Bishop Shuttle-
worth's letters, dated ' Washing-day. ' "
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 189
BosGROVE, 29th December 1840.
My dear Archdeacon-elect — If not appointed before you
receive this, I liave sent you something to begin with. I have
written to Lord Ashley to say that I shall place it in your hands,
and that I feel sure you will take the proper steps. I thank
you most sincerely for your very kind note. There are few
things in the world which I so much covet as your friendship,
and I trust that you will believe that I am ever yours most
sincerely, Charles Webber.
The poor archdeacon seems on his retirement to have
received many rather left-handed compliments. The Kev.
J. Kenrick of Horsham wrote, " Our archdeacon's last act is
his best," but this harsh sentence is qualified by, " When a
man resigns an office for apparently no other reason than
because there are younger men who are likely to discharge
it more efficiently, it should seem as if he had the good of
the Church at heart."
Mr. Freeland, a diocesan official, in his letter of con-
gratulation says : —
Chichester, 28th December 1840.
It had long been obvious . . . that a change was desirable,
for notwithstanding the very high qualities possessed by Mr.
Webber, his best friends must admit that he was quite unequal,
in the present times, to the proper discharge of the duties of this
important office.
After assuring Manning " that there is no person under
whom I could act with so much pleasure as yourself," he
adds : —
The clergy, though much improved, are not yet sufficiently
roused into action, and it will now devolve on you to co-operate
with the bishop in exciting their zeal and giving it a proper
direction.
The papers will be ready for you on Wednesday.
The new archdeacon, though supereminently capable of
" rousing the clergy," was gifted with infinite tact and pru-
dence, and thought it safer and wiser to do his " spiriting "
very gently.
We have heard the Church (with its prayers), or at least
one section of it, lift up its voice in praise of the new arch-
190 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
deacon ; let us now listen to the world (with its dinners), or
one corner of it, speak in the person of one of its members : —
Slindon House, Monday Morning.
My dear Sir — I am very sorry that living in one ccn-ner of
the county as I do that we never meet. I also hardly ever go
to Chichester, but / did on Saturday to pay my duty to the
bishop, and cannot refrain from the pleasure of congratulating
you and ns on the appointment that I there heard you have
received. The good archdeacon's mantle could not, in my
humble opinion, have fallen upon any one in the diocese that
would wear it better than yourself, and I hope you will long live
to adorn it, and it you.
The more immediate object in my writing to you now is in
the name of my kind and excellent relation, Lady Newburgh,
with whom we always spend this season. She says she has long
known your relations in the county, and would be very happy to
have the pleasure of knowing you ; and should you be not other-
wise engaged, will you waive ceremony and dine here on New
Year's day at five o'clock, and meet the bishop and Mrs. Shuttle-
worth 1 and to stay the night if you choose, which would also
give me the pleasure of seeing you, and an opportunity of pre-
senting you to Lady Cecil. — I am, my dear sir, yours very truly,
J. Delateld.
The visit to Count Delafeld, or rather the dinner in his
corner of the world, was a success.
Archdeacon Manning was a delightful companion at the
dinner-table ; the grace of his manner and the charm of his
conversation made an impression even on Bishop Shuttle-
worth, while it not only completely fascinated Lady Cecil
Delafeld, but did much to assuage Mrs. Shuttleworth's
wrath at the appointment of the new archdeacon. The
bishop pleasantly remarked on the occasion that, though he
passed the bottle almost untouched, the archdeacon was
the master of an inexhaustible fund of anecdote. This was
the first of Manning's social successes. During the next
eight or nine years the fascinating archdeacon, as he was
frequently called, with his quiet humour, pleasant talk, and
rich store of anecdotes, though often drawn upon, never
exhausted and always well told, was an ever-welcome guest
in London society.
IX HIS ACTIVE WORK— ITS SUCCESS AND REWARD 191
One of the most friendly and intimate among the rural
deans, E. Tredcroft, after congratulating Manning on his
appointment, and praying that " the good and gracious
Master whom we serve will give you strength proportionate
to your greater need," puts the following pertinent, if not
impertinent, question, with which I may fittingly close this
transition chapter : " But what will be said of it at Oxford ?
Who is the convert, it will be asked, the late warden of New
College or the author of the Rule of Faith ? "
CHAPTER X
THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER
1841-1843
Manning's appointment as Archdeacon of Chichester opened
up a wider sphere of influence for the rising churchman,
and gave him opportunities of coming into more frequent
and closer contact not only with the country clergy in the
diocese of Chichester, but with leading men in London
interested in Church affairs. His closer intimacy with Mr.
Gladstone ^ began about this date ; they often conferred
together on Church matters, and as their ample correspond-
ence shows, were of one mind in regard to Anglican interests.
The Archdeacon of Chichester likewise renewed acquaintance
with some of his more distinguished Oxford contemporaries,
which sometimes, though not often, ripened into friendship.
Manning's friendships were not like those of his brother-in-
law Samuel Wilberforce, whose friendships were intimacies
of the closest nature. " I never knew," Mr. Gladstone
remarked quite recently, " a man of so sympathetic and
loving a nature as Bishop Wilberforce ; his friendships,
like Newman's, were life-long intimacies. In conversation
and correspondence he spoke out his heart about his friends.^
' Mrs. Gladstone shared her husband's friendly feelings towards Manning
who, at her express desire, became godfather to Mr. Gladstone's eldest son,
"William.
2 In a letter to Manning, dated 15th Nov. 1837, Wood said: — "Sam
Wilberforce I have not yet come to the speech of ; I will be careful not to allude
in any way to the conversation we had. Both he and others of his family are,
I think, in the habit of talking over and exercising acts of judgment on their
friends' characters in a way which both produces evil externally and injures
their own minds : and we shall do well to take warning for ourselves."
CHAP. X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 193
If, indeed, Manning had any intimate friends beside myself,
he was too reserved to speak about them."
Manning as archdeacon naturally felt himself a bigger
man than as rector of a small country parish : he had an
ecclesiastical future before him ; he was invited to preach
in London or in Brighton before influential congregations : his
voice was heard on many a religious platform. Far more ;
as one of the Select Preachers for the year, he went up to
Oxford to preach before the University.^
In the early days it was often said at Archbishop's
House by men, who imputed their own feeling of awe or
admiration for Archbishop Manning to others, that " at
Oxford the undergraduates were on their best behaviour in
the presence of Archdeacon Manning " ; that " youthful
levity was subdued or sobered by his solemn voice and his
austere mien." But that was a fancy picture — not of the
archdeacon, but of Oxford undergraduates. Undergradu-
ates in reality are men who fear only the proctors or duns.
None would change their behaviour in the presence of a
country parson coming up to preach to them. The great
majority never took the trouble to hear the sermon in those
days. The presence of the archdeacon had no more awe
about it than the presence of other preachers, who came up
every Sunday in their turn. The undergraduates of those
days would not have touched their caps to Archdeacon
Manning had they met him in the street. The under-
graduates of the present day, it is said, are still more
advanced. In all this there was nothing personal to the
archdeacon, for every other preacher coming up to Oxford
was regarded in the same way.
The country parson coming up to Oxford to preach for
^ In 1841, Arclideacon Manning was one of the nine Select Preachers for
the year. In the month of November nine preachers are selected to preach
during the ensuing year before the University when the ordinary preachers
are unable to perform the duty. The Wardens select four, and five are
chosen by the Vice-Chancellor. Each of them in turn comes up to Oxford to
preach. Frederick Oakeley, at an earlier date, was one of the Select Preachers ;
Sam Wilberforce was elected three times to the office, and so were many others
of less note, or unknown to fame. Though vicar of St. Mary's, Newman
of course had been Select Preacher.
VOL. I O
194 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the first time was more moved than the undergi-aduates.
In the preacher's life it was an event ; an opportunity.
To Manning it was a supreme duty. His heart was filled
with spiritual unction. In solemn emphatic voice he
spoke to his novel congregation : not arguing but pleading ;
not exciting the intellect by reasonings deep and keen,
but touching the heart by fervent appeals to holiness of
living, to righteousness and purity of conduct.
The first time that he preached at Oxford as arch-
deacon was on the 24th of February 1841. Mr. J. B.
Mozley, who was present at that sermon, gave at that time
his impressions of Manning's method and style of preaching
in a letter to his sister, dated 25 th February : —
Manning was up yesterday. He gave what one might really
call a powerful sermon ; not controversial, but rather, as Coleridge
would say, introversial, which is rather his line : that is, entering
into and describing states of mind, struggles within ; his subject
being, Judas gradually giving way to his besetting sin. He is
certainly very deep, but not always in good taste ; too nice and
pointed in his style and delivery ; was so very emphatic in every
little word and sharp thing that he came across, that he rather
defeated himself and put everything on a level. ^
In another letter, dated Oxford, April 1841, J. B.
Mozley wrote to his brother, the Rev. Thomas Mozley, as
follows : —
Manning was up the other day, preaching before the Uni-
versity. It was a good sermon ; but not well delivered, and
rather inclining to pedantry in the style ; too polished and anti-
thetical in the choice of words. He looked quite proper and
archidiaconal, with the straight-cut coat and the gentlest shovel. ^
Although he was only in his 34th year when he was
made archdeacon, the Eev. Thomas Mozley, in his Reminis-
cences of Oriel, speaks of Manning as " prematurely bald,
venerable, and wise." Indeed Henry Wilberforce used to
affect, in his own amusing way, a continual sense of in-
justice that at public meetings, when Manning and himself
happened to rise together, he was so often bidden to sit
' Letters of J. B. Mozley, p. Ill, LondoD, 1885. ^ Ibid.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 195
down and give place to his seniors ; whereas in reality
though not in appearance, he was the senior.^ Appearances,
however, count for not a little in this world. What
chances, as the late W, G. Ward used to say, had a big
burly man like himself of obtaining credit for mortification
of the flesh ? whereas it was given as a matter of course to
persons of such an ascetic appearance as Manning.
If a fine bald head be a lucky stepping-stone to a young
physician, there can be no doubt that Manning's austere
and venerable appearance stood him in good stead as arch-
deacon, promoted as he was so early in life over the heads
of so many of the senior clergy of Chichester. His tact
and conciliatory manners and prudence, which never slept
or slumbered, soon won the good graces of the clergy with
whom by his office he was brought into constant contact.
The year 1841 was a turning-point in Manning's life.
It was marked by two critical events external in character
and of opposing force — his appointment as archdeacon,
and the condemnation of Tract 90. Circumstance, "that
unspiritual god," demanded once more from its servant
homage and sacrifice. As archdeacon. Manning entered
into official relations with the Established Church ; he held
an office not only of dignity but of trust ; with new duties,
new responsibilities were imposed upon him. Above all
things it behoved him to be circumspect and prudent. If
he had already succeeded in conciliating so extreme a Low
Churchman as his bishop, it was necessary not to forfeit
his continued goodwill ; " not to give umbrage to the
■■ J, B. Mozley in a letter to his sister described Henry Wilberforce as
follows : — " In spite of his being married and a father he is just the same
absurdly ludicrous fellow as of old."
^ A friend of Manning, the Rev. J. R. Hughes, shortly after Bishop
Shuttleworth's death, wrote as follows : —
"Eastboukne, Sussex,
" Mmiday, 7th February 1842.
' ' My dear Mr. Archdeacon — ... I can assure you that the late bishop
was very careful not to do any thing, which might seem to lessen your
official authority. I remember very well how much annoyed he was on the
evening previous to the last Ordination, that Mr. Bowdler's book should have
been laid in the drawing-room, when the candidates for Orders, as you
remember, were dining with him. He had always kept it in his own study :
and was therefore annoyed that you should have found it, where it might
196 CARDINAL MANNING chav.
" Liberals," and aggressive Low Church Party, who enjoyed
his confidence. Manning was the last man to forget that
he was now himself a Church dignitary, and bound as such
to show reserve and moderation in his religious opinions.^
Bishop Shuttleworth, fresh from the fierce battle-fields
of Oxford, himself stubborn and rough of tongue towards
the Tractarians, was much impressed by the meek and
gentle spirit and conciliatory tone displayed by his new
archdeacon in a sermon — the first which the bishop had
heard — preached at Chichester Cathedral. It was delivered
on the occasion of Bishop Shuttleworth's first ordination, on
Trinity Sunday 1841, under the title "Moral Design of
the Apostolic Ministry." The following passage especially
attracted the bishop's notice : —
It is precisely those characters which the world counts
seem to have been placed by him in the way of his guests of that evening.
[The Bishop's wife, it was surmised, ' had felt it her duty to testify ' on the
occasion by producing the book.]
"Our good bishop always spoke most kindly of you, notwithstanding the
difference of opinion which existed between you on some of the controverted
points of the present day.
' ' I have written to Mr. Welsh at Burwash, respecting Mrs. Shuttleworth,
but have not yet received an answer. — I remain, dear Mr. Archdeacon, yours
very faithfully, J. R. Hughes."
^ After he was appointed by Bishop Shuttleworth, Archdeacon of Chichester,
Manning did not consider it advantageous, or even expedient, to republish
The Rule of Faith and Appendix. The book had given great offence to the Low
Church party, and to his new bishop as well as to other bishops and Church
dignitaries of the same party. In the same letter, quoted in the note above,
his friend, in the view of making matters smooth between the Low Church
party and Archdeacon Manning, gave him the following information : —
"I remember the late bishop mentioning to me with regret, either in
June or October last, that a new edition of your Rule of Faith had been
recently advertised. But from what source he derived liis information, I
really cannot say. Certainly the impression on my own mind was till now,
that I had seen a new edition advertised in the Oxford Herald, before the
bishop mentioned it. Your statement, however, is so clear as to the date of
republication, that I can only come to one of these two conclusions, either
that I am altogether wrong in my supposition, or that the bookseller inserted
such an advertisement without your knowledge. However tliis be, I will
take care, should the sultject be ever mentioned in my hearing, to set the
parties right, and to state that the book was not republished subsequently to
your being appointed Archdeacon of Chichester. I only remember one perso7i,
besides the bisliop, making mention of this matter, and to him I will explain
that he was under a false impression."
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 197
weakest, that gain most absolute mastery. It is by gentleness
and a yielding temper, by conceding all indifterent points, by
endurance of undeserved contempt, by refusing to be offended,
by asking reconciliation when others would exact apology, that
the sternest spirits of the world are absolutely broken into a
willing and glad obedience to the lowliest servants of Christ.
It was especially trying to Manning that the bishop,
vehom be had succeeded in conciliating and who had made
him archdeacon, died almost within the first year of his
episcopate. The fourth and last bishop under whom Manning
served in the Anglican Church was Ashurst Turner Gilbert,
The archdeacon's point of contact with the new bishop was
in the ministerial work of rousing the clergy and in reform-
ing abuses. " My good-natured predecessor, Bishop Otter "
he observed, " had allowed many men to officiate in the
diocese without inquiring into their antecedents, one from
Norwich, who I believe was not ordained." In this work
of reform Manning was a zealous helper.
Again, the Archdeacon of Chichester " dreamed dreams,"
and saw visions of future greatness unfold before his eyes.
For the first time the thought of ecclesiastical preferment
entered into his mind, at least as an object within reach.^
The restless desire for distinction which had slumbered in
the obscurity of his happy home at Lavington awoke again
in his breast. Manning, however, never was an idle
dreamer of dreams, but an active worker ever on the alert
to convert dreams into realities.
Hence the practical character of his work, whether in
striving to obtain greater liberty of action for the Church;
or in helping to found colonial bishoprics ; or in labouring
heart and soul to amend the laws which affect the poor
injuriously, or fail to safeguard their moral as well as their
material wellbeing.
It is not easy to keep pace with the variety of Manning's
activities. It was not without good reason, on her son's
appointment as archdeacon, that his mother prayed that
his health might stand the increase of business he would
have with such an enlarged field for exertion.
^ See contemporary Diary, 1844-47.
198 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
One of the chief works which he took in hand was an
amendment of the Poor Law, especially as regards its
bastardy clauses. He entered into an active correspondence
with Mr. Gladstone on this subject, who placed the letters
in the hands of Sir James Graham. In a letter dated Cam-
bridge, 26 th November 1841, Mr. Gladstone wrote : " I have
received a letter from Sir James Graham referring to your
two communications on the bastardy clauses. He is much
pleased with their tone. He is disposed, without putting
an end to the application of the workhouse test against
the mother, to make the remedy against the putative father
' real and effective ' for expenses incurred in the workhouse.
I am not enough acquainted to know whether it would be
advisable to go further. You have not proposed it : and I
am disposed to believe that only with a revived and im-
proved discipline in the Church can we hope for any gener-
ally effective check upon lawless lust." Manning finally
offered to submit to Sir James Graham, Home Secretary
in Sir Eobert Peel's first administration, a memorandum on
certain defects in the working of the new Poor Law. Mr.
Gladstone, who was Vice-President of the Board of Trade,
in a letter dated 3rd December 1841, wrote as follows : —
My dear Manning — I am sure both that Graham will con-
sider favourably anything coming from you on the Poor Law ;
and that any paper you will draw up will be such that the
several iria-reis of the man and the matter will receive its fair
and full attention. — Your affectionate friend,
W. E. Gladstone.
Manning was much pained that, owing to the operation
of the bastardy clauses, the guilty parties, without real
repentance and confession, presented themselves at the
altar for marriage, and hoped that such an amendment in
the law might be introduced as would remove or lessen the
evil ; or that the ancient discipline of the Church might
be revived. Mr. Gladstone deeply sympathised with
Manning as to discipline, but suggested that " The only way
to revive the system is to do it permissively and as it were
in a corner. Why should not a man having a small flock,
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 199
and his churchwardens and persons of influence with him,
devise sober rules with the allowance of his bishop for his
own people and introduce them by degrees ? May he not
require the private confession and contrition of the parties ?
Would it be impossible to secure this in a small rural parish
by means of persuasion and influence ? May we not make
a good use of the rubric enjoining or advising communion
after matrimony, in combination with the exhortation to
confess before communion in certain cases ? "
Manning would have gladly adopted or rather have antici-
pated Mr. Gladstone's advice, but was far too prudent and
practical to ask of his Low Church bishop permission to
hear confessions at Lavington.
In connection with the general question of immorality in
the manufactory districts. Manning entered into correspond-
ence with Sir George Cornewall Lewis, President of the
Board of Trade, urging upon him the necessity of restricting
the hours of labour for girls working in factories and looms,
and of introducing regulations to protect their morality.
In reference to this correspondence Mr. Gladstone wrote
as follows to Manning : — " I forward for your perusal the
inclosed note from Graham, by which you will I think be
gratified, Lewis's scholarship is good : but his letter in the
main more learned than practical."
Speaking of Manning's controversy with Lewis, carried on
in a series of letters on the policy of restricting the hours
of female labour, Mr. Gladstone said to me, quite recently :
" Lewis, who was President of the Board of Trade, of which
I was Yice- President, stubbornly combated Manning's
arguments in favour of the introduction of such laws or
regulations as would protect the morality of girls working
in factories. Lewis, as you know, was a very strong man.
I showed the correspondence to Sir James Graham, who was
singularly acute in judgment ; and asked his opinion on it.
In reply he said, ' Manning has more than held his own.' " ^
^ On liearing of Sir James Graham's opinion on the controversy with
Lewis, Cardinal Manning was much pleased and said, "I never knew that
Sir James Graham had seen those letters of mine." And then he added, "Sir
James Graham was a man of profound judgment."
200 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Perhaps the work done in his Anglican days, which
Manning, as cardinal, was most proud of, and oftenest
referred to with deepest sympathy, was his share in founding
colonial bishoprics. At the time when he took part in
forming the "Colonial Bishoprics Fund," in April 1841,
there were only six bishops in our vast colonial empire.
As a missionary church the Church of England had signally
failed. Vast opportunities of discharging one of her
primary duties as a Christian community had been utterly
neglected. If civilisation had followed the flag of England,
Christianity had not. Even in our Indian Empire it was
not the English Church which preached the Gospel to the
heathen, sitting undisturbed in the darkness. It was St.
Francis Xavier, who brought the Cross of Christ to the
heathen multitudes, and by words of love and pity touched
the hearts of tens of thousands and brought them to the
love and knowledge of God.
Manning was the first to remove this reproach from the
Church he loved so well, and from the good name of England
as a Christian country. By his memorable speech, dehvered
at "Willis's Eooms, April 1841, on behalf of the "Colonial
Bishoprics Fund," ^ the heart of the country was moved
and roused to action. In after-life. Manning cherished a
warm regard for George Selwyn and used often to say, " I
look upon him as the first fruits of my labours on behalf of
colonial bishops," as, indeed, he was ; for a few months
after the meeting at Willis's Rooms, George Selwyn was
made first Bishop of New Zealand.
On the occasion of his appointment Manning wrote the
following letter : —
Christmas Eve, 1841.
My dear Lord — I send you a slight remembrance ^ of one
who Avill follow your memory with a fast and affectionate regard.
Our meetings have been, indeed, few ; but somehow our fellow-
ship was anticipated by oneness of heart in the work we were
then upon. Now, I shall ever think myself happy to have been
1 See Manning's speech in volume ii. of Old Pamphlets.
2 A volume of sermons, on the title-page of which George A. Selwyn's
name was inscribed.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 201
known to you. It is for me only to offer my prayers that you
may be greatly blessed, and reach a high place in His kingdom,
into the lowest room of which you deem yourself unworthy to
enter. I could have greatly desired to see you once more. —
Believe me, my dear lord, your faithful and affectionate ser-
vant, Henry E. Manning.
After long years of separation and silence, when Man-
ning was Archbishop of Westminster, and Selwyn Bishop of
Lichfield, Selwyn wrote to the archbishop as follows : ^ —
Lichfield, December 24, 1867.
My dear Friend — for so I must call you still — I thank you
heartily for your very kind letter.
There is no old friend of whom I have thought more
frequently than of 3'ou, because the remembrance of your
speech at the first establishment of the Colonial Bishoprics
Fund has never faded from my mind. When I read an extract
from it in a report of a speech delivered by Mr. Gladstone, it
seemed as fresh as if I had only heard it yesterday ; and no
wonder, because by that sjoeech my dear mother, then sitting by
my side, was led to take the widest estimate of missionary duty,
and so was prepared for the call which shortly after sent me out
to New Zealand. Often I have looked upon the title-page of
the volume on which you inscribed my name ; and have read
the sermons with the same pleasure as if you were still our own.
I remember also the letters which you kindly wrote to me when
your mind was disturbed about the Gorham Judgment. There
is sorrow, no doubt, mingled with these remembrances ; but I
cherish them as spiritual sympathies which even now are not
without their value, and which may be revived in greater per-
fection when (as you say) these bonds shall have passed away
in a better world.
Allow me to wish you all joy of this holy season, and to
unite with you in praying for " peace on earth and good will
towards men." — I remain, my dear friend, yours affectionately,
G. A. N. Zealand, Lichfield.
Of this famous speech, referred to in the above letter
by George Selwyn, Mr. Gladstone, at the jubilee meeting of
1 Referring to this letter, Cardinal Manning, in a Journal, dated 15th No-
vember 1888, has entered the following words: — "George Selwyn was a
heroic Christian soul — a rebuke to most of us."
202 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, held in 1891, gave an able
summary. After alluding to the fact that he, with the
exception of Cardinal Manning, was the only person living
who had taken part in the proceedings of that memorable
occasion, Mr. Gladstone went on as follows : —
There was a remarkable speech made on that day, which sent
a thrill of exaltation through the whole assembly at Willis's
Rooms, delivered by a man of eminence, of known devotion to
his work in his own sense, whose whole mind and whose whole
heart were then given to the service of the Church of England.
He was then known as Archdeacon Manning. Archdeacon
Manning, in a most striking and a most powerful speech, de-
lineated the condition of the English Church of the Anglo-Saxon
race of our colonial empire. He pointed out upon how vast,
how gigantic a scale we were then occupying the waste places
of the earth, and multiplying millions of human beings who
trod the face of it ; and then he pointed to the scanty evidence
which, up to that time, had been given of any care which had
been taken by the Church of England for the propagation of
the Gospel in these vast countries. He contrasted the meagre-
ness and feebleness of our spiritual efforts with the wonderful,
undying, untiring energies of the commercial powers, and the
spirit of emigration, which were even then achieving such vast
results in the world. He contrasted, I say, the one spectacle
with the other. He said the Church of England has now to
make a choice between the temporal and the spiritual. She
has to determine whether she will be the beast of burden, or
whether she will be the evangelist of the world. That was a
noble appeal — a noble challenge. The force of it was felt ; it
was taken up and duly answered.
This successful meeting at Willis's Eooms was followed
by another, of a wider range, held at the Mansion House,
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. At
this meeting also Manning spoke with effect. In his
first year as Archdeacon, he was beginning to make his
mark, and as a public speaker at religious meetings to
excite attention.
As rector of an obscure country parish, Manning might
be on intimate terms with Newman, and take part, as far
as his abilities and opportunities allowed, with the Tract-
arian movement, without attracting notice or blame. But
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 203
as Archdeacon of Chichester, cultivating friendly relations
with bishops and Church dignitaries, working in common
with statesmen or cabinet ministers for the promotion of
Church interests, or appearing as an acceptable speaker at
great ecclesiastical meetings, to be implicated in any way
with the Tractarian party at Oxford, would, as he well knew,
be destructive alike to his present work and future influence,
and fatal to any hope or chance of ecclesiastical preferment.
After carefully considering the state of things in regard to
his own position and responsibilities. Manning elected to
take his stand by the protesting bishops, and to break with
Newman and the Tractarian party.
In July 1841, Archdeacon Manning delivered the first
of those annual charges, which soon made him known
throughout England as one of the foremost defenders of the
English Church against popular Protestantism on the one
hand, and on the other, against the Eomanising and un-
popular tendencies of the writers of the Tracts for the
Tinus. In his sermons at Lavington Church, or in the
cathedral at Chichester, the archdeacon did not press his
High Church views, but contented himself with enlarging
on the perfections or capabilities of the Church of England
" primitive yet purified," a standing witness to " the blessed
results of the Eeformation." But in his charges he ad-
dressed a more varied and a more sympathetic audience ;
for in a large and ever-increasing number of the parsonages,
even in the diocese of Chichester, were already to be found
the sons of the Tractarian movement, zealous disciples of
Newman. Yet, even in those charges, Archdeacon Man-
ning never betrayed " Eomanising " tendencies ; on the
contrary, he declared, as one who spoke with knowledge,
" that all which men were seeking for elsewhere in a de-
caying Christendom — and seeking in vain — were to be
found, and with greater purity alike in doctrine and devo-
tion, in the Church of England." The ideal which he held
up before the eyes of men with a faith and confidence so
assured as to be touching in its tenacity, and which fascin-
ated the imaginations of many, was the Anglican Church
perfected by God's hand and delivered once for all from her
204 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
bondage to the State. Manning's charges in those days
were events. They made a stir, not in the religious world
only. Discussed on all sides, they created a sensation of a
kind which we to-day, in a generation when subjects of
rehgious or controversial interest have fallen into the
background, find it difficult to realise. I am fortunate,
however, in being able to appeal to a most competent wit-
ness as to the general interest which Manning's charges and
addresses aroused. Mr. Gladstone, who was not only an
eye-witness, but a fellow-worker and friend of Manning's
in the defence of the Anglican cause, tells me to-day that —
In those days Manning's charges and addresses were looked
forward to by all of us with great eagerness ; they were talked
of beforehand ; and yet I never remember to have been dis-
appointed in them. They more than fulfilled my expectations ;
they were fuller, deeper, than I anticipated. You know the
diiference between a rising and a falling market. Manning was
always in the rising market.
To show Manning's state of mind, at a critical period
in the Tractarian movement at Oxford, and his habit, in
part natural, in part acquired, of never committing himself,
if he could help it, to an unpopular movement, or of taking
his stand on the side of a failing cause, I cannot do better
than recite two or three characteristic passages from a
charge delivered at the ordinary visitation of the Arch-
deaconry of Chichester m July 1841. This charge — the
first of Manning's official utterances, delivered as it was
on the morrow of the condemnation of Tract 90, excited
no little indignation at Oxford as a characteristic attempt
on the part of the archdeacon to clear himself from the
imputation of " Eomanising." Speaking for the first time
as one vested with authority in the Church, Manning
adopted in his charge the popular method on the one hand
of exalting the Reformation, and of blessing the Eeforraers,
denounced by the writers of the Tracts ; and on the other,
of attacking the doctrines and devotions of the Church of
Eome, which the Tractarians were accused of seeking to
introduce into the Church of England.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 205
The first passage I shall quote is an account of the
origin of the Eeformation : —
Throughout the whole of Western Europe during the last
four hundred years there has been a disengaging of parts
and a diminution of the bulk of the visible Church. And this
process has been effected, I believe, partly through a direct and
gracious administration of God's providential government, and
partly by the sins and wilfulness of men. That the broad
movement was an impulse from Heaven is as clear, to all but
men inveterately blind, as that the particular direction which it
has here and there received is from the swervings of the human
^vill. This broad movement in the Western Church had its
forerunning signs in a multitude of phenomena, such as the
sudden and amazing energies which during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries broke forth in all forms of intellectual life.
It is to be traced in the scholars, the doctors, the poets, the
painters, the statesmen, and even the common characters of
those ages ; — what we familiarly call the revival of letters,
the restoration of learning, the school of the fine arts, together
with the invention of printing, were themselves the symptoms of a
mighty power leavening and impelling the whole mass of Western
Europe, and becoming in turn the moral and mechanical causes of a
still further excitement and development of the intellectual
and spiritual life. Among many effects of this movement there
is one which we are wont most unphilosophically and untruly to
speak of, as if it were the main and isolated cause of all we see
around us : I mean the Reformation. It is a very shallow and
imperfect view to regard this gracious act of God's Providence
towards his Church as an isolated event. It was one of a series
of events : itself first an effect and afterwards a combining cause
in further consequences. In the first period there was an
undiscerning accumulation of things intrinsically repugnant; in
the latter a healthy process of severe and searching analysis.
The movement of intellectual life of which I have spoken was
doubtless a divine prelude to the recovery of truth hidden in
the mass. What the first delivery of the truth was (if I may
reverently compare things unlike in detail, but like in their
common origin and outline) to the after accumulation of error,
such was the first recovery of truth in these later times to the
process of domination and decay. The two originating acts —
the one seen, the other unseen — were manifestly of God ; but
the swerving and imperfection of the after consequences were
as evidently of men. In the first acts of both these great
periods God was putting his Church upon her probation ; in the
206 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
after acts we see the Church moving upon the mysterious lines
of her trial.
After speaking of the new and extraordinary dangers
which are besetting the Western Church, the archdeacon
declares that the Reformation was not the cause but the
divinely prepared remedy ; then he goes on : —
It is not more certain, then, that the Reformation was a
gracious and searching work wrought by the purifying hand of
God, than that the history of Western Europe after the
Reformation exhibits an appalling process of declension, and a
strange forfeiture of the powers of truth through the mystery
of evil working, according to apostolic prophecy, in these latter
days. And these remarks are not confined to any particular
sects or communities abroad. They apply to all. If the
Rationalistic infidelity of Germany may be traced to the
Lutheran bodies, the sensual infidelity of France may be traced
to the communion of the Galilean Church. The lawlessness of
will and intellect is to be found in all communities, resulting
where there is energy, in formal heresy : where there is apathy
in a sullen indifi"erence, and manifesting itself in all alike by a
heady, highminded vindication of the absolute will of man.
The idea of a spiritual guide divinely commissioned to rule as
well as to teach, has become strange and incredible even to
higher and better minds : to the temper of these latter days
it is an insufterable usurpation, so that the powers of unbelief
and lawlessness are the natural and direct antagonists of the
faith and discipline of the Church ; and throughout the whole
of Western Christendom they will be found wasting away the
characters of truth, and trampling down the rule of spiritual
order.^
Then in this charge the Archdeacon of Chichester con-
trasts the condition of the Church of England with that
of foreign Churches as follows : —
Perhaps in no country can be found so remarkable an
exhibition of the counteracting and remedial power of the
Reformation, and of the vehement tide of these latter days.
We have the two extremes in full and energetic action. That
the Anglican Church stands immovably rooted in the soil of
England is, under God, because she was brought back to
^ Charge in July, 1841 pp. 11-12.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 207
Apostolic truth : that she has lost some portions of her
administrative system, is because she has shared the strife and
the mutilation which all churches have endured. But no church
in the last three hundred years has borne what she has met
and overcome. She has been slain by the secular arm nerved
and guided by foreign enmity, and crushed by a lawless
rebellion kindled in domestic schisms ; she has been pampered
by the wily protection of civil rulers, till her own internal
energies were well-nigh deadened, and lured by the ease and
the gain of a luxurious commercial people.
After speaking of the diversities of religious opinion,
the multiplication of schisms, the crumbling subdivisions
of sects, the writer of the charge concludes his contrast of
foreign churches with the Church of England with the
following remarks : —
All foreign churches, shielded as they have been from the
storms which have broken upon their despised sister in England,
and successful in their unrelenting strife against hearts that
yearned for purities which they had not to give them, have
declined and wasted. The countries most successful against
the Reformation, for instance, Spain and France, are the most
destitute of Christianity. The most vigorous and promising
rekindlings of life among them (which God prosper) are partial
and precarious, the work of individual and often isolated minds,
and sustained by the energy of individual character. (This is
visibly true of Germany and France) but the English Church,
tried beyond them all, has now more than ever shown a vivid
and inextinguishable life which quickens with an even pulse
the whole of her extended system : she has retained what they
have visibly lost — her hold upon the nation as a people, and
her mastery over the highest intellectual natures.^
The charge then dwells on the loss sustained by the
English Church in being deprived of her synods and
councils for canonical legislation. I will recite another
passage from the same charge, in which, after describing
the Eeformation as " this gracious act of God's Providence
towards His Church," and likening " its first recovery of
Truth in those latter times to the first delivery of Truth
by the apostles," the archdeacon lifts up his voice in
praise of the present state and condition of the Anglican
^ Charge in July 1841, p. 16.
208 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Church, and utters confident prophecies as to the glorious
part she is to play in the future as " the centre of a new
Catholic world " : —
We are charged with the fulfilment of no light commission ;
every year has brought out into a broader outline the destiny
of the English Church. Can we doubt that she is reserved and
now is new raised up for some great movement among the nations
of the earth ? It may be that she shall build again the
tabernacle that is fallen down, and purify the Catholic world.
Who can be familiar with her true character and not read the
admonitions of her Divine Master ? Who can not see that she
is primitive and yet purified ; the treasury of things new and
old ; having the ripeness of age and vigour of a new-born
youth ; that she is, as it were, the link of the past and the
future ; a central point between the old world and the new ;
and how in all the inclinations of Western Christendom to one
or other of the great religious extremes, she has been impelled
forward in a middle path : and how the power of faith which
is on the one side, and the more positive system which is on the
other have both in her a share and a sympathy : and how at
every ebb and flow of religious life the minds of men have been
subdued and settled down nearer and nearer to that rule of
faith which was conferred and vindicated in the Anglican
restoration of Catholic Truth : and how at this time she is
standing out in a bolder relief, and stamping her own character
in all the world-wide precinct of the British Empire : — who,
I ask, can ponder these things, and not feel a consciousness
stronger than all reasoning, that if she be loyal to her heavenly
Lord, she shall be made glorious in His earthly kingdom, as
the regenerator of the Christendom that seems now dissolving,
and the centre of a new Catholic world ? ^
This charge was delivered at a singularly opportune
moment. The illustrious leader of the Tractarian move-
ment had only just, in characteristic obedience to his
bishop, discontinued the Tracts for the Times. The Tracts
were considered objectionable by the Bishop of Oxford, as
tending to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the Church,
as unsettling and disturbing the minds of men, as showing
a leaning in favour of the Church of Rome, and generally
as weakening the authority of, and shaking confidence in,
the Church of England.
1 Charge in July 1841, p. 46.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 209
A golden opportunity to purge himself from the errors
imputed to the writers of the Tracts for the Times pre-
sented itself to the newly -appointed Archdeacon of Chi-
chester, and he availed himself of it with singular avidity.
It was a duty not to be neglected, a chance not to be lost.
Not four months after the appearance of Tract 90 and its
condemnation by the Hebdomadal Board at Oxford ; in the
very midst of the popular outcry against the writers and
defenders of the Tracts, the archdeacon hastens, in his
Charge of 14th July 1841, to exalt and extol in glowing
terms the authority, the position in Christendom, and the
prospects of the Church of England, stigmatising at the
same time the Western Churches as " inducing to sensual
infidelity and as destitute of Christianity."
What more opportune and telling protest against the
charge of " Eomanising " the Church of England ? In that
day of turmoil, of blind prejudice and passion, charges of
insincerity, treachery, and disloyalty to the Church were
hurled from pulpit and platform at the heads of the writers
of the Tracts for the Times. Eehgious newspapers through-
out the country, following the lead of the Record, raved
like madmen about traitors in the camp, about Jesuits in
disguise. The daily papers, in letters and leading articles,
took up the parable. " Newman the traitor " w^as the
watchword or the war-cry of the rising religious bigotry.
Bishops, in their visitation charges or other utterances,
joined in the fray, if in language more decorous, in a spirit
as unfair and as uncharitable as the veriest bigots, in an
outcry second only in extent and vehemence to the " No
Popery " agitation which ten years later shook the country
out of its senses. Pusey, though the leader of the more
reserved and moderate section, threw himself with charac-
teristic fervour and generosity into the breach, regardless of
consequences. What to him were the frowns of the bishops,
the censure of the University authorities, or the popular
odium which he was held up to for his pains ? On the
other hand, the prudent and judicious Archdeacon of
Chichester, though disbelieving in popular Protestantism,
did not stand in the face of such a storm by the side of
VOL. I r
210 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the writers of the Tracts, but took his stand on the side of
the bishops. In adopting this policy Archdeacon Manning
acted not only in accordance with the natural bent of his
temperament, but on the conviction that his being ticketed
as a " Puseyite " would limit his influence and lame his
right hand in defence of the Moderate High Church party
to which he now again inclined. His favourite attitude of
benevolent neutrality would have availed him nothing, for
in that jealous day his silence would have exposed him to
the suspicion of being a " Eomaniser " in disguise.
Manning's glorification of the Church of England in his
first charge as Archdeacon of Chichester is a veritable song
of praise, pitched in the highest key. It is something more.
Delivered under the circumstances of the day when Tract
90 had just been formally condemned by the University
authorities ; when the writers of the Tracts, accused of
"Eomanising" tendencies, were under the ban of public repro-
bation, this charge of Archdeacon Manning's drew a broad
line of demarcation between himself and the accused Tract-
arians ; between his views of the Reformation and its results
and theirs. After his eloquent panegyric of the Anglican
Church in the past and his prophecy of her glorious future
in Christendom, who so bold as to accuse the eloquent and
judicious archdeacon of " Romanising " tendencies ?
In curious and striking contrast to Manning's estimate
of the Church of England is the judgment of men who,
unlike Manning, did not feel " a consciousness stronger than
aU reasoning " as to the blessed results of the Reformation,
or as to the present position of the Anglican Church.
In the first place, the Reformation which Manning
describes as " this gracious act of God's providence towards
His Church," the Tractarians denounce as " that great
schism which shattered the sacrament of unity."
The writer^ of Tract 34 says: "We are reformed, we
have come out of Babylon, and have rebuilt our Church :
but it is Ichabod ; the glory is departed from Israel." ^
1 The Avriter of Tracts 34, 30, 31, and of the articles referred to in the
British Critic, was Newman.
2 Tracts/or the Times, Tract 30, p. 2.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 211
Again, the writer of Tract 34, after stating that corrupt
additions were made in the Middle Ages, declares : " Yet,
as a whole, the Catholic ritual was a precious possession " ;
and he asks "whether we are not, like the Jews returned
from captivity, who never find the rod of Aaron or the ark
of the covenant, which indeed had ever been hid from the
world, but then was removed from the Temple itself." ^
A writer in the British Critic, speaking of the Church
of England, says : —
She seemed to say at the Reformation, " Make me as one of
Thy hired servants," and she has been graciously taken at her
word ; lowered from her ancient and proper place as the " King's
daughter, whose clothing is of wrought gold," whose " walls the
sons of strangers should build," and "unto whom their kings
should minister," into the condition of a slave at a table where
she should preside. How then does " melody " suit with her
" heaviness " ; the songs of Zion with the fetters of Babylon ?
Lower strains befit her depressed condition, and with such in
the English Liturgy she is actually provided.-
Again : " The Church has sullied her baptismal robe of
unity ; she is not permitted to come into the Divine pres-
ence ; nor, when admitted, is she privileged to raise her
voice in the language of joy and confidence, without many
a faltering note of fear and self-reproach." And, as a
consequence, " the tone of our services has been simul-
taneously lowered." ^
In his letter to the Eev. R. W. Jelf, in explanation of
Tract 90, just" condemned by the four tutors, what does
Newman say of the Church of Eome, which just four
months afterwards Manning describes in Chichester Cathe-
dral as " inducing to sensual infidelity " and as " destitute
of Christianity " ?
The age is moving towards something, and most unhappily
the one religious communion among us which has of late years
been practically in possession of this something, is the Church
of Eome. She alone, amid all the errors and evils of her prac-
^ Tract 34, p. 7. " British Critic, vol. xxvii. p. 254.
3 Ibid. p. 255.
212 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
tical system, has given free scope to the feelings of awe, mystery,
tenderness, reverence, devotedness, and other feelings which
may be especially called catholic.^
Let me note another statement in this letter as to the
state and condition of the Anglican Church at that time.
The letter was dated 13th March 1841.
Of course I should rejoice if the members of our Church were
all of one mind, but they are not ; and till they are, one can
but submit to what is at present the will or rather the chastise-
ment of Providence.^
This idea is expressed with still greater force in Tract
90 itself: —
We can do nothing well till we act " with one accord " ; we
can have no accord in action till we agree together in heart ;
we cannot agree without a supernatural influence, we cannot
have a supernatural influence unless we pray for it ; we cannot
pray acceptably without repentance and confession.^
The writer of Tract 90, after insisting that unless the
Anglican Church be " at unity with itself " ; that " till we
seek one another as brethren . . . not from an ill-regu-
lated, untrue desire of unity, but returning to each other in
heart, and coming together to God to do for us what we
cannot do for ourselves, no change can be for the better,"
then comes to the following conclusion : —
Till we, her children, are stirred up to this religious course,
let the Church, our mother, sit still ; let her children be content
to be in bondage ; let us work in chains ; let us submit to our
imperfections as a punishment ; let us go on teaching Avith the
stammering lips of ambiguous formularies, and inconsistent pre-
cedents, and principles but partially developed. We are not
better than our fathers ; let us not faint under that body of
death, which they bore about in patience ; nor shrink from the
penalty of sins Avhich they inherited from the age before them.*
Again, in the preceding page : —
^ A letter addressed to the Rev. R. W. Jelf, D.D., Canon of Christ Church,
in explanation of tlie ninetieth tract in the series called the Tracts for the
Times, 1841, p. 372. - Ibid. p. 373.
' Tract 90, Introduction, p. 263. Via Media of the Anglican Church, voL
ii. 1877. * Ibid.
X THE ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER 213
Moreover, it is a very serious truth, that persons and bodies
who put themselves into a disadvantageous state, cannot at
their pleasure extricate themselves from it. They are unworthy
of release ; they are in prison, and Christ is its Keeper. There
is but one way towards a real reformation — a return to Him in
heart and spirit, whose sacred truth they have betrayed. All
other methods, however fair they may promise, will prove to be
but shadows and failures.^
The picture given in Tract 90 of the Anglican Church
divided against itself, " part against part " ; in bondage ;
working in chains ; teaching with stammering lips ; bearing
up in patience under that body of death — the penalty of
sins ; living under the chastisement of Providence, is nearer
the mark, as every one, I think, will admit, than Arch-
deacon Manning's eulogistic description of the Church of
England as " the regenerator," not of England only, but " of
Christendom," " as the centre," not of Protestantism but
" of a new Catholic world."
In his charge delivered in the following year (1842)
Archdeacon Manning repudiates in still more emphatic
terms all connection with any party in the Church, and
emphasises once more his extreme aversion at being called
any man's follower. The popular outcry against the Tract-
arians, far from abating, had waxed still more furious ; for
the ultra - Protestant party had been provoked beyond
measure by the bold defence of the principles advanced in
the Tracts for the Times, and especially of Tract 90, by
such writers as Pusey, Keble, and Ward. It was not by
the Record only in that day of abounding controversy,
of arguments and counter - arguments, that Archdeacon
Manning's name was coupled with the unpopular party.
To vindicate himself from this imputation ; to throw cold
water — he was not a bad hand at that chilling process —
on the hot-headed defenders of Tract 90, Pusey, Ward, and
the rest of them, the archdeacon, in his Charge,^ says : —
This, then, is no season for controversy. . . . All things
1 Tract 90, Introduction, p. 262.
- A Charge delivered at the ordinary Visitation of the Arclideacon of
Chichester in July 1842.
214 CARDINAL MANNING chap, x
about us are too living and real, too full of trial and of responsi-
bility and of the judgments to come, to suffer us to be men of
arguments and replies and rejoinders. In the bitterest age of
controversy we may be safe if we will, for there can be no fight
where there is only one combatant. We have our safety in our
own hands. Let each man speak the truth as he believes it : if
we agree, God be praised ; if not, let us " speak it in love " :
quick tempers, keen tongues, sharp sayings, are not of God.^
But as time went on sharp sayings were repeated and
tongues grew keener, and the name of Archdeacon IManning
was again and again bracketed with that of Pusey. In
his Charge of 1843, Manning repudiated still more em-
phatically connection with Newman or Pusey in the
following significant passage : —
Be it that there are heard sharp and discordant voices, even
among oiu" teachers. What matters it to us, who are called by
no man's name ; to us who have no ride of truth, but " the
faith once delivered to the saints " ? " Nemo me dicat, quid
dixit Donatus, quid dixit Parmenianus, aut Pontius, aut qui-
libet illorum : quia nee Catholicis Episcopis consentiendum est,
sicubi forte fallantur, ut contra Canonicas Dei Scripturas aliquid
sentiant." ^
What do these words of St. Augustine mean in the
mouth of Archdeacon Manning but virtually this : —
" Let no man call me a follower of Newman, a follower of
Pusey, or of Ward, or of any other of them : for did I not
take my stand by the side of the protesting bishops in con-
demning Tract 90, as contrary to the sacred Scriptures and
to the Thirty-nine Articles " ?
^ A Charge delivered at the ordinary Visitation of the Archdeacon of
Chichester in July 1842, p. 46.
- A Charge delivered in July 1843.
CHAPTEE XI
manning's relations with NEWMAN AND THE
TRACTARIAN PARTY
1836-1845
There was no peace for Manning as an Anglican. Events
were against him. His aspirations, by no fault of his own,
were doomed to disappointment. The angry temper of the
times destroyed all hope or chance of his being permitted
in " a higher sphere of usefulness " to carry out his far-
reaching and benevolent design of reconciling the conflicting
parties in the Church. The undiscriminating eye of ultra-
Protestantism refused, in spite of all his efforts, to draw a
distinguishing hne between himself and the Puseyites. The
unlucky Archdeacon of Chichester, do what he would, could
not escape from the undeserved penalty of such an association.
He suffered for the sins of others. His way seemed
blocked, or his foot was entangled, or his heart was at
fault in that day of " declension." Or it may be that God
crossed his hands as He did Jacob's,
In the year 1843 the illustrious leader of the Oxford
Movement retired to Littlemore ; the hearts of men trembled
with fear ; despondency if not despair fell upon the Tractarian
party, not at Oxford only, but throughout England. Men felt
or feared that his retirement was the prelude to joining the
Church of Ptome. Controversy broke out with fresh fury.
The ultra -Protestants were beside themselves with rage.
From pulpit and platform a torrent of abuse descended on
the luckless Tractarians. Bishop after bishop rose up to
denounce the stealthy advances of Ptome at Oxford : " Can't
•216 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
you let it alone ? " Manning, in the words of Lord Melbourne
to his reforming colleagues, would have exhorted the
denouncing bishops, had he dared so far to commit himself ;
for the peace - loving Archdeacon would have gladly-
remained on good terms with both parties in the Church.
Peace, however, was not to be his lot, for the Record,
mindful of " his apostasy from Gospel truth," would not let
him alone. His persistent endeavours to clear himself from
the stigma of Tractarianism were made in vain in that day
of Protestant suspicion and jealousy. His Protestantism no
longer bore the imprimatur of the Record. That jealous
watchman of the Evangelical party ever kept a weather-eye
open ; looked out in every dii-ection for tokens and forecasts
of the coming disturbance — of the approach of that storm-
centre — which Newman's retirement to Littlemore foreboded ;
looked out even in the serene direction of Chichester.
In October 1843, the Record made a discovery: —
Our readers will remark in the report of the meeting of the
Chichester Diocesan Society, a somewhat novel addition to the
usual proceedings of such anniversaries, namely, that not only
was a sermon preached, but the sacrament administered, as the
report states, to a great number (260) of the clergy of the
diocese with some of the laity. They would also remark that
Mr. Archdeacon Manning, one of the most noted and determined
of the Tractarians, . . . acted a conspicuous part on the
occasion. 1
In vain, then, aU. the tact, gentleness, and prudence of the
archdeacon ; they availed him not in that evil hour. He,
who by temperament as well as out of policy, hated to be
" ticketed " as any man's follower, was now gibbeted by the
Record as a Tractarian. No doubt the back of the Record
was put up on that occasion by the knowledge that a more
frequent, if not as yet daily celebration of the eucharist, was
a common practice, if not indeed in Lavington Church, in
churches like that of All Saints, Margaret Street, for instance,
where Tractarians of that date, like Frederick Oakeley, were
carrying out into practice the principles they had learnt
1 The Record, October 1 843.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 217
from their illustrious leader in the early stages of the
Tractarian movement at Oxford.
The administration of the sacrament in Chichester
Cathedral on a week day was what the Record objected to,
and stigmatised as Tractarian, for it complains —
That the demi-popish views held by the Tractarian party
on the subject of the eucharist, coupled with the fact, that "the
assembling together to eat bread " not on " the first day of the
week," according to apostolic example, but on another day, was,
no doubt, the work of those troublers of our Israel.
It was not in the nature of Archdeacon Manning to
enter into a controversy with a newspaper as to his religious
opinions. He bided his time. Girding up his loins, he
made a supreme effort to clear himself once for all of the
charge of " Eomanising tendencies," so damaging to his
position and prospects. To preach an ultra - Protestant
sermon on Guy Fawkes' day was a daring and desperate
stroke of diplomacy. But Manning, counting the cost, was
equal to the occasion.
To understand aright the effect produced at Oxford by
Manning's Fifth of November sermon, delivered in 1843,
and the motives which induced him to issue such a mani-
festo of his religious opinions, it is necessary to inquire more
closely not only into Manning's relations, early and late, with
Newman and the Tractarian party, but into his own state of
mind as laid bare in his private letters. That state of mind,
those relations, are no longer a sealed book, a tale untold.
The seal is removed. The whole story in all its variations and
vicissitudes is to be found set forth for the first time to-day
in his intimate correspondence with S. F. Wood of Oriel,
his earliest and closest friend ; with Dodsworth, with Keble,
with Mr. Gladstone, with Ptobert Wilberforce and Lapri-
maudaye, and, in the years 1836-40, with Newman himself.
All these letters, literally to be counted by hundreds, which
cover the whole period of his Anghcan life, tell the full tale
of his religious changes and fluctuations ; and lay bare, more
especially those to Robert Wilberforce, the inmost secrets of
his heart and soul. In this chapter, however, I have only
218 CARDINAL MANNING ohap.
tx) deal with Manning's relations to Newman and the Tract-
arian party from 1836 to 1845. It was not until after
1845 — after Newman's conversion, that, in his letters to
Laprimaudaye and Eobert Wilberforce, ]\Ianning confessed
the doubts and difficulties which had long beset his heart. ^
In 1836-37, however, before definitely breaking with
the Evangelicals, Manning made some tentative approaches
to the already recognised leader of the Tractarian move-
ment. The dull routine of parish work among
agricultural labourers and shepherds in a small Sussex
village did not sufiice for the energies, or satisfy the
literary aspirations, of the young Rector of Lavington.
He was naturally and rightly on the look-out for a wider
field of activity ; Evangelicalism as a system religious and
literary had lost its hold upon his mind.- The Oxford
Movement was in the ascendant. The Tracts for
the Times held the field. The literary as well as the
religious world was aroused. The intellectual and moral
atmosphere of the day made it imperative on all those, who
wished to be heard, to take sides ; to cast in their lot with one
camp or the other. S. F. Wood, who at Oriel had been on
friendly terms with Newman, and was Manning's most
intimate friend, brought Manning and Newman into com-
munication. In a letter, dated 23rd October 1836, from the
Temple, where he was studying law, Wood brings for the
first time the Tracts for the Times under Manning's favour-
able notice ; for hitherto the Rector of Lavington knew
nothing about the Tracts except what he had learnt from
the hostile and abusive columns of the Record, to which
paper he was a regular subscriber. Wood writes : —
Newman passed through to\vn last week in good heahh and
spirits, having been careering about among his friends and dis-
seminating his apostolical tracts. You should read his two
tracts, called Via Media, which give one a better insight into
his views than anything else. As matters of fact and history I
^ Vidx Letters to Laprimaudaye and Robert Wilberforce, 1847-50.
- In an autobiographical Note, dated 1880, Cardinal Manning said : — I
■was not long in seeing that the Bible alone was an untenable position ; and
I saw at once (in 1838'> the need of tradition as an interpreter of Scripture.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEAVMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 219
take tliem to be quite true, and agree with them entirely — as to
several of his positions and inferences I have great doubts. But
I cannot express my dissent adequately in my remaining space ;
let it be reserved for our meeting.^
Acting on Wood's suggestion, Manning began to read
the Tracts for the Times. In the following year he offered
his services to Newman as translator of Pearson's Vindicice
and his offer was accepted.
From the extracts which Newman had kept of Manning's
letters of that date — and which have been placed at my
disposal — I give the following : —
Extract. — From the Eev. H. E. Manning to J. H. Newman.
Lavington, "tth Aiml 1835.
I am half ashamed to write now, as I have to confess my
default of an engagement ; I mean respecting Pearson's Vindicice.
I took it to Hastings with a redhot intention to translate and
accomplished about a third of the work, but either the moisture of
the atmosphere, or the agreeable conversation of my friend, Mr.
Raikes, caused me to cool and relax — but I sincerely intend to do
my best.
In another letter Manning wrote as follows : —
Extract. — From the Rev. H. E. Manning to J. H. Newman.
I5th September 1835.
I have never finished the chapter in Bishop Pearson's ; and
thinking the Episcopal enough advanced, will leave it. I have been
reading Vincentius Lerinensis ; and have thought of trying to
1 The following passage in Wood's letter to Manning reads like ancient
history ; yet, if the burning of the Houses of Parliament belongs to the dead
past, Newman and the Tractarian movement still possess a living and present
interest. "No one here talks of anything but the great fire ; I witnessed it
for some hours, and 1 shall never forget the majestic sight of the old Abbey
looking calm and stately down on the bright flames, which illuminated every
minute point of tracery with a silver light, or the lurid cloud of smoke
rolling over the river, the banks of which were crowded to excess. The loss is
principally pecuniary and reparable." In another passage Wood writes : — " I
trust you have been and will be spared as to the cholera at Lavington ; it has
been at Farleigh, and poor Wilson (of Oriel), first year of his ministry, has
encountered it. But it has pleased God to assuage its violence, and I believe
it has nearly subsided. " The cholera or its younger sister influenza is not
ancient history, it is always with us.
220 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
put something together about tradition, its use, authority, and
limit in the Church of Christ, with an application to the Church
of England, showing how much we necessarily and unconsciously
depend on it, while we anathematise it in Popery.
The result of this study of St. Vincent of Lerins was
Manning's first published sermon " The English Church, its
Succession and Witness for Christ." This sermon was not
much to the taste of the extreme Low Church party, who
had hoped better things from the pious Rector of Lavington ;
from the zealous Secretary of the Foreign Bible Society.
Manning was somewhat roughly handled by a certain Mr.
Osburn, notorious for his profanity, whom Newman describes
as too vile to touch with a pair of tongs.
S. F. Wood ^ whom I do not hesitate to describe as
Manning's " good angel," was not only a man of intellectual
power, but of a highly spiritual nature. He combined the
personal piety and love of our Lord which was the redeem-
ing feature of the Evangelical school at its best, with an
absorbing desire for dogmatic truth, and a profound con-
viction of its vital necessity in religion. It was this
conviction which had converted him — and was converting
Manning — from their early Evangelicalism and was bringing
them both alike under Newman's influence. If Miss Bevan,
who gathered him in his undergraduate days, like a lost sheep,
into the Evangelical fold, was Manning's spiritual mother,
S. F. Wood was undoubtedly his spiritual father, who brought
him out of the slough of Evangelicalism into the higher ways
of Anglo-Catholic tradition and teaching, which in the end led
the pilgrim, after many sore trials and many a backsliding,
to Rome, to the threshold of the Apostles.
In the following letter. Wood explains to Manning the
1 S. F. Wood, of Oriel, was a younger brother of Sir Charles "Wood,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, afterwards created Lord Halifax. S. F. Wood,
who had a great desire to be a clergyman, but was overruled by his family,
was, at the time of his intimacy with Manning, studying for the bar at the
Temple. S. F. Wood died in 1843, a few months before Newman's retire-
ment to Littlemore. He described, in a letter to Manning, the community at
Littlemorc as a sort of monastic establishment, very pious and edifying, and
withal very cheerful and hospitable ; adding, " I wish you could see the
community at Littlemore."
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 221
doctrines held by Newman as constituting the basis of the
Tractarian system. At the same time he expresses his
difficulty in agreeing with Newman's repudiation of the
Eeformers and their work ; and seeks on this subject
Manning's advice and guidance : —
Temple, Wednesday, 29th January 1836.
My dear Manning — During part of last and of the present
week I have enjoyed the great privilege of having Newman
living in my chambers, and I believe you will receive a paper
from him in this cover about the Oxford Tracts, and also about
a plan of Dodsworth's for getting up a spring lecture on Church
matters in London. Of course Newman and I have had a great
deal of interesting talk together, one result of which has been to
confirm certain points of the view about Church teaching, etc.
etc., I lately sent you, and to convince and satisfy me that it is
not mere matter of idle speculation, but involves practical con-
sequences of very great weight in our present condition, and
about which I earnestly wish to confer with you above all other
persons. And in the outset I must beseech you not to com-
municate the sentiments herein contained to anyone in their
present shape : (1st) because, though I am confident I state the
substance or tendency of Newman's opinion accurately, I would
not pledge him to anything thrown out to a friend ; and (2nd)
because I am most anxious to avoid the semblance of a difference
between those who hold so much in common, and who may so
usefully co-operate together,
I will begin by professing my entire and cordial and active
assent to all the great features of their system — to the apostolical
succession, to the virtue and efficiency derived therefrom in the
sacraments, to their view of the sacraments themselves, to the
reverence due to antiquity and Catholicism ; and by owning that
the times require the most prominent assertion of them. But I
had hoped that the high Evangelical doctrines, delivered from
the exaggerated and distorted guise in which some had dressed
them, and reduced to their true position in the system, would
have been allowed a place therein.
I grieve to think that I have discovered in one person at
least a violent repugnance to them, and to justify this an adoption
of principles which go so far (as to be available they must) that
they have at least this advantage, viz. they open one's eyes to
their unsoundness. I will first state what they are, (1) Newman
holds that from the time the Church ceased to be one, the right
of any part of it to propound articles of faith, as such, is sus-
222 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
pended ; all that remains to them is to impose terms of com-
munion, articles of peace, etc. Further, he says that before the
Reformation the Church never deduced any doctrine from
Scripture, and by inference blames our reformers for doing so,
moreover he objects to their doctrine in itself as to justificatiou
by faith, and complains of their attempt to prove it from the
Fathers, as a perversion of their meaning. Generally, his result
is, not merely to refer us to antiquity but to shut us itp in it, and
to deprive, not only individuals but the Church of all those
doctrines of Scripture not fully commented on by the Fathers ;
and he seems to consider that our Reformed Church has erred as
much in one direction as the Council of Trent in another ; and
that the fact of other churches holding different views — e.g. on
justification — requires the suspension of our judgment, or at least
prevents full acceptance of our own doctrine concerning it.
Surely in thoughts like these one may see glimpses of a
beautiful and comprehensive system, which, holding fast primitive
antiquity on the one hand, does not reject the later teaching of
the Church on the other, but bringing out of its stores things
new and old, is eminently calculated to break up existing parties
in the Church, and unite the children of light against those of
darkness.
I have endeavoured in vain to gain an entrance into Newman's
mind on this subject, and have tried each joint of his intellectual
panoply, but its hard and polished temper glances off all my
arrows. Still I feel so fully the truth and importance of all the
positive parts of his system, that it does not at all damp my
devotion to it. And I try not to be restless or anxious about
such difficulties, but wait calmly in the sure trust that if any of
us be otherwise minded, God will reveal this also unto us. You
cannot conceive what satisfaction it will give me to know your
sentiments and hear your counsel on this matter. I trust and
believe that what I object to in Newman is merely owing to his
resiliency from opposite error, and that Pusey and others do not
share it. And I am sure he will not seek to put forward such
views : and this is another reason why I earnestly entreat this
subject may be confined to our two selves. — Ever your affectionate
friend, S. F. Wood.
In reply to this letter, Manning, who had a profound
belief in the divine origin of the Reformation and in the
apostolic work of the first Reformers, laid down such strong
arguments in their favour as to have completely satisfied
Wood, at any rate for a time, for in a subsequent letter he
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 223
thanks Manning for his admirable explanations, and ends
by declaring that, " I will knock under to the advice given."
In the same letter he tells Manning that, in reply to his
appeal for help and advice, Newman is about sending a
letter to him on the Eev. Mr. Osburn and the best way
of meeting the attacks of others brought against the sermon
on Apostolic Succession.
The following are the chief passages from Newman's
letter : —
Oriel College, Ath September 1836.
My dear Manning — I condole with you amid your numerous
antagonists, though I do not think they are very frightful ones,
if we are but a little active.
As to Mr. Osburn, he is so insufferably profane that I cannot
help thinking that if that and one remark which you are familiar
with be put before well-disposed people, they would eschew him
and his opinions. My first remark then would be that " Mr.
Osburn accuses St. Barnabas, apostle and martyr, of silliness,
weakness, obscenity," etc. etc. Is not this quite enough to over-
throw his whole book with any clergyman, if not layman ? "Well,
all that will remain then is the impression that : " these Fathers
are strange men after all, Platonists," etc. etc. Now to this I
would merely direct attention, that " we take them simply as
witnesses to an existing state of things, and we do not go by the
testimony (much less the opinion) of one, but the joint witness
of alV^ ... I think some simple statement of this kind would
(as you wish) do good ; but where is it to appear ? I should
have liked to have done it for the Criiic, but it has already
reviewed Mr. O.'s book; it would be too long for the British
Magazine, unsuitable for the Tracts, and Mr. 0. is too vile and
abominable (viewed as an author) to touch with a pair of tongs
in proprid persona. However, if you can suggest anything, I
should feel obliged to you to let me hear from you.
In another letter, dated Oriel, 10th September 1836,
Newman wrote as follows : —
My dear Manning — As to the Record, they certainly have
misrepresented Pusey grossly, but I have great confidence in the
truth — Veritas prmvalebit. Where truth is it may be obscured,
but it must make way, and its doing so is but a matter of time.
Sooner or later not Pusey only, but the Fathers must be under-
stood, at least as what they are in matter of fact. People may
not agree with them, but at least will not misrepresent them.
224 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
What an advance in this respect have we ah'eady made. Two
years ago whoever professed [e.g.) baptismal regeneration was a
worldly man ; now he is a bigot, a mistaken Jewish zealot. This
is a gain. Two years ago a High Churchman was an undiluted
seducer and belly-god. Now the Record talks of a " fusion,"
and evidently fears the good mixed with evil, as it considers our
doctrine. Here again is gain.
At the same time did you know any one who had sufficient
influence with the Record to get inserted in that paper a short
statement from Pusey in answer to its misrepresentations, I
should like uncommonly to send it to him for insertion. Dr.
Wiseman ^ will do us no harm at all. I think not. For myself,
I am writing (I suppose) a book on the Anglican system, which
indirectly, of course, answers him as far as we are concerned. —
Ever yours most truly, John H. Newman.
In the following year, 1837, there is another letter from
Newman in reply to a suggestion of Manning's readiness to
take part in the translation of the Fathers, a work on which
the Tractarians were then busily engaged. Newman says : —
Justin is taken by this time. I believe we do not intend to
publish Chrysostom on St. John, but Aiigustin. Heurtley of
C. C. C. has taken it. Are you disposed for Optatus ? I suppose
not. Let me hear again from you when you have any view.
In another passage of this letter Newman wrote confi-
dentially about himself: —
My book, I expect, will be out next Wednesday. It is an
anxious thing. I have to deal with facts so much more than in
writing sermons, and facts which touch people to the quick.
With all my care I may have made some floors, and I am aware
that I deserve no mercy from your Protestants, and if they read
me shall find none. Then, again, the Via Media is ever between
the cross fires of Papists and Protestants.
Some one here is writing against Keble's sermon. Pusey is
in the thick of a hail-storm. Really it is astonishing hitherto
how well I have escaped. My turn will come. The amusing
thing is that the unfortunate Peculiars are attacked on so many
sides at once that they are quite out of breath with having to
run about to defend their walls — tradition, baptism, apostolical
^ An allusion to Wiseman's controversial lectures, over which Manning
was much exercised in spirit ; see his Letter to the British Magazine;
or S. F. Wood's comments, pp. 118-9.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 225
succession, faith, and works, etc. etc. No sooner do they recover
their breath after one blow but they receive another in their
stomach.
I have made good use of your references in the forthcoming
Catena. The Tracts have latterly taken to selling so well that
Rivington has recommended in future printing double editions.
As far as I have an opinion, I consider Antichrist to be a
person, yet future.
The Lyra has already come to a second edition. — Ever yours
very sincerely, John H. Newjvian.
This correspondence shows the growing influence which
Newman and the Tractarian movement were exercising over
Manning's mind. In the following years, 1838-40, when
Tractarianism was advancing " by leaps and bounds," and
making itself felt not in Oxford only, but throughout the
country, Manning cast in his lot with the Tractarian party,
and took part, according to the measure of his abilities and
opportunities, in the Oxford Movement.
The work of translation for Pusey's Library of the Fathers,
which Newman had entrusted to Manning, was interrupted
by the death of his wife.
The only allusion to his wife's death, excepting the bare
announcement of the fact in a letter to Mr. Gladstone, to be
found in the whole of Manning's correspondence, was in a
letter to Newman, dated 26th October 1837, which has'
already been given.
In the same letter, Manning asks Newman's advice about
the Additional Curates' Fund, saying: —
I am not without hope that the Bishop of Chichester (Otter)
may adopt the plan, and make a diocesan fund from the collected
offertory of his whole flock. This would be very primitive and
encouraging to Catholic practices. . . .
The letter then touches on another point : —
The next point on which I wish to hear from you is about
Convocation. An amendment will be moved, if not by Mozley's
proctor, by somebody. But what should be its nature ? Should it
be (1) For a dissolution of the Commission ? (2) For a reconstruc-
tion of the Commission ? (3) For licence to debate in Convocation ?
VOL. I Q
226 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
(4) or, For a provincial council 1 Stare super antiquas vias. Pray
let me know your mind about it. I wish you would come to
London at the time Convocation meets. I am very much afraid
of some serious committal of the Convocation to a false principle.
The Dean of Chichester (the last prolocutor) told me that two
years ago, that is, before the Commission, the Lower House almost
clashed Avith the bishops in an amendment on the Address, which
was too liberal and reforming, and he expects a thorough collision
this time. Write to me as soon as you can about this. . . .
I have been very much interested with your papers in the
British Magazine about Convocation. I wish you would reprint
them in any cheap shape, or print a pamphlet about it just now.
The idea of the development of the Church principle by the civil
power I never saw put so clearly. I am only sorry it is so short.
Can you find time to put together precedents of the changes
proposed by the Ecclesiastical Commission by canonical means,
before Henry VHL as an act of the Church, and since by her
consent ? How used they to carry out such alterations ?
I hope you will excuse this illegible letter, as I am writing on
my knees with a heavy cold. — Believe me, my dear Newman,
ever yours affectionately, H. E. Manning.
I am quoting these letters not so much on account of
their intrinsic interest as to show Manning's friendly rela-
tions at the time with Newman ; and how, before he had as
yet publicly broken with the Evangelical party, he was
imbibing the principles of Tractarianism at the fountain-
head.
Indeed, earlier in the year 1837 Manning made, if I
may so call it, a profession of faith in Newman and Pusey,
the joint-leaders at that time of the Tractarian movement.
In acknowledging Manning's profession, in a letter dated
Oriel College, 12th April 1837, Newman wrote as follows : —
Oriel College, lith April 1837.
My dear Manning — Anderdon's ^ return reminds me I ought
long before this to have acknowledged your last very kind letter,
for which I sincerely thank you. It was quite unnecessary
though, as far as it expressed your friendly feelings to Pusey
and myself. Such expressions it is always a privilege to receive
— and considering how much one has to go through, which
^ Mr. Anderdon was a relative of Manning's brother-in-law, John Ia
Anderdon.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 227
perhaps persons like yourself partly escape from your country
life, not lightly to be prized. We have had a good deal of
anxiety and trouble about the translations — persons failing us,
etc. — if that caused me to write at all hastily to you, I am very
sorry for it — though writing is so very untrue a representation
of oneself, that I sometimes doubt whether one should be sorry
or pleased at anything one has written, as if the animus was
everything. I now understand you have taken Justin for good
— as to Chrysostom, I do not think it would be wise for you or
for us to settle between us anything about it prospectively,
while you have another in hand. There is difficulty enough
in arranging what is present, without anticipating the future.
We trust St. Austen's Confessions will appear the first of August ;
Pusey has found a translator he likes so much, that, Henry
Wilberforce having made the offer of taking the Letters instead,
the coincidence decided us on publishing what was ready to our
hands — which we shall now do when we can. I suppose a
volume of Chrysostom will come out 1st October — if we can get
our various translators to hear — else Cyril of Jerusalem — and
then we hope to continue quarterly.
On looking at your letter, I see you ask about Justin's
Apologies, this was our difiiculty in publishing it, and occasioned
my not answering your letter in October — we did not know
what to do as regards Mr. Chevallier. Nor have we got over the
diflftculty. We had rather not be in it. But I suppose it must
take its chance. An edition of the whole of a Father's works is
no interference with a work selecting a particular tract. As to
Reeve's translation. If you have it, it would be best to
use it, i.e. in whole or as a basis, according to yom- judgment.
Sometimes we have found these translations so diffuse as to be
useless.
I do not know that I have anything else to say, except,
what I trust there is no need of saying, that I am, my dear
Manning, most sincerely yours, John H. Newman.
The death of his wife in the summer of this year
interrupted Manning's communications with Newman and
the Tractarian party ; but in the spring of the following
year the Rector of Lavington resumed his correspondence : —
Lavington, 2nd March 1838.
My DEAR Newman — I have fulfilled to the best of my power
the promise I gave about Justin — but with a difficulty I can
hardly tell you. So many personal and family feelings hampered
me that I have altogether failed. Many things I think I ought
228 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to have said, I felt unable to say, and many things I have said
ought perhaps to be omitted. I would gladly have escaped it,
but having pledged myself I would not fail if I could help it.
I have only to beg that you will unsparingly handle it — and if
you find yourself able to do ■vvithout it that you will keep it
back. The more closely that I have read his journals, the more
I have felt the miserable state to which the Church was then
reduced — I was altogether afraid of touching the school of
theology, for there seems an unfeelingness in raising a strife
over the relics of the saints, which reminds me of a passage in
Saint Jude's Epistle. So much \^'ith the article which you ^vill
use as you think best. . . . My bishop excessively wishes to
establish in Chichester a college for candidates for Holy Orders
— to take them for six or twelve months, and indoctrinate, and
break them in. He has begged me to think of some scheme —
I can only think of a lease of a house, and a few sets of rooms,
and some good Catholic who will live on £100 a year to poison
them up to the cro^vn of their heads.
I am afraid the article is a specimen of the e^ 5v fj-rj e^^L —
something like the posthumous praises of the Egyptian kings.
At first I intended to put in many passages about the heathenism
of the European Government, etc., in India — and have got some
stuff ready for it. I left it out because it would not come in
without breaking up the rest, so I will look out for some text
hereafter. I have forgotten to say that I have read Froude's
Remains with exceeding interest and pleasure. I had little idea
of what he was until now. The preface is as bold as it is good.
The Record has been remotely insinuating some heresy against
you, I think from your Arianism. — Believe me, dear Newman,
ever yours affectionately, H. E. M.
To this letter came the following reply : —
Oriel College, 6th March 1838.
My DEAR Manning — I feel very much obliged by your
article, which came quite safe. I send it to-night to the press.
You will have a proof of it. I only regret it is so short, for it
is very good and impressive. One or two Avords I have left out,
but very few. The only observation I have to make on it, is
that it has somewhat too many quotations for a review. Two I
have thought you would let me omit. One is A Kempis's — not
that I did not like it, but because I thought it could be easiest
spared, — the other the lines from the Lyra, as having appeared
in the last number. There is a quotation from Saint Austen
which will not come down to you, but which, perhaps, you will
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 229
be so kind as to put in, in proof. I thought it had better be in
English, since there was a piece of Latin before. This, I believe,
is all I have to say.
You say our preface to the Remains is bold — Is it near so
bold as the publishing itself is ? I sit prepared, but not com-
fortable, in expectation of the first report of the explosion in the
Observer, having applied the match.
I am sorry to say that not only Rivington pays nothing
under the present interregnum in the Review, but he scruples
at paying anything under my management, which I demur at.
I think I shall stick for five guineas a sheet ; indeed I have.
Is my " heresy " in the head, a real live heresy, or a Record
heresy 1 — Ever yours affectionately, John H. Newman.
In a letter dated 16th March 1838, Manning sought
Newman's counsel and co-operation in regard to a dispute
between the Evangelicals and High Church party, which
was breaking up the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. " There has been," he writes, " a long course
of deliberation in high places for setting up a new society
for tracts only, and cutting off the balloting, and with it the
Eochford Clarke and Record gangrene. You know that
after a tract has been affirmed by the committee and by
five or seven bishops, I forget which, it is subjected to the
wisdom of Mr. Eochford Clarke, W. W. Hall, etc., who may
blackball it at a monthly meeting.
Manning then adds that the Dean of Chichester wanted
to know " whether the Oxford Legion would go with them.
I have answered for myself, and said I could for certain
others. But I promised to answer more distinctly.
" The grounds on which I said what I did are the same
as Dr. MacHale^ takes up with Lord John Eussell, i.e. that the
bishops only are the consecrated guardians and dispensers
of the Faith, and that we teach in their stead, that whether
our own teaching be oral or written (I do not mean extem-
pore or written sermons, but tracts, etc.), all ought to be
permissu superiorum." Manning further contends " that
the ballot is the direct democratic antagonist of Church
^ Dr. MacHale was the well-known Archbishop of Tuam of that date. At
the Vatican Council, he was one of the Irish Bishops belonging to the
Inopportunist party.
230 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
authority, and that we ought not to abandon our Church
position, but to expel the invading evil. To abolish the
ballot would do it at once, for all the jealous party, i.e. all
the ' Xs,' ^ I fear, and perhaps some other Liberals would go
out, for conscience sake of course. The society, or at least
its broad principle, would be defeated by such an upshot,
and we should gain ten years of Church principle at once."
Eeferring to his dean Dr. Chandler's question whether
Newman's friends would " come up and vote for the abolition
of the ballot ? " Manning explains : —
He would be very glad if you would write to him by Sunday's
post if you can — and the Judaism of yoiu" conscience will allow
you — the last piece of impertinence is not the dean's but mine,
for he writes as tenderly as if he thought you a serious "X," as
of course you are, the only obstacle to it being, that the Record
won't think so. If you would send him Pusey's mind also it
would be a great help. I am surprised to find the dean pre-
pared for so strong a measure — it is really hopeful to find even
the so-called Liberal and Moderate men girding themselves up to
act on Church principles. I know they are very anxious to
secure the co-operation of our friends, though they would be glad
to disband them as soon as the strife is over, but that is c</)' ■))[xiv.
Is it not remarkable and merciful that so many "X's" should have
been made chm'chmen — not by internal controversy, but by the
Ecclesiastical Commission and turn of Erastianism %
Manning says likewise, that he is going " to vote for a
motion to prohibit the reporting of the proceedings of the
S.P.C.K. in the newspapers, as it is a part of the
democratic movement, and an appeal to the ccnticcps in
matters of faith." This long letter concludes as follows : —
They are fearful about the division, and if you can prevail
on any friends to come up to their support it ^nll be most
important. I wish we could all meet in London. I have so
many things I want to talk to you about — so I will lay baits —
you may do so much good, just at this crisis — and the Cathedral
^ " X's and Peculiars " were the nicknames given by the Tractarians to the
Evangelicals or Low Church party who called themselves Christians par
excellence; Manning's ready adoption of these nicknames, even if only in
private letters, shows how he had already broken in spirit with the Evan-
gelical party.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 231
Bill will be about under discussion, and Eivington^ to be
exorcised, and your lecture on Justification to be corrected.
Pray come up Monday the 2nd April.
You have not altered half as much of my article as I expected
— pray always do so without scruple or explanation. — Believe
me, my dear Newman, youi's ever affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
This letter was endorsed by Newman with the following
words : —
Wrote 18th March 1838 to Dean of Chichester saying we
would come up on any motion calculated to settle the troubles
of the Society, and liked the particular one proposed, but that —
1. Oxford men had diflficulty of leaving Oxford, while there.
2. People who came up were disappointed and sent back
three years since.
3. We doubted half measures.
For more than a twelvemonth there was a suspension
of Manning's active support of the Tractarian movement ;
he was busy in translating the principles which he had
avowed in his private communications to Newman and
others into a public profession of faith, if not in Tract-
arianism, at any rate in the doctrines generally held by
moderate High Churchmen. In this work, The Bule of
Faith, as I have already shown, he publicly broke with
the Low Church party. Besides the labours and anxieties
and precautions necessarily attending the avowal of a change
in his religious opinions, Manning was compelled, owing to
ill health, to spend the winter of 1838-39 in Eome.
Inspired by new interests contracted by his association
with " some foreigners in Italy " — notably an apostate
French priest — Manning, in resuming his correspondence
with Newman, devotes his first letter, August 1839, to the
claims for material support of his interesting proUgS, the
priest aforesaid. In the following letter, under like inspira-
tions, he urges Newman to attack " Eomanism " : —
23rci October 1839.
My dear Newman — Henry Wilberforce wrote me word of
^ Rivington was the publisher of the British Critic.
232 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
your visit to him and gave me your messages. We were very
sorry not to get you to the cathedral.
I by no means make light of the article against the Anglican
Succession,^ for I think the argument, old as it is, very plausible,
and therefore very misleading and mischievous. I can also con-
ceive it to be made more so, by the way by which it is answered,
that is by treating the Eoman jurisdiction in England as any-
thing but an usurpation. I am very glad Keble is to answer it,
as he will do it thoroughly and safely. I have a sort of floating
idea of having heard or read expressions about the supremacy of
the Pope which give advantage to the Romanists. I sometimes
fear that the subject is only sifted half through, and not to the
bottom by some of those who are taking up right principles ;
and that they either deny too much out of the bias of Protestantism,
or concede too much from an impatient recoil from the meddling
of our civil rulers. Palmer's chapters of it seem to me very
good. You know Barnes's (the Benedictine Catholic's) — Roman
Pacificers, in which he maintains the avrovofiia of England as of
Cyprus. It is in Brown's Fasciculus, vol. ii., and the chapter is
printed with Fax on the frontispiece. But I am sending owls
to Athens, so no more; but that I want to see you and
have a good talk. I promised some foreigners in Italy to tell
you that you have not done enough polemically against Roman-
ism. I said you had done much, and told them what ; but they
said that the Romanists are making so much use of you to deceive
people, that you must do more. And so I think ; I do not like
the tone of our James the Second divines, but those books would
be very useful if reprinted. — Believe me, my dear Newman,
yours ever affectionately, H. E. M.
As early as 1839, Manning, enlightened by the teaching
of Newman and Pusey as to the spiritual graces derived
from the sacrament of Penance, had assumed, as yet, perhaps,
in an informal manner, the office of spiritual director of
souls. As yet he was a novice in the guidance of those
who came to him for counsel or instruction, or who, in doubt
and despair about the teaching and practice of the Anglican
Church, were moving onward towards Rome. Even when he
became later a regular confessor in the English Church, Man-
ning was often perplexed by the desire of his penitents to
submit to the Catholic Church, but now, when he was new to
the office, he felt so disturbed at the insistence of a lady under
' An article by Dr. Wiseman in the Dublin Review.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 233
his spiritual direction to become a Catholic, that in his per-
plexity he applied to Newman for help and counsel. How
to keep his penitents back from Eome was, indeed, a per-
ennial trial to Manning, from his first case in 1839 to his
last in 1851, when he, the spiritual director of so many-
troubled souls, himself submitted to Eome.
In answer to Manning's request for guidance, Newman, in
a letter, dated Oriel College, 1st September 1839, wrote
as foUows : —
Oriel College, 1st September 1839.
My dear Manning — I feel very anxious about such a case
as you mention ; from the consciousness that our Church has
not the provisions and methods by which Catholic feelings are to
be detained, secured, sobered, and trained heavenwards. Our
blanket is too small for our bed. I say this being quite in the
dark as to the particular state of mind of your friend — and how
she has come into it. For ourselves, I am conscious that we
are raising longings and tastes which we are not allowed to supply
— and till our bishops and others give scope to the development
of Catholicism externally and wisely, we do tend to make im-
patient minds seek it where it has ever been, in Rome. I think
that, whenever the time comes that secession to Rome takes place,
for which we must not be unprepared, we must boldly say to the
Protestant section of our Church — " You are the cause of this :
you must concede ; you must conciliate ; you must meet the age ;
you must make the Church more efficient, more suitable to
the needs of the heart, more equal to the external. Give us
more services, more vestments and decorations in worship ; give
us monasteries ; give us the signs of an apostle, the pledges
that the Spouse of Christ is among us. Till then you will have
continual secessions to Rome."
This is, I confess, my view, I think nothing but patience and
dutifulness can keep us in the Church of England — and remain-
ing in it is a test whether we have these graces. If then your
friend is attracted to Rome by the exercise of devotion which it
provides, I should press on her the duty of remaining in the
calling in which God has found her; and enlarge upon the
doctrine of 1 Cor. vii., also I think you must press on her the
prospect of benefiting the poor Church, through which she has her
baptism, by stopping in it. Does she not care for the souls all
around her, steeped and stifled in Protestantism ? How will she
best care for them : by indulging her own feelings in the com-
munion of Rome, or in denying herself and staying in sackcloth
234 CARDINAL MANNING ohap.
and ashes to do them good 1 Will she persuade more of her
brethren by leaving them, or by continuing with them ? Is she
unmarried 1 is there any chance of making her a " mother sup-
erior " ? If, however, she takes the grounds of distrusting the
English Church, doubting its catholicity, and the like, then I
suppose you must retort with the denial of the Cup — the doctrine
of purgatory as practically held — the non-proof of the Church's
infallibility — the anathema, etc., with the additional reflection
that she is taking a step, and, therefore, should have some abun-
dant evidence on the side of that step (and ought one not
seriously to consider whether accidental circumstances have not
determined her — disgust at some particular thing, faith in some
particular person, etc. ?). That step is either a clear imperative
duty, or it is a sin. On the other hand, can she deny that the
hand of God is with our Church, even granting for argument's
sake Rome has some things which we have not 1 Is it dead ? has
it the signs of death ] Has it more than the signs of disease 1
Has it not lasted through very troublous times ? Has it not from
time to time marvellously revived, when it seemed to be losing
all faith in holiness 1 Is it to he given up ? — for her step would be
giving it up — would be saying, " I wish it swept away, and the
Roman developed in its territory," not "I wish it reformed — I
wish it corrected — I wish Rome and it to be one."
I have written you a most pompous letter on general tottoi
— but since I do not know anything in particular, I can but
preach to you.
The letters which passed between Manning and Newman
from 1838 to 1843 showed an approach to intimacy, and
towards the end of the correspondence, partook of an affec-
tionate character. Newman evidently, at that early time,
had trust and confidence in Manning ; looked upon him
as a steadfast and docile disciple ready to carry out — and
to carry out ably — any work entrusted to him. But he
was in no sense a leader like Newman himself, or Pusey or
Keble even ; for Manning was not a profound thinker, nor
possessed of original ideas, nor deeply read ; but on the other
hand, he was distinguished by a wonderful and most useful
capacity of taking up ideas and suggestions, and working
them out with infinite skill. Manning, too, quickly recog-
nised the vital importance of the dogmatic system, represented
by Tractarianism, as a defence, on the one hand, against the
growing Latitudinarianism of the day, and on the other,
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 235
against the Erastianism of the State. The Ecclesiastical
Commission and the principles of which it was the outcome
had not a little to do with driving Manning for a time into
the Tractarian camp.
Manning's letter to Newman, announcing his appoint-
ment as Archdeacon of Chichester, contained the following
significant sentence. Eeferring to his new bishop, the late
Warden of New College, Oxford, a Low Churchman and an
anti-Tractarian, Manning says : — " I trust I may give him
full satisfaction."
It would have been a difficult task for any man, in that
jealous day of religious strife and suspicion, to fight, on the
one hand, under the banner of Newman in the Tractarian
camp ; and on the other, to give satisfaction as archdeacon
to a Low Church and anti-Tractarian bishop. To serve two
masters is a proverbial impossibility. But when, in addition,
Tract 9 was condemned by the " august " authority of the
Hebdomadal Board, the Archdeacon of Chichester, at any
rate, found it impossible to remain true to Newman, and,
at the same time, give full satisfaction to his bishop,
and to the high dignitaries in the Church whom his bishop
represented.
As ill-luck would have it, just at this unpropitious
moment a conflict broke out at Oxford, between the Tract-
arians and the Low Church party, on the election for the
professorship of poetry. There were two candidates in the
field, Isaac Williams, whose poems gave him high standing at
the University, and the Eev. Mr. Garbett who was possessed
of no known qualification for the professorship of j)oetry.
Williams was an advanced Tractarian, and Garbett a Low
Churchman, who flourished in the diocese of Chichester, and
enjoyed the friendship of Manning. The election was a
trial of strength between the two parties at Oxford. Pusey
had, somewhat imprudently perhaps, provoked the religious
contest by extolling not only the merits of Mr. Williams as
a poet, but by contrasting his principles as a High Church-
man with those of Mr, Garbett. This public appeal by
Pusey to the reUgious question set the University in a flame,
or served at least as a pretext to the Low Church party,
236 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
intoxicated by their triumph at the recent condemnation of
Tract 90, to stir afresh the smouldering embers of controversy.
Each party strained every nerve to bring up their men, or
to keep waverers from defection. In such a heated contest
every man's action, or probable action, was keenly scruti-
nised. A rumour soon reached Pusey's ear, that the newly-
appointed Archdeacon of Chichester was wavering in his
fealty.
Pusey, in his indignation, lost no time in conveying a
sharp reproach or rebuke to Manning for deserting the
standard of his party in the day of battle, and passing over
to the ranks of the enemy. In reply to this reproach
Manning wrote a very able, carefully -worded and con-
ciliatory letter, full of protests of personal kindliness and
friendship towards Pusey, but indicating his desire on
personal grounds to maintain a neutral attitude in the
election.
The letter is as foUows : —
Lavinqton, 27th November 1841.
My dear Pusey — The tone of your letter makes me feel a
sort of disquiet till I have answered it. I am grieved that you
should have so much as thought of my taking part against you
in anything. If I should ever have the unhappiness to differ
greatly from any man I am bound to by affection, I should be
grieved and pained if he did not believe that I felt myself to be
under a necessity which forbade me to do otherwise. I should
hope that you would so judge of me even if I were in the
election for the professorship of poetry to vote contrary to
your wishes. But as such is not my intention, you may dismiss
the thought of an opposition, which would be not more distress-
ing to you than to myself.
And now as to the course I shall take.
My earnest wish has been not to vote at all, and that, because
I should require some very strong reasons to induce me to take
part against Garbett. It is as natural for me to look at this
question through the light of this diocese, as for you to look at
it through that of Oxford. Garbett is one of our clergy, and
we have been thrown by many events into a very kindly relation.
It would be with great regret, if I were to find myself compelled
by any reasons, supposing even that I were in Oxford at the
moment of the election, to vote against him.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 237
This reluctance is not diminished by the election being made
a party question. How it has become so I do not know. That
you and Newman and Williams have abstained from making it
so I am confident ; that there are some opposed to you, who
would not be backward to give it that character I also believe ;
but I do not as yet sufficiently know the facts of the case to be
assured where and how the fault began. I deeply lament it, and
know nothing so hurtful to the recovery of truer principles out
of Oxford as the complexion thus given to academical contests
within the University. I say this from observation of facts, and
of the perceptible effects upon men's minds. I cannot allow this
election to be a crisis of truth or error, and shall in every way
protest against its being so regarded. I cannot therefore
willingly act as if I regarded it so myself, but I can understand
how it may be made an occasion of unkind and unfair dealing
towards you and Williams, and if anything induces me to vote
in the election it will be to protect him personally from what I
consider to be unjust.
I have endeavoured, my dear Pusey, to give you my view of
the question. I may be wrong in judgment, but assuredly not
cool or uncertain in my regard to you, and what, I hope, we
both esteem more than even our mutual regard. — Yours very
sincerely, H. E. Manning.
Having heard from Dr. Pusey of Manning's explanations,
and of his intention not to vote on the one side or the
other at the election, Mr. Isaac Williams wrote as follows : —
At the Rev. Sir G. Peevost's,
Stinckcombe, Deersley, 4th Jan. (1842).
My DEAR Manning — I cannot tell you how much gratified
I have been by your most kind letter. It was reported before
I left Oxford that you were going to vote against me, and I
mentioned on hearing of it that it was the only thing that had
yet hurt me in this unhappy contest ; for I did not think that
you would be carried away by a clamour, or condemn me without
reason. And of this I was entirely relieved by your letter to
Dr. Pusey, from which it appeared that you were not going to
vote against me, and that there were reasons, which I thought
quite sufficient, why you should not vote at all, and with this I
was quite satisfied.
There appears at present every reason for supposing that the
contest will be avoided, as the Bishop of Oxford's name appears
attached to the circular, but otherwise my own character seemed
to render it necessary that I should not withdraw, and I now
238 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
leave it entirely with my friends, as I have done throughout, to
decide as they may think best. — Believe me, my dear Manning,
very thankfully and sincerely yours, Isaac Willialis.
The weight and importance attached to the impending
contest are amply attested by the vigorous appeals w^hich Mr.
Gladstone made to Manning for his personal aid in bringing
about a compromise. To effect this, Mr. Gladstone proposed
the withdrawal of both candidates for the professorship of
poetry, and the nomination of a third person of neutral
religious opinions. Manning was not averse to the proposed
compromise in itself — quite the contrary ; but he did not
wish to commit himself in any way, to one side or the
other, as he would have had to do, had he accepted the
proposal to act as one of the pacificators. Mr. Gladstone
had drawn up an address to be signed by moderate men of
both parties ; and had difficulty in understanding Manning's
hesitation to attach his signature — unaware until the last
moment of, and not a little indignant at, the archdeacon's
determination to observe an absolute neutrality.
For the first two years, from 1841 to 5th of November
1843, Newman took no notice of Manning's desertion.
Indeed, the holding himself aloof as archdeacon from the
Tractarian movement after the condemnation of Tract 90
would have been, perhaps, condoned as only too common or
natural under the circumstances. But what was remembered
against him — by some unforgotten to the end — was that in
the day of disaster and defeat ; in a time of turmoil and
popular outcry against Newman and the writers of the
Tracts, the Archdeacon of Chichester fell not only into line
with the protesting bishops and the leaders of popular
Protestantism, but smote with his own hand them that
were down.
It must, however, be ever borne in mind, that in the
attitude which he assumed at that time, Manning was in
part constrained by the sense of responsibility imposed upon
him by his new office ; by his closer relations not only with
his own bishop, but with the dignitaries of the Church, and
last, but not least, by the weight of public opinion.
XI RELATIONS WITH NEWMAN AND THE TRACTARIANS 239
In part, too, we may be assured he was actuated by the
keen desire of his heart to preserve in the Church of
England concord and unity, which were dear to him as the
apple of his eye ; and which were threatened, as he feared,
in that heart- searching day, by those whom the Record
denounced at the time as the " troublers of our Israel."
CHAPTEE XII
A PERIOD OF DECLENSION
1843-1846
The Archdeacon of Chichester was now approaching a
most critical period in his life. To him the condemnation
of Tract 90 was the beginning of the end. Tractarianism
was a losing cause. To a losing cause Manning was never
partial, early in life or late. His nature instinctively shrank
from them that were failing, or were down. On the
winning side, he could render, as he knew, far more
effectual service to the Church — a thought ever upper-
most in his mind — by restraining extreme men on either
side. Untrammelled by party ties, he could assume the
character of peacemaker, and stepping forth between the
two hostile camps present the olive branch. It was, if
a critical, therefore, a period of highest interest as testing
character, as it can alone be tested aright, by trials and
temptations; yet painful withal, as showing how Manning
in those tempestuous days was influenced and swayed by
external circumstances, by public opinion and popular
outcry.
This period, which I have now to chronicle, is described
in his contemporary Diary by Archdeacon Manning as
follows : — " Declension — three and a half years — secularity,
vanity, and anger." ^ Again, " I was caught up in the
wilderness of London life, visions of an ecclesiastical future
came to me." On the 30th of January 1846 is the
following record : — " I do feel pleasure in honour, precedence,
^ See Archdeacon Manning's Diary, 1844-47.
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 241
elevation, the society of great people, and all this is very
shameful and mean."
Such confessions were the reproaches of a sensitive
conscience under severe self-examination, made in the peace
and quiet of Lavington, on a return from one of his
periodical visits of three or four weeks to London. All
this means no more than that Manning for three and a
half years, dating from his final repudiation of the
Tractarians in his Charge, July 1843, to his illness in
1347 — cast in his lot with the winning and popular side.
He suspended for a time correspondence on his religious
doubts and difficulties with Eobert Wilberforce. He entered,
as I have already related, into London society. Dined in the
company of great people in Church and State. Attended levies
and drawing-rooms. He followed, in a word, the leading of
liis brother-in-law, Sam Wilberforce, then recently appointed
Bishop of Oxford. What wonder then, that under such
influences, the hope of preferment, or what he called " ele-
vation into a sphere of higher usefulness," should have
entered for a time into the heart of the Archdeacon of
Chichester ?
There is no need or call to gloss over or suppress,
even if it were honest, this period of "declension and
secularity " ; it was followed by repentance and change of
heart, as is fully set forth in Archdeacon Manning's Diary
in 1847.
Newman's retirement to Littlemore brought matters to
a crisis in Manning's mind. It was a danger-signal. He
felt instinctively that Newman's " fall," as Mr. Gladstone did
not hesitate to describe it, would implicate not Tractarians
only, but the High Church party en masse, and be fatal to
their position as leaders in the future. Ultra-Protestantism
in its rage and jealousy, the civil and ecclesiastical authori-
ties in their blind following of popular feeling, would involve
with Newman the whole High Church party in a common
condemnation. Such a catastrophe, Manning felt, must
needs be averted at all hazards — even at the hazard of
giving pledges to ultra-Protestantism.
On Newman's withdrawing to Littlemore, Manning wrote
VOL. I K
242 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
making inquiries, and in reply received a letter from Newman/
which both Manning and Mr. Gladstone interpreted as indi-
cating secession. On receiving from Manning his own and
Newman's letter, Mr. Gladstone, under date Whitehall, 28th
October 1843, wrote as follows: —
My dear Manning — Alas, alas for your letter and inclosures
of this morning ! My first thought is " I stagger to and fro like
a drunken man, and am at my wit's end." But even out of the
enormity of the mischief arises some gleam of consolation. For
between four and five years he has had this fatal conviction ;
he has waited probably in the hope of its being changed —
perhaps he may still wait — and God's inexhaustible mercy may
overflow upon him and us.
It is impossible for me at the end of a long day and near the
post time really to enter upon this subject, and indeed I am so
bewildered and overthrown that I am otherwise wholly unfit.
But I will address myself Iriefly to points which appear to me to
press.
I cannot make his letter hang together. The licence to you
at the end looks like saying " I cannot bring myself to reveal
this — do you reveal it for me " — but surely this is contradicted
by his aspiration that God " may keep hira still from hasty acts
or resolves with a doubtful conscience." This could have no
meaning — would be worse than nonsense — if the interpretation
of the concluding passage which I have suggested were adopted.
I cling to the hope that Avhat he terms his conviction is not
a conclusion finally seated in his mind, but one which he sees
advancing upon him without the means of resistance or escape.
Tliis is sad enough, more than enough ; but something of this
kind is absolutely required to make his conduct (I must speak
succinctly) honest. I am strongly of opinion, and I venture to
press it upon you, that you ought not to rest contented with the
bare negation in your P.S., but to write to him again — he cannot
be surprised at after-thoughts following upon such a letter. To
tell him as you tell me that you cannot put his letter consistently
together : that much more would be requisite in order to enable
you to come at his real meaning — not to say at any such view
of the chain of what precedes, as you could in justice to him
adopt — that you believe he never could intend you to make any
use, save the most confidential, of that letter — that if he could
for one moment be out of himself and read it as another man
^ This letter of Newman's is not in the " Collection of Letters " preserved
by the late Cardinal Manning.
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 243
does, he would see it in a moment. (The description of his pro-
ceedings in 1841, of his letter to the Bishop of Oxford, of his
committing himself again, is, as it stands there, frightful, — forgive
me if I say it, — more like the expressions of some Faust gambling
for his soul, than the records of the inner life of a great Christian
teacher.) Therefore you cannot take this letter as it stands to be
his. Eeflect upon the constructions which that passage would
bear upon the mind of the country. It would lead men to say
— He whom we have lost is not the man we thought. It certainly
would damage and disparage his authority and character in the
manner which one perhaps should desire as to a confirmed
enemy to Truth, but which with respect to him it would be
most wicked to do otherwise than deeply lament.
I do not know whether out of these confused chaotic elements
you can make the ground note of a further note — or whether
you will think it right — but I feel that there are such imperative
reasons upon the face of his letter, reasons relative to himself
and his own good name, for your keeping it secret, that I am
very loath your refusal to divulge should stand without any
reason ; next I have the hope that he does not desire or con-
template abandonment of the Church : and lastly, I would to
God you could throw in one word, glancing at the fatal results,
which I may seriously illustrate by the effects that the horrors
of the French Eevolution produced in a most violent reaction
against democratic principles in England. But even this, though
a great historic truth, seems cold for the matter we are now
dealing with.
I think you come to town next week — come to our house
and take up your quarters there, that we may communicate
freely. We may then, please God, talk of James Hope, and
other matters.
I am compelled thus abruptly to close. — Ever affectionately
yours, W. E. Gladstone.
Manning, we may be sure, did not "stagger to and fro
like a drunken man," at the thought of Newman's secession;
nor, with Mr. Gladstone in the excitement of his intense
grief, regard Newman as a " Faust gambling for his soul."
Still less would prudence allow him, as Mr. Gladstone sug-
gested, to enter into controversy with Newman. Supreme
over private feelings was the public duty imposed upon the
Archdeacon of Chichester by Newman's letter, or the con-
struction put upon it, to break, and, on this occasion at all
events, in an unmistakable fashion, with the Tractarian
244 CARDINAL MAXNING chap.
party and its illustrious leader. Manning knew better than
Mr. Gladstone did " the fatal results to all Catholic progres-
sion in the Church which Newman's fall would produce."
To-morrow, when the fatal tidings, which to-day he held
locked in his breast, should become public, there would be,
as Manning knew but too well, an end to all Catholic progress:
an end to peace : an end to his own work and position. All
alike would be tarred with the same brush. Time pressed :
an opportunity was at hand : Manning was not the man, in
the Church's interests or his own, to shrink, no matter at what
sacrifice of personal friendship, from a public duty.
The necessity of things — a hard taskmaster, as he
found out to his cost, and not on tliis occasion only
— induced him once more at that period of acknow-
ledged " declension," to take a new departure and make
a fresh sacrifice. Archdeacon Manning was equal to the
occasion ; he was not afraid, in that evil day, to gratify the
Ecclesiastical and Civil authorities and to respond to the
popular " No Popery " outcry against Newman and the writers
of the Tracts by preaching a Fifth of November sermon in
the pulpit of St. Mary's, Oxford, but now abandoned by
the illustrious recluse of Littlemore.
In a conversation with Mr. Gladstone several years ago
about this forgotten 5 th of November sermon, and about
Manning's declaration that, " unlike Newman, he had not
pages after pages of passionate rhetoric and of empty
declamation to retract on his conversion, but only, in all
his works, four pages — and those not of anti-Eoman abuse,
but — of calm and sunple argument," Mr. Gladstone said :
" Manning has forgotten his anti - papal sermon, which
created no little sensation at the time, and under the
circumstances of its delivery. I remember well the effect it
produced." After some remarks upon his own intimacy
with Manning, Mr. Gladstone went on: "In 1843, just
after Newman's retirement to Littlemore, Manning preached
the 5 th of November sermon — a custom then kept up
at Oxford, and made a fierce attack on the Church of Eome.
In it, there is plenty of passionate rhetoric, as you will find
when you get it, for Manning to retract."
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 246
Afterwards Mr. Gladstone added, that " Manning's ' No
Popery ' sermon gave great offence to many at Oxford,
delivered as it was at St. Mary's and almost on the occasion,
though, of course, neither event nor name was mentioned, of
Newman's retirement. I know, not only that two or three of
Manning's personal friends refused to speak to him after
that sermon ; but, on his paying a visit to Littlemore shortly
afterwards Newman himself declined to see him."
Two or three passages from A Sermon preached on
5th November 1843, in commemoration of G^iy Fawkcs' Plot,
under the title " Christ our Eest and King," is all that
I need recite to show that on his conversion Manning
had something more to recant than he was willing to
admit, and of a different character than pure argument ;
for the insinuations that the Gunpowder Plot was en-
couraged by the subtleties of Eoman casuistry, is a rhe-
torical appeal to the popular Protestant prejudices prevalent
in that day rather than to calm reason. The following
passages seem more suited to the heated atmosphere of
Exeter Hall than to that of St. Mary's, Oxford : —
The two events which are united in the acts of this day
{5th of November), different as they are in their circumstan-
tials, have this at least in common. They exhibit the mercy of
God in preserving the English Church and people from the
secular domination of the Roman Pontiff.
The conspiracy against the king and the three estates of
England was conceived, planned, and brought to the eve of
perpetration, by members of the Roman communion ; it was
designed to advance the interests of the Roman Church. It
was not indistinctly known that some such attempt was in
preparation. The intent was encouraged by the subtilities of
casuistry, being directly defensible on principles prevalent and
commended among the writers of that Church.
In the other event the " Most High " that " ruleth in the
kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will," con-
founded our adversaries in the very point wherein they had
usurped upon His sole prerogative. They who had claimed " the
power to bestow the empire on whom they listed," who also
said of themselves : " We " (the popes) " are to this end placed
over the nations and kingdoms, that we may destroy and pull up
246 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
and plant " — saw, in one hour, the secret labours and confident
expectations of many years scattered " as a dream when one
awaketh."
In a note the archdeacon says : —
No one can deny that the Revolution of 1688 was an event
in Providence, nor that by that event the re-entrance of the
Roman influence was prevented, and no member of the English
Church can but look upon this as a mercy. ^
Then the archdeacon goes on with his 5 th of Novem-
ber sermon as follows : —
A special Providence appears to have shielded this Church
and realm from falling again under the secular dominion of
Rome. Every time it has re-entered, it has been cast out again
with a more signal expulsion ; every time it has seemed to
gather strength, it has been more utterly confounded. The
reign of princes alien from the English Church has been twice
brought to an end with a speed truly significant : foreign arma-
ments ignominiously baffled, conspiracies at home laid bare,
the insinuation of secret emissaries detected and exposed, the
whole line of the House of Stuart repelled by steady and
uniform defeats. If a series of Providential acts may be read
in combination, and thereby taken to express the purpose of
the Divine Ruler of the world, it would seem to be the will of
God that the dominion of the Roman Pontificate may never
again be set up in this Church and realm. ^
After stating that " there are many duties to which
^ Referring to a note in Tract 90, Ward says, " In the note it not obscurely
instructs us to look ' at the judgment of King Charles's murder ' as brought
down by the crying sins of the Reformation. " — A few more Words in support
of No. 90 of the Tracts for tlie Times, by the Rev. W. G. Ward.
^ In the Introduction (page 2) to the Temporal Mission of the Holy
Ghost, published in 1877, Cardinal Manning, after rectifying two errors in
his Anglican Sermons, the Rule of Faith and Unity of the Church, goes on as
fallows : — "Thirdly, in a sermon preached before the University of Oxford on
5th November 1843, speaking of the conflicts between the Holy See and the
Crown of England, I used the words : ' It would seem to be the will of Heaven
that the dominion of the Roman Pontificate may never again be set up in
this Church and realm.' Now I feel that I owe a reparation to the Truth
for these three errors. Beyond these, I am not aware that for any published
statements, I have any reparation to make. And I feel, that, as the state-
ments were not declamations, but reasoned propositions, so ought the
refutation to be likewise."
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION
this day of commemoration (5 th of November) recalls
the preacher proceeds to justify the Eeformers, showing
how, " for just causes and by a rightful authority, the
Eoman jurisdiction was finally removed " ; and then he goes
on : —
The principle on which the Reformers rested their act, and
on which our relation to the Roman Church is still amply
to be defended, is this : — That there is no one supreme Prince
or Power in things temporal from whom the pastors of this
Church derive their apostolical succession, that both the spiritu-
ality and the temporality of this Church and realm severally
possess full authority and jurisdiction derived to them by
succession and devolution, and that both under Christ alone
are within their respective spheres perfect and complete. There
does not exist any fountain of jurisdiction below Christ the head
of all, on whose will and authority the acts of either for right or
validity depend.^
The preacher, it will be observed, does not stoop to
argue, but contents himself with laying down, in a tone of
infallible authority, a dogmatic assurance. His ipse dixit
was to be accepted as all-sufl&cing. This dogmatic cer-
tainty, combined with his earnestness and good faith, was
the secret of Manning's influence in that day when the
hearts of men were shaken by the forebodings consequent
on Newman's retirement to Littlemore.
Then, as befits the preacher of a 5th of November
sermon, the archdeacon launches forth against the Catholic
Church and the Popes : —
From two of the mightiest kingdoms of Western Europe
this generation has seen the Church all but blotted out. At its
very centre it rests upon the deceitful calmness of a flood, which
at any hour may lift up its lowest depths and scatter it to the
winds. They (the popes) who once claimed to plant and to
pluck up the thrones of kings, now hold their own unsteady seat
by the tutelage of princes.
Lastly, Archdeacon Manning relapses into the propheti-
cal mood — so common with him in those days — in which,
Cassandra -like, he foretells evil days and terrible issues
^ Christ our Rest and King, p. 92.
248 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
for the Church of Eome. His eye piercing the veil of the
future, he sees visions and dreams dreams, and in winding up,
as seems to have been about this period a favourite habit
of his enthusiasm, his tongue utters a glowing prophecy as
to the coming glorification of the Church of England : —
The whole aspect of the world seems to be looking out
towards some new movement of the providential hand. It is
towards evening, and the day of its restless life seems well nigb
spent. The old institutions of the Christian world cast long
shadows on the earth — strange energies, spiritual and political,
issue from their relaxing frames, forming themselves into new
combinations, and moving rapidly towards some unknown con-
summation.
If there be truth in the universal foreboding of Christendom,
days of trial for the Church must soon come — and who can fore-
tell what we, unworthy, may be raised up to fulfil, for what the
energetic acts of the sixteenth century may have been the
stern but necessary preparation ? It may be that our highly
favoured Church, amid many chastisements and rebukes of
heavenly discipline, shall be fashioned and perfected until it
becomes a principle of reconciliation between East and West,
and a law of unity and peace to mankind. It may be that our
task shall be to cast up the camp of the saints against the day
when the nations of Antichrist shall, for the last time, go up
and compass it about. We may be called to bear and break
the last assault of the kingdom of evil. God grant that we may
be kept unspotted from the world ; steadfastly cleaving to the
Unseen Hand, which has thus far preserved us ; ready to serve
Him in the Church where He has blessed us with our spiritual
birth, by all the powers of life and, through His strength, even
unto death.
Manning, who, up to the date of the condemnation
of Tract 90 — up to the time of his appointment as
Archdeacon — had been on terms almost of intimacy with
Newman, could not now but feel that he had placed himself
in an awkward, if not a false position. The 5th of
November sermon was preached on Sunday ; on Monday
the 6th, Manning hurried down to Littlemore in the vain
hope of explaining away or extenuating his sudden change
of front. He was too late. The fatal news had already
reached Littlemore. Newman did not understand, or
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 249
had no stomach for, the ways of diplomacy. Manning,
on his arrival, was met with the answer, " Not at Home." ^
He understood its meaning ; and so did all Oxford. The
5th of November sermon was extinguished in laughter. It
is not only in France that le ridicule tue.
Sam Wilberforce, on another occasion, received a like
rebuke ; had a like measure of poetic justice dealt out to
him for playing a double part. Wilberforce had made a
vehement attack on Pusey for his famous sermon on sin
after baptism, and shortly afterwards sent an article to the
British Critic. Newman, as editor, returned the MS. with
the message that he could not accept an article in support
of the Tractarian movement in Oxford from one who had
attacked it in London. Sam Wilberforce's disgust and
mortification may be imagined. After his 5 th of Novem-
ber sermon, Manning wrote no more for the British Critic."
In a letter to his sister, dated Oxford, 7 th November
1843, speaking of Manning's 5th of November sermon,
J. B. Mozley says : —
Archdeacon Manning preached on Sunday a testification
sermon against the British Critic. I did not like either the
^ The door was opened by one of those yonng men, then members of the
quasi-monastic community, who had to convey to the archdeacon the un-
pleasant communication that Newman declined to see him. So anxious was
the young man to cover the slight, and to minimise its effect, that he walked
away from the door with the archdeacon, bareheaded as he was, and had
covered half the way to Oxford before he turned back, unaware, as was his
companion, of his unprotected state under a November sky. So strangely do
we change in these changing times, that it is hard to realise that the per-
plexed novice was James Anthony Froude. — The Century, vol. xxvi. 1883,
p. 129.
The writer in the Century, in speaking of Mr. Froude as a novice, was
under a mistake. Mr. Froude was at no time a novice perplexed or other-
wise at Littlemore ; he was not even an inmate. Like many another under-
graduate at the time, he with other disciples was in the habit of walking
over from Oxford to Littlemore to see Newman.
'^ In the beginning of the year, January 1841, S. F. Wood had wTitten to
Manning congratulating him on his article in the British Critic: — "It is
most masterly and high-toned, indeed. How grand our three articles, all of
a row in the British Critic, look." The three writers were Manning, Wood,
and Rogers. Their articles were non-theological. Manning's article was, of
course, in the printers' hands before he was made archdeacon (24th December
1840).
250 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
matter or tone. He seemed so really carried away by fear of
Eomanism that he almost took under his patronage the Puritans
and the Whigs of 1688, because they had settled the matter
against the pope. He did not indeed commit himself into a
direct approval of them and the means they used, but talked of
the whole movement as having had a happy event and being
providential. Yet he went up to Littlemore and saw J. H. N.^
yesterday. I suppose he wants to disconnect himself regularly
from the ultra party, and has taken this means. The Heads
are immensely taken with the sermon, of course. It had no
merits as a composition, and was much inferior to his former
ones. . . .'^
In another letter from Oxford of about the same date,
J. B. Mozley wrote : —
Lincoln's Inn preachership is now in the field. Manning,
I think, stands. They say Manning is too high for the
Lincoln's Inn men ; if so, it shows the inutility of men making
demonstrations — for his sermon here was thought quite low.^
In his contemporary Diary — 1844-47 — (referred to
always by Cardinal Manning as " The White Book ") is the
following entry, dated 5th November 1845 (the sermon
was preached 5th November 1843) : —
As Fellow of Merton, I had to preach before the University
on 5th November. The sermon is printed in the volume of
University Sermons.
1. Because such plainness is necessary.
2. Because others who ought cannot or will not.
3. Because my silence is misinterpreted.
4. Because unsettlemcnt is spreading.
5. Because I did not choose either the occasion or the subject.
6. Because there could be no personality.
7. Because it seemed a call of God's Providence.*
1 Mozley had evidently not as yet heard of the rebuff which Manning, the
day before, had received at Littlemore.
2 Letters of the Rev. J. B. Mozley (1885), p. 148. » Ihid. p. 149.
* In the above entry Archdeacon Manning states that he preached the
5th of November sermon at St. Mary's as Fellow of Merton, implying that
as Fellow it was his turn or duty to preach on that day. He was not Fellow
then, for his fellowship had ended with his marriage ten years before.
Moreover, the Vice-chancellor, by right of his office, appointed whom he
pleased to preach the 5th of November sermon. One of the prominent
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 251
The Archdeacon of Chichester, who in 1841 had already
publicly broken with the Puseyites, yet was anxious,
perhaps not unnaturally, to justify in private his ultra-
Protestant manifesto, which had given such grave offence to
Dr. Pusey, and Mr. Keble, and many other friends of
Newman. After failing to obtain admittance to Newman's
presence at Littlemore, Manning therefore endeavoured to
explain the motives of his 5th of November sermon to Dr.
Pusey in the following letter, dated Lavington, 22nd Sunday
after Trinity, 1843: —
... I can no longer deny that a tendency against which my
whole soul turns has shown itself. It has precipitated those
that are impelled by it into a position remote from that in
which they stood, and from that in which I am. This has
suddenly severed them (so far at least, alas ! ) from me. With
the knowledge^ I communicated to you, it is an imperative
duty for me to be plainly true to myself at all cost and hazard.
It would be deceit to let them think I could feel anything but
sorrow and dismay, or do anything but use the poor and small
strength I have to save others from passing on blindfold and
unawares into the same perplexities with them. I feel to have
been for four years on the brink of I know not what ; all the
while persuading myself and others that all was well ; and more
— that none were so true and steadfast to the English Church ;
none so safe as guides. I feel as if I had been a deceiver
speaking lies (Cod knows, not in hypocrisy), and this has caused
a sort oJE shock in my mind that makes me tremble. Feel for
me in my position. Day after day I have been pledging myself
to clergymen and laymen all about me that all was safe and sure.
Tractarians of those days, in reference to the Whig 5th of November sermon
preached by Manning, writes to me as follows : — "The Vice-chancellor in 1843
was Dr. Wynter of St. John, a very keen Protestant, who never would have
given that sermon to Archdeacon Manning if he had not had good
reasons for believing the archdeacon to be a very sound Protestant too.
Dr. Wynter was at that time extremely hostile to the Tractarians, who had
the credit of spoiling his promotion to a bishopric which he longed for. He
and his successor in the Vice-chancellorship were very bitter foes of the
Puseyites, and we had troublous times."
^ This "knowledge " was the letter which Newman wrote from Littlemore in
1843 to Manning, and which he forwarded to Pusey and Mr. Gladstone.
Both Mr. Gladstone and Manning interpreted Newman's letter as indicating
secession. Not so Dr. Pusey : see an extract from his letter to Mr. Gladstone
on the following page.
252 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I have been using his books, defending and endeavouring to
spread the system which carried this dreadful secret at its heart.
There remains for me nothing but to be plain henceforward on
points which hitherto I have almost resented, or ridiculed the
suspicion. I did so because I knew myself to be heartily true
to the English Church, both affirmatively in her positive
teaching, and negatively in her rejection of the Eoman system
and its differential points. I can do this no more. I am
reduced to the painful, saddening, sickening necessity of saying
what I feel about Rome.
Keferring to this sermon, Keble said long after, " I
always feared what would become of Manning when I
heard of his violent 5 th of November sermon. Exaggera-
tions of this kind provoke a Nemesis, and it did not surprise
me so much as it pained me to hear that he had become a
Eoman Catholic." -^
In Canon Liddon's able and interesting Life of Br. Pusey,
Manning's visit to Littlemore is described once more as
follows : —
" It was when visiting Oxford on this occasion that Arch-
deacon Manning paid the visit to Littlemore, which has been
often described. Newman, who had heard of the sermon,
would not see the preacher, and desired one of the inmates of
the fiov-q to tell him so very civilly."
In a letter to Mr. Gladstone, dated November 1843,
Pusey wrote : — " Knowing Newman intimately, I do not
think that the portentous expressions in his letters (for-
warded to me by Manning) have a necessary or immediate
bearing upon certain steps of outward conduct." Writing
to Manning subsequently, Mr. Gladstone said, " Some con-
solation may be drawn from this letter of Pusey's."
When in 1885 the long- forgotten story of his 5th of
November sermon was revived by the publication of J. B.
Mozley's Letters, Cardinal Manning, hastened to put his
own construction on that untoward event, not, indeed, bv
way of exciting afresh a forgotten controversy, but in one
of those keen, critical Notes on passing events — on men
and books — which Cardinal Manning was in the habit of
^ Life of E. B. Pusey, by H. P. Liddon, p. 378, footnote.
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION" 253
putting down in one of his journals for his own satisfaction,
or for future use. The following is the Cardinal-archbishop's
apology in 1885 for the 5th of November sermon preached
in 1843 at St. Mary's, Oxford, by the Archdeacon of
Chichester : —
On 5th November 1843 I preached before the University,
and I denounced Gunpowder Plot and the Spanish Armada, and
the authority which wielded these weapons. I saw that, given
the Temporal Power of the Pope, his spiritual jurisdiction was
granted, the recovery of England to the faith was a supreme
duty to be attempted even by the Armada. I did not then
believe or understand the Temporal nor the Spiritual Power. I
believed it to be of the earth earthy, and the cause of schism, as
I had published in my book on the Unity of the Church. And
Mozley found fault with me. I saw that their position was un-
tenable. I have an able letter of Church's ^ in the " Red Books "
on my sermon as to the Temporal Power. They (Church and
Mozley) were right, and I was wrong, yet they ought to have been
where I am now before me, but the one is Dean of St. Paul's, and
the other accepted the Gorham Judgment. "It is not in man to
direct his steps," but it is in man to go astray. I remember I
had just heard of J. H. N.'s intention to become Catholic. It
threw me back.
Nearly two months after his 5 th of November sermon,
and after being refused admittance to Littlemore, trusting,
and not in vain, to Newman's magnanimity, Manning again
made approaches to the recluse of Littlemore, in a letter
full of protestations of personal friendship and of kindly
sympathy, with a special allusion to the offence he feared
he had committed. Such an approach or apology was a
characteristic act on the part of Manning, and in harmony
with the principle on which he consistently acted, as I have
shown in a later chapter (" The Double Voice "). He had
two duties to perform — one public, the other private. In
his Testification sermon at St. Mary's, Oxford, and in the
Charges delivered in 1841, 1842, and 1843, at Chichester
Cathedral, he had discharged what he considered a public
duty — a duty to himself and to the moderate High Church
party — he had publicly disowned Newman and the Tract-
^ See Church's letter in Notes at the eud of the volume.
254 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
arians, and had given pledges to the rampant Protestantism
of that angry day. A private duty remained to be fulfilled
— to be fulfilled in private — the duty of friendship and of
affection for Newman. Hence a letter couched in such
kindly terms of sympathy and inquiry as to elicit from
Newman the following reply : —
LiTTLEMORE, 2ith December 1843.
My dear Manning — How can I thank you enough for your
most kind letter received last night, and what can have led you
to entertain the thought that I could ever be crossed by the idea
which you consider may have been suggested to me by the name
of Orpah ? Really, unless it were so very sad a matter, I should
smile ; the thought is as far from me as the antipodes. Rather,
I am the person who to myself always seem, and reasonably, the
criminal, I cannot afford to have hard thoughts which can more
plausibly be exercised against myself.
And yet, to speak of myself, how could I have done other-
wise than I have done, or better 1 I own, indeed, to great pre-
sumption and recklessness in my mode of writing on ecclesi-
astical subjects on various occasions ; yet still I have honestly
trusted our Church and wished to defend her as she wished to
be defended. I was not surely wrong in defending her on that
basis on which our divines have ever built, and on which alone
they could pretend to build. And how could I foresee that,
when I examined that basis, I should feel it to require a system
different from hers, and that the Fathers to which she had led
me would lead me from her ? I do not, then, see that I have
been to blame, yet it would be strange if I had the heart to
blame others, who are honest in maintaining what I am aban-
doning.
It is no pleasure to me to differ from friends, no comfort to
be estranged from them, no satisfaction or boast to have said
things which I must unsay. Surely I will remain where I am
as long as I can. I think it right to do so. If my misgivings
are from above I shall be carried on in spite of my resistance. I
cannot regret in time to come having struggled to remain where
I found myself placed. And, believe me, the circumstance of
such men as yourself being contented to remain is the strongest
argument in favour of my own remaining. It is my constant
prayer that if others are right I may be drawn back, that
nothing may part us. — I am, my dear Manning, ever yours
affectionately, John H. Newman.
This letter of Newman's, accompanied by the expression
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 256
of Manning's own doubts and misgivings, was at once com-
municated to Mr. Gladstone. With his wonted fertility
of resource, in the following letter, dated Hawarden,
Sunday, 31st December 1843, Mr. Gladstone suggests
various modes and methods to avert the catastrophe he
dreaded : —
Hawarden, N.W., Sunday, S\st December 1843.
My dear Manning — I return the interesting and kind but
painful letter which you forwarded for my perusal. It shows
that a most formidable contingency is in the distance, more or
less remote. It may be indefinitely near, or indefinitely far.
Can the degree of remoteness be aff"ected by anything in your
power, under God, to do or to forbear 1
From the second of the three letters, taken alone, it would be
a legitimate inference that any particular act or decision, and
bishop's Charges this way or that, would have no influence upon
his mind. But from the first letter — from the note in his new
volume where he declares that the Church of England has lately
by the mouth of her rulers been taking the Protestant side, evi-
dently a preparation conscious or not — and from his conduct the
reverse is clearly the case. It is manifestly in the power of
bishops and others, though the degree may be uncertain, to
impel or retard his fatal course, and it should be deeply pondered
whether, by a discreet use of your knowledge, any beneficial
exercise of this power might be brought about.
Looking at the bishops' Charges as a whole, it seems to me
that, through timidity, they have overshot their mark, in the
Protestant sense, and that if there be no fresh sores opened, the
Charges of the next year or two will be much above those of the
last. This wUl be so far well.
Are there, however, any bishops — I think there must be
many — who believe that the event we know to be possible
would be to the Church an inexpressible calamity 1 These are
the men whom to contemplate in any practical measure.
By one word he gives you an excellent ground of approach —
the word "contented." Starting from that word you may,
though with a light touch, avow that you are — (1) Not con-
tented, but obliged ; perhaps it might be dangerous to add, (2)
Not contented, but thankful. Such writing might be a parable
to him.
Is he aware of the immense consequence that may hang upon
his movements ? His letters do not show it. If he is not,
either now or at some future time he ought to have his eyes
opened.
256 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
AVhat is wanted is that cords of silk should one by one be
thrown over him to bind him to the Church. Everj^ manifesta-
tion of sympathy, and confidence in him as a man, must have
some small effect. I am even tempted myself (for he made me
an opening by kindly sending me his sermons) to ask him to
converse with me at some time on a passage in which he speaks
of the present temper of statesmen vnth regard to the Church.
^^^lat say you to this 1
Whatever you do, may God prosper your counsels. — With
kindest remembrances, ever affectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
In other letters, Mr. Gladstone and Manning bewailed
in common Newman's growing declension : — " The Newman
of 1843 is not the Newman of 1842 ; nor is he of '42 the
same with him of 1841 ; and how different, how far
drifted down, are any of those from the Newman of the
Romanism and ultra-Protestantism." Both Manning and
Mr. Gladstone alike believed in the Newman of the earlier
stage who with equal vehemence pitched into both " Roman-
ists " and ultra-Protestants. But from Newman liberated
from his earlier errors in regard to the Catholic Church ;
from Newman enlightened by study, prayer, and meditation,
both Mr. Gladstone and Manning shrank back in dread.
They appealed from " Philip sober to Philip drunk."
In a letter to Manning, 24th October 1843, Mr. Glad-
stone, speaking of Newman and of the Tracts so far as " I
knew them," said: —
I confess it always appeared to me that they were ever too
jealous of the suspicion of Romanism, too free in the epithets of
protest and censure which were to be taken as guarantees against
any accusation of the possibility of their fall. It is frightful,
too, I confess, to me to reflect upon the fact that such a man as
Newman is — for is it not so 1 — wavering in his allegiance, upon
any ground so impalpable as what he terms the general repudia-
tion of the view contained in Tract 90.
In regard to that famous Tract, which was the turning-
point of the Oxford Movement, it was stated in one of the
magazines, after Cardinal Manning's death, that he had
declared Tract 90 to be "dishonest." There is not the
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 257
slightest contemporary evidence that Manning had ever
pronounced such a judgment on Tract 90. The story was
merely one of those idle after -death statements which
attributed to Cardinal Manning words he had never
uttered, views or opinions which he had never held. No
one had a more intimate knowledge of Manning's mind, of
his views and opinions at the time of the publication of
Tract 90, than Mr. Gladstone. And Mr. Gladstone's testi-
mony is contained in the following letter, dated 25 th April
1892:—
Dear Mr. Purcell — I have not the smallest recollection
of Manning's treating Tract 90^ as "dishonest," and, except on
conclusive evidence, I should not believe it, though I myself
thought and think one or two of the arguments sophistical. I
do not recollect Manning's concurrence even in this idea, which
is one totally distinct from dishonesty. — Yours very faithfully,
W. E. Gladstone.
The truth is that the Archdeacon of Chichester objected
to Tract 90 not because he thought it "dishonest," but
because it was too pronounced in its statements of doctrine,
and because it was condemned by the Heads of Houses at
Oxford, by Church dignitaries, and by public opinion.
Although Newman had condoned Manning's Fifth of
November sermon, there was but little or no communication
between them subsequently.
In a letter to Manning, dated London, 8th November
1844, Mr. Gladstone remarks that, " again the rumour
about Newman seems to have blown over. I do not think
any one can judge how short or long this interval may be. "
In the same letter he asks, " Is your dean's sermon on
^ Speaking of Tract 90, and its condemnation, Dean Church said : — "But
faith in the great leader was still strong. No. 90, if it had shocked or dis-
quieted some, had elicited equally remarkable expressions of confidence and
sympathy from others who might have been, at least, silent. The events of
the spring had made men conscious of what their leader was, and called
forth an enthusiastic alfection. It was not in vain that, whatever might be
thought of the wisdom or the reasonings of No. 90, he had shown the height
of his character, and the purity and greatness of his religious purpose ; and
being what he was in the eyes of all Oxford, he had been treated with con-
tumely, and had borne it with patience and loyal submission." — The Oxford
Movement, Twelve Years, 1833-1845, by R. W. Church, p. 272 ; Macmillan
and Co., 1891.
VOL. I S
258 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
receiving a Komisb convert to be seen, or is it a secret ? The
narrative of Ciocci reviewed in the Dublin Review is
curious." ^
Either in response to Mr. Gladstone's remark or out of
interest in Newman's trying position, Manning, a day or two
afterwards, wrote a sympathetic letter to Newman, which
brought from Littlemore in reply the following frank and
touching account : —
Littlemore, \Qth November 1844.
My dear Manning — I am going through what must be
gone through, and my trust only is that every day of pain is so
much from the necessary draught which must be exhausted.
There is no fear (humanly speaking) of my moving for a long time
yet. This has got out without my intending it, but it is all well.
As far as I know myself, my one great distress is the per-
plexity, unsettlement, alarm, scepticism, which I am causing to
so many, and the loss of kind feeling and good opinion on the
part of so many, known and unknown, who have wished well to
me. And of those two sources of pain, it is the former is the
constant, urgent, unmitigated one. I had for days a literal
ache all about my heart, and from time to time all the com-
plaints of the Psalmist seemed to belong to me.
And, as far as I know myself, my one paramount reason for
contemplating a change is my deep, unvarying conviction that
our Church is in schism and my salvation depends on my joining
the Church of Rome. I may use argumenta ad hominem to
this person or that, but I am not conscious of resentment, or
disgust, at anything that has happened to me. I have no
visions whatever of hope, no schemes of action, in any other
sphere more suited to me ; I have no existing sympathies with
Roman Catholics ; I hardly ever, even abroad, was at one of
their services ; I know none of them ; I do not like what I hear
of them.
And then, how much I am giving up in so many ways, and
to me sacrifices irreparable, not only from my age, when people
hate changing, but from my especial love of old associations
and the pleasures of memory.
Nor am I conscious of any feeling, enthusiastic or heroic, of
pleasure in the sacrifice ; I have nothing to support me here.
Wliat keeps me yet is what has kept me long — a fear that I
am under a delusion ; but the conviction remains firm under all
circumstances, in all frames of mind. And this most serious
^ See the Dublin Review, October 1844.
XII A PERIOD OF DECLENSION 259
feeling is growing on me, viz. that the reasons for which I
believe as miich as our system teaches, must lead me to believe
more, and not to believe more, is to fall back into scepticism.
A thousand thanks for your most kind and consoling letter,
though I have not yet spoken of it. It was a great gift. —
Ever yoiu-s affectionately, John H. Newman.
This letter of Newman's was forwarded to Mr. Gladstone,
who, in a reply to Manning, dated Whitehall, 23 rd Novem-
ber 1844, says: —
I return to you Newman's letter, and need hardly specify
with what deep and what painful interest I have read it. In a
recent note to me he has disclosed a small part of the same
feeling. This you shall see and hear about when you come up.
In another passage : —
Newman's letter is a step in advance towards the precipice ;
yet it still remains impossible to say how many more paces may
remain between him and its edge.
In the following autobiographical Note, of a late date.
Cardinal Manning minimises or passes over his early connec-
tion with the Tractarian movement and his intimacy with
its illustrious leader : —
I remember that I had just heard of J. H. Newman's inten-
tion to become Catholic.^ It threw me back. As select preacher ^
I had to preach on 5th November. I took it as the occasion to
declare my independence. I had never been one of the company
of men who were working in Oxford. I knew them all, I agreed
in most things, not from contact with them ; but because at
Lavington I read by myself in the same direction. I therefore
acted with them in Hampden's condemnation, in opposing
Ward's degradation, and the like. But, as Newman said, I was
an external, independent witness ; for my work and field were
my parish, archdeaconry, and frequent work in London. I was
related to some 200 clergy, and to many persons and duties,
especially official duties, which cut me off from Oxford, and made
my line wholly unlike an Oxford and literary life. I went on
reading and working out the sum by myself; and on looking
back, seem to see a constant advance, without deviations, or
^ Newman himself told us in his Apologia pro vitd sud that in retiring to
Littlemore he had no idea or intention of becoming a Catholic.
* See footnote 4, pp. 250-251.
260 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xii
going back ; so that my faith of to-day rests upon the work of
all the chief years of my life. I can see one principle and a
steady equable advance. This I believe to be the leading of
the Holy Ghost. Nothing but this would have preserved my
intellect from wandering, and my will from resistance.
If it be difficult, with the evidence before us, to admit
Cardinal Manning's theory of continuity of principle — " a
constant advance, without deviations, or going back " — in his
religious opinions ; it is all but impossible to accept his
conclusion that during the whole of his Protestant life,
Evangelical and Anglican — at any rate up to the year
1845 — " his intellect was preserved from wandering and his
will from resistance by the leading of the Holy Ghost."
The truth is, that Manning in those days still had an
absolute and stubborn belief in the Church of England as
guided by the Holy Ghost in all truth. In those days he
still sat with eyes unseeing in the darkness, at the feet of a
teacher who, under a false title, and by misleading claims,
held him captive ; who beguiled in that day — and, alas ! still
binds and beguiles, for our sins perhaps, or for the sins of
our forefathers, many a profound intellect, many a noble
nature, too many a true and God-fearing heart. The day
had not yet dawned — the day appointed of God — the star
had not risen as yet, which, like the Star that guided the
wise men in the East, was to lead his " slow but sure
steps " into the Church of God ; was to lead the assailant of
the Papacy at Chichester and at Oxford into the Vatican
Council, as the foremost champion of Papal Infallibility ; as
a loving and obedient son of the successor of St. Peter.
CHAPTEE XIII
PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECIJLAKITY
1841-1846
Archdeacon Manning's rupture with Newman and the
Tractarian party was a turning-point in his Anglican career.
Dissociated from an unpopular party and a losing cause —
as Tractarianism was regarded on Newman's retirement to
Littlemore — prospects of a great ecclesiastical and public
career were opened up to the Archdeacon of Chichester.
The ambitions of his undergraduate days were revived. It
was not now a seat in the House of Commons which he
aspired to, but a seat as a spiritual peer in the House of
Lords. It was not a vain and empty aspiration, born of his
oratorical triumphs at the Union, but a well-grounded hope
within the bounds of probability. Mr. Gladstone remembers
well Bishop Phillpotts of Exeter saying to him about this
period — " No power on earth can keep Manning from the
Bench," " It was true at the time," Mr. Gladstone remarked,
" the Bishop of Exeter knew well what he was speaking
about, but not later — not after the full effect of Newman's
secession was felt, not after the Papal Aggression outcry,
for both we and Disraeli had made up our mind not to give
the mitre to anyone connected with the ' unholy thing.' "
" But," Mr. Gladstone added, " his tact and moderation, and
the art which he possessed in a singular degree of conciliating
even the most adverse opinions, made all his friends believe
at the time that, like his brother-in-law Bishop Wilberforce,
Manning in his turn was sure to receive the mitre." ^
^ This belief was shared by Newman and his friends at Littlemore. The
262 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
His private Diary of this date bears ample witness to
the hopes and ambitions which troubled his spirit and per-
plexed his judgment, and not infrequently records the
remorse of heart he felt at the " secularity " of his life in
London. But these confessions and self-examinations must
be taken as the shrinkings of a sensitive conscience,
wounded by the temptations to a worldly career which for
a while beset his heart or imagination. In Manning, the
instincts of an ecclesiastical statesman predominated over the
sensitive spirit and the reforming zeal of a theologian, or the
logical conclusions of a thinker. If at Oxford, Newman's
main aim and work was to purge the English Church of its
Protestantism — which he regarded as an unhappy accident
— and to bring its teachings and practices into accord with
the doctrines and devotions of Catholic antiquity, Man-
ning's heart was set on liberating the Church of England
from its bondage to the Civil Power. The divine rage of
the Tractarians was directed against heresy in the Church ;
Manning's mind was filled with hatred of its Erastianism.
" Give " — or restore, as he would say, — " Eestore its liberty
of action to the Church of England, and all things else
would set themselves right."
In his correspondence and conversations with Mr. Glad-
stone, Manning insisted strongly " on the right of the
Church to the exclusive government of its own affairs ; and
denied the competency of Parliament, as a purely secular
body, to interfere in any way, even with the temporalities
of the Church." To this Mr. Gladstone, who concurred
generally in Manning's views of the right of the Church to
self-government, replies : — " I do not think I take quite so
strong a view as you do of the de jure disqualifications of
late Father Lockhart, who was a friend and disciple of Newman's at Little-
more, confirmed this common belief in the following statement: — "Until
he (Archdeacon Manning) took this step (submission to the Catholic Church)
I do not think that Newman and those that went with him in 1845
into Catholic communion believed that the Archdeacon would ever become
a Catholic. It was thought for certain, while I was with Newman at Little-
more, that he meant to remain an Anglican, that he would become a bishop,
and, in fact, tliat he had a grand career before liim in the Church of England."
— "Personal Reminiscences of Cardinal Manning," by William Lockhart,
Dublin Review, p. 377, April 1892.
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 263
Parliament to counsel the Crown touching the Church in
matters primarily or partially relating to her temporalities."
Manning had a rooted antipathy to the interference of lay-
men in the affairs of the Church, whether as regards its
temporalities or spiritualities, or those mixed questions,
which Mr, Gladstone contended might be properly delegated
to a mixed tribunal. What the archdeacon was working
for, was the establishment of provincial synods under the
Archbishop of Canterbury as the supreme spiritual head of
the Church for the government of all Church matters.
In support of this project. Manning, who was an ecclesi-
astical diplomatist as well as a practical man of business,
relied on Mr. Gladstone's aid in influencing the chiefs of
his political party. That such a scheme, which was nothing
less than revolutionising the whole theory and practice of
the Established Church, should have been considered within
the range of practical politics, shows the immense gulf
which separates our unecclesiastical days, with Disestablish-
ment " in the air," from those when the present prime
minister^ was " the hope of the stern and unbending Tories."
In reply to Manning's plans and suggestions for transferring
the management of things ecclesiastical from Crown and
Parliament to Provincial Synods, Mr. Gladstone says, among
other things : —
Now the question is, how best to prepare men's minds for
such a government, and make them feel the want of it 1 Here
I should doubt if you have much of immediate countenance to
anticipate from the heads of the political party friendly to the
Church. Strange to say, it is a novel subject, like that of all
forgotten duties.
The tendencies and prepossessions, or what Manning
called the Erastian principles of the bishops, formed often
matter of discussion. In reference to his plan of a Pro-
vincial Synod, Mr. Gladstone put the following pertinent
objection : —
And among the bishops, who is there ready to support it ? I
do not know that we have affirmative evidence from any : even
' This passage was in type before Mr. Gladstone had resigned office.
264 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
if we might conjecture as we wished of one or two. I confess,
therefore, that I look to the clergy themselves to operate on
public opinion and on their flocks in endeavouring to make the
want felt, and to show the reasonableness of the principle. This
result must flow out of the ministry which teaches the doctrine
of the Church as a living body ; for, if a living body, she must
have a living unity of organisation.
I do not think the difficulties are in the nature of the thing,
but in the existing prejudice and want of information. Convoca-
tion should not be our permanent government, but as the worm
to the chrysalis, or rather the butterfly. The existence of the
Convocation might enable the Crown, if well inclined, to advance
the cause greatly more than if at the outset the subject could
only be handled in Parliament.
If what I have written should appear to you indefinite or in-
sufficient, or both, at all events do not let this have the effect of
checking our free communications on the subject.
From these free and constant communications by letter
and word of mouth, it appears that Archdeacon Manning
held in too absolute a sense the right of the Church to
be altogether independent of the Civil power, denying alike
to Crown and Parliament a share even in the regulation
of temporalities ; whilst Mr. Gladstone, though fully con-
curring in Manning's view of the absolute independence
of the Church in spiritual matters, yet claims for Parlia-
ment and Crown a right of regulation in mixed questions.
On this subject Mr. Gladstone wrote as follows: —
I am quite clear that Parliament is not a body competent to
conduct the whole legislation of the Church, or any of its legisla-
tion, except such as is mixed in its nature, having reference
primarily to temporalities. Over these I do think it may claim
a right of regulation, though I am not prepared to say an ex-
clusive one. But I cannot take the refuge offered by the other
branch of your supposition, namely, the view of Parliament as a
purely secular body. I yet hold and feel that kings ought to be
nursing fathers of the Church, and that the road from " separation
of Church and State " to Atheism is, if indirect, yet broad and
open.
To put his finger on the central pulse of political and
ecclesiastical life ; to aid even by a word of counsel spoken
in season, in the shaping of things ecclesiastical ; to stand
XIII rUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 265
as fellow-worker by the side of the makers of history was
to a man of Manning's temperament the keenest of life's
delights. It was more — it was a duty. As a believer in
churchcraft, as well as in statecraft, Manning held that the
interests of the Church he loved so well could be better
advanced by action at headquarters than by controversy at
Oxford. To the ecclesiastical statesman, what were the
subtleties of theology, the study of the Fathers, the claims
or disclosures of Catholic antiquity, compared with the
unloosing of the locks of action at Westminster ? What
the effects of Tract 90 towards the revival of Catholic life
in the Church of England, compared to the granting by the
Crown of self-government to the Church ; what the pulpit
of St. Mary's, Oxford, to the antechamber of a minister in
Downing Street ?
Manning set to work with a will in his favourite pur-
suit ; conferred with leading or rising men in the political
or literary world ; made the acquaintance, at Mr. Glad-
stone's house, of Harcourt, Archbishop of York, and of
Bishop Blomfield of London.^ But too soon he found out,
as Mr. Gladstone had warned him, that little was to be
hoped for, even from the Tories, the religious-minded party
in the State; still less from the Bench of Bishops, who in
contented ease or indifference wore the livery of the State
and hugged their chains. The disappointed archdeacon in
his despair exclaimed : " We must wait until the existing
race of bishops expires."
But Manning never gave up a plan on which his heart
was set. If bishops were deaf to his call, or too lazy to
move ; if a statesman like Sir Eobert Peel with Maynooth
— the rock of danger in that day — staring him in the face,
was afraid to stir or speak on behalf of the Church ; if
Lord John Eussell was lying in wait, eager to pounce again
upon the High Church party and renew insults like to that
1 13 Carlton House Terrace, 22?ui April 1841.
My dear Manning — I see you are coming to town again. On Tuesday
the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, and Dr. Hook are engaged
to dine with us, and if you would come in about nine your company would
be very acceptable. . . . — Affectly. yours, W. E. Gladstone.
266 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
of the Hampden appointment ; yet there was still open an
appeal to public opinion on behalf of the Church's claim
to self-government. Mr. Gladstone had urged upon his
friend and fellow-worker the duty of every clergyman to
impress upon his flock Catholic principles in regard to
Church government, and especially to create in rising men,
not only a desire for liberty of the Church, but a sense of
its reasonableness. But what could the Ai'chdeacon of
Chichester do towards this end ? He was a stranger, de-'
pendent on the hospitality of churches for a pulpit. He
had no foothold of his own in London. A AoQage church
and a rural archdeaconry aftbrded no scope for the work
he aimed at. Not in stagnant country life could such a
work be accomplished, or even attempted. The preacher-
ship of Lincoln's Inn, which was vacant, would have afforded
just such an opportunity as Manning stood in need of. It
was, however, a prize much coveted. The archdeacon was
one of the first and foremost candidates. Mr. Gladstone
exerted all his energy and influence on his friend's behalf.
James Hope, Thomas Acland and other friends carried on
an active canvass. It was a close and exciting contest.^
The Record and its friends, unappeased by his recent Low
Church and Gunpowder Plot sermon at Oxford, opposed
Manning tooth and nail, with the result that he lost the
election. It was a rare disappointment to the archdeacon, for
he sorely wanted such a footing in London as the Lincoln's Inn
preachership would have given him. In his hands it might
have become, if not a centre of profound theological investi-
gations, or of speculative thinking and inquiry, yet a centre
of activity to create or promote a new Church pohty.^
The following letters testify to the deep interest and
^ " Gladstone has just put me forward for the preachership of Lincoln's
Inn. I have canvassed nohody, and, God helping me, never will, nor even
ask anything. I should not have consented even thus far, but that I felt I
ought to give myself to them that had a right to ask it of me." — Archdeacon
Manning's Diary, November (1843).
- In a letter to Manning, dated Whitehall, 22nd November 1843, mainly
about the absence of vigorous action on the part of Pusey to stop defections,
Mr. Gladstone congratulated Manning on standing for the Lincoln's Inn
preachership as follows : — "So you are launched for the preachership. God
speed you."
XIII rUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 267
activity shown by Mr. Gladstone and James Hope in
promoting Manning's canvass for the Preachership. The
failure in securing his election was nearly as deep a dis-
appointment to Mr. Gladstone as to Manning himself : —
Whitehall, 16th Nov. 1843.
My dear Manning — I write to Hope asking to see him on
your letter to-morrow morning, and I send this for his perusal,
on its way to the post. In my view it is impossible to learn
definitely whether a wish prevails among the Benchers " ex-
tensively " for your being put in nomination. Assuming that
they are ready to elect you in preference to any other man,
still I do not think, at least I do not see, how the inquiry could
be carried far enough to obtain such information, without
becoming substantially a canvass.
I think we have already that general evidence of a favourable
disposition which ought to induce you to proceed, provided some
one person in a fashionable position will in the popular phrase
take you up. Justice Coleridge's opinion is that we should
urge the Vice-Cliancellor to declare himself in this sense, he
having already spoken favourably ; and I should have done
this to-day but that the restrained terms of your letter make
me doubt whether I am at liberty to do so.
You have already I believe sent or kept men out of the field
— Merivale, for example, not to mention Palmer — this of itself
goes some way to decide the question — not all, I freely admit.
As to the question of a call to this office, it seems to me that
you have every indication of it which can be gathered from
special fitness universally allowed, and from highly favourable
though as yet immature indications on the part of the electors.
If you are not prepared to let Hope and me go forward on
the condition that if the V.C. adopts you, you will declare
yourself — write and say so strongly — I will not, however,
say it is impossible that after a conversation to-morrow we may
act for you without waiting. — Aff"ectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
Whitehall, I8th Nov. 1843.
My dear IVIanning — I have just seen the Vice-Chancellor,
who announces that he will support you. He agrees in your
repudiation of personal canvass. He will see that your name
is bruited at any meeting of Benchers upon the subject ; one
had been appointed for next Monday but it is put off. He will
also moot the question as occasion may ofler. He states that
he does not remember any canvass by Bishop Heber or Bishop
268 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Lloyd. He supports you as the best man, and likewise on
account of a personal friendship of his ; but he strongly holds
to the former position. I have therefore now to beg you
forth-vvith to address an oflficial letter to Rt. Hon. Sir J. L.
Knight Bruce, Vice-Chancellor, Treasurer to the Hon. Society
of Lincoln's Inn, The Priory, Roehampton, London, declaring
yourself a candidate.
It is bald and ungracious to say in such a note I shall not
canvass ; but Hope and I think you may very well imply what
is equivalent, and convey that negative by something positive
in its immediate form — e.g. that having thus placed yourself
at the command of the Benchers, you w-ill await their decision
with respect ; but you are not the man to require instruction,
and least of all from me, upon a matter of expression. I
thought it well however to give you our idea.
You may take the vacancy for a certainty. Hope will see
the V.C. Knight Bruce to-morrow. — Ever affectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
On learning the result of the Lincoln's Inn election, Mr.
Gladstone, who, like Manning, was much disappointed at
the action of the Benchers, wrote as follows : —
Whitehall, \'ith Jan. 1844.
My DEAR ]\Ianning — I am sorely disappointed about the
Lincoln's Inn Election, the result of which is highly disparaging
to the Benchers.
If I could persuade myself that it would have any detrimental
eflfect on your reputation, this is the moment at which I should
acutely regi-et having endeavoured to move you forward in the
business. I cannot, however, say that I am under that impression.
But as a benefit missed is sometimes equivalent to an evil
inflicted, I do deeply feel the loss of an opportunity of advancing
the cause of truth in the Church by an appointment which
would also have been, I think and believe it will be admitted,
also by far the most honourable to the intellectual character of
the Benchers.^
Whatever may come of any such matter, your work is
appointed for you, and you for it, and none will come between.
I have, however, been guilty of a political error, a false
calculation, arising from over- confidence. In this I trust you
will pardon me, and believe me always affectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone,
1 Mr. Gladstone said quite recently: — "The man so shamefully preferred
to Manning by the Benchers left his parish in debt and borrowed a sovereign
from the gate-keeper."
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 269
Whitehall, 1 5th Jan. 1844.
My dear Manning — I have read your letter with even more
of interest and sympathy than usual. Such letters are to be
felt, remembered, and pondered, not to be answered. But let
me say this. If I expressed a fear as to your reputation, it is
not in the view of your reputation as a personal or as a worldly
good. But because your character is a part of the property of
the Church, and of the Truth in the Church, and must be
husbanded for the sake of its association with that truth.
Nor did my miscalculations arise from my being blinded by
my personal regard or affection. They arose out of a belief
that the Benchers would be guided by comparative fitness. My
impressions as to this latter point might be affected by personal
motives — but I have found no one who thinks them erroneous
or exaggerated.
I have had great pleasure in falling in once more with
Charles Wordsworth, who is in town. — Ever affectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
Van. Archdeacon of Chichester.
The year which witnessed Archdeacon Manning's failure
to obtain the Lincoln's Inn preachership, witnessed the
elevation of his brother-in-law, Archdeacon Wilberforce, to
the Bench of Bishops. In the year 1845, he was appointed
by the Crown to the See of Oxford, rendered vacant by the
promotion of Bishop Bagot. The Wilberforce interest was
very great, and Samuel Wilberforce, who was the most dis-
tinguished pulpit orator of his day in the Church of
England, was very moderate in the expression of his
religious opinions. " It was not," as Mr. Gladstone once
remarked, " until after he became bishop that Sam WHber-
force developed his High Church views. The prospect of a
mitre," added Mr. Gladstone with a smile, " exerts a great
restraining power over churchmen." The promotion of
Wilberforce set men thinking and talking of Manning's
chances of preferment. It was hoped, especially since his
recent repudiation of the Oxford Movement, that he might
in time Hve down his early connection with Newman and
the Tractarians.
Already indications were not wanting that the way was
being made smooth for Manning's promotion. On his being
made Bishop of Oxford, Wilberforce resigned the Sub-
270 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
almonership to the Queen, which he held under the
Archbishop of York ; and before the close of the year,
through Wilberforce's influence, it was offered to his brother-
in-law.
To show in what high esteem Archdeacon IManning was
held at that time by such men as F. D. Maurice, the
following passage from a letter of his will suffice. The
letter was dated "Madeira Vale, Bonchurch, 15th Sep-
tember 1843." After speaking of "much pleasant refresh-
ment both bodily and spiritual," which he enjoyed with
Wilberforce during a few days spent at Alverstoke and
with Manning at Lavington, Maurice goes on as follows : —
Manning is one of the completest, perhaps the completest
man I ever met with ; there are doubtless deficiencies, which
completeness itself implies, seeing that the incomplete is that
which is ever seeking the infinite and eternal to fill up its hollows ;
and in him there is logical rotundity which I should not
wish for. But it is united with so much appreciation of every-
thing good, such great refinement, tolerance, and kindliness, that
I know not where one would look rather for a Avise and true
bishop in these times. ^
In public labours of this practical kind. Manning was in
his element. He was in active communication with Cabinet
ministers. His busy hand was helping to modify or amend
the laws of his country. He was working in harmony with
men of different and often of conflicting religious opinions
in building up the Church, as by law established, at home,
and in creating for it a new sphere of action in our Colonial
Empire. His eloquent speech and fruitful labours in a
common cause were rewarded by public recognition and
applause. Whilst, on the other hand, Newman and the
Oxford men, engaged in the arduous task of reviving in the
English Church a lost faith, or in transmuting the dross of
its Thirty -nine Articles into the pure gold of Catholic
doctrine, were overwhelmed with abuse from pulpit and
platform and in the public press. But concurrently with
1 Extract from the Life of Frederick Dcnison Maurice, vol. i. p. 350,
published by Messrs. Macniillan, 1S84 ; transcribed by the Cardinal in one
of his Journals.
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 271
his practical and public labours on behalf of the Church
Manning was working out his way towards the recovery of
Catholic Truth. The Unity of the Church, which Mr.
Gladstone considers Manning's greatest production, was
published in 1842. Speaking three or four years ago, of
this sermon, Mr. Gladstone said : — " Manning has never sur-
passed that work. In writing his ' Life ' as an Anglican,
you will find in it the best illustration of his religious
opinions, though, perhaps, in parts, it is somewhat wanting
in depth and solidity." To this eulogy of the Unity of the
Church, Cardinal Manning remarked : — " Mr. Gladstone has
good reason for praising that work ; for it was the best
apology I could make for the Anglican Church — and the
last. At that time Mr. Gladstone and I were of one mind.
The book was affectionately inscribed to him ; but Mr.
Gladstone unhappily remains to-day, where I left him in
1842."
In a letter, dated 13 Carlton House Terrace, 30 th June
1842, to Manning, Mr. Gladstone made the following re-
marks on the Unity of the Church : —
On Sunday last, however, I was able to read Part III. and
my say upon it is easily said — that you have handled that part
of the subject, it is manifest, with great felicity as well as with
your usual clearness. If you happen to have read the twelfth
sermon of Newman's sixth volume, you will have seen that he
there vmfolds the mitigating and just view of the exclusive
principle which you also have given — I mean that you correspond
in substance. And I wish for the interests of truth that this
had been more sedulously enforced upon public attention by the
Oxford writers in the Tracts and other publications with which
they have been connected. . . . Hope seemed very much pleased
with the general notion of your work; I do not mean that
he stumbled at particulars, but he was not, I believe, minutely
acquainted with them."
In his Journal, dated 15th November 1888, Cardinal
Manning gave the following account of the genesis of this
sermon : —
In 1841 I preached the Unity of the Church and dedicated
it to Gladstone. His letter above referred to speaks of this.
272 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The book arose in this way. His (Gladstone's) book on Church
and State suggested it as wanting to his argument. The
subject of unity was then pressing on us partly by the Tracts for
the Tim^s, and partly by Dr. Wiseman's Moorfield Lectures and
articles in the Dublin Review.
The Warden of Merton asked me whether I would undertake
the Bampton Lectures. I said, " I would see if I could." This
made me read up and write, what is really only the outline of
such a course. Events came which made it impossible, and I
finished it in haste. The third and last part was done very
hastily. It was an honest attempt to justify the position of
the Church of England, and to claim for it pastoral succession
and sacraments. I do not think there is any anti-Roman
declamation or animus. It was a case for the defendant, with
what reason I could, and without passion. And if there were
not an antecedent truth — the mission, prescience, and office of
the Holy Ghost — it would not be easily answered. But this
wipes it all oiit.
The establishment of the Jerusalem bishopric under the
joint protection of England and Prussia, as the two most
prominent Protestant nations, was Bunsen's pet project, in
the view of setting up the influence of Prussia in Palestine.
That it succeeded only shows once more the essential
Protestantism of the ruling authorities and of the Bench of
Bishops. Manning, though he still blessed the Reformation
and its results in England, viewed with just abhorrence the
Protestantism of the Continent. By the establishment of the
Jerusalem bishopric, the Church of England was, with the
consent of the bishops, and by the act of the State, formally
and officially identified with the Protestantism of Prussia.
On signing the Thirty -nine Articles, Prussian Ministers of
religion whose creed was the Augsburg Confession of Faith,
were to be ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Manning appealed to Mr. Gladstone for help and counsel to
avert this shame and degradation from the Church of
England. The High Church party were thrown into con-
fusion by the action of the bishops. Low Churchmen and
Dissenters celebrated as a signal triumph this public
identification of the common Protestantism of England and
the Continent. The Tractarians, of course, spoke out
without fear or hesitation, and denounced the scheme as
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 273
committing the Church of England to an act of heresy, to
which the bishops were a consenting party. Of the High
Church party Mr. Gladstone was perhaps the most active
and resolute. To Manning, in a letter, dated London, 30 th
November 1841, he wrote as follows: — "I should exceed-
ingly desire to go through the whole subject of the Jerusalem
bishopric." ^ Manning did his best to aid Mr. Gladstone
in opposing the scheme, but their efforts were unavailing.
During these eager years, the Archdeacon of Chichester,
in constant communication or contact with leading men in
Church and State and letters, made, wherever he went, his
influence felt. He conciliated opponents ; removed, with
far-reaching foresight, obstacles from his path, and made
sure the foundations of his future career. To show the
range of his social pursuits, it will suffice to say that Arch-
deacon Manning was in 1844 presented at Court, attended
levies and drawing-rooms , visited both Houses of Parlia-
ment — or as, later in life, the Cardinal described his first
visit to the House of Lords, " Sat on the steps of the
throne," ^ made friends for himself, went out to dinner parties
and frequented clubs as eclectic as the Sterling Club, In
a word. Manning entered into the world in which his
friend Mr. Gladstone lived, and in which his brother-in-law,
Sam Wilberforce, fascinated the brilliant society in which
he moved and breathed, and to which he preached. In this
course of social pleasures, as Cardinal Manning recorded in
a Journal, dated 15th January 1882,
There were, however, two things which always checked me.
First, all my life I have been always ailing and never failing. I
caught cold one late evening at cricket at Harrow. It fell on
^ In the correspondence which passed between Mr. Gladstone and Arch-
deacon Manning on the subject of the Jerusalem bishopric, Mr. Gladstone
lamented, that all he could effect by way of amendment was to substitute in
the formal Act of Agreement, instead of united action between England and
Prussia, the words between " the Queen of England and the King of Prussia."
This amendment Mr. Gladstone hoped would give to the united action a
personal instead of a national character.
2 I remember sitting on the steps of the throne in the House of Lords and
Bishop Blomfield introducing me to the Bishop of New York. It was the
Catholic Archbishop Hughes, as I found ; but Bishop Blomfield did not
know it. — Cardinal Manning's Jcmrnal, 1878-82.
VOL. I T
274 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
my chest; and for ten years I suffered severely from asthma,
... I suspect I have had gout in the stomach all my life :
whatever gout means I do not know, but I mean a constant risk
of gastric heat and an inability to take the quantity of food
common with other men. This gave me always a dislike of
long dinners and of dining out. Society at this cost was bought
too dear.
The other check upon me was an impatience at the loss of time.
My friends used to watch me and laugh when I took my watch out :
I had always something saying, " What doest thou here, Elias ? "
The time given to society was not time wasted for
" Elias," though he may not have known it. His pleasant
manners and lively conversation won golden opinions
for him wherever he went. Mr. Pdchmond, the celebrated
painter, once told me that at one of Miss Burdett
Coutts's (as she was then) famous Thursday dinner parties,
consisting of four persons only, Archdeacon Manning
and himself met Young, the comic actor, who was much
graver than the archdeacon, for Manning kept the table
alive by his humorous anecdotes, of which he possessed an
almost inexhaustible fund. On that occasion Young said
to Mr. Eichmond, " I always read with intense delight and
edification the archdeacon's sermons, but I am sorry to say
he never comes to the theatre to be edified in his turn." Mr.
Eichmond added, " Mr. Irving, I know, reads to-day with real
interest and pleasure Cardinal Manning's writings." When
I told this to the Cardinal he was as surprised as he was
pleased, and said with his quiet smile, " I thought they all
looked upon me as a black sheep." ^
With his innate love for clubs and their varied society,
pleasant ways and sociable talk, which never deserted him
to the end of his life, it is not surprising that Manning was
a frequenter of one so attractive and select as the Sterling
Club. Mr. Gladstone remembers the club well. "We
used to meet," he says, " for the purpose of conversation
and discussion. Its charm consisted in meeting with men
of the most various opinions, and the talk often elicited a
manifestation or conflict of antagonistic principles. Wilber-
^ See an autobiographical Note, dated 1890, in Vol. II., for Cardinal
Manning's final judgment on theatres.
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMITATIONS TO SECULARITY 275
force and Manning, and my brother-in-law Lyttelton, and
Copley Fielding and Thirlwall were members." ^
In a letter to S. Y. Wood, undated, Manning said,
" Yesterday I was elected a member of the Sterling Club,
I suppose to give it a dash of theology." At the club he
made friends with Maurice and Sterling, with both of
whom he afterwards kept up a correspondence. With
Thirlwall and Arnold and others of that school whom
he met at the club Manning had no sympathy, for he was
not a speculative thinker, and was never troubled with
doubt, philosophic or religious.
In a letter to E. Chenevix Trench, dated 15 th June
1839, S. Wilberforce says : — " At the Sterling Club we had
Sterling, Lord Adare, Lyttelton, Blakesley, Colvil, Spedding,
PoUock, etc. I thought there was a certain hrusquerie
about Sterling's manner which took off the pleasure of a
first meeting. But many things spoke of substantial kind-
ness. I hope he has misconveyed himself to H. E. Manning,
for Manning identifies him in some very painful points
with the Eationalism of Germany." -
Manning, however, was not misled in his judgment, for
in conversations at Rome in 1838, as well as in the follow-
ing letter to Manning, Sterling made an open profession
of scepticism : —
Clifton, 2nd January 1840.
My dear Manning — I was extremely glad to hear from you,
and of course much the more from the great kindness of your
letter. . . I am very glad that you have been able to recur with
interest to any of our conversations at Rome. There was much
in my share of them which I do not think of without some self-
blame. But on the whole, I maintained what I have been led
earnestly to hold as truth, and tried to assert honestly what
bad been honestly come by. I see clearly the necessity in many,
and in some most valuable minds, for a scheme of belief and
practice more compact and sharp, and above all more positively
enacted and patented than any that I can assent to. And as
truth cannot be incoherent, such schemes appear to me not
^ Among the original members of the Sterling Club was Charles Butler,
the well-known Catholic writer of that day.
^ Life of Bishop Wilberforce, 1st ed. vol. i. p. 154.
276 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
denials of the principles which command and fill my reason and
feelings, ])ut accommodations thereof to the use of those whose
kind of culti^'ation and whose practical pursuits are different
from those allotted to me. Slight and vague as this statement
is, you must excuse it as being the nearest approval to a thought
that I have ventured to put on paper for the last two months.
I have lately been foolish enough — I really now regard it as a
folly — to print a small volume of poems.
I shall have gi-eat pleasure in calling on your friend at
Madeira, and doing my best to derive enjoyment and profit from
his society. You know, however, the chance that most persons
of the class you assign him to, may, unless peculiarly indulgent,
recoil from me as one of the profane. I seldom fail to remember
how excusable all such judgments of me are, and I hope I shall
avoid giving any more occasion for them than is absolutely
inevitable. — At all events pray believe me, very cordially yours,
John Sterling.
On Sterling's death in 1844, Archdeacon Hare wrote a
Memoir of his former curate at Hurstmonceaux. On its
publication the Record made a fierce and furious attack on
the Sterling Club, which it declared was founded to com-
memorate the Eationalistic unbelief of John Sterling. The
members of the club were denounced as sharing the irreli-
gious principles of the man in whose honour it was founded.
Archdeacon Manning was singled out by name.
In speaking of the origin of the club and its name, Mr.
Gladstone said : —
It was called the Sterling Club, not in honour of John
Sterling, but because he was its first and most prominent
member, and because we were all supposed in some way or
other to be sterling men. The attacks and insinuations of the
Record, however, eventually killed the club. Manning was the
first who thought it prudent to withdraw his name, then Wilber-
force and others. We endeavoured to keep it together. It was
removed to another locality, where it lingered on for a few years.
In those days to be suspected of " Germanising views " —
which ^ Hugh James Eose was the first to denounce in England
' Dr. Pusey defended German theology against Mr. Rose ; but later on
recanted his views and, as far as he could, supjjressed his own books. To the
last he felt anxious as to "their untoward inlluence." "In his will, dated
19th November 1875, he desires the two books on The Theology of Oermany
should not be republished " (Canon Liddou's Life of Dr. Pusey, vol. i. p. 176).
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 277
as essentially rationalistic and leading to unbelief — was almost
fatal to a man's reputation, and not in the religious world
only. To belong to a club, in which " Germanising views "
were supposed to be entertained, was a mark against a man
somewhat akin to that in the social world of that day — if
I may be pardoned the comparison — of being seen smoking
a cigar in the morning.
After one of his frequent excursions in those days into
what he himseK calls " the bewildering life of London,"
Archdeacon Manning, suffering perhaps from reaction in
the silence and solitude of Lavington, put himself through
a severe course of self-examination, especially in regard to
the motives of his actions ; and for lack of a confessor — for
he had not as yet chosen one for himself — confesses his
temptations, his weaknesses, and his ambitions in the pages
of his private Diary. His confessions show a very
sensitive and scrupulous conscience and a God-fearing spirit.
The self - examination in some instances is so prolonged
and minute as to be almost morbid. A judicious spiritual
director would have saved Archdeacon Manning from much
self-torture springing out of a, perhaps, too constant and
morbid introspection.
At this time the question of ecclesiastical preferment
seems to have seriously disturbed his mind. In order to
show — under his own seal, as it were — what was passing
through Archdeacon Manning's mind, exciting his heart or
troubling his conscience, I cannot do better than recite the
following passages from his Diary.
Almost the first entry — I mean the first of the entries
left standing, for pages after pages have been cut out — is
as follows : —
1 3th December 18^5. — I feel wonderfully lone. God knows
I long to be satisfied with His presence.
Then follow these reflections and self-accusations : —
I am pierced by anxious thoughts. God knows what my
desires have been and are, and why they are crossed. How did
I strive to find His will to be as my will, and to make a way of
278
CARDINAL MANNING
escape from His hand upon me. But a fear has held me, so
that I dare not jro on.
I am flattering myself with a fancy about depth and reality.
Then follows what almost seems like a life-and-death
struggle between ambition and seK-denial : —
4:th December 1845. — This evening I found the Archbishop of
York's letter offering me the office of Sub-almoner.
8th December. — As to this appointment the arguments are —
Fm:
1. That it comes imsought.
2. That it is honourable.
3. That it is an opening to
usefulness.
4. That it may lead to more.
5. That it has emolument.
6. That
friends.
7. That
archbishop.
I owe it to my
it is due to the
Against.
1. Not therefore to be ac-
cepted. Such things are trials
as well as leadings.
2. Being what I am, ought
I not therefore to decline it —
(1) As humiliation.
(2) As revenge on myself
for Lincoln's Inn.
(3) As a testimony 1
3. All I have is pre-
engaged.
4. Therefore, at least for
that reason, not to be ac-
cepted. It is a sphere of
temptation to which I am akin,
and have been.
5. But this is dearly bought
with five sacred days, and
anything ethically wrong.
6. Supposing the reasons
good.
7. The same.
Now the negative reasons are —
1. That I ought not for my own, and for my flock's sake, to
be absent on the feasts, especially Passion Week and Easter.
2. That I ought to keep out of temptations.
3. That I owe to myself, and to my Master, at least one
denial, and I have never denied myself.
4. That Lincoln's Inn affair makes such a withdrawal right,
especially in one who is perhaps too aspiring.
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIOXS TO SECULARITY 279
5. That it will be somewhat out of tone with my words
and line, or might be thought so.
6. That a willingness to be preferred would perhaps affect
unfavourably some who are drawn to me because I am as I am.
My work, if anywhere, is in eremo.
7. That anything which complicated my thoughts and posi-
tion may aifect the indifference with which I wish to resolve my
mind on the great issue. Visions of a future certainly Avould.
8. That to keep aloof brings a man more simply and nearly
to the Head of the Church — to be disposed of directly.
9. That to leave my altar at the feasts is a bad public
example to the archdeaconry.
10. That the contracting two new relations — (1) to the office,
and (2) to the archbishop — might make me less free to act and
speak.
After a week's anxious deliberation and careful balancing
the pros and cons about the office of Sub-almoner, Manning
resolves to refuse the Archbishop of York's offer.
I have made up my mind, and will put down my reasons
to-night, and, please God, write to-morrow to decline the offer.
1 . I ought not to be away from my altar at the feasts, especi-
ally the Easter communion —
For the sakes — (1) Of my flock,
(2) Of my brethren.
(3) Of my own.
2. I am afraid of venturing out of the Church into the Court.
It is a /tera/Jacris et's aAAoyevets. The first point in the line,
and therefore involves the whole principle. If I am to go,
then I shall be called again, not less surely for having now
refused.
My course has been afar off, and I have seen a stronger
man than I damaged. " Wine is a mocker, strong drink is
raging."
3. I owe myself a revenge for Lincoln's Inn, and a greater
denial than this.
4. I ha,ye prayed against " pride, vanity, envy, jealousy, rivalry,
and ambition," but have done nothing to attain humility.
5. I would fain simply deny myself as an offering to Him
who pleased not Himself, and perhaps in a distinction and an
honour having worldly estimation, such a denial is better for me
than in money and the like.
6. I would fain cross my inclinations.
280 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Now in all this Satan tells me I am doing it to be thought
mortified and holy ; or out of pride, as wishing to slight what
others value and assume I should gladly accept.
After this minute self-dissection, this careful and pro-
longed balancing of arguments and counter-arguments, and
after a final decision arrived at out of the deepest religious
motives, it would seem all but impossible for Archdeacon
Manning to go back upon himself He had fought the
good fight ; he had won the crown. And yet, on returning
to his friends in London, he was once more, as he calls it,
" caught up in the whirl of the actual," and accounted him-
self a fool for having lost a great opportunity in declining
the Sub-almonership, not for its own sake, but for what it
might lead to.
Returning from the wilderness of hopes and ambitions,
of worldly motives and associations vi'hich beset his heart
or entangled his feet in London, Manning has again recourse
to his Diary, that most patient of confessors : —
I am ashamed of myself for having allowed the return of so
many doubts and disappointed feelings. I have, since I left home,
been deprived of my supports ; have not found others confirm
my view. The associations of the world came about me, and
made me feel that I had played the fool and lost a great oppor-
tunity, &c. I cannot deny that in the region of the world, even
of the fair, not irreligious, view of self-advancement, also of
command and precepts, I have made a mistake.
But in the region of counsels, self-chastisement, humiliation,
self-discipline, penance, and of the Cross, I think I have done
right.
Yet great humility alone can keep me from being robbed
of all this.
To learn to say no, to disappoint myself, to choose the
harder side, to deny my inclinations, to prefer to be less thought
of, and to have fewer gifts of the Avorld, this is no mistake, and
is most like the Cross. Only with humility. God grant it to
me.
Feast of St. Paul.
On this subject, which appears to have weighed very
heavily on his soul, Archdeacon Manning wrote two letters,
one addressed to his mother, telling her, as a consolation for
XIII PUBLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 281
the step he had taken, that duty forbade his leaving his
own altar during holy seasons ; the other to Robert
Wilberforce, in which, under the seal of confession, he
assigned " fear of secularity " as the real reason for his
refusing the office of Sub-almoner.
After a time, not being able to rid his heart of disap-
pointment and vexation at having refused a preferment
wliich would have made him look greater in the eyes of
others. Manning, in restlessness or remorse or both, returns
to his meditations and confessions : —
Therefore, mistake or no, it is a good thing I have mortified
my vanity. It is good I am susceptible of vexation, and regret
that I should feel it ; without trying to bolster myself up by
expectations or complacency with myself. I have been both
ambitious and designing, and it is good for me to be disap-
pointed by the act of others as in Lincoln's Inn, and by my
own as now.
It is hard to know exactly what is the or the chief motive
on which we act. I believe I did refuse it on the reasons I
■wrote down. Yet something tells me I should not have refused
it if I had not been alone. Yet I ought, if that reason be
good now.
Could I be content to live and die no more than I am ? I
doubt it. And yet in some ways I feel more so now than in
time past. But that is because I am complacent over my books.
30^^ January.
His Diary shows how Archdeacon Manning's heart was
stirred to its depths at the thought that, in refusing the
office of Sub-almoner to the Queen,^ he had lost or delayed his
chance of elevation to the Bench of Bishops, for a fortnight
later there is the following entry : —
The highest obligation I have is to my flock, and the highest
season of it is Easter.
The bishops of the Church must give a fearful account in the
Day of Judgment. It is only our unbelief, vanity, TrAeove^ia
that makes us fear that office so little.
Here a page in the Diary is removed. Then it pro-
ceeds : —
^ The Queen's Almoner, the Archbishop of York, was too old to discharge
the office ; its duties fell to the Sub-almoner. The vacancy was caused by
the bestowal of a mitre on S. Wilberforce.
282 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
. . , Have been really resting on other props, stays, and com-
forts, either present or to come. The great question is : Is God
enough for you now ? And if you are as now, even to the end of
life, will it suffice you ? I do hope I am feeling my way to more
perfect deadness. No doubt this is one thing God is teaching
me by this event.
It is difficult exactly to say what I am resting upon. I
think it is partly the esteem of others, chiefly founded on what
I have written ; and on expectation of something to come.
Suppose I were left here alone, or with an uncomfortable
neighbour ; that my books were to leave off" selling, and I were
publicly attacked ; that the prospect of elevation were at an end,
and that nothing were left me but to stay myself on God in
prayer and parish work — should I feel as I do now ? If God
were really my stay now, I should. But I think I should not
do so, and therefore I doubt whether He is so.
It is very hard to try this question when things prosper
round us.
Certainly I would rather choose to be stayed on God, than
to be in the thrones of the world and the Church.
Nothing else will go into eternity.
15th (February 1846).
The self-revelations contained in his Diary bear witness
in the most striking manner to the supernatural side of
Manning's character. His vivid faith, his trust in God,
obedience to the Divine Will, are made manifest in the
struggles which he endured; the temptations which he
suffered ; and in the victory which he obtained over
self. Much as he may have loved " the thrones of the
world and the Church," it is clear that his deliberate will
and desire was " to be stayed on God."
The next entry in his Diary has almost a pathetic touch
about it : —
Yesterday morning I had a letter from Burns for a 5th edition
of my first volume. This will carry me through 1846, please
God ; and I now feel at rest. It was great want of faith to be
so disturbed.
I feel to be in His hands, and He will provide for me, as in
this, so in everything.
Returning from one of his periodical visits to London,
Manning made the following entry in his Diary : —
xiii PUliLIC LIFE AND TEMPTATIONS TO SECULARITY 283
I came home from London last night after three weeks very
ill spent.
My life there was irregular, indiscreet, and self-indulgent.
[Two lines are here expunged.] Somehow I had thought before
I went to London that the prospects of elevation would have
drawn me under their power.
But I came home more estranged from the thought of being
raised to any higher place than I went.^
This is the first year I have found this to be so. Usually
I have been powerfully drawn into the whirl of the actual.
Lavingion, 5th July 1846.
Thus ended, at any rate for a time, this protracted
struggle, occasioned by the offer of the Sub-almonership —
between, on the one side, ambition, vanity, desire for elevation,
expectation of something to come, as he calls it, and, on the
other, self-denial, self-mortification, humility, and trust in
God. This passage in Manning's Diary is as edifying as it
is interesting, for it lays bare, as in the sight of God, a human
heart struggling with its temptations ; the courageous
wrestlings of a strong man with his own nature ; a life-and-
death struggle between the natural and the supernatural.
Such wrestlings with nature do not end in a day, but
endure for a lifetime.^
^ And in the heat of the struggle, echoing iu his heart came the noble
aspiration, recorded in his Diary,— " Certainly I would rather choose to be
stayed on God, than to be in the thrones of the world and the Church."
^ In the text I have followed the contemporary testimony given by Arch-
deacon Manning in his Diary as to the motives which influenced his mind
and conduct on his appointment as Archdeacon of Chichester. But Manning,
as cardinal in 1882, put on record in the following autobiographical
Notes an account or explanation of his aims and motives which, far from
acknowledging that he was as archdeacon " ambitious and designing and de-
sirous of elevation," points the other way: — "This appointment was, I
believe, the first revival of any thought of an ecclesiastical future, which was
talked of, and written about, and bragged about me perpetually ; and my
known intimacy with all the younger men of my own standing, then entered
into public life, made people prophesy and take for granted that I was think-
ing what they thought, and aiming at what they looked for. So far as I
knew and can recall, I never put myself in the way of it. ... I used to be
sent for to public meetings and to preach in London. But as far as I can re-
call, I never did an act to seek for ecclesiastical advancement." In another
Note the cardinal said : — " In 1840 I became Archdeacon of Chichester,
This at once brought me into the world iu Sussex and in London. I preached
often in London, and took part in the chief public meetings. ... I then
284 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xiii
went to levees aud drawiug-rooms, and dined out, and went to the House of
Commons." . . . Again : — "I stood upon the threshold of the world, into
which Samuel Wilberforce was plunged to his last hour, and every one about
rae bade me go onward. What kept me back ? God alone. The conviction
that I should lose singleness of eye in the atmosphere of the world — this kept
me back. But was not this a light of the Holy Ghost ? that is, of God himself ?
. . . And yet there was a time, from 1S40 to 1849, when I might have been
plunged into it." The difiference between the earlier and later statements
seems to be this : that Archdeacon Maiming in his humility and remorse con-
fesses to have been led astray for a time, from 18-11 to 1846, by ambitious
and secular desires ; whereas Cardinal Manning explains that he might have
been plunged into secularity, but was not, because the Holy Ghost enabled
him to resist the temptation.
CHAPTEE XIV
A HOLIDAY WAKD'S DEGRADATION THE MAYNOOTH GRANT
1844-1846
In the autumn of 1844 Archdeacon Manning enjoyed a
well-earned holiday, seeking refreshment and recreation in
a tour through Normandy, and a visit to Paris. In striking
contrast to his visit to Catholic countries later on, in
1847-48, in this visit to Normandy Manning looked on
the outside only of things Catholic. He describes the
beauty of the churches, or their antiquity, or the style of
the building, or notes their defects, as in St. Jaques, Dieppe,
" The paltry deal pewing, some locked," or points out re-
semblances to English cathedrals ; for instance, " The north-
east corner of north transept window in Eouen Cathedral
like Salisbury " ; or records historical facts, " Eichard Coeur
de Lion's heart is in this Norman church," in that " William
the Conqueror's grave " ; ^ or describes how this church was
mutilated by the French Eevolution, and that desecrated
and secularised. Unlike the Manning of 1848, the Arch-
deacon of Chichester in 1844 did not look beneath the
surface ; did not inquire of monks and priests the meaning
of things he looked at; did not, as afterwards in 1848,
kneel in worship before the Blessed Sacrament or at Mass.
Once only is to be found an entry so familiar in his Diary
of 1848, " Salut at St. Ouen, Eouen, Oct. 18"; and one
allusion to worship, " At night, 8 o'clock, went into St. Ouen.
Moon through east window ; a few lights in the church ;
^ " Abbaye aux hommcs. William the Conqueror's grave. Lanfranc first
abbot." — Archdeacon Manning's Contemporary Journal.
286 CARDINAL MANNING cuap.
people at private prayers. Kouen, Sept. 27." Unlike, too,
the Manning of 1848, in religious or ecclesiastical discus-
sions in hotels, clubs, or on board the boat. Manning in
1844 took not the Catholic, but the Protestant side of the
argument. In going up the Seine by steam from Havre
to Paris, Manning, in his Journal, gives the following
account : —
On board the boat I met a priest of Sens. He argued for
liberty of conscience ; persuasion the only argument, force the
worst; defended the French persecution of Protestants on the
ground that the Government touched nobody for religion, but
for politics in self-defence — i.e. our defence of Queen Elizabeth
and Catholics.
I said, " The Protestants armed in self-defence ; all they asked
was passive liberty."
A Frenchman standing by said, " They wanted a reform,
not a revolution." The conversation drew a crowd, and I
drew off.
Another Frenchman told me that the priests in France were
respected so long as they kept to their functions, but that when
they went beyond them, they were immediately opposed ; that
continually the mind of the country is withdrawing further
from them.
From Dieppe Manning wrote the following letter to his
mother : —
Dieppe, 2Gth September 1844.
My dearest Mother — I begin a letter to you from this
place, and shall probably take it with me to Rouen.
When I got to the pier yesterday I found that the boats
only go to Dieppe, so I sent back a card by my porter, which I
hope came safely. I found Lord Cantilupe and two other
people I know among the passengers. We had a very good
passage, and got in by a quarter past eight. The entrance to
Dieppe in a bright moonlight was very beautiful. The outline
of the town was very irregular and unlike ours. I am comfort-
ably housed in a clean hotel near the landing. To-day, after
going about the town, I walked off into the country to St.
Martin's Eglise, a village about 3 or 4 miles off, and then
across to D'Arques, by which I have seen more of the common
state of people than before. The churches are ill kept, and
seem very poor ; they are miserably ventilated, and patched up
witli all manner of materials. There is hardly any enormity
XIV A HOLIDAY 287
Ave have committed that they have not greatly exceeded ; which
is cold comfort after all. The priest's house at St. Martin's
Eglise was literally a poor man's cottage, and no good one.
The churchyard was full of apple trees in fruit.
I shall go to meet the steamboat this evening, hoping to find
Henry Wilberforce. To-morrow I have taken my place at eight
in the morning for Rouen.
Rouen, 27th September.
Henry came safely over last night, and we have just arrived
here at about one o'clock, after a pleasant drive. I waited
yesterday evening at the quai till I thought everybody out of
the packet ; but Henry was still on board, and I very nearly
went away. We shall stay here certainly until to-morrow
evening, and then perhaps go to Paris, that is if we have seen
what we wish, if not, we shall stay till Monday, and then go to
Caen. Direct to the Poste-restante, Rouen. God bless you, my
dearest mother, you are just now going to the railroad. I hope
you will have a comfortable joiu-ney. I wish I could have taken
you. As soon as I can I hope to come to Reigate, and see you
comfortably settled in yoiu* new home, which I think of with
constant pleasure. — Your most aflFectionate son,
H. E. Manning.
At Paris, Manning met Bishop Luscombe, and dined
with him and Archdeacon Keating. In visiting the
churches Manning confines his remarks to architectural or
historical points. There is no allusion to Catholic worship,
or to his taking part in it. During this tour he was for a
time accompanied by "W. Dodsworth, and also by George
Ryder and his wife, one of Manning's sisters-in-law.
Earlier in the same autumn Manning went to Wales to
attend the laying of the first stone of a church at Pantassa,
dedicated to St. David. The late Lord Denbigh, then Lord
Peilding, and his first wife were friends of the Archdeacon
of Chichester, who was their confessor and spiritual director.
The church was to be built by Lord and Lady Feilding as
a joint thanks-offering. In his Journal Manning says : —
6th Aug. — Left Lavington. 8th Aug., went with Dodsworth
to Downing, then to Pantassa for the laying of the first stone
of St. David's Chiu-ch ; met at the Schools about 60 clergy,
Bishop and Dean of St. Asaph's ; long procession — banners,
cross, stars, fleur-de-lis green and blue, vestments crimson, cross
288 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
gold — leading up a green lane into a field with broken ground,
and a high hill looking down upon it; the clergy went first,
with choir chaunting the Te Deum in Welsh. Lord and Lady
Feilding laid tlie stone, Lord Feilding read the copy of the
inscription. The bishop said a few words, then Mr. Pugh and
Mr. Owen in Welsh. Very strange and striking to hear a
priest in the open air, and in a surplice, speaking in an
unknown tongue.
The influence of Tractarianism had made itself felt in
1844, as we see, even in Wales, and emboldened the High
Church party to form processions in the open air, unfold
its banners, and, wisely making use of the Welsh tongue,
seek to captivate the people, enamoured alike of music and
their own language, by preaching and chanting their
Church hymns in Welsh.
1\\ the following passage of his Journal, Manning likens
the passing away of a thunderstorm and of natural dark-
ness at the moment of laying the first stone of St. David's
Church, to the lifting up of the moral darkness of a people
enshrouded by religious error at the rising of the sun of
Anglicanism, pure and undefiled : —
A thunderstorm came on, gathered and formed in a way and
advanced, black and close ; then lifted up, and the sun came
from beneath it ; then it wheeled about and went off, " lifted up
its hands and fled away." A strong gust blew over just as the
stone was laying. . . . All the afternoon crowds in the park.
Children, games, and balloons.
About six years after the laying the first stone, but
before the church was completed or dedicated to Protestant
worship. Lord and Lady Feilding became Catholics ; and,
troubled in conscience about devoting the church which
they had built on their own land to the services of the
Anglican Church, consulted Archdeacon Manning, as being
fully and intimately acquainted with the motives which
had induced them to build the church, as well as with all
the details of the case. His judgment was, that, as
owners of the building, they were bound in conscience
not to hand it over to the services of a Church in which
XIV A HOLIDAY 289
they no longer believed and had formally renounced, but to
devote it to Catholic uses.
The rest of the month Manning, accompanied by Dods-
worth, devoted to travelling in Scotland. Of this journey
there is nothing noteworthy to record. The learned Arch-
deacon of Chichester knew little or nothing of, or at any
rate paid no heed to, the ancient glories of the Catholic
Church in Scotland — before the Keformation so conspicuous
for its apostolic fervour — beyond the architectural beauties
of churches and monasteries, too many of them mutilated
or laid in ruins by John Knox and his followers, or by the
mob instigated to fanaticism by itinerant preachers, or by
those sell-appointed ministers of religion — to be found in
England as well as in Scotland — whom Sydney Smith
wittily described as unconsecrated cobblers.
The poet, with his far-reaching vision, sees things
unseen of the duller eye of preacher, philosopher, or statesman.
Thus it came to pass that Walter Scott, by his deeper
insight into, and appreciation of, the ancient glories of the
Church, especially in Scotland, prepared the way for the
revival of Catholic truth and the ancient religion in Eng-
land. Newman, made susceptible by the fervour of his
imagination, caught the sacred flame from Scott,^ and passed
on the fiery cross, until the hearts of many in England
were touched and softened, and under Newman's inspira-
tion and leadership, turned once more in love and trust to
the faith of their forefathers. Manning lacking imagina-
tion that quickens insight into the real nature of things,
had to await the result of the slower processes of reason
and experimental experience before he, too, recognised the
truth and glory of the Church,
A note or two from Manning's Journal will suffice. On
10 th August he terminated his visit to Lord and Lady
Fielding, and accompanied by " Dodsworth, Mr. Wray, and
Hubbard," started for the north.
Left Carlisle ^ to 10. Scotch mist on the Border. The
^ Of Newman it is recorded that iu Ids early boyhood he was in the habit
of hiding a volume of Walter Scott's uudt-r his pillow at night, and waking
up at daybreak eagerly devour it.
VOL. T U
290 CARDINAL MAXNIXG chap.
rising up into the mountains fine, bleak ; Clyde and Falls, soft.
Then a beautiful wooded ravine spoilt by New Lanark. Glas-
gow 5.30, Bishop's, Fordan Hill, Partick. 12th, preached at
St. Mary, St. Luke xix. 41, 2 ; evening at Bpt.'s, L. xiii. The
old cathedral a fine 1st Pointed, cruciform, tower and spire at
intersection, clerestory ; double lancet over nave, single over
choir, aisle, transept. The cemetery on a hanging wooded
hill. John Knox's monument.
John Knox elicited no comment, good, bad, or indifferent,
from the High Church archdeacon. His remarks are
mostly confined to a description of the natural beauties of
Scotland, and the fine architecture of its ancient churches : —
Scotland is the land of lights, shadows, and colours. The
first ascent from Inverness to Loch Garry is nearly 70 miles.
The road at first cultivated, then wilder. Scotch firs and fruit
like their mountains, heather and granite. Wide river-beds,
then green morasses and streams winding away. Always three
or four horizons, mist-broken, and three or four shadows, lights,
and coloiu-s. Sunshine and storm, clear blue and cloud ; light
showers and black and lowering sky. Rainbows and prismatic
colours entangled in mist.
After visiting the Druid's Temple at Beauly, Arch-
deacon Manning
went to Forres . . . then turned off to the south-east into a
richly-cultivated country, and went up a hill ; from the brow
looked doAvn into a valley wooded on both sides, and a stream.
The convent of Pluscarden stands half-way against the north
hill, open to the sun all day, and sheltered from the north wind.
It stands in gardens and orchards, which show the culture of
old days, rich, green, fresh, luxuriant. They were evidently the
convent grounds and gardens. The situation of loneliness and
peace most consoling.
Here follows a pen-and-ink sketch of the church : —
The style Early English, and the Decorated supervening.
Wonderful varieties. South transept gable splayed down. The
choir north and south, an archway with emblem on it — two
angels holding a monstrance. Memento muri in moss on a stone.
A lovely, lonely, cloistered place.
On 28th August is the following entry: —
XIV A HOLIDAY 291
Dodsworth and I parted — he to London, I to Edinburgh.
The irregularity like Naples against St. Elmo.
The view from Holyrood is thus described : —
When the night closed, the lights were sprinkled like fire-
flies coming into Florence. 29th. Walked up to Arthur's Seat ;
too cloudy for the view ; but the hill and rock very fine ; St.
Anthony's Chapel. . . . Then Durham ; cathedral massive and
towering. York Minster massive and beautiful. . . .
London, \st September, 9.5.
On his return to Lavington, Manning resumed his active
pastoral work among his scattered flock of shepherds and
agricultural labourers, who looked upon him with reverence
and love, not only as a pastor, but as a personal friend.
With the happy activity of his untiring pen, he has left
a record, which I found among his papers, of the dying
days of an old shepherd of Graffham, under the title,
" Shepherd's Talk." I will recite it here as a specimen
of the Eector of Lavington's pastoral work and minis-
trations : —
Shepherd's Talk.
In December 1844 Mrs. Long, wife of an old shepherd living
in Graffham, came to me and said that her husband had taken to
his bed, and that his deafness, always great, was so much worse
that they could hardly make him hear. I gave her a print of the
Good Shepherd, and said, " Give him this book from me." She
said, "He can't read.' I said " I knew that, but give it to him
from me."
I went that af teinoon and found the print on his bed. I took
it up, he reached out after it and said, "That's mine." I said,
"' Do you know what it is 1 " He said, " Yes, yes — the lost sheep
— that's me." I put my hand round my head to signify the
crown of thorns. He said, '' Yes, the crown of thorns," and turned
his head over on the pillow and sobbed.
Some days after he said to me, " I hope T shall just walk in " ;
that is, to the fold. Another day he took it up, and pointing to
the crown of thorns said, " That's what cuts me most of all," and
turned over and sobbed.
I went to him in the January following to administer the holy
sacrament. As I gave him the paten I saw something on his
neck or throat. At last I saw it was the print. After the Holy
292 CARDINAL MANKING chaf.
Sacrament I asked his wife when he had asked for it. She said,
"As soon as it was light." I took it up and he said, " I haves it
most days." He then said, " I hope He will have me like that,"
— the sheep on His shoulders — I said, " He has you like that.
' Him that cometh imto me I will in no wise cast out.' He does
not wait for the lost sheep to come to Him. but He goes out to
seek till He finds it." He said, " No, no. He don't wait for he
to come to He, but He goes after he ; and I hope I shall not
give Him much trouble." Long had been a shepherd on the
South Downs all his life ; and had had trouble enough in seeking
the sheep that wandered and were lost. He then took up the
print and said, " I shall be glad to see that Man."
That night he died.
A year or two before this date, Manning had been very
much interested in a scheme of S. F. Wood's for the founda-
tion of a Home for Fallen Women, of whose sad lot he
gave a pathetic picture. Manning promised to preach a
sermon on the subject, and enlist the sympathy of the
charitable. Wood unhappily died before he carried out his
work.-^ In the year following his friend's death, 1844,
Manning delivered a sermon in which he described with
touching and tender pathos the early and innocent life, and
then the unholy revel and miserable deathbed, of fallen
women. The following passages from this sermon, preached
at St. George's-in-the-Fields in support of the Magdalen
Hospital, illustrate the persuasive power of Manning's
eloquence : —
God alone is witness of the groanings which are breathed
unknown, and the burning tears which are shed in the very
depths of impiirity. What harroAving recollections of faces
dearly loved, last seen in anguish, of the fresh years of early
childhood, and the hopes and joys and fair prospects of an
innocent and gentle life all scarred and blasted come back upon
^ S. F. Wood's death is not recorded or evon alluded to by Archdeacon
Manning ; but, in a letter to Dr. Pusey, dated Littlemore, 22nd April 1844,
on the death of his daughter Lucy, Newman said, — "The 22nd of April
is a day of special memories for me. That day, last year, was the date of
dear Wood's departure ; and the year before, of our coming here." There is a
letter of S. F. Wood's to Manning, written in pencil just before his death, in
which he said, — " My doctor holds out no hope. I have no organic disease
but am slowly wasting away, as was the case with one you know of." The
allusion is to the death of Manning's wife.
XIV WARD'S DEGRADATION 293
them ill the hours of unholy revel, to be their mockery and
torment. No eye but His can read the visions of home and
happy days Avhich rise upon their desolate hearts in the tumult
and darkness of these crowded streets, and the agonising dreams
of a blessedness no longer theirs, by which their broken sleep is
haunted. None other but He can know what unutterable
agony goes up by day and by night from the loathsome chambers
and the pestilential dens in which these homeless, hopeless,
decaying mortals hide themselves in misery to die. And what
a death is the death of a harlot. When the baffled heart
wanders in dreams of sickness to die in the home of its birth,
and wakes up from the happiness of delirium to madden itself
again in the sights and sounds which harass its miserable
deathbed ; when the eye strains itself in vain for the vision of a
mother's pitying face, and the ear is sick with listening for the
coming of brother, husband, child, whose footfall shall never be
heard again. Then comes death, and after death the judgment
and the Great White Throne on which He sitteth, from Whose
face both heaven and earth shall flee away. Lamb of God that
takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon them and
upon us in that day !
In those combative days, however, of religious con-
troversy, Manning was not long allowed to live in peace.
He was once more called upon to take sides — to vote for or
against Ward's degradation at Oxford. There were three
courses open to the Archdeacon of Chichester : he might
vote against Ward with the Evangelicals, or for him with
the High Church party and the Tractarians, or remain
neutral, as he did at the election for the professorship of
poetry.
I need not enter into the details of this stirring conflict
and controversy between Ward and the Oxford authorities,
as the whole case has been stated with singular ability
by Mr. Wilfrid Ward in the Life of his distinguished
father. Suffice it to say that Ward's book, Ideal of a Christian
Church, from the moment of its publication, excited the
fiercest controversy. It was assailed by the Low Church
party with bitterness and abuse. Many High Churchmen,
like Mr. Gladstone and Dean Hook, looked at it with sus-
picion or fear. Many more, like Manning, condemned the
audacity of its arguments or shrank with apprehension
294 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
from its far-reaching but logical conclusions. The work, if
paradoxical in places and purposely made more startling
than the argument required, was a bold, powerful, and
closely -reasoned statement against the Anglican system
both in theory and practice. The crux of Ward's offence
was his treatment of the Thirty-nine Articles. Newman
had declared in Tract 90 that the Articles were susceptible
of a Catholic interpretation. Ward went further, and put
upon them a " non-natural " interpretation. To this view
Newman objected strongly.
The sensation caused by Ward's book reached its climax
when the authorities of Oxford brought forward proposals
for his degradation.
The judicious and venerable Archdeacon of Chichester
naturally had no sympathy with Ward or his book. Ward
was a lover of warfare, but he was as open and candid as
the day, and honest to his finger-tips ; bold, extravagant,
impetuous, fond of pushing things to extremes. Manning,
on the other hand, was a lover of peace, cautious in thought
and deliberate in action, in manner reserved, mild of
speech, and averse to speaking his whole mind. He looked
upon the propositions in Ward's book not only as risky
in the extreme and provoking beyond measure by their
audacity, but as untenable.
The pubhcation of such a book, at such a moment,
seemed to the Archdeacon of Chichester the work of a fire-
brand, flinging a lighted torch among the most combustible
of materials. No wonder that Manning at the time
regarded Ward and his work as alike rude and uncouth.
Ward, on his part, held in supreme contempt — I do not
say Manning, for I do not know whether Ward had any
acquaintance with him or his writings, or line of action ^ —
but men of the moderate and judicious type Manning
represented.'
The Ideal Church was published in the summer of 1844,
^ Cardinal Manning in his Journal, dated 25th August 1889, says, "Ward
I never saw till the time of his degradation."
2 "When I hear men called judicious I suspect them, but when they are
called judicious and venerable they are scoundrels." — Ward.
XIV WARD'S DEGRADATION 295
and Mr. Gladstone, at once taking alarm, consulted with
Manning, who was much shocked at the tone, style, and
method of Ward's book, as to the policy of its immediate
repudiation, before mischief was done and the University
authorities aroused.
In a letter dated 14th November 1844, Mr. Gladstone
wrote to Manning as follows : —
I have been writing an article on Ward's book, avoiding
almost entirely his theology, but severely censuring his rash
methods of decision and censure without examination. I intend
to offer it to the Quarterly, but I should be very desirous to
have your judgment on it.
Again, in another letter, dated Sunday, 17 th November
1844, is the following passage : —
I have done my article on Ward, it is to go to Lockhart, but
I cannot form an idea whether he will be afraid of it. Nothing
but the publication of such a book would have put me in case to
offer an article on such a subject to the Quarterly, I was anxious
you should see it.
In another letter to Manning, dated 23rd November
1844, Mr. Gladstone writes: —
You should not fail to read Oakeley's remarkable letter in
the English Churchman, he calls Ward's a wonderful book, but I
confess I think it partly wonderful in a different sense for its
temerity and harsh judgments upon insufficient grounds. The
7/^09 of it is, to me, very, very far below that of Oakeley or of
Newman.
Lockhart inserts my article ; but has certain amendments to
suggest, I look much for your aid about it. I have done it, God
knows, conscientiously. And I think Mr. Ward deserves to be
well whipped for his mode of going to work : my object is, while
handling that sharply, to deal quietly with his opinions, and to
say nothing that can estrange his friends.
I wonder what the Oxford wiseacres will do with him.
After the affair of Pusey's Sermon one cannot but tremble ; but
may God avert this mischief.
Manning, after reading it, expressed his full concurrence
with Mr. Gladstone's article on Ward, which, after much
•296 CARDIXAL MANXIXG chap.
pruning and cutting down by Lockhart, the editor of the
Quarterly, finally appeared.^ Mr. Gladstone, acting on
Manning's advice, submitted to all degrees of mutilation,
rather than forgo the opportunity of attacking Ward's
book in the Quarterly. Both he and Manning appear from
the correspondence to have much undervalued Ward's in-
tellectual power, and were surprised to learn that, as
Mr. Gladstone informed Manning, " Lockhart is much
struck with the talent of Ward's book."
But of infinitely more vital importance than Mr. Glad-
stone's somewhat crude criticisms of Ward in the Quarterly
Revicio was the action taken by the Hebdomadal Board at
Oxford, on whose " new and formidable freaks " Manning, in
a letter to Mr. Gladstone, passed a severe censure while
expressing at the same time his fear of the result of the new
test in regard to the subscription of the Articles which the
University authorities proposed to introduce. To this
letter of Manning's Mr. Gladstone replied in a letter dated
Hawarden, Christmas Eve, 1844: —
You have anticipated me, and I have no more to do than to
subscribe my ditto to what you have written. "NMiat spirit of
dementation possesses these our guides and governors in the
University 1 At the same time I cannot help thinking that it
was the palpable error committed in the case of the Vice-
Chancellorship on the other side which has emboldened them to
the present pitch.
The case alluded to was the attempt on the part of
the Tractarians to prevent the installation of the Warden
of Wadham, one of the six doctors who condemned
Dr. Pusey. In a letter to Mr. Gladstone, Manning
described this act of the Tractarians as " a mad move."
In another letter, dated 28th December 1844, he ex-
pressed the opinion that the Thirty -nine Articles were
^ At one moment the article was on the verge of suffering shipwreck : —
"Here," enclosing the note to Manning, writes Mr. Gladstone in a letter,
dated Whitehall, 3rd December 1844, "is a curious note from Lockhart
throwing me over." But on Manning's advice a compromise was effected.
Two days later Mr. Gladstone wrote, "The basis of our concordat is that
my argument is to be confined to the case of simple communion, and that I
am to let alone the questions connected with the special obligations of
subscription."
XIV WAKD'S DEGRADATION 297
drawn up with the intention of striking the Church of
Kome and fastening upon her the charge of error as regards
some of her current ideas and practices — blasphemy and
impiety ; but with a great tenderness for these germs of
ideas out of the corrupt following of which her present
practices have sprung. Speaking of the " original " sub-
scribers to the Thirty -nine Articles, Manning described
them as " Succumbers." In reply Mr. Gladstone said —
1 agi'ee with you eminently in your doctrine of filtration. . . .
I am not sure, however, of your whole assertion that subscribers
were mere succumbers. It sometimes occurs to me, though the
question may seem a strange one. How far was the Reformation,
but especially the Continental Reformation, designed by God, in
the region of final causes, for that pvu'ification of the Roman
Church which it has actually realised 1 The English Reforma-
tion we yet hope has a higher kind of purification to accomplish
in the rest of the Church. — Ever affectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
The Heads of Houses, with what Mr. Gladstone described
as their " perverse maladroitness," pushed matters to ex-
tremes. A vote of censure on Ward, entailing his degrada-
tion, was proposed.
Manning at first was inclined to adopt a neutral attitude,
and not to vote either for or against Ward's degradation, as
he had done in the contest between Williams and Garbett,
and in the matter of the address to Convocation proposing
the withdrawal of both candidates. But Mr. Gladstone,
who was much opposed to such a course in the present
crisis, wrote as follows to Manning : —
Hawarden, N.W., Sunday, bth Januanj 1845.
My dear Manning — I have expressed to you the disinclina-
tion which, as a general rule, I feel to the practice of not voting
upon a definite and important question, such as the first of those
to be proposed at Oxford. . . .
The question which I wish to have considered is this : Why
should not you or some other propose an amendment to such
an eff"ect as this (which is very nearly in the sense of your letters
of 20th and 28th December) — that the propositions cited from
Ward's work (not saying each and all) were censurable upon the
298 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
ground of variance "with the Articles and otherwise ; and that the
writer be incapacitated from teaching functions in the University
until he should have given satisfaction to it 1
This would, in my view, be going to the very farthest allow-
able point against "Ward ; and in my mind I should prefer the
first of these only.
If the amendment was rejected, as Mr. Gladstone
thought in all probability it would be, he was prepared to
vote against the first proposition of the Hebdomadal Board
on account of its impugning "Ward's good faith, and urged
Manning to take a similar decided step.
But [the letter concludes] do not answer me until it is con-
venient. Something must be done to bring men together.
You will know when you are mature enough to say anything to
me. — Believe me, affectionately yours, W. E. Gladstone.
Manning, naturally, had a strong objection to taking
such a prominent part in the contest as to move an amend-
ment ; but as Mr. Gladstone had " no strong feeling," as he
wrote to Manning, " in favour of it, except as preferable, if
practicable, to not voting at all," it was finally arranged
that he and Manning should record a direct " noii jjlacet"
Having come round to Mr. Gladstone's view. Manning
wrote as follows to Eobert "Wilberforce on the proposed
censure on "Ward : —
Lavington, \st February 1845.
My dear Egbert — As you have wi-itten to me, I hold
myself released from my promise to Sam not to write to you
about "Ward. My intention is to vote against both the proposed
censure and sentence, because I think it a high moral wrong to
condemn Ward of bad faith. It is no good to say that mala
fdes is only used technically : —
1. All the world takes it otherwise.
2. All I have met who mean to support it do so, as condemn-
ing the man's conscience and soul. I think it a high moral
wrong, because I believe —
(1) That it is false.
(2) That even if true before God, no proof is offered to
establish the charge.
1. It is one thing to condemn the man's principle of sub-
scribing as false.
XIV WARD'S DEGRADATION 299
2. It is another to condemn the man as subscribing on that
principle in falsehood.
Of the first certain proofs arc produced.
Of the second none.
Now, I say, you ought, on the principles of universal justice,
to invert your intentions — i.e. instead of voting for it, and saying
you do not condemn him, you ought to vote against it, and say
that you do not hold his principles. And my reason is this :
You have a right to vote against the whole as a measure, without
discriminating between the truth and the falsehood of its parts,
because the power, and therefore the responsibility, of amending
the proposition is denied to you.
But you have no right to inflict, or even seem by miscon-
struction to inflict, an unjust or unproved condemnation on
any man.
The former course is simple political discretion, universal in
all legislation. The latter is a wrong, or equivalent to a wrong,
which is a positive sin in a judicial process.
I hope, on consideration, you will come to the same end \Wth
myself.
If you feel a desire to protect yourself against being supposed
to hold Ward's principles, sign the declaration lying at Burns's.
I do not sign it, because I have no fear or care about it. It is
to me a clear and straightforward case of fiat justitia, mat caelum.
By all means get Moberly's pamphlet, and for the legal
objection. Hall's. — Yours aff"ectionately, H. E. Manning.
P.S. — My letter, on reading, sounds savage; but it is only
written in haste.
Cardinal Manning vividly remembered the scene which
took place at Ward's degradation. Speaking on the subject
six or eight years before his death, he said —
I remember well going up to Oxford with Gladstone ; it was
a bitterly cold day in March : snow was on the ground. There
was an immense assemblage ; great excitement ; members of
Convocation had come up from all parts of the country, the
majority evidently hostile to Ward. As the sentence of Ward's
degradation was announced, turning to Mr. Gladstone, by whose
side I was standing, I said, dpx^] wSivmv. The ominous words
were heard. Men turned to look at us, and (he added with a
smile) we were too well known not to be recognised.
It was indeed an ominous year for the English Church
— the beginning of confusions. The more pronounced its
300 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Protestantism, the greater its danger. When, two years
before, on condemnation of Tract 90, its bishops took the
side of Protestantism, the real nature of the Anglican
Church revealed itself to Newman.
On Ward's degradation, Oakeley wrote to the Vice-
Chancellor avowing like principles, and boldly challenging
a like censure as that pronounced against Ward. In reply
to Manning's inquiries, Mr. Gladstone, in a letter dated
17th March 1845, wrote as follows: —
Oakeley has sadly complicated these vexed affairs. The
Bishop of London told me (1) how bitterly he regretted the
challenge ; (2) that he and all the bishops were convinced it
must be taken up ; (3) that if he could not get on in the Arches
Court he would act as diocesan, and suspend, or rather with-
draw, his licence.
I was also painfully impressed with the belief that Oakeley
had nothing like a measured theological view of the case. In
the meantime I think Oakeley becomes more tenacious. Last
night at Margaret Chapel I heard him for the first time in his
sermon advert in detail to the religious movement of the time,
and distinguished the earlier and less healthful from the later and
more healthful stages of its development. He is now evidently
Avedded in heart to this controversy of his own — a bad sign for
our peace.
Verily the eventful year 1845 was full of " bad signs"
for the peace of Anglicanism, so dear to the peace-loving
heart of the Archdeacon of Chichester. In an able letter
to Oakeley, in answer to his damaging criticisms, Manning
vindicated as best he could the historic claims of the Church
of England.^
The Archdeacon of Chichester's attention and activity
were not confined to the theological troubles which afllicted
the Church of England ; but, as an ecclesiastical statesman,
he adopted the farseeing policy of preparing beforehand the
rulers of the State for the changes which their policy in
Ireland in regard to the endowment of Maynooth would be
certain to bring about in the position of the Church of
England. In vain, by appeals to liis sense of duty to the
' In a letter, dated 31st March 1845, Mr. Gladstone expressed his "general
concurrence" with Manning's "historical letter to Oakeley."
XIV THE MAYNOOTII GKANT 301
English Church, had Manniug endeavoured to induce Mr.
Gladstone to remain in office and support the Maynooth
grant on the twofold ground — (1) justice to Ireland; (2)
the establishment of concurrent endowment in Ireland and
England would safeguard the interests of the English Church.
In one of the last letters to Manning on this subject,
dated Carlton House Terrace, 26th April 1845, Mr.
Gladstone wrote : —
My dear Manning — I am anxious, but not about my own
reputation, nor about Maynooth. My cares have reference to
the future fortunes of the Irish Church. I have always looked
upon the Maynooth measiure as what is called buying time — a
process that presupposes the approach of the period of surrender.
Whether or not time will be actually gained as the result of the
measure, or whether the thing given and the thing sought will
both be lost is, I think, very doubtful.
What we pay, however, I do not consider to consist chiefly
in the £17,000 a year, but in the cession we make of most
important parts of the argument for the maintenance of the
Church in Ireland. . . .
Newman sent me a letter giving his own explanation of my
position ; it was admirably done.
And now, as to your two precepts, I can say nothing about
my disposition to return to office (let alone that of other people
to recall me) until my mind is made up what policy ought to
be adopted and maintained with regard to the Irish Church as
the guide of future years. — Believe me, ever affectionately yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
Failing to find in Mr. Gladstone, who had given pledges
to the country to maintain intact the Irish Church,
a supporter of the principle of concurrent endowment,
Manning, never at the end of his resources, appealed to
another cabinet minister, Mr. Sidney Herbert, in the
following letter : —
Lavington, 3rd April 1846.
My dear Herbert — I do not write to you because you have
not already enough to do, for I need not be told that every
member of the Cabinet has his hands and mind full enough at
this moment.
But I do so because I have been for a long time growing
more and m.ore anxious on subjects relating to the Enghsb
302 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Church ; and I seem to see the inevitable approach of questions
on whicli I wish all public men had their minds fully prepared.
Let me say at the outset that I look for no specific answers or
expression of opinion from you, because the subjects to which
I refer are of a nature on which your position gives you the
priAalege of silence. If you will let me have my say, I shall be
content.
First, then, comes the endowment of the Roman Church in
Ireland ; and I am fully prepared to assent to it on grounds of
political justice, and of soimd policy, for the improvement of
the social condition of Ireland.
Also, I think the principle of concurrent endowment is a
safeguard to all endo"\vments. All are bound over to keep the
peace.
But I cannot fail to see that it must greatly alter the re-
lative weight of the Roman and Irish Churches in Ireland.
Everything that gives organisation, recognition, and solidity, to
the Roman Chui'ch, makes it a more massive antagonist.
This, however, is less important than what is not far off.
I mean some re-casting of the Irish Church — I say re-casting,
because it seems to me that all the chief public men in Parlia-
ment are tending to that conclusion.
The Duke and Lord John Russell "vvill both maintain an
Established Church in Ireland as a part of the political Union
and Settlement. But under the cover of this there may be an
indefinite change in its extent, details, and endowments — witness
Lord Stanley's Act for the Union of Bishoprics.
But this again, as an Irish question, I would leave to the
Irish Church.
What I am concerned with is its aspect towards England ;
and its bearing upon the English Church. It seems to me
impossible that the Roman Church should acquire weight in
Ireland without giving weight to the Roman Church in England.
Hitherto a weak Irish Church in Ireland has been supported by
a strong English Church in England.
Hereafter a weak Roman Church in England %vill be rein-
forced by a strong Roman Church in Ireland. Now these
weights in the social and religious scale cannot be shifted about
without a dangerous disturbance of our general balance. And
I feel convinced that now — now beforehand, is the opportunity
for taking measures of precaution and preparation to put the
Church of England into a position of moral and popular strength.
At this time its popular strength is little, and its political
strength in the legislature is on the decline. I know of no
other hold a Church can have on a nation. It must either
XIV THE MAYNOOTH GRANT 303
hold by the civil power or by the people, or by both. Now its
hold on the civil power is by acknowledgment indefinitely
weakened. And its hold on the people is, I firmly, and from
experience, believe to be more nominal than real.
If any distinctive and testing Church question should arise
in 1848, as in 1648, I believe the population would fall off as a
landslip ; and for this one and suflicient reason : The Church
has no adequate organisation for the vast populace of England
and Wales.
Now I am not going to trouble you with a longer letter ;
but if you will not think me unmerciful, I would ask you at
your leisure to read the enclosed paper, for which I am answer-
able. And if you will let me, at some future time I will add a
few more words on this subject. — Believe me, my dear Herbert,
yours very faithfully, H. E. Manning.
The Eight Honourable Sidney Herbert.
I have told my bookseller to send you a book which I hope
you will accept.
As an ecclesiastical statesman, endowed with practical
sagacity and far-reaching foresight; not averse to com-
promise ; ready to make sacrifices on the one hand, to
attain greater or more abiding advantages on the other ;
seeing more clearly than most men the issues of those great
politico-ecclesiastical questions, on which the mind of the
nation and Parliament were most divided. Manning took a
higher rank in his generation than he did as a thinker or
theologian. Mr Gladstone, who often consulted him on
ecclesiastical questions which divided parties in Parliament
and in the Church, like National Education and the
Maynooth Grant, had a very high opinion of his sagacity
and prudence. In those days, Manning's mind was more
supple than Mr. Gladstone's, whose principles the great
ecclesiastic considered too rigid and abstract. Manning,
as his letter to Sidney Herbert shows, was in favour of the
endowment of the Catholic Church in Ireland, not only out
of policy and justice, but out of expediency, for the principle
of concurrent endowment would safeguard the endowments
of the Church of England. He was ready, too, to throw
the Irish Church overboard, or to leave it as an Irish
question to take care of itself His main object in this
304: CARDINAL MANNIXG chap, xiv
policy was to strengthen the position of the Church of
England. In this letter, Manning states that for want of
an adequate organisation, were any testing question to
arise, the population of England would fall off from the
Church like a landslip. This admission is at startling
variance with the statement made by ]\Ianning in his Charge
delivered at Chichester in July 18-il, that, in striking con-
trast with the Church in France, the English Church had a
firm hold on the heart and mind and intellect of the people
of England.^
For his support of the Maynooth Grant — the endow-
ment, as it was called, of the Catholic Church in Ireland —
and for his compromise in 1849, which, though indirectly,
eventually led to giving up the management of Church schools
to the Committee of the Privy Council on Education,
Archdeacon Manning was denounced as a traitor and
time-server by the two most uncompromising men of
their day in the political and ecclesiastical world — Sir
Eobert Inglis and Archdeacon Denison. The testimony
of such men may, perhaps, be taken as in reality con-
firming Mr. Gladstone's judgment that Manning was a
great ecclesiastical statesman, not indisposed to act on the
principle, common in the political, and not altogether un-
known to the ecclesiastical world, of " give and take." ^
1 Chapter X. p. 207.
2 Speaking on one occasion of Manning's practical wisdom, Mr. Gladstone
said, "When I was Secretary for the Colonial Office I often saw Sir James
Stephen, who was Under-Secretary : I remember well his once saying
to me, 'Manning is the wisest man I ever knew,' But I dou't think he
would have said so after Manning's change in his religious opinions."
Cardinal Manning seemed much gratified on learning Sir James Stephen's
high opinion, and said, "I knew him well; he was a man of excellent
judgment. He wrote with great clearness and was an able historia;.""
CHAPTEE XV
NEWMAN'S CONVERSION
1845
Early iu the year 1845, an attempt was made by the
ultra-Protestant party at Oxford to induce the Heads of
Houses to take steps against Newman. Manning, with
quick and ready sympathy, sent a letter of condolence, to
which Newman replied as follows : —
LiTTLEMORE, 9th February 1845.
My dear Manning — I write a line to thank you for your
most kind and feeHng letter. I ought to bless those events
which occasion me such a pleasure. And indeed what is hap-
pening, while it has brought me some singular proofs of con-
sideration and friendship, has brought me nothing else. It is
but simple truth to say that I am quite unconcerned at what is
projected against me, and have no interest about next Thurs-
day's result higher than about the merest occurrence I might
read of in a newspaper, and not even the cm"iosity which uncon-
cerned spectators might feel about it.
You will be at no loss to understand this. I have ills which
Heads of Houses can neither augment nor cure. Real inward
pain makes one insensible to such shadows. — Ever yours
affectionately, John H Newman.
In the hope of appeasing the ultra-Protestant clamour,
and of reassuring bishops and Church dignitaries, excited
beyond measure by the results of the Oxford Movement
and by the dread of Newman's going over to Eome, the
Archdeacon of Chichester delivered a charge, in which he
exalted once more the Church of England, disparaged by
VOL. I X
306 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the Tractarians ; and once more attacked the Church of
Eome for which Dr. Pusey and his followers showed a
partial fondness and leaning.
The following passages from his Charge, delivered July
1845, betoken the Archdeacon's Protestant fervour: —
I humbly thank God that he has permitted me to be a
member of a Church in which I am not worthy to keep the
door.
And then the preacher goes on to speak of
the Church of England as a true and living member of the Holy
Catholic Church, neither heretical in dogma, nor schismatical in
the unhappy breach of Christendom ; in Avill and desire united
to all Christ's members upon earth ; her faith, the baptismal faith
of all saints from the beginning ; her cause austere but just, and
her plea valid in the court of heaven. And if this be so, then
in virtue and power she shall be, as she has been, a mother of
saints — a root of churches in east, west, and south ; at this
time it may be peculiarly tried, and yet there hath no trial come
upon us, but such as is common to the Church. Many more
threatening signs, even now, are hanging over almost all other
churches — signs of conflicts yet to be endured, with doubtful
issue, through which we have been saved, "yet so as by fire."
In a note to this Charge appears the following state-
ment : —
There is no branch of the Roman Catholic communion in the
north and west of Europe, which does not at this moment
exhibit signs of conflict, and some of a truly alarming kind.
Passing over the lesser contest in the Tyrol, and even in parts of
Belgium, of Avhich the Jesuits are the subject, it is enough to
mention France and Germany. In the former a strong move-
ment against the Roman Catholic Church has appeared in the
dioceses of Verdun, Chalons, Limoges, Poitiers, La Rochelle,
Bordeaux, Fr^jus. In the last, ten parishes have almost una-
nimously renounced Romanism. In La Rochelle it is said that
twenty-five parishes are desiring to be placed under Protestant
pastors. As to Germany, the late schism ^ has formed forty-eight
communities, and is still spreading. The state of Germany,
both among Protestants and Roman Catholics, gives warning of
^ The movement of Ronge, an Apostate priest, a sort of anticipation of Dr.
Dollinger and the " Old Catholics " after the Vatican Council, but still more
insignificant and short-lived.
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 307
a fearful future. While we are listening at home to every word
and footfall, it may be that events are near elsewhere, which
shall make the whole Church ring.^
Aud the Charge concludes, after prophesying evil things
for the Catholic Church in France and Germany, as
follows : —
Be our trials what they may, every year deepens in thousands
of contrite hearts the tokens of Christ's presence — every year
quickens and unfolds against all antagonistic powers the
spiritual life and fruitful energy of the Church which bore us.
And shall any be tempted to mistrust 1 Shall we ask proofs of
our regeneration, or of our waking consciousness, or of the
reality of our own soul ? There are things which go before all
proof — all reasonings rest upon them, logical defences cloud
their certainty. Such are our pledges of His presence. They
are the tokens of no hands but His ; and " if God be for us,
who can be against us ? " -
What a contrast does not Archdeacon Manning's Charge
present, perhaps intentionally, to the farewell sermon
preached by Newman on his retirement to Littlemore !
" The Parting of Friends " was Newman's last sermon as
an Anglican. It was delivered at the chapel at Little-
more in the presence of Dr. Pusey, and of other intimate
friends and disciples who were deeply moved by Newman's
solemn and touching words. The concluding passage is
as follows : — -
my mother, whence is this unto thee, that thou hast good
things poured upon thee and canst not keep them, and bearest
children, yet darest not own them ? Why hast thou not the
skill to use their services, nor the heart to rejoice in their love 1
How is it that whatever is generous in purpose, and tender or
deep in devotion, thy flower and thy promise, falls from thy
bosom and finds no home within thine arms ] AVho hath put
this note upon thee to have "a miscarrying womb and dry
breasts," to be strange to thine own flesh, and thine eye cruel
towards thy little ones 1 Thine own offspring, the fruit of thy
womb, who love thee and would toil for thee, thou dost gaze
upon with fear, as though a portent, or thou dost loathe as an
offence — at best thou dost but endure, as if they had no claim
^ A Charge delivered in July 1845, pp. 56-57. ^ jf^i^i^ p, 53^
308 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
but on thy patience, self-possession, and vigilance, to be rid of
them as easily as thou mayest. Thou makest them " stand all the
day idle," as the very condition of thy bearing with them ; or
thou biddest them be gone, where they will be more welcome ;
or thou sellest them for nought to the stranger that passes by.
And what wilt thou do in the end thereof ?
In acknowledging his Charge of 1845, Dr. Pusey wrote
to the Archdeacon of Chichester, complaining of the want of
love shown to the Eoman Church ; and especially rebuking
Manning for rejoicing over the falling away of Eoman
Catholics in some of the dioceses of France into schism and
heresy ; and for encouraging, apparently, the setting up of
Protestant teachers. In reply to this rebuke, Archdeacon
Manning, 8th August 1845, wrote to Dr. Pusey saying:
We owe to the Church of Rome a pure Christian charity as
to a member of the Catholic body ; we owe the same also to the
churches of the east. I do not find you expressing the latter
feeling, and that seems to me the cause why you are misunder-
stood to have not a charity to the whole Body of Christ, but a
partial fondness and leaning to the Roman Church . . . will
you forgive me if I say it 1 (the tone you have adopted towards
the Church of Rome) seems to me to breathe not charity, but
want of decision. . . .
The Church of Rome for three hundred years has desired our
extinction. It is now undermining us. Suppose your own brother
to believe that he was divinely inspired to destroy you. The
highest duties would bind you to decisive, firm, and circumspect
precaution. Now a tone of love, such as you speak of, seems to
me to bind you also to speak plainly of the broad and glaring
evils of the Roman system. Are you prepared to do this ? If
not, it seems to me that the most powerful warnings of charity
forbid you to use a tone which cannot but lay asleep the con-
sciences of many for whom by writing and publishing you make
yourself responsible.
In the same letter, Manning added, " A Roman Catholic
said some time ago of certain Oxford men ' They are forging
new chains for themselves and riveting ours.' " ^
The end was at hand. The event long foreboded with
sorrow and trembling of heart is come at last. Newman's
^ Cauon Liddoii's Life of Dr. Pusey, p. 455.
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 309
retirement to Littlemore ended in his becoming a Catholic.
In spite of all that has been written on that event, two
such witnesses, so deeply interested in Newman as Mr.
Gladstone and Manning, have to-day, in their letters published
for the first time, spoken out in the fulness of their hearts ;
have borne public testimony — especially Mr. Gladstone, who
was so warmly attached to him — to the sense of loss produced
by Newman's conversion. The letters which passed on that
occasion between Mr. Gladstone and Manning, between
Manning and Newman — especially Newman's own letters —
add, even late as it is in the day, a new charm and interest
to the old story of the Tractarian movement and of its
illustrious leader.
Manning, on the occasion of Newman's conversion, had a
double duty to perform — the duty of private friendship and
the duty of public faith and policy. Each duty was discharged
with consummate tact and skill. In this chapter, however,
I have only to deal, or chiefly, with Manning's private
relations to Newman ; or with such acts as disturbed or
broke those relations. No one could perform the duties
of friendship or affection, whether of condolence or con-
gratulation, of sympathy or advice, with greater delicacy
or tenderness of expression than Manning. Tact, restraint,
grace guided every line, dictated every word or allusion in
the following letter ^ of Manning's, written on a most trying
and painful occasion : —
London, lAth October 1845.
My dear Newman — I have only this evening received your
letter dated the 8th.
If I knew what words would express my heartfelt love of
you, and keep my own conscience pure, I would use them.
Believe me I accept the letter you wrote me, at such a moment,
as a pledge of your affection. I shall keep it among many
memorials of past days and lasting sorrows.
Only believe always that I love you. If we may never meet
again in life at the same altar, may our intercessions for each
other, day by day, meet in the court of Heaven. And if it be
^ This letter alone was preserved of those written since 1840. All the
rest, even the one described at the time as " a great gift," were destroyed by
Newman, subsequently to his correspondence with Archbishop Manning in 1866.
310 CARDIXAL MANNING chap.
possible for such as I am, may we all, who are parted now, be
there at last united.
It is a time that admits but a few words ; and I will say no
more than that I am, my dear Newman, most affectionately
yours, H. E. Manning.
This letter brought to a dramatic close the relations, at
least during their Anglican days, of two men of such
opposite natures, characters, and sympathies as Newman
and Manning.
Of Newman's conversion there is no record extant in the
contemporary Diary. It may, however, once have existed,
for whole pages referring to that period have been destroyed.
The only contemporary evidence, apart from his public line
of action, of the effect produced on Manning's mind by
Newman's conversion is to be found in the correspondence
that passed between Manning and Mr. Gladstone and Eobert
Wilberforce. In this correspondence Manning's part is
slight. To such an intimate friend even as Eobert Wilber-
force a strange reserve is maintained in regard to the
expression of personal feeling or public regret at the loss to
the Church of England of such a man as Newman.
In a letter dated Lavington, 3rd November 1845,
Manning writes : —
My dear Egbert — . . . What shall I say of our dear friend
Newman 1 My heart is very heavy. I still seem to see great
difficulties before us ; and wish I could read and talk with you,
for we shall have to give plain answers and firm to many hard
questions. Not the least part of the difficulty will be to show
why principles are safe so far and no farther. — Ever yours very
affectionately, H. E. Manning.
Does not this statement of the difficulty of showing why
principles are safe so far and no farther, seem to imply that
principles are safe in the Anglican Church only so far as
they are not carried out — as Newman carried them out, to
their logical conclusion ?
Nearly two months later, in a letter dated Lavington,
30th December 1845, after explaining his reasons for refus-
ing the office of Sub-almoner, Manning writes about Newman's
book as follows: —
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 311
Now about better things — if I can call Newman's book good.
It seems to me a wonderful intellectual work. Sceptical in one
sense, as all estimates of evidence must be — e.g. It is most
probable that the Avorld was created as it is ; less so that it was
self-made, or is eternal. I am not sure that it is more sceptical
really than Butler, for all conviction rests on a balance of
intellectual reasons, apart from the spiritual consciousness. The
infallibility of truth, whether in the Church or the Scriptures,
rests on moral, i.e. scientifically imperfect evidence, and yet it is
the highest source of conviction. Still Newman's mind is subtle
even to excess, and to us seems certainly to be sceptical.
After reading the book I am left where I was found by it.
I do not believe in the fact of development in the Roman and
Lutheran sense, for they are both alike, with the advantage on
the Eoman side. I believe that the faith was perfected uno afflatu
by the inspiration of the Apostles.
2. That it has existed ideally perfect in the illuminated reason
of the Church from then till now.
3. That development, as in the creeds, has been logical and
verbal, not ideal or conceptional.
4. That the spiritual perceptions of the Church through con-
templation and devotion have become more intense, but always
within the same focus.
5. That the facts and documents of Eevelation have been
codified, harmonised, distributed, and cast into a scientific order,
capable of scientific expression.
But that the omer of manna (as St. Irenseus says of the
regula fidei) is in quantity unchanged, " He that gathereth
much hath nothing over," etc.
I have very slightly touched on this in my last University
Sermon. Tell me what you say of it. I hope it will hold, for if not
I do not see the end. Is it not strange that the Lutherans and
Lutheranizers ot rore /cat ol vvu hold a development ? Is it not
the refuge for the destitute, who can find no shelter in antiquity 1
Have you seen Trench's Hulsean Lectures ? It is a delightful book,
earnest, stirring, and eloquent, with a fine masculine imagination.
But his theory of development is to me fatal. It seems as if
the thought of the regula fidei, and the tradition of dogma,
and the whole oral confession of the faith seldom if ever crossed
his mind. It is Scripture and the student ; and the internal
needs of man's spirit developing Scripture by demands upon it,
there are more true things put in an untenable way than in any
recent book I have seen. If there be such a principle of
development at all, Newman has it against him a thousand to
one.
312 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
It is no good to say Lutheran developments are in good faith
and Roman not. It begs the question, and then — Quo judice ?
Certainly with me the Councils of the Church, even of the
West, even in Trent, are against the private spirit.
Now this brings me to our dear brother. I am jealous of the
influence of Maurice over him ; and I am fearful in some points
even of Trench's, high as it is, for he is a noble fellow. But I
found Sam Wilberforce evidently full of Trench's theory of
development ; after shifting, for some time, he acquiesced in
what I have stated above. Whether he maintains this or that
at Oxford I do not know.
I love him very dearly and, as I am able, pray for him. But
let it pass ; only between our own minds I feel that he is afloat,
and I dread the direction he may be wafted in.
I say this, because I feel for myself that nothing but a deep
and solid foundation such as the Catholic Church has laid (as in
St. Thomas Aquinas, Melchior Camus, etc.), can keep a man from
intellectual uncertainty and fluctuation. So it is with me. I
have never found rest for my foot till I began to see the founda-
tion of systematic theology ; and I feel appalled at the thought
how little I know, i.e. in its principles.
To come back to Newman's book, there are some things
which go before all argument — e.g. the Invocation of God alone
— and some that survive all objections, the reality of the English
Church ; and these come through the book unhurt.
Now let me have a good letter of your own thoughts.
May all blessing be with you and your house. — Believe me,
my dear Robert, your very afi'ectionate, H. E. M.
I have desired Burns to send you my second volume of
Serrmns.
In his numerous letters to Robert Wilberforce there is
no further allusion to Nevi7man. It would almost seem, at
any rate as far as the expression of opinion or feeling goes,
that the question of the acceptance or refusal of the Sub-almon-
ership to the Queen were a matter of deeper concern to
Manning than Newman's conversion.
Mr. Gladstone, who was on more intimate terms with
Newman than Manning was, in a letter dated Baden-Baden,
20th October 1845, wrote as follows: —
My dear Manning — A few words in this day of trouble
must pass from me to you ; for your own sake I wish you had
been with me here at the time of Newman's secession. To see
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 313
the Roman Church on the defensive against Ronge, rationalism,
and thought tending towards rationalism within its own pale,
is in the nature of a corrective to that half-heartedness and
despondency Avhich is almost forced upon us at home by the
contemplation of our own difficulties.
After speaking in high terms of Dr. Dollinger and saying
that " almost all I see here drives my sympathy into the
Roman camp — that is quoad German matters," Mr. Gladstone
goes on —
Is there to be any firm and intelligible declaration from
Pusey 1 . . . I at one time thought of enclosing to you, for you
to use or not ... a letter to him (Pusey) expressing a very
strong hope that it was his intention upon the occasion of
Newman's secession to make some declaration of such a kind as
will settle and compose men's minds, or at least tend that way,
with a view to the future. No such effect as this is produced
by showing that after infinite question one can just make out a
case for remaining in the Church of England.
Then referring to Pusey he says : —
I do desire and pray that the trumpet shall not give an
uncertain sound, inasmuch as men are certainly called upon to
prepare themselves for the battle. It is possible that you may be
at work on this subject with him — if you are, pray say so much
of this to him in my name as you like, or as little, or none
at all.
Mr. Gladstone then adds : —
It may appear strange, but I have almost a feeling of dis-
appointment at not seeing more secessions with Newman ; because
it looks as if they were to follow. . . . However, I suppose and hope
that Newman's book will bring all this to a head ; and that
persons are waiting for that in order to declare themselves. It
is sad and bitter ; but a sweep now, and after that some repose,
is the choice of evils, — that which we should seek from the mercy
of God. — Your affectionate friend, W. E. Gladstone.
In a second letter dated Hagley, Stourbridge. 21st
November 1845, Mr. Gladstone writes as follows: —
M\ DEAR Manning — My chief object in writing is to
suggest to you the possibility that you may have to entertain the
idea of answering Newman's book. . . . After reading it I may
3U CARDINAL MANNING chap.
have to write to you again on the subject. It will probably be
a real and subtle argument, backed by great knowledge, and it
must not, if so, be allowed to pass unnoticed, nor should the task
be left to those who will do mischief.
All I will now say is this : if, upon reading it, you entertain
the notion that you can do it, do not lose a moment in making
known your intention among friends, and let it appear to the
public as soon as you have made any progress that will warrant
an advertisement.
Oakeley's is a sad production, very unworthy of him, except
in the spirit, Avhich seems to me gentle and good.
I grieve much over the loss of Faber. He was evidently
a man who understood working the popular side of this religious
movement, which has for the most part been left to shift for
itself.
I have no doubt that many persons are waiting for Newman's
book, and mean to say Aye or No, after reading it. — In haste, I
am, always affectionately yours, W. E. G.
Frederick Oakeley had always been, from their Oxford
days until his conversion in 1845, an intimate friend of Mr.
Gladstone's, vrho was in the habit of attending the services
in Margaret Street Chapel when Oakeley was the moving
spirit of that centre of Puseyite activity. Speaking of
Margaret Street Chapel in its unadorned days, Mr. Gladstone
once remarked : " The whole place was so filled by the
reverence of Oakeley's ministrations and manner, that its
barrenness and poverty passed unnoticed. His sermons," he
added " were always most admirable ; they never exceeded
twenty minutes." Canon Oakeley^ was on friendly terms
until his death with Mr. Gladstone. The golden rule of a
" twenty minutes " sermon acted as a charm on the most
exuberant speaker of his generation. Is not this another
illustration of the fact that they who themselves most indulge
in the longest of speeches admire most brevity in others ?
It is characteristic of Mr. Gladstone's eagerness and anxiety
1 Canon Oakeley, who was a friend and contemporary of Tait's at Oxford,
remained on terms of intimacy with him when he was Archbishop of
Canterbury, and was a welcome guest at Addington. On the occasion of
his first visit at the Palace Archbishop Tait said, late in the evening : We
are going to have family prayers, I suppose you would prefer to read your
Breviary in your own room.
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 315
on the subject of Newman's conversion and his strong desire
that Manning should undertake its refutation that, on the
very day he was appointed Secretary to the Colonies, he
again reiterated his appeal in a letter dated
Carlton House Terrace, 22rd December 1845.
My dear Manning — I had been long on the point of
writing to you. Newman's book interests me deeply, shakes
me not at all. I think he places Christianity on the edge of a
precipice ; from whence a bold and strong hand would throw it
over.
Your mind, I am sure, has been at work upon it ; but do not
hurry to tell me the results. I trust to see them ripen.
Many thanks for your sermons, which I have just received. A
blessed Christmas to you, you will not have this until that
happy morning. — Ever yours aflfectionately,
W. E. Gladstone.
rive days later Mr. Gladstone writes again : —
Hawarden, Sunday, 28th December 1845.
My dear Manning — I have got your note about Newman's
book, on which I shall be very brief. First, I am more sanguine
than you about the ultimate issue ; I am persuaded that Bishop
Butler, if he were alive, would in his quiet way tear the whole argu-
ment into shreds — wonderful as is the hook — so that one should
wonder where it had been. Secondly, I am heartily glad you are
at work upon it, and I augur that you will find your confidence
grow as you proceed. May God be with you in the task. I have
myself put down certain notes upon it : if I can connect them
sufiiciently, on some Sunday or Sundays, to give a hope of their
being any use to you, they shall be sent to you. Lastly, I agree
about the passage which you call " awful " respecting the Blessed
Virgin ; to me it realises both senses of that word, it is both
sublime and frightful. Perhaps, however, I am applying this
latter epithet to something beyond the limits of what you quote
— to the general doctrine, and the expressions contained in two
or three pages.
The perplexity arising from the publication of Newman's
Book The JEssay on Bevelojwient, a statement and explanation
of the grounds which justified and compelled his submission
to the Catholic Church, grew day by day in intensity. To
316 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Mr. Gladstone his reasoning seemed " to place Christianity
on the edge of a precipice " ; to Manning, the doctrine which
Newman upheld in regard to the Blessed Virgin as Mother
of God was " awful." The necessity of refuting his
arguments seemed to both alike imperative to save the
Church of England from the effects of the blow under which
it reeled ; to stop the continued and " dismal " progress of
converts to Eome. Mr. Gladstone was sanguine as to the
ultimate issue ; Manning despondent. Both alike were
agreed that Pusey was not the man to grapple with Newman.
Mr. Gladstone, in a letter dated Carlton House Terrace,
Sunday, 8th March 1846, speaking of Pusey, says: —
My dear Manning — I have read as yet only the preface of
Dr. Pusey's sermon, and I confess myself much shocked at his
allusion in a note to Mr. Newman's valuable sermon. Not that
the words express an untruth, but the whole circumstances
considered they appear to me little less than an outrage upon
decency. His cannot be the mind which is to afford the mould
to form future minds for the government of the fortunes of the
Church of England ; his personal character is a great light for
all, but his character and proceedings as a member of the body
suggest much matter for regret. I see I have written foolishly,
as if it were to be supposed that an individual is to give form
to the future mind of the Church among us ; I did not mean it ;
what has happened to Newman ought at least to rid us of that
delusion.
In another passage Mr. Gladstone says : —
Your account of Keble is comforting. I am sorry to say I
hear that both Isaac Williams and Sergeant Bellasis are in a very
uncertain state, but I cannot say I know it. Toovey, the book-
seller, it seems, has been smitten. We should pray first I suppose
that no more may go, and next, that which thou doest, do
quickly ? The Church of England cannot acquire a clear self-
consciousness till this dismal scries is at an end. It is a dismal
series ; we are unhappy in losing them, but the evil they do is
greatest in itself. I hope you will not hurry your proceedings
about Newman's book ; for its remoter consequences are more
serious, surely, than those which are immediate.
Manning's refutation of Newman's arguments, on which
Mr. Gladstone with many others had set his heart, was not
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 317
attempted, or if attempted, fell still-born. Manning's heart
gave way ; his calm and sanguine confidence in the Church
of England was shaken, five months later, by the pressure
of events ; by the going out of so many with Newman.
In a letter dated Lavington, August 1846, he tells Mr.
Gladstone : — " I have a fear, amounting to a belief, that the
Church of England must split asunder." Such a confession
came as a surprise upon Mr. Gladstone ; who maintained
his own strong conviction the other way, and in reply
said : —
Nothing can be more firm in my mind than the opposite idea,
that the Chiu-ch of England has not been marked out in this
way and that way for nought, that she will live through her
struggles, and that she has a great providential destiny before her.
He then reproaches Manning, saying : — I will say little in the
way of argument, but I will more rely on reminding you that
your present impressions are entirely at variance with those of
six or seven months ago. I begin now to think that on a matter
of magnitude I cannot difter from you ; so I have the most im-
mediate interest in your opinion, as I have a presentiment of its
pro^dng to be mine too, if it be indeed yours — hence this
intolerance on my part.
From that day forth, I may add, in all his voluminous
correspondence with Mr. Gladstone, Manning never again
confessed, at least until the Gorham Judgment, the doubts
and ditficulties which now began to beset his heart, or
his misgivings as to the future of the Anglican Church ;
on the contrary, he stoutly maintained in his letters to Mr.
Gladstone, as he did in his charges, tracts, and sermons, his
unshaken belief in the Church of England. It was to
Eobert Wilberforce that Manning now transferred the inter-
change of intimate confidences touching the breaking down
of his belief in Anglicanism. The correspondence between
Manning and Mr. Gladstone, turning aside from Newman
and his book, and from religious and theological questions,
drifted into ecclesiastical politics. As an ecclesiastical
statesman Manning was much exercised in spirit at the
effects which Sir Robert Peel's Eepeal of the Corn Laws
would have upon tithe -owners and the interests of the
318 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Church. JManniug complained bitterly to Mr. Gladstone
that " Sir Robert Peel would neither help the Church nor
allow her to help herself."
Manning's failure to grapple with Xewman's arguments
was accounted for at the time, and has been since, by
different persons in different ways.
Mr. Gladstone, in a recent conversation, told me it was
quite true that, on the publication of Newman's Essay on
Development, he had strongly pressed Manning to write a
refutation of the book, and that he had undertaken to do so.
" Manning," added Mr, Gladstone, " was however not strong
enough to grapple with Newman. Manning was an
ecclesiastical statesman ; very ascetic, but not a theologian,
nor deeply read." Then, after a few moments' reflection, he
added : —
" I may now tell you, what I had during the Cardinal's hfetime
advisedly -withheld. Newman's secession, followed by that of
so many others, not at Oxford only, but all over the country,
presented an intellectual difficulty which I was unable to solve.
What was the common bond of union, the common principle,
which led men of intellect so different, of such opposite
characters, acting under circumstances and with surroundings
so various, to come to one and the same conclusion ? " Speaking
with great earnestness, Mr. Gladstone continued, " I remember as
if it were yesterday, the house, the room, Manning's attitude as,
standing before me, I put to him that question. His answer was
slow and deliberate : ' Their common bond is their want of
truth.' I was surprised beyond measure and startled at
Manning's judgment."
It was easier, perhaps, for Manning to impute motives
than to answer arguments.
Two years later, in a letter to Laprimaudaye, his curate
at Lavington, and one of the most intimate of his friends,
Manning accounts for his not undertaking the refutation of
Newman's book on grounds different from those alleged
by Mr. Gladstone. Manning, in June 1847, wrote as
follows : —
When Newman's book Avas published, Gladstone urged me to
answer it. I declined pledging myself ; but it forced me again
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 319
into the two same subjects (Unity and Infallibility) to which I
have continued to give all the thought and reading I can.
And I im bound to say that I could not republish either of
the two books as they stand. They are inaccurate in some /ads,
incomplete as compared with the truth of the case, and concede
some of the main jmnts I intended to deny.
To Mr, Gladstone, ]\Ianning does not appear to have
thought it necessary to communicate the fact that, in en-
deavouring to refute the arguments in the Essay on
Development, his own conclusions concerning Eome and the
English Church were unsettled or upset.
On Newman's conversion not only the leadership, but to
a large extent the propelling force of the Tractarian move-
ment passed away from Oxford. Pusey was in a sense the
leader, but his power still was felt not so much in Oxford as
in the country and in London ; Keble indeed retained great
personal influence; but the motive power passed to the London
men — to Upton Eichards of Margaret Street, to Bennett of
St. Barnabas, and Neale and others — preachers and writers
and workers — and took a wider range and assumed a more
definite form and organisation. Manning, too, had not only
a special following of his own, but exercised considerable
influence as a moderating and restraining power. Men came
to him for counsel and comfort, and never went away empty-
handed. Another effect of Newman's conversion was to
open up a new sphere of activity to Manning, congenial to
his temperament, his moderation and love of peace, and,
perhaps, not out of accord with his hopes and ambitions.
After the first shock, the Archdeacon of Chichester cultivated
an attitude of benevolent neutrality between the two con-
tending parties in the Church. He eschewed controversy
himself and deprecated it in others. He stood forward
bearing the olive branch in his hand ; he laboured, heart
and soul, to save the Church he loved so well from being
split asunder. The bishops were beside themselves with
terror at the storm raised inside the Church and out of it by
Newman's secession, stirred anew as it was at every fresh
conversion. They looked benignly, if with little confidence,
on Manning's efforts as peacemaker; but had his efforts in
320 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
this crisis succeeded iu a compromise, checking controversy
and establisliing peace between the more moderate men of
the two parties, their benedictions would not have been
withheld, nor a good word on his behalf, spoken in season
and in the proper quarters, have been wanting.
Eor eight years the writers of the Tracts for the Times
at Oxford had been labouring, heart and soul, in infusing
a new spirit into the Anglican Church, in reviving
doctrines which it had long since forgotten to hold,
far less to preach and teach, devotions it had ceased to
practise or even to remember. For eight years they
had been imsettling and disturbing minds by enlarging — in
spite of the Thirty-nine Articles, or by putting, as Ward
and only a few others did, a non-natural interpretation ^ on
them — the boundaries of the hitherto accepted or current
faith of the Church of England. In leading the Church
back to antiquity, in comparing its teaching with the faith
of primitive times, they discovered that doctrines and
devotions taught and practised in antiquity were wanting
in the Anglican Church. With an honest zeal the Tractarians
set to work to restore what they believed had been lost.
They exalted the sacredness of the Eucharistic rite ; and a
perpetual Sacrifice for the quick and the dead ; and insisted
on formal repentance for sin after baptism ; made selections
from the Eoman breviary of devotional services ; introduced
in a modified form praying for the dead, invocation of
saints, veneration of relics, and other Catholic doctrines and
practices.
But the chief characteristic of the elder Tractarians was
their impatience of error. They could not bring themselves
to tolerate the principle, as theii' successors have done,
that truth and error, the lion and tlie lamb, should be
permitted to lie down together within the fold of the
Church of England. Newman's aim, but not theirs, was to
purge the Anglican Church from its permitted heresies.
Since the condemnation of Tract 90 — that critical
turning-point in the Tractarian movement — Archdeacon
Manning had no lot or part, beyond that of a witness at
^ Newman strongly objected to such a latitude of interpretation.
XV NEWMAN'S CONVERSION 321
a distance, in the greatest moral revolution — greater Ijy far
and more far-reaching and abiding than the struggle of
Laud and the Nonjurors — which has ever befallen the
Anglican Church and the religious life of England. He
held aloof from, even if he did not look askance at, men
whose zeal he considered was not tempered by discretion,
or at all events by the prudence and tact which governed
his own conduct. On Newman's conversion, Manning
stepped forward, not to carry on Newman's work, but to
undo it ; to put a stop to the results of his teaching, and
still more to the force of his example. No one was better
adapted for such a saving office than the Archdeacon of
Chichester. He rallied the broken hosts, discomforted and
disunited in the first instance by the retirement of their
illustrious leader from the battlefield into silent Littlemore.
He took under his protecting wing the unsheltered and
orphaned children of the Oxford Movement. He inspired
the timid with courage ; brought back hope to the despairing ;
lifted up the hearts of the downcast and dismayed. He
inspired the souls of them that came to him in doubt, with
their faces already turned towards Eome, with all the con-
fidence in the Church of England which filled his own heart.
Yet, when the shock of Newman's departure from out of the
Anglican Church, though long expected, came at last, like a
sudden surprise, men's minds reeled and their hearts sank
within them ; they knew not what to do, whom to look to,
whither to go. And as week after week, month after month,
the long procession of them that went out with Newman
in the year 1845, that annus mirabilis, passed before their
saddened eyes, they, who had not the faith, the hope, the heart
to follow him — the scattered remnant of the Tractarian van-
guard — turned instinctively to Manning. His voice was
heard like that of one crying in the wilderness. He spoke,
as one inspired, of the divine certitude of his faith in the
Anglican Church. To the afflicted of heart, the troubled
in conscience, to those tortured by doubt, he presented
the Anglican Church, " primitive yet purified," possessed " of
purities in doctrine and practice wanting in the Western
Churches, whither in their impatience men had gone, seeking
VOL. I y
322 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xv
what was not to be found." One tliincr alone was wantinj^
to the absohite perfectibility of the Church of England ; and
that was her liberation from the bondage imposed upon her
by the usurpations of the Civil Power. He directed their
energies to this end, not only as good in itself, but as serving
to divert their minds from doubts or controversial difficulties.
His austere zeal, his earnestness, his personal piety and his
dogmatic assurances attracted the hearts of men in that day
of unrest. His confidence was contagious. He became a
tower of strength to the weak or the wavering. The timid,
almost frightened out of their wits by Newman's secession,
were reassured ; for such men instinctively felt that, under
Manning's guidance, they were walking on the ways of
safety and in the path of peace. " Safe as Manning," passed
almost into a proverb in that day of panic. Thus it was
that the Archdeacon of Chichester essayed to hold back the
remnant of the advanced Tractarian party from following
their illustrious leader to Eome.
Lavington became in the years that followed a half-way
house for pilgrims innumerable on their Eomeward way. But
the undoubting faith of Archdeacon Manning in the Anglican
Church, the magic of his personal influence over the hearts
and minds of men, his resolute will, held too many a soul
captive. Tor many — how many who shall tell ? — of the
pilgrims to Eome, Lavington was turned into a prison-
house. The captives were only set free, when their great
leader himself at last capitulated to Divine grace.
CHAPTEE XVI
FACING DEATH
1847
Whether the Archdeacon of Chichester would have suc-
ceeded in the desire of his heart of effecting a compromise
between the antagonistic parties in the Church of England,
had not an event occurred, which arrested his course in
mid-career, and which wrought far-reaching changes in his
heart, in his way of looking at things, and in the prin-
ciples which guided his life — who shall say ? That event
was the illness which in 18-47 brought him, in the prime
of life, face to face with Death.
Of the change of heart which this illness brought
about ; of the fading away in the apparent presence of
death of his worldly ambitions, of his craving for name
and power, of his restless longing to rule as bishop, the
most graphic, and, in some passages, most pathetic hints
and indications, are given in his Diary.
This prolonged illness and Newman's conversion with its
after-effects — two events different in kind and contradictory
in the character of their influence — produced, the one
abiding, the other temporary, results on Manning's career.
The effect of Newman's conversion threw Manning back for
awhile; out of fear of Eoman tendencies he stifled doubts,
checked inquiries, and extolled more fervently than ever the
position and faith of the English Church.
In his contemporary Diary, under date Nov. 1845, Arch-
deacon Manning made the following statement : —
324 CARDINAL MANNING
CHAP.
I feel that I have taken my last act in concert with those
who are moving in Oxford. Henceforward I shall endeavour,
by God's help, to act by myself as I have done hitherto, without
any alliance.
My duty is to live and die striving to edify the Church in
my own sphere.
This I trust to do without desire or fear for this world. I
have had caution [The following page is cut out.]
Whether the above entry refers to Newman's conversion
or to the Fifth of November Sermon 1843 is doubtful.^
Be that however as it may, in an autobiographical Note
dated 1882, Cardinal Manning expressly says : — " Newman's
conversion threw me back."
This undoubtedly was the effect of Newman's conversion,
and of the consternation which it excited not only among
Ultra-Protestants and Low Churchmen, but in the moderate
High Church party, and more especially among the bishops.
Warned by Newman's retirement to Littlemore, the Arch-
deacon of Chichester had taken precautionary measures ;
but when the crisis came and the trying times that followed,
it required his utmost tact and skill to preserve a middle
course. Not because of hesitation in his own mind, but on
account of the strain and stress of external forces, hostile
to any form of compromise between Eome and popular
Protestantism.
During these trying times Manning was painfully alive
to the danger of adding fuel to the fire. Other men were
not as prudent or as circumspect as he was. He had
already reproached Dr. Pusey for the tenderness and
partiality he exhibited towards the Church of Eome. And
yet at such a crisis Dr. Pusey was bent on heaping fresh
coals on the fires of Protestant bigotry ; for in his coming
turn for preaching before the University he had chosen the
subject of Confession.
^ This eutry would seem to refer to the 5th of November sermon, 1843.
The Diary is dated 1844 ; and the half-page containing the entry is gummed
into the Diary together with another entry of the same date referring to the
Lincoln's Inn Preachership and Mr. Gladstone. The Lincoln's Inn affair was
in 1843, and it is likewise in evidence that Manning "ceased to act in
concert" with the Tractarians in that year.
XVI FACING DEATH 325
What more inopportune at a moment when Protestant
prejudice was incited to white heat against the practice of
hearing confessions in Anglican Churches, notably in the
Church of St. Saviour's, Leeds ; and when bishops like the
Bishop of Oxford were denouncing it as a " Eomish " practice?
In a letter to Dr. Pusey, Manning besought him to choose
a neutral subject instead of throwing down the gauntlet ;
" passions are subsiding," and besides, Manning added, " it
does not look well that you should seem to be always
mixed up in University squabbles." But, since the subject
fell in with the course he was delivering, Dr. Pusey was
not to be moved from his purpose. Neither could he be
induced to reef his sails during the storm, or to steer his
bark for a time into quiet waters.
After the fashion of Newman's " Library of the Fathers,"
Pusey was endeavouring to obtain the co-operation of those
who had worked under Newman and others to establish a
library entitled " Commentary on the Scriptures for the
Unlearned." He sought Manning's co-operation as one of
the editors or contributors. The Archdeacon of Chichester
declined on the score that his time was too much engaged
in parish work. Such close association with Dr. Pusey did
not at such a time commend itself to Manning's judgment.
The effects of Newman's conversion, far from subsiding,
were on the increase. The numerous conversions at St,
Saviour's, in the parish of Leeds, of which Dean Hook was
vicar, were to Manning a cause of great annoyance and
apprehension. In answer to a letter in which Dr. Pusey
described the conversion of so many of the clergy of St.
Saviour's as " heart-breaking events," Manning wrote almost
the last letter before his illness early in February, to Dr,
Pusey, as follows : —
23rd January 1847.
I cannot but feel that such events happening one by one at
the altars which have stood as chief signs to be spoken against,
do reasonably throw upon the whole body of men we most hold
with a public imputation of uncertainty and secret unsteadiness.
I cannot wonder that great and extensive mistrust has grown
up. . . . You know how long I have to you expressed my con-
viction that a false position has been taken up in the Church of
326 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
England. The direct and certain tendency, 1 believe, of what
remains of the original movement is to the Roman Church.
You know the minds of men about us far better than I do, and
will therefore know both how strong an impression the claims of
Rome have made on them, and how feeble and fragmentary are
the reasons on which they have made a sudden stand or halt in the
line on which they have been, perhaps insensibly, moving for years.
It is also clear that they are " revising the Reformation."
To Archdeacon Manning " revising the Reformation "
was an act almost as sacrilegious as revising the Bible.
Keble, who like Pusey was distressed at " the heart-
breaking events " at St. Saviour's, Leeds, wrote to Manning
as follows : —
My DEAR Manning — I enclose you this, as desired, with a
heavy heart ; more, however, on Hook's own account than from
any fear I have of his making his cause good, or staying the
good work which seems, by God's especial blessing, to be more
and more rife in our Church. We must make all allowances for
him. No doubt he must feel more than most others the un-
speakably pernicious eflfect of what has happened at Littlemore
especially, and afterwards at St. Saviour's, and other places.
Still, it is hard he should throw the onus on Pusey and St.
Saviour's. The worst I anticipate is that these good men may
be drawn into some other diocese — to Devonport, where the good
work is said to be going on most blessedly. — Ever yours most
affectionately, J. Keble.
(" These good men," the clergy of St. Saviour's, alluded
to by Keble, eventually went over to Rome.)
Dean Hook, the vicar of Leeds, already frantic at the
practices and devotions carried on at St. Saviour's, was
incensed beyond measure at the report that, in company
with Dr. Pusey, Archdeacon Manning was to preach at St.
Saviour's, and wrote the following fierce and intolerant
letter to Manning : —
Vicarage, Leeds.
My dear Manning — The people of St. Saviour's are boast-
ing of a triumph over me by the approach of Archdeacon Man-
ning and Mr. Keble to preach their anniversary sermon.
As I think it more probable that they have asked you to
come than that you have given your consent, I take the liberty
XVI FACING DEATH 327
of laying the following facts before you, in the hope that you
will consider them before you decide.
By coming to St. Saviour's you give your sanction to prin-
ciples and practices which I reprobate. The St. Saviour's
curates will assert, very fairly, that what I reprobate is sanctioned
by Archdeacon Manning and Mr. Keble. And then what is the
only course left open to me ? I must express in public what I
have said among very private friends, that feelings of painful in-
dignation have been excited in my bosom by Keble's preface to
his sermons. I think it scarcely possible that it could have been
written by the author of The Christian Year. I must also express
in public what I have said in private, that my principles are wide
as the poles asunder from those of Archdeacon Manning in his
last volume of sermons.
Now this will appear mere laughing matter perhaps, to you,
and you will feel, like Pusey, that I shall be damaged rather
than you. This may be true. But still it must be done, and
some men of high calibre agree with me in thinking that a
breach is inevitable between the old High Church party and
the Puseyites. I am only waiting for a fit opportunity to ex-
press my abhorrence of Dr. Pusey's principles. If I were com-
pelled to make my choice, I would rather choose the principles
of the Record than his.
But one's heart shrinks from an open rupture with those
whom he once esteemed. A crisis is at hand. War is inevit-
able. But still one dreads the first blow. The severance is
unavoidable, but still the longer it is actually avoided one has
ground to hope even against hope ; but I shall say no more, do
as you please. Perhaps you think the sooner the blow comes
the better ; so be it.
I hope, my dear Manning, that you will not be oftended at
the freedom with which I write. It is better on all accounts
that things should be plainly stated ; and if we are to be foemen
I hope we shall still be foes who will respect each other. —
Believe me to be, yours very faithfully, T. Hook.
P.S. — If you come there will be a gathering of Puseyites,
blockheads from all Yorkshire, but not one clergyman in Leeds
beyond those of St. Saviour's will attend.
To this intemperate letter Manning gave a conciliatory
answer, which succeeded, as he told Mr. Gladstone, in
keeping the peace and avoiding public discussion. In
reply to this conciliatory letter Dean Hook wrote as
follows : — ■
328 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Vicarage, Leeds.
My dear Friend — I thank you most heartily for your kind
letter, to the kind feelings of which I most cordially respond.
My object in writing has been mistaken. I wanted to avoid
division as long as possible, and therefore I asked you not to
come here, that I might not be obliged to speak out.
Those Avhom I took for Church of England men, and who as
such hated Popery, who once, as in the Tracts for the Times,
openly assailed Popery, I find now to be enamoured of her. I
find young men thinking it orthodox to read and study Popish
books of devotion, and to imitate Popish priests in their attire ;
I find Justification by faith, the doctrine of our articles, the test
of a standing or falling Church, repudiated, and consequent!}^ a
set of works of supererogation and a feeling in favour of the
intercession of those who are supposed to have been more than
unprofitable servants ; I find Confession, which our Church
permits as a means of comfort to the weak and foolish, received
as a means of grace and therefore essential, — an error which
leads to the virtual denial of the only chance of comfort, the
Justification by faith, — and finding these things in places where
I did not expect it, I am grieved to the heart. If I am
obliged to speak out, I will. But I shall keep silence until it is
necessary for my own people, with whom only I have to do, to
speak.
Again and again I thank you for your kind feeling. My
heart is yours. Oh ! would that you were like Hooker : I want no
more. Who so catholic as to what relates to Justification ?
The union of these two truths is the glory of the Church of
England, against Papists who anathematise Justification by faith,
and against ultra-Protestants who do not believe in sacramental
grace.
I have let my pen run on, though I only meant to thank
you for your letter, and to assure you that I am most sincerely
3'ours, J. H. Hook.
Mr. Gladstone wrote to Manning on the subject of
Hook's attacks, and said : " I sav^ Hook yesterday ; he is
drivelling."
Pusey's indiscretions, the practices at St. Saviour's, the
numerous " secessions " to Kome, were among the troubles
which vexed Manning's spirit on the eve of his prolonged
illness.
In such a life as Manning's the action of Divine grace
must needs be taken into special account. His nature was
XVI FACING DEATH 329
peculiarly susceptible to impressions or suggestions either of
good or evil. For instance, his surroundings in London,
the sight or society of men of his own standing and acquaint-
ance making their way in life, like Mr. Gladstone in the
State, like his brother-in-law Bishop Wilberforce in the
Church, excited in Archdeacon Manning's breast, as he put
on record at the time, feelings of ambition, rivalry, envy —
those spurs of the flesh which others might account natural
or venial, he denounces in the secret chambers of his
heart as temptations to sin, to vanity and worldliness of
life. His conscience was sensitive and scrupulous, as the
long inward struggle which preceded his refusal of the
office of Sub-almoner amply testifies. Deep rooted in his
soul was the fear of God ; and the sense of moral responsi-
bility acted as a sharp curb on his action and conduct.
The natural man, indeed, hungered after honour and pre-
ferment. The hope of future elevation in the Church was
a stay on which his heart rested. In a passage of his Diary
I have already quoted, speaking of what he is resting upon.
Manning says : " I think it is partly the esteem of others
. . . and on expectation of something to come."^
In the year 1846, the Archdeacon of Chichester was in
the high tide of prosperity and advancement. His faith in
the Church of England was, as yet, unshaken. In a letter
to Eobert Wilberforce he says : " Nothing can shake my
belief of the presence of Christ in our Church and Sacra-
ments. I feel incapable of doubting it." His moderation
was praised of all men. He was on intimate terms with
rising statesmen. The prospect of a mitre was before his
eyes.^ In the midst of all these hopes, ambitions, and
delights of life an illness fell upon him — a visitation of God's
hand in mercy, as he justly regarded it. What effect this
visitation produced upon his heart and soul. Manning has
himself recorded in the pages of his Diary. Speaking of
this long illness which brought him face to face with death,
1 Vide Chap. XIII. p. 282.
- In a conversation with Cardinal Manning on the near prospect he at
one time had of receiving an Anglican mitre, he said : "What an escape for
my poor soul ! "
330 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
he wrote on the day after leaving La\dngton for the first
time after fifteen weeks' seclusion, as follows : —
Blessed time ! I never was so alone with God ; never so near
to Him ; never so visited by Him ; never so awakened from
dreaming ; never so aware of the vain show in which I have been
walking ; never so conscious of the realities of the world beyond
the grave. . . .
I was never so long alone ; and so wholly thrown upon mj own
soul and upon Him. And He did not leave me nor forsake me.
It was not sickness only, or fear of death, that oppressed
him ; but solitude. For Manning was taken on the sudden
by the hand of God out of the world in which for three or
four years ^ he had been living with such eagerness ; aspir-
ing, if the truth must be told, as it is told in his Diary, for
elevation to the Bench of Bishops as giving him an oppor-
tunity, in that day of disunion and discord, of promoting imity
in the Church. Solitude brought meditation. His sensitive
conscience was awakened. Self-examination pursued in a
spirit almost morbid, partly by nature, partly by illness,
resulted in self-accusations, if true in substance or in their
broad lines, exaggerated out of all proportion to the real
offences, or inclinations of his nature.
In reading, therefore, some of the following extracts of
Manning's Diary it must be borne in mind, under what
circumstances they were written, and due allowance made
for the effects of illness and depression of spirits. On the
other hand, I must repeat that his Diary was carefully
revised and expurgated by Manning as cardinal. Its pages,
if they reveal at times temptations to worldliness, and the
workings of ambition or vainglory, bear witness to a sensi-
tive and scrupulous conscience, and a God-fearing spirit.
Extracts from Diary.
Meigate, 1th February 1847. — I have just perceived a faint^
^ Described in the Diary as "Three and a half years of declension,"'
July 1843 to February 1847.
- Manning was on a visit to his mother at R(nf,'ate. On the first symptom
of illness showing itself he returned to Lavington.
ivr FACING DEATH 331
thread of blood, probably from the membrane of the throat.
My first words were, So be it. Fiat voluntas tua, as I remember
saying on that day. I note this only because it is well to note
beginnings, and to begin early. If nothing come, what loss 1 if
anything, all well.
And how do I feel about death 1 If I knew that this was
my warning, what should I feel 1 Certainly great fear.
1 . Because of the uncertainty of our state before God.
2. Because of the consciousness —
(1) Of great sins past.
(2) Of great sinfulness.
(3) Of most shallow repentance.
What shall I do ?
(TO) 0ew \
Xapt? ) and make a full confession.
18th March/
2. Next try to make restitution by acknowledgment, counsel,
warning. Next begin to repent and pray.
10^/i February 1847. — If I knew that I were now to die, what
should I feel ?
1 . Fear of Judgment 1 Yes.
Both because of my great sins and of my little repentance.
Also of my unreal religion. That is, my sins before and after
conversion. I tremble at having usurped the language of a
saint-shaving been such a sinner and being so little penitent.
Nothing that I have ever done in my personal and pastoral
life is even moderately free from evil. My prayers, communions,
acts of professed obedience and self-denial : my preaching,
teaching, tending the sick, almsgiving, writing, speaking, all are
hollow, and stained horribly by self.
2. Kegret at leaving this life ? I hardly dare say no — and
yet cannot simply say yes. I feel that to die as I am would be
a fall of many illusions — and a sad feeling of incompleteness
and unprofitableness comes over me.
To leave my name as it is, and work, and aims ; and yet I
have no folly about fame or desire.
Still a sense of reAetoTT^s — of old age and the officiorum cursus
— hangs about me (" 12th August 1871 " ^). But what am I,
having been what I was, that I should be anything in the
Kingdom of Christ ! I have formed to myself, at times, visions
of a life of Pastoral oversight and an Ecclesiastical Familia. But
what are these to Rest, and the lowest place beneath the feet of
the Elect 1
^ Date inserted by Cardinal Manning in 1871.
332 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
3. Sorrow at parting from friends 1 Except the instincts of
nature, I think not.
4. For all things besides that are in the world, I seem to
have no hold of them nor they of me.
Money, rank, intellect, fellowship of minds, ease, refined
pleasure, etc.
All these are as nothing.
The fellowship of God and His saints is a thought of bliss,
and to be myself pure and capable of such fellowship is a joy
like unto them that dream. . . .
23/v/ Ft'hruary. — Now I desire to know how to use this sick-
ness : I desire it may do many things ; but one will be enough.
If I may in the spirit of St. Francis's prayer die to the world,
'• ut amore amoris Tui viundo 77ioriar." But how can I make this a
reality in my state of life ? This I pray God to show me.
How can I die to the world 1
1. My kinship surrounds me with ties of blood.
My priesthood 'svith a flock.
My archdeaconry with a multitude of persons, and relations.
I need not break from these, but live in them, not for them,
or by them.
2. Should I refuse all beyond them 1 I think not — e.g.
London and afar off.
3. Should I refuse all visits and invitations 1
Not all — e.g. when asked as a priest; nor when
charity may be served.
But I think I may give up all such of them as I ca7i ; never
going by choice or for my own pleasure.
4. Shall I give up my carriage and servant 1
I have resolved so to do, at least for a time. 23rd March.
5. Can I make any rules about reading books, and topics of
conversation ?
6. Is it not rather by longer prayer, and living more to, with,
and in God ?
This seems to me —
(1) What I most lack.
(2) What is most direct and dynamical.
To-day I have seen my name in a way which some time ago
— two years ago — would have made my heart beat quicker.^ It
^ The Christian Remembrancer which, on Archdeacon Manning's breaking
with the Tractarians three or four years before, had spoken of him "as a
man whom the Church needs in her highest offices, and who cannot be
allowed to rest even in the honourable post which he now adorns," now again
brou"ht forward Manning's name in connection with the next vacant mitre.
xv£ FACING DEATH 333
now fills me with perplexity. Such an offer would be a ndxaipa
SuTTOfios, and must cut one way or the other.
If I were to say yes, there would be a life of struggle and
conscious difficulty, yet it might be a Providential appointment
in the direction of unity ; and my place may be here.
If I were to say no, I should feel more free forever from the
fear of some low temptations — though other subtle ones would
arise.
Now I despair of any solution of such difficulty from my own
reason, from the reason of any counsellor on earth.
It seems to me that nothing but a Divine light could show
me my duty, and for this from this night I will daily pray.
Is this the answer to the question of last night, mundo moriar
— sed quomodo ?
To-day come the tidings of Henry's dear boy's death. I
believe he is following the Lamb.
Four times I have sinned by impatience. Twice with Ann.
Once with each — . Certainly not through malitki, as the persons
Mdll be enough to show, and I trust followed in all cases by an
immediate acknowledgment, though not humble enough. It is
wonderful : only an hour or so before I had been reading, mark-
ing, and assenting to a sentence in the Via Vitce Eternce, saying
that all trials are God directly trying us, and I thought of Ann's
knocking at the door. In a moment came the same with an
open window. What a fool it shows me to be — I am put to
sport for my intoxications about perfection. God give me grace
to be passive and impassive — sicut cadaver.
lOth February 1847. — To-day is the last Friday of the rule
made last Ash Wednesday.
I do not remember to have willingly broken it. Once or
twice being from home without this book I have been forced to
go over the Confession in my mind, no doubt with some omis-
sion of detail ; none I think of species.
The Seven Penitential Psalms I do not remember to have
left unsaid. But what distraction, haste, sloth, insensibility.
I have need to ask forgiveness specially for the sins of my
penance. Unworthy the name. I trust, however, it has brought
me down, and changed my line from a boaster to a penitent.
(Here follows a prayer.)
18th March. — Now for this Lent I desire —
1. To abstain either Wednesdays and Fridays, or Wednes-
days, Fridays, and Saturdays, as I feel myself able, being lower
than I was. (Suspended by a physician.) To use no pleasant
bread except on Sundays and feasts, such as cake and sweetmeat.
I do not include plain biscuits. Kept.
334 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
2. To give the price of three days' dinners to Mrs. Kentfield
this Lent, week by week. Kept.
3. To use the form of self-examination and of penitential
Psalms on Wednesdays and Fridays, as last year. Kept.
4. To add a third time of prayer. Kept.
5. To read Father Thomas at night, the Vui Vitce Eternce in
the morning. Kept. The M.C. Catechism any time.
6. To begin a daily intercession —
(1) For the Church. Kept in a measure.
(2) For this country.
(3) For individuals more in eo:tenso.
7. To use a special prayer before study. Kepit in a measure.
8. To read the special intercession at Blessed Sacrament.
Kept in a measure.
9. To note down a record of confitenda. Kept in a measure.
Sth April 1847. — Beus in adjutorium intende.
Ash Wednesday, 20th February 1847. —The order of a
physician forced me to take broth yesterday, Friday, and to-day,
and I fear will suspend my rules. I am so afraid that this sick-
ness is passing away ■udthout a blessing, that I desire at least to
adopt some lasting rules out of it.
1. To make my night prayers forty instead of thirty
minutes. I so mistrust myself that I hardly dare resolve on
more.
2. To embody in a prayer a commemoration of this sickness,
of God's mercy in it, and of what I desire to learn from it.
(Here several pages are cut out.)
Qth March. — Now I feel troubled about this Lent and my
entire unobservances ; also about this blessed time of retreat
lest I should lose it. My wish, therefore, is to make three
resolutions —
1. To take three-quarters of an hour morning and night.
2. To read some portion of Holy Scripture daily kneeling.
3. To make the rule of the seven penitential Psalms, Wed-
nesdays and Fridays, perpetual for life, subject to Spiritual Guide.
Lady Day, 25th March 1847.
Chief Agents in my Conversion.
1. 2. 3. Lines erased by Cardinal Manning, 1886.
4. My admission to Lavington, 1833.
5. Entry erased (year of his wife's death), 1837.
6. The hearing of confessions, 1844.
7. The growing up of hope, 1845.
8. My illness, 1847.
These are, I think, the chief agents under God in my con-
version.
XVI FACING DEATH 335
I trust the tendency has been onward for these twenty years,
fourteen years, ten years, three years, and one year.
My repentence is nothing, and my religion to be repented
of.
Tlie sloth and unprofitableness of my life are only equalled by
my vanity and self-complacenc}^. I have talked like a saint ;
dreamed of myself as a saint ; and flattered myself as if I did
the work of a saint ; and now find that I am not worthy to be
called a penitent.
God has in His great love smitten me again.
I take this illness as a discharge from all subjects of
controversy. It is impossible for me to make up my mind on
such a matter, in my present state, as it may be in the time left
to me.
At this moment my sole fear of death is my own sinfulness.
If He should please to take me, perhaps for ever, it might be
safest after my quasi baptism.
Or, if he spare me, my desire would be to —
1. Devote myself to keeping alive my preparation for death.
2. To preparing others whether in life or dying.
One week since the greatest conscious act of my life.
In the course of this week I have begun again with the
reckoning.
Petulance twice.
Omission of spiritual service.
Want of love to my neighbours.
Complacent visions.
But in all these, except once under the first, I think there
has been no conscious, at least mwose, consent of the will.
26<A March.
Psalm Ixxvii. 10.
God's special mercies to me.
1. My creation ex num ; possib^.
2. My regeneration, elect from mankind.
3. My pure and loving home, and parents.
4. The long-sufferings which bore with me for twenty years
until my conversion, restraining me, preventing me.
5. The preservation of my life six times to my knowledge —
(1) In illness at the age of nine.
(2) In the water.
(3) By a runaway horse at Oxford.
(4) By the same.
(5) By falling nearly through the ceiling of a church.
(6) Again by fall of a horse. And I know not how often
in shootino;, ridin";, etc.
336 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
G. By preserving me from great j^ublic shame, 1827-44.
7. By calling me to holy orders, and suffering me to be on
His side against the world.
8. By afflicting me, 1837.
9. By prospering me, as a token of forgiveness.
10. By chastening me now.
11th March. — God's special mercies to me.
Thou hast —
1. Created me.
2. Kedeemed.
3. Regenerated.
4. Blessed home, parents, friends, goods of life, education.
5. Spared for twenty years in sin, in six dangers at least.
6. Restrained in unnumbered temptations, intentions, inchoate
sins.
7. Prevented. Leading me by books, friends, events, truth,
and spirit.
8. Converted. From twenty to twent3'-three.
9. Convinced. Unto this day ; never more than in the last
two years.
The same.
Declension : 3| years, secularitj-, vanity,
Great sloth in parish work and prayer.
1837, 1847.
The same : realisation of His presence and
The same : and sixteen lonely years.
16. Kindled. Desire of oneness.
17. Softened. To penitents, to poor, to all I trust.
18. Humbled. 1844, 1847.
19. Called me to the altar.
20. Wrought by me.
Shall all this be in vain ] Shall the dead praise thee,
Lord?
Palm Sunday, 28th March. — I have just had a proof of the
unchanged sinfulness of my heart. I could not bear to hear
Laprimaudaye commended even in a matter which ought to
make me give thanks. ^ I abhorred myself on the spot, and
looked upward for help.
God is witness that I abhor this for its malice, its meanness,
its impiety.
^ Laprimaudaye had been commended for bringing so many souls to God
durinK Lent.
10.
Enlightened,
11.
Reclaimed.
anger.
12.
Quickened.
13.
Chastised.
14.
Awakened.
of death.
15.
Bruised. T
XVI FACING DEATH 337
I would to God that I could say from my soul, of every
brother and in everything, " He must increase." I do desire
the most perfect self-examination. I feel some comfort in look-
ing back and seeing that Christmas Day and Epiphany both
bear witness that these were my desires in life and health. It
seems to me that God has in love been weaning me from all
things that I may possess Him, and be possessed by Him alone.
1 . From sins of the flesh and spirit.
2. From love of worldly pleasure.
3. From worldly ambition.
4. From love of happiness.
5. From love of active popularity.
6. From ecclesiastical ambition. This is lessened chiefly by
estrangement from the actual.
7. From the desire of excluding all from my flock and friends.
8. From intellectual sensuality.
9. From spiritual visions of sanctity and service.
" Did we but see,
When life first opened," etc.
I seem now to have two chief thoughts, God and death. And
to desire, if He be pleased to spare me, to give the end of my
life to two works.
1. The sustaining of my present preparation for ever.
2. The preparing of sick and dying.
This perhaps may be the answer to my question, Feb. 24,
" Mundo moriar / but how ? "
I do from my soul desire to die to everything which is not in
God.
I trust I am willing to be supplanted, dispossessed, dethroned
from the heart of all creatures, so that I may have no heart to
rest on but His. I do not mean that I should not be the object
of love to any, because this is sweet and blessed ; only I wish
not to aim at it, not to put my happiness in it, not to draw my
consolation from it.
St. Mark xiii., " Is it I ? "
Easter Eve, 1847. — I wish still to keep myself as if I had
received my discharge from this world, and to keep close to the
foot of the cross. I fear to be again absorbed even in thought
11... ^
by the activities of life. I should soon grow again ambitious,
conscious, and bold in speech. For I am capable of all evil, nothing
but the hand of God has kept me from being the vilest of
creatures, and nothing can. I feel now that if I were within the
sphere of temptation I should sin by a perpetual backsliding.
VOL. I Z
338 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
May this Lent be so stamped into my soul that I may never
lose it ; and if I die, may I die in Christ ; and if I live, may I
live in a perpetual Lent like this as to its spiritual realities, that
living or dying I may be His.
I feel to burn with shame at the self-love with which I have
magnified this illness ; thought life of importance, sought health
by all carefulness. . . .
My external work seems wound up, and I am more than
content, if only I can live in divine love, and have my life hid
with Christ in God.
Easter Day, 1847. — Lent is indeed now over, for the first
vespers of Easter have been said.
What a Lent it has been to me ! From Shrove Tuesday I
have been in this house.
Yet truly no Lent in my life has been like it. All others
have been shadows, and this the substance. They have been
preparations for this reality.
There are two very awful qualities in sin — -(1) We do it
voluntarily ; (2) that it preys upon us passively.
Now I have the latter to-day from jealousy.
I do not think I have actively and voluntarily consented ; but
I have felt a sort of poisonous, feverish, impatient sensation ;
partly lest it should be true, but chiefly that it should be thought
true.^
I suppose nothing but the pure and perfect love of God can
heal me.
How I ought to have rejoiced —
1. For the glory of God.
2. For the love of our blessed Lord.
3. For love of souls.
4. For love of my brother.
5. For love of humiliations.
6. For the discipline of lowliness.
7. For the oj^portunity of concealing and hiding myself.
I have prayed that all pride, vanity, envy, jealousy, rivalry,
and ambition may be crucified in me ; and I accept this as a nail
driven into me, and desire to be wholly crucified. I had rather
suffer any humiliation and disappointment than harbour the
accursed shame of jealousy.
^ Namely, that Laprimaudaye had brought more of the Lavington flock to
their Easter communions than Manning himself had brought in former Lents.
XVI FACING DEATH 339
Easier Monday. — This morning in sacro : —
1. For all gifts of grace on Lapriraaudaye, that where I have
gathered one of my flock he may gather ten.
2. For the rooting out of every resentful, impatient, sensitive
feeling towards P(usey ?).
3. For a risen life resting upon His death ; a life of love,
joying and rejoicing in the gifts and graces of all, forgetting
myself ; and for lowliness, that I may love shadows and humilia-
tions, and never undo them by explanations.
Having prayed for this, and resolved not to enter upon the
subject of last night (though I believe I always reserved the
stating of facts to Laprimaudaye, and answering questions), I was
drawn by his showing me the list (of Easter communions) into
saying things which I know embodied and vented feelings of evil.
In satisfaction for this, I desire now to give him this copy of
the Breviary, and to say how sincerely I feel that my flock have
been better in his hands than in mine.
May God accept this through Jesus Christ.
This long illness which, in the fulness of life, in the
high tide of prosperity, brought Manning face to face with
death, which wrought such a change of heart, is now
passing away. In his Diary, under the date 10 th May,
he thus records his recovery : —
I am now going to breathe fresh air once more. God grant
it may be not unto renewed sickness, but health. If it be for
the glory of Thy name, and the sanctification of my soul.
11th May. — To-day I went out once more into the free air
and sun of heaven. With what gladness I cannot say. I trust
with a thankful heart. It was most sweet, most refreshing.
The earth and the world never looked to me so benign, beautiful,
and lovely. I fear I love it too well and have too little desire
for God's Kingdom " which is far better." And I am conscious
that in all this sickness my care for myself has been delicate
and selfish, and for my own sake, not for God. I do earnestly
desire that this may be a stage and a step in ray life.
This day twelve weeks Ferguson came to me first. What
days and nights have passed since then. And what tender
mercies of God.
Oh that I may never be a burning mountain again. . . .
On his two doctors ordering him to go abroad. Manning
made the following entry in his Diary : —
340 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I am willing to lay aside the work I am printing.
I am willing to follow step by step, not knowing whither I go.
I am willing in my superior will to go where God wills, and
for as long and for such end as He ordains, whether for life or
death, that living or dying I may be united to Him.
The next entry in the Diary is as follows : —
8th June. — I trust I shall never again, if God in his goodness
give me life, return to the fierce, isolated, resentful spirit I had
before I was ill.
If I remember I had even then begun to strive against it,
but I have dreadfully sinned by what St. Thomas Aquinas
calls a clownish temper — an dypoiKLa — as with James Hilton.
... I do not remember any one with whom I have ill will.
Mr. Bliss and Mr. Davies ^ have exchanged with me pledges of
kindness. So Mr. Murray. I cannot remember any other. How
thankful I am that I never had a controversy, nor, so far as I
know, a personal quarrel since I came to manhood. God has
wonderfully made men to be at peace with me, even in the
midst of strife ; and given me the love of friends and the
forbearance of enemies. I trust my memory would not be one
of division. . . .
The following entry alludes to the commencement of the
last illness of his wife, 22nd June, 1837 : —
24th June. — This time ten years ago the end was in its be-
ginning. It opened on the 22 nd, and I then said from my soul
what I say now, " Thy will be done." . . .
Manning's heart was lieavy about things spiritual as
weU as temporal, as the following letters to Eobert Wilber-
force show : —
P'ri'V(^i^- L.\viNGTON, Qth March 1847.
My DEAR Robert — Your kind words gave me great pleasure
this morning. I had been inclining to write to you, wishing to
ask your prayers more than at other times, not for bodily health,
but that I may have the grace of a fervent repentance, of zeal
and sorrow. You cannot ask this more than I need it. I
know you will ask it, for the love we bear each other. For my
part I ought to love you as I do, for I owe you more than I can
repay.
^ The Rev. Mr. Davies, a Low Churchman of Chichester, wrote a book
attacking Manning's sermon Tlie Rule of Faith in 1838.
XVI FACING DEATH 341
As to illness, I am ashamed to make so much of so little. I
have been near to an illness, but, by God's mercy, I trust it is
gone. It may make me liable to it, but I believe that is all.
As to the future, I do not yet look on. It vi^ould be to me too
little trial to be idle and to go southward to make it good for
me to think of it.
I do somewhat feel uneasy at this being no Lent to me,
and yet in one way it has been more than any Lent.
Are you likely to be this way before Easter 1 — Believe me,
my dear Kobert, ever yours aflfectionately,
H. E. Manning.
44 Cadogax Place, 9th June 1847.
My dear Robert — Your kind letter, as yours always do,
gave me much comfort. For though I thank God that I have
not felt out of heart, yet four months' illness, the removal of my
dearest mother, the suspension of all work, and the prospect of
leaving home for a long time, have turned all thoughts and feel-
ings out of old channels into a new one, somewhat of a sudden.
Still I may say with an open heart to you I never felt the
thought, I trust I may say the presence and the love, of God so
near and full of peace.
Dr. Ferguson has tried my chest, and says he finds no
tubercles, but great weakness ; and said that my heart and
pulse are young, but all the rest old. Would to God it were in
ripeness as well as weakness. He wishes me to go slowly south-
ward and reach Italy about October.
So much for myself ; and now, my dear Robert, I feel much
the thought of being parted from you : when, please God, I am
away, I shall feel still more how little I have ever done for any
one. I remember you morning and night and often at the
altar, and this I may do, I trust, still. You will, I hope, not
forget me.
I am very glad that your coming to London is fixed for the
end of this month, as, if all goes well, I shall be here to make
ready for starting.
I should very much like to go into some of the subjects of
your letter ; but I feel that illness is a discharge from the schools,
and it seems but for me to think more of the points which are
believed on both sides. What you say is my feeling that the
presence and office of the Holy Spirit in the Church is the true
foundation of certainty and perpetuity in doctrine. And that
this is an object of faith. Everything below this seems to me
to be in principle purely rationalistic, whether the judge of
doctrine and tradition be an individual or a synod.
342 CARDINAL MANNING ciiAr. xvi
I cannot end this without thanking you for what you said
about my dearest mother. It is strange we should both go into
the same sorrow almost together. It has somehow made the
unseen world more like home to me in childhood, and after-life
is already there.
Pray for me that I may not come short of it. — Believe me,
my dearest Robert, yours very affectionately, H. E. M.
The following remarks, with which he concludes his
Diary — the record of his long illness, of his wrestlings
with self, of his change of heart — bear edifjdng witness to
Manning's vivid belief in the supernatural, trust in God,
and touching resignation to the Divine "Will : —
Whitsunday, 1847. — How can I ever bless God for this
sickness ! Without it I should have died eternally.
I feel that I have to begin my repentance as the Prodigal :
and my religion from the alphabet. Make me to be as a little
child.
11th June. — I have just come down from Lavington Church,
having given thanks for the mercies of God in the last five
months. Truly this sickness " is dearer unto me than thousands
of gold and silver." ... The Church seemed very beautiful ; it
had lost its familiar look and seemed strange and new to me,
as I remember school used after holidays. The chaunting struck
me, yet I wandered in my prayers. I had, I think, a more
real sight of the unseen world and the object of worship ; but
my mind wandered on both sides. I felt moved and thankful.
But I asked myself to-day what I was getting well for ? At
longest, to be sick again soon and for the last time. And
between now and then what? (1887 is the answer put in by
Cardinal Manning.) . . .
Voluntas Dei, 5th July 1847, Lavington. — I have just come
down from the altar, having offered once more. ... I never
felt the power of love more : nor so much bound to my flock.
It is the strongest bond I have. I believe it to be of the reality
of the Catholic Church. And yet it will bear no theological
argument except a denial of visible unity altogether — which is
self-evidently false.
To-morrow by the will of God I go forth, it may be for a
year, it may be for ever. I feel to be in His hands. I know
not what is good for myself.
CHAPTEE XYII
A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES
1847-1848
" It is I : be not afraid."
Nine years after his first visit to Eome, under circum-
stances how different ; with what a change of heart towards
the claims of the Catholic Church on his faith ; with a
spirit how chastened by tribulation, did not Manning in
1847 rise up from what he had believed to be liis death-
bed and go forth Eomewards, to meet half-way the destiny
prepared for him by the grace of God ! Natural weakness
after so long an illness ; anxiety ; and fear for the results of
the future, beset his heart. As in 1838, troops of friends
prayed for his welfare — no longer among them to-day the
most affectionate of them all, S. ¥. Wood, who had gone
to his rest ; nor Newman, who, living out of the world that
knew him no more, was studying for the priesthood in Eome.
In a letter of introduction to Dr. Dollinger, Mr. Glad-
stone put Manning on his guard respecting certain critical
objections to the main argument of his work, The Unity
of the Church, held by the eminent Church historian, and
suggested to his friend as a convenient tu quoque in regard
to the Catholic Church the prevalence of a growing
rationalism within its pale, as evidenced by the movement
in Germany of Eonge, a priest who with his followers had
cast off the yoke of Eome.^
^ Ronge was an apostate priest who resisted the jurisdiction of Eome.
But the rebellion was insignificant and short-lived.
344 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
In Archdeacon's Manning's Diary, dated 8tli July 1847,
are carefully recorded, often with great minuteness, the impres-
sions conveyed to his mind by Catholic worship as presented
to his view, practically for the first time, in the churches,
cathedrals, and convents of Belgium and Germany, France
and Italy ; secondly, events of public interest, of which he
was an eye-witness, notably at Eome in 1848, when he
watched w^ith no idle curiosity the first beginnings of the
Italian Eevolution, which led to the flight of Pope Pius IX.
to Gaeta ; and finally, the men of name and note, the makers
of history, with whom, especially in the city of the Popes,
he was brought into close contact — the leaders of the
Eevolution, or its abettors, or its apologists, on the one
hand, and on the other, the defenders of the Catholic cause
and of the Holy See, foremost among these Pope Pius IX.
himself.
What imparts its special interest to Archdeacon Man-
ning's Diary is its spontaneous character. It was evidently
not written with a view to publication. Indeed, Cardinal
Manning had more than once expressed to me his disdain
for the idle folk who run up and down Europe, note-book
in hand, jotting down remarks and reflections as material
for book-making. His own Diary is simply a daily record
of events. It contains notes on men and things ; friendly
interviews with Catholic priests and monks in Belgium and
Germany, in France and Italy ; reflections on the method
and character of Catholic worship ; comparison between its
objective presentation of Divine truth and the Anglican
system. Naturally, on his arrival in Eome, Archdeacon
Manning's Diary expands and embraces in its purview a
greater variety of subjects, not without interest to the
politician as well as to the theologian or the student of
ecclesiastical history. It records conversations and discus-
sions on the moral, religious, and political state of Eome,
on the laxity of ecclesiastical discipline, on the frequentation
of the sacraments, on the Temporal Power of the Popes, on
the relations of Pius IX. with Austria on the one hand, and
with the revolutionary movement in Italy on the other.
The year in which Archdeacon Manning visited Italy
XVII A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES 345
and Eome, and of which his Diary is a record, was, it must
be remembered, a year of public turmoil and trouble through-
out Europe, when other thrones beside the Pope's were
attacked and shaken — the Eevolutionary year, 1848, the
birthtime, for good or evil, of great political, social, and
religious changes in what was once known as Christendom,
but which can now only be described as a congeries of States
morally independent of each other, and released from the
ancient authority and bond of Christian unity. -^
It is curious to note with what avidity the leaders and
spokesmen of the Eevolutionary party in Eome confided their
hopes and views and wishes to Archdeacon Manning, known
to them only as an Englishman of distinction, a prominent
member of the Anglican Church. They, who were familiar
with the Eome of the popes in those days, know with what
untiring energy the leaders of the Eevolution laboured to
influence the public opinion of Europe. No visitor of dis-
tinction escaped their polite attentions. They pounced upon
him and poured into his ear the real or imaginary grievances
which the Eomans had to endure under the temporal power.
Archdeacon Manning listened to the violent harangues of
Gavazzi, to the revolutionary theories of Padre Ventura, and
to the propositions and plans of Ciceroaicchio ; but it is
characteristic of his intellectual acuteness to find, as his
Diary often records, that he was able to separate the grain
of wheat from the bushel of chaff. We often, for instance,
find in these pages the Anglican archdeacon in his discus-
sions with the politicians of Eome — priests or monks, as
well as laymen — defending the sovereign rights of the Pope
and the authority of the Church against the partisans of the
Eevolution, led away, as so many were in 1848, by the
promises of Italian unity.^ Sometimes, indeed, Archdeacon
Manning seems to have been captivated or captured by the
^ Vide Cardinal Manning's England mid Christendcnn.
^ Miss R. H. Busk, the author of that celebrated book, The Folk-Lore of
Rome, and many other popular works on Italy, speaking of the Revolution in
Rome, wrote to me, at the time of the Piedmontese invasion, as follows : —
" What lured people, who did not care a fig for Italian unity, to submit to
the Revolution was, as I know well from talking to them, the promises which
the Revolutionists made, that they were going to bring in an El Dorado."
346 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
specious arguments advanced by the more moderate or more
astute opponents of the Temporal Power, or at any rate to
have given an apparent acquiescence to the revolutionary
theories propounded by men like Padre Ventura.
It must be remembered that at the date of Archdeacon
Manning's residence in Eome, in the spring of 1848, the
revolutionary character of the Italian movement was not fully
recognised. Many good Catholics, priests as well as laymen,
indulged in the dream of a united Italy under the headship
of the Pope. In the beginning of his reign Pius IX.
himself, carried away by his generous instincts and love for
Italy, held out hopes that he would, as Sovereign Pontiff,
bestow his blessing on the Italian movement, send his army
into the field against Austria, and promised, if Padre Ventura
is to be believed, on the morrow of victory to crown at Milan
Carlo Alberto, King of Piedmont, with the iron crown. All
these hopes and vain dreams were dissipated and destroyed
by the famous Allocution of 29th April 1848, by which
Pius IX., forced by their maliciously extravagant claims and
demands, broke with the Eevolutionary party, the character
of which was only too manifest, not only by the principles
which they enunciated, but by their rebellious acts and
misdeeds. The assassination of Eossi, the Pope's prime
minister, on the steps of the Cancellaria, forced Pius IX.
into a life-long antagonism with the Eevolution.
After this break with Eevolutionary Liberalism, shortly
before his departure from Eome, Archdeacon Manning found
men's minds in a state of ferment. Many priests, with
whom he came in contact, were loud in condemning the
action of the Pope. In the Diary a passage is quoted in
which the well-known Padre Ventura heaped words of
insult and contumely on the head of Pope Pius, whom but
a week or two before he had extolled as " an angel from
Heaven," as " Divine love incarnate."
Cardinal Manning told me in 1887 that many of the
priests and monks, described in his Diary as loud and
clamorous in the revolutionary cause, are now good and
holy priests ; several of them high in office and dignity.
" From one, perhaps the most violent and extreme, I have
XVII A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES 347
to-day," added the Cardinal, " received a letter ; he is now
a prelate in Eome and something more."
One of the chief features in the Diary are the copious
notes on sermons delivered in various churches at Kome.
The archdeacon appears to have been a regular attendant ;
his criticisms on the sermons are interesting, and still more so
the synopsis which he draws out of the argument used by
the preacher. These " skeleton sermons " may have offered
years afterwards to the newly-ordained priest of Westminster
topics and suggestions for some of those striking discourses
which he delivered at the Jesuit Church in Farm Street, or
at St. Mary of the Angels, Bayswater.
At some of the monasteries which he was in the habit
of visiting, Archdeacon Manning appears to have been
catechised more than once by the good monks as to his
own ecclesiastical position, and as to how his religious
creed differed from ordinary Protestantism.
It is not difficult to conceive the surprise, if not indigna-
tion, felt by Archdeacon Manning — one of the great leaders
and lights of the Anglican Church — at being challenged by
simple ItaHan monks to show his right to the name of
Catholic ; and still more at being cross-questioned as to the
character of his Orders. From one passage at least in the
Diary, the Anglican archdeacon appears to have thought
that the zeal of his catechists was not always tempered by
discretion. On one occasion he accounts for the controversy
running somewhat high by the absence of the more moderate-
minded or discreet prior. The Anglican Branch -Church
theory seems to have surpassed the understanding of these
simple and straightforward Italian monks. On taking leave
of his monastic friends at Assisi on his departure for England,
May 14, 1848, the venerable Prior,^ with tears in his eyes,
kissing Archdeacon Manning on both cheeks, implored him
on his return home to consult some competent English
Catholic on the vital difference between Protestantism
under every variety of form and the Catholic Church.
One curious peculiarity of the Diary is the careful daily record
kept at Eome of the wind and weather ; in this, if in nothing
^ Padre Luigi, Prior of "Gli Angeli" at Assisi.
348 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
else under heaven, Archdeacon Manning resembled Pugin,
the great reviver of Gothic Art, who would almost as soon
have omitted his morning prayers as his daily weather-chart.
The Diary, I may add, is illustrated by frequent pen-
and-ink sketches of shrines and altars, of ruined towers and
of churches of special interest, often accompanied by elaborate
ground-plans, exhibiting no mean architectural knowledge and
skill. From the copious materials afforded by this Diary, after
recording his experiences in Belgium, I shall give such ex-
tracts as illustrate the important events of which Archdeacon
Manning was an eye-witness in Eome in the critical year of
1848 ; or as record his opinions, religious or political ; or his
often acute comments on the events he witnessed ; or on the
leading men, ecclesiastical or lay, with whom he was brought
into close, often intimate, contact during his long stay at
Eome. It will be conducive also to the fuller understanding
of the state of his mind and feelings at this critical period of
his life, if I recite such passages, even if unimportant, or of no
present interest, as are characteristic of the writer, or show
the tendency of his mind at a time when he had, as the
Germans so well express it, no Ahnung as yet, that he stood
at the threshold of that far-famed and mighty Church, of
which in after years he was predestined to become not only
a faithful son, but a most eminent defender, bearing witness
among his own people to its Divine character and to the
infallible authority of its Supreme Head.
Archdeacon Manning in Belgium, July 9-20, 1847.
On the fly-leaf of the Diary is the following entry : —
I was ill in the spring of 1847, and in July went to Homburg.
Dodsworth joined me, and we went on into Switzerland. I
fell ill at Lucerne, and was obliged to come home.
But in October started again with Colonel Austen and my
sister Caroline, and stayed in Rome till May 1848, and reached
home July 18th.i
^ It is somewhat curious that Archdeacon Mannint,', so particular and
exact as to dates throughout the whole of his Diary, should have made a mis-
take as to the date of his reaching home. His return to England was not on
the 18th of July, but of June.
XVII A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES 349
At the time of this visit with Archdeacon Manning to
Switzerland, Mr. Dodsworth, who had been incumbent of
the chapel in Margaret Street, famous then as now for its
advanced High Church principles and practices, was per-
petual curate of Christ Church, St. Pancras. In Frederick
Oakeley's days Mr. Gladstone was a frequent worshipper
at Margaret Street Chapel.
8^/i July. — From London by railroad at J past 1. Dover 6
o'clock.
9/A July. — From Dover at 7 A.M. Ostend \ past 11 ; by
rail at 3 to Bruges ; from Bruges at 5 to Gand.
10^^ July. — At Gand. The Beguinage : a long square of
houses with walled gardens, and in the centre the church ; all
of red brick with a Dutch look. At 2 by railway to Malines.
An annual fair exactly opposite to the windows of the hotel ;
and the noise all day till 11 at night ceaseless.
At the cathedral, Saturday evening ; the Salut and Exposition ;
the procession gave me a strong feeling of the reality of the
Incarnation and of their way of witnessing to it. This morning,
high mass with much splendour. The Elevation very solemn
and impressive ; vivid by exhibiting the One Great Sacrifice.
The church very full all the morning, many thousands. At
vespers about 6 or 7. Priests and a choir of 20 or 30. Full
end to end.
The church of St. Aloysius attached to the Beguinage.
Great number of religious in white and in black hoods. The
responses were made from the north-east corner behind a
screen. T conceive by a sisterhood. Mr. Daviney said by the
quire. I doubt it, as the voices were certainly women's. He
said the processions were of women, a priest carrying the Host.
11//;. — Saw the college communal, a school for boys from 8 to
15, with choice of profession, about 12.5 ; then petit seminaire,
where were about 330 : 3 courses, Humanity, Philosophy,
Theology. Here the choice is made. They study a certain
number of years in humanity, in philosophy, in theology ;
and then go to the Grand Seminaire. This was much like
St. Sulpice (at Paris), but the rooms better furnished, with
more of personal comfort. St. Sulpice has a severer character.
Bare walls, a bed, a table, chair, bookcase, and crucifix.
Good library, and a most brotherly and intelligent priest who
showed it to us. Then the Freres de la Mis^ricorde instituted
by M. Scheppers. He was ordained 16 years ago, at the
age of 30. In 1839 he began to attend the prisons with
350 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
three subjects. They are now 60. The old prison system
by Gardism — old soldiers and by force ; now it is wholly by
religion, and blessed with great success. He showed us the
house, refectory, kitchen, chapel, sacristy, cloisters, and school.
He was an open, clear, sincere, kindly, energetic man, xpvyorbs,
but did not impress me with a feeling of height or depth. But
there was about him the balance and peace of a man who had
found his place and calling in God's kingdom for life, and was
moving onward without distraction. This appears to me to be
one of the fruits of the objective Church system of dogmatic
theology, the celibacy of the priesthood, and the monastic life.
The brothers all laymen. They take the three vows. Their
noviciate is in all about 3 or 4 years. In the refectory is a tall
panel having an Or do, showing what brothers are out, and where.
Also another for the novices. He showed us the relics under
the altar ; and also others in the sacristy.
I could not but feel that the effect of such objects is to
awaken and keep alive a high standard of personal devotion, A
theory at least which we have not. Also the whole objective
worship gives a reality we have nothing to equal.
1 '2th. — The priest at the grand sdminaire told me that in the
diocese of Malines there are 1500 priests, and that the arch-
bishop meets them all in retreat once in 3 or 4 years at various
places — the seminaire in Malines and other places in the diocese.
The population of Belgium is about 4,000,000 ; and of
Brussels about 200,000.
13^/i. — M. Bougueaux showed us the chapel and convent of the
Visitation ; Sons, the superieure, had been 37 years in the Order
at Annecy in Savoy, Nice, Paris, and Brussels. They have
only 7 sisters here, and lay sisters. Then to the Dames de
Marie, who have 15 sisters, and conduct the education of 600
girls (100 paying) in schooling, lace-making, and like work.
In the chapel were 4 or 5 sisters. They have about 600 in all ;
a house in London with 4 or 5 sisters ; a house at Falmouth,
Oregon, America. The Eedemptorists have only 6 fathers, and
are at work sometimes from I past 5 A.M. to 12 in the con-
fessional. There are 22 religious houses in Brussels, and more
nuns than before the French Revolution. I could not but be
struck by the calm happy look of every one I saw. They
seemed at rest, as if they had said :
" Tliis shall be my rest for ever."
There are in Belgium 6 dioceses, Malines (Archbishopric)
including Brussels and Antwerp, Gand, Bruges, Liege, Namur,
and Tournay.
XVII A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES 351
nth. — To Louvain with M. Bougueaux. Population, 30,000 ;
7 parishes iuchiding religions houses and their chaplains.
Li^ge, 75,000. Diocese, 600,000. Parishes small, 300 or 400 ;
some 2, 4, and 8 thousand, but few. This from the grand
yicaire.
M. Bougueaux said the Catholics did not make, but only
profited by, the Revolution of 1830. There were only two
bishops from the battle of Waterloo — Malines and Ghent.
King William for 5 years forbade the great seminary to receive
any more students. He wished to make Pope Adrian's College
a philosophical system — liberal. The students there, although
called reverend, were never ordained, as being unfit.
King William's professors are liberals — infidels. The Uni-
versity is supported by the town and the Church. Yearly
collections in all the churches are imposed on the clergJ^ The
bishops send their best men for 2, 3, and 4 years from their
seminaries.
Heard a disputation for degree of Doctor, and on appeals to
the Pope, in Latin. The University has very little property ;
the State will not create corporations nor suffer mortmain.
In ten years M. Bougueaux hopes they may be able. The
library, a fine one, belongs to the town. Students 600 ;
several colleges ; one theological, others for law and medicine.
Bellarmine preached in Latin at St. Peter's.^
IQth. Went to Antwerp. At the cathedral, the chapel of
the Holy Heart.
In the Diary a blank space is left here evidently in the
view of recording later on the impressions made on the
writer by Antwerp, perhaps the most Catholic city in Bel-
gium, certainly the most interesting and the most artistic.
Archdeacon Manning at that period was evidently not
familiar with Catholic terminology as used in England.
For instance, he translates the French Sacrd Cceur by Holy
Heart ; and uses the French word Salut, instead of speaking
as English Catholics do of the Sacred Heart and of the
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. After coming into
personal contact with English Catholic ecclesiastics at
1 This entry, which has no connection with the subject recorded in the
Diary, appears to be the result of a mental note, the record of one of the obiter
dicta heard in the course of conversation with his Belgian friends. It illus-
trates one of Cardinal Manning's most characteristic habits of mind, the
power of gathering up and assimilating knowledge — the secret of a well-
stored mind.
352 CARDINAL jMANNING chap.
Eome, he adopts in his Diary, as \rill be observed later on,
Catholic phraseology.
But to resume the extracts from the Diary : —
17//'. — In the afternoon to Liege, a town lying in a valley "nath
hills to the N.W. and S., many open places.
On the margin is a pen-and-ink sketch of the town.
The Diary is illustrated by frequent sketches of monuments
of interest, ruins of churches and chapels and colleges,
especially during his prolonged study of Eome.
Palace of the prince bishop is fine. Inside a cloister or
peristyle like Doge's Palace at Venice and the streets of
Bologna. St. Martin's on a high and fine site.
The Feast of Corpus Christi first kept in that Church by
the canons. Liege alone has with Rome the privilege of per-
petual Exposition, four days in each church. The parish priests
give tickets to the devout, assigning the number and succession
of hours for the perpetual adoration. The night-hours are kept
in their houses, the day-hours in their church (The 40 Hours).
Went to St. Catherine where a Jesuit preached to the Society
de la bonne Mart: church full. In the evening to the Grande
Seminaire to see Dr. Kein.
The seminary, an old convent of the Augustinians. Their
books still there. A good church in the Palladian style. The
low large lamps of brass burning before the high altar very
solemn. He said he bought them in 1835 for sixty francs. I
cannot but feel that the practice of Elevation, Exposition,
Adoration of the Blessed Eucharist has a powerful effect in
sustaining and realising the doctrine of the Incarnation.
19th. — To Aix-la-Chapelle through a beautiful country — a
mixture of North Wales, the South Downs, Stroud, and Dove
Dale. Aix, a German Basle. First Vespers of St. ]\Iargaret.
A long funeral procession. The streets were dressed with
streamers from the windows. In one church orange trees
within the sanctuary. In another a large congregation at the
Salut.
I observed —
1. The great number of men, and some young.
2. The deep devotion. They responded as one voice, were
vividly penetrated by an idea and a spirit.
3. The use of the rosary by many men well dressed, and by
some poor men, with great devotion. One man with a lame left
arm — like Simpson in face.
XVII A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN CATPIOLIC COUNTRIES 353
4. The lifting of the hands, the little (3) acolytes before
the altar.
5. The parents crossing their children with holy water.
The children crossing themselves.
6. The devout kneeling down on the marble pavement, coming
in and out.
The whole very impressive, implying a deep hold on the
conscience and the will.
It seemed strange that here on the moral site of the Western
Empire and the Mediaeval Europe, there should be still an energy
beyond anything I have seen elsewhere. Is there not a moral
reason to explain this 1
20fh. — At Aix. The Cathedral, a Temple church built by
Charlemagne, destroyed and rebuilt by Otto on the same site, in
980 A.D. It consists of one octagon nave ; a quire of the date
of Westminster Abbey. There is a very old square tower at
the west end ; north-west a chapel of the Decorated time ; south-
west a chapel of the debased Italian.
(Here follows a ground-plan of Aachen Cathedral in pen and
ink.)
In the middle of the nave a plain slab with Carolo Magno.
His stone chair on six marble steps is up in the triforiura. I
could not help feeling as if I stood over the spring of a great
power which had still hold upon us. It is the fountain of modern
Europe — of the Mediaeval Church and Empire ; of the temporal
element of our national, legal, and Christian civilisation.
The passages which I have given from the Diary are of
interest and importance as recording Archdeacon Manning's
first visit to Catholic Belgium ; his first contact with
Catholic life and Catholic worship, not so much, if at all,
on account of the facts of more or less interest put on record,
as because the daily chronicle reveals, simply and naturally,
and with no foregone conclusion, the state of mind of the
Anglican divine, when brought for the first time face to
face with the living Catholic Church, as seen in its actual
working, spiritual, religious, and social. For such a pur-
pose Catholic Belgiiim was a good field for observation.
Archdeacon Manning showed himself, as his twelve days'
research among Catholic institutions, social and religious,
proves, a clearsighted and candid observer of men and
things. He was more ; for the reflections, sparse as they
naturally are in such a homely chronicle, show that his
VOL. I 2 A
354 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xvii
mind was going down to the roots of things, to the differences,
fundamental in their character, between the Catholic Church,
in practice as well as in theory, and the Church of his
birth and baptism. Archdeacon Manning was acquainted,
indeed, with the Primitive Church, the Church of the
ancient Fathers ; but in reality knew little or nothing of
the Church of Eome, that, practically to him, invisible
Church, with which he as an Anglican claimed kinship.
The Church of Eome, as made known to him in its actual
life and working, came to him in some sort as a new
revelation. To judge at least from some reflections in the
Diary, the effect produced by the dogmatic teaching and
the objective system of Catholic worship was not altogether
favourable to the conduct and claims of the Anglican
Church. Be that, however, as it may, it is e\ddent that
Archdeacon Manning did not consider himself an enemy
in a hostile camp. He presented himself as a truce-bearer
to the Church which did not recognise him as one of her
sons. He was received by the priests and monks of
Belgium as a friend among friends. Every church was
open to him ; at every monastery he was a welcome guest.
From him no information was withheld. The secrets of
the prison-house, which Mr. Newdegate — at that day
almost an unquestioned authority in the Protestant world on
convents — used to denounce in and out of Parliament, were
not revealed to him, because there were none to reveal.
Archdeacon Manning made the most of his Belgian
friends and of his opportunities ; as he did when he reached
Italy and made himself at home with Italian priests and
monks. No Anglican divine of name and note, as far as
I know, was ever on such intimate terms with Catholic
priests and monks — not in England, indeed, but abroad —
as Archdeacon Manning during liis twelvemonth's sojourn
in Catholic lands. In this spiritual retreat, God laid deep
in the heart of His elect the foundations of his future faith.
CHAPTER XVIII
ARCHDEACON MANNING ON HIS WAY TO ROME
On leaving Belgium, 20th July 1847, Archdeacon Manning,
on his way to Rome, went through Germany and Switzerland.
In his Diary interesting accounts are given of his journey.
A few extracts, to keep up the continuity, and to show the
outlines of his journey, will, however, suffice : —
20th July 1847. — From Aix to Cologne and Bonn. Stayed
at Bonn. The cathedral of our Norman ; a tower at the inter-
section, and another at the east. Apsidal ends. Crypt
under choir.
21st. — To Coblenz by water. Went to see the monu-
ment which Air. Papworth drew for my dearest father in 1828.
This place recalls him vividly to me.
To-day by steamer to Biberich, and thence to Frankfort.
My last visit is full in my mind. We were at the Hotel
d'Angleterre. Sister and brother were here. I remember
standing on the stone balcony over the door, and all the vanity
of the time. Also I remember the cathedral and the walls
round the town, the bridge and the quais. It is just nineteen
years ago. I was then travelling for health, the asthma having
just appeared. What have these nineteen years not compre-
hended ?
Frankfort, 2Srcl. — This morning went into a church. . . .
It was like the Italian churches. The altars plain, but seemly.
The lamp before the high altar burnt red. The contrast of
stillness, sanctity, prayer, and the cross, with the stir, chafing,
and eagerness of the busy streets, was most striking. (This
at Frankfort.)
Hornhurg. — This place seems wholly stripped of outward
Christianity. I walked over the greatest part of it, and could
neither find nor see a church. From the terrace of the Palace I
356 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
saw a spire some way off, and this afternoon I walked there.
The village is called Gerzdorf. I called on the priest. He said
that in Homburg there are about 200 Catholics, the population
being near 5000. In his village he has about 1000. He says
Mass every Sunday at Homburg, at Gerzdorf every day, and
Vespers at 1.30, On Sunday there is catechising for the chil-
dren. I asked if there Avas to be any Salut. He said "No."
I asked whether, being the eve of St. James,^ there would be no
office ; he said " No." I went into the church and was left
alone, which was very still and grateful, but was soon disturbed.
A bustling boy, with much noise and no sign of realising where
he was, went in and out through the sanctuary and prepared the
side altar and credence. He then began to ring the bells. I did
not know what would follow, and went away.^
The church was plain, clean, and sufficient. (Here follows a
ground-plan in pen and ink.) It was high, and the altar with
the crucifix drew all one's thoughts from the veil of the building.
I saw three or four crucifixes by the roadside in the parish ;
none in Homburg. The place seems to be out of Christendom.
dth August. — To-day walked to the Jews' Burial Ground near
Eidberg. It was on the skirts of a wood, very lonely in the
open lands ; rough, ill-tended, with the graves broken, sunken,
and deformed. The stones had Hebrew inscriptions, some very
old. It was a picture of the race, lonely, separate, and in ruin.
It contrasted mournfully with the fair and fruitful fields which
lay round it, with their orchards and tillage, as Israel in the
midst of Christendom.
19/A August. — To Frankfort. Afternoon went to the Einhorn
Apotlieh. As I stood there, the shop, the bottles, and the gold
paper all came back upon me as nineteen years ago. There I
was a second time buying ether to relieve asthma.
Walked down at night to the bridge, and saw the pier, which
they were repairing when I was last there.
2Si/t August. — To Mayence. Dodsworth came.
Basle, bill September. — Went to the church near the post office.
Fairly full ; singing good. Then sermon ; no marks of great
attention. Then cathedral not so full ; many hats on. The
effect of Protestant worship is dreary ; want of object, aim,
intelligibleness ; cold, dark, abstract.
^ The eve of St. James was the anniversary of the death of Archdeacon
Manning's wife.
'■^ Had Archdeacon Manning, in spite of the "bustling boy," possessed his
soul in patience, he might have witnessed in this rude German village the
service which so captivated his heart in the churches of Belgium. The
simple German priest, no doubt, had no idea what was meant by the Salut.
XVIII ARCHDEACON MANNING ON HIS WAY TO ROME 357
Then Avent on the river to Little Basle. The E.G. Church ;
a queue of people at each door, and a knot against the wall
opposite; hats off; crossing, joining in worship. Went in;
thronged aisles, passages and all, with looks — visible — and
great attention,^ Cathedral choir round to the ambulatory,
like Gloucester. (Here follows pen-and-ink sketch.)
Lucerne, 7th September. — The opposite coast, a long low land
rising to a gentle ridge, clothed with trees and verdure, houses
and villages to the water's edge. Behind it the Rigi ; sharp-
pointed, irregular ; the lower ranges covered with rich green ;
the upper wild, barren, and bare. The sunset lit up the shore
with a sort of glaring, homely, cheerful light. The mountain
seemed to burn with a red heat.
The whole, with all its outlines and tints, and lights and
shadows, lay upon the lake. As the sun went down the lights
went upwards, leaving range after range in a dark cold green or
a black misty gray.
^th September. — I was very ill, and turned homeward.
Lucerne, 15th September. — Started at 7.30 by diligence to
Basle; got in at 8 P.M. 16th, to Strasburg by rail; 17th, to
Mayence by steamboat; 18th, to Cologne by steamboat;'^ 19th,
rested Sunday at Cologne; 20th, Malines ; 21st, Ostend ; 227id,
by steamboat to Dover (seven hours) ; to London by railroad,
2.30 ; got in ten past 7.
TO) Gew ^apts.
Soon after his arrival in London, Archdeacon Manning
wrote to Eobert Wilberforce as follows : —
44 Cadogan Place, Oct. 1, 1847.
My dearest Robert — Many thanks for your kind words.
A sharp illness drove me home. I was not fit to go on, and
came home by steamer, to be revised by my Doctors. Thank
God, I am better, and am under sentence for Nice within a fort-
night ; Colonel Austen and my sister going Avith me. I trust I
am stronger than when we parted, but I must wait still before I
can lay aside some anxieties. How good it is to have them. I
trust your wife is really recovering. Give her my kindest
^ What a sensation would not a book under the title " Contrast between
Catholic and Protestant Worship. By an Anglican Archdeacon," had
it been published by Manning, have created in that time of controversial
strife in England !
2 In an autobiographical Note, Cardinal Manning, relating to this
journey, says, " I was so ill on board the steamer on the Rhine that passengers
made signs to each other as if they thought I was dying."
358 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
regards and say I hope she "svill not follow my bad example —
unless it Avill bring you both to Nice ■with me. Send me your
sermons to this place, and at the same time let me have the two
references you promised — one in St. Optatus, and one of some
Pope writing to the Patriarch of Antioch. I would like to note
them in my MS. book, though I am doing no work, but grazing
like a Siberian lamb.
Nothing, I fear, will bring you to London within fourteen days.
I wish something may. — Ever yours very affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
Accompanied by his sister Caroline, and her husband
Colonel Austen, Archdeacon Manning left London, 15th
October, on his way to Nice. They reached Nice on the 3rd
of November. Archdeacon Manning's journey is recorded in
Ms Diary as follows : —
4^/i November. — Feast of St. Charles Borromeo.^
6//i. — Went early to the church of St. Agostino, saw a
conipagnia of penitents in white, about twenty, two and two,
followed by a priest, all chanting. Their otfice is to defray the
cost of burying the poor, and to attend their funeral ; they pay
for the lights and all.
The Father Superior spoke of the ever-changing, never-
satisfying life of the world.
I asked if strifes did not sometimes arise among the brothers ;
he said very seldom, and they soon pass. He took me to the
library Avhere we looked at Eom. viii. in Corn, a Lap. I quoted
St. Augustine, Mutahimw in imniutahilitatem. He said he had
been here twenty-five years and they seemed like one. He
quoted St. Augustine as saying at his death — " Now, that I
begin to know a little, I die."
We then Avent to the refectory ; he gave me some Spanish
wine and water, dried figs and small cakes. Fra Felice, who
was with us last time, came and joined us. They told me their
names, and I gave my baptismal name, and told them my birth-
day was 15th July, St. Henry; said that family names perish
but Christian names will, perhaps, be laid up in heaven, and
asked their prayers. (F. Fidele took me to his cell) ; they then
took me to the Padre Guardiano, who told me that they say
matins at midnight till L30, then rest till five, then the offices
with intervals till morning. Dine at eleven, vespers at two,
compline and angelus, then supper at seven ; then half an hour
1 Oblates of St. Charles founded in London by Mgr. Manning nine years later.
XVIII ARCHDEACON MANNING ON IIIS WAY TO ROME 359
recreation ; then they are free to read, write, and go to rest
at about 8.30. Five hours in the offices ; half an hour mental
prayer, morning and evening, in the choir. Silence always
except two hours, one in the morning and one in the evening.
They work in the garden and in outbuildings. There are six
here. The Misericorda for the rich wear black, red, white, blue,
and one I cannot remember.
7th. — "Went to Notre Dame church, benediction of SS. It was
full ; and round the door a crowd bareheaded and kneeling on
the stones which were pitching not paving.
Church of Visitation, full, with good plaintive chanting.
Church of Holy Cross. Benediction of SS. Full, and a crowd
on the plateau outside and below in the street ; and all down
the street, people kneeling on their thresholds.
There was something very beautiful and awful in the lighted
altar, with the incense seen from without through the open door.
A sad contrast to our Evensong, where every one, so far as I
saw, sat through their prayers.
Sth. — Walked with Church to the Cimella, a Franciscan con-
vent. The path beautiful, an ascent through gardens and olive
woods, saw the church, refectory cloister, gardens, cells, library,
and parochial burial-ground. The Father guardian, Francesco,
showed us over; and F. Egidio, the Lettore Teologo, showed
me the library.
1 1^/i. — Went with the Colonel and Caroline to the Cimella, saw
P. Francesco, and Egidio ; was not so well pleased. There
was too much effort to please in the former, and the latter
looked consciously upon it. But a third whose name I did
not hear seemed to me grave. He told me that there is a
brother of eighty-five who has been in the convent since he was
eighteen ; that he is troubled by scruples, and is heard in his
cell lamenting ; that he says mass every day, sometimes in
twenty -five minutes, sometimes in an hour and a half ; that
when he comes to the words of consecration he is afraid of
going on.
The Cimella is a convent of Recollects of the strict obser-
vance.
The convent and garden not well kept, but the church good.
36 brothers, 14 priests, 1 lay brother.
12th. — Went to St. Bartholemy, a Franciscan convent of
Capuchins, a reform stricter than the other. It contained 15
brothers, 11 priests, 1 lay brother.
My impression is that the Cimella suffers from visitors more
than St. Bartholemy. But it must be bad for both to be near
such a place as Nice.
360 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
IQth. — I have just been again to the Capuchin convent. I got
there at three, but being hot I walked in the garden with Fra
Fidele till I got cool. Round the cloister are prints of saints
and martyrs of the order. He told me they had missionaries in
India, Syria, China, and Greece ; that meat is allowed by the
Rule, except in the three Lents and on Friday and special fasts ;
on Wednesday also some abstain, but it is not ordered. We
walked down and looked at the gold fish, talked of the
necessity of a vocation in the monastic life ; of the mysterious
law of the lower animals preying on each other ; the penalty of
death and the sufferings of the poor of the parish. He gave me
a rosary made in the convent. When I came down F. Fidele and
F. Felice met me and commended themselves to my recollection
(in prayer), and I asked theirs. I then bade farewell to the F.
guardian, and F. Felice. F. Fidele took me into the garden
and gave me some odoriferous herbs ; and as we parted, I said,
it was an instruction and a prayer to live and die in odore
sanditatis.
My chief regret is that I remember more what I said than
what they said ; and that my small command of language
prevented my inquiring of them, as I would fain have done, of
many things. On the whole my impression is that they are
sincere, simple, religious men. There was the gentleness and
refinement of religion about them, with the intelligence and
command of manner and speech which belongs to men who have
made their choice and lived it.
F. Fidele told me that their bread is not given by weight,
but the meat is. He did not know what measure. They eat
what is put before them, and may ask no more, except of bread,
water, and salt.
Momlay, 22nd November. — Left Nice 7 a.m. by post, went by
Corniche Road to Oneglia. At S. Stefano was sunset : glowing,
golden, soft-blue sea ; church solitary by the shore, a chime of
five bells ringing Avith clear musical peal in a light, quick time.
In a garden by the sea a little girl of eight dancing to the
chimes all alone. Oneglia got about six. St. Cecilia's Day.
Benediction with singing at the church ; great chorus of voices.
2^rd November. — Got up at 4. Bright moonlight and streets
silent and still. Went out on the seashore, and into the church.
Priest at the high altar saying mass ; 2 lights, the church all
dark.
Passed Voragine, where Giacomo de L. was born. A beautiful
maritime town lying along the shore, overhung by mountains,
and in the depth of a bay passed also the birthplace of Columbus
and of Julius IL The lights on the sea were beautiful ; the
XVIII ARCHDEACON MANNING ON HIS WAY TO ROME 361
setting sun making the surf crimson and purple. Above Genoa
the bkie loam of the snow mountains, and above the rose colour
and then the silver of the moon chafing upon the water. Then
the harbour-lamp of Genoa revolving, intense brightness and
perfect darkness, and the tiny light of a little boat in mid-sea.
24:th. — Genoa is the most interesting of all maritime towns.
The most commercial in Italy ; it is also the most devout. Its
churches overawe its palaces. Its priests, monks, and religious
are as busy and abroad as its soldiers and merchants ; and its
bells, as at this moment of Ave Maria, drown the din of the streets
and of the world. In parts, as in the Strada Nuova, it is a
double line of palaces, in size and splendour beyond any except a
few in Italy. The sun, which was shining down full into the
port blazing upon everything, has just gone down ; and between
me and the horizon there is a black forest of masts and rigging
of every nation under heaven.
The cardinal archbishop died yesterday morning at the age
of 85.
25th. — The cardinal, after lying in state for three days in his
palace, was carried to the cathedral. The bands of five regiments
with officers and some companies of the men, went before a long
procession of penitents in black, the Misericorda,^ and priests
bearing each a light. The bier and pall was of cloth of gold
with the mitre at one end. It was carried into the cathedral
and raised upon a high catafalco.
The Lancers had on the front of their helmets a cross which
looked like the champions of Christendom. (Here follows a
pencil sketch of helmet and cross.)
At 5 P.M. went on board Verglio, and at 7 started ; night
beautiful, calm as a lake ; wind low and soft, and all the stars
out. Moon rose waning but cloudless.
An Italian told me that he believed infidelity and immorality
to exist widely in Rome, adding the old accusation against the
cardinals, and said, there was a proverb in Italy, Boma santa,
populo cornuto.
26th. — At Leghorn. At night again and softer than before,
tranquil, still and beautiful.
27th. — A Capuchin told me that he was on his way to the Pro-
paganda, being one of their missionaries, and that he was ordered
to China. Jesuit missionaries were going, but the Pope had
changed them for Capuchins.
Beautiful passage ; reached Civit^ Vecchia at ^ past 7 ; at :^
to 1 2 started for Rome ; and got in at ^ past 7.
^ A confraternity whose office it is to attend the dying, prepare the funerals
of the poor, and follow the dead to the grave.
CHAPTEE XIX
ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME
28th November 1847 to llth May 1848.
On reaching Eome, Archdeacon Manning met the Eight
Hon. Sidney Herbert and his wife, recently married ; and
renewed intimacy with him which was soon extended to
Mrs. Herbert. They both placed themselves under Arch-
deacon Manning's spiritual direction. He was, also, on
friendly terms with Miss Florence Nightingale, the Trenches,
and the Eev. John Sterling, well known as a Eationalistic
writer, and the founder of the Eclectic Club in London.
In company with Mr. and Mrs. Herbert, Manning attended,
but very occasionally, the English Protestant Church outside
the walls.
Archdeacon Manning's Diary gives a graphic account of
what was passing in Eome in the eventful year of 1848,
and, what is still more interesting, recounts his personal
impressions, not only of the revolutionary movement, but of
the worship, devotions, and the spiritual life and teaching
of the Church in the city of the Popes. The first entry on
the Diary records his arrival in Eome, and then goes on as
follows : —
First Sunday in Advent, 28th November. — Eome. Scirocco and
rain, thermometer in east room, 58".
29ih. — Scirocco and rain, but not kept at home either day.
Close and warm. Th. 58°.
On Monday night S. Broechi told me that the Pope, when
young, intended to go into the Austrian army. Then became a
cadet under Napoleon. Then was made one of the Guardia
CHAP. XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 363
Nobile by Pius VII. But having A'ertigo could not ride. Pius
VII. said, " 3Iio caro Mastai, you have not a soldier's face but a
priest's." Mastai said he would do whatever the Pope advised.
He studied and was ordained. He then became head of a
school for 70 poor boys, who in the day went out to their
trades and at night came home and were instructed. Then he
went as missionary to Chili. War breaking out, the missionaries
came home. He then became head of San Michele, an institu-
tion for orphans and education. Then he became canon and
monsignore, then bishop. After he left Rome he was forgotten
except by a few. He lived in his bishopric taking no part in
politics, living a pastoral life.
S. Broechi said he was rather good, benevolent, and sincere,
than intellectual and learned. Said Chigi was nothing great
and inclined to the Opposition. Cardinal Feretti good and
religious, impulsive rather than statesmanlike. When Bishop
of Forli in 1831, during the jubilee disturbances, he took his
pastoral staff and went amongst the people.
3rd December. — Went over the Propaganda with St. John.^ It
is governed by five superiors: — (1) Father rector; (2) Father
minister ; (3 and 4) Two spiritual Fathers ; (5) A procurator.
The spiritual Fathers are exclusively spiritual directors and
have no part in managing the college.
The students are divided into eight camerate. The 1st, 2nd,
3rd (highest), are of theology ; the rest philosophy, languages,
etc. The age is not fixed ; in the 8th are boys of 8-9 or 11-12.
The three first camerate have separate rooms ; the 5 lower
cameroni or dormitories. There are about 110 of 32 different
nations.
The professors who teach are chiefly ab extra and have no
government. In the museum are some pieces of glass said to
be parts of burial urns of the 2nd and 3rd century ; they are
enamelled with gold. One of the emblems was the B. V. with
SS. Peter and Paul on each side. Her hands lifted in prayer
to show, as one of the bishops said to the heathen, that she is a
creature.
Went with St. John to Santa Croce. A fine spacious con-
vent, very clean and well kept, with beautiful views upon the
Alban Hills from Albano to Tivoli, Frascati Fell in the middle ;
the Campagna stretching right and left, and the Aqueduct
running from the S.E. side of the convent as far as the eye
can reach. Saw Newman in his chamber, which looks on this
^ Alterwards Father Ambrose St. John of the Oratory, Birmingham, a most
intimate friend of Father, afterwards Cardinal, Newman.
364 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
view. St. John's looked on St. John Lateran. It is Cistercian,
and there are about 15 brethren.
St. John told me that the students of the bishopric have a
privilege to pass one examination only for the three major orders
instead of three ; one at each.
One treatise is required for subdeacon ; two for deacon ;
three for priest. A treatise is a subject, not a special book.
The examination is in Latin and lasted about f of an hour.
N. and St. J. were about 7 months at the Propaganda ; and
since they have been reading alone.
N. told me coming home ^ that there is a priest in Rome
named Paleotti, known for his sanctity, confessor to many of the
chief people, cardinals, etc., and that he had a sort of community
which attends S. Spirito.
5//i December. — Scirocco. Mild, very warm, rain at night.
Sidney Herbert told me on Sunday that he had met P. Carrino,
Azeglio, and others. Azeglio was moderate, the others all look-
ing onward to great changes. Azeglio said he had a brother a
Jesuit, a devoted and devout one, who is now in a state of
painful doubt as to the whole Jesuit politic. One said to
Herbert their reform is all well, but there remains the great
enemy. He asked what. He said, " the theology." Minghetti
said that there is a tax of 300 crowns to collect, while 900 were
spent in paper and pens, and 3000 in salaries.
Broechi told me that the Jesuits are able and excellent in
their duties as priests, but that their politics are most mis-
chievous ; that if a collision should come with the people the
effect would be terrible ; that they stick to the aristocracy, e.g.
to the Dorias, the Princess being a Frenchwoman ; that no
day passes but they are there. The people ^ call them Oscuri,
Oscurantidi.
He said that a reform of their rule was looked for. An
inquiry being already issued ; that the Orders are relaxed
and idle ; but as to morals, he thought there was not much to
be charged upon them ; that the eyes of the seculars are too
vigilant ; that if a Frate is seen to go to a private house it
is a matter of observation.
Sidney Herbert also told me that Mr. Petrc holds the Pope
somewhat cheaply, as a good man, but with fancies, and fearful.
He (Petre) thinks that the Pope had no policy : that his act of
amnesty was his spontaneous goodness ; that the Liberals of
Italy, wanting a prince, jumped at him, and wrote him up ; that
^ Newman left Rome in December 1847.
^ "The people" in Archdeacon Manning's mouth means the revolutionary
party represented hy his friends in the Circolo Romano.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 365
they sketched an outh'ne of himself which he has been straining
to fill up. He also thinks the retrograde party very strong, the
old clergy and their folks.
Lord Minto does not.
Mr. Petre, I think, is right.
8th December. — Went to Capella Papale in the Quirinal. Pope ;
27 cardinals, — Larabruschini, Franzoni, Mai, Tosti, Feretti. Mass
sung by cardinal priest. It Avas a splendid sight. The Pope
in white and gold, and gold mitre, on a throne of white and
gold. The cardinal priest a bishop in white and gold over
red rochet, silver mitre ; deacons in white and gold, singers
in purple with lace and fur. Attendants in scarlet and
fur. Cardinals in scarlet and white fur. One, the general
of the Camaldolese, in white with red zucchetto ; another in
pale violet. Each one attired in deep violet robes. There
were monks in all habits. One Oriental bishop, I think,
in purple with gold clasp. Priests, officers, and guards. The
antechamber full of cardinals' servants in state liveries ; the
courtyard of carriages with gold and scarlet.
In the afternoon procession from Ara Coeli by the Gesu and
Piazza di Venezia, up the west side of the Capitol. Soldiers,
then three acolytes, staves and lights ; a picture of the B. V. ;
a cross ; then a crucifix under a canopy ; then singers and
priests ; then 200 or 300 monks ; the image and canopy of the
B. V. ; then soldiers.
1 2th December. — Cold in night, but afterwards soft and warm.
S. Broechi told me yesterday that Gragrozi was a man much
beloved ; had some office in the Propaganda, was professor
of philosophy, and of theology at the Collegio Eomano.
The Pope Pius IX. was his pupil in theology ; Broechi also and
his confessor said that Gragrozi was greatly loved by young
men, and confessor to multitudes ; that once on the Saturday
or Sunday in Holy Week, he was hearing confessions at night
late, and he looked up and saw 50 or 60 waiting, was fairly
alarmed, could not get done in time to save their Easter. Came
out and asked : Are you penitent ? They said. Yes. Are you
resolved to confess ? Yes. . . . He absolved them all at once,
and was suspended from hearing confessions for a time. Said that
Abbate Paleotti is a saint ; a founder of regular clerks ; that
he spends his life serving the sick and in hearing confessions. Is
the Pope's confessor. He also mentioned a F. Bernardo who came
from Turin (and is much at the court there) with four of his re-
ligious, and brought to the Pope a present of chestnuts. The Pope
smiled. He also mentioned Mamiani, who wrote a j^lay against
the Pope's temporal power, and was obliged to get out of the way.
366 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
He is come back, and was received by the Pope, who asked
him whether, if Government were good, he should care whether
the Government were ecclesiastical or lay. He said No.
Last week the people, about 2000 or 3000, went with a band
and flags to congratulate the Swiss Ambassador on the expulsion
of the Jesuits.
AVhen a man printed a paper complaining that they were
rejoicing over the fall of Fribourg, Lucerne, and the Catholics,
they began to sack his house.
So much for Jesuits in Rome.
Sidney Herbert says that P. Carrino and others speak of
P. Ventura as a man of their sense.
S. Francisco a Ripa.
The chamber of St, Francis, now a chapel. It is upstairs,
about 1 feet by 1 4. There remains only a stone, which is said to
have been his pillow. An altar has above it a picture of St.
Francis, taken while he was in prayer, through a small sight. It
is a standing figure. There remains also a part of his cord and
hair shirt.
In a sacristy above are kept the vestments of all the venerabili.
There are 140 FF. in the convent. They make the stuff for
the habits in the Roman province. Coming home, I stopped at
the church of Abbate Paleotti. His congregation is called
Apostolatus CathoUcus sub protectione Sandae Mariae Reginae Apo-
stoloruni. There are 17 or 18 members. A branch in
London.
24:th December. — Went to the Armenian Church, Strada
Giulia. The altar was in an apse, and the apse raised. The
front had two columns ; before the altar was a curtain, about 1 2
to 15 lights, so that the curtain was nearly transparent; before
the apse stood 6 or 7 priests on each side of the curtain. The
chanting was going on within, a mournful tone, with a low note
— diapason.
The curtain was then withdrawn, and the celebrant elevated
the host and presented it to the people and to the two sides.
The curtain was then drawn again, and a large curtain drawn
before the whole apse.
25th December. — Morning fine. Went to St. Peter's to the
Christmas mass. Stayed till after the elevation. Rain in after-
noon.
Went to S. Gregorio ; saw his chamber ; now crusted with
marbles. The place of his bed marked off with marbles. His
chair of marble (white).
Names of English bishops on the pillar of the cloister. Re-
fectory.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 367
Broechi told me last night that the Sant' Uffizio seldom acts
except to enforce the ecclesiastical law ; as our consistories, e.g.
criminal clerks ; or irregular, as for saying two masses, or break-
ing fast. A physician was imprisoned some time ago for im-
morality and infidelity. By dying beds he used to deride
religion and the crucifix.
Two admonitions are given before proceedings. No inquisi-
tion but on delation.
Broechi told me to-day that the Passionists fast two days a
week and abstain one. They eat meat only Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, and Thursday, go barefoot, wear woollen, which is very
hot in summer ; get up at night to recite the Breviary. They
were instituted by St. Paul of the Cross for the conversion of
sinners in the Campagna, and are chiefly replenished from the
lower orders, who are used to such austerities.
29i!A. — Went to the English college with Herbert. St.
Thomas a Becket's Day.
Archdeacon Manning and Padre Ventura
11^^ January. — F. Marchette.
Went with him to Padre Ventura ; a very frank, open,
doAvnright, masculine face and man.
He said that the Pope in one year had gained a position of
extraordinary power and capacity for good. But that in the
last two months he had lost f, and in another would lose the
other -§- of his popular power ; that he had already lost the
cardinals, princes, religious orders, and that there remain the
clergy and the people ; that the Oscurantisti are labouring
to divide the people from the clergy, and both from the Pope.
I said the Oscurantisti make believe that the Progressist! are
without religion, and contrary to it.
He said the other party are worse. There is irreligion on
both sides everywhere, and especially among the Retrogradisti, of
whom many believe nothing.
He said he had told the Pope that he must double the
number of the Consulta, and give them a voice to enforce taxes ;
that he must make an Upper House of the Cardinals ; and these
points : —
1. Liberty of conscience.
2. Security of property and person.
3. Liberty of the press.
The first, by repealing the Ohligo della Pasqua. 2. The second,
by liberty of the press and pul^licity — ultima arma dei miserabili il
lamento. 3. That the third secures the second.
368 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
He said the Pope was greatly alarmed, and said : " I have
done enough. I will do no more."
Next day the Pope told Cardinal Antonelli : " Padre Ventura
has been here, and drawn a terrible picture, and I have not slept
all night."
Ventura told me he thought Christianity in a critical
moment ; that he feared the liadicalismo Socialismo of Switzer-
land more than anything ; that they were ready to come over
the Alps to excite revolution in Italy ; that Naples was on the
brink of revolution ; that if successful it would go the length of
Italy ; and that the Pontifical Government would be surprised,
and that by the beginning of next month we might have trouble.
He said that the chief hope was in uniting the clergy, ^(no ed
altro (secular and regular) with each other, the people and the
bishops ; that this had restrained the Irish, and could alone
restrain the Eomans.
Padre Ventura said that Abbate Paleotti was an Oscurantiste
funesto, and that he did the Pope great harm ; that one day the
Pope told Ventura that Paleotti had been telling him of the
diminution of religion and of confessions, and alarmed him.
Ventura said he would be alarmed if he did not know that it
was not true ; that now hypocrites declared themselves ; and
Ventura added, with great energy : This is the only safe state.
Monchelli joined. A mousignore present said of Paleotti :
Santifica V Oscurantismo.
Ventura gave an account of the disturbance last July ; the
people went to burn a house near S. Andrea delli Fratte.
Morandi, the general, sent a carriage and two guards to fetch
Ventura ; Ventura would not go unless ordered by the general.
The general came and ordered him. He took his cloak and a
crucifix and went ; got among the people, and got them into the
church, where he spoke for three hours, 9 P.M. to 12. He pro-
mised them to go next day to the Pope and make known their
case ; and told them to go home. They got torches, and con-
ducted him home to S. Andrea delli Fratte in procession.^
I5th. — Went with Bowles to the Chiesa Nuova ; a fine house,
well kppt, with more appearance of comfort than usual.
Saw the remains of St. Philip Neri, which were transferred
from S. Girolamo della Carita.
First, a room adorned with pictures, glass cases, gilt and
carved. In the first St. Philip's bed, shoes, morocco slippers,
1 The chief point in this story of Padre Ventura's seems to be his own
glorification in the eyes of a distinguished stranger, an archdeacon of the
An"licari Church.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 3G9
cord of stairs to his chamber. Planks of his bed, mattress, and
coverlet ; two small cushions.
2nd case. An nrmoire, low.
3rd case. His confessional, rude deal planks.
4th case. His chair in which he preached in church.
5. Original })icture of Guido, the copy of which is in mosaic
in his chapel.
Next a chapel, 12 by 12, in which he used to say mass
privately, and the door with a grating and shutter. When he
came to the Agnus Dei the assistant went out, leaving him in
prayer till he rang a small bell, still seen. The frame of the
altar, the candlesticks, the crucifix, and a picture of the Madonna
were his. The crucifix is of bronze ; the figure contracted, and
the head hanging down.
It is a fine work, one foot long, and the cross two and a half,
about.
There is also his triptych in campo d'aro^ which he carried to
the sick.
Also fine pictures, which were his.
There was a mask taken after death.
(Pen-and-ink sketches.)
Then went to the convent of St. John and St. Paul. They
were Eoman citizens, martyred in their house, which was on the
site of the church. The place of their martyrdom was in the
church, and is surrounded by an iron rail. Their bodies are
under the altar. We then went into the Passionist Convent ;
well kept, very clean. The direttore, P. Gasparo, showed us
the library and the room and chapel of St. Paul of the Cross.
It is about 16 by 12, looking S.E. by S. There remain his
missionary crucifix, some books, clothes, staff, discipline of iron
plates, with a handle of leathern thong, 20 or so of them ;
bedding. Also a little chapel, where mass was said when he
was too ill to go into the church. He died at 75 or 76. There
was a mask taken after his death.
I asked Bowles about Father Dominic. He was a shep-
herd's boy in the Alban hills, used to confess to the Passionists,
had a desire to join them, became a novice, learned Latin, was
ordained priest, had a belief (intense) that he was to labour in
some country of the north, went to Belgium. Wiseman called
on his way to England at the Passionist House ; offered to take
him. He and some others went. The Welds gave them a
house near Stafford, at Aston. He received Newman. M". told
me this in substance, but said that his visitant expressed England.
Bowles, that it was a vn. (vision %) of the B. V., but that England
was not named.
VOL. I 2 B
370 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
M"'. said that F. Dominic was under promise of marriage,
that he fell ill, and that his desire to be a Passionist returned.
He broke off his marriage, and his betrothed went, also, into a
religious house.
Marchetti preached at S. Claudio in continuation of his
sermon on the Feast of Epiphany.
The subject, "The Kingdom of Faith."
He said : To a countryman the stars are lights, to a
philosopher worlds ; that an ignorant man taking science on
trust is lifted into a higher sphere, so faith lifts us above the
natural to the supernatural.
Q)th. — Beautiful, no wind.
Went with Sidney Herbert over the ferry to St. Peter's ;
then by Longara to S^- Dorothea (Feast) ; saw the leaden coffin
in which her body is said to be, at the back, under the high
altar.
Enrolment of volunteers.
1th. — Beautiful spring day, no wind.
Went to Pamphili Doria. Coming home, went into St.
Grisogon ; first vespers of St. John of Matha, the founder of the
Trinitarians, a bishop assisting ; the others were in white, with
white surplices short, and two boys, acolytes. Afterwards the
benediction.
8^A. — Went to S. Gregorio, saw the arm in a gold and silver
case, and the head of his pastoral staff — ivory. Coming back,
found the Benediction at S. Carlo. A Franciscan Church — the
habits used, beautiful.
26/A. — Went to Naples ; got in at dark. Saw Vesuvius
with blood-red shoulders. Crocelle, Herberts.
Tth. — Civita Vecchia at half -past seven. Rome half-past
five. Came into this, last evening of carnival. Felt as I used
on getting home to Oxford.
%th. — Ash Wednesday. Raw, moist but still.
\Uh. — Went to the Gesu and Collegio Romano. On Sunday
morning at the Gesu, the preacher (Rossi), by S. Broechi's account,
said that there was a diminution of faith in all Europe, specially
in Italy ; that the Liberals were seeking to plant in the See of
Peter the Church of Mahomet ; and to open houses of Protestants ;
that it would be a favour of heaven to shed his blood ; that he
invoked martyrdom.
In the evening I went there. The sermon was all Evil
Merodach and Jechonias. Nothing remarkable. The next day,
at the eleven o'clock Lent sermon, which was to be on Tribula-
tions, the church was crowded — not fifty women, many civic
guards. The Superior de Rossi preached instead of Rossi — a
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 371
sermon on Faith. Nothing marked was done. But the students
of the Sapienza went there threatening to throw the preacher
out of the pulpit.
This morning I went again. The church was full, chiefly men.
Many civic guards, evidently come to lie on the watch. The
sermon was on the necessity and efficacy of prayer. When the
preacher spoke of the battle of Lepanto and the answers to
prayer in political affairs, the stillness was breathless.
In the afternoon I went to the Collegio Romano and saw
F. O'Ferrall. He was alarmed, and thanked me for coming at
such a time. He told me that they were all prepared to go ;
that all preparations were ready ; that the Pope had advised,
but would not order it, some days ago ; that the General said
that if the Pope would not order it, he would not take the
responsibility ; that they must stay at their post till ordered
by the Pope, or forced by the people ; that then they would go
to prevent bloodshed. Then came Sunday, and after that the
Pope received assurances of many, and of the Trasteverini, in
favour of the Jesuits. He then published the decree of
14th March ; then sent for the General,^ and Avith tears said
that he had been too credulous to alarm ; that he would die if
need be ; but that he would have them for a time continue.
This news came to the Collegio Romano at about one
o'clock. I was there at three.
F. O'Ferrall said that the Society perhaps used to be
politically inclined, because they were confessors to kings ; that
now they were wholly estranged from politics ; that they use no
political influence, either directly or indirectly, in education or
confession ; that the charges are pure inventions ; that as to
education, if they are behindhand, so are the English Univer-
sities ; that it is the character of all Government schools ; that
it is not creditable for an University to follow fast with modern
opinions, which are fluctuating ; that, nevertheless, they had
some names among the first of modern science in chemistry,
astronomical observation ; that in rhetoric and sacred literature
they supply the Universities of Italy ; that they give the
highest mathematical education in Italy ; that, as to politics,
they are spare in expressing private opinions ; that, for the most
part, they are favourable to modern progress ; that the English
and Irish Jesuits are so ; that they (E. and I.) have no sym-
pathy with the temporal Roman State, thinking it badly governed ;
that, perhaps (he would not say), the separation of spiritual
and civil powers might be best, as in the beginning ; that this
^ General of the Jesuits — the Black Pope.
372 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
was not an unknown opinion among them ; that Bellarmine's
canonisation was thought to be retarded by his denying to the
Pope a direct power in temporals ; that the Jesuits of EngLand
were inclined to be Tories ; that they take the colour of their
countries ; that the education of the Roman nobility is partly
in their hands ; that the young boys now have separate bed-
rooms, and are locked in at night ; that the good and the bad
are strongly marked ; that, perhaps, the taking away the
occasions of evil may hinder self-government ; that liberty and
responsibility are correlative.
Saw also P. Magalo, who said he had that morning said
mass as if for the last time. Also, P. Passaglia, who said,
pointing to a crucifix, Adesso un de die il crucifisso. We had
been speaking of his lecture on " Development."
F. O'Ferrall showed me St. Aloysius Gonzaga's room.
Nothing of his remains.
\5th. — This morning went to the Gesu, heard sermon on
" Penitence " ; then went into the house to see P. Grassi ; he
repeated what F. O'Ferrall had said about the Pope.
To-day the Constitution was given ; and at four I went up to
the Quirinal ; got under the balcony. The Corso thronged.
The civic guards in great numbers all round — people in middle,
P. Rospigli and Massimo in front. Flags and banners. A
Roman eagle and two banners — one Parma, the other Alta
Italia ; both with crape flying from the head.
The Pope gave the benediction vnth. a mixture of majesty,
love, and supplication I never saw. It was a sight beyond
words. A man near me said with emotion : " Vere i un uomo,
i un angelo."
Then I went to the Church, and, as the Tantum ergo was
sung, the band outside passed playing Pio Nono. A strange
clash. The world " so musical and loud " — and the Lorelei
of outside between the natural and supernatural.
I have heard it said that, when he was in Chili, the Pope
wrote down heads of reforms to be made at Rome ; and directed
them to be given at his death to the reigning pope.
At night I went down the Corso, which was illuminated in
every window and balcony ^^^th tapestry and hangings of all
colours, crimson, gold, white, green, yellow. The street was full
of the people, multitudes of women and children. Civic guards
by hundreds, with their helmets and plumes, and hardly a
carriage. The street as quiet as Lavington, except a few
voices hawking the Constitution, and the hum and whisper
of parties as they passed. I went by the Doria Palace, before
which had been great bonfires, and on the dying embers I saw
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 373
a wretched, ragged, barefooted boy warming himself. Then
to the Gesu which was illuminated, bright Avithout beauty or joy.
As I came back a crowd met me crying in harsh notes and
carrying a great torch. I saw they were going to the Gesu ;
they were men seldom seen by day, dirty, shaggy, squalid,
with a sullen malicious gait. I turned down the side street
and got to the Gesu, whither they never came, for the civic
guards stopped them in the Corso, and after a long blather
dispersed them.
\Qth. — Went to the Gesu and saw St. Ignatius's chambers.
They are entered by a Loggia, painted in fresco, looking into the
garden.
(Here follows, in pen and ink, ground-plan of the chambers
of the famous founder of the Society of Jesus.)
The chambers were four. The first where he used to sleep,
where he died, and the first four Generals were elected. The
second, his study, now a chapel ; a full life effigy with his stole.
The third his private chapel. Letter of St. Vincent of Paul,
St. Francis de Sales ; St. Charles Borromeo. The fourth which
his companion John Farel inhabited. There is a case of Cardinal
Bellarmine's things : Berrettino, red robe, stole, hair shirt,
missal, rosary, hat.
After this, went to Palazzo Massimo where there was a festa
to commemorate S. Philip Neri's raising Paolo Massimi. It
was in this room where the miracle was wrought ; now a chapel
at the top of the palace. All the way up, the stairs were strewed
with box-leaves which showed the way. Under the altar, which
stands, as I understood, where the bed was, are some remains.
After this to St. Peter's, where the people were invited by the
Senate who came to give thanks for the Constitution. The
Church and Piazza very full. The Senate came with the flags
of Italy, knelt for five minutes at the Chapel of St. Peter, and
went away. No office of any kind.
To-day news came of the Revolution at Vienna. I went into
the Corso and found the hangings putting out. This was my
first intelligence. The people to-day tore down the Austrian
arms from the three gates of the Palazzo di Venezia, and put up
in their place a Tricolor (Italian) and a banner with AUa Italia
without crape. They took the arms from the Palazzo Chigi and
from this church. They were dragged all along the Corso, beaten
by the people and boys with sticks near the Piazza Navona, and
burnt under the obelisk of the Piazza del Popolo, where I saw
the embers at 7 o'clock. Alas for the Cissars ! The whole
Corso was illumined ; and then ran the suspended moccoletti ;
but the joy of the moccoletti was lost in the political excitement.
374 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
It was very beautiful. Looking down the Corso from the
Palazzo del Popolo it looks like a vast altar lighted up for the
Quaraiif Ore. Many coloured lamps and a sea of lights, with
here and there lights hanging from windows, gliding on strings,
fishing in the air Avith tall canes, and long flappers bunting
them. The Gesu was lighted with a dull flaming light, like
a sadness and necessity.
Mr. Northcote told me to-day that Lord Clifford had ofi'ered
asylum to twenty Jesuits at his place in England. Perone,
Passaglia, Mazio, being among them, and their best men of
science.
22nd. Changed from 78 Via della Croce to 133 Corso.
23rd. Beautiful, like summer.
I found the Corso full. News from Milan that it was in the
hands of the people ; then Padua, Mantua, Venice, Modena.
Went up into a Loggia and saw a man run down, jump in the
air, with arms up, shouting, then stooping and springing up.
Then he ran on with two others. Heard that he was a Milanese
duke who had been exiled. Went at two to Piazzo del Popolo ;
a carriage with a flag came up, stood between the two churches,
and a civic guard read a paper saying " The minister at war,
with advice of Consulta and consent of the Pope, considering the
urgent circumstances of Italy and the general state of the City,
orders that a conscription of Volunteers be opened at 4 p.m. at
the Campo.
Soon a great crowd came, and linked in files went down the
Corso. Padre Gavazzi at the head next the standard. Lord
Lindsay and I followed ; we all went down the Corso into the
Forum, down the old stairs, under the arch of Titus, into the
Coliseum. They gathered round the Eostrum, and P. Gavazzi
preached with a concentration of body and mind, and all powers,
seldom exceeded ; he said " The other day I declared words of
peace ; to-day of war. The revolutionists were in a hurry." He
called on them to swear by the cross to devote themselves, and
to submit their will to discipline from the moment of con-
scription to the day when they returned in victory.
He said " Italy was for the Italians. Every one to his own
land. Christ died for us to redeem all, and none to be a
slave."
The universal oath with lifted hands was terrific.
Then came an improvisatore, then a second, then a rough
powerful face and head, a shepherd of the Campagna — a
true ])oct born. Then one or two more. Then Colonel Ferrari,
then Massi, who could not get heard ; then a priest in his cassock
who improvised slowly but effectively.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 375
P. Gavazzi spoke agaiu and said : " If any wife, mother,
or woman hold back an arm she is not worthy to bear sons to
Italy." He then ended with — "The conscription to-day, Pius to-
morrow, the day after, Italy and victory." Then Sterbini spoke.
Then Ciceroaicchio had a contest with P. Gavazzi, whether
he should be allowed to go as a volunteer. At last he put it
to the people, who said he should not go.^ He then called up
his son Cigi, whom he gave in his stead. P. Gavazzi and the
son kissed each other.
Then Massi got heard at great length and effect. Then a
French minister who spoke effectively in Italian.
Then the conscription began.
The Coliseum was nearly full, at least two-thirds. I went
up in a high part and looked down. It was a strange and wild
sight, and one Avhich will be written in history.^
The government called out two battalions of the Civic
Guards ; two new of mobili, and two of volunteers. It is said
that the Pope will bless the standards.
And yet this is not a religious war, but purely national
against the Catholic Emperor.^
2bth March. — Went to the Gesu. High Mass; then sermon
on the day.*
26//i. — Very fine; went with Herbert to the castle.
28//;. — Went to La Scaletta. II huon Pastor e.
Saw the mother superior (a German countess, once in the
Court of Berlin). She said that they had about 30 in the
house; that many are sent by the cardinal vicar; that the
ages vary from 20 to 10; that parents are the cause, some-
times by living at Albughi leaving their children, sometimes
by prostituting them ; that there is one other asylum near St.
^ In an autobiographical Note, dated 1886, Cardinal Manning described
this sensational scene as a melodrama.
2 Archdeacon Manning little thought when he wrote these words in his
Diary, that his own name would be recorded in history, in intimate connection
with Pius IX. and the Temporal Power of the Pope.
* That estimate of the movement of which he was an eye-witness is a
curious illustration of Archdeacon Manning's political insight. He detected
the irreligious and revolutionary character of the Italian movement, to which
Pius IX. himself was blind at that supreme moment. Prince Doria, by siding
with the revolutionary movement, did infinite mischief. Soon afterwards, how-
ever, the Pope recognised its real character, and broke with the Revolution.
I may add, that Cardinal Manning, speaking on this point in 1887,
maintained that Pope Pius IX. did not, as was alleged at the time and
since, bless the two standards. He gave his blessing to his own Roman
standard, but not to the revolutionary standard of Italy.
* The Feast of the Annunciation, a day of obligation in Italy.
376 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
John Lateral!, holding about 65 ; that there they enter at will ;
that the rest are neglected or imprisoned, and seldom converted ;
that they are frightfully ignorant, not knowing their Creator ;
that their religion is a true superstition, praying to the B.V. to
fulfil some criminal end of love or hate, either some passion or
escape, or marriage, or the death of an enemy ; that they receive
by way of precaution ; but that some of them are fallen as young
as 10; that the house is very poor ; having a few small rents,
a government grant, stopped yesterday because of the embarrass-
ment of finance. She was most pleasing, gentle, calm, yet
energetic.
In the following letter to Sidney Herbert, who, with Mrs.
Herbert, had left Eome for Naples, Archdeacon Manning
gives a graphic account of the state of things in Eome : —
Rome, 14<fe February 1848.
My dear Herbert — I have this moment received your
letter, and commend you much for making good speed in letting
me know of your journey and arrival. Before I go to anything
else I will tell you how fares your pamphlet. ^ I went at it stoutly
and made no little havoc, till I found it was like Swift's scheme
for ploughing, by dibbling 13,000 potatoes; and I fairly gave
up cutting and resigned myself to the ' presentation of roads '
and the organisation of soup kitchens. The next day I put it
into the hands of a translator who promises it this week. And
I have pledged myself to go over it with him, being inquisitive
to know how he will put Baronies and Poor-law Commissioners
into Italian. It will cost about £10 in translating; which Her
Majesty's Treasury will not think too much. By the way it is
vilely written.
Since you went we have had a stir here, and we shall have
more. The Constitutions of Naples and now of Tuscany and
Piedmont make it impossible for this Government to stand still.
There was a demonstration on Friday at the Quirinal. The
people went up to thank the Pope for his Edict about the army
and the lay ministers. The banners were borne by three
priests, and the usual cries and vivas (which soon subsided into
cigari scelti) went merrily enough about Jesuits and a Constitution.
You will see that the Pope before giving the Benediction spoke
strongly in condemnation of these noises. But next day there
was a good deal of discontent expressed, the impression being
that he had absolutely refused the idea of a Constitution. To-
' Trevelyau's pamphlet on Ireland.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 377
day it is said that the Pope and the Council of State are sitting,
and people expect, what from the first has been plainly in-
evitable, that the Pope, who began the movement, cannot end in
the rear.
I do not see why a constitutional Government should not
exist in Komc, penetrated by the idea of the Church of Christ,
and spiritually faithful to the Pope. Unless they take to
church-robbing as you do in England. Still if the Church be a
divine polity, and if free institutions be divine blessings, I cannot
see why they should not coexist. They would have to maintain
themselves and their mutual relations against the stream and
storm of this evil world — but that is only the common condition
of all earthly things. It is plain that the civil institutions in
Kome must be largely released from the ecclesiastical state, and
equally so that in England the ecclesiastical must vindicate its
divine liberty from the civil. Deus faxit, etiam me superstite.
Now I must send you some of our facts. Our letters set us
at ease about Col. Henry Austen. They talk of going to-morrow
week, so when you come I shall make you stay to keep me
company. "When I left you to go to Miss Trench, the first thing
I heard Avas that the physician pronounced, after examination,
that tubercles were decidedly formed, as he had feared. The case
is only (in our sense) not impossible for recovery. But every day
gives me less hope ; I never saw any state in which I did so
much desire to die.
I have now left little room in my letter to tell you, if I could,
how much I miss you both. I am sure I cannot tell why you
should say so : except that old boyish kindnesses have a freshness
which in after-life comes out again, and is more grateful by
contrast with present and more anxious realities, like old
memories of happier days. And yet I will not say happier, for
it is most true though at first sight a contradiction that the
highest happiness is in the trials of life : as Jeremy Taylor says of
the state you two have entered, "they have greater joys, and
greater sorrows." Our walks were not only a great delight to
me, but very good for me, and I have very much to thank you for.
It w^ould be hard to tell you what it has been to me to see you
two, and to know that your supreme desire is to live " as heirs
together of the grace of life." If you have any cause to remember
this Christmas in Rome, I have twofold, iDoth for your sake
and for her sake. As you force Graziosis to talk of himself,
I may say that, by God's goodness, I do not know what depres-
sion means. And yet it has been a fresh joy added to the
many he has given me to be made known to such an one as
she is, whom I may love, bless, and pray for. These are among
378 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
the brightest and most soothing thoughts in the Avear and
weariness, which can never be separated from the life God has
given me ; I owe to you also my thanks for giving me both your
affection and hers. All blessings be with you. — Ever yours
afFectionately, H. E. Manning.
Mrs. Mills is still much in the same state.
Mr. Bracebridge has been somewhat unwell, but is better.
Your green sulky and gray horses go about, with an old
dowager Consultore inside, and no Ked Ferret upon the box.
In answer to Mrs. Herbert's suggestion that he should
come to Naples, Archdeacon Manning wrote as follows: —
78 Via dell a Croce,
EoME, I9th February 1848.
My DEAR Mrs. Herbert — Your letter of the 16th has just
come with Incognita persona in Fosta written upon it ; which
lifts me into the order of the Great Unknown, to the great peril
of my humility. I suppose the elevation at which we dwell
above common men accounts for the three days' travel, and the
ignorance of sublunary posts.
When I AVTote to Sidney on Tuesday I directed to the Posta
Restante, and, -without wishing to mortify his vanity, I hope he
has been discovered. Now what shall I say about Naples? Your
accounts sorely tempt me, and on Wednesday, the Austens are
coming your way. But I am croaking with a cold in my throat.
What my throat and I may think of it by next Wednesday I do
not know, but that will be the 23rd, and three days will make 26th,
and then. Leap year or no, little remains. I almost fear we shall
not meet before your return to Rome. I have not been out since
Wednesday, but I wOl not give up all thoughts of it till they are
fairly gone.
I trust you have enjoyed yourselves to the fullest of your
anticipation. I hardly Avish to see you back again, for then
all this sun and joy Avill be ended, and I shall only see you as
you pass through and away. Otherwise I should say that I long
to have you both in Rome again. All good be with you. —
Ever yours, H. E. Manning.
After a visit of some weeks to the Herberts at Naples,
on his way back to Rome Archdeacon Manning wrote
about the French Revolution as follows : —
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 379
Capri, at Sea, as the Admiral would say,
6th March 1848.
My dear Herbert — I was half sorry to go to-day, for the
interest of this terrible news made me wish to hear more, and
Naples is just now a surer place for intelligence than Rome.
But I had made up my mind, and it is always best, if possible,
to go on. So here I am, and am beginning to believe what we
heard, for there is on board a Frenchman returning on account of
this intelligence, which he says was confirmed in Naples by private
letters from Paris. I should have liked to stay and talk with
you about it, for the first thing which comes into my thoughts is
a war, and you will have to do with the making it, which is no
light matter to think of.
I suppose we shall make no great difficulty of recognising the
French Republic. It was one thing when Louis XVI. was
guillotined and the legitimate line of some thirty kings cut off,
and another now that the King of the French, after seventeen
years, is put in commission. There seems to be no principle
broken except one of their own making ; and they that make
may break so far as we are to answer. I do not see, therefore,
that we need do anything but recognise anything, so soon as
they have made it recognisable : that is, real enough to represent
the nation and to treat with. So far there seems no casus belli.
But will they be contented without making one 1 With an
army of 500,000 men, and 800,000 National Guard, an endless
population scantily employed, a small commerce, and no war in
Africa, it seems almost too much to hope, that they will not find
or make a quarrel : to which result old sores and new jealousies
will readily contribute. Can it be hoped that the Government,
be it what it may, ^vill have moral hold enough upon the country,
to keep down the desire and movement towards aggression 1 By
the way Lamartine fell foul of Guizot for not openly declaring in
favour of somebody near here. How will he like the help and
sympathy of a Republic ? I am afraid that Constitutions are now
lame devices. And there is every element to provoke a strong
reaction, as in England when Lord Keepers were ecclesiastics.
Of course you remember Burke's Thoughts on a Regicide
Peace. Besides all other reasons against it, he said that France
had outlawed itself from European society, jurisprudence,
diplomacy, civilisation : that it had made itself the enemy of
the law of nature and nations ; and, as a sort of Caput
trepinum in Eurojje, must be put down by force. This view was
of course based on the principle of legitimacy as well as on the
aggressive character of the French Directory. The first reason
380 CARDINAL MANXIXG chap.
is as much past now as that mediosval diplomacy in which popes
deposed princes, and supposing the last not to arise it would
seem that the internal changes in France need not break its
outward relations to the rest of Europe. If this is so, we need
fear no war but a Avar of defence, which is the most righteous
form of the greatest of human evils.
But all this is beyond me. I cannot tell you how all these
" wars and rumours of wars, kingdom against kingdom," make
me draw closer to the kingdom which cannot be moved. " I
don't mean that there are not very difficult questions, and hard
to decide, in this matter ; but there is also a certainty about its
great laws which can be found nowhere else. And they are not
disputable because disputed ; nor inexpedient though the whole
world be against them.
The bay of Naples as we came out was beautiful. The lights
on Vesuvius and along the shore from Sorrento to Portici, and then
on St. Elmo, and on the west of the Castil del Oro, were soft and
warm like yesterday evening. And as the sun went down
behind Ischia, Procida stood out gray and green, and between
the islands the sunlight poured like a stream of \dsible rays
against the mountain, which was of the deepest purple. Messina
and the coast was hollow and sea-worn, bellowing like the sea
calves at Amalfi. I half repented not going to Salerno and the
like, but am quite sure that it is too soon in the year for me. The
reason why I could neither ride in your coach nor row in your
boat to-day was that the wind had a little caught my throat
Saturday and Sunday. It seems very selfish, or fanciful, to be
such a dog to one's friends.
Having got nearly to the end of this papyrus I remember that
if you go to Palermo you will not get it, and if you come to Eome
you will not get it, and that I am probably preparing a pottle
for pepper or macaroni at some Neapolitan dead-letter office.
Nevertheless, I will finish and send it : after compliments,
Graziosis greets Miladi. — Ever yours affectionately, H. E. M.
Rome, 7. — At Civit^ Vecchia we met a steamer from Marseilles
which told us that Louis P. and the Dukes Nemours and Mont-
pensier were alive and in England. I find here that the news
came on Friday by land from Genoa. It has been printed in
Rome these three days, and now they say there is a revolution
in Hungary, a constitution at Vienna, an invasion of 25,000
Piemontesi in Lombardy, of which I believe nothing. Among
the French Republicans the first name I see is Lamennais, a
deposed priest, and soon after, Michelet, who, I take it, is less than
half a believer. Things look very black. My French friend tells
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 381
me that the provinces and the army have fully accepted the
Republic. At Civit^ Vecchia a French steamer by our side
changed her tricolor and saluted the port, which returned it.
The last monarchy attached the hkie to the staff — the Republic
the red. I came in the midst of the tomfoolery here, but the
moccoleUi were given up out of sympathy with the Milanese.
They say here that things are going on ill and bloodily in the
heart of Italy ; at Civita Vecchia the Capo della Sanitlt came on
board swinging his arms like a windmill, shouting La repnblica
cammina divinamente: a tendency I doubt. Farewell to you
both. All good keep you till we meet.
Before leaving Naples, Archdeacon Manning gave to Mrs.
Herbert, as promised, a rule for her spiritual direction during
Lent, together with the following note : —
Naples, Qidnq. Sunday, 1848,
Through my idleness and forgetfulness I should have gone
away without fulfilling my promise, and thank you and the
hindrance which has set me right ; not that I can hope to offer
anything worth your having. But such as I can I have written
down. It looks, I am afraid, rather severe and wearisome ; but
it is intended for Lent, and I know so many who have found
great good in such a rule that I do not fear to give it to you.
I have not said anything about other rules, such as prayer
or fasting, because it is hard to keep them in travelling, and in
the latter you must attempt next to nothing except in things
which are mere indulgence of taste or delicacy. Some such
little and secret rule for this Lent will be good. Moreover the
enclosed is the first step of all ; and the great work is to mortify
the tre dita, intellect and will.
May He who alone knows us give you this Lent as deep an
insight into yourself as your faith can endure. And may He
give you perfect humility and every blessing of His Kingdom.
Ever yours for His sake. Pray for me. H. E. M.
But politics, and visiting churches, and monks, and
monasteries, and the Circolo Eomano of an evening, and cor-
respondence with the Herberts, did not make Archdeacon
Manning forget his friends and relations at home, as the
following letters to Mrs. Laprimaudaye, to his sister Mrs.
John Anderdon, and to Eobert Wilberforce show : —
Rome, 31st March 1848.
My dear Friend — When I got back from Naples, about three
weeks ago, I found your kind and acceptable note lying on my table.
382 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
It gave me great pleasure to have a few words from you
direct, for messages are too short, to make one realise the fact,
that we speak to our friends mind to mind, though not face to
face. Since I got it the universal confusion of Italy, and the
opening of war in Lomhardy, has stopped all the posts, and
made me delay to wiite.
I do not know whether to say that I am sorry you have
been visited with mourning, for I have always found it so very
blessed, so full of soothing and I trust healthful thoughts, that I
feel surer and happier for my friends when they are in sorrow.
The loss of father and mother has I hope, made Heaven more
like home to me ; and I do not know whether I can say just
what I mean, when I add, that the relation of father and mother
seems to be exalted and transfigured, so as to be hid with them
in God, and to make me see that, through Him, they are still to
me all more than ever, and that He is what they were and are
in a diviner and deeper sense. I have sometimes felt (I would
to God it were not so seldom) that this helps me to realise the
idea of my adoption and filial relation, and the duties of love
and obedience which flow from it. I have spoken of both father
and mother because your letter, and Mr. Laprimaudaye's of
to-day, lead one to think that like myself both of your parents
may by this time have gone onward, and met again, after a
little parting.
I hope I have no discontent or impatient feelings about my
life and state. Indeed, I think not, for I fear I sometimes
enjoy it too much, and shrink from the thought of leaving it.
But for this fear, I cannot help thinking that it is very blessed to
see them we loved, gathered in one by one, beyond the reach of
sin and death, above all infirmity and all change.
If we were allowed to ask some one great gift for them,
surely it would be a holy death, and, which is the same, the
Presence of our Lord, forever. I wish I felt all this more in my
heart and will, for it is painfully and perilously easy to fancy it
in the imagination, or to conceive it by the intellect. And I
sometimes fear this is all I do. I have been allowed a great help
and blessing since I have been here, and that is to see daily a
very blessed death-bed. It is a sister of Mrs. Eobert Wilson, a
Miss Trench. Her mind seems to have been moulded upon the
Christian Year, with its gentleness and cheerful trust in the love
of God. And I have found this a great help in recalling my
mind from the idle, empty, unfeeling state into which my life
abroad has led me. I hope it is not so bad as it was the last
time I was here, but it is bad enough, and shows me how
much I depend on outward helps. When I think of fourteen
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 383
years spent at Lavington, I feel amazed at the time and
blessings I have lost. You ask my prayers, but I have much more
need of yours, though you may not believe me : and I know that
I have them. I Avish I dare call the slight commemorations
Avhich I try to make day by day of them dear to me, by the
name of prayers ; but if He who searcheth the hearts accepts
sincere love and fervent desires for their welfare as intercessions,
then I may say that no day passes without my interceding for
you. May He who is our sure and patient Guide keep you
in all things. — Believe me, my dear friend, yours affectionately
for His sake, H. E. M.
My love to all your children one by one.
The following is a letter to his sister, Mrs. John
Anderdon : —
Rome, 2nd Sunday after Christmas, 1848.
My dearest Maria — . . . Here we are in a new year. May
all blessings be with you, my dear sister. The last was a marked one
to you and to me. To you, from the great loss in my mother's
death which fell on none more heavily, or any so directly, as
yourself ; and to me, because besides this, eleven of the twelve
months were spent in illness and its consequences ; such as
inaction, and wandering abroad far off from everything for which
I live. But the last was a blessed year to us both, and we have
learned to think more of the world unseen and to live in it,
believing and feeling the fellowship of those who are out of
sight not less real, and even more intimate, than of those we see
and hear. What is there worth living for but to be more and
more prepared for the day when " we shall see Him as He is,"
and all we love with Him 1 I earnestly hope that this may be the
only object before me for the rest of life, so long as He may be
pleased to give me. And I trust that with health He will also
give me grace to have no more to do with the things of this
world than if it were dead. And for you what can I wish more ?
You have never wanted for necessary things for your children
and yourself, nor ever Avill. They are largely blessed, and you
in them ; and now what more can you desire ? I know of
no people Avho live so simply and happily, and desire so few
things as you do ; and that is a pledge to you for the time to
come. Only let us more and more find our happiness in the love
and presence of God ; and in everything which brings Him and
His kingdom nearer to us all day long. How blessed Ave are as
a family — dearest Frederick and Edmunda alone excepted for
awhile — where can we find four brothers and three sisters more
perfectly united ? I am sure I have great reason to say so, for
384 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
nothing can exceed the affection and happiness in which we have
lived without a moment's shade since we left England. When I
said three sisters, I did not forget dear Mary, but strangely
enough she seems to belong to me on the other side equally
closely, but mixed up with another world of thoughts and
persons and memories.
Give my love to John, and to your children. Let me hear
from you. And may all blessings be with you. — Ever your
most affectionate brother, H. E. M.
The following was the first letter from Eome to Eobert
Wilberforce : —
Rome, 2nd Sunday after Christmas.
My dear Robert — . . . What shall I send you from this
place ? it is in a state intensely interesting, intensely critical ;
the Pope is wonderfully loved and revered. His goodness and
pure benevolence are so transparent and so unshaded by self or
the shadow of it that he seems to sway men both good and bad.
But it is a transition of the greatest peril. To graft a con-
stitution upon the mediaeval absolute sovereignty of any country
is life or death, but when that sovereignty is also spiritual and
the government sacerdotal, the risks are at their highest. If
only this people will be patient and cheerful it may be done
to their great good ; if not, there is nothing of secular confusion
which may not happen. I hope to get some more insight into
the state of things, but it is slow work, and I have thorough
mistrust of information except from really accredited people,
who are of course difficult to get at.
Meanwhile you in England are making nearly as much noise
as the Romans. I read with great interest the report of your
York Convocation. There is nothing to be done but what you
did, and to wait till ideas shall once more shine out in the
ecclesiastical heavens ; anything more dreary and dismal than
things have looked of late among us it would be hard to find
out of Erebus.
What good genius could have prompted Lord John Russell
once more to unite us ? Nothing less than this would have done
it. Nothing under a prime minister and Hampden. And yet
I fear that this, after a splutter, will soak up again into our old
state, with the mischief of additional compromises and a lower
tone of Anglicanism. Let me hear from you about it and about
yourself. . . . — Yours affectionately, H. E. M.
The following letter was written to Mrs. Herbert at the
time of the Revolution in Rome : —
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 385
Rome, 8th Airril 1848.
I have this moment got your letter of April 3rd, with great
joy, and have been hoping that you would drop me some
parachutes as you went up. But I am sorry to see your
account of Sidney, and ■wish I could have helped to nurse him.
When he gets home into our home air and work, I have no
doubt he will be well and strong. It is a comfort to think that
you are safe and meet no molestation. How long this may last
seems every day less certain ; for I am afraid that Paris will go
to war, whatever the Provisional Government may do.
Need I say how doleful the Piazza del Popolo looks ; or how
nearly I told your servant to sew up the Red Ferret's mouth when
he came to me to aid him to find him a place ? I am obliged to
solace myself, as best I can, at the Circolo Romano, where, like
a sound Radical, I have taken to spend my evenings. Last
night I met Orioli and talked with him on the lecture Sidney
mentioned respecting the Creation, and St. Thomas Aquinas
and St. Augustine. He was very kind, affable, and intelligent.
I also got hold of a very able young priest, one of the editor-^ of
the Lahoro (a sort of Roman Guardian), and had a conversation
of which Sidney shall hear the notes. He and I agreed like doves,
or rooks rather, about Civiltli Cristiana and the like. Wo made
vows of eternal friendship, and I mean to make him digest and
publish Sidney's pamphlet on Ireland in his newspaper. But I
found him already fully aware of the untrusty nature of all Irish
news coming through the Propaganda.
To describe the excitement of Rome since you went would be
impossible. A strong feeling is growing against England, under
a fear that we may help the retrograde movement or hinder
the Independence of Italy. God avert any collision between
England and Italy, for the sake of the world and the
Church ; for between the two races we have all the
elements of order and progress. Now you know I am not
writing all this stuff to you, but to Sidney, having long ago
forgotten all about you, and thinking only of the Privy
Councillor and his wisdom.
I have had good letters from my sister. They are now about
starting from Leghorn to Genoa by sea. For myself I shall stay
on awhile. But my poor charge,^ a child, as I thank you for
calling her, cannot last long. This warm weather has withered
her up with a strange speed. She Avill, I fear, hardly see her
father, and I should be very loth to go before the end. Her
^ Miss Trench died in Rome, Her father was R. Chenevix Trench, after-
wards Protestant Archbishop of Dublin.
VOL. I 2 O
386 CARDINAL MANNING cuap.
poor mother is very sad ; but bears up well. She was much pleased
Avith your kind gifts. I hope you can read this, for I am
writing against time. It Avill be to me a great delight if we can
have our walk some day at Wilton, or in my home ; and I shall
hope to keep without diminution the happiness of exchanging
with Sidney both our thoughts and our affections. In this you
have become a pledge and safeguard ; so that we shall not let
each other slip again — if at least I may speak for myself.
You are both always in my prayers day by day. With my
love to Sidney. — Ever yours, H. E. Manning.
In the following extracts from his Diary, Archdeacon
Manning records the expulsion of the Jesuits from Eome,
and accounts for the reasons of the opposition raised against
them : —
29th March. — Beautiful. Jesuits expelled. Went to Collegio
Romano ; saw P. Grassi ; F. O'Farrell had gone away, but was
still in Rome. Went into the Gesu. A stream of people
wandering through it ; many passing through the house and
sacristy and into the church, taking leave ; many kneeling. A
sad, empty, desolate look in the church, as if all was over ;
perfect stillness.
The opposition to the Jesuits seems to me to arise from the
facts : —
1. That they incorporate the doctrine of the Canonists upon
the Pope's absolute sovereignty, opposing constitutional liberty.
2. That they are the aristocratic and conservative clergy (as
with us).
3. That the other Regulars and the Seculars are jealous of
them, as our clergy are of active and successful men.
4. That they are now allied with the old regime.
5. That they labour under suspicion, reasonable, historical,
and preternatural.
[Some time ago S. Broechi, speaking of the Curati, said : —
1. That they are despotic, having too much power, e.g. of
imprisonment, and are corrupted by it.
2. That he believed they were open to the charge of in-
continence ; that some treated it very lightly.
3. That the Regulars, especially the Dominicans, are open to
the same charge.^
^ Pope Pius IX. made many attempts to reform the monastic orders in
Italy, but they were always frustrated by the obstinate resistance of the great
religious houses, especially by the Dominicans. At the time of the suppression
of the religious orders by the revolutionary government of Italy, Pius IX. is
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 387
4. That no one ever charges this on the Jesuits.]
Two nights ago he said that people are very much discontented
with the Constitution : —
1. Because of the mixed questions.
2. Because of the admission of canon law.
3. Because of the exemption of ecclesiastics, but that it
concedes the principle.
bth April. — Procession to St. Peter's, the religious orders,
the relic, the Pope. High altar covered with golden candle-
sticks and tapers. The Pope gave the benediction with the
relic.
Went to Circolo Eomano with Signor Neri. Found a strong
feeling against England for the sake of Ireland ; strong jealousy
of our interfering vnih. Italy. The presence of our fleet at
Palermo. Avvocato Placidi called Neri, dogmatico ; Neri
called Placidi, Liherale. Placidi admitted what I said about
persuasion being the only arm of truth ; said the Ohhligo
Fasqua still existed. Neri said no one wished it away ; Placidi
said it made hypocrites, that anybody could get one for a mezzo
scudo ; Neri, that, imperfect, it was better than indifFerentism,
because the sentiment is good but the object false. In in-
differentism there is neither sentiment nor object.
I said I hoped for unity in religion. Placidi said, it was
ideaU and Utopian. I said that we were drawing near, first in
politics and I hoped we should in religion. He said he was
content to have diversities.
He struck me as a keen Machiavellista.
6^/t. — S. M. Tras. Ambrosoli preached.
The Abbate told me — 1. That there was much immorality,
even among women, before and after marriage. ... (3) That
discipline is very lax. (4) Even some priests very lax. A priest
last week or so appeared with a flag of three colours. He was
ordered by the cardinal vicar to spiritual exercises. His new
friends said he and we will come with banners, and did.
1th. — Circolo Romano.
Orioli said he had tried to reconcile Genesis with geology on
said to have declared that, though he was bound publicly to condemn the
suppression of the monasteries, in his heart he could not but rejoice, as it
was a blessing in disguise. On inquiring in 1887 of Cardinal Manning
whether this reported declaration of Pius IX. were true, His Eminence replied
that whether such an expression of opinion had been actually delivered or
not it truly rejiresented the views of the Pope. The Cardinal added, that
the success of the Revolution in Italy was in no small degree due to laxity of
morals in the clergy, Seculars and Regulars, and to defective education and
religious training in the schools.
388 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the principle of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, i.e. that
the creation being before time had no succession ; that the days
are periods of disposition.
Orioli was ten years in Corfu ; had a chair in the University.
A body of Poles came in, and a colonel, as spokesman, said
in French that they were going to Lombardy to collect, he
hoped, 30,000 for a war of independence. They would not
receive a flag from Prussia, Austria, or Russia, but have one
Polish and Catholic, and asked influence to get the Pope to bless
it. He addressed the whole room, but chiefly Colonel Armandi,
an old artillery officer of Napoleon, who commanded forty years
ago at Wagram.
He ended by saying — " We speak ill of all nations but
England, because England has spoken well of us."
Milanesi, one of the members of the Circolo Romano, spoke
likewise.
I asked him why Acatholic countries were in advance and
Catholic in the rear of civilisation.
He admitted the fact ; said that the time had come to speak
lealmente ; that both sides had put off traditionary prejudice ;
that Leo X. had done great evil to Rome and the Church.
I gave up our Tudors ; said they were tyrants, and that the
English Church considered them her oppressors.
He said that for three centuries the Popes had fraternised with
princes, and used religion against the people ; that the Jesuits
had desired to maintain a dominion by a low or no education.
I said that some thought religion apart from the Church was
the future of civilisation ; but that I thought the organised body
of the Church was ; but that I found countries without this
organisation in advance of those with it.
He said England is full of contradictions, un paese misterioso.
Asked about Scotland and Ireland, and said that England
had hindered the commerce of Ireland. I said rather it had
made it (but now I remember that agriculture and industry
have suffered by English laws).
I said the state of Ireland is not known in Rome. He said,
No ; our intelligence comes through the Propaganda and a
puritan party, for we have our puritans, and all is seen with a
jaundiced eye.
He said that the poor in England were well paid and lived well.
(I have rarely seen a more keen eye. He had all the marks
of real healthy ability.)
This set me thinking till I went almost into a trance.
He said that the riches of the English Church did evil in a
moral and social sense.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 389
Went to the Passionist Convent with Bowles. Bowles told
me that the Passionist's diet is as follows : —
1. Not fasting days. Breakfast at 7-8. Coffee and half a
panetto. Dinner 11.30. (1) Soup. (2) (3) Meat, veal,
and vegetables. (4) Vegetables. (5) Clieese. (6) An orange.
(7) 2 panetti. (8) Wine. Supper 7.30. Soup, meat, vegetables.
1 panetto, an apple, wine.
On fasting days. Breakfast (permitted, but not used much),
coffee and a finger of bread. Dinner as on other days, only fish
for meat. Supper as before, without meat. Sleep 7 hours ;
9.30 to 1: 2.30 to about 5.
9^^ April — Was presented with Lady N. and C N. to the
Pope.^
S. Martino Alessandri said, " Quanti Quanti vanno a com-
municarsi senza confessione."
lOth. — Went to Circolo Eomano; met Milanesi. I said, with
liberty of the Press will come discussion even on religious opinions.
Ohhligo della Fasqua being gone, individuals withdrawing.
He said he wished the Obbligo abolished ; that it was in fact.
I quoted S. Agostino where I saw list, last Christmas.
He said it made hypocrites ; that in Rome there were fanatics
and formalists — those who had energy were fanatical, and those
who had none, formal. Often the latter of bad morals. I
quoting St. Thomas Aquinas that religion must be free and
spiritual — by persuasion — or else sacrilege ; that religion coupled
with politics always produced despotism. He said you have had
it. I said yes, in times past — but all gone now. I said in
France and America no Obbligo, but sects, and sects are better
than indifferentism for Placidi's reason.
I said that in the Middle Ages the Church did right to take
and use civil power. He said Yes, but the epoch is past. Then the
laity were warriors or merchants onl)'- — now they are developed.
He seemed to approve securing the bank-notes on ecclesiastical
goods.
(S. Ercoli told me to-night that the ecclesiastical lands, etc.,
amounted in capital to £5,000,000.) Talked with Signor
Pengi about geological formation of Italy. He said that all the
Apennine is full of
(Blank space left, obviously for future filling up.)
Marchese BofFendi read a paper about Finance. A state
bank securing its notes on the goods of the Jesuits.
^ In the Diary, so copious in its notes and comments on men and things,
not an allusion, strange to say, is made by the Archdeacon to his first
presentation to the Pope.
390 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Awocato Petroni was for all ecclesiastical goods. ^
1 6 th, Palm Sunday. — The chanting of the Gospel sublime,
pathetic, articulate, calm, serene.
ISfh. — Beautiful. Went at night (8 o'clock) with the
Abbate, his brother, and a friend, a medical and a law student,
to Trinita dei Pellegrini. Saw the two refectories, lavanda,
and kitchen. First saw the washing the feet ; about thirty
men and boys. They sat round the room on a raised stone
bench against the wall, a tub to each. There was water laid
on all along the Avail. This part was railed off. They were
served by an equal number of brothers, priests, and laymen, in
red cassocks with sashes, and the laymen a band. Before they
began a Monsignore stood with three attendants and read a
prayer. The pilgrims responded, and said a pater, ave, three
glorias, a credo. Then the washing, which was thoroughly done,
then a prayer. Then they all went into the refettoria and sat
against the wall. Then grace ; and each had his attendant,
wearing a white apron with three pockets, standing opposite.
They had soup, a dish of hash, vegetables, salad, oranges, wine.
A reader read something ; then grace. Then I went up with
them to the dormitory. In this procession a brother came first
with a light, supporting one who seemed palsied ; they followed.
He chanting the Litany of the B. V. They kissed the foot of a
crucifix on a landing. When we got up, at the door stood a
brother with a brush and holy water. When all were in, a priest
preached a few words on perseverance ; then all knelt and said
an act of contrition ; then he sprinkled the holy water in the
name of the Holy Trinity. Then they repeated a thanksgiving
to the Holy Trinity ; and as we went a voice began the litany
of the B. V. again.
In the woman's part are 47 ; in both 77. The number is
small.
^ The system of raising money on other people's goods is a common device
of the Revolution in every country. In the Revolutionary war in Spain
against the first Don Carlos, the Christinos borrowed enormous sums of
money from great bankers and financiers of Paris, Vienna, and London, on
the security of Church property and lands in Spain. The Revolution would
have been soon put down by Don Carlos had not foreign money-lenders and
Jews had such a huge stake in its success. For if the Revolutionary party
had been defeated the Church of Spain would not have been despoiled of its
property. Hence foreign money, foreign armies, foreign legions, were year
after year poured into unhappy Spain, until, at the end of seven years' war-
fare, the Revolution triumphed. The vast Church property of Spain was
confiscated and the great financiers of Europe repaid their loans. In like
manner the Revolution in Italy was, as is seen in the Diary, speculating
on the confiscation of Church property.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 391
Cap. Sis. Mass and procession. Washing of feet in St.
Peter's ; Gospel side transept. The assistants sat dressed in white
on a high bench against what should be the east wall. The
Pope had a throne at the south. After a short office he went,
girded with an apron, down the aisles to the pilgrims washing
and wiping their feet.
Went to Cap. Sis. The Gospel, Eeproaches, Vexilla Regis.
Matins at Chapel of St. Peter's. Lamentations of Jeremiah.
Afterwards the exposition of relics from the balcony over S.
Veronica ; the chapel almost dark ; ten tall candles.
A pyramidical cross with the spear. A cross with relic of
the true cross. A frame of silver and gold with the Sudarium,
which had a dark centre.
Sistine Chapel. The Prophecies, the first in bass, very fine.
The Litany beautiful and most moving. The Mass. Gloria in
Excelsis. The Vespers. Alleluia and Magnificat. Beautiful.
In the Litany vestments changed. When they all knelt
they were mourning — when they rose up festal The change
very striking. The curtain before the picture also fell. Lights
for Pascal candle.
23rd. — Fine. Pontifical Mass at St. Peter's. The Elevation
towards four quarters of the world.
The Exposition of the 3 relics — the Pope at a faldstool.
The Benediction. The piazza full.
Evening. Vespers : music modern, unmeaning and noisy.
The Chancel open and lighted. Gorgeously wrought and
gilded doors ; and within a sarcophagus tomb apparently of
chased gold. Tall candelabra around upon the marble balustrade.
The illuminations highly beautiful and graceful. From the
Pincio before the gate of the French Academy, the ilexes
making an arch, under it the fountain, two basins — the upper
round, the lower octagon, a small column of water. Beyond
St. Peter's, welded out of flame against a deep blue sky with
stars. The light reflected on the fountain ; the stars coming
through the trees.
26^A.— Went with the Abbate and W. H.i to the Padre
Parroco of S. Lorenzo in Latere. We went through the House
of the Chicerici Minori in the sacristy. The P. P., a very frank,
open, gentle man, told us —
1. That the parish is about 5000.
2. That the parish priests are 3 ; he, a vicar, and an assistant.
3. That they are paid from public funds as indemnity, the
^ W. Harrison, an invalid, was the younger brother of Manning's great
friend, Archdeacon Harrison.
392 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
French having seized all ecclesiastical property. The Parroco,
25 scudi a month. Vicar, 20 do. Sub, 15 do. Sacristan,
7 do.
4. That they have 25 masses a day from 5 A.M. to noon.
The overplus being said by other priests either as alms or for
alms. Bequests existing.
5. That there is a sermon every Sunday at mass ; and
Christian doctrine at 3. At 6 an Exposition and Benediction.
6. That about 3500 ought to confess ; and not more than 20
fail, at least externally.
7. That the higlietti di Pasquo, are given after communion
at Easter, at the side of the altar, and are collected on the fort-
night following at their homes.
8. That as many communions as confessions.
9. That of the 3500, 60 per cent communicate at the
solemnities; 40 per cent monthly; 10 per cent weekly; 4 per
cent daily.
10. That all are obliged to communicate in the parish church
at Easter ; but that they may confess and frequent elsewhere as
they please. Ohhligo for Mass on Sundays only — not for Vespers
or Benediction.
[From the manner in which this last sentence is interpolated
in the Diary it is evidently a commentary of the Archdeacon's
own, surprised, perhaps, at learning for the first time that the
observance of Sunday is fulfilled as a matter of obligation by
the hearing of mass.]
11. That they may choose and change their confessor freely,
and without assigning reasons, going or coming.
12. That those who fail to communicate at Easter are not
proceeded against, at least in S. Lorenzo in Latere.
13. That women of bad life or others, after three admonitions,
are sent into some convent for exercises.^
14. That every rione^ has a school supported by public
funds ; the Princess Borghese brought 6 French sisters, one of
whom has a school in S. Lorenzo in Latere of 400 ; the manage-
ment being in the hands of a deputazione of ecclesiastics named
by the cardinal vicar.
15. That about 600 children are under instruction in the
parish schools (4) ; besides many who go to higher seminaries out
of it.
16. That the children in Eome are maintained by a fund of
5000 scudi in the hands of the cardinal vicar. Some years all
expended on one or two.
^ Spiritual exercises or retreats. ^ District or parish.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 393
17. That alms are given for the remaining expenses of
worship, etc.
18. That their time is much taken up by giving to the
government certificates of character for people wishing for
employment ; or for leave to go away — a sort of minor passport
police.
19. That there are no parishes in the Campagna.
20. That what he said of confession is true, also of paesi,
when there is means of daily confession.
'iOth. — Fine. Report to-day that the people of Rome addressed
the Pope yesterday to declare war against Austria. The Pope
would not. The people again replied that in that case, if their
troops were taken prisoners they would be treated as marauders ;
that the Pope must declare war. The talk is that the Pope
should go to St. John Lateran as his episcopal see, and leave the
government to the Romans.
8 o'clock. — Fidele tells me that two cardinals and Principe
Chigi have escaped from Rome ; that P. had been to
the Pope ; that the Pope had said he would take the night to
consider ; that the people say No, because many things may
happen in a night ; that Prince Doria ordered the gates to be
closed ; that an estafette going out was stopped ; and that the
people have entered the Castle of Saint Angelo. No doubt,
much of this untrue.
The Pope is said not to have slept all the night ; one of the
Guardia Nobile saw him this morning saying Mass, and said
his face was so changed that he hardly knew him. He has
appointed Princes Rospigliosi and Doria and Mamiani a
deputation to decide on the course. Four ways are open. (1)
A league offensive and defensive with Sardinia. (2) A direct
declaration of war by the Pope. (3) A cession of this part of
sovereignty to the lay government. (4) An abdication of
temporal sovereignty.
The third seems the course between ; but, if on the principle
of incapacity as a spiritual person, it is equivalent to the fourth,
for then he so far ceases to be sovereign, and it is a question
only of degree.
This is evidently the sense of the people, who, with one
exception, S. Mercuri, are all, so far as I have heard, of one
mind.^ One said, all foreigners thought the offices incompatible
long ago ; now the Italians and the whole world are agreed.
The Pope also accepted the resignation of ministers, but re-
^ " The people," that is the anti-Papal party, as represented in the Circolo
Romano.
394 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
ferred them to the deputation. They continue putting Mamiani
for Antonelli.^
It is said that they have seized all the letters of the car-
dinals and purpose to read them at the Capitol at two o'clock.
[Here follows an interlineation in the Diary : The letters
were restored unopened ; the people took them.]
I saw the house of Cardinal della Genga, who tried to escape,
guarded this morning.
6 o'clock. — The Pope sent carriages for Cardinal della Genga
and Cardinal Bernetti, also under guard.
The letters at the post-office opened, and the courier went
under the Avindow with civil guards at a foot's pace.
It is said that £2,000,000 of Church property is to be applied
to the war out of £30,000,000. The conventual is put at
£5,000,000.
9 o'clock. — Under the windows of the ministry Dr. Sterbini
tried to get heard. A mass of people shouting and hissing.
He trying to persuade them to have patience and wait for
the ministry to act : and said that we are in a state of
Revolution. They cried War, secular ministry, and Avould not
hear him. He and his two lights went in. Then Ciceroaicchio
and a lamp came out. He said, " I am for the war ; my son is
gone, and I would have. So far we agree. I am for a ministry
all secular." Then he went on about patience, and they would
not hear a word. And he went in with his lamp.
Then I went to the Circolo Romano, and I saw Conte
Mamiani and Antonio de . They were amusing them-
selves at the expense of Sterbini and Ciceroaicchio.
The Pope sent over his carriages to bring Cardinal Bernetti
and another to the Quirinal ; but the people Avould not let them
go. Cighi is there and della Genga. Ima went off three days
ago to visit his diocese. Every one I meet,^ with hardly an
exception, seems agreed that the Temporal Power of the Popes
has been abused in times past : Those who are for the separation,
on the ground of incompatibility ; those who are for retaining
it, on the ground that they ought not to make war. Signor
Toni to-night avowed that Julius II. was -wrong, and assented
when I said that the temporal policy of the Pope, and not
spiritual questions, divided England and Ital3\
Fideli is just come (10 o'clock) to tell me that after I left
the Corso, P. came. The people would not go till he
1 This is the first and ahuost only occasion of thu name of Antonelli being
mentioned in the Diary.
"^ Archdeacon Manning obtained his political information chiefly at the
Circolo Romano, a club frequented by the Revolutionary party in Rome.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 395
had promised to meet them at 9 in the Piazza del Popolo to-
morrow. They said, We will have war or revolution. They
would not hear of Ciceroaicchio.
Ind. — This morning as I got up (7 o'clock) I saw on the door
of S. Carlo a proclamation of the Pope explaining to the people
his Allocution of Saturday. When I went out at 9 I found it
torn down.
S. Mercuri tells me that the edict was a reproof of the
people for their molesting the cardinals yesterday, and threaten-
ing spiritual censures. He also says that Mamiani has been
sent for and has received full power to form a ministry. He
added that fths of the civil guards are Oscurantisti ; I sujipose
he means Bottigari of the slower school. He said that among
them are partisans of Austria, and paid.
Ab. M. talked much of the English Church ; asked many
questions about royal supremacy, appeal, definition of doctrine,
clergy, confession ; then we talked of celibacy. He said it is
not for us to speak a word when the Church has ruled ; but
my own opinion (and that of many more) is otherwise, on
grounds —
1. Of personal purity, (1) contradiction of instinct (said that
it was very common), (2) proximate occasions.
2. Of social example. Husband, wife, household, children.
Thought the ideal view of the priesthood abstract and mythi-
cal ; and practically
(Here apparently a page has been cut out of the Diary.)
and that he thought the episcopate to be divine and integral,
I said that this would have averted the division with England.
He said that a Pope of great genius and wide view is needed
to adjust the Church to existing facts.
Said that the episcopate in France is too despotic, and that
many priests have and are withdrawing themselves.
?>rd. — Went to Count Ambrosoli with Ab. Ceciolini. By
the way Ceciolini said that they wished for the separation of
spiritual and temporal powers, and that the Pope should have two
ministries at home, and two representatives abroad, expressing
his twofold office and character, ecclesiastical and civil ; that in
this way the twofold relations abroad might be preserved, and
the Pope be at peace with the Church, e.g. in Austria, while he
was at war with the empire.
Theoretically this seems to me more easy than sound.
Ambrosoli, a plain, frank man, with heavy Italian features,
not like, but of the texture of W. F. Hook, very simple manner.
Said that Abbate Ceciolini ought to apologise for hinting a
separation of the Austrian Bishops ; that they were too true.
396 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
but that certainly discipline was much relaxed since the Tempi
Giuseppine.^
Broechi tells me that Mamiani was exiled for a book against
the temporal power of the Pope ; that he was not included in the
amnesty, but that his family prayed his return to Rome, He
came by sufferance ; had an interview with Pius IX. ; became
intimate ; is now prime minister. Gatoki, minister of Police
under late ministry, was condemned to death.
Mamiani has formed a ministry with Prince Doria, D.
Bignano, De Rossi, Marchetti.
Dr. Pantaleoni says for one month.
Mr. Trench said he saw a young priest of about 30 reading
the Pope's address of yesterday morning against the Quirinal
with great intentness. When he had done, he looked around,
and seeing no one he took liis hat off and kissed the signature.
Went to-day to Santa Croce in evening. The church was so
cold and I so hot, I dared not stay for the Exposition of the
Relic. Yesterday I went to S. P. alle Tre Fontane. Saw \st, the
Church of S. Anastasio, an old Lombard church ; nave, some-
thing of the air of Horsham ; aisles, round windows, wheel in
east ; south transept, relics of St. Paul and Zeno Anast., kept
above in the choir of the old monastery Benedict, then Cistercian
cloister, where St. Bernard is said to have held a Chapter.
2nd. — S. P. alle Tre Fontane, the column and the three
fountains, on an inclined plane.
The 3rd. — Sta. Maria Scala Coeli, on the spot where St. Zeno
and 12,000 Christians who had built the Baths of Diocletian
were martyred ; under it a prison, in which St. Paul, it is said,
was confined.
Broechi tells me that Mamiani proposes to oflfer to Austria
the alternative (1) to withdraw from Italy ; or (2) a Avar.
Went to Circolo Romano. Saw Orioli. He said we have
had no government for a year and a half, i.e. no executive.
Went to Padre Ventura ; gave him Trevelyan's pamphlet.^
He said — (1) That palliatives would not do for Ireland. (2) That
all short of Repeal was onlj' palliative. (3) That Ireland could
never be fused as Scotland, because of the religious difference.
(4) That it was the bigotry of Anglicanism which kept Ireland
down. (5) That, like Sicily, Ireland must have its own parliament.
I, to turn the subject, said : I am inclined to believe Padre
^ The Emperor Joseph II. of Austria was an avowed enemy of the doctrine
and discipline of the Church.
* Trevelyan's pamphlet on Ireland, which, at Sidney Herbert's request,
Archdeacon Manning presented to the Pope. See Manning's letter to
Herbert, dated Rome, Uth February 1848, p. 376.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 397
Ventura, because he seems to me mezzo propheta, for in the
beginning of January he foretold the changes in Italy from
Naples to the Alps, and the surprise of the Koman Government.
About this time in came Ambrosoli.
They deplored the Allocution and Brief, said it cancelled
Pius IX. Perhaps we in Italy had made too much of a man
and looked too little to God ; ascribed it to the Nemesis at
Vienna and the Austrian Ambassador in Rome, and to the
Oscurantisti round the Pope, e.g. Borromeo ; Ventura then went
over what passed on Wednesday last on his visit to the Pope.
The Pope said not a word of his Allocution. The Ministry
knew nothing of it. It was printed before delivered. On
Sunday Ventura went to the Pope and remonstrated. The
Pope firm. Ventura told him that he had renounced Italy, and
the alliance of liberty and religion.
The French Ambassador went to the Pope, who asked what
eflfect will this Allocution have on religion in France. He said,
very serious. This the Ambassador told Ventura yesterday.
Ventura's advice was that the Pope should call the Italian Diet
of all Deputies now in Eome, with four Romans, and refer to
them the question of war.
Ambrosoli said that P. was to go to the Pope with a
schedule of propositions : —
1. That the Pope should offer mediation.
2. That the mediation should be assured.
3. That all forces should be under Carlo Alberto.
4. That the Austrians should leave Italy.
5. That certain public debts should be paid by Lombardy.
6. Or that, as an Italian prince, he should declare war.
Then we got back to Ventura's visit of December 16th to
the Pope, which he narrated to Ambrosoli, saying that " Feretti
was the Gomarro chi a guastato la vigna." Next he called him
diavolo and Ambrosoli matto.
He then told us that he had been with the Pope at the time
the King of Naples promised his Constitution and urged the
Pope to promise, and which he ought to have done before, so as
to be the first, both first in grace and second as a model. By
not doing this first, the model taken is French, and second, the
Roman Constitution is not a gift, but a concession.
Ventura then read a paper he ^vrote and put in type, in the
sense he would have had the Pope speak. It amounted to
saying : —
1. That at his election he found the temporal power needing
adjustment, (1) to the facts ; (2) to the age.
2. That he was prepared to do so.
398 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Ventura went a week afterwards, and the Pope said that,
being one of many Italian princes, he could not do this alone.
Ventura said, " May God make you know your power." The
Pope said " How 1 " Ventura said, " You are not a sovereign,
but a Pope, and if you do not see this you will lose your tem-
poral power." The Pope said, "That does not inspirit me."
Ventura said, " Not as G. Mastai ; but as Pope, answerable to
God and to the Church, it does greatly. You have a princedom
for the sake of the independence of the Church. All history
shows that Ghibellini Popes have been infamous, and Guelph
Popes beloved."
Ventura said, " Let not your Holiness look to the sovereigns
of Europe, who are shadows which may vanish within the year,
but to the peoples, who are realities and last for ever." We
then talked of the Roman journals, which, except the Laboro, are
all Radical — all without ideas or principles. The Censure and
the Cardinal Vicar press heavily on the Laboro because the
editors are ecclesiastics ; but the laics have free field.
Ventura urged the Pope to make an ecclesiastical paper on
these considerations : —
1. That it should be free.
2. That it should treat of the civil state of the Church in all
nations, the heresy of the day being oppression of the Church
by the civil power.
3. That it should set a tone to the episcopate.
4. That it showed the Romans that there is something beyond
the SS. Giovanni and the Piazza del Popolo.
The Pope would not. Ventura will not write, and the
Radicals have it their own way.
They talked of England, and said that Lord Aberdeen had
protested that the British fleet were in the Adriatic, and that
an attack was to be feared on Venice in alliance with Austria.
Ambrosoli said that the Pope's master mistake was confirming
the old household. Ventura said that he had told him that he
could not live in the Pontine marshes without catching the fever.
He said the Pope's popularity was gone ; that it had perished
even with the comeres, the lackeys ; that nothing can regain it.
The Progressists will never trust him ; the Oscurantisti never
forgive ; that to have given the first impulse is a sin that not
even baptism can cancel.
I walked away with Ambrosoli ; asked him how it was that
Acatholic countries outstrip Catholic in political advance. He
said that in Catholic nations there is a principle of authority.
I said of absolutism, which it is hard to keep from spreading
beyond its bounds, e.g. dogma.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 399
I asked if the doctrine of the Canonists as to the temporal
power of the popes is still held. He said No ; the divine right
is entirely given up.
This afternoon I saw Miss Plummer, who told me Miss
Giberne talked about the Freemasons, and quoted the Jesuits as
authority. They seem to have been saying that there is no
real popular movement ; but the work of secret societies, Free-
masons, etc., exciting the people.
Yet she admitted that all she met were in favour of the war.
The Padre P. said — That he had an ecclesiastic as penitent,
Avho in six years had given him no matter of absolution ; and
also some women.
bth. — Saw Abb6 Gerbet ; ^ found it was he who spoke to me
at the foot of the stairs and asked for a French family ; was
pleased with him then. He recognised me, and asked if it was so.
He Avas most kind and obliging. Told me that Lamennais is
still out of Italy ; that Ravignan is gone home to Paris ; that
religious orders in France are remaining or tolerated ; that the
principe d' association, i.e. the popular, is consecrated, that they
will get liberty of education and do something for the poor ;
that the bishops will meet in provincial councils ; that he
thinks they have not acted in common.
Went to the Catacombs of S. Agnese. The entrance is a
vineyard, | mile east of church, down flight of brick steps ; low
and narrow, with oblong cavities all open, and cleaned marks
where the ampolle stood.
Saw — 1. A chapel with frescoes, Moses and rock; Daniel and
lions ; three children ; Good Shepherd ; B. V. standing with
uplifted hands ; an altar with round arch over it ; ceiling a
vault of two arches, square.
2. A chapel for catechumens.
For women, with two seats :
One for priest, one deacon ; sedile all round.
3. Another for men with only one priest's seat, and no
running sedile.
4. Another with two seats, perhaps for famihes ; a seat
or confessional.
5. Another with two seats.
6. A chapel of B. V.
7. A church of two.
(The catacombs are illustrated by pen-and-ink sketches.)
All along occurred chapels two and two facing.
^ Abb6 Gerbet, afterwards Bishop of Perpignan, was a friend and pupil of
Abbe Lamennais before his falh
400 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
In the chapel of the B.V., met a French priest who seemed to
feel bound to deliver his soul.
He said that AbbtJ Gerbet and others thought the fresco to
be of the second century. He thought it to be of the fifth, of
the date of the Council of Ephesus, and brought it in proof of
the cultiis of B.M.V. at that date.
Of this it is no proof ; but it does show —
1. That the B.V. was held in special veneration by being on
the altar.
2. That her intercession though the same in genere with that
of all saints was a pre-eminence specific.
Of course it implies neither invocation nor ofiice. Still it
was a very high sentiment — the germ of all the rest.
Signor Pulcinelli (of the Pope's household) told me that the
Pope had received a letter from the Emperor of Austria, with
the signature of twenty-five bishops, threatening subtraction of
obedience.
5th May. — This is the Pope's Saints' day.
Last year there was a great illumination ; this, not a light.
News of a victory at Busselengi and shouts of lumi for Carlo
Alberto !
6^A May. — Went to St. Sebastian. Behind the south window,
a kind of apsidal aisle. An under chapel, which is the catacomb
of St. Stephen, opened and built over a century ago by a Bishop
of Risi, Cardinal. In it was St. Stephen's arms. He was
"ofi'ering sacrifice," and was martyred in the act and buried,
■\vith his arms covered with his blood. All round are arched
tombs ; thirteen said to be of popes.
The body of St. Fabian is in the church above. The bodies
of St. Peter and St. Paul are said to have been brought to this
catacomb for safety, and to have been there 100 years.
The body of St. Sebastian is under his altar, where is the
recumbent figure with arms.
The descent to the catacombs under his chapel, an under
chapel where his body once was ; now Sta. Lucina there. Over
the altar nearly opposite St. Sebastian are the relics.
The stone with impression.
An arm of St. Stephen.
The column to which he was bound.
Then we went to the catacombs where is a sepulchre, in
which the body of St. Cecilia was said to have been found.
Then to a chapel where lay the body of St. Maximin. Then
to a chapel where St. Philip Neri used to go to pray ; where
also he received the impress on his heart. A square chamber
with arched recess for altar, and a square credence.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 401
The Appian Way on either side.
Went to St. John ante P. Lat. A curious old church with
a cortile and gateway. Ionic columns, apses, basilica form.
Chai)ter of St. John Laterau, to whom it belongs, are bound to
say the offices there on this day. They were sitting in a capella
with five priests in crimson copes ; a cross facing the altar.
We came in for the Magnificat and procession to B.S. The
chapel plain and very simple, crimson fronted with gold lace.
Out of the cortile and towards the wall, a small octagon
chapel with marble altar, and under it a deep hole where it was
said the cauldron was placed.
Going out we passed the church.
A small church on the left. The ancient pavement runs
across the pavement in the church ; and in the centre is another,
the facsimile of that at St. Sebastian ; at each end in the wall a
painting of our Lord, two of St. Peter.
9th. — Walked with Abb6 Gerbet to Villa Wolgerski near
St. John Lateran. Talked of his Principe de certitude. He
said it needed revision.
The Villa Wolgerski is supposed to be the land given by the
Empress Helena. Marbles and inscriptions have been found.
The aqueduct of Nero runs across the garden, which is beau-
tiful, and the view of Rome from the roof is a panorama, having
the seven churches in sight.
Coming away he (Abb6 Gerbet) told me of the relic of the
Cross, the title, which he said he had examined ; that it is on
wood ; one half only existing ; and that a glass is needed to
read it ; that all the three lines are written from right to left ;
that in the Greek there are lunar (e) letters, which were
thought to be an objection ; but that they are found in the
MSS. at Pompeii, which are of the first century.
Will May. — Fine. At eleven had audience at the Vatican; ^
at two went and saw the wall at the Capitol, at six started with
the courier for Foligno. Left Rome in a warm sunset ; and
the evening came on soft and the moon clear ; caught one sight
of St. Peter's from about the Ponte Molle.
The graphic accounts, full of interesting details and com-
ments, which Archdeacon Manning recorded in his Diary,
of Perugia, Pisa, Assisi, and other cities through which he
^ On the day he left Rome, Archdeacon Manning had a private audience of
Pope Pius IX. The interview lasted more than half an hour. In the Diary,
otherwise so copious in notes and in detailed descriptions, the conversation
between, the Pope and Archdeacon Manning is dismissed with the mere
words, "Audience at the Vatican."
VOL. I 2 D
402 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
passed on his way home, are too copious and too detailed for
quotation : I cannot, however, refrain from giving in full,
accounts of Archdeacon Manning's friendly visits to Father
Luigi at the Convent of Gli Angeli, Assisi, and frequent
controversies with him and the other monks, as follows : —
13^^ May. — Started for Assisi, saw S. Pietro of the Bene-
dictines, a fine church and convent out of the town on high
ground. St. Catherine of Siena, in the south arch of choir,
heautiful.
View from Loggia, at back of Tribune (as in the church
I visited, near Homburg), wonderfully fine. (Blessing and
bowing. )
Then to Gli Angeli. Fra Luigi received me.
He said, ^^ Mi pare sacerdote"; I said, "delta Chiesa Anglicana."
We then went to church where compline was just beginning.
Under the dome is the Porziuncula, a rude stone chapel 45
by 21, about 30 feet to gable. At the gable two niches -with
figures, four angels at the corners. The chapel has a west door,
round-headed, with one round moulding. At the south side
another large round-headed door; on the north side two
windows, one square -headed, the other lancet, near the altar —
deep, broad.
Over west door is Overbeck's picture in fresco. The whole
end frescoed and diapered. On each side of church (inside)
kneeling desks for one each. Floor marble composition, steps of
altar marble. Screen of iron rails about 9 feet high, wrought
and gilded ; two or three rows of large lamps at intervals ; sides
of roof panelled oflF, and carved ^vith ex votos. Altar small, and
covered with gold, reredos all gold or gilt.
F. Luigi led me in and told me to sit ; but I went up two
steps of high altar till after compline. Then to the Porziuncula ;
then outside the door. After awhile the Host came under a
canopy with about five attendants, one a priest, who knelt at
altar. Then the friars, about 60, came in procession through the
transept and aisle, chanting.
They knelt in two lines down the churcL Then followed
paters and aves and glorias ; then the tune of Jesu dulcis
memoria, and I think the hymn. Then some prayers. Then I
think was sung Veni Creator (a triduo for the Eoman State
at this time), with some of the collects. Then Tantum Ergo
and the Benediction.
The whole was solemn and beautiful.
Then went into the sacristy and was introduced to the
Father guardian.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 403
The Porziuncula has an apse which seems modern, and is cut
off at the back of the altar and railed in.
Then I saw the chapel where St. Francis died. His chamber,
and a door said to be the original.
(Here follows pen-and-ink sketch of chapel.)
7 o'clock. — AValked up towards Assisi. The moon broke out
and reminded me of Harrow and Oxford, under a cloudless
sky and yellow moon. The whole country green with fresh
verdure and foliage ; and the frogs croaking in the water by the
roadside ; as the evening fell I got into Catonia.
9 o'clock. — Went and talked with F. Luigi and the
Infirmarian. F. Luigi spoke well of the English ; of their good
writers.
He then said he hoped for union.
I said " It was my daily prayer."
He said " You are a young man and will see it, I am 80."
I said " I hope you will see the church finished." He begged
3i years.
He said "The last and the present Pope both looked for it."
I said " People here do not know us. We believe that we
are baptized and believe the Faith."
He said " I know there are only a few points of diflference."
Then he asked the number of our churches ; and whether we
had the Succession ; about Absolution ; services.
The Infirmarian got uneasy.
F. Luigi asked whether we held Purgatory.
I said " We held a third state, in which all are ; not mixed,
but waiting ; the bad for torment, the good purifying."
The Infirmarian said, " The bad go to hell," which is the coun-
ter-proposition to Protestants sending all to heaven ; yet he ad-
mitted that the Resurrection would unite their bodies in torment.
At last he got more uneasy and said, "One point is enough," as
against F. Luigi's few points. I said " You mean the separation."
I quoted invincible ignorance ; he would not admit it, and I said,
because of separation ; then quoted MuUi Oves. I said it was
better to be less than more, and that he as an Infirmarian
would admit the analogy, which he did unwillingly, I argued
there is only one Church ; I quoted St. Augustine, MuUi Oves.
He, St. Paul. I, St. Thomas ; he, the Church. At last he got
up and went, as if to testify.
Spiritual light, which is love, overflows intellect like water in
the basin of a fount ; intellect, which is light without love, dwells
in its own margin. F. Luigi said, " We in Italy are on the eve of
times worse than the Reformation ; lo dico con lagrime agli occhi."
The things F. Luigi could least get over were the putting the
404 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
bread into the hand of the communicant; the thought of break-
ing it "with teeth ; and the rejection of the Extreme Unction.
He asked about confession and absolution, especially for the sick ;
about ordination, ritual, accipe Spiritum Sanctum; absolvo te.
(The Infirmarian said, "That without penances, absolutions
avail nothing.") About one baptism in and out of the Church ;
mitre ; priests' vestments ; feasts ; F. Luigi did not seem to
hold to the objection of our not having them in offices for
saints. But pressed the absence of saints and miracles, said
that it left the people in crassa ignoranza (invincible) ; claimed
both as frequent in the Roman Church.
After this (10 o'clock) went to supper, wine and tea, eggs and
omelette. Two of the lay brothers waiting.
F. Luigi was like St. Francis, and the Infirmarian seemed to
me to be a Catholic High Churchman of the Roman Church.
F. Luigi was as full and firm in dogmatic belief, but the sharp
lines were melted off by a fervent charity. He seemed a loving
old man, ripe in years, and loving knowledge of God and man ;
gentle, hopeful, and just. The Infirmarian seemed zealous, eager
for truth, unyielding, urging literal formulas to consequences
contrary to axioms of natural religion, and of the revealed
character of God. Withal by overstraining the doctrine of the
Church he lost hold of it.
Sunday, lUh May. — Went to the church at half-past eight;
started and walked up towards Assisi ; fell in with three
women, one of the third order of St. Francis ; the other two
of the confraternity of St. Stephen. They are bound by rule
to go 6, 7, and 8 Sundays (as certain years run) to Gli
Angeli. In bad weather the women may go to S. Francesco.
One, Soeur Cardelli, told me that there was a monastery of
Bavarian Franciscan Sisters near her house, of saintly life ; one
was made Abbess of Novara. As Cardinal Mastai passed to the
Conclave in 1846, she told him he was going to take up a great
and bloody cross upon his shoulders. She explained that he
was to be elected. After this event Pope Pius IX. sent for her
to Rome ; and she had revelations of attempts on his life. So
they believe ; and much more, as of the appearance of Satan in
token of the trials coming on Italy, and of one of the sisters
carrying the child Jesus through their garden. When we got to
Assisi I went first to S. Francesco. I shall never forget the
first entrance into the church. The sunlight outside was white
with brightness ; the door, a pointed narrow door, with red
marble shafts, twofold and a centre, looked black ; when I got
in I saw little but the windows of chapels and transept. After
awhile I be^an to see the frescoes looming through the darkness.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 405
Then the high altar, Avith the wrought-iron screen and gilding.
The pitch of the roof and the pillars gave it a most impressive
look ; like the under church of York, pointed. Also it is so
irregular as to entangle one's eye. It had a solemn imposing
effect, beyond almost any church I can remember.
(Here follows a pen-and-ink ground-plan.)
The form of the church is a Latin Cross with an end like
the seven chapels at Durham. Windows like the style of West-
minster Abbey. Over this, going up by the sacristy, is the
upper church, a Latin cross of a style we should call Early
English ; groined chief door opening upon a piazza higher than
the roof of the second church. The windows, lancet lights, pointed
and fourfoil, with apertures.
The under church and sanctuary white marble, and of
a modern French look, not pleasing. Mass at the altar of St.
Francis in the second church ; then through the cloister to the
ambulatory round west and south sides of the convent.
View wonderful.
About 50 brothers, of whom 20 priests. At Gli Angeli 150
brothers; at S. Damiano about 12; at S. Chiava about 20
sisters. S. Apoll. Benedictine nuns, four veiled this morning.
From this I went to the Piazza, up a street with many marks
of Lombard architecture, with chapels frescoed, one open, one
shut. Fountains and a Monte di Pieta of Lombard architecture.
In the Piazza a temple of Minerva, now a church. Fluted columns,
and before it the old Eoman altar with curious incisions. The
old level about 10 feet below the modern. Then to the Cathedral,
a fine Lombard face, door, and wheel windows, but much ruined
by modernism. Then Chiesa Nuova, where is the old street door
of St. Francis's house, and the place where they say he was
crucified. They are now in the angles of an octagon church.
Then to S. Chiava. Lombard ; groined ; wheel window ; apse.
Going out of the gate to S. Damiano saw a cross into which
was let another, being the same that St. Catherine of Siena
carried in a mission at Assisi. After dinner to S. Damiano,
lying under the brow of the hill S.S.E. of the city ; reminded
me of Heme Bay and the moat.
A courtyard. Church with ambulatory.
(Here follows ground-plan, with minute description.)
Including the window through which St. Francis threw the
money, and the choir of St. Clare and window of Saracens.
Above was the dormitory reaching over the whole nave ; and
at end the window which is painted outside with the Saracens
falling, and St. Clare within carrying the ciborium, followed
by her nuns.
406 CARDINAL MANNING cha.p.
An oratory of St. Clare, and her chamber, with steps out of the
dormitory, also by the stairs up to the oratory. A small loggia
with a place for flowers looking south over the plain.
Hardly anything has more interested me. The church is
like one of our rude Early English, with an apse ; much ruder
than Upwaltham. The refectory reminded me of the groined
roof at Old Waltham and Hardham. Altogether I felt it the
most English sight I have seen, and it gave me a home feeling.
Among the I'elics are the alabaster ciborium St. Clare is said to
have carried against the Saracens. Her breviary, and the bell of
her convent which rings with a soft tone, a portion of linen
with which she staunched St. Francis's wounds. A chalice to
purify hands, as I understood, perhaps before carrying Host.
The choir is most rude. The seats are as it were one bench
divided into 12 or 13 squares.
There is an excommunication against innovation. In the
refectory there is a cross let into the table where St. Clare sat.
(Now the P. guardian.) St. Clare's chamber now the curia of
the Provincial.
In the marble choir round the upper moulding of the canopy
of stalls : Non Vox sed Votum. Non clamor sed Amor. Non
cordula sed Cor.
Coming back, went again to St. Clare, to which after the
attack of the Saracens St. Clare migrated. Her body lies
under the high altar ; a door lamp is always burning under the
grating ; so dark and hidden that the first time I did not see it.
The exact site of the body is not known, only that it is there ;
which also I find said of St. Peter. This seems to me to be
honest and religious.
Saw also the crucifix placed in Campo Doro which is said to
have spoken to St. Francis, and the aperture through which St.
Clare communicated.
Then came down to Gli Angeli.
Bid farewell to F. Luigi. He bade me consider and take
counsel of some competent Catholic in England ; said that God
loves England, and that many are coming to the true Church, as
many have already. Chiesa dell' Ingleterra, Chiesa Inglese, Chiesa
di Londra.
I asked his prayers ; said we may never meet again ; then I
said, " My one only aim in life is to unite my soul with God. If
an unworthy sinner dare say this, I will dare."
He said Ah ! and kissed my right cheek, much moved. We
gave the kiss of peace and I went away.^
1 Cardinal Manning in 1887 said he could not recollect F. Luigi's parting
words, which he had forgotten to put down at the time in the Diary.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 407
The walls of Ravenna low, of red brick, with a kind of moat.
Fertile and cultivated, but still desolate, with a look and a feel-
ing of a fallen city.
Dante's tomb adjoining S. Francesco. An unworthy build-
ing, with poor sculptures.
W. H. and I wrote our names in a book kept there. I hardly
sufficiently collected consciousness enough to be interested as I
expected.
Certainly no poem has ever impressed me and lived in me as
the Divina Commedia.
At 12.30 started for Forli; got in at 5.
Neapolitan cavalry on their way to Lombardy.
At midnight was woke by their bugles.
Started in a carriage for Florence. For the last 15 miles the
fireflies hovered in clouds on the sides of the road ; in the gardens,
on the fountains, over flocks of sheep ; in high garden gates ; down
in the beds of rushes by the river-side ; sometimes upon the
horse and close over our heads. It seemed as if the air was
alive and on fire, emitting drops of light.
27//i. — Mass at St. Philip Neri's altar. Head of silver, with
relic. Mass at S. M.
Responses of nuns (out of sight), very soft, tender, distant,
plaintive.
Oratory of the Philip". Compline sung by one priest and a
great number of men and boys, lay, in common dress. Unison
very good.
Then a panegyric by a Dominican.
He said Rome had been twice converted ; once from idolatry,
again from corruption. The first by Apostles, the second by
Philip Neri. The first from Paganism ; Babylon fell, and holy
Rome arose edificata da Filippo.
Then a hymn before the altar, and a relic carried round, kissed
and laid on the forehead.^
?>\st. — Went to Lucca by train.
Cathedral built by Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, afterwards
Alexander II., who blessed William the Conqueror's banners
against England.
The following extracts from the Diary are interesting
1 In his Diary Archdeacon Manning nowhere says in so many words, that
he took a personal part in the veneration of relics which he so often witnessed
and described with touching fidelity. Yet from the tone and spirit of his testi-
mony I have no doubt that at St. Philip Neri's Oratory at Florence, for
instance, the relics of the saint were laid on the forehead and pressed to the
lips of the Archdeacon of Chichester.
408 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
as pointing once more the contrast between nature and
man : —
Got into Perugia about six. Stopped by the way for the
benediction at a Httle church just outside. At eight o'clock, as
I sat in my room, heard the litany.
loth Mmj. — Beautiful. Started (post 2 hours) at quarter to
nine. Passed Lake of Thrasymene. The site of the battle plain.
1. The open hill laid waste to draw Flaminius.
2. The woods where the C. horse lay hid.
3. The road by which the Romans followed from Arezzo.
•i. The bottom surrounded by mountains, and lake in which
they were surrounded.
5. Road to Perugia from Arezzo.
7. The Sanguinelto.
It must have been a day of slaughter, and the streams ran
red into the lake. A more complete shambles for the slaughter
of an army cannot be conceived. The mountain, now Mount
Gualandro, shoulders off towards the lake doing two things —
draAving the road into a funnel, so as to force the Roman army
to enter ; and hiding the ambush till they were entered. On
the outside there is not a sign of the amphitheatre inside. So
at the other end, at Passignano, there is only the breadth of the
road between the mountain and the water. To scale the moun-
tain was impossible in the face of armed men. I could not help
thinking what agony must have been then, when the reality
burst on them ; and for three hours they fought to desperation.
What miseries of Rome, and all sacred homes, and loved faces,
when their hearts were breaking.
And what a witness to the eternity of nature ! To-day it
was as still and bright and calm as if no storm and bloodshed
had ever been there. The lake as smooth as a glass ; beds of
rushes running out ; boats with high prows lying half hid and
waterlogged ; here and there a bark steering to the islands and
the convent ; along the shore hung fishing nets strained in the
sun. Trees thick set, festooned %\ath flowers ; wheat and beans
growing beneath. Oxen tied to the olive-trees, and peasants at
their noonday meal under the shade. Nature the same as ever.
Not a footprint, not a shield, not a corse, not a drop of blood,
but earthy, green, and fruitful.
Piers square ; triforium very rich, pierced and open ; tran-
septs divided into two ; chapels of Voto Santo (Zurich).
Carpet of iron, hanging from ceiling, in which flax is burnt
before the archbishop when he celebrates. Sic transit gloria
muruli. Done before Pope at his coronation only.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 409
Archbishop wears the purple ; canons white.
S. Giovanni ; Lombard, basilica style, square. Baptistery
against north wall of apse. Fresco of Madonna, St. Catherine,
St. Lucy, and S. Tridiano, with mosaic fine and rich.
Beautiful picture by F. Francisco. The B. V. an ideal,
fair and very bright, kneeling, at the right side angels and
cherubim. Below, St Anselm, St. Augustine, David and
Solomon. Fine round sculptured font. S. Tridianus was son
of an Irish king, 550 ; ^ went to Rome, returned to Ireland,
founded monastery, came back to Lucca. See vacant, elected
bishop, died 578, i.e. 17 years before the mission of St. Augustine,
when England was Saxon and heathen again.
The church has an outline of a Norman church. A high
clerestory. Three marks, nave, sacrarium and apse, five round
pillars, lamb, Corinthian heads. Then a square pillar, then two
round and a square pillar ; then the apse ; then windows long
and round-headed. Nine in the aisles ; five in the clerestory,
with two inserted, having lancets. The style is very simple and
severe. The west front has a baluster window and a dome.
Fireflies in the dark streets flying along before or round
one's feet.
1iul June. — Fine. Left Leghorn, Genoa at 11.
The revolving light like a great eye issuing forth. When it
turned its dark side looked like a great bat on two white
wings.
Uh. — Saw a body of Croat prisoners brought in. Rumour
that Pius IX. has promised to crown Carlo Alberto with the
iron crown at Milan. This is virtually to depose the Emperor
and to invest the King of Sardinia. Yet it may be treated only
as an act of recognition, e.g. we recognised Louis Philippe and
the French Republic ; and the Pope's act is ex post facto.
On the 7 th of June, Archdeacon Manning arrived at
Milan, and in his Diary is the following account of St.
Charles and his shrine and city : —
1th June. — Milan. Duomo. I find it please me more than
last time, for I am less critical and observe details less.
A verger came and off"ered to show me St. Charles. Called a
priest custode ; we went down, very dark. The priest showed
me the outside. I asked to see the saint. He put me ofi";
said it was exposed 8 days in the year ; that three families had
been that day and gone without seeing more. I asked if per-
mission was needed ; he said. No. Then asked whether I wished
1 Obit A.r>. 588.
410 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
to see it. I said, Yes. He was only trying me. Then lighted
the tapers and let down the front and drew the crimson curtains.
A crystal and gold sarcophagus, hung with rings and offerings.
Within lay St. Charles in episcopal vestments of gold cloth and
the gold mitre, a pastoral staff of gold and precious stones,
gloves and shoes.
His height not great, rather inclining to size. The face a
darkened colour (having been 40 years in the earth before his
canonisation, in a damp place), the nose sunk, but the profile
like the portraits, i.e. the upper lip, mouth, chin, receding as in
faces with prominent nose ; the mouth rather long. The chapel
plated with metals, silver and silver gilt, approached by ante-
chapels, as St. Francis at Assisi ; open to the nave by an oblong
octagon, with eight lights not worthy for magnitude. Bought
two medals blessed by the Pope ; a portrait in embroidery done
after his death, like all the portraits of him, but giving colour
and softness.
Frederigo Borromeo lies buried in the middle of the pavement
at the step of the altar of B. S., N. transept.
In Milan every second house has the Italian tricolor, and
the churches in Fiola.
8th. — Church of S. Ambrogio. The shrine of St. Ambrose
with SS. Gervasius and Protasius, silver gilt, gold enamel, precious
stones Avrought into panel with alto relievo, life of our Lord in
front ; St. Ambrose at the back. Silver doors at the back ;
within only a porphyry slab.
Chief west door bronze, said to have belonged to the doors
closed by St. Ambrose against Theodosius. Then to Duomo.
Saw the shrine of St. Charles from above, opened and lighted
for some party below.
Then to Archbishop's palace. South transept door leads doAvn
under the piazza and street, and comes up into the second quad-
rangle.
In the clerestory 2 statues, St. Charles and St. Ambrose.
At the Duomo, Milan, high mass. Chapter wear — 1 scarlet,
2 green, 3 black with white. Four women in black and white
came and stood at the confessional of St. Charles. Then went
up with a procession to the front of the altar, and came back
and stood as before. One carried a small glass cruet. Query,
the order of widows 1 The gospel chanted from the circular
ambo round the pillai'.
Archdeacon Manning left Milan ou the 9 th of June.
The following are the concluding passages of his Diary : —
12tk. — The view I knew of Lucerne I could not find. It was
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 411
dissolved by change of position. I saw Mount Pilat, but could
not find the Eighi nor the site of Lucerne until we stood into a
bay, and the Kighi ran behind, and the long shore of green with
white houses ; and the bay with the town and bridge like a
sickle ; and the church with its two spires and Mount Pilat, and
the deep woodland and pasture below. The whole view of
my room window came together in form. The changes on the
lake, with many horizon lights, colours, shadows, from burning
sunlight to pale dove-coloured gray and faint rose tinting ; then
icy white, with an opaque clearness as if of driven snow, with
the sharp white jagged points lighting the sky.
\1th. — Fine, but cloudy. Rain at 4 to 9, evening. Started
from Cologne 6.30. Ostend, 9 p.m.
ISth. — Fine ; high wind. Ostend, started ^ to 10. Tarland.
Dover, 3.15. Christ Church; Hymn after 2nd Coll.; Train
6.15. London, 10.30; Cadogan Place, 14 past 11.
Toj 0ew Ao^a.
On the perusal of his Diary, so specially interesting as
showing the state of his mind in regard to the Church of
Eome, the first thought, almost, which would arise in the
mind of most readers is, How came it to pass that the
writer — setting such store, as he evidently did, on the object-
ive character of Catholic worship, showing such sympathy
with its dogmatic teaching — did not forthwith join the
Catholic Church ?
It is not easy for any one, but to a man of Archdeacon
Manning's character and cast of mind it was almost a
superhuman task to admit, at all events in public, that
he was in error ; to throw over the convictions of a life-
time, which had seemed based on an immovable rock ;
to unclothe his mind of its ancient vesture — its old
habits and associations and modes of thought; to stand
bare and barren of authority before his own people, whom
he loved so well, and in his own Church, where he was held
in such reverence.
Others, again, might raise the objection that an
Anglican divine of high standing and authority in his own
Church had no right to take such constant part in Catholic
worship ; more especially in that peculiar and distinctive
Catholic devotion for which, as his Diary shows, he felt such
412 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
an attraction — the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
It must not, however, be forgotten that High Church
Anglicans like Archdeacon Manning, more perhaps in that
day than in ours, looked upon the Roman Church as the
elder sister of the Anglican. In Catholic countries they
regarded it as a primary duty not to act as if they were
schismatics by attending Anglican chapels abroad. By
hearing mass in Catholic churches on Sundays and saints'
days, Archdeacon Manning only discharged his duty and
his obligation as an Anglo-Catholic.
What, however, is most curious and worthy of note is
Archdeacon Manning's familiarity with priests and monks
and nuns, so long before his conversion. He was at home
in Catholic churches, a devout and edified listener to the
preaching friars, a reverent worshipper at mass and benedic-
tion, as his Diary bears ample witness. His was an almost
exceptional case ; except Frederick Faber and Mr. AUies,^
none of the numerous converts who preceded or followed
John Henry Newman in the memorable exodus of 1845
drew their inspiration from a like source. Newman
himself, as he tells us, never saw a Catholic priest
before Father Dominic received him into the Church
at Littlemore, save two : one, an Italian priest who kindly
visited him when he lay ill at Palermo in 1833 ; and
Father Damien, the priest at Oxford whom Newman, when
he was appointed Vicar of St. Mary's, called upon and
^ Frederick Faber, on his visit to Rome in 1843, was in constant com-
munication with Dr. Grant, then chaplain to Cardinal Acton, afterwards
Bishop of Southwark, as well as with devout priests aud learned theologians.
Faber had a private audience of Pope Gregory XA^I. Dr. Baggs, Rector of
the English College, acted as interpreter. In a letter to Rev. J. B. Morris,
Faber gave the following account of Pope Gregory. . . " We had a long con-
versation ; he spoke of Dr. Pusey's suspension for defending the Catholic
doctrine of the Eucharist with amazement and disgust. He said to me ' You
must not mislead yourself in wishing for unity, yet waiting for your Church
to move. Think of the salvation of your own soul. ' He then laid his hands on
my shoulders, and I immediately knelt down ; upon which he laid them on
my head and said, ' May the grace of God correspond to your good wishes, and
deliver you from the nets {insidie) of Anglicanism, and bring you to the true
Holy Church ' " {Life of F. W. Faber, by John E. Bowden, 1869, p. 196). In
like manner, Mr. Allies, the eminent writer, was dccjily attracted in his visits to
Catholic countries by the beauty, solemnity, and devotion of Catholic worship.
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 413
claimed as his parishioner. Oakeley told me he never saw,
or spoke with, a Catholic priest until he was received into
the Church by the Eev. Father Newsham, at the church of
St. Clement's, Oxford. Mozley relates that Oakeley once
went by accident into a Catholic chapel, and rushed out
in a panic on discovering where he was.^
In this free and frequent commerce with Catholic
ecclesiastics — not indeed in England, where he regarded
the Catholic Church as an intrusive and schismatic body —
Manning seems to have followed, as in almost everything
else, a course of his own. Unlike Newman and Dalgairns
and Ward and Oakeley, and so many others, who went
over to Eome six years before he ventured to take that
step, the Archdeacon of Chichester had an intimate and
practical knowledge, as we have seen, of the working of the
Catholic system, such as no man — with two notable ex-
ceptions — outside the Church of Eome, at any rate at
that date, was possessed of.
In speaking of his Eoman Diary, Cardinal Manning,
with the quiet smile which was characteristic of him when
he was criticising himself, said : " It will be as hard to get
interest out of my Eoman Diary as to get sunshine out of
a cucumber."
This criticism of his own is true in the sense at least
that there is a singular lack of the sunshine and glow of
enthusiasm in his reminiscences and records of Eome —
the city alike of the Caesars and the Popes. In truth, he
seemed to be just as indifferent to the glories of Papal as of
Pagan Eome. In an Oxford scholar, now walking along
the Appian Way, now passing under the Triumphal Arch
of Titus, or standing at the foot of the Capitol, or gazing
on the vast ivy - clad (as they then were) ruins of the
Colosseum, one might reasonably have expected some hint
at least, or intimation, that he was conscious or mindful of
the glories and triumphs of Pagan Eome ; of a past civilisa-
tion, to which those ruins are still a living witness. No
^ In Historical Notes of the Tractarian Movement, p. 112, Canon Oakeley
said, "I myself was never in a Catholic Church in these islands but once,
when I made a speedy retreat under a panic of conscience."
414 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
one, indeed, should expect in such a Diary, not written for
publication, elaborate descriptions or profound reflections ;
but what we miss, in its still living presence as it were,
is the almost involuntary recognition of the mighty Past
which would naturally arise, it should seem, in the heart,
and find at least a passing expression in a tribute to fallen
greatness.
Again, to the lover of the unique beauties of Eome,
of its artistic glories, of the picturesque splendours of its
surrounding scenery, it is more than disappointing to find
in Archdeacon Manning's Diary little or no allusion made —
as if his mind were unconscious of what his eye saw — of
the unrivalled glories of nature or of the manifold wonders
of men's handiwork. But Archdeacon Manning was not
gifted with the poet's imagination. The beauties and the
splendours of Eome, natural and artistic, its historic and
papal grandeur and greatness, described with such touching
tenderness, in such vivid colours, and with such eloquent
enthusiasm, by Father Faber in his Sights and Thoughts in
Foreign Churches, were invisible to the eye, or perhaps beyond
the reach of Manning's imagination. A sunset on the Eoman
Campagna — and sunsets in Eome differ in glory from sun-
sets elsewhere — purple and crimson and golden, imparting
a glow and a glory all its own to the vast, open, almost
immeasurable expanse, which stretches before the eye,
undulating like the sea, and almost as mysterious, excited,
as far as the records of his Diary attest, in Manning's mind
no other sensation or interest than a yearning desire after
the spiritual welfare of the scattered and isolated inhabit-
ants of the vast Campagna Eomaua. The explanation of
this apathy, real or apparent, to all that in Eome most
delights the hearts of others, or attracts their eye, is to be
found in the declaration which Cardinal Manning had more
than once made to me : " From the beginning I was a priest
and a priest only." Not things pagan, nor artistic, nor of
the natural order, but spiritual things alone touched his
heart or interested his observant eye.
More difficult, however, of interpretation is the strange
silence observed in the Diary in regard to two events of
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 415
singular interest and importance, namely, Archdeacon
Manning's meeting with John Henry Newman at Rome,
in 1847, and his audience with the Pope. Newman had
but recently abandoned the Church of England. His con-
version had caused a singular sensation, a commotion
without precedent in England. Lord John Eussell spoke
of it as " an unaccountable event " ; Mr. Disraeli described
it, many years afterwards, as " a shock from which England
still reels." A meeting, under such circumstances, of two such
men — Newman preparing for the priesthood under the shadow
of St. Peter's, and Manning an Anglican clergyman, high
in office and in dignity, holding back with might and main,
and with all his persuasive influence, multitudes of men
and women — the outstanding remnant of Newman's follow-
ing — from entering the wide-open portals of the Catholic
Church — should have inspired, one would have thought,
something more than a curt entry, with one or two dry
details, in the Diary. In fact, little or no more space was
given to this meeting with Newman than was allotted on
the self-same day to the record of the weather. No
intimate conversation took place between these two men,
standing face to face, as it were, at the shrine of the
Apostles ; no allusions were made by either as to the past
and its struggles, the present with its doubts and trials, or to
the hopes and fears of the future. The Archdeacon of
Chichester was at the time in such a state of mind as
to be unable to define clearly his own position, far less to
formulate a judgment on what he dared not now call, even
in his own mind, Newman's " fall," as he had done in his
correspondence with Mr. Gladstone three years before.
Hence, naturally, he would not trust himself to the ex-
pression of an opinion on that memorable meeting, in the
private pages even of his own Diary. Henceforth, save
with one passing allusion, the name of Newman is not
again mentioned.
Still more unaccountable is the utter absence of any
record in his Diary of its writer's private audience with
Pope Pius IX. Not a line, not a word, not a syllable,
beyond the mere record of the fact, and that in the baldest
416 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
form : " Audience to-day at the Vatican." The Pope's name
even is not mentioned ; Newman's name was not indicated
in the Diary further than by its initial letter. Even such
scant recognition was denied to Pius IX. — Pius IX. with
whom, and only a few years later, he was on tenns of such
close and intimate friendship. To a man of Archdeacon
Manning's antecedents, not to speak of his position in the
" sister Church," a private meeting, still more a long conver-
sation with the Pope of Eome, could not but be an occasion
or an occurrence of exceptional interest. Was the wise
and cautious archdeacon afraid that, if once committed to
paper, an account of his conversation with the Pope might
somehow or other reach suspicious ears, and arouse perchance
against him the clamours of a too susceptible Protestantism
at home ? On the other hand, it is just possible that the
grave and reverend Archdeacon of Chichester was disap-
pointed with the Pope's reception, and preferred to pass
over in silence what perhaps appeared to him the flippant
or ignorant allusions of Pius IX. to the Anglican Church.
The Pope, it seems, knew a great deal about Mrs. Fry and
the Quakers, but little or nothing about Archdeacon
Manning's own creed, and even less about Anglican worship.
His HoHness expressed his surprise on learning from the
archdeacon that the chalice was used in the Anglican
Church in the administration of Communion. " What ' "
exclaimed Pius IX., " is the same chalice made use of by
every one ? "
Such an amazed expression of surprise ; such ignorance
of Anglican ritual and belief on the part of the Pope,
unwitting of offence, may have well fallen like a douche
of cold water on the susceptible temper of a high Anglican
dignitary. Little wonder then, if such really were the case,
that Pius IX.'s name is omitted from the Diary, and the arch-
deacon's audience with the Pope reduced to a form so bald as
almost to be obscure.^
1 In his "Journal," dated 1878-82— which I had not seen at the time, as
the above account was based only on his contemporary Diary — Cardinal
Manning explains the reticence about his interview with Pope Pius IX. in
1848 as follows : — " I remember the pain I felt at seeing how unknown we
were to the Vicar of Jesus Christ. It made me feel our isolation."
XIX ARCHDEACON MANNING IN ROME 417
Happily Cardinal Manning made amends for the Arch-
deacon of Chichester's omissions, for he supplied me from
memory with the following brief account of his interview
with Pius IX. in 1848, with which I may fittingly bring to
a close these remarks on Archdeacon Manning's Diary : —
On May 8, 1848, was the first audience with Pius IX.
Sidney Herbert (Lord Herbert) had commissioned me to have
translated into Italian Mr. (Sir Charles) Trevelyan's pamphlet,
showing what the Government had done during the famine in
Ireland, and to present it to the Pope. I did so, having marked
the chief passages, which Pius IX. read.
He then said " There was a good lady who did much to reform
the prisons." I said Mrs. Fry, a Quaker. He then asked about
their tenets. Then he asked about the Anglican Church, and
the observance of the Sunday and the feasts. Then about the
communion, and how often administered. Then about "both
kinds," and whether it was the same chalice that was shared by
all. Then he spoke of the many good works done in England,
and added, "When men do good works God gives grace," and
he looked upwards and said, "My poor prayers are offered
every day for England."
This conversation lasted a long time, but I did not write it
down, and I cannot now remember more. But these points I
have never forgotten.
VOL. I 2 E
CHAPTER XX
THE COMMITTEE OF PRIVY COUNCIL ON EDUCATION AND THE
NATIONAL SOCIETY RULES FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE IN ARCH-
DEACON manning's SERMONS
1849
The National Society, established for the purpose of
defending the Church of England's schools from an attempt
on the part of the State to introduce a system of secular
education, had long been the battle-field of rival parties in
the Church. After the attempts made in 1838 and 1839,
first, to separate secular from religious instruction ; and
next, to separate education from the Church, had been
defeated by the strenuous exertions of the clergy and
laity, the Committee of Council on Education entered
into a concordat, which was embodied in Minutes and pub-
lished by order of Council. This agreement, concluded in
1840, established a modus vivendi on the subject of education
between the Civil Power and the Established Church.
Under this system, it was provided that the schools,
aided by grants of public money, should be visited by
inspectors appointed by the Crown with the concurrence
of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. The manage-
ment of the schools, however, was exempted from all inter-
ference on the part of the inspectors. This concordat worked
fairly well for a time ; but like all concordats or compromises
it left a side-gate open, or a weak point liable to be seized
upon by the enemy. The Whigs, or the irreligious party
in the State, on their return to Office, soon renewed their
attempt to tamper with the religious education of the
cuAv. XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 419
country. It was the seed-time for the enemies of Christian
education, which in due course has produced the full-blown
Secularist party of to-day.
In the year 1846 the new attack was opened. The Com-
mittee of Council on Education, under Kaye-Shuttleworth
— the Mr. Acland of that day — was a watchful enemy and
sly. In the trust-deeds of newly-founded schools Clauses
of Management were inserted by the Committee, which
virtually destroyed the freedom of the School by making
it dependent on the State as joint-founder. The National
Society opposed this insidious encroachment on the part of
the civil power. For three years the contest continued.
In the National Society — though all its members were
pledged to resist to the utmost every attempt on the part
of the State to interfere with the freedom of the schools —
there were three parties. One party was composed of
those who, on principle and policy alike, offered an un-
compromising resistance to State interference in school
management. The second party consisted for the most
part of what were called in that day " practical men,"
careless of principle and of future consequences, but keenly
alive to the advantages of State aid. Its members, if not
approving, were ready for peace sake to assent to the
Government scheme. The third party, either from character
or out of policy, maintained on every occasion a neutral
attitude, and were always more or less favourable to
compromise rather than run the risk of breaking with
Government.
In a letter to Sidney Herbert, dated Lavington, 8 th
October 1848, Archdeacon Manning avowed his conviction,
that the Church should take no share in Government
education, in the following terms : —
My deah Herbert — . . . What a mess Kaye-Shuttleworth
is making. You see that the Committee of the Privy Council
have refused the terms of the National Society, and I must
declare my hope that the Church will set to work again as in
1839 to do its own duty, and refuse with an absolute firmness all
share and entanglement in Government education. This has
been my one unchanging conviction for ten years. I am con-
420 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
%-inced that the peace of the Church and the good of the people
are alike in risk if their schemes are suftered to establish them-
selves. Look at France.^
The " management clauses " introduced by the Committee
of Council on Education provoked a renewed contest. In
1848, Mr, Denison, at the Annual Meeting of the National
Society, moved a resolution, supported by a large majority,
condemning in explicit terms the Government scheme. The
neutral party obtained an adjournment in the view of
bringing about a modification of the more objectionable
parts of the management clauses. Some slight modifications
were granted. Negotiations were then entered into with
the Government, and, in view of a compromise, concessions
were offered by the moderate or " practical " men, as they
styled themselves, of the National Society. After three
or four months' consideration the Privy Council rejected
the proposed compromise. On the breaking down of the
negotiations, Mr. Denison, as leader of the uncompromising
party in the National Society, and in the Church, opened a
\agorous campaign against the " management clauses."
Archdeacon Manning, likewise, took a prominent part in
defending the Church schools and in upholding the principle
that the exclusive right of educating their children belonged
to the parents — to the Church and not to the State. In
this sense he made an able and vigorous speech at a meeting
of the clergy at Chichester in December 1848. Divisions
broke out in the National Society. There was talk of
making a serious compromise with the Government ; but Mr.
Denison urged, and with success, at least for a time, that
there was no room for a compromise on a matter of principle.
In a desponding frame of mind in regard to the divisions
in the Church and its helpless state, powerless to protect
the cause of religious education, Manning wrote to Sidney
Herbert as follows : —
1 In the above letter Archdeacon Manning referred to Pope Pius IX. and
his fortunes as follows : — " Do you see that the Hungarians are beaten ; that
Austria has rejected the Anglo-French mediation, and that Mamiani is gone
to the wall ? Alas for our Father Pius ! When I go into winter quarters —
where I cannot yet say — I will fulfil my word about cathedrals."
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 421
Lavington, 24:th Nov. 1848.
My DEAR Herbert — ... On the subject of cathedrals I
have no soul to write at this moment. Our Dean and Chapter
have elected the unfittest man in the world as Canon, belying all
that I have ever hoped or said in their defence. And that at a
moment when the education of the Church is falling under the
power of the State by force of petty bribes and a low cunning.
I am, as you might divine without any gifts of exorcism, in
a profane state of mind.
When I look for a remedy I see the Church divided and
powerless. Heaven help us, for there is no help in man. — Yours
most affectionately, H. E. Manning.
In another letter to Sidney Herbert, Archdeacon Manning
made an able and uncompromising defence of right principles
in regard to the inherent duty of parents and pastors to
secure the essentially religious education of children. He
further in the most absolute terms condemned the Govern-
ment for making itself by means of the "management
clause " a joint-founder of schools.
An interesting explanation of his scheme about making
cathedrals centres of education is likewise given in the
following letter : —
Lavington, Ath January 1849.
My dear Herbert — ... I saw Colquhoun's proposals but
did not pay much attention to them, and cannot now find them
again. But before we come to cathedrals, I should like to say a
word about education.
I think the subject in a very mischievous position.
The Committee of Council and the National Society have
suspended their correspondence on account of disagreement.
The National Society has already gone beyond the sense of
the Church at large, and is in a middle position which the
Government will not accept nor the Church ratify.
I am afraid we shall have mischief either way.
A break with Government would be most mischievous ; only
less so than a giving in to them.
My belief is that the minutes of Council at this moment, if
accepted by the Church, will in due time transfer the whole
" material " of the Church education to the control of the
Government of the day.
This we can never yield. Unhappily, " practical men "' will
look at nothing but money, efficiency, and the facts of to-day.
422 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
They will not examine principles, tendencies, and future conse-
quences. Therefoi'e some of our best men are, if not approving,
at least assenting parties to the Government schemes.
Now, for my own part, I am Avhere I was ten years ago. I
believe the education of children to be a duty inherent in parents
and pastors ; to be essentially religious, indivisible in its elements ;
incapable of a concurrent control by two heterogeneous powers.
The education of the people can never be in the hands of one
power, and the pastoral ministry of another. The State refuses
to build churches, found bishoprics, support missions. I am
more than content at its refusal. I would rather it were con-
sistent and would refuse to give money for Church schools
except upon the laws and principles of the Church.
What Government is now doing is "to make itself a, joint-
founder of schools on terms which the Church cannot accept
without ultimate injury."
The theory of " joint -foundation " will, I believe, bring us
into future entanglements, out of which the Church or a portion
of it will escape with the fortunes and portion of the weaker
party ; and the remainder will be secularised. Is not France
and Prussia warning enough?
Now 3^ou remember our conversation in Eome about making
the Irish cathedrals centres of education. This is my notion for
the English cathedrals.
My idea is —
1. That the dean and canons should hold no other benefice.
2. That they should reside nine months in every year.
3. That each canonry have a special office attached to it :
Being four in number —
The 1st, Principal of a diocesan college for clergy;
The 2nd, Principal of training school ;
The 3rd, Secretary to the office of diocesan education ;
The 4th, Union secretary and inspector of schools.
Now by this means a vast force not only of funds, but of
men, living active force, would be given to education, and the
work would be done because it would be the sole charge of each
canon.
I have given this as the full idea which perhaps may be
modified because probably a diocesan college and a training
school may not be needed in every diocese. But in that case the
canon might be charged with another office, such as principal of a
hall for general education, the students of which might graduate,
on the testimonial of the principal, at Oxford or Cambridge.
Our system has almost imbounded expansiveness if we had
only heart and life for it.
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 423
As to the patronage of such chapters, I think it ought to be
as follows : — That the canons should recommend three names to
the bishop, and he choose one. The reasons for this are, I
think, sufficient and obvious.
It was a sense of all this that made me turn sick at the late
election hei-e ; together with the fact that two old friends, both
very fit, one eminently, had been set aside for a man Avho literally
forsook his living for years to reside in France, and Avas forced
home by the bishop (I helping) to heal the scandal.^ . . . Fare-
well to you and a happy year. — Ever yours affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
Such a declaration by Archdeacon Manning in the above
letter as to the duty of the Church, and his own readi-
ness, to renew the battle of 1837 and 1838 in defence
of the absolute freedom of the School against the renewed
attack of the Government, would, by its outspokenness,
have satisfied even so uncompromising a champion of the
Church of England Schools as Mr. Denison. Prospects,
however, were not reassuring. There was disunion and
mutual mistrust in the National Society. The bishops
were moving, not to say manoeuvring, to prevent an open
rupture with the Government. Peace, even purchased by
compromise, was dear to the Episcopal heart in those days,
as was shown in the attitude taken up by the bishops
shortly afterwards in regard to the Gorham Judgment.
Archdeacon Manning's heart was heavy, as appears in the
following passage of a letter to Eobert Wilberforce : —
44 Cadogan Place, 17th January 1849.
My DEAR Egbert — ... I expect to be here till about
February ; and wish you would come (a& you will be invited to
^ In a passage of the above letter Archdeacon Manning wrote as follows : —
"As you say, there are uneasy tokens abroad. People are for a while
frightened into Conservatism ; but this will not last when the eflect of the
foreign disorders comes to be felt in our trade, etc. I suppose this must
come. But I know nothing of statecraft. All that I see and hear is that
everybody is poor and pinched, that work is less, wages lower, and farmers
going to the wall.
As I am at the end of my fourth sheet I will not begin my sermon on the
commercial greatness of England, from the text " The prosperity of fools
shall destroy them."
We have never condoled about the Pope, and such a flight, so ignoble, and
so hasty. I doubt if he had time to take even Trevelyan's pamphlet. "
424 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
do) to hold a conference about the Privy Council. At the
National Society all is given up. And they who ought to pro-
tect us are against us. I confess my heart is lower than ever
before. — Ever yours most affectionately, H. E. M.
If the Government was hostile, and the bishops with-
held their protection and support, where was help to come
from ? Though he repudiated with scorn the view expressed
by Goulburn, the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, as to
the Episcopal character and position, Archdeacon Manning
had no high opinion of his bishops.^
The final battle between the rival parties in the National
Society took place at the Annual Meeting held in June
1849. The Committee was divided and lukewarm. Only
a few of its members were resolute in their opposition to
the Government scheme. An uncompromising resolution,
proposed by the Eev. G. A. Denison against the "Manage-
ment clauses " introduced by the Committee of Privy
Council on Education, if not in the National Society itself,
at the Annual Meeting, and among the High Church party,
out of doors, held the field. The bishops mustered in strong
force. Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury, presided
over the meeting. Among the twelve other bishops
present were Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and
Edward Denison, Bishop of Salisbury. Bishop Wilber-
force, addicted alike by character and policy to com-
promise, was beyond measure alarmed by the danger of a
rupture with the Government. He knew that there was
not the remotest chance of inducing Mr. Denison to abate
his opposition to the " Management clauses," or to adopt a
conciliatory attitude towards the Government. His impas-
sioned and powerful speech in support of his Eesolution
seemed to carry with him the support of the majority of the
meeting. Were the Eesolution carried, the inevitable result
^ In a letter about that date to Sidney Herbert, Manning wrote as
follows : — I had a strange conversation about a month ago with Goul-
burn about Church matters. He contended that money and a peerage
are the chief social importance of a bishop : that it is his social not his
spiritual character which impresses the people and serves the Church. I had
thought the last specimen of this race had been some time in the Britisli
Museum. For some years I have never seen a live one.
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 425
would be a breach with the Government and a schism in
the National Society. How were these two evils, con-
sidered so disastrous by the compromising party, to be
averted ? The first point dictated by policy was to take
the guidance of the meeting, even at the eleventh hour, out
of ]\Ir. Denison's hands. Unconciliatory in his methods,
and uncompromising in his line of argument, he seemed to
Bishop Wilberforce to court rather than shun a rupture
with Government on the education question.
Bishop Wilberforce knew that were he himself to
propose an amendment, whatever the terms might be, to Mr.
Denison's resolution, it would at once, from the nature of
the case, be regarded as a hostile move. After consultation
with Edward Denison, Bishop of Salisbury, and others of a
like mind, it was agreed that the wisest policy would be to in-
duce Archdeacon Manning to propose a friendly Amendment.
His known zeal for the freedom of religious education, his
open and avowed opposition to the Government control of
schools, would disarm the opposition — allay the fears or
suspicions of the uncompromising party. Bishop Wilber-
force knew, likewise, that his dread of a rupture with
Government was shared by Manning, for he had admitted,
as he had done to Sidney Herbert, in a letter quoted above,
that "a breach with Government would be most mischievous;
only less so than a giving in to them."
Acting under the advice or at the suggestion of Bishops
Wilberforce and Denison, Archdeacon Manning, shortly
before the close of the prolonged and heated meeting,
proposed an Amendment, which finally took the form of
a substantive Eesolution.
In the Notes of my Life, Archdeacon Denison says that
his heart foreboded mischief, when he saw Archdeacon
Manning in concert with Bishop Wilberforce and Bishop
Denison, busy in drawing up an Amendment.
In a speech of no little skill and adroitness, full of hope
and confidence, and expressing an absolute assurance that,
come what might, the Church of England, united in purpose
and of one mind in its determination to uphold the independ-
ance of the schools, would be as prosperous in the future
426 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
as in the past in extending, with or without the assistance
and co-operation of the State, the work of religious education,
Archdeacon Manning proposed a friendly Amendment to
the original Eesolution. His speech, with its conciliatory
overtures and hopeful assurances, and its triumphant record
of what the Church of England had done in the cause
of religious education, was warmly applauded by the majority
of the crowded meeting.
After considerable delay caused by the discussions which
were going on between the different sections and parties in
the National Society as to the line to be taken, Mr. Denison
proposed certain modifications to Archdeacon Manning's
amendment. Bishop Wilberforce and Bishop Denison ob-
jected to the modifications proposed by Mr. Denison. They
were, however, finally accepted by Archdeacon Manning
and passed by the meeting.
The following are : — first. The original resolution, moved
by the Eev. G. A. Denison ; secondly, Archdeacon
Manning's amendment ; and, thirdly, the modification to
the amendment moved by Mr. Denison.
The Eev. G. A. Denison's Eesolution was as follows : —
That it is the opinion of this Meeting that there be intro-
duced in the Report now presented to the Meeting the distinct
expression of their dehberate judgment, that no arrangement
which shall involve the imposition of any Management Clause
whatsoever as a condition of State assistance — or any other
condition whatsoever (except the legal tenure of the site, and
the right of inspection, as defined and ascertained in 1840) can
be satisfactory to, or ought to be accepted by, the Church.
The following is Archdeacon Manning's Amendment : —
That this Meeting acknowledges the care and attention of the
Committee in conducting the correspondence pending with the
Committee of the Privy Council on Education, and regrets to
find that a satisfactory conclusion has not yet been attained.
Secondly, That while this Meeting desires fully to co-operate
with the State in promoting the education of the people, it is
under the necessity of declaring that no terms of co-operation
can be satisfactory which shall not allow to the Clergy and
Laity full freedom to constitute upon such principles and
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 427
models as are both sanctioned and recommended by the order
and the practice of the Church of England.
Mr. Denison's modification of Archdeacon Manning's
Amendment was expressed in the following words : —
And in particular, when they should desire to put the
management of their schools solely in the hands of the Clergy
and Bishops of the Diocese.
The Annual General Meeting of the National Society,
held on the 6th of June 1849 at the Central Schoolrooms
of the Society, Westminster, was densely crowded ; the
discussion, which was of a vigorous and excited character,
was prolonged from twelve o'clock to eight p.m. The
Archbishop of Canterbury was in the chair. There were
present twelve Bishops, conspicuous among whom were the
Bishops of Oxford and Salisbury; among the Church
dignitaries were Archdeacons Manning, Harrison, and
Allen. The attendance of the clergy was very large;
among them were the Eev. G. A. Denison, Kev. Dr.
Wordsworth, Eev. W. Dodsworth, Eev. H. Wilberforce, Eev.
W. Maskell. Besides a large number of Peers, among other
distinguished laity were Mr. Gladstone, Sir Thomas Acland,
and Mr. Beresford Hope. On Archdeacon Allen's rising
to address the meeting, the cries for Mr. Denison were so
loud and prolonged that the Archbishop of Canterbury
called upon Mr. Denison to address the meeting. Speaking
in support of his Eesolution, the Eev. G. A. Denison carried
the whole meeting with him ; he was supported by Dr.
Christopher Wordsworth and the Eev. Henry Wilberforce,
who declared that the Management Clauses brought in
by the Government were an attempt to introduce the prin-
ciple of mixed education.
Archdeacon Manning, rising towards the end of the
meeting, said.
It is with feelings of great reluctance and duty, under a sense
of imperative necessity, that I venture to rise at this late hour
to take part in this discussion. I find myself in the same
difficulty as the noble lord (the Earl of Harrowby) who spoke
last, — not that of being satisfied with the conclusion of the
correspondence, but that of being unable to support the Kesolu
428 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
tion which has been proposed by the Eev. G, A. Denison. And,
my Lord Archbishop, before I conclude, I shall venture to
trespass upon your attention not only with a statement of my
reasons, but also by moving an Amendment. The difficulty of
my position is this, that while I concur in the arguments
advanced by my reverend friend in his speech, I cannot concur
in the terms of his Resolution.
After some discussion with Mr. Denison, Archdeacon
Manning accepted the proposed modification. To secure
unanimity, Mr. Denison withdrew his Resolution, declaring
that the principles he had advocated for two years were
virtually embodied in Archdeacon Manning's Amendment.
Bishop Wilberforce, gesticulating vehemently, called out
that " Mr. Denison's Resolution was defeated, not with-
drawn." He was overruled, and then declared that, if Mr.
Denison's principles were embodied in the Amendment, he
would vote against it. He said, "My venerable relative, I
fear, is making a hollow truce, introducing a unanimity in
words which does not in reality exist." Bishop Denison
made like objection to Mr. Denison's statement, that his
principles on Church Schools were covered by the Amend-
ment. If that were the case, Bishop Denison declared, he
could not vote for it. The meeting was impatient, the
hour was late, and Archdeacon Manning's Amendment now
put, with Mr. Denison's consent, as a substantive Resolution,
was carried, almost unanimously.^
It was not so much in the principles which he enunciated
in addressing the meeting, that Archdeacon Manning differed
from Mr. Denison, as in his treatment of the Committee of
the National Society. Mr. Denison had denounced the
Committee for the betrayal of its trust, for its violation of
Church principles by the temporising way in which it had
treated the attempt on the part of the Committee of Privy
Council to destroy the independence of Church schools.
Instead of resolutely resisting the Government scheme, the
Committee of the National Society had deliberately entered
into a disastrous compromise with the Privy Council.
Archdeacon Manning, on the contrary, perhaps iu the
^ See Report of the Meeting in the Chiardixm, June 6, 1849.
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 429
hope of soothing the ruffled feelings of his friends on the
Committee, among them Bishops Denison and Wilberforce,
proposed in liis Kesolution what, under the circumstances,
virtually amounted to a vote of confidence in the Committee
of the National Society.
As a natural result, the Committee pursued in the future
its temporising policy ; and its love or habit of compromise
ended, eventually, in the surrender of the Church of England
School to the Civil Power.
The London Church Union, of which Denison and
Manning were both members, had taken an active part in
opposing the " Management Clauses " introduced by the
Government. Frequent consultations were held by the
Council. The majority of its members warmly approved
of the Eesolution which the Eev. G. A. Denison had
determined to move at the Annual Meeting of the National
Society.
The Council of the London Church Union was very
indignant that, in contravention of the rules of the Union,
and without the knowledge or consent of its members, Arch-
deacon Manning had moved at the Annual Meeting of the
National Society an Amendment to a Eesolution which had
the sanction and approval of the Church Union. This conduct
was called in question at a meeting of the Council ; but at
the intervention of Manning's friends, especially of the Eev.
W. Dodsworth, the discussion was adjourned in order to
afford time and opportunity for explanation. The secretary
was directed to forward a copy of the rules of the Church
Union to Archdeacon Manning, and to request his attend-
ance at the adjourned Council meeting.
Eegarding the letter and the request for explanation in
the light of a censure. Archdeacon Manning, in spite of the
importunities of W. Dodsworth, sent in his resignation.
Fearing the effect on Manning of the action of the Church
Union, Dodsworth wrote the following letter: —
Saturday, 8th June.
My DEAREST Friend — I have made an ineffectual effort to
see you to-day, being anxious to speak to you of the feelings
430 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
which are entertained in many quarters of the part which you
took at the National Society. Among other things it was pro-
posed at the Church Union yesterday {not to censure you as I
believe you had been inadvertently told), but to express regret
that you had not communicated your intention to those whom
you knew to be working hard in the same cause, and to whom
you had joined yourself in this Church Union. The view taken,
I think, was substantially this : That the Union had been
formed on a basis analogous to that of political parties, who are
wont to meet together to consider what plan had best be adopted
to effect their object, and that you, avoidng yourself to he one of
this party, had, without any previous communication with it,
brought forward at the eleventh hour an amendment which
placed our whole object in very great peril. I confess for myself
that I feel compelled to take this view of the matter. Had
Denison been obstinate, as we had too much reason to fear he
might have been, either his motion or your amendment might
have been carried by a bare majority, and we might have had the
substantial consequences of a defeat. I think this was the sub-
stance of the objections urged against you. The matter was
postponed until Friday next, as you will know, and I do hope
you will come and let us try by explanations and forbearance to
make the matter up. You ought distinctly to understand —
1. That there was no thought of restraining your liberty
to act as you pleased.
2. That no abstract objection was raised against your resolu-
tion, which I believe most of us thought to be better than
Denison's.
3. That there is no thought of holding you responsible to
the Union, except so far as we all seem to bind ourselves to
"unity of action," and to whatever extent by mutual communi-
cation it can be reached. The simple complaint alleged against
you is, that you did not communicate with us, and certainly
unless we attempt unity of action our Unions are a farce.
I have Avritten this rigmarole, because we learned from a
letter which Dickenson rather imprudently read, that you con-
template severing yourself from us. / entreat you not to do so
hastily. Truly, in our present state, nothing is to be so greatly
deprecated as disunion. Let us have time for consideration.
We all mean well and surely may be brought to agreement.
Pray do not take any step until I can see you. — Ever
yours most affectionately , W. D.
If Mr. Denison and the uncompromising section of the
National Society and the London Church Union regarded
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 431
Manning's successful diplomacy in averting a breach with
the Government and a schism in the Church party with no
little resentment, so prominent a Broad Churchman, belong-
ing to the compromising party in the National Society, as
the Eev. F. D. Maurice, paid a high tribute to Archdeacon
Manning in the following letter to Miss Hare : —
7th June 1849.
I wrote you a very sad letter yesterday under the influence
of the National Society meeting.^ I left it before the conclusion,
which I believe was in some respects more melancholy than what
had gone before ; but gives some hope that the schism which
was threatened may be averted. I said to Mr. Anderson and
to Priscilla, when I returned home, there was one man in that
room who can save the Church from its confusion if he has it in
his mind to do so. This was Manning. Mr. Anderson agreed
with me, but had some doubts about his will. However, he
did move an amendment which, though much stronger against
the State than I should have approved, did put an end to ,^
and was at last passed unanimously. His power with the clergy
is very great, greater certainly than that of any man living.^
^ The following is an extract from tlie letter to Miss Hare alluded to
above : —
6th June 1849.
" I have been spending a most grievous five hours at the National Society
public meeting, listening to speeches from clergymen that it almost broke
one's heart to hear, and seeing demonstrations of a spirit which betokens
schism and destruction. Mr. Denison, who opened the debate, is a vulgar
Church agitator, using the most sacred phrases for claptraps, and through-
out confounding the right of the clergy to have their own way with
Church principles. . . ." — Frederick Denison Maurice's Life, vol. i. p. 544,
1884.
The Yen. Archdeacon Denison, I am sure, will not be offended at the
abuse of so vulgar an assailant.
- The Editor of F. D. Maurice's Life, in the letter to Miss Hare put a
in place of a name, obviously that of Denison.
^ Cardinal Manning preserved in one of his Journals a copy of part of
the above letter, extracted from the Life of Frederick Denison Maurice, vol.
i. p. 545: Macmillan and Co., 1884. The conclusion of Maurice's letter,
addressed to Miss Hare, is as follows : —
. . . " I do hope he has a sense of the responsibility which belongs to the
exercise of it. I am afraid he has plenty of flatterers, but God is able
to make him stand. Yet I do not think he or any man can prevent an
ecclesiastical revolution, or ought to prevent it, unless by being the instru-
ment of a religious reformation. For that 1 am sure we should pray
earnestly, and God, I believe, is leading us on by strange ways to it."
432 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The Venerable Archdeacon Denison gives his own view
of the cause in dispute between the Committee of Council
on Education and the Church party; and in his uncom-
promising style and fashion passes judgment on Archdeacon
Manning's conduct, and speech at the National Society in
1849, in the following letter: —
East Brent, Bridgwater,
2nd February 1889.
Dear Mr. Purcell — . . . The Cardinal, then Archdeacon
Manning, and I met often in the Council of the London Church
Union.
When I began my battle in public with Committee of Council
on Education, he and I came into collision in 1849, for my
first relations ■sWth, and my judgment upon, Committee of Council,
never changed, only confirmed at every step. See Notes of My
Life, pp. 92-93 : Parker, Oxford and London, 3rd ed., 1838-
1845.
In 1849, when the annual meeting of the National Society
was, in its vast majority, ready to vote with me, my brother, the
then Bishop of Salisbury, and S. Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford,
put up Manning against me, and against the Church of England.
I have never ceased to regard that day as the beginning of the
surrender of the Church School into the hands of the Civil
Power. It is impossible for me now so long afterwards to call
it anything else, and the recollections cannot be otherwise than
very painful to me. What the Cardinal may regard the cause
I contended for now to be, I have no concern with, all I know is
that it was first by his hand that the Church School in England
was destroyed.
I am not, never was, or could be, a " voluntary school " man ;
I have never had, never can have, any connection, direct or in-
direct, with Committee of Council on Education since 1847.
I can say nothing about the " Fifty Reasons " of the Cardinal,
except that I could have \vished they had been published in
1849, instead of his speech that year at the National Society.
A "voluntary school" admitting any child under "con-
science clause," or any child except those baptized into the
Church, or preparing to be baptized, is a place from which I
shrink to enter or to have anything to do with. It is a building
^vith the gurgoyles turned inside instead of out. — Yours very
faithfully, George Anthony Denison.
The tact and diplomatic skill exhibited by Archdeacon
Manning in the contest at the National Society in averting
XX THE NATIONAL SOCIETY AND EDUCATION 433
a schism in the Church party, and a rupture with the Govern-
ment ; the adroitness with which he eventually succeeded in
taking the guidance of the meeting out of the resolute
and uncompromising hands of the Eev. G. A. Denison ; and
the rare dexterity displayed in winning over the majority
of the meeting to a more conciliatory policy, are not a
bad illustration of the gifts of ecclesiastical statesmanship,
possessed in a singular degree by the Archdeacon of Chichester.
Manning knew better than most men — better than Mr.
Denison — the dangers and difficulties which beset the Church
of England. He knew the mind of the bishops ; their
weakness, and worse still, their unwillingness to give offence
to the Government, In such a case, if matters were pushed
to extremes what would the result be ? There would be a
schism even among those pledged to the defence of religious
education, a split in the Church party. In such a conflict,
the Church of England, in Archdeacon Manning's judg-
ment, would lose not gain ; and its worse loss, perhaps,
would be a display of weakness before the enemy, and
the sorry spectacle presented to the world of a dis-
organised party, and a Church divided against itself. To
avert such a fatal issue would appear to an ecclesiastical
statesman a paramount duty. We know from his letters to
Sidney Herbert and Eobert Wilberforce how he shared to
the full the principle upheld by Mr. Denison, of the inde-
pendence of Church schools from the control or interference
of the State. Archdeacon Manning thus differed from Mr.
Denison not in principle, but in policy. The ecclesiastical
statesman — prone as such to compromise, and the uncom-
promising churchman, averse, on principle, to yielding an
inch of ground to the enemy, did not see eye to eye.
Looking at the fateful issue of things : the birth of the
School Board — the child of compromise — in 1871, and its
portentous development of evil to-day. Archdeacon Denison
may well pride himself on his resolute resistance to com-
promise on matters of religious education in every shape
and form. On the other hand, we must all remember with
pride and gratitude what fidelity to principle was shown by
Archdeacon Manning in resigning in 1851 all that was
VOL. I 2 F
434 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
nearest and dearest to his heart, rather than admit the
supremacy of the Crown in spiritual matters. Again
Mr. Denison and Archdeacon Manning differed ; they were
both of one mind in regard to principle, as their joint
signatures to the famous Protest against the Gorham
Judgment testify, but differed in policy.^
EuLEs FOE Spiritual Life in Archdeacon
]\1anning's Sermons
If, as an ecclesiastical statesman, Archdeacon Manning
deemed it expedient, in order to secure the attainment of a
greater good for the Church he served so well, to pursue in
action a policy of compromise, or even to stretch a point in
the way of concession, just the reverse was his action as a
spiritual guide or teacher.
Having given a striking illustration of his policy
and power as an ecclesiastical statesman, of his character
as a peacemaker, ready, at a pinch, to sacrifice some of his
interior convictions or inclinations in the cause of union
and concord, it is not out of place, here and now, to
note, by way of contrast, how the arts of compromise or
conciliation never entered into his mind or influenced his
conduct as preacher or spiritual guide. In laying down
in his sermons the rules of spiritual life for Christian men.
Archdeacon Manning was a rigorist. He made no allowances
for special needs, for special circumstances. His rules for
spiritual living, for devotions, public and private, were
absolute. They were binding on every man who professed
to lead a Christian life. There were no exceptions. No
thought was taken or, at any rate, indicated, of the claims of
other duties upon the time and attention of Christian and
God-fearing men. Such rules of conduct, moreover, were not
laid down for the guidance only of the clergy, or of religious
communities, or of his own penitents, whose special needs or
opportunities Archdeacon Manning was familiar with. But
they were addressed in his published sermons to the world
at large. Like every preacher, Archdeacon Manning, per-
1 See in Note G, at the end of the Volume, Archdeacon Denison's Letter,
dated 9th February 1 895, on Manning and the Church of England Schools.
XX RULES FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE IN HIS SERMONS 435
haps, knew that the hearers or readers of sermons don't take
things too much in earnest. Men are apt, and women too,
to apply what they hear or read not to their own souls, but
to the lives or conduct of their neighbours. Again, as far
as practical results are concerned, the words of a preacher are
too often like water on a duck's back. If they do no good,
they do no harm. On the other hand, the preacher himself,
intent on the beauty or perfection of his discourse, too often
does not clearly realise the practical effect of his teaching on
the minds of earnest men. He does not consider that, if
his teaching be exaggerated or rigoristic, he is laying a new
burden upon men of sensitive soul or scrupulous conscience.
The effect produced by a sermon on men's minds is the
only sure criterion of its value or virtue. Such a test
applied to some of Archdeacon Manning's sermons, not on
dogmatic but spiritual questions, reveals a spirit of austerity
or rigorism akin in character to that of the teaching of the
Jansenists in France. In the first half of the present
century many men of earnest mind and religious feeling
must have been brought under Manning's influence by
reading his sermons ; yet, as far as I know, none, not even
among the converts who followed him into the Church, have
left on record any reference to his spiritual rigorism.
Fortunately, one living witness can throw light on this
side of Manning's character as a religious teacher. Mr.
Gladstone is the most competent of witnesses, for, among
other necessary qualifications, he can bear contemporary
evidence. He was a constant and critical reader of the
sermons habitually presented to him by Manning. Mr.
Gladstone looked into the mouth even of a gift horse, for
he knew that if the giver did not seek criticism, he would
not resent it. Eegarding him in the light of an authorised
teacher, whose rules for spiritual life he was bound as a
Christian man to accept, Mr. Gladstone was so earnest and
conscientious as to be prepared to sacrifice his political
career rather than not fulfil the rule of life declared by
Archdeacon Manning in his sermons to be the duty of
every Christian man.
In the following letter Mr. Gladstone grapples character-
436 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
istically with the difficulty presented by Manning's teaching
to a man engaged like himself in public life, apparently
without a suspicion that his revered teacher was himself
in error in his moral theology.
My dear Manning — I write respecting your sermons, and
in their bearing on myself I have read this morning with
delight, and I hope not without profit, those numbered xvi.-xviii. :
certainly with great sympathy and concurrence as to all prin-
ciples and general positions, except that I do not know your
justification for the passage in p. 347, beginning " it were
rather true to say." I write however rather for confession
than for criticism.
You teach that daily prayers, the observance of fast and
festival, and considerable application of time to private devotion
and to Scripture ought not to be omitted, e.g. by me ; because,
great as the difficulty, the need is enhanced in the same propor-
tion, the balance is the same.
You think very charitably that ordinary persons, of such who
have a right general intention in respect to religion, give an
hour and a half (pp. 352-3) to its direct duties ; and if they
add attendance at both daily services, raising it to three, you
consider that still a scanty allowance (p. 355), while some sixteen
or seventeen are given to sleep, food, or recreation.
Now I cannot deny this position with respect to the increase
of the need ; that you cannot overstate ; but I think there are
two ways in which God is wont to provide a remedy for real
and lawful need, one by augmenting supply, the other by inter-
cepting the natural and ordinary consequences of the deficiency.
I am desirous really to look the question full in the face ; and
then I come to the conclusion, that if I were to include the
daily service now in my list of daily duties, my next step ought
to be resignation. Let me describe to you what has been at
former times, when in London and in office, the very narrow
measure of my stated religious observances ; on week days I
cannot estimate our family prayer, together with morning
and evening prayer, at more than three quarters of an hour, even
if so much. Sunday is reserved with rare exceptions for religious
employments ; and it was my practice, in general, to receive the
Holy Communion weekly. Of daily services, except a little
before and after Easter, not one in a fortnight, perhaps one in a
month. Different individuals have different degrees of facility
in supplying the lack of regular devotion, by that which is
occasional ; but it is hard for one to measure the resource in
his own case. I cannot well estimate, on the other hand,
XX RULES FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE IN HIS SERMONS 437
the amount of relaxation which used then to occur to me.
Last year I endeavoured in town to apply a rule to the
distribution of my hours, and took ten for sleep, food and
recreation, understanding this last word for whatever really
refreshes mind or body, or has a fair chance of doing so.
Now my needs for sleep are great : as long as I rise feeling
like a stone, I do not think there is too much, and this
is the general description of my waking sense, in office and
during the session ; but I consider seven and a half hours
the least I ought then to have, and I should be better with
eight. I know the old stories about retrenching sleep, and
how people are deceived themselves : with me it may be so, but
I think it is not.
I have never summed up my figures, but my impression is
that last year, upon the average, I was under and not over the
ten for the particulars named, I should say between nine and
ten. But last year was a holiday year as to pressure upon mind
and body, in comparison with those that preceded it. Further,
people are very different as to the rate at which they expend
their vigour during their work ; my habit, perhaps my misfortune,
is, and peculiarly with work that I dislike, to labour at the very
top of my strength, so that after five or six hours of my office,
I was frequently in a state of great exhaustion. How can you
apply the duty of saving time for prayer out of sleep and recre-
ation to a man in these circumstances ? Again, take fasting.
I had begun to form to myself some ideas upon this head ; but
I felt, though without a positive decision to that effect, that I
could not, and must not, apply them if I should come again into
political activity. I speak now of fasting in quantity, fasting in
nutrition ; as to fasting in quality, I see that the argument is even
strengthened, subject only to the exception that in times of
mental anxiety, it becomes impossible to receive much healthy
food with which a sound appetite would have no difficulty.
The fact is undoubted ; it is extremely hard to keep the bodily
frame up to its work, under the twofold condition of activity in
office and in Parliament. I take it then, that to fast in the
usual sense would generally be a sin, and not a duty — I make a
little exception for the time immediately preceding Easter,
as then there is a short remission of parliamentary duties. I
need not perhaps say more now. You see my agreement with
you, and that I differ, it may be, where the pinch comes upon
myself. But I speak freely in order to give scope for opposite
reasoning — in order that I may be convicted if possible, as then
I hope also to be convinced.
There is the greatest difference, as I find, between simple
4:38 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
occupation, however intense, and occupation with anxiety as its
perpetual accompaniment. Serious reading and hard writing,
even for the same number of hours that my now imminent
duties may absorb, I for one can bear without feeling that I am
living too fast ; but when that one element of habitual anxiety
is added, nature is spurred on beyond her pace under an exces-
sive burden, and vital forces waste rapidly away. I should be
more suspicious of myself than I now am in the argument I have
made, were it not that I have had experience of occupation in
both forms, and know the gulf betAveen them. I ought to have
added the other sting of official situations combined with Parlia-
ment. It is the sad irregularity of one's life. The only fixed
points are prayers and breakfast in the morning, and Sunday at
the beginning of the week. It is Sunday, I am convinced, that
has kept me alive and well, even to a marvel, in times of
considerable labour, for I must not conceal from you, even though
you may think it a sad bathos, that I have never at any time
been prevented by illness from attending either Parliament or
my ofiice. The only experience I have had of the dangers from
which I argue, in results, has been in weakness and exhaustion
from the brain downwards. It is impossible for me to be thankful
enough for the exemption I enjoy, especially when I see far
stronger constitutions, constitutions truly Herculean, breaking
down around me. I hope I may be preserved from the guilt
and ingratitude of indulging sensual sloth, under the mask of wise
and necessary precautions.
Do not trouble yourself to write at length, but revolve these
matters in the casuistical chamber of the mind ; and either
before or when we meet, give me an opinion which, I trust, Mall
be frank and fearless. There is one retrenchment I could make,
it would be to take from activity outwards in matters of religion,
in order to give it to prayer. But I have given it a misdescriji-
tion. What I could economise is chiefly reading; but reading now-
adays I almost always shall have to resort to, at least so it was
before, by way of repose. Devotion is by far the best sedative to
excitement ; but then it requires great and sustained exertion (to
speak humanly, and under the supposition of the Divine grace),
or else powerful external helps, or both. Those mere dregs of the
natural energies, which too often are all that occupation leaves,
are fit for little beyond passivity ; only fit when not severe.
Reading all this, you may the more easily understand my
tone sometimes about public life as a whole.
Joy to you at this blessed time, and at all times. Your
affectionate friend, W. E. Gladstone.
Ven. H. E. Manning.
XX RULES FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE IN HIS SERMONS 439
Such a letter as the above illustrates iu the most forcible
manner the anomaly of giving minute spiritual directions
from the pulpit. The preacher must needs be ignorant of
the spiritual needs of the majority of his hearers or readers.
It is not prudent, scarcely even safe, for a preacher to go
beyond general rules. The moment he attempts to exercise
the office of spiritual director in the dark, as it were, he
resembles a physician who should attempt to prescribe for
a patient without a diagnosis of the case.
Later in life, as a Catholic, Cardinal Manning recognised
the danger of a preacher usurping the office of a spiritual
director of souls. In one of his autobiographical Notes he
confesses that as an Anglican he had treated subjects in the
pulpit which properly belonged to the confessional.
In his Catholic life, as preacher, as director of souls.
Manning was the reverse of a rigorist. He had studied in
the school of S. Alfonso Liguori, and entertained a just
abhorrence, on the one hand, of the exaggerated or false
spirituality sometimes to be met with in French books of
devotion ; and on the other, of the rigorism of Jansenistic
writers.
CHAPTEK XXI
LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON
1833-1851
Of Archdeacon Manning's mode and manner of life in his
pleasant home at Lavington kindly reminiscences are still
retained by the few surviving friends who knew and loved
him in those far-off days. Of his early married life, beyond
what I have already related, there is little or nothing to be
told. It was a life of happy seclusion and of active work
in the parish. Parish and home he left but on rare occa-
sions. To his home few visitors were invited or admitted.
Even such an intimate friend as S. F. Wood, who more than
once intimated his desire of visiting Lavington, does not
appear to have had his wish gratified. Mr. Gladstone never
met the rector's wife ; for in one of his letters to Manning,
dated 20th February 1837, a few months before her death,
Mr. Gladstone wrote : " I do not yet know your lady, but I
am sure I may be excused for hoping she is as happy in her
health as in her husband." Manning's letters to his wife's
mother are preserved ; they bear ample witness to the sorrows
of his widowed heart and the loneliness of his after-life at
Lavington.
Henry Wilberforce, vicar of East Farleigh, and his wife,
Mrs. Manning's sister, and Mr. and Mrs. John Anderdon, were
occasional visitors at Lavington ; and so were Mr. Frederick
Manning and Edmunda, his wife. But Mrs. Austen, the
last survivor of the family of eight, who was absent, I think,
from England at that time, never saw Mrs. Henry Manning.
There was, liowever, a pleasant and all-sufficing home circle
CHAP. XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 441
in those days at Lavington. Mrs. Sargent, the mother of
John Sargent, the late rector, the great lady of the parish,
lived at the Manor House, and received frequent visitors.
Samuel Wilberforce and his wife often came to Graffham
Eectory on a visit to Mrs. John Sargent, his wife's mother.
She was the life and soul of the place, beloved of all
the family, which consisted in these early days of her
four married daughters and their husbands, the two
Wilberforces, Samuel and Henry, and Manning, and Eev.
George Dudley Kyder. Mrs. Carey, Manning's half-sister,
resided at that time at Lavington. Later on, after his
wife's death, and after he became archdeacon. Manning
took up his winter quarters at her house in London,
44 Cadogan Place, familiar to us as the address of so many
of his letters.
On the death of Manning's wife, Mrs. John Sargent, as
she had promised her daughter on her death-bed, " took care
of Henry." She kept house for him, consoled and comforted
him in every way. By her kindness of heart and cheerful
disposition she made for Manning his widowed home less
sombre and solitary. Attachment to places was a new feel-
ing imparted to Manning's nature by affection for his wife's
home. In one of his journals is the following entry under
the date July 1838 : — " Till the last six months I have
never known what it is to have irresistible local affection.
Once a little self-denial would make all places alike ; for all
that makes one place differ from another would have followed
me like a shadow. Now, there is only one place unlike all
others, and that is unchangeable."
Mrs. John Sargent lived at the Eectory of Lavington
from 1837 to 1841, when, on the death in that year of her
eldest daughter, the wife of Samuel Wilberforce, his sorrow-
ing and affectionate mother-in-law discharged with touching
sympathy the like kindly offices for him, as she had done for
Manning, until death broke the bond.
Graffham Eectory was the home of Manning's curate.
From 1847 till his conversion in 1851 it was occupied by
Laprimaudaye, his wife, and family. The present rector of
Lavington, the Eev. Eowley Lascelles, lives at Graflliam
442 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Rectory. Manning's old home at Lavington is now a private
residence.
Mrs. Byles and her daughter were residents for a long
period at Lavington, and were on friendly and intimate
terms with the rector. They occupied the Manor House after
the death of Mrs. Sargent in 1841. Miss Byles is described,
by one who remembers her well at the time, as being very
pretty and very busy, flitting about, after the fashion of pious
young Anglican ladies, the church and rectory. On Manning's
conversion, Miss Byles, like so many other of his friends,
also became a Catholic. There was an active correspond-
ence kept up — for Manning was the most interesting and
copious of letter- writers — but these letters, after the death
of Mrs. Coventry Patmore (for Miss Byles had been long
married to the well-known poet), were returned by her
husband to Cardinal Manning.
After his appointment as archdeacon. Manning was in
the constant habit of visiting London. Indeed, owing to
his state of health he was frequently unable during the cold
or damp weather to live at Lavington, and took up his
winter quarters at his sister's house in Cadogan Place. His
curate was indefatigable in looking after the parish work
during the archdeacon's absence. In the summer months
Manning's friends from London were frequent visitors at
Lavington. Passages like the following often occur in his
letters : " I must break off abruptly, my dear archdeacon,
for a carriageful of people from London has just arrived."
This was in a letter to Archdeacon Hare. Again, in a letter
to his mother, " Last week I had a houseful. Among
others the present master of Trinity and Mrs. Whewell." A
great divine like Keble found his way to Lavington, and
so in later years did " Father " Carter of Clewea."^ P. L).
Maurice in company with Trench, after a visit"" to Arch-
deacon Wilberforce at Alverstoke, spent a few days with
Manning. In one of his letters, F. D, Maurice speaks
with delight of the agreeable times he spent at Lavington.
Dean Hook, before 1848, was also an occasional visitor.
Bishop Phillpotts of Exeter, at the time of the Gorham
Judgment, was about paying a visit, but was prevented.
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 443
Eobert Wilberforce came sometimes for a quiet day, and
Henry Wilberforce for a week or more. Mrs. Charles
Manning and her young family, to whom the archdeacon was
deeply attached, were constant guests in later years at the
rectory. Mr. Gladstone, I believe, never visited Lavington.
Then, again, besides those who came to enjoy the social
amenities of Lavington, men came down or were brought
down to be rescued by the persuasive tongue or determined
hand of the archdeacon from " going over to Eome " in
those disturbed days, when so many were following the
example of J. H. Newman. Mr. Kichmond told me of a
friend of his, a stockbroker and a man of high culture
(who was in the habit of reading to him of a morning
whilst at work at the easel), being very perplexed in mind
about the doctrine of the Eucharist. He had also some
eccentric notions about marriage, and the duty of men to
cultivate love for their wives. " There are other men,"
exclaimed Mr. Eichmond, laughing, " besides Mr. John
Giles's sect who love their wives." At last, Mr. John Giles
avowed his intention of seeking instruction in the Catholic
Church. Alarmed, as they well might be, his friends took
counsel together, and sent him down to Lavington. Man-
ning, without a day's delay, carried poor John Giles off to
the Bishop of London, who confirmed him and administered
communion.
In after years, when Manning was a Catholic, " he was
continually nibbling," as Mr. Eichmond described it, "after
John Giles ; but he was too wise a man to come witliin
Manning's reach." Cardinal Manning remembered the inci-
dent. He said, "Yes, I remember poor John Giles very
well ; he was a good man ; he was afraid of me."
In 1844, Archdeacon Manning sat for his portrait to Mr.
Eichmond. Towards the close of his Anglican life, when he
had his portrait reproduced in numerous engravings as part-
ing gifts, the archdeacon called it a post mortem for the
friends he was about to leave behind him in the Church of
England.
"The sittings were most delightful," Mr. Eichmond said, "for
Manning was always full of charming talk, and had always ready
444 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
at hand an appropriate anecdote or legend. I remember once
complaining of being much annoyed by a terrible hammering that
was going on outside my studio. Manning thereupon related a
charming legend about angels beating out gold for the piurpose
of making saddles of gold and golden stirrups. I think it was
— but I really quite forget now, for it is nearly fifty years ago —
yet I think it was for the horses which were to bear Elias in the
chariot of fire to heaven. At any rate for years afterwards," he
added, " whenever I was disturbed by the noise of hammering I
always remembered Manning's legend, and my nerves were
soothed."
Mr. Eichmond, who well remembers Manning in his
Lavington days, described him as looking very ascetic and
austere. " Once," he added, " on going down to Lavington
on a fine day in June, I found big fires in every room. He
was very abstemious; ate and drank little, but fed on fire."
Mr. Gladstone once mentioned, in illustration of Manning's
social successes, not in London only, but in such a prim and
precise place as Chichester, that he was on friendly terms
with his three bishops in succession, though men of such
opposite views as Otter, Shuttleworth, and Gilbert ; " his tact
and conciliatory manners enabled him to overcome all
obstacles or turn aside prejudices. In like manner," added
Mr. Gladstone, " as archdeacon. Manning won the goodwill
of the clergy, over the heads of many of whom, his seniors
in years, he was promoted at so early an age." In a letter
to Archdeacon Manning Mr. Gladstone in congratulation
wrote : —
I see you have been at your old tricks again ; for from your
bishop's letter to Wyndham I perceive you have succeeded in
poisoning the mind of three Bishops of Chichester in succession.
His first bishop. Dr. Edward Maltby, however, did not
" know Joseph " ; in his day, the young rector of Lavington
was too modest or prudent to put himself forward. Under
the rule of three succeeding bishops, however, Manning was
a welcome guest at Chichester Palace. His social success
not only in the palace of bishops, but in the homes of the
lower clergy, was due, in no small measure, to his invari-
able habit of seeking in conversation points of agreement,
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 445
carefully passing over points of difference. His quiet humour
helped him over many a difficulty ; and his kindly manner
aided in creating or in confirming a pleasant impression.
In society he was always cheerful and talked well, and his
anecdotes, whether old or new, had the rare merit of being
well told. If he made fewer friends than his effusive and
fascinating brother-in-law. Bishop Wilberforce — whose heart,
whether steeped in honey or gall, was ever in his mouth
— Manning, with tongue well under control, made fewer
enemies or none.
Building was one of Archdeacon Manning's pleasant
occupations : he pulled down and rebuilt both Lavington and
Graffliam churches. He was an admirer of Gothic archi-
tecture, but an amateur architect runs grave risks from
which Manning's pious intentions did not save him. To a
critical friend of Gothic tastes, to whom he was showing
Graffliam church, Manning said " See how an Archdeacon
with best intentions can spoil a church." The stained glass
windows were so narrow and placed so high that the church
was almost shrouded in darkness. On dull days it had in
consequence to be artificially lighted. Lavington church
survives — the sole memorial of Manning's architectural
handiwork. Graffham church was pulled down and rebuilt
in after years as a Memorial Church to Bishop Wilber-
force. The church of West Lavington, in which Cobden
and some other notabilities are buried, was built by the
munificence of Laprimaudaye who, before the church was
completed, became a Catholic, but he did not like to revoke
his promised gift and made over the church to the Bishop
of Chichester.
Manning was fond of horses, and no bad judge of horse-
flesh ; he was always well mounted. He used frequently
to ride from Lavington to Chichester in autumn or summer
in discharge of his official or social duties ; to visit his
bishop's wife, or transact business with the bishop ; or to
take an early chop dinner with his old friend Dean Chandler,
and chat over diocesan matters ; or, in the event of an inter-
regnum between the death of one bishop and the appoint-
ment of another, to learn the latest news, or to listen to the
446 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
gossiping hopes or fears which, in a cathedral town on
such solemn occasions, are but too apt to disturb the other-
wise placid souls of church dignitaries.
On the occasion of one of these visits to Chichester,
putting up at a hotel, Manning overheard from his dressing-
room window a dispute between two ostlers in the yard
below as to the merits of a certain horse which was to run
in the next Lewes races. At last one of the men cried out,
" I have it ; go up stairs and ask the archdeacon ; he be the
best judge of horseflesh in the county,"
The handsome pair of horses in the hooded phaeton in
which he used to drive to distant parts of the archdeaconry
gave warrant of his sound judgment, as their well-groomed
condition did of his love and care for horses. Manning was
fond, too, of cats and dogs. The cats of Lavington were of
special beauty. A year or two before his death, S. F. Wood
wrote : —
I want one of the Lavington cats, as a memorial of the place,
for my chambers in the Temple ; please, to use your own
favourite expression, "bear this in miTid."
In a letter to his mother, to whom it would seem he was
more in the habit of promising visits than of paying them,
Manning wrote about a misfortune which had befallen " his
larder," as follows : —
I have been twice lately to Dale, and John Abel has presented
me with two dogs, one the most beautiful Scotch terrier you can
conceive, ragged to the last notion of raggedness. INIy larder
was cleared out some weeks ago, and these he gave me to keep my
wittles safe ; Charles and Catherine have also given me a puppy ;
so that I can both understand what the saying means " it never
rains but it pours," and also " it rains cats and dogs." ... I must
tell you that my poor little cat is dead. She wasted away ; and
then went somewhere to die, and has never been found.
There are, indeed, but few to-day who knew Manning's
habits of life at Lavington, and survive to tell the tale ; or
who remember those minor details, those personal habits,
which in the lives of its great men the world likes to hear
of. The son of Manning's much-beloved friend and curate.
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 447
Captain Laprimaudaye, who at an earlier date had kindly sent
me, for the purposes of a biography, six interesting letters
addressed to his father by Manning — favoured me at my
special request with the following recollections of the arch-
deacon at Lavington. It is a lively and graphic account of
the impressions left on his mind, when, as a boy. Captain
Laprimaudaye was in the habit either of staying at, or
making frequent visits to, Lavington,
Forest Cottage, Three Bridges,
Sussex, 7th April 1892.
My dear Sir — As for my own recollections of the Cardinal,
they go back to my visits to the Archdeacon of Chichester, when
my father was his curate from 1847 to 1851. He then resided
at Lavington, which was called the rectory, and the curate at
Graflfham.
Now Graffham is the house of the rector, and the late arch-
deacon's house is a private residence.
I remember the introduction in the service of many customs
then looked upon as decidedly High Church — intoning, Gregorian
chants, flowers, etc. Especial attention and care were paid by the
archdeacon to the village choir. The boys were admitted to
this with a good deal of ceremony, and not without due pro-
bation and evidence of good character. In fact, it may be said
that all these matters were looked into more closely by the
archdeacon than was customary at that time. His plain country
sermons were a marvel ; and as one of my youthful exercises
consisted in writing a synopsis of them from memory, their
eloquent simplicity, so suited to rustic minds, made a great im-
pression on me. During my school holidays later, I constantly
saw him. He was an excellent rider, and frequently took me
out with him for rides across the beautiful downs. His slim
spare figure, in the breeches and gaiters of the Anglican dignitary,
looked exceedingly well on horseback. He was also a good
skater, as I well remember from his having given me many a
helping hand in my early efforts on the ice. I do not ever
remember seeing him drive, but he had a capital pair of gray
horses driven in a hooded carriage of the old-fashioned type, the
hood being closed if required with a glass shutter, something like
the hansom cab of to-day. I was struck by his having a lamp
in it for reading purposes, so as to Avaste no moments of his long
winter drives, — at that time Godalming was our nearest railway
station going North. I have no doubt whatever that many
448 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
other, and more interesting, reminiscences of those times have
been supplied yoiz, but I merely mention what at this long
distance of time comes to my mind.
Generally, the trait in him which made, I think, most im-
pression on me, was a sort of quiet merriment, as though he
enjoyed and appreciated anything humorous or laughable, with-
out the hearty and boisterous accompaniment seen in others, less
reserved. But the merriment was there. He delighted in the
quaint old Sussex expressions ; and I used constantly to hear him
quoting them with appreciation. — Believe me, very truly yours,
C. H. Laprimaudaye.
Troubles connected with the Church of Eome invaded
the sacred precincts of Lavington, and by affecting his near
relatives vexed the soul of the rector. The first of them to
leave the English Church was Sophia, his late wife's youngest
sister, and George Eyder. The Eev. George Dudley Eyder
was a disciple of Newman's, and after many months of
prayer and deliberation submitted to the Church. From the
tone of the following entry in his Diary this conversion
seems to have taken Manning by surprise.
May 1846. — To-day I heard that George and Sophia have
joined the Eoman Church. It seems incredible. There is no
good in saying that it is a headlong affair. So it is, but that
will not undo it.
Whether the Church of Eome be right or no, I feel that this
way of joining it is wrong.
Now, how does it bear on us 1
Her poor mother, with all the recollections of past years, and
the separation hereafter — never again to pray together, or to kneel
at the altar, the only communion being the Lord's Prayer,
It is more like death than anything else. What does He
mean us to learn by it 1
To be just, fair, and gentle towards the Church of Eome. I
have often thought that it is in this way that He purposes to
turn our hearts to each other.
Certainly the converts have a truer intellectual apprehension.
Another trouble of a like kind is recorded in the follow-
ing passage under date 6th August 1846 : —
I have to-day seen Mrs. Lockhart for the first time since she
joined the Eoman Church ; a most painful interview.
I avoided all discussion, and said all I wished was to say
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 449
nothing inconsistent Avitli sincerity and charity. She said of her
daughter, " It is not you, but she will not live with me." What
strikes me is — 1. Her inability to realise the effect of what she
has done on others — Keble, her father, Miss Lockhart. 2. Her
want of consideration and tenderness for Miss Lockhart. 3. Her
great want of gentleness and meekness. Surely the greater
truth the greater charity. The true Church ought to teach the
Sermon on the Mount. 4. Her reckless, cruel, assaulting way
of speaking and acting.
In this entry in his Diary there are traces of one of
those Berserker rages ^ which sometimes swept like a storm-
wind over his soul ; otherwise Archdeacon Manning would
scarcely have accused Mrs. Lockhart of speaking and acting
in a reckless, cruel, assaulting way. Had she, perhaps,
again roused his ire by expressing a doubt of the validity
of Anglican orders, as she had done a short time before
whilst still an Anglican ? On the occasion of the arch-
deacon's last visit to her at Chichester " Mrs. Lockhart had
ventured to say, ' But, Mr. Archdeacon, are you quite sure
of the validity of Anglican orders ? ' His answer was
astonishingly curt and decided, ' Am I sure of the existence
of God ? ' adding, ' You are a good deal too like your dear
son.' " - Of this " dear son," when he was received into the
Church, Manning had said to Mrs. Lockhart, " I would
rather follow a friend to the grave than hear he had taken
such a step."
So harsh a statement made to a mother only shows
Manning's supreme dread or horror of his own friends or
relations or penitents going over to Rome. He seemed to
take such a step on their part almost as a personal affront ;
looked upon it as if it were a liberty " to go over to Eome "
without his consent. It was not as if he himself felt no
attractions to Eome, or had no doubts and difficulties about
the Church of England.
On the reverse side of the page in his Diary containing
^ Mauuing's last surviving sister, speaking of what was known in the
family as "Berserker rages," said; "We were all quick, but I think dear
Henry was the least quick of any of us."
2 "Personal Reminiscences of Cardinal Manning." William Lockhart,
Dublin Review, April 1892, p. 378.
VOL. I 2 G
450 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the entry about JMrs. Lockhart is the followiug state-
ment : —
The Church of England, after 300 years, has failed — 1, in
the unity of doctrine ; 2, in tlie enforcement of discipline ; 3, in
the training of the liigher life.
The entry about Mrs. Lockhart was dated 6th August
1846 ; the one above, 4th August 1846.
Under date otli July 1846, is a passage which I have
quoted elsewhere about the drawing of Eome, and how it
satisfied the whole of his intellect, sympathy, sentiment,
and nature. Why then, under such circumstances, with
such a drawing in his own soul to Eome, should he declare
that he would rather follow a friend to the grave than hear
that he had gone over to Eome ?
Such harsh statements were not the deliberate and real
expressions of Manning's heart and mind. They were
thrown off in the heat of the moment. To the lonely man,
thrown now and again by some untoward occurrence, by
contradiction, or the balking of his will, into an excited
state of feeling, or into downright anger, pacing to and fro
in the long library at Lavington, his Diary was a safety-
valve. Expression was a relief to his pent-up feelings. In
his usual moods he was too kind and gentle by nature, and
too loving of heart, deliberately to wound the feelings of
others.
It is a real consolation to know that so sensitive a man,
so quick of temper, was not often troubled at Lavington
by visits or conversations which irritated his nerves some-
times to such a degree as to make him lose self-control.
A few days after Mrs. Lockhart's reproaches that Keble
would not permit her daughter, who belonged to an
Anglican sisterhood under his direction, to live at home,
Keble himself came to Lavington to take counsel with
Manning as to the retention, against her mother's wish, of
Miss Lockhart in the sisterhood.
What course Manning advised Keble to pursue is not
recorded.^ The Diary only mentions the fact that " Keble
^ Miss Lockhart remained in the Anglican Church for five 3'ears after her
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 451
was here last night and to-day. What strikes me most is
his profound humility and real reverence."
Manning's life at Lavington was rewarded with spiritual
consolations in the work which he achieved in his parish.
In visiting the poor, the sick, and the dying, his kindness
and constant attention to their temporal as well as spiritual
wants won the hearts of men to God. And Manning had
the consolation of believing that his prayers on their behalf
on occasions received a direct answer. The following is an
example : —
Palm Sunday, 28th March 1847. — On Friday evening John
Ayling came to me. I could not see him.
That morning I had prayed in sacro for his conversion, and
sent him my alms, and a warning.
I thought my curate must have been to him. This morning
my curate told me he had not, and that the man had come to
me of his own will. Now, the day before there had been a dis-
tribution, which may have wrought on him.
Otherwise, I see nothing but a divine cause in answer to
prayer, as on that last Monday.
These things are wonderful !
Suppose the secondary cause I have suggested. Still why
now, and not before? The same events have happened often in
the last six months.
The very day of my prayer is not to be explained away.
In the following passage of his Diary, dated 16th August
1846, Manning recounts the passing of a vision, apparently
— though he does not in so many words describe it as such
— of our Lady, at the deathbed of one of his parishioners : —
This evening I went to see Mary Elcomb. She was drowsy,
and after speaking to me dozed off. I had reminded her who
used to read to her, and said I hoped that she remembered what
had been taught to her. She then closed her eyes ; then waking
up looked eagerly over my shoulder, and her eyes traversed
about, and she put up her hand and said with a kind of fear,
" Who is she ? Who is she ? " ^ I felt a thrill, and expected
mother's conversion. On Manning's submitting to the Catholic Church in
1851, Miss Lockhart became a Catholic ; and lived and died a nun in the
Franciscan Convent at Bayswater, under the spiritual direction of Archbishop
Manning.
^ I think she said "all in white."
452 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to see something break out on my sight. This eager looking
about continued for some time, and did not terminate on me.
It was above and beside me.
In his Anglican days at Lavingtou, though he defended
in private, in his letters and Diary, " the doctrine of the
invocation of saints, and especially of the Blessed Virgin,"
Manning appears to have had scruples, as Archdeacon of
Chichester, about invoking her intercession. For it was only
after executing the formal deed of resignation of his office
and benefice that he said for the first time the Ave Maria.
The shadow of death again fell over Lavington. On
12th May 1847, the Eve of the Ascension, Manning's
mother died. Her death made his life still more lonely.
The event is recorded in liis Diary as follows : —
My brother Charles came to-day at twenty minutes after
twelve. As soon as I heard of his sudden coming I foreboded
the truth. It pleased God to give my beloved mother rest last
night at half-past ten.
At that hour they were at family prayers. I was in prayer ;
and from the time am sure that my commemoration and inter-
cession for her was between twenty minutes after ten and the
half-past. This morning I again commemorated her in spiritual
communion. My beloved father fell asleep on Good Friday, my
beloved mother on the Eve of the Ascension. I hear that she
had been cheerful, free from fear and pain, had gone to bed ;
and the nurse (of Carter's Cloister), for the first time such a
thing had happened, sat on the top step of the stairs, near the
door, instead of going to family prayers. She heard two sighs
at twenty minutes after ten, ran down, found them coming out.
They came up, found her head fallen from the pillow, and
oppressed breathing, no consciousness, raised her, and in ten
minutes or quarter of an hour she was at rest.
Praise the Lord, my soul. I have shrunk with anguish of
heart from the thought and the image of my beloved mother's
last illness and agony. Her face I have pictured ; and the bitter-
ness of my own soul at the thought of my loveless, thankless,
and undutiful bearing to her. I trust to lay on myself a life-
long penance for this. She has been spared both the fear and
the pain of death, the wrench from the agony of life. I count
this a token of fatherly indulgence. May this revive my sink-
ing repentance and watchfulness. This morning I had a letter
from her. My curate asked for a piece of paper to fold his alms
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 453
in for the altar. I tore the blank leaf, and then regretted it,
thinking it might be her last. But now I see that it was conse-
crated, and that I need not be sorry. It went to the altar, to
where she, too, is gone ; under where she is resting and waiting.
The last time I saw her was in bed at Reigate. She was ill,
and so was I. The beginning of my illness was on me. The
remembrance of my week there is sharp and piercing. How
estranged, distant, loveless, thankless, irritable, selfish. I did
nothing to cheer her or make her happy. My whole conduct
was hateful and guilty beyond words. I will, God being my
helper, from this day both commend her in prayer and humble
myself by some lifelong penance. But, blessed be God, I
believe she is at rest — father and mother both in God. May
this be my life.
Manning's bitter self-reproaches of undutifulness towards
his mother were more the expressions of his poignant grief
at her death than an accurate account of his behaviour
towards his beloved mother. In a letter to Eobert Wilber-
force he explains that the " undutifulness " towards his
mother of which he accuses himself was not undutifulness
as understood by the world.
Although he was recovering from his long and severe
attack of bronchitis, Manning was not allowed by his doctor
to attend his mother's funeral. In the following affectionate
letter he expresses his sorrow of heart to his brother Charles
at not being able to be present at the last ofi&ces of rever-
ence and love : —
Lavinqton, 20^^. May 1847.
My beloved Brother — My heart went with you yesterday,
and I should have grieved deeply at not following my most
tenderly loved mother — no, not her, but the dust which is also
holy — to its rest, had not the will of God been so plain.
On Tuesday night, I came upon the enclosed paper which
(if you can read it) may interest you. Let me have it again.
And now, dearest brother, our love has cast out all fear, and
I will at once ask you to come to me a little later than next
Sunday.
For a fortnight John has been under a promise to me to
come ; and I wrote on Sunday asking him to come now. I am
also going to ask dearest Maria, whom I greatly desire to see,
and that -will be as much as I feel I could enjoy at present.
You know that is no measure of my love to you, which cannot
454 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
well be greater ; but I am not as yet as well able as I was to
enjoy more at once.
The next time I shall hope to have you under my roof.
I thank God, I have been out into the sun and fresh air
which is most blessed and soothing.
With my affectionate love to Catherine, believe me, my
dearest brother, yours with great love, H. E. Manning.
Manning also wrote to his brother-in-law Henry
Wilberforce as follows : —
Lavington, 20th May 1847.
My DEAREST Henry — I have begun two letters to you and
torn them up. You know all I am feeling by your own fresh
experience. God be praised my beloved mother was spared all
the pains and fears of death ; and I have been spared great
trials. It is impossible for me to tell you Avhat our love was,
and has been from my childhood. It was on her part as fond,
as I am on mine unworthy. Would to God I loved Him as
she loved me, and I should be blessed indeed. And yet I seem
to be unable to grieve. She is with my dearest Father, and
they are both in His presence I believe from my heart. And
the time seems infinitely short before we shall be together
again ; and in this world it seems as if happiness could only be
seen in reflection. When we try to feel it we touch nothing.
But it is a pledge of what is, and what shall be ours.
Thank God I am getting on comfortably, and have been out
the last eight days with great joy and refreshment. I trust the
children are going on well. Pray write to me. Give my
tenderest love to dear Mary, and say that her last letter was
very precious to me. — Ever your loving brother, H. E. M.
Mrs. Manning was buried at Sunbridge, Kent, in the
same grave where her husband was buried in 1835.^ Three
years later the death of his sister-in-law, Sophia Eyder,
brought fresh sorrow to Manning's heart. Only one of the
four sisters, daughters of Mrs. John Sargent, survived —
Mary, the wife of Henry Wilberforce.
^ The following inscription was placed on the tombstone : —
ALSO OF
MARY MANNING,
Beloved Wife of William Manning, Esq.,
Born July 4, 1771,
Died May 13, 1847.
Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain mercy.
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 455
The death of Sophia l\yder is spoken of in feeling terms
in the following passage of a letter from Manning to Eobert
Wilberforce : —
This has been indeed a great sorrow to us. All I remember
at Lavington are gone — but two. Dearest Sophia was a saintly
mind. Since she left us, E.C.'s would say by larger grace ;
others by chastisement and sorrow. I believe by both. She
had perceptibly grown in spiritual perfection. And now what
loves are reunited !
For some years I have thought, and half believed, that " inter-
cession within the veil " has been drawing me whither they now
see the one Light to shine. But this is only a day-dream
perhaps.
Bishop Wilberforce, in a letter on Mrs. Eyder's death,
under date 26th March 1850, wrote as follows: "Mrs.
Sargent has now only Mary left, of the lovely family of
seven with whom God had enriched that happiest of
parsonages — Grafflmm."
In a letter to Eobert Wilberforce, dated 19th November
1850, Hs brother the Bishop of Oxford said : —
I go on to Sussex on Tuesday to preach. Wednesday at the
consecration of West Lavington church. A sad time, for I dare
hardly hope to have Manning again with us.^
From his home at Lavington, what letters of condolence
or of congratulation were not sent in sympathy by Arch-
deacon Manning to his loving friends ! The following
letter of condolence was written to Mrs. Laprimaudaye on
the death of a near relative : —
Lavington, 2nd Juhj 1849.
My DEAR Friend — ... I hope your visit to Southend has
not been too much for you.
It is a heavy share of sorrow which now falls to you on both
sides. I suppose that one of the conditions on which we retain
parents and friends until their old age is that they leave us in
a company, and sorrows seem to come thick.
The aunt you speak of brought you up, I believe. Am I
not right in thinking so ?
It may sound strange, but I sometimes feel as if sorrow were
^ Life of Wilberforce, first ed. vol. ii. p. 55.
456 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
necessary to keep us from hardness of heart; and I am sure
nothing so teaches us to realise the communion of saints, and
all the realities and laws of the world unseen.
Give my love to your husband. May God bless you. — Ever
yours affectionately, H. E. Manning.
In a letter to Mrs. Herbert, dated Kipperton, 9th
September 1848, Archdeacon Manning alludes to his sister,
Mrs. Austen, as follows : — " You see that I write from
Kipperton, and send you the love of my sister, who says that
she is daily reminded of you by the ' Pio Nono ' she wears."
The letter of sympathy to Sidney Herbert and his wife
on the birth of their son was the last of the kind that
was sent from Lavington.
Lavington, 8th July 1850.
My dear Sidney — Your letter this morning gave me the
most heartfelt joy. It brings back to me the Porta Pia, the
Quattre Fontane and our long and confiding talk of things
which touch the deepest in our thoughts. May God bless you
both, and your boy — and make him all you can " ask or think."
Give my love to your wife. She knows how I rejoice with you,
and how all that gives her joy gladdens me.
I hope to be soon in London and to find you all well and
thankful for your many gifts and mercies. — Ever, my dear
Sidney, yours very affectionately, H. E. M.
On hearing of the sudden death of Sir Eobert Peel,
Archdeacon Manning paid a just tribute to the great
statesman in the following letter to Sidney Herbert : —
Lavington, 5th July 1850.
My dear Herbert — I had not heard the end when I wrote
to you. It is a deep sorrow — public and private. I did not
know him ; but through you and Gladstone I have learned to
feel for him more than the admiration which his public life
commanded. And I have always believed him with a perfect
reliance to be both a good and a great man. All that I have
ever heard of his private life, and all that I have ever seen of
his public life, alike convince me that he was among our best
and greatest men.
The time and the kind of his end make it singularly tragic
and impressive.
I can in some degree, and yet most imperfectly, conceive
what his loss must be to you. When I first heard of the
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 457
accident I felt a foreboding how it would end, and since I heard
of the end I have hardly thought of anything else.
But as yet it is a sorrow chiefly, if not only ; every day will
show that it is the greatest loss we could have sustained at this
public crisis. And yet " the Lord sitteth above the water
flood," and "the Lord reraaineth a king for ever."
I have not thanked you for your letter which is most deeply
and painfully interesting.
My love to you both. May God be with you. Believe me,
my dear Sidney, always affectionately youi's,
H. E. Manning.
The picture of Lavington as half-way house to Eome
would not be complete without an illustration of those
unique appeals addressed by his penitents to their spiritual
director for guidance, and which were never allowed to pass
without full and sympathetic consideration. The following
letter shows that Evangelicals as well as Tractarians sought
spiritual help from Manning : —
15th October 1850.
My dear Father in Christ — I am venturing to ask a great
favour of you, it is that you will allow me to read and copy for
my oivn good, and quiet thought, your answer to D. Dodsworth's
attack on the Apocryphal books — and Rome as Babylon. Of
course it is from May Blunt that I know anything about it, and
she would not, if she knew, like my speaking of it again to you.
I think you won't refuse me, and I am sure you would pity me,
and like to help me, if you knew the unhappy, unsettled state my
mind is in, and the misery of being entirely, wherever I am, with
those who look upon joining the Church of Eome as the most
awful "fall" conceivable to any one, and are devoid of the
smallest comprehension of how any enlightened person can do it.
I have had one kind short letter from Mr. Richards, but I feel as
if he could do little good to me, so long as I am so completely
alone and forced into thinking over things for myself, and the
way in which the subject is brought before me.
My old Evangelical friends, with all my deep, deep love for
them, do not succeed in shaking me in the least. I would add
in asking you the favour to let me see what you sent May Blunt,
that I am reallj'^ cautious on one point, if on no other, i.e. about
not saying to others (for one reason lest I should misstate it my-
self) what may be quoted or garbled and misstated again at the
cost of another.
May says she will tell me all the heads of the argument when
458 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
we meet, but I can't help exceedingly shrinking from the whole
subject with her, because she makes up her mind not to believe
things, and outtalks things so provokingly that I entirely lose
the whole sense.
My brother has just published a book called Regeneration,
which all my friends are reading and highly extolling ; it has a
very contrary effect to what he would desire on my mind. I can
read and understand it all in an altogether different sense, and
the facts which he quotes about the articles as drawn up in
153G, and again in 1552, and of the Irish articles of 1615 and
1634, startle and sliake me about the Reformed Church in Eng-
land far more than anything else, and have done ever since I
first saw them in Mr. Maskell's pamphlet (as quoted from Mr.
Dodsworth's).
I do hope you have sometimes just time and thought to pray
for me still. Mr. Galton's letters long ago grew into short,
formal notes, which hurt me and annoyed me particularly, and
I never answered his last, so, literally, I have no one to say
things to and get help from, which in one sense is a comfort,
when my convictions seem to be leading me on and on and gain-
ing strength in spite of all the dreariness of my lot.
Do you know I can't help being very anxious and unhappy
about poor Sister Harriet. I am afraid of her GOING OUT OF
HER MIND, She comforts herself by an occasional outpour of
everything to me, and I had a letter this morning.
This is what she says of herself in one part. " Oh how I
wish I could run away from myself. Sometimes I am obliged to
go out, and I walk and run till I feel I can go no farther, then I
sit down and cry, then I set off again."
She longs for more "active work," but if she leaves St.
Mary's Home she does not know where to go, she says ; in short
she describes herself as almost beside herself. She says Sister
May has promised the Vicar never to talk to her or allow her to
talk on the subject with her, and I doubt whether this can be
good for her, because though she has lost her faith, she says, in
the Church of England, yet she never thinks of what she could
have faith in, and resolutely without inquiring into the question
determines not to be a Eoman Catholic, so that really you see
she is allowing her mind to run adrift, and yet perfectly power-
less. Forgive my troubling you with this letter, and believe me
to be always your faithful, grateful, and affectionate daughter,
Emma Ryle.
I wish I could see you once more so very much.
The last eight or nine months of his residence at Laving-
XXI LIFE AND HOME AT LAVINGTON 459
ton was for ]\Iauuing a most distressing period. The battle
over the Gorhani case had been fought and lost. In the
field of action Manning had never lost heart or hope. But
the recoil made itself felt at Lavington. The shadow of
coming events was cast over his heart and home.
Manning's life at Lavington, from his marriage in
November 1833 to the leaving of his beloved home in
December 1850, included in its seventeen years' duration
most of the vicissitudes which fall to the lot of man on
earth. Alternate joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, suc-
cesses and disappointments, marked its course in the order
of nature. In the supernatural order came the new birth
of spiritual life ; the growth of grace and of the knowledge
of God; the wrestlings of the spirit with the flesh; of the
love and fear of God with the love and fear of the world ;
of grace with nature. For a time, as the world judges of
men and their actions, the issue of the struggle seemed
uncertain. In Manning, nature was strong and subtle.
Self-will and self-confidence, self-seeking even, took the
form or came to him under the guise, at any rate for a
time, of willing and seeking the things which God willed.
In the recesses of his own mind, not out of pride of
will but from unconscious self - deception, he believed
that he singly and solely knew best how to extend
and exalt the work and the Will of God on earth :
knew what tended most to promote the designs of
Providence in the government of the Church and
the world. He persuaded himself at a critical moment
that the designs of Providence in regard to the Church of
England coincided with the desires of his own heart. For
never, even under the sharp spur of ambition, did he know-
ingly or deliberately set himself against the Divine AVill.
In strong natures, carried away or consumed by their own
desires or designs, self-deception is not unknown, even in
our day, as the conduct of the greatest statesman of his
generation bears ample witness. A great ecclesiastic of
those days, the Archdeacon of Chichester, who in many
points of his character bore a striking resemblance to the
eminent statesman alluded to, had likewise for a time per-
460 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xxi
suaded himself, against his own better judgment, that he
was called by God not to submit to the Church of Eome,
but to rehabilitate the Church of England in harmony with
the designs of Providence. His self-delusion needed a rough
awakening. In God's mercy, the awakening came. Man-
ning recognised, and overcoming at last the " shrinkings of
flesh and blood," -^ obeyed the Voice and Will of God.
In leaving Lavington and all that such a self-sacrifice
inflicted — severance from the work of a lifetime; from
hopes and ambitions near and dear to his heart ; from the
esteem of great men ; from public honour ; from the pro-
spect of more extended usefulness in a higher sphere.
Manning manifested in a singular and special manner his
higher, inner nature ; his deep, fervent, and abiding belief
in the supernatural. In spite of temporary tergiversations,
blindnesses, and weaknesses of nature — human frailties
from which few are exempt — he saw in the higher moods
and movements of his soul the world " behind the veil " ;
felt the living presence of God ; heard the Divine Voice
speaking to his soul. This supernatural character God set
as a sacramental seal and stamp upon Manning's brow.^
1 See Manuing's letters to Robert Wilberforce in Chapters xxiv. xxvi.
xxvii. In these letters are disclosed the inner history of Archdeacon
Manning's mind ; the struggles which he went through for many years ; the
temptations he overcame — trials which lasted almost up to the period of his
conversion in 1851.
- The late Father Lockhart, a few months before his death, described his
seeing, on the first vacation from Oxford he spent at Chichester, "the Arch-
deacon for the first time, his grand head, bald even then, his dignified figure
in his long white surplice, occupying the Archdeacon's stall in the cathedral."
Recalling the impression produced on his mind by Manning more than fifty
years ago, Father Lockhart made this remark : — " His face was to me some
first dim revelation of the supernatural in man. I have never forgotten it.
I see him as viWdly now in my mind's eye as when I first beheld him. . . .
I at once connected his face with those of the old churchmen of Catholic
times that I had seen in stained glass windows, and in the portraits of the
whole line of Catholic bishops painted in long order on the walls of the south
transept of the cathedral. They began, I think, with St. Ricliard of
Chichester, and ended with the last Catholic bishop in the reign of Mary
Tudor." — "Personal Reminiscences of Cardinal Manning," by William
Lockhart, DiMin Review, April 1892, p. 372.
CHAPTEE XXII
CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE, OR THE OUTER
AND INNER MAN
1846-1851
Hitherto I have shown the Archdeacon of Chichester
chiefly in his public capacity as teacher and preacher ; as
the friend and adviser of the clergy of his archdeaconry ;
as the counsellor of his bishop ; as fellow- worker with his
friends S. F. Wood, Thomas Acland, and Mr. Gladstone, in
establishing diocesan boards and theological colleges ; in
resisting the supremacy of the civil power in matters eccle-
siastical ; and in defending the cause of national education
on a Christian basis.
It was the outer man only that I have described, not
the inner. The eloquent voice we have been listening to
in sermons and charges, in pamphlets and tracts, was the
voice of the public champion of the Church of England —
an unhesitating and " infallible " witness to the soundness
and completeness of her faith, to the purity of her doc-
trines, and to her glorious destiny as " the regenerator of a
dissolving Christendom, the centre of a new Catholic world."
But there was another voice — not the voice of an infallible
teacher, but the voice, now of a penitent, acknowledging
" under the seal of confession," his doubts and dijfficulties
on matters of faith, his profound misgivings as to the belief
and teaching of the Church he loved so well ; now of a
friend telling to a friend in sorrow of heart, and often
under the seal of confession, the secrets of his soul : the
Church of England is to him no longer " a member of
462 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the visible Church of Christ " : no longer " a witness
to the highest doctrines of the Divine Eevelation " : no
longer a teacher " under the undoubted guidance of the
Holy Spirit." It was the voice of a man wrestling with
his own soul, and confessing to himself in humiliation and
bitterness of heart — and recording his confessions in a
Diary — that " the Church of England is diseased, organic-
ally and functionally " ; that " the Church of Rome is the
heir of infallibility " : and that " to maintain Rome's infalK-
bility is to condemn us."
Without the revelations contained in his " general con-
fession" to his beloved curate Laprimaudaye, whom Ca,rdinal
Manning styled in his " Journal " of a later period " my
Father-confessor in the Church of England " ; without the
numerous letters extending over a period of more than ten
years, and those towards the end often marked Under the
Seal, written to the most intimate of his friends, Robert
Wilberforce ; and still more without the self-revelations in
his Diary, I could only have given a very one-sided and
incomplete account of the state of Manning's religious
opinions from the year 1846 to his conversion in the year
1851. Without such evidence, invaluable beyond measure
as revealing the inner workings of his mind, the spirituality
of his nature, and the growing influence of supernatural
motives guiding heart and soul, it would have been difficult
if not altogether impossible to understand or judge aright
Archdeacon Manning's real relations during these most
critical years to the Church of Rome, on the one side, and
on the other, to the Anglican Church. Had we to rely
only on his public utterances, or on the statements which
he felt it his duty to make, up to the last, to his penitents,
the historian of his life would have been constrained to
admit as the primary causes of his conversion, if not the
Gorham Judgment in itself, the acceptance by the Church
of England of the royal supremacy on matters of doctrine,
on the one hand ; and on the other, the anti-Papal agitation
as manifesting the essential Protestantism of the Established
Church. Whereas in truth these were but the secondary
causes ; the primary cause, as the documents which I now
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 463
produce prove beyond the shadow of doubt, was the
gradual growth, under God's grace, of faith in the Catholic
Church, and an absolute repudiation, long before the
Gorham Judgment, of Anglicanism, high or low, as a
Church. Had the Diary and the letters to Eobert
Wilberforce been destroyed or suppressed, a difficulty would
indeed have been removed. But then the most striking
testimony to the supernatural side of Manning's mind and
character would have been for ever lost. It is better by far
to front, than by suppression attempt to evade, a difficulty.
What, I grant, is a curious difficulty, almost startling at
first, is to find Manning speaking concurrently for years
with a double voice. One voice proclaims in public, in
sermons, charges, and tracts, and, in a tone still more
absolute, to those who sought his advice in confession, his
profound and unwavering belief in the Church of England
as the divine witness to the Truth, appointed by Christ
and guided by the Holy Spirit. The other voice, as the
following confessions and documents under his own hand-
writing bear ample witness, speaks in almost heartbroken
accents of despair at being no longer able in conscience
to defend the teaching and position of the Church of
England ; whilst acknowledging at the same time, if not in
his confession to Laprimaudaye, at any rate in his letters
to Eobert Wilberforce, the drawing he felt towards the
infallible teaching of the Church of Eome.
What adds to the difficulty of accounting for these
contradictory statements in regard to his religious opinions
is the strange fact, that in all his Journals, Eeminiscences,
and autobiographical Notes, Cardinal Manning has left no
explanation of this apparent mystery. It was not out of
obliviousness of these various documents with their conflict-
ing testimonies, for in more than one Note he directs
special attention to them as affording the best evidence as to
the state of his religious opinions. Not a hint is given that
the necessity of such an explanation ever occurred to his mind.
The simplest solution that can be offered to a difficulty
is for the most part the truest. In the trying period
between 1847-51 Manning's mind was in a state of trans-
464 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
ition in regard to his religious belief. The struggle was
as prolonged as it was severe. Until his mind had grasped
the reality of things ; had probed his doubts to the bottom ;
had reached solid ground, consistency or coherency of state-
ment was perhaps scarcely to be expected. To see things
in one light to-day, in another to-morrow, is but natural
in such a transition-state of mind. To make statements
on grave matters of faith to one person or set of persons
in contradiction of statements made to others, is only a
still stronger proof of a sensitive mind, perplexed by
doubt, losing for the time being its balance.
In Manning's mind there was a superadded difficulty :
he was by nature, if not absolutely incapable, unwilling in
the extreme to confess his inability to answer a question or
solve a difficulty or doubt. As an accepted teacher in
religion, the habit had grown upon him of speaking always
on all points of faith with an absolute assurance of certi-
tude. In a letter to Eobert Wilberforce of this date,
Manning confesses that " people are rising up all over the
country and appealing to me to solve doubts and difficu.lties
which, as you know, perplex my own mind. But if I leave
their appeals unanswered, they will think that I am as they
are." For him, a spiritual teacher, in whom his penitents
put their trust, to whom they come for counsel and guid-
ance, to confess to his doubts would give scandal and do
grave harm. Hence it came to pass that he had to speak,
considering it under the circumstances his duty to do so,
with a double voice.
Written on a half-sheet of note-paper, among his con-
temporary memoranda, in the same year in which, in Ms
letter to Eobert Wilberforce, he repudiated the Church of
England as a branch of the Church of Christ, Archdeacon
Manning, moved by a new impulse of Faith, made the
following profession of belief in the Church of England : —
I believe one holy Catholic Church, and I hold the Faith of
that One Church, believing all it believes, anathematising all it
anathematises.
I believe the Church in England, commonly called of England,
to be a member of that One Church. As such I hold to it.
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 4G5
If I did not so believe it, I should at once submit myself
to the Holy Roman Church. H. E. Manning.
5th Sunday after Trinity, 1849.
Manning had, to put it broadly, two sets of people to
deal with : the one set those who put their trust in him
— the ecclesiastical authorities and his own penitents ; the
other set, those in whom he put his trust — his intimate
friends and confessors. He dealt with each set from different
standpoints : from the one he considered it his duty to
conceal his religious doubts and difficulties ; to the other
he laid bare, as in conscience bound, the secrets of his soul.
On this principle, the double voice in Archdeacon
Manning is easy of explanation. He had a deep sense of
responsibility as an accepted teacher in the Church, and a
still deeper in regard to those who came to him as penitents
for spiritual guidance. The Archdeacon of Chichester knew
that he was regarded by his bishop and the clergy, not
only in his own archdeaconry, but in the neighbouring arch-
deaconry of Lewes — where his orthodoxy had been vouched
for by Archdeacon Hare — as a faithful son of the Estab-
lished Church. Other bishops as well as his own consulted
his judgment with deference. It was not in his nature
lightly to forfeit such a position. As long as his conscience
permitted him to keep silence, he never uttered a word in
public as to his doubts and difficulties, never gave a hint
even to those nearest to him, or most dependent on his
spiritual guidance, of the changes which had taken place
and were still going on in his religious opinions. On the
contrary, he regarded it as a duty which he owed, on the one
hand, to his office in the diocese, on the other, to his peni-
tents, to exalt on every public occasion the claims and
defend the position of the Church of England, as a living
portion of the Church of Christ.
It must be borne in mind, likewise, that Manning-
was not a profound thinker or deeply versed in theology.
He was never engaged, like Newman, heart and soul, in
attempts at solving the great religious and ecclesiastical
problems of the day. He was by nature a man of peace.
VOL. I 2 H
466 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
He avoided by instinct as much as by prudence conflicts
and controversies. Again, unlike Newman and the
Tractarian leaders, he had not, as yet at least, overhauled
the title-deeds of the Church of England, nor disparaged
the Eeformation and the Eeformers. In his charges
of 1841-43, and especially in his attacks on the
Popes in his Fifth of November Sermon, he had purged
himself, as he had hoped at least and intended, from the
taint of " Eomanism." Yet, however much he may have
been tortured in heart and conscience by doubts, which on
principle he refused to express in public, he bravely upheld
with all his wonted assurance and authority, until the very
foundations of his faith were swept away from beneath his
feet, both from the pulpit and in the confessional, if I may
so call it, implicit belief in the teaching and position of the
Church of England.
Such a strain on his mind and heart compelled Manning
in the nature of things to seek relief. Hence he unburdened
his conscience in outpourings of the soul ; in confessions,
full and complete, as to the state of his mind ; as to his
doubts, difficulties, unbelief in Anglicanism as a theology, as
a Church. In this way the inner voice made itself heard.
For the better elucidation of what, for conciseness' sake,
I have called the double voice that spoke in Manning — not
casually or by accident, but deliberately and from a sense
of duty, I now produce evidence, given, as it were, under
his own hand and seal.
For this purpose it is necessary to recite and, from the
nature of the case, at some length. Manning's letters : some,
on the one hand, under the seal of confession ; some addressed
as spiritual director, on the other, to his penitents, as well as
extracts from his Diary, showing at an early date grave
doubts and misgivings as to the teaching and position of the
English Church. In his pubUc utterances, on the other
hand, in numerous passages — which I need not repeat here,
as I have already recited them elsewhere — in charges,
sermons, tracts, and letters, the Archdeacon of Chichester
proclaims from a sense of duty, whether mistaken or no,
his implicit belief in the Church of England.
XXII CONFLICTINCx CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 467
The first document in the order of importance, though
not necessarily of treatment, is Archdeacon Manning's
Diary 1844-47.
On the cover of this " Diary " are these words in his
own handwriting : —
Burn this Book Unopened.
1844. H. E. M.
On his becoming a Catholic, this restriction was removed ;
but, on the other hand, every record, statement, or reflection,
which he did not think fit for the public eye — nearly half
the book — was, late in life, carefully expurgated by Car-
dinal Manning's own hand.
In like manner, in regard to his " general confession "
to his friend and curate at Lavington, Laprimaudaye, and
his letters to Eobert Wilberforce, marked " Under the Seal,"
the restriction of privacy was removed, for, in his Notes
and Eeminiscences, Cardinal Manning refers to these letters
as containing the most authentic evidence of his religious
opinions ; as he did, I may add, to myself personally. In
an autobiographical Note Cardinal Manning in 1887
wrote as follows : — " The state of my mind in 1847 is care-
fully stated in a letter to the clergyman to whom I made a
general confession."
The following documents, which I have thought it
prudent not to abridge or summarise, show what Manning
considered it his duty to say about his religious opinions —
his belief or unbelief in the Church of England — on the
one hand, in confidence to his friends or confessors ; and,
on the other, to the public in his published writings ; and
to those who were under his spiritual direction ; or in
letters or conversations with friends, like Mr. Gladstone.
The following letter to his friend Laprimaudaye bears
the heading attached to it by Cardinal Manning in 1887 : —
To my Confessor in the Church of England.
Under the Seal.
44 Cadogan Place, IGth June 1847.
My dear Friend — ... In one of your letters you ex-
468 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
pressed a hope that I might not go to Italy. This and other
causes lead me to write now what I had intended at some time
to explain. I mean the reasons why I have begged that all
reference to the subject of opinions might be excluded from
our intercourse. I will give you my reasons as shortly as I can.
1 . First, I feel it right for your sake, because I came to you
for the keys of the Church alone ; and I have always felt that
I did wrong in putting anything else before you, as I did last
year.
2. Next, I feel it right and most important for my own sake,
for the mixing up of any intellectual questions with a relation
purely spiritual, would deprive me of an unspeakable blessing.
I mean the power of excluding everything of a lower or dis-
turbing kind from the care and examination of my own state ; I
am most anxious, therefore, that our relation should continue to
be confined to the keys of the Church,
3. A third reason, though the last makes it needless, I may
give, but I must first do what I have not done before, and un-
willingly, I mean say something about myself.
Our intimacy began with last year, up to that time you could
only know of me in a general way. Since that time I have
never gone into what it is necessary you should know if you are
to have any real knowledge of my thoughts on some points
which have seemed to give you uneasiness. And my purpose
in giving you that knowledge is only because I feel it to be due
to us both, that you should not misunderstand, nor I to be mis-
understood.
For 14 years I have lived the life of a parish priest — nearly
half the time without a curate. Upon this has been added for
6^ years the work of the Archdeaconry and a most burdensome
correspondence.
The active work of the last four or five years has been so great
that my stable and travelling expenses nearly equal my whole
household expenses.
I pass over many other things because these are enough to
show that mine has been a life of overwork, and all my tempta-
tions and dangers the very reverse of those which attend a
retired, reading, and speculative life such as some of our friends
have lived.
For the last eight years I have been labouring to keep people
from the Roman Church. In 1839, one person who was all but
gone, was settled and has stood to this day, though a favourite
brother went two years after.
From 1842 to 184G Mrs. Lockhart was held back. Miss
Lockhart till now.
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 469
In the beirinninc' of 1846, a man who had seceded and
received Komaii baptism, was received back again in Lavington
church.
Six persons at this moment, I believe, have either laid aside
the thought or suspended it, with relation to myself.
Many men I could name in various degrees of nearness
during the last five or six years.
My whole labour has been this way.
I never wrote one of the Oxford tracts.
I remonstrated with Newman about many acts and publica-
tions on the Romanising score.
I preached on the 5th of November 1843 at Oxford with the
intent and eifect of declaring against it, and helped the
English Review with the view of undoing the line of the
British Critic.
I know of no one act or word tending to unsettlement con-
sciously spoken or done by me. All that I have written has
been studiously in support, hopefully and affectionately, of the
English Church.
The whole work of the Archdeaconry and my relation to
150 clergy has been of the same tone.
I have always held aloof, except in Ward's degradation
(which I think the beginning of confusion) from Oxford
movements, refusing to act on the principle of theological
combination.
During the last four years the effort and anxiety to retain
friends in the English Church has perceptibly affected my health ;
and I can trace I think the beginning of illness last year to that
cause.
So wholly and sincerely from my soul has all my heart and
strength been given against the Roman tendencies and tempta>
tions to them.
I have never indulged in the habit of speaking against the
Church of England or her writers living or dead, or allowed
any one to do so to me. The sort of footing on which I have
lived with the clergy round me made it impossible for such a
tone to pass.
In the year 1835, I preached a visitation sermon on the
succession of the English Church, which led me into the
question of Unity, and which I printed in the year 1841, having
in the meantime continually kept the subject before me so far
as I could find time for reading. That book was the substance
of a correspondence by which I tried to keep a man from Rome,
enlarged.
In 1838 I preached another visitation sermon on Tradition.
470 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
Both these books I believe have been used in keeping people
from Rome, and I also believe successfully. They are both
strongly and plainly Anglican, and in parts positively and by
statement anti-Roman.
I vnW now tell you the third reason why I wished not
to talk with you on this subject. I saw that till I had said
all this (most unwillingly) about myself, it would be impos-
sible that you should fail to misunderstand me. And so
it happened. You seemed to think that I had lighted on
difficulties from a speculative and intellectual way of treating
such subjects ; that I was influenced by Roman books of devo-
tion ; that I was affected by depreciating language about the
English Chvxrch ; that it was excitement ; and I unfortunately
named two or three books, which seemed to give you the im-
pression that I was always reading controversies.
My dearest friend, I wish any one or all of them were true,
I could easily dispose of them by your help ; for this would
be chiefly moral faults and need no more than a plain treat-
ment.
I will endeavour to tell you exactly the state of my thoughts
Two subjects have been in my mind for the last ten or twelve
years. The one is Unity, beginning in 1835 ; the other Infalli-
bility, beginning in 1837-38. To these two points all the
reading I could give has been given. On both I came to
conclusions which uphold as against Rome ; and these con-
clusions, after long examination and re-examination, I printed.
I can say Avithout fear, that the examination of these two
subjects was as unexcited, calm, and practical as I could make
it. They came before me as involved in the baptismal creed, as
you will find if you care to see.
When Newman's book was published, Gladstone urged me to
answer it. 1 declined pledging myself ; but it forced me again
into the two same subjects. To which I have continued to give
all the thought and reading I can.
And I am bound to say that I could not republish either of
the two books as they stand. They are inaccurate in some
facts ; incomplete as compared with the truth of the case ; and
concede some of the main points I intended to deny. The
Anglican ground is I believe this.
1. To stand upon the text of St. Vincent of Lerins, quod
semper, etc.
2. To interpret Scripture by antiquity as expressed in the
canon of 1562.
3. To hold the faitli of the Church before the division of the
East and West as Bishop Ken said.
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 471
4. To show that the Roman points cannot be proved in the
first 6 centuries as Bishop Jewel declared.
In the course of the last few years I have read the Apostolical
Fathers, Justin Martyr's Dialogue — a good deal of Tertullian,
St. Cyprian, St. Cyril of Jerusalem ; St. Chrysostom, and a
good deal more of St. Augustine, including the de Civitafe Dei.
The whole of St. Optatus, and St. Leo, besides habitually
referring to jmrts for facts and quotations. The result is that
I should be afraid of undertaking the defence of either Jewel's
or Ken's positions.
You said one thing most true and woful to me, and that is,
that I was not fit to decide such a question ; so I feel, for I
greatly mistrust myself and my reading, and earnestly wish for
the help of others stronger in head and more learned than my-
self. The two I chiefly trust are Robert Wilberforce and Dr.
Mill, with whom I hope, if need arise, to confer. I wish it were
possible to lay the Avhole aside. But it is in vain to dream of
it. If I could do it myself, duty to others Avould make it
impossible. Within the last month I have declined to enter
upon these points with five men (three clergymen) and all (four
especially) men of high excellence and value to us. Even if I
could satisfy my o^vn mind, I could not help others without
seeing a clearer solution of the two following points : —
First. — Is not the infallibility of the Church a necessary con-
sequence of the presence of the third Person of the Blessed
Trinity ; and of His perpetual office, beginning from the Day of
Pentecost ? This seems to me to be revealed in Scripture.
A perpetual presence, perpetual office, and perpetual infalli-
bility — that is, a living voice witnessing for truth and against error
under the guidance of the Spirit of Christ — seem inseparable.
Secondly. — Is it not a part of the revealed will and ordinance
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Church should be under an
episcopate united with a visible head, as the apostles were
united Avith St. Peter ? It is not the question of primacy with
me so much as unity of the episcopate. " Episcopatus unus est."
I take St. Peter to have been the first of apostles, as the
Primate of Christendom is the first of bishops ; in spiritual
order or power all being equal.
Now these two questions are two principles, which involve all
details. And the course of examination which has led me to
them is the canon of 1562, i.e. Scripture interpreted by
antiquity. The Council of Chalcedon, Avhich the Church of
England recognises, exhibits them both in a form and dis-
tinctness which I cannot at present reconcile with what I have
hitherto believed to be tenable.
472 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I have now given you, as far as is possible in the fewest
words, the sum of my meaning.
All bonds of birth, blood, memory, love, happiness, interest,
every inducement which can sway and bias my will, bind me to
my published belief. To doubt it is to call in question all that
is dear to me. If I were to give it up I should feel that it
would be like death ; as if all my life had become extinct.
Believe me then, that nothing short of a mass of evidence
inspired and uninspired all going one way, and this evidence
I have before me — could make me hesitate to shut my eyes,
and take the Church of England on trust for ever as I have done
with a loving heart in times past.
But the Church of England herself sends me by canon to
antiquity, and in obeying it I find what I cannot solve. For
this cause I must seek help. Now let me add a Avord on a
subject I noticed in the beginning — I mean your fear of my
going to Italy. " He that trusteth his own heart is a fool,"
but I may say that I have passed through all this before, having
been much abroad, and already six months in Italy — three in
Eome. The effect of this has always been highly repulsive. But
I can say, I think, without fear, that no seductions of devotional
books or the like have the least effect in this matter. I have
been for years familiar with them. My difficulties are two
definite and distinct questions, in which I am ready with a
willing mind to be guided.
But I feel them to be too definite and distinct to be laid
aside — and no treatment but such as is definite and distinct
gives rest to my conscience. I would not have written all this
about myself were it not that I feel too much love for you to
bear, without an attempt to satisfy you, the pain of being
thought to use lightness in a matter of Eternity. I do not ask
you to go into these questions. I only wish you to see that my
difficulties are neither from excitement nor imagination, nor
from want of love to the Church of England, nor from trifling
and fanciful causes. They lie deep in Holy Scripture and in
the mind of the Spirit and the appointments of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Only believe me to be as real and earnest in this as
you think me capable of being in anything.
I have made this a long letter, willing if possible to make a
second needless. Do not feel bound to answer it, as I shall not
look for any reply. But give me your prayers against all the
faults you see or think you see in me.
And do not imagine that I write this as any forward step or
sign of moving one way or the other.
I write because I resolved I would not even enter on these
xxii CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 473
points in helping others till I had wi'itten to you. There are
some about me Avhom I can hardly deny, and I could not much
longer keep silence "\vith them without making them fancy I was
as they are.
Farewell, my dearest friend. Happy the day if through the
precious blood of our Lord we attain that kingdom where light
casts no shadows and all are one in the Eternal Truth.
With my brotherly love and gratitude for all you have done
for the least worthy. — Ever yours affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
In his Journal, dated 1885, Cardinal Manning has put
his imprimatur on this general confession, made in 1847,
iu these words : — " On looking back on it I see now it
had both formal and material integrity."
In the following letter, written after the Gorham Judg-
ment, to a near relative, a lady, who had long desired to
join the Catholic Church, and who, since the Gorham
Judgment, was more pressing than ever, Manning speaks,
not in the voice of a penitent or, as he spoke to his con-
fessor, acknowledging his doubts and misgivings, but in the
voice of an authorised teacher upholding the claims of the
Church of England on the conscience of his penitent : —
Lavington, Qth May 1850.
My dearest 1 will endeavour to give you the
reasons which make me strive to subdue both haste and fear in
the great probation which is upon me.
1. Judging by the evidence of the Primitive Church there
are many, and they very grave and vital, points on which
the Church of England seems more in harmony with Holy
Scripture than the Church of Rome.
2. The political, social, domestic state of foreign countries as
compared with England is to me a perplexity and an alarm.
3. For three hundred years, the grace of sanctity and of
penitence has visibly dwelt and wrought in the Church of
England.
4. The most saintly and penitent for three centuries have
lived and died in it, not only without fear, but with great
thankfulness for their lot as compared Avith another which they
have looked on with mistrust, and even more.
5. I must believe that the spiritual discernment of Andrewes,
Leighton, Ken, and Wilson was purer and truer than mine.
474 CARDINAL MANNING chap
6. I am sure that they and a multitude besides were more
learned and of greater intellectual penetration.
7. At the present time the great majority of the holiest and
the wisest of my brethren differ from me in the strongest way
on the point before us.
They may be God's warning voice to me.
8. It is a fearful conclusion to say that 10 generations in
the last 300 years, and among them visilily penitent and holy
souls, dwelling in God far more than I, died out of His Church
and were deceived.
9. I know too well my own faults of intellect, heart, and
will, the shallowness of my spiritual life, and the narrowness of
my information, to come to such a conclusion without the deepest
awe, and the longest and most patient delay.
10. The evidence before me in part inclines to show that this
event (the Gorham Judgment) is a revelation, in part a change.
But I need more than I have as yet to decide a question
with such tremendous issues for time and for eternity.
It would be like the one mistake upon a death-bed.
11. As yet the evidence is still unfolding itself. I have
seen it only in part. Whether the Church of England will re-
lease itself or no, God may release it by a great overthrow, as He
did the French Church in 1789.
12. I have not yet heard Him in my conscience saying,
"Flee for thy life." Till then, I will die rather than run the
risk of crossing His will.
I fear haste, and I fear to offend God, but I fear nothing
else ; and in that faith by His gi-ace I %vill wait upon Him,
humbling and chastening my own soul.
So much for myself ; now I will add a few words for you.
1. It seems to me that all these reasons apply at least
equally to you.
2. Your case is that of Nineveh, on which God had com-
passion, calling only for repentance. What I have tried to say
in the 4th Sermon of vol. iv., especially from pages 74-80, applies
to your case and to all who cannot judge, as women, children,
and the poor.
3. As to absolution, the view of the pamphlet is one of two,
both tenable, and therefore neither absolute.
The Spanish and Gallican Churches both hold the validity
of jurisdiction as to sacraments to go with valid Orders.
But apart from this, the whole Church holds that contrition
with a desire for absolution reconciles the soul with God.
In your case not only has there been desire for absolution
but full confession.
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 475
Therefore, on the lowest ground you may leave yourself in
the hands of His love who, as you have often written to me,
has never left nor forsaken you.
It is hard to compress into a letter any answer to such
questions ; but I feel no doubt or fear in saying that your pro-
bation is in the life of the soul. Keep your heart and will
united with God, and then shall no harm break through to
touch you. Be jealous lest these intellectual questions draw
your will from the spiritual life, especially from prayer, even
though you do no more than kneel in silence before God. It
calms and subdues the soul to a consciousness of what is and
what is not real and eternal.
To Him I commend you as always. His peace be with you.
— For His sake always very affectionately yours,
H. E. M.
Both of these private and confidential letters, the one to
his own confessor, the other addressed to a penitent who,
troubled in conscience about the Church of Eome, sought
spiritual guidance at his hand, effected the special purpose
for which they were written. Laprimaudaye's suspicions
that he was carried away by excitement, seduced by Eoman
services and books of devotion, Manning removed by con-
fessing, as he was bound to do, that his mind was not dis-
turbed by such trivial matters, but by grave doubts which
he could not solve, as to the teaching and position of the
Church of England.
On the other hand, in his letter to his penitent, Manning
considered it to be his duty to offer such arguments as he
could in defence of the Church of England as might restrain
her from going over to Eome.
In his letters, often " under the seal," to Eobert Wilber-
force. Manning, writing from an altogether opposite stand-
point, and for a different purpose — not as a teacher, but
as an unbosomer of his own burdens — repudiated in the
most emphatic and solemn manner the Church of England
as a system, as a theology, as a Church.
In a letter, " under the seal," to E. Wilberforce, dated
Eome, 12th February 1848, and in a subsequent letter
dated 11th March, Manning spoke out his whole mind,
heart, and conscience about the Hampden controversy
476 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
without qualification or reserve. This inner voice, if I
may so call it, not only condemned, on the one hand, Dr.
Hampden as guilty of heresy, but declared, on the other,
that it is in vain to speak of the Church of England as
a witness to divine truth except as an epitaph.^
Another emphatic statement which Manning makes in
the first of these two letters is, that the grounds on which
he had striven, under God, not without hope, to keep others
in the Church of England, were falsified, and that hence-
forward he had no moral right to exercise that influence.
And yet, on grounds which are capable of justification, he
continued to exercise that right almost up to the eve of his
becoming a Catholic.^
In the following letter, addressed to a friend in England,
Archdeacon Manning condemned, even in stronger terms
than in his letters to Eobert Wilberforce, Dr. Hampden as
" destroying by his book the only foundation of the Apostles'
Creed " : —
Rome, 28th January 1848.
My dear — I cannot doubt that it was the will of
God that I should have no part in the miserable conflict which
is going on in England, about the See of Hereford. That
being clear, I am glad and thankful. You know me well
enough to believe that such conflicts are things I mix in
■with pain, and only from the constraint of duty. Being dis-
charged from this necessity, I have hardly talked or written
about it except to very near friends. But I cannot help
writing what, if at home, I should say. It seems to me the
most dangerous conflict we have ever had since I can re-
member. Indeed I can hardly conceive any much more so.
I am deeply convinced that Dr. Hampden's book destroys
both the true meaning and the only foundation of the Apostles'
Creed. As such I voted against him in 1836, he was lightly
censured, and left in passive communion by the Church. The
university and certain bishops have stultified their former acts
since that time by receiving him as Regius Professor. But the
Chiu-ch has been free until now, and now he is put forward for
^ See Manning's letters to Robert Wilberforce, chap. xxiv. j^p. 508-14.
- In addition to tlie above letter, dated 6th May 1850, p. 473, see below
another letter of a like ])urport addressed to another penitent, dated 11th
July 1850, p. 481.
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 477
consecration, -which is in effect to adopt it, and stamp Avith the
seal of England the man and his theology. In this I cannot be
a partaker ; but as I am not called on as yet to act, I will leave
the matter. When the time comes, no doubt, I shall be guided
what to do — you all know what I think of Church and State and
the like too well to need that I should waste words about it.
It has been a miserable business, miserable in public and in
private ; and the consequences of it are yet to appear. It is
surely an omen that Lord John Russell insulted the Dean of
Hereford from Woburn Abbey. It seemed strange to me to see
in the papers, that the rural deans of the Archdeaconry of
Chichester were convening the Chapters. And now I can only
commend you all, as I do daily, to His keeping, Who will in yet
a little while bring peace at the last. — Yours affectionately,
H. E. M.
Manning's arguments in his letters to Eobert Wilberforce,
against Dr. Hampden, convicting him of holding heretical
opinions, and showing that his errors were still unretracted
and unrepented of, would have exercised, had they been pub-
lished, no inconsiderable influence in the heat and height of
the fierce controversy. In the day when Bishop Wilber-
force recoiled before the storm, had Manning spoken out in
public, it would have strengthened the hands of the Tract-
arians and of the High Church party, weakened by the
sudden desertion of Samuel Wilberforce. But Wilberforce's
running away, and Manning's unaccountable silence, gave
the victory to Lord John Kussell and the Erastian party.
Manning's real mind, it cannot be doubted, was spoken in
his letters to Robert Wilberforce.
The essential difference between the two voices which
spoke in Manning is shown in the startHng contrast
between the principles avowed in his private communica-
tions, and those made use of or accepted in public, when,
on his return to England, Manning, speaking as Archdeacon
of Chichester in his public voice, did his best to minimise
Dr. Hampden's errors, and to slur over the offence com-
mitted by his appointment and consecration as Bishop of
Hereford — conduct and errors repudiated and condemned
with such vigour in his letters to Eobert Wilberforce.
Let me now recite a passage or two from a Charge
478 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
delivered in July 1848 by the Archdeacon of Chichester
on the gi'ave question of Dr. Hampden's orthodoxy or
heterodoxy. Dr. Hampden, during the Archdeacon's ab-
sence in Eome, had been consecrated Bishop of Hereford.
In this Charge it was Manning's public voice which spoke
his mind to the world at large, in contradistinction to the
private voice to which we have been listening, speaking in
confidence to Eobert Wilberforce.
After various explanations and qualifications of Dr.
Hampden's errors, and after recalling the warning, " Judge
not, that ye be not judged," the Archdeacon spoke as
follows : —
I am deeply persuaded that in the late contests there are on
both sides many of whose truth I have as full an assurance as
of my own, and of whose goodness I have a deeper conviction.
With these remarks I will go on to speak of the recent appoint-
ment to the See of Hereford.
Taking the case as a whole, we may begin by distinguishing
between the question as to the doctrinal opinions of the Right
Rev. person appointed to that see, and the question as to the
manner in which his consecration was effected. Into the former
question it is no longer our duty to enter, First, because the
Church as such has never passed judgment on the theology of
Dr. Hampden. He has never been cited and judged before any
consistory or tribunal of the Chm-ch. Whatever his opinions
may be, they are, therefore, unascertained by any authoritative
ecclesiastical decision ; Secondly, the censure of the University of
Oxford in the year 1846 did not pronounce his doctrine to be
heretical, or to savour of heresy, or to be scandalous, or to be
offensive to pious ears and the like. It did not specify or
characterise the nature of its unsoundness according to the defini-
tions of ecclesiastical usage. It declared in terms just and grave
indeed as a censure, but wholly informal and imperfect as a judg-
ment, that he had " so treated theological matters that in this
respect the University had no confidence in him." So that
there exists no formal decision of any tribunal at all, ecclesiastical
or even academical, stamping the doctrine of Dr. Hampden
Avith a specific character of heterodoxy.
Up to this moment, then, the party accused has never been
condemned by any tribunal of the Church. . . . Until, there-
fore, any member of the Church be judicially pronounced by a
proper tribunal to be unsound, he ought to be publicly treated
as orthodox. No man is a lieretic to us who is not a heretic
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 479
to the Church ; and no man is to the Church a heretic but one
who has been condemned in for o extcriori for heresy. . . .
Again, it is not only possible, but it is just, to use this
equity of individual judgment ; because at various, and some of
them most solemn times — as at the moment of consecration —
the Right Reverend person of whom we speak declared his
acceptance of the whole doctrine of Faith. He was consecrated,
not upon the confession of his theological works, but on public
subscription of the Catholic creeds. Sincere subscription, thereby
condemning all heresies, is all that has ever been required to
reinstate any, however compromised by heterodoxy, in the peace
of the Church. Of subscription the fact of consecration is our
pledge ; of sincerity, who dares conceive a doubt 1 For these
reasons it appears that we are now released from the necessity of
forming opinions as to past theological statements justly censured,
we may accept the last public subscription as a fact closing up
a retrospect which nothing but new necessity can re-open.^
In a letter, dated Freshwater, 10th August 1848,
W. Dodsworth objected to the following statement in
reference to Dr. Hampden made by Manning in his Charge,
that " no man is a heretic to us who is not a heretic to
the Church ; and no man is to the Church a heretic but
one who has been condemned in foro exteriori for heresy,"
and wrote as follows : —
What you say is literally and legally true, but I think you
scarcely include the whole mwal view of the matter ; a murderer
or pickpocket may escape through defect or maladministration
of the law (as indeed has often happened), but yet he is in a
certain mai'al position in society not to be overlooked. It would
be a delicate matter to bring this out in Hampden's case ; and
yet, I think, after what you have said justly of his legal
innocence, it is almost needed.
The following letter of George Moberly to Manning
shows that, after leaving England in 1847, Manning had
expressed himself in regard to the Church of England in
terms which had given umbrage to Keble and Moberly : —
Winchester College, 8th September 1848.
My dear Manning — Many thanks to you for the kind
^ A Charge delivered at the Ordinary Visitation of the ArcJideacon of
Chichester in July 1848.
480 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
present of your Charge, which I received a few days ago and
read -snth extreme interest. I was very happy to see how
hopefully you regarded the forward prospect, and most trul}'
rejoice to think that you are come back better and stronger to
do additional good service for the Church of God among us.
I felt anxious — whenever I could do so without troubling you
by it — to say in reference to the correspondence which passed
between us in the month of March, that you were surprised at
the tone of Keble's and my letters. I fancied so from the terms
of your most kind reply. But you probably had not recollected
the precise expressions of your former letter, which, as we now
fully know, we misinterpreted ; but which, for the purpose of
explaining what otherwise must have seemed hardly kind, or
indeed intelligible, I ^vill quote —
" The Church of England I left behind me, is not the church
I shall, if God so will, return to, unless by His blessing, you and
others shall have reversed those events. Pray do not think me
unreasonable in desiring to stand as well with you as I can."
Shall we see you at Keble's consecration of his church ? It
will hardly be, I believe, before November. . . . Believe me, my
dear Manning, yours affectionately, George Mop.erly.
Writing to Eobert Wilberforce under date about criti-
cisms on his Charge, Manning says : —
Lavington, 8th November 1848.
My dear Robert — ... I somehow feel slow to take a
foremost part in anything. . . .
This too makes me very patient about my Charge. No man
owning a head could misunderstand me to clear a man from the
guilt of heresy who, in two places, I say was " justly censured."
I have seen nothing that moves me. But I have misgivings
in my own mind about it. The parts of what I say which
have not been found fault with, are by no means satisfactory
to me. And I get no better satisfaction the more I think of
them. Only accept it as a proof that I am desirous to err on the
side of hope and patience ; and that often thoughts which all but
subdue me are not born of impatience or unbelief. — Farewell,
May we be kept from all illusions. — Yours ever affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
In spite of his minimising in public Dr. Hampden's
heresies, Manning's mind was breaking loose from its
shackles. In a letter dated Lavington, Holy Innocents,
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 481
1 8 -i 9, to Eobert Wilberforce,^ Archdeacon Maiming absolutely
repudiated Protestantism in all its forms. He rejected the
Anglican Church. He could no longer defend its theology,
its faith, " I simply do not believe it." Yet of the English
Church, which, according to his letter, dated 1847, had so
faded out of his mind that he could not say he rejected it,
but that he knew it no more. Manning felt constrained by
what he considered to be his duty as a spiritual director
to write, even after the Gorham Judgment had been pro-
noimced and accepted by the Bishops, to one of his penitents
as follows : —
Lavington, nth July 1850.
Dear Madam — I will endeavour to give you some statement
of the ground on which I think you may "without fear trust
yourself to the mercy of God through Jesus Christ in the
Church of England at this time.
The Church of God upon earth has what I may call its inner
and its outer sphere.
The inner sphere is the fellowship of the soul with God
through Jesus Christ, and a life of faith, love, repentance, and
devotion.
The outer sphere is the visible order of succession, govern-
ment, canonical discipline, and the like.
I believe that your probation lies in the inner sphere, and
there all is clear and infallible. We have no doubt that no
penitent can perish, and that no soul that loves God can be lost ;
moreover, that God will give both love and penitence to all who
pray for it.
But in the outer sphere it is impossible to judge of con-
troverted questions without so much of intellect and knowledge,
and that knowledge so various and of such difficulty to attain
and estimate, that I feel no doubt in saying that any errors you
may there be in Avill be tenderly dealt with by Him "who
spared not His own Son " that He might save our souls.
When I come to look at the Church of England, I see a
living, continuous succession of Christian people under their
pastors, descending from the earliest ages to this day ; and
although it has had to bear mutilations and breaches in its
external order and in its relations to the other churches, yet it
seems to me to possess the divine life of the Church, and the
divine food of that life, the Word and Sacraments of Christians.
^ See letter to Robert Wilberforce, chap. xxiv. p. 515.
VOL. I 2 I
482 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
So I have been able to feel hitherto. Late events have
called this in question, but it seems to me too soon yet to pass
sentence upon it. No one can say how long or how short a
time may decide it ; for in these questions it is not dial time,
but moral time — that is events, acts, and changes, that must
decide it. In the meanwhile, I do not feel any fear of resting
for salvation within that inner sphere which cannot be shaken ;
for there all is clear and divine.
As to the outer, the questions, always difhcult, are now still
more so, and I am therefore even more full of hope that God
will deal tenderly with all who sincerely desire to do His will.
Catechumens dying without baptism are held to be baptized in
voto ; and persons desiring to be in the Church, if, through ignor-
ance or error they be out of it, will nevertheless be reckoned in
it by the mercy of God. All this I feel applies fully to you, and I
have no doubt in saying that you may " rest in hope," waiting
to see the way and will of God with this great and lifeful body,
the Church of England, meanwhile giving yourself to a life of
faith which is not an intellectual state, but a habit of grace in
the soul, infused by the Holy Spirit, and nourished by medita-
tion, prayer, and obedience.
I trust and pray that God may increase this in us all, and
give you all solace that is for your good. — Believe me, dear
madam, your faithful servant in Christ, H. E. MANNING.
In the Archdeacon of Chichester's Diary, seen of no
man's eye, in its day, we may reasonably expect to find a
truer transcript of his mind on religious questions than in
his public utterances, controlled, of necessity, by prudence
and discretion, by the fitness of times and seasons, and by
the fear of giving scandal or of provoking controversy. In
the silent entries or confessions of a diary there is less
likelihood, too, of the intrusion of self-consciousness than in
letters to friends or confessors. Letters, even under the
seal, are not so sacred or private as are the entries in a
diary.
On the other hand, Manning's Diary, dated 1844-47, was,
in its earlier portions, from which I have already quoted,
chiefly concerned with minute self-introspection ; with ex-
aminations of conscience as to his spiritual state ; or with
what he called his " temptations to secularity." Apart from
his Diary, the first indications of his religious doubts and
difficulties in regard to the Church of England were given in
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 483
his letter of 1847 to Laprimaudaye, his curate and con-
fessor. From the deliberation of his character and the
slow processes of his mind it would be natural to infer
that the doubts and difficulties which he confessed in 1847
were not of recent growth. Nor were they, for in the
year 1846 Manning in his Diary brings, if he believed in
it at all, an almost cruel indictment against the Church of
England, He describes it as diseased organically and
functionally, and with a ruthless knife — if indeed it were
not the kind knife of a surgeon — he dissects the diseased
body. In this operation there is not a touch or sign of the
tenderness or regret which in his letters to Eobert Wilber-
force of a later period he exhibited towards the Church
which he had once loved, but could no longer believe in.
The following entry in the Diary is dated August 1846.
The Chm'ch of England seems to me to be diseased : —
1. Organically. 2. Functionally.
(1) Separation from Church toto (!) Loss of daily service.
orbe diffusa SindiTOTaCathe- (2) Loss of discipline.
dra Petri. (3) Loss of unity.
(2) Subjection to ci\dl power i. Devotion.
witlwut appeal. ii. Ritual.
(3) Abolition of penance. (4) No education for priesthood.
(4) Extinction of daily sacrifice. (5) Unsacerdotal life.
(5) Loss of minor orders. i. Bishops, ii. Priests.
(6) Mutilated ritual (6) Church effaced from popular
conscience.
(7) Popular unbelief of mys-
teries. Insensibility of
invisible world.
The second entry is dated August 1846.
1. We give up all Protestants, and stand alone and against
East and West on a plea of deliverance from bondage, and a
greater purity of doctrine and life. 2. Can we maintain this 1
HoAV has the experiment issued 1 What are its phenomena past
and present as to unity and belief of the Real Presence ? 3.
The Lutheran, the Calvinist, and each would go upon the same
theory excluding us. 4. It seems incoherent and inverted to
talk of catholicising the Church : we are not means of grace to
it, but it to us. The Church must catholicise itself, or rather
484 CARDINAL .MANNING chap.
cannot be uncatholic, though ive may. 5. "Wherever it seems
healthy it approximates the system of Kome, e.g. Roman Catholic
Catechism, Confession, Gruidance, Discipline. 6. These things
are potentially ours, but actually we have forfeited them. Using
is having, and the Roman Church has them. 7. The same is true
of the monastic life. The dissolution of monasteries would not
have extinguished the spirit of monasticism if it had existed. The
orders were destroyed in France in 1 7 90, but can now count 35,000
members. In England, the Roman Church has already formed
30 convents. If we had the life we should have the orders.
8. The Church of England, after 300 years, has failed —
(1) In unity of doctrine.
(2) In enforcement of discipline.
(3) In training to the higher life.
(4) In holding the love as distinct from the respect of the
people.
(5) In guiding the rich.
(6) In folding the people.
At an earlier date, May 1846, is the following entry : —
I am conscious to myself of an extensively changed feeling
towards the Church of Rome.
It seems to me nearer to the truth, and the Church of
England in greater peril. Our divisions seem to me to be fatal
as a token, and as a disease.
If division do not unchurch us it will waste us away.
I am conscious of being less and less able to preach dogmatic-
ally. If I do so, I go beyond our formularies. Though not
therefore Roman, I cease to be Anglican.
I am conscious that my sympathy and confidence are much
lessened.
There seems about the Church of England a want of anti-
quity, system, fulness, intelligibleness, order, strength, unity ;
we have dogmas on paper ; a ritual almost universally aban-
doned ; no discipline, a divided episcopate, priesthood, and
laity.
I seem to feel something by an impression of consciousness
not to be reasoned out :
1. If John the Baptist were sanctified from the womb, how
much more the B. V. !
2. If Enoch and Elijah were exempted from death, why not
the B. V. from sin ?
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 485
3. It is a strange way of loving the Son to slight the mother !
The following reflections and self-questionings clearly
indicate that Manning's mind was approaching step by step
to the judgment on the English Church recorded in the
first passage quoted from his Diary :
5th July 1846. — Strange thoughts have visited me:
1. I have felt that the Episcopate of the English Church is
secularised, and bound down beyond hope.
2. That there are no KoLvai ewoiai to which to appeal for its
restoration.
3. I have felt less desire for parliament and pubHc station.
4. And greater difficulty in arguing in favour of the English
Chiu-ch, and in answering objections.
5. Also greater difficulty in objecting against the Roman
Church,
6. I feel as if a light had fallen on me. My feeling about
the Roman Church is not intellectual. I have intellectual diffi-
culties, but the great moral difficulties seem melting.
7. Something keeps rising and saying, " You will end in the
Roman Church."
8. And yet I do not feel at all as if my safety requires any
change, and I do feel that a change might be a positive delusion.
9. I think it is a changed feeling towards the two Churches
which makes me less secular and desirous of elevation.
10. The thought which has been growing in me, and justi-
fying the Roman doctrine, is the " new creation." ^ All seem to
hang on this —
(1) The Incarnation.
(2) The Real Presence, i. Regeneration, ii. Eucharist.
(3) The Exaltation of S. M. and Saints.
Right or wrong, this family of doctrines is preserved by Rome,
and cut or regulated by Protestantism.
And I see that the regula fidei is held by those who hold
them, and lost by those who have lost them.
11. Is all this listening to the tempter?
12. Are they clouds out of a declining heart ?
13. Is instability and love of novelty the set-ofi" and counter-
poise to ambition 1
14. Have I ofiended as much by the seven deadly sins, and
against God's ten commandments, and two precepts, lately as
before ? I think not.
^ The creation of the Jerusalem bishopric.
486 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
15. IMay not this be a feint of the tempter? I fearfully
mistrust myself, especially when I see that those who stay seem
humbler than those who have left us.
16. I do not feel that 1 should doubt a moment if the choice
lay between Rome and any Protestant body.
17. It is only because the English Church seems to me to be
distinct from all Protestant bodies that I have any doubt.
18. If the Church of England were away there is nothing in
Rome that would repel me with sufficient repulsion to keep me
separate, and there is nothing in Protestantism that would
attract me.
19. Is the English Church enough to alter the whole case ?
20. I think so.
21. Yet I am conscious that I am further from the English
Church and nearer Rome than I ever was.
22. How do I know where I may be two years hence 1
Where was Newman five years ago ?
May I not be in an analogous place 1
23. Yet I have no positive doubts about the Church of
England. I have difficulties — but the chief thing is the drawing
of Rome. It satisfies the whole of my intellect, sympathy,
sentiment, and nature, in a way proper, and solely belonging to
itself. The English Church is an approximate.
24. And that by my own supplements, ideal, imagination,
ritual.
25. I cannot conceal from myself that the mass of the Church
would almost disown me. A large body certainly would.
" In the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen."
The meshes seem closing round me.
I feel less able to say Rome is wrong.
Less able to retain our own.
Less able to regain confidence to myself.
I feel as if I had shaken the confidence of my people.
And I am unable to restore it by any anti-Roman declarations.
It is probable that my parish may be troubled. Perhaps He
sees that I am settling on my lees.
My parish, which has steadily risen till now.
Perhaps it may go back.
I feel sad and heavy, tongue-tied and worsted.
\1th July. — The Visitation at Chichester yesterday. Most
thankful. Fuller than I ever saw. At the dinner 51 ; 5
strangers.
I had a cold feeling of destiny upon me — till positive acts
raised the beat of my pulse and made me forget realities.
\bth Jtdi/. — To-day is my birthday — 38. This last year has
XXII CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF CONSCIENCE 487
opened a strange chapter in my life. I never thought to feel as I
feel now, and with my foot upon the step of what I once desired.
15th July. — . . . The last entries on this day are full of the
sorrows of solitude. This year they are less sensibly present to
me. Is He weaning me in preparation for some change approach-
ing ? Whether it is greater activity I do not know, but under
God I have been, I trust, less overcome by old evils. Is Satan
holding back these temptations that others may work with
greater subtility ? If I serve Satan in one way and by wholesale,
he will no doubt suffer me to believe myself clean escaped.
In the following year, 1847, the Diary, filled during his
long illness with confessions and examinations of his spiritual
state, contains but one or two entries touching doubts and
difficulties on matters of faith. " Illness," as he wrote to
Eobert Wilberforce, " is a release from the schools."
20th April 1847. — The two questions are : —
1. Is it the will of our Lord Jesus Christ that His flock
should be subject to Saint Peter and his successors ?
2. Is it part of the mystery of Pentecost that the Church
should be infallible?
I have this diflftculty :
If I treat infallibility as a principle, I meet with difficulties
in detail, e.g. Transubstantiation.
If I judge of the detail, I can find no principle.
As a principle, it is with Rome. Only details with us. Yet
if it be a principle, private judgment in detail is shut out.
Admitting — 1. The Infallibility of the Church,
2. The Church of Rome that Church,
would the residual difficulties to be received on infallibility
be so many as in the English Church, e.g. the Canon, the censure
of antiquity, the change of the Eucharistic office, and the like ?
It is curious to note from these entries that the break-
down of Manning's belief in the English Church took place
so early as 1846, two years before Hampden's appointment
and four years before the Gorham Judgment. In his sermons
and charges there are not the slightest indications of such
a misgiving. In his correspondence with Mr. Gladstone at
that period not a hint or suggestion was conveyed — not
that the Church of England was organically and function-
ally diseased — but that it had fallen from the high ideal of
488 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xxii
perfection, which Manning had so fervently and eloquently
attributed to it in his public utterances. From the evi-
dence of his own Diary, from his letters to Laprimaudaye
and Robert Wilberforce, it seems as clear as daylight that
intellectually Manning had, years before the Gorham Judg-
ment, lost faith in the Church of England. The evidence
to the contrary, exhibited in his exhortations to his peni-
tents, which I have recited, I do not think counts for much.
They were touching, beautiful little sermons, which, how-
ever, were not the transcript of his own inner mind, which
did not express, and were not meant to express, his own
belief, but were intended only to induce, for their souls'
sake, those under his spiritual guidance to abide for a time,
putting their trust in God, in peace and hope where they
were. Such exhortations were formal utterances, which he
considered it his duty as their spiritual director to address
to his penitents.
His office in the Church, his duty to penitents, the
promptings, deep down in his soul, laid upon Archdeacon
Manning's heart a complicated burden. But to respond to
the conflicting claims of conscience by laying down con-
tradictory propositions, though undertaken in good faith, was
an attempt in the moral order as impossible as that of
squaring the circle. So vain and futile an attempt led,
almost of necessity, in various ways, to unfortunate misap-
prehensions and troubles. Imputations cast at the time on
his honour and honesty, as he confessed in a letter to
Eobert Wilberforce, vexed and wounded his heart to the quick.
At worst, the double voice which, as we have seen, spoke at
times in Manning, was the result of a false system — false in
many ways — in which, unhappily, he found himself involved.
What retained Manning in the English Church so long
after he had abandoned faith in its mission and teaching,
and what entangled his tongue, were not intellectual, but
moral difficulties. Moral difficulties which in his Diary
he describes as " temptations to secularity " ; " shrinkings
of flesh and blood," as he tells Kobert Wilberforce, from a
sacrifice of what was dearest to him in life — his home and
hopes ; his office and work in the Church of England.
CHAPTEE XXIII
ANGLO-CATHOLIC DOCTKINES AND DEVOTIONS
1841-1851
In his Diary 1844-47, and in his letters to Laprimaudaye
and Kobert Wilberforce, Manning constantly makes use of
the somewhat mysterious terms — at all events in those early
days — TlThder the Seal, and In Sacro. To the initiated
among High Church Anglicans these symbolic terms signi-
fied the sacrament of penance or confession and the
eucharistic sacrifice ; outside the Anglican community
commonly called the Mass. These holy and wholesome
Catholic doctrines Manning, as an Anglican, held and taught,
if not in public, in private. In his sermons and charges he
practised olKovofjila ; or spoke under reserve, or in mere
outline, of confession and the eucharistic sacrifice. But in
his private exhortations he inculcated these CathoHc doctrines
in all their fulness. The Archdeacon of Chichester prac-
tised what he preached. He offered up, as I have shown,
the eucharistic sacrifice for the quick and the dead. He
received penitents in confession ; and exercising the power
of the keys, he loosed them from their sins ; pronouncing
in due form, while making over them the sign of the cross,
the words of absolution.
Protestant prejudice, popular ignorance, and the hostility
of the authorities of their own Church, compelled the unhappy
High Church Anglicans to cast a veil of mystery or of
secrecy over the practice of confession. Instead of being an
ordinary and commonplace act of duty practised coram
ecclesia, confession among the Anglicans was, if I may so
490 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
speak, a hole-and-corner affair, spoken of with bated breath,
and carried on under lock and key.
None knew better than the wiser of the Puseyites — as in
this matter they might be aptly called, since Pusey was, if not
the creator, the reviver of auricular confession in the Church
of England — the mischievous effects of all this fuss and
mystery. One of Manning's intimate friends and disciples,
who looked up to him as a master in regard to the teach-
ing and practice of confession, in a letter dated Wantage
Vicarage, 29th August 1840, writes as follows : —
My DEAR Archdeacon — I, too, have been purposing to
write to you to express, or try to express, the deep thankfulness
with which I look back on your short abode with us, and the
support which your words gave to opinions (or I should rather
say to a belief) which have long been growing up in my mind.
It has seemed to me that our Church, having weakened the
difficulties attending the statement of the true faith in regard
to the two great means of grace, has been enjoying a kind of
ovation, and, if I may say so, running riot in the glorious views
which open themselves as consequences.
The Vicar of Wantage, the Eev. William J. Butler, after
stating that the clergy as a body have been neglecting the
sterner and more practical methods, are greatly needing
a higher standard of reHgious aiming, deeper spirituality,
and stricter self-examination, complains with great warmth
that instead of confession being regarded as an ordinary
duty, a halo of romance was thrown around it by the
secrecy and mystery which attended the practice. He
then goes on as follows : —
" The difficulty with which, as Vicar of Wantage, I am con-
fronted in the practice of hearing confessions is the opposition
to be feared on the part of the husband to the wife's ' opening
her grief to another man." In his appeal to Manning for
counsel on this difficulty, the Vicar of Wantage suggested that
the confessions of married women ought not to be countenanced
in the Church of England. But he was in doubt whether such a
limitation of the right and liberty of confession was lawful or
allowable. It seemed like a surrender to a false principle.
How Manning himself met a like difficulty is shown in the
xxiii ANGLO-CATHOLIC DOCTRINES AND DEVOTIONS 491
following letter to Mrs. Herbert, the wife of Sidney Herbert.^
It is a bold and masterly refutation of the supposed right of
a husband to control the conscience of a wife in a matter
of direct duty to God and of obedience to His ordinances : —
London, 2bth August 1848.
My dear Mrs. Herbert — Your letter contained a strange
contrast of subjects between the interest of your journey and
the sad scene you left at Ryde.
It is, indeed, a mournful tale ; and I trust God will comfort
him, for nobody else can.
I went the week before last to Wantage, and found all going
on as I could most wish. The parish is an old county town,
much neglected in time past, but dissent weak, and the Church
in a passive but recoverable state. The present vicar is an
excellent and most devoted man, and with him he has three
equally earnest young men ; so that they have strength enough
for anything ; and the whole system seems to be waking up under
their touch. Miss Lockhart is established in an old small house,
with a very pretty strip of garden at the back, most private and
quiet. She has two companions with her, and her work is to be
found about five hours a day in the school. The rest of her
time is ordered on a very even and good rule of employments
and devotion. The vicar is the visitor and guardian of the
house, and is most worthy and fit in every way for this office.
She is in correspondence with Miss Nightingale about school
matters.
And now let me come to the last matter in your letter, Sid-
ney's feeling is conclusive as to what you ought to do. When
the Church lays no injunction (as in the present case) his wish is
your rule. With one so loving and so good you can have little
doubt that all things necessary for your spiritual welfare will
always be abundantly provided for you. I am now, in fact,
writing to you both ; and my love to him makes me sensitively
anxious to add a few more words. The subject being already laid
aside as a practical question, what I add is simply because truth
(and truth which is divine) makes it necessary that I should set
right a point which, if I were silent, might be mistaken.
You wrote of " an entire surrender." Is not this to be limited
by the law of God ? Conscience and religion are due to God
alone, and cannot be surrendered. No woman can forsake the
worship of the Church or the Holy Sacrament on the ground of
prohibition. God commands, and no man can forbid. So, if.
Now Lady Herbert of Lea.
492 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
upon her death-bed, she is burdened in mind and desires to con-
fess, no human prohibition can hinder.
So again, if " unable to quiet herself," before coming to the
Holy Sacrament, she desires to open her grief to God's minister,
no fellow-creature can come between her and the absolution of
Christ.
But I feel sure that you both intended these limitations ; I
only refer to them because I should reproach myself for an
omission of duty if I seemed to accept the words without such
restrictions as the law of God has made. But there is another
point on which, for my own sake also, I wish to add a word.
When you speak of a confidence which tends to separate those
whom God has joined, you did not think I would accept such a
confidence to save my life. Nor that any part of the office of
Christ's servants has a tendency to such separation. He does
not contradict Himself ; or throw down what He has built up.
If it merely mean that such an office may be misused, that
is true, for even the Holy Sacraments are the occasions of
sacrilege.
But such is not the effect or tendency of the office which He
created and conferred by the words, " Whosesoever sins ye remit,
the}^ are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain,
they are retained." Perhaps it is an over-sensitiveness of mind,
as well as a love for you both, my dear friends, which makes me
feel a very lively anxiety that you should rightly understand me.
Any confidence inconsistent with the will and commission of
our Lord as expressed above, I trust, God helping me, I would
rather die than accept.
But I cannot even by silence countenance the thought that
His commission and institution are other than holy, blessed, and
merciful. Dear Sidney, and both of you, accept this from a very
unworthy friend who heartily loves you, and does his best to
pray for you daily. And do you both remember him in your
prayers who not only as a friend desires that God may ever bless
you both. — Believe me, for His sake, yours ever,
H. E. Manning.^
It was a common practice for Manning, even in the days
when in his charges or sermons he was denouncing
" Romanism " and the popes, to hear confessions at Laving-
ton and Oxford, as well as at Wantage and elsewhere. It
' It is a pity such a letter as this, explaining the principle that underlies
the relation of confessor and penitent, had not been published in that day of
gross misstatements and bitter controversy.
XXIII ANGLO-CATHOLIC DOCTRINES AND DEVOTIONS 493
must be admitted that " the halo of romance " thrown round
the practice of confession — of which the Vicar of Wantage
so feelingly complained, was in no small measure due to the
mystery or secrecy attached to the performance of the act,
even by Manning himself. At Lavington, for instance, it was
his practice to walk from the rectory to the church at a
time when no service was going on, and no congregation
present ; in a few minutes, by appointment, his penitent
would follow. On one occasion, when a near relative of the
Archdeacon's was staying with her family at the rectory,
the children, playing of an afternoon in the grounds, were
surprised to see " Uncle Henry" walking towards the church.
No bell had rung for service : the church was closed.
Presently their mother passed along the gravel walk in the
same direction. In their eager curiosity to discover the
meaning of this novel proceeding the children scampered
across the lawn to the church door, when their wondering
eyes discovered " Uncle Henry " seated on a big armchair
with his back to the altar, and their mother kneeling on
the altar step.^
Many of Manning's penitents in his Anglican days have
given me the benefit of their experiences of his method and
manner as a confessor and spiritual director. They all are
1 In his Beminisccnces of Cardinal Manning, the late Father Lockhart
likemse bore witness to the mystery attending the practice of confession ; to
the strict secrecy enforced by the locking of the door of the silent and empty
church. Archdeacon Manning had come up to Oxford and was staying at
Merton College. Father Lockhart gave the following gi'aphic account of his
first confession to the archdeacon: — " It was arranged that I should go to
him on the next day. He was waiting for me, and taking the keys of the
church we entered that beautiful gem of fourteenth-centmy Gothic. I do
not think 1 had seen it before. I do not remember to have seen it since,
but I well remember the solemn impression of the place in its ' dim religious
light.' When we were alone in the church he locked the door, and, having
put on his surplice, he led me to the altar rail and made me kneel there. He
read over to me from the large folio Service Book the prayer ' Renew in him,
most loving Father, whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice
of the devil, or by his own carnal will and frailty. ' I have never forgotten
the deep seriousness of those moments. Then I made my confession, but in
a most imperfect manner ; he asked me not a question, but I believe I made
it with such sincerity and resolve against sin, that I have great hope that,
quite independent of the words of absolution, God gave me the grace of true
contrition." — Dublin Eevieiv, April 1892, p. 375.
494 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
of one mind in testifying to his kindly, personal interest
in their spiritual welfare and mode of life. His manner
was solemn, impressive in the extreme, and " almost
awful," as one of his penitents described it. He spoke
with absolute assurance and authority, as one holding
" the keys." He never allowed any one for an instant
to forget his position as a penitent on his knees before
him, mentally as well as physically. Any doubts as
to the safety of remaining in the Church of England
or desires or inclinations to join the Church of Eome,
were suppressed as temptations to evil. The confessor
laid it down as a law that all doubts should be put aside,
as well as everything which led to such doubts ; such
as intercourse with Eoman Catholics, controversial reading,
intellectual discussions on religious topics. His penitents
were bade to remain where they were : to devote more time
to prayer and meditation : to cultivate the interior life,
where at any rate safety was : to put their trust in God ;
and in humility of heart leave themselves in His hands.
Though he never, like Pusey, took upon himself " the respon-
sibility before God of the souls of his penitents" — an assump-
tion so monstrous as to be almost inconceivable — Manning
succeeded by the profession of the certitude of his belief in
the English Church — never expressed with greater authority
up to the last than in the confessional — to retain captive
his penitents, many of whom remained captive still, until
the conversion of their confessor and spiritual director set
them free.
To those of his penitents who were more advanced in
spiritual life their confessor would give detailed rules in
writing for their guidance. With this end in view he
prescribed for every day in the week spiritual exercises,
meditations, and examination of conscience in special refer-
ence to their besetting sin. Such examination was to be
made in preparation for confession.
The question of jurisdiction or of receiving " faculties "
from their bishops did not seem for an instant to trouble
the head of these father confessors in the Anglican Church.
Pusey appears to have enjoyed a roving commission as con-
xxiii ANGLO-CATHOLIC DOCTRINES AND DEVOTIONS 495
fessor-general to penitents in every diocese, without leave or
license from the bishop. Manning, if not so public or pro-
lific a father confessor as Pusey, had no scruples in hearing
confessions and giving absolutions outside his own parish
church or archdeaconry or diocese.^ Bishop Otter, in his easy,
good-natured way, might have granted " faculties," or leave
and license, had he for a moment fancied he possessed such
a power, to the Archdeacon of Chichester. But of a
certainty Bishop Shuttleworth would have scouted with
indignation the bare mention of such a thing as the sacra-
ment of Penance, had Manning so far forgotten his prudence
or diplomatic tact as to have spoken to his bishop on the
subject of confession. But some other bishops — a few, indeed
— did not condemn confession as a " Popish " practice. In
a letter to Manning, dated Hursley Vicarage, 22nd Sunday
after Trinity, 1848, Keble says: — "You know the Bishop
of London has been advised by Upton Eichards of what he
does in the way of confession and absolution, and has
made no difficulty about it. The St. Saviour's people
(Leeds) do not go one inch beyond it, if so far." This is
the postscript to Keble's letter, which, however, contains
the pith of it, since it shows that Dr. Blomfield, Bishop
of London, gave at any rate tacit sanction to the practice
of confession.
Though the hearing of confessions was practised with
impunity by Mr. Upton Eichards and others in London, by
Dr. Pusey everywhere, and by Archdeacon Manning at
Lavington and Oxford, it was denounced and prohibited at
St. Saviour's, by Dean Hook, Vicar of Leeds.
In the following letter Archdeacon Manning recom-
mended one of his own penitents to the Eev. W. Dodsworth,
Perpetual Curate of Christ Church, St. Pancras, as a fit and
proper person for spiritual direction : —
^ The old habit, engrained in the Archdeacon of Chichester, of hearing
confessions in any diocese he thought fit, without asking the Bishop's per-
mission, showed itself for a time in the Archbishop of Westminster. Manning
fancied that, as archbishop or metropolitan, he had the right to hear con-
fessions in any diocese. He, however, after his attention had been called to
the matter, gave up doing so, saying that he thought it "safer" to obtain
from the Bishop of the diocese permission to hear confessions.
496 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
44 Cadogan Place.
My DEAREST Friend — This note vnll be given to you by my
friend Richard Cavendish, who has asked me to commend him
to a confessor, who will be able to see him when he needs it in
London.
To whom can I commend him but to yourself, knowing how
true-hearted and loving you are as a friend 1 ^
You "will find him most excellent in every way. Ill health
has perhaps made him more sensitive than he need be ; and he
Avill be worthy of all your tenderness.
I believe his whole heart to be set upon loving God and
saving his soul. My impression of his goodness is very great.
You will, I know, receive him and cherish him for his own
sake and for mine. — Believe me, my dearest friend, yours very
affectionately in J. C. H. E. Manning.
On the subject of confession Manning wrote as follows
to E, Wilberforce : —
Lavington, ith December 1848.
My DEAREST Egbert — We cannot differ about any matter
of moment. Perhaps it is that I do not understand what you
write about confession. In one of your letters to me at Eome
you said the same ; I did not say anything, supposing that we
mean the same thing.
It appears to me that confession can in no way be called a
coimsel of perfection. It may be of the nature of a counsel to
confess frequently. But confession is the precept of penitence.
Even among us, where it is voluntary, it is an act of repentance,
not of perfection. And the preaching it with all strength is
most needed by those who are furthest off from perfection.
But I am sure we must mean the same. As to frequency, no
doubt it needs care, like frequent communion.
Last night I read Lord Chichester's letter with real sorrow.
I have great regard for him ; but his letter is odious. — Ever
yours very affectionately, H. E. M.
Spiritual direction, carried on by means of correspondence,
was a favourite method with Archdeacon Manning, partly
perhaps on account of the difficulties which beset auricular
confession in the Anglican coninmnion in those early days
of the Catholic revival, partly because of the wide dispersion
of his penitents. In those days, father-confessors in the
^ In the Anglican community at the time, the father-confessor was addressed
as " Friend," the penitent as " Child " or " Dear Child."
XXIII ANGLO-CATHOLIC DOCTRINES AND DEVOTIONS 497
Church of England were few — they might perhaps be
counted on the fingers of both hands — and penitents,
wherever the Tracts for the Times and the sermons of Pusey
and Keble reached, were springing up like blades of grass
in the early spring. Where others sowed, Manning reaped.
His reputation for austere holiness and for prudence at-
tracted all those men and women who, in their doubts and
difficulties, felt a need for spiritual direction. They who
came to him to solve their doubts as to the claims of Eome
over their consciences, or as to the shortcomings of the
English Church, received in return counsels of perfection.
They were bidden, speaking broadly, not to trouble their
heads about controversies and deep intellectual discussions
which they might or might not understand, but devote their
hearts to the love of God and to interior holiness of life.
How the growth in holiness was to be attained, Manning
pointed out in his spiritual directions to his penitents. For
instance, he would teach the virtue of fasting, especially in
Advent and Lent, or an additional half-hour given to medi-
tation, or to examination of past life, or to preparation for
communion, or how to attain a virtue which was wanting,
or to overcome a besetting sin. To those of his penitents
who were travelling in foreign countries, and therefore unable
at holy seasons to keep their spiritual observances, their
periods of retirement for meditation or confession, their
absent spiritual director enjoined on them acts of interior
prayer, mortification of the will, or at table instead of fast-
ing — little secret acts of self-denial. They, who came to
Manning to solve their religious doubts and difficulties, found
in him, not a theological teacher, but a spiritual director,
who led them on step by step into the ways of self-denial,
humility, and obedience. There was one other lesson left,
as was intended, on their hearts and minds. It was this —
That they must needs be safe in remaining in a Church
which was believed in with such absolute certitude by one
so holy and wise as their spiritual director. Many of
them were so overawed by his austere presence and by
his assured belief as not even to venture to make known
their doubts or difficulties. Whether Manning's spiritual
VOL. I 2 K
498 CARDINAL MANNING cuap.
children remained with hini in the Church of England
or preceded him to the Church of Eome, there can be
little or no question that his spiritual direction did much
to promote in all growth in holiness, and even in those of his
penitents who adhered unto his guidance to the end, with a
few exceptions, their eventual growth in faith.
Spiritual direction by letters, which Manning practised
in the Anglican Church, was developed almost into a fine
art in the letters or notes innumerable addressed to his
spiritual children in the Catholic Church. In these terse
little sermons, the counsels of perfection were presented in
the neatest of forms, and embellished with infinite literary-
grace. The flavour of personal consideration or affection,
enhanced by religious fervour, gave a charm of its own to
these spiritual exhortations and to the golden maxims with
which they abound.
It is but bare justice to state that the spiritual direction
of Pusey, and Keble, and Manning, and Upton Richards of
Margaret Street Chapel, London, and of Bennett of St.
Barnabas, and Father Carter of Clewer, and the priests of
St. Saviour's, Leeds, and of their successors innumerable to-
day in the Church of England, has trained up, all over the
land, men and women of exemplary piety, self-denial, and
holiness of living. Believing in simple faith, that the priests
of their Church possess the power of conferring upon them
sacramental graces, crowds of pious and God-fearing Angli-
cans are to be found in every town and city of England,
attending early celebration, going to confession and com-
munion with a zeal and fervour which often puts their
Catholic neighbours to shame.
Speaking, on one occasion, on this subject with Cardinal
Manning, he paid a high tribute to the marvellous progress
made by the Church of England in our generation. He
said : —
When I first went to work in Sussex in 1833, the churches
were open only once a week, on Sundays and on Christmas Day.
There were no Saints' days observed : Ascension Day even was
not kept. Communion was only given once a year, at least in
the country ; in London and other cities not oftener than four
XXIII ANGLO-CATHOLIC DOCTEJNES AND DEVOTIONS 499
times a year. Spirituality had died out of the Church. Now
there are daily services almost everywhere, and frequent com-
munions ; in the cities the communions are weekly. Saints'
days are kept ; special devotional services and spiritual exercises
are common. Churches have been multiplied all over the land,
and Christian schools founded and endowed. The Church
of England has made a marvellous progress. The wave of
Agnosticism, which has passed over the land and affected the
intellectual classes, has not retarded its advance. It is going
steadily onward towards some great end — who shall doubt it 1 —
in the designs of Providence.
This generous tribute to the great work of the Church
of England is all the more worthy of special notice since
Manning has often been accused, and at one time perhaps
not altogether unjustly, of speaking unkindly or disdain-
fully of the English Church. Be that, however, as it may,
of late years especially, the Cardinal watched with interest
and sympathy the progress of the Church of England. No
one can look back at the religious deadness, especially in
the Established Church ; the empty formalism of its ser-
vices ; its repudiation of the sacramental system ; its
Hoadleyism, if I may so speak, which prevailed before the
Tractarian movement, and contrast all this darkness and
deadness with the light and life to be found to-day in the
Anglican Church, without a feeling of wonder and gratitude.
Between 1833 and the end of the century the Church of
England has been totally transformed in faith, in spirit, and
character, by the new life and fire put into it by the
labours, the zeal, and the creative genius of John Henry
Newman.
CHAPTER XXIV
UNSETTLEMENT IX FAITH MANNING'S LETTERS
TO ROBERT WILBERFORCE
1845-1850 (26th February)
Unsettlement in religious opinions, a state of mind which
Manning deprecated so much in others, had now befallen
himself. The remedies or precautions which he had pre-
scribed with such fervent confidence in their efficacy to his
friends or penitents — and which he still continued to pre-
scribe — he now found were of no avail against his own
religious doubts and difficulties. " Physician " — false
physician — " heal thyself," rang in his ears. He had
humbled his heart : had knelt in prayer : had confessed as a
sin his doubts, his disbelief in the Church of his birth and
baptism. In vain were his meditations on " the saints
which, generation after generation, for 300 years, God," as
he had fondly imagined, " had raised up as a token of His
vivifying presence in the Church of England." He had done
more. He had sought in vain such signs and tokens by
every device his mind or memory could suggest. In the
vain hope of hushing the still small voice, which troubled
heart and conscience, he had turned aside, as he bade peni-
tents suffering like himself to do, from the contemplation
of his own mind ; from religious controversies or discussions ;
and had devoted himself with renewed zeal to pastoral work ;
or busied liimself, as an ecclesiastical statesman, with plans
and projects for liberating the Church from the bondage of
the civil power. But all in vain. Archdeacon Manning no
longer believed in Anglicanism; its wliole religious system
CHAP. XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 501
had broken down ; the foundations on which it rested had
crumbled beneath his feet.
What to us now, and henceforward to the end, are the
Archdeacon of Chichester's sermons and speeches, or his
conferences with bishops or statesmen, or his pubhc acts ?
All this is the mere outside show of things ; a system of
self-defence against what he considered premature suspicions,
or anticipations injurious to his personal or public influence.
What the readers of Manning's life are most interested in —
care most about knowing — is, what were during these years
of trial the inner workings and struggles of his heart and
soul, the real state of his religious opinions, and the reasons
why he remained an Anglican so long after his faith in the
English Church had faded out of his mind. All this is to
be found, and found only, in his correspondence with Eobert
Wilberforce.
In his public acts and utterances, charges and sermons,
tracts and pamphlets, and in his correspondence, intimate
though it was, with Mr. Gladstone, Manning, it must be
remembered, did not always think it judicious or expedient
to speak his whole mind.
Manning's correspondence, at least of any moment, with
Eobert Wilberforce began in 1843. The earlier letters
were, in the main, those of an ecclesiastical statesman,
whose chief aim was to liberate the Church of England
from the control of parliament, and to confer upon it liberty
of independent action and the right of self-government by
the establishment of provincial synods.^
But Manning's letters to Robert Wilberforce of a later
^ The following letter to Robert Wilberforce, dated 5th June 1843, is a
specimen of the earlier stage of correspondence. After expressing real sorrow
that it was impossible to pay a visit to Yorkshire, Manning says : — "From
this time onward I have a succession of work. July is my visitation, and it
is all I can do to keep my head above water." . . . "But, believe me, I share
Avith you to the full in nil ego contulcri me, especially when you are the
amicus; for I know what are the siftings of life in no small measure."
Manning then goes on to the subject which at that date lay nearest his heart.
Speaking of the competency of Parliament to legislate for the Church, he
says : — " It seems to me — (1) That Parliament is the supreme Civil legislature.
(2) That its power to legislate for the Church is not derived from its being
in communion with the Church ; but (1) From its own authority in all things
502 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
date are those of a man whose sensitive conscience is
wounded to the quick by growing doubts, which he frankly
and fully confesses in the hope of dispelling them ; but
which culminate at last in the year 1849 in an utter
break-down of his belief in the Anglican Church.
In his letters to Robert Wilberforce, which exceed a
hundred in number, Manning is seen in many ways to
greater advantage than in anything else which he has
written. They exhibit, in the first place, real affection and
tenderness. Sincerity and perfect candour mark the whole
course and contents of this correspondence. There is no
affectation, no reserve, no unreality about it. To Eobert
Wilberforce Manning spoke out his whole mind and heart.
As a seeker after truth he showed intense earnestness, a
deep sense of responsibihty, and fear of the Lord. As the
truth dawned upon his mind he exhibited, in the spirit of
a martyr, a heroic readiness to sacrifice everything dear to
his heart, — home and friends, hopes and ambitions, his
work and position in the Church. There was humility, too,
in the way in which he recognised Eobert Wilberforce's
intellectual superiority and deeper reading ; though Manning
displayed a stronger will and prompter determination in
action, as well as a quicker insight into the untenable
position of Anglicanism. There is something very pathetic
in the way in which Manning clung to the Church he had
loved so well, hoping against hope that it might yet come
out of the ordeal, through which it was passing, unscathed.
His own prospects, his desire for elevation in the Church of
England, which at one period had filled his heart with hope
and joy, he had given up, after 1847, because his conscience
feared that high ecclesiastical office might darken his
not spiritual ; (2) From the acquiescence of the Church in tilings in ordine ad
spiritualia.
"The question, therefore, I should put is not — How Parliament forfeited its
competency ? but, Is there a case for the Church to withdraw its acquiescence
which would be equivalent to an opposition of the two powers, as before
Constantino ? I do not think the time has come yet. But it may ; not be-
cause of schismatics in Parliament ; but because of the specific acts of Parlia-
ment. Such a case might equally arise though both Houses were in communion
with the Church."
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 503
judgment on pending theological questions, or destroy
singleness of eye. In the unsettlement of his religious
opinions the hope of a mitre faded out of his heart.
These letters to Eobert Wilberforce give a clear and
connected history of the changes in Manning's rehgious
opinions — the gradual growth and remorseless strengthening
of his doubts as to the character and position of the English
Church ; the drawing of heart and intellect towards the
Church of Eome ; and the development of a belief — fatal
to Anglicanism — in the Unity and Infallibility of the
Church. It was not the Gorham case which shattered
Manning's faith in the Church of England, for before the
Gorham Judgment was pronounced or formulated he had
utterly lost all belief in AngKcanism as forming a part of
the Church of Christ. The Gorham Judgment, and the
acceptance by the Bishops and by the Church of England
collectively, of the royal supremacy in things spiritual,
and the " No Popery " outcry, were indeed, under the
grace of God, the external agents which drove Manning,
still hesitating, still hoping for escape even by a divine
interposition, out of the Church of England, and indirectly
led to his submission to the Catholic Church.
Manning's Letters to E. Wilberforce in 1845
In the first letter of 1845, Manning speaks of the
unsettlement of religious opinions even among the elect —
for he is speaking of his own penitents — and the difficulty
he experiences " in dealing solidly with the realities of our
relation to the Eoman Church " : —
Lavington, 30th Juiu 1845.
My dear Egbert — I have longed greatly to see you in quiet,
and to have the help and benefit of your judgment on some of
the heavy events which are hanging over us.
The extent to which unsettlement has extended itself is a
serious matter. At this moment (let this he kept to yourself) I
am directly or indirectly in communication with not less than
seven cases, I might make the number larger.
And I deeply feel that, with my little reasoning and constant
504 CARDINAL MANNING chai>.
active work, it is impossible for me, even if I were by nature
able, to deal with the merely intellectual questions which are
coming upon us.
I especially desire to join with you in this because some of
the ablest and dearest of those round us fail to satisfy me in
some of the conditions necessary for dealing fairly and solidly
■with the realities of our relation to the Roman Church. When-
ever we have compared our thoughts I have felt that we feel
the same points to be weak and strong.
You vnW find in the enclosed all I can offer on our last
meeting. You have placed me in a position of great rebuke and
humiliation, and I thank you for this at least. — Ever yours very
affectionately, H. E. Manning.
Unsettlement, which was vexing the minds of others
near and dear to him, had not as yet reached Manning's
own mind, at least so far as to shake his belief in the
English Church as to make it not safe to stay. But doubts
and misgivings as to the Anglican system had already
entered into his mind. What however, at this juncture,
perplexed him most was the chaotic state of Anglican
theology, as the following letter shows : —
LAvmGTON, 6th October 1845.^
. . . Everything, my dear Robert, has conspired to draw us
together in brotherly love. . . . Our meetings have been so few
and hurried, and I long for a time when we can, ^vithout inter-
ruption and alone, really weigh some of the matters which are
now forced upon us.
I was glad some time ago to see by your answer that you are
less anxious about the theological questions now afloat than I
am. It makes me believe that I am over-sensitive to them, or
that I do not yet feel the force of some answers which are really
sufl&cient.
But my anxiety does not extend to doubts, for nothing can
shake my belief of the ])resence of Christ in our Church and
sacrament. I feel incapable of doubting it : again, the saints
who have ripened round our altars for 300 years make it im-
possil)le for me to feel it a question of safety.
But it seems to me that our theology is a chaos, we have no
principles, no form, no order, or structure, or science. It seems
to me inevitable that there must be a true and exact intellectual
tradition of the Gosjiel, and that the scholastic theology is (more
^ This was wiitten two days before Newman's reception into the Church.
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 505
or less) such a tradition, we have rejected it and substituted
nothing in its room. Surely divine truth is susceptible, within
the limits of revelation, of an expression and a proof as exact as
the inductive sciences. Theology miist be equally capable of a
" history and a philosophy " if we had a Master of Trinity to
write them.
This is what I want to see either done or shown to be impos-
sible or needless.
With all kind and brotherly wishes, my dear Robert, yours
very affectionately, H. E. M.
In the years 1846-47 there were but few letters ex-
changed between Manning and Eobert Wilberforce.
In the year 1846, what Manning in his confessions
caUed " temptations to secularity," reached their culminating
point. In other words, the Archdeacon of Chichester, thrown
back by Newman's conversion and its consequences, forbore
to pursue his inquiries into the theological difficulties which
had beset his mind, forwent his correspondence with R.
Wilberforce as to his misgivings about the position of the
Anglican Church and its relations to Rome; but on the
other hand, striking out a new line of action, he mixed more
freely than he had ever done before in London society,
political and ecclesiastical, in the view or hope of being
recognised as a peacemaker, a healer of the breach in the
Church of England, caused by what he and Mr. Gladstone
alike called Newman's " fall." Illness, long and severe, in
1847, or his going abroad in search of health, interrupted
the correspondence, or, as Manning wrote to Robert Wilber-
force, " is a release from the schools."
There were one or two letters after his illness and
before he went abroad. Here is one of special interest on
Bunsen's Church of the Future : —
Lavington, llth May 1847.
My dear Robert — Did our letters cross'? I think they
must. If so it is a proof of occult sympathies, if not between
archdeacons, at least between you and me.
Many thanks for your kind words. You know how heartily
I feel and return them. My wish to see you arose out of the
feeling you expressed on your side ; as well as from affection.
506 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Since we met I have thought more of the subject of your
MS. which you read to me ; and I seem to feel more confirmed
in what I said. I should much like to have a time when we
could really state and test one or two points on which all others
hang. And it seems to me more and more necessary to do so,
for I fancy that we are at this time at a crisis.
As yet it is too soon for the German system to show itself in
form, or in any other way than by negations of positive truths,
or what is much worse, in destroying the inward belief of positive
truths, Avhich are still verbally retained, for instance the words
Church, Inspiration, etc. If we look to our rulers, who is there
that affirms Catholic dogmas or Catholic tradition for truth
or for proof 1
I have just read the first chapter of Bunsen's Church of the
Future, and I have only one word for it, and that is, impudent.
Is it possible that this is the amount of knowledge on which he
trades ] It is like an Exeter Hall speech. What does he mean
by calling the Catholic hierarchy Btjzantine? How did St.
Cyprian get his notion of the episcopate ? But these are the
great swelling words by which even good and able men are
gulled on all sides. But his book is a boon, it is a fresh proof
that there is no standing between Protestantism and the fourth
century. And to this we are all but come.
Carey's Dante is a wonderful book as I always think. It not
only represents Dante, but it is a masterpiece of English. I quite
feel what you say. No book has more entirely got itself into my
mind and belief, at least in outline, and it seems to me to be, as
you say, a proof of what the Church has had Avritten at all times.
I do not know when I shall get to London, but I thank God
I feel much better. — Ever yours affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
44 Cadogan Place, Ith October 1847.
My dear Robert — As to Innocent I. there is no doubt that
the tradition of St. Peter sitting at Antioch, and its consequent
precedence, is as long before acknowledged — and the Nicean
Council adds Alexandria to the two sedes Petri, the only two
existing Patriarchates. I feel this go the other way. The
"non tarn audi" would have no force, if the fact of St. Peter's
chair had not been already acknowledged.
Now I have this day referred a clergyman to you, who wrote
to me for solution of doubts on this point.
Forgive me, for you have bid me graze, and I hope the dews
from heaven may fall upon my rest. — Yours very affectionately,
H. E. M.
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 507
But in the following year, 1848, the correspondence was
renewed on a far larger scale and dealt with topics of vital
importance, going down to the very roots of things in regard
to both faith and conduct.
Manning's Letters to Egbert Wilberforce in 1848-49
The great doubts which in 1845 had possessed Manning's
mind as to the tenable position of the English Church, had
in 1848 developed into a settled conviction, as his letters
show, that he could no longer attack the teaching of Eome ;
no longer defend the essential errors he had discovered in
Anglicanism, and was still day by day discovering. His
long illness and the opportunity which it had afforded him
for meditation and reflection had weaned his heart from
ecclesiastical ambitions ; had purified in no small measure
his spiritual vision. If the city of the Popes and its
associations, historical and spiritual, had no influence over
his heart, his mind at least must have been affected, perhaps
unconsciously, by fervent participation in Catholic worship,
in frequent and friendly intercourse with priests and monks.
In letters from Eome to relatives and friends, and even to
Eobert Wilberforce, it is curious to note that Manning went
so far as to disclaim not only the influence of the locality,
but intercourse even with those whom he called " San
Pietrini."
In the following letter. Manning expressed anew his fear
lest his judgment should be biassed by such worldly attrac-
tions as expectations of a bishopric ; and it was because he
knew Eobert Wilberforce was free from such a weakness
that he confided in, and leant on, him.
Under the Seal.
Rome, 2n^ Sunday after Christmas.
My dear Egbert — ... I look much to you and lean
much upon you. For I know no one wdth whom I more
sympathise. And I know you to be a candid and laborious
student; what is more, I believe that the expectations of
a bishopric, vnih the hope of wide usefulness, would not
warp your convictions. You have too much mastered your
508 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
own will to be drawn aside even by the strong attractions
which are around you. It has been my prayer that such
may be my case lest I should have eyes and see not. Do
you remember asking me at the time of the Sub-almoner affair
whether I refused it from unwillingness to involve myself further
in our system ? I said, No, because that was not my fear. I did
fear, and put it down at the time, lest the sphere of attraction
should bias me in weighing the great doubts which had then fully
opened themselves to me. Now this is what I believe you to be
free from, I confide in you because it is so, and lean on you. I
have as far as possible done as you wished me, and set my mind
free by reading German and Italian, and by living in the open
air. But I cannot say that anything has made much difference.
Things seem to me clearer, plainer, shapeKer, and more har-
monious ; things which were only in the head have got down
into the heart ; hiatuses and gaps have bridged themselves over
by obvious second thoughts, and I feel a sort of processus
and expansion going on which consolidates all old convictions,
and keeps throwing out the premisses of new ones. Still I can
say I have never felt the fear of safety or pressure of conscience
which alone justifies a change. I have endless matter I should
like to have your thoughts upon.
May all grace be with you this New Year, my dearest
brother. — Ever your unworthy servant and friend,
H. E. M.
P.S. — As I have been writing it has grown so dark that I
fear you cannot read it.
Under the Seal.
Rome, 12th February 1848.
My dear Egbert — I did not mean to write to you again
so soon, for I intended to wait till after Dr. Hampden's conse-
cration should be completed. But the case is sufficiently
accomplished to leave no doubt of the end, and I therefore wish
to ask your help.
I feel my position altered by this event, and unless the
reasons which I will give can be shown to be without force, I
am afraid of thinking of the future.
1 . I am convinced (by my own reading of them) that Hamp-
den's Bampton Lectures are heretical in matter.
2. And still more, that they are heretical in form. His
system is the science of heresy.
3. The Church of England was hardly saved from partaking
in his heterodoxy by the censure of the University in 1836 and
1842, he being left in full communion.
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 509
4. The Episcopate is fully made partaker in his heterodoxy
by his consecration, and the whole Church, priesthood, and
laity in communion Avith the Episcopate.
5. This case differs from Hoadley, etc., in this vital point :
Hampden is confirmed and consecrated, being under positive
suspension and censure, and his soundness is the cardinal point
in the contest. By consecration the Episcopate gives sentence
in his favoiu", and invests him with the special custody and dis-
pensation of doctrine.
6. But supposing the case of Hampden to be no worse than
the case of Hoadley, it only proves that the Church of England
has abdicated its office as a keeper of Catholic tradition a century
sooner than I hoped, and that we have borne with evils till we
are blind to their moral character and its consequences.
7. The great tradition of the world and of the Church is the
GfoAoyia, the knowledge of God ; and Hampden's system under-
mines this, both in its matter and form, in its substance and
proof. This seems to me to be the capital offence of any branch
of the Church, and fatal to its divine character.
8. The separation of the English episcopate from the whole
episcopate under heaven, the denial of Catholic doctrine in sub-
stance by a large body of the English priesthood, e.g. the
doctrine of the sacraments, the Christian sacrifice, the visible
and divine polity of the Church (articles of the Baptismal Creed)
and the rejection of Catholic doctrine in form by the rejection
of Catholic tradition as the rule of faith, the historical fact
that the Church of England has made common cause with
Protestantism as a mass, even in its degeneracy, as in the Jeru-
salem Bishopric ; all these have for a long time deprived me of
the power of claiming for it the undoubted guidance of the
Holy Spirit along the path of Catholic tradition. It is not from
the Church Ave receive it, but from our own books and our own
private judgment.
9. This last event exemplifies the same impotence and un-
certainty of witness in the highest doctrine of the divine reve-
lation. It is in vain to speak of the Church of England as a
witness, except as an epitaph. Its living oflBce and character
are tampered with ; and its living, speaking testimony is not
trustworthy.
10. I am left without defence. I cannot rest the Church of
England and its li\ang -watness on anything higher than an in-
tellectual basis. I trust it, because I think it to be right, not
because I believe it to be right. It is a subject of my reason,
and not an object of my faith.
11. And this event has brought out a miserable truth.
510 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
namely, that the civil power is the ultimate judge of doctrine
in England, a principle which is not more heretical than
atheistical.
1 2. If it be not the ultimate judge, " when, if not now,"
shall the case arise for denying and resisting the claim 1
13. Not to deny and resist it, is to consent, or at least to
suffer the claim, against which loyalty to our Divine Lord, the
salvation of His people, the Christian rights of the Church's
posterity, and our own soul-sake binds us to spend every day,
and every power of our life. My dear Kobert, you \n\l not
misunderstand me, as if I thought myself to be anything.
God knows, what I am humbles and alarms me. And it is
under this condition that I add, that I do not know how I can
serve a body I cannot defend. I seem reduced to a choice
between my faith and all its foundations on one side, and all
that life has, which is dear to me, on the other. The grounds
on which I have striven, and under God not without hope, to
keep others in the Church of England, are falsified. And I dai'e
not seek or retain any influence but that of Truth, and the
influence over individuals which only Truth has given hence-
forward has no foundation. It must be either given up or kept
by unfairness in spite of Truth, which is impossible.
Dear Robert, do not think I am under any effect of ill-health,
or sensitiveness, or locality, or momentary provocation, or the like.
What I have written has been steadily advancing in my mind
these ten years, and outward events do but verify old fears, and
project old convictions upon realities.
I will, as I promised you, be guided by you, and lean my whole
weight upon you, and I know you will not offer me shadows for
truths. — Ever yours affectionately, H. E. Manning.
This letter was written under the seal of confession, and
is, therefore, the most trustworthy evidence of Manning's
religious opinions at the time. The condemnation which it
expresses of Hampden as guilty of heresy could not have
been clearer, or more emphatic or more complete, and offers
a strange contrast to the way in which, on his return to
England, he dealt in his Charge, July 1848, as Archdeacon
of Chichester, with the Hampden case.
Rome, I5th February 1848.
My dear Robert — I got your letter to-day with great joy,
for I have had few lately, hardly any of special interest. In
hopes of drawing another, I begin at once to put you into debt.
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 511
Before I go to anything else, I should like to make a few
notes on your letters.
Of course I have been grieved beyond measure about our
brother's share in the Hampden matter. But, with you, I be-
lieve he did what he honestly thought was right ; and I know
that the special points of difierence between him and myself are
just those on which this case turned. He, therefore, was con-
sistent to his own views ; but this even grieves me more, for I
feel as if we had drifted asunder in a wreck.
How far, as a matter of history, Newman's leaving us is the
cause of this I do not know, but even if he had foreseen it,
■with his convictions he could not have stayed. I say this,
because your words had a sound of reproach, which probably
you did not mean. I am not aware of any sensation I have
made. Happily, over the Alps one has peace. What have I
said 1 As to Confession, I have nowhere said it is necessary.
I have only said that it is our way of safety, lest we deceive
ourselves as to our repentance and forgiveness. I hope I have
said nothing untrue, and then I feel no care. A spade is a spade
— et rudes sunt Macedones.
As to Saint Ignatius, if you will write to me any tangible
points, I will get Perrone or Passaglia, or both, to look at them.
It is too absurd to have that Royal and Right Reverend Bishop
of All Babbles, with his King and Priest nonsense, coming to
tell us that Saint Ignatius was a Presbyterian.^
I am very glad to hear that you are at your Work, and I
should much like to hear you read it. You are on the one subject
to which I feel all my thoughts are drawn, and it is that subject
which has brov;ght me to my present belief, the Guidance of the
Holy Spirit. But it is this, above all, which demands for its sup-
port a basis higher than intellect, individual or provincial. God
knows, my dear Robert, that every bond and tie of friendship and
love, and a kindred higher than blood, to say nothing of every
lower affection, which makes up home to me, bribe me into a state
next to blindness, in the great issue between England and Rome.
^ Later in life, Cardinal Manning apparently borrowed a leaf from the
book of the ' ' Bishop of All Babbles " ; for, in one of his autobiographical
Notes, he said : — There is only a plank between the Jesuits and Presby-
terianism. . . . They are papal by their vow, but in their spirit they are
less papal than anti-episcopal. The claim of special dependence on the Pope
breeds everywhere a spirit of independence of local authority. This is a
grave danger to them, and few of them escape it. Their anti-episcopal
spirit shows itself in their treatment of their own men when they become
bishops. . . . They are like the Low Church Evangelicals in the Anglican
Church, who look upon their bishops as "enemies of vital godliness."
512 CARDINAL MANNING chap
But there are truths so primary and despotic that I cannot elude
them. Such is the infalliljility of the mystical body of Christ
on earth through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I covdd as
soon disbelieve the canon of Scripture or the perpetuity of the
Church. Infallibility is not an accident, it is a property, as in-
separable by the Divine Will as perpetuity. This is evident to
me from holy Scripture, from Catholic tradition, from internal
and necessary relations of divine Truth and divine acts, as well
as from Reason which alone would prove nothing.
I cling to the Church of England, because, trusting that it is
a portion of the visible Church, it partakes of this undoubted
divine property.
If it does not partake of this property it affords no founda-
tion for my faith. It is useless to offer me antiquity for my
foundation. What do I know of antiquity ? At my next
birthday, if I live, I shall be forty. I must rest on something
which itself rests continuously on antiquity, whose consciousness
is therefore continuous, running down from the Day of Pente-
cost to this hour.
I cannot hide from myself that the state of England alarms
me in this point. It cannot be denied that we have two con-
tradictory theologies. Our episcopate is divided even in articles
of the Apostles' Creed, e.g. the Church and the Sacraments. I
am afraid that Hampden, if consecrated, will force us to confess
more. Our priesthood is, if possible, more divided than the
episcopate ; and o\Jx laity are driven different ways, till the
whole belief of a Church, teaching in God's name and with a
pledge of divine guidance, is wasted away.
Surely it is not enough to say that our formularies are
sound. Suppose it ; but Avhat are doctrines on paper, when
the living speaking Church contradicts, or permits contradic-
tion, of its own definitions ? If the articles had to be judged
at the last day instead of our souls, their orthodoxy might
cover our unbelief. How long is this to go on ? I am ready
to say — I do not say that the Church of England teaches
the doctrine of the Real Presence, but I must say that either
those that deny it or I ought not to be priests of the same
Church.
With these things which uninvited dwell in my mind as
axioms or innate ideas, I confess I feel no acquiescence in our
state. But I feel in God's hands. Till I can see whether it
be His will to bring me back in health and to work again I
need not forestall. One thing, however, is plain, that the
Church of England before this Hampden affair and after it is
not in the same state, nor Avill allow the same way of speaking
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 513
and acting ; and yet I do not know how the only possible turn
can be taken Avithout breaking all terms with old traditions and
beginning a new decade of conflict ; and when I think of this,
and the end towards which our divergent line inevitably points,
I am aware of something which says, a false position can never
be really mended. You say I give you too much credit ; I oidy
believe you to be what I daily pray to become. God knows
that I would rather stand in the lowest place within the Truth,
than in the highest without it. Nay, outside the Truth the
higher the worse. It is only so much more opposition to Truth,
so much more propagation of falsehood. Farewell, let us pray
more for each other. Indeed I feel what you write, that there
is little in this world worth being eager about. And yet I am
never otherwise than cheerful, as you bid me be.
If I could but know one great truth, all would be clear. —
Yours most affectionately, H. E. M.
In a second letter, dated Eome, 11th March 1848,
again on the Hampden case, Manning brushed aside with
a firm hand the fine distinctions, refinements, and theories
in which men were entangling themselves, and wisely in-
sisted on an open avowal of principle.
Rome, Wth March 1848.
My dear Robert — Many thanks for your letter. I feel
first that I am not on the spot, and next that I am afraid of
myself, and therefore I will, at least till I can see with my own
eyes, take you and Moberly, as you name him, for my godfathers.
But truly Avhat you say does not come home to me.
1. It is no question whether any Anglican court would pro-
nounce Hampden heretical, but whether he is so. I think you
are probably right about the courts ; so much the worse.
2. My recollection of this matter, refreshed by the extracts
lately republished, satisfies me that both East and West, in all
ages, would pronounce him heretical.
3. He has recanted nothing. He declares that he held no
communication with the Bishop of Oxford, and authorised none.
If he has deceived the Bishop, so much the better for our
brother ; so much the worse for Hampden and for us.
4. The University did not pronounce him heretical, but it de-
clared its want of confidence — a thing almost unexampled in
our tame annals ; and this at least fixes the ;pnma facie case of
unsoundness.
5. I find it hard to believe that the court required the bishop
VOL. I 2 L
614 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to p'onounce Hampden heretical, as a condition to inquiring
whether or no he is heretical.
This is contrary to the whole practice of the Discipline Act.
All that the bishop certifies is the sufficiency of the prima facie
case to make inquiry necessary. But I had no intention of
objecting in detail, and least of all of entering upon the ques-
tion of our dear brother ; I had rather keep to the broader
questions which are alone decisive, and where, if we differ, we
shall have less pain.
Do you know that I take no encouragement in the sense in-
tended from the phrase that much good is resulting by reaction,
and making men speak out, and the like. So much the better
for them. But the question — and the only one — is, are we, or
are we not, on a basis which is tenable in the sight of God, and
by the laws of His Church 1 I told you in my last letter that
we are in a position I cannot defend, and that is a new fact to
me. I do believe Hampden to be heretical, in substance and
principle. It makes it worse to me to find that fact palliated
or doubted. Can anybody doubt what judgment would be
foi'med of him and his book here or at Munich, or what would
have been said of it by St. Augustine or St. Athanasius 1 And I
cannot go by any other rule. But besides this, the Court of
Queen's Bench, plus Hampden's consecration, declares the civil
power to be ultimate and supreme, even in spiritual obligations.
This overthrows the only defence I have ever been able to make
of our position. If it be true, I am myself one of the foremost
in believing it to be fatal to our claim as a member of the
visible Church. I cannot evade this, and I cannot obey it. If
it be finally confirmed, I am at an end ; with this comfort, that
it is no act of mine, and that I have been a mere bystander like
Pius IX.
Again, as you say, it "vvill be a comfort to you to get your
mind and belief fully expressed. But I feel it almost a point
of truthfulness to say I cannot go on with any reserve. Truth
is a trust to be laid out and accounted for, and time is spending
fast. Moreover, people believe us to be what we are not, and
are disbelieving truths we hold to be sacred, because we hold
them in silence, which is a kind of unrighteousness. "What I
feel is, that a broad, open avowal of i)rinciple may probably
suffice to clear us individually of responsibility, guide others the
right way, make our position personally tenable, and begin a
correction of the evil. This course would, I think, satisfy me.
But I cannot find rest in any fine distinctions, or theories unin-
telligible to the paiiperes Christi, for whom we exist.
I will be very patient and dutiful to you if you wnW go to
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 515
work broadly. You would hardly believe what a life of reserve
and distance from all san pietrini I live here. Do not for a
moment think that I have so much as spoken on this subject
^vith one of them, or on any controversial point. I keep myself
wholly aloof, even to separation. But looking at the Church
of England ah extra as they do, and Dissenters, I am bound to
say that our refinements have a look of insincerity.
If I vent all this on you, it is because I hold so much by
you. And the world is in a whirl which will leave nothing
standing but the Kingdom which cannot be removed. This is
my only choice and longing. — Ever yours, H. E. M.
The foUowing outspoken letter or confession of faith,
written after the Archdeacon's apology for Hampden in
his Charge delivered in July 1848, no longer complains of
doubts or misgivings, but contams a distmct and absolute
repudiation, not only of Protestantism, but of Anglicanism.
In so many words, Manning declares that he does not
believe in the Church of England, and can form no defence
for it or its theology and faith. This declaration bears
the highest stamp of sincerity, for it is v^ritten under the
seal of confession.
Under Seal.
Lavington, Holy Innocents, 1849.
My dear Robert — The very slight and unworthy notice of
your book on Baptism in the Guardian was mine. I wrote what
I could rather than lose a week, feeling that I need only call
attention, and that the book would speak for itself. It is very
ably done, and is full of your patient and careful research. As
a treatise on Baptism we have nothing better. I am only sorry
that it is so mixed up with Goode, who will be forgotten in six
months, except as you have put him in amber.
And now let me talk a while Avith you at this Christmas time,
in which all good be with you and yours.
I have tried to hold my peace, to lose myself in work, to take
in other subjects which I dearly love and delight in, but all in
vain. My whole reason seems filled with one outline. The
faith of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation subdues me into
a belief of the indivisible unity and perpetual infallibility of the
Body of Christ. Protestantism is not so much a rival system,
which I reject, but no system, a chaos, a wreck of fragments,
without idea, principle, or life. It is to me flesh, blood, unbelief,
516 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
and the will of man. Anglicanism seems to me to be in essence
the same, only elevated, constructed, and adorned by intellect,
social and political order, and the fascinations of a national and
domestic history. As a theology, still more as the Church or
the faith, it has so faded out of my mind that I cannot say I
reject it, but I know it no more. I simply do not believe it.
I can form no basis, outline, or defence for it. Oiu' articles and
formularies, so far as they contain the Catholic tradition, I
understand. But beyond that I feel to have no certainty, some-
times no perception of their meaning. I do not rest upon them ;
they are no rule to me ; I do not know whether I contradict
or strain them. My onl}'' foundation of faith is the infallibility
of Christ in His Church, and they are not utterances of that
voice.
I confess that I feel all this growing to an almost intolerable
weight. And events are not so much changing as revealing the
position and nature of the English Church. The Hampden con-
firmation and the Gorham Appeal show me that the Church of
England, supposing it to continue in esse a member of the vnsible
Church, is in a position in which it is not safe to stay". But I
have always felt that even these would not move me if I could
by any means sincerely, and in the sight of God, justify the
relation of the Church of England to the Presence of our Lord
ruling and teaching upon earth. I am forced to believe that
the unity of His Person prescribes the unity of His visible
kingdom as one undivided whole, and that numbers are an
accident. It was once contained in an Upper Chamber ; it may
be again ; but it must always be one, and indivisible.
On this hangs the guidance of the Spirit of Truth. If in this
you can help me by showing me my errors, I shall be guided
with a docile and thankful heart. Both your books drive me to
the same point. In truth everything as it ceases to be vague,
unreal, and negative, as it becomes positive, real, and in-
telligible, rises up with the faith and infallibility of the
Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the
Holy Ghost.
It is in vain for you or for me to say that the English Church
holds or teaches as you and I believe. It ])ears ^vith us because
we are silent, or because it is not its practice to guard its own
oral doctrine. Does it teach what I have said of the Sacrifice ?
or wnll it censure me for so teaching?
These are not cheerful Christmas thoughts, but in the midst
of all I find great peace, living in a sphere of faith, and amidst
the thoughts and images of which our system gives no ex-
pression.
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 517
No doubt your meditations on this mystery of this season
are wonderfully helped and deepened by your labours upon it.
Let mo hear from you ; and believe me, my dear Kobert,
yours always ajafectionately in our Lord, H. E. M.
Manning's Letteks to Eobert Wilberfoece before the
GoRHAM Judgment.
18th January-24th February 1850.
Manning's letters before the Gorham Judgment was pro-
nounced, 8th of March 1850, are interesting and valuable,
as showing that his essential objection, unlike that of Pusey
and Keble, and to a certain extent of Eobert Wilberforce,
was to the Court itself, whether its decision were adverse
or no to Gorham. Even had the civil court pronounced in
favour of baptism, Manning's objection would have been
just as great ; for, to accept the Judgment would be to
recognise the civil power as ultimate authority in deciding
on matters of faith. The letters likewise show how far
Manning was prepared to act, either with others or
even alone, in the event of the Bishops, as rulers of the
Church, accepting or silently acquiescing in the Gorham
Judgment.
It would not conduce to clearness or effect to recite
Manning's letters to Wilberforce after the Gorham Judgment,
until his public action and efforts, combined with others, to
avert the evil effects of that Judgment, have been first
recorded. After the event, his letters to Robert Wilberforce
will clear up much in the Archdeacon of Chichester's public
conduct or speech, or still more, perhaps, in his silence, that
seemed contradictory or ambiguous ; or even led men to
suspect that he was looking about for a loophole for escape.
These invaluable letters tell what was not told at the time
or since, and reveal the inner workings of his mind.
The following letter bears witness that the Gorham
Appeal was becoming to Manning a matter of conscience,
and that he was prepared — rather than, under certain con-
ditions, to accept the Oath of Supremacy — to seek release
from the Church of England.
518 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
Under Seal.
44 Cadogan Place, \'2,th January 1850.
My dear Robert — I am here for three -weeks, and much
wish you could come. Many desire to see you and have the
help of your counsel. The more I go into this Appeal, the less
I can reconcile it with the divine confession of the Church.
This moves me. It turns a point of faith into a point of con-
science and of action, and brings out long and secret thoughts in
a critical and urgent way. But I do not mean to go into this
now, further than to say that the course I feel constrained to
take is this : —
To submit to certain lawyers, civil and common, the follow-
ing questions in substance :
1. Does the royal supremacy carry a claim to re\aew by
Appeal the declarations and interpretations of the courts of the
Church in matter of doctrine ?
2. Does the Oath of Supremacy bind those who take it to
recognise and accept the supremacy so claimed and exercised 1
If these are answered in the affirmative b}^ a sufficient number
of competent advisers, I should next submit them to my bishop,
stating my inability to receive the oath in that sense, and ask-
ing for a trial as to my fitness to hold my office.
If the Court of Arches should decide that the oath binds in
the above sense, I should feel that the Church of England had
given me my release — rvde donatus.
May God give us light and a faithful heart to do His vnll
alone. — Believe me, my dearest Robert, yours very aftection-
ately, H. E. Manning.
In this letter, which is mainly on the same subject as
the last, Manning's prayerful spirit is once more exhibited,
and his desire not to shrink from doing right :
Private.
44 Cadogan Place, I8th January 1850.
My dear Robert — We have had two long conversations at
Dodsworth's. All seemed to feel that the tribunal itself is the
evil. Not one, I believe, felt that it is possible to accept a
right decision without protest. This, beyond words to express,
is my conviction. Even if it decide rightly it is not using or
going by the decision of the Church. It is an independent and
absolute judgment of the Crown in matter of faith.
The decision of the Church Court is as clay in its hands.
The form, if it be wrong or right, is an accident. Now this
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 519
gives to the civil power the ultimate interpretations of formularies.
The Crown does not define legislatively, of course ; but it
interprets the definitions of the Church, and a supreme inter-
preter is equivalent to a legislator.
What did the Council of Nice but interpret the Apostles'
Creed in the Sonship 1
If the Judicial Committee decide either way, that decision
binds in \v<,'w proprio vigore.
It cannot be reversed, for it cannot be reviewed except by
the Crown again.
I feel this to touch my faith as a Christian, and my conscience
as a priest, and I see no course but this —
To declare that I cannot so accept the supremacy, and to put
myself into the hands of my bishop. I beseech you, dear
Eobert, do not yield to the thought that if the decision is right,
there is no wrong. He is wronged Who never gave to Princes
to judge of His truth.
I could hardly expect you to take such a journey. Pusey
and Keble were there, but not Mill.
I am giving my sense, not theirs, except in the two first
sentences of this letter.
Pray for me, that I may do nothing wrong, and shrink from
doing nothing right, especially at your altar. — Ever, my dear
Eobert, your very affectionate, H. E. M.
Eobert Wilberforce was evidently alarmed lest Manning
should break avs^ay from control or guidance, and quit a
Church in whose position he had lost faith.
44 Cadogan Place, 22nd January 1850.
My dear Egbert — I write one word to set you at ease.
1. I will take no rash step — none that can part me from you,
so long as I am able in conscience to be united as in love, so in
labours, with you.
2. My opinion in this is not my mere view. I say (in
private) that I have fully gone over it with Alderson and
Badeley (and others not less), and they both confirm it in law
and in fact.
3. As to whither to go, dear Eobert, I dare not look on. I
argue and act now as if I were to die where I am, and only the
revealed necessity hereafter will make me act otherwise.
Therefore I have not answered two or three things in your
late letters.
I seem to see no such contradiction with history, and shall
520 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
be glad, if need be, to say why ; but for the present, sufficient
unto the day.
My letter was, I fear, jagged or tormenting in some way.
Pray forgive me the clavos trabides et cuneos. — Ever your most
aflfectionate H. E. M.
44 Cadogan Place, I8th February 1850.
My dear Robert — Your kind note this morning was very
acceptable. I was afraid that I had been too urgent with you,
as I am wont to be when I am moved as I have been and am.
I feel to have no misgiving or doubt as to the great laws and
truths at stake in this crisis. But I will not go into it now, as
the time is not come. I will only say that I agree altogether
with you in holding that the civil power has a right to inquire
why a certain status, i.e. benefice, is refused to Gorham.
But that is not the Gorham case.
Such an inquiry lies in the courts at "Westminster by action
of quare impedit, as is now pending in re Gorham. The question,
which has ascended from the bishop to the archbishop, from
the archbishop to the Crown, is purely spiritual, i.e. why the
bishop refuses to give to a clerk mission to a cure of souls.
As a question of benefice it could not go to bishop, arch-
bishop, or Crown.
The appellate jurisdiction of the Crown is assumed to be in
eddem materia with that of the spiritual courts.
1. Co-extensive with all their jurisdiction, and
2. Superior.
I do not burden you with references, but I say this on the
authority of lawyers, among whom are Alderson and Badeley.
They have both read the enclosed paper, and confirm the legal
points.
[I have mislaid or lent it.]
I long to see you, and trust that you will let me know when
you come to London.
May we neither do anything we ought not to do, nor leave
anything we ought to do undone. — Ever your most affectionate
H. E. M.
Lavington, 26t/i February 1850.
My DEAR Robert — I hope to be in London on Monday
next, and look forward with great delight to seeing you.
By that time we shall probably have some decision from the
Judicial Committee.
All the rumours agree in one point, the institution of the
appellant. But how can a priest, twice judged unfit for cure of
XXIV UNSETTLEMENT IN FAITH 521
souls by the Church, be put in charge of souls at the sentence
of the civil power mthout overthrowing the divine office of the
Church ? The Epistle for St. Matthias seemed sent as a warning.
I am very glad to hear that you have added a note to your
book. Not that it is easy or possible to do much in the way of
revision.
What I should like to see from you would be another book
on the Sacrament of the Altar, related, as the Book on Baptism,
to your larger work. But before you do it I wish you would
analyse the language of St. Thomas, Vasquez, and Suarez. I
will show you (trusting that we shall meet next week) some
remarkable passages, which I think will satisfy you, as they do
me. — Ever, my dear R., yours very affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
With this letter, Manning's correspondence with Eobert
Wilberforce was suspended, for they both met in London to
consult with Pusey and Keble, James Hope and Mr. Glad-
stone, and others, and concert measures to relieve the Church
of England from complicity with the Gorham Judgment,
favourable or adverse. In these proceedings Manning took
a prominent part.
CHAPTEE XXV
THE GORHAM JUDGMENT
1850
In the year 1850 there were two parties in the Church of
England, who held antagonistic opinions in matters of faith ;
professed antagonistic principles in regard to civil and
spiritual authority in the government of the Church. The
one party, calling itself Protestant, disbelieved in sacramental
grace and repudiated altogether the sacramental system ;
and in the matter of Church government, it recognised as
supreme in things spiritual, not the Church, but the State ;
not the spiritual, but the civil authority.
The other party, calling itself Catholic, believed in the
sfjiritual efficacy and divine origin of the sacraments ; and
denied to the civil power authority over matters of faith
which they held by divine right and appointment to fall
under the supreme authority of the spiritual power.
The clergy belonging to either party had alike subscribed
to the Thirty-nine Articles and had taken the Oath of
Supremacy. It speaks well for the elasticity of the formu-
laries and the comprehensiveness of the Church of England
that disputes, such as that decided in the Gorham case, are
of such rare occurrence in the courts of law.
It is a singular illustration of this spirit of comprehen-
siveness that two clergymen of such antagonistic principles
on matters of faith — types of thousands — as Eev. G. C.
Gorham and Archdeacon Manning had been in 1850, the
one thirty-nine, the other seventeen years, ministers in the
same Church.
CHAP. XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 52L
The odious name of Gorham would have been buried in
obscurity had it not been made the symbol of the triumph
of one party over the other ; had it not been for the effect
produced on Manning and so many others by Gorham's
appeal from the judgment of the spiritual courts to the civil
power to decide whether or no an article of the creed was
to be held as of faith in the Church of England. The Eev.
George C. Gorham took orders in 1811. It apparently was
a matter of little or no concern in that lax day whether a
candidate for orders accepted or neglected an article of the
Creed ; for in spite of his heterodox views on Baptismal
Eegeneration the Bishop of Ely ordained him. But in 1847
when the Lord Chancellor presented the Eev. George C.
Gorham to the living of Brampford Speke, near Exeter, Henry
Phillpotts, the famous fighting Bishop of Exeter, in the ex-
ercise of his undoubted right, refused to institute him unless
by examination he was able to satisfy the bishop of his ortho-
doxy. The examination was thorough and searching, and
lasted more than a week altogether — four days in December
1847, and three days in March 1848 ; and the delinquent
was found to deny the doctrine of BajDtismal Eegeneration.
Of course the Bishop of Exeter refused to intrust him with
the cure of souls. Mr. Gorham took the case into the
Court of Arches ; and Sir Henry Jenner Fust in August
1849 decided against his claim to compel the bishop to
institute him to the living of Brampford Speke. Mr. Gorham
appealed from the decision of the spiritual court to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. This court,
deriving its authority from the Eoyal Supremacy, was
essentially a lay court. On the occasion of Gorham's
Appeal it had for assessors the Archbishop of Canterbury
(Sumner), the Archbishop of York (Musgrave), and the
Bishop of London (Blomfield).
Eor two years or more the Gorham case had been
agitating the minds of men. The Low Church party had
declared that if the doctrine of Baptismal Eegeneration was
imposed upon them by the highest court in the land they
would quit the Church of England in a body and fraternise
with Dissenters.
524 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Brave words ! yet at all events they bore witness to the
excited state of feeling which prevailed in the Church on
one side and the other ; for the High Church party uttered
equally brave words against the judgment of the Privy Council,
the ultimate issue of which in too many instances were vain and
idle protests whistled down the wind; vox etpreterea nihil, like
the loud-voiced protests of Archdeacon Denison and others.
The Gorham Judgment, pronounced by tlie highest court
in the land, inilicted on the High Church party and the
Church to which they belonged a twofold blow.
It struck out an article of the creed ; and asserted afresh,
as an inherent right, the Eoyal Supremacy in matters of faith.
To Manning the blow seemed fatal, for, on the one hand, he
had always believed in Baptismal Eegeneration ; and on the
other, had contended for years that the exercise of the Eoyal
Supremacy in the Church of England was an accident ;
a temporary encroachment of the civil power on the right-
ful domain of things spiritual.
In the beginning of this eventful year Manning's theory
that the Eoyal Supremacy was a mere accident, a temporary
usurpation, was challenged by James Hope, who maintained
in a confidential letter " That nothing in principle new
had befallen us in the case of Hampden, or, as yet, of
Gorham." Then, he added : " But if you have not hitherto
read Erastianism in tlie history of the Church of England
since the Eeformation, then I fear you and I have much to
discuss before we can meet on common ground."
Manning and James Hope did discuss long and fully the
whole question of the Eoyal Supremacy ; and Hope ended
by convincing Manning that the Gorham Appeal did not
differ in principle from all previous appeals ; for that, since
the Eeformation, the ultimate jurisdiction over all ecclesi-
astical causes had rested in the Crown.
James Hope's letter, which so completely changed
Manning's view of the Eoyal Supremacy, is as follows : —
ABnoTSFORD, 2dth January 1850.
My dear Manning — I will not trouble you with my excuses
for the delay attending my answer to yours of the 31st December
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 525
and its enclosure. The latter I now return, but to comment
upon it is not easy, because a considerable part of it relates to the
sense in which you individually have submitted to the Church of
England, and as this varies from the ground upon which my own
submission rests, we do not start from the same point. It may
be, then, I should put you in possession of my general view upon
this head, and you will then be able to follow me in its
application to the particular cases of Hampden and Gorham.
I cannot, then, speak dogmatically of the Church of England
as you do in Nos. 2 and 3 of your paper, I know no theory
which in strict argument will justify her present position and
the attitude she has so long maintained towards the rest of the
Church. The hardship of circumstances, in some sense, the
necessity of the case, appear to me to afford the only plea upon
which her isolation and the independence of action which (as far
as the rest of the Church is concerned) she has assumed, can be
defended.
Again as regards the civil power and her subjection to it, I
find no other defence. The civil power has since the Reforma-
tion undoubtedly usurped part of her proper spiritual authority.
Her best divines have, many of them, accepted and justified its
interference, and the actual framework of her constitution per-
petuates the encroachment.
On what, then, you will ask does my submission rest ? I
answer, on the belief, weakened but not yet destroyed, that under
these heavy burdens, in her solitude and in her bonds, she yet
retains the grace of the sacraments and the power of the keys.
But if you should ask further, how I am assured of this, I should
hardly know what to tell you ; and when others have consulted
me as to remaining or going, my answer has been, that I dared not
advise. How indeed should I : unless I accept the theory of
development as fully as Newman ? There are many things in the
Church of Rome which offer difficulty — unless I turn purely
Protestant, it is impossible to justify all that has occurred and
does daily occur in England. Many holier and wiser men than
I, have deliberated and gone, but many holier and better than I,
deliberately remain. It is not, then, with me a matter which
reasoning can decide. I have a conviction that I have the
means of grace where I am, means far beyond the use I make
of them, and till this conviction is removed I dare not venture
on a change.
With these feelings my duty towards the Church of England
seems to me this : To watch most jealously that her position be
not made worse, and to strive, whenever there is an opportunity,
to improve it ; but to conceal her defects, or to seek by theory to
526 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
escape from the facts of her past and present history (whatever
I may have thought formerly), is not a course which I should now
pursue.
And now as to the two cases of Hampden and Gorham. Of
these — the first decided judicially that the Crown may force its
nominee into the episcopate without any legal mode of ascertain-
ing his fitness ; but then practically we know that the Crown has,
since the Reformation, exercised this power \vithout resistance
from the Church ; we know, also, that no utterly unfit person need
be accepted by the Church if, either discipline over the priest-
hood in matter of doctrine keep the general body pure, or
at the last moment those who have to consecrate refuse that
oflfice.
We know, also, that the general practice of ministers is to
consult the Primate beforehand, and that in this case there was
no objection. Was this, then, a substantial alteration of the
system as it existed before, or was it not merely a formal
development of that Erastianism which in substance had long
been acquiesced in ]
Then as to the Gorham Appeal, how does it difier, except in
the importance of the subject matter, from all previous appeals 1
Since the Reformation the jurisdiction in the last resort over all
causes ecclesiastical has been acknowledged in the Crown. The
Delegates sat under royal commission, and the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council represent the same authority. There may
have been more bishops concerned as judges at one time than
at the other, but the source of jurisdiction was in law the same.
This appeal then in point of jurisdiction offers nothing new to my
eyes. The subject of it may indeed develop more fully the
scandal of the system, but the system has long existed and been
an offence in the Church.
On both these points then, I would have a change if I could
get it, but neither of them disturbs materially the grounds of my
allegiance, because that allegiance has for some time rested upon
considerations, in which these difficulties had already played
their part, and had allowance made for them.
But if a false judgment be pronounced in Gorham's case,
and that judgment be acquiesced in by the Church of England,
then indeed a new feature will arise for which I find no place ;
whatever be the mouthpiece which utters the judgment, if the
Church does not repudiate it, there is an article of the creed
struck out, and then indeed there will be a weight thrown into
the scale against my allegiance, which it would seem ought to
prevail.
But I have already spoken too much of my own views, though
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 527
you will see, that they lead me, by way of contrast, to re-
marking on yom-s. You have a theory of allegiance based upon
ecclesiastical principles, while I have not. But when you adopted
that theory, had you fully considered the facts ? If you had, it
ought still to hold good, for I maintain that nothing, in principle
new, has befallen us in the case of Hampden, or, as yet, of
Gorham. But if you have not hitherto read Erastianism in the
history of the Church of England since the Reformation, then I
fear you and I have much to discuss before we can meet upon
common ground. I cannot, then, advise upon your questions
from your point of view, because the current of my thoughts
prevents me from entering into it, but, from my own, I must
acknowledge, that the affirmance of the Royal Supremacy by
oath, if it be held to mean more than a submission de facto to a
state of things endurable under circumstances for a time, would
present serious difficulty.
And now I believe that I have said all that I can in the
present stage of our correspondence. I have written hastily,
and I fear in places too boldly — but these faults I hope you will
pardon. I write for 7jou only, and with a sincere desire that we
may understand each other. I trust you will help me to correct
my views where you see me to be wrong. Since Newman left
us, I have had little intercourse with any one upon the great
questions of communion. Nor have they been so much in my
mind as they ought to have been. Indeed, except with Glad-
stone, or now and then with persons Avho have invited me to speak,
I have had no inducement to discuss them. Your letter has
opened up the seam of thought again, and I would gladly work
with you in it. — Ever, my dear Manning, yours most truly,
James R. Hope.
Manning's conversion to the view that, far from being, as
he had hitherto contended, a victim to the gradual usurpations
of the Civil Power, the English Church had at the Reforma-
tion accepted the Royal Supremacy, was so complete, that we
find him in a subsequent letter to Robert Wilberforce de-
claring that our " position is untenable ah initio ; for the
Royal Supremacy is in principle as old as Henry VIII."
But what is more to the present purpose, Manning found
himself, now and henceforth to the end of their Anglican
career — which for either was not far off — in a position to
act with James Hope on common ground and to pursue like
principles to a common end.
528 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Hence, on the eve of the Gorhani Judgment, ^e find
Manning and James Hope standing together, and acting in
concert, more or less close, with Mr. Gladstone. Eobert
Wilberforce, Dodsworth, and Mill, Eegius Professor of
Hebrew at Cambridge, and Pusey, and Keble, and Bennett
of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge ; and, among the laity, Sidney
Herbert, and Eichard Cavendish, and Badeley, were all
assembled in that eventful week in March 1850 to take
counsel with Manning, Hope, and Mr. Gladstone, as well
as to witness the close of the great ecclesiastical drama,
which for well-nigh three years had stirred the religious
world to its depths. Strange as it may sound in the ears
of our somewhat cynical generation, the religious world in
that day consisted not only of bishops and clergy, but
included well-knoM^n statesmen and lawyers and men of
letters. Not merely religious papers like the Ckiardian and
the Record, but newspapers like the Times in 1850 discussed
the Gorham case and Tractarianism, Cardinal Wiseman's
famous " Letter out of the Plaminian Gate," and " Papal
Aggression," with as much fierceness or ferocity as Home
Eule and Mr. Gladstone — though with far more truth and
justice — are denounced to-day.
Some five or seven years before his death, Cardinal
Manning in speaking of the Gorham Judgment said : —
" I remember well I was in London when it was given. I
went at once to Gladstone, who then lived in Carlton Terrace.
He was ill with influenza and in bed ; I sat down by his bedside
and told him of the Judgment. Starting up and thro^ving out his
arms, he exclaimed : — " The Church of England is gone unless it
releases itself by some authoritative act." Wo then agreed to
draw up a Declaration and get it signed. For this purpose we
met in the vestry of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. There were
present, Bennett, Hope, Eichard Cavendish, Gladstone, and Dr.
Mill, I think, and some others. They made me preside. We
agreed to a string of propositions, deducing that, by the Gorham
Judgment, the Church of England had forfeited its authority as a
divine teacher. The next time we met, Pusey and Keble I think
were there. They refused this ; and got it changed to " If the
Church of England shall accept this Judgment it would forfeit its
authority as a divine teacher." This amendment was accepted
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 529
because it did not say whether the Chmxh of England had or
had not de facto accepted the Judgment. Hope said : " I suppose
we are all agi'eed that if the Church of England does not undo
this we must join the Church of Rome." This made an outcry ;
and I think it was then that Keble said: — "If the Church of
England were to fail, it should be found in my parish."
But such a meeting, good as far as it went, was by
no means representative. What would be the value of a
Declaration that did not for instance bear the names of Pusey
and Keble ? The difficulty of obtaining signatures was
greater than had been foreseen in the first instance. Men
who were of one mind in objecting to the Gorham Judgment
differed as to the mode and method of opposition. To
Manning, who was at Brighton, James Hope sent reports of
how matters were going on. In a letter, dated 14 Curzon
Street, 14th March, 5 o'clock at night, he writes as
follows : —
I will see Gladstone and talk matters over with him, but there
are worse hindrances than he is likely to prove.
Pusey came here with Keble yesterday, and remained some
hours criticising our "Resolutions." Hoping to get matters
adjusted, I proposed a meeting of all who could be got together
at Gladstone's this morning.
Pusey and Keble attended the meeting at which Hope
urged the necessity of immediate action. Mr. Gladstone
pleaded for delay ; and preferred in place of the Resolu-
tions drawn up at the first meeting by Manning and Hope
and Mill an address to the bishops. Pusey and Keble and
J. Talbot insisted upon modifications of the Resolutions ; and
it was finally agreed, at the suggestion of Hope, that all
proposed amendments should be sent to George Denison
(now Archdeacon of Taunton), and another meeting called
for next week. The two Church Unions sent their reports,
which spelt disunion, and the meeting resolved to have
nothing to do with them, but to take their own course. But
as to that course differences of opinion arose, wliich Hope, in
a letter to Manning, who was not present to meet Pusey
and Keble's objections to the original Resolutions, described
as follows : —
VOL. I 2 M
530 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Gladstone still for delay ; but I think all but himself for
" Resolutions " to be immediately put forth. There are several,
however, who are alarmed at the thoroughgoing tone of those
we have adopted, and fear the recoil. Horror of Kome seems to
be at the bottom of these minds ; and some spoke even of a
generation passing away before the Church be deemed unsafe,
which translated seems to mean that, ha^ipen what may, it will
do for their time. . . .
1 hope you will come up. — Yours in haste, most truly,
James Hope.
At the final meeting, held at Mr. Gladstone's house,
when the Resolutions as modified and amended by Pusey
and Keble were adopted, Manning was present.
But the final act had yet to be accomplished. They
who had drawn up or adopted the Declaration had to put
their names to it. Manning with eagerness signed first;
Robert Wilberforce second. But at the last moment Mr.
Gladstone drew back and refused to sign the Declaration.
lu one of his autobiographical Notes, dated 1885, Cardinal
j\Ianning gave the following description of the closing
scene : —
We met for the last time in Gladstone's house. There
were thirteen present. We agreed to the declaration : and then
came the signing. They called on me to sign first. I did so ;
then Robert (Archdeacon) Wilberforce. I cannot certainly
remember the others ; but the list is printed. Then they called
on Gladstone to sign. He was standing with his back to the
fire. He began to demur ; after a while I went to him and
pressed him to sign. He said in a low voice to me : — " Do you
think that I as a Privy Councillor could sign that Declaration ? "
I, knowing the pertinacity of his character, turned and said : —
" We will not press him further."
This was the first divergence between him and Hope and
myself.^
In reference to the Declaration signed by Archdeacon
Manning, Archdeacon R. Wilberforce and Professor Mills,
Archdeacon Hamilton, who a few months later resigned his
office and benefice, wrote to Manning as follows : —
^ It has been said, perhaps somewhat profanely, that at this historic
meeting of thirteen for the purpose of making a solemn profession of faith in
an article of the Creed, Manning represented Christ, another — Judas.
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 531
Close, Sarum, 19;/i Aug. 1850.
My dear Archdeacon — Pray do not think me very im-
pertinent in obtruding upon you my own difficulties. William
Heathcote has sent me this morning the Declaration, which bears
the three honoured names of Manning, Wilberforce, and Mills —
names around which churchmen are now to rally.
But what is a person to do in my state ? I certainly feel
pretty well assured that I never could have understood the
Eoyal Supremacy in the sense now ascribed to it by the courts of
law, but I cannot recall at all the meaning I did affix to it. I
fear it was a very vague, ill-considered act of mine — and I should
think that many must be in my predicament.
Again : the present state of the law seems to me intolerable,
but it strikes me that I ought rather to resign the position the
law gives me, than declare that I will not acknowledge the law ;
and yet is there not another course open 1 and that is, without
reference to any past oaths and subscriptions, to declare simply
that we will take all lawful means to bring the Royal Supremacy
within the limits you have with such admirable clearness and
precision described in your letter.
My conscience is very ill at ease at present, but it would only
aggravate its disquiet, if I were to sign the declaration Heathcote
has sent me ; and yet I thoroughly go along with all the argu-
ments of your Letter, and must have some w^ay of expressing my
agreement with it. — I remain, my dear IManning, with great
respect, yours affectionately, W. K. Hamilton.
In au autobiographical Note, dated 1883, Manning wrote
of Archdeacon W. K. Hamilton as follows : —
In the winter of 1850, 1 had left Lavington, and was in Lon-
don. There I met Walter Hamilton. We had taken our degrees
and our FelloAvships at Merton together. He had also resigned
his preferment. We met often. I found him as near to the
Catholic Church as I was. In some things, in which I had still
remaining difficulties, he had none. He told me that he would
not again accept anything in the Church of England. In the
April after, I submitted to the Church ; soon after Bishop Denison
of Salisbury died.i Gladstone appointed Hamilton, and, as I
was told, he and Sidney Herbert overcame and made him
^ Bishop Denison died in 1854 ; and Mr. Gladstone, who under the
Premiership of Lord Aberdeen had mitres at his disposal, made Hamilton,
Bishop of Salisbury. Had Manning remained in the Anglican Church, for
him, too, Mr. Gladstone would in due course have found a mitre.
532 CAKDINAL MANNING chap.
accept the bisliopric. I had reason to know how much
Hamilton suffered, and what profound trials were upon him
when his last end drew near. How often have I blessed God
that He led me by the strait and narrow wa}%
The Declaration against the judgment of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, which at the last moment
Mt. Gladstone found himself unable to sign, is as follows : —
1. That whatever at the present time be the force of the
sentence delivered on appeal in the case of Gorham v. the
Bishop of Exeter, the Church of England will eventually be
bound by the said sentence, unless it shall openly and expressly
reject the erroneous doctrine sanctioned thereby.
2. That the remission of original sin to all infants in and by
the grace of baptism is an essential part of the article " One
Baptism for the remission of sins."
3. That — to omit other questions raised by the said sentence
— such sentence, while it does not deny the liberty of holding
that article in the sense heretofore received, does equally
sanction the assertion that original sin is a bar to the right
reception of baptism, and is not remitted, except when God
bestows regeneration beforehand by an act of prevenient grace
(whereof Holy Scripture and the Church are wholly silent),
thereby rendering the benefits of Holy Baptism altogether
uncertain and precarious.
4. That to admit the lawfulness of holding an exposition of
an article of the Creed contradictory of the essential meaning of
that article, is, in truth and in fact, to abandon that article.
5. That, inasmuch as the faith is one and rests upon one
principle of authority, the conscious, deliberate, and wilful
abandonment of the essential meaning of an article of the Creed
destroys the divine foundation upon which alone the entire faith
is propounded by the Church.
6. That any portion of the Church which does so abandon
the essential meaning of an article, forfeits, not only the Catholic
doctrine in that article, but also the office and authority to
witness and teach as a member of the universal Church.
7. That by such conscious, wilful, and deliberate act such
portion of the Church becomes formally separated from the
Catholic body, and can no longer assure to its members the
grace of the sacraments and the remission of sins.
8. That all measures consistent witli the present legal ])osition
of the Church ought to be taken without delay, to obtain an
authoritative declaration by the Church of the doctrine of Holy
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 533
Baptism, impugned by the recent sentence ; as, for instance, by
praying licence for the Church in Convocation to give legal
efiFect to the decisions of the collective Episcopate on this and
all other matters purely spiritual.
9. That, failing such measures, all efforts must be made to
obtain from the said Episcopate, acting only in its spiritual
character, a re-affirmation of the doctrine of Holy Baptism,
impugned by the said sentence.
H. E. Manning, M. A., Archdeacon of Chichester.
Robert I. Wilberforce, M.A., Archdeacon of the East
Riding.
Thomas Thorp, B.D., Archdeacon of Bristol.
W. H. Mill, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew,
Cambridge.
E. B. PusEY, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew,
Oxford.
John Keble, M.A., Vicar of Hursley.
W. DoDSWORTH, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Ch. Ch., St.
Pancras.
W. J. E. Bennett, M.A., Perpetual Curate of St.
Paul's, Knightsbridge.
Hy. W. Wilberforce, M.A., Vicar of East Farleigh.
John G. Talbot, M.A., Barrister-at-Law.
Richard Cavendish, M.A.
Edward Badeley, M.A., Barrister-at-Law.
James R. Hope, D.C.L., Barrister-at-Law.
For Archdeacon Manning and many others, events were
marching slowly but surely to their ultimate issue. Among
the signatories of the famous Protest there was a searching
of hearts ; a winnowing of wheat from chaff.
"On 19th March 1850," as Cardinal Manning has
recorded in an autobiographical Note,
I convened the clergy of the Archdeaconry of Chichester in the
Cathedral Library, and we unanimously voted (8 only excepted
out of 100) a protest against the Gorham Judgment and the
interference of civil authority in questions of doctrine.
The unanimity which he obtained for the Protest in such
a diocese as Chichester speaks well not only for the influence
of the Archdeacon of Chichester, but for his tact in appeal-
ing to the sympathies of the clergy ; not so much on the
doctrinal question of baptismal regeneration as on what
touched them far more nearly, the independence of the
534 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Church in spiritual matters from the control of the Civil
Power. " To secure to the Church of England a proper
court of appeal in all matters purely spiritual," was a
question \vliich went home to the bosom of the Evangelical
clergy of Chichester. In substituting for the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Privy Council a purely ecclesiastical court for
deciding questions of faith, Manning boldly struck at the
root of the evil. He advocated his favourite scheme of an
Ecclesiastical Synod, invested with full authority by the
Church to deal with things spiritual. But such a scheme was
doomed beforehand to failure ; for it would have revolution-
ised the whole constitution of the Church of England by
transferring supreme power over ecclesiastical causes from
the Crown to the Episcopate. In his speech the Archdeacon
defined his scheme as follows : —
The only form in which the Episcopate can exercise its proper
authority, and impress the Episcopal character on its decisions, is
when it acts according to the law and order of the Church.
Therefore, although the State should appoint the whole body of
the bishops taken numerically to sit as a court, if they sit as
commissioners appointed by the State, and not as a synod con-
vened by the authority of the Church, their decision Avould be
the decision of commissioners, and not of an Episcopal synod.
What appears to me to be requisite in this case is such an
Appellate Court as shall carry with it the authority of the Church
determining its own sphere. I will go into no particulars as to
whom it shall consist of, but only that it shall include the whole
Episcopate.
In another passage of this speech, Manning wisely
endeavoured to account for the error he had committed in
his charge of July 1848 in minimising the heretical oj)inions
of Dr. Hampden, thrust upon the Church as bishop by the
act of the Civil Power. For this concession to policy. Man-
ning had been severely rebuked by the Tractarians, and even
reproached at the time by such true friends as Eobert
Wilberforce and Dodsworth, though Mr. Gladstone seemed
to have approved of his conciliatory policy. At this meet-
ing at Chichester, Manning explained the motives for his line
of action towards Hampden. Speaking of Hampden's conse-
cration as Bishop of Hereford, he said : —
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 535
I SO deeply felt that case, that if the English Church could
have been convicted of either consecrating a heretic, or of giving
up to the State the power of finally determining the fitness of
men for the pastoral office, it would have been a betrayal of her
divine trust. I tried to deny both these accusations, and in
denying them I confess I strained every plea to the utmost,
feeling the necessity of the case to be so vital. I fell under
censure for so doing, which censure I bore in silence, believing
and fearing that the time would come, and perhaps before long,
when an opportunity might be taken — for I would never make
it — of expressing to you Avhy I did so. I felt that if these two
accusations could not be denied, the Church of England would
be put into a position not defensible. I bore therefore in silence
no very measured censure. I am glad now to be able to say
that in so speaking I did not defend Dr. Hampden, but the
Church of England. It appeared to me in that case the security
for both the doctrine and discipline of the Church was at stake,
and that the power of the State had in effect succeeded in over-
ruling the highest office of the Church. The same is the result
of the present case.^
Though the meeting of the clergy of Chichester broke up
without agreeing with Manning's proposal for a new final
Court of Appeal, the Archdeacon so impressed them with the
gravity of the question before them as touching the faith
and ofl&ce of the Church, that he found no very great
difficulty in inducing the majority to put their names to
the following Address to the Bishop of Chichester : —
19th March 1850.
We, the Archdeacon and clergy of the archdeaconry of
Chichester, desire to lay before your Lordship, as our Bishop,
the deep anxiety awakened in us by the decision lately given in
the case of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter.
Believing as a fundamental article of the Catholic faith, that
all infants baptized, according to the institution of Christ, with
water in name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost are regenerate by the Holy Spirit, we are convinced that
the Church cannot, without betraying her highest trust, permit
that doctrine to be denied.
^ In a letter, 4th April 1850, Mr. Gladstone wrote to Manning : — "I have
read your speech in the Gtmrdian, as well as the type, and my eyes (rather
put out by irregular hours) would allow, and trust it will do great and
extensive good."
536 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
We therefore urgently pray that your Lordship will take such
steps as shall seem most effectual for the declaration and main-
tenance of the doctrine of holy baptism, and for relieving those
who feel grieved in conscience by the legal sanction given by the
late sentence to the denial of that article of faith.
Mr. Gladstone's plan for an Address to the Bishop of
London, signed by laymen only, against the Gorham Judgment,
did not meet with much success. Hope was ready to sign
it ; but not as a substitute for the joint declaration of repre-
sentative clergy and laymen. The joint declaration Mr.
Gladstone found himself as Privy Councillor unable to sign.
In like manner Sidney Herbert, owing to his position in the
Government, declined to sign the Address to the Bishop of
London.
Mr. Gladstone, evidently somewhat uneasy in mind at
the step he had taken in withdrawing co-operation with
Manning, in a letter, 4th April 1850, wrote as follows: —
I was very anxious to have employed all the quiet of this
week in arranging my views about the Gorham question, so as
to be ready to act promptly whenever the time comes. ... I
am most anxious for advice and guidance, being placed between
a variety of distinct obligations, the harmony of which it is not
easy to discern at certain given points.
Mr. Gladstone then again reiterates his view so often
before urged upon Manning,
that his best way of serving the Church is by working not in the
State, but o/i the State, you will comprehend all that the change
of the single letter implies.
About the time of the Hampden controversy and of the
Maynooth Grant, Mr. Gladstone had serious intentions of
setting himself free from political shackles in order with a
freer hand to serve the Church. Manning, however, was
strongly opposed to Mr. Gladstone's heroic self-sacrifice in
giving up his political career.
This view is foreshadowed again in the following
passage : —
Sidney Herbert's declining to sign the address to the
XXV THE GORIIAM JUDGMENT 537
Bishop of London seems to come to me as a sign to prepare for
making that change soon ; for the reluctance of other men in
politics to commit themselves in any degree of course must
tend to drive me forward, as the keeping in company with them
would tend to hold me back. Do not understand me to be
blaming him ; doubtless he has his work and is doing it.
Can we be surprised at the poignant anxiety expressed
by Manning at the fatal effect of the Gorham Judgment,
when we see how tremendously in earnest Mr. Gladstone
was in seeking to provide a remedy or a rescue for the
Church of England ? The following passage from his letter
to Manning speaks volumes : —
In the meantime, all the essential points stand out more
and more, as one ruminates upon them, in characters of light.
It is for ever, and for all, that this battle is to be fought in the
Church of England.
The question which most troubled both his conscience
and Manning's, was how to provide a new Ecclesiastical
Court as a supreme Court of Appeal in place of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, over things spiritual.
Manning was characteristically anxious for an ecclesiastical
court absolutely independent of the State not only in its
decisions, but in its constitution. Mr. Gladstone, on the
other hand, would have been content with less : —
I am unfeignedly desirous of asking the very least that
will rescue and defend the conscience of the Church from the
present hideous system. For on that minimum must be made
a stand, involving certainly tremendous issues.
The Gorham Appeal and its foreseen result had made
Manning and many other of his friends or followers familiar
with the idea of secession as a necessary consequence.
Early in the year, W. Dodsworth had pressed on
Manning's attention what must needs be the final issue of
the struggle. W. Dodsworth was one of those men who
literally mean what they say ; for in telling his friend and
Master to " wait and see " the result of the Gorham Judg-
ment, he had no thought of procrastination in his mind ;
for, on the Judgment being pronounced, he was the first
538 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to uTfje upon Manning that the time for leaving the Church
of England had come.
Mr. Gladstone, on the other hand, had invented an
elaborate scheme for the express purpose of securing pro-
crastination in coming to a decision on the Gorham Judg-
ment.^ Under this plan, men whose minds had been disturbed
by the practical abolition of one of the articles of the creed
were to enter into a covenant not to take any decisive steps
or announce their intention of doing so under a given space
of time ; nor, secondly, until the reception of communications
from the Delegation — to which communications, however,
there was no necessity to reply. Manning, in the following
letter, objected root and branch to entering into this covenant,
and handing over to a delegation a decision on a matter of
faith which belonged wholly and solely to his conscience : —
Lavingtox, 22nd May 1850.
My dear Robert — First will you kindly direct the enclosed
to Mr. Pope? I do not know his Christian name, or address. Next,
have you examined the Bishop of London's Bill 1 It seems to
me to be a total and -vdtal failure.
The Crown in Council is to possess still the absolute poAver
of deciding whether or no any question of doctrine is involved,
and of referring to the bishop or not accordingly.
Now in the Gorham case they say that they have not touched
doctrine at all.
Again and again, therefore, the same catII may be inflicted
under the same disclaimer upon the other eleven articles of the
Creed.
Half the Church of England, and our dear brother among the
rest, maintains that doctrine has not been touched. This seems
to me like quos Deus vuU pcrdere, etc. Further, Gladstone has
written to me on a scheme he says he spoke of to you (as he
thinks), an engagement to be entered into binding men not to
move Avithout two months' notice, and opportunities of discussion,
etc.
I have answered that I can in no way accede. I object to
all engagement; and I dread exceedingly the temptation to
tamper with personal convictions and individual conscience
^ In a letter to Archdeacon Manning, Mr. Gladstone said, "Among
others I have consulted Robert Wilberforce and Wegg-Prosser and they
seemed inclined to favour mj' proposal. It might, perhaps, have kept back
Lord Feilding. But he is like a cork. "
XXV THE GORIIAM JUDGMENT 539
and the support derived from numbers against our light before
our Father which seeth in secret. These and many more
reasons make my declining final.
Let me ask you to read the enclosed, and tell me what you
would advise me to answer. Eeturn it soon. The writer is
a woman, who under my counsel broke off a marriage because
the man joined the Eoman Chui'ch. After some time he came
back ; but this Gorham case has driven him over again. She
has broken it off again, but her own mind has become disturbed.
Ever yours, my dear E., very affectionately, H. E. M.
To these objections Mr. Gladstone answered in a letter
dated 23rd May 1850; but his arguments failed to carry
conviction.
In the following letter to Eobert Wilberforce, Manning
again rejected Mr. Gladstone's scheme as an interference with
the rights and duty of every individual to act simply and
solely in obedience to the dictates of his own conscience : —
Lavington, lOth July 1850.
My dear Egbert — No human power, or persuasion, could
induce me to put my hand to any such declaration, especially
in combination with men who could sign it in a sense and with
an animus so different from my own.
But in truth I have resolved to combine with no one. When
I refused Gladstone's proposal, to whom affection and confidence
bind me so closely, I refused all proposals of this kind for ever.
Events have set me loose, and I mean, by God's help, to follow
what seems His guidance, taking counsel chiefly of yourself,
Gladstone, James Hope. If I might I would urge you to
the same course. It will not preclude us from aiding to the
full in any reasonable plan, but it will secure us from most
inconsistent and mischievous combinations, the end of which
will be confusion or compromise. As to the pacific plan, it
seems to me simply unreal. Can you, knowing our Colonial
bishops, and our home bishops, and the state of English life,
law, opinion, and practice, expect any real result 1 It seems to
me a plan to amuse and lull real intentions, and to lead only
to great words and protests, under the sounds of which men
may go on without acting. But perhaps I ought not to say so
much without knowing more, for I have no knowledge of it
except from you. Still I Avould pray you to keep yourself
free and absolutely in your own hand.
I hope to be in London also about the 17th, and will fix that
day if you will. — Ever yours very affectionately, H. E. M.
540 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
It was resolved to follow up the " Eesolutions," bearing
the signatures of thirteen representative men, lay and
clerical, by another Declaration against the Eoyal Supremacy
over spiritual questions touching doctrine and discipline.
This Declaration, which was drawn up by Manning and
Eobert Wilberforce, was not submitted to the pruning hands
of Pusey and Keble. Dodsworth, in a letter dated Good
Friday {7th April), 1850, had already warned Manning
against trusting Pusey and Keble. Speaking of the first
Declaration he had said : —
Our late discussions have quite convinced me that if we
mean to be faithful to our Lord's Truth, we must break with
Pusey and Keble.
In regard to this second Declaration, Dodsworth, who
was a very outspoken man, and never shrank from calling
a spade a spade, wrote as follows to Manning : —
I really think we had best leave out Pusey and Keble, who
can do us no good. We know all they have to say and that it
He also spoke of Pusey's specious argument about the
Gorham Judgment not affecting the Faith as " carrying a
multitude of ignoramuses with him."
Though he considered him imprudent in speech and
precipitate in action. Manning had a great liking for
Dodsworth, and was in no small measure influenced by his
urgent appeals or outspoken warnings. Whether or no,
owing to Manning's own mistrust of them, or to Dodsworth's
advice, neither Pusey nor Keble was consulted. The
declaration was as follows : —
"Whereas it is required of every person admitted to the
order of deacon or priest, and likewise of persons admitted to
ecclesiastical offices or academical degrees, to make oath that
they abjure, and to subscribe to the three articles of Canon
XXXVI., one whereof touches the Royal Supremacy :
" And whereas it is now made evident by the late appeal and
sentence in the case Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter, and by the
judgment of all the courts of common law, that the Koyal
Supremacy, as defined and estabUshed by statute law, invests
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 541
the Crown with a power of hearing and deciding in appeal all
matters, however purely spiritual, of discipline and doctrine :
"And whereas to give such power to the Crown is at variance
with the divine office of the Universal Church, as prescribed by
the law of Christ :
" And whereas we, the undersigned clergy and laity of the
Church of England, at the time of making the said oath and
subscription, did not understand the Royal Supremacy in the
sense now ascribed to it by the courts of law, nor have until
this present time so understood it, neither have believed that
such authority was claimed on behalf of our Sovereign : —
" Now we do hereby declare : —
" 1st, That we have hitherto acknowledged, and do now
acknowledge, the supremacy of the Crown in ecclesiastical
matters to be a supreme civil power over all persons and causes
in temporal things, and over the temporal accidents of spiritual
things.
" 2nd, That we do not, and in conscience cannot, acknowledge
in the Crown the power recently exercised to hear and judge in
appeal the internal state or merits of spiritual questions touching
doctrine or discipline, the custody of which is committed to the
Church alone by the law of Christ.
" We therefore, for the sake of our consciences, hereby
publicly declare that we acknowledge the Royal Supremacy in
the sense above, and in no other.
" Henry Edward Manning, Archdeacon of Chichester.
" Robert Isaac Wilberforce, Archdeacon of the East Riding.
" William Hodge Mill, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew,
Cambridge."
The Declaration, which was circulated all over the
country, — sent to every beneficed clergyman and layman
who had taken the Oath of Supremacy, bore only the names
of Manning, Robert Wilberforce, and Mill. It was hoped
by this means to rouse the religious feeling of the country
and to bring a mass of clerical opinion to bear, if not on
the government, upon the Bench of Bishops. The result of
this appeal was a signal failure. The spirited Protest
against the Royal Supremacy fell flat. The vast and
overwhelming bulk of the clergy of the Church of England,
like the bishops, by their silence or acquiescence acknow-
ledged the supremacy of the Crown in matters of faith —
the original sin of the Reformation.
542 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
In a letter dated 1st May 1850, Manning wrote
about the Declaration to E. Wilberforce as follows :—
Lavington, i^casi of St. James, 1850.
^Iy dear Egbert — The best practical course seems to me
to be : 1. To make sure that every man who is under oath and
subscription bound to the Eoyal Supremacy should have a copy
of the Declaration, with a few explanatory words, stating that
our object is to obtain relief of consciences by an amendment of
the law, and asking his concurrence and assent to the Declara-
tion : We shall do this best (1) by printing the documents; (2)
by engaging some bookseller's service, say Pickering or Stewart,
who by a clerk, and the clergy list, with the University Calendars,
will issue the circular in a few days. I am more than ever con-
vinced that both for the Church Unions' sake, and for our own,
the act ought to be independent, and to carry no appearance of
organisation, and only so many, and such names, as will obtain
attention. It cannot be too quickly and prompth^ done with
a view to its future moral character. —Believe me, always
affectionately yours, H. E. Manning.
Here is another letter on the same subject, dated 27th
July 1850:—
My dearest Egbert — I have sent the Declaration (which
is much improved) to Henry, Avith words of speed. But I have
put only the three names without any comment.
It strikes me that if Ave can get a majority of the clergy to
sign, the Bishop of London's Bill is carried by a strike out of doors ;
the more I think of it, the more I feel convinced that this is the
first step to take, and the best test of men's minds. If this does
not move them, nothing will.
In the following passage of a letter, dated Lavington,
5th August 1850, the cost of distributing the Declaration is
considered : —
My dear Egbert — If you will kindly give £10 I Avill
answer for the rest. If Avorth doing, it is Avorth doing Avell.
To my mind there is no middle course. A partial distribution,
howsoever extensive, would fail of the mark. Three laymen,
and tAvo other friends, have promised to join in bearing the cost
— and if you think Charles Anderson Avould give you £10 — I
have no fear of £100, Avhich I think well bestOAved as a first step
upon this scale. If anything comes, it Avill be something more
than a mere declaration.
XXV THE GORIIAM JUDGMENT 543
But we must wait, and you will kindly keep Clarke's name
in peifo. To my great sur[irise I found him mouths ago deeply
and honestly moved.
In an autobiographical Note, dated 1885, Cardinal
Manning set down the following account of the origin and
genesis of the ill-fated Declaration : —
In the month of May or June in 1850, I was staying at
Bishop Wilberforce's house in Eaton Place. Robert Wilberforce
was there. We were both trying to find some way of acting
against the Gorham Judgment. I remember one night I woke
about 4 o'clock ; and lay awake long. I then worked out the
Declaration against the Royal Supremacy ; admitting it in all
civil matters, but rejecting it in all spiritual and mixed matters.
I then went and woke Robert Wilberforce and put it before
him. He accepted it at once. We then got it into writing,
and invited Dr. ]\Iill to sign it with us. We then sent it to
every clergyman and layman who had signed the Oath of
Supremacy, and to all colleges and newspapers, inviting
signatures. About 1800 clergymen signed it out of 20,000;
and I saw that the game was up. It was a fair test fully
applied ; and it received next to no response.
Of course the result of this appeal to the clergy was not
known until late in the autumn. In the meanwhile other
steps were taken to arouse public opinion. It was proposed
to hold a great meeting in London to protest against the
Gorham Judgment. Manning was unwilling to take part
in such a meeting. He was ready to abide by his own
words, which were always deliberate and well weighed, but
he did not like to be held responsible for the words or pro-
posals of others. At such a meeting intemperate words would
not fail to be heard, or worse still, threats of secession.
Manning consulted James Hope, and expressed his wish
or intention not to take part in any public meeting, or join
in any concerted or common action.
In a letter dated 18tli June 1850, Hope replied as
follows : —
I have no very clear view about your attendance at the
proposed meeting at St. Martin's Hall. The dangers are —
saying too much or saying too little. If you tell people all you
544 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
expect the Church of England to do under the circumstances,
they will shrink back ; if you are moderate in your requirements,
they may think you will be more easily satisfied than I know
"will prove to be the case ; however, if j'-ou see your way as to
Avhat you would say, I see good rather than evil in your attend-
ance. A tone of thorough alarm must, I think, aftect those who,
though right-minded, are inclined to view our position as
favourably as possible.
Mr. Gladstone, consulted on the subject by Manning,
expressed a strong opinion that in such a time of pressure
the help and guidance, which they had been accustomed
to receive from him, should not be withdrawn. Mr.
Gladstone argued with great warmth, that Manning had no
moral right to abstain from taking public part in all move-
ments and attempts to undo the great wrong which had
been inflicted on the Church.
Manning, yielding to pressure, did attend the meeting
held on 23rd July 1850 at St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, to
protest against the Gorham Judgment. There was only
one bishop present, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Dr.
Bagot, who, as Bishop of Oxford, had requested Newman to
discontinue the Tracts for the Times. Bishop Wilberforce
was by far too canny to attend. The meeting was presided
over by Mr. J. G. Hubbard ; Archdeacon Eobert Wilber-
force of course was there, and so were Prof. Hodge Mill,
Henry Wilberforce, and W. Dodsworth, Keble and Pusey,
and Denison, W. E. Bennett, Neale, and E. Liddell ; James
Hope was conspicuous among the laity, with Badeley and
all the leading High Church Anglicans.
Denison, now Archdeacon of Taunton, made the principal
and most stirring speech. The meeting was fairly carried
away by his bold appeals to immediate action, and open threats
of secession, if liberty to decide matters of faith was not given
to the Church of England. Denison, who had no hesitation
in making use of the most vehement language, and showed
little or no respect to the craven conduct of the bishops,
threw every one else into the shade. In a letter to Manning,
James Hope spoke of Denison's speech as most injudicious,
and as having brought upon them the attack of the Times.
XXV THE GORIIAM JUDGMENT 545
Manning had not spoken, and after Denison's denunciations
had little or no heart to speak. At the close of the meeting
lie only moved a vote of thanks to the chairman.
At this public meeting in London, which was not much
to his taste. Manning played a subordinate part. In the
resolutions, declarations, and protests, if always foremost in
action and firmest in expression, he acted in combination
witli others. But in his letter to his bishop Manning
stood alone, — was alone responsible for its form and sub-
stance. It was a public act ; an open avowal of principles ;
a distinct charge that the Crown in Council had committed
a great and grievous wrong against the spiritual independ-
ence of the Church in regard to matters of Faith.
His carefully prepared and elaborate Tract, in the form
of a letter addressed to his bishop, under the title " Appellate
Jurisdiction of the Crown in matters Spiritual," was the
most important step taken by Archdeacon Manning since
the Gorham Judgment. In the preparation of this Letter,
which deals largely with historical precedents and legal
questions of pre-Eeformation times touching the " ancient
jurisdiction " possessed by princes, and their power in
judging in appeal on spiritual matters. Manning was
efficiently assisted by James Hope, an eminent lawyer, who
had made the relations between Church and Crown a special
study. Mr. Gladstone, whom Manning likewise consulted,
and to whom he sent the proof-sheets of his Letter to the
Bishop of Chichester, was much concerned lest the Arch-
deacon, who was not familiar with such nice historical and
legal questions, might be led astray by his arguments or
preconceived opinions.
In a letter, dated 6 Carlton Gardens, 26th June 1850,
Mr. Gladstone made the following remarks : —
My dear Manning — I need hardly write to say that your
proof-sheets -will have my best attention. The point to which I
shall look in critical and rather jealous temper will be your
historical proofs ; because I do not recollect that heretofore you
have busied yourself with proof of that kind in the same subject
matter, and l)ecause it must be made in most cases not wholesale,
but by careful and systematic pondering of details. Now, you
VOL. I 2 N
546 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
are setting about to prove that the Reformation Supremacy differs
essentially from that, not indeed of the immediate, but of the
more remote pre-Reformation period : i.e. to deny the sense
which not only the formularies of the Church, but the text of the
law-books give to certain legal declarations.
This, upon the face of it, is a bold undertaking ; and surely
every principle of duty will bind you to the strictest examina-
tion and proof, and to ruling real doubts, otherwise insoluble, not
for, but against, your conclusion.
... It is, I feel, a tremendous thing to err in our historical
bases when they are likely to be the ground of great measures
affecting the Avhole life and conscience. . . .
These words hit myself, and they are meant to do so. I
hope that the matter of the Royal Supremacy will now be
bolted to the very bran. I am sure the time has come which
renders it matter of vital necessity. And do not think that
what I have said of jealous criticism implies foregone conclusion
or conscious bias. I rejoice from my heart that you are going
to work in the mine. In my view the Reformation scheme of
Church and State is essentially shifted from its centre of gravity.
You incline to think it never had one. Our practical results
may nevertheless coincide. — Your affectionate friend,
W. E. Gladstone.
In this day of trial, as he told Robert Wilberforce,
Manning was doing his best in consoling his relatives.
To his sister, Mrs. Austen, he wrote the following touching
letter : —
Lavington, I8th June 1850.
My dearest Caroline — Your letter has been a real solace
to me, and I need it, for we are in a trial greater than I have
ever known, and fraught, I believe, wath the gravest consequences.
But, first, let me tell you to believe nothing of me but what
comes from me. The world has sent me long ago to Pius IX., but
I am still here ; and if I may lay my bones under the sod in
Lavington Churchyard Avith a soul clear before God, all the
world could not move me.
If we were together I believe you would say that I am both
calm and patient, deeply sad indeed, and reduced to silence.
For I am compelled to acknowledge that the laws which I believe
to be di^•ine are violated, and that the Church of England is in
many points indefensible. This I never would hear in silence
before.
People tell me to trust and love the Church of England : Who
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 547
has trusted or loved it more 1 Who loves it more now, even
when the foundtations of trust are shaken 1 When have I spoken
or written a word in any spirit but of love and reverence, or
with any intention but to serve it for Christ's sake ? I believe
in this 3^ou will hold me clear. My contest now is with the
State and the world, with secular churchmen and those who of
a divine would make it a human society, or at the best a
Protestant communion.
But I did not mean to write all this. Give my truest love
to the Colonel, and say that I hope he will be at this meeting.
I have put myself into the hands of two advisers, to be there
if they bid me.
So much for troubles. God be praised they are only outer
ones. Through all this I feel something within which stills all
outward noise. God is bringing us by the right way ; but it is
a rough one, and yet therefore right and sure. And I feel that
the love of our Divine Lord will keep us all safe. It is His
goodness which gives me the consolation of so many loving
hearts, and yours among the kindest. May He bless you both.
— Ever your most afi'ectionate brother, H. E. M.
To Mrs. Austen, who had expressed alarm lest he should
be carried beyond his judgment by the influence of friends,
Manning replied as follows :
Lavinqton, SOth June 1850.
My dearest Caroline — Your letter was great solace to
me ; for no one can tell what I am going through.
You said nothing amiss of my friend Dodsworth.^ He has
^ In one of his stray Notes or Memoranda, undated, Cardinal Manning gave
the following account of W. Dodsworth : — " William Dodsworth was a Cam-
bridge man, who took Anglican Orders and had Margaret Chapel, now All
Saints, Margaret Street. I knew him just about 1836, and soon became very-
intimate with him. He was a man of a strong clear but dry head, without
imagination or fertility, but accurate and logical. His character was upright
and truthful in a high degree, and with a warmth of heart very rare. We
travelled together in Normandy, in Scotland, and finally in Switzerland
in 1847."
Several times these travels are referred to in the letters ; but especially
that of 1847. "In February of that year I fell ill of bronchitis; and was
completely knocked down in June, as in Paris in 1876. I was shut up from
February to June or July Then went to Hamburg. Dodsworth met me at
Mayence. W^e went on to Basle and Lucerne, intending to go to Milan.
Between Basle and Lucerne I caught a heavy cold, and at Lucerne was taken
with severe gastric fever. I had sufl'ered from intense August heat at
Hamburg, and Switzerland in September was like an English November.
548 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
been hasty and rough, and I am grieved at it ; but he has a
manly and loving heart ; and is true as day. I must also say
that there was more cause than I could wish for in what he
said.
As to my own advisers, they are Gladstone and James Hope,
and I may say Robert Wilberforce. I think abler, calmer, and
safer I could hardly find. No, no mind has any influence to
hurry me beyond my own judgment ; on the contrary ; and I am
detached from every one, and going alone, for I feel that what
we have to judge of now must be judged, one by one, for himself.
Therefore be so far at ease about me.
It is part of the trial that so few really see the peril and the
crisis. I believe, as I told you before, that it is no less than the
question whether the Church of England be a divine or human
society. It is no question of more or less, better or worse,
but whether we are in or out of the Faith and Church which
our Lord founded by His Apostles. But I cannot go into this
in a letter. This week, I hope to send to the press a letter to
the Bishop of Chichester. Archdeacon Harrison comes to-
morrow, and will go over it with me ; then Gladstone and
Hope. I then shall see my way more clearly. Believe me it
is most calm, guarded, and weighed, but it goes home. Write
as often as you can, for it cheers me.
I thank God that I have so little to bear from those I love
in this time of trial. But you all trust at least my heart before
God. Love to you both. — Ever your attached brother,
H. E. M.
The Archdeacon's Letter to the Bishop of Chichester,
entitled " The Appellate Jurisdiction of the Crown in Spiritual
Matters," appeared on 2nd July 1850. It was, as described
in the above letter, most calm, guarded, and weighed ; and
if it failed not to go home, but to bear the results he desired,
it was from no want of lucidity of statement or logical con-
ciseness or force of argument. Its moderation in tone,
displayed in every line, enhanced the effect of absolute con-
viction. It was a masterpiece of lucid statement and subtle
reasoning, and if it failed in its purpose it was because the
I was so ill that I was obliged to return to England. I could hardly walk.
I remember seeing people in the steamer on the Rhino making signs as if
they thought I was dying.
" My chief correspondence with Dodsworth was from 1844 when I first
knew that Newman was preparing to leave the Church of England. My
letters show the waking and advance of my mind in 1847-1850, to the end."
XXV THE GORHAM JUDGMENT 549
idea, which Manning ever held of the independence of the
Church of England, was not consistent with the legal position
of Establishment.
In substance the argument showed : First, the violation
of the divine office of the Church as guardian of doctrine and
discipline; secondly, that the denial of an article of the
universal Creed had received the sanction of the Law, for
no doctrine is more manifestly universal in its reception in all
ages of the Church, both before the division of the East and West,
when its united voice gave unerring witness to the faith, and
since that division, in all members of the visible Church unto this
day. If there be, therefore, such a thing as material heresy, it
is the doctrine which has now received the sanction of the law ;
and thirdly, that divine authority had been brought down
to the level of human opinion.
I do not see how the Church of England can permit two
contrary doctrines on Baptism to be propounded to her people
without abdicating the divine authority to teach as sent from
God ; and a body which teaches under the authority of human
interpretation descends to the level of a human society.
The reserve and moderation of tone maintained through-
out this Letter to his bishop is characteristic of Manning,
especially in such a season of public excitement when feeling
ran high on one side and the other; when the Church of
England by the one party in the strife was denounced as
betraying her trust and violating the faith, and by the other
bade, under penalty of desertion, to act the part of a liveried
servant of the State. Manning held out no threat of leaving
the Church, even if the ecclesiastical authorities accepted the
abolition by the Civil Power of an article of the creed. He
would not assume the bishops capable of such a betrayal of
their divine trust ; and this implied confidence in them was
not only prudent, but lent additional persuasiveness to his
appeal. There is, moreover, not the slightest indication
throughout the letter that, even before the Gorham Judgment,
Manning had utterly lost faith not only in Protestantism
but in Anglicanism ; had lost faith in the English Church ;
could no longer defend its teaching or position. This, how-
550 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
ever, was his private belief, which he had not as yet been
able to act upon, fearing it might be a delusion ; which he
had not as yet, even after the Gorham Judgment, thought it
his duty to proclaim in public.
W. Dodsworth, the most outspoken of his friends, who
knew Manning's real state of mind, went to the point, to
the heart of the difficulty, by asking, " Is there in these days
the remotest possibility of getting liberty for the Church of
England ? " The letter is as follows : —
20th July 1850.
My dearest Friend — One word on your " letter, etc.," which
I have just read with great and sorrowful satisfaction. I say
smrowful, because ^'violent and ivipatient" as you sometimes think
me, I have an ever -recurring feeling of more pain than I can
express at the consequence so obviously forced upon me.
I think you right and forcible throughout, and that without
waste of Avords you have insisted upon the real and vital points,
demolishing the folly which has been spoken upon them.
I quite agree that no remedy goes to the root of the matter
which does not repeal the statutes of Henry VIII. But this
gives rise to a serious question.
Is it fair and right to ask for such a repeal ? Put yourself in
the place of an Erastian. He says, I knew what I was pledging
myself to when I took my oath. Does this new discovery of
yours entitle you to bind me in a way different from that by
which I have already bound myself? In other words, is it not
an element in the Church of England, made so when it severed
itself from the rest of Christendom, to acknowledge this spiritual
supremacy 1 Tlien our plain duty would have been to abide in
the old religion rather than accept this innovation. Does the lapse
of 300 years make our duty different ? I have thought the
same as you of the Royal Supremacy. But we have been mis-
taken, and our opponents have thought more correctly of the
status of the English Church. Can we in fairness avail ourselves
of our mistake (for Avithout it we could not be where we are) to
oust them ? I must say this seems to me at least questionable.
But, dearest friend, is there in these days the remotest possi-
bility of getting liberty for the Church hy the repeal of the
statutes of Henry VIII. ? Would one-half of the people of your
meeting go Avith you in this ? and think Avhat chance you Avould
have in the House of Commons or with the people of England,
who think more of a farthing in the pound than of the Avhole
body of statutes affecting the Church. Only, if they have a
XXV THE GORIIAM JUDGMENT 551
strong feeling, it is against priestcraft and exercise of spiritual
power. No, it can never be ; and with this conviction have I
any right to be where I am ? ... To me it will be a trial to act
without you. I have long expected only to follow, or at most
accompany you. But things seem brought to a crisis with me. . .
— Ever yours most affectionately, W. DoDSWOiiTii.
The Eev. W. Maskell, the examming chaplain of the
Bishop of London, wrote to Archdeacon Manning after the
Gorham Judgment, saying —
My first step is over — a bitter, painful one ; more bitter in
the doing than in the anticipation. I preached this morning. . . .
In his sermon, Mr. Maskell announced the resignation
of his benefice in consequence of the Gorham Judgment.
His letter concluded as follows : —
Nothing can be more marvellous than the differences at this
time between the chief writers in the English Church ; there is
not even the semblance of a common principle of defence of their
position. Pusey says one thing, Eobert Wilberforce another,
Gladstone something else, and you — with an openness for which
I give God thanks — speak plainly in contradiction of them all.
I hope you will not be angry with me for writing so ; but I
can't help writing now, remembering you and praying for you
every day. And, as I said before, I cannot believe we are so
separated as that something of the same confidence which was
of old might not still remain.
I neither speak to you of myself — except that an unspeakable
thankfulness fills my heart — nor do I inquire what your plans
and prospects are. Time flies very swiftly : it is now six or
seven weeks (I think) since we parted at the corner of the street.
I shall never forget it. God bless you, keep you, guide you,
for ever and ever. — Ever your sincere W. Maskell.
Two of Manning's most intimate friends had lifted up
their voice against the Gorham Judgment and its con-
sequences, as fatal to the Church of England. They both
alike appealed to Manning, still hesitating. The one by
exhortation, the other by example. But for Manning the
Gorham Judgment was not yet God's final call.
CHAPTEK XXVI
THE DAY OF HESITATION MANNING'S LETTERS TO
ROBERT WILBERFORCE AFTER THE GORHAM JUDGMENT
March-December 1850
]\Ianning was by nature indecisive in action. Prudence,
circumspection, the fear of ulterior consequences, induced
him to put ofi' as long as possible the day of decision.
Until his mind was finally made up, he was inclined to
lean upon others ; as in this day of doubt and hesitation
he leant all his weight upon Robert Wilberforce. And
when Eobert Wilberforce failed him, and hung back on
the road to Rome, Manning in dismay and anguish of
heart felt as if the ground on which he stood was sinking
beneath his feet. W. Dodsworth, reproached as " impatient
and violent " because he would not wait for Manning, but
passed on and left him behind, as others did — friends and
penitents, like Mr. and Mrs. Allies, William Maskell,
Laprimaudaye, Lord and Lady Feilding, Henry Wilberforce
and his wife. Under a feeling or fear of desertion Manning
made a compact with James Hope that they should stand
together ; and if so be that they were called, go together
step by step on their pilgrimage to Rome.
Long ago, before the Gorham Judgment, to Robert
Wilberforce Manning had acknowledged Anglicanism was
a lost cause : a lost hope : a lost faith : that his destiny
was Rome. Yet still he hesitated ; hesitated even after the
frorham Judgment. His lips were sealed. He would not
speak until he was prepared to act. He was waiting he
knew not for what. Old hopes were still strong upon
CHAP. XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 553
him ; love for his home and oftice, for his position and work,
still bound him, or perhaps, it would be truer to say, blinded
him. Like a drowning man, he would have clutched at a
straw had a straw come within liis reach.
In that troublous hour for the Anglican Church, that
day of sorrow for so many of our separated brethren, a
Novena was held in celebration of the opening of the Church
of St. Barnabas, PimUco. Frequent and fervent prayers
and communions were offered up, day by day, by pious
congregations for the deliverance of the Church in that day
of trial from the bondage of the Civil Power.^
During the Novena, within the octave of the conse-
cration of the Church of St. Barnabas, 1850, all the chief
leaders or defenders of the High Church party preached
morning and evening. Among the preachers were the
Bishop of London, Bishop Wilberforce, Archdeacon Manning,
Dr. Pusey, Keble, Sewell, H. W. Wilberforce, Neale, Bennett,
Upton Eichards the incumbent of Margaret Street Chapel
in succession to Frederick Oakeley, and Dr. Mill the Ptegius
Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. All these representa-
tives, both of the High Church and the Tractarian party, one
after another from the pulpit of St. Barnabas, denounced
the Gorham Judgment, just pronounced by the Privy
Council, in terms of righteous indignation ; or bewailed the
condition of the Church of England " under the stunning
blow," as Dr. Pusey said, " inflicted upon her " ; or exhorted,
like H. W. Wilberforce, the bishops to defend " the sacra-
ment of baptism against attack, and to preserve the unity
of the faith. Of all these preachers, Archdeacon Manning
alone was silent : he made no allusion to the Gorham
Judgment ; he had not a word to say against the reproach
of Dr. Mill " that the last vestiges of Catholicism are gone,
or are at least rapidly passing away from sight."
If the Archdeacon of Chichester had not as yet, since
^ Among tlie congregation were Lord and Lady Feilding, afterwards Earl
of Denbigh, penitents of Archdeacon Manning, who, as Catholics, some
years later, dedicated to Catholic uses the church at Pantasaph, which they
had, as Anglicans, intended to devote to the service of the Church of
England. Lord Denbigh died soon after Cardinal Manning, his revered
teacher, guide, and friend.
55-4 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
his fruitless letter to his bishop on the appellate jurisdiction
of the Crown in Council, lifted up his voice before the face
of the Church in condemnation of its acceptance of the
Gorham Judgment, in his private letters he showed that
his heart was wounded to the quick. Thoughts, feelings,
resolutions, which in that day of hesitation he did not dare
to utter in pubhc, were poured out into the ear of Eobert
Wilberforce and of others ; and from these private letters
alone is the history of Manning's heart and mind made
clear, and the delay in taking the final step accounted for.
Letteks from Manning to Eobert Wilberforce
The following letter to Eobert Wilberforce was the first
which Manning wrote since his return to Lavington, after
they had both agreed, in concert with friends in London,
to take common action in protest against the Gorham Judg-
ment and the Eoyal Supremacy in spiritual matters : —
Lavington, 22nd March 1850.
My dear Egbert — I am thankful and glad to say that we
have taken our position. Day by day, I have become more
clearly and calmly assured that we have spoken Avhat is true,
and done what is right. The more I have looked into the
doctrine and the principle involved in it, the more I am con-
firmed in believing that faith and unbelief are in presence of
each other.
All this throws me upon the Divine illumination, living and
lineal, guiding the Church from the day of Pentecost to the
coming of our Lord. And to that truth I say what Euth said
to Naomi. — Ever yours, my dear Eobert, very affectionately,
H. E. M.
Like confidence is shown in the following letter : —
Lavington, Wednesday after Easter, 1850,
My dear Egbert — I hope the enclosed may be of use. . . .
Perhaps. Now for the hard realities which are upon us. I feel
with you great relief in having taken a clear and definite line. It
Avas no sudden resolve, but the simple issue of years of conviction
at the point of actual trial. And in the last fortnight of calm and
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 555
deeper reflection I feel confirmed in an unchanging belief, that
what we said is true, and what we did is right, and that, if
events demand action, this path of duty is clear before us. I
have felt this more in solitude and at the altar, than when
surrounded and supported by those who take the same views.
You shall have a paper to show what these clubs did. They
are very hearty, much united, but the thought of a decisive act
has not yet come homo to them, I think. — Ever yours aff"ection-
ately, H. E. M.
In the following letter, dated May 1850, Manning's full
mind is revealed on the Eeformation : —
Lavinqton, 10<^ May 1850.
My dear Egbert — It was a comfort to hear from you, for
since I came home I find my convictions return with a fuller
tide into the channel from which the hurry of London for a while
diverted them. Action, and the pursuit of an immediate object,
suspend consecutive thinking. Now that I can review things
from a distance, I seem to see one, and one only light, calm
and clear, steadfast and expanding.
I seem to see that all Divine authority in England is at stake,
all Divine law for the intellect and for the Avill ; that to reinforce
the Divine authority of the Catholic Church as it exists among
us we must testify against the whole Reformation schism, which
is a national and corporate private judgment ; that we must
testify for the Divine authority by suffering, soi'row, loss, and
lifelong sacrifice ; that in so doing we shall be not " injuring
millions," but instructing, awakening, saving millions. All that
we have taught is at stake ; if we wish to rivet it we must
suffer for it.
I did not find Pusey. He was not come. But I have read
his book vnih. sadness. Does he believe that the Church is a
Divine kingdom ; that for three hundred years it exercised its
Divine office, not only without but in spite of emperors ? Can
he fail to see that to concede the power of " giving judges " is
to make the Church a clerical Westminster Hall? What does
he mean by saying " doctrine is not touched, but discipline is " 1
Is not doctrine the oral teaching of 15,000 priests, 80,000
school teachers, two or three millions of heads of families ?
What is the doctrine of the Church but the univoca methoda
docendi — the real and unanimous teaching of 1800 years?
Can he confound " doctrine " and " dogma " or "Jides " 1 I wish
I could go on, but I must stop to-day. — Ever yours, dear Robert,
very affectionately, H. E. M.
556 CARDINAL lilANNING chap.
Lavington, 27th May 1850.
My dear Robert — The enclosed letter ^ is no more than we
might both expect. It may be well that she should not know
of my sho^\^ng it to you. I have \ATitten to say that I will see
lier, please God, next Saturday, but what am I to say ? Day
by day, I receive letters which I cannot answer, and I find
these alarms breaking up in fresh minds. Surely the Reforma-
tion was a Tudor statute carried by violence and upheld by
political power ; and now that the State is divorcing the
Anglican Church, it is dissolving. What principle of unity, of
coherence, do we possess 1 What principle do we recognise as
Divine ? The Bible, the Prayer-book, private judgment and
parliamentary establishment seem to me to make up the English
Church. It has no idea, principle, unity, theory, or living
voice, or will.
But alas, every morning when I open my ej^es my heart
almost breaks. I seem to be divided between truth and love.
All my soul cleaves to my old home, but inexorable laws of
reason and revelation stand over against me without shadow
of turning. Can this be illusion ? It seems to me that the
Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the One mystical Body — the three
Unities are indivisible and eternal, and all three together.
I shall hear with great interest of your Visitation. You have
taken the two chief points of the Judgment, and they contain all
the rest. It is well that the judges defined what they declared
to be unlegal. Is not this the true statement of baptism ? —
1. That it unites the baptized to the Holy Trinity, to the
Father by adoption, to the Son by remission, to the Holy
Ghost by indwelling.
2. That the agent is the Holy Ghost,
3. That the three eifects are as inseparable as the three
Persons.
4. That the infusion of grace is the one principle which
brings also Adoption and Redemption.
5. That Regeneration comprehends the whole threefold idea.
If so, what does our dear friend Pusey mean by taking the
second efi"ect, and the Second Person 1 — Ever yours very affec-
tionately, H. E. M.
Lavington, J 5th June 1850.
My DEAR Robert — Many thanks for your letter, and the
report of your Charge : you seem to me to have done admirably.
^ A letter from one of Archdeacon Manning's penitents expressing alarm at
the Gorham Judgment, and her desire to seek safety in the Church of Rome.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 557
So far as I can gather, I go word by word, with you. And I
believe it to be the truth, against which nothing can prevail.
Your letter also moved me very much ; all the more, because 1
am suffering, except in one point, as you are. No, God helping
me, I will do nothing in heat, or in haste. So long as I find
those dear to me, as you arc, united in holding to the principles
of faith, and prei)ared, if need be, at last, without fail, to follow
them in their fulness, I am able to wait in peace.
It is, I must say in confidence, the course of Pusey and
Keble, which alarms me into pressing onward. They both seem
to me to have given up the Divine Tradition as the supreme
authority, and to apply private judgment to antiquity, as
Protestants do to Holy Scripture. . . . Nothing, I trust, will
call me from home again. I am worn in body by all this, and
am resting. Pray, if possible, dear Robert, come for a clear day
(done, and let us look at facts and books together.
And now, I seem to see a providential intention in all that
is befalling. Our past work, founded on passive, widespread
confidence in easy times, is gone, we are both mistrusted and
marked ; but I believe a greater weight is on us both. We are
identified with a great doctrine, and a great principle ; and all
we can give, is given to spread and deepen their hold on people.
Individuals in numbers are turning up, and coming to you and
to me.
We are fairly released from Protestantism, Rationalism,
Anglicanism, and the like. If unity is eA^er to be restored, and
the influx of the universal authority of faith again to support
truth, and the Church in England, we are making way for it.
Unknown to ourselves, we are thrust into a position which in
Tudor days would have been intermediate ; who knows, but that
in these it may be the condition of obtaining the object of our
daily prayers ?
All these things, and many more, soothe and stay me.
God guide us, my dear Robert. — Ever yours very affectionately,
H. E. M.
In the following letter Manning reaffirms what he had
affirmed already in 1849, that the Anglican position "is
a wreck and untenable at all points " ; and that " the
Church of England has no real basis " : —
Lavington, 25th June 1850.
My dear Robert — Your few words, sad as they are, really
strengthen me, for I am going through a trial which wears me
much.
558 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I have not seen Churton's Charge ; but the course he and
others have taken has helped more than most things to convince
me that the Church of England has no real basis. I know of
none between the spiritual light of the individual, or the
spiritual light of the body. Anglicanism seems to me to be
the latter in words, and the former in fact. Now I feel not
only in no haste, but to be moving more slowly ; but to be
moving always, surely, and without change, in one direction.
1. Logically, I am convinced that the One, Holy, Visible,
Infallible Church is that which has its circuit in all the world,
and its centre accidentally in Rome.
2. But I mistrust my conclusion.
(1) Because, though the form may be logical, the premisses
may be disputable matter.
(2) Because I fear to rest on intellectual convictions alone.
In some things I may have less repulsion than you, in others as
much, even more. But the end stands before me as truth and
destiny. And when I turn to our own position, I find it a
wreck, and untenable at all points. Not to go on would, to
me, be to go back into pure individual religion.^
My desire is to movement, slowly, sifting, and justifying to
the highest minds. I scan the reasons of my convictions. And
my hope is to have your help, and comfort, always to turn to.
As for all our friends, they seem to me to have fallen asunder,
as a faggot unloosed.
Let me know when you come south. — Believe me, dear
Robert, yours very affectionately, H. E. M.
I have made a first draft on the Oath of Supremacy, in a
letter to my bishop. But I have written myself fairly over the
border — or Tiber rather.
" I am suffering much " — and such sufferings extort sym-
^ I remember during this time of doubt that I gradually came to see that
there was no intermediate position between the Catholic Faith and an
undogmatic Pietism. The latter attracted me very much because of my love
for Leighton's sermons and his lesser works. His mind and life were always
most attractive to me. But I felt the illogical and untenable character of
such a position too sensibly to be really in danger of giving up dogmatic
religion. I could have rather rejected religion altogether than believe
revealed Truth to be without outline and certainty. I soon therefore moved
in the line of definite and certain doctrine. And this was greatly aided by
the Gorham Judgment. What I thought about this may be seen in a
pamphlet on T/w Appellate Jurisdiction of the Grown, addressed to the
Bishop of Chichester. The violation of the doctrine of Baptism was of less
gravity to me than the violation of the divine office of the Church by the
supremacy of the Crown in council. — Cardinal Manning's Journal, 1887.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 559
pathy and admiration — is the burden of many of Manning's
letters to Eobert Wilberforce at tliis trying period : —
Lavington, 5th August 1850.
Dear Egbert — I am suffering much. I have no home
sorrows,^ as you ; but the Church of England has from me what,
if I had a home, would perhajjs be there. And I see nothing
before me. If I stay I shall end a simple mystic, like Leighton.
God is a spirit, and has no visible kingdom, chiu'ch, or sacra-
ments. Nothing will ever entangle me again in Protestantism,
Anglican or otherwise.
But that is to reject Christendom — its history and its witness
for God.
You will see from the enclosed that things seem near. — Ever
yours very affectionately, H. E. M.
Mr. Allies's work on the Papacy, clear, logical, and
learned, was not without its effect on Manning. The direct
and outspoken criticism of the Letter on the Appellate
Jurisdiction of the Crown may not have pleased him ; yet,
at such a moment, the repudiation by such a man as Mr.
Allies of Anglicanism must have struck home to Manning's
conscience.
Launton, fith September 1850.
My dear Archdeacon Manning — I have finished my book,
of which I hope you will see the results, such as they are, next
week. Tell me how the argument strikes you. It is the result
of seven long years of perplexity, in which I can safely say that
Anglicanism has never given me one thread of guidance or a
little finger of support. Now, I feel that I am passing from the
dead to the living — from her who would divide the child that
was not hers in half, to the true mother who yearns for her
offspring. I go, D. V., to Birmingham on Monday, to put myself
in the hands of J. H. N.
I was rather surprised to hear of Lord Feilding, but it has
cheered me up immensely.
I am quite unable to make out what is the practical drift
either of your pamphlet or your circular ; but if you have really
the faintest hope of Anglicanism it astonishes me.
But do not forget to give me your prayers, especially in this
last struggle. God has given me certainly the strongest, both
^ The wife of Robert Wilberforce had grave apprehensions of her husband's
secession, and such fears aggravated the illness from which she had long suffered.
560 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
intellectual and moral, conviction of the thorough dishonesty
and unreality of Anglicanism as a Church system ; and He has
turned, what long seemed an obstacle scarcely to be surmounted
on the side of Rome, into the most assured proof. I should dread
some great misfortune if I did not obey His calling. — Ever yours
affectionately, T. M. Allies.
The struggles of a sensitive and heroic soul are manifest
in the pathetic words with which the following letter con-
cludes.
KiPPiNGTON, I9th September 1850.
My dearest Robert — You have been much in my mind. I
do not know how to resist the conviction —
1. That the Church of England is in schism.
2. That it has therefore lost its power to preserve its own
internal unity of doctrine and discipline.
3. That it cannot define, judj^e, or pronounce with the authority
of the universal Church, while it is separate and in collision mth
the universal Church.
4. That the late events have not changed our position, but
revealed it, and that they who see it are bound to submit them-
selves to the universal Church. The utter weakness of all that
it set up against their conclusions turns into positive argument
in behalf of them.
Allies has just printed a mass of historical evidence which it
would be immoral to put aside. He has deformed his book by
a few things, Avhich will make such minds as our dear brother ^
treat it unfairly. So truth suffers, and schisms are perpetrated.
My dear Robert, I feel as if my time Avere drawing near, and
that, like death, it will be, if it must be, alone. But I shrink
with all the love and fear of my soul. Pray for me. — Ever yours
most affectionately, H. E. M.
In answer to the expression of Robert Wilberforce's
apprehension of precipitancy, Manning wrote as follows : —
Most Private. ^^ Cadogan Place, ^Qth September 1850.
My DEAREST Robert — I have no thought of a hasty step.
All you say of the immoral effect of precipitation I feel, and will
be guided ])y you, for your sake and for my own. If I knew
that I should die this day six months I should speak as if life
were over and death near. This was the meaning of my last
letter.
* Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of O.xford.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 561
The state of my mind is a settled conviction that it must end
in only one way. I feel that the Church of England, by every
principle of Scripture, tradition, and history, is a human societj-,
more ecclesiastical and medieval than the Kirk, but equally
separate from the universal Church. This conviction groAvs on
me continually, harmonising all phenomena of our state. I seem
therefore to have no doubt how it must end. But six months
would still be soon in such a death.
Now, dear Eobert, advise me. I have thought of going
abroad for the winter, as a means of withdrawing from collision,
and from embarrassing others. Gladstone's going, and the Eng-
lish winter would be reason ad exteros.
It would give me time for last reflections and dying thoughts,
and a locns pcniicntia;, if, " which God avert," I be deluded.
Tell me how this seems to you.
I have heard from our dearest Henry. He writes calmly,
and, I believe, his mind and character will be confirmed and
raised by what he has done. Dearest Robert, to be parted from
you would be one of my keenest trials ; may it never be, and,
I believe, it cannot. Surely Ave want faith, and do not trust
ourselves enough to the kingdom which is not of this world. I
seem to see how we are called to suffer for faith, and for the
elect's sake. We have spoken for truth, and written for truth ;
we must now act for truth, and bear for the truth. Nothing
but the suffering of the many can save the Church of England
from running down the inclined plane of all separate bodies. It
is for it that we are testifying, though it wall not see or know
it. Newman's going has preserved life. — Ever yours most affec-
tionately, H. E. M.
Lavington, I4:th October 1850.
My dear Robert — . . . Give me now your kind advice ;
for myself I think I am fully decided to go abroad.
But can I do so without resigning ■?
Does not public honour require it ?
Resigning does not compel going further. But can I hold
office of trust and emoluments without clashing with upright-
ness ?
Let me hear from you. I have no letters worth sending
from Henry. He is still at Malines. — Ever yours very affec-
tionately, H. E. M.
The " cruel imputations," which Manning speaks of in
the following letter, cast on " liis honesty and honour," may
perhaps be accounted for in some measure by the different
VOL. I 2
562 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
statements as to his religious opinions which he had made
to different persons on various occasions. Long ago he had
acknowledged to Robert Wilberforce the loss of all faith in
the English Church ; but, on the other hand, he had felt it
his duty to declare to his penitents, almost up to the date
of this letter, that they might abide in grace and safety in
the Church of England : —
Lavington, Feast of SS. Simon and Jiide,
1 8th October 1850.
My dearest Egbert — I hope my letter did not add to your
distress.
Unless some new and peremptory reason should arise, I will
do as you desire. God grant that nothing may part us. It
would be to me a great and lasting sorrow, and unspeakably
increase the fear and anxiety with which I weigh the thoughts
of our present trial. The pain I have to bear, which you have
not equally, is the cruel imputations upon honesty and honour.
These wound me. They could not move me if I were not con-
scious that I have no hope for the Church of England. I not
only believe that nothing will be done, but that nothing can.
The fault seems to me to be in the original position ; suppose
the Eoyal Supremacy reduced to our limits, and the Church of
England empowered to judge, and declare finally in matter of
faith : the Thirty-nine Articles declare local Churches to be fallible,
and the English Church is not only fallible, but irreconcilably
divided in doctrines of faith, e.g. Regeneration, the Real Presence,
Sacrifice, Priesthood, the Church.
This seems to me to reduce us to the necessity and to the
duty of acknowledging our original position to be false and
wrong. But this acknowledgment who will make 1 Even
Pusey's tone is otherwise.
I do not feel what you say of condemning a Church which
has such men as Keble in it. I must condemn it, whosoever be
in it.
Postscript. — Do you see the line of the Guardian in the first
leading article ? It is di'eary and deadly work. Insular Angli-
canism and partisan movement seem to be their highest aim.
Let me hear from you what you did yesterday. I had a few
words Avith Keble. I said, "I fear we differ in this. I might
feel myself bound to submit to the Roman Church ; you would
not." He said, "I could not. I could not say my prayers there."
Does he mean that Rome is the synagogue of Satan ? for that is
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 563
the only place in which I should think we could not pray. Does
he not believe our " fallen sister " to be a part of the Temple of
God 1 And if so, does he believe that Rome has erred in matters
de fide? And would anything less sustain his words 1 I mused
over your strange medley yesterday. I suppose yon had at least
three elements which will never hold together. — Ever your very
affectionate H. E. M.
William Dodsworth, Manning's most watchful friend,
never lost an opportunity of pointing the way, as the
following letter shows : —
Freshwater, lltli August 1850.
My dearest Friend — A letter from H. W. W., in Belgium,
plainly indicates that his wife has joined the Roman Catholic
Church. But he seems to assume that I know the particulars —
which I do not — perhaps some letter of his may have missed.
I am impatient to know all about it. So ask you without
waiting for another letter from him. It seems also plain to me
that he will never get out of Belgium without following her
steps.
I fear that my letter to you from London was crude and
abrupt, and then you infer that I am impetuous and thoughtless.
But, dearest f rfend, I write to you as I would speak, careless of
style, etc., so you must allow for this ; and you know it is my
habit, bad or good, to come to the point without circumlocution.
The more I think, the more I feel that our position is an
impossible one.
The Articles we have subscribed, or continue subscription,
substantially on the ground of their comprehensiveness or in-
definiteness on the theory of Tract 90, or some kindred one.
But when we come to think of what subscription is, and the
nature of those truths Avhich are dealt with, is it defensible so to
deal with such truths — is it enough to say only, we doiit deny
the Real Presence — the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Cliurch
Catholic 1 Are we not doing our part to make Christian verities
" open questions " ? — Ever your most affectionate,
"William Dodsworth.
In another letter Dodsworth writes as follows : —
I really cannot subscribe these Articles again. Pray tell me,
now that you know so much of my mind, whether you think
that I ought to communicate any more in the Cliurch of
England. Is not the actual institution of Gorham a decisive
point ? Gladstone seemed to think it so.
564 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Your letter, dearest friend, is like yourself, ever loving and
faithful — the proof of a friendship which it is one of the great
responsibilities of my life to enjoy.
I Avill think of all you say ; with you I am not afraid of being
misunderstood, and, I will say, that my heart does not upbraid
me with an unkindly feeling towards any human being.
But it seems to me that we have come upon times when we
must take a stern view of men's acts — even the humblest and
lowest of us. Is it not a crisis in which our Lord's truth is in
jeopardy ?
But with no affectation of humility, I can easily believe that
I have been wanting. — Yours most affectionately,
WiLLIAil DODSWORTH.
I am more and more impressed with the conviction that I must
soon act.
In the following letter of 22nd October, nearly eight
months after the Gorham Judgment, Manning makes an
explicit profession of faith in the Church of Eome as
infallible through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and
expresses his deep conviction that the Church of England
is not under that guidance : —
Lavington, 22nd October 1850.
My DEAR Robert — The Yorkshire Church Union \n\\, I
fear, bring you into difficulties.
You were of course absent when they passed their resolution
about Romanism ; and you will, I am afraid, be dragged into a
false position.
Many thanks for your words about myself ; since I got them,
a letter from our dear brother, the bishop, has brought me all
but to the point.
I fain would hold on for many reasons ; but I feel to be in a
false position.
I am not afraid of seeming to fly from a storm. No one
worth thinking of would think so, and multitudes, very well
worth thinking of, think me all but dishonest. Public honour
is essential to character and usefulness ; and I feel sure that my
work in the Church of England is over, I hinder more than I
help. I cannot now carry on this Supremacy move in the only
way in which others will. Unless a man can say what Pusey
said to my wonder last week, I feel convinced he can do nothing
for the Church of England, or rather in it.
But all this is by the way. The true and overruling reason
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 565
is that I am so deeply convinced that the Church is infallible
through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that the Church of
England is not under that guidance, as to leave me day by day
less choice. I will try to put shortly what I mean :
1. The present state of the Church of England is a proof to
me that a local church in a state of separation from the universal
Church, cannot declare or preserve the Faith.
2. For 300 years we have been in a position which, whether
now changed or revealed, is no longer tenable on any laws of the
Church of Christ.
3. I believe it is a revelation of a position untenable
ai) initio.
4. For this Eoyal Supremacy is in principle as old as Henry
the VIII. Gladstone's view is to me a clever theory. But all
facts and histories are against it. Goode is right, I believe, to
the letter. The Crown is supreme judge.
(2) The authority of the living and universal Church has
been shut out for 300 years ; we have fallen into a functional
impotence, and the local Church has not, neither can have, any
other guide or support.
(3) Be our paper doctrines what they may, we have had
contradictory bishops, priests, and people, for 300 years on
baptism, the real presence, the sacrifice, absolution, succession,
priesthood, rule of faith, the very constitution, and authority
and identity of the Church. All this is 300 years old, this is no
change. It may be an aggravation, but no more.
Now, I confess that I feel that nothing short of the re-
entrance of this authority of the living Church universal can
restore the functions of the Church of England. We are in
material heresy and that throws light on our separation, and I
believe we are in schism. With this feeling, growing daily with
a conscious variance of reason, faith, and conscience, against the
Eoyal Supremacy as in our oath and subscription, and against
the anti- Roman articles, I feel driven to believe that I can
delay no longer without violation of truth towards God and
man. Do, dearest Robert, weigh this more gravely. Do not
argue of expediencies and effects, but look at the facts of the
case. Take your own view of the Article against Transubstanti-
ation. You do not condemn the truth. All the world does,
and believes you do, so long as you continue under subscription.
My own impression is that, when this Committee has taken
its public place, I shall sink to the bottom and disappear.
I am full of dread lest the truth of conscience should be
lost by waiting and listening to the suggestions of flesh and
blood.
566 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
May the Divine Spirit guide us in this hour of trial, that we
may be true to Him and His inspirations. — Believe me, ever very
affectionately yours, H. E. M.
It was, indeed, " an hour of trial " : not a trial of faith,
for Manning's belief in the English Church had broken
down even before the Gorham Judgment. Even before the
Gorhani Judgment he had clearly and without reserve
declared his faith in the Catholic Church. His letters to
Eobert Wilberforce testify this. All that was wanting was
the final act of submission. What is still keeping him
back ? What had kept him back so long ? Human motives :
old habits of mind, fear of taking an irrevocable step : a
fear which he likened to the fear of death : old ties and
associations. Well might he have cried aloud to Eobert
Wilberforce that he was " full of dread lest the truth of
conscience should be lost by waiting and listening to the
suggestions of flesh and blood."
It was a noble confession : a foretoken of what was to
come ; at the same time it bore witness to the bitterness
to flesh and blood of the struggle he was going through in
the silent recesses of his heart.
For it must be borne in mind that what was known from
intimate correspondence to Eobert Wilberforce, to James
Hope, to William Dodsworth, and to Henry Wilberforce, as
to Manning's state of mind in regard to the English Church
and to the Church of Eome, was known to no one else. It
was known, indeed, to all the world that Manning in his
Letter to the Bishop of Chichester had repudiated the
Gorham Judgment : had rejected the Eoyal Supremacy in
things spiritual. But so had Pusey, and Keble, and Eobert
Wilberforce ; and so had Archdeacon Denison more loudly
and vehemently than any of his cosignatories to the famous
Declaration ; and Archdeacon Thorp, and Mill, and Bennett
of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. They were all alike in the
same boat ; and the most silent of them all, perhaps, was
Manning. As long as he might keep silent he felt safe.
But the time for speaking had for him at last arrived.
A storm had arisen from which he dared not fly. Manning
felt very keenly what he expressed in his letter to Eobert
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 567
Wilberforce, that " multitudes, very well worth thinking of,
think me all but dishonest." Dishonest on account of his
strange and prolonged silence. For, since the Gorham
Judgment, spring had passed away and summer ; autumn
had come; and yet Archdeacon Manning made no sign.
What did it mean ? Strange rumours were abroad.
Many hoped, and some few feared, that an open door had
been found : a way of escape discovered for Manning.
Mr. Gladstone, in the view of retaining his friend in the
English Church, had from time to time endeavoured to induce
Bishop Wilberforce to obtain from a majority of the bishops,
after the promulgation of the Gorham Judgment, a declara-
tion that they would uphold the doctrine of the Church as
to baptism ; even though such a declaration would not have
been of the nature of a corporate action, yet he believed
such a step would have held secure to the Church not only
Archdeacon Manning, but many others, who, like him, were
longing for some authoritative declaration.
All these attempts, however, proved abortive. In a
letter, dated 5th September 1850, to Bishop Wilberforce,
Mr. Gladstone states, that from the conversations which
had taken place, and the letters which had passed between
Archdeacon Manning and himself, an impression was created
in his mind that up to the Gorham Judgment the Arch-
deacon was convinced of the authority of the Church, and
believed in her mission, though he could not disguise from
himself that there were things in the Koman Church which
he preferred. Mr. Gladstone, therefore, attributed the decided
attitude of Archdeacon Manning as the result of the refusal
of the bishops to issue a declaration that the Gorham
Judgment was neither the law nor the faith of the Church
of England.
Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, who did not
quite relish Mr. Gladstone's attributing Manning's attitude to
the pusillanimous conduct of the bishops in abstaining, on
one plea or another, from a public defence of an article of
the Creed, sought to show in the following letter to Mr.
Gladstone, that Manning's loss was to be imputed to other
causes : —
568 CARDINAL ilANNlNG chap.
Lavington, 14^/!. September 1850.
]My dear Gladstone — My stay here has let me see much of
Maiming. Never has he been so affectionate, so open, so fully
trusting with me. We have been together through all his
difficulties. But, alas ! it has left on my mind the full con-
viction that he is lost to us. It is, as you say, the background
of historical inquiry where our paths part. He seems to me to
have followed singly, exactly the course which the Roman Church
has followed as a body. He has gone back into those early
times, when, what afterwards became their corruptions, were only
the germ-buds of Catholic usages ; he has fully accustomed his
mind to them, until a system that wants them seems to him
incomplete and uncatholic, and one that has them is the wiser
and holier, and more catholic for having them, until he can
excuse to a great degree their practical corruptions, and justify
altogether their doctrinal rightness. All this has been stirred
up and rendered practical in his mind by our own troubles ; but
the result of all leaves me very hopeless of the issue. Few
can understand what his and my brother's present state is. I
believe you can ; the broken sleep, the heavy waking before
the sorrow has shaped itself with returning consciousness into a
definite form ; the vast and spreading dimensions of the fear for
others which it excites, the clouding over of all the future. —
Yours affectionately, S. OxON.
Through no fault of his own, indeed, Mr. Gladstone was
mistaken or misinformed as to the real state of Manning's
religious opinions ; not knowing that for years before the
Gorham Judgment, he had doubted or disbelieved in the
divine authority and mission of the English Church, as his
letters to Robert Wilberforce, and in a lesser degree to
Laprimaudaye, his confessor, show. But these letters Mr.
Gladstone had not seen : he knew nothing, consequently, of
Manning's repudiation of Anglicanism as a religious system :
as a theology : as a church. In his letters to Mr. Gladstone,
contemporary with those to Robert Wilberforce, Manning
did not feel called upon to make like confessions. There
were two sides to the shield — one, the inner or private ; the
other, the outer or public side. One side, for good and
sufficient reasons, as I have already shown, was turned to
Robert Wilberforce ; the other, to Mr. Gladstone. Hence
his mistaken impression that Manning made shipwreck, as
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 569
he would say, of his faith iu the Church of England on
the rock of the Gorham Judgment.
On learning, in January last,^ the substance of Manning's
letters to liobert Wilberforce, Mr, Gladstone was surprised
beyond measure. Speaking with evident pain, he said —
To mc this is most startling information, for which I am quite
unprepared. In all our correspondence and conversations, during
an intimacy which extended over many years, Manning never
once led me to believe that he had doubts as to the position or
divine authority of the English Church, far less that he had lost
faith altogether in Anglicanism. That is to say up to the
Gorham Judgment. The Gorham Judgment, I knew, shook his
faith in the Church of England. It was then that Manning ex-
pressed to me — and for the first time — his doubts and misgivings.
After a few moments' reflection Mr. Gladstone added —
" I won't say Manning was insincere, God forbid ! But he
was not simple and straightforward, as, for instance, Robert
Wilberforce, the most simple and candid of men."
Manning's Anglican correspondence with Mr. Gladstone
was even more copious than with Eobert Wilberforce, for it
extended over a longer period. These letters of Manning's
Mr. Gladstone has always regarded as of the highest value
and importance. He repeated once more, a month or two
ago, what he had often said before : —
Over a long period, every subject of vital interest affecting
the Church of England was discussed by Manning with masterly
ability and foresight. His letters were a striking record of every
movement in the Church of England during a most trying
period, especially since Newman's secession.
On learning that Manning's Anglican letters were no
longer forthcoming ; had, as far as could be ascertained,
been destroyed by the Cardinal not long before his death,
Mr. Gladstone was greatly pained, and exclaimed —
Had I dreamt that Manning would have destroyed those
letters I would never have returned them to him. They have
left a lasting impression on my mind. Neither in those letters
nor in conversation did Manning ever convey to me an intima-
1 In a letter, dated 12th Dec. 1894, Mr. Gladstone wrote :—" On the
question of Manning's views of the Anglican Church before the Gorham
Judgment, I can give you most pertinent and strong oral evidence."
570 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
tion or even a hint that he had lost faith in the English Church.
On the contrary, I remember as if it were yesterday a remark-
able conversation I had with him in the summer of 1848, just
after his return from Eome. We were walking together through
St. James's Park, talking on serious subjects ; indeed [added
;Mr. Gladstone with a laugh], our conversations always were
serious. But on this occasion, referring to his illness of the
previous year. Manning said, in the most solemn manner, " Dying
men, or men Avithin the shadow of death, as I was last year,
have a clearer insight into things unseen of others ; a deeper
knowledge of all that relates to divine faith. In such a com-
munion with death and the region beyond death, I had an
absolute assurance in heart and soul, solemn beyond expression,
that the English Church — I am not speaking of the Establish-
ment — is a living portion of the Church of Christ."
Mr. Gladstone then added —
A year or two afterwards, I think, yes, in 1850, after the
Gorham Judgment, I recalled this conversation to Manning's
mind in a letter,^ which I am convinced will bear out my present
statement. In reply to points which I urged. Manning gave an
evasive answer ; and, indeed, called in question the facts of the
conversation. But [Mr. Gladstone exclaimed with all his wonted
energy] I could take an oath in a court of law as to the sub-
stantial facts of his conversation with me in 1848.
Indeed, up to the Gorham case, there are no indications
in Mr. Gladstone's letters that to him Manning had made
such revelations of his inner mind in regard to the Church
of England as he had made to Eobert Wilberforce.
In those crucial months of the autumn of 1850 follow-
ing on the Gorham Judgment, when in Manning's mind
the fateful decision was still hanging in the balance, no
effort was wanting to incline the scale in favour of the
Church of England. Prompted by conviction as well as
by personal affection for Manning, Mr. Gladstone, as the
following letters show, brought the strongest arguments in
his power to influence or restrain liis friend : —
Fasque, 8th Sejitemher 1850.
My dear Manning — The pains which come in the way of
^ See Mr. Gladstone's letter to Archdeacon Manning, dated Genoa, 5tli
November 1850, p. 580.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 571
God's ordinary dispensations are light compared with those
which belong to the religious convulsion of the present time.
If Hesh writhes under the former, at least faith is not perplexed,
but feels that her appointed work is passing and taking effect
upon her. But in the changes which I see taking place on every
side of me, both in the Church of England and in those who
deplore her changes, there is no such consolation. The grief
for the loss of children has a natural vent in tears ; but tears do
not come, and would not be adequate if they did, for the laying
waste of the heritage of God. The promise indeed stands sure
to the Church and to the elect. In the farthest distance there
is peace, truth, glory ; but what a leap to it, over what a gulf.
You see nearer comfort ; you have the advantage of me, if you
are right and see truly.
In the grounds are materials of judgment ; neither in-
tellectually nor morally can I compete with you. As to the
last let me not go beyond those words of to-day's Psalms, which
are given for our use, and may be used, therefore, without
affectation : " My wickednesses are gone over my head, and are
like a sore burden too heavy for me to bear." As to the first,
I follow you from letter to letter with amazement. I know
not indeed how far your thoughts are tentative, how far they
are entire expressions of your mind ; but while each letter is in
itself a polished whole, and would defy greater skill than mine
to undo, taken as a series they are not fixed, nor consistent, nor
consecutive. Your last especially passes quite beyond my power
to follow. I am wholly unable to conceive how the theory of
the Church and its unity, that is now before you, can stand
application to the times of schism in the Eoman Church itself,
when both parties had the intention of union with the Chair of
St. Peter, but were in fact divided, and one of them, therefore,
is smitten by your doctrine, though both are recognised as
Catholic by the Roman Church. The Branch Church theory is
hers ; only she makes a more limited application of it. To my
eye the reasoning of your letter seems so far from your former
self, to say no more, that it leaves me in doubt and perplexity
as to its real purport, and extorts from me by force the question,
whether your intellect is for the moment in the class of those, of
which the extreme power and facility, and their satisfaction,
unconscious, often yet a great reality, in their own vivid play,
become snares to the possessor, and seduce him from fixity by
the smoothness and ease they show in movement. But if you
are deceived, you will need some other and worthier one to
undeceive you. I am suspicious and afraid of the disposition
you state, to follow in the path of relations whose sanctity you
572 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
venerate, for surely, though personal sanctity may give us every
comfort respecting the person so blessed, it does not make such
person a guide for others in the changes they may make, and to
view them so is unsafe and unsound in principle : but I would
readily admit and feel, that modesty at least should be with
those who have no such titles written upon them, that the
freedom I use as friend with friend ill suits me (it is really so ;
te propter eundem amissus pudor), and that I am fitter to be mute
at least for a time in the presence of such deep problems and
such crushing sorrows as seem to be coming on us. — Ever your
affectionate friend, AV. E. Gladstone.
Fasque, 22nd September 1850.
My DEAR Manning — Your letters are all safe and accessible.
I am a great letter -keeper, but however eclectic I might be,
yours would have escaped the fire.
I am not grave and deliberate in word, and there is a proof of
it in the terms you quote ; it was enough for me to say " neither
fixed nor consecutive," and "nor consistent" is surplusage, but
svurplusage in such matters shows the want of gravity. It will
probably prove that the want of consistency, which there must
be in what is neither fixed nor consecutive, lies in my inferences
and constructions of your letters. I will at any rate explain
what I meant ; the explanation cannot make it more harsh or
presumptuous, and may make it less.
I had letters from you in London, one in particular, which
seemed to demonstrate your conviction that if there were a body
within the pale of the Church of England ready to fight there
the great battle now beginning for the faith of Christendom and
its reunion in the profession of that faith, your lot would be
cast with them ; and all you might do or project would be upon
and from that basis.
But the letter, to which in my last I was replying, would
have given, I thought, the impression that you had come to the
negative of the great practical proposition which you had before
affirmed.
Not because of its mere words in their positive sense ; for
that I can understand its being said " I have no longer power or
faith to work on a basis of separation " by men convinced under
the teaching of the present circumstances, that the unity of the
visible Church ought henceforward to be the all-absorbing aim
of their labours, and yet having the same conviction as to the
scene of those labours appointed them by the will of God that
you had expressed in the former letters. But it was by putting
together the general tone of the letter with its affirmations, and
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 573
with the thought of what it did not affirm, that I came to read
it as an undoing and breaking up of" your former ground of life
and action.
Nothing more easily than grief makes a disposition, neither
chastened nor balanced as it should be, fly out and become
utterly unreasonable. I daresay that was my case.
Only one consideration led me to write as I did — the con-
sideration, namely, of one point in the discipline life has given
me, and one only, that can ever be of use to you. My life has,
I know and feel, had this tendency, to lay a heavy weight upon
the movement of the understanding when solicited to depart from
the main practical principles by which it has been anchored, and
to make the movements of all such processes exceedingly slow ;
I mean the common discii^line of my life ; that which has come
upon my understanding only, and affects only its habits, and
which comes in through common acts, apart from disturbing
causes such as those that join themselves to all questions deeply
piercing into our moral being.
Lagging behind you as, whenever I read your letters, I
always feel myself to do, on this occasion for the first time it
occurred to me, not because of the apparent interval between
you and me, but between you and your former yet recent self,
can it be that the shock of these awful times, having driven him
upon the problems that oppress other men, his trenchant intellect
has formed for him too sharp and short a way through them ?
The vice I meant to suggest was strictly and wholly in that
region ; and what it was I hope I have now made clearer. I am
anxious to purge the offence away, not from your mind, for I
am certain it did not arrive there, but as it is in itself.
Hope is here, and I have felt the privilege of talking with
him, but only to lament the more that my departure
to-morrow cuts me off from the means of talking through,
instead of merely upon, the great subject. I look forward
anxiously to seeing you, but with a similar anticipation — weeks
at least of continuous exercise seem necessary, besides every
[thing] else of a higher nature that is more necessary, to give
the least hope of a conscious grasp either of the true idea or of
the right course, nor do I believe that events are yet ripe for
more than to give light a little beyond the actual point at which
we stand. But to the questions — first, can peace be permanently
kept with the now dominant system in the Church of England,
namely, will that system be cured by remedies such as any of
its bishops may devise, and such as the State will permit to be
administered 1 — I fail to find any answer but in the negative. — I
remain always your affectionate friend, W. E. Gladstone.
574 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
You do not require to give me assurances of your self-
mistrust. By the way in which you ever bear with me, I can
well judge what it must be towards others, and in itself
generally.
6 Carlton Gardens, Gth October 1850.
My DEAR Manning — Mrs. Glynne is dead. As nearly as
possible at the moment when we parted, she was called from
a dark world, perhaps never darker than now in its prospects,
to the rest and felicity into which few indeed could make an
easier passage.
When you were here, I had not brought my letters into
order : and I am sorry to find that I failed to place some of
yours in your hands, I am not sure which, but I think they may
have been those which related to your Letter to the Bishop of
Chichester.
In looking back upon our conversation, much occurs and
recurs ; it is not now as it was ; a jar ran through it, the latent
idea on my part that you were unjust in your modes of judgment
to the Church of England, and on yours, perhaps, that I am
lagging behind the truth. There is however only one point on
which I wish to say a word, for it is practically I think very
important, and shall be briefly handled.
I said the " Church and realm " was not bound to the
Judicial Committee and the Gorham Judgment ; that the Church
had not received the same. You said, yes, it had accepted the
" discipline," the judicial system as established by the Statute of
Appeals. The point therefore is this, whether the Judicial
Committee be within the Statute of Appeals. But which of
the two, its letter or its spirit 1 I say that within the letter of
our statutes, and of our constitution, every fraud, every falsehood,
every absurdity, may be found to lie. That it is in the spirit
the constitutional interest of that statute, I emphatically deny.
If you ask me for proof, I cannot find it in the practice under it :
since no case of heresy has ever been tried through under its
provisions. But surely nothing can be more complete as a
proof of its sjnrit than the contemporaneous provision of the
reformatio legum, which said if a grave case arose, it was to be
tried by a Provincial Council. Therefore the Judicial Committee
being a secular tribunal, wholly foreign to the order of the
Church, is at variance with the spirit of the statute, and the
Church which has accepted the statute has not accepted the
Judicial Committee. The acts of the third and fourth William
are no more morally than they are chronologically within reach of
the canon of submission. That they stand in a certain relation
in which the cfyQopd of a thing always stands to the thing,
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 575
beginning from the nature of the thing itself, and by an undue
preponderance commonly of some among its elements.
This is to supply a gap which I ought to have filled when we
were together. Pray remember the other matter which was
named as we were going to part. And believe me always, your
affectionate friend, W. E. Gladstone.
Hawarden, I'Sth October 1850.
My dear Manning — The word at parting to which I made in
my last letter an indistinct allusion, was my request to you that
you would carefully consider and let me know in course of time
your thoughts upon the question, what are the obligations of the
individual priest or layman, in the Church of England, to any
such bishops of her communion as may set themselves resolutely
to contend for the Catholic faith in the article in which it is now
assailed, and in that principle of its delivery, in which all its
articles alike are struck at with one blow ?
The only impatience that I recollect in our conversation was
that of mine, which led me in a particular point to mistake your
course of reasoning, and for which I expressed my regret, but on
your side there was nothing. And of course if I speak of
injustice to the Church of England, I do not mean intended
injustice ; but we have no word for that kind of act between
bare injury and injustice, which is hurt done that ought not to be
done, yet without the thought of doing anything but right. That
is the question I raised, and that is what seems to me to be done
when a surrender of power which I know to have a certain sense
in the political sphere is interpreted, in its relation to the
Church of England and her dealings within that sphere, in a
sense quite different, through which sense I think it is that you
get at, a condemnation, so broad as yours, of the Tudor clergy.
But if you tell me "it may be as sons are sometimes for very
grief more plain to their parents than strangers," you stop my
mouth and take away my will to push the subject : your
recognition of that relation answers me ; I cannot take you to
task about what you may do it in, for indeed it is little short of
ludicrous to see me schooling you on such matters. — Ever your
affectionate friend, W. E. Gladstone.
In the meantime, whilst these attempts by Bishop
Wilberforce, Archdeacon Harrison, Mr. Gladstone, and
many others, to patch up matters were going on, an event
happened which brought things to a crisis. What the
condemnation of Tract 90 : what Newman's conversion
57G CARDINAL MANNING chap.
and Oakeley's and AVard's and Dalgairns' and Faber's :
what the appointment of Dr. Hampden : the Erastian com-
pact with Prussia about the Jerusalem bishopric, had not
effected ; what not even the Gorham Judgment, howsoever
deeply it troubled his soul, had, at any rate not as yet,
accomplished, was effected by " circumstance " ; not an un-
spiritual god, but in this case a divine minister of grace.
The Papal Bull, " given at St. Peter's, Eome, under the seal
of the fisherman," restoring the Catholic Hierarchy in Eng-
land, and Wiseman's Letter dated " From the Elaminian
Gate," fell like a bolt from the blue. For, on the sudden.
Lord John Eussell, in liis notorious Durham letter, raised
not only a " No Popery " cry throughout the length and
breadth of the land, but with maUgnant purpose directed
Ultra - Protestant suspicions and jealousies against the
Tractarian Party. What Protestantism had most to fear
and guard against was not the audacious assaults of
" Popery " ; but " the danger within the gates from the
unworthy sons of the Church herself" The madness spread
like wildfire. It affected all sorts and conditions of men,
from the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor down to
the street-boy, who chalked up " No Popery " on the walls.^
There was a braying of donkeys, for verily it was little else,
from John O'Groat's to Land's End. There was a flutter in
the dovecotes, a flutter of voices and of petticoats, from the
duchess in her drawing-room to the dairjrmaid at the cow's
udder. The milk of human kindness in that day of
fanaticism was turned sour in too many an English breast.
Not only light-hearted young stockbrokers, but grave and
bald-headed bankers, and brewers, and business men, made
fools of themselves on Guy Fawkes' Day 1850, shouting
like wild Indians, and dancing like chimney-sweeps on May
Day round the effigy of Cardinal Wiseman in front of the
Eoyal Exchange. Our generation, rubbing its eyes, marvels
much at such a strange outbreak of fanaticism, not merely
on the part of ministers of religion, or of politicians with
an eye to business, but of otherwise sedate and sober men.
^ Punch had a caricature of Lord Johu Russell, as a street-boy, chalking up
" No Popery " on the wall, then running away.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 577
The nation for a time went out of its wits ; and you cannot
put, as Lamartine, I think, said of France during the Eeign
of Terror, a whole people into a strait jacket.
In that day of excitement, of fierce and furious fanaticism
and rampant bigotry, to steer a middle course was impossible
for the most judicious of men or of archdeacons. There was
a broad line of demarcation drawn between Protestants and
" Papists " ; and Puseyites were just as much " Papists " in
the popular eye as Catholics themselves, or worse ; for they
were denounced as wolves in sheep's clothing. Whoso did
not shout with the shouting crowd was a Eomaniser in dis-
guise. There was no middle path, no halfway-house, not
even at Lavington.
How "the peril and the crisis," as he described the
effects of the Gorham Judgment, affected Manning is best
disclosed in letters, in which, without fear or restraint, he
lays bare his heart, and speaks of his plans and intentions
in the immediate future. In writing to a friend so trusted
and sympathetic as Robert Wilberforce, as trials thickened
about him Manning almost unconsciously revealed the
motives which conduced one by one, and with accumulated
force, to these final acts in the drama of his life : —
Lavington, Ith November 1850.
My dear Robert — . . . My object in writing is to ask
your prompt advice on an urgent difficulty this moment arisen.
I have two requisitions to convene this archdeaconry against
the act of the Pope.
1. The course I think of is to do as I am required.
2. To let the whole proceeding pass, and at the end, to say :
That I felt bound to act ministerially in convening them, but
that I could not unite.
For, as a secular question, I thought the Acts of 1828-29
require this religious freedom ; as in Ireland and the Colonies,
so in England.
As against the Crown, no wrong is done ; the Queen has
no jurisdiction in spirituals.
As against the Church of England, I admit that it is an
aggression. But that I am convinced that the Koyal Supremacy
has for 300 years put the English episcopate in the wi'ong ; and
that it is to be righted, not by opposing the Universal Clmi-ch,
but by reconciliation on just and lawful terms. And that T
VOL. T 2 P
578 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
cannot, therefore, join in any act which does not recognise that
principle.
But I feel this to be inconsistent with the whole Anglican
position. Also it is asking for a condemnation of the Reformation.
Moreover I may be fairly asked to address our bishop,
declaring adherence and obedience to his jurisdiction. This
I cannot do.
It is like subscribing the 39 Articles again.
But if I cannot do this, how can I bear office under him, and
over his clergy 1
All this constitutes a peremptory cause, such as my last letter
supposed possible.
My own advice to another man would be this : —
1. Resign, but ask the bishop to allow you to keep your
purpose in silence, till the day of meeting.
2. Meet the clergy.
3. State openly, and in a manful way, your reasons for not
acting with them.
4. Justify your reasons by declaring your resignation.
5. Take leave of them so far as your office is concerned with
all affection.
Let me have your mind as soon as possible, Non hoc sine
Numine. The moves on the check board seem to me to speak
with the voice of a man, or rather, with a voice mighty in
operation. — Ever yours most affectionately, H. E. M.
P.S. — I felt as you did, that Allies ought to have openly
pointed out his change, and spoken more humbly. As to his
"Book," reduce it to one half, and too much remains for an
Episcopate separated from the ecclesia diffusa per orbem.
Private.
Lavington, 15th Novemher 1850.
My dear Robert — Tuesday, I was obliged to see the bishop,
time pressing, and the clergy.
I told the bishop —
1. That I was convinced of the unlawfulness by Christ's law
of the Royal Supremacy.
2. That I believed it to be the instrument which had severed
the Church of England from the Church Universal, and still
keeps it apart.
3. That this act of the Pope is the legitimate consequence —
the English Episcopate being lost to the Universal Church.
4. That I could not oppose the Pope's act, on any principle
which did not tend to restore the Church of England's com-
munion with the Universal Church.
XXVI
THE DAY OF HESITATION 579
5. That I knew the views of the clergy to be different, and
that I could not share their proceedings.
I therefore requested —
1. Either to resign at once :
2. Or, to call the meeting ministerially, and to state my
dissent and resignation.
He desired me to take the latter course, except declaring my
resignation, and desired me to consider of it.
So the case will proceed.
But I feel that my foot is in the river. It is cold, and my
heart is sad. But where faith can act, I seem to feel that the
world has subdued the Church of England to itself, and that the
Kingdom of Our Lord is not from hence. I do not say one word
to urge you, dearest Robert, God forbid ; I know your heart is
as mine, and I have gone through your present state.
Only do nothing against what may be found at last to be the
Will and Presence of Our Lord. Give me your prayers. — Ever
your own affectionately, H. E. M.
At last the storm reached even the quiet precincts of
Chichester. There was no help for it, no escape. The
Bishop of Chichester, Ashurst - Turner Gilbert, requested
by the clergy of the diocese, called upon the archdeacon to
convene a " No Popery " meeting. Archdeacon Manning
obeyed the bidding of his bishop ; but declared to his
assembled brethren, to the poignant regret of all present,
more especially of his bishop, that his calling them together
was his last ministerial act as archdeacon. It was the begin-
ning of the end. Before the close of that month of noontide
madness, that Guy Fawkes month, when Cardinal Wiseman
was burnt in effigy, Archdeacon Manning had made up his
mind to resign his archidiaconal of&ce ; and, what was harder
still, to leave his beloved church and home at Lavington.
This closing scene in the drama of his life as a minister
and dignitary in the Church of England was recorded by
Cardinal Manning in an autobiographical Note dated
1885:—
Then, after an interview with the bishop, I went to the
meeting and opened it formally, without any address. This was
noted. They then passed their address and resolutions against
the Papal Aggression. Finally, they moved a vote of thanks to
me. In ansAver, I said : that " it was the first and only time in
580 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
ten years in which I had been separated in conviction and action
from them : that I had no choice " : that " necessity Avas laid
upon me " : that " I thanked them with all my heart for their
brotherly love and the many acts of kindness and friendship,
private and public, in the ten years I had held office among
them " : that " I should never forget it or them." My dear old
friend the Dean was crying, and many others. So we ended
and parted. It was our last meeting, and the end of my work
in the Church of England ; for after that I only preached once,
or maybe a second time, at Lavington : on 8 th December, I
think, I left it and never came back.
Eobert Wilberforce never ceased to warn his friend
against taking a precipitate step ; yet he at least was of one
mind with Manning on the grave issues at stake between
Eome and the Church of England. His frequent letters
brought only sympathy and consolation. Not so Mr.
Gladstone's letters. They were challenges. He was a
formidable opponent to the step, which, at the eleventh
hour, he found Manning contemplated. His trenchant
arguments were directed with great dialectic skill against
Manning's exposition of the Eoyal Supremacy as fatal to
the spiritual independence of the Church of England. Mr.
Gladstone constructed, as Manning explained in a letter to
Eobert Wilberforce, an ingenious theory of his own in
regard to the practical effect upon the Church of the power
of the Crown.
It is more than ever to be regretted that Manning's
replies to these arguments are no longer in existence.
Genoa, 5th November 1850.
My dear Manning — Now I will make another appeal, within
the few lines which this bit of paper will contain, to you from
yourself, and from you to yourself. I reflect with undiminished
surprise upon the undermining of those historical and theological
foundations in your mind upon which you were so firmly estab-
lished in allegiance to the Church of England. Speaking thus,
of course I set aside the Gorham case, which to you I know has
only seemed to be the candle that dispelled the darkness. My
feelings came upon me in a mass, and I could not at once analyse
or understand them ; but I seem to do so now when I reflect
that you seemed to be placed upon the rock not only of con-
victions, but of the most awful experience a man can undergo,
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 581
namely, that which comes to him on the brink of the other
world.^ I do not know whether you have forgotten, I am certain
that I never shall forget, a conversation in which, after your
return from the Continent,^ you detailed to me (between the
Pimlico quarter and my house) what in communion with death,
and the region beyond death, you had not newly but freshly
learned. It was in conjunction with an increased disinclination
to dwell on corruptions in the Church of Rome, an increased
aversion to mere nationality in the Church of England, that you
most fervently declared to me, how beyond expression solemn
and firm was your assurance, brought from the region you had
then been treading, not of the mercy of God to those in invincible
ignorance, a mercy reaching to every religious profession, and to
none, but of the unmoved and immovable title of the Church
of England to her share in the one divine and catholic inherit-
ance. Have you really unlearned those lessons ? It cannot be ;
and if it were, I, for one, should have this mournful idea driven
home upon me, as I have long felt it of Newman, the destiny of
that man has been to do little comparatively for the Church of
Rome, much against the whole ethical grounds and the con-
structure of belief in Divine Revelation. But I have touched my
limit and must end, remaining always, as I trust, your affectionate
friend, W. E. Gladstone.
Num. 5 Chiatamone, Naples,
20th December 1850.
My dear Manning — I need not dwell on my disappointment
at hearing that we are not to see you here. If your resolution
to remain in England is for your own good and that of the
Church I must not grudge our particular loss. Your two letters
would have suggested matter for the conversation for weeks. On
the first I must be very brief. We are sadly, strangely at issue
on the facts of the conversation soon after your illness.
If I have any one clear recollection in my mind, it is that
your assurances then did not relate at all to God's mercy to
those who faithfully follow their light, be it what it may, but to
your perfect sense of security in the Church of England from its
objective character.
I do not appeal to consistency as such. I appeal from
sentiments which appear to me partial and (forgive me) even
morbid, to former convictions singularly deliberate, singularly
solemn, as entitled to exercise a higher authority over your
conduct in this hour (as you truly call it) of trial.
^ In allusion to Manning's serious illness in 1847.
^ Manning returned from Rome in June 1848.
582 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I in no degree shrink from your desire, that I should review
and reconsider too. As far as I know it is not one of my
besetting sins to close my mind (I do not speak of matters
immediately practical) against the light ; any demand of this
kind, moreover, from you Avould and will have a peculiar
authority, and I will readily and anxiously accept your further
aid. My train of thought this year has been little less than
a continued effort at such review and reconsideration ; but it
has brought to me no doubts as to my personal line of duty
for the present circumstances ; I still feel the foundation under
foot and see the light overhead, laws for a future as yet unde-
veloped, and big with scarcely imaginable dangers, will, I trust,
be supplied to us, as it unfolds.
I cannot think that the Church of England or its theology has
abandoned the principle of authority. In my view it is entitled to
that principle de jure, and holds it de facto in its only systematic
theology. I grant, "svith pain, it is now in debate, whether this
generation will be faithful to the traditions it has received ; it is
quite possible, God only knows, that we may witness its abandon-
ment ; from the very highest places of the Church it is gone. If
the abandonment takes place, I have the painful conviction that
it Avill be owing not to the defective law or theology of the
English Church, not to the strength or craft of the foes of the
principle, but to the errors of its friends from Newman onwards.
This may be a matter of opinion ; but it is one which, to me,
read in the history of the time, stands out more and more, day
by day, from mere colour and surface with the body and sub-
stance and relief of sheer fact. . . }
Let me above all retort your apologies for seeming peremptory.
^ In a subsequent part of the above letter, referring to Lord John Russell's
fanning the ilanies of religious bigotry by his projected " Ecclesiastical Titles
Bill," Mr. Gladstone wrote as follows : — " I am exceedingly keen to follow up
with you the first part of your last letter about the probable course of public
affairs. I think you know I have always deplored the late measures of the
Pope. Perhaps you fear lest on that account I should leap headlong into the
stream that is now setting against it and him. I can give you frankly the
assurance that I will do nothing to fan those furious flames which Lord John
Russell has thought fit to light. Further, I do not at 2)'>'cscnt see my way to
getting rid, by legislative means, of what I so much regret ; and I am little
disposed, God knows, to join in any attempt to prop the Church by such
means. Such props will bo like the sword of Saul, on which he fell ; and
will pierce to her very vitals. I would far rather make every en"ort and
sacrifice towards bringing her to a new position, and adapting her to
work in it ; but, what is the aid on which we can count ? who are the men
in the Church that will work with us ? You have a large share in the answer
to that question, whether as archdeacon or not makes very little difference. . . ."
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 583
You will believe me, I am sure, when I say that my abrupt
manner of writing only comes from the confidence of old and I
trust unchanging affection. — I remain, your very affectionate,
W. E. Gladstone.
These vigorous arguments on the part of Mr. Gladstone,
and his assumption that Manning's mind was out of balance
or in a morbid state, as well as the "jar" which Mr. Glad-
stone noticed in their last conversation on the same subject,
showed that before Manning's conversion a friction had
arisen between two men who alike could ill brook contra-
diction or controversy on facts. Manning, for instance, dis-
puted the accuracy of Mr. Gladstone's memory as to what
passed in the memorable conversation between them on
Manning's return from Eome, in 1848.
The statement attributed by Mr. Gladstone to Manning
in regard to his " solemn and firm assurance of the unmoved
and immovable title of the Church of England to her share
in the one divine and catholic inheritance," however strange
it may now appear to the readers of his letters to Eobert
Wilberforce, would not have seemed, in the year 1848,
strange or unlikely to Mr. Gladstone, or to most others of
Manning's friends and disciples. The expression indeed of
a firm behef in the sanctity and safety of the Church of
England is to be found in Manning's letters to his penitents
of a much later date.^
Manning, it must be acknowledged, was impatient of
argument, and not inclined to give a ready ear to such per-
emptory challenges as Mr. Gladstone threw down and so
obstinately maintained. It was in reference to this state
of feeling between them, that Cardinal Manning, speaking to
me of his relations with Mr. Gladstone, said : —
A breach, apart from the fact of my conversion, must needs
have come, sooner or later, between us ; for Mr. Gladstone is a
substantive and likes to be attended by adjectives. And I am
not exactly an adjective.
To so sensitive a nature as Manning's, the duty of soothing
his relatives, and seeking to reconcile them to his departure
1 See two letters dated 6th May 1850, and 11th July 1850, pp. 473 and 481.
584 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
from the Church of England, was more trying even than
his last intellectual controversies with so old and intimate
a friend as Mr. Gladstone, as they stood, face to face, almost
in antagonism at the parting of the ways. In the order of
nature it was a day of sadness of heart to Manning, all the
deeper from the knowledge that the sadness on the part of
some of his relatives was embittered by their want of sym-
pathy with the motives which actuated his conduct.
He wrote the following pathetic letter to Mrs. Austen,
who was warmly attached to him and sympathised most
with his trials : —
Lavinqton, 1 8th November 1850.^
My DEAREST Caroline — Last Tuesday I saw my bishop and
told him that I should like to go away for the winter. Until I had
seen him I did not think it right to say positively that such was
my intention. But people have settled it for me, and asked
questions ; and I find from Catherine that you had heard of it.
You would never think that I could keep anything from you.
But it is hard to keep pace with the tongues of people, and
constant work has hindered my writing to you.
My thought is to be in London 2nd December, and to go, if
I can, about the 5th. My first point would be to join Gladstone
at Naples ; and if I can I am hoping to go to Jerusalem.
I feel sad at the thought of leaving you all, for my heart
holds fast to you ; and faster the Avorse the times are. But I
shall be glad to avoid this winter ; and if I am not at Lavington
I had better be fairly away. Last winter in London I had no
rest ; and this year I have had no holiday.
My last letter, I fear, gave you no comfort. But, dearest
Caroline, I dare not betray the truth. Come what may, let me
only be faithful to Him Avhose faith and kingdom are wounded,
and, what is worse, betrayed by those who love ease and this
world ; — peace with men and popularity rather than to suffer
for His sake. I do not say this to censure them, nor to ask
your assent, but to express my own mind.
Whether I be right or -wrong in this great trial which has
come upon the face of the land. He will know that my heart's
desire is to be faithful to Him. And then all is well. " A little
while," and in His light we shall see light. And all trouble and
trial will be over. Give my very affectionate love to the Colonel.
I shall see you, I hope, in London. — Ever your attached
brother, H. E. M.
^ Private Letters.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 585
Manning next wrote to his eldest brother : —
Lavington, 2lst November 1850.
My dearest Frederick — Our last correspondence and con-
versation happily renders it needless for me to enter again into
the subjects which gave to us both so much pain. No words
will express what I have felt at the thought of distressing you
whom I have loved from my earliest life.
But where duties, especially of conscience and religion, come
in, I can never forget the words, " He that loveth father or
mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." It is this alone
that has supported, and still does support, me in the trial I have
had to go through.
I have weighed earthly happiness against what seems to me
to be plain duty, and after great and prolonged suffering my
deliberate choice is to do what I believe right, at the loss, if it
must be so, of all I love best in life.
I A\all enter into no details in which it might pain you to
follow me, and will only say that I have requested the Bishop
of Chichester to accept my resignation.
And now, dearest brother, I will ask of you one kindness.
Do not write to me more than the words that you will pray for
me.
My love to you and to Edmunda make anything more a new
pain to what I bear already.
May God ever bless you both with His abundant grace, and
unite us once more, where all are one, even as He is one.
With my truest and most affectionate love to Edmunda,
believe me, my dearest Frederick, your attached brother,
H. E. Manning. ^
Manning naturally sought to avoid controversy with a
brother whom he described in a letter to Eobert Wilberforce
as having " a way of his own."
Lavington, 26th November 1850.
My dearest Frederick — May God reward you for all your
brotherly love and sorrow for me conveyed in your two kind
letters. He alone knows how I suffer in giving you pain ;
and if anything I could do would spare you I would refuse
nothing except to act against conscience, which would grieve
you more than any errors into which I might fall.
After our meeting in the summer I refrained from writing to
you, believing that silence would be more acceptable to you than
the pain of corresponding. I would have written gladly if I had
thought it would have been according to your wish.
586 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
And now, dearest brother, all my mind shall be open to you
whensoever you desire it. And it would be a consolation to me
that you should truly know what my convictions and reasons
are.
Do me the justice to believe that no ceremonies have had any
weight with me.
But my object in this letter is only to convey my love to you.
The reasons requiring the resignation of the archdeaconry
involve also the resignation of all that I hold under the same
oath and subscription. For my future I have made no decision.
When I know what it will be you shall have an instant com-
munication of it.
May God of His infinite mercy lead you ever in the path of
peace and in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Believe me
your most affectionate and sorrowing brother,
H. E. Manning.
One of the most trying of the minor vexations which
Manning had to endure was, as the following letter shows,
from the opposition of his eldest brother. He refused to
listen to explanations. He persisted in imputing the
change in his brother's religious opinions to inconsistency.
In vain Manning urged that between his religious opinions
in 1835 and those of 1850, there was no inconsistency,
"but expansion." Mr. F. Manning could not be brought
to understand that mere expansion accounted for the change
between the Evangelical of 1835 and " the Papist " of
1850:—
44 Cadooan Place, 5th December 1850.
My dearest Brother — Our conversation last night was
disconcerted, it may be through my fault : if so, forgive me.
Let me, however, ask you to put this note with the papers in
your book of Extracts.
1. I believe that I shall satisfy you before long of the perfect
identity of principle by which my belief has been governed from
1835 to 1850, and that Avhat you thought to be inconsistency
is in truth expansion.
2. But I am so little concerned to defend myself, that I will,
for this time, grant all you say and be held inconsistent.
This would be a strong reason for self-mistrust and prolonged
examination and re-examination.
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 587
But in the matter of fad it proves nothing. It is simple
jpersonalitij.
3. The point to be i^roved is the point oi fact, i.e. that whereas
I was right in 1838-40, I am im-ong in 1850.
For instance : —
Suppose that in 1840 you had written a book to show that
the Evening Hymn was not by Bishop Ken.
And in 1850 to show that it was Bishop Ken.
If I had said " You are inconsistent," you would have said
" Granted ; but look at the facts and the evidence. I was
wrong in 1840. I am right in 1850."
If I had said " No ; you are inconsistent, I won't look," you
would say again "Granted; but look at the fact. My in-
consistency cannot alter the fact. I mistook this and that
proof ; I was ignorant of this and that evidence. I did not
perceive this or that error in my own statement. I did my sum
vyrong. Go over it and prove it. The fault is mine, but the
sum bears proof now."
This is what I -sWshed you to see.
I was making no self-defence. You shall keep me under the
harrow as a toad until I have convinced your calm sense.
"Let God be true, and every man a liar," much more let me
be scourged as inconsistent. But His Truth is not mine but
His. — Ever your loving brother, H. E. M.^
In these last days of trial. Manning found consolation
and support in taking common action with James Hope, for
friends were falling away. Hope's sound judgment and
high repute in the world as a man of sense and deliberation,
and Manning's well-known prudence and wisdom, would be
a public guarantee that their joint action was not taken in
lightness.
Lavington, 227id November 1850.
My dear Hope — Your last letter was a help to me, for I
began to feel as if every man had gone to his own house and
left the matters of the Gorham Judgment and Eoyal Supremacy.
. . . Since then, events have driven me to a decision. This
anti-Popery cry has seized my brethren, and they asked me to
be convened. I must either resign at once or convene them
ministerially, and express my dissent, the reasons of which would
involve my resignation. I went to the Bishop of Chichester
^ After Manning's conversion, liis eldest brother to the end of his life
declined all correspondence or intercourse.
588 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
and said this, and tendered my resignation. He very kindly
invited me to take time ; but I have written, and made it final.
... I should be glad if we might keep together, and whatever
must be done, do it with a calm and deliberateness which shall
give testimony that it is not done in lightness. — Ever affection-
ately yours, H. E. M.
These two letters, and especially the letter to James
Hope, show beyond doubt or question that the day of
hesitation for Manning is over, for he accepts Hope's deci-
sion that it is either Eome or license of thought and will.
44 Cadogan Place, 14th December 1850.
My dear Egbert — I have been denying myself in not writ-
ing to you, and have longed to do so.
Since we met I have done little but try to soothe my kindred.
They are all most kind, except my eldest brother, who has a way
of his own.
I have taken no steps beyond writing to James Hope, who
will, I trust, be with us through all.
My wish has been to keep perfectly quiet, and, for reading,
I have done little but De Maistre on the Pope — a wonderful
book.
I must say that when human sorrow subsides and leaves
my judgment clear, I seem to have no doubt that the Church
of England is in schism, and that the final consequences of
schism, misfortune, disorder, division, and loss of divine faith,
are upon it.
We have either bravely or obstinately shut our eyes, and
lived as if the history of the last three hundred years were either
perished or in our favour.
In truth it is notorious and against us. The reign of Edward
the Sixth and Elizabeth, and the Protestant Settlement of 1688,
ought to have opened our eyes.
Your book on the Incarnation stands alone among us, and
you had to borrow and steal to make it. The true oAvner is
over the water ; and all the consequences are living and real in
his house, but in ours do not exist. To take one example^the
altar, and all that issues from it and returns to it. I have lately
been in correspondence with Charles Wordsworth about Babylon,
and I feel convinced, with a conviction not to be exceeded, that
it has not application to the Church of God upon earth. It is
not the Civitas Dei, but the Civitas Diaholi, in St. Augustine's
sense. The words, "Come ye out of her," are enough. Of
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 589
course, you know Todd's book on Article XL Whatever he
may do positively, he has destructively overturned all the anti-
Roman use of the Apocalypse.
Indeed, I think that if you and I had been born out of the
English Church we should not have doubted for so much as a
day where the one Church is.
It is only thought for your dear wife that keeps me from
saying that I shoidd delight to come to you. Unless you think
that she would talk Avith me. I fear she thinks your two friends
Henry and Henn are Avorse than Box and his brother Cox. Is
not this true 1
1. The baptismal name expands into the belief.
2. The belief expands into the Theologia of the Catholic
Church, from St. Augustine, through the Summa of St. Thomas,
to the Council of Trent.
It has unity, continuity, harmony, integrity, and what have
we 'i Let me hear from you ; and believe me always yours very
affectionately, H. E. M.
How wonderfully beautiful is Advent, and the Lectures in
the Breviary.
Private.
44 Cadogan Place, llth December 1850.
My dear Hope — I feel with you that the argument is com-
plete. For a long time I nevertheless felt a fear lest I should
be doing an act morally wrong.
This fear has passed away, because the Church, of England
has revealed itself in wrong to make one fear more on the other
side. It remains therefore as an act of the will. But this, I
suppose, it must be. And in making it, I am helped by the
fact that to remain under our changed or revealed circumstances
would also be an act of the will, and that not in conformity with,
but in opposition to, intellectual real convictions ; and the in-
tellect is God's gift and our instrument in attaining knowledge
of His will. ... It would be to me a very great happiness if
we could act together, and our names go together in the first
publication of the fact.
The subject which has brought me to my present convictions
is the perpetual office of the Church, under divine guidance, in
expounding the faith and deciding controversies. And the book
which forces this on me is Melchior Camus's Loci Theologici. It
is a long book, but so orderly that you may get the whole out-
line with care. Mohler's SijmhoUk you know.
But, after all. Holy Sci"ipture seems to me in a new light,
as Ephes. iv. 4-17. This seems to preclude the notion of a
590 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
divided unity, which is in fact Arianism in the matter of the
Church.
I entirely feel what you say of the alternatives. It is Rome,
or license of thought and will. — Ever yours affectionately,
H. E. M.
Rome, or license of thought and will, was the intellectual
conclusion at which Manning had arrived. But something
more, something higher, was needed — the final act of the
wilL The " suggestions of flesh and blood " were still
strong upon him. Under such influences it seemed for a
time to the Archdeacon of Chichester that there was one
chance of escape ; one hope still open to him to avert or
postpone the dread necessity of taking a final and irre-
vocable step. The chance, the hope, the temptation, for
such it was, to go abroad ; to visit Mr. Gladstone at
Naples, to give ear perhaps — who knows ? — to his counsel ;
and then to travel in the Holy Land and await the course
of events. The storm might blow over or subside. The
Church of England by " a miracle of God's mercy " might
be righted or reconstructed.
The desire to escape from the storm and its effects by
going abroad, took at this time a strange hold upon his
heart. In this view, he wrote to his trusted friend and
counsellor Robert Wilberforce : —
Lavington, 16th October 1850.
My dear Robert — . . . Give me now your kind advice
for myself. I think I am fully decided to go abroad. But can
I do so without resigning ? Does not public honour require it ?
Resigning does not compel going further. But can I hold
offices of trust and emoluments without clashing with upright-
ness? Let me hear from you. Henry is still at Malines. —
Ever yours very afi"ectionately, H. E. M.
In a letter dated a fortnight later Manning wrote : " If
I go abroad I shall not see you again, missing you now.
And I am most anxious to see you."
In a letter of a somewhat earlier date Manning sug-
gested that he and Robert Wilberforce should go to Belgium,
on a visit to Henry Wilberforce, and said, " Could we not
prevail on the bishop to come ? "
XXVI THE DAY OF HESITATION 591
William Dodsworth, in his blunt way, declared in a
letter to Manning his belief that " Henry Wilberforce
would not come back from Belgium a Protestant," and that
his wife, Manning's sister-in-law, had just been received into
the Church at Malines. Two of Manning's sisters-in-law had
now become Catholics. His heart was sorrowful and much
disturbed. On the outbreak of the " No-Popery outcry " at
the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England,
Manning's natural shrinking from such a violent and vulgar
conflict quickened his desire to go abroad and join Mr,
Gladstone at Naples. Eobert Wilberforce, however, was
afraid that if Manning left England in the height and heat
of the religious storm of the day, as he had done two years
ago during the agitation against Hampden's appointment,
his conduct might be open to misconstruction. There was
no help for it. He was bound to stay and face the storm.
To Eobert Wilberforce, Manning explained, however, that
in going abroad " he would gain time for further reflection ;
relieve himself from embarrassments at home ; and if
he were deluded, which God forbid, find a locus penitentice."
What, perhaps, rather disconcerted his plans was the sharp,
challenging tone of Mr. Gladstone's late letters. In a letter,
dated December, Manning announced that he had given
up his intention of coming to Naples, as he had promised.
But in the following month, January 1851, another
change came over his mind, a last chance presented itself
of escaping from the necessity of a final decision ; and in
this hope, he announced his intention of joining Mr.
Gladstone at Naples. But it was too late. Illness in Mr.
Gladstone's family had altered his plans. He was already
on his homeward way.
Not Naples, not Jerusalem, but Eome, the " New
Jerusalem," in the overruling designs of Providence, was
Manning's destination.
What havoc and confusion the acceptance by the Church
of England of the Eoyal Supremacy in matters of faith,
wrought in the minds and hearts of men, is shown by the
fact, that men like Eobert Wilberforce and others seriously
contemplated to withdraw from the Church of England
592 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xxvi
which had betrayed the faith, not to become Catholics, but
to set up " a Free Church," as the Presbyterians had lately
set up a Free Kirk in Scotland. Robert Wilberforce com-
municated this scheme to Manning, and asked for his
counsel and help. With his practical sagacity and sense
of humour. Manning saw the futility and absurdity of the
scheme, and replied to Eobert Wilberforce : — " No, Three
hundred years ago we left a good ship for a boat; I am
not going to leave the boat for a tub." After that genial
sarcasm the " tub " was not put afloat on the deep waters.
For Manning there were but two alternatives — the
Church of England, reconstructed from top to bottom by
the special intervention of Divine Providence — or Rome.
CHAPTEK XXVII
THE DAY OF DECISION
1851
In the beginning of the year 1851, Manning had, if not as
yet legally, morally resigned his office as Archdeacon, and
his benefice. He continued to attend regularly the services
in the Church of England and to receive communion usu-
ally at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge. But he did not officiate
as a clergyman or preach. At the end of the preceding
year he had left Lavington, and stayed, as he usually did
during the winter, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Carey,
44 Cadogau Place. On coming to his new home on the day
after his resignation of his office and benefice, Manning was
seen by a " penitent " of his, who had come to meet him by
appointment, walking towards the house without his shovel
hat. The young lady was amazed — for Manning had kept
the intention of resigning his office secret — and felt
sure now that " all was over." But the ex- Archdeacon
repudiated the notion that " all was over," or that " any-
thing was over." He, however, refused to receive her con-
fession. Like so many of his " penitents," this pious
Anglican lady, following the example of her spiritual
director, soon after his conversion became a Catholic ; and
continued until liis death a friend and " spiritual child " of
Cardinal Manning's.
It was a time of great hope and joy among the Catholics
of England, for Pope Pius IX. had restored their ancient
hierarchy : and of great triumph too ; for Cardinal Wiseman,
in spite of the " No Popery " agitation, and of the threats of
VOL. I 2 Q
594 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Lord John Eussell, had taken and retained possession of
the newly-erected See of Westminster.
It was a time, on the other hand, of great disaster to the
Church of England ; for the Crown in Council had abolished
an article of the Creed ; and the bishops and the vast bulk of
the clergy had either accepted or acquiesced in the judg-
ment.-^
This practical acceptance and recognition of the Eoyal
Supremacy in matters of Faith was to the Archdeacon of
Chichester like the handwriting on the wall. The " No
Popery " agitation, in which the Protestant bishops and
clergy took the foremost part, forced home to Manning's
heart the conviction, that the Church of England was
essentially Protestant, alike in its hatred of the Pope and of
the Catholic Faith ; and in its profound indifference to the
Eoyal Supremacy in matters of Faith. The madness,
though happily short-Kved, into which England was thrown
by a firebrand Prime Minister, and by a fanatical mob — it
was scarcely better — clerical and lay, including an Arch-
bishop and a Lord Chancellor, was an additional obstacle to
Manning's submission to the Church. Unpopularity, public
abuse, had ever been to him a thing of fear; he loved with
all his heart to be held in honour and esteem by the great ;
by the Eulers in Church and State.^ Yet if he did this
thing which was before him to do, he would at once be-
come — as he thought at the time — an exile for ever from the
cultured society of England, an outcast among the people ;
his name in that day of wrath would be a mark for scorn.
He, the lover of peace, especially of religious peace, by
becoming a Catholic would add fresh fuel to the fire ; set
agoing again — a new occasion of sin — the drum ecclesiastic
' The Bishop of Exeter, in a letter to Archdeacon Manning, asking his
advice as to the most effectual course to be pursued to save the Church from
the disastrous effects of the Gorham Judgment, declared that, as bishop of
the diocese into which Mr. Gorham had been intruded, he considered it his
duty to convoke the clergy and declare to them that he could no longer hold
communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop of Exeter said :
"I can no longer attend Convocation, for the Archbishop of Canterbury
has, by his act of inducting Mr. Gorham, denied an article of the Creed
and forfeited his right to spiritual authority."
2 See Archdeacon Manning's Diary, 1844-1847, Chap. XII. p. 241.
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 595
in the pulpits of the Church, which he had once loved so
well. But since there was no way of escape permitted
by conscience, nor of delay even, Manning was too ujDright
a man, too God-fearing by far, of a temper too heroic, to
flinch from the consequences, be they what they may, of an
act dictated by faith. Were his mind once made up, rather
than deny or stifle the voice of conscience, he would have
gone to the stake with gladness in his heart and a smile
of triumph on his face.
To help in the final making up of his mind in a matter
so vital as submission to the Church came the voices of
those — his friends and disciples — who had already before
him passed, as he himself once called it, " over the Tiber."
Mr. Allies appealed to the mind of the Archdeacon, hesi-
tating and shivering on the brink of the deep waters, first, by
trenchant arguments cutting away the frail plank on which
liis foot rested ; secondly, to his conscience in the following
words : " I should dread some great misfortune if I did not
obey His call." Henry Wilberforce — the first of the three
Wilberforces who went over to Kome — spoke of the
light, peace, and joy, which filled his soul and mind in the
Catholic Church. Bellasis, an eminent lawyer, assured
Manning what peace to his soul and joy to his heart his
conversion had brought. William Dodsworth, the out-
spoken, warned Manning in bold but loving terms of the
danger of not listening to the dictates of conscience.
Laprimaudaye, last but not least, his whilom confessor and
curate, in announcing his own conversion, appeals to the
heart of his master and friend to rise up and do likewise.
How much Manning was moved by his friend's act is
shown in the following letter, by the fact that, for the very
first time, Manning does not blame or censure a friend for
becoming a Catholic :
44 Cadoqan Place, Srd January 1851.
My dearest Friend — What can I write to you ? my heart
is too full, for your sake, and for my own, I feel to have so much
share in you, that your act seems mine. God grant it be His
will ! Let me hear from you, calmly and truly, as you have
ever loved me, and been to me a brother indeed, be so now.
596 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The world Avill censure you for reckless haste. I do not. I
know the long, matui-e, and suffering preparation you have gone
through ; the haste is only external.
I long to hear how your dear wife is. Give her my love, pray
write to me. There is no heart in me for common things, but
it will not be such to tell you that I saw our friends at Bourne-
mouth at Christmas, well and cheerful, and that this morning,
Maria Wilson writes word of Samuel Marshall's sudden death.
This shocks me much.
And this is the day I first came to Lavington eighteen years
ago.
Truly it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
May God keep you both in His hands, from all evil ; and
unite you to Himself. Believe me, my dearest friend, yours in
true love, H. E. M.
Three weeks later, Manning had made up his mind to
become a Catholic ; and in the following letter, with char-
acteristic caution and reserve, communicated his intention to
Laprimaudaye : —
KippiNGTON, 28th January 1851.
My kind AND LOVING Friend — Your letter has just reached
me and touches my heart. Be sure that I feel for you with all
my heart and that your words are sacred. Long long trial of
mind tells me all that you mean.
After all intellectual processes there remains a step which can
be taken only by the will. And in this step the fears you speak
of come in.
Moreover, it is the nature (or caprice) of the human mind
that the side to which we are actually moved seems for a
time to be the weakest ; we know its weak points, and doubtful
points by contact ; and the opposite conceals its weak points
under certain prominent points of strength. I can feel this even
now ei' /xeratx/xtw between the two hosts.
No, I do not for a moment feel what some may have hinted.
I know your mind, its texture, and its convictions, and I believe
that, under whatsoever adverse appearances, the mind and in-
tellectual work has been continuous and mature.
I believe you may be at peace. You will have to bear home
trials. But if, indeed, you are united to the Mind, Heart, and
Will of our Lord in His kingdom, all will be light.
With your brother-in-law I see no duty to discuss anything.
And for your dear wife, so long as her rest is in your love all is
safe at last.
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 597
The words, that last Sunday night, I do indeed remember ;
and I believe they will never be forgotten. I am where you left
me, at least outwardly. If I do not say more, it is only from a
rule by which I have tried to govern myself — never to say what
I am not prepared to do. But I may say to you, and you
alone, that I cannot think to be long as I am now. I have been
dealing one by one with the many bonds of duty which bind me
on every side, unravelling some and breaking others. I owe
still some acts of deliberation to particular persons. When they
are discharged I shall believe that I stand before God all alone,
with no responsibility but for my own soul.
And then I trust I shall not be wanting to the inspirations of
His will.
Pray for me, dearest friend, I have been suffering deeply. But
God's ^vill be done. I did not go to your boy, and your present
letter relieves me from the fear that I had failed you in an office
of love. Let me hear from you.
Of public news I have nothing to send you beyond the news-
paper reports. There is little doubt that the Government will
prepare some restrictive measure and carry it, a thing fatal in the
end to the Church of England. Ten years will, I believe, repeal
it, and carry the English Church to a lower political position
than it has now.
I have not much to say from our dear home and flock, they
know what you have done. But Maria says they are very sorry,
and speak very kindly. What tender affections, and visions of
beauty and of peace move to and fro under that hillside where
I see it rise in memory.
Nothing in this life, except the Altar, can ever again be to
me as Lavington.
Poor old Scutt is at his rest, and I have a sort of craving
to number him still, and the lingering old of my flock, among
them that sleep before they count me their pastor no more.
But once more, God's will be done.
Give my true and affectionate love to your wife and to your
children. — Ever yours, dear brother, in His love, H. E. M.
Another call like to that of Laprimaudaye's conversion,
and Dodsworth's and Henry Wilberforce's,^ comes to Manning,
standing on the edge of the deep waters, from yet another
of his friends. Lord Campden, who had made the plunge.
In reply, Manning attributes to the " anti-Eoman uproar "
1 Henry Wilberforce and "William Dodsworth were the first two out of
the thirteen signatories of the famous Protest against the Gorham Judgment,
■who became Catholics.
598 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
his resolution to wait uo longer in obedience to others, but
to take at once the tinal step.
44 Cadogan Place, lith Jantmry 1851.
My dear Friend — Your letter has just reached me.
Rumours have already made premature statements of the step
you now announce. Clod grant it may have been His will and
guidance. I can never forget the bond which is (I will not say
was) between us, and I trust it may never be dissolved. I did
write to you directing either to Orleans or to Bourges, I forget
which, and no doubt the letter is still at the post. You do
not mention your health. I trust, therefore, that you are well.
Since we parted I have been through deep sorrow. My con-
victions had long been formed that I could not continue to hold
on, under oath and subscription, but obedience to others made
me wait. When this anti-Roman uproar broke forth I resolved
at once. I could lift no hand in so bad a quarrel either to
defend the Royal Supremacy, which has proved itself indefensible,
or against a supremacy which the Church for 600 years obeyed.
I, therefore, at once went to the Bishop of Chichester and
requested him to receive my resignation. He was most kind
in desiring me to take time, but I, after a few days, wrote my
final resignation. What my human affections have suffered in
leaving my only home and flock, where for eighteen years my whole
life as a man has been spent, no words can say ; but God gave
me grace to lay it all at the foot of the cross, where I am ready,
if it be His will, to lay whatsoever yet remains to me. Let me
have your prayers for light and strength. This has put an end
to my purpose of leaving England for the present, and therefore
to my hope of seeing you. May God ever keep you. With
my kind remembrance to Lady Campden, my dear friend,
yours very affectionately, H. E. Manning.
Were it not for the evidence contained in his letters to
Robert Wilberforce, one might almost have been tempted
to fancy, that during his protracted hesitation, Manning was
indulging in the painful luxury of not making up his mind.
The atmosphere of his new home at his sister's house, with
all its kindliness, he described at the time as very trying.
Many kind friends were raised up for him at this moment
who did not upbraid him, but even entered into the justice
and uprightness of what he had done or might do. Men
came to see him, as the Jews visited the house of Lazarus.
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 599
But Manning, as a bystander, as he called himself, saw more
clearly than ever the hoUowness of Protestantism, of
Anglicanism, saw the vision of the Church in all its glory.
There was no doubt in his soul ; his mind was convinced ;
he was waiting and hesitating only, as he confesses in
humility of heart, because of the " shrinking of flesh and
blood." ^ In the following letters the last story of his life
as an Anglican is told by his own lips : —
Pendell Court, Bletchingly,
'Ith January 1851.
My dear Egbert — I often long for a letter from you. You
see that Bellasis, Dodsworth, and Laprimaudaye are gone down
into the water and are over.
The two former I have seen, they were calm, happy and
undoubting ; the last so writes ; For myself I have been suffer-
ing more inward sorrow than anyone but God can ever know.
My love to the Church of England is the strongest affection
I have except the love of Truth. No one can say how I feel
torn and fleshed on all sides, as people were with hooks in other
days.
But my reason stands clear and stedfast.
If it were not that I feel bound to put no interval between
conviction and action, and that I am still desiring to wait if
haply an interposition of God should reveal to me that I am
deluded — I should say " I am convinced that whatever is tenable
or untenable, the Church of England cannot be defended in its
doctrine, position, or principles."
It seems to me in manifest schism from the Church of all
lands and of all ages.
And its rule of Faith seems as manifestly private reason,
judging by way of historical criticism.
I have abstained, in conscience, from censuring or laying any
stress upon the conduct of the living Church of England.
But it seems to me that it has sold itself to the world for its
endo^vments.
And its pastors have betrayed the Divine authority of
Faith — not one article alone, but the whole principle of Divine
Authority in Faith.
What Gerbet says about the coincidence had long struck me.
In the year that the English Hierarchy quailed before the
world, or wind from the wilderness came up and smote the
house at itr four corners — hoc non sine numine.
^ See letter to Robert Wilberforce, infra, p. 608.
GOO CARDINAL MANNING chap.
In truth, the more I dwell on the Anglican Reformation,
Theology, and Church, the more it seems to me to be a revolt
from the mind and Avill of our Divine Lord in the order and
Faith of His Kingdom.
And, by consequence, the more worldly, intellectual, and of
the natural man.
I cannot say how the use of the Breviary brings this out.
It is as a vesture of gold,^ wrought about with divers colours for
the presence of the Word made flesh.
All happiness be vnih you, dear Robert. Let me hear of
you. — Ever your very aflfectionate, H. E. M.
Pendell Court, Bletchingly,
22nd January 1851.
My DEAR Robert — Your kind and affectionate note is a
real solace to me ; for though, thank God, I am well in health,
and have a clear calm assurance in my reason and conscience
that I am in the way both of right and truth, yet my heart is,
as it was after a great event many years ago, sad and lonely.
I have abstained from all forward acts or communications, so
that I am in a vacuum, the support of past work is gone, and the
reality which stands out ever before me is not mine to rest upon.
In this state of suspense, which I desire to keep until I shall
have taken some time for a disengaged review of my con-
victions, I necessarily feel at times lonely and sad.
Not, I thank God, in the higher sense : this region was
never more stedfast and full of substance. And never less
Anglican for that reason.
As often, therefore, as you can send me a few words, the
happier I shall be.
You are right in the main about Newman's book. In
1837-8, I was working on the subject of the Rule of Faith;
and was convinced, with a depth which has never changed,
except to grow deeper, that Universal Tradition is the Divine
Witness of Truth on Earth.
On this I rested until 1845, but with increasing difficulty in
bringing the Church of England within the sphere of that
witness.
In 1845, I read Newman's book on Development. It did
not satisfy me ; but it opened my eyes to one fact, namely, that
I had laid down only half the subject.
^ Manning was quoting the Anglican Prayer Book, Psalm xlv. 10. The
translation is otherwise in the Bible.
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION GOl
I had found the Rule, but not the Judge. It was evident
that to put Scripture and Antiquity into the hands of the indi-
vidual is as much private judgment as to put Scripture alone.
It was only to put a word more into Chillingworth's cry
about the Bible.
Lastly, that this consciousness of the Universal Church is some-
thing more than the common reason of Christendom. It is also
the living and lineal illumination of the Divine Spirit, for
" consensus Sanctorum est sensus Spiritus Sancti."
I remember saying this to you in St. James's Square about
1846: that the perpetuity of the Faith must have a higher
basis than the individual or collective intellect of the Church.
The book which drove this conviction home to me was
Melchior Camus's Loci Theologici.
From that day to this every line of inquiry has run up into
the same conclusion.
§§ 1. The plain words of Scripture prove to me that the
Church is One, Visible, and Perpetual.
What is perpetuity in Faith but indefectibility, or, if you
will, infallibility 1 There never has been or ever will be a
moment when the Church of Faith shall cease to be One,
visible and ascertainable.
Ephes. iv. 4-16 seems to me, as Bull says, luce meridiand
clarius.
The advent and office of the Third Person of the Holy
Trinity, as given in Scripture, is also to my mind conclusive.
It appears to me that Protestants have found this so plain, and
so fatal to their case, that they have Socinianised it away. The
Church of England is Socinian in its practice as to Sacraments
and the Rule of Faith.
It sees that to be Scriptural is to be Roman.
What is Thomas Scott's "Force of Truth," but the promise
of guidance to the Church taken possession of by the individual 1
2. Next, Historical Tradition is even more plain.
The Universal Church of the first 700 years believed in
divine, infallible guidance in its office.
The Greek Church after the schism claims this as much as
the Roman Catholic Church.
No Christian denied it till Luther, after he was condemned
by the Church.
Again, mere human history would suffice — Schlegel says that
" the Catholic Church is the highest historical authority upon
earth."
What is this but the maximum of evidence as to what Our
Lord and the Holy Spirit revealed ?
602 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
This alone would convince me.
3. Lastl)', what does Reason say, but that the certitude of
revelation to succeeding ages demands a perpetual provision
secure from error ? How else can I be certain of what was
revealed 1800 years ago or even that there was a revelation at all ?
What is infallihilify, but revelation perpetuated, and inspira-
tion produced by illumination — the extraordinary by the ordinary
— the immediate by the mediate action of the Holy Spirit ?
The strange and sad words I have heard from good men
about " craving for certainty," and " uncertainty being the utmost
sphere of moral probation," are alarming for the faith of their
followers.
Is it the probation of Faith to be uncertain whether there be
a True and proper Trinity of Persons — whether there be a Eeal
Presence — or any Holy Ghost? And if not in these, why in
any truth whereby we must be saved ?
But even Morell sees more deeply and truly. His whole
Philosophy of Religion establishes infallibility. . . .
Now I did not mean to write all this ; but it lets off some of
my silent thoughts.
Yesterday I rode through Madon Park, for your sakes ; and
tried to fancy you all. It looks solitary, and of the old world,
as all things begin to do now.
Let me hear from you, and also when you are likely to be in
London that I may meet you. — Ever yours, dearest Robert,
very affectionately, H. E. M.
44 Cadogan Place, 4th February 1851.
My dearest Robert — I have just got your letter, which is
a great pleasure to me. It may only be waste of time to say
anything till after the Queen's Speech to-day ; but it seems
certain that Government will do nothing penal against Nic.
W ^ and his brethren.
What I hear about the English Church is that Ashley will
try to get royal injunctions ujDon certain points.
I do not expect any decisive act. The policy is to hold the
greatest bulk, however heterogeneous, together by indifference
and negation ; a deadly and godless policy for the Faith and
Church, because it lulls and quiets men's consciences at the cost
of truth and of souls.
I have seen Cavendish, who is much as you described him ;
unhappy, but unable to go on.
Gladstone does not come home till the end of this month. I
cannot tell you much of Bennett.
^ Cardinal Wiseman.
xxvii THE DAY OF DECISION 603
All this business^ has been incomprehensible to me, and I have
never been able to throw myself into the points in contest, so
that I have kept aloof.
James Hope is still in the north, minded much as I am.
And now, dear Robert, for you I feel very sincerely. My chief
anxiety for you is that you should not re-commit yourself in any
word, deed, or way to the Anglican system. I have felt great
help and light in the clear unbiassed position I have at this time,
and I wish you could keep yourself as near to it as your position
allows. I am so afraid of the idola trihus, or species, or lest our
position should become our conscience, which is evidently so with
many.
I trust you will always open your thoughts to me. You
know it would always be under seal ; and I know from such
long and deep experience what this trial is that I would never
press you by the touch of a finger. I deeply feel that " hcec
mutatio a dezterA ExccUi.
What you say of your wife is a great sorrow ; but have faith.
And now for a word or two on the other matters.
1. De Maistre, and the books he refers to about Vigilius, fully
satisfy me. E.g. Ballerini. So about Honorius.
2. It appears to me that Ultramontanism and Citramontanism
may be put among matters of pious opinion ; but the indivisible
unity of the Episcopatus undique diffuses is matter of faith.
Home is the focus of authority ; one makes it more, another less
intense, but all make it the focus.
3. All my argument derived from reason was abstract. Not
that derived from Scripture or from history. Schlegel's view is
altogether historical and concrete.
4. I think we forget what amount of evidence we are to look
for. We are not to expect that nothing shall be alleged against
the unity and infallibility of the Church.
Much is alleged against the evidences of Christianity, and
against the canon and inspiration of Scripture.
But the cumulative evidence is overwhelming.
And no other system can pretend to occupy the field, or
cover the base of the argument. It is this or nothing.
5. It seems to me that the prophecies cannot warn the world
against the Church of God. " Come ye out of her." To whom
shall we go ? This makes schism a divine precept, or sets up
many churches. But even then to whom shall a Tuscan, or a
Sicilian, or a Roman, go ? Is he to make a tub, or die in the
desei't ?
^ The " Surplice Riots " at Bennett's Church.
604 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
6. I should like to send you some fuller thoughts about the
cidtus Sanctorum. It seems to me to be no more than Bethany
and Nazareth 2^1'oduccd. It may have become like architecture
or music more florid, but the lines and the octaves are primitive
and immutable.
7. Allies ought to have said that he quoted Ballerini's text
of the Nicene Canons. B. justifies his text' in his edition of
S. Leo. (I am no judge of it.) I have always felt the 6th Canon
a difficulty, as implying that the Eoman primacy was ejusdem
materici vnth. patriarchates. But I feel satisfied that the focus is
an original idea, and incommunicable ; and that patriarchates are
only local machinery, not universal, for many churches were ai;To-
Kpareis under their own primates, and yet subject to the Cathedra
Petri.
8. Pendell Court is not my seat, but my brother Charles's,
who would specially like to see you there.
And so farewell, my dear Robert. I long to see you. Let
me have a few words as often as you can and will. — Ever youi's
very affectionately, H. E. M.
44 Cadogan Place, ISih February 1851.
My dear Robert — Many thanks for your interesting letter.
I wish you were in London. There are many people here
who would be glad to talk with you.
This Bill ^ has teeth in it after all, at least for the grosser
integuments of bequests and legacies. But for the spiritual part
I verily believe that it is " for the furtherance " of the Church of
God. It will stem the world's enmity as in the beginning, and
all men will see that it refuses to be either patronised or put
down.
I feel thankful that at last the Erastian spirit has found a
reality which it can neither frighten nor seduce.
Perhaps too a yoke is needed to humble and purify the
Church. As to the Breviary, I used to give it up as impossible
till I fairly Avcnt at it, and now I am amazed at myself. I
speak only of the simple and regular use, not of exceptions
and peculiar directions, Avhich can only be learned by time and
practice.
The first thing is to get a clear view of the several 2^(irts of
each service, this the rubric at the beginning of NeAvman's Tract
will give.
^ Lord John Russell's Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. In a letter to S. Herbert
Manning suggested as an amendment to the clause, Tliat it should be unlaw-
ful to assume any territorial title [" except for ])urposes purely spiritual and
religious"].
THE DAY OF DECISION 605
2
E.g. Matins C Pater.
1 J ^^^e.
^- j Credo.
I Domini Labra.
{Antiphon.
Venite.
Antiphon.
3. Hymns, etc.
4. Psalms and Antiphons.
5. Benediction and Lessons.
I got these outlines of each service, and, knowing what to
expect, found the rubrics clear. I cannot say what I feel of its
beauty. Long as the offices are, I seem never to weary. The
variety is wonderful.
As to Barrow, I seem to have no regard for destructive argu-
ments. His book ought to be called " Historic doubts on the
Primacy," which the Presbyterian avenges by " Historic doubts
on Episcopacy," and Strauss by " Historic doubts on the Historical
Christ." The utter weakness of BarroAv is shown when he writes
constructively, as in his " Unity of the Church," which in fact de-
stroys all but the name.
For this reason I feel the nibbling at details of no force.
" Nothing can stand before euA'y."
And now what think you ? Do not tell the four winds.
Peter — Mrs. Carey's Peter — has declared himself a Catholic born,
baptized, and bred till sixteen years old, and he means incontinent
to go back to them.
I really feel for my dear sister, whose horrors are sincere, but
it is not in man not to laugh.
Neither Henry nor I have ever spoken to the man, but he
opened his grief to me all at once the other night, in his bed
with a fever. — Believe me, dear Eobert, yours very affectionately,
H. E. M.
Is not the Apostles' Creed the expansion of the baptismal
formula 1
Is not the Nicene the exposition and guard of the second
division of the Apostles' Creed ?
Is not the Tridentine the exposition and guard of the third
division ?
Is not the principle of authority divine and infallible, one and
continuous throughout 1
And has not the Tridentine as the Nicene done its work per-
manently and clearly 1 What else has 1
606 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
44 Cadogan Place, 21 th February 1851.
My dear Robert — NeAvman's Tract 84, or some such on the
creed and canon of Scripture will I suppose deal with your question.
My notion is
1. That the Chnxch. potentially contained all its future decisions
from the first.
2. That its decisions became binding only when they became
actual.
3. That, until made actual, individual minds were free to use
their discernment upon the traditions of the Church.
In this way I understand St. Vincent's Commentarium, as a
guide for individuals when the Church has not decided, and
until it shall decide, but no longer.
So I understand St. Augustine Be dodr. Christ., and the ques-
tion of the canon.
There was no canon, as we now understand it, when he wrote,
for there were many.
And this throws out into higher relief the oifice of the living
Church, preserving and propounding the Faith by oral tradition.
Indeed, I know of no fiiml treatment of the canon till Trent,
when three classes of sacred books —
1. The Heb. canon,
2. The Hellenistic,
3. The Apostolical — were united in one Index.
I do not see anything needing reconcilement between the
passage you quote of St. Augustine and the office of the Chm'ch,
thus understood.
As to the false miracles, they only trouble my English pride
on the score of " common sense " and the like.
Two parallel lines of miracles, true and false, run through
the Old Testament and the New, and are prophesied until the
end.
As to the homely nature of them, the miracles of the Book of
Judges, and of Elisha, and of the Acts, to say nothing of Cana,
the gabel, the loaves, give full peace to my mind.
And now what a strange event is Lord John's fall ! No doubt
the Budget was cause enough. But it was the occasion, not the
cause. The morale of his government and of his own statesman-
ship was already destroyed. And, let those deny it who mil, he
has fallen before the Church of God. All who take our dear
brother's line will deny this, but so it is ; and the world knows
it and feels it, but will not say it as eVepov n.
It may seem that my notions on this come from the state of
my mind, but I only write what every day shows, that the
madness and wickedness of inflicting their bill on Ireland, never
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION G07
pacified or governable in civil matters, and in religious securities
above all, is without ex;im]>le among modern political blunders.
It seems like judicial blindness ; but I believe it is only bad
temper, which is Lord John's chief fault. As a statesman it is
imbecility.
And now do you see that the Times has turned against him 1
This is really preternatural baseness.
All these things warn me that the only power which over-
comes the world is Faith. And I do not believe that the Church
of England is established by faith but by the State.
Hope comes on Saturday. — Ever yours very affectionately,
H. E. M.
44 Cadogan Place, 3rd March 1851.
My dear Robert — I have met with a passage in De
Maistre's Essai svr le principe g^iiAratew des constitutions politiques,
which seems to explain a good deal, and should bear on your
question about the Sacrifice.
He lays down : —
1. Que les racines des constitutions politiques existent avant
toute loi icrite.
2. Qu'une loi constitutionnelle n'est et ne pent etre que le
developpement ou la sanction d'un droit priexistant et non dcrit.
3. Que ce qu'il y a de plus essentiel, de plus intrins^quement
constitutionnel et de veritablement fondamental n'est jamais ecrit,
et memo ne sauroit I'etre, sans exposer I'etat.
4. Que la foiblesse et la fragility d'une constitution sont
precis^ment en raison directe de la multiplicity des articles
constitutionnels ecrits (Lect. IX.).
He quotes Tacitus's pessinice reipuhlicce plurimce leges. This
seems to me to be absolutely true, and to belong in its highest
truth of application to the Catholic Church.
And it seems to me to show the fallacy of Protestant contro-
versial writers who make lists of Roman errors.
Supremacy . , . a.d. 600
Transubstantiation . , ,,1070
Confession . . . jj j?
etc. etc.
This is the reverse of fact and truth.
The points were not then first created, but loriiten.
They were not first affirmed, but denied.
Now, as to Sacrifice, it seems plain as day from St. Ignatius,
St. Irenseus, St. Justin Martyr, Tertidlian, St. Cyprian, and
then all the liturgies, that the Chui'ch believed in the propitiatory
and impetratory force of the Ova-ia, sacrijicium, etc., and that, like
608 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
intercessory prayer, its benefit had no limit but the will and
application of God. I speak from memory, but I feel sure that
in St. Cyprian and St. Augustine {De Civ.) are instances of the
eflfect of oblation or of faith in its power apart from communion ;
e.g. St. Augustine speaks of the dispossessing of a place by the
sacrifice. . . . — Ever yours very aftectionately, H. E. M.
Cadogan Place, Sth March 1851.
My DEAR Robert — I must join with you in signalising this
day. "WTiat a year this has been since the time when I came
and found you all writing letters in Maskell's lodgings.
The eflfect of that day was, I think, to set us at a point of
view from which the Church of England became an object, as it
were, external to our minds, and out of which we seemed to be
projected so as to see it from without.
And the issue of this contemplation I think is, that if the
Chui'ch have a divine polity and office, the Church of England
has fallen from it :
And that the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland, and the
Episcopal Church of England, are alike oflFspring of one and the
same principle, of the private spirit in opposition to the Divine
Tradition and lineal consciousness of the Universal Church.
This seems to me to preclude the justification you suggest for
resisting the divine primacy of the Roman See.
We are opposed not on a question of more or less of submission
but by antagonist principles. — Ever yours affectionately,
H. E. M.
In the following letter, at the close of his prolonged and
heroic wrestlings with self, Manning attributes his hesita-
tion in acting to " the shrinking of tlesh and blood, and the
vague fear of making a mistake."
44 Cadogan Place, \Uh March 1851.
My DEAREST Robert — Hoav much I wish for my own con-
solation that I could see you. Next to this your letter of this
morning has given me comfort.
Do you remember last autumn liidding me to wait six
months ? I have done so morally, and now I find myself Avith
no reason against acting but the shrinking of flesh and blood
and the vague fear of making a mistake where my whole light
tells me that there is no mistake. It is like the feeling of fear
at passing a mountain road, of the safety of which I am by
reason perfectly convinced.
1. First, I seem to be convinced beyond doubt of the nulHty
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 609
of Protestantism,^ and of Anglicanism. In i)oint of spiritual
and sacramental action upon souls, of dogma, of unity, of
certaint}', the Church of England seems to me to be out of the
sphere of the Catholic Church.
2. Next, granting for a moment your view of the small traces
of certain prominent K.C. points in the first 500 years, yet traces
there are, as in a portrait taken at five years old of a countenance
at 50. And, waiving this, which is a question of details, the
Divine institution of one organised, authoritative Witness is in
those 500 years proved by every form of evidence of Scripture
and tradition.
I send you a letter from a plain thoughtful man to show how
this strikes such a mind. Of course in confidence. . . . Ever
your affectionate friend, H. E. Manning.
44 Cadogan Place, 2lst March 1851.
My dear Robert — I -RT-ite to you as a solatium humanitatis,
which I need gi^eatly. And your letters are among my chief
comforts. I do not indeed think that we shall ever be other-
wise than we are now. Life has been saddened for me down to
the very root, the last thirteen or fourteen years of solitude, and
the last five of mental trial have, I trust, broken me to a spirit
which will keep fast by all affections. At this time I am suffer-
ing in my way as you in yours. The very atmosphere of this
house with all its kindness is very trying ; and out of it I am
fronting and bearing by anticipation what I used to forebode for
the future. The measiu-e of this is, I hope, being exhausted in
part before the time. And it is less by far than I could have
believed. Many kind friends have been raised up at this
moment who, without agreeing, do not upbraid, and even enter
into the justice and uprightness of Avhat I have done and may
do. So I believe it ^vill be "As thy days, etc." I have so
found this in time past that it is a sin in me if I doubt it now.
And now it still is fulfilled to me. And I believe will be. It
is God's way to veil His consolations till they are needed, that we
may go onward and upward in faith, and then every wind and
turn in the way brings out some new solace and even joy. So it
will be yviih you, my dear Robert, I am well assured, and your fear
and forebodings will be dispelled at the moment of meeting them.
As to Bramhall, he is very learned and copious, but seems to
me, like Lord Coke, unscrupulous. His conclusions are broader
than his premisses, as I found about the Royal Supremacy
I send 3^ou the enclosed, which I should like to have back,
to show the form into which I feel my thoughts to have settled
^ Luther's " Land of Shadows. "
VOL. I 2 R
610 CARDIXAL MANNING chap.
down with a fiill con^^ction. You will see that it is only the
outer not the inner way of treating the question, the latter being
to me still more convincing as JMohler puts it. James Hope
seems as fully satisfied with their line as I am, and we have tried
it over and over to find a flaw. AVhat a corroboration is given
by the failure and functional impotence of the Anglican Church.
I Avill mind what you tell me about letters.
Write to me when you can. — Ever yours, my dear Robert,
very affectionately, H. E. M.
An allusion in the following letter points to the fact
that Manning had for the first time attended mass on
Sunday as a matter of obligation. On the Sunday pre-
ceding, 23rd March, he had attended Anglican worship for
the last time : —
44 Cadogan Place, 29//i March 1851.
My dear Robert — . . . ?>\st March. — The first part^ I
^vrote on Saturday. Yesterday for the first time I went to what we
are wi'iting of : and no words can exjDress the sense of its reality.
I know what you mean by saying that one sometimes feels
as if all this might turn out to be only another "Land of
Shadows." I have felt it in time past, but not now. Neither
has it ever lasted a moment on reflection. The OeoAoyta from
Nice to St. Thomas Aquinas, and the undivided unity diftused
throughout the world of which the Cathedra Petri is the centre, —
now 1800 years old, mightier in every power now than ever, in
intellect, in science, in separation from the world ; and purer too,
refined by 300 years of conflict with the modern infidel civilisa-
tion, — all this is a fact more solid than the earth. . . . Ever
yours afi"ectionately, H. E. M.
In the recesses of his ovni heart, in the private records
of his Diary, in his letters to Robert Wilber force, Arch-
deacon Manning had borne witness, for five years and more,
with growing clearness and conviction, to the unity, infalli-
bility, and divine character and origin of the Catholic
Church. The time is now come at last to translate words
spoken in private into public acts ; to confess his faith in
the face of the Church which he had loved so well, but now
no longer believed in — in the face of the world. Manning
was prepared by the grace and mercy of God to make the
^ The first part of the letter was on the Real Presence, Transubstantiation,
Mass.
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 611
sacrifice from which he liad shrunk so long in fear and
trembling of heart.
What remained for him to do in reply to urgent appeals,
was to justify to friends and relatives — as he did in the
following letters — the final and irrevocable step he was
about to take.
The Duke of Newcastle, who as Lord Lincoln was
Manning's contemporary and friend at Oxford, called upon
him not to take a precipitate step nor indulge in Utopian
dreams of Christian unity. In affectionate terms Sidney
Herbert warned him against committing himself to an
irrevocable step.
Only a week before his reception into the Church,
Manning wrote to Mr. Gladstone intimating a desire to
confer with him on the step which he was about to take,
and sent him two books to read. Mr. Gladstone's answer
was as follows : —
6 Carlton Gardens, 1st April 1851.
My dear Manning — I would not wish to press upon you
for your attention, but by Mashing to speak to me, in a matter
of such moment, you have put a responsibility upon me which I
must not evade. I therefore will remark to you that your letter
of yesterday does not answer my memorandum, but passes it by.
If the two books you have kindly lent me express yom' meaning,
I cannot communicate with you upon it until it has been possible
for me to read them. If my representations are ignored, what
was the waiting to see me but another instrument of illusion ?
You meet the main statement only with a quotation from
Richils (?),^ which stands in no contrariety to it and therefore
overthrows no part of it.
Nor is my use of John iii. 8, I think, at all open to your
objections : surely I have said nothing against " a divine and
permanent order in the universal Church." To support this from
the text I must have founded myself on a supposition that there
was no fixed action of natural causes governing the winds :
which you will not suppose. What I said was this : in the
case of the individual, the " how " is concealed while the result
is known. I might have carried my use of the illustration
further and said, known not absolutely, nor always, but suffi-
ciently. I surely could not deny that the work of the Spirit is
" in a divine and permanent order," whether in the sacrament of
^ The query as to the name is in Mr. Gladstone's letter.
612 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
baptism or in the teaching office of the Church. The want of a
sensible or intelligent relation bet-\veen means and ends exalts to
my mind the office of Faith in regard to Baptism, and likewise
in regard to the maintenance of the Faith in the Church. I do
not wish to treat this mere illustration as if it were a demonstra-
tion, or anything like or near it. I admit that the words might
in some way be satisfied by supposing our Lord simply to mean
'' the facts of nature are unintelligible, therefore be not afi'aid if
revealed truths be likewise beyond the compass of the under-
standing " ; but this seems to me a meagre meaning, nor have you
alleged any reason against belieAang that they teach more, and
show that as in nature so in gi'ace we have reality and substance
of results Avhile the causation processes are hi^lden. This is
said of Baptism. I remark that it is true also of the provision for
maintaining the Faith in the Church, on my statement of it, but
not on yours.
Valeat quantum. My present point is to show that you
simjDly go past me now, as you did in my reference to the
conversation of some years back.^ Oh ! look well whither you
are going and what work you are marring, but most of all for
God's sake look whether you are dispassionately using the
means given you of holding fast or reaching the truth. — Forgive
haste, and believe me affectionately yours, W. E. G.
But there were other influences at work : other voices
speaking to Manning, calling upon him for the love of
home, of kith and kin : for the sake of human interests : by
the memory of old ties and associations, to remain in the
Church of England, or to wait at all events till the storm of
fanaticism against " Popery and Puseyism " had somewhat
subsided : when it was predicted or hoped that the English
Church might be induced to assert its independence of the
Eoyal Supremacy in things spiritual. Vain hope ! Manning
knew it to be vain. Mr. Carter of Clewer wrote an appeal-
ing letter calling upon his friend for the sake of the peace of
thousands, for his own sake, to reconsider his position and
remain in his own place as their trusted leader. Arthur
Wagner, Mrs. Pitt-Byrne, and many others in Brighton — a
place which for years had been the headquarters of the Arch-
1 The conversation alluded to was that which took place in 1848, when
Archdeacon Manning, according to Mr. Gladstone's recollection, expressed "a
firm assurance of the unmoved and immovable title of the Church of England
to her share in the one divine and catholic inheritance."
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 613
deacon of Chichester's spiritual activities — implored Maiming
not to cease to be the guide and guardian of souls : not
to depart from his ancient teaching : not to yield to the
influence of men of lesser intellect. The following letter
is but a sample of the numerous appeals from men and
women addressed in his hour of hesitation to Manning : —
Clewer.
My very dear Sir — I thank you and our acknowledged bene-
factor most sincerely for the gift which I received this morning.
My heart most truly expands to what you express ; it is the
faith in which J have lived and would hope to cling to, till I can
know as I am known. Oh that I may look to you onward
as one that may ever strengthen us in this faith ! I use no
light or unmeaning word, God knows I feel we need such, and
the more, as this Divine order which you truly describe is
violated. But after earnest thought, though without such stores
for thought as you have, I cannot see why the violence done
may not yet be remedied, or why it is more than similar out-
rage and distur])ance in past periods of the Church's sacred
course : for the divine order I faithfully believe to be the
Church of England's heritage, and to have been followed in her
better days ; and if so, will not a hopeful faith trust that yet a
little while and it may be so again ? I know not when I may
express a hope to you again ; I wonder how I can write to you
as I do, but a thought burns within me that some one should
now arise in a calm, simple, lofty spirit, to take a leading part
in urging on our aAvakened brethren the solemn need of
accomplishing the object of your Declaration, and in pointing the
way to, and forming the kind of, synod, which might be in
harmony with Catholic truth, and suiting the needs of our
Church ; and I cannot but feel why you should not be in God's
gi'ace an instrument of His hands, and do His work. Do not
let such words as Bartie's sadden you. There are many hearts
among us who do not feel so harshly and suspiciously — yet do
not measure the sympathy you have by the number of names ;
for numbers more are deterred from signing by such reasons as
B.'s, and other reasons of different people opposed to you. I
will pray humbly as I can heartily, that you may live and die in
peaceful hope within the communion of the Church of England,
wherein I know so large a part of your heart is, and where, I trust,
it may be for ever. My deepest thanks are ever due to our com-
mon Master for his gift to you. Pardon all I have said I ought
not. — Your very gratefully affectionate T. C. Carter.
614 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
44 Cadoqan Place, Zrd January 1851.
My dear kind Friend — Among many letters which this
time has brought me, none of them moved me more than
yours. All our past thoughts of sorrow gave to its affectionate
forbearance a force beyond words. But in this too I find a
consolation. You have not shrunk from opening your grief to
me, and that gives me the comfort and strength of opening my
grief to you.
In truth, my heart is almost broken. All human love, all
that makes life precious to me, except one thing, is passing or
past away.
To add sharpness to this sorrow, I seem to others to be base,
false, and a coward in the day of trial. I cannot seem otherwise.
And what have I to answer ?
I cannot resist the con\iction which forces itself upon me, like
light, on every side, that the Church of England is in a position
at variance with the Will of God : and that to uphold it in that
position is to fight against God. "When the thoixght, even the
sight, of my home, flock, and church come over me my heart
breaks, and no human solace so much as touches me. The only
one thing left is a conscience clear and at peace.
I could no longer continue under oath and subscription
binding me to the Eoyal Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes,
being convinced : —
1. That it is a violation of the Divine Office of the Church.
2. That it has involved the Church of England in a separa-
tion from the universal Chiirch, which separation I cannot clear
of the character of schism.
3. That it has thereby suspended and prevented the functions
of the Church of England so as to efface from the faith and mind
of its people the di^ane laws of unity and authority in Faith and
discipline.
But I will not attempt in a letter to detail my reasons on so
large a subject. I did so in a printed letter to the Bishop of
Chichester last July which I \nll desire Mui-ray to send you.
I have only said this much to show why I could no longer
^vithout violence to conscience and truth continue to hold under
an oath the matter of which I believe to be at variance 'W'ith the
divine order of the Church.
Beyond resigning I have taken no step ; neither am I, either
by nature or habit, inclined to precipitation.
But the tendency of my belief is manifest : and yet nothing
but a necessity laid upon me as by the will of God will
move me.
I can find no words to thank you, my dear friend, for your
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 615
affection, of which I am most unworthy. And yet if human love,
or sorrow, or any other lower motive, had held me when truth
and conscience bade mo decide, I should have been more un-
worthy still. This makes me trust that I shall not forget your
affection, and that you will remember me in your prayers.
What a life is this, and how full of griefs Avhich go through
the soul ! Thank God it is not our rest, and that we shall soon
be beyond the reach of sin.
My purpose is to stay in London (except a few visits to my
famil}^) till Gladstone's return. If you are in London in the
Aveek after next I could call and see you.
Once more my thanks, and may all consolation be with you
and your children. — Believe me, ever yours most aftectionately,
H. E. Manning.
Pendell Court, Bletchingly,
I'ith January 1851.
My dear Friend — On my return here to-day I read your
kind letter which reached me this morning.
Many and sincere thanks to you and your wife for all the
affection it breathes to me. Indeed, I return it from my heart,
and do not forget you. You say right. I have been in a deep ;
and human sorrow has all but broken my heart. No one but
God only knows what it has been ; what my only home and
flock were to me.
But my reason has never doubted of what was my duty, and
through all I have had a calm which is enough.
You kindly desire to know my future, yet I feel unwilling to
speak of what I have not decided. But this I may say : Nothing
could ever move me from the Church of England except the
conviction that it is no part of the Catholic Church.
If this conviction be confirmed, I see only one path. I say
this to show why the events of this time, prosperous or adverse,
seem to me to be secondary. The question is deeper j though
they tend to illustrate and therefore to decide it.
What you have heard of Laprimaudaye is true. And now,
dear friend, let me have your prayers that I may have no will of
my own, no leaning on self ; no following my own light ; but
that I may be led by the one only light which never errs.
Give my Christian love to your wife and trust it for your-
self. — Believe me, always very affectionately yours,
H. E. M.
KiPPlNQTON, Sevenoaks, 29th January 1851.
;My dear Friend — Thank you from my heart for your
616 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
afifectionate letter. It is very soothing to receive such tokens of
brotherly love.
It would need more than a letter to answer the points you raise
in any such way as is due to your kindness. I can therefore only
beg you to do me justice by believing that I am not hasty or
precipitate, or swayed by affections, or drawn away by the
fascination of devotions. My whole heart and mind for twelve
years has laboured in the endeavour to justify the Church of
England on its own grounds. I am not conscious of any desire
deeper or more controlling than the desire to believe our position
to be defensible. All that makes or ever has made life dear
to me is on this side.
On the other, plain facts, evidences which no one has
endeavoured to meet, appear to me to convict the Reformation
of schism.
I cannot say that the argument you draw from Andrewes and
the many good men of the Anglican Chui'ch weighs with me more
than as a caution and warning. Because, on the other side, I see
at once, More, Fisher, and Pole. And if a consensus Sanctorum
is to weigh, the line from St. Gregory the Great to St. Vincent
of Paul turns the scale.
But this is not the proper evidence. For twelve years
the subject of unity has been my chief employment. I could
with difficulty clear our position at any time. And the
grounds on which I have rested in time past are now simply
destroyed.
Long before I knew you I found them failing. Believe me,
therefore, that I ^vrite under no hasty or recent feeling.
For long years my mind has not been as you imply that
yours is on Roman points. There is nothing in them which
would disquiet me.
Your affection has drawn me to write this — more than I
intended. — Believe me, my dear kind friend, always aifec-
tionately yours, H. E. M.
Hesitation at last was over. Two months and more
had passed since Manning had said in confidence to
Laprimaudaye : " I cannot think to be long as I am now."
Two months which he had passed in reflection and in the
vague hope of God's intervention, and in pouring out his
soul to Robert Wilberforce, led up at last to his first
decisive step. In March, twelve months after the Gorham
Judgment, the Archdeacon of Chichester formally and
legally resigned his office and benefice, took an irrevocable
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 617
step in breaking fully and finally his official connection
with the Church of England. He burnt his boats.
In an autobiographical Note, Cardinal Manning related
the circumstances as follows : —
In the month of March, I think, I went into the City and
executed the resignation of my office and benefice before a
public notary j and then returned over Blackfriars Bridge and
went to St. George's and knelt before the blessed Sacrament.
It was then and there that I said my first " Hail Mary."
The end is not far off now. The event ordained of God
in the inscrutable counsels of Divine Wisdom is at hand.
Saul of Tarsus kicks no longer against the goad.
In that esoteric little chapel near the Buckingham
Palace Road, where, in those days, the elect of the
Tractarian party took part in its dim mystic services, or
hung in rapture upon the lips of Bishop Forbes of
Brechin, Manning worshipped for the last time as an
Anglican. Five or six years ago the Cardinal said —
" Shall I tell you where I performed my last act of worship
in the Church of England 1 It was in that little chapel off the
Buckingham Palace Eoad. I was kneeling by the side of Mr.
Gladstone. Just before the Communion Service commenced, I
said to him, ' I can no longer take the Communion in the Church
of England.' I rose up — ' St. Paul is standing by his side ' —
and laying my hand on Mr. Gladstone's shoulder, said, ' Come.'
It was the parting of the ways. Mr. Gladstone remained ;
and I went my way. Mr. Gladstone still remains where I
left him."
The ways of God in bringing his elect into the Church
are as various as they are wonderful. A few, like Saul of
Tarsus, find salvation by a direct call ; " a light from
heaven above the brightness of the sun ; a voice speaking
unto them " ; some by process of argument and reasoning
or of historical research ; some by the study of Ecclesiastical
Art or Mediaeval Architecture ; still more by the unconscious
attraction of Divine truth ; others by doubts and misgivings
in the Church of their baptism ; to others, again, the Divine
618 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
call comes in the form of external circumstances ; God speaks
to their souls by acts done outside of themselves ; by pro-
cesses and energies working round about them for good or
for ill.
As the toad that squatted at the ear of Eve was trans-
formed by the touch of the Ithuriel-like spear of Truth ;
so was the Church of England forced by the Sword of
Peter, in that day of turmoil and confusion, to show herself
in her true colours as Protestant to the core ; Protestant
from the crown of her head to the sole of her feet : forced
to speak, by the mouth of her bishops, priests, and people,
in her true voice. If, in accepting the Koyal Supremacy
imposed upon her by the Gorham Judgment, she showed
herself as a bond-slave of the State ; she spoke, on the
other hand, in her denunciations and maledictions of the
Catholic Church and of the Tractarian Party — " the un-
worthy sons," as she called them, in the words of Lord
Eussell, " within her gates " — of her own free will ; and
after her kind; and out of the fulness of her heart.
Walking in her liberty through the land — in all the wide
domains that owned her sway — she comported herself as a
Queen, oblivious that she was not vested in the royal robes
of the " King's daughter," but wore as a bond-slave the
livery of the State. This unnatural mother disowned the
children of her own womb, and cursed in that day of
madness, or rather of self-betrayal, not only those that had
escaped from the " House of Bondage and the City of
Confusion," but them that were yet struggling in their
bonds and striving after the freedom " wherewith Christ
has made us free." From the eyes of many in that day
of rough awakening the scales fell ; they fell at last from
the eyes of one elected for the divine purposes of God in
the beginning ; and in the vision of faith the Church of
England by her own acts and words stood revealed to him
in her true nature. His now unsealed eyes saw that she
bore upon her the fatal note of " dry breasts and a mis-
carrying womb." And he knew now, in the opening of
his eyes by the hand of God, rough in its mercy, that for
seventeen years and more he had sat a captive, not at the
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 619
feet of the " King's Daughter," as he had vainly imagined,
but at the feet of a Eebel-Queen, who had no right to the
name or title she bore : no right or claim to the robes of
the " King's Daughter ": a sorceress that had cast her spells
upon him, and had made liim drink of her cup : held him
captive, bound by her false wiles and charms, heart and
soul, to her footstool, as Merlin was bound to his forest
tree by the spells and wiles of Vivien.
The last stage in this long pilgrimage from Lavington
to Eome had yet to be reached. His "last act of reason
and the first act of faith" was in abjuring the claims of
the Anglican Church.^ Another act had yet to be done ;
another wrench suffered; another break with his old life
and faith. Saul still kicked against the goad. Arch-
deacon Manning could not bring himself to believe, that he
was not a priest. After five hours' discussion with the
Eev. M. A. Tierney, at Arundel, on the validity of Anglican
Orders, in which he believed, to use his own words, " with
a consciousness stronger than all reasoning," the " late
Archdeacon of Chichester," with eyes aflame, in one of
those " Berserker rages," not very uncommon in Archdeacon
Manning, and, perhaps, not altogether unknown in the
Cardinal - Archbishop — rose up and said : " Then, Mr.
Tierney, you think me insincere."
Never, I verily believe, since the days of Saul of Tarsus
have any of the sons of man wrestled so obstinately, or so
long, with the Lord. Never was a nobler wrestling, if I
may so speak, because of his implicit faith and trust in
the Lord, more nobly consummated than by the absolute
submission of his heart and soul to the Divine Will.
One heart- wrench the more; a last break with all the
traditions of his life ; a last humiliation, terrible to such a
nature as his — the confession to himself, that all his life
long he had been only a simple layman ; and all was over.
His hour is come ; God's battle is won ; and the end is
this : " I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord."
1 "The last act of Keason is the first act of Faith," was a proposition
which Cardinal Manning had laid down in a private letter to Mr. Gladstone
on Faith and Reason.
620 CARDINAL MANNING
Arciideacon Manning's Eeception into the Church.
Manning's first letter, on the very day he was received
into the Church, was to Robert Wilberforce : —
14 Queen Street, Mayfair,
eth April 1851.
My dear Egbert — You will not be surprised that I now tell
you of the step James Hope and I have this day taken. With
the fullest conviction, both of reason and of conscience, we have
sought admittance into what we alike believe to be the one true
fold and Church of God on earth.
Pray for me that I may be thankful for the peace which
overflows even in the midst of human sorrow. So it must be,
for so He foretold ; but all is well if we may do His Avill and see
His face at last.
Give my Christian love to your wife. And may God be with
you, my dear Robert. — Ever yours most aflfectionately,
H. E Manning.
A fuller account of his reception is contained in the
subjoined letter to Robert Wilberforce : —
Private. Queen St., Mayfair,
Tuesday in Holy Week, 1851.
My dearest Robert — I have wished to write to you but
have been much hindered.
The thought of seeing you again is much comfort to me.
And remember my promise ; I will not say a word of argument
to you. Even I will not (for I feel I cannot) write as I did a
few weeks ago, partly because my own mind is at rest ; and
partly because I so respect the trial of yours that I shall only
follow your leading.
You wiU, perhaps, -wish to hear somewhat that has befallen
me.
On Passion Sunday, after Sacramental confession, Profession
of Faith, conditional Baptism, and absolution, I went to the High
Mass.
Hope was received at about 3 o'clock the same afternoon.
Palm Sunday we were confirmed, and communicated in the
Cardinal's private chapel ; and by his desire I received the
tonsure. He has expressed his wish and intention to proceed
without delay, and at Whitsuntide to admit me to the Priest-
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 621
hood. He said that it was his decision and act on his own
responsibility, not at mine or my seeking.
I requested that I might afterwards take a full time for
exact study, and abstain for some while from any responsible
employment. To this he assented.
I am much impressed by the hard work which is going on in
the Roman Catholic Church ; and the hold it has on people of
all degrees is beyond all I thought.
I am living alone here, near the Jesuits' Church ; the services
of which are most consoling.
And now I will say nothing yet of my own mind, except that
I have more than I ever asked or thought. A letter I wrote a
month ago about a sort of overflow, diff"erent in kind from
argument, was more true than I then thought. May God keep
me watchful in His holy fear. Pray for me, dear Robert, that
I may be kept in His grace, and not lose it by my own sin,
then all is well, and more. May every one dear to me share this
gift.
Let me hear from you. I think you will find Badeley glad
to see you.
May God ever bless you and reward you for all your love to
me, — Ever yours very affectionately, H. E. Manning.
On the next day he wrote to Mrs. Laprimaudaye, who
had not as yet, as her husband had, become a Catholic.
The Laprimaudayes were at Rome.
3 New Bank Buildings,
^th April 1851.
My dear Sister in Christ — A few words I must write to
you, and they through you will be to your dear husband.
Yesterday, by the mercy of God, I entered the one true fold
of His Son.
Deeply do I feel what you have sufi"ered, for I have suffered
the same. I cannot trust myself so much as to speak of my
beloved flock and home ; and I know the spiritual fire which
penetrates every affection of the heart by love and by fear in
this great furnace.
But He has led me through, and I am in peace : my reason,
conscience, and heart filled to overflow.
Do not goad or press yourself beyond your speed. He will
in His own good time unite your whole soul in all its power to
Himself, and then you will have no fear, but a calm, sure peace.
I trust this may reach you before you leave Rome.
At this time I can write little : only my love and thanks to
622 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Charles — and the great joy Avith which I trust in God to greet
you both again. — Believe me, ever yours aflfectionately in J. C,
H. E. Manning.
To Sidney Herbert, the day after he was received into
the Church, Manning wrote as follows : —
14 Queen Street, Mayfair,
1th April 1851.
My dear Herbert — My words in our last conversation will
have prepared you to hear that the time of waiting and reflection
in which I then was, has ended in a decision which separates me
from all I have most loved in life.
On that decision I acted yesterday.
Never, that I can remember, has anything cost me such
suff"ering, but never have I acted with so full and unchanging
conviction both of reason and of conscience.
It has been a great solace and help to me that James Hope
has gone step by step with me to the end of this trial.
And now I will use no more words than to say one thing
which I have delayed till now. My not coming to you has
been intentional.
I felt that it would spare us both. My aff'ection will never
be lessened towards you ; but something higher I trust than
mere feeling makes me say to all my friends, that I have dis-
solved all obligations on their part. And that I shall never
look for any renewal of their communications, nor make them
on my part, though I shall receive any expressions of their
affection as a new gift ; and return them with joy.
May all blessings be with you and yours. Give my Christian
and affectionate love to your wife ; and believe me, my dear
Herbert, ever your attached friend, Henry E. Manning.
Manning, in the fulness of his heart, sent the following
note to James Hope, who was received with him into the
Church.
14 Queen Street, 1th April 1851.
My dear Hope — \Yill you accept this copy of the book you
saw in my room yesterday (the Paradisus Animce), in memory of
Passion Sunday, and its gift of grace to me? It is the most
perfect book of devotion I know. Let me ask one thing. I read
it through, one page at least a day, between 26th June and the
22nd August 1846, marking where I left oft' with the date. It
seemed to give me a new science, with order and harmony
and details, as of devotion issuing from and returning into
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 623
dogma. Would you Imrden yourself with the same resolu-
tion 1 Yes, do it for my sake, and remember me when you
do it. I feel as if I had no desire unfulfilled but to persevere
in what God has given me for His Son's sake. — Believe me,
my dear Hope, always affectionately yours, H. E. M.
On the day before he was received into the Church, Man-
ning informed his eldest brother of the step he was about
to take, and explained the grounds of his belief and conduct.
14 Queen Street, Matfair,
5th April 1851.
My dear Frederick — At the end of our last conversation
you asked me a question as to my Faith, to which I then did not
give any reply, as the time during which I had resolved to wait
in deliberation was not expired.
I am able now to give the answer ; for which, as your letters
have shown me, you have been prepared.
It would hardly satisfy the brotherly affection I feel for you,
if I were not to state simply the grounds of my belief and con-
duct. But I will confine myself to making intelligible the
reasons of my convictions.
I believe that at the Reformation the Church of England
ought to have been purified, but ought not to have been divided
from the universal or Catholic Church.
By that division it became national instead of universal, and
Protestant instead of Catholic.
In our Baptismal Creed we acknowledge the Holy Catholic
Church : and thereby acknowledge the law of unity Avhich, I
believe, we have broken.
I have long believed that it is the duty of the Church of
England as a whole to cease to be National and Protestant and
to become Catholic again by returning to the unity and authority
of the universal Church. For this retiu-n I have hoped, prayed,
and laboured.
Belie^^ng now that, instead of returning, the Church of
England is departing further and further from the unity and
authority of the universal Church, and that the law of subscrip-
tion to unity and authority binds every person who has been
baptized, I am in conscience bound to submit myself to the
Catholic Church.
In coming to this decision I have used all the means and
helps Avithin my power : I have taken the judgment of all who
I thoiaght could help me, and I have for many years prayed for
guidance from God.
G24 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
I may indeed err, but He knows that my motive is single and
sincere.
It is my intention therefore to act upon this decision to-
morrow.
And now, my dearest brother, I ask your prayers for me.
The more you may think me in error, the more you will pray
that I may be kept from evil.
I will only say that, through God's mercy, I am in calm and
peace, sorrowing only with a human sorrow, and for the sorrow
which I am causing to those I love so deeply.
May God be ever with you both. With my affectionate love,
believe me, my dearest Frederick, yoiu* attached brother,
H. E. Manning.
14 Queen Street, Matfair,
I2th April 1851.
My dear Frederick — I am very thankful to you for your
letter, and for the promise that you will remember me in your
prayers. However we be separated otherwise, in this we shall
still be united. . . ,
I did not in any way disclaim you, my dear brother. God
forbid. I have always and always shall cherish every remem-
brance of you with affection and respect, as I said when we spoke
together.
I said that when men are in middle life the inequalities of
age, by a law of nature, pass away. We are each one solely and
finally responsible to Him who at the last day will judge us.
This was the substance and intention of my words.
In answer to a letter of Manning's announcing his con-
version, the Duke of Newcastle wrote as follows : —
Clumber, llih Ap-il 1851.
My DEAR Friend — Preparation for the last blow of sorrow
does not, as I have long since learnt, diminish the severity of it
when it really comes, and though your last most amiable letter
to me left me no hope — your announcement that you no longer
belong to the Anglican Church has filled me with grief such as
no similar event has ever occasioned to me before.
You say that your chief trial now is the loss of friends dear
to you, and the sorrow you give them. Of the latter I cannot,
and (from my heart and conscience I say it) I would not if I
could, relieve you, — but in me at least you will find no loss of
friendship. I mourn over what I must think the great error of
a pure and noble mind seeking the true light, but I cannot cease
xxvii THE DAY OF DECISION 625
to love and admire the man who makes the sacrifices which I
know you have, in obedience to what he believes to bo right. I
shall ever cherish the recollections of the past — I shall think of
what is now the present with sorrow too deep to be mixed with
bitterness or sectarian heat, — and for the future I pray God that
you may not be changed as others have, and that you may carry
into the Church which has received you that spirit of pure,
Christian, universal love and charity, which has made you one
of the brightest ornaments of that which has lost you. Certain
I am, there are many attached friends who will still cling to
their love and respect for you — I dare not contemplate the day
when a difference of faith may dissipate those feelings which you
now bear towards them.
Alas ! I fear you little know what thorns your secession from
amongst us wall strew in the paths of those who have hitherto
laboured -nnth you, or the impulse you will give to that spirit of
Puritan hatred which is fast reviving in the land — but all this I
must not expect you to care for now — I have always feared your
aspirations for " Christian Unity " were too Utopian, but at any
rate I cannot doubt that the conversion of two such men as
yourself and James Hope must make more hopeless than ever so
blessed an event.
May God ever bless you, my dear friend ; and may we, though
now pursuing different paths, meet in that day when the truth
shall be revealed to us all. — Believe me, ever affectionately and
truly yours, Newcastle,
Forgive me if I address my letter as heretofore. Believe me
I do not do so inconsiderately, much less unkindly.
The following letter to his sister, Mrs, Austen, bespeaks
the deep affection which existed between Manning and his
nearest relatives : —
14 CuRZON Street, Wth June 1851.
My very dear Sister — You know me so well that if I
were not to tell you in words you would not doubt that I enter
into every word of your letter. I wish you and my dear
brother to know that my own circumspection for you in your
relations to both kindred and friends would make me keep
aloof from you. It is the clear and free judgment of my own
heart for you both, and I feel that our love, which nothing can
change, will be best cherished by my denying myself in every-
thing which would bring upon you the embarrassments insepar-
able from the present private and public state of feeling among
those round about us.
VOL, I 2 S
626 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Let me say to you both, Never let a thought cross you for
my sake. My confidence in your too great love is beyond
change. It would sadden and disquiet you to imagine or to be
straining points for my sake. I should have no happiness in
it. For me it is enough to know how we love each other, and
that wheresoever we can meet on neutral ground, our love,
notwithstanding private feelings and a consciousness of a certain
change of relation, will be heartfelt and sincere.
Indeed my saddest feeling often is, that you two, who have
done so much for me, may feel that your love and generous care
for me have been throAvn away : and that I am unworthy, if not
even unthankful. It is the Will of God that I should bear this
for a time to humble and to chasten me : and I will bear it, by
His grace, with gentleness and even acquiescence. But the time
will come, if not here, in a better and a truer world, when you will
see that not a word or act of your love has fallen to the ground.
Read this to the Colonel with my brotherly love.
When you come to London you will find me here ; and my
kind friends give me only too much comfort, so that I can
receive you whenever you are able to come. It will indeed be
great pleasure to see you. . . .^
May all solace and hope and filial trust in the love of our
Heavenly Father be with you, my dearest sister. Believe me
ever your attached brother, H. E. JNI.
Bishop Wilberforce, on his first visit to Lavington after
Archdeacon Manning's conversion, wrote to Hon. R.
Cavendish as follows : —
Lavington, lOth June 1851.
My dear Cavendish — We came here yesterday, and return
(d.V.) to-morrow. It is a sad visit. The glory of our beloved
little church is departed. The Heavens weeping over us, and
^ In a passage of the above letter, Manning referred to his sister Maria and
his brother-in-law John Anderdon in the following terms : — "I have deeply
felt for dearest John and Maria. They have had a strange and sudden burst
of anxiety and sorrow in the last eighteen months. After a long life, not
bright except in its first few years, but yet always peaceful and unusually
free from home sorrow, it has pleased God to begin His work of love with
great speed. But I can never condole. The conviction is so deeply \Aa-ought
into my reason and faith that sorrows are signs of God's love, and the more
sorrow the more love, the sharper and speedier the more blessed and the
more perfecting, that I can only look at them as on their way in the path
of eternal life, with tokens of grace multiplying as they go on.
"We live too little by faith, and look at this world as if it were the end,
and not the beginning, of our way and life."
XXVII THE DAY OF DECISION 627
the trees dropping round ns, seem acted parables of our thoughts.
Twenty-three years ago to-morrow, and the sun shone on me, as
I came out of that church the most blessed of bridegrooms,
having won her whom I had loved, as few love so young, ever
since the vision of her beauty enchanted my early boyhood.
How has wave followed wave from that day to this ! Oh, and
how have mercy and loving-kindness, and forbearance, and
compassionate forgiveness been multiplied and abounded upon
me year after year ! ^
lu the same year Bishop Wilberforce, much alarmed at
Manning's conversion, wrote to his brother Eobert : — " Great
love to Jane. I trust to her to keep you from being led
away by Manning's subtleties." ^
Mr. Gladstone's recent letters, though written in friendly
terms, had been in substance so defiant and challenging as
to induce ]\Ianuing to abstain from provoking controversy
afresh by giving an explanation of the reasons which had
led to the step he had taken. Indeed, Manning communi-
cated the simple fact of his impending conversion, on the
suggestion of Kobert Wilberforce, to Mr. Gladstone. His
reply was sharp and critical. These letters were the last
word that passed between Manning and Mr. Gladstone.
All intercourse between them came to an end ; not to be
resumed until after long years.^
In the autobiographical Note, from which I just now
recited the resignation of his archdeaconry and benefice,
Cardinal Manning gave an account of the final steps
which led him out of his Anglican life into a higher life —
the life of Faith in the Catholic Church : —
On 6th April 1851, Passion Sunday, Hope and I went to
Father Brownbill in Hill Street and were received. I, before
High Mass, and he after it. So ended one life : and I thought
^ Life of Bishop Wilberforce, vol. ii. p. 51.
- Jane, Robert Wilberforce's wife, had as great a dread of ' ' secession " as
the bishop.
' Speaking of Mr. Gladstone's attitude towards himself, Cardinal Manning,
in 1885, said : — " In illustration of how deeply aifected he was by my conver-
sion, I will tell you what Mr. Gladstone said to a friend — 'On hearing ol'
Manning's secession from the English Church, at the time I felt as if ho
had murdered my mother by mistake. ' "
628 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xxvii
my life was over. I fully believed that I should never do more
than become a priest ; about which I never doubted, nor ever
wavered. But I looked forward to live and die in a priest's life,
out of sight.
I Avent to St. George's and saw the Cardinal — he fixed to
give me confirmation and communion the following Sunday.
And I forget on what day I received the tonsure.^ He then
told me he had decided to ordain me priest Avithout delay ; and
that he did so with the knowledge and sanction of Rome. I
begged that, in that event, he would allow me after ordination
to have the same time I should have had before ordination,
for reading and study. This was settled, and I went to Rome
in the October folloAving. So far was this early ordination from
giving displeasure in Rome, that Cardinal Franzoni gave me the
faculties of a missionary apostolic on my return to England in
May 1852.2
' In the first page of Manning's Diary, 1851, are the following notes : —
2ith March. — Eve of Lady Day, St. George's, Southwark, Capucin. Com-
pline, Sermon and Benediction.
2bth March. — Executed resignation of archdeaconry and benefice.
4<A April. — Went to 14 Curzon Street.
bth A])ril. — Went to Father Brownbill with Hope. St. George's, Cardinal.
6</i April. — Passion Sunday, 9^ a.m., was received at High Mass. Hope
received, 3 o'clock.
IWi Aiml. — Palm Sunday, Confirmation. Tonsure. First Communion.
Minor Orders. Sub-Deacon. Retreat. Deacon.
Trinity Sunday. — Priest.
- Manning's receiving Holy Orders in so short a time as ten weeks after
his reception into the Church gave rise to rather severe criticism on Cardinal
Wiseman's precipitancy. And it was alleged that Rome would disapprove
of so rash a step. But Wiseman was large-hearted and s}Tnpathetic, and
spared Manning, who was sensitive on the point, the humiliation of remaining
a layman longer than was absolutely necessary. A week after his conversion,
therefore, he received the tonsure. The faculties, bestowed on the Rev. H.
E. Manning by Cardinal Franzoni, were, however, the ordinary faculties con-
fen'ed on every priest on entering the mission, by the bishop of the diocese.
Like faculties as those conferred by Cardinal Franzoni would have been given
to Manning on his return to England by Cardinal Wiseman.
CHAPTEK XXVIII
AN AFTEEMATH SUMMEK AND AUTUMN 1851
Manning's conversion took men, who thought they knew
him well, by surprise. His own bishop, Gilbert of Chichester,
was totally unprepared for such an event. Phillpotts, the
Bishop of Exeter, who had been in close and constant con-
sultation, before and after the Gorham Judgment, with
Manning, was so taken aback by surprise as to declare in
his anger, " Manning's secession is a public disgrace." Arch-
deacon Hare of Lewes, who for ten years and more had
been on intimate terms with his brother Archdeacon of
Chichester, and in close and friendly correspondence on
religious questions, had not the slightest misgivings as to
Manning's belief in, and devoted attachment to, the Church
of England. In spite of their religious differences — for
Archdeacon Hare was an Evangelical of the Evangelicals —
he paid — in a charge delivered at Lewes in 1852, a just and
generous tribute to Manning's disinterested sincerity, high
character, and holiness of heart. Mr. Gladstone, as I have
already shown, resented Manning's act as inconsistent with
" his former — his recent self " ; inconsistent with an avowed
intention of standing by the Church of England to the last,
in the hope and purpose of saving it from the fatal effects
of the Gorham Judgment. But all these men, even Mr.
Gladstone himself, w4io thought they knew Manning well,
only knew half his mind. But they who knew his whole
mind, heart and soul — and for years — men like Eobert
Wilberforce, and Laprimaudaye, and Henry Wilberforce, and
William Dodsworth, and Mr. AUies, knew likewise that far
G30 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
from acting with precipitancy, or in a manner inconsistent
with the principles he had at heart, Manning had consumed
himself, as it were, by a prolonged and painful delibera-
tion, before he could make up his mind to take the final
step.
His prolonged wrestlings with himself were not over in-
tellectual, but moral difficulties. His intellect had been long
satisfied and subdued, but not his will. In 1841, when he
became Archdeacon, he was conscious, as he has told us in
his Diary, of a desire and dream of influence. But Manning
never was a mere dreamer : his dreams and desires took
definite form and shape. His was a forecasting mind, pre-
paring beforehand means most adapted to shape his ends.
At the time of Newman's conversion, Manning was still a
firm believer in the English Church. He was afraid, as
he wrote to Mr. Gladstone at the time, that the Church of
England would split asunder. To avert, if possible, such a
calamity was the highest and the noblest of duties. Manning
saw his opportunity. He was of a masterful spirit. He
had a singular and supreme confidence in his own powers —
in his judgment in conceiving a design ; in his will for
carrying it out. Having once made up his mind, he took
counsel of no man. Another strong point in his character
was, that though patient in waiting for the removal of
obstacles, he rarely if ever gave up plans he had once formed.
To maintain unity in the Church of England, by conciliating
the more moderate men on either side, was, from a human
point of view, a noble ambition, deserving of the highest
reward a grateful Church could bestow. From a religious
standpoint, which was the consideration ever prominent in
his mind, it was the most sacred of duties, as Manning was
convinced, heart and soul. Was not the preservation of
unity in His Church such a work as was well -pleasing to
God, and conducive to the salvation of souls ? Ambition,
unlike that grosser kind which filled the soul of his brother-
in-law Bishop Wilberforce, came to Manning's mind in the
subtler form of a desire to become an active agent, if needs
be as bishop, in securing a supreme spiritual blessing for
the Church of England. But in the recesses of his soul
XXVIII AN AFTERMATH 631
Manning was ill at ease. His sensitive and scrupulous
conscience was troubled. In his Diary, at the time of his
temptation, he wrote : —
Is this prospect, desire, or hope of elevation, another tempta-
tion to secularity 1 or does God intend by it that I should rem.'iin
here (in the Church of England) to preserve unity in the Church ?
No man can help me.
Manning had not as yet committed himself to any such
public action as to preclude his elevation to a bishopric.
He had taken no public part — he was absent in Eome —
in the final opposition to the appointment of Dr. Hampden,
whom, with vulgar insolence, Lord John Eussell had thrust
as bishop on a reluctant Church. That Manning had con-
demned Dr. Hampden in the most sweeping terms was,
however, unknown to the world, to the Bench of Bishops, and
the Government. The Archdeacon of Chichester was known
of all men as a zealous High Churchman ; yet he was known
to the ecclesiastical authorities as an active opponent to
" Eomanism," as was his brother-in-law Bishop Wilberforce.
Manning, too, was not a greater High Churchman than
Archdeacon Ker Hamilton, who was appointed, a year or
two after Manning left the Church of England, Bishop of
Salisbury.
Several years before this time, in the ordinary course of
ecclesiastical patronage, at the solicitation of his brother-in-
law Bishop Wilberforce, Manning was offered the Sub-
almonership to the Queen, in the gift of the Archbishop of
York. After a severe inward struggle, with tears, as it were,
of the heart. Manning, from conscientious motives, refused
the gift. Most Churchmen of the ordinary type would,
there is no doubt, have jumped at the offer.
Manning now gave up ambition even in its subtler form :
not this time from fear of secularity, but because he had
lost all faith in the Church of England.
To Mr. Allies, announcing his intention, after the Gorham
Judgment, of becoming a Catholic, Archdeacon Manning
replied : " Samuel waited till God called him three times.
This is not your third call." It was indeed not Manning's.
632 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
His first call was the Hampden appointment ; the Gorham
Judgment the second ; and the third call, as he wrote to
Lord Campden on 14th January 1851, "this anti-Eoman
uproar."
Manning's conversion had in one sense no human con-
solation. The fierce intellectual struggles, the painful ques-
tionings and searchiugs of a thinker in his pursuit of truth ;
in his search after light, receive, in the discovery of the
Divine light of Truth, full satisfaction and ample compensa-
tion. Such a thinker, such a student, suffers no break or
interruption in his pursuits or studies ; but finds an added
intellectual light, fuller guidance, in the Catholic Church.
Manning, however, was not a student or profound thinker,
but a man of action. Work, public action, influence, fellow-
ship with kindred minds, the esteem of men, were to Man-
ning as the breath of his nostrils. All this was lost to him
on leaving the Church of England. Like Othello, liis
occupation was gone. His world knew him no more. His
life, as he said, was over. No wonder, in the anguish of
his heart, he cried out to Eobert Wilberforce, " After this I
shall sink to the bottom and disappear." For such a sacri-
fice there was no human compensation. It was the undoing
of all his past life, as sad as it was heroic.
His was a very human and very pathetic story. At the
age of forty-four he had to begin life anew — a stranger among
strangers. If, as a man of action, he must needs work, he
would have to begin work again, as it were, at the plough-
tail. In that day of desolation there was no room for ambi-
tion. He verily believed that his ambition was buried in
the Church he left behind him. His sole thought was to
live as a simple priest in the love and fear of God.
But that such a man as Manning, as he had said in his
despair, " should sink to the bottom and disappear " is not
in the nature of things. In becoming a Catholic a man's
nature is not changed ; but, if so be, only purified and
exalted. In time, after feeling his feet, and surveying with
far-seeing eyes the lie of the strange land in which his lot
was cast, and watching and noting the drift and current
of things, it would be strange and unnatural to suppose
sxviii AN AFTERMATH G33
that, in such a character as Manning's, self-assertion would
not once more make itself felt.
Eome, too, it must be borne in mind, offered to a man of
restless energies and brilliant abilities a larger field of action
than the Church of England — larger hopes, larger aspira-
tions, and, if so be, larger ambitions.
But spiritual consolations abounded ; spiritual joys flowed
into Manning's soul and wrought peace in his troubled heart.
Spiritual blessings were given to him as reward of his
obedience to the Divine will.
Manning, within ten weeks of his reception into the
Church, received Holy Orders at the hands of Cardinal
Wiseman in his private chapel on the Saturday in Whitsun
Week, 14th June 1851. After the ceremony. Cardinal
Wiseman, in the fulness of his heart, embracing Manning
said : —
I look upon you as one of the first-fruits of the restoration
of the Hierarchy by our Holy Father Pius IX. Go forth, my
son, and bring your brethren and fellow-countrymen by thousands
and tens of thousands into the one true Fold of Christ.
Wiseman was of an enthusiastic temperament and
sanguine in his hopes for the conversion of England. That
High Mass should be sung once more in Westminster
Abbey in our day, even if he himself did not live to sing it,
was the height of his ambition. He had high hopes of
Manning as a fellow-worker in this fruitful field. Cardinal
Wiseman, happily, lived long enough to see Manning bring-
ing multitudes of his friends and fellow-countrymen into
the Church. The greater part of the Sunday intervening
between his ordination and the saying of his first Mass he
spent at the Oratory, where Father Faber carefully explained
to him the rubrics and ceremonies.
On Monday, 16th June, Manning said his first mass in
the Church of the Jesuits in Farm Street ; P^re Ravignan, the
celebrated French Jesuit, who at the time was delivering a
course of sermons at Farm Street, acted as assistant priest
After mass, the congregation, among whom were many of
Manning's personal friends and late disciples, according to
634 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
custom, kissed the open-spread hands of the newly-ordained
priest.
It was arranged by Cardinal Wiseman that Manning
after his ordination should go to Eome and enter upon his
theological studies and training. But out of consideration
for his health he was advised to avoid the summer heats of
liome. In consequence, his leaving England was postponed
to the autumn.
Manning's conversion made no break in his intimacy with
Kobert Wilberforce, nor was their correspondence interrupted.
But this was a solitary exception. All the rest of Man-
ning's friends and fellow-workers in the Anglican cause stood
aloof from him. He lived as an alien in their midst;
became an exile in his own land. His brother-in-law, the
Bishop of Oxford, knew him no more ; often spoke bitterly
of him. Mr. Gladstone's friendship came to an end.
Speaking of this first breach of his friendship with
Manning, Mr. Gladstone said : —
Our common bond was interest in the Anglican cause. It
was the breath in the nostrils of our friendship. We had
nothing else in common. Manning never spoke to me of his
friends. When he became a Catholic, om* friendship died a
natural death.
Archdeacon Harrison, whose intimacy with Manning,
dating from their Oxford days, was of the closest description,
shrank from him, not out of ill-feeling indeed, but in fear of
his influence. His own, and other bishops, of course, knew
him no more. Ker Hamilton who, instead of becoming
Catholic, became Bishop of Salisbury, neither saw him nor
wished to see him until too late, on his death-bed. Pusey,
and Keble, Bennett of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, Mr. Carter
of Clewer, and Hare, the Evangelical Archdeacon of Lewes,
and the rest of Manning's friends, turned away from him ;
they and their little world knew him no more.
Speaking, a few years before his death, on this subject,
Cardinal Manning said, not only in reference to members of
his own family, but to his friends and fellow-workers in the
old days : —
XXVIII AN AFTERMATH 635
I left them, not they me. I went over the bridge : they,
too many of them, stayed behind, I did not consider it right or
proper, or comporting Avith the dignity of the cause I represent,
by making advances, to subject myself to a rebuff. But I met
more than half-way those who held out a hand to me. We
parted : they held aloof from me ; but not one, I truly believe,
of my friends in those days of trial bore ill-will against me per-
sonally, or even resented my quitting their side. They avoided
me, because they were in fear of my influence over their
hearts and minds. We remained friends, though apart for a
lifetime.
But, early or late, Manning was never oblivious of the
friends he had left behind him on the other side of the
bridge. True-hearted and affectionate as of old, his corre-
spondence with Eobert Wilberforce still continued to the
end. It ran like a golden thread through the web of ]\Ian-
ning's Anglican and Catholic life, linking the present with
the past.
The autumn of that memorable year, in which the event
ordained of God filled his heart with a spiritual joy beyond
the imagination of man, and changed the whole course and
character of his life, Manning spent in peace and gladness
of heart among his own kith and kindred. For, if all the
rest of his relatives held aloof from him, Mr. Charles
Manning, and Catherine, his wife, who was received into
the Church on the day her beloved brother became a priest,
received him with open arms and loving heart. At Pendell
Court, his brother's seat, near Bletchingly, Manning, no
longer troubled in mind and conscience, was the life and
soul of the place. It was the freshness and fulness of a
new life that possessed his soul and filled his heart with
gladness. At his brother's place. Manning, who was a good
judge of horses, was well mounted, and in company with his
brother and nieces rode day after day all over the country.
It was a time of thorough recreation for one whose mind
had been strained to the utmost, and whose heart had been
tried almost to breaking by human sorrows. Some of
those who were with him at the time remember well his
kindness of heart, his liveliness of manner, and his high
spirits. Manning, even in that time of retirement and
636 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
quietude could uot altogether escape public notice or
criticism.
Some of his former friends contrasted the austere arch-
deacon in sober garb and shovel hat, solemn of gait and
absorbed in work, with the now Eoman priest, idle and light
of heart, who apparently had nothing better to do than ride
about tlie country by day, and relate under the trees in the
gloaming, to the delight of the company, reminiscences of his
early life or Oxford days, or of his travels in foreign parts,
or tell anecdotes, old and new. His sour-faced critics shook
their heads, and spoke already of " moral deterioration."
Manning, however, had the consolation of knowing that
many of his friends and penitents were already beginning to
follow his example. He had just heard from Laprimaudaye
of his wife's conversion : —
Pendell Court, Bletchingly,
16th September 1851.
My dearest Friend — God be praised for the letter you
sent me. It is all you can pray for. I think you must have
Annie home without needless delay ; too soon it cannot be.
Now let me have word at once what day to meet you in
London, next week. I have an engagement there next Wednes-
day, but I can come any day. Tuesday "will suit me well.
Monday, if I hear from you.
As you say the time is come, and with a ripeness which
bespeaks its author. — "With my love to you both, ever yoiu-s,
H. E. M.
From Lavington, where he was engaged in the melancholy
work of moving and of destrojdng papers. Manning wrote to
Eobert Wilberforce as follows : —
Lavington, Ath September 1851.
My dearest Robert — Your letter found me here in the
midst of the past.
I hope to be at Pendell on Saturday, and next week in
London. I should indeed rejoice to see you.
At the end of this month I propose to go to Abbotsford.
Can we not somehow meet ? Where can I see you without
harm? I write in great haste, being overdone with moving and
destroying papers. Write to me at Pendell (Bletchingly). —
Ever yours, dearest R., very aflfectionately, H. E. Manning.
xxviii AN AFTERMATH 637
Manning's conversion in no way altered or lessened the
intimacy between him and Robert Wilberforce. There was in-
deed a certain change in their mutual relations. Manning no
longer wrote " under the seal of confession," and in the gift
of Faith which he had acquired, became now in his turn a
guide and teacher to Eobert Wilberforce, as the following
letter shows : —
4 Eaton Place, West, 28th September 1851.
My dear Robert — I was very glad to have your letter,
having been longing to hear from you.
We shall meet I trust, without fail, for I have been forced to
give up going to Scotland, and can only go to Rugby for this
week. Saturday I hope to be here again : ?lnd then to and fro
in and about London till I go abroad. Let me, therefore, know
your days and places, and I will make mine square with yours.
I do not dare to press you, dearest Robert, remembering what
were my own feelings. But I pray for you, and so do many
more. Neither do I talk to you about the peace I have, because,
as we agreed, a Swedenborgian might say the same. But I may
•say that six months — of which three have been spent in going-
over and over the same ground with others, sifting and re-
sifting everything, principle and detail, even more closely
than ever — leaves me more than ever profusely convinced that
the Church of Rome is the only true Church of God — and that
as a Teacher of Faith it is infallible.
I am distinctly convinced that over and above the evidence
of reason there is an illumination of Faith in which these things
are seen by their own light. What I wrote in March is true.
But to you this may sound as fanaticism.
Moreover I could never have dreamt of the sanctity of the
Church as I see it. All outside the Church seems to me
fragmentary and incoherent.
Surety it is the hand of God which has reproduced under
our eyes in the last two years the acts of the Reformation. We
see now what we should have seen then. We have seen the
Reformation as if we had lived in the reigns of EdAvard VL and
Elizabeth. Surely the Gorham case is no change. It is a
revelation. And Anglicanism is but Episcopal Protestantism, a
human society Avith human opinions.
Let me hear from you, dear Robert. — Ever Amours very affec-
tionately, H. E. Manning.
The following letter to Mr, Phillipps of Grace Dieu
638 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
shows that the newly-ordained priest was ah'eady a much-
engaged man : —
Rugby, 1st October 1851.
My dear Mr. Phillipps — Your kind letter found me here
this morning, and I hasten to thank you for it.
Indeed I have never forgotten the dream I had in the
woods that night at Grace Dieu : and I have been longing for
it to come to pass. At one time I had hoped it Avould, for I
had made my plans to go to Ireland and then to pass over to
Abbotsford. On my way I had promised myself the enjoyment
of your kind reception. Such were my hopes, but they have
been overturned one by one. First I was obliged to give up
Ireland, then Abbotsford ; now I am compelled to be in London
on Saturday. This leaves me only two days, Thursday which
is engaged to the convent at Loughborough, and Friday at
this place.
It is needless for me to say how much I regret this. I feel,
too, that you ■\nll not need words to assiu-e you what sincere
enjoyment I should have had in coming to you, and in meeting
Mrs. Phillipps. I can only ask you to say this to her with my
kind regards.
If it so j)lease God, I hope next year I may still enjoy your
kindness. My time of leaving England will be in a few weeks.
Pray give my kindest remembrances to Sir Vere and Lady de
Vere ; and, with every good desire for you and yours, believe
me, my dear Mr. Phillipps, always yours affectionately in Xt.,
Henry E. Manning.
The high opinion which Cardinal Wiseman entertained
of Manning's character, abilities, and holiness of life, cannot
be better illustrated than by the following anecdote : — At
a banquet given in honour of Cardinal Wiseman at Arundel
Castle, by the then Earl of Arundel and Surrey, there was
a large company, which included many recent converts,
among them Manning and Mr. Allies. In the course of
the evening, Cardinal Wiseman, speaking to Mr. Allies and
others, in allusion to Manning said : — " I hope soon he will
be one of us."
The confident tone in which Cardinal Wiseman spoke,
as well as the substance of the remark, made at the time a
deep impression on Mr. Allies, for Manning had only just
been made priest and had not yet commenced his theologi-
XXVIII AN AFTERMATH 639
cal studies aud training. And yet, Wiseman was already
expressing a hope of Manning soon becoming a bishop.
Wiseman's hope, which was akin to a prophecy, may not
have been without its effect on Manning's susceptible
nature.
The time had now arrived for Manning to make his first
visit as a Catholic and a priest to Eome. He was accom-
panied on his journey by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Manning
and their family, and, among other friends, by the Hon. and
Kev. Monsignor Talbot, then a recent convert.
Before starting, he wrote the following words of farewell
to his brother : —
14 Queen Street, Matfair,
1st November 1851.
My dear Frederick — I write you a few words to bid you
farewell before leaving England.
Early on Monday I hope to start ; and my purpose is to stay
until April next.
This needs no answer, as it is only to convey my love, and I
know that I have yours.
May every blessing be with you both. — Believe me, my
dearest Frederick, yom- affectionate brother,
Henry E. Manning.
The chief events of this journey to Eome were set down
in Manning's Diary, from which a few extracts will suffice : —
3rd November, left London 1 o'clock ; Folkestone 3 ;
Boulogne 6.
4th November. — Said Mass at Church of St. Nicholas, Feast
of S. Charles Borromeo. First act of priesthood out of England.
5th November. — Amiens, with Bishop Gerbet, Veuillot ;
said Mass at Sacred Heart.
6th November. — Mass in Cathedral.
7 th November. — Paris, St. Roch.
8th November. — Notre Dame des Victoires.
From Paris, Manning and his travelling companions, of
whom no mention is made in the Diary, passed through
Chalons, where he met Mr. and Mrs. Ulwin, and Lyons,
arriving at Avignon on 12 th November, where he said mass
at the altar of Our Ladv, at which he remembered " seeing
640 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xxviii
a priest give communion four years ago." Aubrey de Vere,
who had joined Manning on the journey, was received,
15 th November, into the Church, at Avignon, in the Arch-
bishop's Chapel.
15th November. — On Wednesday at St. Esprit, or by the
road, lost my bag with Avi-iting case, money, letters, and journals.
A sharp vexation. The letters and journals especially valuable.
But from this loss I desire to learn :
1. To mortify selfishness, and too gi'eat sensitiveness in
matters which touch myself.
2. To learn sympathy with others in their losses. I should
care little what they lost so that I lost nothing.
3. To learn detachment and love of poverty ; I have lost :
1. Money.
2. Journals.
3. Letters.
For the first, I ought only to trust.
For the second, to be less self-contemplative.
For the third, to be dead to earthly and natural affections.
After this severe and most vexatious loss, which included
his most treasured letters from Lavington, Manning, passing
through Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, reached Pisa on 19 th
November.
20th November. — Civita Vecchia : Mass at Cathedral.
Rome, 10 p.m., Minerva.
21st November. — Mass at Gesii Altar of St. Francis
Xavier.
29th November. — Vigil of St. Andrew. Interview Avith the
Holy Father at the Vatican.
I cannot more fittingly conclude Manning's old life as
Archdeacon of Chichester — the history of his life and work
at Lavington — than by leaving him where and what he now
is — a Priest in the Holy Roman Church — to begin at the
Vatican, at the threshold of the Apostles, a new life under
the shadow and shelter of Pope Pius IX.
CHAPTER XXIX
CARDINAL WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND : CATHOLIC
EilANCIPATION : THE RESTORATION OF THE HIERARCHY
A RETROSPECT
To understand aright the after -career of Henry Edward
Manning, whom, at the happy close of his Anglican life, we
now leave for awhile studying theology m Eome — to ap-
preciate at their full worth his work and labours as Cardinal
Wiseman's successor, his difficulties and disappointments, his
early trials, his later successes and triumphs — it is necessary
to pass in rapid review the state and position of Catholicism
in England from Emancipation up to the time when, after
three centuries of conflict and confusion, Wiseman was sent
by Pope Pius IX, to build up anew the Church in England.
English Catholics were a scattered remnant of a mighty
people that had filled the land from sea to sea ; who had
laid deep the foundations of faith, had reared noble monu-
ments to the honour and glory of God and the worship of
His saints — glorious cathedrals and abbeys, detached chapels
and chantries and hospitals ; had founded and endowed seats
of learning, and upheld the Faith for a thousand years.
How came it to pass that a land once overflowing, in
the domain of religion, with milk and honey, had become a
" howling wilderness," a bare and horrid desert ; its ancient
abbeys in ruins, or, like Woburn Abbey, in the hands of
the spoilers ; its churches and cathedrals perverted from
their ancient uses ; its priests hunted for their lives like
foxes out of the land ? Whence is the smell of fire still
clinging to the blackened ruins of monastery or convent ?
VOL. I 2 T
642 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
What is the trail of blood under the gibbets — or where
they once stood — in the Tower or at Tyburn Gate ?
I cannot find it in my heart to repeat to-day the awful
story of the religious persecutions of a bygone age. No
Englishman, Catholic or non- Catholic, can peruse such a
sanguinary tale with pulse unquickened by indignation.
His heart must needs burn with natural anger, his cheek
blush with shame, that men of his own race and blood, it
matters not whether they were Protestants or Catholics,
could have perpetrated in the holy name of religion such
inhuman barbarities. The only — not apology, for I have
none to offer — the only mitigation of these sanguinary
cruelties is, that the age in which they were committed was
in truth a barbarous age ; the laws on the statute-book of
England were barbarous and bloodthirsty, and the executors
of the law, sometimes the highest judges in the land, were
too often unjust and vindictive. Almost as a necessary
consequence of these wanton and wicked barbarities, com-
mitted under the public eye, the heart of the people had
grown so callous as to be unmoved by the sight of blood-
shed, by the smell of fire at the stake, by the hangings and
quarterings, by the display at Temple Bar, or the Tower,
or Tyburn Gate, of the heads of martyrs, like the venerable
and venerated Sir Thomas More, Cardinal Fisher, and so
many others, whose only crime was that they refused to
abjure, at the beck of a despot, the faith of their forefathers.
It was these prolonged and ruthless barbarities in one reign or
two which helped in the next — though that is no apology —
to light up the revengeful fires of Smithfield, which have left an
indelible stain on the reign of Queen Mary ; and of which such
an unfair use has too often been made to blur and blemish
the Catholic name in the mind of the people of England.
There is, however, one consideration which English
Catholics are in duty bound — bound in honour and justice,
in conscience and humility of heart — ever to bear in mind,
viz. that the Reformation owes its origin to the sins of
Catholics. In its early beginnings, it was the work of God's
anointed — apostate bishops, who at the bidding of a king
abjured their faith. Under Henry VIII.'s reign, the whole
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 643
Episcopate of Euglaud, with one exception, apostatised.
What an awful act ! what a revelation ! How corrupt in
morals, how weak in faith, must not have been in those
evil days Church and Nation. Mohler, in his Sf/mholism,
lays down this axiom, " What a people is, such are its priests
and bishops." But the people of England were not as bad
as their bishops — shepherds who had deserted their flock.
Betrayed by their bishops, coerced by their king, partly
in ignorance, partly out of fear, the people of England —
after many futile attempts to maintain their faith, many
risings in arms which were quenched in blood by ruthless
Tudor tyranny — sullenly acquiesced at the end in the new
order of things. Yet the vast majority for a hundred years
remained Catholic at heart. Craumer, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who had sworn fidelity to the Pope, Eidley, and
Latimer the Bishop of Worcester, the first Eeformers, were
the first Protestants. In the evil times which preceded
the Reformation, wealth and luxury, and lust their first
begotten, found a home in the bishop's palace, dwelt
in the heart of too many a priest at the altar, and at
times penetrated even into the monk's cell. Looseness
in faith, laxity in discipline, corruption in morals, and
last but not least, disloyalty to the Holy See, led to the
final and fatal catastrophe — apostasy. The apostasy of an
Episcopate ^ was the seed of the Reformation. In those evil
days, the Church in England — the mother of apostate bishops
— ought in contrition and humility of heart to have strewn
her head with ashes, beaten her breast, and cried out in a
loud voice : lied culpd, vied culpd, med maximd culpd ! The
ruling clergy — bishops with their Chapters, mitred abbots
and priors in too many of the more wealthy and corrupt
monasteries ; dissolute or ambitious ecclesiastics at the
Court — were far greater sinners than the people ; for cor-
ruption in the Sanctuary is a crime more abhorred of God, of
consequences deadlier by far, than corruption in the palace
of kings, or in the hearts and homes of the people.
^ For the fact is not to be overlooked that the bishops of that day were
heretics as well as schismatics, for they deposed Bishop Fisher and put so
notorious a heretic as Scory in his See.
644 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
But the Keformation, begotten of corruption — uut'aith,
avarice, and lust — must needs in the nature of things beget
children after its kind. And so it did, according to the
testimony of Luther, its father and master. Speaking of
some of the results produced by the Reformation, he said :
" "VVe see that, through the malice of the devil, men are now
more avaricious, more cruel,^ more insolent, and much more
wicked than they were under Popery." And again : " It is
a wonderful thing and full of scandal that, from the time
when the pure doctrine was called to light, the world should
grow daily worse and worse."
Calvin, Melanchthon, Bucer, among others, bear a like
witness to the evil consequences which attended and followed
the Reformation, the work of their own hands.^
Had Luther remained faithful to his earlier inspirations,
he might, as a reformer of the gross abuses which prevailed
in the Church, have done, as Savonarola did in his day,
good service and true, and have anticipated in a measure
the reforms of the Council of Trent. Or had the Council of
Trent commenced its wholesome and sorely-needed reforms
a few decades earlier, Luther, perhaps, had not become an
apostate monk, nor the English Episcopate, all save one, have
abjured their faith. The horrors and evils of the Reforma-
^ lu the reign of Henry VIII. a monk. Friar Forrest, was put to death in
the most cruel fashion because he refused to abjure his faith and acknowledge
the spuitual supremacy of the king. Latimer attended this revolting
execution. The martyrdom of Friar Forrest is recorded by Hollinshed in
the following passage: "After he was condemned, a paire of newe gallowes
was prepared for him in Smithfield. He was hanged by the middle and arm-
holes, all quicke, and under the gallowes was made fire, wherewith he was
consumed and burnt to death. There was also a pulpit prepared, in which
that renowned Hugh Latimer, then Bishop of Worcester, by diverse Scriptures
confuted the friar's errors, and witli manie godlie exortations moved him to
repentance ; but he would neither hcare nor speake." — Hollinshed, CJironide,
fol. 945.
- In a sermon preached before Edward VI., Latimer, in the following
passage, confirms the complaints of the first Reformers as to the gross im-
morality wliich prevailed among the children of the Reformation : "Lechery
is used in England, and such lechery as is used in no other part of the world,
and yet it is made a matter of sport, a matter of nothing, a laughing matter,
a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed. I will make suit to your Highness
to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such
as be notable offenders." — Heylish's History of the Reformation, p. 94.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 645
tiou, with its burnings and bloodsheddings, might, perliaps,
have been averted and no fires have been lighted, alas !
by Catholic hands, in Smithlield.
"What Tertullian said of the blood shed in the persecu-
tions of the primitive Christians by the Pagans of old was
equally true of the blood shed by the Protestant Eeformers
in the reign of Henry VIII., Sanguis martyriim. semen est
Christianorum. For out of this seed, sown by the blood of
martyrs, sprang up in the Church new life, new fidelity,
new firmness in faith, so signally illustrated by the fact,
that in the Elizabethan persecution the whole Episcopate
of England, again save one, refused to abjure their faith
like Cranmer and his fellow -apostates in Henry VITI.'s
reign, and sooner than do so, were ready, like Cardinal
Eisher, to die on the scaffold or at the stake.
In our humaner age, the blood creeps at the sight of
wanton bloodshedding, the flesh shrinks from deliberate
cruelty inflicted on man or beast or bird. In no previous age
of Christian civilisation was life held so precious as in our
own day. I trust it will not be thought cynical to attribute
this virtue in part to the half-unconscious disbelief in an
after-life, in an after-world, where the wrongs or sufferings
of tliis world receive compensation in full and overflowing
measure. For if there be no other life than life on earth,
as, alas ! the Agnosticism of to-day contends, not to make
the most of it, not to look upon it as a gift beyond price,
not to guard it jealously against risk and danger, would be
the height of absurdity. As, to take away life deliberately,
the only life given to man, would be an unmitigated cruelty,
an uncompensated wrong.
But, happily for themselves and for the world, which
is still edified by their heroism, the English martyrs, in
their vivid belief in an after-life, looked for compensation
of their earthly sufferings to the imperishable crown of glory
reserved for them in reward of their steadfast faith in the Life
to come. Fortunately, I have not to deal for my present
purpose with the history of the martyrs and their ruthless
persecutors, but only with the ultimate results of Tudor
tyranny and religious fanaticism in stifling in blood and
616 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
stamping out by prolonged and persistent persecution the
ancient faith which, for a thousand years before the Eeforma-
tion, had been the glory of the land, the pioneer of Christian
civilisation, the defence of the weak and oppressed, and the
hope and home of the poor. "When the Church in England,
after the cessation of the penal laws, came out of her ignoble
catacombs, though she still, indeed, preserved her divine
character, all her earthly glory had departed from her.
On his accession to the See, vacant by the death of
Cardinal Manning, Archbishop Vaughan, in reply to the
Address of the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of West-
minster, gave the following graphic description of the state
of the Church in England at the time of the early begin-
nings of the Oxford Movement : —
" Marks of persecution were fresh upon her body, the
smell of fire was still upon her clothing. Her organisation
was abnormal and missionary, reduced to its lowest form,
as though England had been China or Japan. After ten
centuries of public praise her voice was low ; her divine
services cut down' to their bare essentials ; many of her
distinctive devotions and practices were either forgotten or
conducted in private, and, as it were, in silence, and with
closed doors. No kind of uniform, no outward mark of
distinction in her ministers was visible. The English Church
was like a ship on an angry sea, close reefed and battened
down, exposing as little surface as possible to the stiff gale
which was still only lessening." ^
At that time the Church in England, instead of being
ruled, as in ancient days, to the glory of God and for the
salvation of souls, by bishops and archbishops who had
received as the symbol of authority the pallium from the
Holy See, was governed, in consequence of the penal laws
and their after-effects, by four Vicars-apostolic.^ Catholics
at the West End of London for the most part attended
Mass at the chapels attached to the Foreign embassies.
^ Reply of the Archhisliop- Elect to the Address of the Clergy arid Laity of
the Diocese of Westminster, 1892, p. 5.
" Four districts under Vicars-apostolic — the London, Midland, Northern,
and Western — were created by Pope Innocent XI. in 1688.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 647
There was a chapel of the Portuguese Embassy in South
Street, Grosvenor Square; the Spanish Embassy had a chapel
in Spanish Place, Manchester Square; and the chapel of
the Bavarian Embassy was in Warwick Street, Golden Square,
later on kuown among Protestants as the " Shilling Opera
House " ; for the singers from the Italian Opera were in the
habit of singing, undeterred by their labours on Saturday night,
at High Mass on Sunday morning. The French Chapel in little
George Street, Portman Square, was supported by the exiled
Koyal House of Prance. The Due and Duchesse de Berri,
the Count d'Artois, afterwards Charles X., and the last of
the Cond^s, among many others, were regular attendants at
Mass on Sundays ; as, later on, in the whirligig of the
Eevolution, after the loss of the Crown which he had picked
up out of the gutter, were the Citizen King Louis Philippe,
and Queen Amalie. There were also the Sardinian Chapel
in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; and the Church of St. Patrick, near
Soho Square, devoted to the care of the Irish colony in the
courts and slums of the Seven Dials and of Drury Lane.
There was a small chapel, too, in Somers Town, where many
of the French dmigris resided, and another at Kensington,
There were many other missions in the East End, and over
the water. The chief chapel, however, was at Moorfields,
in the City, which was converted by Cardinal Wiseman
into his pro-cathedral.
Catholic life in the big cities and centres of industry
was even less developed than in the metropolis. In
Liverpool, for instance, there were only four chapels and
fourteen priests ; the chapel best known was the Field
Lane Chapel. Of the Catholic population of Liverpool,
there were 39,000 adults for whose spiritual wants there
was no adequate provision. Had they desired to hear
Mass on Sundays, the four chapels could not possibly have
contained them. Under such circumstances the Society of
Jesus set to work to build a church and found a school in
Liverpool. Their efforts were met by a strong opposition
on the part of the secular clergy. In the hope of over-
coming the obstacles thrown in the way of their work, the
Jesuits held a large public meeting and invited O'Connell
648 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to advocate their cause. But in spite of O'Connell's
eloquent advocacy the opposition continued. Counter-
meetings were held against the intrusion of the Jesuits.
The secular priests contended that the four chapels were
all heavily in debt, and that if the Jesuits opened a church,
the chapels would be deserted and ruined. The Jesuits
appealed to Eome. The secular clergy replied that their
opposition was prompted by no hostility to the Society, but
in order to protect the existing chapels from such a formid-
able rivalry.-^ Eome gave permission to the Jesuits to build
a church and school in Liverpool, on condition that they
were not to be opened for six years.
In the country, the scattered Catholic population generally
clustered round the seats of the Catholic gentry who possessed
a private chapel and supported a chaplain. Many of these
congregations were gathered together in the time of the
Penal Laws by the zeal and activity of the Jesuit Fathers,
who, at the risk of their lives, used to say Mass at the
houses of the Catholic gentry. They administered the
Sacraments to the surrounding population, and in this
manner the faith of the poor was kept alive during the
cruel ages of persecution. Many of these country congrega-
tions, established by the Jesuit missionaries, have in our
day grown into large parishes. The private chapel of Lord
Arundell of Wardour at Wardour Castle, for instance, like
so many others in different parts of the country, was the
source and centre of Catholic activity in the county, with
the happy results we witness to-day.
The Catholics of England were represented in the press
by The Dublin Review, founded in 1836 by Dr. Wiseman
and O'Connell ; by The London and Dublin Weekly Orthodox
Journal, established in 1837; and by The Catholic Magazine
of the same date. The establishment of these periodicals marks
the date of the beginning of tlie Catholic revival in England.
By his famous Controversial Lectures in 1836, Wiseman
awakened the Catholic spirit and guided the movement.
^ An old priest in Liverpool said to F. Gallwey before his ordination,
' ' Beware of debt ; the debt on our chapels is the sole cause of our opposition
to the Jesuits."
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND G49
I have already sufficiently indicated for my purpose the
influence possessed by TIic Diihlin Review, which, under
Wiseman, extended beyond the limits of the Catholic com-
munity. The Weekly Orthodox Journal was not what in
our days would be called a newspaper. It contained, how-
ever, reports of Catholic doings, such, for instance, as the
establishment of the Nottingham Catholic Library ; or the
foundation of the Burnley Auxiliary Catholic Institute; or, for
example, under " Foreign Intelligence," the Allocution of His
Holiness Gregory XVI., pronounced in the Secret Consistory
of the 8th of July 1839 — the famous Allocution condemn-
ing the Prussian Government for the imprisonment of the
archbishops of Cologne and of Gnesen and Posen. Its
pages were frequently enlivened and invigorated by Pugin's
pungent criticisms.
The Catholic Magazine, a monthly periodical, consisted
chiefly, not of original articles, but of translations of such
able papers as " Eome as it really is," by Gorres ; or of
" Letters from the Holy Land," appearing in the Annals
of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The first
part of the magazine contained during the period of their
delivery Pugin's famous lectures at Oscott on " Ecclesiastical
Architecture." It was occasionally embellished by portraits.
In its number of April 1838 it contains a fine engraving
of Cardinal Weld, who, aged 64, died at Eome, 10th of
April 1857.
Frederick Lucas, a convert from Quakerism, a brother-
in-law to John Bright, established in 1840 the Tablet
newspaper. Under his able editorship, and by his bold
advocacy of Catholic interests and claims, the paper soon
made a name for itself. It became more widely known by
a series of able papers on political economy. A short time
before he was elected Member of Parliament for the County
of Meath, Frederick Lucas transferred the Tablet to Ireland.
But coming into conflict with Dr. Murray, Archbishop of
Dublin, who, on account of the leading part they played in
political agitation, and more especially because of their con-
duct as electioneering agents, prohibited the priests of Meath
from taking public part in politics, Frederick Lucas appealed
650 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
to Eome. In his opposition to Dr. Murray, Lucas bad
been supported by Cardinal CuUen, then Archbishop of
Armagh. Eome upheld Archbishop Murray's sentence of
prohibition. Frederick Lucas soon afterwards died. His
death was a great loss ; for he had obtained the ear of
the House of Commons by his ability and straightforward-
ness, and was an unflinching champion of the Catholic
cause.
On Frederick Lucas's death the Tablet passed into the
hands of John Wallis, an English barrister, who soon brought
the paper back to England, and fought many a doughty
battle in the Catholic and Conservative cause.
The Tablet to-day deservedly maintains a high position as
the chief representative paper of the Catholics of England. It
is justly regarded as an authority on religious matters by
the outside world, and is entitled by virtue of its position
to take high rank as an exponent of ecclesiastical politics.
The Tablet, loyal to the teachings and traditions of the
Holy See, upholds, against every comer and on every occa-
sion, Catholic and Conservative principles ; and, acting in
obedience to Papal briefs or Encyclical letters, condemns
and opposes everywhere, whether in Italy or in Ireland,
the principles of the Eevolution.
Again, public action carried on, if I may so call it, in a
domestic fashion, mainly among themselves, was not altogether
neglected by English CathoHcs. In 1838 " The - Catholic
Institute of Great Britain " was established by a meeting of
Catholics held in the Sabloniere Hotel, Leicester Square, at
which the Hon. Charles Langdale, M.P., presided. One of
its objects was the creation of a fund collected from the
Catholics of Great Britain to be applied to the erection
of chapels, to the circulation in a cheap form of approved
Catholic publications, and to the distribution of small tracts.
But its main purpose was to refute misrepresentations of
Catholic doctrine — the evil work, for the most part, of the
"Protestant Association"; to rebut the calumnious charges
not uncommon in that day, made or insinuated against the
private and social life of Catholics, especially of priests ; to
protect from oppression of every description the poor mem-
XXIX WISE:\IAN'S life and work in ENGLAND 651
bers of the Church ; to secure to Catholic sailors, soldiers,
prisoners, to the sick in the hospitals and the poor in the
workhouses, the religious rights to which they are by law
entitled ; and to establish provision for Catholic lectures in
London by funds appointed for that purpose.
In the first year of its existence "The Catholic Institute"
achieved a great victory. A Catholic widow had inscribed
on the gravestone of her husband, buried in a Protestant
churchyard — since, of course, in those days Catholics had
no burial-places of their own — the simple " Pray for the
soul of Joseph "VVoolfrey." This inscription, which implied
the doctrine of purgatory, so scandalised the "Protestant
Association " and the Eev, J. Brecks, vicar of Carisbrooke,
Isle of Wight, as to lead to an action in the Ecclesiastical
Courts for its removal. The " British Catholic Institute "
took up the defence of the widow against the Protestant
Association and the vicar of Carisbrooke. The case of Mrs.
Woolfrey, as it involved the question whether purgatory
and praying for the dead were doctrines of the Established
Church or not, created almost as much excitement and
interest in the religious world as the Tichborne case excited
in our generation in the world at large.
Mary Woolfrey — I had better give for curiosity the articles
of citation — was cited before the Court of Arches to make
answer " to certain articles to be objected and administered
to her, touching and concerning the health of her soul, and
the lawful correction and reformation of her manners and
excesses, and more especially for having unduly and unlaw-
fully erected or caused to be erected a certain tombstone to
the memory of Joseph Woolfrey, deceased, and a certain
inscription to be made thereon, contrary to the articles,
canons, or constitutions, or to the doctrine and discipline of
the Church of England."
On the 12th December 1838, in the Court of Arches,
Sir Herbert Jenner, in pronouncing judgment in favour
of the Catholic widow, declared that " praying for the
dead was not contrary to the doctrine and discipline of
the Church ; for that there was no article or canon by
which prayers for the dead were expressly prohibited."
652 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
The suit, which was a criminal proceeding, was dismissed
with costs.^
After the mitigation of the Penal Laws in 1778 ; after
Catholic Emancipation ; and especially after the early be-
ginnings of the Catholic Eevival under Wiseman, the work
of founding new missions, and building churches and chapels,
went on increasing year by year to meet the spiritual wants
of a corresponding increase in the Catholic population.
The Catholic Directory and Annual Register of 1839, in a
comparative statement of the number of chapels registered
the previous year with that of the year 1839, shows an
addition of thirteen to the number of chapels, and three
new stations, where divine worship was celebrated — making
in all, of the former five hundred and thirteen — of the
latter, twenty. In the same year almost the first convent
founded in London since the Eeformation — though there
were convents and convent schools elsewhere in England,
and one at Hammersmith under the name " The Ladies'
School " — was that of the Sisters of Mercy at Bermondsey.
It was built by Pugin, the first of between sixty and seventy
churches, chapels, convents, and schools, which the Catholics
of England owe to his genius and his religious zeal.
Pope Gregory XVI. in 1840, at the suggestion or advice
of Wiseman, increased the number of Vicars -apostolic to
eight. ' In the following year the Society of " St. Vincent
of Paul," an Association of laymen founded in Paris by
Ozanam, was established in England.
Such, in the main, was the undeveloped life ; the lamed
and maimed action of the Catholic Church in the earlier
days of the Oxford Movement, which, under the grace of
God, was preparing such rich and ample materials — stones
for the hands of the master-builder — to help in the building
up again of the Church of God in the land.
Indirect means had been long contributing to the Catholic
Kevival in England. Walter Scott, by his love for the
Middle Ages ; by his more intimate knowledge of life in
^ Archdeacon Manning, in his Diary of 1844-47, alhided to this judg-
ment in the highest ecclesiastical Court, as giving legal sanction to his helief
in prayers for the dead, which to his mind implied the doctrine of purgatory.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 653
those far-off Catholic days ; by his reverent spirit ; by his
touching and often pathetic descriptions of ruined Abbeys ;
by the reverential way in which he sometimes spoke of
monks and nuns, of priests and bishops, did much to break
down the anti-Catholic prejudice in England — the great
Elizabethan tradition, handed down from age to age, from
generation to generation. The poet, with his clearer vision
into the reality of things, was an unconscious pioneer in pre-
paring the way for the ultimate triumph in the heart of
England of Newman's work. For Newman's genius, his life
and character, brouglit about, if not the conversion of
England, which was beyond his hopes, the blessed result
of reconciling, over the ruins of the Elizabethan tradition,
the Catholics of England with their fellow-countrymen. It
was — if I may be allowed in a retrospect to make an
anticipation. Manning's chief office and merit to interpret
Newman's ideas — which Cardinal Manning did with infinite
skill in his own person, and by his acts — to the public
at large and to the official world of England.
The French Eevolution, in its orgies of 1793, co-operated
in its own abhorred and horrid fashion, more directly than
Walter Scott in his writings, to prepare the way for the
Catholic Eevival in England. Under the Reign of Terror,
French ecclesiastics who had escaped the guillotine, the
being cast stripped and bound into the deep waters of the
blood-polluted Seine, fled in terror of their lives, the hideous
cry A la lanteme — worse by far in character than the Pagan
cry Christianos ad leones — ringing in their ears, from
a blood and crime stained land. French priests in thousands
were cast upon our hospitable shores. Their presence
excited universal sympathy. They were received with
open arms by the generous-hearted people of England.
Men vied with each other in offering them shelter in their
misfortune. They were generously invited to take up their
abode in the homes of England. But these priests of
France were of too independent a spirit to become a burden
to their benefactors. Unaccustomed to a life of idleness,
when they could not find spiritual work they gained their
own livelihood by teaching French. Many, after having
654 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
made themselves masters of the English tongue, on the
restoration of religious worship in France in 1804, re-
mained in England, as workers inspired with zeal for religion,
for which they had suffered exile from their own land.
These Confessors of the Faith helped to establish missions
all over the country, or assisted by their willing labours the
too scanty nimiber of priests in the chapels of the large
cities and towns. One French Abb^, in gratitude for the
kindness shown in England to the ^migrds, founded the
Catholic Mission in Hampstead, and built the present church.
For nigh upon half a century the venerable A\)b6 Morel
worked in this mission with edifying zeal and singular
success. His memory as founder of the Mission is ever
cherished by priest and people in grateful reverence.-^
Another 4migr6 priest, Abbe ISTerrinkx, an intimate friend
of Abbe Morel, founded the church of St. Aloysius and, at
a later period, a convent at Somers Town, where so many of
his fellow-em-i^'r^s found a refuge, and some a new home for
life, and for work in the service of God. The Mission of
Tottenham had a more distinguished founder — the Abbe
Lefebvre de Cheverus. He afterwards went to the United
States ; became Bishop of Boston ; was recalled to France ;
was made Archbishop of Bordeaux, and created Cardinal.
The religious-minded people of England abhorred the
gross and abominable impiousness of the French Revolution ;
its bloodthirsty tyranny aroused supreme and general
indignation. The political sympathies of the country were
enlisted in favour of the Catholic Church and of the Pope,
especially later on, during the Napoleonic wars, when Rome
and England were firm allies in resisting the impious and
revolutionary movement in France. Political sympathies
were deepened and extended by the conduct of the French
4migr^. The Royal House of France, under the outrages
and misfortunes which it had suffered, comported itself with
noble dignity and proud reserve that extorted general
^ Abb6 Morel was buried in the Church of St. Mary's, Hampstead, where
a monument was erected iu his memory. In the priest's house there is a
line portrait by the celebrated artist, tlie late Mr. Stanfield. Next year the
Centenary of the Mission founded by Abbe Morel is to be celebrated.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 655
admiration. The 6inigr^ priests, especially, by their forti-
tude and fidelity, by their humility and self-reliance,
by the fervour of their faith and their Christian culture,
won the hearts of all those with whom they were brought
into closer contact. To many an Englishman, who had
never in his life set eyes upon a Catholic priest, the coming
into close contact and friendly intercourse with one or other
of those French ecclesiastics seemed like the opening up
of a new revelation. The priestly character struck him as
something he had never seen or known before. He could
not account for the impression it left on his mind. It was
something quite apart from speech or manners, from per-
sonal dignity or gentleness ; it seemed perhaps to be con-
nected with the fortitude manifested in misfortune ; with
the faith and hope in the future which no adversity could
quench, no personal indignity dim. This spiritual character
in the first priest he had ever known, destroyed, in part, in
the mind of this non-Catholic gentleman, as it did in like
circumstances in the minds of many other Protestants —
for I am only quoting one typical instance — the hideous
picture of the Catholic priest handed down by the Elizabethan
Tradition.
But if France unconsciously bestowed on Catholicism in
England a choice gift in the form of her exiled priests,
the Eevolution in its impious fury struck, of set and fell
purpose, a deadly blow at Catholicism in England by sup-
pressing the English Colleges in France : Douay, founded
by Cardinal Allen for the education of Catholics in the
persecuting days which followed the Reformation ; and St.
Omer, where for many a generation English Catholics, free
from the dangers, material and moral, to which they would
have been exposed at home, were brought up in faith and
piety. At the Eevolution the Professors of these Colleges,
with the students, fled for their lives and found shelter in
England ; where, instead of founding a new college, as they
had at first contemplated, they joined, at Pitt's suggestion,
the College, or rather School, at Old Hall, near Ware, Hert-
fordshire.
To the Jesuits the Catholics of Enrfand owe an
656 CARDINAL MANNING chap,
immense debt of gratitude, for it was due in no small
measure to their heroic zeal and devotion that, during the
long and bloody persecution, the Faith M'as kept alive in
the land. To say mass was a capital offence ; yet, holding
their lives in their hands, they fearlessly discharged the
holy offices of religion. To escape pursuit or discovery
they were often, in many a country house of England,
hidden away in subterranean closets, or in narrow apertures
between the walls, or secreted in out-of-the-way nooks or
corners under the gabled roofs. Many members of the
Society in those evil and angry days added their names to
the glorious bead-roll of English martyrs. At the time about
which I am now speaking, the Jesuits in London had no
chapel, only an Oratory in a small house in Poland Street ;
but the now famous College at Stonyhurst was in their
keeping. They did their best to promote in those days of
intellectual depression the ancient learning of the schools.
Ushaw in the north, Oscott and Downside, laboured likewise
under great difficulties. The isolation in which English
Catholics lived ; the seclusion in which the teachers and
students at Catholic Colleges passed their lives, beyond the
reach of the intellectual movements either at Oxford or on
the Continent, did much to a certain extent and in a certain
direction to dwarf and hamper the development of the
intellect and to deaden the faculties of the mind as regards
at any rate the higher and deeper studies.
A. rough-and-ready judgment on the results of the
teaching in the Catholic Colleges in England was pro-
nounced by one of the most intellectual of the Oxford
converts. In his good-humoured and paradoxical fashion,
W. G. Ward, not long after his conversion, made the follow-
ing caustic remark : — " Speaking in argument with English
Catholics is like talking with savages." ^ There was truth in
'■ Tiiis comparison had reference to some dinner-table conversations be-
tween Mr. Ward and a pompous, empty-headed priest, at the time invalided
from Woolwich with plenty of leisure on his hands, together with a not
unnatural liking for a good dinner.
A like judgment, passed at a somewhat later period, is recorded in
Mr. Wilfrid Ward's life of his father : — "When a Catholic meets a Protestant
in controversy, it is like a barbarian meeting a civilised man." This
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 657
the sarcasm in the sense in which he meant it. Catholics
in England had not enjoyed, it must be remembered, the
advantages of a university education. Oxford and Cam-
bridge were closed against them. Neither had their wits
l)een quickened into life by the intellectual conflict, going
down to the roots of things, begotten of the Oxford Move-
ment and of the Catholic Eevival in France and Germany.
They were to a great extent unfamiliar with, perhaps rather
shy of, the profound theological and philosophical specula-
tions which Ward most delighted to discuss; and which
formed the intellectual foundation of the religious life of
their fellow-Catholics on the Continent.
For the most part the Catholics of England stood afar
off, beyond the reach of the rising waters of the new life,
intellectual and moral, which was awakening the souls of
men in France and Germany, in Italy and Spain. They were
content, if without doubt or question, without intellectual
imderstanding or philosophical defence, to hold the Faith
of their forefathers, burnt into their souls by the fire of
persecution. If they neglected its intellectual bulwarks
and outposts, they all, through the evil days, held the citadel
of the Spiritual Kingdom. They had handed down the
Torch of Faith from generation to generation. It had been
their office and their glory to keep burning the light of the
ancient lamp throughout the long days of darkness and
persecution up to the dawn of the New Day, which, but for
the heroic faith of our forefathers, perhaps, had never risen.
The fool in his folly mocked at them, because, forsooth,
their intellectual vision had grown dim in the prolonged
darkness of 300 years.
The Catholics of England bore themselves indeed in
those days as the sons of martyrs, heirs despoiled of their
heritage, the magnificent and mighty cathedrals, monasteries
remark occurred in a conversation with Mr. Jowett, and was preceded by
the following sentence which led up to the point: — "English Catholics
don't know what education means. Many of them can't write English."
Mr. Wilfrid Ward adds: — "And the peculiarities of the old-fashioned
Catholics, both priests and laity, afforded him as much amusement and as
many good stories as Dr. Jenkyns and the prim Oxford Dons had done in
earlier days." — William George Ward and tlie Catholic Bevvoal, p. 75.
VOL. I 2 U
658 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
and churches, splendid symbols of the glory and power of
the ancient Faith. They were strangers in their own land,
exiled, as it were, from the noble seats of learning which
their forefathers had founded and endowed. Yet it did
not altogether lie in the mouth of the sons of Oxford, fresh
from the wreckage of a lost faith and an abandoned church,
to taunt the exiled sons of its founders with lack of learn-
ing. The Catholic Eevival in England did not owe its
origin to Oxford. The Catholics, as soon as the Emancipa-
tion Act was passed in 1829, began to stir. At first, they
could not come before the rest of their countrymen, but
they were moving ; certainly, the two movements were
concurrent, but for some time without knowledge of each
other. Oxford, perhaps, helped Oscott and encouraged
it ; but Oscott had begun of itself. Some of the converts
in those days, like W. G. Ward, used to complain of the
want of intellectual sympathy and understanding shown
by some Catholic bishops, notably by Dr. Griliiths, in
regard to the Oxford men. If Dr. Griffiths, who was
certainly a very prudent bishop, found no work to offer
to so zealous and intellectual a convert as Ward, it was not
from want of sympathy with converts, for to others he was
very kind and helpful.^ On the other hand, it ought in
fairness to be remembered that in his large-heartedness,
trustful zeal, and sympathetic knowledge of the special
trials of the Oxford converts. Cardinal Wiseman made
Manning, within ten weeks of his reception into the
Church, a priest; and sent him with the warmest of
encouragements to study ecclesiastical lore at its fountain-
head — the threshold of the Apostles.
But who and what was Wiseman, it might not un-
^ lu a letter dated Arundel, 9tli December 1893, Mr. David Lewis, in
reference to Bisho]) Griffiths, wrote as follows : — " Dr. Griffiths, whom Ward
used to call 'Antichrist,' was a very cautious man certainly; but he was
very kind, and received me into the Church, and afterwards Mr. Macmullen
with the utmost kindness — glad ever to see us. He accepted Mr. Macmullen
at once, as candidate for the priesthood, and sent him to Rome. All the
convei'ts of those days were not saints, and they were not fit to rule or teach.
They had — I know I had — much to learn, but some of us wanted to teach
bishop and priest."
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND G59
fairly be asked in our generation. Wiseman, the story of
whose eventful life has never been told : whose name, since
the day of his funeral, when England, it is not too much
to say, followed him with sympathetic regret and admira-
tion to the grave, had never been uttered in public, at least
within Catholic hearing, until Cardinal Vaughan on his
accession to the See of Westminster made glad the hearts
of English Catholics by paying a noble tribute — an act of
justice — to the more illustrious of his two predecessors.
Magni nominis umlra is all that Wiseman apparently is to
the present generation. And yet, which of the Oxford
converts, with exception always of the illustrious John
Henry Newman, can be compared with Wiseman for
breadth of intellect ; for profound Biblical scholarship ; for
varied learning ; and for intimate knowledge of ecclesiastical
history from the earliest period down to his own day ? If
the universities of their own land were closed against them,
English Catholics, laymen as well as ecclesiastics, few in-
deed in number as must needs be the case, frequented
seats of learning in Eome, in France, in Germany, in
Spain and Portugal; Alban Butler, Bishop Challoner, and
Dr. Milner, products of St. Omer or Douay, were succeeded
by Dr. Wiseman, who amplified their traditions and enlarged
by his learning the range of their intellectual vision. He
had himself enjoyed to the full all the advantages of higher
education in Eome. He was not only a learned theologian,
but was everywhere recognised as one of the foremost Oriental
scholars of his day. The scattered remnant of English
Catholics had no reason to be ashamed of their culture
when they could reckon among their representative men
such names as Wiseman, and Lingard, the great historian of
England, and M. A. Tierney, F.S.A., who made his mark not
only as editor and reviser of Dodds's Church History^ but as
the author of a continuation of that History from 1688 to
the beginning of the present century, and Dr. Eock, the
great antiquarian and expounder of the Liturgy. Among
laymen, who carried on the tradition of culture, there was
^ Dodds's CJourch Histwy was published under an assumed name, by the
Rev. Hugh Tootle.
660 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
one at any rate — as I shall presently show — to whom the
Oxford converts owed a special debt of gratitude.^
Concurrently with writing thoughtful and acute criti-
cisms on the Oxford Movement, which he watched and
followed with keenest interest, Dr. Wiseman delivered in
1836 a series of controversial lectures at the church of
St. Mary's, Moorfields, in which he expounded the doctrines
of the Catholic Faith and — unheard-of audacity — exposed
the inherent errors of Protestantism. These famous lectures
caused no small sensation among the mass of Protestants ;
and so highly were they thought of, that on their publication,
Dr. Turton, a Cambridge Professor of Divinity, and afterwards
Bishop of Ely, wrote in answer to them. The Tractarians,
who had already thrown popular Protestantism overboard,
and were holding up to scorn the Eeformation and the
first Reformers, hoped at first to find a powerful ally in
Dr. "Wiseman. But the great Catholic controversialist
recognised at once the weak point in the Tractarian theory,
and in his lectures on Puseyism pointed out with
considerable force that the acceptance by Tractarians of
Catholic principles involved the moral necessity of carrying
them out to their logical conclusions. Wiseman's article in
the Dublin Revieiv on the Donatists first disclosed to Newman
the weak point in the theory set forth in the Via Media.^
Another invaluable contribution to the Catholic Eevival
in Oxford was given by an English Catholic, the late Mr.
James Burton Robertson, who received his higher intellect-
ual training under Lamennais at La Chenais, where Abb6
Gerbet, afterwards Bishop of Perpignan, was also a pupil,
and which was visited by Montalembert and Lacordaire,
at one time Lamennais's disciples. By his translation of
Schlegel's Philosophy of History, and still more by his
' Mr. Robertson, afterwards appointed by Newman Professor of Modern
History at the Catholic University of Dublin, was the author of many learned
Works and Lectures, and did much, like Wiseman, to make known in England
at a critical period the Catholic Revival in France and Germany.
2 Newman, in a letter to Manning, dated October 1838, speaking of Dr.
Wiseman's article in the Dublin Review, says : — "Dr. Wiseman has laid his
finger on our weak point ; as Keble in his Sermon, and you in the Rule of
Faith, have exposed the weak points on the Roman Catholic side."
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND G61
translation of MiJhler's Symholism, Mr. Eobertson put
materials for forming a sound judgment of Catholic
theology into the hands of Oxford men otherwise beyond
their reach, for they were avowedly ignorant not only of
foreign languages but of the current of Catholic thought on
the Continent. In the masterly review of the intellectual
and religious state of Germany ; of its philosophical con-
flicts ; of the religious negation produced by Protestantism,
and of the Catholic Kevival, prefixed to the translation of
Mohler's Symholism, Mr. Eobertson did his part in
relieving English Catholics from the stigma of intellectual
apathy. The same writer, in a series of articles in the
Dublin Review, brought to the knowledge of Oxford Tract-
arians the works of the great masters of religious
thought — the authors of the Catholic Eevival in France and
Germany. It was from him they first obtained a knowledge
of such profound Catholic thinkers in France as de Maistre
and de Bonald,of Lamennais,the most subtle and philosophical
writer of his day, and, before his fall — a second Tertullian
— the most devoted upholder of the Papacy; of a
Catholic writer so brilliant as Chateaubriand, and of a
speaker and writer so powerful in thought, so bold and
enthusiastic in speech and action, as Montalembert ; and of
Eio, the famous reviver of Christian Art in France. In
France and Germany alike, art as well as philosophy, under
the impulse of the CathoUc Eevival, drew inspiration from
the traditions and teachings of Eome and the Popes.
The translator of Schlegel and Mohler — the first German
scholar of his day — moreover interpreted not only to
English Catholics but to the Tractarians of Oxford the
modes of thought current in Germany — the love and
reverence for Christian Art, the deeper study of history —
which led to numerous conversions, and of men so eminent
as Count Stolberg, the historian ; and of Frederick Schlegel ;
and of Novalis and Adam Miiller ; and which produced
such a profound thinker as Gorres, and such a master of
dogmatic theology as Klee ; and finally such a work of pro-
found thought as Mohler's Symbolism, which, in his Memoir,
Mr. Eobertson, who for many years was an eye-witness of
662 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the Catholic Eevival in Germany, declared, " created a
greater sensation than any theological work of the century."
In like manner, the author of the Catholic Eevival in
Spain, Donoso Cortes, the most profound thinker of his day,
was brought to the attention, if not of the British public
at large, at any rate of English Catholics and of Oxford
Tractarians.
Euo[in, the famous reviver in England of Christian art
and of Gothic architecture, if not a Catholic born, did not
belong to the Tractarian School, but received the grace of
faith and drew his inspiration in Christian art and archi-
tecture from a profound and loving study of the noble
cathedrals and abbeys built by our Catholic forefathers.
Attracted by the beauty of the City of Spires, Eugin came
as a Catholic to Oxford to preach to the Tractarians the
gospel of Christian Art and of the Eaith of Eome. By his
genius and profound faith in the Catholic Church, and
its ancient traditions, religious and artistic, he acted as
pioneer, pointing out to many the way which had led his
own heart and soul to Eome.
In putting forward a modest plea on behalf of English
Catholics before the flood — not of penal waters but of
Divine Grace — before the mighty inrush into the Church of
converts from Oxford and Cambridge had lifted up, out
of their weakness and obscurity, the scattered remnant of a
ruined Church — thrust out of the possession of the land,
out of the heart of the people, by force and fraud — let it not
for an instant be imagined that it enters into my mind to
under-rate in any way, by one jot or tittle, the immense debt
of gratitude which the Church in England owes to the
converts. Even in those earlier days, before the converts
from Anglicanism had become so completely assimilated, as
they now are, in thought and word, in heart and deed, with
the hereditary Catholics of England, there was not an
English Catholic with a grain of common sense or a spark
of generosity in heart or brain, who did not regard the
illustrious leader of the Oxford Movement and his noble-
hearted followers with love and reverence ; who did not
welcome them home to the Catholic Church as brethren in
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 6G3
the bonds of Faith ; who did not sympathise with their
personal sufferings and sacrifices ; who did not strive to
lessen their isolation as strangers^ in the order of nature, in
a strange land.
The incoming of tlie converts was like the inrusli of a
strong wind into the close atmosphere in which the Church
in England lived and breathed ; or rather in which she was
stifled and straitened well-nigh unto death. Fresh from a
world of thought and action, in which they had played a
foremost part ; in which they had fought and suffered ;
they imparted to English Catholics new life and new
knowledge of life. New wine was poured into old bottles.
It speaks well for the old bottles — of the stuff they were
made of — that they did not burst under the rigorous strain,
or turn sour in the new fermentation. The converts, with
their freer thought, freer speech, readier initiative in action,
broke the silence in which the elder Catholics perhaps too
habitually lived ; roused them from their intellectual
acquiescence rather than apathy ; or startled, perhaps even
shocked on occasions, a reverent and demure priest here and
there, by their outspoken criticisms or personal comments.
I remember on one occasion, in response to some personal
criticism passed in conversation, Mr. Ward exclaiming, with
a hearty laugh: "Bravo! Mr. Eobertson; I thought it was
only we converts who called bad names."
The Oxford men acted as a wholesome leaven to the old
Catholic community. They imparted to the hereditary
Catholics of England — who had the defects of their virtues
— deeper views of life ; wider sympathies ; a higher sense
of public duty which as Englishmen they owed to their
country. They had been too long estranged from the
masses of their fellow-countrymen ; knew but little of
their wants and interests ; were out of touch with the
intellectual movement and public life of England. In their
stately homes in the shires, the hereditary Catholics of
England kept too much to themselves ; in London they
formed a society of their own, in which it was a rare
occurrence to meet a non-Catholic. Converts at first used
to complain somewhat bitterly of the exclusiveness of
664 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Catholic society. They expected to be received with open
arms and made at home in every Catholic house, and
were surprised to find that their title-deeds to admission
were sometimes questioned. This aloofness on the part of
English Catholics from the public and social life of England
was not altogether of their own fault. For the laws of
England had made exiles of their forefathers from public and
social life, and their sons still remembered and resented the
cruel wrong. Their standing aloof from a world, which had
disowned them, was due in part perhaps to pride, in part to
traditions inherited from the days of the Penal Laws. The
world knew them no more ; had forgotten all about them ;
and they were too proud or too shy to make themselves
known to their neighbours.
This unnatural state of things has long since been swept
away in no small measure by the influx into the Catholic
body of new blood — of new life ; by the effects of Newman's
genius and personality in obtaining for the Catholics of
England a fair hearing from their fellow-countrymen; by
the public action of Cardinal Wiseman in breaking down
the isolation and narrow insularity of English Catholicism ;
and last, but by no means least, later on — after substantial
victory had been gained — by the noble career, the public
spirit, the far-reaching and persuasive influence of Cardinal
Manning. His life was a crowning and successful effort in
breaking down the bars and barriers which, since the Ee-
formation, had separated English Catholics from the intel-
lectual movement and public life of England.
The converts, on the other hand, it must be admitted
were not always or altogether free from reproach or blame.
They sometimes turned out to be somewhat uncomfortable
neighbours. They were in too great a hurry to set all
things straight according to their own notions, in the
Church to which they had so recently submitted. They
were " appalled " by this shortcoming or that, real or
apparent. They were " astounded " that priests did not at
once understand their views, or relish their criticisms made
in good faith and out of pure zeal. Now and again, perhaps,
a somewhat straitlaced dignitary of the Church might look
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 665
askance at the converts as a strange race of men not easy
to be understood, or ask the pertinent question, had these
men joined the Church not so much to appreciate or admire
as to find fault ; not to learn, but to teach ; not to obey
but to criticise their betters — their spiritual superiors ?
One or two, perhaps, by their fidgetinesses or flightinesses,
by their crudities and eccentricities, by their comings and
goings and comings back again, made themselves, if I may
be allowed to repeat to-day an irate old priest's impolite
designation — " a d — — nuisance " to their neighbours.
Gifted with a searching but sympathetic eye and pathetic
touch of hand, Newman has given us, from an outside point
of view, a touching and graphic picture of English Catholics
as they appeared in the early years of the century to " a
boy's curious eyes " : —
No longer the Catholic Church in the country ; nay, no longer
a Catholic community, but a few adherents of the old religion,
moving silently and sorrowfully about as memorials of what had
been. " The Roman Catholics " — not a sect, not even an interest,
as men conceived of it — not a body, however small, representa-
tive of the Great Communion abroad, but a mere handful of
individuals who might be counted like the pebbles and detritus
of the great deluge ; and who, forsooth, merely happened to
retain a creed, which in its day, indeed, was the profession of a
Church. Here, a set of poor Irishmen, coming and going at
harvest time, or a colony of them lodged in a miserable quarter
of the vast metropolis : there perhaps, an elderly person, seen
walking in the streets, grave and solitary and strange, though
noble in bearing, and said to be of good family and a Roman
Catholic. An old-fashioned house of gloomy appearance, closed
in with high walls, and an iron gate and yews, and the report
attaching to it that Roman Catholics lived there ; but who they
were, and what they did, or what was meant by calling them Roman
Catholics, no one could tell, though it had an unpleasant sound,
and told of form and superstition. And then, perhaps, as we went
to and fro looking with a boy's curious eyes through the great city,
we might come to-day upon some Moravian Chapel or Quakers'
meeting-house, and to-morrow on some chapel of the Roman
Catholics, but nothing was to be gathered from it except that
there were lights burning there, and some boys in white sAvinging
censers ; and what it all meant could only be learned from books,
from Protestant history and sermons, and they did not report well
666 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
of the " Eoman Catholics," but, on the contrary, deposed that they
had once had power and had abused it. And then, again, we
miglit on one occasion hear it pointedly put out by some literary
man, as the result of his careful investigation, and as a recondite
point of information which few knew, that there was this
difference between the Eoman Catholics of England and the
Roman Catholics of Ireland, — that the latter had bishops, and
the former were governed by four officials called Vicars- Apostolic.
Such was about the sort of knowledge possessed of Christianity
by the heathen of old time, who persecuted its adherents from
the face of the earth, and then called them a gens lucifuga, a
people who shunned the light of day.^
Such a state of things as that described by ISTewman as
existing among English CathoHcs about the period of the
battle of Waterloo had long since passed away. Catholic
Emancipation, obtained by O'Connell had made the existence
of English Catholics, of their claims and rights, known to
the Government, to Parliament, and in a measure to the
public at large. English Catholics became members of
Parliament. Philip Howard, of Corby Castle, w^as member
for Carlisle; Charles Langdale found, I think, a seat in
Lancashire, and as the representative of English Catholics
did yeoman's service on their behalf in the House of
Commons. The literary world recognised in Lingard a
deeply-read and accurate historian. The history of the
Eeformation, written by a Catholic priest, though it naturally
not only excited curiosity but at first suggested scepticism,
was finally accepted as impartial and authentic.
Wiseman's lectures on the Connection hehveen Science
and Revealed Religion bore witness in the learned world
to the intellectual activity of English Catholics. " He was," as
Cardinal Vaughan with a true appreciation of his varied gifts
justly describes him,^ "a prelate of the largest sympathies,
of a broad and highly-cultivated and many-sided mind." He
was gifted with a rich imagination, which imparted warmth,
colour, and light to his lectures, speeches, and sermons.
His style, maybe, was somewhat too florid altogether to satisfy
^ Newman's Occasional Sermons, p. 172.
- Reply of the Archbishop- Elect to the Address of the Clergy and Laity of
the Diocese of Westminster, 1892, p. 6.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND AVORK IN P:NGLAND 6G7
a severe and chastened taste. But his argumentative
powers, his critical keenness, and force and directness
of speech, made ample amends for whatever was otherwise
amiss. The story of Fabiola bears striking witness not only
to a rich and picturesque imagination but to dramatic
powers. What however made him best known and most
popular with the English public was his talents as a lecturer
alike to learned societies and to popular audiences. Known
as a warm admirer and careful student of Christian Art and
Mediaeval Architecture, Wiseman's lectures on art were
always largely attended. Under the spell of his picturesque
presentation of his subject, his rich embellishments drawn
from varied sources and the critical familiarity with which
he dealt with its details or varieties, the attention of his
audience never flagged. They showed their deep apprecia-
tion not only of his powers as a lecturer, but of his personality,
by the enthusiastic applause with which he was invariably
welcomed and acclaimed. In this fashion, the Eoman
Cardinal and the people of England came to understand and
appreciate each other.
Pugin, the prime mover of the revival of Gothic archi-
tecture, was not only electrifying the artistic world by
caustic criticisms on false principles in art and archi-
tecture, carried out with such grotesque results by the
self-styled masters of the art, but was actually building
a Catholic and Gothic cathedral in London.-^ The funds
for this costly undertaking were collected by " Father
Thomas," ^ head priest of a little chapel in the London Eoad,
afterwards Canon and Provost of St. George's Cathedral,
Southwark. He travelled throughout Catholic Germany
^ St. George's Cathedral, Southwark, was opened in the autumn of 1848.
^ Father Thomas was that zealous and self-sacrificing priest who, during the
terrible outbreak of cholera in London in 1833, not only administered the last
sacraments to the dying, but lifted with his own hands into coffins or carts
the bodies of the dead, Catholics and Protestants alike, deserted in that day
of panic by their friends and relatives — wives by their husbands, children by
their parents. To aid Father Thomas Doyle, the zealous Catholic priest, in
his arduous work of tending cholera-stricken patients all along the river-
side, from Lambeth to Rotherhithe, a public subscription was opened in the
Times, headed by a subscription from the Duchess of Kent, the mother of the
future Queen of England.
668 CARDIlSrAL MANNING chap.
and Austria, and received large donations from the King
of Bavaria and the Emperor and Empress of Austria, He
did more — he enlisted the aid and sympathies of the bishops
of Germany and of the leading Catholics in literature or art
with the progress of Catholicism in England.
The sap of new life was rising in the trunk of that
mighty tree which had stood the storm for three hundred
years. It was shorn indeed of its ancient beauty; its
boughs and branches had long since been torn off; the
comeliness of its goodly proportions had departed. Though
beloved of its own, strangers knew it no more. Yet the
roots of this Tree of Life — the ancient faith of the land —
still struck deep in the soil ; like dew from Heaven, after the
long spiritual drought of three hundred years came the
revivifying results of the Oxford Movement — the return of
so many chosen souls, the elect of God, to the shelter of that
ancient spiritual tree, — the Faith of their forefathers.
In the midst of this reviving life in English Catholicism,
Wiseman, Eector of the English College in Eome, who was
not only an able controversialist, but an oriental scholar of
eminence and a profound theologian, was sent by Pope
Gregory XVI. to England. As president of Oscott, in suc-
cession to Dr. Weedall, all Wiseman's varied gifts and
powers were brought into play. His zeal, intellectual
activity, and profound learning stimulated and directed the
studies at Oscott ; and, at the same time, far beyond the
college walls gave an impulse to the Catholic revival in
England.
In 1840, Dr. Wiseman was consecrated bishop, and
appointed coadjutor to Dr. Walsh, Vicar-Apostolic of the
Midland district. For seven years he was the centre of
Catholic activity and influence ; and Birmingham became
the headquarters of the Catholic movement. His cor-
respondence was large and of extreme interest. He was in
frequent communication with some of the leading Tractarians;
received visits from time to time from those who were in
doubts as to the Oxford Movement, or sought information
as to Catholic teaching and theology. They who had a
personal knowledge of Wiseman's manner and bearing, who
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 669
remember still the warm aud kindly interest he showed to
those who came to consult him ; his simplicity and open-
heartedness, the thoughtfulness which averted misunder-
standing or pain, can alone estimate the influence which his
genial character exerted over all who came in closer contact
with him.
His numerous letters to men and women of culture,
Protestant as well as Catholic, on literary, antiquarian, and
artistic subjects, reveal in a delightful fashion the many-
sidedness of his mind. Most important of all, naturally, were
his constant and intimate communications with Eome. In
these numerous letters every subject of Catholic interest in
the early part of the century now near its close was fully
discussed and recorded. The prospects of the future, the
difficulties of the day, were set out at large, as well as the
personal opposition which he had to encounter on his first
coming to London in 1847. It was when he was Coad-
jutor of the Midland district that he induced Newman to
establish the Oratory of St. Philip Neri at Birmingham.
Bishop Wiseman had a profound admiration for the genius,
character, and self-forgetful abandonment of the illustrious
convert. When Wiseman left Birmingham hie strove hard
but in vain to induce Newman to follow him to London.
The founder of the English Oratory having been invited by
Wiseman to set it up in Birmingham, had an invincible
repugnance to desert or remove his infant community.
Dr. Wiseman was in Eome on the death of Dr. Griffiths
in 1847, and was appointed by Pope Pius IX. to succeed
him in the London district. On coming to London as
Pro- Vicar- Apostolic a strong and sharp opposition was raised
against Dr. Wiseman. Many of the elder and more in-
fluential priests were infected, more or less, with the
Gallican spirit. Not a few of the laity, under the influence
of Mr. Charles Butler, the founder of the Cisalpine Club,
looked upon Wiseman as the embodiment of Ultramontanism,
and resented his intrusion, as they called it, into the London
district. Some of the leading priests were alarmed. They
had regarded the late Vicar-Apostolic, Dr. Griffiths, as
pacific and harmless ; they knew he had opposed the
670 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Jesuits and refused as long as he was able their admission
into the London district.^ On the other hand, Dr. Wiseman
was denounced as aggressive, and was known to be a friend
of the Jesuits.
Dr. Maguire was one of the chief of the malcontents ;
another, Mr. Wilds, the senior priest of the Warwick Street
Chapel, as it was called in those days, and Mr. Sisk of
Chelsea and many others, were ready to form an organised
opposition. Am ong the keenest of Wiseman's opponents
was Mr. Tierney. He was the ringleader. On the sudden
Mr. Wilds changed his mind, carried Dr. Maguire with him,
and then Mr. Sisk. Mr. Tierney and the rest could not go
on without their aid and countenance. The whole opposition
ended in London ; though it only slumbered in South wark
and did not die until a much later period. Indeed, long-
after the restoration of the Hierarchy, during the struggle to
remove Dr. Errington and to appoint a new coadjutor to
succeed Cardinal AViseman, Mgr. ]\Iauning, in his letters to
the Vatican, used to complain of the Galilean spirit of the
Chapter of Southwark, one of whose members was Mr.
Tierney.
On overcoming the opposition raised against him by some
of his clergy, Wiseman's first work as Vicar- Apostolic was to
revive the Catholic spirit and ancient devotions of the Church,
forgotten or neglected during the days of persecution and
since. For instance, the Eosary was publicly recited only
in a few of the chapels of London, beyond those founded by
the French Abbes, and in the G-erman Chapel, Bow Lane,
City. Wiseman was before all things a churchman, inspired
with lofty spiritual ideals. He was imbued to the finger-tips
with Eoman ideas and principles. He introduced into
England, besides spiritual retreats and missions, the Exposi-
tion of the Blessed Sacrament, the devotion of the " Forty
Hours' Adoration," and the habit of more frequent commu-
nion. He was a strict disciplinarian in regard to the observ-
^ Bislioi) Griffiths, with Dr. Cox, President of Okl Hall, went to Rome in
1843 protesting that he did not find it in his conscience to allow the Jesuits to
found a Mission at Farm Street. Pope Gregory XVI. is said to have retorted,
" I am surprised you find it in your conscience to disobey the Pope's orders."
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND AVORK IN ENGLAND G71
ance of the ritual, which had almost fallen into desuetude,
or at best was performed in a careless or slovenly manner.
On the restoration of the Hierarchy in England, in con-
ception and execution the result of his fruitful labours,
Cardinal Wiseman began the work to which he was
called — the laying anew and the laying deep of the
foundations of the Church in England. Wiseman's first
duty was to confront the violent opposition raised against
him, mainly in the first instance by Lord John Eussell's
fanatical letter to the Bishop of Durham. In his insolent
audacity Lord John even threatened to prevent Cardinal
Wiseman's landing in England. Such idle threats only
provoked contempt or ridicule. This sudden fanatical out-
burst took Wiseman completely by surprise, for, before
leaving England for Eouie in the previous autumn, he had
spoken with Lord John Eussell on the subject of the con-
templated Restoration of the Hierarchy. How the " No
Popery " agitation spread like wildfire throughout the country
I have already related. Threats were uttered about renewing
the burnings of the Lord George Gordon riots. St. George's
Cathedral, Southwark, where Cardinal Wiseman had taken up
his temporary abode, was guarded by day and by night by a
stalwart band of Irishmen, ever ready for a fray, especially
in so good a cause. His "Appeal to the common sense of
Englishmen," which filled nearly eight columns of the Times,
had an almost instantaneous effect. Wiseman spoke out
boldly ; his arguments were telling, and he showed through-
out such good humour and kindly feeling as to disarm the
opposition of reasonable men. It speaks well for the common
sense and love of justice and fairplay of the people of England
that they soon rallied from such a fierce and sudden attack
of fanaticism.
In a letter to Archdeacon Manning, who at that time
stood hesitating on the brink of the deep waters, Mr.
Gladstone expressed a desire that in bringing in his
" Ecclesiastical Titles Act " Lord John Eussell might appear
" in the garb of a harlequin." This futile Act, in spite of the
strong opposition of Mr. Gladstone, and of Cobden and
Bright, and many others of that school, was placed on the
672 CARDINAL MANNING chai-.
Statute Book. But it was from the first a dead letter. It
was never acted upon ; not very many years ago, like rubbish,
its ridiculous remains were carted away and flung into the
common dust-bin.
Although he approved of prayers and hymns in English,
during the evening service introduced by Father Faber at
the Oratory, King William Street, Cardinal Wiseman
prohibited, as contrary to the ritual, the interpolation of
prayers in English at Mass, Vespers, and Benediction. On
one occasion during the " Forty Hours' Adoration," at the
Sardinian Church, Lincoln's Inn, the priest recited prayers
in English from the pulpit, and English hymns were sung ;
on hearing of this. Cardinal Wiseman at once prohibited the
practice.
Before he was consecrated bishop in 1840, as Coadjutor
of Dr. Walsh, Vicar- Apostolic of the Midland district, Dr.
Wiseman made a Retreat with the Passionist Fathers in
Eome. During this Retreat he made four resolutions.^
One was that daily mass, which, owing to various causes,
had to a large extent fallen into abeyance, should be said
by every priest in every chapel. On coming to London as
Pro-Vicar- Apostolic in 1847, Bishop Wiseman did his utmost
to promote the revival of daily mass as a universal rule.
Only in twelve of the larger Missions of the London
District was mass said daily ; in all the others only once
or twice a week. It was often announced on Sunday
mornings, that in the following week mass would be said
on the Wednesday and Friday. Of course many priests
said mass daily in many churches. But the universal
rule of daily mass was one of the happiest results of Dr.
Wiseman's action in the revival of religious fervour.^ One
of the greatest debts of gratitude which English Catholics
owe to Cardinal Wiseman's rule was the introduction of the
ancient Monastic Orders, both of men and women, as well as
^ The following were the four resolutions ; — 1. To have the Retreat of the
clergy well conducted. 2. To have mass daily in every chapel under his
rule. 3. To promote devotion to the Blessed Sacrament by Exposition and
the Forty Hours' Adoration. 4. To multiply Religious houses.
- To a living witness, Provost Hunt declared that he remembered well the
time when it was rare to have daily mass in London.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 673
the establishment of new communities suited to tlie special
want of the times. With the Jesuits Wiseman always main-
tained a cordial understanding, and was eager to give them
every facility to extend the special work of the Society —
higher education — so much needed in the restored Church in
England at that time.
Cardinal Wiseman was a fervent admirer of Christian
art and Gothic architecture/ and highly appreciated Pugin's
artistic work and his zeal in reviving a purer taste.
A Liliputian war, however, soon broke out between the
"Goths and anti-Goths." The converts looked upon Gothic
architecture, which for the most part indeed they had admired
and advocated at Oxford, as specially identified with Anglican-
ism, and therefore as an anti-Catholic movement. In their
zeal, untempered by discretion, they looked to Eome for the
model on which Catholic churches in England should be built.
Hence, more Koman than Cardinal Wiseman, they insisted
that bastard basilicas, a style imported from abroad, were
more fitted for Catholic worship than the ancient and
glorious cathedrals of our own land. This fierce internecine
strife between Catholics, old and new, I suppose was a sign
of healthy life, for, as men grow stronger and more capable
of taking in new ideas, they are apt, since they are only
men and not saints, to fall out with one another, and come, if
not to blows to words. But words break no bones, though they
sometimes break hearts, teste the poet Keats and the Quar-
terly Eeviewer, or O'Connell and the Young Ireland party.
A more difiicult and delicate point which Wiseman had
to confront was the lingering taint of Gallicanism to be
found here and there among English Catholics. Charles
Butler and the Cisalpine Club, which was set up in opposi-
tion to Ultramontanism, had left a trail of evil. This
Gallican spirit was exhibited by a few men of note who
joined in public protests against " Papal Aggression." Lord
Beaumont, a member of the House of Peers, wrote and spoke
with vehemence against the Eestoration of the Hierarchy,
describing it as "an ill-advised measure, which forced upon
Catholics the alternative of breaking with Kome or of
^ See Cardinal Wiseman's Lectures on Art, and articles in the Dublin Review.
VOL. I 2 X
674 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
violating their allegiance to the constitution of these realms."
The Duke of Norfolk of that day in a public letter declared
that Ultramontane opinions are totally incompatible with
allegiance to our sovereign and with our constitution. This
ill example was followed here and there by a few other
Catholic laymen. The clergy, at least the majority, were
sound at heart. The Galilean spirit lurked indeed here
and there, as I have already shown, among some of the older
priests. It was the final struggle, the death-gasp of
Gallicanism among English Catholics. The restoration of
the Catholic Hierarchy exorcised its evil spirit.
Opposition to Cardinal Wiseman was shown also in
another fashion, amusing and ridiculous enough were it not
so contemptible. A few washed-out Catholics in social life
were annoyed beyond measure that during the height of the
" No Popery " agitation religious discussions were impolitely
protruded into pleasant social gatherings, routs, dances, and
dinner parties. They condoled with each other, old women
of either sex, in feminine feebleness, saying with a sob in the
voice, " We were all so comfortable, living together in peace
and quietness until that horrid Dr. AViseman — for they
could not bring it into what they called their hearts to call
him Cardinal — caused all this fuss. Until now, our friends
and neighbours did not even know that we were CathoHcs."
Not to be known to be Catholics, what a confession !
what a self -revelation ! It was the first, far step — though
these faint-hearted Catholics would have been horrified at
the imputation, towards the desire not to he Catholics.
The challenge to Catholics to make public profession of
their faith and to stand by it, which Cardinal Wiseman
brought from Eome, was only just not too late. The spirit
of worldliness was spreading amongst English Catholics of
the higher ranks. Public profession of faith, not to speak
of its practice, was becoming irksome to many. Leakage
had set in. In like fashion, after Catholic Emancipation,
there was considerable backsliding. Catholics, who under
the penal laws would have laid down their lives rather than
abandon the Faith, after Emancipation quietly dropped out
of the Church, The pleasant ways of life were opened up
XXIX
WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 675
to them ; and they succumbed to the spirit of worklliness.
Again, the restoration of the Hierarchy was a challenge to the
people of England, bidding them listen to the message
which the Church had to deliver. England picked up the
glove in defiance and Hung it in the face of the challenger.
No matter for that, England had to look at the Church, face
to face. The tumult soon subsided. The Divine message
was delivered. The result was, that men in large numbers,
among them many of the greatest and noblest of England's
sons, Archdeacon Manning first and foremost of them all —
the first-fruits of the " No Popery " agitation — submitted to
the Church of Rome.
What Wiseman would have done in the achievement of
his great work of building up the Church anew without the
aid of the Oxford converts it is difficult to surmise. They
were men ready-made to his hand. Their numbers, con-
stantly on the increase, added year by year fresh materials.
Newman, who had already established the Oratory of
St. Philip Neri in England, and opened a church at Bir-
mingham, was giving effectual support to Wiseman's work by
delivering those famous lectures on "Anglican Difficulties"
in the little Chapel of the London Oratory, King William
Street, Strand. Every Thursday and Friday afternoon during
the autumn of 1851, the chapel was crowded from end to
end. Eepresentative men in literature and law, in art and
religion, crowded to listen to the illustrious convert, the late
leader of the Oxford Movement, explaining the difficulties
which beset Anglicans and stood in the way of their hearing
or obeying the Divine caU. Among many other well-known
men, Thackeray and Charles Dickens were entranced by the
exquisite humour and touching pathos displayed by Newman,
or by his deKcate irony or keen sense of humour ; Father
Faber, as head of the London House — it was at that time
one with the Oratory at Birmingham — surpassed Wiseman's
hopes and expectations in inspiring English Catholics with
a fuller and deeper religious spirit, by setting before them
in his sermons and lectures higher ideals of spiritual life.
To put a stop, I believe, to a prolonged Irish religious
squabble which threatened to develop into a puny schism.
676 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
he sent Frederick Oakeley to far-away Islington, beyond
the reach of his friends and followers at Margaret Street
chapel — beyond the influences which his nearer presence
would undoubtedly have exercised over their hearts and minds.
Like a holy and zealous priest, he did however good work
among uncongenial surroundings. He spent his life and
labours in the parish, attending with unremitting care to
the wants and interests of his people, more especially of the
young and the poor, though he contributed by his able
writings to the defence and advancement of the Catholic
cause in England. Cardinal Wiseman eagerly availed him-
seK of W. G. Ward's great intellectual powers and profound
studies in theology and philosophy, by appointing him, though
a layman. Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the college of
St. Edmund's or Old Hall. Another eminent convert, Mr.
Allies, who, by resigning the rectory of Launton on becoming
a Catholic, made great pecuniary sacrifices, was entrusted by
Wiseman with the charge of the Poor School Committee.
In spite of his arduous duties, Mr. Allies, a keen critic and
profound scholar, found time to write his great work. The
Formation of ChristeTuiom. Canon Morris, another convert
towards the close of Cardinal Wiseman's career, was ap-
pointed his private secretary, and acted in a like capacity
for about a year to Archbishop Manning, when, in order
to join the Society of Jesus, he resigned his office. Canon
Morris was a distinguished archaeologist, and author of a
most interesting and important work. The History of the
English Martyrs}
1 The lamented death of Canou Morris was a severe loss not only to the
Society of Jesus, of which he was a zealous member, but to the English world
of letters. He was a thorough master of every subject he took in hand.
His sound judgment, wide knowledge, and ripe experience saved him from
the painful necessity of "reading up" when he took a work in hand. His
death is a great loss to the Catholic community, for he had undertaken to
write the "Life" of Cardinal Wiseman. For such a task he was pre-
eminently fitted by his close personal intimacy witli Cardinal "Wiseman, and
familiar acquaintance with those minor details — not to be gathered from
books or from hearsay — which give colour and life to a character. Canon
Morris's death is a loss especially to Cardinal Manning's biographer, for we
were of one mind, not only as to the principle on which a biography should
be wiitten, but in regard to the facts in their broad outlines, which were con-
terminous for a time in the lives of both men. I remember at our first
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENC.LAND G77
Monsignor Patterson, now Bishop of Emmaus, was in
earlier days on intimate terms with Wiseman, and was en-
trusted by him with one or two important missions to Eome.
He was for many years attached to the Church of St. Mary's,
Moorfields, Cardinal Wiseman's Pro -Cathedral.-^ Canon
MacmuUen, a conspicuous figure among the Tractarians in
many a pitched battle, was a stout defender of John Henry
Newman in the days when the illustrious Oratorian stood in
sore need of defence ^ against persistent misrepresentations
at Eome, to which he was exposed, now whispered in private,
now, if rarely, alluded to in the open ; for men had a whole-
some dread of rousing the sleeping lion in his den. In
those days especially. Canon Macmullen was a keen observer
of men and things, and when occasion warranted, a caustic
critic. He was on more friendly terms with Cardinal
Wiseman than with his successor.
In this survey my object is to indicate the great store
set by Cardinal Wiseman on the Oxford converts and their
labours, and the trust and confidence he reposed in them.
With the great bulk of the clergy in his own and other
dioceses, many of whom were educated under his eye during
the years he was President of Oscott College, or, later on,
under his episcopal rule at Old HaU, he was on the best
of terms. He encouraged them to act on their own
initiative. If a man thought he saw an opening for
a good work, Wiseman allowed him to act on his own
responsibility ; he did not care to be troubled with details
coijsultation, Canon Morris putting the following question: — "On what
principle is the Life of Cardinal Manning based ? Do you relate tlio simple
facts without omissions or embellishments ; or do you by what is called
'judicious suppressions' produce an idealised picture, instead of the man as
he was in truth and reality ? " On learning the answer, Canon Morris added,
"In so complicated a life as Manning's you have pursued the safest, wisest,
and indeed the only honest course."
^ Later on, under Wiseman's successor, he was appointed President of St.
Edmund's College, and expended much time, labour, and money in improving
and embellishing college and church. The church was built by the famous
Pugin.
2 Newman, in reference to a refutation made by the present writer in the
Westminster Gazette, of certain erroneous imputations cast in those evil days
on the illustrious Oratorian, wrote among other expressions of goodwill and
kindness, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."
678 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
beforehand, or to hamper the originator of the undertaking
by minute instructions. He was wont to say, " I will
judge by results ; act on your own initiative ; if you
make blunders or go much astray I shall not be slow
in pulling you up." On the other hand, he was generous
in his recognition of good work well done, and never
withheld due meed or measure of praise. With the more
learned of the clergy, men like Dr. Eock or Dr. Husenbeth
among others, Wiseman was in full sympathy, encouraged
them in their intellectual labours, and often took counsel
of them. He had, likewise, an observant eye in regard
to the younger or rising clergy. For instance, shortly
before his last illness, recognising the merits and great
abilities of the head priest of St. Mary's, Moorfields, he
left instructions to his successor^ to promote at the earliest
opportunity to a post of dignity or office Dr. Gilbert, after-
wards the Eight Eev. Monsignor Gilbert, Domestic Prelate to
the Pope, Provost of the Chapter of Westminster and Vicar-
General. Wiseman's successor found in Monsignor Gilbert
an able administrator, a sound theologian, whose advice,
especially in grave and intricate questions of moral theology,
was often needed, and an indefatigable worker. It is
not too much to say that to the constant but unostenta-
tious aid of his Vicar-General Cardinal Manning owed iii no
small measure the successful administration of the diocese.
A striking result of Cardinal Wiseman's character and
action was the breaking down of the insularity and isolation
of English Catholics. Eome, his second home, and its
traditions, were familiar to him; he was well acquainted
with and deeply interested in Catholic life and thought
in Italy and France, in Belgium and Germany. He often
visited France, consulted with French bishops, preached
on occasions in their cathedrals — once, I believe, at Amiens,
once at Arras. The Bishop of Arras was his guest for
a time at York Place. Pere Eavignan, the celebrated
Jesuit preacher, delivered about Whitsuntide 1851, some-
times in Wiseman's presence, a series of lectures at the
church of the Jesuits in Farm Street. Under his influence,
^ See Archbishop Manning's letter to Mgr, Talbot, Vol. II. p. 270.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 679
or at his suggestions, French nuns established convents or
joined English communities. Cardinal Wiseman maintained
an active correspondence with Monseigneur Gerbet, Bishop
of Perpignan, with more than one of the French cardinals,
and with Montalembert, who took a lively interest in Eng-
lish Catholicism, and in revisiting England renewed old or
made new friendships. He was a great admirer of
England and of its political institutions, as his well-known
saying shows, " To visit England is to take a bath of
liberty."
Under Wiseman's influence and example English Catholics
gradually broke through their earlier isolation. But it was not
with France only that Cardinal Wiseman kept up an active
intercourse. In 1863 he attended the Congress of Malines,
accompanied by the Bishop of Beverley, and followed by
several English Catholics, and among them by the late
Prior Bede Vaughan, afterwards Archbishop of Sydney,
brother of Cardinal Vaughan ; by the late Mr. Lambert,^
and Mr. Wegg-Prosser ^ of Belmont, Herefordshire, and the
present writer. The Congress was held under the presidency
of the Cardinal- Archbishop of Malines. Cardinal Wiseman
delivered a striking address on " The Condition, Pieligious and
Civil, of Catholics in England." He spoke on that occasion
with more than his wonted enthusiasm and eloquence.
This exposition excited great interest among the Catholics
of Belgium. In the enthusiasm excited by Wiseman's
appeal to the Catholics of the Continent to aid in the
great work of the conversion of England by making
themselves more fully acquainted with the position and
needs of English Catholics by their sympathy and prayers,
les braves Beiges fraternised with their visitors and, had
they been permitted, would have embraced them on the spot.
As it was, they registered a vow binding themselves and
us in the bonds of everlasting fraterniU et solidariU,
^ The name Lambert — 31. Lambert was at the time a popular nickname of
the Emperor Napoleon and his family — tickled the fancy of some Frenchman
at the Congress ; and Mr. Lambert was besieged by the reiterated question :
" M. Lambert, ou est Madame Lambert, et le petit Lambert ? "
^ Mr. Wegg-Prosser at the time of his conversion was member for the
county of Herefordshire.
680 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Montalembert's two famous Addresses at the Congress
of Malines created immense enthusiasm, at least among
the excitable Belgians, The first address was on "A
free Church in a free State " ; the second on " Liberty of
Conscience." In a striking rhetorical passage on the
religious intolerance advocated by some Catholic theo-
logians and often defended on moral grounds in the medi-
aeval church, Montalembert in a voice vibrating with passion
exclaimed : " I could sooner condone the beheading of my
grandfather under the guillotine in the Eeign of Terror than
I can forgive the Inquisition in Spain for thrusting the gag
into the palpitating mouth of men guilty of no crime
save the love of liberty and of freedom of speech."
The Belgians, who at that day were too much addicted
to the false spirit of modern liberalism, sprang to their feet
and cheered the speaker with prolonged and rapturous
applause. But apart from the substance of his speeches,
open on many points to grave objection, Montalembert's
eloquence, voice, and mode of delivery, were almost un-
rivalled. Unlike French orators in general, his voice,
manner, and gesture were quiet and subdued. Only just
recovering from a long illness, he remained seated. In
opening his address he made a graceful apology, saying,
" Messieurs, if I address you seated I am only treating
you as I treat my confreres at the Academy ; for we always
address each other seated in our chair."
Montalembert's two speeches emphasised the growing
divergencies between the moderate and extreme party in
France. The disciples of M. Veuillot, the most pugnacious and
vehement of controversialists, fell foul of M. de Montalem-
bert whom they branded as an enemy in disguise, and nick-
named a " liberal " Catholic. It must be admitted that many
of the exaggerated and rhetorical statements concerning
"liberty" and "authority" uttered by Montalembert were
in no small measure provoked by the tyranny of the Second
Empire against which he fought and under which he writhed.
Cardinal Wiseman, though he disagreed with many of
Montalembert's extreme views, disapproved of the abuse
to which he was exposed by M. Veuillot's party and his
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 681
disciples among the Catholics of England. As a speaker
Moutalembert was the nearest approach I have known to
Newman. The vibrations of his low but penetrating voice ; his
suppressed emotions ; his scathing outbursts of indignation ;
his pathos, reminded one of Newman's inimitable powers.
The enthusiastic reception accorded to Cardinal Wiseman
by French and Belgian Catholics on every occasion of his
attendance during the four days of the session of the Con-
gress, bore striking witness to his personal influence and to
the wide -spread interest taken in the progress of Catholi-
cism in England. This interest naturally awakened in the
Catholics of England a deeper fellow-feeling towards their
fellow-Catholics on the Continent. After this event English
Catholics not a few, priests and laymen, attended Catholic
Congresses, especially in Germany.
The Congress of Malines, attended by so many eminent
men of different nations, excited spite and rage among the
freethinkers of Belgium. In no country, not even among
the atheists of France, is fanatical hatred of the Catholic
Church so deep, fierce, and loud-mouthed as among Belgian
infidels. I may relate an incident which points that way:
on his return from the Congress of Malines, Bede Vaughan
with his companions, at one of the chief hotels in Brussels,
excited unusual attention. Prior Vaughan, a man of fine
and striking appearance and noble bearing, was dressed in
the full ecclesiastical garb worn on public occasions. It
was evident to the snarling freethinkers that he was an
Englishman and a priest fresh from the Congress of Malines.
There was a suppressed growl from some of these fanatical
bigots ; one cried out in a scoffing voice, " From Malines."
" Yes," Bede Vaughan replied, " and the faith and fidelity
manifested at the Con^n-ess of Malines has added a new
glory to Belgium." Sniffings and snortings were audible
on all sides. But the dignity and indifference with which
such discourteous manifestations were met soon brought
these excitable freethinkers to their senses. They looked
indeed more than half ashamed of themselves.
It was not only with the Catholics of France and
Belgium that closer relations were established, but with
682 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
the Catholics of Germany likewise. Seizing the opportunity
of the opening of the German church at Whitechapel,
founded by the Eev. A. Dillon Purcell, now canon and
rector of Hampstead, Cardinal Wiseman invited to the
ceremonial, among others of the bishops and higher
dignitaries of Germany, the Bishop of Miinster, the Bishop
of Mayence, Mgr. Count Galen, and Canon Moufang, a
member of the Eeichstag. There were present also the
Bishops of Leeds, Birmingham, and Clifton, Mgr. Howard,
Bishop Morris, and Mgr. Batholini. This imposing celebra-
tion, conducted by Cardinal Wiseman, attended by dignitaries
of the Church, German as well as English, bore witness,
which his distinguished guests gratefully acknowledged, to
the care with which the spiritual needs of German Catholics
were attended to in London. Dr. Manning preached on
the occasion an eloquent sermon on the revival of Catholi-
cism in England. His quiet eloquence and austere appear-
ance made a great impression on the foreign prelates. Canon
Moufang, in a powerful address, delivered in the evening,
dwelt on the necessity, in days of danger and difficulty, for a
closer union between the Catholics of every nation. And
as the Catholics of England, he added, under the wise
and happy rule of their gracious Queen, enjoyed perfect
liberty in act and speech, their public expression of sym-
pathy with their fellow-Catholics suffering under tyrannical
oppression in other countries would do good service to the
sacred cause of liberty and justice.
As English Catholics have long since forgotten the
isolation in which, nearly haK a century ago, they were
content to live, to remind them of the debt of gratitude
they owe, on this score alone, to our first great English
Cardinal, is to-day only an act of bare justice.
The activity with which, until his health broke down,
Wiseman worked on behalf of the poor, the sick, and the
young, is attested by the results of his labours. His first
act in laying anew the foundations of the Church in England
was to establish homes, refuges, and schools, the beginning
of a great work, which his eminent successor carried on with
such indefatigable zeal, perseverance, and success. By the
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 683
poor, hard-working, faithful and religious Irish in London,
Cardinal Wiseman was reverenced and beloved. In many-
ways he was a man after their own heart.
The Irish Catholic members of Parliament, The O'Conor
Don, Mr. Monsell the late Lord Emly, Pope Hennessy,
Major O'Peilly a Papal Zouave, the late Sir E. Esmond,
and Mr. Cogan, among others, used frequently during the
Parliamentary session to attend his crowded and lively
Pieceptions, first at Golden Square, then at York Place. But
the Irish members of that day were men of a different
stamp from the Irish members of to-day. Though, with the
exception of Pope Hennessy — the first Irish Catholic Tory
— they were Whigs, yet they were not Eadicals, nor — far
worse — men disloyal to crown and country.
Cardinal Wiseman, of course, committed some blunders.
The most absurd, perhaps, was his infatuation for and his belief
at one time in the Emperor Napoleon. The cardinal, com-
pletely deceived as to the political and personal motives of
the Emperor in defending the temporal power of the Pope,
belauded liim as a second Charlemagne ; and, not discerning
his utter want of principle, became for a time an enthusiastic
Napoleonist. He lived, however, long enough to repent of
his political short - sightedness. Under the spell of his
infatuation he directed that in the French chapel, supported
by the Eoyal House of France, the priests of which were
devoted to the Legitimist cause, the prayers after mass
should no longer be offered for the exiled king, Henri
Cinque, but for the son of the Eevolution, " the Usurper of
the Throne of France." The priests not unnaturally de-
murred to this act, as they called it, of desecration. To cut
matters short. Cardinal Wiseman announced that on a
certain Sunday he intended to celebrate High Mass at
the French chapel. After mass, instead of the accustomed
Doniine salvum fac Rcgem nostrum, Wiseman chanted in a
loud voice, Domine salvum fac Im'peratorem nostrum.
At his usual Eeception on the following Tuesday evening,
there was a large gathering of French Legitimists who freely
discussed the Cardinal's policy in publicly supporting even
in a church the principles of the Eevolution in the person of
684 CARDINAL MANNING CHAP.
Napoleon. Wiseman, approaching this excited group of
French Legitimists, at the head of whom was a well-known
upholder of the Royal House of France, M. Espivent de la
Villesboinet, exclaimed in a somewhat angry tone, " Messieurs,
on n'entend Hen que Francais daois cette salon."
In one sense, the most important result perhaps of
Wiseman's varied work was the awakening in the minds,
which had so long lain dormant, of the Catholics of England,
of public action and life.
One special gift in this direction Cardinal Wiseman
possessed in a high degree, the art of attracting and gathering
about him the more active and prominent of the laity. He
imbued them with his own ideas, encouraged them to take
active part in Catholic life, and not to leave to himself and
the clergy alone the duty of supporting Catholic interests, or
of defending Catholic rights. Hence, I may remark, by way
of illustration, it came to pass, that when Newdegate intro-
duced into the House of Commons a Bill for the Inspection
of Convents — the last cowardly and feeble attempt of
decaying bigotry in the land — a large Catholic meeting
was held to protest against the injustice of the Bill, its
violation of the sacred rights of individual liberty, and the
iniquity of the libellous calumnies uttered in the House,
and under the security of its privileges, against priests,
monks, and nuns, by such men on this or other occasions as
Newdegate, Spooner, and Whalley. Newdegate, in the mad-
ness of his bigotry — for he was an honest man — declared
that every new Roman Catholic building, whether convent,
monastery, or community house, was provided with secret
underground vaults, in which, he insinuated, refractory
monks or runaway nuns were immured. Newman, on the
occasion, wrote a letter to Mr. Newdegate, published in the
Times, in which he confessed that the community house
of The Oratory, Birmingham, but recently built, was indeed
provided with underground vaults more or less "secret,"
but, he added, they only contained cellars, wine-bins, and
larders, and he courteously invited Mr. Newdegate to make
a visit of personal inspection.
Deputations, selected at the public meeting, waited on
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND G85
the chief members of the Government and on the leaders of
the Opposition. The result was that the Convents Inspec-
tion Bill was ignominiously defeated.
In like manner, Catholic meetings were held at the
Stafford Club, to obtain the appointment by Government of
Catholic prison chaplains, and chaplains for the army and
navy. Deputations headed by the Hon. Charles Langdale
had several interviews on the subject of the appointment of
Catholic military chaplains with Lord Naas, afterwards
Lord Mayo, and with Mr. Disraeli. This claim, after full
discussion, was granted with a free hand by a Tory Govern-
ment. It was not obtained by private communications or
backstair influence, but by an open meeting and public
action.
In the days when Wiseman was Cardinal-Archbishop of
Westminster, the Hon. Charles Langdale was the recognised
leader of the Catholic laity, — as he was, indeed, in those
earlier days when, as President of the " Catholic Institute
of Great Britain," he promoted Catholic interests, and as
their representative in Parliament claimed for Catholics the
concession of equal rights with those of their Protestant
fellow-countrymen. At the meetings held in the Stafford
Club he was invariably elected chairman, an office which he
discharged with great tact, temper, and judgment ; qualities
on occasions not altogether unneeded. For it must be
confessed that there was at times a certain amount of
friction as to the mode of action to be pursued by Catholics
on public questions affecting their rights or interests. On
the one side it was contended, especially when the Liberals
were in power, that private communications should be carried
on with the Government, or personal appeals made to such
of its members as were believed to be more favourably
disposed towards Catholics. On the other hand, it was
stoutly maintained that public policy demanded, that if their
rights were withheld from them, that if they suffered under
a grievance, or if the Government had committed itself to a
wrong line of action detrimental to Catholic interests or
hostile to Catholic principles, it was their duty to take such
public action as w^as taken by every Party in the State to
686 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
enforce within the measure of their opportunities their
claims, or to express, as they hest could, their opposition to
the policy of the Government.
From the other side the retort came that such public
action might not only awaken anti-Catholic prejudices in
the public mind, but, still worse, might be inconvenient to a
friendly Government, ready to make in private such con-
cessions as they might deem fit.
The preponderating Catholic feeling at the time was that
their representatives and leaders ought not to go, cap in
hand, to the anteroom of a minister, friendly or otherwise,
soliciting favours, but to demand in public, by petitions to
Parliament or otherwise, such rights or privileges as they
were justly entitled to.
Besides Mr. Langdale, amongst those who used to attend
the political meetings at the Stafford Club were Lord Edward
Howard, the late Lord Howard of Glossop, the late Sir
George Bowyer, the doughty champion in and out of Parlia-
ment of the Catholic cause, the late Sir Charles Clifford,
Sheriff Swift, Lord Feilding, the late Earl of Denbigh, Lord
Campden, the late Earl of Gainsborough, Hon. J. Arundell,
now Lord Arundell of Wardour ; Mr. George Blount, the late
Mr. Gilbert Blount, Mr. Amherst, now Father Amherst of the
Society of Jesus ; the late Sir John Simeon, Edmund Stonor, the
eldest son of the then Lord Camoys, a staunch Catholic and
Tory, who died too early to do good service and make a name
for himself; Mr. Edward Eyley; and last, but by no means
least, the late John Wallis, the able editor of the Tablet.
Scant justice has been done to John Wallis,^ to whom the
Catholics of England owe a great debt of gratitude for
his valiant services as editor of the Tablet in days of great
stress and struggle. He was a staunch Catholic, and the
leader, in the days when English Catholics for the most
part still adhered to the traditional but effete Whiggery of
their fathers, of a small but active party of English Catholic
^ John "Wallis received his University education, as in those days Oxford
and Cambridge were closed against Catholics, at the famous University of
Bonn, on the Rhine, where Sir Stuart Knill, the late Lord Mayor of London,
was educated.
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 687
Tories. John Wallis acted on the principle that in pro-
moting Catholic interests, public action and not backstair
influence should be relied on ; urged Catholics to cast off
their swaddling-clothes, and escaping from leading-strings to
come out into the open field and fight their own battles.
In allusion to this movement among English Catholics,
Disraeli said to the late Sir Eobert Gerard, afterwards
Lord Gerard, himself a good Tory, " Catholics and Tories are
natural allies." In our day happily this aphorism of
Disraeli's has been realised to the full. But in his day
John Wallis had an uphill battle to fight. He was the
most candid and outspoken of men, bold to the verge of
audacity in his attacks on Catholic Whiggery. He did not
hesitate even on occasions to tackle cardinals, in the person
of Cardinal Cullen for example, whom in the Tablet Wallis
used to call " Paul Cullen of Dublin, arch-whig as weU as
arch-bishop." Later on another cardinal looked with eye
askance on John Wallis.^
In regard to Catholic newspapers and public meetings.
Cardinal Wiseman adopted the wise principle of letting every
man act on his own responsibility and at his own risk. In
allowing this large latitude of freedom of action and speech,
he by no means abdicated his ultimate authority in regard to
the public acts and proceedings of Catholics under his spiritual
rule. But Wiseman was not a timid man, in fear of things
going amiss if not under his immediate control or super-
vision. For instance, in regard to the meetings held at the
Stafford Club, attended alike by priests and laymen for the
discussion and promotion of Catholic interests, religious and
political, the necessity never entered into Wiseman's mind
for the presence of a priest as official representative of
Episcopal authority, as guide and ultimate judge of Catholic
action. In his trustful large-mindedness, Cardinal Wiseman
put no gag into the mouth, no fetter on the wrist, of Catholic
laymen.
The result was that, inspired by his trust and confidence,
the laity manifested a lively interest in Catholic affairs,
1 Cardinal Manning once said to me, "Any morning I may wake up
to find myself gibbeted as ' Paul Cullen of Dublin ' is. in tbe Tablet."
688 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
took counsel together, and formed a centre of union and
action. In fact they became a reserve-force ready prepared
on an emergency to back their bishop. In this reserve-
force "Wallis and the Tablet formed the most active
element ; furnished the most effective weapon for offence
or defence.
If scant justice has been meted out to John Wallis,
he did not do justice to himself nor to his mental powers.
Possessed of great personal influence and powers of con-
versation, he spent too much time in talk, in argument,
in criticism. None, if they laid themselves open to rebuke,
escaped his lash ; not even bishops or archbishops or car-
dinals in their shortcomings. But John Wallis wasted his
life; missed his opportunities. A golden opportunity was
placed in his hands — the Life of Charles Langdale, which
included in its course Catholic Emancipation, the Oxford
Movement, the whole period in which Wiseman flourished,
and the larger moiety of that in which Manning ruled as
Archbishop of Westminster. Such a work — the liistory of
the Catholic Church in England, for in Wallis's hands it
would have amounted to that — during the most important
and interesting portion of the century, would have afforded
full scope to his critical powers, to his gift of narrative
and description, and to his judgment of events of surpassing
interest, to which he had been an observant eyewitness and
often a caustic critic. With avidity and singular delight
he entered into the plan of a great historical work, collected
materials, and then from a certain indolence of mind which
forbade or hindered sustained and silent work, Langdale's
Life fell from his not feeble but idle hands.
In another direction Cardinal Wiseman was equally active.
He entered heart and soul into the Hon. and Eev. George
Spencer's crusade of prayer for the conversion of England.
The founder of this new crusade — not to rescue by force
of arms the holy places from the infidel, but to restore
by force of prayer, to join in whicli Catholics and non-
Catholics alike were invited, the reunion of Christians in
England — the Eev. George Spencer, spent his life in this
noble and bloodless crusade. It was sanctioned by the
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND 689
Holy See ; cordially supported by Cardinal Wiseman in
England, and by bishops in every Catholic country in
Europe. It was an Association of universal prayer through-
out Christendom for the conversion of England. The pro-
posal of joint prayers for the restoration of the unity of
Christendom was adopted by large numbers of Anglicans.
The enthusiastic and indefatigable leader of this pious
crusade travelled all through the country, appealing alike
to Catholics and Anglicans, and making personal visits
to many of the leading men in the Church of England.
Perhaps the most zealous and fervent supporter of this
association of prayer was Mr. de Lisle of Grace Dieu
Manor — himself an early convert to Catholicism. Later
on, towards the close of Cardinal Wiseman's career, as
will be related at full in its proper place, he took a
prominent part, in co-operation with his friend the Eev.
Dr. Lee of All Saints, Lambeth, in establishing an Associa-
tion for the Corporate Eeunion of Christendom, which gave
rise to complications and difficulties, as will be related in
a subsequent chapter.^
Up, almost to the last, Cardinal Wiseman maintained
friendly relations with Anglicans in seeking and striving
for the restoration of unity in Christendom.
Two works of special interest, though different in kind
and importance, the one spiritual, the other tending to
intellectual development, in such a rapid review of Wise-
man's career I can only refer to.
In the work of restoring the Catholic Hierarchy it was
Wiseman's primary duty as lawgiver to lay down the lines
on which the Church in England was to be built up again.
For this purpose, within two years of commencing his great
work, Cardinal Wiseman convoked the first Provincial Synod
of Westminster. It was held in July 1852 at Oscott.
This day will for ever remain memorable in the annals of
the Church, not only for that it was the crowning day
of the new Hierarchy, but because it was the first Synod
held in England since the Keformation. It will be for
ever memorable, too, on another account, for before this
1 See Chapter XIII. Vol. IL
VOL L 2 Y
690 CARDINAL MANNING chap.
Synod, Newman preached his famous sermon "The Second
Spring." A noble tribute to the faith of our forefathers
under persecution, and a glorious forecast of the future
for the Church in England.
In spite of laborious days spent in active episcopal work,
and, more trying still, in spite of internal conflicts and
controversies which harassed and embittered the closing
years of his eventful life, the intellectual development of
the Church in the persons of its members, clerical and
lay, was ever near and dear to Wiseman's heart. After the
pattern of the " Roman Academy of Letters," Cardinal Wise-
man established in London an English Academy over which
he presided. At the opening of its first session, 29th June
1861, Cardinal Wiseman delivered the Inaugural Address,
in which he laid down the programme and sketched the
future work of this literary Institution.
How fervent and unaffected was Cardinal Wiseman's
piety, how tender his love and devotion towards God and
His saints, they only can testify who knew him intimately,
as, for instance, the late Canon Morris. The following
letter, written from Broadstairs, where he was staying after
his severe illness in 1863, shows in a few simple words
how deeply Cardinal Wiseman venerated the old Cathedrals
of England and their holy places : —
Broadstairs, Friday.
Dear Mgr. Manning — . . . Yesterday I drove to Canter-
bury, and was able to perambulate the Cathedral and venerate
its holy places, unknown and unsuspected. I leaned for rest
against Cardinal Pole's tomb, the first cardinal who has entered
it since his remains were borne to their resting-place. How
strange, too, that he, the Catholic, should be the only arch-
bishop since the Reformation buried there. I stood the day
very well, this being my longest walk by far since I was taken
ill. — I am ever yours affectionately, N. Card. Wiseman.
It is a great drawback and hindrance to Cardinal
Manning's biographer that though twenty-eight years have
elapsed since his death, the story of Cardinal Wiseman's
life has never been told. It is not merely that Wiseman's
biography would have furnished a fitting and almost
XXIX WISEMAN'S LIFE AND WORK IN ENGLAND G91
necessary background to the picture of Manning's life, but
what is of far more vital consequence is, that the story
of Wiseman's life must needs have cleared up many grave
points still left in the dark ; settled many dubious ques-
tions still left open, and, to use a homely phrase, put the
saddle on the right horse.
It is hard upon me to have to discharge a duty,
as I needs must, if I am to write Manning's life, which
ought to have been discharged twenty-five years ago and
more by a biographer of Wiseman; hard upon me to be
called upon to adjust or apportion the measure of responsi-
bility incurred, on the one hand by Cardinal Wiseman,
and on the other by Manning, as Wiseman's responsible
adviser during the last six or seven years of the Cardinal's
rule.
To have written the Life of Wiseman during Manning's
lifetime, even had the materials been disclosed, which
they were not, would, I acknowledge, have been a most
difficult and delicate task.
In the sketch of Wiseman's career, which I have
attempted to give as an introduction to Manning's
Catholic life, as well as of the position and state of
Catholics in England since Emancipation ; of their relations
to the Oxford movement, I have, as will be observed,
abstained from touching upon the graver questions which
agitated and disturbed Wiseman's episcopal rule, and at
one time led to a request to the Holy See for his recall
from Westminster and transfer to Eome. For all these
matters — his difficulties about the English colleges ; his
disagreement with the Chapter of Westminster; his dif-
ferences with the greater portion of his fellow-bishops ;
and last but not least, the Errington Case — are, from the
necessity of things, sifted to the bottom and disclosed, in
connection with Manning's life and action as a Catholic, in
the next volume. For all these questions were intimately
connected with Manning's earlier activities as a Catholic —
formed part and parcel of the motives which dictated his
line of action at the time when he was Provost of the
Chapter of Westminster, and acted as Promoter of Wise-
692 CARDINAL MANNING chap, xxix
man's defence against the charges brought before the Courts
and Congregations of Propaganda. In some of these grave
difficulties and disputes it is not too much to say that
Manning played at times not a subordinate, but a leading
part ; took the initiative where it was supposed he had
simply followed instructions.
In a review, so necessarily brief, of Cardinal Wiseman's
career and conduct, I have only attempted to give the
broad outlines of his career, and the salient points in his
character, together with such details as space allowed,
important as showing character, which were familiar to me
from a long personal acquaintance. This account of Cardinal
Wiseman, brief as it is, suffices, however, for my purpose of
explaining the state of Catholicism in England prior to
Manning's Catholic career.
Let me add the hope that the work of building up the
Church in England, commenced by Cardinal Wiseman in
laying its foundations anew, and in enlarging its boundaries,
carried on by Cardinal Manning in the spirit of wisdom,
prudence, and untiring zeal, may in good time be com-
pleted and crowned to the glory of God and the good
of souls by his Eminence Cardinal Vaughan. In the ful-
ness of time, when the sanct and stately edifice is with the
blessing of God completed, it will remain for ever a noble
and lasting monument to the memory of three illustrious
Cardinals of the Holy Eoman Church in England.
NOTES
Note A
The error concerning the date of Cardinal Manning's birth
is a curious illustration of the aptness of a mistake to perpetuate
itself. In the Catholic Directory, edited by the Cardinal's Secretary,
the Eight Rev. Canon Johnson, the date of Cardinal Manning's
birth was given, year after year to the end, as the 15 th July
1808. The same date was inscribed on the coffin and engraved
on Cardinal Manning's tombstone. Cardinal Manning himself,
in his Diaries and Journals, in recording his birthday always
described the date as July 15, 1808. The same error is re-
peated in his letters to Robert Wilberforce. The Master of
Balliol, the late Professor Jowett, informed me that on his
matriculation in 1827 the age of Henry Edward Manning was
entered in the records of Balliol College as 18.
In speaking many years ago to Mr. Richmond, R.A., about
the date of Cardinal Manning's birth, Mr. Richmond said,
"Manning and I were born in the same year, 1807. We often
compared notes on the subject. Ask Cardinal Manning, he must
remember what I have told you."
On speaking to Cardinal Manning on the date of his birth,
he said, " Yes ; I believe there is a mistake of a year in the date
one way or the other, I forget which."
On making further researches, I discovered the most authentic
and conclusive evidence in a letter wiitten by Manning in 1832
to his eldest brother Frederick Manning, excusing himself for
the delay which had been occasioned by not taking Orders on
leaving Oxford in 1830. The following passage occurs in a
letter dated Downing Street, 1st February 1832 : —
My dearest Frederick — . . . I do not regret the delay I have
thus occasioned ; indeed I cannot avoid remarking by the way that I
am by six months only qualified to take Orders.
The Canonical Age for taking Orders is 24. Consequently, ac-
694 CARDINAL MANNING
cording to his own reckoning, Cardinal Manning was born in 1807.
Moreover in some juvenile verses quoted below, the date of his
birth is given as 1807.
In the Baptismal Register of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-
Fields the date of Henry Edward Manning's baptism is May
1809. The date of birth is not given. The clergyman who
showed me the Baptismal Register at first declared that Manning
was born in 1809, but on learning that the 15th of July was
known as his birthday added, then of course it was in 1808.
In this fashion the mistake arose when a copy of his
Baptismal Register was required by Cardinal Manning in the
first instance, and has been perpetuated to this day.
Vindus errore nonferris alienis sed meaferrea voluntate.
Written 15th July 1835. Confessions : St. Augustine.
Another added to my score of life,
How many added to my score of sins ?
For every several year with ill is rife,
And ends as it begins
In wandering prayers and dull unspiritual thought
Of vanity and earth ; but nought of heaven
Into this soul of clay hath yet been wrought,
The sluggish mass to leaven.
"With a new life these eight and twenty years
I have lagged on with sluggish lingering pace,
Shrinking and dull, with low-born hopes and fears,
Most evil and most base.
(Written July 1861 — continued.)
So wrote I once when life was young, and I,
Imprisoned in myself, with woes and tears
Dimmed God's bright world and gifts unthankfully,
For eight and twenty years.
The date of birth is shown in the above verses. It is not
necessary to quote the remainder.
Note B
Contrast between the Catholic Church and the
Protestant Establishment in 1836
Temple, drd November 1836.
My dear Friend — From the time when we perambulated
this metropolis together last August till nearly the present, I
NOTES 695
have been so incessantly occupied travelling, visiting, domesti-
cising, etc., that it has only been since my return to settled
thoughts and habits that I have felt distinctly conscious of the
duration of our silence, and a desire to break it.
From a trip to South Wales, intended to last a fortnight, I
was tempted on by Stephen Glynne into Ireland, and with him
made a month's rapid but interesting tour of the south and
south-western coasts. We landed at Cork, whence we proceeded
to Bantry Bay and Killarney, then to Limerick, near which
place Ave spent some days with young Stafford O'Brien ; up the
Shannon — to Galway, through the wilds of Connemara, and
straight across the island to Dublin, and so home. A mere
scenery -hunter will certainly be disappointed in Ireland, the
beautiful points lie at great distances from each other, and do
not repay one for the tedium of crossing the dreary interspaces.
But with the people, lively, good-humoured, and (as I fully
believe) religious, one must be interested. The parts we traversed
were all Roman Catholic, presenting, I suppose, that corrupted
system in as beautiful a form as it is anywhere developed. The
clergy (independently of their political and anti-English disease)
zealous, devoted, chaste, patient ; the people dutiful, reverencing
the priestly office, even where the individual might be con-
temptible ; festivals religiously observed, daily morning service
numerously frequented in every moderate town. On the other
hand (I speak merely what we saw, not as hastily censuring or
judging) the Anglo-Irish Church, whenever we came upon it,
presents a melancholy spectacle both to the eye and mind.
Churches roofless, and covered with ivy, with new and neat
Roman Catholic chapels close by them ; then we heard nothing
but " Peculiar " sermons, and found the clergy co-operating with
Dissenters, and giving up all but the name of Churchmen in
their fear of Popery. What a miserable reflection it is that
many members of the Apostolical body in that country should
so act as to confirm, one might almost say justify, the Romanists
in their errors.
National schools, where we were, owing to the landlords not
residing, and the clergy not interfering, have come quite into
the hands of the priests ; none but Roman Catholic children
attend them, and I have good reason for thinking that they use
their own lesson-books, not the Scripture extracts ; so that it
has become, in fact, a simple bonus to Roman Catholic education.
And now I must have tired and grieved you with these sad
details. — Your affectionate, S. F. Wood.
P.S. — Chester is an interesting old town ; and I went to
696 CARDINAL MANNING
Hawcarden, Sir S. Glynne's (whom you may have seen at Christ
Chuixh). Lady Glynne is a very clever, excellent woman, and
the Miss Glynnes sensible nice girls ; indeed, I might have had
more society than would have suited my purpose.
Note C
W. E. Church (afterwards Dean of St. Paul's) on
Archdeacon JVIanning's Fifth of November Sermon,
1843
Oriel, 12th July 1844.
My dear Manning, — I am sorry to have been so long in ansAver-
ing your letter, and I have also to apologise for not having written
to you when Marriott first put your Sermon into my hands ; but
I hope you will excuse me on the score of having had my hands
full of work which I could not delay. I fear that you have
taken a great deal of trouble for little purpose, for I cannot
pretend to have anything to say that will assist you. It is a
tremendous question, and I have no clear view of it, and my
Middle Age reading has been confined to a very short period,
and has done little more for me than make me distrust anything
but a regular study of the writers of the day, in making up my
mind about those times. But I will say what strikes me. I should
object to looking at the Middle Age Church under Bellarmine's
formulae. I mean, that the Temporal Power of the Popes in the
working practice of Gregory VII. and Innocent III., and in the
abstract universal propositions of Bellarmine, seems to me as
difi"erent a thing as the Royal prerogative in the living govern-
ment of our early kings, and in the formal articles and dicta of the
Stuart divines and lawyers. In each case the one led to the other,
yet I cannot bring myself to throw back on the earlier practical
belief, the relations and effects in its own cotemporary society of the
later dogma. The traditions, feelings, disputes, dangers, among
which each worked, were utterly different. It seems to me
quite conceivable that one may have been pernicious and the
other salutary — and that what may have been true as the
index and symbol of a cause, may become very questionable
when thrown into the shape of a universal affirmation, sine
tempore et modo enunciatum.
I have never looked into Bellarmine, but I daresay that as
far as words go he expresses the Middle Age belief. I fully
agree with you that this belief was that the Pope has power from
Christ to interfere in all that affects Christ's kingdom, and
NOTES 697
so to depose Christian princes, if necessary for its welfare.
But, though I am not at all disposed to accept of the theo-
logical dogma of the IGth century, I do not feel so ready
to quarrel with the claim, or the expression of the claim in
the 11th.
As to the claim itself, I suppose you would allow that not all
interference with things temporal is a violation of the spirit of our
Lord's words. It comes then to a question of how far 1 wuth
what aim 1 under what circumstances 1 Heathen government of
course the Church has no business with. But, supposing her
existing among Christians, supposing it universally recognised that
all things temporal are in order to things eternal, supposing that men
therefore call her in to direct and sanctify, may she stand aloof?
Supposing they think that the highest functions of government
should be administered with that view, ought she to refuse to
take part to that end ? I confess I see no limit to the inter-
ference of the Church in the temporal matters of Christians,
except her idea of expediency, or their unwillingness — from what-
ever cause, her abuse of past power, their own imperfect religion
— to admit it. The measure of her right, as the source of her
power, in matters not strictly her own is the feeling of society on
the question. It is unworthy of her, and therefore wrong, to
fight for that power, when it is fairly gone : it would be betraying
a trust not to use it and fight to retain it, when fairly and really
possessed.
All these suppositions are realised in the 11th century, the
feeling of society being that all were amenable to the Gospel
law ; and there was nothing on w^hich they did not seek the
counsel and blessing of the Church, on which they withdrew from
her cognisance. They went to her as to an oracle. Thus they
tendered her power — they believed for their own good here and
hereafter — ought she to have waived it ?
To attempt to guide the Governments of Christendom accord-
ing to the law of Christ, was no doubt a most dangerous and
responsible, as it was also a " most noble " enterprise — and I
cannot see how the Church ought to have shrunk from it.
However, with its dangers and its hopes, she did undertake it,
and the opinion of society, of all that was above mere brute
force, urged it on and sanctioned it. In such a state of things,
I cannot see why in an extreme case — and the case always was
considered an extreme one — the Church might not do w4iat she
could to depose a king, for this reason ; that Christians, who had
made her trustee of their interests, might claim of her, in default
of other remedy, to protect them from fatal mischief from a
brother Christian, by ^vithd^awing the sanction under which he
698 CARDINAL MANNING
claimed their obedience, and which she had given on his oath to
govern as a Christian — unless indeed, kings held by a jns
diiinmn external to the Church — a doctrine, as far as I know,
not that of the Middle Ages, for then, whatever a man's title might
be, as to succession and inheritance, his being a King or Emperor
depended on his being crowned by the Church. The power of
deposition, then, seems to me the necessary complement of that
theory of the Middle Ages, Avhicli professed to give the govern-
ment of the world, with unreserved suhmimon in all things, to the
law and kingdom of Christ ; and politically, it was the com-
pensating weight, to those Governments being carried on,
as they then were, according to the will and pleasure of armed
Powers.
Governments have for centuries past withdrawn that unreserved
submission. " They reserve many things to be settled on
principles quite beside those of the Christian law — also they
have got laws and institutions instead of mere military power.
In such a case, let the Church leave these alone — it seems to be
God's will — there is no law commanding her to busy herself
about their aifairs, if they do not choose it ; she "is not under
bondage in such cases." I have intentionally spoken of "the
Church" instead of "the Pope" because I have been speaking of a
time when every one assumed that he was the rightful organ of the
Church — that her power was gathered up in him. He did, and
he only could in those days, represent the Church — the Spiritual
Power — with any reality. Bishops were vassals without the Pope.
And with respect to the expression of the Church's claim — that
the Pope had all this power jiwe divine, — what strikes me is this
that jus divinum rested in those days on what we should call a
very vague and unsound basis ; not on logical deductions from
Scripture, but on strong instincts of what was right and true in
the main, on a broad traditionary belief, on the events of Pro-
vidence. In this, as in everything else, they spoke of the
invisible world, as if it was open to their sight — they spoke of
God's hand in everything that happened, of St. Peter and the
saints as if they were still on earth.
What I mean then, is this — that the circumstances of the time
explain, and to my mind, justify, in Gregory VII. and Innocent
III., opinions, claims, and conduct which, if thrown into the shape
of universal Theological dogmas for the Church in all ages are ground-
less in reason, and have been, and may be, indefinitely mis-
chievous. To them many of the greatest Roman theologians have
committed themselves ; but the Church is not more committed,
than the English Church to the Synod of Dort, or Bishop
Orwell's Convocation Book.
NOTES 699
I cannot agree witli you as to the unmixed evils flowing from
the power of the Popes. I cannot believe that in Gregory VII. or
Innocent III. the " end of the ecclesiastical commonwealth " was
other than the highest spiritual good of Christians — and if gross
secularity, as it did, flourished with their system, so did priests
of God such as the Church has never seen since. When was
all that you say (p. 81) of the ecclesiastical system, more
eminently true of it, than in those very ages when the pretensions of
the Popes were at the highest ? The secularity which always
exists in the Church must of course come out more frightfully,
as the Church has more power — in the shape of ambition or
avarice, instead of indolence ; but it seems to me that there are but
two alternatives — a strong and active system, with great evils,
or a weak system, with little good. The Western Church chose
the latter.
I daresay there is a disposition, as you say, to make all Popes
Saints, but, as I fully believe that some were, I doubt if it is a
good policy to include them all in a sweeping condemnation.
I am sorry I have not time to go on to St. Anselm. All I
can say, is that as far as I know, he completely, in feeling and
policy, identified himself with the party of Gregory VII., and I very
much doubt whether he would have been at all startled if, after
other measures — excommunication, and interdict — had failed,
the Pope had pronounced William or Henry unfit to rule over
Christian England. But it never came even to excommunication.
Pray excuse this hasty, but prolix dissertation — but I am still
busy — which must also be my plea for being scarcely legible.
Yours very faithfully, ^ ^^ Church.
Note D
Criticism of Archdeacon Manning's Sermons by
T. W. Allies, Eector of Launton, 1850
The Fourth and last volume of Archdeacon Manning's
Anglican sermons is criticised by Mr Allies in the following
letter : —
Launton, 29th January 1850.
My dear Archdeacon Manning — I have been enjoying the
task you set me of reading sermons 9-12. If I venture to
express any opinion which looks like criticism, remember it
is yoiu- own doing.
First then, No. 9, interests me most, and its skill seems to
700 CARDINAL MANNING
me admirable, but pages 1G4-175 are so many blows of a sledge-
hammer dealt at Anglicanism, ex. grat. : —
"The supernatural inspiration of the Church is a perpetual
illumination above the laws of nature."
" Because the old creation is fallen and divided, may not the
new have an unity derived from Heaven ? "
"Because human traditions grow corrupt, may not divine
traditions be kept pure."
"Because natural truth is an uncertain light, may not the
light of Christ be sustained by Himself, infallible and clear."
" Surely all this is nothing less than to take nature without
revelation, as the measure and limit of Christ's office in the
Church."
" The illumination of the Holy Ghost is as perpetual as His
presence."
"Did He sanctify the Apostles and first believers, and then
leave the family of Christ, for all ages to work out their salvation
by moral habits and the force of nature ? "
"Does His presence sustain the stream of Grace, and not
sustain the stream of Truth ? "
" If the Church is not thrown upon its mere moral powers for
sanctity, is it thrown upon its mere intellectual powers for
doctrine."
" Is it possible to believe that this scheme of probabilities [that
is, of uncertainty] in doctrine, and imperfection [that is of doubt]
in evidence, is a part of the probation of the regenerate within
the revelation of the faith ? "
Alas, what have I been groj)ing through the last thirteen
years 1
"The infallibility of the Church is made up of these two
elements, perfect certainty in the object revealed, and spiritual
illumination in the subject which perceives it, that is the Church
itself."
" The presence of an infallible teacher is as necessary to the
infirmities of the human reason, as the presence of an omnipotent
Comforter is necessary to the infirmities of the human will,"
Most of all perhaps.
" The idea and principles, the laws, limits, and conditions of
the kingdom of Christ in the revelation and perpetuity of truth,
in the effusion and distribution of grace — in what do they begin,
in what are they continued — but in a series of supernatural facts,
in original revelations, in spiritual consciousness, in the words of
inspired Scripture, in apostolical traditions, in the testimony of
the Church, in the definitions of Councils, in the collective discern-
ment of men sanctified by the spirit of God ? "
NOTES 701
Most true surely ; heart and mind and will equally respond
to this, but have you not answered your own chief difficulty 1
What more than this is wanted to bear out certain other
words.
" There was a wonder in Heaven ; a throne Avas seen far
above all created powers, mediatorial, intercessory ; a title
architypal, a crown bright as the morning star, a glory issuing
from the Eternal Throne ; robes pure as the heavens ; and a
sceptre over all."
You certainly ought to be cited into the Court of Arches. I
consider it very unfair that you are not. You have been not
so much attacking a single point here and there in the Articles
of our faith, as overthrowing the whole ground on which the
Anglican Church originally went and now stands.
When you speak of inhering m the infallibility of the Church
Catholic, it is a language and a thought unknown to all her
writers, and utterly alien to her action and life for three hundred
years. How has she lived save on criticism of the text of
Scriptiu-e, criticism of antiquity, entrenching herself in her
insular position, and ignoring any such doctrine as that " original
inspiration has descended in a perpetual illumination."
Sermon 12. Here I am almost afraid to say what I feel, lest
you should think me unreasonable. It appears to me to contain
the true doctrine, yet not to put it so lucidly and forcibly as is
your wont. I limit this observation to the subject of the
Eucharistic Sacrifice in its relation to that of the Cross. I like,
ex. grat. very much p. 224; "This Christ in Heaven offering
Himself in visible presence ; and on earth by His ministering
priesthood offering Himself in the sacrifice of the body and the
blood," etc. But is this even all, or the highest view. Is it
not the Word made flesh offering modo incruento on the altar,
what He offered modo cruento on the cross ? Thus Suarez
says, comparing the Eucharistic Sacrifice to that of the Cross.
The chief offerer and the thing offered being the same, they may
be called equal simply, but in the kind of death that of the
Cross is greater in difficulty and divine condescension ; also in
actual merit and satisfaction ; that of the Mass in the manner of
oblation, by a more supernatural action and in an impassable
manner. So that the sacrifice of the Cross was more fit to work
redemption ; but both in their kind are best.
Surely No. 9 was not written three years ago. — I am, my
dear Archdeacon Manning, affectionately yours,
T. W. Allies.
702 CARDINAL MANNING
Note E
When John Henry Newman was nominated in 1851 Rector
of the Catholic University of Dublin, he invited, in a letter dated
October, the Rev. H. E. Manning, who had just been ordained,
to become Vice-Rector. Manning, however, declined the offer
on the ground that it was a mistake to found a University in
Dublin.
END OF VOL. I.
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