CARDINAL MANNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 21

CARDINAL MANNING.

CHURCHMAN AND STATESMAN ADDRESS BY MK. P. J. O'REGAN. The Manchester Unity Hall, Hobson Street, was crowded for Mr. P. J. O'Regan's lecture on Cardinal Manning. The lecture was delivered under the auspices of the Catholic Students' Society, and the chair was occupied by Bishop Liston. Mr. O'Rcgan described the Cardinal as a great churchman, a great ecclesiastical statesman, and a great Englishman. His life (1808-1892) almost covered the century, and there was in many respects a close similarity to his great contemporary. Gladstone. Early in life, Manning achieved distinction at the Oxford Union, and, as the result ot a great speech he made in favour of the free importation of wool, he was, by common consent, marked out for a political career. Financial ruin overtook the family, however, and young Manning was obliged to accept a minor position as a clerk in the War Office. After remaining there a year, he determined to take orders as a clergyman of the ! Church of England. Commencing as a curate at Lavington in Sussex, he bei came rector of that parish, and later ; Archdeacon of Chichester. In addition r to his gift- a- a preacher, he was always i conspicuous for his deep and abiding sympathy with ths poor. His reception , in the Catholic Church was the result of a. gradual mental process. Though his [ family belonged to the evangelical . school the Church of England, he had , always regarded the Royal Supremacy as an act of usurpation, and when the Privy Council decided in the famous | Garham case in 1850 that the Bishop of Exeter could not refuse to accept a clergyman who denied bitiunal re* [ generation, Manning was one of fourteen " who signed a public protest. There--1 after he endeavoured to found a move- ■ ment. to establish an ecclesiastical court : of final appeal to settle disputed Church ■ questions, but finding no support from i the bishops, he burned his boats, as it - were, and joined the Catholic Church • in April, 1861. It was a striking commentary on the differences separating

some, at any rate, of the Anglican clergy from Catholicism, that withip three months he was ordained for the priesthood. As a matter of fact men like Manning and Newman stood at the head of a body of men who were more learned in Catholic doctrine and history than many of their Catholic contemporaries. Newman's matchless "Development of Christian Doctrine," a standard theological work, was written while he was yet an Anglican, and no Catholic historian had dealt more ably with great historic figures like St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Thomas of Canterbury, than had Dean Mil man in his "History of Latin Christianity." The lecturer, in sketching Manning's career in the Catholic Church, laid particular stress on hie sympathy with the workingmen. as evidenced by his acting on the Housing Commission, appointed by the second Gladstone Government in 1884, and his intervention in the London dockers' strike in 1889 when, in spite of weak health, he secured a settlement favourable to the men. He gave final proof of his humility and real greatne»» by dying poor, for his estate was worth less than £100.

Incidentally Mr. O'Regan recalled tne fact that Manning, in his Anglican days, had been largely responsible for the coming of Bishop Selwyn to New Zealand, and all through life they had been personal friends. A vote of thanks was Hccorueu me lecturer by acc-almation.