THE LATE CARDINAL NEWMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8360, 13 September 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LATE CARDINAL NEWMAN.

No. IV.

(Continued from last Saturday's Supplement.]

Wis Catholics, and especially those of us who were converts, were in ecstasies of delight. We had suffered, and been silent. We hud known what it was to endure all that Newman had endured, and many of us much more. Wo had had to bear the scorn of every fool, the contemptuous pity of the kinder-hearted, the impertinence of cads, who thought that, because wo had become " Papists," we had lost all claim to the courtesies or the deference duo to our social position. • Wo had lost money, position, worldly consideration and reputation, the affection of our friends and relatives. All tho avenues open to men of energy and talent wore closed to us by tho whisper of the one word" Papist." It is true that we had religious freedom, and that no legal disabilities worth mentioning lay upon us ; but popular prejudice and tho bigotry of the most narrow-minded set of men in Europe—the lower middle class of English society, who then ruled supreme—amply supplied the placo of the pains and penalties of the law. And we, at the request of those whom wo were bound to respect, had held our peace. We had bowed our heads in submission, and turned tho left check when tho right was smitten. To the old hereditary Catholics this was easy enough. Centuries of persecution had tamed and cowed their proud English spirits, and all they I asked was to be allowed to practise their religion in peace and quietness. They formed a narrow and exclusive circle amongst themselves. But we were different ; we were born free ; we could not see why an Englishman who had become a Catholic should be treated as an interior being to his brother who had remained a Protestant; " the galled jade winced," and we fretted and fumed at the restraints laid upon us. We were told that our forbearance and meekness and patience would meet with their reward in Heaven: and had we all been saints we should have accepted cur trials in a spirit of thankfulness. But we were not all sa-'nts. Some of us, at any rate, longed to kick somebody, or to punch someone's head. And then when a priest broke loose, and a priest with the intellectual power and fame of Newman, we saw that tho day of our reward had come. This was better than kicking anyone, and being lined £5 in the Police Court. Everything that was said against Kingsley was applicable, with very few exceptions, to all our Protestant friends. They had said as much as Kingsley, or more, and we took the greatest delight in lending them Dr. Newman's book. The benefit conferred by it upon English Catholics is simply incalculable. The " knave or fool theory" was annihilated, and never since in any controversy has it been used. But it would be serviceable to reprint the book with notes for use in these colonies, where apparently a large proportion of the classes who are most influential still regard a Catholic as a being to bo shunned and boycotted, and entertain all the prejudices which were in full vigour in England up to tho time of the Apologia.* There is something to bo said in defence of Kingsley. lie was a thorough Englishman, as Newman was, and, taking up the ordinary idea of the Englishman of his time, of course considered a Papist, and especially a priest, as a noxious animal, who deserved no consideration whatever. Then lie was not a theologian ; to save his life, he probably could not give an accurate definition of a single dogma of his own Church. His ideas of dogma, though perhaps a little more definite than that of the Oxford don, who was asked how he got over the Athauasian Creed, and replied, " Well, you know, / think /here is a sort of a somclhimj," were not more so than those of an Anglican Bishop, who once told the author that "the Athanasian Creed was merely a lyrical hymn !'' To Kingsloy the idea of dying for a theological dogma was as inconceivable as that a man should die for the shape of a cloud or of a sea wave. Thar men should die for honour, for their country, to protect the weak or the inno- . cent—that he could understand; but that men shouul die for a creed, should die because they believed a dogma meant to them eternal life or eternal death, was to him oik.' of the mysteries of human nature. And so, being utterly unable to understand how a man in Newman's position could ' really sacrifice all he had sacrificed for a '

mere belief, he was led to attribute to him either dishonesty or " boundless silliness." TIIK VATICAN' COUNCIL AM) TUB DEFINITION OK I'AI'AI. INKAU.IKU.ITY. We must hurry over the remainder of Newman's life, which is, indeed, better known to the present generation than the periods we have hitherto treated of. It is pretty well known even amongst Protestants that Dr. Newman was out of favour with the Papal Court up to the death of Pius IX. He never received any honours ; lie was never even made a Monsignore. Once it was said that he was to have a Bishopric, and a mitre was even bought; but the dominant party in Rome interfere! I, and the Bishopric was never conferred. To the day of his death he had no higher order than that of a priest. For years lie was, if i.ot formally silenced, evidently convinced that, any controversial writings would be viewed with disfavour at Rome; for a man of his spirit and intellectual power could never have refrained, as he did for long years, from writing, unless this had been the case. Partly this was owing, no doubt, to his method of controversy, which, as we have said elsewhere, was first to state his opponent's case, and then demolish it. But the

way in which he put arguments of the most forcible character into the adversary's mouth, his terrific frankness, his wonderful power of stringing together the arguments, was quite enough of itself to frighten the timid ecclesiastics in Rome, who must have been aghast when they saw that it was only necessary to extract Newman's statement of the Protestant case, and leave out his reply, to make quite a formidable weapon against tho Church. In his Apologia, tor example, he <;ives the arguments which an infidel might bring forward against the existence of a Divine Being, and he piles them one upon another with such force and clearness that many a man would refuse to accept the only alternative he oilers. We have given some specimens of his method in tho controversy with Ivingsley. Put another reason which wo of the laity heard whispered as the cause of Newman's disfavour was his conviction that the declaration of Papal Infallibility was inopportune, lie was a believer in the doctrine as defined by the Vatican Council, but he never took the extreme views advocated by the late Dr. Ward and some others, and lie was firmly convinced that the definition and promulgation of the dogma would be disastrous to tho Church. This conviction ho shared with many eminent men, such as Monseigneur Dupanloup, the learned and eloquent Bishop of Orleans, and many other members of the Vatican Council. So strongly did he feel on the subject that in a private letter, which by some strange indiscretion was published, he called the party that wore so earnestly striving for the definition " an insolent and aggressive faction." He was wrong, as the event showed. The decreo was promulgated and accepted by the whole of the Catholic world, with tho exception of an insignificant fraction in Germany, now rapidly dying out, and no harm has ensued. On the contrary, it has put an end to the controversy.

newman's sensitiveness about the wor-

.SHU- OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Another thing which, perhaps, rather militated against him at Rome was a kind Oi convert fussiness about extravagant expressions made use of in popular devotions to the Blessed Virgin and some of the saints. Anyone who has lived in countries inhabited by persons of the Latin races knows what hyperbolical phrases they make use of both in anger and in love. That persons of poetic imagination and a fervent zeal should, in devotional hymns or prayers, sometimes exceed the strict limits of dogmatic theology was nothing more than might be expected. Newman took the cold English view, and was horrified. lie said that they gave him the sensation of a " bad dream," if we remember rightly. Perhaps if he had ever known what ib was

to love ix woman, and to be loved by her in return, he would have learnt that the most

extravagant expressions of devotion or ado-

* Some years ago a man said to the present writer, " I am sure that you sire far too intelligent and educated to believe in Transubsturttiution or the Infallibility of the Pope!" This, of course, was exactly equivalent to saying, " am sure that you are a liar and a hypocrite."

ration are quite compatible with the firmesb conviction that the object of them is nothing more than an ordinary human being. In his letter to Dr. Pusey, who had collected a number of these expressions, he made some very strong remarks about them; in fact, the two old gentlemen, who were both as innocent as babies, shook their heads together in pious horror. The Roman authorities probably did nob like this kind of thing ; and, sooth to say, we of the laity did not like it either. We do not think it is the place of a simple priest, and a convert priest, and, worst of all, an English convert, to convey, even by implication, a rebuke to the highest ecclesiastical authorities. Suum cuique. There are proper officials to take cognisance of those matters, and if there had really been any danger in the expressions, they would have been condemned and prohibited. There are plenty of prayer-books, with all kinds of devotions, and if a man does nob liko one, lie can take another; and if he does nob like, any, then he had bettor go back to Protestantism, whore ho can get up devotions of his own. But Newman had a very strong belief in the pre-eminent excellence of everything English. In one passage in the Apologia ho says pretty plainly that the Churchmeaning, of course, the Church of the Popes—has lost something considerable by the absence of the English element for three hundred years. Well, this might be true, or it might not; but, true or not, it was not a passage likely to influence the Italian authorities favourably towards its author. The fact is that Newman never lost a certain Protestant twang, which belongs to all converts, except those who joined the Church of Rome in their very early manhood. His way of retracting the expressions ho had used against the Church before his conversion was particularly offensive to pious ears," and but that he was such an enfant terrible would probably not have been allowed. Ha carefully extracts all the most offensive passages in his writings, and then formally retracts them. Now, when a man has called another a liar, a thief, and a coward, and sincerely regrets what he has said, and is ready to acknowledge that lie has uttered calumnies, if he has any dolicacj of feeling, he certainly would not repeat the words, and then retract and apologise for thorn ; he would withdraw in general terms anything he had said against his neighbour's charac ter, and express his sincere sorrow, and ask for forgiveness. But Newman, notwithstanding his great gifts and his wonderful talents and immense intellectual powers, was evidently deficient in a sympathetic knowledge of the mind of others, and could never have understood how the republication of his charges and argument?, although accompanied by retractions and counter arguments, grated on the feelings of his fellow-Catholics. His mode of apology reminds one of the old story of the naval officer,'who, having said to his senior that ho was " not lit to carry guts to a bear," went up to him on the quarter-deck, and said, " The captain orders me to apologise to you and withdraw what I have said. I, therefore, apologise, and declare that you are fit to carry guts to a bear !" VATICANISM AND TUB HKFLY TO MB. CJLADSTONK.

It suited Mr. Gladstone's purpose to get up a cry against Catholics after the Vatican Council, and to inform them that they could not any longer bo good Catholics and loyal subjects. This was sheer impertinence, of course, and deserved no other reply than the charge of " idolatry" does. Wo know our own religion, and our own convictions, and what our duties are to the Church and tho State, and we don't want any Protestants to tell us what we think, or feel, or believe, or ought to do. Newman plunged into the controversy with his usual energy, although ho was then 73, and wrote a letter addressed to the Duke of Norfolk. It is needless to say that it is a composition of great ability, and deals exhaustively with the question. Ho dissipates (lie common errors as to Papal Infallibility, and at the same time gives one or two quiet hits at his old adversaries. For example, he concludes by saying : " For tho benefit of some Catholics I would observe that, while I acknowledge one Pope jure dirino, I acknowledge no other, and that I think it a usurpation, too wicked to be comfortably dwelt upon, wrier* individuals use their own private judgment in the discussion of religious questions not simply ahundare in suo senm, but for the purpose, of anathematising the private judgment of others. I pay thero is only ones oracle of God, the Holy Catholic Church, and the Pope as her head. To her teaching I have ever

desired all my thoughts, nil my words, to bo conformed (?); to her judgment I submit what I have ever written, not only as regards its truth, but as to its prudence, its suitableness, and its expedience."

CAKDINAL-DKACON. Shortly after the accession of the present Pope His Holiness created Dr. Newman a Cardinal-deacon. This was merely a titular honour, and conferred no fresh order. Ho was still, as regards orders, only a priest, and had no more power or jurisdiction than before. Many Protestants considered it as a reversal of the policy of the Roman Curia towards Newman ; bub it was, in fact, only a well-deserved title, which had been conferred upon one of the most distinguished men of the Church. It could hardly bo expected that Pius IX. should bestow honours on one who had opposed, as far as lay in his power, the definition of the Infallibility, which it was well known that tho late Pope was most anxious to see authoritatively defined. But years had passed ; the whole Catholic world had accepted the decree; Newman was known to have been only one of many who, having thought it inopportune, had yet loyally accepted it ; and it was a graceful and becoining act of the present Pope to make the indisputably most learned and able writer anions; the English ecclesiastics a Cardinal-deacon. It must have deeply gratified Newman, who had sj long languished in the "cold shade," and almost all Englishmen of every creed rejoiced with him.

A few years ago a paper from Cardinal Newman's pen appeared in the Nineteenth Century on tho subject of " The Inspiration of the Scriptures." The subject is one on which considerable latitude of opinion is permitted, as the word inspiration" has never been authoritatively defined. Newman's opinions, it may be well to bear in mind, were only entitled to the respect due to a private Doctor of Theology in priest's orders, whose theological works have never been formally approved by the Church, or even received the imprimatur of a Bishop. They are not.to be comparod in authority to the pastoral letter of a Bishop to his flock on some point of dogma or morals ; the two are incommensurate, not being in pari materia.

CONCLUDING REMARKS. Littlo need be said about tho lafco Cardinal as a literary character. His works speak for themselves. It is admitted on all hands that for mastery of tho English language, for purity and limpidity of style, for force of argument, no man has ever surpassed him, and few have equalled him. It is impossible to paraphrase or condense him without injuring the style or obscuring the sense or lessening the power of his arguments; there is not a word out of place, not a word that can be changed with advantage, not an obscure or confused or ambiguous sentence to be found in his writings. Whatever may be thought of hi 3 argument, it was always logically correct -only his premises were wrong, as he had to admit. Ho never indulged in rhetorical exaggerations, and his greatest effects were produced by the massing together in grand and harmonious sentences ot a scries of simple assertions or descriptions. All his works, with the single exception of the "Grammar of Assent" (published in 1870), were on theological subjects, and even the grammar is obviously written with a theological end in view. Newman never was a popular preacher among Catholics, and, although the writer lived for years in the same diocese, he has no recollection of Dr. Newman ever having participated in any of the numerous functions of the Church, except in the Oratory or at St. Chad's Cathedral. It is curious that ho never published any sermons preached as a Catholic, although he republished so many of his works written when an Anglican. Of course there was nothing wrong in this ; he published the works openly, and they were never censured or prohibited, and from the religious point of view there is nothing to be said. But, as a mere matter of taste and feeling, it is astonishing that any Catholic as sincere in his belief as Newman unquestionably was, could have borne to see reprinted under his own hand the language ho had used when a Protestant about che Roman Catholic

Church and her dogmas and practices.

The writer cannot bring himself even bo copy the worst of these attacks, bub the following short passages, which relate nob so much to the Church herself or her dogmas, as to us who are members, will illustrate his meaning. In his letter to the Bishop of Oxford, wribten In March, 1841 (a little more than four years before he joined the Roman communion) he quotes with approval and assent the following extract from his lectures on "The Prophetical Office of the Church": , .

" Viewed, indeed, in action, and, .as,realised in its -present partisans, it (Romanism) is bub one of the many denominations which are the disgrace of our age and country." Again, in the same letter ho quotes another extract in which he speaks of '* her idolatrous worship of the Blessed Virgin, her image worship, her recklessness in anathematising, and her schismatical and overbearing spirit," &c. And all the refutation given is a note at the bottom of the page-— " Supr. vol. i., pp. 44, 45." If, as the writer knows was the case, a very large number of educated Protestants thought that Newman was not properly appreciated by the members of his own Church, they should remember that everybody has nob a hide like a rhinoceros ; that everybody's intellect is not as acute and subtle and refined as Newman's; and that we poor, dull, stupid laymen, who loved our Church, and loved the doctrines and practices of the Church, and had given up everything in life for her sake, did not, and could not, understand how a Catholic could republish such virulent attacks as these. The excuse was that if they had nob been republished under Newman's editing they would have been reprinted without it. But s irely it was only a question of money ; fie copyright, if it had been sold, could have been bought back. No other convert clergyman ever did the like. The fact is tint Newman's feelings towards the Church of Rome were not the feelings of a child to his mother, bub of a child who remembered and loved his own mother to his stepmother. There was reverence, respect, obedience, but there was no affection. His affections seemed to be given entirely to the friends of his youth and early manhood; they were deep and lasting. He never took any part in the great movements towards social reforms, so characteristic of these latter days. In this he formed a marked contrast, as, indeed, in many other things, to Cardinal Manning. His intellectual powers, immense though they were, worked in a narrow groove, and outside that he never went. Although he published gome poetry, of which the wellknown " Lead, kindly Light" and the " Dream of Gerontius" are all that the writer has road, his works show no appreciation of the beauties or laws of Nature, and of natural science ho had not even a smattering. When he first left the Anglican communion he had for some time the idea of following some secular pursuit. England has reason to regret that he changed his mind. He would have made the finest equity lawyer of his day, and, although as a Catholic he could not have aspired to the woolsack, he might have had at his disposal any position short of that. Had he done so the world would have gained a great lawyer and the Catholic Church would have lost nothing. The little he wrote as a Catholic could hardly have converted a single human being, and whatever personal influence ho might have exerted in favour of his Church would probably have been increased rather than impaired if he had never been a priest. He would always have been one of the most commanding intellects of the day. And, now, if in their abundant charity to a brother priest, any Catholic clerics should think that the writer ought to have passed over in silence the defects in Cardinal Newman's character, he would answer them in Newman's own noble words : — " As to the Catholic religion in England at the present day, this only will I observe : that the truest expedience is to answer right out, when you are asked ; that the wisest economy is to have no management ; that the best prudence is nob to be a coward ; that the most damaging folly is to be found out shuffling; and that the first of virtues is to ' tell the truth, and shame the devil.'"

To non-Catholics ib may seem that tho comparative silence of such a man as Newman made his later life to some extent a failure ; to us who are Catholics it seems a saintly triumph of grace over nature, of the spirit of obedience over the rebellious promptings of the intellect. No doubt that to a man like N man, to whom the fierce struggle of th' y and tho battlefield was evidently the most intense of intellectual pleasures, the forbearance from controversy that was so conspicuous in his lawjf years must have been a sore grief, and an act of severe self-denial. But he had his consolations. Besides those higher ones to which, in a paper like this, it would be unseemly to do more than allude, he had the consciousness of power, though unused, the companionship of dear and congenial friends, and above all that learning which placed him in tho most intimate communion with the greatest minds of the ages that are gone. It is the fashion to decry classical learning in these days, but those who do so have either "never known a deep sorrow, or aro ignorant of tho greatest consolation" that man can obtain by his own exertions. *" Quod si non hie tantus frnc/it-s os/eiuieretur, si ex hi* stiuliis deleclatio solo peteretur; (amen, ut opinor, hanc animi rcmissionem hiunanis.iimam etc liberalissimam judicaretis. Nam ccetcra neqne lempormn sunt neque celatum omnium, neque locorum : at hive stadia adolesccnliam alunt, seneclutcm obltciant, secundan res ornant, advernis perfmjium ac solatium pra-hent ; . . . pcrnoctant nobisenm, peregrinantur, rusticantur." Cic. Pro Arehia.

K. H. Ba ice well.