THE stage on which what is called the Oxford Movement ran through its course had a special character of its own, unlike the circumstances in which other religious efforts had done their work. The scene of Jansenism had been a great capital, a brilliant society, the precincts of a court, the cells of a convent, the studies and libraries of the doctors of the Sorbonne, the council chambers of the Vatican.

The scene of this new Movement was as like as it could be in our modern world to a Greek róλs or an Italian self-centered city of the Middle Ages. Oxford stood by itself in its meadows by the rivers, having its relations with all England, but, like its sister at Cambridge, living a life of its own, unlike that of any other spot in England, with its privileged powers and exemptions from the general law, with its special mode of government and police, its usages and tastes and traditions, and even costumes which the rest of England looked at from outside, much interested but much puzzled, or knew only by transient visits. And Oxford was as proud and jealous of its own ways as Athens or Florence, and like them it had its quaint fashions of polity; its democratic Convocation and its oligarchy; its social ranks; its discipline, severe in theory, and usually lax in fact; its self-governed bodies and corporations within itself; its faculties and colleges, like the guilds and "arts" of Florence; its internal rivalries and discords; its "sets" and factions. Like these, too, it professed a special recognition of the supremacy of religion; it claimed to be a home of worship and religious training, — Dominus illuminatio mea, a claim too often falsified in the habits and tempers of life.

DEAN CHURCH: The Oxford Movement; pp. 159–160.

CHAPTER X

NEWMAN'S DEVELOPMENT AND PERSONALITY

ing solitude-Anglican Calvinism and High

Newman's various aspects Birth and parentage - Charles and Francis Newman - A sister's portrayal — Mystical idealism -Schooldays His conversion - Thomas Scott William Law - John Newton-Impressionable yet independent - Personal influence - The "Apologia" First Oxford phase-Success and failure — Dr. Whately - Ordained - Appearance Opposite qualities - DeepenChurch doctrine Dreamer and Dogmatist - Blanco White Hurrell Froude - Keble - Newman's pessimism - Illness and bereavement - Break with Liberalism - Revivalism Romanticism - Appeal to Antiquity Angelology-Dr. Hawkins-Vicar of St. Mary's-Disagreement with Hawkins The Arians - Newman as a preacher - His continental tour - Visit to Naples, Rome and Sicily-Influences of the Journey Interviews with Dr. Wiseman - Newman's illness His poems.

I

NEWMAN was an exemplification of his own contention that the same object may be viewed by various observers under such different aspects as to make their accounts of it appear more or less contradictory. To some he was the religious philosopher, the Pascal of his period; to others he was the great doctor, whose work on the Arians would be read and studied by future generations as a model of its kind. To a certain type of admirers he was the superb preacher, the Chrysostom of St. Mary's, Oxford, and of the Oratories of Brompton and of Edgbaston; to a less favorable group he was nothing more than a cunning master of English prose, a writer of incomparable artistry and seductive charm, who made siren words do duty for rational and coherent thinking. Lord Morley, from whom we quote, observes that style has worked many a miracle before now, but none

more wonderful than Newman's.1 1 Again, some asserted that his knowledge of the first centuries of Church history entitled him to rank among the foremost ecclesiastical historians, while for apologists and disputants his merit lay in his controversial skill. Both Modernists and Traditionalists have claimed him as their own. Catholic Anglicans revere his proud yet melancholy memory because he was their great pleader at a critical moment and in an anomalous position. Perhaps his most notable achievement was this: that he actually raised the Roman Communion to which he seceded out of the contemptuous misunderstanding and deep dislike of his countrymen to a place in their recognition, if not esteem, which before his appearance would have seemed unattainable. His presence in the midst of her was an incalculable help to the Roman hierarchy, which did not, however, fully appreciate his value. The fact that the most brilliant and gifted son of the Church of England was content to be the eremite of Edgbaston, because of his exceeding love for antiquity and for a system they had despised and rejected, never ceased to puzzle and chasten eager Protestants. For them and many besides, John Henry Newman was, and still is, the grand enigma.

He was born in Old Broad Street, London, on the 21st of February, 1801, the eldest of six children, three sons and three daughters. His father, John Newman, a banker in that city, is said to have traced his descent from the Newmans who were small landed proprietors of Cambridgeshire. They claimed Dutch extraction, and in an earlier generation spelt their name "Newmann," a form which has given rise to the conjecture that they were of Hebrew origin, but there is no conclusive evidence that such was the case. Although the "Apologia" is silent about the elder Newman, his son's "Letters and Correspondence" contain numerous and affectionate references to him. He was a Freemason of high standing; a man of the world, prosaic, honest, choleric, 1 "Miscellanies"; (Fourth Series), p. 161.

enterprising, full of good sense; animated by a love of justice and a hatred of oppression and fraud. Newman eulogized his forbearance and generosity as a father, and while the son's genius was all his own, he inherited from him a taste for classical music and an excellent capacity for business.

Like another famous contemporary, James Martineau, Newman also sprang from Huguenot stock. His mother, Jemima Fourdinier, belonged to the French Protestant family of that name long and honorably established in London as merchants. For her he cherished a filial love, which was not, however, without occasional moods of self-assertion and flashes of an exacting disposition. She had some part in his earlier religious development, but was temperamentally unable to follow his leadership in later days, and he spoke with regret of the differences on religious matters which separated them, and that he missed the sympathy and praise she could not conscientiously bestow.1

His introduction to literature began while listening to her reading of "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," and when "Waverley" and "Guy Mannering" appeared, he spent the early hours of summer mornings in bed eagerly devouring them. Scott was always one of his favorite authors, but the Holy Scriptures were his constant companion: from the dawn of his understanding he was trained in their precepts, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he knew the Bible by heart. In old age he described in beautiful and pathetic language the hold it had upon him and how impossible it was to elude or even lessen the sweet influences of this, his first and last treasured possession.

A fleeting glimpse is caught of him as a child playing in Bloomsbury Square with young Benjamin Disraeli, but his best remembered home was at Ham, then a rural retreat, near Richmond-on-Thames. Its charms always lingered in his recollections, and in his eightieth year he

1 "Letters and Correspondence"; Vol. II, pp. 176–177.

wrote: "I dreamed about it when a schoolboy as if it were paradise. It would be here where the angel faces appeared 'loved long since but lost awhile."" His two brothers shared the intellectual endowments of the family, but Charles Robert, who stood next to him in age, was eccentric to the verge of insanity, and the purposes of his life were defeated by his personal habits. Francis William, the youngest of the three, had a more successful undergraduate career at Oxford than John, obtaining a double first class in 1826 and a fellowship at Balliol in the same year. After a diversified and eventful life as a missionary in Persia and professor in several schools, he was appointed to the chair of Latin in University College, London, where he remained from 1846 to 1869, an extended tenure during which his versatility in writing on many and different themes attracted wide attention. Some of these were of such an erudite or fantastic nature as to defy popular apprehension. He was a much misunderstood and disappointed man, whose life and work were in striking contrast to those of his eldest brother. The one drifted toward the shelter of an infallible dogma, the other toward the tempestuous seas of doubt. Carlyle spoke kindly of Francis as "an ardently inquiring soul, of fine university and other attainments, of sharp-cutting restlessly advancing intellect, and the mildest pious enthusiasm, whose worth, since better known to all the world, Sterling highly estimated." Of the three sisters the eldest, Harriet Elizabeth, married Thomas Mozley, the author of the "Reminiscences," a work necessary to students of Newman; the second, Jemima Charlotte, married John Mozley of Derby; and the third and favorite sister, Mary Sophia, died unmarried in 1828.

Harriet's portrayal of John Henry as a young man, while showing a sister's partiality, is significant and candid. He was inclined to be philosophical, observant, considerate of others, dainty in his tastes, and extremely shy; his

1 "Life of John Sterling"; p. 184.