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Immaculate

Htrart College

Hollywood. California

leslie, Shcine Henry Edward Manning.

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Library Bureau Cat. no. 1137

Ammacuiate Heart College
Holly-wood, California

Henry Edward Manning
His Life and Labours

isrvm, thf etrhina from.

Life

S^nffy.

CWcUko- J>h~

Henry Edward Manning
His Life and Labours /

By Shane

Leslie,

M.A.

King's College, Cambridge

With

Six Illustrations

Second Edition, Revised

immaculate Heart College
Hollywood, California

Burns Gates
28 Orchard Street
And
.

& Washbourne Limited
W.
i
.

8-10 Paternoster
Birmingham
.

Row

E.G. 4

at

.

Manchester

and

.

Glasgow

1921

1

9,

'41

DEDICATION
TO

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE

WILLIAM CARDINAL O'CONNELL
ARCHBISHOPS OF BALTIMORE, WESTMINSTER, AND BOSTON
PRINCES OF THE HOLY

ROMAN CHURCH

Note
THE
author

to
is

Second Edition
made

grateful for an addition

by Baron Friedrich von Hiigel on page 51, and to the following for corrections The
:

Bishops of Salford and Clifton, Father Herbert Lucas, S.J., Mr. James Britten, Mr. Herbert Hall, Mr. Snead-Cox, and
Father Vassall-Phillips, C.SS.R.

Contents
Preface
Chapter
I.

Page ix

Early Days

'

II.

A

Captain of

Harrow

III.

IV. V. VI.
VII.

Oxford Conversion and Orders Life and Love at Lavington Rome and Gladstone Archdeacon of Chichester
.

.... .... ...
.
'

i

9
19 35

43
52

"
.

.

.

68
81

VIII.

The Road

to

Rome

.

.

-

,
.

.

IX. Florence Nightingale and Others X. The Wars of Westminster
.

.

103

.127
.
.

Archbishop of Westminster . XII. The Day's Burden ...
.

XL

149
171

XIII. Ireland

.......
.

.

192

XIV. The Vatican Council
.

.

.

.

XV. World Politics XVI. The Case of Dr. Newman XVII. The Religious Orders
.
. .

.

.

.214 .234
.

.

.

269 316
347 382

.

.

.288
. .

XVIII. Rationalism and Literature

.

.

XIX. The Coming of Democracy XX. Ireland Again XXI. Persico and Parnell XXII. Spiritual Politics XXIII. Towards Evening
.

.

.

.

.

.412
.

.

.

.

.

442
472

.

.

.

.

.

Appendix
Index

.

.,

.

.

.

.

.

.

498
513

VII

List of Illustrations
Cardinal Manning
(From the etching from
life

....
by Mortimer Menpes.)
.

Frontispiece

Henry Edward Manning
(From a miniature, painted sion of Lady Salt.)

.

.

Facing page

4

in 1812, in the posses-

Henry Edward Manning
(From a
pastel as

.

.

18
in

a Harrow boy about 1820, the possession of Lady Salt.)
.

Archdeacon Manning
(From a cameo, cut possession of Lady
in

...
1848,
in

80

Rome,

the

Salt.)

Father Ravignan assisting Dr. Manning at his First Mass
.

.

,,

102

(From a drawing by Doyle

in 1851, in

the posses-

sion of Cardinal Bourne.)

Cardinal Manning in his Eighty-Fifth

Year

.

.

472
in

(From a painting by May,
Mr.
J. E.

the possession of

C. Bodley.)

Principal Sources
THE Manning Papers in possession of the Oblates of St. Charles ; the Ullathorne Papers (letters to Archbishop Ullathorne) ; the Dublin Diocesan Archives (letters to Cardinal Cullen and Archbishop Walsh) ; the Errington Papers (in possession of the Bishop of
Clifton

and Lord
;

Clifford)

;

the

Hawarden Papers

(letters to

Mr.

Gladstone) force) ; the Foreign Office (letters to Lord Salisbury)

the Wilberforce Papers (letters to

Bishop Wilber;

Beaconsfield

Papers (letters to Mr. Disraeli). The letters of Odo Russell are taken partly from the Foreign Office and partly from the Manning Papers. The letters of Cardinal Persico are taken partly from
copies published in United Ireland and partly from originals in the

Manning Papers.
viii

PREFACE
"A
to the

biographer is an unconscious autobiographer." Metaphysical Society ( 187 1 ).

Archbishop

Manning

THIS book must appear as a supplement

rather than a

supplanter to Purcell's grandiose Life of Cardinal

Man-

ning, since Gladstone congratulated Purcell on leaving not only "the history of a soul, a dividing of marrow

and bone" but
is

little

for disclosure

well

known

that Purcell differed

on the last day. It from most biographers

by committing no avoidable

sin of omission with the

exception of "an autobiographical note on the corporate action of the Society of Jesus in England and Rome,"

" Since Archbishop Ullathorne (November 2, 1881) giving up the Westminster Gazette I have been
to
:

which we supply chiefly out of regard for the Jesuits, who have been somewhat maligned on the strength of what seemed unpublishable. A certain mystery curtains the memory of Purcell, which very few documents remain to clear. Purcell had conducted an Ultramontane but unsuccessful venture in journalism, for he confided

exclusively engaged in writing for non-Catholic papers." His Life of Manning was written presumably for the

same public. By the year 1887 the Cardinal, being anxious to recoup him for his losses, allowed him to begin to write a brief memoir of himself to be published and scrutinised in his own lifetime. He lent him one of his diaries on condition that it should not be quoted, but he had already suggested to Mr. J. E. C. Bodley writing the final Life, and had even offered him some of his notebooks and diaries. Mr. Bodley went to France, and the Cardinal died rather suddenly. On the strength
of the diary in
his possession ix

Purcell persuaded the

Preface
away a half of the Cardinal's private papers, amounting to one cab full. Cardinal Vaughan used to declare that this would not have been permitted to happen if the Cardinal had not removed his name from among the executors owing to a slight disagreement on the Temperance Question. Purcell announced that "all his other diaries, journals, and autobiographical notes, in accordance with his wish and will, passed into my possession." This was not exactly so, as one-half of the papers and diaries remained " wish untouched and unread. As to the Cardinal's and will," he made no mention of Purcell in his will, and his wishes may be judged from some letters he wrote
executors to allow
to carry
to a request not to allow Purcell Gladstone's except such as were publish any " " to of the Cardinal's. necessary explain something The Cardinal wrote (June 19, 1887) " My friend Mr. Purcell is a bolter. He tells me he has written to you to I that have say promised him the old letters I wrote to you before the flood. I promised to look at them to see if any were fit for use. But even then I should have let nothing go out of my hands without your consent. I believe that when I see them I shall hide their faces to

him

Gladstone

in

answer
of

to

:

again."

September 16, 1887 "They are far too personal and too intimate to be published while you and I are inter
:

an extinct world.

them has been like returning to they are ever published they will not lower either of us and they tell a continuous history." " No letter of yours to me or of September 25, 1887 mine to you has been or will be in Mr. Purcell's hands. You may trust me that your semi-biography shall not be In truth I also have no wish to assist at my written. own funeral sermon. Mr. Purcell has promised to put
vivos.
of
If
:

The reading

nothing in type without my knowledge, and fully guard you." The Cardinal had already exchanged old

I

will care-

letters

with

x

Preface
" the Gladstone in 1861, for Gladstone recalled in 1890 I Glaucus bargain in which you played Diomedes and It letters." of I the was about a fool exchange !) (what " traces was a correspondence which, Manning wrote, the course of his mind and my own starting from our
namely, his book on Church and State, his theory to be impossible and I saw it to be false." It was the most deeply weighed and most sincere correspondence in the lives of both. The two old friends were moved to emotion as each sat

common

outset

to the time

when he saw

rereading their letters through a night of memories and night among the tombs," said Gladstone, and Manning wrote of a lustrum afflictionis et lacry" God knows marum, adding with wonderful pathos, Him I between and chose that when we parted you !"
tears.

"A

Manning's letters to Gladstone, " The and explained the defect in his book by saying,
only pity is that all the letters written in his Anglican days to Mr. Gladstone were suppressed, 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,

Purcell had none of

was very
It is

indignant on hearing from
sible that the Cardinal only

me

of their fate."

pos-

thought

their publication

by

Purcell would be inexpedient. Mr. Gladstone went on " to exclaim, Had I dreamt that Manning would have those letters I would never have returned them destroyed

Neither in those letters nor in conversation did Manning even convey to me an intimation or even a
to

him.

English Church." Mr. if he had noticed a passage in the Life of Bishop Wilberforce as follows " Mr. Gladstone wrote to the Bishop on September 17, 1850, from which letter it can be gathered that Mr. Gladstone thought from his personal knowledge of Archdeacon Manning that even before the Gorham Judgment the Archdeacon's mind had become so imbued with the
lost faith in the

hint that he

had

Gladstone would have been

less positive

:

xi

immaculate Heart Hollywood. California

College

Preface
Catholic faith that he had ceased to struggle actively against these new convictions." Purcell accordingly wrote his Life without this and a number of no less important correspondences, such as

Roman

Manning's with his brother-in-law Bishop Wilberforce, Florence Nightingale, Miss Maurice, Miss Stanley, Archbishops Ullathorne and Walsh, Cardinals Vaughan and Cullen. To be exact, he used one letter from Cardinal Vaughan, two from Cardinal Cullen, and three from Archbishop Ullathorne. But of the letters written to them by Manning not one, and they were the three most
intimate
pate.

and important correspondences
written a Life of

of his Episco-

To have

Manning without them

literary tour de force which Purcell achieved through the extraordinary interest arising from the correspondence with Monsignor Talbot, which he published in full with the exception of a few vital letters, which appear later in this book. Intimate as these letters " Cardinal Manning especially were, Purcell wrote that " to them. As a directed the attention of his biographer

was a

chiefly

matter of fact, the Cardinal had especially directed attention to the contrary. Bishop Patrick Fenton gave the account to us for publication : following

Shortly before the Cardinal died he set me to arrange his letters. For six months I sat in the middle of a room surrounded by baskets into which I sorted the various correspondences. Once he found me so

"

engrossed that he inquired what I was reading. The Cardinal recognised Mgr. Talbot's handwriting, and said solemnly, They were written by the most imprudent man that ever lived. I forbid you to take even " one of
'

out

the house.'

Mgr. Talbot has been abused more than he deserved for what appears to have been a family failing, for by a

we find the Blessed Oliver Plunket " writing to Rome in 1673 that Monsignore Talbot riprendeva I'impresa come temeraria imprudente e precurious coincidence
xii

Preface
"! The publication of the letters of his namesake formed a piquant part of Purcell's book and raised a storm of protest and ridicule from all sides. Cardinal Vaughan in measured words described the Life as "almost a crime," and Lord Morley in a letter to " rather odious." Archbishop Benson Vaughan as " with a rival's glee found it a fascinating tragicomedy," while Augustus Hare, an old libeller of Mancipitosa

" a ludicrous apotheosis." The "a as it summed Stead cheap substitute up wittily loyal " Mr. Gladstone was moved to make a for Purgatory " The remarkable statement concerning his old friend immense gifts of his original nature and intense cultivaning, referred to
!

it

as

:

tion, his warm affections, his lifelong devotion, his great share in reviving England, but above all his absolute detachment, place him on such a level that from my place of thought and life I can only look at him as a man looks at the stars." Cardinal Vaughan 's final view was one of striking simplicity " I do not recognise the portrait of him with whom I was in constant communication
:

during forty years." Purcell had been tempted to achieve literary fame at a single leap by doing what had never been done before, and publishing, as he believed, the entire papers of a public character, and that of an Archbishop Possibly the lives of Archbishops, standing as they do at the conflicting poles of what is human and what is divine, ought not to be written. Their true work is noiseless and unseen and is written elsewhere. A biography is chiefly
!

composed of contests and struggles in documentary form which can only reflect incidents of a whole. Cardinal Manning's life was outwardly a battlefield. As an Anglican he fought theErastians and the Low Church and he fought the Gallicans and, when need was,
the Jesuits, as a Catholic. To a cause or policy in the Church he could give himself so entirely that the human

and

spiritual

motives

became
xiii

indiscernible.

Purcell

Preface
an exaggerated emphasis on the human. His commentary, where it becomes even embittered against his Not so the documents, subject, may be passed over. which, however, require to be supplemented in order that the whole picture instead of a part may be given. The Talbot papers and the Errington question find their
laid

Critics made proper level when probed to the depth. attributed to Pius IX., great play of the epigram Talbot from the Westminthat the removal of Errington Lord d'dtat of the God a was ster succession coup But if the Pope is the Vicar of the Lord, the phrase stands. D'Azeglio said a miracle was a celestial coup
!

and Manning's supersession of Errington had the aspects of an administrative miracle in the order of
d'etat,

Providence.

Manning's part need no longer be matter

of specula-

tion or his dispositions afford theory to the malignant. It is revealed in the correspondence which passed

between him and Cardinal Wiseman, of which essential parts follow in Appendix, whereby the Errington episode is exposed for ever. To appreciate the drama played by

Manning and Wiseman it is necessary to realise the character of the weak but gallant old Cardinal, who in spite of the old Catholics made life possible in the Church for the converts. Wiseman was of the old block
himself, but cosmopolitan
tolerant.

and Roman, and therefore
in reminiscent

As he once wrote
:

to

Manning

mood

(October 2, 1862) " I belong to the old time and
gratitude to Almighty

God

for

I have often felt hearty having been withdrawn

from England
of the

just at the

age when opinions take hold

mind

so as to

when
I

party spirit

become obstinate and at the period became highest among Catholics and

should have understood its sides sufficiently to have made a choice. Through my eight years of Ushaw my Spanish recollections remained uneffaced and vivid. I can recollect explaining to companions what a rosary
xiv

Preface
any having seen one any more than a diswhile there was not a crucifix in the house except those on the altar. Before these impressions had been lost with the language to which they had been associated, I was mercifully sent to Rome on this day to resume them I may say of divine providence I certainly had ibi manum admovit ubi ante desierat. when I reached overcome to few very English prejudices Rome." To which Manning replied (October 3, 1862) " I think I have fully appreciated the facts you mention, and have fully always perceived in you the absence of nationality which strange to say I have found more vivid and obtrusive in English Catholics than in Anglicans. The former seem to me always to be eating leeks to prove their loyalty, and the latter to be disowning it out of shame of the English Erastianism. You have certainly received a singular grace in being the son and disciple of many nations and thereby of none, as a Pastor of all must be. And the twenty years in Rome gave you what only the Holy See can bestow on its own children, and you have been a spoilt child of St. Peter." A later note runs "I think what you need is freedom from cares. And they wear you, for though you do not grind like Trebizond nor take things in grief like Gladstone, you eat your heart, as I used to tell you."
was, few
if

cipline or hairshirt

;

;

:

:

Such was the old Cardinal to whom Manning attached himself with passionate devotion from the first.

Of

criticism of

Manning,

it

seems unnecessary to prove

or disprove all that has been said. There will always be two views of Manning even among Catholics, but new
acter

searchlight can only be thrown into his spiritual charby those who knew him best. By a singular good fortune the unpublished paper written by Miss Bevan,
his religious mother, survives. Fulsome laudation he would have despised. His greatness lives in spite of his critics, and even through the act of his literary enemy. It was not fair to publish his private letters, but as in the case of Cicero's letters the reader enjoys a far more human and intimate insight instead of an historical

legend.

It

could be said of Purcell's writings, as Blaine,

xv

Preface
the candidate for the
despite, Mulligan Letters, published did his worst, the very worst he could out of the most intimate business correspondence of my life. I ask, gentlemen, if any of you can stand a severer scrutiny or

American presidency, said of the " The man in his

upon Warren Hastings, to light, but it entitles him to blemishes brought many be considered pure from every blemish which has not been brought to light." The blemishes alleged in the case of Cardinal Manning need to be considered in the light of further documents. Though Purcell's book was considered an obstacle and a stumbling-block in the Catholic revival of England, the Talbot correspondence need not have been kept unfierce

a more rigid investigation into your private corresponWe may add what Macaulay wrote of "the dence?" It
scrutiny fastened

published as long as the vital letters were included, which were written between the death of Cardinal Wise-

man and
Purcell

the election of his successor.

Of

wrote

February and correspondence between Dr. Manning and Mgr. Talbot. Either no letters were exchanged during those weeks of
suspense and expectation or the correspondence has not been preserved." Both of these conjectures have proved incorrect. It is true that Manning had protested vigorously by a Churchman's right against the three candidates chosen for the succession, believing them to be unfit. The unpublished
letters reveal the final

Between the 24th of tantalisingly, i8th of March there is a break in the

"

this period

names

of his candidates,

whom

the
!

world

will

be surprised to learn did not include his

own

The

conclusion of one of many Protestant critics was the " not unnatural one that Manning all the time was blackHe ening the character of every possible candidate" was not, for he thought both Ullathorne and Cornthwaite admirable candidates for the See to which he ascended. The part Manning is alleged to have played in the xvi
!

Preface
drama that led to the supersession of Archbishop Errington by himself in the See of Westminster is no doubt the crux of his biography. The case of the advocatus diaboli has often been stated and is so generally accepted

down what can be abundantly proved that Manning did not believe it documents by original was possible for himself to succeed, though he felt he could prevent the succession of those whose policy he believed fatal to the Church in England. Accordingly he deprecated some and recommended others, and in no measured terms. Neither Manning nor Wiseman had
that
it is

best to lay

:

initiated the suggestion that Manning should succeed. It had long lain at the back of the mind of the

Roman

and it only needed the attack by Errington on Manning's works, followed by the Chapter's obstinate representation of Errington 's name to the Pope for succession, for Rome to carry out what Pope Pius the Ninth felt was best for the Church. It is true Manning had seemed to prepare the way by helping to dispossess Errington of the right of succession, but he was acting for and under his Cardinal. Letters written by the future Cardinal Vaughan to Wiseman from Rome three years before the event show that Rome acted for Rome's purposes and hidden intent and not through the Machiavellian manipulations of two converted parsons
authorities,
!

Vaughan wrote to Wiseman (January 10, 1862) " I saw Cardinal Barnabo last night and presented the letters, which he bade me say he would attend to at
:

once.
first

He was going to the Pope to-day. One of his questions was, Cosa fa quel benedetto Errington?' He is in Dublin, and the reports which have reached me more than once are that he intends to remain there till Westminster is vacant, and then by the help of the
'

Barnabo thought this hardly posbut said that a man who could take down the Pope's words in a private conversation in his presence was capable of doing many strange things. I said all were thankful to have got rid of him, and I explained
Chapter to return.
sible,
/1 4,

xvii

b

Preface
how much was being done
:

in

London now with new

missions, churches, and various works." February 26, " And now there is a matter one 1862 upon which I have been hesitating whether to write or not to you. It would be a point of delicacy and open to suspicion if you did not believe that my first affections as well as my first I learnt from Talbot on Sunday duties are towards you. that Barnabo had been suggesting the advisability of

making Dr. Manning your Coadjutor. Talbot replied would feel aggrieved at such an appointment, and I urged strongly that you wished, so far as I believed, to die in harness and at work, and that the best move would be to appoint him to the See to be created Talbot had told me before that Ullain Yorkshire. thorne had assured him that the Bishops would willingly see Dr. Manning amongst them. Whether there may be some idea that you would not like to part with Dr. Manning from London or that his work is more in London than the provinces I cannot say. This may
that the Bishops

have given rise to the question of coadjutorship. I have taken care not to say a word of all this to Father Superior, nor has Talbot; and I believe Barnabo has not hinted anything of the sort to him, nor has he himself, I am sure, promoted or looked for such an appointment." March 22, 1862 : " I hear nothing more of the idea Barnabo started about Dr. Manning of which I wrote to you. Talbot wants him to be in the North, but then he says the Pope will do nothing unless it is proposed to him by you or the Bishops."

A number of important diaries escaped Purcell's notice, including the description of Manning's first visit to Rome in 1838, and one of an intimately sacred nature, which he wrote in retreat before his consecration. The diaries published by Purcell are sadly confused in the matter of
i., chap, xiv., Manning's of 1844 an d continues with holiday begins the help of an 1845 diary to Paris. Manning then writes a few letters dated 1844 from Rouen and Dieppe, and "earlier in the same autumn" attends the founding of a church at Pantasaph in Wales, which actually took

dates.

For instance,
in the

in vol.

autumn

xviii

Preface
Purcell also suffered from the considerplace in 1849 able disability of not being able to read the handwriting careful collation of the printed diaries of his subject.
1

A

with the
of

MSS.
MSS.

reveals

them ludicrous.

no less than 150 mistakes, some For instance
:

VOL.
Page
.

I.

PURCELL.

Queen

Elizabeth, etc.,

.

.

286
351

Queen Elizabeth and Catholic ...
students there, although called reverend, As quiet as Lavington The revolutionists were in a
. . .
.

The

students

there
.

at
.

the

The

Rev(olution) . As quiet as Sunday The shouts were deafening
. .
.

.

.

.

372 374

.

.

A

Borghese Cardinal City reminded me of H ever.
.

.

.

..

400 405

A

hurry Bishop of
. .

.

Risi,

Cardinal
of

.

.

City reminded

me

Herne

Bay

.

.

.

Cardinal's Latin was often produced in the unmeaning form of Purcell's English. For instance, in the famous Hindrances to Catholicism in England,

The

where the Cardinal wrote, "The world is dying positus in maligno, and we must go into it through quatriduanus jam foetet," Purcell substitutes for the last three words
fire"! When the Cardinal wrote a dead thing," Purcell wrote "a vow is a dead thing," which was doubtless more comprehensible and suitable for Purcell's non-Catholic public and papers. One could perhaps apply to Purcell's hundreds " of mistakes the Cardinal's phrase, practical corruptions," if Purcell had not even turned the first word of

"through
baculus

"A

is

that into "piratical."

Purcell
felt

snowed signs

of suspecting that all the arrows

were not contained

he would not have constrained to overshoot the mark. It is curious that in the controversy that followed no one should have pointed out the absence of his letters to Vaughan and Ullathorne, though a reviewer in the Academy noted the absence of letters from such correspondents as Cardinals Gibbons and Lavigerie. Under these circumstances it xix
in his quiver, or

Preface
has seemed best to publish whatever threw additional light on Cardinal Manning, suppressing only a number of letters which affected the characters of others, both Protestant and Catholic. A locked book containing a private list of converts, whom he had received himself, seemed also to come under the heading of professional
secrecy.

would be unhistorical not to stress his firm opposiand mentality of Cardinal Newman. At the same time it is important to publish his
It

tion both to the policy

private letter to the Vatican in 1875 clearing Newman of all suspicion of unorthodoxy, without which letter from his Metropolitan it might have been difficult for

Rome

to confer the cardinalate three years later.

Man-

ning for long did not desire Newman to be a Cardinal, though at the urgency of Newman's friends he consented and acquiesced. His struggle with Newman, like his conflict with the old English Catholics, and the even more momentous battle with the Religious Orders, was that of a fearless, strong-willed, and lonely man, who believed he was fighting the battles of Divine policy in the Church. His sincerity was both his sword in life and his shield after death. He spared few and none spared him. The comment of a Jesuit Bishop after reading Purcell's book was to the point. He said he could then understand how a wrong man could be saved, since he so thoroughly and sincerely believed he was right The great ecclesiastical battles which followed the restoration of the Hierarchy in England may be alarming to the weaker brethren, but to those who read as historians the inwardness of the strife there comes only a sense of the majestic power of the Roman Church, not only as the least stagnant of the Churches, but as the only one whose Divine centralisation survives and profits from internal conflicts. At times she seems to batten on the battles which would suffice to tear another Church into sect and schism. The stern loyalty of the old
!

xx

Preface
Catholics in England, the unconditional surrender of the Gallicans at the Vatican Council, the patient pathos of Cardinal Newman, and the brave acquiescence of the Jesuits are as edifying to the faithful discerner as the

hammer-blows of the great Ultramontane Cardinal, who fought them one by one in the lists of Rome, in some ways the freest and fairest lists open to the world. Manning's long and eventful life was thrust into a parting of ways and an opening of eras. He was at a Georgian Harrow and a prae- Victorian Oxford. He was a High Churchman outside the Oxford Movement and a Sussex parson before railways. His wife died in the same year that Queen Victoria came to the throne, and he himself became a Catholic in the year of Lingard's death. He wore the prelatical purple in the last days of
his mitre in time to take a leadVatican Council and his red hat in time In Conclave which elected Leo XIII. many ways he was a link with the past and a prophet of the future. He was a cricketer before round-arm bowling, a Free Trader before Cobden, a Home Ruler before Gladstone, an Imperialist before Chamberlain, and a Christian Democrat before Leo XIII. He also seems to have preceded his fellow-countrymen by a generation in their antipathy to Prussia. He himself had once desired a political life, though there is no ground for Mr. Paul's statement in his History of Modern England " that he was originally destined to a mercantile career." He had desired to be a statesman, and all his life he corresponded with statesmen. Brougham wrote to him in the forties, "I thank you heartily for your promised

Papal Rome.

He won

ing part at the to share in the

charge, which in defiance of your warning I shall read. Our session wanes and your Bill (if I may so term your And thirty-five enemy) is thrown over for a while."

years later Manning wrote to congratulate Dilke, and to prophesy the entente with France, on his appointment " I to the Foreign Office (May 3, 1880) was glad because
:

xxi

Preface
you have seen the Greater Britain and that you are conversant with French affairs and with the Continent, qualifications rarely possessed by an official man. You and I have talked of home policy often, but not much of foreign policy, so that I hardly know what you think. But the many years I have been abroad have made me desire that England should not accept la poliIt has seemed to me that the statestique d'effacement.
I

know

that

France have understood better the true policy of England on the Continent than many of our countrymen." And eleven years later he was concluding a fifty years' correspondence with Mr. Gladstone by encouraging him to persevere with Home Rule. " However, it is chiefly as the politician, the ecclesias" tical Schnadhorst, that he survives in legend. Though his unpublished and published papers brim with political letters, it is not to the exclusion of the poor and humble. In his drawers two generations of cranks cried aloud for the millennium in all shapes and sizes. If great English
in

men

families confided their secrets to him,

sent

him pawntickets

to redeem.

suffering he lifted his hands; to humiliation, to Ireland under coercion, to children under neglect, to animals under torture, to strikers under starvation, to outcasts, both men and women, whom he tried to rehabilitate, to drunkards under their curse, whom he

London costers Wherever there was the Pope in temporal

would often
ning who

cried,

bail out of prison in person. It was Man" child's needless tear is a blood-blot

A

on the earth!" and Manning who wrote as lover and " Give all yourself to London. It apostle of all London, is the abomination of desolation. No one knows the
depths of the sufferings of the women, save the doctor

and the

priest."

To

the broken

and battered he was

affectionate

and

He was accessible to the pariah and long-suffering. humble to the humble. On the other hand he was proud to the proud and unyielding to the obstinate. He could
xxii

Preface
be as unkind to the literary conceit of converts as he was scornful of the dull conservatism of the old Catholics. " The former he styled "literary vanities and the latter " conies," whom the Scriptures describe as a feeble folk.

The secret of much of his opposition to Cardinal Newman was that he suspected a morbid temper and smote
it

as such.

Many of

his views

have proved obsolete, and

the

Church

herself has reversed

some

of his policies.

His policy for higher education has been tumbled, and he changed himself a strong support of the Temporal Power into an angry impatience with the same, after the Italians had settled their government in Rome. Indeed, he came to a conclusion that Providence might have sent
In his conversation with politically the Italians after all enlightened Cardinals and laymen he made no secret of his belief that the old Temporal Power was finished, and that the Vatican could dwell at peace with the Quirinal, " And as has been abundantly shown. they would burn me if they could," he used to add humorously. Even when he changed his views, his sincerity remained. Rome, who is wiser and more temperate always than her own children, passed over his views on the Temporal Power, which would not be very displeasing to Benedict XV., and Leo XIII. quietly adopted his policy of winning democracy to the Church. By thirty years of social action on the side of the working people, by his support of the legitimate trade union and the just strike as permissible in modern Christian civilisation, and the acceptance of both by the Church through his direct influence, Cardinal Manning stands in history.
!

SHANE LESLIE.
GLASLOUGH,
CO. MONAGHAN, IRELAND, 1920.

XXlll

Henry Edward Manning
His Life and Labours

CHAPTER
" As a boy
mischief."

I:

EARLY DAYS
boats, firing brass cannons,

my

pleasure was

making

and

all like

CARDINAL MANNING'S Memoirs.

THE

family of

Henry Edward Manning was

sufficiently

English to be able to refer their origin to Mannheim in Baden, which they left before the Norman Conquest. The Conqueror ennobled one, Gilbert Manning. In more recent times they served in the Crusades. Simon Manning married Chaucer's sister. A Manning, Dean of Windsor, was with Henry VI. at his capture, and William Manning was Ambassador to the Emperor. His son

was of Elizabeth's household, and a John Manning was A.D.C. to Marlborough. The Mannings were thinly spread across English history and English geography, as such place-names as Manningford and Mannington " " denote. Forty miles from Manningtree was Diocesan slang for exclusion from the Westminster Archdiocese
in

days

to

come.

In his Catholic years Manning entertained a pious fiction that his family had followed Henry II. to Ireland, and been deported by Cromwell to the West Indies. Certainly his grandfather William, after marrying an heiress named Elizabeth Ryan, left St. Kitts and came to Totteridge in Herts. That Mrs. Manning died a young

mother; but the probability that the Cardinal's grandmother was Irish in faith as well as name can be shown Her elder sister married John Baker of indirectly. " this occurs

Horsham, in whose diary (Dec. 22, entry 1771) Uxor and figlia to West Grinstead, Mr. King,
:

Henry Edward Manning
This cryptic sentence I to Church." in this wise that while Mr. Manning be interpreted may and Mr. Baker went to the Church of England, Mrs. and Miss Baker went to a furtive celebration of Mass in the

Mr. Manning and

:

upper room, where the Caryll family kept the Catholic faith alive during the penal days at West Grinstead. A Protestant gentleman then would no more have recorded the faith of a Catholic wife in his journal than a modern gentleman would inscribe infidelities on the A further entry, in 1774, shows that a part of his. Mr. Copley " stayed and dined " with Mr. Baker the night before his wife died. This was no heartless entertainment, for Mr. Copley was a priest, and presumably gave the Last Sacraments to the sister of Cardinal

Manning's
that I

Irish

grandmother.

"I am

rejoiced to see

may claim kindred with your faithful race," he wrote to O'Hart, author of Irish Pedigrees. His grandfather was one of the merchants who took
precautions for the safety of London during the Protestant His father, revival vulgarly called the Gordon Riots. William, became a Governor of the Bank of England, and
sat in Pitt's Parliament for such extinct constituencies as

Plympton, Lymington, and Evesham. By the marriage William Manning and his second wife, Mary Hunter, of Beech Hill in Berks, Henry Edward was born. The
of

" On Friday, at Courier of July 21, 1808, records Totteridge, Hertford, the Lady of William Manning, M.P. for Evesham, of a son." Friday was July 15, the Feast of St. Henry, Saint and Kaiser, who by the transition of Heinrich into Amerigo gave the New
:

World

its

name.

"He

is

ill-heeded in

England and

ousted by St. Swithin," wrote the Cardinal. The elements were not propitious, for the Bishop of

Bath and Wells wrote to Mr. Manning (July 18, 1808) " We rejoice with you very sincerely on the Birth of another Son, but most of all on the Safety of the dear Mother. But I hope she neither heard nor felt anything
:

Early Days
of the tremendous Storm of Thunder, Lightening, Hail and Rain, in which St. Swithin visited us on Friday last. The Thunder and Lightening were literally incessant for more than three hours between six and ten at night. So awefull and tremendous a Scene I was never Witness to Whatever Name before, and hope never to see again St. Swithin, for the whether determine latter, upon you
!

or St. Francis, the tutelar Saint, I believe, of Spain, I shall be most happy to give it to him with my Blessing, if the Christening Cake is not eat before we meet in Town. I would also offer myself in another Capacity on that occasion, if I did not think you were more likely to be puzzled in selecting a Godfather from among your

numerous Friends and Connections than accept of me."

at Liberty to

Mr. Manning's use for Bishops did not extend to Gossipred, and though Bishop Beadon probably baptised Henry Edward, his godparents were Mr. Gumming, Mrs. Lord Sidmouth, and Lady Lavington. Mary-j " the Mannings were lasquet left the tradition that baptised in an old punchbowl with the family arms on J"his statement it, and registered at a different time."
might be omitted in deference to the teetotal Cardinal, it not throw some light on the obscure phrase of "the three-bottle orthodox." Registered Henry Edward was at St. Martin 's-in-the-Fields, London, on May 25, 1809. He was named Henry after Lord Sidmouth, who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had relations with his
did

Lady Lavington, name of strange omen, according to the Cardinal "was an Austrian Catholic, who, I fear, gave up her religion, for she married a non-Catholic Englishman." By birth a Kolbel and a friend of the last King of Poland, her exquisite likeness fades among the Cardinal's papers.
father.

From the Ryans came the Cardinal's motto, Malo mori quam foedari. In his pedigree the devotion of an Irish Ryan mingled with the religious severity of a Huguenot
Bosanquet.
Beside his Gaelic descent, he could claim, 3

Henry Edward Manning
Faber, a tradition of persecuted piety The Mannings were armigerous, and boasted " quarterly gules and azure, a cross flory between four cinquefoils or." When he became Archbishop he had no need to change his arms, as the cross The flory greeted him in the arms of Westminster. him interested more heraldry of the Church naturally than the symbolism of families, and if he referred " the Studbook," he irreverently to Burke's Peerage as was proud to share in the mystic pedigree of one whom the Church ordains, he wrote in his Eternal Priesthood, to be "without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days or end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, a priest for ever." His human descent was as follows
like in his Gallic blood.
:

Newman and

John
Manning.

=p

Sarah

John =j= Mary
Ryan.
Blaney.

Henry =p Eleanor
Hunter.
Bosanquet.

William=pElizabeth
Sloane.
Fuller.

Coventry.

i

I

II

William Manning. =pElizabeth Ryan.

Henry Hunter. =pMary Sloane.

William Manning. =j=Mary Hunter.

n

i

Henry Edward,
Cardinal Manning.

He was

once interested

to

see

some Saxon coins

bearing the stamp of "Manning Moneta," or Mint Master. The hereditary strain of " money-making," possibly under Celtic influences, broke down severely in

Governor of the Bank of England. William Manning failed, and his son Henry never forgot seeing
his father,

him surrender his seals at the Guildhall as tragically as a soldier delivers his sword after honourable defence. " I have belonged to men with whom bankruptcy was synonymous with death," he whispered to his son, who a generation later described his Anglican bankruptcy and 4

Early Days
the delivery of his Archdeacon's seals to a City notary by the same metaphor, Death I decline in West Indian property followed the

A

emancipation of the slaves; and by a curious irony the Manning bankruptcy was partly and indirectly attributable to Wilberforce, who was a cousin of Manning's first wife. With the family of Wilberforce the life of Cardinal Manning was inseparably woven. Letters of the Wilberforces form a rich seam through the Manning Papers. The great Abolitionist leaned upon William Manning during his struggle against slavery, and used to write him such sentiments as (January 30, 1789): "When I seem to you at any time to be intoxicated, as it were, by the hurry, the business or the dissipation of life, spare
recall me to that not the best offices of friendship of mind which and seriousness become those sobriety who know not when they may be called away." Henry Edward was born at the centre of the Evangelical Move;

ment. With the Bank of England behind him on earth and the Wilberforces to guide him into the next world, he seemed a fortunate child. No wonder that he saw in time to come his father's bankruptcy as a merciful readjustment by Providence. The firm of Manning and Anderdon had been worth .25,000 a year. Black servants waited at Copped Hall, and four horses drew the Manning coach to the Bank of England. The Cardinal remembered one of the West Indian negroes, who was instructed to watch for suspicious characters, keeping a Bishop at bay on the mat until he could give an account of himself and his William Manning presented the shield of garments silver, which the London merchants subscribed for the Duke of Wellington, whose reply is preserved among the
!

Manning Papers (February
"
I

16,

1822)

:

have been frequently excited to exertion
service

in

the

by the favour and kindness, of the Merchants and Bankers of the City of London, and I
public
5

Henry Edward Manning
have now to request you will express my most grateful acknowledgements to the gentlemen on whose behalf you this day presented to me a magnificent testimony of the approbation of my conduct while employed in the command of the Allied Armies in the Peninsula."

The

shield

appears

in

engravings of

the

annual

Waterloo banquet, and includes a hundred guineas of Manning money. The social position of the Mannings was enviable. Oscar Browning contributes a glimpse
:

Manning's "My grandfather mother was very beautiful and beautifully dressed, and a leader of society. My aunts were highly gratified when she called upon them. Manning was a very pretty little
lived in the

same village.

boy, very like his mother, dressed in velvet knickerbockers. He was so small that he had to stand on the
seat of the

pew during

service."
to

His brother Charles was page
helped to close the

George IV., and

Abbey gates when Queen Caroline co-coronation. The Duke of Gloucester was sought
pleased to possess a print of Lonsdale's portrait of Mr. Manning, and to write for permission " to consider him a very sincere friend." The portrait depicted Mr.

Manning enthroned with some splendour near

the

Bank

of England, and is a contrast to another in possession of his descendants, in which the sad eyes of the bankrupt

peer from a shrunken face, while the long white hair adds to the appearance of an exiled French cur. He died in
1835, an d all speculations on his character are prevented by the obituary composed by the future Cardinal, which

" recorded his thirty-seven years in Parliament, his spotless integrity," and concluded
:

" Mr. Manning was a merchant of days now gone by, for in addition to deep regrets for those who with him and through his accidental instrumentality had been involved in losses, he felt the downfall of commercial credit like a wound. After this melancholy close of his active life he retired to a residence in Upper Gower Street, where on Good Friday (April 17, 1835) ne
6

Early Days
troubled and stormy scene, in whose vicissitudes he had been deeply taught, for the unchangeable and abiding rest of God."

exchanged

this

To

sion of

" in September, 1808, and Dr. Jenner for the Cowpock " the next year suffered the chicken-pock." His earliest reminiscence (remembered by Canon Gildea) was of the Left by his father in the old House of Commons. Gallery, he witnessed the arrival of a dispatch which dismayed the honourable members. It was the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba. Two generations later he delivered the funeral sermon over the mangled body of the last of the dynasty, the Prince Imperial. In 1815 he heard his aunt read out "a great battle that had been fought in a field of corn in Flanders." This same year
of
in

return to Henry, the Family Bible (now in posses" Lady Salt) records that he was inoculated by

Waterloo the Mannings
Kent.

left

Totteridge for Sundridge

Totteridge, which passed to the Halls, to Bulwer Lytton, and later to Sir Samuel Boulton, remained his dearest

memory.
the seven
arrivals.

Here

his birth-room

is

still

preserved, with

trees, which mark his and his brethren's In the yard he slew his mother's turkey with

an arrow. In the squat little brick church, with its tithebarn and millennial yews, the future Cardinal learnt to
pray, assisted
of

by a

picture

by

Petre, presented

by

his

an extremely unlikely and uncomfortable father, " Resurrection of a Pious Family." There was an " Mr. " institution known as which Manning's Bread bore some analogy to St. Anthony's Bread in the
Catholic world.
at

Mr. Manning invested a sum
"

of

100

George III.'s Jubilee in order to gladden the hearts and extend great comfort to that useful class of persons,
the labouring poor," an effort to meet the social question which " Master Henry Edward Manning," according to the parish registers, extended by an eleemosynary of
three shillings in the year 1814.
7

Henry Edward Manning
At Totteridge he was prepared for Confirmation with Harry Brand, afterwards Speaker of the Commons, and Sidney Herbert. At Hatfield, the fount of Anglicanism, he was confirmed by Bishop Pelham of Lincoln, who not only laid but "shook hands with me then and there, his kindness overcoming his dignity." At Totteridge he learnt of the Book of Judgment, and endeavoured to conceal himself from God under a writing-table. As an
old

man

the Cardinal

revisited old

haunts with Sir

Samuel Boulton, and pointed out the room where he was born and the site of doors that had disappeared into the wainscote. As he passed through the old library he showed where he had once entered at his mother's bidding to take care of a guest while she completed her toilet
:

saw a great man on the hearthrug, and I said, You're big enough to take care of yourself,' and ran away." Between the library and dining-room he stopped before a stained window, the handiwork of his brother William, who had died seventy years before.
I
*

"

father to
that
it

In the park he recognised the spinney planted by his commemorate King George's Jubilee, and found

was

still

remembered how

his

mother had stretched

sheets
ficial

upon

the fields to calculate the effects of an arti-

There were still the trees, which had never been uprooted from his memory an elm with excrescences, called the "bear-tree," and another from which Creasy, an Irish labourer, had fallen and broken his leg in fetching an owlet. True enough, the owls were still there, and he wrote to his "So we go, and the owls surviving sister Caroline remain."
:

lake seen from the house.

8

CHAPTER
"
and

II

:

A CAPTAIN OF HARROW
:

My

love for

Harrow

older, the days of
letter to

1889) in a

is as fresh and vivid as ever indeed, as I grow older boyhood seem brighter." Cardinal Manning (June2i, Dr, Welldon framed in the Harrow Library.

he was about ten Manning went to Harrow He lived at the house of Benjamin Evans in Hog Lane, now Crown Street, near the cricket-ground, where he spent spare moments. Evans was an old pedagogue acquainted with the learning of every age
School.
except his own, and therefore peculiarly suitable to train the rising generation, whom he made read Addison at breakfast. manuscript record of September, 1822, places Manning in the Second Fourth form, and the next

WHEN

A

in First Fourth. By April, 1826, he was in Under Sixth and twenty-ninth in a school of 21 1. When he left in October, 1826, he was in Upper Sixth. He sat between

term

Lord Thurles and Bevan. Thurles had saved Manning's friend, afterwards Bishop Oxenden, from drowning while Bevan, another friend, had a sister, the author of Line upon Line and other theological works, who was to save Manning as a brand from the burning and dispose him to his career in religion. Harrow was rife with future ecclesiasts. There were Archbishop Trench of Dublin, Bishop Charles Wordsworth of St. Andrews, and Dean Merivale; while the Catholic hierarchy were to glean not only Archbishop Manning, but later Bishop Coffin of Southwark and Bishop Wilkinson of Hexham. Harrow was and is Low Church. Curiously enough, her High Church rival Eton produced no Catholic Bishop. Perhaps the mighty influence of Manning leaned toward the Harrow convert. Eton could produce only Pusey, whom Harrow capped
;

9

Henry Edward Manning
with Faber.

But

for that century the idol

and hero

of

Harrow was Byron.

Manning wrote: "All Harrow

boys were Byronians by tradition. Byron died while I was at Harrow, about 1824. The Headmaster preached in the Parish Church on the abuse of natural gifts as soon as the news came. I gave up Byron at Oxford." Manning and Byron, on the whole, were the two most famed and exceptional of Harrow boys. Both broke the bonds of English insularity in different ways, and incurred the angry pity of their fellow-islanders. Byron could have become King of Greece and Manning might

have been Pope of Rome.
the

They were
Englishmen

the ripe fruit of
respectively, their ripeness

Romantic and Tractarian Movements
in

though

the

eyes

of

resembled the workings of decay.

Manning's Headmaster was a great man, Dr. George

and powdered hair, processing

dapper, nervous, self-controlled, with cropped in silk gown and stockings into school at the head of his miscellaneous assistants. His dress and diction were perfect. He had quelled a
rebellion

Butler

under Byron, who had satirised him as Pomposus in unenduring verse. He had since ruled the Harrow mob with success. He had visited Schiller,

which was an intellectual feat for an Englishman at that time. His policy was an improvement on the great but grotesque barbarity of the Eton Headmaster Keate. He treated his monitors with the same trust he reposed in their fathers. He would no more have accused them of " " cribbing than their fathers of cheating at cards. Sage and athlete, he impressed Manning that it was good to be mocked for religion, for then the angels rejoiced. Instruction in religion and science were equally primitive and useless. The piecemeal propaganda conducted on behalf of religion in English schools has had the uniform result of producing an amused aversion. Evans
brightened the dreariness of worship by readings of Paley's Evidences and Leslie on Deism. "These two
10

stuck

Captain of Harrow by me and did my head good. I took in
I

A

the whole

argument, and thank God it," wrote the Cardinal.
If

that nothing has ever shaken

more than scholarship on he an needed his boys. epitaph it was that he believed M Whatever he in a boy's word, and he kept his own. said he would do he did as sure as fate," wrote Merivale. He strove to add to the curriculum of Latin and Greek upon which the English gentry were reared to face the
Butler impressed character

contemporary dangers of fox-hunting and Napoleonic Wars. He instructed the Sixth in that form of oratory which is peculiar to the Butler family. Euclid and the Library of Useful Knowledge seem to have been introduced at this time. But his two remarkable pupils, Lord Shaftesbury and Cardinal Manning, had to betake themselves to the same private tutor to remedy their ignorance before entering Oxford. Prize-fighting was of high repute with the English gentry, and their sons settled all questions of honour or

dispute

by resource
like boys,
:

to the

Rules of the Ring.

They

but they fought like men. Manning squabbled " It is a used to say 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 one's skill." Manning found Harrow pleasant, though on the moral " score he afterwards reflected, Harrow was my greatest danger." The Public School was the paradise of the normal boy, and Manning stood at the very top of the average. Bishop Oxenden recorded one of his sayings " at Harrow, You know that my motto is Aut C<zsar,
aut nullus," which exactly describes the two conditions of school life. After enduring years of nullity he found

himself Cassar, Captain of the Cricket Eleven, to many the greatest position he ever occupied. On hearing Oxenden's reminiscence, he laughed and said : "Perhaps I said it, and why not? Pitt's was a good enough

precedent."
ii

Immaculate Heart College Hollywood, California

Henry Edward Manning
Byron "hated Harrow until he fought his way up. Trollope, whose novels were to relax Newman, was a contemporary of Manning, and found the School "a daily purgatory." Faber was the only boy who used to receive Communion at Harrow. Manning once wrote to Miss Stanley "As a boy at school I used to be often sad, and to comfort myself like a young heathen by
:

"

saying

:

Come what come may,
Time and
the hour runs through the roughest day."

Wilberforce was so alarmed by the Public School that he would not send his boys, whence the profound difference between Sam Wilberforce and Manning. On Sundays the whole school trooped into the "cavernous and stifling" galleries constructed under Butler's eye in the Parish Church. While Manning was at Harrow, Butler reduced the Holy Days observable to six, which included those of Charles I., George IV., and Guy Fawkes. But the exercises of an English school
relate,

not to religion, but to cricket.

Manning played

Eton in 1825, and in the match against Winchester was bowled by Christopher Wordsworth In his year of captaincy he took two wickets for nought against Winchester and scored three. The Wordsworth boys were sons of the Vicar at Sundridge, and both became Anglican Bishops. The three playmates once robbed the vinery at Coombe, with the result that there were no grapes for Mr. Manning's dinner-party that " This is night. probably the only case on record where three future Bishops were guilty of larceny," reflected the Cardinal. "Were we punished? No, we were discreet. We gave ourselves up and were forgiven." Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews to be, gave Manning a cricket-bat, for which he received a long letter in verse beginning
against
!
:

12

A
"
I

Captain of Harrow
"

HARROW

(Sept. 12, 1825).

DEAR CHARLES,
hope you'll make some small allowance, Being a poet of the brightest rate. You would, I'm sure, be kind if you could know once

What

We've The play was

pain I've taken to write verse of late. had two games, both quite superior
;

glorious, as I'm alive,

Not even to the Eton Match inferior, Your humble servant, first got forty-five."

And much

else

recommending
visited

"Christy," who became Bishop

when Archbishop,
name.

gun-maker to Manning, Lincoln Cathedral, and told
of Lincoln.

a

the verger he could call the Bishop

by
the

his Christian

"But he would burn me

all

samel" was
of the visit.

Christy's As an old

unfeeling comment on hearing man Manning wrote to Charles

:

I can see you in your broad-brimmed white hat and the admiration and envy of all green cut-away coat beholders. It reminds me of how much I owe you in my books and of your original ingratitude, for you know that I coached you in logic. If you have the other verses from which you quote the thanks for the bat, I should much like to see them. I have burnt almost all the doggerel of those days. I hope you are well in health. have a long score to be thankful for you, I think, 76, and I 74 years."
: :

"

We
He

:

used to say he became a Catholic " off his own bat," and in his last years " have had a long innings, Newman and I." But he disliked the ideal of muscular Christianity, and of a heaven where cherubs played curates at cricket indefinitely. To athletic priests he " said How would you like to appear in the next world with a cricket-bat in one hand and a chalice in the other?" To a sacerdotal footballer he remarked: priest should not run after a piece of leather."
:

Manning kept metaphors from

cricket in his speech.

We

:

"A

13

Henry Edward Manning
handsome, wellmannered, but mightily-affected boy, giving himself airs
Merivale,
as a

who remembered him

"

and patronage, but generally agreeable and even fascinating," wrote a half -century later " I just now recall to mind how once in playing cricket with him he hit a ball with a very pretty curve to the off, and thereupon, instead of making his run, threw his bat back on his shoulder, exclaiming, I say, Merivale, what a mysterious thing a cricket ball is !' and so he has gone
of fashion
:
'

on

and Sibi constat."

A Manning tradition survived. Even his school nicknames have descended, such as "the General," "the " Prince Fine Ear," or "the Parson," pointing Hare," The Parson was the all to undeveloped possibilities. only nickname he disliked, and it clung to him longest.
Dr. Welldon, a later Headmaster, recalls " that when he was a boy he was an expert stone-thrower. It was the mischievous habit of Harrow boys in old days to throw stones down Grove Hill at strangers making
their

way

to the school

;

and Manning was
to

believed,

have been an excellent shot at far-distant objects. The other fact believed about him was that he was a good slow bowler."
whether rightly or wrongly,

The last time that Manning crossed the bounds of the Harrow Republic was as Archbishop to consecrate a Catholic church. Even then his fame had not departed, and an old apple-woman awaited him outside the church to bid him welcome. The Cardinal had forgotten what
her barrow had been overturned in raised a subscription on her behalf. In one of the classrooms, carved by himself in small lettering, is the autograph, "H. E. MANNING, 1824."

she never had,
the

how

mud and Manning had

The

best influence

on Manning

at

Harrow was

his

brother-in-law, John Anderdon, who taught him English by correspondence, and was interested enough to send a
cricket professional

from Lord's Ground

to coach the

A

Captain of Harrow

Harrow Eleven, including his beloved prote'ge'. Lord's " the finest was then associated with Mr. Ward, M.P., " Ultracricketer in the world," and father of the " montane Ward, who was to be Manning's partner in

many

fierce

knocks
"

to

come.

Anderdon,
described as

of the firm of

Manning and Anderdon, was

a gentleman and a man of business, a and scholar, though a layman he was almost a divine. As a Churchman he was of the school of George He encouraged, financed, and corrected Herbert."
the high-strung

and manly-fibred schoolboy. Though took a double remove while he was at Harrow, Manning he afterwards wrote to Anderdon (September 18, 1830)
:

my own state, I find myself thus 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 endeavoured since leaving Harrow to make, but the seed-time was passed, and all the acquisition I was enabled to make fell very short of what I ought to have mastered. I said I must fail, and my failure will be a result of my Harrow days. Inattention there causes deficiency now, and so it is, Jack, through life."
examining
In
all

"On

situated.

1826 was Manning's last year at Harrow, and Anderdon was urging him to dumb-bells and fencing. "Time waxeth on, melteth like wax, and I want to see you take your first-class degree at Oxford." As for his " There are some very pretty thoughts, or rather verses,
half-thoughts, but either we should have twice as stanzas or half the number of ideas."

many

to read with a private tutor "I have long himself, and informed his father been anxious that some certain plan should be determined
all to
:

Manning was determined

on with regard to my leaving this place and going to Oxford. During the months that intervene between the period of my leaving this and removing to Oxford, I think a private Tutor would be of the greatest advantage
15

Henry Edward Manning
do not mean where I should aware that under these circumstances the advantage would be very sensibly But what I wish to be understood is that I lessened. might be alone." It is supposed that Manning had no
to me. By a private Tutor meet several others, as I
I

am

thought of the Church until his father's bankruptcy in " That I should 1831, but this letter of 1826 continues enter Oxford at Whitsuntide or October is, I think, not very material, as I cannot take Orders till twenty-three, and therefore have upwards of four years before me." Mr. Manning's reply was unsatisfactory, and his son wrote again to explain that "by having the exclusive attention of a clever man I should make more rapid
:

I say nothing of the possibility of the young should meet not being gentlemanly or wellprincipled, because it may be supposed that they would in general be so, but if it were otherwise I should find it very difficult to avoid their society." This threat, with Anderdon's good offices, prevailed. Anderdon even the parental the letters before reached corrected they wrote eye. Manning (October 18, 1826) " I fear you must have forfeited a large portion of your

progress.

men

I

:

valuable sleep in correcting and revising my Boeotian production, which my father will receive together with this. (Will he receive this? corrects Anderdon.) It is not unlikely that my father may consult you on the If he confers with you in regard to his letter subject. to the Vice-Chancellor I think it might be as well if you were to advise him merely to mention the circumstance of his wishing (What is the circumstance of a wish?) that I should go there in October, as he may be inclined to say more, and I am aware that the whole tribe (What tribe of Oxonians ?) are averse to private Tutors. I should like to say two or three things (To say a thing is not elegant) if you will not consider me presumptious (presumptuous). Balliol is spelled (spelt) with a double 1 in the centre why so I cannot say, but so it is. I have read about an (antiquated) hundred lines of Herodotus and a few other
'

'

;

things.

I

hope you found no
16

false quantities in

my

A

Captain of Harrow

epigram, and if you will brush up your Gradus I will tack a few more on (dele) to the tail of my next essay. If you should happen to have a translation of Persius in your possession (// / have it, it must be in my possession), I should be very much obliged by the loan. (What loan, "

Mexican or Columbian?)

By such humorous cross-corrections with Anderdon Manning learnt that crisp style which stood him in stead
all his life. Meantime, at Lord Colchester's advice, a crammer had been found in Northamptonshire, whereat Manning wrote (November 7, 1826)
:

this disclosure, to explain the circumstance, also referring him to you, that you might reasons to him. I should more fully make known consider the six months lost, were they to be spent with
I

"

have been considerably alarmed by
to

and wrote immediately

my

father

my

a houseful of pupils with any Tutor

:

Harrow would be

" Even your hasty notes must be (Note by Anderdon: in order; it is a mere habit a knack Your Johnson.")
!

far preferable. Explain it. The fire will be the proper place for this note when read. In haste, good-bye."

Manning
schoolboy "

left

letter to

Harrow at Christmas, writing a Anderdon (November 23, 1826)

last

:

I had always understood that the nature of an ode would allow of the transition from one thing to another. I had also fancied that I could discover this in the Odes

well as on my own stupidity. I am glad to see your long absence from Harrow has obliterated Horace sufficiently from your recollection to allow my Lyrics to pass un17

I will not, however, dispute the point with you. I frequently have been delayed in writing by not being able to say sufficient on one point or to avoid my letter being composed of short, disjointed sentences. Since I have been under your tuition I have found this difficulty decrease; but I must not say anything, either one way or another, on this subject. If I should say I thought myself improved I should be arrogant, as otherwise it might seem to be a reflection on my master, as

of Horace.

c

Henry Edward Manning
molested.
of him.

They

smell

(eloquent

metaphor)

slightly

"

It is

considered here and by most Cambridge

men

to

where your subject requires it, to make use not only of the expressions of any of the poets, but also to quote a half line or a whole one. To me it seems
be a
fair thing,

the safest means of getting the idioms of the poetry of If you do not agree with me on the Augustan Age.

a few observations, which I will for a literary entre nous. controversy " I read the King's speech yesterday, and I must say
this point,

send

me

endeavour

to meet,

and may form a subject

be what Brougham described, is from some policy. doing my best, and I hope that on Christmas Day be able to say with a quiet conscience
it

appeared

to

me

to

full of
I I

nothing.

This, no doubt,

am
may

:

Nunc arma defunctumque
' '

bello

Barbiton, hie paries habebit.

Given at our Club called the Union on the 23rd day November, 1826. Stet fortuna domus."

of

And

after

Harrow had
4,

suffered a defeat at cricket he

wrote (August " Lord's

1827)

:

ground is with Hecate's ban thrice blasted, However, I am glad we (for I dare not, and cannot, separate my name from Harrow) showed them some play. Be it forgotten."
thrice infected.

18

CHAPTER
"
the

III

:

OXFORD

A

Temple

a niche in hopeful aspirant to a first-class, an Oxford Prize Poem, and of the Muses between Lord Byron and my friend Timon."
1827.

Manning to Anderdon,

MANNING came home from Harrow on the Sunday, and " Her the very moment that his sister Harriet died.
death was a great loss to me, and left me alone." Mr. Wilberforce consoled the parents with a tract and an "I remember the late Archbishop Moore anecdote me when he lost a sweet young creature, a telling daughter just about to attain to womanhood, how much he was pleased with it." In company with his father, Manning took the coach by the old Bath Road to Poulshot in Wiltshire, where Canon William Fisher prepared him during nine months for Oxford. Here he learnt to read the Classics, and " even French and Italian. I can say I never lost a moment up early and very late to bed." His only break was a visit to Oxford, where he matriculated on
:

April

2,

1827.

The books

at Balliol record
fil:

"

H enricus

Ed: Manning

nat:

js

Gulielmi

Manning arm: de Coombe Bank."
the opposite page was a family name of fateful " omen, Franciscus Newman admissus socius 1826." To " Manning the streets and colleges by lamplight seemed

On

a fairyland." He was cared for by Edmund Estcourt, who was to read the Apostolic letters at his consecration

and until July worked till three every morning. Years later Fisher remembered his sensitiveness to dust and his disputes over many passages
and
recalled

thirty-eight years later. He returned to Poulshot,

"

Luke xii.

50,

which, to your utter astonish19

Henry Edward Manning
ment, proved a puzzle to you how you defied me to do my worst against you in Greek Testament. I never had so happy a time with any man as with you." For Manning, " I have a baptism to be baptised of, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished," was a prophetic text. The correspondence with Anderdon never ceased wild and whimsical productions of the moment, the flying foam of a clever schoolboy champing his pen in
;

an isolated rectory.
"

Poems

fell
'

thick.
'

did you think of my Vision ? Did you ever " see the like?" Apparently not. Sitting one night in In these times it I thus my easy-chair soliloquised. seems as indispensable for a poet to have a dream of his own as to provoke them in the cerebel of his readers. know from Persius that Ovid, Seneca, Aristophanes, and many more, had sundry snoozes on Parnassus, after which parturition was inevitable and instantaneous. will e'en try to indulge in a waking dream."

What

We

We

And
"
I

again

:

trust

you

strictures.

Oh

will think this original.

the

Moon

!

Spirit

Rhymster, appear.

Soft Music.

Send me your Ralph the Impromptu.
of

Selene. thy radiance thou dost smile, I love to gaze as gaze I now. And think that from thy hallowed isle, Whene'er thou lookest down below, In our still earth thou nought canst see But innocence and purity. Not so thou watchedst, when of yore The countless hordes of Thessaly Shook the red hand of carnage o'er

When

in

The

lovely mistress of the sea,

To
"

But fleeing didst refuse thy light
hide the horrors of that night.

Alexander made his attacks upon Tyre it was when suddenly the moon was obscured. I won't inflict any more Laura Matilda upon you, 20
in the

When

night

:

'

'

Oxford
although I could rhyme on it till I confounded night with day, which is not improbable, since morning grey will soon draw away the bed-curtains. Once more goodnight. I am sure I shall be a poet, because my hand is deteriorating into a most talent-telling scrawle."
'

'

June
"
the

8,

1827
'

:

I last had the pleasure of your society I used segment with perhaps greater latitude than is generally allowed. You very properly corrected me. I have since traced the etymology of the word for my own amusement, and although I am aware it is impossible for me to justify my usage of it, I may adduce some reasons, which if they do not in some measure palliate my offence

When

word

'

against rectitude, may serve to make us a little discontented with the narrowness of our language. Segment (segmentum, Lat.), so much of a circle as is cut off by a
'

chord

'

(Johnson).
ist,

Segmentum

a shred or piece cut from

something
!

!

2nd, a collar 3rd, a border of a garment 4th and lastly, divisions
!

!

!

!

of

a

circle.

"

If

you remember,

I

quoted from Byron

'

a segment
' ;

of life's vilest sand.' Aye, say you, but that is the circle of life.' This strikes me to be a very mixed metaphor so much so that I should think that illustrious poet would ' have hesitated ere he wrote it, For what is writ, is writ.' Granting that he alluded to the circle of the hour-glass

(which, by the way, I do not believe), it would surely be a wooden way to cut off the sand in segments our glasses do not dispose of their charge in that fashion. Yours until the last chord has divided the last segment
:

if you want to read anything that is theoretical to the sticking point of theory and unsound as an Irish bog, send to your booksellers for The Crisis, by the Rector of Hamstall Stafford (obiter an awful name for one of the Church swine and savours of Tythepig). It tries to fix the end of the period of the 1260 years in

LEOPOLSTAD. " By the way,

21

Henry Edward Manning
rise at

1792, the year of the Revolution. The King the time of the end he wishes to
' '

who was
show
to

to

be

Napoleon. He knocked down the Pope. Why did we put his Worship up again ? My candle is sinking, and I am writing against it, but the odds are on the candle. I have no doubt that I shall find a letter from you on Oh the paper of my the breakfast-table to-morrow. candle has caught fire, and I can stand the flickering
!

no longer, so good-night. 3 o'clock."
'

Friday night alias Sat. morn.

which he Musarum numine inflatus may have expressed. " I have just finished A of Thucydides, and since it is a little idleness is allowable. The idleness I Saturday allude to is penning this. I have a proposal to make. Let your part be to write me a paper upon whatever first occurs to you, of which I am uninformed (a large field, i' faith). Let yours be a series of Nodes Urbance, mine Nodes Rustica. I shall give you my opinions upon languages and my reasons for wishing to attack French and Italian. But let them be papers, not letters." " I have thrown off something in the shape of what I propose. It is beneath your criticism. Do not laugh at my name. I used to call myself the Pelican of the Wilderness, and until I get a better suit I shall be content with my place in the Ornithology, tho' a swan would be more poetical. You will say a goose were better. When I am inclined to be satirical I shall sign Gnatho from gnathos, a nail, because I intend to have a sharp point.

"The last weed that took root in my brain was discovered by the gardener before it had reached above a few inches in height, which was duly rooted up and cast into the fire.' Here, however, is one that has increased ruris in angulo, unseen until it has reached It is the largest (if so ill a weed ever has it) its prime. dock of all the crop, which you are at liberty both to crop and dock at your leisure, pleasure, and convenience. I dedicate this to you with the same feelings of exultation that a schoolboy puts a squib on his master's desk after a fifth of November row.' It is rather intolerant for a Churchman but it w ould be hard indeed were a man to be dragged before a tribunal to answer for the sentiments
'

'

'

r

;

My

paper

is

my Hebdomadal

not a reflexion of the Spectator, but perhaps practice may add some quicksilver to 22

Oxford
the back of my Mirror. write no, write yes. Here

iambics

involuntarily.

Write yes or no no, don't is a proof that one may write Lisping in numbers with a

Tuesday night 12 o'clock. You talk of severer I must take honours, and they shall be in studies. that is over I'm ready for you from Classics. leisure hours at Locke to Mrs. Barbauld's Hymns. Oxford shall not be thrown away, you old Zeno go to a

vengeance." "

When

My

;

nunnery, go! "
worried,

More to-morrow." Wednesday morning. I collect from your

hurried,

and disjointed sentences that you suppose my French and Italian would prevent some of my other reading. 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 than six hours' sleep at night.
squander the remaining eighteen hours I know But perhaps you may inform me." " I had expected you to send me a small exegesis of your opinions in fact, the skeleton of an oration but, plague on you, you have buried me under a heap of Yankee reviews, regali situ Pyramidum altius. Write me a line with more blood-circulated fingers than penned your last. Adieu."
to

How

not.

" Facciolati Lexicon," but feared the price; also to an English Gradus. Anderdon decided to nip his poesy in the bud (July 30, 1827) " You are to be a reasoner, whether Parson, Lawyer, or Senator, not a poet. Garde a vous! There is no English Gradus. So much the better." Manning replied

Manning

aspired

to

a

:

:

"

Did you ever hear the story

Ostler?

The

latter

of the Priest and the surprised the former at confession

of his sins, and being asked if he never greased horses' teeth to spoil their eating, answered in the negative. The next time, however, he was much

by the paucity

further from salvation, having practised the above trick more than once, and on being reprimanded, he laid the blame upon the priest, saying that till last time he really never heard of such a crime. This story is applicable to

23

Henry Edward Manning
You are to be a have been laughing at it. or whether Senator, not a Parson, reasoner, Lawyer, no poet.' Why law? Your honour, I never thought of such thing, but doing it as you tells I so why, I will be So if I can turn out a ballad-monger, you are if I can answerable."
me, and
'

I

'

'

!

On reading Manning's poem on Superstition Anderdon " Heus Jupiter!" but added: "I really expect sighed that with attention and polish you will some day be in " Of other " weeds " he wrote They have print." It was colours and a something of fragrance." " that soft and Manning's besetting sin he watched, the and weeds which were sweet complacency," forgave the only wild oats Manning sowed. Indeed, he advised
:

English verse, which was Ponder, reflect, arrange the order of and Manning, who was to be an unsucyour story;" cessful candidate with Gladstone, replied (September i, " You have taken the very line for Coeur de Lion 1827) which I had proposed to myself." In October, 1827, Manning went to Balliol in an It was still eighteenth-century unreformed Oxford. and the breach with the Jacobite University that Oxford, melted its plate for King Charles was less than with the Emporium of Dissent and the Rhodes Caravanserai of to-day. Academic exclusiveness made learning a close " a fellow who corporation. The Chairs were sinecures had never looked upon the stars soberly in his life
for the

him

Newdigate Prize
"

in

Cceur de Lion,

:

Professor of Astronomy, and for History men who had never read anything but Tom Thumb." Fellows of the colleges passed their time between Quart and Quarto. Mediocre Heads were elected by mediocre Fellows. Bishop Oxenden attributed his loss of a Fellowship to a revoke at whist after a qualifying dinner. No Catholic or Puritan was admitted. Save for ringing of bells and

droning services, there was little religion. Wesley's Holy Club had been, and Manning heard Newman preach, but
24

Oxford
Oxford Movement had not could remember the Dr. Routh Old begun Protestants King James drove from their Fellowships, and towards his hundredth year he was yet to see converts to Rome made ex-Fellows in their turn. So
the avenging blasts of the
to

blow.

short a stretch covered the Anglican domination of the English Universities " the prison-house," men But at Balliol, known as worked, thanks to Dr. Jenkyns, the shrewd, finicky,
!

the

ridiculous, reforming Master, whose foresight prepared way for the overpraised Jowett. Manning rode and
like the Christian

boxed
read.
at

gentlemen of the time. He also Bishop Hamilton's Life records "Manning hard
text

work getting up the
at

of

the

Bible,
it,

so as

to

command
working

great facility in applying

Hooker."

room

that

Manning

Blenheim with " Dined with Hamilton.
to associate,
if

was in met Gladstone. " Rode to Manning," recorded Wordsworth;
It
first

and Gladstone Charles Wordsworth's

In all societies it is advisable " with the highest possible, (December 8,

1827). Hamilton became Bishop of Salisbury. Another of Wordsworth's pupils was James Hope, whose great mentality was severely tempered by absence of ambition.

Gladstone, he became one of Manning's closest. Another future Bishop of Salisbury, George Moberly, helped to instruct Manning, on one occasion in Thucy" dides. Moberly ventured to hold up his railway " Mr. Manning looked up innocently speed," whereupon and said I beg your pardon, but I feel sure I am Six right.' years later Manning told him he had been " himself How well I remember your improvising music and poetry and our metaphysics, and all your malice against me," remembered the Cardinal, and Moberly answered (January i, 1879) "There are some Greek words in your letter which reveal the memory of a well timid, bashful young Tutor sat upon by an audacious young undergraduate. But it is fifty years
'

With

:

'

!

:

!

25

Henry Edward Manning
since."

On

to take tea in his

mannered

another occasion Moberly sent for Manning rooms with a very shy and jerkyScotsman, whom he was anxious to see

ushered into a good set. Manning was accordingly introduced as "an eminent bachelor and safe friend," as he doubtless was at the time. As the two young men
crossed the Quadrangle arm in arm, "Mark me," said " those two will both live to be Mitchell, a Balliol tutor, Archbishops." It was a shrewd shot, for the Freshman

was Tait

Canterbury to be. Manning seems to have had a taste for dress, as shown in pink silk riding-breeches (which impressed his friends),
of

but more seriously for the art of address. On the puny stage of the Oxford Union he engaged his untempered steel with the future Viceroys and Ministers of England. Of this circle Samuel Wilberforce had been the burning light, and Gladstone was waiting to succeed Manning, as Manning succeeded Wilberforce. The future champions
of English of ordeal.

Anglicanism, Romanism, and Liberalism, followed each other in quick succession across that floor

The Union records tell that Manning successfully attacked protected wool, the Pallium of Toryism, in his
first speech (March 12, 1829). A week later Manning and Wilberforce carried a majority against an unsparing

death penalty, but from the latter's anti-slavery motion Manning tried to exclude the accusation of Colonial slavery as a crime. The filial piety of each conflicted. The fathers of both Manning and Gladstone had been interested in the West Indies. Manning spoke against a motion condemning the Parliament during the Civil

War, and
October
President,

22,

against the necessity of unanimous juries. On 1829, he opposed a vote of thanks to the

in the chair.

Mr. Wilberforce, for his determined conduct On the same day a greater friend and a A greater enemy was elected a member Gladstone. fortnight later Manning was elected President, but
26

Oxford
refused owing to his coming examinations. His name was inscribed once in the chair, but erased for that of Wilberforce. That November occurred a famous debate

with Cambridge men, who insisted that Oxford's Shelley was a greater poet than Cambridge's Byron. The Cambridge orators, Monckton Milnes, Sunderland, and Hallam (the latter two immortalised by Tennyson), arrived in post-chaise, and were received by Mr. Manning of Balliol and Mr. Gladstone of Christ Church. Oscar

Browning

recalls the tradition

:

" After the opening of the debate the Oxford men were and Sunderland, a great Union orator (Tennyson's silent, dark-browed cynic '), arose and said, When silent one, and silent all !' When he sat down a frail figure with a girlish face rose from the back benches, and in a very fine speech defended the expulsion of Shelley from Oxford. It was Manning."
1 '

True to Harrow, Manning defended Byron, and, moreover, proved him the better poet by the unanswerable argument that all present confessed to have read him, but not Shelley Manning's speech defeated the " It was like provoking a wasps' motion by 90 to 33. nest," he recalled. Debating seems to have been his keenest pleasure. To Anderdon he wrote (November 7, 1830) "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." He was an interested critic of Gladstone's first speech. Henceforth they became interwoven in each other's lives, the two great antitheses of the Victorian era. Gladstone was thinking
! :

of the clerical career

him

abandon. meri at Oxford.
to

"

He was He was

Manning's debating success had led one of the three handsomest not at all religious," was

Gladstone's recollection of Manning, who in later years Lord Salisbury that at Oxford Gladstone was quite " a sober and sound young man. You astonish me,"
told

27

Henry Edward Manning
was the reply; "I thought he was always an Italian the custody of a Scotsman." The Oxonian Manning revealed himself in a letter Anderdon
:

in

to

me, Jack, if I do anything by halves hereafter. endeavour to be Caesar; I know I can be nullus. But never will I be Nulloccesar, 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

"

Hang

I will

succeed in any attempt."

During 1830 he spoke
is

rarely,

once to move

"

that there

as great an infusion of popular power in the House of Commons as is consistent with the spirit of the Consti-

tution," which he carried as well as an attack on Canning, Again, he criticised the of Constitution. Both Gladstone the American stability

with Gladstone for an ally.

and Manning were Tories, but Manning broke away the soonest, supporting the Reform Bill Gladstone abhorred.

On

seat,

Catholic Emancipation Peel resigned the University and was supported by Gladstone, but opposed by Newman ! "What do you think of civil and religious "The old liberty?" Manning wrote to Anderdon. drones will come out of the hive before long." Manning consistently smoked out old drones through his life. He was not less the reformer when he joined the Church against which the Reformation was directed. In 1865 he wrote to Gladstone " The first speech you made at Oxford on the Rights of Man was sounder and not far from what I hold now. I may be wrong in my political principles, but I have not varied much." Only an inkling crossed Manning's mind on Catholic affairs. "What do you think of politics? You have at least thought of Daniel O'Connell and the Union Society," he wrote to Anderdon. His Oxford days were reflected in letters to the faithful Anderdon, "my Jo John." They displayed a high-faluting and pompous 28
:

Oxford
egotism, but they were good practice and "a kind of His first note from Oxford manifestation of conscience." survives
:

I am pretty well initiated now, and do not feel quite so fresh as I did during the first few days. I have got rooms, very small, but I think I can make them equally comfortable but there is one sad drawback, the bookcase will not hold a Quarto, much less a folio, and where to erect another I scarcely know. One I will have if it block up the window. books have not arrived from Fisher's. My lectures are two a day Herodotus and either Euclid or Livy; the latter is a freshman's lecture, and for this term I must submit to the ignominy. I speak it in half shame, at the Herodotus I need not and at the Livy I do not look. Again I say, when my books come
;

"

My

I

will begin.

I

will

now

to

bed."
:

The
"

following are fragments

I am satiated of classics without being a scholar, of logic without being a reasoner, of book-learning without being a master of my own subject, either literary or

scientific."

" Ambition and Avarice differ only in the selection of means. The former is as unmixedly selfish as the latter,
in

the generality of instances incalculably more pernicious and destructive to others. Vanity is the mainspring. Vanity, boundless, blind, empty, insatiate It was vanity that first made me desirous of vanity. becoming a speaker. It is vanity that still keeps me to I can trace vanity in every word I utter, the object.

and

Is possibly in every word I now commit to paper. it not the duty of man to mortify so contemptible a

propensity?" " One thing bores me above all measure, the getting almost by heart, or at least by rote, such important historical data as that Hegisippus was son of Hegistratus, who was son of Ariston, lineally descended from Hercules, and went to Chalcis with two triremes and a rowboat." " To answer your letter seriatim, the next topic is tea. As I live on nothing else and Oxford produces nought but sticks and sloe-leaves, I should be obliged to you if 29

Henry Edward Manning
you

would

procure

me

a

quantity
;

for

about

six

you think that I am relapsing I will prove myself you a very Leviathan in practice, so that you shall never discover my having doubted the existence of matter, without which Turgot despairs of a man's becoming a metaphysician."
to

weeks." " Do

Philosophy, Vanity, Teetotalism, all themes which him through life. Reams and reams survive, " " Anti-Dodo signed with a variety of names, such as (Anderdon being known as Dodo). Verse is scarcer, but
follow
slips in
:

Florio speaks, what maiden could withstand, Damon did not squeeze her hand? When Dodo writes, what student could withstand If Whateley's Logic were not close at hand?
If

When

gentle

year he was sobered by illness and examinations approaching (May 13, 1829) " Who could have imagined that I, who was so lately declared to exhibit human frailty at an early age, should be called upon to administer antidote to the hipped and hypochondriac? This would be to assume a character you once thought little fitted to my abilities, and I cannot but fear that you may denounce me as a quack or empiric when you find me in sober madness attempting to make joyful the heart of man. The last month, however, has I am a bit from altered my image and superscription. the new coinage, and although I may not be so dainty a specimen, I hold myself true carat and unalloyed. The Philosophy of Greece is specious but empty; it is a gorgeous balloon well fitted to raise the minds of men, during serene weather, above the bounds of ordinary contemplation but in a high wind it proves itself a scoundrel composition of shreds and patches. The Stoics were coxcombs. Believe me, Jack, pain, mental or bodily, is an evil; don't try to think it otherwise. If man could bring himself to such an insensibility as Zeno or Epicurus would command, he would run a hazard, not of unmanning, but of unhumanizing himself. Mental
In
his
last
:
;

30

Oxford
pain is fieya KO.KOV when once admitted; but admit it not. Let him knock at your oak; but he is like a Scotchman, if he can get his little finger in, his body will soon follow." " The tone of your letter belied Dec., Kal. III., 1829 your assertion that your mind had recovered its equilibrium. I hope you are conscious of it. I require no bookcase, as I intend to be the man of one book for the next two months. You charge me of secretiveness. You are right in so doing. You know Toilus but little if you think the Hunca Munka of your last letter would disturb
:

his philosophic indifference.

I

send you an epigram on

Shelley.

canst thou syllogize or ethereal question Hath not great Bacon said the subtleties Of Nature scorn the Stagirite's suggestion ? Seek not Sorites in the moon's thin beam, Much less from Shelley seek an enthememe.

Peace Rhetorician

;

From Moonshine premiss

?

sure the managers will cry Enough !' to escape a You won't know me when I surfeit of this sorry stuff.
I

am

'

come home.
only

am grown fat, idle, and impudent. I hope you may be the same, on the true Aristotelian
I

principle that like loves like."

Referring to the ups and downs of trade, he wrote (June 16, 1830) " I rejoice with you in sugar and condole with you in rum. I shall be very surly this vacation save at my lucid intervals. Of these you shall have timely advertisement. I intend to have all your house to myself, unless you and yours turn my Academus into a Gymnasium. I long to have a talk to you unless abstinence from beans constitute the whole character, I shall be no Pythagorean. Yours, HAL."
: ;

But he dreaded
'

his examinations

(September

18, 1830)

:

In

all

the

most of
feel
it,

University course I not done amiss with

the reading proper to my myself more confident I have save where the attempt to make

31

Henry Edward Manning
my attention. This comfort as regards my own power of applicaI must fail here, although I tion and comprehension. neither despond nor despair; you know my sentiments I too well to need much asseveration on this point. almost fear I am too indifferent; yet I pledge myself to work it through."
good old
deficiencies has interrupted

gives

me

He
is

and Demosthenes.
he

found himself unimpeachable on Butler, Aristotle, " Divinity he feared not, although it

an unexhaustible and perilous subject." In any case felt buoyant, and that his failure would be "in Livy, not in steadiness of principle." He wrote in the lull before Schools " I shall be at work in three weeks, and begin to long most ardently for its termination. Nothing very essential can that period effect in my favour. I have spent the last three days somewhat idly but do not regret it, as I hope to be merely in good health for the Schools. In good I shall not I no dereliction from have fail. spirits my former protestations on this subject to confess, and never enjoyed so much philosophic indifference. My friend Wood has over-read himself. Another of my friends has also been prevented. All the coaches seem upsetting. If I can keep my omnibus on its wheels I shall be well
:
;

content."

When
threatened

Anderdon
:

failed

to

respond,

Manning

"

and dull. Come, cheer me on. A few days me on the island of scholastic ethics and critical erudition. Cheer me on, I flag not albeit I be somewhat I see the term and therefore bear me up. weary. Respond under peril of ban and anathema."
spiritless, will land
;

My

Fidus Achates, thou

art silent, taciturn, vapid,

The examinations over, Manning fled dead-beat to Fosbury, in Wiltshire, whence he wrote (December 6,
1830)
:

"

My

examination

continued until
32

and

at the conclusion I

Thursday last, had so many engagements to

Oxford
breakfast, dinner, and supper that I scarcely [expect] seeing the inside of my rooms again. I delivered a small oration at the Union the day I was out of the Schools. " I need a little relaxation mentally I am endeavouring I cannot to get it bodily by peregrinating the country. understand myself, and feel in the most unnatural state. Last night and the night before I snored thro' above ten I am in clear hours, and feel myself the better for it. locomotive of propensity by spending hopes satiating my
;

a few days in scampering from pillar to post. Get me a bed ready wheresoever you may be staying, and pray mind I have a blazing fire, for I am as deficient in caloric If I receive an answer from Fisher I as an old man. shall go to Poulshot to-morrow. If otherwise, you may perchance see me, ere you receive this letter, my jewel."

Which was

the case, for

presents his compliments to Mr. to assure him of his intention and Anderdon, begs John of sleeping in Harley Street on Thursday night next. Poland is up. Huzza Philoeleutherios."
I

"Mr. H. E. Manning

The
work

result

was soon and anxiety.

after declared, and justified all his With five others, " Manning,

Henricus E., Coll. Ball.," was awarded a First Class in
Literis

Humanioribus

.

Among the congratulations was a Pecksniffian note from Mr. Wilberforce, whose son was also in the First
Class (January 22, 1831) " I have to return in kind your congratulation on my Henry's Success. Your Son did himself great Credit, and what will be, I doubt not, to you, as it would be to me, a much higher ground of congratulation, Mr. Robert, who, you know, is in Oriel a Don and a Tutor, tho' a Boy with us, speaks of your Son in high terms as to his Character and Conduct to have passed thro' such an ordeal without Injury is no little praise and excites
:
;

just

Hopes
in

When
,700

Well doing." Manning came of age his father had given him
of future
18, 1829)

Consols, with the regret that (August 33

D

Henry Edward Manning
cannot at present do more for you, as your uniform good conduct has entitled you. Your future success in
I

"

life

must depend entirely upon your own exertions." His bankruptcy followed his son's success, but the latter had realised what was coming when he wrote (January
20,

1830)

:

" Believe me, brother, Mercury, the God of Merchants, of Rogues rogues and merchants are convertible terms, and have ever been so from the establishment of the Port of Tyre to that of the Port of London whether at the Deigma in the Piraeus or the

was the God

:

Exchange

in Cornhill.

ANTI-DODO."

34

CHAPTER
on H. E. M.

IV

:

CONVERSION AND ORDERS

" Time lost in his state of mind is time gained. The change would indeed be sudden from inflamed ambition to deadness to the world." Miss Sevan

MANNING

leaped into life with political ambitions had little struggling against monetary depressions. He

At Balliol he prayed not. Unknowingly he had faith. walked amongst the prophets. He was as pleased to hear himself argue as Newman preach. While Pusey was being initiated into the Breviary by Blanco White (an extinguished altar-light), Manning read Adam Smith. His notebook was political save for imaginary dialogue with a sceptic, concluding that "things are above but " such to never contrary to reason." Chance is us, not " moon-blind wits." He to God." Materialists are
dived into questions of Federalism, Canada, Switzer" a land, Ireland. The treatment of Hottentots seemed

He calculated the farrago of guilt and ignorance." Catholics of England and Wales were 300,300. But ruin pressed. Coombe was in the market, deserted save by a lonely, embittered boy. Anderdon offered him
a clerkship at ;8o, but Oxford friends found him a Government berth, where, as he used to tell his priests, pointing to Whitehall, he learnt business habits. For a short time Manning was a clerk in the Colonial Office under "Goody" Goderich, "a routine of monotonous existence," which filled him with dismay. To Anderdon he appealed (March 6, 1831) " I confide in your consistency to my cause. If the higher Powers positively refuse to bear upon my point, it will be my part to look for some other assistance."
:

March
"
I

13,

1831

:

estimate

thank you for your advocacy, not omitting to your convictions.' Suppose I were to begin
'

35

Henry Edward Manning
twaddling about convictions
not another word.

Your

argument

of apprenticeship is based in false analogy. As to Lucian's dialogue, the young man was desirous of legislating before he had learned how I wish to learn
;

before I legislate. The Athenian Agora was no school for statesmen the British House of Parliament If I be competent to undertake public the only one. 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

how

;

;

difficulties besides.

If I

be incompetent,

let

me be

told

so

;

I
'

will believe

it.

But not by such an argument as

you are inexperienced, while we are consistently endeavouring to prevent your acquisition of that experience,' and above all by no stolidity about 'too young.' None are too young to begin but fools. In whatever race I run, I will never voluntarily carry weight; in whatever contest I engage, I will never bind an arm round my back. I know from experience what is an uphill game I have played one, gained one, and suffered by one."
this,
'

'

;

consoled himself by swearing at Anderdon that " Art busy, man? or idle, or contemplative, or among autographs pulverulent, or with hot-cross buns dyspeptic, or with fly-fishing? I flogged some miles of Shoreham river without a rise, but we fishermen are such quiet pleasant folk that I sware never a d n,
Easter
:

He

and gat me home again."

(" Isaac Walton says that the added the Cardinal in refishes," swearing frays

reading in late life.) He rushed back to a debate at Oxford, or revisited scenes of schoolboy splendour
:

You promised to dine at the Harrow dinner. Robert Bevan intends doing so likewise moreover, I. I am going down to the Harrow speeches, having got a cart in a friendly Phaeton. I did not explain to you yesterday about your Dante cap. I received your note while at Kippington, and sent word back to your wife in order that she might send you your morion in good time, not
36

"

Conversion and Orders
Coombe Bank. Thus between
His mind ran
"
1

being myself certain on what day

I should return to the love of a brother and

a wife thou art unhelmed, Sir Knight."
to playfulness,
testiness,

restlessness.

am
ill

and

splenetic, sick, savage, rabid, indolent, useless, at ease." At this time Robert Bevan took him to

stay at Belmont in Herts. between the two families.

There was a professional link

banks.
in

They both did business with The Bevans were deeply interested in Evan-

gelicalism,

and were probably as sure of their accounts one world as in the other. The pious and gifted Miss Bevan set out to save Manning's soul. Her notes of that autumn survive. She was the author of Reading
together
:

without Tears, but not untearfully they studied Scripture

Robert is improved by his friendship with Manning, and seems flattered by his confidence. The total ruin of his fortunes does not lessen him in his esteem. [Oh, I greatly admire the candour of banker's daughter !] Manning. It affords a good foundation on which to
raise the superstructure of truth.

"

"Mr. Manning dined with
grace
is

us.

I is

of the vanity of the world and the sinfulness of sin. He is much interested in the Scriptures, from which he has formed a very high standard of religion. It is delightful to see him so much humbled and sanctified, but he does not for a moment think himself religious he looks very
;

going on

in his heart.

He

think a work of deeply convinced

poorly,
;

not happy. He remains at the gate knocking reflecting on his conversation, I perceive he is in bondage to the law."

and

is

Before

Christmas
24, 1831)
:

Miss

Bevan

claimed

victory

(November

"H. M. is in the hands of One Who can guide by His counsel and fit for His own work by His Spirit. Who knows but that after being tempest-tossed for a season he may seek the service of his Master?"
37

Henry Edward Manning
While taking refuge from rain in a bookshop, Manning announced his new vocation to Anderdon. His fingers held, not an Oxford Tract, but a sermon of Wesley.
(Did not Cardinal Wiseman's vocation come in a thunderstorm?) On January 31, 1832, his father was informed, and gave no opinion; but, fearing he had disappointed his son, wrote the next day prophesying " permanent happiness." On February 3 Manning left
his office for ever, writing to his elder brother Frederick
:

have ever felt, when opposing your wishes on this subject, that you were urging me to a better, while I was persevering in the pursuit of a worse object. You are aware that my reasons for not entering the Church were I scruples, I say not whether erroneous or correct.
I

"

could not consent to regard so sacred a profession solely as a means of procuring an income and I also felt that the absence of a positive wish to undertake its duties constituted a sufficient disqualification in my own case."
;

Feeling he might satisfy the Bishop of London's Chaplain, but not himself, Manning retired to Oxford to discover and acquire such traces as remained of the In April he was elected Fellow of Divine Science. Merton College, whither his mother sent his' " pet iron bed," and where he read the Anglican Divines undisturbed by the clamour attendant on the first Reform Bill. In the old wainscoted library are still preserved the
entries
of his

reading

Donne, Hall,

Hammond,

Fathers as well.

He

Hooker, Tillotson, Bull, Butler, but the real helped to drone service in the
Berkeley,

mighty College Chapel, where John Pollen afterwards painted him as a model for Daniel, with Pusey as Isaiah. To Mrs. Anderdon " the old Monk sends peace and good wishes." On December 23 Bishop Bagot of Oxford raised him to the diaconate, and his proud father wrote " confiding fully in your proving yourself a most useful member of the Protestant Church." At Christmas he preached his first sermon in Cuddesdon Church on the
38

Conversion and Orders
in Surge illuminare of Isaiah. With a Sussex curacy him priest view, Bishop Maltby of Chichester ordained The little William in Lincoln's Inn (June 9, 1833). Anderdon was taken to the edifying scene in his father's hope he would follow his uncle's profession, which indeed he did, but by ways undreamt. Of the newly ordained a Harrovian (Sir John Leslie) remembered (1913)
:

"Manning came
mobbed by
stories, but much of.

to

Harrow on

his

way from

the

North, and stayed with the Headmaster.
the boys crowding round

He was
to

nearly

him

exchange

he seemed to fight shy of being made too He was deeply interested in the cricket, and used to tell the boys that clergymen should be ready to take part in everything. He was very particular about his dress. He wore two suits, one brown, one black and He was a pepper, with a conspicuous clerical hat. His face was thin beautiful rider in the Rotten Row. and sallow, and looked like a priest's even then."

These were the

features, so marvellously fitted to his

some first parts in life, which to Father Lockhart were dim revelation of the meaning of the supernatural in
man." " I see a word written on the forehead of that man, and that word is Sacerdos," wrote Aubrey de Vere. But of his mental and spiritual lineaments there survives
which

"

the keen diagnosis of his spiritual mother, Miss Bevan, is so unique and penetrating as to save reams of
: ! :

biographic research and conjecture Ecce Manning Character of H. E. M. (February 9, 1832)
'

no power in which he is deficient. His warm, his taste refined, his memory retentive and accurate in no common degree; yet judgment holds her rightful supremacy, and gives an air of precocity to his mind. Perhaps it is rare to see united so much delight in the grand with equal attention to minutice in matters of taste. His mind is adapted to enter into the niceties of criticism, did he not value essentials too highly to condescend to the occupation.
I

know

of

imagination

is

39

Henry Edward Manning
He is fond of reasoning rather than of argument. All his ideas are clearly defined, and he needs a vocabulary as extensive as that of which he is master in order to
them expression. give " Pride is the natural accompaniment of talent. This One characteristic, is the ruling passion of H. E. M. however, of a truly great mind is also his namely, an ardent love of truth, which leads him to pursue investigations, and not to remain content with knowledge that has no ultimate purpose. It leads him to be unsuspicious in his intercourse with the world. Despising a mere appearance himself, he will not readily believe that any
leads him to be jealous of himself, to act and speak beneath the tone of his feelings, lest he should impress others with too high an opinion of them and lastly, it gives a peculiar colouring to his proud, ambitious desires. He seeks not
will

assume

it.

It

even to scrupulosity

;

;

only praise, but deserved praise, praise doubly deserved He seeks rather merit than because hardly earned. His estimation of praise, a merit of the highest order. things according to their true value would not permit him to be content with a reputation for talents unconnected with moral worth, but the latter alone would not content him. He covets every gift from the highest to the lowest, the admiration of every creature from the highest to the lowest. So towering an aim, so grasping an ambition, can never be gratified. Convinced of this fact, when called to make a selection he prefers the more
substantial to the more showy portion, and forgoes the praise of the undiscriminating multitude for the approbation of the discerning few, and especially for his own. His imagination comes to his aid to conceal from him painful realities. Eminently reflective and visionary, his love of truth would help him to make invaluable discoveries and arrive at invaluable conclusions, could he always effectually silence that deceitful, busy friend, the I have said that judgment has the imagination. supremacy in his mind; this is true concerning those

things not connected with himself, but imagination works upon his weakness and deceives him in many points that touch him the nearest. So that he is liable to be mistaken in his review of his own past conduct, in his view of his
present position, and in his anticipation of his future

40

Conversion and Orders
course.
4

With regard

to himself

he

is

a theorist, though

in respect to abstract truth he is a trampler upon theories. ' It is easy to conclude that his character must abound in inconsistencies, but the conclusion will be strengthened

as we proceed. Do you judge him to be a stern, firm character from the outline I have drawn ? Know that he

struggles with a temperament of a most susceptible, He would find it excitable, I may say morbid, kind. difficult indeed to carry into effect the suggestions of his ambition, or the resolutions dictated by his upright, noble intentions. He has courage sufficient to enable him to face the world in arms against him. His pride would spur him on, but his nature is incapable of seconding his inward impulses. He is well provided with offensive weapons to sustain the onset, but he has no shield to defend him from the most puny foe. His satire would lay prostrate a mighty enemy, but he himself would wither beneath the most despicable sarcasm. He has bullock's horns, but not the bullock's hide. Could he therefore put in execution the devices of his aspiring

mind, "
'are

His easily won by kindness and deceived by flattery. excellent judgment vacates her throne on many occasions. His kind feelings and his self-love continually hinder the exercise of his sagacity. " these do not interfere he acts admirably, with a steadfastness and a self-denial to be rarely met with. He has strength of mind and decision of character, but he has more to contend with than other men, the hallucinations of ambition, the morbid scruples of a sensitive nature, the closely entwined associations of a

But I am the most difficult rightly to estimate. mistaken if his heart is not tender, kind, and constant. His sensitive disposition calls for the consolations of He cannot readily dissolve a tie once friendship. formed, nor harbour a suspicion of anyone who has given him proof of amity. He is confiding as well as communicative, and expects to find that faithfulness and generosity in others that they will find in him. He is

how great would be his misery With regard to the qualities of his

!

heart, I

own

they

When

feeling heart, are sometimes arrayed against him, and though in his understanding, as I said twice or thrice before, judgment holds the reins of government, yet

Henry Edward Manning
imagination often places her hands upon them nay, takes possession of them for a time, and then alas for He is driven to the poor master of all these powers. and fro like a leaf before the wind, and the honour of his little kingdom is endangered. "I have not yet enlarged upon a remarkable feature of his character, his candour, the infallible result of his ardour for truth. Prejudice has no existence in his mind. He is ever ready to hear, careful to weigh, slow to condemn. Radical errors he denounces without mercy, but minor differences he overlooks. He does not believe wisdom confined to any sect or party. He seeks her everywhere, and therefore cannot miss her. The want of candour in another is the fault that irritates him the most. " Does his character as a whole stand before you ? few lines will not define it. I must touch and retouch. If I called him great and daring you would not believe in his sensitive points and fits of despondency. Well, I do declare him capable of braving public opinion. What should you say when you saw him full of anxiety to

A

a complicated creature,

solicitous to gain every suffrage? He is and calculated to disappoint expectation in some respects and at some seasons. Yet he may take a flight beyond the warmest hopes of those who wish him well. I fear he will occasion his friends to lead an unquiet life, if they give full scope to the interest they may feel. He will himself need the exercise of no ordinary vigilance to steer his course right, of no common degree of faith to enjoy a moderate share of

please,

and

repose."

CHAPTER V LIFE AND LOVE AT LAV1NGTON
:

"Nothing
ton."

in this life

except the Altar can ever again be to

me

as Laving-

Manning to

his Curate , 1852.

OF three great women who entered into Manning's life, Miss Bevan's influence was the most important. (The others were Miss Maurice and Florence Nightingale.) When she advised him to take the lowest place and wait unnoticed, he did not refuse an obscure Sussex curacy. There were no railways, and he reached Lavington by
coach in January, 1833. He served the Rector, John Sargent, in place of Henry Wilberforce, and by June reigned in his stead. On November 7 he married his Rector's daughter Caroline, Samuel Wilberforce preFor seventeen years he worked in an unspoilt siding. Sussex, where the hamlet was undestroyed by the villa and tram-stops were turnpikes. Horsham and Midhurst were pocket boroughs on his parish bounds. The wild bustard lingered on the downs. Tramp, tourist, and tripper were not. Manning's notebooks show spiritual dealing with mole-catchers, copse-cutters, poachers, and all Cobbett's "leather-legged race." The downs were scoured for lost sheep. He made almost the entire parish communicant. He introduced a daily service, tolling the
bell and reading the Psalms by himself. He showed himself paternal, instead of patronising, to the simple folk, who came to love and trust him as their father and

protector.

beings

They were who paid off the

the hard-working and patient debts of the Napoleonic Wars.

In their broidered smocks they offered their prayers in the Sussex dialect in the presence of the " Lion and the Unicorn," or snuffed branches of southern-wood during

43

Henry Edward Manning
the sermon, while their wives gossiped lightly in red cloaks and black bonnets in the shadow of the greenbaized pews when hymns were delivered upon the
pitch-pipe,
acolyte,

and the parish clerk, like some fossilised answered the Psalms from the lower tier of the

three-decker." Even so the laws pressed hard upon the face of the " hay in cock and poor, and Sussex tithemen marked

"

wheat

" the sin of exacting the largest Lavington to denounce rent and doing the least repairs." The commons were being rapidly enclosed and the lords of the land were driving a press-gang for the lords of the loom, and " I

and carried away a tenth. The great Goodwood and Arundel brooded in benevolent feudalism. The Duke of Richmond stirred the Rector of
in

shock

"

houses of

Manning did not

love a lord.
I

And

disquiet and self-reproach
'

felt if I

I the people. continually heard What doest thou here, Elias ?' " not despair of soon having to Gladstone that he did
'

remember the did not go among in my conscience, In 1838 he wrote

two services every

Weekly Communion he The flint in Lavington Church he placed with his own hands. His other church, Graffham, he restored, remarking: "See how an Archfestival."

restored the next year.

deacon with the best intentions can spoil a church !" Morning after morning in the grey mist the shepherds and downsmen could hear the bell of their vigilant pastor. He became a legend. Other Rectors came and went, but they remembered the tall, lonely man, wearing a threadbare cloak over his white surplice, who passed them twice daily in the road. " He wore his father's cloak to go to say Vespers every evening," wrote Aubrey " de Vere. One evening at Lavington we read alternate passages out of Dante's Paradiso, and agreed there was more theology in the grand old bard than in the heads
of half the Bishops now living." The Church of England counted few

more

faithful

44

Life
sons.

and Love

at
those

Lavington
who allowed
the

" no of England." Not only jurisdiction in this realm from Rome, as, for instance, Mr. did he hold folk back " God Stuart of Munster Square (and forgive me for it," wrote to Gladstone he as (February 2, he added), and " I was in London last but T 84o) week, only for a day, case of another no on that and pleasant business, being
the kind
net.
I

Manning was among

Pope

had

in

Rome. This

fish

seems

to sail to

my

Certes it is hard at the same time to be accused of " but he was also ready to convert any Roman Popery Winifred that strayed within the pale of Lavington. into his came nest at the Catholic from Burton, Shirwin, to Anglicanism before she her converted he and parish,

married

Tom

Challen.

One of her sons still lives, the last of the Sussex men who were brought up in the love and the fear of the Archdeacon M-a-a-nning (Sussex
dialect).

He

saith (1913)

:

"He

he said service to himself. He could make a sermon Once he preached from Jesus wept.' out of nothing. The schoolboys had to write out a sentence of his sermons the next day. He took away the Gallery from the Church, and the Lion and Unicorn. There was an old man who wouldn't go to Church, and kept away from him. The Archdeacon hunted him down
'

came up every morning

in

his surplice,

and

and caught him in a barn. He gave up his carriage and coachman and butler when he became Archdeacon. The people were expecting he would turn. He came back to
see old Winifred."

The Rev. Rowley Lascelles took down the memoirs of another of the Lavington flock in 1873 : " A wonderful, vigorous man, he counted to call on every house in his Parish once a fortnight most of his
visiting

was done by walking
in these

clad in cassock.

He

brought Gregorian chants sung with the naked voice and no instrument. He turned out Lady Sargent's little girl to make room for we boys. People said he was cold. He never got excited. He loved us boys. He 45

Henry Edward Manning
would do anything
of him, tho' for the children, but we were afraid we knew he was very much took up with

He were very strict. But you should ha' seen Church. He were a wonderful Churchman. He looked like an Archangel when he prayed. He never missed going up to Church every day, no matter alone He was an out-of-the-way or without a congregation. serious man. Always reading and walking up and down in front a-reading as if seemingly he couldn't find no He came along several times to see old Winifred. rest. He told her she wouldn't find no rest where she were, and that he had found rest. Always drove a pair of greys. Old John Tribe he used to have to stop 'em half an hour together while he got out and sat down someHe were a wonderful where and took no notice of no one. man for such a the he wasn't but parish, after they man, made him Archdeacon."
children.

him

in

One evening at sunset Manning said: "John Tribe, we will go down like that setting sun." Mrs. Tribe was "I see Elijah a visionary, for she told Mr. Lascelles I I him once tell see over the Prophet just ye agin that
:

wood-stack.
told the

Dear me, it were nigh thirty year ago. I Archdeacon too. He knowed very well all about He said I should see him again one day, but Elijah.
I

ha'n't!"

his with Curate Laprimaudaye, Graffham, a exact Manning kept very register of the state of his flock. Not only was every individual attendance at church noted, but moral or ecclesiastical delinquencies were recorded, the former in Latin and the latter in Greek. Thus we find staunch Churchmen like James
inebrietati addictus," or James S pessimis deditus," while local Dissenters

At

H

"

"

actibus

were labelled

"

"

<7%<7/iaTi%o9

.

Of

these latter

was Edward Bookham,

a reprobate mole-catcher nigh on a hundred years old, who was entered for future judgment as "o-xtoyza%i'crT09"! Pain also will the recording angels feel when the books
are opened

summed

in the

and Sarah Webb's life and character are words " Sells gingerbread deceitful !"
:

46

Life
ten years
is

and Love
to

at

Lavington
in
:

The high standard
shown by

which the parish was brought

the Easter statistics of 1843
... ... ... ...
...

Communicants

... Three times and at Easter Three times and not at Easter ... Twice only ... ...

136 61

...

24 20
31

Once only
to

which were added some pencilled figures in the same neat hand, with which votes at the Vatican Council were recorded in after years

Palm Sunday
Easter

...

...

1844. 10

1843.
...

Low Sunday
It

Day

72

... ...

9 76
7

6

was always

typical of

Manning's mind

to

endeavour

to figure results.

Manning was interested in their daily toil. He went down to the pottery one day and astonished the men by saying, "I have faith to-day that I can make a pot"; whereupon, in the words of a potter present, "he shaped the best pot any man ever made for the first
one."

Although as a Catholic Archbishop he could not win (it is not given to convert twice), he found his old gardener dying in a home at Hoxton and crying for his master the Archdeacon. The gardener's relief and baptism into Catholicism was the last act of the Lavington pastorate. But the legend lasted, and twoscore years after he had left, a generation, who had never seen him, asked, "Is it true that the Archdeacon is dead?" Four years of wedded life were his. The form of
old Winifred

Manning's proposal is a tradition in the Ward family. "Caroline," was all he suffered himself to say "Caroline, I have spoken to your mother." Like her A day came of fiery sisters, she sank into consumption.
47

Henry Edward Manning
trial

for

Manning, and as he passed down the narrow

corridor at Lavington, he halted outside the sick-room and offered his wife to God, saying only, Fiat voluntas
tua.

The

sacrifice

was accepted.
:

Years
"

later

he wrote

Knowing nothing
in

of the Catholic

life,

or perfection,

November,

1833,

I

or instincts, married, and in

July, 1837, found myself again in the state in have been for more than forty years."

which

I

In this simple statement of the holy and honourable wedlock that had been his portion, he made no reference to the touching grief with which he venerated his wife's

memory.

The

allowed to pass.
the veil.

years passed, but the memory of the dead was not Irreverent hands have been laid upon

He was said to have loved another as an and as a Catholic to have forgotten both. It Anglican, was made a reproach that he allowed neglect to touch her grave. It was the waters of Marah, not Lethe, that held his utterance. He had tried to throw himself into the Her living-room was kept with work-box open grave. and thimble in place. The grave cross he intended was
never erected, because he could not place the inscription he wished, so he told Reginald Wilberforce. The window he gave to Chichester Cathedral was to her memory. The death of Mrs. Manning was a fateful She died a month after event in Catholic history.
Victoria

came to the throne. On the day Disraeli was returned to Parliament Manning wrote to his bosom
Gladstone,
also

friend,

enjoying

triumph

(July

27,

1837)

:

has been graciously pleased to lead me into a is desert, and to bid me serve Him with entire surrender of myself. On Monday last at ten minutes to 5 in the evening my beloved wife was taken out of this I bless God for the tender, pitiful evil, changeful world.

"God

way

that

48

Life

and Love

at

Lavington

dealt out both her sufferings and I know sorrows. you will both feel and pray for me. my As indeed I do for you in your very different and perhaps severer trial for I have ever found the time of our I give you tribulation safer than the time of our wealth. joy in your success, and may God be with you always."

hand with which He

One by one the "sylph-like" Sargent girls in a book in fulfilling what Manning had written
"

died,

1838

:

Of four brothers, I am called to go first through this Samuel Wilberforce had buried Mrs. Manning, fire." and his brother-in-law was to write to Gladstone (March " Poor Wilberforce left me yesterday, well and 19,1841) calm. On the day before I requited to him the service he did me not four years ago." Old Mrs, Sargent, whose daughter had bidden her "take care of Henry," now
:

keep house for Samuel. Had she lived longer 86 1, she might have found herself in the strange position of mother-in-law to the most conspicuous Bishops

went
than

to

1

on the Anglican and Roman sicje in England. Manning mourned her becomingly: " In His hands I leave her with all confidence, knowing that no soul that loves God can be lost; and that she loved Him I know with a full and perfect certainty." But he did not forget his wife. July, he wrote, was " like a churchyard path to him." He kept the Octave " of St. James as a and offered the Holy holy week,"
Sacrifice

"

for

my

enough composing sermons, clung to all his Lavington days. In his diaries there was an occasional and piteous cry, "a wounded heart, alas!" As he drew near to the Catholic Church he came to think of her as a Guardian
sit

as from the flowers

beloved wife." fragrance, bitter on her grave, where he would

A

" How often I Angel. To Mary Wilberforce he wrote have said, What would she have thought of what I am doing and feeling and believing? If it is a delusion, " perhaps she could have saved me.'
: '

By fragments only from
49

letters

to his friends

may

E

Henry Edward Manning
the pure devotion of

Henry Manning be judged.
:

To

Archdeacon Hare he wrote (July 21, 1841) " We are so bidden to liken ourselves
lovingly
I

to the

do not fear to say to you that this Before is to me the shadow of the week of Sufferings. we met what I once was had been abolished. You have only known me a sadder and, God grant, a better man. Between this and that glad morning when we shall sit down with our sainted ones in our Father's Kingdom there lies only one thing, toil for Christ's Church in warfare here on earth."
of

Man

Sorrows that

at five o'clock,

Yesterday four years (then a Monday) and Wednesday next (then a Friday) at the hallowed hour of burial towards the going down of
July 25, 1841
:

"

the sun, are sainted hours with me.

And
'

the old

man

whose hands wrought the last work said, little thinking how he chimed in with my thoughts, The rock had never been broken since God Almighty laid it.'
'

When Hare
Maurice,

Manning could hardly bring
:

himself came to marry the sister of Miss himself to rejoice

I have been. May you be blessed much longer. And yet, if sorrow be as good for you as for me, may your lot be as mine. What can I

(September 20, 1844) " May you be blessed as

say more?"
Fifteen years ago a Crucifix stood in sight of the dying bed, which taught me the article of the Communion of Saints. And I never have been without one." To Robert Wilberforce, his last " Easter as an Anglican : For some years I have thought, even half-believed, that intercessions within the veil have been drawing me whither they now see the One Light to shine. But this is only a daydream, perhaps."
to
:

And

Miss Maurice

"

Her he invoked as he set out to Rome, and her miniature remained on his desk. By an accident which pierced him deeply he lost her letters on that journey.
50

Life

and Love

at

Lavington

On the day he entered the Roman Accademia as a It happened in his diary. priest he made a last allusion for the last initial her and he her to be penned birthday, " of Caroline most dssimcB."
time
:

Natal. C.

(Nativity

lamented.)

Then he turned
for ever.

to the service of the

Bride that liveth

A
to

week after Manning's death Herbert Vaughan said Baron Friedrich von Hiigel, who recorded the words
:

(January 22, 1892)

"You know

what we

all

thought about the Cardinal
this is
;

what happened shortly and Mrs. Manning. Well, I his his was bedside he looked around death. before by to see that we were alone he fumbled under his pillow for something; he drew out a battered little pocket-book He said For full of a woman's fine handwriting.
;
' :

I years you have been as a son to me, Herbert not to whom else to leave this I leave it to you.
:

know
Into

book my dearest wife wrote her prayers and meditations. Not a day has passed, since her death, on which I have not prayed and meditated from this book. All the good I may have done, all the good I may have Take precious care of it.' He been, I owe to her. ceased speaking, and soon afterwards unconsciousness came on."
this little

CHAPTER

VI:

ROME AND GLADSTONE

" I am not so unobservant as to suffer the many and ample opportunities I had at Rome to pass without forming a very distinct judgment on the matter, which must interest you. I will only say that it coincides with and confirms my own." Manning to Gladstone, 1839.

reduced to a mere creature of the State," from being chiefly through gigantic correspondence with Gladstone.

HAVING found that " the end of life is not happiness but usefulness," Manning undertook to save the Church "

The portentous essays and theological disquisitions which they exchanged almost seem an effort to rise to the level of the eightpence of postage between London and Lavington. The slightest symptom in Church or State was a signal for literary deluge, of which some 200 pages
of

unpublished
.That

and

mostly

unpublishable
his

material

survive.
fiction.

Manning destroyed

own

letters is

a

The correspondence was of Rome and Canterbury, of Church and State, of Church without State, of State with Church, and world without end endless spinning and cross-spinning and weaving of webs which the most
Protestant reader
is

relieved to see

Manning

cut with

end of fourteen years. They discussed Convocation, which Manning thought gave "usurped powers to Presbyters," ending in a "
steel at the

Gordian

Socinianised caput mortuum" To the horrified Gladstone this was " as the worm to the chrysalis, or
rather to the butterfly. Reams of what Gladstonecalled "wrangling letters" followed. "In great haste,
' '

going," Manning implored him to read Leslie's Regale and In reply Gladstone Pontificate. announced that the situation of the Church (which had never been so comfortable) was " such as seems to
give
52

church

my

bell

Rome
all

and Gladstone

an accumulated responsibility to life, to make almost mirth guilt, and triviality profaneness."

him (November i, 1837): "The England wields the Spiritual sword of England bears the Civil The Crown absolutely. sword absolutely. These two powers can never clash except by the one usurping on the other," which the one has always done. The wriggling was triumphant. Bishops sat, not as Bishops, but as Members in Parliament. The Queen's mandate was glossed as a " The Commission into primitive Catholic organ I" Church Property gave Manning his spring-board. He was indignant at the suppression of Cathedral stalls, to " a bond which he referred with unconscious humour as

Manning

reassured

Church

of Christ in

with the Saints that are asleep." He threw off an open letter: "I am afraid they think me an impertinent Priest, but there is the end of it." The first Diocesan Board was drawn up by Manning

and completed by Gladstone.

"

wrote Manning fifty years later, " I believe the Chichester Board was the first in existence, and for

Do you remember,"

two years I was secretary." Meanwhile Manning decided "the Anglican Regale
Italian Pontificate are the true antagonists," but our theory ought to be the projected Shadow of History !" But there were darker shadows Maynooth, " How did you like his Presbyterianism, and Peel. with asked coquetting Presbytery?" Manning. Gladstone perceived Dissent rampant. " I look to Ireland,

and the
that

"

look to Canada look to Australia." The State, even, was helping Dissenters, but he defended himself going to Presbyterian worship in Scotland, whereat Manning: "Can you partake of such acts? The picture drawn in your last letter is frightful. I take as examples Maynooth and the Colonial Presbyterian bodies." About this time Manning called the Scotch

Maynooth
I

stares

me

in the face.

I

.

.

.

look to the

West

Indies

...

I

53

Henry Edward Manning
Kirk schismatical
in public,

and Miss Bevan was
in vain.

lost to
!

him

for ever.

She protested

"

Alas, alas

those

midnight no good result."
letters,

those private conversations, produced

as

shameful.

"We

To Manning Anglican
are

diversity

was

no better than

Protestant, self-willed, self-wise tenths of our priests and people more for a Bishop's wig than for

In righteous zeal he restored parish clerks, whom he found "sunk into the sexton," and hauled down the Lion and Unicorn, denoting Royal supremacy, that Unicorn which was to gore him yet unto
his Anglican
for

pack of NinePresbyterians. nor care know neither a broccoli head." the "sacredness" of

a

agony and death-bed.

of Chalmers was the " A some ludicrous emotions. signal jumble of and anti-Church Church, un-Church, principles," quoth " he flogged the Gladstone, who heard him when

The appearance and preaching

how we are to deal with persons having the Christian theology without participating in the continuity of the Christian Church." It was the problem which was to drive meanwhile he Manning on to the Roman
problem
sincere melancholy at Dr. " carnalising o ethos !
felt

was the birth, parentage, education, (May 22, 1838) and adventures of Chaos. I firmly believe he thinks Constantine was a Dutch Presbyterian. What of the i, 800 Bishops who held the Church when Constantine was a pagan ? Were dioceses, like wigs, not invented ? He might have got hold, of the Sacraments and Jeroboamed a Priesthood for himself, but his theology would not have made him and his ministers to be a Church. The Reformation has brought on a most perplexing
:

Apostolical Succession grievously, seven Bishops sitting below him, and the Duke of Cambridge incessantly bobbing assent." Manning exploded, but with humour " It

Rock; Chambers's "

statistical

Before the end of the year " friends and doctors have conspired against me, and have sentenced me to trans-

54

Rome
Cherubim."
to

and Gladstone
"

portation," and he left England with his brother-inlaw, Captain Austen, who "sucks in theology like a

Newman

wrote

:

How

I

envy your going

Anderdon gave him a blank diary, which he proceeded to fill. It was before the days of the Continental express, and Manning started to drive slowly
in the direction of the Eternal City, which he reached " in twenty-five days after leaving England," the same

Rome!"

time that a Roman Proconsul would have taken. Amiens Cathedral he saw on November 17, and the next day recorded Vespers at Breteuil. His first Catholic service " only left a memory of chanting, monotonous and harsh." At Sens the scenery was "like Chichester from Littleton Down." He visited the Vatican and St. Peter's for the first time (December 13, 1838). The next day to the Capitol with Gladstone, where he found " a sermon in marble, writing later Whensoever you chance to look at the Sermons I sent, you may recall, if you care, a conversation we had when we were standing looking at the Dying Gladiator in the Capitol, on the bodily sufferings of those whom we believe to be in a high degree holy." He indicated a passage in his best style, which need not be lost while pain is in the world
: :

If we ponder on the incomprehensible nature of pain, mental and bodily of its invisibleness, its vividness, its exceeding sharpness and penetrating omnipresence in our whole being of its inscrutable origin and the indissoluble link which binds it to sin and lastly, of its mysterious relation to the passion and perfection of our Lord, we shall see reason to believe that a power so near and awful fulfils many designs in God's Kingdom secret to us."
;

"

;

;

Attendance

in the little Protestant

church completed
similar.

Manning's was laconic: "Very

first

week

in

Rome. His

note on the services

full.

Sermon, morning,
preaching

Afternoon, painful." With Gladstone he

sought
55

elsewhere,

Henry Edward Manning
making notes
ship broke in
of each sermon.

Just before their friend-

1850 he recalled,

" when

I

you
at

for

buying apples on Sunday evening

after

The diary records: Caravita." Christ suffered for us. If Caravita. The Epiphany. Christ is our Saviour, then our Example. Patience in
the

chode with sermon "Feast of

Purity in tongue, eyes, ears. Very good." " a with coarse, days later came Father Hughes, in all the defective sermon. forcible Strikingly harsh, denunciation." He Evangelical qualities except heavy heard Ventura and Cetarini. Gladstone's birthday they the English celebrated visiting Dr. Wiseman at
duty.

Two

by

College,

received Macaulay the month before. Some Cardinals were present to celebrate St. Thomas of Canterbury, and Wiseman sent a student to escort the

who had

Manning thought it but was the future Bishop Grant, Cornthwaite, another honour. They stood the claimed to his of be, suffragans under the window on the court side of the chapel, On wondering, no doubt, what all visitors wonder. St. Agnes' Day Wiseman took Manning to see the blessing of the lambs out of whose wool the palliums " are made. He was not even a Bishop. How little we that and I should have the two first palliums he thought in the new hierarchy of England!" he wrote in his memoir. The diary has more (January 21) " Wiseman told me that the controversy about the Anglican succession turned only on the fact of the Lambeth Register. Lingard affirmative, a Dominican of Downside negative. Four others. Temper bad; therefore Lingard broke off. (Wiseman seemed by his praise of Lingard to agree with him did not ask.) The Dublin Review breaking up." " The students at English College January 26 to be too little restrained. Wiseman unpopular thought with the Pope. English Romanists not much liked in
English
visitors.
:
:

In his memoirs

Rome. People Cardinal Weld.

displeased

at

English

sermon

on

Interrupted the preacher twice.

He

56

Rome

and Gladstone

spoke and threatened the Police. English Cardinals unpopular too liberal and munificent. The antipathy between English and Italian not so much religious as
national."

(The Eminent Cardinal-widower Weld died in 1837.) Gladstone went home, leaving Manning to imagine himself like St. Paul, who "besought the whole world, which was against him, to be altogether like himself for " But the Papal world was past pertheir own good suasion, and he could only baptise English babies or
!

rescue stragglers.

March
of

"

17

:

Lushington told

me

of a

young woman

twenty, a governess in a R.C. family, who had Romanised. The only case he knew." By March 23 he had added others : " Dr. Carlyle Davis, a Cambridge man, now Secretary to the Prince of Syracuse; Amos, an architect; Anstey, a barrister." However, "Really pious people may be converted to Rome without perceptibly,

perhaps actually,

personal piety. person hides the taint of the system. people tampered with by Romanists

The

losing anything of their occasional conversion* of a serious
I
:

have known four
(i)

Ignorant dis-

putatious. (2) Devout instructed. (3) Nervous uninstructed. (4) Rather conceited." He decided the best to be done with Anglo-Romanism was " to foster its full-blown corruption " with a view

Roman Transubstantiation he compared " with Anglican Metabole the change is from unconsecrated bread to bread consecrated. From bread alone to bread and mystery. From natural bread to bread transThe Romanist change is from bread to the figured. likeness of bread, or bread to no-bread, a physical
to extinction.

miracle.

And
of

their

two instances of the river of Egypt
are witnesses of truth's sternness." of those curious tales with which

and the wine
Italians

Cana He noted a number
Protestant,

delight to shock or please the peregrinating

and added

delicately

:

"I

really

burn with

57

Henry Edward Manning
shame
to write
less curious,

such things." More edifying, but not were some other notes.

"The present converts to Romanism may be a per contra, provision for mitigation in their system converts always rabid." "There are two sorts of men at Rome. The one devoted to the Government, the other to religion. The latter are sent on foreign missions." "The Roman Church does not observe Good
;

Friday!" "The Papacy is the faction of Diotrephes." "The English Church the skeleton of an irresistible spiritual power. Adequate to the mastery of the world,
therefore destined to it. " Grant the Patriarchal Right of the Pope. " Still, if the Roman Church by the Council of Trent has departed from the Purity of the Catholic Faith, and introduced new and dangerous doctrines, and if the Pope should refuse the Patriarchal Sanction except upon the condition of the English Church participating in the Council of Trent, the English Church had only the alternative of Canonical Order with new and dangerous doctrines, and the Apostolical Faith with Canonical

" Both Discipline is mutable, doctrine immutable. Churches have committed irregularity. The English in discipline which is essentially mutable. The Roman in doctrine which essentially immutable. If either, which
vitiates the succession of

irregularity.

a Church

?
:

"The
1.

children of this generation are wiser, etc.
i.

2.

3.

4.
5.

We spend our money on ourselves. We have no unity of instruction and order. We live for ourselves. We only for immediate results. We are scattered causes.

They on

their objects.

2.

They
They They

both.
for a system. for most remote.

3. 4.
5.

They concentrated."
:

Later, as
11

if to hide the obvious conclusion, he added Latent and real unity Artificial and visible unity." 58

Rome
"Take away
would remain

and Gladstone
He
asked himself
:

But he was sore perplexed.

legal Establishment, to us?"

and what superiority
9,

He
1839)
:

wrote to Gladstone of a new friend (February
I

"
I

Since you went
to

see much of each other and talk much but in the absence of books we end much as we begin. I feel it good for me to have to stand the brunt of his attacks on external and documentary evidence, as it will, I hope,
;

We

have got

know and

have seen much of Sterling, and to have a great regard for him.

cautious in weighing and examining it. at all to sympathise in the sort of discussions we used to have, so that I am obliged to croak in soliloquy."
I

make me more

do not find Sterling able

This was the consumptive sceptic from whom the was named. Faith and health were both failing him, but the immortality he could not find in the next world followed him in this. Carlyle wrote his biography. Sterling's opinion of Manning was sent to Richard Trench (March 16, 1839) " He is one of the most finished and compact specimens of his school of manhood and of theology that I have ever fallen in with, and it was amusing to see how by faultless self-command, dialectic acuteness, coherent system, readiness of expression, and a perfect union of earnestness and gentleness, he always seemed to put in the wrong the gentleman of the so-called Evangelical class, who muster strong here, and whom he frequently met with. He could not play quite the same game with me, for I knew better than most of them what I meant
Sterling Club
:

by my words. I conceive him to be, in his own place and generation, one of the most practically efficient and energetic men I have ever known, and in a state of freer and more fluent life in the ecclesiastical polity he would rise high and do considerable things."
This was the
character
first

vision

of

an outsider into his

and

future.

Rome
59

strengthened his friend-

Henry Edward Manning
it was to be the Rock on ship with Gladstone, though which it eventually split. They read each other's proofs and walked as friends in the House of the Lord. Manning became Archdeacon a few months before Gladstone

reached the Privy Council. Two years later Gladstone reached the Cabinet, but filled with scruples as to Welsh Manning's dioceses threatened by the Government. to take him induce to was counsel necessary ghostly "I am in," ran Gladstone's sigh of relief the step.

"

(May

17,

1843).
to

I

made

the statements,

I

believe,

exactly according When the Maynooth Question arose, Manning advised Gladstone that as a Cabinet Minister he could not partake
in grants to Dissenters

what passed between us."
"

Questions, powers, and principles, which have been pent up more or less these three hundred years, have burst upon us, and are demanding of every man a deliberate choice of aye or no." Gladstone took his advice and resigned

(January

9, 1845)

:

*'

(January 30, 1845)
I

:

(Private.)

It is

virtually all over,

But so far as this is concerned with a and I am sure I clear judgment and a sound conscience. should have broken the terms of my compact with public confidence.' I thank thee for that word. It might not have been discovered now, but my sin would have found me out." It was a good occasion well taken to set the candle of principle above the sordid bushel of public life.
out.
'

am

Its

value lay with

Newman's

and Manning's coming relinquishment
deaconry.
solution.

resignation of St. Mary's of his arch-

Gladstone's scruples required perpetual Before the end of the year he was troubled " by indulging sensual sloth under the mask of wise and necessary precautions." Manning excellently referred

him

an admonition
are neither

to the Jesuits to

:

" The Order of Jesuits seem to give
labour in the world.

men who

They

bound

to austerities nor to the service of the

Choir."

When Manning removed his stone altar in consequence
60

Rome

and Gladstone

of a legal decision, Gladstone urged him to break the law " Fust's judgrather than his altar (February 20, 1845) :

ment may be law, but it is at all events no better law than the rubrics. Why should this judgment be of is Westminster Abbey with its force? Here greater stone altar undisturbed, and I presume some Cathedrals. These are quite enough to cover you pagans." When about reviving Confession and reported Manning set " not only the decline and extinction of a lingering witness to the Penitential Office," but "that the power of excommunication is abolished by ye act of George III.," Gladstone sympathised deeply, and apprehended " that the only way to revive the system is to do it permissively and, as it were, in a corner." After all, " every time that we shake the keys in the face of some German Protestant the question will be asked, What use do you make of them?" Gladstone, who had taken a

vow

of social service

on leaving Oxford, sent

fish into

whom
The

Manning's penitential nets, rescuing a girl in Brighton, Manning lodged with his half-sister, Mrs. Carey.
"

case was particularly sad to Gladstone. Early circumstances have connected her with the Methodists, I am assuming that she can be but not regularly.

brought to an intelligent and fixed adherence to the Church. What do you consider the best book for such a person on such a subject?" Dr. Pusey's attitude was a curious contrast. He wrote on another occasion to "In Brighton lately I shook off rather Manning roughly a wretched being who touched me, and I heard
:

her say, He is a Methodist.' It sent a pang into me to think that even they know of sectarian strictness, of the
'

Church, nothing!" Such cases brought Manning to restore Confessions and Sisterhoods. Though innocent of ritual at Lavington, he was recorded celebrating at the Wantage Sisterhood

amid "five gold
branched light

crosses, in the centre,

candlesticks

and a

three-

and four vases

of camellias."

61

Henry Edward Manning
The
Church were
early attempts to revive Confession in the English difficult. At Brighton the first very respectable spinster, who yielded to the power of the keys, had Another was so distracted by the combined a fit !

ministrations of Manning, Neale, and Dodsworth that she fled to a priest of Rome. To his dear Dodsworth

" This is either wrath mania, hysteria, or an unconverted heart. Now it seems to me

Manning wrote

in fine

:

Mr. Kyan's treatment was quite
vanity in

right.

It

mortified

forbidding books. It tried the will in prescribAs for It tried faith in requiring docility. a medal. ing her scourge and iron girdle, she would have made them of tape and brown paper !" A note of grim humour has been generally overlooked in Manning's character. He " I have told you wrote to Gladstone (March 7, 1843) that Our Father of Canterbury stated to me privately that it was safer to acquiesce in promiscuous admission to the Holy Communion rather than to restore discipline. The Province of Canterbury at this hour would bear the restoration of discipline at the hands of Charles Borromeo. The truth must be told. have exchanged our spiritual weapons for secular powers, and they fail us in contending against the world of which we have borrowed them." His Bishop was no better. " Into the safe ear of a Privy Councillor be it said. Alas, the Diocese is 40 degrees higher in temperature, and this is a downright douche bath!" There was chaff for Gladstone too. "(Private.) The Bishop will visit and deliver a Charge next month. It will fall to me to propose the thanks of the clergy. What if it contains opinions in which I cannot concur ? Now, this seems to me a question of practice such as you are well versed in !" But Gladstone was done with them himself. " Bishops, until he came to
:

We

For making have become the law of our essential lawlessness that Bishops must not lead, but follow."
it

seems almost

to

Manning became godfather

to his heir,

and had

to

decide the theological question whether Master Gladstone 62

Rome

and Gladstone

could be taken in a train before baptism. The anxious " This has occurred Gladstone wrote (August n, 1845) : to me in consequence of a sentiment I have heard ascribed
to

Newman, which sounded

to

me strange and whimsical,

that he could not accept the suggestion to go abroad in order to effect his transition, because he would not cross

the sea unreconciled.
distinction between sea

do not see in such a case the and land. Were it a balloon one
I

could understand it." Manning replied that their forefathers, "if they had seen the panting, bellowing, fiery beast in the entrails of which your child is to shake its way to Chester, would have baptised it with all speed." They never ceased exchanging proofs of their books and pamphlets until the day they found themselves " I have desired Old Clo (Gladexchanging blows. stonian pun on the name of Clowes), as you clepe him, to send a proof he is printing for me to Carlton Terrace." Gladstone criticised him calling the Queen and Consort " " " functionaries which I think a Queen (July 31, 1843),

might resent quite as justly as the fishwife objected to being called an individual." When Macaulay attacked Gladstone's book on Church and State, Manning hastily prepared " a catena of forty" in four
five

Cardinals Fathers, three Popes, and defence. On reading Gladstone's MS. he wrote "I think we have lost a great priest, though not without
:

compensation." Together they grieved Bishops and over the Romanists' advance whom Manning calculated to be 223,987

over
in

their

England,
1840 by " have

in

I multiplying their marriages by 137 and a half. a sort of feeling that you will have the Romanists

you
'

upon some part of your book. Why do they not attack some people? Is it by the rule of the old song, Let them alone and they'll come home and bring their tails behind them ?" Rome and Canterbury he com" pared to Pharisee and publican. They cover and gloss and claim infallibility and sanctity. We are the accusers
for
'

63

Henry Edward Manning
of ourselves."

" At Rome I was told, but I told only one other person, because they must wish it to be spread, that in the Northern district last year they professed to have 600 converts."
liberty for the English Church in " like a superincumbent weight on spite of Bishops who, the head of a springing tree, will make it grow crooked,"

Manning sought

and

later

he urged Gladstone (June 21, 1849)

"

:

M

vou

could take the lead of a liberty movement in this I believe it would draw to you numberless hearts. Only do not
give up this principle and get into details which are as bad as the jungle at Chillianwallah," It is curious, " the perhowever, to find Gladstone rejoicing that " " included a A of Test." possibility Heresy spective crisis soon came which tried him and Gladstone to the utmost. The Bishops had applied a heresy test to his dear friend and venerated leader Newman. The Oxford Movement restoring Catholicism in the Church of England had sped splendidly. The sacramental sail had been hoisted to the mast of dogma, and Newman's hand entrusted to hold the tiller from Rome. Suddenly Newman resigned from St. Mary's and in answer to Manning's desire of "real participation in all " that distresses you wrote a famous letter to Manning, of which the rough draft appears in his Apologia (October " It is felt that I am a 14, 1843) foreign material, and cannot assimilate with the Church of England." Manning sent it with a copy of his reply to Gladstone. " I would have said more to him, but I fear lest I should make him recoil." Nevertheless, he had hinted the devil was in it, and begged Newman not to play Jonah. " I feel this strongly, and am sure that the adversary both of the Church and of yourself would compass his own ends in casting over you such an illusion as that you should
:

believe yourself to be a foreign ingredient." Gladstone Newman was "overwrought into morbid action from and gloating, as it were,
felt

continually

immediately upon

64

Rome

and Gladstone
:

the most absorbing and exciting topics." Newman cut any further diagnosis short by letting Manning know " I think the Church of Rome the Catholic Church, and

ours not a part of the Catholic Church, because not in Manning broke the terrible news to Gladstone as "clouds return after rain," be" the vent of his heavy moaning he should be made " Newman's secret to the world." October 27, 1843 letter has deeply moved me, and made me yearn im-

communion with Rome."

:

patiently to be at rest. He seems to tell me that my only stay through six years of sorrow, weariness, and solitude is a shadow. All the world might say it, and I should

care less than to hear

it

from him.
like

does not shake me, but

it is

a

chill
' '

God be thanked, it on a wound under

suffers to the very quick." Disease, concluded Manning. disgraced man, " echoed Gladstone. Manning urged breathless caution. are responsible to the Church for this know' '
' '

which one

A

' '

.

.

.

We

more the next day, and finding him " not at home." Newman seemed to enjoy "sighing and heartaches" sufficiently to prolong them for two years. Meanwhile Manning felt, " If our position be tenable, let us work onward with all hope. If not, let us abandon
I cannot consent nor endure to be going back in the midst of work to root up first principles to see if they are like children gardening." Gladstone wished alive, Newman's letter sent to a Bishop, but Manning felt, F 65
it.

It may become misprision of Treason." And for two years the grim secret was kept. But it affords the clue to Manning's famous sermon on Gunpowder Day (November 5, 1843), which was construed as treasonable to his High Church party. He knew better where the treason lay, and from the very pulpit Newman had made musical with sweet deceit and allurement he smote Rome hip and thigh, and raised the bright Pan-Anglic banner as a "principle of reconciliation between East and West." But he made the mistake of visiting Newman at Little-

ledge.

Henry Edward Manning
"What could St. Cyprian do for a mind in that state? and we have no Cyprians." Who was to ensnare the snarer and delude Newman back into his Anglican
delusions?
letter

In vain he invited

Newman

parochial perfections of Lavington. "

to visit the In vain he wrote a

Newman
"

described as a

said,

Every

trial

great pain to Jenkyns that

me."

great gift," in which he that gives you pain is a matter of In vain, by a veiled threat to Dr.

the Newmanites would censure Archbishop Whately for Sabellianism, he tried to ward off In the censures the University was dealing Newman. Church vain, for Newman passed into the Catholic " May we (October 9, 1845) against Manning's prayer, be guided and kept from and against ourselves."

The Gladstone and Manning correspondence
that each realised the

reveals

position in the flash of Newman's act. Though they braced each other up and removed traces of liturgical grief from each other's

Roman

cheeks,

Gladstone wrote from Germany " Almost all I see here drives my (October 20, 1845): into the Roman camp, quoad German sympathies matters. Elsewhere there are pious individuals, but it is there alone, I think, that we can anticipate with confidence the essential and permanent maintenance of the Truth;" while Manning concluded (October 29, " I often think that all will be reduced at last to 1845) the simple opposition of the negative and affirmative principle, and that Rome and we shall be thereby united." By Christmas he had recovered himself, and could comment vividly but unafraid on Newman's book
nevertheless
:

on Development
"

:

It seemed to swallow me up with all the thoughts of years. But in the end I feel where I was. On the whole, then, the great debate is where it was, with this gain. Even Newman has not moved its limits in advance against us. The evident and vast difficulty with which he had to wrestle comes out in a multitude of The

ways.

66

Rome
book
him.
is

and Gladstone
things very unlike the abrupt in
style

In some to me wonderful. The English is latinised and

points and even odd and freakish, implying, I fancy, the perils of a solitary and intense intellect. The awful

passage on St. Mary has no parallel that I know except the Paradiso, Canto 33. The whole book exhibits an intellectual compass and movement belonging to an order of minds which live in a region above the reach of all except a few. I am afraid it will open a running sore in our poor body."
After a due meed of tears for Newman, Manning set about realising and energising the Church at hand. She had lost her prophet, but Manning offered a programme. The magic formula " Credo in Newman " was laid aside, and "safe as Manning" became the watchword of the
the timid, the moderate, and the "Safe as refuge under his name. Manning!" safe, indeed, as a bank before failure, as an oak before its last storm safe as every guide who is not Divine !

hour.

The

wise,

patriotic,

took

;

CHAPTER

VII

:

ARCHDEACON OF
in behalf of his Sovereign."

CHICHESTER
" I was as a man trying to hold a province Afanning to Miss Stanley, 1852.

MANNING found

the clergy

" so

many good men
effort to

in black

kerseymere," and made some
creating furore at meetings. wrote (September 15, 1835)
:

To

rouse them by Samuel Wilberforce he

Brackenbury's anti-liturgical eloquence I repeated our clerical meeting, and the effect was great. Taff vaulted upon his Welsh pony and swore by the sweet metheglin he would apostatise from the Bible Society, so I let his Cambrian ire chafe until he had stirred up
at

"

two or three more." " I have not room to tell you of a St. Matthew, 1837 clerical meeting on Hold Fast the Traditions, etc. Two hours and more of hard righting, but very uncommonly Bliss very hopeful, straightforward and satisfactory. and the rest silenced at least of bomolochy and common
:

swearing."

As for his Bishops at Chichester, Dr. Maltby was Presbyterian by baptism and only Anglican by profession. At Durham he became famous as the recipient of Lord John Russell's letter on No Popery. His successor, Dr. Otter, was eponymous enough in doctrine " to be considered neither fish, flesh, or fowl." He died, leaving Dr. Shuttleworth the honour of raising Manning to Archdeacon, who noted: "Wonderful is God's
Eighteen months ago He took away the likely to put me into the charge of He sent another least likely, who did it as authority. his first act. Now He has taken him also." " Manning's eloquence at a Brighton meeting evidently 68

government.

man who seemed

Archdeacon of Chichester
riveted" the Bishop, who gave him a lift back in his coach, and, in spite of Mrs. Shuttleworth and his own Low Church views, the archdeaconry. Gladstone had inquired if the new Bishop "otters or potters," and Manning described the diocesan health as "torpid circulation at the heart." The archdeaconry was a

glowing surprise to his friends. Newman hardly knew " whether to believe what Gladstone thought almost too to true." His brethren chaffed " the most be good " on his shovel hat and apron. His venerable Henry mother rejoiced that Chichester would better agree with

As for his motherWilberforce) almost turned her head; I think two will clean upset it," wrote " How is Henry Wilberforce, whose sister Mary asked your head ?" Manning's view may perhaps be traced at
the health of her

"

beloved child."

"

in-law,

One Archdeacon (Robert

:

his first public appearance, when he referred to the lowliest and unlikeliest of Christ's servants gaining an

"

veterate

dominion over the most stubborn and inIt was to be often so. minds " He noted privately: "My desire is to win the wills of men to
incredible
!

Catholicism."
in

He

being placed early

perceived "there are disadvantages in authority," which "needs a

clear revelation in facts of Providence to

make

it

safe."

Catholicism he meant the Church of England, telling Gladstone (November u, 1841): "The English Church is Catholic in dogma and in polity. But the subjective, the internal, ascetic, contemplative, devotional, moral, penitential elements are wasted down to a meagreness which is nigh unto death." The question which has troubled many minds, What are archidiaconal functions? was partly answered in the note "... subjects on which I think I could write with good effect Pews the Rubrics of the Communion Catechising the Penitential Office." About these he busied himself with an acquiescent Bishop and a grotesque yoke-fellow in Archdeacon Hare, whom he endeavoured to put both

By

;

;

;

69

Henry Edward Manning
into a right
officially I
It

mind and
it

think

When acting right clothing. will be right to wear a short cassock.
do the same, and then there
is

"

would be well

for us to

nothing individual or singular." But Hare would only rise to "a strait-cut coat for dining with the Bishop" !
Besides, his motto was "Unity without uniformity." But worse, he improvised in the liturgy to suit his " I myself heard him make eight or poetical fancy.

nine alterations in the Evening Service. I add with a great feeling of sorrow that for some time past he has not contributed to unite this Diocese," Manning complained. However, they broke up pews together and plotted an "I delight in the thought, and Archidiaconal Synod am prepared to run all risks with you to carry it into effect. will write to our brethren by private letters. The best course seems to be, do it first and discuss it afterwards." One effect Gladstone noticed. Arch" "
:

We

deacons began to

charge

like

Bishops

!

Manning

restored

Good Friday and Ascension Day
to

to the diocese, ciliatory feast

horrified at

Hare on such a con" Hare was gunpowder day the Graffham altar rails, "those Laudian
though he wrote
as

"

!

semi-Roman fences !" Manning replied that he himself was " wanting in the gift of superstition," and " too dull
to see occult mysteries of evil in such matters." he cared to indulge his sentiment, " I might fancy

But if some-

what with myself when going through

it

to the

Communion of the veil of Christ's manhood, through which God shows Himself to me, and through which we
have access
to the Father.

Holy

and

terrible fear

I might also think of the awe which fenced about the Divine Presence

at Sinai."

Manning was neither High nor Low Church, but of what he called "old Church of Englandism." To the Oxford men he was " morbidly moderate." He tilted against Wiseman under the pseudonym of a "Catholic Priest," and grieved his Bishop by The Rule
writing
of

70

Archdeacon of Chichester
Faith (1838).
financier
fully
later

who keeps
I

do
in

His spiritual advance was that of a cautious " Most his speculations in hand. subscribe to Luther's view of Baptism," he
1834,

began
:

"

You must go

writing to Samuel Wilberforce, and to work on tradition without

I always feel ugly when you even on speak points which underlie the doubtfully convictions of mind." He was always, own deepest my and vainly, trying to persuade himself of agreement with Wilberforce and Archdeacon Hare. He had accepted the Apostolical Succession by the time he wrote The " It is a golden book, and Unity of the Church (1842) " I believe I shall the ore lies deep," wrote Anderdon. master it." In the end the theories it contained mastered its writer. "Few books," said Hare, "written with conscientiousness and sobriety have repelled me so In vain Manning grafted frequently and painfully." olive branches to the bald ends of controversy, wishing " the two names (Protestant and Popish), with Transubstantiation, Calvinism, and solitary drinking, well out of " to your trick the world !" Hare particularly objected of turning off from an objective argument into personality." Manning tried to prevent the boat from rocking by keeping in skilful touch with as many parties as

further postponement.

:

possible.

But Hare would have none of Ritualism and consoled himself with Royalty. He reported the christening of the future Edward VII. "After the royal christening, when the ladies left the dinner-table, the Bishop of
:

Norwich doubted whether

to

go up
'

to

Lord Melbourne

or the Archbishop of York, but after a moment joined the latter. The Archbishop said, Oh, you are right to It is all the same thing,' said Lord join the Church.'
'

Melbourne."

"Whether Lord Melbourne meant

to

be

Erastian or Catholic is doubtful," thought Manning. Hare offered to introduce him to the King of Prussia, with the comforting assurance that the King had refused,

71

Henry Edward Manning
" because he will not give any a Baptist deputation, sanction to tenets so destructive of the sanctity of family Hare was conspiring with Bunsen, the Prussian life !" Minister, to place a Protestant Bishop at Jerusalem, but Manning could not be tempted. Bunsen was a pious busybody he had known in Rome, with a scholarly reputation among diplomatists and a diplomatic reputation

among "
I

scholars.

Manning wrote (October

28,
'

1841)

:

do not think we may lawfully consecrate a Bishop of Jerusalem. Our Bishop said last week, I find no in difficulty making a Bishop of Malta. The Pope makes Bishops in Ireland, and why should not we in his communion ? God forbid that we should take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth The Pope is either
!

If right, why call right or wrong in Ireland. " schismatical if wrong, why copy him?'
;

him

However, Bunsen and many believed in preparing an Anglo-Prussian Church to greet the Second Coming, and Miss Maurice helped to embroider a suitable garment for the Bishop to wear on that occasion. Gilbert, the new Bishop, reported blemishes in the diocese to his lynx-eyed Archdeacon. H. was removed for immorality, and " I am afraid Mr. B. will have to be watched," mentioned Gilbert. Manning advised him on Roman fever cases " I doubt if our old writers will avail much. The controversy has refined itself, and their tone is rough and painful to a mind which has given any affections in hostage to the Roman Church. Still, the
:

facts alleged

by Leslie are good." They combined to a cleric " who forsook his living for years to reside in France," with the amusing result that to nail
bring

home

the wanderer the Dean and Chapter made him a Canon, and Manning confessed he was " reduced to a profane
state of

mind!"

Phillpotts he confessed impatient sorrow contest such points as surplices and gowns \vhen the great realities of Christ's kingdom are at stake.
that

To Bishop

"

we must

72

Archdeacon of Chichester
between purity and numbers?" " was the only Bishop Manning admired. Samuel Wilberforce of Oxford he disliked and But Phillpotts was a fighter as he was (he distrusted. had fought Lingard, the Reform Bill, and his Arch-

Have we not Old " Henry

to choose

of Exeter

bishop).

It

was on

his lost fight for

Baptism that
the

so-called Manning left the Anglican "linen the decision. Gorham controversy" During " ur O practice Manning advised him (January 5, 1845)
:

Church

must be raised
to

to

our

ritual,

our

ritual

must be lowered

our practice, or we must struggle on as we are. The two first involve each the submission of too many minds to be brought about without loss. The last is, I believe, fatal." Manning was always setting trilemmas for
Bishops, dilemmas for layfolk. Manning started a seminary (with Gladstone as a subscriber), a House of Mercy, initiated a fighting policy in education, and launched Colonial Bishops. Empire and Church he wished coterminous. "One-seventh of the globe and ten bishopricks !" he noted as an Anglican " scandal. must answer for the heathenism of India,

We

Canada, for the degradation of the Tophet we have made in Australia. We are now on trial as Tyre." Even in the United States he saw the "moral arrears" of Empire. He Pan-Anglicanism germinated in his notebooks. dreamed of " a new patriarchate" and "the centre of a new Catholic world." And contemplating "all this tangled mass of life going up in a stream before God

for the destitution of

West Indian

slaves, for the

scarred, sensualised, energetically warring against
:

" he concluded God has made us His special almoners to a lost world." He seemed a possible "English Xavier " to George Selwyn, whom he inspired to go as Bishop to New Zealand. Selwyn wrote from the " The sale of Addington Antipodes (November 3, 1847) would be worth some thousands a year in moral influence. The sight of mitred carriages plying as Hackney coaches
:

God,"

73

Henry Edward Manning
would do more good than if they stood at the doors of Lambeth and London House. My heart sank within me when I heard of a park bought for the Bishop of
Rochester out of the spoils of the cathedrals." And moments of despair, as when he wrote to Manning had " I seem to Gladstone question whether this so highlyis to open a new Catholic of ours favoured Church to pass like a pageant out or to the world dispensation " Unless the earth be of the earth;" or again shaken, you and I shall go to our rest leaving the Establishment between life and death as now and always." The Archdeacon may well have desired to be a Bishop himself. Bishop Trower is recorded in the Life of Wilberforce telling of a conversation with Bishop
: :

on his episcopal prospects. Manning Unless some crisis comes and they require thought me to quiet it, no chance." Manning did not enjoy Wilberforce's Life, and balanced this anecdote with

Manning
:

"

another

:

"Canon Prothero was talking to the Queen about my said, becoming a Catholic. The Queen Bishop Wilber" If Your force said to me at the time, Majesty had made him a Bishop, he would not have become a Roman
'

Catholic!" Canon Prothero said, 'Didn't Your " Now I know why you don't become Majesty say, one!" The Queen answered, I didn't think of it or I might have said it !' Poor S. W. had Bishopricks on the brain!"
'

The Queen's grandfather had said that there would have been no Wesleyan secession if the Ministers had made Wesley a Bishop. Manning was never named for an Anglican bishopric, though we can hardly imagine Gladstone failing him, when episcopal patronage fell to
in later years, including the Primacy of Canterbury. Gladstone urged his name unsuccessfully for a Preachership at Lincoln's Inn, which, however, was bestowed for eleemosynary reasons on a client of Queen, Adelaide.

him

Archdeacon of Chichester
Manning felt so mortified that he took revenge on his ambition by refusing, two years later, the Sub-Almonership to Queen Victoria, vacated by Samuel Wilberforce's
translation to the

Oxford bishopric

(1845).

The

struggle between ambition and self-control was

considerable, and recorded in his diary at length. The actions and reactions lasted long into the next year.

How hard it is to know exactly what is the or the chief motive on which we act Could I be content to live and I doubt it. I do feel real die no more than I am ? pleasure in honour, procedure, elevation, the society of great people. And all this is very shameful and
!

"

mean."

He commenced

spiritual

diaries before Lent,

1846,

calculating and commenting

his sins of

"self-complacency, high aims, and professions in the spiritual life. (Give me to see myself.) " Sins of the tongue, as in London that morning, and also in repeating a Spanish blasphemy. (Set a bridle on my " tongue.) Ostentation of learning and mean concealment of (Show me Thy light, and in it my darkness.) ignorance. "
in spiritual offices and state. " Envy, especially Vainglory and self-flattery. Picturing and talking to myself. (Real love of Christ's shame.) " Censuring others with an aim. (Charity and sim-

plicity.)

" Anger, especially with J. L. Anderdon. (Patience.) " To this I must Fearful of love towards
;

God

fearful
It is

in prayer.

pray.

want add, want of repentance fearful absence of mind Dead, sluggish, obstinate unwillingness to a feeling like nightmare when one cannot
;

move."

With

the milestones:

My

change came. He noted admission to Lavington, 1833. "My bereavement, 1837. The hearing of Confessions,
illness a real religious

1844.

The growing up

of hope, 1845.

My

These

are, I think, the chief agents

under

illness, 1847. in

God

my

75

Henry Edward Manning
On conversion." conscious act of
"
Certainly
I

March

18

occurred

"the greatest
realised:
all
'

my

life."

By

April he
of

now know

the

meaning

He maketh

bed in his sickness 'that is, for body and soul. This has been a precious Lent; never was one like it
his
in

A new

my

life."

influence

had been

for

some time unconsciously
of the

acting on the susceptible

mind

entangling complained to Gladstone that Pusey was himself and others in a position out of which there is no sheaf of natural pass but in a fearful direction."

Archdeacon, who "

A

" encumbers what Carlyle called "spectral Pusey isms themes two embodied the Manning Papers. They to in contrast Rome for admiration and, Manning's official optimism, utter despondence over the English Church. While he drew the pay of the Establishment Manning tried to make out the best case, but Pusey was His only sign of cheer was at the death all Jeremiad. "
of

some Low Churchman,

as, for instance,

What an

awful dispensation this sudden removal of Dr. Arnold ! One dares not speak of it, but it must have much

meaning !" On Manning's Charge
wrote:

of 1845, tne critical year,
is

Pusey

"While

it

is

a cheering tone,

there quite

for ye Roman Church ? However, you do put forth strongly that we are sick, and what you say of chastenings must do good. I desiderated more love for Rome. When the battle with infidelity and rebellion comes, we must be on the same side." To Manning

enough love

being on the same side meant going there. He was puzzled, and sent Pusey's letter to Gladstone, asking " his mind on the last point about love of Rome." Glad" I am stone replied (August i, 1845) afraid one:

sidedness as to the Church of Rome is becoming an article of religion with Dr. Pusey." Manning accorda rebuke: "The Church of Rome for ingly conveyed

300 years had desired our extinction. 76

It is

now under-

Archdeacon

ot Chichester

mining us." Pusey replied that Rome was "for ye most part our Mother," and that " we may be apart and still a part of ye Church." This was a paradox, but shrewd hits followed " I can hardly imagine St. Anselm
:

or St. Augustine signing ye 39 Articles!" The Reformation " brought a wrong element into our Church, which has been struggling with Catholicity ever since." As for the glorious Revolution, it was " a snare of Satan

by which he gradually entangled almost all our clergy " the into what was to them perjury." As for doctrines, Vision in the Acts of SS. Perpetua and Felicitas comI had, no pletely shook me about some Purgatory.
answer, although I have only said so in private to tHree " or four." The conversion of M. Ratisbonne and other things which I cannot doubt to be facts leave me no answer as to the invocation of the Blessed Virgin." Finally, Pusey would accept intra-Communion with Rome on the terms of the Council of Trent, stipulating

only the Cup for the laity and the Liturgy in English. After Newman's secession the leadership lay between them, but Pusey would not take Manning's bridle in his lips, and Manning would not wear the garish harness which Pusey prepared for those that loved him. All the while the undercurrent toward Rome was like a continual soundless river. The barometer was ever rising in

Manning's mind.

May
to

15,
:

1846

:

" Tho' not therefore Roman,

I

cease

July 5 Right or wrong, this family of doctrines is preserved by Rome and lost or rejected by Protestantism. Something keeps rising and saying, You will end in the Roman Church. I believe the Bishop of Rome to be Primate and by devolution Chief. I would willingly yield in silence to all acts of Councils." " The meshes seem closing round me. I feel July 12 less able to say that Rome is wrong." ~" Now I see that St. Peter has a Primacy August 2 : among the Apostles. Jhat the Church of Rome inherits 77
:

be Anglican." "

Henry Edward Manning
what
of
St. Peter
is

Rome

had among Apostles. That the therefore heir of Infallibility."

Church

The next year brought sickness, and apparently his second conversion. His third and last was yet to come. A sifting of the diary reveals a new note.

What distraction, haste, sloth, need to ask for forgiveness, insensibility ! of sins for the penance. Unworthy the specially
February
12,

"

1847

:

I

have

name. I trust, however, it has brought me down, and changed my tone from a boaster to a penitent. To have What a moral mire was a mind been such as I was enslaved like mine."
!

my

A
I

week

later

he wrote to Miss Maurice

:

" I am sufficiently unwell to understand many things have talked about very wisely. I can truly say I thank God I feel as I do. I feel it is a blessed thing not to pray, to be otherwise than I am, but just to lie on the waterflood, knowing Who sitteth above it."

The

diary drags on with his sickness (February 20)

:

"What can I say I have learned by this sickness? I dare not think of anything I have ever done for His sick
I have learnt how coldly and heartlessly I have visited them, especially if they have been trying or unIt has made me realise much more than I attractive. otherwise should the state of the famishing in Ireland. can I die to the world? Should I refuse all

poor, for

"How

visits

and invitations?
nor when charity

Not

all

e.g.,

priest,

my

carriage and servant ? (April 13 To-day William warning with regret, poor fellow!)" "
:

may be

served.

when asked as a Shall I give up
I

gave

March 4
as
if

:

I

feel to

dread

I feel

there were an active
Is
it

my own
?

active choice.

And
?

about me.
it

movement going on round
Is
it

sink at heart for want of someone of whom I can ask a judgment of these things. God knows I feel very lonely." March 20, after Confession : " What a help to reality !

my own mind

God's leading
deluding

itself ?

How

a temptation
I

Is

78

Archdeacon of Chichester
What
At first it I was beginning to be at ease. haunted me. Blessed Tribunal of Penance post naufragium tabula. I wish from this day to note every
fessions
!

a safeguard against hypocrisy in receiving con-

cognisable sin." March 24 "I take it to be confessed, That no penitent can be lost. That all who have contrition are penitent. For all beside, I must wait till the end of all controversy, both of that between God and man and between Church
:

and Church."
" alluded to was " The probably greatest conscious act
a first Confession, leading to the ecstasy of March 20. " The Like a drowning man, he recalled all his past life. to of life six times preservation my knowledge. In my illness at the age of nine, in the water, by a runaway horse at Oxford, the same on the downs, by falling nearly through the ceiling of a church, again by a fall of a horse." On March 27 he ran through God's special mercies " Shall all this be in vain ? Shall the dead praise Thee, Lord?" After passing " Passion and Holy Week in the fear of death, this Easter day falls like a sunlight and soft dew upon me. 1 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 my humiliation and disappointment than harbour the accursed slime of
:

jealousy.

If ever I wake up after His likeness I shall have it no more, but the sanctity and bliss of others will be my own joy. So be it. Amen. Amen." April 15: "Either such a life as St. Charles or St. Aloysius is an illusion or mine is. If I were so blessed as to be the shadow of the least of such saints, I might be less afraid to die."
I work myself 3 : up into a heat and eagerness which either overbears free conversation or challenges contradiction. mind is like a bent bow, and its moments are instantaneous and intense, as if old sores broke out. This is all very horrible and humbling."

May

"

My

79

Henry Edward Manning
never looked to me so and lovely. I fear I love it too well." benign, beautiful " This has been a blessed day to me. After May 21 ending my penance I went up to the House of the Lord, and kissed each step of the Holy Altar." May 26 "Is Satan withdrawing all these temptations that I may go securely into a delusion ? I am horribly afraid. Then I look to the hand of Providence, which It seems to point two ways, which is imis upon me. and proves only that I cannot interpret. But fossible, am afraid of my own heart."
: :

On May 10 he went out into "The earth and the world

the air again

:

In June the doctors examined his chest and he was ordered abroad, writing
:

"
I

To-morrow by
it

the will of

for a year

know

may be

my
Thy

not what is God, as Thou

God I go forth it may be for ever. I feel to be in His hands. good for myself. Voluntas Dei. didst guide Abraham, guide me for

O

Son's sake. If by any means I may attain to the " resurrection of the holy dead (July 5, 1847).

80

2848

CHAPTER
"
Tit es Petrus
to

VIII

:

THE ROAD TO ROME

and Credo in Unam Sanctum Catholicam Ecclesiam reveal a Divine Monarchy claiming a sentiment of loyalty to a Person in Heaven before which all other kingdoms melt away." Manning to Glad-

me

stone, 1848.

LEAVING his friend Dodsworth in charge at Lavington, and armed with an introduction to Dollinger from Gladstone, Manning left England for Malines, where " awaken and he was shown Relics, and felt that they
keep alive a high standard of personal devotion."

He

saw Louvain, Aix, and Cologne,
Protestant

all

Catholic hives.

Homburg he found

"

stripped of outward

Christianity." Inquiry gave him to know that the " Prussian King was obstinate, an actor, a humbug." The joyful news of Gladstone's Oxford election caused " And now Saladin him to write (August 17, 1847) must die. It is hard on you to tell you so on the morrow
:

of your successes. But so it is. I do not see how it is possible for questions of religious policy to be post-

poned." Suddenly he returned home ill "I am doing no work, but grazing like a Siberian Lamb." In October he set out again to Rome by Paris, Avignon, and Nice.
:

He took notes of Catholic services, and filled his diary " with verbal vignettes. In a garden by the sea a little girl of eight dancing to the chime all alone." symbol

A

of the English Church, perhaps. blue loom of the snow, mountains,

"Above Genoa

the

colour, then the silver of waters." In Rome friends rose to meet him. At Santa Croce " he saw Newman in his chamber," a sight still awesome to Anglican eyes. They met once in the street. So ill was Manning that Newman did not recognise him. On

and below the rose the moon chafing upon the

81

G

Henry Edward Manning
December 8 Manning set eyes on his future friend and eventual creator, Pius IX. He went about Rome with Sidney Herbert and Florence Nightingale. Until his death the Pope remembered seeing the Archdeacon
of

kneeling in the Piazza di Spagna. These were the days what Macaulay called Brahminical Government in

Rome, of an indulgent despotism tempered by canon law. The great question was whether the Pope would bow to the mob. A half-religious, half-revolutionary " crowd cheered for the democratic Bambino." Manning
wrote to Gladstone (January 20, 1848)
:

have been often reminded of you, seeing the same and hearing the same litanies we used to hear at the streets, St. L'uigi. Outwardly Rome is unchanged shops, pavements, heaps of dirt not yet taken away. But a very morally and inwardly there is a vast change
I

"

sights

:

visible increase of intelligence and energy, with free, public expression in word and writing. Believing that the unfolding of individual and national character, and

and blessing,

and institutions, is a Divine law cannot but hope more than fear for Italy. It seems to be a law that old countries, if they destroy their organisation, cannot reform and reconstruct themselves at least, not within a period shorter than a
therefore of social forces
I

geological era. And I therefore am afraid that anything which upsets an existing order, instead of recalling it to its first idea, only clears a field for confusion. But we have no need to go to Rome. If this upset is not pre-

paring in England, Lord John

is

at least blameless."

England's only upset was a religious one.

Manning read

that the heretical

At Nice had been Hampden
:

confirmed as Bishop of Hereford, and, when the Dean " It is refused his seal, he wrote to Gladstone surely an omen that Lord John Russell insulted the Dean of Hereford from Woburn Abbey." To the faithful " Dodsworth (January 28, 1848) Don't tell any soul what I add now, but there is something which has brought you and other days to my mind, and that is the
:

82

The Road
evening Benediction.
things are done here
is,

to

Rome
beyond
all

The

sacred beauty with which
places.
I

of course,

am very deeply impressed with what I see of the religious orders here, especially the Passion ists. It is impossible
not to love Pius IX. His is the most truly English countenance I have seen in Italy."

Pius gave the Constitution to his children. There was more play-acting than revolution, carnival than carnage. Priests wore the tricolor. St. Andrew's head was stolen, The Austrian Emperor's arms and a price put on it were taken up the Corso by a dwarf mounted on an ass, and burnt. "Alas for the Caesars!" noted Manning; but Francis Joseph's end was not yet. A nobler sight " with a mixture of was Pius blessing the Constitution, majesty, love, and supplication." Manning went into " and as the Tantum the Church of Perpetual Adoration, Ergo was sung, the band outside passed playing Pio Nono. A strange clash the world 'so musical and loud,' and the Lorelei of contact between the natural and the supernatural." But Mazzinian steeds were dragging the papal chariot, and the reins were dashed
!

from the Cardinal-charioteer. wrote (April 3, 1848)
:

To

Gladstone Manning

I may say that six weeks has revolutionised Italy and Europe. What are we to read in this? Is it not the moral and popular development, the fruit of thirty years of peace, demanding recognition and social power ?

"

In this view I am inclined to look at it with hope, especially when I see that after all these sudden and violent movements in advance, England is in all popular

freedom and power immeasurably ahead. When I think of our social state, the only account I can give of it (as I often have to do to Italians) is that we are a republic under a hereditary President. It is wonderful to see the Catholic Church in America, France, and Italy distinctly of the progress and popular party indeed, in many ways at the head of it. It falls in with an old belief of mine in which I think you share. I mean that the Church of the
83

Henry Edward Manning
last

ages will be as the Church of the

first,

isolated

and

In the separate from the Civil Powers of the World. the Church won them by making them first ages Christian in these days they are renouncing the Church by making themselves again merely secular and material. And in these has long been and is now my fear for the Church of England. I am afraid it will be deceived into
;

trusting the State too long, and thereby secularising I hope I may find some way of interpreting the itself. For myself, I know no real insularity you confess to. sense in which I dare hold it. I never had much of it, and feel that every year has convinced me more deeply that Protestantism is heretical and Nationalism is Judaic. I begin to think of home, Farewell, my dear friend. but the lines of confusion, three deep, are drawn from Hungary to the Pyrenees, and as yet I have not fixed my route. If I can I hope to see Lombardy in its first days of freedom."

Englishmen encouraged revolution in Italy, but were morally shocked at the contemporary Irish rising, which Ventura, Manning's favourite preacher, seemed to justify. Of his pamphlet Mrs. Sidney Herbert wrote " He cannot resist a hit at us and poor Ireland in every chapter
: ;

worse, have you read Bishop O'Higgins's answer to Rome ? It is too hopeless." As an offset Sidney Herbert and Manning arranged for Trevelyan's Irish

and,

still

pamphlet

be translated for the Pope. Ventura told would not do for Ireland, and Manning that, like Sicily, Ireland must have her own Parliament. Manning recorded Ventura's famous words to the Pope,
to

that palliatives

"

who

Let not your Holiness look to the Sovereigns of Europe, are shadows which may vanish within the year, but

to the peoples, who are realities and last for ever," which sank into his mind as deep as the beauty of Holy Week.

On

folk.

April 9 he was presented to Pius with other English On May 1 1 private audience was granted to "Archi diacono Manning " at Mount Cavallo. He was given
interested in the

his ecclesiastical title

was

on his paper of entry. The Pope work of Mrs. Fry, and startled to
84

The Road

to

Rome

hear from him that Anglicans received the Cup at Communion against all liturgical hygiene. Manning started to drive home, visiting the deathchamber of St. Francis. In Perugia he noted, "The bells broke out and reminded me of Harrow and Oxford, under a cloudless sky and yellow moon." Home-sickness " like took shape in all his notes. The Church at Assisi,
cross with an

the under-Church of York, painted. The form is a Latin end like the seven chapels at Durham. Windows like the style of Westminster Abbey. After

Damiano reminded me of Hever and the moat." He delighted in St, Clare's Oratory, " like one " of our rude Early English." The refectory reminded
dinner to St.
;

me

of the groined roof at

Cold Waltham."

He came

slowly home, scribbling thumb-sketches of pictures and services, sermons and cathedrals, but the home touch never ceased. "The country to Forli like Midland "

becomes counties." Even the outline of the Apennines a flat tableland as the South Downs." He went to Benediction in Ravenna, and noted malefactions expiated in Purgatory monk not bowing at the Gloria, a much of his composition, a virgin too preacher making careful about her food on Fridays." He visited the tombs of Dante and Augustine of Hippo, and, greatest of all, of St. Charles Borromeo, his future patron. In after-years he wrote of what " I have always felt to be a call from occurred at Milan I was St. Charles. thinking in prayer, if only I could know that St. Charles, who represents the Council of
:

"A

:

Trent, was right and

we wrong.
last

The Deacon was

singing the Gospel, and the

words, et erit unum ovile et unus pastor, came upon me, as if I had never heard them before." He returned to England with a quiet determination to

accepted

its conclusions. The Bishops had Hampden, and with almost humorous despair Manning wrote an ingenious Charge, making allowances

lead Anglicanism to

85

Henry Edward Manning
for

Hampden's opinions.

It
It

an impossible situation.
Establishment.

Rumours

of

alarmed his friends. Moberly had written anxiously. Jo the latter Manning " wrote My opinions are what they were when I wrote to you from Rome. My Charge is the case for the Church of England." He ceased the orthodox halloo in Still order to try running with the heretical hare. "I cannot Dodsworth fall. To for a he was riding serve what I cannot defend, and if I had failed to find a just defence I am afraid to think of what must have followed." He told Gladstone in St. James's Park that during his illness he had been assured that the English Church (not the Establishment) was a part of the living " I feel clearer and Church, but to Dodsworth he wrote more ready for all hazards. I have had things to cheer me, great depth and devotion in individuals with no tinge of Anglicanism or any such sham" (August 14,

had

was a possible way out of was a legal brief for the Manning's trend in Rome Pusey, Gladstone, and

:

:

:

1848).

When despondency fell upon him he could not lean on Pusey's tired heart or be comforted by the official He stayed unbrotherliness of Samuel Wilberforce. himself on Dodsworth and Robert Wilberforce, to whom he wrote under the seal. .To the former he wrote next
year (March 23, 1849)
the

"
:

As

to the sacrifice,

if I

believed

Church of Rome teaches I should be in a strait. But my soul sickens. And I feel that I am defending, not the Church of England against Rome, but my own position against the Church of England. We are in it, are we of it?" In the autumn he set out for Wales and Scotland, whence Sidney Herbert wrote "Expect a rather desolate aspect, and respect me, upon whose skill in venery you will be entirely dependent for food, which I will bring, as in Landseer's picture, to you, the fat Abbot of In Wales Manning preached at the Glastonbury."
of

Church

England

to

condemn what

the

:

86

The Road

to

Rome
:

foundation of Lord Feilding's church, which before completion followed its founder into the Catholic Fold. could later only wearily beg Lady Feilding Manning " Do nothing in haste. I will use no false or worldly persuasions to stay you from anything. But do not act where you are and as you are, and under the impressions now upon you." They were received in Scotland, whither Manning had preceded them. He visited the graves of Paley and John Knox in contrast to the tombs He of Dante and St. Francis the previous year. in and At sketched Glamis Castle. preached Glasgow, St. Andrews he remembered Cardinal Beaton and Wishart, and at Archbishop Sharpe's monument noted "two deeds of blood and one of sacrilege." He was struck by the "universal drunkenness," and reflected: " I had hoped for a quiet evening in the past, but it is

have an instructive warning of the present." Elsewhere he tried his pastoral hand by visiting the poor, " but they seemed unused to it." At Dunblane he saw " same edition Archbishop Sharpe's Thomas a Kempis, At the beginning was written non magna as mine. relinquo magna sequor. On the last nee te qucesieris extra, and on the flyleaf Honores spret summus honor." Every word seemed to apply to the wanderer. A year " later he wrote of his holidays to Dodsworth They were very pleasant, and in memory are to me refreshing and soothing. Glamis Castle and St. Andrews often come up before me. did not think then where we should be now; nor now, where next September?" Silence and study, patience and the Patres, were all that were left to Manning, as he racked shelf and mind in resolving whether St. Augustine was an Anglican. " I suppose you up to the chin in that great Suarez which I saw in your rooms. How can you swim in such "I wish I dry waters?" asked Robert Wilberforce. could see you in my study plunging and gambolling on the great waters of Suarez," was the reply. But
better to
:

We

87

Henry Edward Manning
have been Anglican Archdeacons can hardly
element.
in

their

be troubled, not for himself only, Gentle remonstrance took the but for his followers. those who passed to Rome. toward place of stern anger he wrote to his wife went Wilberforce When Henry " I do not know whether seal. Under (Advent, 1849) I have or glad at what has happened. to be

Manning began

to

:

sorry

you the perplexity of bearing what was bearing myself. You remember my promise that the day 1 feel my soul to demand anything for its safety you shall know. I have not forgotten it, and I have never yet felt this demand. But 1 have felt and do feel an overwhelming fear lest I should be under an illusion. I know of nothing else which weighs with me but this, On St. Andrew's lest I contradict the will of my Lord. Day I offered myself, as I have again and again, and never so often as in Rome, to follow on the spot if only
intentionally spared
I I can have, not sign or token, but the conviction of a moral agent that it is the will of my Lord. Pray for me sevenfold, for to mistake in such a path as this, is to one who must give account of souls something like death." And a year later " I tremble continually lest I should fall through pride. And you cannot have escaped the shadow of my faults except by an extraordinary grace." But by this time a new agency had begun to work. As a witty Frenchman wrote, the revolution reached England in the form of le pere Gorham! Gorham was a well-read botanist, who was presented to a living in " the Diocese of Henry of Exeter," who declined to institute him as a heretic. Gorham rejected the Grace at Baptism, which did not occur to him to be as necessary
:

to infant souls as dew to the flowers of the field. To the violent distress of the High Churchmen, he wisely put his trust in Princes and appealed successfully to the temporal power against his Bishop, who wrote to

Manning (August

7,

1850)

:

88

The Road

to

Rome

His Grace's complicity in this awful work J. Fust! thus consummated, and I cannot hold communion with him. I cannot communicate in sacris with him."

"Private. Yesterday afternoon, in virtue of the fiat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Gorham was instituted to the Vicarage of Brampford Speke by Sir

H.

is

Manning tilted with all his strength. carried his Anglican life in his hands, and was prepared to fall. He wrote, he published and petitioned " this awful work." He applied canon law, it against
Into this case

He

arguments from pure mathematics." He charged gravely that " three hundred years of Statute Law are not to be slipped off in a day." By law and logic he tested "whether the Church of England be a Divine or a human society." As he had written to

was noted,

"

like

One Gorham Bishop Wilberforce (April 24, 1849), case is enough for one day, and the peril of this decision, whether for the truth or against it, is great. I dread the day when such a subject as the other Holy Sacrament shall be brought, not into a Council or Synod, not before the Church in any form in which we may believe the Holy Spirit may guide and preserve us, but into a wrangling Court before an incompetent Judge. Do you remember in our walk at Graffham just before your consecration that I said I am full of fear from our want of true and accurate study and interpretation of our This is just such a crisis as I positive doctrines?
feared."

"

Gladstone was no

less

alarmed, writing

:

"If Mr.

carried through, and that upon the merits, I say not only is there no doctrine of baptismal regeneration in the Church of England as State-interpreted, but

Gorham be

there

is no doctrine at all!" would stand forth clear as day

He

found that "there

to all

who

did not shut

their eyes the absolute necessity of the living voice of the Church to guard her mute witness against profana-

tion."

Manning

at least did not shut his eyes,

but

89

Henry Edward Manning
Gladstone would not sign the declaration prepared by This was the first divergence Manning and his friends.
' '

between him and Hope and myself." Manning preserved a vivid memory, writing to Gladstone (November 13, " Do you remember the night at your house when 1869) the thirteen signed the Resolutions about the Gorham Judgment? And the morning when you were in bed
:

with influenza and I came and told you that the judgment was given in his favour ? You will ask me why 1 should fear that you have gone back from what you were then ?"

indignant because after-years Gladstone was " I would not sign because I was that stated Manning a Councillor," and Lord Morley in his Life is at
In

Privy pains to cover the refusal to sign by referring to Glad" March 14. Hope, Badeley, stone's diary for a note Talbot, Cavendish, Denison, Dr. Pusey, Keble, Bennett " and here from 9 to 12 on the draft of the Resolutions last to be the "This would meeting, appear adding: and Manning is not named as present," which proves that it was not the last meeting, for Manning and Robert Wilberforce, who is not mentioned either, were both
to sign.

"

Hope wrote
I will

to

Manning
and

that

day (March

14,

1850)

:

see Gladstone

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, 1 proposed a meeting of all who could be got together at Gladstone's this morning." Gladstone noted of this meeting, "On the whole I resolved to try some immediate effect," as " Gladstone appears in Hope's further word to Manning, still for delay, but I think all but himself for Resolutions to be immediately put forth." Gladstone simply failed his friends in the day of battle. Manning excused him at the time (April 6, 1850) " I am well satisfied, much as it cost me, that you did not sign our paper. Your address was very valuable,
:

90

The Road

to

Rome

Not it leaves you freer. that freedom can long remain to us. In the last fortnight of quiet my thoughts have been settling down calmly into a conviction which is part of my consciousness that this question is vital. As an article of necessary faith. As You involving the Divine authority of the Church. could not be slower than I to come to this point. But it is a question of gold or life." and was a second witness, and

When Manning hinted secession from the Church, Gladstone hinted retirement from politics, and proposed a society of mutual restraint, who should bind themselves " " to take no without consulstep of a decisive character
tation.

kind
is

"

"any engagement of the Manning declined " In such a moral probation as (May 22, 1850)
:

us I conceive that time is not to be measured the dial, but by events; that it is not chronological, by but moral." What this meant appears in a note to Miss "I see nothing before me Maurice (August 5, 1850) within any horizon my eye can ascertain. I have always said to you, not dial time, but moral time. Principles and their issues, events and facts, are the hours and minutes of moral time." And again, showing his love for concise and scholastic sentences :
:

now upon

Truths, the

"I always felt that the Low Church had no objective High Church little subjective religion. Now

I see that in the Catholic System the objective and subjective are the concave and the convex. I do not say that the body and the soul, because these are two, and the objective and subjective become one. God and man are one by Incarnation. Theology of 300 years is in I was born in the conflict with a Faith of 1,800 years. mature thoughts transplant me into the 1,800. 300. This is the real balance, but people will not so look at it. I believe a man might hold what he likes in the English Church if he would be quiet and uphold the Church.

A

My

The dishonesty

is

to

be honest."

A
as

bitter letter

"good

as the vinegar

from Bishop Wilberforce he described and the gall was good." A
91

Henry Edward Manning
week
41

later
I

Ought

he would Gladstone sparred desperately for time. "
far as to write that
if

(October 26, 1850) he asked Miss Maurice, Gladstone to resign before going abroad?*' know first. to let the news only promise

understood really to Church, because they differ in essential points, I should answer that I know of no such points 1" Meantime Gladstone's pamphlet appeared, and Manning made a point, regarding "the Supremacy as known to
true

He went so Church of England must be deny that the Church of Rome is a
the

the the

Common Law

to declare.

My

which the Tudor Statutes profess only deep conviction is that they went beyond
in the vital point,

Common Law
lost his

and

that Sir

Thomas

More

Supremacy. advantage for restoring the Common Law supremacy, to which I believe Pius IX. would make as little objection as Pius II." (A day came when Manning petitioned the successor of Pius IX. to canonise Sir Thomas.) Gladstone wrote of a .The confusion was immense. famous Dean, " I have seen Hook, he drivels," while " He of Exeter seems to have befooled himself." " Exeter's chaplain, Maskell, wrote: Pusey says one thing, Robert Wilberforce another, Gladstone something else, and you, with an openness for which I give God
thanks, speak plainly in contradiction of them all!"

head between the edges of the old and new But the lapse of time seems to give us

"The truth seems to me more and more to be that a Church takes a great deal of killing," pleaded Gladstone, as he denied the rumours affecting Manning, who
I dare not thought it kindest to state (June 25, 1850) that conscience will not submit itself to the say my Church which has its circuits throughout the world and
:

"

its

centre

by accident
:

in

Rome."

He

adding: "But I have written too much." Gladstone " She nevertheless may be the last began to wail compulsory home of all who, in the West at least, intend with God's help to hold by a definite revealed truth
;

could not help

92

The Road
but
if it

to

Rome

long and loud alas for Christendom !" fencing with the unsympathetic fear our separation from the Church, and even opposition to it, is a self-evident fact. If the authority of the British Empire should cease to
so, a

be

Autumn found Manning Samuel of Oxford: "I

flow into Canada it would fall into Civil War. And the restoration of internal peace would be a separation like the United States, unless it should reunite itself with the

Empire at large." Secessions rained like leaves. The Henry Wilberforces passed out. William Anderdon, whom Manning wrote he "stayed twice as long as I " I cancould," followed. Poor John Anderdon wrote not say more of my love for you than that next to the ties of wife and children you bind me closest, nor more of my love for the Church than that I would rather you kept
:

fast

hold than even

my

beloved son."
:

Before the

New

Year Dodsworth had gone, after a minute exchange of " notes (December 30, 1850) Pray for me. At last the decisive step is taken. God's grace I am to be By received to-morrow. I go at 12 o'clock. Remember me then if you can." The answer was (December 31, 1850) " DEAREST FRIEND, God be with you. Nothing can us. part Pray for me and trust me with God. Ever
:

your loving friend,

H.E.M."

And

the

nineteenth

century was divided in twain, leaving Manning's heart not otherwise, for by this time he had left Lavington. Pius had not only given the Romans a Constitution,
but the English a Hierarchy, according to the needs of "Can we meet the challenge which comes over each. the water?" Manning asked Gladstone, The Gorham Judgment had shown a moral agency fail. The restoration of the Hierarchy exhibited an enduring and An archaic wave of Nounfailing one in operation. Popery swept the country, and when it reached
Chichester
his moorings. rising again of

allowed Manning "
I

it

believe that
that

to carry him gently from it is set for the fall and

many, and

men

are parting

upon

it

93

Henry Edward Manning
for life,"

he told Gladstone, who threw his

last shaft

by

had made to him recalling the solemn statement Manning In 1896 Gladstone said he could still after his illness. take an oath in a court of law that Manning had said
"
substantially, of death, as I

Dying men,
last year,

or

men

within the shadow

have a clearer insight into a of unseen others, knowledge of all that deeper things relates to Divine faith. In such a communion with death and the region beyond death I had an absolute assurance in heart and soul, solemn beyond expression, that the

was

English Church (I am not speaking of the Establishment) This is a living portion of the Church of Christ." made Gladstone apparent test of Manning's insincerity

and again in 1896 after Manning's death, when that Manning's Anglican letters to him understood he had been destroyed. It is interesting to append Manning's original answer, for he never wrote to him from Lavington
in 1850,

again (November

17, 1850)

:

"I have a
refer to,

and

perfect recollection of the conversation you I feel that what I said then is in perfect

my present mind. I have no shame in saying that since then I have seen what I did not see I have the deepest anxiety to make clear my before. integrity before God and man, but to square myself by myself is of no high importance to me. Will you also allow me to appeal to you for such a re-examination of your theological conclusions as you have given to your To you I seem what you seem to political opinions?
accordance with
others."

On November
them
the
in

22 the clergy required him to convene order that the Archdeaconry might protest against
:

Roman Hierarchy. To Dodsworth he wrote "I have therefore seen the Bishop and offered to resign my office, or to convene and express my dissent and resignation. Events have greatly brought this to its issue in the way I waited for. I wish to play it out as on a field until the last move of duty is done. Then I shall lay
94

The Road
:

to

Rome

down my weapons." On the day before the meeting he " wrote to his Bishop Although my resignation was not formally accepted, I consider it to be morally complete." Years later the Rev. H. D. Clarke recalled " the great murmur of intention to charge the Archdeacon with his Roman tendencies, but no one was bold
enough to realise the threat." According to the Brighton Herald of November 23, " the pale, gentlemanly, quiet and melancholy looking Afchdeacon commenced the proceedings by reading several prayers, most of the clergy kneeling during the time." At the close Manning spoke his last charge. His sorrowful dignity won a vote " I of thanks. began to feel as if every man had gone to his own house and left the matter," he wrote to Hope " Since then events have driven me to a the next

November 27 the restored church at Lavington was consecrated, Bishop Samuel preaching in the morning and Manning in the evening. "A day of intense sadness, intensified by the dimness of a November evening. All were oppressed with the feeling of the great loss they were to sustain," remembered Dean Randall. On December 3 he departed for good. To Miss Maurice he wrote (December 5, 1850): "I read your kind words as I passed out of Lavington on Tuesday morning. Last Sunday was a time of strange spiritual sorrow, a heaviness of soul such as I dare hardly speak of. Love, tenderness, long and fond memories of home and flock, were around me and upon me. But through
all
I

day. decision." On

a calm, clear conviction stood unmoved. And now here, and all things seem fulfilling themselves as I look on."

am

clothes.

to London and assumed plain and shovel-hat he hung over his Anglican grave. He had preached his last London sermon in St. Barnabas's in June. 4< I remember what There was nothing I preached about, the Love of God. else left." Lord John Russell had thrown the country

Manning withdrew
Gaiters

95

Henry Edward Manning
The so-called Catholic into a religious perspiration. " " into a thrown were panic of timidity, and aggressors
Catholic peers declared the Pope ill advised. But the " I feel challenge from over the water held good. " that at last the the wearied wrote Manning, thankful," Erastian spirit has found a reality which it can neither
frighten nor seduce."

On

arrival in

It seems (December 6, 1850), of which he noted in 1887 : as if I had a spark of second sight and foresaw your present lot."

London Manning wrote Gladstone a "

letter

" Let me say what I believe. time form round two centres
itself
;

Protestantism of England by legislation the other, political Government, maintaining a powerful neutrality and arbitration among

Parties will from this the one will be the protecting or trying to protect
:

If you retain your seat for religious communities. Oxford and accept the leadership, which is approaching you through the old Conservative parties, you must take the former centre as your standing point. Which God If you take the latter centre you know the cost. forbid But I believe that it is the path of Truth, peace and Christian civilisation to this great Empire."
all
!

English Protestantism had begun to protect itself by a Bill forbidding the assumption of ecclesiastic titles a ridiculous Bill, inflicting an inapplicable penalty to an unpunishable offence. The gracious Sovereign who had clapped her hands at the Gorham Judgment naively added a Royal to the Papal Bull by inquiring of Lord John what should be done with Dr. Cullen for styling himself Archbishop of Armagh, "which is punishable under the

Emancipation Act !" Lord John collapsed,
indescribable comfort.

to

"What
!

a strange event

Manning's is Lord

John's fall ! And, let those deny it who will, he has " fallen before the Church of God He might have added the old French proverb that who bites the Pope dies of it 1 In the early seventies the Bill was removed from the
Statute

Book by Gladstone through a Committee which
96

The Road
called

to

Rome

" I have just Archbishop Manning as a witness. received a subpoena under the Ecclesiastical Titles Act. If you do not make haste I shall have the glory of martyrdom," he wrote to his old friend. In London Manning found himself, "as it were, without priest, without ephod, and without sacrifice." To Miss Maurice he poured his lingering regrets for " the old Parish Church and family pew, the Christmas snows and Christmas hollies, the intonation and cadences of its " I choir." He was prepared for exile and lowliness. shrink from the pinnacles from which I see many fall and falling." To Dodsworth he sent a cautious feeler " Let me have lines telling me how (January 26, 1851) and how fare you your home is. I know that you will
:

speak to me sincerely, and not think any economy between us to be needful or right. Some insight into your reflections and thus far experience would be very Meantime the ends of the Anglican acceptable." firmament had been stirred. His own Bishop begged " not to leave England without hearing again only him from me, or to let me know where on the Continent a
find you." The Bishop of Newfoundland may " Why, dear brother, are you not in your parishes and among your flocks those happy parishes, those
letter

cried

:

beautiful

flocks

?

Why
to

do you attend and

assist at

festivals at this season of

do you lend an ear

him to stay with him. more wretched than any

rebuke and chastisement ? Why ?" Henry of Exeter implored " makes me

Your

resignation

of the actual

abandonments.

I

am

deeply, painfully sensible of all the difficulties which beset my own path. I dare not be a coward, but I fear doing harm by following the rash counsels of my own

mind.
"

You would be
me."
all to

of

inestimable use,
of

comfort,
:

support to

The Bishop

New
own

Zealand wrote

cause, and not to Urge cast upon our holy and injured Mother the blame of the chains which she is compelled to wear. Keep the Church

stand firm in their

97

H

Henry Edward Manning
itself

whole or we shall be
for
it if

lost.

I

am

against a contrary wind
little

in

my

little

so used to beating vessel that I care

the vessel

itself

be seaworthy I"

The

letter

arrived three weeks after the Ship of

Peter received

Manning. The end had come. Break had followed break. He parted from Archdeacon Hare in silence, each reading
the truth in the other's eyes. From Gladstone he parted " I can no in the Chapel off Buckingham Palace Road.

Communion in the Church of England," he said, and with a hand on Gladstone's shoulder. "Come!" Mr. Gladstone remained. The day before " Bear he was received, Manning wrote (April 5, 1851) me in mind in your prayers to-morrow. And may God be with you always." But Gladstone felt as though he
longer take the
:

had "murdered

never forgave. In vain Manning pleaded ten years later (October 14, 1861) "When I laid down all that I had, including your friendship, precious to me beyond wealth or prosperity,
:

my mother!" and

it

was

that

I

might cast the
that

last
is

scale of positive truth

weight I had into the my whole life and soul,

with

and with all its future." However, Manning was not alone, and he turned for " the glory and boast of companionship to James Hope, Scotland and Peel's next Lord Advocate," according to Disraeli. They visited Cardinal Wiseman on the Eve of Passion Sunday, and were received by Father
all its

past

Brownbill of the Jesuits the next day. Father Brownbill silently out of the ranks to perform his one historic action, and returns, never to be heard of again.

moves

His manner, said Lady Georgiana Fullerton, "was enough to teach them that they could bring to the Church nothing, and were to receive from her everything." To Miss Maurice, Manning wrote (April 10, "It was all most private on Sunday. I had 1851)
:

especial desire to fix

it

for Passion

Sunday.

The

process
of

was Confession,

conditional

Baptism,

profession

98

The Road

to

Rome

Then I Faith, made by my desire, and Absolution. went to the High Mass, which to me, even when outside, has been the divinest act of worship upon earth. What " it was then I cannot Now my career is ended," say." Manning said to Hope as they walked together on the Saturday. A year later he noted in Rome, with his
wistful love of anniversaries, "This Hope and I went to Father Brownbill.

day

at

u

o'clock

Passion Sunday. About this moment this Sunday last year Hope came into my room in Queen Street, having just been received 2| or 3 o'clock." Hope's brilliant career at the Bar was unbroken, but he despised every effort Gladstone made to flatter him into politics, chiefly because he disapproved of those around Gladstone, to use Manning's phrase, "like adjectives round a substantive." To the end of his life Gladstone regarded him with awe, and occasionally
puzzled his free-thinking satellites by appeals to what "Jim" Hope had laid down in old days. At Hope's Requiem Manning presided and Newman preached.

To Hope, Gladstone wrote: "The pain, the wonder, the mystery is this, that you should have refused the higher vocation you had before you. The same words I should use of Manning too." Manning could add: " When I became a Catholic, Gladstone said to the person who told me that he felt as if I had murdered his
mother.
natural."

The Duke of Newcastle's letter in April is more The Duke wrote (April n, 1851) "I mourn
:

over what I must think the great error of a pure and noble mind seeking the true light, but I cannot cease to
love
I

know you

and admire the man who makes the sacrifices (which have) in obedience to what he believes to be

right."

others equal credit for their intentions. Father Aidan Gasquet reported from Oxford that " Do not say that. They Liddon was insincere, he said used to say the same of me." Gladstone, he thought, was hindered from becoming a Catholic, not by

Manning gave

When

:

99

Henry Edward Manning
invincible obstinacy. Only of two ignorance, but by anxious of a note regret dying Anglicans did he leave the Duke of Newcastle and Bishop Hamilton. Of the " Dr. Kingsly, who attended his deathDuke he wrote
:

bed, told Lady Herbert, from whom I had it, that he would see no Protestant clergyman, that his desire was to see me, but those about him hindered it."
:

" I found him Of Walter Hamilton Manning wrote In some things as near to the Catholic Church as I was. 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 (1854) Gladstone appointed Hamilton, and, as
I

was told, he and Sidney Herbert overcame and made him accept the bishopric." Herbert felt it was better they should not meet (April
16,

1851):

As politics part men, how much more that to which There is a great subject forbidden politics are nothing between us. Our objects are not only different, but I fear what you hope, and resist what you will opposite.
!

"

endeavour
bless you,

to forward.

We are
;

in adverse

camps.

God

my

dear

Manning may you
for !"

find all the peace

and happiness you hope
Other
letters

does this not make oath sacred? That should be first conyou keep your sidered before you take another to persecute even your very family, composed of persons who have never done you any wrong." They never met again, except by chance at Rugby Station. His brother-in-law Samuel he met again by hazard in St. Alban's Cathedral. The Bishop wrote

demanded with indignation

were not so gentle. "
:

His brother Frederick

How

:

However, I can only now say, God's Will be done. Oh, do not let us ever act in open opposition in the land of England. If we must be parted, cannot you found a
IOO

"

The Road
Church
"

to

Rome
:

in some distant land?" And Manning replied Beloved brother, with all pain there will yet be a long-tried love which has bound us together in deepest sorrows, and this by God's Grace will bind us still. My prayer and whole endeavour shall be never to pain you by a conscious word."

Newman

sent

his

"
inexpressible joy,"

and Pusey
:

forwarded the saddest farewell (April 9, 1851) "I only opened your letter in the train. I knew it was the close of many a heartache. I reproached myself, too, when I recollected how I had spoken to you of Purgatory in connection with the vision of St. Perpetua, when I since know St. Augustine sets its authority aside. It was a strange comfort to me when you told me the then barriers between you and Rome which I had broken

down."

Manning

received a succession of Sacraments from

Wiseman. On April 13 he was confirmed with Hope and Badeley. The latter, called " " the of the Oxford Movement, had Stormy Petrel come to Peter. Within ten weeks the Cardinal elevated Manning to the priesthood. Coached by Father Faber, he had already appeared as Deacon and Sub-Deacon at the Oratory. Father Ravignan, the French Jesuit, was at his side to help his first Mass in Farm Street. Richard
the delighted Cardinal

Doyle the artist, having just resigned from Punch for conscience' sake, was at leisure to sketch the memorable scene. Punch, after some anti-Papal profanity, admitted by Thackeray's pen that Manning's conversion entailed
Later Thackeray breakfasted with Manning in " He has noted, just been doctored by His Holiness." Before he acquired his Doctorate it was necessary to pass some time of study in Rome. Though Newman offered him the Vice-Rectorship of the Catholic University in Dublin, Manning, with his keen eye for vocation, declined, and preferred to sit at a student's desk in Rome, whither he went after a last visit to Lavington.
defeat.

Rome, and

101

Henry Edward Manning
"
I

had the
I

suppose again 1"
"
for

sort of happiness and sadness which I should have if I had died and come back

The

announced
the
studies."

Tablet, the organ of the startled Catholics, his Ordination and intention to go to Rome
of

purpose

commencing

his

ecclesiastical

IO2

i

m/'Jw%',L\\\ l! r \ mij- if jjn

W
> !

'

!

'!

\.
'

'4

:

.

S,

i*.-

SI''

jf f

:l

ij

:

i

\ v

.i""^

,^jg^s?^
-

/
f/x:

,r /^ i\v
:/

llflu l.^^l/xi J awl M'l \ %N N k
!

y
<1

I

ii)Kii'4ii

i

c::
'

I
/
i

1

Li

t
r"'
:

x

i j

;1 \m
i

\J

Si

r

ii

\

|
j

1-1

1

KVi^ki r V\ /f
r
!f
:

\

"

\

-

\Vf/in

;

III

CARDINAL MANNING SAYING HIS FIRST MASS AT FARM STREET, JUNE l6, 1851.

CHAPTER
"The

IX:

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AND OTHERS
is

dealing with souls

dangerous, disappointing, transient, invisible."

Cardinal Manning's Notebook.

MANNING'S
begun.
to
It

career, so far from being over, had now hinged on the vivid, pliant, susceptible, but magnanimous new Cardinal of Westminster. In a letter

Wiseman

Archbishop Bayley of Baltimore Newman sketched " too as busy to be strenuous about anything.
a

He was

of large views and full of resource and but he lived for the day, and every fresh suggestion, event seemed to wipe out from his mind those which In the day of enthusiasm he ordained preceded it." " Can it be true," Manning pour encourager les autres. " his Roman

man

Mgr. Talbot, are going to ordain

that you henchman, wrote, on Manning priest Trinity Sunday? If you do they will open their eyes in Rome." Talbot was a convert. The old Catholic view appears in a letter from the Carmelite Archbishop Nicholson to Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham (May 8, 1851) " Tho' there is no ground for apprehending that
:

Now Manning is advised not to become a Religious, but a Secular Priest, that he may convert by his sermons. Where has he learnt our Theology to be able to preach Catholic Doctrine? Speak strongly to Propaganda. I am pained to find the Cardinal talking to some of the Lay Converts of the necessity of Religious Bodies carrying out their rules."
Manning made
said,

will retrace his steps, yet there has been a sad example in the person of Sibthorpe. It would be well to add that Manning prefers not being ordained so soon and that he wished to pass a year previously at Rome.

Manning

"by

fascination."

converts by conversation or, as Ruskin On July 3 he received Gilbert
103

Henry Edward Manning
six others.

convert. In the same months he received Before he left for Rome he received Sir Vere and Lady de Vere and Lady Newry. At Avignon on the way to Rome, he received Aubrey de Vere. November 29

Talbot, his

first

found him at the knees of Pius, who desired him to enter the Accademia. A few days later he noted (December " What memories of Lavington ! But all is 14, 1851) That was a time of peace, as the time in God's hand.
:

and happiness. Now it is all with but three, reality, sharpness, loneliness with God, and a sense of certainty and eternity. I used always to feel a self-reproach. Something always broke my peace. As I used to walk up and down that room and hear music, I used to feel a reproach go to my soul. Certainly, if there were no such thing in the world as the Catholic Church it would have been a blessed life. I have felt much human sorrow to-day. My softness shames me." " I am now living as a sort of supercargo in a college of priests," he wrote to Miss Stanley, sister of the Dean, through whom he kept in touch with the Anglican world. " I am much amused by the people who believe me to be in a pair of theological winkers." The wildest rumours were prevalent in England that the Pope had imprisoned him for insubordination, that he had sunk into an Italian farm, that he had been seen with a hunting-crop in the Corso ! The steady stream of letters to inquiring friends never ceased. To Miss Stanley
before was a time of beauty
:
'

What

is

wickedness of priests or the immorality of Spain ? Was Caiaphas a saint or Jerusalem a moral city ? What can Mr. Bennett say of Rome that Hosea and Malachi did not say of Jerusalem ? Surely the question is not how man has marred the Church, but what God made it. No sin of man can destroy what is indestructible, and no human purity can make a human society to be God's Church. I am convinced there is more difference between the Angels and the Critics than between the Angels and Catholics. Oh, if souls would but know and
104

the force of arguments

drawn from the

Florence Nightingale and Others
love the Sacred Heart, reaping-hooks !"

we might

beat our spears into

Meantime the spears of controversy flashed by word or letter. Manning was engaged in a fierce duel for the soul of Archdeacon Robert Wilberforce against Gladstone
and Bishop Samuel. They strove like Greek and Trojan over the body of an Anglican Patroclus. For a time there was a Minerva in the contest. Robert wrote to " If I remain where I am it is with a great Manning
:

feeling of uncertainty, which cripples my exertions. On the other hand, I see my poor wife in a state which

convinces me that if I took a forward step it would be I can't say or see fatal to her reason or her life. ... how it is to end, and it is a time of bitter grief to me, because I have a bursting secret in my heart which I cannot communicate to anyone. I am like Bellerophon."

Manning

relied

on

his logical,

Bishop Samuel on his

domestic sense. Samuel wrote: "Great love to Jane. I trust to her to keep you from being led away by Manning's subtleties." He thought him too good a man to be snared by " that Roman Jezebel." Jane apparently lay in wait for Manning's letters to " Don't send me anything which Robert, who wrote to be don't wish seen, as my wife opens my letters you when I am out."
:

in 1852, Manning preached " I seem to see the Oscott Bishops Synod England of History rise up before me from St. Augustine and St. Bede." He visited Ireland, but Jane would not let him approach Burton Agnes, though he " on some island or suggested Robert should meet him boat in a neutral river, as great powers are wont to meet." Robert could only admit " You demonstrate to me that I cannot gainsay your Socrates' Basket hangs safely. arguments, but here I am upon earth, and I cannot bring to the
in at
: :

On

his return

from

Rome

myself to step into it." Before he returned to

Rome Manning had
105

received

Henry Edward Manning
seventeen into the Church, but Henry Bowden and not Robert Wilberforce. Early in 1853 Jane died. She went down with her Protestant flag flying before the Robert inscrutable, way-making will of Providence. immediately published his book on the Eucharist, hoping to be thrown out of the Church like Newman. Manning " not insisted, however, that people must reach the Truth Samuel decided that the as footballs, but as agents."

book was

really in

Roman

eyes "the most dangerous

denial of Transubstantiation ever put forth"; and as Manning appeared in the offing, he drew Robert to

Lavington, where any old influences were abated by the special presence of Gladstone, the last court of appeal Few prominent converts of that to shaky Anglicans. had to endure a farewell interview with Pusey not period or Gladstone. "There is no parity or balance between Gladstone, Keble, or Pusey, and the Divine Tradition of the Church," wrote Manning in disappointment from

Robert showed symptoms of reaching the last next year, when he fell back upon objections " to St. Alphonsus. Every word of St. Alphonsus may be justified by Jeremy Taylor," was Manning's reply. It was not till September, 1854, that Robert surrendered, in spite of Gladstone, who as a last resource drew a parallelism between him and Augustine and Athanasius. But Robert was as deaf as Hope to his flattery. Bishop
Paris.

stage in the

Samuel attributed his conversion to his great humility and Manning's great subtlety of intellect, adding " You did not tell me that Manning was at Burton Agnes trying " to land his prey." Robert answered As to Manning's he had written to offer to meet me or see coming here, me before he knew of the steps which I had taken." To Miss Stanley Manning wrote " I was with him for four days. He was packing his books, and it brought back
:

:

:

to

me my
In

last

days

at

Lavington, a time a

man can
the

only

live

once."

November a second Archdeacon had
106

left

Church

Florence Nightingale and Others
of

England.

Gladstone
will see

wrote

grimly
soon.

(October

25,

Pray give him affectionate I that my he knows regards. my hope him towards can never alter." had Yet he treated feeling
1854):

"You

Manning

must be the point That I think you the wide field of intercourse still left free to choice as between us two, you speak what is to me a riddle." However, he allowed " that your intercession can have no ingredient of harm for me." The human sadness which crept into Manning's letters was not slaked except by periods of work in London. To Miss Maurice he wrote " I feel a yearning greater
:

Manning's approaches a little icily " Never can I in (August 7, 1853) think of you, or you of me, but this on which all our points must turn. know well, and when you speak of
:

the previous year this world see or

ever knew towards all I love. I feel, as dying men do, a peculiar tenderness towards those I have And recalling her perennial sick-room, "It loved." seemed to me to give you the outer world as your own, and the most majestic and divine parts of it by day and

than any

I

by night, the sea and the stars. It was almost as if you were on the waters. And with that room I must have many associations, for I have said things there which I never said elsewhere." He became sensitive to attacks " I never understood many parts of the Psalms as I do those which relate to accusation, falsenow, especially and razors. hood, sharp They laid to my charge things that I knew not.' The calmness of these last words is very blessed." And to Miss Stanley: "The best of them seem to drink down detraction like water, and not to know that it is a sin." To convert Mary Stanley and
: '

Florence Nightingale he wrote endlessly, "the school you have been in is one which believing turns from the peril of our own soul to think of others. This is blessed when we have made sure of our own " !" He wrote
her
friend
eternity

(July 15, 1853) 107

:

Birthdays bring

Henry Edward Manning
strange unhomelike thoughts now, but all the better, for Grace has called you to the this is now our rest. substance, not the shadow; to the imperishable reality, not the shortlived imitation. Florence Nightingale will either decline to a level lower than herself and unworthy of her, or she will be rebuked and chastened by failure
into the path

which she already knows full well. How wonderful you so long off, she so long at the door!" His belief now was that "nothing but a civil war can
prevent the Catholic Church from becoming in England what it is becoming every day in the United States." " What I add Of his position he wrote to Miss Maurice
:

is

for yourself alone.
is

My

going and coming between
free act.

England and Rome
will

my own

The

Cardinal's
stay

has been that
return
is

I

should return sooner.

My

and

my
to

by

the will of the

Pope personally spoken

me."

the

Friendship with Miss Nightingale had developed since Roman winter of 1847. He was one of the few to encourage her in the vocation she sought under almost insuperable difficulty. To rescue the fallen or nurse the sick was considered methodistical and unladylike. A letter of hers in the summer of 1852 reads of a joint venture "I found the poor child at Kensington bent upon going. I staid till half-past six, hoping that there might be a change and that you might come. But unless you were more successful than I was, after I went, the poor I have seen legs cut off and horrible thing is lost. operations, but that was nothing to this." And again "There is no time to be lost. It is a miserable child of fourteen. If I fail, do you think you could, do you think you would undertake it yourself ? It seems a great deal to ask, but she would not resist you. God bless you for your tender mercy to this poor child."
: :

Manning carried away the child to the Convent of the Good Shepherd. O Felix Culpa! one can hardly forbear
to

say of the

fault,

done

in childish ignorance,

which

108

Florence Nightingale and Others
brought two such twin spirits as Henry Manning and Florence Nightingale to seek that which was lost All this time she was torn between her vocations to serve God as a nun or to seek out sick humanity as a nurse. Her soul was torn between the Church of her home and that of Rome, which she confessed she loved. She poured forth her sorrows to Manning, when her relations seemed "like children playing on the shore of the For it is like eighteenth century. Oh, don't laugh
1
!

seeing people jesting among kind. So we play through life of those we love."

the

mangled bodies of their among the mangled souls

I dislike and despise the Church of England," she " cried (June 30, 1852). She received me into her bosom. But what has she ever done for me ? She never gave me work to do for her, nor training to do it, if I found it for myself. You think it would be a sacrifice to me to join the Catholic Church, a temptation to remain where I am. If you knew what a home the Catholic Church would be to me ! All that I want I should find in her. All my

"

difficulties would be removed I have laboriously to pick up here and there crumbs by which to live. She would

give

me

daily bread.

The daughters

of St.

Vincent

would open their arms to me. They have already done so, and what should I find there ? My work already laid out for me, instead of seeking it to and fro and finding none; my home; sympathy, human and divine. No one
asked
last night, Is
it

well with the child?"

Her agony of soul she had " never said to human being." To him she revealed wounds that were beyond " The wound is too deep for the Church even her skill. of England to heal. I belong a? little to the Church of England as to that of Rome, or rather my heart belongs as much to the Catholic Church as to that of England oh, how much more 1" One wonders how near, Florence Nightingale came to
the Catholic Church.
I

"

believe in her; she has no

Empirically but not scientifically, more fervent disciple than I.
109

Henry Edward Manning
I believe in her as the early Chaldaeans believed in the return of eclipses, which they could ascertain by obserAll that year her vation but could not account for." of the bars Manning's confessional. strong wings beat on " I have a If I do not reach the me. behind precipice

Church
:

of the Catholics,

I

have no Church!"

And

"I think it most probable you have found me again Do not spare me." I know what you would say. out. She begged Manning to send her to the French Sisters "
or to the Irish Sisters of St. Vincent:
tions to
I

have obliga-

him."
"

She had

to act without her family's

consent.
less

dear people I really believe it would give and marry a Roman Catholic for to become me pain than for me to become a Sister of Charity. I think the

my

persecution of the Emperor Domitian must be easy to bear, but there is a persecution from those we love, as I dare say you know, which grinds one's very heart out, Her especially if one is not quite sure one is right!"
letters are full of little tragic asides, of

wonder at myself for I have never done so before." telling these things. Manning would not receive her unless she gave him her
only a
think.
I

woman would

"

which, perhaps,

" her heart. In vain she pleaded : Why cannot I join the Catholic Church at once as the best form of truth I have known, and as cutting the Gordian knot I cannot untie?" When Manning gave her his reasons for entering the Church she pronounced they
will as well as

were of the Oxford historical school, and preferred the course of the mathematical and Cambridge men, who examine each doctrine " whether they can believe in it," rather than "whether they can believe in her." How" I could believe the same ever, she thought, things as to Creation as St. Thomas Aquinas." She insisted on
presenting religion scientifically : " The historic made Schlegel, as you say, a Catholic. But the English have never been historians. Instead of Saints they have had great Civil Engineers, instead of

no

Florence Nightingale and Others
Sisters of Charity they have had Political Economists. of England could not have stood in any country but England, because she is such a poor historian. I have always thought that the great theological fight has yet to be fought out in England between

The Church

In Germany it was Catholicism and Protestantism. fought out 300 years ago. They know why they are Protestants. I never knew an Englishman who did, and if he inquires, he becomes a Catholic 1" From her spiritual desert she cried " I like your Jesu With us God is dead. He has been dulcis memoria. dead nearly 2,000 years. He wrote the Bible about 1,800 years ago, and since then He has not been heard of." Manning thought it about time for her to pay a visit to Ireland. Unfortunately she went to Belfast instead of "Of all places Dublin, and wrote (August 20, 1852) that the eye of me would not have visited I think Belfast is the one. Imagine a new commercial, Orange Presbyterian town, a cross between Geneva and Manchester, inhabited by that anomalous animal, an Irish Protestant, with Infirmaries, Poorhouses, all on the model of
: :

London. I have had moments of intense discouragement in my life, but never anything like this." And a
plaintive note followed Manning to you for the hope set before me. But
I

Rome: "I thank I am wearing out.
a coward's speech, for a

am

afraid

my

heart

is

broken.

It is

one which

St. Ignatius

would not have admitted

moment. I hope if he hears it he will punish me for it. But I'm afraid it's true." Manning was not too happy himself in his yearning for work and place, but he registered a determination to

" not seek it by the lifting of a finger or the speaking of a word." Strangely, the same event brought it to him and Florence Nightingale. From the East dawned war, and with war splendid opportunity. The prospect of
peace

among

the holy places of

for the prospects opened holy places of Jerusalem.

Rome was exchanged a war originating in the by
The Crimean War
inspired

in,

immaculate Heart College
Hollywood, California

Henry Edward Manning
and Miss Nightingale nurses of Greek and Latin and the rivalry of French and Russian Emperors Manning brought Catholic Sisters into the army. immediately brought and kept Wiseman and Archbishop

Manning

to find chaplains

for the British

Army.

The entanglement

Cullen of Dublin in touch with the authorities, writing to Cullen (July 10, 1854)
:

"The
Priest

Cardinal has forwarded to

me

a

letter

from a

The troops are stationed on the Bosphorus, divided in four places, and the two chaplains are obliged to abandon the care of two of the divisions. The writer says that he has been called on by Admiral Dundas to visit the Naval Hospital at Bosforo., but he has been called on to go also to the Military Hospital at Scutari, where at the date of his letter he had arrived only in time to bury three soldiers who had died without Sacraments. Mr. Monsell will lay the letter before Mr. Sidney Herbert
to-day."

Sidney Herbert was Secretary of War, and through him Manning was able to increase the number of chaplains at the front from eleven to fifteen. ,The news that the wounded lacked medical aid caused more emotion
at

home than

that the

dying lacked Sacraments.
:

Amid

Manning passed a Miss Stanley "I have written to the Bishop of Southwark to see if any Sisters can be found for the East. Why will not Florence Nightingale give Miss Nightingale was herself to this great work?" Mrs. Herbert and while the War Office, accepted by Miss Stanley vainly scoured London for nurses. seized the chance to mobilise the convents. Manning " I can report five nuns, three from Ireland, of whom two have been in hospitals. Two at Chelsea, of whom one was four years in the hospital at Australia." From
indignant
cries

for better things,

brilliant idea to

Bermondsey came five Sisters of Mercy and five more Such was the bulwark of Miss Nightingale's historic expedition, of which Herbert wrote cheer" fully that thirty-eight nurses on their way to Scutari
from Norwood.
112

Florence Nightingale and Others
are truer successors of the Apostle wrecked at Malta than an equal number of Cardinals!" But it required all Manning's tact with Cardinals to keep the party

Dr. Cullen wrote from Rome that Miss Nightingale could not have jurisdiction over nuns. "The Pope thinkssucha thing ought not to be agreed to." Manning
afloat.

arranged that they should have their own Superior in To Newman in Dublin he wrote: "The addition. Mission of the Sisters is not from their Government, but from their ecclesiastical and religious Superior." After Miss Nightingale the most anxious watcher of the party was Manning, but the value of his Sisters was soon proven when some of the less religious nurses married sergeants. He wrote to the Superior at home

(December
"

21,

1854)

:

I received a letter from Miss Nightingale giving a most pleasing testimony to the great value your Mother

that

Mary Clare and her Sisters are to her, and also saying M. Mary Clare says that she thinks three more may
be spared from Bermondsey. Miss Nightingale asks to have their assistance very earnestly. You have seen Sister Mary Gonzaga's letter in The Times. A few such things will do more for us than all the books of controversy in the world."

A second party was collected under Miss Stanley, with Mother Frances Bridgman of Kinsale as religious chief. To the former Manning wrote (November 27, 1854)
:

If Mr. Herbert in his official character cannot publicly sanction a Chaplain going with the Sisters, I hope he will not feel bound to forbid his going at the same time and by the same public conveyances. ,The responsibility of sending for twenty is wholly mine, and mine alone. That more will be wanted I conceive to be certain for, assigning ten wounded to one nurse, which would be the hospital proportion, or ought to be, the wounded after the Battle of the Alma at Scutari would have required 200 nurses. What is the number of wounded now, and what will it probably be in three
;

"

weeks?"
113
I

Henry Edward Manning
Manning
collected the expense:: of the outfit,

and sent

a chaplain, Father Ronan, who was required to travel at " He an official distance from the Sisters. fully entered I give you my word, it shall not be. into it, and said, I am altogether convinced that when conscience allows,
'

we ought
like

to

and

trust

do as the Government desires.' You will him." So much so, that he received Miss

Stanley into the Church before their return to England. Gladstone made his inevitable appearance, and before her departure Manning had written (November 15,
1854)
:

By all means hear Gladstone. I could put down what he will say, and could almost weep over him. I have loved and honoured him. But the last three years have been a grief to me. I need not say, Promise no I saw one anything.' Gladstone's letter to Robert Wilberforce. Could you believe that he referred to Milman as proof? To this and lower than this that humanly great mind will go, unless through Grace he becomes as a little child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Florence Nightingale knows your state of mind perfectly. She said to me two years ago, when you were ill Convert Mary Stanley quickly, or there will be no " to convert.'
'
:

"

'

Mary Stanley

Miss Stanley did make a promise, however, for " In Manning wrote promising not to see me you have done right in every way. But what a poverty of mind does the request imply I say, Go, and God be with I need not add Paul's St. you.' words, Be not brought under bondage to any man.' " And he wrote in kindly farewell (November 30, 1854)
:
'

!

'

:

"

It

is

by humility

that

we command

obedience.

I

have had some experience

in this matter, and I have never failed, except when I deserved to fail. I believe, too, that generosity, self-denial, blindness to faults,

taking burdens on ourselves, requesting instead of ordering, thanking even for acts of duty, being the first to do things with our own hands, silence under provoca114

Florence Nightingale and Others
tion,

evenness of temper and of voice, are

little

things,

fruits of great grace. when a Superior has these, with an inflexible will in all matters of principle, I believe everything will be done by those that are subject out of zeal and love. have wisdom enough never to

which are the

And

You

find a fault before a third person. In dealing with the Sisters you will not fail to remember the difference which
race, circumstances, opposite sympathies, prejudices and antecedents may have introduced. Few English understand the Irish, and the reverse. have this as priests. If you and Florence Nightingale fail in your work with these Sisters, you will both fall in my estimate of you. Tell her this with my blessing. If you succeed God only knows what a work is before you both, a work greater than perhaps either of you have faith to perceive. But I am sure of it, though I am no Prophet nor a Prophet's son."

We

Manning sent Cullen an account of the arrangements made with the War Office (December 6, 1854) " They now go giving themselves without reward for the love of
:

God, and I believe that this visibly disinterested conduct has already produced and will yet produce still more effect upon this country." Their expenses were paid " that a marked distinction should be mainprivately, tained between our religious and stipendiary nurses." " free to introduce the subject of religion They were with all Catholics." Unfortunately, the High Church character of some roused feeling at home, and the Editor of the Record was hot on the trail of Miss Stanley, " incurring a quick retort, My sister shall a ministering be when thou liest angel howling," from her brother the

Dean.

Miss Nightingale had already

to fight doctors as

and the theological odium was too much She declined and disowned Miss Stanley's party. The situation was saved by Mother Mary Clare crossing the Bosphorus in an open boat during a snowstorm and effecting peace. Manning's disappointment was intense, and he wrote to Miss Stanley (January i, " Mrs. Herbert wrote me word that Miss Nightin1855)
well as disease, for her nerves.
:

Henry Edward Manning
a second gale has written to say that she had not desired that with I cannot conceive nurses. set of Nevertheless,
4,000 or 5,000 wounded, sick, helpless, and convalescent, there can be lack of service required far beyond the

done, let nothing so public and conundertaking not fail or must and so so good, gainsayed spicuous, even show weakness. I trust to Florence Nightingale's power of drill to make them all of use." Holding the
is

numbers hitherto

sent.

Whatever

be done

in haste.

An

War

intangible threads between the two Archbishops and the Office, and not least between the two Mother

Superiors and the two parties in the field, exerted his fine diplomacy to the utmost.

Manning

He

asked
too

Dr. Cullen to

recall

Father Cuffe,

who had been

indignant at the refusal of the nuns by Miss Nightingale, which he compared to the " driving of the Blessed Virgin

through the desert by Herod." The introduction of Catholic Sisters and reforms at the same time were more than some minds could stand. Manning wrote to Cullen " Great difficulties have arisen in the hospitals from the
:

steady opposition

and

Sisters,

and

hospitals.

The

of the nurses reforms into the medical officers seem so tenacious of the
to the

made

employment

to the introduction of

old system that it is impossible to advance more quickly." Manning refused to criticise anybody at the front. Of

Miss Nightingale he wrote
in

to

Bishop Grant

"

:

I

am

sure

that she acted as she believed for the best towards
to fifty,

them

doing what she did." The nurses were then limited which excluded some of the Irish Sisters, " and the Superior and Miss Nightingale cannot accord as to the arrangement to be made." In the end twenty were taken, and Manning wrote to Miss Stanley (February
8,

1855)

:

"The return of any of them would be a most mischievous and serious event. cannot be too cautious, and I doubt if Florence Nightingale, certainly not the Herberts, knows how sensitive the Catholic Church is, 116

We

Florence Nightingale and Others
from the Holy Father to the wounded Catholic soldier, as to the respect due, not to the persons so much as to the character of a Religious. As to Mother Bridgman, my words to Mrs. Herbert were the same I wrote to Florence Nightingale. I stated that I thought her an
ardent, high-tempered, and at first somewhat difficult person, but truly good, devoted, and trustworthy. Now I have not written to you while your difficulties were

pending. Because I did not knw enough to judge, and because I feared that your course might be ascribed to my advice, I wished you to act alone. Paul and Barnabas had a sharp contention why not Mother Francis and Mother Clare ? Remember that it is a mistake for a head to make itself into a pair of hands. Directing is working in the highest degree."

The same day he wrote
"

to

Cullen

:

I am happy to be able to contradict the unfavourable statements respecting the position and work of the Sisters Last night I received letters from Mrs. at Scutari. Bridgman, Miss Nightingale, and Miss Stanley. Ten are employed in nursing in the General Hospital at Scutari. The remaining ten are forming a new hospital at Kululi."

Dr. Cullen sent Mrs. Bridgman a Papal Blessing from " Rome, with orders to hold your ground until you shall be sent away by force." She was Irish enough to obey,
her.

and the triumph of the second party was largely due to Hard work occupied all parties that year, while The religious bickerings were left to those at home. Sisters were accused of consoling the Protestant wounded.
"
I

repeatedly assured Miss Nightingale," said Mrs.

Bridgman, "that we should consider it a sin against God and a disgrace before man to violate the contract we had distinctly and deliberately made." On the other " I hand, was she expected to reply to Catholics? may not speak to you on religious subjects, even though we are both Catholics. The Government in whose service you have sacrificed the vigour of your life forbids it,"
117

Henry Edward Manning
Upon Manning
fell all

the rumours,
:

Stanley for information refused to disobeyed hospital regulations? Have they interfered with the Have seculars? work with they the Protestant Mr. Protestants?" of Hamilton, religion Miss Stanley authority at Koulalee, was able to assure " I am not aware that of Sisters of the Mercy have any
:

and he begged Miss " Have any of the Irish Sisters

interfered with the Protestant patients regarding their

have seen the greatest kindness and But to Protestant patients." Miss the work continued in good report and bad. Nightingale resigned the Balaclava Hospital, which Mrs. Bridgman accepted from Sir John Hall, no admirer Between October, 1855, an d of Miss Nightingale. February, 1856, the Irish Sisters nursed 1,358 wounded. Manning was content to watch the experiment succeed
religion,

but

I

attention

shown by them

through the sheer devotion and personality of the rival Mothers, whose Faith always filled the cracks which rent " I have secular nursedom. To Miss Stanley he wrote looked on in silence and amazement at many things. But I do not know enough to judge. One thing I see. Unless Providence avert it, we shall have a great breakdown, not in nursedom only, but something more vital." The medical breakdown was averted by Miss Nightingale,
:

who was
of the

to write to the Mother do not presume to express praise or gratitude to you, because it would look as if I thought you had done the work, not unto God, but unto me. You were far above me in fitness both in worldly talents of administration and far more in the spiritual qualifications, which God values in a Superior. My being placed over you was my misfortune and not my " I would fault." She added be glad that the Bishop of Southwark should know, and Dr. Manning (though my recommendation is not likely to be of value to you, but the contrary), that you were valued here as you deserved, and that the gratitude of the army is yours,"

a great enough

woman
"
I

Bermondsey Nuns

:

:

U8

Florence Nightingale and Others
By her last words Manning's hope had been fulfilled. Henceforth the Catholic Sisters could walk abroad in their habit through Merry England and no one molest them. Unexpectedly they came to the Crimea, and suddenly they returned. From the hush of convents
they passed to the groans of Scutari and Balaclava. " Manning had bidden them make the hospital a cloister and their heart a choir," and they had done so. Two of the Sisters had served to the death, and amid the Crimean graveyards lie the virginal bones of Sisters Mary Eliza-

beth Butler and Winifred Spry. When the war was over they took up their slight belongings and were gone so swiftly and silently that no historian recorded their names,

no assembly offered them eulogy, and no ruler sent They were quite forgotten, which was what they had desired. perhaps Of the thousands who have heard of Florence Nightingale, not one has heard of Mary Stanley. Yet she had accomplished as much as the other, though she failed of the accidental fame which made Miss Nightingale one of the leading personages in Europe. She received her reward spiritually. While Miss was decorated the Sultan, Miss Nightingale being by was herself to announce her Catholic Stanley bringing from wrote Baptism Constantinople. (April Manning " I see no obligation to publish the fact at 14, 1853)
decorations.
:

Constantinople at the moment. The moment for declaring will be when you meet your family, after the first hours of arrival are over. One thing I am clear about as the day. Eight-and-forty hours must not elapse after your return without the two nearest to you knowing. I write this as if I were in the Confessional or upon my death-bed." Trials and difficulties pursued her, as a long and minute spiritual conference with Manning shows. " God will justly judge me if I ever break a bruised reed," was his tenor, When in after-years she was disturbed by
119

Henry Edward Manning
Mrs. Froude's death in unbelieving peace, wrote calmly (May 15, 1860)
:

Manning

account of Mrs. Froude shocked me much. gone to the only Judge who knows the heart, and therefore we may say nothing of her. The Church does not judge of individuals in this matter, but prays and hopes even against hope. Her case presents to me no If she knew no better and through misperdifficulty. suasion and the influence of others was in error, but in good faith, God would have mercy on her. If so, her peace was a true peace. If she was not in good faith, which God forbid, her peace was a false peace, and that Blanco White died professing to is a common state. be in peace. And Hume died peacefully talking about

"Your
is

She

Charon."

Manning guided her until 1879, when her brother, the Dean of Westminster, asked the Archbishop of Westminster, as he had become, to bring her the last Sacraments. "Thank God all that was vital was done and She was most anxious to do all that was well done.
right."

With Archbishop Manning Miss Nightingale's

rela-

tions were less pleasant. After the Crimean she set aside her Catholic yearnings, though Manning visited

War

were no longer signed after this manner, Dear Sir, or dear Friend, whichever I may call you," and " Nunc Dimittis is the only prayer I can make now as far as regards myself." When he proposed to move her Sisters (1867) she wrote like a real woman to their Mother "I have cried to all the authorities on earth and all the Saints in Heaven against Dr. Manning. The fact is that he is, as the Catholics themselves call him, a
her in sickness.
letters

Her

"Your weary "

penitent," and ran

:

deucedly clever fellow, and somehow or other, by foul more than by fair means, gets all things his own way !"

The Crimean War
I

told

Miss Stanley, " Such as
1

over,

Manning
I

settled

down, and
such
I

am you know,

must ever be.

desire to live for nothing but to save

20

Florence Nightingale and Others
At soul and others by plain unbending truth." Wiseman's wish he petitioned Wiseman to allow him to bring the Oblates of St. Charles into London. He wrote " to Hope They would be in fact the Jesuits of London.
:

my own

proposed that they should be simple priests, because such a body might be replenished so long as needed and go out when not, without diminishing what the Flaminian Gate would call the lights of the EccleThe Flaminian Gate was an siastical Firmament."
I
' '

And

Wiseman, into whose dreams he began to power and promise of fulfilment. On St. Charles's Day he collected a few around him in Baysallusion to

enter with

water,

Herbertus Vaughan pro se et Thoma MacDonnell. Gulielmus lohannes Roberts. Gulielmus Burke. Carolus loannes Laprimaudaye. Pro Henrico Arturo Rawes, H. E. Manning.

and they signed fealty as follows Henricus Eduardus Manning.

:

Providence was watching the locality, for Newman had " have a prospect of being settled at Bayswater." Mgr. Talbot was grieved to find
written in 1848
:

We

Catholics "calling Manning's Institute the Widowers' House." Indeed, parsons, providentially left single, undertaking the general care of the Church, seemed ludicrous to old Catholics, until Manning even became

an actual object of offence and hostility. He went to Milan to study the rule of St. Charles, with which, amended to Bayswater use, and with relics of his blood, he returned. On Whit-Sunday Manning and his companions met in a hired house. The next day the
Congregation began, and
at midnight they elected their predestined Superior. Of the three original founders, Manning alone had survived. Robert Wilberforce died while studying in Rome, and Laprimaudaye after nursing a student sick of smallpox. Laprimaudaye's tall wraith was permitted to appear in Bayswater the day he

Henry Edward Manning
died.

The Superior's pride Ohlates ought to be a picked body of men, not a pieceManning noted with a
:

"

meal of failures and

nobody."

The money

build churches in schools shot up.

" Manning and another nephew, "the Piccanniny

St. Charles wants widowers was available to Bayswater and Notting Hill. Seven A college was placed under Willie
instabilities.

of the

of

Manning's Oxford letters, William Anderdon, returned " from Rome, where Talbot reported he was studying
hard, but requires a good deal of Puseyistic manner to be driven out of him. They say he is another Manning." So in strange ways the firm of Manning and Anderdon

was

reconstituted.

Manning's activities were endless. He was building a church in Westminster, scouring Belgium for Poor Clares, planning a "greater Seminary according to the Council of Trent." The Oblates rose to twenty, and the quiet country lanes of Bayswater were humming with controversy. Manning was often pelted with mud, but
enjoyed
life.
it

all.

They were

the happiest eight years of his

Among
at his

the novices he
in recreation,

became a boy again, and

used to spar

arms

memory

"letting out with his long or nephew," playing with the marionettes of and telling stories of old Dr. Jenkyns and
:

Anglican Archbishops till the rafters shook. He wrote "In addition to ordinary work I (August 24, 1857) have had to go to the trial of a poor fellow who has stabbed a man, since dead, and am going again this morning. Lady Granville has been to the workhouse and found no difficulty. Next week I hope to go to Belgium for the Poor Clares, and perhaps to Fulda to see the Professor of Theology I hope I have secured." All manner of folk came to him. At one time the cassocks of Cantors at Vespers concealed a future Colonial Chief Justice (Sir J. Marshall) and Editor of Punch (Sir Francis Burnand). The Duchess of Buccleuch came and was converted. She was followed
122

Florence Nightingale and Others
by the Duchess of Argyll. Manning had written to " What you say of the Duchess coming over to Hope Mass is a great comfort. Who knows what may be the end of your Highland Paraguay? I may be Parish Priest of it one day if London grows too hot." The " duel with Pusey was fierce and incessant. She no
:

sooner reached Scotland than Dr. Pusey came for eight days of perpetual argument. She never wavered. What a homage is this to the only Divine authority which men fear and before which they quail!" he wrote to the Duchess of Buccleuch. " I told her that it would be time enough to thank Dr. Pusey for his past kindness when she had done her duty to God first. I have had in my hand the letter she wrote to me under Dr. Pusey's persuasion, and the letter he substituted for it in his own rough copy, varying in important points from her own I confess myself to be unable to reconcile all this letter. with truth." He came to the conclusion, "Michael the Archangel could not so abjure Protestantism as to please Protestants. He would be but a dull, slow, cowardly, dingy angel after all !" Unworthy proselytism he disliked as

Pusey

sent into all the world." Manning sought converts by letter and Apostolic visit. He must have posted a complete commentary on the Creed every week. He used a peculiar knock of four raps, and sealed his "I letters to seekers with the motto qui patitur vincit.

whom whom He

He told lese-majest^ against the Truth." " the there were two kinds of proselytism Jews Our Lord condemned. There are also the Apostles

"

promise you to become a Catholic when I am twenty" But can one," said a young lady. you promise to live as long?" was the reply. Confession he called "fishing with a single line." Between 1851 and 1865 he kept a list of his converts in a locked book. They numbered
346,

and though the titled names seem to justify his nickname as " Apostle to the Genteels," there were poets and parsons, and also the poor and the pariah.

Henry Edward Manning
He could take as much trouble for a poor girl as to record a case at length :
January 3, 1863, C. G. came and told me that a had been betrayed by a man. She said of fourteen girl that she often came to the church, that she was distracted with fear. I told her to bring her to me. She came Wednesday night. I was kneeling in S. M. Magdalen's

"

On

my confessional. I saw a young, slender girl kneel behind the second pillar of the choir aisle. I led her into the Confessional. She wept so audibly that I thought she must be overheard. She accused herself with great simplicity and sorrow, almost without hope She said of forgiveness. Oh, Dr. Manning, I have If cared for only I had been a Catholic this you. always would not have happened. But there is no help in our Church. When all this is over may I be a Catholic?' I then prevailed on her to give me leave to tell her
Chapel by
first
' :

her repeat a full Act of Contrition, promise me to say all her prayers as of old, and to add two I would give her. I told her I would cut them out of a Catholic book. I cut out the Acts of Charity and Contrition, gave her the promise of a future Absolution and a Benediction. As I gave them I pressed her fingers, and she held my hand a moment, sobbing as if her heart would break. Next day, Epiphany, as I went out after High Mass, I saw her, as I thought, kneeling against the last pillar in her little grey coat and round straw hat and black veil. That evening C. G.
all to

parents she did

('

Dr. Manning,
the letter.

I

will

do
I

all

you

tell

me '), and

Then

made

me she was ill and hysterical, that all was Dear and bringing me two notes in pencil Dr. Manning, I feel I am dying; pray for me. God bless you for your kindness to a miserable sinner.' Thursday morning I woke at five, and lay awake praying for her, and all the Fathers said Mass for her. At 9 C. G. came and told me that at 5.30 she died holding the two She was conscious for a short prayers in her hand. Tell Dr. Manning if I am saved it is time, and said
came and
told
'

discovered,

:

'

through him.'

"

:

As she had only received Baptism by desire, Manning wrote out twelve theological reasons for believing she
was
certainly saved.

Then he locked

all in

his book.

Florence Nightingale and Others Mrs. Charles Bagot recorded " He never attempted He wrote he would have liked to have to convert us. come the last night of my husband's life, but thought his He was unable doing so might be misunderstood." to reach Count Streletski, of whom he had written to " He is an old fox. But his faith is in Lady Herbert
:

:

him, and he will die with the Last Sacraments." Lady Herbert he converted after a long duel with Liddon, of which many pages testify. He wrote to her, insisting that her boys should be brought up according to their " father's will You have done well in writing openly to
:

your brother.

The opener and
will be.

the bolder, the safer
It will

and

more peaceful your path

make

all

charges

of concealment impossible,

you for and uprightness." your fidelity He insisted on converts telling their friends before they took the final step. George Lane-Fox, the eldest son of the Squire of Bramham, asked him for reception. In spite of pressure from Sir Charles Wood and Mr. Monsell through the Bishop of Southwark, he would only postpone receiving him at once, but he sent him home to tell his father, informing the Bishop: "Last night he endeavoured to find his father if still in London by my advice, and failing this he was to go by the night train to Yorkshire to see his parents, and to assure them that he desires to show them all filial love and obedience in everything which does not violate his duty towards God. He is at this moment in Yorkshire. I am very glad that this matter has come into your hands, as you will know the duties, often painful and always inevitable, which lie upon us in such cases." When Manning, a Captain of Harrow, received Lane-Fox, an Eton Captain
will respect

and they

of the Boats, the Catholic revival reached a sporting zenith.
his pastoral days there arose a legend. He used to of telling a woman in St. George's Hospital of Mary Magdalen's spikenard, when a voice from the next

Of

tell

bed informed him that " that beautiful story of the bag
125

Henry Edward Manning
of spike-nails made me wish to become a Catholic too I" the angry father of a convert assailed him in the sacristy he had the presence of mind to turn and meet

When

of the sin of addressing God's minister while disrobing in the Holy Place When a convertthat his assailant fled in horror. Duchess offered him a cheque for a thousand pounds " he handed it back, remarking, Perhaps to cover a not for he be would gallipot," patronised. An insight is afforded by a letter from his disciple Herbert Vaughan "Dr. Goss remarked the other day upon your wonderful power of conciliation. I fancy that the use of it was in great measure the reason of the great success and influence you exercised between 1850 and 1860 over those without. You piped and many did dance, though not all. If I may say so, I think you became a little impatient sometimes, and said things so severe that people were inclined to shrink back. I always feel that the English people are more easily led than driven, and that St. Jerome even would reform his tone if he lived in
:

him with such an alarming rebuke

London!"

126

CHAPTER X THE WARS OF WESTMINSTER
:

" One idea has governed me. I believe, in fact, I learned it from Carlyle. mean that mechanism without dynamics is dead." Cardinal Manning's
Notebook.

SAUL among the prophets, Florence Nightingale among the army doctors, were not stranger wine amid old bottles than Manning among the old broken remnant of English Catholics. He could not help feeling "as if I had got into St. James's Palace in 1687. The Catholics of England seem to me to be in their politics like the
Seven
If Sleepers. But there Royalists.
is

anything, they are no Charles I. left."

Charles

I.

One

recalls

the English Catholics whom Borrow found in Lisbon, who "with ludicrous inconsistency cherished national prejudices almost extinct in the motherland, even to the

disparagement of their own darling faith," slating O'Connell and referring to Charles I. as "the unfortunate martyr." Manning wrote to Gladstone in 1890 of Wiseman as "a Tory without Irish sympathies, though himself an Irishman. But he knew nothing of

He came into the ring of the old Catholic and never went beyond them. .They, as you know and see, are nine-times English." And later in Home Rule days he used to reiterate " They are loud but few. I can count them on my ten fingers." They
politics.

families,

:

clashed with the converts (" when we spoke English they did not understand us"), and concentrated their influence against Manning, who with marvellous power and pliancy took away their own leader to the side of the converts. >They struck at him, but they struck the air. They tried to subvert his plans and policies, but they only crowned his success. They wished to reduce him to the dust, but
127

Henry Edward Manning
they only

made him

their

own

chief.

And

his strength

he never struck them, for he remembered that whatever the converts could give the Church, they had If the old Catholics were brokennot given martyrs. kneed in public, it was because upon a via dolorosa they had come. If they were blind to the politics of the day, their eyes had been blindfolded for the kingdom of

was

that

heaven's sake.

If

they

made no showing

in the counsels

of the nation, it was because they had been as sheep dumb before their accusers. Wiseman's policy to the converts was Manning's, and

he delighted in Manning's schemes until they seemed to him his own. In a famous letter to Faber on the Religious Orders Wiseman wrote: "Mr. Manning, I think, understands my wishes and feelings and is ready
to assist
later, after
I hope, join him." Ten years a he found a sorrow, many struggle, many draft and sent it to Manning (January 19, 1862).

me;

several will,

his first

I have not touched it, and I have no doubt I copied the last part myself that Mgr. Searle might not see it. It is the only copy, so keep it carefully, for I think it may be interesting hereafter, and serve to prove con-

"

sistency

and perseverance in our common work. I did not remember that I had mentioned you in the letter. If not a prophecy, it was at any rate a presentiment."

Searle represented the old Catholic in Wiseman's Cabinet, but his influence sank before Manning's. The Cardinal found himself at war with Bishop Grant of Southwark, which was a thorn in the side of Westminster. He could only write to Grant homo pads mece

"

(January

14, 1853)

:

Although your Lordship compares

yourself to St. Wilfred and me to his oppressor, I can assure you that not St. Wilfred himself was more sin-

am

cerely submissive to the Holy See and more glad than I that any difference between us should be referred to
that

supreme tribunal." Wiseman sought for relief from mental worry in Manning's friendship and in the co128

The Wars of Westminster
adjutorship of Archbishop Errington. to sacrifice one to the other.
In the end he had

George Errington, Archbishop of Trebizond, was an old Catholic to the marrow. Wiseman asked and secured his right of succession to Westminster. Forgetfulness
of old disagreements
strife.

like

brought unforgettable sorrow and Bishop's coadjutor (cum iure successionis) is the Celtic office of tanist, an heir-apparent elected

A

during the King's lifetime. If the King changes his there can only be trouble. But it was Errington who declared hostilities. An iron administrator with a

mind

strong dislike of improvements and a determination to apply Canon Law in its length without its breadth, his " hawk-like expression as he looked through his blue " became particularly hawk-like as he studied spectacles the Rule of Manning's Oblates. The copy left among his papers shows traces of stern comparison between In eleven instances the Milan and Bayswater use. Archbishop noted that the episcopal power had been
transferred to the Superior, and, he noted, therefore absolute ." Manning had guarded against an Archbishop who knew not Joseph, or, as he put it, was " not aware
of the intention of St. Charles."
It

"

Manning's Rule Manning's favour.

tied

the

"

Archbishop's

was objected that hands in
supposing

No

one

is justified in

a sustained pertinacity of sinful opposition," replied Manning. But this was exactly what Errington supposed, and Errington 's see on the Euxine was appropriate, for the Euxine was named in euphemism of the rough

welcome accorded

" the Trebizondian " was not more hospitable to aspect converts. As a convert, Mgr. Talbot confided to Wise-

to strangers,

and what

Ward

called

man

:

"I

fear for his future administration in

London.

that is, thinking of Episcopalianism that a Bishop ought to interfere with everything in his diocese. He also is ultraparochial in his views. He has

He has a great deal

a great antipathy and lack of confidence in converts. K 129

I

Henry Edward Manning
am
the
afraid he
is

Roman

spirit,

too inquisitorial, which certainly is not but belongs more to the hard school

of Bishops.

The Roman spirit is to give as much liberty Errington's as possible to priests who are zealous." " new powers view as set forth to the Holy See was that unconsolidated but and new energies are good, powers and energies uncontrolled are bad." Now, Manning
seemed an uncontrolled energy. Meantime the more discerning Pope had made Manning Provost of the Westminster Chapter. Manning was in Rome, and wrote to Wiseman (April 8, 1857) " I cannot but believe that there has been some
:

departure

from your intention in this, remembering our conversation about Dr. Maguire, to whom I shall rejoice to transfer what I think must have been intended for him."

Manning had advised Maguire's appointment, but
vain, for Talbot

in

had reason
I

to write to

Wiseman
I

"

(April
to

9>

J

857)

:

Immediately

received your note
to

went

the

Holy Father and implored him

name Dr. Manning

been
is

It would have Provost, which he has willingly done. difficult for you to pass over Dr. Maguire, but he

London." Manning returned a suspicious and hostile Chapter. According to the Chapter Book, Maguire inquired as to "a design in contemplation to transfer the government of St. Edmund's College from the President's hands to those of some congregation or society." Further, he asked, were some of the professors subject to the Provost " and removable by the Provost"? It was true Manning's zeal had extended to the Diocesan Seminary. The irony was that he was in the Chapter chair. However, "the V.R. Provost, hitherto silent, said he would be happy to explain what he could." Explanations did not satisfy the Canons, who later proceeded to run the Oblates of St. Charles to earth. " The V.R. Provost stated that the examination of the rules of St. Charles ought not to be proceeded with capitularly." A fortnight later Manning
the greatest Gallican in
to face

130

The Wars
was

of Westminster

tried and cross-examined by his own Chapter, as he " to show that the wrote to the Pope, Congregation was to involve the of jurisdiction, episcopal independent Cardinal and myself in contradictions." The trouble was that Vaughan, Vice-President of St. Edmund's, was

an Oblate, and apparently under Manning. Finally, Searle invited Manning to leave the room. But the V.R. It was the Provost remained silent and dignified. Chapter who left the room. with the Manning forwarded his protest to Wiseman, " his his exceeded duties had protest request that if he The Chapter were in question may be expunged." acting on a rumour and they were attacking one of the works of their own Bishop, but they only saw the person
of

Manning, and they plunged to their doom. Wiseman annulled their proceedings, and they appealed to Rome He renitente Pr&posito, for Manning would not sign. threw them a fine mesh
:

"Your
or not.
1.

objections are either from

misapprehension

If so, I

2. 3.

If not, I If

wish them cleared. wish them removed or defined.
defined they are immovable
I

when
go
to

shall ask

leave to

Rome."
himself to

Wiseman went

Rome, but

not

till

after

a

startling development. When the Chapter appealed on a matter of Canon Law, Errington placed his peculiar The Cardinal challenged him gifts at their service. "
:

It is of great moment to me to (December 9, 1858) know whether you have assisted by your advice my Chapter in the course that body has lately been pursuing in my regard." Errington betrayed the grim truth " Were clergymen actually contending at Rome against my own views, I should certainly see no reason against assisting them to present their views." Errington 's object was not to attack the Cardinal, but the Oblates. He wished to rouse " the lion " so that " he will put his
:

Henry Edward Manning
But little as Wiseman wished to play the leonine part, it was not the Oblates whom he crushed. The case was one of Canon Law, but Talbot's indis-

paw on them and crush them."

cretions

made

it

personal.

His

letters afford

a comical

His lining to the ecclesiastical dossiers of the period. amazing simplicity, childish zeal, and naive outspokenness, made him a favourite of the Pope, who amid the subtleties and difficulties of his reign found satisfaction

Talbot wrote to in the guilelessness of this ex-parson. to Wiseman Searle comparing Gregory VII., deserted

by his friends after battle, and accused Errington and "the Anglo-Gallican retrograde spirit in the old clergy " " an entente cordiale to undo all of making 6f London the Cardinal has done during the last eleven years." Searle needlessly showed the letter to Errington, who
wrote to Talbot furiously (February 15, 1859) "These very serious accusations (calumnies if untrue) are contra:

dicted

by the bias

of

my

education,

by the

practical

express declaration of He Talbot returned to the charge. " accused Errington of not acting quite in a straight" forward way towards the Cardinal (February 23, 1859). " Perhaps he and the Pope are the only men on earth of whom you are afraid." The indictment concluded "All the converts are snubbed. Every institution is
life,
:

testimony of my their untruth."

and by

my

discouraged merely because it is new. All the nuns are Now, my dear Dr. trembling at your very name. Errington, are not these signs of a radical anti-Roman
spirit?"

Talbot was the unwitting cause of the Errington Case, for, had he not attacked his orthodoxy, Errington would have resigned of his free will. In 1855 he had suggested " his own removal to Talbot My coadjutorship will not work well, and, like so many others, probably be the source of much more evil than good." Now that Wiseman was anxious to be rid of Errington, it was in vain
:

132

The Wars
that Talbot
!

of Westminster

" a fine proposed a West Indian see with cathedral and a salary of ^1,000 a year to do what you like with" Errington did not feel he was "just cut out for Trinidad." and rightly declined. He stood his ground on the security of Canon Law. Talbot, who used to convert infidels by simply telling them they were dying, now threatened Errington with "more vigorous measures," and with parsonic wrath exclaimed: "I cannot help seeing that the Oratorians and even Dr.
the

Manning are doing a great work in London. Woe to man who checks the work of God!" He implored " not to cut your own throat." Errington Errington " him for the continued interest you are thanked dryly Talbot gave him the inforin welfare"! my taking mation that Wiseman was seeking his dismissal, and a scene occurred in London of which Wiseman wrote " I owe it to my position as a Member (May 10, 1859)
:

of the Sacred College, as Metropolitan and as Ordinary, not to allow so gross an insult in my own house and at

my own

table

and

to

my

face to pass over.
to

The Holy
it

See can be the only judge between us, and can and, I fear, I must appeal."

alone

I

Rome, always puzzled by English quarrels, which she attributed to native character rather than to sustained
lack of charity, referred the Chapter to a Synod, where Errington and Grant carried a decree on the Colleges

against

their broken-hearted Metropolitan. Talbot " that now the Holy Father thought this so flagrant will have no difficulty to desire him to retire when he comes to Rome, and to offer him Trinidad or Calcutta." The two Archbishops had parted for ever without fare-

well.

That winter they repaired to Rome. The Pope heard Errington on December 23, 1859. Their colloquy survives in Errington's handwriting, George v. Pius. " G. Standing. P. Dry manner. "P. You have come for your affairs? G. Yes. P What dispositions do you bring ? G. doubts meaning
133

Henry Edward Manning
P. Are you ready to do the best, what the Church require? G. Yes, of course. P. I don't blame your motives, but you cannot get on. This systematic opposition to the Cardinal is incompatible with the continuance of the good going on in England, and I hope you will make the sacrifice and G. There is no systematic retire, as one must of the two. I hope you will see how erroneous are the opposition.

and looks up.

interests of the

to read

that one must retire. You have exceeded your faculties, you have spoken in opposition to the Cardinal in Synod without any right to speak, and after you had yourself inquired into the subject you have put up the Chapter against the Cardinal. I hope you will make the sacrifice. You may think awhile about it. G. I am ready to obey, as I "have already said in my letter to Propaganda, but when incorrect accusations have been made against me and those who think with me on the state of England, I can't do anything direct nor confirm the accusation by resignation. P. You may write, and, as you will probably be remaining fifteen or twenty days, you will have time to explain all. I will speak to Barnabo."

representations which have been made when you come my written statement. P. You may make it, but I have the authority of five or six English Bishops

The
be
evil

case

Manning, who wrote
spoken
called

was fought on the merits or demerits to Wiseman "It was enough
:

of
to

of there, for since

I

lost all that

can be
:

in England the Holy See has been my home and consolation." Talbot wrote (January 29, 1860) " I

home

think that your personal character is being attacked. You have, however, here a very powerful defender in Cardinal Wiseman, who is advocating your cause,

though he has to contend against a heartless and unRome is properly called the generous antagonist. Eternal City, because they never decide a question before they have heard all the pros and cons. There is no place in the world where they are more impartial." Manning had lifted his cause to a higher plane,

"whether or no the Church in England shall content and confine itself to a better administration of Sacra134

The Wars
ments
in

of Westminster

to the small communion of Catholic sojourners shall mingle itself in the life of the English people, act upon its intelligence by a mature

England or

Catholic culture, upon its will by a larger and more vigorous exercise of the powers which are set in motion

by the

restoration of the Hierarchy."

Wiseman recounted Manning's services to Propaganda, the schools and churches he had built, but thought it best to summon him to Rome, where Manning pleaded " Holy Father, suffer me to add that I have found the work of beginning a Congregation is no light or easy It is no wonder that there should appear to the task. Archbishop of Trebizond some things to censure. But I it is easier to censure than establish such a work. might at least have looked for some clemency of judgment, some kindly forbearance, a little charitable patience, but I found none. (As for Errington) he proceeded first by alienating a priest of the Congregation, next by organising, sustaining, and directing an opposition of the whole Chapter, first against me and then against the Cardinal."
:

6 Bishop Roskell wrote home "I fancy send Dr. Errington on a mission to Hayti." But the Pope allowed him another say. This time " their voices were raised and heard," while the imperturbable Archbishop took down the Pope's words in a notebook, which survives " Kindly received, but kept standing. His Holiness asked when the papers would be ready. I answered that the matter had grown, especially on the chief point, the Oblates. H.H. asked if now that all were sympathising with him in his troubles I could not do so also by doing him the favour of resigning. I answered that when he had read the papers he would think differently. He said the papers would make no difference, as his reasons were our incompatibility. That one of us must go. That it would kill the Cardinal. (Would you like to see him die? Would you like me to tell him to go?)
:

On March

they will

:

135

Henry Edward Manning
I

said that

own condemnation. H.H. said not allow me to sign that I was not to mind the point of honour, about which I was too solicitous; that I must meditate upon it at

my own

honour and that of

my

friends

would

my

where Christ had sacrificed His severe and energetic, and asked me how he could allow me to be at Westminster after
the foot of the Cross,

honour.

The Pope grew

the Cardinal's time with this obstinate character."

Errington asked for a Commission of Cardinals, which Pope granted, with orders to exchange papers. Wiseman sent in a hundred pages of foolscap and fell
the

The Propaganda suspended the interchange, upon which Errington refused to send his statement to the " The Pope. The months passed, and Manning wrote At the end of history of this case is to me fearful."
ill.
:

June, 1860, the Cardinals advised Errington's removal,

though Reisach was against and Marini for Errington, while Barnabo was doubtful. Errington withdrew his case, and on July 5 the Pope asked him to resign. Errington sent Propaganda word that he preferred to suffer judgment, but as he had not offended against Canon Law he could not be judged. The Pope wished
a stubborn servant without taking away his but character, Errington insisted on the Courts. But the Pope is above the Courts, and by his supreme authority removed Errington from the right to succeed " to Westminster. Invariably faithful to my declared principles, I will obey without reservation," Errington wrote. He believed he had been judged outside of Canon Law. " I acknowledged the receipt of the Decree, and declared my submission, expressing the grief I felt at having been deprived of the only means of clearing myself." Manning wrote to Ullathorne (November 20,
to dismiss

1860)

:

was in Rome through the whole of that painful time, living under the same roof and in the most open and perfect confidence with the Cardinal, and employed by him and by Propaganda during his

"

Now,

I

136

The Wars of Westminster
dangerous illness in the most minute and confidential I therefore able to details of all these questions. state with evidence that Dr. Errington's removal was made under the judgment of the first Canonists of Rome,

am

and by a process certainly un-English, but eminently Catholic. That the Cardinal has never by so much as a single word to my knowledge used any such expression as that ascribed to him about dealing as he pleased with the other Bishops. But this I know, these words were written from England to Propaganda by some Bishop or Bishops, not as said by the Cardinal, but as their own argument that no Bishop would be safe. I confess that when I heard it I said to myself that no Bishop who does as Dr. Errington did ought to be safe that is, from the censure of the Holy See." Such was the Errington Case, one of the most famous in Church history. Errington behaved as nobly after as he had been stubborn before. He only desired to fall by Canon Law, and by Canon Law he fell, for in Canon Law the Pope can do no wrong. .The account of the works of the Oblates appealed to the authorities. Manning's defence was that he sought the salvation of England, and the supreme end of the Roman Papacy, with all its delays and faults, is saving the souls of men. It was Manning's novitiate in the sublime strife of ecclesiasts, and he suffered great depression. A haggard look, the hawk-like look of his antagonist, came into his

own
"

features.

He

could not understand the opposition

of the old Catholics to him, and when a convert that he had expected them to have wings,

remarked

Manning
were
in

smiled an exceeding bitter smile, and, as
let
fall

it

spite of himself,
4

any canonical him employed. Talbot wrote to Wiseman: "I proposed him as a fit person to send to Goa, and he would be a fit person to remove the bad Portuguese priests If he would consent to go to the United States or any of the English Colonies
for

Wings with claws !' As Errington had not been removed

"

the words under his breath,

offence, the Bishops were anxious to have

.

137

Henry Edward Manning
But no, Errington you would make no difficulty." decided to wait in England until the subject of his alleged incompatibility was removed. He moved through

England like "a troubled spirit," and, as Talbot " if Dr. remarked, Errington was a bad man there would be no necessity to do anything, but he is a good man, and therefore is doubly dangerous." Cardinal Barnabo suggested Wiseman should send his name in for Trinidad, but the English Bishops who were assisting Wiseman sent in every name except Errington's. And Wiseman was too ill to overrule the Bishops as he used to. The pupils were lined against their old master, who leaned now with all his weight on his new disciple. Lady Eastlake sketched them at the Royal Institution.

"Wiseman
looking

appeared, preceded by sundry very demure-

ecclesiastics,

among whom

the

palest

and

thinnest imaginable was our late Archdeacon Manning. No man can look more miserable than he. The Cardinal
portly, with a feeble, sweet voice and most beautiful " hands, which were always in movement (January 31,
is

1863).

The Errington Case strengthened Manning and Talbot
in their respective positions.

the converts.
1860)
:

have seen almost all your friends turn against you, but I have not for a day wave.red. When put to the test what were they worth ?
I

" Is it Vicar-General in London ? have had enough of them.

It meant the triumph of Talbot wrote to Wiseman (September 8, true that you have made Manning a third

No more

Coadjutors.

We

think your Eminence commences a new era." It was The reign of Manning began in 1860, as Wiseman, an invalid, gradually slipped the helm into his rigid hands. Talbot became the Roman agent of the coming
I

true.

man. His petulance against the old Catholics was redeemed by his passionate service of great men. Bad news at Rome was always broken to Pius by mio buono Giorgio, whose letters to Wiseman were sometimes
138

The Wars

of Westminster
Talbot

finished with Papal postscripts in Pius's hand.

was an unwise but not an unjust steward, and he served
until they came accused each other, but Manning .They his to their words record kept temper sufficiently

Manning with indiscreet love. At home Searle thwarted Manning

into conflict.

:

For two years I have considered your conduct circumventing and undermining me both in the Chapter and out of it as not straightforward. S. You ought to have spoken first to me. M. I owe you no I have a duty to the Cardinal and none to relations. Do S. you. you consider that you have a right to judge M. Certainly I do, if of questions between Bishops? one is my own, whom I see being compromised in a way to do him great harm, and if the other brings the case
in

"M.

to

me."
"
rally of the opposition," and to withdraw the Oblates

a There was was compelled

Manning
from
St.

Edmund's

in order to give the

Cardinal peace with the

Old Edmundians, who felt as though an ancestral hall had been surrendered to a parvenu. " One step back in
1861 might be followed by two steps forward in 1862," noted Manning. Wiseman was sick, and the Bishops brought up the Colleges and Trusts at Rome, sending Bishop Clifford into the lists; but the Cardinal sent

spent

Manning, who met Lord Brougham at Avignon and a morning with him at Cannes. No doubt Manning took a little law from him on the Trusts, as he did later in Rome from another Lord Chancellor " I am (December 21, 1861) just going to see Lord Chelmsford, and I mean to make sure of my law without giving him any light in return." In 1854, owing to the Law of Mortmain, Manning and Hope had advised " How can keeping Trusts secret, and he asked now, the Bishops submit their Trusts to the Commission if they thereby recognise the altum dominium in the State?" The Bishops watched uneasily, while Manning
:

139

Henry Edward Manning
reported that Mgr. Manning has in his past efforts about the been quite to Grant wrote Ullathorne, upon whom Trusts," a view to peace-making. act to with Manning began Ullathorne wrote to Wiseman (March 7, 1862) :

won

his case.

"It

is

successful

and even in the thirst for But in a long conversation which Mgr. Manning introduced on that subject I could not but express my own impression that it would take a little time to heal the wounds that have been opened in our Hierarchy, and to this sentiment he gave a reluctant acquiescence. Your Eminence will be happy to know that Dr. Manning is materially improved in health, and that he is following his important mission to the
I

"

join

you

in the desire
spirit.

peace and union of

Protestants

congregated

in

Rome

with

considerable

prospects of success."

In the summer Wiseman came to Rome for the Canonisation of the Japanese martyrs, and touched his
zenith, in Manning's words, "surrounded by half the Bishops of the world, of every language and of every

land, chosen

by them as

their chief to fashion their

words

in declaring to the Sovereign Pontiff their filial obedience to the Spiritual and Temporal Power." Wiseman's

triumph after an interview with the Emperor Napoleon that Talbot thought it was time to choose another Coadjutor. Writing of Errington (November " I should like to see him out of England, n, 1862) where he continues to be a kind of cheval de bataille I am afraid of mischief in against your Eminence. if is he England again brought into contact with

was such

:

Manning and
movement."
a

others

who

are heading

the

Catholic

name that Wiseman (January
"

That winter .Talbot suggested to the Pope was agreeable to Manning, for he wrote to
2,

1863)

:

Manning has shown me a letter from your Eminence from which it appears that you have misunderstood a letter which I wrote to you by order of the Holy Father. I mentioned that it was his wish that you should consent
140

The Wars of Westminster
to the nomination of Dr. Ullathorne as your coadjutor. This the Pope desired me to say to your Eminence in order to prevent a scandal, which would certainly take place in England in case, quod avertat Deus, you were suddenly taken from us to a better world. The Pope desired me to express this wish, as he said to Herbert Vaughan that before his own death he was determined From your to secure the succession of Westminster. letter to Mgr. Manning it appears that you will immediately assent to this plan as soon as you are certain that I can it is the expressed wish of the Holy Father. declare to you that such is the case, and Mgr. Manning is a witness."

Though Talbot insisted that such a wish was a command, Wiseman hesitated. He only wished peace with the Bishops, and a second Coadjutor meant a second war. Manning was sent back to Rome to preach the Lent and maintain the status quo, writing an affectionate
line to Ullathorne
:

"We had indeed a trying time last good has come out of it, and still more, It has always seemed to I believe, will come hereafter. me that the firmest public oppositions need make no
year, but great

personal or private variances,

if

only

men

will

be just

in

word and deed." Cardinal Barnabo met him with "two great hugs!" and all was smooth at Rome until Bishop Clifford " I suppose, therefore, I telegraphed he was coming.
shall

have a duel," wrote Manning. They were about on the College question when Manning offered terms, as he wrote to Ullathorne (May 27, 1863) " Dr. Clifford and I had three congressi after the
to conflict
:

of last year. summed the College question three points, and on two we were agreed. agreed to urge that the Colleges should be preserved in their integrity. That the rights of the Ordinaries should be preserved inviolate as to all spiritual jurisdiction, as to the nomination of Rector and Professors, as to discipline and internal administration. These two points seem to me to cover all that you were anxious about."

manner up into

We

We

141

Henry Edward Manning
But the Decree went against Wiseman, who could not be comforted by Manning's interpretation (July 30,
1863)
:

"The

Seminaries.
the

were always moral victories. But poor Wiseman was would stir him to take dying, and no hints from Rome

winnowing

in ensuring Diocesan great battle has ended Another vast gain of the long contest is of principles." Manning's few defeats

another Coadjutor. He had made up his mind that the war of succession should follow and not precede his own death. This summer Talbot made the first suggestion
of
11,

what was
1863):

at the

back of Wiseman's own mind (May

"Cardinal Barnabo has advised me to write a friendly letter to your Eminence in perfect confidence to suggest

means that could avert so grievous a scandal as Dr. Errington asserting his right to Westminster, which he evidently intends to do. He wishes you to ask for a Coadjutor. In the Episcopal body I do not see anyone to sympathise with you, and who would not be inclined to undo the work you have been doing. Mgr. Manning has come out nobly this year in Rome. He has gained immensely in the opinion of the Pope, and I may say of all the Cardinals. They are open-mouthed about him. He is looked upon by all as a first-rate man, especially since his discourse at the Trinitd. He is certainly immensely improved, and as different from what he was
the only
ten years

ago as possible. He is much more sciolto and open. Everyone sees that he is called to do great things in England (an he sent a Riservata May 29, 1863) I suppose Manning has been in London some time. He is very much admired here, and the Cardinals say he ought to be a Bishop. More than one wish him to be your successor in the See of Westminster. Cardinal Barnabo is so naturally timid and afraid of the Bishops that he would dread such a measure. I should not at all."
:

Wiseman shared Barnabo's timidity, for he drew his pen through the note. As Manning wrote the next
month: "Some who are near the Cardinal
intimidate him.
I

suspect

And

Searle
142

is

Searle."

The Wars

of Westminster

Errington having refused Trinidad, the Governor of the Island refused to recognise a naturalised subject as Archbishop. Here was a case for Manning's gifts, and " I have been to he wrote to Wiseman (July 27, 1863) the Colonial Office, and have ascertained that in the Civil Service of the Colonies naturalised subjects are not excluded. I am therefore going to write and ask that the question be raised with the Governor and Legislature in Trinidad whether they intended to make the eccleI will siastical services more exclusive than the civil. write to the Duke of Newcastle to-night and to Cardinal B6. to-morrow." The Governor was a nephew of the Eton Head-master Keate, and, as an old Etonian, TalCot chimed in "I have told the Holy Father and Cardinal B6. all you have done, and they quite approve of your
: :

having written to the Governor of Trinidad, although I not very sanguine about the result of our letters." " If King Errington remained, and Manning wrote: Stork comes the frogs must look sharp." He could have had no idea that his name was being mooted, for it was " It is to Wiseman Talbot wrote (November 3, 1863) impossible for many reasons that they should think of

am

:

naming Manning your Coadjutor, with future succession. The only Bishop at all equal to such a position is Dr. Ullathorne. He has many faults, but with them all he is a good Bishop and will not undo your w ork. The plan would be to name him Coadjutor with orders to remain as Bishop of Birmingham as long as you live. The second part of the plan, not matured yet, would be to make Mgr. Manning a Bishop in partibus to help you
r

London. It has also been suggested that he should succeed to Birmingham. What you must do is simply to write to the Pope to ask for a Coadjutor, as the Holy Father, with great delicacy, says that asking one must
in

come from your Eminence, and he wished you to do so." Wiseman was wringing his hands and heart in mental misery. A pathetic exchange occurred between him and
143

Henry Edward Manning
" Of course I am autumn. lonely," wrote " and have no means of the Cardinal, keeping my thoughts out of the two extremes of over-activity and self-devouring, except inward efforts and contests which feel like riding a very hard-mouthed horse along the top of a cliff by way of recreation. However, I must bear my cross as it is shaped for me, but only God knows what I

Manning

that

suffer

inwardly at times.

I

could not write

it."

Manning

replied : "Years of trial in which I have had the privilege of suffering with you have confirmed it, and when you

allow

me

to express

it

I

have one of the

liveliest satis-

In the winter Manning went to Rome, and as the only way out of the difficulty proposed Ullathorne's name to the Pope, with Barnabo's sanction (December 7, 1863). He immediately informed Ullathorne of his converse with Barnabo, in which
factions
to
I replied that the necessity was very urgent for it, for the sake of the Holy See, for the sake of the Episcopate, and to prevent uncertainty, anxiety, etc., to avoid suspicions and sedition among the clergy. That the person most fitting to meet the case would be Mgr. Ullathorne, being the second in point of seniority, the most capable, the recognised interpreter of Wiseman. Cardinal Bo. has encouraged me to repeat these words of mine to your

which remain

me."

"

lordship."

But Wiseman did not approve the diplomatic coup arranged by Manning and Barnabo, writing (December 26, 1863): "The sore Birmingham business weighs
heavily
I

have ever

upon me by a graver sense of responsibility than felt, by the struggle between conscience and

compliance.

With Dr. Ullathorne Bo. has corresponded

directly, and priests of this diocese know question and answer, and from them I have learnt them. Am I so

party to the matter that I should be the last to hear ?" In vain Manning tried to fill the vacancy he was destined to fill himself, pointing out that Ullathorne would give the Chapter " neither victory nor defeat, but
little
it

of

144

The Wars of Westminster
a master." At Wiseman's entreaty the Pope allowed the matter to lapse, and Talbot wrote sadly to Wiseman (February 19, 1864)
I have made up my mind to wash my hands entirely of the affair. All I have done I did under obedience to the Holy Father and Cardinal Barnabo. I understand now that, although Barnabo originated the whole idea, and three distinct times desired me to write to your Eminence, he has made a catspaw of me, and when the

"

row comes has abandoned me."

Though Manning was now a Protonotary, he was wearied by the wars of Westminster, and wrote to Ullathorne, now his friend among the Bishops. To a Benedictine he confided his desire to retire to a Benedictine cell (February 18, 1864)
:

were very malicious against Protonotaries, and by the Tiber would hardly cure you. However, if I had any personal secrets, there are few I would sooner tell them to than to you. But there are none. I have been much mortified by the folly of the newspapers. But the only altiora before me are, I hope, St. Benedict's twelve steps and the rest which remains for us. I do not believe, monk as you call yourself, that you desire this more than I do. And I have every year a stronger wish to be released from the active life which I have had
three walks
for

"You

more than

thirty years,

and not

to

make

it

heavier."

indignation which Manning excited in some appears in a letter from Dr. Neve of the English College to Bishop Clifford (February 13, 1864)
circles
:

The

"Manning and
meddlers
it

his

people are the offenders and

was

in everything. I told Vaughan that I thought not his business to interfere. He, however, main-

tained his views, and thought that

Manning or Ullathorne

ought to be named Coadjutor. There will be no peace as long as Manning is here. He is always scheming. He has schemed for me a complete change in the management of this college. He has schemed an English University in Rome, to which the Pope says that there
145

L

Henry Edward Manning
is is

come to only one objection, that no one will to be the head of it."
Manning's
schemes
were
at
least

it.

Stonor

not

selfish

a

University for Stonor, an Archbishopric for Ullathorne, returned to London, a Benedictine cowl for himself !

He

where Fr. Butler received back Sibthorp, whose Anglican On apostasy had once anguished him and Gladstone. the occasion of his Catholic apostasy Wiseman had taken to his bed, from which he now rose to hear the prodigal say Mass once more. Talbot tried to restore the sick " I am Cardinal your friend heart and soul, and I poohpooh all the stupid things people say against you. I look upon you as the greatest prelate in the Church, and I tell everyone so in Rome, from the Pope downwards. I think they are all convinced of it." Manning was and privately converting Lady publicly fighting Pusey Herbert, to whom he wrote (December 10, 1864)
: :

"The truth, beauty, sweetness, self-evidence of the Catholic Church is beyond all I ever dreamed before I entered it. I wonder when those who enter it grumble and complain, and doubt whether they have souls or at least hearts. Certainly, without ceasing to be art I have got Nationalism out of my soul, and Englishman I think it is going out of yours."
next month the dying Cardinal sent him to Rome " When we parted he was standing on the threshold of his room in the full height of his stature, as if once more in health. And with his benediction and embrace he dismissed me, to see him no more." Manning's mind was troubled with the Liberalism of the day, with Garibaldi's visit, with the outcry against the Pope's Syllabus, and Gladstone's attack on the From Dover he wrote to the latter Naples prisons.

The

for the last time.

(January n, 1865)
"
I

:

doubt

if

difficult position in

you have any idea of the delicate and which in these last fourteen years I
146

The Wars

of Westminster

have been placed. You may perhaps judge of it by what you have had to meet from men with whom you once acted in politics, from whom you were afterwards But the odium politicum is a mild disease, separated. a mere chicken-pox, after all, compared with other maladies, and now we shall have many nuts to crack, I imagine, in these eighty Propositions, which I suppose think monstrous and mediaeval." [And from Rome] you " I have long wished to say to you that there is one act in your public life which has given me a profound sense I mean your pamphlet on the prisons of of injustice. Naples. I believe there was much to be said against those prisons, but I believe that your statements were exaggerated beyond measure. Now, we both know that the state of our prisons was as bad as anything in Naples. And I remember giving you, when you were at the Colonial Office, a report of Norfolk Island, which for murder, poisoning, and crime exceeded anything I have ever read except the Cities of the Plain.' Do not be offended at me. I believe you were then and are now used by those who are driving on their own purposes, in great part the least you would willingly promote" (February 3, 1865"). [And two days later] "Do not break with the tradition of men in policy which you have grown up in. As I told you, I think you in the balance more than any man of our day. You have a great career before you if you at this time maintain order at home and abroad. But your suffrage speech and Garibaldi's visit contain the germs of a home and foreign policy, popular for a moment, but I believe fatal to your future and to the welfare of two countries."
'

In his weariness of ecclesiastical strife, Manning turned to world-politics to the extent of writing to Gladstone, little thinking that his own career was about to open or that in ten days he and Gladstone would meet
in the antechamber of the dying Wiseman. Manning was suddenly recalled by telegram, and travelled night and day. " I believe he knew me, but we could not be sure." On February 15 the Cardinal was dead. By Wiseman's desire, the only hint given by the dead as to

147

Henry Edward Manning
the succession, Manning preached at the Requiem. It " raised up for us our was on the text of Nehemias, walls that were cast down, who rebuilt our houses."

Who

For the first time Manning broke into gestures from the pulpit as he recalled their common work and the far-off day when the Rector of Lavington had watched the Rector of the English College tending the sick and
in Rome thirty years before. Before he died, Wiseman forgave his Chapter, and bade them choose "that name that you consider most fit and worthy to fill this high office." They chose

dying

Errington

!

148

CHAPTER XI ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER
:

"I always heard a voice saying, Pius IX. to Manning, 1865.

'Put him there, put him there.'"

PROVOST MANNING enjoyed
the Chapter which sent the

and Grant to Rome, " a sort of prism with three sides of one name." He knew that he was countersigning the warrant for his fall, and Talbot was already shivering for his "poor Oblates." The election was followed with intense and anxious interest. From Rome Neve wrote
to Clifford

the honour of presiding over names of Errington, Clifford,

act as

(March 2, 1865) "Six of the Chapter will one man, and so, of course, will carry the election. Morris is entirely devoted to Manning, and Drinkwater
:

writes long letters here in the
:

same sense."

The

six

were not devoted to Manning, and Searle consulted " There is an idea about Errington (February 28, 1865) that the Holy See would consider it an insult if your name were sent in by the Chapter. Can you give me an opinion or intimate a wish?" Errington, who had
retreated to Ireland, replied in a luckless

"

moment (March
insult to
it

3, 1865)

:

There cannot be supposed any
in the

in

sending
it

my name

ordinary form,

when

the reason

which the Holy See did not judge should be at Westminster." The Chapter hesitated, and was advised by Grant not to send Rome, Errington 's name without consulting Rome. however, always bides her counsel since she speaks last, allowing the human element full play first. .Threatening letters arrived from Talbot that if a certain name was on
exists for
I

no longer

expedient that

the

list

Canon Oakeley

they would get a Bishop they would not like. replied that they could not dislike any 149

Henry Edward Manning
choice of the Pope, and with Maguire he insisted on Errington at the top of the terna (March 14, 1865). Of the other two, Grant wrote to Clifford the next day,

You and I can help Dr. Errington more than anyone," and he proposed they should withdraw in favour of their
old master.

"

On February 24 Manning wrote to Talbot deprecating Errington and Clifford, but adding that Ullathorne was " whom I believe in not among the three he had chosen, the sight of God to be the most attached to Rome and to have the most love of souls." His choice has remained a mystery, since the world was told that between February " either no letters were interchanged or 24 and March 18 " the correspondence has not been preserved with Talbot. As a matter of fact, Manning wrote (February 26, 1865)
:

"I have heard that Maguire and Oakeley are busy with O'Neal, that it is rumoured that the postponement of the election is to give time to sound people and
was Grant among the Bishops who proposed the postponement, and I am inclined to believe
it

Propaganda as remember that

to

their

feeling about

Errington.

I

I it is not without concert. inclined, therefore, to think that they may try to put Dr. E. forward. Now, this would be a simple overthrow of the Cardinal's policy and a direct censure on his memory. It would be fatal to

that

am

the work in England if this spirit comes once more into the ascendant. It would also be a stultifying of the Holy See. You must be firm and outspoken, for here we can do little. There are only four of us against six, and the majority carries all before it. The present crisis is not one of men, but of policy, of the whole of the Cardinal's mission and life. It is going onward or backward, Anglicanism or Rome. .The old party and spirit have now their chance. And if the Holy See is timid or wavering we shall have the old times back like a flood. I repeat deliberately that I had rather have Errington than Clifford. Clifford is Errington and water, and under the influence of the old worldly family English tradition which makes the Catholic Church in England an aristocratic close borough."

150

Archbishop of Westminster
He
wrote again (March
6,

1865)

:

"I have reason to know that the Jesuits are working about the See of Westminster. Dr. Clifford's name, I am persuaded, has been put forward by them. Oakeley is in their hands. The sectional personal influence of Farm Street has grown in the last five years. If this be not checked, the work of the Diocese will be dangerously impoverished and impeded. Now, I implore you to use your influence, outspoken and unceasing, to prevent this calamity. One man who could check it and also quiet the Bishops would be Dr. Ullathorne. He well knows all I have told you. A second would be Dr. Cornthwaite, who would be more personally liked. Urge the one or the other with all your power. You may use what I write with Cardinal B6., if you see fit. If anyone wishes to see England deluged by a worldly Catholicism and the real work of the conversion of souls at all crosses and
costs thrown back, let of the old party."
It is

him

yield to the present uprising

not generally known that the British Government supported Clifford, or that Newman (not Manning) was

one of the proposed.
"
1865)
:

Private.

As

Neve wrote to Clifford (March 25, I expected would be the case, Odo
;

Russell has been instructed to promote your nomination I lament that you are so misrepresented as a Liberal."

Manning
I

let

Talbot

know (March

10,

1865):

"I

will

telegraph as you desire on Tuesday.
shall put only

But

to avoid

names
:

I here give the key Cornthwaite, (4) Brown (2) Clifford, (3) of Shrewsbury, (5) Newman, (6) Grant, (7) Errington. I do not think any other names will appear in the Chapter." But Talbot waited in vain for the telegram. Manning's

numbers, of which

(i) Ullathorne,

scruples had overcome

him (March

14, 1865)

:

" In Chapter to-day we had a discussion as to the oath and it has left me under the belief that we are all bound not to anticipate the report of the Bishops to Rome. Even the Chapter does not write to Rome, except
of secrecy,

Henry Edward Manning
through the Bishops. This I feel to bind me, or I should telegraph as you wished. I said the Mass of the Holy Ghost, and in making thanksgiving I resolved that I would not express my mind as to our state until the Holy See shall have named the Archbishop. After that I shall look upon him as named by Our Lord, and shall never
!

I express an opinion. But may God guide you all said once before, if the Holy See hesitates we shall be in great peril of losing half the ground the Cardinal has won for the Church in England. I could not help looking at the majority of the Chapter to-day and asking myself what one thing have these men done for the Church in And when have they not crossed everyall these years. thing the Cardinal has done? And he has gone to his grave without a word from Rome. And they are masters I am sorry not to do as of the situation. you wished,

but

I feel

bound

in conscience."

conscientious propriety. His was chance and could be annihilated only negative, by a single false step. He was in his rights in urging Ullathorne, as Talbot was in privately urging Manning The Government urged Clifford, and the himself. Clifford or Grant. The laity urged Errington, Jesuits because he could fight the Government. Manning wrote
23, 1865): "As to fighting the Government, nothing can be more fatal to us. This Dr. Errington did and forced the Cardinal to do about the Trusts, and

Manning behaved with

(March

we saw the result. want no more fighting within or without, but high principle, high practice." The same day the Bishops considered the names, and Ullathorne
told
to

We
i,

Manning

"

(April

1865)

:

Our meeting was

free,

pleasant,

and harmonious, and as

fraternal as they used

be in old times. As to the names, we had nothing to do in the way of judgment, but simply to forward them." Less pleasant was the reception of the names by the Pope.
to Clifford
:

Neve wrote
"

He rose from his chair, said it would be an insult to him, said then io faccio Pio nono, and that he would " disregard the paper." And again (April 4, 1865) The
'

152

Archbishop of Westminster
is very much disturbed, and there is very great emotion among the Cardinals. Official people feel that perhaps their lives and property depend on the next act and very words of the Pope, and they have really been Barnabo was quite frightened by his excited manner. quite frightened, and on leaving the Pope he sought immediately for some Cardinals to calm him. I am relating facts, not accounting for them. You are quite

"Pope

safe

now

at Clifton."

his brother Michael through Father Fisher in Liverpool. Michael tackled Talbot, and asked what he meant by calling his
in

Meanwhile Errington heard from

Rome

brother incompatible when the object of incompatibility was gone. " He was gentle and guileless throughout. If half be true of what is said of Roman duplicity, he is not fit for Rome." Extracts are curious from subsequent
bulletins sent to Errington
:

April 6, 1865 To-day is a black day, so black that can see nothing but discomfiture. The moment that the Pope saw your Grace's name at the head of the list he struck his breast three times and exclaimed, Questa
:

"

I

'

e un'offesa!'

"

"The list being presented, the Pope 10, 1865 said to have observed with respect to Grant that he was an excellent man, but in his judgment hardly equal to the weight of such a charge. With respect to Clifford that his friends were Odo Russell and the Fathers of the
April
:

is

Questi Inglesi non catechismo ! " The blackest day has now dawned. April 24, 1865 The Pope has written to the Bishops complaining that they did not mark their disapprobation of your election by the Chapter, as he had already signified that you could not succeed to Westminster."
Society.

With

sanno

to Errington, respect '
:

'

il

:

On the previous day it was known that Archbishop Cullen had written in Errington 's favour, but as Ullathorne wrote to Manning (April 23, 1865) " Of course you know that the Pope has given the Bishops a grave rebuke under his own hand on the score
:

153

Henry Edward Manning
your Chapter's handiwork passing through our hands without notice. Of course you know that Grant and Clifford both wrote declining, and the Pope intimates that he consequently prays to be enlightened."
of

Grant sent Clifford word that the Pope said of their " withdrawal that they, though speaking with humility,
presented as alone and qualifed the man of whom I explained my belief that he was not qualified for Westminster." In the storm of counsels, cliques, monitions, and diplomacies which filled Rome the Pope withdrew to pray, reserving the election to himself. Talbot, perceiving "this is a tremendous moment," followed him

With a weary smile the Pope, we Talbot himself, for the Errington imagine, suggested " of faction had wind of it on the "black day April 6, " I trust you will be and by April n Manning wrote sent to us. It will be my happiness to work with you and
to press his views.
:

for

neither
it,

" Nardi says that Birmingham and Manning are the favourable names, that Antonelli backs Manning and the Pope Birmingham. If Clifford does not go to Westminster, would not Ullathorne to Westminster and Manning to Birmingham be a tolerable compromise ?" Grant wrote to Clifford (April " 29, 1865) Mgr. Virtue has just come from Rome. The election was reserved to His Holiness. H.H. said he would put Dr. Errington in any other see, but not in Westminster; that you and I would not be chosen. Talbot fancied Ullathorne would be chosen. Cardinal Barnabo said, Sarebbe un passo forte I' elezione di " Manning.' Clifford also had a curious letter from Neve (April 29,
Michael Errington wrote (April
27, 1865)
: :

probable, reasonable, or imaginable." Nor until the other candidates eliminated themselves,

you." "

Of

his

own

election

Manning thought

it

was was and

'

1865)

:

high station ask if I really think the English Bishops will rebel They ask, Do they speak

"People

in

'

!

154

Archbishop of Westminster
This of the Pope as many of the English do here?' alludes to the following. On April 24, 1864, the Pope pronounced an allocution against the Emperor of Russia, which caused the Russian Ambassador to leave Rome.

Does this great Potentate expect to said, escape the judgment of God ?' On April 24, 1865, almost, perhaps, precisely at the same hour of the day the eldest son of the Emperor dies. Romans speak of this with awe. The English say, Well, the Prince must have died some day.' Michael Errington, a most mild and quiet man, complains at Propaganda that E. should be reported as having been pronounced non idoneum. Propaganda replies to him, He was not said to be non idoneum in genere, but clearly as non idoneum for West" minster.'
' '

The Pope

'

Here we have the Errington case in a nutshell. From men wondered and watched. The Herbert Vaughan wrote from Rio Janeiro enterprising
the ends of the world

(May
of

24, 1865), little dreaming that a future Archbishop Westminster was writing to an elected one
:

I am sure you must be in a severe position just now and have much to suffer. Pati aut mori, that's for you to the end. You cannot do the work Our Lord requires of you in England but by much patience and longI rejoice in your sufferings and in your suffering. witnessing for what is good and true and honourable. I hope you are not at all sharp or severe with those who

"

are against you, or rather

I

and ominously
;

you are that, it stirs up all their bile they hardly know the cause themselves, but it is in two adverbs."
civil.

When

should say coldly reserved

my

As an
to cure

old Catholic,
:

Vaughan spent much time

trying

Manning's parsonic manners, but he was pro" I feel that I have only you left phetic when he added to look to and to love, as I did him. His mantle, like
Elias, falls upon you. Would that it should please God that his office as well as his spirit should descend upon

you too!" It had. After all the human motives and agencies had exhausted themselves for and against the
155

Henry Edward Manning
candidates,

Rome

smiled her eternal smile and chose

Manning.

When
Pallium,

he visited

Rome
learnt

Manning

in September to receive the what had affected the Pope
:

amid the dissension and division
"

The Holy Father looked away from me and looked
'

I remember how also had intimations : nocturn of in Mattins the second struck was reading Bernardine of Siena. I was at that moment Archbishop of Westminster, but I did not know it. The will of the Holy Father was on its way." On May 8 he received the

upwards, and went on speaking as if thinking aloud, I believed I always heard a voice saying to me, saying, " " Put him there, put him there." " I
'

Manning

letter,

and went

to kneel before the Blessed

Sacrament.

a thunderclap. Punch could only point " out that instead of an erring tone," it was obvious that " the bark of Peter needs Manning." The Times, with official bias, described him as "an aspiring refugee," whereas Clifford would have been a " legitimate and
ruler." To Mary Wilberforce Manning " wrote The old Catholics of England have shown me a charity which shows how little The Times knows us." To Samuel he had cause to write (May 17, 1865)

The news was

hereditary
:

:

I thank you for your affectionate letter at this moment which you truly call a great crisis in my life. Our life has indeed been a common one, and it is now drawing to its close. I feel this to be the last reach in the river to me. The burden which has been laid upon me is one under which I could not live if it were not imposed upon me with circumstances of unusual deliberation by the highest will on earth, and if I were not supported by the charity and prayers of those who are committed to me in a way which surpasses all I could ever venture to hope."

"

de Vere he wrote, and he rather startled illusion,"

To Aubrey

"

It all

seems so

like
:

am

Rome by

replying

an " I

astonished,

and

feel

I

had gone mad."

He was

156

Archbishop of Westminster
affected

by the

loyalty of the old Catholics.

The

blade,

which had been bent and strained, leaped to rectitude in If the penal rust stiffened it, it was still the his hand. Neither Bishops nor priests retrusty sword of Peter. volted. True to the rock out of which they were digged,
the old

Seminary

Manning immediately secured
he had failed as Provost.
General.

priests stood to the salute. their affection, of

He confirmed

which O'Neal as Vicar-

dying Maguire daily till the " Your footsteps on the stair are like music to my ear." He seemed not to wish the memory of their warfare to be carried into the next world. To the
latter confessed,

He

visited the

a

lay ear the strife of ecclesiasts is strange mundane echo of "there was war in

and inscrutable, Heaven." But

even when fighting for principles,

it is a principle with the clergy to forgive at the last, for forgiveness is also their metier. Manning arranged for Searle's financial

I wish comfort, so that twenty years later Searle wrote I endeavoured to to say that in opposing you oppose you honestly, and, as far as human frailty would permit, to oppose you without violating Christian charity. How
:

"

far I failed is
I

to God alone, but for what I failed from God and from your Eminence." in, beg pardon What was of more importance at the moment was his

known

confession
tell

"

:

I

owe

it

in reparation to

Dr. Manning to

that his letters to the Cardinal prove that all he did was done in obedience to the Cardinal."

Manning's content, Lady Herbert was "You will find her a most active and able coadjutrix in London," wrote the irrepressible Talbot, who, much to the Pope's amusement, claimed the " credit of Manning's election. What a diplomatist you are to make what you wished come to pass !" said Pio, and, like Manning, was too kind to suggest other possible
to

To add

received in

Rome.

reasons.

Lady Herbert wrote (May

21, 1865)

:

I have been like a bee collecting all the honey I can here about you, and thank God there is more than of 157

"

Henry Edward Manning
The Borghese family and, of course, dear Cardinal Reisach are delighted at your appointment, One and Cardinal Antonelli, now that it is done opinion seems universal among those who really love you, and that is that you should be consecrated in England and then come straight here for the Pallium. The Pope spoke of it to me, but I did not dare say anyvinegar.
!

thing in reply."

Manning's desire was consecration from the Pope, but on Ullathorne's advice he received it from his suffragans in order to unite them. Talbot chimed in (May 20, 1865) " The act must appear as emanating from yourself, and had not even mention my name, as half better you England already thinks that I have made you Arch:

bishop not that I care, but that this impression confirms what Dr. E. used to say, that it was not the Holy Ghost that governs the Church, but Mgr. Talbot. The have had lessons without Bishops lately enough being made to think that they cannot even consecrate a

Bishop!" Manning's next step was to conciliate the Bishops. He had no difficulty with Ullathorne, who wrote (May
10,

1865)

:

expansion of the breast, which proved to me that I had been for some days under an unconscious pressure of care. I never yet congratulated a Bishop or Archbishop on his nomination, and I do not do so now. I only congratulate the Archdiocese. Your thoughts are too gravely occupied at this moment to spare me a smile at my congratulating myself in getting rid of the Protonotary. But as Archbishop I hope you will believe me your faithful and obedient Suffragan.*'
158

did you not drop me one line with the news? did not think what it was best to do before the event, that was the Pope's business. But since the fact I think, under all circumstances, he could not have done much better. When I read the announcement I broke into a little laugh, and suddenly found a sort of lightening and

"Why

I

Archbishop of Westminster
Manning
"
replied

(May n,

1865)

:

I had so fully expected you to be put over us, or if not you Mgr. Talbot, that when I read Rinaldini's letter, for two days I thought it was an error. Until my letter of last night came from Rome I never ceased to doubt. And now, my dear lord, I feel altogether sad not that I misgive the pity and power of Our Lord to help me, but because I can see nothing but my own un worthiness. I know you will always let me turn to you, speak with you, as I have in times past. One desire I have above all, and for that I would lay down not only this trust, but hope I mean the true and perfect union of heart still more among all those to whom I am now, contrary to all my demerits, the most closely united in the world I mean
; :

yourself and your colleagues. Though I do feel, as you say, in no mood for merriment, yet I cannot help laughing at your joy in having got rid of the protonotorial gadfly."

With you, my Clifford he threw a polite feeler : dear lord, the recollection of our congressetti in Rome
gives me an assurance that we shall not have difficulty, unless I create it, which I pray God I never may." But
the Errington party were far from friendly feelings.

To

"

Canon Oakeley, though a convert and an opponent the Chapter, wrote (May n, 1865)
:

in

I own to having been fretted almost to exasperation under a sense of the injustice of which I believed him to be the victim. I could allow for your natural feelings in defence of your own Congregation. Well, Dr. Errington was removed, and I have never doubted that the Holy See acted for the best. But I could not feel towards you as I wished. Still, I wished to believe I was mistaken as late as last Friday, when one of the English Bishops told me that he went to Cardinal Barnabo and said, Can nothing be done in Dr. Errington's case?' He told me the Cardinal replied, What can I do so long as Manning, Patterson, and Allies are pouring into the Pope's ear drop by drop all kinds of charges against Errington ?'
' '

"

'

159

Henry Edward Manning
As
this is the version of

Manning's conduct which
it

has been since popularised,

is

interesting to publish
:

Manning's answer (May 17, 1865) " No change of relations between us will limit the freedom with which I will hear all you wish to say, and with which I will show you the proofs that in the points referred to in your letter, especially in the statement alleged to be made by Cardinal Barnabo, you have been misled into a belief, not perhaps unnatural, but contrary To do this it will be necessary to show you to fact. papers which are in my possession, and I shall be happy to do so. I also have been the subject of this drop by drop treatment. And the consciousness of its injustice imposed on me the duty to be silent until fairly appealed have passed through years to, as you have done. which would never have been saddened if events of which I had no knowledge till they inflicted themselves on me in pain and opposition had not been caused by others."
'
'

We

Errington's attitude was in keeping with his stern and " The decision of noble character. He wrote to O'Neal Rome being to us the manifestation of the will of God, we have the best grounds to trust that the welfare of the He had see has been most effectually provided for." " after Talbot's threatenallowed his name to be pressed ing letter to the Chapter." To Grant he wrote (May 24, " I cannot doubt that 1865) you and Dr. Clifford sacri:

:

yourselves to further my restoration. Though extremely sorry for the result, I must say that I never felt so deeply any act of kindness." And he added " I have no or : should like to get up the books, grimly
ficed

Canon Law and

penalties for intimidating elections!"

Not without honour Errington passes from the scene to which he would never allow Manning to recall him. He fell back into the ranks which Manning was to command, and found his Elba, if not in Trinidad, in the Isle of Man, where he ministered as a simple priest. The discipline which he had given to others he now applied to himself, and until the hour of his death twenty years
160

Archbishop of Westminster
There was no
he uttered no word of resentment or complaint. criticism or conspiracy against the new ruler. Rome had spoken, and Archbishop Errington
later
silent.
if

was

Manning an Archbishop, people wondered

his

brother-in-law could properly be promoted to the same On the only occasion they met, Bishop Samuel title. " I believe you are now an Archbishop." Manning, said,

who used
"

nodded his humble assent. gentleman also an Archbishop ?" continued Samuel, pointing to Manning's chaplain as though to emphasise how very much easier it was to become a Roman than an Anglican Archbishop.
to tell the story,

And

is

that

to pastoral servitude for life, Manning himself prepared by retreat with the Passionists. Unto he lifted up his eyes for help. During a week Highgate he filled a book with recollections of the past and vivid anticipations of the future. He looked back into all his life from the beginning, and steadied his soul to meet

Condemned

the avalanche of hopes

and

fears, resolutions
It is

and

inten-

tions, with which he was beset.

only possible to

comb

that vivid
29,

and tangled

skein.

vividly

was nineteen God converted me to Himself. I remember great fear of judgment when I was three and about nine. Again when I was confirmed. I remember then that God drew me by a sense of sweetness which was soon lost. But at nineteen or twenty I changed my back. But life, and, with little change, have never gone

When

Mary's, the Sacred countenance wounded and darkened by sorrow and suffering. Now, if I were an When Angel I should not fulfil this predestination. I remember my childhood, boyhood, and youth, the companions who are now dead or, worse still, twice dead, it is a miracle of love and grace that I am alive.
at St.
.

1565: First Day. It has impressed itself that God has predestinated me to Eternal Life, but that the way is by conformity to His Son. His Image is the Volto Sagro which hangs over my bed

"May

upon me

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I

161

M

Henry Edward Manning
God held me when I did not know it. He then called me out of politics and the world on which I was bent. He called me, as I then believed, to be a Pastor. He then called me to serve Him at the cost of all things as a He then called me to be a priest. He then Catholic. called me to be an Oblate. He has now called me to the greatest Cross of my life and to the greatest separation from the world. These are six separations, six ascensiones in corde. Above all, this last act of His Vicar,
. .
.

contrary to all human agencies, prejudices, oppositions, influences, out of all order and overpassing all the fixed
conditions.
Finally, it was done on Pastor Bonus Sunday, and at the very hour that I was preaching to my poor flock on the Good Shepherd. ... I feel thankful that this has not come upon me sooner, for if I were ten years younger I should be ten years foolisher. I hope
. .
.

to make fewer mistakes. ... I feel the shortness of life almost to suspend my power of beginning new works. I don't think any pleasure or society or worldly honour have hold over me. I have been so long unpopular and

disliked and misrepresented that I hope I have expiated the flood of popularity I had before I was in the truth and healed of the temptation for the future. But I must watch over this, and if at any time I cease to find pleasure in the lowest and hardest works of the Pastoral care, or if I ever soften down the truth or am silent when I ought to speak out, I shall have a sign that the world is still
in

me.

Such a life as mine, jo, 1865: Second Day. so long, so full of events, so full of precipitation and activity, of great graces and responsibilities, must be full I can well believe of temptations, illusions, and sins. that with many of the gifts and excellencies of Satan, in the sight of God and His Saints I may be as hateful as Satan. It is a mean friendship which avoids only a final breach, but all day long goes to the verge of it. ... And I know that there is often only the difference of a degree between venial and mortal sin, and that therefore I am with my eyes open on the verge of mortal sin. Only a plank between me and eternal death. And with all my

"May

graces,

what a damnation, like Balaam and Judas and Caiaphas Every day for the last twenty years I have
!

162

Archbishop of Westminster
prayed God to deliver me from the blood of souls. Since I have been a priest I fear I have never been what a priest ought to be. And now that I am bid to go before that flock, when every eye will be turned upon me both within and without the fold, both friendly and hostile, how can I escape? ... I use daily a form of prayer, very brief, which I made about twenty years ago for myself and out of my actual experience. Sometimes I go through it at once, sometimes I dwell on it and can make it of any length, but I should feel as if I had left my prayers unsaid if I did not use it daily. I find I can the pray better walking or sitting than kneeling chief prayer I make in the day is by talking to Our Lord of what I am doing or suffering or intending or fearing. I feel that if I am not directly thinking of God, He is the background of thoughts or the atmosphere or the light in which I am thinking. But I feel this to be a low state, yet it is a safe one, I trust, being the twilight way of faith, in which I trust there are fewer illusions. There is in me a "May 31, 1865: Third Day. great turn for sloth, and this is the more to be watched because it is masked by a great natural activity of body and mind. Whatsoever pleases me or serves my ends I labour for with an intensity and decision which looks like It is true, indeed, that the Grace of God has fervour. turned me away from the pursuit of honour in the world, from indulgence in luxuries, and the like. Since I was twenty I turned from most of them. Since I was twentyfour from all of them. I remember when I was twentyfive to twenty-seven I used to say, I have not a particle
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

'

of earth ambition.' to ambition came upon
. .

of temptations flatteries, great friendships, political relations, the Court, the secret certainty of a future. I was conscious of a sweetness in all this, both as present and as to come. But two things I can
.

Then
.

all
.

manner

me

.

say I loved work more than all, and I was perpetually crossing all my future by following unpopular truths in the face of unpopular opinion. People were expecting and predicting all things for me, and I was making them Since I came into the Truth I hardly impossible. dare to judge for myself. ... I cannot say that I have I was no deliberately acted on any ambitious intention.
: . .
.

163

Henry Edward Manning
sooner in the Church than my name came in the newspapers for Southwark, then as Coadjutor, then for Nottingham, then for Clifton, then I was elected for Northampton. God knows, before Whom I write, that O my God, no word or deed of mine provoked this. if in this there has been ambition, make me to see it as Thou seest it, lest I go down to the pit deceiving myself. And let not this be the end of more than thirty years of natural activity. Let me not hear the sentence, Verily thou hast thy reward.' Rather than lose Thee, not only hereafter, but now in this life, I would lay down all in the world and live and die out of sight and out of mind, if only Thou remember me and forget all my sins. Let me not climb up here unbidden or 'by another way,' nor let me offer myself uncalled, or fill this place by my
.

.

.

'

own
is

will or
?

by the

will of
I

others
to

what will go with me into the next world ? I desire for what remains to me to live by a horarium, and
"

ending, what have

man. done for
.

.

And now that my own soul or
.

life

for

make a conscience
June
i,

of time.

own soul, how shall I answer for the flock ? My only hope is in the Precious Blood. Yet I know that in 1848, when I thought I might be dying, I was overwhelmed with fear, and in 1860 when I thought myself to be in
. .

1865: Fourth Day. I have always had a great fear of death. But I fear still more the first meeting with God. I cannot conceive my standing before Him and being saved. When I begin to analyse any one action of my life I am self-condemned, and I hide myself from myself. But I cannot hide myself from God. ... I know that I shall die as I live. What I am now I shall be then, and death works no miracles. As I die I shall be judged. ... If I cannot answer for my
. . .

.

Our Lord encouraging me
life.

I believe I should be so again. I the danger of losing my soul by this very deeply elevation. ... I feel as if Our Lord had called me by name and touched me with His hand. The letter of the Holy Father which came to-day is more like the voice of

danger
feel

at sea.

And

directly than
.

activity has made me use time, made me lose grace.

But Saul was specially chosen.

any event
.
.

in

my

My

natural

my

spiritual sloth has

164

"

Archbishop of Westminster
June
2,

to others

I trust that I am In no habit of conscious variance with the Will of God. At times I am carried away, but it is as the lurches of a ship at sea which rights One thing consoles me. He has suffered again. me to try to convert souls to Him, which seems to imply that He has first converted my own. I remember the time when some simple soul asked me why I spoke so seldom of the Holy Spirit. I found it was true, and I resolved from that time to make every day an act of I do not think I reparation to the Holy Ghost. ... have ever omitted this for one day in all these years. My mind began to turn to the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. I searched for books upon it. I made notes to write about it. I began twice a book upon it ... the Holy Father for a month asks the light of the Holy

1865: Fifth Day. I have preached for years about conversion to God, but am I converted

myself?

.

.

.

then, overpassing all usage and precedents, inspired to name M.' And letters from the most diverse and unlikely persons all recognise and explicitly ascribe this event to Him. I do not know how to interpret all this except one way, or how to doubt the
Spirit,
'

and

says,

I

am

only conclusion. Now, all this may be no more than carrying me up to the pinnacle of the Temple that my pride or infidelity to Grace may the more signally

June 3, 1865: Sixth Day. But being set upon such a height, I feel a fear which no words can express. If the Holy Ghost is so near me, so, I believe, is the Spirit of Evil. I feel as if the whole atmosphere round me were alive and astir with the enemies of my soul. It is certain that I shall be assailed more than any man. And my fall would be as when a standard-bearer falleth. I feel this fear so great that I could almost desire to take sanctuary for life within the shelter of some Religious House. ... I resolve to endeavour to rest upon the surface of the love of God, which lifts me as the flood lifted the ark, and so to go upon the face of the waters, carried onward by the Spirit, ubi vult. It is want of this Spirit that has made me anxious and careful. It is the little I have of it which has made me sleep soundly and quietly in all these years. If I had had more, I should
.

me. destroy "

.

.

165

Henry Edward Manning
have been stronger and happier; if I had had less, I should have worn out and died. ... I desire to hold inviolate the doctrines and laws of the Church without compromise, and I resolve by the Pallium of St. Thomas so to do. My purpose is to nominate a council of persons
to advise
'

was known, Now you will never hear the Truth again.' Everybody in high place stands in a room full of mirrors and sees himself multiplied without end by a servile reflection. My desire is to live the most retired life I can consistently with the government of the Diocese ... to give four days a week, from 10 to i, for receiving priests and laymen on business. I have given every day.) As to mixing in the (1883 would all dining out. wish be to decline world, my I wish never to be seen except at work or on occasions of legitimate recreation, such as the Royal Academy. If I were to undertake souls one by one, I should neglect them by thousands. For twenty years I have been

me on all matters except those strictly of the Bishop's own conscience. (1883 This resolution came to nothing, from need of prompt decisions, from difficulty Somein rinding men, from the risks of discussion.)
. .

.

body

said to

me when

the election

'

:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

out of society. Since 1857 my life at Bayswater has been as much out of sight as if I had been in Australia. "June 4, 1865: Seventh Day. By nature I am very irascible, and till the Grace of God converted me I was proud, cold, and repulsive. Since then I hope less so, but I have always been cold and distant except to those whom I personally loved. It is on second thoughts that I dislike anyone. When I became a Catholic I broke all these bonds. Then they did not spare me. And I had to defend myself and strike. Then afterwards I had to pass through an austere time. When I entered the Church I had much to suffer, less from Protestants than from Catholics, less from old Catholics than from In these converts, excepting only the Chapter affair. fourteen years I have been, with all my strength put out sometimes, warding off blows, sometimes rowing at the oar, and I know that both in word and in will my character has changed from the passive state under the
. .
.

.

.

.

fig-tree to

warfare.

In one sense

an attitude of hard toil, sometimes also of I have become less charitable, and
166

Archbishop of Westminster
I

know

I

have become, or

at least

have been accused of

imperiousness, presumptuousness, sharpness, suddenness, and the like. But this has been inevitable. When I was in a system of compromise I tried to mediate, reconcile, and unite together those who differed. When I entered a system, which, being Divine, is definite and uncompromising, I threw myself with my whole soul and strength into its mind, will, and action. So it must be Less definite, positive, uncompromising, to the end. aggressive, I can never be. God forbid ! But I will try It is a blessed novitiate to to do it charitate formatus. have gone through the unpopularity of the last eight years. ... I do not expect this calm to be unbroken. When I begin to speak, breezes will come, not storms. When I look down upon London from this garden and know that there are before me nearly three millions of men of whom only 200,000 are nominally in the Faith that hundreds and thousands are living and dying without baptism, in all sins of the flesh and spirit, in all that Nineveh and the Cities of the Plain and Imperial Rome ever committed that it is the capital of the most anti-Christian power of the nominally Christian world and the head of its anti-Christian spirit that in a moment it might be set afire with fury against the Catholic and Roman Church, I confess I feel that we are walking on the waters, and that nothing but the word and the presence of Jesus makes this great calm. They will be my Chalice more than ever. To labour and to suffer for souls who will not be redeemed. To go down into the fire and into the water to save souls, and to be wounded by them all this I look for. And I look to be chiefly wounded, as Jesus was, by my own brethren. All these osannas are but for a time, a sort of holiday of the kind hearts here and there. The great deep remains ready to lift itself up when the time comes. As soon as I begin, the wind will shift and blow shrill and sharp another I propose to keep before me always St. way. ... Charles's devotion to the Burial of Jesus. I suppose he loved it because it was the most perfect humiliation of God incarnate, to be taken down from the Cross, wound in linen, and hid out of sight in the earth which he had
.

.

.

;

;

;

.

.

.

made.

I

cannot escape

many
167

things which will

demand

Henry Edward Manning
of
I

me
will

a heroic patience and self-control.
try to

In this end

remember the Winding-Sheet and the
. . .

Sepulchre.
I feel to have June 5, 1865: Eighth Day. weighed anchor for the last time for a short run home. In the last years I have suffered much. It has saddened and sharpened me. I see it in my face. Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy.' I desire to spend my last days in this spirit. I especially desire to be thus td the priests, who have sadnesses and cares enough of their own, and ought to find in me a Filius ConsolaIn 1851 I was making my retreat with the tionis. Passionists. During that retreat I received a letter that the Holy Father had sent me, a Cameo of Our Lord's In fourteen years I am again at Whitsuntide Profile. making my retreat, and in the midst of it came a letter from the Holy Father telling me that, after many prayers to the Father of Light, he had quam libentissime committed the Church of Westminster to me. He then gave
' .
. .

me injunctions to maintain the discipline of the clergy against the world and against our own relaxations, to raise the education of the clergy, to leave nothing untried to bring up souls out of the shadow of death. That I may do so the Holy Father promises to pray that I may have ever with me the Wisdom which assists at the Throne of God. I feel this to be my Viaticum for the years and days that remain, with all their trials and works. "Walking on the terrace and looking down upon

London in this broad sunlight has been very moving to me. The Son of God would have wept over it. What beautiful souls are in it, made in the likeness of God, with
all

the capacities of eternal life, but outcast, disinherited, darkened, stained, poisoned, distorted, disfigured, twice

dead!"
Similar thoughts were occupying the
at the other

mind of a

minister

London, William Booth, who commenced his mission in this same month. This is not the place to point out that, had Manning not been a Catholic, he would have joined the Salvation Army. However, with one last vignette he was away to his
of

end

consecration,

ffl

Archbishop of Westminster
" The sight of St. Paul's yesterday evening as the sun went down, the dome clear as a pencil would make it, with all its lines of pilasters and the long nave where St. Erconwald once lay; and Westminster, where St. Edward rests still all this seemed to cry to me, Come over and help us.'
' '

Ullathorne advised him to read Abelley's Manual for a
to so

Bishop in Retreat, adding "I had lent my copy many suckling Bishops that it got lost among them." As the day of consecration approached rumour spread of unwilling guests. Ullathorne consented to angle, being " that the coldness between you and especially anxious " I Dr. Newman should be at an end." May 30, 1865 verily and honestly believe that the Pope has done the right thing. I would by all means write to Dr. Newman, and if your letter is dated from your retreat it will be sure " the to say the right thing." Manning effusively asked
: :

New

happiness and consolation of your being with me," but Newman answered stiffly. He must "escape dinner," and there was one condition which he would state. He "So far was not to be pressed for a bishopric himself I will content him, and try what you suggested a well. week ago." Ullathorne wrote (June 2, 1865) "I am glad Dr. N. comes. That is important. I know he has dread of dinners. I think he is quite right in not wishing for a mitre without its office. I have had a letter from the Bishop of Newport, thinking it will be awkward for him to be present without some office. It is merely his character he always does this sort of thing. I wilf angle him, and should he drop off the hook all will understand " it." Manning answered in glee (June 3, 1865) Pray catch Newport. Treat him as Walton says of putting hooks in frogs, as if you loved him, but hook him nevertheless." The delicate question was whether he should " I invite Errington. Ullathorne replied (June 4, 1865), think it would be a little too much to write to Archbishop Errington in that sense so soon," and advised waiting
! : ;

:

169

Henry Edward Manning
the mollia tempora. However, the two other candidates, Clifford and Grant, assisted Ullathorne to consecrate Manning in the Pro-Cathedral at Moorfields on June 8, the anniversary of his presentation to
for

Sibthorp noted: "He looked like Lazarus tomb in cope and mitre, a richly vested corpse, but very dignified and placid. Dr. Newman was seen in the sacristy on his knees before the Archbishop, who hastened to raise him up and embrace him." With

Lavington.

come out

of the

marked gentleness, he gave the vanquished Canons the
kiss of peace.

His episcopal honeymoon was spent in France. the book at Notre Dame des Victoires in Paris

In

he

commended "

the poor children deprived of Christian education in London." At Annecy he said Mass at the Shrine of Francis de Sales, and in Poitiers he carried the Host through the streets. Before the year was at an end

he had written three Pastorals.

170

CHAPTER
" This place
is

XII:

THE
I

DAY'S

BURDEN
Manning

a true Purgatory, and

hope may shorten mine."

to Ullathorne, 1865.

twenty-five years to come Manning's Pastorals were be a stimulant and a standard to Catholic London. It was the one branch of literature in which he excelled. The perfect Pastoral combines the form of a letter and the subject of a sermon with the authority of a proclamaYet he was careful to submit what he wrote to tion. expert advice. Ullathorne, who became his faithful but privileged Achates, writes to suggest a Pastoral be shown " I to Dr. Murray of Maynooth (September 8, 1867) certainly should not put it out, were its responsibility on me, without modifications. And in so formal a document as a Pastoral I should carefully mark the distinction between what is defined truth and what is theological

FOR

to

:

congratulate you on obtaining your theological accuracy. suffrage Theological accuracy, however, is one thing the tempus omnia loquendi is another."
letter,
I

exposition." September a sight of Dr. Murray's
his

15,

1867:

"Thanking you

for

to

;

Manning had succeeded

to

an archbishopric without a

cathedral, to a priesthood without a Tridentine Seminary, and to a laity without schools. was unwilling to do

He

Could I leave 20,000 children without education and drain my friends to pile " up stones and bricks?" He saw London is travelling
site.

more than buy the cathedral

"

westward," just as Archbishop Hughes foresaw the trend New York in choosing the site of his cathedral. Manning was inclined to discourage arches of triumph before the battle was won, and though " silent and " I have censured," he refused to appeal for building. been content with my Old Sarum and my Selsey. The
of
171

Henry Edward Manning
days of Salisbury and Chichester are to come," he said in parable. He never saw the Byzantine pile in which he and Wiseman now sleep their last sleep, apart from the Canons, with Death for coadjutor. To commemorate
the
first

Archbishop of Westminster the

site

was bought

by the second, built over by a third, and consecrated by a fourth, awaiting the Augustan touch of others to leave
marble where they find brick. Manning would not hear poor Talbot's cries to help him to build an English church to St. Thomas in Rome, though for a year his budget was swelled with them
(January
12, 1866)
:

list will make an impression, I be headed by the Pope, Cardinal Antonelli, and all the English Bishops then will come the laity, headed by the King and Queen of Naples. The Pope has announced his intention to lay the first stone himself as a compliment to English Catholics, during Carnival. (January 26) It is creating a great sensation in Rome. The Cardinals are full of it. (February i) The Pope is preparing himself to preach a sermon on the occasion. The whole thing will make a great impression all over Europe. (February 10) The great event of the season in Rome has been the Pope's laying the first stone of the Church of St. Thomas. I never saw such excitement among the English. Lord Northesk and Lord Sinclair begged for tickets. Sinclair is a descendant of one of the murderers of St. Thomas. (February 24, 1865) The Pope is most anxious to see it finished, as one of the glories of

"The

subscription

think.

It will

;

his Pontificate."

But, alas by October bear the humiliation of
!

it

was abandoned.
this

"

I

have

to
It

making

solemn

fiasco.

has done

than if I had built the church. It is better for the soul to be humbled than exalted." Manning had immediately declared war on the London Guardians. A child's soul was of more value to him than thrones and baldachinos. To rescue the Irish children who were brought up Protestants in the workhouses he
172

me more good

The Day's Burden
fortified

himself

thousand Masses.
to line the to

by recommending the saying of a In 1865 he attacked the Strand Union,

and twenty-one years

later a sarcastic Pastoral brought Guardians of St. George's, who were the last " hold out. This Board represents the most educated

parish in London. It now stands alone for this unjust and ignoble oppression of the poor." It was a steady, " The Guardians throughout England unrelenting fight. " will soon be up against us," he wrote to Cullen, but if

we can have

able to meet them."

the voice of Ireland with us, When he tackled the
in
;

we

shall be

Marylebone

Parliament but Gladstone came to his rescue, and never hesitated to help him to recover his lost sheep in workhouse or prison. Typical of the influence he was able to exert on Gladstone was his
writing (July 12, 1872)
:

Guardians he was answered

Out of 125 prisons, only 16 have appointed Catholic Chaplains. I am told and taunted that, whereas we are only one-fifteenth of the population, we have one-fifth of the prisoners; that our prisoners are reconvicted again and again, if they are not reformed and how shall they be reformed if they are deprived of the helps of their clergy and their Faith ? This is hard-hearted and cruel as well as unjust. I do not ask for stipends. Let the clause be struck out of the Bill, but let us be allowed
;

"

freely to bring the

Sacraments

to these

poor souls."

Education was Manning's besetting care for fifty years. " I believe written to Gladstone (May 9, 1843) the State never will and never can educate the country. It may make a universal scheme of secular instruction The religious Educate it never can. compulsory.

He had

:

differences of

A

England are too strong and

irreconcilable."

quarter of a century later the State met him in the " person of Gladstone. As he wrote to Cullen in 1869,

A

year ago move the Bishops." The Bill of 1870 he met with a " the divided episcopacy and an epigram, calling it
173

I

saw

it

coming, and

tried without success to

Henry Edward Manning
endowment
of the party of

appealed " If only the six million Catholics of these countries could act together, there is no just demand we should not obtain. I have, indeed, in the last ten days warned the Government that the Scotch Bill and the Endowed Schools Bill will compel us to raise a decisive opposition. The Scotch Bill is simple tyranny, and in two years would extinguish every Catholic school in Scotland. The Duke of Argyll has consented to postpone it for a month. But it will come on unless the Irish members give notice

for Irish help

disendowment 1" He had from Cullen (April 18, 1869)
:

Government of their intention to oppose it." "I have (between two sermons) August 15, 1869 drawn a rough draft. Your Eminence will see at once
to the
:

that

it is

a political declaration.

I

have carefully avoided

giving to it a prominently Catholic character. Christian education as the genus and denominational as the species And if we are to rally the will cover all we want. Anglicans and Nonconformists, we must, I fear, use a language intelligible to them rather than our own."

Manning and
Mr.

his

Bishops

were

in

Rome when

E. Forster brought in his Bill, who wrote to Manning "I wish you could have heard Gladstone's speech. It was curious to see how his love of dogma Manning plied Gladstone (March 7, peeped out." " I am 1870) very anxious. I see that the Bill is conservative and provides for the moment. But I fear the lean kine will eat up the fat kine. In America the Bishops
:
:

W.

schools to avoid the common our poverty should be forced to And he suggested what has become the " I do not see why the only policy (March 20, 1870) school rate should not be granted in proportion to private efforts by enactment of Parliament. In the last three in we have London years opened thirty new schools, and have gathered out of the streets 3,000 children. Give me time and just proportionate help, and there will not be one of our children without a school."

have formed

their

own
in

school system. do the same."

We

:

174

The

Day's Burden

Forster explained that it filled the gaps in the voluntary system. The orthodox ark was to be patched with School Boards, and as the Bishops generally approved, Manning

adopted the

Bill.

He was

bitterly

blamed

for accepting
:

secularism, but he wrote to Ullathorne (October 7, 1870) " meaning is the reverse. The Boards may destroy

My

our lesser schools at once by reporting them to be
sufficient or inefficient.

in-

The

effect of

this in

London

would be

to destroy

one half of our schools.

By opening

relations with the Board, as I have with the Privy Council, I hope to save these. By standing aloof from the Boards

we should be exposed to the danger of their hostility." As compared with mixed education, " such a system as
the less of two evils might .salva conscientia be accepted." He also dragged a private fear out of Gladstone, that the

" " in Liberalism was its disposition to doubtful point extremes in the matter of unsectarianism." In a year "

Manning was alarmed, and
with the Paris "

tried to

alarm Gladstone,
:

Commune

I believe the state traceable in chief to a godless education. The education of England is still Christian. The tradition is unbroken. are tormented and harassed by a clique of doctrinaires who, believing nothing, trumpet secular education. friend Huxley is at the head of them. I am very glad to see Forster attacked as playing into the hand of the clergy. The worst disaster that could befall us would

(September 25, 1871) of France and of Paris to be

We

My

" be an Imperial education." October 28, 1871 Do not fail to read Huxley's speech. shall have an Imperial Parliament of little Britain if this goes on. I thank him for dropping the mask, but I am afraid he has made trouble for us all." [And to return the trouble he wrote " Private. the same day to Cullen] May I ask your Eminence to lend a hand by desiring some prudent person to call attention in the Irish papers to Huxley's insolent speech ? He has attacked us all, and tried to damage also the education in Ireland."
:

We

:

Manning asked for fair play. The School Board had the cunning of yEsop's fox in offering the crane a feast 175

Henry Edward Manning
in platters and bottles where we cannot touch it." He " Let us all called on Gladstone (November i, 1871) : this sect race. Let every start fair on even to the

"

Huxleyites have their grant, if they fulfil the conditions. school-rate conscience is a mongrel imitation of Quakerism. If we hear more of it we also shall be comare willing to pelled to have tender consciences. must not asked to accept but we be recognise Parliament,

The

We

the legislation of Atheists and women." Manning tackled Forster, to whose Quakerism he

was

perhaps referring. He told guishing them from dissenting quacks. "I saw Mr. Forster, Ullathorne (February 27, 1873) and have written him a letter to be read in the House of Commons if he is attacked about our books. But I was
:

He

liked

Quakers as a rule, distin-

obliged to promise that I would bring before the Bishops the revision of our books." He had to compete with the Board by a Crisis Fund, " zeal against hire." The Board was secular even to a sectarianism, but the English people do not know when they are enjoying a secular or a religious education. Only vigilance and sacrifice to the end of his life kept the Catholic school alive. He was " It too optimistic in writing to Cullen (May 30, 1873) is the field on which I should most wish to fight a general action. large part of the English would be with us or would not fight against us." A curious matter to be dealt with was the Association
:

A

for the

Promotion of the Unity

of

Christendom,

to

which

Wiseman had afforded discreet encouragement. Phillips De Lisle (the Eustace Lyle of Disraeli's novel Coningsby) had urged High Churchmen to enter the Catholic Church
after explanations rather than retractations. In 1841 the Archdeacon of Chichester had written to Gladstone : " I

send you confidentially a curious letter of Phillips to a If he is sincere and not priest of the English Church. his and twigs, it is very instructive." economising liming The A.P.U.C., or, as it was called, A Plaster for Unquiet
176

The Day's Burden
Consciences, flourished mysteriously during the reign of Wiseman, and in 1857 voted a gold chalice to Cardinal Barnabo. This compromising gift, accompanied by a hint that ten Anglican Bishops favoured Reunion, was

through Manning's action declined. By 1864 the Holy and Universal Inquisition was induced to condemn the
"

branch

"

theory of the Reunionists.
that

De
the

Lisle informed

Wiseman

Lee and
to

on condition Dr. did not reach or the they Manning Bishop of ! Dr. Birmingham Unfortunately, Manning not only drafted Wiseman's reply, but became Archbishop, and to him De Lisle gave the information that 3,000 Anglican clergy were in the A.P.U.C., of whom 200 had dispatched a letter to the Holy Inquisition. Manning wrote to Ullathorne (August 24, 1865)
:

leaders, were willing

Littledale, disclose names

High Church

"

De

Lisle has,

I

fear,

some

letters of the

Cardinal's

which imply more tolerance of the Union than could be wished, but Mr. Lee's statements are obviously untrue. Meanwhile a letter is preparing in Rome to their re" Canon Morris will send joinder." September 8, 1865 you some letters about Brother Ignatius. There must have been some want of caution at least. The Bishop of Southwark tells me that the Unionists went on board the French Fleet as priests, and deceived the officers so fully that the Catholic priest could hardly undeceive them with the rescript in his hand. They are boasting also that the Catholics go to Confession to them."
:

As cut down to the bone." Talbot found it "almost impossible to make Italians understand the Anglican mind," Manning expounded
Manning decided
to

"

the mysteries of Anglo-Catholicism in person to
that

Rome

autumn, when he was unexpectedly aided by the

arrival of the aforesaid Brother Ignatius, a parson wear" Sister " ing a Benedictine habit and accompanied by a

of the

same Order, whom the Pope would have received more seriously if they had not brought a Benedictine N 177

" the infant Samuel," whom they baby, a child called had innocently adopted. In November a condemnation was issued of the A.P.U.C., and that winter divines waxed hot. Manning wrote to Ullathorne (March 15, " I see Dr. Pusey is again writing an answer to 1866) me about explanations. What can explanation do for a man who does not believe the voice of the explainer to be Divine ? He may agree with the explanation, but that is not faith." In his notes he analysed Pusey into adjec" tives as intellectually contradictory, obscene, suicidal; morally scholios, bitter, pertinax; ecclesiastically unlawful, foolish." Bishop Wilberforce wrote of Pusey ism as "the nauseous Romanising peculiarities of mowing apes," while Manning was fairer in terming Ritualism " Private Judgment in gorgeous raiment." He respected the Protestant, but he could not forgive the school of Littledale, who insisted he had procured condemnation " I
:

Henry Edward Manning

am afraid, as Lord Thurlow and he knows he lies," wrote said, rogue lies, and would not Manning, encourage them to come to Rome on false pretences. As he wrote to De Lisle " I fully agree that any haste or driving would be dangerous. It is the wrong end of the Shepherd's crook. I think
by misrepresentation.
the
:

haste dangerous unless they see the jurisdiction of the Divine Voice. Then delay would be dangerous, not haste." Manning's policy drove the advanced Reunionists to take an amazing step. Driven to choose between the Fisherman and the deep sea, they actually embarked on the latter. Dr. Lee, accompanied by two

other Anglican pioneers, Mossman and Seccombe, took ship from Venice in 1877, and to avoid trespassing on any diocese they received valid Orders as Greek

Bishops on the high seas. They returned to England, and in an old studio at Lambeth Bishop Lee reordained a number of hesitating clergymen. After a short and
subterraneous existence their society dissolved. Mrs. Lee became a Catholic, and found herself in the distress178

The

Day's Burden

ing position of being married to an irregular Bishop. Lee and Mossman died in communion with Rome. Bishop Mossman wrote to Manning (December 14, " I am 1883) walking on a path which is as sharp as a razor's edge. But I also feel that so far I am upheld by the prayers of our Immaculate Mother. I know not how to express my gratitude to the Holy Father for sending me his special blessing." The curious document in which he, an Anglican Rector, surrendered as a Greek Bishop to a Roman Cardinal survives :
:

I wish in my character of a Catholic Bishop, by which I mean as possessing true episcopal orders, to make to you as the Head of the Catholic Church in this land an unrestricted and unconditional submission as to the exercise of the episcopal office for the time to come. The extent of what I have done in the way of Orders you know. With regard to the Sacrament of Confirmation, If you tell me to disconit has been my chief pleasure. tinue this, I will of course do so."

"

But the wandering Bishop

whom Manning was

most

He conceived the anxious to place was Errington. brilliant plan of setting him at the head of a restored Scotch Hierarchy. An exchange of letters took place, Manning writing (February 26, 1868)
:

Confidential. Letters from Rome which reached me to-day direct me to communicate with your Grace upon a subject in which the Holy See requires your intervention.
I write, therefore, to ask in what way it would be most convenient for you to give me an opportunity of meeting and laying the subject before you. Would it be convenient to you to meet me at Liverpool or any other place, as you may prefer ? I shall be happy to come wheresoever you may fix. It would, however, be more easy for me if

"

the place were somewhere short of the Isle of Man. I need not say what joy it would give me if you should decide to come to London and to make any use you will of this house."

179

Henry Edward Manning
Jacob could not have written more pleasantly to Esau,

and Errington
"
I

replied

(March

3, 1868)

:

was very much gratified by the receipt of your very and immediately turned my mind to consider the best method of carrying out its object. The weather at present is so annually stormy that it is difficult to make an appointment for a given day, without renouncing
kind
letter,
all

for

care about the sea, in Liverpool. I feel very grateful your kind invitation to York Place, and should have

had great pleasure in asking you to visit our Island, if it had not been for the present storms and the very reasonable wish you express that our meeting should be somewhere short of the infames scopuli."

Manning then broke the news (March 5, 1868) " Private. The Holy Father has decided to restore
:

the

Hierarchy to Scotland, and directs that your willingness should be ascertained to go as Apostolic Administrator to carry out this great purpose."
April 29 the two Archbishops met, and Manning urged the proposal of Propaganda that Errington should become Archbishop of Edinburgh, if he would first carry out the restoration of the Hierarchy as delegate. It was a home see which would not involve the honourable banishment of Trinidad but at the advice of friends, who
;

On

as effrontery on Manning's part, he declined. " You are Bishop Turner of Salford wrote to him relentless, and won't give in to Barnabo, or rather to

regarded

it

:

Manning and Talbot. There
says,

is

humbug

in

and

there

is

also

humbug

in the reasons

what Barnabo which you
"

assign for not going. I think you should invite Talbot, and then you might appoint the Monsignor Delegate
In plain Apostolico per la Scozia!" Clifford wrote: English, the Holy See has got into a mess, and we make an appeal to you to help us out." Manning reluctantly " I do not feel that I accepted his refusal : ought in any to contest it. I am that too well assured way you have and all the motives on either fully weighed appreciated 180

The
side.
I

Day's Burden

will therefore

decision

known

Except for

obey your wish in making that Holy See." Ullathorne and Cornthwaite, Manning was
to the

not on cordial relations with the Bishops. Suffragans can be difficult at the best of times, and Manning found that the only united Hierarchy was one he nominated himself.

The first vacancy was caused by the death of Dr. Hogarth of Hexham. Manning wrote the terna to Talbot (March " The first and Platt, Chadwick, Knight. 4, 1866)
:

third are impossible, the second is good. In all questions he is on the higher side." Chadwick was made Bishop.

Manning's advice was almost always taken concerning the ternas. He perhaps wished to introduce Herbert Vaughan into Grant's place at Southwark, but he was responsible for making him Bishop of Salford when Turner died.

The

old Hierarchy died off, with the exception of Ullathorne, of whom Manning stood in some respect and

when Ullathorne used to inform him that he was a Catholic Bishop when a certain Mr. Manning was learning his catechism Rarely did Manning use his Metropolitan right to scold a Bishop. How tactfully he could do so appears in the following letter to a Bishop who had burst into the papers
fear, especially
!

:

were possible for you to put off your character as I should not venture to express the regret I feel. But as we are so identified with our office that our personality is subordinate, and as whatsoever touches one member of the Episcopate touches all and the Episcopate itself, I feel very deeply that there is no little danger lest the writers in newspapers should recognise only the person and forget the office he bears. We are in days when we cannot venture to expose our office to any
If
it

"

a Bishop

slight."
felt that the education of the clergy was and proceeded to a series of moves on the chessboard which upset the other Bishops. He placed an Irish

Manning

deficient,

Oblate, O'Callaghan, over the English College in
181

Rome;

Henry Edward Manning
he
set

moved

up a Tridentine Seminary the Divinity School from
Italians than

in

St.

Hammersmith, and Edmund's, Ware,
and
failed to

overnight.

According to Talbot, the English College
students,

supported more

sight-seeing or became Jesuits." The Pope requested the English Bishops to stop sending their scarto to Rome. The upward turn in
attract the converts,

who "went

the College

came with Mr.

suppressed playworking like a horse." Manning " fatal notion that acting, and decided to break up the Englishmen must be treated differently" from less favoured nationalities. When O'Callaghan was placed in the Rector's chair, Bishop Goss of Liverpool wrote to " Private. The treatment of Dr. Neve is

by

"

Giles,

who

edified

Rome

Ullathorne are little better than Vicars-General, and infamous. we shall soon be something less." Bishop Brown added " Unless we take due notice of these doings, we may as well have Talbot Pope and Stonor Prefect of Propaganda. Surely no one of us except the Archbishop will employ not continue Dr. Neve?" O'Callaghan as agent.
:

We

:

Why

Neve behaved very well, attributing his dismissal to "Talbot never said a word Talbot, not to Manning.
of his reasons for dismissing me, so replied that I was so fresh from Eton
I

asked him.

He

and Oxford that I did not understand Catholic young men. I remarked that he was fresher from both places." Henceforth the ruled and until Clifford Manning College Bishops
complained
in its in 1870

way now and

even in Lent!" value of autocracy. Ullathorne described Wiseman's meetings as "useless and ridiculous," as the minority

Humble pie is a very good thing we may get too much of it But Manning had long realised the
:

"

then, but

always disputed the majority, and the old Cardinal argued with each Bishop in detail. Manning found episcopal peace depended on restricting episcopal discussion to

Low Week.
Manning had attempted a seminary
182
at Chichester,

and

The
just as

Day's Burden

Lavington texts often flowered into Westminster he built his long-dreamed Seminary at Pastorals, Hammersmith. He found there an old convent where Miss Bedingfeld used to take her mistress, Queen Adelaide, until King William IV. 's curiosity was aroused, and it was arranged that he should see what a nun looked like. At a given hour the King drove to Hampton Court, while a nun stood up in the window-seat
in religious garb. The King laughed heartily, but sent a chest of tea annually to the convent. Here, amid the old tradition and within the suburban roar of London, he hoped to raise up a Tridentine Seminary. The students of St. Edmund's were transferred, with Weathers as President, and before 1881 the sum of ,27,000 was spent. The seminary endured only while Manning lived. With his Catholic University in Kensington it must be accounted a distinct failure. He had to suffer as a pioneer much as Archbishop Cullen, who for similar reasons founded his seminary at Clonliffe, near Dublin, finding Maynooth, as Manning found St. Edmund's, not sufficiently Ultramontane. Cullen essayed a University
in

Dublin, which failed in spite of

Newman. Manning

erected one in

perhaps because not involved. Manning, having decided that Oxford was "a fool's " Paradise and forbidden Catholics to attend, felt bound to proffer a University of his own. He thought Catholic parents wished to send their sons for social reasons. " To connive at the conduct of the rich in sending their sons to Oxford and to forbid the poor to send their children to Board Schools would be a visible partiality and injustice which the poor would be quick to see and prompt to resent." The old Catholics were as anxious to go to the Universities as into the Services. Only the Ultramontane converts, who had cut Oxford and Cambridge out of their hearts, were unwilling that their sons should grope among the stepping-stones of their own
failed

London, which

Newman was

183

Henry Edward Manning
dead
in

selves.

Manning felt a

When

blocking every attempt to he translated it into

pride rather than a principle send Catholics to Oxford. principle the Holy See

supported him as readily as she allowed his successor,
to reverse his policy. Manning was statistics that Catholics lost their to find hard-pressed faith at the University. applied to Cullen, whose

on a wiser showing,

He

keep Catholics from Trinity, Dublin. Cullen gravely gave two instances in penal days, when one became a Dean and the other a Bishop in the Provost Mahaffy is authority for the Establishment. statement that conversion at Trinity has been five to one in favour of Rome. At Oxford it was a hundred to one. But Manning held out against his laity and even against Ullathorne, who would have welcomed Newman back at " The Bishop of Oxford. A note of Manning's reads
policy

was

to

:

Birmingham printed a pamphlet to assure the Bishops that he did not promote the Oxford scheme. It obviously
proved that he did. The Bishop of Northampton called it to me, The Bishop of B.'s general confession.' Dr. Jenkyns, who had discovered Ward, afterwards
' '

discovered Jowett. Manning did not fear Newman at Oxford so much as Jowett. Gallicans he fought in the Church, but Germanisers he dreaded more. German

thought had made Balliol a Doubting Castle. Jowett discovered Plato, and led a counter-movement to Pusey

and

the Catholic Revival. Manning thought it derogatory for Catholics to sit under either. Rome proved more tolerant than Manning, who wrote, however, to Ulla" thorne (April 26, 1866) are quite content that
:

We

things should remain as they are, that Catholics should be discouraged without being forbidden. For our purpose ten Catholics are as good as a hundred."

The Oxford question widened the breach with Newman, who desired to found an Oratory there, but how he could do so without attracting Catholics was the difficulty. The Bishops met to discuss it, and Ullathorne
184

The

" I have wrote to Manning (March 18, 1867) thought it my duty as Dr. Newman's Bishop and natural protector to request your Grace so to provide that in the name of the Bishops Dr. Newman be invited to be in London on " A the occasion." Manning agreed (March 19, 1867) : few words from you or from him, distinguishing the
:

Day's Burden

Oxford Oratory from the other question,
suffice to satisfy

hope, who a large number respect and regard to Dr. Newman, and enable them to feel glad of anything which gives him a work in Oxford."
will,

I

of those

are full of

Newman's

reply to Manning's query was sent to Ulla" I have never thorne (April 22, 1867) put in writing an answer to the question of the Archbishop's, so I answer it now. Do I go to Oxford with an intention of bringing there ? The answer is plain. I have no Catholics young such intention in going there, nor ever had. But the answer will be as fallacious as the question is ensnaring, unless I add my going will in fact attract Catholics This Manning had realised, and he wrote so there." to Rome that Newman was forbidden to go. firmly it found Manning necessary to soothe Ullathorne (April
:

6,

1867):

"The knowledge that Dr. Newman has been led to regard me as opposed to him will not hinder my doing the amplest justice to him. And now, my dear Lord, I
thank you for your openness towards me. I should lament also anything which should cause reserve between us, and on my part nothing shall be left undone to avert it. You will, I think, be surprised when you know the limits of my intervention in the question. Viewed as a question of a better Church and a more vigorous Mission, you have the sympathy of everyone. It is, moreover, simply Diocesan. But it is impossible so to isolate the And in this respect the whole Church in subject.

England

is

affected."

Ullathorne not only defended Newman, but gave Manning a piece of his mind. Newman was being attacked for receiving as a pupil a New Zealander en
185

Henry Edward Manning
route for Oxford.

Manning wrote

to-Ullathorne frankly

(May
"

3, 1867)

:

I did not misunderstand you. My own meaning was not that you had sacrificed anything in your course of conduct,' but that you had so stated your case as to lay I was able to yourself open to protect Dr. Newman. concur in your letter to Rome, and I was resolved not to raise needless questions, but I felt that it was an understatement. I believe both Weld Blundell and Redington have received grave harm citra jacturam fidei. As to the nationality of the men, I felt no care except as showing that the attraction had spread to New Zealand, which greatly confirms my objections."
'

eyes followed Redington 's trip to Rome as a Oxford influence. At the tombs of the Apostles he expressed an archaeological doubt, but the situation was saved by the Irish Dominican, Father Burke, who forthwith ordered him to kneel and say his prayers. Manning was inexorable in keeping the Universities under ban. By 1872 only eight Catholics dared his displeasure, but they were reported to Ullathorne as " models of goodness and piety," though there was a " who ought to be a Catholic, but is Siamese at Balliol an infidel," reported the Jesuits, who took charge of the Oxford Mission. A decade later there were only four

Lynx

test of

English

among

the ten Catholics at Oxford, but they

all

came to the Sacraments. Manning was implacable. "There is abundant mischief short of losing faith, such
as losing humility, modesty, respect for authority, and, in a word, the sentire cum ecclesia."

Meantime Catholics, deprived of Newman at Oxford, were invited to study under Mgr. Capel at Kensington. Rome was never decisive on the University Question, and Manning wrote to Ullathorne: ".The College decision is very obscure, and I have no lettera di
compagna, and know nothing
wishes than
directions."
further.
It is rather

good

He
186

proposed a board of

The Day's Burden
examiners,
created out
of
all

the

existing Colleges.

There was a nominal committee of five Bishops, but " afraid that we are striving for an impossiClifford was
bility."

Manning

kept his course with heroic tenacity.

By
fled,

the time he
for

Studies in

had produced "a House of Higher London," all the Bishops forsook him and
reasons of financial prudence.

partly

The

paradox was that the University of London was the only one Catholics were allowed to frequent. Manning queried
Ullathorne (November 29, 1873)
:

Would it be safe to attempt to hinder our youth, intended for law or medicine, to get a legal degree ? If we exclude the London University, should we not be to co-operating with those who are still endeavouring " I hope on get our youth to Oxford?" June 24, 1874
:

"

must be immature till the tree is planted. Cheap criticism is busy everywhere, above all with those who wish us not to succeed. I am not discouraged. We shall be almost at death's door,
reflection

you

will

say that

fruit

but

I

believe

we

shall not die."
criticised for not inviting

the Jesuits, but

" His wrote of his first idea: plan is simply a Jesuit one." A good staff was collected. Paley, the convert grandson of Paley of the Evidences, left Cambridge. Barff taught chemistry, and Mivart, a Harrow convert, kept up a running fire on Darwin, which for long excluded Mivart from the Athenaeum Club. At the head was Mgr. Capel, a popular preacher, whom Disraeli drew as Mgr. Catesby in Lothair. At one time there were as many as forty pupils. It was squall and

Manning was

Newman

or

Newman

squabble to the end, when Manning was compelled to The Bishops kept aloof, and even suspend Capel. Ullathorne was angered by Capel offering the post of Pro- Vice-Rector to Mgr. Croke Robinson "You have
:

attempted

to turn

allegiance."

Mr. Robinson from his ecclesiastical Manning poured oil on the troubled waters
:

(March

5,

1876)

187

Henry Edward Manning
" Father Robinson,

who

is ill,

has sent

can I soften your inexorable heart ? If I were Orpheus or could even play on fiddle, I would try. But perhaps the sound of the jews' harp may draw tears. What if we were to swop ? If I cannot soften the cor adamantinum to give Father Robinson to this work which the Holy Father has blessed, will you take in exchange a student of the English College who may be ordained priest at once? By all the penitential austerities of Lent, I adjure you to be generous as you are strong."
ship's epistola ipsismet saxis durior.

How

me your

lord-

But the University was never more than an academical expression. There was a Senate on paper, one of whom
once inquired his duties as Governor. "To govern," " But supposing we differed from replied Manning. could what we do?" your Eminence, great deal; !" Another could layman made an objection, you resign and learnt that in the Catholic Church "there is no

"A

to the order of retreat was to Wilfrid Meynell " Please to say in the next Weekly (February 15, 1882) the Catholic Register, University College has been removed from Cromwell Road and united to St. Charles' College. A new wing to contain the library and museum is building, and a chemical laboratory will be added hereafter." He was never more splendid than in defeat. But no college was in vain that produced a Wilfrid

House

of

Commons." Manning was courageous
final
:

last.

His

Ward. As Archbishop
a

in the sixties,
k

Roman
and

policy.
far
It

Manning could but have The Temporal Power was then at

stake,
in

discussion.

removed from antiquarian or academical was a fact, as vivid and controverted

the world as the Irish or Alsace questions since.

Manning made it a mystical touchstone to modern "a law of the politics. As a preacher he claimed it was
conscience, an
it

axiom of the reason."

When

he raised
to to

"a theological certainty," Lord Acton took him When he prophesied Anti-Christ would come task.
to
1

88

The

Day's Burden

Rome, Talbot sent warning that he was inopportune. The idea displeased the authorities as much as Mgr. Benson's Lord of the World on a similar theme. He " Alas it gave his lectures to Gladstone, who sighed, shows me how far we are now from one another," and
!

sent in return a public reference to Rome " which would not, I think, have been offensive to Dante or Savonarola." Later he invoked Passaglia " I now find myself invoking the child of Loyola against the child of Oxford."
:

Manning answered (October
;

26, 1861)

:

>*

In the train yesterday I read the Child of Calvin, and I think the three paternities would disown their sons. Passaglia I have known intimately these ten years. He is a very child in whose mouth Latin is mother-tongue, with great book-learning, and as long as he was in the Society of Jesus out of scrapes. Since, he has behaved like a baby. But this would not alter the truth ex ore infantium, if he has got it, as I think not. But Guizot writes like a man." Garibaldi's triumph in

'

England was a sore

trial

to

Manning, though aware of the national weakness for all revolutionaries except Irish. He dedicated an unpublished letter of biting comment to Mr. Cardwell, one of " the few ministers who remained aloof. Was the Duke of Sutherland aware that he was inviting the principles
of '89 to Stafford House ?" And of Government seizures " of English supplies in Turin he asked bitterly What
:

image and superscription may be upon the money, and what brands upon the rifles ?" Gladstone saw Manning's " If the day ever drift, and promised (August i, 1864) comes when the Temporal Power has to be abandoned, and when I can be of the smallest use so far as the policy
:

of this country is concerned in assisting to secure whatever belongs to the dignity, safety, and independence of

the Sovereign Pontiff, you will, I hope, find me not unready." The day came and the promise was kept. 189

Henry Edward Manning
Manning wrote
(October
24, 1864)

in his best style of mystical politics
:

You will smile when I say that I believe the Temporal Power to be the nexus between the revelation of God's truth and law and the civil society of the world. Time is fighting for them and against us, and Our Lord and St. Paul have foretold that it should be so. But time is
neither truth nor right, but the time-spirit or dominant human will. When was it ever otherwise? Time has been fighting us these 1,800 years in various forms and with lulls and truces, but always and irreconcilably opposed. You do not suspect me of contending for modes of administration or class interests, or the Divine right of Dukes or Kings to govern badly. You know me too well for that. What I contend for is the And I great providential order of Christian Europe. believe that the cry for Rome is not only for its traditions of Empire, but because it is the key of an order of politics, which keeps Anti-Christ under the feet of truth and grace. But I am getting away from the order of politics And yet prophecy is the into the order of prophecy. future of those laws and principles which, though not to be found in Bentham, govern the world, and will govern it until we leave off to date our letters anno Salutis."
tide of the

"

" I am Gladstone assured him, very glad to see that is not coming here. from Garibaldi he a letter by Am I not now a good boy?" Manning answered: " I do not wish you even remotely allied to Bright in home policy or Garibaldi in foreign. They are both factions,

When

not governments.

I

good boy about our friend G."

acknowledge that you are a very But stiff they remained

with each other to the end, only putting their elasticity into occasional controversial catapulting. When Gladstone lost his Oxford seat Manning attempted consola" tion This crisis is for you politically what a certain date was for me religiously," he wrote, but Gladstone groaned: "It seemed meant in the kindest sense, but that the man is gone out and has left nothing but the
:

190

The
priest.

Day's Burden
ever took such a quantity of
to

No
:

shirt-collar

starch."

" I have are most Herbert just seen Gladstone. of narrowness his obstinate But other. with each open
visit to

At the same time Manning wrote

We

Lady

phenomenal." And, after arranging Gladstone's Rome (September 11, 1866): "He appears to understand the question far more clearly and completely than he did. I trust he will open his mind to Cardinal
is

mind

Antonelli.

If his visit to

Rome

passes happily,
:

much

good may come
impression
is

of it."

Gladstone told Acton

"My

and

that he speaks to me after having sought received his cue from Rome." Pius received four

English statesmen that autumn. Gladstone he liked, but did not understand. Cardwell he understood without liking. Clarendon he liked and understood. The Duke of Argyll he could be excused for neither understanding nor liking. Clarendon's son-in-law was Odo Russell, the unofficial but very busy British representative to the
Vatican.

Manning believed in the Temporal Power, because "a subject Pope is no Pope" and "a national Pope a "
nuisance to
all
;

the right to Rome; because law and order are at stake for all the world," including the British Empire. He also held the deposing power. "The Pope had the

because Christendom and not Italy had "

Power de jure," and he pointed out that in 1,800 years Popes have deposed seven Kings, whereas the English, according to Lord Mansfield, have deposed seven and murdered six. " Protestants place it in the people. Catholics in Pope and people." He felt prophetically certain that if the keystone of Temporal Power fell out of the European arch the break-up of Europe would commence. It fell out in 1870. Was he right as a prophet, though wrong as a statesman ? It was a breach of the same international law which led to England's
the

entry into the world-war of 1914.
191

CHAPTER
"
It is

XIII:

IRELAND

Empire."

evident that upon the future of Ireland hangs the future of the British Manning to Earl Grey, 1 868.

be an Archbishop or Premier in Westminster is to Like most Englishmen of the Irish Question. culture, Manning had never felt the need of animosity At toward the country his had most deeply wronged. "while rich had denounced he living Lavington thousands of our fellow-citizens in Ireland are dying on " the persecuted Church seaweed," though in regard to in Ireland" he felt some Anglican nervousness, writing "I do not believe the Irish to Bishop Wilberforce Established Church can stand long, and that will set
face
:

To

going wedges, pulleys, wheels, and levers which will heave the English Church off its point of rest." After the Famine and the Diaspora of the Irish race the Irish Ghetto became a spiritual fact in England. As a Catholic Manning found himself "working for the Irish occupaBut as Archbishop he saw wider, tion of England." " Talbot The thing which will save us from writing to the Mother of God and the Vicar of Our views about low Lord is the million Irish in England." He found under him Irish priests, who, like a spiritual Swiss Guard in an alien land, were faithful to the ancient English Faith. Manning's policy was to combine the Irish invaders with the hereditary Catholic garrison they had relieved, reinforced, and emancipated. His first step was to enter into " It alliance with the Irish Hierarchy is difficult, but I '* think it can be done." were They suspicious of but had been afraid of they Manning, Wiseman," reflected Talbot. MacHale was "a good man, but un" manageable" Dr. Cullen anti-English, but thoroughly
: : ;

Roman." With the pious but formidable the latter Manning broached alliance.
192

personality of

Ireland
The
Cullen,
last

word has not been

written of Paul Cardinal

who

for a quarter-century ruled the Irish

Bishops
of

(save one),

and bridled Dublin he was Primate of
also found

Ireland.

As Archbishop

Ireland, but not of all Ireland.

MacHale "unmanageable." His piety had his politics were of the Roman school. retained his Rector's robe as an Archbishop, and treated
and
the

He

He

Bench of Bishops like collegians, registered his decrees, until the day
Archbishop Croke dared
to

who

signed and

when the young move an amendment and
tension was only broken

demand a

ballot.

The breathless

by the gigantic Bishop
seconding Cashel.

of Waterford,

"

Long John,"
With-

The amendment was

carried.

out a word the old Cardinal picked up his papers and passed out of the sight of those present for ever. No Irishman was more fiercely attacked by both Irish and English. The pen of every man turned against this solitary ecclesiast, who, however, was probably the only English-speaking theologian to have influenced the

thought of Rome. He warred incessantly against Dublin Castle, Archbishop Whately, the Fenians, and sometimes Dr. MacHale. MacHale wished to keep English influence out of the Catholic University as much as Cullen wished to avoid Irish Nationalism. The Irish University Question and Protestant Disestablishment became the two subjects of active and offensive alliance between the Irish and English Primates. Manning found in Cullen a colleague very different from the Cullen of legend, as " a cruel man reported in Archbishop Benson's Life sent here by Cardinal Wiseman to put an end to the
Gallican clergy!" or as shuddering Englishmen like Lord Russell wrote, looking across the water: "Think of a country divided between Archbishop Cullen and Lord Roden, both very strong and both quite rabid!"

In the lurid lights of Ireland he grew strangely blurred, but to the Government he was an unaccountable force. They feared him as they did not fear his brother of
193

o

Henry Edward Manning
lay Oxford and which afforded points of calculation Anglicanism, layers and concilation, but Cullen seemed to spell the mysterious and unappeasable domination of Rome.

Westminster.

Under Manning's robes

Manning immediately wrote
1866) of
fuller

to Cullen (January 19,

"an

and

identity of principles" needing only "a more personal knowledge of each other to

renew the union which once partially existed."

He

referred to a visit Cullen paid him that winter to discuss the Disestablishment Cullen yearned for and the Epis-

copal

Union Manning hoped

for,

writing (December

8,

1865) that the English Bishops would require two points "a cessation of the anti-Roman of the Government

policy in Italy; justice to Catholics in the full sense, especially in education and the treatment of our prisons

and poor." Manning's dream of union and quiet-sailing was disturbed by the outbreak of Fenianism, which
Every effort compromising though " devoted sons, who Manning feared would sooner turn upon priests than Protestants." Their disinterestedness was not understood by the theologians. Yet many Fenians were to die in Papal armies or become priests and missionaries. It was the Fenians who brought the
Bishops took steps to make a reserved case.
to rid the

was made

Church

of her

Holy Mass
to

into English prisons.

Cullen (February

"

5,

1866)

:

Manning informed Your Grace will be happy

know that the Fenian prisoners in Pentonville have asked for Mass, and the Government has granted it. This is a strange victory, on which I make no comment except Thank God !' But it will console your Grace for the poor men." However, Cullen consoled himself
'

further
follow.
it

by denunciation, which Manning

felt

bound

to

as he disliked an anti-Irish policy, he felt " exhibited the Church in its true light as the source

Much

of public order. I have never known a more propitious moment to make the Government feel that they cannot

do without us."

To

Ullathorne he wrote:
194

",We have

Ireland
an opportunity for showing that Mazzinianism and Fenianism are one in principle, and that our Government is reaping as it has sown." Manning literally preached to the spirits in prison when he addressed the Fenians in Millbank, not far from the site of Westminster Cathedral. Boyle O'Reilly never forgot the beauty of his words on the Prodigal Son, whereat the Fenians wept. " We Ullathorne had written (December 30, 1866) have had a good haul here from Pollock's church. He
:

taught his elite to say the Rosary, and then attacked it as Popish. have a nest of Fenians here who are us some trouble. giving They have used the pretext of

We

Pastoral to try to alienate the people from me, me in the same box with you, so at last we are I hope to do without publicly fellows in misfortune. noticing these men, whose persons and movements are

my

last

and

to

put

pretty well, as I do' not want to feed their importBut if I see the need arise, I shall come out sharply and mark them off." to Birmingham and cried untruly Manning went down " in the Town Hall Show me an Irishman who has lost the Faith, and I will show you a Fenian." He wrote on

known

ance.

:

return (January 31, 1867)

"

:

The

four days at Birming-

me much good. I little thought what you were The Fenians of letting me into in the Town Hall. Glasgow and Connaught have pounded me most amusingly. I am a true English Liberal after all. However,
did
it

ham

out that

has done no harm, and The Times of to-day has found I am no Liberal!" On his journey he added

to his repertory of droll stories. At Birmingham an Anglican Bishop entered with his wife. As the train

started

a clergyman
distributed

handed him a piece
in

of

Fenian

Catholic churches, with " is at the bottom of it." The Depend upon it, Manning who it to hot for the aforesaid make Bishop, promised when he reached London, was startled by a solemn voice
literature

the

from the opposite corner

:

"If you
195

will give

me

that

I

Henry Edward Manning
will see that
it is

future;

I

am Manning
I

not given out at any Catholic church in 1" After the next stop Manning

was alone Meantime Cullen had been Cardinalised. Manning " for the sake of was delighted Ireland, which would receive a token of the Holy Father's love and also a glory in the sight of the world. We are in stormy days, and at any moment may be ludibrium ventis." They certainly were buffeted by the Fenian winds as they blew in the " I had the honour of being there Connaught Patriot. named and denounced with your Eminence. We were described as driving Fenians from their faith," wrote

Manning to Cullen (February
whose

10, 1867). Cardinal Cullen, " from his letters, was deducible From litany, and cholera deliver Fenianism, morbus, Whatelyism, us I" answered (February 13, 1867)
:

have great reports to-day about a Fenian moveI have heard it stated on good Chester. that the great rising was nothing more or less authority than a crowd of unarmed workmen who were going to witness a prize-fight, and who were obliged to travel some distance to avoid the police. I suppose before night the truth will be known. Anyhow, I think Ireland will take no part in such a foolish movement. Indeed, it appears that our Fenians are now getting more common sense. The only evil effect we have now to apprehend is the neglect of the Sacraments. However, I must say that there were never so many penitents at the confessional and so many communicants in our churches as at present, notwithstanding all the Fenian agitation."

"

We

ment

in

It

The good Cardinal had is because men expect
:

not realised cause
to

and

effect.

be called to die for their

country that they fill the confessional. Manning scribbled " in his notebook My heart bleeds for those who are deceived by their higher and nobler affections. They believe themselves to be serving in a sacred and holy war for their country and religion." But he enjoyed the discomfiture of the Government "I have warned those
:

196

Ireland
praised, flattered, fostered, abetted, justified, glorified the Italian Revolution that the same principles would recoil upon themselves. They have come! The

who have

Church condemns them both in Italy and in Ireland." He wrote a Pastoral, which he sent to Gladstone and
Disraeli (April 13, 1867): "I should not trouble you with the enclosed if Lady Gainsborough had not expressed the wish that you may know how we express ourselves about Fenianism. I cannot overstate my on this anxiety subject. Nothing will lessen it but a and Cardinal large adequate policy for Ireland." Cullen offered an amendment (April 8, 1867)
:

"on a passage of your beautiful Pastoral where you state that if Ireland continue to progress for twenty years to come as she has in the last twenty she will be like the province of the Rhine or like Belgium. Unfortunately,
twenty years have pressed very heavily on Now, if things be as I think they are, and were to continue their downward course for another they quarter of a century, I fear the country would be more
the last Ireland.
like Algiers or Palestine."

His remedy for Fenianism was Disestablishment, a

Manning passed to Gladstone. Two years he had hinted " were once united on the previously basis of your book on Church and State. You have departed, if not from that basis, at least from the application.
hint which
:

We

Your whole

policy is to separation of Church and State." During the battle for Disestablishment Gladstone, through Manning, kept in touch with Cullen. The latter was statesman enough to desire ecclesiastical equality
rather than financial spoils (August 17, 1867)
:

my opinion the proposed division of the property of the Church would contribute to uphold Protestantism in Ireland. Probably, too, the poor Catholics, now so generous, would withdraw their oblations on seeing us accept a portion of the Church property which they abhor, so that in a short time we might be reduced to the condition qf the poor priests in Italy. Finally, if Parliament
'97

" In

Henry Edward Manning
undertakes to divide the spoils of the Establishment, I am sure they would not give us anything worth accepting."

A very shrewd note. Manning wrote (May 15, 1868) " Late events have placed me in a difficulty as regards Mr. Disraeli, and I have not liked to communicate with him. I will take care that your Eminence's suggestion
:

as to the Irish

Church Endowments shall reach Mr. Gladstone. Great progress has been made, which canshall have a hard fight." not be wholly lost. December 8, 1868 : " Everything I can do by word or by letter for Ireland will be done with all my heart and strength." He wrote to Disraeli (May 21, 1868):

We

"I remember your saying that if there could be a mesmeric understanding between the chiefs of the two sides of the House much might be done. " I am able to say of my own knowledge that any favourable proposal from the Government on the subject of the Catholic University would not only encounter no opposition, but would be assisted. I believe I may say
this includes the

granting of a charter. What I write is not from second hand. I can add that the Chief I conferred with is in the front, and he fully recognises the need of removing the Catholic education of Ireland from the turbulent region of politics."

The moment
ber
2,

his

work

for Ireland required the sacrifice

of his friendship with Disraeli,

Manning wrote (Decem-

1868)

:

I have felt that a ravine, I will not say a gulf, opened between us when the Resolutions on the Irish Church were laid upon the table of the House. I regretted this,

"

as

I had hoped to see the scheme of the Catholic University happily matured; but with my inevitable conviction as to the Irish Church I felt that I ought not to trespass upon your kindness, which I can assure you I shall remember with much pleasure."

When consulted, Rome sent word through Odo Russell to Lord Clarendon that he could not do better 1 08

Ireland
than consult

Manning on
"

the Irish

Church Question

Cardinal Antonelli had quite 1869) : recently discussed the Irish Church Question with Dr.

(February

5,

Manning, and he could not sufficiently repeat how much impressed he had been by the Archbishop's knowledge, opinions, sentiments, views and arguments, and how entirely he subscribed to them."

Manning flung himself into the fray with intense feeling. The true reasons for Disestablishment he noted
to himself
is not a Church; it is an anti-Catholic perverts the action of the civil power it has persecuted the Catholic Faith it insults it now by lording over it it poisons and embitters all social life it is a badge of ascendancy."

were " Because it
;

religion
;

it

;

;

;

To
"

Gladstone he was writing in the tone of (March

24, 1868):

religion, but of political justice. believes the Protestant Church in Ireland to be the true religion must desire to see it disembarrassed of an injustice to a whole people, which would turn their It is the most hearts even from the twelve Apostles. of our times and the Imperial question necessary prepara" tion for a new civil order." And a few days later If
It is

no question of

Anyone who

:

this

wrong were righted everything
it

I don't think the light."

a leap in

would be easier. the dark, but a step onward into
else

Earl Grey sent Manning his pamphlet to beg its way " with the Irish Bishops, being persuaded that it is only such some that a most bitter contest can compromise by be averted, with all the evils it would bring in Ireland

and on the Empire."
reason

Manning

sent

it

cautiously

confidentially to Cullen (April 2, 1868):

"There

is

Grey's, but like accepted, and in the accepting purified of all inconsistency, State dependence, and apparent self-interest." He felt like Cullen that " the
Bright's,
unity, trust,

why some scheme, not Lord may not be modified and
and

and no Mr.

affection of the people is of a higher

Henry Edward Manning
order and more precious than all the world." But Dis" establishment was the great thing, pulling down of one whole wing of the Royal Supremacy." He was able

The follow it up and turn it to practical purposes.' I think all the Bishops are Cardinal goes on to say, persuaded that were we to consent to a share of the spoils of the Establishment our doing so would contribute to prevent any legislation. Our best policy is to adhere to the recommendation in our Resolutions that the rights of the poor should be attended to in disposing the property of the Establishment.'
*
'

Gladstone (April 8, 1868) You will be glad to know that the Cardinal writes from Dublin, The victory was great indeed, but it is necessary that the supporters of the Resolutions should
to write to
:

"

'

Manning knew where
(April 17, 1868)
:

to ply a

weak point

in

Gladstone

weaken endowments be put overboard halfway between Galway and New York rather than mix them up with the question of

"

What

him and

a course Disraeli has taken ! It must " his party." May 8, 1868 : Let the

your Resolutions." The campaign which followed was of exceeding bitterAt least one Protestant Archdeacon threatened ness. " to kick gunpowder, and there was a symbolic attempt the Queen's Crown into the Boyne," which prevented
the Queen visiting Ulster for thirty years. Though State patronage placed Archbishops like Whately and

Trench at Dublin, it led to a state equally distressing to Low and High Churchmen. Samuel Wilberforce visited Ireland in the sixties, and brought back a woeful account of the Irish Episcopate, which may be quoted to show how indirectly Gladstone was benefiting the Church more than Churchmen witted. It was curious to note that such
sees as did not fall to the Beresford family were largely filled by Irish names. The time had passed when the

able

O 'Sullivan

lost

his mitre

because of a brogue.
:

Samuel noted from Dr. Todd of Trinity College
200

Ireland
The Primate [Beresford] not a Churchman, but a mere gentleman, and under influences. " Knox
" The Bishop of Derry [Higgin], the richest see, sells [livings] perhaps the best, but a weak, unread "

[of Down] very foolish, without learning, piety, judgment, conduct or sense, appointed by a job, that his uncle should resign Limerick.
all his

man. "Ossory [O'Brien], the most indolent man, very
of ability; strong leaning a mere Whatelyian but a will, and overbearing. strong " Limerick [Griffin], clever, quite unread, no taste for Episcopate; was scarcely persuaded to become a Bishop. His living the best in Ireland was wanted, and so he was quite pressed into accepting. Not a devout man
;

solifidian views. strong, " Cork [Fitzgerald], a to Arian or semi-Arian

man

at all.

[Beresford], gentle and pleasing, not and no backbone to lead. " Meath [Singer], nothing but a popular preacher, now worn out. " Cashel [Daly], very fond of money, and simply a low party man."
learned,

" Kilmore

By the end of the year Gladstone was Manning wrote (December 4, 1868)
:

Premier, and

I fully recognise the prudence of our not meeting now. All is changed since I wrote. Had you then been what you are, I should not have written. And so you are at the end men live for, but not, I believe, the end for which you have lived. It is strange so to salute you, but very pleasant. I take much consolation from the fact that what has made you so is a cause in which my whole heart can go with you."

"

This was not the case with some Catholic hearts. Hope wrote to Manning that he had told Gladstone he would not vote for him, " since the destruction of an Establishment is to many more attractive than justice to Ireland-" And Cardinal Cullen wrote in alarm of a
301

Henry Edward Manning
Catholic Peer, Lord Gormanston, who intended using the liberty of the faithful to vote against their cherished

His Lordship is a very good man. It is difficult understand how he can make up his mind to support the Irish Establishment. It would be a great charity to

hope
to

"

:

keep him right." The Bill passed the Lords and returned to the Commons "I write one on July 12, when Manning wrote to Cullen of last line to thank your Eminence for your letter week, of which Mr. Gladstone is by this time well informed. Every day I am pressed to say whether you would accept But Cullen was resolute against concurrent glebes." endowment " It will be a means of setting priest against
:
:

Bishop and people against

priest."

Meantime glebes

were voted to three denominations, which Gladstone regarded as violation of pledges, writing to Manning " Private. On Thursday at a quarter(July 13, 1869)
:

move, please God, to restore to the Preamble the words of our solemn compact with the people. I have no doubt of the thorough soundness of
past five
I

shall

the

body

share

my
"a

of your coreligionaries, but I think you will hope that with a view to unbroken moral force
little

there shall be

apply

no defections." " confirmation

He

asked Manning to

to three

members

of the

Moore, Blake, and Blennerhassett. After that " to knock down the rest of the house of he trusted cards." Manning went to the House, and found most of the Irish members wanted the glebes. In this case the Churchmen were wiser than the laity. Manning told " Gladstone (July 14, 1869) The old endowments cannot be applied to religious purposes without breaking
:

House

wounding charity, and hindering religion. In good men like Lord Harrowby it is a mistaken piety, in Aubrey de Vere it is a poetry to wish for their application to religious uses." Before the end of July the victory had been won. Gladstone wrote (July 24,
peace,
1869)
:

202

Ireland
" Your last note was of much value, and showed me at once with what an accurate eye you had measured the But I cannot thank you for it alone. I am situation.

much indebted to you on behalf of the Government for the firm, constant, and discriminating support which you have afforded to our Bill during the arduous conflict, now Should you happen to write to happily concluded.
Cardinal Cullen, pray be kind enough to ask him to accept a similar tribute of acknowledgment from me."

To the Cardinal, Manning wrote the next day " Let me give you and Ireland joy at this event. I feel it as a common joy in which I share. May God as greatly
:

console Ireland as England has greatly afflicted it." It was a triumph to which went the oratory of Bright, the statesmanship of Gladstone, the prayers of Spurgeon, and the vigilant wisdom of the Archbishops. It was more a victory for Liberalism than religion, though the normal

view was that of the Pope, who, reported Dr. Grant, "was overjoyed and spread his delight to the Cardinals around him. He saw in the vote the overthrow of heresy." It was also part of the Liberal advance which he so dreaded,

and
were

the following year
to enter

alliance between of Peter.

was to show how temporary the Manning and Gladstone must be. They

acrimonious contest at the very threshold

Manning had found in Ireland a foil to the feelings of Garibaldian Englishmen. As he wrote to Ullathorne : " have an opportunity for showing that Mazzinianism and Fenianism are one in principle, and that our Government is reaping as it has sown." He twitted Gladstone with England's hold on Ireland, drawing an answer "I do not admit that the Queen (February 17, 1865) : holds it by coercion. Ireland has 105 representatives in the Commons. Will the Pope stand a like criterion and let his people speak by a representative assembly? I should deny that the coercion of one part of the country,

We

politically constituted for six

hundred years by the general

303

Henry Edward Manning
force and will of that country, was the same thing as the coercion of a country by foreign bayonets." Manning fired back (February 24, 1865)
:

I am convinced that we hold Ireland by force, not c only against the will of the majority, but in violation of that is, of political all rights, natural and supernatural Moreover, that our justice and of religious conscience. bayonets there are as truly foreign bayonets as the French in Rome. Against a status of six hundred years I put one of a thousand. Explicit controversiarum Liber!"

"

felt as he wrote Ullathorne (April 4, 1866) have so strong a feeling that we are being compromised in the public opinion of England by the Fenian Movement. I have endeavoured to express it so as to be a protest in the face of public opinion on three points The duty of loyalty. The sympathy due to Ireland. The Rights of the Holy See." But wherever he could serve Ireland without his official hand knowing, he did so. He " I am very anxious to applied to Cullen for literature read them, as I have opportunity to press the subject on both sides : and my whole heart is with you and Ireland." Cullen sent him a pamphlet by Isaac Butt which converted him to Home Rule. He immediately set about

"

Manning

:

I

:

:

converting English statesmen, including Gladstone. He wrote a superbly reasoned letter to Earl Grey, which showed the way to English legislation for half a century. He protested against " the cynical sarcastic disdain " " that meted out by English writers to noble-hearted people." He asked if Fenian animosity had nothing to do "with the three confiscations of almost every acre of land in Ireland, and the folly of striving for three hundred years to force Protestantism on a Catholic people?" In answer to Ullathorne's approval, Manning wrote

(March 20, 1868) " I thank you much for your kind words about my pamphlet. I was induced to write it for many reasons, especially by the desire of expressing a strong sympathy
:

204

Ireland
brethren and people; and this strengthened by the vexation of hearing some of English leading Catholics talk in a very senseless and heartless way about sentimental grievances

with our

Irish

was
our

and
the

'

'

like."
&

And
"

in

sending Gladstone a copy (March u, 1868)

:

It gives expression to feelings and convictions which powerfully govern the great mass of our people, who desire to see Great Britain and Ireland strong and peaceful. Believe me, the only hope of restoring Ireland to social order and peace is to give free course to the only

powers of Christianity which control it. Weaken these in the upper classes, as they have been by various causes weakened in the lower, and you will have to deal with '98

over again. true, full, unimpeded Catholic education is the only hope I know of keeping Ireland from American anarchy. For I know you do not wish either for the Duke of Cumberland with 24,000 men or with The Times for an Indian Mutiny or a Jamaica Massacre."

A

The turn of events often showed Gladstone fulfilling Manning as a prophet. Manning had been a quarter of
a century ahead of him on Disestablishment. He had " You written to him from Lavington (April 29, 1845) may go on calling it the Irish Church and the Established Church, but it is a mere phrase. The work of the sixteenth century is undone in Ireland. It is a question of first So much for Ireland!" But Ireland was principles. yet to count much in Manning's life. He was to be land reformer and Home Ruler before Gladstone. In 1868 his letter to Earl Grey touched the constitutional demand " of Ireland at high-water mark. He demanded Religious
:

Land System." Land Bill of 1870 was put upon the Parliamentary stage, Manning wrote privately to Gladstone demanding fixity of tenure and judicial rents. But it
Equality and an equitable

When

the

needed ten years of agitation and a fighting Irish party make such proposals practicable. As it was, the first wedge was inserted by the Land Bill of 1870, which
to

205

to prevent the Gladstone explained to Manning as one landlord from using the terrible weapon of undue and unjust eviction by so framing the handle that it shall cut his hands with the sharp edge of pecuniary damages." Manning could congratulate him (May 19, 1871)
:

Henry Edward Manning "

Yesterday I had a long conversation with two very advanced Irish politicians. They assured me that three years ago the desire for separation from England was greatly in the ascendant. That now the desire is equally strong for the integrity of the Empire. They ascribed
this to a revived confidence in Parliament,

"

and

that to

your two chief Irish measures. You have fairly earned this, which no English statesman has yet deserved."
to Cullen " If counsel. but sought fully prepared," the programme be violated, I should oppose that violation and not Home Rule." But Cullen would have none of

When Home
was "

Rule appeared Manning wrote

that he

it

(October

13,

1871):

"The

principal leaders in the

movement here are professors of Trinity College and Orangemen, who are still worse. .Their object appears to be to put out the present Ministry and get Disraeli into " The obvious power." Manning acquiesced, writing:
fear
is

the International.

All rivers run into the sea."

into prominence, with a small, respectable party pledged to moral force, Manning challenged Gladstone (August 23, 1872) " I am altogether unable to maintain the justice of our holding Ireland if the Pope had not a just sovereignty over Rome. My belief is that the action of Italy upon
:

However, when Isaac Butt came

Rome is like the action of America upon Ireland. If you wish to know the will of Ireland, ask the Irish in our Colonies and in the United States. You will never get it in Ireland with 30,000 English and Scotch bayonets. Let the next election be taken in the presence of 200,000 American troops. Do not believe me if you like. But do not disregard me. Steer your course as if the rocks I have laid down in the chart were as certain as you may perhaps think them to be moonshine."
206

Ireland
Gladstone was nettled to reply that the American influence was nearly dead, that the bayonets in Ireland were Irish as well as English and Scotch, "but I know of no influence which they do or can exercise on the free public expression of opinion." When Manning wrote a " local letter to the Archbishop of Armagh, demanding Liberals" "so-called and on calling self-government" " to repent of their sympathy with the German penal laws," Gladstone sadly noted: "There is a sad air of unreality; it is on stilts all through." But time brought reality, when famine and eviction The precipitated Irish misery and English action. eviction of the starving went up as a cry to Heaven, and as a blast upon the earth. It whistled through the lobbies

Westminster and afar in the corridors of the Vatican. and revolution returned in their circuit to Ireland. Those who had foresight both for England's and Ireland's good grasped the idea of Home Rule. Manning was perhaps the first Prelate in the world to welcome it,
of
Strife

"I see that writing to Ullathorne (March 2, 1873) Father Sherlock took the chair at a Home Rule meeting in Birmingham. My observation here is that Home Rule has divided the Irishmen and reclaimed many Fenians.
:

Without in any way committing myself to it, I have been very tolerant about it, believing it to be like vaccination to smallpox." Ullathorne replied (March 2, 1873) "The Vicar has just told me that he authorised Father Sherlock's presiding to prevent matters getting into unsafe hands. Had I known this, I scarcely think I should have approved, as it is not good for the clergy to take an open lead in these burning political questions. It would confirm the notion, which the Press is quite willing to work, that the Church is going in for democratic politics."
:

straining toward Home Rule against the both of Cullen and Gladstone. Manning had sent pricks Gladstone a copy of his letter to Lord Grey (March u,

Manning was

207

Henry Edward Manning
1868)
:

"In one
I

point

I

fear

we may

diverge,

I

mean

have just read Lord Mayo's scheme for the Catholic University. It will need treatment before it is
education.

accepted in Ireland, but it is capable of treatment." The Catholic University of Lord Mayo and Disraeli had failed, leaving bad blood between Manning and Disraeli. Short notes mark their first dealings and interviews. are From Disraeli (December 8, 1867) " Private. not going to leave town, as my wife is still a prisoner in
:

We

her room therefore I am at your service on any day convenient." December 27, 1867: "The Fenians give me so much trouble and take up so much time that I fear
;

have seemed to neglect your letter. Would to-morrow your Grace ?" Manning had heard from Cullen that he was " in favour of a Catholic University with an independent charter and under Catholic control," and that Dr. Moriarty was the only Irish Bishop antithetic. With the New Year he wrote (January 14, 1868) " The
I

suit

:

Lord Derby's day letter, I wrote to Mr. Disraeli. Yesterday I saw him for a moment. He told me that he had acted on my letter." Cullen had invited Manning's view, which was that the Irish Bishops should accept a charter without endowment. " Would it not be best to accept it ? Would not endowment come by force of events?" Manning found his exquisite tact strained to the utmost by the invisible negotiations between an Irish Cardinal and a Jewish " Premier. I should like to know what you would answer," he asked Cullen, and the next day (February " Private. For reasons which I am not able 21, 1868)
I

received the last

and the copy

of

:

to state I think

it

of urgent importance that the

Arch-

bishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Ferns ["Clonfert," corrects Cullen] should come over to London, if possible, next week." They came, and fell under the influence of
his own party to settle wrote that he could not concur Manning with Archbishop Leahy that " a Charter without endow208

Mr. Monsell, who " wished only

the question."

Ireland
ment ought
to

be refused," but

in vain.

Desperately

between Tory "The and Liberal. To Cullen he wrote: hope of a not to counted is be from Liberal Charter the on," party " I while he tried to square Gladstone at the same time. have written to-day strongly to Mr. Gladstone, begging him not to obstruct the Charter." However, Monsell was winning his Liberal Peerage, and Manning had to inform the startled Cullen that he was a Radical himself. " I say this because I fancy the Archbishop of Cashel may suppose me a party politician." Disraeli still expected Manning to win the Irish Bishops, and Manning wrote to him (March 16, 1868) " If Government can content the Irish Bishops, they will

Manning

tried to counteract the friction

:

not hinder the passing of the Charter. If they oppose endowment I hope the Charter will still be given." As a last resource he threw the Bishops into touch with
the the Government, for Disraeli wrote (March 16, 1868)
:

"

Confidential.

Thank you

for

your

letters.

The morn-

ing after his statement in the House of Commons Lord Mayo communicated with the two Prelates you mention and invited their views." The Irish Bishops became " involved in a correspondence not conciliatory." Cullen adopted their view, and there was a breakdown. But for a moment Manning snatched at success, writing to Cullen

have just now had no doubt that he But his hope of sincerely intends to carry his proposal.
Confidential. (March 14, 1868) an interview with Mr. Disraeli. I
:

"

I

feel

carrying it is satisfying the Irish Bishops. Mr. Fortescue last night declared that if the Catholics in Ireland accepted the plan he would not hinder it. I think I can say that will be Mr. Gladstone's line. If, therefore, your Eminence and the other Irish Bishops could examine and pronounce upon the plan, this would decide the question, the House
permitting." Unfortunately, neither the Irish Bishops nor the House permitted. Disraeli accused Manning of stabbing p 209

Henry Edward Manning
in the back, and Manning wrote to Gladstone in " I have had no dealings with Mr. Disraeli since 1874 he so far forgot himself as to say of me what was not true fact, nor could I unless he explains himself." How-

him

:

watching his opportunity, came forward with Disestablishment the day after poor Lord Mayo " Are we to continue this wrote (March 15, 1868) I am absolutely in despair about struggle for ever? If a Catholic says Yes, the Protestant says Ireland.
ever, Gladstone,
:

No!"

A
"

letter

relieves

from Cashel Hoey to Lord Mayo in 1870 Manning of the burden he bore for many a day
:

rumour spread in London that Mr. Disraeli attributed its failure to the Archbishop, and that he had even said that Dr. Manning had stabbed him in the back. The phrase in due course reached the Archbishop's ear.

A

From various sources I happened to know exactly how the case stood. The Irish Bishops charged with the negotiations had simply set His Grace aside and dealt with the question as a question exclusively Irish after
their

own
I

fashion, with a result never to be forgotten."
attitude

I must tell Disraeli from them, or I must be silent. The former would have been used against them, the latter

Manning's

was

:

" Either

that

differed

I was therefore silent." Lord only affected myself. was made Indian in and the Andaman Mayo Viceroy, Islands met that disaster which dogs all who have touched

fateful Ireland.

Disraeli's

Government

fell,

and before the end

of the

year Gladstone was in power. After the triumph of Disestablishment he approached the old rock. Manning " To ask threw a feeler to Cullen for endowment was five years ago hopeless and dangerous. To ask for it now would be still more so. I remember that your Eminence would have accepted a Charter without endowment. And I hope that the next scheme proposed may not be lost by demanding endowment." To Gladstone 210
:

Ireland
" I thought your statement last (February 14, 1873) as it could be. What and unassailable night complete think of your plan I do brethren transmarine may my not know, but hope to hear. I do not know how the adopting the German Opposition can attack it without " I wrote next and the Confidential. day: tyranny"; to accept yesterday to Cardinal Cullen strongly urging
:

the Bill.
Disraeli

I

am

fully prepared for objections.

I

saw

and Stafford Northcote exchanging signals at the exclusion of Mental Philosophy and Modern History.
This they will attack, but it is easy of defence." To " in Cullen he wrote, sight of the storm signals," a cautious recommendation (February 14, 1873): "The only side of the question I can judge of is the English and political side, and on this I venture to say that I think it would be our best prudence to make as much noise as will lead our enemies to believe that we do not like it, but to hold fast by the plan." Cullen was alarmed at the plan, especially as "it is reported that Mr. Gladstone
intends

giving

professorships

to

distinguished

Germans and Frenchmen, who will bring Hegelism and infidelity with them, as Mr. Vesicour, a nephew of Guizot, did to the Cork College." Manning sent the Cardinal's objections to Gladstone, and suggested tactics
(February 26, 1873) "If it were thought that the Catholic Bishops were not opposed to the Bill, an anti-Catholic noise would be got up. I cannot but repeat that I think it most expedient to raise a loud opposition on the endowment injustice. I write this with submission, and more as a politician or a watch at the masthead."
:

The Irish Bishops met and resolved against the Bill, the Bishop of Limerick alone defending. Gladstone sent word that this " is really war to the knife. How is it
possible that this should not have been perceived?" Of endowment Manning wrote to Cullen (March i, 1873) " They could not give it if they would, and they would not if they could. I will believe them when they try a
:

211

immaculate Heart College
Hollywood, California

Henry Edward Manning
this

not before. The tyrannous Liberalism of can be cured by nothing short of a public country which disaster, may God avert !" Meanwhile Cullen had made an amusing descent on the Viceroy (March 2,
division

on

it,

1873)

:

"

I

told

great care
fessors,

my mind most fully. He assured me that would be taken in appointing the new proand that Catholics would be perfectly safe. I
we got
similar assurances

replied that

regarding the

Queen's Colleges, and that the first appointment was that of an infidel to the Chair of History in Cork, and the last was that of an immoral poet, a Mr. Armstrong, to the Class of English Literature. I had this poet's work in my pocket, and I showed to His Excellency a wicked poem against the Confessional. Lord Spencer admitted that he had made this appointment himself !"

The

Irish

members helped

to

throw out the

Bill

by

three votes, though Mr. Horsman attacked it as "a vote' of confidence in Cardinal Cullen." Manning wrote to

Lord Lyttelton the defeated Premier (March 7, 1873) told me to-day at the Athenaeum that you are well and
:

"

things might befall you than will not, I hope, take to levity. heart the opposition of the Bishops in Ireland. Treat it as an earthquake." Being in a tumbling majority, Gladstone could hardly have seen it otherwise. From a pinnacle of the House of God Manning could proffer optimism
in

good courage. Horsman's bitter

Worse

You

:

that there may be a providence of God in this check. The division of last night may give you back a liberty which the Nonconformists have heavily oppressed. The Disestablishment drew about you the sons of Eldad and Medad, and I wish you were free from their embrace. My belief is that you will yet settle the University Question. After that, if you wish to go up to Mount Tabor, I may be more willing
to listen."

"I cannot conceal from myself

212

Ireland
" Private. For Gladstone had written (March 13, 1873) You give no heed to the wailings and pleas of my old age, but I do, and the future in politics hardly exists for me. Your Irish brethren have received in the late vote of Parliament the most extravagant compliment ever paid them. They have destroyed the measure, which otherwise was safe enough." The General Election returned Disraeli to power, and with the persistence of a Job's comforter Manning comforted Gladstone (February 5, 1874)
:

:

exhausted the mission you undertook. I do not like, you will have another. confide in the ethical character of the Nonconformists. They have each one swallowed a Pope, and I have no chance with legions of Infallibilists. And I like still less the Philosophical Radicals and Oriental Despots of the Pall Mall type, and still less the strong-minded women. Only, do not be sharpened or soured or saddened. There If I go on you will burn me !" are three words for you

"

You have

Say what you

!

Gladstone promptly used his leisure to roast Vaticanism. the Ariel who had enticed both Gladstone and Disraeli upon the Irish rocks, with the same result. And he noted " It is curious the one should have written Lothair and the other Rome's New Fashions. Disraeli kept his head, but not his temper. Gladstone lost both !"

Manning had proved

:

213

CHAPTER XIV
" The Roman
1845.

:

THE VATICAN COUNCIL
do dreadful havoc."

Infallibility will

Manning

to Gladstone,

thou infallible?" asked the mocking Nineteenth "Thou hast said it," answered Pio Nono. The definition of a new dogma is an event rarer and more curious than the discovery of a new planet, and Manning was fortunate to be at the defining of one, which had been always in the theological heavens, but

"ART

Century.

required the wisdom of Christendom to chart. Caesarism and Ultramontanism, the absolute Church and the absolute State, arose out of the French Revolution. Both ideas ripened in 1870, and remained dominant for a half-century, until one was taken and one was left. Manning knew that the principle of Ultramontanism was

now

had no misgiving in pressing The honour of the Holy Infallibility upon Ghost and the personality of Pius led him to take a greater part than any Englishman before in a Church
eternal.

He

therefore

the Church.

Council. In 1867,

five

hundred Bishops being

in

Rome

to

celebrate St. Peter's martyrdom, the Pope announced the Council. committee including Manning and

A

Dupanloup prepared the reply. In his account of the Council, Emile Ollivier stated that Manning wished at this moment to introduce the Infallibility, but that the
Hungarian Bishop Haynald rejected it. Manning wrote a long, unpublished narrative to Ollivier, concluding

(May
"

5,

1879)

:

the word.

Mgr. Haynald never opposed either the doctrine or It was he who wrote the word and, as he has told me, had always taught the doctrine. I did not press
214

The
for the

Vatican Council

insertion of the doctrine, but I resisted the exclusion of the word, unless the Florentine Decree were inserted in the Address."

was a Decree declaring the Pope Father and all Christians. .The future Cardinal Haynald " infallible ",I Dupanloup proposed slipped in the word the Address should be revised by Franchi, who left the word out. Manning then insisted on the word or the Decree. Wljat followed was Dupanloup opposed.
!This

Teacher of

typical of

Manning

:

"At our fourth session the Address was read again, but the Decree had not been inserted. I had foreseen that this might happen, and I had brought with me a transcript of the Decree which I gave to Mgr. Franchi. At our fifth session I found that still the Decree had not been inserted. And as I had again a prevision that this might happen, I had brought with me a second copy of the Decree, which was then incorporated in the Address."
Meanwhile Christendom drew into camps. Manning was opposed by his older clergy, and his chief ally was " " a layman, Ultramontane Ward, whose alleged desire for a new Bull with his morning Times made him a "theocrat at the breakfast-table." His French, though humourless, counterpart was Veuillot, just as Acton was a more learned and less able Montalembert. " It was

no time

Ward
(May
"
I

for rose-water," declared Manning, and when attacked Newman and Manning's nephew, Father

Ryder,

defended the
1867):

latter,

he wrote to Ullathorne

11,

have read Father Ryder's pamphlet with much regret, and agree in the remark that it is inopportune. I fear it will gravely complicate matters, which were tangled enough already. Mr. Ward will reply to it at once, disengaging, he tells me, the one point of importance from all the personal matter, which enters too largely. We are entering upon a time which will need all our watchfulness over ourselves."
215

Henry Edward Manning
Newman, though
invited to

the Council,

declined,
:

writing to Ullathorne with irritating talents or by not fitted either by

modesty

"I am

my

my

attainments.

No

one would gain by my being there, and I am not at all sure I should not lose my life." Manning brought a disunited Hierarchy from England, Bishop Brown " I have taken occasion to object writing to Ullathorne I don't see to one of the conclusions in his Pastoral. is made a the to be mere whole empty why Episcopate
:

speaking-trumpet of." To champion Infallibility Manning had to lose what little favour he had re-won with Gladstone and Newman, but Newman's Bishop wrote

him farewell: "Bon voyage, and take care you don't turn that red-lined cap inside out when you get to the end of it!" Gladstone wrote sternly (November 16,
1869)
:

"
in

1835.

sent me a proof-sheet about the I thought it by much too of the Church. Infallibility absolute. Lord Macaulay covered me with not ill-natured yet unqualified and glittering ridicule because in my imperfect way I had professed my allegiance to two principles, which in religion he appeared to regard as

my memory. You

My first recollection of difference from you was in My second went deeper, and left a strong mark

incompatible, freedom and authority. After some thirty years of the blasts of life I remain rooted in regard for authority, and even more than before in the value I set

upon freedom."

The Vatican Council was

not without

full

freedom of

speech in the struggle to set a stake of authority which the years were not to remove. the way to the Council

On

Manning interviewed Thiers and Guizot. Both were in favour of the Temporal Power. Guizot said of the " It Council : is the last great moral power, and may
restore the peace of

Europe."
of Orleans

learnt that
et

Dupanloup

eloquent Mgr.

Manning

"

At Florence Manning had attacked " le pieux

in his Pastoral for placing

216

The
as

Vatican Council
Gallican in

Infallibility outside the body of Bishops. thought and Gallic in temper, Dupanloup

was

criticised

Wilberforce." Manning had " is a him He vigorous man, and the previously met more I see of him the more I like him. He has the heart of a Pastor." Amid the old and the prudent and timid, Odo Russell informed they made vivid antagonists. " It is confidently expected by the French Clarendon that the Opposition, led by Dupanloup, will triumphantly carry the fallibility of the Pope!" Two days later the Pope opened the Council (December 8, 1869). Bishops of all races and rites, bringing a Pentecost of tongues and a League of Nations with them, poured into Rome. The American Spalding, in "white blouse and wide-

"a French Samuel
:

:

awake," jostled the Hungarian Cardinal Simor, with his Latin Bishops of Oriental rite accomroyal retinue. orientals of Latin rite, one of whom wore his panied The profane said one Bishop carried his ring pigtail.
fine

The streets witnessed so much purple and Manning remarked he had given up on Dives and Lazarus. Some had come by preaching
in his nose.

linen

that

caravan, and

some even had died on the road. The Council was placed under five Cardinal Legates, not unlike Speakers in the Commons. The Infallibility came under the Commission of Faith, to which Manning was elected. It was a victory for those who thought the

Dogma opportune, for the only inopportunist elected was Cardinal Simor. The Opposition, or Inopportunists or Gallicans, as they were called, showed their humour by writing ironical messages on the voting-papers. Later
they founded an International under Dupanloup and Haynald. Manning wrote: "The International Committee met often, and we met weekly to watch and
counteract.
It

When

they went to Pius IX.

we went

also.

was a running

fight."

Though the disputation did not compare with the warfare of early Church Councils, it was considerable, 217

Henry Edward Manning

the chiefly because, as Antonelli informed Odo Russell, that has so even heretical been of great speech liberty opinions have been expounded without interference from

"

Russell reported an interview with the Pope (January 13, 1870) in which Pius complained of the indiscretion of the French Bishops and of the unending orations, but he could not say anything, or they would complain of lack of independence. Pius laughed when he suggested empty benches as a remedy, and said the Bishops themselves were impatient when certi chiacchieroni spoke too long. He hoped that Queen Victoria would come to Rome that he might greet a colleague. A " As Head of the Church of pontifical joke followed. England, His Holiness explained, Her Majesty is my lo sono Papa Re -ma la vostra Sovrana Colleague.
the Legates 1"

Regina e Papessa in Inghilterral" Meantime Manning had organised the

Petition

to

bring the Definition before the Council. Manning kept a list of those who signed or would not at this anxious moment, in the same clear script that once registered

communicants and dissenters
Papal States Subalpine Neapolitan Lombardy Venetia
Etruria

at

Lavington.

Sub.
45
5 41 5
... ...
...

Non-sub.
10
15

...

... ...

6

4 o o

*

Neither the Irish nor English Bishops would come into Of the former, seven were noted as non-subscribing (Tuam, Derry, Dromore, Raphoe, Kerry, Ferns, Clonfert) ; Cornthwaite of Beverley and Manning were the only English Bishops to sign, while Clifford and Errington actually signed the Anti-Infallibility Petition, as did the
line.

Irish Bishops Moriarty and Leahy. As for this precious " It was to have document, Russell sent Manning word been presented to His Holiness by four Archbishops, but each of them declared that three would be sufficient I"
:

218

The

Vatican Council

In the end 418 petitioned for Infallibility and 136 to the contrary. Supported by Franchi and Cullen, Manning recommended the first Petition to the Pope. "Out of all but two or three voted to recommend the
twenty-five,

Holy Father
the Council. It also left
to his party.

that the Definition should be proposed to This was the first great step in advance."

if not leader, at least Chief Whip Granderath's History of the Council gives " an insight of Manning as working day and night with a willingness that nothing could shake and an ardour that nothing could slacken in order to bring a happy The words are drawn from the notes of an issue."

Manning,

unnamed Bishop, probably Senestrey

of Ratisbon, for the notes are endorsed by the cipher of his ally, the " Ita esse testor et fidem Archbishop of Westminster,

facio

31 Die Martii, 1875." as a This was his cipher Cardinal, but the animosities he roused at the Council prevented the red hat reaching
his devoted

H.E.C.A.W. Romae,

head for

five years to

come.

The Church

makes the

Cardinalitial office a

than a gonfalon of party. Patriarchs, and old-fashioned Bishops may be imagined as the English ex-Archdeacon took a relentless lead. What could French Gallicans and courtly Bonapartists

pennon of peace rather The feelings of Cardinals,

do against the freelance from Westminster? What could Cardinal Rauscher, the Emperor Francis Joseph's older tutor, do against the Fellow of Merton ? What could the Gallicans of Ireland and America do against
the eloquence of Oxford
in
?

Sitting close to the youngest

Council, Gibbons from South Carolina, Bishop his arm to him and remarked it was bared Manning tanned by the blows of his adversaries Ollivier left a sketch of him at the Council " The love of domination
! :

is about him, and when his thin lips smile, it seems to be out of pure condescension. He is certainly pious and

sincere, wrapped in God, but he is not the emaciated monk he looks. Under his seraphic beatitude he retains a

219

Henry Edward Manning
So much so that he wheedling and energetic policy." " was nicknamed by adversaries Diavolo del Concilia," who were no less active and influential. Jhere was Dollinger skirmishing as Janus and Acton writing as Quirinus from Rome itself. Acton represented Gladstone,

Lord Acton he may use the strongest language he thinks fit
Secretary, to telegraph to Russell
:

who had persuaded Clarendon, "

his

Foreign
tell

Please

respecting my opinion." The opinion of the English Cabinet was with the Inopportunists, though what exactly was its business with a Church Council has never been explained. Acton was a thorn in the zeal of Manning, who could only counteract his letters to Gladstone by

priming Odo Russell on the other side. It was interesting that two Englishmen should have taken such mighty parts, for Acton was to the Opposition what Manning was to the Ultramontanes. Acton's part was played behind the scenes, but it was correctly estimated in a secret

memorandum
"
:

of Russell to his

Government (June

18,

his personal intervention the Bishops 1870) of the Opposition could scarcely have known each other. Without his knowledge of language and of theology the

Without

theologians of the various nations could not have understood each other, and without his virtues they could not have accepted and followed the lead of a layman so much younger than any of the Fathers of the Church." But to Pius Acton seemed almost to play an unfilial
part,

and the Pope was reported

to

deny his blessing

to

Acton's children playing on the Pincio. Acton, Catholic at heart, spent the next night in anguish under Odo Russell's roof. No layman ever played such a part in Church matters, and no Catholic more narrowly missed excommunication. Manning never forgave his hostility, for some Bishops inclined to Acton rather than to their On a sad day Russell sent Manning Metropolitan. word " Ullathorne has joined the ranks of the Opposition." As a matter of fact, he was in the middle party, 220
:

The
for

Vatican Council

which both Acton and Manning were bidding. On hearing the rumour, Ullathorne demanded audience of the Pope, and indignantly cleared his theological " His Holiness character, with which, he recorded, Pio Nono was so expressed himself well satisfied." amused by Ullathorne's bluff outburst that he punctuated " it with Bravoes !" But Ullathorne's troubles delighted were not over. Newman wrote him a most confidential letter (though he did not mark it private), deploring the " " who were working in the aggressive, insolent faction Council. It was a famous and fastidious letter, and copies passed among the Opposition. Russell showed one to Manning, who took no action on so private a paper. Meanwhile a cloud of journalists settled like flies on the
waste-paper baskets and gossip corners of Rome. On March 14 Newman's letter was published in the London Standard. It could only be supposed that the Roman correspondent of the Standard, the future Laureate, Alfred Austin, had lost his discretion. Wilfrid Ward, " in his of
Life public is not

Newman,

says,

How

the extracts

became

known." A letter sheds some light (May Bagnall
"

of Ullathorne to Provost
19, 1870)
:

I think it well to remark that the letter was private and intended to be private, and that neither Dr. Newman nor myself had the slightest intention of making it public. That publication was occasioned through the unguardedness of another Bishop, to whom it was shown by me under specific conditions, and I very much regret it. Dr. Newman communicated to me his personal conviction of the Infallibility. This, in the private way in which it was done, was a legitimate proceeding."

to be the Bishop. Press took enormous and mischievous interest in what was passing. Manning set Herbert to edit London. Vaughan the Vatican in Vaughan wrote: "The Pall Mall described you speaking in the Council against Gastaldi. But I hear nothing direct.

Clifford

was said

The English

221

Henry Edward Manning
Did you?" An exchange of chaff between two Bishops In irony was magnified by The Times into fisticuffs " was asked what when Well, said, happening Manning we meet, and we look at one another, and then we talk a little, but when we want to know what we have been doing we read The Times!"
1
:

The

political

element disturbed the Council in their

Archbishop Darboy of Paris had written to the French Emperor hinting regrettable possibilities. Manning saw in him an adversary, as the Almoner of Caesarism. Acton was working with him, for he asked
labours.

Russell to telegraph to the British Foreign Office his fear lest Infallibility would be passed by acclamation if the

French Government did not support the Opposition. On February 10 the Bill De Ecclesia, though a pontifical
surreptitiously in the German Russell wrote to Manning the next day "The publication in the Augsburg Gazette has been of the greatest use to the Opposition, who are founding their
secret,

was published

Press

!

:

demand for moral support from foreign Governments on it. The French Government seem determined to oppose
the majority in the Council, and flatter themselves that they can easily prevent the definition of the Infallibility by sundry threats through the Archbishop of Algiers."

This was Lavigerie, who brought word from the French Emperor that the Dogma would endanger the Concordat. " We were told that if the Council persevered with the " the French troops Definition," recalled Manning, would be withdrawn. That is to say, that the Garibaldians would be let in to make short work of the Definition. It was said that the presence of the troops was an undue pressure. There was a grim irony, amounting to humour, in this solicitude for the liberty of the Council." Odo Russell was playing a double game. On February 15 he asked the Foreign Office to suggest to the Austrian Premier to communicate with Russia and Bavaria in support of the German Bishops, and he wrote to Manning
222

The
(March
2,

Vatican Council

" The opposition are gradually rousing the Catholic Powers to action, and the Church will soon find all the States and part of the Episcopacy arrayed as I against her; and the battle may be a fierce one,
1870)
:

notice that time decidedly strengthens the cause of the

opposing Bishops by adding to their lay adherents." He was shrewd enough to inform the Foreign Office that the manner in which the French Government were supporting the French Bishops was more likely to weaken than strengthen their cause, and he alluded to Dollinger as " the Inopportunists* Anti-Pope, in whom they recognise the Infallibility they deny to Pius IX." So dilatory were the Opposition that the Pope granted a new procedure " in Council, and Manning noted February 22 Nova
: :

Methodus
it.

The Bishop of Rhodes shed rejoice. it." Russell reported when he welcomed joy

We

distributed to-day.

Adversaries furious with
tears of

"
:

The

Decree of February 20 is the death-warrant of the Opposition." But the political influence never abated. All the statecraft

of Europe was directed against the Definition. Russell telegraphed to the Foreign Office (March i,

1870)

:

"

Lord Acton

know

is anxious the French Government should that further loss of time will be fatal to the Bishops

of the Opposition."

March
in

15,

1870

"

:

The Austrian Ambassador has been
Government

instructed to support the policy of the French

Rome."

At the same time he laid down the important diplomatic axiom that "an Italian priest can always in the long-run get the better of a French statesman." The Opposition
used their liberty to the full. criticised the new procedure,
of St. Louis the

Cardinal Schwartzenburg

and Archbishop Kenrick of the word "anathema." frequency
Slavdom, caused an (March 23, 1870)
:

Finally, Strossmayer, the Father of angry scene. Russell telegraphed

223

Henry Edward Manning
Government to know that dogma could be proclaimed without moral unanimity among the Bishops, for which he was called to order." The English interference in the
the French that no declared Strossmayer

"Acton wishes

Vatican Council, due entirely to Gladstone's theological excitement, was tempered owing to Russell's discretion but it was a fact, and Mr. Childers of the Admiralty
;

appeared in person in Rome. Dupanloup immediately called on him. Manning discovered this, and "seeing
arch-enemy's card in Mr. Childers' rack, I tempered with my own." Gladstone could not help trying to alarm Manning on Education prospects during his absence (March 28, 1870) "Private. I am sorry to say I cannot hold out expectations on either of the points you mention. I need not say that the R.C. position in relation to all such demands is much damaged by the impressions here of what is going on at Rome." Later he telegraphed that he had not been able to reverse the vote on Convents. "This message is clearly intended for your Grace," wrote Russell. Manning sent Gladstone warning (April 7, 1870)

my
it

:

:

"I can conceive it possible that under an instigation from the Opposition here, some attempt may be made to prevent certain acts on the part of the Council in matters purely doctrinal. I feel it in every way a duty towards you to pray you to consider that such an attempt could have no result that it would be a violation of the liberty of the Council that it would make it our duty, at any imaginable risk and cost, to exercise that liberty to its
;

;

fullest extent."

" If Gladstone would not be deterred, replying asked, we cannot withhold, perhaps, the expression of our conIn a later viction, but we have not been promoters."
:

letter to

Manning,

Sir

Hubert Jerningham

recalled that

in April, 1870,

Gladstone questioned him on the
the dispatch Gladstone

Dogma
'

:

"

Having read
'

had

replied,

You have

inspired,

I

passed

it !'

Said Gladstone,

How?'

224

The
'

Vatican Council

By pressing a foreign Government into a contest against a purely clerical body, who, unable to resist strength by
force of arms, will show its independence by proclaiming what they could have delayed.' Gladstone was frantic, and roughly dismissed me."

Russell informed the Foreign Office that some of the French Bishops had applied to the Prussian representative in Rome, and that Bismarck had sent an envoy to Paris to press their views on Daru. Daru sent a note to Cardinal Antonelli, which it was hoped would defer the Russell warned his Government not to Definition. support the note, but he was compelled on April 12 to inform Antonelli verbally that the British Government shared French apprehension lest the Bill De Ecclesia should cause conflict between the civil and religious Russell smoothed Gladstone had moved powers.
!

that the British by explaining to desired Government only promote goodwill among men. " The new Daru note will defeat its own object," he wrote to Manning. Qui mange du Pape en meurt, says the proverb, and Daru fell from office. The Pope declined to communicate the French note to the Council, and

matters

to

Antonelli

Antonelli informed Russell,

"

with a smile

"

expressive

of goodwill to all men, that he expected French interference would cease. These interferences never pierced the Veil of the Temple, behind which the Council sat.

"

The means

taken to prevent the Definition

made

the

Definition inevitable," wrote Manning. When the intrigue failed, the Bavarian Minister went out of his way
to say in Manning's presence: "It shall not be proclaimed in my august master's dominions." "It shall not be proclaimed in my scullery !" quoth the Archbishop of Westminster.

Meanwhile the Dogma was reaching shape. Manning had early proposed to add to the Bill De Ecclesia in the " fourteenth Canon the words If anyone deny that the Primacy of jurisdiction or the principate of spiritual 225 Q
:

Henry Edward Manning
on power over the whole Church has not been conferred Peter alone and on his successors, let him be anathema I" During Holy Week, the last kept by Papal Rome, the actual formula was discussed in Manning's rooms. Ratisbon found the Cardinal Legate Bilio terrified at the idea of proposing a question which Christians would have to accept or reject. Only two of the five Legates favoured its introduction, and Manning and Ratisbon
Their petition received 150 appealed to the Pope. Bilio gave notice of the debate. signatures, and on April 27 Fathers protested in the Council, but the Seventy-one their gratitude to the Pope. After majority forwarded
the Bill the

De Ecclesia had received 667 Placets in Council, Commission on Faith discussed the Infallibility. The

" overborne by Malines and Paderborn," wrote Manning, " who beset him in a of French

desire to conciliate the minority brought critical days for Manning and Ratisbon. On May 5 Bilio opposed,

and

fear

Bilio wished private." revealed truth. Manning

Bishops, to confine

Infallibility

to

and Ratisbon misunderstood his application to dogma, and the session, we are told, broke up in tumult. The next day Bilio brought the Jesuit theologians Franzelin and Perrone to recommend the limited formula, but Manning and Ratisbon were obdurate. The valiant twain held out, and when Bilio
said they were dealing with the expression, not the substance of the formula, they continued to protest. Bilio " lost self-control and cried out, Non ita sunt tractandce

They remained silent, and Bilio's amendment was sent to Council. But Manning did not forget, and years later, when Bilio misjudged the Capel case, " Manning thundered his words back in his face, Non ita
res ecclesia!"

sunt tractandce res ecclesice!" The general debate took place between May 13 and June 3. The Opposition made a large use of their liberty, while the Infallibilists mildly expostulated. Cullen lucidly defended the test case of Pope Honorius. The 226

The
Patriarch

Vatican Council

attacked Gallicanism, and of Jerusalem Bravard of Coutances retorted that in that case he should lower the French flag in Jerusalem. Manning noted
:

Bravard spoke against Martin of Paderborn an eloge of France, climax, that to France the Holy See owed its Bad Latin of the kitchen. existence. " Strossmayer spoke only to waste time. At the end

'*

we asked
he said
it

ourselves, What did he say ?' Nothing, only in excellent Latin and as a born orator."
'

Ketteler of Mayence, his face scarred by a duel, protested against absolutism in the Church, and Verot of

Then

Savannah, "the enfant terrible of the Council," caused a welcome ripple of mirth by describing certain journalists
bestice," and the Archbishop of Paris made a grave and moderate speech for the Opposition. He asked if the Infallibility would raise the African Churches from the dead? Would it convert Protestant or Schis-

as

" maxima

Manning rose (May 25, 1870), and had converted him, and that Catholic progress in England was hindered by indecision. He translated extracts from the English Press to show that Protestants regarded the Ultramontanes and not the
matic?
this point
it

At

asserted that

He asked the Council do what the Council of Trent had done, and ratify the Decree of Florence. The Definition would unite the
Gallicans as the real Catholics.
to

Church
for

in face of a

an hour and
life.

his

"

crumbling Protestantism. He spoke It was the great effort of fifty minutes.
in
I

I

saw dear old Cardinal De Angelis look
him, as
if

despair at the Cardinals next to

he thought

should never end. But the Bishops never moved till I had done. Cardinal Monaco, who was at the greatest Cardinal distance, told me that he heard every word. Bilio told me since that the two speeches he liked best were Cardinal Cullen's and mine." Ollivier records that some of the Opposition cried out, " Would to God that he was on our side!" Kenrick of St. Louis compared
227

Henry Edward Manning
him
to the

Normans

in Ireland,

who became more
I

Irish

than the Irish themselves. Catholic than the Catholics.

A

convert had become more

were but yesterday his memorable speech, which, though in a foreign tongue and the longest one made at the Council,
recall as
if it

"

held us spellbound by its beautiful diction," writes Cardinal Gibbons after nearly fifty years. Clifford was among the Bishops who replied to Manning. Grant died in Rome before the discussion

was ended. Manning was anxious that his place should not be filled by a vote hostile to the Dogma. Russell reported to the Government that Southwark might be absorbed into Westminster, and later (June 6, 1870) " Archbishop Manning is said to have recommended
:

Herbert Vaughan. The Propaganda are favourable to Father Coffin, and the Chapter will probably elect Dr. Errington." By June u Acton knew he was beaten, and
Definition became a certainty, and the was the exact formula. only question Manning and Ratisbon wished a more extended Infallibility than Bilio, even to such matters as canonisations and minor censures. Bilio read two formulas to the Commission, one worded by ^Manning and Franchi, the other a more elastic proposal by Cullen. The latter was selected and sent to Council. The session was closed on July 4, but by July ii the Commission agreed on Cullen's proposal, with the addition of the famous words cum ex cathedra loquitur. Russell wrote to Manning from the rival camp
left

Rome. The

My friends have settled, notwithstanding what they call their triumph of yesterday, that if they cannot command eighty votes they will abstain from attending the public session, where they would only have fifteen men courageous enough to say no. I reckon on a unanimous Placet. The loss of Cardinal Guidi has been a severe blow." Guidi, the Dominican Cardinal, had
(July 12, 1870)
:

"

spoken for the Opposition.

When

he explained to the
is

Pope

that his speech

was

traditionary, Pius

said to

228

The
have uttered the

Vatican Council " I am the famous word,

tradition

"
I

At the preparatory vote of July 13 the Placets in favour of the Infallibility numbered 481. Manning was the only
English Bishop of their number. Vaughan of Plymouth and Clifford joined the 88 non-Placets, and Ullathorne and Chadwick voted conditionally, or juxta modum.

The

dissentient Cardinals, according to Pomponio Leto, drew their scarlet hats over their eyes and remained

silent.

At the

last

hour Russell sent word (July

14,

1870)

:

"Flushed with their success, my friends have determined to remain and to win over 40 of the juxta modums, so as to ensure at least 120 non-Placets. Ketteler and some others announce concessions which will enable them to give their Placet."

And
"

again

:

Darboy, who now takes the credit of the minority vote to himself, was going to Cardinal Bilio to dictate his terms. He tells us he is sure of 140 non-Placets. At the French-German International he has recommended a solemn protest to be laid on the table of the Council after the 140 have voted. I saw my colleagues, who all agree that the triumph of victory is at fever heat among the 88."
a matter of fact, they were on the verge of rout and In vain they begged the Pope to add a clause to enable them to vote for the Definition. saving
dissolution.

As

The Pope

ironically referred them back to the Council, which they themselves had insisted was not below the Pope. Haynald and Hefele proposed they should vote

non-Placet, but the majority of the minority declared for abstention, and, addressing a humble letter to the Pope,

they left Rome. Manning's sixty-second birthday was one of calm triumph. The script of the Infallibility was in the hands of the Secretary of the Council, and the

weary majority slept the sleep of the justified. The storm which had ushered Manning's birth was repeated. On
229

Henry Edward Manning
the night of July 17 the thunder rolled amid the domes of the city, and the lightning flashed like living anathemas from the great statues which threaten the outside world from the roof of the Lateran Basilica. In the grey of

the
to

morning the Fathers made

their

way

for the last time

The Definition was solemnly read, the Council. the Pope infallible and his definitions irreformdeclaring able of themselves and not in virtue of the Church's
consent, non autem ex consensu ecclesice. This, even, was a milder version of the three words sine consensu
it was sought to crush Gallicanism for than 535 Bishops voted Placet. Amid peals of thunder the Fathers gave their vote in turn. Only two, Riccio of Cajazzo and Fitzgerald of Little Rock, voted non-Placet, in order to make their subsequent submission the more striking. As the Pope read the figures with the aid of a taper, the lightning burst

ecclesice

by which
less

ever.

No

forth afresh, as

though Heaven, some

said,

were

dis-

and the Ten Commandments," was Manning's reply. But the roughness of the weather could hardly defer what the diplomacy of the world had tried to undermine in vain. Fiat Dogma mat CcelumJ
pleased at the action of man.

"They

forgot Sinai

On Manning's
Vaticani

table that

portrait of St. Charles labelled

morning the Jesuits placed a " Sessionis
IV.
concilii

mnemosynon."
fell,

As evening
the thrones

Basilicas with that

the Apostolic bill-poster placarded Definition compared to which all

and powers of Caesar were as dust. On the next day war broke out between Germany and France. The Empire which had threatened the Council was swept away, and, indeed, before the last survivor of the Council had died, the Empire of Germany which was erected on its ruins had also passed away. And the remained. Papacy Friend and foe gave Manning his due. " If any single man were able to ascribe to himself the honour of this
230

The
victory,

Vatican Council

it would be the Archbishop of Westminster," wrote Nielson, the Scandinavian Protestant Bishop. The aftermath of the Council was sharp, and unnoticed by the world in arms. The Cardinals of the Opposition submitted with royal dignity. One by one the absent Bishops sent their allegiance to the Decrees. Clifford

accepted the Infallibility "as the voice of the Church, and as such undoubtedly true." Errington charac" retraction or subteristically objected to the words mission," preferring on canonical grounds to give his " adhesion." Manning returned, and was glad to smooth the way of the faithful in accepting the Dogma. To " The Infallibility is defined, Aubrey de Vere he wrote Maskell extent." And to but not its (October 20, 1871) : is matter of theology. of his "The extension Infallibility The Council intended not to touch the extension of his You are therefore free, debita reverentia, Infallibility. to regard this as matter of theology." Dollinger refused his submission and passed out of the
:

living Church.
befall

People began

to

wonder what would
inflation

Acton.

"They had the

of

German

professors and the

Manning

ruthless talk of undergraduates," wrote " scientific historians." " The of the school of

Vatican Council was fatal to them. During the whole course they ridiculed and maligned it. When it was suspended, they tried to evade it." Acton, however, had no intention of leaving a Church, communion with which, he wrote in The Times while attacking it, was dearer to him than life. Manning had resented his doings with Gladstone, to whom he wrote: "The shadow of Lord Acton between you and the Catholics of Great Britain would do what I could never undo." Gladstone answered " I (November 12, 1870) regard his character and admire his abilities and attainments, but I have never supposed him to be a man representative of the general body of English Roman Catholics. You will not be surprised at my adding that I wish he were such. For though I
:

231

Henry Edward Manning
have noticed a great circumspection among his gifts, I have never seen anything that bore the slightest resemblance to a fraudulent reserve. Meanwhile you need not assure me as to your motives, as one-twentieth of the time I have known you would have sufficed to show how absolutely incapable you were of any spiteful act." As the report spread that Acton had not accepted the Decrees, and Acton was writing painfully in The Times, Manning
challenged him, but was referred to his Bishop, Brown of Shrewsbury, who extended canonical protection. " I Manning wrote to Ullathorne (November 27, 1874) hope you will carefully examine Lord Acton's letter, and say what course ought to be taken. He has been in and since the Council a conspirator in the dark, and the ruin of Gladstone. His answers to me are obscure and evasive. I am waiting till after Sunday, and shall then send one need not fear this outbreak for more final question. our people. Some masks will be taken off, to our greater " I have had Acton's second unity." December 7, 1874
:

We

:

examined by the most competent person here, and have a long MS. refutation. In my last letter to Acton I have asked him whether his words, 'The acts of the Council I recognise as my Law,' are equivalent to, I adhere to the doctrines which it defined.' No answer as I wrote a third time yet. I believe him to be evading. to ask. Here is his answer. Can I in conscience allow him to receive Sacraments in London ? His scandal was
letter
'

published there. He has caused there the belief that he does not receive the Definitions of the Church Council. I am also of that belief. And he will make neither reparation nor explanation." January 2, 1875: "My correspondence with Lord Acton is not satisfactory. I did as you suggested with the Bishop. Then I had a conference here with four of my priests. unanimously decided that the case ought to be sent to Rome, and I am now doing so." January 25, 1875 " As to Lord Acton's history, I have not touched it, nor had any

We
:

232

The
intention of doing

Vatican Council so. But I obtained in Rome
I
I

valuable

matter which a

month ago

competent layman.

Bollandists, for I had that they admit the fact,

put into the hands of a very also the passages of the him gave seen a letter of Lord Acton saying

which they do not. The

less

we
to

deal with such matter the better.

Even dust turns

dynamite." But Acton had submitted privately to his own Bishop in terms which were also communicated to Ullathorne (December 16, 1874) "To your doubt whether I am a
:

pretended Catholic I must reply that, believing all the Catholic Church believes, and seeking to occupy my life with no studies that do not help religion, I am, in spite of sins and errors, a true Catholic, and I protest that I have given you no foundation for your doubt. If you speak of the Council because you supposed that I have separated myself in any degree from the Bishops
real or a
I enjoyed at Rome, who opposed the Decrees during the discussion, but accept them now that it is over, you have entirely misapprehended my position. I have yielded obedience to the Apostolic Constitution which embodied those decrees, and I have not trans-

whose friendship

gressed, and certainly do not consciously transgress, obligations imposed under the supreme sanction of the Church. I do not believe that there is a word in my public or private letters that contradicts any doctrine of

the Council wish to blot

;

it

but if there out."

is it is

not

my

meaning, and

I

Such declarations made the term " Gallican " obsolete, and Ultramontane has as much lost its force as Ghibelline. The dauntless speakers and thinkers on both sides of the Council have passed where there is neither debate nor

The definers of the Dogma are long gathered to Infinity, and its theologians contemplate the Theos. "The Day was won and the Truth was safe as it was after the Council of Nicaea," was Manning's last word.
controversy.

233

CHAPTER XV: WORLD
"The Italians have Manning to Gladstone,
entered
1870.

POLITICS
begins the Peripateia."

Rome and now

WORLD

politics

broke

in the

aftermath of the Council.
place as Manning's

O'Callaghan, who took Talbot's Roman correspondent, wrote
:

" There

is

of treachery to the

a good deal of uneasiness as to the chance Pope owing to the alliance between

There was some annoyance offered to Dupanloup and Darboy came in for it, being French. It would be well to request you to secure the protection of the English Government for the British Establishments here, as you did in 1867. Cardinal Bonaparte has used his utmost influence to prevent the betrayal of the Pope, and has refused to join the Emperor at the seat of war, declaring he means to stand by the Pope."
France and
Italy.

the Bishops at Florence.

Manning had seen Gladstone on his return, but on a " Forcondition that Gladstone stated (August 2, 1870) give me if I suggest that we perhaps had better not talk
:

of

what has been going on

at

Rome.

Our opinions on

the matter are strong on both sides, and are wide as the poles asunder." It was not theology, but naval action,

urge upon him. Stonor sent anxious word (August 13, 1870) "Cardinal Antonelli has twice lately hinted to me that it would be most acceptable to the pontifical government if England would place two ships of war at Civita Vecchia to protect the Pope and

Manning wished

to

:

guarantee the neutrality of the Papal States." Manning " It wrote to Gladstone two days later would seem to me that the highest motives might prompt the British Government to direct that a ship of war should be at or
:

234

World
off Civita

Politics

Vecchia, so as to afford safety in case of need. present sad state of France makes this easier." Rome telegraphed, and he repeated his request to Glad" I have received stone, who replied (August 19, 1870)

The

:

your note, the subject of which

I

will consider fully

with

Lord Granville, and in London with Mr. Childers." Childers was sympathetic, for his duties at the Admiralty had not prevented his being present at the Definition. Manning had met him as he came out of St. Peter's with " Is it not glorious?" In any case, Gladstone remem:

bered his old promise to Manning, for H.M.S. Defence was sent to the mouth of the Tiber with sealed orders " Should the Holy Father request to (August 22, 1870). is to be received and treated with be taken on board, he all respect." Antonelli thanked the Government for their "wise precautionary measure." The matter had to be
kept secret, as
1870)
:

Manning wrote

to Cullen

(August

27,

that

" To be burnt. Your Eminence will be glad to know Mr. Gladstone, at my request, has ordered the

Defence frigate to Civita Vecchia, with instructions to The protect the personal safety of the Holy Father. Defence is already there, and will remain. Rumours of our ships being there have been in the papers, and it will be safer that we do not let it become known, as its effect

upon

Italy,

France, and Prussia might hinder our aim."
:

And

to Gladstone
I

" In

my

letter to the

Rector of the

carefully limited the subject to the personal safety and liberty of the Pope, excluding all

English College

political questions.

My
I

letters

from

Rome become more
men
Cullen
:

and more anxious.
call
it,

am

afraid that this duel, as

will

extend to more than the seconds."

wrote in September asking for two or three ships " If the powers could be induced to declare Rome neutral the city might be saved. Perhaps your Grace might have the kindness to speak to Mr. Gladstone." The reply of
235

Henry Edward Manning
Gladstone was private and immediate (September
1870)
:

15,

appears to me that they desire the spiritual independence, but they seek to act from principle as well as policy from Cavour's world-famous maxim, libera Chiesa
It

"

in libero stato ; that they are quite willing to give or leave the Pope a mathematical point of actual sovereignty, by way of special guarantee, with perfect security for his freedom of movement. I learned yesterday by telegram, with pleasure, that the Under-Secretary of State in Rome had requested British mediation. If in any sense, as
curice, I might offer a suggestion, it would be aim at an arrangement with respect to the city of Rome which shall offer conditions of finality. I hope that Italy might not press the point of making it a capital, but I doubt the utility of making it a San Marino. I speak now of the city apart from the Leonine. And I

amicus

this, to

speak personally."

He was willing that the Pope should be sheltered by a European guarantee. Manning was ready for the minimum of sovereignty (September 16, 1870): "The Pope once had twenty-three patrimonies. He has now only a remnant of one. But, as you say, a mathematical point would suffice if it be really secure." Four days later the Italians were in Rome.
Manning was deeply

Roman

distressed, and forwarded his bulletins to Gladstone (September 30, 1870) :

"Three thousand Garibaldians and a multitude

of

women entered Rome with the army. These are the Romans who received the Italians as saviours and the women of whose classic faces and native dignity the
papers told us yesterday." October 8, 1870: "I hear as
Bibles,
lation.
is

follows:

Protestant

bad books and
This

Lothair were

pictures, and a translation of sold in the streets some hours after capituis a glory for the leader of Her Majesty's

Tory Opposition."

October n, 1870:

that out of the ruin of all international law a new order will arise suited to the altered conditions of all nations.

"My

hope now

236

World
There
is

Politics

one point, your mathematical point, which is the centre of the circle and immutable. I seem to see a way to this reconstruction. But the Powers of Europe

must
14,

lift
:

Rome

above mere

Italian politics."

October

1870 "It appears to me that the British Empire has a powerful motive to treat of the question of Rome. It contains no Catholic sees and bishops. And the question of Rome is so vividly and intensely felt throughout the British Empire that its treatment by our Government will powerfully affect our domestic peace."

The same day Gladstone wrote
likely

that

' '

the

Pope

is

to

lose

the
:

Leonine city."
I

Manning

replied

(October

16, 1870)

see the advantage in the But they have driven the question beyond all such arrangements. It is an Italian question for the moment, because Europe is occupied in watching a frightful duel and seeking to save itself from war. When Europe has a moment, the question will The movement in Bohemia and cease to be Italian. Austria, in Munich, Malines, Geneva, and Ireland is beginning and will grow steadily."

"As to the Leonine city, Italians not pretending to it.

He hoped that the pressure of the faithful who had secured the Infallibility would worst the world a second time to save the Infallible. In England public opinion "scares our Catholics," he complained to Cullen, and urged action in Ireland (September 22, 1870)
:

Private. If the Lord Lieutenant knew this to be the views of your Eminence and the Bishops he would make it known here with good effect. It would be also of much advantage if by meetings or speeches the sense of Ireland were to be unmistakably declared. The Government would then see that the Roman Question is a domestic question also. I have not written a word of sorrow or indignation, for it is needless and no word would cover what this outrage has excited."
;

"

There was talk of a refuge for the Pope. Malta and " Jerusalem were suggested. They want to send him to
237

Henry Edward Manning
Jericho!" was Manning's comment. But he suggested that Pius should continue the Council at Malines if necessary. Archbishop Deschamps gave an enthusiastic accession. But the Pope remembered he was Bishop of

Rome, and

in

answer to the cry of Christendom, Domine

quo vadis? he

made

Manning was anxious

Peter's reply and stayed in Rome. that the English Bishops should
:

issue a joint pastoral on Rome, but Clifford objected. Cullen sympathised (November 10, 1870) " I am sorry to learn that the English Bishops cannot agree in regard to an address about the Pope. Happily all our Bishops were quite unanimous about an address. Dr. McHale and Dr. Moriarty approved of everything, though we addressed him as the infallibilis magister ecclesice; but I fear that some few lawyers and officials

are following the guidance of Lord Acton."

Manning answered (November 22, 1870) "Would to God that we could do the same. But your Eminence knows where we are. The Defence was not moved from
:

Civita Vecchia by change of policy. It could not enter the harbour, but it is ready at Naples for any moment.
I

think a deputation to Mr. Gladstone of Irish
useful.

members

would be

But

I

am

afraid of his committing

himself against us." Cullen reported (December 4, 1870): "Mr. Gladstone will not be pleased with the feeling manifesting itself in favour of the Pope, but he may avoid all trouble by adopting the policy of Burke or Pitt. I have got no news from Rome, but the Arch-

bishop of Posen writes exhorting us to make strong declarations in favour of the Temporal Power. He expects something from Prussia, and he thinks that the public opinion of this Empire would have great weight with the old king." Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore sent news from America (December 29, 1870) "I have just received your pastoral and perused every line of it with great interest and pleasure. It is a big gun. In return for it
:

238

World

Politics

I have only a little pack of light artillery to offer ad populum. Imagine at least 80,000 in my own diocese remembering and sympathising with the Pope on the very day of my return, President Grant himself driving as a private citizen in the procession in Washington. It was glorious, not for me, but for the Holy Pontiff."

Failing to unite his Bishops, Manning tried to unite " Catholics in Parliament to neutralise the action of England." Twelve Irish members sat in Manning's house to decide whether a Roman discussion was advisable. They decided to wait until France could declare herself, and

" (February 23, 1871) Any moral support and countenance from England would greatly encourage the insolence of Italy and embarrass France. have already got the maximum of our Government. Gladstone will never say more. He may easily be tempted or driven to say less." And he wrote " to Gladstone The world is changed since we last met. And our last words were about Prussian diplomacy and Prussian policy. I like neither better than I did then. And I believe Europe is on her beam ends under a north-easter which has made wild work more than once

Manning wrote

to Cullen

:

We

:

in history."

The Prussian policy in forcing the war with France Manning saw clearer than most of his fellow-countrymen.
During the Council Bismarck had had
countries, not churches, and bided his time. the enemy incarnate to Manning, who
castically
:

his

eye on
sar-

He became
wrote

Bismarck affirmed that the war was forced on the French Emperor by the Pope and the Jesuits. How providentially, then, though altogether fortuitously, no doubt, had Prussia been for three years massing its munitions of war and putting France in the wrong by intrigues in Spain and fables from Ems. Nevertheless, all these things are believed. Prince von Bismarck has said them. But surely they belong to the Arabian Nights."
239

"

Henry Edward Manning
During the siege
of Paris

from the Mansion House.

Manning organised relief The sees of his conciliar

rivals, Darboy and Dupanloup, had been invested and bombarded. With the outbreak of the Commune, Darboy was arrested as a hostage by the Bolshevists of the day. Manning made an attempt to save his life, even by appeal to Bismarck, who intervened as far as it was possible.

Manning wrote
"

gratefully

(May

9,

1871)

:

This worthy act of high justice has awoken a lively sympathy and a profound respect in England. The passing moments are solemn ones for the Christian and
civilised order of Europe. The era of 1848 is renewed before our sight, but with a greater force against enfeebled governments to-day. In such a crisis for the social and Christian order of the world eyes are turned upon the stability of Germany and upon your Highness, who have already exhibited the wisdom and the courage which can alone save the principles of authority and right. Other questions still more vital to the tranquillity of Europe and the world await a solution, in which I hope the voice of the German Empire will answer to its high and protective mission of justice and authority."

Bismarck replied, also in French (May 19, 1871) " I was deeply touched by the letter your Lordship sent to thank me for the steps taken by the Emperor's order on behalf of the Archbishop of Paris and his clergy. The duty of Christian sympathy, which we have fulfilled by these steps, is intimately connected with the great principles of social and Christian order on which Germany, so happily united, has founded her future and the
:

stability of her institutions;

and

I

am happy

to find in

your Lordship and the English nation so much sympathy for the sentiments with which the Emperor is himself profoundly imbued. I deeply regret that the hope of the immediate deliverance of the Archbishop of Paris, which we were able for a moment to conceive, has not been realised, owing to the sudden change in the persons who hold power in Paris. However, it is allowable to hope that the impression produced by the intercession of the German Government will have the effect of safeguarding
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World
the security of clergy."

Politics
of

the Archbishop

Paris and of

his

avail, and, through Mr. Norcott Mansion House Fund, Manning wrote to Darboy The Communards in prison and received an answer. offered to exchange Darboy for Blanqui, whom Thiers refused to give up. On May 24 Darboy was shot in La

Fine words were of no

of the

Roquette, being the third Archbishop of Paris to be Manning went afterwards to kneel on the spot where the good Gallican died. Lord Shaftesbury wrote to express his horror, and added (May " But it is of no use to dwell on this satanical 31, 1871) Can there be no combination event. Hell is let loose among those who differ on many and, indeed, important points to withstand the torrent of blasphemy and crime ? You and I have often discussed these things." Manning " You responded heartily to the idea of a common effort
killed within a century.
:

!

:

have truly appreciated the character of the Archbishop of Paris, who has died nobly as a pastor ought, in the midst of his flock." In spite of Bismarck's high assurances to Manning, religious persecution broke out in Germany. The first copy of the Falck Laws in England reached Manning
through Frank O'Donnell, and the story of the transit Manning's version to The Times appears in a letter to "I never intended it for Ullathorne (Christmas, 1873) but the to me, sent unknown secretary had, publication, a circular to The Times, and they sent one of their staff. I wouldn't let him take notes, and he said The Times would feel that they had been misled unless I let him abstract the paper. He then asked for the whole, saying that he believed The Times would print it entire. After ten minutes' consultation I let it go, and I do not regret
of
:

it, it

for

I

believe

it

is

safe

and

defensible.

At

all

events

will get into

"January

j,

Germany." I had 1874.
241

felt

importance to a newspaper.

But

the difficulty of giving I felt also the risk of

R

Henry Edward Manning
giving the impression of more mischief than really existed by any public act. Thank God it is hardly appreciable A certain number of minds are incapable of anything but old forms of words and thoughts. After the Council of Nicasa there were good people who were innocently have hardly one who is formally so. troublesome. I only know of one priest, and he is zero. might write a circular in Latin to the clergy, signed by all the Bishops, not so much because of any existing tendency as of the effort to create such a belief to shake and disturb the minds of our people. This document might be non evulgandum. But this would leave The Standard uncontradicted. For this the substance of such a circular could be sent in a private letter. Please to advise on this." Meantime religious orders were expelled from Germany, and Manning wrote to Gladstone (January 15,
!

We

We

1874)
I

:

"The

ecclesiastical legislation at Berlin is

what

could most wish to expose, the hvpocrisy of German Liberalism, and to separate the precious from the vile in the Catholic Church in Germany. Bismarck will find it easier to overthrow France than to bind the wind in his
fists."

Manning became an

international figure in his

defence of right against might and of the Church against Caesar. The Falck Laws he denounced as Byzantism. The Church in Germany looked to him for an English independence of expression that could not come elsewhere. He received letters from imprisoned Bishops. Cardinal Melchers, Archbishop of Cologne, wrote to him " Oremus pro invicem J Paulus through prison bars in Colonies carcere 28 Aprilis Archiepus 1874." Melchers, in exile, retired to the castle at Amerongen ! And Martin of Paderborn wrote to commend his exiled nuns to Westminster, signing himself " captivus in Castello Wesel." The Belgian Primate wrote (anniversary of the death of Louis XVI., 1874) :
:

" In writing to the Archbishop of Posen I quoted your Lordship's words about him that his persevering attitude
242

World
My
letter

Politics
Germany.

of apostolical courage assures us the victory in

which does not always happen and Mgr. Ledochowski answers to-day. If you write to London, pray send in my name to our friend of Westminster to congratulate him on his magnificent The persecution is dissertation on the neo-Caesarism. Caesar is no The German longer satisfied with growing. the silence of governments. He wishes them to second his war on the Church. He will not retreat. He wishes Bisfor the empire of Charles Quint, but paganised. marck has threatened to withdraw his Minister from Brussels if the Bishops, and, above all, the Archbishop, This procontinue to write and speak as they do. will not keep silence." consul loses his head.
reached Posen

We

So wrote Cardinal Mercier's predecessor
Manning's
to

at Malines.

close touch with the Continent enabled

him

keep the English-speaking world open to fair play. The first copy of the Falck Laws in England had come, and he had his translation and answer ready for

The Times before the arrival of the official copy. " I see that The Times," said Pio Nono to Sir Hubert Jerning" which is ham, always against me, is not always in
favour of

M. von Bismarck."

Nevertheless a great

many

Englishmen blindly applauded the new German Empire. Fitzjames Stephen supported Bismarck by an attack on the German Catholics which was attributed to Frederic Harrison, whereupon the editor, Knowles, brought the following note from the indignant philosopher to Man-

name of God, or any other Deity that you or he prefer, do assure the Archbishop that I never wrote an article in a newspaper in my life. That I never shall. That I never write a line anywhere except with my name, Frederic Harrison, in full. That I and all my friends reprobate the policy of Bismarck in touching the liberty of the Church. That I have not the smallest sympathy with the No-Popery cry anywhere. That I think the Church in Ireland the only living Church in the world."
243

ning (March " In the

3,

1873)

:

Henry Edward Manning
The Catholic outlook enabled Manning, as it enabled the American Hierarchy in the next decade, to estimate the Prussian danger in advance of the allied world. As
"It a Protestant he had written to Archdeacon Hare would give me great pleasure to be presented to the great and good King of Prussia, towards whom my heart yearns. Visions of a Teutonic dispensation absorbing But the the Latin used to float before me in Rome." that and the instinct subconscious the Culturkampf, Latin Church and race can never lie down at peace with the Teuton, drew some remarkable expressions from him He prophesied that "the as a Catholic Archbishop. aberrations of a false philosophy, the inflation of false
:

science, the pride of unbelief, and the contemptuous scorn of those who believe, are preparing Germany for an overthrow or for suicide." And, again, in words

which seemed far-fetched and trivial then, but carry sig" I am no nificance to-day prophet, but I will foretell that, if Germany lifts its iron hand against the Church of the living God, the land of the Mark of Brandenburg will become as the dust of the summer threshing-floor." With Gladstone he had attempted to keep " a truce of
:

God" by
1872)
:

softening the Infallibility to

him (May

21,

"The
progress,

Revelation, or
all, infallible.

Word

of

God,
it

fession of

Nevertheless

is, by the condoes not hinder

It is the factor or science, or research. of all progress. No Infallibility of Church or Pope is beyond, or against, or distinct from, but of God. identical with the All Governments, Catholic and non-Catholic, have been living at peace with the Infallible Church. The Infallibility of its Head has added nothing in kind, degree, or extent. Governments have no more to fear from an Infallible Pope than from an Infallible Church. The situation is as old as the Christian

momentum

Word

world." "

The outcry of Bismarck is artificial. It is to me a portent to see a man of Bismarck's great mental powers 244

World

Politics

talking like a child, and, like a child, pulling the house he has built about his ears. The Catholics of Germany would have upheld the German Empire with joy if he had not made it impossible. His great work can now only be held together by oppression, and oppression works its

own downfall."
Gladstone begged off answering him until a day of " But my Pope, so to speak, is Bishop Butler." liberty. Italian politics pleased Manning as little as theology from Italy pleased Gladstone, who sent him a despatch from Rome, whereat Manning burst forth (August 15, 1872) " are watching the fable of the wolf and the Iamb. Sir Augustus Paget writes what he believes, but he believes what Venosta tells him, and Venosta is playing
:

We

his part.

The Government would

to the collision. did not grow to fill up (he whole circle of its rapine. can only call it by its Christian name. The Prusso-Italian policy will complete itself, and then will come a European convulsion, out of
It is clear that all is
fall if it

moving on

We

which may God help you

to

keep England."

Gladstone cried out against what was producing "an impassable chasm between the Christian religion and the thought of man in fact, exactly what Voltaire would have desired and Bossuet and Pascal would have wept " over." There is One," answered Manning, " Who is weeping over the Christian world and over Bossuet's and Pascal's aberrations." They were sparring, and the breach could not public long be averted between the Premier of Liberalism and the Primate of Ultramontanism. It was not through jealousy, though in was his Manning way a radical and Gladstone a simple sacerdotalist. The Council had wrought, on the nerves of both, and Gladstone, thrown out of office over the Irish
;

University,

"Caesarism

was spoiling for a fight. He took Manning's and Ultramontanism " as a challenge.
the latter term identical with "perfect disease elephantiasis,

Manning made

Christianity," and the former a

245

Henry Edward Manning
Gladstone wrote (January 22, 1874): "I limp I can. If Caesarism be the same thing as Erastianism, I can look on with comfort or equanimity while you pummel it, but when you get to your heights
in fact.
after

you as well as

I am lame, deaf, and blind. My rudimentary perceptions seem to differ from yours. Nature has made a mistake in one or other of us. My only comfort is that a time will come when, if I am a tenth part as good as you are, we shall both know how a higher power solves all these " As to your problems for us." Manning gaily replied finance, I only look up, as you do to my Ultramontane heights. I wish you trusted me in the one as much as I
:

trust

the

you in the other." In October Gladstone declared Church had repudiated " modern thought and ancient

and Acton.
Decrees
written to
is

history," referring presumably to his friends, Dollinger In November he attacked the Vatican
in

show "

a pamphlet which

Manning

declared was

that in all conflicts the Christian

Church

State always right." " " " moral Gladstone talked of murder and railed at the myrmidons of the Apostolic Chamber," forgetful that
Civil

always wrong and the

divinity

is

a science nearer to mathematics than

to

electioneering.

He

challenged

English

Catholics on

their civil allegiance and rapped Manning's euphemism " of the Pope's deposing power that it taught subjects

obedience and princes clemency." Manning stayed the tide with a letter in The Times, declaring his allegiance as good as Gladstone's. Gladstone did not write from Protestant pride at being outside so much as from a spiritual sulk at not being inside the Catholic Church. Bismarck, with his usual dullness, mistook it for a purely
political

To
1874)
:

pamphlet. Father Morris

Manning wrote (November u,

"It is the greatest public opportunity we have had But it is also our greatest public danger. since 1851. With Germany on fire, Bismarck corrupting our papers,
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and Gladstone out

Politics

of office, we might have a great risk. But the papers are only keeping the sea down out of fear of mischief, not out of goodwill to us. We might change the whole face of it by one mistake. I thought of you when reading Acton's scandalous letter. Pray look up St. Pius V.'s assassinations and Fnelon's duplicity and let me know. We must gain immensely, for everybody will now listen and a few understand. But my poor friend is gone." "

And to

Ullathorne (November

9, 1874)

:

Is

it

possible

Bishop of Shrewsbury and myself to allow Lord Acton's letter in The Times of to-day to pass unnoticed ?" December 7, 1874: " The danger is evident. I will not
for the

ascribe Gladstone's act to resentment or ambition, but neither is absent. The most mischievous enactment

would be a
the

test,

man

to try

it.

and Gladstone, inspired by Dollinger, But what Government could impose

is
it

on Ireland?"
Gladstone's outburst was more upsetting to politicians than theologians. "You will remember, perhaps," " that I said Admiral Fitzroy's wrote Manning to Cullen, signals were up for a storm. So far as I have yet learned, Mr. Gladstone's old colleagues are sorry for his act." Ullathorne was the first to reply to Gladstone, and then Newman wrote his wonderful letter to the Duke of Norfolk. To Ullathorne Manning wrote (January 15, 1875): "I have not yet read Dr. Newman's pamphlet, and I have not done so that I may be clear of seeming in any way to refer to what he has said, if in anything, which I am glad I hope is not likely, there were a divergence. to say this to you, that he also may know it, if even there were need." Manning issued a rattling reply, pointing out that the interference of the Church in the civil sphere was the idea of those who "first prophesied that the Council would interfere, and now write scientific history His most enduring point to prove that it has done so." " was that non-Catholic doctrine is more dangerous to Gladstone replied in a the State than the Catholic." second pamphlet, sending private word: "I offer no
247

Henry Edward Manning
Apologies in such cases only seem to mock. no remedy on this side the grave." He thought " Asian Vaticanism foreshadowed monarchy," and he " If we had Dr. Newman for Pope we threw in a cut should be tolerably safe, so merciful and genial would be his rule!" Finally he denied Manning's public statement that their friendship had never been overcast.
apology.

There

is

:

to Ullathorne (February 25, 1875) Gladstone is out again, as you see, with the animosity of a man in the wrong. But his pamphlet admits our complete unity. I have written to him on the last paragraph. It might mean that he had lent me money and had never been repaid." In the end Gladstone changed and Manning wrote: "I can hardly regret that it,
:

wrote Manning "

occasion was given for this correspondence, which puts on record that, wide as we are asunder, it is a variance consistent with all that is of fair and good report." But for seven years they exchanged no letters. Both were " as in stated tnat we conscious, 1847, Manning gently have had a shade hanging, almost diaphanously, between our minds on the subject of Infallibility."

had seen her faithful champion with Bismarck, now with Gladstone, and wrestling become the target of the world's attack, and word of sublime dignity was sent him, which he communicated to Ullathorne (March 2, 1875)

Meantime

Rome

now

:

People are annoyed with Gladstone, not for attacking but for breaking the peace and making politics impossible. They would be quickly and still more annoyed with us if we kept the controversy alive. They do not think that we are beaten, and they would not endure to think that we had beaten him. Some time ago you congratulated me, when I knew nothing. I do now, and am But God knows I feel no called at once to Rome.
us,

"

congratulation."

Manning was proclaimed Cardinal and added to the very small and distinguished company of Englishmen
248

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Politics

who have sat in the Senate of the Church. De Grassis once wrote that men said "an English Cardinal ought not to be created lightly because the English behave themselves insolently in their dignity." Certainly the
title

was unpopular

in

Merry England.

It

was not

until

the nineteenth century that English Cardinals enjoyed

an amazing prestige.

Wiseman's

elevation, his obsequies

However unpopular had been had rivalled those

of Wellington. Newman now wrote to point out to " the contrast between the circumstances under Manning

which you return invested with this special dignity and twenty-five years ago." Manning was the first parson to become a Cardinal, and the High Church felt the compliment. Tenniel published one of his best cartoons in Punch representing the Cardinal in his well-known
attitude over a roaring fire, contemplating a Papal tiara in the smoke, but whether as the object of his faith or hope the artist left no hint. His international position

was now

sealed. At speech day at Harrow his honours " miram rerum divinarum were proclaimed and his peritiam" publicly mentioned. In his own family he had less honour. Frederick, the head of the family, still ignored him, and Samuel Wilberforce is described by F. Leveson Gower in his Reminiscences as devoutly hoping it was right to wish the Pope dead before he made his brother-in-law a Cardinal, " which will be bad From Gladstone for him and bad for other people." In 1881 no came congratulation. Manning set down

notes of their friendship.

"

He was me
"

nearer to being a

clergyman than
as
I

I

was.

He

was

unfit.
I

him

to the life

But God had chosen and

was, as I believe, as fit for it crossed his hands and called
to the life

he had

It is not from any thought of entering." And again : I have no desire to meet Gladof affection that change
I have never ceased to pray for him every day in Mass. But his public and printed repudiation of every in 1874 has made any advance on my part friendship

stone.

249

Henry Edward Manning
impossible.

came between us."
maker and wrote

believed that in 1874 a mischief-maker It was not until the publication of Bishop Wilberforce's Life that he identified the mischiefI

Lady Herbert (January 8, 1883) "As to poor Samuel Wilberforce, the world knows now what I have known always, but I was silent. It is
to
:

the saddest collapse of a name. I have heard nothing but lamentation for the father and indignation for the son. I can now understand the personal alienation of Gladstone's mind toward me. Unconsciously, perhaps, he must have been affected by this unhappy mind. A

whisperer separateth chief friends."
Gladstone's outburst on behalf of the Bulgarians was coupled with a suggestion that Manning should save the " Pope from a Manning wretchedly false position." wrote to De Lisle (September 6, 1876)
:

"I am not aware of any position, 'wretched' or otherwise, taken up by the Pope. It is to me clear as day that to light a fire by declamation against atrocities is I can neither help Russian the way to make smoke. nor international revolution, intrigue by which the poor
and Bulgarians and Servians have been outraged " I am preslaughtered already." September 8, 1876: pared to go further than Mr. Gladstone in this Eastern question, and if I could induce the Christian Powers to enter upon a crusade for the liberation of the Christian people of the East I would do it."

Manning
returned

visited

filled

Rome in the sunset of Pius, and with gloomy foreboding. He noted at
:

the end of 1876

I must believe a light from above fixed my mind upon the one great event, which might come any day and cannot be far off. I mean the Conclave. Now, I found one only belief that it would be the occasion of all the anti-Christian spirits in the world, and therefore a moment of danger. Some think they can prevent any election. Some that at least they can retard or render any election doubtful. If Italy were engaged in war, Rome

"

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Politics

in the hands of the populace. Humanly speaking, everything converges to great danger. And as such we ought to face it." (And he discussed with himself the chances of martyrdom.) die gladly for the See of Peter is assuredly to die for Our Lord. I hardly venture to think that Our Lord would call such as I am to so great a grace. It would be, indeed, to say to a soul in the mire, Come up hither 1 I have always had a great fear of death. If I were sure of salvation, I believe I should not fear death except for the certainty of Purgatory. But if to die for Our Lord cancels all culpa and all poena, without Purgatory and with instant vision of God, it would change whole mind. Now, I felt in Rome the natural fear of violent death. For a time it held me fast with all its train of thought, until I looked it straight in the face. St. Thomas of Canterbury knew by a vision of Our Lord that he would be martyred. He appeared to him after Mass on St. Stephen's Day in the Chapel of St. Stephen. Come what may, I wish every

"To

my

my

day
If

Soldiers

Holy Mass to offer myself, Hoc est Corpus meum. and sailors expose their life consciously for duty. priests or pastors shrink, the very world would cry
in

out."

Towards the close of 1877 he proceeded to Rome, and on its last day received the Red Hat from Pius. He "I wrote to Cullen (January I, 1878) write to give you a report of the Holy Father. He is still in bed, and his weakness is visible. But he was able to hold the two consistories without suffering. If no new illness superAnd venes, this state may be indefinitely prolonged. But Pius ?" is Lord Beaconsfield us where now, leading was near his end. On February 6 Manning presented England's Peter's Pence. The next day there was an " I alarm. went into his bedroom. He was motionless, and his face calm and grand. I knelt down and kissed At Ave Maria his hand. He said, Addio carissimo." wrote to Lane Fox that evening he died. Manning " I believe that I shall can
:

(February 10, 1878) never again hear the voice.
:

hardly
It
is

to

me

the loss of a

25'

Henry Edward Manning
To Rome and to the Churches it is the loss of one of the greatest Pontiffs who ever reigned. I can give you no notion of what is passing here. But God and Satan are in conflict." The Conclave began on February 1 8. Before he was shut off with Father Butler from the world, Manning wrote to Lady Herbert
father.
:

The next Pope must draw Italy to him as Pius drew the whole world. And none but an Italian who loves Italy and is loved by Italians can do this. I have myself urged this on all, and I hope we shall be agreed all. But in finding the right person we shall be, I am afraid, some time. I am abused here day after day, and sometimes brutally. Last night, when I kissed his foot in the bier, I laid my pectoral cross on it as a pledge of fidelity and a prayer that I might be kept faithful to
the end."

"

Manning had been present (February 15) at the gathering in Cardinal Bartolini's room when the latter proposed the Cardinal Camerlengo Pecci, who, during the last ponCardinal Monaco tificate, had been exiled to Perugia. was suggested, but refused. Likewise Cardinal Bilio, who had a probable majority in his favour, but he also refused, and suggested Cardinal Ledochowski, to whom others objected. Manning was then mentioned, and for a glittering moment stood on the step of the Papal throne, the first Englishman since Cardinals Wolsey and Pole. He refused on the ground that the first Pope after the With loss of the Temporal Power must be an Italian. true courtesy the Cardinals refused to allow that Manning was a stranger in Rome. Bilio reminded him that there had been foreign Popes, but Manning replied that Catholic unity was then the order of the world. In the Conclave Franchi was a candidate, but his supporters acceded to Pecci. Bilio then went and knelt before Pecci in order to efface his own following in his favour. On the authority of one present, Manning was one of the three who had first supported Pecci. The requisite votes were counted, and one by one the green
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Cardinal

Politics

and purple canopies surmounting the Cardinals' thrones were lowered in the presence of Leo the Thirteenth. Manning's precedence was, to a curious extent, recognised in England. When he served on the Housing Commission, Sir William Harcourt, as Home Secretary, consulted the Prince of Wales, who suggested that the Cardinal's name should follow his own. Accord" our trusty and well-beloved Henry Edward " was ingly
preferred over the Peerage. Later, Sir Henry Isaacs, as Lord Mayor of London, allowed the Cardinal to precede

him on a petition to establish letter-express. The Times accused the Mayor of abrogating his position as first " " Irish Archbishop citizen, and it was pointed out that was his proper title in law. As his rank of Prince of the Church hung upon the Pope's Sovereignty, then in abeyance, moderate men were willing he should be docketed as a "deposed Prince," but there were stern Protestants who could only see a self-deposed Archdeacon. Manning preserved one of the well-meant threats thrown at him on this occasion
:

"Sir, if you think you will be allowed to take social precedence of the Protestant nobility, you greatly deceive yourself. Your first attempt is already watched. I allude to your name appearing at the head of the patrons of a proposed cab and cab-horse competition at
the Alexandra Palace!"

Questions had been asked in the House, and The " laid down that with the Prince of Wales it was a matter of courtesy. With Mr. Gladstone it must be reckoned as an official act." The Prince had not been without reasons for washing to show courtesy. In 1871, when he lay ill beyond hope of recovery, Manning obtained the prayers of the Pope. At ten on the critical night of December 12, Lord Halifax wrote to Manning " Would it be possible that a telegram should be sent to the Pope asking his prayers for the Prince of Wales now

Times

:

when

the Prince's recovery hangs in the balance,

and

253

Henry Edward Manning
Queen, to whom I know it would be most grateshould receive a telegram from Rome assuring her ful, of the Pope's prayers for the recovery of her son ?" The Pope's telegram reached Sandringham the next day, and Lord Halifax relates that the Prince placed it under his pillow. Recovery followed in due course, and the Prince, during a visit to the Riviera, found occasion to thank the Pope personally. Ullathorne consulted Manning whether the Catholic should follow the Anglican Bishops in con" It is not well for us to be either gratulating the Prince. too forward or to be wanting." Manning consulted
that the

Propaganda, and was given the analogous case of Moldavia, where the faithful were allowed to sing Te Deum for their heterodox Prince, provided they prayed for his true felicity.
culties.

The Irish visit of the Prince had left diffiThe Orangemen had played "Croppies lie
Cullen
15, 1872)
:

down," and the Prince had innocently danced.
wrote (February

I forgot to ask your Grace what ought to be done in reference to the thanksgiving of the Prince of Wales. I must add that the Catholics were greatly offended by the proceedings of the Prince last August and his speech. There were complaints in official circles that the people did not show much enthusiasm. How could it be expected when he went out of his way to hurt their religious

"

to order a Te in the cathedral and to give permission to all the churches to have Benediction. I feel that the difference is great between Dublin and London. And the unhappy Freemason folly raises a distinct and local difficulty."

feelings?" "

Manning answered (February
is

16,

My

intention

Deum

1872):

After the Housing Commission, on which both served, Cardinal and Prince became decided friends. Their only divergence was over the Bill allowing the marriage with the deceased wife's sister, which the Prince voted for in " I the Lords. have been doing something you dis" I know approve, sir I" he informed the Cardinal. you "But I did what was right, sir!" "I have, sir!"

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World
know you

Politics

think so, sir!" was the Cardinal's uncom-

promising comment. They exchanged letters on certain occasions. After the death of Prince Leopold the Prince wrote (April 7,
1884)
:

"The kind letter that I received from you to-day has touched me deeply, and I beg you to accept my heartfelt thanks for your Eminence's sympathy on the occasion of the sad loss which the Queen and all the members of the Royal Family have sustained. The eulogium which you pass on my lamented brother is very soothing to our hearts, and it is some considerable solace to us to receive such kind sympathy when we are in such grief."

When
Sir,

Cardinal wrote (January " I

the Prince's eldest son attained majority the 10, 1885) :

approach your Royal Highness

be among the first to in these days of congratulation, but I am not willing to be among the last. May Prince Edward be always, as he is at this day, the hand for joy of your heart and the strength of your right " It has to come." Prince been The replied long years a great gratification to me to receive your letter to-day, and I beg you to receive my most sincere thanks for your letter and all the kind expressions it contains and the good wishes you express on the occasion of our eldest son attaining his majority. Both he and the Princess are very sensible of your congratulations."
to
:

had no privilege

By a tragic coincidence, the young Prince died on the same day as the Cardinal. On another occasion the Prince was anxious that Manning should speak at a dinner for a National Leprosy Fund. Owing to old age, the Cardinal was compelled to refuse. The Prince replied
with studied politeness (January 2, 1890) " I am anxious to express to you without delay how But I grateful I am to you for your most kind letter. admit the not of will understand that health quite your fatigue. I feel deeply flattered by, I fear, the immerited remarks you make about me, but names such as Charles
:

255

Henry Edward Manning
Gordon and Father Damien are indeed worthy to be cherished and honoured in the minds of our countrymen."

The

fall

of

Rome burdened Europe with
"
:

a perilous and

optimist, as he could say nothing which has not been said, weighed, and decided already The state of Rome is one impossible, at the Vatican. for the perhaps, European Governments to touch, but for to recognise by the remotest act." us impossible When the English College was threatened, Gladstone informed him "all intention of confiscating the English College is somewhat indignantly denied on the part of
told Gladstone (February 7, 1872)
I

perennial problem, and Manning was no

Government." "I am thankful," answered Manning, "that the declaration of the Italian Government is deposited in the hands of the British Government. I do not believe a word that comes I wish to be sincere. out of their mouth." But his own Government proved more unfriendly still, for three years later he wrote to " I have Cullen (February 18, 1875) just received a copy of as hostile a letter as could be from Sir A. Paget, saying that our Government repudiates the so-called English College and regards it as an Italian institution. There is no help in Princes." There was nothing to be done but to approach Disraeli, who was probably solaced by Gladstone's Irish failure for his own. Manning sent a note on the Roman Question, through Sir John Popethe Italian
:

Hennessy, pointing out to the Cabinet (May 20, 1875) "It is the fear of armed intervention on the part of France that throws the Italian Government upon Berlin
:

for protection.

Berlin gladly keeps alive this fear to make Italy dependent, so as to have Italy in the rear of Austria and France as a perpetual menace." His pith was that " Italy alone can solve the Roman Question,"
:

its solution would keep her out of the German toils a very far-sighted view. Of the note he afterwards wrote " It was read in a Cabinet Council. M. d'Harcourt,

and

256

World

Politics

French Ambassador, had a copy and sent it to Due Decazes in Paris. He to M. de Courcelles in Rome. M. de Courcelles misrepresented it all over Rome as a Conciliazione." Together with Nardi, the French Ambassador made a mare's nest of it. Manning's elastic

mind had taken a turn on the Temporal Power which put him in advance of his fellow-Cardinals, most of whom
awaited a miracle. Two years later he wrote to Clifford "I will not deny that I have been sensitive upon the point of fidelity to the highest interests in our conflict with the Italian Government. And the Rector will tell you how poor Mgr. Nardi went to and fro sowing mischief. I know Rome so well that I know some of its dangers." A few such experiences in Rome, even before Pius died, threw him into a sadness out of which grew, not sour old age, but rejuvenation on new fields. Peoples and democracies took the place that councils and dogmas had held in his mind. He was disappointed at the quietism with which the Cardinals bowed under the Italian storm. As he wrote to Lane Fox (November 29, " This is not my place. If there is any use in me 1876) it is out in the field with the sheep and the wolves. here are not to be written about. In nothing are Things and in all almost they better, things they are worse. The mass of the people is gone." And he queried, " Are we to shut ourselves in like Noe and wait?" The recovery " of the world was not possible by leaving it in its till it returns to soundness itself Surely corruption by
: : !

The this is contrary to the parable of the lost sheep?" era following the victory of Germany was anti-clerical,
and he found constant work in saving colleges and Church property. He wrote (May 14, 1880): "As to Douai, I have written to Lord Lyons to ask him to represent to the French Government that the college is English and for the English." By 1878 Manning had brought himself to revisit Disraeli, who noted him with pleasure as "a fervent
257
s

Henry Edward Manning
But Disraeli was to help him protect supporter." in Rome. property Manning wrote to him during the next, year (January 29, 1879)
:

hope you may have full health and strength to carry the country with you in a firm and solid compactness which, with the Continent before me, I believe to be vital to the safety of the British Empire." February 6, 1879: "This afternoon I begin my journey. I shall hope in Paris to have some reassuring information. But all looks steadily to a collision, I fear. The meeting of Parliament will soon, I do not think, be brisk enough for the A.B.C.D.'s, still less for Liberals generally." " As I fear that my return to England April i, 1879 still be delayed, I write on a subject on which I had may rather speak more fully. In the year 1870 the French Government, consciously or not I cannot say, threw the Armenian Catholics at Constantinople into a false position, which ended in a schism. The consequence of this was a loss of influence to France and a gain of influence to Russia. On my return from Rome to England in 1870 I made this known at the Foreign Office, with no
I
:

"

result that I know. This Armenian schism is now happily breaking up. The head of it, Mgr. Kupellian, has made his submission and the Porte either has recognised, or will recognise once more, Mgr. Hassoun, the Armenian Patriarch. France and England have now again the opportunity of regaining their influence over the Armenians. Although at Constantinople they may not be more than 70,000, they have much weight for cultivation and position as bankers and merchants. They are also in close relation with their own people in Armenia and to regain their confidence cannot be without its beneTo this I may add that in ficial effect in Asia Minor. Cyprus there are Maronites, Armenians, Catholics of European races, and a population antiently Catholics but absorbed by Islamism. There is now a Maronite Archbishop in Cyprus but it will be necessary to have a
;
; ;

Bishop of the Latin Rite for the European, especially
the British

and Irish Catholics, who will increase in number by reason of trade and of our soldiers and sailors

who

are Catholic.

It

seems

to

me

that in this there

is

an

258

World
opening for good
Paris
in

Politics
In passing through

Latrie, head of the Geographical to me to speak on the subject of the English occupation of Cyprus, which he regarded in a very friendly way. He has been much in Cyprus, and has written a work upon the island. He urged the of a Latin of the Rite there, and replanting Bishop quested me to lay it before Leo XIII., which I have done. The Pope is willing to entertain the proposal. No one among our statesmen knows better than you of how great importance the religious influences are in the East; and it seems to me that at Constantinople and Cyprus much
I hope before long to have an opportunity what comes to me from Austrian sources, and some nearer here, on the subject of the foreign policy of our Government. It cannot fail to be acceptable to you and to Lord Salisbury as I believe." December 30, 1879 "I cannot help writing to say how I have shared in the anxieties you and the Government must have had in the last fortnight, and how thankful I am for the relief brought by the tidings of yesterday. I have watched with dismay the violence of passion and speech with which everything over which Englishmen ought to have been silent and firm has been If any disaster had befallen us it hailed and greeted. would, I believe, have been an Imperial danger. It is strange that Frenchmen, Germans, and Austrians can see what some Englishmen and Scotchmen cannot. I am no politician, but it is clear to me that, having an Empire, we must either give it up or keep it up. To give it up would be our extinction as a power in the world to keep it up seems to me to demand, and even to dictate, And Englishmen must the policy you have pursued. at and up dangers give trembling puling about taxes. There is nothing Imperial in such conduct. I wish you a happy New Year, which, as you said, after seventy is

Count Mar Department, came

many ways.

may be

done.

of saying

:

;

a

new

gift."

This drew an exuberant reply from the melancholy Minister (December 31, 1879) " In the dark and disturbing days on which we have fallen, so fierce with faction even among the most
:

259

Henry Edward Manning
responsible, the voice of patriotism from one so eminent as yourself will animate the faltering and add courage even to the brave." January 28, 1880: "Private. Our Cabinets are over except the last one, which precedes always the meeting of Parliament. You will find me at your service to-morrow morning at noon or at three o'clock the same day if more convenient to you. roughish letter, for I am on the sofa with a little gout, but I hope you are free from that friend and I shall be soon."

A

Herbert Vaughan wrote on behalf of Propaganda, which, during a previous revolution, was protected by the American flag (February 23, 1880)
:

"The Italian ministry is anxious to convert the property of Propaganda. The King is opposed to doing so, partly because he respects his father's wish that Propaganda should not be touched, and partly because he does not wish to injure the Church. He has said he
to be backed by the foreign, and especially by the English, Ambassador. Paget is well disposed, and told me to write him a letter. I put into it these facts : That Propaganda has endowments made by the Cardinal Duke of York and other Englishmen for British interests. The Scotch Bishops receive a portion of the interest every year. Propaganda helps us financially in many ways e.g., I received the full travelling expenses (^400) last year for four chaplains to the British Army in

wants

One hundred and twenty-five Bishops Afghanistan. scattered throughout the British Empire would regard an injury done to Propaganda as done to themselves. Paget has written to the Foreign Office. He wants instructions to act officially. To-day one of the attaches has come

anxious to get support against his own ministry. The French and Austrian Ambassadors have promised to act, but the King says England's weight will be the greatest as a Protestant and impartial power."

me privately to suggest that you be accompanied to Lord Beaconsfield by the Duke or other laymen, and that The King is very this should be done without delay.
to

Manning wrote
note

to

Disraeli,

and received a
(February
27,

last
:

from that mocking pen
260

1880)

World
"
Private.
letter
I

Politics

am

your

refers.

quite aware of the business to which I am giving my attention to it,

and

I do not think at present it will be necessary to trouble you to call on yours sincerely, Beaconsfield." Manning sent a letter of Cardinal Simeoni the next day

(February 28, 1880) By to-day's post I have received the two inclosed papers from the Cardinal Prefect of
:

"

Propaganda, and

I

venture to send them to you.
'

I

need

hardly say that the Propaganda is like the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' and that it has many missionaries serving in British India.

Last autumn it helped us to send missionaries to the North- West Frontier, with the duty also of ministering to our troops in Afghanistan. The Propaganda is an international society with a college of a hundred students. Excuse my troubling you again in a matter external to politics but vital to us." In the next month Gladstone turned the electoral scales,

and

Disraeli

was swept from power

for ever.

Though

Manning as Cardinal Grandison (the in his novel Lothair, they were never Bedingfeld title) were both unique in Victorian life, antipathetic. They
Disraeli caricatured

and had reason

to

be interested

in each other's careers.

In Vivian Grey Disraeli said he would fancy the part of Wolsey but for the chances against but they cannot have been less than those which lay between Lavington
;

Rectory and the Sacred College. picturesque but foreign element in Each carved out a career, not by forces each was attracted to, but by
fashioned cause.
of
It
is

Each represented a
English public
life.

leading the radical

reanimating an old-

the old Catholics than the old more leadership approved Manning's Tories of Disraeli's. Each was personally and deeply devoted to the respective Sovereigns, who advanced them to the highest places in their gift. By a curious coinci-

doubtful

if

dence, Disraeli had procured the title of Empress for the Queen with the same imaginative devotion that inspired 261

Henry Edward Manning
to set the prerogative of Pius on a pinnacle. they were the two public men of whom Gladstone stood in respect. One could worst him in debate and the other in controversy, though in the public view the voluFoils, friends or bility of Gladstone seemed to prevail. foes, they stand out against the billowy background of Gladstone's life.

Manning

And

Disraeli dead,

Manning turned again

to his rival to

has a explain (February 19, 1884): twofold character. It is the chief Missionary College of the Church, but it is also to the Holy See what the
Colonial Office is to the Home Government. The Propaganda is the channel through which the British Empire communicates in matters purely spiritual with the Holy See." To the end of his life Manning found it necessary

"The Propaganda

safeguard property in Rome through the British envoys, one of whom, Lord Dufferin, wrote to him
to

(September

6,

1890)

:

I came to Rome, perhaps my most vivid association with the place was a walk with your Eminence some thirty-five years ago along the banks of the Tiber, and your great kindness to me. have been already doing our best under the directions of Archbishop Stonor to protect your interests, nor will I cease my efforts in the direction you desire, though I find this is a very difficult Government to deal with, when the interests of ecclesiastics are concerned."

"When

We

New

leaders

showed on the horizon, and
:

of these

Manning became sincerely attached to who noted in his diary (July 15, 1880)
"

Sir Charles Dilke,

I saw Cardinal Manning, who had returned to England on the previous night. He talked freely of his views about the Italian Kingdom, and said that for his part he was quite willing to support the Italian monarchy, but that the Italian Cardinals still wanted to upset it. He thought that the clericals should accept the monarchy and take part in the elections, but the Vatican was so

262

World

Politics

badly advised that it would one day let the monarchy be upset by the revolutionary party in the hope that something good might come of the disturbance, and he knew that the result would only be the setting up of an anticlerical republic."
In 1883 Manning paid his last official visit to the city with which the triumphs and trials of his life were largely
associated.
It

was agreeable

to find that his views

on

democracy were not unpleasant to the new Pope, who himself had begun to look to peoples and republics. The old Cardinals were dead, and Manning perceived a change
:

"They
that the

see, too, that the past

can never come back;

Temporal Power may come back but under new conditions that the old dynastic world is dying out, and a new world of the peoples is coming in that the Christendom of Europe is widening out into the Christendom of the East and West and South of the world."
;
;

It may be that all this spoliation is a Providential preparation for the advent of the Commune, or of the times of the peoples. rich Church would fare ill in the face of a Commune; and it would be out of sympathy with the peoples, and unable to win their good-will."

"

A

And he wrote to Aubrey de Vere (April 9, 1885) " I am watching with anxiety what is passing in Italy, being fully convinced that Rome can only return to the Pope
:

by the

will of the Italian people, and armed intervention or diplomatic pressure will only revive and harden the opposition of the Italian people." But the recurring fear
in all

he wrote was that Italy was being taught

"

to

on Berlin

for safety." The Church policy, which Italian the people by failure to appreciate losing

hang was new

remedies, he described as "like the Peculiar People refusing medicines." In the end he concluded that the Italians were in Rome as a Divine chastisement. And he dreamed of the Church conquering the Italian and all

governments through the peoples.
263

Henry Edward Manning
Jo
his

own country Manning was

sensitively loyal.
loyalty,

"The

the Englishman," he

intensely and better the Catholic, the better Without curtailing his insisted.
;

he opposed the State in spirituals without foregoing his birthright of liberty, he protested against free thought, as it tended to licence; and without overthrowing the doctrine that an Englishman's house is his castle, he attacked the fallacy that men of property had the right to do what they wished with their own. To the

Empire, "which, like the daughter of Pericles, governs The world," he became particularly attached. more tolerant he in was the the him, stronger Englishry of other peoples. He saw and sympathised with the Irish
the

case before Gladstone.
flag

He

realised also that the British

cloth for young Catholic missions abroad. It was, therefore, with particular zest that he shared in ridding British India of Portuguese Church patronage. When Leo XIII. gave the superannuated Primacy of Goa notice, Sir George Errington, acting for Gladstone in Rome, communicated with Granville at the

was good swaddling

Foreign Office,

who answered

that British

Catholics were best assured of liberty under a hierarchy
of their

own.

Cardinal Jacobini wrote to "

The Government at this moment Manning in August,

fell,

and
:

1885

It cannot escape your Eminence's penetration that the counter-proposals of Portugal are extreme, and I have therefore not failed to acquaint the Government of that country with the reasons and circumstances on account of which the Holy See is not in a position to receive them favourably. At the same time I have invited the Marquis di Thomar to a conference in order to give explanations and elucidations of the above-mentioned proposals of the Holy See. And accordingly I informed the Portuguese Government that England had formally declared to me that it would oppose any project involving the constitution of Portuguese Bishops on English territory, thus to facilitate in some degree a pacific solution, upon the bases proposed by the Holy See, it would be of

264

World
Cabinet."

Politics

the highest importance that the new Ministry should follow in this matter the course of the Gladstone

Manning put

the matter to the

new Premier, Lord

Salisbury, who gave him an interview at the Cardinal's house. While making assurance of Government neu-

Salisbury said he could not regard indifferently the Portuguese Government appointing Bishops in British territory. This was just what Manning wished him to feel, as it gave a lever for the Holy See to apply to Portugal. He then wrote to
trality in religious matters,

Salisbury (August 21, 1885) " In the interview which your Lordship was so good as to give me some weeks ago, I laid before you verbally a communication from Rome, intrusted to me, on the subject of the Ecclesiastical Patronage over the territory of British India, claimed by the Portuguese Government. "Great and serious evils have arisen during the last half-century from this claim on the part of Portugal. It has imported into British India a conflict of ecclesiastical It jurisdictions, followed by much religious dissension. has hindered the spiritual offices of the Church among
:

the Goanese populations scattered in part through British India, whose religious condition stands in need of much correction and elevation. It has introduced among them many ecclesiastics, of whom, to say the least, the conduct
is

unsatisfactory, and, I must add, unworthy. To put an to these both permanent and ever-recurring evils, the Holy See has informed the Government of Portugal of its intention to regulate the ecclesiastical state in the Archbishopric of Goa, with its suffragans, and in British . India, upon the following bases "... From this your Lordship will observe that the

end

.

.

above proposals may all be reduced to two points " i. The exclusion of the Portuguese claims and
diction in British India.

:

juris-

"2. The completion of the spiritual order of the Church by the erection of dioceses. " It is to these two points that I am instructed to ask the assent of Her Majesty's Government."
265

Henry Edward Manning
Friendship with Cardinal Lavigerie brought Manning " He and I live out in the questions. " for we are desert," wrote Manning to J. E. C. Bodley, neither of us hampered by local traditions. He can support the Republic and I can attack the Capitalists. It is a mad world and very sick." Lavigerie came to London to hold an anti-slavery meeting, and Manning induced Granville to take the chair. To Lavigerie he wrote afterwards (August 9, i!
into African
I must thank you for your visit to London, which was too short, and for the momentum you have given our This is how we efforts on behalf of the poor slaves. stand The Times is open to us, and we will be able to publish all your communications in the future. I will
:

"

always be the faithful intermediary of your information. Important persons show themselves disposed to take an I hope to energetic part, and even to go to Africa. On organise the crusade in the United Kingdom. Sunday I wrote the happy result of your mission to the Holy Father. I hope you are pleased with my fellowcountrymen, Catholic or not. They are good folk. A good hundred of my priests listened to your speech."
Cardinal Lavigerie wrote (April 29, 1891)
:

after the first

is aware that under Pius IX., and journey of Stanley to Victoria Nyanza, I This sent missionaries from Algiers into Uganda. and a blessed was number, God, by great Apostolate amounting to nearly 20,000 blacks, joined them and received baptism. At the same time Anglican missionaries arrived in the same kingdom and received, doubtless, a less favourable welcome, but one fruitful in results, and formed a Protestant flock amounting to a half of ours. The Anglican ministers naturally bethought them-

"Your Eminence

selves of

making

their spiritual conquest of profit to the

English Government, and created a powerful political party, which has induced Mwanga, the King of Uganda, to accept English Protectorate for two years. Our French missionaries, with an Alsatian Bishop at their head and an English Catholic in their number, so far from oppos266

World

Politics

ing a British Protectorate, would even rally to its support, if I enthey received suitable religious guarantees. courage them in this course, and will give any sureties that Lord Salisbury's Government think necessary. Our missionaries only ask that the Protectorate may be confided to an English Catholic to avoid all friction. I would be very pleased, as I desire to show my old and sincere sympathy for England in matters political. This I can do without inconvenience, as the French Government informed me some years ago that they had no kind of pretension to any Protectorate in Central or East Africa. I confide this to your wisdom, charity, and zeal for religion. It is, no doubt, delicate, but experience had taught me that the most delicate matters are won in advance when in your venerable hands."

Manning wrote to Lord Salisbury (June 3, 1891) " I have some hesitation to add to the multiplicity
:

of

your daily and anxious cares, but I hope the subject of this note will not sensibly do so. My first intention was to make an abstract of the inclosed letter, but, on reflection, I have thought it better to ask you to take the trouble to read it. It is from Cardinal Lavigerie. The tone of it arises from the fact that we have been friends
for nearly forty years, and of late very intimately. What he asks is that his missionaries in Uganda may share in the protection of England, which already exists for the

No abstract would sufficiently English missionaries. convey his mind. Pray excuse this trouble, which can await your leisure."
And
" again (June 25, 1891)
:

I have to thank your Lordship for the reply you have been so good as to give to the application of Cardinal

Lavigerie, that his missionaries in Uganda may share in This assurance will be most the British protection.
satisfactory to

him

;

and from correspondence

I

have

before me, I am convinced that the Cardinal will enforce with all vigilance the duty of abstaining from all political action, and of cultivating the most peaceful relations with I will take care to all other missionaries and Christians.

convey

this injunction to

Cardinal Lavigerie." 267

Henry Edward Manning
Such cases, coming to him from the ends of the earth, the protection of African missionaries, the growth of an English-speaking episcopate in the Antipodes, the question of a Cardinal for

Canada, the exclusion of Portu-

guese hieratic influence in India, tended to advance the Between the Universal Imperial idea in his mind.

Church and the Universal Empire he saw the possibility common appreciation and understanding. He asked for perfect neutrality, and, where the State benefited, for protection. He had once bitterly deplored the inability of the Empire to convert or spiritualise its possessions. He felt now that an Empire that was neutral could be simultaneously a great Protestant Power officially, but also a great Catholic one. But he insisted that the connection between Empire and Church must be on a spiritual basis and through Bishops. Diplomatic relations between the Foreign Office and the Holy See he combated as long as he lived. There is some reason for believing that Dilke's accusation that he was something of a Jingo was true. At any rate, he declared at the Mansion House that, as the Empire was a link in the world's civilisation, it was a duty on every man to be
of

Imperial.

CHAPTER
"

XVI:

THE CASE OF

DR.

NEWMAN

What does Manning mean by telling you that there is a deep gulf between him and me, while he tells all Catholics that he is already quite one with them?" Newman to Henry Wilberforce, 1848.

As

Anglicans,

extent that

Manning and Newman disagreed to the Manning remained outside the Oxford Move-

did not approve of the Oxford and never Tracts, regarded Newman's Tract Ninety as
straightforward.
to

ment.

As Archdeacon, he

Far back

in the thirties
8,

Manning wrote

Samuel Wilberforce (March " I am between our
afraid,

1837)

:

Newman

Presbyterial selves, that
letter.

did not like

my

joking

He

answered

defensively, or Raikily. So I wrote a very soft demiss rejoinder. He said he did not underI stand me to be fixed and that I was wandering.' has his in bolt shaken confidence suppose Henry's I suppose we married priests, at least of this kin. bumpkins grow bomolochoi, and ought not to take

rather edgily

and

'

liberties."

His criticism of Newman's Sermons was made three
years previously (December 15, 1834)
:

I feel that it is the hardest book to criticise I ever met with, because it contains so much truth, and because its fault is rather defect than disease. Without being able to say why, I feel something in the complexion of his

"

views very unsatisfactory. Of course, it is a packed volume, and pointed at particular errors. It exhibits religion most fully and pointedly as a system of requisitions, but seems to cramp the attractive, encouraging, and cheering spirit of our better hope. And the omission of the agency of the Holy Spirit as a Person continually
present, helping, teaching, strengthening, guiding, enabling us is especially unfortunate."

and

"In some Gladstone Manning wrote in 1842 I in some with Newman, things things thoroughly agree 269

To

:

Henry Edward Manning
some not at all." Differences never ceased the next during half-century, but the Church was not to blame, since she creates Cardinals only in a secondary
partially, in

They were born to differ, and reborn in the Catholic Church to agree on what alone they could Their very approach was different, agree her Divinity Newman withdrawing out of sight to wrestle with his elusive heart, Manning going up to the Metropolis to make his test upon a public controversy. For a moment
sense.
!

the lost leader
feet of

and

Wiseman

at the

the ex-Archdeacon sat together at the Synod of Oscott. It was typical

of their gifts that, while the Crimean set Manning at plans for sending chaplains and nuns to the Front, Newman was lecturing on the Turk in Europe. volume

War

A

of

sermons he dedicated to Manning, who wrote (Oct. 20, " Few things would be more grateful to me than 1857) to be owned by you in facie ecclesia as a friend of thirty It is with me as with you. Old memories are years. sweet beyond words, and I do not readily form new
:

The old is better. And ours, if not always has had a jar." This could be so until never close, was Archbishop, with policies on the Temporal Manning the Power, Infallibility, and the Oxford Question, while "on all three Newman was not in accordance with the Holy See. I am nobody, but I spoke as the Holy See Pius justified Manning on the Infallibility, spoke."
friendships.

and Leo justified Newman on the question of allowing Catholics to Oxford. Manning himself went back on the Temporal Power except as a mathematical point of sovereignty. Their differences were exaggerated by a
horde of Protestant journalists, Catholic busybodies, and excitable converts. As Manning wrote to Lady Herbert " It is strange what efforts they make (January 15, 1866) to believe that we are divided above all, Dr. Newman and myself. I should be ready to let him write down my So would faith, and I would sign it without reading it. he." They had a right to differ on the drink question,
:

270

The Case
Newman you tell me
as
of

of

Dr.

Newman
" As to what have heard that
:

wrote to his brother Francis

some

Archbishop Manning, I Bishops think that too many drinkshops are licensed. As for me, I do not know whether we have too many or too few." Out of their rivalry and suffering the strength and progress of the Church was moulded in England. Newman had to bear the balking of his schemes, and Manning had to endure to read on every brick thrown at him by critics the sacred initials J. H. N. He could not refrain from writing toward the end
of our Irish
:

"Almost every newspaper in England abused and My name was never mentioned, but his was brought in to condemn me; his name was never
ridiculed me.

mentioned, but mine was brought in to despite me. If only we had stood side by side and spoken the same
thing,

the dissension, division, and ill-will which we have had would never have been and the unity of Catholic truth would have been irresistible. But it was not to be so. There is one only person who has kept Dr. Newman back from the highest office himself. He is the sole cause. During all this time I can declare that I have cherished the old friendship between us. I should have never been in Birmingham without going to Edgbaston if the Bishop of Birmingham had not advised me not to go. I can truly say that through all these years I have never had a feeling of offence or of resentment against Newman. I began with a great admiration, a true affection, and warm friendship. I always regarded him as so far above me in gifts and culture of every kind that I have never had a temptation to rivalry or jealousy. We diverged on public duties. My line was not my own. It is that of the Bishops in 1862, 1867, of the Holy See, and of the Vatican Council. It is also the line which is unpopular in England and in the public opinion of all countries. That Newman had a morbid sensitiveness is well known. His relations with Faber, the late Cardinal, Father Coffin, the London Oratory, underwent the same change as his relations to me I am unconscious in word or deed of having wounded him. I never referred to him
;
;

271

Henry Edward Manning
in print except with affection I have been opposed to him,

and
it

respect as a friend. If has only been that I must

either him or the Holy See. oppose " met again in 1859. I was at Oscott at the Third Council of Westminster, and I then obtained the Bishop of Birmingham's consent that I should ask the Cardinal to renew the intention of consecrating him. The Cardinal authorised me to renew the subject at Rome. I went there that winter and opened the matter to Cardinal Barnabo. As soon as I began, he said The Bishop of Newport has just denounced an article of Dr. Newman's

We

'

:

as inconsistent with the Infallibility of Cardinal Wiseman tried to get this removed, but without effect, and the consecration could not be proceeded with. " At the time the Accademia of the Catholic Religion was founded in London, the Cardinal was to give the inaugural address. I had prevailed on Newman, with some difficulty, to give his name to the Academia. He wrote to me to say that if the Cardinal should speak of the Temporal Power in his address as he had spoken of
in

The Rambler

the Church.'

off the Academia. I began between us. both preached and printed about it ill enough, no
it

From

before, he would take his that day a divergence

name

An doubt, but following the line of the Holy See. in The me then edited Rambler, appeared against by Newman. The internal evidence led others as well as myself to believe it was his."
article
letter

The Rambler was condemned, and Newman wrote a
of

submission.
:

Manning wrote

to

Ullathorne

(October 28, 1862) " I believe the Rambler School to be small, but it is highly mischievous. The Cardinal has shown me the copy of Newman's letter, which I read with great thankfulness; not that I doubted what he would say, but I feared that he would not say it. He has a sort of sensitiveness about standing by friends, even when in the wrong, which is very honourable to his generosity."

Newman was
himself.

probably not

less sensitive

than

Manning

Manning mistook Newman's
272

sensitiveness for

The Case
irritation.

of

Dr.
Ward.

Newman
ruined that

"

Do you know what

man?" he

Temper, temper !" he was less a should have said. Newman Temperament bundle of nerves than of exquisite and fine-strung strings, not less so than his own delicate violin. But Paul Cullen and John MacHale were like country fiddlers tuning a Stradivarius when Newman fell under their hand. Talbot and Manning had not the softness of touch which Ullathorne used under his episcopal roughness. But he was born of the Faith. It was the converts who accentuated the friction, having apparently only brought over with them that cryptic question which heads the Anglican
catechism,

said in old age to Wilfrid

"

"What is your name? Answer N. or M." For each was Newmanite or Manningite, far more so

than the objects of their hero-worship. A few weeks before Manning became Archbishop, Newman sighed " Faber being taken away, Ward and Manning take his place. Through them, especially Manning, acting on the poor Cardinal, the Oxford Scheme has been thwarted." Manning had made the University Question a matter of principle, and, dear as
:

was Newman, ecclesiastical principle was dearer. Newman's friends found the Question at Rome regarded as
piece of English Vendetta," while the uncornerable I know Manning best, but I love Newman !" In the duel between Newman and Pusey in

"a

Barnabo remarked, "

1866 the latter dwelt on the Ultramontanism of Faber and Manning. Newman was left in the dilemma of defending or throwing over the Ultramontanes, but, skilfully as he caught Pusey 's arrows, he could not help a spent barb
of his

own reaching the Ultramontanes. He insisted " I put aside the ArchManning was out of the battle.
Ullathorne saw
1866)
:

bishop, of course, because of his office."

Newman, and wrote (February

14,

Private. I am sure you will be pleased to read the enclosed. I said that I had found most of the clergy

"

273

T

Henry Edward Manning
thoughtful men whom he knew I respected hesitating about something in the description of original sin. That this set me on examining the passage carefully. That though, when the words were pondered carefully and with discrimination, the essence of original sin came out orthodox, yet men did not generally ponder words and their relations with theological care. That two terms were salient and imprinted themselves on the mind and not propagated.' That though imputation imputation of Adam's sin was Bellarmine's, vide, not in Moeller's Symbolic, yet it was unusual, and as imputation of righteousness was an heterodox phrase implying absence of inherent or subjective righteousness, and that in this country imputation would be construed as implying absence of inherent or propagated sin, even though the second clause of the sentence explained it to be the
'
' '

'

'

state of

Adam's
'

children.

That though
'

it

was

true that

a poison internally corrupting the soul and propagated from father to son nothing positive, yet readers would catch hold of the negation of propagation with the strong expression hold nothing of the kind,' and associate it with the italicised imputation, and so get stumbled or misled. Hence the correction of which Dr. N. speaks. I know that they are much pleased with a little note you have sent; and I know that since your elevation they have been thoroughly loyal to you." " Private. I have February 12, 1866 given N. a
there
'

was not

We

:

hint of

want

of clearness

on original sin."
:

" I Manning wrote to Ullathorne (February 14, 1866) wrote to thank him for the patristic part about Our Lady, which is very well done and will do much good among Anglicans, I hope. Dr. Newman's answer to my note

was the
say."

you Dublin Review, but for the peace of Jerusalem the unseen hand of the Archbishop interposed, writing to Ullathorne (March 24, 1866)

Ward

driest possible, and left wished to attack

any impression

that

Newman

in the

:

I think it will be a satisfaction to you to know that the article on Dr. Newman will not appear in the next

"

274

The Case
to

of

Dr.

Newman

number of the Dublin. In justice to Mr. Ward I ought add that the original article had been examined and was considered to be calm and moderate and to contain
nothing which ought not to be published. It is not published because of my desire, with which Mr. Ward complied most promptly and with a true Catholic yielding of his own will and judgment. You will easily understand my reasons. Any internal variance would be sure to be seized and used by the public opinion of this country and the Protestants as a division in the Church. This ought to be averted at any personal cost. And I am most anxious that Dr. Newman should be spared all pain."
Ullathorne answered (March 26, 1866) " I am very glad indeed you have induced Mr. Ward first for to forego his article, and that for two reasons the reason which you mention, and which was a very strong one, and secondly because it is a violation of a fundamental canon for a layman to pronounce judgment on the doctrine of a priest, and Dr. Newman would have had his appeal to you against Mr. Ward. As I had occasion to see Dr. Newman yesterday on special business, I told Dr. N. what you had done, and read to
:
:

that part of your letter which I felt would be satisfactory to him. Knowing, also, from other sources that a great deal of talk and excitement prevailed in London about the forthcoming article, a good deal of apprehension about what a writer to me designates as a Ward and Newman row ' ; knowing, also, that there were not ' wanting good-natured friends to write everything to Dr. N., I thought it best to say to him that you had to submit his article to me, and that advised Mr.
' '

him

W.

though I had declined on official grounds, yet it was under clear impression that your one object was to give me the opportunity of checking anything that might happen to be unfair or unpleasant. Under ordinary circumstances this would look like betraying Mr. Ward's correspondence, but I verily believe that, from one
quarter or another, everything that passes reaches Dr. N., so I thought it prudent to put the transaction in a few words in its fair light. Unfortunately, rightly

275

Henry Edward Manning
or wrongly, very strong expressions are reported about as having dropped from Mr. W. which might have embittered the interpretation of his article. I thank God, and I thank you, that the article is withdrawn. It made me feel light-hearted all yesterday." May 9, 1866 " Between ourselves, I am deeply convinced that the Dublin's extreme line tends to conjure up reaction. I know it does, and I should care less for that if people did not persist in making you the sponsor of Mr. W. People say that if he had been a confessor he would not be in a hurry to make mortal sins out of theological inferences. The object of checking the mischief and staying reaction
:

my two letters on Newman. Of course, they have brought me letters and remarks which show how the tide was running. When I began this letter I had no intention of teasing you with these latter remarks, but where there is confidence in one's correspondent, and affection behind confidence, things will out. Maskell's remark about our newspapers is not well borne out when the very note of your V.G. was refused insertion and seems to have been the text of the insults which he addresses to you. He is just the kind of man whom the natural man in me would like to have the handling of, for though I reached my sixtieth year two days ago, I
explains

replying to Dr. Newman. I am sorry that Dr. Newman accepted Oxenham's dedication of Dollinger's History. I don't like this particular association of names."

from the days of bluejackets and handof forty-five years ago. I have recently read your spikes work on the Holy Ghost with great pleasure. The Bishop of Kerry tells me he found Dr. Pusey engaged upon
left

fear there insolence

is still

a lingering fondness for putting

down

Manning went further, and suppressed his book on the Blessed Virgin for fear of collision with Newman. Newman himself must have felt his way was being left clear, "It has surprised me so for he mentioned to Pusey
:

much

that

I

said to myself, Is

himself has changed?

He

is

it possible that Manning so close that no one can

But disappointments preyed on Newman's brooding mind, and he no longer trusted the Archbishop,

know."

276

The Case
"

of

Dr.
8,

Newman
medium
I

as he wrote to Ullathorne, the patient

of their

counter-complaints (January
I

1867)

:

will

say to

trust the Archbishop. It seems to me that he never wishes to see a man except for his own ends. Last spring he wrote to me flattering letters upon letter to Dr.

your Lordship frankly that

cannot

Pusey, and he followed them up by privately sending to your Lordship for approval an article intended for the Dublin Review, in which I was severely handled for certain passages in it. I know other instances of such conduct." unsatisfactory

my

Newman did not realise that Manning had at least "I think suppressed it, or he would not have added that, as a matter of prudence, I never shall trust him till he has gone through Purgatory and has no infirmities upon him." Manning took this situation to heart, and " I am sure that all intervention on wrote to Ullathorne your part in this sad affair has done good. Nothing will be wanting in my power to bring it to a just and peaceful settlement"; but Newman would only write: "Kind words from him, and accolades on each side of the cheek, will not effect it, but fairness, frankness, and a determination never to do things behind one's back." Ullathorne advised a direct attempt at reconciliation, with
: :

results described

by Manning

:

Then followed a painful correspondence, in which we mutually taxed each other with opposition. The letters are in the collection. His last was in terms which made a reply hardly fitting on my part. For years we never wrote and never met."

"

The
change

letters of

of

Masses

1867 concluded with an edifying exBut two for each other's intentions.

years later commenced the Council. Manning was still steering to avoid collision, as he wrote to Ullathorne
(July 30, 1869)
' '

:

I forgot to say the other day that my care not to write even apparently against Dr. Newman is the reason

2

77

Henry Edward Manning
have never published what I had begun about Our I know it would have been used by enemies in that sense. Blackivood printed two long columns of his and mine in direct opposition. Mine were printed before his were out. The Protestants get up these things, and

why

I

Lady.

Catholics repeat them, and

I

fear Dr.

Newman

believes

them."
It

intellectually strong

was unfortunate that the headstrong and not less Mr. Ward was looked upon as the

Newman recognised that, as Archbishop's second. " must emphatically put truth in Archbishop, Manning the first place and charity in the second," and he could have answered Ward as piquantly as he answered Kingsley, but he forbore because it would have involved the Archbishop. Ullathorne saw the position when he reminded Manning that for a layman to criticise a priest
was uncanonical. Manning's encouragement of Ward was not divinely prudent, for in the end the Vatican Council showed Ward to have been less inspired than most English converts have taken themselves to be. Ward was the well-meaning origin of much of their misunderstanding. He was untiring in criticising Newman's theology, though the old leader's voice, he confessed, still awed him in dreams. Newman had realised that to "seems be stern, when really he is but Manning This was in 1866. Three years faithful to his trust." later the crisis came. A certain Mr. Ffoulkes, compared by Newman to "a blue-bottle fly" in controversy,
accused Manning of having suppressed the letter Newman wrote to Wiseman clearing himself in 1862. This
letter

Wiseman had absent-mindedly
where
:

laid aside

among

his papers,

it

was afterwards found by Canon
to

Morris.

Manning indignantly wrote

Ullathorne

(October 31, 1869)

I have just heard that the following statement has That Dr. been made, both in England and Rome wrote and sent the some to Cardinal Newman, years ago,
:

"

The Case
a
letter

of

Dr.

Newman

which would have cleared him in respect to his on the Infallibility in The Rambler, and that I intercepted it, or suppressed the letter, either during the Cardinal's life or after his death. As I never heard this or of any such letter till to-night, I conceive you know as little as I on the subject; but as no one can so easily know the facts, I would ask you to let me know whether you have ever heard such a statement."
article

As

Ffoulkes's pamphlet was anonymous,

begged both Ullathorne and

Newman

to assist

Manning him to

unveil the libel as a public danger to their peace, but Newman was weary, or wary, and simply informed

Manning that when he had relations with him he did not know whether he was on his head or on his heels Manning found it unfitting to reply, and there the
!

Vatican Council found both the Catholic protagonists England. Manning was cut to the quick, and rumours of conflict spread. Gladstone was not the least uninterested and a little inquisitive. Manning explained to
of

him (November
"

8,

1869)

:

Mr. Ffoulkes insinuates against me the charge of some intrigue by which Dr. Newman has been consigned to obscurity. I remember when you were in office many years ago you told me that you were charged in the House of Commons with something which you could refute at once if you were not restrained by a higher duty. I am in the same position. And I wish you to know it. Meanwhile I must bear it in silence." November 21, 1869 " I have in many ways through all these years endeavoured to see him where he ought to be. My constant effort, unknown to him, has been to draw him from the obscurity to which influences which are not good and an oversensitive mind, not unnaturally pained by events I know, have induced him to withdraw."
:

The publication of Newman's letter during the Council relieved the obscurity for a time. Upon that letter
owing

Manning made no comment, though the complaint that, to "an aggressive and insolent faction," truest;

Henry Edward Manning
minds were being driven until they did not know where may have recalled to Manning the words by which Newman had recently closed down their correto rest their feet,

spondence.
If

They both accepted the Vatican Decrees. Manning struck the full diapason of dogma, Newman's

reach was as wide but his notes were subtler. It was Newman's terrible gift to be able to enter unscathed into the minds of those outside the Holy Pale. Where Newman would heal unbelief with sweet and unembittered herbs, Manning preferred to summon a celestial surgeon, and in the Infallibility he saw a knife sharp enough to cut the diseases of the century.

The years passed, and Newman helped to answer Gladstone's attack on Vaticanism and the Civil Allegiance by his letter to the Duke of Norfolk. The force and subtlety of the letter lost in translation, and
Propaganda
called

on Manning to

invite

Newman

to

same day (February 5, that Newman wrote 1875) congratulating himself on the and various clergy who with one "Jesuits, Dominicans, voice concurred in what I have written," Cardinal
certain corrections.

make

On

the

Franchi wrote to Ullathorne concerning the passages

which had been brought to Manning's notice, passages qtue non mediocre detrimentum fidelibus inferre possent. Ullathorne informed Rome that the happy result of the Controversia Gladstoniana had been that Ward had praised Newman in the Dublin. Ward he described as In this vir super omnia dogmaticus, or a Manningite.
trace Manning's hand, for Ward wrote to Ulla" Private and I thorne (March 4, 1875) confidential. have written a short article for the Dublin on Father

we may

:

is extremely though, indeed, not more than I am myself that there may be nothing in it which can possibly be taken to imply disrespect or can cause any exasperation of feeling." At the same time Manning had come to the conclusion that Newman was being ungenerously treated, 280

Newman's new pamphlet. The Archbishop

anxious

The Case
and he sent a
to Cardinal

of

Dr.

Newman
:

spirited defence of the illustrious Oratorian Franchi (February 9, 1875)
to take

"

I

warmly implore your Eminence
:

no public

for the following reasons The heart of Father Newman is as straight and Catholic as it ever was. His pamphlet has a most powerful influence over the non-Catholics of this country. It makes a wholesome impression, especially on various Catholics of a difficult nature and of unsatisfied ideas. The aforesaid Father has never, up to the present, so openly defended the prerogatives and infallible authority of the Roman Pontiff, though he has always believed and preached this truth. The substance of the recent pamphlet is wholesome, but it is impossible not to notice certain propositions and a certain method of reasoning which is not in accord with the accepted mode of expression. These faults are not manifest to non-Catholics, and therefore do not impede the healthy effect of the pamphlet. On intelligent, instructed Catholics it has no influence. For the above reasons, I believe that one can abstain with all security from all public notice. On the other hand, I see a grave danger if there should be a shade of public censure. It would seem to create a semblance of divisions between Catholics in the face of our enemies and of our non-Catholic friends. It would excite a domestic controversy which once raged but by It would introduce the grace of God is now calmed. of hate, jealousy, ourselves malignant spirit every among and personal feeling. A Papal Bull would not be sufficient to destroy the belief that the Holy See had been inspired by the Ultramontanes of England. I can assure you in all fidelity that Catholic Truth and the Authority of the Holy See will not be diminished by the pamphlet mentioned, and that even to-day it helps to forward the unity of Catholics and the Infallibility of the Vicar of Christ in England. Under the circumstances, I warmly implore you to leave what is well alone. It is not only the petition of a true friendship and old, but the counsel of

steps as regards Father

Newman's pamphlet,

prudence."

This

Holy

righted Newman in the eyes of the See, whose favour, culminating in the Cardinalate,
letter largely

Henry Edward Manning
began three years before the accession of Leo and when Manning's influence was still paramount. With the
election of Leo,

"When
me

the

Manning recorded in a note Duke of Norfolk and Lord Ripon asked
:

to lay before the

should be made Cardinal, I alone undertook to do so, and wrote the letter of which a copy is with the other correspondence. The Duke and Lord Ripon and Lord Petre all saw the letter and approved it. Lord Petre said that I had even said too much. Cardinal Howard told

Holy See

their desire that

Newman

me at first there was no
letter

disposition to

do

so.

But that

my

worked a change."
to

Manning wrote
far as to say
life
:

Rome

a

letter in

which he went so

rise and Catholic Faith England no one whose name will stand out in history with so great a prominence." Three weeks after his letter was received the affair was The Duke of Norfolk had brought the matter fixed.

" The veneration for his powers, his learning, and his of singular piety and integrity is almost as deeply felt by the non-Catholic population of this country as by the members of the Catholic Church. " In the revival of in
there
is

before the Pope, but the
hesitating
letter

Pope inquired
Cardinal

for

Manning's
unpre-

opinion, which was forthcoming
of approval.

in the Cardinal's

Howard

sented

beginning of inform was able to Newman 1879, February, Manning that at he the door of Sacred Ullathorne was the through was anxious to a but Newman be Cardinal, College.
it

to

Cardinal

Nina.

At

the

feared that

it

pray and entreat His Holiness, in compassion of my diffidence of mind, in consideration of my life from my youth, my ignorance of foreign languages, and my lack of experience in business, to let me die where I have so long lived. Since I know now and henceforth that His Holiness thinks kindly of me, what more can I desire?" Then occurred a singular mistake. Like most
wrote
:

"

involved living in

Rome, and

hesitated.

He

I

283

The Case

of

Dr.

Newman
common report, that As Manning wrote

matter-of-fact persons, Manning construed this into a natural refusal, and set out to Rome. Meantime The

Times announced, as a matter

of

Newman had
afterwards "
:

declined the purple.

I fully believed that Newman declined to accept the Cardinalate for the reasons given in his letter to Cardinal Nina. The moment I knew that he did not so intend his words to be taken, I went to the Pope and obtained his leave to telegraph and write to the Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop of Birmingham."

On March 2 he telegraphed the Pope's leave for Newman to reside in Birmingham. He wrote to Ullathorne (March
8,

1879)

:

" Your

letter

and Dr. Newman's

This morning I carried it to the Holy Father. By this post I have written to Dr. Newman conveying the Pope's message to him. The formal letter will be sent in due course. The Holy Father said that he desired to give a testimony to Dr. Newman's virtues and learning, and to do an act pleasing to the Catholics of England." To Newman he wrote "I remember, in 1854 I think, writing from Rome to wish you joy on another event. I have still greater happiness in conlast night.
:

came

veying to you
labours."

this greater completion of your many That was when he had pressed Newman for

a Bishopric.

Manning had
1869:
truth

written to the

Duchess of Buccleuch
I

in

"As

to Dr.

Newman,

believe

if

you knew

the

you would exactly reverse your present thoughts. I have done all in I am supposed to have crossed him. in England and for or ten both nine years, my power to caused set Rome, by himself or his right many things friends which have stood in his way. Finally, I have his letter binding me to desist from the endeavour I was making that he should be consecrated a Bishop. All this cannot be stated. Meanwhile the direct reverse of the
truth
is

put about." 383

Henry Edward Manning
reverence.

As Cardinals they were studious They met seldom, save on

in each other's occasions such as

Duchess of Norfolk, when Manning the Oratory steps, somewhat to his but it the was ceremonial kiss required between surprise It was noticed how watchfully Manning Cardinals. avoided taking the least precedence as they passed from the altar in procession. Peace and reconciliation had
the funeral of the

kissed

Newman on
;

begun.

Clifford

Newman even consulted Manning through on points of theology. Clifford had written a famous article on Genesis, from the point of view of
geologist.
7,

a

We
:

find

Newman

writing

to

Clifford

(January

1883)

I believe we are not bound to consider that St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, though of course the writer, whoever he was, was inspired. The Council of Trent altered, I think, the title, The Psalms of David, into the vaguer form Psalterium Davidicum. Is it necessary to hold that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes ? I am not proposing to you to answer all these questions, but can you refer me to any theologian who treats of them ?"

"

Clifford referred

him

to

Manning, with the
:

result that

Newman
the

wrote (January 20, 1883)

the Archbishop for me. I sent at once for book he recommended. It rejoices me to see in the Dublin the account given of the criticisms passed on your It shows you have succeeded in late article on Gen. i. opening the door, tho' the critics do not like the particular way in which you avow that you have opened it. We need not seek to shake ourselves free from science any longer, since you have suggested an interpretation which

"Thank

ignores science altogether."

Newman

After submitting a paper on Inspiration to Manning, wrote to Clifford (October 13, 1883) : " I prefer sending my best thanks to the Archbishop
to

through you instead of writing
284

him myself,

lest

I

The Case

of

Dr.

Newman

should adopt the tone of a controversialist, though, as you will see, I have in fact altered every passage to which he has kindly called my attention. I feel a great relief now that it has been under your and his eyes, though of course I have not and shall not make this known. The Archbishop says, Opinions condemned under some other terms used in qualifying opinions could not be maintained without a sin against faith.' Certainly; but I have not said maintained. I have spoken of a Catholic investigator's private opinions e.g., whether Adam lived 930 years, which I suppose is not dogma."
'

and

was given to Manning to outlive his gracious rival to pronounce the oration at his Requiem in the London Oratory. It was the greatest valedictory he ever " We have lost our greatest witness for pronounced. the Faith," he solemnly stated. He spoke of their " affectionate friendship of more than sixty years," which to many seemed hypocritical. He did not mention their past differences nor allude to the letter he wrote in Newman's defence in 1875. What his left hand accomIt

plished his right forgot. Newman passed to his grave without suspecting the cause that turned the Papal sun-

on his path. Manning's eulogium was gladly by the Newmanites. Bishop Wilkinson of Hexham wrote (August 21, 1890) " What can I say to your Eminence in the attempt to thank you for your glorious words at the Oratory yesterday? I am powerless. You have taken my breath away. I have come here to witness the end of him to whom I owe the Faith which, through him, was granted in 1846." And Lord
light

received

:

Charles Thynne, a son-in-law of the Anglican Bishop who had ordained Manning " How rarely has it been heard for one great man to speak of another great man as you have spoken of Cardinal Newman. May a priest bless a Cardinal ? If he may, I say God bless you !"
:

Of Newman and Manning English religious history That two wills so strong, two minds so choice, and yet so diverse, should have united on the
will ever treat.

285

Henry Edward Manning
one Creed remains a matter of pride rather than distress All comparisons are in vain. It is not sufficient to be told that Newman was the Platonist and dreamy master-mind, while Manning was the Aristotelian
to Catholics.

and practical master-man, or that they conflicted because one was subjective and the other objective. George Russell's epigram, taken from the title of one of Miss Austen's novels, Sense and Sensibility, does not afford a truer result than the title of Pride and Prejudice, simply because both were insuperably complex. It was, perhaps, true to say that Manning was most formidable as an enemy, while Newman was most damaging as a friend. Father Dudley Ryder, who was at once Manning's

nephew and Newman's henchman, called their differences psychological and not theological, and compared them to "the sea and the rocks confronting it." They might, while the storm lasted, combine against a hostile armada, but their eventual condition was one of settled opposition,
of sentiment, method, aspiration. They were the two greatest converts Rome has ever drawn out of English Christianity. The same age and

same country could hardly contain them together, and the clash was inevitable and doubtless providential. They were the great anti-Rationalists of their time, and
the
their very intellectual force tended to give Rationalism arguments of a kind. Huxley said he could write an

agnostic catechism out of Newman's writings. Manning's afforded little play to paradox, for they were written with a yea and a nay. Where Newman loved to awake in men's minds a slight suspicion that Catholicism might

Manning preferred to overwhelm with sonorous and magnificent emphasis. To Manning's stark phrase and dogmatic statements there was seldom any answer except the lie direct, which the writers of the day freely But when gave. Their arrows rattled on his shield.
be
true,

Kingsley called
in the folds of

Newman a liar he found himself involved an insoluble and intangible net. Out of
286

The Case
no apology
sufferer.

of

Dr.

Newman
Manning He made
English people or for the most considerable

his writhings Newman built his Apologia. But held that Archbishops should never apologise.
for his Faith to the

his policy to

Newman, who was

Only

the Cardinalate there
is

as Cardinals were they at unison, for in is a higher and sacred unity which

never broken. Manning was content that the Church England should fly Newman's pennon from the masthead, while he continued to hold the tiller.
in

287

CHAPTER

XVII

:

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS
really perfect, in perfection.

" If the religious orders were example be drawn upward higher

the clergy would by their If the imperfect claim the

privileges of the perfect, the priesthood is justly recoil." Cardinal Mannings Notebook.

provoked not to charity but to

IF the mills of God grind slow and small, they must sometimes grind and grate against each other. Now, in the Catholic economy, the upper and the nether mill-

stones are the secular

and the

religious clergy.

.The

sublime feud of the Middle Ages was between the clergy of the dioceses and of the Religious Orders. This zealous strife has led more to the perfecting of the Orders than their own rules of perfection. Much as they have
influenced the parish clergy, the clergy have, by criticism and rivalry, kept them up to their mark. Criticism of the monks and friars is the prerogative of the Church, through the divinely founded Order of the Episcopate. If Orders of men claim special rules and rites, special clothing and privileges, special perfections and exemptions, the Church, after due test, and with her own precautions, permits them but woe to them if they fall behind their own rules
;

or hinder rather than co-operate with the Bishops. In view of the absurdities and malignancies of Protestant criticism, criticism of the Religious Orders is avoided by the laity. But with Bishops and the Bishop of all Bishops it is a duty. Manning was an unsparing critic, but, as

he

criticised

from within and with authority, he was able

to affect the status of the religious all over the world. At the time of his Provincial Council we find him

writing to Ullathorne (May 18, 1873): "Many thanks I hope for your note about the Consecrated Virgins. this on action firm and united that we shall take some antiour shall have and other subjects; otherwise we quarianism, Ritualism, and inobedience to authority. 288

The
I

Religious Orders

saw your delicacy when I asked you to prepare the chapter De monialibus. But you have already done it by the request of the Bishops. If you would kindly do it in time to let Menevensis make his comments before the second week in July it would be in time. I think we
can easily have all ready beforehand. I cannot conceive that the Chapter may do what the Bishop may not do. It seems to me that we are getting into Ritualism again. these Surely things belong to Canon Law, not to Masters of Ceremonies." It is not necessary to agree with his strictures on the Jesuits, which he left in writing as a legacy to his successors. Needless to say, the Jesuits no more procured the suppression of this paper than he wished to suppress
itself. He criticised them historically as an and his hand lay heavy upon them Archbishop, English as an administrator. He had official and proper reasons, but there was a human element entering into his feelings

the society

which

it is right to point out. Historically the Jesuits had reached a great place in England. They were the franc-tireurs , who kept alive

of the line

the Faith in the absence of Bishops. When the Bishops were restored it was natural Jesuits should

not

disappointed by
for
.

new regime at once. Wiseman was the Religious Orders, who preferred their traditions to the missions he enthusiastically planned
fall in

with the
all

them Both Wiseman and Manning wished to convert England through a parish clergy, and they mourned converts who disappeared into monasteries, and were indignant when their diocesan clergy left them for the Jesuits. Manning humorously complained of Franciscans carrying gold watch-chains and Discalced Carmelites
wearing patent-leather boots, but the Jesuits lost his favour because their success and devotion seemed to put his beloved parish clergy into the shade. Their colleges outshone his, and it galled him to see a body recruited from the best old blood and newest convert brains worku 289

Henry Edward Manning
ing under his eye but not under his hand. Yet the greatness of Jesuitry he never denied, and he invoked Ignatius every day of his Catholic life. His historical view was
:

The true reasons why the Church in England ceased to exist for three hundred years, why the people of England have been lost to the Faith, I believe, are these : (i) Because the restoration of the Hierarchy was opposed in by the deliberate action of the Jesuits; (2) because the policy of Rome under their guidance was the policy of Spanish intervention. Now,' before I go further, I think it right to judgment in this matter is give reasons to show that not only impartial, but that I have come to it in spite of every motive that would bias me the other way. First, the books and the personal relations which helped to bring me to the Catholic Church were largely of the Society. I was received by a Jesuit, and for the first five priesthood I worked in England or studied years of chief friends were in among the Jesuits. whole mind was friendly to the Society ; I Jesuits. predecessor, and I pleaded for them in the time of did all I could to encourage the first Bishop of Salford to I may add that during the call them into Manchester.

"

Rome

my

my Rome

My

My

my

controversies about the Temporal Power and the Infallibility I was in close co-operation with them; and P. Liberatore was my theologian in the Vatican Council.

Three things have compelled me to examine carefully the condition of the Catholic Church in England. First, the historical documents, such as Dodd's History, with Tierney's notes and appendix; the history of the reign
of

"

James II.; Panzani's Mission; certain manuscripts in our archives and in the archives of the English College
in

Rome; and now more

recently

Law's volume and

appendix, with account of the controversies in Elizabeth's reign, and other miscellaneous volumes of the seventeenth century. These all show, in my judgment, that the action of the Society in England was to divide and to discredit the so-called secular clergy, and in Rome to hinder the I am anxious to restoration of Bishops to England. judge justly, and I will therefore say that the motives
290

The

Religious Orders

of the Society may have been a mistrust of the clergy in England, on the ground that the Bishops in Henry VII I. 's or Edward's time were wanting in fidelity to the Holy See and that the lives of many priests in the time of Elizabeth were not good; also that many were ready to take oaths of allegiance which Rome condemned and there was a nationalist or anti-Roman spirit among them. To this the answer is not far to seek. The martyrs of the secular clergy under Elizabeth, both for number and heroic fidelity to the Holy See, are a complete refutation of these charges. And next, it was the threat of Spanish intervention, encouraged by the Society, that aroused the English or national spirit. Moreover, the Deputations sent to Rome by the English clergy were thwarted and even imprisoned, their veracity slandered, and their prayer for audience of the Holy Father refused under the influence of the Society and of the Spanish Ambassador. If it had not been for the French Ambassador the audience would not have been granted at all. It will, no doubt, be said that the Church may invoke the aid of Catholic Powers to deliver a Catholic people from the dominion of infidels or heretics for instance, the Crusades, the Catholic policy of Spain, which has kept Spain Catholic to this day, and of France, which has preserved France down to the first French Revolution But to this again the answer is ready : As for the Crusades, the tree is known by its fruits. They all failed. They that took the sword perished by the sword. The infidel holds the Holy Sepulchre to this day. " As for Spain and France, there was no foreign intervention. Spain did not invade France, nor France Spain, to protect the religion of the people. The two Governments protected themselves, or rather the people protected themselves. There is no parity here. foreign invasion rouses a people to the first law of Nature, which It is no longer a question of religion, is self-defence. but of hearth and home, of wives and children. Booted never yet converted nations. apostles " The Armada failed as the Crusades failed, and even more signally. And the consequence has been to set the English people for three hundred years against Rome, and to create the hideous oaths of allegiance which in
; .

A

291

Henry Edward Manning
to a few years ago. What can be more spread of the Catholic Faith ? The English people have been lost to the Faith by a double cause

England existed

fatal to the

the one privative, the loss of their pastors positive, the attempt to restore Catholicism

;

the other

by foreign

If the objectum doni pietatis be parentes et patria, it would seem to me that this Spanish policy was not of the Holy Ghost. It is reasonably to be doubted whether the persecution to blood would have prevailed, or prevailed for long, if this Spanish policy had not scared the Queen and her advisers. Fine, imprisonment, confiscation, and exile there might have been but death and the rack for treason might not have been inflicted for saying Mass. The confusion of temporal and spiritual things did not arise This was turned to the reproach of the in England. English clergy. They and the faithful purged away the But the Spanish policy accusation with their blood. seemed to justify the accusation and from that day to this we have been accused of disloyalty. Gladstone the other day tried to put us again in the pillory. From this cause arises the present temper of the English people. They have come to tolerate the Catholic religion as religion in the spiritual sphere but the slightest contact
;
;

and armed intervention.

;

of the Catholic

Church
all

in matter of politics rouses sus-

So long as we are upon the our fellow-subjects we are safe, and our rights are respected. But if we were in any way separated from the common political interests of the country, we should be marked out for opposition. Now, nobody can attack us in political matters without attacking everybody."
picion

and opposition.
with

common law

As an Anglican

in

Rome

in 1848,

Manning witnessed
:

the expulsion of the Jesuits,

and noted

"The opposition to the Jesuits seems to me to arise from the facts (i) That they incorporate the doctrine of the Canonists upon the Pope's absolute sovereignty, opposing constitutional liberty; (2) that they are the
:

and conservative clergy (as with us) (3) that the other regulars and seculars are jealous of them, as our clergy are of active and successful men (4) that they
aristocratic
; ;

292

The
are

Religious Orders
regime
;

now

allied with the old

(5) that

they labour

under

suspicion, natural."

reasonable,

historical,

and

preter-

When he became head of the secular clergy of England he shared the jealousy which an energetic
Bishop ought to feel for his diocese. His suspicion was, perhaps, historical rather than "reasonable." He had advised the Cardinal against the Immaculate Conception Charity which the Jesuits had started in London, because "I felt that it was incompatible with the order and development of the diocese;" but Canon Oakeley tasked

him boldly
"
ever
I

:

think the Charity perhaps

the most

beautiful

Father Gallwey was its sole author, and his severance from it has been its ruin. I know you were not the only, nor, perhaps, the principal opponent of this Charity, but I regret that you advised the Cardinal as he told me you did. Father Gallwey never made to me any complaint of your conduct in this matter. But he told me that in another instance you had thwarted a work of the Society in an indirect way." " I do not yield to you in love and Manning replied
in

made

London.

:

veneration, to either the Society, or to the members of it known to me. What has, to my great sorrow, come between me and, not the Society, but certain and those only a few members of it, you will, I believe, when you hereafter see the facts before you, remove from your

mind, some things altogether and extensively modify what may remain."

However, Manning gave Oakeley little active cause to modify his opinion. He steadily opposed the Jesuits in London for the same reason that Archbishop Errington had found fault with the Oblates of St. Charles because they were not amenable to the Archbishop's control. .There were other reasons, as Manning wrote to Talbot " They have been shilly-shally on every question. Many of them were for a college in Oxford. They have taken up Newman's book in concert with Oakeley and Maguire.
:

293

Henry Edward Manning
It is stated that Father Gallwey says that the book has been examined at the Roman College and pronounced free from all error." Manning was consistent, and would not allow them to open a school. Father Gallwey comes into the list of his opponents, for, while Provincial, he strove to lift the ban. Father Gallwey was an Irishman in Mayfair, pious and headstrong, and determined to fight the battles of the Society, whether the Society wished it or not. But it was no use fighting Manning

in

his

own

diocese.

Gallwey 's

pleas

and

Manning's box was filled with " Will petitions your Grace
:

authorise us to open a grammar school at a safe distance from St. Charles's College, say not nearer than three

miles?" and again, "to thank your Eminence for the
very kind words which you spoke concerning the Society. I wish that your Eminence would perfect the work thus begun. No one else has the power." He even apologised
for increasing the Jesuits at

Farm

Street.

They were

engaged with business, two were "quite hors de combat," and "Father Vaughan is wholly taken up with chemistry, does no Church work." Whether Manning snuffed a gunpowder plot or not, he remained obdurate. In vain Father Gallwey asked if the nuns of the Sacred Heart
ciated the
Street.

could take charge of a poor school, for Manning assonuns with the Society, and would not allow them to occupy a house they had purchased in Dorset

They had

to pass into

return after his death

Southwark territory, to and take possession of his dis-

mantled seminary and his beloved college of St. Charles. Such are the revenges of obedience and prayer. But Father Gallwey was impatient, and he struck a blow which was to reverberate through Christendom.
but never sent a long letter which he pointed out that "a diocese cannot go upon crutches," that the English Hierarchy could be helped but could not be made dependent on Religious Orders, "dependent as English statesmen have
In 1876

Manning wrote
in

to Gallwey,

294

The
England."
"

Religious Orders
by keeping
took
it

tried to cripple Ireland

dependent upon
the dioceses.

The Orders

men from

A compact,

does a stronger statement, as follows " I will try to put down what my experience and observation have taught me about the Jesuits in the last
:

solid, self-sustaining, self-cultivated clergy not as yet exist." In later years Manning drew up

nine-and-thirty years. "They say truly that St. Ignatius governs them to this day. It is so. He was a Spaniard, a noble, a monarchist, and a soldier. The Society is St. Ignatius in perpetuity, Spanish, aristocratic, absolute, and It was exactly what was wanted at the time military. to counteract the revolt of the sixteenth century. The revolt was disobedience and disorder in the most aggressive form. The Society was obedience and order in the

most solid compactness. It may be said, with historical truth, that the Jesuits charged, threw back, and defeated the Lutheran revolt. They also won back souls by their
Christ and

preaching and spiritual guidance. They preached Jesus Him crucified.' This has been their central and message, by it they have deserved and won the confidence and obedience of souls. They have produced books of theology and of devotion in profusion. Thus far my whole sympathy goes with them. And such they were for their first years. " Nevertheless, they were soon a cause of trouble, as with the Bishops in Spain and with St. Charles in Milan. It seems inseparable from their essence, which develops both assumption and presumption. 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. The 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.' This is history. There is only a plank between them and Presbyterianism. Until lately their theologians have taught that the Episcopate
'

'

295

Henry Edward Manning
only the Pope's Vicariate. When a Jesuit is made Bishop they put him out and butt him to death. See F. Galli on the Jesuit Vicars Apostolic in India. This unhappy spirit has never been cast out. Even St. Charles had to strive with it. If a Bishop will give in to them they will recommend him on the next vacancy to an Archbishopric. If he hold his own, let him look out. Shakespere brings in 'rumour painted full of tongues.' There is no greater gossip-shop than a Gesu. "I cannot fix the time when the Society became In its first days it was not so. It is said to political. date from its fourth General, the first Italian, Aquaviva. At first on a small scale, but inevitably, as the Society spread, it mixed and meddled in the politics of every Court in Europe. The first example is the Spanish policy, which lost England, next the French under Louis XIV. The Jesuit Province of Paris defended the four Gallican Articles and so on, as Theiner shows in his Clement 'XIV.; and, as I believe, now in Rome the policy is theirs which is losing the people of Italy. Absolutism is gone. The Jerusalem from above is free and the mother of all freedom. The axiom Sicut baculus in manu ambulantis is good for a regiment in warfare and for the Society, but not for mankind nor for the Universal Church. Cardinal Nina used to say, hanno
is
;

una

ascetica. " falsa I will not speak of other countries, but of England There can be no doubt that the Jesuits, from only. R. Parsons downwards, have hindered the restoration of the Church in England. From Elizabeth [till] to-day [it] has been the policy of Diotrophes. They became the chaplains of the surviving Catholic families. All houses of wealth and importance were in their hands. At the date of their suppression they had, as one of them told me, about four hundred priests in England. The number of Catholics in all England in 1773 cannot have been more than a few thousands. Burke, in 1780, put it at 36,000. The Roman Seminary, the Roman College, the English College, and more in Rome were in their hands. So again Lisbon and Valladolid. In England the Vicars Apostolic had no college, so far as I know. They sent their ecclesiastical students abroad, and the laymen

296

The

Religious Orders
After 1793 St.

shifted for themselves.

Edmund's and

then, in 1827 or 1828, Oscott. At that date the Society was restored. It is doubtful whether Ushaw, St. Edmund's, and Oscott would ever have arisen but for the suppression. So in Rome, the English College, after three hundred years, returned to the hands that founded it. This reared Nicholas Wiseman, and he carried through the restoration of the Hierarchy, which, but for the suppression, would probably never have come to this day. With these facts before me, I must believe that a fatal false policy, for which the Spanish spirit of the Society is chiefly responsible, has lost the English

Ushaw were founded;

The exclusive, narrow, military, aristocratic people. character of the Society shown in the time of James I., with the arch-priest figment and the continual thwarting of the English clergy down to good Father Lythgoe, whom I just remember, seems to me to be a mysterious permission of God for the chastisement of England. Of the action of the Society since the Hierarchy I do not care to say much. It has again been a cause of dissension, until
it brought on a two years' conflict at Rome. I have no will to record the pettinesses, which nevertheless do great harm. One of their Provincials, asking to sanction

me

a scheme ruinous to the diocese, said hold that whatever is good for the Society is good for the diocese.'
:

'

We

I
'

thought to myself,

Omne majus

continet

minus

for the diocese is good for the If half a dozen dukes left their money to the Society.' Society and not to the diocese, or if all the good and zealous priests were to leave the diocese and become Jesuits, I think the verdict would be with me."
is

Whatever

good

What weighed on Manning
of priests

personally was the

number

who

left

his service for the Jesuits.

As Provost

Whitty had

left

Wiseman, so Manning's

secretary, the

beloved Morris, joined the Society. Sadly Manning bade him complete the desertion by taking his butler, Newman, as a lay brother. Morris wrote "I cannot rest without telling you how grateful I am to you. What it has cost me to say what I have said, or what it will cost me to leave you, is more than I dare think upon. I am
:

297

Henry Edward Manning
unstable as water, but God is very good. I see before me exactly the help I want, and what I owe your Grace
will

told

only be known when Eternity begins." Manning John Vaughan he might as well join a club as the

Jesuits,

and

to

Bernard:

"You

are thrown

When

away!"

Father William Anderdon, his nephew, and Father Humphrey, an Oblate, decided to leave him for the Society, Manning remonstrated in vain, and though he hardened his heart he let his nephew go. From the

high

ecclesiastical sin of

nepotism Manning was

fleck-

lessly clear.

When
for ever.

nephews crossed

them away

He

his policy he cut felt very deeply the deserters

Morris was the exception. In " vain Father Gallwey wrote Instead of preaching for us on the Feast of the ImmaculateConception, your Eminence will be, I am told, in Rome plotting some mischief
joined the Jesuits.
:

who

against us poor regulars. I hope your Eminence will not be unwilling that Father Humphrey should preach

on the day. He cannot do much harm by one sermon." But treason to the diocese was never forgiven, and an adjoining diocese which received stragglers from Westminster was referred to as " Botany Bay." Relations with Anderdon were never resumed. Appeals to " " met with no response, even when, dear Uncle Henry at the close of his novitiate, he wrote begging for a " This kindly word (August 15, 1882) day I have taken last is no and there now vows, change nor event my
for us
:

before
the

are both travelling except death itself. faster than and road, myself your Eminence." But the firm of Manning and Anderdon had been closed on this earth. By a curious chance, Anderdon resembled

me

We

same

the Cardinal in handwriting and features. Looking " I saw downstairs into a mirror, Manning once said my nephew waiting at the bottom." Manning did not
:

Anderdon had made an injudicious need a double. " " Uncle Henry which could not be passed ply over. Brooding over injustices to the Society, he preeffort to

298

The
:

Religious Orders

pared a letter, to be sent after his own death to the Archbishop, but impatiently sent before the time (Whit-

Sunday, 1875) " If you came to see me on my deathbed, or if I sent you my intended death-letter, what I should wish to say would be couched somewhat thus Has your Eminence sufficiently considered it as the great misfortune of your life that you have never practically had a superior? that you have always been in the way of making your own views and opinions, and so stereotyping them as being your own ? Is not A Kempis right in saying, Nemo secure frceest nisi qui libenter subest? Has your Eminence ever really been in that condition, subesse? I do not mean to external ecclesiastical subordination, but to submission of the will and judgment to another? Some years ago you answered that you had once, at least, acknowledged yourself wrong by submitting to the Catholic Church. And now I place myself physically on my knees and open my Bible to look for words which have often come painfully I may say terribly into my " For mercy mind. The words are (Wisd. vi. 7-9) shall soon pardon the meanest, but mighty men shall be I do not know how I can write them mightily tormented.'
: :

or refer to them, but there they are. May they never is anyone to be apply or go near it. I ask myself, tempted to look forward to the termination of a few years as marking the dawn of a more wholesome state of things

Why

God's Church here in England ? When we have all passed before the Tribunal it will be seen how His work has been crippled by a preconceived theory."
in

On receipt of this letter the Cardinal also threw himself on a supposititious deathbed, and, gathering his ConIt fessors, made an examination of his conscience. have Anderdon than would less Father proved disturbing supposed, and the Cardinal replied mildly (May 15,
1875)
:

all

have carefully read your letter, and thank you with Your heart for the motive which prompted it. object in writing is so full of charity that I refrain from
I

"

my

299

Henry Edward Manning
any thought or word but one. Among the disappointments of my last years have been the consolations that we lived under the same roof, but that was nearly all. The fault may have been mine, as your letter would imply. I will not now ask whether it was so, and I wish to assume it that I may derive from your letter all the good you desire. May God bless you, my dear William."

Anderdon returned
"

to the charge the next year

:

affection for you, even with all the radical differences which sever us, makes me at times burn with indignation to see the line and the view which you have unhappily, if I may say it adopted, travestied and vulgarised by other minds, to the diminution of God's glory and the detriment, if not the loss, of souls. I wish we could ask St. Chrysostom whether he only referred to temporal rulers in saying, I wonder if any ruler is saved ? I place myself at your Eminence's feet for saying this."

My

This was a

little

too much,
:

and the Cardinal turned

to

bay (July
"

24, 1876)

When I received the letter written, as you supposed, from your deathbed, I refrained from all reply except to thank you and to derive from it all the good you desired for me. I therefore placed it in the hands of two priests, who know me as Confessors and in the most intimate details of my life. By their help I made an examination of myself, as if I also were on my deathbed. I hope, therefore, that I did not fail to do my best, and that I did
not trust to
write

what

writing

my own lights. Having said this, I will my fear of giving you pain hindered my then. When you entered the Society I foresaw my

that certain faults of your mind would be intensified. I mean a conscious criticism of other men and an unconsciousness of your own state. Next after own I none for I have know dear whom William, soul, my more fear in this sense than for you. The censoriousness of your mind is, in your mind, identified with duty and sheltered under the idea of representing the lights of some about you in the narrow circle of your life. In your former letter you told me that it was a lamentable thing

300

that

England should have its legitimate development. In your present letter you tell me of the radical differences which sever us. My dear William, did you weigh those words ? You go on to say that you burn with indignation.' These words have no sense if they are not a censure pronounced by you upon me in the office I bear and other Bishops of the Catholic Church in England. If I were to lay them before the General of the Society I think he would read you better than you know yourself. If I were to lay them before the Holy See, one more light would be cast upon the dissensions which at this moment are afflicting the Church in England. But you go further. You warn me of the Day of Judgment. So far as this account, I hope in God's mercy I am not unprepared. Be on your guard, dear William the lines are longer and the field is wider than you see, and felt by both religious and laity, not of the Pale in which you live, but in the Church throughout England. You tell me that you place yourself at my feet. What do these words mean? Language such as this is one of the faults I foresaw would be intensified.
in
'

Church

Religious Orders people should be awaiting my death that the

The

Catholic

;

By the love I have ever borne to you, I pray you, my dear William, to write in some page of your office book the words Domine da mihi ut videam."
Anderdon
1876)
:

replied, not without a last shaft (July 27,

daresay the constant opportunities which I have for gaining some knowledge of myself have failed to do their full work. If, however, a great and too well grounded fear of death and judgment may. afford any token that I am not wholly blinded, I may have some hope. I often think of the words of a prelate when he heard of Richelieu's deathbed That excessive security terrifies me." Hereafter Manning passed over Anderdon 's script unread. Such being the relations of Manning with members of the Society, he was not particularly pleased when Father Gallwey carried out a striking surprise by opening a school in Manchester in the diocese of Salford without
:

"I

301

Henry Edward Manning
the leave of the Bishop, Herbert

Vaughan.
;

He

relied

on a privilege accorded by Paul III. to the Jesuits to found colleges without the leave of any in Manning's words, "that is to say, that the jurisdiction of all Ordinaries is thereby suspended." Yet Father Gallwey had recently asked "to discuss the relations of the
Hierarchy and the Society." Manning told Ullathorne " He has written to say he wishes for peace, and his Father General too." Manning happened to be in Rome when the school started, and he immediately informed Cardinal Franchi that the Jesuits must withdraw, and that he wished to extend the question of the Jesuits and " I am the Bishops to the whole Church. now con" that I am right, vinced," he wrote (March 25, 1875), and I propose to go through the whole work or warfare which has now been begun for their sakes as well as for
:

ours."

Vaughan brought his test case to Rome, whence he reported to Manning later in the year (May 15, 1875) " S.J. have brought up all their artillery. The present is a crisis on which all depends. The only hope is in Pius IX. and Cardinal Franchi. The Pope allowed me nearly half an hour to explain the whole case to him. A few days after he said, Quell' affaire dei Gesuiti e una vera porcheria. The Pope sent for the General to come from Florence, and the only question was as to the mode
:

to close the colleges." 1875 : "I read my letter to the General, corrected or softened by Franchi, to Cardinal Cullen and the Redemptorist General. They all thought it would do very well, and considered it a good piece of gilding I saw the General S.J. yesterday. for the bitter pill. Was very open about Gallwey and Weld, and he did not defend them. He wished not to close the Manchester This I refused school till the midsummer holidays. consult Weld, He said he would to allow. absolutely and I went off at once to the Vatican. The Pope, meeting me, asked, Tutto e finito? and said, Deo Gratias mi ha piaciuto di vostro foglio. I replied, Purche non mettano un indugio. When he was sitting down in the library

of desiring

them

May

1

8,

The

Religious Orders

he called me up to him and asked me the meaning of the indugio. I told him fully, and said it would be keeping the wound open for two or three months. He seemed displeased at it, and I have asked Cardinal Cullen to put in a word for me. I have announced that I don't return till the school is closed. I shall remain here till the Day of Judgment if need be, and the heat begins to suggest " that that day is approaching." May 25, 1875 Yesterday the General and I had a long abboccamento in the presence of Cardinal Franchi. He complained that the Pope had told him to combinare with me and that I would not enter into that view. Both of them proposed that the motive for closing should be for the sake of peace. Against this I strongly protested, inasmuch as justice was the real ground for closing, and that the motive of peace would perfectly well accord with the title of Bismarck, which the Jesuit party has applied to me. " Franchi saw this." June 5, 1875 Having received a the to announce close of the S.J. officially telegram
: :

school,

I

set

surprised beaten the S.J.

we

my

horses' heads towards England. I am are all surprised to find how completely
is in

Rome."

Vaughan returned, and, after the strange manner of the Catholic religion, went into retreat under the roof of his late opponents. But the S.J. were not beaten yet. Manning found Vaughan prostrate, and wrote to I was at Ullathorne (October 15, 1875): "Private. Salford and saw the Bishop. He has overtaxed himself for ten years, and since he went to Salford very severely. This last wretched contest has been the last strain. An interval of rest will, I believe, restore him. Now, I would suggest the following course The Italian Government
:

are

now

attacking the English College in

Rome. There

is property at Seville in

but Mgr. Searle knows He sugIf he was to die we should be in confusion." it was to be the But should abroad. go gested Vaughan Religious Orders rather than the irreligious Governments which were to keep Vaughan years outside his diocese.
303

danger of being lost. Nobody the state of our foreign colleges.

Henry Edward Manning
After a further exchange with Father Gallwey, Manning " wrote to Ullathorne (January 18, 1876) Many thanks for your letter, the matter of which will come into my second to F. Gallwey. You will see that I have treated the matter as a constitutional question only. Next it will become personal in the sense of your letter, and lastly it
:

will

become

my

letters to

inevitably personal to himself. I shall send Propaganda, and therefore am anxious to
stirred

make them safe." The English Bishops had been
personal incidents.

Clifford brought

by a number of word that Father

Gallwey openly charged them with

hostility. Ullathorne,

who was a Benedictine himself, was annoyed by an abbess who insisted on carrying her crosier in his diocese,

" an old woman's plaything," he commented. In April, the 1877, Hierarchy decided that Clifford and Ullathorne, at Manning's proposal, should draw up a petition to Rome. Twelve dubia, or questions, were committed to writing. The issue was knit in Rome between the Bishops and Jesuits immediately. Between the noble-minded contestants came those patient officials who have ever been trained to conceal truthfully the minimum of

promise within the

maximum

of plausibility.
in

was joined by

Clifford

and Southwark

Vaughan Rome, and
:

Manning wrote

to Ullathorne

(May

9,

1877)

"It is well that they have raised the full issue, and I hope it may be once for all declared what is the will of
the Holy See. I cannot believe it ever intended to create such an anarchy. This whole subject is to me unspeakably painful. Either I have no spiritual discernment or certain bodies are not guided by the light of perfection." " I* s neither just, true, nor charitable to May 10, 1877 accuse the Bishops of aggression. It is truly Prussian." " If we make no mistake we are, I think, May 21, 1877 It safe. Rinaldini, in answering a letter of mine, said requires a Pontifical Act to vary or modify the relations which actually exist in England between the Hierarchy and the Regulars. I wrote at once The Bishops have 304
:

i

:

:

:

The
We

Religious Orders

never asked for the modification of relations actually existing. They ask to be told what those relations actually are. ask for solution of doubt, definition, and
declaration."

To
seem

Clifford
to

Manning wrote (May

10,

1877):

"You

have stated the case most clearly and and to have forcibly, judged with great prudence against all conferences or patchings-up. Nothing will suffice but a final Norma in form of a Constitution." He wished
to

me

Ullathorne to go to Rome, but the latter was useful at "I have just got hold of home, writing (June 8, 1877) the key to the Jesuit position, but cannot tell my authority. The canonical ground taken up by them in claim of the territory of their missions is the jus patronatus, the additional church upon the same territory goes under the same patronatus." In November Manning himself set out to Rome with two suffragans. The Jesuits had confided their case to Ballerini, who had settled down to " Ballerini has given up his writing endless folios.
:

classes to

be wholly given to
use
to
all

that

he

will

the

colours,

it. You must expect the arts of persuasion, and all make the picture horrible," wrote

Vaughan.

Pope died, and a year passed, but Ballerini writing his folio reply to the Bishops. The new Pope would not move without Manning. Vaughan wrote to Ullathorne (December 25, 1878)
the

Then

was

still

:

"Cardinal Manning has answered by making diffiEngland. It seems to me extremely important he should be there, for the Pope has made up his mind to have these questions settled, and we have no one with so much influence or so able to heal the matter. Moreover, some of them would not be unwilling to lay upon him some of their responsibility in deciding, if he were there. One of his difficulties, though he does not say so, is his poverty. But ought we not to meet that in part if he goes?" x 305
culties as to leaving

Henry Edward Manning
Ullathorne appealed to Manning (January i, 1879) " I hear that you are hesitating on the question of going. This you cannot do in conscience if your health
:

permits.
affect

For only consider, the policy adopted will one half the Church directly, and the other half

indirectly, but effectually. All things in the Church are gradually reverting to that legal condition in which they stood before the intimate relations were established

between the Church and the Empire. Feudality is gone, tithes are gone, benefices are gone, Bishops and clergy, as in earlier ages, are devoted to souls without the incumbrance of secular pomps. The position of the Regular Orders is utterly changed. Formerly established and upheld by the sovereigns or landowners, and having their own work apart, they are now everywhere the co-operators with the Bishops. They are always more or less in danger of expulsion by the temporal powers. How important it is, first, that the Bishops should have a strong body of clergy of their own, on which they can rely in the emergency of losing the Regulars."

Manning agreed

that they

had reached "a new

state

of the Catholic world, which is the old state revived." Manning and Clifford reached Rome to find that

Cardinals,

who were Regulars, were holding out for an agreement, and, as weariness is the mother of compromise, they were nigh succeeding. But the Bishops would not weary in well-doing. Manning wrote home to Ullathorne (March 8, 1879)
:

hope that we have made one great step in our pending here. The Pope has consented to call the affair to himself and to appoint a special Commission of nine Cardinals to treat it, and he will frame a constitution. This lifts the whole question out of the contentions of Propaganda." March 25, 1879: "We are advised that it is better for us to remain here until our affairs are beyond risk of obstruction. This will almost certainly render the Low Week meeting impossible for us." April 9, 1879 "They need reform, everyone except the
I

"

affair

:

306

The

Religious Orders

Redemptorists, who are in England and here observant, humble, and laborious. It is not an enemy, nor even a Bishop, but the Council of Trent that says, Habitus non From Florence he wrote to Clifford facit monachum." " In (April 19, 1879) my audience with the Holy Father I asked what I might say to our Bishops. He said you may say that I have taken the matter out of Propaganda and shall have it treated by nine Cardinals, and I hope
:

receive the result with acquiescence." June 16, they will " I have great fear of a decision in July unless 1879 you can make sure that the case will be really known by the Cardinals. The traditional prejudice and fear of S.J. is such that I am afraid of anything but a deliberate and
:

stand-up fight."

Slowly the cause cdlebre of the Church dragged on, while the English Bishops took shifts at Rome and " Ballerini wrote folios and folios. have now reached wrote "and unless November," Clifford, pressure is used Ballerini will gain his point and tide over Christmas Anxious as Manning without sending in his reply." was, he could not help writing to Father Gallwey "

We

(December 23, 1879) and next, as the Pope
:

A

happy Christmas

to

you

all,

will not as yet let

property of the Regulars
let

the bring under the See of Westminster,
all

me

me wish you your last turkey for dinner." Father Gallwey replied with an amusing parody of a Bishops' meeting in the best vein of Farm Street humour, at which " " the Bishops of Burning'em, Pottingham, and Vexum discussed the canonical seizure of the turkeys belonging to the English Regulars.
The next year the Howard sent word
struggle was renewed, and Cardinal that Manning must reappear, who

Ballerini sent Clifford to the front (January i, 1880) No diocesan work can weigh against this is a firebrand. call for the whole Church in England." Vaughan was
:

"

writing (January

3,

1880)

:

" Nina promises to stringere if the S.J. do not send in The Pope gave me fifty their ponenza this month.
307

Henry Edward Manning
He says the matter must be settled this year. must be prepared with a full statement on S.J., but the contrast will be a happy one if we are impersonal and they are personal. When will " the Bishop of Clifton come out?" Januarys, 1880: Everyone is expecting you. Nearly all the Cardinals whom I have spoken to asked, When is he coming ? Among other things, you must meet this statement (but on no account let it be known that the statement will be made) that it is a
minutes.

We

notorious fact that nine-tenths of the conversions are made by the Regulars in England."

Manning was able to give the Westminster figures for ten years, giving 2,433 converts to the Regulars and 3,747 to the Seculars. Vaughan continued (January 15,
that Ballerini has said that the case is of America, that it is easier to because very important than the Americans, who are the Bishops English fight

"

1880)

:

I

know

more numerous,
I

have told

violent, and of Irish origin and character. this to Nina, who has passed it on, and it is

Nina wants to finish the affair by March. me it must be done quickly, and that the Cardinals won't read folio volumes which Ballerini is writing, and that he has told him so. But S.J. has made out a very learned and clever case." Manning replied, "God knows I would take feeling it was his last fight thirty-three vows if it were His will or would raise the
understood.

Simeoni

tells

:

Episcopate or the Priesthood.
active

I

work

off

me.

I feel

my

look to you to take the time to be so short now

the fight.

that I can begin nothing new." His lieutenants kept up "You are the diplomat," wrote Vaughan,

"Clifford the lawyer, and I the Devil, so they say!" The Generals of the Religious Orders were nominally on the Jesuit side, but Vaughan won the Franciscan chiefs. February 10, 1880: "I saw General of the He said his Provincial had written that Passionists.
they had no grievance against the English Bishops, and " It that your Eminence has always been their friend." " the dread they all have is wonderful," wrote Clifford,

308

The

Religious Orders

of the Society. The General of the Redemptorists has almost made up his mind." February 10, 1880: "I spent the morning with Cardinal Sacconi, when he spoke to me of the danger there was of the Regulars leaving England. I rather astonished him by smiling (as the Bishop of Clifton smiles). I told him to be under no

apprehension under that head, terram bonam et accubuit."

like

Issachar,
27,

invenit

The Pope yesterday was very feeble. put on his own spectacles, and Macchi
S.J. counts

"

Vaughan's notes

fell like

snow (February

1880)

:

could not did it for him.

He

upon death to help them, and this is now known." March 15, 1880: "Weld is come pretty well to Rome upon African business, but I hear he is engaged on Manchester blacks quite as intently. There are about three hundred Jesuits in Rome, and they are
'
'

everywhere."

At his next audience the Pope assured him " // Papa non dorme, state tranquillo, il Papa non dorme." It was true. Cardinal Nina had sent an ultimatum to the Jesuit General giving him until mid-April to reply. Clifford
:

" this wrote attributing good result to St. Joseph. had been making a Novena to him to get the day fixed, and Cardinal Nina's letter was written just at the close of
the

We

Novena."
is

On

April 5

and

told Cardinal

Simeoni

Manning "
that

arrived in

Rome,

jure divino regere of privileges Regulars are jure humane. And, therefore, when they clash, the privileges must give way." Logic

Bishops

the jurisdiction of The Ecclesiam Dei.

is

the mistress of theology,

and

therefore of

Rome. Only

delay could impede a logician like Manning. May came, and Cardinal Howard brought anxious news that the Clifford thought Jesuit papers were not printed yet. " the Jesuits will get it brought on in the heat of summer, to prevent your being here." Manning was roused, and was ready to defy General "Juillet." His old Jesuit friend, Liberatore, who had fought beside him at the

309

Henry Edward Manning
Council, visited him, but two visits convinced him that Manning still set principle above friendship. He did not return. Manning wrote to Ullathorne (May 2, 1880) " The Regulars in England may be divided into those who more or less observe their rule e.g., Franciscans, Capucini, Passionists, and Redemptorists. And these four Generals in Rome would fain withdraw from the case if they were not afraid of S.J. And secondly, those who do not observe their rule e.g., S.J. and the Benedictines and these league and are maintaining the contest. The delay of three years has been clear gain, for the matter is now understood. are in full understanding with the four Generals above named." Clifford noted in his diary (May 5) :
:
;

We

Manning had audience of the Pope this The Pope said he was gravemente disgustato with Ballerini's conduct and delay. Has told Nina to write again to the General of the Jesuits. The Pope
Cardinal

"

morning.

spoke of the importance of the education of the clergy being in the hands of the secular priests, and illustrated this by the opposition he had made to the Jesuits opening a college at Namur to compete with Louvain, also by his own conduct at Perugia, where he found Regulars teaching in the seminary and replaced them by Seculars. A few days ago the Bishop of Todi told him he had placed Jesuits in his seminary, and the Pope told him he had must fly with our own wings, he said. done wrong. Cardinal Manning then saw Cretoni. Ballerini had been with him yesterday. Cretoni says he looks for three The chances. Cardinal Manning's leaving Rome. Pope's death. The chapter of accidents."

We

It

had become a pitched struggle between the General

of the Jesuits and Manning, and they prepared to fight to a finish according to the rules of the canonical arena.

Rome encourages discussion, and permits delay even to tedium. When good men invoke the Saints against each other, and await providential deaths in order that they may win a case in canon law, Rome is not shocked, but
310

The

Religious Orders

indulgently affords them full scope and every weapon that prayer or casuistry may suggest. Out of their wellthreshed strife she knits her abiding decisions. Rome could not feel as exasperated as Manning, who wrote to Ullathorne (May 14, 1880) :
off

hope that the long-expected answer will be printed I have thought it best to write little, but we hope to give a full history of a case such as I never knew before and hope I may never again. I know Rome too well to be confident of anything which has not come to pass but, humanly speaking, I do not think that we shall regret the last three years. As you say, the state of England was unknown. The beliefs here were superstitions. But the long delays have enabled us to compel " In accurate hearing." May 27, 1880 truth, under the plea of perfection and exemption, the Government of the Church for these good men is at an end. They will not be governed by us, and the Holy See cannot. The mischiefs are all done before they are known. Add to your two of Erdington and Penzance the Bishop of Southwark's Benedictines and Carthusians. The former ran in debt more than ;i 10,000, and the latter have
I

"

to-morrow.

;

:

a convent, but a city. are moving slowly but surely, but as yet the Commission has not met. The Cardinals are, however, studying the matter for the last fortnight, and early in June they will, we hope, begin."
built, not

We

Manning saw the Franciscan, Capuchin, Servite, and Dominican Generals, and they agreed not to sign Ballerini's paper except with reserves. Cardinal Nina took the reserves to the Pope. June came, and Ballerini convoked a meeting of Generals. " Cardinal Howard cautioned the General of the Capuchins not to commit
himself at the meeting. Cardinal Manning has given the same caution to the General of the Franciscans," " Cardinal noted Clifford, and again (June 2) Manning had audience of the Pope, and met Cardinal Nina coming out, and asked if the papers had been distributed. Nina said there was an impiccio. Manning went in to the that and asked our papers should be sent to all the Pope
:

immaculate Heart College Hollywood, California

Henry Edward Manning
said he always intended it to be so. once went out to Nina, who said it should be Manning done at once. Manning went in again to the Pope and entered fully into our case." [That evening he wrote to "At last we are fairly under way;" but Ullathorne on June 29 " Our detention here is indefinite." On July 6 he departed "gladly, sick of the heat and the " " General had helped the Jesuits intrigues." Juillet

Generals.

The Pope

at

:

:

and the chapter
to the

of accidents

no

less.

Clifford

was

called

deathbed of his brother, Lord Clifford. Vaughan "I should like to wrote to Ullathorne (July 9, 1880) know what impression has been produced in England by the Cardinal's return for the third time reinfecta. On all the important points the Jesuits are now almost isolated. The chief Orders stand aloof. I shall stay here till the Bishop of Clifton returns. Bark is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better." On his return, Manning wrote to " I send you by post the Life Ullathorne (July 24, 1880) of Ricci, which is worth your reading, but I have marked Allegato III., which is of the highest importance to our case in Rome." July 26, 1880: "It is of great importance that the two new Bishops should thoroughly understand the case. It is no less than this Who is to form the clergy and educate the laity of England ? have been within a hair's-breadth of losing it. The present state of France is in point. The Bishops have suffered the lay education to be done for them till it has all but passed out of their hands." August i, 1880 " What you write about the Society is what I have been coming to see in these months. There was a fear upon us all. And it is upon Rome at this hour." The next month Manning wrote to the Pope, and Clifford reported " He read it aloud all through, and said that all he wrote about would be carefully attended to." Vaughan wrote (October 30, 1880): "I saw the Pope yesterday, but could get no conversation. People say he is very much done down, and his speech the other day shows that he
: : :

We

:

:

312

The

Religious Orders

has become disillusion^, and that he has joined the Old .Testament, and is going to wail for the Messias. The Consultors have finished. I believe they are favourable " to us." November 4, 1880 One of the Cardinals said to me the other day that he had been told that a solemn decision, favourable to the Bishops, might have the effect of encouraging Parliament to attack the Orders in England. I laughed and said I knew the source of those tactics, that, on the contrary, a decision adverse to the Bishops would be interpreted as the subjection of the Pope to the Jesuits." The chapter of accidents continued. Vaughan's next letter was from his father's deathbed at Biarritz (December 4, 1880) " I am returning in half an hour to Rome. My dearest old father lingers on. Both he and I are happy to be able to make another sacrifice such as this of my leaving him at the Did you not know that I must be present moment. about my Father's business ?' is our consolation and my
: :
'

warning.
brother.

I

feel
is

God

very much for you in the loss of your wonderfully good in detaching us from
out of Rome's hourglass, and In vain poor
letter into the

earth."

The sands were running

every day pointed to the logical finish. Father Anderdon attempted to thrust a
Press.
pressed.
It fell

into

Uncle Henry's hands and was suplight-heartedly to

Vaughan wrote
9, 1880)
:

Manning

(December

"Cardinal Ledochowski was very satisfactory. He was much shocked at the Anderdon incident. It is a grace. I do hope you will take great care of yourself. We need you most especially. So hold on and write a novel by way of distraction, or a play, and we will have it acted in Low Week." December 13, 1880: "The Pope has read everything, is displeased with Ballerini. Simeoni was very sympathetic and kind about the attacks A letter to him saying that ecclesiastical on you. authority is at stake, that Presbyterianism must be December 30, 1880: "The resisted, would do good."
313

Henry Edward Manning
Cardinals are settling our dubbi on the grounds of law. Ballerini complains the whole thing has been mis-

managed.

We

have had an eventful year.

I

hope you
January

will last several more years. There is Lesseps at seventyfive cutting the American Continent in two."
8,

1881 Un trionfo stupendo quasi inauaito are Masotti's expressions. They have solved nine dubbi,
:

"

in our favour and almost in our words, and this unanimously. They meet again for the last three doubts, which are nothing. Masotti swears that the frati will have no loophole." Even so, Manning bade him hold his post, "until even the smoke is down. Father Parsons will turn over once more in his grave." The Jesuits made a last effort to have the result given in the form of a Decree instead of a Bull, which is of itself Canon Law, but Vaughan wrote (February i, 1881) " I have pulled
all
:

out of the bog to-day. I said we would start at once upon getting the Bull. Every effort is made to keep the names unknown. Everybody is afraid of being held responsible by the S.J. for their defeat."
it

all

March he could announce: "All is now in the hands of the Pope." For a terrible moment it was believed that the Cardinals Regular would delay the case " the another two years. Zigliara went to the Pope, but creator was very angry with his creation !" In vain the English nobility wrote to the Pope, and in vain "the poor old man, he is eightyJesuits forced their General
In
eight years old to write highly reprehensible letters to the Pope." On May 15 Vaughan telegraphed the result
to

" I have day just received from the Bishop of Salford, by telegram, these words Bull published, good. I suppose in Birmingham nothing can be done about the Parliamentary oath. But it is a revolutionary change and anti-social and immoral." It was typical of Manning to switch off from one fight to another. He turned to combat that Ballerini had same readiness the with Bradlaugh his broken turned guns on his old enemy immediately Rosmini.

Manning, who wrote
:

to Ullathorne that

:

The

Religious Orders

The great Bull Romanes Pontifices, with the Dogma of the Infallibility, contained Manning's most lasting mark upon the Church. The whole Catholic world was
Bishops our way home," wrote Vaughan. "There never was such a fight or such a Needless to victory. May we secure a lasting peace." that the who had once borne their supsay great Order, a without or word of pression wincing complaint from a decision of the Leo with such member, accepted single
affected to all time

and

"

Jesuits.

We are at last on

by the dispute

of the English

gusto that ten years later, after Vaughan met their General at Fiesole, he could write to Manning (November " He said that he would not have Romanes 16, 1890)
:

Pontifices changed in anything, that it was most satisfactory, that it had been applied to all their recent

establishments, even in countries where the Bull had not been promulgated. With this most explicit declaration of the General, it is quite unnecessary to pursue this

matter further."

315

CHAPTER
" Are
sible of the

XVIII:

RATIONALISM AND LITERATURE
Mannings
Notebook,

not incomprehensible truths the subject of the reason and comprehenunderstanding ? Are not most controversies an attempt to bring

under the understanding the subjects of the reason ?'
1831.

THE To

Catholic Movement in England presented some of the old rivalry between Roman and German influences. a certain
extent

men chose between Rome and

Rationalism, between a revival of Catholicism and a
result of

Lutheranism.

to take the scientific

proclaimed that, there is a creed of Nature." Darwin's Origin of Species gave the school of Nature a Bible, out of which Huxley

Archdeacon Manning had tried movement under his wing when he "as there is a science of revelation, so

and others extracted the doctrines
called

of

Darwinism

what

Manning grimly theology de Deo non to existente." tried reconcile himself to the Manning for from his notes a paper man, judging
:

"a

" Not Darwin, but Darwinism incredulus odi.
Greatly conciliated to the man.

Equally confirmed regretting -ism.
"

My

estimate therefore

is

No mathematical precision. Consecutiveness
.

philosopher. Observer, accumulator, nomenclator, describer.
living microscope. fluctuations. Protests of in forests."

No

"A

Religious

opinions;

head and heart.

Sense of

many God
:

He was

glad when Sir John Lubbock wrote to him doctrine of Evolution would not surely invalidate

316

Rationalism and Literature
your primary idea." In criticising Herbert Spencer, he was fond of the oracular statement that " no intellectual equivalent can be found for his terms." He was strong against "the bottomless pit of Positivism," until he learned from Frederic Harrison how much it had borrowed from the Catholic system. Then he alluded to " a noble torso from which the head had been cut," and even said to James Knowles that " Comte's Catholic mother had inscribed on his heart invisible letters which began to reappear in old age." He gave the second Lord Ashbourne, hoping to convert him from Positivism, " I a book beginning am certain of my own existence," which no Positivist, of course, accepts. After receiving
:

and confirming him years later in the Church, the Cardinal asked with a gleam out of his wrinkled face "So you exist?" He met other philosophers and
:

systems with a ready phrase rather than deeper thought. A typical letter ran (September i, 1887) "The must-be philosophy seems to me to make the Creator a Prometheus Vinctus with Necessity gnawing at him. The controversy between Freedom and Necessity is indeed It is to me like disputing whether we are awake silly. or not." At heart Manning was evangelical (and a philanthropist rather than a philosopher), writing to " Mrs. Hamilton King (November 28, 1890) Jhough I am glad that theosophy, like the food of Midas (I do not mean you), is turned to gold, I have a scruple in letting you divert it from your home. But if you wish to make it a Deodand, I would propose that it should go in bread and coals or in dinners to our school children." And of
:

:

the doctrine of heredity

:

ancestor

is

superstition.

"All you tell me Long ago God said,

of

an

evil

It shall

no

said, The fathers have eaten sour children's teeth are set on edge."

more be

grapes and the

Against Rationalism Manning wished to unite the When Frederic fragments of Christian England. Harrison pointed out how many Rome would gain from 317

Henry Edward Manning
But you freethinkers Disestablishment, he answered : would gain the rest." He was roused at Bradlaugh's " The attempt to enter the Commons. Gospel is part and of of he the laws insisted, and solemnly parcel England," as Coke and Blackstone quoted though they were early
Fathers.

"

" " Bradlaugh was the iconoclast against whom Wiseman had lectured forcibly twenty years before, but two Cardinals did not temper his blasphemy. Lord " Any specific Shaftesbury had written to Manning movement against Bradlaugh would, if it assumed an
:

official character,

This

is

official

give him all the redolence of a martyr." what happened, for Bradlaugh became an exactly and partisan subject of controversy. Three times

in the Nineteenth Century, praying " " with a race of sophists should not be entrusted the august and awful powers described by Lord Coke." " Bradlaugh retorted with a tract on a Cardinal's broken oath," while Manning collected signatures and inter"To abandon the national recogviewed Ministers. nition of a Divine Ruler," wrote Stafford Northcote to " is a fearful him, step, and all the more in face, not of Lucretian Epicureanism, but aggressive infidelity." Bradlaugh wished to take his seat without a Christian

fulminated Manning "
that

oath.

Manning and Shaftesbury thought

that this

was

the end of the Constitution.
30, 1881) : side. on

"You

Shaftesbury wrote (April have always taken my part and been

The extension and rapid progress of the utter spirit of Lucifer, the discoveries of infidelity, destructive Science and the thousand other agencies

my

with terror." who believed in stars rather than in Though Churches, sympathised with Bradlaugh as a fellow-outlaw, Manning, through Frank O'Donnell, turned the Irish vote against him. Manning distrusted Parnell's
of Satan
fill

me

Parnell,

find Manning writing friendship for Clemenceau. " I have learned that Lord to Salisbury (May 26, 1883) Randolph Churchill has a motion down which will re:

We

Rationalism and Literature
open the discussion of the Parliamentary Oath in a form most disadvantageous to us and most advantageous to Mr. Labouchere and his friends. I am assured by some of the Government side that they will not support Lord Randolph Churchill's motion. The same I hear from Irish members, and I am told that others are equally embarrassed." He begged his influence in removing the motion, but Salisbury answered warily (May 27, 1883)
:

"Private.
letter

my

have communicated with R. Churchill, and have let him know the nature of your opinion upon the proposed motion. I am given to understand that he is sensible to the weight of these considerations, and that matters are likely to take the course which you desire."
note from Mr. Torrens, M.P., followed: "I congratulate you on the success of your timely words of remonstrance. Churchill has at length consented to abandon his motion, and Labouchere falls to the ground
therewith."
It was characteristic that Cardinal Newman should not have felt as Manning on this matter, and while the Westminster clergy were collecting signatures and Manning was petitioning against Bradlaugh, Newman wrote a letter to Father Lockhart, which was forwarded

write just a line to thank you for your say that the subject matter of it shall have immediate attention." May 29, 1883: "Private. I
I

and

to

A

to

Manning (September

25, 1881)

:

effect,

far as I can see, Catholics cannot, to any good bring out a really strong protest on the subject without being open to the retort, Why, what right have you to speak ? You would be nowhere but for the Act of 1829 in your favour, and now you grudge for others what you have got for yourselves. What signatures would suffice to represent the religious element in the

"As

country

Where are you to draw the line as to number ? do any good to have a few Catholics and many Anglican signatures? or many Catholics and a few Anglicans ? Would many would even a few Catholics
?

Would

it

319

Henry Edward Manning
join with

Anglican Bishops? I ask all these questions not argumentatively, but to show the confusion of mind and distress with which I try to realise the carrying out of a purpose so excellently intended. Your remonstrance, by its wording, seems to answer at least for the concan ? I can't." stituency. Can it? Can you?

Who

On
"

the other hand,

Newman was

shocked at the idea

of his Metropolitan joining the Metaphysical Society

hearing

and Huxley read a paper on the Resurrection.

Perhaps it is a ruse of the Cardinal to bring the Professor into the clutches of the Inquisition." Mr. maintain out that could Bodley pointed friendly Manning relations with a persuasive doubter, while the Gallican " whose creed was held insufficient to entitle Dupanloup, him to a scarlet hat," wished to keep Littre" out of the French Academy. Doubtless the old Vicars Apostolic would have rent their wigs at the idea of sitting with the freethinkers of their day like Gibbon and Bentham, but an ironclad Ultramontane like Manning could face fire. An idea of the Metaphysical at its best appears in a letter
of Archbishop

Magee (February

13,

1873)

:

"Archbishop Manning in the chair, flanked by two Protestant Bishops. On my right was Hutton, an Arian then Dalgairns, a very able R.C. priest; opposite to him Lord A. Russell, a Deist; then two Scotch metaphysical writers then Ward, looking like a country squire then Froude the historian, once a deacon in our Church then Roden Noel, an actual atheist and red republican. Lastly Ruskin, who read a paper on miracles I Nothing could be calmer, fairer, or even on the whole more reverent. In my opinion, we Christians had much the best of it.
;

;

;

;

Dalgairns was very masterly, Manning and weighty."

clear

and

precise

To this Society Manning frequently read papers which trained theologians helped him to prepare. Authority was proven, and not assumed as in a pastoral. He read
a paper on the relation of the will to thought, in answer " Has a to one by Huxley entitled, frog a soul, and, if so, 320

Rationalism and Literature
what nature?" The audience included Martineau, Lubbock, Sidgwick, Stanley, and Froude ("the enemy of God and man"), as well as the "credulous sceptic," Huxley. Manning was fond of a terse summary of a man, as when he described Whewell at another discussion " St. as Thomas in a Cambridge gown." Ruskin, " the English Rio," took Huxley less seriously than Manning, for he "wanted to change the frog for a toad, and tell the company something about eyes." Thanks to Manning's arguments, the outside world was relieved to learn that " men differ from frogs in that they have a will and a moral consciousness." The next year Manning read a paper on "Legitimate Authority as an Evidence of Truth," in which he made analogy between the rights of reason and the Papal
of

sphere reason is infallible. If it go beyond jurisdiction, or if it misuse its evidence, its judgments may go astray but the fault is not then in the reason but in the agent, who misuses the criterion as a criterion of truth, which in itself is infallible." He
position.
its
its
;

"Within

proved the existence of God from "the impossibility of an infinite series of finite causes." He wrote to Gladstone afterwards (May 21, 1872): "I was sorry not to see you at our discussion on authority. It is true that I only touched one point. I wanted to lay once more the flagstone under the intellectual certainty of the order of nature, which some of our associates have been pulling up to make way for a despotic scepticism." As chairman
in 1873 Manning pleaded for a fixed terminology common " to minds moving in paths so incalculable to one

another."

Definition

collected the very

was still his delight, and he few the Society had been able to
:

register in thirty-five sessions

FAITH
Archbishop
intellect

Manning: "That

rational

act

of

the

which, after finding sufficient evidence that a Y 321

Henry Edward Manning
thing
is
it

revealed

believing

it

to

be true

refuses to

doubt

Duke of Argyll: An assured belief or conviction, but with different degrees of assurance." " ^The surest and strongest convicProfessor Huxley: tion you can have." Father Dalgairns: " Reason always makes a reserve
is

any more." "

open

contrary,

to conviction refuses to

on further evidence. Faith, on the make any reserve no additional

evidence can shake

it."

WILL
rational appetite." desire of an act of our own." Mr. Hutton: "The power we have of increasing or of our own motives." diminishing the force Mr. Sidgwick: " TThe Ego conscious of itself or

Archbishop Manning: " :
Professor Huxley

"

A

The

acting."

effort for a purpose." Action for feeling." Professor Robertson: Dr. Carpenter: "Purposive determinative effort." Mr. Knoiules: " The resultant of motives."

Mr. Hodgson: " Sense of "

Mr. Hinton: "Necessity."

He

wrote to Professor Blackie this year:

"Your

lecture pleased me greatly from its indignant Theism. What are we doing ? are letting a handful of men talk Atheism, and their tonguegoeth through the world."

We

the splash he made among the he was not without making enmities. intellectuals, though that declared the same room could not contain Carlyle

Manning enjoyed

them, and forbore to meet. With Carlyle's disciple, Froude, the feeling was very bitter, and led to friendship with Froude's rival, Freeman, who wrote to Manning concerning Thomas a Becket (September 8, 1878)
:

little
I

am very glad that you are so well satisfied with the matter of controversy I have had with Mr. Froude. think I can quite enter into the position both of Henry
I

"

and of his opponents. It is, in fact, what I have tried to do throughout, and what Froude never seems able to do.

The

incapacity

is

nothing wonderful, but to
322

me

there

is

Rationalism and Literature
something wonderful in the necessity which seems to lie upon him of always telling some different story from the one in the book. It is doubtless often mere partisanship, but it happens also where the charge is purely arbitrary, where the story in the book would have served his purpose just as much. It seems to amount to a physical incapability to tell the truth."

meet

one occasion Stanley invited the Metaphysicals to Chamber at Westminster. Manning " The last time a Catholic remarked, as he took the chair, Archbishop sat in this chair it was Cardinal Pole I" In
in the Jerusalem

On

1877

of the soul did not die with the sentient

Manning read a paper to prove that the vital principle life. The soul he
"
the activity whereby the entity

defined as

moves

itself."

The Objective Certainty years later, speaking on of the Immaterial World," he pointed out how difficult it was to affirm Matter, while of Mind so much could be
are atoms, what are force-points, what There was more to be said for a conscious " has created the physical sciences, Intelligence which the Iliad, the moral civilisation of mankind," than for " Matter. His last paper was on What is Philosophy?"

Two

"

known.

"

What

are forces?"

He decided that natural philosophy testified infallibly to a soul, whereas modern philosophy led to a "terminal morass." From time to time he seems to have added a
humorous note to the intense sedateness of the meetings. He summed up the creed of Materialism as " I shall die, every bit of me, and leave nothing behind but my memory and old clothes !" Another time he suggested the nightmare of the scientific mind was "travelling to London on an asymptote I" When he described himself

" a person of a rather sceptical disposition," there was as much amusement as when Tennyson asked Huxley if the rise of sap was not an exception to the law of gravitation. Tennyson noted at one of these meetings "Archbishop Manning thanked me warmly last night for Gareth, and I sat by Father Dalgairns, whom I
as
:

323

Henry Edward Manning
my wife's approval of his Essay on was Dalgairns Manning's right hand in metaand the ablest thinker on the Catholic physics, probably The friendship of Tennyson was pleasing to side. Manning, who, admiring his Becket, showed him Becket's mitre, preserved at Westminster. Huxley and
gratified

by

telling of

God."

Fitzjames Stephen were inclined to

make

matters sar-

castic for the Cardinal, for a distinguished metaphysician found it necessary to send him a surviving apology :

Fitzjames in religion is a blatant ass. Yours ever, F. Harrison." This was the type Manning described as " intellectual pollards, stunted trees walking." The Metaphysical Society was a memorable effort of the Titans to entertain the Olympians to tea, but the Rhadamanthine politeness necessary proved too great a strain, and it died because, as Tennyson said, no one could define the word metaphysics. When Frederic Harrison " I tried to revive it, Manning wrote (July 20, 1889) like
:

"

your plan very much, less two things the large number at starting and the prominence of Popery. I am afraid the Anglicans would be shy and ombrosi. The neutrals and Nonconformists would not be. The ostracism of
judges and physicists
is

as wise as

it is

personal."
:

The

fight against scepticism brought Manning and Gladstone more or less together. The latter had written " I cheerfully submit myself to be probed by you on all questions of Rationalism and the like in my own words and acts, and for this purpose only I even submit myself to your

episcopal authority."

When

Huxley on The "

Dawn

of Creation,

Gladstone clashed with Manning wrote
:

remember each

Fifty-five years are a other.

We

as the path declines, as you say, it narrows, and I am glad that we are again nearing each other as we near our end. If we cannot unite in the realm where the morning stars sang together we should be indeed afar off." "In the meanwhile, are not these January 6, 1886
'
'

long reach of life in which to have twice been parted, but

:

324

Rationalism and Literature
propositions sound? Holy Scripture is not a book of science (see the evening and the morning before the creation of the sun and moon, and the standing still of the sun, in the Book of Josue). It is throughout written in the language of sense, which we use to this day, not of science. Science is of the natural order, revelation of the supernatural. Holy Scripture treats natural truth by sense, not by science. How can they clash ? They are
' '

on

different planes. in spite of sciences.
is

The sun rises and sets to this day, The truth of Holy Scripture is not
'

'

touched by science, because
not
scientific,

in the natural order Scripture

and

in the supernatural order science

It is then answered, As soon as we prove anything by science you give it up. I answer no. I never affirmed it as a scientific truth. But I deny that science can touch no supernatural truth e.g., the Incarnation. The language of sense was the only language men knew. If Josue had said that the earth stood still, they would have said, It never moves. I am slow to invoke science to confirm the Mosaic cosmogony. It is

knows nothing.

for me to say they are on different planes. And very sceptical of the alleged demonstrations of science. Huxley showed me a shell with three layers of incrustations. He said that it was a proof of numberless thousands of years. I said that we had changed places, that his faith rebuked my unbelief." " January 7, 1886 Huxley's pterodactyls have no weight against your main position, first on my contention of the different planes, and next because of the vast

enough
I

am

:

uncertainty of the theories built on the finding of scorpions and reptiles. To my mind they can only reach presumptions and probability. The Theism of the Old Testament compared with the Theism of the Greek and Roman worlds differs, not in degree, but in kind. The

Book of Psalms exhibits a relation between God and man not to be found in any other tradition of the world. The cosmogony of Genesis, in like manner, has many parodies but no parallel. There is internal evidence confirming the external tradition that it is what it was believed to be a Divine record in the language of man that is, of sense, not of science. You are aware that St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas treat the days as periods. And,
325

Henry Edward Manning
as you say, the origin, not the whole history, of each successive creation is recorded. There is room enough in such chronology for any number of creatures that are now extinct. All who believe in God will think that your argument is unmoved. All who either do not believe or are agnostic will think that Huxley has slain us all. I cannot treat Darwinism with as much courtesy as

you do."
ripened with Ruskin, for the prea Christian legion. On reading Fors were Raphaelites " It is Clavigera, Manning wrote (October 21, 1873) like the beating of one's heart in a nightmare. You are crying out of the depths of this material world, and no man will listen. You can now understand what we feel.
friendship
:

A

and cry, but the nineteenth century looks upon us as deaf and impassive as the young Memnon. There are no breaks in the horizon to let us into infinity. are hedged in by the three per cents., ironclads,

We cry

We

secularism, and deified civil powers. The god of this world has got his day for a time." Ruskin answered (October 27, 1873) : " I have kept your gracious letter where, when I was younger and happier, I used to keep my love-letters, till I could thank you for it and answer. The main thing I want to say is that all my De Profundis is because you husbandmen don't drain your fields. You have no business to cry you should cart the slough away, you shepherds. I am a lost sheep and can only bleat. I often growl and fight against the pricks, at the nails of my own Fors Clavigera, but have not often been more grieved with her than when I found your card in vain. Why did you not send for the porter's key ? You would have seen a Titian and given me some help with your kind
;

Later, in inimitable style: "It's for well people who have got crosses to carry and very backs to carry them, but I've got at present neither cross (except of my own carpentering) nor back, but am fast However, I have heart enough becoming an anatomy in the ribs of it to be very thankful for your kindness, and face
all
!

and thoughts."

326

Rationalism and Literature
bit of moving work among your to see the earliest account of St. Jerome's lion, in whom I am more interested than in any saint at least, bearded 1" April 12, 1887: "I never know now if mind is safe till to-morrow, with average human safety, nor if at any time it serves me healthily. I do not see why Prceterita should interest you ; it is all passed, and fruitlessly. present state of wiser sorrow would, perhaps, interest you if I could tell it. What I may yet be spared to tell or feel will, I trust, be no greater cause of sorrow to friends than the rest of life has

I'm coming soon for a
I

books.

want also

my

My

been.

Your own

my

my

writing

is

beautifully strong

and

clear.

Your powers seem

to exalt

themselves from day to day."

(April 17, 1887): "I am just of Prceterita with great the second volume finishing increase of interest, for I was in Rome with George

Manning answered

and your places and

year or the year before you were there, pictures in Italy are all known to me. But I am looking forward to your times at Assisi with St. Francis and elsewhere with B. Angelico that is, in the world of Christ's folk, and very unlike the folk now growing up under the influence of the three black I R's Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution. will be to for I should like to London, hope you coming begin again at our last semi-colon in the carriage by
in the

Richmond

South Kensington." Ruskin replied (April 19, 1887) " But that semi-colon became a semibreve in the Gregorian time. How can we go back to it? I can, God permitting, go forward to Assisi, and the chapter called the Sacristan's Cell will have things in it that will interest you; but I'm not quite sure you will like them. Only this morning I was stopped by the confusion between the Castle of Avallon, where Hugo of Lincoln was born, and the town of Avallon. I am writing shame:
'

'

but I've some things to say about Chartres and me and the Black Madonna, which I suppose some people think as pretty as I used to think my pink one." When Watts painted the portrait which
fully,

the book you gave

327

Henry Edward Manning
represents

Manning
:

in

the National Portrait Gallery,

Ruskin wrote "His portrait of you is coarsely painted and entirely common and valueless, with many gross errors of which the violent square of the bone of the nose is unpardonable. Nothing but the most tender and subtle drawing of the fifteenth-century method could render your head rightly, but Watts has entirely mistreated it. But I know no one who could paint you." Manning's comment was typical when he noticed the reflection of his robes in his features "Tell Mr. Watts that he has made me a tippler, and I am a teetotaller!" Of others
:

who essayed to reproduce Manning, Menpes etched the wrinkled map of his face, May caught the corpse-like look of his last days, and Ouless may be said to have photographed his character. Manning noted: "The papers say that Ouless has made me anxious without irritability. I should have thought that I am both, for the work of
make Job so." Among those who words was Disraeli. In Endymion Manning he appears as Nigel Penruddock, "the prophet who had been ordained in Mayfair," and might have been a Dean if he had not gone over to Rome, whence he emerged as "Archbishop of Tyre." In Lothair he was carefully drawn " Above the middle height, his stature seemed magnified by the attenuation of his form. It seemed that the soul never had so frail and fragile a tenement. He was dressed in a dark cassock with a red border, and wore scarlet stockings and over his cassock a purple His tippet, and on his breast a small golden cross. countenance was, naturally, of an extreme pallor, though
is

London

enough

to

sketched

in

:

;

moment slightly flushed with the animation of a deeply interesting conference. His cheeks were hollow, and his grey eyes seemed sunk into his clear and noble brow, but they flashed with irresistible penetration. Such was Cardinal Grandison."
at this

" and not grey."

The only mistake was

that his eyes were dark brown Lothair was the Lord Bute of the day,

328

Rationalism and Literature
and
in the novel

Manning and Samuel Wilberforce were

represented as contending for his soul, while Mgr. Capel, disguised as Catesby, kept the Anglican chaplains at bay. " Poor Dizzy !" wrote Manning to Lady Herbert. " To

end as patron and statesman of the Rock and the Record is a doom of great ignominy." And of that dying " In which Disraeli what a ruin English Society staged is the of homes which we have been so Society English and S. Wilberforce has so talked proud emptily."
:

Though he enjoyed the society of writers, Manning never became enmeshed in words. He used metaphors as searchlights, not as fireworks, and epithets to underline rather than colour his drift. He incurred wrath or " I am fear by his words, but never misunderstanding. afraid that my words cut like a sharp razor." In his Anglican Charges there is Johnsonese, not without "a occasional bathos, as when he described pews as type of the Communion of Saints." Walter Bagehot picked out as "a good sentence on ecclesiastical history" the " The world persecuted the Church in the following beginning, espoused her in the Middle Ages, is disowning her now." Lord Westbury used to give the palm in verbal distinction to Manning's parishioner who missed her children, but missed them more than she wanted
:

Literary power seemed vanity to Manning, except " so far as it went into good preaching. You will not destroy the walls of Jericho by flinging flowers at them," " he told Canon Vere. You have a message. Give it Never mind the words they will come. Remember the truth you have to give. Thus saith the Lord." Preach" like walking, best when least ing is, he thought, studied." The three maladies of piety were " pulpit oratory, theatrical music, and fancy devotions." In old " Pulpit oratory is poison to preacher and age he noted St. Paul says, hearer. preach not ourselves but
! !
; : '

them

We

Christ Jesus.' Pulpit orators read this backward." He believed in simplicity and awe. After hearing Bishop

Henry Edward Manning
Fenton read one of his pastorals too rapidly he taught

own slow, deliberative, and imIn old days his tutor, Canon Fisher, had come to hear him, and commented : " I never heard " But I saw you under the pulpit." "And you preach." I saw you, but I never heard you," he replied. Henceforth Manning trained himself to speak by syllables.
him the
secret of his

pressive speech.

Newman's, he used to say, fell like snow. His only gesture was a sawlike motion, but he was fond of wearing a mitre (against all comfort) in the pulpit. "After the first hour uncle takes off the mitre," said Mgr. Willie " He is a Manning. John Bright used to say of him very good speaker if you don't listen to what he says." The great Orator of Dissent must have heard him, for one of his letters is in the Manning papers (December 26, " It is true that we are not so young as when I 1884) listened to your voice in the church of St. Carlo, and that
: :

we have spent busy years since that time. I hope that our work has been done in sincerity, and that some fruit, not wholly worthless, remains." Even when he probed no depths his edge mowed down His force was the force of lava rather superficialities. than of eruption. He preferred the power of a phrase to many periods." As early as 1834 ne wrote to Samuel It is easier to walk with God in the storm Wilberforce than in the sunlight." Guilt he finely defined as "our sins multiplied by our mercies," and what could be "A man who loses an farther reaching than to say only son becomes a Catholic theologian on the spot!" " His reason for believing in God was simply, I am either uncaused or self-caused or caused by a cause." Divorce " Gari" successive Fenians were was polygamy." " " " Herodians." God made and Anglicans baldians your features, but you make the countenance," was one
: :

of his oracles.

Humour

a lawyer: "He Paradox he rarely essayed, except in conversation. 330

appeared in his three stages of gets on, gets honour, gets honest." " If

Rationalism and Literature
I

were an Irish hodman

said to emphasise his

"Your woman
what

should be a drunkard!" he sympathy for sweated workmen. has been pride your salvation," he said to a of that legitimate pride which restrains from
I

is base. Precision was what he sought. Bacon could have " makes mischief written : Vanity among men, but pride makes havoc. Vanity may commit follies, but pride commits sins. Vanity can be safely laughed at, but pride is

to

be always feared.
rise."

man can

Sibthorp's

By pride angels fell, and by it no He much enjoyed a criticism of himself in " He is Life: thought by many dry, dull, and
I I

wearisome.
total

able preacher

think him, on the whole, the most profithave ever heard. One attraction is the
all

absence of

apparent attempts to

attract.

Hence,

of course, he will not please young ladies." An exception mother who heard him is recorded among his papers.

A

at St. Isidore's in

wrote what she remembered to in her daughter England, who chanced to be dying and in time to die with it in her hand. It was read the letter far-sent Viaticum. her He did not appeal ad populum. " Poor old gentleman he did his best," was the verdict of an old lady who had expected emotion. His features and tone were more impressive than sensational "that unearthly stillness and absorbedness of demeanour, and those tones that used to The thrill one as representing a vision of the unseen." in Dr. Roberts Catholic days. Page impression deepened " the declared that prelates of humanism looked like heathen in the presence of such white austerity." And
!

Rome

the Irish sacristan

summed him
was

the Last Day, to judgment !"

"

It

up, when preaching on Michael Angelo himself come just

Manning knew a good sermon"when he heard one, as Newman preached an he wrote from Oscott in 1852 beautiful sermon during the Synod. It was exquisitely
:

a great sight, and gave

me

a sense of the imperishable 33 *

Henry Edward Manning
of the Church I never had After centuries the Church took up its work as if it laid it down but yesterday, and resumed it on the morrow as if nothing had happened since Henry VII. and all between were a bad dream." Never was Newman's magic more wonderful than in preaching " the Second Spring," and transforming, by his words, a meeting of Bishops into a celestial counter-march. Though the two other English Cardinals of his time had written novels, he would not complete the trilogy. " It was not for lack of material," he said. But he hated " What play-acting, even in innocent fiction. The voice, doest thou here, Elias?" which warned him from the drawing-room forbade him to loiter in the library. At " book Lavington he rejected books for books' sake. can only last till Christ's coming, and will then be burned up. It is, like food and raiment, part of our humiliation. To found an order or to feed a flock is better than to write a library." As for the aesthetes, they were "feeding on ambrosia while death reigns over mortals, like the
reality

and Divine guidance

before.

A

gods of Epicurus."
his impressions

may

Yet he was well read, and some of be gleaned into a sheaf
:

Callista and Fabiola: "Cardinal so coldly intellectual. Wiseman is

Newman's
full of

story

is

warmth and
feel that

feeling."
life

Lord Shaftesbury's Life: "It makes me

my

has been wasted." Macaulay's Life: "I had a haunting feeling that his had been a life of public utility and mine a vita
umbratilis ."

Bede's History: times have for me.

"What
They

Raphael's early pictures. is an illusion Bede has thrown over me." Dante: "St. Thomas Aquinas in verse."

a fascination Anglo-Saxon are like the backgrounds of Landscapes in Paradise. This

favourite Latinist." Propertius: " Positivism applied to Sociology." Buckle's History: Newman's Apologia: " A voice from the dead."

"My

Macaulay's Essay on Ranke: "Flashy, shallow, and
33?

Rationalism and Literature
irreverent, but there are outlines of truths

and ghosts

of

great principles."

Fronde's English in Ireland:

"A

crime against the

Empire."
Wilberforce's Life of Bishop Wilberforce:
of

"The

sin

Ham."

Aubrey de Vere's since Shakespeare."
fligacy

Mary Tudor: "The

finest

drama

Dumas's Dame aux Came'lias : "Transfigured proand unchastity in haloes."

Darwin's Origin of Species: " The anthropology of

apes."

Works

of Dickens:

"A

complete course of moral

theology."

Patmore's Poems: green field after the gaudy harlequin diction of modern writers." Creighton's Papacy: "The fairest history of the Mediaeval Church from any hand that is not Catholic." Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table: "About
the middle it becomes animal and vulgar, and loses all the bright and joyous tone of the former part."

"A

a poetess he wrote : The beauty of Catholic Italy and of Catholic Ireland is a world in itself. May God give you the vision of faith to see all this beauty; and what you write, write in blank verse. Metre and rhyme are thumbscrews and little-ease to the brain." He himself indited a hymn to further temperance, and we find him dealing with a hymn of Dryden's (April 6, 1884) " I am at work on the Veni S.S. Dryden was a licentious translator, a poet incapable of understanding the VS.S. Nevertheless, for you old Catholics I am keeping as much as possible of the version which has become familiar. Parts of it are intolerable, and the end shows that Dryden forgot whom he was speaking to. The whole is to the
:

To

"

Holy Ghost."

the the whole, he came to the conclusion that dealing with books either leaves books behind or dies like fruit on the tree." He was really more interested in " An journalism, of which he understood the power.

On

"

333

Henry Edward Manning
may be as majestic as Jupiter Tonans and as mischievous as a Whitehead torpedo." A newspaper, " he said, is between a voice and a book." Journalese he " hated. It is a style of writing I abhor. At the same time, I wonder at it as a countryman at a mountebank putting ribands of all colours and lengths out of his
editor

mouth."
" I amuse (February 12, 1870) myself sometimes with the English papers on the Council, which are, of all things I have known, the most pompously foolish, and hardly ever within a mile of the truth. It is what the Jerusalem Times would have written about the Apostles." When he gave the Press credit for launching the equivalent of a Whitehead torpedo, he may have been thinking of the aspersions cast upon him by the Whitehall Review, cruelly accusing him of having jilted Mrs. Coventry Patmore. His answer escaped into a letter to Vaughan (February 8, 1881) "Then comes a sensational passage about a whispered tradition a lady and a poet. This must refer to the Patmores. I need not say
as he wrote from

The Vatican Council threw him against Jupiter Tonans,

Rome

:

:

'

'

not a shadow of truth in it. From the year 1838 my life has been as it is, and never for a moment has my decision wavered. This seems to me brutal. The
that there
is

writer announces his intention of going on about the Bishops and others. And we can only be silent and

leave

it

in the

hands of God."

The matter was needlessly made mysterious by the poet writing that when he returned his wife's letters from the Cardinal they were burnt. They survive to show spiritual guidance or an intense regret for Lavington, which never left him (April 25, 1855) " How strangely the shadow of the hill at Lavington has fallen on you, too. It seems as if sorrow were the lot of all who dwell under it and yet it is sorrow with great sweetness in its
: ;

sharpest griefs."

334

Rationalism and Literature
"Here we are under 10, 1862) the sun on the stems of the ilexes as it used to be in the broad walk at Lavington, and the sides of the lake full of nightingales. These last months
from Albano (May
; :

And

the roof of St. Francis

seem

like a

,They seem then spoke

dream. I can hardly believe them to be true. like a Lavington evening, only that what we of we have now seen, and yet they are only

the prelude and the vestibule." And again (November 7, 1867) : "I always think of Lavington at All Hallows.
It

was very

beautiful
If

of the year.

South Downs Manning had a large journalistic acquaintance. " used to admire the thoroughness of G. A. Sala
:

and peaceful with the drawing in there were the true Fold under the only it would be a beautiful world."

He He

knows almost everything well." He was much amused when Mr. a Beckett offered him The Glow-worm as a Church organ. "Don't you think there is something incongruous between latest sporting and latest ecclesiastical ?" he asked. He was at war with The Times all his life. He could only flash out contradiction when it labelled him Separatist for his Irish views, or when The Globe announced a Papal telegram congratulating " I believe The Times Gladstone on Disestablishment. is largely written by undergraduates," was his conclusion. Reuter's Agency was also an enemy. "A mythical the Pan the of personage, god newspaper world, at once and as nowhere, everywhere changeful as Proteus and as little bound to truth." As for the Catholic Press, The Tablet was a wayward child, so disagreeable to Manning that he purchased the Weekly Register from Mr. Jbwle. Vaughan, who owned The Tablet, wrote anxiously
hope you will get your business and white. Towle is a arrangements he also a and but is saint, needy. With the best lawyer wishes not to injure The Tablet, you will not be able to help doing so. In any case, you have gone in for a venture, and the whole Press, except for The Universe,
(October 30, 1880)
:

"

I

settled in black

335

Henry Edward Manning
is now the property of the clergy. .This proves that either the Press does not pay the laity or that we priests are the

men. Which is it ?" and amusingly protested that was " running a passenger boat for nothing on the Mississippi in order to beat and ruin an established company. With your Eminence as known proprietor it would be The President of the U.S. aboard our boat
better

the Cardinal

:

!

Breakfast free!" June 23, 1881 : "I feel that I cannot be a Bishop and journalist without neglecting one or the other. If The Tablet collapse through competition and underselling I must try not to break my heart over it." When The Tablet opposed Manning's Irish views, he wrote to Ullathorne " The Tablet is so little pleasing to me that I have thought better not to read it, and therefore not to speak again about it to the Bishop of Salford." Only in the Catholic Church could Bishops run opposing papers and remain devoted friends ! Even when another Bishop " I attacked Manning in The Tablet, became silent, for
fares!
:

Half-fares!

No

I

might have seemed
:

to resent it."

written to Ullathorne

"I

feel that,

As he had once when silence and

abuse are pitted against each other, abuse has its day, but silence wins." Still, the circumstances were serious. The Cardinal at a temperance meeting had contrasted

Mohammedan and
Bishop
of of

Christian doctrine on drink, and the Nottingham challenged his words as heretical.

The Register became
hints
:

his personal organ, and the desk Wilfrid Meynell, the editor, became littered with

you can, with the bats at your usual hour have just run over your second number. The article on Leo XIII. is far better than mine." " You saw, no doubt, the paragraph in The Standard headed The Pope and Cardinal Manning.' I need not say that every line is untrue." "Come and give an account of tie a hundredweight to the tail of yourself, that I may " Read an article in The Quarterly your imagination." 336

"Come,

if

of night.

I

'

Rationalism and Literature
and answer it in a pamphlet. I will give you certain "The points, especially about the Vatican Council." hated rival has written to claim the notice, so I must write something for you." "Your tyranny is truly

They bastinadoed Dr. Wolfe because he did not know how to make gunpowder, which all Franks can do. I am fully dissatisfied with what I made under the lash."
Mr.
accounts for the merry note " I am ashamed of myself, but the enclosed may go, and if your readers only laugh at me it will make Merry England merrier !" Another close alliance was with Mr. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette. Manning lent himself to some of Stead's social rashness, but in return he could exert an
:

Arabian.

Meynell

also

edited

Merry

England,

which

influence

on the secular Press.
:

His notes show

his

pressure

"

We

need a

political

Christian, and popular. of this in the Pall Mall.
line

I

paper which is independent, have thought that I saw signs You did not tell me what your

about education would be. My belief is that if I believe talk it out we should not differ. that my line would satisfy all but pedants and Gambettists." " I detect your Cromwellian hand in the Pall Mall. Take care. You may yet profess the creed of Pius IV. and die a Papist. None are so near as those who think themselves safest." " Do not lecture the Pope or recount rebuffs,' which, after all, may be like the buffeting of his Master by Divine permission and for a greater good." " I have seen in the Pall Mall the passage about the and others not knowing English. If you prefer Pope your literary summer lightning to the weight and

we could

'

send you an old book of mine on unity, written before the flood. I feel as Homer would if he could rise from the dead and read Gladstone's thick volumes about him." z 337
I

influence of gravity "
will

and judgment

reject

my

criticisms."

Henry Edward Manning
fair

"To extract once wrote to Cardinal Wiseman words from the Saturday Review is like making an energumen recite the Psalter."
He
:

Manning's only literary perfection besides writing pastorals was in throwing off letters. As he grew older the handwriting became more finished and exquisite, a great contrast to Ullathorne's sturdy scrawl and Ward's "walking-sticks gone mad," though the zigzag prize went to Cardinal McCabe. Cardinal Wiseman's was the most beautiful, but Cardinal Newman could write a literary minuscule, while Cardinal Cullen's hand was a looping the loop. Manning wrote to one correspondent
he could read character in handwriting.

"Beware!"

Manning's notes became more precise and humorous than ever. To a correspondent who had named a pet " I bird after him think it is hard upon me that you do
:

not

tell

a grey

me whether I am an owl or parrot!" To Sir Charles

a buzzard, or at least Dilke's invitation he

answered:

I told you that I sancta simplicitasl never dine out, but that your dinners are Cabinet dinners and don't break the rule as potus non frangit jejunium." To Vaughan he loosed himself in private mirth and

"O

For irony, generally at the expense of the Jesuits. instance (January 26, 1880): "Their position is that

and morals.

they are the pontifical overseers of the Bishops in faith That they are by jurisdiction independent It is a pity that of the Ordinary and superior to him. de not Pallium do all wear the corpore B. Petri they " I am 1881 sumptum." February 25, glad you are I suppose and the Name. to have Stonyhurst Holy likely in that case I should have Farm Street. I should at once
:

bring the throne from Kensington.

Quels farceurs!
frightened

And
at

there are old

women
like

in red

who can be

a lion." A typical letter to Chief Justice Coleridge on his peerage ran (November 17, 1873): "I send you two pamphlets, one because you are an editor of Blosius, and

Bottom roaring

338

Rationalism and Literature the other because you may not know that I am a heretic. And now let me wish you multos annos on your
canonisation.
I

hope you
as Sir

father's blessing,

will kneel down and ask your Thomas More used to do to
*'

Mr. Justice More." In 1890 he sent word to Dr. Gasquet Charles Hawkins. He willingly consents
so that you
fore
I

:

I

have seen

to kill in chief,

stealthily poison with impunity. Therewith medicine men for my last days. In your absence I have made progress !" And to one of a thousand appeals: "I am as hard-hearted as the man that would not cry at the funeral sermon because he did not belong to the parish. My poor and my priests leave me little, even for your Sisters of Charity here, but that neither you nor they may call me ill names, I send you a pound."

may

am

filled

Among the array of his books the masterpiece was The Eternal Priesthood. He tried to idealise his priests instead of leaving perfection to the religious Orders. He had no use for "perfunctory and professional goodness." blot upon a He called for the heroic. layman's coat is hardly seen, but a spot upon a priest's

"A

alb

is an eyesore." He railed at the mission, which becomes a "sleepy hollow," and at the missioner, who " is a harmless lotus-eater." He called upon them to be the Hunters of Jeremiah, the Watchmen of Ezekiel, and the grim Harvesters of Isaias. Their business was the " a sixth love of souls, sense which the few possess and

the

A sequel to The Eternal Priesthood was long germinating in his mind.
Jt

many cannot comprehend."
was
to

endow

name

Pastoral instead of Secular.

It

the clergy with the was to reduce the

pretensions of the Regulars for ever, but it was to be An English Jesuit, patristic, canonical, and scriptural. whom Manning described as " Father Gallwey without his imprudence," was reported untruly to have described " I doubt if " the Bishops as a set of imbeciles." they

339

Henry Edward Manning
are predestined to
fill

the vacant thrones from which

somebody
Vaughan.

fell

through pride.

Of

course,

" However, on rereading he realised that The Month did not say explicitly that Bishops and Vicars Apostolic are equal." Yet he was on good terms with many religious Orders, and even admired Father Gallwey for his lovable Irish qualities. He was warring against " Presbyterian impertinence," but in one of his mystical moments he flashed " I believe St. Francis has Lucifer's vacant throne." To Vaughan he wrote freely as usual
:

the Society,

but of The Month,"

speak not of Manning wrote to
I

(February 23, 1880)

:

"A Passionist said to me an hour ago: 'It is my happiness to work under you as Bishop, and it has always been so.' The Bishops are silent. Our clergy know nothing, but the Regulars and their perpetual talk meet

me everywhere. Even the superiors of the Sisters of Charity in Paris were full of it. But the sisters here laughed at them. In the first period of the Church the Bishops and their priests were in the ascendant which Our Lord gave them. In the second period the secularity of the Episcopate depressed it everywhere, and the Regulars became proportionately powerful. There were more mitred Abbots in Parliament than Bishops. In one Lateran Council they outnumbered the Bishops double at least. The Church has come back to its beginnings. I count all the active congregations with ourselves. work in unity and charity. It is only the remnants of the old Regulars, led by S.J., that strive for predominance.

We

And

I believe that the multiplication and elevation of the priesthood of the future depends upon the recalling of S.J. to its limits and to a life of interior perfection. Let them keep their culture, intellectual and spiritual, but learn the humility of the Franciscans and the charity of

the Redemptorists."

The name of
"
12, 1880)
:

the

new book appeared

in a letter

(October

I

am

lost chiefly

by

fully convinced that England has been ' the privation of the Pastoral Office,' and

that privation

was the work

of the Society,

which could

340

Rationalism and Literature
neither do the

do

their

work of Bishops and would not let Bishops own." Manning had done some preparative
chiefly
St.

among " Ambrosian Library, whence he reported Mutatis nominibus it is to-day only I think they were worse
reading,
letters
: ;
;

Charles's

in

the

but

are weaker than the Episcopate of that time." There is really no case to be made out against the

we

from the point of view of the and whose weakness Bishops, necessity made the Jesuits' But once opportunity. Jesuits had restored or propped in a Catholicism threatened up quarter it was obvious that Bishops had a right to return to the ascendant. The Pastoral Office was not only Manning's theme. It was " the Divine scheme of Christendom. Groups and handfuls of men," wrote Manning, "good as they may be, can never supersede the Corpus Pastorum, any more than the Salford and Clifton Fire Brigades can supersede the Imperial Army." At length the book was finished, and he wrote to Vaughan (January 29, 1883)
Jesuits historically, except
:

And now, do not read my book hastily, cursorily, or with prejudice. It has cost me much reading, but still more thought. The length of time I have given to it lays you under the duty of patience and thinking at least twice where you doubt or object. I am taking out every passage and every word that can offend. If the affirmative truth displeases the fault is not mine. I wish you specially to note the quotations from Bellarmine, Gregory de V. Vasquez, and Suarez." February 19, 1883 "And now for my book. I had already struck out the whole upon vows and the nonsense of Lainez, who was the author of the whole mischief. After your letter I decided to take off a certain number of copies, but not to publish. I have
:

"

no

literary vanities,

and

I

have no
I

will to

end

contention.

bid you that is, judge whether it would, I believe that 4/5 would, be good for the priesthood. I am willing to do anything if I can get our priests to know their own gratia status. You have asked me to write a new gemitus columbce. I know of one mourning, lamentation, and woe which is the fountain
341

You

my

days

in

did just what

Henry Edward Manning
others, the depression, the degradation of the Episcopate and the priesthood. This depresses all and every body and the Christian world. Last night I made an outline of a little book on the law of liberty. It is
of all
there, I think,

wrong
of the

;

if I

am

you think
not,

me

we are

exaggerated. If I am, I am not faithful to the dispensation

Holy

Spirit."

His admonition to priests in publishing books he obeyed himself by submitting The Pastoral Office to who made drastic corrections. " I think the
Ullathorne, quotation from St. Bernard will be construed as a covert attack on the religious of this time and country." Man-

ning answered: "I made

all

your corrections but one,

and

it was pain and Ullathorne was edified, for "it is not a little thing for any man to have a book taken to pieces and yet to take it kindly," he wrote. Finally, Ullathorne advised against publication (March 8, 1883) "I think the book very good as a whole for ecclesiastics, but whether equally so for lay people I will not venture the same opinion. But all this, as the Oratorians say, when ending their cases at dinner before you, submitto judicio

I

struck out St. Bernard, though

grief to

me."

:

et decisioni

Em.
9,

et

Rev. Cardinalis nostri."
:

Manning

replied

(March

1883)

is a prejudicium against me, and I will whole mind. Before I was in the Church all my sympathies were with the Regulars. For the first four years after I was strongly drawn to the Passionists and to the Jesuits. The strong desire for rule and community life took me to Bayswater. But I came to see the Divine institution of the Pastoral Office, and that no Regular Order can meet this. I saw also that the pastoral clergy were at a disadvantage, depressed, and lightly esteemed, but I saw that they were Our Lord's own Order. I came to see that the chief need of the Church everywhere is that they should be what Our Lord intended, and that all religious Orders united cannot fill their place or do their work. This has made I

"

know

there

tell

you

my

343

Rationalism and Literature
me work for them. Regulars have authors, friends, preachers, books, prestige, tradition always working for their elevation. The pastoral clergy has none of these book contains hard words about Bishops, things. but not a hard word about Regulars. It contains the teaching of Our Lord, the Fathers, and theologians as to the state and dignity of the pastoral clergy. I feel that

My

our humble, hard-working, hard-worked, self-denying, unpretending, self-depressing pastoral clergy need and deserve to be encouraged, cheered, and told of their high and happy state. They need what I can say and do for them. I love both and desire the perfection of both."

book on The which never out of but which he showed the passed manuscript, before death to Archbishop Ireland as prospective editor. Unfortunately, while the Archbishop of St. Paul was crossing the Atlantic, the manuscript, which

Manning completed

Rights and Dignity

his trilogy by a of the Priesthood,

Manning intended him
disappeared.

to

publish

after

his

death,

Pastoral Office was that the episcopal perfect than that of the religious, and that the pastoral clergy were a limited form of the Episcopate. Owing to the possible feelings of the religious Orders on
state

The theme of The
was more

" that Bishops and priests are bound to perfecreading tion not so much by the letter of ecclesiastical laws as by an antecedent and primary law issuing from the relation in which they stand to their Divine Master," copies were privately distributed, with an injunction they To Father Lawless Manning wrote were not to be lent " I wish (May 27, 1883) you not to lend it to anyone. You will see why all priests need not desire to be Bishops because all priests are in the same state of perfection, with all its gratia status, less only the He wished the next Council to responsibilities." " define the Divine powers of the Episcopate." Amongst those who received copies was Bishop Charles worth, who wrote (November 15, 1887)
1 :

:

343

was much pleased to know that you approved of I had written in opposition to Lightfoot and Moreover, your book on the Pastoral Office Stanley. came duly to hand, and I cut it open, but, to tell you the I have had such sad truth, I scarcely ventured further.
I

"

Henry Edward Manning

what

experience of the disruption of old
instance,

ties

what is he coming to ?) that it pained me to think what I might find in your pages, as bringing home
to

(Gladstone, for

me

the gulf that

is

fixed between us."

Nevertheless, there
gulf,
letter
:

was a

Bishop Wordsworth writing in answer

literary bridge across the to Manning's

"Its youthfulness and vivacity quite charmed both wife; while its handwriting, compared with some specimens which I have preserved of dates so far back as 1829 and 1830, exhibits what all tutors rejoice to I am just see in their pupils decided improvement now rather heavily pressed in bringing out an edition of the historical plays of Shakespeare, and the daily task of correcting proofs is almost too much for my poor head and eyes at 76 My last-made reference has been to

me and my

!

!

Aristophanes' Acharn. (of Pericles) 505, which is curiously paralleled by what Cassius says of Caesar as a man

and lightens in the Capitol.' None of think, has noticed this, but it will, I hope, interest who have yourself thundered and you, ' lightened as an orator and in Latin, too if not in the Capitol on the Vatican!" And later: "You may like to know that I have done something towards rehabilitating the character of Cardinal Beaufort. I am ratified by your kind promise to become a patron of my hakespeare. It is to be dedicated to the boys, past, present, and to come, of Winchester. Were not you and
'

that thunders
I

the editors,

'

dear Hamilton and James Hope (all my pupils and all Fellows of Merton) present together at the five hundredth anniversary of that foundation ?"

When Wordsworth
Manning
(October
wrote,
8,

published

his

reminiscences,
his

in
:

the last

autumn

of

own

life

1891)

344

Rationalism and Literature
"Late
last

night

I

finished reading your book,
I

and

I

me a number of men whose existence, Maysie and Thomas, I had forgotten. But their names bring before me their form and face as if I saw them. The greater number I have vividly before me; I have seen or known them remotely or intimately in the last forty years of my life in London. This past world had great beauty and sweetness. Boyhood and youth are
it

have not been able to lay it down. The first part down to our losing sight of each other is like living over again. The second part tells me your history, which I hardly knew. As to the first part,
brings before

cannot delay to write to you.

like

very real in fact, but in all else visionary in anticipaI suppose we shall never see tion, hope, and foretaste. each other again in this world. I shall never make any other journey but the last; and you will perhaps never

again be in the fumum strepitumque of London. But I hope and pray that we may meet where, above the noises of this world, there is peace."

Rosebery's
1891)
:

Only the month before he died Manning read Lord Pitt, and wrote to the author (December 28,
"

When I had begun it I could not lay it down. The two greatest Englishmen in our history are, to me, William Pitt and St. Thomas of Canterbury. Far asunder in circumstantials and accidents, for isolated grandeur they are of one heroic kind. Your book has for me four attractions. First, the biography of Pitt, which Lord Stanhope has brought out with great fulness. Next what Lord Stanhope has very sparingly given us the political history in which Pitt's history is embedded, with the characters of the men who surrounded him, opposed him, and betrayed him. Thirdly, an estimate of the events of the time, which not only justified, but demanded, his change of policy that is, the war and the union of Ireland. In this latter, I go all lengths with your reasons and judgment. I wish Gladstone had in this been less like Burke in vehemence and lopsidedness. Lastly, you have written as a statesman judging of
statesmen and affairs of state, and to me with great breadth and truth of appreciation. One thing is to me

345

Henry Edward Manning
of

immense

interest,

and

I

have never, so
that
is,

far

as

I

remember,

seen

it

before

Pitt's

Poor Law

easy to criticise them according to economy, but they are true political wisdom, which, since 1835, we have violated to our own chastisement. Before I die I hope to say what I mean. I remember when I could find nobody to listen. Now I find a multitude saying the same thing without conspiring together, under the intolerable conditions, not only of our paupers, but of our poor."
propositions.
It is

modern

political

Manning's interest in Pitt was of long standing. He had written to Wiseman of Pitt's Life (September i,
1862)
:

"I am reading

though
for, as

my

with the greatest interest, does not cut up gloriously, poor godfather
it

Canning

said

Pitt is to

Addington
to

As London

Paddington.

It is like hearing my father talking. He was contemporary and intimate with all the chief names, and Pitt's friend, Lord Carrington, was his brother-in-law." The letter to Lord Rosebery must have been the last he wrote, for of the next year only one note survives, written to Mrs. Hamilton King (New Year's Day, 1892)
:

" All through I have never given up hope. And now Often that hope is rising, I feel that I was not wrong. in the day I say for her, Spare, save, sanctify her; and I have offered my communion in every Mass for her. Our Lord is very near to her. She only knows how near, and she cannot tell you. Take the consolation of His Presence, and have no will but His."

A

fortnight later his pen

was

still

for ever.

346

CHAPTER XIX: THE COMING OF DEMOCRACY
' '

The

and action by

course of Europe seems to be towards a development of national life calling up into a political power larger numbers of the people
class are such already

The middle
system
is

energetic, self-respecting class, but selfish
self-abolishing

they are an oligarchy, an intelligent, and subjective. Now the Catholic

and objective."

Mannings Diary,

1839.

IN spite of the Chartist failure shortly after these words were written, the popular cause in England steadily advanced until the Great War summoned Authority everywhere to make terms with Democracy. The Church

had long known that it was as necessary to convert as to educate the coming rulers. For half a century political
parties tried to offer the new power articulation through their own restricted channels. Nothing is more remark-

able in the crossed skein of Manning's life than his prescience of Democracy and his prophecy of its eventual alliance with Catholic forces. "Were I not Cardinal

Archbishop of Westminster I would wish to be a great demagogue," he said frankly. In his political diary of "I would fain Mr. Malthus had told 1831 he exclaimed us in what manner the right of labour enters as a per:

vading principle into the present distribution of wealth how the immeasurable domains in Ireland held by
;

absentee nobles, together with all the like species, posthe provisions granted by Crown patents, sessions pensions, places, sinecures, the high nests of Stymphalian birds how these are to be explained as regulated Private benevolence he then by right of labour?" since the thought futile, poor had a right to claim " And sure I am of the of State. this, that on support him who out of his affluence giveth unwillingly the hand of equalising retribution will lie soon, but on him that giveth not it will fall to his annihilation." The sects
:

tended to leave the battle-heights of Science for the 347

Henry Edward Manning
Reform. Broad Churchmen, like Maurice and Kingsley, were not unwilling to be dubbed "Christian Socialists." With Maurice, Manning was always on respectful terms, though he considered him "an Ishmaelitish spirit," and Maurice in turn thought him too "circular" in his views. To Maurice's sister
dustier area of Social

Manning wrote in the hungry forties "The thought of our destitute millions and of the hard hand which too often converts charity into chastisement on the poor is
:

enough

to

make

one's heart sicken."

Even

at that date

he believed in a living wage, for he cried out in one of " It is a his Archidiaconal Charges high sin in the sight of Heaven for a man to wring his wealth out of the thews and sinews of his fellows, and to think that when he has paid them their wages he has paid them all he owes." But the Chartist went unchaplained, and by the time Christianity reached the slum on the wings of Ritualism or Salvationalism it was too late. The Manchester School had ground away Christian England. " Handlooms devour children," had cried the Rector of Lavington. As Archbishop of Westminster, Manning set out afresh on the task of winning Democracy back to the Church. Assiduously he trod the byways of charity. He delivered speeches between his sermons, gave public admonition as well as private absolution. The civic
:

Commission

befitted

As

the cries of

him as well as the Church Council. Labour became articulate, he advanced

He took the first plunge at Exeter Hall in 1872, by a motion of sympathy with the agricultural labourers, which caused some sensation among his friends. In answer to Mr. Gladstone, he wrote (December 21, 1872) " I remember your saying to me many years ago that the next conflict would be between the masters and the workmen. I had been so much out of England then that I found last week I did not know how far this reached.
into the uncertain stream.
:

348

The Coming
that even

of

Democracy

hodmen are organised. I have also lately had means of knowing what the agricultural unionists are. As yet they are not political. They do not coalesce with the London men, but the London men will soon make capital of them if others do not interpose. The consequence of this would be disastrous. My belief is that some energetic and sympathetic act on the part of

my

Irish

Government would avert great dangers. Could not a Royal Commission be issued to take the evidence of men

who

are now appealing to public opinion for help? If they have a case, it could be dealt with. If they have none, it would be exposed."

to' the agricultural affair, the Bishop of Peterborough was as bad as the Bishop of Gloucester. How is it they do not know the day of their visitation ? I wish

And "As

again, in the

same December

:

could be as sure about landed property as about belief is that the laws must be greatly personal. relaxed. The Poor Law has saved them for a century. But the Poor Law has broken down. cannot you do these things for the labourer ? Prohibit the labour of children under a certain age. Compel payment of wages in money. Regulate the number of dwellings according to the population of parishes. Establish tribunals of arbitration in counties for questions between labour and land. If our unions were like the guilds, which created But the the City of London, I should not fear them. soul is not there."
I

My

Why

From Rome wrote Vaughan
10, 1873)
:

to

Manning (February

I fancy from what I hear that some complaint has been made about your going in with swaddlers, but they seem to understand and to appreciate our position better I have dwelt upon the fact that our than formerly. alliance must be with the people, and they have quite accepted it, and I ventured on the same thought with the Pope the other day."

"

But the cry "This man goeth with swaddlers" followed Manning to the end of his social action. By
349

Henry Edward Manning
1874 he was disputing the accepted economy of the time " I claim for Labour, addressing the Leeds mechanics and the skill which is always acquired by Labour, the rights of Capital. It is Capital in its truest sense. Now, our Saxon ancestors used to call what we call cattle live money,' and we are told that what we call chattels and cattle and the Latin word capita are one and the same thing that is, heads of cattle or workers or serfs. This was live money." And he went on to describe trade unions as in accord with the " higher jurisprudence," and to attack the mere " piling up of wealth like mounin
:
'

tains."

It was lonely work, and his platform was seldom graced by leading laymen. Cardinal Wiseman had found it easier to lecture on Art and Humanism to "select" audiences. Manning preferred discussing

Humanity and Labour in the open. From platform to platform and from cause to cause he passed, until the folk seemed to see in him some radiant shadow of the
old religion returning to England. He supported Arch, whom the Bishop of Gloucester, no doubt representing Conservative sentiment, wished to see ducked in a horse-pond. Arch as a pioneer of trade unions left testimony to the Archbishop who " spoke up nobly for us. The testimony at such a time and in such a place of a man so respected was of the greatest value to the Union." Manning told Arch's friends that at a
rural vestry in the thirties he

had seen the gallon

of flour

and

shilling per head doled out to the working-man for wage. He subscribed to Arch's Union both in 1878 and Meantime the union of Democracy and Chris1879. tianity, which had shown the splendid promise of a defeated dawn under Lamennais in France, had collapsed under the withering tutelage of Bonapartism and passed In a letter of to the freer atmosphere of America. Manning to Gladstone as early as 1848 occurred the sentence: "It is wonderful to see the Catholic Church in America distinctly of the progress and popular party."

350

The Coming

of

Democracy

In his last days he was destined to come into close touch with that Church, grown large upon the Western horizon. The Vatican Council had put him into touch with the
builders of the

American Church, a Kenrick and a

to be regarded as the Primate of Spalding. the English-speaking Catholic Church. His Irish sympathies, his interest in Labour, and his position in the

He came

gave him a place in America that no English Bishop has ever held. He foresaw that any alliance between America and England must include as a
world-politic,

strand the entente of the English, American, and Irish Hierarchies. He held the attention and reverence of the American Bishops. Bishop McQuaid of Rochester wrote to Corrigan, later Archbishop of New York " Until I (March 29, 1879) got Cardinal Manning and
:

the English Bishops roused all

"

seemed lost;" and later These English Bishops give good lessons which we do
:

not learn."

Manning wrote from Rome to Vaughan (November "I have seen the American Bishops and 1883) talked much with them, especially Baltimore, Boston,
14,
:

and Bishop Ryan,
shall

whom

I

like greatly, as

I

am

sure

I

Bishop Corrigan. They are all substantially of one mind, but the want of knowledge here is appalling. I am pressing the dangerous absurdity of telling us to proceed by a mere judicial process, and upsetting it in
appeal by juridice non probari." Archbishop Corrigan wrote to
1885)
:

Manning (October

27,

I have to thank you sincerely for your letter of sympathy on the death of Cardinal McClosky. He poured oil on the troubled waters, and, bringing peace to this diocese, united both priests and people. This makes the task of ruling in his stead so much easier, but even so, how immense is the responsibility and how What your Eminence told us in heavy the burden Retreat at the American College a quarter of a century
!

"

Henry Edward Manning
to memory at this moment with renewed namely, that if one hope to do God's work at all, we must, before everything else, be men of prayer. I venture to beg your good prayers that the work of God in this diocese may not be marred by my unworthiness."

ago comes back
force

Dr. Corrigan appeared too humble and sensitive to rule as an Archbishop. But gentle as a woman to all whom he met in the ordinary course of life, when confronted
with a vital issue he could become a lion in defence of the faith. His letters to Manning are those of a diffident child rather than a brother in the purple. With too sensitive a mind to serve a great archdiocese in stormy
times, he carried faithfully the yoke which he prayed Rome to allow him to lay down. He ruled at a time

when

was appearing in the American and when a series of vital questions had Episcopate,
intense division

fluttered the purple. Cahenslyism, the School Question, the Knights of Labour, and Henry George, were to divide, distract, stimulate, and, in the end, leave the American Church more united than ever. When the

teaching of

Henry George was adopted by Dr. McGlynn,
priests in

one of the leading

New

York,

little less

than-

a test-case of Catholic Democracy may be said to have arisen. Labour problems had attacked America on the
Capital had risen to its the trade unions were reaching a corresponding efficiency. It seemed as though the structure of the Republic would be undermined in the collision of opposing forces. The years 1885-86 proved to be of
scale proper to that country.

maximum, and

special unrest. skilled labour,

Under able leadership a society of unknown as the Knights of Labour, had inaugurated and won strikes on the New York street

Public opinion approved the lowering of men's hours from sixteen to twelve daily. Feeling was at its
railways.
acutest

when

the Mayoralty campaign of 1886 opened in

New

York.

a candidate

if

Henry George announced that he would be 25,000 workmen invited him to stand by
352

The Coming
postcard.

of

Democracy

who knew George was Cardinal personally Manning, who, in the previous year, had discussed with him his proposals to alleviate the world as written in his book, Progress and Poverty. On this occasion Mr. George was accompanied by Mr.
Perhaps the only ecclesiast
Meynell,

wards
'

' '

:

who described this historical meeting afterThey had travelled to the same goal from oppo'

site directions.

I

loved the people,' said

Henry George,
'

and that love brought me to Christ as their best friend and teacher.' And I,' said the Cardinal, loved Christ, and so learned to love the people for whom He died.' They faced each other in silence for a moment, a silence " more moving than words." George was neither socialist nor anarchist," writes Rhodes, the conservative historian of America. Manning, by his own record, " Before we go opened the conversation as follows further, let me know whether we are in agreement upon one vital principle. I believe that the law of property is founded on the law of nature, and that it is sanctioned
'

:

in revelation, declared in the Christian law, taught by the Catholic Church, and incorporated in the civilisation of all nations. Therefore, unless we are in agreement

upon
afraid

this,

which

lies at

we cannot approach each

the foundation of society, I am other." This doctrine

the Cardinal understood his visitor not to deny, but to be dealing rather with the intolerable evils inherent in an exaggerated law of property. Mr. George went on to speak fully and reverently of Christ as the example in whom rich and poor could find the solution of their strife. The common ground between Manning and George lay
in the old saying,

Summum

jus

summa

injuria.

And

Manning afterwards wrote in The Times that, though he had not read Progress and Poverty, yet in Social Problems he saw nothing "to censure as unsound." He added " I cannot end without saying how much I
:

was pleased by the quiet earnestness with which he spoke, and the calmness of his whole bearing."
353
2 A

Henry Edward Manning
version,

Mr. George mistook his pleasant converse for conand in due time communicated his apostolic
to the Press.

achievement

Manning held
it

drastic notions

as to ownership of land, but

cannot be said that he

accepted Mr. George's social panacea. Mr. George never met with the enthusiasm of Labour until he appeared as a possible instrument of vengeance

upon the
favour.

parties

the strikes.

who were suspected of helping to subdue The trade unions then came out in his

Mr. George found, too, a splendid ally in the hard-working and popular Dr. McGlynn, and diocesan history began to speed. When he pronounced owners of land to be anathema and anachronism, many Irish Americans remembered old land-wars in Ireland, and It became clear that the election for the rallied to him. of York would be fought on class and New Mayoralty than those of party, and the rather lines professional alarm was sounded. McGlynn had been taken by the Press as a token that the Church was on the side of Mr.
George's theories. A fateful letter, signed by a leading merchant, Mr. Donoghue, was written to Mgr. Preston, Corrigan's Vicar-General, inquiring whether George's teaching embodied Catholic doctrine. To prevent misunderstanding, McGlynn was forbidden by Dr. Corrigan His disto attend a meeting in support of George. obedience was followed by ten days' suspension, and The Catholic camp later by the loss of his parish. became divided on the social issue. There were not two more sincere and disinterested men in America than McGlynn and Corrigan, but the bitterness of events threw them into severe conflict. Neither could withdraw from the position he had taken up. The election came and passed, leaving them at war. In the fierce recriminations which followed, Dr. Corrigan was shouldered with the onus of George's He defended himself in a Pastoral, and wrote to defeat.
Cardinal

Manning (November
354

30, 1886)

:

The Coming
"At
Henry George polled 68,000

of Democracy

the recent Mayoralty election in this city Mr. votes. Much of his success was due to the untiring zeal, in his behalf, of Dr. McGlynn, rector of the largest Catholic parish in this diocese. To disarm criticism, Dr. McGlynn ventured to quote your Eminence, saying, as reported : And I may
'

quote Cardinal Manning. Surely it will be admitted that he is an authority on doctrine and discipline. Cardinal Manning informed Mr. George that he saw nothing in his views to condemn, and when Mr. George

had condemned them as being morally and theologically wrong, the Cardinal remarked that were unauthorised and incompetent critics.' they " Mr. George made a similar remark to me, but I paid no attention to it, presuming that he had misunderstood your Eminence. Since then I felt it to be a duty to say something on the subject in a recent Pastoral letter, and
stated that others

as Dr.

McGlynn has

not submitted, but has even spoken

disrespectfully of the Holy Father, it will probably necessary to transfer him to some other mission where

be he

can do

My

is now ad tempus less harm. in is to suggest that it object writing

He

cause of religion if you could find proper to send me a few words with permission to publish. With the exception of Henry George's sheet, The Leader, the entire secular Press of this country accepted the Some misguided Catholics are Pastoral as timely. line from your Eminence would quibbling about it.

under censure. would help the time and would think

A

be very opportune."

But the Press obtained the Cardinal's opinion
:

first.

The Editor of the World cabled across the Atlantic to " Do Manning you apprehend that the Labour movement
led

by Mr. George

will

extend

to

dangerous

proportions ?" Manning, suspecting an attempt to cause a collision with Corrigan, kept within his own diocese, for Archbishops, like Kings, have to "hang together." He answered " I do not as far as England is concerned. The strongest desire of the working-man is to possess a
:

house and garden of his own.
here
it

When
in

Mr. George was

was the working-men
355

the towns

who were

Henry Edward Manning
chiefly attracted to him. The ' said If you denationalise
:

working-men
our land,
'

play and equalise our wages.' deeply impressed by Mr. George; and, much as he regretted Dr. McGlynn's speeches, he was too interested in the experiment to care to interfere. As, however, he was being quoted in the United States, he took economical advice from Archbishop Walsh of Dublin, whose reputation on such matters stood next to none on the Episcopal

country us have fair Manning had been
let

in the

Bench.
"

Dr. Walsh replied (December 28, 1886)

:

time ago, in reference to an interview in which I was for the nationalisation of the land here, but in Michael Davitt's way, not in Henry George's,
I

Some

said that

Davitt's way. The that George (taking it as a fundamental principle that there can be no private property in land) would transfer the land from the present owners to the State, giving them no compensation, but Davitt fully recognises that property of theirs, and would

your Eminence asked

me what was
two
is

difference between the

make compensation

to

them

for it."

Meantime Dr. McGlynn founded the Anti-Poverty which would have abolished the evangelical precept to make oneself poor by levelling up even those whose vocation was to enjoy poverty. He seems to have felt less deeply than his Archbishop, whose whole life became saddened by the steps duty compelled him to
Society,
take.

In the

trials that

beset his diocese in these years

he perpetually turned to Cardinal Manning "to unburden my heart." Though Manning was ever ready to sympathise, he wrote to express his own view on Mr. George. The unhappy Dr. Corrigan answered

(December

23, 1886)

:

and

has just come to hand, thanks for your courtesy in writing again on the subject of Henry George's theories. At the same time, permit me to observe that Mr. George has a language of his own, and uses words
"Private.
I

Your kind

letter

write to express

my many

356

The Coming
in a

of Democracy
unwary or
inex-

new

sense, so as to deceive the

perienced. His theory, stated plainly, is that all property in land is simply robbery. 'The truth is, and from this truth there can be no escape, that there is and can be no just title to an exclusive possession of the soil, and that private property in land is a bold, bare, enormous wrong,

(Progress and Poverty, Book 'Property in land is essentially different from property in things. Rob a man of money, and the robbery is finished then and there. Rob people of the land i.e., by holding it as private property and the robbery is continuous a new robbery every year and every day (The Land Question, chapter vii.).
like that of chattel slavery

'

VII.,

chapter

iii.).

'

'

We

must acknowledge the equal and inalienable rights which inhere in them by endowment of the Creator to
(Social Problems, chapter there be anything strange in this, it is merely ' that habit can blind one to the most obvious truths (ibidem). These passages are taken almost at random, and might be multiplied indefinitely. Poor Dr. McGlynn has refused to obey the Holy See. The Propaganda, after learning the facts of the case, cabled 'Alumnus MacGlynn Romam statim proficiscatur.' After a sullen silence of two weeks and more, he writes that he will neither go nor abandon the theories of Mr. George that if he could he would take away, all the world over, all property in land, without one cent of compensation to the miscalled owners.' Eheu!"
'

make land common property
If

'

xix.).

;

'

strongest single-taxer could not help feeling for Corrigan, whose severest trials were yet to come. By ambition a recluse and scholar, he had been made by

The

How different strongly it consoles and sustains me these struggles with the spirit of evil from the blessed peace of the Saint of Monte Cassino, whose Feast we celebrate to-day By this time the main facts of the case, told in fifty pages of sworn testimony, are before There are so many adminicula, so the Holy Office. circumstantial of bits evidence, so many notorious many
! !

an odious battle. A year later he wrote to Manning (February 10, 1888) " I have your sympathetic note of January 27. How
fate the standard-bearer in
:

357

Henry Edward Manning
same way, that the testimony must be believed. If the poor man had not so reviled the Holy See and all its officials, there would have been a feeling of tenderness and pity for him but he has been his own worst enemy. You will see this even from his tirade on last Sunday night. The Holy Father has most kindly
facts all pointing the
;

taken a personal influence in this case.
writes from

ment. XIII.
solus,
literas

An
is

now on

secretary that his hand is guiding every moveinstructio of Propaganda approved by Leo

Rome

My

its

the following cable

way came

to
'
:

New York. This afternoon Ho die ad audientiam receptus
Mihi dabit McDonnell.'

dona
tibi

tradendas.

obtuli, gratias reddit Pontifex. Forti animo esto,

The good Bishop of Piacenza has opened an institute for Italian priests willing to aid their countrymen in America, North and South. There are 80,000 Italians in this city, of only two per cent, have been in the habit of hearing Mass. Pray for us and our many wants, and give your blessing to one who needs it most of all, to carry on the work for souls."

whom

Following the defection of McGlynn arose a far greater question which was to test the leadership of the young
Cardinal Gibbons to the utmost. The Labour trouble had come with a vengeance. The American workingmen, of whom numbers were Catholic, were organising In selfthemselves among the Knights of Labour. protection certain means were used to ensure secrecy, and the Knights immediately fell under the ban of the Hierarchy of Canada. Though the Knights of Labour

were purely secular, the Cardinal could see far enough into the future to realise that they afforded a temporary
solution of the

Labour Question.

The

question had

arisen whether the Bishops of the United States would join in the condemnation or not. The head of the Knights
of Labour,

who was a Catholic, conferred with Cardinal and the Cardinal in turn conferred with Gibbons, President Cleveland, and by letter with Cardinal Manning. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the Canadian policy would be a mistake in the States;
358

The Coming

of Democracy

and, in the end, ten out of the twelve American Archbishops supported this view. But the condemnation of the Knights had actually been prepared at Rome, and it

was already a case of reversing a decision. Archbishops Ireland and Spalding urged an offensive; and, though the responsibility fell on him alone, Gibbons signed his famous letter believing that he had compromised his
Cardinalitial status.

When he took the matter to Rome he had the assurance of a defensive and offensive alliance

with Manning, whose zeal went out to the Republican Primate, and whose battle he made his own. He saw immediately that this was a bid to retain civilised Labour
in the

Church, from which
it
.

it

without which
degradation

was bound
of

had originally sprung, and to return to some form of

The opponent

Gibbons, Cardinal Taschereau of

Quebec, was largely a creation of Manning. In 1885 Sir John Macdonald, the Canadian Premier, had visited him in London in order to press the elevation of a North American Cardinal. Manning seized the chance to add to the British vote in the Senate of the Church, and wrote to Macdonald (April 3, 1886) "I have reason to hope that my letter to the Holy Father has not been without result, and that in the next Consistory you will find your wishes fulfilled. Let me thank you for giving me the least opportunity of doing the least act in showing my veneration for the Church in Canada." In June Canada acquired her first Cardinal, and Macdonald wrote grate" I can assure your Eminence that fully (June 12, 1886) have you gratified beyond expression some two millions of Catholics by your exertions in this cause. Nothing can exceed the enthusiasm of the French Canadians, and I have not failed to inform Archbishop Taschereau and my French Canadian colleagues in the Government of
:

:

your kind intervention." It is pleasant to record that Canada owes her permanent red hat to the initiative of Westminster.
359

Henry Edward Manning
When Cardinal Gibbons set out for Rome, by a coincidence Cardinal Taschereau sailed on the same ship, though his object was to uphold the condemnation of the Knights. Cardinal Taschereau rallied no little feeling
for his purpose in antiquated circles in Europe. Only in Westminster or Rome could Gibbons have secured an But it soon became clear that unprejudiced hearing. hard fighting and harder logic were needed if the Knights were to be recognised by the Vatican. Gibbons brought for allies Bishop Keane, then of Richmond, and Mgr. Denis O'Connell, Bishop of Richmond later. Keane had

already written imploring Manning to use his influence to have the McGlynn case settled as the case of an individual, and not as the occasion of deciding a large social question (February 10, 1887)
:

The labour question and the social question involved the case of poor McGlynn have given us infinite anxiety and no little work. Hot-headed parties here were
in

"

urging examinations and condemnations that were utterly unnecessary, that would broaden the case of the disobedient and cranky priest into a question that would be regarded as a Papal intervention in American affairs similar to the one that is now so seriously threatening the union of the Catholics of Germany. If your Eminence agrees in the view we take, you would do a great service to the Church by begging the Holy Father not to order or permit any overt discussion of the American social questions at present, both because they have not ripened yet and taken shape and because the action of the Holy See could hardly fail to be odious to the whole American public and to split up Catholic unity. Things can safely be left to right themselves in our political machine doctrinal decisions would not help the work."
further appeal to Manning to come out immediately favour of Cardinal Gibbons met with a response. The old cry of "Socialism" had been raised, and the Cardinal had been added to the noble company who have been unjustly delated to Rome. Since the days of the Baptist
in

A

360

The Coming

of Democracy

the path of the pathfinder has been difficult. Fortunately, however, Gibbons was to prove a prophet unrejected in his own country. Feeling he had the common sense of America behind him, he delivered his masterly letter to Cardinal Simeoni. It had not been intended for publication, but it was revealed by the happy zeal of a correspondent. Bishop Keane wrote to Manning (February
28, 1887)
:

You will see how the utterances which have for ever secured to your Eminence the noble title of Friend of the People have done our Cardinal good service in his defence of the rights of the working millions. He had an interview this morning on these subjects with the chief officials of the Holy Office, with most gratifying results.
'
'

"

was easy to see that in his words they felt the weight whole Hierarchy, the whole clergy, and the whole people of America, and that his sentiments had already produced among them an evident change of front. A few weeks ago the drift was towards condemnation,
It

of the

regardless of the widespread disastrous consequences would inevitably have ensued. To-day the keynote was that the convictions of the Bishops of America are the safest guide of the Holy Office in its action on American affairs, and that they will let well enough ." March 14, 1887 "It is no small venture alone. to utter such sentiments in an atmosphere like this of Rome; and, to make the situation more trying, the document was somehow gotten hold of by a reporter of the New York Herald, and published in full. For a time the Cardinal was very apprehensive but telegrams, and now newspaper comments, are coming in of a most cheering character, showing that the publication of the document has done great good among the people of
that
. . : ;

America."
Cardinal

Gibbons

himself
:

wrote his

gratitude

to

Manning (March

14, 1887)

"Your esteemed and valued favour is received in which your Eminence is graciously pleased to assent to the views submitted to the Propaganda regarding Henry
361

Henry Edward Manning
George and the Knights of Labour. I cannot sufficiently express to you how much I felt strengthened in my position by being able to refer in the document to your utterances on the claims of the working-man to our sympathy, and how I am cheered beyond measure in

receiving from your own pen an endorsement of my sentiments and those of my American colleagues now in

Rome. God grant that the Church of America may escape the dire calamity of a condemnation which would be disastrous to the future interests of religion among us !

I shall be exceedingly grateful to your Eminence if you can send me a copy of the Lecture on The Dignity and are indebted more than you are Rights of Labour. aware to the influence of your name in discussing these social questions and in influencing the public mind. joyfully adopt your Eminence into the ranks of our Knighthood; you have nobly won your spurs !"

We

We

As soon as Cardinal Gibbons published his document, Manning issued his corroboration and adhesion in The
Tablet.

Not unhumorously he pressed

his views

on the

authorities, when he pointed out that trade unions herself, whence they originated in the Collegia of " In the Church of Santa passed into the Christian Law :

Roman

Rome

Orto every chapel belongs to, and is mainsome college or universitas of various trades." That such was the case was not lost on the officials. The victory subsequently won in the Propaganda was comIt was a real red-letter day both in the history of plete. the Church and in that of Labour. Henceforth Cardinal Gibbons and his Knights could go their way sans -peur et sans reproche. Bishop Keane wrote triumphantly to

Maria

dell'

tained by,

Manning (March
clear, letters will be

22, 1887)

:

strong, wise words of your Eminence's a bulwark to the truth and a rebuke to mischief-makers. The impression produced here seems to be excellent. Nay, our victory is already won Cardinal Taschereau has gone home with directions from the Holy Office to grant absolution to all the thousands of poor fellows who have been cut off from the Sacraments by 362
.

"The

The Coming
.

of Democracy

." gratias! April 23, 1887 : Mgr. Jacobini was in favour of its publication in the Moniteur, which I feel sure Cardinal Simeoni would not have authorised. He is the embodiment of timid and suspicious conservatism. I explained to him how an advocacy of popular rights was no friendliness to Socialism, and that our aim was recognising the inevitable tendency to Democracy not to leave it to be ruled by the devil, but to hold it in the ways of God. He took it all with his gentle smile, which always seems to mean half consent and half fear. He has a mortal dread of newspapers. can expect from him only the toleration of our ideas. Cardinal Simeoni, and probably others with him, link together the Labour Movement in America and the Home Rule Movement in Ireland; and the dire colours in which poor Ireland is
.

the condemnation in Canada, and there does not seem to be any danger now of a condemnation for America. Deo "

We

now being The times

painted cast a glare of suspicion upon us too. are certainly critical, but we know we are

advancing truth and justice."

On
of the

his

way home, Cardinal Gibbons paid a
Manning's
felicitations.
difficult parts in

visit to

London

to receive

Both had

played lonely and

Church

of the future

under the

laying the foundations cross-fire of both

the reactionary and the revolutionary. Both had weighed the standard laws of political economy and found them

wanting.

Both had sought to exert influence on Demoto be coloured therefrom in turn. Manning cracy, declared he was a Radical after the pattern of the Pentateuch and Gibbons was an American citizen primus inter pares, whether among his fellow-citizens or on the Bench It was inevitable that under the attacks of of Bishops. the less enlightened they should have gravitated to a heartfelt understanding. When they met to compare

and

;

notes,

pioned,

and discuss the championship of the unchamit may be said that the East and the West were meeting in a sense that had not occurred before. Gibbons returned to America to gather for thirty years to come
the fruit of his far-sighted action
;

while Manning, with

363

Henry Edward Manning
but a few years left of life, was yet to interpose in the great London Dock Strike, and by his action win for " the Primacy of himself, in the words of the Press,

England."
Later in 1888, when there was some possibility of Henry George's Progress and Poverty being placed on
the Index, Cardinal Gibbons appealed to his old ally to prevent what would have had a disastrous effect in

America. He felt that any errors in George's theories would be brought out and corrected by the freedom of
debate without the need of a special
Besides, there were

condemnation.
the book of

many social truths in which both he and Manning were aware. therefore, to Manning (March 23, 1888)
:

He

wrote,

Private and Confidential. While I was in Rome in the spring of '87, I felt it my duty to urge the Congregation of the Index not to condemn Henry George's Progress and Poverty. I addressed the letter to Cardinal Simeoni, and my impression is that I sent your Eminence a copy of the letter at the time. I have been informed confidentially, within the last few days, that, yielding to a pressure from a certain quarter in this country, the Congregation was inclined to put the book on the Index, notwithstanding my earnest deprecating letter of last year, whose force is perhaps weakened for want of insistence. The reasons I presented then for withholding a condemnation are stronger to-day, and my anticipations have been verified regarding the effect of Mr. George's book in the public mind. I would deplore an official condemnation of the book for the following reasons among others (i) The book is now almost forgotten, and to put it on the Index would revive it in the popular mind, would arouse a morbid interest in the work, and would tend to increase its circulation. (2) The author himself has ceased to be a prominent leader in politics, he excites little or no attention, and whatever influence he has politically he promises to exert in favour of the re-election of President Cleveland. (3) The condemnation of his book would awaken sympathy for him. He would be regarded as a martyr to Catholic intolerance
:

"

364

The Coming

of Democracy

by many Protestants. (4) It would afford to the ministers and bigots (always anxious to find a weak spot in our armour) an occasion to denounce the Church as the enemy of free discussion. (5) The errors in the book have been amply refuted by able theologians. I write to beg your Eminence to help us in preventing a condemnation, especially as you belong to the Congregation of the Index. It is important not to reveal any knowledge of the threatened condemnation. The letter might be based on the recent surreptitious publication of my letter in the New York Herald, and the favourable comments on it, as far as I have seen, on the part of the secular Press.

My

belief is that with

tions,

very few, not a half-dozen, excepthe Episcopate of this country would deplore a
to

condemnation. Your Eminence's knightly help last year prompts me to call on you again."

me

To Cardinal Manning's assurance that he need have no fear, Cardinal Gibbons replied (May 23, 1888) " I am very glad that in your Eminence's opinion there is no danger that Henry George's book will be put on the Index. There is very considerable commotion in this
:

country over the recent Rescript in reference to the Irish Question. It will require all the tact and prudence of the Episcopate of the United States to quiet the public mind and to prevent unfortunate consequences. Tomorrow the corner-stone of the University is to be laid with imposing ceremonies, and we hope that the President and his Cabinet will attend."

The following year the Church in the States celebrated a centenary, and, though pressed to come, Manning would only write a letter with the far-thrown sentence " In the greatest Commonwealth, and in the greatest Empire of the world, the Church Catholic and Roman, deeply rooted and daily expanding, calls the freed races of mankind to the liberty of Faith, the only true liberty
:

of

man."

"We

to Cardinal Gibbons (March 31, 1890) thought when we were writing about the Knights of Labour in Rome, a few years ago, that every
later
:

And

little

365

Henry Edward Manning
word would be so soon published to the world by an Emperor and a Pope. This is surely the new world overshadowing the old, and the Church walking like its
Master

among

the people of Christendom.

Were we

prophets?" When he saw this letter, Archbishop Ireland wrote to Baltimore: "The words are cheering, and to you who staked your name on the outcome of the problem, then rather obscure, they must have been very gratifying. You were a prophet The people are the power, and the Church must be with the people. I wish all our own Bishops understood this truth!" As Manning's influence reached the French world through Cardinal
!

Lavigerie, so it was to act for a generation upon the American Church through Archbishops Gibbons and
Ireland,

who both regarded

and hero- worshippers.

themselves as his pupils Their recommendations for the

Episcopate bore the Manning stamp.

The

tide of revolution

had overwhelmed Pius.

His

successor, rather than remain submerged, preferred to hoist the sail of Democracy and float on the ebb. For

Manning this opened a new era of activity. Though his personal intimacy with Pius was unrepeatable, his character accorded more closely to that of Leo. They were both aristocrats by birth and training, who were seeking to to win popular sympathies to the Church. Manning " Ireland seemed Leo's reflection Once Archbishop elsewhere in Europe I was in presence of a mind that seemed an image of Leo's not resplendent as Leo's mind, but yet an image of it." Of all the Cardinals, Manning seems to have left the greatest impress on Leo and on his writing on social questions. Of the antislavery campaign Vaughan wrote (October 17, 1880) " Bilio said The Pope was telling only the other day
:
: '

:

me that who put
slaves.

this last Encyclical is

the idea into

my

head
366

to

It was he Manning's. do something for the

He

is

a

man

di vaste vedute,

and

his conversa-

The Coming of Democracy
I have written this Encyclical tion is full of suggestion. in consequence of conversation with him.'

my

'

Leo's Encyclicals on Labour were prompted by direct action on Manning's part. He had taken up the challenge Mr. Hyndman once sent him (November 26, 1886) " It has often surprised me that no Catholic in this country has ever striven to emulate the noble work of M. le Play or to take a leaf out of the book of le Comte de Mun. That the fight of the future will be between Catholics and ourselves both sides recognise, but that is surely no reason why each should not recognise the
:

economic truths taught by the eminent men of the opposite camp. It is because something might still be done to stave off the relentless class war which is impending in this England of ours that
this letter."
I

venture to write you

He

Manning "favoured
noted
:

the strike

and the trade union.

What

a

shall not

do

for him.

man can do for himself the State And the converse if good. ThereSelf-help
is collective.

fore Self-help under limitation.

Therefore Union."

But

after

"Bloody Sunday" he wrote
20,

to

Stead

(November "Trafalgar Square seriously checking the spread of sympathy with Ireland and the The combination of Socialists and restitution of justice. the outcast population, which is our rebuke, sin, shame, scandal, and will be our scourge, is a misrepresentation of law and liberty and justice. The appeal to physical
1887):
is

force

is

criminal and immoral

venial in

men maddened

by
he

suffering, but inexcusable in others."

To Mr. Bodley

wrote

:

"If

capitalists will engineer a slope If they will not, I collisions.

rough time." remedy that Capital should open its books and " a just rule for profits and salaries." To Sir publish " The only practical scheme Samuel Boulton he wrote
the
:

householders, and avert disastrous am afraid you will see a In the simplicity of his heart he offered
the

landholders,

we may

367

Henry Edward Manning
would be
in the

apportionment of wages to the employers'
Sliding scales and

profit, subject to periodical revision.

bonus are sure
employers
to hide

"

to get out of gear." The refusal of the implied to me fear and suspicion, something

He approved of i.e., disproportioned gains." land instead of taxes and To relieve taking reselling it. in in London he The Times unemployment suggested " a light hearth tax." He held that a man had the right " a to work or eat wild proposition," according to The the Cardinal supported it from Duns Times, though Scotus. In reply to Giffen, the solemn statistician, he thundered: "Theories of gradual accumulation of surplus will not feed hungry men, women, and children, I and hunger cannot be sent to Jupiter or to Saturn.
would
raise

ask, What number of years may be required to the level of surplus and employment over the

Giffen replied, Labour well of have preferred to may infinity years," " " tremendous Giffen chance the cataclysm prophesied In spite of an attack from of Manning's remedy.

surface of the country?"

When

"An

Tillett

Huxley, Manning stuck to his guns, writing to Ben " How can any man hinder or discourage the of food or help? Why is the house called a giving workhouse ? Because it is for those who cannot work ? No, because it was the house to give work or bread. The very name is an argument. I am very sure what our Lord and His Apostles would do if they were in
:

London."

He
ought
those

wrote to

Tom Mann
for those

to find

work

"The who want
:

public authorities

work, or

relief for

who

cannot."

responsible for the

As these two forceful men were London Dock Strike of 1889, it is

interesting to record their sentiments to the Cardinal, who attained his zenith of social fame by resolving the same strike, the most important in the history of Labour.

Mann

wrote of Manning

:

"I
368

shall ever

as the finest example

of genuine devotion to the

remember him down-

The Coming
trodden
.

of Democracy

He was never too busy to be consulted, or too with Church affairs to admit of his giving occupied
any group of men, whom kindly influence could help, and he was equally keen to understand any plans of ours to improve the lot of these men."
detailed attention to

Manning always encouraged Ben

Tillett

upon the path

of true agitatorship, which he believed should include "a cross as well as a crown," and Tillett recorded the

Cardinal's influence How it burned and nature and out called of the depths the singed my and so the primitive courage, persistence which helped in the formation of the Gasworkers' Union !" In August, 1889, the London Dockers revolted under their casual and crushing conditions of labour. They were the hungry men who carried the food of London, and they struck for an additional penny to the fivepence The Directors had made the they received per hour. mistake of dividing one man's work amongst many, and the public, who supported the Dockers, made the mistake
effect of the

"

of believing that the Directors earned huge dividends. The hungry men who carried the food of London struck

tanner," but before they won it troops were The strike aroused "sympathy," and set the Thames on fire. There were meetings in the same " in a place where Froissart says Wat Tyler's men met, nosquare called St. Catherine's before the Tower." work manifesto and the approach of starvation to their
for their

"

mobilised.

A

families brought Manning on the scene. Mr. Champion recorded the three decisive stages of the strike to be

"The
parley.

ultimatum of the Directors to hold no further
concession of a few wharf-owners to accept the
intervention of Cardinal

"The

men's terms.

"The

Manning."
Harkness brought "Religion?" asked

August Manning word from the
Friday,

On

Miss 30, strikers.
369

2B

Henry Edward Manning
old
said

Newman,

politics."

She continued " Half an hour later I saw Cardinal Manning. Then I went away When I came back to fetch a list of the Dock Directors. he was saying Mass. After that I had the satisfaction of seeing him drive off in his carriage to the City." There was no more perfect and dramatic scene in his whole life than when the Cardinal arose in his ghost hour of anecdote and reminiscence to face the reality of a bitter London strike. A dying man went down to rescue a " went to render dead city. "The Archbishop of Tyre He found the Lord Mayor civic first-aid to Tyre's port. and Home Secretary out of town. He himself never took

the butler, pointing to the chapel. No, "The Cardinal isn't as young as he was,"

"

Newman

thoughtfully.

:

holidays.
tors at

He

proceeded solemnly to address the Direcbrother that a

of

Dock House. He claimed to speak as the a former Dock Chairman, and threatened

was imminent. He told the Press that he had had good men to talk to, but confided to the strikers that he had never "preached to so impenitent a congregaA week later the Mayor returned, and an tion !" enthusiastic curate fetched Temple, the Bishop of Lonrevolution

don. A strong committee of reconciliation could now be formed, and one of them, Lord Buxton, described the " Cardinal, how day after day from ten in the morning till seven or eight at night he spent interviewing, discussing, negotiating, sometimes waiting hour after hour He patiently but anxiously at the Mansion House. never appeared disheartened or cast down. He was always confident that with time, tact, and patience, peace would speedily prevail." A certain rivalry arose between " It the clergy, which is described by Tillett was interesting to watch the combat of the Churches over the bodies of the Dockers. But the older man was more
:

human and
the Church.

subtle, his

He

diplomacy that of the ages and chided the pomp of the Lord Mayor,
370

the harshness of Temple, the pushfulness of Burns."

The Coming
the Dockers'
offered

of Democracy

The committee met the leaders, and the date for granting "tanner" was discussed. April i was

and rejected as obvious foolery by the men. Then March I. "I appeal to your Eminence," said Burns "have the men not behaved with sweet reason-

"Then I do not son, they have." think they ought to be asked to wait till March." January i was then accepted, and that evening Cardinal, Bishop, and Mayor waited on the Directors, who made a grudging acceptance the next day at four in the afternoon
ableness?"

"My

on condition the

strikers acceded that evening. The Cardinal waited at Mansion House till ten that night, but no answer came. The strikers had issued a manifesto

repudiating all they had agreed to through Burns and Directors and Bishop withdrew in disgust, the Cardinal to make the best of it. Manning leaving sent sadly for Tillett, and agreed to make a fresh effort for peace, but forbade the strikers to serenade his house. The men wished the date to be October i, and NovemOne Toomey ber 4 was suggested as a compromise. that should meet the men on their proposed Manning
Tillett.

own ground. The Mayor left London in despair, and Manning drove down alone to Poplar (September 10,
1889).

A

conference of three hours took place in the

Wade

Street School, but all Manning's eloquence could not prevail on the men to accept November 4. For two

hours the debate raged without a single ray of hope. Manning analysed and criticised their own arguments, and in turn pleaded or threatened. Then he played his
last card.

He

would

call

on the

Irish Catholics in the

Docks, and they would hear his voice. Tom McCarthy was won, and others murmured assent. Finally, Mr. " If Champion, an English secularist, who used to say, the Cardinal told me to cut my hair in a tonsure I should do it," proposed "That this meeting empowers Cardinal Manning to inform the Dock Directors that the men are willing to meet them halfway in the matter of the time at
37 1

Henry Edward Manning
is to begin, and to accept Monday, November 4, as the date." This was carried by 28 to 15, and of the minority all but one eventually acquiesced.

which the payment
"

as he

fight," the Cardinal might have said with the resolution in his pocket, signed by allthe leaders. As he drove home with Lord Buxton, he
It

was a running
left

This shows the perpetual advantage sagely remarked of acting on that aphorism, If you want a thing done, go He waited for two if you want it neglected, send!" his When the Directors were before powers. using days
:
;

"

beginning to

uneasy, he went to them as plenistrikers. On September 12 the the potentiary " if Directors agreed to consider the terms they came
feel

for

through Cardinal Manning," but on condition that the sympathy strike was also ended. This required two days of further persuasion, but on September 14 all sides " To Father Lawless Cardinal's Peace." signed the " This is a great joy, Manning sent word the same day thank God. I am too weary to come, and shall make to-morrow a day of rest. But give my blessing to your " If there were people." And to Lord Buxton next day anything to be done I would not fail to be with you, but we have only to rejoice over the happy close. For a month past I have seen the Thames as stagnant as the Dead Sea. To-morrow I hope to see it once more full of The life and motion worthy of the Port of London." Peace was not without its troubles, as the Cardinal wrote " If the Directors a month again (September 21, 1889) ago had met their men face to face until they had come to agreement, the strike would have ended in ten days. Instead of this they tried to go round at the back of the men and to fill their places with men from Greenock, Liverpool, and, it was said, frpm Antwerp. If they had succeeded we should have had bloodshed. Fifty thousand strangers at work and fifty thousand old hands out in the cold would have ended in an interminable conflict. Their failure in this has saved them. And then they call
:

:

:

372

The Coming
on us
to rescue

of Democracy

them from the dangers caused by their Buxton invited the partial success in a blind policy." Cardinal to be present at the triumph of November 4, but it was a day belonging to St. Charles, and Manning
It is impossible. The 4th of November is a day on which for thirty-two years I have been bound to be at our house at Bayswater." When St. Charles's Day was chosen as the compromise date between January and October Manning must have perceived a sign from Heaven, and attributed victory to his dear Saint. But the workmen would not pass him over, and out of their pennies collected ;i6o, with which Manning endowed a bed in the London Hospital. In their Address they said: "When we remember how your Eminence, unasked and unsolicited, under the weight of fourscore and two years, came forward to mediate between master and man when we remember your prudent and wise counsels not to let any heat of passion or unreasonable view of the position beguile us or lead us away from the fair point of duty to our employers and ourselves and when, in fine, we recall to mind your venerable figure in our midst

wrote

"

:

;

;

for over four hours in the to our complaints

Wade

Street School, listening

and giving us advice in our doubts and difficulties, we seem to see a father in the midst of a loving and well-loved family rather than the
ordinary mediator or benefactor in the thick of a trade dispute." Though Manning's success was resented in Temple's biography, Archbishop Benson noted very gracefully

(September 17, 1889) "Cardinal Manning has done well in London. But why has my dear Bishop
in his diary
:

of

London gone back and
strike

left

it

to

him

?

Are the
in

Dockers on
his final

Roman

Catholics

all ?

Manning

speech says he should have been guilty of dereliction of duty if he had not tried to do what his position demanded. Whatever that may be, he has done it well and with deserved honour."
little

373

Henry Edward Manning
New Review Manning summed up the strike "What we may hope will come from this strike is
In the
registration of labourers and This will clear the dock gates
:

a

an organisation of labour.

and the East of London of thousands who year by year flow in from the country without knowledge or skill. They become a floating population of disappointed men indolent because unemployed, living from hand to mouth, and dangerous because they have nothing to lose starving in the midst of wealth and prosperity from which they are excluded. Nevertheless, without any blind self-praise, I believe we may say that since the Cotton Famine of the North there has been no nobler example of self-command than we have seen in the last month. And I am bound to bear witness not only to the self-command of the men, but also to the measured language and calm courtesy of the employers."
:

The

Press
of

admitted

that

Manning had won

the

England, and Punch celebrated the event by suggesting a Privy Councillorship and the new nursery

Primacy
:

rhyme

"Dickory, Dickory, Dock

!

The Cardinal picked the dead The men struck. Then They worked agen, Dickory, Victory, Dock !"

lock.

In the matter of the Cardinal's subscription to the

Dockers Lord Randolph Churchill said to a reproving American journalist, "What do you mean by 'encouraging disorder ? I would gladly give ^25 myself if I had it." Manning had profoundly impressed Church and State. Thenceforward he was able to exert a favourable influence in the world of Labour. He could humorously bind over Tillett to make no wild speeches
'

for a while, and when Tillett, feeling like a guilty schoolboy, visited him, he could ask whether he had kept his " promise. Fairly," answered the leader of thousands. The Cardinal drew a strong speech of his from a drawer and proceeded to read it in a clear voice. [Tillett turned

374

The Coming of Democracy
away
dear Benjamin," said the crestfallen; but " if I were as young as you Cardinal, opening the door, I should do the same!" Constantly appealed to by both sides, he tried to hold the balance fairly. More than one strike he averted and others he brought to an end. He wisely did not sit in judgment, but brought

"My

men together. He knew well that on technical points he would be a fisherman off his waters. Nevertheless, he attempted to theorise in letters. To Lord Buxton he was writing during that winter (November 16,
1889)
:

"

I

agree in every word you have written.

The men
If

are unreasonable.

They

will lose their

monopoly.

anything ought to be reopened, the half-hour of dinner for the Dockers ought to be. You know, of course, that when Dockers grow grey they stain their hair lest they should be turned off as old men. I am afraid that the Port of London will be like Venice and Gothland." November 17 "I have seen Mr. Toomey. I warned him about the monopoly, and told him to go to the men and say, You have wind and tide with you do not turn it against you." November 30 "I am afraid that some bad fellows have got among the men, and that some good men are not better for the strike and the Gospel of Hyde Park. I am not sanguine of a quiet subsidence. Winter is come, and the whole Labour Question is up. The Silvertown strikers are coming here to-day. I could not refuse them, but I can do little for them." Decem"The Lord Mayor has called us here about the ber ii coalworkers' case. It is intolerable that London should at any moment be in darkness because a private company I wish you were in is pleased to quarrel with their men. London, for I am out of my depth with gas wages." "I have been turning over the strike December 27 matters, and the more I think the more I am on the side Labour and skill are Capital as much as of Labour. and silver. Labour and skill can produce without gold Gold and silver are dependent on gold and silver. Labour and skill, but Labour and skill are independent in limine. The union of the two Capitals demands
:
;

:

:

:

375

Henry Edward Manning
participation in the product. Wages are a minimised money representation of shares in product that is, in Silvertown gives 15 per cent, to its shareholders profits. and denies halfpence and farthings to its workers. This is more or less the state of the labour market at large. No strike is worth making except for a twofold share in the profits of a twofold Capital. But individualism, selfishness, freedom of contract, and competition, have obliterated the first principles of the Metayer System." January 21, 1890: clergyman said last week: The Dockers' Strike succeeded because the police did not do their duty; the Gas Strike has failed because the police did their duty. The freedom of contract is maintained by the truncheon. There is no justice, mercy, or compassion in the Plutocracy. There is my creed."

"A

Samuel Boulton was made Chairman of the ConBoard. That he was the owner of the Cardinal's birthplace was not the only reason for the Cardinal's esteem; he wrote to him freely as a representative of
Sir
ciliation

"I have been enlightened Capital (January 14, 1890) continually thinking of the main question of Capital and Labour, and it seems to me that until labour and skill are recognised as Capital as truly as gold and silver, the
:

primary and

vital

relations of

employed
blower

will

never be understood.

the employer and the Even the organ-

to the organist." principle of '89, which the Dock Strike estab"The day will come lished, was that of Arbitration. when it will be our safety," wrote the Cardinal. "It is not true that such contests are the private affairs of
is vital

The

masters and men.
killed

But

this theory will not die

till

it is

by public catastrophe." To Archbishop Walsh " We he wrote (March i, 1890) have been under the
:

despotism of Capital. The union of labourers only shelter, and the Capitalists have now wisely

is

their

a union of their own. This is it has rendered the intervention of a third party necessary to peace and fair play on both sides."

formed altogether legitimate, and

376

The Coming of Democracy
He
still

kept in touch with Gladstone, writing during

these controversies

(November

8,

1889)

:

"Will you kindly send me the exact quotation of the words in which you sent Political Economy to Jupiter and Saturn. You never said anything truer. Freedom
of Contract is to Political Economy as vaccination is to the practice of medicine. But our later Political Economists have forgotten everything beyond the exchange of values. The Wealth of Nations is not represented by money only or cotton twist." August 27, "I find them very reasonable. They want to 1890 reform, not to destroy. They both come to me and write
:

me, and twice last winter they listened, and undid an imprudence which they had done. They are now once more, I fear, near the rocks. The Times of to-day has an article which to me is brutal. It claims for Capital the absolute dictatorship of Labour. My belief is that in justice, natural and supernatural, there is a proportion between profit and wages. The Metayer System was founded on it. It ought to be recognised and embodied
to
in all free contracts, subject to periodical revision. Until this is done strikes are inevitable. not overtax your

Do

time of rest, and remember Apollo's bow." October 5, " The Charity Organisation Society will burn you 1890 in effigy. They tell us that four millions are given every year in charity in London, and, as they say, wasteI rejoice in it. It is the lightning fully and unwisely. conductor which saves us. And as to the waste and wisdom I am content that many unworthy should share rather than one worthy case be without help. Like the waste of nature. Where should we be if 60 or 70 millions were wisely given every year? or even given? But, as you say, men do not think and self is never denied. What peace and love there would be if Mr. A Carnegie's gospel were believed and practised thousand men with 20 rounds at Chatham, with tugs, steam up to coerce the gas stokers at Becton. Are we
:

!

under martial law? A Government weak and unpopular I remember Peterloo and rests on police and soldiers. Bristol, and seem to be young again, or at least to be under the old Tory ascendancy."
377

Henry Edward Manning
Girdlestone he wrote (January 22, 1891) do not venture to define Socialism, for in truth it has never yet been fixed, and the flux of opinion is always moving. All just legislation must be social that is conservative of human society. But Socialism seems to me to denote an abnormal treatment of social needs and of Society itself. Socialism is to Society what rationalism is to reason. But whether you and I can agree in this
:

To Canon

"

I

academical question, we are heartily agreed in sympathy with the world of labour and poverty." And to Mrs. Hamilton King (February 28, 1891) " Little progress towards peace is, I fear, made or making. The Masters' Federation seem to me not to wish for it. They seem to be blind." Mrs. King was
:

the poetess of the strike
" He

:

sat not in the
tithes to

No

House of him were told

Peers,

;

But he counted the souls of Londoners
rich man counts his gold. What were the Powers he wrestled with ? We do not know them plain But we know that he won the poor man's And the labourer's lasting gain."

As a

.

.

.

:

cause,

The following year Leo published his Encyclical Rerum Novarum on Labour, and heralded its arrival by a personal letter to Manning in Italian (January 17, " 1891): Signor Cardinale, The letter of New Year
wishes, which you sent according to your old custom of reverence and piety, was very pleasing. Not more pleasing is the pacified state of public affairs which you mention, and that the nations enjoy the ever-to-be-

and prayer

Our foremost desire should come to Ireland, too long given over to unmerited calamities. It is not unknown to you, dear son, how anxious we are made by
prayed-for peace and tranquillity.
to

God

is

that

it

the fortunes of that race. No less is the care which touches you as to the condition of working-men. are engaged in the consideration of each matter, and as

We

378

The Coming

of Democracy

soon as we are able we will take pains that neither our duty nor charity are lacking to either cause. Seek and strive with Divine goodness that our counsels and efforts may prove fruitful. Meantime, dear son, to you and your clergy and people we accord the apostolic benediction. LEO. PP. XIII." Dr. Walsh wrote from Rome (March 24, 1891) " The Holy Father is in wonderful spirits. He spoke at great He had length to me about the coming Encyclical. asked your Eminence to send him a bravo scrittore to
:

the English translation. After a good deal of talk he said that it was to be taken in hand by your Eminence and me. I was glad to find that His Holiness knew of The phraseology throughout was Gladstone's Bill.

make

Whigs and
think
I

I Tories, not Liberali and Conservatori. trace your Eminence's influence in this as in

many
visit.

other things that I have noted here during this How pleasant a contrast from the state of things
:

here in 1888!"

Manning answered (Easter Day, 1891) "Your letter was a true gaudium Paschale, for it not only shows that you have the full confidence of Leo XIII., but that the whole policy of the Bishops in Ireland is safe and sure.
It is of

direct.

great importance that you should hereafter write If you can get a copy of the Encyclical some

days before the newspapers have it, we may get it well April 12, 1891: "The Holy Father had the offer of the Bishop of Newport (Benedictine accepted and a very good scholar) to translate it, and he is ready to do so, and we can revise it." Dr. Walsh brought the advance copy, with another letter from the Pope (May n, " You will occupy yourself diligently making the 1891) version with great fidelity and accuracy. English desire you to arrange with Mgr. Walsh for the simultaneous publication of the document in England and
translated."
:

We

Ireland.

We

sent

to serve for circulation in

you word that the English edition is America also, and it will be
379

Henry Edward Manning
therefore necessary to send some thousands of copies to are grateful for the important Cardinal Gibbons. communications you have periodically made to us upon

We

the affairs of Ireland. From the turn of events we are able to hope that the sustained attitude of the Episcopate will result in the desired success."

The Encyclical was impartially translated, Bishop Hedley taking the conservative and Manning the proManning, for instance, insisted on gressive view. The using the word "strike" and not a euphemism. Encyclical showed signs of being based on the Cardinal's
letter to the

Congress of Liege the preceding year.

The

parallel is close in

some sentences

:

Cardinal Manning.
Political

Leo XIII.
Each one has a right to procure what is required in order to live.
It
is

Economy
of

a

matter

exchanges

is not values and only, but of

human

life.

put labour and wages first and human or domestic life second is to invert the order of God and of
nature.

To

shameful

and

to treat men like chattels to make money by.

inhuman

In mines and other severe labours a day of eight hours is reasonable.
right of uniting for mutual protection and support is a natural and legiti-

Those

who

work

in

mines should have shorter
hours. If the State forbids
its

The

mate

right.

citizens to form associations it contradicts the very principle of its own exist-

ence.

" I wrote to the Cardinal (June 9, 1891) have just been reading the Pope's letter a very courageous one indeed, one that will test good Catholics much more effectively than any exhortation to religious worship. As you know, some of us would disagree very strongly with many of the strictures laid upon Socialists. These are minor matters. The Catholic

Ben

Tillett

:

380

The Coming of Democracy
in a generous strength. I hardly think our Protestant prelates would dare utter such wholesome doctrine." Catholic Democracy had come at last, and lifted itself upon the wings of the English-speaking Churches. The

sympathy abounds

Holy Church had seemingly Failed to turn the movement 1848 to the progress and strength of the Church, though the young and hopeful Pio Nono was at the head. It was for his successor to encourage Manning and the Archbishops of America and Ireland to take a place in the social movement which threatened, unless guided, to sweep away the landmarks of the nineteenth
of

century.

CHAPTER XX: IRELAND AGAIN
"I am
St.
I

Gregory VII.

Radical and Irish, but always after the manner and measure of Do not fight for me. Let me be beaten. My Radicalism

in the words,
eat.'
clettck,

learned of Moses and of St. Paul, and I may say my politics are summed up ' I have compassion on the multitude, for they have nothing to

Now,
1869.

there

is

a confession

for

you."

Manning to

the

Duchess of Buc-

"What I would suggest to you would be that we should follow the same course as the Bishops in Ireland, and that in doing so we should express our I think we ought not union with them and our veneration for the Cardinal.
to

have any unfraternal sensitiveness about following
1 866.

their lead."

Manning

to

Uilathorne,

THE

Eighties brought back Ireland. As soon as Gladwon his majority, Manning wrote to Childers " You have been lifted upon the top of (May i, 1880) :
stone

wave which nobody looked for; and you will have to deal with Ireland, and will be better able to deal with I am very Irish in it than others. sympathies, and I hope for some measure which will be felt in the homes
the

my

of

the poor."

Vaughan was

at

Rome

battling
:

the

Jesuits, but he wrote (December 16, 1880) " Of course we must safeguard the rights of landlords to compensation, but while doing this and condemning crime, I think we ought to go in for a generous settlement of this Irish grievance." cannot risk the mission Christmas Day, 1880: Were we to take a to the English nation for the Irish. very radical line just now, we might identify the Church with Radicalism and revolution in the minds of the English. The garrison landlord theory was safe as a hypothesis twenty-five years ago would it be safe for us now? I am sure you will handle the question skil-

"We

fully."

Manning wrote
about Ireland?

Vaughan (December " Did Cardinal Simeoni show you my
It

to

27,

1880)

:

letter to

him

was very

full

and strong."

January

382

Ireland Again
1 88 1 "I hear that Forster urged firmer measures. Bright and Chamberlain threatened resignation. This would have created two tribunes of the people worse than the two foxes with firebrands tied to their tails among the wheat harvest."

5,

:

" The Irish affairs are, I think, February 18, 1881 out. Paris expedition is a showing ParnelPs playing of cards which has damaged him and his works. But the agencies in America are serious. Gladstone has met his Nemesis." March 23, 1881 " By this time you will have seen Archbishop Croke's letter to the Tablet. The article is It is showy, ineffective, and procertainly not wise. voking. But Cashel will burn his fingers and more, I fear. Who inspires the Aurora? It seems to me that Catholics have lost their heads, and in politics talk and
: :

women. The state of Ireland is more and more grave because of this maddened deafness to reason and fact, and because of the now irresistible and permanent action of American Fenianism."
rave like
Irish

Manning commended Gladstone's Land Bill to the Bishops. Archbishop McCabe, who had suc:

ceeded to the purple but not to the power of Cullen, wrote (July 24, 1881) " I feel very thankful for your kind suggestion, and it will give me great pleasure to act on it. But I am not quite sure that the vote of the Bishops in favour of the Bill as it is likely to come out of the House of Commons will be unanimous. Some of them feel that their recommendations were utterly ignored by Mr. Gladstone, and that therefore they should abstain from all commendation of the Bill. This, certainly, is not my view of the case. There was one suggestion made by the Bishops which I always thought very unfortunate, all and I fear it cast a shadow over all the others. feel that in your Eminence Ireland has a very sincere

We

friend."

Manning urged McCabe
from a
letter

for the Cardinalate,

reason to

from Dublin (March n, 1882): believe that your Eminence's kind
383

judging " I have
offices in

Henry Edward Manning
my regard have not been confined to mere words. Whilst deeply sensible of the obligation under which
the great kindness of the Holy Father has placed this country by giving her a voice in the Sacred College, I regret that the favour of H.H. did not fall on some Irish prelate less unworthy than I am." In his unique position Manning acted almost as an Irish adviser to the Government, supplying them with facts and information lost to their agents in Ireland.

To Mr.

Forster, the Quaker, commissioned to rule Ireland with the sword, he gave advice and warnings. Forster wrote at critical moments (August 10, 1881)
:

enclosed.

was no harm done

"Thank you very much for You may rely on my

letting

me

see

the

to the Bill there be to-day. The Court will be the judge as to whether the improvements have been made and maintained by the landlord, but that claim really comes to "I have come back to nothing." September 26, 1881 The influences for very anxious and difficult work. good and evil are struggling. The Bishops meet this week at Maynooth, and much depends on their action. Would that they could see that the cause of religion and morality is as much at stake as the cause of law and
:

strict secrecy. There last evening, nor will

order!"

As
ment

guardedly

" that the landlords against their will, and trusting same will be true of the land laws in Ireland." Five
years later he delivered a terrible indictment, when he described the Land Question as "a somewhat heartless
for "hunger, thirst, nakedness, notice to in labour vain, the breaking up of homes, the quit, miseries, sicknesses, deaths of parents, children, wives." None the less, violent agitation never won his sympathy, and he viewed Irish obstruction in the House of Com-

landlords, Manning had spoken recalling Sir Robert Peel's statethat the repeal of the corn-laws had saved the
for

the
in

Irish

1868,

euphemism"

384

Ireland Again
mons through the eyes of an old-fashioned English gentleman. To Archbishop Croke he wrote about this time
(July 13, 1881)
:

have carefully noted the line you have taken since your declaration on Mr. Parnell's policy, and I have
I

"

rejoiced to see it, believing that the course taken in the House of Commons has unspeakably damaged the cause of Ireland, and that the disastrous events which have surrounded the Land League have made just men regard it with desire is to see you suspicion and hostility. and the Irish Episcopate leading and uniting the people as in old times, and all the more because we are now

My

not dealing with Ireland in Ireland, but with America in Ireland, as I fear. I hope your hands may be strong to keep the Land League within the lines of right and "I think law." Croke answered (August 23, 1881) the Land Bill will do a deal of good, and I believe it will get a fair trial generally throughout the country. There are a few, to be sure, amongst what is known as the advanced party, who do not look on it with favour. There are others who dislike the Government picked up Michael Davitt and keeps intensely that such men as Father Sheehy in prison. This class is most numerous so much so that I believe there will be no real peace in the country until the prison doors I had a notion of are thrown open. writing something Of course, if I did to that effect to Mr. Gladstone. anything of the kind, my communication would be quite I fancy, however, that I shall leave him to private. gather his information from some other source. There is nothing to be dreaded, I assure your Eminence, from what is called the French Alliance,' for the very valid reason that it is an alliance in nubibus ; nor, indeed, from any other sinister influence, and I think I can safely say that the Irish people were never more reasonably religious than they are to-day, and as a rule so thoroughly devoted to their clergy."
:
' '

'

'

:

'

Irish.

English Bishops were to give difficulty as well as Manning wrote humorously to Vaughan of a
385

2C

Henry Edward Manning
Lord Denbigh 8, 1882): "(Private.) and Nottingham are at loggerheads about the Irish letter. N. is like N. N. has written to me, and I to N., and N. writes to defy the world. He ought to be headstoker in the Phlegethon, for he is red hot already and incombustible." As the Irish curse came home to
colleague (June

Englishmen,
"
is

Manning wrote (February

12,

1885)

:

England being troubled all round for the sins of the sixteenth century and the proud wrongs inflicted by the Venetian oligarchy, as Disraeli called it. I saw that you had been troubled about the dynamiters. The silence in Ireland of Parnell and Co., of the laity, of the Bishops, renders our action useless. speak as

We

Englishmen and as Catholics, and hitherto the country has in no way attached these outrages to the Catholic It would not be well for us to purge ourreligion. It would be to accept the state of suspects." selves.

The year 1885 proved decisive in Irish history. Parnellism became a power that Popes and Premiers had to reckon with. Nationalism had carried the Church, but priests took the lead rather than be left behind. The Government addressed the spiritual authorities with incessant appeals. Errington was busy
in

Rome, and

it

was hoped

that

Manning would

visit

Ireland to exert a calming influence. note from the Liberal Viceroy, Lord Spencer, suggested a visit to headquarters (April 23, 1885): "If you come it will give Lady Spencer and myself great pleasure to receive are in the Phoenix Park, about twenty you here. minutes' drive from Dublin." The Cardinal was wise enough not to step upon the Irish chess-board, where Castle and Bishops appeared to be involved in inex-

A

We

Suddenly an ecclesiastical crisis and precipitated Manning was drawn involuninto the Cardinal McCabe, Cullen's tarily game. in February, and the most died successor, unassuming vital place in the Hierarchy became vacant on the eve
tricable

opposition.
itself,

386

Ireland Again of a crisis. During seven years MacCabe had been a moderate man, who could hardly be claimed to favour
the

Crown

or the popular cause.

opposed

to militant Nationalism,

He was certainly and had crossed the

path of Dr. Croke. It became a question whether Dr. Croke or the Crown would see the vacancy filled to their satisfaction, for each had made choice. A secret war of succession was fought between Gladstone's Government, which favoured Dr. Moran, and the Irish Episcopate, who favoured Dr. Walsh. The history of the months during which the archbishopric lay open

has not yet been written, but it contained some of the elements that had once made Manning's election a

triumph of impartial decision in the face of intrigue and pressure. Curiously enough, the name of Errington was no less prominent, but in a subsidiary manner. He was instructed to move against Dr. Walsh. Of
Errington's previous mission in 1883 Cardinal Manning sundry notes " Mr. Errington was in the confidence of Government and of Cardinal McCabe. The Cardinal Secretary and perhaps the Holy Father thought that they had got at last full information about Ireland. I considered it my duty to say, Mr. Errington represents the English " Government, but he does not represent Ireland.' The Irish people and clergy were aroused by a suspicion of British intrigues at Rome. This they resented bitterly, feeling that they were being disparaged in the house of their friends. Dr. Moran, as it appeared in subsequent years, was at heart a Nationalist, though still under the influence of his uncle, Cardinal Cullen. Dr. Walsh had already written on the popular side from In consequence his name was his chair at Maynooth. anathema to the landlord party, who saw in his conleft
: '

secration the triumph of principles leading to their social

downfall.

The

people, however,

on

his election.

had staked their cause of the first to scent one was Manning
387

Henry Edward Manning
danger.
Sir

Charles

Dilke,

his

intimate friend and

touch with the tinder-workings In April both met to confer, and, not content with expressing himself very strongly in favour of Dr. Walsh, Manning forwarded his reasons to Dilke
confidant, kept of the Cabinet.
in

him

as follows (April 26, 1885)

:

I have thought it best to put in writing said on Friday on the subject of the appointment to the See of Dublin. first and chief anxiety is that the Government shall in no way, either officially or officiously, through Mr. Errington or any other, attempt to influence the election. Already the belief to this effect has been expressed in the Irish papers. Two effects would at once follow. The Archbishop would be suspect and his influence for good in the sense of the Government would be paralysed. And next, the influence of Rome in the direction I desire as much as you would be dangerously lessened. So much in general. Next for the three names now before the Holy See. They are all good and safe in every sense. Any one of them may be confided in as holding the opinions and principles of the seven Bishops who were her.e the other day. But there is one of them beyond compare the ablest namely, Dr. Walsh, President of Maynooth. He has been tried in governing that vast college, and has been found very able and successful. He has great weight in Ireland, and, as the Bishops unanimously assured me, he would unite the whole Episcopate, for I have an impression that they all confide in him. efforts have been made to represent Dr. Walsh as a Nationalist. He is not more so than I am, and whether That that is excessive or obstructive you will judge. you may better know how far my judgment may be taken, I will here add that I had a special and unusual share in the selection and nomination of the late Cardinal Archbishop. And I believe you know me too * I put Private well to need that I should say more. on this letter, but you may use it as you see fit."

"

(Private.)
I

what

My

'

'

'

Spencer wrote to Dilke to contradict Manning, wrote to Croke (May i, 1885) 388
:

who

Ireland Again

me hear of our affairs in Rome, for the newsmake me anxious, especially about Dublin. papers And let me know whether I can be of any use. Ireland
Let has
never been

"

moment.
"

And

I

so represented hope greatly."

in

Rome

as at

this

Croke answered
ously as
1885)
:

in a letter describing himself humor" the turbulent Archbishop of Cashel (May 5,

"

There

is

reports.

One

no news about Dublin, but there are various is that Dr. Moran will be recalled and

appointed to Dublin. It is absolutely certain that the Government has made this proposal to the Pope. I do not and cannot believe that it will be accepted by His Holiness. Dr. Moran is doing well, I hear, where he

wanted there. Anyhow, the setting aside of for anyone would raise such a storm in Ireland and in the United States that His Holiness should be solemnly warned against doing so. Your Eminence alone can give such a warning, and I earnestly ask you to give it. We are very busy at Propaganda."
is,

and

is

Dr.

Walsh

Archbishop MacEvilly of from Rome (May 5, 1885)
:

Tuam

wrote to Manning

"

The

matter in which

we

feel the greatest interest is

This the Holy Father has taken into his own hands. The Holy Father has decided on giving audience to each of the Irish Bishops separately before
the Dublin affair.

seeing them collectively."

Manning decided
that Granville

to intervene.

He

wrote to the Pope

was the only opponent of Walsh in the and he Cabinet, put pressure on Dilke and Chamberlain.
Captain O'Shea, the member for Galway, acted as interA letter of his to Manning reads (May 5, mediary.
1885)
:

I have had an opportunity of talk(Confidential.) ing the archbishopric question over very carefully this 389

"

Henry Edward Manning
evening with Sir Charles Dilke and Chamberlain, and they are disposed to think that the apparent neutrality of Lord Spencer may have been assumed for a purpose. They have both done their best in support of our views, and have been more or less snubbed by Lord Granville, who assures them that Mr. Errington has not supported Dr. Donnelly, a statement which does not convey to my mind the impression that he has not vehemently opposed Dr. Walsh. Lord Spencer called on Mr. Gladstone to-day, and I regret to say that he has not yet come round to the ideas which we hold as to local self-

government

for Ireland."

Mr. Chamberlain's part in the good game is shown a letter to Mr. Mulqueeny which passed into " While the Manning's possession (October 6, 1885) late Government was in office I endeavoured, with the assistance of Sir Charles Dilke, to bring to an end the communications which were made at Rome on behalf of the British Government, believing that we had no right to interfere in such a matter, and that there was no ground of opposition to the selection of Archbishop Walsh." For several weeks matters continued at a high state of tension. O'Shea left word (May 7, 1885): "(Confidential.) May it please your Eminence, I think the business which interests you and me must break up the Cabinet." There was a chance that they would take an early opportunity to resign. Suddenly United Ireland published a copy of a letter from Errington to Granville, which was never denied (May 15, 1885)
in
: :

"The Dublin archbishopric being still undecided, I must continue to keep the Vatican in good humour about you, and keep up communication with them generally as much as possible. I am almost ashamed to trouble you again, when you are so busy, but perhaps on Monday you would allow me to show you the letter This premature report about Dr. I propose to write. Moran will cause increased pressure to be put on the
390

Ireland Again
Pope and create fresh difficulties. The matter must therefore be most carefully watched, so that the strong pressure I can still command may be used at the right moment and not too soon or unnecessarily for too much pressure is quite as dangerous as too little. To effect
;

this constant

communication with

Rome

is

necessary."

Croke found himself unheeded
turned to

Manning

at the Vatican, and as his only possible ally. Four
7,

months
1885)
:

after the

vacancy occurred he wrote (June

"Things are looking very threatening here. The people cannot be persuaded that the Pope has not entered into some sort of agreement with the Government, the price paid by His Holiness being the setting aside of the popular candidate for the See of Dublin and the appointment of some cold and colourless ecclesiastic. I dread this myself, for, in point of fact, during our last interview with His Holiness he formally sketched such a plan, and declared that he was not the Pope of Ireland alone, but of the Universal Church.' Dangerous indeed it is if it should turn out that English influence proved to be so potent in the Vatican as to cause His Holiness to discredit one of the foremost ecclesiastics of the day, simply because he happened not to be a persona grata to the Government. This is my sober and solemn judgment as to the situation. I write it to
'

your Eminence as the highest and most influential ecclesiastic within the realm, with the hope that you may have it conveyed to the proper quarter." "
:

I was glad to get Manning replied (June 12, 1885) your letter. I now write briefly to say that I wrote fully about Dublin, pointing out " (i) The supreme danger of ever seeming to be from here. swayed " The united wish of the Bishops. " (2) The worthiness of the man. (3) " No adverse or come to. decision has been

leaving nothing undone that I can do. Meanwhile, if you and Mr. Parnell can prevent outrages, a better day is near."

And you may

other confide in

yet

my

Henry Edward Manning
Dr.
(June

Walsh wrote
9,

sadly

but

calmly

to

Manning

1885)

:

" The times are indeed troublous. The complications that have arisen have sadly embarrassed me, and deprived me of all freedom of action as to my own position. One thing only is clear: my Presidentship is necessarily at an end the office is not one that could be held even for a day by anyone on whose career an adverse judgment had been pronounced by the Holy See. Personally, I exult at the prospect of getting back to my theological work. But I cannot shut my eyes to
;

the prospect of

all that

may happen

besides."

In June Gladstone was defeated by the Irish vote, and the Tories, under Lord Salisbury, succeeded to office. But the Dublin succession remained open. The Liberal Government had been paralysed by the confederacy of Dilke and Chamberlain, who made noninterference with the Dublin election one of their two The new Government conditions with Gladstone. to on the Manning appeared likely carry intrigue.
seized the opportunity of a departing interview with Lord Carnarvon, the new Viceroy, on June 24, to

deprecate such a mistake. Meantime the whole question had reached the Holy Father in all its bearings and
siftings.

Both Crown and Bishops put

their

views

strongly. Realising the enormous importance of the At last decision, he spent days in anxious thought. In the dead of the his anxiety overcame his peace.

night he arose and went

down

to

pray at the tombs of

the Apostles Peter and Paul. It was the time of their Feast, when forces invisible and unknown to politicians were abroad forces that have overturned human calcuIt lations more often than historians care to confess.

was not unlike Manning's own nomination. Dr. Walsh was chosen, and Catholic Ireland breathed again.

Manning wrote

to

Vaughan (June
392

"

28, 1885)

:

I

thought

my

last letter to

Leo XIII. would have vexed him.

We

Ireland Again
on the brink of an enormous scandal. or Rightly wrongly, the feeling in Ireland about Dublin was full of danger. I found out that the Cabinet had no
been
part in
tion.
it,

have

It

had never discussed it or touched the queswas the work of about three working outside

the Cabinet with Errington. Thank God that is over! How long these men will stand nobody knows." Croke

wrote (June 30, 1885) : ecclesiastical crisis has
I

"I thank God
come

that the Irish

to a satisfactory ending.

thank your Eminence also."

One

with

God makes

a

sure majority.

"I know that our Government tried nomination of Dr. Walsh to the See of Dublin. Any such misunderstanding, be it only verbal and tacit, between the Holy See and the Government would be in my judgment and belief fatal. Not only or chiefly because many a good nomination would be hindered and many a bad one confirmed, but for a graver reason. No number of such mischiefs are com-

Manning noted

:

to prevent the

parable to the danger resulting to the Holy See. So long as the Irish people absolutely trust the Holy See in the nomination of Bishops, the faith and fidelity of the
Irish people will be immutable. The day in which they to that believe the influence of the Protestant and begin

anti-Catholic

Government

of

England

is

felt

at

the

Vatican in this most vital point they will be tempted not only to mistrust, but to all manner of spiritual evils."
return to the last days of Liberal Government, the Radical wing were hustling Whiggery and Chamberlain was advocating the programme which the Liberal party struggled for twenty years to live up to.

To

when

Gladstone was aware that his subordinates were in touch with Manning, who felt that duty and an intelligent curiosity compelled him to take a running part in
the politics of the day. There were great principles and Diplomatic relations religious matters still at stake.

were

in the Premier's

mind.
393

Education was unsatisfac-

Henry Edward Manning
tory.

Ireland needed an interpreter.

Manning had no

scruple against keeping an open door to the powers that were. From time to time Parnell or Dilke paid visits, while their intermediary, O'Shea, flitted between.

O'Shea was an old Oscott boy whose r61es were various. At one time he was settling an affair of honour between a Whig Minister and a Tory leader, at another running
messages for Parnell now in Chamberlain's office, now at Archbishop's House. He understood that his employers would give him the Irish Secretaryship. Manning nicknamed him "Mercury," as a messenger who passed between the gods of the political Olympus. Both Chamberlain and Gladstone were seeking furChamberlain tively for a solution of the Irish problem. evolved local government outside " Mr. Gladstone's umbrella," and began to treat with Manning, who was the only neutral ground for English statesmen and Irish Bishops. Chamberlain sent the holograph of his scheme with a confidential letter to Manning (April 25,
1885)
:

of the memorandum herewith views on the subject of Irish local government. They are stated on my personal responsibility alone, but if I have reason to believe that they could command the support of the most influential representatives of Irish opinion I should be prepared to press them on the consideration of my colleagues and to take any steps which would be likely to secure their adoption.
to put in

"In compliance with your wish, some detail and in the form

I

have endeavoured

my

The
I

notes are necessarily rough and incompleted, but should be glad to supplement them in any way that may be desired. I shall also be ready at any time to
that a personal interview

wait on you again,

if you think would be advantageous."

anxious to obtain some form of approval from as well as a nihil obstat from the Irish EpiscoParnell,

He was

The scheme was soon divulged, and Manning " How can the Standard wrote to Dilke (April 26, 1885) 394
pate.
:

Ireland Again
have got the Irish Scheme? Nothing is secret and nobody is safe. My copy of it is both safe and secret." Manning fulfilled his part, and told Parnell the Bishops would support Chamberlain's scheme. Parnell assented, and Manning wrote to Dilke (April 30, 1885) " I have had an hour's conversation with the person you know.
:

The

result is that I strongly advise the prompt introduction of the scheme I have here in writing. It cannot be known too soon. But both on general and on particular reasons I hope that neither you nor your friend will dream of the act you spoke of. Government are pledged in their first Queen's Speech to County Government in Ireland. Let them redeem their pledge. All the rest will follow. can speak to-morrow." Mr. Chamberlain was accorded an interview with Manning, followed by Parnell, on the same day that Gladstone said to Granville (May 6, 1885) " I did not calculate upon Parnell and his friends, nor upon

We

:

Manning and

his

Bishops.

Nor was

I

under any

obligation to follow or act with Chamberlain." Manning proceeded to sound the Irish Bishops, but
cautiously, for their predecessors had left him stranded on two previous occasions. They appear to have been
satisfied,

and Manning wrote

to

Chamberlain (May

10,

1885) : "I did not write again to you because I knew that Sir Charles Dilke would communicate the result of

my

interview last week.

It

was

satisfactory,

and as the

Bishops are of the same mind, the conditions of acceptance for the scheme appear to be secure. I wish I were as sure of the third nearer home first, at least,
Irish
in

order of time."

The

Parnell, from

whom Manning had

third person referred to was succeeded in secur-

ing a guarded assent to Chamberlain's scheme. The day the Cardinal's letter was written the following note from Captain O'Shea was left at Archbishop's House " Immediate. May it please your Sunday, 10 p.m. to town, else I I have returned Eminence, only just 395
:
:

Henry Edward Manning
should have given myself the honour of calling earlier. I regret to have to tell you that the Cabinet yesterday rejected the proposal for Irish self-government. Under this circumstance Mr. Chamberlain refuses to allow the re-enactment of the Crimes Act. He will allow a small measure, the change of venue and special juries and the But as to summary jurisdiction, he special inquiries. will not yield; every man is to have the right to appeal to a jury. So the game is set between the Whigs and
Liberals."

General Election was imminent, to say nothing of a rending of the Gladstone umbrella. Two of Manning's letters to Dilke may be quoted (May 17, 1885) :

A

"The General Election is not far off, and I am very anxious to talk with you upon the point which will determine the Catholic vote. I seem to see a safe and open way. But no time must be lost. The Liberalism of England is not yet the aggressive Liberalism of the Continent but it may become so, and then the breach with us and with Ireland will be irreparable. I am most anxious for all motives that you should avert this. Hitherto you have been safe, and you can keep so." " May 26, 1885 Mercury has been and told me all about you, and I am more than ever of the mind I had
;

:

from the beginning.

No

parties and two parachutes will only make us weak and useless as the French Chamber. The just demands of Ireland are a destiny to which Whig and Tory must give way. But if you and the like of you leave the Whigs they will fall back and unite in So long as you are in contact with them resisting you. they will yield to reason. These are the thoughts of an

moment.

Two

third party

is

possible at this

Old Testament Radical.

Walk your own

pace,

and do

not quicken to keep step with anybody."
Election being in prospect, Dilke wrote to Manning " Can you give Chamberlain and (June 24, 1885) for an Irish tour in August?" and advice letters myself a nervous as to their effect on Irish little Manning,
:

audiences, as well as of a possible encounter with the

396

Tory
'

Viceroy,

Ireland Again who was also travelling under
:

his

auspices, answered (June 25, 1885)

I am afraid of your Midlothian can I be godfather to Hengist and Horsa? If you were in office, I should still be afraid of leaving the Cross-benches. You know how the relations in which I stand limit my freedom, and how glad I should be to do anything you wish." I

What am

to

do?

in

Ireland.

How

Dilke answered (June 28, 1885) " I fear I have made myself far from clear. You speak of a Midlothian. I should not have dreamt of asking you for letters had that not been most carefully are not going to make a single guarded against. speech, or to attend any dinner, meeting, or reception in any part of Ireland. Our journey is private, and our wish is to visit the Catholic Archbishops and Bishops and to find what they want. It has sprung from your own suggestion and from my conversation, held also at your suggestion, with Dr. Walsh. It would not
:

We

conduce to any possibility of settlement and of future peace if, after proposing at your suggestion to go to men like the Archbishops Croke and Walsh, we should have to state that we renounce our visit as they refuse to receive us. You know what passed as to Dr. Walsh, and you know that if Mr. Gladstone had reformed his Government we had made that matter one of two conditions. Surely that was pretty clear evidence of our desire to act with you in a matter which is certainly above all party. But it is now or never.' Ever sincerely yours personally, whatever may be the case
*

politically."

" were disappointed, as they Hengist and Horsa had expected to find in the Cardinal some measure of "
partisanship in return for their confidences.
lain

Chamber-

furious, and Manning made his neutrality clear in letters written to Dilke later (October 15, 1885) :

was

"

Mr. Chamberlain
I

is

in his premisses.

think with

right in his conclusion, but not him that we are both too

397

Henry Edward Manning
in

much for the conclusion. Now for the premisses. Mr. Chamberlain was good enough to send me his scheme for local government in Ireland, in which in the main I agreed, and did all in my power to promote its acceptance. The Government went out. And you asked of me to promote what I called a Midlothian in Ireland under the eyes of the new Lord-Lieutenant. Did Mr. Chamberlain understand my agreement in his scheme as carrying any consequences beyond that scheme, or any solidarity in such an aggressive action against any party whatsoever in power ? When he speaks of concordats or 'bargains,' I must say that I know of none, and can enter into none. In the matter in which he was courteous enough to make known his scheme to me I have promoted it where and in ways he does not know. But our relation was on the point of a tangent, and it would not be well for us to misunderstand each other again. I will not enter now on what you say, but I shall be glad to talk with you about it for you know that I say, A plague on both your houses,' but I will help either in what is fair and just." " It October 17, 1885 is true you did disclaim a I told you that I know my Irishmen Midlothian, but too well, and believed that even Paul and Barnabas would have been carried away. Moreover, if you had been silent as fishes the moral effect would have been a counter-move. Your humility does not admit this. So you must absolve me for my one word. We are in a dense mist; I hope you see the sun."
*
' ; '

independent in our responsibility and too far asunder our future action to make our meeting useful. So

:

Many solutions, indeed, to the Irish difficulty have been generated by English statesmen. Violent mostly have been their ends. Mr. Chamberlain's scheme had the fortune, perhaps, to be still-born. It was shown to the priests, but not to the light. Autographed in the neatest of clerkly hands it reposes embalmed among the
writings
of

Popes and Cardinals.

Meanwhile Lord

Carnarvon made a piquant change to a Whig Coercionist At an interview (June 24, 1885) Manning like Spencer.
398

Ireland Again
told

him that the Irish Bishops he had seen were in favour of the Union with England and of local selfgovernment in the different provinces, but not of a central Parliament. This they feared because it was likely to weaken the influence of the Church by the introduction of an anti-Christian spirit in the elected body and of Protestants in the Peers. He described the past relations between the two countries as of "control or contempt," and urged Lord Carnarvon to see and This had never talk with the four Irish Archbishops.
been done before.
Its effect

would be good.

An
"

exchange

of

letters

followed.

Manning wrote

(June 29, 1885):

ask you to destroy the the facts of this letter were to become known it would hinder any further confidence. The letter leads me to believe that hereafter, when the Archbishop of Dublin shall be returned from Rome, it be safe to let me ask the Archbishop of Cashel might * If I were to ask the Lord-Lieutenant to give you a hearing for the purpose of representing what Ireland
Confidential.
I

would
it.

enclosed after reading

If

:

wants, would you and your colleagues be willing to

meet him anywhere?

And

are well in your arduous

I hope you if so, where?' and anxious charge."

Lord Carnarvon answered
"

(July 4, 1885)

:

I will most gladly take advantage of the offer which you are good enough to make me, and shall consider it an advantage to be brought into personal communication with those who are so competent to speak from authority and from knowledge. I ought to add though doubtless you will hear it from other quarters that I am to have the pleasure of seeing the new Archbishop of Dublin on Wednesday next, the day after my return to Ireland. It is an informal visit which His Grace will pay me at the Lodge, but one which I hope will tend to bring about those friendly relations which I believe are essential to any right understanding of the

large questions at issue."

399

Henry Edward Manning
and Croke wrote to say and do anything in my power to secure fair play for Lord Carnarvon." Not for many years had the atmosphere

Manning sounded "
:

the Archbishops,

(June 30, 1885)

I shall

be most happy

been calmer in Ireland than after the new Viceroy's It was known that he disliked coercion, that he had accepted a period of anxiety without hope of any reward save that of the disinterested. A desire was growing among the ecclesiasts to see the Tories grapple with the Irish problem. The people hailed the advent So favourable were the signs of another Fitzwilliam. that Carnarvon carried out the tour he had laid down for himself in the South and West. Before starting he to wrote Manning (July 26, 1885)
arrival.
:

I contemplate a short expedition by sea round the South and West Coasts of Ireland to enable me to see with my own eyes many things which are now only matter of hearsay. It would greatly add to the use of such an expedition if I could also hear with my own ears what otherwise will never be said to me by many whose opinions would be very valuable. It has occurred to me that through your influence I might see and talk to some of the Bishops or clergy at certain points along the coast with whom, in your opinion, communication might be useful. You were good enough when last we met to say that I might freely communicate with you, and ask your assistance, and so I do not scruple to take advantage of the offer. As far as I can see my way, the points of call will be Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Killaloe. As yet I have met only with friendli-

"

I earnestly trust they disposition. that first and necessary I are the feel for they may last; condition to a better state of things."

ness

and a kindly

The Cardinal
"
I

replied (July 30, 1885)

:

writing to the Bishops named in your letter to Archbishop Croke, asking as from myself that they will not fail to take opportunity of your visit to pay their respects. I have great hopes of succeeding.

am

and

400

Ireland Again
I am most thankful to read what you write of the feeling of kindness and confidence which is springing up. It is like waking out of a nightmare. The discussion on Tuesday and Lord Hartington's speech have not restored any better feeling between the Irish members and the Opposition. I hope you are well and bearing work and anxiety, which is heavier than work, without

suffering."

Manning forwarded the letters of Bishops who were delighted with Lord Carnarvon's high motives (August 21, 1885) " I have refrained from sending the enclosed letters, hearing with much regret of your illness but now I am glad to see that you are on your progress. The letters are so frank and warm that I take them as evidence of a And the goodwill which I have never seen before. of Limerick is of one the heads Bishop strongest among them."
:
;

The Viceroy
"
I

replied (August 24, 1885)

:

have seen and heard much that no verbal or would have made clear to me; and foremost among the advantages which I have obtained from my little journey are the frank and full conversations which I have had at Galway with Bishop Carr, and at Sligo with Bishop Gillooly. They both impressed me much, and I hope it may be in my power to advance some of the excellent objects which they have
written communications

me to exaggerate the of the good work which is being done in the industrial schools in connection with the convents which I visited. It seems to me the very saving and regeneration of the lowest and poorest part of the Irish people."
at heart.
It
is

impossible for
feel for

admiration that

I

some

In the midst of a chapter of conflict and coercion it pleasant to dwell on Lord Carnarvon's Viceroyalty. Though short in time, it bore appreciable results. He faced the situation, and did not shudder to meet the spiritual and temporal leaders of the race he was called
is

401

2D

Henry Edward Manning
to

govern.

coercion, incredible spectacle of a just Englishman. Manning needed to be wise and vigilant,
in

When he resigned rather than adopt he showed the Irish people the rare and

to keep the and with Ireland touch with Catholic equally Government of the hour for he was acting as a special correspondent with the august Chief of Christendom.
;

His letters were written in crisp Italian, and passed to the Vatican without the intermediary of Propaganda. Passages relating to events recorded in this chapter are
as follows
:

The Government of Mr. GladFebruary 17, 1885 stone has realised what I foresaw and communicated to your Holiness. The Home and Irish policy is sound and wise, the Imperial and diplomatic policy is very uncertain and dangerous. "An Irish gentleman, whose anti-English views are very pronounced, has declared to me that the idea of the separation from England or of dissolving the unity of the Empire does not exist at all amongst those If this be admitted in principle, there is only prelates.' one demand which must be refused, and that is, a Parliament in Dublin. The freest and widest internal and domestic administration can and ought to be granted to Ireland. The liberty which the English and Scotch enjoy must be granted to the Irish as well. The unity of the Empire requires the unity of legislation.
: '

"

The dualism
to
it

me

Davitt, who is now in Rome and of whom your Holiness has certainly heard lately, has in one of his books given as his opinion that the concession made to Ireland of a Parliament in Dublin would tend to increase the abuse of power of the Protestants in the midst of the public life of the most Catholic people in Europe. And he goes on to say that, considering such a concession from the point of view of the head of the Catholic Church, the transference of forty or fifty Catholic members from the highest Protestant legislative assembly of the world

of Austria-Hungary cannot be compared or be said to resemble it; moreover, it appears to Mr. to be nothing short of a prelude to separation.

402

Ireland Again
to a Parliament in Dublin cannot be a victory for the cause of the Catholic Church He says that the presence and vigilance of Catholic M.P.'s are necessary for the defence of the Faith and of the Pontiff. After many such considerations he ends by saying that the Parliament of the British Empire, which counts many Catholic subjects, would remain almost without a single Catholic member; moreover, the extension of the suffrage will admit, without doubt, many followers of Mr. Bradlaugh, an atheist and blasphemer. Mr. Davitt is in favour of the separation, but in the above-mentioned
!

passages he expresses distinctly the conviction, which is, I hope, shared by the Irish Bishops and by ourselves, that the separation of Ireland and the concession of a Parliament, which would inevitably cause dissensions as preludes to separation, might be the cause of infinite evil to the Irish Catholics and to the Catholic Church in the Empire. I say I hope, because though I feel certain as regards the separation of the Kingdom, I fear there may be disagreements as to this question of the Parliament. As for myself, Holy Father, allow me to say that I consider a Parliament in Dublin and a separation to be equivalent to the same thing. Ireland is not a colony like Canada, but it is an integral and vital part

one country, or, as it is often described, of the Mother Country." Account of an Interview with Archbishops Croke and " MacEvilly (April 12, 1885). Mgr. Croke asserted in the most explicit terms his own conviction that the Union should be left untouched, and that the whole Irish Episcopate is unanimously of that same opinion. In my last letter I have quoted what Mr. Davitt, an advanced Nationalist, says. Mgr. Croke completely accepted this view, adding to it another most powerful argument that this Parliament would have two Chamof bers,

and

that the large majority of the Irish

House

of

Lords would be composed of those most opposed to the There progress of the Catholic Church in Ireland. would be open conflict between these two houses, causing an inevitable struggle between the Irish and Imperial Parliaments, which would mean an extremely dangerous situation. I have been delighted to see Mgr.
403

Henry Edward Manning
Croke's complete agreement with my humble opinion, which I lately expressed to your Holiness. The idea of a Parliament does not at all mean excluding altogether the administration or self-government which is known
as

'Home Rule,' and I feel sure that the Imperial Parliament will soon grant to Ireland the same liberty and power which is possessed by England and Scotland. I believe that under the fatherly direction and authority of your Holiness, the Irish Episcopate will attain a certain Unity in words and in action. Having once secured the Unity of the Episcopate, the Irish people will have a sound and sure direction in the days of
social

and

political agitation."

Division of Ministers on Coercion (May 24, 1885). " Gladstone's Government is going through a crisis. Four Ministers are opposing certain measures regarding Ireland. The said four want a Home administration for Ireland in connection with all the local municipal and
public interests, excluding, in fact, all Imperial interests, so that, in reality, they want what the Irish Bishops I want. heartily adhere as a Catholic and as an Englishman to all these wishes of theirs. The present state of Ireland is unjust and intolerable. The gravest danger is that England has almost lost the
.

.

.

power of assimilating Ireland, and
cises

that

America exer-

always a powerful attraction over the Irish. The English are quite ready to grant to Ireland all the

privileges England already enjoys. The obstacles lie in the fact that for fifty years any provision which aims at the welfare of millions has been delayed and ruined through class or individual interests, but this state of things is coming to an end." Lord Carnarvon (June 24, 1885). " I have asked the Viceroy to learn the state of Ireland, not only from the official authorities of Dublin Castle, but personally from the Bishops. Your Holiness may have heard that a coercive law introduced by Gladstone's Government at the time of the Dublin outrages and murders will expire

This new Government will not propose in September. to Parliament the renewal of such a law. "This decision of the Marquess of Salisbury will be
received with greater pleasure

by Ireland compared with

404

Ireland

Again

England, because Ireland in comparison is singularly exempt from ordinary crime. The outrages are the
results of agrarian injustice provoked, three years ago, rebels, who to-day are quieter and wiser. If the Bishops will unite with certain political men, and exert their authority, there is much hope of peace."

by agitators and

January

4,

1886.

"

Mr. Gladstone has allowed one

of his sons to publish in the Press extreme opinions in connection with this Irish policy. This act of imprudence has provoked a very strong opposition on the part of Mr. Gladstone's principal colleagues, and has no doubt reawakened in England a determination to do justice to Ireland, but only as far as is consistent with the unity and preservation of the Empire.

few days ago I received a letter from Mr. GladThe Irish question prestone in which he says dominates, which may cause my political life to be This prolonged, while shortening my natural life.' enables me to foresee the course he will pursue. He
' :

"

A

propose a wider and more advanced policy for Ireland than that contained in the present Government proposals, hoping thereby to win to himself the Irish members. I do not think he will succeed at least, not In the meantime, as soon as the Bill for the present. is drafted, I will humbly lay the result before your
will

Holiness."

And two

days before
:

the

Tory Government

fell

(January 24, 1886) "

The imprudent language of some English politicians among them one of Mr. Gladstone's sons has created

a very strong and almost universal opposition in English public opinion to the demands of the political leaders of the Irish chorus for an Irish Parliament in Dublin. They openly declare themselves in favour of the unity of the two countries, but they affirm also that a Dublin Parliament is compatible with the integrity and union of the two countries a thing which I cannot believe The first rupture would not break up possible. the dualism of Austro-Hungary, but an Anglo-Irish dualism between nations so divided and so mutually antagonistic cannot last; with the perpetual occurrence
. .

.

405

Henry Edward Manning
of conspiracies from the American-Irish, a civil war of the nature of that of the United States would certainly I repeat that the widest form of self-governfollow. ment, with the power of creating laws for this purpose,

must be granted but a Parliament, no Parliament is an institution which is independent and absolute. Any attempt to bind a Parliament in Dublin would
!

Last year the Irish Bishops strife. dangers, but the Irish M.P.'s still The Bishops are in a hanker after a Parliament. different position, but they have always tried to carry out with great wisdom and loyalty the wishes of your Holiness. I must mention with especial praise the conduct of Mgr. Croke. Stray words come from the lips of others, which my countrymen are apt to exaggerate. The conditions of Ireland are not really worse than they were, but the nearer the legislative crisis approaches, the more acute appears to be agitation. Pardon me if I repeat that if the four Archbishops act
perceived
these
in unison,

always be a cause of

that

same

under the supreme direction of your Holiness, direction will successfully guide the rudder."
Gladstone alluded to by Manning ran
:

The

letter of

"You
It

see that Ireland again overshadows everything.

has added to

my

political

and possibly may shorten

my
ber
it

natural life."

Sir John Lambert sent word to Manning (Septem1 6, 1885) "The secret alluded to and please keep is that G. has already written a manifesto which will
:

be issued almost immediately." "
manifesto appeared, hinting of
Ireland.

days later the " for enlarged powers

Two

In October Salisbury apologised for boycotting as a form of excommunication. In November Parnell gave the Irish vote in England to Salisbury. A second Midlothian campaign only gave Gladstone a majority of eighty-five. But Parnell returned with exactly eightyMr. Gladstone retired to Hawarden for five followers.
meditation, whither

" Your words about Ireland make
406

Manning wrote (January

6,

1886)
I

:

me

say that

hope

Ireland Again
no deliberation will be spared to find an extension of the English Constitution to Ireland. No paper schemes, no new Constitutions, no Colonial chambers or Hungarian Parliaments will live a twelvemonth." Gladstone

answered

The Irish question grows bigger. I have expected it would do so. too much weighed and sifted by all."
:

"

It

bigger and cannot be

Manning had dissuaded the Radical malcontents from bursting the frayed cords attaching them to the Gladstonian balloon, and the launching of a "parachute," as he described it, had been delayed for a year.

When

the time

Dilke, who, firmament of

alas

came it contained Chamberlain, but not had dropped to earth, and the higher politics knew him no more. Manning sat
!

neutral but fascinated in the Distinguished Strangers' He was understood to express a general Gallery.

agreement with Gladstone, but with the first Home Rule Bill he was at variance on vital points. allow Sir Howard Vincent to Manning would not " his Rule at

Bad Home a cost of a words, publish breach in the Empire," lest it should be believed that he was not in favour of good Home Rule. He wrote
(May
13,

1886)

:

explained, would be fairly misunderstood. I am a firm and large-handed advocate for giving to Ireland a power of self-administration in all matters affecting Ireland alone. And I would give this to Ireland more first because largely than to Scotland for two reasons but and Ireland are England heterogeneous England and Scotland are homogeneous, and secondly because we have wronged Ireland for three hundred years. We have neither developed its growth or suffered it to develop itself. We owe justice, retribution, and reparation, and in this I go as far as these three words can reach. But they all stop short before the integrity of the Imperial Parliament. My criticism on this Bill would sound as if I were not in the largest possible
:

"No; my words

yesterday,

unless they were fully

407

Henry Edward Manning
sympathy with Ireland.
tunity,

But

I

must wait
keep

my

opporto

not

make
filial

it.

Therefore,

my
:

words

yourself as a

godson."

cannot evade Education before it. The Irish vote should in England would be lost by doing so. should hopelessly divide seem to oppose Ireland. our own people. The Education Question would not be can speak on both, listened to apart from Ireland. but not on Education alone. I have hitherto been But now silent, except that vague letter to N. Wales. I cannot be silent. I will not make an occasion, but I must take it when made by others. And my words The integrity of the Imperial Parliament and will be, a legislative power in Ireland for all home matters not Imperial.' Also, I should desire the same for Scotland and Wales. I feel I cannot longer be silent, but how, when, and where I may say it, I cannot yet decide. Education cannot be helped at this election, nor do I think that it will be hindered. This will need much thought and counsel, but it is inevitable."
it.

To Vaughan he wrote (June 11, 1886) "The Dissolution is on one issue. We

We cannot put

We

We

We

'

When there had been possibilities of agreement the pax hominibus bonce voluntatis Manning had willingly But when they only lent his name and influence. Mr. sought to destroy one another he stood aloof. Chamberlain, who, in ParnelFs opinion, had killed the
Bill,

wrote

full of

ardour (June 22, 1886)

:

You have probably seen that in his speech at Edinburgh on June 18 Mr. Gladstone referred to what is
as the plan for a central council in Ireland as In his speech last night Mr. Parnell's plan. Gladstone recurs to the subject, and says that he has been informed that it was not Mr. Parnell's plan. I venture to appeal to you as able to throw some light on You will recollect the circumstances of this subject. my interview with you in May, 1885. The first idea of

"

known

Mr.

a National Council had been broached by me in a letter to a private friend which had been shown to some of
408

Ireland Again
the Catholic Bishops in Ireland and mentioned to you At a later date Captain O'Shea brought me a complete scheme based on this idea which he told me had been approved by Mr. Parnell. At your request I sent you a paper with an abstract of this scheme, which was prefaced by a statement of my own opinion that,

by them.

What I desire to establish is the fact of quotation. that in May, 1885, Mr. Parnell approved generally of the plan of National Councils, which he has now repudiated in the view of the larger offers made to him
by Mr. Gladstone."

although a separate Parliament could not be wisely conceded to Ireland, there might properly be a wide extension of powers of local government in that country. You kindly undertook to see Mr. Parnell, and to learn from him whether he really accepted this proposal, and on May 4 you wrote me the letter, copy of which I It is not marked enclose. Private,' but I should be of before glad your authority making public use of it. If there is any expression or end in it that you think it inexpedient to have published, perhaps you could be good enough to write me another note for the purpose
'

The Cardinal found
delicacy.

He was

called

himself in a position of some upon to betray the confidence
in
:

Mr. Parnell had reposed
matically (June 23, 1886)
to

him.

He

answered diplo-

the Irish Bishops came to me on their way I did not produce the copy of your scheme, but I stated the objections of Michael Davitt to a Parliament. They seemed to accept any real power of self-government which should be effectual and not evasive. This seemed to me to be equivalent to your scheme. After this I saw Mr. Parnell. He was less satisfied and I understood him to accept the scheme, but not as sufficient or final. His acceptance was very guarded, and I did not take it as more than not opposing it. More than this I could not say; and our interview was under conditions of such reserve that I should not I think that I am feel justified in making it public.

"Six of Rome.

:

justified in

the words

saying this to you because it will show that I wrote to you were not written without 409

Henry Edward Manning
sufficient

grounds. To the best of my memory, Mr. Parnell desired that his interview at this house should not be known at least, publicly. I believe I made it known to you and to Sir Charles Dilke. You were both in the Cabinet, and I regarded it as a privileged

communication

' ' .

After the elections
:

Manning wrote

to

Lord Cross

(December 9, 1886) " I am watching with great interest the break-up of the Liberal party. If it had held together it would have become an aggressive Liberalism Chamberlain an English Gambetta. Gladstone has saved 190 sheep from following Chamberlain and he will make them Home Rulers, but not Gambettisti. I wish you a long life and a strong local government for the three Kingdoms, on common principles, with local adaptations."
;

When
career

Gladstone was defeated and his whole
to

political

end in desertions and disaster, Manning's heart went out to him, as it did to all in distress. They exchanged letters as of yore, Gladstone writing hopefully (September 18, 1887)

seemed

:

of

look upon the end as certain, and on the question share in it as a matter wholly secondary." Manning replied: "In December, 1850, I wrote the enclosed. I had given up all for my faith. You have now given up, I may say, all for justice to Ireland. And you are nearly as isolated now as I was then. You are in the centre I described in my letter. I claim no
I

"

my

gift of prophecy for foretelling that two converging You are lines must intersect even beyond the horizon. not at the centre of the Protestantism of England, but

of the Empire. The former is provisional and narrow, the latter includes all your political past, and must govern and control all legislation for Ireland."

Gladstone never enjoyed an allusion to 1850, and answered (September 23, 1887) " Probably you saw more of my future at that time than I myself saw. You foreshadowed two lines of
:

410

Ireland Again
political action,

and recommended one of them to me. But have you not yourself, together with the great majority of your Communion (apart from the Irish
blood),
either professedly

or practically followed the

other?"

Manning
"

replied (September 25, 1887)

:

I was glad to see that Lord Salisbury said in a speech that he did not know to what party I belonged. For fifty years, with a short interval, I have had a vote, and I have only voted once, and then not to bring anyone in, but to keep a mischievous man out. Among my upper-ten-thousand friends I stand alone. They think me past praying for, because I would not denounce Parnell and I would defend Archbishop Walsh. I believe I can say that, laying aside our old

grudge of the Temporal Power, you have ever known me, and
policy,

I I

am

in politics what have watched your

not foreign, but domestic,

with large assent.

There has been one point on which I have been anxious I used to tell Forster that the I mean Education. had made use of him. And down League Birmingham to two years ago, while Chamberlain was acting with you and, as I believed, gaining influence under your name, I foresaw that Liberalism was becoming aggresI have sive as the Republic in France has become red. therefore seen with satisfaction his separation from you. I am not much afraid of him alone, but plus you he would be able to do mischief in education, which to me
is

articulus stantis vel cadentis Anglice."

411

Immaculate Heart College
Hollywood. California

CHAPTER XXI: PERSICO AND PARNELL
"I hope most earnestly that the paternal mind of your Holiness will not admit the fears which some perhaps may permit themselves to suggest. I know the Irish Bishops personally. They are true Christians, true Catholics, true United to your Holiness and united among themselves, they are the pastors. salvation of Catholic Ireland and of the union of our two peoples. Forgive, Holy Father, the liberty of an old man, who speaks of the things which he has seen and which he sees." Manning to Leo XIII., 1887.

THE

correspondence between the two Archbishops was long. Every month, every week, sometimes daily in times of crisis, they exchanged confidences. They discussed every subject within the far-stretching circle of "faith and morals," from "the English Martyrs" to "Kerry moonlighters." It is interesting to follow the moderate but consistent Nationalism of Dr. Walsh, at a time when he was considered little less than a mitred Fenian, and the wise counsel of Manning in days when The Times labelled him a Separatist.

When the Pope added certain prayers in the vernacular to Mass, Manning translated one phrase, " Michael, defend us in the hour of battle," but Walsh
substituted the words

" hour of conflict," explaining

it

was "safer

in militant districts like Belfast!"

He

also

" " to express rebuke suggested "restraint" rather than the Divine anger against Satan. Manning, who was a great judge of words, replied (November 5, 1886) " What we ask is not a transient check, but a continuous But the word imperet does not convey the restraint.
:

meaning

of

eTrtrifji^o-at

which
I

thereby quell or repulse. not so much to construe as to translate. Sometimes a translation is nearest to the sense when it is farthest from the words. The Belfast correction is very wise." Manning dreamed of unity between the Hierarchies
of

distinctly rebuke, always feel that we

is

and
have

England and

Ireland.

Both he and Walsh were
412

Persico and Parnell
statesmen in ecclesiastical harness, and each found that a Bench of Bishops is sometimes as difficult to keep in The sore between English serried rank as a Cabinet. and Irish Catholics was soon located by Walsh, who wrote (December 27, 1885)
:

" In the first place we have the proposal distinctly made to subordinate the interests of the Irish movement, in support of which the Irish M.P.'s have been returned, to the interests of the English Catholic body in the question of Education. Then we have the most scur-

on the on the

rilous attacks made on those same Irish members and Irish Bishops for seeking their aid in Parliament Irish Education Question, and no public protest
is made against these attacks by the English Catholics or their representatives. It is, in fact, generally felt over here that, with the exception of your Eminence and a very few others, our brethren across the water rather sympathise with those attacks than disapprove of them. I write by this post also to the Bishop of Salford."

more
lest

Manning was glad to receive Irish news through a He was afraid reliable medium than the Tablet.

the Irish Bishops should be outstripped in the leadership of the Irish people. He felt it was essential they should preserve their unity as of a "Testudo." Manning and Vaughan were their own antitheses in

many
death.

respects, but they stayed the closest of friends till one matter only did a rift occur in the lute.

On

Vaughan disapproved of the Cardinal's enthusiasm for General Booth. Vaughan thought Manning was condoning heresy ab intra. Manning thought he was
stimulating Catholicism ab extra. Political divergence never undermined their alliance. Only theological shades of opinion could rouse Manning's mistrust. Of political differences he thought but lightly in the face
of the eternities.

when they become

took religion, like Englishmen religious, as seriously as Irishmen take In Ireland, where theological generally politics. is neither nor medievalism opinion stationary,

He

Henry Edward Manning
modernism prevails. Ultramontanism never became prominent because Gallicanism never took root, and
appreciation of the differences of debate is concentrated Even so, Walsh strove to be fair upon politics.

(February 20, 1886)

:

"I have always studiously avoided any unfriendly reference to the Tablet. I am rather noted over here for fighting its battles. But I really cannot see how I can any longer hold aloof from making common cause in the matter with the Archbishop of Cashel and others of whom it has from time to time written in so unfriendly a spirit."

We have Nemesis and Erinyes hanging over us. I am weary of remonstrating, but I will do so again by this post. The Bishop
Manning wrote (March
29, 1886)
:

"

of Salford

The a new
1886)
:

is not absent." Tories were out, and search was being made for Liberal Viceroy. Dr. Walsh wrote (January 29,

"As I have seen Lord Ripon's name mentioned in connection with the Irish Viceroyalty, it occurs to me that I ought to write to your Eminence to say to you that in my opinion such an appointment just now would be simply disastrous. The great difficulty here is tworeligious difficulty and that of is what called 'Home Rule,' I 'property.' believe there would be a practically unanimous concurfold.

There

is

the

As

to

rence of opinion in Ireland in favour of

it

if

the land-

owners and the Protestants of the country could feel assured that there was no fear of a general confiscation of property on the one hand, and of the establishment of an intolerant Catholic ascendancy on the other. Everything that goes to foster either apprehension tends to emphasise and perpetuate the present lines of division in Ireland. The appointment of a Catholic LordI paid a Lieutenant would plainly have this effect. He left farewell visit to Lord Carnarvon on Tuesday. Ireland yesterday, and was received with marked respect Poor by the people as he drove through the streets.
' '
'

414

Persico and Parnell
gentleman, he did his best at any rate !' was the exclamation of one of the populace, overheard by one of our This represents the unanimous feeling of the priests. If Mr. Gladstone could induce him to come citizens. back to us, all would be well."

However,
Aberdeen,
bilities
it

the

choice

of

the

Presbyterian

Lord

was hoped, would soothe the

suscepti-

of the North.

Walsh

reported (February 23,

1886)

:

I I have not as yet seen our new Lord-Lieutenant. called at the Viceregal Lodge yesterday, but found he is at the Castle. He sent his private secretary here

"

yesterday. It is generally felt, I believe, by English Catholics that the granting of Home Rule, to whatever extent it may be granted, means to that same extent a weakening of the forces now available for the protection But in Parliament of Catholic interests in England. there is another side to the question. Supposing the Irish difficulty done away with, would not the Parliamentary force of English Catholicity become far more available than it now is, even when aided by the somewhat irregular help given by the Irish M.P.'s in the

House

of

Commons?"

Manning wrote (February 25, 1886) " In the time of my predecessor there was a great breach between English and Irish Catholics. For twenty years I have laboured to heal it. It is unhappily again open. But the English Catholics are few. The mass of our people are Irish and united with Ireland. Michael Davitt first suggested to me the risk of losing forty or fifty Catholic members from the Imperial Parliament. It is obvious. It is a Catholic and a worldwide danger. I hope justice will reign in Ireland without this danger."
:

In his answer

Walsh later suggested "The claim of the English Catholics to a set of guarantees such as are now to be provided for the Irish Protestants." It was with a view to making Irish and English
415

Henry Edward Manning
Catholics understand each other better that Manning encouraged Wilfrid Blunt's chivalrous descent into
Ireland,

from whose diary we quote (February
is

23, 1886)

:

"Lunched with Cardinal Manning, and we
Randolph's Belfast speech, which

discussed

but not quite so violent as I expected. agreed he was quite hopeless. The Cardinal's view about Ireland is like mine, but he makes some exception to a Parliament at Dublin as not suited to the Irish. He wants them, however, to govern themselves."

violent enough,

We

The following month Mr. Blunt arrived in Dublin with the Cardinal's certificate that he was "in earnest
and complete sympathy with Ireland." Walsh was writing to Manning at this time (March
1886)
:

26,

" Mr. Wilfrid Blunt called here on Wednesday morning, and I was fortunately able to see him without delay. He will go through the country to see things for himself. I have written to the Bishop of Raphoe to look after him when he goes to Donegal. are all very anxious over here about the success of Mr. Gladstone's scheme.

We

As
to

to his project of

buying out the landlords,

it

is

no

doubt very chivalrous of him to embarrass himself for the sake of a class of people who are so bitterly hostile

him and to his projects. They seem quite blind just now. I have no doubt that if some reasonable settlement be not made this time, the people will take the Land Question into their own hands and solve it by a general refusal to pay rent. It will be a sad result, coming on us at a time when everything seemed so hopeful for a thoroughly constitutional settlement of all our difficulties."

They soon agreed over the Home Rule Question. Manning wrote (April 15, 1886) "Your comment on Mr. Gladstone's Bill is altogether my conviction. As I came out after hearing his speech,
:

I
'

You must

found myself
all

in the midst of your members, and I said, I have many reasons for this stay here.'

416

Persico and Parnell
I shall hold it all the more confidently that you and, I take for granted, your colleagues are of the same mind." July 14, 1886: "I do not interpret this election as a refusal to Ireland, but as a rejection of the mutilation of the Imperial Parliament by the removal of the representatives of Ireland."

opinion,

and

knowing

We
word
'

find Dr.

Walsh
'

writing (January 25, 1887)

:

was wise of us to avoid the use of the and to speak of a legislative body or this on account legislature, in formulating our demands of the jealousy with which Englishmen naturally regard
said
it

"You

Parliament

the establishment of anything that could be regarded as a possible rival to the great Parliament of the Empire. I am, indeed, as I have more than once said to your Eminence, personally in favour of a settlement based on And in such a settlement the Parfederalist' lines. liament would stand as it is, each nation (or each island)
' ' '

having its own legislative body for its own affairs. Now, why should not the difficulty about the executive be got over in the same way? Possibly great difficulty is
'
'

caused at present by the idea that our Irish executive would stand on a sort of level with the Imperial executive. Why not clear away this by leaving the affairs of the Army, the Navy, the Colonies, to be dealt with as at present, constructing a system of local executives for England and Scotland as well as for Ireland? Your Eminence may think this worth suggesting in some
friendly quarter."

To

this

Manning

replied (February 3, 1887)

:

" Gladstone's Bill of last year has thrown us somewhat back by its vagueness, which has alarmed many. But it seems to me that Ireland will obtain its own administraExecutive to opponents suggest sovereignty, and then all is dark with a cloud of words."
tion, legislation, and interests. The words

executive of
'

its

own laws and
*
'

Parliament

'

and

Meantime Archbishop Croke attacked, and the Government were swayed upon the undignified dilemma 2E 417

Henry Edward Manning
of imprisoning the Archbishop or summoning the Pope to their aid. They fell back upon the latter, and the

Rome raged with intrigue. Manning felt compromised by Croke, and reproved him gently. The " " turbulent one replied (February 22, 1887)
world of
:

"I am sincerely sorry that your Eminence has been worried by anything said or done by me. But surely anyone reflecting on the distressing scenes that are being enacted at this moment in various parts of Ireland must be formed of strange clay indeed if he can measure his words while writing about them, or believe that there is a Government here entitled to the respect or obedience of Irishmen. As for me, I wish I were out of the country altogether, or that I had never returned to it from the Colonies."

Manning only just managed to avert steps on the part of the Legislature. He wrote to Lord Cross (March 7,
1887)
:

the discretion in Archbishop Croke's letter there But as to the course to be taken by Government, there can be in my mind only one decision. The furnace of Ireland is hot enough. One

"

Of

can be no two opinions.

element only

is

wanting to make

it

inextinguishable.

Throw

in the religious element and it is done. I hope that the Government will do anything and everything

except proceed

by law against

the Archbishop."
7,

obliged to you for your to look for support to law and order if not to the chief rulers of the Catholic Church ? And when may we hope to see some public repudiation in high quarters either at home or abroad of the doctrines contained in the letter to which you allude?"
Confidential.
letter.

Lord Cross answered (March " I am much
But where are we

1887)

:

Dr. Croke also sought the Cardinal's favour at

Rome

suppose, as the Government have reported me to the Vatican,' that I will be severely handled by the 418
'

(March " I

5,

1887)

:

Persico and Parnell
I ask your Eminence to use your kindly offices in this matter, as you have done on similar occasions in the past."

powers that be; and

On April 3 Manning wrote to the Pope to disavow the report that the Archbishop of Cashel had wished for a strike against taxes in preference to constitutional means.
shall Manning wrote to Dublin (June 4, 1887): save the Faith in Ireland and in England as the Apostles spread it in the world, without the world and against the world. Any contact with the world would leave a stain

"We

and paralyse our strength.

The more the Bishops of Ireland vindicate the law of God against English and Irish wrong-doers, the stronger we shall be." But the Vatican had renewed relations with the

Papal delegation had been invited to attend the Queen's Jubilee that month, and at the earnest request of English Catholics like the Duke of Norfolk a further mission was arranged to investigate Irish matters. The Duke of Norfolk held political views similar to

Government.

A

those of

as in his creed.

Vaughan, and was as blunt in their profession But the notion that he was secretly
:

outwitting his Archbishop at Rome may be dissipated " in one sentence that he wrote to Manning in May The and that views mine about Ireland sees do not Pope your

and I am sorry to say that he trusts yours rather than mine." As to the Cardinal's feelings towards the Papal envoy, we beg to quote from Mr. Blunt's Diary (July 18, 1887)
agree,
:

"Called on Cardinal Manning. He urges me to see Mgr. Persico, and seems quite satisfied with the objects and progress of his mission. I narrated to him my interview with the Pope last winter, and he told me he knew positively beyond question His Holiness's mind about Ireland. 'The Pope,' he said, considers that the
'

union of the two countries should be maintained; that there should be one Imperial Parliament, in which the Irish members should sit; but that there should also be
419

Henry Edward Manning
an assembly in Ireland for their own local affairs.' With regard to the Persico Mission, it has been ludicrously represented that it was despatched in opposition to Manning's wishes and the wishes of the Irish clergy, whereas they really had the whole management of the
affair.
. .

."

Persico had translated one of Manning's books at the Propaganda soon after his conversion. He was a striking example of the adventurous career which is still vouchsafed in the service of the Church. Commencing as a missionary in India, he founded a paper and college at Bombay, and was imprisoned during the Mutiny by the Sepoys at Agra. He afterwards served the Holy See in South Carolina, in Portugal, and as Apostolic Delegate in Canada. His respect for British Dominion was only

tempered by a stay in the United States during the Council of Baltimore. Large as his experience might be, he could not be expected to solve the Irish problem in the course of a holiday. Mr. Blunt sketched him
:

Monsignore Persico is a worthy old Capuchin, a diplomatist of the silent, sleepy school, with an enormous
nose." According to Father Healy, he had "the eye of a courting hawk."

"

The

arrival of this

ingenuous

ecclesiast

was awaited
he could not

with breathless interest.

Walsh wrote

that

disguise the uneasy feeling which prevailed. Fortunately, the walls of Dublin were just then placarded with his posters announcing the collection of Peter's Pence.

Walsh's cheerful letter reached the Cardinal's breakfast table on June 27 in company with a copy of The Times, which made the serious allegation that between them they had caused the withdrawal of the Mission. Manning sent The Times a flat contradiction "We are neither
:

intriguers nor Separatists." Before his indignation had cooled, he wrote to

Walsh

(June 27, 1887)

:

420

Persico and Parnell

have been far worse. You have the Irish people in your hands, and everything to my eyes is towards a just and peaceful settlement. The change in this country towards Ireland is very extensive, and I hope there is some change in Ireland towards us. The visit of the envoy here has no bearing upon Ireland. You will do me real kindness and service in keeping me well informed. I sent the testimony of the Judges to the Holy Father three weeks ago."
Dr. " I

When Mgr. Persico comes let him have the report of Lord Cowper's Commission to take back to Rome. What you say about Michael Davitt I felt. But I can be surIf I had been at Bodyke I should prised at nothing.

"

Walsh wrote (June

30, 1887)

:

cannot attempt to thank your Eminence for your All Ireland will thank you for it. It has letter. produced an extraordinary sensation here. Few knew how thoroughly your Eminence has been with us all through this trying time. Your Eminence will, of course, have observed that you have driven The Times to confess
noble
that

what

it

means by

'

'

separation

is

Home

Rule

in the

shape of a legislative body."

Mgr. Persico was not revoked,
report (July 8, 1887)
:

for Dr.

Walsh could
is

"The
naturally

Mission has

arrived.

The Holy Father

troubled at the representations so freely made to him as to the state of things here. He has given us the best possible means of letting him know the truth. Both our visitors are loud in their praise of

your Eminence's
evidently had

letter.

told in

The Rome."

'

'

Separatist

cry

is

one that

Manning was anxious
eviction

for

Persico to see the next
last.

or the ruins of the

He

also inquired

whether moonlighters respected wives and daughters. Dr. Walsh assured him on that point, and added (July
12,

1887)

:

"As

for the
I

Kerry moonlighters, instead of trying
should try to collect
421
all

to

defend them,

possible evidence

Henry Edward Manning
against them They have no claim upon us for protection or for sympathy of any kind."
.

Manning wished
Bishops
their

who were
is

to take up the defence of those said to have passed over outrages in
:

but Walsh's answer was striking no defending the Bishops of those few districts where the outrages occur. But do they occur in Dublin, for instance, or in Cashel?" Perhaps no greater testimony could be adduced to the Christian wisdom of the two most maligned of the Irish

"

dioceses,

There

Episcopate than the fact that their dioceses were devoid
of crime.

Meantime Persico had begun that bewildering series and experiences which left him favourable to the Irish cause. He stayed with Bishops and with landlords. Manning advised him to pay a visit to the
of interviews

Viceroy, as well as to invite the four Archbishops to He solemnly collected the affirmations and contradictions that make up all Irish reports. As he and Croke kissed one another at the railway-station at Cashel, the voice of the laity was heard to remark in the crowd
consultation.
it would be hard "to say which was the greatest skamer I" He appears to have been in love with Ireland the whole time, but he successfully concealed it. A veil of mystery shrouded his intentions and even his locality.

that

to Walsh (October 25, 1887) " Reuter tells me that Mgr. Persico is in Rome. But that is a reason for believing he is still in Dublin. Still, I should like to know whether he is on the Tiber or the Liffey. Abbate Gualdi's conclusions about Ireland were He read what I have written to the essentially sound. it from his own experience. and confirmed Father, Holy This gives me reason to believe that his witness in Rome will be in the main useful."

Manning wrote

:

Before the end of the year Persico was writing to

Manning from
21, 1887) to

the Capuchin Convent in Cork (December deny his alliance with the Government
:

422

Persico and Parnell
"

Your Eminence understands
I

the

Irish

thoroughly; your Eminence does. As not fail to make a proper exposd of things."

wish others

in far as

Rome understood I am concerned, I
1887)
:

Question
it

as

shall

Manning wrote (December 29, " The English people tolerate a spiritual body. The first sign
the
picions,

Government and hostility."

the Catholic Church as of a political action on would rekindle all the old fears, sus-

Persico answered (January

6,

1888)

:

"It is a great pity that English Catholics do not I am sure that His Holiness underunderstand all this stands it well, but I share your fears that those about him may harass him with the fickle and vain glory that would accrue to the Holy See by having an accredited repreI sentative from England also. may assure your in a of most confidential Eminence, course, way, that even in my humble position I do not fail to represent my views to the Holy See. Above all, I have informed the Secretary of State of the way in which such a thing would be felt in Ireland." " I am January 21, 1888 happy to let your Eminence know that my superiors have received favourably my poor suggestions, and seem to agree with the expediency of the relative proposals. For the present they cannot give much attention to the Irish affairs, but will decide on the mode of treating them the moment they are free from the present celebrations. I know that your Eminence will be pleased to hear this, so I have hastened to confide said news to your Eminence. At the same time I am most anxious that certain disciplinary points should be
!
:

settled properly for the good of religion and the dignity of the priesthood. Of course, I always mean that whatever is to be done must be done with and through the

Bishops. It is absolutely necessary that the Bishops of Ireland should be thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of introducing those things, so that by their acceptance the observance may be secured. My love for Ireland and the sacred duty attached to my present mission makes me doubly anxious on this subject."

423

Henry Edward Manning
When I wrote last I had received February 9, 1888 letters from Rome wherefrom I could gather that they had accepted my proposals and also my views. I have not heard anything since, and the return to Ireland of the Archbishop of Tuam and other Bishops that had gone to Rome makes me believe that no meeting of Bishops is to take place in Rome. This makes me very uneasy, as in my humble opinon, if anything was to be done, it could only be done in that way. It is only by
:

"

some

discussing quietly and coming to certain decisions that I may assure practical result may be obtained.

your Eminence that on my part I have done my duty in exposing things and giving my humble opinion. If they deem proper to adopt other ways and to act otherwise I shall have no remorse whatever." "I am entirely of your Eminence's February 12, 1888 that the opinion people of Ireland have had no defenders
:

but the priests, and

I firmly believe that the clergy in Ireland must be the guides and the protectors of the people. It would be an evil day for Ireland to separate the clergy from the people. I have shown this important fact in my reports to Rome."

of

he confided his love of Ireland, and spoke in her relations, and later he as cold-blooded England " Oh, how I wish that your Eminence could be prayed
:

To Manning

entrusted with everything !" With the New Year Archbishop Walsh proceeded to Rome, and the friends of Ireland breathed again. From Naples he wrote to the Cardinal (January 22, i!
All this see my

it will, of course, be my duty to tell him of the serious risk that is run by mixing up the Holy See in so uncertain a transaction. If he is prepared, in communicating with the Ministry, to put forward as essential bases of a settlement the two unchangeable requirements of Home Rule and a thoroughly satisfactory reform of our Land System, all may be well. These points are No influence in the world could move our essential.

"The Pope now thinks he can settle the Irish Question. may mean something practical. But unless I can way very clearly into what the Holy Father

means,

424

Persico and Parnell
people, either at home or abroad, to abandon either one or the other. If things are to enter upon a course in which the Holy See may be made to figure as claiming an influence to secure the abandonment of either, we must see that the Holy Father is sufficiently forewarned to have himself to bear the full responsibility of any disaster which may follow."

April

4,

1888

:

"The Holy

Father undoubtedly has a strong convic-

tion that he can get something very substantial done for us in Ireland. So he asked the Bishop of Cork and myself to go to him one day and to tell him fully how the whole case stands. It was marvellous to see how he entered into everything ; one would think that outside the shores of Ireland there was nothing in the world that he took the smallest interest in. were with him for nearly two hours, and his sole anxiety at the end seemed to be whether there was anything else we wished him to understand. At the end he charged us to draw up a Rule relatio on the whole question of the land.

We

Home

he understands fully, and needs no information about it. I went mainly on the question of arrears; a reference to the Scotch crofters' case evidently roused his indignation as to the way in which Ireland is treated. Fortunately, I was able to show him a number of the Illustrated London News, with a picture of the crofters fighting the ' Ah,' said he, una vera insurrezione.' I said, military. Yes, Holy Father, and that answers your question why this Arrears Bill was passed for the Scotch crofters and why no such Bill was passed for us our people are too quiet; but if things are allowed to go on much longer in this way, we shall have una vera insurrezione in Ireland too.' The Holy See, judging from the outward peace*
'
:

ableness of the country, could hardly realise that the seventeenth century had not passed away, that the people were still struggling for their religion and their land, and that the permanency of the one depended to no little conscientious extent on the possession of the latter. regard for the letter of English law in the eighteenth century would have left their fathers without the Faith, as it seemed likely to leave them now without an acre."

A

425

Henry Edward Manning
his reports

Persico was being forgotten in Ireland, and, indeed, had not reached the Holy See. But the Holy See waiteth at one time, and at another time waiteth not. Inscrutable are her judgments. On April 20, 1888, her

Decree was given to the world.
Italian blue,

It

was a

bolt

from the

for

it

condemned

the Plan of

Campaign

and the

practice of boycotting.

On

the tradition that

Limerick always acts for itself, the Bishop of Limerick alone published the Decree. The others found themselves in Dr. Croke's dilemma. He wrote to Manning (April
29, 1888)
:

are placed in a great fix here. What is to be courses are open to the people either to ignore the document altogether or to grapple 'freely and fully with the reasons assigned as a basis for the Decree, and then to show, as may easily be done, that it rests on no solid foundation. The Archbishop of Dublin never heard of the document until after the Pope's approval

"We
?

done

Two

of it."

Rumours
1888)
:

ran mad.

Lord Ripon wrote (April

30,

there is no truth in the story in this Standard that the Holy Father has ordered morning's the Sacraments to be refused to the members of the National League as such?"

"I suppose

The stranger news that Walsh, who had gone out Rome, and was actually engaged in writing a report

to
at

the Pope's request, had not been consulted before the publication of the Decree was confirmed by his next
letter

(May

3,

1888)

:

" If the Holy Father had waited for another week, when my information would have been in his hands, the

Decree could not have been issued in its present form. But then I should have felt some responsibility in the matter. As things stand I am quite clear. Now that the Decree has been issued, I see great advantages in what
426

Persico and Parnell
has been done. The Holy Father, in clearing away from our cause those things that were put forward by our adversaries as reasons for leaving our case undealt with, has done us, I think, an enormous service. He meant all this, and if he is able now to carry out the rest of his programme his Jubilee year may yet bring us a very long way forward in the direction of a satisfactory settlement of all our difficulties. Feeling as I do upon the whole question, I should be sorry to see any move made for an interpretation or explaining away of the Decree. should leave things as they are. Thus our case is an immensely strong one. If, however, nothing is done for us, and the people are left without help to face another, winter, we must give them a free hand."

We

Manning

replied

(May

6,

1888)

:

"Your
much
could not

letter
tell

relief.

reached me late last night, and gave me Our papers have been full of folly, and I

what might be passing. It is strange but nothing surprises me that you were not consulted, and that no one verified the reasons alleged for the decision

as to rents.

Boycotting, I said five years ago, begins in The Plan of horseplay, but may end in bloodshed. Campaign is a true reflex of the whole Irish Question.
'
'

Summum jus, summa Legal right and moral wrong injuria. I have written these words long ago you know For the moment worldly influence has preto whom.
vailed.

My daily fear is that some word or act may exceed the limits of faith or morals. At first I wished that this decision had been sent in private to all you Bishops as private direction. But then I saw that you might have been embarrassed, and the brunt would have fallen on you. Now it comes over your heads from the
highest source, and you are all sheltered, and have the pastoral and peaceful office of guiding and guarding your people in submission. But I hope the Pfan of Campaign will be fully explained and understood as an abnormal but moral equity. Parliament has recognised this in the arrears of the crofters of Scotland. Try to convince Cardinal Monaco and Cardinal Mazzella. The former is very acute the latter knows the English and Irish outer world well. If you can gain them, and Mgr. Jacobini of
;

427

Henry Edward Manning
will guide the rest. One thing more. or of or any selfheart, pain, uprightness renouncement, lead you to offer to leave your post of duty, difficulty, or danger. God has chosen you to fill it, and to stand there till you die."

Propaganda, they

Do

not

let

If the Irish Bishops did nothing, the Irish party, who were especially condemned, could not ignore the matter. Mr. Parnell spoke of "a document from a distant " which he left to his Catholic lieutenants. They country decided to repudiate the Decree, but in terms expressive of loyalty to the Holy See. Such contradictions in terms

are always difficult to word,

had
full

to Cardinal

rough draft to onus had fallen on Persico.

and resource was accordingly Manning. Mr. Blunt brought their Westminster on May n. Meantime the

He

informed Manning

that Irish hostility prevented him living with his brother Capuchins at Pontypool, and he had retired to the

Carthusians at Parkminster.

The unhappy Legate

could

only write

(May

9,

1888)

:

You are a Cardinal of the Holy Church, and one I deeply esteem and respect hence I feel that I can speak as I would before the Holy Church and before God Himself. Now, it is known to your Eminence that I did not expect at all the said Decree, and that I was never
;

"

more surprised
circular."

in

my

life

as

when
for

I

received

the

Manning accordingly had news
to

Mr. Blunt when he

arrived on behalf of the Irish party.

He

wrote a

letter

be shown to them (May n,

i<

Confidential. I hope Mr. O'Brien and the Catholic members will wait before they enunciate any irrevocable matter, and I may add my belief that Monsignor Persico has had no part in this late event. I do not say this
lightly."

"

His advice

to the party

was not
428

to contest the

Pope's

general right to interfere in politics.

He then

dictated to

Persico and Parnell
Mr. Blunt a
prepared by
writing
:

less disputable expression than had been the Irish leaders, and added in his own

While fully admitting that the breach of a legal contract is an illegal and therefore a censurable act, we affirm that the contracts in question were not freely made by reason of the helpless poverty of the tenants, and were essentially unjust by reason of their exorbitance, which has been already proved by the legal reductions in Nevertheless, the payment of such 100,000 cases. exorbitant rents and arrears is being enforced, and the Land Courts can afford no protection by reason of the inevitable delays in the process of appeal."
All his experience of the East or of the West availed Persico not when he came to stir the Irish caldron. Those who wish well to Ireland must expect to be sacrificed. It is a general law and not the exception. To keep successthose afloat in waters required a grimmer fully boiling But the Church is merciful to calibre than Persico's. the broken reed,

"

and the smoking

flax

she will not

quench.

He was

Rome, and

passed into the Coptic department at consoled by the Supreme Order of Merit in

the Cardinalate.

Manning's view was that " The Decree of Leo XIII. was absolutely true, just, and useful. But in the abstract. The condition of

The Decree contemplates facts Ireland is abnormal. which do not exist. The political condition of the world is not contained in the deposit. Pontiffs have no infallibility in the world of facts, except only dogmatic. The Plan of Campaign is not a dogmatic fact, and it is one thing to declare that all legal agreements are binding, and another to say that all agreements in Ireland are
legal."
set down a situation which survived to and disgrace of Empire " I will put down what I believe about the Irish Question and of the intervention of the Holy See.

And

later

he

the detriment

:

429

Henry Edward Manning
The English Government maintains itself in Ireland by the help of 14,000 armed Constabulary, a force of highly disciplined troops, and at least 28,000 of our regular army that is, by 42,000 armed men. "The Government of Ireland is in the hands of officials, English, Scots, and Irish, almost exclusively Protestant. Even the magistrates are removable by Dublin Castle.
'

perpetual irritation, suspicion, present Government would fall to-morrow if it were not upheld by this Protestant party. Law, order, and authority may be maintained, but at the cost of violating the moral justice by which alone nations are governed. " Since this Government came in Ireland has had a Crimes Act, but not a remedy for one of its just com-

"The

effect of this is

and resentment.

The

If you had held Goschen at the Athenaeum out a ray of hope you might have governed Ireland.'
:

plaints. " I told

'

But no

:

this

Government

relies

on force."

their intentions

Visitors to Ireland gave unending trouble, even when were of the highest. Wilfrid Blunt, in

spite of

Manning's

certificate,

was landed

in

Galway

Dilke, Chamberlain, and Lane-Fox threatened visits, the latter of which the Cardinal personally averted

Gaol.

(October 23, 1891)

:

"

I

Hussey Walsh and other Irish Conservatives. But behind them at this time, and in the next General Election, there are and will be anticlerical and Parnellite Catholics of Dublin and Cork a highly dangerous party, of which lately the Bishop of Ossory told me much. Nothing you can say or do will save you from being followed, cheered, and used by them. And with equal certainty you will find
true, like

who invite you may be good and

implore you not to go to Ireland.

The

Catholics

yourself in direct political opposition to the whole Episcopate of Ireland, and therefore to the will of the Holy Father, as I have it direct from himself. Write to me at once, and tell me that you will not be drawn away from your prudent conduct in the past."

430

Persico and Parnell
October 29, 1891 : may make me responsible for the decision if you will privately and publicly to all the world. I love you too well to let you go astray when

"You

and

The Times maliciously This is the a Separatist. and misleads you. My dear George, be on your guard against the prejudice and reckless accusations of anti-Irish Englishmen, and still more of anti-Irish Irishmen."
I

see it."

October

"

29,

1891

:

scurrilously called information that blinds

me

After an effusion from the former wrote
:

class, the

Cardinal

I have two Oxford friends able, cultivated scholars whose hand has been through life against every man. They remind me of the faces Dante saw withered in the But what distortion of eye and intellect ice. " The Irish are to be judged in Ireland. Not even the Tyrolese compare with them in chastity, generosity, and
I

"

Their faults are the demoralisation of an oppressed The Irish are what the English have made them. "As to their charity and piety, Mr. Bakewell has no instinct or intuition to perceive it. He is a sample of an intellectual convert light without love,' which has no It is refreshing to read his place in God or heaven. denunciation of the English-speaking race. It is far worse than the abominable Irish.' But it is not like our Lord weeping over Jerusalem."
faith.

and persecuted people.

'

*

Ireland.

There were times when the Cardinal wept tears over Canon Arthur Ryan records one such incident
:

"Gladstone had just locked up Parnell, and most of our leaders were in prison, and it was on the cards to send Dr. Croke there too. But when dinner was over and the visit to the Blessed Sacrament, the Cardinal drew me into the corridor and said Oh, I fear every link of affection between the two countries is broken.' 'Yes,' I said, 'all but one.' 'What one is that?' said the Cardinal. 'Our love for you,' said I. I shall never forget how he looked me through when he answered
'

:

:

4

Do you mean

that

?'

I

said

'
:

You

are the last

man

in

Henry Edward Manning
England
to to

be

true.'

whom I would say that if I did not believe it And the dear old man burst into tears. After
'

a

It is what I have prayed what I have prayed for.' I don't think many for, men have seen Manning cry. " I have always felt that he loved Ireland and was For when, afterwards, Gladstone brought jealous too. in his Home Rule Bill, the Cardinal asked me Well, how are things going on in Ireland?' Oh,' I said, we are all blessing Mr. Gladstone.' He seemed quite nettled and answered But / was a friend of Ireland before Mr. Gladstone.' I think that burst of human nature moved me almost more than his tears." bit,
:

almost under his breath

it is

'

:

'

'

'

:

Between the two Home Rule Bills Manning felt that he could reconcile his Imperialism with Mr. Parnell. Walsh wrote (July 9, i!

"Your Eminence, I know, will read with special pleasure Parnell's declaration on the retention of the Irish M.P.'s at Westminster. Although the Holy Father is now so clear on the Home Rule Question, it might be well if your Eminence wrote to him telling him of this important declaration and all the circumstances."
Manning wrote to the Pope to report that Mr. Parnell had accepted one Imperial Parliament. To Walsh he
answered " I am sure that
:

party,

And

it

this is the mind of the brains of the not, perhaps, of the passions or of the lungs. will greatly advance what we desire."

The alliance with the Irish Hierarchy appears to have been clinched in the following year. The Cardinal wrote his thanks for the support which the Irish party had given him to defeat "a handful of anti-Catholic Radicals." To Dr. Walsh he added (October 4, 1889) " If they will support us in the defence of denominational education it will powerfully help Catholic Education in Ireland. You then need not fear either Dissenters or Radicals in England."
:

432

Persico and Parnell
Walsh wrote (October
"
6,

1889)

:

At our last Episcopal meeting, last June, we passed a resolution that the Irish members be asked to sustain
the efforts of your Eminence in reference to denominational education. The only opportunity that has arisen was in reference to the Technical Instruction Bill. Your

Eminence knows the

rest."
:

And
"

the Cardinal replied (October 9, 1889)

I did not know till I received your last letter that the Bishops of Ireland had been so good as to pass a resolution requesting the Irish members to support our efforts on Education in Parliament. Let me ask you to offer

to

them

my

grateful thanks.

It is of

the highest import-

ance that Catholics should act in complete unity in this matter of Education. If our force is unbroken we are sure of success in guarding our Catholic schools both in
Ireland and England."

Walsh wrote

further (October 19, 1889)

:

"John Morley turned up here quite unexpectedly on Wednesday. I had Cashel and some other Bishops to dine that evening. He came on a very informal invitation, and seemed quite at home amongst so many
Christians 1"

Though he spelled God

with a capital, the Irish prefer to deal with a non-religious than with a bigoted
official.

g and Gladstone were wise enough to Hierarchy
with a small

'

'

Manning wrote (March i, 1889) "As to Education. The Irish members did right in closing with Mr. Morley. But it will not come to pass
:

hereafter.

We

cannot stand on exceptional legislation.

Our only safety is a common or equal law. But what your members did has done good and strengthened our hold on the Opposition party. The Catholic papers will
do best not
to attack

them."

year 1890 signalled the hopeful and unopposed advance of all that Manning cherished most at heart.

The

433

2F

Henry Edward Manning
Education, Ireland, and Rome presented the aspect of Subterranean activities had all subsiding volcanoes. come to the surface. There was a lull and a respite
attending the days of his Silver Jubilee. In Education the Catholic claims showed signs of longdelayed progression. In Ireland Parnell had righted his waning popularity by an astonishing victory over The Times. Pigott, an out-of-work journalist, had fooled it into buying a forged letter. Archbishop Walsh, whom he approached three days before its publication in The Times, gave him shorter dealing. As Herbert Paul wrote : "If there were more Walshes in the world there would be fewer Pigotts." Manning wrote to Walsh
:

"Without doubt you already know that Pigott has confessed his perjury and forgery to Mr. Labouchere. But I can add that he has also put himself into the hands of my Vicar-General. I hope this downfall of The Times will teach it to be just and humbler hereafter. But I have little confidence in its amendment. Let me thank you for your wise and firm letters to this miserable Pigott. They have done us much good."

To Sir Charles Russell, ParnelPs counsel, Manning " wrote What I thought was the chief excellence of your defence was this You lifted the whole subject to the level of a great national and historical cause."
:
:

Parnell's rehabilitation in the

followed by that of Dr.

Walsh

he had suffered an undeserved

of Commons was Roman circles, where cloud. On St. Patrick's

House

in

Day Manning, after saying Mass for Ireland, wrote wish him joy of the new prospect (March 17, 1890)
:

to

"Cardinal Rampolla's have been fearing that in

letter to

have been for a time clouded, as every Archbishop is from Langton downwards. Is it not possible for you before long to go there? Mere absence brings mistrust. The one condition of your strength is the union of the Bishops. A fortnight I have long ago I wrote to the Holy Father saying 434
' :

Rome you may

you

is

a great joy.

I

Persico and Parnell
been silent about Ireland, but I can neither change nor modify what I have written in my past letters.' " Manning's Irish spirits ran high in spite of Resolute
'

Government"
1890)
:

in

Ireland, writing to

Walsh (May

27,

When will the Government see that the Balfour policy has ruined them? The Smith-Barry affair is as ignoble and impolitic as any statesman is capable of defending. I am finishing William O'Brien's book with It will do immense good, delight I cannot express. provoking great wrath and great love for Ireland !"
And
' '

"

to Gladstone (October 11, 1890)

:

there ever such a farce and outrage on justice as this Tipperary Court, with a jury of movable judges ad bene placitum and ex-policemen on the bench ? Surely
will not bear this, or Parliament. Balfour has brought back America into Ireland worst danger, as I foresaw in 1868."

Was

Englishmen

Mr.
our

work accomplished, with the peace of and the silver echoes of his jubilee the world, Cardinal Manning must be ringing through
his life's

With

Ireland at hand,

accounted at this
happiness

in their

Then a

conflict

moment among the few who found eminence. Then the storm broke precipitated itself among the Catholic
!

people of Great Britain which brought the Cardinal sorrow and grief upon the brink of his grave. The wanton destiny of Ireland was at hand to embitter and dash the cup of her unhappy but not unholy people. When he stood at his zenith the Irish leader fell, but notwith the fall of a common man.

Two mighty influences, long extinct in Anglo-Saxon communities, were brought to bear on a susceptible people. The clan feeling for a chief clashed with the native obedience to the Catholic Church. Before the end of the year the whole country was divided in an agony of
hate

and

love.

435

Henry Edward Manning
turn of events hinged upon the action of the Bishops, and above all on the counsels of the Archbishops of Westminster and Dublin. But the political initiative lay with neither, least of all with Manning, who
ecclesiastically disliked Parnell's friendship for Clemenceau, and support for Bradlaugh. They have been

The

severely accused of

hanging

fire

until

they could no
to

longer help

it.

act politically,

Walsh waited for the Irish party and Manning waited for Dr. Walsh.
Dr.
1890
:
'

" This O'Shea case is a supreme disaster. My hope is that Parnell will say I will serve Ireland with redoubled devotion, but I will not bring on you any of the censures which will fall on me. Let three or five of you be elected as a permanent direction of your political action in the House, in close communication with the leaders of the present Opposition Mr. Sexton, Healy, and Justin M'Carthy; Mr. Dillon and O'Brien could not without risk be left out.' I have a strong feeling I will say an instinct that this is higher than all political expediency. I have been urged here to speak on the subject, but have refused. You may depend on my silence. If we keep morally right no harm will come

November

19,

:

to Ireland."

For the first time in their correspondence the Cardinal wrote twice to Dr. Walsh on the same day. The letter already quoted was despatched in the morning. Before evening he learnt that if the Irish leadership was un-

changed the Bishops and
themselves
seriously

priests of Ireland would find " in the affected judgment of

English friends or the chief of them." His first letter was accordingly emphasised. Whom Manning had received word from was obvious, for he was writing to Gladstone at this time (November 21, 1890)
:

have written twice since Monday, most Archbishop of Dublin. Mr. Parnell urgently, cannot be upheld as leader. No political expediency can outweigh the moral sense. I trust that the Irish people will on reflection see this. The politicians will not, but 436
I

" Private.

to the

Persico and Parnell
I

hope the Bishops and
will.
I

priests

and the sanior pars

of the

suggested the appointment of five as the leader in commission. These would represent the extreme and the centre. Mr. Stead tells me to-day that Archbishop Croke is for Parnell's retirement. If Archbishop Walsh agrees, I think it will be done. But it rests more with you than with any man. If you say, Do not fetter my freedom of action and take away my strength by putting the cause of Ireland in opposition to the public
people
'

and instinct of England and my chief supporters,' Mr. Parnell would retire from leadership and still give all I have not spoken aid, as before, to the Irish cause.
feeling
publicly, for fear of " clashing with the Irish Bishops." November 27, 1890 : Gratitude, blind loyalty, and just anger at English influence will make the Irish people refuse to forsake Parnell. I feel for them, and in a sense with them. But I hope their Bishops and priests will belief is that when our Parliament bid them be silent. meets, and you and the Irish members are face to face, Mr. Parnell will quietly leave you and the Irish members to act together. But to this end you must let the weight of your word be felt."

My

Two days later Gladstone demanded Parnell's ment, and Manning wrote (November 27, 1890)
:

retire-

"
Confidential.

Your

letter

mouth of lions, and saved Home Rule. The enclosed will show where the Bishops of Ireland are. I hear that the Bishop of Cork has spoken in the same sense. It will take time for certain of the Irish members to climb down, but all will end as we desire."
the

has saved your party, shut

He wrote to Dr. Walsh (November 26, 1890) "You will have seen Mr. Gladstone's letter,
:

i.

He

cannot lead in union with Mr. Parnell. 2. His supporters will not act with the Irish members, if Mr. Parnell 3. The Irish members will become represents them. powerless in the House. 4. There is no one who can propose Home Rule with the faintest hope of being listened to. 5. If there was a Dissolution, our English, Scotch, and Welsh friends would to a great extent be beaten. 6. Foreseeing this, some I know have already 437

Henry Edward Manning
would not stand. 7. The strong and growing sympathy over here is already checked. 8. Few will come over to you as in time past. And all this for what ? My dear Lord, I feel that two virtues of the Irish heart, gratitude and chivalry for a man that is down, have carried the people away from their graces. You know me well enough as a friend of Ireland to bear with
said that they

my plain speech." He also wrote to the Pope to explain
Bishops and

the position of the
28, 1890)
:

Under a resolution providentially come to at our October meeting, I am authorised in such cases to call a special meeting of our Episcopal Standing Committee. The time for this will be after the M.P.'s have acted. I have called it for next Wednesday. This will exercise a strong influence on Monday's proceedings, and in a form that no politicians can object to. cause no embarrassment by pressure. But we make it known that after their decisive act we meet to see how it affects us and our

appear "

priests. in a letter to Manning

Dr. Walsh's exact proceedings

(November

We

priests

and people."

The next day Mr. Parnell replied to Gladstone in a " flat and otherwise manifesto, described by Dr. Croke as It was a fierce appeal to Irish passion, discreditable." and it loosed the hounds of war. Manning wrote
instantly, urging the Irish Bishops to speak: "This is a supreme moment to convince Rome that you do not put politics before faith and morals ;" and he sped Gladstone into the arena the same day (November 29, 1890)
:

"Private. I put 'Private' because the Archbishop does so. But res ad triarios and it is time to get upon the housetops. The Bishops in Ireland are in a very difficult Mr. strait, but plain and prompt speech is safest. Parnell's manifesto is highly artful, but it will fail." December 4, 1890 "The Irish Bishops have done their duty well, with great simplicity and truth. If they have been slow to speak, it is fair to consider what might have happened if they had not been supported. Mr. Parnell's
:

438

Persico and Parnell
unsound mind. It has recalled to Parnell, who made an end of himself, when we were young. If Mr. Parnell goes to Ireland, the issue will be between dangerous politics and the Faith of Ireland. I have heard that Parnell avowed his intention to liberate the Irish people from their priests. No one, as I remember, knows better than you what that means. The line I look for is that he and his friends will try to excite mistrust in you and those with you by saying that you wish to put off an illusory Home Rule upon the will not outbid people of Ireland. But Lord " I Salisbury that December 5, 1890 hope you." your one pledge will be, I will endeavour to frame a scheme of Home Rule which shall be acceptable to the people of Ireland. If they shall refuse to accept it I will relinquish the work to other hands and leave public life. Do not hamper
conduct
is

that of an

me Sir Henry

:

can foresee yourself with as much as a cobweb. the state and circumstances even of next year ? Excuse my intrusion. I could not be silent." Dr. Walsh's
letters

Who

were calm, but decided (December

2,

1890)

:

are still in a state of suspense here; of course, Parnell's opponents will stand firm. Equally of course he will refuse to go. He will then be powerless for good. But his holding on can hardly fail to ruin the Irish party and the Irish cause." December 4, 1890 " The meeting was a full one. The Committee consists of ten all were were present, except the Primate, who is in Rome.
: ;

"We

in every respect absolutely unanimous. Popular feeling are runs very high just now in Dublin and Cork. sure to have many noisy manifestations. It may be of use to some of us to find ourselves, for once, on a really
It is plain that Parnell can do great mischief. I see no prospect of our escaping a disruption of the party and the consequent wreck of everything that was of promise."

We We

unpopular side

!

The same day Manning

sent

Walsh

his

(still

un-

published) Address to the Irish People. No member of Oxford had so addressed that people since Shelley wrote them a pamphlet bidding them cast off their priests.

439

Henry Edward Manning
Manning's was in the opposite sense. Neither epistle ever reached those to whom it was directed.

Walsh was anxious to keep the Cardinal out of the war which followed. There are moments which admit of no intervention. Combat was determined, though of the result there could not be a moment's doubt. It was ordained from the moment that the Irish party was cloven like a mill-race, about the two sides of the Episcopal "testudo." Dr. Walsh wrote (December
Dr.
civil
6,

1890)

:

Parnell. So I am satisfied that the more carefully we keep ourselves to the arguments on the Irish side of the case, the better."

an encouragement your Important as it is, I think it advisable (counting on your Eminence's sanction) to hold it back from publication for a day or two." December 14, 1890 " I have been waiting from day to day to see whether it would be judicious to publish your Eminence's letter. As yet, at all events, it would not, I think, have been right to publish it. Some of the papers here started the cry last week that your Eminence, acting through Arthur O'Connor, was the real author of the This is brought in revolt of the party against Parnell to prop up the cry that the real issue is between the English and the Irish leader, between Mr. Gladstone and
not

" I need Eminence's

say
is.

what

letter

:

!

No one not actually present in Ireland could realise the bearings of the catastrophe. Manning hoped that out of evil good would come. He wrote to the Pope on
November 30
that the deplorable crisis

would leave the

political henceforward subordinate to the moral. To Stead Manning sent a characteristic note (December 21, 1890)
:

"I am hopeful about Ireland. Mr. Parnell will have a time of uproar, but he will not last. He has nothing to The first were lost in the rest on in morals or politics. Divorce Court, the latter in his appeal to 1798. Even Lord Salisbury cannot help him in rebellion. For ten
440

Persico and Parnell
will

years Ireland has been dragged by the politicians. now, I hope, return to its old guides."

It

Parnell was defeated at the by-elections, but fought on, Manning characterised his conduct as "preternatural."

When

The New Year brought no peace. Manning felt that unless the priests caught the reins the mad course of events must continue. He wrote again to the Pope
explaining
free

how
if

hand

necessary it was that they should have a Ireland was to be saved from violence and

revolution.

There was nothing personal in Manning's condemnaParnellism he described in one phrase "Tudorism." He had often preached that the Tudors had turned the priests out of their due influence in English life and left the laity in command. This he " feared might be the case in Ireland. "Tudorism comprised all that he had ever warred against. That Tudor was in the name of ParnelPs mother was a coincidence that Manning could not have been aware of. But the It was as though the Parnellite split was a reality. elements of creation had risen against their creator. In October Parnell died as he had lived, not unproudly, but he was too proud a man even to be an Irish leader. It was true that he had not sinned more than many who remained unchallenged in English public life. But as his destiny had been to lead the children of Catholic Ireland, a greater penalty had been exacted than the world requires from her own.
tion of Parnell.

441

CHAPTER
"I
parties.

XXII

:

SPIRITUAL POLITICS

have endeavoured to keep myself absolutely independent of all political Lord Salisbury acknowledged this in describing the politics of the

' Royal Commissioners. When he came to me, he said, As to Cardinal Manning, no one can say of what party he is.' I have held myself to be as

neutral as the

Holy

See.

It refuses to

be Royalist in Naples, or Carlist

in

Spain, or Legitimist in France."

Manning's Notebook.

MANNING'S politics were elastic enough to keep him on terms with both Gladstone and Salisbury. His Radicalism was Biblical, his Imperialism Christian, his Socialism Franciscan, his Home Rule Federal, and he was even a " Fair Free-Trader. " By covering his views with refining words he escaped and chivied the partisan.
Nevertheless, the manner of

Vaughan challenged his Radicalism after Moses " I think we must be on our guard
:

against

Communism and

Revolution

;

the Radicalism of

Moses was not confirmed in Egypt, if you refer to slaying the Egyptian and the reversion of lands !" Gladstone was not the only Premier he plied with After Horsman's attack on the Church information. in the Commons, Manning wrote to Disraeli (March 15,
1868)
:

Every several proposition here is false, and some seem to me simply intended for mischief. The laity Sir R. Peel, without asked 'for higher education.' communication with the Bishops, announced the Queen's What followed you know. Colleges in Parliament. Archbishop Murray was alive and present at the Synod of Thurles, and in person proposed to the Synod the condemnation of the Queen's Colleges, which was
if not unanimously, as of one or two. dissent partial

"

carried,

I

The

believe, with only the ' ' majority of one

was not on their condemnation, but on the point whether or no priests should be forbidden to teach in them under
pain of censure.

No

censure at

all,

much

less refusal of

Sacraments and excommunication, has ever been passed on the laity on this subject. They have been warned
442

Spiritual Politics
and left to their responsibility. We have followed the same course in England as to Oxford and Cambridge.
prosperity of the Queen's Colleges is a matter of believe them to be signal evidence of the opinion. failure which must smite every attempt to force education without religion upon a Catholic people. If we were not bound down by the iniquity of penal inequalities we should have no fear of the prosperity of any such colleges. To me the most offensive part of Mr. Horsman's speech was the pretence that 'the Catholic laity desire to be protected from their own Bishops.' This will have its effect in Ireland, as all such pretences have, to unite more and more closely the laity and their Bishops. So long as the Catholic laity of Ireland are united to their pastors England will be able to deal with both as with a part of the United Kingdom. Just in so far as they are disunited we shall make the mass of the people American in sympathy and in principles. England has already committed the fatal error of trying to put down the Catholic Church by penal laws I trust it will not try the still more fatal error of endeavouring to divide and undermine it. What is lost of power by the Church in Ireland is gained, not by England, but by America and not try at last to make Ireland like by revolution. the Rhenish provinces a happy and prosperous Catholic country? Surely this is a policy worthy of a statesman. Mr. Burke saw that it was a policy both wise and just. It is still possible, but every year makes it less likely to be accomplished. I cannot overstate what I know of the alienation of high, good, and upright men from the English rule. I have seen nothing like it in kind or intensity even in Lombardy while under Austria."

The

We

.

.

.

;

Why

Manning kept his fingers in the politics of the day in order to be able to gauge and further the position of the Church. His schemes were generally confided to Ullathorne, as, for instance, when he wrote (July 24, 1867) " Let me suggest that you come here by an earlier train,
:

have some luncheon, and go
of

Commons.

We can then talk over the points
:

in the carriage to the
I

House
put so

as to ensure agreement, which is of moment." Or again Canon O'Sullivan showed (December 3, 1872)

"When

443

Henry Edward Manning
me Mr.
as to

Gladstone's letter I saw at once that to renew the would request only clinch the refusal. It was so explicit

imprudent for their own sake to ask again. suggested was this that when the Irish members and the Lord Chancellor come over I would try to get
it

make
I

What

:

them to bring it before Mr. Gladstone. I will then join with them. If you think this course advisable, let the papers be sent to me at the beginning of the session,

and

I

will

do

my

best."
to

Private
discretion.

notes

Disraeli

show

Manning's

keen

to write to you at such a moment as this, both on account of the great pressure of public anxiety upon you and the absence of all claim on part. But the subject is one of the highest moment to Ireland, and formed a part of the conversation you were so good as to allow me to hold at Lord Gainsborough's. I would beg you, however, to decline without hesitation all further reference to it if you so please. The Rector of the Catholic University in Dublin came to me yesterday, authorised by Cardinal Cullen to treat with Government on the subject of that

May

4,

1867: "Private.

I

have a double reluctance

my

University. The chief object of desire is obviously a Charter, or, failing this, a fairer and more just recognition of the only Catholic University in Ireland. The Rector asked me if I could obtain for him an interview with any member of the Government. Remembering the conversation I had the pleasure of holding with you, I thought I might venture to ask this favour from you. But I beg you without a moment's hesitation to decline it if any motive of public utility or private convenience should so require." February 14, 1880: "Private. I believe that Lord Beaumont, if taken under wise and kind political guidance, could be made a useful man in public life. It is with this in view that I have urged him to speak to you, and I hope you will not think that I have done amiss. Many of our young men stagnate or waste their
life

and powers from want
aim."
444

of

encouragement and a

definite

Spiritual Politics
have discussed trades and tariffs never could understand why the imports exceeded the exports, as he wrote to Percy Wyndham (February 17, 1888): "I had some conversation with Lord Beaconsfield about it. I have believed in Free Trade all my life, but my fear is that it will not last. I am afraid that neither pasture nor our wondrous roots,' as Lord Beaconsfield called them, nor even jam, will restore the value of land." Lord Stanley drew the " moral that remark on your jam shows that you do not
to

Manning seems
Disraeli.

with

He

'

any longer mind showing that you differ from Mr. Gladstone." To Manning the political value of jam was to feed the hungry. He only touched politics in order to keep an ecclesiastical oar in the water-floods. He was equally at home with the Primrose League or
Parnell and the Irish presented an the Irish party. address at his jubilee. At the approach of what was base in politics he withdrew into the clouds, but "Toby, M.P.," had occasions to sketch him in the lobby, "a medieval saint from the stained windows of a church, standing with pale face and finely sculptured head bent,
attentive whilst

one of the Harrington freres his ears a torrent of voluble invective."

poured into

The Cardinal encouraged Catholics like Henry Matthews and Lane-Fox to stand for Parliament. To the former he wrote before the Dungarvan election " (September 16, 1868) Though I refrain by rule from
:

may I nevertheless say how much I mixing should rejoice to see you in Parliament? Religious equality and denominational education, as you put it in
in elections,

your address, are the two chief points we ought to contend for. I don't know anything of your circumstances in Ireland, so that my good wishes are wholly
personal

And after his defeat later yourself." "I : regret it for your sake and (February 16, 1874) for the of and sake ours, your legitimate and deserved I future. hope, however, that this is only professional
to

445

Henry Edward Manning
There is too much wind up to have settled stayed. weather for some time, and in these changes I hope to see you again soon in Parliament." However, English Catholics too often fall between two seats the Irish, which does not want an Englishman and the English, which does not want a Catholic. It was ten years before Henry Matthews could write to the Cardinal in triumph from East Birmingham "that a Catholic can win an im;

portant English seat." Much to Protestant indignation, Matthews, who had pleased the Queen by attacking Dilke, became Home Secretary. It became customary to include a Catholic in the Cabinet as a lightning-conductor or find Matthews as Home Secretary stalking-horse. not only countenancing, but pleading with Manning to permit a Mass celebrating the centenary of the Young Pretender's death. The promoters were harmless people " with a taste for Stuart relics and good Church music." But Manning was obdurate. The Church had suffered enough for the Stuarts, and the requiem had to be sung by the Graeco-Episcopal Dr. Lee in an Anglican church, with results not stated to the soul of King Charles III. !

We

cellor of the

became Vice-ChanPrimrose League with Manning's blessing " It is a real (February 14, 1887) joy to me that you are Go on fairly launched in work for the English people. with all your strength. are bound above all men to
failing of Parliament,
:

Mr. Fox,

We

labour for England in all ways, spiritually, politically, If we have more truth, then we are socially, morally. bound to have more charity than other men. London used to be the most bigoted place, but I never meet it." But there were rocks ahead. Owing to the strain between Salisbury and Randolph Churchill, the Primrose League had to be carried on in secrecy, whereupon the Maltese branch collided with the Holy Inquisition, and the Bishop of Nottingham eagerly denounced it as "a society dangerous and unlawful." An Irish priest denied a member absolution. Manning wrote to Clifford (March 16, 1886)
:

446

Spiritual

Politics

seen the Bishop of Nottingham's I believe that it cannot be sustained either in Canon Law or in Moral Theology. Every day I have letters from his diocese appealing to me for direction. I have given none, hoping to prevail on the Bishop to withdraw his act. He answers me that he claims his right as Bishop to enforce withdrawal from the Primrose League by privation of Sacraments."
circular

"You have no doubt

on the Primrose League.

And
"

to

Vaughan (March

23, 1886)

:

I wrote to the Bishop of N., but without effect. The Bishop of B. had two conversations with him at Oscott in vain. I wrote fully to Cardinal Simeoni, and urged him without delay to write to the Bishop of N. enjoining the restoration of faculties to the clergy. I wrote by same post to the Bishop of N. informing him of the fact. He answered he was glad, and would do what Rome directs. On Saturday I wrote again to Cardinal Simeoni, The scandal and ridicule saying periculum in mora. and irritation here are immense. From the day the Bishop of N. entered the diocese he has been in contention. The suspicion in Rome is that the Bishops of England are oppressors, and act with exaggerated notions of their rights and powers as independent

Bishops. And this will confirm the suspicion. very sad."

It is all

Vaughan sped Romeward
were
differences

to assure the

Pope

that there

between
:

the

Fenian and
for

Primrose

information to Manning applied "I have been informed that Lady Dorothy Nevill the Primrose League or its habitation or its members circulate anti-Catholic and Protestant flyleaves. I am anxious to refute this, as I have staked my character on your being a League of Innocents!" Thanks to Manning, Catholics were allowed henceforth to tread
societies,

while

the primrose way. Catholic education
in

made it necessary for him to keep touch with English Liberalism, which he hoped would come under the leadership of Dilke, not Chamberlain. 447

Henry Edward Manning
Bishop Nulty of Meath sent him a warning (November
19, 1885)
:

There is a certain Radical lord residing in neighbourhood named Lord Greville. Chamberlain and Dilke had arranged to make his house their headquarters during their intended visit. Meeting Lord
Private.
this

"

Greville, I reproached him and his Radical leader Chamberlain with the design of destroying Catholic

education

in

voluntary

Chamberlain the substance of his reply Chamberlain wrote

schools. Greville wrote to his interview with me. In If ever I visit Ireland I
'

:

should be very happy to make Dr. Nulty's acquaintance. But in the meantime you could console him with the assurance that I do not mean to interfere with voluntary
schools in Ireland. I leave that to the Irish themselves. But as to voluntary schools in England, that is quite another matter, and sooner or later these must go,

"

certainly.'

Henceforth Manning hoped Dilke would outweigh Chamberlain. They shared St. Charles as a patron saint, and in return for a Spanish crucifix the Cardinal gave Dilke a miniature of St. Charles for his bedroom. He met Herbert Bismarck at Dilke's table. Dilke wrote to him "Secret. Would you allow your name to be
:

proposed to the Queen,
of a

in the event of the

appointment

Royal Commission on the Housing
as
12,

Classes,

a

member?"
"
1884)
:

Working The Cardinal answered
command, and
I

of the

(February

Any

services of mine, such as

they are, will be at Her Majesty's you for giving me a share in the

thank

work you have so well

Carrington, the pleasantest According to Lord " was of the Commission listening to your suggespart tions and questions, always full of sympathy with and Some of Manning's suggestions love for the poor."

begun."

Would it not be advisable to remove out of the streets into the suburbs
appear on a
slip

he passed to Dilke

"

:

the following Prisons, infirmaries, certain hospitals, ironworks, all factories not needed for daily or hourly
:

448

Spiritual Politics
work? Would not this give large areas ?" Whereupon Dilke commented: "The Cardinal is our greatest
revolutionist."

1885)

:

"I am
to

Later the Cardinal wrote (February 13, Radical enough to deny the right of

property to the extortionate renting of house jobbers.

annul ipso facto an extortionate rent. And created to pronounce what is extortionate. The Report has much sottaqua, but it is evidently pale from fear." The secretary, Mr. Bodley, " That Commission wrote was heralded as the opening

One ought

some authority might be

:

social era. The future King of England consented to serve upon it. The last leader of the great Tory The party left its table to become Prime Minister. venerable head of the Roman Church in England brought all his love for the suffering poor to bear on its deliberaThe chairman was Mr. Gladstone's ablest tions. All these eminent colleague in his second Ministry. persons died without seeing any of their recommendations carried out." Later in the year Dilke was involved in a divorce case, " I told him everything concerning which Dilke wrote the whole story." The Cardinal certainly believed he was innocent, and rather than be carried away by evidence said that the truth would only be known at the Day of Judgment. Dilke wrote to him after the trial "Secret. I do not think that anyone was ever called to live through a worse few days than I last week, and

of a

new

:

:

though there is now your hope that truth may prevail, yet I should fear the charge of hypocrisy if I were to say more of what I think." Manning wrote (August 16, " I thank 1885) you much for your note and tidings of yesterday. They solve one part of the complication of which you told me. God grant that what remains may also be solved or averted. You are continually in my thoughts, and I turn back to old memories which seem as fresh as yesterday." To Lady Dilke he wrote (March 2,
:

1886)

:

449

2G

Henry Edward Manning
am
I weigh the matter, the more convinced I go away would be taken as flight. Moreover, in trials so great all human efforts fall short. There is One only who can bring truth to light, and if trusted He will. As to the House, it would seem to me that the
'

The more

that to

constituency alone have the privilege of requiring their member's attendance at the House. But to go or not to go is open to discretion, and so long as the constituency do not require attendance, the safer course seems to me to be even to err on the side of abstaining from public

works and acts."

No wonder
like

that Dilke wrote:
to

"The

help of friends

you is the best of all." As an instance of his care

yoke statesmen we find
22, 1883)
:

the Cardinal writing to

Henry Fowler (June

Private. I send with this a copy (i) of the Memorial of the National Society to Mr. Gladstone; (2) of the draft memorial of the Catholic Poor School Committee (3) of a private circular of a Committee on Primary Schools
;

"

appointed by the Catholic Union. When you have sufficiently examined them, I should be glad to receive them back. And I would ask you to regard the draft memorial as confidential, for it has not yet been presented Our conversation yesterday was to Mr. Gladstone. for exact points, but I should much too large necessarily
like

to

go

carefully into details.

These papers may

perhaps afford a groundwork."

With the balance of power trembling on the Irish vote, Manning pressed on Salisbury as the prospective "
that the Act of 1870 was Premier (November i, 1885) founded on a false basis and carried by false pretences,

and

that to redress great injustice and to avert great danger the whole ought to be brought under review once

Salisbury answered that it "was a clumsy compromise intended rather to give time for the enemies of religious education to gather their strength than to effect any just and permanent settlement." Manning " To amend the Educasent round a pamphlet entitled, tion Act of i8fo (Secret)," to a few discreet statesmen.

more."

450

Spiritual
It

Politics

was necessary not

to

alarm the Nonconformists.

The

elections did not prevent Salisbury answering (December " I J 3 J 885) : agree very much with what you say about the Act, only differing from you when you say that

my hands to protect our Christian and schools. I have voluntary every desire to do so, but, alas ! there are strong grounds for being sceptical as to
power
is

in

power." Manning had not agitated in vain, for Lord Cranbrook invited him that winter to serve on an Education Commission. Manning wrote to Clifford (December 28, 1885): "The other members are Mr. Mundella; Dr. Rigg, Wesleyan, but sound; Dr. Dale of " Birmingham, unsound [elsewhere he spoke of him as a Birmingham rough like his master!"]; Mr. Alderson, sound. Uncertain, Lord Beauchamp, Lord Harrowby, Bishop Temple. The Denominationalists are in a large "I think the majority." Matthew Arnold wrote to him new Commission is a strong one, and two names, your's and Temple's, I see with particular pleasure." Manning dominated the Commission, which carried his proposals. After two years he wrote to Beauchamp (October 17, " If this Commission should end like the Housing 1887) Commission, in Blue books and stagnation, we shall have

my

:

:

lost

our last opportunity. The voluntary schools were never so strong. The Board School system has not "It reached its strength." Gladstone sent him word seems as if your people were in theory hit both ways. You will, I think, find it difficult to get voluntary schools put upon the rates." But in the end they were. Manning informed Clifford (January 17, 1888): "The Secular But what we School party are already frightened.
:

gain in the Commission we may lose in the House of Commons. There is our danger. And as you truly say, if we appear too visibly we shall raise the old suspicions and cries. You can tell the Holy Father that in the Commission the friends of religious education are completely united."

The

result,

owing

to

Anglican

allies,

Henry Edward Manning
" the Commission might almost was, as Hutton said, that be called his Commission, and its report his report." Later the Anglicans went back, and Manning wrote his Fifty Reasons on behalf of the voluntary schools, which The Times refused to print anonymously. He wrote to Ullathorne (December 20, 1888)
:

the backs of those cowardly Anglican Bishops for deserting their own principles and showing their uselessness. There is one more than the legal number, but that is ex abundantia caritatis. I had hoped the Tories would remain in office to carry the proper measures, but they are in the hands of the Liberal Unionists, and as cowardly as to their adhering to their principles as the Anglican Bishops. Politically what a state we are in There is nothing for it but downright
fifty stripes for
!

"

Here are

agitation

and teasing the Ministry with endless petitions from all classes. We sadly want a good Catholic leader in the House."

Lord Ripon Salisbury promised "careful study." " the wise course for Catholics to pursue is to thought hold firmly to what they have got, and not to risk that more." Rigg the Nonconformist, howby seeking after " " that a masterpiece," and henceforth ever, thought it The old the movement must be towards your goal. Secularism is all but dead beat." Manning even persuaded John Morley once to proclaim the rights of the Catholic school in the House. When a friend asked Manning if he were not surprised: "No, no; Mr. Morley spent an hour here the day before." He wrote
to

Morley (April
"

19, 1891)

:

We have at this time no system of national education, we have two, of which neither can ever become national or universal. We need now legislation and a
because
higher law taking up the two systems that exist. I believe that the English people ought to educate themselves with such State aid as individuals require. The State did not create our commerce nor the Empire. The intelli452

Spiritual Politics

The will of the people did these things. State did not create our national character. The State is its expression. Jules Simon says that Frenchmen are the edition of the same book in 36,000,000 copies. Heaven save us from this dead level !"
gence and

Manning's most striking stand in social politics was on Temperance. He took the pledge in 1872 " and maybe your Reverence needed it ?" suggested a staggerer he once accosted in the street. But he seems to have been
even earlier delated to Rome for the scheduled heresy of the Aquatici or Hydropotce, for Talbot used to write

" to drink more porter and port wine." urging him Temperance was his theory, but Prohibition his practice. Manichasism he rejected in a letter to Basil Wilberforce "There is no more evil in the intoxicating power of wine than in the explosive power of dynamite." Like Thomas of Canterbury, he allowed others to drink wine at his table, but he would not allow his own life to be prolonged
:

by a stimulant.

He was no

fanatic.

"Temperance

is

good, but Total Abstinence is better." He did not mind " a bottle in the cupboard, but keep it there and shake fist at it !" He used to quote Baronius to prove the your were abstainers humorous publican replied Apostles Cardinal's emaciated features in his the by exhibiting window over the heading warning to teetotallers !" remembered that drink had been the curse of Manning West Indian families, and showed it no mercy. As a priest he knew that the doorposts of public-houses were dark with the blood of souls. With a coster's cart for
!

A

"A

At he preached Temperance in the streets. his he could was stormed before Cambridge platform
pulpit,

He converted Catholic and Protestant, inciCardinal McCabe, who wrote that, "although dentally
speak.

some of my friends foretold that all manner of trouble would follow my act, I thank God that so far I have
escaped unharmed!" To Basil Wilberforce Manning " for wrote his thanks having the manhood in the midst 453

Henry Edward Manning
of this that
I

havoc of openly abstaining. Tell your curates thank them also. I am ashamed of many among us who sneer and criticise because they have not the
self-denial to drink water.

Every day

tells

me

that

I

never did anything better for the saving of souls." And " If again you have any crux to put about the Pope I will try my hand for you because you are a teetotaller Certainly he made St. Patrick's Day sober in England, and he could write to Father Mathew after an attack from The Tablet: " Do not be out of heart. If we were ever on God's side in a battle it is now, when we are using (giving up) our Christian liberty for the salvation of souls. If others think to save more souls by using their liberty to drink wine, let us wait for the last day." And to Lane-Fox " Woe is me, for I dwell in the tents I of Kedar and have to fight with beasts at Ephesus. wish I could come and rest, for I am weary. You ought to have been with me at Aldershot to see the 8;th turn out and take the pledge." Manning tried a dual system, " I found it imbut, as he told Archbishop Walsh, Not only because of faults in Total practicable. Abstainers, but also of faults in the Temperance men. In the end they fell away, and the Total Abstainers alone survived. Since then I have had no others to work with." A huge and painful correspondence accumulated on the drink question, leading the Cardinal to realise
:
' '

!

:

more and more
work.

that this

was almost, perhaps,

his greatest
:

a Dublin priest "As soon as one of our Temperance Halls was closed, not only did 600 reformed cases relapse, and hopelessly, but some turned into the Invincible Society. Delany, who was one of the most notorious of the Phoenix Park I would not be informers, declared to me in prison a murderer and an here to-day informer, nor would my if I and some of them were in be the accomplices grave, not shut out from your Temperance Hall.' And he wept
letter
'
:

One

may be quoted from

most bitterly."
454

Spiritual Politics

Manning was a Puritan under the purple, and he condemned both saloon and theatre. From grand opera to the penny gaff, they were all links in the evil chain. Even Wagner's Parsifal was " a mad and extravagant
absurdity."

He

believed

his prayers

induced

Mary

to leave the stage. could not reconcile her Catholic piety with theatric triumph. Of the stage he

Anderson
:

He

noted " ^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, were harmless; Aristophanes abominable Plautus and Terence immoral the Byzantine stage intolerable. The Church seems to have permitted mysteries and miracle plays in the hope
; ;

of sanctifying the theatres.

With what

success others

rise judge. of the modern theatre. The mind of the Church is sufficiently shown in the fact that histriones were held to be in statu reprobatorum and deprived of Christian burial. Moreover, even on the English stage, which was perhaps the least gross, the grossness of our earlier dramatists, and even of some of Shakespeare, is revolt-

may

Their end was their abolition and the

believe that people little know what harm it I cannot believe that the excitement, the publicity, the promiscuous intercourse, the emotions, the scenes, the sights, the music, the sympathy, and the animal magnetism of imagination and feeling, can be kept up for hours without danger to the unconscious purity of the senses and of the soul. Some deny this,
ing.

But

I

does them.

but more, and they wiser and calmer minds, acknowledge All this even when the play is good. I have watched it. the Divorce Court, and have found that, I may say in a majority of cases, directly or indirectly, the co-responThe promiscuous dents are of the theatrical world. consort of men and women behind the scenes, and the dramatic intimacies and embraces on the stage, and the impersonation of lovers and the like, must react upon the emotions and passions, whether men and women will it or no. Furthermore, every theatre is a centre of all kinds of evil. It creates a population which lives by
vice.

The whole surrounding neighbourhood

is

tainted.

The

multitudes that flock there every night are caught as in a whirlpool, and many 'go down live into the pit.' 455

Henry Edward Manning
And
evil

this trade in perishing souls is kept alive
'

both by
of the brother's

and by innocent people who do not think
'

?' Yes, certainly, a disciple of Jesus Christ. How, then, can I be so insensible to the consequences of my own acts ? Every box or every stall I take makes me a partner in this limited liability company of sin and death The pecuniary I would liability may be limited, but the moral cannot. rather for that reason have neither part nor lot in such a trade* If others choose to use their liberty in going to theatres, let them at least leave me to use my liberty in
if I

consequences of their actions. I my sister's keeper?' guardian

Am

Am

I

my

am

.

me that the nuns should not only encourage theatricals in their convents, but run to excess
them for instance, in dressing up young girls in men's clothes. I have had to stop this, and I know of a convent, not of mine, in which a young girl or woman was dressed as the Doge of Venice with her legs crossed and exposed up to the knee. Probably the innocence of nuns may throw them off their guard. The innocent plays of convents prepare for La Dame aux Camillas and the plays in poor schools for penny gaffs. And then we lament over their demoralisation. There are men and women who from childhood have been false. Nobody can believe them. And they are unconscious
in
;

refusing to go. "It is strange to

of their

own

unreality.

impersonation ? What harm would follow if the whole Catholic population of London were to resolve never to It would save so much money. set a foot in a theatre? It would be a strict custody of the senses so far as the It would preserve in thousands a greater stage goes.
purity of heart.

Why

stimulate this

by dramatic

What harm would it do to anyone? Would anyone upon a death-bed wish that they had
never made such a resolution extreme use of our liberty."
?

Then,

let

us alone in our

Manning shared
performance of

women

rigorous views as to music and the in churches with Ullathorne, who

early influenced his mind, writing

"Through
steps
I

the influence of

took,

somewhat

certain sternly humorous, years ago, the

(November 3, the Cathedral and

1866)

:

456

Spiritual

Politics

singing in the diocese is generally grave in character. But I have not succeeded in excluding females. That would be a very difficult thing to do without stopping all singing, as things are at present. A short time ago a priest advertised a woman's name as singing on a certain occasion in his church, she being also a singer in the concert-rooms, and I took him gravely to account for it. ,The clergy know there are two things that I am strongly opposed to flash-singing in churches and advertising church exhibitions in newspapers, and therefore we have not much of either."

Manning issued a private Pastoral to the clergy in 1886, entitled sEmulamini meliora, deploring bazaars as a means to charity. " I fear that among the buyers and
sellers

and the holders

of stalls,

in the wilderness of

wares and of the coats of many colours, the sacred form of Charity with the halo on its head can scarcely be discerned." He was implacable on this point. " A bazaar would bring dry-rot into the timbers of a mission." He forbade the nuns teaching children to Once as a stern compromise he permitted play-act. children to join in a dialogue, but without fancy dress, like the Sabbatarian who allowed his son to run on a He seemed hard to many Sunday, but not to jump it but was because he wished to lift them out of priests, " their
I

upon

I am afraid some of my clergy look depression. me as a special constable, but I want to be a

Father;" and he wished them also to call themselves " " " Mister" of Father instead of the penal days. To " the some he was Marble Arch," but to those who were in trouble or who fell adrift he was the Good Shepherd. He would scour the streets to find a strayed priest. He
divided them
into
priests

of

the

Old and the New

Testament. If he expected Lamentations from one, he He offered them what required Acts from the other. " his fields without bread offered Napoleon grenadiers and campaigns without money," and trusted them to " I know I am an unskilful general," struggle through.
457

Henry Edward Manning
and
one vessel Providence another, that all will be well." And rather apologetically once: " I I was in of my imperious moods. If I one suppose had not become a priest I fancy I ought to have commanded an ironclad. St. Charles was meek. I shall never be meek." He wished ardently to change the name of " secular " " clergy to pastoral." Unfortunately, the latter turned out to be a Jansenist term, and Vaughan wrote from Rome (February 13, 1873): "Cardinal Monaco will examine the date of the introduction of the term secular It has so entered into the use of the Canon Law priest. of the Church that it cannot be changed. As to the term pastoral clergy he raises objections, such as that the Bishops alone are properly pastors." Manning had to " explain the word as best as he could They are in the wide world, secular, as the Apostles were that is, in the world for the world's sake; not of it, but at war with
I

he told Canon Vere.

"

send out
but

my

arms

in

my men

in

I

trust

to

'

'

'

'

:

men the least secular." But it was a trying the more so as his clergy lent themselves to paradox, with the religious. comparison
it

of all

Manning wrote

to Ullathorne (April 18, 1875)

:

" For some time I have been afraid of saying all I think about the state of our clergy. They seem to me cowed, discouraged, depressed, weakened, by a tradition of later ages that they need not be perfect, that they cannot be perfect, and that it is unreal and a sign of opposition to the religious to speak of perfection anywhere out of an Order. The Holy Spirit seems to me to be vindicating His rights and the rights of all souls by the decline of all Orders either in number or in perfection. The reason why our men preach ill is want of English, want of logic, want of theology, but still more want of

Holy Writ and the want

of the life of

God

in the soul."

Manning's greatest and most lasting spiritual policy was in bringing the standard of the diocesan clergy to
458

Spiritual Politics
the level of the Religious Orders, which drew equally on the more aristocratic of the old Catholics and on the more able of the converts. Manning could never understand
the convert

who

is

too
in

and he lashed out published volumes
"It
is

good to become a parish priest, the notes that went to his un-

:

is the state of that the state of the priesthood is not. Many are imperfect in the state of perfection, and outside the state of perfection many are perfect, as Suarez says. Therefore the state is distinct from the person. And the stability of the state is distinct from the stability of the person. [The Episcopate was the state of perfection in Judas, and the Order of St. Dominic in Achilli. Theology declares that perfection consists in Charity. The three vows are 'instrumental' towards perfection. Were there no priests able to perfect the Saints till the three vows were first imposed ? It is sometimes said that, with few exceptions, the canonised Saints are religious. I have a great devotion to the uncanonised Saints the

thought that the state of religion

perfection,

and

multitude which no man can number, whose names are not in the Calendar, but written in Heaven. Religious Orders can afford to canonise their Saints from time to time. The Church cannot. I love all Orders, but I love most the Order of our Divine Master. I love the books of all Orders, but I love more the Pastoral Theology which can be found in no Order. The Regulars are under the vow of poverty, but we are under the
reality."

Such was the tone of the book which mysteriously disappeared after his death. It was because he wished to lead his priests to the heights that Manning, under the rivalry of the Orders, called on them to be teetotallers and social reformers on the heroic scale. Manning's
feelings

on the subject of rescuing the fallen were responsible for his lonely and chivalrous support to Mr. Stead's campaign against what he called " Satan's " I International." To Stead he wrote (July 6, 1885) am reading your revelations with great horror, and will
:

459

Henry Edward Manning
work with you with all my strength." Stead furnished " the Cardinal with ample clue to crime most damnable,' and when, owing to indiscretion, he was prosecuted himself, the Cardinal, though reproving his excess, stood by him, and subscribed to the Stead Defence Fund, to the
fury of

many

faithful.

"

In the uprising against the

horrible depravity which destroys young girls, multitudes of ours, I was literally denounced by Catholics not one

came forward.

If

it

was

ill

done,

why

did nobody try to
:

mend

it?"

He

Snead Cox Twelve angrily of protests ally, tribes of Pharisees and scribes would not hinder me. What do they take me for ? And what do they imagine themselves to be?" The Anglican Archdeacon of Gibraltar at least paid "his tribute of respect and admiration for his courageous action." The Cardinal
appeared at Stead's trial, and when he was sentenced on a technicality, wrote a letter that men would have endured worse to receive (November n, 1885)
:

even threatened a Pastoral, and wrote " to his Mr.

" All things work together for good to them that love God. You have served Him with a single eye. And the work has been done,' as you wrote on the sentence. No sentence can undo it. You have now the crown upon your work that is to suffer for errors of judgment and a literal breach of the law which left the moral life of England almost without defence. I have so strongly felt this, and I have so clearly seen through the animosities against you, that I believe what has now befallen you will work some unforeseen and greater good for your consolation. Whatever it may be in my power to do shall be done. May God give you His peace !"
'

result, as Manning wrote to Canon thankful to you for the fearless way in which you have spoken out on this atrocity. If you are assailed by the wise and prudent and even by good Catholics, do not swerve or be silent. I had plenty to do when I supported Mr. Stead. But we amended our
It

was not without
"
:

Franklin

I

am

460

Spiritual

Politics

And George law." miserably defective criminal Meredith burst into sonnet in honour of the Cardinal's conduct
:

"
Cries to the

It sings,
:

it

shines

;

Mammonites

Allay, allay
revile.'

Brings vengeance

Such misery as by these present signs down ; nor them who rouse

out, but

Manning's spirituality would not allow him to dine it was part of his policy to make occasional
:

appearances at public feasts, if only to illustrate the rule him " I never drink and I never eat !" He attended the dinner celebrating the Jubilee of the Union at Oxford, though with an apology to Ullathorne for "junketing" in his diocese. The Lord Chancellor Selborne presided, supported by Archbishops Manning and Tait. Manning was given precedence over the Bishop of Oxford, whereat the more unbending Protestants retired murmuring "If Sam had still been " the Bishop, this had not been." Manning proposed
attributed to
:

Lords and Commons," and prophesied: "If there should ever arise a conflict between the two Houses, which could not be disentangled before the sun goes down, this would be a disaster indeed." He went on to recount their famous dead, and compared the otherwise A notable festive scene to the first mess after battle. absentee was Gladstone, who was still sore at the loss of
the University seat.

(November n,

"

1873)

:

To him Manning sent I am sorry you were not

tidings
present,

not only because you ought to have presided, but because your presence would have averted what the somewhat untacty manner of Lord Selborne elicited. I am convinced that they would have received you with a Homeric " Shall I say welcome." Gladstone replied moodily it had a certain resemblance to inviting one before Lord Roberts spectators in a show of wild beasts?" recalled: "I met him once at a dinner of the Inns of Court. John Bright spoke in very severe terms against
' '

:

461

Henry Edward Manning
House of Lords, and I was much struck by the pleasant way in which Cardinal Manning got up and
the

poured oil on the troubled waters." On another occasion he responded with Bishop Temple for the Church at the Jubilee of the Medical Benevolent Fund. With great
tact

Manning gave London precedence

in

his

own

diocese, but, noted the Archbishop of York, "must have grinned inwardly at such a junction." Entertained " As a at the Temple, Manning spoke humorously layman I confess that I am lost in your new Hierarchy of Courts. A Lord Chancellor is a canonised being who seems now to be dispersed by transmigration into many But I am on the verge of subordinate divinities.
:

sacrilege.

Di me

terrent et Jupiter hostis."

Manning had a share in canonising a Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. To Father Morris he wrote (December
9, 1886)
:

"

I

I thank God with least, or in their respective Orders. you to have lived to see this in diebus nostris. It is like the resurrection of the witnesses, whose bodies have lain so long in Babylon, and the world sending gifts over their bodies. It will give a great impulse to the faithful to aspire to a higher life, I hope. They seem to me to be coming out of their sepulchres to appear among us. I

hope the Beati

will

have

their

Mass

in

England

at

have long invoked St. Thomas More

in secret,

and now

write

him so

for the first time."

Morris wrote the Office of the Newly Beatified, " I like your office 20, 1887) very much, but I would be less historical and minute about the duas uxores. Does summus express high ? I doubt it. Does it not mean the highest of many?

When

Manning wrote (November

:

Summus

Pontifex.

Would

not totius Regni Cancellarius

be nearer ?" Manning was a close judge of Latin phrases. When the Brief of the English Martyrs was translated, he insisted on rendering insula sanctorum as applied to
England, and
a,

not the Island of Saints.

Dilke was as

462

interested in

Spiritual Politics the Blessed More as in St. Charles, writing
:

(December
"

28, 1886)

I have two questions I want to ask you; the one is Is our greatest Chelsea only for private curiosity. worthy, Sir Thomas More, for whom I have a cultus and on whom I have long been collecting material, about to be made, or rather declared, a Saint? The

other is as to official representation of England at the Vatican. I am in favour of it as a matter of policy, and always have been. I should be glad to be told if the statement is a lie or a half-lie. The arguments each way I fully understand. All I want is a hint as to probability at this moment. What if it is thought that the thing

must be done

secretly to be
I

understand also.

done at all ? Then do not expect a reply."

I

shall

Great hopes and efforts had been expended in the attempt to connect England and the Holy See diplomatically, which Manning continually frustrated. Dilke " wrote again (April 18, 1887) Bodley saw the Holy Father on Thursday, and heard from him as to the representation of the Vatican here, that he thought it best to let well alone, but that it should be in the
:

hands of your Eminence."

The

desire of

England

to

influence without recognising the Holy See was constant from the days of Pitt. Lord Minto went in the forties.

Lord Derby sent Mr. O'Brien, and, as Talbot reported, " is also trying to intimidate the Holy See by means of Sir Henry Bulwer." Gladstone sent Sir George The Government had kept up a running Errington. interference in Episcopal elections. There were Government candidates for Westminster in 1865, f r Cork in 1884, for Dublin in 1885. Wellington had actually a Catholic appointed Archbishop of Armagh in Curtis. In 1880 Sir Augustus Paget through Cardinal Howard
interfered in the See of Gibraltar.
in

A

Papal Nunciature

intrigues into the the of discomfiture Episcopate. With a view permanent

London would have brought such
463

Henry Edward Manning
to preventing the "Scarlet Lady" being presented at St. James's, Manning had written to Cullen (July 31,

1878)

:

I am afraid some attempt may be made in the direction of Nuncios. Nuncio between the Episcopate of Ireland and the Castle or the Bishops of England and the Government would probably produce conflict between us and the Government, and greatly relax the close intimacy of the Bishops with the Holy See. In Rome they do not seem to realise that Nuncios belong to the period when Governments and the public laws of Europe were Catholic. At this day the Governments are powerless to help the Holy See. The real Governments are the people and the true Nuncios are the Bishops, who have real power and correct knowledge and are devoted to the

"

A

Holy See."

And
1881)
:

later

he

tried to impress

Vaughan (December

15,

"You say the Pope need not consult the Bishops as to relations with civil powers. De potentia absoluta this is true. But if he does not he exposes himself to two things. He falls into the hands of irresponsible persons who are usually intriguers or incapable, and he loses the immense moral power of the Episcopate and the faithful united to them. This is my judgment and fear at this moment. Three times I have written to Propaganda by Your weakness in Ireland is the their request, saying state of the Bishops. Your strength will be to unite them to yourself. Your first duty is to do it. You alone can do it. By taking any other course you will put them farther from you and increase their mutual repulsions.' I may add, God created the Bishops. Diplomatists spring from times, circumstances, and the changing When Governments governed, states of the world. Now that people govern diplomatists had a function. themselves, the only power that can deal with them is that which created both peoples and Governments, the
'

:

Episcopate and

its

Head."

He left a strong note on the subject for the guidance of his successor
:

among

his papers

464

Spiritual

Politics

matter of such relations can only be political or If they are to be political, what could nine Nuncios here or nineteen agents in Rome do for us with our Government that the English Bishops cannot do for ourselves ? And any representative of Rome here would be a cipher, a centre of intrigue and of gossip among ourselves, and of senseless but mischievous suspicion among the English people. But if the matter of such relations be the spiritual and internal affairs of the Church in England, I am thankful that I am near my eighty-third
spiritual.

"The

year.

and

"My

" In the

to it who like it. belief is this : the Church is entering into a third.

Look you
first

has had two periods

the Pontiff

period down to St. Gregory the Great had Vicars who were members of the Episco-

pate in each country. "The second period from St. Leo III. to the nineteenth century has been medieval or dynastic. When the Episcopate in every nation became courtly and national, the Holy See needed Nuncios of its own choice

and

interest.

third period is upon us now. Out of thirty-six Catholic Sovereigns, only nine now remain and they only in name and personal religion, for their people with their laws and constitutions are Catholic no longer. " Pius IX. reconciled the whole Episcopate to himself. The Bishops of the whole Church rest no longer upon Sovereigns, but upon the Vicar of our Lord. Any Nuncio would be a tertia persona inter episcopatum et Sanctam Sedem interposita, and, as I believe, a wedge of separation, a hindrance to full and perfect mutual knowledge and confidence. "The true Nuncio in every nation is the Episcopate. Let the Holy See, which names it, trust it and consult it, and control it by letter or by calling it to Rome. " If the Holy See will govern through the Episcopate, it can do anything. If it endeavour to govern without it, or outside of it, or over its head, let those who advise such a policy be responsible. I apply this to all countries. I
;

"The

have in writing and in words told Leo XIII. 'There is one power in Ireland that can govern the Irish people that is the Irish Bishops; and there is one power upon
:

465

2H

Henry Edward Manning
earth that can govern the Irish Bishops, and that is your Holiness.' But this must be through and not outside. If the Holy See will govern with, by, and through the Episcopate, one whole race of men would disappear the The whisperers, intriguers, backbiters, and accusers. first effect of diplomatic relations would be the interference of Government in the selection of Bishops. When Cardinal MacCabe died Errington was in Rome. Lord Spencer and Lord Granville, as I was informed from a sure source, instructed him to oppose the nomination of Dr. Walsh, chosen by the clergy and recommended by the Bishops. The rest of the Cabinet knew nothing of this. Many of the Cabinet were opposed to Errington's

mission altogether.

This

I

had from one

from another high

official.

The

fury. The free election of Bishops for which St. Thomas was martyred. yet all this may now be treated diplomatically, and the Holy Father be misled. " It may be said that the Episcopate may be divided in

of them and Irish people were in was one of the points

"And

opinion.

So much the

better.

will only give his own opinion, or that of the party Government of the day; and this changes every four or five years. But the Episcopate is never out of office. Nuncio is an I all. with after remember Meglia in Errington dining Paris. It was Monsieur Louis Veuillot was there. Louis all the evening. The good Nuncio was evidently
it,

have both sides before

The Holy See whereas an Errington

will then

A

'

'

You cannot pocket an Episcopate. as the medieval period lasted there was a Sagra Diplomazia that Franchi taught us in the Accademia. There were down to 1800, Romans who could speak modern languages. Hardly one of our old companions could speak French, none German or English. Rome spoke all tongues when the world was Catholic. It is now shut up in its own walls and speaks Italian, and sometimes unintelligible French. This is a disaster, like the privation of deafness. It cuts men off from the daily knowledge of the outer world. The state And temper of foreign nations can never be safely known without knowing their languages. The old dynastic policy of nations of the Latin race is more intelligible in Rome.
in his pocket. "

So long

466

;

Spiritual Politics
But what
with them.
is

really

understood of the

England or the United States?
"

And

political state of

yet the future
:

is

By the future I understand two things first the vast extension of the Visible Church as in the United States and in our Colonies, and secondly the rectifying of
certain social and political evils which have sprung from the revolt of the last three hundred years for instance, divorce, education without religion, indifference and nationalism. As the Church grows in social and political
;

power, these things will be corrected by Christian legisBut if Catholics were a majority, would they proceed to oppress those who forsake or oppose the Catholic Faith or Church ? I think not. The medieval or dynastic period long maintained itself by coercion. Heresy and schism were political crimes punished by the This has been swept away by public coercive law. multiplied heresies and schisms making coercion odious and morally impossible. So far as we can see, the new world will never be mathematically Catholic nor will the public law ever again be applied to enforce belief by coercion, or to maintain it when once the religion of the power. This policy has been tried and majority is in "
lation.
;

found wanting

(July 6, 1890). that our Government tried to prevent the nomination of Dr. Walsh to the See of Dublin. Any

"I know

such understanding, be it only verbal and tacit between Holy See and the Government, would be in my judgment and belief fatal. Not only or chiefly because many a good nomination would be hindered and many a bad one confirmed, but for a graver reason. No number of such mischiefs are comparable to the danger resulting to the Holy See. So long as the Irish people absolutely trust the Holy See in the nomination of Bishops, the faith and fidelity of the Irish people will be immutable. The day in which they begin to believe that the influence
the
of

and anti-Catholic Government of the Vatican in this most vital point they will be tempted not only to mistrust, but to all
the

Protestant
is

England

felt at

of spiritual evils. chief danger and disease of the Church from the time of Charlemagne was the regalia and the nationalism

manner
"

The

467

Henry Edward Manning
of the Episcopate. The whole conflict of investitures and of the Great Western Schism sprung from this source, secular influence in the nomination of Bishops. St.

Gregory VII. and Leo X. made Concordats to restrain Concordats are not bona per se, but checks and strait-waistcoats on the civil powers. The Church is safe without them. They imply evils, always active. What has the Holy See to gain by any such understanding? What has it to lose? The filial trust of Ireland. The boycotting decree was in a political matter. The nomination of its Bishops contains the whole I am thankful that I have not spiritual life of Ireland. been bid to communicate with our Government in this matter. In the Goa affair I acted without discretion on specific instructions already laid down. I did so without I only hope that I may never be comresponsibility.
these evils

missioned to treat such a matter as

this,

would give me the occasion of writing fully to the Holy Father. And the effect of this would probably be " that my judgment would thenceforward go for little
(July 30, 1890).

except that

it

The speech of Gladstone at the Wesleyan dinner is a proof of what I have believed and written more than once to the Holy Father. I mean that the least appearance of action of the Holy See in political matter is a great danger to the Catholic religion. The subject was Malta and Sir Lintorn Simmons's mission to Rome. Gladstone has roused the prejudice, suspicion, and fear which was dormant. The subject was simple, and if done quietly The Pope has would have been gladly accepted. declared that non-Catholic marriages are valid in Malta without the prescriptions of the Council of Trent. A
'

rescript to Mgr. Pace would have done this, and as to The the nomination of Bishops, if Rome had said, Bishop shall always be a British subject,' all would have been done without Envoys Extraordinary and the tableaux vivants of diplomatic relations, which were realities in the Middle Ages, but now, with nations estranged from the Faith, are a mere pageant, intensely provoking to a nation in schism and proud of its independence. The only strength and safety of the Holy See and Church is the same absolute independence. There
'

468

Spiritual Politics
ought to be no do ui des between us and the British Government. ought to give all that is right freely and as a King accepting nothing. But I am afraid the

We
'

'

fascination of memory is too strong in the Vatican. As the Italian Revolution by a delirium of memory has seized Rome and sits in the Capitol representing the Wolf and the Twins, the Republic and the Consuls, so the medieval Pontiffs and the Sagra Diplomazia must be
' '

represented
1890).

still,

though

its

reality is

gone"

(July 31,

" The temporal sovereignty of
If it

Rome was won by

the

be ever restored, it will be by the same free-will of Italy and of Europe. If it were restored to-morrow by any other means, it could
not stand.

free-will of all concerned.

Diplomatic relations presuppose the free-will of the people affected. What free-will is there in the English
people, or in the Irish, or in the Irish in England ? For spiritual things no diplomatic relations are needed; for But it political matter they are useless and dangerous. needs courage to say this in Rome. " The public feeling and goodwill of England towards the Catholic Faith and Church is notably changed for the better. Give it another fifty years and any relations with

"

the Vatican will be easily formed. Shock and provoke our public feeling, and the whole tide will turn. Common prudence and common sense bid and bind us to wait in quiet. But to see an English red-coat in the parco of the Sixtine is a gloriola, and a prophecy of the conversion of England. True; but the conversion is away from the Holy See. Wait and all will ripen without human

hands" (August "I can never

i,

1890).

repeat too often

relations can bind such a

that no diplomatic Government as ours. The

Government can do nothing without the popular vote. If the popular will is Catholic or tolerant, no diplomatic If the will is hostile, none are relations are needed.

They could not be acted upon. Concordats suppose two contracting parties. They must be bilateral or they are waste paper. And who can guide the popular will? No political Government. In matter of religion the intervention of Government in England, Scotland, 469
possible.

Henry Edward Manning
or Ireland would be fatal. The reign of James II. is a for all time. warning " I will here ask a question What is a Bishop to do when he believes that the Holy See is being misled by interested information, or when he is unable to think the acts of the Holy See to be prudent ? " Is he to volunteer his opinion ? or " Is he to be silent till he is asked? or "If he is bid to do anything which he believes to be imprudent, is he to do it ? or "Is he honestly and submissively to manifest his conscience to the Holy Father? "If he is an assentor, or has anything to gain, or is afraid to speak because ira Pontificis mors, he will be silent. But if he has the Holy See and the welfare of the Church at heart more than his own person, he will speak out. Now, I have just had a case in point. Mgr. Mocenni, by the command of Leo XIII., wrote deploring the way in which Parliament and the newspapers had treated the Simmons Mission. He desired me to write a
:

letter

for " I am publication. fully and deliberately convinced that the subject is too small for the intervention of Leo XIII.; that every time he writes on minor political matters a feeling in England is excited against him and us; that there is at this moment no need of such intervention. I therefore answered by giving a narrative of the affair, and then humbly imploring him to send me such a letter per norma mia, senza il comando di publicarla.
to

me

which should give a motive for his writing a

letter

"This may have given offence, but I am convinced that since Ruffo Scilla's visit here the question of diploRuffo matic relations has been seriously retarded. Scilla is a very light person, and his action in the Vatican I know, and the action of the Government is manifest. They have no will to serve us, but themselves own question. I believe it was only. I will answer my duty to write openly as in God's sight for the service of the Holy See. St. Philip forbade Baronius to give the Pope absolution if he did not reconcile the King of

my

France.

I

am

cillor of the

not a saint, but only an unworthy counHoly Father. When I wrote the above I was

470

Spiritual Politics
in doubt how the Holy Father would receive my letter, in which I deprecated any published letter from him about Malta. After some weeks came a very kind and compliant
:

answer, leaving me at full liberty to publish or not to publish what he sent to me. My purpose is to wait if need come to use the matter, but not to expose the Holy Father to attack " (September 25, 1890).

471

CHAPTER
"The end
MANNING
:

XXIII
is

:

TOWARDS EVENING
The end
is

of

man

greater glory of God.

The end

the glory of God, of a priest

of a Christian

is

the

the greatest glory of God."

The Eternal Priesthood.

battles

MANNING'S last years were lit by a singular peace. His and controversies were over. All his opponents had passed away, and his memory was peopled by Victorian ghosts. Already his name was turning up in dead men's lives. His name and Gladstone's were the targets
for all the scribes of journalism, whom he used to divide " into He Bluebottles, Petroleurs, and Professionals."

used to huddle over the solitary fire for hours, " the only tongues that are silent and tell no fibs,." dipping his red skull-cap from time to time into the warmth, as though to scoop a little heat into his old bones. In his highscreened "armchair Riviera" he sat back and remembered. Ambitions ecclesiastical were all fulfilled; and as " for politics, he wrote to George Russell As I go to bed
:

look out and see the light on your clock-tower, and I If I had been able to have my own way say to myself and to go there, what a rascal I should have been by this time I Under the flow of heat he scratched away " It is true that I am so old and diligently with his pen. indolent as to write on my knees, not in profane imitation of sybils and prophets, but because sitting up at a table
I
' : '
'

is

To Jowett
28, 1890)
:

wearisome." he wrote within two years of death (February

"There are many things I should like to hear from you, for I think that if the North and the South Pole could sit over a good fire they could interchange many And now as to the things of their long experience. Balliol Cricket Ground, as a Balliol man and one of the
Harrow
eleven,

my

whole

will

would be

to help the

472

Towards Evening
purchase of land. But I have six parishes without a church and more without a school, and for all such works I have nothing but the gifts and offerings which come in uncertainty and from time to time unlocked for. This is my real state, and I have not the power to give."

From time to time he was in the habit of writing notes or experiences for Vaughan, his chosen successor, to impress him with his University veto or his attitude to the Orders. Yet he seemed to hold a fair balance between Religious and Secular: "I have cut out of Secular Missions the following
:

1.

2.

Tower Hill, Oblates of Mary. West Brompton, Servites.
Franciscans.

3. Stratford, 4.

Rosminians, exchange of two Missions for one. And I have cut no Secular Mission out of a Regular." Yet sometimes he groaned at the superattractions of the " Our dear Cardinal (Wiseman) covered the Religious It saved trouble, and diocese with Religious Orders. left the Secular Clergy in a depression from which they have been only slowly rising. Farm Street has wrecked Warwick Street and injured Spanish Place seriously. The Carmelites have drained the Cathedral and drawn all rich families from Bayswater. The Italians killed
:

Saffron Hill.

The state

in

which

The Dominicans are killing Hampstead. I found St. Edmund's you know. The

Secular Clergy are at this time hardly able to maintain their churches. Thank God we have the poor, and that is our Lord's work. I have doubled the number of convents and the houses of teaching brothers." These lamentations have not been justified, for under ampler times both Religious and Secular houses have thrived together; but there was undoubtedly a phase in which the former were predominant which weighed heavily on the old man's heart. His dwelling, which could be mistaken for a Dissenting chapel doing duty as a railway waiting-room, was the

473

Henry Edward Manning
most mournful specimen of Bleak House, with surrounding chimneys instead of trees, and for a park the open

yawn in the vista of bricks, devoted to the future Cathedral, which he called his farm. He was a Londoner of Londoners, and a Cardinal to Cockneydom. He " Since we confessed once to Cardinal Cullen : parted in Rome I have only been once out of London for ten
days together."
fresh
flowers,

But
sent

in this cheerless

from Lavington

house there were daily by Mrs.

Wilberforce.

He spared neither himself nor his secretaries. In 1866 he acquired Dr. Johnson, who once went on holiday, but thought better of it before he reached the station. Manning's holidays took the form of occasional TemWhen Father Fenton fell ill as perance Crusades. " Sub sancta obedientia I he received word, secretary, command you to get well," and he did, though he believed at the time he was dying. Manning really liked discomfort for himself and those about him. He wrote " For once to Mrs. Butler you have caught somebody more wilful than yourself. Since 1838 I have never had curtains or carpets except what you see in my rooms. There is no affectation or mortification in it, but I like it. In furnished rooms I am not quiet." It does me good.
:

He read through his old diaries and letters, destroying and scissoring to his heart's content. The good resolutions he had written before consecration he read over twice, and each time added a note
:

I have fallen short of my resolutions But so far as I know I have not turned back, not turned aside. God, not my will, has kept me out of the world, though working in it and among my I hope I have lived among them and for them. priests. At Christmas I ended fifty years of active work. I feel that the time of the end is come, time to rest and time to make ready, and I feel content, thankful, and without desire, except for a good end and the presence of my good Master" (June 7, 1883).

"

God knows how
of

and

my

life.

474

Towards Evening
"Once more I have read over this book. Last Saturday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of my consecration,
and
this is silver jubilee year. chief if not sole is to make a good end. In a month's time, if I live, I shall enter eighty-second year. Abide with me. Dwell in me. Pervade me. Cast out of me all that

my

My

desire

my

is

contrary to

Thy

holy will

"

(June

13, 1889).

Rome was
"

Like dying Archbishops, he found intercourse with loosening. He wrote (November 13, 1891)
:

and Rome, I hardly know to whom to turn. old are dying off. Some years ago I tried to friends My to them understand vivisection but they were imposed get and upon by surgeons empirics." Teetotalism also made no appeal to Roman circles. And on the Oxford Question Rome was receiving the advice of others. Manning had renewed his private interest in Balliol, sending a copy of Aquinas to his old College. Jowett answered " Accept our best thanks for the (December 10, 1889) of St. Thomas volume splendid Aquinas's works. We should be much obliged if you would communicate to the Pope our grateful thanks. Are you aware that we have a Saint at Balliol College, St. Richard of Dundalk, a great medieval ecclesiastic about 1300?" He did not In add that Father Parsons was once bursar at Balliol virtue of a subscription started by Mr. Harold Boulton, a fine portrait of the Cardinal by Anderson was presented " I to Balliol. To Mr. Boulton the Cardinal wrote hope

As

to Italy

;

:

!

:

you are right in saying that our rising manhood has more virility than these modern Anacreons. And I have
been anxious about
it

used to create men; I Mysians." Manning hope feared Pater's influence more than Jowett's.
Balliol.
It

will not

end

in a race of

Manning was hard

After the failure of the Catholic College in Kensington, pressed. Finally the Duke of Norfolk

sent his nephew, the son of Hope Scott, to Oxford, with The Duke the consent of the Bishop of Southwark.

informed the Cardinal (January 475

18, 1889)

:

Henry Edward Manning
"Private. I know that in all this we have taken the course prescribed, but I fear, nevertheless, that the result come to is one of which you personally would not approve, and I feel real pain at having felt it right to take so important a step in spite of such a belief. I am anxious, however, that you should know exactly what has passed, and hope you will believe that I have acted
as
I

thought to be right."

collided once with the

Manning was beyond making a fight, and, having Duke on the Irish Question, wrote
19, 1889)
:

with suppressed feeling (January

"

I

the decision you have come to in respect to James Hope. The feeling which prompted you to write restrains me also from any expression except to rectify one point. Every personal feeling I have is and always has been powerfully, and perhaps more powerfully than in most men, on the side of sending Catholic youth to Oxford. But every conviction I have as a Catholic and for the Catholic Church in England, confirmed by all I have learned and seen in eight-and-thirty years, compels me
I say this because in to suppress all personal feeling. your letter you speak of my personal feeling. But I will

me

thank you for your kindness

in

making known

to

add no more."

At
1889)

the
:

same time he wrote

to

Vaughan (January

21,

" The act of the Duke of Norfolk is a shock to me. what the Holy See has said and what the for Bishops twenty-four years have done. And now we have Denbigh and the Duke openly going against our whole and known action by mere wilfulness. And this when Oxford has become a moral wreck and has admitted women. I thank God that neither you nor I have ever swerved. We have nothing to answer for." Nevertheless, he allowed Vaughan to go to Rome,

He knows

"I find latter wrote (November 16, 1890) from Cardinal Simeoni that the University Question was on the eve of a general discussion. Your old letters had been brought out, and everything looked favourable for
whence the
:

476

Towards Evening
a solution, when the Pope ordered the subject to be laid aside. The Duke, the Bishop of Southwark, and, I December 15, believe, of Clifton, had intervened." " I tried the Pope on Oxford and Cambridge, but 1890 he would not. His policy is to do nothing that might displease the Powers, and he thinks a decision against
:

the Protestant Universities might, especially as we have no Catholic University and he lets Catholics frequent the
Italian University in Rome." few years later it fell to to out reversal of Manning's policy, the Vaughan carry

A

but Archbishops mercifully neither watch their successors nor read their own biographies. In old age the Ultramontane Cardinal felt a gentleness " the little church under a green hillside, where toward the morning and evening prayers and the music of the Bible English for seventeen years became a part of my soul." few weeks before he died he disposed the Bible through a letter to Mrs. Gasquet (November family "In writing yesterday I forgot to say that 8, 1891) Caroline Austen ought to have the Bible for life, then you, and then Willy and I. I do not wish it to go out of our direct line." He had revisited Lavington once after dedicating the Catholic Church at Burton Park, and, going into his old church, said to Reginald Wilberforce, " as he put his hand on the Scripture, Times change and men change, but this never changes." Reginald, as son of Mrs. Samuel Wilberforce, was Squire of Lavington, and Manning was anxious he should follow his sister into the Catholic fold. While Manning rarely would mention conversion to outsiders or even to friends like Lord Brampton, who became a Catholic

A
:

after his death,

he was insistent to his own relatives. Where would you be if you died to-night?" he asked Reginald, who replied he hoped in the hands of God. "
another nephew, Basil Wilberforce, Archdeacon of Westminster, the Archbishop thereof also addressed monitions 477
:

To

Henry Edward Manning
It would give me much pleasure to see you all, though you are a sad medley of schism, nationalism, and ambition. By nationalism I mean a Christianity which rests upon human authority, and by schism you know what I mean. There are no knots in one is one. But you will slip like an eel. " Do not go blindfold. There are but two paths. There is or there is not a Divine teacher in the world. We are either disciples or critics. There is no third path. Make haste and go over the bar, or the Herodians will takeaway the little faith you and Charlotte have left. "The Inquisition in Spain was in the hands of Government. No doubt many ecclesiastics were responsible for it. But the Church was not. The cruelties of burning belonged to the Imperial Code before the time of Constantine. And women were burnt in London in 1776 for forging coin. We have all been sinners

"

Do together. Inquisition in
Spaniards

not

let

us
it

be

Pharisees.
free

As

to

the

Rome,

was

from

As fled there for protection. in time of civil war, like well's massacre in Ireland."
mew,
it

cruelties, and to St. Bartholo-

was an outrage

Crom-

His desire that the Wilberforce name should become wholly Catholic is explained in a letter he wrote a few weeks after conversion. " My belief is that the so-called Evangelical Movement is in spirit of the Catholic Church. Who restored frequent communion ? St. Francis de
Sales, Fe"nelon,

Henry Venn, and Henry

Blunt.

And

how now

are they rewarded? Every Evangelical name is inscribed in the Catholic Church Wilberforce,

Owen, Ryder, Cunningham, Simeon, Woodward, SarI look on this as the gent, and many more. blessing of God upon the children for their father's sake." To the Dean of Westminster, Bradley, Manning had
appealed for permission for Catholics to pray at the Shrine of St. Edward in the Abbey. The Dean replied (October 13, 1885) : " I have given orders (which were not really needed)
to

show

all

tenderness to those

who would do more

478

Towards Evening
than pass through, but to avoid prolonged or too ostentatious displays of devotion, which cause so much irritaTroutbeck tells me that tion in unsympathising minds. there was no trouble at all up to 3 p.m. to-day !"
of St. Edward's translation. This Anglican verger who once reported catching two visitors saying their prayers out of service hours a term for Manning refused to consider Protestantism " The best answer perdition, writing to Miss Stanley to those who say that if Catholics are honest they must believe all Protestants to be lost, is that the objector is
It

was the Feast

recalls the faithful

I

:

mistaken.

It is like

saying,

If

Trinitarians are honest

Gods." At another time he " of The proclaimed England are not heretics." people were for heretics chose for themnot, Deliberately they and had the had their religion chosen for selves, English them in the sixteenth century. "They are not responthey must believe
:

in three

dying inculpably out of the visible Body of the Church." He judged sects, not by their level of ritual, " but by their love for the Holy Ghost. Irvingism is an endeavour to find and to believe in the perpetual Office of the Holy Ghost." Quakers he liked most
sible for
:

with a Quaker service, that the celebrant need not be noticed or heard." His tendency to the Salvation Army was very marked.
this in

" Mass has

common

He disapproved of disestablishing the Church of England. "Let us replace her in God's good time. Let us not dare to weaken her merely to do the devil's service." And to a Dissenter like Stead he wrote " As to Disestablishment, we will do nothing to mutilate or
:

destroy. Our Lord came to fulfil, and He gave us the work of building up. To pull down is the work of Abaddon, Apollyon, the Destroyer. I shall rejoice to see any work of good in the Anglican system, for I hold

the nearer a man Council of Trent."

is

to God the nearer he is to the To Canon Jenkins, his privileged

479

Henry Edward Manning
" While the world is drifting Anglican friend, he wrote to chaos and suicide I have no will for controversies." .They used to correspond in the form of sequences, sometimes humorously, as when the Cardinal wrote " My dear Abbot, Your Metropolitan is no match for a monk, and you seem to have withstood him to the face for not submitting to Peter. The Papa alterius orbis is, I see, to hold another Pan-Anglican Synod to which, I fear from your letters, he will not cite me, and yet he is in communion with Reinkens. I look upon you all as the reliquice of St. Gregory's work, and your Christianity as our tradition mutilated and minimised. I can say from my heart, Christ is preached, and therein I rejoice and will rejoice.' Why does not your Primate rejoice in my Christianity?"
:

:

'

About good Archbishop Benson they both became very mirthful, and the Canon a little malicious. For Archbishop Tait Manning had had a deep respect, and wrote a letter which was read to him on his death-bed, Miss Tait replying " It was a great pleasure to him to know that you were thinking of him. are now just Tait and had Gladstone filled the died, waiting." Primacy, not, as he might have hoped forty years before, with Manning, but with Benson, to whom Manning used to refer as his sister of Canterbury Benson used
:

We

!

to complain very humorously that their relations were of the dog and cat order, as he was frequently compelled to attend public dinners by the threat that if he refused

Manning would be asked

instead, like the

Puss Puss !" forced to eat his dinner by the calling of The last time they met was at the Prince of Wales's
!

"

dog who

is

garden-party in 1890. "
birthday. Cardinal.

Benson

told

Manning

it

was

his

be mine," said the first Vespers of your birthday," A replied Benson, "are the second Vespers of mine."
will

And "The

to-morrow

more curious coincidence was
Scott's.

that

Manning's birthdays,

both temporal and spiritual, were the same as

Hope

480

Towards Evening
number of Anglican dignitaries corresponded with Manning, who told Bishop Alexander of Derry that " of the Princess who had his poetry reminded him been a white cat, for now and then the poet bolts over the page very brightly"; and again he wrote: "I believe the old Archdeacon is not dead," and sent him Religio Viatoris. The Irish Bishop replied (November
1887) Truly do you in slender book your vast unfold. Three of the four corners of your Faith design
28,
:

A

"

you lay again for me also, with a strength which nothing can shake. Not so as to the fourth. Excuse me if I am I to recognise a famous personality in the writer.
follow you with assent through three-fourths of your journey, with interest through the whole, and look with

who have

meeting when the course is over for those not travelled together quite the same way." Archbishop Thomson of York used to consult him on points of discipline, when he had trouble with his clergy,

hope

for a

writing (June 14, 1888): "I cannot thank you sufficiently for the clearness and minuteness of the informaIt answers all tion which you have so kindly given me.
questions and far more. I shall preserve your letter not only for its use as an exposition of the law, but as a remembrance and witness of your kind courtesy." It is curious to find another Anglican Archbishop asking

my

Manning to say Mass for him, and writing later "At a time of terrible anguish I asked for your special intention for me at the Altar. Relief came to me in a wonderful manner, almost if not quite visibly supernatural. I am now in great anxiety about the circumstances of my family. I would again ask for your remembrance at the Altar." With the " heretics " of the Anglican Church Manning corresponded freely. Mr. Voysey, the Gorham of his day, whom Archbishop Thomson excluded from communion, was a visitor at Manning's house, and even In criticism submitted his theistic sermons to him. 21 481
:

" In parts I closely I would ask whether you have fully in others agree; thought out the subject. For instance, your belief that we argue in a circle about the Church and the Scriptures, is it not the fallacy of time? Whately put it, as you A hen comes from an egg and an egg from remember a hen. Therefore,' etc. I said a very old affair and a very light one, but I think it has no circle in it, and it shows that Divine authority is inseparable from Divine truth." The Cardinal exchanged letters with Dean

Henry Edward Manning
26, 1889)
:

Manning wrote (February

'

:

whose denial of everlasting punishment made logical alternatives. The Purgatory or Universalism the Dean wrote (April 22, 1889) " There is nothing in what I urged in Eternal Hope which would not be entirely satisfied, as far as my own views are concerned, by the
Farrar,
:

general doctrine of Purgatory in the Western Church and that of the Probatory Fire in the Eastern Church. I have always refused to accept Universalism as a doctrine,

though

I

may

entertain

something resembling

it

as a hope. Indeed, the doctrine of refrigeria ending in the extinction of anguish as advocated by very eminent

Western theologians would quite Manning answered (April 25, 1889)

satisfy
:

" Universalism

my

view."
is

excluded by the separation of those who die impenitent. But the doctrine of Purgatory is as large as your hope, which is short, of Universalism. It must always be remembered that it is only the penitent and saved that enter the state of purification, and they may be only not Saints or only not lost. They are already in union with God, but only not yet crowned. They are the holy souls saved eternally. But their salvation is here in life, not by change from separation to union after death."

The Dean answered

(April 26,

1889)

:

"I

gratefully

acknowledge your Eminence's letter, which is full of I am not a Universalist because, interest and value. with the wiser Rabbis, I have learnt to say, I do not know.' There may be in the perverted human will a
*

482

Towards Evening
power of hardening itself as long as it exists. On the other hand, the Church has never condemned a hope even of Universalism, for Origen never was condemned for this view, but only for speculation about the
salvability of the Devil !"

In these days a friend noticed a Salvation text on the Cardinal's walls, and asked if a Salvation lass had been there. "And I wish," said Manning with amused " that she vexation, had, and would persuade Catholics that the Holy Scriptures are not on the Index !"
It

seemed

to his stricter friends that
all

he had become
:

good causes and of cranks as well. On the one hand, he wrote to Waugh, the children's friend The crimes of every day show that parental love cannot be trusted, and that children need the guardianship of public laws"; and on the other to Miss Cobbe on Vivisection to say that man owed no duty directly to the brutes, but he owed it to God, whose creatures
the friend of
' '

The highest they are, to treat them mercifully. counsel is always the safest and best, cost us what it may take the cost as the test of its rectitude. may.

"

We

I

hope you

will

go on writing against
itself

this inflation of

vainglory calling

Science."

must need have an aged hand in every reform was going on, and hold out be it but a dying finger to every sect. But the Anglican Church came back as ever with all the human power of homesickness. Had he not written to Mrs. Coventry Patmore in the first year of his cardinalate (and he felt even more so in the
that
last)
:

He

"I often think that the time when I was seeking, and drawing near to, the Divine Reality had in it more human solace and support than the present. I say human because it was chiefly so. It was a religion in the fields at eventide, and a church without warfare, with the beauties of nature, and with the imaginary world of faith seen at a distance. Nevertheless, it was
' '

483

Henry Edward Manning
a good training and a school of Divine truth.
cease to bless
I

never

God

for the old daily service
'

and the
This

steady reading of the Bible through and through. has been my salvation ?
'

Especially had he developed a strong sympathy for the Salvation Army, long before it was so generally Of General Booth's Darkest England he esteemed. If sheep are lost it shall forbid him? wrote: He may have been sleeping or is the shepherd's fault. dreaming in a fools' paradise, or sounding his pastoral music in a refined life of blameless morality without a shadow of the Cross, or, to come nearest to the reality, he may have inherited a work which the neglect of his forefathers has put beyond his reach." They met in "I retain the feelings of 1890, and the General wrote interview. created our There are several pleasure by in which are both we and on interested, deeply things which I would much like the benefit of your experience."

"Who

:

Manning wrote
"
soul cost the

to

him (October

30,

1890)

:

You have gone down

doubt you remember that the Poor Laws of Queen Elizabeth compelled parishes to provide work for the able-bodied unemployed, and to lay in stores of raw material for work."

save it, Trafalgar Square miseries I wrote a Pleading for the Worthless, which probably you never saw. It would show you how completely my heart is in your book. No

into the depths. Every living Most Precious Blood, and we ought to even the worthless and the worst. After the

Booth replied (November 4, 1890) " I am thankful that you are in sympathy with the scheme I have propounded. I think it should have a I did see your Pleading for the Worthless, fair trial. and appreciated it. Something must be done, and that immediately. You cannot reason with starvation. Arguments are thrown away upon despair. I have received very friendly messages from the Prince of Wales, the Bishops, and many more. But these won't float me off."
:

484

Towards Evening
Another derided sect whom Manning defended were whose Synagogue, he insisted, was the grandmother of the Catholic Church. He wrote to Bishop " As to the Wilberforce as far back as 1850 Jews, my belief is that the Church of Rome is doing more among them than any other body. The Jews of Protestant
the Jews,
:

countries are extensively unbelievers. And I believe the Septuagint has been and will be the mediating canon between the old Hebrew and the New Testament as the

Synagogue blended with the Church." His interest remained, and he moved the resolution at the Mansion House protest against the Russian massacres. He " The Jews envied the Jews their social organisation are taking better care of their working girls in the East End than we are. .What are our people doing? Oh,
:

forgot they have no time. They are examining their consciences or praying (with dear Mrs. Craven) for sucAn ironic cess in finding a really satisfactory maid."
I
;

" We are putting up age And then he statues to Saints instead of being them." used to suggest a confraternity dedicated to Balaam's

humour

stiffened

his old

:

ass,

or

sigh,

"There was a time when
murder
ritual

there

was

grace."

As

for the

of

which the Jews were
:

"You accused, Manning wrote to Chief Rabbi Adler do in I me that have neither only justice believing sympathy nor credulity for such horrors." The English Jews presented Manning with an address for his
signed by Lord Mayor Isaacs, Rabbi Adler, and Lord Rothschild. To Sir John Simon Manning later wrote sublime words (December 8, 1890) on
jubilee,

behalf of

"a race with a sacred history of nearly four thousand years; at present without a parallel, dispersed in all lands, with an imperishable personal identity, isolated and changeless, greatly afflicted, without home or fatherland visibly reserved for a future of signal mercy. Into
;

485

Henry Edward Manning
who
this I will not enter further than to does not believe in their future

say that any man must be a careless

reader, not only of the old Jewish Scriptures, but even of our own. It is not our duty to add to their afflictions, nor to look on unmoved, and to keep the garments when others stone them. " If we know the mind of our Master, who prayed for

them

in

His

last hour,

of the old law

we owe to them both the and the charity of the new."
and

justice

An
to

instance of the care

affection he lavished

on a

humble seeker
a

in his last years appears in his letters certain lady, who had been a friend of Mazzini

before she became the convert of Manning, to her :

who

wrote

October

3,

1889:

"I think

I

can discern and divine

Do not outlines, as every substance has its own form. take cares or sorrows too much to heart. Even sorrow for sin is a calm, peaceful, and cheerful sadness." October 30, 1889: " Bossuet says 'the best director is he who soonest makes those whom he directs able to go without him.' I do not know where you have found your notion of 'tyranny.' Faith is an act of free-will. Every moral action has excellence in the measure of its freedom. The Gospel is the law of liberty, and none are really free but those who are guided in the way of faith by the Holy Ghost." November 4, 1889: "The head of the Church on
486

that you will say of yourself. God has been nearer to you than you know." October 13, 1889 "I know that an intellectual religion may be only a fides diabolica. Light without love is a state of separation from God. And yet the soul must be conformed to God in all its powers, heart, will, And it is by the sanctified intelinterest, and intellect. lect that the heart and will are conformed to the will, For this cause He has love, and intelligence of God. revealed Himself, and His revelation conforms our intelligence to His. Therefore we are bound to seek a definite knowledge of His revelation ; for there can be no knowledge of what is indefinite. Truth has its own
:

much

Divine assistearth is ance guards him from misleading the Church in faith and morals. But he is on probation like all other men. I have no care to defend any sin in any Pontiff, because I know that Caiphas was high-priest, that as such he prophesied, that he crucified the Lord of Glory. No Pope has done worse, and yet his office is of Divine institution. The Divine element in the Church is immutable. The human may corrupt and does corrupt. The Church is not on probation, but is the instrument of probation as Witness, Teacher, and Judge. Think these things out critically, asking for light and a calm discernment." November 21, 1889: "I fully believe that the Oriental theism is a Divine revelation in its source and tradition in its perpetuity. Nor is there condemnation of anything but falsehood or of anyone The Catholic but those who are consciously false. Church alone teaches the universality of truth and Truth has an authority which demands charity.
obedience.
It lays a jurisdiction on the reason, conFalsehood has no science, and will, because it is true. jurisdiction."
:

Towards Evening A infallible, but not impeccable.

December 13, 1889 "I never hinder those who are sincerely seeking the truth in their reading of books which contradict it, as it seems to betray a fear. Therefore, if you will read Littledale's book, I will send you Father Ryder's examination and answer to it, from which you will see how little Dr. Littledale is to be trusted. Would not your difficulty about the limitation of the Divine presence and operation apply to the Incarnation ? The sun has a visible disc, but its effluence and influence has no perceptible limit. The widest circle has a centre." December 31, 1889:' "Life goes before symmetry or organism. The life of the Church is the Life-Giver, the Holy Ghost. The fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians draws this out with great precision. On this Cardinal Newman's book on Development is clear to self-evidence. But your letter opens another world, a subjective world. The Hindoos worship the smallpox as the Romans did the fever, out of fear. But the love of God in Jesus Christ casts out fear, because fear
487

Henry Edward Manning
is

torment.

Still,

a fearful conception of

God

chills

and depresses the soul for life. Is it not strange that we do not realise the love of God as we do the warmth of the sun ? Try to forget yourself in the revelation of God." March 2, 1890 " How is it that the Catholic Church is darkness to you ? Is not the darkness on the north side of the wall, where the sun is not seen ? Come round to the south side, where it shines all day. There was when God made the world only light and bliss. Sin brought in darkness and sorrow; but sorrow is of two kinds the sorrow of God working salvation and the sorrow of the world working death. Now, your
:

sorrow is not the sorrow of the world. It is the sorrow of a mother for the son of her love. It is a faint reflection of the sorrow of the Mother of Jesus at the foot of the Cross. In all that your son suffered and in all that you suffer for him remember the Passion of Jesus, and the Compassion that is, the participation of His passion of His Mother." April i, 1890 : "I promised to send you a Rule of life. Now, a Rule of life is only like setting the hands of a watch unless the mainspring is right. It is like Time, which does nothing, but all things are done in Time. few rules are better than many, for many rules become a net and a burden. They tend to a mechanical few rules practice and then to weariness and laxity. well kept lead to perfection, as all harmony comes out of eight notes." " There is nothing to hinder your August 22, 1890 the Catholic Church. You have already taken entering the first and chief step, and have hardly anything to add in confession. What you need is the peace which follows the decision of hesitation and the grace of the Holy Sacraments. I have, as you know, refrained from urging you because I regard your state as in heart and will already united to the Church. The catechumens even before Baptism were of the soul of the Church, though not as yet of the body, and if any of them ceased to live they were buried with the burial of the Church."

A

A

:

It

was

typical of the interest he took in

the most

obscure individual.

As he wrote another time: "I

Towards Evening
have a great
belief in the existence of Saints in secret,

and especially among the poor." There was no end to kind and
to timid or scrupulous penitents.

careful letters written

To one
:

he wrote on

the old question (January 23, 1884)

cannot hinder sin does not. God might have made us as machines without knowledge and will, or He might have made us like sheep and oxen, with

"

You

hear people ask whether

God

and

evil,

and

if

He

can,

why He

no power of knowing right from wrong. But in His love and goodness He has made us in His own image and likeness. This is the happiness of a creature, to have a will and to be like its Maker. All good comes from the will of God and all evil from the abuse of our

own free-will. It is indeed a great responsibility to be made in the likeness of God, but who would rather be made like an ox or dog, without a moral nature and
without a will?" March 17, 1884: "I well remember the effect of Southey's book on my own mind fifty years ago, and do not wonder at its effect on you. After reading all the follies, superstitions, outrages, and sins swept together by Southey, take and read the New Testament. The Church has never had any share in the sins of its members. It is like the light which falls upon all the rottenness of the earth, but is never tainted by it." " You do not tell me whether you had July 1 8, 1885 communion at your Clapham. I was the more anxious that you should because you were going into the Wilderness where there is no Manna. It is not good to get
:

The grown people in Queen Elizabeth felt at first the loss of the Holy Sacrament when the altars were thrown down. But the children soon became accustomed to the empty churches. The Blessed Sacrament strongly concentrates the thought and the sense of the Divine Presence. It is the point of contact between the visible and the
accustomed to having no Mass.
the time of
invisible World. It is to us what the visible form of our Lord was to the Apostles. They saw His Manhood, not His Godhead. We see another form which He

has willed to take to Himself. 489

Henry Edward Manning
"

Dead

(See what you have done. Letter Office. H.E.C.A.
:

No

This came from the doubt they read all
It

about Queen Elizabeth.)"
not take

L

August 21, 1885 "Never hesitate to write. up my time. Can you fast so long as
,

does

to

go

to

for

I

suppose that to be your nearest church?

If so, you may go to Communion at once. Be silent as If asked, say, to Confession. director has bid me to go to Communion, and answer no more questions.

My

think how I should enjoy the quiet of the country, but then I remember that the post would bring letters from my Vicar-General and a shoal of cares every day. But you have no diocese, and may enjoy the rest and quiet of trees and birds and flowers and fields."

day letter. ..." February i, 1889: "Your letter was full of good news. First that you had been to Mass. You may think of the privations and efforts of our people under the Penal Laws. Give my blessing to the good people who drove you over to O Next the good account of yourself. I had full hope that the change and the sights and sounds and suns of the country would do you good. It is the chief sanctuary of God, next to the Blessed Sacrament, and full of all beauty and peace. Keep your whole soul open to its teaching. I often
.

Blessed yourself carefully on the Beatitude, are the pure in heart for they shall see God.' Anything contrary to this is a bar to the Holy Communion, and this is the point in which many fail. As to wanderings and distractions, do not be afraid or cast down. They are faults only when they are wilful or indulged. They come down when you are in the presence of God as flies do upon honey." " You January 26, 1889 may perhaps not be able to go to Mass to-morrow, and I therefore send you a Sun: :

Examine

'

And out of shoals of chips and scraps these are typical " (December 13, 1886) My dear child, now I know why you looked with an evil eye at my black overcoat, and said the binding was worn out and that I wanted a new one. You wanted it to keep old Hub warm. So I will send it to-morrow with some other things to you."
:

490

Towards Evening
1 will see Sister Teresa to-morrow, and the little waifs shall not be evicted. It is all heart-breaking, and you see a death by starvation in Bethnal Green." " Send me the name and address of the poor woman
11

who needs an eye. ..." The time came for Manning

to close the

two most

important correspondences of his life

with Gladstone

and Ullathorne. Manning's conquest of Ullathorne, followed by a quarter of a century of frank friendship, was a triumph of tact, and added enormously to the
power of his administration. As a simple Protonotary he had fought him in Rome as only the subtle son of Oxford could deal with the stiffest chip off the old Catholic block. Letters of Vaughan to Wiseman from

Rome recall the far-away atmosphere of their first bout (February 22, 1862) " Dr. Manning has been here and told me of his late interviews with Mgr. Ego Solus, the Bishop of Birmingham, as someone has named him. He has come
:

out in his true colours, Anglican and Gallican in the strongest way. He has tripped himself up and dropt again and again into the power of the Protonotary, who, though exceeding courteous and amiable, does not in the least object to cutting his legs off, and that operation seems to be in the course of being satisfactorily done. Dr. Manning says he never before had an idea of what you must have had to go through with him in the transaction of business the sensitiveness and crochetiness of Mgr. Ego Solus are beyond anything he was prepared
;

for."

April

19,

1862

:

"Dr. Manning has been most

active

your view of the case and with the importance of maintaining the proper relative position of the Metropolitan. How much Dr.
in incensing [sic] the Cardinals with

Manning has

influenced in the right direction

I

suspect

he does not even himself know. I hope you will not delay long to come out here. Dr. Manning has been having a long fight against Dr. Ullathorne and Co., and it is time you came and finished things off. It may be, and I dare say is, that the Bishops are to have things
491

Henry Edward Manning
said to
feel sick

them which may make

it

desirable that they
if

should have the columna

veritatis to lean against

they

and

faint."

It was Manning's championship of the Metropolitan See against the English Bishops, like Southwark and Birmingham, which made him so admirable a successor to the fruits of his own labours, and afforded Vaughan and the successors of Vaughan so distinct a primacy to inherit. Ullathorne lived to serve and love the man he could not defeat, and after twenty-five years

the last of the old Vicars-Apostolic wrote (June 23,
1887)
:

"It is a well-known fact that semel paralyticus semper paralyticus. It therefore becomes my conscientious duty at once to petition the Holy See for my retirement. Having had great cares upon me ever since the year 1832, when I was sent out a mere youth to be VicarGeneral of Australia, where I had no Bishop and great difficulties to encounter beyond what is known, and having to lay the foundation out of which so much prosperity has sprung, having had to take the Western District of England when it was utterly bankrupt, having had to take up the Midland District, when it was in a similar state of financial bankruptcy, I do think that

now

in my state of prostrate infirmity I the compassionate consideration of the

am

entitled to

Holy Father.

What, therefore, I ask your Eminence is that in charity even more than in policy you will kindly second my petition to the Holy See that this diocese may be provided with an efficient ruler."

Manning
"
I

replied (June 24, 1887)

:

I had letter with true sorrow. that for years to come we should have had the support of your experience and of your mind, which is vigorous as ever. But God's will comes to us one by one, and to each in his turn. I make no comment on what you say, and whatsoever you bid me to do shall

have read your

hoped

be done. Your letter calls up the six-and-thirty years that we have known each other. They have been years of friendship and of confidence, and both have been
492

Towards Evening
matured and confirmed as we have drawn on towards I have to thank you for many acts of kindness, and especially for those you showed me when I first came among you, as a dead man out of mind to my former life. And it has been my consolation in the last two-and-twenty years to be in such full agreement with
the end.

the old Vicars-Apostolic, and especially with yourself. I hope that any ailment you may have may be painless."
to

At Manning's request the Pope elevated Ullathorne an Archbishopric, and Manning could write (Good
:

Friday, 1888)
well earned

are enjoying the rest which you have and God has given you. When He gives us You rest we have a right to it and may revel in it. have the great resource of interest in books and in all We shall miss you much in Low Week, and things. we should be glad to see you as a consiliarius natus. We are ploughing on at the Education Commission, and on the whole all is well. But the County Bill will, I hope, decentralise education and protect us from a French Gambetta-Chamberlain Government atheism. I have great confidence in the live and let live of the
'
'

"I hope you

English people.
safe.

If

we

are only prudent
title

we

shall be

Till

you have your

I

shall treat

you as a

Dowager

!"

so, as Archbishop of Cabasa, Ullathorne passed out of his life. With Gladstone Manning still kept touch until the end. At the Jubilee of the Colonial Bishoprics recalled the wonderful eloquence of Gladstone Fund, the Archdeacon, who had bidden the Empire be a beast of burden or evangelise the world, and Manning wrote

And

(June 20, 1891):'

have just read your words at St. James's Hall. me very touching and generous. I remember as if it were yesterday that we sat side by side, and your kind words. Wonderful that we only should survive. For all my life since I can remember I have said, Christ preached every way is cause of joy, and
I

"

They

are to

*

therein
faith

I am full of rejoice yea, and will rejoice.' the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and I believe that He has breathed in a special way in these
I

in

493

Henry Edward Manning
upon the English-speaking days upon England and " world." June 22, 1891 Perhaps before we go we our contrasted talk over sixty years. strangely may have quarrelled twice. Once I became a Catholic, and you quarrelled with me. And once you railed at Pius IX., and I quarrelled with you. Barring these we have never had a personal variance. Public opposition Gladstone answered is inevitable, but honourable." (June 23, 1891): "In bed and well blanketed, I can hardly touch on your very interesting opening words. I do not consider, however, that I have at any time had any quarrel with you. The first of the two occasions you name was not a quarrel, but a death. The second was a solemn judgment by you upon (believe me) a not less solemn act by me, an act which I should hate to But I must not repeat, but of which I do not repent. proceed. I should grow more and more impudent."
:

We

This seems

to

who wrote him
"This
It is

have been Gladstone's last to Manning, a bon -voyage, reminding him of his
:

birthday (November 26, 1891)
nell's tragic

no

year, beginning and ending with poor Parfall and death, has transformed Ireland. longer revolutionary, Fenian, sanguinary, and

hostile to

goodwill.
of

hope

it

England. The two peoples have a mutual Ever since you began to give Ireland a ray has turned toward England, and if you will

This is teaching men to give by stimulants, which lowers the motives. But fashion reigns over us. I hope you are well, and that you will keep St. Thomas of Canterbury's day sub meliore sole." A few days after the Feast of St. Thomas, Manning *' himself was taken with bronchitis. When you hear I have taken to my bed you can order my coffin, in that " I shall be like Lord Beaconsfield, he used to say. On January 9 of the New Year Vaughan arrived and sent
charity.

County Councils real and effective, the foundation of Home Rule will be laid. I want to know what has been done about the League of Proportionate are, I believe, poisoned by bazaars Almsgiving. and gipsy tricks to get money without the motive of
the

make

We

him

to bed.

He

passed his 494

last

Sunday waiting

in

Towards Evening
loneliness.

unfinished.

He did not wish to die, believing his tasks On the Wednesday he was clad in his
and when Vaughan
told

scarlet robes for the last time

him he was a dying man, he made

profession of faith.

"It is pleasant to have been able to do everything," he observed. In the evening he refused a stimulant emphatically. He had received the Last Sacraments and the Papal Blessing, and had no desire to add a
minute's span to his life by such means. During the night Vaughan and Dr. Gasquet watched by the bedside, and heard the last words uttered in the language " of the Church : Deposui jugum, opus meum consummatum est." Dr. Johnson wrote that after passing about three and a half hours in making his preparation for death he lay like a tired child in a quiet sleep. It was on this day that a curious incident occurred. A girl, who had been previously cured from illness, if not miraculously, certainly at the very moment the Cardinal said the Angelus for her, fell ill and died between his death and burial, as soon as his vital thought ceased to uphold her. Canon Vere recorded the incident.

The morning

of the last

day had dawned, and

at

eight o'clock, while Herbert Vaughan said the Mass, Cardinal Manning died without agony or sigh. Dr. Johnson gave him Absolution while Dr. Gasquet closed
his eyes. Two-and-forty years previously to the very the dead had written to Miss Stanley (January 14, day

sweet to die.' the Roman saying fulfilled that the Cardinals die in threes in honour of the Holy Trinity. On the same day died Cardinal Simeoni. And the third in their sublime company was Cardinal Agostini. When word
:

"I feel no doubt that when the hour comes I have dying grace given me, and that I shall lack nothing, as Suarez (who had a lifelong fear of death) " I knew not that it was so said at the last
1850)
:

shall

'

Then was

reached Pope Leo he was exceedingly moved, and said " A great light of the Church has gone out. I feel that
:

my own

hour

is

at

hand."
495

Henry Edward Manning
Cardinal

Manning

Clifford, the last of the Mass of Requiem, and

Bishop

preached the

London Oratory. Wiseman's Hierarchy, sang Bishop Hedley of Newport sermon (January 21, 1892). His body was
lay in state in the

carried through the fog-laden streets to Kensal Green, where it remained until it could be translated with the
of Wiseman to Westminster Cathedral. At the head of the grave was a cross of lilies of the valley from the Queen, and near by a wreath from Michael Davitt. Behind the Bishops of the Church and the Peers of the Realm marched solid lines of the labouring men.

body

Not

till

late that afternoon

did the procession of chant-

The greater ing priests struggle into the cemetery. number of the mourners who followed to the grave were drawn from the class who have lost most by the loss
of the old religion, and who will yet decide last religion of England shall be.

what the

There was mention of the humble

in the
:

proud words

with which the Church sealed his tomb

HENRICO
SS

EDVARDO

.

MANNING

ANDREA
QVI

ET GREGORII PRESBYTERO CARDINALI ARCHIEPISCOPO WESTMONASTERIENSI EX ALIENO IN OVILE CHRISTI COOPTATVS
.
.

OBSEQVIVM ERGA ROMANAM SEDEM AVXIT EXEMPLO AVCTORITATE MINISTERIO
PETRI

PRIVILEGIVM

.

ET

PONTIFICIAM

.

LIBERTATEM

MORES

STRENVVS ADSERVIT PARVVLORVM TENVIORVM OPIFICVM COLVIT OFFICIA EDOCVIT IVRA VINDICAVIT
.

PASTORIS

BONI

OPVS

CONSVMMATVM

DEO

OBTVLIT

We

may

deplore the traces of the personal element in

his administration or the intensity of his dislikes, even when justified, or the survivals of Puritan harshness in
his character; but
it

remains to say that he stands well 496

Towards Evening
and nobly
in the distinguished

group of Englishmen

who have worn
Manning
:

the Cardinal's hat, from one of whom tribute may be reapplied to Henry Edward Shakespeare's
"This Cardinal much honour from his cradle.
ripe

Was

fashioned to

He

was a scholar and a

and a good one

;

Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading ; Lofty and sour to them that loved him not ; But to those men that sought him sweet as summer."

What seemed
led

to

many

of his

own

flock defects really

him towards the greater world policies of the future. His Ultramontanism led him into opposition to Bismarck and Prussianism. His apparent Socialism led him into the policy by which the Church has since struggled to win and influence labour. As his democratic policy has

proved the only safeguard against the
if

developments of Bolshevism, so his Irish views,

they

had been adopted when they were expressed, would have prevented the British Empire being divided on the Irish rock, and his attempts to initiate union and understanding between the Hierarchies of England, Ireland, and the United States would have supplied that corner-stone, without which there can never be peace or trust in the English-speaking world. Time and perhaps centuries
be needed to estimate his share in the dogmatic history of the Christian Church but the present years have shown England how unwise it was to reject a prophet, whether he spoke warningly of Prussia or sympathetiNo doubt the middle classes in cally of Ireland.
will
;

England and the governing oligarchies
both in religion and

rejected

him

politics, but his funeral showed that it was upon the working classes that he had chiefly made his impression. Englishman and Ultramontane, he not have may qualified for the blessing promised to the meek, but by his social and international action at least he earned the Beatitude which is promised to the peace-

maker

!

497

2

K

APPENDIX
(Errington Case, see
p. xiv.

and Chapter X.)

WISEMAN had not been long in making Manning his " In standard-bearer (July 4, 1855) my own name and I in that of my brethren the Bishops, beg to invite you to assist at the approaching Provincial Synod as a theologian and to preach at one of the sessions." At Wiseman's hest and with Roman approval ManWiseman ning founded the Oblates of St. Charles.
:

wrote (February

17, 1857)

:

other motive for writing that of saying that this morning

"

My

is I

a more pleasing one,

from Cardinal

have received a letter Barnabo informing me of the Holy

Father's approbation of the Institute of Oblates. I trust therefore that our work will now proceed and prosper." February 27 "I congratulate you most sincerely on the The blessing of satisfactory progress of your affairs. the Holy Father is the sanction of heaven." March 21 : *' I highly approve of all that you have done and feel no uneasiness about results. For it appears to me that
:

every step has been taken prudently, deliberately, and with only one object in view. If the Holy See approve and sanction it, it becomes the Church's work and so is
safe."

And at the
(March
"
the

first
:

occasion possible he pressed promotion

6, 1857)

Confidential.

I

particularly entreat

you that should

Holy Father name you Canon vice Dr. Whitty you will not decline. There are many reasons for it. It will be the first time the Holy Father will have exercised the prerogative of nomination and I wish the precedent to be
given.
will
It will be most gratifying to the Chapter. It be acceptable to every class of Catholics. It will prove that the Oblates are not a distinct Order, but true

498

Appendix
It will give at once a high position to secular priests. the Institute in the diocese and stamp it with the strongest seal of approbation both from Rome and here. For everybody will and shall know that I have most fully concurred in the nomination. Indeed, I have told Monsignor Talbot that if the Holy Father should graciously think of naming you he need not wait for my opinion nor refer the matter at all back to me. You may speak freely with Monsignor about it, as I have no secrets for
:

April 29, 1857 and to your great work.

" Welcome back to England I shall be in London on Saturday morning, when I hope to see you. Your installation must take place at the first capitular meeting."
him."

Manning immediately met stubborn hostility both as an Oblate and as Provost of the Chapter. In an undated letter Wiseman wrote to comfort him " own mind can Hand
:

An

My

say,

ignara mail miseris.

accumulation of

trials

result of natural causes, tion between them. Their

and sorrows can seldom be the where there is no natural conneccombination
is

a Divine dis-

St. Philip's test that yours is God's work, that it is sorely tried. If it had been otherwise it would have made one fearful, or at least anxious. Be not, therefore, I entreat you, discouraged or bent down. The clouds will blow over and serene skies will again be over you. You may have to struggle on as yet for some time, but God's face will shine upon you ; and you must bear the gloom of its hiding with I know by long experience to have to quiet patience. bear one's sorrows alone, silent and without a counsellor. I therefore wish you to know that there is one at least that sympathises fully in them, reckons them up, and

pensation.

You have now

feels

them one by one."
the Oblates were challenged by the Chapter,
attitude

When

Manning's

was unflinching

to his critics but

humbly deferential to his superiors. At their word he was ready to annihilate himself and his works. Meantime he intended to carry on the work of God in England. To Wiseman he wrote (March 6, 1858)
:

499

Henry Edward Manning
tried to think of the subject of last night, but can do nothing but place myself in your Eminence's hands. The weighing of the two sides afraid places me in a position from which I shrink : I
I
I

"

have

feel that I

am

of inclining to that which, if I know myself as I ought, I ought to avoid : and I am afraid also of crossing what may be the will of God. There is only one element in the question on which I have little doubt. I mean that the work of the Congregation is brought to a point, both in its material and moral part, that it would go on if I were to die now. For all the rest I wish to leave myself in your hands that whatever comes I may have the clear will of God through Superiors untroubled by any mix" Hitherto ture of my own will." Corpus Christi, 1858 I can say that the priests of the diocese have manifested anything but kindliness. All that I could do to show the
:

priests that we wished to be useful I have endeavoured Your Eminence is aware that Father Rawes and to do. And yet he I divide the whole of the preaching here. has preached through Lent at St. Patrick's, through May at St. James, and I at St. Mary Moorfields. Last

preached about thirty-five times. This I have show from the first that we were in auxilium proximi, and had no will to make Bayswater a centre to the detriment of other places." August n, " After I went home last 1858 night I was a long time thinking over our conversation. I only hope it did not break your sleep as it did mine. My chief care is that you should let me take the whole trial of all this on myself. All I wish is direction from you to make sure that I am doing what is for the greater good of the Church. This is the only point in which I wish help and light. For the rest I have had long years of real conflict beyond anything I can ever have again and it all comes light to me. But it would gravely pain me if I added to your troubles. I have always felt that I owe to you under God the consolidation of my peace and strength in the Catholic Church by the speedy admission you granted me to the grace of the priesthood. I know what an act of generous and courageous confidence it was, and I trust I shall never give you or anyone cause to think it was misplaced. So in the work of the Oblates
I

month

done

in order to

:

:

500

Appendix
wish the whole trial, if such must be, to fall on me. It does not move me or cause me a moment's undue anxiety All the rest I do not mind. to be sure of my ground.
I

do care for involving you personally or as my Bishop, and with all that is on you, in any affair of mine. I believe myself by God's help to be able to carry this matter through without any disturbances to others or myself with your kind counsel from step to step."
But
I

Later

Manning recorded
said,

his
:

famous

conflict

with the

Chapter (September " then
Searle
of the Provost
I

15, 1858)

'As

this touches the

commodum
'

As I answered, request him to retire.' I am convinced that the term commodum has no application to this matter, I must with all respect to the Chapter I added, 'There are two matters decline to do so.' before us. One which touches me personally, the other on the former I have offered every facility and officially I wish for a full examination of the Oblate Rule on the latter I feel bound in conscience to offer all the obstruction I can.' Dr. Maguire then said, I propose that the Chapter adjourn for an hour to take counsel with the Canons as to the course to be pursued.' They then left the room gradually. ..."
:
; '

How identically Manning acted with his chief appeared
in
i,

a subsequent exchange,
1858)
:

Manning

writing (December

Canon Last has just notified to me the extraordinary session of the Chapter for Friday next. I believe that I understand Eminence to all furinterdict rightly your ther discussion and to confine the Chapter to the simple decision of registering your Eminence's decree; or of spontaneously cancelling all the irregular matter in the Book of Resolutions. I would ask you to oblige me with a single line to confirm or to correct my belief on this point, that I may be guided how to preside at the meeting of Friday."
I

"

Wiseman answered (December 3, 1858): "Though may not see you, I ought to know immediately the
is

resolution taken, as to-morrow

the short post.

Every

Henry Edward Manning
Therefore I suppose no document, unless made fully out to-day, can pass the Chapter seal till then." Manning wrote the same day " I go to this Chapter with a light heart and with a feeling that nothing can give me pain for I have I felt that all the pain has come upon your Eminence. wish I knew how I could lighten it. I can only renew
: :

rigour required by law must be observed. meeting of Chapter till the end of January.

I

will

no

what

I

have

said.

Your judgment and

will shall

will do as in everything. The work is yours. all the labour with our whole strength and heart, and you shall direct. And it will be seen who has at heart
It will give me great consolathe jura episcopi. ... I have no the to submit rule revision in Rome. wish or will of my own about it. And if I have any

me

We

guide

tion to

judgment of my own I submit it gladly and wholly." Manning's dispositions and ground were so good that attacks even by the Coadjutor-Archbishop Errington and the other English Bishops eventually confirmed him not only in security but in triumph. Wiseman sent him into the Roman lists to defend himself and deliver his chief from the Chapter, the Coadjutor, and the Bishop of Southwark. As he wrote (January 22, 1859) " As to the Southwark question, I had consented (after the
:

principles should have been settled at
decision, whatever
it

Rome)

to allow the

be carried out by my might Coadjutor and Bishop Grant. But now every thing has shown me and still more shows me that this would be putting matters into the hands of two combined together not in my favour. I should feel no confidence that one
be, to

represented

Manning
to

or the interests of the diocese.' 1 would not have been human if he had

me

bowed

The blows against him were Errington's attack. intended for his chief, and to defend his chief he moved

This appears in letters indirectly against Errington. home to Wiseman. From Marseilles he wrote (December 31, 1858)
:

"

I

have spent the day with the Bishop,
502

Appendix
who gave me
Cardinal Barnabo's
letter.

Knowing your

respect for the Bishop I went over my affairs with him. He considers that the Congregation has given every possible guarantee, and that it is essentially la famille

de I'Eveque, but that without this principle of permanence it would possess no guarantee against an adverse mind. This led to other matters in which he was already prepared with some personal knowledge. And he repeated again and again, There is but one thing to be done, and it must be done.' From Rome he wrote (January 7, 1859)
' '

:

"The conduct of the Chapter of Westminster is fully appreciated here, and if, as I trust, a thorough and complete remedy is applied to the personal causes which have
it, it is perhaps better that it should be done without any act beyond the decree which your Eminence ordered to be inserted in the Chapter Book. The less personal conflict, the easier to make a change "without People leaving wounds to rankle." January 10, 1859 of all kinds have been busy and to some extent successful against converts. But I do not think it will last long. If the Church in England does its work it will be a

produced

:

Church

of converts,

and

that will settle the question.

I

can see that this has been used against your Eminence. And where would England be now if the line taken by others had prevailed?" January 15, 1859: "Thus far I have reason to believe that the Chapter was right in no
I was far Eminence in person wrong. Synod your will visit the Chapter and correct all irregularities. But this is distant. Meanwhile the real and only cure must be applied. Friday next is St. Agnes' Day, and I shall say Mass for your intention. The walk twenty-one years ago has a strange ending. It seems always to end dentro le mura." January 26, 1859: "With instruments of your own, be they who they may, all must return into its proper channel and into your hands again, and the diocese will come round you. Such a step will be highly approved here, and though it may cost a little personal pain to you, it is the way of peace and of relief

point,

and

I

do not think
after the

I

shall find that

And

503

" I will see Cardinal January 29, 1859 Barnabo immediately about the Southwark question. If it be said that the Vicars Apostolic founded them as seminaries or that the two southern dioceses and the five northern inherit in the person of the Bishop an equal share of the rights of the Vicariafes, the answer is plain that, howsoever this may be as to trust funds, as to
to the diocese."
:

Henry Edward Manning

diocesan government it is impossible. Southwark canHas not inherit a share of government in Westminster. there been any sanatio in radice of the union between Westminster and Southwark? ... As to the personal part of the question, the Bishop of Marseilles was very strong in his wish that you should apply the only remedy. And I have reason to believe that all things are I have not thought this ripening to such a result. of the entrusted part subject directly to me, and have said little; but looking ab extra at the diocese has made me feel that this is the one question for far more than Westminster. ... I have little expectation that any of the Bishops will be strongly with you except Birmingham and Hexham and perhaps Nottingham. Everywhere I have found but one opinion as to the impossibility of applying the rules of the Council of Trent to the Church as it exists in England. Now and then things come to me which show that the talk about old Catholics and converts is still at work. It did me good to hear Cardinal Marini say.: know nothing of these distinctions here, and for my part I will never hear of them.' I am afraid that this evil is working when I did not suspect it. It is a subject odious to me, and makes me wish to ask for my release. It would be a solace rude donari, and to get out of the way of those things which I believe to be grievous to the true mind of the Church and of the Spirit of God, who makes the last first and the first last, and sometimes does it to show
'

We

our

littleness and His own sovereignty. I accept all these things very willingly and without any complaining, for I believe that without mortifications and humilia-

tions nothing can prosper and no one is safe. I have no doubt that the first Gentile Christians had enough of the same at Antioch and even at Rome." May 10 : "If the old tradition were to prevail, the Church would never

504

Appendix
life of the English expand England It would run on like a sect under the penal people. laws, jealous of our successes, and impoverished both

in

or re-enter the

spiritually and intellectually, both in itself and in its relation to the English people and the Government."

But Errington had not
his return to

England

to

slept, and Manning wrote on Talbot (May 24, 1859)
:

" The chief thing I have to say is that Dr. Errington has been actively influencing the Bishops, of whom perhaps four go with him. The Cardinal will have told you of the interview he had with six who came to mediate for Dr. Errington, and of the subsequent acknowledgment of their chief, Dr. Turner, that he saw nothing could be done. At the Synod Dr. Errington will perhaps create difficulty; but I do not think it will have any result beyond the personal discomfort, for Rome has the last hand. The contest of the last year was inevitable; and its result is most beneficial. It has put the Cardinal and his work where it ought to be, above the harping and counteraction of a low party. I use the word low by choice, for so it is. The whole tone, spirit, and way of And whatacting, both sacerdotal and personal, is low. ever other good qualities are to be found in Dr. Errington, Searle, the Chapter, their whole influence is low;

and if it prevail every free man, who desires to live and work as a priest, would leave the diocese. I have seen my share of men in old days and I have known men act violently and bitterly; but I have never seen what the last year has shown me. When they had done their utmost in the dark to involve the Cardinal and me in misunderstanding and had utterly failed they accused him of falsehood. This was chiefly Searle's part.
Finally Dr. Errington tells the Cardinal that his conduct I understand all this in the 'tricky and dishonest.' mouth of worldly or bad men, but in the mouth of priests, not to say of men of education or of honesty, I have hardly known its like. It seems as if they were incapable of conceiving that any man can act for any motives but such as are low, base, selfish, false, and personal. I can
is

in no way account what I have said.

for this
It is

moral insensibility except by low-minded. And if it gains
505

Henry Edward Manning
ground among us we shall not only lose influence and power and vigour and generosity, but shall deserve to
Dr. Errington, I hear, has written to Propahe may be called to Rome to defend himself. Who has accused him ? And whom has he not accused? For a year he has been doing little else by us. And now because foiled he takes the line of an accused and injured man. I am glad it has come to the
lose
it.

ganda

to ask that

Holy See, for there all is right, happen what desire nothing so much as that every act and
mine should be known and
tried at

may. word

I

of

Rome."

Wiseman wrote
"
I

helplessly to

Manning

(July

7,

1859)

:

have

just seen the

Cong. Rit. which assigns a place to the but Coadjutor gives no voice, that therefore he will be there as any other Bishop, to whom the Synod can give a definite voice. He believes that anyone can prevent I told him that of course if I did this it would this. commence a discussion in limine, for it would be almost scandalous for me to have to oppose my own Coadjutor having a vote. Yet it is clear that in matters affecting my diocese and college, my vote would be neutralised by his counteracting vote nay, his and Dr. Grant's together would give a most unnatural majority against me. I look forward now with deeper anxiety than ever to the Synod, for it is clear to me that he has made up his mind to have no personal consideration but to work thoroughly in an adverse sense. must pray, and that is all."
;

the decision at the one of the

Rome

is

Archbishop. He maintains that only negative, being, he thinks,

We

Under the circumstances Manning thought it best to pray the Holy Father as well. He took a typically wider view than his adversaries, and, looking confidently into a future where Rome held the last hand, he wrote to

Wiseman (August
"

7,

1859)

:

A religious said the other day of a person who was very much tired and opposed that he would find himself apparently abandoned by everybody except God only, that then he would thrive. I cannot help thinking that is just what God is doing with your Eminence, and that
506

Appendix
England, lay Catholics, Gallican Chapter are only the preludes to this last trial, which is to get you and your work in the light of the Holy See, and that before it is appreciated it must be questioned, as gold, before it is

acknowledged, must be assayed. And this seems to me the critical and crowning time of your episcopacy and your life. I do not know how I have ventured to write all this except that you have so kindly given me a freedom of speech."

Wiseman

himself struggled to

Rome and
19,

wrote sheafs
:

to his faithful auxiliary

(December

1859)

" Barnabo spoke quite kindly of you and the Oblates and did not hint the smallest dissatisfaction or suspicion. He mentioned that he foresaw and, I think, foretold you opposition and dislike from the Archbishop, who came,

he said, with your rules tutte apostillate when here. He said that in defending his conduct at Synod he showed that the Congregation was the ground of all his quarrel and of his contradiction to me. The Archbishop denied to him that the Chapter had left you and acted acephalously, having only adjourned to study some question. It was clear to me that if the Chapter itself is not acting, the Archbishop is for it, and thus prevents matters being considered as finally settled. This I think unwise. The Pope has said strong things about the assumption of so much by Chapters, which, he says, are only quasi-Chapters having no prebends. The Dutch Chapters to which a similar constitution has been given have also begun to give trouble. ... I was at the Cappella yesterday, and had such kind greetings from my brethren. Such a contrast in warmth and affection to what I am accustomed to
at

home." December 31, 1859: "The Pope received the Archbishop (as he himself told Barnabo) with great sincerity ; reproached him strongly with his conduct at the Synod. He said he wished to send in his justification in writing, and the Pope told him to make haste. Barnabo reasoned with him, but he says that he wants to go into the whole case of the Oblates, which B. says is the whole source of his opposition, saying that I see and that you entirely everything through your eyes ' govern the diocese. B. said, And even if it were so,
507

Henry Edward Manning
how does that justify your leading the Chapter to interfere in matters that are quite out of its competency ?' Next day the Archbishop told Ullathorne that he was determined to fight. The Pope told Talbot to tell me to be at ease, as he has determined to take the matter satisinto his own hands, and it should be settled to a and of some faction closes anxiety, year pain To-day and the carriage is waiting to take me to the Te

my

.

Deum

at the

Gesu."
:

The same day Manning wrote from London
"

It would be sacrilege to begin with anything but buon capo d'anno, in all its moods and tenses and

In my last letter I did not refer to the Archbishop's statement as to the Chapter's act in leaving me. For two whole days they had endeavoured to remove me from the Hall of the Chapter on the plea of the commodum. Had they succeeded they would have proceeded acephalously.' When they failed they withdrew. It is true that they adjourned, but that was their it is only way to act without me. In the last analysis " No deci1860 6, simply Presbyterianism." January sion can come amiss to me, for either way I shall be more than satisfied. I am glad that Cardinal Barnabo sees so clearly that neither anything on my part nor the Congregation can justify a Coadjutor in opposing the Bishop of the diocese and raising his Chapter against
voices.
' :

him and misdirecting them as to their powers and duties. But I have no desire to Surely this stands by itself. speak more of it. As to what the Archbishop has said
I leave it all I have still less desire to speak. your Eminence's hands." January 13: "However, I suppose all will be disposed by a supernatural guidance. If your Eminence approves I should like that Cardinal Barnabo shall see the letter I sent to you at Dover or the substance of it. The Archbishop in taking up the

of myself,
in

whom

defensive would place me as the aggressor. The fact is " I the reverse." January 30, 1860 hope, too, that you have ceased to be anxious about the main question, for the Holy See has now heard and seen for itself with
:

you have had

to do,

and

all

seems to

me

to be

ordered providentially."

508

Appendix
The force of Errington's hostility to Manning brought Manning out of pastoral obscurity into the Roman limelight, as appears in letters from the weary Wiseman
(St.

Agnes, 1860)

:

has not as yet given up his paper Pope. All is therefore at a standstill. Cardinal Barnabo does not like to urge him on because it is a matter with the Pope and not with the Congregation. Nobody knows what line he is taking, except that he is having Talbot's letters translated. I suppose, too, he is going into the Oblate question. In that case it will be necessary that you should come to help me in my part of it, to sustain yourself and the Congregation against direct attacks on its rules, spirit, end, and work. ... I am in the dark, and I have not got pugilistic strength. The idea of fighting dismays me. The Archbishop, Dr. Goss, and his three delegators, Dr. Grant, the Chapter, the French Petites Sceurs, in addition to the Synod, are more than I can get through, and I begin to feel as if it was not God's will that I should recover." January 27, 1860: "Moreover, I think unhappily, the Archbishop seems to have made the cause of the Chapter his, vindicating the conduct of it and himself as a common action. He has thus ripped up the old sore and compelled me to sue for judgment on it. His and the Chapter's conduct is vindicated on the ground that I govern the diocese and see everything through your eyes. Talbot has just called and told me he had seen Barnabo, who had a plan of action. It is a serious act to depose a Bishop without proofs, and the Archbishop asserts he never will It is better to say plainly that the Archbishop is resign. bringing the whole matter of the Oblates before the Holy See in an unfriendly spirit, and that I have thought it best for you to be on the spot to answer my questions and give every explanation. If you wish to wait till I can state the course pursued more definitely I leave it to your own judgment; but decision is often the greatest providence."
to the
It was certainly so in this case, for the Pope with a sublime gesture relieved Archbishop Errington of coadju"a coup d'dtat of the Lord God," in the papal torship 509

"The Archbishop

Henry Edward Manning
After all, cognoscit suos Sedes Apostolica," wrote Manning, and, as he reported from Rome the next year (December 2, 1861), "The Holy Father spoke of Dr. Errington exactly in the terms of last year he said, Non e cattivo ma di quel posto incapace, and that he had
parlance.
:

"

gone wrong in principles and had condemned himself. He asked what effect had followed his removal. I said that the subject had fallen dead and that the feeling of the diocese was one of thankfulness.*' It was Manning's tremendous share in this event that
did not permit a Life of Wiseman to be written in Manning's reign but he never feared that the papers would not one day justify his course. Cardinal Wiseman's
;

papers, published and unpublished, afford an impregnable proof of the acts and dispositions of Manning dur-

ing the Errington case, which has in their default been used too long to darken his memory. Wiseman wrote " If to Vaughan (January 21, 1862) anyone has insinuated that I have not placed or do not place implicit
:

Mgr. Manning (which I correspondence with him shows) he has grossly misrepresented or stupidly misapprehended me. I am sure that when the history of the Oblates from the
hope

and the

largest confidence in

my

Libellns supplex to my presiding at the Bayswater Conference last Wednesday is published, the finger of God,

not His whole hand, will be seen in it. The letter to Father Faber, when we are both gone off the scene, will show the first germ of the Congregation, the libellus being the seed which rotted in the ground, as was necessary for sound vegetation. The grain of mustard-seed has now shot up into a tree, and we must not be surprised if it tastes hot and pungent to some throats in swallowing
if

its fruit.

New work

is

springing up every day, operarii

autem

(boni) pauci."

The Errington case was settled in 1860. Manning continued to battle the Bishops in defence of Wiseman, who wrote (January 25, 1862)
:

Appendix
think you should enter a protest from me against the Bishops holding meetings apart, as if they formed a body corporate without the Metropolitan to discuss or concert affairs of the Province apart. Such meetings as those held at Belmont opening (where Dr. B. expressly said that if I had come, other Bishops would not have done so) or at Dr. Briggs's funeral, when resolutions adverse to me were formally put and passed, have been most pernicious, injurious to peace, and scandalous." "I fancy the Episcopate is roused March i, 1862 to exhibition of its true colours. They have hauled down the Tiara and Keys and displayed their Confederate flag, the Gallic cock that crowed against
:

"I

'

'

St. Peter.

However,

I

have given up troubling myself

much on the matter, but calmly await the decision of the Holy See. I am puzzled with Dr. Ullathorne's conduct. The Holy Father said his resignation was caused by my
written scrittura. But surely he must have seen the justice of my being permitted to do what he had asked and obtained leave to do? Then returning to quiet the

How have they shown themselves to be Bishops. Wherefore are they unquiet? If anyunquiet? thing can have unquieted them it surely must have been his letters to them, his secret and personal For I have been silent attacks, his resignation, etc. as a mouse and quiet as a dove. Patterson has startled me with the news that Dr. Brown (Salop, I If so I can understand) has sent in his resignation. hardly believe it. The Holy Father must adjure him in nomine Petri. Is or can the object be to compel me
.

.

.

Certainly St. John Chrysostom applied to himself the words of Jonas, and I am ready to use them too, if the Steersman of Peter's bark orders or suggests it."

to retire?

Manning wrote from Rome
1862)
:

the next

month

(April 26,

Morris tells me how kindly you have vexed yourself about the seven Bishops for my sake. Do not think again about it I have had and perhaps shall have worse things than this. I can think that they would like to send your Eminence and me to eat lotus. I have been
:

"

Immaculate Heart College
Hollywood. California

Henry Edward Manning
trying to remember anything which could justify Dr. Ullathorne's onslaught. I can only remember that in the Congressi (which made me joke about the 'penetrate

Episcopatus), after I had borne for days a perpetual as much as to say, What as Bishops repetition of can you know of our affairs? Dr. Ullathorne at last said, Bishops look at this from the light of our episcopal administration, you from the side of the Holy I turned it off by laughing and saying, ProtoSee.' notaries are creati ad hoc. The Holy See set us as Dr. Clifford crassum risit, as is his Bishop-takers.' wont, and I thought all was sure to be bald play. At another time he said, Rome is always more and more limiting the original privileges of the Bishops, and we are anxious to be limited as little as possible, which is purus fructus Gallicanismi.' I said, I leave to Dr. Clifford to say whether the privileges of Bishops are limitations or concessions of the Holy See.' Can this be more than the pretext? Surely if there were not the will for other reasons this would not suffice. However, as I said before, if they did not think that I had stood between their blows and you they would not have levelled at me. And this contents me seven times."
'

We

'

'

We

'

'

'

512

INDEX
ACTON, LORD,
188, chap. xiv.

Bodley, J. E. C., Preface, 266, 449,

Adler, Rabbi, 485 African missions, 266

Alexander, Archbishop, 481 Allies, Mr., 159 America, Catholic Church 308, 3$oetseq., 467

in,

238,

Anderdon, Father, 39, 93, 122, 298 et seq., 313 Anderdon, John, 14 et seq., 93
Antonelli, Cardinal, 154, 218, 225, 234 Arbitration, M. on, 376
158,

463 Books, M. on, 332 Booth, General, 168, 413, 484 Boulton, Sir S., 7, 376 Bradlaugh, 314, 318 Bradley, Dean, 478 Bridgman, Mother, 1 1 3 <tf seq. Bright, John, 190, 330, 461
British

Government

at

Rome,

152,

199,

224, 234 et seq., 264, 387, 463

Arch, Mr., 350 Arnold, M., 451 Ashbourne, Lord, 317
Association for Union of Christendom,
I

76

Austin, Alfred, 221

Bagot, Bishop, 38 Bagot, Mrs. Charles, 125 Bagshawe, Bishop, 336, 447 Ballerini, Father, 305 et seq. Balliol College, M. goes to, 19, 24 Baptism of M., 3

Brougham, Lord, 139 Brown, Bishop, 216, 232, 511 Brownbill, Father, 98 Buccleuch, Duchess of, 122, 283 Bulgarian atrocities, 250 Bunsen, 72 Burke, Father Tom, 186 Burnand, Sir F., 122 Burns, John, 371 Butler, Dr. G., 10 et seq.
Butt, Isaac, 204 Buxton, Lord, 370 et seq. Byron, Lord, 10, 27 Byronism and M., 10, 27

Barnabo, Cardinal, 136, 142

et seq.,

273, App. Bayswater, M. in, 121 et seq. Bazaars, M. on, 457 Beadon, Bishop, 3 Belfast, Miss Nightingale on, 1 1 1 Belmont, M. converted at, 37 Bennett, Mr., 90, 104 Benson, Archbishop, 373, 480 Bevan, Miss, 9, 37, 39 et seq., 54
Bible,

Capel, Mgr., 186 et Capital and Labour,
et seq.

seq.,

M.

226, 329 on, 367, 375

Cardinalate received by

McCabe, 383

by Manning, 359 by Persico, 429
Cardwell, Mr., 189, 191 Carnarvon, Lord, 392, 399^ seq., 404 Catholics, Old, 121, 127, 137 Catholic University of Ireland, 208
et seq.,

Manning

family, 7, 477

444

Bilio, Cardinal, 226,

252

Bismarck, 239

et seq.

Blunt, Wilfrid, 416, 420, 428, 430

Kensington, 186 Chad wick, Bishop, 181, 229 Chalmers, Dr., 54
in

2

L

Henry Edward Manning
Chamberlain, Mr., 389 et seq., 408 et seq. 448 Chapter of Westminster oppose M., 130 elect Errington, 149 et seq. Character of M. by Miss Bevan, 39 et seq. ; by Sterling, 59 ; by Gladstone, xiii ; by Vaughan, 126 ; by
, ,

Disestablishment, Irish, 197 et seq.
Disraeli, M.'s breach with, Disraeli, 197, 198,

210 208 et seq., 257 seq., 328, 442, 444 Divorce case of Dilke, 449

et

Ollivier, 219 ; by Author, Chelmsford, Lord, 139

xxii,

497

of Parnell, 436 et seq. Dodsworth, Mr., 62,81, 86, 93 Dollinger, Dr., 81, 220 Drink question, 270, 453, 475 Dufferin, Lord, 262

Chichester,
of,

M. becomes Archdeacon

Dupanloup, Bishop, 2 1 5

et seq.

68
Eastlake, Lady, 138 Education question, 1 74, 450 et seq. Edward, St., the Confessor, 169,

Childers, Mr., 224, 235 Churchill, Lord K., 319, 374, 416 Clarendon, Lord, 191, 217, 220 Clifford, Bishop, 139, chap, xi., 218, 221, 231, 289, chap, xvii., 496
Coffin, Bishop, 9, 228 Coleridge, Lord, 338

478

Edward VII.,

71, 253 et seq.

Edward, Prince, 255 Endymion, Disraeli's, 328
English hierarchy, restoration of, 93 Errington, Archbishop, Preface, 129, chap, xi., 169 et seq., 179, 1 80, 218, App. Errington, Sir G., 386, 390, 466 Errington, Michael, 153 Errington case, xvii, 131, App. Estcourt, Canon, 19 Eternal Priesthood, The, 339 Evangelicalism, M. on, 478
Faber, Father, 10, 12, 271, 273 Falck Laws, 243
Farrar, Dean, 482

Colonial bishoprics, 73, 493 Office, 35 Commission on Housing, 253, 448 on Education, 451

Commune
of

in Paris,

240

Conclave, Papal, of 1878, 250, 252 Conversion of M., 98

Newman, 66
Bishop Mossman, 179 R. Wilberforce, 100 Miss Stanley, 114 Mr. Lane-Fox, 125

of of of of

Hall, 2, 5 et seq. Cornthwaite, Bishop, 56, 151, 218 Corrigan, Archbishop, 35 1 et seq.

Copped

Crimean War,

in

et seq.

Fenianism, 194 et seq., 330 Fenton, Bishop, on Talbot letters,
330, 474 Ffoulkes, Mr., 278 Fisher, Father, 153 Fisher, Canon W., 19 et seq., 330 Fors Clavigera, M. on, 326
Forster, Mr., 174, 384

xii,

Croke, Archbishop,

193,

385,

391,

403, 418 Cross, Lord, 418 Cullen, Cardinal, 96, 112 etseq., 153, 183, chap, xiii., 219, 226, 228, 235

Dale, Dr., 451 Dalgairns, Father, 312, 322, 323 Darboy, Archbishop, 222, 240 Darkest England, M. on, 485 Darwin, 316, 333 Darwinism, M. on, 316, 333 Davitt, Michael, 403, 415, 496 Defence, H.M.S., protects the Pope,

Fox, G. Lane-, 125, 430
Franchi, Cardinal, 215, 219, 280 et
seq.,

466

Francis Joseph, Emperor, 83

Freeman, Professor, 322 Froude, 321, 333
Froude, Mrs., 128
Gallwey, Father, 294, 301 et seq., 340 Garibaldi's visit to England, 1 89 Gasquet, Dr., 339, 495 Gasquet, Mrs., 3, 477

235 Deschamps, Cardinal, 238 Diaries of M., xviii, 55 et seq., 75, 77
et seq.

Dilke, Sir Charles, 262, 268, 389 et
seq.
,

448

et seq.

Genealogy of M. , i et seq. George, Henry, 352 et seq.

Index
Gibbons, Cardinal, xix, 219, 228, 358
et seq.

Giffen, Mr.,

368

Gladiator, Dying,

M.

on, 55
of,

Gladstone, Morley's Life , M.'s breach with, 98

90

Gladstone, Mr., Preface, 25, 27 et seq., chap, vi., 86, 89 et seq., 98, ! 47> X 73 189 et seq., 199 et seq., 216, 224, chap, xv., 493 Glamis Castle, M. sketches, 87
73, 88 et seq. Gormanston, Lord, 202

Jacobini, Cardinal, 264, 363 Jenkins, Canon, 479 Jenkyns, Dr., 25, 122 Jenner, Dr., 7 Jerningham, Sir H., 224, 243 Jerusalem bishoprick, 72 Jesuits, M. on, 60, 290, 295 et seq. Jesuits, General of, 302, 309, 315 Jewish Question, M. on, 485 Johnson, Bishop, 474, 495 Jowett, Dr., 184, 472

Gorham,

Goss, Bishop, 126, 182, 509 Grant, Bishop, 56, 125, 128, 133, \ V)et seq., 153, 228, 509 Granville, Lord, 235, 264, 266, 389,

Keane, Archbishop, 360 et seq. Kenrick, Archbishop, 223, 227 King, Mrs. H., 317, 378 Knights of Labour, 358
Laprimaudaye, Father, 46, 121 Lavigerie, Cardinal, 222, 266
Leahy, Archbishop, 208 Bishop, 218 Ledochowski, Cardinal, 243, 252, 313 Lee, Dr. F. G., 177 et seq., 446 Leo XIII., 310, 312, 379, 496 M. proposes, 252 M.'s letters to, 402 et seq. compared with M., 366, 380 Lisle, Phillips de, 1 76 et seq. London dock strike, 369 et seq.
,

466
Grey, Lord, 199, 205 Guardians, M. attacks London, 173
Guidi, Cardinal, 228 Guizot, 216

Gunpowder Day, M.'s sermon
Halifax, Lord, 253 Hall, Sir John, 118

on, 65

Hamilton, Bishop W., 25, 90, 344 Handwriting of M., 338 Hare, Archdeacon, 50, 69 et seq., 98 Harrison, Frederic, 243, 317, 324 Harrow, under Dr. Butler, 12 ; speech day at, 249 Haynald, Cardinal, 214, 229 Hedley, Bishop, 379, 496 Herbert, Lady, 84, 157
Herbert, Sidney, 8, 82, 86, 89, 100, 112

Lothair, Disraeli's,

187,

213,

236,

328 Lubbock, Sir J., 316 Lythgoe, Father, 297
Macaulay, Lord, 56, 216, 332

McCabe, Cardinal, 338, 383, 386,
453 Macdonald, Sir J., 359 MacEvilly, Archbishop, 389 McGlynn, Dr., 352 et seq. MacHale, Archbishop, 193, 218, 273 Magazines Dublin Review, 56, 274 et seq., 280 Month, 340 New Review, 374 Nineteenth Century, 319 Rambler, 272 Magee, Archbishop, 320, 462 Maguire, Canon, 130, 157, 293, 501 Maltby, Bishop, 39, 68 Mann, Tom, 368 Manning, Caroline, 43, 47 et seq., 51 Manning, Charles, 6 Manning, Harriet, 19
:

Hoey, Cashel, 210

Home

Rule,

M.

on, 204, 407, 417

Hope, James, 25, 98 et seq., 139, 344 Horsman, Mr., 212, 442 House, Archbishop's, 473 Mansion, 240, 268, 370 Howard, Cardinal, 282, 309, 311 Humphrey, Father, 295
,

Huxley, Professor, 175, 324 et seq. Hyndman, Mr., 367

320,

322,

Infallibility,

Irish

Papal, defined, 230 Ireland, Archbishop, 343, 366 Land Question, M. on, 205, 384 Irish State Bishops, 201 Isaacs, Sir H., 253, 485

515

Henry Edward Manning
Manning, William, i et seq., 14 Marriage of M., 43, 47 ft seq. Mary Clare, Mother, 113 et seq.
Matriculation of

Nunciature,
et seq.

English,

M.

on, 464

M.

,

19

Matthews, Henry, 445
Maurice, Miss, 43, 72, 97, 107 Mayo, Lord, 208, 210 Melchers, Cardinal, 342 Meredith, George, 461 Merivale, Dean, 14

Oakeley, Canon, 149, 293 Oblates of St. Charles, 121, 129
seq.,

et

498

et seq.

Merton College, M. becomes Fellow
38 Metaphysical Society, 320 et Meynell, Wilfrid, 336, 353 Mivart, Professor, 187 Moberly, Bishop, 25, 26
of,
.

O'Brien, William, 435, 436 O'Callaghan, Bishop, 181, 234 O'Donnell, F. H., 241, 318 Ollivier, Emile, 214, 219 O'Neal, Vicar-General, 150,

157,

seq.

160 Ordination of
,

M.

,

Anglican, 39

Catholic, 101

Monaco, Cardinal, 458 Monsell, Mr., 125, 208 Moran, Cardinal, 387 et seq. More, Sir Thomas, canonization of, 92, 462 Moriarty, Bishop, 208, 218, 276 Morley, Lord, 90, 433, 452 Morris, Father, 149, 278, 297, 462 Mossman, Bishop, 178
Murray, Dr., 171

O'Reilly, Boyle, 195 O'Shea, Mr., 389, 390, 394, 436 Oxenden, Bishop, 9, u, 24 Oxford, Catholics at, 183, 475 Union, 26 et seq., 461

Paget, Sir Augustus, 245, 256, 463 Parnell, Mr., 318, 395, chap. xxi. Pastoral Office, The, 342

Patmore, Coventry, 333, 334 et seq. Pelham, Bishop, 8 Penance, Anglican revival of, 6 1
Persico, Cardinal, chap. xxi. Phillpotts, Bishop, 72, 88

Naples prisons, M. on, 147 Nardi, Mgr., 257 Neve, Dr., 145, 149, 154, 182 Nevill, Lady D., 447
Newcastle,

Plan of campaign condemned, 426,

429
Pigott,

434

Duke

of,

99, IOO, 142

Newman and Manning

compared,

280, 286, 287 Newman, Cardinal, 64 et seq., 8l, 151, 169, 184 et seq., 216, 247, chap, xvi., 319, 332

Pius IX., 82 et seq., 93, 133, 154, 191, chap, xiv., 251, 465 Politics, M.'s interests in, 28, 442, 472
Pollen, John, 38
Positivism,

Pope-Hennessy, Sir J., 256 M. on, 317

Newry, Lady, 104 Newspapers :
Pall Mall Gazette 221, 337 Punch, 101, 122, 156, 374 Saturday Review, 338 Standard, 221, 336, 416 Tablet, 102, 335 et seq., 414, 454 Times, 156, 231, 334, 368, 420, 434 United Ireland, 390 Weekly Register, 336 Nicholson, Archbishop, 103 Nicknames of M. 14, 123, 457
',

Portuguese patronage in India removed, 265 Precedence of M. , 253, 461 Primrose League and Inquisition, 446 Progress and Poverty, M. on, 353 Propaganda, Congr. of, 260, 361
Protestantism, M. on, 58, 91, 479 Provost, M. made, 130 Purcell's Life of M., ix et seq.

Puseyism, 79 Pusey, Dr., 61, 76, 101, 123, 273,

276
Quakers, M. on, 479
Reisach, Cardinal, 136, 158 Religious Orders in England, 289, 310, 473

,

Nightingale, Miss, 82, chap. ix. Nina, Cardinal, 282, 309, 311 Norfolk, Duke of, 280, 282, 419, 475
et seq.

M.

on,

Northcote, Stafford, 211, 318

516

Index
Rerutn Novarum, The, 378 et
Retreat of M. 161 et seq.
Revolution,
seq.
scq.

before

consecration,

Strossmayer, Archbishop, 223, 227 Sussex in old time, 43 Sussex memories of M., 45
Tait, Archbishop, 26, 461,

Roman, of

1848, 82 et

480
129
et

Ripon, Lord, 282, 414, 426, 452 Ritualism, 61, 70, 173 Roberts, Lord, 461 Robinson, Mgr. Croke, 187 Romanes Pontifices, The, 315 Ronan, Father, 114 Rosebery, Lord, 345 Roskell, Bishop, 135 Ruskin, 321, 326 et seq.
Russell, Sir Charles, 434 Russell, Odo, 153, chap. xiv.

Talbot

letters,

account

of, xvi

Talbot, Mgr., Preface, 103, seq., chap, xi., 172, App. Taschereau, Cardinal, 359

Temple, Archbishop, 370 et seq. , 462 Temporal power, xxiii, 188, 191, 234 et seq. 256, 262 Tennyson, Lord, 323 Thackeray, 101 Thomas a Becket, Church of, in
,

Rome, 172
,

Ryan, Canon A. 430 Ryan, Elizabeth, I Ryder, Father Dudley, 215, 286
,

Seminary

of,

in

Hammer-

smith, 182
day, 56, 494 Thomson, Archbishop, 481

Salvation

Salisbury, Lord, 265 et seq., 450 Army, 168, 479, 484

Ben, 369, 374, 380 Trades Unions, M. supports,
Tillett,

xxiii,

350

Sargent, Mr., 43 Sargent, Mrs., 49, 69 Scilla, Ruffo, Mgr., 470 Scotland, M. visits, 86

Scotch hierarchy, restoration of, 1 80 Searle, Mgr., 128, 139, 142, 157, 33 505
Secular
v. Pastoral,

Ullathorne, Archbishop, Preface, 143 et seq., 151, 169, 171, chap, xii., 195, 221, 273 et seq., chap, xvii., 342, 491 et seq. Unity of the Church, 71 Universalism, M. on, 481

458
Vatican Council, M.'s speech at, 227 M.'s appearance at, 219 Vaticanism, Gladstone attacks, 246

Selwyn, Bishop, 73, 97
Senestrey, Bishop, 219, 226 Sermon, funeral, of Wiseman, 148 of Newman, 285 of Manning, 496

Vaughan, Cardinal, 121, 126, 155,
181, 221, 228, 260, chap, xvii,, 335, 382, 413, 458 Ventura, Father, 56, 84 Vere, Aubrey de, 44, 104, 202, 333 Veuillot, Louis, 215, 466 Victoria, Queen, 74, 96, 218, 446,

Shaftesbury, Lord, n, 241, 318, 332 Shuttleworth, Bishop, 68 Sibthorp, R. W., 103, 146, 170, 331

Sidmouth, Lord,
Simeoni,

3,

346
261,
309,
363,

Cardinal,

495 Simmons, Sir L., 468 Simor, Cardinal, 217 Social evil, the, 61, 460 Socialism, M. on the, 378
Spalding, Archbishop, 217, 238 Spencer, Lord, 212, 386 Stafford Northcote, 211 Stage, M. on the, 456 Stanley, Miss, 104, 107, 112 et seq.
Stead, Mr., 337, 459 et seq. Stephen, Fitzjames, 243, 324
Sterling, 59

496
Vincent, Sir H., 407
Virtue, Mgr., 154 Vivisection, M. on, 475, 483

Voysey, Mr., 481

Walsh, Archbishop, 356, 379, 387 seq., chap, xxi., 497

et

Ward, Mr.,
338

15, 215, 275, 278, 280,

Ward,

Wilfrid, 221, 273

Watts, 328

Stonor, Archbishop, 146, 234, 262
Streletski,

Weld, Cardinal, 56 Welldon, Bishop, 14
Wellington,

Count, 125

Duke

of,

5

517

Henry Edward Manning
Westminster, M. becomes Archbishop of, 156 Wilberforce, Basil, 453, 477 Wilberforce, Robert, 86 etseq., io$et
seq.,

Wilberforce, William, William IV., 183

5, 19,

34

Wiseman, Cardinal,

121

Preface, 56, 98, 103, 127 et seq., 272, 332, App. Wordsworth, Bishop Charles, 9, 13,
25. 344 Wordsworth,

Wilberforce, Samuel, 26, 43, 49, 74, 100, 156, 161, 200, 249, 250,

Bishop

Christopher,

333

12

518

ADDENDA
THE
author
is

indebted to Mr. Egerton Beck for some

notes too precious to be lost. Cardinal Manning informed him that the next Anglican Bishopric to fall vacant had

been assigned to him. A Minister of the Crown told him that, had he not become a Catholic, he would have become Bishop of Salisbury, which fell vacant in 1854. Then " What an escape Manning uttered his historic paradox Mr. Beck was one of the six present for my poor soul!" in 1881 at the only meal Cardinal Manning gave Cardinal " You had better ask Newman, after he told Dr. Johnson the Cardinal to dinner, or people will say we are not on speaking terms." Cardinal Manning informed Mr. Beck that after the publication of Lothair his relations remained broken with Disraeli for six months. They happened to As Disraeli approached, meet at an evening party. " I think we have a him checked with little Manning Disraeli lord." asked him to account to settle first, my have a little talk, and confessed that the book was written
: : :

in a

moment

of temper.

Cardinal Bourne has written to the author

"
:

I

con-

gratulate you very sincerely on your work, and I have every reason to believe and hope that the younger generation at any rate will base their estimate of Manning on what you have written, and consign Purcell to the oblivion which he deserves."

519

Henry Edward Manning
Cardinal Gasquet writes
"
:

I

have just finished reading
heartily con-

your Henry Edward Manning and most

I have gratulate you on an excellent piece of work. am and the book enjoyed reading quite sorry immensely, that I have finished it. You have vindicated the Cardinal from the aspersions that have been made upon his
I character in consequence of Purcell's spiteful book. always said that, in spite of all Purcell said or implied,

the figure of the Cardinal

came out

greater than most

people had previously thought.

Now we

know."

Printed in England

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IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW.

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