The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-11-09
CARDINAL NEWMAN.
Points I'm the Life OF n Great Man Who Il
Nearing the End.

Points In the Life of Great aIan Who Il
Nearing the End.
New York Tribune
10 has been the fortune OF Cardinal Newman,
of whose approaching end the cable dispatches
give warning 10 survive all his allies aud an
tagonists Ia the memorable Oxford movement
Mr.. Gladstone has borne testimony 10 the DOW
erful impress which the sermobs at ST. Msry's
left upon his religious nature; but there are few
other Eoglisnmen of light aud standing who can
now recall the preaching from that famous pull
pit. OF the band OF devoted followers whom
the Tractarian le.der gathered about him sixty
years ago, Cardinal Manning is almost the only
survivor. 1t was then that DIR. Newman be-
gan to preach at Sc. Mary s. his keen res-
soning faculties quickened by contact With
DIR. Whatsly, and the fervor Of his religious con-
victions deepened by Kebles hymns redolept
of Roman devotional sentiment. Within Eve
years the publication Of tie Tracts was begun
and the Library OF the Fathers projected; and
with the Church Of England ended. Seventeen
years OF controversy at white heat, by which the
Anglican communion was shaken from the cen
ter. and then forty-three uneventful years or
retirement, contemplation and educational
work. The Cardinal at eiehty-seven has seemed
q solitary figure standing apart from genera
ton of religious workers and contro versalists
who knew OF his fame az tradition from the
England Of 1885, but yet bad nothing in common
With him. HIS own associates, Froude, Robert
Wilberforee. Keble, Pussy, Faber. LockhArt
and the rest, had all passed from him. His oppo
nents, Hampden, Arnold. TAFT, Faussett Hook.
Kingsley, Samuel Wilbeforce and many more,
bad long ago vanished from the scene. There
was new stage crowded with a throng OF iost-
ling figures. and everything in the religious
world Was changed.
The Oxford movement. of which DIR. Newman
was the central figure, was, in Its intellectual
aspects, a religious renaissance in England. It
came at time when the fox-huntng parson
was the conventional type OF clereymen. and
when preaching was without spiritual force.
Before IL had spent its force there had been q
general awakening on the part OF the clergy TO
the responsib ihties of their high calling. 1t inn
parted great impulse to the intellectual aud
spiritual activities 0f the English Church.
Disastrous as the secession of DR.. New
man and his followers seemed in lS45, the
movement as a whole of the greatest
practical benefit to the communion. Ii was
an invieorating touch OF life-glviug power. IL
DR.. Pussy had not held his ground and pre-
vented a general stampede to Rome. tract
arisnism might have upset the established
church. As &c was, there opened O new era
of usefulness with a vast increase Of working
power among the poor, snd 8 broader and more
elastic spirit OF tolerance in non-esseutial mat
tiers of ritual and practice.
While there is reason to believe that Dr.
Newman wac ever discontinued with his work
10 the Roman Church. IL is nevertheless true
that the results were less important than friend
or foe could have anticipated when he retired
from Oxford. Always cordially received at
Rome, ana finally invested by Leo XIII with
the highest dignities of the church. he has spent
over forty years Of active labor. mainly OF an
educational character. But great as his infiu-
ence has been among English Catholics, and
masterful as he proved himself in the contro-
versies which Kingsley and Gladstone provoked,
his power over men has never been what it was
at ST. Msrys, contributing toward
the practical revival of ancient doc
trines and truths that had been neg
lected in the English Church. Once be under
took the guidance of the Irish Catholic Univer-
sity, but speedily returned TO the Oratory of
Birmingham. The establishment Of Q Catholic
University at Oxford was one of she dreams OF
his manhood, despaired of in old age. That bis
preaching did not lose its characteristic power
Thackeray, who heard him at Oxford and after
ward In London and Birmingham. testified; aud
certainly his great intellectual feat, the Apolo-
pia Pro Vita Sua,n was accomplished after his
Withdrawal from the English Church. But when
all reservations have been made, there remains
q sense of disproportion between the extraordi-
nary influence welded by him when at the zenith
Of his fame 10 Oxford. and the uneventful re-
tirement in which his forty-three remaining
| years have been passed.