The sun., 1896-03-15

the Anglican Tor the CathOllc communion and
two were to becotne Cardinals of the Holy
| Roman Church.
In ls3O-3l Manning met with two grievous
| misfortunes. or such they seemed to him. His
| hope Of entering the House of Commons was
dashed by his fathers bankruptcy. due to the
| collapse OF Western Indian values. and. finding
| himself forced to seek Immediately the means
OF self-support, he accepted a supernumerary
clerkship in the Colonial Office AS to the Sec
ond disappointment, the author thinks that
Bishop Wordsworth is mistaken in saving that
Manning was Tilted by Miss Detfel. The truth
seems to be that an angry father interviewed and
parted the happy pair in the heyday of their
lovemaking. on the perfectly reasonable ground
that Mr.. Mannings prospects In life were rot
such as to warrant proposals OF marriage. Thus
did Manning's first love affair come to an un-
timely end: for. in our authors opinion. love.
or at least mans love, does not long thrive
upon mere letters. The woman, on the other
hand. was faithful unto the end to her first love:
for Miss Detfel lived and died. for Manning's
sake. in single blessedness.
Having made up his mind to enter the Church
as profession, Manning went up to Oxford in
the spring OF 1882. and. after an active canvass
carried on by his friends. he was elected Fellow
OF Merton. The emoluments attached to the
Fellowship, about one thousand dollars per an
mum, relieved Manning from the pressure of
the res dn0,lstde don't. and enabled him TO study
theology for some nine months before taking
orders. In January. 1888. he became a curate
TO the Rev. John Sargent. rector Of Lavington.
The eldest of the four Miss Sargents. each of
whom was an heiress in expectancy. had been
married some three years before to
Samuel Wilberforce. who was later to
hn pfehn nP nvfnr orN
the sisters was engaged to Henry Wilber-
force. Manning's lifelong friend. All
four Of the girls were very handsome. and we
are told that Henry Wnberforcc. to the last,
was never tired of marSelling, while making
faces at himself In the glass; :" how the most
beautiful woman in the world could have loved
and married such an ugly fellow as am"
Within a very few months after becoming her
fathers curate. Manning became engaged to
the youngest daughter. Caroline Sargent and,
on her fathers death. which occurred a few
weeks later, succeeded to the bcnefice OF Law
ington. The marriage was performed in Nnvem-
ber OF the same year by Samuel Wiberforce,
who thus became Mannings brother-in-law
Within four years. Mrs. Manning died of con-
sum mption, disease fatal to several. mem bers OF
her family. We arc told that about his mar
riage Cardinal Manning always observed a
singular reticence. In his Anglican days the
death Of his wife was the source of a grief
so profound to forbid even the mem.
tion OF her name. AS priest and Cardinal of
the Holy Roman Church he never alluded to
his marriage. either because the fact of his
having once been a married man was personally
painful, or because he feared that the common
knowledge of his early marriage might produce
among his Catholic flock, especially among
priests. monks. and nuns, an unpleasant impress
sion derogatory to his high ecclesiastical digni-
ties and to his usefulness. So effectualy, as we
have said was the story OF his marriage sup
pressed that on his death Catholics with one or
two exceptions, as as the general public
knew nothing about his married life. The boR.
rapher says that, in all the late Cardinals innu-
merable letters. in his journals diaries, note
books. and memoranda, including his most init
sion Is made to his marriage except in one brief
sentence written obviously for after publication,
about the year 1850.
During the seven years which followed his
presentation to the rectory of I.avngton, Man.
ming took an active part In the discussion of the
questions which were agitating the Church of
England. beginning as an advocate OF the evan
gelical cause, he presently became. to some ex-
tent, involved In the Tractarian movement, and,
In 1888 published a sermon called Tho Rule of
Faith" in which the rector OF Lavington. hav-
ing summoned the evangelical party and the
Catholic Church before he bar Of his own judg-
ment. passed sentence alike upon the evangeli-
cal party. which he had Just Iert and on the
Catholic Church. to whose tribunal In after years
he submitted his mind and will BY the earnest-
ness and deep religious zeal which he dis
played Manning gained the confidence and
esteem OF the Tractarian leaders, and was even
invited by Newman to write for tho Britis.
critic. Unlike, however, the writer's for the
Tracts fOr the Times and for the British Critic,
Manning still retained a great reverence for the
English reformers OF the sixteenth century.
AT the very moment when Newman and
Pusey. aud keble were refusing to countenance
the memorial which was being got up by tho
Low Church party at Oxford in honor of
Latimer, Cranmer, and Ridley, Manning, In
the Rule Of Faith" pronounced bless
ing upon Crnnmer, and put him. with
Ridley and Latimer. on a line. US VIII
nesses to the true faith. with the fathers
of the primitive church. Manning also
quoted and made his own. long passages from
ChilliDgwOrth in which the latter described
"the Pope as tho real enemy of Christ. who,
under the pretence or Interpreting the law Of
Christ. doth, In many parts. evacuats and dis
solve it," He went on to contend that antiquity
was sacrificed by modern Protestants, in ordSg
to establish the right OF private judgment, and
that the rejection of universal tradition had
led to schsm and socinianism. but that the
Church of England, reviving at the Reforma-
tion the rule of faith Of the primitive Church,
resisls both Calvinism and Romanism by ap-
peal to universal tradition. He also denounced
the danger OF the Roman doctrine OF infalli-
bility a doctrine Of which he was to become one
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