Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
poor schools and other pious institutions have grown up in connexion
with it, and, moreover, equally at your expense and that of your
brethren, and, as I have reason to know, at much inconvenience, the
Oratory has relieved the other clergy of Birmingham all this while by
constantly doing the duty in the poor-house and gaol of Birmingham.
"More recently still, the mission and the poor school at Smethwick owe
their existence to the Oratory. And all this while the founder and
father of these religious works has added to his other solicitudes the
toil of frequent preaching, of attendance in the confessional, and other
parochial duties.
"I have read on this day of its publication the seventh part of the
Apologia, and the touching allusion in it to the devotedness of the
Catholic clergy to the poor in seasons of pestilence reminds me that
when the cholera raged so dreadfully at Bilston, and the two priests of
the town were no longer equal to the number of cases to which they were
hurried day and night, I asked you to lend me two fathers to supply the
place of other priests whom I wished to send as a further aid. But you
and Father St. John preferred to take the place of danger which I had
destined for others, and remained at Bilston till the worst was over.
"The fourth work which I would notice is one more widely known. I refer
to the school for the education of the higher classes, which at the
solicitation of many friends you have founded and attached to the
Oratory. Surely after reading this bare enumeration of work done, no man
will venture to say that Dr. Newman is leading a comparatively inactive
life in the service of the Church.
"To spare, my dear Dr. Newman, any further pressure on those feelings
with which I have already taken so large a liberty, I will only add one
word more for my own satisfaction. During our long intercourse there is
only one subject on which, after the first experience, I have measured
my words with some caution, and that has been where questions bearing on
ecclesiastical duty have arisen. I found some little caution necessary,
because you were always so prompt and ready to go even beyond the
slightest intimation of my wish or desires.
"That God may bless you with health, life, and all the spiritual good
which you desire, you and your brethren of the Oratory, is the earnest
prayer now and often of,
"My dear Dr. Newman,
"Your affectionate friend and faithful servant in Christ,
"+ W. B. ULLATHORNE."
IV.
LETTERS OF APPROBATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM CLERGY AND LAITY.
It requires some words of explanation why I allow myself to sound my own
praises so loudly, as I am doing by adding to my Volume the following
Letters, written to me last year by large bodies of my Catholic
brethren, Priests, and Laymen, in the course or on the conclusion of the
publication of my Apologia. I have two reasons for doing so.
1. It seems hardly respectful to them, and hardly fair to myself, to
practise self-denial in a matter, which after all belongs to others as
well as to me. Bodies of men become authorities by the fact of being
bodies, over and above the personal claims of the individuals who
constitute them. To have received such unusual Testimonials in my
favour, as I have to produce, and then to have let both those
Testimonials and the generous feelings which dictated them be wasted,
and come to nought, would have been a rudeness of which I could not bear
to be guilty. Far be it from me to show such ingratitude to those who
were especially "friends in need." I am too proud of their approbation
not to publish it to the world.
2. But I have a further reason. The belief obtains extensively in the
country at large, that Catholics, and especially the Priesthood, disavow
the mode and form, in which I am accustomed to teach the Catholic faith,
as if they were not generally recognized, but something special and
peculiar to myself; as if, whether for the purposes of controversy, or
from the traditions of an earlier period of my life, I did not exhibit
Catholicism pure and simple, as the bulk of its professors manifest it.
Such testimonials, then, as now follow, from as many as 558 priests,
that is, not far from half of the clergy of England, secular and
religious, from the Bishop and clergy of a diocese at the Antipodes, and
from so great and authoritative a body as the German Congress assembled
last year at Wurzburg, scatter to the winds a suspicion, which it is not
less painful, I am persuaded, to numbers of those Protestants who
entertain it, than it is injurious to me who have to bear it.
I. THE DIOCESE OF WESTMINSTER.
The following Address was signed by 110 of the Westminster clergy,
including all the Canons, the Vicars General, a great number of secular
priests, and five Doctors in theology; Fathers of the Society of Jesus,
Fathers of the Order of St. Dominic, of St. Francis, of the Oratory, of
the Passion, of Charity, Oblates of St. Charles, and Marists.
"London, March 15, 1864.
"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
"We, the undersigned Priests of the Diocese of Westminster, tender to
you our respectful thanks for the service you have done to religion, as
well as to the interests of literary morality, by your Reply to the
calumnies of [a popular writer of the day.]
"We cannot but regard it as a matter of congratulation that your
assailant should have associated the cause of the Catholic Priesthood
with the name of one so well fitted to represent its dignity, and to
defend its honour, as yourself.
"We recognize in this latest effort of your literary power one further
claim, besides the many you have already established, to the gratitude
and veneration of Catholics, and trust that the reception which it has
met with on all sides may be the omen of new successes which you are
destined to achieve in the vindication of the teaching and principles of
the Church.
"We are,
"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
"Your faithful and affectionate Servants in Christ."
(_The Subscriptions follow._)
"To the Very Rev.
"John Henry Newman, D.D."
II.--THE ACADEMIA OF CATHOLIC RELIGION.
"London, April 19, 1864.
"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
"The Academia of Catholic Religion, at their meeting held to-day, under
the Presidency of the Cardinal Archbishop, have instructed us to write
to you in their behalf.
"As they have learned, with great satisfaction, that it is your
intention to publish a defence of Catholic Veracity, which has been
assailed in your person, they are precluded from asking you that that
defence might be made by word of mouth, and in London, as they would
otherwise have done.
"Composed, as the Academia is, mainly of Laymen, they feel that it is
not out of their province to express their indignation that your
opponent should have chosen, while praising the Catholic Laity, to do so
at the expense of the Clergy, between whom and themselves, in this as in
all other matters, there exists a perfect identity of principle and
practice.
"It is because, in such a matter, your cause is the cause of all
Catholics, that we congratulate ourselves on the rashness of the
opponent that has thrown the defence of that cause into your hands.
"We remain,
"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
"Your very faithful Servants,
"JAMES LAIRD PATTERSON,
"EDW. LUCAS, _Secretaries._
"To the Very Rev. John Henry Newman, D.D.,
"Provost of the Birmingham Oratory."
The above was moved at the meeting by Lord Petre, and seconded by the
Hon. Charles Langdale.
III.--THE DIOCESE OF BIRMINGHAM.
In this Diocese there were in 1864, according to the Directory of the
year, 136 Priests.
"June 1, 1864.
"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
"In availing ourselves of your presence at the Diocesan Synod to offer
you our hearty thanks for your recent vindication of the honour of the
Catholic Priesthood, We, the Provost and Chapter of the Cathedral, and
the Clergy, Secular and Regular, of the Diocese of Birmingham, cannot
forego the assertion of a special right, as your neighbours and
colleagues, to express our veneration and affection for one whose
fidelity to the dictates of conscience, in the use of the highest
intellectual gifts, has won even from opponents unbounded admiration and
respect.
"To most of us you are personally known. Of some, indeed, you were, in
years long past, the trusted guide, to whom they owe more than can be
expressed in words; and all are conscious that the ingenuous fulness of
your answer to a false and unprovoked accusation, has intensified their
interest in the labours and trials of your life. While, then, we resent
the indignity to which you have been exposed, and lament the pain and
annoyance which the manifestation of yourself must have cost you, we
cannot but rejoice that, in the fulfilment of a duty, you have allowed
neither the unworthiness of your assailant to shield him from rebuke,
nor the sacredness of your inmost motives to deprive that rebuke of the
only form which could at once complete his discomfiture, free your own
name from the obloquy which prejudice had cast upon it, and afford
invaluable aid to honest seekers after Truth.
"Great as is the work which you have already done, Very Reverend Sir,
permit us to express a hope that a greater yet remains for you to
accomplish. In an age and in a country in which the very foundations of
religious faith are exposed to assault, we rejoice in numbering among
our brethren one so well qualified by learning and experience to defend
that priceless deposit of Truth, in obtaining which you have counted as
gain the loss of all things most dear and precious. And we esteem
ourselves happy in being able to offer you that support and
encouragement which the assurance of our unfeigned admiration and regard
may be able to give you under your present trials and future labours.
"That you may long have strength to labour for the Church of God and the
glory of His Holy Name is, Very Reverend and Dear Sir, our heartfelt and
united prayer."
(_The Subscriptions follow._)
"To the Very Rev. John Henry Newman, D.D."
IV.--THE DIOCESE OF BEVERLEY.
The following Address, as is stated in the first paragraph, comes from
more than 70 Priests:--
"Hull, May 9, 1864.
"Very Rev. and Dear Dr. Newman,
"At a recent meeting of the clergy of the Diocese of Beverley, held in
York, at which upwards of seventy priests were present, special
attention was called to your correspondence with [a popular writer]; and
such was the enthusiasm with which your name was received--such was the
admiration expressed of the dignity with which you had asserted the
claims of the Catholic Priesthood in England to be treated with becoming
courtesy and respect--and such was the strong and all-pervading sense of
the invaluable service which you had thus rendered, not only to faith
and morals, but to good manners so far as regarded religious controversy
in this country, that I was requested, as Chairman, to become the voice
of the meeting, and to express to you as strongly and as earnestly as I
could, how heartily the whole of the clergy of this diocese desire to
thank you for services to religion as well-timed as they are in
themselves above and beyond all commendation, services which the
Catholics of England will never cease to hold in most grateful
remembrance. God, in His infinite wisdom and great mercy, has raised you
up to stand prominently forth in the glorious work of re-establishing in
this country the holy faith which in good old times shed such lustre
upon it. We all lament that, in the order of nature, you have so few
years before you in which to fight against false teaching that good
fight in which you have been so victoriously engaged of late. But our