Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
prayers are that you may long be spared, and may possess to the last all
your vigour, and all that zeal for the advancement of our holy faith,
which imparts such a charm to the productions of your pen.
"I esteem it a great honour and a great privilege to have been deputed,
as the representative of the clergy of the Diocese of Beverley, to
tender you the fullest expression of our most grateful thanks, and the
assurance of our prayers for your health and eternal happiness.
"I am,
"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
"With sentiments of profound respect,
"Yours most faithfully in Christ,
"M. TRAPPES.
"The Very Rev. Dr. Newman."
V. AND VI.--THE DIOCESES OF LIVERPOOL AND SALFORD.
The Secular Clergy of Liverpool amounted in 1864 to 103, and of Salford
to 76.
"Preston, July 27, 1864.
"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
"It may seem, perhaps, that the Clergy of Lancashire have been slow to
address you; but it would be incorrect to suppose that they have been
indifferent spectators of the conflict in which you have been recently
engaged. This is the first opportunity that has presented itself, and
they gladly avail themselves of their annual meeting in Preston to
tender to you the united expression of their heartfelt sympathy and
gratitude.
"The atrocious imputation, out of which the late controversy arose, was
felt as a personal affront by them, one and all, conscious as they were,
that it was mainly owing to your position as a distinguished Catholic
ecclesiastic, that the charge was connected with your name.
"While they regret the pain you must needs have suffered, they cannot
help rejoicing that it has afforded you an opportunity of rendering a
new and most important service to their holy religion. Writers, who are
not overscrupulous about the truth themselves, have long used the charge
of untruthfulness as an ever ready weapon against the Catholic Clergy.
Partly from the frequent repetition of this charge, partly from a
consciousness that, instead of undervaluing the truth, they have ever
prized it above every earthly treasure, partly, too, from the difficulty
of obtaining a hearing in their own defence, they have generally passed
it by in silence. They thank you for coming forward as their champion:
your own character required no vindication. It was their battle more
than your own that you fought. They know and feel how much pain it has
caused you to bring so prominently forward your own life and motives,
but they now congratulate you on the completeness of your triumph, as
admitted alike by friend and enemy.
"In addition to answering the original accusation, you have placed them
under a new obligation, by giving to all, who read the English language,
a work which, for literary ability and the lucid exposition of many
difficult and abstruse points, forms an invaluable contribution to our
literature.
"They fervently pray that God may give you health and length of days,
and, if it please Him, some other cause in which to use for His glory
the great powers bestowed upon you.
"Signed on behalf of the Meeting,
"THOS. PROVOST COOKSON.
"The Very Rev. J. H. Newman."
VII.--THE DIOCESE OF HEXHAM.
The Secular Priests on Mission in 1864 in this Diocese were 64.
"Durham, Sept. 22, 1864.
"My Dear Dr. Newman,
"At the annual meeting of the Clergy of the Diocese of Hexham and
Newcastle, held a few days ago at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I was
commissioned by them to express to you their sincere sympathy, on
account of the slanderous accusations, to which you have been so
unjustly exposed. We are fully aware that these foul calumnies were
intended to injure the character of the whole body of the Catholic
Clergy, and that your distinguished name was singled out, in order that
they might be more effectually propagated. It is well that these
poisonous shafts were thus aimed, as no one could more triumphantly
repel them. The 'Apologia pro Vitâ suâ' will, if possible, render still
more illustrious the name of its gifted author, and be a lasting
monument of the victory of truth, and the signal overthrow of an
arrogant and reckless assailant.
"It may appear late for us now to ask to join in your triumph, but as
the Annual Meeting of the Northern Clergy does not take place till this
time, it is the first occasion offered us to present our united
congratulations, and to declare to you, that by none of your brethren
are you more esteemed and venerated, than by the Clergy of the Diocese
of Hexham and Newcastle.
"Wishing that Almighty God may prolong your life many more years for the
defence of our holy religion and the honour of your brethren,
"I am, dear Dr. Newman,
"Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ,
"RALPH PROVOST PLATT, V. G.
"The Very Rev. J. H. Newman."
VIII.--THE CONGRESS OF WÜRZBURG.
"September 15, 1864.
"Sir,
"The undersigned, President of the Catholic Congress of Germany
assembled in Würzburg, has been commissioned to express to you, Very
Rev. and Dear Sir, its deep-felt gratitude for your late able defence of
the Catholic Clergy, not only of England, but of the whole world,
against the attacks of its enemies.
"The Catholics of Germany unite with the Catholics of England in
testifying to you their profound admiration and sympathy, and pray that
the Almighty may long preserve your valuable life.
"The above Resolution was voted by the Congress with acclamation.
"Accept, very Rev. and Dear Sir, the expression of the high
consideration with which I am
"Your most obedient servant,
"(Signed) ERNEST BARON MOIJ DE SONS.
"The Very Rev. J. H. Newman."
IX.--THE DIOCESE OF HOBART TOWN.
"Hobart Town, Tasmania, November 22, 1864.
"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
"By the last month's post we at length received your admirable book,
entitled, 'Apologia pro Vitâ suâ,' and the pamphlet, 'What then does Dr.
Newman mean?'
"By this month's mail, we wish to express our heartfelt gratification
and delight for being possessed of a work so triumphant in maintaining
truth, and so overwhelming in confounding arrogance and error, as the
'Apologia.'
"No doubt, your adversary, resting on the deep-seated prejudice of our
fellow-countrymen in the United Kingdom, calculated upon establishing
his own fame as a keen-sighted polemic, as a shrewd and truth-loving
man, upon the fallen reputation of one, who, as he would
demonstrate,--yes, that he would,--set little or no value on truth, and
who, therefore, would deservedly sink into obscurity, henceforward
rejected and despised!
"Aman of old erected a gibbet at the gate of the city, on which an
unsuspecting and an unoffending man, one marked as a victim, was to be
exposed to the gaze and derision of the people, in order that his own
dignity and fame might be exalted; but a divine Providence ordained
otherwise. The history of the judgment that fell upon Aman, has been
recorded in Holy Writ, it is to be presumed, as a warning to vain and
unscrupulous men, even in our days. There can be no doubt, a moral
gibbet, full 'fifty cubits high,' had been prepared some time, on which
you were to be exposed, for the pity at least, if not for the scorn and
derision of so many, who had loved and venerated you through life!
"But the effort made in the forty-eight pages of the redoubtable
pamphlet, 'What then does Dr. Newman Mean?'--the production of a bold,
unscrupulous man, with a coarse mind, and regardless of inflicting pain
on the feelings of another, has failed,--marvellously failed,--and he
himself is now exhibited not only in our fatherland, but even at the
Antipodes, in fact wherever the English language is spoken or read, as a
shallow pretender, one quite incompetent to treat of matters of such
undying interest as those he presumed to interfere with.
"We fervently pray the Almighty, that you may be spared to His Church
for many years to come,--that to Him alone the glory of this noble work
may be given,--and to you the reward in eternal bliss!
"And from this distant land we beg to convey to you, Very Rev. and Dear
Sir, the sentiments of our affectionate respect, and deep veneration."
(_The Subscriptions follow, of the Bishop Vicar-General and eighteen
Clergy._)
"The Very Rev. Dr. Newman,
&c. &c. &c."
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
NOTE ON PAGE 12.
CORRESPONDENCE WITH ARCHBISHOP WHATELY IN 1834.
On application of the Editor of Dr. Whately's Correspondence, the
following four letters were sent to her for publication: they are here
given entire. It will be observed that they are of the same date as my
letter to Dr. Hampden at p. 57.
1.
"Dublin, October 25, 1834.
"My dear Newman,
"A most shocking report concerning you has reached me, which indeed
carries such an improbability on the face of it that you may perhaps
wonder at my giving it a thought; and at first I did not, but finding it
repeated from different quarters, it seems to me worth contradicting for
the sake of your character. Some Oxford undergraduates, I find, openly
report that when I was at Oriel last spring you absented yourself from
chapel on purpose to avoid receiving the Communion along with me; and
that you yourself declared this to be the case.
"I would not notice every idle rumour; but this has been so confidently
and so long asserted that it would be a satisfaction to me to be able to
declare its falsity as a fact, from your authority. I did indeed at once
declare my utter unbelief; but then this has only the weight of my
opinion; though an opinion resting I think on no insufficient grounds. I
did not profess to rest my disbelief on our long, intimate, and
confidential friendship, which would make it your right and your
duty--if I did any thing to offend you or any thing you might think
materially wrong--to remonstrate with me;--but on your general
character; which I was persuaded would have made you incapable, even had
no such close connexion existed between us, of conduct so unchristian
and inhuman. But, as I said, I should like for your sake to be able to
contradict the report from your own authority.
"Ever yours very truly,
"R. WHATELY."
2.
"Oriel College, October 28, 1834.
"My dear Lord,
"My absence from the Sacrament in the College Chapel on the Sunday you
were in Oxford, was occasioned solely and altogether by my having it on
that day in St. Mary's; and I am pretty sure, if I may trust my memory,
that I did not even know of your Grace's presence there, till after the
Service. Most certainly such knowledge would not have affected my
attendance. I need not say, this being the case, that the report of my
having made any statement on the subject is quite unfounded; indeed,
your letter of this morning is the first information I have had in any
shape of the existence of the report.
"I am happy in being thus able to afford an explanation as satisfactory
to you, as the kind feelings which you have ever entertained towards me
could desire;--yet, on honest reflection, I cannot conceal from myself,
that it was generally a relief to me, to see so little of your Grace,
when you were at Oxford: and it is a greater relief now to have an
opportunity of saying so to yourself. I have ever wished to observe the
rule, never to make a public charge against another behind his back,
and, though in the course of conversation and the urgency of accidental
occurrences it is sometimes difficult to keep to it, yet I trust I have
not broken it, especially in your own case: i.e. though my most intimate
friends know how deeply I deplore the line of ecclesiastical policy
adopted under your archiepiscopal sanction, and though in society I may
have clearly shown that I have an opinion one way rather than the other,
yet I have never in my intention, never (as I believe) at all, spoken of