Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
adopted. In them I never acquiesced. Doubtless I may have used at times
sentiments and expressions, which I should not now use; but I believe
these had no root in my mind, and as such they were mere idle words
which I ought ever to be ashamed of, because they _were_ idle. But the
opinions to which I especially alluded in my former letter as associated
by the world with your Grace's name under the title of 'Liberal,' (but
not, as you suppose, received by me on the world's authority,) are those
which may be briefly described as the Anti-superstition notions; and to
these I do not recollect ever assenting. Connected with these I would
instance the undervaluing of Antiquity, and resting on one's own
reasonings, judgments, definitions, &c., rather than authority and
precedent; and I think I gave very little in to this;--for a very short
time too (if at all), in to the notion that the State, as such, had
nothing to do with religion. On the other hand, whatever I held then
deliberately, I believe I hold now; though perhaps I may not consider
them as points of such prominent importance, or with precisely the same
bearing as I did then:--as the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath, the
unscripturalness of the doctrine of imputed righteousness (i.e. our
Lord's active obedience)--the mistakes of the so-called Evangelical
system, the independence of the Church; the genius of the Gospel as a
Law of Liberty, and the impropriety of forming geological theories from
Scripture. Of course every one changes in opinion between twenty and
thirty; doubtless, I have changed; yet I am not conscious that I have so
much _changed_, as made up my mind on points on which I had no opinion.
E.g. I had no opinion about the Catholic Question till 1829. No one can
truly say I was ever _for_ the Catholics; but I was not against them. In
fact I did not enter into the state of the question at all.
"Then as to my change of judgment as to the character of your Grace's
opinions, it is natural that, when two persons pursue different lines
from the same point, they should not discover their divergence for a
long while; especially if there be any kind feeling in the one towards
the other. It was not for a very long time that I discovered that your
opinions were (as I now think them) but part of intellectual views, so
different from your own inward mind and character, so peculiar in
themselves, and (if you will let me add) so dangerous. For a long time I
thought them to be but different; for a longer, to be but in parts
dangerous; but their full character in this respect came on me almost on
a sudden. I heard at Naples the project of destroying the Irish Sees,
and at first indignantly rejected the notion, which some one suggested,
that your Grace had acquiesced in it. I thought I recollected correctly
your Grace's opinion of the inherent rights of the Christian Church, and
I thought you never would allow men of this world so to insult it. When
I returned to England, all was over. I was silent on the same principle
that you are silent about it in your letter; that it was not the time
for speaking; and I only felt, what I hinted at when I wrote last, a
bitter grief, which prompted me, when the act was irretrievable, to hide
myself from you. However, I have spoken, with whatever pain to myself,
the first opportunity you have given me.
"I might appeal to my conscience without fear in proof of the delight it
would give me at this time to associate my name with yours, and to stand
forward as your friend and defender, however humble. I should hope you
know me enough to be sure, that, however great my faults are, I have no
fear of man such as to restrain me, if I could feel I had a call that
way. But may God help me, as I will ever strive to fulfil my first duty,
the defence of His Church, and of the doctrine of the old Fathers, in
opposition to all the innovations and profanities which are rising round
us.
"My dear Lord,
"Ever yours most sincerely and gratefully,
"J. H. NEWMAN.
"P.S. I feel much obliged by your kindness in sending me your Addresses
to your clergy, which I value highly for your Grace's sake."
NOTE ON PAGE 90.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER PROM THE REV. E. SMEDLEY, EDITOR OF THE
"ENCYCLOPÆDIA METROPOLITANA."
When I urged on one occasion an "understanding" I had had with the
publishers of the "Encyclopædia," he answered, June 5, 1828, "I greatly
dislike the word 'understanding,' which is always _misunderstood_, and
which occasions more mischief than any other in our language, unless it
be its cousin-german 'delicacy.'"
NOTE ON PAGE 185.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER OF THE LATE REV. FRANCIS A. FABER, OF SAUNDERTON.
A letter of Mr. F. Faber's to a friend has just now (March, 1878) come
into my hands, in which he says, "I have had a long correspondence with
Newman on the subject of my uncle's saying he was 'a concealed Roman
Catholic' long before he left us. It ends in my uncle making an
_amende_."
NOTE ON PAGES 194-196.
I have said above, "Dr. Russell had, perhaps, more to do with my
conversion than any one else. He called on me in passing through Oxford
in the summer of 1843; and I think I took him over some of the buildings
of the University. He called again another summer, on his way from
Dublin to London. I do not recollect that he said a word on the subject
of religion on either occasion. He sent me at different times several
letters.... He also gave me one or two books; Veron's Rule of Faith and
some Treatises of the Wallenburghs was one; a volume of St. Alfonso
Liguori's sermons was another.... At a later date Dr. Russell sent me a
large bundle of penny or halfpenny books of devotion," &c.
On this passage I observe first that he told me, on one occasion of my
seeing him since the publication of the "Apologia," that I was so far in
error, that he had called on me at Oxford once only, not twice. He was
quite positive on the point; it was when he was, I believe, on his way
to Rome to escape a bishopric.
Secondly, my own mistake has led to some vagueness or inaccuracy in the
statements made by others. In a friendly notice of Dr. Russell upon his
death, it is said, in the "Times":--
"Personally he was unknown to the leaders of the movement, but his
reputation stood high in Oxford. He was often applied to for information
and suggestion on the points arising in the Tractarian controversy.
Through a formal call made by him on Dr. Newman a correspondence arose,
which resulted in the final determination of the latter to join the
Roman Catholic Church."
On this I remark--(1) that in 1841-5, Dr. Russell was not well known in
Oxford, and it cannot be said that then "his reputation stood high"
there; (2) that he never was "applied to for information" by any one of
us, as far as my knowledge goes; and (3) that his call on me in 1841(3?)
was in no sense "formal;" I had not expected it; I think he introduced
himself, though he may have had a letter from Dr. Wiseman; and no
"correspondence" arose in consequence. He may perhaps have sent me three
letters, independent of each other, in five years; and, as far as I
know, he was unaware of his part in my conversion, till he saw my notice
of it in the "Apologia."
NOTE ON PAGE 232.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE REV. JOHN KEBLE TO THE AUTHOR.
"Nov. 18, 1844.--I hope I shall not annoy you if I copy out for you part
of a letter which I had the other day from Judge Coleridge:--
"'I was struck with part of a letter from A. B., expressing a wish that
Newman should know how warmly he was loved, honoured, and sympathized
with by large numbers of Churchmen, so that he might not feel solitary,
or, as it were, cast out. What think you of a private address, carefully
guarded against the appearance of making him the head of a party, but
only assuring him of gratitude, veneration, and love?' &c., &c.
"I thought I would just let you understand how such a person as
Coleridge feels."
NOTE ON PAGE 237.
EXTRACT FROM THE "TIMES" NEWSPAPER ON THE AUTHOR'S VISIT TO OXFORD IN
FEBRUARY, 1878.
"The Very Rev. Dr. Newman has this week revisited Oxford for the first
time since 1845. He has been staying with the Rev. S. Wayte, President
of Trinity College, of which society Dr. Newman was formerly a scholar,
and has recently been elected an Honorary Fellow. On Tuesday evening Dr.
Newman met a number of old friends at dinner at the President's
lodgings, and on the following day he paid a long visit to Dr. Pusey at
Christ Church. He also spent a considerable time at Keble College, in
which he was greatly interested. In the evening Dr. Newman dined in
Trinity College Hall at the high table, attired in his academical dress,
and the scholars were invited to meet him afterwards. He returned to
Birmingham on Thursday morning."
NOTE ON PAGE 302.
THE MEDICINAL OIL OF ST. WALBURGA.
I have received the following on the subject of the oil of St. Walburga
from a German friend, the Rev. Corbinian Wandinger, which is a
serviceable addition to what is said upon it in Note B. He says:--
"In your 'Apologia,' 2nd Edition, p. 302, you say you neither have, nor
ever have had, the means of going into the question of the
miraculousness of the oil of St. Walburga. By good chance, there has
arisen a contest not long ago between two papers, a catholic and a
free-thinking one, about this very question, from which I collected
materials. Afterwards I asked Professor Suttner, of Eichstädt, if the
defender of the miraculousness might be fully and in every point
trusted, and I was answered he might, since he was nobody else but the
parson of St. Walburga, Rev. Mr. Brudlacher.
"You know all the older literature of the oil of St. Walburga, therefore
I restrict myself to statements of a later date than 1625.
"First of the attempts to explain the oil as a natural produce of the
rock.
"Some thought of ordinary rock-oil. But the slightest experiment proves
that origin, properties, and effect of the oil of St. Walburga and
petroleum have nothing common with each other.
"Others thought of a salt-rock, and of solution of the salt particles.
But the marble slab from which the oil drops is of Jura-chalk, and in
the whole Jura is not a single particle of salt to be found, and the
liquor itself does not in the least savour of salt; besides that, if
this were the case, the stone must have crumbled into pieces long since,
whilst it is quite massive still.
"Others thought of humour in the air, or the so-called sweating of the
stones. But why does the slab which bears the holy relics alone sweat?
and, why do all others beside, above, beneath it, in and out of the
altar-cave, though being of the same nature, remain perfectly dry? Why
should it sweat, the whole church being so dry that not a single humid
spot of a hand's breadth is visible? Why does this slab not sweat except
within a certain period, that is from October 12, the anniversary of
depositing, to February 25, the day of the death of St. Walburga? And
why does it remain dry at every other time, even at the most humid
temperature of the air possible, and in the wettest years, for instance,
1866? Besides, what other stone, and be it in the deepest cave, will
sweat during four or five months a quantity of liquor from six to ten
Mass (a Mass = 1·07 French Litres)? If these naturalists are asked all
this, then they, too, are at the end of their wits.
"To this point I add two facts which may be proved beyond any doubt; the
one by unquestionable historical records, the other by still living
eye-witnesses. When under Bishop Friedrich von Parsberg the interdict
was inflicted on the city of Eichstädt, during all the year 1239 not a
single drop of liquor became visible on the coffin-plate of St.