Life
1801-1890; b. London; ed. Trinity College, Oxford; Fellow of Oriel, ord.
1824; tutor at Oriel, 1826; vicar of St Mary’s, Oxford, 1827; assisted
Vice-Principal Dr. Whateley, on his Logic; wrote Lyra Apostolica
in Rome (1834); ‘Lead Kindly Light’, composed on an orange boat
from Palermo to Marseilles, publ. 1833; mbr. Oxford Tractarian movement;
author of Tract ninety establishing the compatibility of the Thirty-Nine
Articles with Catholicism and recognising apostolic succession (Tracts
for the Times, 1833); Dr. Pusey joined the ‘Oxford Movement’,
1835; Newman resigned Anglican living, 1843; publishes intention of being
received into Roman Catholic Church, 7 Oct. 1845; ord. in Rome, 1846 [var.
1847 DIH]; fnd. Oratorian Congregation, Egdgbaston, Birmingham (‘The
Oratory’); persuaded by Paul Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, to come
to Dublin for the purpose of setting up a Catholic alternative to the
Queen’s College Scheme, 1850-51; Rector of the Dublin Catholic University
1854-58, having accepted the post and been formally appointed in 1851;
Discourses delivered at Rotunda before the hierarchy and others, 10 May-7
June 1852, formed basis of The Idea of a University Defined (1873),
in which he sees such institutions as nurturing Christian gentlemen who
embody ‘intellectual culture’ and recognise through breadth
of knowledge the ‘relative disposition of things’; insisted
on appointment of English professors; supported and subvented publication
of Eugene O’Curry’s professorial lectures on ancient Irish customs
and manners; resigned 12 Nov. 1858; issued Apologia pro Vita Sua
(1864); corresponded with Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin; lectured
on ‘Literature’ and ‘English Catholic Literature’;
on his return to England, Newman was denounced to Rome by Cardinal Manning
as an agent of Catholic Liberalism; appt. Cardinal, 1879; author of ‘lead,
kindly light’ (Hymn 587 in Church of Ireland Hymnal); Joyce calls
his prose ‘cloistral, silver-veined’ in A Portrait of the
Artist. DNB ODQ DIH OCEL OCIL
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Works
Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England, Addressed to
the brothers of the Oratory [3rd edn.] (Dublin: James Duffy, 1857),
x+376pp.; Frank M Turner, ed., The Idea of a University (Yale UP
[1996]), 366pp.; John Henry Newman, Collected Poems [and] The
Dream of Gerontius, ill. Mary Tyler (Sevenoaks: Fisher 1992), 169pp.
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Criticism
Michael Tierney, Aubrey Gwynn, Roger McHugh, et al., A Tribute to Newman,
essays (Browne & Nolan 1945), nihil obstat/imprimatur [McQuaid]; Newman’s
Way, The Odyssey of John Henry Newman (Longmans 1952).
M[ichael] Tierney, Struggle with Fortune, A Miscellany for the Centenary of the Catholic University of Ireland 1854-1954 (Dublin 1954).
Michael Ryan, ‘The Question of Autobiography in Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua’, in [Georgia] Review, 31 (1977), pp.672-99.
Nora M Kelley, ‘Newman’s Difficult Dublin Years’, Eire-Ireland 12.4 (Winter 1977), pp.43-55.
Robert Sencourt [pseud of Robert Esmonde Gordon George], The Life of Newman (Westminster: Dacre Press 1948), xi, 314pp., pls. & ports., 8o.
‘John Henry Newman et L’Université catholique d’Irlande’, premier partie, [Etudes Irlandaises] Cahiers, 5, 1980, pp.19-34; deuxième partie, ibid., 6, 1981, pp.79-87.
Louis McRedmond, Thrown Among Strangers: John Henry Newman in Ireland (Dublin: Veritas Publications 1990).
Thomas Norris, Only Life Gives Faith, Faith, Theology and Praxis according to Cardinal Newman (Columba 1995). Note also citations from ‘The Idea of the University’ and other lectures in D. J. Palmer, The Rise of English Studies (OUP 1965).
Frank M. Turner, John Henry Newman: The idea of a university (Yake Up 1996).
Sean O’Faolain, The Irish: A Character Study (Penguin 1947), pp.119-21 [and under Cardinal Cullen, supra.
Brian Martin, John Henry Newman: His Life & Work (London: Continuum 2000) [pb. reiss.].
Frank M. Turner, John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion (Yale UP 2002), 740pp.
Colin Barr, Paul Cullen, John Henry Newman and the Catholic University of Ireland, 1845-1865 (Leominster: Gracewing 2003), 306pp.
Kevin J. Cathcart, ed., The Letters of Peter le Page Renouf, 1822-1897, Vol. 3 (UCD Press 2003), 368pp. [Professor of Ancient History at Catholic University.]
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984)
F. McGrath, Newman’s University, Idea and Reality (Dublin 1951).
Michael Ryan, ‘The Question of Autobiography in Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua’, in [Georgia] Review, 31 (1977), pp.672-99.
Ronald Schleifer, ‘George Moore’s Turning Mind: Digression and Autobiographical Art in Hail and Farewell’, in Schleifer, ed., The Genres of Irish Literary Revival, Dublin: Wolfhound 1980, p.82.)
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Notes
Brian De Breffny, ed., Encyclopaedia of Ireland (1968):
In 1854, the Cath. University of Ireland was established by the Hierarchy,
who invited John Henry Newman to be its first Rector. Newman, imbued with
the liberal principles embodied in his celebrated Idea of a University,
was not quite at home amid the realties of Irish political and religious
controversy, and his brave experiment failed ... curiously, its best success
was in medicine. (See also Encyc. Britannica.)
Margaret Drabble, ed., The Oxford Companion to English Literature (OUP 1986), calls Newman ‘rector of the new Catholic University 1854-58; his lectures and essays on university education appeared in various forms from 1852, and finally as The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated (1873); in these he mainted that the duty of a university is instruction rather than to diffuse useful knowledge; he also defeneded theological teaching and tht tutorial system.’
British Library (under ‘Relating to Ireland’) holds Works, 40 vols. (1874-1921), index by Joseph Rickaby; History of My Religious Opinions (1873); Discourse on the Scope and Nation of University Education, addressed to the Catholics of Dublin (Dublin 1852); The Dream of Gerontius, a poem (1866); Life of Appollonius Tyanaeus (1848) [[cf. Berwick].
Belfast Public Library holds J. H. Newman, My Campaign in Ireland, [described by Sencourt as rare], first and only part, Catholic Univ. Reports and other papers (1896); Doctrine of University Education, (repr. 1954).
Whelan Books (Cat. No. 32) lists The Idea of a University, Discourses delivered to Catholics of Dublin and lectures and essays to members of the Catholic University (Longman 1925).
Dedication: Eugene O’Curry’s Lectures On The
Manners and Customs of The Ancient Irish (1873) are dedicated to Newman
[by ed. WK Sullivan]. See also Archbishops John McHale, and Paul Cullen.
Louis Menand, The Future of Academic Freedom (Chicago UP [1996]), in which an essay by Edward Said commending the profundity of Newman on the grounds that his version of relativism respects the individual identities of academics as practitioners of particular cultures rather than cultural relativists and liberal hegemonists obliterating such differences. (See TLS, Jan. 14, 1997, p.9.)
Irish type: The so-called Keating Society type involved scholarly encouragements from John Henry Newman such that McGuinne has decided to rename it Newman Irish type. Irish clergymen, responding to a poll in 1823, declared their preference for a non-roman type as more efficacious in proslytism, ‘We have before us evidence ... that in some places Roman letter has been looked upon with the same suspicion as the authorised version ... Irish character will serve at least to add to the recommendation of the Irish Scriptures ...’ [Irish Times review of D. McGuinne, Irish Type Design, a history of printing types in the Irish character (IAP, ?1992); See Notice on Newman in Patrick Francis Mullany, quoted in Justin McCarthy, Irish Literature (Washington 1904).
National legacy: ‘The story of the development of Newman’s Catholic University into the modern University College Dublin is one of the most complex and fascinating chapters in the history of modern Ireland. At every stage the work of the College has been intimately linked with the slow but inexorable recovery of the national strength'. (Quoted in Maurice Harmon, review of Donal McCartney, A National Idea: The History of University College, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, in Books Ireland, [May], p.69.)
Cadenza: The collapse of the Catholic University of Ireland within four years, having been established by the Catholic hierarchy under the rectorship of Rev. [later Cardinal] J. H. Newman in 1854, is attributed to lack of endowments and/or government subvention as well as the deficit of authority to give recognised degrees but also to Newman's imperfect grasp of Irish educational politics. (See Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, 1996, “Universities”.)
Frank M. Turner (Yale Univ.) responds to criticism in Ian Ker’s review of his John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion (TLS, 6 Dec. 2002) noting that Ker has ‘been active in the cause of Newman’s sainthood’ and ascribes Ker‘ ’s antipathy to his book to its argument that Newman‘ ’s Anglican career from 1830 to 1845 is ‘determined not by growth towards Catholicism, but rather by antipathy to evangelical religion, first among Dissenters and then within the Church of England’, further ascribing his conversion to ‘as series of analysable historical contingencies.’ (Times Literary Supplement, 20 Dec. 2002.) See answer from Ian Ker objecting to the ‘impugning of [his] integrity’ (TLS, 3 Jan. 2003, p.15.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)