by Edward Short
Cecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903). English Conservative statesman, educated at Eton and Christ Church. Prime Minister from 1885–1886, 1886–1892 and 1895–1902.
Chatterton, Lady Henrietta Georgina Marcia Lascelles (1806–1876). The only child of Lascelles Iremonger, Prebendary of Winchester, and his second wife Harriett, youngest sister of Admiral Lord Gambier. In 1824 Henrietta Georgina married Sir William Abraham Chatterton (1794–1855), Baronet of Castle Mahon, County Cork, who lost his rents in the potato famine. Throughout her life, Lady Chatterton wrote popular travelogues, stories, verses and translations. In 1859 she married Edward Heneage Dering. She and her husband converted in 1865, though Lady Chatterton continued to suffer doubts about her faith until a year before her death.
Church, Richard William (1815–1890). Tractarian and Dean of St. Paul’s, he was a lifelong admirer of Newman, though he considered his conversion a “catastrophe.” His history of the Oxford Movement is still one of the best.
Clifford, William Joseph Hugh (1823–1893). Second son of the 7th Lord Clifford, he went to Prior Park before studying theology for 10 years at the Academia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici. He served Newman’s first Mass in 1847 and was ordained himself in 1850, later being appointed Bishop of Clifton in 1857. An inopportunist and Scripture scholar, he preached Newman’s funeral Mass.
Clough, Arthur Hugh (1819–1861). The son of a Liverpool cotton merchant, he became a poet and translator of Plutarch. Educated at Rugby, where he was Thomas Arnold’s prize pupil, he won a scholarship to Balliol in 1837, and took his B.A. in 1841. Elected to an Oriel Fellowship in 1841, he was a college tutor from 1843–1848. Unable to subscribe to the 39 Articles, he left Oxford to spend a period travelling, principally in Italy. He was Principal of University Hall, London, from 1849–1852, after Francis Newman resigned the post. Much of his poetry remained unpublished until after his death.
Coleridge, Henry James (1822–1893). Second son of Sir John Taylor Coleridge. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, Coleridge was elected a Fellow of Oriel in 1845 and later became curate at Alphington in Devon, near his family. In 1852 he converted to Rome. He studied in Rome, was ordained priest in 1856 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1857. In 1865 he was sent to Farm Street, where he edited The Month until 1881. He became a close friend and frequent correspondent of Newman’s.
Comte, Auguste (1798–1857). Founder of Positivism and disciple of Saint-Simon, he sought to replace the worship of God with the worship of humanity. Acknowledging that the religious impulse was ineradicable, he drew up his godless philosophy by travestying Catholicism and even devised a ‘Positivist Calendar’ that would substitute scientists and positivists for the saints.
Copeland, William John (1804–1885). Fellow of Trinity, he became Newman’s curate at Littlemore in 1840. In 1862 Newman’s chance meeting with Copeland led to the reunion of Newman, Keble and Pusey at Keble’s Hursley Vicarage.
Cullen, Paul (1803–1878). Archbishop of Dublin and first Irish Cardinal. A biblical scholar and linguist, Cullen worked with Newman on the founding of the Catholic University and drafted the definition for papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council. Apropos Cullen, Newman wrote: “It has lately been brought home to me that Dr Cullen has a sort of dicaphobia, or convulsive horror of the Law … He will not even accept a receipt for a sum of money given for a religious purpose.”
Darwin, Charles (1809–1882). English naturalist whose epoch-making The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1859) set out the principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest. A graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge, Darwin was an agnostic, who yet respected religion, as did his granddaughter, Gwen Raverat, who recalls how her boarding school required the girls to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” before their hockey matches, which “shocked and disgusted” her, because, as she said, “I was a very serious person then … and did not like seeing [religion] made ridiculous, even if I were not a believer myself.”
De Lisle, Ambrose Phillipps (1809–1878). Convert and ecumenicist, De Lisle corresponded with Newman over many years about various ecumenical issues. In 1835 he gave 230 acres of Charnwood Forest to the Trappists to build the monastery of Mount St. Bernard. Of De Lisle, Newman wrote: “None can forget him or his great virtues or his claims on the gratitude of English Catholics … He has a place in our history, and place altogether special. Nor has he ceased to be our benefactor now that he has left us, but, as I believe most fully, we profit, and shall profit by his prayers.”
De Vere, Aubrey (1814–1902). Anglo-Irish poet and convert who corresponded frequently with Newman over many years. He was educated at Trinity College and a friend of Tennyson and Browning. Newman made him Professor of Political Science at the Catholic University.
Disraeli, Benjamin (1804–1881). First Earl of Beaconsfield, he was Tory Prime Minister in 1868 and from 1874–1880.
Dodsworth, William (1798–1861). Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, Dodsworth began his career as an Evangelical. In 1829 he took charge of Margaret Street Chapel, and in 1838 he was appointed Perpetual Curate of Christ Church, St Pancras. He became friendly with Newman at this time, and they corresponded frequently. He helped Pusey to found the first Anglican sisterhood in 1845, though he later rebuked him for acquiescing in the Gorham Judgment. A friend of Allies and Manning, he converted in 1850. After his conversion, he supported his large family by writing books of Catholic apologetics.
Döllinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von (1799–1890). Liberal church historian and friend of Acton, Gladstone and Wiseman, he vehemently opposed papal infallibility.
Doyle, James Warren (1786–1834). Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin and campaigner for Catholic Emancipation up to 1829, he was also an educator, church organizer and the builder of Carlow Cathedral. “When in 1822 the Protestant Archbishop Magee of Dublin said that ‘the Catholics had a church without a religion and the dissenters a religion without a church’, Bishop Doyle replied with a ‘A Vindication of the Religious and Civil Principles of the Irish Catholics’ (1824), and ‘Letters on the State of Ireland’ (1824–1825), which brought home the injustice with which Catholics were treated. In 1825 and again in 1830 Bishop Doyle was summoned to give evidence before parliamentary committees as to the state of Ireland. He was treated with much respect and the Duke of Wellington remarked that it was Bishop Doyle who examined the committees, rather than they who examined him … Doyle was a model bishop, establishing confraternities and libraries, building churches and schools, conducting retreats, and bringing to an end many of the abuses that had survived from penal times. He also waged war unsparingly on secret societies.” See LD, 27:445.
Du Boulay, Susan, Sister Mary Gabriel (1826–1906). Eldest daughter of James Du Boulay, Rector of Heddington, Wiltshire, Du Boulay was a frequent correspondent of Newman. She was living in Clifton with her aunt, Catherine Ward, when Newman received her into the Church at the Oratory in King William Street in 1850. After spending time in Italy, she entered Mother Margaret Hallahan’s convent at Clifton. In 1853 Susan was professed in the newly opened convent at Stone.
Faber, Frederick William (1814–1863). An Oratorian of the Brompton Oratory with whom Newman had many exasperating dealings. His devotional writings, however, are still popular, which might not have surprised Newman.
Fairbairn, Andrew Martin (1838–1912). Scottish theologian and Congregationalist born in Perth, he was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, between 1888 and 1909. He is best known for his essays published in the Contemporary Review, and for his books, which include Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and History (1876) and Christ in Modern Theology (1894). His assaults on Newman are instructively misguided.
Froude, Catherine, née Holdsworth (1810–1878). Daughter of Arthur Holdsworth, M.P. for Dartmouth from 1802–1820, and Governor of Dartmouth Castle from 1807 until his death in 1860, she began corresponding with Newman about religious matters in 1838,
and they remained lifelong friends. She married William Froude in 1839, and became a Catholic in 1857, along with five of her six children.
Froude, Elizabeth Margaret (1840–1931). Always known as Isy, the eldest daughter of William Froude, she became a Catholic in 1859, and, in 1880, married Baron Anatole von Hügel, brother of Friedrich, who was later appointed Curator of the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. She was greatly devoted to Newman, visiting him occasionally late in his life. She also gave readings from his works to students from Newnham College.
Froude, James Anthony (1818–1894). Younger brother of Hurrell and William Froude, historian of the English Reformation, and disciple of Carlyle, A. J. Froude wrote brilliantly, if sarcastically, about the Oxford Movement in a piece called “The Oxford Counter-Reformation” (1881). Educated at Oriel, Froude became a Fellow of Exeter College before writing The Nemesis of Faith (1849), an account of his religious doubts, which eventually led him to leave Oxford for a career as an independent historian. His Whig history is full of Whig bias but a model of brisk, witty narration.
Froude, Richard Hurrell (1803–36), Newman’s dear friend and the true originator of the Oxford Movement, who had an enormous influence on Newman and Keble before dying of tuberbulosis at the age of 33. Froude entered Oriel in 1821, and was a Fellow from 1826–36, becoming a tutor with Newman in 1827. Charm, originality, wit and zest were his distinguishing characteristics, together with a deep longing for sanctity. In the Apologia, Newman remarked of his colleague: “… he had an intellect as critical and logical as it was speculative and bold. Dying prematurely … his religious views never reached their ultimate conclusion, by the very reason of their multitude and depth.” Whether Froude would have converted if he had lived is a nice question. “The extracts from his Journal,” Nicholas Wiseman observed, “present us a picture at once pleasing and distressing, of a mind yearning after interior perfection, yet at a loss about the means of attaining it; embarked on an ocean of good desires, without stars or compass by which to steer its course.” Still, Wiseman was convinced that Froude was “another instance of the same mysterious Providence which guided a Grotius and a Leibniz to the threshold of Truth, but allowed them not the time to step within it, into the hallowed precincts of God’s Visible Church.” See Piers Brendon’s brilliant biography of Froude—still one of the best books on the Oxford Movement.
Froude, William (1810–1879). Educated at Westminster School and Oriel College, William was the older brother of Newman’s close friend Hurrell Froude and the historian James Anthony Froude. A railway engineer, he worked under Brunel. Later, he devoted himself to naval work, studying the effect of waves on ships. He became a celebrated naval engineer, for whom the Admiralty provided a large covered experimental tank at Torquay. A good friend of Newman, William resigned himself to the conversion of his wife and children. Newman was drafting a long letter to him on assent and certitude, when he learned of William’s death.
Fullerton, Lady Georgiana (1812–1885). Novelist and convert, her Ellen Middleton (1844) was both a commercial and critical success, as was Grantley Manor (1847). A later novel, Mrs. Gerald’s Niece (1869) portrays marital divisions arising from the Oxford Movement. Dedicated to caring for the London poor, Lady Georgiana was a firm friend and admirer of Newman.
Giberne, Maria Rosina (1802–1885). A close friend of the Newman family, Miss Giberne was one of Newman’s most faithful correspondents. After converting, she joined the Visitationists.
Gladstone, William Ewart (1809–1898). Liberal Prime Minister, Gladstone was educated at Christ Church and Lincoln’s Inn. Conservative M.P. for Newark from 1832–1845, he eventually became Prime Minister of four Liberal governments (1868–1874, 1880–1885, February–July 1886 and 1892–1894). He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times (1853–1855, 1859–1866, 1873–1874, and 1880–1882). His political career spanned over sixty years. A close friend of both Manning and Hope, he was devastated by their defection to Rome. He was at once a great admirer and continual detractor of Newman.
Golightly, Charles Portales (1807–1885). Entered Oriel in 1824 and received his B.A. in 1828. In 1836 Newman invited him to be his curate at Littlemore. He left after Pusey took exception to one of his sermons. Despite his earlier friendly relations with Newman, he became a fierce opponent of what he considered the Romanizing tendencies of Tractarianism. He stage-managed the condemnation that greeted Tract 90.
Grey, Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845). British Whig statesman and Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834, he was one of the chief architects of the Great Reform Bill of 1832.
Hampden, Renn Dickson (1793–1868). Fellow of Oriel and friend of the Noetics, including Arnold and Whately, Hampden wrote his Bampton Lectures in 1832, which Newman, together with many Evangelicals and High Churchmen, regarded as heretical. When Melbourne was appointed Hampden Regius Professor of Divinity in 1836, the University voted to exclude him from the position. Principle, not bigotry, as Martin Svaglic notes, drove Newman’s opposition to Hampden. See the Apologia, ed. Svaglic (Oxford, 1967), p. 519.
Hawkins, Edward (1789–1882). Educated at St John’s College, Oxford, where he took a double first in 1811, Hawkins was elected a Fellow of Oriel in 1813. In May 1818 he preached his sermon on Tradition in St Mary’s, Oxford, which greatly influenced Newman, and in 1828 he was elected Provost of Oriel, a position he held until his death. Newman said of Hawkins, “He was the first who taught me to weigh my words, and to be cautious in my statements. He led me to that mode of limiting and clearing my sense in discussion and in controversy, and of distinguishing between cognate ideas, and of obviating mistakes by anticipation, which to my surprise has been since considered, even in quarters friendly to me, to savour of the polemics of Rome.”
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831). German Idealist philosopher, one of whose philosophical contentions was that “the real is the rational and the rational is the real.” Critical of the Romantics Schleiermacher and Schelling, Hegel succeeded Fichte as Professor of Philosophy at Berlin and based his elaborate thought on the idealism of Kant, whose confusion of moralism and religion still addles our threadbare metaphysics.
Herbert of Lea, Lady Mary (1822–1911). The wife of Sidney Herbert, Lady Herbert was a convert and friend of Newman, Manning and Vaughan. She corresponded with Newman about her frustrations concerning her apostate son, among other matters.
Holmes, Mary (1815–1878). Governess, who converted in 1842 and was a frequent correspondent of Newman, Trollope and Thackeray.
Hook, Walter Farquhar (1798–1875). English divine educated at Christ Church. In 1837 he was elected Vicar of Leeds and won the admiration of his parishioners for his pastoral care. See the DNB: “The secret of his immense personal influence consisted in his large-hearted sympathy, his enthusiastic zeal, his honesty, his high sense of justice and fair play, his shrewd common sense, and his inexhaustible fund of playful humour.” Although a High Churchman, he had good relations with the Tractarians and, until Newman’s conversion, showed him staunch support. In 1857 he was appointed Dean of Chichester.
Hope-Scott, James Robert (1812–1873). Entered Christ Church in 1828, awarded B.A. 1832. He was a Fellow of Merton from 1833–1847. He took up Tractarian views, and first met Newman in 1837. Called to the bar in 1838, he took a particular interest in ecclesiastical law. In 1847 he married Charlotte Lockhart, Sir Walter Scott’s granddaughter, and through her he inherited Abbotsford. Hence, his later surname: Hope-Scott. He made a fortune as a parliamentary lawyer for the railway companies, and was munificent in his charities. The Gorham Judgment prompted his conversion to Catholicism in 1850. He helped support Newman through the ordeal of the Achilli trial, and suggested Newman as Rector for the Catholic University. He was a close and trusted friend of Newman’s, who frequently turned to him for advice.
Hopkins, Gerard Manley (1844–1889). Poet, Jesuit, and Balliol Exhibitioner, Hopkins converted to Catholicism in 1866 and joined the Societ
y of Jesus in 1868. A great admirer of Newman, he was also an avid Unionist who considered Gladstone unbalanced and treasonous.
Hügel, Friedrich Maria Aloys Franz Karl, Freiherr von (1852–1925). Born in Florence, Italy, the son of Charles von Hügel (Austrian ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany), and a Scottish mother, Elizabeth Farquharson (a Roman Catholic convert), von Hügel was educated privately, and moved with his family to England in 1867, where he remained for the rest of his life. Baron of the Holy Roman Empire, he was a frequent visitor to Rome. Although a biblical scholar and linguist, he never held any office in the Catholic Church or academe. He was deeply involved in the Modernist controversy. Apropos von Hügel, Cuthbert Butler described how he would appear in church, “the great deep eyes fixed on the Tabernacle, the whole being wrapt in an absorption of prayer, devotion, contemplation … Those who have not seen him so know only half the man.”
Hutton, Richard Holt (1826–1897). Editor of the Spectator and frequent reviewer, Holt was Newman’s most perspicacious critic, writing over thirty pieces about him in the pages of the Spectator and the Contemporary Review from the 1860s to the 1880s.
Huxley, Thomas (1825–1895). Biologist and popular lecturer.
Ives, Levi Silliman (1797–1867). Became Episcopalian Bishop of North Carolina in 1831. An admirer of the Oxford Movement, he set up the religious Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in 1847, but it was dissolved because of its Tractarian character. At Christmas 1852 he resigned his see and submitted to Pope Pius IX at Rome. His wife, a daughter of Bishop Hobart, became a Catholic at the same time. His Trials of a Mind in its Progress towards Catholicism (1853) confirms that it was his reading of the early Church Fathers that sealed his conversion. On returning to the United States in 1854, he became Professor at St Joseph’s Seminary, New York, and St John’s College, Fordham.
Jowett, Benjamin (1817–1893). Regis Professor of Greek and Master of Balliol whose Liberalism came to define late nineteenth-century Oxford.