THE P RTAL
June 2015
Page 10
Thoughts on Newman
Two Cardinals
Dr Stephen Morgan adds his thoughts on the relationship
between Cardinal Manning and Cardinal Newman
L
ast autumn I conceived, as one does, a fancy for persimmons. I had never eaten one before
but quickly became very fond of them. They became something of a curiosity to my children and my
youngest, who would be no loss to the diplomatic service, having tasted one, pronounced it bland, dull and
an odd thing to get worked up about. Perhaps, he mused, his father had begun to lose his sense of taste at
much the same time as he lost his hair! What to him was bland, dull and tasteless, was to me delicate, subtle
and enticingly, teasingly, flavoursome.
Earlier this year, thanks to the generosity of Professor
Jacqueline Clais-Girard of l’Université d’Angers, those
papers previously in the care of the Abbé Chapeau
were brought to the Westminster Diocesan Archive.
The action of the Abbé in removing the papers from St
Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, upon the dissolution of
the Oblates of St Charles, whilst not uncontroversial,
undoubtedly saved them.
a rich treasure-trove
Their return has made available to scholars a rich
treasure-trove of material. For one who has immersed
himself in the world of Blessed John Henry Newman,
the prospect of examining the originals of thirty-one
letters between Manning and Newman could scarcely
be bettered.
and their distinct interests hardly made for an easy
relationship. Nonetheless, a dispassionate reading
of the correspondence between the two men has
always revealed that, despite the misunderstandings,
differences and tensions that mark their correspondence
with one another, neither man was content to fall into
dislike, or at least, not as readily content so to do as
those who surrounded them or presumed to enter the
lists on their respective behalves.
to understand and be understood
The 1867 correspondence is, in many ways, a
paradigmatic example of how that played out. The
unsent letter from Manning to Newman in the
Chapeau papers adds considerable strength to the
view that here were two men who wanted desperately
to understand and be understood, to appreciate and be
The thoroughness with which, first, Stephen Dessain appreciated, if not to like and be liked but to love and
and later Ian Ker, Thomas Gornall and Gerard Tracey be loved by one another.
brought together the materials for The Letters and
Diaries of John Henry Newman was such that it is hardly
Without the unsent letter, Manning’s contribution
likely that there would be much new material in these sounds insincere and manipulative, Newman looks
papers. However, an unsent letter from Manning to petty: with it, Manning sounds concerned and
Newman in 1867 casts into new light this particularly ultimately frustrated, Newman trying but not quite
testy episode in their correspondence.
able to accept the other at face value. This does not
change the fact that their