THE P RTAL
May 2014
UK Pages - page 14
Thoughts on Newman
Newman and Walsingham
Many of
us nurse slightly romantic images of the Christian life in
Britain on the eve of the Reformation. In contradiction to the traditional
Protestant image of venal priests, corrupt bishops and ignorant, uncomprehending
lay people oppressed by a religion of Latin Rituals and grace for sale through relics
and indulgences unconnected with the simple truths of the Gospel, our image is of
the truly popular religion of Merrie England: processions and pilgrimages, saints’
days and guilds mediating the good news of salvation in Christ in to a simple,
devout and deeply pious nation. Needless to say, neither of these caricatures has
much connection with the truth and says more about what we want to read into the
historical record than what the evidence has to teach us.
Visits to Walsingham - particularly, as those many
Portal readers will have made over the years, to the
“National” - often have these competing visions on
show, as the pilgrims view comes into contact with
those of the Protestant protestors at the pump with
their “No Popery” placards.
her gifts, who was chosen
to be the only near earthly
relative of the Son of God,
the only one whom he was
bound by nature to revere
and look up” to; the one
appointed to train and educate Him, to instruct Him