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8 - A Dangerous Correspondence

Newman on the Road to Rome

from Part III - Oxford Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2022

Michael Wheeler
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

This chapter considers John Henry’s Newman’s correspondences from when he turned his face Romeward, in 1843, through to his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church in 1845. First, I relate the six-year delay in his converting both to his late release of news of his true religious opinions to three close friends and colleagues and to the way in which, when finally written, the most painful letters enact delay syntactically. Behind these delays lay a reluctance to inflict pain on others by leaving what he called ‘the English Church’, abandoning the struggle to reclaim its catholic identity through the Oxford Movement, attaching himself to what many regarded as the Antichrist and thus cutting off his closest friends and relations. Second, I contrast two correspondences that came to a head in 1844 and 1845, one with two of his disciples, the other with his sister Jemima. Finally, I examine some letters from the time of Newman’s reception. Intimacy involves honesty, and in the letters of 1843–45 Newman was torn between confiding in a correspondent and endangering their own settlement of mind. He warned his friend Henry Edward Manning, the other future ‘convert cardinal’, about engaging in a ‘dangerous correspondence’.

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Chapter
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The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845
, pp. 244 - 278
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • A Dangerous Correspondence
  • Michael Wheeler, University of Southampton
  • Book: The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
  • Online publication: 08 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009268868.013
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  • A Dangerous Correspondence
  • Michael Wheeler, University of Southampton
  • Book: The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
  • Online publication: 08 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009268868.013
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Dangerous Correspondence
  • Michael Wheeler, University of Southampton
  • Book: The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
  • Online publication: 08 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009268868.013
Available formats
×