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A History of Henry Manning’s Religious Opinions, 1808–18321

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Extract

Henry Manning has proved to be a figure of considerable interest for biographers, and versions of his life story have been committed to print in various different forms. First, came E. S. Purcell’s Life of Cardinal Manning: full of subtle insinuation and open attack, constructed around a cab load of pilfered papers, riddled with errors, and therefore, of course, immensely popular. Several other smaller works of some interest but no great merit appeared subsequently, but then came Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians: Purcell’s animus against Manning was transplanted into a man who had little to say for the Victorians and a great deal to say against them. The result was malicious, unfair, vitriolic, and even more popular. So Shane Leslie, when a fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, set out a few years later to write a fairer study and to restore the damage, but his book lacks sustained scholarly depth and, as I shall attempt to show in this study, cannot always be relied upon in its opinions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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Footnotes

1

This article is a revised version of a paper first given in the Trinity Term of 1991 to the University of Oxford seminar ‘Themes in English Church History 1750–1939’, convened by Dr. John Walsh and Dr. Geoffrey Rowell. I am grateful to those who commented on the paper during the discussion which followed its delivery. In addition, I am particularly indebted to Dr. James Garrard, Ms. Tanya Lovett, and Dr. Geoffrey Rowell.

References

Notes

2 On the mischievous activities of Purcell, see Gilley, S.: ‘New Light on an Old Scandal: Purcell’s Life of Cardinal Manning’ in Bellenger, D. A., (ed.), Opening the Scrolls: Essays in Honour of Godfrey Anstruther (Bath, 1987), pp. 166198.Google Scholar

3 Chapeau, A. L. E., ‘The Letters of Manning to Gladstone 1837–1851’, unpublished thesis, Paris, 1955 Google Scholar; ‘La Vie Anglicaneile Manning’, unpublished Thèse de Lettres (Etat), Paris, 1954–55.

4 Chapeau, A. L. E., ‘Manning the Anglican’, in John, Fitzsimons, (ed.), Manning: Anglican and Catholic (London, 1951)Google Scholar.

5 Gray, R., Cardinal Manning: A Biography (London, 1985)Google Scholar.

6 On the points made in this paragraph, see, e.g., Gray, R., Cardinal Manning. A Biography (London, 1985), pp. 1112 Google Scholar; Strachey, L., Eminent Victorians (Harmondsworth, 1986), pp. 1516 Google Scholar; Chapeau, A., ‘Manning the Anglican’, in Fitzsimons, J., (ed.), Manning: Anglican and Catholic (London, 1951), pp. 12 Google Scholar (Chapeau’s account of the family religion is, in fact, very confused); Leslie, S., Henry Edward Manning: His Life and Labours (London, 1921), p. 5 Google Scholar; Bradley, I., The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact of the Victorians (London, 1976), pp. 1314.Google Scholar

7 For Letters between William Wilberforce and William Manning, see Manning papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms. Eng. Lett.c. 655 ff, 1–5, and Wilberforce papers, c. 3 ff. 236–237. Seealso below, note 9.

8 Leslie, op. cit., p. 5.

9 Wilberforce, R. I. and S., The Life of William Wilberforce (London, 1838), vol. I, pp. 330332.Google Scholar

10 For some of William Manning’s interventions on slavery questions, see, e.g., Hansard’s Parliamentary Record, old series, vol. 38, cols. 470, 662; new series, vol. 7, col. 601; vol. 10, col. 182. For a good assessment of William Manning as an M.P. see Thome, R. G., The House of Commons 1790–1820 (London, 1986), vol. IV, pp. 540543.Google Scholar

11 Quoted in Oliver, V. L.: The History of the Island of Antigua, one of the Leeward Caribees in the West Indies, from the First Settlement in 1635 to the Present Time (London, 1894–1899), vol. II, p. 235.Google Scholar

12 Brown, , Ford, K.: Fathers of the Victorians: The Age of Wilberforce (Cambridge, 1961), p. 91 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a highly critical reviw of this book, see Newsome, D., ‘Fathers and Sons’ in Historical Journal VI, 1963, no. 2, pp. 295310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Brown, op. cit., p. 357.

14 I am grateful to Dr. John Walsh for information on this point during discussion which followed the presentation of a draft version of this article.

15 Bradley, I. C.: ‘The Politics of Godliness: Evangelicals in Parliament, 1784–1832’ (unpublished Oxford D.Phil, thesis, 1974), p. 273.Google Scholar

16 Meyer, L. C.: The Author of ‘The Peep of Day’ being the Life Story of Mrs. Mortimer (London, 1901), pp. 4546.Google Scholar

17 On the old high churchmen, see especially Nockles, P. B.: ‘Continuity and Change in Anglican High Churchmanship, 1792–1850’, (Oxford D.Phil., a revised version of which is shortly to be published by Cambridge University Press). See also Nockles, P. B. ‘The Oxford Movement: Historical Background 1780–1833’ in Rowell, G., (ed.), Tradition Renewed: The Oxford Movement Conference Papers (London, 1986), pp. 2450.Google Scholar

18 Quoted in Purcell, op. cit., I, p. 7.

19 Quoted in Purcell, op. cit., I, pp. 13–14.

20 Quoted in Purcell, op. cit., I, p. 7.

21 I am indebted to Mr. C. Payne of the Berkshire Record Office for this information.

22 Butler, P.: Gladstone: Church, State and Tractarianism: A Study of His Religious Ideas and Attitudes, 1809–1859 (Oxford, 1982), p. 17 Google Scholar. For Christopher Wordsworth, Geoge D’Oyly, Richard Mant, Beilby Porteus, and Richard Beadon, see Dictionary of National Biography.

23 See below, pp. 162–163.

24 Purcell, op. cit., I, pp. 10–13.

25 The question of Manning’s relationship with Newman is being subjected to scrutiny by Dr. David Newsome, who is preparing a comparative biography of the two men.

26 See quotations from the unpublished memoir of Samuel James Gambier in Minchin, G. G. C., Old Harrow Days (London, 1898), p. 226.Google Scholar

27 See Gray, op. cit., pp. 18–19.

28 See, e.g., Manning papers, Bodleian Library, Ms. Eng. Lett. c. 652 ff. 72–73, J. L. Anderdon to H. E. Manning, 7 October 1822.

29 For the Manning-Anderdon correspondence from this period, see Manning papers, Bodleian Library, Ms. Eng. Lett. c. 652 ff. 76–105.

30 See Jones, J. Balliol College: A History 1263–1939 (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar, esp. ch. 14, and the same author’s ‘Sound Religion and Useful Learning: the Rise of Balliol under John Parsons and Richard Jenkyns, 1798–1854’ in Prest, J., (ed.): Balliol Studies (London, 1982), pp. 89124.Google Scholar

31 Cf. Hilton, B.: The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought 1785–1865 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 4748.Google Scholar

32 Ogilvie, Charles Atmore, 1793–1873, fellow of Balliol, 1816–34, and the first Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology, Oxford, 1842–1873. See Lee, S., (ed.): Dictionary of National Biography, XIV, (London, 1909), pp. 911912.Google Scholar

33 Purcell, op. cit., I, p. 88.

34 Quoted in Purcell, op. cit., I, p. 86.

35 Purcell, op. cit., I, p. 87.

36 See, for example, Manning papers, Bodleian Library, Ms. Eng. Lett. c. 652. 309–310, H. E. Manning to J. L. Anderdon, 13 March 1831.

37 Private information derived from Favell Bevan’s descendants.

38 Leslie, op. cit., p. 37.

39 Meyer, op. cit., p. 45.

40 Meyer, ibid.

41 Leslie, op. cit., p. 40.

42 Manning Papers, Bodleian Library, Ms. Eng. Lett. c. 652 ff. 334–41.

43 Merton College Library, Oxford, MSS. E–1–23.

44 Ker, I., Gornall, T., Tracey, G., (eds): The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman (Oxford, 1978–1984), vol. IV, p. 92 Google Scholar; H. Wilberforce to J. H. Newman, 8 November 1833.

45 LD, IV, pp. 316–317; H. Wilberforce to J. H. Newman, 1 August 1834.

46 Bodleian Library, Manning papers, Ms. Eng. Misc. e. 1393.

47 See note 33.

48 Newsome, D.: The Parting of Friends: A Study of the Wilberforces and Henry Manning (London, 1966), pp. 11516.Google Scholar

49 See Bodleian Library, Wilberforce MSS. c. 3 ff. 182–185, W. Wilberforce to J. Sargent, 18 June 1827.

50 See, e.g., Lloyd, R.: A Reply to Letters Illustrative of Recent Transactions in the Town of Midhurst, Including Two Letters from the Reverend Thomas Lloyd to the Rev. John Sargent, and an Interesting Account of the Recent Conduct and Present State of the Rev. Robert Taylor, Late Curate of Midhurst (London, 1819)Google Scholar.

51 Mozley, T.: Reminiscences Chiefly of Oriel College and the Oxford Movement (London, 1882), vol. I, p. 339 Google Scholar. I am indebted to Dr. James Garrard for this point.

52 A Catholic Priest [H. E. Manning]: ‘The Errors or Unfairness of Dr. Wiseman’, 2 letters in the British Magazine, X, November and December 1836, pp. 614–20, and 753–58 respectively. Manning, H. E.: The English Church: its Succession and Witness for Christ (London, 1835)Google Scholar. I shall discuss these points much more fully in my projected thesis, ‘Young Mr. Manning: The Anglican Theological Development of H. E. Manning, 1808–1851’ (forthcoming).