NOTES SELECTIONS FROM "APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA" PAGE r 1 Dr. Isaac Watts (1674-1748). In his time one of the most popular of the serious prose writers, but best known now by his hymns. 2 émigré. This term was almost Anglicized after the French Revolution, so great was the number of refugees from France who went into England to earn a living. English literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has many sympathetic allusions to them. Mrs. Mitford's Our Village has a delightful sketch of an exiled abbé. Miss Burney, the author of Evelina, married an émigré, and the émigrés of Thackeray are classical. - MS. When I was at Littlemore. The reality of conversion, as 3 Mrs. Radcliffe's or Miss Porter's. Mrs. Radcliffe, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho, who with Beckford and Maturin formed the School of Terror. Miss Jane Porter, whose Thaddeus of Warsaw is claimed by some to be the first historical novel. Paine's Tracts against the Old Testament. Thomas Paine (1737-1809), author of The Age of Reason. David Hume (1711-1776). Philosopher and historian. His treatise on miracles has been superseded by Newman's. He in his philosophic system attempted" to introduce the PAGE 1 experimental method into moral subjects." He is best known by his History of England. Voltaire (1694-1778). See note on p. 129. 4 Rev. Walter Mayers (1790-1828). Minister at Old Brentford, 1814. He was stationed successively at Brampton, and Over-worton. Life and Sermons: London, 1831. Romaine, William (1714-1795). His ideas on the spiritual life are perhaps best shown in The Life of Faith, 1763; The Walk of Faith, 1771; and The Triumph of Faith, 1795. He was an extremist on the doctrine of election and justification by faith. He was an ardent follower of Whitefield, an enthusiast who hated the formalism of the Anglican Church, and was called by John Wesley "a truly sympathizing spirit." He was a great favorite with the poor, but no favorite with his aristocratic parishioners in Hanover Square. He was a clergyman of the Church of England to the end of his life, though his apparently immoderate enthusiasm disgusted many of his brethren. His scholarship is attested by his edition of the Hebrew Concordance of Marius de Calasio. He looked on Wesley's opinions on free will and perfection as savoring of the Roman Catholic doctrine that works are necessary to faith. He held Calvin's views on predestination. He was accused of leading to antinomianism. 5 Thomas Scott (1747-1821). "A few torn Latin books' gave him his impetus towards scholarship. The Force of Truth, edited for its style by the poet Cowper, is a most interesting autobiography of a spiritual progress. It is a progenitor of the Apologia, and Newman confesses his indebtedness to Scott. It shows Scott's evolution from Unitarianism to extreme fervor. He himself was greatly influenced by his friend, John Newton. His great work is the commentary on the Bible, to which Newman also alludes. In contrast to Romaine, Scott was a forceful opponent to antinomianism. Daniel Wilson (1778–1858). He was bigoted, ardent, and were PAGE Athanasian Creed. By this name is commonly called the confession of faith in the breviary, which is said on Sunday at prime. Its proper designation would seem to be "Fides Catholica," but in the Council of Autun it was called the faith of the holy prelate Athanasius. Antinomianism. The belief that faith alone is necessary to salvation. Agricola, one of Luther's disciples, carried it to a great extreme. Melanchthon was especially opposed to it. The tendency of the antinomians has always been to ignore the ten commandments, and to look on Moses, the law-giver, as some of the Greeks looked on Socrates before they poisoned him with hemlock. St. James's "Faith without works is dead" is to them a maxim of horror. 6 William Law (1686-1761). Anglican divine, devoted to the Stuarts. He was a great admirer of Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ and of many other Catholic mystical works. His attack on the theatres of his time was furious and bitter. His Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, adapted to the State and Condition of All Orders of Christians, 1728, influenced Dr. Johnson's religious opinions; it is very well written, and presents ideas of daily living very simply and deeply. The characters, Miranda and Flora, were drawn from Gibbon's aunts. "Many of his portraits," Gibbon says, "are not unworthy of La Bruyère." 7 Joseph Milner (1744-1797) was an Anglican divine with a tendency toward ardor and zeal which was looked on as Methodistical. His History of the Church of Christ was an attempt to show that the history of the Church was not merely a narrative of theological dispute, as writers, following Gibbon, had made it. This work was continued by his brother Isaac and the Reverend John Scott. Samuel Maitland, the author of the famous Dark Ages, pointed out some errors in the Waldensian part of it. St. Augustine. See note on p. 201. St. Ambrose (340-397). Bishop of Milan; friend of St. Augustine. He braved the Emperor Theodosius for the sake of humanity. Thomas Newton (1704-1782). Bishop of Bristol. Editor of Milton's Paradise Lost. In 1754 he published Dissertations on the Prophecies, which have been remarkably fulfilled, and are at this time fulfilling in the world. 8 Richard Whately (1787-1863). Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. Dr. Whately's Logic is well known for its style and careful structure; but historically it is weak, and its treatment of the schoolmen and the scientific method is very intolerant. His theological opinions tended towards agnosticism, before that word was invented. He denied the logical necessity of the death of our Lord and the resurrection of the body. (See Dict. Nat. Biography.) He PAGE neither avowed nor disavowed the Letters on the Church by an Episcopalian, written in his admirable style. Dr. Edward Hawkins (1789-1882) was a fellow and provost of Oriel College for over sixty years. His sermon cart preached on May 31, 1818, on the Use and Importance of Un-authoritative Tradition made a most serious impression on Newman (Apologia, p. 372). He opposed the Tractarian Movement, and was appointed to draw up the condemnation of Tract Ninety. 9 The Reverend John Bird Sumner (1780-1862) was named Archbishop of Canterbury by Lord John Russell in 1848. He was liked and assisted by the Duke of Wellington, and although not sympathetic with the demands of Catholics in England, his appointment by Lord John Russell shows this, he voted for the amelioration of many stringent laws. He concurred in the judgment of the Privy Council that a clergyman of the Church of England need not believe in baptismal regeneration. The best known of his theological works is Apostolical Preaching, Considered in an Examination of St. Paul's Epistles, of which ten editions have been printed. Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841). Descended from an Irish family, settled in Spain and entered the priesthood. He became an unbeliever, left Spain for England, and entered the Anglican Church. He was а "Protestant champion." At Oxford he became one of the circle of Whately, Hurrell Froude, and Newman, who sympathized with his musical tastes. The conflict in his mind between Catholicity and the Anglican opinion sent him into Unitarianism. As a literary man he is best known by his sonnets. "This gentleman, who had been called Blanco in Spain, which was a translation of his family name White, and who afterward wrote an excellent English book of entertaining letters on the Peninsula, under the GraecoSpanish appellation of Don Leucadio Doblardo (White Doubled), was author of a sonnet (Night) which Coleridge pronounced to be the best in the English language. I know not what Mr. Wordsworth said to this judgment. Perhaps he wrote fifty sonnets on the spot to disprove it. Indeed it was a bold sentence, and probably spoken out of a kindly though unconscious spirit of exaggeration. The sonnet, nevertheless, is truly beautiful." - Autobiography, Leigh Hunt. The sonnet begins: 'Mysterious night, when the first man but knew. by chest dir 10 Butler's Analogy. Joseph Butler (1692-1752) in 1725 be- pare PAGE Bristol, induced the rumor that he became a Catholic before his death. There is nothing to support this rumor. Mr. Gladstone in his preface to the Analogy speaks of the works of Butler as "classics in the philosophic theology of England." By some writers the Analogy is regarded as a help to unbelief. 13 anti-Erastian. Thomas Erastus (1524-1583). A physician and Protestant theologian. He denied the right of the Church to excommunicate or to inflict penalties. His name has been given to the party in the English Church that believes in state supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. Hurrell Froude (1803–1836). The elder brother of James Anthony Froude, the historian. A clergyman of the Anglican Church. He was threatened with consumption and went abroad accompanied by Newman His contributions to the Lyra Apostolica are signed "B." He wrote three of the Tracts for the Times. In his Remains Froude says (p. 404), "We are Catholics without Popery, and Church of England men without Protestantism.' He died before Newman's conversion. The Remains seem to show that he was on the road to the Catholic Church. 14 Arianizing. The most startling declarations of Arius were that the Son of God was not the same substance as the Father, that he had not always existed, and that he was not impeccable. Bishop (George) Bull (1634-1709). Defensio Fidei Nicaenae, ex scriptis quae extant Catholicorum Doctorum, etc. 15 Reverend Conyers Middleton (1683-1750). Anglican clergy- wonderful man, a holy man, a very refined man, and, to me, Lord Grey (1764-1845). A Whig statesman, believer in 16 Blomfield, Charles James (1786–1857), Bishop of London. |