While I was engaged with these concluding pages, I received another
of those special encouragements, which from several quarters have been
bestowed upon me, since my controversy began. It was the extraordinary
honour done me of an address from the clergy of this large diocese, who
had been assembled for the Synod.
It was followed two days afterwards by a most gracious testimonial
from my Bishop, Dr. Ullathorne, in the shape of a letter which he wrote
to me, and also inserted in the Birmingham papers. With his leave I
transfer it to my own volume, as a very precious document, completing
and recompensing, in a way most grateful to my feelings, the anxious
work which has occupied me so fully for nearly ten weeks.
“Bishop's House, June 2, 1864.
“My dear Dr. Newman,—It was with warm gratification that, after the
close of the Synod yesterday, I listened to the Address presented to
you by the clergy of the diocese, and to your impressive reply. But I
should have been little satisfied with the part of the silent listener,
except on the understanding with myself that I also might afterwards
express to you my own sentiments in my own way.
“We have now been personally acquainted, and much more than
acquainted, for nineteen years, during more than sixteen of which we
have stood in special relation of duty towards each other. This has
been one of the singular blessings which God has given me amongst the
cares of the Episcopal office. What my feelings of respect, of
confidence, and of affection have been towards you, you know well, nor
should I think of expressing them in words. But there is one thing that
has struck me in this day of explanations, which you could not, and
would not, be disposed to do, and which no one could do so properly or
so authentically as I could, and which it seems to me is not altogether
uncalled for, if every kind of erroneous impression that some persons
have entertained with no better evidence than conjecture is to be
removed.
“It is difficult to comprehend how, in the face of facts, the notion
should ever have arisen that, during your Catholic life, you have been
more occupied with your own thoughts than with the service of religion
and the work of the Church. If we take no other work into consideration
beyond the written productions which your Catholic pen has given to the
world, they are enough for the life's labour of another. There are the
Lectures on Anglican Difficulties, the Lectures on Catholicism in
England, the great work on the Scope and End of University Education,
that on the Office and Work of Universities, the Lectures and Essays on
University Subjects, and the two Volumes of Sermons; not to speak of
your contributions to the Atlantis, which you founded, and to other
periodicals; then there are those beautiful offerings to Catholic
literature, the Lectures on the Turks, Loss and Gain, and Callista, and
though last, not least, the Apologia, which is destined to put many
idle rumours to rest, and many unprofitable surmises; and yet all these
productions represent but a portion of your labour, and that in the
second half of your period of public life.
“These works have been written in the midst of labour and cares of
another kind, and of which the world knows very little. I will specify
four of these undertakings, each of a distinct character, and any one
of which would have made a reputation for untiring energy in the
practical order.
“The first of these undertakings was the establishment of the
congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri—that great ornament and
accession to the force of English Catholicity. Both the London and the
Birmingham Oratory must look to you as their founder and as the
originator of their characteristic excellences; whilst that of
Birmingham has never known any other presidency.
“No sooner was this work fairly on foot than you were called by the
highest authority to commence another, and one of yet greater magnitude
and difficulty, the founding of a University in Ireland. After the
Universities had been lost to the Catholics of these kingdoms for three
centuries, everything had to be begun from the beginning: the idea of
such an institution to be inculcated, the plan to be formed that would
work, the resources to be gathered, and the staff of superiors and
professors to be brought together. Your name was then the chief point
of attraction which brought these elements together. You alone know
what difficulties you had to conciliate and what to surmount, before
the work reached that state of consistency and promise, which enabled
you to return to those responsibilities in England which you had never
laid aside or suspended. And here, excuse me if I give expression to a
fancy which passed through my mind.
“I was lately reading a poem, not long published, from the MSS. De
Rerum Natura, by Neckham, the foster-brother of Richard the
Lion-hearted. He quotes an old prophecy, attributed to Merlin, and with
a sort of wonder, as if recollecting that England owed so much of its
literary learning to that country; and the prophecy says that after
long years Oxford will pass into Ireland—'Vada boum suo tempore
transibunt in Hiberniam.' When I read this, I could not but indulge the
pleasant fancy that in the days when the Dublin University shall arise
in material splendour, an allusion to this prophecy might form a poetic
element in the inscription on the pedestal of the statue which
commemorates its first Rector.
“The original plan of an oratory did not contemplate any parochial
work, but you could not contemplate so many souls in want of pastors
without being prompt and ready at the beck of authority to strain all
your efforts in coming to their help. And this brings me to the third
and the most continuous of those labours to which I have alluded. The
mission in Alcester Street, its church and schools, were the first work
of the Birmingham Oratory. After several years of close and hard work,
and a considerable call upon the private resources of the Fathers who
had established this congregation, it was delivered over to other
hands, and the Fathers removed to the district of Edgbaston, where up
to that time nothing Catholic had appeared. Then arose under your
direction the large convent of the Oratory, the church expanded by
degrees into its present capaciousness, a numerous congregation has
gathered and grown in it; poor schools and other pious institutions
have grown up in connection with it, and, moreover, equally at your
expense and that of your brethren, and, as I have reason to know, at
much inconvenience, the Oratory has relieved the other clergy of
Birmingham all this while by constantly doing the duty in the
poor-house and gaol of Birmingham.
“More recently still, the mission and the poor school at Smethwick
owe their existence to the Oratory. And all this while the founder and
father of these religious works has added to his other solicitudes the
toil of frequent preaching, of attendance in the confessional, and
other parochial duties.
“I have read on this day of its publication the seventh part of the
Apologia, and the touching allusion in it to the devotedness of the
Catholic clergy to the poor in seasons of pestilence reminds me that
when the cholera raged so dreadfully at Bilston, and the two priests of
the town were no longer equal to the number of cases to which they were
hurried day and night, I asked you to lend me two fathers to supply the
place of other priests whom I wished to send as a further aid. But you
and Father St. John preferred to take the place of danger which I had
destined for others, and remained at Bilston till the worst was over.
“The fourth work which I would notice is one more widely known. I
refer to the school for the education of the higher classes, which at
the solicitation of many friends you have founded and attached to the
Oratory. Surely after reading this bare enumeration of work done, no
man will venture to say that Dr. Newman is leading a comparatively
inactive life in the service of the Church.
“To spare, my dear Dr. Newman, any further pressure on those
feelings with which I have already taken so large a liberty, I will
only add one word more for my own satisfaction. During our long
intercourse there is only one subject on which, after the first
experience, I have measured my words with some caution, and that has
been where questions bearing on ecclesiastical duty have arisen. I
found some little caution necessary, because you were always so prompt
and ready to go even beyond the slightest intimation of my wish or
desires.
“That God may bless you with health, life, and all the spiritual
good which you desire, you and your brethren of the Oratory, is the
earnest prayer now and often of, my dear Dr. Newman, your affectionate
friend and faithful servant in Christ,
“+ W. B. ULLATHORNE.”