Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Newman, John Henry

NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY; born in London, England, Feb. 21, 1801; was ordained in 1824, and in the following year his friend Dr. Whately having been appointed head of St. Alban's Hall, Newman was by him selected as his vice principal. He was one of the most active in commencing and carrying on the so-called Oxford movement—the great object of which was to counteract as well the Romanizing as the dissenting tendencies of the time, by restoring and bringing into notice what Newman and his friends believed to be the catholic character of the English Church. With this view he commenced, in 1833, the series known as the “Oxford Tracts,” to which he was himself one of the chief contributors; and in 1838 he also became editor of the “British Critic.” In October, 1845, he was admitted into the Roman Catholic Church, a step which was immediately followed by the publication of a work on the “Development of Christian Doctrine.” Soon afterward he went to Rome, where, after some preparation, he was admitted to orders in the Roman Catholic Church; and in 1848, on his return to England, he established a branch of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, of which he was himself appointed the superior. In 1852 he was appointed rector of the Catholic University established in Dublin; and in 1879 he was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. Newman was an opponent of ultramontanism. Among his works written after 1845 were “Callista,” a tale; “Apology for my Life,” “Essay on Assent,” “History of Arianism,” etc. Several of his hymns are well known, particularly “Lead, Kindly Light,” He died Aug. 11, 1890.