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WARDE


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WARDE


keen perception and logical faculty, trained to no small extent by debates in the Oxford Union, gave weight to his opinions, while his growing power in the metaphysical sciences wa« fitting him for the unique part which he had to play later. The Tractarian Movement began in 1833. At this time Ward wm a follower of Dr. Arnold, a latitudinarian in his prin- cijjles, and thoroughly out of touch with the views of the newer school. But, in 1S3S, he definitively changed his position, and, from standing aloof with suspicion and almost with contempt, he became a fer- vent supporter of the movement.

He joined the party then led by Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Newman; and, when the famous Tract XC appeared in 1S41, he joined i.ssue with the army of critics who attacked it, by writing two pamphlets in defence of the principles it advocated. What he did he did thoroughly; and, having taken his place among the Tractarians, he lost no occasion of employmg his skill as a dialectician. Not only among men of his own standing, but even in his mathematical classes, which not seldom ended in religious discussions, was the force of his trenchant logic felt. So much so that the authorities took fright, and after the appearance of the famous tract he was deprived of his tutorship. Thenceforward, his attitude was one in which ulti- mate submission to Rome seemed to be inevitable. When Newman retired to Littlemore, Ward be- came the most prominent figure among the Trac- tarians. In his contributions to the British Critic (1841-3) he advocated a policy of gradual assimila- tion of Catholic doctrine by which the way should be paved for corporate reunion. In 1844 he published his work entitled "The Ideal of a Christian Church considered in comparison with existing practice", in which he further elaborated his views. From this work he acquired the sobriquet of "Ideal" Ward. Shortly after the appearance of this book, on 13 Feb., 1845, he was deprived of his university degrees; and seeing the hopelessness and illogical nature of his position and the impossibility of realizing his ideal in the Establishment, he made submission to the Cathohe Church in September, 184.5, the month before that in which Newman was received. Ward retired to Old Hall, near Ware (1846) ; and after holding the chair of moral philosophy there for a year was professor of dogmatic theology in St. Edmund's College between the years 1852-8. In the latter year he published "On Nature and Grace — a Theological Treatise", containing the substance of his theological lectures.

As a contributor to, and later on as editor of, the "Dublin Review", of which he was offered the editorial chair by Cardinal Wiseman in 1863, he was a strenu- ous defender of papal authority, against DoUinger principally (1860-70), and a subtle critic of the tenets of the "E^^1erience School" as exemplified in the teaching of .lohn Stti.art Mill and .\lexander Bain. After the death of Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. Ward, keenly alive to the circumstances and needs of the restored hierarchy, strongly advocated the appoint- ment of Dr. Manning. He was a prominent member and, indeed, a co-founder with Mr. James Knowles, of the Metaphy.sical Society (1869); of which, in the following year, he became the president. This so- ciety embraced representatives of almost every pos- sible shade of thought and intellectual bias. The names of .such members as Huxley, Tj-ndall, Mar- tincau, Leslie Stephen, Frederic Harri.son, Ruskin, John Morley, and Cardinal Manning are a sufficient inilication of its heterogeneous nature. In 1878, his health compelled him to resign the important post which he held as editor of the historic "Diiblin Review," a position in which he had a unique opportunity of using his great gifts in defence of the Church .and the philosophical bases of the Faith. His contributions to the philosophy of Theism are valuable .and solid. In Im attitude be may be described as a thorough


representative of the demonstrative school: but he lays the greatest stress upon the distinction between exjjlicit and implicit reason. He follows Newman, and especially Kleutgen, in tracing the genesis of cer- titude: but he is clear in his teaching that all implicit reasoning is capable of being formally and ex-plicitly expressed, that the whole of theistic teaching can be so presented as to claim the assent of all reasoning men.

Ward. William George Ward and the Oxford Movement (Lon- don, 18S9);Idem, William George Ward and the Catholic Remval (London, 1893); Church, The Oxford Movement (London, 1891); Barry, in Dublin Review (July, 1912).

Francis Aveling.

Warde, Mart Francis Xavier, b. at Belbrook House, ISiountrath, Queen's County, Ireland, 1810; d. at Manchester, N. II., 17 Sept., 1884. Left mother- less in infancy, she was confided to the care of a maternal grand-aunt who undertook the formation of her religious character according to the method of Fdnelon. Naturally of a gay disposition, she was carried away by the frivolities of fashionable life until her scruples led her to confide in her director. She followed his advice in offering her services to the foundress of the Congi-egation of the Sisters of Mercy, whom she assisted in instructing the little inmates of the House for Homeless Children recently erected. Assuming the plain black habit of the institution in 1828, she conducted the affairs of the home while Mother McAuley and two foundress companions were making their novitiate in the Presentation Con- vent of George's Hill preparatory to the founding of the new congregation. After their return as professed Sisters of Mercy she and six companions assumed the garb of the congregation.

In 1837 Sister Mary Francis Xavier was appointed superior of the convent at Carlow, which had been built under her supervision and was the first house of the congregation outside of Dublin. In 1839 she founded the convent of Naas and in 1840 that of Weyford, to which soon after its estabhshmcnt the public orphan a.sylum was affiliated. From Wex- ford foundations have been sent out as far as Aus- traUa. The convent of Sligo is perhaps the most noteworthy of her Irish foundations on account of its flourishing training-school for teachers. In 1843 Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh applied to Carlow for a foundation for his diocese, and Mother Warde with a band of six left for America. At Pittsburgh the sisters took charge of the cathedral Sunday school and the instruction of adults. Mother Warde'a power of language and sympathy allied to ardent zeal won many to the Church. Parochial schools and academies, visitation of the sick poor in their houses and in the poor house, visitation of the penitentiary, and the opening of the first hospital in Pittsburgh followed each other in rapid succession. In 1846 a foundation was made in Chicago in comphance with Mother Warde's promise to Bishop Quarter. In 1848 she opened a second branch house in the Alle- ghanies on land given by the Reverend Demetrius GaUitzen within the limits of his Catholic settlement of Loretto. In 1850, though the " Knownothings" had recently burned the convent of the Ursulines near Bo.ston, Mother Warde accepted the invitation of Bishop O'Reilly of Hartford to ojten a house in Provi- dence. After the sisters' installation a mob sur- rounded the convent, threatening them with death if they would not immediately vacate the premises. Mother Warde exacted a promise from each of their Catholic defenders that no shot would be fired except in self defence, and the sisters held iiossession of the convent. One of the rioters had remarked to his companions: "We made our plans without reckoning the odds we shall have to contend with in the strong controlling force the presence of that nun commands. The only honourable course for us is to retreat from this