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JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

In one way this was a failure, his Cardinal-deaconship being a somewhat empty honour, and he never acquired any real influence in his adopted Church, such as has been wielded by the rival English Cardinal. It is, indeed, curious to reflect that Newman's theological thoughts on the necessary development of religious truth should have led him into the fold of the Church which practically negatives the possibility of such development. There is clearly no field in her economy for the theological thinker; the Pope's infallibility renders such efforts nugatory. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the late Cardinal's work as a literary artist was mainly performed in his Catholic period. His novels, the Dream of Gerontius, the Idea of a University, the Grammar of Assent, even the Apologia itself, were all products of his Catholic period. Except the Lyra and the sermons—but what an exception is there!—the chief works by which he will be remembered were written within the Church of his adoption. And his life in that Church, when it comes to be told, must surely be more full of human and natural interest than the somewhat morbid and gloomy period that closed in 1845.