Book Review: "John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed"

Please note, I purchased this book from Eighth Day Books: John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed by Ida Friederike Gorres. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2024.

Edited and with an introduction by Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz

Translated by Jennifer S. Bryson

Contents:

Translator's Preface 

• Quotations and Citations: Hunting and Reverse Engineering
• "Dark, 17" and Detective Work
• The Citations: Layers of Complications
• Orthography: A Patchwork Quilt
• Acknowledgements

Introduction: A New Discovery. Ida Friederike Gorres on Newman

• Hagiography: A Segment of Gorres' Life's Work
• A New Discovery: A Newman Draft
• The Postwar Period: Exiting the Ark, Friendship with Newman Specialist Father Breucha
• Searching for What is Distinctive about This Book
• Circling Back Later On
• Unique Approach

The Book:

I. The Life of Newman

    1. The Man Who Was Sacrificed

        An Initial Reconnaissance of His Life

    2. The Golden Apple

    3. Newman's Religious and Human Character in Letters and Sketches

    4. Passion for the Truth

    5. Taking Christianity Seriously: The Tracts and Sermons

    6. Rome: A Mix of Hatred and Love

    7. Newman Brought Low

    8. Newman's Piety

    9. Two Poems by Newman ("The Two Worlds" The Oratory, 1862; The Death of Moses" Off Ithaca, December 30, 1832)

II. Conscience

    10. On Conscience

III. Encore

    11. A Sketch of the Life of Newman

Appendix A: Timeline of the Life of John Henry Newman

Appendix Be: Timeline of the Life of Ida Friederike Gorres

Register of Persons

Bibliography 

Index

This book takes me back, takes me way back to the January of 1979 when I attended the Newman School of Catholic Thought at (then named) St. Paul's Parish-Newman Center. From Ida Friederike Gorres I hear, among other things, what many of the college students, including me, there and then cried out: "Why didn't the Catholic Church in England listen to Newman? Why didn't they support his goals to revive Catholicism in Victorian England and beyond by engaging the laity, especially young men and women? Why did the leaders of Church relegate him to the Oratory in Birmingham? Why did they waste his talents?"

As Gorres examines the sacrifice(s) of Newman's life, she notes not only his loss of friends, family and influence because of his conversion to Catholicism, but how he sacrificed his intellect to the Truth, by not discovering it through his efforts but to finding what was objectively true and outside himself, so that he had to decrease so that He could increase. 

In the chapter on Rome (6.), I was impressed by Gorres' explanation of how the Vatican's over site of justice and order in Rome (and in the Papal States) caused Newman great difficulty: he saw "Roman corruptions" and "priestly rule" creating "physical and moral distress" (pp. 142-145), and that influenced his distaste for the Papacy. (But was England that much better at that time: debtors prisons, poor houses, and slums?, she notes.)

In the chapter "Newman Brought Low", Gorres contrasts how the hierarchy wasted his talents with how the laity wrote to him for advise and counsel, as he answered thousands of letter from potential converts to Catholicism, Catholics asking for spiritual direction, etc. So while he sacrificed the larger influence he could have had, he was sought out nonetheless.

As does Father William R. Lamm, Gorres offers excellent insights into Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons at Oxford and his wonderful efforts to lead his congregation, especially the students, to take "Christianity Seriously", to make it real for them and to impact their lives. In that context, and with the success of his efforts, Gorres frames the famous Tract 90, as Newman sought a firmer foundation for the doctrinal and liturgical reform of the Church of England. (Chapter 5)

Overall, however, I wanted more context for why, in 1940s Germany, Gorres was so attracted to Newman. She travelled to the Oratory in Birmingham in 1949, as the Introduction notes, and much of her research and reading into Newman took place between 1944 and 1949. I was surprised to read that there was a conference coinciding with the one hundred anniversary of Newman's conversion in Cologne, Germany when a similar celebratory conference couldn't be held in England during World War II, according to the Catholic University of America's American Essays for the Newman Centennial! (In the Introduction to that book, Father John K. Ryan is as certain that Newman would never be seriously considered a canonized saint as Gorres (in Chapter I of this book) is that Newman would be canonized and should be considered a Doctor of the Church! She's correct on one point so far, and both the UK and US bishops have presented arguments for the second point to the Vatican.)

Then in post-war years Gorres found a mentor in Newman studies, Father Breucha, and she was deeply involved in the Synod of Wurzburg in 1971, collapsing after defending the Catholic doctrine and Sacrament of Marriage. I need to purchase and read her book The Church and the Flesh from Cluny Media, translated by Bryson, I suppose, to understand the context further since Newman is cited several times in that book, evidently. Bread Grows in Winter: Six Essays on the Crisis in the Church from 1970 might be helpful to me too. And her defense of Marriage at the Synod (meaning it was under attack, right?) is forthcoming from Catholic University of America Press (What Binds Marriage Forever: Reflections on the Indissolubility of Marriage), also translated by Bryson. A Letter to the Church and the response to it is also cited. Here's more about forthcoming translation of books by Gorres, etc.

So, as usual, one book leads to another, and another. For example, I'm already browsing a copy of John Henry Newman: Centenary Essays (1945), edited by Father Henry Tristram of the Oratory, highlighted in the bibliography and elsewhere in this volume as one of Gorres' sources (remember, she didn't have the newmanreader.org with almost everything Newman wrote at her fingertips!) 

Gorres succeeded remarkably well with the sources she had to present a saintly and human portrait of Newman. I recommend John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed most highly. In fact, I've already ordered two more copies from Eighth Day Books as gifts!

Belloc on Wolsey and Cranmer

Os Justi Press is carrying two books by Hilaire Belloc: Wolsey and Cranmer. They have been brought back into print by Mysterium Press in the U.K. The U.K. publisher has sent me copies of both books to read!

As the publisher describes the book about Wolsey:

In Christendom on the eve of its destruction, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was to be identified with England. In one hand was held the ropes of Church and State, and when he fell what he had made was used to destroy all that he had known. A peerless administrator who blundered abroad but remained supreme at home, Wolsey's intelligence and industry were matched by his ambition and myopia, and his inability to comprehend the inmost thoughts of man proved fatal. Master historian Hilaire Belloc paints a portrait of the low-born cleric who might have stopped the Reformation, but who in putting himself first, and distracted by the closest thing to hand, unwittingly steered England toward its ruin.

Belloc has not written biographies per se but studies about each man's role in the events of Henry VIII's reign and (in the case of Cranmer) Edward VI's.

In his study of Wolsey, for example, Belloc casts his story as a tragedy, with chapters titled The Stage, The Programme, The Plot, The Cast, and five Acts with an Interlude. Wolsey is his tragic hero with fatal flaws: lack of vision in spite of his intelligence and the "defect of ambition . . . the putting of oneself before one's chief task". (p. 3) Belloc narrates this tragic play in declarative, positive sentences even as he explains the complex and different world of Renaissance England and Europe, with the concentration of wealth, the powers of the Church, the aura of the princes, and divisions in Christendom in the background as the drama of Henry VIII's marital issues proceeded. He wants to help the reader understand "the mood" of a past era. Note that he wrote Wolsey and Cranmer in the 1930's.

Among the cast members are Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon (who possessed the courage of her mother without the astuteness of her father); Anne Boleyn, whom Belloc believes is older; Thomas Howard, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; three popes: Leo X, Adrian VI, and Clement VII; Francis I; Charles V; Lawrence Campeggio, the Papal Legate ("that kind of man to whom all men listen with respect and whom--since the fall of man--nobody follows", p. 79); Bainbridge, Cardinal and Archbishop of York (Wolsey's predecessor) who died in 1514 so that Wolsey could succeed him in those offices; Richard Foxe of Winchester; and Thomas Cromwell, the Supplanter.

Contradicting Mantel, Belloc posits Cromwell as the cause of Wolsey's fall; Henry VIII was still concerned about Wolsey's health and well-being even as offices and wealth were being taken away from him. Belloc describes Cromwell weeping after Wolsey's fall, mourning "the loss of goods; he complained that his service to his old master had impoverished him", so he went to see Henry VIII and then "he begins to supplant his master." (p. 240) Belloc ends his examination of Cromwell's character that he ended up "by the ax and whining for life."!

Reading this review of the characters reminded me that Anna Mitchell and I did a long series in 2017/18 on Belloc's Characters of the Reformation on the Son Rise Morning Show. Belloc excels at this kind of analysis.

Note that neither Thomas More nor Bishop John Fisher play any role in Belloc's telling; Belloc is more interested in Stephen Gardiner replacing Wolsey as Secretary to the King than More becoming Chancellor after his Wolsey's fall from favor (that's not even mentioned).

Belloc's Wolsey is a fascinating interpretation of the career of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, his energy, his ambition and ability, his flaws, and his ultimate tragedy: setting England on the path of separation from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Belloc avers that for all his faults, Wolsey made a good death with all the Sacraments for the dying in his last illness, had been concerned for necessary reforms in the Church, and certainly would not have wanted to see Catholicism destroyed in England as it would be after his errors in responding to Henry VIII's matrimonial desires. 

There is no index and no bibliography, because Belloc didn't provide them,  I presume. There are some notes from A to K on matters like Wolsey's and Anne Boleyn's dates of birth, prices during Wolsey's time, the Duke of Buckingham's claim to the throne and Wolsey's role in his fall and execution, etc.

Whether or not I--or you when you read the book--agree with all of Belloc's interpretation of Wolsey's years of power, we must agree Frederick Wilhelmson's commendation of Belloc's achievements:

Time prohibits my detailing Belloc’s revolution in English historical writing. Suffice it to say — and this is said formally and altogether without rhetorical emphasis — that one man, Hilaire Belloc, turned the whole writing of British history around. Since Belloc, nobody can get away with understanding the Reformation as the work of high‑minded souls bent on liberty and democracy, noble souls who brought England out of the darkness of Catholic superstition and medieval obscurantism. Others footnoted Belloc and traded on his vision. They did well in doing so, but the vision was his — as was the persecution of silence that followed on his work.

The publication of this book--and the study of Cranmer which I'll read and review next--is another step in ending "the persecution of silence". Mysterium Press hopes to publish more of the Belloc's histories. (I'd really like to read his take on James II!) The books are high quality hardcovers, with nice sturdy paper and clear typefaces. Highly recommended.

Saint Robert Southwell's Nativity Poems

As readers of this blog know, I have posted often about Saint Robert Southwell, SJ; his life, his martyrdom, and his poetry. As the celebration of Christmas draws nearer, I'm reading some of his poems about the Nativity of Our Lord in this collection of poetry by the English Catholic martyrs of the Reformation era, from Saint Thomas More to Blessed Nicholas Postgate, with an appendix of the poetry of Catholics like Chidiock Tichborne (not a martyr but related to two Venerable martyrs, Father Thomas Tichborne and his brother Nicholas). The collection was first published in 1934, compiled by The Rev. Sir John R. O'Connell of Ireland (1868-December 28, 1943), who wrote the Preface with a Foreword by Francis Cardinal Bourne, the fourth Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. This second edition was Expanded and Revised with an Introduction by Benedict J. Whalen.

In this article from the Catholic Exchange, Louise Merrie writes about "A Martyred Saint’s Christmastime Poetry":

In his Nativity poems, Saint Robert Southwell wrote about his love for the Infant Jesus, Jesus’ love for us, and the amazing meaning of His Incarnation—even though Jesus came to us as a baby, He was still powerful because of His Divinity. This Christmas Season is an ideal time for Catholics to read Saint Robert’s poems on the Infant Jesus.

“The Burning Babe” may be Saint Robert Southwell’s most famous poem. It begins with a vision of the baby Jesus on a cold winter’s day, Christmas day. Jesus glows brightly with the warmth of His love, but crying, says, “Yet none approach to warm their hearts/Or feel my fire, but I.” Although written many years before Jesus’ revelations of His Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary, the imagery and message are similar to the Sacred Heart devotion and the words of the Litany referring to Jesus’ Sacred Heart as a “burning furnace of charity.”

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,

Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;

Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed

As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.

“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,

Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!

My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,

Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;

The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,

The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,

For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,

      So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”

      With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,

      And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

“New Heaven, New War” is set in the stable of Bethlehem, where angels honor and care for the baby Jesus, in his new earthly home. Although seemingly helpless as a baby in His human nature, Jesus is powerful in His Divine nature, and has come to defeat the forces of evil. “This little Babe so few days old, /Is come to rifle Satan’s fold;… For in this weak unarmed wise, /The gates of hell he will surprise.”

Come to your heaven, you heavenly choirs,

Earth hath the heaven of your desires.

Remove your dwelling to your God;

A stall is now his best abode.

Sith men their homage do deny,

Come, angels, all their fault supply.

His chilling cold doth heat require;

Come, seraphins, in lieu of fire.

This little ark no cover hath;

Let cherubs’ wings his body swathe.

Come, Raphael, this babe must eat;

Provide our little Toby meat.

Let Gabriel be now his groom,

That first took up his earthly room.

Let Michael stand in his defense,

Whom love hath linked to feeble sense.

Let graces rock when he doth cry,

And angels sing his lullaby.

The same you saw in heavenly seat

Is he that now sucks Mary’s teat;

Agnize your king a mortal wight,

His borrowed weed lets not your sight.

Come, kiss the manger where he lies,

That is your bliss above the skies.

This little babe, so few days old,

Is come to rifle Satan’s fold;

All hell doth at his presence quake.

Though he himself for cold do shake,

For in this weak unarmèd wise

The gates of hell he will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field;

His naked breast stands for a shield;

His battering shot are babish cries,

His arrows looks of weeping eyes,

His martial ensigns cold and need,

And feeble flesh his warrior’s steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall,

His bulwark but a broken wall,

The crib his trench, hay stalks his stakes,

Of shepherds he his muster makes;

And thus, as sure his foe to wound,

The angels’ trumps alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;

Stick to the tents that he hath pight;

Within his crib is surest ward,

This little babe will be thy guard.

If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,

Then flit not from this heavenly boy.

She also highlights this beautiful devotional poem, "A Child My Choice":

Let folly praise that fancy loves, I praise and love that Child
Whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word, whose hand no deed defiled.

I praise Him most, I love Him best, all praise and love is His;
While Him I love, in Him I live, and cannot live amiss.

Love's sweetest mark, laud's highest theme, man's most desired light,
To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him delight.

He mine by gift, I His by debt, thus each to other due;
First friend He was, best friend He is, all times will try Him true.

Though young, yet wise; though small, yet strong; though man, yet God He is:
As wise, He knows; as strong, He can; as God, He loves to bless.

His knowledge rules, His strength defends, His love doth cherish all;
His birth our joy, His life our light, His death our end of thrall.

Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants, yet do His angels sing;
Out of His tears, His sighs and throbs, doth bud a joyful spring.

Almighty Babe, whose tender arms can force all foes to fly,
Correct my faults, protect my life, direct me when I die!

Saint Robert Southwell, pray for us!