One of the Best Books of 2025: "The Most Dangerous Man in England"

I've read many, many books about Saint John Henry Newman and nearly all them have added to my knowledge of this great saint and Doctor of the Church. Last year, I bought and read a copy of "The Most Dangerous Man in England": Newman and the Laity by Paul Shrimpton, published by Word on Fire Academic, and it certainly did fulfill that purpose. The publisher's book description:

Once described by the papal chamberlain George Talbot as “the most dangerous man in England,” John Henry Newman held bold views on the laity that challenged the ecclesial status quo of his day. But what exactly made his ideas so provocative? And what relevance do they have today?

In “The Most Dangerous Man in England”: Newman and the Laity, Paul Shrimpton examines Newman’s revolutionary perspective on the laity’s role in the Church and in the world. More than just an analysis of Newman’s writings, this work tells the story of the great saint’s dealings with lay men and women throughout his long and eventful life, revealing Newman’s lively insights, genius for friendship, and deep humanity. Shrimpton traces Newman’s journey from his influential years at Oxford to his leadership at the Birmingham Oratory, from the founding of the Catholic University in Ireland to his controversial efforts to establish a “Catholic Eton,” a boys’ school attached to the Birmingham Oratory. Through these episodes, Newman emerges as an example to pastors for how to work with and for the laity, as well as an example to laypeople for how to carry out a Christian apostolate through friendship. Shrimpton also shows how Newman’s emphasis on education for laypeople and the universal call to holiness anticipates the teachings of Vatican II by well over a century.

The whole Church, pastors and laity, should take note of the words and works of this great modern intellectual and Christian humanist. Newman’s vision has the potential to revitalize and empower every man and woman to embrace their mission to sanctify the world.

Paul Shrimpton has brought together his studies (A Catholic Eton? Newman's Oratory School (2005) and The “Making of Men”: The Idea and Reality of Newman's University in Oxford and Dublin (2015)) of Newman, his schools and a wide range of Newman's Anglican and Catholic interactions with and interventions for the laity in this magnificently comprehensive study.

There were probably some Anglicans who thought Newman was a dangerous man as he wrote the Tracts for the Times and argued for the apostolic authority of the Anglican bishops. After he became a Catholic, some Anglicans deplored the men and women who followed him as converts. But it was among the English Catholic hierarchy, some of the more ultramontane Catholic converts, and some of the old Recusant Catholic families that he was regarded as "the most dangerous man in England" because of their fear of the young, well-educated (Oxford and Cambridge) lay men and women whom Newman wanted to help, mostly through education and formation.

Shrimpton begins in Chapter 2, "Newman's Anglican Years, 1801-1845", with the Oxford years, highlighting Newman's service as a pastor to the Anglican congregations in matters of life and death, his efforts to educate his pupils as Tutor at Oriel College (in which he was thwarted by Whately), and of course his Tractarian movement efforts.

After Newman's conversion, Shrimpton emphasizes as much or more than Placid Murray, OSB in Newman the Oratorian: Oratory Papers 1846-1878, how and why Newman chose the Oratorian model of Saint Philip Neri. He chose the Oratorian vocation for himself and his Oxford converts as much for Neri's model for service to the laity in formation and education as for the Common Room community it provided them. The Little Brothers of the Oratory met to learn and share, both didactically and socially, with music and prayer. Newman wanted to do more for the ladies and girls of the Oratory too, and in course founded a "Catholic Eton" for the sons of many prominent Catholic families, certain of the need for the motherly touch at a boarding school. (Chapter 3, "Catholic and Oratorian, 1845-1890)

Shrimpton ably covers territory familiar to me from previous biographies and studies--the struggles to establish a true Catholic university for the laity in Ireland, the efforts to save The Rambler, and the mutiny at the first Oratory school, adding details throughout the episodes. Those details demonstrate Newman's comprehensive energy and the range and depth of his personal concern for his students, employees, and contacts. He was always ready to act, to advise, and to confront as necessary. (Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8)*

Chapter 9, "Opposition to Newman and His Influence of the Laity, 1862-67", demonstrating how out of favor Newman was in those years is balanced by Chapter 11, "Vatican I, the Cardinalate, Newman's Last Years", when honors at Trinity College in Oxford, and at Rome, and in Catholic England (his "victory lap" when coming home with the Cardinal's hat) finally come to Newman. 

Chapter 10, "Dublin Revisited: Newman's Reflections on His "Campaign in Ireland", 1858-74) , could be subtitled "Newman's Second Apologia", as Newman looks back on what he wanted to achieve, how misunderstood and feared those goals were, and how he deprecates the effects on the laity of Ireland of the failure of that campaign--a battle on many fronts.

Then in Chapter 12, "At the Service of the Laity", Shrimpton offers great examples of Newman's personal and written contact with lay men and women, families, parishioners, etc., reminding me a little of Peter C. Wilcox's John Henry Newman: Spiritual Director, 1845-1890. The section on "The geography of Newman's Prayer" is beautifully moving.

Shrimpton's chapter on Newman and Vatican II acknowledges the Reverend Ian Ker's insights in Newman and Vatican II in Chapter 13, but focuses more on the laity (especially in the universal call to holiness and evangelization) with an appropriate emphasis on the laity in the Body of Christ, the Church, and the triple roles of priest, prophet, and king.

In the last chapter, "Newman Today", Shrimpton offers insights into how Newman is a guide for the laity in the Church as we are "Living in a world turned irreligious", highlights Newman's personalism via John F. Crosby and others, discusses the formation and education of the laity "as if truth really mattered", etc., but I found it somewhat repetitious, especially the section on Vatican II, "Both precursor and interpreter of Vatican II", since I'd just read about that.

Nevertheless and notwithstanding, this is a great and comprehensive exploration of Newman and the Laity. It filled gaps in my knowledge--or reminded me--of certain important aspects of his efforts to aid the formerly ostracized Catholic laity of England, the recent lay converts, and the Irish in both Ireland and England. He wanted both to form them more fully in the Catholic Faith and to prepare them for evangelization and the defense of what they believed and lived. Highly recommended.

* Chapter 4, "Establishing a University in Ireland, 1851-54"; Chapter 5, "Running a Catholic University, 1854-58"; Chapter 6, "Establishing a Catholic Eton, 1857-59"; Chapter 7, "Rescuing "The Rambler" 1859; Chapter 8, "The Oratory School: Its Early Years and the Staff Mutiny, 1859-62".

Newman and Consulting the Faithful

Matt Swaim and I will discuss Newman and the Laity early this morning on the Son Rise Morning Show at 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. On Friday, I included Newman's famous statement about the Catholic laity knowing and defending their faith. Newman's Oratory, the Catholic University of Ireland, and his famous article in The Rambler "On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine" are three examples of his efforts to stress the role of the laity in nineteenth century England.

Newman became the rector of the Catholic University of Ireland in 1851; first he opened the chapel for the university, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom in 1853; then the university opened for classes in 1854. Three years later, he resigned because the bishops of Ireland decided they really wanted a seminary for priests, not a university for laymen on the model of Oxford or Cambridge.

As Rev. Michael Sharkey explains:

The Irish bishops who had invited him were not yet ready for Newman's Idea of a University, which included appointing laymen to the professorships. In 1873 he recalled:

"One of the chief evils which I deplored in the management of the affairs of the University twenty years ago, was the resolute refusal with which my urgent representations ever met that the Catholic laity should be allowed to cooperate with the archbishops in the work. As far as I can see there are ecclesiastics all over Europe, whose policy is to keep the laity at arm's length, and hence the laity have been disgusted and become infidel, and only two parties exist, both ultras in opposite directions. I came away from Ireland with the distressing fear that in that Catholic country, in like manner, there was to be an antagonism, as time went on, between the hierarchy and the educated classes.

"You will be doing the greatest possible benefit to the Catholic cause all over the world, if you succeed in making the University a middle station at which clergy and laity can meet, so as to learn to understand, and to yield to each other—and from which, as from a common ground, they may act in union upon an age which is running into infidelity".

In 1859, Newman took over the editorship of The Rambler, a Catholic publication for and by the laity to save it from closure. As Father Paul Chavasse of the Birmingham, formerly postulator for Newman's Cause explains:

In May 1859 the first issue with Newman as editor was published. The magazines attitude was changed, and Newman published an apology for the previous criticism of the bishops but suggested that their Lordships really desire to know the opinion of the laity on subjects in which the laity are especially concerned. He added that if even in the preparation of a dogmatic definition, such as recently on that of the Immaculate Conception, the laity were consulted, how much more they should be in a practical matter that concerned them closely, such as education. A row developed, as some theologians, principally John Gillow of Ushaw College, Durham, thought Newman's language had implied too much to the role of the laity; and Dr. Ullathorne, Newman's bishop in Birmingham, asked him to give up the newly acquired editorship. Newman had one issue still in hand, that of July 1859, and he regarded it as his last remaining opportunity to explain both himself and the true place of the laity within the Church. He worked hard, his letters almost ceased, and in July there duly appeared On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine. What Newman taught in that article was to be taught in a more solemn manner some one hundred years later in the decrees of the Second Vatican Council. But in the Church of 1859 the reception to his words was very different, and eventually he was secretly delated to Rome for heresy by Bishop Brown of Newport. Early in 1860 Dr. Ullathorne informed Newman of this, and he at once offered to explain his writings in a Catholic sense. Due to a series of misunderstandings between Newman, Wiseman, and Manning, Rome gained the impression that Newman had refused to comply with the request. Much whispering against Newman in both Rome and London for years to come meant that his influence was both suspect and curtailed heavily. As John Coulson put it:

"His publication of this essay was an act of political suicide from which his career in the Church was never fully to recover; at one stroke he, whose reputation as the one honest broker between the extremes of English Catholic opinion had hitherto stood untarnished, gained the Popes personal displeasure, the reputation in Rome of being the most dangerous man in England, and a formal accusation of heresy proffered against him."

Newman had answered the charges of heresy but Bishop Ullathorne had not forwarded his answer to Rome! This was the cloud that hung over Newman for years.

Some of bishops and others in the newly formed hierarchy seemed to fear the laity or not understand us at all. Monsignor George Talbot wrote to Henry Manning, Archbishop of Westminster:

"What is the province of the laity? To hunt, to shoot, to entertain? These matters they understand, but to meddle with ecclesiastical matters they have no right at all, and this affair of Newman is a matter purely ecclesiastical…. Dr. Newman is the most dangerous man in England, and you will see that he will make use of the laity against your Grace."

Even Newman's own bishop, Ullathorne, asked, "Who are the laity?" Newman reported that he "answered (not in these words) that the Church would look foolish without them". As if the church could be made up of only the ordained!

As Father Ian Ker explains in his book Newman on Vatican II, this is one of the ways that Newman anticipated the Second Vatican Council with its emphasis on holiness for all the baptized, not just the ordained or those who've taken religious vows, including the laity. The fact that the laity had a document dedicated  to us and our in role the Church indicates that the bishops at Vatican II knew who they laity are and believed we have a mission beyond hunting, shooting, entertaining, praying, and paying.

Preview: Newman and the Laity

On Monday, May 13, Matt Swaim and I will talk about Newman and the Laity on the Son Rise Morning Show (7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:45 a.m. Central). Blessed John Henry Newman was a champion of the Catholic laity in 19th century England at a crucial time.

Remember the important dates and events:

1829: Catholic Emancipation or Relief Passed: Catholics able to vote, serve in office, take up any profession, etc.,

1845: Newman, with some Oxford Movement followers preceding him and following him, became a Catholic

1846: Newman goes to Rome to study for the priesthood

1847: He decides to become an Oratorian, takes St. Philip Neri as a patron

1848: Newman returns to England and establishes the first Oratory there in Maryvale

1849: The Oratory moves to Birmingham

Newman's choice of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri indicates his vocation to serve the laity. As the website for the Brooklyn Oratory explains he was following his patron's way:

Perhaps because of his long and dedicated life as a layman going about the business of charity and prayer and his reluctance to receive Holy Orders, Philip built within the structure of the Oratory a collaborative and representative constitution. Unlike some other religious orders in the Catholic Church where the laity are the “third order” (after the priests – first order – and the religious brothers and sisters – the second order) in the Oratory the laity are the first and the priests and brothers exist only to serve the laity who are therefore rightly the first order.

Some have said that Philip’s emphasis on the laity put him 400 years ahead of his time. But Newman also emphasized this aspect of Church tradition in 19th Century England. The role of the laity in his ministry and work was also an authentic expression of Catholicity. It is little surprise then that one of Newman’s most famous works is “On Consulting the Laity on Matters of Doctrine.” It remains to this day an important work in the area. There is also more than an echo of Philip in another of Newman’s seminal works “On the Development of Doctrine” for he too sought means to preserve fidelity to the deposit of faith while being responsive to the needs of his day. Perhaps we can see in Newman’s extraordinarily productive correspondence a continuation of Philip’s own highly personal approach to ministry. “Each one,” Philip said, “has a particular gift which he must follow and this is a matter to which he must pay great attention.”

Remember also that the Catholic laity of England--and of Ireland--had led the fight for Catholic Emancipation; the laity had saved the Catholic Church in England in special ways: sending their sons to the Continent to study for the priesthood; sheltering the priests who returned (St. Oliver Plunkett of Ireland was the last Catholic priest to be executed, but it was still an act of treason for a priest to be present in England), funding the chapels and chaplains who served their communities, etc.

The process of Catholic Emancipation in the late eighteenth century had been championed by Catholic nobles like Robert Edward Petre, 9th Baron Petre. The Catholic laity wanted to be full citizens of their country and be able to practice their religion at the same time. The UK Parliament website explains what the first Catholic Relief Acts achieved:

In 1778 Parliament passed the Catholic Relief Act. Although it did not grant freedom of worship, it allowed Catholics to join the army and purchase land if they took an oath of allegiance.

The Act raised a storm of protest, however, and after a huge petition had been presented to the House of Commons, organised by Lord George Gordon, several days and nights of rioting erupted on London’s streets.

The Catholic Relief Act of 1791 was a much broader measure which gave Catholics freedom to worship. It also removed a wide range of other restrictions and allowed Catholics their own schools, to hold junior public offices, and to live in London.

In the 1820's, Catholic Emancipation was driven by the election of Daniel O'Connell in Ireland, who wouldn't be allowed to take his seat unless the laws were changed (from the same source as above):

The question of political rights for Catholics was driven largely by Irish politics after the Act of Union of 1800.

Although Catholics made up most of the Irish population, they were not allowed to become Members of Parliament.

In 1823 an Irish barrister, Daniel O’Connell, formed the Catholic Association which began a mass movement in Ireland demanding full public and political rights.

Great concern was felt at Westminster about the possible effects of Catholic emancipation but government fears that British rule in Ireland might otherwise break down persuaded MPs in 1829 to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act.

This landmark measure allowed Catholics to sit as MPs, vote in elections and hold most senior government offices.  

Obviously, the rights of Catholics to worship and practice their faith were also addressed in the 1829 Act, although Parliament was still not comfortable with the presence of Jesuits in England:

And whereas Jesuits and members of other religious orders, communities or societies, of the church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, are resident within the United Kingdom; and it is expedient to make provision for the gradual suppression and final prohibition of the same therein; Be it therefore Enacted, That every Jesuit, and every member of any other religious order, community or society of the church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, who at the time of the commencement of this Act shall be within the United Kingdom, shall within Six calendar months after the commencement of this Act, deliver to the clerk of the peace of the county or place where such person shall reside, or his deputy, a notice or statement, in the form and containing the particulars set forth in the Schedule to this Act annexed; which notice or statement, such clerk of the peace, or his deputy, is hereby required to preserve and register amongst the other records of such county or place, for which no fee shall be payable, and a copy of which said notice or statement shall be by such clerk of the peace, or his deputy, forthwith transmitted to the chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, if such person shall reside in Ireland, or if in Great Britain, to one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State; and in case any person shall offend in the premises, he shall forfeit and pay to His Majesty, for every calendar month during which he shall remain in the United Kingdom without having delivered such notice or statement as is hereinbefore required, the sum of Fifty pounds.

Another important date:

In 1850: Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy, replacing the Vicars Apostolic with Diocesan Bishops.

Queen Victoria and Parliament were not pleased with what they saw as Papal Aggression, and some in the laity thought the Pope and the returning hierarchy were too triumphant in their tone and would harm the progress Catholics had made with integration into their communities. 

So Newman was stepping into the conflict between the hierarchy and the educated laity who heretofore had been the leaders of the Catholic community in England when as an Oratorian he championed the rights of the laity to contribute to the Church and to spread the Gospel to their fellow Englishmen. As he saw it, the laity were the ones who needed to reach out to Englishmen and women to defend the Catholic Faith.

In The Present Position of Catholics in England Newman told the laity of the Oratory:

What I desiderate [desire] in Catholics is the gift of bringing out what their religion is. I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity. I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism and where lies the main inconsistencies and absurdities of the Protestant theory. I have no apprehension you will be the worse Catholics for familiarity with these subjects, provided you cherish a vivid sense of God above and keep in mind that you have souls to be judged and saved. In all times the laity have been the measure of the Catholic spirit; they saved the Irish Church three centuries ago and they betrayed the Church in England. You ought to be able to bring out what you feel and what you mean, as well as to feel and mean it; to expose to the comprehension of others the fictions and fallacies of your opponents; to explain the charges brought against the Church, to the satisfaction, not, indeed, of bigots, but of men of sense, of whatever cast of opinion.

More on Monday about Newman's efforts to defend the Catholic laity's right to a voice in the Church, especially in practical matters, like education.

Image Source Top: Poster from my Theology on Tap Presentation Last Month: the quotation is "The Voice of the Whole Church in Time will Make Itself Heard" a partial version of one of Newman's reactions to the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility*

Image Source Middle: George Romney (English, 1734–1802), Robert, 9th Baron Petre, Demonstrating the Use of an Écorché Figure to His Son, Robert Edward c. 1775 – 1776**

*The writer of this icon seems to apply this quotation to Newman's defense of the laity, but the quotation is not complete. Father Ian Ker does not present the quotation from one of Newman's letters completely either, but Newman seems to referring to theologians ("the voice of the Schola Theologorum, of the whole Church diffusive" would "in time make itself heard" LD xxv 284) p. 681 in Ker's John Henry Newman: A Biography (OUP: 1988, 2009)

**UPDATE: an Écorché Figure is a 3D model of the musculature of the body without skin. 

Newman's Catholic Achievements

Either Anna Mitchell or Matt Swaim and I will conclude our overview of Blessed John Henry Newman's life this morning on the Son Rise Morning Show--a little after 7:45 Eastern/6:45 Central. Listen live here.  The segment will also be repeated during the EWTN hour later in the week and will be loaded to the SRMS SoundCloud!

There was a time that when I thought of Newman's life as a Catholic, I focused on his struggles and failures: the Achilli trial for libel, the Catholic University of Ireland, the Rambler incident, the Oratory conflicts, the translation of the Holy Bible, and the effort to establish an Oratory in Oxford--all great projects Newman undertook to help the Catholic laity in England (and Ireland) take their recently regained status of full citizens after Catholic Emancipation in 1829--that were stymied, thwarted, or blocked.

Now I think of all that he achieved in his day and in ours.

Blessed John Henry Newman wanted to help the laity in both practical and religious ways. And in that, he succeeded, in spite of all the obstacles, and in ways he never anticipated. Just as the two miracles that have led to his beatification and will lead to his canonization have occurred in the USA, I believe that his vision for an educated, catechized Catholic laity in the USA has been achieved. Think of all the Catholic lay apologists, writers, bloggers, speakers, etc and all the laity who have been leading the pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family causes, not to mention Catholic education, charitable causes, etc. When the Catholic laity learn their faith and live it, we fulfill Newman's idea:

What I desiderate [desire] in Catholics is the gift of bringing out what their religion is. I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity. I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism and where lies the main inconsistencies and absurdities of the Protestant theory. I have no apprehension you will be the worse Catholics for familiarity with these subjects, provided you cherish a vivid sense of God above and keep in mind that you have souls to be judged and saved. In all times the laity have been the measure of the Catholic spirit; they saved the Irish Church three centuries ago and they betrayed the Church in England. You ought to be able to bring out what you feel and what you mean, as well as to feel and mean it; to expose to the comprehension of others the fictions and fallacies of your opponents; to explain the charges brought against the Church, to the satisfaction, not, indeed, of bigots, but of men of sense, of whatever cast of opinion.

Newman certainly wanted the laity to defend the faith, as I described last year in this post for the National Catholic Register blogs, but he also defended the laity's right to give our input on practical matters affecting how we prepare to defend the faith, in schools, colleges. That was why he wrote The Rambler article "On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine" in first place, as this article from the EWTN library explains:

When 1859 began there was a debate in progress in England about elementary education. The government wanted to see more and more elementary schools established. It provided subsidies for their funding, and it appointed a commission whose representatives were to see that this money was well spent and that schooling was extended to all classes. The main providers of schools were the religious denominations. How were they to maintain their denominational integrity if they were to be subjected to public control?

A number of educated Catholic laity took the view that cooperation between the Catholic Church and the commission was not only possible, it was also advisable since the quality of education in Catholic elementary schools would be seen to be high, and the prejudice that Catholics make bad citizens would be put to flight. The commission's representatives would not be concerned with the content of religious education but with its method.

The Catholic bishops declined to cooperate in this way. Perhaps they would have cooperated if they had been guaranteed that the commission's representatives would have been Catholics. In fact, they probably could have secured that, but they were too slow at the time. Before the decision of the bishops became public, articles were already appearing in the Rambler advancing the contrary policy. This was not intentional contradiction of the bishops, but some embarrassment was caused by it. . . .

Newman agreed with the laity writing and published The Rambler that they had the right to be heard on such practical matters (he apologized to the bishops when he took over the publication of that periodical for some of tone of the arguments for cooperation, but he urged them to hear the laity out).

I think he would urge our bishops and the hierarchy, including the Pope and the Curia, to do the same today in the crisis over sexual abuse and cover up among our priests and bishops.