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WISEMAN, NICHOLAS PATRICK STEPHEN (18...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 753 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WISEMAN, See also:NICHOLAS See also:PATRICK See also:STEPHEN (1802-1865) , See also:English See also:cardinal, was See also:born at See also:Seville on the and of See also:August 1802, the See also:child of Anglo-Irish parents recently settled in See also:Spain for business purposes. On his See also:father's See also:death in 1805 he was brought to See also:Waterford, and in 1810 he was sent to Ushaw See also:College, near See also:Durham, where he was educated until the See also:age of sixteen, when he proceeded to the English College in See also:Rome, reopened in 1818 after having been closed by the Revolution for twenty years. He graduated See also:doctor of See also:theology with distinction in 1825, and was ordained See also:priest in the following See also:year. He was apppointed See also:vice-See also:rector of the English College in 1827, and rector in 1828 when not yet twenty-six years of age. This See also:office he held until 184o. From the first a devoted student and See also:antiquary, he devoted much See also:time to the examination of See also:oriental See also:MSS. in the Vatican library, and a first See also:volume, entitled Horae Syriacae, published in 1827, gave promise of a See also:great See also:scholar. See also:Leo XII. apppointed him See also:curator of the Arabic MSS. in the Vatican, and See also:professor of oriental See also:languages in the See also:Roman university. At this date he had See also:close relations, See also:personal and by See also:correspondence, with See also:Mai, See also:Bunsen, See also:Burgess (See also:bishop of See also:Salisbury), See also:Tholuck and Kluge. His student See also:life was, however, broken by the See also:pope's command to preach to the English in Rome; and a course of his lectures, On the Connexion between See also:Science and Revealed See also:Religion, deservedly attracted much See also:attention, his See also:general thesis being that whereas scientific teaching has repeatedly been thought to disprove See also:Christian See also:doctrine, further investigation has shown that a reconstruction is possible. He visited See also:England in 1835-1836, and delivered lectures on the principles and See also:main doctrines of Roman Catholicism in the Sardinian See also:Chapel, See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn See also:Fields, and in the See also:church at Moorfields, now pulled down. Their effect was considerable; and at See also:Pusey's See also:request See also:Newman reviewed them in the See also:British Critic (See also:December 1836), treating them for the most See also:part with sympathy as a See also:triumph over popular Protestantism. To another critic, who had taken occasion to point out the resemblance between See also:Catholic and See also:pagan ceremonies, Wiseman replied, boldly admitting the likeness, and maintaining that it could be shown equally well to exist between Christian and See also:heathen doctrines.

In 1836 he founded the See also:

Dublin See also:Review, partly to infuse into the lethargic English Catholics higher ideals of their own religion and some See also:enthusiasm for the papacy, and partly to enable him to See also:deal with the progress of the See also:Oxford See also:Movement, in which he was keenly interested. At this date he was already distinguished as an accomplished scholar and critic, able to converse fluently in See also:half-a-dozen languages, and well informed on most questions of scientific, See also:artistic or antiquarian See also:interest. In the See also:winter of 1838 he was visited in Rome by See also:Macaulay, See also:Manning and See also:Gladstone. An See also:article by him on the Donatist See also:schism appearing in the Dublin Review in See also:July 1839 made a great impression in Oxford, Newman and others seeing the force of the See also:analogy between See also:Donatists and Anglicans. Some words he quoted from St See also:Augustine influenced Newman profoundly: " Quapropter securus judicat orbis terrarum bonos non esse qui se dividunt ab orbe terrarum." And See also:preaching at the opening of St See also:Mary's church, See also:Derby, in the same year, he anticipated Newman's See also:argument on religious development, published six years later. In 184o he was consecrated bishop, and sent to England as coadjutor to Bishop See also:Walsh, See also:vicar-apostolic of the Central See also:district, and was also appointed See also:president of Oscott College near See also:Birmingham. Oscott, under his See also:presidency, became a centre for English Catholics, where he was also visited by many distinguished men, including foreigners and non-Catholics. The Oxford converts (1845 and later) added considerably to See also:Wise-See also:man's responsibilities, as many of them found themselves wholly without means, while the old Catholic See also:body looked on the new-comers with distrust. It was by his See also:advice that Newman and his companions spent some time in Rome before undertaking clerical See also:work in England. Shortly after the See also:accession of See also:Pius IX. Wiseman was appointed temporarily vicar-apostolic of the See also:London district, the See also:appointment becoming permanent in See also:February 1849. On his arrival from Rome in 1847 he acted as informal See also:diplomatic See also:envoy from the pope, to ascertain from the See also:government what support England was likely to give in carrying out the liberal policy with which Pius inaugurated his reign.

In response See also:

Lord See also:Minto was sent to Rome as " an See also:authentic See also:organ of the British Government," but the policy in question proved abortive. Residing in London in See also:Golden Square, Wiseman threw himself into his new duties with many-sided activity, working especially for the reclamation of Catholic criminals and for the restoration of the lapsed poor to the practice of their religion. He was zealous for the See also:establishment of religious communities, both of men and See also:women, and for the holding of retreats and See also:missions. He preached (4th July 1848) at the opening of St See also:George's, See also:Southwark, an occasion unique in England since the See also:Reformation, 14 bishops and 240 priests being See also:present, and six religious orders of men being represented. The progress of Catholicism was undeniable, but yet Wiseman found himself steadily opposed by a minority among his own See also:clergy, who disliked his Ultramontane ideas, his " Romanizing and innovating zeal," especially in regard to the introduction of sacred images into the churches and the use of devotions to the Blessed Virgin and the Blessed See also:Sacrament, hitherto unknown among English Catholics. In July 1850 he heard of the pope's intention to create him a cardinal, and he took this to mean that he was to be permanently recalled to Rome. But on his arrival there he ascertained that a part of the pope's See also:plan for restoring a diocesan See also:hierarchy in England was that he himself should return to England as cardinal and See also:archbishop of See also:Westminster. The papal brief establishing the hierarchy was dated 29th See also:September 185o, and on 7th See also:October Wiseman wrote a See also:pastoral, dated " from out of the Flaminian See also:Gate "—a See also:form diplomatically correct, but of bombastic See also:tone for See also:Protestant ears—in which he spoke enthusiastically, if also a little pompously, of the " restoration of Catholic England to its See also:orbit in the ecclesiastical See also:firmament." Wiseman travelled slowly to England, See also:round by See also:Vienna; and when he reached London (11th See also:November) the whole See also:country was ablaze with indignation at the " papal aggression," which was misunderstood to imply a new and unjustifiable claim to territorial See also:rule. Some indeed feared that his life was endangered by the violence of popular feeling. But Wiseman displayed calmness and courage, and immediately penned an admirable See also:Appeal to the English See also:People (a pamphlet of over 30 pages), in which he explained the nature of the pope's See also:action, and argued that the admitted principle of See also:toleration included leave to establish a diocesan hierarchy; and in his concluding paragraphs he effectively contrasted that dominion over Westminster, which he was taunted with claiming, with his duties towards the poor Catholics See also:resident there, with which alone he was really concerned. A course of lectures at St George's, Southwark, further moderated the See also:storm. In July 1852 he pre-sided at Oscott over the first provincial See also:synod of Westminster, at which Newman preached his See also:sermon on the Second See also:Spring "; and at this date Wiseman's See also:dream of the rapid See also:conversion of England to the See also:ancient faith seemed not incapable of realization.

But many difficulties with his own people shortly beset his path, due largely to the suspicions aroused by his evident preference for the ardent Roman zeal of the converts, and especially of Manning, to the dull and cautious formalism of the old Catholics. The year 1854 was marked by his presence in Rome at the See also:

definition of the See also:dogma of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin (8th December), and by the publication of his See also:historical See also:romance, Fabiola, a See also:tale of the Church of the Catacombs, which had a very wide circulation and was translated into ten languages. In 1855 Wiseman applied for a coadjutor, and George Errington, bishop of See also:Plymouth, his friend since boyhood, was appointed, with the See also:title of archbishop of See also:Trebizond. Two years later Manning was appointed See also:provost of Westminster and he established in Bayswater his community of the " Oblates of St See also:Charles." All Wiseman's later years were darkened by Errington's conscientious but implacable hostility to Manning, and to himself in so far as he was supposed to be acting under Manning's See also:influence. The See also:story of the estrangement, which was largely a See also:matter of temperament, is fully told in See also:Ward's See also:biography. Ultimately, in July 186o, Errington was deprived by the pope of his coadjutorship with right of See also:succession, and he retired to See also:Prior See also:Park, near See also:Bath, where he died in 1586. In the summer of 1858 Wiseman paid a visit to See also:Ireland, where, as a cardinal of Irish See also:race, he was received with enthusiasm. His speeches, sermons and lectures, delivered during his tour, were printed in a volume of 400 pages, and show an extraordinary See also:power of rising to the occasion and of speaking with sympathy and tact. Wise-man was able to use considerable influence with English politicians, partly because in his See also:day English Catholics were wavering in their historical See also:allegiance to the Liberal party. As the director of votes thus doubtful, he was in a position to secure concessions that bettered the position of Catholics in regard to poor See also:schools, reformatories and workhouses, and in the status of their See also:army chaplains. In 1863, addressing the Catholic See also:Congress at See also:Malines, he stated that since 1830 the number of priests in England had increased from 434 to 1242, and of convents of women from 16 to 162, while there were 55 religious houses of men in 1863 and none in 1830. The last two years of his life were troubled by illness and by controversies in which he found himself, under Manning's influence, compelled to adopt a policy less liberal than that which had been his in earlier years.

Thus he had to condemn the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, with which he had shown some sympathy in its inception in 18J7; and to forbid Catholic parents to send their sons to Oxford or See also:

Cambridge, though at an earlier date he had hoped (with Newman) that at Oxford at least a college'or See also:hall might be assigned to them. But in other respects his last years were cheered by marks of general regard and admiration, in which non-Catholics joined; and after his death (16th February 1865) there was an extraordinary demonstration of popular respect as his body was taken from St Mary's, Moorfields, to the See also:cemetery at Kensal See also:Green, where it was intended that it should See also:rest only until a more fitting See also:place could be found in a Roman Catholic See also:cathedral church of Westminster. On the 3oth of See also:January 1907 the body was removed with great ceremony from Kensal Green and reburied in the See also:crypt of the new cathedral, where it lies beneath a See also:Gothic See also:altar See also:tomb, with a recumbent effigy of the archbishop in full pontificals. Wiseman was undoubtedly an eminent Englishman, and one of the most learned men of his time. He was the friend and correspondent of many foreigners of distinction, among whom may be named Dellinger, See also:Lamennais, See also:Montalembert and See also:Napoleon III. As a writer he was See also:apt to be turgid and prolix, and there was a some-what un-English See also:element of ostentation in his manner. But his accomplishments and ability were such as would have secured for him influence and prominence in any age of the Church; and besides being highly gifted intellectually and morally, he was marked by those specially human qualities which command the interest of all students of life and See also:character. He combined with the principles known as Ultramontane no little liberality of view in matters ecclesiastical. He insisted on a poetical See also:interpretation of the Church's See also:liturgy; and while strenuously maintaining her Divine See also:commission to See also:teach faith and morals, he regarded the Church as in other respects a learner; and he advocated a policy of conciliation with the See also:world, and an See also:alliance with the best tendencies of contemporary thought. It was, in his See also:judgment, quite in accordance with the See also:genius of the Catholic Church that she should continuously assimilate all that is worthy in the See also:civilization around. See the biography by See also:Wilfrid Ward, The Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman (2 vols., 1897; fifth and cheaper edition, 1900). (A.

W.

End of Article: WISEMAN, NICHOLAS PATRICK STEPHEN (1802-1865)

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