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The Cambridge Converts and the Oxford Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Kevin L. Morris
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Extract

When, in 1905, G. W. E. Russell commented on converts to Catholicism in the period preceding the zenith of the Oxford Movement, he mentioned six names: three of these were the ‘Cambridge Converts’ Ambrose Phillipps [de Lisle], George Spencer and Kenelm Henry Digby. These permutations,’ he said, ‘were regarded as mere eccentricities, and no one dreamed that they were likely to have any effect upon the Church.’ Did they have any effect on Anglicanism via their point of contact, the Oxford Movement? What were their motives in respect of the Tractarians, and how did they relate to each other as a group? These converts—Spencer and Digby in particular have largely been ignored—illustrate the range of Catholic attitudes to Anglicanism, while Digby represents the main body of Catholic opinion, which was suspicious of Anglo-Catholicism.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 1985 , pp. 386 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1985

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References

Notes

1 Phillipps added the name de Lisle in 1862 and is usually known by it.

2 Dr. Pusey (A. R. Mowbray & Co., London, 1907), pp. 41–2.

3 The chief authorities are Ward Sequel, Middleton and Pawley. Prime sources include Purcell and Ward Wiseman.

4 In The Second Spring, 1818–1852 (1942).

5 Another ‘Cambridge convert’, excluded here since he was not a friend of the trio and had virtually no contact with the Oxford Movement, was Rev. Dr. H. F. C. Logan (1800–1884), Wiseman’s Vice-President at Oscott. Dr. James Bramston, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, another convert, was also from Trinity College.

6 Qu. by Derek Holmes, J., More Roman than Rome (Burns & Oates, London, 1978), p. 64 Google Scholar: Winstanley to Walsh, 6 September 1841. Cf Ward Sequel, 2, pp. 242–3.

7 Dormer, De Lisle to Digby, 11 January 1835.

8 For a full account of Digby see my forthcoming The Image of the Middle Ages in Romantic and Victorian Literature (Croom Helm), ch. 4.

9 Dormer, 31 December 1831.

10 Mores 1, p. 27.

11 I owe these facts to Mr. De Lisle of Quenby Hall, who supplied notes from the diary of De Lisle’s wife Laura.

12 Purcell 1, p. 174: Digby to Richard Huddleston, 5 October 1838: DG 55.

13 DG 56, 1 January 1839.

14 Dormer, 25 February 1830: Spencer, p. 205.

15 Dormer, about 13 April 1830.

16 Spencer, p. 215

17 DG 20, 24 November 1831.

18 Digby, Ouranogaia (2 vols., Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, London, 1872), 1, p. 180.

19 Spencer, pp. 338–341; Purcell 1, pp. 118, 120.

20 Urban Young, Fr., Life of Father Ignatius Spencer, C.P. (1933), p. 49.Google Scholar

21 Broad Stone of Honour (2nd ed., C. & J. Rivington, London, 1823), p. lxvii.

22 Digby, The Children’s Bower (2 vols., Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1858), 2, p. 70.

23 Mores 11 (1842), p. 482.

24 This letter appeared in The Tablet 39, p. 83 (6 February 1841).

25 Magdalen 459, 22 February 1841.

26 Ibid., Annunciation of Our Lady (25 March) 1841, and Magdalen, Reunion, item 151.

27 DG 73, 27 August 1841.

28 Lucas, E., The Life of Frederick Lucas, M.P., By his Brother (2 vols., Burns & Oates, 1886), 1, p. 76 Google Scholar; DG 83, 31 May 1842; DG 89, April 1843.

29 Mores 11 (1842), pp. 467, 481, 468–9.

30 Ibid., 464, 477.

31 Ibid., pp. 478–9, 487.

32 Ibid., pp. 481–3.

33 Magdalen Reunion, item 151, letter to De Lisle, 3 April 1841.

34 Magdalen 459, no. 58, to De Lisle, Second Sunday in Lent 1842.

35 Phoebe Stanton, ‘The Sources of Pugin’s Contrasts’, in John, Summerson ed., Concerning Architecture: Essays on Architectural Writers and Writing presented to Nikolaus Pevsner (1968), p. 138.Google Scholar

36 See Alan, Hill ed., Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth 4 (O.U.P., 1978), p. 668 Google Scholar, and 5 (1979), p. 48: epigraph to Wordsworth’s ‘The Armenian Lady’s Love’ and Newman on Wordsworth in his Apologia.

37 Faber’s Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches (1842) is written in Digby’s spirit; on p. 161 he uses the phrase ‘the broad stone of honour’. Later, they were friends.

38 DG 100–101, 20 October and 27 December 1844.

39 DG 78, 24 December 1841.

40 Trinity (2) 4901 (2), Digby to Charles Justin MacCarthy, January 1842.

41 DG 80, 6 January 1842.

42 Dormer, Easter Tuesday 1830, describes the scandal.

43 Spencer, p. 111.

44 Ibid., p. 276.

45 Fowler, J., Richard Waldo Sibthorp: A Biography (1880), p. 158.Google Scholar

46 Dormer, 30 January 1830.

47 Spencer, p. 216.

48 Trinity, Houghton Suppi. (2) 4885, MacCarthy to Lord Houghton, 14 June 1832.

49 Spencer, p. 279.

50 Ibid., pp. 221, 276.

51 Ibid., p. 248; and see Purcell 1, pp. 175–6.

52 Spencer, p. 251; the Times article appeared on 3 November 1838.

53 Spencer, p. 272; Denis, Gwynn, Father Dominic Barberi (Burns Oates, London, 1947), p. 65.Google Scholar

54 Ward Sequel, 2, pp. 95–101.

55 The Great Importance of a Re-union between the Catholics and the Protestants of England, and the Method of Effecting it (preached at St. Chad’s, Manchester, 5 May 1839, printed 1839), pp. 11–14.

56 Purcell 1, pp. 118, 178.

57 Anne, Mozley ed., Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman (2 vols., Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1891), 2, p. 295 Google Scholar: letter to F. Rogers, 8 January 1840.

58 Ibid., p. 296.

59 Newman, Apologia (ed. Martin J. Svaglic, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1967), p. 117.

60 Ibid., pp. 117–118.

61 John Edward, Bowden ed., Life and Letters of Frederick William Faber, D.D. (Thomas Richardson & Son, London, 1869), p. 84 Google Scholar: letter to J. B. Morris, 25 November 1840.

62 Gwynn, Father Dominic Barberi, p. 99; Pawley, p. 184; Young, Life of Father Ignatius Spencer, C.P., pp. 112–113.

63 Young, Ignatius Spencer, p. 111.

64 Ibid., p. 114.

65 Digby, , The Temple of Memory (new ed., Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, London, 1875), pp. 378–9.Google Scholar

66 Purcell 1, pp. 4, 9, 19–24.

67 Dormer, 25 September 1827; cf Purcell 1, p. 51: letter to Spencer, 3 July 1831.

68 Dormer, 22 April 1830.

69 Dormer, 17 October 1834.

70 Purcell 1, p. 199.

71 Magdalen, Reunion, Preface, given in Middleton, p. 101.

72 Given in full in Middleton, pp. 102–111. Their exchanges are fully given in Middleton, pp. 101–162; Pawley, pp. 177–186 and Purcell 1, chap. 11.

73 Purcell 2, p. 268: letter to Newman, 6 March 1866.

74 Ibid. 1, p. 27; cf. pp. 72, 186.

75 Purcell 2, p. 221: letter to Lord Shrewsbury, St. Ambrose’s Day (7 December) 1839. See letter to Montalembert, 19 November 1851, in Louis Allen ed., ‘Letters of Phillipps de Lisle to Montalembert’, Dublin Review, first quarter 1954, pp. 325–6.

76 See Dublin Review, first quarter 1954, p.450, letter to Montalembert, 19 November 1853. Pugin agreed: ‘Elevation of the Cathedral Church of St. Chad, Birmingham’ (dated 1840), Dublin Review 10 (May 1841), p. 302; ‘Ecclesiastical Architecture in England’, Dublin Review 12 (February 1842), p. 183.

77 Qu. by Shane, Leslie, Henry Edward Manning (Burns, Oates & Washbourne, London, 1921), p. 176.Google Scholar

78 Middleton, p. 112.

79 Mozley, ed., Letters and Correspondence of Newman 2, p. 324 Google Scholar: letter of 12 February 1841 to J. W. Bowden.

80 Purcell 2, p. 303: letter to Lord Shrewsbury, 11 December 1841.

81 Ibid., p. 305.

82 Letter to Bloxam. 22 February 1841.

83 Letter to Montalembert, 6 October 1841: Dublin Review, first quarter 1954, p. 62.

84 Newman’s letter of 28 June and Bloxam’s private conclusion, given in Middleton, p. 161, and letter to De Lisle, Vigil of All Saints (31 October), loc. cit.

85 Purcell 1, p. 209.

86 Ibid. 2, pp. 204, 205: letters of 3 June and 6 June 1848 respectively.

87 Dublin Review, first quarter 1954, p. 199.

88 Ibid. 17 (September 1844), pp. 241–252. See also Purcell 2, pp. 238–9, Montalembert to De Lisle, 29 August 1846; ibid. 2, pp. 324–5, De Lisle to Lord Shrewsbury, 18 December 1844.

89 DG 101, 27 December 1844.

90 See Middleton. p. 161.

91 Purcell 1, p. 181.

92 Ibid. 1, p. 298; 2, p. 302; but see also ibid. 2, p. 308.

93 Ibid. 1, pp. 108, 263; Dormer, 27 April 1842.

94 Purcell 1, p. 263; 2, p. 208 n.l.

95 Alexander, Cruikshank, Laura de Lisle (Art & Book Co., London, 1897), p. 19.Google Scholar

96 Ibid., p. 25.

97 Bowden, , Life and Letters of Faber, p. 84.Google Scholar

98 Purcell 1, pp. 295. 299.

99 Ibid. 1, pp. 136–7.

100 See Gwynn, , Cardinal Wiseman (Burns, Oates & Washbourne, London, 1929), pp. 35, 36, 42, 77, 91.Google Scholar Ward Sequel 2, p. 103, failed to distinguish between their positions; but see chap. 20 for background to this article.

101 Pawley, p. 179; Dublin Review, first quarter 1954, p. 63.

102 Purcell 2, p. 225.

103 Ward Wiseman 1, p. 388: letter of April 1841.

104 On Anglican orders see Purcell 2, p. 305; Brian, Fothergill, Nicholas Wiseman (Faber & Faber, London, 1963). pp. 108–9 Google Scholar; Cruikshank, , Laura de Lisle, p. 41.Google Scholar

105 Ward Wiseman 2, pp. 481–3.

106 Magdalen 459, W. Lockhart to Bloxam, 1885/86.

107 Purcell 2, pp. 268–9: letter to Newman, 6 March 1866.

108 Dublin Review, first quarter 1954, p. 60: letter to Montalembert, 14 February 1840.

109 Purcell 2, p. 221: letter of 1839.

110 Ibid. 2, p. 226: Pugin to De Lisle, 12 January 1842; Dublin Review, February 1842, p. 182.