Manning, Henry Edward

known as Cardinal Manning

born July 15, 1808, Totteridge, Hertfordshire, Eng.

died Jan. 14, 1892, London

British Roman Catholic cardinal.

The son of a banker and member of Parliament, he was ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1833. A member of the Oxford movement, he became a Catholic in 1851 and was ordained a priest later that year. He rose rapidly in rank, being appointed archbishop of Westminster in 1865 and cardinal in 1875. He favoured the centralization of authority in the church (Ultramontanism) and supported stronger wording on papal infallibility than was eventually adopted by the First Vatican Council. He established many schools and was highly regarded for his concern for social welfare.

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▪ British cardinal

born July 15, 1808, Totteridge, Hertfordshire, Eng.

died Jan. 14, 1892, London

 member of the Oxford movement, which sought a return of the Church of England to the High Church ideals of the 17th century, who converted to Roman Catholicism and became archbishop of Westminster.

      Manning was the son of a banker and member of Parliament. He was associated with the Oxford movement, was ordained priest in the Church of England (1833), and became archdeacon of Chichester (1840). Manning's attraction to Roman Catholicism was based on his opposition to government interference in ecclesiastical affairs. He was disturbed when the Privy Council overruled the refusal of a bishop to institute an Anglican divine, George C. Gorham, on grounds of unorthodoxy (1850). Manning was received into the Roman Catholic Church on April 6, 1851, and ordained priest (his wife had died in 1837) by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman on June 15, 1851. He then studied theology at Rome. In 1857 he founded the Oblates of St. Charles. His rapid rise in the church culminated in his appointment as archbishop of Westminster (the Roman Catholic primatial see of England) in 1865 and his elevation to the rank of cardinal in 1875.

      As archbishop Manning was a vigorous builder of Catholic schools and other institutions. An extreme Ultramontanist, he accused John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman of minimizing the authority of Rome, and in the debates on papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council he advocated a less cautious definition than that eventually adopted. Manning won general public regard for his social concern and his successful intervention in the 1889 London dock strike.

Additional Reading

Edmund Sheridan Purcell, Life of Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, 2 vol. (1895–96, reprinted 1973), remains a primary source, citing documents nowhere else available. Other biographies are V.A. McClelland, Cardinal Manning: His Public Life and Influence, 1865–1892 (1962); Robert Gray, Cardinal Manning (1985); and David Newsome, The Convert Cardinals: John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning (1993).

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