Selections from the Prose Writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman

The instruments raised up by Almighty God

for the accomplishment of His purposes are of

two kinds, equally gifted with faith and piety,

but from natural temper and talent, education,

or other circumstances, differing in the means by{5}

which they promote their sacred cause. The

first of these are men of acute and ready mind,

with accurate knowledge of human nature, and

large plans, and persuasive and attractive

bearing, genial, sociable, and popular, endued with{10}

prudence, patience, instinctive tact and decision

in conducting matters, as well as boldness and

zeal. Such in a measure we may imagine the

single-minded, the intrepid, the much-enduring

Hildebrand, who, at a time when society was{15}

forming itself anew, was the Saviour, humanly

speaking, of the City of God. Such, in an earlier age,

was the majestic Ambrose; such the

never-wearied Athanasius. These last-named

luminaries of the Church came into public life early,{20}

and thus learned how to cope with the various

tempers, views, and measures of the men they

encountered there. Athanasius was but

twenty-seven when he went with Alexander to the Nicene

Council, and the year after he was Bishop of

Alexandria. Ambrose was consecrated soon after{5}

the age of thirty.

Again, there is an instrument in the hand of

Providence, of less elaborate and splendid

workmanship, less rich in its political endowments,

so to call them, yet not less beautiful in its{10}

texture, nor less precious in its material. Such is

the retired and thoughtful student, who remains

years and years in the solitude of a college or a

monastery, chastening his soul in secret, raising

it to high thought and single-minded purpose,{15}

and when at length called into active life,

conducting himself with firmness, guilelessness, zeal

like a flaming fire, and all the sweetness of purity

and integrity. Such an one is often unsuccessful

in his own day; he is too artless to persuade, too{20}

severe to please; unskilled in the weaknesses of

human nature, unfurnished in the resources of

ready wit, negligent of men's applause,

unsuspicious, open-hearted, he does his work, and so

leaves it; and it seems to die; but in the{25}

generation after him it lives again, and on the long run

it is difficult to say which of the two classes of

men has served the cause of truth the more

effectually. Such, perhaps, was Basil, who issued

from the solitudes of Pontus to rule like a king,{30}

and minister like the lowest in the kingdom; yet

to meet little but disappointment, and to quit

life prematurely in pain and sorrow. Such was

his friend, the accomplished Gregory, however

different in other respects from him, who left his

father's roof for an heretical city, raised a church{5}

there, and was driven back into retirement by

his own people, as soon as his triumph over the

false creed was secured. Such, perhaps, St. Peter

Damiani in the middle age; such St. Anselm,

such St. Edmund. No comparison is, of course,{10}

attempted here between the religious excellence

of the two descriptions of men; each of them

serves God according to the peculiar gifts given

to him. If we might continue our instances

by way of comparison, we should say that St.{15}

Paul reminds us of the former, and Jeremiah of

the latter....

It often happens that men of very dissimilar

talents and tastes are attracted together by their

very dissimilitude. They live in intimacy for a{20}

time, perhaps a long time, till their circumstances

alter, or some sudden event comes, to try them.

Then the peculiarities of their respective minds

are brought out into action; and quarrels ensue,

which end in coolness or separation. It would{25}

not be right or true to say that this is exemplified

in the instance of the two blessed Apostles, whose

"sharp contention" is related in the Book of

Acts; for they had been united in spirit once for

all by a Divine gift; and yet their strife reminds{30}

us of what takes place in life continually. And it

so far resembled the everyday quarrels of friends,

in that it arose from difference of temper and

character in those favored servants of God.

The zealous heart of the Apostle of the Gentiles

endured not the presence of one who had swerved{5}

in his course; the indulgent spirit of Barnabas

felt that a first fault ought not to be a last trial.

Such are the two main characters which are found

in the Church,-high energy, and sweetness of

temper; far from incompatible, of course, united{10}

in Apostles, though in different relative

proportions, yet only partially combined in ordinary

Christians, and often altogether parted from each

other.

This contrast of character, leading, first, to{15}

intimacy, then to differences, is interestingly

displayed, though painfully, in one passage of the

history of Basil and Gregory: Gregory the

affectionate, the tender-hearted, the man of quick

feelings, the accomplished, the eloquent{20}

preacher,-and Basil, the man of firm resolve and hard

deeds, the high-minded ruler of Christ's flock,

the diligent laborer in the field of ecclesiastical

politics. Thus they differed; yet not as if they

had not much in common still; both had the{25}

blessing and the discomfort of a sensitive mind;

both were devoted to an ascetic life; both were

men of classical tastes; both were special

champions of the Catholic creed; both were skilled

in argument, and successful in their use of it;{30}

both were in highest place in the Church, the one

Exarch of C?sarea, the other Patriarch of

Constantinople. I will now attempt to sketch the

history of their intimacy.

Basil and Gregory were both natives of

Cappadocia, but here, again, under different{5}

circumstances; Basil was born of a good family, and

with Christian ancestors: Gregory was the son of

the Bishop of Nazianzus, who had been brought

up an idolater, or rather an Hypsistarian, a

mongrel sort of religionist, part Jew, part Pagan.{10}

He was brought over to Christianity by the efforts

of his wife Nonna, and at Nazianzus admitted by

baptism into the Church. In process of time he

was made bishop of that city; but not having a

very firm hold of the faith, he was betrayed in{15}

360 into signing the Ariminian creed, which caused

him much trouble, and from which at length his

son recovered him. C?sarea being at no

unsurmountable distance from Nazianzus, the two

friends had known each other in their own country;{20}

but their intimacy began at Athens, whither

they separately repaired for the purposes of

education. This was about A.D. 350, when each of

them was twenty-one years of age. Gregory

came to the seat of learning shortly before Basil,{25}

and thus was able to be his host and guide on his

arrival; but fame had reported Basil's merits

before he came, and he seems to have made his

way, in a place of all others most difficult to a

stranger, with a facility peculiar to himself. He

soon found himself admired and respected by

his fellow-students; but Gregory was his only

friend, and shared with him the reputation of{5}

talents and attainments. They remained at

Athens four or five years; and, at the end of the

time, made the acquaintance of Julian, since of

evil name in history as the Apostate. Gregory

thus describes in after life his early intimacy{10}

with Basil:

"Athens and letters followed on my stage;

Others may tell how I encountered them;-

How in the fear of God, and foremost found

Of those who knew a more than mortal lore;-{15}

And how, amid the venture and the rush

Of maddened youth with youth in rivalry,

My tranquil course ran like some fabled spring,

Which bubbles fresh beneath the turbid brine;

Not drawn away by those who lure to ill,{20}

But drawing dear ones to the better part.

There, too, I gained a further gift of God,

Who made me friends with one of wisdom high,

Without compeer in learning and in life.

Ask ye his name?-in sooth, 'twas Basil, since{25}

My life's great gain,-and then my fellow dear

In home, and studious search, and knowledge earned.

May I not boast how in our day we moved

A truest pair, not without name in Greece;

Had all things common, and one only soul{30}

In lodgment of a double outward frame?

Our special bond, the thought of God above,

And the high longing after holy things.

And each of us was bold to trust in each,

Unto the emptying of our deepest hearts;

And then we loved the more, for sympathy

Pleaded in each, and knit the twain in one."

The friends had been educated for rhetoricians,

and their oratorical powers were such, that they{5}

seemed to have every prize in prospect which a

secular ambition could desire. Their names were

known far and wide, their attainments

acknowledged by enemies, and they themselves personally

popular in their circle of acquaintance. It was{10}

under these circumstances that they took the

extraordinary resolution of quitting the world

together,-extraordinary the world calls it,

utterly perplexed to find that any conceivable

objects can, by any sane person, be accounted{15}

better than its own gifts and favors. They

resolved to seek baptism of the Church, and to

consecrate their gifts to the service of the Giver.

With characters of mind very different-the

one grave, the other lively; the one desponding,{20}

the other sanguine; the one with deep feelings,

the other with feelings acute and warm;-they

agreed together in holding, that the things that

are seen are not to be compared to the things that

are not seen. They quitted the world, while it{25}

entreated them to stay.

What passed when they were about to leave

Athens represents as in a figure the parting which

they and the world took of each other. When

the day of valediction arrived, their companions{30}

and equals, nay, some of their tutors, came about

them, and resisted their departure by entreaties,

arguments, and even by violence. This occasion

showed, also, their respective dispositions; for

the firm Basil persevered, and went; the

tender-hearted Gregory was softened, and stayed awhile{5}

longer. Basil, indeed, in spite of the reputation

which attended him, had, from the first, felt

disappointment with the celebrated abode of

philosophy and literature; and seems to have given up

the world from a simple conviction of its emptiness.{10}

"He," says Gregory, "according to the way of human

nature, when, on suddenly falling in with what we hoped

to be greater, we find it less than its fame, experienced

some such feeling, began to be sad, grew impatient, and

could not congratulate himself on his place of residence.{15}

He sought an object which hope had drawn for him;

and he called Athens 'hollow blessedness.'"

Gregory himself, on the contrary, looked at

things more cheerfully; as the succeeding

sentences show.{20}

"Thus Basil; but I removed the greater part of his

sorrow, meeting it with reason, and smoothing it with

reflections, and saying (what was most true) that

character is not at once understood, nor except by long time

and perfect intimacy; nor are studies estimated, by{25}

those who are submitted to them, on a brief trial and

by slight evidence. Thus I reassured him, and by

continual trials of each other, I bound myself to him."

-Orat. 43.

I began by directing the reader's attention to

the labors of two great bishops, who restored

the faith of Christianity where it had long been

obscured. Now, I will put before him, by way

of contrast, a scene of the overthrow of{5}

religion,-the extinction of a candlestick,-effected, too,

by champions of the same heretical creed which

Basil and Gregory successfully resisted. It will

be found in the history of the last days of the

great Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in Africa.{10}

The truth triumphed in the East by the power of

preaching; it was extirpated in the South by the

edge of the sword.

Though it may not be given us to appropriate

the prophecies of the Apocalypse to the real{15}

events to which they belong, yet it is impossible

to read its inspired pages, and then to turn to

the dissolution of the Roman empire, without

seeing a remarkable agreement, on the whole,

between the calamities of that period and the{20}

sacred prediction. There is a plain announcement

in the inspired page, of "Woe, woe, woe, to

the inhabitants of the earth"; an announcement

of "hail and fire mingled with blood," the

conflagration of "trees and green grass," the

destruction of ships, the darkening of the sun, and the{5}

poisoning of the rivers over a third of their course.

There is a clear prophecy of revolutions on the

face of the earth and in the structure of society.

And, on the other hand, let us observe how fully

such general foretokenings are borne out, among{10}

other passages of history, in the Vandalic

conquest of Africa.

The coast of Africa, between the great desert

and the Mediterranean, was one of the most

fruitful and opulent portions of the Roman world.{15}

The eastern extremity of it was more especially

connected with the empire, containing in it

Carthage, Hippo, and other towns, celebrated as

being sees of the Christian Church, as well as

places of civil importance. In the spring of the{20}

year 428, the Vandals, Arians by creed, and

barbarians by birth and disposition, crossed the

Straits of Gibraltar, and proceeded along this

fertile district, bringing with them devastation

and captivity on every side. They abandoned{25}

themselves to the most savage cruelties and

excesses. They pillaged, ravaged, burned,

massacred all that came in their way, sparing not even

the fruit trees, which might have afforded some

poor food to the remnant of the population, who{30}

had escaped from them into caves, the recesses

of the mountains, or into vaults. Twice did this

desolating pestilence sweep over the face of the

country.

The fury of the Vandals was especially exercised

towards the memorials of religion. Churches,{5}

cemeteries, monasteries, were objects of their

fiercest hatred and most violent assaults. They

broke into the places of worship, cut to pieces all

internal decorations, and then set fire to them.

They tortured bishops and clergy with the hope of{10}

obtaining treasure. The names of some of the

victims of their ferocity are preserved. Mansuetus,

Bishop of Utica, was burnt alive; Papinianus,

Bishop of Vite, was laid upon red-hot plates of

iron. This was near upon the time when the{15}

third General Council was assembling at Ephesus,

which, from the insecure state of the roads, and

the universal misery which reigned among them,

the African bishops were prevented from

attending. The Clergy, the religious brotherhoods, the{20}

holy virgins, were scattered all over the country.

The daily sacrifice was stopped, the sacraments

could not be obtained, the festivals of the Church

passed unnoticed. At length, only three cities

remained unvisited by the general{25}

desolation,-Carthage, Hippo, and Cirtha.