Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Pro Vita Sua, by John Henry
Cardinal Newman

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Title: Apologia Pro Vita Sua
Author: John Henry Cardinal Newman
Release Date: July 16, 2007 [EBook #22088]
Language: English
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APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA

BEING
A History of his Religious Opinions.
BY
JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN.
"Commit thy way to the Lord and trust in Him, and He will do it. And
He will bring forth thy justice as the light, and thy judgment as the
noon-day."
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
1890.
PRINTED BY
KELLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
AND KINGSTON-ON-THAMES.

PREFACE.
The following History of my Religious Opinions, now that it is
detached from the context in which it originally stood, requires some
preliminary explanation; and that, not only in order to introduce it
generally to the reader, but specially to make him understand, how I
came to write a whole book about myself, and about my most private
thoughts and feelings. Did I consult indeed my own impulses, I should
do my best simply to wipe out of my Volume, and consign to oblivion,
every trace of the circumstances to which it is to be ascribed; but its
original title of "Apologia" is too exactly borne out by its matter and

structure, and these again are too suggestive of correlative
circumstances, and those circumstances are of too grave a character, to
allow of my indulging so natural a wish. And therefore, though in this
new Edition I have managed to omit nearly a hundred pages of my
original Volume, which I could safely consider to be of merely
ephemeral importance, I am even for that very reason obliged, by way
of making up for their absence, to prefix to my Narrative some account
of the provocation out of which it arose.
It is now more than twenty years that a vague impression to my
disadvantage has rested on the popular mind, as if my conduct towards
the Anglican Church, while I was a member of it, was inconsistent with
Christian simplicity and uprightness. An impression of this kind was
almost unavoidable under the circumstances of the case, when a man,
who had written strongly against a cause, and had collected a party
round him by virtue of such writings, gradually faltered in his
opposition to it, unsaid his words, threw his own friends into perplexity
and their proceedings into confusion, and ended by passing over to the
side of those whom he had so vigorously denounced. Sensitive then as I
have ever been of the imputations which have been so freely cast upon
me, I have never felt much impatience under them, as considering them
to be a portion of the penalty which I naturally and justly incurred by
my change of religion, even though they were to continue as long as I
lived. I left their removal to a future day, when personal feelings would
have died out, and documents would see the light, which were as yet
buried in closets or scattered through the country.
This was my state of mind, as it had been for many years, when, in the
beginning of 1864, I unexpectedly found myself publicly put upon my
defence, and furnished with an opportunity of pleading my cause before
the world, and, as it so happened, with a fair prospect of an impartial
hearing. Taken indeed by surprise, as I was, I had much reason to be
anxious how I should be able to acquit myself in so serious a matter;
however, I had long had a tacit understanding with myself, that, in the
improbable event of a challenge being formally made to me, by a
person of name, it would be my duty to meet it. That opportunity had
now occurred; it never might occur again; not to avail myself of it at

once would be virtually to give up my cause; accordingly, I took
advantage of it, and, as it has turned out, the circumstance that no time
was allowed me for any studied statements has compensated, in the
equitable judgment of the public, for such imperfections in composition
as my want of leisure involved.
* * * * *
It was