| --(10) NEWMAN'S FAMILY RELIGION.
Regarding a 1996 "Note on the Life of John Henry Newman," (In Turner's edition of JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY," xii, the author now admits he would rephrase, "He (Newman) grew up in a moderately evangelical Anglican family." Six years later (1870) in
GRAMMAR OF ASSENT, Newman speaks of the main stream Anglicanism
in which his family almost certainly participated:
'Bible religion' is both the recognized title and the best description of English religion. It consists, not in rites or creeds, but mainly in having the Bible read in Church, in the family, and in private. ... It has attuned their minds to religious thoughts; it has given them a high moral standard; it has served them in associating religion with compositions which...are among the most sublime and beautiful ever written.... ... our national form [of religion] professes to be little more than thus reading the Bible and living a correct life. It is not a religion of persons and things, of acts of faith and of direct devotion; but of sacred scenes and pious sentiments. It has been comparatively careless of creed and catechism; and has in consequence shown little sense of the need of consistency in the matter of its teaching. ... What Scripture especially illustrates from its first age to its last, is God's Providence; and that is nearly the only doctrine held with a real assent by the mass of religious Englishmen. ... I am ... speaking ... of the mass of piously-minded and well-living people in all ranks of the community.
A good starting point on Huguenots is Robin Gwynn's brief THE HUGUENOTS OF LONDON, Portland, Oregon, Alpha Press, 1998. With up to 25,000 French speaking religious refugees crowded into London enclaves by 1700, the sheer size of the English Huguenot communities is impressive. Their strong roles, approaching dominance in trades like banking, cloth and paper manufacture are stiking. Newman's affluent Fourdrinier relatives were associated with paper and stationery. |