Cardinal John Henry Newman collection

Cardinal John Henry Newman was born February 21, 1801 in London to banker John Newman and Jemima Fourdrinier, a descendant of a prominent English Huguenot family. He converted to Evangelical Calvinism at age 15 after reading the works of John Calvin, Thomas Newton, and Joseph Milner. Newman studied incessantly at Trinity College, Oxford where he experienced a breakdown during final exams and graduated with lower second class honors. He became a private tutor and accepted a fellowship at Oriel College to remain in Oxford after graduation. On June 23, 1824, Newman became an Anglican deacon at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. He was ordained an Anglican priest on May 29, 1825 and became a curate of St. Clement's Church for two years.

In 1828, Newman backed Edward Hawkins over John Keble as the new Provost of Oriel College as he was named vicar of St. Mary's University Church in Oxford. In July 1833, Newman was in the church as Keble preached an assize sermon that initiated the Oxford Movement. He strengthened the movement to include Catholic traditions in Anglican theology by establishing the Tract for Times, a series of ninety theological publications. His support began to wane in 1839 as he questioned the authority of Anglican theology. Newman retreated to Littlemore in 1842 and wrote an anonymous retraction of his statements against Roman Catholicism in the Oxford Conservative Journal in 1843. He converted to Roman Catholicism on October 9, 1845, suffering the loss of friendships within his Oxford circle as a result.

Newman traveled to Rome in October 1846 to be ordained a priest then returned to England to begin a series of lectures on the role of Catholics in the country. He faced scrutiny from Protestants and received a libel charge against his writings about ex-Dominican friar, Giacinto Achilli. Despite the controversy, Newman was ordained a Roman Catholic cardinal on May 12, 1879. He continued to defend his religious career while living at The Oratory in England until his death on August 11, 1890. Historical information adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Newman (accessed January 2019).