Henry Edward Manning

1808-1892. English cardinal, archbishop of Westminster. Born in Hertfordshire, son of a member of Parliament, he was educated at Harrow and Oxford, then followed a career in two parts. He was an Anglican until his forties (1851), then as a Roman Catholic he helped consolidate the Catholic revival in England. He began as an Anglican Evangelical, ordained (1832), then archdeacon at Chichester (1841). Gradually his interest in the Oxford Movement* became commitment to its principles; he wrote Tract 78 and was considered a leader of the movement after Newman's conversion (1845). But Manning himself converted (1851). N.P.S. Cardinal Wiseman,* amid opposition from older Catholic families, took a personal interest in him, ordaining him a priest (1851), encouraging him to found in England the Oblates of St. Charles (1851), then appointing him inspector of schools in the Westminster diocese (1856) and provost of the metropolitan chapter (1857). In 1860 Manning became the chief English defender of papal temporal power.

Upon Wiseman's death (1865), Pius IX made Manning the new primate, an appointment he held for twenty-seven years, meanwhile becoming cardinal (1875). At the Vatican Council (1869-70) he was a leader of the Ultramontane move to define the dogma of papal infallibility as necessary to defend the principle of authority. He consistently promoted Catholic social consciousness, especially concern for the condition of the poor and working men. Leo XIII's social encyclicals were to him the supreme definition of Catholic social principles. He generally supported Gladstone's policies.

E.S. Purcell, Life and Times of Cardinal Manning (2 vols., 1896); P. Thureau-Dangin, La renaissance catholique en Angleterre au XIXe siècle (3 vols., 1923); J. Fitzsimons (ed.), Manning, Anglican and Catholic (1951); V.A. McClelland, Cardinal Manning: His Public Life and Influence, 1865-1892 (1962).