MY DEAR LORD,
I present for your Lordship’s kind acceptance and patronage the first work which I publish as a “Father of the. Oratory of St. Philip Neri. I have a sort of claim upon your permission to do so, as a token of my gratitude and affection toward your Lordship, since it is to you principally that I owe it, under God, that I am a client and subject, however unworthy, of so great a Saint.
When I found myself a Catholic, I also found myself in your Lordship’s district; and, at your suggestion, I first moved into your immediate neighbourhood, and then, when your Lordship further desired it, I left you for Rome.—There it was my blessedness to be allowed to offer myself, with the condescending approval of the Holy Father, to the service of St Philip, of whom I had so often heard you speak before I left England, and whose bright and beautiful character had won my love and devotion, even when I was a Protestant.
You see then, my dear Lord, how much you have to do with my present position in the Church. But your concern with it is greater than I have yet stated; for I cannot forget, that when, in the year 1839, a doubt first crossed my mind of the tenableness of the theological theory on which Anglicanism is based, it was caused in no slight degree by the perusal of a controversial paper, attributed to your Lordship, on the schism of the Donatists.
That the glorious intercession of St. Philip may be the reward of your faithful devotion to himself, and of your kindness to me is
My dear Lord,
while I ask your Lordship’s blessing on me and mine,
the earnest prayer of
Your affectionate friend and servant,
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN,
CONGR. ORAT.
In Fest. S. Caroli,
1849.
