Manning was some years younger than Newman,
and the two men had only met occasionally at the University; but
now, through common friends, a closer relationship began to grow
up between them. It was only to be expected that Newman should be
anxious to enroll the rising young Rector among his followers;
and, on Manning's side, there were many causes which impelled him
to accept the overtures from Oxford.
He was a man of a serious and vigorous temperament, to whom it
was inevitable that the bold high principles of the Movement
should strongly appeal. There was also an element in his mind
that element which had terrified him in his childhood with
Apocalyptic visions, and urged him in his youth to Bible readings
after breakfast--which now brought him under the spell of the
Oxford theories of sacramental mysticism. And besides, the
Movement offered another attraction: it imputed an extraordinary,
transcendent merit to the profession which Manning himself
pursued. The cleric was not as his lay brethren; he was a
creature apart, chosen by Divine will and sanctified by Divine
mysteries. It was a relief to find, when one had supposed that
one was nothing but a clergyman, that one might, after all, be
something else--one might be a priest.
Accordingly, Manning shook off his early Evangelical convictions,
started an active correspondence with Newman, and was soon
working for the new cause.
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