Why
should there be anything better in store for Manning? Yet it so
happened that within fourteen years of his conversion Manning was
Archbishop of Westminster and the supreme ruler of the Roman
Catholic community in England. This time the Fates gave up the
unequal struggle; they paid over their stakes in despair, and
retired from the game.
Nevertheless it is difficult to feel quite sure that Manning's
plunge was as hazardous as it appeared. Certainly he was not a
man who was likely to forget to look before he leaped, nor one
who, if he happened to know that there was a mattress spread to
receive him, would leap with less conviction. In the light of
after-events, one would be glad to know what precisely passed at
that mysterious interview of his with the Pope, three years
before his conversion. It is at least possible that the
authorities in Rome had their eye on Manning; the may well have
felt that the Archdeacon of Chichester would be a great catch.
What did Pio Nono say? It is easy to imagine the persuasive
innocence of his Italian voice. 'Ah, dear Signor Manning, why
don't you come over to us? Do you suppose that we should not look
after you?'
At any rate, when he did go over, Manning was looked after very
thoroughly. There was, it is true, a momentary embarrassment at
the outset: it was only with the greatest difficulty that he
could bring himself to abandon his faith in the validity of
Anglican Orders, in which he believed 'with consciousness
stronger than all reasoning'.
Pages:
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89