As to Dr. Errington, he gave an example of humility and
submission
by at once withdrawing into a complete obscurity. For years the
Archbishop of Trebizond, the ejected heir to the See of
Westminster, laboured as a parish priest in the
Isle of Man. He nursed no resentment in his heart, and, after a
long and edifying life of peace and silence, he died in 1886, a
professor of theology at Clifton.
It might be supposed that Manning could now feel that his triumph
was complete. His position was secure; his power was absolute;
his prestige was daily growing. Yet there was something that
irked him still. As he cast his eyes over the Roman Catholic
community in England, he was aware of one figure which, by virtue
of a peculiar eminence, seemed to challenge the supremacy of his
own. That figure was Newman's.
Since his conversion, Newman's life had been a long series of
misfortunes and disappointments. When he had left the Church of
England, he was its most distinguished, its most revered member,
whose words, however strange, were listened to with profound
attention, and whose opinions, however dubious, were followed in
all their fluctuations with an eager and indeed a trembling
respect. He entered the Church of Rome, and found himself
forthwith an unimportant man. He was received at the Papal Court
with a politeness which only faintly concealed a total lack of
interest and understanding.
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