It
was his intention to build there not a Hall, but a Church, and to
set on foot a 'House of the Oratory'. What possible objection
could there be to such a scheme? He approached the Bishop of
Birmingham, who gave his approval; in Rome itself there was no
hostile sign. The laity were enthusiastic and subscriptions began
to flow in. Was it possible that all was well at last? Was it
conceivable that the strange and weary pilgrimage of so many
years should end at length in quietude, if not in happiness,
where it had begun?
It so happened that it was at this very time that Manning was
appointed to the See of Westminster. The destinies of the two
men, which had run parallel to one another in so strange a
fashion and for so many years, were now for a moment suddenly to
converge. Newly clothed with all the attributes of ecclesiastical
supremacy, Manning found himself face to face with Newman, upon
whose brows were glittering the fresh laurels of spiritual
victory--the crown of an apostolical life. It was the meeting of
the eagle and the dove. What followed showed, more clearly
perhaps than any other incident in his career, the stuff that
Manning was made of. Power had come to him at last; and he seized
it with all the avidity of a born autocrat, whose appetite for
supreme dominion had been whetted by long years of enforced
abstinence and the hated simulations of submission.
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