Newman should be made a
Cardinal. His Holiness welcomed the proposal; but, he said, he
could do nothing until he knew the views of Cardinal Manning.
Thereupon, the Duke of Norfolk wrote to Manning, explaining what
had occurred; shortly afterwards, Manning's letter of
recommendation, after a delay of six months, reached the Pope,
and the offer of a Cardinalate was immediately dispatched to
Newman.
But the affair was not yet over. The offer had been made; would
it be accepted? There was one difficulty in the way. Newman was
now an infirm old man of seventy-eight; and it is a rule that all
Cardinals who are not also diocesan Bishops or Archbishops
reside, as a matter of course, at Rome. The change would have
been impossible for one of his years-- for one, too, whose whole
life was now bound up with the Oratory at Birmingham. But, of
course, there was nothing to prevent His Holiness from making an
exception in Newman's case, and allowing him to end his days in
England. Yet how was Newman himself to suggest this? The offer of
the Hat had come to him as an almost miraculous token of renewed
confidence, of ultimate reconciliation. The old, long, bitter
estrangement was ended at last. 'The cloud is lifted from me for
ever!' he exclaimed when the news reached him. It would be
melancholy indeed if the cup were now to be once more dashed from
his lips and he was obliged to refuse the signal honour.
Pages:
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159