Cardinal Newman | Autograph letter signed, to Lord Lyttelton, on Apologia pro Vita Sua, 1864

Cardinal John Henry Newman

Autograph letter signed, to Lord Lyttelton

discussing the recently published Apologia pro Vita Sua and the reaction of his friends to his conversion, thanking Lyttelton for his letter, recalling their last meeting with a former acquaintance: "...As to Woodgate, I must speak frankly, he is one of my friends, (one of a few,) who have treated me really ill, and about whom I feel very sore. There are many besides him, of course, who broke off intercourse with me on my leaving the Anglican Church, and of that I do not complain at all—it could not be otherwise--but, out of these many, few were unkind to me, few but have shown from time to time, their affectionate remembrance of me. There are some, however, who have acted otherwise—and Woodgate is one of them...", and for quoting part of a letter by Thomas Dyke Acland, from whom he, also, has heard ("...[I] found him, from his letter, just what he ever was—most natural, affectionate, and pleased to have an opportunity of pouring himself out..."); after commenting on Acland's admiration for Colenso and Maurice ("...I ever thought him hazy, and thus lost interest in his writings..."), Newman answers in detail specific points raised by Lyttelton as to the identity of individuals not mentioned by name in the Apologia, 8 pages, 8vo, The Oratory, Birmingham, 26 July 1864 

PROVENANCE:

George, fourth Baron Lyttelton (1817-1876); thence by descent; The Lyttelton Papers: The Property of the Viscount Cobham, Sotheby's, London, 12 December 1978, lot 172