| Description | Papers and artefacts created and collected by Henry Edward Manning during his time as Archbishop of Westminster. The series includes correspondence, notes (including one notebook) for articles, sermons and letters, sermons (including transcripts), scrapbooks, photographs and other illustrations, and various ephemera including relics of Pius IX. |
| Admin_History | Henry Edward Manning was born on 15th July 1808 at Copped Hall in Totteridge. His father William was a sugar merchant and became Governor of the Bank of England (1812-4) and an MP (1794-1818, 1826-30). His mother Mary was the sister of Sir Claudius Hunter, Lord Mayor of London in 1811. Manning was educated at Harrow School and then at Baliol College, Oxford. In 1832 he was elected a fellow of Merton and soon after was ordained in the Church of England. In January 1833, Manning went to Lavington as curate to the Rev John Sargent and was presented with the living on Sargent's death in May 1833. In the same year Manning married Caroline, the third daughter of John Sargent. Caroline died in 1837 and the couple had no children.
In 1841, Manning was appointed Archdeacon of Chichester. However, his attachment to the Church of England had begun to waver; the final blow was the Gorham Judgement of 1849. Manning resigned as Archdeacon of Chichester on 21st November 1850 and was received into the Catholic Church on 6th April 1851.
He was ordained a Catholic priest on 25th June 1851 and spent much of the years 1851-4 in Rome attending the Accademia Ecclesiastica. He founded the Oblates of St Charles in 1857 with the encouragement of Cardinal Wiseman and became Provost of the Metropolitan Chapter of Westminster and a Domestic Prelate with the rank of Monsignor. Manning clashed with the Westminster Chapter and with Wiseman's coadjutor Errington with the result that Errington lost his right of succession to Westminster. On Wiseman's death, Manning's name was not included on the terma that was sent to Rome but the Pope set aside the names and appointed Manning as the new Archbishop of Westminster. He was consecrated on 8th June 1865.
In 1866 he set up the Westminster Diocesan Education Fund. He supported the dogma of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council (1869-70) and was created Cardinal on 15th March 1875. He opened a Catholic University College in Kensington in 1875. In 1884 he served on a Royal Commission on the condition of working-class housing. In 1889 he became popular after meditation in the London Dock Strike. He died on 14th January 1892 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. His remains were exhumed and re-interred under the high altar at Westminster Cathedral on 15th February 1907. |