| Description | Following the death of Nicholas Wiseman in 1865, Manning was appointed archbishop of Westminster. In this role, he was particularly active in promoting improved social conditions amongst the Catholics of Ireland, which included encouraging total abstinence, a better education system, improved labour relations, and social welfare. He was also involved in enhancing the status of the pastoral clergy in the rest of Britain which, although it led him into conflict with the Jesuits and other religious orders, was a great influence on the papal document Romanos Pontifices(1881) which sought to regulate relations between the English bishops and their clergy. At the Vatican Council in 1870, Manning faced serious criticism in promoting the decree of papal infallibility but his continuing defence of papal authority was rewarded five years later when he was raised to the cardinalate. He died on 14 January 1892. |
| Admin_History | About the creator Henry Edward Manning was born in Totteridge, Hertfordshire, in 1808. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, before his ordination to the Anglican Ministry in 1832. Rising to the position of archdeacon of Chichester, Manning was often critical of the Anglican Church which, following the Gorham Judgement, led ultimately to his conversion to Catholicism in 1851. He spent the following three years at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici before Cardinal Wiseman appointed him Inspector of Schools in 1856. In this position, he was responsible for organising a network of elementary schools throughout the archdiocese of Westminster and making provision for Catholic university education. In 1860, Pope Pius IX made him a prothonotary apostolic and domestic relation following his staunch defence of the temporal power of the papacy. |