HONOURING A RENEGADE

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Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,

Lead thou me on;

The night is dark, and I am far from home,

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And with the morn those Angel faces smile,

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

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These are the opening and closing lines of a poem by John Henry Newman the Apostate which was converted into a hymn.

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In my genealogical and family history studies I have encountered diaries and obituaries written at about the same time as the poem in which similar sentiments were expressed. There is an initial loss or partial loss of religious faith and an anticipation that the faith will be restored. It is clear that those concerned suffered from manic depression, called bipolar disorder by the euphemists. The loss and regain of faith occurs over and over again in the same person. Various manifestations of the condition may be seen in family groups, the condition having an hereditary element, and these manifestations, by their frequency in one person and in the family, confirm its presence.

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A single poem does not prove that Newman was a manic depressive but it is a pointer. Thus it is said that he was often moved to tears. His anticipation in the final lines of the poem that his faith would be restored suggests that he knew that his mood varied in a cyclic manner.

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The various manifestations of the condition, which differ in different people, include depression, creativity, leadership, behaviour that is both eccentric and inconsistent, and a need for religious faith. The poem suggests that Newman experienced depression and that he was creative. He certainly showed leadership.

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Newman's apostasy may be judged as eccentric inconsistency. He was originally a clergyman of the Church of England and became a priest in a sect that is heretical from the standpoint of that church. He would have known of the Black Rubric which is appended to the Communion Service in the Book of Common Prayer and of the 39 Articles at the end of the book. They condemn belief in transubstantiation, an essential element of his new faith, declaring that it leads to idolatry and that it represents a process that is contrary to the nature of things. Likewise he would have known from the Ten Commandments that bowing down to and worshipping graven images is regarded by Christians as sin. I have seen this done in the heretical sect's places of worship in France and Italy, and it presumably occurs in such places in England. (But it is probable that the images are now moulded rather than graven, so perhaps worshipping them is all right.)

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A mark of Newman's inconsistency of thought is that following a visit to Rome before his apostasy he declared the local sect to be idolatrous, presumably in respect of its worship of graven images.

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He evidently had a compelling mental reason for his apostasy, for otherwise he would not have ignored the plain facts that the foregoing heresies and malpractices are contrary to Christian principles and that they are rightly condemned in the Prayerbook. (That is not to imply that the principles that are exclusive to Christianity or to any other religion have any validity. Thus the Athanasian Creed, which defines the concept of the Trinity and which is accepted by Christians, is a solid block of word-twisting that seems to represent incipient Popery.)

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Newman depended on religious faith but the manic depressives whose histories I have examined found solace in the more wholesome Methodist sect.

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But whether or not Newman was a manic depressive he certainly had another personality problem. His apostasy took place at the age of 44, Before that, as a clergyman, he had plenty of opportunity to marry and so have a normal and acceptable sexual relationship and experience the fulfilment of parenthood. But he did not. At 44 it was still not too late. Instead he took a post in a sect which resulted in these things being forbidden. That tells us something about him. His High Church associate John Keble remained in the Church, married and presumably lived a normal life despite the extremeness of his religious opinions. Websites have thrown some light on this, suggesting that the apostate Ambrose St John with whom Newman lived and whose grave he shared, on his own insistence, was his "boyfriend." Newman himself indicated that the death of his friend was like the death of a spouse.

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On Sunday the 19th September 2010 a ludicrous ceremony took place, in England of all places, whereby Herr Ratzinger, the present leader of the sect to which Newman defected, "beatified" him. What is especially ludicrous is Ratzinger's justification for this. An American who had been suffering from a serious illness "prayed" to the defunct Newman for a cure and subsequently recovered. Ratzinger judged that the recovery was a miracle brought about by Newman. A medical authority has pointed out that the patient's condition though rare was not unknown and that the surgical intervention that actually took place was likely to have been successful.

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Does Ratzinger suppose that he has sufficient medical knowledge to judge that without the patient's prayers the recovery would have been impossible, the surgery notwithstanding? Does he not know that Post hoc ergo propter hoc, "After this therefore because of this," is one of the standard fallacies of defective reasoning? Or perhaps he was clutching at straws, trying to ingratiate himself and his sect with English people by propelling a renegade Englishman along the road to "sainthood." Some hopes! - the English rejected his sect in the 16th century and again in the 17th, not only because of its heresies but also because of its arrogant claim to religious supremacy. This claim is apparently based on the unsubstantiated and seemingly deliberately devised tradition that Simon bar Jona, "Peter," was the first bishop of Rome.

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An example of this arrogance is Ratzinger's suggestion that Church-of-England clergymen who disapprove of the anticipated ordination of female bishops should join his sect. They would thus leave a sect with female bishops and join one with a female minor deity, and one whose distinctive beliefs and malpractices they would formerly have regarded as heresies. Would they see the existence of female bishops as demonstrating that these were in fact not heresies? And why should they not defect? - the Church would be well rid of any inconsistent person that did so, as it was with Newman's departure. It is a pity that he did not take the whole of the High Church ministry with him - I once went to a high-church wedding where the minister uttered a virgin-goddess prayer.

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Not only was Ratzinger's attempt to poach Church-of-England clergy arrogant, it was extremely ill-mannered, for he was doubtless anticipating a courteous reception by that church on his visit to England. He certainly received one - he was even allowed to pray in a Christian church.

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Ratzinger in fact prayed at the tomb of a supposed saint, the English king Edward, styled the Confessor. He presumably believed that as a saint, the deceased Edward would perform miracles on request, especially if the request was made in the proximity of his remains. In real life Edward had, in effect, handed the English over to the Normans. Did Ratzinger suppose that as a result of his prayer Edward would perform the miracle of handing the English over to his own sect?

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Another example of the arrogance is the statement by the leader of Ratzinger's sect in England that it is appropriate that the population as a whole, atheists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and the like, should contribute through taxation to the extensive cost of Ratzinger's visit, and not merely the members of his sect. And we are doing so - our politicians are evidently afraid of losing the votes of these members.

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Ratzinger has been calling for the freedom of religion but his religion is noted for its intolerance. If a member of his sect is to marry a member of another sect then the clergy of that sect are effectively barred from conducting the marriage and the member of the second sect must promise that any children shall be brought up as members of Ratzinger's sect. And not only does his sect restrict the freedom of other sects, it restricts freedom within itself. Its priests are not allowed to marry and it does not allow its women to become priestesses. Its members are not allowed to use contraceptives. Its priests, by not marrying, make some women unnecessarily childless. That is a most unkind form of contraception.