[Rarebooks] FS: Protestantism and Catholicity with lengthy autograph annotations by the newest saint, new to market

[Charles Agvent]

*Offered here to the public for the first time
*

*__________________________________________________________________________________________
*

*Annotated by Cardinal Newman with Three poems *

*and a review of a book on Catholicism and Protestantism*

Newman, John Henry. *"Cicero";* *Encyclopedia Metropolitana:* *or, 
System of universal knowledge: on a methodical plan/./*/ /London: John 
Joseph Griffin, 1849.

8vo.; gutter cracked; bookseller's note on front endpaper, in pencil; 
dampstaining to lower right-edge corner; original brown cloth with light 
brown stain on upper cover; decoratively stamped in blind; spine stamped 
in gilt; corners bumped; edgeworn.

Second Cabinet edition; revised and corrected. Also contains Samuel 
Taylor Coleridge's "Prospectus" and "A Preliminary Treatise on Method" 
(being Part I...to be continued in Weekly Parts and Monthly Volumes); 
and "Archimedes. Greek Mathematics" by William Whewell.

With John Henry Newman's lengthy autograph annotations regarding a book 
by the late Abbe J. Balmez, titled, /Protestantism and Catholicity 
compared in their Effects on the Civilization of Europe/ (translated 
from the French by C.J. Hanford and R. Kershaw, and published in London 
by James Brown, 1849). The annotations are made in minute script in 
black ink, appearing on five pages of text: the title page of his 
"Cicero" article; the verso of title page; the bottom of the first page 
of text (paginated page 207); the final page of text (paginated page 
246); and the title page of William Whewell's "Archimedes. Greek 
Mathematics" article. The dampstaining on the lower right hand corners 
obscures a few words on the first three pages of annotations. Newman 
begins his annotations with a poem, written above the word "Cicero" on 
the title page; it is untitled:


Superior to the majesty of change,

She blooms immortal, even as God himself,
Whose spouse she is by virtue of his word;
[ ] and immutable, that He would dwell
Forever with his Church, directing well. Her spirit
Her spirit whilst the [ ] eyes rolled.
Tumultuous forth. And so it is, for lo!
That covenant of constancy & love.
Existeth still as in the days of old.
When [ ], like autumnal storms,
Menace her peace, and tyrants madly cursed.
the mercy-truths she breathed, and still she breaths
To the disconsolate who seek repose
Beneath the sacred shadow of her wing.

This poem is followed by an unbroken block of text; apparently Newman's 
review of Abbe Balmez's book. Its lengthy first sentence reads:


Protestantism was more of a polished revolt than a strictly religious 
dissent, & its external causes must be sought in the ambition [ ] dating 
back from Louis of Bavaria & including Louis XII of France, rather than 
in any real change of faith operated in the masses; & its way was 
prepared by the temper of mind which the [ ] creaked in their subjects 
by wars they undertook & carried on as [stain to text] against the popes 
as political sovereigns, but really for possessing the patrimony of the 
church, & of subjecting the church in their respect we dominions, to the 
control of the secular power.

The first sentence on the following page begins, "Protestantism has been 
a total failure, that even in reference to this world, Catholicity has 
found itself as superior to it as it claims to be in the world to come." 
Newman continues by comparing Protestantism to Catholicism.

At the beginning of the annotations on page 246, Newman writes,

Balmez makes an appeal for Catholicity, he offers no direct argument for 
the truth; he simply comes forward & compares the respective influences 
of Protestantism & Catholicity on European civilization, & shows that, 
while Catholicity tends unceasingly to advance civilization, 
Protestantism as unceasingly tends to barbarism, & that it is to its 
hostile influences we owe the slow progress of European civilization 
during the last three centuries.

Newman concludes with a mention of religion in Japan: "But alas! The 
Church of Japan is no more..." and then ends with a series of questions 
quoted from an 1825 volume of /The Edinburgh Magazine, /"Reply to C.C's 
Defense of the Catholic Church," by "F.A."); quotes Lord Byron's poem, 
"Childe Harold's Pilgrimmage"(Canto III, Stanza XXVII), and John 
Dryden's "Hind and the Panther":

Who polished Europe by art and refined her by legislation? Who 
discovered The New World, and opened a passage to another? Who have 
exalted to a nature, & made man appear again little less than angels? 
Were they not almost exclusively professors of our creed?

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with nature's tear drops, so they pass,
Grieving if aught inanimate e'er grieves,
Over the unreturning brave -- alas!

Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine [ ],
Induced with souls, increased the sacred breed.
So captive Israel multiplied in chains,
A numerous exile, and enjoy'd her pains.
With grief and gladness mixed, the mother view'd
Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renewed.


$6500.00

"John Henry Newman is simply the most electrifying religious thinker and 
writer in English of the past 200 years -- subtle, imaginative, deeply 
learned, at times maddeningly paradoxical and dialectical. James Joyce 
and Gerard Manley Hopkins claimed that he was the finest English prose 
stylist of the 19th century. His range is prodigious: poetry ("The Dream 
of Gerontius"), fiction, history, hymns (famously, "Lead, Kindly 
Light"), many hundreds of published sermons, as well as profound works 
of theology and philosophy. His /Apologia Pro Vita Sua/ is by common 
consent the greatest spiritual autobiography since Augustine's 
/Confessions/. A literary workaholic, he prayed with a pen in his hand. 
Believing in Christianity, he thought, was like falling in love. His 
motto was "Heart speaks unto Heart"; bullying and clever arguments, he 
said, do not bring us to God. "  John Cornwell: "The papal hijacking of 
Cardinal Newman" from FINANCIAL TIMES, 20 September 2010

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