s later he resigned his charge at St. Mary's and left
the Anglican communion,--not bitterly, but with a deep and tender regret.
His last sermon at Littlemore on "The Parting of Friends" still moves us
profoundly, like the cry of a prophet torn by personal anguish in the face
of duty. In 1845 he was received into the Catholic church, and the
following year, at Rome, he joined the community of St. Philip Neri, "the
saint of gentleness and kindness," as Newman describes him, and was
ordained to the Roman priesthood.

By his preaching and writing Newman had exercised a strong influence over
his cultivated English hearers, and the effect of his conversion was
tremendous. Into the theological controversy of the next twenty years we
have no mind to enter. Through it all Newman retained his serenity, and,
though a master of irony and satire, kept his literary power always
subordinate to his chief aim, which was to establish the truth as he saw
it. Whether or not we agree with his conclusions, we must all admire the
spirit of the man, which is above praise or criticism. His most widely read
work, _Apologia Pro Vita Sua_ (1864), was written in answer to an
unfortunate attack by Charles Kingsley, which would long since have been
forgotten had it not led to this remarkable book. In 1854 Newman was
appointed rector of the Catholic University in Dublin, but after four years
returned to England and founded a Catholic school at Edgbaston. In 1879 he
was made cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. The grace and dignity of his life,
quite as much as the sincerity of his _Apologia_, had long since disarmed
criticism, and at his death, in 1890, the thought of all England might well
be expressed by his own lines in "The Dream of Gerontius":

I had a dream. Yes, some one softly said,
"He's gone," and then a sigh went round the room;
And then I surely heard a priestly voice
Cry _Subvenite_; and they knelt in prayer.

WORKS OF NEWMAN. Readers approach Newman from so many different motives,
some for doctrine, some for argument, some for a pure prose style, that it
is difficult to recommend the best works for the beginner's use. As an
expression of Newman's spiritual struggle the _Apologia Pro Vita Sua_ is
perhaps the most significant. This book is not light reading and one who
opens it should understand clearly the reasons for which it was written.
Newman had been accused of insincerity, not only by Kingsley but by many
other men, i