Chapter 7: Curate of St. Clement’s
CHAPTER 7
CURATE OF ST. CLEMENT’S
WHEN Newman turned twenty-three in 1824, he reached the age for ordination as a deacon, and in preparation, he began to fast every week. With the advice and encouragement of Mayers and Pusey, he accepted the offer to be curate at St. Clement’s Church, whose rector was in his eighties and suffering from poor health. The church was in a working-class parish in East Oxford over the Magdalen Bridge. Since Newman had lived ten years in residence at Oxford University he felt awkward among poor and uneducated people.
Newman wrote to his father, telling him about the parish and his salary. The parish had approximately 2000 inhabitants, but the capacity of the church was limited to 300 people. He would earn £45 each year. Mrs. Newman wrote to him, “Your Father and I are much gratified to hear of your offer and acceptance of the Curacy of St. Clement’s. It appears, my dear, quite providential.”1
The young graduate did not feel equal to the task, and he was fearful when he considered the ordination vows and his future responsibility for souls. At the same time, he struggled against pride and an excessive desire for academic recognition at Oriel. Conscious of this flaw, he prayed for humility and fortitude. When his friend Pusey won an essay prize, Newman wrote in his diary, “I am small and of no reputation—and I thank my God for it most heartily. But are my affections in the same direction?”2
As the weeks for ordination approached, Newman prayed with greater joy, offering his whole life: fortune and misfortune, joy and sadness, health and sickness, honor and dishonor, to God. His prayer must have been heard because Newman had no lack of successes and trials in his life. After overcoming one last doubt regarding the decisive step that he was to take, he was ordained a deacon in Christ Church Cathedral by the Bishop of Oxford on June 13, 1824.
Newman felt a big relief from his interior trepidation. It was as if a battle with God was over, and he wrote the following prayer: “It is over. I am thine, O Lord.”3 He felt as a man thrown into deep water, but Newman was a good swimmer. For the long remainder of his life, he would swim in rough seas and with little respite.
Newman preached the first sermon at his mentor’s parish. The power he lacked in his voice was made up by the power of his words. From the start of his preaching, he spent long hours preparing sermons and, after the first few, felt almost without anything left to say. Although some complimented him for his sermons, others complained that they were severe. He was unperturbed by the latter and made the Christian vocation to holiness the focus of the homilies. He wrote, “Those who make comfort the great subject of their preaching seem to mistake the end of their ministry. Holiness is the great end. There must be a struggle and trial here. Comfort is a cordial, but no one drinks cordials from morning to night.”4
In this new phase of his life, Newman’s time was occupied with baptisms, morning and afternoon Sunday services, preaching, marriage ceremonies, and burials for the dead. He devoted a lot of time and effort to visit parishioners who were ill—sometimes the same one more than once a day—and to pray with them until they recovered or died. In his diary, there are many stories of the sufferings, spiritual circumstances, and trials of those who were sick.
He urged many of the sick to repentance for their sins and took “the Sacrament” (short for the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist) to those who were prepared. A forty-year-old woman who suffered extreme pain from a dreadful ulcer in her leg told him that she found great peace in receiving Holy Communion. On February 7, 1825, he recorded in his diary: “Just before she died she told him ‘Jesus Christ is there, (pointing) no, He is here, here’ (putting her hand on her breast).”5
At a young age, this new curate already had a deep and genuine compassion for others. He prayed for them and, on his visits, recited prayers with them. He was concerned for their physical and spiritual suffering and, above all, for the salvation of their souls. Some who had not thought much of religion, when they fell ill, responded to God’s graces, repenting of their sins. In May, one parishioner told her mother that, when the curate would enter the bedroom, she thought of Jesus Christ as depicted in pictures.6
In less than two months, he visited all of his parishioners, house by house, and all were pleasantly surprised and tremendously thankful to see a clergyman. He also raised money for constructing a new church and for establishing a Sunday school through monetary pledges commonly known as subscriptions. Not all was good, though. One day the new curate had a dispute with the parish choir and the choir members became indignant and left the church. In support of their neighbors, some parishioners met with Newman or sent letters of protest with threatening remarks, but in the end, nothing came of it.
During the visits, the Treatise on Apostolical Preaching recommended to him by Hawkins helped Newman to give up his remaining Calvinism and accept the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Hawkins conveyed to Newman the importance of Tradition for Anglicans and foretold that, before long, the books and canon of Scripture would come under attack. According to Hawkins, the formulas of the Church set forth in the Catechism and Creeds are intended to teach the faith, whereas Sacred Scripture serves as a proof for these formulas and Creeds. The Scriptures are not an organized and complete exposition of the religious truths that should be believed. On his twenty-fourth birthday, Newman concluded, “I have taken many doctrines almost on trust from Scott etc and on serious examination hardly find them confirmed by Scripture.”7
In addition to carrying out this demanding pastoral work as a deacon, Newman was involved in college life, administrative work at St. Alban’s, and in writing essays for the Encyclopedia Metropolitana. In November of 1825, while recovering from an illness, Newman wrote to his mother saying, “Parish, Hall, College and Encyclopedia go on together in perfect harmony.”8 He exaggerated to relieve his mother’s worries. He wanted to study and write more, but he realized that he could not continue working at the same pace with all the obligations of the parish and the Hall. In February of 1826, with the prospect of succeeding his friend Richard Jelf as Tutor at Oriel College, Newman resigned from the curacy at St. Clement’s Parish and from his offices at St. Alban’s Hall. He had worked tirelessly for the poor parishioners, caring for their souls with dedication and zeal. The parishioners, especially the sick, had gladly welcomed him and also taught him a great deal. Many accepted illness as a purification for their sins and a preparation for death. In this period Newman also experienced the sorrow brought by the death of a loved one, his own father.
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1LD, Vol. I, Mrs. Newman to JHN (May 22, 1824), 174.
2AW, 199.
3AW, 200.
4AW, 172.
5LD, Vol. I, 208.
6LD, Vol. I, 232.
7AW, 205.
8LD, Vol. I, JHN to Mrs. Newman, 268.