a complete apology would serve; and so gave Newman the opportunity of his life.  When the withdrawal which he offered was rejected, Kingsley made matters ten times worse for himself by an ill-considered pamphlet called ’What then does Dr. Newman mean?’ In this effusion he vents all his scorn and hatred for Catholicism—­for its tortuous tactics, its monstrous credulity and appetite for miracles, which must proceed, according to him, either from infantile folly or from deliberate imposture.  Forgetting altogether that he has to defend himself against a specific charge of slander, he offers his great opponent the choice between writing himself down a knave or a fool—­a knave if he pretends to believe in the Holy Coat and the blood of St. Januarius, a fool if he does believe in them.

The coarseness of this attack upon an elderly man of saintly character and acknowledged intellectual eminence, who had to all appearance blighted a great career by honestly obeying his conscience, offended the British public, which was now fully disposed to give a respectful and favourable hearing to whatever Newman might care to say in reply.  In a Catholic country it would have been useless for a Protestant, however falsely attacked, to appeal to Catholic public opinion for justice; but Newman understood the English character, and saw his splendid chance.

The famous defence was, from every point of view except the highest, a complete triumph.  And although Hort was strictly accurate in describing the treatment of Kingsley as ‘horribly unchristian,’ it is demanding too much of human nature to expect a master of fence, when wantonly attacked with a bludgeon, to abstain from the pleasure of pricking his adversary scientifically in the tender parts of his body.  The bitterest passages were excised in later editions; and the ‘Apologia’ remains a masterpiece of autobiography, and a powerful defence of Catholicism.  To Newman this appeared to be the turning-point in his fortunes.  He felt strong enough to administer a severe snub to Monsignor Talbot, his old enemy, who, hearing of the success the ‘Apologia,’ invited him to preach at Rome.  Then at once he threw himself into a great scheme for founding an Oratory at Oxford.  Eight and a half acres were bought between Worcester College, the Clarendon Press, the Observatory, and Beaumont Street, a magnificent site, which the Oratorians acquired for only L8400.  But here again he was thwarted.  W.G.  Ward opposed the scheme with all his might, insisting on the necessity of ’preserving the purity of a Catholic atmosphere throughout the whole course of education.’  The whole tendency of the Ultramontane movement was to secure, before all other things, a body of militant young Catholics to fight the battles of the Church.  Newman was willing to support the English Church in its warfare against unbelief; to the Ultramontane a Protestant is as certainly damned as an atheist, and is more mischievous as being less