Henry Edward Manning - Conversion To Catholicism

Conversion To Catholicism

Manning's belief in Anglicanism was shattered in 1850, when, in the so-called Gorham judgement, the Privy Council successfully ordered the Church to institute an Evangelical clergyman who denied that the sacrament of baptism had an objective effect of baptismal regeneration. The denial of the objective effect of the sacraments was to Manning and many others a grave heresy, contradicting the clear tradition of the Christian Church from the Fathers of the Church on, and the fact that a civil, secular court had the power to force the Anglican Church to accept such a heretical opinion proved to him that, far from being a divinely created institution, the Anglican church was merely a man-made creation of the English Parliament.

The following year, on 6 April 1851, he was received into the Catholic Church and soon after, on 14 June 1851 was ordained a priest in it. Given his great abilities and prior fame, he quickly rose to a position of influence, and, in 1865, was chosen as Archbishop of Westminster. He was now styled His Grace The Most Rev. Dr. Henry Edward Manning, Lord Archbishop of Westminster.

Among his accomplishments as head of the Catholic Church in England were the building of Westminster Cathedral and a greatly expanded system of Roman Catholic education, including the establishment of the short lived Catholic University College in Kensington. In 1875, Manning was created Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio. He now become His Eminence The Most Rev. Dr. Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Lord Archbishop of Westminster. Cardinal Manning participated in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIII in 1878.

He also approved the founding of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage.