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Newman and Modernism: The Pascendi Crisis and its Wider Significances

2011; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 1038 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1741-2005.2010.01410.x

1741-2005

Stephen Bullivant,

Religion and Society Interactions

Abstract Pope St Pius X's Pascendi dominici gregis , denouncing modernism as ‘the synthesis of all heresies’, was promulgated in September 1907. The (false) suspicion that its intended target was Cardinal Newman – a suggestion promoted by George Tyrrell, among others – sparked a protracted controversy in the British secular and religious press, with modernists and anti-modernists both fighting to claim Newman. After narrating the early skirmishes of this debate, this paper explores the controversy in light of two main themes: popular views regarding Newman's standing and esteem in the eyes of the curia and magisterium; and his central, symbolic role in the construction of English Catholicism. Both, I argue, fanned the flames engulfing the letters pages of the Times . Particular attention is also given to the key (and perhaps surprising) role of another great English Cardinal in defending Blessed John Henry: St Pius’‘uncompromising ultramontane’ Secretary of State, Rafael Merry del Val.