WILBERFORCE, HENRY WILLIAM
Writer, b. at Clapham (England) on 22 Sept. 1807, d. at Stroud on 23 Apr. 1873.
Third son of William W., the noted British statesman who devoted his entire political activity to the abolition of slavery, he pursued his studies in the Orient. At Oxford College, intending to practice law. But the future Cardinal Newman, who was his teacher and had admired his deep piety, induced him instead to embrace the ecclesiastical state, and W. was ordained an Anglican priest in 1834, as were his two brothers, Samuel, who would become a bishop of the High Church, and Robert, who was destined to convert—as Henry did—to Catholicism. After a rapid and brilliant career, thanks to the personal support of Queen Victoria’s consort, W. in fact abjured schism in 1850 and embraced the Catholic faith. His desire would have been to become a priest, but since he was married with nine children he had to remain in the lay state; this, however, did not prevent him from carrying out a remarkable apostolic activity, especially through the press. Not only did he found and direct for a decade the *Catholic Standard*, later renamed *Weekly Register*; not only did he collaborate intensively with numerous other periodicals and long serve as secretary of the Catholic Defence Association, but he also published controversial books that sparked memorable debates and helped spread knowledge of Catholic truth. He who, while still an Anglican pastor, had addressed a warm appeal to English ecclesiastics to intensify their efforts to restore Christian spirit in the country (*The parochial system: an appeal to English Churchmen*, London 1838), explained the reasons for his conversion in the famous work *Reasons for submitting to the catholic Church* (ibid. 1851), which went through six editions in just five years. In 1852 he wrote a moving apology for persecuted Irish Catholicism, *Proselytism in Ireland*; for Manning’s *Essays on Religion and Literature* he contributed the fundamental historical essay *Some events preparatory to the English Reformation* (1867); and finally he composed that splendid volume *The Church and the Empires*, published in 1874, shortly after his death.
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ROBERT ISAAC, theologian, his brother, b. 19 Dec. 1802 at Clapham, d. 3 Feb. 1857 at Albano.
He studied at Oriel College, Oxford. As a subdeacon, he was one of the three tutors of the College (the others being Newman and Froude), but he came into conflict with the new provost, E. Hawkins, who could not tolerate the excessive freedom he displayed in designing the curriculum. He then exercised his priestly ministry in Kent and Yorkshire and in 1840 became archdeacon of East Riding. His friendship with Manning and his frequent correspondence with him increasingly estranged him from the Anglican Church; he converted to Catholicism in 1854. The following year in Rome he entered the Ecclesiastical Academy. Among his writings are *The doctrine of Holy Baptism* (1849), on the treatise doctrine of Baptism; *A sketch of the history of Erastianism* (1851), against the theory of royal supremacy in the Anglican Church; *An inquiry into the principles of Church Authority* (1854), on the primacy of the Supreme Pontiff.