WILBERFORCE, HENRY WILLIAM. – Writer, b. at Clapham (England) on 22 Sept. 1807, d. at Stroud on 23 Apr. 1873.
The third son of William W., the renowned British statesman who devoted all his political activity to the abolition of slavery, he completed his studies at Oriel College, Oxford, intending to practise law. But the future Cardinal Newman, who had been his teacher, having admired his profound piety, induced him instead to embrace the ecclesiastical state, and W. was ordained an Anglican priest in 1834, like his two brothers, Samuel, who would become a bishop of the High Church, and Robert, who instead was destined to convert—as Henry did—to Catholicism. After pursuing a rapid and brilliant career, thanks to the personal support of Queen Victoria’s consort, W. in fact abjured the schism in 1850 and embraced the Catholic faith. His desire had been to become a priest, but since he was married and had nine children, he had to remain a layman; this did not, however, 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, subsequently entitled Weekly Register; not only did he collaborate extensively with numerous other periodicals and for a long time perform the duties of secretary of the Catholic Defence Association, but he also published books of controversy that provoked memorable polemics and helped spread knowledge of Catholic truth. He who, while still an Anglican pastor, had issued a fervent appeal to the English clergy to intensify their efforts to restore the Christian spirit to 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 only five years. In 1852 he wrote a moving apology for persecuted Catholicism in Ireland, Proselytism in Ireland; for Manning’s Essays on Religion and Literature he composed the fundamental historical essay Some events preparatory to the English Reformation (1867), and finally produced that splendid volume The Church and the Emphres, published in 1874, shortly after his death.
ROBERT ISAAC, theologian, his brother, b. on 19 Dec. 1802 at Clapham, d. on 3 Feb. 1857 at Albano.
He studied at Oriel College, Oxford. As a subdeacon, he was one of the College’s three tutors (the other two were Newmann and Froude), but he came into conflict with the new provost, E. Hawkins, who could not tolerate the excessive freedom he displayed in developing the curriculum. He therefore exercised the priestly ministry in Kent and Yorkshire, and in 1849 became archdeacon of East Riding. His friendship with Manning and the extensive correspondence he exchanged with him increasingly distanced him from the Anglican Church; he converted to Catholicism in 1854. The following year he entered the Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome. Among his writings are The doctrine of Holy Baptism (1849), on the Tractarian doctrine of Baptism; A sketch of the history of Erastianism (1851), against the theory of the king’s supremacy in the Anglican Church; An inquiry into the principles of Church Authority (1854), on the primacy of the Supreme Pontiff.