Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick. - Cardinal and apologist, b. 2 Aug. 1802 at Seville, d. 15 Feb. 1865 at Westminster.
Of a family long settled in Spain, English and Irish by origin, he was left fatherless at the age of four and was taken by his mother to Waterford in southern Ireland. In 1810 he entered the Catholic College of Ushaw (near Durham), where he became the favourite pupil of the distinguished historian J. Lingard (q.v.). A student at the English College in Rome from its reopening in 1818, he graduated in theology with distinction in 1824 and, three years after his ordination (received 10 March 1825), was appointed its rector by Leo XII. In 1828 he was given the chair of Oriental languages at the Sapienza, which he made famous with his Horae syriacae seu commentationes et anecdota ad res vel litteras syriacas spectantia (2 vols., Rome 1848).
A mind open to every aspect of religious culture, he carried on an intense apologetic activity that won wide approval. During Lent 1835, in the hall of Cardinal Weld, he delivered the important Lectures on the Connection between Science and Revealed Religion (London 1836; also in Migne, Démonstrations évangéliques, XVI, cols. 1843–53). Particularly noteworthy for their philological and theological erudition were the Lectures on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist (London 1836). He also treated various topics (the coming of St Peter to Rome, the Johannine comma, the parables and miracles of Jesus, the Anglican Church, Boniface VIII, etc.), which were later
(30 Sept. 1850), when he had to face the Anglican fury against the papal aggression. The whole English world, from the Crown to Parliament, from the episcopate to the people, showed its irreconcilable hostility to Catholicism. On his return from Rome, Wiseman, disregarding human prudence, re-entered London on 11 Nov. 1850, and three days later published the pamphlet *Appeal to the Reason and Good Feeling of the English People*, in which he appealed to the traditional common sense and fairness of the English, demonstrating that the Pope’s act had remained perfectly within the bounds of legality. The pamphlet, reproduced in the leading newspapers, enjoyed a wide circulation and contributed effectively to restoring calm.
The fifteen years of his archiepiscopal rule were not easy: the silent opposition of old-style Catholics never abated, culminating in the unpleasant episode of 1862 that led to the replacement of Mgr Errington, coadjutor cum iure successionis, by Manning (q.v.). While his work within the Church was chiefly expressed in the provincial councils of Ossett, his influence extended throughout the country through his religious-apologetic conferences, numerous and timely articles, and even through the world-famous novel *Fabiola* (1854).
Wiseman remains in history as the bishop who inaugurated the second springtime of the Church in England.