Editing John Henry Newman (section)

===Educator===
In 1854, at the request of the Irish Catholic bishops, Newman went to [[Dublin]] as [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of the newly established [[Catholic University of Ireland]], now [[University College Dublin]]. It was during this time that he founded the [[Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin)|Literary and Historical Society]]. After four years, he retired. He published a volume of lectures entitled ''The Idea of a University'', which explained his [[philosophy of education]].{{sfn|Hutton|1911|p=518}}

[[File:Bust of John Henry Newman.jpg|thumb|Bust of Newman, by T. Westmacott, 1841]]
Newman believed in a middle way between free thinking and [[moral authority]]—one that would respect the rights of knowledge as well as the rights of revelation.<ref name=CEnc/> His purpose was to build a Catholic university, in a world where the major Catholic universities on the European continent had recently been secularised, and most universities in the English-speaking world were Protestant. For a university to claim legitimacy in the larger world, it would have to support research and publication free from church censorship; however, for a university to be a safe place for the education of Catholic youth, it would have to be a place in which the teachings of the Catholic church were respected and promoted.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book | last = Cornwell | first = John | title = Newman's Unquiet Grave | isbn = 978-1441150844 | chapter = Idea of a University | date = 2010| publisher = A&C Black }}</ref>

<blockquote>The University ... has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture; here it may leave its scholars, and it has done its work when it has done as much as this. It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it.<ref>J. H. Newman, ''The Idea of a University'', London, 1891, pp. 125–26, cited by John Cornwell, ''Newman's Unquiet Grave'', ch. 11.</ref></blockquote>

This philosophy encountered opposition within the Catholic Church, at least in Ireland, as evidenced by the opinion of bishop [[Paul Cullen (bishop)|Paul Cullen]]. In 1854 Cullen wrote a letter to the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (now called the [[Dicastery for Evangelization]]), criticising Newman's liberal exercise of authority within the new university:

<blockquote>The discipline introduced is unsuitable, certainly to this country. The young men are allowed to go out at all hours, to smoke, etc., and there has not been any fixed time for study. All this makes it clear that Father Newman does not give enough attention to details.<ref>Charles Stephen Dessain, et al., eds., ''The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman'', vol. 16, note 551, cited by John Cornwell, ''Newman's Unquiet Grave'', ch. 11.</ref></blockquote>

The university as envisaged by Newman encountered too much opposition to prosper. However, his book did have a wide influence.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Cornwell | first = John | title = Newman's Unquiet Grave | url = https://archive.org/details/newmansunquietgr00john | url-access = limited | isbn = 978-1441150844 | chapter = Idea of a University | page = [https://archive.org/details/newmansunquietgr00john/page/n140 128] | quote = A token of the prophetic, timeless and universal nature of Newman's vision is its adoption by writers and thinkers generations on, and far removed, from the circumstances of nineteenth-century tertiary education in Catholic Ireland. | date = 2010| publisher = A&C Black }}</ref>

In 1858, Newman projected a branch house of the Oratory at Oxford; but this project was opposed by Father (later Cardinal) [[Henry Edward Manning]], another influential convert from Anglicanism, and others. It was thought that the creation of a Catholic body within the heart of Oxford was likely to induce Catholics to send their sons to that university, rather than to newly formed Catholic universities. The scheme was abandoned.{{sfn|Hutton|1911|p=518}} When Catholics did begin to attend Oxford from the 1860s onwards, a Catholic club was formed and, in 1888, it was renamed the [[Oxford University Newman Society]] in recognition of Newman's efforts on behalf of Catholicism in that university city. The [[Oxford Oratory]] was eventually founded over 100 years later in 1993.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.oxfordoratory.org.uk/ | title = The Oxford Oratory | publisher = The Oxford Oratory | access-date = 31 August 2013 | archive-date = 17 September 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130917011435/http://www.oxfordoratory.org.uk/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

In 1859, Newman established, in connection with the Birmingham Oratory, a school for the education of the sons of gentlemen along lines similar to those of English public schools.{{sfn|Hutton|1911|p=518}} [[The Oratory School]] flourished as a boys' boarding school, and was one of a number which were to be dubbed "The Catholic [[Eton College|Eton]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=A Catholic Eton? Newman's Oratory School|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6yhgA-nHAMC|location=[[Leominster]]|publisher=Gracewing Publishing|date=2005|pages=26, 29, 41–43|isbn=9780852446614|last=Shrimpton|first=Paul}}</ref>

Newman's published writings and sermons had a profound influence on one of the greatest of American educators, William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877).  At his model schools on Long Island (1828, 1836), Muhlenberg would sometimes read Newman's sermons to the boys.  Muhlenberg, pioneer of a new kind of education in America, and a staunch Protestant, distanced himself from Newman when the latter converted to the Roman Church in 1845.  But the influence went deep, nonetheless, as can be seen in the literary remains of Muhlenberg's former pupils, especially in those of the missionary school-maker Lloyd Breck (1818-1876) and John Barrett Kerfoot (1816-1881), founder of Saint James School of Maryland.