The Parting of Friends: Wilberforces and Henry Manning

The History of 19th-Century England abounds with great religious figures and, at the same time, religious turmoil. Among those who participated in the Evangelical revival now known as the Oxford Movement were Henry Manning and his three brothers-in-law, Samuel, Robert, and Henry Wilberforce (sons of the leading social reformer William Wilberforce). Also within this circle of devout Evangelicals was the influential John Henry Newman, who, like Manning and both Robert and Henry Wilberforce, eventually left the Anglican communion for the Roman Catholic Church.Aided by numerous unpublished family papers, David Newsome traces the story of this influential circle from its early buoyant hopes to its tragic interpersonal and ecclesiastical dissolution. Along the way he provides vivid details about early Victorian domestic life and the issues that stirred English churchmen in the nineteenth century. As it documents previously unknown details about the later development of the Oxford Movement and the character of its participants, this narrative draws readers into the emotional and religious conflicts of a remarkable group of eminent Victorians.