The Trifecta in Religious Material.  Excellent content and condition, highly desirable. One of the finest letters we have ever offered of the Oxford Movement leader and celebrated convert to the Roman Catholic faith.
 
English Roman Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer and poet. A key figure in the Oxford Movement. He previously was an Anglican priest. Newman was an important figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century, and was known nationally by the mid-1830s. He was a member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and founded the first house of that congregation in England. Elevated to the cardinalate in 1879 by Leo XIII. Among his writings are “Apologia Pro Vita Sua,” “The Dream of Gerontius,” and hymns, among them “Lead, Kindly Light.” Proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis I in 2019.
 
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed: three pages, the Oratory, Birmingham, 25 April 1886. Written to Unitarian author Rev. Richard Acland Armstrong who sent Newman his book Man’s Knowledge of God (London 1886). Professionally matted with a sepia-tone, book weight print by Herbert Rose Barraud, circa 1888, the original of which is in the National. Portrait Gallery, London. Framed in scarlet silk fabric, gilt filets, museum conservation glazing and rare woods. Two-sided display. Overall measure 25”x15”. Letter reads:  Dear Rev. Sir: I am glad to receive from you a volume so very able and serviceable in proof of the great subject of which it treats, impressing upon me the important and happy contrast which exists between the modern bodies which are external to the Catholic Church and those of primitive times, so that, whereas no Catholic would think of having recourse to Gnostic of Manichee in the conflict with unbelief, members of sects who are nevertheless in certain grave errors, as we think, are, as we rejoice to believe, not external to divine grace and the gradual leadings of divine mercy, and can be welcome as aids in the defense of divine truth. I am sure you will let me say this, from the sympathy you feeling Catholics, ‘tho you stand apart from us, and I must say it, lest, while thanking you for what you have done so well, I seem to bear with passages in your book, which could not but seriously pain me. That God may visit you with a special Easter blessing and bring you into the perfect truth, is the sincere prayer of Your faithful Servant John H. Card. Newman.(Integral address and postscript) The Rev. R.A. Armstrong. P.S. Excuse my handwriting, I am losing the use of my fingers. 
 
In sending Newman his book, Armstrong had, no doubt, hoped the cardinal would agree that it contained “common ground, not unimportant, for all devout believers in God” Armstrong, a Unitarian, gave the reasons “on which my own theism practically rests.” His book contained such sentences as “We look neither, with some of our Protestant neighbors, to the merits of Christ to save us, nor, with our Catholic countrymen, to the mystery of the Eucharist to unlock for us the gates of heaven.” This letter published in “The Letters and Diaries of John HenryNewman, Volume XXX1, Charles Stephen Dessain and Thomas Gornall, S.J., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1977.
 
A true investment-grade collectible with significant content. 
 
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