Two major pieces of literature on Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–1852),
the renowned Gothic Revivalist and Catholic convert who designed Big
Ben, the Houses of Parliament, six cathedrals, and more, state, in
summary fashion, that Pugin illustrated St John Henry Newman’s Live of the English Saints.[1] The late Professor Margaret Belcher, however, provided a great deal of detail on this subject in the second volume of her The Collected Letters of A.W.N. Pugin, published in 2003.[2] This essay republishes, for the first time since 1914, all eleven of Pugin’s illustrations[3] and does so for the first time ever in a single document.[4]
The period in question is mid 1842 through the end of 1844.[5] During this time, Pugin was, among other things, doing his typical traveling (Scotland, Ireland, and the Continent),[6] worked on his home in Ramsgate,[7] and on several churches, including three cathedrals.[8] He also published An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England (1843) and Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume (1844).[9]
For his part during this time, Newman (1801–1890) was in the throes of
converting to Catholicism and had relocated from Oxford to Littlemore, a
few miles away, in February 1842.[10] Among other things, he was busy drafting An Essay on The Development of Christine Doctrine (1845).
With respect to Newman’s Lives of the English Saints,
the first thing to notice is that any and all illustrations were by
Pugin, no one else, and they were not attributed to anyone at the time
of original publication. Second, Newman himself may not have written any
of the Lives.[11] He edited the first two numbers: St Stephen Harding and St Richard.[12]
The introduction to the 1900 edition, the first comprehensive edition,
stated that the work is described as Newman’s because he initiated the
effort.[13]
Here
is how the work came about: Newman’s thoughts on the subject started at
least as early as 4 April 1841, when he wrote to his friend, J.W.
Bowden, about English saints, the “National Church,” and the desirability of someone writing a biography of St Anselm (1033/34–1109).[14] In the summer of 1842, Newman had a conversation with publisher James Toovey about “publishing the Lives of the [English] Saints …
thinking it would be useful, as employing the minds of persons who were
in danger of running wild, and bringing them from doctrine to history,
from speculation to fact; again, as giving them an interest in the
English soil and English church, and keeping them from seeking sympathy
in Rome as she is”.[15]
On 3 April 1843, almost precisely two years since Newman had first
written Bowden on the subject, he wrote Bowden again, stating that he
intended the work “to be historical and devotional, but not
controversial.”[16]
As of 18 May 1843, “Many men are setting to work [researching and writing biographies].”[17] There were 30 such men. A few months later, in early fall of 1843, Newman published a prospectus describing the anticipated Lives.[18] He envisioned a monthly publication written by various authors, each writing independently of the others.[19] He identified 300 saints![20]
At
some point in 1843, Newman asked J. R. Bloxam, previously a curate to
Newman, to find out from Pugin what he wanted to do about illustrations
for Saints Stephen and Richard.[21] Pugin initially declined the work.[22]
In late 1843, Anglican Father and Oxford Professor E. B. Pusey saw some pre-publication proofs of the first Life,
that of St Stephen Harding, by J. D. Dalgairns who lived in community
with Newman at Littlemore. Pusey’s objections to these proofs caused
Newman great anxiety. Newman had wanted the Lives to present facts with total detachment but realized that “miracles, or monkery [monasticism], or popery”[23] would unavoidably seep in. Newman consulted James Hope, a young barrister and William Gladstone, then a Member of Parliament (and future Prime Minister), both of whom shared Pusey’s concerns.[24]
By
December, Newman decided to withdraw from the project but desired that
individual biographies, many of them in process, would be published one
at a time and that enough of them would eventually constitute a series.[25] As
soon as the first, on St Stephen, came into print, it was clear that
the project of publishing lives of English saints was incompatible with
Anglicanism.[26] After the second biography (of St Richard[27]) was published, Newman gave public notice in January 1844 that he was withdrawing as editor.[28] He declared that only those biographies completed or nearly completed would be subsequently published.[29]
There
was a flurry of correspondence—28 letters identified and summarized by
Belcher—between Pugin, Newman, Toovey, and the new editor Frederick
Oakeley (then minister at Margaret Chapel, the predecessor of All
Saints, Margaret Street, and the author of the draft life of St
Augustine of Canterbury) from the last half of January through November
1844, some of which may have crossed in the mail. The subjects included
employing Pugin to illustrate individual lives as well as the design of a
“Wrapper,” or frontispiece, that is, a title-page illustration that
would be used for every number in the series, Pugin’s fees, the colors
of the illustrations, the status of the work of the engraver, Orlando
Jewitt, and comments on Pugin’s illustrations. For example, Toovey wrote
Newman on February 9 that Pugin had supplied a “beautiful” design for
St Augustine.[30] (Read more.)
