The Rambler (Catholic periodical)

Last updated

The Rambler was a Catholic periodical founded by liberal converts to Catholicism and closely associated with the names of Lord Acton, Richard Simpson and, for a brief period, John Henry Newman. It was one of the leading English Catholic magazines of the nineteenth century. [1]

Contents

It represented a phase of convert thought which was in opposition to the extreme ultramontanism of William George Ward and Henry Edward Manning and eventually led to increasing friction with the leading members of the newly established English hierarchy. [2]

History

The Rambler was started on 1 January 1848, and its last number was published in May 1862. According to its final number:

The Rambler was commenced on 1st of January 1848 as a weekly magazine of home and foreign literature, politics, science and art. Its aim was to unite an intelligent and hearty acceptance of Catholic dogma with free enquiry and discussion on questions which the Church left open to debate and while avoiding, as far as possible, the domain of technical theology, to provide a medium for the expression of independent opinion on subjects of the day, whether interesting to the general public or especially affecting Catholics. [2]

The Rambler had been founded by John Moore Capes, onetime president of the Oxford Union. It was originally a weekly magazine. John Henry Newman wrote verses that were published and counseled Capes to avoid controversy with Wiseman's competing publication, the Dublin Review . Before the end of the year, The Rambler was so successful that it was decided to increase the number of pages and to issue it in a monthly form. It continued to be published as a monthly serial from 1 September 1848 to 1 February 1859. [2]

James Spencer Northcote, like Capes, a teacher at Prior Park College, had spent three years in Rome, some of the time with noted archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi. Northcote contributed a number of articles on the Roman catacombs. From June 1852, until September 1854, he served as editor. After his wife's death in 1853 Northcote began to focus his attention on preparing for the priesthood, [3]

In 1850 Richard Simpson began to write for The Rambler, and in 1856 became assistant editor. [4]

From May 1859, a slightly larger version was published every two months. The last number was published in May 1862, and a quarterly journal, The Home and Foreign Review, under the same editorial management, appeared in its place in July of that year. This became one of the most distinguished periodicals of its day, and was praised by Matthew Arnold. [4]

Sir John (later Lord) Acton was the principal proprietor of The Rambler. In 1858, Simpson became editor and a proprietor. He ran into conflict with those who disapproved of a layman writing about theology and of his liberal views, and was forced to resign in 1859, being briefly replaced with Newman. [4] Acton became the editor in 1859, upon Newman's retirement from the position. [5]

Editors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ignaz von Döllinger</span> German Catholic priest, theologian and historian (1799–1890)

Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, also Doellinger in English, was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility. Among his writings which proved controversial, his criticism of the papacy antagonized ultramontanes, yet his reverence for tradition annoyed the liberals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton</span> British politician and historian (1834–1902)

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli,, better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is best remembered for the remark he wrote in a letter to an Anglican bishop in 1887: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Wilberforce</span> English Catholic clergyman, newspaper proprietor, editor and journalist

Henry William Wilberforce was an English Catholic clergyman, formerly a Tractarian, and thereafter a newspaper proprietor, editor and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Coffin (bishop)</span>

Robert Aston Coffin was an English Redemptorist and Bishop of Southwark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's College, Oscott</span> Church in Birmingham, England

St Mary's College in New Oscott, Birmingham, often called Oscott College, is the Roman Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham in England and one of the three seminaries of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

William Simonds was an American writer who usually used the pen-name Walter Aimwell.

<i>Dublin Review</i> (Catholic periodical) Catholic periodical founded in 1836

The Dublin Review was a Catholic periodical founded in 1836 by Michael Joseph Quin, Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman and Daniel O'Connell. The fame of the "Edinburgh Review" suggested a territorial title, and Dublin was chosen as a great Catholic centre, though from the first it was edited and published in London.

Richard Simpson was a British Roman Catholic writer and literary scholar. He was born at Beddington, Surrey, into an Anglican family, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and at Oriel College, Oxford. He obtained a BA degree on 9 February 1843. He was ordained in the Church of England, and became the vicar of Mitcham in Surrey, in 1844, the same year that he married his cousin, Elizabeth Mary Cranmer. He resigned his position some time before being received into the Catholic Church on 1 August 1846. He then spent more than a year on the continent, becoming very proficient as a linguist.

Frederick Lucas was a British religious polemicist and founder of The Tablet. His brother Samuel Lucas was a newspaper editor and abolitionist.

Thomas Pounde was an English Jesuit lay brother.

James Burton Robertson was a historian. The son of Thomas Robertson, a landed proprietor in Grenada, West Indies, where he spent his boyhood. In 1809 his mother brought him to England, and placed him at St. Edmund's College, Old Hall (1810), where he remained for nine years. In 1819 he began his legal studies, and in 1825 was called to the bar, but did not practise. For a time he studied philosophy and theology in France under the influence of his friends Lamennais and Gerbet.

Charles Wilkins Webber was a United States journalist and explorer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary E. Hewitt</span> American poet and editor

Mary Elizabeth Hewitt was an American poet and editor who flourished in the 1840s and 1850s. She published: Memorial of F. S. Osgood; Songs of Our Lord; Heroines of History; and Poems Sacred, Passionate, and Legendary.

James Spencer Northcote was an English Catholic priest and writer. He served as president of St Mary's College, Oscott for seventeen years.

Frances Margaret Taylor, whose religious name was Mother Magdalen of the Sacred Heart was an English nurse, editor and writer, nun, and Superior General and founder of the Roman Catholic religious congregation the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.

Edward Healy Thompson was an English Roman Catholic writer.

The 19th-century Catholic periodical literature is unique in many respects. Most of the periodical publications in mainly Catholic countries can be regarded as "Catholic" literature up to a few decades before 1800: the editorial line is implicitly Catholic in most instances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Carter (editor)</span> American editor, historian and author (1819–1879)

Robert Carter was an American editor, historian and author. He was involved in the formation of the Republican Party.

John Weeks Moore was an American editor of musical publications. He also authored a historical work on early governmentual slavery and politics

The North British Review was a Scottish periodical. It was founded in 1844 to act as the organ of the new Free Church of Scotland, the first editor being David Welsh. It was published until 1871; in the last few years of its existence it had a liberal Catholic editorial policy.

References

  1. Altholz, Josef L. "Materials for Recusant History in ‘ The Rambler.’", Recusant History, vol. 6, no. 2, 1961, pp. 80–89., doi : 10.1017/S0034193200003320
  2. 1 2 3 Thurston, Herbert. "The Rambler." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 28 November 2022 PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  3. Burton, Edwin. "James Spencer Northcote." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 23 November 2022 PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  4. 1 2 3 Josef L. Altholz: "Richard Simpson" in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
  5. MacDougall, Hugh A. (1962). The Acton/Newman Relations: The Dilemma of Christian Liberalism. Fordham University Press.

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "The Rambler". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.