Anglican objections to Roman Catholic beliefs often focus on the status of the Virgin Mary and devotion to her, and that of the Pope and his exercise of supreme authority. In this second volume of Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans John Henry Newman brought together two 'Open Letters' which address these key issues.
In A Letter Addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., on Occasion of His Eirenicon (1866) Newman corrects the misconceptions of his former Oxford Movement colleague Professor Edward Pusey who had attacked Catholic Marian devotional practices. Newman expounds the early Fathers' teaching about Mary as the 'Second Eve' who was chosen to be the Mother of God; and he shows how Catholic devotion always honours her for the humility with which she accepted this call.
Nine years later William Gladstone, then the British prime Minister, published an attack on the 1870 promulgation of the doctrine of papal infallibility, arguing that it was unscriptural and was incompatible with the loyalty of Catholics to the British crown. Newman's reply, A Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (the leading Catholic layman in England), explains the exact meaning of the definition, as opposed to the extreme Catholic Ultramontane interpretation of it. He also gives a classic exposition of the true meaning of conscience and its relation to Church authority.
This first ever critical edition of these works has a substantial Editor's Introduction, examining the issues and setting the historical context, and provides comprehensive notes to Newman's text.
Newman collected both 'Letters' as Volume II of Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching. This is the first critical edition of this volume and contains detailed historical and critical introductions and footnotes to explain Newman's many historical and other references.
