John Henry Newman, British cardinal, late 19th century. Newman (1801-1890) was a leading priest in the Church of England whose conversion to Catholicism was a major event of the 1840s. Newman was a popular speaker and a scholar at Oxford, making his conversion all the more welcome to Catholics and shocking to Anglicans. Newman had been ordained as an Anglican priest in 1825; he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1847, and in 1879 he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. His Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864) is considered a classic among religious autobiographies. (Colorised black and white print).