Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/115

 Westmoreland. In 1825 he passed a short time at Shrewsbury School, and in 1827 he proceeded to Harrow, then under Dr. Longley, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he acknowledged deep obligations. His mother died in 1829, and his father in 1833. He was matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, 6 July 1832, and went into residence in the Lent term 1833. In the first year of his undergraduate life he composed one of his most popular poetical pieces, ‘The Cherwell Water-lily,’ published in 1840. Towards the end of 1834 he was elected a scholar of University College. He frequently joined in the discussions at the Union Debating Society, and gained some distinction as a speaker even among such rivals as Roundell Palmer, Lowe, Cardwell, W. G. Ward, and Tait. He also took an active share in establishing the ‘Oxford University Magazine.’ In 1836 he carried off the Newdigate prize with an English poem, ‘The Knights of St. John.’ He graduated B.A. the same year, taking a second class in classics. At the close of the year he accompanied his brother, the Rev. Francis Atkinson Faber, to Germany, and shortly after his return in January 1837 he was elected to a fellowship at University College. He also gained the Johnson divinity scholarship. When the long vacation arrived he took a small reading party to Ambleside, where he formed a lasting friendship with Wordsworth.

In early life Faber shared the Calvinistic doctrines of his family, who were of Huguenot origin; but at Oxford he became an enthusiastic admirer of the Rev. John Henry (now Cardinal) Newman and a zealous promoter of the movement started in 1833. He offered his services to the compilers of ‘The Library of the Fathers,’ and the translation of the seven books of St. Optatus, on the Donatist schism, was assigned to him. This task brought him the friendship of Newman, by whom he was largely influenced in after years. On 6 Aug. 1837 he was ordained deacon in Ripon Cathedral by his old master, Dr. Longley, and at once began to assist the clergyman of Ambleside in his parochial work. Some tracts which he published at this period obtained an extensive circulation. In 1839 he received priest's orders from Bishop Bagot at Oxford, and in the same year he commenced M.A. During the summer of 1839 he paid a short visit to Belgium and the Rhenish provinces, from which he returned with a strong feeling of dislike to the ecclesiastical practices he had witnessed. In 1840 he accepted a tutorship in the house of Mr. Matthew Harrison at Ambleside. The greater part of 1841 he spent in making an extensive tour on the continent with his pupil. He kept a minute journal of his travels, which formed the basis of a work entitled ‘Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peoples’ (1842), dedicated to Wordsworth, ‘in affectionate remembrance of much personal kindness, and many thoughtful conversations on the rites, prerogatives, and doctrines of the holy church.’ Faber remained at Ambleside during the greater part of 1842, and in the autumn of that year he accepted the rectory of Elton, Huntingdonshire, a living in the gift of his college. He communicated the news to Wordsworth, who replied: ‘I do not say you are wrong, but England loses a poet.’ After ‘reading himself in’ at Elton, on 2 April 1843, he visited the continent with the express object of examining and testing the practical results of catholicism. Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman introduced him to several eminent ecclesiastics in Rome. After his return to England in October 1843 he still clung to Anglicanism, but introduced into his parish full choral services and encouraged auricular confession and devotions to the Sacred Heart. A ‘Life of St. Wilfrid,’ which he published in 1844, was violently attacked on the ground of its Roman catholic tendencies. At last, on 16 Nov. 1845, he formally abjured protestantism, and was received into the Roman church at Northampton by Bishop Wareing, vicar-apostolic of the eastern district. Several of his parishioners and friends, including J. T. Knox, scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, were received at the same time. These he formed into a community at Birmingham under the title of Brothers of the Will of God, though they were commonly called Wilfridians. Faber, who as ‘brother Wilfrid’ was constituted superior of the fraternity, went to Rome to promote its interests, and was most favourably received by Gregory XVI. In September 1846 the community was transferred, through the munificence of the Earl of Shrewsbury, to Cotton Hall, thenceforward called St.Wilfrid's, near Cheadle, Staffordshire. After being ordained priest on 3 April 1847, Faber was entrusted with the charge of the mission of Cotton.

In February 1848 he and his companions joined the oratory of St. Philip Neri, which had just been introduced into England, and of which Father Newman was the superior. This step, of course, involved the breaking up of the institute founded by Faber, who on 21 Feb. began his novitiate as an Oratorian at Maryvale, or Old Oscott. Five months later his novitiate was terminated by dispensation, and he was appointed master of