Edward Caswall

Book excerpt: Satirist, humorist, Church of England vicar, and convert to Roman Catholicism, Edward Caswall (1814-1878) was one of the nineteenth century's most important hymnologists - posterity is indebted to him for both his original and translated hymns, including 'See, amid the winter's snow', 'Jesu, the very thought of thee', and 'At the Cross'. He was, moreover, the faithful financial and administrative mainstay of Newman's Oratory in Birmingham from the time of his conversion in 1847 until his death some thirty years later. This new biography of Edward Caswall is the first systematic investigation of the life and work of a man whose spiritual journey, from Anglicanism via Tractarianism to Roman Catholicism, exemplifies the personal and theological dilemmas experienced by many during that era. Based on extensive archival research, it will be welcomed by readers interested in Newman, nineteenth-century hymnody and poetry, and Victorian history. An important contribution to Newman studies. GERARD TRACEY, late archivist of the Birmingham Oratory Nancy de Flon steers the reader through the fascinating family background and Oxford years of her subject and does much to explain Caswall's own distinctive path to Rome before treating his fruitful Oratorian years . . . the particular strength of de Flon's study, however, is the extent to which she focuses on and draws out Caswall's outstanding literary, poetical, and devotional genius. PETER NOCKLES Nancy de Flon earned her Ph.D. in Church History from Union Theological Seminary in New York. Now an editor for Paulist Press, Nancy de Flon was formerly Visiting Professor of Church History at Union Seminary and Adjunct Professor of Church History at Long Island's Immaculate Conception Seminary. She has also taught at the Centre for Marian Studies at Lampeter in mid-Wales.