About Newman
St. John Henry Newman and Cicero
August 23, 2026
Cicero, the great Roman statesman and orator, was a core feature of the academic curriculum in British schools and universities. He was an active participant in the politics of Rome during the time of Julius Caesar and was famous for his speeches, such as those against the conspirator Catiline. He was also well known for his works on philosophy, such as the de Officiis (On Duties in English), which was a favorite text of Newman and many others. Of necessity, Newman would have been familiar with Cicero, but he also had a great affinity for him. He saw the urbane and well-rounded Roman thinker as a model for education. He also regarded Cicero as the chief influence on his own writing. Newman studied and taught Cicero’s works for all of his life.
When Newman was just twenty-three, he wrote an extensive article on Cicero for the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, which would later become known as the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Newman’s article was thorough and perceptive—and nearly as long as a small book. The article was well received and has been referred to by Mary Rosner as “the most qualified and complex response” to Cicero’s oratory during Newman’s time. It was an extraordinary accomplishment for someone Newman’s age and was done in only two months because of a short deadline.
Newman obviously knew Cicero well in scholarly terms, but he also had a deep appreciation for him. Newman, who is found in anthologies of English literature because of his own style, regarded Cicero as his chief rhetorical model. Both men often wrote in long, flowing sentences with parallel constructions that examine a topic from many angles. Both men were often sought out as speakers, Cicero in his political orations and Newman in his popular sermons. Both men were also comprehensive thinkers. Cicero was an orator, politician, and an amateur philosopher and poet—all areas of interest to Newman as well. Both men were broadly educated and embraced learning in many fields. Newman, who is rightly famous for his view of the educated person as one who aims at a comprehensive world view saw Cicero as an educational role model. Certainly Newman was aware of Cicero’s flaws. Cicero was above all a politician and was not immune to hypocrisy and superficiality, but he could also be noble, and he appreciated wisdom and art. He well illustrated Newman’s idea of intellectual flourishing as it appears in the Idea of a University and elsewhere. Newman specifically refers to him in the work in Discourse Five, where he cites Cicero’s de Officiis in support of his claim that knowledge should be pursued for its own sake. Knowledge for its own sake is fundamental to a liberal education, an education that makes a person free. (Liber means “free” in Latin.)
Newman’s affection for Cicero and other ancient authors, like Aristotle and Virgil, illustrate that he was consistent in his educational ideas. Unlike some Christians of the era who dismissed spending much time on non-Christian authors, Newman sought wisdom where he found it. Although he recognized the limitations of Cicero and the ancients, he saw them as recipients, in a limited manner, of the divine wisdom that would be most fully revealed in the advent of Christ. They were, historically, a preparation for Christianity for Europe, and for the individual they helped to open the mind and give it vigor.
Scot Goins
McNeese State University
