Idea of a University

John Henry Newman (1801-90) was an Anglican clergyman and Oxford academic whose study of early Christianity led him to convert to the Catholic Church in 1845. At that time Catholics were banned from attending the ancient British universities. The issue was particularly acute in Ireland with its majority Catholic population, so the British government decided to found some non-denominational colleges there which would admit all but which also were not allowed to have Catholic theology faculties in