John Henry Newman was as English as roast beef, even if he lacked a passion for cricket.

They cannot make it say what they want it to say. And this is the beginning and the end of the case for retaining the old language: If the churches give it up, who will remember how to say what is said?

Its language is as bare as a monk’s cell, and as uninviting.

John Henry Newman was as English as roast beef, even if he lacked a passion for cricket.