“Cor ad cor loquitur” John Henry Cardinal Newman’s Coat of Arms
When John Henry Newman was created Cardinal in 1879, he did not have his own crest designed, but adapted one from the 17th century, which he had inherited from his father. He did not formulate his motto, but altered a phrase from the 17th century - cor cordi loquitur - that seemed so familiar to him that he assumed he had it from the Bible or the Imitation of Christ.[1] He actually remembered it from a letter by Francis de Sales from which he had quoted it in 1855 in a public letter on university preaching.[2] It seems that Newman never explained his motto, cor ad cor loquitur, but it is obvious that in his coat of arms, motto and crest complement one another to form one illustration of a fundamental principle of the Christian faith that profoundly shaped Newman’s way of life, his theological thinking and his pastoral endeavours.
God Speaks to Man
There are three red hearts on a golden background on Cardinal Newman’s heart shaped crest, the upper two separated from the lower one by a broad, red horizontal zigzag line, pointing up three times to the two hearts above and twice down to the one below.[3] In the light of our belief in the Triune God, Newman’s coat of arms speaks to us: The three hearts may be understood as a reference to the three Persons of the Triune God, the golden background of the shield as referring to the glory and the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God, who “lives in unapproachable light” (1Tim 6:16), was revealed to his creatures, Newman preaches, through God the Son “from without” and through “God the Holy Ghost, by inward communications”.[4]
The Son of God is called the Word, Newman reminds his congregation, as He is “mediating between the Father and all creatures, bringing them into being, fashioning them”,[5] and again: as He is “declaring His (the Father’s) glory throughout created nature”.[6] The Word gives us the glory of the Father to read Ain His works of goodness, holiness and wisdom”.[7] When man turned against God and fell from His grace, the Word of God, His Son, “distinct from Him, while mysteriously one with Him…humbled Himself to take upon Him that fallen nature which He had originally created after His own image”.[8] The same love, Newman stresses, “which showed itself in our original creation, rested not content with a frustrated work, but brought Him down again from His Father’s bosom to do His will, and repair the evil which sin had caused”.[9] With this in mind, the heart underneath the three times folded horizontal line may be understood as representing God made man. When the Son of God became the Son of Man, mortal, but not a sinner, He B in His person B was the beginning of the new creation of God. “Christ came to make a new world”,[10] Newman says, referring to St John’s Gospel, and again: “He came into the world to regenerate it in Himself, to make a new beginning, to be the beginning of the creation of God, to gather together in one, and recapitulate all things in Himself.”[11]
