Why did John Henry Newman matter to Matthew Arnold?

For Matthew Arnold, John Henry Newman was a figure of profound personal and intellectual significance. Although Arnold’s own religious views were strongly liberal—aligning more closely with those of his father, Thomas Arnold—he maintained an "impassioned affection" for Oxford during the period when Newman was a central, transformative influence there.1

For Arnold, Newman and the university itself became "joint symbols of spiritual beauty and culture." Even as Newman prepared to leave the Church of England to join the Roman Catholic Church, his presence at Oxford left an indelible mark on Arnold’s perception of the intellectual and aesthetic life of the institution.12