1OM6 IN 
 MOD6RN CNGLfiND 
 
 HILIP SIDNGY !
 
 jRARY 
 
 ,Y OF 
 
 fj!A 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 MODERN ROME IN 
 MODERN ENGLAND
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT: 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY AND ITS AGENTS 
 With sixteen facsimile illustrations from old prints. 
 Large Crown 8vo. Cloth Gilt. 2s. (>d.
 
 yO^ 
 
 MODERN ROME IN 
 MODERN ENGLAND 
 
 Being Some Account of the Roman Catholic Revival 
 in England during the Nineteenth Century 
 
 BY 
 
 PHILIP SIDNEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' A HISTORY OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT,' ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 4 BOUVERIE STREET, AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARP 
 1906
 
 ' If a man considers the origin of this great ecclesiastical Dominion, he 
 will easily perceive that the Papacy is no other than the ghost of the 
 deceased Roman Empire, sitting Crowned upon the grave thereof.' 
 
 (HOBBES.)
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 i. 'THE SECOND SPRING' i 
 
 II. THE DECLINE OF GALLICANISM . . 19 
 
 III. NEWMAN AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT . 30 
 
 IV. RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HIERARCHY . 44 
 V. THE ERRINGTON CASE . . . 6 1 
 
 VI. ENGLAND AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL . 82 
 
 VII. THE POLICY OF CARDINAL MANNING . . IOI 
 
 VIII. CARDINAL VAUGHAN . . . I2O 
 
 IX. CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS . . .143 
 
 X. THE MONASTIC REVIVAL . . . 157 
 
 XI. THE ENGLISH JESUITS . . . -177 
 
 xii. THE ENGLISH JESUITS (continued) . . 197 
 
 XIII. CHURCHES AND CHAPELS . . 2 53 
 
 XIV. LORD ACTON AND LIBERAL CATHOLICISM . 260 
 XV. SECULARS AND REGULARS . . .278 
 
 XVI. THE PHANTOM OF REUNION . . 299 
 
 XVII. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE IN ENGLAND . . 307 
 
 XVIII. THE OUTLOOK 326
 
 MODERN ROME IN 
 MODERN ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 ON July 13, 1852, John Henry Newman, 
 preaching in the Synod of Oscott, described 
 in very eloquent terms the extraordinary rate of 
 progress effected by the Roman Catholic Church 
 in England since the passing of the Emancipation 
 Act of 1829. He took for his text the words, 
 ' Arise, make haste, my Love, my Dove, my 
 Beautiful One, and come. For the winter is now 
 past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have 
 appeared in our land.' In this sermon Newman 
 dwelt lovingly on the transformation scene 
 observed in England since the repeal of the penal 
 laws. The dark days were gone, never to return ; 
 and before his Church in these islands lay un- 
 folded the prospects of a brilliant future. Not 
 three decades had intervened since the year 1829,
 
 2 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 the date of the Emancipation Act, yet a marvel- 
 lous change had taken place in the position. From 
 being the weakest of all the Christian creeds repre- 
 sented in Great Britain, Rome had, he alleged, 
 risen to be second in importance to Anglicanism 
 alone. The Oxford Movement had healed old 
 wounds, and had given a new impetus to the 
 Roman Catholic revival. Monks and nuns, no 
 longer afraid to show themselves in the streets, 
 were building numerous monasteries and con- 
 vents. The old-time hierarchy had been re- 
 established. 1 Seminaries for training secular 
 priests were to be found in every diocese. It was 
 a ' Second Spring ' ; and the work of the 
 Reformation in England was daily being undone. 
 Such was Newman's view. 
 
 In describing the internal condition of Roman 
 Catholicism in England, as it existed at about the 
 end of the eighteenth century, or at the beginning 
 of the nineteenth, Dr. Newman referred to the 
 ancient faith as being ' no longer the Catholic 
 Church in the country ; nay, no longer, I may 
 say, a Catholic community ; but a few adherents 
 of the Old Religion, moving silently and sorrow- 
 fully about, as memorials of what had been the 
 
 1 The last survivor of the Marian bishops was Dr. Thomas 
 Goldwell, formerly of St. Asaph. He died at Rome, 1585. 
 This Oscott Synod was the first held by the Roman Church in 
 England since the reign of Mary.
 
 BEFORE EMANCIPATION 3 
 
 "Roman Catholics"; not a sect even, not an 
 interest, not, as men conceived of it, a body, 
 however small, representative of the Great Com- 
 munion abroad, but a mere handful of individuals, 
 who might be counted, like the pebbles and the 
 detritus of the great Deluge ; and who, forsooth, 
 merely happened to retain opinions, which in their 
 day were the profession of the Church. Here, a 
 set of poor Irishmen, coming and going at harvest 
 time, or a colony of them lodged in a miserable 
 quarter of the vast metropolis. There, perhaps, 
 an elderly person, seen walking in the streets, 
 grave, and solitary, and strange, though noble in 
 bearing, and said to be of good family, and a 
 Roman Catholic. An old-fashioned house of 
 gloomy appearance, closed in with high walls, 
 with an iron gate, and yews, and the report 
 attaching to it that "Roman Catholics" lived 
 there ; but who they were, or what they did, 
 or what was meant by calling them " Roman 
 Catholics," no one could tell, though it had an 
 unpleasant sound, and told of form and super- 
 stition. . . . Such were the Catholics of England, 
 found in corners, and alleys, and cellars, and the 
 housetops, or in the recesses of the country ; cut 
 off from the populous world around them, and 
 dimly seen as if through a mist or in twilight, as 
 ghosts flitting to and fro, by the high Protestants, 
 the Lords of the earth. At length, so feeble did
 
 4 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 they become, so utterly contemptible, that con- 
 tempt gave birth to pity.' * 
 
 But, although much of the lost ground had 
 been recovered since these times of which 
 Newman spoke, it was clear that the former pro- 
 longed era of depression and persecution had left 
 an indelible mark on Roman Catholicism in 
 England. The lack of a good education, and 
 the continuous intermarriage of relatives, 2 had 
 told heavily from an intellectual point of view 
 upon all classes of Romanists. After the repeal 
 of the penal laws, they found themselves free 
 to wander, as it were, in a strange land. More 
 than two centuries of social isolation had tended 
 to cause them to appear almost as foreigners 
 in the eyes of their fellow-countrymen, by many 
 of whom they were treated as if they were of 
 French or German extraction. They themselves, 
 too, had much to forgive ; before they could see 
 their way to forget the penalties inflicted on their 
 ancestors by the State. Hardly a family of note 
 had escaped in the past being represented by one 
 or more of its members as a ' martyr ' on the 
 
 1 Thackeray is said to have been able to repeat by heart the 
 whole of Newman's sermon, so much did he admire it, after 
 reading the printed report. 
 
 2 The great prevalence of mental diseases among the old 
 Roman Catholic families in England is evidently the result of 
 this intermarriage.
 
 A DILEMMA 5 
 
 scaffold, or as an exile abroad, escaped from the 
 clutches of the pursuivants at home. Scarcely a 
 family had escaped being wholly, or nearly 
 ruined, or seriously embarrassed by the infliction 
 of enormous fines. 
 
 Rome had persecuted relentlessly, and in turn 
 her children suffered. The persecution of the 
 British Roman Catholics from the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth down to that of Charles II., and again 
 from William and Mary down to the second 
 George, forms one of the blackest incidents in 
 our history, and the names of the sufferers can be 
 traced in letters of blood in the statute-books. 
 
 The lot of the loyal Romanist gentry had been 
 far from a happy one, however, on account of 
 other causes besides that of Protestant domina- 
 tion. Internal troubles had been almost as 
 injurious to their position. The intolerant and 
 selfish policy of the Papal Curia had produced 
 most awkward results. By the Papal interference 
 with English politics, the Romanists on this side 
 of the Channel had practically been forced either 
 to become traitors to their country or disobedient 
 to the Holy See. There had been no end to the 
 constant blunders of Rome in dealing with 
 England during the reigns of Elizabeth and of 
 the first three Stewarts ; whilst the headstrong 
 conduct of James II., although not, in this 
 instance, welcomed at head-quarters, proved the
 
 6 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 ultimate ruin of their cause. The excommunica- 
 tion of Queen Elizabeth by Pope Pius V. had 
 been as great a political error as it actually was 
 a crime. 1 The mission of the Jesuits had pro- 
 duced equally disastrous effects, and the loyal 
 Romanist gentry had been undeservedly compelled 
 to suffer for the sins of Fathers Parsons, Garnet, 
 Greenway, and Petre, to say nothing of those 
 misguided men Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes, 
 Sir Everard Digby, Thomas Percy, and the rest 
 of the conspirators engaged in the Gunpowder 
 Plot. 
 
 At the period of the Emancipation Act, it did 
 not at first appear at all likely that very great 
 strides would be made, for some long time, in 
 advancing the Roman Catholic cause. The great 
 day of liberty had come, but progress was slow in 
 development. It is a little-known, and curious 
 fact, indeed, that many families which had re- 
 mained staunch to their faith during the last two 
 centuries suddenly left their Church as the day 
 of freedom dawned. This is an extraordinary 
 circumstance, but one not so difficult of explanation 
 
 1 ' It looks as if Divine Providence wished the Reformation 
 to succeed : for everything the Popes did to destroy it came to 
 nought. When the Pope excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, 
 he, of course, wished and expected the Catholics of England to 
 accept his Bull and renounce their allegiance to the Queen, 
 whereas they to a man deplored the Bull ' (Father Duggan, 
 Steps t&ivards Reunion).
 
 LOSS OF ROMANCE 7 
 
 as it would seem at first sight. Such families had, 
 during the era of the penal laws, felt no little pride 
 in suffering for their oppressed religion. To 
 abandon their religion then would have suggested 
 motives of cowardice, or cupidity. Moreover, 
 there was, after all, something peculiarly exciting 
 and romantic in hearing Mass said in rooms with 
 their doors securely locked and guarded, in hiding 
 away fugitive priests in secret chambers, and in 
 confessing to secular priests and monks got up as 
 farmers, or bagmen. But when the restrictions 
 imposed by the penal laws were gone, all the 
 romance went too. Life became more prosaic, 
 and the English laity became more directly 
 subservient to their clergy, who insisted on their 
 attending more regularly to their religious duties 
 than heretofore, when hearing Mass, or going to 
 confession, had been always a matter of both 
 difficulty and danger. As late even as the latter 
 part of the eighteenth century, to hear Mass said 
 in London, except at certain chapels belonging to 
 the Roman Catholic Ambassadors (Portuguese, 
 Spanish, French, Sardinian, and Bavarian), had 
 been to run the risk of imprisonment. 
 
 An interesting example of this, in the year 1772, 
 
 is recorded in the following account l of how a lady 
 
 and gentleman a lately married couple heard 
 
 their first Mass, on their reception into the Roman 
 
 1 From A Hundred Years Ago (Burns and Gates).
 
 8 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 Catholic Church at the hands of the learned Dr. 
 Challoner, Bishop of Debra, and Vicar-Apostolic 
 of the London District. 
 
 ' We started,' says one of the converts, 1 ' from 
 our lodgings at 5 a.m. to be present for the first 
 time at a Catholic religious service, or at " prayers," 
 as it was generally called, for the word Mass was 
 scarcely ever used in conversation. We arrived 
 at a public-house in some back street near the 
 house in which Mr. Home resided. I felt rather 
 frightened, seeing some very rough-looking poor 
 people, as we passed through the entrance, though 
 all were very quiet. These people, I was told, 
 were Irish workmen, who, with a few women, 
 were assembled on that Sunday morning to hear 
 prayers said, when they could be admitted. . . . 
 We mounted, higher and higher, escorted by a 
 young man from the priest's house, who had come 
 forward at once to conduct us. When we arrived 
 at the top, the door of a garret was unlocked, and 
 as we entered we saw at the furthest end what 
 seemed a high table, or chest-of-drawers with the 
 back turned towards us. ... 
 
 1 In a few minutes the door was opened, and the 
 Venerable Dr. Challoner, accompanied by Mr. 
 Home 2 and another priest, entered the garret, 
 
 1 Mrs. Sidney. 
 
 2 The Rev. James Home, chaplain to the Venetian Embassy 
 in London.
 
 MASS IN SECRET 9 
 
 the door of which was secured inside by the 
 assistant, who then proceeded to unlock some 
 drawers, behind what I found was to be used as 
 an altar, and take out the vestments and other 
 things requisite for the Church service. . . . Soon 
 afterwards we heard the door-key turn, and 
 several rough footsteps enter the garret, then 
 some gentle taps, and words were exchanged 
 between a powerful-looking Irishman at the door, 
 who kept his post close to it, and those outside, 
 which were passwords of admission. 1 The key 
 was again turned each time any one entered, and 
 just before the Bishop vested himself to say Mass, 
 bolts were drawn also, and no one else could pass 
 into the garret. In the meanwhile, the young 
 man in attendance had prepared all that was 
 required for the Mass, taken from behind what 
 was used as the altar, which was covered with a 
 linen cloth. A crucifix and two lighted candles 
 were placed on it, and in the front was suspended 
 a piece of satin damask, in the centre of which 
 was a cross of gold lace. . . . 
 
 1 A priest caught saying Mass made himself liable to the 
 penalty of death until the Act of relief passed in 1778. In 
 this very year a Scottish ecclesiastic, returning to his Mission 
 in Edinburgh after a few days' absence, found the mob burning 
 his chapel. He even heard one of the rioters a woman 
 lamenting that they 'could not catch the Roman Catholic 
 Bishop, so that they might throw him upon the top of the 
 bonfire.'
 
 io 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 1 When all was over, and I was praying to God 
 to increase my faith, I heard the door-key turn 
 once more, and all the rough footsteps leaving 
 the garret The two priests, assisted by the 
 young man in attendance, replaced the vestments, 
 candle-sticks, and all that was used at the Mass, 
 behind the altar, locking up all carefully, and 
 leaving the garret an ordinary one in appearance 
 as before. 1 
 
 The house in which this secret service took 
 place was probably situated in the Holborn 
 district, 1 in one of the short lanes leading towards 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the metropolis, and in 
 other large towns, hearing Mass on Sunday (it 
 was rarely said on week-days) was more perilous 
 than in the country. In a few Lancashire 
 missions ; at East Hendred, in Berkshire ; at 
 Stonor, in Oxfordshire ; at Hazlewood, Yorkshire ; 
 and at West Grinstead, in Sussex, Mass had been 
 said regularly since the Reformation. 
 
 But, several years before the date of Newman's 
 sermon of the ' Second Spring,' Rome in Eng- 
 land had received an extraordinary accession of 
 strength, which had been quite unforeseen when 
 
 1 At the 'Ship,' a tavern in Little Turnstile, Holborn, Dr. 
 James Archer used to preach some of his celebrated sermons. 
 This clever priest had once actually been a pot-boy in this very 
 public-house. His listeners used, sometimes, to order beer, to 
 disarm suspicion. Dr. Archer was only about five feet, and 
 perhaps one inch, in height.
 
 ATTITUDE TO CONVERTS n 
 
 the Emancipation Act became law. The Oxford 
 Movement turned public attention in the direction 
 of Rome, to which it soon presented a whole host 
 of converts. In 1848, St. George's Cathedral, 
 Southwark, was opened, at a ceremony of much 
 magnificence, by Dr. Wiseman. In 1849, was 
 consecrated the first mitred abbot in England 
 since the Reformation. This was the saintly 
 John Bernard Palmer, a convert, the head of the 
 Cistercian (Trappist) monastery in Charnwood 
 Forest, Leicestershire. The year 1850 saw the 
 re-establishment of the hierarchy, and two years 
 later Newman was enabled to preach about the 
 extraordinary rate of progress effected in England 
 since 1829. 
 
 It is a common error, nevertheless, to suppose 
 that the recruits gained to Rome by the Oxford 
 Movement were, on their reception into the 
 Church, welcomed by hereditary Roman Catholics 
 with cordiality, for such, as a rule, was not the 
 case. Among the born Roman Catholics two 
 schools existed : one which wished to make the 
 most of the new state of things, and get thereby 
 as many converts as possible ; the other, distrust- 
 ful of this so sudden turn of the tide, anxious only 
 to proceed with extreme care and caution, rather 
 than run the risk of receiving converts unlikely to 
 submit willingly to the stricter discipline of the 
 Roman Communion. The -members of this latter,
 
 12 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 conservative, ' keep-what-we-have-got ' school, 
 argued that it was not advisable to place implicit 
 trust in the Oxford converts, many of whom were 
 really more Roman than themselves, and who 
 were bent upon introducing modern Italian de- 
 votions, 1 distasteful to the old English Catholics, 
 whose Gallican tendencies were unpopular with 
 the new men. The fears of this old school were, 
 it must be admitted, based on substantial grounds, 
 when we consider how rampant was the Ultra- 
 montanism of most of the Oxford converts. The 
 superior education of the Oxford men was also an 
 offence to the older school, who had for so long 
 lived an isolated existence, cut off from all con- 
 nection with our public educational establishments, 
 or great universities. ' Speaking in argument 
 with English Catholics,' exclaimed Dr. W. G. 
 Ward, soon after his conversion, ' is like talking 
 with savages ! ' 
 
 With the help of the leading converts, religious 
 orders, totally unsuited to English life and to 
 English ideas, were introduced from abroad, and 
 settled in London. The Oblates of St. Charles 
 
 1 Even Wiseman, at first, did not approve of some of the 
 devotions practised by the Oratorians, but gradually gave way 
 to them, whilst Dr. Griffiths, a vicar-apostolic, had warned 
 Newman against such devotions. He went to Rome to 
 protest against the Jesuits being allowed to open a church in 
 London (at Farm Street), but the Pope rejected his appeal. 
 Dr. W. G. Ward used to call Dr. Griffiths 'Anti-Christ.' 

 
 'ITALIANATED' WORSHIP 13 
 
 took up their residence in Bayswater, under Dr 
 Manning, and the Oratorians of St. Philip at 
 Brompton. The Glories of Mary of St. Alfonso 
 Maria de Liguori was translated, or partly 
 translated, into English, and circulated. The 
 frequent recital of the Rosary, and of the litany 
 of Loretto, 1 was warmly recommended, and 
 the devotion of the ' Forty Hours,' hitherto un- 
 known in England, was introduced and adopted 
 in London. Ugly churches, built in cheap imita- 
 tion of Italian basilicas, sprang up in different 
 parts of the country. Roman vestments, and 
 operatic Masses, were generally adopted for use 
 in these basilicas. In all directions the liberal- 
 minded tendencies of the born Roman Catholics 
 were gradually being checked by the Italianated 
 policy of the Oxford men. So sharp, indeed, 
 grew the contention between the old school and 
 the new, and so long was it before the latter 
 finally triumphed, that at a date quite fifty years 
 after the framing of the Emancipation Act, the 
 
 1 As an instance of the dislike in which this litany of Loretto 
 was originally held in England, Lord Acton used to relate that, 
 when a certain ' Italianated ' priest officiated, for the first time, 
 as chaplain in Lord Shrewsbury's household, that nobleman 
 rose from his knees, on hearing the chaplain commence the 
 litany, and told him to stop, saying that English Catholics 
 were not used to this modern devotion. The cultus of the 
 ' Sacred Heart ' was also very unpopular on its first introduction 
 from abroad.
 
 i 4 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 Rev. Arthur Galton, writing about his removal 
 from the Brompton Oratory to Oscott, says : 
 ' Without thinking, I had migrated from an out- 
 lying fortress of the " Romans " into a stronghold 
 of the " Goths," from the jurisdiction of Manning 
 to the diocese of Ullathorne and the neighbour- 
 hood of Newman. The buildings and the furni- 
 ture at Oscott were all " Gothic." The music was 
 plain chant. Operatic Masses were as offensive 
 to their pious ears as Roman vestments to their 
 eyes.' 
 
 Many of the ultra- Roman innovations in use at 
 the Brompton Oratory complained of by Mr. Gal- 
 ton were originally introduced by Father Faber, 
 whose admiration of St. Alfonso de Liguori's 
 writings, and his extreme views on the doctrine 
 of purgatory, created unfavourable comment 
 among the ' old school ' of English Romanists. 
 In 1848, the publication of his edition of the 
 Lives of the Modern Saints met with strong dis- 
 approval, not merely from the laity, but from the 
 Roman clergy as well, with the result that the 
 Vicars- Apostolic compelled Faber 1 to withdraw 
 
 1 ' It is only a few years ago since a well-known English 
 Roman Catholic priest and controversialist extracted a series 
 of more than eighty heretical propositions from the works of 
 the late Father Faber, and endeavoured to get them censured 
 at Rome, on the ground that they were doing serious mischiet 
 here to orthodoxy. The answer he got practically amounted to 
 this : that his charges were perfectly true in themselves, but that
 
 'DISAPPOINTING PEOPLE' 15 
 
 all copies of the work from circulation, much to 
 the dejection of himself and his friends. ' How 
 little,' he complained, ' did we, whom the lives of 
 the Catholic Saints helped so much towards our 
 conversion, then dream that the Catholics of 
 England should be so frightened, ashamed, or 
 unsympathetic, whichever it may be, as to refuse 
 to tolerate " Lives " of their own Saints.' 1 J. A. 
 Froude, the historian, before his change of faith, 
 had been one of the earliest contributors to this 
 series, and it is recorded of him that, in con- 
 cluding a memoir of St. Benedict, he wound up 
 with the words, ' Now, this is all that is known, 
 and more than all that is known, of the life 
 of the Blessed Benedict ! ' Pugin had Faber 
 particularly in his mind when he wrote, in 
 scathing criticism of the Oratorians and their 
 ways, that ' the Oxford men, with some few 
 exceptions, have turned out the most disappoint- 
 ing people in the world ! They were thrice as 
 Catholic in their ideas before they were received 
 
 it would never do to condemn so useful and thorough-going a 
 partisan of the extremest Ultramontanism ' (Littledale). Father 
 Faber's so-called 'double- view of Purgatory,' invented by 
 himself, was beyond doubt heretical. 
 
 1 Faber and his friends, however, triumphed partly in the 
 end, when Manning became Archbishop of Westminster. By 
 Cardinal Manning's direction, St. Alfonso Maria de Liguori's 
 Glories of Mary was newly translated into English, and 
 extensively circulated.
 
 16 'THE SECOND SPRING' 
 
 into the Church. It is really quite lamentable. 
 They have got the most disgusting place possible 
 for the Oratory in London, and fitted up in a 
 horrible manner, with a sort of Anglo- Roman 
 altar. These things are very sad, and the mischief 
 they do is inconceivable.' 
 
 The innovations introduced by ' the Oxford 
 men/ of which Pugin complained, would certainly 
 not have met with approval from Dr. Challoner, 
 referred to above, and the great majority of the 
 English Romanists of his generation. Dr. Challoner 
 was, indeed, a good representative of the 'old 
 school ' among the English Roman Catholics, a 
 school now unhappily quite extinct. Born in the 
 reign of William and Mary, he lived through the 
 reigns of Anne, George I., George II., and the first 
 quarter of that of George III. Richard Challoner 
 was the son of Protestant parents, his father 
 having been a wine-cooper in Sussex. After his 
 death his widow became a Roman Catholic, as 
 did their son, 1 who went to Douai to be educated 
 for the priesthood, of which college he became 
 vice-president. In 1730, Challoner was sent on 
 the English mission, and resided, henceforth, 
 
 1 Challoner was received into the Roman Church by the 
 Rev. John Goter, a very learned and pious man. He died at 
 sea in 1704. Part of Challoner's educational expenses were 
 defrayed by a lady, whose father was executed for his supposed 
 share in the ' Popish Plot.'
 
 BISHOP CHALLONER 17 
 
 chiefly in London. In 1739, he was appointed 
 coadjutor to the Vicar-Apostolic of the London 
 District, and was created Bishop of Debra (In 
 Partibus Infideliuni), much to the disappointment 
 of the authorities at Douai, who had petitioned 
 Propaganda to have Challoner elected president 
 of their college. In 1758, Bishop Challoner 
 succeeded Dr. Petre as Vicar-Apostolic of the 
 London District. 1 In 1780, Challoner, now a 
 very old man, had to go into hiding during the fury 
 of the Gordon Riots, much to the detriment of his 
 health. He died on January 10 of the following 
 year. His remains were interred in the vault of 
 a gentleman named Barret, at Milton, Berkshire, 
 where his funeral rites were read by the Vicar of 
 the parish from the Book of Common Prayer, 
 and the Vicar recorded the event, as follows, in 
 the parish register: ' A.D. 1781, Jan. 22: Buried 
 the Rev. Dr. Richard Challoner, a Popish priest, 
 and titular Bishop of London and Salisbury : a 
 very pious and good man, of great learning and 
 extensive abilities.' 
 
 Dr. Challoner's episcopal career in London was 
 of a most romantic character. All his movements 
 had to be enveloped in secrecy. He had fre- 
 quently to change his lodgings. He dared not 
 
 1 In 1759, the Hon. James Talbot became coadjutor to 
 Challoner, with right of succession. He was indicted, and 
 tried at the Old Bailey, for saying Mass, but was acquitted.
 
 i8 'THE SECOND SPRING/ 
 
 even wear a black suit out of doors. He had 
 always to dress like a layman. He could only 
 say Mass (except in one of the Embassy chapels) 
 behind locked doors, and that generally in some 
 ' miserable and ruinous apartment.' Even in the 
 Embassy chapels he was not allowed to preach a 
 sermon in English, and for this purpose he had 
 recourse to a public-house in Holborn, where his 
 congregation used to smoke and drink the while, 
 in order not to attract attention. In the London 
 District, at this period, there were about twenty- 
 five thousand Roman Catholics, of whom not 
 more than one hundred and fifty were priests. 1 
 In 1767, the total number of Romanists through- 
 out England and Wales was calculated at about 
 sixty-nine thousand. 
 
 Dr. Challoner was an indefatigable writer of 
 books and treatises. His Garden of the Soul is 
 still the most popular Roman Catholic prayer- 
 book used in Great Britain, and his Memoirs of 
 the Missionary Priests has become a standard 
 work. He also issued a revised edition of the 
 Rheims and Douai version of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 1 The London District consisted of the counties of Essex, 
 Middlesex, Hertford, Bedfordshire, Bucks, Berks, Surrey, Kent, 
 Sussex, Hants, and the Channel Islands.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE DECLINE OF GALLICANISM 
 
 XTOTWITHSTANDING the very insig- 
 JL\| nificant position held by the Roman 
 Catholic community during the hundred years 
 immediately prior to the Act of Emancipation, 
 and in spite of the low ebb to which its numbers 
 had sunk, Rome in England could boast of a 
 far larger number of clever men than would be 
 imagined from listening to the deceptive rhetoric 
 of Newman's ' Second Spring.' The truth is that 
 the majority of these capable men were Gallicans, 
 that is to say, they were Roman Catholics who, 
 following the example of certain famous French 
 ecclesiastics, were determined to defend the pre- 
 rogatives of their religion, and the laws and 
 liberties of their native country, against undue 
 and arbitrary encroachments, political as well as 
 spiritual, on the part of the Holy See. 
 
 The list of these English Gallicans, who lived 
 mainly during the last half of the eighteenth, and
 
 20 THE DECLINE OF GALLICANIiSM 
 
 during the first half of the nineteenth century, 
 includes such names as those of the Rev. Joseph 
 Berington (1747-1827), an industrious historian 
 and antiquary ; Charles Butler (1750-1832), asaga- 
 cious lawyer, 1 brilliant controversialist, and erudite 
 historian, nephew to the Rev. Allan Butler (1710- 
 1773), the pious hagiographer ; Dr. James Archer 
 (175 i-i 834) ; Richard Challoner, Bishop of Debra 
 (1691-1781), the compiler of the Garden of the 
 Soul; Canon Mark Tierney, F.R.S., F.S.A. 
 (1795-1862), editor of Charles Dodd's 2 Church 
 History ; Bishop Talbot ; Sir John Throckmorton 
 (1753-1819); Dr. Lingard (1771-1851), the 
 great historian ; and Bishop Poynter (1762-1827). 
 Amongst other famous names, outside the Gallican 
 ranks, we come across those of Dr. John Milner 
 (1752-1826), the 'English Athanasius ' ; Dr. 
 George Oliver (1781-1861), a talented writer 
 in the service of the English Jesuits ; the Rev. 
 F. G. Husenbeth, D.D. (1796-1872); Charles 
 Waterton (1782-1865), the eminent naturalist; 
 William Eusebius Andrews (1773-1837); Dr. 
 
 1 Butler was grandfather of the veteran county court judge, 
 Stonor. 
 
 2 The Rev. Hugh Tootell (1672-1743), who wrote under 
 the name of Charles Dodd. His last years were rendered 
 unhappy by the bitter attacks made upon him by the Jesuits, 
 which affected his health. Tierney did not succeed in com- 
 pleting Dodd's work ; the opposition of the Ultramontanes was 
 too strong for him.
 
 ENGLISH GALLICANS 21 
 
 Daniel Rock (1799-1872), a liturgical scholar 
 of lasting renown ; and Father Charles Plowden, 
 S.J. (1743-1821). 
 
 These English Gallicans were the survivors of 
 a powerful school which had always existed in this 
 country from Norman times : a school that had 
 persistently defended the national privileges 
 against the usurpations of the Popes. Thus, the 
 Bishops who signed Magna Charta acted against 
 the orders of the Pope. The Bishops' who sup- 
 ported Henry II. against Archbishop Becket 
 acted in direct opposition to the Pope. In Queen 
 Mary's reign, Archbishop Heath, with Bishops 
 Bonnor and Gardiner, were undoubtedly Gallicans, 
 as were quite half of the Roman Catholic clergy 
 resident in England during the reigns of Elizabeth 
 and all the Stewarts. 
 
 For some forty years prior to 1829 a great 
 battle had been waged between the English 
 Gallicans and their Ultramontane opponents as 
 to certain provisions in the Bill for the repeal 
 of the penal laws. Although this Bill did not 
 become law till the year 1829, its successful 
 passage through Parliament had been expected 
 to take place long before that date. William 
 Pitt, indeed, had solemnly promised to carry 
 through the measure, but had gone back on his 
 word in order to please King George III., who 
 thought that by the terms of his Coronation Oath
 
 22 THE DECLINE OF GALLICANISM 
 
 he was debarred, as King, from sanctioning any 
 such scheme. The feeling of George III. was 
 inherited by George IV., hence the renewed 
 delay. 
 
 On the Bill becoming law, the Gallicans feared 
 that the Holy See, forgetful of past experiences, 
 would again repeat its old blunders by sending 
 over foreign priests to act as Vicars-Apostolic, or 
 Bishops, and by permitting the return of the 
 Jesuits in force. The English Gallicans, headed 
 by such men as Sir John Throckmorton, Charles 
 Butler, Dr. Kirk, and Bishop Poynter, wished 
 the British Government to retain a veto in 
 regard to the election of all the Roman Catholic 
 Bishops appointed for England and Wales. That 
 the Gallicans would, in spite of the extreme in- 
 dignation their policy caused at Rome, have got 
 the best of the struggle is probable, had it not been 
 for the extraordinary and untiring energy displayed 
 against them by the leader of their opponents, 
 Bishop Milner. This ecclesiastic, an Ultramontane 
 to the backbone who was supported by the Irish 
 bishops, by the Jesuits, and by one or two of his 
 own colleagues strained every nerve to prevent 
 the right of veto being granted to the British 
 Government. Although he died before the Act 
 was passed, he had the satisfaction of living long 
 enough to know that he and his friends had won 
 a complete victory. By the terms of the Act,
 
 GALLICANS AND ROME 23 
 
 Rome was left with unrestrained powers as to the 
 selection and method of election of the Bishops, 
 and although the presence of the Jesuits in Eng- 
 land was still forbidden, the prohibitory clauses 
 relating to their habitation here have never been 
 put into legal operation. ' If it had not been for 
 Dr. Milner/ wrote, in after years, the Ultramontane 
 Monsignor George Talbot to Cardinal Manning, 
 'almost a schism would have taken place in 
 England. Roman principles go very much against 
 the grain of English Catholics ! ' 
 
 The British Government had, in truth, but 
 little reason to congratulate itself upon the solu- 
 tion of the Catholic question. In the first place, 
 the final measure of relief ought to have been 
 passed in the reign of George III. Had this 
 been done, the agitation in Ireland, which nearly 
 developed into civil war, would have been averted. 
 In the end, too, the Government played into the 
 hands of their enemies, by refusing to aid the loyal 
 Roman Catholics and accept the right of veto. 
 Ministers, indeed, were not actuated by sympathy 
 with the Roman Catholics, but by feelings of fear 
 as to what might happen in Ireland. The Duke 
 of Wellington candidly confessed that he consented 
 to the Bill merely to save civil war, and for no 
 other reason. 
 
 The internal struggle between Dr. Milner's 
 anti-national party and the patriotic Gallicans had
 
 24 THE DECLINE OF GALLICANISM 
 
 been a desperate one. Hostilities had first broken 
 out on the question of the ' oath/ l they had been 
 renewed on the question of the 'veto,' and on 
 that of the recognition of the Jesuits. Dr. John 
 Milner, called by Cardinal Newman the ' English 
 Athanasius,' was by no means a courteous contro- 
 versialist. His criticisms of his opponents were 
 couched, both in speaking and writing, in ex- 
 tremely vulgar and violent language, until at 
 last his very friends at Rome had to intervene, 
 and Propaganda prohibited his publishing further 
 articles in the English press. 2 A man of humble 
 origin, he was never able to throw off the manners 
 of his class, whilst his fits of absent-minded- 
 ness often led him into positions of difficulty. 
 His endeavours to restore the images in the 
 churches, to check the circulation of the Bible, 
 to help the Jesuits, and to introduce modern 
 and extreme devotions to the Virgin, and to 
 the Sacred Heart of Jesus, gave wide-spread 
 offence. 
 
 With all his faults, however, Milner was a 
 hard-working man. As an antiquary he won a 
 high reputation, and some of his theological 
 
 1 At one time the Galileans, fighting Bishop Milner on this 
 question, actually took the extraordinary title of 'Protesting 
 Catholic Dissenters.' 
 
 2 The Pope, on this occasion, called Milner l Une ttte
 
 BISHOP JOHN MILNER 25 
 
 treatises had a large sale. 1 On his death-bed, his 
 biographer, Dr. Husenbeth, relates, that he said 
 to those around him, ' Don't talk of any merits 
 of mine : speak to me of the merits of my 
 Saviour! Don't call me " My Lord": I am 
 nothing now but plain John Milner, a poor 
 sinner ! ' He was certainly the most vigorous 
 and most useful servant employed on behalf of 
 Ultramontane Romanism since the death of 
 Archbishop Becket ; and he, unfortunately, was 
 successful in arranging his schemes for ' Italinat- 
 ing ' his religion in England. The pro-papal 
 work which he had begun was carried on, and 
 completed, by Cardinals Wiseman and Manning. 
 At the date (1803) of Dr. Milner's elevation 
 to the episcopal charge of what was then called 
 the Midland District, the total numbers of the 
 Romanists living in England and Wales were 
 estimated at about seventy thousand, of whom 
 a large proportion were of Irish extraction. The 
 extensive Midland District of which Milner was 
 Vicar- Apostolic, consisted of the shires of Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, Cambridge, Lincoln, Nottingham, Oxford, 
 Leicester, Derby, Salop, Worcester, Stafford, and 
 Warwick. A huge diocese, indeed. Yet it did 
 not contain more than some seventy-three 
 
 1 His End of Controversy had a very large circulation in its 
 day, and is said to have made many converts to Roman 
 Catholicism.
 
 26 THE DECLINE OF GALLICANISM 
 
 Missions, of which many merely consisted of 
 private chapels situated in country houses. In 
 Staffordshire there were some seventeen chapels 
 (there are now more than four times that number) ; 
 but in Warwickshire there were only about eight ; 
 and less than eight, respectively, in each of the 
 other counties. In not one of these Missions was 
 High Mass celebrated, and in very few was Low 
 Mass said on any week-day. In the whole 
 district there was only one cope. 
 
 After the death of Charles Butler, Milner's ablest 
 adversary, Gallicanism in England began slowly 
 to decline. The sudden establishment of the Hier- 
 archy, in 1850, under an Ultramontane primate, 
 gave it a deadly wound. The dogma of Infalli- 
 bility, in 1870, dealt it the coup de grace. Modern 
 Liberal Catholicism retains, nevertheless, many 
 elements of Gallicanism, and the lessons taught by 
 Charles Butler, Joseph Berington, Canon Tierney, 
 and Bishop Poynter were not given to the world 
 in vain. Liberal Catholicism has produced 
 several English scholars well worthy of com- 
 parison with their Gallican predecessors, such 
 as Richard Simpson, 1 Professor Mivart, H. N. 
 
 1 Richard Simpson, born in 1820, died in 1876. He was 
 a convert from the Church of England. His contributions to 
 the Rambler caused much .perturbation at Archbishop's 
 House. He is said to have assisted Gladstone in attacking 
 the dogma of the Infallibility of the Pope. The standard 
 biography of Edmund Campion is written by him.
 
 LINGARD THE HISTORIAN 27 
 
 Oxenham, the late Lord Acton, and, in some 
 respects, Coventry Patmore. 
 
 In concluding this brief survey of Gallicanism, 
 it would be a serious omission to make no further 
 mention of the greatest of its modern votaries in 
 England. I refer to the Rev. John Lingard, 
 LL.D., D.D., whose magnum opus, despite its 
 faults, is secure of holding a permanent place in our 
 literature. Dr. Lingard was the son of a gardener 
 in employment at Winchester, and his mother 
 was the daughter of a small farmer ; but both 
 his parents belonged to Roman Catholic families 
 of some antiquity in Lincolnshire. Educated 
 abroad at Douai, Lingard returned home, after 
 narrowly escaping death at the hands of a revo- 
 lutionary mob. Ordained a priest, he resided 
 first at Ushaw College, of which he became 
 President. In order to pursue his historical 
 studies at leisure, he refused all ecclesiastical 
 preferment, and took charge of the small and 
 secluded Mission of Hornby, in Lancashire, where 
 he wrote his elaborate Antiquities of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Churck, and his History of England. He 
 was eventually granted, as a reward for his labours, 
 an annual pension of three hundred pounds by 
 the British Government. He was also within 
 an ace of receiving a cardinal's hat from Pope 
 Leo XII., by whom, indeed, he is generally 
 understood to have been declared a cardinal 
 3
 
 28 THE DECLINE OF GALLICANISM 
 
 in petto, although this was not the opinion of 
 Cardinal Wiseman. 
 
 John Lingard's rise from so humble a position 
 to that finally occupied by him in the learned 
 world savours almost of a romance. He was 
 the first English Roman Catholic priest to become 
 recognized and honoured outside the narrow 
 limits of his own Communion since the Reforma- 
 tion. A man of untiring courage and resolution, 
 he laboured under dire difficulties in obtaining 
 access to the documents necessary for his studies ; 
 his want of money, and the unpopularity of his 
 calling forming serious initial impediments in his 
 progress towards success. But these were not 
 his only difficulties, for he was also most unfairly 
 hampered by certain bigoted Roman Catholics, 
 of whom the principal were Bishop Milner and 
 the Jesuits. These jealous persons had wished 
 him to write a history ' according to order ' that 
 is, one which should be thoroughly partial and 
 pro-papal and they were very angry with him 
 for his impartial treatment of such cases as the 
 dispute between Archbishop Becket and Henry 
 II., and the equivocations of Father Garnet, S.J. 
 Dr. Milner even went so far as to make the most 
 scurrilous personal attacks upon Lingard, couched 
 in the coarse and vulgar phraseology of which 
 that excitable ecclesiastic was unhappily proficient. 
 Attempts quietly made at Rome to get the
 
 LINGARD'S TRIUMPH 29 
 
 History put on the ' Index Expurgatorius ' luckily 
 failed, and Lingard triumphed in the end, living 
 to earn the admiration and esteem of learned 
 men like Eyre, Poynter, Tierney, Wiseman, Lord 
 Holland, and Lord Brougham. At his little 
 house in Hornby he often entertained illustrious 
 visitors. In private life John Lingard was the 
 most humble, patient, and lovable of persons, and 
 preferred to pass away an uneventful existence 
 in the rustic seclusion of a Lancashire village 
 rather than inhabit a cardinal's luxurious palace 
 in the city of the Caesars. It was by Dr. 
 Lingard's tact and assiduity that the English 
 College at Rome was rescued from relapsing into 
 the hands of the Jesuits, and restored to the secular 
 clergy, its original owners. 1 
 
 1 The English College at Rome had fallen into the hands 
 of the Jesuits shortly before the end of the sixteenth century, 
 and had remained under their control until their suppression 
 in 1773. On their restoration in 1814, they endeavoured to 
 recover the College, but were eventually prevented by Lingard, 
 acting on behalf of Bishop Poynter.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 NEWMAN AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN was quietly 
 received into the Roman Catholic Church 
 on the evening of October 9, 1845, by 
 Father Dominic Barberi, a Passionist priest, at 
 Littlemore, near Oxford. His secession from the 
 Church of England was at one time describd 
 by Lord Beaconsfield as a blow from which 
 the Establishment still reels. Newman lived to 
 reach his ninetieth year, spending about half his 
 life in the Anglican Church, and about half in 
 the Roman. 1 
 
 That the half of his career spent in the Roman 
 Church was, on the whole, particularly peaceful or 
 prosperous, it would be futile to assert. From the 
 time of his conversion until the date of his death, 
 Newman was fated to be misunderstood by many 
 prominent Roman Catholics. All his schemes 
 for undertaking some great work on behalf of his 
 
 1 The date of Newman's ordination as a Roman Catholic 
 priest has not yet been made public. 
 
 3
 
 NEWMAN'S TRIALS 31 
 
 new creed fell through and failed. His residence 
 at Dublin as President of a Roman Catholic Uni- 
 versity was not attended with success. His 
 cherished plan for another translation of the New 
 Testament into English was marred by the 
 authorities at Rome ; just as his proposal to take 
 his Oratory to Oxford was rejected by the in- 
 fluence of Cardinal Manning. He was unjustly 
 abused for the attitude assumed by him in connec- 
 tion with the Vatican Council, which he was not 
 allowed to attend. He was not created a Cardinal 
 till he was a very old man, 1 and he never held any 
 episcopal rank. Until very late in his life, ' an 
 insolent and aggressive faction ' looked upon his 
 conversion to their religion as a great blow to their 
 cause, and made no secret of the fact that they 
 were sorry he ever left Littlemore. Between 
 Manning and Newman there raged as fierce a 
 fight as had been carried on between Bishops 
 Milner and Poynter. So persistent and so subtle 
 were the attacks made upon him by Cardinal 
 Manning, that Newman was once stung into the 
 bitter rejoinder, ' I hardly know whether I stand 
 on my head or my heels, when I have active 
 relations with you ! ' 
 
 Tardy justice was done to Newman's reputation 
 
 1 His creation as Cardinal was, nevertheless, very welcome 
 to him, in the light of Manning's opposition, and he joyfully 
 exclaimed, 'Now is the cloud lifted from me for ever.'
 
 32 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 after his death. His co-religionists recognized, at 
 last, how much his name and fame had helped 
 their cause. Cardinal Manning, preaching at a 
 requiem-mass at the Brompton Oratory, so far 
 forgot himself even as to refer to his ' Brother 
 and Friend of more than sixty years.' An 
 amazing lapse of memory, indeed ! But the old 
 controversies were buried in the grave. Roman 
 Catholics had begun to understand that they had 
 entertained a great man unawares, and honoured 
 his memory accordingly. 
 
 Although Newman was, as a Roman Catholic 
 priest, a disappointed man, his general success as 
 a writer was extraordinary, when one reflects how 
 ill adapted were the subjects of his works to suit 
 the public taste. Allowing that he ranks as one 
 of the great masters of pure English prose, it must 
 be admitted that nearly all his works have, on 
 their merits, received their very fullest meed of 
 praise. The Apologia does not convey the im- 
 pression that, when its author was received into 
 the Roman Church, he was really at heart an 
 enthusiastic Papist. It would have been a far 
 more valuable ' human document ' if the author 
 had related candidly some of the trials and troubles 
 encountered by him 'after' he had entered the 
 Roman Catholic Church. 1 The credulous reader 
 
 1 The Apologia, it must be remembered, was written before 
 the definition of the Infallibility of the Pope, in 1870.
 
 NEWMAN AND THE REVIVAL 33 
 
 is practically asked to believe that after Newman 
 had ' buried his doubts in the bosom of an Infallible 
 Church,' the rest of his career was passed in peace 
 and quietness, untroubled by further controversial 
 warfare. Such was not the case. Again, New- 
 man's almost total ignorance of science, and of the 
 German language, prevented him from being really 
 able to study at all accurately many of those sub- 
 jects upon which, with all the artifices of his 
 curious but deceptive logic, he was wont em- 
 phatically to lay down the law. To class Cardinal 
 Newman as a writer is, indeed, very hard. He 
 was, however, a poet, 1 although perhaps his 
 Dream of Gerontius has obtained more than its 
 proper share of eulogy. 
 
 It may be doubted if Newman, and those of 
 his friends identified with the Oxford Movement, 
 who seceded with him, gave so great an impetus 
 to the Roman Catholic revival in Great Britain 
 as is so constantly asserted. By a large number 
 of Romanists Newman's admission into their 
 Church was always held to have done it more 
 harm than good. But very few of those who 
 went over with him achieved any great fame in 
 their new Church, and some of those who did 
 
 1 He was also a very accomplished musician, being an 
 especially skilful and devoted violinist. His musical abilities 
 have, indeed, hitherto been insufficiently recognized by writers 
 dealing with his career.
 
 34 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 undoubtedly come to the front succeeded in 
 making, by their Ultramontane writings, hosts 
 of enemies. Moreover, before Newman and his 
 friends had ever begun to consider the question 
 of ' going over,' a brilliant campaign was being 
 carried on from the Roman side by one who had 
 no connection with Oxford but who was the 
 superior of any of the Oxford men in point of 
 ability Monsignor (afterwards Cardinal) Wise- 
 man, in favour of the profound impression created 
 by whose London lectures in I836 1 Newman has 
 himself warmly testified. The writings of Dr. 
 John Lingard, another born Catholic, carried very 
 great weight, and attracted general attention to 
 the progress of Rome in England. Mr. Ambrose 
 Phillips De Lisle, a most ardent worker on behalf 
 of his adopted faith, was received into it before 
 even the very birth of the Oxford Movement. 
 Father George Ignatius Spencer, of the Passionist 
 Order, another most indefatigable worker on the 
 Roman side, was received into that Church as 
 early as 1830, and he had no connection with 
 the Oxford Movement ; with which Archdeacon 
 Manning was so much out of sympathy that, 
 when he called at Littlemore, Newman refused 
 
 1 'The reanimation of the Church of Rome in England was 
 quickened in no small degree by the arrival of a divine, whose 
 accomplishments and ability would have secured him influence 
 and prominence in any age of the Roman Church ' (Liddon).
 
 TRACTARIANS AND ROME 35 
 
 to see him, and he had to walk back discon- 
 solately in the rain to Oxford. In the Apologia 
 Newman never even mentions Manning's name. 
 Father Dominic, like his fellow Passionist, Ignatius 
 Spencer, a most energetic missionary, was an 
 Italian, and had, of course, no connection with 
 Oxford. Professor St. George Mivart, also, never 
 went to Oxford, and Pugin was not a Tractarian. 
 That the influence of the Oxford Movement, 
 in its early stages, on the Roman revival has, 
 therefore, been considerably exaggerated, I am 
 inclined stoutly to contend. The genesis of the 
 Movement was marked, it must be remembered, 
 by its strong anti- Roman spirit. The theory of 
 a certain Protestant historian of the Movement, 
 that from first to last it was nothing more in spirit 
 and aim than a recruiting agency for Rome, is 
 not supported by an examination of the facts of 
 the case. The original Tractarians were, up to 
 a point, as much opposed to Romanism as they 
 were to Dissent, and when Father Ignatius 
 Spencer visited Oxford in 1840, Newman was, 
 in his own words, ' very rude ' to him. More- 
 over, the pro- Roman spirit, after its development, 
 was not absolutely sustained. Newman, Allies, 
 Grant, Lockhart, Talbot, Faber, Macmullen, 
 Stanton, Neville, Oakley, Dalgairns, Bowles, 
 William Palmer (of Magdalen), Christie, Ward, 
 Coffin, Morris, Coleridge, St. John, Kirwan
 
 36 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 Browne, Purbrick, Ryder, Bernard Smith, Est- 
 court, and Simpson, it is true, ' went over ' ; 
 but Church, Pusey, Keble, Williams, Palmer, 
 Bloxam, 1 and others stayed behind. W. E. 
 Gladstone remained faithful to the English 
 Church ; Hurrell Froude died ; and James 
 Anthony Froude and Mark Pattison became 
 Broad Churchmen. Again, the secession of some 
 of these converts was practically no loss to the 
 Establishment. The retention of such men as 
 Faber and Ward in the Anglican ranks must 
 have been productive, in the long run, of a 
 ceaseless stream of angry controversies. 
 
 Newman's comparative failure, as a Roman 
 Catholic, to fill as large a position as had been 
 expected of him was due to several causes. In 
 the first place, Edgbaston was hardly a suitable 
 head-quarters for so intellectual a man. Had he 
 been allowed, as he earnestly wished, to go with 
 
 1 The Rev. J. R. Bloxam was Newman's curate at Little- 
 more. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life as Vicar 
 of Upper Beeding, a pretty little Sussex village. A man of 
 great learning, as well as of much charm of manner and 
 geniality, the author of this book will never forget the happy 
 hours spent in his company at Beeding Priory, where Bloxam 
 was often visited by his life-long friend, Cardinal Newman. 
 He was not the last of the ' Tractarians,' for he died over 
 eleven years before Canon Bernard Smith, of meeting whom 
 at his tiny little mission at Great Marlow the author has also 
 many pleasant recollections ; whilst Father Ignatius Grant, S.J., 
 outlived even Bernard Smith.
 
 NEWMAN'S TREATMENT 37 
 
 his Oratorians to Oxford, things might have been 
 very different. It is not certain, either, that his 
 joining the Oratory of St. Philip Neri was a 
 wise choice. He might have done better as an 
 ordinary secular priest. He had no wish, how- 
 ever, to attain episcopal rank. No adequate 
 biography of Cardinal Newman, as a Roman 
 Catholic, has yet been published, 1 and it seems 
 doubtful whether one ever will be. Mr. Purcell's 
 Life of Cardinal Manning revealed a great deal 
 concerning the nature of the bad treatment 
 received by the illustrious Oratorian from Arch- 
 bishop's House ; but not all. Purcell was pro- 
 hibited from printing much additional matter that 
 would have shown how cavalierly Newman was 
 treated by Cardinal Manning, and by William 
 George Ward. Speaking of Purcell's book, Mr. 
 Joseph MacCabe (Father Anthony, O.S.F.), in 
 his Twelve Years in a Monastery, says : 'It 
 must not be imagined that the picture is at all 
 complete, it is not by any means as darkly 
 coloured as the reality. No Catholic could in 
 conscience tell all that is handed down in clerical 
 circles with regard to the relations of Manning, 
 Newman, Ward, the Jesuits, etc. And although 
 the author has made a generous concession in the 
 
 1 Mr. Purcell wrote a Life of Newman, but the copies of 
 his work were bought up, and destroyed, on the eve of 
 publication.
 
 38 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 cause of historical truth, the public have not had 
 the full benefit of his sincerity. If the book 
 could have been published in its original form, 
 it would have been much more interesting, but 
 after spending, as it did, two years in purgatorial 
 flames, we must take it cum grano salts. Some 
 of my colleagues were intimate with the author's 
 brother, and gave us continual reports of the 
 painful progress of the work. . . . On the 
 whole, the impression of those who seemed to 
 be in the secrets was, that Newman had been 
 treated by all parties in a manner that dare not 
 be made public, and that there were documents 
 kept back which would throw much discredit 
 upon other prominent Catholics of the period.' 
 
 Reverting to the question of whether the 
 original Tractarians were, from the beginning, 
 consciously actuated by pro- Roman sympathies, 
 I must repeat that J. H. Newman remained, till 
 quite an advanced date in the early history of the 
 Oxford Movement, hostile to Rome. In a letter, 
 written on July 28, 1857, to Canon Flanagan, he 
 said : ' I think it was Mr. Oakley's view that 
 he might profess all Roman doctrine in the 
 Church of England, or at least hold it and 
 consequently that the Thirty-nine Articles allowed 
 of it. I never took this view. I knew that they 
 bound me in various ways to oppose the Roman 
 doctrines, and my conscience approved of this
 
 NEWMAN AND ROME 39 
 
 opposition I mean, I thought ill of various 
 tenets and principles of the Roman Church. 
 Accordingly, in 1841, after " No. XC.," in a letter 
 which the Bishop of Oxford required of me, I 
 wrote with great violence against the doctrines 
 received at Rome, and in her Communion.' I 
 think we may safely assume that, up to the 
 year 1841, Newman was determinedly hostile to 
 Rome ; that, from 1841 to 1843, his opinions 
 slowly underwent a change ; and that, from 1843 
 until his reception in 1845, he steadily grew more 
 and more secretly attached to Roman Catholicism. 
 
 Of his reception into the Roman Catholic 
 Communion, Newman's 1 own account is not too 
 hackneyed for quotation here, since it explains 
 how Father Dominic, mentioned above, found 
 his way to Littlemore 
 
 ' One of my friends at Littlemore had been 
 received into the Church on Michaelmas Day, 
 at the Passionist house at Aston, near Stone, by 
 Father Dominic, the Superior. At the begin- 
 ning of October, the latter was passing through 
 London to Belgium ; and, as I was in some 
 perplexity what steps to take for being received 
 myself, I assented to the proposition made to me 
 
 1 It is somewhat remarkable that both Newman and Man- 
 ning were received into the Roman Church by members of 
 Religious Orders : Newman by a Passionist, and Manning by 
 a Jesuit (Father Brownbill).
 
 40 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 that the good priest should take Littlemore 1 in 
 his way, with a view to his doing for me the 
 same charitable service as he had done to my 
 friend. 
 
 ' On October 8 I wrote to a number of 
 friends the following letter: "I am this night 2 
 expecting F. Dominic, the Passionist, who, from 
 his youth, has been led to have distinct and direct 
 thoughts, first of the countries of the north, then 
 of England. After thirty years' (almost) waiting, 
 he was without his own act sent here. But he 
 has had little to do with conversions. I saw him 
 here for a few minutes on St. John Baptist's Day, 
 last year. 
 
 ' " He is a simple, holy man ; and withal gifted 
 with remarkable powers. He does not know of 
 my intention ; but I mean to ask of him admis- 
 sion into the One Fold of Christ. ... P.S. 
 This will not go till all is over." 
 
 One of the least pleasing features of Cardinal 
 
 1 A village distant about two miles and a half from Oxford. 
 
 2 A wet and stormy one. Father Dominic arrived with 
 his clothes drenched through. Father Dominic was the son 
 of Italian peasants. Having read much in his youth about 
 ' Protestant England,' it had been the ambition of his life to 
 work in it on behalf of Rome. After years of disappointment, 
 he was, at last, allowed by his Order to come over. It is 
 thought likely that he will, sooner or later, be 'canonized.' 
 Father Dominic could speak little or no English, and his 
 presence in this country was not popular with the ' old school ' 
 of Catholics.
 
 NEWMAN AND LIBERALISM 41 
 
 Newman's career was the manner in which he 
 held strictly aloof from connecting himself with 
 any great public charitable movement, or work. 
 His teachings and inclinations were all dogmatic, 
 and his strange hatred of, what he termed, 
 Liberalism, led him to oppose several schemes 
 of social reform. At the aims and efforts of the 
 Temperance Movement he openly sneered, writ- 
 ing to his brother, the talented Professor F. W\ 
 Newman, 'As to what you tell me of Archbishop 
 Manning, I have heard also that some of our 
 Irish Bishops think that too many drink-shops 
 are licensed. As for me, I do not know whether 
 we have too many or too few ! ' Disgusted be- 
 yond measure at this avowal, Professor Newman 
 showed his brother's letter to a friend, who aptly 
 remarked, ' One would think he was living on a 
 different planet ! ' 
 
 Professor Francis Newman lived, like his elder 
 brother, 1 the Cardinal, to a great age, 2 dying in 
 
 1 The Newman family was of mingled Dutch and Hebrew 
 extraction. The Cardinal was only an Englishman insomuch 
 as he was born and brought up in London. He had another 
 brother, Charles. His mother was French. 
 
 2 It is remarkable that a great many of those originally con- 
 nected with the Oxford Movement lived to reach an advanced 
 age ; as, for example, Allies, Stanton, Lockhart, Grant, Pusey, 
 Keble, Bloxam, Neville, J. A. Froude, Bernard Smith, Church, 
 and the Newmans. Cardinal Manning, too, was an octogen- 
 arian, as was Thomas Mozley.
 
 42 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT 
 
 1897, after having survived to publish his Contri- 
 butions Chiefly to the Early History of the Cardinal 
 Newman. He was a man of remarkable, though 
 erratic ability. In his opinion the Cardinal was 
 to blame for other deficiencies in character besides 
 his lack of sympathy with social reform. It must 
 be noted, however, that the Professor was consid- 
 erably over eighty years of age when he published 
 his critical memoir of the Cardinal, and it is 
 possible that, in one or two respects, his memory 
 may have played him false. 
 
 A fine memorial church has been erected at 
 Edgbaston in honour of Newman, and the flourish- 
 ing school there, 1 for the sons of gentlemen, estab- 
 lished mainly by his exertions, occupies a high 
 place amongst Roman Catholic educational estab- 
 lishments. At Brompton, a statue of the Cardinal 
 rejected by Oxford has been erected close to 
 the Oratory. Newman lies buried at Rednal, 
 
 1 In his early days at Oxford, Newman little imagined that 
 he would ever leave the University to establish a Roman 
 Catholic School ! In very beautiful language he even antici- 
 pated remaining at Oxford until death : ' I took leave of my 
 first College, Trinity, which was so dear to me, and which held 
 on its foundation so many who had been kind to me both when 
 I was a boy and all through my Oxford life. Trinity had never 
 been unkind to me. There used to be much snapdragon 
 growing on the walls opposite my freshman's rooms there, and 
 I had for years taken it as the emblem of my own perpetual 
 residence even unto death in my University' (Apologia pro 
 Vita Sua).
 
 NEWMAN'S GRAVE 43 
 
 Worcestershire, in the same grave as his dear 
 friend, Ambrose St. John. 1 
 
 1 Lord Acton's opinion of Newman was, perhaps, the most 
 correct. To Acton, Cardinal Newman seemed to be 'A sophist 
 the manipulator, not the servant of Truth.' Lord Acton 
 was more complimentary than Carlyle, who satirized Newman 
 as having ' no more intellect than a rabbit ' ! In Canon 
 Mey rick's opinion, ' Newman was never guided by his reason, 
 but always by his emotions.'
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HIERARCHY 
 
 ABOUT Michaelmas of the year 1850, the 
 public mind of this country was suddenly 
 thrown into a condition of clamour and confusion 
 over what was commonly known as the ' Papal 
 Aggression.' This agitation was due to the re- 
 establishment, by Pope Pius IX., of a Roman 
 Catholic Hierarchy in England and Wales, which 
 were thereby mapped out into an arch-diocese 
 and thirteen dioceses. So far as the geographical 
 allotment was concerned, it was not a bad dis- 
 tribution, beyond the circumstance that it was 
 somewhat unfair to put so much power into the 
 hands of the single Archbishop. The arch-diocese 
 (of Westminster) was arranged to include the 
 counties of Middlesex, Essex, and Herts ; the 
 diocese of Birmingham, the counties of Warwick- 
 shire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, and Stafford- 
 shire ; the diocese of Clifton, the counties of 
 Somerset, Wilts, and Gloucestershire ; the diocese 
 of Hexham (changed, in 1861, to Hexham and 
 
 44
 
 THE NEW DIOCESES 45 
 
 Newcastle), the counties of Northumberland, 
 Durham, Cumberland, and Westmorland ; the 
 diocese of Leeds, the West Riding, and a part 
 of York city ; the diocese of Liverpool, parts of 
 Lancashire, and the Isle of Man ; the diocese of 
 Middlesbrough the North and East Ridings, and 
 the other part of the city of York ; the diocese of 
 Newport and Menevia, 1 the counties of Hereford- 
 shire, Monmouthshire, and all Wales ; the diocese 
 of Northamptonshire, the counties of Bucks, 
 Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Hunts, 
 Suffolk, and Northamptonshire ; the diocese of 
 Nottingham, the counties of Derbyshire, Leicester- 
 shire, Lincoln, Notts, and Rutland ; the diocese 
 of Plymouth, the counties of Devon, Cornwall, 
 Dorset, and the Scilly Isles ; the diocese of 
 Salford, parts of Lancashire ; the diocese of Ports- 
 mouth, the counties of Berkshire, Hants, the Isle 
 of Wight, and the Channel Islands ; the diocese 
 of Shrewsbury, the counties of Cheshire and 
 Shropshire ; and the diocese of Southwark, the 
 counties of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex. In 
 March, 1878, the Hierarchy was re-established 
 in Scotland. 
 
 It is somewhat difficult, at the present day, to 
 
 1 In 1896, this was divided, into Newport, consisting of 
 Glamorganshire, Monmouthshire, and Herefordshire;* and 
 Menevia, consisting of Wales as a Vicariate (excepting, of 
 course, the county of Glamorgan).
 
 46 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 realize adequately how and why the restoration of 
 a Roman Catholic Hierarchy created so much 
 popular indignation. But most of the trouble 
 was solely due to the utter want of tact displayed 
 by Cardinal Wiseman, and by the Holy See. 
 They had apparently no deliberate intention of 
 hurting the feelings of the British people, and yet 
 they adopted means which a little reflection 
 would have told them must be followed by serious 
 consequences. There was nothing startling in the 
 mere fact of substituting new bishoprics for the 
 old vicariates, but it should have been carried out 
 in a more courteous and diplomatic manner. As 
 Mr. Justin MacCarthy (himself a Roman Catholic) 
 says, in his Short History of Our Own Times: 
 1 The (public) anger was not against the giving of 
 the new titles, but against the assumption of a 
 new right to give titles representing territorial 
 distinctions in this country ; against the Pope's 
 evident assumption that the change he was making 
 was the natural result of an actual change in the 
 national feeling of England.' 
 
 From the Papal point of view it was also a 
 blunder to make Dr. Wiseman a Cardinal at this 
 particular period : his creation should have been 
 postponed for, at least, another two years. 1 It 
 
 1 'It was, I fear, and every one thinks, very ill-judged of 
 Wiseman to return as Cardinal. It was enough for him to be 
 Archbishop of Westminster. It was, I fancy, all his own doing,
 
 ENGLISH FEELING 47 
 
 was true that there had been several English 
 Cardinals since the Reformation, but none had 
 resided in England since the death of Reginald 
 Pole, in 1558. The post- Reformation English 
 Cardinals, namely Allen, Howard, Henry Stewart, 
 Weld, and Acton, 1 had all lived at Rome. Dr. 
 Wiseman, however, was now appointed to live in 
 London as Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. 
 He had, hitherto, been Vicar of the London 
 district, with the title of Bishop of Melipotamus 
 in partibus infidelium. 
 
 By a great number, even, of the English 
 Romanists themselves, the re-establishment of 
 the Hierarchy, so far from being welcomed, was 
 disliked, and the (then) Duke of Norfolk was so 
 displeased, that he ceased to be a Roman Catholic, 
 although he is said to have become reconciled to 
 Romanism 2 again on his death-bed. For some 
 weeks, the general indignation assumed such 
 proportions, that it seemed likely the papal plans 
 would be upset, and the bull revoked. But the 
 agitation died away gradually ; and Wiseman, 
 
 for the Pope intended him to remain at Rome.' (Extract from 
 a contemporary letter by Lord Shrewsbury, quoted by Purcell 
 in his Life of A. P. de Lisle.) 
 
 1 Cardinal Acton had, in 1846, strongly opposed the scheme, 
 already proposed, for the re-establishment of the Hierarchy in 
 England. 
 
 2 By a priest, who was an undoubted Gallican.
 
 48 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 braving the storm with considerable courage and 
 skill, by a diplomatic letter to the London Press 
 succeeded in getting a fair hearing for himself. 
 It was not, indeed, only against Rome that the 
 clamour had been levelled, but against also the 
 rising Ritualism in the Established Church. The 
 stream of secessions from Oxford to Rome had 
 awakened a profound distrust of the High Church 
 clergy in the public mind, and in the action of the 
 Holy See Protestants thought they discerned a 
 logical sequel to the Oxford Movement. Lord 
 John Russell, in his ' Durham Letter,' showed 
 that he grasped the situation when he referred to 
 the ' danger within the gates from the unworthy 
 sons of the Church of England herself.' This 
 letter, addressed to the Bishop of Durham, was 
 dated from Downing Street on the fourth of 
 November (1850). On the day following, the 
 anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, the ' feast of 
 St. Guy ' was celebrated with tumultuous demon- 
 strations all over the country, effigies of Cardinal 
 Wiseman and Pope Pius IX. being everywhere 
 shouldered about and burnt. 
 
 By the re-establishment of the Hierarchy, on 
 the lines adopted by Cardinal Wiseman, the 
 English and Welsh Romanists were placed 
 directly under the thraldom of the Holy See. 
 The appointment of the Bishops was rendered 
 entirely subservient to the approval of the Pope,
 
 PROTESTS AND CRITICISMS 49 
 
 and all the old Gallican theories as to self-govern- 
 ment were speedily terminated. It was not 
 surprising, therefore, that on Cardinal Wiseman's 
 arrival in London from Rome, after his appoint- 
 ment as Archbishop of Westminster, he should 
 have found himself greeted with protests, against 
 the new state of things, coming from many in- 
 fluential members of his own Communion. A 
 meeting was convened by the Roman Catholic 
 gentry of Yorkshire in denunciation of the re- 
 establishment of the Hierarchy. The Earl of 
 Shrewsbury and the Lords Beaumont, Camoys, 
 and Clifford, all Romanist Peers, strongly objected, 
 in the most outspoken language, to the position 
 taken up by Cardinal Wiseman, whilst the Duke 
 of Norfolk, supporting them, wrote, ' I should think 
 that many people must feel, as we do, that Ultra- 
 montane opinions are totally incompatible with 
 allegiance to our Sovereign, and with our Con- 
 stitution.' Lord John Russell complained, ' There 
 is an assumption of power in all the documents 
 which have come from Rome, a pretension to 
 supremacy over the Realm of England, and a 
 claim to sole and undivided sway, which is incon- 
 sistent with the Queen's supremacy, with the 
 rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the 
 spiritual independence of the Nation, as asserted 
 even in Roman Catholic times.' The Times 
 described the Papal policy as ' one of the grossest
 
 So RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 acts of folly and impertinence, which the Court of 
 Rome has ventured to commit, since the Crown 
 and People of England threw off its yoke.' 
 
 The Papal brief, authorizing the creation of the 
 Hierarchy, reached England before Cardinal 
 Wiseman had got back from Rome. Its receipt 
 placed the Vicar-General of the London District, 
 Dr. Whitty, 1 in a position of grave difficulty. 
 He recognized, at once, the incomparable folly of 
 the way in which it had been worded. It was 
 dated October 7, 1850, 'Given out of the 
 Flaminian Gate at Rome,' and was to be read 
 publicly in all the chapels of the London District. 
 It was not addressed, however, directly to the 
 English Romanists, but to the English Nation 
 generally, and announced audaciously that ' Your 
 beloved country has received a place among the 
 beautiful Churches which, properly constituted, 
 form the splendid aggregate of Catholic com- 
 munion ; Catholic England has been restored to 
 its orbit in the ecclesiastic firmament, from which 
 its light had long been missing ; and now begins 
 anew its course of regular action round the centre 
 of unity, the source of jurisdiction, of light, and 
 of vigour.' No wonder that the perplexed Dr. 
 Whitty was afraid to publish such an address. 
 He was, nevertheless, forced either to break his 
 
 1 Dr. Whitty afterwards entered the Society of Jesus (in 
 1856).
 
 SOCIAL RESULTS 51 
 
 orders, by not publishing it, or to incur the 
 public wrath, by giving it out to his clergy to 
 read to their flocks, as directed. 1 After much 
 consideration, he determined to obey his orders, 
 and give it out. The result was, that the whole 
 country was plunged, ipso facto, into a state of 
 anti-Roman agitation similar to that which had 
 occurred at the time of the discovery of the Gun- 
 powder Plot, the Popish Plot, and during the 
 Gordon Riots. 
 
 Although the agitation caused by this ' Papal 
 Aggression ' did not produce as lasting results 2 as 
 had been confidently anticipated, still Cardinal 
 Wiseman found himself practically severed 
 thereby from all social life outside the narrow 
 limits of his own Communion. Not only this, 
 but to Roman Catholics all over the kingdom 
 much misery was caused. Priests were no longer 
 treated so courteously by their Protestant 
 acquaintances ; servants found much difficulty in 
 getting situations in Protestant households ; and 
 the business of tradesmen suffered. In favour of 
 the Papal plan for the re-establishing the Hier- 
 archy, there would have been more to have been 
 
 1 When Newman read out the Pastoral to his congregation, 
 his face all the while is said to have been 'a study,' and his 
 voice faltered at the words ' Flaminian Gate.' 
 
 2 The Ecclesiastical Titles Act, the outcome of the agitation, 
 passed in 1851, was repealed twenty years later. It had never 
 been put into force.
 
 52 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 said, had only it been more fairly and less osten- 
 tatiously carried out. The old Districts needed 
 reconstruction, they were too few and too large, 
 but it would have been easy to have created new 
 Districts, with Bishops in partibus, or Vicars- 
 Apostolic at their head, all under the control of 
 an Archbishop resident in London. Dr. Wise- 
 man could have acted as such a Primate, and the 
 obnoxious title of Cardinal need not have been 
 given him until the whole scheme had settled 
 down into peaceful operation. Instead of this, 
 with a loud blast of trumpets and beating of 
 drums, England and Wales were partitioned out 
 into Roman dioceses, by the orders of the Bishop 
 of Rome, as if no such Church as that of the 
 Establishment were in existence, whilst the tone 
 adopted by Wiseman and the Pope, in their 
 documents relating to the creation of this new 
 Episcopacy, read more like that of a Napoleon 
 addressing a conquered nation than that of men 
 to whom all jurisdiction in this country was for- 
 bidden by law. 
 
 In dealing with Scotland, in which the old 
 Gallican spirit was still extremely strong, 1 the 
 Holy See went to work with the exercise of 
 much greater caution and deliberation. North 
 of the Tweed, the Hierarchy was not restored 
 
 i Gallicanism had also been the dominant factor in Ireland 
 until the establishment of the Maynooth Seminary.
 
 ENGLISH CARDINALS 53 
 
 until more than twenty-seven years had elapsed 
 since the elevation of Nicholas Wiseman to the 
 Archbishopric of Westminster. In 1878, Scot- 
 land was divided into the arch-dioceses of 
 Glasgow, and St. Andrews and Edinburgh ; with 
 the dioceses of Aberdeen, Galloway, Dunkeld, 
 and Argyll and the Isles. That Scotland should, 
 in the first place, have been granted two arch- 
 dioceses, and England (with Wales) only one, was 
 an absurd arrangement, when the census of the 
 Roman Catholic population of one country is 
 compared with that of the other. 
 
 As I have said, Dr. Wiseman's mistake in 
 accepting a Cardinal's hat was attended with 
 awkward results. The title of Cardinal had 
 never been popular in England, not even in 
 pre-Reformation days, and the circumstance of 
 Wiseman coming to reside in London was 
 regarded as a national insult. Dr. Wiseman 
 was about the thirtieth Englishman 1 to be 
 created a Cardinal. His predecessors were 
 Robert Pulleyn; Nicholas Brakespear, an Au- 
 gustinian, created Pope under the title of 
 
 1 I exclude all Irish, Scottish, and Colonial Cardinals. Mr. 
 Purcell makes the extraordinary error of describing Henry 
 Edward Manning as the ' second English Cardinal since the 
 Reformation ' ; as a matter of fact, Archbishop Manning was 
 the ninth Englishman to be created a Cardinal since the 
 Reformation (excluding Dr. Lingard, said to have been a 
 Cardinal in petto).
 
 54 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 Adrian IV. ; Boso Brakespear, his nephew, a 
 Benedictine Monk ; Stephen Langton ; Robert 
 Curzon ; Robert Somercote ; Robert Kilwardby, 
 a Dominican Friar ; Hugh of Evesham ; Walter 
 Winterbourne, a Dominican Friar ; Thomas 
 Joyce, a Dominican Friar ; Simon Langham, a 
 Benedictine Monk ; Adam Eyston, a Benedictine 
 Monk ; Philip Repyngdon, a Canon Regular ; 
 Thomas Langley ; Robert Hallam (an undoubted 
 Gallican) ; Henry Beaufort, son of John of 
 Gaunt ; John Kempe ; Thomas Bourchier ; John 
 Morton, Lord Chancellor ; Christopher Bain- 
 bridge; Thomas Wolsey; John Fisher; Reginald 
 Pole ; William Peyto, an Observant Friar ; 
 William Allen, the faithful friend of the Jesuits ; 
 Philip Thomas Howard, a Dominican Friar ; 
 Henry Benedict Maria Clement Stewart, called 
 ' Henry IX.' by his friends ; Thomas Weld ; and 
 Charles Januarius Edward Acton. Of these 
 ' Princes of the Church,' it will be noticed that 
 no fewer than ten sprang from the ranks of the 
 regular clergy. Since Cardinal Wiseman's 
 death, down to that of Queen Victoria, the 
 following Englishmen also have been made mem- 
 bers of the Sacred College : Henry Edward 
 Manning, a Cardinal- Priest ; Edward Henry 
 Howard, a Cardinal- Bishop ; l John Henry New- 
 
 1 Cardinal Howard died at Patcham, Brighton, in 1892. 
 He was buried at Arundel.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE PAPAL SEE 55 
 
 man, a Cardinal-Deacon ; and Herbert Vaughan, 
 a Cardinal- Priest. Only one English Cardinal 
 has ever become Pope, although two others have 
 been very near to climbing into Peter's Chair. 
 Reginald Pole, afterwards Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, was, indeed, actually elected by the requisite 
 majority of the votes, but was discarded on the 
 grounds of his not being sufficiently orthodox. 1 
 Cardinal Wolsey, also, was on two occasions very 
 nearly becoming Pope. But, since Reginald 
 Pole's day, no Englishman has ever been men- 
 tioned as a likely candidate for the Papacy. 
 Italian after Italian has worn the triple crown. 
 Since the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850, 
 but few of the English Romanist Bishops have 
 been men of any marked ability ; the most 
 notable of whom have been Grant (Southwark), 
 Ullathorne (Birmingham), Errington (Plymouth 
 and Westminster), Clifford (Clifton), and Hedley 
 (Newport). 
 
 1 There is something almost comic in the fact of Cardinal 
 Pole, Queen Mary Tudor's rigid Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and Papal Legate, being accused of heresy ! Yet, this was not 
 the only instance of his being thus accused, for he actually died 
 under the Pope's displeasure, on account of his alleged un- 
 soundness of doctrine. The Pope, indeed, had deprived him 
 of his office of Legate, and recalled him to Rome, a summons 
 which, with Mary's support, he declined to obey. Father 
 Peyto, a very old man, was made a Cardinal in order that he 
 might prove a rival to Pole, and for no other reason.
 
 56 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 Of these prelates Dr. Ullathorne made the 
 greatest mark in English public life. Born in 
 1806, William Bernard Ullathorne was, as a lad, 
 a sailor for a few years, and then turning his 
 attention to religion, entered the Benedictine 
 Order, and became a priest. From 1832 to 1841 
 he was employed on the Australasian Mission, 
 where he was more than once offered, but always 
 refused, a bishopric. In 1845, ne was appointed 
 Vicar of the Midland District, and from 1848 to 
 1850 took a leading and successful part in the 
 negotiations at Rome, which led up to the 
 re-establishment of the Hierarchy in England. 
 In 1869-1870 he was present at the Vatican 
 Council. On retiring, owing to advanced age, 
 from Birmingham, he was created a titular arch- 
 bishop. He died in 18*89, m ms eighty-third year. 
 On his return from Australia, Ullathorne did much 
 good work in protesting against the evils of the 
 system of transportation obtaining at the period. 
 Although believing in the Infallibility of the Pope, 
 he opposed the definition of the dogma in 1870, 
 on the grounds that it was inexpedient to define 
 it, at any rate, for a long time to come. In the 
 doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, he was a 
 firm believer, and wrote a treatise in defence and 
 explanation of it. Whilst Bishop of Birmingham, 
 he remained on friendly terms with Newman, 
 who much admired him, although he found it
 
 ENGLISH BISHOPS 57 
 
 no easy task to keep the peace always between 
 the famous Oratorian and his Ultramontane 
 assailants. 
 
 Robert Aston Coffin, Bishop of Southwark, and 
 a member of the Redemptorist Order, was a per- 
 vert. Born at Brighton in 1819, he was educated 
 at Harrow, and Christ Church, Oxford. After 
 taking orders in the Church of England, he 
 ' went over ' and joined the Oratorians, but soon 
 left them for the stricter rule of the Redemptor- 
 ists. He was made Bishop of Southwark in 1882, 
 but died three years later. The Hon. W. T. H. 
 Clifford, Bishop of Clifton, a member of the noble 
 family of Clifford, of Chudleigh, was an English 
 Roman Catholic of the ' old school.' After the 
 death of Cardinal Wiseman, he was considered 
 likely to be elected to the vacant primacy, but his 
 close friendship with Archbishop Errington did not 
 tend to strengthen his chances. He was present at 
 the Vatican Council, where he stoutly opposed the 
 definition of the doctrine of the Infallibility of the 
 Pope. He died in 1893, thirteen years after the 
 learned and pious Thomas Grant, the first Bishop 
 of Southwark. 
 
 Dr. Grant, prior to being elected Bishop, had 
 been secretary to Cardinal Acton, and had after- 
 wards acted as Dr. Ullathorne's ablest assistant 
 during the negotiations at Rome leading up to 
 the re-establishment of the Hierarchy. Later on,
 
 5 8 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 he became very hostile to Cardinal Wiseman. 
 He visited Rome, again, to attend the Vatican 
 Council, but died shortly before its conclusion. 
 On receiving the news of his death, Pius IX. is 
 reported to have exclaimed, ' Another Saint has 
 gone to Heaven ! ' With Dr. George Errington, 
 Bishop of Plymouth, and sometime Coadjutor- 
 Archbishop of Westminster, we shall deal in the 
 next chapter. Dr. Hedley, Bishop of Newport, 
 a Benedictine monk, has deservedly achieved fame 
 both as a preacher and scholar. 
 
 Before concluding this account of the re-estab- 
 lishment of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in 
 Great Britain, it will be interesting to compare 
 the figures in regard to the present number of the 
 Roman Catholic Missions in England with those 
 totalling the number of the missions existing after 
 Wiseman's scheme had been matured. It will be 
 interesting also to note the great increase in the 
 number of the missions, priests, and monasteries 
 since the expulsion of the Religious Orders from 
 France, and their subsequent invasion of England. 
 For these purposes I have selected the years 
 1851, 1899, and 1905 as test dates 1851 be- 
 cause it was the year following the settlement of 
 Wiseman's re-establishment ; 1899 because the 
 immigration of the foreign monks commenced 
 in or about that year; and 1905 because the
 
 STATISTICS OF PROGRESS 
 
 59 
 
 immigration had by then, I suppose, reached its 
 zenith. The following are the statistics 
 
 PRIESTS 
 
 In 1851. 
 958 
 
 In 1899. 
 3235 
 
 In 1905. 
 38l8 
 
 CHURCHES AND CHAPELS 
 
 In 1851. 
 683 
 
 In 1899. 
 1854 
 
 In 1905. 
 2OO8 
 
 MONASTERIES 
 
 In 1851. 
 17 
 
 In 1899. 
 260 
 
 In 1905. 
 303 
 
 CONVERTS 
 
 In 1851. 
 53 
 
 In 1899. 
 
 557 
 
 In 1905. 
 751 
 
 In comparing, finally, the state of affairs exist- 
 ing at the period of the ' Papal Aggression ' with 
 that existing midway between 1829, the era of 
 Emancipation, and 1850, the date of the re-estab- 
 lishment, I may mention that in the year 1842 
 5
 
 60 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHY 
 
 there were only three Roman Catholic religious 
 houses for men, and only twenty for women, to 
 be found throughout the whole of Great Britain. 
 In 1830, the total number of Roman Catholic 
 churches and chapels in all London only 
 amounted to about fourteen in number ; whilst 
 some three or four of these were mere rooms, and 
 in this total of fourteen I have included the 
 chapels of the French, Sardinian, Spanish, and 
 Bavarian Embassies.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 NICHOLAS PATRICK STEPHEN 
 WISEMAN, the 'Bishop Blougram ' of 
 Browning's verse, was born at Seville, in Spain, 
 1802. The street in which his birth-place stood 
 has since been renamed in his honour. He was 
 descended from a family which had gone over 
 from England to settle in Ireland, and later on in 
 Spain. His mother was an Irish lady. After 
 receiving a good education in England,* Wiseman's 
 first laurels were won at Rome, where he became 
 Professor of Oriental Languages, and Rector of 
 the English College. Sent eventually to England, 
 he served as Vicar-Apostolic of two of the 
 Districts, prior to being nominated Archbishop of 
 Westminster. In placing Cardinal Wiseman in 
 supreme charge of the English Mission, there can 
 be no doubt that Pope Pius IX., advised by 
 Cardinal Barnabo, exercised a most judicious 
 
 1 At Ushaw, where he was under the charge of Lingard, the 
 historian, and where he once met Dr. Milner. 
 
 61
 
 6 2 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 choice, since in point of ability * the ex- Professor 
 stood out head and shoulders above all his 
 colleagues. His very enemies never questioned 
 this, for his talents were fully recognized and 
 admired by all who came in touch with him. 
 Unlike most of the Roman Catholic clergy of his 
 day, he was not afraid of the advances daily being 
 made in scientific research, and in his lectures on 
 geology he claimed that his Church had nothing 
 to fear from the revelation of the latest of the 
 earth's secrets. 
 
 A gentleman by birth, a lover of hospitality, 
 and a kind-hearted man, Cardinal Wiseman's 
 London career should, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, have been both a prosperous and a 
 pleasant one. Had he lived at the present day, 
 this would certainly have been the case, and the 
 author of Fabiola would have been justly re- 
 garded as one of the ablest men of his time. But, 
 during his fifteen years at Westminster, he was 
 destined to pass through so stormy a period that 
 his principal occupation seems to have been par- 
 ticipating either in his own or in other people's 
 quarrels. From the first days of his appointment 
 until the end of his life, he was exposed to a 
 
 1 ' Which of the Oxford converts, with the exception of 
 Newman, can be compared with Wiseman for breadth of 
 intellect ; for profound biblical scholarship ; for varied 
 learning?' etc. (Purcell).
 
 CARDINAL WISEMAN 63 
 
 succession of troubles which allowed him no 
 opportunity to rest. Before even he became 
 Archbishop, when he was Vicar of the London 
 District, his taking up his residence in the 
 metropolis had been a signal for attack upon him 
 by some of the Gallican clergy strongly opposed 
 to his Ultramontane policy. 1 
 
 In 1855, it was thought necessary that Cardinal 
 Wiseman, whose health was none too good, 
 should receive the help of a Coadjutor, by whom 
 he would be relieved of some of the heavier duties 
 accumulating so rapidly in the arch-diocese. The 
 Coadjutor and this is an important point was to 
 succeed Wiseman (as Archbishop of Westminster) 
 should the latter's health necessitate his retirement, 
 or in the event of his death. The candidate 
 selected to become the Coadjutor-Archbishop 
 was Dr. George Errington, Bishop of Plymouth, 
 a man whose great energy and unflinching de- 
 votion to diocesan work afterwards won for him 
 
 1 Mr. Richard Boyle, one of these clergy, actually sued 
 Cardinal Wiseman for libel, and (very properly) obtained 
 ;iooo damages against him at law. This priest's action, 
 too, was by no means unsupported by his colleagues, the 
 majority of whom were most hostile to Wiseman and his pro- 
 Roman policy. A perusal of the official account of the trial 
 shows how strongly many influential Romanists were then 
 opposed to Ultramontanism. The damages (^1000) were 
 eventually somewhat reduced, on appeal, but the Cardinal, 
 beyond doubt, had behaved very badly.
 
 6 4 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 the title of the ' Iron Archbishop.' From this 
 appointment dated the commencement of that un- 
 fortunate episode, in the history of Roman 
 Catholicism in England, which is generally known 
 as the ' Errington Case,' and which was destined 
 to cause Cardinal Wiseman ceaseless anxiety and 
 annoyance. 
 
 Archbishop Errington was an ecclesiastic of so 
 utterly dissimilar character from his old school- 
 fellow, Wiseman, that it soon became manifest 
 how many and how formidable were the obstacles 
 lying in the way of their working well together. 
 A man of unquestionable integrity, Errington was, 
 nevertheless, a disciplinarian of a most severe 
 type. Canon law was the controlling spirit of his 
 career, and he carried out its rules regardless 
 either of circumstances or persons. Like a doctor 
 who would rather see one of his patients die 
 under orthodox professional treatment than have 
 him saved by the aid of a quack, Errington 
 obeyed the dictates of canon law with undeviating 
 fidelity to its text. Such a man was unlikely to 
 remain long in accord with the unbusiness-like 
 Wiseman. It is probable, nevertheless, that 
 Errington would have continued to the end to 
 remain Coadjutor had it not been for the inter- 
 vention of a third party in the case. This person 
 was a convert Monsignor Manning. 
 
 Formerly Archdeacon of Chichester, Manning
 
 WISEMAN AND MANNING 65 
 
 had, at the period of which we speak, been so 
 recently ordained a Roman Catholic priest, and 
 had been ordained at so brief an interval after his 
 reception into the Church of Rome, 1 that the 
 powerful position into which he had climbed in 
 the arch-diocese was productive of no little 
 jealousy on the part of his colleagues. He was 
 Provost of the Chapter, the members of which 
 nearly all disliked him, as did Canon Searle, 
 Cardinal Wiseman's secretary. On returning 
 from a visit to Rome, undertaken after his re- 
 ception at the Jesuit's Church, Farm Street, 
 London, Manning had established, in Bayswater, 
 a branch of the community of the Oblates of St. 
 Carlo Borromeo, 2 and it was in regard to the work 
 and privileges of these Oblates that Dr. Errington 
 and he first came into collision. Into the rights 
 and wrongs of this dispute it is unnecessary to 
 enter here in detail. Wiseman and Errington 
 soon were, also, themselves at loggerheads on this 
 and on other matters. In the battle which took 
 place, Wiseman and Manning joined forces, whilst 
 
 1 After he had actually been ordained, the Tablet sarcas- 
 tically announced that it was ' Mr. Manning's intention to visit 
 Rome in the autumn for the purpose of commencing his 
 theological studies ' ! 
 
 2 The Oblates of the Blessed Virgin and St. Ambrose, 
 founded at Milan by St. Carlo Borromeo in the year 1578. 
 Manning, however, as Errington justly complained, did not 
 adhere to the strict rules of the Order.
 
 66 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 Dr. Errington was supported by the majority of 
 the English Bishops, the clergy of the arch- 
 diocese, and the Chapter. The merits of the 
 subject originally at issue came to be lost sight of, 
 when the contending parties were seen to consist 
 of sides representing, respectively, the convert 
 school, supported by the Ultramontane Wiseman, 
 and the old school of English Romanists, who 
 were jealous and suspicious of Manning and the 
 Oxford men. 
 
 The contest was desperate and prolonged. Dr. 
 Errington refused, ab initio, to make any con- 
 cession, or admit himself to be guilty of any of 
 the charges alleged against him. There was 
 ultimately, therefore, no alternative but to appeal 
 to Rome. In this proceeding, curiously enough, 
 the 'new' men held an advantage over the 'old.' 
 Manning already had been favourably received 
 and noticed by the Pope, whilst Monsignor Talbot, 1 
 the only Englishman on terms of real intimacy 
 with Pius IX., was so friendly inclined towards 
 Manning, that he never ceased to sound the ex- 
 Archdeacon's praises in his patron's ear. Cardinal 
 Wiseman, also, was a persona grata at the Vatican, 
 where Errington, and the Bishops supporting him, 
 were thought to be tainted with Gallicanism. But, 
 Errington had something in reserve. He had 
 
 1 The Hon. George Talbot, son of Lord Talbot de Malahide. 
 He had once been an Anglican clergyman.
 
 ERRINGTON'S VIEW 67 
 
 been appointed, it will be remembered, as Co- 
 adjutor to Wiseman, with right of succession. 
 This meant, therefore, that at the Cardinal's 
 death Errington would succeed Wiseman, with 
 a free hand almost to act as he liked, and he 
 would then be in a position to make short work of 
 Monsignor Manning and the obnoxious Oblates. 
 Wiseman's health, too, was rapidly getting worse, 
 as the struggle went ; so that Errington appeared 
 unlikely to have to wait very long before proving 
 victorious in the end. 
 
 Realizing fully the strength of Errington's 
 position, his opponents endeavoured to induce 
 him to resign, conditional on his being offered 
 another bishopric, or archbishopric, in lieu of 
 his coadjutorship at Westminster. But, resign 
 Errington would not ; and he contended, very 
 truly, that he had been guilty of no personal mis- 
 conduct, or of any offence within the range of 
 canon law ; that he had been quite justified in 
 objecting to the appointment of such a person as 
 the fanatical W. G. Ward to the professorship 
 of dogmatic theology at St. Edmund's College ; l 
 that he had worked extremely hard in London, 
 whither he had been summoned from Plymouth 
 
 1 For making this appointment, Cardinal Wiseman was 
 entirely responsible. Ward was a layman, and a rabid Ultra- 
 montane. He was a very indifferent lecturer, and resigned his 
 post in six years' time.
 
 68 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 against his wishes ; that, on taking up his post at 
 Westminster, he had soon asked to be relieved 
 of it, but permission was then refused him ; and 
 that he was being made the victim of a conspiracy 
 concocted against him by a subordinate priest, 
 whose Oblates were carrying on a work which in- 
 terfered with that of the secular clergy. Finally, he 
 challenged his opponents to show any valid reason 
 why his right of succession should be revoked. 
 Eventually, after matters had been gone into at 
 Rome, where Errington's cause was personally 
 supported by the Bishops of Birmingham, South- 
 wark, Clifton, Shrewsbury, and Liverpool, a verdict 
 was given against him, and a great victory was 
 gained by Cardinal Wiseman and the Ultramon- 
 tanes. Errington was practically forced to resign, 
 and his doing so was blasphemously described 
 by the Pope as a ' Coup cFttat of the Lord 
 God ' ! 
 
 That Archbishop Errington was, on the whole, 
 treated with distinct injustice cannot be denied, 
 and there is a great deal to be said in support 
 of Mr. Purcell's very deliberate opinion that, but 
 for Archbishop Manning, 1 there would have 
 
 1 Mr. Gladstone, in referring to another episode in Cardinal 
 Manning's career, once remarked, ' I will not say that Manning 
 was insincere, God forbid ! But he was not simple and straight- 
 forward.' On another occasion, Gladstone is said to have 
 stated that Cardinal Manning was beyond doubt insincere, and 
 ery insincere into the bargain.
 
 WISEMAN'S DEATH 69 
 
 been no ' Errington Case.' It was hard lines, 
 that Dr. Errington, a member of an old Catholic 
 family, and a priest of great experience, should 
 have to submit to the dictates of an ex-Arch- 
 deacon, who had only recently joined the Roman 
 Church. His energy and business-like methods 
 were infinitely preferable to the careless habits of 
 the Cardinal, who had behaved, also, in a very 
 Jesuitical manner in regard to the appointment of 
 W. G. Ward to St. Edmund's College, Ware. 
 Against Dr. Errington, however, it must be ad- 
 mitted that he was much wanting in discretion and 
 tact, and that he tried to rule the arch-diocese on 
 very hard and narrow lines. It was not for nothing 
 that he had won the title of the ' Iron Arch- 
 bishop.' But, although defeated, Errington was 
 not yet absolutely vanquished, for he was still to 
 figure in one more fight. At Wiseman's death 
 there arose the vital question as to his successor, 
 and, during the interregnum, Dr. Errington was 
 once again to the front. 
 
 After ''- his enforced resignation from West- 
 minster, Dr. Errington had refused to accept 
 another post, and his episcopal career seemed 
 to all intents and purposes to have come to an 
 end. To appoint him to succeed Wiseman would 
 seem comparable to the case of a colonel, who, 
 after acting as second-in-command of his regiment, 
 and having been dismissed from his command and
 
 70 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 from his regiment, after a trial by court-martial, 
 should eventually be reappointed to the supreme 
 command. The authorities at Rome naturally 
 never expected that Dr. Errington's name would 
 be one of the three on the list, officially selected and 
 forwarded from England, from which Propaganda 
 should choose Cardinal Wiseman's successor. But 
 it was ; and not only that, but Errington's name 
 was first on the list, with two of his supporters 
 nominated as the second and the third. Enraged 
 beyond measure at this unexpected proceeding, 
 the Pope refused to allow Archbishop Errington's 
 candidature even to be considered, whilst he also 
 refused eventually to approve of the claims of the 
 other two bishops. Finally, the candidate chosen 
 to succeed Cardinal Wiseman, as the Pope's special 
 selection, was (to the consternation of the ' old 
 school ') none other than the hated convert Mon- 
 signor Manning himself the fons et origo mali, 
 as he was regarded by many. 1 
 
 Monsignor Manning's appointment put an end 
 to the famous ' Errington Case.' For a few 
 weeks a very few indeed, it appeared as if a 
 schism was going to take place in England, so 
 angry were the majority of Romanists at Manning 
 becoming Archbishop. But the agitation died 
 sullenly away, and the new Primate was enthroned 
 
 1 Punch, referring to the appointment at the time, remarked 
 ' The Bark of Peter wants Manning ! '
 
 MANNING'S VICTORY 71 
 
 with all the usual rites in the presence of a 
 crowded, although not enthusiastic or sympathetic 
 congregation. 1 After being less than fifteen years 
 a Roman Catholic, therefore, Dr. Manning sud- 
 denly found himself Archbishop of Westminster, 
 and the victor in a hard-fought fight, during which 
 he had lived to triumph over all his formidable 
 foes both in London and in Rome. His victory 
 over Errington had been complete. But, what- 
 ever may be said against Dr. Errington's conduct 
 as Coadjutor- Archbishop, no two opinions can 
 be held as to the exemplary manner in which he 
 behaved after his final discomfiture. He loyally 
 accepted the disagreeable situation, and after pre- 
 siding over the Missions in the Isle of Man, and 
 after later occupying a very similar post in Scot- 
 land, he accepted a small professorship at Prior 
 Park, Bath, where he died on January 19, 1886, 
 aged eighty-one. After retiring from West- 
 minster, he had been offered, but declined, the 
 Archbishopric of Trinidad. His residence at 
 Prior Park was undertaken at the suggestion of 
 Dr. Clifford, Bishop of Clifton, his intimate friend, 
 with whom he returned from Rome, after attend- 
 
 1 By the ' Convert School,' however, Manning's promotion 
 was received with demonstrations of delight. On the news 
 reaching W. G. Ward, he and his household gave way to such 
 noisy applause, that the neighbours sent in to inquire what 
 was the matter.
 
 72 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 ing the Vatican Council, in iS;. 1 His death 
 attracted very little public attention, and the 
 ' Obituary ' published in The Times consisted only 
 of a very few lines, in which no mention was made 
 of the ' Errington Case.' 
 
 That Manning, in carrying on his campaign 
 against Archbishop Errington, had been actuated 
 by conscientious, if mistaken motives, must, I 
 think, be admitted. He seems, influenced by his 
 staunch Ultramontane opinions, to have looked 
 upon Errington, as he soon afterwards looked 
 upon Newman, as an enemy to the Holy See, 
 and as one, therefore, whose removal from high 
 office was imperative in the interests of the 
 Roman Catholic Church. That he was greatly 
 aided in his victory by Monsignor George 
 Talbot's services at Rome cannot be questioned, 
 for it was Talbot's habit of constantly singing 
 Manning's praises at the Vatican that was one of 
 the chief factors in winning for him the vacant 
 Primacy. In Manning, Talbot recognized a 
 kindred spirit that would strive to the utmost 
 to bind together Roman Catholic England and 
 the Holy See, and that would wage war in- 
 
 1 ' Dr. Errington, after passing an edifying life in peace and 
 silence, died in the year 1 886. He nursed no resentment in 
 his heart. He did not even attempt to vindicate his ways or 
 tell his own story. His tongue left no sting or stain behind ' 
 (Purcell).
 
 ADVENT OF REGULARS 73 
 
 cessantly on Gallicanism in any shape or form. 
 Talbot's own views of the duties of the laity 
 were Ultramontane in the extreme. He looked 
 upon Wiseman's policy as a second edition of 
 Bishop Milner's, and Manning he selected as 
 the most suitable person to carry on their work. 
 Talbot's later career was shrouded in gloom. 
 He began to suffer from a mental illness, which 
 completely incapacitated him, and he died event- 
 ually in a private asylum in the suburbs of Paris 
 Rome forgetting, and by Rome forgot ! 
 
 In reverting once more to Cardinal Wiseman's 
 progressive policy, I must not omit reference to 
 the return to England, under his influence and 
 direction, of the Religious Orders. Finding that 
 there were not enough Secular priests in the arch- 
 diocese, Wiseman invited the aid of Regulars from 
 abroad. But he was, on the whole, much dis- 
 appointed with the work of the monks and friars 
 whom he brought over. Their laziness and 
 ineptitude deeply distressed him, and he was 
 unable to get them to undertake any ordinary 
 parochial duties. In a letter to Father Faber, 
 dated October 27, 1852, we find him com- 
 menting with bitter scorn upon the shameless 
 conduct of these Regular priests, for whom he 
 had done so much, but who had done so little 
 for him. 'When I first came to London,' wrote 
 the Cardinal, ' there was not a single community
 
 74 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 of men. There were two Jesuits living en garfon in 
 a house, that was all.' He then went on to illustrate 
 how greatly things had changed since that time, 
 instancing the positions of the Jesuits, Redemp- 
 torists, Marists, Passionists, and Oratorians, all 
 of whom had settled in or near London, by his 
 permission, and with his aid. It was due, indeed, 
 to his patronage of the Jesuits that they had been 
 able to recover so much of their lost ground, for 
 desperate efforts had been made by the Secular 
 clergy to prevent them settling in London, and in 
 Liverpool. Of the Jesuits in London, Cardinal 
 Wiseman wrote : ' They have a splendid church, 
 a large house, several priests/ etc., but they will 
 do no parochial work. ' Hence we have under 
 them only a church, which by its splendour 
 attracts and absorbs the wealth of two parishes, 
 but maintains no schools, and contributes nothing 
 to the poor at its very door. I could say much 
 more, but I forbear.' 
 
 With the Redemptorists, he had very similar 
 faults to find. (This Order soon after achieved an 
 unpleasant notoriety, owing to its figuring in the 
 law-courts in the celebrated case known as that 
 of the ' Clapham Bells.') 
 
 Of the Passionists, whom he himself had brought 
 to England, hecomplained : ' They have never done 
 me a stroke of work among the poor, and if I want 
 a mission from them, the local house is of no use.'
 
 FEARS OF ERRINGTON 75 
 
 Of the Marists, his account was a little more 
 encouraging, but of the wealthy Oratorians his 
 report was scathing. To all his appeals for help 
 from them, Father Faber had given the ridiculous 
 reply, ' Others hunt, but we must stay at home, 
 and fish!' 
 
 Much as Cardinal Wiseman deserved sympathy 
 on account of the ingratitude and apathy of the 
 Regulars, it must be allowed that he was to blame 
 for not taking into consideration, when he imported 
 them, the fact that they were unlikely to deviate 
 an inch from their monotonous rule in order to 
 help the Secular priests. 1 The attitude of the 
 Regulars was, nevertheless, more favourable by 
 far towards Wiseman than it ever was towards 
 Dr. Errington, for they knew very well that, in 
 the event of the Archbishop succeeding the 
 Cardinal, they would be forced to lead more 
 active lives. The Dominicans, Oratorians, and 
 Redemptorists, especially dreaded Errington's suc- 
 cession ; and the 'Iron Archbishop' would have 
 made very short work of Father Faber, and his 
 fishing. Much of the opposition to Dr. Errington 
 was undoubtedly manufactured by the Regulars, 
 and Faber incautiously admitted, that ' If Dr. 
 
 1 'Souls are perishing,' said Wiseman, 'around them (the 
 Regulars), but they are prevented by their rules, given by 
 Saints, from helping to save them, at least in any but a 
 particular and definite way.' 
 6
 
 76 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 Errington returns to Westminster, as Archbishop, 
 the Holy See will have to reckon it will take 
 fifty, if not one hundred years, to restore England 
 to the pitch of Ultramontanism which she has 
 now reached ! ' This candid confession throws 
 considerable light on the inner history of the 
 ' Errington Case.' 
 
 In continuing further this brief sketch of 
 Nicholas Wiseman's career as Cardinal- Arch- 
 bishop of Westminster, one cannot but refer, as 
 exemplifying his extreme Ultramontanism, to 
 the unpleasant episode of his quarrel with the 
 French Legitimists, resident in London during 
 the reign of Napoleon III. With these gentle- 
 men, Cardinal Wiseman chose to quarrel, because 
 they refused, very naturally, to entertain the same 
 opinions of the ' Man of Destiny ' as he did. At 
 the end of High Mass on Sundays, it was their 
 custom to offer up the usual prayer to God to 
 save the King (Regem), without, of course, 
 mentioning the Emperor (Imperatorem}. Car- 
 dinal Wiseman, on hearing this, resolved to 
 affront them publicly, and invited himself to Mass 
 at their chapel, where he himself insisted on 
 repeating the loyal prayers, and bawled out the 
 word Imperatorem, in substitution for Regem. 
 Not content with this, at a private reception held 
 later on the same day, on hearing some of the 
 Legitimists conversing in their native tongue, he
 
 USE OF THE LEGITIMISTS 77 
 
 went up to them and rudely exclaimed, ' One 
 hears nothing but French spoken in this room.' 
 This boorish behaviour on ' Bishop Blougram's ' 
 part was as ungrateful as it was spiteful, when it 
 is considered what priceless services had been 
 rendered to Rome in England by the French 
 emigrant royalists. After the Revolution of the 
 eighteenth century, their coming over in large 
 numbers had swelled the ranks of their co- 
 religionists on this side of the Channel to a very 
 large extent; and as they were allowed every 
 liberty in regard to the exercise of their religion, 
 it gradually came to pass that the same privilege 
 was granted to British Roman Catholics as well. 
 During the dark days of the penal laws, more- 
 over, the French Ambassadors in London had 
 always placed their private chapel at the disposal 
 of the ' Recusants,' and their house was often a 
 convenient shelter for priests, in danger of their 
 liberty or life, to hide in. Wiseman's reasons for 
 attacking the Legitimists were, that they were 
 generally held to be Gallicans, whilst Louis 
 Napoleon was the most puissant supporter of 
 the Temporal Power of the Pope. His successor, 
 Cardinal Manning, also based his support of the 
 French Emperor on the same grounds, and gave 
 much offence, subsequently, by the extravagant 
 manner in which he insisted on Masses being 
 said, in the churches of the arch-diocese, for the
 
 78 THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 repose of the soul of the unfortunate Prince 
 Imperial, slain in Zululand ; whilst, at the same 
 time, with complete inconsistency, he refused to 
 allow Mass to be said for Prince Charles Edward 
 Stewart, on the celebration of the centenary of 
 his death, in 1888. 
 
 Cardinal Wiseman died at 8, York Place, 
 Marylebone, on February 15, 1865. His public 
 funeral was made the subject of a very sympa- 
 thetic demonstration, bearing ample and apprecia- 
 tive evidence of the external progress newly 
 accomplished by Rome in England since the 
 disastrous autumn of 1850. The last two or three 
 years of his life, when his health, never robust, 
 was steadily failing, were embittered by the constant 
 domestic troubles disturbing his own household, 
 occasioned chiefly by the hatred for Monsignor 
 Manning entertained by Canon Searle (the 
 Cardinal's secretary) and others. With several of 
 his Bishops, also, Wiseman was on by no means 
 good terms. The ' Errington Case ' had left lasting 
 results behind it, and the end of the Cardinal's 
 career was passed in pathetic isolation. Of his 
 literary remains, the books which have obtained the 
 widest measure of popularity are his beautiful 
 Fabiola, a story of Roman life in the days of the 
 Caesars 1 a work which is undoubtedly superior 
 
 1 A witty Bishop described Fabiola as ' a good book, with 
 the popularity of a bad one.'
 
 WISEMAN'S INSINCERITY 79 
 
 to Newman's Callista and his Recollections of 
 the Last Four Popes, the historical value of which, 
 although embellished by the fine literary style in 
 which it is written, is marred by the weight of 
 the excessive eulogies that the writer has heaped 
 upon the characters of all these Pontiffs and most 
 of their attendant Cardinals, whilst no allusion is 
 made to the shocking condition of Rome and the 
 Papal States at the time. 
 
 Finally, in summing up what has been presented 
 above concerning the ups-and-downs of Cardinal 
 Wiseman's career as Archbishop of Westminster, 
 it is, I fear, very difficult to avoid coming to the 
 regretful conclusion that many of his difficulties 
 and troubles were of his own making. It seems 
 a hard thing to say, but it is, nevertheless, evi- 
 dent, that in many important crises of his life, the 
 Cardinal did not act so sincerely as he ought 
 to have. Mr. Gladstone hesitated whether he 
 should describe Manning as ' insincere,' or 
 whether he should simply dub him ' not straight- 
 forward.' Of Wiseman he could hardly, if called 
 upon, have refrained from using such a word as 
 insincere in criticism of certain of his actions. 
 Cardinal Wiseman, for instance, behaved with 
 decided duplicity over the appointment of Dr. W. 
 G. Ward as Professor at St. Edmund's College, 
 Ware. After giving Dr. Errington, at an inter- 
 view, to understand that Ward's appointment was
 
 8o THE ERRINGTON CASE 
 
 cancelled, he suddenly went back on his word, 
 when there was no time left for further conversa- 
 tion. In the Boyle case, after having written in 
 a magazine article gross reflections on this priest's 
 character, which were proved to be absolutely 
 untrue, he declined to give him any clerical redress, 
 and did his best to avoid paying him pecuniary 
 compensation until obliged to do so at law. Even 
 his witnesses behaved in court in a very evasive 
 and shuffling manner, obeying, presumably, the 
 Cardinal's directions. Again, in the Achilli case, 
 he paid no attention for some time to Newman's 
 letters asking that the all-important papers might 
 be sought for and delivered ; when he did answer 
 the letters, and commence the search, it was too 
 late. 1 Throughout the whole of the Errington 
 
 1 In a letter written to Father Whitty, March 19, 1865, 
 Newman sums up concisely the chief details of his ill-treatment 
 at the hands of Cardinal Wiseman (and Manning). I quote the 
 following extract from the letter : ' When the Holy Father 
 wished me to begin the Dublin Catholic University, I did so 
 at once. When the Synod of Oscott gave me to do the new 
 translation of scripture, I began it without a word. When the 
 Cardinal (Wiseman) asked me to interfere in the matter of the 
 Rambler ; I took on myself, to my sore disgust, a great trouble 
 and trial. Lastly, when my Bishop (Ullathorne), proprio motu, 
 asked me to undertake the mission at Oxford, I committed 
 myself to a very expensive purchase of land. ... In all these 
 matters I think (in spite of many incidental mistakes) I should, 
 on the whole, have done a work, had I been allowed or aided 
 to go on with them. ... If I could get out of my mind the 
 notion that I could do something and am not doing it, nothing 
 could be happier.' . . .
 
 WISEMAN'S ROMAN TRAINING 81 
 
 case, too, his proceedings were marked by a 
 distinct want of candour, integrity, and straight- 
 forwardness. They were, indeed, harsh, furtive, 
 and malicious. Cardinal Wiseman's training at 
 Rome, probably, had much to do with leading him 
 to adopt such tortuous courses in pursuing his 
 conduct of English affairs. His Roman training 
 had taught him, his opponents declared, to look 
 upon the Pope as a kind of ' Grand Llama,' and 
 Wiseman's Ultramontane policy often went by the 
 name of ' Grand Llamaism.'
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 ENGLAND AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 / T""*HE year of our Lord 1870 will for ever 
 A. remain a memorable date in the history of 
 modern Europe, since during it occurred three 
 specially important political events, namely, the 
 Franco-German war, the Vatican Council, and the 
 establishment of a United Italy under a Monarchy. 
 In 1870 the Temporal Government of the Popes, 
 which had existed for so many centuries, came to 
 a timely end, and an enlightened Italy, freed at 
 last from the intolerable burden of priestly des- 
 potism, rose rapidly to the position of a first-class 
 Power. Our concern here is, however, not with 
 the fall of the Papal sovereignty, or with the ruin 
 of the Napoleonic empire, but merely with the 
 work accomplished by the Vatican Council, that 
 is to say, the definition of the dogma of the 
 Infallibility of the Pope. 
 
 Until the conclusion of the sittings of the great 
 (Ecumenical Council, assembled at the Vatican 
 (I869-I87O), 1 the doctrine of the Papal Infallibility 
 
 1 December, 1869, to July, 1870. The Council was pro- 
 rogued, but not then dissolved. Cardinal Manning's statement 
 
 82
 
 INFALLIBILITY 83 
 
 had not been included among those Articles of 
 Faith which every Roman Catholic is bound, or 
 supposed, implicitly to believe. Henceforth, by 
 the decision of the Council, or rather by the 
 decision of a certain majority of its members, it 
 was decreed that, when speaking ex cathedra, the 
 Bishop of Rome is, by the co-operation of the 
 Holy Ghost, Infallible in regard to the substance 
 of all his utterances on any subject connected with 
 either faith or morals. But, not contented with 
 arranging for the present and the future, the 
 Vatican Council claimed to speak also for the 
 past, and it solemnly declared that all the Popes 
 had ever been similarly Infallible. 
 
 That such a new departure as this amazing 
 dogma, utterly opposed, as it is, to all the teach- 
 ings of history and theology, to all the dictates of 
 reason, and to all the principles of science, 1 would 
 not be defined without encountering the keenest 
 opposition, was apparent from the first, and it was 
 only by resorting to very discreditable stratagems 
 that the Papal agents succeeded in constraining a 
 
 that the Council was not summoned, in the first place, with the 
 object of defining the Infallibility, but for discussing other 
 matters, cannot be accepted as correct. As early as the year 
 1865, the whole scheme for the definition had been devised at 
 the Vatican. 
 
 1 'As a Christian, as a Theologian, as an Historian, as a 
 Citizen, I cannot accept this doctrine' (Dr. Dollinger).
 
 84 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 majority of the members of the Council to declare 
 in favour of Infallibility. So far as England was 
 concerned, the greater number of responsible 
 Romanists were opposed to the dogma. Many 
 of them lacked, nevertheless, sufficient moral 
 courage to express their candid opinions on the 
 matter. They took refuge in the subterfuge that, 
 although they did not doubt the Pope was in- 
 fallible, they thought the present definition of 
 the dogma to be inexpedient and inopportune. 
 Among these ' Inopportunists' was Newman, 
 who was forbidden to go to Rome to attend the 
 Council. Ranged on the opposite side was Arch- 
 bishop Manning, 1 who strained every nerve to 
 forward a decisive definition of the dogma, acting 
 in close alliance, on this occasion, with his future 
 foes, the Jesuits. The British clerical opposition 
 to the dogma was, on the whole, lax. But from 
 the ranks of the French and German ecclesiastics 
 present at the Council came adversaries to fight 
 against the Ultramontanes. 
 
 The eventual definition of the dogma affected 
 the English Romanists to a greater extent prob- 
 ably than those of other countries, for several 
 reasons. It put back the hands of the clock a 
 
 1 Manning was not created a Cardinal until 1875. Nine 
 years and more elapsed therefore, after he had been made 
 Archbishop, before he received a Cardinal's hat. This delay 
 caused general surprise.
 
 AN UNPOPULAR DOGMA 85 
 
 very long wa^, and nullified all the progress 
 effected by Rome in England since 1850. The 
 definition of the dogma raised also additional 
 obstacles in the way of making conversions, and 
 henceforth no Protestant could, or would, be re- 
 ceived into the Church ^before testifying to his 
 belief in this novel ' Article of Faith.' Time has 
 proved that the task of getting converts to accept 
 this extraordinary dogma without a murmur has 
 been anything but easy. But there were other 
 reasons tending to render the dogma particularly 
 unpopular. In spite of all the arguments invented 
 by the Ultramontanes to the effect that, although 
 never officially defined, the doctrine of the Infalli- 
 bility of the Pope had always been tacitly believed 
 by English Romanists, there remained a good 
 deal of printed matter to be quoted as almost 
 conclusive evidence to the contrary. Keenan's 
 Controversial Catechism, for instance, a widely 
 circulated and official text-book, had to be brought 
 up to date, in order to alter what its author had 
 laid down as to the meaning of the Pope's Infalli- 
 bility. Father Keenan, indeed, clearly stated 
 that, not only was the Infallibility of the Pope not 
 believed in by Roman Catholics, but even went so 
 far as to describe the theory that they did so as 
 ' a Protestant invention.' i Moreover, during the 
 
 1 ' This ' (the Infallibility of the Pope), wrote Father Keenan, 
 a Scottish priest, ' is a Protestant invention ; it is no Article of
 
 86 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 delicate negotiations which had preceded the pass- 
 ing of the Act of Emancipation in 1829, the 
 British Government had taken the trouble to 
 inquire into this very question, and they had been 
 solemnly assured by the Irish Bishops, speaking 
 authoritatively on behalf of both clergy and laity, 
 that the Infallibility of the Pope was not an 
 ' Article of Faith,' nor would they ever consent to 
 its becoming one. Again, in the year 1788, the 
 English Romanists, priests and laymen together, 
 had forwarded to Rome a document, in which they 
 denounced the doctrine of the Infallibility as being 
 one they utterly declined to believe, although at 
 that date they had not, of course, yet been asked 
 to do so. A similar statement had been pre- 
 viously made by the Irish in 1757. Dr. Lingard, 
 too, had decided that 'the Infallibility of the 
 Catholic Church resides in the Episcopal College 
 united to the Pope ' ; and his contemporary, 
 Bishop Baines, O.S.B., emphatically declared that 
 there was not a Catholic then living in Great 
 Britain and Ireland who believed in the Infalli- 
 
 the Catholic faith ; no decision of his can oblige, under pain 
 of heresy, unless it be received and enforced by the teaching 
 body, that is, by the Bishops of the Church.' Since 1870, this 
 damaging statement has been quietly dropped out of Keenan's 
 book by a clever manipulation of the text, and no hint is given 
 that the text differs in any way from the author's own editions 
 of 1846 and 1853.
 
 A PUZZLING DOGMA 87 
 
 bility of the Pope by himself! Dr. Milner, even, 
 the most ardent of Ultramontanes, confessed that 
 the question of the Infallibility was a mere matter 
 of private opinion, and was not a doctrine at all. 
 
 But, triumphant as had been the victory of the 
 Ultramontane party at the Vatican Council, it is 
 not widely known that many of its representatives 
 remained, at heart, dissatisfied with their spoils. 
 They had hoped that the Council would grant the 
 Pope even stronger powers. It was true that the 
 definition of the dogma had raised Pius IX. into 
 the position of a demi-God ; but this was in- 
 sufficient, for they had wished to place him on 
 almost the same level with the Holy Ghost. By 
 some of the most reckless of the Ultramontanes 
 the Pontiff was actually addressed as ' My Lord 
 God 'I 1 According to the decree of the Infallibility, 
 the Popes became Infallible only when delivering 
 ex cathedra utterances ; and, as it is a matter of 
 extreme difficulty to discover when the Pope is, 
 or is not, speaking ex cathedra, decided limitations 
 have been placed accordingly upon the Papal 
 prerogatives. Had the extremists, among whom 
 Manning and Dr. W. G. Ward were the most 
 prominent Englishmen (although Ward was not, 
 being a layman, present at the Council), prevailed, 
 
 1 Some priests from Cures addressed the Pope as follows : 
 ' Parla, O gran Pio, chio che sono il tuo labbro, non e voce 
 mortal, voce e, di Dio.'
 
 88 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 they would have made the Pope Infallible on all 
 occasions in regard to faith and morals, without 
 restricting him to ex cathedra utterances ; and it 
 was a bitter blow to them that the Vatican Council 
 did not go so far as to sanction this. By many of 
 the Inopportunists, therefore, the verdict of the 
 Vatican Council was spoken of as an Ultra- 
 montane reverse, and the partial honours of the 
 day were claimed for the moderate party. 
 
 The absurdity of the situation was quickly 
 demonstrated, when non-Catholic writers and 
 critics began to comment on the curious careers 
 and characters of several of Pio Nono's predeces- 
 sors, for all of whom he had obtained the title of 
 ' Infallible.' Among these Popes were included 
 some of the most despicable despots who have sat 
 upon a throne. Among these ' Infallible' sinners 
 have been, as is hardly necessary to say, murderers, 
 forgers, lunatics, panders, simonists, intruders, and 
 pagans ; whilst, pending the various mediaeval 
 Schisms, it was not possible always to decide who 
 really was Pope, so hotly was the dignity contested 
 by the rival claimants. 1 The plea, that the indif- 
 ferent personal character of a Pope does not affect 
 the validity of the dogma of 1870, because the 
 definition refers only to cases of faith and morals, 
 is, as Mr. Gladstone pointed out, ridiculous, con- 
 
 1 One of whom, Pope John XXIIL, was described by his 
 own Cardinals as ' Vas Omnium Peccatorum?
 
 'INFALLIBLE ' MONSTERS 89 
 
 sidering that almost all human doctrines, events, 
 and affairs, come within this category. The 
 spectacle, too, of Popes such as Benedict IX., 
 Clement V., John XII., John XXIII., Boniface 
 VIII., and Alexander VI. being held up for the 
 adoration of the faithful as Infallible arbiters on 
 matters of faith and morals, is nothing short of 
 ludicrous ; and yet any Roman Catholic refusing 
 (since 1870) to believe that each of these monsters 
 of iniquity was Infallible must, according to the 
 terms of the definition of the dogma, suffer the 
 pains of eternal punishment. The definition of 
 the dogma, moreover, was delivered in defiance of 
 certain edicts of Pio Nono's predecessors, testify- 
 ing to the contrary. Several Popes, such as 
 Honorius I., had been convicted of heresy, whilst 
 the original Papal Bull, stating that the sun moves 
 round the earth, and condemning to the flames 
 any person daring to doubt this assertion, is still 
 in existence, much to the annoyance of the 
 Ultramontane school. 
 
 Every attempt has been made to conceal from 
 the world, Roman and Protestant, the precise 
 occasions when the Pope is supposed to have been 
 speaking ex cathedra. Since 1870, indeed, down 
 to the date of writing, it is not known that he has 
 ever so spoken, since it now appears that the Bull 
 issued in condemnation of the validity of Anglican 
 Orders was not an Infallible utterance ; whilst a
 
 90 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 recent Roman Catholic writer (a priest) has calcu- 
 lated that since the (supposed) initial primacy of 
 St. Peter there have not been delivered, at the 
 most, more than half-a-dozen Infallible utterances, 
 by the Popes speaking ex cathedra. 
 
 In England, after the definition of the dogma, 
 various ingenious theories were propounded by 
 Ultramontane writers 1 to explain to the non- 
 Catholic world what the doctrine of the Infallibility 
 of the Pope really meant, but it cannot be said 
 that the world has become much wiser by these 
 attempts, for the good reason that very few priests, 
 in England at any rate, 2 can be relied upon to 
 give the same interpretation of the dogma. The 
 contention that the dogma does not really insist on 
 the Infallibility of the Pope alone, but merely pro- 
 claims the Infallibility of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, as exemplified in the decisions of her 
 Great Councils, is quite erroneous, which is clearly 
 
 1 Cardinal Manning's True Story of the Vatican Council is 
 a disjointed and inaccurate attempt to defend the dogma, and 
 the actions of the Ultramontane members of the Vatican 
 Council. Even Dr. Husenbeth (the biographer of Bishop 
 Milner) criticizes Manning's statement as to the belief held 
 by English Romanists of the last generation concerning the 
 Infallibility of the Pope. 
 
 2 In order to be as fair and accurate as possible in forming 
 this conclusion, I consulted previously three different priests 
 a Jesuit, a Monk, and a Secular as to the precise meaning of 
 the dogma of the Infallibility of the Pope. They, all three, 
 returned different answers !
 
 ROME'S LOSS 91 
 
 proved by reference to the language of the Bull. 
 The dogma raises the Pope into a position supreme 
 over all Councils, over the Sacred College, and 
 leaves him the Infallible head of a Church, wholly 
 subservient to, and dependent upon him. Dr. 
 Lingard's interpretation of the doctrine of the 
 Infallibility has, consequently, been branded as 
 rank heresy by the definition of 1870. 
 
 By the action of the Vatican Council, Rome 
 lost nearly all the ground that she had recovered, 
 from an intellectual point of view, since the 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century. The inclu- 
 sion of the new doctrine among the ' Articles of 
 Faith ' rendered it impossible for Roman Catholic, 
 ism to be regarded henceforth as a creed worthy 
 of the attention of philosophers. Much moral 
 damage had already been wrought by the same 
 Pope's folly in defining the dogma of the Immacu- 
 late Conception of the Virgin Mary, 1 and by the 
 publication of the ' Syllabus,' which was practically 
 nothing less than an open attack upon all scientific 
 learning and social progress, leaving the policy of 
 the ninth Pius to be remembered in history as one 
 
 1 The definition of this dogma had been warmly opposed by 
 the Dominicans, and supported by their rivals, the Jesuits, and 
 by the Franciscans. The quarrel between these contending 
 Orders was a most bitter one. The doctrine of the Immaculate 
 Conception was opposed, denounced, and condemned by some 
 of the greatest of the Catholic theologians, such as Saints 
 Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and Augustine. 
 7
 
 92 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 of the most disastrous, selfish, foolish and retro- 
 gressive ever adopted by an occupant of the Papal 
 throne. Considering the unpopularity of the Infal- 
 libility, it is somewhat surprising that a schism did 
 not take place in England, as it did in Germany 
 under Dr. Dollinger, and might have in France, 
 had not that country been distracted by the war 
 with Prussia. Many English Romanists, however, 
 stayed on in their Church, notwithstanding that at 
 heart they professed no real credence in this new 
 dogma. Of these (so-called) Liberal Catholics, 
 the ablest of the laymen was the late Lord Acton, 
 who had been present at Rome during the deliber- 
 ations of the Vatican Council, and was thoroughly 
 conversant with the nature of all the intrigues 
 which disgraced its doings. Why Lord Acton 
 was never excommunicated, or why he never left 
 the Roman Church of his own accord, is most 
 difficult to comprehend. He contented himself, in 
 defending his illogical position, by naively stating 
 that he did not see why he should change his 
 religion because the Pope had changed his. 
 Newman's attitude towards the Infallibility was 
 almost equally hostile, and the lame defence, 
 which he eventually published, showed that he 
 did not implicitly believe in it. 
 
 Although the final majority of votes in favour 
 of the dogma, as counted on Monday, July 18, 
 1870, was enormous, it by no means represented
 
 THE VOTING 93 
 
 the unanimous opinion of the Vatican Council, as 
 the Pope had caused it to be made known that 
 any member holding out against the definition of 
 the dogma would be regarded as a rebel against 
 the authority of the Holy See ; hence the numerous 
 withdrawals, desertions, and secessions among the 
 * Inopportunists/ at the eleventh hour. On July 
 15 the total of the members' recorded votes 
 tells a different tale, viz. 
 
 Voters in favour of the Dogma . .451 
 Voters in favour of the Dogma, but 
 conditional on the adoption of 
 certain important alterations in 
 its terms . . . . .62 
 Voters against the Dogma . . 88 
 N on- Voters (refused to vote) . . 70 
 To this concise list must be added a number of 
 members, who, recognizing that there existed no 
 chance of the 'Inopportunists' gaining the day, 
 had already left Rome, and returned to their 
 respective homes. These priests must have 
 numbered sixty, at least. The real figures, 
 therefore, should have worked out at something 
 like- 
 In favour of the Dogma, as defined . 451 
 Against the Dogma, as defined . .280 
 Barely three-fifths of the Vatican Council, there- 
 fore, were in favour of the dogma, and of this 
 proportion a large number had practically been 
 
 220
 
 94 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 intimidated into voting for the definition. 
 Throughout the sittings of the Council, the 
 ' gag ' had been freely applied by the Ultra- 
 montanes, ever ready to silence an eloquent 
 opponent. The ' closure ' was, therefore, a con- 
 stant means of getting an end put to a sitting, 
 when things seemed likely to become too lively 
 for the Papal party. Never, indeed, in the 
 history of Christendom had such underhand deal- 
 ings taken place during a Council of the Church. 
 Archbishop Manning actually confessed that 
 before the Council had commenced, he had 
 secretly ' made the vow drawn up by P. Liberatore, 
 an Italian Jesuit, to do all in his power to obtain 
 the definition.' He had, for the time being, 
 surrendered himself body and soul into the custody 
 of the Jesuits, to work at their bidding, and for 
 the ends of their Society. The Nemesis of Fate, 
 nevertheless, was near at hand, and on the very 
 day when the Pope was solemnly declaring him- 
 self Infallible, the ruin of his temporal sovereignty 
 entered on the first stage of its decline and fall, 
 by the declaration of war against Prussia by 
 France. The French troops were, in con- 
 sequence, withdrawn from Rome, and its people 
 joyfully threw open the gates to welcome the army 
 of the King of a United Italy. 
 
 The final scene, enacted in the last session of 
 the great conclave, was not wanting in dramatic
 
 THE HEAVENS PROTEST 
 
 95 
 
 power. When the terms of the fateful dogma 
 were read out, declaring Pio Nono, his pre- 
 decessors, and his successors Infallible, a heavy 
 storm, which had long been brewing, burst over 
 the ancient city of the Caesars, and in the failing 
 light the aid of a candle became necessary in 
 order to complete the reading of the text. 1 
 Meanwhile, amid the terrific rollings of the 
 thunder, and the flashing of the lightning, the 
 proceedings terminated ; and to some of those 
 present who, like the Romans of old, believed in 
 omens and in celestial portents, it seemed as 
 if the Creator, angered at the assurance of the 
 Pontiff, had directed the artillery of heaven to 
 drown with the noise of its thunder-claps the 
 utterances of this little man putting himself upon 
 a level with the Holy Ghost. On the pallid 
 countenances of many of the Conclavists were 
 depicted signs of terror and dismay. 
 
 'We teach and define,' proclaimed Pio Nono, 
 ' that it is a dogma divinely revealed, that the 
 Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex catJiedra, 
 that is, when in discharge of the office of Pastor 
 and Doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his 
 supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine 
 regarding faith and morals to be held by the 
 
 1 ' The days of the opening and closing of the Council were 
 the two darkest and most depressing Rome witnessed during 
 its session ' (Quirinus).
 
 96 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 Universal Church, by the Divine Assistance 
 promised to him in Blessed Peter, he is possessed 
 of that Infallibility which the Divine Redeemer 
 willed that His Church should be endowed for 
 defining doctrine concerning faith and morals ; 
 and that, therefore, such decisions of the Roman 
 Pontiff are Irreformable of themselves, and not 
 from the consent of the Church. But, if any one 
 which may God avert presume to contradict 
 this Our Definition, let him be Anathema.' 
 
 The most instructive item in this new pro- 
 gramme l is that which claims the Papal decisions 
 to be irreformable per se, irrespective entirely of 
 the assent of the Sacred College in particular, or 
 of the Church in general. The blunt wording of 
 this clause completely shatters the theory that it 
 is really the Church, and not its head, for which 
 Infallibility is claimed by the Bull. How illogical 
 and contrary to precedent this new dogma was, 
 requires no clearer demonstration than reference 
 to the case of Honorius I., who was formally 
 denounced and convicted, nemine contradicente^ 
 on an important occasion when the very Papal 
 delegates joined in condemning that Pope, who 
 was described as 'an instrument of Satan.' 
 
 1 The actual wording of the dogma is said to have been the 
 work of Cardinal Cullen : the first Irishman, I believe, to be 
 created a Cardinal. It was not inappropriate that an Irishman 
 should have composed the text, for the definition of the dogma 
 was a bull in more senses than one !
 
 PROTESTING PRELATES 97 
 
 Other 'heretical' Popes were Callistus I., 
 Nicholas I., Liberius, Eugenius IV., Anastasius I., 
 Nicholas II., and John XXIII. 
 
 In striking contrast to the inconsiderate 
 behaviour of Archbishop Manning and Odo 
 Russell was that of the two illustrious Frenchmen, 
 Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, and Dupanloup, 
 Bishop of Orleans. 1 Both these prelates, whose 
 theological attainments were admitted to be far 
 higher than those of Manning (known at Rome, 
 during the ' Errington Case,' as ' Monsignore 
 Ignorante '), were distinguished for their inflexible 
 honesty. Darboy died, shortly after returning 
 home, a hero's death at the hands of the Com- 
 munists, 2 but even then the partisans of the 
 Infallible Pope could find little good to say of the 
 murdered man, and one of Pio's satellites cynically 
 remarked that the Archbishop's 'murder might 
 atone for some of his offences.' The policy of 
 these Frenchmen was carried out on far more 
 honourable lines than that of Archbishop 
 Manning and his allies ; 3 and, to show to what 
 
 1 Dupanloup had asked, in vain, to be allowed the assistance 
 of Newman at the Council. 
 
 2 To Manning's credit, it must not be forgotten that he did 
 his best to save Darboy's life by invoking the intercession of 
 Bismarck and of the British Government, whose appeal for 
 mercy was brutally rejected by the Communists. 
 
 3 'My feelings and convictions are, as you well know, 
 decidedly with your Opposition, which I believe to be contend-
 
 98 THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 Jesuitical depths the ex- Archdeacon of Chichester 
 had descended, it may be mentioned that he had 
 secretly induced the Pope to release him from his 
 solemn vow of obedience, obligatory on all 
 members of the Vatican Council, not to divulge 
 anything that went on during its meetings. 1 
 Whilst, therefore, the tongues of the Inoppor- 
 tunists, including Darboy and Dupanloup, were 
 tied, Manning was left free to give away the 
 secrets of the Council to Russell, and others of 
 his party. Of such an act of treachery and 
 duplicity no criticism can be too strong, and it 
 was not for nothing that Manning had earned his 
 nickname of Diabolus Concilii. 
 
 Although the assemblage gathered together at 
 the Vatican from 1869 to 1870 goes by the name of 
 an CEcumenical Council, it is extremely doubtful 
 whether it ought to be considered as such. If 
 it were to be admitted, for the sake of argument, 
 its claim to the validity of such a title, it would 
 rank, I presume, as about the nineteenth, in 
 
 ing for the religious and civil interests of mankind against 
 influences highly disastrous and menacing to both. But the 
 prevailing opinion is, that it is better to let those influences 
 take their course, and work out the damage which they will 
 naturally and surely entail upon the See of Rome ' (Letter from 
 Gladstone to Archbishop Manning, written during the Council). 
 1 Manning was then allowed personal access to the Pope, at 
 all times, by means of a secret stairway and door leading into 
 the Papal apartments.
 
 GLADSTONE AND MANNING 99 
 
 chronological sequence, of the CEcumenical 
 Councils ; its predecessors having been the 
 following: the first Council of Nicea, A.D. 325; 
 the first Council of Constantinople, 381 ; Ephesus, 
 431 ; Chalcedon, 451 ; the second Council of 
 Constantinople, 553 ; the third Council of Con- 
 stantinople, 680 ; the second Nicene Council, 
 787 ; the fourth Council of Constantinople, 869 ; 
 the first Lateran Council, 1123; the second 
 Lateran Council, 1139; the third Lateran 
 Council, 1179 ; the fourth Lateran Council, 1215 ; 
 the first Council of Lyons, 1 245 ; the second 
 Council of Lyons, 1274; Vienne, 1311 ; Con- 
 stance, 1414; Basle, 1431; and Trent, 1545- 
 
 I563- 1 
 
 The verdict of the Vatican Council seems to 
 have brought finally to an end the old but long- 
 strained friendship which had existed between 
 Manning and the then Premier, Mr. Gladstone. 
 According to a private paper, quoted in Purcell's 
 Life of Cardinal Manning, the abrupt termination 
 of their intercourse was in Manning's opinion due 
 to the conduct of Lord Acton. ' Gladstone's 
 geese,' wrote Manning, 'were always swans. 
 His friendship always blinds him. Time was 
 when I had the benefit of his illusions. When 
 
 1 The sittings of the Council of Trent took place in the 
 years 1545, 1546, 1547, 1551, 1562, and 1563, under the 
 Popes Paul III., Julius III., and Pius IV.
 
 TOO THE VATICAN COUNCIL 
 
 this turned, Acton was the man made to his hand. 
 He (Acton) was a Catholic, learned in literature, 
 of a German industry, cold, self-confident, super- 
 cilious towards opponents, a disciple of Db'llinger, 
 and predisposed against me. He was a client of 
 Newman's, whom he used to call "our awful 
 chief." ... His was precisely the mind that 
 would most surely and speedily sharpen, and sour, 
 and stimulate Gladstone's mind. Then, his whole 
 conduct in Rome during the Council was an 
 active and canvassing opposition to the majority 
 of the Council. He was the mediastinus between 
 the French and German bishops, always busy 
 with tongue and pen. 1 Now, all this poisoned 
 Gladstone ; and the part I took in the Council 
 pointed his irritation upon me.' 
 
 Relations between Cardinal Manning and Mr. 
 Gladstone became a little more cordial when 
 ' Home Rule ' was mooted by the great Liberal 
 statesman, but before a majority of the House of 
 Commons decided in its favour the Cardinal was 
 dead, and his successor at Archbishop's House 
 was most outspoken in denouncing the measure, 
 both in his public and in his private utterances. 
 
 1 Hostile as was Lord Acton to the dogma of the Infallibility, 
 his criticisms were not more severe than those expressed by 
 the Catholic poet, Coventry Patmore, who described Pio Nono's 
 definition of the new dogma as ' merely the personal opinions 
 of an amiable old gentleman, by which I am in no degree 
 bound.'
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE POLICY OF CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 THE history of Henry Edward Manning's 
 Roman Catholic career 1 has been related 
 with so much fidelity and elaborate detail by his 
 painstaking biographer, Mr. Purcell, that it may 
 seem, at first sight, unnecessary to review here 
 his policy as Archbishop of Westminster. But 
 Purcell, it should be remembered, was a staunch 
 Roman Catholic at heart, with the result that he 
 has rendered scant justice to the Cardinal in 
 certain matters, as he has similarly done him 
 more than justice in others. He was, for in- 
 stance, so strongly opposed to Gallicanism, that 
 
 1 Born in 1808, Henry Edward Manning matriculated at 
 Balliol College, Oxford, and became a Fellow of Merton 
 College. On leaving Oxford, he became successively curate 
 and vicar of Lavington, Sussex, and Archdeacon of Chichester. 
 On November 5, 1843, he preached a much-discussed anti- 
 papal sermon at Oxford. In 1850, he protested against the 
 Gorham Judgment, and the following year saw the termination 
 of his Anglican career. In 1848, he had visited Pius IX., at 
 Rome. His wife was the third daughter of the Rev. John 
 Sargent, of Lavington. 
 
 101
 
 102 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 he has criticized hardly at all Manning's harsh 
 Ultramontane views. And although he has re- 
 vealed to an astonished world the truth, or most 
 of the truth, about the ' Errington Case,' leading 
 his readers to look upon that as the least happy 
 period in the Cardinal's career, he has altogether 
 glossed over the history of Manning's intrigues at 
 Rome during the Vatican Council. Moreover, 
 some of Cardinal Manning's virtues have actually 
 ranked as faults in his biographer's judgment, 
 such as his ' teetotalism,' his sympathy with the 
 work of the Salvation Army in the East End of 
 London, and his later hostility to the Jesuits. 
 
 With all its faults, Purcell's book is, neverthe- 
 less, a valuable biography, and its issue was 
 distinctly a public gain, creating as it did a 
 profound and lasting impression among Romanists 
 and Protestants alike. That the author had 
 succeeded in producing so very candid and plain- 
 speaking a book caused much genuine surprise ; 
 and many erroneous conjectures remain current 
 to this day as to how he evaded the vigilance of 
 Cardinal Manning's executors, and the authorities 
 at Archbishop's House. As the true story of how 
 Mr. Purcell came to write the book, in the first 
 instance, and subsequently to publish it, seems 
 little known, I venture to offer the following 
 version as being, I believe, strictly accurate. 
 
 Edmund Sheridan Purcell was a Roman
 
 PURCELL AND MANNING 103 
 
 Catholic journalist l who had been for several 
 years past no great favourite of Manning. But, 
 in the Cardinal's old age, Purcell approached him 
 with a request that bygones might be bygones, 
 and that his Eminence would be so good as to 
 help him with a new literary project likely to be 
 a financial success. Purcell's project was to get 
 the Cardinal's sanction and aid to enable him to 
 write his biography, to be published in book form. 
 Manning, out of kindness to the author, with 
 whom he wished to remain no longer at variance, 
 agreed to lend him many papers necessary towards 
 compiling the book, which was to rank as nothing 
 more than a ' popular ' Life, and was not to include 
 anything of importance likely to occasion scandal 
 or controversy concerning what had gone on 
 behind the scenes in Rome or in England. 
 
 Whilst Purcell was at work on the earlier 
 chapters, the Cardinal died. Purcell thereupon 
 went to Manning's literary executors, the Oblates 
 at Bayswater, and asked them to give him all the 
 dead man's papers for the purpose of enabling 
 him to complete his biography. The executors, 
 knowing that Manning had approved of Purcell 
 writing ' a ' Life, regarded the ex-journalist in the 
 light of an official biographer, and handed over to 
 
 1 Mr. Purcell died at Eastbourne, April 12, 1899. He 
 was born December i, 1823, in London. He was a member 
 of the Roman Academy of Letters.
 
 104 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 him all the papers and letters in their care, en 
 masse. Many of these papers were of the utmost 
 importance, and contained matter which the 
 Cardinal had never dreamed of letting Purcell, 
 or anybody else, have for publication. They 
 included the correspondence of Manning with 
 Monsignor George Talbot, and contained also 
 original information and evidence in regard to 
 the shabby treatment of Newman by Manning, 1 
 W. G. Ward, and others. That the executors 
 would ever have let Purcell have these papers, 
 had they known their contents, is more than im- 
 probable, since the vital interests of their religion, 
 political and spiritual, demanded that so much 
 dirty linen should not be washed in public. 
 
 Mr. Purcell seems to have been troubled by no 
 scruples in sending his manuscript to the press. 
 He endeavoured to shelter himself from criticism 
 by the plea that the executors were solely re- 
 sponsible, and that as he had satisfied them as to 
 his good intentions, he was acting in a perfectly 
 honourable manner as their agent. Had the 
 executors known of the contents of the papers, 
 and had they been acquainted with the true 
 story of Purcell's relations with Manning, they 
 would not have surrendered the papers. Purcell's 
 
 1 ' Dr. Newman is more English than the English,' wrote 
 one of Manning's Roman correspondents ; ' his spirit must be 
 crushed.'
 
 THE 'LIFE' OF MANNING 105 
 
 defence, therefore, cannot be entertained, for, either 
 wittingly or unwittingly, he had hoodwinked the 
 executors. His methods, whatever one may think 
 of the results, cannot be condoned. Cardinal 
 Vaughan indulged in the criticism that the 
 'publication of this book is almost a crime.' 1 
 
 As we have seen already, Purcell did, at the 
 eleventh hour, consent to ' bowdlerize ' his book ; 
 but it seems a pity that he did so. For if he 
 intended at the beginning to tell the truth, it 
 would have been better to keep nothing back, and 
 to let his readers form their verdict as they liked 
 upon an unabridged text, instead of yielding (as 
 alleged) to the pressure of the Jesuits and the 
 friends of W. G. Ward. The appearance of the 
 two volumes in print created an immense sensa- 
 tion, which was intensified by the lame and 
 impotent attempts on the part of Archbishop's 
 House to answer it. But effective destructive 
 criticism of a work founded on original docu- 
 mentary evidence was a most difficult task, and 
 it degenerated into mere abuse of the author. 
 Cardinal Vaughan's theory, propounded in the 
 Nineteenth Century, that Manning, during the 
 last few years of his life, had become the victim 
 of senile decay, was the reverse of correct. More- 
 
 1 Mr. Gladstone, in reply to a query as to what he thought 
 of Purcell's book (then recently published), replied, 'The 
 author has left nothing for the Day of Judgment ! '
 
 106 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 over, even if the Cardinal had failed intellectually 
 towards the last, his illness then could not excuse 
 his behaviour during the Errington Case, or at 
 the Vatican Council, when he was in the very 
 fulness of his physical and mental vigour. As a 
 matter of fact, Cardinal Manning's intellectual 
 powers remained unimpaired to the end of his 
 long career. 
 
 Severe as must be the criticism of Manning's 
 treatment of Errington, or of his extreme Ultra- 
 montanism, it cannot be denied that he was a 
 capable man. Notwithstanding, too, his extreme 
 Ultramontanism, he never quite forgot that he 
 was an Englishman. Harrow and Oxford had, 
 in spite of Italian influences, left their mark upon 
 him. As Cardinal Archbishop, the chief excep- 
 tions to be taken to his policy were all due to 
 his unbending Ultramontanism. His personal 
 prohibition of Roman Catholics from going to 
 Oxford and Cambridge was a profound mistake, 
 and one which was speedily rectified by his 
 successor, Cardinal Vaughan. Another error, 
 attended by disaster, was his scheme for the 
 establishment of a Roman Catholic university 
 in Kensington, under the presidency of the versa- 
 tile Monsignor Capel. His rigid rules in relation 
 to Church music, the pronunciation of ecclesiastical 
 Latin, and Roman vestments, were often very 
 obnoxious to his priests. All attempts, also, to
 
 MANNING AND JESUITS 107 
 
 establish in England a Roman Catholic press, 
 uncontrolled by, and wholly free from priestly 
 interference, were distasteful to the Cardinal, who 
 was instrumental in suppressing the Rambler, 
 the best written journal, with the highest literary 
 tone that has yet been published in this country 
 under Roman Catholic direction. In so far as 
 the above mistakes are concerned, Manning's 
 arbitrary policy followed closely upon the lines of 
 Cardinal Wiseman's and of Bishop Milner's, but 
 in certain other respects his rule showed marked 
 divergence from theirs ; as, for instance, his (later) 
 opposition to the Jesuits, and his championship of 
 the rights of the Secular clergy, whilst he refused 
 his consent to a scheme for getting a Papal Nuncio 
 to reside in London. 
 
 It is significant that Cardinal Manning, in 
 common with many others of his co-religionists, 
 started by being a friend of the Jesuits, but 
 finished by becoming their uncompromising 
 opponent. When first ordained, he occupied 
 a confessional at Farm Street (where he had 
 been received into the Roman Church), but 
 this unusual arrangement did not continue for 
 long. It was with his sanction, however, that 
 the Oxford mission was given, most unwisely, 
 to the Jesuits, but this was probably in order 
 to keep out Newman and the Oratorians. As 
 he grew older, notwithstanding all he had done 
 8
 
 io8 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 for the Jesuits in 1870, and they for him, his 
 hostility to the Society grew more pronounced. 
 He turned a deaf ear to its entreaties to be allowed 
 to open schools, or a school, in or near London, 
 and especially in Brompton. That the whole of 
 the story of Manning's quarrel with the Society is 
 not told in Purcell's pages is to be regretted. But 
 Purcell himself seems, or seemed when he wrote 
 his book, to sympathize with the Society, and he 
 has not rendered the Cardinal sufficient justice in 
 the matter. It was his antipathy to the Jesuits 
 that was the principal factor in leading Manning 
 into his mistake of founding the Kensington 
 University under Capel, an enterprise intended 
 evidently to injure Stonyhurst and Beaumont. 
 Of the suppression of the Society, in 1773, by 
 Clement XIV., Cardinal Manning was wont to 
 speak in terms oi the highest admiration. He 
 regarded it, indeed, as an act inspired by the 
 Holy Ghost. 1 
 
 Of the canonical rights of the Secular clergy in 
 England Cardinal Manning proved a staunch and 
 strenuous advocate. At his request, the Secular 
 priests foolishly assumed the title of ' Father,' 
 hitherto used only by the Regular clergy. He 
 
 1 As to this view, it may fairly be asked, if the Papal sup- 
 pression of the Jesuits in 1773 was inspired by the Holy 
 Ghost, to whose agency are we to ascribe their restoration, at 
 the hands of another Pope, in 1814?
 
 MANNING'S TEETOTALISM 109 
 
 knew all about Wiseman's fatuity in confiding 
 in the monks, and he did not like to hear English 
 secular priests being compared unfavourably with 
 French or Italian monks and friars. Had Cardinal 
 Manning lived, the schism at Ealing would not 
 have occurred. His sympathy with the Home 
 Rulers won him many Irish friends, as it did foes 
 among old-fashioned English Romanists, who have 
 preserved many of the old-time prejudices against 
 their co-religionists in Ireland. But Manning's 
 sympathy with the Irish Nationalists assumed 
 something more than a mere theoretical form, 
 and his efforts to reclaim the poor Irish in London 
 from drunken habits met with some measure of 
 success. With the majority of his flock, how- 
 ever, the Cardinal's teetotal propaganda was 
 unpopular, and was regarded as a fad savouring 
 of Protestantism. 
 
 Manning's success, moreover, as a temperance 
 advocate was not so great as has been conjectured, 1 
 of which the following anecdote furnishes amusing 
 evidence. It was the Cardinal's custom to visit, 
 on a certain afternoon in summer, the Crystal 
 Palace, in order to celebrate there a huge temper- 
 ance fete, for which purpose a large number of 
 Romanists who practised, or professed to prac- 
 
 1 Visiting one of his priests, the Cardinal asked him what 
 he had personally done for the temperance cause. ' I have 
 made my curate take the pledge,' replied the priest.
 
 no CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 tise, teetotal principles were wont to assemble. 
 Manning, after the establishment of this festival 
 as an annual institution, approached the Directors 
 of the Palace, and asked them to help him to mark 
 the day as an important and notable event by 
 refusing to sell any intoxicating liquors during the 
 afternoon even to ordinary members of the non- 
 Catholic public, not bound by any temperance 
 vows, present in the grounds at the time. The 
 Directors replied politely that, much as they 
 appreciated the good intentions and high motives 
 actuating the Cardinal, pecuniary reasons pre- 
 vented, in the interests of shareholders, their 
 granting his request, for on the day of the 
 Roman Catholic temperance fete as much (if 
 not more) drink was sold as on almost any other 
 day in the year. 
 
 With the sole exception of his opposition to the 
 Jesuits his quondam allies of 1869-1870 the 
 chief features of Cardinal Manning's episcopal 
 policy were Ultramontane in the extreme. He 
 had, in the beginning, been put over the heads 
 of rival competitors suspected of Gallicanism, and 
 he determined thenceforth to render the Roman 
 Church in England directly subservient to the 
 Holy See. In this he was merely carrying out 
 the directions of his patron, Pio Nono, to whom 
 he owed so much, and whose kindness he well 
 repaid by gratefully and fervently supporting the
 
 MANNING'S ULTRAMONTANISM in 
 
 Ultramontane party at the Vatican Council. 
 Manning seemed, indeed, to be possessed with 
 the idea that the only (spiritual) hope for modern 
 England was to establish in it a powerful Papal 
 Church, which should gain in vigour and in 
 numbers in proportion as the inroads of free- 
 thought slowly but surely weakened the various 
 branches of Protestantism. But this delusive 
 optimism was never likely to be realized. The 
 very Ultramontane victory at the Vatican Council, 
 with which he had been so prominently connected, 
 was destined to prove an insuperable obstacle to 
 the future progress and prowess of Rome in 
 England ; and, notwithstanding the opening of 
 new missions, the building of big churches, and 
 the coming of more monks and nuns from abroad, 
 Rome in England is, in proportion to the increase 
 of population, losing ground. 
 
 Considering that Cardinal Manning was not 
 popular with the majority of his flock for many 
 years, and considering how, after the death of 
 Pio Mono, 1 his influence declined at Rome itself, 
 it is somewhat surprising that, till the end of his 
 life, he should have continued to reign supreme at 
 Westminster, and that the news of his death (he 
 died within a few hours of H.R.H. the Duke of 
 
 1 ' I had the greatest difficulty,' Pio Nono confessed to 
 Manning, ' in making you Archbishop of Westminster. The 
 opposition to your nomination was of a very serious character ! '
 
 H2 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 Clarence) should have evoked such an extra- 
 ordinary demonstration of popular interest. The 
 secret of this lay principally in the Cardinal's 
 personality. He was, as I have already argued, 
 a strong man, and his errors in policy were due 
 rather to his arbitrary notions of authority than to 
 lack of ability. His successor, Cardinal Vaughan, 
 although the possessor of certain advantages to 
 which Manning could lay no claim, proved himself 
 somewhat of a failure as Primate through lack of 
 strength, notwithstanding that he was very popular 
 with the old Catholic families, the Jesuits, and the 
 monks, to all of whom, in many respects, Manning 
 had been ' anathema.' Cardinal Manning, too, as 
 years went on, lived to be generally popular as a 
 'Grand Old Man.' Just as Gladstone, towards 
 the last, became popular even among Tories, 
 proud of him as a great Englishman, so did 
 Manning, for the same reason, become respected 
 in quarters formerly most hostile to him. In- 
 creasing age did not prevent him from appearing 
 in public, and when he achieved his diplomatic 
 triumph of arbitrating successfully in the dockers' 
 strike, he was a very old man. 
 
 It is curious to reflect how very different but 
 for the death of his wife his career would have 
 been. So long as she lived, Manning was effect- 
 ively barred from taking holy orders in the Church 
 of Rome. Of the historical importance of his wife's
 
 MANNING AS AUTHOR 113 
 
 death a curious anecdote is recorded illustrative 
 of the unpopularity in which many of the Oxford 
 converts were held by members of the ' old school.' 
 Two priests were discussing, one day, current 
 Roman Catholic topics, and one of them, in the 
 course of conversation, expressed his opinion that 
 the greatest misfortune which had ever happened 
 to Rome in England since the Reformation had 
 been the reception of John Henry Newman into 
 the Church. 
 
 ' Not so,' replied his friend. 1 ' I can tell you of 
 a much greater calamity the death of a woman ! ' 
 (Mrs. Manning.) 
 
 This bitter report was afterwards repeated to 
 Cardinal Manning, who was very angry, as he 
 had every reason to be. 
 
 As a writer, Cardinal Manning, although the 
 author of many powerful theological works, did 
 not take very high rank. As a literary force, he 
 ever remained in the shade when compared with 
 his rival at Edgbaston. Dry and correct as were 
 (from the Ultramontane point of view) his writings, 
 they lacked the ornate style and vivacity of a 
 master-hand, and he was not skilled in either 
 science or philosophy, notwithstanding his patron- 
 age of the Metaphysical Society. With all his 
 austerity, the ascetic Manning was endowed 
 with a caustic wit, which never failed to serve 
 i Canon Macmullen.
 
 ii 4 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 him in good stead. Told once by a self-satisfied 
 Protestant youth that it was so difficult to find a 
 suitable profession, and failing a better, he should 
 take holy orders, Manning (no believer in the 
 validity of Anglican orders) quietly replied, ' See 
 that you get them, my son ! ' Shortly after 
 the death of Cardinal Newman, Manning was 
 shown an uncomplimentary newspaper criticism 
 dealing unfavourably with certain traits of the 
 dead man's character. 'Very sad, and none too 
 charitable,' commented the Cardinal ; 'but if you 
 ask me whether it is like poor Newman, I am 
 bound to say a photograph ! ' 
 
 One of the most unpleasant incidents in the 
 history of Cardinal Manning's primacy was the 
 disturbance connected with the social ruin of the 
 famous Monsignor Capel, the ' Catesby ' of Dis- 
 raeli's Lothair. Monsignor Capel was a Secular 
 priest in the arch-diocese, a brilliant pulpit orator, 
 a clever controversialist, and the possessor of a 
 fascinating manner and address, which helped him 
 to make many converts to Romanism, especially 
 among ladies of (what the newspapers call) ' good 
 social position.' Lord Bute, said to be the 
 original of Lothair, was among his converts, as 
 was the Duchess of Norfolk. He was a man who 
 owed much to his Church, for he was born the 
 son of a coast-guard, and had thus ' risen from 
 the ranks,' thanks to the education he had re-
 
 THE CAPEL CASE 115 
 
 ceived at the hands of his co-religionists. 1 He 
 was no financier, and it was a profound error of 
 judgment on the Cardinal's part to appoint him 
 President of the Kensington University, which, as 
 was generally anticipated by those best qualified 
 to judge, ended in financial collapse, whilst insuffi- 
 cient attention was, meanwhile, given to the moral 
 welfare of the lads under his care. Cardinal 
 Manning, however, loyal to his (then) friend, sacri- 
 ficed his private fortune in paying Monsignor 
 Capel's debts, with the help of others, in order to 
 avoid the scandal of bankruptcy. But, another 
 charge was yet to be brought against Capel, 
 lodged this time by one of his ' penitents.' The 
 case was referred to Rome, where Capel, to 
 Manning's indignation, obtained an initial verdict 
 in his favour. Convinced in his own mind of 
 Capel's guilt, Manning exerted all his influence 
 to get a verdict of ' guilty ' against Capel, on 
 the case being heard before the Inquisition. 
 The Cardinal was entirely successful, and 
 Monsignor Capel was suspended from the rights 
 to exercise his priestly offices in any part of 
 the world. He retired, accordingly, to North 
 America, to lead eventually the life of an 
 
 1 Capel, nevertheless, was not really a scholar, or a deep 
 thinker, and his popularity as a preacher caused much surprise, 
 and even amusement, amongst the more learned members of 
 the priesthood.
 
 6 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 ordinary layman in one of the Western States of 
 the Union. 
 
 Referring, once more, to Cardinal Manning's 
 pronounced hostility towards John Henry New- 
 man, it will be worth while to enumerate the 
 various forms which this assumed. In the first 
 place, for a term of years, Manning, supported by 
 Monsignor George Talbot, and by W. G. Ward, 
 persistently misrepresented the opinions and be- 
 haviour of Newman, at Rome, where the learned 
 Oratorian became to be regarded, in consequence, 
 almost as a ' Liberal Catholic,' his avowed hatred 
 of what he called .Liberalism notwithstanding. 
 Manning, also, prevented Newman from going, 
 with his Oratorians, to Oxford ; helped to prohibit 
 his scheme for publishing a new translation of the 
 Bible ; made no attempt to check the attacks of 
 W. G. Ward ; let it be given out that Newman l 
 was quite content to lead such an unimportant 
 and retired life at Edgbaston ; prevented Newman 
 from attending the Vatican Council ; tried to keep 
 him from receiving a Cardinal's hat ; and, when he 
 found that he was powerless to prevent Leo XIII. 
 
 1 ' I see much danger,' once wrote Manning, ' of an English 
 Catholicism of which Newman is the highest type. It is the 
 old Anglican patristic literary Oxford tone transplanted into 
 the Church.' On the very day of Manning's consecration as 
 Archbishop of Westminster, he was petitioned by W. G. Ward 
 to denounce Newman as a heretic, although Newman was 
 actually present at the ceremony of the consecration.
 
 MANNING THE PHILANTHROPIST 117 
 
 creating Newman a Cardinal, he had it announced 
 in the English press that Newman was unwilling 
 to accept the Pope's offer. After his plans had 
 failed, and Newman had become Cardinal, Man- 
 ning rejoiced that old age would not permit him 
 to enjoy his honours long. In face of all this, 
 therefore, it is not difficult to realize Newman's 
 surprise, during one of his rare visits to London, 
 on being greeted by Manning with an embrace. 
 ' Why ! he actually kissed me,' exclaimed the 
 disgusted Oratorian. 
 
 It is a more pleasant task to recall Manning the 
 Social Reformer. In this capacity, he stood far 
 above his co-religionists, or, at any rate, his clergy. 
 It is sad to note that, before Cardinal Manning's 
 day, the English Romanists had done but little 
 indeed towards aiding in any works of social re- 
 form, or of public charity. Cardinal Manning was 
 even assailed by many members of his own 
 communion for taking so prominent a part in 
 endeavouring to stem the liquor traffic ; in en- 
 deavouring to abolish vivisection ; in endeavour- 
 ing to put a stop to the trade of selling young 
 girls for immoral purposes ; in endeavouring to 
 punish perpetrators of cruelty to children ; and in 
 endeavouring (here was a point on which he and 
 Leo JXIII. were at one) to aid workmen to earn 
 an equitable living wage. As he himself bitterly 
 reflected, English Romanists had borne no part
 
 "8 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 hitherto in doing good works outside the narrow 
 limits of their own fold, and their conduct in this 
 particular compared unfavourably with that of 
 Anglicans and Protestant Nonconformists. 
 
 Notwithstanding his opposition to the appoint- 
 ment of a Papal Nuncio to England, and his 
 charitable works, Cardinal Manning must always 
 rank with those of his predecessors who strove to 
 Latinize their Church in England. In policy, he 
 was a lineal descendant of ecclesiastics like Becket, 
 Pole, Milner, and Wiseman. His system, indeed, 
 saw the ultimate completion of that adopted by 
 Bishop Milner, and developed by Cardinal Wise- 
 man, namely, of making Ultramontane principles 
 paramount. 1 In this, he went beyond all true 
 reasonable limits, to the extent of imposing a 
 tyranny on the laity, and of ' Italianating ' the 
 clergy. His desire was to set the Bishop of 
 Rome above all rulers and princes, and endowed 
 again with the fullest temporal power. He wished 
 him to be regarded as the * last supreme Judge 
 on earth,' holding sway over all nations and 
 
 1 'The Pope (Pius IX.) gave the English a Hierarchy with a 
 Cardinal, removed Dr. Errington, and made you [Manning] 
 Archbishop, and he has met with no gratitude. I have never 
 heard an Englishman thank him for one of these three things ' 
 (Letter from Talbot to Manning, quoted by Purcell. Mon- 
 signor Talbot failed to comprehend the English antipathy to 
 Ultramontanism ; or he would have understood why it was that 
 the Pope's efforts were so coldly received).
 
 THE ULTRAMONTANE AIM 119 
 
 peoples, and over all classes of society, from the 
 King seated upon his throne down to the peasant 
 labouring at the plough ; and he told his priests 
 to ' subjugate and subdue, to bend and to break, 
 the will of an Imperial race, the will which, as the 
 will of Rome of old, rules over nations invincible 
 and inflexible.'
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 DR. HERBERT VAUGHAN, at the time 
 of Cardinal Manning's death, had for some 
 years past been Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford. 
 He had been generally regarded in all quarters as 
 likely to succeed Cardinal Manning at Westminster, 
 and Rome in England was spared an occurrence 
 of the intrigues in regard to the electing a new 
 Primate which had taken place after Wiseman's 
 decease, and were to take place again after that 
 of Vaughan himself. Although not a divine of 
 any remarkable ability, considered as a writer or 
 a preacher, Herbert Vaughan laid claim to the 
 possession of certain qualifications for filling the 
 vacant See such as were held by none of his 
 rival competitors for that post. With the excep- 
 tion of Dr. Hedley, Bishop of Newport, a learned 
 Benedictine monk, there was not another of 
 Vaughan's episcopal colleagues who could boast 
 of any real talents or clear capacity for govern- 
 ment. Monsignor Gilbert, the energetic Vicar- 
 General of Westminster, was probably the only 
 
 120
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES 121 
 
 candidate whose claims were seriously enter- 
 tained besides those of Herbert Vaughan, whose 
 election he did not, as it happened, long survive. 
 
 Dr. Vaughan, at the period of his translation 
 to Westminster, 1 gave every promise of proving 
 both a capable and a popular Primate. The head 
 of a county family, and related to many of the 
 ancient Romanist houses in England, his succes- 
 sion was welcomed by a class or classes of his co- 
 religionists with whom Cardinal Manning had 
 never been persona grata. His appointment 
 was especially welcome to the Religious Orders. 
 With the Irish only, it was apparently unpopular. 
 Dr. Vaughan was known to be by repute of rather 
 an autocratic and domineering disposition, but it 
 was widely anticipated, even by some who had 
 known but not liked him at Salford, where he 
 was not very popular, that he would accommodate 
 himself, without difficulty, to the conditions and 
 requirements of his new career, in London. 
 
 One of his first public acts was to remove 
 Cardinal Manning's ban against Roman Catholics 
 going to the great English Universities, and to 
 arrange for the establishment of Roman Catholic 
 
 1 Born on April 15, 1832, Herbert Vaughan became Bishop 
 of Salford in 1872, Archbishop in 1892, and a Cardinal in 
 1893. For an interesting account of his ancestry, see 
 Memorials of Old Herefordshire (published in 1904, by Messrs. 
 Bemrose).
 
 i2 2 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 Halls at Oxford. This step was, from the 
 Roman Catholic point of view, decidedly saga- 
 cious. 1 He busied himself next with the belated 
 question of building a metropolitan cathedral, but 
 here he encountered strenuous opposition in 
 certain quarters. It was contended that many of 
 the missions in the arch-diocese were too heavily 
 burdened financially to allow Roman Catholic lay- 
 men to subscribe conscientiously towards funds 
 for erecting and endowing a great cathedral. 
 Moreover, some of the methods whereby the 
 Cardinal proposed to raise the necessary funds 
 became very unpopular, and were put into opera- 
 tion at the expense of many of the metropolitan 
 missions, which suffered much financial loss in 
 consequence. Again, the particular form of archi- 
 tecture chosen for the design of the new building 
 did not meet with popular approval, and it was 
 only after encountering prolonged opposition that 
 the Cardinal's scheme eventually triumphed. 
 That a cathedral was wanted in central London 
 for the Roman Catholic population cannot be 
 doubted, for the situation of the Pro-Cathedral 2 
 made it most inconvenient to reach, and as a rule 
 the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, at Brompton, had 
 
 1 Vaughan, also, lost no time in abolishing the Hammersmith 
 Seminary, another example of Cardinal Manning's educational 
 failures. 
 
 2 Our Lady of Victories, High Street, Kensington.
 
 WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL 123 
 
 been used for some time past for the celebration 
 of important functions. 1 The former Pro-Cathe- 
 dral, St. Mary, Moorfields, in the city, was pulled 
 down, and the bulk of the huge sum gained by the 
 sale of its site was devoted towards the building 
 fund of the Westminster Cathedral, a proceeding 
 which evoked further criticism. Time has, how- 
 ever, done much already to justify the Cardinal's 
 action in collecting money from all quarters to 
 raise the much-needed basilica, which may, when 
 the ornamentation of the interior has been com- 
 pleted, rank as one of the finest examples of 
 Byzantine architecture extant. The site of the 
 cathedral had been purchased many years before 
 the commencement of the building operations for 
 a moderate sum. The foundation-stone was laid 
 on June 29, 1895. John Francis Bentley, the 
 architect, died seven years later. 
 
 In his relations with the Religious Orders, 
 Cardinal Vaughan showed himself to be more 
 friendly disposed to the Regulars than his pre- 
 decessors had been. At Salford, he had 
 distinguished himself by the valiant manner in 
 which he had fought against the Jesuits over an 
 educational question, and had even contested his 
 case stubbornly against them at Rome. On 
 
 1 Such as the requiems for Cardinals Newman and Manning, 
 and the theatrical dedication of England, by Cardinal Vaughan, 
 to the Virgin Mary and St. Peter. 
 9
 
 i2 4 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 coming south, his policy changed. His friend- 
 ship with the Jesuits, and with other of the Orders, 
 caused annoyance to the Secular clergy. Foreign 
 monks, too, were warmly welcomed to England 
 by the Cardinal, and were allowed to establish 
 themselves here in large numbers, notwith- 
 standing the fact that many of them were extreme 
 Anglophobes. Father Bernard Vaughan, the 
 Cardinal's eloquent Jesuit brother, was brought 
 from Manchester to London, in order to keep in 
 touch with Archbishop's House. Meanwhile, the 
 Jesuits slowly, but surely, commenced to obtain 
 control over a portion of the Roman Catholic 
 Press, and the Cardinal's own organ was trans- 
 planted into a fertile field for Jesuit seed. 
 
 In two noteworthy instances, Cardinal 
 Vaughan's partiality for the Regulars brought 
 him into disfavour with the majority of his co- 
 religionists. These instances were connected 
 with the excommunication of Professor St. George 
 Mivart, and the selection of a choir for the West- 
 minster Cathedral. Dr. Mivart belonged to the 
 Liberal Catholic School, and had for some time 
 given great offence at Archbishop's House, owing 
 to the broadness of his views. His article on 
 ' Happiness in Hell ' had been put on the ' Index,' 
 and he had been compelled to withdraw from the 
 position he had assumed on the subject. Later 
 on, however, he gave equal offence by an article
 
 DR. MIVART 125 
 
 on the Apocrypha ; and though very ill at the 
 time, was furiously denounced by Cardinal 
 Vaughan, who excommunicated him when dying, 
 and then refused to grant his corpse the rites of 
 Christian burial. That the Cardinal would have 
 excommunicated Mivart, if left to himself, is a 
 little doubtful. In this matter he listened to the 
 advice of a trio of priests, who had delated 
 Mivart to him. 1 It was felt that the Cardinal 
 and these confederates, one of whom was a 
 Jesuit, acted with great want of judgment in the 
 matter, if not with a total lack of charity, since, 
 knowing Mivart's condition to be critical, he could 
 not expect to live to be guilty of any further 
 heresy. It was even said that not one of Cardinal 
 Vaughan's episcopal colleagues could have sub- 
 scribed to such a recantation as that of the paper 
 sent to Mivart for signature from Archbishop's 
 House, so utterly ludicrous were its terms. But, 
 justice was done to Mivart's memory, after 
 
 1 Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, F.S.A., in his discursive Fifty Years 
 of Catholic Life and Progress, incorrectly states that Professor 
 Mivart was ' delated ' to Cardinal Vaughan by Abbot Gasquet ; 
 that the famous picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy, of 
 the nude St. Elizabeth of Hungary doing penance, was painted 
 by Sir E. Poynter; that Cardinal Vaughan had a brother 
 Archbishop of ' Sidney ' ; that his family resided in Hertford- 
 shire ; that the great English Carthusian house is situated in 
 Leicestershire, instead of in Sussex ; and that the case of Achilli 
 versus J. H. Newman took place in the year 1835.
 
 iz6 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 Cardinal Vaughan's death, when the Professor's 
 body was reburied, with full Roman Catholic 
 rites, under the auspices of Archbishop Bourne. 
 In regard to the question of the cathedral choir, 
 Cardinal Vaughan, to the general astonishment of 
 his co-religionists in this country, abruptly an- 
 nounced his intention of placing all the choral 
 services under the direction of a foreign com- 
 munity of Benedictine monks, brought over 
 specially from France for this purpose. This 
 extraordinary scheme, defended on the dubious 
 grounds of musical exigencies, gave unbounded 
 annoyance to both clergy and laity ; but the 
 storm created by the Cardinal's action subsided 
 when it became known that, not only had the 
 French monks declined to accept his offer, but 
 that even the English Benedictines, whom the 
 Cardinal had approached after the refusal of the 
 French, had also respectfully declined to go to 
 Westminster. The administration of the cathe- 
 dral, therefore, very properly passed into the 
 hands of the Secular clergy of the arch-diocese. 
 The death of Queen Victoria was an event 
 which occurred during Cardinal Vaughan's 
 primacy, when he was away from London on a 
 visit to Rome. It was the wish of many of his 
 co-religionists that requiem masses should be said 
 for the dead Queen, but this was forbidden in 
 stern language by the obdurate Cardinal. That
 
 CLERICAL DISPUTES 127 
 
 he was right, according to canon law, in refusing 
 to allow masses to be said, cannot be denied ; but 
 it was much to be regretted that his strange want 
 of tact should have led him into referring to the 
 late Queen in terms indeed complimentary, but 
 not well chosen. Protest after protest was lodged 
 against his conduct by English Roman Catholics, 
 with the result that on returning home from 
 Rome the Cardinal found himself by no means 
 too popular among the members of his own 
 communion. 
 
 In his general relations with the Secular clergy, 
 Cardinal Vaughan became often involved in broils 
 which produced unhappy results, such as the case 
 of the dispute between the Benedictines and the 
 Roman Catholic Rector of Ealing, and that of the 
 (so-called) 'Nottingham Prelates.' As regards the 
 latter, the diocese of Nottingham had existed in a 
 very perturbed state for years past, and its govern- 
 ment had proved far from being an easy task. On 
 the retirement of the Bishop, Dr. Bagshawe, 1 who 
 was created a titular Archbishop, two of his priests 
 were nominated by him for the dignity of Mon- 
 signor, and briefs to that effect were sent to them, 
 
 1 Dr. Bagshawe had some years previously created a great 
 sensation by denouncing the ' Primrose League ' as a secret 
 society, which he declared must be classed with that of the 
 Freemasons as one hostile to Roman Catholicism. An appeal 
 to Rome resulted in his having to withdraw his manifesto.
 
 i28 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 in confirmation of their election, from Rome. The 
 news of these priests having become Monsignori 
 was very unwelcome to Cardinal Vaughan, who 
 ordered them to return their briefs and renounce 
 their lately-acquired titles. They declined to obey 
 the Cardinal, who, thereupon, exerted all his 
 influence to get the briefs cancelled at Rome, 
 and in this obtained the consent of the proper 
 authorities at the Vatican. 
 
 But there then arose a great difficulty. The 
 priests were not accused of any moral or canonical 
 fault, and they contended, with a considerable 
 show of canonical right, that their Roman briefs 
 could not be revoked merely at the request of an 
 individual. Moreover, the dignity of Monsignor 
 is extra-diocesan ; it is entirely a Papal dignity, 
 carrying no diocesan position or parochial responsi- 
 bilities with it, and its conferment does not in any 
 way raise the recipient's position in his diocese. 
 Its rank is peculiar to the Papal court. These 
 priests' position was therefore a very strong one, 
 and all that could be done was to request them to 
 withdraw from their respective missions, which 
 they abandoned accordingly. 
 
 After some time, however, one of the pair gave 
 way, returned his brief, renounced his dignity, and 
 went back to Nottingham ; and the other, after 
 joining for a short interlude a movement known as 
 the ' Revolt from Rome,' made his peace with the
 
 ANGLICAN ORDERS 129 
 
 Cardinal later on, and again obtained missionary 
 work. 
 
 From first to last, the incident had been distress- 
 ing to all parties, and was one as to the rights of 
 which much could be said on both sides. That the 
 Cardinal had grounds for protesting against these 
 energetic priests becoming Monsignori was a 
 matter upon which no doubt was ever entertained 
 by those acquainted with the nature of the reasons 
 on which he based his opposition ; but it would 
 possibly have been more tactful on his part, after 
 finding the priests had stolen a march upon him, 
 to have ' let sleeping dogs lie,' and not essay the 
 difficult task, in the full light of publicity, of 
 obtaining a revocation of the briefs. After all, 
 the dignity of Monsignor is in England a very 
 insignificant one, and merely entitles its recipient 
 to assume a Papal title, and to wear a coloured 
 costume inside his church or house. 
 
 As was natural, considering his position, Cardinal 
 Vaughan bore a very prominent part in the 
 agitation, which evoked so much interest in 
 England, in the year 1896, concerning the question 
 of the validity of Anglican Orders. That the Pope 
 would decide in favour of the validity Cardinal 
 Vaughan never, for one moment, conjectured, and 
 he never led the extreme Church party into build- 
 ing up any false hopes on the subject. The most 
 advanced Anglicans, nevertheless, seem to have
 
 i 3 o CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 anticipated, ab initio, that Rome would decide in 
 favour of the validity, and it is true that the 
 Pope was in the beginning in favour of the validity, 
 for an unsigned Bull was actually drafted to that 
 effect. 1 But Leo was eventually induced, under 
 the influence of motives or reasons never fully 
 explained, to change his mind, and the official Bull, 2 
 when issued to the world, was found to declare 
 that Anglican Orders had always been invalid. 
 The anger of the extreme Anglicans at this drastic 
 decision was unrestrained, and some were known 
 to assert, inter alia, that they had been deceived 
 by Cardinal Vaughan. But why Cardinal Vaughan 
 should have been singled out as a victim it is hard 
 to comprehend, for he had never given that faction 
 any cause to imagine that they were playing a 
 winning game. That some subtle intrigue must 
 have been going on, to have induced Leo XIII. 
 to change his mind, and draft another Bull differing 
 in toto from that first drawn up, was evident, but 
 I am not aware that any sound reasons existed for 
 
 1 In the year 1840, Lingard had warned Wiseman against 
 entering into public argument on the ' irritating subject ' of 
 Anglican Orders. Wiseman accepted his advice, and 
 abandoned his previous intentions of raising a discussion on 
 the subject. 
 
 2 By the terms of the Bull, Apostolica Cura, the Anglican 
 Orders were pronounced ' Absolutely null and utterly void, on 
 the grounds of defect of form in the rite, and of defect of 
 intention in the ministry.'
 
 THE PAPAL BULL 131 
 
 blaming Cardinal Vaughan as a participator in 
 these proceedings. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the Cardinal had treated the 
 extreme High Church party, in the first instance, 
 in too confiding a manner, as he afterwards realized 
 to his cost. He thought that all the advanced 
 men were willing to abide implicitly by the Pope's 
 decision. He imagined, therefore, that if Anglican 
 Orders were decreed to be invalid, the extreme 
 High Churchmen would be forced into the dilemma 
 either of remaining in a Church, the Orders of 
 whose clergy were asserted to be null and void, or 
 of coming over in a body to Rome. He fully, and 
 not unreasonably, expected that the Papal Bull, 
 Apostolicce Curce, would be the means of inducing 
 a large number of the Anglican clergy and laity 
 to join the Church of Rome. But in forming 
 these illusive hopes he was doomed to suffer bitter 
 disappointment. The Ritualists remained where 
 they were, and the tremendous secession from 
 Canterbury to Rome, which had been so vainly 
 looked for by the Ultramontanes, never came off. 
 By the majority of intelligent Englishmen the 
 Anglican Orders agitation had been treated with 
 derision. Most men had long made up their 
 minds on the subject, and cared not a jot what 
 Leo XIII., or any other Bishop of Rome, had to 
 say. Moreover, they were not so silly as to believe 
 that Rome would stultify her position by declaring
 
 132 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 in favour of the Orders of what she regards as an 
 Erastian Church. That enough was discovered at 
 Rome, indeed, during the course of the researches 
 entered into upon the history of the question of 
 the controversy, to show that Anglican Orders, 
 even from the Roman point of view, are valid, is 
 probable, and this seems to have been the original 
 opinion of Leo XIII. Strange stories, too, were 
 told of the discovery of certain important docu- 
 ments, in the Vatican archives, favourable to the 
 validity of the Orders, but which were kept back 
 from examination by those who were acting on 
 behalf of the High Church party. 1 
 
 It would have been an error in tactics had Ultra- 
 montane Rome declared Anglican Orders to be 
 valid, and that the question of their validity will 
 ever be raised again, so far as Rome is concerned, 
 seems doubtful, in view of the decisive wording of 
 the Bull, Apostolicce Cur<z ; but, it must not be 
 forgotten that this Bull does not rank as an infallible 
 utterance of a Pope speaking ex cathedra, so that 
 there remains nothing absolutely to prevent a 
 revival of the whole controversy at some future 
 time. The peculiar position illustrates nicely the 
 frailty of the dogma of the Infallibility of the Pope, 
 
 1 The Papal advisers were very much afraid that, if 
 Anglican Orders were declared valid, a large number of Liberal 
 Roman Catholics would secede from Rome, and join the Church 
 of England.
 
 AUXILIARY BISHOPS 133 
 
 when we find that the Holy See dare not, in issuing 
 so important a judgment as this, take advantage of 
 the powers conferred on the Papacy by the Vatican 
 Council, and claim the privilege of Infallibility, 
 even in this particular matter of faith. The re- 
 doubtable Vatican Council placed in the hands of 
 the Popes a double-edged weapon, which they are 
 afraid to use, lest in trying to injure others with it 
 they should hurt themselves. When the Pope is 
 or is not Infallible, therefore, no one knows ; nor 
 does he, apparently, know himself. 
 
 As in the case of Cardinal Wiseman, the last 
 eighteen months of Cardinal Vaughan's primacy 
 were clouded by the effects of steadily increasing 
 ill-health. Twice, indeed, auxiliary bishops were 
 appointed to help him in the heavy work of the 
 arch-diocese. The first of these was Dr. Brindle, 
 formerly an Army chaplain in Egypt, and after- 
 wards Bishop of Nottingham. The second was 
 Monsignor the Hon. Algernon Stanley, a convert, 
 who had resided much at Rome. Finally, as 
 the end approached, Cardinal Vaughan returned 
 to his beloved Mill Hill, the missionary college 
 near London, which had been entirely established 
 and endowed by his exertions when a young 
 man. Whatever may be thought, written, or 
 said of Cardinal Vaughan in criticism of his 
 episcopal capabilities, it cannot be denied that 
 he has left behind him two enduring monuments
 
 i34 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 in the Westminster Cathedral l and St. Joseph's 
 College, Mill Hill. 
 
 Although he had always lived a strict and 
 almost ascetic life, Cardinal Vaughan gave 
 Londoners a poor impression of himself by his 
 habit of constantly appearing at public and private 
 functions resplendent in purple and scarlet robes. 
 He did this, presumably, to call attention to the 
 importance of his office, and as a kind of adver- 
 tisement for his Church, but it produced a bad 
 effect, wanting, as it was, in good taste. To 
 such an extent did the Cardinal insist always on 
 standing on his dignity, that at a certain Royal 
 Academy banquet, he requested the President to 
 come down-stairs to receive him on his arrival, 
 an honour accorded only to royal guests. To the 
 surprise of many present, the President acceded 
 to this unusual demand, and welcomed him in the 
 same fashion as he did the Prince of Wales. 2 These 
 
 1 Cardinal Vaughan, however, who was not an authority on 
 architecture, slightly hampered the architect of the Cathedral 
 by giving him constant advice on the subject of its building 
 that was not calculated to diminish the difficulties with which 
 Mr. Bentley was beset. 
 
 2 It is said that on one occasion, when Cardinal Vaughan 
 went to pay a visit to a friend in the country, the Colonel of a 
 regiment stationed in the neighbourhood actually ordered out 
 the regimental band, and made them play ' See, the Conquering 
 Hero Comes,' when Vaughan arrived. The matter was reported 
 to the War Office. Strange to say, the Colonel was not a 
 Roman Catholic.
 
 ITALIAN CULTS 135 
 
 eccentricities on the part of Vaughan contrasted 
 unfavourably with the behaviour of Cardinal 
 Manning, who, on going to a garden-party at 
 Maryborough House, in company with a grandly- 
 arrayed prelate of his own communion, was asked 
 by this bishop why he was not better dressed. 
 'There is no necessity for me,' replied Manning, 
 'to appear as you do, because, you see, they 
 know me / ' 
 
 Cardinal Vaughan was the head of a Roman 
 Catholic family remarkable for the number of 
 its clerical members. His uncle, Dr. William 
 Vaughan, was Bishop of Plymouth ; five of his 
 brothers were priests, one of whom was an arch- 
 bishop ; four of his sisters were nuns ; and 
 amongst his cousins were several priests and 
 nuns. One of his brothers, Monsignor John 
 Vaughan, edited certain papers of the Cardinal, 
 after whose death they were published under the 
 title of The Young Priest: Conferences on the 
 Apostolic Life. 
 
 Of the many modern Italian cults and devotions 
 of his religion Cardinal Vaughan was a strong 
 supporter. He was a devout client of St. Joseph, 
 by whose aid he once quickly raised so he 
 publicly stated the sum of fifty thousand pounds 
 for the building fund of his new Cathedral ! St. 
 Joseph had, in his opinion, married the Blessed 
 Virgin when quite an old man, and acted as her
 
 136 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 guardian, not as her husband. Vaughan was 
 also an ardent relic-worshipper, and his anxiety 
 to procure for England the bones of the Saxon 
 King, Edmund, exposed him to much ridicule. 
 These bones, located at Toulouse, were said to 
 have reached Toulouse mysteriously from East 
 Anglia, and were at the Cardinal's direction 
 brought to Arundel, and deposited there, after a 
 religious ceremony of extraordinary magnificence 
 had been celebrated in their honour. 1 Some 
 unkind antiquary, however, took the simple course 
 of writing to The Times, exposing the weakness 
 of the case for the relics. 
 
 Cardinal Vaughan died between eleven and 
 twelve o'clock on Friday night, June 19, 1903. 
 On the Monday following, in the columns of the 
 Daily Chronicle, were published two criticisms of 
 the late prelate's career, written respectively by 
 'A Roman Catholic' and 'One of His Clergy.' 
 I take the liberty of quoting some extracts from 
 these memoirs ; not merely because they were 
 
 1 'Early on Friday morning, July 26, 1901, the remains of 
 St. Edmund, King and Martyr, which arrived from Rome on 
 the previous night, were carried from the altar of the FitzAlan 
 chapel to the domestic chapel of Arundel Castle. During the 
 night gold lamps, supplied by the Duke of Norfolk for great 
 occasions, were used to light the altar in the FitzAlan chapel. 
 There was no sacred vigil, but nuns remained at prayer in 
 the chapel till nearly midnight At 8.30 the ceremony of 
 removal was conducted by Cardinal Vaughan,' etc.
 
 PRESS NOTICES 137 
 
 amongst the best obituary notices published, but 
 also because their more experienced writers in 
 the main adopt much the same views as those 
 expressed by myself in regard to certain traits 
 of the Cardinal's character, and to certain of the 
 chief episodes in his career 
 
 'After his return to England Father Vaughan 
 joined the Community of the Oblates of St. 
 Charles, founded at Bayswater by Manning in 
 1857. Before going to Bayswater, Vaughan was 
 appointed Vice-President of Old Hall, where he 
 came into close touch with the late Dr. W. G. 
 Ward. . . . Vaughan and Ward became fast 
 friends ; they were both afterwards ardent 
 partisans of the Ultramontane party, and violent 
 opponents of Dr. Newman and the " Intellectuals." 
 Their zeal in what most intelligent Catholics now 
 admit (and Manning lived to admit) was a bad 
 cause, drew from Montalembert, in 1869, the 
 famous remark (in a letter to Mr. A. M. P. de 
 Lisle) : "How unfathomable are the designs of 
 God in allowing such oracles as Dr. Ward, Mr. 
 Vaughan, and others, to be the representatives 
 of Catholic intelligence in the eyes of that immense 
 Anglo-Saxon race which is so evidently intended 
 to cover the whole modern world ! " 1 . . . 
 
 ' Unintellectual himself, Cardinal Vaughan re- 
 
 1 Of Vaughan's friend, Dr. Ward, it was aptly said that 
 'he would sacrifice Christianity itself to a syllogism.'
 
 138 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 garded any expression of intellectuality with 
 suspicion, if not dislike, and set himself to repress 
 it. This repressive policy was most effectively 
 carried out in regard to the Catholic Press. 
 Two attempts have been made within the last 
 five years to carry on Catholic papers, which 
 should be really independent organs of educated 
 lay opinion ; the papers in question were the 
 Weekly Register and the New Era. Both were 
 practically crushed out of existence by Cardinal 
 Vaughan at the instigation of the Jesuits, and 
 a bigoted section of the Secular clergy, although 
 they received the warm support of large numbers of 
 the clergy and laity. 1 . . . The painful case of the 
 late Dr. St. George Mivart brought prominently 
 before the public the tactlessness of Cardinal 
 Vaughan. No Catholic would dispute the right 
 or duty of a bishop to take notice of such articles 
 as those which Dr. Mivart had written. But 
 there are right and wrong ways of doing things. 
 A man who had done yeoman service in the 
 cause of Catholicism for years, who was long 
 past seventy, whose health was broken, and his 
 intellectual perception impaired, deserved at least 
 some consideration, might at least have been 
 
 1 Cardinal Manning, however, it must be remembered, was 
 equally hostile to a ' free Catholic Press, ' as witness his attacks 
 upon the Rambler, the Home and Foreign Review, and the 
 Westminster Gazette.
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA'S DEATH 
 
 139 
 
 tenderly and gently reasoned with. But the op- 
 posite course was taken. . . . The same astonish- 
 ing want of tact was displayed in the incredibly 
 foolish letter on the occasion of Queen Victoria's 
 death. There was no reason why a requiem 
 mass should not have been sung in London as 
 it was at Cape Town ; although the funeral mass 
 in which the name of the deceased person is 
 mentioned cannot be said for a non-Catholic, the 
 mass for all the departed can be, and is commonly 
 said for the "special intention" of the repose of 
 a non-Catholic deceased. But the English people 
 would have cared very little about the omission 
 of a requiem mass, had some notice been taken 
 in Catholic churches of the Queen's death, and 
 they would probably have remained indifferent, 
 had not the Cardinal gone out of his way to 
 explain the omission in a manner insulting to 
 her Majesty's memory. . . . 
 
 'In his relations with his clergy Cardinal 
 Vaughan was not happy. He was not at all 
 popular, not loved as a bishop. I believe he 
 got on better at Salford than at Westminster. . . . 
 Few of his priests knew him, and he knew fewer. 
 We all felt that we were not wanted, and on 
 occasions of reception, the clergy, with the 
 exception of certain officials and the family clique, 
 were conspicuous by their absence. And yet, 
 with those with whom he was momentarily 

 
 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 in direct contact he could be affable, if abrupt. 
 But that was his manner. In the ecclesiastical 
 ceremonies it was the same. Of gracious aspect 
 and of a handsome face, as soon as he moved he 
 lost all dignity. 
 
 'It is generally said that Cardinal Vaughan 
 put us back fifty years. That is true ; l but we 
 must not forget that he did so under an influence 
 that remains, and will put us back further unless 
 it be resisted. Life is growth, not retrogression ; 
 though sometimes it be necessary to cut away 
 what has grown amiss, and remove influences 
 that are opposed to its true strength. . . . 
 
 ' " I must hasten back," 2 said the late Cardinal, 
 "to begin my gigantic work of converting thirty 
 millions of my fellow-countrymen." It was this 
 spirit of programme-making that, unconsciously 
 of course, caused him over and over again to 
 mislead the Holy See, until at last at Rome they 
 came as they knew him to mistrust him altogether 
 as a wise counsellor. He did, however, when 
 under wise influences, prevent Rome from making 
 a mistake in the matter of Anglican Orders. . . . 
 If he had wise men round him, he would go their 
 
 1 I cannot think so. The writer does not take into account 
 Cardinal Vaughan's allowing and encouraging Roman Catholics 
 to go to the Universities. It was Cardinal Manning who put 
 .the Church back, not Vaughan. 
 
 2 From Rome.
 
 CLERICAL CRITICISMS 141 
 
 way ; if flashy men, who flattered him to gain 
 their own ends, then he would follow them. 
 Look, for instance, at the muddle he made over 
 the bones of St. Edmund. . . . 
 
 ' Cardinal Vaughan's desires and intentions were 
 upright ; and I do not think he had one ounce of 
 guile or of diplomatic cunning in his nature. In 
 fact, all his faults and many mistakes came from 
 an enthusiastic and emotional nature, not from 
 cool calculation and calm deliberation. He was 
 by nature impetuous. . . . His life was strewn 
 with many wrecks and the broken hearts of men 
 who were wasted in carrying out his futile pro- 
 jects. Unless a thing was a success at once, he 
 could not make it one. Quite un-English, he 
 had no staying power ; l and in this, I dare say, 
 the Spanish strain came out in his blood. Vision- 
 ary, his best works have been left to others. One 
 monument he does leave behind him, and that is 
 the cathedral at Westminster ; but, oh ! at what 
 a cost ! . . . 
 
 ' Cardinal Vaughan was somewhat prone to 
 ostentation, and eager for a showy and external 
 
 1 This is, surely, inaccurate. Cardinal Vaughan's personal 
 exertions and privations, endured when travelling in South and 
 Central America and elsewhere, to procure funds for Mill Hill 
 College, showed that he possessed considerable stamina of no 
 mean order. Neither the College, nor the Cathedral, moreover, 
 was ' a success at once.' But for the Cardinal's ' staying power ' 
 neither could have become a fait accompli.
 
 142 CARDINAL VAUGHAN 
 
 success ; in this he was the antithesis of Manning. 
 There could be no better example of the contrast 
 between the two men than their respective policies 
 in regard to the new cathedral. Manning declared 
 that the site which had been secured at West- 
 minster should never be built upon until the 
 debts of God's poor were provided for. Cardinal 
 Vaughan drained the resources of the diocese, 
 and sacrificed the interests of the poor missions 
 to build a cathedral, which is likely to prove a 
 white elephant and a severe tax on the diocese 
 for many years to come, although as a work of 
 art it is worthy of the highest praise, and has 
 won from one of the most distinguished living 
 critics the tribute that it is the finest building 
 which has been built in the world since the 
 fifteenth century.'
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 IN this chapter, I propose to furnish a list of 
 the most notable men and women who have 
 joined, and left, the Roman Catholic Church, in 
 England, since the genesis of the Oxford Move- 
 ment ; and to make some remarks upon the 
 vexed question as to whether Rome is gaining 
 ground, or not, in England and Wales. Converts 
 to Rome have been drawn from all ranks of 
 society, but principally from the upper class. 
 Statistics reveal that but few recruits are obtained 
 from the ranks of the poor ; whilst, on the other 
 hand, the number of the secessions from the 
 Church amongst the lower classes is very large. 
 Moreover, the annual number of conversions to 
 Romanism is not increasing, notwithstanding 
 the rise in the population, and there seems 
 no prospect of a recurrence of that Roman 
 Catholic revival which marked the middle of 
 Elizabeth's reign, or the latter days of the Oxford 
 Movement. From about the year 1842 until 
 
 M3
 
 144 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 about 1862, a period of some twenty years, was 
 the golden day of the Roman Catholic revival, 
 since which the conversions have declined as 
 regards both quality and quantity. That most 
 of Rome's recruits in England are enlisted from 
 the ranks of the High Church party is a common 
 error, for figures show that this is not the case. 
 It is clear that, for a short time prior to his 
 reception into the Roman Church, an Anglican 
 must naturally be holding views of an advanced 
 nature, as he becomes gradually more inclined 
 towards Roman Catholicism ; but this bare fact 
 does not necessarily identify him as a consistent 
 supporter of Ritualism. It is true, of course, 
 that Ritualism does provide Rome with many 
 recruits, but many refrain from taking the plunge. 
 The reason is obvious. The most extreme, 
 secretly or perhaps openly, holding all the Roman 
 Catholic doctrines, without being bound down by 
 the Roman discipline, are disinclined to abandon 
 their easier system in favour of one more severe. 
 I append below my list of notable converts 
 Cardinal Newman ; Lady Georgiana Fuller- 
 ton ; the Hon. Colin Lindsay ; Sir John Simeon ; 
 Princess Mary Liechtenstein (nde Fox) ; Sir J. 
 Stuart Knill; the Hon. and Rev. George Ignatius 
 Spencer ; Sir George Bowyer ; Monsignor the 
 Hon. George Talbot ; the third Marquis of 
 Bute; Lady Butler (Elizabeth Thompson); Lord
 
 CONVERTS 145 
 
 Brampton ; Minna, Duchess of Norfolk ; the 
 eighth Earl of Denbigh ; Lord Archibald Douglas ; 
 Lord Emly ; Sir Charles Halle ; Lady Herbert 
 of Lea ; the second Earl of Gainsborough ; 
 Admiral of the Fleet Lord Walter Kerr, G.CB. ; 
 Lord Lyons ; Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne ; 
 the Marquis of Ripon ; the Hon. Algernon 
 Stanley, bishop-auxiliary ; Lord William Nevill ; 
 the twelfth Earl of Devon ; the seventh Earl of 
 Albemarle ; the fourth Earl of Orford ; the sixth 
 Earl of Abingdon ; Sir David Hunter Blair, 
 O.S. B. ; Sir Philip Rose; Lady Sykes ; Flora, 
 Duchess of Norfolk ; Coventry Patmore ; Charles 
 Santley ; Sir Henry Bellingham ; Dr. Graham, 
 Bishop of Plymouth ; Richard Simpson ; T. W. 
 Allies ; the Rev. Frederick Faber ; the Rev. 
 William Lockhart ; Dr. Richard Coffin, Bishop 
 of Southwark ; Sir Vincent Corbett ; W. G. 
 Ward ; the Rev. E. Purbrick, S. J. ; the Rev. J. 
 D. Dalgairns ; Kenelm Henry Digby ; Canon 
 Oakley ; the Rev. Richard Stanton ; the Rev. 
 Albany James Christie, S.J. ; the Rev. Ambrose 
 St. John; the Rev. Ignatius Grant, S.J.; Richard 
 Bagot ; Henry and Robert Wilberforce ; Pro- 
 fessor St. George Mivart ; the Rev. W. H. 
 Anderdon, SJ. ; the Rev. Frederick Antrobus ; 
 Thomas Arnold ; Monsignor A. S. Barnes ; 
 Aubrey Beardsley ; the Rev. H. D. Ryder, 
 D.D. ; Serjeant Bellasis ; J. C. M. Bellew ; the
 
 i46 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 Rev. H. Sebastian Bowden ; the Rev. J. E. 
 Bowden ; the Rev. W. E. Leslie, S.J. ; William 
 Maziere Brady ; the Rev. T. E. Bridgett ; James 
 Grant ; James Britten ; Dr. Brownlow, Bishop 
 of Clifton ; Sir F. C. Barnard ; the Rev. Henry 
 Coleridge, S.J. ; W. S. Blunt ; Augustus Craven ; 
 R. E. Dell ; John Francis Bentley ; Aubrey de 
 Vere ; Sir Stephen de Vere ; W. G. Palgrave ; 
 A. M. P. de Lisle ; Canon Estcourt ; Canon 
 Joseph Searle ; Henry Foley, S.J. ; the Rev. 
 R. S. Hawker ; the Rev. G. Hopkins, S.J. ; 
 Mary Howitt ; the Rev. Henry Kerr, R.N. 
 and S.J. ; W. S. Lilly ; Thomas Longueville ; 
 Frederick Lucas ; the Rev. B. W. Maturin ; the 
 Rev. John Morris, S.J.; the Rev. W. P. Neville; 
 Kegan Paul ; A. W. Pugin ; the Rev. Luke 
 Rivington ; George Rose (Arthur Sketchley) ; 
 Clement Scott ; Adeline Sergeant ; J. R. Hope- 
 Scott ; the Rev. W. Humphrey, S.J. ; Orby 
 Shipley ; F. W. Wegg-Prosser ; Dr. F. G. Lee ; 
 Monsignor Croke Robinson ; ' Lucas Malet ' ; 
 the Rev. Bede Camm, O.S.B. ; Edmund Bishop; 
 Monsignor W. H. Manning ; Oscar Wilde ; the 
 Rev. W. R. Carson ; Canon George Akers ; 
 Canon Macmullen ; Dr. Patterson, Bishop of 
 Emmaus ; the Rev. S. B. Gates, O.P. ; the Rev. 
 R. H. Benson ; Canon Bernard Smith ; Cardinal 
 Manning ; Charlotte, Duchess of Buccleuch ; 
 Lord and Lady Charles Thynne ; Mrs. Craw-
 
 SIR RICHARD BURTON 147 
 
 ford ; Queen Victoria of Spain ; the Rev. Henry 
 Nutcombe Oxenham ; the Rev. R. B. G. Osborne ; 
 Monsignor the Hon. Gilbert Talbot, D.D. ; the 
 eleventh Lord North and Lady North ; Alban 
 Lechmere ; and Admiral Hammet. 
 
 From the above list, it may be noticed, I have 
 omitted the name of the famous Oriental scholar 
 and traveller, Sir Richard Burton, who was, 
 according to his widow's statement, received into 
 the Church of Rome by a young Austrian priest 
 at Trieste. As a matter of fact, the priest (who 
 could not speak English) did not arrive until 
 Burton was speechless and in extremis, and the 
 reluctant priest did not put the host into his 
 mouth until he was finally unconscious, if not 
 actually dead. 1 In justice to the priest, it may 
 be mentioned that, on getting Lady Burton's 
 summons to attend her husband, he had con- 
 sulted his superior as to whether he should obey 
 it, and his superior, after carefully washing his 
 hands of all responsibility, had evasively recom- 
 mended his subordinate to go to Lady Burton, 
 and to act thenceforward ' as circumstances might 
 direct.' But the whole transaction was in the 
 nature of sacrilege. Sir Richard Burton was not 
 a professing Christian, and his detestation of 
 
 1 The doctor in attendance, and Lady Burton's maid, are 
 both understood to have considered that Burton was a dead 
 man before the arrival of the priest.
 
 148 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 Roman Catholicism was notorious ; yet he was 
 buried with the fullest Roman rites. Sir Richard's 
 name is not included in the list of Converts to 
 Rome, published by Mr. W. Gordon Gorman. As 
 Mr. Gorman's semi-official book has gone through 
 several editions, this omission is significant. 
 
 Another death-bed reception that also created 
 considerable controversy of a painful nature in 
 the Press, was that of the Rev. Robert Stephen 
 Hawker, the Rector of Morwenstow, on the north 
 coast of Cornwall, who was received into the 
 Roman Church at the eleventh hour, when it was 
 contended by some of his friends he was hardly 
 capable of comprehending the real nature of his 
 actions. It is, however, believed that Hawker 
 had for several years been at heart almost, if 
 not quite, a Roman Catholic. Yet another very 
 1 late ' reception was that of Oscar Wilde, at 
 Paris, where he died, and lies buried ; and one 
 more was that of the Rev. Dr. F. G. Lee, of 
 Lambeth. 
 
 It was once rashly asserted in print, during 
 Cardinal Vaughan's primacy, that the average 
 number of men, women, and children in England 
 and Wales going annually over to Rome reaches 
 a total of ten thousand. These figures were, 
 of course, too preposterous even for criticism. 
 Rome's English recruits during the last quarter 
 of a century have barely averaged, I should
 
 CONVERTS 149 
 
 calculate, some three hundred a year, and this 
 total is counterbalanced by the large number of 
 deserters. Many of the converts, too, go over 
 without their minds being fully made up, and 
 after experiencing an unhappy period in their 
 new creed, return whence they came sadder but 
 wiser. Others are what is known as 'marriage 
 converts,' and go over simply to please their 
 wives or husbands as the case may be and 
 thus avoid the troubles and difficulties occasioned 
 by what is known as a ' mixed marriage.' Occu- 
 pied as they are with arduous parochial duties, 
 English Roman Catholic priests do not all make 
 much attempt to win converts, and do not, there- 
 fore, fill their nets so full as they might. Converts 
 from Protestantism, moreover, are not received 
 with open arms by all hereditary members of 
 their new religion ; but generally with marked 
 coldness, and often with absolute rudeness. The 
 newcomer is looked down upon as ' only a 'vert,' 
 and as one who has not held the ' advantages ' 
 of being a 'born Catholic.' 1 On one notable 
 occasion I actually heard a popular preacher 
 
 1 It is fair to mention that this unyielding attitude has never 
 been adopted by the English Jesuits, who have been proud to 
 enrol many converts, including ex-parsons, among their ranks ; 
 among whom I note the names of Robert Persons, Edmund 
 Campion, Henry Garnet, Albany Christie, Ignatius Grant, 
 Henry Kerr, W. G. Palgrave, Henry Foley, John Morris, 
 W. H. Anderdon, Henry Coleridge, and W. Humphrey.
 
 iso CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 declare from a Kensington pulpit that a convert 
 no matter how virtuous, was bound to spend a 
 fairly long time in purgatory, in expiation of his, 
 or her, former heresy. Roman Catholic ladies 
 are often energetic convert-hunters, and belong 
 almost always to the Ultramontane school, abhor- 
 ring ' Liberal Catholicism ' nearly as keenly as 
 they do Protestantism, and in some English 
 missions they carry information secretly to the 
 priest concerning the doings, or sayings, of 
 any member of the congregation known to be 
 suspected of liberal ideas. 
 
 Of well-advertised conversions to Roman Catho- 
 licism the world is constantly hearing a good deal ; 
 of unobtrusive secessions it hears little. The 
 consequence of this is, that it has become a com- 
 mon fallacy to suppose that but few Romanists 
 quit their Church. As a matter of fact, nothing 
 can be more erroneous than this supposition. So 
 great is the leakage, that all the progress effected 
 by Rome in England since the Oxford Movement 
 has, numerically speaking, been counterbalanced 
 by the stream of secessions, which has not been 
 confined to the upper class, but has extended to 
 the lower, and the middle, as well. Among the 
 clergy, the number of secessions is not very large ; 
 but this is due to the circumstance that, before a 
 priest can be ordained, he has to undergo so 
 severe and searching an ordeal within a seminary,
 
 SECEDERS 151 
 
 or monastery, that should he entertain any 
 latent doubts about the truth of the Roman 
 dogmas, these doubts will soon be discovered 
 and he will find out that he has mistaken his 
 vocation. 
 
 During the last quarter of a century or so, 
 many -prominent men and women have seceded 
 from Rome in England, of whom the following 
 are among the chief: Monsignor A. Wells, 
 LL.D.; Joseph MacCabe, O.S.F.; Lady O'Hagan 
 (nte Towneley) ; the second Lord O'Hagan ; Dr. 
 Washington Sullivan ; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ; 
 the Rev. Arthur Galton ; Dr. T. G. Law ; the 
 Rev. W. E. Addis ; Dr. Leopold Klein ; Charles 
 Hargrove ; the Rev. James Waring ; the Rev. 
 J . M. Capes ; the Rev. William Roberts ; the Rev. 
 A. W. Hutton ; Lady Florence Dixie; the Rev. 
 J. B. MacGovern; and the Rev. de Lacy O'Learey. 
 
 This list, which does not include, it must be 
 remembered, Irish, Scottish, or Colonial seces- 
 sionists, may seem small when compared with that 
 of the converts, printed above, but I have not as 
 in the previous list traced so far back, in point 
 of time, as the Oxford Movement. Of the seces- 
 sionists here mentioned several have earned a 
 brilliant literary reputation, and of none of them 
 has the sincerity of his or her motives in leaving 
 the Church of Rome ever been questioned. Mr. 
 Joseph MacCabe has written much ; his Twelve
 
 iS2 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 Years in a Monastery, a record of his experiences 
 as a Franciscan friar and priest, being widely 
 known. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writings are 
 world-famous. Mr. Arthur Galton has published 
 an excellent biography of Thomas Cromwell, 
 Earl of Essex, and under the title of Our Attitude 
 towards English Roman Catholics and the Papal 
 Court has given us a clear and succinct history 
 of Rome in England down to the period of the 
 Emancipation Act. Monsignor Wells was noted 
 for the munificence with which he lavished large 
 sums of money upon the building of monastic 
 houses and churches, with the result that he left 
 the Church of Rome quite a poor man. Mr. 
 W. E. Addis was co-editor with Thomas Arnold 1 
 (father of Mrs. Humphry Ward) of the Catholic 
 Dictionary. Dr. Law, 2 an Oratorian, was the 
 leading authority on the history of the Roman 
 Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth. Lady 
 O'Hagan was senior co-heiress of the last male 
 member of the ancient family of Towneley, of 
 Towneley. Her elder son, the second Lord 
 O'Hagan, died in the Boer War. Dr. Washing- 
 ton Sullivan (of whose abilities Cardinal Manning 
 held a high opinion) was a preacher of great popu- 
 
 1 Arnold left the Roman Church for a time, but eventually 
 returned to it. 
 
 2 Messrs. Law, Addis, Galton, and Hutton were, once, priests 
 at the Brompton Oratory.
 
 SECESSIONS 153 
 
 larity and renown, and is now a distinguished 
 advocate of Rationalism. Mr. William Roberts 
 was a nephew of Cardinal Manning. Messrs. 
 O'Learey and Waring were active members of the 
 Redemptorist Order. 
 
 The Church of Rome well comprehends the 
 necessity of washing her dirty linen at home, and 
 conceals, as much as possible, from the outside 
 world all news relating to secessions from her 
 ranks. When a well-known person is announced 
 to have left the Roman fold, an excuse is always 
 ready. If the seceder be a priest, then he has 
 abandoned his holy calling owing to the malign 
 influence either of wine or women. If he be a 
 layman, then he is sure to have become either 
 immoral or insane. If he be one who was 
 originally a convert to Romanism, then it is given 
 out that he was never really a Catholic, but 
 was received into the Church without being 
 adequately instructed. This last excuse is a 
 common one, and is, nine times out of ten, 
 deliberately untrue. 
 
 The advance of education is the most formid- 
 able foe in the path of the progress of Rome in 
 England. Half the secessions are due, directly 
 or indirectly, to the increased facilities which all 
 classes now possess of acquiring knowledge. As 
 years roll on, moreover, the plainer become the 
 unfortunate results of the action of the Vatican
 
 i54 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 Council in proclaiming Papal Infallibility. 1 The 
 development of certain modern cults and devo- 
 tions forms another awkward obstacle. Mariola- 
 try (as specially exemplified in the novel notion 
 of the Virgin's corporeal presence in the Sacra- 
 ment of the Altar), the cult of St. Joseph, the 
 cult of St. Anthony of Padua, and the tedious 
 rigmarole of the Rosary, are all conducive towards 
 forcing thoughtful people out of the Church. The 
 development in its most extreme form of the 
 dogma of purgatory forms another stepping-stone 
 to secession. The enormous sums of money spent 
 by the priesthood in saying masses for the dead, 
 money (usually at the charge of five shillings a 
 mass) which comes out of the pockets of the laity, 
 is the cause of widening discontent. Members of 
 families, who find themselves severely hit finan- 
 cially, owing to the sums bequeathed away from 
 them by their parents to the priests for saying 
 requiems, begin to question whether God's 
 pardons can, after all, be bought for cash, 
 and eventually begin to disbelieve altogether 
 in the Papal dogma of purgatory. But, in 
 England, this scandal does not assume such 
 grave proportions as in Ireland, where it is 
 responsible for so much of the poverty and 
 
 1 ' A vast number of men and women pass quietly from Rome 
 every year. When I was a priest, I saw them leave' (J. 
 MacCabe).
 
 EX-PRIESTS 155 
 
 misery existing among the Roman Catholic lower 
 classes. 
 
 It is, perhaps, a regrettable circumstance that 
 many English ex-priests are prone to marry 
 rather soon after their secession from Rome. 
 There is, of course, not the faintest reason why 
 they should not marry as much as anybody else 
 as in marrying they break no divine law, but 
 merely an ecclesiastical rule save this, that 
 Romanists are only too glad to question the 
 motives of seceding priests, and are delighted if 
 they can allege marriage as the cause of their 
 departure. 
 
 ' Only those who have actually been subjected 
 to the ordeal can realize how hard a trial it is to 
 secede from the communion of a faith so superbly 
 organized and so far-reaching in every detail as 
 is this Church of Rome. To do so, is to discon- 
 tinue devoted friendships ; to sever firm and 
 faithful ties ; to dim the memory of so many 
 time-honoured recollections ; to embark in a frail 
 boat upon the tempestuous seas that wash be- 
 tween the floating ship and the far-off shore ; to 
 break at one blow the links binding together the 
 old life and the present life ; to see dissolved 
 before the fleeting vision, in a moment, the day- 
 dreams of a life, and to land eventually in a 
 strange country, there to seek new customs, new 
 friends, a new future, and a new creed.' 
 ii
 
 i56 CONVERSIONS AND SECESSIONS 
 
 But many a one who has undergone the agony 
 of such an ordeal, acting only upon the impulse of 
 his conscience, and seeking thoughtfully to find 
 elsewhere, in the place of Romanism, a creed 
 whose simpler tenets are more in accord with 
 Reason, has endured to realize the truth and 
 consolation contained in the splendid words of 
 Tennyson 
 
 'Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, 
 At last he beat his music out; 
 There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds. 
 
 He fought his doubts and gather'd strength ; 
 
 He would not make his judgment blind ; 
 
 He faced the spectres of the mind 
 And laid them : thus he came at length 
 
 To find a stronger faith his own; 
 
 And Power was with him in the night, 
 Which makes the darkness and the light, 
 
 And dwells not in the light alone.' 1 
 
 1 Lord Tennyson, it need hardly be mentioned, was very far 
 removed indeed from favouring Romanism ; but it is note- 
 worthy that, since the Reformation, many famous English poets 
 and dramatists have been Roman Catholics, among whom have 
 been H. Constable, Dryden, Crashaw, Habington, Massinger, 
 T. Moore, Pope, Father Southwell, Coventry Patmore, Aubrey 
 de Vere, Hawker, Cardinal Newman, Faber, and Alfred 
 Austin.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 PUBLIC attention has recently been called to 
 the revival of monachism in Great Britain, 
 owing to the action of the French Republic in 
 expelling or suppressing the Religious Orders, 
 many of whose members have, in consequence, 
 crossed the Channel and set up for themselves in 
 Protestant England. With the status of these 
 new arrivals in our midst I do not propose to deal, 
 but shall confine myself to commenting generally 
 upon the establishment of religious houses (for 
 men only) since the period of the Emancipation 
 Act. It is noteworthy, nevertheless, that this 
 recent French invasion has materially helped 
 monasticism in England, not for the first, but the 
 second time, during the last century and a quarter, 
 for it was the outbreak of the great French Revo- 
 lution which enabled the Benedictines and others 
 to open houses in the reign of George III. the 
 first monasteries and convents to be established 
 anywhere since the reign of Mary Tudor. 
 
 At the time of the Dissolution of the Monas- 
 teries by Henry VIII., all the great Religious
 
 158 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 Orders, excepting the Servites, were represented 
 in England. Mitred abbots had a seat in the 
 House of Peers, and to be the head of a wealthy 
 abbey was to rank as a person of no little import- 
 ance in pre- Reformat ion days. In England and 
 Wales, at the Dissolution, the Austin Canons had 
 about two hundred and five houses, the Canons 
 Regular having about one hundred and seventy 
 houses, and the Prsemonstratensians about thirty- 
 five ; the Dominicans about fifty-seven ; the 
 Franciscans about sixty-four ; the Cistercians 
 about one hundred ; the Carthusians some eight 
 or nine ; the Carmelites about fifty-two ; and the 
 Benedictines about one hundred and eighty-five. 
 The Cistercian monasteries were, as a rule, 
 situated amid beautiful scenery, since (as the 
 monks eat no flesh meat) it was necessary for 
 them to be near the sea, or a river, in order to get 
 good fishing. The ruins of Tintern, Beaulieu, 
 Netley, Quarr, Rievaulx, Furness, Medmenham, 
 Jervaux, and Fountains serve to remind one of 
 the past glories of this ascetic Order. 
 
 In England, once more, at the date of writing, 
 all the above Orders are represented, although in 
 nothing like such numbers as they were prior to 
 the Dissolution. Of the Benedictine houses, the 
 finest are Belmont, Downside, and Ampleforth. 1 
 
 1 These monasteries belong to the old English congregation : 
 others, houses of the Order, but belonging to foreign branches,
 
 DOWNSIDE ABBEY 159 
 
 The Cistercians have a large abbey, built by the 
 elder Pugin, near Whitwick, in Charnwood Forest 
 The best of the Dominican establishments is at 
 Haverstock Hill, N.W. In their monastery of 
 St. Hugh, at Partridge Green, Sussex, the Car- 
 thusians possess one of the most splendid religious 
 houses ever erected in Europe. The principal 
 house of the (Capuchin) Franciscans is at Pant- 
 asaph, North Wales. The Praemonstratensian 
 Canons are settled at Storrington, Sussex. The 
 Carmelites (Discalced) have a fine chapel attached 
 to their abode in Church Street, Kensington. 
 With the Jesuit houses I shall deal later. 
 
 One of the most rare and striking examples of 
 a Religious Order, actively employed in carrying 
 out some useful work, is to be found in the 
 Benedictine Abbey of Downside, Somersetshire. 
 Attached to the Abbey, and immediately under 
 the direction of the monks, is a large public school 
 for the education of boys of the upper class, whose 
 care and management fully occupies the time of 
 the Benedictine brotherhood. Situated in a pic- 
 turesque part of Somersetshire, lying close to the 
 pretty villages of Chilcompton and Midsomer 
 Norton, and distant about twelve miles from Bath, 
 this Benedictine Abbey of St. Gregory stands high 
 up amid surroundings eminently suitable to an 
 
 are situated at Ramsgate, Appuldurcombe (I. of W.), Buck 
 fastleigh, Erdington, and Fort Augustus (N.B.).
 
 i6o THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 establishment which vividly recalls the Middle 
 Ages. Originally located at Douai, St. Gregory's 
 scholars quitted France, owing to the Revolution, 
 and after a short residence at Acton Burnell, in 
 Shropshire, proceeded to Downside, late in the 
 reign of George III. Since then, numerous addi- 
 tions and improvements have been made to the 
 early building, but the old house is still the most 
 interesting portion. A magnificent chapel is in 
 course of completion, and bids fare to rank as one 
 of the finest examples of modern Gothic in Great 
 Britain. In but few of our leading public schools 
 are the boys better educated, or generally looked 
 after, than at Downside, where the tutorial system 
 is excellent, whilst the discipline (less severe than 
 that obtaining at most public schools) contains 
 none of the elements of ' espionage ' habitual to 
 those under the supervision of the Society of 
 Jesus. The popularity of Downside among its 
 scholars is exemplified by the strong esprit de 
 corps animating its old boys, wherever found, all 
 the world over. Belonging to the monks there is a 
 fine library, containing many valuable manuscripts 
 and missals. 1 The monks' cells are warm, clean, 
 well-lighted, and well-built chambers, having even 
 bath-rooms near them : an example that might 
 well be followed by certain other of the Religious 
 
 1 In pre-Reformation times, it used to be said that an abbey 
 without a library was like a castle without an armoury.
 
 PARKMINSTER 161 
 
 Orders, notorious for their uncleanly and insanitary 
 habits. 
 
 Quite a different type of monastery to Downside 
 is St. Hugh"s, Parkminster, Sussex, belonging to 
 the Carthusian Order. It is, at the time of writing, 
 the only house in England belonging to this ascetic 
 brotherhood. In Downside, we have monachism 
 revealed in its most active and industrious form, 
 existing in close touch with the external world ; in 
 St. Hugh's Charterhouse we have a specimen of 
 purely contemplative monasticism, whose inmates, 
 ' the world forgetting and by the world forgot,' 
 lead lives of complete seclusion. Of this Order, it 
 is the proud boast of its monks that it has never 
 (unlike all the other pre- Reformation communities) 
 been reformed, for the good reason that it has 
 never needed reformation. Only the Trappists 
 are supposed to endure almost as rigorous a rule 
 as the Carthusians, but considering that the Trap- 
 pists vary the monotony by undertaking active 
 agricultural labours, I think that the Carthusian 
 rule is certainly harder of the two. Eating no 
 flesh meat, having no music at their services, and 
 speaking but seldom in the course of the week, 
 are some of the observances which mark the 
 Carthusian rule. 
 
 Carthusian monasteries are not numerous, be- 
 cause each house is always constructed on a large 
 and independent scale ; hence the small number
 
 i6a THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 of their houses flourishing in England at the time 
 of the Dissolution, when the London Charterhouse 
 offered such strenuous resistance to the wrath of the 
 King (Henry VIII.), who had its Prior executed, 
 and hanged or starved many of its monks. Each 
 priest of the Order has a residence all to himself, 
 so that a whole Charterhouse or Chartreuse must 
 necessarily cover a good deal of ground. These 
 quiet little houses consist of two rooms, a tiny 
 garden, and a kind of storeroom. The lay-brothers' 
 cells are arranged like those of other Orders. 
 There is also a guest-house ; for the hospitality of 
 the Carthusians is proverbial, although no visitor 
 is permitted to stay longer than ten days at a 
 time. 
 
 It was on a beautiful autumnal evening that I 
 first went to the Sussex Charterhouse of St. Hugh. 
 I had driven up through the woodland in a dog- 
 cart, the rustic driver of which, as he saw me dis- 
 appear through the gateway of the monastery, gave 
 me a parting glance, as much as to say, ' I shall 
 never see you again ! ' Once inside the Charter- 
 house, I seemed to have entered another world. 
 The spotless whiteness of the huge building, the 
 long cloisters, the tall spire of the chapel tapering 
 in the mystic twilight towards the darkening sky, 
 and above all, the sombre silence which reigned 
 around, impressed me strangely with the solemnity 
 of my new surroundings. By seven o'clock, I was
 
 PARKMINSTER 163 
 
 (like the community) in bed, but was called by a 
 monk, carrying a lantern, in good time for the 
 midnight service. Visitors present at this service, 
 lasting over two hours, are placed in a lofty gallery 
 overlooking the choir. The scene below which 
 meets their eye is striking in the extreme. The 
 beautiful chapel is dimly illuminated by the monks' 
 lanterns, placed by their stalls. There is no music, 
 and the peculiar plain chants sung by the brethren 
 give forth weird sounds. The monks' faces are 
 practically hidden in their cowls, and as their white- 
 robed bodies bend and bow, and even at times lie 
 prostrate, during the service, the effect is as if the 
 grave had for the nonce given up its dead, and had 
 filled the chapel with sad sepulchral forms moving 
 to and fro in the flittering lantern light. On nights 
 when the moon is shining, the scene becomes more 
 curious still, and the pallid beams piercing through 
 the coloured windows flood the chapel with their 
 silver rays. 'Are these men alive, or are they 
 spectres risen from the dead ? ' asks the awed 
 spectator in his gallery. 
 
 The service over, the tired monks return to 
 resume their broken slumbers in the cells, 1 but they 
 are back again for Mass before the outside world is 
 
 1 On cold winter nights this service is a most trying ordeal. 
 The return to the cells, and their cheerless pallets, after the 
 warmer chapel, is much felt by the brethren, weak from want 
 of food.
 
 i6 4 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 thinking of rising. That such a system must tell 
 upon its devotees, needs no doctor to explain, and 
 the minds of many of the monks slowly but surely 
 give way under the strain. 
 
 A small community chapel in the monastery is 
 famous for its life-size mural paintings, which 
 represent in a most realistic manner the sufferers 
 of the Carthusians under Henry VIII., namely, 
 the Priors Augustine Webster, John Hough ton, 
 and Robert Lawrence ; brothers Richard Bere, 
 John Davey, William Exmewe, Thomas Green, 
 William Home, William Greenwood, Thomas 
 Johnson, Humphrey Middlemore, Sebastian New- 
 digate, Walter Pierson, Thomas Redyng, John 
 Rochester, Robert Salt, James Walworth, and 
 Thomas Scriven. As at Downside, there is a 
 fine library here, in which many of the books were 
 bound, or re-bound by a lay-brother, about whom 
 a pathetic story is told. A Frenchman by birth, 
 it was his ardent wish to return to France. He 
 was told that he might do so, as soon as he had 
 finished binding the books. With feverish energy 
 he toiled on at his task, but his exertions injured 
 his health, and when he had only a volume or two 
 to complete, he fell ill and died. Whether his 
 remains were taken to France, or (as is far more 
 likely) were buried in a nameless grave within the 
 little cemetery at Parkminster, I omitted to inquire. 
 
 The community at Parkminster is mainly
 
 PARKMINSTER 165 
 
 composed of foreigners. But few Englishmen 
 become Carthusians. Of those Englishmen who 
 enter as novices, the majority never reach the 
 final stage, and leave to join other Orders, or the 
 Secular clergy. In contrast to Downside, and 
 most monasteries, the Carthusians hardly ever 
 dine together in the refectory. Their food is 
 handed into their cells on a tray. At meal-time, 
 therefore, these silent brethren enjoy no relaxation 
 of their rule. 
 
 Enveloping this grim Carthusian monastery, 
 there exists a charm most fascinating to all who 
 come within its walls from the world outside. It 
 is a charm, nevertheless, more full of pathos than 
 of joy ; for all appreciation of the splendour of the 
 building, and the asceticism of its inmates, is over- 
 powered by the sense of the severity of the rule. 
 The absolute monotony of it all seems so hopeless. 
 In this spiritual prison nearly all its inhabitants 
 are serving life-sentences. One wishes they 
 would lead more useful lives. At St. Hugh's, 
 time does not exist. All reckonings are vain ; 
 days and nights drift regularly away like the ebb 
 and flow of a rolling tide. But the benevolence 
 of the brethren remains unimpaired. It is said 
 that they help the Protestant poor in the neighbour- 
 hood ; and their donations to Roman Catholic 
 charities are (or were before their suppression 
 in France) famous throughout the world, owing
 
 166 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 to the enormous income accruing to the Order 
 from the manufacture and sale of its liqueur, 
 Chartreuse. 
 
 I quitted St. Hugh's white courts and cloisters, 
 my visit over, with mingled feelings. I found 
 myself returning from poetic medisevalism to the 
 prosaic life of our day. As I went out of the 
 gateway, the porter-monk shook me by the hand, 
 and (speaking in French) hoped that even if we 
 were never to meet again on earth, we should 
 surely meet in heaven. I had arrived at even- 
 tide, and it was eventide when I left. The sun 
 had just sunk to rest behind the distant tree-tops. 
 Night's lengthening shadows were cast across the 
 path by the boughs, as I wended my solitary way 
 towards the station. I seemed slowly to be 
 nearing the land of the living after rising from a 
 city of the dead. At the parting of the roads I 
 turned to throw one last glance at the monastery, 
 standing so stately and so lonely, its walls serenely 
 glistening in the gold and crimson radiance re- 
 flected by the after-glow of the sunken sun. I 
 proceeded ; and St. Hugh's was lost to view ; yet, 
 again was I arrested, this time by sounds echoing 
 through the woodland from the monastery. It 
 was the clamour of the bells summoning the 
 brethren to prayer. In a few more minutes, I 
 reached the station, the train came in, and I was 
 being whirled away towards London.
 
 MOUNT CARMEL 167 
 
 It is undoubtedly a pity that England has now 
 become the home of many minor Religious Orders 
 not in existence before the Reformation. Against 
 the return of most of the historic Orders, such as 
 the Carmelites, Cistercians, Canons Regular, and 
 Carthusians, we have not so strong a case, so long 
 as their houses are kept in proper care. But the 
 presenceof the Christian Brothers, 1 the Franciscans, 
 the Dominicans, 2 the Servites, and all the minor 
 Orders could well be dispensed with, whilst all the 
 smaller Benedictine houses might with advantage 
 be suppressed. When monks are living away from 
 their head-quarters, working on small missions, 
 they are apt to relax their rule, and often give 
 way to intemperate and other bad habits, and 
 cause a great deal of trouble in consequence. 
 These criticisms need not, as I have said, apply 
 to such an Order as that of Mount Carmel, whose 
 chapel at Kensington is so famous for its music. 
 
 After the Dissolution under Henry VIII., the 
 
 1 In the year 1897, in France, no less than fifteen members 
 of this Order were sentenced to heavy sentences of imprison- 
 ment for criminal offences against their pupils. 
 
 2 The Dominicans were essentially the Order of the Inquisi- 
 tion, of which St. Dominic was the practical founder. When 
 heretics were burnt at least one Dominican friar was present to 
 superintend the arrangements. An auto da fi was always 
 looked upon as a great holiday in a Dominican monastery, and 
 even the Jesuits took their novices and pupils to witness one as 
 a great treat.
 
 io8 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 Carmelites were only represented in England by 
 a slender succession of missionary priests, the 
 last of whom died about 1840. At the invitation 
 of Cardinal Wiseman, however, they returned to 
 England to live in community, and in 1862 he con- 
 secrated their chapel of Our Lady of Mount 
 Carmel and St. Simon Stock, 1 in Church Street, 
 Kensington, in the presence of a distinguished 
 assemblage of priests, including Faber and the 
 future Cardinals Howard and Manning. At 
 Wiseman's special request, a famous man was 
 selected to restore the position of Carmel in 
 England, and to act as the first prior of the 
 new foundation in London. This was Father 
 Augustine Mary, O.C.D., better known by his 
 name in the world of Hermann Cohen. Born in 
 the year 1820, of Hebrew parentage, he speedily 
 won fame in France, under the tutorship of the 
 Abbe Liszt, as a musician. Intoxicated with 
 success, he temporarily abandoned himself to 
 the most mundane of lives. But, a sharp change 
 suddenly came. He repented of his sins, resolved 
 to abandon his profession, and enter a monastery. 
 He selected the Carmelite Order, on account of 
 its strict rule. After distinguishing himself as a 
 preacher, he came over with a small community 
 to London, settling first in Kensington Square, 
 
 1 St. Simon Stock, a native of Kent, was the first official 
 head of the Carmelites in Europe.
 
 LA TRAPPE 169 
 
 and then in Church Street. On the outbreak of 
 the Franco-Prussian war, he went to Berlin, in 
 order to look after the French prisoners-of-war 
 taken thither. As a result of these exertions, he 
 became ill, and died in January 1871. Such was 
 the romantic career of this talented man, who 
 sacrificed his life in the service of others, and who 
 abandoned a most remunerative calling for one of 
 complete poverty. The (Discalced) Carmelites, 
 although not so silent as the Cistercians and the 
 Carthusians, are a very ascetic Order. A mid- 
 night service breaks their slumbers as in the 
 Carthusian houses. Their diet, too, is very plain. 
 In musical details they differ. At High Mass they 
 have an exceptionally splendid musical display. 
 
 The reformed branch of the Cistercian Order, 
 commonly called the Trappists, possess in their 
 abbey of St. Bernard, Charnwood Forest, an 
 interesting institution. Although commonly re- 
 puted the most severe of all the Orders, the 
 Trappists do so much out-door work in the fields 
 and in their gardens, that their rule is not so 
 rigorous and irksome as that of the enclosed 
 Carmelites and Carthusians. Their farming 
 operations at St. Bernard's have been remarkably 
 successful. In spite of their silence, their hands 
 have not been idle. English people, indeed, need 
 not travel so far as the original La Trappe, in 
 order to visit a 'silent' monastery, when they
 
 170 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 have one (or two) here in their midst ; they have 
 also a 'silent' convent for women. 
 
 In concluding this short sketch of English 
 monasticism, it will be interesting to note the 
 ages of the various Orders. I append, therefore, 
 the table following, comprising the approximate 
 dates of the foundations of the chief monastic 
 Orders in the Latin Church. In calculating these 
 dates, I am aware that valid arguments have 
 been adduced in favour of the greater antiquity of 
 the Augustinian Canons Regular, and of the 
 Carmelites, but I have traced them both back as 
 far as I can find the continuity of their succession 
 unbroken. The Carmelites, indeed, pretend to 
 deduce their descent from the days of Elijah, 
 which is a little absurd, considering that their 
 community is dedicated to ' Our Lady ' (of Mount 
 Carmel) ; whilst the Canons Regular (of the 
 Lateran) claim to have been first enrolled by St. 
 Augustine of Hippo, but they are not lineal 
 descendants of St. Augustine's Canons. 
 
 ORDER. FOUNDER. ,, DATE OF 
 
 FOUNDATION. 
 
 Augustinians (Canons Regular) Eleventh century 
 
 (Hermits) 1265 
 
 (Praemon- 
 
 stratensians) St. Norbert 1119 
 
 Barnabites St. Antonio Zaccaria 1533 
 
 Benedictines St. Benedict (a layman) 529 
 
 Carmelites Berthold (a Crusader) 1247
 
 MONASTIC FOUNDERS 
 
 171 
 
 ORDER. 
 
 Carmelites (Discalced) 
 Carthusians 
 Cistercians l 
 
 (Trappists) 
 Christian Brothers 
 
 Dominicans 
 Franciscans 
 
 (Capuchins) 
 Gilbertines 3 
 
 Jesuits 
 
 Marists 
 
 Oblates of St. Charles 
 
 Oratorians 
 
 Passionists 
 
 Redemptorists 
 
 Servites 4 
 Xaverian Brothers 
 
 FOUNDER. 
 
 DATE OF 
 FOUNDATION. 
 
 St. Teresa 1593 
 
 St. Bruno 1086 
 
 St. Robert 1075 
 
 Abbe de Rancd 2 1662 
 St. Jean Baptist de la 
 
 Salle 1725 
 
 St. Dominic 1216 
 
 St. Francis d'Assisi 1 209 
 
 Matteo de Bassi 1528 
 St. Gilbert of Sempring- 
 
 ham 1136 
 
 St. Ignatius Loyola 1540 
 
 Pere Colin 1818 
 
 St. Carlo Borromeo 1578 
 
 St. Philip Neri 1575 
 
 St. Paul of the Cross 1737 
 St. Alfonso Maria de 
 
 Liguori 1732 
 Some Merchants of 
 
 Florence 1233 
 
 Theodore Ryken 1846 
 
 In this list I have reckoned only from the date 
 of the definite official Papal recognition of each 
 
 1 The Cistercians and Carthusians were offshoots from the 
 Order of St. Benedict. 
 
 2 Armand Jean Le Bouthillier de Ranee' died at La Trappe 
 in the year 1700. He was a native of Normandy, and a 
 godson of Richelieu. 
 
 3 This entirely English Order did not survive the Dissolu- 
 tion. It was confined chiefly to the north-east of England. 
 
 4 This Order did not come to England until over six hun- 
 dred years after its foundation. The founders are canonized. 
 
 12
 
 172 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 3 
 Order, and not from the initial coming together 
 
 of each brotherhood. No Order can really call 
 itself established unless, or until, it receive the 
 Papal sanction. In some cases this was not 
 obtained until many years had elapsed since the 
 primary inception of the brotherhood. That the 
 Benedictines can legitimately claim to rank as the 
 oldest of the Orders, I think need not be ques- 
 tioned. They were the original founders of 
 monachism in Western Europe, and their rule 
 served as a model upon which those of several 
 other Orders came to be based. With the excep- 
 tion of the interesting and unique Order of the 
 Gilbertines, a mediaeval community of men and 
 women founded by a native of Lincolnshire, who 
 lived to be a centenarian, none of the above 
 Orders traced its origin to English auspices. 1 
 The various founders were respectively of Spanish, 
 French, German, and Italian extraction. Several 
 of these men left behind them lasting reputations 
 for piety. Such were Francis of Assisi, Armand 
 de Ranee (a personal friend of our exiled King, 
 James II.), St. Benedict, and St. Philip Neri. 
 The same could hardly be said of the cruel 
 Dominic, the mariolatrous Alfonso de Liguori, 
 and the meddlesome Ignatius Loyola. 
 
 That the Redemptorist Order has failed to 
 achieve much success in England is not surprising 
 
 1 The Order of Jesuitesses was founded by an Englishwoman 
 (Mary Ward), but it did not last long.
 
 ALFONSO LIGUORI 173 
 
 when we consider the character of its founder. 
 The writings of Alfonso Maria de Liguori are 
 certainly not calculated to render his English 
 disciples popular. Of his Glories of Mary, no 
 strictly faithful translation exists in English that 
 I know of, whilst his Moral T/ieology has not 
 been translated at all. It would, indeed, be im- 
 possible to publish and circulate this work in our 
 language, without its vendors speedily receiving 
 the unwelcome attentions of the authorities of 
 Scotland Yard. Its obscenities baffle description. 
 It is sad to reflect that Rome has not only pro- 
 claimed Alfonso a Saint, but has also dubbed him 
 a Doctor 1 of the Church. His theories in regard 
 to ' Probabilism ' should have been sufficient to 
 debar him from receiving these honours. What is 
 to be thought of a ' Saint ' who argues in favour 
 of righteousness of a father living forcibly on 
 the immoral earnings of an unfortunate daughter ? 
 No Jesuit, moreover, has defended, expounded, 
 and extolled the arts of equivocation more warmly 
 than has St. Alfonso Maria de Liguori. 
 
 Whether the Roman Catholic Church, as a 
 body, does or does not render excessive honours 
 to the Virgin Mary, is a matter which need not 
 
 1 In spite of the fact that one of his anecdotes, recorded in 
 the Glories of Mary, has been officially condemned as here- 
 tical ; namely, that of a head (without a body) receiving the 
 Host from a priest !
 
 174 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 be discussed here ; but there can be no doubt 
 that St. Alfonso has personally exceeded all 
 others in his devotion to the ' Mother of God.' 
 The Blessed Virgin, he tells us, is the neck of the 
 Church, and nothing can pass from the head to 
 the body except through that neck. ' At her com- 
 mand, all obey, even God.' Again, he relates 
 how a certain Franciscan Friar, Brother Leo, saw 
 in a dream two ladders descending to earth from 
 heaven. At the top of one, coloured red, stood 
 the Messiah, inviting sinners to ascend into 
 heaven by climbing it ; at the top of the other, a 
 white one, stood the Virgin Mary, inviting sinners 
 to win entrance into heaven by climbing up her 
 ladder. All those, according to St. Alfonso, who 
 tried to climb Christ's ladder, slipped down and 
 failed, but all those who tried to climb up by 
 Mary's ladder, ascended successfully into the 
 realms of eternal bliss. In other words, those 
 who seek salvation by the intercession of Jesus 
 Christ cannot obtain it : by the Virgin only are 
 sinners saved. 
 
 Modern London, although possessing but very 
 few remains of pre- Reformation buildings, is still 
 reminiscent of its occupation by the Monastic 
 Orders, whose names are perpetuated by the 
 titles of many of its civic streets. Thus, Grey- 
 friars is called after a former Franciscan friary ; 
 Blackfriars Bridge is close to the site of an old
 
 OLD LONDON 175 
 
 Dominican house; Crutchedfriars is an abbreviation 
 of Crossed- Friars, an Italian Order, which bore a 
 red cross woven in their habits ; Austinfriars 
 recalls the Augustinians (Canons Regular) ; the 
 Minories recalls a convent of nuns dedicated to 
 St. Clare ; Whitefriars is a site once occupied by 
 Carmelites ; and the Charterhouse was, of course, 
 occupied by Carthusians. Considering the age 
 and size of London, it is sad to reflect how few pre- 
 Reformation churches are still left. The quantity 
 of the survivors is very small. But in Saint 
 Saviour's, Southwark ; in Saint Ethelreda's, Ely 
 Place ; in Saint Bartholomew's, Smithfield ; in 
 Westminster Abbey ; in Allhallow's, Barking ; in 
 Saint Peter's-ad-Vincula, Tower Green ; in St. 
 Margaret's, Westminster ; and in Saint John's 
 Chapel within the Tower, London still boasts of 
 a few splendid relics of Norman and mediaeval 
 times. Of these, St. Bartholomew's and West- 
 minster Abbey live to bear evidence of the pris- 
 tine grandeur of the Benedictine Order ; whilst 
 St. Ethelreda's has (since 1879) once again been 
 used as a Roman Catholic chapel, being probably 
 the only pre- Reformation church in England (ex- 
 clusive of private chapels) which has reverted to 
 its former form of worship. 1 
 
 In connection with the remains of the old 
 
 1 Services are now held both in the beautiful church itself 
 and in the sombre crypt beneath it.
 
 i?6 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL 
 
 English monasteries, their chapels, and the 
 modern houses often built upon or among their 
 ruins, it has become a frequent custom of late to 
 dignify them by the title of ' Abbey,' no matter 
 what the original foundation may have been. 
 Country houses built on monastic lands, granted 
 to laymen at the Dissolution, are generally called 
 abbeys. In very many of these cases, however, 
 the original building was not the seat of an abbot, 
 but was an ordinary, and perhaps insignificant 
 priory, or convent.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 THE famous Society or Company of Jesus 
 was founded by Ignatius Loyola, a 
 Spanish Cavalier, in the reign of (our) King 
 Henry VIII., but the first formal Jesuit mission 
 to this country did not occur till Queen Elizabeth 
 had been seated more than twenty years upon the 
 throne. A stray Jesuit or two had, indeed, visited 
 England before this, but only on a short visit, 1 
 and not with the intention of immediately estab- 
 lishing a permanent mission here. Founded in 
 Spain, by a Spaniard helped by Spaniards (of the 
 seven original Jesuits five were Spaniards), the 
 Society of Jesus still bears to this day strong 
 internal marks of Spanish influences. The rules 
 of the Society were, and are, far more suited 
 to the Spanish temperament than that of any 
 other nationality, excepting perhaps the Italian. 
 Spaniards and Italians alike have ever played the 
 
 1 Ignatius Loyola, himself, is even said to have spent a short 
 time in London, in about the year 1530 (before the official 
 foundation of his Society). 
 
 177
 
 i7 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 predominant part in the government of the Society, 
 whose General has never been an Englishman or 
 a Frenchman. The full importance of these 
 Spanish influences has not been recognized 
 adequately by students of the history of the 
 Order. 
 
 The three most famous English members of the 
 Society of Jesus were, curiously enough, con- 
 temporaries, and joined it in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth. These priests were Edmund Campion, 
 Robert Southwell, and Robert Persons, or 
 Parsons. 1 Of this trio, Father Parsons was 
 famous as a politician ; Father Campion as a 
 preacher and dogmatic writer ; and Father 
 Southwell as a poet. Of the trio, Robert Parsons 
 alone died in his bed ; the other pair were hanged, 
 drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. That the 
 English Province of the Society of Jesus does not 
 attract so many capable recruits to its ranks, as it 
 did in its early days, is almost certain ; and during 
 the stormy days of Queen Elizabeth and King 
 James I., in addition to the trio mentioned, such 
 men as Henry Garnet, Henry Walpole, Edmund 
 Arrowsmith, John Gerard, Francis Walsingham, 
 Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne, and Thomas 
 
 1 The account of Fathers Campion and Parsons given by 
 Charles Kingsley in Westward Ho ! is grotesquely inaccurate. 
 Neither of these Jesuits travelled in Devonshire, where 
 Kingsley introduces them.
 
 PETRE AND PERRY 179 
 
 Garnet, were all actively employed, at times, on 
 the English mission. From the death of Robert 
 Parsons down to the era of emancipation, the 
 Jesuit best known in English history was Edward 
 Petre, whose unhappy accession to political power 
 under James II. proved one of the chief incen- 
 tives towards the ruin of the Stewart cause. 
 Father Petre died, like his patron, an exile in 
 France, although the King and the Jesuit are 
 said never to have met after leaving London, a 
 circumstance which suggests that James had 
 realized, all too late, how fatuous had been his 
 favourite's policy. Since Petre's day, the most 
 distinguished member of the English Province 
 has been Father Stephen Joseph Perry, a great 
 astronomer, and a priest of singular piety and 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 I append below a list of the Generals of the 
 Society, with the dates of their terms of office, 
 carried down. to the period of the Emancipation 
 Act, ia 1829 
 
 St. Ignazio de Loyola, a Spaniard, 1541-1556; 
 
 Diego Laynez, a Spaniard, i557- I S 6 5i 
 
 St. Francisco Borgia l 
 
 (Duke of Gandia) a Spaniard, 1565-1572 ; 
 
 1 A great-grandson of Pope Alexander VI. The other 
 canonized Jesuits are Peter Claver, Alfonso Rodriguez, Francis 
 Xavier, Aloysius Gonzaga, Francis of Jerome, John Francis 
 Regis, Stanislas Kostka, John Berchmans, and three ' Japanese 
 Martyrs.'
 
 i8o THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Eberherd Mercurian, 
 
 a Belgian, 
 
 iS73-i58o; 
 
 Claudio Acquaviva, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1581-1615; 
 
 Mutio Vitelleschi, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1615-1645; 
 
 Vincenzo Caraffa, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1646-1649 ; 
 
 Francesco Piccolomini, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1649-1651; 
 
 Alessandro Gottofredi, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1652; 
 
 Gosburn Nickel, 
 
 a German, 
 
 1652-1664; 
 
 Paolo Oliva, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1664-1681 ; 
 
 Charles von Voyelle, 
 
 a Belgian, 
 
 1682-1686; 
 
 Terso Gonzalez, 
 
 a Spaniard, 
 
 1687-1705; 
 
 Michael Angelo Tamburini, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1706-1730; 
 
 Franz Retz, 
 
 a Bohemian, 
 
 1730-1750; 
 
 Ignazio Visconti, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 ns'-^ss; 
 
 Alessandro Centurioni, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 *7S5-*T5T> 
 
 Lorenzo Ricci, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1758-1775; 
 
 Thaddeus Bryozowski, 
 
 a Pole, 
 
 1814-1820; 
 
 Aloysio Fortis, 
 
 an Italian, 
 
 1820-1829. 
 
 In 1773, the Society was suppressed by Pope 
 Clement XIV., and during the interval intervening 
 between then and its restoration in 1814, it was 
 ruled by Vicars-General, most of whom were 
 Poles, on account of Poland being one of the few 
 countries whose government did not refuse to 
 receive them, in spite of the Papal prohibition. 
 
 The sudden rise and growth of the Society of 
 the Jesuits represents one of the most remarkable 
 incidents in European history. Equally remark- 
 able is the manner in which the Jesuits recovered 
 their old position, after being suppressed by Pope 
 Clement. In 1773, they were officially denounced 
 and dissolved by one Pope, only to be officially 
 restored to their old position by another Pope, in
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS 181 
 
 1814. In this contradictory attitude of the Holy 
 See we have another example of the futility of 
 the doctrine of the Pope's Infallibility, since it is 
 clear that one of the Bulls issued by one of these 
 Popes must, ipso facto, have been erroneous ; 
 each cannot have been correct. 1 In 1773 on 
 the Roman Catholic theory the Holy Ghost 
 inspires the Pope to call the Jesuits by some very 
 harsh names, and to destroy their Society. In 
 1814 the Holy Ghost inspires the Pope to declare 
 that the Jesuits are little short of angels, and that 
 their restoration is imperative in the interests of 
 Holy Church. Nay more, in the Bull of re- 
 storation, the Pope (Pius VII.) declares that he 
 restores the Jesuits 'with the unanimous consent 
 of Christendom.' 
 
 That the suppression of the Jesuits by the 
 sagacious Clement XIV. was a most just and 
 salutary measure, and one dictated in the interests 
 not only of his Church, but of the political world 
 at large, cannot be questioned. It was a serious 
 blunder when his weak and misguided successor, 
 bullied and bribed, gave way to their demands for 
 restoration. At the period of their fall, every country 
 in Europe except Russia (and perhaps Prussia) 
 had renounced the Jesuits, who had also worked 
 
 1 Another similar case is that of Galileo. His astronomical 
 theories were condemned as heretical and absurd by Urban 
 VIII., and declared to be accurate and orthodox by Leo XIII.
 
 x8a THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 much mischief in Asia. Everywhere they had 
 wrought harm to their own religion, but in no 
 country so much as in England. It required, 
 nevertheless, an exceptionally puissant Pope to 
 suppress the Jesuits ; this, Clement XIV. un- 
 doubtedly was. His premature death was a great 
 loss not only to his Church, but to all Europe. 
 That he was poisoned by the agency of the Jesuits 
 was an opinion firmly held by many residents 
 in Rome at the time, and he himself seems to 
 have held the same view. 
 
 During the period of their suppression, the 
 Jesuits found the only European countries still 
 willing to receive them were Russia, Prussia, and 
 Poland. They made Poland their stronghold, 
 and pretending that Clement's Bull did not apply 
 to nations ready to recognize them, appointed 
 Poles to govern their Society. In England, they 
 settled at Stonyhurst, an Elizabethan house, in 
 Lancashire, bequeathed to them by a Roman 
 Catholic squire, and started their now famous 
 school. Among Protestants these Jesuits were 
 generally known as ' Gentlemen from Liege,' 
 and by Roman Catholics they were termed 
 ' Ex-Jesuits,' during the period of suppression. 
 The English Secular clergy were much annoyed 
 at the position assumed by the priests at Stony- 
 hurst, 1 and were not slow in protesting against 
 
 1 As late even as 1843, a Roman Catholic gentleman
 
 RESTORATION OF THE JESUITS 183 
 
 their unwarrantable claims. But the Jesuits, 
 under Father Charles Plowden, found a warm 
 friend in Dr. Milner, who lost no opportunity of 
 fighting on their behalf against his own episcopal 
 colleagues, and against his own clergy. 
 
 The Papal Bull restoring the Jesuits to their 
 former position was received with keen regret by 
 the majority of Romanists in England, whose 
 forefathers had suffered so severely on account of 
 the treasons of such men as Fathers Parsons, 
 Garnet, Greenway, Petre, and others. It was, 
 indeed, contended at the time, and, I believe, 
 with a considerable show of right, that the re- 
 storation of the Society of Jesus in England was 
 invalid, inasmuch as the Pope did not intend his 
 Bull to apply to countries whose rulers were 
 distinctly opposed to the Jesuits. Had the 
 British Government behaved firmly in the matter, 
 the Jesuit Province in England could again have 
 been crushed, but all that was done officially was 
 to insert certain clauses in the Emancipation Act 
 declaring the presence of Jesuits in Great Britain 
 illegal. No official attempt has ever been made 
 to carry these restrictions into legal operation. 
 In no European country, in consequence, have 
 the Jesuits since led a more peaceful existence 
 
 (Ambrose M. P. de Lisle) was not allowed by the Vicar- 
 Apostolic of the Midland District to employ a Jesuit as his 
 private chaplain.
 
 i8 4 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 than in England and Wales, as their prosperous 
 establishments at Old Windsor (Beaumont), St. 
 Bruno's (N. Wales), Preston, Bournemouth, 
 Chesterfield, London (Mayfair), Stonyhurst, and 
 Roehampton l tend to prove. 
 
 Since the Emancipation Act of 1829, the Jesuits 
 have not attempted openly to interfere in English 
 politics, but have contented themselves chiefly 
 with solidifying their position among their co- 
 religionists, with the object of raising themselves 
 to an eminence of supreme importance among 
 the Roman Catholic clergy employed in Great 
 Britain. In this task, they have had to encounter 
 one formidable rival among the Religious Orders, 
 in the Benedictines. The Jesuits have not in- 
 dulged in the fallacious views entertained by so 
 many Romanists, as to the probability of England 
 returning shortly to the Roman Catholic fold, and 
 they realize how false have been recent figures 
 relating to the number of conversions. They 
 have acted on the saner principle of trying mainly 
 to keep what they have got. But, although they 
 have avoided politics, the Jesuits have striven to 
 become a power on the English Press. Their 
 literary staff in London 2 keeps itself aufait with 
 
 1 At Manresa, Roehampton, they possess a vine considerably 
 larger than that at Hampton Court. 
 
 2 The English Jesuits publish a periodical of their own called 
 The Month.
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 185 
 
 all that goes on in the world of letters, and loses 
 no chance of attacking any author who deals at 
 all unfavourably with the history or the work of 
 their Society. But, in spite of the vehemence 
 of their diatribes, the malice of their writers and 
 their agents has done the Society little good, and 
 they have generally got the worst of the argu- 
 ment. The verdict of history is dead against 
 the Society, and recent research has cast a lurid 
 light upon the doings of the Jesuits in England 
 during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., Charles 
 II., and James II. ; whilst their audacious but 
 weak attempt to prove that there was no such 
 event as the Gunpowder Plot has met with 
 universal and well-merited ridicule. 
 
 It has ever been the ambition of the Jesuits to 
 induce their co-religionists to believe that the 
 Roman Catholic religion was kept alive in Eng- 
 land and Wales, during the darkest days of the 
 penal laws, mainly by the exertions of their 
 Society. In fine, they have laboured to demon- 
 strate that, but for the Jesuits, Roman Catholicism 
 would, for a time at any rate, have practically 
 become extinct in England. But this, as a matter 
 of fact, is a very incorrect view of the case, and 
 it was the Jesuits' restless plotting, coupled with 
 their jealousy of the Secular clergy and the Bene- 
 dictines, that conduced more than anything else 
 towards the ruin of the Roman Catholic cause in
 
 186 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 this country. To their discomfiture, this point has 
 been clearly established by several Roman Catholic 
 writers, such as Charles Dodd, Canon Tierney, 
 Joseph Berington, Sir John Throckmorton, Charles 
 Butler, E. L. Taunton, and Dr. Law. 
 
 The history of the Jesuits in England, from 
 their coming over in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 
 to their suppression by Clement XIV., has been 
 ably written by the Rev. E. L. Taunton, 1 a Secular 
 priest. In Father Taunton's pages, he draws 
 emphatic attention to the historical importance of 
 the career of Robert Persons, or Parsons. As 
 the author shows, this indefatigable Jesuit, who 
 supported Spain in nearly all her attacks upon 
 England under Elizabeth, should be regarded as 
 one of the leading politicians of his day : un- 
 scrupulous, traitorous, and mendacious though 
 he was. It was the aim of Father Parsons, not 
 only to restore the fallen fortunes of his Church 
 in England, but to re-establish it anew, with its 
 clergy and laity, under the control of his own 
 Society. He wished, in truth, to make the 
 Society of Jesus paramount in the realm of Eng- 
 
 1 The History of the Jesuits in England (Methuen, 1901). 
 What is still wanted is a history of the English Province from 
 the period of its suppression, in 1773, down to the present day. 
 Anti-Jesuit books, when written by Roman Catholics, seem to 
 become quickly very scarce and valuable, and it is now quite 
 difficult to get copies of the works of Dodd, Tierney, and 
 Berington.
 
 JESUIT SCHOOLS ,8 7 
 
 land. Happily, he failed signally in this endeavour, 
 and rendered his Society, everywhere, more and 
 more unpopular. 
 
 The principal successes of the Jesuits have 
 been gained in the school-room. Their educa- 
 tional system has been acknowledged to be 
 admirable by all parties. By this, I refer only 
 to their methods of imparting instruction, and 
 not to their disciplinary system, which is in many 
 respects most objectionable. By their training of 
 the sons of rich and well-born Roman Catholics, 
 they obtain a power over their pupils which may 
 last throughout life ; for the Jesuits make it a 
 rule to keep, so far as is possible, in touch with 
 their ' old boys ' after they have left school. 1 
 
 The senior boys at Jesuit schools are usually 
 asked to join religious sodalities, to branches of 
 which they continue to belong after they have 
 left. The chief of these in England is the 
 Sodality of the Immaculate Conception, a branch 
 of the ' Prima Primaria ' at Rome. The members 
 of this sodality are all of gentle birth, and the 
 London branch has a pretty little chapel for their 
 exclusive use situated in the Jesuits' house in 
 
 1 An instance of this occurred some years ago when a young 
 Polish prince suddenly disappeared after losing large sums of 
 money at Monte Carlo. His family, after futile inquiries 
 on their own account, eventually asked the Jesuits to aid in 
 the search, and they were not long in discovering that he was 
 living quietly in New South Wales,
 
 i88 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Mount Street, Berkeley Square. Here, during 
 about eight or nine months in the year, the 
 sodalists meet for a monthly communion, and for 
 a special service on Saturday afternoons. These 
 special services are celebrated according to a 
 form drawn up for the private manual used by 
 the sodality, and consists of the recitation of Latin 
 psalms, prayers, litanies, and hymns, repeated and 
 sung in adoration of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Each sodalist must go occasionally, if not 
 always, to a Jesuit priest for confession. The 
 Director of every branch of the sodality is always 
 a Jesuit priest, and although assisted in his labours 
 by a council of lay sodalists, the latter are no 
 more than mere figure-heads, and act as he may 
 direct. The consequences of this policy are, that 
 a large number of the male members of the 
 Roman Catholic aristocracy and plutocracy are 
 kept in close touch with the Jesuits, and are 
 somewhat hindered thereby from identifying 
 themselves with the work of the Secular clergy ; 
 for although they are free to hear Mass said, on 
 Sundays and holidays of obligation, in any church 
 they like, they must still repair to Jesuit churches 
 for their monthly communion. The Jesuits, there- 
 fore, knew what they were about when they 
 established the Sodality of the Immaculate 
 Conception. 1 
 
 1 There are other sodalities for men under Jesuit control,
 
 THE FOUR VOWS 189 
 
 That the abilities of the average Jesuit, as an 
 individual, have been too highly belauded, cannot 
 be doubted. The very length and severity of the 
 ordeal, which the novice has patiently to undergo 
 prior to ordination in the Society of Jesus, and 
 especially again before he can become Professed 
 of the Four Vows, tend to prevent a really clever 
 man from becoming a Jesuit. What the Jesuits 
 want are pliant priests of average ability, who will 
 (by dint of training) work like mere machines, and 
 upon whose obedience they can thoroughly rely. 
 The Jesuit must always obey. He must never 
 ' ask the reason why.' He must carry out with 
 unswerving fidelity the orders of his superiors. 1 
 He is a mere tool in the hands of others, unless 
 he reaches an eminent position in the inner ring 
 as it were of the Society, a position gained by 
 very, very few members of the English Province. 
 The result is that the Jesuits are, in the main, 
 men of sound but moderate capabilities. Abroad, 
 as in Great Britain, the latter-day Jesuit does not 
 seem to compare favourably, from an intellectual 
 point of view, with his predecessors of the seven- 
 teenth and (early part) of the eighteenth centuries. 
 
 but these, it is stated, are (in contrast to that of the Im- 
 maculate Conception) intended for mere ' men,' and not for 
 ' gentlemen.' 
 
 1 ' Every member of the Society of Jesus shall be, in the 
 hands of his superiors, as a corpse ' (Loyola).
 
 i 9 o THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Their writers and preachers, too, in England, at 
 any rate, are not now noted for their brilliance. 
 The best work of the Society is performed, with 
 less ostentation, in the instruction of the young, 
 and even in England, Stonyhurst and Beaumont 
 have succeeded in turning out many notable men, 
 such as Charles Waterton, Cardinal Vaughan, the 
 Hon. Charles Langdale (admitted as a lay-brother 
 into the Society in his old age), Sir Frederick 
 Weld, Dr. George Oliver, Alfred Austin, Sir 
 Montagu Gerard, R. L. Shiel, R. M. O'Ferrall, 
 Edmund Waterton, Sir George Glynn Petre, and 
 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Two or three old 
 Stonyhurst boys have, I believe, won the Victoria 
 Cross, and the young architect of the new Liverpool 
 Cathedral was educated at Beaumont. 
 
 The Jesuits have been called, in ridicule, 
 ' Apostles of the rich,' because their European 
 labours have been chiefly confined to work among 
 the upper classes, and (unlike other of the Re- 
 ligious Orders) they have not done much good 
 among the poor, hence the sources of the vast 
 store of wealth accumulated by the Society, and 
 invested in all kinds of clever speculation. Here 
 and there, however, they have proved real bene- 
 factors to the poor ; although, as instanced in 
 their former mission in Paraguay their ' Lost 
 Paradise it has not been their object to elevate 
 the minds of the lower classes, but to confine
 
 LOSSES AND BLUNDERS 191 
 
 them strictly to a mechanical system of Roman 
 Catholicism. 
 
 With all their acquired acuteness, the Jesuits 
 make many mistakes, as, indeed, they have ab 
 initio. The whole history of their Society has 
 been a series of blunders. In the far East, their 
 ' Chinese Rites,' l condemned by Pope after Pope, 
 were finally prohibited and abolished. In England, 
 their fatuous policy was the ruin of the Roman 
 Catholic cause. In France, their advocacy of the 
 Revocation of Nantes drove into exile numbers 01 
 prosperous French merchants, who established 
 themselves forthwith in this country, to the gain 
 of Great Britain and to the loss of France. In 
 Poland, they were the political cause of working 
 immense mischief among all classes. In Spain 
 and Portugal, they are daily losing ground, and 
 have a very indifferent reputation. In 1870, their 
 enforced Definition of the Infallibility of the Pope 
 reveals itself, as time goes, in the light of one of 
 the most tragical errors ever committed by the 
 Court of Papal Rome. In the same year they 
 were instrumental in advising the Empress 
 Eugenie to induce Napoleon III. to go to war 
 with Prussia. 
 
 1 ' From this room,' once said a General of the Jesuits to a 
 French statesman, { I govern not only Paris, but China ; and 
 not only China, but the whole world and that without 
 anybody knowing how it is done,'
 
 i9* THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 On the whole, notwithstanding their continual 
 reverses, the Jesuits have good reason to be satis- 
 fied with their present position in England and 
 Ireland, with which, so long as they remain satis- 
 fied, without meddling in party politics, they are 
 likely to hold their own. There are, nevertheless, 
 some awkward obstacles lying in their way. 
 Recent events in France have done much to 
 revive the traditional British hostility to their 
 Society. The unwelcome influx of Religious 
 Orders from abroad has tended to call public 
 attention again to the question of the Jesuits. 
 Constant controversies in the English press, in 
 which the Jesuits are so fond of taking part, have 
 done their Society little good, and if they wish to 
 maintain their stronghold unimpaired, they must 
 first be content with fortifying it, before sallying 
 out to attack their enemies' camp. 
 
 Bitter experience teaches us to dislike and 
 distrust the Jesuits, but it would be both foolish 
 and dishonest to tar them all with the same brush. 
 Only a few years ago, towards the end of the 
 reign of Queen Victoria, their English Provincial, 
 acting on behalf of his colleagues, remonstrated 
 most forcibly with the General of the Jesuits in 
 regard to the nature of some of the instructions 
 sent over from Rome to be observed by the 
 Jesuits in this country, with the result that the 
 General was obliged to alter his anti- British
 
 THE BLACK POPE 193 
 
 policy. Among the Jesuits have been, and are, 
 many scoundrels, but there also have been, and 
 are, a great many saints. The same Society 
 which (dealing only with England) has produced 
 such men as Robert Parsons, Henry Garnet, 
 Oswald Tesimond (Greenway), and Edward Petre, 
 has also given us priests such as Edmund Arrow- 
 smith, Albany Christie, John Morris, Henry Kerr, 
 Stephen Perry, and Ignatius Grant. 
 
 Except when it has been (as in the case of the 
 Vatican Council) to serve the direct interests of 
 their Society, the Jesuits have seldom proved 
 loyal servants of the Holy See. They have, 
 indeed, always defied episcopal authority, and 
 have obeyed the orders only of their own General, 
 and of his immediate advisers. It has been said 
 that, at times, they have lent large sums of money 
 to the Holy See, and while these sums remained 
 unpaid, they have practically held the Papacy in 
 pawn. The power of the General of the Jesuits 
 is, or was, almost equal to that of the Holy 
 Father, and in Italy to this day the head of the 
 Society of Jesus is called the ' Black Pope,' and 
 the head of the Roman Catholic Church the 
 1 White Pope.' 1 The labours of the General are 
 prodigious. No individual in the world receives, 
 and answers, so many letters. In the archives of 
 
 1 The Cardinal who presides over the Propaganda is often 
 called the ' Red Pope.'
 
 i94 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 the Jesuit head-quarters are preserved enormous 
 registers, wherein the names of all members of 
 the Society are enrolled, together with prolific 
 personal notes relating to the Society's friends, 
 and especially its foes. The frailties of a woman, 
 the secret policy of a minister, the income of some 
 opulent merchant, the ' liberalism ' of some exalted 
 ecclesiastic are, inter alia } all chronicled here. 
 The Jesuit obtains exact information about the 
 inner life of every foeman worthy of his steel- 
 about his friends, his source of wealth (or his 
 debts), his movements, his projects, and his past. 
 Although the Society of Jesus is composed ol 
 men only, 1 it exercises great influence over, and 
 keeps in close touch with, more than one Order of 
 Nuns. The wealthy Order of the Sacred Heart 
 exists under the exclusive direction of the Society, 
 whose priests act as confessors to the nuns and 
 their pupils. Other communities of females, such 
 as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin, also have 
 constant recourse to the Society for a supply of 
 confessors, and have adopted its rules. Such 
 sisterhoods gradually submit, in the main, to 
 Jesuit control. But the influence of the Society 
 over women is not confined to the inhabitants 
 of convents. The Jesuits make a speciality of 
 maintaining intimate terms with wealthy married 
 
 1 As stated above, the Order of Jesuitesses did not long 
 exist. It was suppressed by the Pope.
 
 JESUIT METHODS 195 
 
 women, or with young heiresses to large fortunes, 
 by means of which policy much of the vast wealth 
 accumulated by their Society has been gained. 
 They make a habit of obtaining information from 
 Catholic servants as to the doings of their mis- 
 tresses. Their influence over women has in turn 
 influenced the history of modern Europe. Many 
 a king's mistress has been a secret agent of the 
 Society. In England, the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth, beloved by Charles II., was a warm friend 
 of the Jesuits, as was in France (to quote a single 
 instance out of several) the famous Madame de 
 Maintenon. The ascendency gained over the 
 feminine mind by the Jesuit in the confessional is 
 extraordinary, and he rarely permits a lady, 
 coming to his confessional-box for the first time, to 
 leave it until he has cross-examined her carefully 
 about her social position and private life. 
 
 An amusing anecdote, in illustration, was told, 
 a few years ago, of a fazix pas committed by a 
 Jesuit in the west of London. A woman not 
 bad looking, and very well dressed came to 
 him for confession. Not having seen her before, 
 he asked for her name, and promised shortly to 
 pay her a visit. The address she gave was that 
 of a house in, or very near, Berkeley Square, to 
 which the Jesuit accordingly betook himself on his 
 visit a few days later. Knocking at the front 
 door, his summons was answered by a tall footman
 
 196 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 in livery. ' Is Miss So-and-so at home ? ' said the 
 Jesuit. With an air of ineffable disgust, to the 
 Jesuit's astonishment, the footman replied, 'When 
 you come to see the second housemaid, kindly 
 ring the bell at the area-gate/ 
 
 In England and Wales, the Jesuits have 
 establishments scattered about in various parts of 
 the country, but their stronghold, undoubtedly, is 
 Lancashire. At Oxford, although they have a 
 beautiful church, their mission has never made 
 any real progress. The following is a list of 
 English and Welsh places in which the Jesuits 
 possess houses and churches : Blackpool, Bourne- 
 mouth, Bristol, Bury Saint Edmunds, Chesterfield, 
 Denbigh, Leigh, Liverpool, London, Manchester, 
 Mold, Old Windsor, Oxford, Preston, Rhyl, 
 Richmond (Yorks), Roehampton, Saint Asaph, 
 St. Helier (Jersey), Saint Helens, Shipton, Stony- 
 hurst, Wakefield, Wardour Castle (Wilts), Wigan, 
 Wimbledon, Worcester, Yarmouth, Canterbury, 
 St. Leonards-on-Sea, Prescot, Accrington, Billing- 
 ton, Clitheroe, Holywell, and Petworth.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE ENGLISH JESUITS (continued) 
 
 IN this chapter I furnish a series of brief bio- 
 graphies, mainly arranged in alphabetical 
 order, of the most remarkable of the English 
 Jesuits, dating from the period of the first formal 
 mission of the Society to England, and descending 
 to the present day. Of some of the nineteenth- 
 century Jesuits included in my little list no 
 accounts have hitherto appeared in print, except 
 in certain publications, probably of small circula- 
 tion, issued by the Jesuits themselves, and these, 
 of course, have not been noted for their impar- 
 tiality. I have, therefore, written throughout 
 from the historical rather than from the theological 
 point of view. Many able Jesuits of English 
 birth have been employed abroad by their Society, 
 so that they have not come under my observation l 
 here. The English Jesuits have selected their 
 
 1 Such as William Good, the first Englishman to join the 
 Society. He was received into the Society at Tournai, in 
 1562, and died at Naples, in 1586. 
 
 197
 
 198 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 recruits from all classes of society upper, middle, 
 and low. Some of their members have sprung 
 from old Roman Catholic families, such as, for 
 example, Walmesley, Hornyold, Petre, Blundell, 
 Vavasour, Weld, Plowden, Shireburn, Scarisbrick, 
 Rookwood, Pole, Mannock, Poulton, Eyston, 
 Molyneux, Gage, Walpole, Langdale, Dormer, 
 Copley, Mostyn, Tichborne, Clifford, Constable, 
 Gerard, Vaughan, More, Southwell, Riddell, 
 Blount, Caryll, Tyrrell, Tempest, and Strickland. 
 In Brother Foley's 1 voluminous Records of the 
 English Province of the Society of Jesus we 
 frequently come across such names, and those 
 of other old Romanist races now extinct in the 
 male line (as are several of the above). Cadets 
 of these houses did much to forward the internal 
 interests and strengthen the position in times past 
 of the English Province of that Society, which has 
 been aptly likened to a gleaming dagger whose 
 hilt is at Rome, but whose point is to be encountered 
 everywhere. 
 
 My records of the leading English Jesuits follow, 
 as below, commencing with the ill-fated 
 
 EDMUMD ARROWSMITH, the Jesuit 'martyr/ 
 born at Haydock, Lancashire, in the year 1585, 
 and executed at Lancaster in September 1628. 
 His memory has remained green chiefly on account 
 
 1 Henry Foley, formerly a solicitor, after becoming a Roman 
 Catholic, entered the Society of Jesus as a lay-brother.
 
 EDMUND ARROWSMITH 
 
 199 
 
 of the relic of his supposed miraculous hand, still 
 preserved at St. Oswald's Church, Ashton, Newton- 
 le- Willows, Lancashire. It is alleged that many 
 invalids have been cured by touching the hand. 
 Arrowsmith was a priest of deep piety, and led 
 a self-sacrificing and unselfish life. He was 
 treated with the greatest brutality at his execution, 
 and a horrible story is told of his mangled remains 
 being taken for inspection to Sir Henry Yelverton, 
 the judge who had sentenced him, then seated at 
 dinner, but whose appetite remained unspoilt by 
 the revolting spectacle, about which he passed 
 some very coarse remarks. After being educated 
 at Douai, Arrowsmith was ordained a priest in 
 1612, and was sent in the year following back to 
 England, where, in 1624, he secretly joined the 
 Society of Jesus. He seems to have carried on 
 his labours, even after he became a Jesuit, very 
 much like an ordinary Secular priest ; and he does 
 not appear to have been employed in the direct 
 interests of his Society, a fact which has reasonably 
 led one Roman Catholic historian to doubt whether 
 he was a Jesuit at all. Probably the Jesuits, find- 
 ing that he was unlikely to serve their interests 
 politically, allowed him to work on much the same 
 lines, after his secret reception into their Society, 
 as he had done before joining them. That he 
 was a Jesuit was not known to the authorities 
 who captured and tried him ; they vaguely accused
 
 200 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 him at first of being one, but that without adducing 
 or discovering any proof whatever. Arrowsmith's 
 baptismal name was Bryan, which he changed for 
 Edmund at his confirmation. He is said to have 
 joined the Jesuits under the alias of Edmund 
 Bradshawe. At the period of his capture he 
 seems to have gone under the alias of Rigby. A 
 wonderful cure is reported, in the year 1735, to 
 have been effected by bringing the ' miraculous ' 
 hand of the ' martyred ' priest to the bedside of 
 an invalid boy. The hand is still periodically 
 'exposed for the veneration of the faithful.' 
 
 JOHN CALDWELL (alias FENWICK) was one of the 
 victims of the ' Popish Plot,' for alleged implication 
 in which he suffered death, at the instance of 
 Titus Gates, in company with several other priests 
 of his Society. He was born at Durham, in the 
 year 1628, of Protestant parentage, but entered 
 the Roman Church in or about 1652. After being 
 educated at St. Omer's College, he joined the 
 Jesuits in 1656. Twenty years later he was sent 
 by them to London. He was hanged at Tyburn, 
 after having been very cruelly treated in prison, 
 on June 20, 1679. A full account of Cald well's 
 alleged connection with the schemes denounced 
 by the infamous Titus Gates is given in Mr. John 
 Pollock's comprehensive and illuminating History 
 of the Popish Plot. 
 
 EDMUND CAMPION (' Proto-Martyr of the English
 
 EDMUND CAMPION 201 
 
 Jesuits'). Just as John Henry Newman was the 
 most distinguished Oxford convert to Romanism 
 of the nineteenth century, so Edmund Campion 
 was the most distinguished Oxford convert of 
 the sixteenth century, with the difference that 
 Campion's scholastic career at the University 
 was the more brilliant of the two. Campion was 
 Proctor and Public Orator at Oxford, 1 and de- 
 livered a famous oration at the funeral of the 
 unfortunate Amy Robsart, 2 killed at Cumnor, and 
 another on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit 
 to the University town in 1566. He intended 
 going over to Rome soon after quitting Oxford, 
 where his Catholic leanings had got him into 
 trouble, and took refuge in Ireland. Here, for 
 some time, he was protected by the Lord- Deputy, 
 Sir Henry Sidney. He fled eventually to the 
 continent, formally became a Roman Catholic at 
 Douai in 1571, and two years later a Jesuit. In 
 1578, he was ordained priest (he had been a deacon 
 in the Church of England). Campion, disguised 
 as a merchant, accompanied Father Robert 
 Parsons, by the direction of Cardinal Allen, on 
 the first Jesuit mission to England. Arrived in 
 
 1 Campion, the son of a bookseller, was born in London, 
 January 25, 1539. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and 
 at St. John's College, Oxford, of which he was a fellow. 
 
 2 R. Simpson (Campion's biographer) incorrectly states that 
 Amy Robsart was buried, first, at Cumnor. This was not so. 
 Her body was taken direct to Oxford, for burial there.
 
 202 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 London, to disarm suspicion, he actually lodged 
 in the house of an officer who had been specially 
 directed to effect his capture, for it had got to the 
 knowledge of Elizabeth's advisers that Fathers 
 Parsons and Campion were on their way to 
 England. From London he journeyed forth 
 into the provinces, secretly visiting the houses 
 of Roman Catholics, and enchanting all who 
 resorted to him with the fascination of his pre- 
 sence, the fervour of his piety, the brilliance of 
 his oratory, and the sweetness of his disposition. 
 He was also the means of making many con- 
 verts to Romanism. After on several occasions 
 narrowly escaping capture, he was taken at last, 
 at Lyford Grange, near Abingdon, Berkshire. 
 At this house, belonging to a Roman Catholic 
 family of the name of Yate, were lodged several 
 nuns, who much wished to hear Campion preach. 
 As the house was well watched, Father Parsons 
 advised Campion not to visit it, but in vain. 
 Tidings of Campion's residence there were given 
 to the magistrates by an informer. The house 
 was surrounded, and Campion arrested. After 
 spending some time in prison, during which he 
 was put on the rack, Campion met his fate with 
 heroic fortitude at Tyburn, December i, 1581, 
 and earned, in consequence, the title of ' Proto- 
 Martyr of the English Jesuits.' 
 
 As the author of the Decem Rationes, Edmund
 
 ALEXANDER BRIANT 203 
 
 Campion took high rank among contemporary 
 theologians. Emanating from the Jesuits' secret 
 printing-press in Oxfordshire, the south of England 
 was flooded with pamphlets written, or edited, by 
 him and Parsons. He lost his life because he 
 would not repudiate the doctrine of the Deposing 
 Power of the Popes. With almost his last breath 
 he prayed for Queen Elizabeth. In company 
 with Campion were hanged, drawn, and quartered 
 two other priests, one of whom, Alexander Briant, 
 a handsome young man of much promise, the 
 Jesuits claim as amongst their 'martyrs.' It is 
 a fact that Briant was, at his own request, 
 nominally admitted into their Society shortly 
 before he died ; but he was in prison at the 
 time, and never had, therefore, the necessary 
 long probation in or actual connection with the 
 Society, and he cannot, consequently, be con- 
 sidered other than what he originally was a 
 Secular priest. A man cannot be made a Jesuit 
 in a few minutes. 
 
 Father Campion's violent death created con- 
 siderable consternation in Madrid and at Rome, 
 where his reputation as a scholar stood as high 
 as it always had in England. He was not 
 employed by his superiors as a politician, but 
 purely as a religious. His General, indeed, had 
 forbidden him to interfere in English politics. 
 But it must be borne in mind that Father 
 14
 
 204 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Campion was not a 'martyr' in the sense that 
 were undoubtedly the Protestants, Bishops Ridley, 
 Hooper, and Latimer. These, and the other 
 Marian martyrs (excepting Cranmer), were 
 burned to death because they refused to believe 
 in transubstantiation and in other Roman dogmas. 
 Campion, on the other hand, was hanged because 
 he would not deny the Pope's Deposing Power ; 
 although, at the same time, he never once said 
 anything in its favour ; but to all the questions 
 directly put to him, as to whether the Popes have 
 any right to excommunicate, depose, or destroy 
 princes, he returned, nevertheless, unsatisfactory 
 answers. Still, the fact of these evasive answers 
 did not justify his being tortured so terribly to 
 force him to betray his friends. A very little 
 would have saved his life, so satisfied were the 
 authorities (with his old patrons and admirers, 
 Elizabeth l and Leicester, at their head) with his 
 replies to the other interrogatives of his examiners. 
 Edmund Campion was, in fact, a victim of the 
 disastrous policy of Pope Pius V. 2 One of the 
 
 1 It is said that Elizabeth offered Campion the reversion 
 of the Archbishopric of Canterbury if he would renounce 
 Romanism and enter the Established Church. 
 
 2 ' We know,' said Pope Urban VIII., ' that We may declare 
 Protestants excommunicate, as Pius V. declared Queen Eliza- 
 beth of England, and before him, Clement VII., Henry VIII., 
 King of England but with what success ? The whole world 
 can tell. We yet bewail it in tears of blood.' Some other
 
 OXFORD CONVERTS 205 
 
 cords in which he lay bound on his way to 
 Tyburn is preserved at Stonyhurst ; his halter 
 was buried in the grave of Father Parsons. 1 It 
 is said, so confident was he of becoming a ' martyr,' 
 that, even before being captured, he used to raise 
 his hat when passing Tyburn tree. 
 
 Although Father Parsons made many converts 
 in England, Edmund Campion must be considered 
 the leader of the Roman Catholic revival under 
 Elizabeth. He founded, indeed, an Oxford 
 Movement, to which that of the nineteenth century, 
 under J. H. Newman, was in many respects very 
 similar. Many of Campion's Oxford friends 
 went over to Rome with him, just as did so many 
 of Newman's. Fathers Holt, Arden, Briant, 
 Martin, Sherwin, and Emerson were all Oxford 
 men, as were several lay members of a powerful 
 sodality of gentlemen, specially enrolled in order 
 to aid Parsons and Campion in their mission to 
 England. Like the Tractarians, all these Jesuit 
 converts became Ultramontanes, and distinguished 
 themselves in attacking the ' old school ' of Roman 
 
 priests, captured at about the same time as Campion, were 
 released on disavowing all credence in the Deposing Power. 
 1 Froude inaccurately states that Robert Parsons died, 
 thirty years after Campion, at Valladolid. Parsons died in 
 Rome, less than twenty-nine years after Campion's execution. 
 Froude is also wrong in saying that Father Garnet was an 
 Oxford man.
 
 206 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Catholic clergy. Cardinal Allen, thefons et origo 
 mali, was also an Oxford man. 
 
 ALBANY JAMES CHRISTIE was one of the sup- 
 porters of the Oxford Movement. He was born 
 in London, 1817, and became a fellow of Oriel, 
 Oxford (Newman's college). Originally intend- 
 ing to enter the medical profession, he studied for 
 some time at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but on 
 joining the Roman Church, entered the Society 
 of Jesus, in 1847, and took holy orders. Whilst 
 stationed at Farm Street, London, he succeeded 
 in making many converts to Romanism. Father 
 Christie was a most industrious worker in the 
 cause of his Society and his Church, and a very 
 earnest, strict, and pious priest. He died in 1891. 
 
 HENRY JAMES COLERIDGE, D.D., like his friend, 
 Father Albany Christie, went to Rome via Oxford. 
 He was a great-nephew of S. T. Coleridge, the 
 poet, and brother to Lord Chief Justice Coleridge. 1 
 Originally an Anglican clergyman, he became a 
 Roman Catholic in 1852, and a Jesuit in 1857. 
 He wrote a Life of Our Lord, and edited The 
 Month. Born in 1822, he died in 1893, and 
 was buried in the graveyard of the beautiful old 
 collegiate church at Ottery St. Mary, Devon, the 
 home of his family. 
 
 JOSEPH CRESSWELL, born in London, 1557, 
 
 1 Coleridge's successor, Lord Russell of Killowen, also had 
 a brother who was a Jesuit (in Ireland).
 
 JOSEPH CRESSWELL 207 
 
 entered the Society of Jesus abroad in 1583, 
 and was Rector of the English College at Rome 
 from 1589 to 1592, when he went to Spain, and 
 spent many years at Madrid. He died at Ghent, 
 1623. Father Cresswell was a vain, fussy, dic- 
 tatorial, and quarrelsome man. Even Jesuit writers 
 admit that his conceit, want of tact, and love of 
 intrigue injured their cause. Our ambassador at 
 Madrid found Cresswell a constant source of 
 trouble. From a letter written by Cresswell, we 
 learn that Lord Howard of Effingham, who com- 
 manded the English fleet against the Armada, was 
 a Protestant, and was never (as represented by 
 Romanist controversialists), it seems, a member 
 of the Church of Rome at any period of his career. 
 Father Cresswell, at Madrid, remained in very 
 close correspondence with the ' Spanish party ' 
 among the English Romanists, to which all the 
 conspirators engaged in the Gunpowder Plot 
 belonged. Cresswell went to Madrid with the 
 object of reversing the policy of Father Parsons, 
 who, he thought, had been too domineering and 
 dictatorial ; but Cresswell's own methods of going 
 to work proved to be little more gentle than those 
 of his predecessor, in the long run, for he was a 
 party to all the Spanish schemes for again attack- 
 ing England. 
 
 JAMES DE LA CLOCHE DU BOURG was the eldest 
 child of King Charles II. He was born in
 
 208 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Jersey, 1647. His mother is described as a 
 young lady belonging to a Scottish noble family. 
 It is said but it is impossible to identify her 
 that she was a member of the ducal house of 
 Lennox, in which case her son was a Stewart of 
 royal blood by maternal as well as paternal 
 descent. Charles II. described her as ' Une jeune 
 dame des plus qualifies de nos royaumes, plutot par 
 fragility de notre premiere jeunesse quepar malice. 
 At the period of the boy's birth, Charles (then 
 Prince of Wales) confessed that 'Nous navions 
 gueres plus de seize ou 1 7 ans. ' 
 
 When an infant, James was sent to Paris, where 
 he was brought up a Protestant, and went by the 
 full name of James de la Cloche du Bourg. This 
 name was evidently derived from a Jersey source. 
 Next to nothing is heard further of him until 1665, 
 when he secretly visited Charles II. in London, 
 where he stayed for some six weeks. Charles 
 then gave him a signed paper, recognizing him as 
 his son. On July 29, 1667, James was received 
 into the Church of Rome at Hamburg. In April 
 1668 he joined the Jesuits at Rome, being 
 admitted, as a novice, into their house of St. 
 Andrea al Quirinale. The following entry in the 
 Jesuit archives refers to him and his belongings 
 
 ' James de la Cloche, from the Isle of Jersey, 
 a possession of the King of England, aged 24, 
 came to St. Andrea, April u, 1668. He brought
 
 JAMES DE LA CLOCHE] 209 
 
 with him a hat; a mantlet and clerical dress of 
 silk ; a doubtlet and breeches of black material ; a 
 vest of yellow skin ; a leather sword-belt of musk 
 colour ; a pair of white silk stockings ; two shirts 
 and a waistcoat ; a pair of drawers and stockings 
 of thread ; three handkerchiefs, and a white linen 
 cap ; two pairs of boots ; three collars ; three pairs 
 of. cuffs ; a pair of gloves ; a hair-brush ; a pair of 
 riding boots ; two pairs of thread buttons to fasten 
 the collar.' 
 
 The news of his son's reception into the Roman 
 Catholic Church was received by Charles with 
 gratification, and both the King and Jesuits saw 
 in this youth an excellent agent for carrying on 
 secret communications between England and 
 Rome. The news of his reception was also told 
 to the Queens Catharine of Braganza and Henri- 
 etta Maria. In August 1668 Charles wrote to 
 Oliva, the Jesuit General, requesting him to send 
 James to London. Travelling under the name of 
 Henri de Rohan, James journeyed to England, 
 after some delay, and was again received in secret 
 by the King. He only stayed a few days, 
 however, and returned to Rome carrying dis- 
 patches for the General of the Jesuits and the 
 Pope. 
 
 The doings of James now suddenly change. 
 He, apparently, left the Jesuits, and gave himself 
 up to a worldly career. Going to Naples, early in
 
 210 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 1669, he married there an innkeeper's daughter, 
 but on publicly calling himself the King of 
 England's son, was thrown into prison as an 
 impostor. In August of the same year he died. 
 On September 7, 1669, the British Minister at 
 Naples wrote home 
 
 1 That certain fellow, whoever he was, . . . made 
 his testament, and left it with his Most Christian 
 Majesty (whom he called cousin) executor. He 
 had been absent from Naples some time, pretend- 
 ing to have made a journey into France to visit 
 his mother, Dona Maria Stewart, of his Majesty's 
 royal family . . . his mother was, it seems, dead 
 before he arrived in France. ... By his will, he 
 leaves to Teresa and his child 291 thousand 
 ducats, which he called legacies. He was buried 
 in the church of St. Francisco de Paolo (for he 
 died of this religion) ; he left 400 francs for a 
 lapide to have his name and quality engraved on 
 it, for he called himself Don Jacopo Stuarto, and 
 this was the end of that princely cheat or whatever 
 he was.' 
 
 ' Don Jacopo's ' child proved to be a boy, and 
 was christened James. He died without legiti- 
 mate issue at Genoa, in or about 1752. If this 
 'Don Jacopo' was not the same person as the 
 royal bastard James Stewart, the Jesuit lay- 
 brother, then it is much to be deplored that no 
 further records of the King's son's later life have
 
 DON JACOPO 211 
 
 not descended to us. The Jesuits themselves 
 cannot solve the mystery of the identity, but it is, 
 I believe, clear that James (even supposing he 
 did not die at Naples as ' Don Jacopo ') was 
 never ordained a priest. It has been conjectured, 
 nevertheless, that he was ordained, and (' Don 
 Jacopo ' being an impostor) was present in 
 London when Charles II. died. It has even 
 been declared that the Duke of York sent for 
 him formally to receive the dying Charles into 
 the Roman Church, but that he could not be 
 found in time. 1 But, as I demonstrated in the 
 English Historical Review of October 1903, it 
 seems evident that the Jesuit novice and ' Don 
 Jacopo ' were one and the same man. But what- 
 ever the place or circumstances of his death, it 
 does not alter the fact that amongst the ranks of 
 the Society of Jesus was once enrolled the eldest 
 son of an English King. 2 One theory, in- 
 vented by a modern Jesuit, is that (whether 
 James was or was not the same man as ' Don 
 Jacopo ') he left the Society of Jesus because he 
 became partially insane. 
 
 1 Vide Boero's Istoria della Conversione alia Chiesa Cattolica 
 di Carlo II., R d'Inghilterra, and my articles on ' The Eldest 
 Son of Charles II.' (Westminster Review for February 1903, 
 and English Historical Review for October 1 903.) 
 
 2 James de la Cloche du Bourg was, of course, older than 
 his half-brother, the ill-fated Duke of Monmouth, as Charles II. 
 himself confessed in one of his letters.
 
 2i 2 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 In his ' Anglo- Roman Papers,' Mr. Maziere 
 Brady makes an attempt to identify the mother 
 of James de la Cloche du Bourg. He quotes Sir 
 Bernard Burke (a doubtful authority) in support 
 of his theory that this lady may have been the 
 daughter of Charles Stewart, sixth Duke of 
 Lennox, and fourth Earl of March. But this 
 theory is untenable, since the Duke was only 
 eight years old when James was born. It has 
 also been suggested that the mother may have 
 been Lady Mary Stewart, daughter of the fourth 
 Duke of Lennox ; but this is equally out of the 
 question, for Lady Mary was but nine years of 
 age when ' Don Jacopo ' first saw the light in 
 Jersey. 
 
 IGNATIUS GRANT, who died in November 1904, 
 must have been the last of the Tractarians. 
 From the first, at Oxford, a great admirer of 
 J. H. Newman, he keenly resented the treatment 
 accorded to the great Oratorian by Manning, 
 Talbot, Ward, Pio Nono, and others. He always 
 hoped that, after Manning's death, some authori- 
 tative work would be published in the form of an 
 official vindication of Cardinal Newman, who had, 
 he declared, been unjustly condemned for his 
 connection with the Rambler. 
 
 HENRY GARNET, the son of a Nottingham 
 school-master, was brought up a Protestant, and 
 educated at Winchester, after leaving which he
 
 HENRY GARNET 213 
 
 served two years in London as a corrector of the 
 press. He then went abroad, and became a 
 Romanist. In 1575, he entered the Society of 
 Jesus, and studied at Rome. In 1586, he accom- 
 panied Father Southwell to England, and became, 
 in the year following, Superior of the Jesuits in 
 England. In January 1606, he was captured at 
 Hendlip House, Worcestershire, and taken up to 
 London. On May 3, 1606, he was hanged on 
 Ludgate Hill. After his death, some wonderful 
 stories were told as to a marvellous straw, picked 
 up on his scaffold, said to be stamped with an 
 impress of his face ; but, on a magisterial examin- 
 ation being held into the circumstances of the 
 case, the whole story of the miraculous straw was 
 found to be a myth. The history of Father 
 Garnet's career is so well known, owing to his 
 connection with the Gunpowder Plot, that it 
 is unnecessary to deal further with it here. 
 Attempts to have him (like Campion) ' beatified ' 
 at Rome have failed. Father Garnet was born 
 in 1555, but not at Nottingham, as Oliver, the 
 Jesuit writer, states. He was not tortured in the 
 Tower of London, as Lord Ronald Gower, in his 
 illustrated history of that fortress, asserts. 
 
 Father Henry Garnet was a very learned 
 priest, and as a scholar had been much admired, 
 
 when engaged in studying and teaching at Rome. 
 
 He was a gentle, light-hearted man, but unfortun-
 
 2i 4 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 ately indulged in the habit of equivocation, 
 which at that time had been reduced to a fine art 
 by the Jesuits abroad. He should never have 
 been sent upon the English Mission at so stormy 
 a period, but with the exception of Robert 
 Parsons himself there was hardly any native 
 Jesuit, just then, capable of managing English 
 affairs. That Father Garnet knew of the Gun- 
 powder Plot some months before the fatal fifth of 
 November, and acquired that knowledge outside 
 the confessional, is no longer denied, but it seems 
 clear that he did not approve of the Plot. His 
 inability to make up his mind as whether to inter- 
 fere with Robert Catesby's plans, or not, and his 
 constant resort to the most reckless equivocation, 
 were the chief factors in causing his death. It is 
 by no means unlikely that he was directly privy 
 to sending the famous warning letter to Lord 
 Mounteagle. 
 
 THOMAS GARNET, a nephew of Henry Garnet, 
 by whom he was received into the Society of 
 Jesus ; this Jesuit was hanged at Tyburn at the 
 age of thirty-three. He was educated at St. 
 Omer and Valladolid, but on coming to England 
 was arrested after the failure of the Gunpowder 
 Plot. Nothing being proved against him, he 
 was banished the kingdom in 1606. He was 
 so foolish as to return early in 1608, and was 
 speedily captured. He seems to have been a
 
 JOHN GERARD 215 
 
 young man of considerable piety, but it is impos- 
 sible to condone his fault in returning to England 
 after he had been banished as a Jesuit. As Sir 
 John Throckmorton, a Roman Catholic, writing 
 in the reign of George III., clearly demonstrated, 
 Campion, Briant, Garnet, and others, ' were 
 martyrs to the Deposing Power, not to their 
 religion.' Thomas Garnet, indeed, openly 
 advocated this pernicious doctrine of the Depos- 
 ing Power. 
 
 JOHN GERARD, the son of a Lancashire 
 Knight, 1 and brother of a Baronet, was born 
 in 1564. He was educated first at Douai, then 
 at Exeter College, Oxford, and afterwards at 
 Paris. He became a Jesuit abroad in 1588. 
 Coming to England, he experienced numerous 
 wonderful escapes from capture, when hidden 
 away in secret chambers concealed in country- 
 houses belonging to the Roman Catholic gentry. 
 In 1597, he was caught, put into the Tower, and 
 tortured ; but he succeeded in escaping, one dark 
 night, by climbing down a rope swinging over 
 the moat. He had another escape from capture 
 after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, but 
 managed to cross the Channel, disguised as a 
 footman, on the very day of Father Henry 
 Garnet's execution. He never returned to 
 England, and after holding various important 
 1 Ancestor of the present Lord Gerard.
 
 216 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 posts in the interests of his Society at Lie"ge and 
 Ghent, died at Rome in 1637 (not in 1630, as 
 stated by Oliver). Father Gerard was a fast 
 friend of Sir Everard Digby, executed for his 
 share in the Gunpowder Plot. He was very 
 successful in getting wealthy men and women to 
 join, or help his Society. 
 
 That Father Gerard knew about Catesby's 
 intentions of blowing up the Parliament House, 
 there exists no proof to be adduced. The story 
 that he worked in the mine with the conspirators 
 is not worthy of consideration. He undoubtedly, 
 however, gave the Eucharist to some of the con- 
 spirators, after they had just held one of their 
 secret conferences. He, also, was constantly in 
 Digby 's company during the process of planning 
 the Plot. But he does not appear to have known 
 anything about their conference, when he gave 
 these conspirators the Eucharist, and Digby in 
 his last letters never mentions that he told Gerard 
 anything about the conspiracy. In his autobio- 
 graphy, written in after years at Rome, Gerard 
 emphatically states that he never possessed the 
 faintest inkling of what was going on. At the 
 same time, even though we may readily and 
 gladly accept his protestations of innocence, 
 Gerard was (like Garnet) by no means a truthful 
 man, as several extraordinary statements in his 
 autobiography go to prove. Digby, though not
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 217 
 
 implicating him by name, hints clearly, in one of 
 his letters from the Tower, that he thought all 
 the leading Jesuits in England both knew and 
 approved of the Plot, otherwise he would never 
 have decided to engage in it. But Digby, of 
 course, may have been deceived as to the attitude 
 of these priests by Robert Catesby. If John 
 Gerard 1 knew nothing about the explosion at 
 Westminster, he must, nevertheless, have been 
 aware of the intended rising in the Midlands. 
 He was also a party to sending Sir Edward 
 Baynham to Rome, and one of Baynham's pro- 
 spective duties was to inform the Pope of the 
 Gunpowder Plot, after the explosion had taken 
 place at Westminster. Father Gerard, in the 
 year 1603, betrayed to the British Government 
 a priest, named Watson, who was engaged in 
 what was called the ' Bye Plot,' with the result 
 that this William Watson, and another Secular 
 priest, named Clarke, were captured, and exe- 
 cuted. 2 This proceeding on Gerard's part (in 
 which he was helped by Henry Garnet) shows 
 how jealous the Jesuits were of the Secular 
 Roman Catholic clergy in England, and how 
 
 1 This seventeenth-century Father Gerard must not be con- 
 founded with Father John Gerard, S.J., born in 1840, author 
 of What was the Gunpowder Plot ? and other works. 
 
 3 Oliver absurdly argues that had Gerard known of the Gun- 
 powder Plot, he would have betrayed the conspirators to the 
 Government, as he did in the case of the ' Bye Plot.'
 
 2i8 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 glad they were to injure them, whenever a 
 convenient opportunity offered itself. 
 
 NICHOLAS HART is better known by his alias of 
 ' Hammond.' He heard the confessions of most 
 of the Gunpowder Plotters, at Huddington, 
 November 7, 1605. Born in 1577, Hart was 
 educated at Westminster School. He was re- 
 ceived into the Roman Catholic Church by a 
 Franciscan friar imprisoned in the Marshalsea. 
 In 1604, he became a Jesuit. More than once 
 captured, and banished, he died eventually in 
 Wales, in 1650, having returned finally to 
 England in 1646. That he cannot have been 
 an accessory before the fact to the Gunpowder 
 Plot seems evident, or he would not have escaped 
 merely with imprisonment, after visiting the con- 
 spirators, engaged in open rebellion, at Huddington. 
 Considering, also, that he returned to England, 
 after being banished, he seems to have been 
 treated with greater leniency than that accorded 
 by the British Government to other members of 
 his Society. 
 
 HENRY KERR, R.N., a grandson of the sixth 
 Marquis of Lothian, was born at Dittisham, 
 South Devon, 1838. Entering the Navy, he 
 rose to the rank of first-lieutenant, but then left 
 the service and became a Jesuit. He was 
 chaplain to the Viceroy of India (Lord Ripon), 
 and was offered, but refused, the Archbishopric
 
 SIR GEORGE MANNOCK 219 
 
 of Bombay. Father Kerr, a man of exemplary 
 piety, but of no great ability, died whilst engaged 
 as a missionary in South Africa, at Grahamstown, 
 1895. An elaborate biography of Kerr has been 
 compiled by one of his relatives. 
 
 SIR GEORGE MANNOCK, BART., born in 1724, 
 latterly led the life of a prosperous country squire 
 in Suffolk. The fact that he was a priest and a 
 Jesuit remained a secret to the Protestant world. 
 He died, in 1787, at Dartford, from the effects of 
 a fall sustained by an accident to the Dover mail- 
 coach. He was the last descendant, in the male 
 line, of the very ancient family of Mannock, of 
 Giffords Hall, and had only succeeded to the title 
 after the deaths of all his brothers, and his nephew. 
 A friend of the Anglican rector of his parish, 
 Mannock once rescued him from the hands of a 
 mob, which declared that the rector was a Jesuit 
 in disguise. On Sir George giving his word that 
 the parson was not a Jesuit, the mob let him go, 
 little thinking that the baronet was a Jesuit him- 
 self. Offered a dispensation to marry by the 
 Pope, Sir George declined, and with him the 
 baronetcy expired. 
 
 HENRY MORE was a great-grandson of Sir 
 Thomas More, and was the author of Historia 
 Jtfissionis Angliccs Societatis Jesu. He died in 
 1 66 1, at a great age. He had a younger brother, 
 also a Jesuit. 
 '5
 
 220 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 THOMAS MORE was chiefly notable as being 
 the last descendant, in the male line, of the great 
 Sir Thomas More. He died at Bath in 1793, 
 aged seventy-one. Some relics of Sir Thomas 
 More are preserved at Stonyhurst, which were 
 bequeathed by Father More to that institution. 
 Father More was elder brother to Father 
 Christopher Cressacre More, also a Jesuit. 
 
 JOHN MORRIS, F.S.A., like his colleagues, 
 Fathers Grant, Coleridge, and Christie, was 
 originally, although a mere youth at the time, a 
 Tractarian. 1 He was born at Ootacamund, India, 
 July 4, 1 826, and entered the Roman Church twenty 
 years later, after a short residence at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. He first of all became a 
 Secular priest, and was a Canon in the North- 
 ampton diocese, as well as private secretary to 
 Cardinals Wiseman and Manning. He wrote, or 
 edited, several important historical works, including 
 his Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers. Father 
 Morris, who would have made a Bishop, had 
 he not joined the Jesuits, died suddenly in the 
 pulpit at Wimbledon, in October 1893, whilst 
 preaching a sermon, one Sunday morning, in 
 the Jesuits' church. Father Morris succeeded 
 Father Coleridge as head of the Jesuits' literary 
 staff in London. For six years he edited the 
 
 1 Father Morris, S.J., must not be confused with the Rev. 
 John Brande Morris, another Tractarian convert.
 
 FATHER OLDCORNE 221 
 
 annual and official Catholic Directory. To his 
 credit, it was generally believed that he wished to 
 write history with greater impartiality than his 
 superiors were prepared to permit, and he was 
 understood to be by no means an admirer of 
 Parsons and his policy. He joined the Society 
 in 1867, and was 'professed' of the four vows in 
 1877. Father Morris was undoubtedly the ablest 
 man to join (and remain in) the Society, from the 
 Anglican Church, during the nineteenth century. 
 Morris was an ardent agitator in favour of 
 ' beatifying ' the Romanist priests and monks 
 put to death in England under the Tudors. At 
 the time of his death, he was engaged, at Cardinal 
 Vaughan's request, in writing a Life of Cardinal 
 Wiseman. 1 
 
 EDWARD OLDCORNE, alias Hall, was born in 
 1561, the son of a Yorkshire bricklayer. He was 
 captured at Hendlip, Worcestershire, with his 
 friend, Father Garnet. Oldcorne was hanged at 
 Redhill, Worcester, 2 April 7, 1606, after having 
 been imprisoned and tortured in the Tower of 
 London. There is no proof whatever to convict 
 him of being accessory to the Gunpowder Plot. The 
 
 1 This work, after Father Morns' death, was ably written by 
 Mr. Wilfrid Ward. 
 
 2 Father Taunton states that Mr. Habington was hanged at 
 the same time and place as Oldcorne. But this was not so ; 
 Habington died of old age at Hendlip, in his eighty-eighth year.
 
 222 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 utmost that was ever alleged against him, at the 
 time, was that he had told Humphrey Lyttleton, 
 who asked his advice on the subject, that the Plot 
 was ' a good action ' ; but it is not clear that 
 Oldcorne understood that Lyttleton referred to 
 the Gunpowder Treason, and Lyttleton after- 
 wards contradicted his incriminating assertions. 
 He probably lost his life owing to his generous 
 action in inviting Father Garnet and others to 
 share his shelter at Hendlip. His conversations 
 with Garnet in the Tower were overheard by an 
 agent of the Government, and taken down in 
 writing. At Hendlip he was chaplain to the 
 Habington family. William Habington, the poet, 
 was born there on the eventful fifth of November, 
 1605. Father Oldcorne was ordained a Secular 
 priest in 1587, joined the Jesuits in 1588, and 
 went to Hendlip in 1589. 
 
 As a Jesuit, Father Oldcorne must, unfortun- 
 ately, have believed in the terrible doctrine of the 
 Pope's Deposing Power, which was the cause of 
 so much mischief and persecution in England. 
 As a Roman Catholic writer 1 points out, the Popes 
 practically said to their clergy in England, under 
 Elizabeth and the Stewart Kings, ' go to prison, 
 and the gallows, sooner than profess allegiance 
 to your Sovereign, sooner than renounce the 
 
 1 Sir John Throckmorton, in his A Second Letter, addressed 
 to the Catholic Clergy of England.
 
 FATHER TAUNTON 223 
 
 Deposing and Absolving Powers which we have 
 assumed : if you write in favour of your Monarch's 
 independence, we condemn your writings ; if you 
 decline retracting your sentiments, we suspend 
 you from your functions, we subject you to 
 ecclesiastical censures, we denounce damnation 
 on your souls ; and not satisfied with your silent 
 submission, we require you to acknowledge, as a 
 point appertaining to your Faith, that Popes have 
 a right to depose excommunicated Princes, and 
 absolve their subjects from their oath of allegiance.' 
 In the light of this Papal policy it is not easy 
 to agree with Father E. L. Taunton, who (in his 
 History of the Jesuits] says: 'While Parsons 
 and his followers only succeeded in achieving a 
 brilliant failure, they were acute enough to snatch 
 the credit of Campion, Southwell, Thomas Garnet, 
 and others, who did the better and more fitting 
 work. These, it seems to me, are the true heroes 
 of the Society in England.' That Father Taunton 
 is right, of course, in implying that men like 
 Campion, Southwell, Thomas Garnet, and others 
 were priests of a more saintly character than men 
 like Parsons, Cresswell, and Tesimond (Greenway), 
 I do not for one moment deny; but still these 
 saintly men were all tarred with the same brush 
 as their political colleagues, in that they professed 
 obedience in the Deposing Power. I cannot 
 see, therefore, that the British Government could
 
 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 be expected to distinguish between Jesuit and 
 Jesuit ; and, if a man like Thomas Garnet chose 
 to profess credence in the doctrine of the Depos- 
 ing Power, he deserved to be punished just as 
 much as a man like Robert Parsons. Two of 
 Father Taunton's ' true heroes/ moreover, are 
 somewhat doubtful examples of a type of 
 holiness. For Robert Southwell, with all his 
 virtues, believed in Henry Garnet's theory of 
 the morality of equivocation ; and Thomas Garnet 
 was put to death because he returned to England 
 after he had been banished, and because he 
 declared his implicit credence in the Deposing 
 Power of the Pope (as even the Jesuit writer, 
 Foley, admits). 
 
 GEORGE OLIVER, D.D., was born at Newington, 
 Surrey, February 9, 1781, and was educated at 
 Stonyhurst, where he eventually remained for a 
 time as a tutor. At Stonyhurst he came under 
 the influence of Father Charles Plowden. He 
 was ordained a Secular priest, but placed himself 
 under the direction of the Jesuits, and served at 
 their mission in Exeter from 1807 until 1851, 
 when he retired from work, but lived on in the 
 same house with his (Jesuit) successor until his 
 death in 1861. Dr. Oliver 1 was the author of 
 
 1 Dr. Oliver must not be confounded with an Anglican 
 contemporary of his, Dr. George Oliver (born in the year 
 1782), also a noted writer.
 
 DR. OLIVER 225 
 
 several learned antiquarian books dealing with 
 Devon and Cornwall, but his magnum opus was 
 his valuable Collections towards illustrating the 
 Biography of the Scotch, English, and Irish 
 Members of the Society of Jesus. This work, 
 although extremely partial, is nevertheless a 
 most useful footnote to our history, inasmuch as 
 it contains a list of all the British Jesuit priests, 
 down to about 1840, with the dates of their births, 
 deaths, receptions into the Society, professions, 
 etc. The faults of the book are its author's 
 endeavours to eulogize the personal character of 
 almost every individual Jesuit, and, vainly, to 
 impugn the veracity of Charles Dodd's Secret 
 Policy and Church History. Dr. Oliver's 
 memoirs of such ' political ' Jesuits as Henry 
 Garnet, Robert Parsons, John Gerard, and others 
 are, in consequence, absolutely worthless. 
 
 The exact nature of Dr. Oliver's relations with 
 the Society of Jesus savours somewhat of a 
 mystery. Was he, or was he not, actually a 
 member of the Society ? According to one 
 Jesuit writer, he was almost the last of a school of 
 English Secular priests who remained under the 
 secret control of the Jesuits. Of this mysterious 
 school, it would surely be interesting to learn 
 more. When was it initiated? When did it 
 come to an end ? Who were its leading members ? 
 What were their duties ? Again, if such a school
 
 22 6 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 existed as late as the year 1861, is it too much 
 to suppose that it may be revived, and Oliver, 
 be it noted, is described as ' almost the last/ but 
 not the last. 
 
 If Dr. Oliver was not a Jesuit, then it is a 
 peculiarly curious fact that he should have 
 remained on at Stonyhurst, after completing his 
 studies ; that he should have lived for fifty-four 
 years in the Jesuit house at Exeter ; that his 
 successor there should have been a Jesuit ; and, 
 that the Jesuits should have given him their 
 private papers, for him to write, under their 
 direction, memoirs of the British and Irish 
 members of their Society. That Dr. Oliver must 
 have been received into the Society before his 
 death during, perhaps, the last few years of his 
 life seems most probable. That he died a 
 Jesuit, I fully believe. 
 
 NICHOLAS OWEN, better known by his nickname 
 of ' Little John,' was a Jesuit lay-brother, famed 
 for his skill in devising and constructing secret 
 chambers and hiding-places in country-houses. 
 He was captured with Father Garnet, in whose 
 service he was, at Hendlip, and imprisoned in the 
 Tower, where he was tortured with the most 
 terrible seventy, and where he died, in March 
 1606. It was given out by the Government that 
 he had committed suicide, but this seems very 
 doubtful, and, if he did destroy himself, he was
 
 4 LITTLE JOHN' 227 
 
 probably demented at the time, owing to the 
 effects of the torture. Father John Gerard, whose 
 nocturnal escape from the Tower in 1597 is 
 understood to have been planned by Owen, gives 
 the following account of this remarkable man, 
 who before joining the Jesuits seems to have been 
 by profession a builder 
 
 'One Nicholas Owen, commonly called, and 
 most known by the name of " Little John." By 
 which name he was so famous, and so much 
 esteemed by all Catholics, especially those of the 
 better sort, that few in England, either priests or 
 others, were of more credit. . . . His chief 
 employment was in making of secret places to 
 hide priests and church-stuff in from the fury of 
 searches ; in which kind he was so skilful both to 
 devise and frame the places in the best manner. 
 . . . He was the immediate cause of saving the 
 lives of many hundreds of persons. . . . One 
 reason that made him so much desired by 
 Catholics of account, who might have had other 
 workmen enough to make conveyances in their 
 houses, was a known and tried care he had of 
 secrecy, not only from such as would of malice be 
 inquisitive, but from all others to whom it 
 belonged not to know ; in which he was so care- 
 ful that you should never hear him speak of any 
 houses or places where he had made such hides.' 
 
 Other contemporary accounts speak in equally
 
 228 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 high terms of Brother Owen's skill, which was 
 utilized in constructing the famous recesses at 
 Hendlip, where Fathers Garnet, Oldcorne, and 
 he lay hid. It is true that these Jesuits were 
 taken at Hendlip, but they had to come out 
 of their hiding-places, owing to lack of food 
 and fresh air. Their searchers had not dis- 
 covered either of the ' holes ' in which they were 
 concealed. 
 
 Nicholas Owen entered the Society in 1579. 
 In 1594 he was put into the Tower, but succeeded 
 in escaping from it. He seems to have been one 
 of the first of the English Jesuit lay-brothers. 
 He was, altogether, a most remarkable man ; and 
 in one or more of his 'holes' Charles II. is re- 
 ported to have found safety from the Roundheads, 
 searching for the fugitive monarch after his flight 
 from Worcester. Hendlip, unfortunately, has 
 been pulled down, but other traces of Brother 
 Owen's labours are still to be seen to this day in 
 two or three ancient mansions. 
 
 WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE, F.R.G.S., a 
 member of a talented family of Semitic origin, 1 
 an accomplished scholar and indefatigable traveller, 
 whose intimate knowledge of the East rivalled that 
 of Sir Richard Burton, was for several years a 
 Jesuit, but left the Society to enter the diplomatic 
 
 1 The name Palgrave was adopted by the family, early in the 
 nineteenth century, in lieu of their real name Cohen.
 
 W* G. PALGRAVE 229 
 
 service. A son of Sir Francis Palgrave, he was 
 born on January 24, 1826, and was educated at 
 the Charterhouse, and at Trinity College, Oxford. 
 At school and college his scholastic career was 
 exceptionally brilliant. On leaving Oxford, he 
 went to India, and joined a native regiment, but 
 soon got tired of the Army, and after becoming a 
 Roman Catholic, was received into the Society of 
 Jesus at Madras. In 1853, ne went to Rome, 
 thence he proceeded as a missionary to Syria. 
 In 1863, disguised as a Syrian merchant, he 
 crossed Central Arabia. In 1864, he left the 
 Jesuits, and entered the diplomatic service. 
 Henceforth, we find him moving about the world 
 with extraordinary celerity. In 1865, we find 
 him in Abyssinia; in 1866, in Egypt; in 1866- 
 1870, in Turkey and Asia Minor; in 1873-1876, 
 in the West Indies; in 1878-1879, in Bulgaria; 
 in 1879, in Siam ; in 1884, in Uruguay. On 
 September 30, 1888, Palgrave died at Monte 
 Video. 
 
 After quitting the Jesuits, he married, and left 
 the Church of Rome, but became a Roman 
 Catholic, once more, before his death. 
 
 Palgrave's life was as romantic as was any of 
 his sixteenth- or seventeenth-century predecessors 
 in the Society. It, indeed, seldom falls to the lot 
 of one man to play so many parts in so short a 
 time. He was, in turn, scholar, Army officer,
 
 230 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Jesuit, missionary, oriental traveller, consul, and 
 author. Palgrave's career was really more remark- 
 able than Burton's, and his journey throughout 
 Central Arabia was as daring and as well planned 
 as Burton's pilgrimage to Mecca. As a diplomat, 
 too, Palgrave was as capable as Burton was 
 unsuccessful. 1 In the service of the Jesuits, he 
 managed to make native converts to Romanism 
 in Southern India and in Syria. A complete 
 biography, published in a popular form, of W. G. 
 Palgrave is much needed, and it is to be hoped 
 that one will be undertaken by a competent 
 authority. He was not only a distinguished 
 orientalist, but was also an accomplished anti- 
 quary, a poet, and a great linguist. It is a pity 
 that his services were not placed sooner at the 
 disposal of his country, for much of his best work 
 in the East was undertaken at the instigation of 
 the Emperor of the French. He wrote some six 
 or seven interesting works, dealing mainly with 
 his oriental experiences. 
 
 STEPHEN PERRY, D.Sc., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., the 
 astronomer, was born in London, August 26, 
 I %33> f Roman Catholic parentage. He was 
 educated at Gifford Hall, Douai, and Rome. In 
 1853, he joined the Jesuits, and was ordained a 
 
 1 ' Palgrave was not only a man of great ability, and great 
 force of character, but also of inordinate ambition' (Canon 
 Meyrick's Memories).
 
 STEPHEN PERRY 231 
 
 priest in their Society, 1866. In 1860, he had 
 become professor of mathematics and physics at 
 Stonyhurst. Devoting most of his time to the 
 study of astronomy, Perry was not long in be- 
 coming a recognized authority on that science. 
 He was deputed to assist in, or lead, no fewer than 
 six expeditions, to different parts of the world, 
 fitted out by the British Government. In 1874, 
 he was sent to Desolation Island, to view the 
 transit of Venus. In 1882, he was dispatched 
 on a similar errand to Madagascar. In 1889, 
 whilst observing the eclipse of the sun, he died, off 
 the coast of Demerara, on December 27. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the greater part of Father 
 Perry's career as a Jesuit was devoted to the 
 study of his favourite science, he found time to 
 carry on his proper labours as a priest. At 
 Stonyhurst he fulfilled many functions. After 
 having been director of the Observatory there 
 for some time, he was according to the Jesuit 
 custom of making even their leading members 
 periodically perform the humblest tasks rele- 
 gated to the school-room, to teach the lowest 
 form. Father Perry was a good preacher, and 
 a good cricketer. A memoir of his career 
 has been published by his colleague, Father 
 Cortie. 
 
 Father Stephen Perry was the first Jesuit to 
 obtain official recognition and employment at the
 
 23 2 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 hands of the British Government. 1 The Govern- 
 ment, which in times past had imprisoned, tortured, 
 and hanged his predecessors, honoured him with 
 approbation and rewards. Preaching on Father 
 Perry's life and last moments, Father Bernard 
 Vaughan spoke of him as ' a Jesuit priest laid out 
 in sacred vestments, covered with the English 
 flag, on the bridge of an English frigate (sic), and 
 manned by English blue-jackets, who in losing 
 the priest felt they had lost a true friend ; who,' 
 continued Vaughan, ' did not therein read a sign 
 of the times in which they lived ! ' 
 
 Father Perry was a Doctor of Science, a 
 Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Royal 
 Astronomical Society, and a member of several 
 other learned institutions at home and abroad. 
 The Stonyhurst Observatory, which achieved such 
 fame under his charge, was founded in the year 
 1838. He was ably assisted at it by his clever 
 colleagues, Fathers Cortie and Sidgreaves, S.J. 
 
 CHARLES PLOWDEN, a member of the ancient 
 family of Plowden, of Plowden, Shropshire, one 
 of fifteen children, was born on August 19, 
 1743. He was a very important and aggressive 
 factor in the work of restoring the fallen fortunes 
 of the Society of Jesus in England. After spend- 
 ing many years abroad, notably at Bruges, Rome, 
 
 1 W. G. Palgrave had ceased to be a Jesuit (if not a Roman 
 Catholic) before receiving official employment.
 
 FATHER PLOWDEN 233 
 
 and Liege, he returned home after the suppres- 
 sion of the Jesuits by the Pope. In 1817, he 
 was made Rector of Stony hurst, and Provincial. 
 Father Plowden died suddenly at Jougne, France, 
 1821. From 1773 to 1774 he was imprisoned at 
 Bruges. 
 
 Father Charles Plowden was undoubtedly an 
 able man, being a fine preacher, and a clever writer 
 on subjects of religious controversy. To his 
 alliance with Bishop Milner was due the strong 
 position assumed and held by the early Jesuits at 
 Stonyhurst, in spite of the protests of Milner's 
 colleagues, the Vicars-Apostolic. The Jesuits 
 claimed, even during the dark days of their 
 suppression, that their Stonyhurst candidates for 
 the priesthood had a right to proceed to any 
 Bishop for ordination. The Vicars-Apostolic, 
 knowing that such a proceeding was initiated with 
 the object of defying all episcopal authority, 
 contended that they could only go to the Bishop 
 (Vicar- Apostolic) of the diocese (District) in which 
 Stonyhurst was situated. Both sides appealed to 
 Rome ; and if the rather evasive replies received 
 from the Holy See were correctly interpreted, it 
 was clearly shown that the Pope did not look upon 
 the presence of the Jesuits in England as legal, 
 but contended that, as their presence was contrary 
 to the law of the land, he could not enter into the 
 question of their rights in the matter, either during
 
 234 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 or after their suppression. Plowden was a Jesuit 
 of the type of Robert Parsons and Henry Garnet : 
 one (as he has been aptly described) of the ' old 
 school.' His attacks often couched in language 
 of a strain similar to that for which Bishop Milner 
 was notorious on Dodd and Berington were 
 founded on a very slender basis of fact ; and his 
 attempts to prove these writers incorrect resulted 
 in disaster to the reputation of himself and his 
 Society. The relations existing between Plowden 
 and Dr. Milner remind one of those formerly 
 existing between Robert Parsons and Cardinal 
 Allen. Each of these alliances was detrimental 
 to the rights and interests of the secular clergy. 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD PETRE, BART. It 
 is not generally known that this priest, who played 
 such a prominent and unfortunate part in the 
 politics of James the Second's reign, was a Baronet, 
 he having succeeded his elder brother, who died 
 without issue. 1 Father Petre was born in London, 
 1631, joined the Jesuits in 1652, and was professed 
 of the four vows, 1671. During the latter part of 
 Charles the Second's reign, he was twice im- 
 prisoned on vague suspicion of being connected 
 
 1 Our chief historians (including Lingard and Macaulay) are 
 quite at sea in regard to Petre's pedigree. Father Petre was a 
 grandson of the second Lord Petre. He was not a convert to 
 Romanism, as he has often been represented, but a member of 
 a staunch Roman Catholic family. The Baronetcy is extinct, 
 and the present Lord Petre is now the head of the family.
 
 SIR EDWARD PETRE 235 
 
 with the ' Popish Plot.' On the accession of 
 James II., he rose rapidly in the favour of the new 
 monarch, although he was much disliked by the 
 Queen, who ' believed him to be a bad man.' In 
 1687, he was actually made Clerk of the Closet, 
 and a member of the Privy Council. Imitating 
 his royal patron's example, he fled to France, on the 
 coming of the Prince of Orange, and spent the 
 greater part of the remainder of his existence at 
 St. Omer. On May 15, 1699, he died at Watten. 
 During his exile, he made a brief visit to Rome, 
 where he was coldly received. 
 
 No Jesuit has ever risen to such an eminence 
 in England as did Father Petre during the latter 
 half of James the Second's reign. He was then 
 the King's most confidential adviser, and (next to 
 Sunderland) the principal statesman in the 
 kingdom. The infatuated James even petitioned 
 the Pope to have Petre made a Cardinal, and to 
 give him a dispensation to accept the vacant Arch- 
 bishopric of York. But Innocent XI. was 
 sagacious enough to see through the disastrous 
 folly of the policy pursued by the Jesuits in 
 England, whose puppet Petre was, and he 
 abruptly refused both requests. 
 
 By the vast majority of the English Romanists, 
 
 Petre was cordially detested. In this vain, 
 
 ambitious Jesuit's proceedings they recognized a 
 
 second edition of those of Father Parsons. Even 
 
 16
 
 236 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Dryden, a Catholic, lampooned him in his verse. 
 It was clear to everybody, except the King and 
 Petre, that the Jesuits' ' forward ' policy was 
 premature, and that the nation would, sooner or 
 later, refuse any longer to submit to it. Even the 
 Papal Nuncio warned the Pope against Petre, as 
 Mary of Modena did her husband. About the 
 only sensible advice that Petre is known to have 
 given James II. was to implore the King to stand 
 his ground, and not to leave London, on the 
 approach of William of Orange. This advice the 
 King disregarded, with results fatal to himself and 
 the house of Stewart. (During his exile, James 
 took as his confessor another Jesuit, Father 
 Saunders, a much more prudent and pious man.) 
 
 Sir Edward Petre was not an able priest. He 
 was vain, weak, and ambitious. He seems to have 
 been merely a tool in the hands of his Society, for 
 whose sake he accepted large sums of money, 
 offered to him as bribes, by courtiers and others. 
 James II. perceived, too late, the mistake he had 
 made in trusting Petre, and is said never to have 
 seen the Jesuit after his flight from England. 
 Modern Jesuit writers have done their best to 
 defend Petre, but without avail. They have tried 
 to represent him as acting against his own inclina- 
 tions, under the King's commands, and as having 
 been the dupe of Lord Sunderland. But these 
 excuses are absurd. The Jesuit writers know
 
 2 37 
 
 very well that Petre could easily have refused a 
 seat in the Council, and should never have 
 permitted himself to be nominated for the dignity 
 of a Cardinal's hat, and for a Protestant Arch- 
 bishopric. By the very rules of his Society, he 
 was debarred from all these honours. Moreover, 
 his political actions were performed with the 
 sanction of his Society, whose English Provincial 
 seems to have encouraged him to revive the anti- 
 national policy pursued by Father Parsons. By 
 Londoners Father Petre l was greatly disliked. 
 All sorts of scandalous stories were told about him 
 by the mob, and he was accused of being the chief 
 agent in providing James II. with a spurious heir 
 male. In contemporary pamphlets and broadsides, 
 his name is generally written ' Peters.' 
 
 Father Petre left behind him some important 
 State-papers, bequeathed to his Society, but they 
 are understood to have been destroyed at the 
 period of the Papal Suppression of the Jesuits, at 
 Bruges,- in 1773. By the most of our leading 
 historians Petre's policy seems to have been 
 altogether misunderstood. He has been repre- 
 sented as an ardent and ambitious Roman Catholic, 
 who aimed at restoring his Church in England to 
 the position it had occupied before the Reformation. 
 
 1 Beyond doubt, Petre urged James II. to prosecute the 
 Seven Bishops, and was, like his master, much annoyed at their 
 acquittal.
 
 238 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 He has also been represented as acting in the 
 attempted execution of this scheme as the leading 
 and popular representative of the English Roman- 
 ists. That Petre worked hard to restore the fallen 
 fortunes of Rome in this country need not, it is 
 true, be doubted ; but he had other irons in the 
 fire as well. He was, first and foremost, working 
 in the secret interests of his own Society, just as 
 Father Robert Parsons had done a hundred years 
 or so before him. Had Romanism been restored, 
 as Petre wished, it would have been a Roman 
 Catholic Church under Jesuit direction ; and the 
 loyal Secular priests, together with members of the 
 other Religious Orders, would have been expected 
 to occupy quite a subordinate position in the 
 conduct of affairs. Moreover, Petre was not in 
 any way acting as a representative English 
 Romanist. 1 He was merely the nominal leader 
 of a small clique. By all the Secular clergy, by the 
 Benedictines, and Franciscans, and by most of the 
 Romanist gentry he was mistrusted and disliked. 
 At Rome, his policy was regarded with keen 
 disapprobation by the Pope, who was not in any 
 
 1 Petre's policy was strongly opposed at Rome by Cardinal 
 Howard, O.P., and even Petre's own General spoke of his 
 promotion to the rank of a Privy Councillor as an act ' que 
 nous regies nous interdissent expressement? The General was 
 angry with the English Provincial for letting Petre accept this 
 post.
 
 ROBERT SOUTHWELL 239 
 
 way a party to the ' forward ' policy of James and 
 the English Jesuits. 
 
 ROBERT SOUTHWELL. Born in 1561, Southwell 
 was a cadet of an ancient East Anglian family. 
 When quite an infant he was stolen by a gipsy, 
 but was recovered by his parents. Educated at 
 Douai and Paris, he seems to have evinced an 
 ardent desire to become a Jesuit when he was still 
 a school-boy, and he entered the Society as a novice 
 in 1578. In 1586, he accompanied Father Garnet 
 to England. In June 1592 he was betrayed to 
 the infamous Topcliffe, and captured near Harrow. 
 After remaining nearly three years in various 
 prisons, he was hanged at Tyburn, February 21, 
 1595. Father Robert Southwell was a young man 
 of great genius, both as a prose-writer and a poet. 
 Much of his verse ranks high among our sacred 
 poetry. His best-known poem is that of the 
 ' Burning Babe/ which I cannot refrain from 
 quoting here 
 
 'As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow, 
 Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to 
 
 glow; 
 
 And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, 
 A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear, 
 Who scorched with exceeding heat such floods of tears did 
 
 shed, 
 As though his floods should quench his flames with what 
 
 his tears were fed? 
 
 Alas ! quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats of fry, 
 Y et none approach to warm their hearts, or feel my fire, but I
 
 240 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding 
 
 thorns ; 
 Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and 
 
 scorns ; 
 
 The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals ; 
 The metal in this furnace wrought are men's denied 
 
 souls ; 
 For which as now on fire I am, to work them to their 
 
 good, 
 
 So will I melt into a bath, to wash them in my blood : 
 With this he vanish'd out of sight, and swiftly shrunk 
 
 away, 
 And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas 
 
 Day.' 
 
 Ben Jonson declared that he would willingly 
 have destroyed many of his own verses, could he 
 thereby have become the author of this Christmas 
 hymn. Robert Southwell was barely thirty-four 
 years of age when he perished on the scaffold. 
 
 OSWALD TESIMOND (alias GREENWAY) is better 
 known to readers of our history by his alias of 
 Green way. He is the one Jesuit about whose 
 connection with the Gunpowder Plot no reason- 
 able doubt has ever been entertained. He was 
 so fortunate as to escape from England when his 
 colleagues Garnet, Oldcorne, and Owen were 
 captured and killed. That he was fully acquainted 
 with the plans of Robert Catesby, and the rest of 
 the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, cannot 
 well be doubted, and he seems to have approved of 
 their proceedings. Born in 1563, Tesimond was
 
 FATHER GREENWAY 241 
 
 educated principally at Rome, and joined the 
 Jesuits in 1584. After serving with Father 
 Cresswell at Madrid, he came to England in the 
 spring of 1598, and assisted Father Oldcorne in 
 the Midlands. In 1603, he was professed. On 
 November 6, 1605, he visited the conspirators 
 engaged in the Gunpowder Plot, at Huddington, 
 and said Mass for them. Making his way thence 
 to London, he was seized in the act of reading a 
 copy of the proclamation issued for his capture ; 
 but he succeeded in getting away from his captor, 
 and after hiding in Essex, crossed the Channel in a 
 cargo-boat. The rest of his life was mostly spent 
 at St. Omer, Rome, and Naples, where he died in 
 1635. He wrote an autobiography, in defence of 
 his alleged connection with the Gunpowder Plot. 
 That Tesimond, as Dr. Gardiner points out, 
 knew all about the Plot, and approved of its 
 details, seems, as I have said, quite clear. The 
 Jesuit story that he went to Huddington merely 
 to administer the Sacraments to the conspirators 
 out of a sense of religious duty is not borne out 
 by the original evidence. He went there on 
 their invitation, and with Garnet's permission, and 
 left them, promising to try and raise recruits for 
 them in Lancashire. The conspirators, too, were 
 not absolutely dependent on Tesimond's priestly 
 services, for they were visited, very shortly after 
 he had left, by another Jesuit, who heard their
 
 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 confessions. Father Tesimond seems to have 
 been a faithful disciple of Father Parsons, and not 
 a man in any sense to be admired. 
 
 FRANCIS WALSINGHAM, born at Howick, in 
 Northumberland, 1577, was a cousin of Sir Francis 
 Walsingham, the Statesman. Educated at St. 
 Paul's School, he entered the English Church, 
 but went over to Rome before receiving priest's 
 orders, and in 1609 became a Jesuit, at Rome. 
 The same year he returned to England, where he 
 seems to have lived, without being captured, until 
 his death in 1647. He was the author of two or 
 three controversial works, which had a large sale. 
 He was a great admirer of the works of Father 
 Parsons, by reading some of which he is said to 
 have been converted to Romanism. His mis- 
 sionary career in England was a very romantic 
 one, and although for some thirty-eight years he 
 succeeded in evading arrest, he experienced some 
 very narrow escapes. Walsingham met Father 
 Parsons when at Rome. He often went under 
 the alias of John Fennell. Father Parsons 
 collaborated in writing one of his treatises. 
 
 HENRY WALPOLE, the eldest son of a Norfolk 
 squire of ancient lineage, was born at Docking, 
 1558. He matriculated at Cambridge, but went 
 thence to Gray's Inn, without taking a degree. 
 He was present at Campion's execution, and on 
 being slightly splashed with that Jesuit's blood,
 
 HENRY WALPOLE 243 
 
 vowed there and then to imitate his example. 
 Leaving England in 1582, he joined the Jesuits 
 at Rome in 1583, and was ordained a priest at 
 Paris in 1588. He served under Parma in the 
 Netherlands as an Army chaplain, but was captured 
 by the English, and imprisoned for several months. 
 He came to England, from Spain, in 1593, but 
 was arrested within a few hours after landing at 
 Bridlington, Yorkshire. After having been im- 
 prisoned and tortured in the Tower, Father 
 Walpole was eventually sent down to York to be 
 tried. Found guilty of being a Jesuit, and of 
 having entered England after being ordained 
 abroad, he was executed on April 17, 1595. 
 
 Henry Walpole was a very brave and able 
 man, and was a poet and linguist of no mean 
 order. An excellent biography of Father Walpole 
 has been written by Dr. Augustus Jessopp. The 
 work is published under the title of One 
 Generation of a Norfolk House. 
 
 ROBERT PARSONS, or PERSONS, was a Somerset- 
 shire man, of humble extraction. Born at Nether 
 Stowey in 1546, he luckily received a good educa- 
 tion in his early boyhood, and proceeded to 
 Oxford, where he graduated, and became Fellow, 
 Dean, and Bursar of Balliol College. Expelled the 
 University, for reasons never clearly explained, 
 Parsons was received into the Roman Church by 
 Father Good, S.J., at Louvain, 1574, and into the
 
 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 Society of Jesus a year later. In 1580, with the 
 approval of Cardinal Allen, 1 he came disguised as 
 a soldier to England. Although moving about the 
 country in hourly peril of capture, the effect of the 
 joint mission of Parsons and Campion was pro- 
 digious. For the time being, they gave Roman 
 Catholicism in England a new lease of life. Con- 
 verts, or reverts, were made in large numbers, and 
 included such notable personages as the Champion 
 of England (Sir Robert Dymoke), Lord Comp- 
 ton, William Catesby, Lord Vaux, and Sir Thomas 
 Tresham. 2 But Parsons' efforts were not destined 
 to prove successful for more than a few months. 
 In spite of his arduous missionary labours he made 
 no attempt to consolidate the position of the 
 community. Indeed, with the Secular clergy, 
 who distrusted him from the first, he soon became 
 on very bad terms. They were not long in dis- 
 covering that, if the Roman religion were restored 
 in England, it was the aim of Parsons to place the 
 Secular clergy under the dominion of the Society 
 of Jesus. Parsons scouted all idea of his co- 
 religionists making any terms with the Elizabethan 
 
 1 ' Under Heaven,' said William Allen, ' Father Parsons 
 made me a Cardinal.' 
 
 2 Most of Parsons' converts were (including those men- 
 tioned) persons reconciled to Romanism, and who were not 
 really Protestants, but ex-Roman Catholics who had lapsed 
 from their faith.
 
 ROBERT PARSONS 245 
 
 Government, and relied upon restoring Romanism, 
 with the aid of Spain and the Pope, by force of 
 arms. It was evident that he was ready to obey 
 to the letter the Bull of Pius V., deposing Eliza- 
 beth, which had, hitherto, been almost ignored by 
 English Romanists. 
 
 After Campion's capture, the position of Parsons 
 became very precarious. The Government spies 
 were hot upon his track, and he was constantly in 
 danger of arrest. Recognizing that his chances of 
 achieving further successes in England were now 
 lost, he quitted his retreat at Michel Grove, 
 Sussex, and fled across the Channel. Before he 
 went, however, some of the loyal Romanists, 
 hostile to the Jesuits, plainly intimated to him that 
 they would give him up to the Government, unless 
 he left the country so soon as he could. It is 
 hardly necessary to state that his Jesuit biographers 
 have omitted all reference to this move on the 
 part of the loyal Romanists, but the fact remains. 
 Father Parsons was hated to such an extent that 
 they would certainly have carried out their inten- 
 tion, had he not taken refuge in flight. 1 
 
 Back again on the Continent, Parsons determined 
 to use all his resources to get the Spaniards to 
 invade England. In the pursuance of his schemes, 
 
 1 Prior to hiding in Sussex, Parsons' work had been carried 
 on in Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcester- 
 shire, Northamptonshire, and Derbyshire.
 
 246 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 he moved about Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, 
 interviewing and corresponding with Cardinals, 
 Statesmen, Princes, and Generals, in order to 
 advance matters. At the same time, this extra- 
 ordinary man was writing controversial pamphlets 
 against Protestantism, was quarrelling with the 
 Benedictine monks of the English Congregation, 
 was directing his colleagues in England to oppose 
 and subdue in every way possible the Secular 
 clergy, and was establishing Roman Catholic 
 colleges in the Netherlands and Spain. To his 
 indefatigable energies there seemed to be no limit. 
 In 1588, his great scheme for the invasion of his 
 fatherland arrived at maturity, and with what 
 result we all know. But, even the defeat of the 
 Spanish Armada 1 did not dishearten him. He 
 was quickly busy again, and more active than ever. 
 In 1597, he adroitly managed to get appointed 
 Rector of the English College at Rome. By this, 
 the chief seminary for training English priests 
 passed into the exclusive direction of the Society 
 of Jesus. But, not only this ; he also managed to 
 get George Blackwell, one of his tools, appointed 
 Archpriest of the English Mission, with control 
 
 1 An English priest, when told by Parsons to sail with the 
 Armada, gallantly replied : ' Father, I would willingly shed 
 the last drop of my blood for the Catholic Faith, but I will 
 never go on board an enemy's fleet armed against my native 
 country ! '
 
 SECRET POLICY 247 
 
 over all the Secular and Regular clergy resident at 
 home. He also placed the Rector of Douai under 
 a secret vow of obedience to him and his Society. 
 These strokes of policy provoked bitter resent- 
 ment against the Jesuits among the English 
 seculars, and they actually obtained Queen Eliza- 
 beth's permission to send two of their number to 
 proceed to Rome and lay their grievances before 
 the Pope. Parsons then determined at all costs 
 to stop their delegates obtaining a fair hearing at 
 head-quarters, where on their arrival they were 
 kidnapped by his agents and imprisoned in the 
 English College. This outrage, which was not 
 only a crime, but was also a deliberate insult to 
 the English Romanists as a body, and to Elizabeth 
 as a Queen, turned all but a very few of their 
 co-religionists at home against the Jesuits. 1 
 
 Meanwhile, Father Parsons' literary activity 
 was ceaseless. His impudent treatise on the 
 succession to the English Crown had an immense 
 circulation, as did others of his political pamphlets. 
 He also resorted to equivocation, and openly 
 advocated its morality, in his writings. With the 
 death of Queen Elizabeth, Robert Parsons hoped 
 to be able to get the Spaniards to send an army to 
 depose James I., but on finding how strong was 
 
 1 Cardinal Allen had died in 1594. He would hardly have 
 been a party, I imagine, to this crime. He seems, shortly 
 before he died, to have become estranged from Parsons.
 
 248 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 the new monarch's position he advised the Jesuits 
 in England to resort to diplomacy rather than the 
 sword. What he thought of the Gunpowder Plot 
 is not known, as his correspondence, just before 
 and after that event, has not been given to the 
 world ; but there exists no external proof that he 
 knew beforehand of Robert Catesby's plans. 
 During the last few years of his life, Parsons 
 became unpopular at Rome, and found it wise to 
 retire to Naples, but it was in Rome that he died 
 on April 15, 1610, in the odour of sanctity, and 
 fortified by all the holy rites of his Church. An 
 extraordinary epitaph, enumerating, at consider- 
 able length, virtues enough to have graced the 
 memory of the greatest of Saints, was erected 
 over his grave. 
 
 With the sole exception of his educational 
 schemes, 1 Father Robert Parsons' policy in regard 
 to the restoration of Romanism in England proved 
 a total failure, and he left things at his death in a 
 far worse plight than they were when he had 
 quitted England in 1581. His Spanish policy had 
 alienated every class of Englishman against him 
 and his Society. Had the Armada been vic- 
 torious, he confessed that he would have advocated 
 the establishment of the Inquisition in London ; 
 whilst he hinted that, in the event of the forfeited 
 
 1 He established, or helped to found, schools at Lisbon, St. 
 Lucar, Valladolid, St. Omer, and Seville.
 
 PORTRAITS OF PARSONS 249 
 
 monastic lands being restored to their original 
 owners, the Jesuits would require a share of the 
 spoil. 1 
 
 In personal appearance, Father Robert Parsons 
 was a little over middle height, thick-set, with a 
 swarthy complexion, and a stern expression of 
 countenance. There are two or three original 
 portraits extant of him. The authenticity of one, 
 published in Father Taunton's book, has been 
 challenged on the grounds that it cannot claim to 
 represent Parsons, because of the late date in- 
 scribed on it, and because of its canvas being 
 adorned with the staff and insignia of an abbot. 
 But, in spite of this, the face resembles to a re- 
 markable degree that of the other portraits of the 
 Jesuit. Father Parsons was an entertaining con- 
 versationalist, an industrious correspondent, and a 
 writer of excellent English. One of his failings 
 seems to have been his difficulty to change his 
 mind, and being subject to inveterate prejudices, 
 he often formed incorrect opinions about men and 
 matters. 
 
 During his English Mission the intrepid Parsons 
 underwent some romantic experiences and adven- 
 tures. On one occasion, entering a village inn, 
 he saw posted up a rude portrait of himself, with 
 
 1 As the book refers only to Rome in England, T have said 
 nothing about the proceedings of Parsons' agents in Scotland, 
 where the Jesuits were also hard at work on similar lines.
 
 250 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 a notice of a reward offered for his capture. He 
 immediately pulled the placard to pieces, saying 
 to the host, ' How dare you keep a portrait of 
 such a villain in your house ! ' Another time, the 
 attention of Queen Elizabeth, who had expressed 
 some curiosity to know what the famous Jesuit 
 was like in appearance, is reported to have been 
 drawn to a well-dressed man, walking proudly 1 
 among a crowd of persons close to her. In- 
 quiries made at the moment failed to discover this 
 gallant's identity, but later on it was found that 
 he was no less a person than the Father Parsons, 
 S.J. Once, Parsons hid himself under a heap of 
 hay, whilst his pursuers searched for him imme- 
 diately at hand. Another time, he himself joined 
 in the hue and cry, shouting out, ' There goes 
 Parsons ! ' At another juncture, he is said to have 
 failed, after a hard quest, to find a certain house 
 where he was to sleep, only to hear, the next day, 
 of its having been surrounded in the night, and a 
 priest resident in it captured. 
 
 Father Parsons has been credited erroneously 
 with the authorship of that notorious book, Leyces- 
 ter*s Commonwealth, upon which Sir Walter Scott 
 based the foundations of his plot for Kenilworth. 
 For some time, the work was known commonly 
 under the title of Father Parsons Green Coat, 
 
 1 ' He (Parsons) was dressed up like a soldier such a pea- 
 cock, such a swagger, such a look, such a strut ' (Campion).
 
 LEYCESTER'S COMMONWEALTH 251 
 
 from the colours of the edges of its leaves. But 
 Parsons had nothing whatever to do with its com- 
 position. Why should he ? Had it been written 
 by him, the Queen would not have been referred 
 to, on its title-page, in such loyal terms. A care- 
 ful perusal of its text, moreover, reveals that the 
 writer was not a Roman Catholic, a fact which 
 Scott and others might have proved for them- 
 selves, had they troubled to read its contents 
 carefully through. 
 
 One of Father Parsons' last acts was to write to 
 England, instructing the Archpriest in charge of 
 the English Mission to carry on the same policy of 
 aggression and repression. This act is alluded 
 to by Dr. Oliver in his ludicrous account of 
 Parsons' death, which I reproduce as follows 
 
 ' Father Persons crowned a life of usefulness 
 by a death precious in the sight of God. From 
 his dying bed, he dictated letters to his brethren 
 in England, and to the Archpriest, Dr. George 
 Birket, 1 breathing seraphic peace and charity. In 
 sentiments of melting Piety, he surrendered his 
 Soul into the hands of God. . . . "The eye of 
 God looked upon him for good, and lifted him up 
 
 1 Blackwell, the former Archpriest, had been deposed, be- 
 cause he had refused to support the Jesuits in regard to their 
 action in repudiation of the oath of allegiance to James I. 
 Birket, or Birkhead, was, at first, a more pliable tool, but 
 eventually disobeyed Parsons.
 
 2 S 2 THE ENGLISH JESUITS 
 
 from his low estate and exalted his head, and 
 many have wondered at him, and have glorified 
 God." ' l 
 
 1 The epitaph erected over Robert Parsons' grave was hardly 
 less absurd. In it we are told, inter alia, that Father Parsons, 
 S.J., during the thirty-six years of his career in his Society, 
 1 Per omnia Virtutis exempla transegit.' When Parsons was 
 dying, the Pope bestowed upon him 'All indulgences and 
 favours, which are accustomed to be sent to Cardinals on the 
 point of death.'
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 CHURCHES AND CHAPELS 
 
 SINCE the Emancipation Act of 1829, Rome 
 has had an opportunity of showing in 
 England what she could do in the matter of 
 church-building. The results, on the whole, have 
 been unfavourable. Among all the Roman 
 Catholic churches raised in England since the 
 commencement of the nineteenth century, there 
 are not more than twenty really fine edifices, and 
 the largest and costliest of these is not of Gothic 
 architecture. This failure to build fine churches 
 has been due, in the main, to want of money. In 
 very few cases have really adequate funds been 
 forthcoming to carry out satisfactorily a scheme 
 for building a splendid church. Of Roman 
 Catholic architects of marked ability there have, 
 curiously enough, been plenty, as there have also 
 been designers and manufacturers of stained glass. 
 Another cause of decadence has been the desire to 
 comply with Ultramontane ideas, in regard to the 
 gaudy arrangement of the interior of a church. 
 
 253
 
 2 5 4 CHURCHES AND CHAPELS 
 
 The theatrical arrangement and decoration of 
 such a church as the Brompton Oratory would 
 indeed have astonished Charles Butler and his 
 Galilean contemporaries, and, in spite of the 
 magnificence of its marbles, the Oratory is, from 
 an architectural point of view, almost an eye-sore. 
 
 Nearly all the finest of the Roman Catholic 
 churches erected in England during the first half 
 of the nineteenth century owe their excellence to 
 Pugin's art. He, happily, was a masterful man, 
 and declined to be ruled or guided by officious 
 priests. Pugin, too, would be considerably 
 astonished if he could return to earth and visit the 
 mosque-like Westminster Cathedral. 
 
 In London, the finest Roman Catholic churches 
 are, at date of writing, St. George's Cathedral, 
 Southwark ; St. James's, Spanish Place ; the 
 Jesuits' church, Farm Street ; and, of course, 
 the Westminster Cathedral. In addition there 
 are St. Mary of the Angels, Bayswater ; the 
 Dominicans' church, Haverstock Hill; the Pro- 
 Cathedral, Kensington ; and St. Etheldreda's, 
 Ely Place, Holborn. A monastic church with an 
 extremely impressive and majestic interior is the 
 Carmelite Chapel, Kensington ; its exterior is very 
 plain. As a rule, very little pains have been 
 bestowed upon the exteriors of modern Roman 
 Catholic churches in England. Outside the 
 metropolis, we come across some fine Roman
 
 MODERN CHURCHES 255 
 
 Catholic churches, or monastic chapels, at Arundel, 
 St. Marychurch (Torquay), Manchester, Down- 
 side, Parkminster, Hastings, Cambridge, Oxford, 
 Watford, Stonyhurst, Liverpool, Portsmouth, 
 Streatham, Ramsgate, Birmingham, and Norwich. 
 Of these, beyond all question, the magnificent 
 edifice at Cambridge, dedicated to Our Lady and 
 the English Martyrs, ranks first. 
 
 It is interesting to note the distribution, from a 
 geographical as well as an historical point of view, 
 of the various Roman Catholic missions through- 
 out England and Wales. In some counties, the 
 Roman Catholic population is still extremely low, 
 and the number of churches is very small. 
 London and Lancashire are the two strongholds. 
 The proportion of the Roman Catholic population 
 in Lancashire to that of the whole population of the 
 county is very far higher than that obtaining in 
 other counties. The great number of Irish 
 employed in Liverpool and Manchester is mainly 
 accountable for this. Other cities and towns, such 
 as Leeds, Cardiff, Sheffield, and Birmingham, 
 have a large Romanist population ; in agricultural 
 districts, again, it is, as a rule, very small. 
 Curiously enough, some districts that remained 
 Roman Catholic long after others had become 
 mainly Protestant, are now the most Protestant of 
 all, such as Cornwall, Cumberland, Westmoreland, 
 and South and Mid-Wales (excluding Cardiff).
 
 256 CHURCHES AND CHAPELS 
 
 The Eastern Counties remain, as they have been 
 ever since they incurred the wrath of Queen 
 Mary, particularly Protestant. 1 In the Civil War 
 Oliver Cromwell obtained his best recruits from 
 the east of England ; whilst the ranks of the 
 Royal army received a large influx of strength 
 from the support of the Roman Catholic gentry of 
 Wales, Lancashire, and Shropshire. 
 
 To take the various counties separately, we find 
 the strength of the Roman Catholic population, as 
 represented by the number of the missions, to be, 
 roughly speaking, as follows : In Lancashire the 
 number of missions is very large, surprisingly large 
 for a Protestant country. In Durham, Stafford- 
 shire, Warwickshire, and parts of Yorkshire, the 
 number of missions is again undeniably large. 
 
 In Derbyshire, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Kent, Essex, 
 Monmouthshire, Northamptonshire, Northumber- 
 land, Worcestershire, Middlesex, Lincolnshire, 
 Somersetshire, (South) Devonshire, 2 Surrey, and 
 in the Isle of Wight, the number of missions, 
 although not so large as might be expected, is on 
 the increase. In Hertfordshire, Hampshire, 
 Berkshire, Cumberland, Cornwall, Leicestershire, 
 
 1 Mary Tudor behaved ungratefully to the Protestants of 
 East Anglia, considering that they were the first to flock to her 
 standard, when Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen. 
 
 2 In North Devon there are but very few Roman Catholic 
 churches ; in Mid-Devon practically none.
 
 THE JACOBITE REBELLIONS 257 
 
 Shropshire, Cheshire (except on the Lancastrian 
 border), Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, 
 Norfolk and Nottinghamshire, the number of 
 missions is small in proportion to the size of the 
 counties. In Buckinghamshire, Dorsetshire, 
 Westmoreland, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hunts, 
 Rutland, and Bedfordshire, missions are but few 
 and far between. In Wales, Glamorganshire is 
 very strongly represented by missions ; in the 
 north-east, close to the English border, there are 
 several small missions, but, in the rest of the 
 Principality, but very few missions indeed are to 
 be found. Of London I have already spoken. 
 
 Not many English Roman Catholic missions 
 can boast of existing churches built prior to the 
 dawn of the nineteenth century, and there are 
 only a few still standing which were built at 
 a date anterior to the accession of King George 
 III. Most of these are to be found in the north- 
 west of England, 1 with one or two in Yorkshire. 
 
 1 There would, in all probability, be several more of these 
 missions still existing in Lancashire, if it had not been for the 
 failure of the Jacobite insurrections of 1715 and 1745-1746. 
 Many Roman Catholic families, by their support of the 
 legitimate cause, entailed thereby loss of lands and property, 
 with the result that the chapels supported by them had to be 
 closed. By the failure of these insurrections, and especially that 
 of the '45, the missions in Scotland also suffered severely ; and, 
 even in London, several ' mass-houses,' as they were called, were 
 closed for some time, owing to the action of the Government in 
 causing the Romanists living in the metropolis to be watched.
 
 258 CHURCHES AND CHAPELS 
 
 One of the chief defects noticeable in regard to 
 the decoration of the interiors of Roman Catholic 
 churches in England is connected with the con- 
 struction of the numerous images generally placed 
 therein. Hardly ever does one come across 
 statues or images of Christ, the Virgin, or one of 
 the Saints, possessing any artistic merits. They 
 are, as a rule, an absolute outrage on art : badly 
 designed, and badly coloured. Hideous and cheap 
 articles turned out by the score at Birmingham 
 and elsewhere. Why a priest should wish to 
 crowd his church with such monstrosities as these, 
 it is not easy to understand. Mr. Coventry 
 Patmore, the poet, suggested a remedy for the 
 present state of things. He advised having 
 statues of the chief Saints executed by some well- 
 known sculptor, regardless of cost, and then 
 having casts made of these originals, and sent 
 round to the poorer missions to take the place of 
 the hideous images now in use. This plan met 
 with the approval of Cardinal Newman, but 
 nothing was done to carry it out. The very fact 
 of the scheme being approved by Newman was, 
 probably, sufficient to insure its rejection at 
 Archbishop's House. Of Cardinal Manning, Pat- 
 more was not an admirer. According to his 
 principal biographer the poet considered that it 
 was 'wonderful how Manning imposed on 
 mankind by the third-century look of him and his
 
 COVENTRY PATMORE 259 
 
 infinite muddle-headedness, which passed for 
 mystery. I knew him well, and am convinced 
 that he was the very minutest soul that ever 
 buzzed in so high a place. He was a good man 
 according to his capacity ; but he hated all whom 
 he suspected of being able to take his measure. 
 He put back Catholicism in England a hundred 
 years.' Coventry Patmore's view of Manning's 
 character thus differed widely from that of 
 Cardinal Vaughan, who has left on record that 
 ' Cardinal Manning was not only one of the 
 noblest minds I have ever met, but one of the 
 most patient and forgiving, through the restraint 
 he knew how to put upon his natural feelings. He 
 was also one of the most tender-hearted and 
 charitable of men. I will also add that I always 
 found him to be one of the most generous and 
 forbearing.' Coventry Patmore seems certainly to 
 have had but little respect for episcopal or clerical 
 authority, and he would probably have sym- 
 pathized with a certain lady, who when threatened 
 by an English Roman Catholic bishop with 
 excommunication, promptly put the matter into 
 the hands of her solicitors, who compelled the 
 prelate to send their client an apology for his 
 rudeness.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 LORD ACTON AND LIBERAL CATHOLICISM 
 
 JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG- 
 ACTON was born on the tenth day of 
 January 1834, at Naples. He was the only 
 son of Sir Richard Acton, 1 Bart. His mother 
 was a German lady of noble birth, and his wife 
 was a Bavarian ; so that he was quite a cosmo- 
 politan, especially as he also had Italian blood in 
 his veins. He was a nephew of Cardinal Acton. 2 
 At the early age of thirty-five, although his career 
 as a Member of Parliament had been uneventful 
 and undistinguished, he was raised to the peerage 
 by Mr. Gladstone. A quarter of a century later, 
 he was appointed to the chair of Modern History 
 at Cambridge by Lord Rosebery. It had been 
 his wish to go to Cambridge as a young man to 
 take his degree, but in the fifties Roman Catholics 
 
 1 Sir Richard Acton's father was granted a Papal dispensa- 
 tion to marry his niece. 
 
 2 Charles Januarius Acton, born at Naples, 1803. He died 
 at Naples, 1847. 
 
 260
 
 'QUIRINUS' 261 
 
 could not easily go there, 1 and (after three colleges 
 had refused to admit him) he studied instead 
 under Dr. Dollinger at Munich. ' He loved 
 Cambridge from his soul ; loved the grounds and 
 the trees, the buildings and the romance of the 
 old colleges, the treasures of the libraries, the 
 intercourse with scholars.' To Cambridge his 
 death (in 1902) was a heavy loss. 
 
 The most important period in Lord Acton's 
 career was undoubtedly that which covered the 
 session of the Vatican Council at Rome, when he 
 wrote his famous letters under the signature of 
 ' Quirinus.' As a Liberal Catholic, he opposed 
 with all his might the definition of the dogma of 
 the Infallibility. Ultramontanism he loathed and 
 detested as bitterly as did Charles Butler and his 
 intrepid Gallicans in the stormy days of Bishop 
 Milner and the ' Oath.' Of the chief English 
 exponent of Ultramontanism present at the Coun- 
 cil Archbishop Manning he was a resolute 
 opponent. ' I will show you,' he says in one of 
 his epistles to Miss Mary Gladstone, ' what Ultra- 
 montanism makes of good men by an example 
 very near home. St. Charles Borromeo, when he 
 was the Pope's nephew and Minister, wrote a 
 letter requiring Protestants to be murdered, and 
 complaining that no heretical heads were for- 
 
 1 Cardinal Acton actually did succeed in going to Cambridge 
 as an undergraduate, but never took a degree there.
 
 262 LORD ACTON 
 
 warded to Rome, in spite of the reward that was 
 offered for them. His editor, with perfect con- 
 sistency, publishes the letter with a note of 
 approval. Cardinal Manning not only holds up 
 to the general veneration of mankind the authority 
 that canonized the murderer, but makes him in a 
 special manner his own patron, joins the Congre- 
 gation of Oblates of St. Charles, and devotes 
 himself to the study of his acts and the propaga- 
 tion of his renown.' Of the persecuting spirit of 
 the Papacy, Lord Acton was ever a scathing 
 critic. Bishop Creighton's History of the Mediae- 
 val Papacy he handled severely, on account of the 
 manner in which the author had glossed over the 
 cruelty and the profligacy of several of the Pontiffs. 
 In trying to be fair all round, Dr. Creighton had 
 become impartial to the verge of partiality. In 
 Lord Acton's eyes no defence was possible of the 
 purport of the Papal Bull excommunicating Queen 
 Elizabeth, 1 or of the warm Papal approval of the 
 Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Eve. In one 
 of his letters he scornfully refers to ' the Jesuit 
 with his lies, the Dominican with his faggots, and 
 the Popes with their persecutions. 
 
 Lord Acton was a frequent contributor to the 
 
 1 The writer of the obituary notice, published in The Times 
 the day after Lord Acton's death, states that he had proved to 
 a demonstration that Pius V. specially employed an agent to 
 assassinate Queen Elizabeth.
 
 DR. DOLLINGER 263 
 
 Rambler, and the Home and Foreign Review, 
 literary journals which he eventually edited, and 
 which were worthy of a better fate than suppres- 
 sion at the hands of an obscurantist clique. His 
 connection with these papers brought him in touch 
 with Professor Mivart, Newman, and Richard 
 Simpson, and in opposition to Manning, Herbert 
 Vaughan, and Dr. W. G. Ward. After the defini- 
 tion of the Infallibility, it was generally expected 
 that Lord Acton would either secede from the 
 Roman communion or (in default) undergo the 
 penalty of excommunication. But neither antici- 
 pation was realized. Dr. Dollinger, his mentor, 
 went, but Lord Acton remained behind. That 
 Lord Acton behaved illogically, if not somewhat 
 unfairly, in not leaving the Church of Rome, after 
 1870, is, I venture to think, almost undeniable. 
 It is true, he argued, that it was the Papacy which 
 had changed its religion, and not he himself, that 
 the Pope, in fact, had become a heretic, whilst he 
 still was orthodox. But argument based on such 
 premises, nevertheless, does not excuse him, for 
 by remaining in the same Church with the Pope 
 he became a heretic himself. To Dr. Dollinger, 
 who held identical views, there was no via media. 
 Either you believed in the Infallibility of the 
 Pope, or you did not. If you did not, then 
 you could no longer remain a member of the 
 same Communion as Pope Pius IX. But the
 
 264 LORD ACTON 
 
 Infallibility of the Pope was not the only point of 
 divergence, since Lord Acton is allowed to have 
 held some unorthodox opinions on certain other 
 doctrines and dogmas, and it is almost impossible 
 to condone altogether his attitude 1 in staying on. 
 ' No consequence can destroy any truth ! ' Born 
 a Roman Catholic, he died a Roman Catholic, 
 and was never excommunicated. He was quite 
 the most talented lay member of the Roman 
 Church in England, during the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, who was a born Roman Catholic, and not a 
 convert. When, however, we take into considera- 
 tion the German and Italian strains in his blood, 
 the long residence of his family at Naples, his 
 birth and death abroad, his education at Munich 
 (after leaving Oscott), and his marriage with a 
 Bavarian lady, we must reluctantly admit that 
 England is hardly entitled to claim for herself 
 alone this illustrious scholar as one of her repre- 
 sentative sons. 2 
 
 Lord Acton, it seems to me, was, as a Liberal 
 Catholic and a scholar, a lineal descendant of the 
 English Gallicans of the eighteenth and early 
 part of the nineteenth century. Butler, Tierney, 
 
 1 Yet, as Mr. Paul truly remarks, ' No earthly reward or peril 
 would have induced Lord Acton to say what he did not think, 
 or to profess what he did not believe ! ' His sincerity, never- 
 theless, only makes his attitude the more incomprehensible. 
 
 2 When the French and Hebrew strains in his blood are con- 
 sidered, quite the same can be said of Cardinal Newman.
 
 'JOHN INGLESANT' 265 
 
 Poynter, Archer, Dodd, Berington, and others of 
 their school, would all have opposed the definition 
 of the Infallibility with equal vigour, and would 
 also, in other ways, have proved sharp thorns in 
 the sides of such a prelate as Cardinal Manning. 
 But Lord Acton was more learned than all these 
 men, and it is to be deplored that he did not give 
 the world a great work to perpetuate his fame. 
 Strange as it may seem, this erudite historian and 
 profound philosopher never wrote a book. His 
 literary remains consist of letters, lectures, and 
 articles. The Cambridge Modern History was, 
 however, planned by him. 
 
 Lord Acton's correspondence with Miss Mary 
 Gladstone (Mrs. Drew) was published, in volume 
 form, after his death, and was ably edited by 
 Mr. Herbert Paul. A perusal of these elaborate 
 epistles affords the readiest key to Lord Acton's 
 character. In their pages we see the inner man 
 portrayed as he really was : his depth of learn- 
 ing, and his love of it; the profundity of his 
 reading ; his admiration for Mr. Gladstone ; his 
 keen quest to solve any historical problem of 
 importance. His criticisms of John Inglesant 1 
 reveal the intense earnestness with which he 
 
 1 ' I have read nothing more thoughtful and suggestive (than 
 John Inglesant} since Middlemarch> and I could fill with honest 
 praise the pages I am going to blacken with complaint ' (Letter 
 to Miss Gladstone).
 
 266 LORD ACTON 
 
 read even works of fiction, when they touched 
 upon matters theological, or historical. John 
 Inglesant Lord Acton, like Dr. Gardiner, treated 
 almost too seriously. He discussed its con- 
 tents, and its claims to popularity, as gravely 
 as if it had been purely a history, instead of a 
 novel. As a matter of mere fact, its learned and 
 conscientious author never wished it to be con- 
 sidered as an historical novel at all. He looked 
 upon it, he says in the preface, as a ' Philosophical 
 Romance.' Lord Acton, however, went right 
 through the book in search for flaws, of which he 
 found a good many, although he omits to mention 
 its writer's most conspicuous blunder, namely, his 
 apparent misconception as to the religious opinions 
 held by the saintly Nicholas Ferrar, of Little 
 Gidding, whom he has delineated as if he had 
 been the very highest of High Churchmen, in- 
 stead of being, as he actually was, an ardent 
 Protestant. ' If Mass were said in my house,' de- 
 clared Ferrar, ' I would pull down the room in 
 which it was said, and build it up anew ! ' Yet 
 Mr. Shorthouse makes Mr. Ferrar talk of the 
 Real Presence, after one of his services, as if 
 his views concerning the Sacrament of the Altar 
 were identical with those of Roman Catholicism. 
 Again, there is surely no excuse for Mr. Short- 
 house making Mary Collet, or Collett, 1 die, a 
 
 1 In later life, she assumed her uncle's name of Ferrar.
 
 NICHOLAS FERRAR 267 
 
 young woman, in a Paris Nunnery, when it is on 
 record that, after living to the age of eighty, she 
 expired at home, and faithful to the end to the 
 tenets of the Reformed Church of England ! 1 
 
 Liberal Roman Catholicism in the England 
 of to-day has taken the place of the Gallicanism 
 of a century ago. It flourishes, and will bear 
 fruit in due season. Cardinal Vaughan's attempt 
 to crush it in the year 1901 proved of no avail. 
 The progress of free education among the middle 
 and lower classes is all in its favour. In the Church 
 of Rome itself there exists a party, composed by 
 no means entirely of laymen, whose position 
 corresponds in a great measure to that held by 
 the Broad Church party in the ranks of the 
 Established Church. Formerly Liberal Roman 
 Catholics had considerable difficulty in expressing 
 their views in print, as the journals of their own 
 communion were afraid to publish their communi- 
 cations, or if they did, the papers bold enough to 
 do so were suppressed, but now they often succeed 
 in obtaining a sympathetic hearing in the columns 
 of the secular press. The day is, indeed, fast 
 coming when Vaticanism will find itself compelled 
 to combat Liberalism in deadly strife, and unless 
 
 1 It is a pity that Lord Acton did not bring some of his 
 criticisms to bear upon Nicholas Ferrar's biographers. A more 
 misleading and inaccurate biography than the late Canon 
 Carter's Life of Nicholas Ferrar I have never read, 
 18
 
 268 LORD ACTON 
 
 Ultramontane Rome is placidly prepared to grant 
 concessions before it be too late, it is clear that 
 the Liberal movement must prove triumphant 
 in the end. When that day dawns, Liberalism 
 will have to put into operation long-delayed 
 reforms for centuries over-due. It will have to 
 inspire confidence in a suspicious world, which has 
 had the strongest reasons in the past to distrust 
 Papal diplomacy. It will have to make a clean 
 sweep of the spurious relics ; it will have to abolish 
 the ' final ' vows taken for life by youthful monks 
 and nuns ; it will have to prevent superstitious 
 persons from being worried any longer by demands 
 for the payment of sums of money to deliver their 
 friends' souls out of the flames of Purgatory ; it 
 will have to mend or end the Society of Jesus ; 
 it will have to regulate the distribution of indulg- 
 ences ; it will have to put a stop to the frightful 
 cruelties practised on dumb animals in Italy, 
 Portugal, and Spain ; it will have to bury the Bull 
 of the Infallibility. But, it will not only have to 
 reform and remove, it also will have to construct 
 and create. It will have to build up a new house 
 out of the ruins of the old. 
 
 The Liberal Movement thrives at present, more 
 healthily and with greater promise, abroad than in 
 England. In France, the attitude of the Abbe" 
 Loisy and his party has attracted the attention 
 of the educated world. In the United States, the
 
 AMERICANISM 269 
 
 rise of ' Americanism ' has induced Ultramontane 
 Rome to make concessions which, if Propaganda 
 had definitely refused to grant, would have risked 
 a schism in the Church. The result has been that 
 Rome has been forced to concede liberties and 
 privileges to the Roman Catholics of the United 
 States which she has never yet granted to those 
 of any European country. This progress of 
 Liberalism has done much to break down the 
 barriers of prejudice. It has shown the world 
 that there now exists within the Church of Rome 
 a large body of pious and learned men, who are 
 free from that taint of bigotry which has hitherto 
 earned for Catholicism so evil and ungenerous a 
 reputation. The terrible text, ' No salvation out- 
 side the Church ' (Extra Ecclesiam nulla Sa/us), 
 no longer obtains credence. Roman Catholics 
 are slowly beginning to learn that Jesus Christ 
 came on earth for other reasons than (as they 
 have been taught by Ultramontane priests) 
 merely to establish the Papacy. Now that the 
 barriers separating their fold from the external 
 populace are being broken down, they find that 
 other religious systems have produced, and are 
 producing, good men and good women as worthy 
 of the title of ' Saint ' as any of those who were 
 canonized at Rome in mediaeval or more modern 
 times. ' Where are the Protestant Saints ? ' 
 I once heard a priest ask from the pulpit of a
 
 270 LORD ACTON 
 
 London church, and he answered his own ques- 
 tion by endeavouring to demonstrate that Pro- 
 testantism had not, and could not boast of ever 
 having had any Saints ! Much water has flowed 
 under the bridges since the sad occasion of this 
 sermon, and there are but few Roman Catholic 
 priests to-day who would have the folly to publish 
 so vain a challenge from the shelter of a London 
 pulpit. The Protestant or Non-Catholic world is 
 in a position, indeed, to retort, by asking what 
 valid right Rome has to include amongst her 
 canonized saints certain men who, so far from 
 having led 'a godly, righteous, and sober life,' 
 were notorious evil-doers ! Of the characters 
 and careers, also, of many of the pseudo-Saints 
 of the Catacombs, nothing is known to history, 
 and their canonization by the Papacy has been, 
 so far as the establishment of the fact of their 
 having been gifted with extraordinary virtues is 
 concerned, mere guesswork. Again, how is it 
 possible for any educated man to avoid ob- 
 jecting to such persons as Pope St. Pius V., 
 St. Dominic, St. Alfonso de Liguori, and St. Carlo 
 Borromeo, being included among the canonized ? 
 Of late years the craze for canonization has 
 amounted almost to a disease, and among the 
 candidates, whose claims for that honour have 
 been forwarded to Rome, are individuals like 
 Christopher Columbus, Father Henry Garnet, S. J.,
 
 PROTESTANT SAINTS 271 
 
 Pope Pius IX., and Cardinal Allen. 1 Joan 
 of Arc has, in truth, actually been canonized, 
 altogether regardless of the circumstance that 
 she was convicted of heresy, and (as a heretic) 
 burnt at the stake. 2 Again, even if we take 
 the holiest and noblest of those names enrolled 
 by Rome on her list of the ' beatified,' can any 
 of their possessors claim to have passed more 
 charitable, self-sacrificing, or saintly careers, than 
 have ' heretics ' like John Howard, John Huss, 
 Ferrar, Bishop Ken, John Bunyan, General 
 Booth, Lord Shaftesbury, and Elizabeth Fry, 
 and many another uncanonized person? Such 
 as these surely can be favourably, and more 
 than favourably, compared with men like St. 
 Dominic the Inquisitor, St. Ignatius of Loyola, 
 the Jesuit, St. Pius V., the would-be assassin of 
 Queen Elizabeth, St. Alfonso Maria de Liguori, 
 the author of an unspeakable book, and St. Aloy- 
 sius Gonzaga, who was too moral and too modest 
 even to look his own mother in the face. 3 
 
 1 Up to date, however, the claims advanced on behalf of 
 Columbus, Allen, and Garnet have not been successful. 
 
 2 Savonarola, also burnt as a heretic, is now talked about as 
 a likely candidate for canonization. Galileo's turn should come 
 in time. 
 
 3 Of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Alban Butler, in his great work on 
 the Lives of the Saints, says : ' He [Aloysius] never looked at 
 any woman, kept his eyes strictly guarded, and generally cast 
 down, would never stay with his mother alone in her chamber, 
 and if she sent any message to him by some lady in her company,
 
 272 LORD ACTON 
 
 Of the many reforms needed by Rome in 
 England, Liberal Roman Catholics have cer- 
 tainly good grounds for agitating in favour of the 
 adoption of a more comprehensive and instruc- 
 tive ' Catechism ' than that which every Roman 
 Catholic has now to learn as a child. There can 
 be no doubt that much harm has been done by 
 enlarging upon (in this ' Catechism ') the necessity 
 of obeying strictly to the letter certain modern 
 ecclesiastical regulations and arrangements, which 
 have come into force regardless of the provisions 
 of the Council of Trent. As a result of these 
 usurpations, the laws of God have, in some cases, 
 become subordinate to the laws of the Church, and 
 in the confessional the confessor imposes upon a 
 penitent, who has missed Mass once or twice, 
 a heavier penance than upon a penitent who has 
 confessed to having committed a theft, or having 
 led an immoral or intemperate life. There are, 
 indeed, absolutely no theological grounds for con- 
 he received, and gave his answer in a few words, with his eyes 
 shut, and his chamber door only half open. ... It was owing 
 to his virginal modesty that he did not know by their faces 
 many ladies among his own relations, with whom he had 
 frequently conversed.' 
 
 It seems almost incredible, but it is a fact, that the Rev. 
 Alban Butler, in his memoir dealing with the life of St. Pius V., 
 never even mentions that Pope's excommunication of Queen 
 Elizabeth. The Bollandists are more impartial; they freely 
 admit the Pope's action, and his hostile intentions.
 
 FATHER DUGGAN 273 
 
 verting an omission to attend Mass on Sundays 
 into a mortal sin. The Rev. Father James Duggan, 
 a priest of the diocese of Southwark, in his erudite 
 work entitled, Steps towards Reunion, has some 
 very pertinent remarks to make on this subject, 
 in the course of which I find the following com- 
 ments well worthy of quotation here: 'Our penny 
 " Catechism," not content with saying that there is 
 a commandment about keeping Sundays holy, 
 goes on to say that it is a mortal sin to neglect to 
 hear Mass on Sundays and holidays of obligation. 
 What authority is there for this? Again, the 
 authority of theologians, but not the authority of 
 the Church. No Pope or Council has defined that 
 it is a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday. . . . 
 Can good come from making people think things 
 to be sins that are not sins ? What we gain is that 
 a few people come to Mass regularly. What we 
 lose is that we warp the judgments of multitudes 
 of men.' 
 
 Father Duggan, in the same work, 1 also earned 
 the gratitude of Liberal Roman Catholics by his 
 uncompromising criticism of the modern system of 
 permitting the Religious Orders to ordain large 
 numbers of their members as priests, quite irre- 
 spective of there being much future work for them 
 to do. ' Priests,' he writes, ' should not be multi- 
 
 1 Steps towards Reunion. By the Rev. J. Duggan. London : 
 Kegan Paul & Co., 1897.
 
 274 LORD ACTON 
 
 plied among the Religious Orders except as among 
 the Secular clergy viz. in accordance with the 
 decree of the Council of Trent : that a priest's 
 work should in some way be found for a man 
 before holy orders are conferred upon him. It 
 is not good for a monk, any more than for 
 a Secular, to have nothing to do but to say 
 Mass, nor is it good for religion, nor in fact for 
 the State. ... It is commonly thought most 
 natural now for all monks, or nearly all, to be 
 priests. But, in the beginning, it was not so. 
 St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictines, 
 was never a priest. And for ages it was usual to 
 have only one priest in each monastery. . . . 
 We often say also that the multiplication of 
 monks and nuns is good for religion. Yet, it 
 seems evident here too that there should be some 
 proportion between the number of religious and 
 the number of lay people, and also a proportion 
 between the numbers of Secular and Regular 
 clergy. Catholics cannot but confess that history 
 is full of disputes between Seculars and Regulars.' 
 That these disputes, moreover, are by no means 
 to be regarded as events of the past, even in 
 England, 1 I shall show later. 
 
 1 ' The different dioceses of the Secular clergy are more or 
 less jealous of each other, and the Secular clergy are, as a rule, 
 strongly opposed to the Regulars. Nine Secular priests out of 
 ten hate all monks, and nine priests (of either kind) out often 
 hate the Jesuits. One meets many priests who are willing to
 
 LIBERAL PRELATES 275 
 
 But, to return once more to Lord Acton and 
 his Liberalism, there can be little doubt that the 
 Vatican Council, which was held in defiance of 
 the wishes and opinions of Liberals, whose cause it 
 was designed to crush, had the effect of rallying 
 the better-educated Romanists, all the world over, 
 against Ultramontanism. Of the really clever 
 men present at the deliberations of the Council, 
 nine-tenths belonged to the party opposed to the 
 definition of the Infallibility. In Lord Acton's 
 memorable words : ' This is the picture of the 
 Vatican Council, and of its own work, which we 
 get from men like Schwarzenberg, Rauscher, 
 Haynald, Ketteler, Clifford, Purcell, Conolly, 
 Dupanloup, Darboy, Hefele, Strossmayer, and 
 Kenrick. And so the Council stands self-con- 
 demned by the mouths of its ablest members. 
 They represent it as a conspiracy against Divine 
 truth and light. They declare that the new 
 dogmas were neither taught by the Apostles nor 
 believed by the Fathers ; that they are soul- 
 destroying errors, contrary to the true doctrines of 
 the Church, based on deceit, and are a scandal to 
 Catholics. Surely, no judgment could be less 
 
 accept the extreme Protestant version of Jesuitism. Only a 
 few years ago, a drama was presented in a theatre at Barcelona, 
 in which were embodied the bitterest and gravest charges 
 against the Jesuits ; and when the delighted Spaniards called 
 for the author, a priest in his clerical dress walked to the 
 footlights (Twelve Years in a Monastery, By J. MacCabe).
 
 276 LORD ACTON 
 
 ambiguous, no language more open, no testimony 
 more sufficient or decisive for the conscience of 
 the Faithful.' With Lord Acton's criticisms of the 
 Council compare those of Bishop Strossmayer (re- 
 ferred to by him), who declared that the ' Vatican 
 Council was wanting in that liberty which was 
 necessary to make it a genuine Council, and to 
 justify it in making decrees calculated to bind the 
 consciences of all the Catholic world. Everything 
 which could bear resemblance to a guarantee for 
 the freedom of discussion was purposely excluded. 
 And, as though all this did not suffice, there was 
 added a public violation of the ancient Catholic 
 principle, " Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab 
 omnibus" In fine, the most hideous and the most 
 glaring exercise of Papal Infallibility was impera- 
 tive in order to convert that Infallibility into a 
 dogma. If to all this be added the fact that the 
 Council was not legally constituted, that the Italian 
 Bishops, Prelates, and officials were in a most 
 predominating majority, that the Apostolic Vicars 
 were bullied by Propaganda, that the whole 
 machinery of the political power then exercised by 
 the Papacy in Rome contributed to intimidate and 
 prevent all free speech, you can readily gather 
 what kind of liberty that essential attribute of all 
 Councils of the Church l was displayed at Rome.' 
 
 1 'Above all, the Vatican decree, which declares that the 
 Pope's decisions are " Irreformable even without the con.
 
 GREGORY THE GREAT 277 
 
 How thoroughly contrary, indeed, was the 
 narrow spirit displayed at the Vatican Council by 
 Pope Pius IX. to that displayed by his illustrious 
 predecessor, St. Gregory the Great, who (the 
 Venerable Bede tells us) in directing St. Augus- 
 tine concerning his mission to England, said, 
 ' Thou knowest, my Brother, the usage of the 
 Roman Church, in which you were brought up. 
 But it pleaseth me that if you have found any- 
 thing whether in the Roman, or the Gallican, or 
 in any other Church, that will give more honour 
 to Almighty God, you shall diligently adopt it ; 
 and make a rule taken from the many Churches 
 for the benefit of that of the English, which is still 
 new to the Faith. For things are not to be loved 
 for the sake of places, but places for the sake of 
 their good things.' 
 
 sent of the Church " has destroyed the mark of Apostolicity 
 by destroying the Church itself. For what it means, put as a 
 piece of arithmetic, is this: Pope - C hurch = Pope + Church, 
 and, therefore, Church = o. Well might Bishop Maret, one of 
 the most learned of recent French theologians, say, "In 
 changing the Constitution, you are obliged to change the 
 doctrine also ; and from henceforth it will be necessary to 
 chant at the Holy Sacrifice, I believe in the Pope, instead of 
 I believe in the Church." Well might another theologian 
 say, "These gentlemen have simplified the Bible and the 
 Creed. They have reduced the Bible to one text : Thou art 
 Peter ; and the Creed to one article : I believe in the Pope" 
 (Littledale).
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 THE recent suppression of the Religious 
 Orders in France has exercised a remark- 
 able effect upon the relations existing in England 
 between the Secular, or parochial, and the Regular 
 clergy, members of the Religious Orders; 1 inasmuch 
 as it has, owing to the migration of so many com- 
 munities of monks from France to England, enor- 
 mously strengthened the position of the Regulars. 
 The number of monasteries and convents existing 
 in England is now very large, is increasing, and 
 in many cases the monks are encroaching seriously 
 upon the rights and duties of the Seculars. It 
 looks, indeed, as if the old warfare waged between 
 Seculars and Regulars were to be revived ; for it is 
 an open secret that the Seculars, as a body, deeply 
 
 1 The Catholic Dictionary defines the Regulars as ' Persons 
 of either sex observing a common rule of life, bound by the 
 three vows of religion, and obeying with regard to dress, food, 
 and the employment of their time, the statutes of the particular 
 order or congregation to which they belong.' 
 
 278
 
 SECULAR PRIESTS 279 
 
 resent the steady intrusion of the monks and the 
 Jesuits. 1 
 
 Beyond doubt, there is much to be said on 
 behalf of the Seculars. If the monks kept them- 
 selves to themselves, and led the strict secluded 
 lives prescribed by their rules, it would not 
 so much matter ; but with the exception of 
 such enclosed communities as the Carthusians, 
 Cistercians, and Carmelites, the reverse is the 
 case. And they try to lead the lives of Seculars, 
 so far as parochial work is concerned among the 
 upper classes, but fall back upon the privileges 
 of their individual Order when any real sacrifice 
 or extra duties are required of them. The 
 Orders are now frequently sending out monks, 
 in twos and threes, to different towns to establish 
 houses and carry on missions. In such cases, 
 much evil often results. For, away from their 
 monastery, these monks no longer live according 
 to rule, mix freely among their wealthy parishioners, 
 by whom they are wont to be regularly and 
 lavishly entertained, and often run their missions 
 heavily into debt. Transplanted suddenly into 
 the routine of a worldly existence from the strict- 
 ness and seclusion of the cloister, it is not sur- 
 prising that such monks find themselves exposed 
 
 1 Cardinal Manning looked upon the Society of Jesus as 
 ( one of nine hindrances to the spread of Roman Catholicism 
 in England.' Vide Purcell's Life of Manning (vol. ii.).
 
 280 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 to temptations of which they hitherto have had no 
 experience, and are not strong enough to resist. 
 Of recent years in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 many a priest's moral downfall has been due to 
 this sudden change of life. Of such cases the out- 
 side world as a rule hears little ; they are too 
 carefully hushed up. But the Secular clergy do 
 not forget them, and have in consequence dubbed 
 their Regular colleagues by the title of ' Irregulars.' 
 The quarrel between Seculars and Regulars 
 has been going on for centuries. In England, it 
 was waged without ceasing from Norman times 
 until the flight of James II., only to be resumed 
 again in the days of the Bishop Milner, since 
 when it has shown no signs of cessation. Even 
 the very coming of the Friars to England, known 
 as the great religious revival of the thirteenth 
 century, was not the harmonious episode which it 
 is thought to have been. The Seculars bitterly 
 resented the arrival of the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans ; and a poor friar applying at a 
 presbytery for a night's lodging often received far 
 more kicks than halfpence. From the beginning 
 down to the present day, financial reasons have 
 had much to do with the issue at stake. Monks 
 have to tout for funds and subscriptions to carry 
 on their various monasteries, and indeed their 
 very Orders themselves, and to do so they have 
 to ' poach ' (as it is called) upon the preserves of
 
 MONASTIC SCANDALS 281 
 
 their Secular brethren. Many monasteries were, 
 and are, carried on under most scandalous financial 
 conditions. No one realized this more than 
 Cardinal Wolsey, who (foreseeing the coming 
 storm) tried to anticipate it by reforming the 
 Church from within, instead of waiting until it 
 should be reformed from without. With this end 
 in view, he dissolved some of the smaller monas- 
 teries, but did not live to carry on his campaign 
 to completion. What happened in England prior 
 to the dissolution of the monasteries is happening 
 in England again to-day. Monasteries and con- 
 vents are springing up everywhere ; many of 
 which have to resort to mortgaging their premises 
 heavily before they can make things meet, and 
 load their missions with debts, which eventually 
 have, to avoid a scandal, to be paid off by a long- 
 suffering laity, or by some rich neophyte admitted 
 into their community. An instance of this, that 
 caused bitter sorrow and trouble to a generous 
 layman, was connected with the erection of a 
 church in a sea-side town. The layman, after 
 building the church, a very beautiful one, at his 
 own expense, determined to hand it over to a 
 religious Order, instead of assigning it to the 
 administration of the diocesan Secular clergy. 
 He was most anxious that it should be maintained 
 free of debt, and he took care to pay off all 
 expenses before its being opened to the public.
 
 282 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 Judge of his surprise and indignation, then, on 
 learning, shortly before the day fixed for the 
 opening ceremony, that the religious Order to 
 which he had assigned it had already secretly 
 mortgaged it on their own account. There was, 
 therefore, in the event of the religious being 
 unable to keep up the interest on the mortgage, 
 the probability that the church might be turned 
 into a music-hall, or theatre, for it might at any 
 time fall into the hands of the lender of the loan, 
 who would naturally sell it for his best advantages. 
 This case is but one instance amongst many. 
 
 ' Poaching ' by the Regulars is the bane of 
 Roman Catholicism. There can be no real in- 
 ternal union in a Church when such a system 
 is carried on with impunity. The Jesuits, the 
 financial position of whose Society rests in a far 
 more stable and prosperous condition than that of 
 any other religious Order, except the Carthusian, 
 are notorious ' poachers ' ; the very constitutions 
 of their Society lead them to be such. Their 
 priests, or agents, are busily employed in all 
 directions near to one of their missions in trying 
 to obtain wealthy parishioners, to be ' captured ' 
 from the congregations of neighbouring churches. 
 In London this ' poaching ' has been of the utmost 
 service and success, and without it their opulent 
 Mayfair mission would never have assumed its 
 prosperous and pleasing proportions. Whilst
 
 MONASTIC EXPENSES 283 
 
 Cardinal Manning lived, the Regulars (especially 
 the Jesuits) were prevented from encroaching 
 upon the position of the Seculars as they had 
 under Wiseman. In a notorious instance it was 
 the Cardinal's influence alone that prevented one 
 Order surprising the stronghold of another Order 
 by a sudden assault. After Manning's death, the 
 monks and the Jesuits recovered their lost ground, 
 and they are now stronger than ever. 
 
 Even when the Regulars build churches for 
 themselves, or (as is generally the case) got some 
 rich laymen to build them for them, the opening 
 of such churches to the public does not offer much 
 help or strength to the Roman Catholic cause. 
 The church remains the private property of the 
 individual Order, the money taken in pew-rents 
 and for seats at High Mass, the general offertories, 
 etc., all go to increase the private funds of the 
 Order, and do not swell in any way the diocesan 
 funds. There is nothing to prevent the Order 
 closing the church, and going elsewhere. The 
 whole mission is ' run ' merely and entirely to suit 
 the Order. Things in this particular are just the 
 same again to-day in England as they were in 
 pre- Reformation times. The monks then (the 
 Jesuits did not exist) took money out of the 
 various parishes instead of putting money into 
 them. The laity were expected to contribute to 
 their support, and to ask for nothing in return. 
 19
 
 284 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 The result of this was that the monks were gener- 
 ally at war with the neighbouring Secular clergy, 
 and with the laity. At St. Albans, where stood 
 one of the largest and finest abbeys in England, 
 some very serious and dangerous riots broke out 
 more than once between the inmates of the 
 monastery and the inhabitants of the town. 
 Because some splendid monastic churches in pre- 
 Reformation times belonged to the monks- 
 churches which are still standing and are in use 
 to-day l ill-informed people imagine that the 
 monks built them at their own expense for the 
 benefit of the public, instead of which, of course, 
 the exact reverse was generally the case. 2 
 
 1 Such as Westminster Abbey, Tewkesbury Abbey, Christ- 
 church (Hants), Great Malvern Priory, St. Albans Cathedral, 
 Gloucester Cathedral, Bath Abbey, Beverley Minster, Peter- 
 borough Cathedral, Romsey Abbey, and many others. 
 
 2 Dr. Augustus Jessopp, in his Before the Great Pillage^ 
 makes some very true remarks upon the relations existing 
 between Seculars and Regulars in pre-Reformation England, 
 especially in regard to ' The stupid and ignorant assertion that 
 the monks built our parish churches. ... It would not be a 
 whit more absurd and nonsensical to say that the wonderful 
 amount of money spent upon the rebuilding and restoration of 
 our parish churches during the last fifty years (1850-1900) had 
 been contributed in the main by the Nonconformists, than to 
 say that the monastic bodies built the parish churches in the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is hardly too much to say 
 that, from some points of view, the monastic bodies were them- 
 selves Nonconformists. . . . The parochial (Secular) clergy in 
 England were always loyal Englishmen. The same at no time
 
 FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY'S 285 
 
 The chief cause of the financial difficulties, into 
 the depths of which so many monastic Orders are 
 constantly plunged, is, as I have said, due to their 
 habit of starting small and unnecessary monas- 
 teries and houses, often in direct opposition to the 
 local Secular clergy, and trusting to the laity to 
 pay off their debts. There is, indeed, no neces- 
 sity for any one Religious Order, no matter how 
 big, opulent, important, to have more than two, 
 or at the utmost three houses in England. For 
 the smaller Orders, one English house for each 
 Order should be quite sufficient. The way in 
 which the Orders have multiplied, and are mul- 
 tiplying their English houses, is perfectly pre- 
 posterous, and the establishments of one Order 
 alone in this country must amount to nearly 
 ninety. As the author of Steps towards Reunion 
 reasonably observes, ' A large number of small 
 and mean religious houses contributes nothing 
 to the splendour of Religion. It is degrad- 
 ing to have them going bankrupt through 
 excessive multiplication, when they might have 
 done well by confining themselves to one or few 
 establishments.' 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Regular clergy 
 
 can be said of the monks, who from first to last were much less 
 true subjects of the King, than at heart bigoted adherents of 
 the Pope. . . . The monasteries robbed the parishes of their 
 endowments.'
 
 286 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 are, on the whole, as at present represented in 
 England, an ambitious body of men. They are 
 not content, like their Secular brethren, to keep 
 what they have got ; they want to obtain more. 
 Having achieved phenomenal success in England 
 since 1850, they wish to recover, as much as pos- 
 sible, the position held by them prior to their 
 Dissolution under King Henry VIII. They 
 seem to forget that the world has changed since 
 then, and that whilst they have stood still, educa- 
 tion and civilization have progressed. They can- 
 not understand that whilst they are still leading a 
 fifteenth-century existence, their Secular colleagues 
 and the laity are leading that of the twentieth 
 century. Although they are no longer in occupa- 
 tion of their old houses, they often act as if they 
 were ; and whereas from the time of Thomas 
 Cromwell, Earl of Essex, down to the date of 
 writing, the Benedictines have not had a monas- 
 tery at St. Albans, or at Glastonbury, they. still 
 possess an Abbot of Glastonbury, and an Abbot 
 of St. Albans, whilst although they have ceased 
 to conduct the services in Westminster Abbey 
 ever since the accession of Queen Elizabeth, one 
 of their number is still dubbed Abbot of West- 
 minster ! l Again, they do not recognize that 
 
 1 Cardinal Wiseman actually imagined that the Benedictines 
 would have regained possession of Westminster Abbey by the 
 beginning of the present century.
 
 SCAPULARS 287 
 
 many of their mediaeval indulgences and devotions 
 are totally out of place in the England of to-day. 
 The Carmelites, for instance, still distribute to the 
 elect their famous Brown Scapular, which, 
 according to the very doubtful authority of Pope 
 John XX 1 1., was bestowed upon their Order by 
 the Blessed Virgin herself, with the promise that 
 she would descend into Purgatory and rescue the 
 soul of any person wearing it at death on the 
 Saturday following his or her decease, 1 conditional 
 only on the wearer having led a moral life and 
 having observed strictly the laws of fasting and 
 abstinence. Another unnecessary indulgence is 
 that of the ' Portiuncula,' administered by the 
 Franciscan Order, whose peculiar devotion, how- 
 ever, of the Stations of the Cross has now been 
 adopted by the other Orders and by the Secular 
 clergy, to say nothing of its being observed in 
 certain Ritualistic churches in the Church of 
 England. The Franciscans, nevertheless, have 
 not parted with their Cord of St. Francis, which 
 ' six times a year secures to its wearer the restora- 
 
 1 As has been pointed out by a Roman Catholic writer, this 
 privilege is a decidedly unfair one in point [of time, for it 
 assumes that a person dying on Friday night gets rescued on 
 the following day from the flames, whereas an individual dying 
 on Sunday has to spend a whole week before being delivered. 
 Another Carmelite Scapular, presented by the Virgin to St. 
 Simon Stock, bestows on its wearer absolute immunity from 
 Hell.
 
 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 tion of baptismal innocence ' ; and the Benedictines 
 are very proud of their wonderful ' Medals of St. 
 Benedict. 1 
 
 Dr. Jessopp's just complaint that the 'Monks 
 were much less true subjects of the King than at 
 bean bigoted adherents of the Pope ' is a state- 
 ment which applies just as much to the Regulars of 
 to-day as to their pre- Reformation predecessors in 
 this country. The monk's king is the Pope, and 
 the Pope alone ; outside each Order, no constitu- 
 tional authority is recognized save that of the 
 Holy See. The Pope alone has the power of 
 absolving a monk, or nun, of his or her Final 
 Vows. Of every Religious Order the Pope is the 
 direct and absolute head. Each Abbot or Prior 
 yields as much power over his brethren as does a 
 captain of a man-of-war over his crew ; and 
 Mitred Abbots l rank with Bishops. No wonder 
 that the Secular clergy have for centuries past had 
 to complain of the independence of the Regulars, 
 who have failed frequently, all the world over, to 
 submit to episcopal authority. As for the Jesuits, 
 although like all the Religious Orders owning the 
 Pope as their head, they have over and over 
 again defied the authority of the Holy See. A 
 monk or a nun, or a Jesuit, either in England or 
 in any other country, has no nationality ; he or 
 
 1 In KngJMiH, prior to die Dissolution, some Mitred Abbots 
 hid seats in die House of Peers.
 
 INSPECTION OF CONVENTS 289 
 
 she is purely and simply a vassal, political as 
 much as spiritual, of the Pope for the time being. 
 Is it to be wondered, therefore, that the recent 
 influx of the Religious Orders from abroad has 
 created some little alarm amongst lovers of 
 England and her liberties? 
 
 The old vexed question as to whether convents 
 and monasteries in Great Britain ought to be 
 opened to periodical inspection at the hands of 
 visitors appointed by Government is not one, I 
 think, which need be discussed here. That the 
 time will come, however, and perhaps soon, when 
 they will be thrown open, admits of little or no 
 doubt. It is a pity that the Orders do not 
 agree now at once to open their doors, instead 
 of waiting until they are thrown open for them. 
 The system of private burying-grounds within 
 monastic and conventual walls is, for instance, 
 one that needs supervision, and has been, and 
 often is, attended with very terrible consequences. 
 The remains of all monks and nuns should be 
 interred in the public cemetery, in England, and 
 everywhere else. Young men and women, too, 
 should be prevented from taking Final Vows. 
 
 I have said above that ' young men and women 
 should be prevented from taking Final Vows'; 
 by this I mean that, in England, the law ought to 
 intervene, and interdict young people from dedi- 
 cating their whole lives to the solitude of the
 
 290 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 cloister, at an age when they are so ignorant of 
 the world that they are incapable of comprehend- 
 ing the nature of the life which they are rejecting, 
 or the nature of the life which they are agreeing 
 to adopt. Their Final Vows once sworn, no one 
 can absolve them from these Vows, or release 
 them from their cells, except the Pope, and the 
 Pope is very far away ! The best means of 
 checking any possible abuse arising from the 
 obligation of such Vows would be to devise a 
 means by which it should be made compulsory for 
 all monks and nuns to renew their vows before a 
 local magistrate every three years, the magistrate 
 to possess the absolute veto as to permitting 
 monks and nuns either to take vows or to renew 
 them. In other words, monasteries and their in- 
 mates should be placed under a licensing system. 
 A recruit cannot join the Army, even under our 
 present system of short service, without first 
 going before a magistrate, whose recognition of 
 the step must be obtained ; why then should 
 young men and women be allowed to enter into a 
 secret compact, by the terms of which they contract 
 to shut themselves up in a spiritual prison for life, 
 and hand over to the monastic authorities all the 
 fortune of which they may be at the time pos- 
 sessed, the same arrangement to hold good in the 
 event of their inheriting money at any future 
 time ? All over the Roman Catholic world, cases
 
 FINAL VOWS 291 
 
 are constantly occurring of monks or nuns mistak- 
 ing their vocation ; that is to say, they find out 
 all too late that they have dedicated themselves 
 to a career for which experience (the only guide) 
 gradually reveals to them they are absolutely unfit. 
 Many a woman takes the veil, acting under a 
 sudden impulse, owing to having been disappointed 
 in a love affair, without having had any real inherent 
 desire for a conventual life ; and many a man has 
 become a monk under similar circumstances. 
 Cases also have, indeed, been known when young 
 ladies have actually been forced by designing 
 relatives to enter a convent, and their money has 
 been shared between the authorities of the Order, 
 to which the convent belongs, and the relatives. 
 Again, I myself knew a case of an Englishman 
 who entered a monastic Order, and, before the 
 time came for him to take the Final Vows, made 
 the Order a present of a sum amounting to over 
 ,20,000, only to find out a little later that he had 
 mistaken his vocation. Light dawned upon him 
 before taking the Final Vow, arid he not only left 
 the Order, but the Roman Catholic Church as 
 well. He had also to leave his money ! 
 
 The monastic revival in England has been an 
 important factor in conducing to the triumph of 
 Ultramontanism. Monks and nuns are not, and 
 never have been, Gallicans. The more powerful 
 the Pope, the better for them. Hence, defining
 
 29* SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 the dogma of the Infallibility was of much help to 
 them. It raised their master above the Sacred 
 College, and above all General Councils, as it 
 weakened in proportion the privileges of the 
 Bishops. Since 1870, the monks claim as the 
 head of each and every one of their Orders, 
 separately and conjointly, an infallible being, 
 whose prerogatives are best described by reference 
 to the words of the Bull itself : ' Docemus et 
 divinitus revelatum dogma esse definimus : Roma- 
 num pontificem, cum ex Cathedra loquitur, id est> 
 cum omnium Christianorum Pastoris et Doctoris 
 munere fungens, pro suprema sua apostolica 
 auctoritate doctrinam de Jide vel moribus ab 
 universa Ecclesia tenendam definit, per assis- 
 tentiam divinam, ipsi in beatro Petro permissam, 
 ea Infallibilitate pollere, qua divinus Redemptor 
 Ecclesiam suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel 
 moribus instructam esse voluit ; ideoque ejusmodi 
 Romani Pontificis definitiones ex sese, non autem 
 ex consensu Ecclesice irreformabiles esse' Nothing 
 can be clearer than the meaning of these final 
 words, which, translated into English, pronounce 
 that the decisions of the Pope are of themselves 
 irreformable, and are independent of the consent 
 of the Church. In the face of this, however, it is 
 interesting to note that, in an official text-book of 
 wide circulation, 1 which is generally given to 
 1 Catholic Belief. By the Very Rev. Joseph Faa di Bruno,
 
 INFALLIBILITY 293 
 
 every would-be convert in Great Britain to study 
 before he or she can be received into the 
 Roman Catholic Church, the author boldly defines 
 the Infallibility as belonging not to the Pope 
 alone, but to the Pope united to the Episcopate. 1 
 To quote the author in question : ' Catholics 
 believe that in the bosom of the Roman Catholic 
 Church there exists such an Infallible authority, 
 and that it resides in the whole body of the 
 Episcopate united with the Roman Pontiff. 
 They also believe that this unfailing protection 
 from teaching error is assured by God in a special 
 manner to the Roman Pontiff himself when he 
 speaks ex cathedra, as visible head of the Church 
 and legitimate successor of St. Peter. That this 
 Infallibility belongs to the whole body of bishops 
 united to the Roman Pontiff is plain,' etc. 
 
 The writer is also curiously candid in regard to 
 Pio Nono's previous innovation, the definition of 
 the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, when 
 he confesses that 'It is true that before the 
 solemn definition of this doctrine a diverse opinion 
 was tolerated by the Church, and maintained by 
 some Catholic theologians, who were not on that 
 account accused of heresy, but such diversity of 
 
 D.D., Rector-General of the Pious Society of the Missions. 
 Twentieth edition, 1902. The book bears the imprimatur of 
 Cardinal Manning. 
 
 1 This seems to have been Dr. Lingard's view.
 
 294 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 opinion commonly precedes and leads up to an 
 ecclesiastical definition.' It is a pity that Dr. 
 Faa di Bruno does not name ' some ' of these 
 theologians, among whom were many Saints and 
 Doctors of the Church. As the Bull defining the 
 Immaculate Conception denounces all Catholics 
 declining to believe in its terms as heretics, it 
 therefore follows that such saints as Chrysostom, 
 Epiphanius, Jerome, Augustine, Bernard, and 
 Thomas Aquinas were all heretics. There is no 
 question of time involved ; just as the Bull 
 defining Infallibility was made retrospective, so 
 was that of the Immaculate Conception, and a 
 man living a thousand years ago who repudiated 
 either of these doctrines was just as much a 
 heretic as a man who repudiates them to-day, and 
 becomes excommunicated in consequence of his 
 disbelief. Cardinal Newman's theory cannot be 
 accepted, that ' There is no burden at all in 
 holding that the Blessed Virgin was conceived 
 without original sin ; indeed, it is a simple fact to 
 say that Catholics have not come to believe it 
 because it is defined, but that it was defined 
 because they believed it.' Such ' a simple fact ' 
 serves to illustrate the danger of relying upon 
 Cardinal Newman's logic, especially when he goes 
 on to say that ' It was in consequence of the 
 unanimous petition, presented from all parts of 
 the Church to the Holy See, in behalf of an
 
 CARDINAL NEWMAN 295 
 
 ex cathedra declaration that the doctrine was 
 Apostolic, that it was declared so to be. I have 
 never heard of one Catholic having difficulties in 
 receiving the doctrine, whose faith on other 
 grounds was not already suspicious.' But 
 Cardinal Newman must have known that the 
 Dominican Order had for four centuries attacked 
 the doctrine, and that the Dominicans stoutly 
 opposed its definition in 1854. Finally, he says, 
 in complete contradiction of his previous line of 
 argument, that ' St. Bernard and St. Thomas 
 scrupled at it in their day, yet had they lived into 
 this, would have rejoiced to accept it for its own 
 sake.' But, would they ; and why should they ? 
 Not a scrap of original evidence in favour of the 
 doctrine has been discovered since their deaths, 
 and it is mere quibbling to pretend that had these 
 saints lived in the nineteenth century they must 
 have accepted it. Newman's whole statement of 
 the case l for the dogma is a tissue of contradic- 
 tions from first to last, as is his treatment of the 
 1 Probabilism ' of St. Alfonso Liguori, 'who was,' 
 he maintains, 'a lover of truth, and whose 
 
 1 As presented in his Apologia pro Vita Sua, On reading 
 this work it is difficult, indeed, to imagine that its author, in 
 earlier years, once wrote : ' We shall find too late that we are 
 in the arms of a pitiless and unnatural relative (the Roman 
 Catholic Church), who will but triumph in the arts which 
 have inveigled us within her reach. . . . She is a Church 
 beside herself: crafty, obstinate, wilful, malicious cruel,' etc.
 
 296 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 intercession I trust I shall not lose, though on the 
 matter under consideration, I follow other guid- 
 ance in preference to his.' And yet, of this 
 4 lover of truth ' Newman had only just written : 
 ' St. Alfonso Liguori, then, it cannot be denied, 
 lays down that an equivocation (that is, a play 
 upon words, in which one sense is taken by the 
 speaker, and another sense intended by him for 
 the hearer) is allowable, if there is a just cause, 
 that is, in an extraordinary case, and may even be 
 confirmed by an oath.' But, in speaking thus, he 
 piously hopes that he is not ' saying anything 
 disrespectful to St. Alfonso 1 ! 
 
 Of late years, many ingenious attempts have 
 been made by monkish writers, in order to 
 strengthen the present position of the Regulars in 
 England, to cast a new and more pleasant light 
 upon the general state of the monastic houses 
 before, and at the time of their Dissolution under 
 Henry VIII. But these writers cannot be 
 credited with having brought their laborious tasks 
 to successful conclusions. They have totally 
 failed to explain, if the mediaeval monasteries 
 were all such perfectly-managed institutions, why 
 the vast majority of the population in England at 
 the period of their Dissolution calmly looked on 
 unmoved, without stirring a finger to save the 
 religious from their fate? 1 The truth is, of course, 
 
 1 In the north-west, it is true that the so-called ' Pilgrimage
 
 FALL OF THE ABBEYS 297 
 
 that both the Secular clergy and the laity had long 
 lost sympathy with the monks. They were willing 
 to retain a small number of the larger and better- 
 conducted houses, 1 but they were quite agreed, 
 with Cardinal Wolsey, that the definite time had 
 come to check decisively the nefarious growth of 
 the monastic system. King Henry VIII., and his 
 advisers, eventually refused to discriminate be- 
 tween any of the houses, or between any of the 
 Orders, and all were dissolved and swept away in 
 one common ruin. The monks had only them- 
 selves to blame for their misfortunes, and, as 
 Froude says, ' For years past the abbeys had 
 gone their own way, careless of the gathering 
 indignation with which they were regarded by the 
 people, and believing that in their position they 
 held a secret shield which would protect them for 
 ever.' In the theory propounded by Roman 
 Catholic writers that the monasteries were 
 dissolved, not because of the laxity of their 
 inmates, but because the King and his courtiers 
 coveted their wealth, is not tenable when we read 
 the evidence accumulated against the behaviour 
 
 of Grace ' was directed with the object of restoring the monks. 
 But the restoration of the monks was only one of the aims of 
 the insurgents, who took the field in defence of the Roman 
 Catholic religion generally, and not solely on behalf of the 
 Regulars. 
 
 1 Even Bishop Latimer interceded for the picturesque priory 
 of Great Malvern, Worcestershire.
 
 298 SECULARS AND REGULARS 
 
 of the Regulars by their own contemporaries and 
 co-religionists. An attempt to reform the 
 monasteries had not only been made by Cardinal 
 Wolsey, but even so far back as in the reign of 
 Henry VII. by Cardinal Morton, who was carry- 
 ing out the special instructions of Innocent VIII., 
 that Pontiff being justly indignant at the terrible 
 state of many of the bigger houses. 1 But neither 
 Morton nor Wolsey was strong enough to carry 
 out so prodigious a work, and they had to 
 relinquish it, to be completed by Thomas 
 Cromwell and Henry VIII. 
 
 1 Amongst which the great Abbey of St. Albans, and some 
 houses dependent on it, were found to be existing in a most 
 scandalous condition, yet the Abbot sat in the House of Lords 
 as a Spiritual Peer.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 THE PHANTOM OF REUNION 
 
 ONE of the primal developments of the Oxford 
 Movement was the tendency evinced by 
 several of its most ardent and advanced supporters 
 to enter into some sort of a scheme for reconcilia- 
 tion with Rome. They professed themselves 
 eager to see the Church of the Establishment 
 united in some degree with that of Rome. In 
 this expression, they asserted that they were only 
 following in the footsteps of Archbishop Laud 
 and his school, who had endeavoured secretly to 
 come to some terms of agreement with the Holy 
 See. Since the full development of the Oxford 
 Movement, a great many illusive schemes have 
 been entered into by a section of the Ritualistic 
 party in the Church of England, acting in unison 
 with a small section of the English Roman 
 Catholics, to devise means for reuniting the two 
 Churches ; but without avail. As time goes on all 
 idea of reconciliation between Canterbury and 
 Rome becomes more and more hopeless of effective 
 realization. It is still slightly possible, of course, 
 
 20 299
 
 300 THE PHANTOM OF REUNION 
 
 that a large portion of the High Anglican party 
 might again go over in a body to Rome, as in the 
 period covered by the years 1844 to 1855, for 
 example. But this would not mean Reunion with 
 Rome ; it would simply imply that the Church of 
 England was freed, at last, from the grave burden 
 of a large number of restless persons, whose 
 presence in the Anglican ranks is somewhat of an 
 anomaly, professing as they do allegiance to one 
 Church, whilst apparently pretending the doctrines 
 of another and rival Church. 
 
 During the nineteenth century, the most ardent 
 advocate on the Roman Catholic side working 
 on behalf of Reunion was Mr. Ambrose March 
 Phillips de Lisle, a layman, who was once 
 described by Mr. Gladstone as ' An Israelite 
 indeed, in whom there is no guile.' Mr. Phillips 
 de Lisle 1 was a convert to Romanism, having 
 seceded from the Church of England when quite 
 a young man. 2 Possessed of considerable landed 
 property in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, 
 it was owing to his munificence, acting injunction 
 with the ' good ' Earl of Shrewsbury, that the 
 
 1 His father's name was Phillips, but on the assumption of 
 a maternal descent from a branch of the Norman family of 
 L'Isle, he adopted the additional surname of De Lisle. 
 
 2 Phillips de Lisle, however, was merely carrying on, though 
 on a larger scale, Father Ignatius Spencer's campaign in favour 
 of Reunion. Spencer, indeed, was first in the field, without 
 doubt.
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE MONKS 301 
 
 Cistercians (Trappists) were enabled to establish 
 their splendid Abbey in Charnwood Forest ; whilst, 
 in his own private chapel, he erected the first altar 
 ever dedicated in England to Saint Joseph, for 
 the latter-day introduction of whose cultus into this 
 country he must, I presume, be held partly responsi- 
 ble. But his efforts on behalf of the Cistercians 
 were doomed to disappointment, inasmuch as he 
 could get them to undertake no parochial work of 
 any kind. He found that he had merely provided 
 funds towards the maintenance of a religious 
 community, which was of no help whatever locally 
 to the Roman Catholic cause. His exasperating 
 experience in regard to his dealings with these 
 monks, for whom he had sacrificed so much, was 
 precisely similar to that of Cardinal Wiseman, 
 already referred to above, in connection with the 
 Regulars in London. The attitude of the Regulars 
 was entirely selfish, for so soon as they were 
 comfortably housed, they paid no attention to the 
 spiritual wants of their co-religionists living just 
 outside the monastic gates. From the Passionists, 
 Phillips de Lisle and Lord Shrewsbury also met 
 with ingratitude, although Lord Shrewsbury l was 
 
 1 The last Roman Catholic Earl of Shrewsbury. Dying 
 without a son to succeed him, he was succeeded by his kinsman, 
 Lord Talbot. He was a very good and generous man, and 
 spent large sums of money on behalf of his Faith. He was an 
 undoubted Gallican, and even Mr. Phillips de Lisle was opposed 
 to the definition of the doctrine of the Infallibility.
 
 302 THE PHANTOM OF REUNION 
 
 by this time sufficiently fortified by experience to 
 be altogether deceived. The Passionists, under 
 Father Dominic Barberi, had come over to 
 England without funds, without any knowledge 
 of English customs, English habits, or of the 
 English tongue, and yet expected the native 
 Roman Catholic laity to keep them. They 
 managed, at last, to obtain the loan of an empty 
 house, and when asked what they meant to do 
 next, plaintively replied that Providence would 
 provide for them. 
 
 All Mr. Phillips de Lisle's exertions in the 
 cause of Reunion met with signal failure in the 
 end. He inaugurated a wealthy Society, composed 
 of Romanists and Ritualists, who were pledged to 
 agitate in favour of an understanding between 
 England and the Holy See. On the Anglican 
 side, Dr. Frederick George Lee was Phillips de 
 Lisle's principal confederate, and the two together 
 strove their utmost to propagate crypto- Roman 
 doctrines and practices among the Protestant 
 clergy. Mr. Phillips de Lisle endeavoured to 
 obtain for this Society the support and approval of 
 Cardinal Barnabo, and wrote to Rome a most 
 glowing and enthusiastic description of his pro- 
 ceedings. The Cardinal, who was quite mystified 
 by Phillips de Lisle's account of the work and 
 aims of the Society, returned him a courteous 
 reply, and received from the Society the compli-
 
 PHILLIPS DE LISLE 303 
 
 mentary present of a valuable gilt chalice. But, 
 meanwhile, Cardinal Manning's close attention had 
 been drawn to the scheme, and he soon found how 
 utterly illusive it all was, for Phillips de Lisle was 
 making promises which he could not possibly 
 redeem, and statements, about the support he 
 was receiving from the Anglican Episcopate, which 
 could not possibly be correct. At the same time 
 Phillips de Lisle was acting in entire good faith. 
 He was simply a visionary, who was so sanguine 
 of ultimate success that he could not see how 
 completely he was being misled, and was, in 
 consequence, himself misleading others. Cardinal 
 Manning reported the true state of the case to 
 Rome, with the result that the plans of Phillips 
 de Lisle and his friends were officially condemned, 
 and all Roman Catholics were directed to with- 
 draw from membership in the Society, much to 
 the heart-felt indignation and dejection of its 
 promoter. 
 
 Since the death of Mr. Phillips de Lisle, some 
 members of the Ritualistic party have been more 
 energetic than Romanists in agitating for Reunion, 
 but no intelligible information of any kind what- 
 ever as to how this Reunion is to be effected has 
 yet been made public ; and it is a somewhat sig- 
 nificant fact that those, on the High Anglican side, 
 who have been heard clamouring the loudest for 
 Reunion with Rome have taken good care not to
 
 304 THE PHANTOM OF REUNION 
 
 become Roman Catholics. 1 The Papal Bull con- 
 demning Anglican Orders, too, has widened the 
 breach, and it is difficult to comprehend how 
 Anglicans can logically be expected to unite with a 
 Church whose Infallible head has pronounced their 
 priestly Orders to be utterly null and void. So 
 far as can be discerned out of so much uncertainty, 
 the whole movement, as yet projected, seems to 
 savour of surrender rather than Reunion, for 
 England is to give way blindly, and do as Rome 
 requires, without receiving any concession in 
 return. 
 
 In the conduct of this agitation for Reunion, the 
 old plea for the Reunion of Christendom has long 
 been abandoned by the Reunionists. They have 
 no desire to unite all the Christian Churches by 
 some common friendly tie. All they wish, is to 
 render the Church of England, or a great portion 
 of the Church of England, subservient to the 
 Bishop of Rome. To attain this end, they are 
 still working, as did Phillips de Lisle and his 
 allies, to spread Roman Catholic doctrines and 
 practices as widely as possible among the laity 
 and clergy of the Establishment. A little leaven, 
 they hope, will leaven the whole lump. In order 
 to Italianate the Church of England, they 
 
 1 Dr. F. G. Lee, it is true, died a Roman Catholic, but he 
 was not received into the Roman Church until he was almost 
 in extremis.
 
 ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN 305 
 
 introduce wherever they can the most modern 
 Roman devotions and doctrines into the bosom 
 of the Establishment. The old position of the 
 historic High Church party has long been 
 abandoned. The modern Ritualist laughs at 
 the old school of High Anglicans. He makes 
 no appeal to the verdict of history, but is quite 
 content to adopt the newest fashions in religion, 
 so long as they are imported direct from Italy. 
 No doctrine, promulgated by the Ultramontanes 
 of the nineteenth century, which has shocked the 
 Liberal Catholic, or the Gallican, comes amiss to 
 some of these extremists. The cultus of St. Joseph, 
 the constant use of the Rosary, the exposition of 
 the Eucharist, the dogma of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception, the doctrine of the Assumption of the 
 Virgin, 1 the extreme Roman view concerning 
 Purgatory, the Infallibility of the Pope, all find 
 favour and approval among the Ritualistic school 
 which is agitating for Reunion with Rome. 
 
 A good deal of literature, in the shape of 
 magazine articles and treatises, has of late years 
 been published by the Reunionists in defence of 
 
 1 The doctrine of the Corporeal Assumption of the Virgin 
 Mary into Heaven is not yet an Article of Faith, which Roman 
 Catholics are bound to believe, though it will probably become 
 one in time. Roman Catholics are, however, bound to go to 
 Mass on the feast of the Assumption. The doctrine was, of 
 course, absolutely unknown to the early Church. It seems to 
 have been invented by a Greek monk.
 
 306 THE PHANTOM OF REUNION 
 
 their plan of campaign, nine-tenths of which has 
 come from the Ritualistic, and not the Roman 
 camp. The only work of any distinct logical 
 merit that has yet appeared on the subject of 
 Reunion is, nevertheless, by the pen of a Roman 
 Catholic Priest, namely, Steps towards Reunion, 
 by the Rev. Father James Duggan. I have 
 referred to this book, more than once, above. It 
 must, at the same time, be admitted that the title 
 of the book is somewhat of a misnomer ; for a 
 perusal of its contents fails to furnish the reader 
 with any very valuable information as to how 
 Reunion is to be brought about, or to show indeed 
 that any urgent necessity, at present, exists for 
 Reunion at all. In fact, this most impartial and 
 scholarly essay tends to reveal how very difficult 
 and uncompromising are the impediments which 
 block the path of the Reunionists, and what little 
 chance or opportunity exists of Ultramontane 
 Rome being able to remove those impediments 
 by making any specially substantial concession to 
 the High Anglican party in favour of Reunion.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE IN ENGLAND 
 
 THE times have changed, indeed, for the 
 English Roman Catholics during the 
 course of the last hundred years. What a con- 
 trast is there between the dawn of the nineteenth 
 century and that of the twentieth ! In the year 
 1800, the English Romanists were only just 
 beginning to attend Mass openly, and to hear it 
 said in a proper chapel, and not behind the locked 
 doors of some melancholy garret, hidden away at 
 the top of a by-street in Holborn or Soho, or in 
 some carefully-guarded chamber of a country- 
 house. In the year 1800, the English Romanists 
 were not yet emancipated ; entry into Parliament 
 and the learned professions was still forbidden 
 them. There was no Cardinal resident in Great 
 Britain (or in Ireland). There was not, in 1800, 
 a single monastic house established in Great 
 Britain. There was, it is true, a house inhabited 
 by ex-Jesuits in Lancashire, there were three or 
 four convents of women, and some French refugee 
 
 307
 
 308 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 monks had obtained shelter at a gentleman's 
 private house in Dorsetshire ; but there was not 
 in existence one recognized priory, or abbey. 
 Even in the very doctrines of the Church itself 
 there was a difference noticeable between then 
 and now; in 1800, no Roman Catholic was 
 expected to believe either in an Immaculate 
 Virgin, or in an Infallible Pope. There was a 
 difference also in the services of the Church ; in 
 1800, but few images were to be seen in an 
 English Roman Catholic chapel, the repetition 
 in public of the litany of Loretto was unknown, 
 the public use of the Rosary was very infrequent, 
 the service of Benediction was seldom celebrated, 
 1 Quarant'ore ' had not yet been introduced from 
 abroad, and operatic Masses were very rarely, if 
 ever sung. A Secular priest, in 1800, was 
 content with the plain prefix of ' Mr. ' to his 
 name, and was never called ' Father.' The 
 Bible was read among all classes of Roman 
 Catholics far more than it is now. In 1800, 
 there was not a Roman Catholic Cathedral in 
 England, and there was no Archbishop of 
 Westminster. 
 
 Things are changed, indeed, since the year 
 1800, but are they changed for the better, on the 
 whole that is the question? Inasmuch as the 
 English Romanists have obtained political and 
 social freedom, and can rise to hold almost any
 
 ITALIAN ORDERS 309 
 
 great office under the Crown, 1 they certainly are, 
 but in many other respects they are not. The 
 English Romanists, whilst gaining in external 
 progress and freedom, have not gained internally. 
 They are now, far more than in 1800, directly 
 subject to the Holy See. Ultramontane principles 
 have destroyed the old patriotic spirit of 
 Gallicanism. Moreover, although they obtained 
 Emancipation in 1829, it was not until over sixty 
 years later that Roman Catholic laymen were 
 formally permitted by the ecclesiastical authorities 
 of their Church to go up to our great Universities, 
 and it is only of recent years that the middle and 
 lower class Catholics have succeeded in obtaining 
 a good system of education. Ever since 1850, 
 the year of the restoration of the Hierarchy, 
 slowly but surely has the Holy See proceeded to 
 Italianate, in every way possible, the Roman 
 Catholic Church in our land. The influx of 
 Italian Religious Orders, like the Oratorians, 
 Passionists, Servites, Oblates, and Redemptorists, 
 the introduction of modern Italian devotions, the 
 adoption of Roman vestments, the pronunciation 
 of ecclesiastical Latin according to the Roman 
 form, the residence of a Cardinal at Westminster, 
 the progress and prosperity of the Society of Jesus, 
 and 'sung Masses of the Virgin Mary,' have all 
 
 1 The exceptions are those of Lord Chancellor, Viceroy of 
 Ireland, and Regent of the Kingdom.
 
 3 io PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 tended to transform the old Roman Catholic Church 
 in this country into a modern ' Italian Mission.' 
 
 This change for the worse dates, I think, from 
 Monsignor Manning's elevation to the Arch- 
 bishopric of Westminster. Cardinal Manning's 
 primacy, extending as it did over a space of a 
 quarter of a century, was a period of decadence. 
 It is true that Cardinal Wiseman, his predecessor, 
 had made many mistakes ; but several of these 
 were committed when Wiseman was very ill, and 
 when Monsignor Manning was shaping his policy 
 for him. Wiseman, for instance, was not adverse 
 to his co-religionists going to Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, but Manning was, and he prevented 
 Wiseman from sanctioning their going. As soon 
 as Manning became Archbishop, his policy soon 
 tended to nullify all the rapid progress made by 
 Rome in England since the era of Emancipation. 
 Roman Catholics were prevented from going to 
 the Universities, Newman and his friends were 
 denounced and watched, the freedom of the 
 Roman Catholic press was abolished, the laity 
 were not allowed to have a voice in any eccle- 
 siastical matter of importance, the vestments of 
 the clergy had to be cut strictly according to the 
 Roman fashion, and the Secular priest was told to 
 dub himself ' Father.' Cardinal Manning's reign 
 at Westminster was ruinous to the best interests 
 of his Church in England. It was he, and not
 
 UNPATRIOTIC CATHOLICS 3" 
 
 Cardinal Vaughan, who was mainly instrumental 
 in putting it back sixty years and more. Under 
 Cardinal Manning's influence, his Church became 
 utterly Italianated, and it seemed, at last, as if he 
 had determined to destroy all liberty of thought 
 among both clergy and laity, and to place them 
 directly and absolutely under the yoke of the 
 Papal Curia. ' We are Catholics first, and 
 Englishmen afterwards/ l was the motto of his 
 rule. 
 
 With the cleverest men amongst his co-religion- 
 ists Manning was in constant collision. He 
 seemed to be jealous and suspicious of every 
 intellectual Roman Catholic. 2 Archbishop Erring- 
 ton he had ruined already, before he became 
 Primate ; Lord Acton he disliked and attacked ; 
 John Henry Newman he persecuted ; Richard 
 Simpson he condemned as unorthodox ; Professor 
 Mivart he treated as a heretic ; the position of 
 the old Catholic families he set himself to lower. 
 His own isolated camp was composed of non- 
 intellectuals, who were all rabid Ultramontanes, 
 such as W. G. Ward, Herbert Vaughan, Mon- 
 signor Capel, Monsignor George Talbot, and 
 
 1 This was a saying of the convert Earl of Denbigh. It gave 
 rise to great popular indignation on the original occasion of its 
 utterance. 
 
 2 ' He hated all whom he suspected of being able to take his 
 measure. He put back Catholicism in England a hundred 
 years ' (Coventry Patmore).
 
 3i2 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 disciples of the perfervid school of Father Faber. 
 What a sharp contrast between such names as 
 these and those of the able writers and thinkers 
 who were to the fore in the dark days just 
 preceding the dawn of Emancipation, such as 
 Berington, Throckmorton, Lingard, Tierney, 
 Rock, Oliver, Husenbeth, Milner, Archer, Charles 
 Butler, Waterton, and Poynter ! Even Cardinal 
 Manning's strongest point his later hostility to 
 the Jesuits led him, once at least, into dire 
 disaster. As an alternative to letting the sons of 
 upper-class Roman Catholics go to Beaumont 
 and Stonyhurst to be educated, he set up Mon- 
 signor Capel at Kensington, and with what result 
 we need not here discuss. After Cardinal 
 Manning's death, the English Jesuits quickly 
 made up for lost time, and won the complete 
 confidence of his successor, Herbert Vaughan. 
 
 It has been contended, by one who knew 
 Manning well, that towards the end of his career 
 the Cardinal was haunted by the growing 
 conviction that his Ultramontane policy as Arch- 
 bishop of Westminster had been a failure, on the 
 whole. Nay, more, our authority declares that 
 Manning eventually regretted the part he had 
 played at the Vatican Council, whose Definition 
 of the Infallibility he recognized, at last, to have 
 been a profound mistake. Whether this view of 
 Manning's change of opinion be a correct one or
 
 THE LATER MANNING 313 
 
 not, some colour is certainly given to it by the 
 Cardinal's later hostility to his staunch allies of 
 1870, the Jesuits. Again, the Radical leanings of 
 his last years formed a marked contrast to the 
 narrow, rigid attitude assumed by him until, 
 roughly speaking, soon after the accession of 
 Pope Leo XIII., and the Cardinal Manning 
 who intervened on behalf of the Dockers, who 
 sympathized with Mr. Stead, who approved of 
 the Salvation Army, who advocated warmly 
 Home Rule for Ireland, who carried on his 
 teetotal propaganda to extreme limits, who 
 opposed vivisection, who strongly admired Lord 
 Shaftesbury and his works, who gave away copies 
 of the Gospels to his friends, who refused to allow 
 the Society of Jesus to open a school in or near 
 London, was surely a very different person from the 
 Cardinal Manning who had formerly fought tooth 
 and nail against the propagation of Liberal ideas 
 in any shape or form among his co-religionists. 1 
 
 But whether Cardinal Manning in his old age 
 regretted his former rigidity or not, it is indisput- 
 able that, before he died, he must have perceived 
 how his policy had been productive of many 
 errors. The elevation of Newman, for instance, 
 
 1 Towards the last, Manning wished only to be regarded as 
 as priest : ' I am not,' he once declared, ' a poet, a novelist, or 
 a writer of an Autobiography, like Newman ; but a priest, and 
 only a priest.'
 
 3i4 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 to the Cardinalate, afforded the strongest of strong 
 proofs that the new Pope disapproved of his 
 treatment of the illustrious Oratorian, as did a 
 very large number of the English Romanists, 
 both laity and clergy. The very great falling-off 
 in the number of secessions from the Anglican 
 Church to that of Rome during the last eighteen 
 years of his Primacy must have revealed to him 
 that Romanism was making no progress in 
 England, and that its decadence was due to the 
 Definition of the Infallibility of the Pope. At 
 Rome itself, he lost most of his influence on the 
 death of Pio Nono, and had it not been that he 
 and Leo XIII. eventually became agreed upon 
 the Labour Question, he would have found himself, 
 during his periodical visits to the Eternal City, 
 received at the Vatican with marked coldness. 
 As it was, he bitterly complained of the way in 
 which he was treated at the Vatican after the 
 death of his patron, Pio Nono. 
 
 It is a curious and significant fact that nearly 
 all the most famous ecclesiastics who have striven 
 to render Ultramontane principles paramount in 
 England, lived long enough either to find their 
 schemes foiled in the end, or to realize before 
 they died that their policy would not long survive 
 them. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 was hacked to death within the precincts of his 
 own Cathedral. Cardinal Wolsey for years was so
 
 ULTRAMONTANE PRELATES 315 
 
 rich and powerful that his authority rivalled that of 
 the King himself, and that King was Henry VIII., 
 yet he died a poor man and a prisoner, on the 
 way to take his trial in London. Cardinal Pole, 
 who was received on his coming to London as 
 Papal Legate, by the greatest officers of State 
 upon their knees asking for his blessing, died 
 under sentence of recall from Rome as one who 
 was suspected of heresy ; and within a few hours 
 of his death the religious system which he had 
 re-established in this country was swept away. 
 Bishop Milner lived to have his articles in the 
 Roman Catholic press condemned by the Holy 
 See, which severely censured him for his 'zeal. 1 
 Cardinal Wiseman, after a prolonged and 
 desperate quarrel with his Coadjutor, died a 
 lonely and disappointed man, at enmity with his 
 Bishops, with his Chapter, with his clergy, and 
 with members of his own household. Monsignor 
 George Talbot, who considered that the laity must 
 never be allowed to think for themselves, but 
 only amuse themselves, or attend to their daily 
 tasks, without having any voice in matters 
 ecclesiastical, died abroad, an inmate of an 
 asylum for the insane. Cardinal Vaughan, during 
 the last three or four years of his life, became 
 very unpopular with nine-tenths of the Secular 
 clergy of the arch-diocese, and was openly 
 subjected again and again to their most candid 
 
 21
 
 316 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 criticisms of his proceedings, and to their constant 
 revolts against his authority, whilst they dubbed 
 the new Cathedral the erection of which was 
 productive of so much controversy and discord- 
 by no more complimentary a title than ' Vaughan's 
 Folly. 1 
 
 Although the relations existing at present 
 between Priests and People in England are of a 
 more cordial and sympathetic character than those 
 maintained between the clergy and laity in Ireland, 1 
 where the Roman Catholicism is of a lower type 
 altogether, there are still many grievances in 
 England, which all liberty-loving members of the 
 laity would like to see redressed. One of the 
 chief grievances is concerned with the financial 
 administration of the dioceses by the Bishops. 
 In England, a Roman Catholic Bishop has far 
 more power over his flock than an Anglican 
 Bishop has, it is only the Religious Orders which 
 are somewhat difficult to manage. Over the 
 diocesan funds the Bishops maintain complete 
 control. The financial management of the 
 Missions is entirely in their hands. The parish 
 priest is powerless. He can, if he likes, in the 
 
 1 Mr. Bart Kennedy (a Roman Catholic), writing in the Daily 
 Mail, May 16, 1905, declared : ' It is not too much to say that 
 the people here are in positive terror of the priests. They can 
 neither call their lives nor their minds their own. When they 
 speak of the priests they speak in whispers. . . . The priests 
 rule everything, and interfere in everything.'
 
 EPISCOPAL FINANCES 317 
 
 event of a dispute, appeal to Rome, but should he 
 do so, he will not only in all probability lose his 
 case, but all chance of promotion as well. 
 
 In the year 1903, the following paragraph 
 appeared in a London daily newspaper : ' A re- 
 markable petition has been recently drawn up for 
 presentation to Parliament. The petitioners are 
 members of the Roman Catholic laity ; and they 
 appeal to Parliament to set up some control over 
 Roman Catholic moneys and endowments. It is 
 asserted that the sum total of the capital invested 
 in the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Great Britain 
 amounts to close on fifty millions sterling, and the 
 appellants complain that no account is ever 
 rendered by the Bishops of the management or 
 disbursements of the funds in their possession.' 
 
 This agitation, however, came to nothing. The 
 courage of the petitioners oozed out through their 
 fingers, long before Parliament met. The 
 ecclesiastical authorities easily frightened the 
 ringleaders of the movement; nothing was done, 
 and things have got worse than before, although 
 the publication of this, and other similar para- 
 graphs in the London press since then, 
 undoubtedly served to call attention to the 
 powerlessness of the Roman Catholic laity to 
 obtain certain long-needed reforms. 
 
 The Roman Catholic clergy in England contend 
 that as their Church here is not endowed, like
 
 318 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 that of the Establishment, they are of necessity 
 driven to be constantly 'sending round the hat.' 
 For the constant appeals of the Seculars to the 
 laity for funds good grounds as a rule exist, but 
 it is very difficult to condone the manner in which 
 the Regulars are allowed to bleed the laity. Why 
 should an English layman, rich or poor, be called 
 upon to subscribe to the private funds of a foreign 
 Religious Order, with which he has no connection, 
 and from which he may receive nothing in return? 
 Why should the laity be called upon to contribute 
 to the maintenance of the Jesuits, for instance ? 
 Many of the Regulars come, and have come over 
 to England from abroad, practically penniless, and 
 insist and have insisted on the English laity 
 keeping them. 
 
 But, even the Secular clergy often err on the 
 side of imprudence in begging for assistance. At 
 High Mass on Sundays, nearly every seat in an 
 English church is paid for. If the worshipper 
 does not rent a chair or pew, then he must pay a 
 shilling, or at the least sixpence, if he wants to 
 occupy a good seat. But, on the top of this he 
 must also subscribe to the collection, so that he is 
 obliged to pay twice over, and in ninety-nine cases 
 out of a hundred he does not know to what par- 
 ticular fund either of his donations will go. Then 
 again, the fee for having a Mass said five shillings 
 is an imposition, but a very profitable one.
 
 KISSING THE RING 319 
 
 Another circumstance that does not tend to 
 make for intimate union between Priests and 
 People in England is the extraordinary degree of 
 deference which the laity have to show to the 
 higher clergy. When a Roman Catholic layman 
 meets not only a Cardinal, or Archbishop, but 
 even a Bishop, or Mitred Abbot, he (or she) is 
 expected to go down on his (or her) knees, and 
 kiss the ecclesiastic's ring. Again, when a priest 
 of episcopal rank celebrates Holy Communion, 
 the laity approaching the altar are bound to kiss 
 the episcopal ring before partaking of the conse- 
 crated wafer. This is, indeed, putting the Priest 
 before the Sacrament with a vengeance, and it 
 would be interesting to know what possible 
 authority can exist, either in the Scriptures, in 
 Tradition, or in the Fathers, for countenancing 
 the practice of so odious a custom ! Of late years 
 in England, moreover, certain members of the 
 Roman Catholic hierarchy have tried to get others 
 than Roman Catholics, with whom they may come 
 into private contact, to kneel down and kiss their 
 rings ; and I remember personally the case of a 
 certain Prelate, who was quite rude to a Pro- 
 testant lady, lunching with him, because she 
 declined to genuflect and kiss his ring before 
 taking her seat at the table. This peculiar prac- 
 tice of kissing the ring is, of course, merely a 
 Papal attempt to get all and sundry to acknow-
 
 320 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 ledge the supremacy of the Sovereign Pontiff; 
 since the signet-ring worn by every priest of 
 episcopal rank is an emblem of the power of the 
 Holy See, and in kissing it the layman, Protestant 
 or Romanist, is indirectly saluting thereby the 
 person of the Bishop of Rome himself. To insist 
 on a non- Romanist kissing his ring is, therefore, 
 an act of unwarrantable presumption on the part 
 of a Roman Catholic Bishop, Cardinal, or Abbot. 
 A priest employed upon the English Mission, 
 unless he be a member of a contemplative Re- 
 ligious Order, leads, or ought to lead, a very hard- 
 working life, and to the credit of the Secular 
 clergy in general it must be admitted that most of 
 its representatives are not in any way prone to 
 shirk the trials and responsibilities of their posi- 
 tion. Probably, in no other country, all things 
 considered, are Priests and People on better terms 
 with one another than in England, although the 
 malign influence exercised by certain of the 
 Regulars seems likely to affect seriously this 
 entente cordiale before long. Financial consider- 
 ations, too, as we have seen, form somewhat of a 
 stumbling-block. But the future may show us 
 that the greatest danger threatening the con- 
 tinuance of the existing state of affairs is connected 
 with the attitude of the Church of Rome towards 
 its women ; for it is clear that, as time goes on, 
 even Roman Catholic ladies will venture to appeal
 
 LADIES IN CONVENTS 321 
 
 for recognition in the emancipation of their sex 
 from the survival of the mediaeval system of 
 incarcerating women, young and old, within the 
 silent seclusion of conventual walls. 
 
 Women in the Roman Church are about the 
 only ones still left in England who have not 
 shared with their sisters of all other religious 
 denominations in advancing with the times. Our 
 English women, now, after having received a 
 good education, go forth into the world and fight 
 the battle of life manfully. Yet in the Church of 
 Rome things are different; the percentage, for 
 instance, of hospital nurses who are Roman 
 Catholic is a small one. Every devout woman 
 holding the Roman Catholic faith can do nothing 
 of importance without first seeking the opinion of 
 her ' Director.' The result of this is, that she 
 becomes utterly unable to strike out for herself, or 
 to make a living for herself, and if her parents are 
 dead, and she has no longer a home of her own to 
 go to, an unmarried lady generally ends by com- 
 mitting spiritual suicide, that is entering a con- 
 vent. The number of ladies living secluded in 
 English convents, who might have passed pros- 
 perous and useful careers, or made good wives 
 and mothers, had they been advised, or allowed 
 to fight for themselves in the battle of life, and 
 not to enter a Religious Order, is enormous. Of 
 the ladies living in English convents, it is not too
 
 322 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 much to say that quite sixty per cent, of their 
 number ought to have continued to remain in the 
 world, which they should never have renounced. 
 
 The system of educating young girls in con- 
 vents is at the bottom of more than half the 
 troubles caused by the ' sex question ' in the 
 Roman Catholic Church. It would be much better 
 if girls were sent to ordinary secular boarding- 
 schools, or educated at home, instead of their being 
 sent to nunneries to be boarded and taught. They 
 are, as it were, in the beginning educated up to 
 the conventual system, and if they fail to marry 
 when they quit the convent, after completing their 
 scholastic course, they are induced to imagine that 
 their only chance of leading a good life is to 
 return to it and become nuns. Girls are kept too 
 long in convents before coming out into the 
 world. Hence, the very large number of unhappy 
 marriages, which are alike the scandal and the 
 curse of Roman Catholic countries. A young 
 girl, brought up in a convent, emerges suddenly 
 into the world, of which she knows nothing ; and 
 is then very frequently expected to marry a man, 
 of whom she knows nothing, whom her parents or 
 guardians have already picked out for her, without 
 her wishes being in any way consulted. This 
 convent system prevents Roman Catholic girls 
 from mixing with those of other creeds, and they 
 consequently hold no chance whatever of broaden-
 
 THE WORSHIP OF MARY 323 
 
 ing their minds. They leave their convents totally 
 unequipped for the fray, for they have remained 
 children instead of growing up, and their sole 
 resource, in all doubts and difficulties, is to pray 
 for guidance, or for help, to Mary, the Holy 
 Mother of God. 
 
 No young lady ought to be allowed to become 
 a nun. Convents should only be used as a refuge 
 and a hospice for those women whether un- 
 married or widows who have first essayed an 
 ordinary life, and have achieved sufficient experi- 
 ence to enable them to know their own minds. 
 With all its asceticism, all its glories, all its fasts, 
 and all its prayers, the life of a nun is a very 
 selfish one. A woman, who enters an Order, 
 deliberately runs away from the temptations, 
 trials, and burdens of life ; adopting a system of 
 living whereby she is not exposed to ordinary 
 dangers of temptation or trouble, and incurs no 
 chance of becoming hopelessly poor, or of starving ; 
 for all her clothes, medicines, and meals are regu- 
 larly found for her. She merely leads a very 
 quiet existence, freed from all the ordinary tempta- 
 tions of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but 
 placed in a position in which she is not free to do 
 good to others. She becomes, at last, a mere 
 spiritual machine. Her very will is dependent 
 upon the caprices of the Mother Superior, or 
 Chaplain of the convent. Even her thoughts are
 
 324 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE 
 
 not her own, for she has frequently to satisfy her 
 ' Director ' as to their nature in the confessional- 
 box. To her the convent becomes at length her 
 all in all. She does everything by rule. She 
 moves to and fro like a puppet, with her superiors 
 pulling the string. She makes no real advance 
 in her spiritual life, for she can only pray as she is 
 advised to pray, and she can only plod along in 
 the same old groove, trying to work out her own 
 salvation ; she cannot help to save the souls of 
 others. In a monastery, things are but a shade 
 the better, and we are reminded of the curious 
 legend of the lay-brother, who, stultified by the 
 tedious monotony of his rule, left the very presence 
 of the Beatific Vision, illuminating his little cell, 
 in order to take his place amongst his brethren in 
 the choir. 
 
 Our hearts ache, when we reflect on the sorrow- 
 ful lives led by so many noble and pious women, 
 old and young, within the seclusion of the cloister ; 
 mine does, especially when I pause to think of 
 one so good, so brave, so gracious, and so true, 
 who suddenly quitted all to whom she was so 
 dear, to immure herself inside a nunnery. One 
 who always looked forward with such confidence 
 towards the future ; who never thought of herself 
 when others were in question ; who was always so 
 modest, so unselfish, so unassuming, so self- 
 sacrificing, so forgiving, so consoling ; who was
 
 THE CONVENT SYSTEM 325 
 
 never hard, or cold, or proud, but ever kind and 
 tender, trusting and trustworthy. Yet, this girl 
 in the first flush of happiness, was induced to 
 listen to the persuasions of a monk, who repre- 
 sented that it was her duty to wed a heavenly 
 spouse, to tear herself away from all who were 
 so devoted to her, and bury herself within the 
 gloom and squalor of a convent cell. 
 
 But her case, which I dwell on here, was only one 
 in ten thousand. How many other human hearts 
 have been broken, and are breaking day by day 
 under similar conditions. The convent system is 
 the ruin of home life and home's affections. It 
 separates lover from lover, parent from child, 
 brother from sister, and friend from friend ; it 
 breaks hearts, but it never mends them ; it pulls 
 the mighty down, but it never lifts the humble up.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 LORD MACAULAY held so highly favour- 
 able an estimate of the future progress and 
 prosperity of the Church of Rome that he prophe- 
 sied the Papacy ' may still exist in undiminished 
 vigour, when a traveller from New Zealand shall, 
 in the midst of a vast solitude, take his seat on a 
 broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins 
 of St. Paul's.' But, Macaulay really knew very 
 little about Roman Catholicism, as is evident 
 from his grotesquely inaccurate description of the 
 death-bed reception of Charles II., and his extra- 
 ordinary notion that in burning heretics Mary 
 Tudor thought she was saving their souls here- 
 after. Of the Society of Jesus his account is 
 most inaccurate, and this ignorance is conspicu- 
 ously manifest in his treatment of Father Petre's 
 position at the Court of our King James II. The 
 signs of the times, indeed, point to retrogression 
 of the Papal power all over the world. Since 
 Macaulay wrote his essay, 1 Rome has gained 
 
 1 On Ranke's History of the Popes. 
 326
 
 DECADENCE OF ROMANISM 327 
 
 nothing, has lost Italy, Mexico, and France, 
 and has begun to lose her hold over South 
 America, Spain, Hungary, and Portugal. The 
 Holy See is beginning, at last, to reap what 
 it has sown. After having for so long pre- 
 vented the education of the lower classes, free 
 education is opening the eyes of the blind Ultra- 
 montane. Rome is threatened, it must be remem- 
 bered, with assaults both from without and within. 
 She is not only being attacked by the Protestant 
 and Freethinker from without, but she is being 
 seriously assailed by the Liberal Roman Catholic 
 from within. 
 
 Rome in England subsists in by no means a 
 sound internal condition. The building of a large 
 Cathedral, the activity of the Jesuits, the immi- 
 gration of alien monks and nuns, and the residence 
 of a Cardinal-Archbishop in London, do not 
 certify that the Church is making prodigious pro- 
 gress. As a matter of fact, the Westminster 
 Cathedral is a 'white elephant,' the Jesuits are 
 very unpopular, and a Cardinal resident in 
 London is a mere figure-head. Despite the 
 enormous increase in its forces, Romanism in 
 England is making little or no progress. At 
 the same time, the settlement amongst us of a 
 great army of monks and nuns may exercise im- 
 portant influences on the future. Moreover, in 
 spite of many defects, the Roman Catholic Church
 
 328 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 possesses many advantages. In the first place, 
 the Roman Catholic fold is conspicuous for its 
 unity; it is not split up into a variety of hostile 
 organizations as Protestantism is. The ritual, too, 
 is everywhere the same in the Church of Rome. 
 In questions of discipline, the Roman Catholic 
 system is better than the Anglican. An immoral 
 or otherwise unworthy priest can be deprived of 
 his faculties, and inhibited from saying Mass or 
 administering the Sacraments, at practically a 
 moment's notice. In the Anglican Church months 
 have to be wasted in bringing the culprit before 
 a court of law before he can be effectually dealt 
 with. In organization, the Church of Rome is 
 still unrivalled. ' It is impossible to deny, 1 as 
 Macaulay remarks, ' that the polity of the 
 Church of Rome is the very masterpiece of 
 human wisdom. In truth, nothing but such a 
 polity could, against such assaults, have borne up 
 against such doctrines. The experience of twelve 
 hundred eventful years, the ingenuity and patient 
 care of forty generations of statesmen, have im- 
 proved that polity in such perfection, that among 
 the contrivances which have been devised for 
 deceiving and controlling mankind, it occupies 
 the highest place. The stronger our conviction 
 that reason and Scripture were decidedly on the 
 side of Protestantism, the greater is the reluctant 
 admiration with which we regard the system of
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC JOURNALISM 329 
 
 tactics against which reason and Scripture were 
 arrayed in vain.' 
 
 One minor cause of such progress as Rome has 
 made in our country since the restoration of the 
 Hierarchy, in 1850, under Cardinal Wiseman, 
 has been the extraordinary skill which English 
 Romanists have employed to advertise their 
 Church and the doings of its leading members. 
 This advertising system has made the non- Roman 
 population, always suspicious of Popery, imagine 
 that Rome in England is a great deal more 
 powerful than she actually is, or ever has been 
 since 1850. The Roman Catholic press knows 
 how to blow its own trumpet. If a distinguished 
 convert be received into the Church, every pos- 
 sible publicity is at once given in print to the 
 fact ; but if a distinguished person secede from the 
 Roman Church, then the news is discreetlyignored. 
 If a priest brings out a scientific or historical work, 
 the same blowing of trumpets and beating of 
 drums takes place as in the case of a notable 
 conversion, and the book is favourably reviewed 
 in the Roman Catholic papers before the reviewers 
 have even had time to read it. I f a Roman Catholic 
 nobleman or gentleman takes part in any im- 
 portant public function, or accepts any small 
 political post, the occurrence is made as much 
 of as if he had been offered a seat in the Cabinet. 
 If a personage of distinction who is not a Romanist
 
 330 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 casually visits the Brompton Oratory, or Farm 
 Street, on a Sunday afternoon, it is immediately 
 hinted that he will very shortly be received into 
 the Church. If a member of the Royal Family 
 happens to say a few words to a Roman Catholic 
 prelate, or Jesuit priest, it is mysteriously whispered 
 ' on the highest authority ' that he is at heart a 
 Roman Catholic, and is only prevented by reasons 
 of State from not declaring himself or herself one. 
 This advertising system has undoubtedly been of 
 great aid to the Roman cause, for it has thrown a 
 false, and much too brilliant a light upon the whole 
 position of the Church in England. The system 
 in question is not the work of persons deliberately 
 attempting to deceive. It results rather from the 
 far too sanguine enthusiasm of the leading Ro- 
 manists themselves, who are utterly unable to 
 recognize the fact that their Church in our land 
 only occupies the position of any other Noncon- 
 formist Church, and that not only does it rank 
 a long way below the Establishment in importance, 
 but also below such communities as those of the 
 Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists. 
 
 In the above pages I have roughly traced in 
 outline the chief details of the history of the 
 Roman Catholic Church in England during the 
 nineteenth century. I have shown how Rome 
 has risen from the obscure position of a dq-
 
 RETURN OF THE MONKS 331 
 
 nounced and despised sect to that of an opulent, 
 powerful, and strongly-organized Communion ; 
 how her monks and nuns, after three centuries 
 of exile, have again returned to resume the occu- 
 pation of their cells in every quarter of Great 
 Britain ; how the Society of Jesus, though still 
 prescribed as illegal by the law of our land, has 
 also returned to set up numerous schools and 
 churches ; how Roman Catholic Halls have been 
 established at Oxford and at Cambridge ; how 
 the title of Cardinal has once more been be- 
 stowed upon Englishmen living on this side of 
 the Channel ; how the sentence of excommuni- 
 cation has again been passed by Rome upon 
 free-born citizens of England ; how the Holy See 
 has openly and defiantly proclaimed the Orders 
 of English clergy to be utterly null and void ; and 
 how a vast cathedral has been built, endowed, 
 and opened for the worship of the Faithful in the 
 heart of Westminster. 
 
 ' So far, but no further,' seems to sum up the 
 position of Rome in England. She has made quick 
 progress, but only up to a certain point ; after 
 reaching that point she seems, indeed, very slowly 
 but continuously to have been receding. Her 
 future, in spite of the inroads of Freethought, 
 lies, nevertheless, in her own hands. Let her 
 cease to be a Political Institution, and become 
 a Church, and a Church only, and she may yet 
 
 22
 
 332 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 hold her own ; let her cease to crush the spirit 
 of inquiry, and the quest of truth, among the 
 better-educated members of her own Communion, 
 and she may yet check the intellectual revolt 
 that is spreading inside her own doors ; let her 
 abandon the wretched claim of Infallibility for 
 her Popes, and she may yet recover more of her 
 lost ground. Let her, on the other hand, proceed 
 unhindered on the same lines as at present, and 
 she is doomed.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABBOT, the first since the 
 
 Reformation, 1 1 
 Abbots, Mitred, 158 
 Acton, Cardinal, his opposition 
 to English Hier- 
 archy, 47 
 at Cambridge, 261 
 
 Charles J., 260 
 
 Lord, anecdote of, 13 
 
 his opinion of New- 
 man, 43 
 life of, 260 
 letters of, 261 
 position of, 263 
 on John Inglesant, 
 
 266 
 
 correspondence with 
 Mrs. Drew, 265 
 
 Sir Richard, 260 
 
 Advertising, Roman, 329 
 Allen, Cardinal, death of, 247 
 Allhallows, Barking, 175 
 Americanism, rise of, 269 
 Andrews, William E., 20 
 Anglican Orders, Bull on, 89, 
 
 130 
 
 validity of, 129 
 Anthony, Father, on Purcell's 
 
 Life, 37 
 Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon 
 
 Church, 27 
 
 Apologia, the, 32, 42 
 Archer, Dr. James, 10, 20 
 Arnold, Mr. Thomas, 152 
 Arrowsmith, Edmund, 198 
 Assumption of the Virgin, 
 
 305 
 
 Athanasius, the English, 24 
 Austin Canons, houses of, 
 
 '5 8 
 Austinfriars, 175 
 
 Bagshawe, Dr., and the Prim- 
 rose League, 127 
 
 Baines, Bishop, on Infallibility, 
 86 
 
 Barberi, Father Dominic, 30, 
 
 35. 39. 40 
 
 Baynham, Sir Edward, 217 
 Becket, death of, 314 
 Beeding Priory, 36 
 Benedictines, houses of, 158 
 Benediction, the, 308 
 Bentley, John Francis, 123 
 Berington, Rev. Joseph, 20 
 Bishop Blougram, 61 
 Bishops, the election of, 22 
 
 rule of, 316 
 Black Pope, the, 193 
 Blackfriars Bridge, 174 
 Blackwell, Archpriest, 251 
 Bloxam, Rev. J. R., 36 
 
 333
 
 334 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Boyle, Mr. Richard, action of, 
 
 63 
 
 Brief, Papal, establishing Hier- 
 archy, 50 
 
 Brindle, Bishop, 133 
 
 Brown Scapular, the, 287 
 
 Brownbill, Father, receives 
 Manning into the Roman 
 Church, 39 
 
 Bruno, Rev. Dr., on Infalli- 
 bility, 292 
 
 Bull on movement of the sun, 
 
 89 
 on Anglican Orders, 130 
 
 1 Burning Babe,' the, quoted, 
 
 2 39 
 
 Burton, Sir Richard, 147 
 Butler, Rev. Alban, 20 
 
 on St. Aloysius, 271 
 Bye Plot, the, 217 
 
 Caldwell, John, 200 
 Campion, Edmund, 178, 200 
 Canons Regular, houses of, 1 58 
 Capel, Monsignor, case of, 114 
 Cardinals, English, 47, 53 
 Carlyle, his estimate of New- 
 man, 43 
 
 Carmelite Scapular, 287 
 Carmelites, houses of, 158, 
 
 '59. 
 again in England, 
 
 168 
 Carthusian Order, discipline of 
 
 the, 161 
 
 Carthusians, houses of, 158 
 Catesby, plans of, 216 
 Catholic Belief on Infallibility, 
 
 292 
 
 Catholic Dictionary on Regu- 
 lars, 278 
 
 Catholics in England, 2 
 Celibacy of the Clergy, 155 
 Challoner, Dr., Mass of, 8 
 life of, 16 
 register of his 
 
 burial, 17 
 his Garden of the 
 
 Soul, 20 
 
 Chapel burnt in Edinburgh, 9 
 Charnwood Monastery, n 
 life at, 169 
 foundation of, 
 
 301 
 
 Charterhouse, the, 175 
 Chinese Rites, 191 
 Christian Brothers, 167 
 Christie, Albany James, 206 
 Church History, Dodd's, 20 
 Churches and chapels in 
 
 England, 59 
 description of, 254 
 Cistercian monasteries, 158, 
 
 159 
 
 Clapham Bells case, the, 74 
 Clement XIV. suppresses the 
 
 Jesuits, 1 80 
 death of, 182 
 Clifford, Bishop, 57 
 Clifton, diocese of, 44 
 Coffin, Robert Aston, 57 
 Coleridge, Henry James, 206 
 Collections, Roman, 318 
 Controversial Catechism, the, 
 
 85 
 
 Convents, inspection of, 289 
 Conventual education, 322 
 Convert School, the, 71 
 Converts, in England, 59 
 
 list of notable, 144 
 number of, 148 
 Council of Trent, sittings of, 99
 
 INDEX 
 
 335 
 
 Councils, list of, 99 
 
 ' Coup d'etat si the Lord God,' 
 
 68 
 
 Cresswell, Joseph, 206 
 Crutchedfriars, 175 
 Crystal Palace, Manning at, 
 
 no 
 Cullen, Cardinal, 96 
 
 Daily Chronicle on Cardinal 
 
 Vaughan, 137 
 Daily Mail on Priests, 316 
 Darboy, Archbishop, 97 
 De la Cloche du Bourg, James, 
 
 207 
 De Lisle, A. P., reception of, 
 
 34 
 
 Decent Rationes, the, 204 
 Decorations in churches, 258 
 Dedication of England to 
 
 Virgin Mary, 123 
 Deference to Clergy, 319 
 Denbigh, Earl of, saying of, 
 
 3 11 
 
 Deposing Power of the Popes, 
 
 the, 204 
 
 Devonshire, missions in, 256 
 Diabolus Concilii, 98 
 Digby, Sir Everard, 216 
 Directors, 321 
 Dissolution of monasteries, 
 
 the, 296 
 Dollinger, Dr., on Infallibility, 
 
 83 
 Dominic, Father. See Barberi 
 
 Dominicans, houses of, 158, 
 
 159 
 and heretics, 167 
 
 Don Jacopo, 210 
 Downside Abbey, 159 
 Doyle, Sir A. C, 190 
 
 Dream of Gerontius, the, 33 
 Duggan, Father, on Papal 
 
 Bull, 6 
 
 on Priests, 273 
 Dupanloup, Bishop, 97 
 Durham Letter, the, 48 
 
 East Hendred, Mass at, 10 
 Ecclesiastical Titles Act, the, 
 
 5i 
 
 Edgbaston, Newman memorial 
 
 church at, 42 
 Edmund, Saxon King, bones 
 
 of, 136 
 
 Education, influence of, 153 
 Elizabeth, Queen, excom- 
 munication of, 6 
 Emancipation Act, the, 6 
 End of Controversy, the, 25 
 English Roman Catholics, 
 condition of, 3 
 
 College at Rome, 29 
 
 Errington, Archbishop, life 
 
 of, 64 
 
 his conflict with 
 
 Manning, 64 
 
 character of, 69 
 
 death of, 71 
 
 Ex catJiedra, indefiniteness of, 
 
 89 
 Ex-Jesuits, 182 
 
 Faber, Father, opinions of, 14 
 his reply to Wise- 
 man, 75 
 Fabiola, 78 
 
 Failure of ecclesiastics, 314 
 Father, title of, 108 
 Feast of St. Guy, the, 48 
 Fee for Mass, 318 
 Fenwick, a Jesuit, 200
 
 336 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ferrar, N., 266 
 Finances of the Clergy, 317 
 Fitzgerald, Mr. Percy, mis- 
 takes of, 125 
 Foley, Henry, 198 
 ' Forty Hours,' the, 13 
 Four Vows, the, 189 
 Franciscans, houses of, 158, 
 
 iS9 
 French troops withdrawn from 
 
 Rome, 94 
 Froude, J. A., on St. Benedict, 
 
 15 
 mistakes of, 205 
 
 Galileo, case of, 181 
 
 Gallantry of an English Priest, 
 246 
 
 Gallicanism, decline of, 19 
 in Ireland, 52 
 in Scotland, 52 
 
 Gallicans, English, list of, 20 
 
 Galton, Rev. Arthur, onOscott, 
 
 . I4 
 his Life of Thomas 
 
 Cromwell, 152 
 Garden of the Soul, the, 18 
 Garnet, Henry, 212 
 
 Thomas, 214 
 
 Generals of the Jesuits, list of, 
 
 179 
 
 power of, 191 
 
 Gentlemen from Liege, 182 
 George III. and the Corona- 
 tion Oath, 21 
 
 George IV. and the Corona- 
 tion Oath, 22 
 Gerard, John, 215 
 
 Father John, 217 
 
 on Nicholas Owen, 
 227 
 
 Gerard, Sir M., 190 
 Gilbert, Monsignor, 120 
 Gilbertines, Order of, 172 
 Gladstone, VV. E., on Manning, 
 
 68 
 
 on Vatican Coun- 
 cil, 97 
 
 on Purcell, 105 
 on A. P. de Lisle, 
 
 300 
 Glories of Mary, the, 13, 15, 
 
 J 73 !?4 
 
 Goldwell, Dr. Thomas, 2 
 Good, William, 197, 243 
 Gorman, Mr. W. Gordon, 
 
 184 
 
 Goter, Rev. John, 16 
 'Goths,' 14 
 Grant, Dr., 57 
 
 Ignatius, 36, 212 
 
 Great Malvern, monastery at, 
 
 297 
 
 Greenway, a Jesuit, 240 
 Greyfriars, 174 
 Griffiths, Dr., warning of, 12 
 called Anti-Christ, 
 
 12 
 Gunpowder Plot, the, 6 
 
 Habington, Mr., 221 
 Hall, a Jesuit, 221 
 Hammersmith Seminary, 122 
 Hart, Nicholas, 218 
 Hawker, Rev. R. S., 148 
 Hazlewood, Mass at, 10 
 Hedley, Dr., 58 
 Heretical Popes, 97 
 Hexham, diocese of, 44 
 Hierarchy in England, 1 1 
 
 re-establishment 
 of, 44
 
 INDEX 
 
 337 
 
 History of England^ Lingard's, 
 
 27 
 
 Home Rule, 100 
 Honorius I., case of, 96 
 Home, Rev. James, 8 
 Howard, Cardinal, 54 
 Husenbeth, Rev. F. G., 20 
 on Milner, 25 
 
 Infallibility, Papal, 83 
 
 definition of, 90 
 Bull of, 292 
 Inopportunists, 84 
 Insanity, prevalence of, 4 
 Inspection of convents, 289 
 Iron Archbishop, the, 64, 
 
 7.5 
 Italian mission, the, 309 
 
 Jessopp, Dr., on Monks, 284, 
 
 288 
 
 Jesuits, the, Wiseman on, 74 
 quarrel with Man- 
 ning, 107 
 suppression of, in 
 
 1773, J o8 
 restoration of, in 
 
 1814, 108 
 their converts, 149 
 foundation of, 177 
 in England, 178 
 English mission of, 
 
 I7 8 
 
 Generals of, 179 
 suppression of, 180 
 ruled by Vicars- 
 General, 1 80 
 restoration of, 180 
 in Poland, 182 
 regret at restoration 
 of, 183 
 
 Jesuits, the, and the English 
 
 Press, 184 
 houses in England 
 and Wales, 184, 
 196 
 
 their influence, 185 
 their Sodalities, 187 
 schools of, 187 
 training of, 189 
 mistakes of, 191 
 power of, 191, 193 
 their present posi- 
 tion, 192 
 influence over Nuns, 
 
 194 
 
 faux pas of, 195 
 biographies of, 197 
 Jesuitesses, Order of, 172 
 John XXIIL, 88 
 
 Keenan, Father, on Infalli- 
 bility, 85 
 
 Kennedy, Bart, on Priests, 316 
 
 Kerr, Henry, 218 
 
 Kingsley, Charles, on the 
 Jesuits, 178 
 
 Lancashire, missions in, 257 
 Langdale, Hon. Charles, 190 
 Latimer, Bishop, 297 
 Law, Dr., 152 
 Lee, Rev. F. G., 148 
 death of, 304 
 Leeds, diocese of, 45 
 Legitimists, their quarrel with 
 
 Wiseman, 76 
 
 Leo, Brother, dream of, 174 
 Libel action against Wiseman, 
 
 63 
 Liberal Roman Catholicism, 
 
 267
 
 338 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Liberatore, P., vow of, 94 
 Liddon, Canon, on Wiseman, 
 
 34 
 Liguori, writings of, 173, 295, 
 
 296 
 Lingard, Dr. John, 20, 27 
 
 said to have been 
 
 a Cardinal, 53 
 on Infallibility, 86 
 onAnglicanOrders, 
 
 130 
 Lisle, A. P. de, work of, 34, 
 
 300 
 Littledale on Faber, 14 
 
 on Vatican Council, 
 
 276 
 
 Littlemore, 38 
 Liverpool, diocese of, 45 
 Live s of the Modern Saints, 1 4 
 London District, the, 18 
 Longevity of members of the 
 
 Oxford Movement, 41 
 Loretto, Litany of, 13, 308 
 Loyola in London, 177 
 
 MacCabe, Joseph, on Purcell, 
 
 37 
 
 work by, 152 
 on converts, 154 
 on Seculars, 274 
 MacCarthy, Mr. Justin, on re- 
 establishment of Hierarchy, 
 46 
 Macaulay on the Papacy, 326, 
 
 328 
 Macmullen, Canon, anecdote 
 
 of, 113 
 
 Maintenon, Madame de, 195 
 Manning, Cardinal, his opposi- 
 tion to New- 
 man, 31 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, at requiem 
 Mass for New- 
 man, 32 
 
 repulsed by New- 
 man, 34 
 rise of, 64 
 conflict with Er- 
 
 rington, 64 
 madeArchbishop, 
 
 70 
 
 motives of, 72 
 made Cardinal, 84 
 his Story of the 
 Vatican Coun- 
 cil, 90 
 vow of, 94 
 treachery of, 98 
 on Gladstone, 99 
 career of, 101 
 character of, 106 
 and the Jesuits, 
 
 107 
 on Secular rights, 
 
 1 08 
 
 his sympathy with 
 Home Rule, 
 109 
 on temperance, 
 
 109 
 his Ultramontane 
 
 policy, no 
 death of, 1 1 1 
 personality of, 1 12 
 wife of, 113 
 writings of, 113 
 his hostility to 
 Newman, 114, 
 116 
 
 on Capel, 115 
 his meeting with 
 Newman, 117
 
 INDEX 
 
 339 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, as a Social 
 
 Reformer, 117 
 
 policy of, 1 1 8, 
 
 310 
 
 on Jesuits, 279 
 failure of, 312 
 Radicalism of, 
 
 and the Dockers, 
 
 only a Priest, 313 
 Manning, Life of Cardinal, 
 
 Purcell's, 37, 53, 62, 101 
 Manning, Mrs., anecdote about, 
 
 "3 
 
 Mannock, Sir George, 219 
 Mariolatry, 154 
 Marists, Wiseman on, 75 
 Mary, Father Augustine, 168 
 Mass, penalty for hearing, 9 
 
 fee for, 318 
 Memoirs of the Missionary 
 
 Priests, 18 
 
 Menevia, diocese of, 45 
 Meyrick, Canon, on Palgrave, 
 
 230 
 
 Middlesbrough, diocese of, 45 
 Midland District, the, 25 
 Mill Hill College, 133 
 Milner, Bishop, 22, 24, 28 
 on Infallibility, 87 
 censure of, 315 
 Minories, the, 175 
 Missions, Roman Catholic, 255 
 Mivart, Professor, 26, 124 
 Monasteries in England, 59, 
 
 158 
 
 condition of, be- 
 fore the Dis- 
 solution, 296 
 Monastic revival, the, 291 
 
 Monks, churches belonging 
 to, 284 
 
 Moral Theology, the, 173 
 
 More, Henry, 219 
 
 Thomas, 220 
 
 Morris, John, 220 
 
 Rev. John Brande, 
 
 220 
 
 Morton, Cardinal, on monas- 
 teries, 298 
 
 Newman, Charles, 41 
 
 John Henry, his 
 
 sermon on the 
 Second Spring, 
 i 
 
 reception of, 30 
 ordination of, 30 
 made Cardinal, 3 1 
 a musician, 33 
 his repulse of 
 
 Manning, 34 
 letter of, on 
 Roman doc- 
 trine, 38 
 his hostility to 
 
 Rome, 38 
 reception into 
 Roman Church, 
 
 39 
 
 letter of, 40 
 his indifference to 
 temperance re- 
 form, 41 
 
 his farewell to Ox- 
 ford, 42 
 grave of, 42 
 reads the Papal 
 
 Brief, 51 
 
 on his treatment 
 by Cardinals, 80
 
 34 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Newman, on Lord Acton, 100 
 his meeting with 
 Manning, 117 
 on Immaculate 
 Conception, 
 294 
 Professor Francis, 
 
 4i 
 
 Newport, diocese of, 45 
 Norfolk, Duke of, conduct of, 
 
 47 
 
 letter of, 49 
 Northamptonshire, diocese of, 
 
 45 
 
 Nottingham, diocese of, 45 
 Prelates, case of, 
 
 127 
 Nuns, position of, 323 
 
 Oakley, views of, 38 
 
 Oblates of St. Charles, 12, 65 
 
 O'Ferrall, R. M., 190 
 
 O'Hagan, Lady, 152 
 
 Oldcorne, Edward, 221 
 
 O'Learey, Mr., 153 
 
 Oliver, Dr. George, 20, 190, 
 
 224 
 
 on death of Par- 
 sons, 251 
 
 Oratorians, the, conduct of, 75 
 
 Oratory of St. Philip Neri, 
 
 122 
 
 Orders, list of, 170 
 Oscott, service at, 14 
 Owen, Nicholas, 226 
 Oxenham, H. N., 27 
 Oxford Movement, the, 33 
 
 Palgrave, William G., 228 
 Palmer, John Bernard, Abbot, 
 ii 
 
 Papal Aggression, the, 44 
 
 Brief, the, founding the 
 
 English Hierarchy, 50 
 
 Parsons, Robert, 178, 243 
 death of, 248 
 
 Passionists, Wiseman on, 74 
 
 Patmore, Coventry, a Liberal 
 
 Catholic, 27 
 on Infallibility, 100 
 on statues, 258 
 on Manning, 259 
 
 Paul, Mr., on Lord Acton, 
 264 
 
 Penal laws, repeal of, 21 
 
 Perry, Stephen, 230 
 
 Petre, Dr., 17 
 
 Sir Edward, 179, 234 
 
 Sir G. G., 190 
 
 Peyto, Cardinal, 55 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, the, 296 
 Pio Nono on Infallibility, 95 
 
 on opposition to 
 
 Manning, in 
 
 Pitt, William, promise of, 21 
 Plowden, Father Charles, 21, 
 
 183, 232 
 
 Plymouth, diocese of, 45 
 Poaching, 282 
 Poets, Romanist, 156 
 Poland, Jesuits in, 182 
 Pole, Cardinal, 55 
 
 death of, 315 
 Polish Prince, disappearance 
 
 of, 187 
 Vicars-General, Jesuit, 
 
 180 
 Political position of Roman 
 
 Catholics, 308 
 Pope, blasphemous address to, 
 
 8 7 
 Portiuncula, the, 287
 
 INDEX 
 
 341 
 
 Portsmouth, diocese of, 45 
 
 Duchess t of, 195 
 
 Poynter, Bishop, 20 
 Praemonstratensians, houses 
 
 of, 158, 159 
 
 Primrose League, the, 127 
 Prince Imperial, death of, 78 
 Probabilism, 173, 295 
 Pro-Cathedral, the, 122 
 Protesting Catholic Dissenters, 
 
 24 
 
 Pugin on Faber, 15 
 Punch on Manning, 70 
 Purcell, Mr., his Life of Car- 
 dinal Manning, 
 
 37 
 
 his Life of New- 
 man, destruc- 
 tion of, 37 
 mistake of, 53 
 on Wiseman, 62 
 on Errington, 72 
 his opinions, 101 
 life of, 1 02 
 death of, 103 
 on Jesuits, 279 
 Purgatory, 154 
 
 ' Quirinus ' on Vatican Council, 
 95, 261 
 
 Rambler, the, 107 
 
 Rancd, A. J. Le B. de, 171 
 
 Recollections of the Last Four 
 
 Popes, 79 
 
 Red Pope, the, 193 
 Redemptorists, Wiseman on, 
 
 74 
 Rednal, Newman's grave at, 
 
 42 
 Reforms needed, 272 
 
 Regulars, the, 73, 238 
 
 ambition of, 286 
 Religious Orders in France, 
 
 suppression of, 278 
 Requiems for Newman and 
 
 Manning, 123 
 Reunion, 299 
 
 Revolt from Rome, the, 128 
 Roberts, Mr. William, 153 
 Robsart, Amy, burial of, 201 
 Rock, Dr. Daniel, 21 
 ' Romans,' 14 
 Rome in England, condition 
 
 of, 327 
 
 Rosary, the, 30 
 Russell, Lord John, his Dur- 
 ham Letter, 48, 49 
 
 Lord, of Killowen, 
 
 206 
 
 Sacred Heart, Order of, 194 
 St. Albans, riots at, 284 
 
 condition of, 298 
 St. Aloysius, 271 
 St. Anthony, cult of, 154 
 St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, 
 
 175 
 St. Benedict, J. A. Froude 
 
 on, 15 
 St. Carlo Borromeo founds 
 
 Order of Oblates, 65 
 St. Ethelreda's, Ely Place, 175 
 St. George's Cathedral, open- 
 ing of, 1 1 
 
 St. Gregory the Great, direc- 
 tions of, 277 
 St. Hugh's Abbey, 161 
 St. John, Ambrose, grave of, 
 
 43 
 St. John's Chapel in the 
 
 Tower, 175
 
 342 
 
 INDEX 
 
 St. Joseph, cult of, 135, 154 
 St. Margaret's, Westminster, 
 
 175 
 St. Mary's, Moorfields, end of, 
 
 123 
 
 St. Saviour's, Southwark, 175 
 Saints, Protestant, 269 
 
 Roman, 270 
 
 Salford, diocese of, 45 
 Scapulars, 287 
 
 Schools of Catholics, two, 1 1 
 Steps towards Reunion, the, 
 
 6, 273, 306 
 Stonor, Mass at, 10 
 Stonyhurst, 182, 196, 232, 
 
 233 
 
 Storm at Rome, 95 
 Sullivan, Dr. W., 152 
 Summary of the work, 331 
 
 Tablet, the, on Manning, 65 
 Talbot, Monsignor George, on 
 
 Dr. Milner, 23 
 influence of, 66 
 death of, 73, 315 
 letter to Manning, 
 118 
 
 Hon. James, 17,20 
 
 Taunton, Rev. E. L., his 
 History of the Jesuits, 186, 
 223 
 
 Temporal Power, fall of, 82 
 Tennyson, Lord, quoted, 156 
 Tesimond, Oswald, 240 
 Thackeray, memory of, 4 
 Throckmorton, Sir John, 20 
 Tierney, Canon Mark, 20 
 Times, The, on Papal policy, 
 
 49 
 
 Tootell, Rev. Hugh, 20 
 Tractarians, the original, 35 
 
 Trappists, the, 169 
 Twelve Years in a Monastery, 
 37 
 
 Ullathorne, Dr., 56 
 Urban VIII. on excommuni- 
 cation, 204 
 
 Vatican Council, the, 82 
 voting at, 93 
 effect of, 275 
 
 Vaughan, Cardinal, theory of, 
 
 iS 
 
 life of, 120 
 made Archbishop, 
 
 121 
 
 acts of, 121 
 plans for cathe- 
 dral, 122 
 on the Religious 
 
 Orders, 123 
 his favour to the 
 
 Regulars, 123 
 on Dr. Mivart, 
 
 124 
 on cathedral 
 
 choir, 126 
 on death of Queen 
 
 Victoria, 126 
 on Anglican 
 
 Orders, 129 
 ill-health of, 133 
 dignity of, 134 
 his cult of St. 
 
 Joseph, 135 
 death of, 136 
 
 Father Bernard, re- 
 moval of, 124 
 
 Monsignor John, 135 
 
 Dr. William, 135 
 
 Family, the, 135
 
 INDEX 
 
 343 
 
 Vaughan's Folly, 316 
 Veto, the, 22 
 Vicars- Apostolic, 52 
 Victoria, Queen, death of, 126 
 Vine at Manresa, 184 
 Virgin, the, Immaculate Con- 
 ception of, 293 
 Vows, 289 
 
 Walpole, Henry, 242 
 Walsingham, Francis, 242 
 Ward, Dr. W. G., exclamation 
 
 of, 12 
 
 made Professor at 
 St. Edmund's Col- 
 lege, 67 
 
 his conduct at Man- 
 ning's promotion, 
 
 7i 
 
 Waring, Mr., 153 
 Waterton, Charles, 20, 190 
 Waterton, Edmund, 190 
 Watson and the Bye Plot, 217 
 Weld, Sir F., 190 
 Wells, Monsignor, munificence 
 
 of, 152 
 
 West Grinstead, Mass at, 10 
 Westminster, diocese of, 44 
 Abbey, 175 
 
 White Pope, the, 193 
 
 Whitefriars, 175 
 
 Whitty, Rev. Dr., his difficult 
 
 position, 50 
 Wilde, Oscar, 148 
 Wiseman, Cardinal, lectures of, 
 
 34 
 
 made Cardinal, 46 
 protest against, 49 
 life of, 6 1 
 sued for libel, 63 
 on Orders, 73 
 policy of, 73 
 on the Jesuits, 73, 
 
 .74 
 
 his quarrel with 
 
 Legitimists, 77 
 
 his death, 78, 315 
 
 summary of his 
 
 life, 79 
 imagination of, 
 
 286 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, work of, 
 
 281 
 
 death of, 315 
 Women, position of, 321 
 
 Yorkshire Catholic gentry, 
 meeting of 49, 

 
 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL, E.G., AND 
 
 BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
 
 A History of the Gunpowder Ploti The 
 Conspiracy and Its Agents. 
 
 By PHILIP SIDNEY. 
 Author of " The Sidneys of Penshurst," etc. 
 With 16 full-page facsimile Illustrations taken from old prints. 
 Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. 6a. 
 
 Was there really a Gunpowder Plot, and were the Jesuits behind it? 
 The Jesuit writers of to-day contend that there was not, and that, as a con- 
 sequence, they have been unjustly maligned. Mr. Philip Sidney has put their 
 case to the test by going once more into the whole history of the Gunpowder 
 Treason and the careers of its promoters. He has drawn his Informa- 
 tion at first hand from the original documents preserved in 
 the Record Office and at the British Museum. The result of his 
 scrutiny is clearly to disclose the nature and aims of the conspiracy as well as 
 Jesuit complicity in it. The story as told by Mr. Sidney has all the 
 fascination of a historical romance. The careers of the plotters and 
 their agents are given in some detail, and the vexed question of the anonymous 
 letter to Lord Mounteagle is carefully considered. The history is illus- 
 trated by reproductions of sixteen old prints, Including portraits 
 of many of the chief characters appearing in the book. 
 
 Through Flood and Flame. 
 
 Adventures and Perils of Protestant Heroes. 
 
 By HENRY CHARLES MOORE. 
 
 Author of " Noble Deeds of the World's Heroines* 
 
 With 15 Illustrations. "Brave Deeds" Series, No. 13. Large 
 
 crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. 
 
 In this volume, Mr. Moore has brought together a collection of vivid 
 and moving personal narratives, mainly illustrating the perils 
 and sufferings through which Protestants passed In the Refor- 
 mation period. The strange vicissitudes and sorrows of victims of the 
 Inquisition in Spain, the bold deeds of Protestants in the Netherlands, the 
 trials and fortitude of some English martyrs, are dealt with side by side with 
 stories of bold and faithful men and women in France, Italy, Bohemia, and 
 Switzerland. These fresh and vigorous narrative* will arrest and 
 retain the interest alike of old and young.
 
 The Anti-Papal Library. 
 
 Roads from Rome. 
 A Series of Personal Narratives. 
 
 Compiled by Rev. CHARLES S. ISAACSON, M.A., Rector of 
 
 Hardingham, Norfolk. 
 With a Preface by the Right Rev. HANDLEY C. G. MOULI, D.D., 
 
 Bishop of Durham. 
 Crown 8vo, doth gilt, 2s. 6d. 
 
 The English Churchman says : " It is a timely volume a counter- 
 blast to the somewhat boastful advertisement of perverts to Rome, issued about 
 a year ago under the auspices of Cardinal Vaughan, entitled ' Roads to Rome.' " 
 
 The Protestant Observer savs : " We cordially recommend this 
 intensely interesting and most useful volume." 
 
 The Church Of Ireland Gazette y " It is very effective for our 
 controversy with Rome." 
 
 The Record says : " This is indeed an informing book." 
 
 The Protestant Churchman says : " We heartily recommend the 
 volume. It is one which might be left on drawing-room or parlour tables to 
 be perused by visitors." 
 
 The Life Of Faith says r " Manv a bewildered soul will be mercifully 
 guided and assisted by these testimonies. 
 
 The Church Family Newspaper says : " We commend a study oi 
 this volume to those who have been captivated by extreme ritual." 
 
 Rome In Many Lands. 
 
 A Survey of the Roman Catholic Church, with an account 
 of some modern Roman developments. 
 
 Compiled and Edited by the Rev. CHARLES S. ISAACSON, M.A, 
 
 Editor of " Roads from Rome." 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 25. 6d. 
 
 The Times says : "It undertakes to give an account of Rome's distor- 
 tions of Christian doctrine due to hallucinations or over-subtlety." 
 
 The British Weekly says: "The book is rich in facts, and is 
 written from the standpoint of an impartial inquirer." 
 
 The Record MVI : " No more startling revelations of the present-day 
 position of Rome in many lands has yet appeared." 
 
 The Athenaeum says: "Its information is free from that inaccuracy 
 which is often the mark of controversial works on religion." 
 
 The Methodist Recorder says : " It is a powerful indictment of 
 Papal Policy." 
 
 The Protestant Standard says. "It is most ably writtea and 
 
 deeply interesting." 


 
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