DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16606#0006
Vol. XIX.]
INTRODUCTION.
[July to December, 1850.
that time the country was in a state of complete tranquillity ;
but about two months after it was convulsed from one end
to the other by the publication in England of the insolent
Papal Brief, constituting a E,oman Catholic hierarchy in
England and Wales, in place of the Vicars Apostolic. This
brief was written in the same imperious language which dis-
tinguished the Church of Rome in the plenitude of its mediaeval
power, and pretended to create one Archiepiscopal and twelve
Episcopal sees, marking out the territorial limits of the new
province and dioceses. This arrogant document was followed
by another still more offensive from its insolence. A pastoral
was issued by the newly-appointed Cardinal Wiseman", dated
" out of the Flaminian Gate at Rome," overlooking altogether
the existence of any other Church than the Church of Rome in
England, and affecting to regard England as a nation restored
by an act of spiritual sovereignty to the communion of the
Roman Church. There were other ridiculous and mendacious
assertions in this Pastoral which stirred the Protestantism of
the country. Punch exerted his best energies to place the Papal
Aggression (as it was called) in its proper light, and the very
marked and permanent increase in the circulation of this
periodical testified most unmistakeably how earnestly the
national heart was touched by this impertinent proceeding on
the part of the Church of Rome. Those Brummagem papists,
the Puseyites, were not overlooked by Mr. Fundi, and it is
believed that many followers of ceremonial fashions were made
to see the absurdity and wickedness of playing at religion, by
the teaching of these pages.
At length the Prime Minister spoke out, and the following-
letter to the Bishop oe Durham was most warmly welcomed
by the people at large :—
" My dear Lord,
" I agree with you in considering the late aggression
of the Pope upon our Protestantism as insolent and insidious,
and I therefore feel as indignant as you can do upon the sub-
ject. I not only promoted, to the utmost of my power, the
claims of Roman Catholics to all civil rights, but I thought
it right and even desirable, that the ecclesiastical system of
the Roman Catholics should be the means of giving instruction
to the numerous Irish immigrants in London and elsewhere,
who, without such help, would have been left in heathen
ignorance. This might have been done, however, without any
such innovation as we have now seen.
"It is impossible to confound the recent measures of the
Pope with the division of Scotland into dioceses by the Epis-
copal Church, or the arrangement of districts in England by
the Wesleyan Conference. There is an assumption of power
in all the documents which have come from Rome—a preten-
sion to supremacy over the realm of England, and a claim to
sole and undivided sway, which is inconsistent 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. I confess, however, that my
alarm is not equal to my indignation, even if it Bhall appear
that the Ministers and Servants of the Pope in this country
have not transgressed the law : I feel persuaded that we are
strong enough to repel any outward attacks. The liberty of
Protestantism has been enjoyed too long in England to allow
of any successful attempt to impose a foreign yoke upon our
minds and consciences. No foreign prince or potentate will
be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so
long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion,
civil, political, and religious.
" Upon this subject then I will only say that the present
state of the law shall be carefully examined, and the propriety
of adopting any proceedings, with reference to the recent
assumptions of power, deliberately considered.
" There is a danger, however, which alarms me much more
than any aggression of a foreign sovereign—clergymen of our
own church who have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, and
acknowledged in explicit terms the Queen's supremacy, have
been the most forward in leading their flocks, step by step, to
the very verge of the precipice. The honour paid to Saints,
the claim of infallibility for the Church, the superstitious use
of the sign of the Cross, the muttering of the Liturgy so as to
disguise the language in which it is written, the recom-
mendation of auricular confession, and the administration of
penance and absolution—all these things are pointed out by
Clergymen of the Church of England as worthy of adoption,
and are now openly reprehended by the Bishop of London in
his charge to the clergy of his diocese.
" What then is the danger to be apprehended from a foreign
prince, of no great power, compared to the danger within the
gates from the unworthy sons of the Church of England
herself ?
" I have little hope that the propounders and framers of
these innovations will desist from their insidious course ; but
I rely with confidence on the people of England, and I will
not bate a jot of heart or life so long as the glorious principles
and the immortal martyrs of the Reformation shall be held in
reverence by the great mass of a nation which looks with
contempt on the mummeries of superstition, and with scorn
at the laborious endeavours which are now makiDg to confine;
the intellect and enslave the soul.
" I remain, with great respect, &c,
" Downing Street, Nov. 4." " J. Russell."
The people were thoroughly aroused, and displayed their
resistance to the Aggression by Addresses to the Throne,
County meetings and other significant demonstrations, until
at last Cardinal Wiseman put forward a long and elaborate
address, in which he attempted to show that the proposed
change had been adopted for the more regular administra-
tion of the Roman Catholic Church in England, and only at
the request of English communicants! But no sophistry could
disguise the striking contrast between this address and the
Pastoral addressed to his own people; and though the inge-
nuity of the composition was generally acknowledged, its
arguments were despised, or laughed at. We shall have to
refer again to this subject in our next volume,
INTRODUCTION.
[July to December, 1850.
that time the country was in a state of complete tranquillity ;
but about two months after it was convulsed from one end
to the other by the publication in England of the insolent
Papal Brief, constituting a E,oman Catholic hierarchy in
England and Wales, in place of the Vicars Apostolic. This
brief was written in the same imperious language which dis-
tinguished the Church of Rome in the plenitude of its mediaeval
power, and pretended to create one Archiepiscopal and twelve
Episcopal sees, marking out the territorial limits of the new
province and dioceses. This arrogant document was followed
by another still more offensive from its insolence. A pastoral
was issued by the newly-appointed Cardinal Wiseman", dated
" out of the Flaminian Gate at Rome," overlooking altogether
the existence of any other Church than the Church of Rome in
England, and affecting to regard England as a nation restored
by an act of spiritual sovereignty to the communion of the
Roman Church. There were other ridiculous and mendacious
assertions in this Pastoral which stirred the Protestantism of
the country. Punch exerted his best energies to place the Papal
Aggression (as it was called) in its proper light, and the very
marked and permanent increase in the circulation of this
periodical testified most unmistakeably how earnestly the
national heart was touched by this impertinent proceeding on
the part of the Church of Rome. Those Brummagem papists,
the Puseyites, were not overlooked by Mr. Fundi, and it is
believed that many followers of ceremonial fashions were made
to see the absurdity and wickedness of playing at religion, by
the teaching of these pages.
At length the Prime Minister spoke out, and the following-
letter to the Bishop oe Durham was most warmly welcomed
by the people at large :—
" My dear Lord,
" I agree with you in considering the late aggression
of the Pope upon our Protestantism as insolent and insidious,
and I therefore feel as indignant as you can do upon the sub-
ject. I not only promoted, to the utmost of my power, the
claims of Roman Catholics to all civil rights, but I thought
it right and even desirable, that the ecclesiastical system of
the Roman Catholics should be the means of giving instruction
to the numerous Irish immigrants in London and elsewhere,
who, without such help, would have been left in heathen
ignorance. This might have been done, however, without any
such innovation as we have now seen.
"It is impossible to confound the recent measures of the
Pope with the division of Scotland into dioceses by the Epis-
copal Church, or the arrangement of districts in England by
the Wesleyan Conference. There is an assumption of power
in all the documents which have come from Rome—a preten-
sion to supremacy over the realm of England, and a claim to
sole and undivided sway, which is inconsistent 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. I confess, however, that my
alarm is not equal to my indignation, even if it Bhall appear
that the Ministers and Servants of the Pope in this country
have not transgressed the law : I feel persuaded that we are
strong enough to repel any outward attacks. The liberty of
Protestantism has been enjoyed too long in England to allow
of any successful attempt to impose a foreign yoke upon our
minds and consciences. No foreign prince or potentate will
be permitted to fasten his fetters upon a nation which has so
long and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of opinion,
civil, political, and religious.
" Upon this subject then I will only say that the present
state of the law shall be carefully examined, and the propriety
of adopting any proceedings, with reference to the recent
assumptions of power, deliberately considered.
" There is a danger, however, which alarms me much more
than any aggression of a foreign sovereign—clergymen of our
own church who have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, and
acknowledged in explicit terms the Queen's supremacy, have
been the most forward in leading their flocks, step by step, to
the very verge of the precipice. The honour paid to Saints,
the claim of infallibility for the Church, the superstitious use
of the sign of the Cross, the muttering of the Liturgy so as to
disguise the language in which it is written, the recom-
mendation of auricular confession, and the administration of
penance and absolution—all these things are pointed out by
Clergymen of the Church of England as worthy of adoption,
and are now openly reprehended by the Bishop of London in
his charge to the clergy of his diocese.
" What then is the danger to be apprehended from a foreign
prince, of no great power, compared to the danger within the
gates from the unworthy sons of the Church of England
herself ?
" I have little hope that the propounders and framers of
these innovations will desist from their insidious course ; but
I rely with confidence on the people of England, and I will
not bate a jot of heart or life so long as the glorious principles
and the immortal martyrs of the Reformation shall be held in
reverence by the great mass of a nation which looks with
contempt on the mummeries of superstition, and with scorn
at the laborious endeavours which are now makiDg to confine;
the intellect and enslave the soul.
" I remain, with great respect, &c,
" Downing Street, Nov. 4." " J. Russell."
The people were thoroughly aroused, and displayed their
resistance to the Aggression by Addresses to the Throne,
County meetings and other significant demonstrations, until
at last Cardinal Wiseman put forward a long and elaborate
address, in which he attempted to show that the proposed
change had been adopted for the more regular administra-
tion of the Roman Catholic Church in England, and only at
the request of English communicants! But no sophistry could
disguise the striking contrast between this address and the
Pastoral addressed to his own people; and though the inge-
nuity of the composition was generally acknowledged, its
arguments were despised, or laughed at. We shall have to
refer again to this subject in our next volume,