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Handout #237 |
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The 'papal aggression' |
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The establishment of Catholic territorial bishoprics stirred up a deep seated reaction which even swept away the British Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, who issued a public reply in The Times newspaper to an open letter to him from the Bishop of Durham. It is notable how Russell makes the link-up common in the popular mind between Roman Catholicism and the Anglican clergy of the Oxford Movement. 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 subject. I not only promoted to the utmost of my power the claims 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 that which we have now seen.... I confess, however, that my alarm is not equal to my indignation. Even if it shall 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 ... There is a danger, however, which alarms me much more than any aggression of 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 most forward in leading their flocks step by step to the very verge of the precipice'. . . I have little hope that the profounder 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 hope, 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 nunneries of superstition, and with scorn at the laborious endeavors which are now making to confine the intellect and enslave the soul ... Cardinal Wiseman looks to the future Russell was not the only one who could appeal to the English people. In a pamphlet of 1850 A.D., Nicholas Wiseman (1802-65), newly appointed Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, made his own appeal, this time to English moderation. For the moment this probably reflected pious or diplomatic hope more than reality, but in the long run Wiseman proved to be prophetic. His pamphlet blamed the uproar on the fears of a threatened Anglican establishment, and he also sought to comfort his own Catholic Flock: Thanks to you, brave and generous, and noble-hearted people of England! Who would not be stirred up by those whose duty it is to teach you gentleness, meekness, and forbearance, to support what they call a religious cause, by irreligious means; and would not hunt down, when bidden, your unoffending fellow-citizens, to the hollow cry of No Popery, and on the pretense of a fabled aggression. Thanks to you, docile and obedient children of the Catholic faith, many of you I know by nature fervid, but by religion mildened, who have felt indeed - who could help it? The indignities that have been cast upon your religion, your pastors, and your highest chief, but have borne them in the spirit of the great Head of the church, in silence and unretorting forbearance. But whatever has been said in ignorance, or in malice, against us, or against what is most dear to us, commented with me the forgiveness of a merciful God; to the retribution o His kindness not if to the award of his justice.. The storm is fast passing away, an honest and uptight people will soon see through the arts that have been employed to deceive it, and the reaction of generosity will soon set in . Inquiry is awakened, the respective merits of Churches will be tried by fair tests, and not by worldly considerations; and Truth, for which we contend, will calmly triumph. Let your loyalty be unimpeachable, and your faithfulness to social duties above reproach. Shut thus the mouths of adversaries, and gain the higher goodwill of your fellow countrymen, who will defend in you, as for themselves, your constitutional tights, including full religious liberty. |
