Catholicism In The 19th Century

In late October 1850, the papacy plans to restore the Catholic Hierarchy on English soil were announced. Since the 17th century Catholics in England had been under the governance of Vicars Apostolic, rather than bishops, in a type of organisation reserved for mission lands with no established parish administration. The protestant reaction, fuelled by fear of the Catholic faith being restored in England, was instantaneous. As Walter Ralls recalls, the announcement began “a national outcry that swept along nearly every shade of the press and the pulpit with the established church and much of dissent joined in a most uncharacteristic show of unity”. The Papacy’s plans became known as Papal Aggression and “no event could rival its continued fascination of the public” . In this essay I will look to explore why the Protestant majority in England saw the move as such a threat to the nation; from this I hope to reveal as to how and why the religious state of the country in the mid 19th century had actually become increasingly fragile. To me, there are four main features to the nature of the perceived Catholic threat. To start with, the rise in the number of Catholics in England in the early 19th century was huge, largely as a result of Irish immigration. This was met with progressive anti Catholic resentment as well as large amounts of Protestant rhetoric on the incompatibility of Catholicism amongst English Political institutions; all this, coincided with the unsettled condition of Protestantism at the time as well as a revitalised Catholic network in

England. Papal Aggression touched the deepest feelings of the Protestant nation and for a brief period they were able to once again indulge in the ancient historical battle against the Papacy.

Before going in to the nature of the Catholic threat, it is important to outline what the Papacy’s declaration actually entailed.

England and Wales were to be divided into 12 dioceses; each of these dioceses were to headed by bishops under the governance of Canon Law; on top of this, a newly announced position of Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury was to act as the chief authority amongst the Catholic church in

England.

Perhaps the most basic of concerns amongst the Protestant majority was sparked by the huge increase in the Catholic population since the beginning of the century. The number of Catholics had increased from thirty thousand in 1900 to nearly three quarters of a million by 1850. This was largely as a result of Irish immigration, since the famines in Ireland had forced many to leave as a result of food shortages. The effect of this increase towards Protestant feeling was two fold; not only were there the obvious concerns as to the growing number of Catholics in England, but the mass immigration of Irish also added to the pre-existing feelings of anti-Catholic resentment that had for so long been engrained amongst the English people. One might ask as to why an increase in Catholics in the country could add to feelings of resentment towards Catholics? The answer is simple. Given the nature of the people of Irelands departure, the state in which they arrived was shocking.