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The Cisalpine Club was an association of Roman Catholic laymen formed in England in the 1790s to promote Cisalpinism, and played a role in the public debate surrounding the progress of Catholic Emancipation.
The principles of Cisalpinism represented a reaction against the attitude hitherto traditional among Roman Catholics, which seems to have begun about the time of the death of James Francis Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender", in January 1766. Up to then they had been staunch Jacobites, and had looked to the restoration of the Stuarts as the only chance for a revival of their faith. About this time, however, by what Joseph Berington called "one of those singular revolutions for which no cause can be assigned", [1] they gave up their former political aspirations, and accepted the reigning House of Hanover. [2]
One likely cause was that from January 1766 the Papacy did not recognise James's heir Charles as a sovereign, which disconnected Catholicism from the Jacobite movement. Part of this reaction was a suspicion of the wisdom of their ecclesiastical rulers, who, they became convinced, had adopted in the past a needlessly strict attitude, opposed to English national aspirations and which (they contended) had been dictated by the Court of Rome. [2] Bishop John Talbot Stonor, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, did much to persuade Catholics to accept the Hanoverian monarchy.
They reverted to the Oath of Allegiance of the reign of King James I, which they declared themselves willing to take, while some even maintained that the Oath of Supremacy could be interpreted in a sense not inconsistent with the Roman Catholic faith. These were the principles which animated the Catholic Committee (1782–92) in its struggle for Catholic emancipation. The two chief leaders were Lord Petre and Sir John Throckmorton, both members of old recusant families, who had suffered much in times past under the Penal Laws. They had the active assistance of Charles Butler, a lawyer, who acted as secretary to the committee. The greater number (though by no means all) of the Catholic aristocracy, who in those days were the practical supporters of religion, sympathized with them and, in a modified degree, some of the clergy, especially in London. One bishop, Charles Berington, was on their side, and Father Joseph Wilkes, O.S.B., who was a member of the committee, went to great lengths in supporting them. Dr James Talbot, Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1781 to 1790, also allowed his name to be added and showed a weakness in opposing them which he regretted on his death-bed, and which made the task of his successor, Dr Douglass (1790–1812), a difficult one. [2]
Towards the end of the year 1788, Lord Stanhope, an Anglican, desiring to help the committee, and believing that their supposed Ultramontane principles, and in particular their accredited belief in the deposing power of the pope, were the chief obstacles in their way, drew out a "Protestation" disclaiming these in unmeasured language. The committee adopted the Protestation and early in the following year called upon all Catholics to sign it. Butler admits that it was only with some difficulty that the bishops were induced to sign; but they did. Two of the bishops afterwards revoked their signatures and Milner, who was one of those who had signed, took an active part in opposing the committee.
The result of their labours was the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791. In the first draft there had been an "Oath of Declaration, Protestation and Allegiance", based on the Protestation of 1789, but going to even greater lengths. This oath was definitely condemned by the bishops, led by Charles Walmesley, in 1789 and 1791. After a sharp conflict it was removed from the bill during its passage through Parliament, and the Irish Oath of 1774 substituted. As the act in its final state failed to embody the principles of the Protestation, a new society was formed to perpetuate these, under the title of The Cisalpine Club. Others besides the members of the Catholic Committee were invited to join the club. The declared object of the club was "...to resist any ecclesiastical interference, which may militate against the freedom of English Catholics." [3] Dissatisfied with the club's failure to come to an amicable relationship with the apostolic vicars, a few prominent members split off to form the Roman Catholic Club. [4]
The membership usually numbered between forty and fifty. They met four or five times a year, during the London season, each meeting being preceded by a dinner. At a meeting in the latter part of 1795, no business was entered in the minutes other than to authorize the secretary to lay in a hogshead of claret. [5]
At first they took an active part in Catholic affairs, though consistently disclaiming any representative character. In several ways they succeeded in guarding Catholic interests, and by their influence a school was established at Oscott, directed by a governing body of laymen though the headmaster was a priest, appointed by the bishop. After a few years, however, the Cisalpine Club ceased to perform any active work, and developed into a mere dining club. As the membership increased, it seems their Cisalpine principles diminished. It soon ceased to act all a body having any influence in Catholic affairs. [3]
At the beginning the bishops had naturally viewed it askance, although its members were often the chief supporters of Catholic charities. A meeting held in March 1796 took up a collection for destitute French emigres in London. [5] A motion was passed in May 1801: "It was ordered that whenever the usual day of meeting of the club shall be a fast day, the secretary shall appoint the following Tuesday for the meeting of the club." [5] As there was no provision in the club's rules to expel a member, in 1808, in order to exclude a particular individual the members all agreed to withdraw their names from membership and reconvene later as a newly constituted group. However, the person they would oust laid claim, as the sole member left of the soon to be defunct organization, to the club's assets, which consisted of whatever wine still remained in the cellar. [4]
As time went on, their Cisalpine tendencies became less and less marked, and they got on good terms with Bishop William Poynter (1803–1826), who only regretted the name of the club. Daniel O'Connell had been proposed for membership, but at the May 1829 meeting was blackballed, because of an apparent slight to the English Catholic Association. [5] Soon after the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 the members re-formed themselves into a new club in 1830, which they called the "Emancipation Club", and which continued for seventeen more years before finally dissolving.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the metropolitan of the Province of Westminster, chief metropolitan of England and Wales and, as a matter of custom, is elected president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and therefore de facto spokesman of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. All previous archbishops of Westminster have become cardinals. Although all the bishops of the restored diocesan episcopacy took new titles, like that of Westminster, they saw themselves in continuity with the pre-Reformation Church and post-Reformation vicars apostolic and titular bishops. Westminster, in particular, saw itself as the continuity of Canterbury, hence the similarity of the coats of arms of the two sees, with Westminster believing it has more right to it since it features the pallium, a distinctly Catholic symbol of communion with the Holy See.
Cisalpinism was a movement among English Roman Catholics in the late eighteenth century intended to further the cause of Catholic emancipation, i.e. relief from many of the restrictions still in effect that were placed on Roman Catholic British subjects. This view held that allegiance to the Crown was not incompatible with allegiance to the Pope.
Charles Walmesley, OSB was the Roman Catholic Titular Bishop of Rama and Vicar Apostolic of the Western District of England. He was known, especially in Ireland, for predicting the downfall of Protestantism in 1821–5 and the triumphant emergence of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Diocese of Westminster is an archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in England. The diocese consists of most of London north of the River Thames and west of the River Lea, the borough of Spelthorne, and the county of Hertfordshire, which lies immediately to London's north.
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The Catholic Association was an Irish Roman Catholic political organisation set up by Daniel O'Connell in the early nineteenth century to campaign for Catholic emancipation within Great Britain. It was one of the first mass-membership political movements in Europe. It organized large-scale public protests in Ireland. British Home Secretary Robert Peel was alarmed and warned an associate of his in 1824, "We cannot tamely sit by while the danger is hourly increasing, while a power co-ordinate with that of the Government is rising by its side, nay, daily counteracting its views." The Duke of Wellington, Britain's prime minister and its most famous war hero, told Peely, "If we cannot get rid of the Catholic Association, we must look to civil war in Ireland sooner or later." To stop the momentum of the Catholic Association it was necessary to pass Catholic Emancipation, and so Wellington and Peel turned enough Tory votes to win. Passage demonstrated that the veto power long held by the Ultra-Tories faction of reactionary Tories no longer was operational, and significant reforms were now possible.
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In Ireland, the penal laws were a series of legal disabilities imposed in the seventeenth, and early eighteenth, centuries on the kingdom's Roman Catholic majority and, to a lesser degree, on Protestant "Dissenters". Enacted by the Irish Parliament, they secured the Protestant Ascendancy by further concentrating property and public office in the hands of those who, as communicants of the established Church of Ireland, subscribed to the Oath of Supremacy. The Oath acknowledged the British monarch as the "supreme governor" of matters both spiritual and temporal, and abjured "all foreign jurisdictions [and] powers"--by implication both the Pope in Rome and the Stuart "Pretender" in the court of the King of France.
The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. It admitted Catholics to the practice of law, permitted the exercise of their religion, and the existence of their schools. On the other hand, chapels, schools, officiating priests and teachers were to be registered, assemblies with locked doors, as well as steeples and bells to chapels, were forbidden; priests were not to wear vestments or celebrate liturgies in the open air; children of Protestants were not to be admitted to the schools; monastic orders and endowments of schools and colleges were prohibited.
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Robert Edward Petre, 9th Baron Petre was a British peer and prominent member of the English Roman Catholic nobility. He hailed from an extraordinarily affluent family and devoted himself to philanthropic endeavors. Lord Petre played a crucial role in commissioning James Paine to design a new Thorndon Hall as well as a house in Mayfair.
The English Protestant Reformation was imposed by the English Crown, and submission to its essential points was exacted by the State with post-Reformation oaths. With some solemnity, by oath, test, or formal declaration, English churchmen and others were required to assent to the religious changes, starting in the sixteenth century and continuing for more than 250 years.
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The Roman Catholic Relief Bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries before the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom to remove the restrictions and prohibitions imposed on British and Irish Catholics during the English Reformation. These restrictions had been introduced to enforce the separation of the English church from the Catholic Church which began in 1529 under Henry VIII.
Charles Berington was an English Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1795 to 1798.
John Douglass was an English Roman Catholic bishop who was the Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1790 until his death in 1812.
John Kirk D.D. (1760–1851) was an English Roman Catholic priest and antiquary.
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The Catholic Committee was a county association in late 18th-century Ireland that campaigned to relieve Catholics of their civil and political disabilities under the kingdom's Protestant Ascendancy. After their organisation of a national Catholic Convention helped secure repeal of most of the remaining Penal Laws in 1793, the Committee dissolved. Members briefly reconvened the following year when a new British Viceroy, William Fitzwilliam, raised hopes of further reform, including lifting the sacramental bar to Catholics entering the Irish Parliament. When these were dashed by his early recall to London, many who had been mobilized by the Committee and by the Convention, defied their bishops, and joined the United Irishmen as they organised for a republican insurrection.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Cisalpine Club". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.