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| Papal primacy, supremacy and infallibility |
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Cisalpinism (derived from "this side of the Alps") 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.
With the deterioration of relations with the American colonies, the British government was faced with the necessity of increasing troop recruitments. While Catholic Relief Act of 1778 eased some provisions of the Penal Laws, its main purpose was to encourage the Catholic gentry to support enlistments. According to historian Thomas Bartlett, "It firmly established the principle of Catholic relief as a key element of war-time strategy." [1] The passing of this act was the occasion of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots (1780).
Cisalpinism was more a political than theological position, directed toward helping the question of emancipation. [2] It sought accommodation of the English Roman Catholic Church within the Protestant State in the 18th century, when the Penal Laws persecuting the Catholic Church were still in place. Thirty Catholic laymen met in 1782 to elect a "Catholic Committee" of five, for a period of five years, "to promote and attend to the affairs of the Roman Catholic body in England". [3] According to the Secretary to the Committee, Charles Butler, "A variety of circumstances prevented them making any particular exertions in the cause entrusted to them." [3]
The Committee first action was to write to the four Apostolic Vicars that one of the causes raised against further repeal of the penal laws was the title "apostolic vicar" and the perception of too close a dependence on the "Court of Rome". The Committee proposed the restoration of the hierarchy with the apostolic vicars becoming Bishops in Ordinary, governing their own dioceses. From the perspective of the actual working of ecclesiastical affairs, each of the Apostolic Vicars had a different opinion; and the matter was dropped. [4]
| Separation of church and state in the history of the Catholic Church |
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The powers of the first committee having expired at the end of its term in 1787, a new committee was constituted made up of ten members. In February, the Committee sent a letter to the Prime Minister protesting various prohibitions for which they suffered severe penalties. Among those listed were:
and as loyal subjects, they petitioned for redress of their grievances. [5]
In May 1788, the following year, the following members were added: James Talbot, vicar apostolic of the London district (although he never attended a meeting); Charles Berington, co-adjutor of the Midland district; and Joseph Wilks, a Benedictine monk.
Although it looked like a way to safeguard the English Catholic population, Bishop Charles Walmesley (1722–1797), the Vicar Apostolic of the west of England, thought Cisalpinism would mean a new oath of allegiance that would "exclude the Pope's spiritual jurisdiction" and "diminish our dependence in spirituals on the Church in Rome, and by degrees to shake it off entirely; likewise to take off the abstinence of Saturday, to reduce Lent to a fortnight before Easter, and to have the Liturgy in English".
The publication of the "Staffordshire Creed" by some Staffordshire clergy to Bishop Walmesley complained about the excommunication of the Benedictine Joseph Wilks. The creed also contained the Rights of the Priesthood against the Episcopacy, and this at a time when many Catholic laity were still being accused of treason.
In 1797 Bishop Walmesley publicly excommunicated the signatories of the "Staffordshire Creed". One of the defenders of the Cisalpine tradition who even objected to the Asperges (sprinkling of Holy Water) before Mass was John Lingard, author of the hymn Hail Queen of Heaven the Ocean Star and first Rector of Ushaw College seminary. Father Daniel Rock, chaplain to Lord Shrewsbury of Alton Towers from 1827 to 1841, continued for a short time elements of the Cisalpine tradition. It was the chance meeting at Alton Towers of Lord Shrewsbury with Father F. W. Faber that promoted Ultramontanism.
Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or state's authority—over the Church is comparable to that of the Pope.
Charles Butler KC was an English Roman Catholic lawyer and miscellaneous writer.
The Diocese of Clifton is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church centred at the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Clifton, England.
Charles Walmesley, OSB was an English Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of the Western District. He was known, especially in Ireland, for predicting the downfall of Protestantism in 1821–5 and the triumphant emergence of the Catholic Church. He was a member of the Benedictines.
The Archdiocese of Birmingham is one of the principal Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The archdiocese covers an area of 3,373 square miles (8,740 km2), encompassing Staffordshire, the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and much of Oxfordshire as well as Caversham in Berkshire. The metropolitan see is in the City of Birmingham at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint Chad. The metropolitan province includes the suffragan dioceses of Clifton and Shrewsbury.
Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cotton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. It was also known as Saint Wilfrid's College.
The Apostolic Vicariate of the Midland District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by an apostolic vicar who was a titular bishop. The Apostolic Vicariate of the Midland District was created in 1688 and changed its name to the Central District in 1840. It was dissolved in 1850 and was replaced by two dioceses.
The Apostolic Vicariate of the Western District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by a vicar apostolic who was a titular bishop. The Apostolic Vicariate of the Western District was created in 1688 and was dissolved in 1850 and replaced by two dioceses.
The Roman CatholicDiocese of Portsmouth is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Channel Islands as well as parts of England. The episcopal see is St John's Cathedral in Portsmouth and is headed by the Bishop of Portsmouth. The diocese is part of the metropolitan Province of Southwark, which covers all of the far South of England as well as the Channel Islands.
John Bede Polding, OSB was an English Benedictine monk and the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia.
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 them 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.
James Robert Talbot was an English Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1781 until his death. He was the last Catholic priest to be indicted in the country's public courts for saying Mass.
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.
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.
John Milner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and controversialist who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1803 to 1826.
John Joseph Hornyold was an English Catholic bishop, titular Bishop of Phiomelia, and Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, England for twenty-two years.
A royal veto of the appointment of bishops was proposed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1808 to 1829 during the move towards Catholic Emancipation.
The Roman Catholic relief bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late 18th and early 19th 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 Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1790 until his death in 1812.
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