THE BATTLE OF THE BULL.
REFLECTION only still more convinces us that the wisest course for the Government to take in respect to the so-called Roman Catholic hierarchy in this country, will be to ignore it, not perhaps in coun- cil, but in public action. That course might not be the most dra- matic, but it would be the most consistent with the facts, the least productive of inconveniences, morally the most effective. We an- ticipated the alarm which the recent bull has excited, the arrogance which it would stimulate among the Roman Catholics.
Whether in policy or good taste, or both—for they are not in- -compatible—Dr. Ullathorne, enthroned as Bishop of Birmingham on Sunday last, has manfully stuck to the modest and practical spirit of his letter to the Tunes, in -which he indicated that the bull had a merely spiritual reference to Roman Catholics as such. But that was by no means the case with Dr. Newman, who preached the inaugural sermon in the Birmingham chapel, assisted by twelve gentlemen "formerly ministers of the Anglican Church." With the true arrogance of a neophyte, he declared that, by this impotent bull, " the mystery of God's providence was now fulfil- led," and that the opposition to which they had been subjected was the castigation of " the Devil" ; Sir Robert Inglis, Mr. Plumptre, nay the Duke of Wellington and Peel, thus becoming in his mouth Satanic incarnations. The Cardinal Archbishop Wiseman has is- sued a pastoral letter in a tone of saintly serenity still more ex- travagantly arrogant. Dr. Wiseman speaks as if he were literally the vicarious Pontiff of Great Britain, instead of being a Dissent- ing minister hitherto tolerated among the low-rented regions South of the Thames, and now presumptuous by permission of Parlia- ment.
"The great work, then, is complete ; what you have long desired and prayed for is granted. Your beloved country has received a place among the fair churches which, normally constituted, form the splendid aggregate of Catholic communion. Catholic England has been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical firmament, from which its light had long vanished ; and begins now anew its course of regularly-adjusted action round the centre of unity, the source of jurisdiction, of light, and of vigour. How wonderfully all this has been brought about—how clearly the band of God has been shown in every step—we have not now leisure to relate; but we may hope soon to re- count to you by word of mouth."
Wonderful, then, that with this miraculous interposition, the "restoration" has not been more perfect; that we do not see es- tablished something more than an organized hierarchy of the Irish St. Giles's in London, with its contingent of ancient nobility whose Catholicism is a trait of the Herald's Mee, of mediaeval enthusiasts, and of excited young ladies under the "direction" of amiable priests.
Naturally as these phzenomena are calculated to excite alarm, we cannot sympathize with it. It is true, as the Times says, that
"An unfortunate moment has been chosen for the public establishment of a Roman Catholic hierarchy in this portion of the Queen's dominions, while Dr. M'Hale and his fellows are actively engaged in endeavouring to suppress the Irish Colleges. We may be sure our own turn will conic next. With the warning of Ireland before our eyes, it would be wise to consider in time if we will deliberately place ourselves in such a position that the Govern- ment of Great Britain may, at any moment, be called on to contend with the directors of the Roman Propaganda as to the form and conditions of the education of British subjects."
The question, however, is, whether the Government can ever be under a compulsion to contend with the directors of the Roman Propaganda; or, in other words, whether direct contention with that body would be so effectual as leaving the body to its hopeless contention with far stronger influences.
The Bishop of London is more explicit in his claim. In his reply to the Westminster memorial, he calls for public "protesting and petitioning," and intimates that the Church "maybe driven to controversial preaching," as a mode of countervailing "the acti- vity and subtilty of the Pope's emissaries in all parts of the king- dom." The petitioning is to incite the Legislature to extend the prohibition against the assumption of ecclesiastical titles "to any pretended diocese or deaneries in these realms." But where is the necessity for waging stronger contest with a body which is rushing upon suicide ? In the course of the same document, the Bishop seems to have grown up to the measure of his subject, and the last forcible paragraph—excepting the formal close—nullifies the whole of the preceding part.
"After all, I am much inclined to believe, that in having recourse to the extreme measure which has called forth your address, the Court of Rome has been ill advised as regards the extension of its influence in this country, and that it has taken a false step. That step will, I am convinced, tend to strengthen the Protestant feeling of the people at large, and will cause some persons to hesitate and draw back who are disposed to make concessions to Rome, under a mistaken impression that she has abated somewhat of her ancient pretensions, and that a union of the two churches might possibly be effected without the sacrifice of any fundamental principle. Hardly any- thing could more effectually dispel that illusion than the recent proceeding of the Roman Pontiff. He virtually condemns and excommunicates the whole English Church—Sovereign, Bishops, clergy, and laity, and shuts the door against every scheme of comprehension save that which should take for its basis an entire and unconditional submission to the spiritual authority of the Bishop of Rome."
Indeed, the exhibition will do more than stimulate the Pro- testant feeling of the people at large ; it cannot but have a power- ful effect in stimulating the dislike of the people to that which is theatrical in the most serious affairs of life. While some persons, already virtually surrendered to Rome, may hasten their flight to join the Catholic body, and may thus for a moment induce an ap- pearance of rapid proselytism, the very effect of that fascination— the nature of the peculiar class, probably not the strongest- minded, who would be the exemplar ad evitandurn—an indignant contempt at the affectation of arrogance in a priesthood not en- dowed with the slightest power to enforce its will—more acrid contempt for the un-English character of the mummeries whioh will now be more fully displayed—all these feelings will contribute, not only to strengthen the repugnance already existing, but to produce a new and more distinct kind of repugnance, and one ex- tending to classes that have hitherto taken no part in the contest. There may be for a time an increase of theological warfare, but it will be confined principally to the pulpit, to the oratory, and to Exeter Hall : in tangible results there will be little to differ from what we now witness, excepting a more marked severance between the Roman Catholic body and the enormous Protestant majority. How a contest waged in that manner, and between forces so unequal, can be dangerous to Protestantism—how the Papist in- fluence can obtain any real power in this country by a mere theatrical assumption of the aspect of power—is to us unintelligible. The ultimate effect must be precisely the reverse of victory to the usurper ; as much so as if the king of the mimic stage were to issue forth with his gilded sceptre and his forces in pasteboard armour, to wage actual war with Wellington on the real field of Waterloo. No stage-manager would make a mistake so suicidal as that into which the Pope has been betrayed by his English advisers. The best thing that the Government can do is to leave him alone in that position.
Previous page
