A Turn of the Tide for English Catholics

In previous columns, I have written about the terrible times that destroyed the medieval Catholic Church in England, and I will write about them again. But those years of persecution eventually ended. The last priest was executed, the last Catholic layman jailed. The story of that turn of the tide is one that deserves a few articles. It moves from a period when Catholics were excluded from every walk of English life to the restoration of the English hierarchy and beyond. It is a story that involves empire, international relations, a determined provincialism, and eventually a trend to ultramontanism. Let us begin with the beginning of the end.

Hope for Catholics

As the 18th century progressed, Protestantism was secure and all-powerful in the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain. Yet, in the comfortable assurance of the Protestant state, there began to develop a glimmer of hope for the Catholic remnant. As the years passed and the United Kingdom of Great Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, it was the expansion of the empire which helped unlock the freedom for English Catholics.

The penal laws of Britain officially excluded Catholics and non-conformists from every aspect of civic life. Like many such laws, they were not always applied consistently, but they were a thicket which blocked the path of Catholics on their journey through life or ended it. The penal laws included the need to attend Anglican services and receive communion in order to take up any civil or government position of importance, and of course, no Catholic could join the army.

Signs that attitudes were softening came in 1765 when an attempt was made to prosecute a number of Catholic priests and schoolteachers (under the penal laws a Catholic could not practice as a schoolteacher). Most of the prosecutions failed for the simple reason that the ruling class did not want the old laws to be implemented.

The Relief Acts

Then, with British victory over the French in North America, another factor came into play. The newly acquired province of Quebec contained large numbers of Catholics, who would need to be allowed to maintain their religion if they were to be loyal to their new monarch. So it was that the Quebec Act of 1774 protected the rights of the Catholic Church in Lower Canada. Soon there were changes in England too. In 1778 the first of the Relief Acts was passed, beginning the process of granting some freedom to the Catholics of the United Kingdom.

The movement towards the Act was led by the Catholic laity, rather than the clergy. This was the era when the tension between local Catholicism and the authority of the Pope had a different timbre than it does today. Whilst St Thomas More had died because he refused to deny the Pope as the head of the Church on earth, submitting instead to the king’s authority, it did not follow that the Pope had unlimited authority in England.

Persecution

The battle over the authority of the Church versus the authority of the Crown had continued throughout the medieval period. But support for papal authority in these conflicts did not lead to what would later be described as an ‘ultramontane’ approach to the conflict between the center and the local. To Catholics like More, the Pope was head of the Church on earth, but his authority had limits as well as rights.

When we read about those who suffered persecution for the Catholic faith in the period of the Reformation, it is worth bearing this in mind. In England, in particular, the priests and people persecuted and killed in these years usually died over two simple issues, the authority of the Pope as head of the Church on earth, and over the most essential thing for a Catholic: the Mass. They suffered because they refused to let go of the traditions their forefathers had held on to. The churches, devotions, feast days, were all taken away from them, so they preserved what they could.

The English prayer book with its emphasis on the communal meal replaced the Latin and ritual of the Mass and its emphasis on the sacrifice and mystery. Saints like Margaret Clitherow were brutally executed because they protected and hid priests, as well as hiding vestments and sacred vessels. The theology of the Mass, of sacrifice, and the Real Presence were so powerful for these individuals, they were worth suffering and dying for. Many did, and of these, there are many whose names we will never know. Without the support of the laity, the missionary priests could not have undertaken their mission, of offering the sacraments in secret.

So for the laity in England, the priority was the freedom to live their lives as Catholics without fear of persecution or death. The discussions that led to the 1778 Act agreed to an oath that rejected the claims of the rival Catholic Stuart line to the thrones of England and Scotland. Attempts to restore the Stuart monarchy had involved many Catholics in the preceding century. There had been several Jacobite rebellions, the most famous being the one led by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Increasing Freedoms for Catholics

As Catholics were seen as a potential fifth column since the reign of Elizabeth I, it was important to emphasise the loyalty of English Catholics to the current political settlement. In a key move, they also agreed that Rome did not have the authority to release them from their oaths. In return, wealthy Catholics could now inherit and purchase land, whilst the prosecution and persecution of priests finally came to an end. Further advances included the 1791 Act which allowed Catholics to have places of worship and to become practicing members of the professions.

Riots tore through London in reaction to the Act of 1778. These disturbances live in the historical, if not the popular, memory to this day. Known as the Gordon Riots, nearly three hundred are believed to have been killed. Much of the rioting took place in areas with a large and growing Irish Catholic population, such as Whitechapel (in the next century well known as the stalking ground for the infamous Jack the Ripper).

It was now the turn of the Irish to speed on the advancement of Catholic freedom in the British Isles because the Catholic Irish suddenly became important political players within the nation-state of the United Kingdom. On January 1st, 1801 Ireland joined the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This did more than just change a flag. Suddenly there were millions of Catholics added to the population of the United Kingdom, Catholics who were strongly aware that they did not enjoy the same rights or privileges as the rest of their countrymen.

One figure now moves to the fore, Daniel O’Connell. Millions of Irish Catholics, inspired by this man, pushed for their rights and their freedoms, enfranchising Catholics across the British Isles. This story will be the subject of my next column.