In the passage which follows, the established clergy are rather
unceremoniously handled; and not undeservedly, for there can be no doubt
that their reckless diatribes in the pulpit, on the platform, and in the
press, were the chief cause of the unhallowed uproar which attended the
publication of the new and much-needed organization of the Catholic church
in England. It certainly was not their fault if the country was not
disgraced by deeds of violence. In one or two places, indeed, such things
were attempted. At a town in the north of England, where there is a
Catholic mission, a mob of excited people threatened the chapel and
priest’s house. The presence of a counter-mob from a neighboring colliery
speedily restored tranquillity. In another town a crowd of the unwashed
were proceeding to burn the Pope and Cardinal in effigy, when these august
persons were wisely seized by order of the magistrates, and, with some of
their unruly escort, secured within the prison walls. Although a few
_hired_ ruffians could attempt such things (it is known that those last
named were hired), the English people were far from contemplating anything
like violence. So it is with no small pleasure that is here recorded the
high compliment paid to them in the following eloquent passage of Cardinal
Wiseman’s appeal: “I cannot conclude,” he says towards the end, “without
one word on the part which the clergy of the Anglican church have acted in
the late excitement. Catholics have been their principal theological
opponents, and we have carried on our controversies with them temperately,
and with every personal consideration. We have had no recourse to popular
arts to debase them; we have never attempted, even when the current of
public opinion has set against them, to turn it to advantage, by joining
in any outcry. They are not our members who yearly call for returns of
sinecures or episcopal incomes; they are not our people who form
antichurch-and-state associations; it is not our press which sends forth
caricatures of ecclesiastical dignitaries, or throws ridicule on clerical
avocations. With us the cause of truth and of faith has been held too
sacred to be advocated in any but honorable and religious modes. We have
avoided the tumult of public assemblies and farthing appeals to the
ignorance of the multitude. But no sooner has an opportunity been given
for awakening every lurking passion against us than it has been eagerly
seized by the ministers of the Establishment. The pulpit and the platform,
the church and the town hall, have been equally their field of labor; and
speeches have been made and untruths uttered, and calumnies repeated, and
flashing words of disdain and anger and hate and contempt, and of every
unpriestly and unchristian and unholy sentiment, have been spoken, that
could be said against those who almost alone have treated them with
respect. And little care was taken at what time or in what circumstances
these things were done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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