By Lorcán Keller
Much of what we know about the founding of the Church in England and Wales is recounted in the eighth century writings of St Bede the Venerable. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, he relates the story of the future Pope St Gregory I, then Abbot of St Andrew’s Abbey on the Cælian Hill in Rome, coming across a group of fair-haired boys being sold into slavery. He was informed that they were Angles, from the province of Deira (York), whose king was Ælle. This scene is depicted in opus sectile in the Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine in Westminster Cathedral, quoting ‘Non Angli sed angeli, si Christiani’, ‘not Angles but angels, if they be Christian.’ Indeed, he was fond of puns noting that the province of Deira will be ‘rescued de ira – from wrath’ and that, under King Ælle, ‘it is right that their land should echo the praise of God our Creator in the word Alleluia.’
Before Gregory could realise his dream of manning a mission to Britain, he was duly elected Pope Gregory I. As Supreme Pontiff he sent Augustine, his Prior at St Andrew’s, along with 40 companions to convert the pagan Anglo Saxons, landing on the Isle of Thanet in 597. Believing London to still be the metropolis it was under the Roman Empire, Gregory instructed Augustine to establish a metropolitan see there and in York, each with twelve suffragan dioceses, thus dividing the territory into a northern and southern province. Having found the lay of the land to be very different to what was believed in Rome, Augustine arranged for Canterbury to become the southern metropolitan see. This arrangement suited Ethelbert, King of Kent, quite well as the Saxon invaders who had taken London claimed supremacy over the Kingdom of Kent.
It would appear that, with the exception of the strong Christian communities in Wales, Augustine’s arrival and the newly implemented diocesan system marked a strong break from what had become a dispersed and quasi-Celtic system of monastic governance after the fall of Rome. Christianity continued to grow throughout the various kingdoms of Britain but, following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Church in England took on a decidedly French appearance under King William I.
In 1070, William installed his friend Bl Lanfranc, Abbot of his Benedictine foundation St Étienne in Caen, as Archbishop of Canterbury. When the newly appointed Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeux, sought to arrange his consecration with Lanfranc he was refused, unless Thomas made a profession of obedience that the See of York was subordinate to that of Canterbury. Thomas did so begrudgingly, at the king’s command, although there was nothing to suggest that this would be a permanent arrangement for their successors. The two archbishops sought advice from the Pope, who arranged an English synod of bishops and abbots. This became the Synod of Winchester, who met to discuss the issue during Whitsuntide 1072. After Lanfranc’s death, however, Thomas did not continue the arrangement, citing a lack of basis for the decision.
Issues of precedence raged on for centuries between Canterbury and York, and also the Irish Archdioceses of Armagh, the seat of St Patrick, and Dublin, the seat of secular power and English control on the island. King Edward III negotiated an identical compromise on both sides of the Irish Sea. The Archbishop of Canterbury would be titled the ‘Primate of all England’ with York as the ‘Primate of England’. In Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh would be the ‘Primate of all Ireland’, with Dublin as ‘Primate of Ireland’. All four titles remain today, although in Ireland both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church lay claim to the succession. For Dublin, this was a win, as they had no real claims to primacy, but had accrued a list of papal privileges over the years. This, unfortunately, did not solve the issue in Ireland, and the dispute raged on through the Reformation, in both denominations, well into the 17th century.
Following the English Reformation, the Catholic hierarchy came to an end with the death of Thomas Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, who died in October 1584, after 25 years in prison. With the death of fellow Englishman William Allen, Cardinal Protector of England, in 1594, all truly seemed lost. In 1597, Cardinal Enrico Caetani, Allen’s successor, appointed Dr George Blackwell as archpriest of the country. It was decided that, rather than endanger the faithful and offend Queen Elizabeth I, Blackwell would act as first among the priests of England and Wales, without the authority of a bishop. His reaction to the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 landed him in hot water with both the Pope and the Crown and he was stripped of his office, dying in the Clink in 1613.
The situation was by no means ideal and subsequent archpriests, and the national clergy, sought a bishop with ordinary power. Meanwhile, the French bishops were threatening to restore the English hierarchy themselves. Word of this reached King James I, who had also heard a rumour that English Catholics were planning to resume using the titles of ancient sees, now in use by the Church of England. James summoned the Spanish Ambassador to convey a message to Rome that, if such bishops were appointed, he would ‘pursue them to death.’ If, however, a bishop without pretensions, intent on spiritual desires alone, no notice would be taken by the Crown. In June 1623, Dr William Bishop was consecrated as Bishop of Chalcedon, and appointed as Vicar Apostolic for the country. Although not a diocesan bishop, he was granted the powers that belong to an ordinary.
Persecution ebbed and flowed and, as late as 1769, Bishop James Talbott, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, was tried at the Old Bailey for saying Mass. The Papists Act of 1778 was the first of a series of bills chipping away at the Penal Laws against Catholics. It passed swiftly through the House of Commons and, with some slight amendments, through the House of Lords. However, it garnered considerable, violent backlash on the streets, known as the ‘Gordon Riots’, led by Lord George Gordon. Bishop Challoner of the London District had a small part to play in the wording, and narrowly escaped the mob violence which descended on embassy chapels and Catholic homes. Various emancipation bills had been put forward and defeated, but it was not until Daniel O’Connell was elected to Westminster for County Clare that progress began apace. O’Connell, as a Catholic, could not take his seat, convincing the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, that action would need to be taken to avoid serious trouble in Ireland. The bill passed through both houses and received Royal Assent on 13 April 1829, thus allowing Catholics the right to civil and military offices, with some caveats.
In the decades that followed, industrialisation, poverty, and the Irish Famine led to enormous urban growth, placing ever greater pressures on the newly emancipated Catholic Church.
To be continued.