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Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851

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38-594: The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 ( 14 & 15 Vict. c. 60) was an act of the British Parliament which made it a criminal offence for anyone outside the established "United Church of England and Ireland " to use any episcopal title "of any city, town or place ... in the United Kingdom". It provided that any property passed to a person under such a title would be forfeit to the Crown . The act

76-791: A presbyterian polity and a small tolerated Anglican Scottish Episcopal Church . The Reformation in Ireland formally followed the English model, with an established Anglican Church of Ireland ; but, unlike in England, most of the laity remained Roman Catholic. Penal laws initially prevented any Roman Catholic bishops residing in Britain or Ireland; Catholic emancipation from the late 18th century saw increased "toleration" of Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 removed most remaining disabilities but prohibited Roman Catholic bishops using

114-476: A division was necessary, but there had always been the fear of causing disunion thereby, especially if, as in pre-Reformation times, the division would be between north and south. This was obviated by ignoring the precedent of York and Canterbury, and arranging for three instead of two provinces. Under the new Apostolic Constitution, the Archbishop of Westminster was granted the right to "be permanent chairman of

152-452: A focal point for anger as demonstrated by the burnings of effigies of the new archbishop Wiseman and the pope. At Farringdon Market 14 effigies were processed from the Strand and over Westminster Bridge to Southwark , while extensive demonstrations were held throughout the suburbs of London. Effigies of the twelve new English Catholic bishops were paraded through Exeter, already

190-586: A handful of cases of violence. Public opinion and elite opinion also turned heavily against the Oxford Movement (Tractarian movement) inside the Church of England, which led some very prominent figures to become Catholics. Tractarians were denounced as traitors burrowing inside the Anglican church. The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 was passed in response, making it a criminal offence for anyone outside

228-729: A hierarchy of dioceses in England and Wales in Universalis Ecclesiae . This was met with widespread hostility, and many characterised it as an act of "papal aggression". Incited by anti-Catholic elements and indeed the prime minister himself, serious anti-Catholic riots took place in November 1850 in Liverpool and other cities. Nearly 900,000 Protestants petitioned the Queen to stop what they called "papal aggression". Guy Fawkes day in 1850 saw numerous symbolic denunciations, and

266-475: Is cited as "39 & 40 Geo. 3 c. 67", meaning the 67th act passed during the session that started in the 39th year of the reign of George III and which finished in the 40th year of that reign. Note that the modern convention is to use Arabic numerals in citations (thus "41 Geo. 3" rather than "41 Geo. III"). Acts of the last session of the Parliament of Great Britain and the first session of the Parliament of

304-400: Is gone, and Durham is gone, and Winchester is gone. It was sore to part with them. We clung to the vision of past greatness, and would not believe it could come to nought; but the Church in England has died, and the Church lives again. Westminster and Nottingham, Beverley and Hexham, Northampton and Shrewsbury, if the world lasts, shall be names as musical to the ear, as stirring to the heart, as

342-641: The Bristol Channel , the Westminster or eastern province and the Birmingham or western province reach from the south-east and south-west to the Humber and Mersey respectively. In this way the northern province is contiguous to both the other two, bringing all three into closer intercommunication. In pre-Reformation times, an attempt was made in 787 to have a third English province, roughly covering

380-554: The Church of Ireland . In his first pastoral letter as Archbishop of Westminster, Wiseman wrote a sentence often quoted later, "Catholic England has been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical firmament". Publication of the bull was met with an outburst of hostility. The Reformation Journal published an article under the heading "The Blight of Popery". "No Popery" processions were held all over England, and windows of Catholic churches were broken. Guy Fawkes night proved to be

418-540: The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 , making it a criminal offence for anyone outside the " united Church of England and Ireland " to use any episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district (under any designation or description whatsoever), in the United Kingdom". However, this law remained a dead letter and was repealed 20 years later. In 1861 the name of the Hexham diocese

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456-475: The list of acts of the Parliament of England and the list of acts of the Parliament of Scotland . For acts passed from 1707 to 1800, see the list of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain . See also the list of acts of the Parliament of Ireland . For acts of the devolved parliaments and assemblies in the United Kingdom, see the list of acts of the Scottish Parliament , the list of acts of

494-808: The Archdiocese of Cardiff) and that of Menevia . Thus, the metropolitan Diocese of Westminster came to have fifteen suffragan sees, the largest number in the world. Accordingly, by the Apostolic Letter Si qua est of 28 October 1911, Pope Pius X erected the new provinces of Birmingham and Liverpool , making these two dioceses metropolitan archdioceses. There remained under Westminster the suffragan sees of Northampton, Nottingham, Portsmouth, and Southwark; to Birmingham were assigned those of Clifton, Newport, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, and Menevia; and to Liverpool, Hexham and Newcastle, Leeds, Middlesbrough, and Salford. It had for many years been felt that

532-466: The Church of England to use any episcopal title "of any city, town or place, or of any territory or district (under any designation or description whatsoever), in the United Kingdom" e.g. Bishop of Anytown, and provided that any property passed to a person under such a title would be forfeit to the Crown. The act made an exception for the " Protestant Episcopal Church of Scotland ". It did not succeed in its aim. The Roman Catholic community unofficially used

570-536: The Northern Ireland Assembly , and the list of acts and measures of Senedd Cymru ; see also the list of acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland . The number shown after each act 's title is its chapter number. Acts passed before 1963 are cited using this number, preceded by the year(s) of the reign during which the relevant parliamentary session was held; thus the Union with Ireland Act 1800

608-494: The United Kingdom are both cited as "41 Geo. 3". Some of these acts have a short title . Some of these acts have never had a short title. Some of these acts have a short title given to them by later acts, such as by the Short Titles Act 1896 . The fourth session of the 15th Parliament of the United Kingdom , which met from 4 February 1851 until 8 August 1851. Universalis Ecclesiae Universalis Ecclesiae

646-516: The bull Universalis Ecclesiae restoring the normal diocesan hierarchy. The reasons stated in the bull are: "Considering the actual condition of Catholicism in England, reflecting on the considerable number of the Catholics, a number every day augmenting, and remarking how from day to day the obstacles become removed which chiefly opposed the propagation of the Catholic religion, We perceived that

684-640: The district of Lancashire became the dioceses of Liverpool and Salford ; the Welsh district (which included neighbouring English territory) became the two dioceses of Menevia and Newport and Shrewsbury ; the Western district became the dioceses of Clifton and Plymouth ; the Central district became the dioceses of Nottingham and Birmingham ; and the Eastern district became the diocese of Northampton . Thus

722-561: The glories we have lost; and Saints shall rise out of them if God so will, and Doctors once again shall give the law to Israel, and Preachers call to penance and to justice, as at the beginning." In contrast with what was done in England and Wales, when in 1878 the normal Catholic hierarchy was reestablished in Scotland , where the established Reformed Church did not maintain an episcopate, the old dioceses were reestablished; until then, Catholics in Scotland were, as in England and Wales, under

760-549: The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in England or confer upon it any jurisdiction, these being, in United Kingdom law, matters for the Crown . 14 %26 15 Vict. This is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the year 1851 . Note that the first parliament of the United Kingdom was held in 1801; parliaments between 1707 and 1800 were either parliaments of Great Britain or of Ireland ). For acts passed up until 1707, see

798-415: The location of their cathedral rather than the title of the see, such as "Bishop of Thurles " rather than " Archbishop of Cashel ", or "Bishop of Queenstown " rather than " Bishop of Cloyne ".) Roman Catholic bishops appointed as apostolic administrators in England were initially given titular sees abroad; later they were given English titles, of places which were not Anglican sees. Thus they did not name

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836-659: The meetings of the Bishops of all England and Wales, and for this reason it will be for him to summon these meetings and to preside over them, according to the rules in force in Italy and elsewhere." He ranks over the other two archbishops. Instead of the natural geographical division into a northern, a midland, and a southern province, formed by drawing a line from the Humber to the River Mersey , and another from The Wash to

874-475: The normal episcopal hierarchy, their general pastoral care was entrusted at first to a priest with the title of archpriest (in effect an apostolic prefect ), and then, from 1623 to 1688, to one or more apostolic vicars , bishops of titular sees governing not in their own names, as diocesan bishops do, but provisionally in the name of the Pope. At first there was a single vicar for the whole kingdom, later their number

912-637: The pastoral care of vicars apostolic. The first apostolic vicar for Scotland was appointed in 1694, and the country was divided into two vicariates in 1727, the Lowlands District and the Highlands District, which became three vicariates in 1827, Eastern, Western and Northern. In Ireland, the Catholic Church maintained without break the succession in the old sees, with a parallel succession claimed, with government support, by

950-551: The reason for choosing to erect new dioceses rather than to restore the old. The main factor is likely to have been the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 ( 10 Geo. 4 . c. 10), which "forbade the use of the old titles, except by the clergy of the Protestant Church by law established". John Henry Newman declared: "A second temple rises on the ruins of the old. Canterbury has gone its way, and York

988-488: The relevant see that of Bristol , but that of Clifton ; not Exeter , but Plymouth ; not Canterbury, but Southwark . The selection of Westminster as the title of the principal see in London, however, was nevertheless seen by critics as presumptuous for Westminster Abbey had long been identified as a major centre of the Church of England. In 1850, in response to the Catholic emancipation legislation, Pope Pius IX set up

1026-479: The restored hierarchy consisted of one metropolitan archbishop and twelve suffragan bishops. The sees thus assigned to the new Catholic diocesan bishops of England did not correspond to the pre- Reformation dioceses, and were instead newly erected ones. Thus there was not to be a Catholic archbishop of Canterbury. Instead, the Diocese of Westminster was created with its own archbishop. The archbishop of Westminster

1064-544: The same diocesan names as Anglican ones. Although the Acts of Union 1800 had united the established Churches of Ireland and England, both the 1829 and 1851 restrictions were ignored in Ireland, on the basis that the Roman Catholic dioceses had never lapsed, and papal appointees had continually retained the same pre-Reformation names used by the Anglican dioceses. (Some Protestants referred to Irish Roman Catholic bishops by

1102-614: The scene of severe public disorder on each anniversary of the Fifth. Joseph Drew of Weymouth responded with strong criticism in his essay Popery against the Pope, an Appeal to Protestants and in his satirical verses The Vision of the Pope; or A Snooze in the Vatican , both published in 1851. Lord John Russell , the Prime Minister, published a letter protesting against the insolence of the "Papal Aggression". Parliament passed

1140-534: The territorial titles, although the bishops themselves carefully stayed within the letter of the law. No one was ever prosecuted. The Act was repealed in 1871 by the Liberal administration of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone . The act of repeal (the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1871) specified in its preamble and in section 1 that the repeal of the earlier Act did not give legal force to

1178-473: The time had arrived for restoring in England the ordinary form of ecclesiastical government, as freely constituted in other nations, where no particular cause necessitates the ministry of Vicars Apostolic." The London district became the metropolitan Diocese of Westminster and the diocese of Southwark ; the Northern district became the diocese of Hexham ; that of Yorkshire became the diocese of Beverley ;

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1216-568: Was a papal bull of 29 September 1850 by which Pope Pius IX recreated the Roman Catholic diocesan hierarchy in England , which had been extinguished with the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I . New names were given to the dioceses, as the old ones were in use by the Church of England . The bull aroused considerable anti-Catholic feeling among English Protestants . When Catholics in England were deprived of

1254-477: Was altered for the better by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 , and English Catholics, who before had been reduced to a few tens of thousands, received in the 19th century thousands of converts from Anglicanism and millions of Irish Catholic immigrants, so that Catholics came to form some 10% of the general population of England and a considerably higher proportion of church-goers. In response to petitions presented by local clergy and laity, Pope Pius IX issued

1292-537: Was changed to Hexham and Newcastle. In 1878 Beverley was divided into the two new dioceses, that of Leeds and that of Middlesbrough , the original diocese becoming extinct. The Diocese of Portsmouth was formed in 1882 by the division of the Diocese of Southwark into the Dioceses of Southwark and Portsmouth. In 1895 the Diocese of Newport and Menevia was divided into the Diocese of Newport (later becoming, in 1916,

1330-741: Was increased to four, assigned respectively to the London District , the Midland District , the Northern District , and the Western District . The number of vicariates was doubled in 1840, becoming eight: the apostolic vicariates of the London district, the Western, Eastern, and Central districts, and the districts of Wales, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the North. The legal situation of Catholics in England and Wales

1368-436: Was introduced by Prime Minister Lord John Russell in response to anti-Catholic reaction to the 1850 establishment of Catholic dioceses in England and Wales under the papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae . The 1851 act proved ineffective and was repealed 20 years later by the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1871 ( 34 & 35 Vict. c. 53). Roman Catholic bishops followed the letter of the law but their laity ignored it. The effect

1406-447: Was likewise not declared Primate of All England. However, he and his successors see themselves as successors to the Catholic archbishops of Canterbury. Accordingly, the heraldic arms of Westminster, featuring the pallium , is similar to that of Canterbury, with Westminster claiming to have better right to display the pallium, which is no longer granted to the archbishop of Canterbury . The bull Universalis Ecclesiae did not indicate

1444-532: Was to strengthen the Catholic Church in England, but it also felt persecuted and on the defensive. The Reformation in England saw the established Church of England break from communion with Rome but Anglicanism retained an episcopal polity and the same medieval cathedrals and dioceses, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and Diocese of Lincoln . The Reformation in Scotland proceeded differently, eventually with an established Church of Scotland having

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