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53-700: Universalis Ecclesiae 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

106-636: A "compulsory society". Still, Catholics had to wait another 95 years before being given full civil and religious rights. Nevertheless, the gains of the Dissenters a century earlier were a significant step towards eliminating Catholic disabilities later. The Ecclesiastical Titles Act had already been proposed by the British Parliament and was passed in 1851 as an anti-Catholic measure precisely to prevent any newly created Catholic dioceses from taking existing Anglican diocesan names, forbidding

159-539: A bull of 20 July 1917, fixed the seat of a new diocese corresponding to the County of Essex, detached now from Westminster, at Brentwood , making it a suffragan of Westminster. During the pontificate of Pope Paul VI , on 28 May 1965, the Province of Southwark was erected, with as its suffragans Portsmouth, detached from Westminster, Plymouth , detached from Birmingham, and the diocese of Arundel and Brighton erected in

212-476: 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

265-451: 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

318-557: A heraldic device of the Farnese family, from which Pope Paul III descended. Since the late 18th century, the lead bulla has been replaced with a red ink stamp of Saints Peter and Paul with the reigning pope's name encircling the picture, though very formal letters, e.g. the bull of Pope John XXIII convoking the Second Vatican Council , still receive the leaden seal. Original papal bulls exist in quantity only after

371-495: A short " datum " that mentioned the place of issuance, day of the month and year of the pope's pontificate on which issued, and signatures, near which was attached the seal. For the most solemn bulls, the pope signed the document himself, in which case he used the formula " Ego N. Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopus " ("I, N., Bishop of the Catholic Church"). Following the signature in this case would be an elaborate monogram ,

424-432: A shorter beard made of dome-shaped globetti (beads in relief). Each head was surrounded by a circle of globetti , and the rim of the seal was surrounded by an additional ring of such beads, while the heads themselves were separated by a depiction of a cross. On the reverse was the name of the issuing pope in the nominative Latin form, with the letters "PP", for Pastor Pastorum ("Shepherd of Shepherds"). This disc

477-453: 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

530-623: Is the metropolitan of the Province of Westminster, chief metropolitan of England and Wales and, as a matter of custom, is elected president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales , and therefore de facto spokesman of the Catholic Church in England and Wales . All previous archbishops of Westminster have become cardinals . Although all the bishops of the restored diocesan episcopacy took new titles, like that of Westminster, they saw themselves in continuity with

583-641: 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

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636-499: 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

689-612: The County of Hertfordshire . The see is in the City of Westminster , the Archbishop's cathedra or seat is located at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the "Most Precious Holy Blood, Saint Mary, Saint Joseph and Saint Peter", usually referred to as Westminster Cathedral , which is set back from Victoria Street. The Archbishop's residence is Archbishop's House, Ambrosden Avenue, London. Vincent Cardinal Nichols

742-604: 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

795-666: The Glorious Revolution , Catholics could take heart when Parliament repealed the Schism Act , the Occasional Conformity Act 1711 and the Act for Quieting and Establishing Corporations, which allowed Dissenters to hold certain offices. Although these repeals at the time only benefited Dissenters, their rescission and abolition suggested reform was in the air and on Parliament's mind. Then in 1727, in

848-496: The bull Universalis Ecclesiae of 29 September 1850 by which thirteen new dioceses were created. Although these dioceses could not formally claim pre-Elizabethan territorial dioceses (owing to the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 ), they did claim validity and continuity with the pre-Elizabethan Church. Historian and descendant of recusants, Paul Johnson , claims that as early as 1718, only 30 years after

901-672: The established Church of England , and is applied to the Archbishop of York as "Primate of England", and the Archbishop of Canterbury , as " Primate of All England ". In global Catholicism, however, the last time there was an elected Catholic primate of England in Great Britain, accepted by the state, was prior to the Elizabethan phase of the Reformation . However, the papal bull Si qua est of 1911, which separated

954-414: The obverse it depicted, originally somewhat crudely, the early Fathers of the Church of Rome , the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul , identified by the letters S anctus PA ulus and S anctus PE trus (thus, SPA •SPE or SPASPE ). St. Paul, on the left, was shown with flowing hair and a long pointed beard composed of curved lines, while St. Peter, on the right, was shown with curly hair and

1007-558: The 11th century onward, when the transition from fragile papyrus to the more durable parchment was made. None survives in entirety from before 819. Some original lead bullae , however, still survive from as early as the 6th century. In terms of content, the bull is simply the format in which a decree of the pope appears. Any subject may be treated in a bull, and many were and are, including statutory decrees, episcopal appointments, dispensations , excommunications , apostolic constitutions , canonizations , and convocations . The bull

1060-532: The 15th century, when one of the offices of the Apostolic Chancery was named the "register of bulls" (" registrum bullarum "). By the accession of Pope Leo IX in 1048, a clear distinction developed between two classes of bulls of greater and less solemnity. The majority of the "great bulls" now in existence are in the nature of confirmations of property or charters of protection accorded to monasteries and religious institutions. In an era when there

1113-492: The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia , with a metropolitan see at Lichfield, but in 803 this was abandoned and the bishops of central England were again made subject to Canterbury. Papal bull Papal bulls have been in use at least since the 6th century, but the phrase was not used until around the end of the 13th century, and then only internally for unofficial administrative purposes. However, it had become official by

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1166-806: 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

1219-488: The Florentine engraver Benvenuto Cellini was paid 50 scudi to recreate the metal matrix which would be used to impress the lead bullae of Pope Paul III . Cellini retained definitive iconographic items like the faces of the two apostles, but he carved them with a much greater attention to detail and artistic sensibility than had previously been in evidence. On the reverse of the seal he added several fleurs-de-lis ,

1272-704: The London area was headed by the Vicar Apostolic of the London District or titular bishop , appointed by the pope. The diocese presently covers an area of 3,634 km (1,403 square miles) of the London boroughs north of the River Thames excluding Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest together with the districts of Staines-upon-Thames and Sunbury-on-Thames and

1325-515: 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

1378-631: The bull is the only written communication in which the pope will refer to himself as " Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei " ("Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God"). While papal bulls always used to bear a metal seal, they now do so only on the most solemn occasions. A papal bull is today the most formal type of public decree or letters patent issued by the Vatican Chancery in the name of the pope. A bull's format formerly began with one line in tall, elongated letters containing three elements:

1431-470: The counties of Sussex and Surrey with territory taken from the diocese of Southwark. Westminster retained as suffragan dioceses only Northampton, Nottingham and Brentwood. Subsequently, these were joined by a new diocese of East Anglia , elected with territory from the Northampton diocese in the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk by Paul VI on 13 March 1976. The previous Catholic jurisdiction of

1484-640: 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

1537-410: The eleventh century, after which it was rapidly superseded by a rough kind of parchment . Modern scholars have retroactively used the word "bull" to describe any elaborate papal document issued in the form of a decree or privilege , solemn or simple, and to some less elaborate ones issued in the form of a letter. Popularly, the name is used for any papal document that contains a metal seal. Today,

1590-560: 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

1643-600: The gradual abolition of the legal restrictions on the activities of Catholics in England and Wales in the early 19th century, Rome on its own ("not by Concordat with the British government nor conversations with the Anglican Church") decided to fill the partial vacuum, which Queen Elizabeth I had created, by restoring Catholic dioceses on a regular historical pattern and replacing existing titular bishops or vicars apostolic with diocesan ones. Thus Pope Pius IX issued

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1696-410: The heads of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul on one side and the pope's name on the other. Papal bulls were originally issued by the pope for many kinds of communication of a public nature, but by the 13th century, papal bulls were only used for the most formal or solemn of occasions. Papyrus seems to have been used almost uniformly as the material for these documents until the early years of

1749-658: 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

1802-475: 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

1855-569: 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

1908-439: The pope's name, the papal title " Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei " ("Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God "), and its incipit , i.e., the first few Latin words from which the bull took its title for record-keeping purposes, but which might not be directly indicative of the bull's purpose. The body of the text was often very simple in layout, and it had no specific conventions for its formatting. The closing section consisted of

1961-457: The pre-Reformation Church and post-Reformation vicars apostolic and titular bishops . Westminster, in particular, saw itself as the continuity of Canterbury , hence the similarity of the coats of arms of the two sees, with Westminster believing it has more right to it since it features the pallium , a distinctly Catholic symbol of communion with the Holy See. With Catholic emancipation ,

2014-445: The provinces of Birmingham and Liverpool from Westminster, included the provision (in translation): "Moreover, for the preservation of unity in government and policy, to the Archbishop of Westminster are granted certain new distinctions of pre-eminence. He will be permanent chairman at the meetings of the bishops of all England and Wales...he will take rank above the other two archbishops, and will, throughout all England and Wales, enjoy

2067-472: 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

2120-479: 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

2173-610: 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

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2226-585: The signatures of any witnesses, and then the seal. In modern times, a member of the Roman Curia signs the document on behalf of the pope, usually the Cardinal Secretary of State , and thus the monogram is omitted. The most distinctive characteristic of a bull was the metal seal ( bulla ), which was usually made of lead , but on very solemn occasions was made of gold , as those on Byzantine imperial instruments often were (see Golden Bull ). On

2279-472: 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 ;

2332-558: The wake of the repeal of the annual Indemnity Acts, which relieved Dissenters of most of their civil disabilities (making it no longer possible, for example, to enforce by law the attendance of anyone at church on Sunday), Catholics, especially non-aristocratic Catholics, could slowly start to creep out into the open again, long before the Catholic Emancipation of 1829. As a result of the 1727 Act, Christianity in England (Anglican, Dissenters, Catholic, etc.) also ceased to be

2385-644: The wearing of (Anglican) clerical dress or setting bells in Catholic places of worship. It was repealed by Gladstone in 1871 but, even after, new Catholic Dioceses didn't take existing (Anglican) diocesan names. One of these newly restored dioceses was the Diocese of Westminster, the sole Metropolitan See at that time. However, under Pope Pius X , on 28 October 1911, the provinces of Liverpool and Birmingham were created, and Westminster retained as suffragan dioceses only Northampton , Nottingham , Portsmouth and Southwark . These increased when under Pope Benedict XV

2438-476: 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

2491-482: 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,

2544-740: 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

2597-469: Was installed as the 11th archbishop on 21 May 2009. He was elevated to cardinal on 22 February 2014, becoming the 43rd English cardinal since the 12th century. Among the old European Catholic sees, the Archbishop of Westminster is referred to as the Primate of England and Wales . However, in the United Kingdom, this is not legally correct, since the title is formally claimed only by the archbishops of

2650-445: 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

2703-399: Was much fabrication of such documents, those who procured bulls from Rome wished to ensure that the authenticity of their bull was above suspicion. A papal confirmation, under certain conditions, could be pleaded as itself constituting sufficient evidence of title in cases where the original deed had been lost or destroyed. Since the 12th century, papal bulls have carried a leaden seal with

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2756-604: Was the exclusive letter format from the Vatican until the 14th century, when the papal brief appeared. The brief is the less formal form of papal communication and was authenticated with a wax impression, now a red ink impression, of the Ring of the Fisherman . Archbishop of Westminster The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster , in England. The incumbent

2809-508: Was then attached to the document either by cords of hemp , in the case of letters of justice and executory letters, or by red and yellow silk , in the case of letters of grace, that was looped through slits in the vellum of the document. The term " bulla " derives from the Latin " bullire " ("to boil"), and alludes to the fact that, whether of wax, lead, or gold, the material making the seal had to be melted to soften it for impression. In 1535,

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