Papal Aggression: 1851

Once, it is said, the great Butler was walking in his garden at Bishop Auckland, deep in thought. His chaplain ventured to break the profound silence by enquiring what his Lordship was thinking about. Butler stopped in his tracks. “What security”, said he, “is there against the insanity of individuals? The physicians know of none.” There was a pause. “Then, may not whole communities and public bodies be seized with fits of insanity as well as individuals? Nothing but this principle”, he concluded with emphasis, “can account for the major part of the transactions of which we read in History.” To the casual reader the storm which broke over the Catholic body in England in 1851 must seem an admirable example of the truth of Butler’s thesis. For consider, the Catholics of England had been governed during much of the penal period by officials known as Vicars Apostolic. In 1851, some twenty years and more after Catholic Emancipation, they were reorganized under their traditional episcopal government. Sees were set up, bishops were appointed.