On Sermons 9 and 10
Sermons 9 and 10 were preached under circumstances which at this distance of time (1870) may require some notice, that the allusions made in them may be intelligible to the general reader. Accordingly the following extracts are here given from the public journals between Michælmas and Christmas, 1850.
1. “The New Romish Hierarchy
“The following is the Papal Bull, ‘ad perpetuam rei memoriam.’ ‘The power of governing the Universal Church, entrusted by our Lord Jesus Christ to the Roman Pontiff, in the person of Peter, Prince of the Apostles, has maintained for centuries in the Apostolic See the admirable solicitude with which it watches over the welfare of the Catholic religion in all the earth, and provides with zeal for its progress. Thus has been accomplished the design of its Divine Founder, who, by establishing a head, has in His profound wisdom ensured the safety of the Church unto the uttermost time. The effect of this solicitude has been felt in most nations, and among those is the noble kingdom of England …
“‘Having before our eyes then the good example of our predecessors, and desirous, by imitating them, of fulfilling the duties of the supreme Apostolate, pressed besides to follow the movements of our hearts for that portion of our Lord’s vineyard … we have resolved, and do hereby decree, the re-establishment in the kingdom of England, and according to the common laws of the Church, of a hierarchy of Bishops deriving their titles from their own sees, which we constitute by the present letter in the various Apostolic districts. To commence with the district of London, it will form two sees: to wit, that of Westminster, which we hereby elevate to the metropolitan or Archiepiscopal dignity, and that of Southwark, &c., &c. … The diocese of Westminster will include, &c., &c. … Thus in the very flourishing kingdom of England there will be one single ecclesiastical province, with one Archbishop and twelve suffragans, &c. …
“‘The Archbishop and Bishops of England will thus have the integral power to regulate all that belongs to the execution of the common law, or what is left to the authority of Bishops by the general discipline of the Church. As for us, most assuredly they shall never have to complain that we do not sustain them by our apostolical authority, and we shall always be happy to second their demands in all which appears calculated to promote the glory of God and the good of souls …‘“
2. Cardinal Wiseman’s Pastoral
“Nicholas, by the divine mercy, of the Holy Roman Church, by the title of St. Pudentiana, Cardinal Priest, Archbishop of Westminster, &c., to our dearly-beloved, &c.
”… How can we for one moment indulge in selfish feelings, when, through that Loving Father’s generous and wise counsels, the greatest of blessings has just been bestowed upon our country, by the restoration of its true Catholic hierarchical government, in communion with the See of Peter …
“The great work then is complete; what you have long desired and prayed for is granted. Your beloved country has received a place among the fair Churches, which, normally constituted, form the splendid aggregate of Catholic communion. Catholic England has been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical firmament, from which its light had long vanished, and begins now anew its course of regularly adjusted action round the centre of unity, the source of jurisdiction, of light, and of vigour …
“Then truly is this day to us a day of joy and exultation of spirit, the crowning day of long hopes, and the spring-day of brighter prospects …
“Given out of the Flaminian Gate of Rome, this 7th day of October, in the year of our Lord, 1850,” &c.
3. The Times, Oct. 14, 1850
“We are informed by the official gazette of Rome, that, his Holiness the Pope having recently been pleased to erect the city of Westminster into an Archbishopric, and to appoint Dr. Wiseman to that see, it was on this new-fangled Archbishop of Westminster that the rank of Cardinal has been conferred. We really do not wish to attach an undue importance to what we shall be told is a mere question of words. It may be that the elevation of Dr. Wiseman to the imaginary Archbishopric of Westminster signifies no more than if the Pope had been pleased to confer on the editor of the Tablet the rank and the title of Duke of Smithfield. But if this appointment be not intended as a clumsy joke, we confess that we can only regard it as one of the grossest acts of folly and impertinence which the Court of Rome has ventured to commit, since the Crown and the people of England threw off its yoke. The selection of the city of Westminster, the very seat of the Court and the Parliament of England, and the appropriation by a foreign priest or potentate of the time-honoured name which is most identified with the glories of our history, and even with the tombs of our statesmen, our soldiers, and our kings, is a most ostentatious interference with those rights and associations to which we, as a nation, are most unanimously and devotedly attached …
“The absurdity of the selection of this title for this illegitimate prelate is equal to its arrogance. Everybody knows that Westminster never was in early Christian times a Bishop’s see, but a monastery … It is a mere figment of the Papal brain. As applied to the city and liberty of Westminster, or to the Abbey of St. Peter’s, Westminster, it is a term devoid of meaning; but its meaning lies, we fear, in an unambiguous intention to insult the Church and the Crown of England …“