No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
‘The Normal State of the Church’: William Bernard Ullathorne, First Bishop of Birmingham
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
Extract
‘Whilst sailing on board a French ship on the Pacific Ocean in the year 1839, I drew up the first sketch of a plan for establishing the Catholic hierarchy in Australia. The sketch was afterwards completed by the guide of my monastic life and studies, the Archbishop of Sydney, then Vicar-Apostolic of Australia; and by authority of Pope Gregory XVI, in the following year the Australian hierarchy came into existence. The fertile results which quickly followed from the establishment of the normal state of the Church in that distant land inspired me with the earnest desire of seeing the same blessing conferred on the Catholics of England. And on the day of my episcopal consecration, being the very day of the coronation of the present reigning pontiff, as the three Bishops were placing the mitre on my head, there arose up in my mind a sense that was indescribably keen of the need in which we stood for recovering our Hierarchy; and with that sense came a desire as keen to labour for its recovery.’
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2001
References
1 Ullathorne, W. B., History of the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in England (London, 1871), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar
2 Newman’s words in an address of 1871 to Ullathorne, quoted by Butler, C., The Life and Times of Bishop Ullathorne, Volume 2 (London, 1926), p. 194.Google Scholar
3 For Ullathorne’s family life and background see his autobiography and also Kentish, B. L., The Chronicles of an Ancient Yorkshire Family, The Ullithornes or Ullithornes of Sleningford and Some of their descendants (Privately Printed, 1963).Google Scholar
4 Shane Leslie’s 1941 London edition of Ullathorne’s Autobiography, which exists in manuscript at St. Dominic’s Convent, Stone, carries the title: From Cabin-Boy to Archbishop; Leo Madigan, in The Devil is a Jackass, reputedly among Ullathorne’s last words, provides (Bath, 1995) the latest edition. The first published version (London, 1891) is heavily edited.
5 Butler, I, p. 21.
6 Ibidem.
7 Bellenger, D. A., The French Exiled Clergy in the British Isles after 1789 (Bath, 1986), pp. 83–90.Google Scholar
8 Butler, op. cit., I, p. 25.
9 Archives of the Venerable English College, Rome, Ben VIII, I, Birdsall to Wiseman, 15 August 1829.
10 Butler, op. cit., I, p. 71.
11 Hughes, Robert, The Fatal Shore (London, 1987) suggests that Ullathorne exaggerated the problems to increase State support of the Church, for example, p. 265.Google Scholar
12 Butler, op. cit., I, p. 84.
13 The Oscotian (Ullathorne Number) 1886, p. 37.
14 Champ, J. F., ‘A Different Kind of Monk: William Ullathorne’ English Benedictine History Symposium 5 (1985). pp. 5–13.Google Scholar
15 The Oscotian, 1886, p. 36.
16 Bellenger, D. A., Fathers in Faith The Western District (1685–1888), (Bath, 1991).Google Scholar
17 Norman, E., The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1984) especially pp. 79–80 and 95–6.Google Scholar
18 For the building see Pevsner, N., Buildings of England North Somerset and Bristol (Harmondsworth, 1958) p. 388 Google Scholar. The building, according to his printed Pastoral Letter of 1847 was to be ‘the episcopal church’ (p.8) and he intended to divide Bristol and Clifton into 5 missionary districts (Ibidem, pp. 6–7).
19 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 189.
20 Ibidem, p. 159.
21 Guy, R. E., (ed), The Synods in English (Stratford-on-Avon, 1886), especially pp. 41–97 Google Scholar, which provides a summary of the decisions made in Ullathorne’s episopacy.
22 Ibidem, pp. 98–9. The continuing dependence on Propaganda Fide, the limited powers of Cathedral chapters and the status of parish clergy militated against a full restoration of ‘a normal state’. Petitions came from some clergy to restore a proper status for the clergy. See discussion by Mullett, M. in ‘John Lingard in Context’, in A Catholic of the Englightenment, ed by Hilton, J. A., (Wigan, 1999), p. 18.Google Scholar
23 Kiernan, R. H., The Story of the Archdiocese of Birmingham (Birmingham, n.d. but probably 1950).Google Scholar
24 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 152.
25 Ibidem, I, p. 171.
26 Champ, J. F., ‘The Crown of the Diocesan Structure’. Ullathorne, W. B. and the Founding of the Seminary, in Oscott College 1838–1988 (Oscott, 1988), pp. 93–105.Google Scholar
27 Mclnally, Mary, ‘St. Bernard’s Seminary, Olton’, in Champ, Oscott College, op. cit., pp. 107–26.Google Scholar
28 St. Dominic’s Convent, Stone, Archives (G/ULL/V/2.1), Status Animarum of Birmingham Diocese (1856).
29 Butler op. cit, I, p. 313.
30 Champ, J. F., ‘William Bernard Ullathorne and John Henry Newman’, The Oscotian 6 (1988/9), p. 5.Google Scholar
31 Butler, C., The Vatican Council, The Story told from inside in Bishop Ullathorne's Letters, 2 Volumes (London, 1930).Google Scholar
32 Ullathorne, W. B., The Present State of Rome (Birmingham, 1862).Google Scholar
33 Ullathorne, W. B., The Speech on the Question of the Pontifical States (London and Birmingham, 1860), p. 23.Google Scholar
34 Ibidem, Pastoral Letter (Birmingham, 1869) p. 3.
35 Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, B4796.
36 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 75.
37 Quoted by Cwiekowski, F. J., The English Bishops and the First Vatican Council (Louvain, 1971), p. 31n.Google Scholar
38 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 152.
39 Quoted by Norman, op. cit., p. 165.
40 See note one above. Ullathorne retained a great sense of ‘discipline’, law, and order throughout his life (obituary in The Downside Review 8 (1889), pp. 71–81 especially pp. 76–7.