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The Anglo-Gallicanism of dom Thomas Preston, 1567–1647

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Maurus Lunn
Maurus Lunn*
Affiliation:
Downside Abbey
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Extract

Gallicanism - the name given to the general theory that the Church, especially the Church in France, is free from the jurisdiction of the pope, while remaining Roman and Catholic - is familiar to most historians. The existence of such a thing as Anglo-Gallicanism, on the other hand, seems scarcely credible. Post-Reformation English Catholics present the image of a persecuted and retiring group of people, who, in order to preserve their corporate identity, became more Italianate in their culture than the Italians and in their theology more papalist than the popes; and of the majority of English Catholics this was true. But throughout their history there runs a thin red line of dissent, which passes from the Appellant priests in the late sixteenth century, via Blackloism in the seventeenth, to Charles Butler, Joseph Berington and the Catholic Committee at the dawn of emancipation. Gallicanism, and perhaps its English counterpart, were given a death-blow by Napoleon’s application of papal authority to the French bishops. But Anglo-Gallicanism was an unconscionably long time dying, for at Downside in the early nineteenth century William Bernard Ullathorne, later bishop of Birmingham, was taught theology from Gallican textbooks. In this tradition a prominent part, in terms of impact and literary output, was played by another Benedictine, Thomas Preston, alias Roger Widdrington.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 9: Schism, Heresy and Religious Protest , 1972 , pp. 239 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1972

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References

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page no 241 note 1 Dodd, C. [vere Hugh Tootell], Church History of England, 3 vols (Wolverhampton 1737-42) 11 pp 292-3Google Scholar; Preston, , A New-Ycares Gift for English Catholikes (London 1620) pp 11, 33, 34Google Scholar; Lunn, M., RH X (1969) p 146 Google Scholar. For similar contemporary declarations see Usher, R. G., The Reconstruction of the English Church, 2 vols (New York 1910) 11, p 103 Google Scholar; Clancy, T.H., ‘English Catholics and the Papal Deposing Power, 1570- 1640’, RH VI (1962) pp 207-8Google Scholar; Bossy, J., ‘Henri IV, the Appellants and the Jesuits’, RH VIII (1965) pp 97-8Google Scholar.

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page no 242 note 1 Webb, Biographical Studies, pp 228-30. For a register of Preston’s published writings and their full titles see A[llison], [A. F.] and R[ogers, [D. M.], A Catalogue of Catholic Books in English Printed Abroad or Secretly in England, 1518-1640] (Bognor Regis 1956) nos 660-78Google Scholar. To this should be added William, Howard [vere Preston], A Patterne of Christian Loyaltie (London 1934)Google Scholar. This is no 13871 in Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R., A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640 (London 1926)Google Scholar. The Apologia was re-printed in Goldast, M., Monarchiae S. Romani Imperii..., 3 vols (Frankfort 1668) III, pp 688-763Google Scholar, and at Frankfort, 1613 and 1621 according to Sommervogel, C., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 10 vols (Brussels-Paris 1890-1901) 1, col 1225Google Scholar.

page no 242 note 2 A and R, no 69; Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1610-13 (London 1864) XII, p 136: Marc’ Antonio Correr to the Doge and Senate, 2 April 1611; A[rchives of the] A[rchbishopric of] W[estminster, Series A] 10, fol 277: G. Birkhead to T. More, 10 August 1611; AAW ibid fols 233 and 275.

page no 242 note 3 Taunton, E. L., ‘Thomas Preston and “Roger Widdrington”,’ English Historical Review, XVIII (1903) pp 16–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Preston, Supplicatio (1616) p 24; AAW 11, fol 329: A. Champney, Sorbonne, to T.More, 17 July 1612; ibid fols 7, 325, 331, 351 (on Widdrington’s chaplain).

page no 242 note 4 Webb, Biographical Studies, pp 226-38.

page no 243 note 1 AAW 11, fol 123: Birkhead to More, 21 March 1612; Stonyhurst MS, Anglia A. VII, fol 84: Preston, petition to Parliament, [1646].

page no 243 note 2 For example Dr William Gabriel Gifford, O.S.B. (AAW 11, fol 531: John Mush to T. More, 17 October 1612). But see Silos Abbey Archives, General Series XII, fol 565: Gifford to Alonso Barrantes, [July 1614]; Vatican Archives, Nunziatura di Francia 56, fols 299, 323V: Ubaldini to Millini, 3 May 1616, and to Borghese, 26 July 1616; ibid Fondo Borghese 1, 902, fols 125,155: Borghese to Ubaldini, 8 April and 22 August 1616.

page no 243 note 3 Bellarmine, Examen ad Librum Falso Inscriptum, Apologia Card. Bellarmini pro Jure Principum, etc. Auetore Rogero Widdringtono Catholico Anglo... Rome – printed, not published-1612); partly printed in Le Bachelet, X-M., Auctarium Bellarminianum (Paris 1913) p 360 Google Scholar. See also James, Brodrick’s interpretation in his The Life and Work of Blessed Robert Francis Cardinal Bellarmine, S.J., 1542-1621, 2 vols (London 1928) 11, p 255 Google Scholar.

page no 243 note 4 A and R, nos 131-3; Preston, Apologia Cardinalis Bellarmini (1611) pp 25, 188, 203; Supplicatio (1616) pp 11-12.

page no 243 note 5 The Political Works of James I, ed Mcllwain, C. H. (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1918) p lxxiii Google Scholar.

page no 244 note 1 Deman, T., ‘Probabilisme’, DTC, XIII, cols 417–619 Google Scholar; Pascal, B., Les Lettres Provinciales, ed Stewart, H. F. (Manchester 1920) pp xxvi–xxxvi and 45-67Google Scholar.

page no 244 note 2 Apologia Cardinalis Bellarmini (1611) pp 2-3. See also A New-Yeares Gift (1620) pp 4-13; A Copy of the Decree (1614) p 12.

page no 245 note 1 Preston defended his use of Gallican writers in A Cleare, Sincere and Modest Confutation ...of T.F. (London 1616) pp 73-134.

page no 245 note 2 Apologia Cardinalis Bellarmini (1611) pp 26-9; Strena Catholica (1620) pp 267-8, 271, 280; Responsio Apologetica (1612) pp 84-5; with Thomas Green O.S.B., Appellatio (1620) pp 2 and 10.

page no 245 note 3 Apologia Cardinalis Bellarmini (1611) pp 171-2. This position is more fully developed in Disputatio Theologica (1613) pp 288, 316-21; Discussio Discussionis Decreti Magni Concilii Lateranensis (1618) Preface; Last Reioynder (1619) pp 559-60; An Adioynder (1620) p 97. Kellison’s statement, from The Right and Jurisdiction of the Prelate and the Prince (1617) - A and R, nos 427-8 - is quoted by T. H. Clancy in New Catholic Encyclopacdia (1967) 761.

page no 246 note 1 Dodd, C., Church History of England, ed Tierney, M. A., 5 vols (London 1839) IV, p clxx: Birkhead to More, 30 May 1611Google Scholar; Guido Bentivoglio Diplomatico, ed Belvederi, R., 2 vols (Ferrara 1949) 11, p 362 Google Scholar: Bentivoglio to Borghese, 11 July 1615.

page no 246 note 2 See for example Responsio Apologetica (1612) pp 146-51; Disputatio Theologica (1613) 11.

page no 246 note 3 Webb, Biographical Studies, pp 249-55. For intrigues among his Cassinese brethren see Spicilegium Benedictinum, 5 vols (Rome 1896) 11, pp 5-12: D. Codner to G. Law, 23 December 1636.

page no 246 note 4 Responsio Apologetica (1612) pp 72-6; Supplicatio (1616) pp 1-3, 44, 105.

page no 246 note 5 Responsio Apologetica (1612) pp 146, 151; A New-Yeares Gift (1620) pp 141-7.

page no 246 note 6 Abbey of S.Pietro, Perugia: ‘Cong. Cass. SS’: papers of Gregory Law, fol 535: arrangements concerning Nicholas Fitzherbert’s will, 1613-18; Rome, Congregation of Propaganda, ‘Scritture originali riferite nelle Congregazioni Generali’ 409, fols 167, 170V: D. Codner, petition to Propaganda, [c. September 1645]. For an example of Government pressure on Preston see Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Charles I, 1633-4,23 vols (London 1858-97) VI, pp 577-8: archbishop Laud to Preston, [April 1634].

page no 246 note 7 Lunn, M., RH X (1969) pp 152-4Google Scholar.

page no 246 note 8 For Preston’s authorship see Stonyhurst MS, Anglia A. VII, 84: Preston, petition to Parliament, [1646]; Vatican Archives, Nunziatura d’Inghilterra 3A, fols 39-40: diary of Gregorio Panzani, 27 December 1634. For the identity of William Howard see Grun, R. E., ‘A Note on William Howard, Author of “A Patterne of Christian Loyaltie”’, Catholic Historical Review XLII (1956-7) pp 330-40Google Scholar.

page no 246 note 9 Albion, G., Charles I and the Court of Rome (Louvain 1935) pp 251-86Google Scholar.

page no 246 note 10 Gattola, E., Historia Abbatiae Cassinensis, 4 vols (Venice 1733) 11, p 752 Google Scholar: a circular from Andrea Arcioni, abbot of Monte Cassino, dated 17 June 1647.