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The Grenvilles' Eminence Grise: The Reverend Charles O'Conor and the Latter Days of Anglo-Gallicanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

James J. Sack
James J. Sack
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Chicago, IL 60680
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Extract

The nadir of the Tridentine papacy occupied those years which spanned the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773 and the imprisonment of Pius VII by Napoleon from 1809 to 1814. The suspension of the Church's most distinguished organ of Ultramontane sentiment alleviated the further spread of Febronian or Josephist principles throughout the Netherlands and the German and even Italian sections of the Empire. Yet, Pius VI's concern with the Punctuation of Ems or the Synod of Pistoia paled in comparison with the challenge to spiritual and temporal papal authority contained in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and other doctrines and consequences of the French Revolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 72 , Issue 1-2 , April 1979 , pp. 123 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1979

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References

1 See Reardon, Bernard, Liberalism and Tradition: Aspects of Catholic Thought in Nineteenth-Century France (Cambridge, 1975)Google Scholar.

2 There were about 80,000 Roman Catholics in England and Wales in 1770. Bossy, John, The English Catholic Community, 1570–1850 (London, 1975) 185Google Scholar.

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4 Ward, Dawn of the Catholic Revival, 1. 175–76.

5 Ibid., 2. 213–14. Eamon Duffy has examined the theological opinions of Joseph Berington and their effects on his career in a series of three articles entitled “Ecclesiastical Democracy Detected” in Recusant History: 1, 1779–87 (January, 1970) 193–209Google Scholar; II, 1787–96 (April, 1970) 309–31; III, 1796–1803 (October, 1975) 123–48. In the first of the three articles, Duffy makes clear the extent to which Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, Maryland, agreed with the Gallicanism of his friend Berington (200–209). See also, Duffy’s article “Doctor Douglass and Mister Berington: An Eighteenth-Century Retraction,” The Downside Review 88 (1970) 246–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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8 Flanagan, History of the Church, 2. 401; Ward, Dawn of the Catholic Revival, 1.258–59.

9 Flanagan, History of the Church, 2. 399,407–8; Ward, Dawn of the Catholic Revival, 1. 258–59.

10 The Club existed for nearly forty years, though admittedly became more of a simple social organization in the nineteenth century. Gwynn, Denis, The Struggle for Catholic Emancipation, 1750–1829 (London, 1928) 46–47Google Scholar; Flanagan, History of the Church, 2.406.

11 Flanagan, History of the Church, 2. 413–14; Ward, Bernard, The Eve of Catholic Emancipation, II (1812–1820) (London, 1911) 15Google Scholar; O'Conor, C., Columbanus, No. VI (Buckingham, 1813) 191–93, 196Google Scholar.

12 Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, Stowe-O’Conor papers (hereafter referred to as HEH-STO) 1153; Hugh McDermot to the editor of the Dublin Post (loose papers); Gentleman’s Magazine 144 (1828) 466–67Google Scholar.

13 Narrative of the Most Interesting Events in Irish History (8 vols.; 1812)Google Scholar; Rerum Hibemicarum Scriptores Veteres, I (1814)Google Scholar; II (1825); III and IV (1826); Bibliotheca MS. Stowensis: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Stowe Library (2 vols.; 1818)Google Scholar. Other Irish historians were not overjoyed by locking up the most valuable Irish collection in Europe: “entomed… in the sepulchral library of Stowe… dragged like the flower of Alcides’ herd by the tail into Cacus’ den, that their progress from Conaught to Buckinghamshire might be unobserved, and neither retraced nor recovered even by Herculean power.” Francis Plowden, An Historical Letter to The Rev. Charles O’Conor D. D. (1812) 48–55.

14 Gentleman’s Magazine 144 (1828) 467Google Scholar.

15 Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, Stowe-Grenville Papers, 154, Nugent to Temple, 7 Dec 1812.

16 The Rambler 3 (1855) 44–51Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., 53–55.

18 Ibid., 118–21.

19 See, e.g.: Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury (ed. Harris, James Howard, Third Earl of Malmesbury; London, 1844) 4. 9Google Scholar; The Courier (London), 8 and 24 Apr 1807.

20 Walter Fitzpatrick, ed., Report on the Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Preserved at Dropmore (Great Britain, Parliament, Historical Manuscripts Commission): Thomas Grenville to Lord Grenville, 23 Dec 1809 (London, 1915) 9. 433; Lord Grey to Lord Grenville, 1812 (London, 1927) 10. 187.

21 Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, England, Proby Papers, Lady Charlotte Proby to ?, 1 July 1812 (copy).

22 HEH-STO, 584, Lord Grenville to O’Conor, 30 May 1808.

23 Ibid., 1406, O’Conor to Nugent, 28 May 1820 (copy); O’Conor’s Letterbook, 5.

24 HEH-STO, 594, Lord Grenville to O’Conor, 18 Feb 1821.

25 Ibid., 454, Lady Buckingham to O’Conor, 3 Oct 1801.

26 Husenbeth, F. C., The Life of the Right Rev. John Milner, D. D. (Dublin, 1862) 210Google Scholar.

27 HEH-STO, 1153, Hugh McDermot to the editor of the Dublin Post (loose papers); ibid., 748, Hugh McDermot to O’Conor, 22 Feb 1803.

28 Ibid., 749, Hugh McDermot to O’Conor, 3 Mar 1803.

29 Ibid., 757, Hugh McDermot to O’Conor, 6 May 1808.

30 Ibid., 1141, Don Owen O’Conor and Hugh McDermot to O’Conor, 12 Oct 1808.

31 Ibid., 758, Hugh McDermot to O’Conor, 20 May 1808; ibid., 1332, Troy to O’Conor, 11 Nov 1808; ibid., 1153, Hugh McDermot to the editor of the Dublin Post (loose papers).

32 Ibid., 1332, Troy to O’Conor, 11 Nov 1808.

33 Ibid., 1196, Don Owen O’Conor to O’Conor, 2 May 1810; ibid., 1147, Don Owen O’Conor to O’Conor, 7 May 1810.

34 Ibid., 1153, Don Owen O’Conor to O’Conor, 30 Jan 1812.

35 Columbanus Ad Hibernos: or, a letter from Columban to his friend in Ireland on the present mode of appointing Catholic Bishops in his native country (London, 1810)Google Scholar; Columbanus Ad Hibernos, No. 2: or A Letter on the Novelty and Danger of the New Discipline Now introduced into The Catholic Church of Ireland (1810); Columbanus’s Third Letter on the Liberties of the Irish Church and on some points of Irish History connected with the Catholic Question: or a Letter from the Rev. C. O’Conor, D. D. to Owen O’Conor, esq (London, 1810); Columbanus Ad Hibernos, No. IV or a fourth Letter On the Liberties of the Catholic Church of Ireland (London, 1811)Google Scholar; Columbanus, No V; Correspondence Between the Most Rev. Dr. Troy, and The Rev. Dr. O’Conor; with Observations on the Claim of Unlimited Episcopal Jurisdiction; And a Narrative Entitled The Case of the Rev. Father Harold (Buckingham, 1812)Google Scholar; Columbanus, No. VI or an Unpublished Correspondence Between the Rt. Rev. Dr. Poynter and the Rev. Dr. O’Conor, on Foreign Influencing Maxims, with Observations on the Canonical & Legal Securities Against Such Maxims (Buckingham, 1813)Google Scholar; Columbanus, No. VII, or the Gallican Liberties Indispensable Securities for the Constitutional Government of the Irish Catholic Church: Also, An Introductory Letter to the Marquess of Buckingham on the Present State of that Church (Buckingham, 1816)Google Scholar.

36 Buckingham, 1810.

37 HEH-STO, 448, Buckingham to O’Conor, 3 Apr 1811; ibid., 189, Butler to O’Conor, 26 June 1811.

38 Plowden, Historical Letter, 33–34.

39 For the best discussion of the problem, see Roberts, Michael, The Whig Party, 1807–1812 (2d ed.; London, 1965)Google Scholar.

40 O’Conor, Columbanus, 1. 8.

41 Ibid., 15–16, 21–22.

42 Ibid., 35, 44.

43 Ibid., 10, 79, 82–83.

44 Ibid., 3, 19.

45 Ibid., 3. 43.

46 Ibid., 3. 73. See also 6. 190–91.

47 Ibid., 7. viii, xiv.

48 O’Conor, Historical Address, 212.

49 O’Conor, Columbanus, 6. 193.

50 Ibid., 6. v-vii, 205–6.

51 Ibid., 3. 145–6.

52 Ibid., 1. 82–83; 6. xxii.

53 Ibid., 4. 80–81.

54 Ibid., 3. 112–21.

55 Ibid., 3. 114–15; 5. 51.

56 Ibid., 4. 80–81.

57 Ibid., 6. 56–57.

58 Ibid., 3. 4–7.

59 Duffy, “Ecclesiastical Democracy,” 318.

60 O’Conor, Columbanus, 1. 4–5.

61 O’Conor, Historical Address, 10–11.

62 Ibid., 34–35.

63 Ibid., 8, 78.

64 O’Conor, Columbanus, 2. xiff.

65 Ibid., 4. 115.

66 Ibid.; O’Conor, Historical Address, 94–95.

67 O’Conor, Historical Address, 34–35, 178.

68 Ibid., 126, 199.

69 O’Conor, Columbanus, 3. 107; 5. 18–34.

70 Ibid., 1. 99.

71 O’Conor, Historical Address, 6.

72 O’Conor, Columbanus, 4. 93.

73 Ibid., 4. 13; 6. 127–30.

74 Ibid., 6. 198.

75 Ibid., 7. xxi.

76 Ibid., 5. 28.

77 Ibid., 6. 26.

78 Ibid., 3. 130.

79 Ibid., 3. 78–79; O’Conor, Historical Address, 168; O’Conor, Columbanus, 6.2,56–57.

80 O’Conor, Columbanus, 7. xciv; 6. 56.

81 Duffy, “Ecclesiastical Democracy,” 142.

82 See, e.g., The Irish Magazine (March, 1811) 134; Plowden, Historical Letter; O’Conor, Columbanus, 6. 5.

83 HEH-STO, 936, O’Conor to Butler, 15 Oct 1811 (copy).

84 Husenbeth, Life of Milner, 212.

85 HEH-STO, 936, O’Conor to Butler, 15 Oct 1811 (copy); ibid., 192, Butler to O’Conor, 18 Oct 1811.

86 HEH-STO, 457, Lady Buckingham to O’Conor, n.d.

87 O’Conor, Columbanus, 4. 80–81.

88 Husenbeth, Life of Milner, 215.

89 O’Conor, Columbanus, 6. xiii.

90 Ibid., 69–70.

91 Ibid., xxv.

92 Ibid., xxiii-xxvii.

93 Ibid., 7.

94 Ibid., 5. 3, 9.

95 Ibid., 5. 4–6.

96 Ibid., 60, 66–69.

97 HEH-STO, 1443, A Letter from the Rev. C. O’Conor to the Rev. J. Berington, at Buckland, the Seat of Sir J. Throckmorton, 20 June 1813; ibid., 993, O’Conor to Eliza McDermot, 28 Aug 1821 (copy).

98 Husenbeth, Life of Milner, 224–25. In 1807, O’Conor preached a sermon at Stowe more or less advocating a change in Church law to permit excommunication for failure to receive the sacraments more often than just at Eastertide. The priest thought the penalty a “wholesome severity.” HEH-STO, 1415 (collection of sermons).

99 Ward, Eve of Emancipation, 1 (1803–12) (London, 1911) 147.

100 Charles O’Conor, “An Appeal and Remonstrance to His Holiness Pope Pius VII,” The Pamphleteer (1824).

101 HEH-STO, 56, Lady Arundell to O’Conor, 8 Apr 1814.

102 O’Conor, Columbanus, 7. 6; HEH-STO, 910, O’Conor to Lady Arundell, 23 Mar 1814 (copy).

103 HEH-STO, 57, Lady Arundell to O’Conor, 13 Apr 1814; ibid., 901, O’Conor to James Archer, Aug 1816 (copy).

104 HEH-STO, 72, Lady Arundell to O’Conor, 8 Oct 1814; ibid., 1023, copy of O’Conor’s remonstrance to Pius VII, July 1818.

105 Ibid., 939, O’Conor to Charles Butler, 26 Mar 1820 (copy).

106 O’Conor, “An Appeal and Remonstrance,” Pamphleteer, 60.

107 HEH-STO, 1030, O’Conor to Poynter, 2 Oct 1821; ibid., 1125, Don Denis O’Conor to O’Conor, 5 Dec 1821.

108 Ward, Eve of Emancipation, 3 (1820–29) (London, 1912) 181–83.

109 At least one Irish authority, W. J. Fitzpatrick, thought O’Conor insane when he wrote the Columbanus letters. Irish Wits and Worthies (Dublin, 1876) 295Google Scholar.

110 M. A. Tierney, at the Duke of Norfolk’s Arundel during the mid-nineteenth century, may have been one. Watkins, E. I., Roman Catholicism in England from the Reformation to 1950 (Oxford, 1957) 183Google Scholar.

111 Mathew, David, Acton: The Formative Years (London, 1946) 43–46Google Scholar; Ibid., Lord Acton and His Times (Alabama, 1968) 40–46Google Scholar.

112 Mathew, Acton and His Times, 53.

113 O’Conor, Columbanus, 6. 91.