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Nationality and liberty, protestant and catholic: Robert Southey’s Book of the Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Sheridan Gilley
Sheridan Gilley*
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Extract

The Victorian liberal Roman catholic historian lord Acton thought that the history of the world was one of the growth of liberty. By liberty, he meant national independence and freedom of speech and worship, the liberties of nineteenth-century liberalism: and in his conception of the past, he drew on the whig interpretation of English history as a conflict between a progressive tradition and a reactionary one: between churches, parties and classes representing either freedom or authority. The classic statement of the idea is the whig lord Macaulay’s in 1835:

Each of those great and ever-memorable struggles, Saxon against Norman, Villein against Lord, Protestant against Papist, Roundhead against Cavalier, Dissenter against Churchman, Manchester against Old Sarum, was, in its own order and season, a struggle, on the result of which were staked the dearest interests of the human race; and every man who, in the contest which, in his time, divided our country distinguished himself on the right side, is entitled to our gratitude and respect.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 18: Religion and National Identity , 1982 , pp. 409 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1982

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References

1 For help in the preparation of this paper, I would especially thank Dr [A. L.] Sanders, of Birkbeck College, London, whose thesis [Some Aspects of the Use of Anglo-Saxon Material in Nineteenth Century Literature] (Cambridge M. Litt. 1975) contains a discussion of Southey’s Book of the Church.

2 Herbert, Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (London 1931)Google Scholar.

3 Critical and Historical Essays, 2 vols (London 1946) I, p 293.

4 Cited Basil, Willey, Nineteenth Century Studies (London 1964) p 82 Google Scholar.

5 Gilbert, A. D., Religion and Society in Industrial England: Church, Chapel and Social Change, 1740-1914 (London 1976)Google Scholar.

6 For standard accounts, see Carpenter, S. C., Church and People, 1789-1889 (London 1933) pp 49-7Google Scholar; Francis Warre, Cornish, The English Church in the Nineteenth Century, 2 parts (London 1910) I pp 100-23Google Scholar; Owen, Chadwick, The Victorian Church, 2 parts (London 1971) I pp 7–166 Google Scholar; and the specialist accounts in Mathieson, W. L., English Church Reform 1815-1840 (London 1923)Google Scholar; Geoffrey, Best, Temporal Pillars. Queen Anne’s Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England (Cambridge 1964)Google Scholar; and, on the sequel, Machin, G. I. T., Politics and the Church in Great Britain, 1832 to 1868 (Oxford 1977)Google Scholar.

7 See Eamon, Duffy, ‘Doctor Douglass and Mister Berington—an eighteenth century retraction’, DR 88 (July 1970) pp 246-69Google Scholar; and ‘Ecclesiastical Democracy Detected: I (1779-1787); II (1787-1796)’ Recusant History 10 (January and October 1970) pp 193-209 and 309-31. John, Bossy, The English Catholic Community (London 1975)Google Scholar, is a sustained apology for the native English Roman catholic tradition.

8 Watkin, E. I., Roman Catholicism in England from the Reformation to 1950 (London 1957) pp 156 seq Google Scholar.

9 Wilfrid, Ward, The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman, 2 vols (London 1913) 1, p 119 Google Scholar.

10 He is said to have sat up all night to read the End of Religious Controversy as soon as it appeared: [Bernard], Ward, [The Eve of Catholic Emancipation], 3 vols (London 1912) 2, p 287 Google Scholar.

11 See ‘Charles Butler’ in DNB.

12 Ward, 2, pp 102-3.

13 Ibid pp 113-15.

14 Ibid I, pp 270-304: compare my ‘John Lingard and the Catholic Revival’ SCH 14 (1976) pp 313-27.

15 [Martin], Haile and [Edwin], Bonney, [Life and Letters of John Lingard 1771-1811] (London 1911)Google Scholar.

16 James, Sambrook, William Cobbett (London 1973) p 136 Google Scholar.

17 Civilisation (London 1971) pp 304-5. A possible source for the remark is the Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, ed Thomas, Sadler 3 vols (London 1869) I, p 389 Google Scholar (31 May 1812): ‘Wordsworth defended earnestly the Church Establishment. He even said he would shed his blood for it’. On the other hand he still thought ‘All our ministers are so vile’ and could not remember when he had last been in church.

18 Who wrote Eikon Basilike? considered and answered, in two letters addressed to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (London 1824); Documentary Supplement (London 1825). For the sequel, see footnote 66.

19 First called the Ecclesiastical Sonnets in the edition of 1837. Wordsworth noted (24 January 1822) that

The Catholic Question, which was agitated in Parliament about that time, kept my thoughts in the same course; and it struck me that certain points in the Ecclesiastical History of our Country might advantageously be presented to view in verse . . . When this work was far advanced, I was agreeably surprised to find that my friend, Mr Southey, had been engaged with similar views in writing a concise History of the Church in England. If our Productions, thus unintentionally coinciding, shall be found to illustrate each other, it will prove a high gratification to me, which I am sure my friend will participate.

The Poetical Works of Wordsworth, ed Thomas, Hutchinson (London 1956) p 721 Google Scholar.

20 [The] Book [of the Church,] 2 vols (London 1824) 2, p 528.

21 [Geoffrey], Carnall, [Robert Southey and his Age the Development of a Conservative Mind] (Oxford 1960) p 38 Google Scholar; Sanders p 183. On the importance of Portugal to Southey, see Adolfo, Cabral, Robert Southey Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800-1801 and a visit to France 1838 (Oxford 1960) pp xxi–xxii Google Scholar.

22 [Charles C.], Southey, [The] Life [and Correspondence of Robert Southey], 6 vols (London 1850) 5, p 112 Google Scholar.

23 Carnall pp 215-20.

24 Book, 2, is entirely given over to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

25 This point that Southey’s medievalism was qualified by his anti-catholicism, is neglected by Alfred, Cobban in his Edmund Burke and the Revolt against the Eighteenth Century (London 1929) pp 198-9Google Scholar, 265-6. In his attitudes to the catholic church, Southey is Voltairian.

26 Haile and Bonney p 177.

27 At least so Lingard believed: ibid 204.

28 Book I, p 98.

29 Ibid pp 77-8.

30 Ibid p 98.

31 Ibid p 38.

32 Robert, Southey, Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae Letters to C. Butler, Esq. comprising Essays on the Romish religion and vindicating ‘The Book of the Church’ (London 1826) p 8 Google Scholar.

33 Book I, p 94.

34 Ibid 2, p 283.

35 Ibid p 288.

36 [The Book of the] Roman-Catholic Church [: in a series of letters addressed to Robt Southey, Esq. LL.D on his ‘Book of the Church”] (London 1825). This whole controversy has been largely ignored, but is briefly surveyed in John, Hunt, Religious Thought in England in the Nineteenth Century (London 1896) pp 80-1Google Scholar.

37 [John, Merlin (anagram for Milner),] Strictures [on the Poet Laureate’s Book of the Church] (London 1824)Google Scholar.

38 Lingard to his publisher Joseph Mawman, 14 February 1824; Haile and Bonney p 204.

39 Southey, , Life, 5, pp 165-6Google Scholar; [Kenneth], Curry, [New Letters of Robert Southey] 2 vols (New York 1965) 2, p 264 Google Scholar.

40 Butler declares ‘that “The Book of the Roman Catholic Church”, has been a subject of regular criticism in THE BRITISH CRITIC,—BRITISH REVIEW,—BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE,—THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER,—QUARTERLY REVIEW,—QUARTERLY THEOLOGICAL REVIEW,—WESTMINSTER REVIEW, and probably in some journals which I have not seen’: these publications were mostly tory. Charles, Butler, Vindication of ’The Book of the Roman Catholic Church’ (London 1826) p lxxi Google Scholar.

41 Milman, [H. H.], [‘The Reformation in England’,] Quarterly Review 33 (December 1825) pp 1–37 Google Scholar. For identification of authorship, see The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900 3 vols (Toronto 1966-1979) I, p 704.

42 Geoffrey, Best, ‘The Protestant Constitution and its Supporters, 1800-1829’, TRHS fifth series, 8 (1958) p 105 Google Scholar.

43 Southey, , Life, 5, p 137 Google Scholar.

44 C. J. Blomfield to Lyttelton, 22 June 1825, in Alfred, Blomfield (ed) [A Memoir of Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London with selections from his correspondence] 2 vols (London 1863) I, p 125 Google Scholar.

45 Roman Catholic Church, pp iv, vi.

46 Ibid p 3.

47 Ibid p 112.

48 Ibid pp 121-4.

49 Ibid p iv.

50 Ibid p 9.

51 Ibid p 11: catholics are not required to believe in any miracles, save those in which protestants also believe, because they are recorded in scripture.

52 Ibid pp 37-49.

53 Strictures, pp 25 seq.

54 [Rev Henry], Philipotts, [Letters to Charles Butler, Esq., on the Theological Parts of his ‘Book of the Roman Catholic Church,’ with remarks on certain works of Dr. Milner, and Dr. Lingard, and on some parts of the evidence of Dr. Doyle before the two Committees of the Houses of Parliament] (London 1825) p 2 Google Scholar.

55 Curry 2, pp 278-9.

56 ‘A Munster Farmer’, Captain Rock Detected (London 1824).

57 Curry 2, pp 279, 291.

58 Butler to Kirk, 6 August 1825, A[rchdiocesan] A[rchives of] W[estminster].

59 Ibid.

60 (London 1826).

61 An Apology fir the Church of England, by the Right Reverend John Jewel, D.D., Lord Bishop of Salisbury. Faithfully translated from the original Latin. To which is prefixed a memoir of his life and writings, and a preliminary discourse on the doctrine and discipline of the Church of Rome; in reply to some observations of C. Butler, Esq., addressed to Dr. Southey, on his ‘Book of the Church’ (London 1825)

62 See ‘Henry John Todd’ in DNB.

63 A Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ . . . By the Most Reverend Thomas Cranmer, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. To which is prefixed an introduction, historical and critical . . . in vindication of the character of the author, and therewith of the Reformation in England, against some of the allegations . . . recently made by the Reverend Doctor Lingard, the Reverend Doctor Milner, and Charles Butler, Esq. (London 1825).

64 Subtitled The second edition, with notices of Dr. Lingard’s and Mr. Butler’s remarks on the first edition (London 1826). Compare the survey of the controversy in The British Critic, 23 (May 1825) pp 449-62.

65 A Reply to Dr. Lingard’s Vindication of his History of England as far as respects Archbishop Cranmer (London 1827).

66 Christopher Wordsworth, King Charles the First the author of Icôn (sic) Basilikè, further proved in a letter to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, in reply to the objections of Dr. Lingard, Mr. Todd, Mr. Broughton, The Edinburgh Review, and Mr. Hallam (Cambridge 1828); compare Todd’s Bishop Gauden the author of Icôn Basilikè, further shewn in answer to the recent remarks of the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth upon a publication of the present writer . . . (London 1829). Compare footnote 18.

67 Ronald, Knox, Literary Distractions (London 1958) pp 114-33Google Scholar; ‘George Townsend’ in DNB.

68 ‘Shute Barrington’ in DNB.

69 See footnote 6.

70 See footnote 54. On Phillpotts’s part in the controversy, see Davies, [G.C.B.], [Henry Phillpotts Bishop of Exeter 1778-1869] (London 1954) pp 59–88 Google Scholar.

71 Henry, Phillpotts, A Supplemental Letter to Charles Butler, Esq. on some parts of the evidence given by the Irish Roman-Catholic Bishops (London 1826)Google Scholar; George, Townsend, Supplementary Letter to Charles Butler, Esq.: in reply to his vindication of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church (London 1826)Google Scholar.

72 Phillpotts p 7.

73 Ibid pp 6-7.

74 Ibid p 321.

75 Charles, Butler, A Letter on the Coronation Oath (London 1827)Google Scholar; Henry, Phillpotts, A Letter to an English Layman, on the Coronation Oath . . . in which are considered the several opinions of Mr. Jeffrey . . . Mr. C. Butler, etc (London 1828)Google Scholar. Compare Davies p 73.

76 Phillpotts pp 231-58. The relevant article is 28.

77 Ibid pp 76-91.

78 Blomfield, C. J., A Letter to Charles Butler, Esq. of Lincoln’s Inn, in vindication of English Protestants from his attack on their sincerity in the ‘Book of the Roman Catholic Church’ (London 1825)Google Scholar. The third edition contains a postscript with a reply to Buder’s reply. Compare Alfred Blomfield, 1, pp 128 seq. Blomfield supported die repeal of the Test and Corporation acts, but not catholic emancipation.

79 A Letter to the Right Reverend C.J. Blomfield, D.D., Bishop of Chester; from Charles Butler, Esq. in vindication of a passage in his ‘Book of the Roman Catholic Church’ censured in a letter addressed to him by his Lordship (London 1825).

80 Phillpotts pp 271-307.

81 ‘From the accession of Elizabeth to the present moment, the Roman Catholics have been divided into two parties; the one who, with some sacrifice of their religious consistency . . . have possessed so much of English loyalty and patriotism as divested their divided allegiance of half its danger . . . the other, who have adhered to the old Popish doctrines in all their uncompromising bigotry . . . ’ Milman p 36.

82 [The life of the Rev. Joseph Blanco White, written by himself], Thom, [J. H.], 3 vols (London 1845) 1 pp 226 Google Scholar, 410-30.

83 Southey to the bishop of Limerick 22 October 1823; Southey, , Life 5, p 147 Google Scholar.

84 David, Newsome, The Parting of Friends (London 1976) pp 66-7Google Scholar, 86-90.

85 Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism, with occasional Strictures on Mr. Butler’s Book of the Roman Catholic Church: in six letters, addressed to the impartial among the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland (London 1825). Also A Letter to Charles Butler, Esq. on his notice of the ‘Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism’ (London 1826).

86 Ibid p vi. White’s rationalism prevailed over his anticatholicism in 1829 to support catholic emancipation, to the disgust of his former allies: Thom 1, pp 453-65.

87 ‘Richard Garnett’, in DNB.

88 The work was all but completed, but never published: apparently because of the depression into which Garnett was plunged by the death of his wife and child. Compare The Philological Essays of the late Rev. R. Gamett, of the British Museum. Edited with a memoir, ed Richard, Garnett (London 1859) pp iv–viii Google Scholar.

89 ‘The apocalypse of the Sister Nativité’, Quarterly Review, 33 (March 1826) pp 375-410.

90 Abbé, Genet, Vie et Révélations de la Soeur de la Nativité [Jeanne le Royer] Religieuse converse au couvent des Urbanistes de Fougeres . . . (Paris 1817)Google Scholar. Southey had met with it ‘by mere chance’ while in Flanders: Curry 2, p 294.

91 Charles, Butler, Reply lo the Article in the Quarterly Review, for March 1826, on the Revelations of La Soeur Nativité (London 1826)Google Scholar.

92 Ibid p 23.

93 Butler to Kirk 4 July 1826, AAW.

94 Ward 3, pp 101-4.

95 Berington to Butler 24 December 1824, Archdiocesan Archives of Birmingham.

96 ‘I know not what people mean in saying, that Merlin’s reply to Southey is a complete failure ... If he (Butler) succeed as well, I shall be satisfied . . .’ Berington to Kirk 5 November 1824, AAW.

97 Ward, W. R., Religion and Society in England 1790-1850 (London 1972)Google Scholar.

98 Husenbeth, F. C., Defence of the Creed and Discipline of the Catholic Church, against the Rev.J. Blanco White’s ‘Poor Man’s Preservative against Popery’: with notice of every thing important in the same writer’s Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism (London 1826)Google Scholar.

99 Faber, G. S., The Difficulties of Romanism (London 1826)Google Scholar; Husenbeth, F. C., A Reply to the Rev. G. S. Faber’s Supplement to his Difficulties of Romanism (Norwich 1829)Google Scholar; The difficulties of Faberism (London 1829); Faberism Exposed and Refuted: and the Apostolicity of Catholic Doctrine Vindicated (Norwich 1836)

100 The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, 8 vols (editions London 1841, 1843-9, 1853-70). The work spawned a further controversy with Maitland, S. R.: Notes on the contributions of the Revd. George Townsend . . . to the new edition of Fox’s Martyrology (London, 1841-42)Google Scholar; and Townsend’s Remarks on the errors of Mr. Maitland . . . (Durham 1842).