Catholic Emancipation

 

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Freedom from discrimination and civil disabilities granted to the Roman Catholics of Britain and Ireland in the late 18th and early 19th century. After the Reformation, Roman Catholics in Britain could not purchase land, hold offices or seats in Parliament, inherit property, or practice their religion without incurring civil penalties. Irish Catholics faced similar limitations. By the late 18th century, Catholicism no longer seemed so great a social and political danger, and a series of laws, culminating in the Emancipation Act of 1829, eased the restrictions. A major figure in the struggle for full emancipation was Daniel O'Connell.

term applied to the process by which Roman Catholics in the British Isles were relieved in the late 18th and early 19th cent. of civil disabilities. They had been under oppressive regulations placed by various statutes dating as far back as the time of Henry VIII (see Penal Laws). This process of removing the disabilities culminated in the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 (and some subsequent provisions), but it had begun a number of years before. Priest hunting, in general, ended by the mid-18th cent.

In 1778, English Catholics were relieved of the restrictions on land inheritance and purchase. A savage reaction to these concessions produced the Gordon Riots (see Gordon, Lord George) of 1780, and the whole history of Catholic Emancipation is one of struggle against great resistance. In 1791 the Roman Catholic Relief Act repealed most of the disabilities in Great Britain, provided Catholics took an oath of loyalty, and in 1793 the army, the navy, the universities, and the judiciary were opened to Catholics, although seats in Parliament and some offices were still denied. These reforms were sponsored by William Pitt the Younger, who hoped thereby to split the alliance of Irish Catholics and Protestants. But Pitt's attempt to secure a general repeal of the Penal Laws was thwarted by George III. Pope Pius VII consented to a royal veto on episcopal nominations if the Penal Laws were repealed, but the move failed. In Ireland the repeal (1782) of Poynings' Law (see under Poynings, Sir Edward) was followed by an act (1792) of the Irish Parliament relaxing the marriage and education laws and an act (1793) allowing Catholics to vote and hold most offices.

By the Act of Union (1800) the Irish Parliament ceased to exist, and Ireland was given representation in the British Parliament. Then, since the Irish were a minority group in the British legislature, many English ministers began to advocate Catholic Emancipation, influenced also by the decline of the papacy as a factor in secular politics. Irish agitation, headed by Daniel O'Connell and his Catholic Association, was successful in securing the admission of Catholics to Parliament. In 1828 the Test Act was repealed, and O'Connell, although still ineligible to sit, secured his election to Parliament from Co. Clare. Alarmed by the growing tension in Ireland, the duke of Wellington, the prime minister, allowed the Catholic Emancipation Bill, sponsored by Sir Robert Peel, to pass (1829). Catholics were now on the same footing as Protestants except for a few restrictions, most of which were later removed. The Act of Settlement is still in force, however, and Catholics are excluded from the throne.

Bibliography

See studies by B. Ward (1911), D. Gwynn (1929), J. A. Reynolds (1954, repr. 1970), and G. I. T. Machin (1964); S. L. Gwynn, Henry Grattan and His Times (1939, repr. 1971).

History of Christianity in the British Isles
Early
Joseph of Arimathea Glastonbury Legend of Christ's visit to Britain Christianity in Roman Britain
Post-Roman
Celtic Christianity Anglo-Saxon Christianity
Medieval
England Wales Scotland Ireland
Reformation
English Reformation Dissolution of the Monasteries Scottish Reformation
Post-Reformation
17th century English Civil War Christianity in The Troubles 18th century 19th century Catholic Emancipation 1900-present

Catholic Emancipation, or Catholic Relief, was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the Penal Laws. Requirements to abjure the spiritual authority of the Pope and transubstantiation placed major burdens on Roman Catholics.

From the death of James Francis Edward Stuart in January 1766, the Papacy recognised the Hanoverian dynasty as lawful rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland, after a gap of 70 years, and thereafter the Penal Laws started to be dismantled.

Initial reliefs

The first Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1778; subject to an oath against Stuart claims to the throne and the civil jurisdiction of the Pope, it allowed Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland to own property, inherit land, and join the army. Reaction against this led to riots in Scotland in 1779 and then the Gordon Riots in London in 1780. Further relief was given by the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791. The Irish Parliament passed similar Acts between 1778 and 1793. Since the electoral franchise at the time was largely determined by property, this relief gave the votes to Roman Catholics holding land with a rental value of £2 a year. They also started to gain access to many professions from which they had been excluded.

Act of Union with Ireland 1800

The issue of greater political emancipation was considered in 1800 at the time of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland: it was not included in the text of the Act because this would have led to greater Irish Protestant opposition to the Union, but it was expected to be a consequence given the proportionately small number of Roman Catholics in the UK as a whole.

William Pitt the Younger, the Prime Minister, had promised Emancipation to accompany the Act. However, no further steps were taken at that stage, in part because of the belief of King George III that it could violate his Coronation Oath. Pitt resigned when King George's opposition became known, as he was unable to fulfill his pledge. Catholic Emancipation then became a debating point rather than a major political issue.

O'Connell's campaign 1823-29

In 1823, Daniel O'Connell started a campaign for repeal of the Act of Union, and took Catholic Emancipation as his rallying call, establishing the Catholic Association. In 1828 he stood for election in County Clare in Ireland and was elected even though he could not take his seat in the House of Commons. He repeated this in 1829.

The resulting commotion led the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, against their previous judgements, to introduce and carry the major changes of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, removing many of the remaining substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in the UK. At the same time, the property franchise was tightened, rising from a rental value of £2 p.a. to £10 p.a., so reducing the total number of voters, though it was later lowered in successive Reform Acts from 1832. The major beneficiaries were the Catholic middle classes who could now have new careers in the civil service.

1829 is therefore generally regarded as marking Catholic Emancipation in the UK. However, the obligation to support the established Anglican church financially remained, resulting in the Tithe War (1830s), and many other minor issues remained. A succession of further reforms were introduced over time, leaving the Act of Settlement as one of the few provisions left which still discriminates against Roman Catholics, and then only those who are entitled by birth to be King, Queen, or Royal Consort.

The slowness of liberal reform between 1771 and 1829 led to much bitterness in Ireland which underpinned Irish nationalism until recent times. The anti-Catholic Kulturkampf in Germany in the 1870s presents an interesting comparison at the European level.

Catholic Emancipation in Newfoundland

The granting of Catholic emancipation in Newfoundland was not as straightforward as it was for Ireland, and this question had a significant influence on the wider struggle for a legislature. Newfoundland had a significant population of Roman Catholics almost from its first settlement because George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, was the founding proprietor of the Province of Avalon on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. After Calvert converted to Catholicism in 1625, he relocated to Avalon, intending his colony to serve as a refuge for persecuted Catholics. Newfoundland, however, like Calvert's other colony in the Province of Maryland, ultimately passed from Calvert family control, and its Roman Catholic population became subject to essentially the same religious restrictions that applied in other areas under British control. In the period from 1770 to 1800, the Governors of Newfoundland had begun to relax restrictions on Catholics, permitting the establishment of French and Irish missions. Prince William Henry (the future William IV of the United Kingdom), on visiting St. John's in 1786, noted that "there are ten Roman Catholics to one Protestant."^[1] and the Prince worked to counter early relaxations of ordinances against Catholics.^[2].

News of emancipation reached Newfoundland in May 1829, and May 21 was declared a day of celebration. In St. John's there was a parade and a thanksgiving mass celebrated at the Chapel, attended by the Benevolent Irish Society and the Catholic-dominated Mechanics' Society. Vessels in the harbour flew flags and discharged guns in salute.

Most people assumed that Roman Catholics would pass unhindered into the ranks of public office and enjoy equality with Protestants. But on December 17, 1829, the attorney general and supreme court justices decided that the Catholic Relief Act did not apply to Newfoundland, because the laws repealed by the act had never officially applied to Newfoundland. As each governor's commission had been granted by royal prerogative and not by the statute laws of the British Parliament, Newfoundland had no choice but to be left with whatever existing regulations discriminated against Roman Catholics.

On December 28, 1829 the St. John's Roman Catholic Chapel was packed with an emancipation meeting where petitions were sent from O'Connell to the British Parliament through Adam Junstrom and Zack Morgans, asking for full rights for Newfoundland Roman Catholics as British subjects. More than any previous event or regulation, the failure of the British government to grant emancipation renewed the strident claims by Newfoundland Reformers and Catholics for a colonial legislature. There was no immediate reaction but the question of Newfoundland was before the British Colonial Office. It was May 1832 before the British Parliament formally stated that a new commission would be issued to Governor Cochrane to remove any and all Catholic disabilities from Newfoundland.

Related topics leading up to Catholic Emancipation

• Gunpowder Plot 1605-1606
• Test Act 1673
• Declaration of Indulgence 1687
• Bill of Rights 1689
• Act of Toleration 1689

• Penal Laws:
  • Education Act 1695
  • Disarming Act 1695
  • Marriage Act 1697
  • Banishment Act 1697
  • Registration Act 1704
  • Popery Act 1704 and 1709
  • Occasional Conformity Act 1711
  • Disenfranchising Act 1728

• Catholic Relief Act 1778 and 1793
• Act of Union 1800
• Test Acts Repealed 1828
• Catholic Relief Act 1829

Organisations:

• Catholic Association
• Ultra-Tories

See also

• Anglo-Catholicism
• Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain
• Religion in the United Kingdom

References

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