CHAPTER X
OPPOSITION AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND
The struggle of Catholic versus Ultramontane in the Roman Communion in England finds forcible expression in the famous letter of the distinguished Roman Catholic layman, Sir John Throgmorton, in 1790:—
"He laid stress," says a Roman writer, "on the fact that ever since the day of Pius V.'s excommunication of Elizabeth, 'the English Catholics have been divided into two parties. The "Papistic" party, on the one hand, upheld and maintained all the pretensions of the Court of Rome, and were supported by all the influence of that Court, sometimes by briefs from the Popes themselves. … The other party consisted and still consists of the descendants of the old Catholic families, and a respectable portion of the clergy who, true to the religion of their ancestors, have uniformly … protested against the usurped authority of the Court of Rome.' He denied that the original cause of the difference—the question whether or no the Pope had the power to depose sovereigns—represented adequately the distinction between the two parties. The deposing power was no longer maintained by any one; but the 'Papistic' party still remained, and taught the Infallibility of the Pope and urged all his claims. He called on English Catholics to dissociate themselves from this party and its teaching."[1]
- ↑ Quoted in W. Ward's Life of Wiseman, i. p. 513.
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