VAUGHAN
314
VAUGHAN
the bishop issued a pubUc challenge to the Protestant
philanthropic societies of the city. Their plea for
accepting and detaining Catholic children in their
institutions was that the children were destitute.
Bishop Vaughan himself boldly undertook to main-
tain every destitute Catholic child in Manchester and
SaKord. Pubhc opinion instantly sided with the
bishop. In some cases, however, the societies were
obdurate, and time after time the law courts had to
vindicate the right of poor Catholic parents to recover
the guardianship of their own children. One by one
the Protestant institutions were emptied of their
Catholic inmates.
A greater task remained. The whole workhouse system of Lancashire had to be changed. In the year 1886 it was found that there were over 1000 CathoUc children in the fourteen workhouses of Manchester and the neighbourhood and that, on the average, 103 Catholic children left the workhouse schools every year. The bishop's report showed that SO per cent of these were lost to the Catholic Church. It was no part of the duty of the Lancashire guardians when they placed these children out in service to take care that they were placed in Catholic families. The bishop did not blame the guardians. The faith of a workhouse child, always part of a timid minority, was generally weak and was easily lost amid new Prot- estant surroundings. At that time London was far ahead of Lancashire in the fairness of its treatment of Catholic Poor Law children. In Middlesex it was already the custom to hand over CathoUc children to Catholic Certified Homes with an agreed sum for their maintenance. In Lancashire there were no CathoHc Certified Homes for the children. To create such homes the bishop knew would require a vast sum, but his faith in the inexhaustible charity of his people was once more justified. Two great homes were quickly provided and in each case tlie certificate of the Local Government Board was obtained. There remained the task of persuading the Boards of Guardians to utilize the opportunity now brought to their doors. It was a strong card in the bishop's hand that he could promise that every child handed over to a Catholic Home should cost the guardians considerably less than if it stayed in the workhouse. The more economical working of the Catholic Homes was, of course, due to the fact that the members of the religious orders who managed them gave their services without payment. Finally, homes were provided for CathoUc waifs and strays of whatever sort, whether they came within the reach of the Poor Law or not. Before the bishop left Salford the Rescue and Protection Society had caught up with its work and was fairly abreast with the evil. It is possible even for one who WTites under the shadow of Westminster Cathedral, and remembers St. Bede's and the missionary College at Mill Hill, to think that it was then Cardinal Vaughan achieved the greatest work of his life.
Cardinal Manning died on 14 January, 1892. There never was any doubt in the public mind as to who would succeed him. Vaughan faced the prospect with something like dismay. He thought the day of his strength was nearly done, and that at sixty he was too old to be transplanted to the new world of West- minster. He wrote privately to the pope protesting that he was better fitted to be a Lancashire bishop than the English metropolitan Rome gave no heed to the letter, and Vaughan was appointed Archbishop of Westminster on 29 Marcli, 1S92. In May he was enthroned, in August he received the sacred paUium, and in December he knew that he was to be made a cardinal. He received the red hat from the hands of Leo XIII on 9 .lanuary, 1893, with the pres- byterial title of Sts. Andrew and Gregory on the C;rlian. One of the fir.st works to which the arch- bishop set his hand was to try to improve the educa- tion of the clergy by uniting all the resources in men
and money of several dioceses for the support of a
central seminary at Oscott. In the autumn of 1894
he took steps to reverse the poUcy which had sought
to prevent CathoUc parents from sending their sons
to the universities of 0.xford and Cambridge. The
bishop's prohibition was being disregarded and
evaded, and he thought it better that it should be
withdrawn, and steps taken to secure for the CathoUc
undergraduates such safeguards for their faith in the
way of chaplains and special courses of lectures
as the circumstances would allow. He lived long
enough to be assured that the change for which he
was responsible had been completelj' successful.
During the next few years a great deal of the cardi- nal's time and attention was taken up by a con- troversy which arose out of the movement in favour of corporate reunion associated with the name of Lord HaUfax. Representing a smaU fraction of the Anglican body, Lord Halifax and his friends, warmly encouraged by certain French ecclesiastics, thought the way to reconciUation would be made easier if what they caUed a point of contact" could be found which might serve to bring the parties together. It was thought, for instance, that a consideration of the question of Anglican orders might lead to discussion and then to friendly ex-planations on both sides. If an understanrling could be arrived at in regard to the vaUdity of the orders of the English Church, other conferences might be arranged deaUng with more difficult points. The cardinal felt that the subject chosen for discussion was unhappily selected. 'The vaUdity of AngUcan orders was mainly a question of fact, and was not one which admitted of any sort of compromise. Moreover even if the orders of the AngUcan Church were admitted to be vaUd, that body would stiU be as much outside the unity of the Church as the Arians and Nestorians of the past or the Greeks of to-day. However, he was quite wiUing that all the facts of the case should be investi- gated anew — all he insisted on was that the investi- gation should be as thorough as possible and made by a body of historical experts. A strong commission was appointed consisting of Father de Augustinis, S.J., M. I'Abbe Duchesne, Mgr. Gasparri, Abbot Gasquet, O.S.B., Rev. David Fleming, O.S.F., Canon Moyes, Rev. Dr. T. ScanneU, and Rev. Jos6 de Llevaneras. The conmiission held its first confer- ence on 24 March, 1896. When after a series of meetings the process of investigation was finished, the collected evidence was laid before the cai'dinals of the Holy Office, who deUvered judgment on 16 July, 1896, and declared the orders of the Anglican Church to be certainly null and void. This decision was confirmed by the BuH, "Apostolica Sedis", pub- Ushed on the thirteenth of the following September.
When the cardinal came to Westminster he came resolved to build a great cathedral. His predecessor had secured a site, but the site was mortgaged for £20,000, and there was no money for building. Few men ever collected more money than Cardinal Vaughan, though to him it was always "hateful work". In July, 1894, he made his first public appeal for the cathedral. In Jime of the following year the founda- tion stone was laid and the cardinal had £75,000 in the bank. It was a cathedral of no mean propor- tions that he meant to build. Tlie design of Bentley (q. V.) combined the idea of a Roman basilica with the constructive improvements introduced by the Byzantine architects. In Mav, 1899, the building fund stood at £100,848. A lit'tle later the sale of a city church whiih the shifting of the population had made suiierfluous enabled the cardinal, after setting aside l"J0,()(M) for a new church, to add £48,000 to the credit of the cathedral building fund. In June, 1902, he made his last appeal. He asked for another £16,000, and it came. The cathedral was opened for public worship a year later, and Cardinal
