Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/655

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children unprovided for. Manning, in the first year of his episcopate, put the figures at 20,000, and saw that the difficulty could only be overcome by continual and organized etfort . With this end in view, he estab- lished the Westminster Diocesan Education Fund in 1866. The success of the new undertaking was all that he desired. Some fourteen years later he was able to say: "The work for the poor children may be said to be done . . . There is school room for all". A critical moment for Catholic education in England was caused by the passing of the Education Act of 1S70, which estabhshed the School Boards. It was met by the crisis fimd, started by the Commit- tee under Lord Howard of Glossop, which eventually provided accommodation for 70,000 children at a cost of £350,000.

For the higher education of the laity, Manning, even as early as 1S64, considered that something in the nature of a Catholic University was necessary and feasible. For a moment he had entertained the idea of an academy for young laymen in Rome. But at the Pro%anciaI Council of 1873, he returned to the plan of a college of higher studies in London, under the control of the bishops of the province. In 1S74 a Catholic University College was opened at Kensing- ton, and, much against Manning's wishes, a Senate was established to represent the dioceses, colleges, and laity of England. Men of distinction, including Prof. Barfl, Dr. Mivart, Father Clarke, Air. Gordon Thompson, Mr. Paley, and Mr. Seagar, were appointed to act as professors under the rectorship of Mgr. Capel. The college proved a failure. After costing the cardi- nal £10,000 it was eventually united to St. Charles's College (started by the Oblates in 1863 and trans- ferred to a new site in 1874) as a higher department. ALanning then reconciled himself to "the postpone- ment of any college for higher studies to an indefinite future". Cardinal Manning had all through his life the education of the clergy much at heart. In 1S66 he undertook the reorganization of the English Col- lege, Rome, and arranged for the nomination of one of the Oblates of St. Charles as rector. In 1869 he transferred the students in theology from Ware to Hammersmith, where he began what he considered "a true Tridentine Seminarv". New buildings were erected by 1884 at a total cost of £37,000. Dr. Weathers was rector until it was closed in 1892. He became bishop auxihary to Cardinal Manning in 1872, and died in 1S9.5 in his eighty-first jear.

Meanwhile the development of the diocese, begun under Wiseman, was maintained. New missions were founded; and ten churches built, two of them being amongst the principal churches of the diocese, viz., the pro-cathedral at Kensington, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1867, and the Brompton Oratory, which was consecrated in 1884. The devel- opment of the missions was facilitated by the growth in the nimibers of the clergy during Cardinal Man- ning's episcopate from 21.5 to 3.S8. In managing the business of the diocese, the cardinal relied greatly on his vicar-general, Mgr. Gilbert, founder of the Provi- dence Row Night Refuge. Mgr. Gilbert was provost of the Chapter at the time of the cardinal's death, and his name was put on the lerna then submitted to Rome.

In matters of social reform Cardinal Manning was one of the leading men of the time. The foundation of the League of the Cross did more than any prohibi- tive legislation could for the promotion of temperance amongst the masses. He played an active part in the Royal Commi.ssion appointed in 1884 to enquire into the question of housing the working classes. (It was on this occa.sion that the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward ^^I, decided that "the name of the Cardinal should appear immediately after his own" in the list of conimi.ssioners.) Mansion House committees might always count on his active support in anj' chari-


table undertaking. He warmly espoused the cause of labour. The energy, insight, and skill which he dis- played in imposing "the Cardinal's peace" on masters and men alike at the end of the Dock Strike of 1889 will not be easily forgotten. The Fourth Provincial Council of Westminster was held at St. Edmund's College in 1873. Archbishop Manning was made a cardinal in 1875, with the title of Sts. Andrew and Gregory on the Coclian Hill. Within the next four years, two other eminent E'.nghsh ecclesiastics were admitted to the Sacred College: Edward Howard and John Henry Newman.

C. Cardinal Manning died 14 Jan., 1892, and was succeeded by Herbert Vaughan, Bishop of Salford, who became cardinal-priest with the title of Sts. Andrew and Gregory on the Ca'Uan Hill, in Jan., 1893. The foundation of St. Joseph's Society for Foreign Mission: md his work in the Diocese of Sal- ford pointed him out as the man most eminently suited for the See of Westminster. He had the same educational problems to face as Cardinal Manning, though under different conditions. The problem of the education of the clergy in England he thought could only be solved by "the concentration of labour and resources into one or two central seminaries". He therefore closed the seminary at Hammersmith, and, with the co-operation of seven bishops of southern and midland dioce.ses, converted Oscott into a central seminary. To give facihtics for the higher education of the laity, he removed the prohibition against atten- dance at the national universities and formed the Universities Board. St. Edmund House was also opened at Cambridge for ecclesiastical students. All through Cardinal Vaughan's time the struggle for the better education of the poor continued, until the pa.ssing of the F^ducation Bill of 1902, which placed existing denominational schools on an equality in maintenance with the Board schools.

As a result of an inquiry instituted in 1896, the car- inal found that there were 1720 destitute Catholic children in non-Catholic homes. These agencies made no attempt to disguise their purpose: charity was given on the one condition that the faith of the children was sacrificed. The cardinal saw that he must take steps to provide a home for every Catholic child who was really destitute. He therefore founded the Crusade of Rescue. In 1901 the care of the rescue work was transferred to Father Bans, who had for some years been in charge of the homes for destitute children started bv Rev. Lord Archibald Douglas in 18.59. The work has prospered, until to-day (1912) the society provides for 1000 children at a cost of £16,000 a year.

The chief and closing event of the episcopate of Cardinal Vaughan was the erection of Westminster Cathedral, of which the first stone was laid, 29 June, 1895. Owing to its special function and scope, this foundation may truly be said to have marked a new epoch in the fife of the Catholic Church in England. In it the cardinal reaUzed a project which he had deeply at heart, namely that the cathedral of the chief metropolitan see .should be not only a large and stately building, but one in which should be revived the cathe- dral life and work as in Cathohc times, according to the Church's ideal, and in which, as the "House of Prayer", the voice of the Church in the daily round of her Divine Office and sacred liturgy should ascend continually to God in thank.sgiving and intercession on behalf of the people. .Ml this he was wont to express by .saying that it must be "a live cathedral". For this purpose, he obtained j)ermissionfrom the Holy See that the number of the canons of the metropolitan chapter should be increased from twelve to eighteen, and as these are for the most part non-resident, he made provision for a body of eighteen cathedral vicars or ch.aplains, whose main duty is the celebration of the daily High Mass and the choral recitation