‘The Normal State of the Church’: William Bernard Ullathorne, First Bishop of Birmingham

1 Ullathorne, W. B., History of the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in England (London, 1871), pp. 1–2.

2 Newman’s words in an address of 1871 to Ullathorne, quoted by Butler, C., The Life and Times of Bishop Ullathorne, Volume 2 (London, 1926), p. 194.

3 For Ullathorne’s family life and background see his autobiography and also Kentish, B. L., The Chronicles of an Ancient Yorkshire Family, The Ullithornes or Ullithornes of Sleningford and Some of their descendants (Privately Printed, 1963).

4 Shane Leslie’s 1941 London edition of Ullathorne’s Autobiography, which exists in manuscript at St. Dominic’s Convent, Stone, carries the title: From Cabin-Boy to Archbishop; Leo Madigan, in The Devil is a Jackass, reputedly among Ullathorne’s last words, provides (Bath, 1995) the latest edition. The first published version (London, 1891) is heavily edited.

5 Butler, I, p. 21.

6 Ibidem.

7 Bellenger, D. A., The French Exiled Clergy in the British Isles after 1789 (Bath, 1986), pp. 83–90.

8 Butler, op. cit., I, p. 25.

9 Archives of the Venerable English College, Rome, Ben VIII, I, Birdsall to Wiseman, 15 August 1829.

10 Butler, op. cit., I, p. 71.

11 Hughes, Robert, The Fatal Shore (London, 1987) suggests that Ullathorne exaggerated the problems to increase State support of the Church, for example, p. 265.

12 Butler, op. cit., I, p. 84.

13 The Oscotian (Ullathorne Number) 1886, p. 37.

14 Champ, J. F., ‘A Different Kind of Monk: William Ullathorne’ English Benedictine History Symposium 5 (1985). pp. 5–13.

15 The Oscotian, 1886, p. 36.

16 Bellenger, D. A., Fathers in Faith The Western District (1685–1888), (Bath, 1991).

17 Norman, E., The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1984) especially pp. 79–80 and 95–6.

18 For the building see Pevsner, N., Buildings of England North Somerset and Bristol (Harmondsworth, 1958) p. 388 . The building, according to his printed Pastoral Letter of 1847 was to be ‘the episcopal church’ (p.8) and he intended to divide Bristol and Clifton into 5 missionary districts (Ibidem, pp. 6–7).

19 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 189.

20 Ibidem, p. 159.

21 Guy, R. E., (ed), The Synods in English (Stratford-on-Avon, 1886), especially pp. 41–97 , which provides a summary of the decisions made in Ullathorne’s episopacy.

22 Ibidem, pp. 98–9. The continuing dependence on Propaganda Fide, the limited powers of Cathedral chapters and the status of parish clergy militated against a full restoration of ‘a normal state’. Petitions came from some clergy to restore a proper status for the clergy. See discussion by Mullett, M. in ‘John Lingard in Context’, in A Catholic of the Englightenment, ed by Hilton, J. A., (Wigan, 1999), p. 18.

23 Kiernan, R. H., The Story of the Archdiocese of Birmingham (Birmingham, n.d. but probably 1950).

24 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 152.

25 Ibidem, I, p. 171.

26 Champ, J. F., ‘The Crown of the Diocesan Structure’. Ullathorne, W. B. and the Founding of the Seminary, in Oscott College 1838–1988 (Oscott, 1988), pp. 93–105.

27 Mclnally, Mary, ‘St. Bernard’s Seminary, Olton’, in Champ, Oscott College, op. cit., pp. 107–26.

28 St. Dominic’s Convent, Stone, Archives (G/ULL/V/2.1), Status Animarum of Birmingham Diocese (1856).

29 Butler op. cit, I, p. 313.

30 Champ, J. F., ‘William Bernard Ullathorne and John Henry Newman’, The Oscotian 6 (1988/9), p. 5.

31 Butler, C., The Vatican Council, The Story told from inside in Bishop Ullathorne's Letters, 2 Volumes (London, 1930).

32 Ullathorne, W. B., The Present State of Rome (Birmingham, 1862).

33 Ullathorne, W. B., The Speech on the Question of the Pontifical States (London and Birmingham, 1860), p. 23.

34 Ibidem, Pastoral Letter (Birmingham, 1869) p. 3.

35 Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives, B4796.

36 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 75.

37 Quoted by Cwiekowski, F. J., The English Bishops and the First Vatican Council (Louvain, 1971), p. 31n.

38 Butler, op. cit., II, p. 152.

39 Quoted by Norman, op. cit., p. 165.

40 See note one above. Ullathorne retained a great sense of ‘discipline’, law, and order throughout his life (obituary in The Downside Review 8 (1889), pp. 71–81 especially pp. 76–7.