Tag Archive | Religion

The Microcosm of London or London in Miniature: The Roman Catholic Chapel

published by Rudolph Ackermann in 3 volumes, 1808–1811.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL

LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.

The annexed print is a very accurate and interesting view of this celebrated chapel: the general effect of the architecture is simple and agreeable. There is a singularity in the pillars; those in the second range in the galleries do not stand perpendicularly upon those under them, but are removed a little more backward: this is mentioned to account for the singular appearance they have in the view, and which might otherwise have been supposed to have proceeded from some error in the artist: in truth, the perspective in this, as in every production of Mr. Pugin’s, is always accurate, and conducted with real taste and elegance. The various groups of figures are designed with great spirit, and are highly characteristic of the groups we usually meet with in a Catholic chapel: the general effect of light and shade is broad and simple; the principal light being thrown upon the altar is highly judicious, and is productive of the happiest effect: the picture by Rigaud is in his best style, and the other decorations of the altar are extremely elegant.

The Catholic Chapel in Duke-street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was first opened in the reign of James II. and has continued ever since, with very little interruption, as a place of worship for the Catholics.

In the year 1762 it was burned down by accident, and soon after the present structure was erected, at the expence of the King of Sardinia, from a plan by Signor Jean Baptist Jaque, an amateur of architecture, and secretary of Count Vizi, the Sardinian envoy to the British court.

His Sardinian majesty was at all the expence of this chapel till he lost Savoy and Piedmont by the French revolution: at present it is principally supported by voluntary contributions.

The dreadful riots. of June 1780, were produced by the misguided zeal of Lord George Gordon, who having held out to the populace, that the church was in danger from an act which was passed, affording some relief to the Catholics, called a meeting of the Protestants in St. George’s Fields; and they, to the number of fifty thousand, signed a petition for the repeal of the act, and a 2 went in a body, with Lord George Gordon at their head, to present their petition to the House of Commons: they called themselves The Protestant Association. These people, though perhaps mistaken, were however generally respectable and orderly; but the cry of “No Popery” had spread among the lower orders of the people, who, incited by a set of abandoned and desperate wretches, involved the metropolis in all the horrors of anarchy and disorder.

Ignatius Sancho, in his letters, gives a very lively and animated description of that dreadful period. On the 2d of June, the day appointed for the consideration of the wished-for repeal. Lord North just got to the house a quarter of an hour before the associators arrived in Palace-yard. By the evening there were at least an hundred thousand poor, miserable, ragged rabble, from twelve to sixty years of age, with blue cockades in their hats, besides half as many women and children, all parading the streets, the bridge, and the park, ready for any and every mischief. Lord Sandwich was wounded by them, but was rescued by the guards. A large party of them went about two in the afternoon to visit the king and queen, and entered the park for that purpose, but found the guard too numerous to be forced, and after some useless attempts, gave it up. The Catholic Chapel, the subject of this article, was attacked by the mob and materially injured: with much other valuable property, they destroyed a fine-toned organ, and a very fine altar-piece, painted by Casali: the Sardinian ambassador offered live hundred guineas to the rabble, to save the picture and the organ; but they told him, they would burn him if they could get at him, and instantly destroyed them both.

These dreadful scenes continued to disgrace the metropolis till the 9th of June, when the rioters were suppressed, after having destroyed the premises of Mr. Langdale, an eminent distiller, on Holborn-Hill; numbers of them miserably perished in the flames, intoxicated to stupefaction with the spirituous liquors, which were set running down the kennels.

The mischief executed by these wicked and infatuated wretches was enormous. The Fleet prison, the Marshalsea, King’s Bench, both compters, and Tothill Fields, with Newgate, were forced open; Newgate partly burned, and three hundred felons, from thence only, let loose upon the world. The King’s Bench also was burned. The insurgents visited the Tower, but found it too strong for them. But so supine and feeble was the government of the city under Braek Kennett, then lord mayor, that the mob succeeded at the Artillery-ground, where they found, and took to their use, five hundred stand of arms. The Bank was threatened, but preserved by a detachment of the guards. Lord Mansfield’s house was completely destroyed; and, to the irreparable loss of learning and science, his valuable library and collection of manuscripts, which had been the labour of many years and great expence to bring together, devoted without mercy to the devouring flames.

The military power at last restored the affrighted capital to order. The obnoxious bill was repealed; many of the rioters were hanged, and Lord George Gordon committed to the Tower: he was afterwards tried and acquitted, hut was put in charge of his friends as a lunatic. It is whimsical, that this hero of the Protestant religion, when he was some years after confined in Newgate for a libel on the Queen of France, turned Jew.

To return to the chapel: it was again restored. The picture was replaced by one painted by John Francis Rigaud, R. A.; it represents Christ taken down from the cross, and is one of the best productions of his pencil. The new organ is much esteemed by connoisseurs; it was built by England.

All the church service, except the sermon, is in Latin. The masses are sung by the choir, which is under the direction of the organist, who is generally the composer of the music performed there. This chapel can boast of having had some of the most eminent British musicians for the directors of the choir, among whom the celebrated Dr. Arne was organist for several years. Mr. Samuel Webbe now holds that situation, a gentleman who is not only eminent for the grave and solemn style of his church music, but has also gained high reputation for the beauty and sprightliness of his lighter compositions.

The present clergy of this chapel are.

Dr. Thomas Rigby,

Rev. Richard Underhill,

Rev. Richard Broderick,

Rev. William Beecham.

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Spotlight On Regency Personage Hannah More

Apr4

Monday’s Lady P episode mentioned Hannah More as having a significant influence on the changing attitudes toward women in the late Georgian/Regency era. Regency readers will recognize the name as being the author of books that many well-meaning Regency mothers assigned their daughters to read while said daughters preferred to indulge themselves with Mrs. Radcliffe’s novels.

Hannah More grew up in a very religious family. Her father taught in a free school and later opened a girls’ school managed by his daughters while he himself managed a boys’ school. Hannah started writing at a young age, beginning with pastoral plays for the young girls at the school to act out, and eventually moving on to London, where her play Percy was a great success at Covent Garden. For several years she enjoyed the social circle of a well-known group of bluestockings (a pejorative term referring to a female intellectual). Her second play, however, was not a success, and after a falling-out with a poet friend, Hannah withdrew from London’s intellectual circles and began to focus on religious and philanthropic works.

As the Regency period advanced and the older generation of politically-active ladies died or became infirm, fewer women involved themselves directly in politics. In 1815 Hannah More wrote a study on St. Paul’s description of the female character, which instructed women to dress themselves modestly and atone for their spiritual weakness by keeping silent and learning from the men. By daring to publish her writing, Hannah was herself breaking these rules, for which she apologized in all of her works.

Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society (1788)
An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World (1790)
Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education (1799)
Hints toward Forming the Character of a Young Princess (1805)
Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1809)
Practical Piety (1811)
Christian Morals (1813)
Character of St. Paul (1815)
Moral Sketches (1819)

In spite of the daunting titles, Hannah’s work outsold all of the authors of the aforementioned novels, and she became a force to be reckoned with, responsible for the sudden popularity of “religion of the heart” and countless conversions to the Evangelical faith.

Women could, of course, become involved in charity work to benefit the poor, and Hannah and her sisters threw themselves into establishing a series of schools in rural areas. The schools taught reading, the Bible, and catechism, as well as sewing and knitting, but not writing, as that was thought to give the poor too much power. Even then, they ran into opposition from the farmers, who feared that too much education would prove the end of agriculture, and from the clergy, who claimed that she was teaching Methodism, a religious movement of the lower classes that was considered dangerous by the established churches.

Along with William Wilberforce, she became a major force in the fight to abolish the slave trade, publishing a poem called Slavery in 1788.

The Pendulum Swings the Other Way

Through her writings and philanthropic work, Hannah More wielded a huge influence on English society, urging people to seek God in their hearts through Bible reading, to live their lives in an orderly and circumspect manner, and to help the poor escape their misery.

For the most part, though, her strictures did not address the moral depravity of the upper classes, where debauchery and excesses continued to rule the behavior of the Prince Regent and his brothers on down. The Evangelical movement did not address the inequalities in English society, but took the position that if God chose someone to be rich or poor, there must be a good reason for it, and the best thing to be done was to be content with one’s circumstances and look toward treasures in heaven. Wilberforce, for all of his efforts to help the poor in Africa, condemned as immoral the formation of unions against unfair employers in England. Easy to say for a man who inherited wealth and married more of it.

Another problem with the Evangelical movement that Hannah More was a part of was when the fight against “worldliness” went to extremes. Just about anything pleasurable was considered “worldly,” including dancing, card playing, and taking country walks on Sundays. By the time Thomas Bowdler had begun altering Shakespeare’s works to make them acceptable for reading in mixed company, the puritanical excesses of the Evangelicals were making them a laughingstock.

In Episode #11, Lady P decries the extremism in English morality. Hannah More’s popularity is proof that her “religion of the heart” was a timely one that many were eager to hear. Taken to extremes, as it was by Wilberforce and other Evangelicals, however, that message becomes lost in a sea of strictures and censorship that incites ridicule and rebellion.

Thanks go to:

Our Tempestuous Day by Carolly Erickson, 1986.