In the Protestant countries of Europe the Roman Catholic Church has been greatly benefited since the beginning of the 19th century by the progress of relig- ious toleration. The laws impeding the free exercise of the Roman Catholic form of worship, or its self-gov- ernment, were quite generally repealed, or fell, at least, into disuse. Thus congregations were reorganized in Sweden, Norivai/, and Denmark, where the Church had been almost extinct since the l(5th century, and vicars apostolic were appointed as an initial step towards the reconstruction of dioceses. — In J/ol/and, where the Church had been for two hundred years without a hie- rarchical organization, although it had not ceased to
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have a considerable Catholic population, the constitu- tion of 1848 proclaimed the principle of religious liberty. Thus even the Jesuits were allowed to return, and in 1853 the Catholic hierarcliy was re-established by the erection of one archbishopric and four bishoprics. — In Great Britain the government had to yield, in 1829, to the agitation of the Irish Catholics for equal political rights, and to open both houses of Parliament to its Catholic subjects. This was followed by the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in 18.i0, in which year pope Pius IX divided the kingdom into one archbishopric and twelve bishoprics. The ancient hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church had become extinct in 1585, by the death of bishop Goldwell of St. Asaph. In Scot- land, when the ancient hierarchy had become extinct by the death of archbishop Betoun of Glasgow, in IGOl, the hierarchy was established by pope Leo XIII, who in 1878 established two arclibishoprics and four bishop- rics. As Ireland at the time of the Catholic emancipa- tion numbered alone seven millions of Roman Catholics, and a tide of Irish emigration filled the cities of Eng- land and Scotland with a large Catholic population, the Catholic Church appeared at home and abroad as a great power; and the number of churches, of priests, and Catholic institutions rapidly increased. The indig- nation felt among Protestants at this revival of the Church of Rome induced Parliament, in 1851, to adopt a resolution declaring all papal edicts, and all jurisdic- tions, ranks, or titles created by them, null and void; and fining everj- person who, without legal authority, accepted any ecclesiastical title derived from the name of any place in the kingdom. But the new Catholic bishops knew how to evade the laws; and the liberal tendency of English legislation gave to the Roman Catholics a position which even Roman Catholic writ- ers have often praised as the most favorable in Europe. The hopes awakened by this restoration for the future of Roman Catholicism in England were greatly strength- ened by a movement within the Established Church of England, which aimed at a revival of the Catholic ele- ments of this Church. Under the leadership of Pusey and Newman, this movement — sometimes called the Ox- ford movement because it had its chief centre in Oxford — gradually developed tendencies to Roman Catholicism and led a considerable number of graduates of English universities over to the Church of Rome. Among the new Catholics were many men of great reputation, in- fluence, and wealth. The most prominent were. Dr. Henry Newman, one of the leaders of the movement, who, as superior of the religious order of the Oratorians (consisting almost wholly of former members of the An- glican Church), as rector of the Catholic University of Dublin, and by a number of literary works, displayed a great activity for the Roman Catholic Church, and, as a reward for his services, was raised, in 1879, to the car- dinalate; archbishop Manning of Westminster, created cardinal in 1875; the marquis of Bute, one of the rich- est noblemen of the United Kingdom ; the marquis of Kipon, a prominent English statesman and member of the Privy Council. The number of Anglican clergy- men, members of the nobility, and literary persons who, since the beginning of the Oxford movement, have join- ed the Roman Catholic Church exceeds one thousand. By these accessions the Church has received a higher social standing and a greater influence upon English society than it had before. This is especially apparent in the colonies, where the government recognises the power of the Catholic bishops and missionaries to co- operate for the confirmation of the English rule, and is willing to secure this co-operation by favors and con- cessions. It is, however, a noteworthy fact that, in spite of all the accessions to the Church from the high- er ranks of English society, the total Catholic popula- tion shows not only no notable progress, but the esti- mates by the most careful statisticians give even lower figures for it than were assumed some ten j-ears ago. This would indicate that the losses sustained by the
Church, especially among the lower classes of the pop- ulation, must, at least, eipial in number the gains.