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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
In August 1874, the Marquess of Ripon, until recently a Liberal Cabinet Minister, decided to convert from the Church of England to that of Rome. The Times, which like the rest of the English political world assumed that this ended Ripon's public career, denounced the moral “obliquity” of the man who “has renounced his mental and moral freedom, and has submitted himself to the guidance of the Roman Catholic Priesthood.” In October, the former Prime Minister, William E. Gladstone, asserted in an article on ritualism that the High Church position could not lead to Rome because, among other things, “no one can become her convert without renouncing his moral and mental freedom and placing his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another.” Remonstrances from Catholics (among them Ripon) on the issue of civil loyalty led Gladstone to develop his position fully in a pamphlet in November, The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: A Political Expostulation, which in turn provoked one of the major Church-State controversies of the century. Historians have generally assumed that Ripon's conversion was causally connected with Gladstone's outburst.” It was, but with a difference.
1 The Times, September 5, 1874, p. 8.
2 “Ritual and Ritualism,” Contemporary Review 24 (October 1874): 674.Google Scholar
3 See Altholz, Josef L., “The Vatican Decrees Controversy, 1874-75,” Catholic Historical Review 57 (January 1972): 593–605Google Scholar, and Matthew, H. C. G., “Gladstone, Vaticanism, and the Question of the East,” in Baker, Derek, ed., Studies in Church History 15 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 417-42.Google Scholar
4 Most recently, Machin, G. I. T., Politics and the Churches in Great Britain 1869 to 1921 (Oxford, 1987), p. 80Google Scholar: “Ripon's conversion seems to have let loose the expression of deep feelings which had been smouldering for several years in the hitherto busy statesman.”
5 Wolf, Lucien, Life of the First Marquess of Ripon, 2 vols. (London, 1921), 1: 346-50Google Scholar, in an appendix by Fr. Sebastian Bowden.
6 Ibid., pp. 295-96.
7 MacDougall, Hugh A., The Acton-Newman Relations (New York, 1962), pp. 130-31Google Scholar, citing a copy in British Library Add. MS. 44444.
8 Yonge, Charlotte, Life of John Coleridge Palteson, Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands, 2 vols. (London, 1874)Google Scholar. This High Church book was reviewed by Gladstone, in Quarterly Review 137 (October 1874): 458-92Google Scholar
9 Capes, John Moore, Reasons for Returning to the Church of England (London, 1871)Google Scholar. Capes had converted in 1845, founded and edited the Rambler (1848-57), experienced religious doubt circa 1858 and returned to Anglicanism in protest against the definition of Papal Infallibility. See also his autobiographical novel. To Rome and Back (London, 1873Google Scholar), also read by Gladstone. He eventually returned to Roman Catholicism.
10 Gladstone's diary entry for August 21 reads: “Wrote to Ld Wolverton – Lady Ripon: on the very startling intelligence from her that R. can no longer honestly continue a member of the Church of England” (Matthew, H. C. G., ed., The Gladstone Diaries, 8 [Oxford, 1982], p. 520Google Scholar). This indicates a hasty reply. There may have been a second letter on each side: the entry for August 26th (p. 521) reads: “Wrote !o Marchioness of Ripon (Ehcu).” Perhaps this was the “unkind” letter which was “put in the fire.”
11 Gladstone to Ripon, October 8, 1874, in Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 304.Google Scholar
12 See n. 10. Although Ripon was committed to conversion, he delayed his formal reception so that his first communion might be on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, September 8th. Hence the uncertainty and the delay of the news becoming public until Ripon resigned the Grand Mastership of the Freemasons on September 2nd.
13 The first paragraph of Gladstone's letter does not follow any single clear line of argument, but rather sputters in a spontaneous expression of Gladstone's “stunned” immediate reactions, until he comes to the “absolute duty” of long inquiry, after which it is coherent enough. It is wonderful to see how the recognition of a “duty” can restore Gladstone's purposivencss.
14 He had written to Döllinger on August 10th (Gladstone Diaries, 8: 517Google Scholar).
15 Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 339Google Scholar: “these last four or five years.” On Lady Ripon's uncertainty, see Denholm, Anthony, Lord Ripon 1827-1909 (London, 1982), p. 136 n. 82.Google Scholar
16 This may help in settling a political question, dating Gladstone's definitive Liberalism to about 1859.
17 See Altholz, Josef L., “Gladstone and the Vatican Decrees,” The Historian 25 (May 1963): 312-24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 Gladstone to Acton, January 8, 1870, in Selections from the Correspondence of the First Lord Acton, ed. Figgis, J. N. and Laurence, R. V. (London, 1917), p. 97Google Scholar. Acton put it more strongly: “No man accepting such a code could be a loyal subject, or fit for the enjoyment of political privileges” (Acton to Gladstone, February 16, 1870, ibid., p. 103).
19 Gladstone, W. E., The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: A Political Expostulation (London, 1874), p. 50Google Scholar. During the Council Gladstone sought to have Britain join a proposed démarche of the powers against the definition of Infallibility, but the Cabinet blocked his proposal.
20 Gladstone Diaries, 8: 470Google Scholar. Russell (later Lord Ampthill) had served as British diplomatic agent in Rome before and during Vatican I.
21 The chronology is henceforth based on Gladstone Diaries, 8: 515ff.Google Scholar
22 Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 296.Google Scholar
23 “Prussia and the Vatican,” a series of articles in Macmillan's Magazine from September 1874 monthly to February 1875. See Mrs.Wemyss, Rosslyn, Memoirs and Letters of Sir Robert Morier, 2 vols. (London, 1911), 2: 305.Google Scholar
24 Gladstone to Döllinger, November 1, 1874, British Library Add. MSS. 44140 ff. 310-13. They also discussed the Old Catholics, about whom Gladstone wrote a long memorandum on September 30th (Gladstone Diaries, 8: 530-32Google Scholar), using language which later recurred in his correspondence and pamphlet.
25 Gladstone Diaries, 8: 525.Google Scholar
26 Emly to Ripon, September 29, 1874, cited in Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 297Google Scholar. The best source for Emly's exchange with Gladstone is Dessain, C. S. and Gornal, Thomas, eds., The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, 27 (Oxford, 1975), pp. 123-24, 132-34, 136, 140-42, 145-46.Google Scholar
27 Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 297-99.Google Scholar
28 Gladstone Diaries, 8: 533, October 4, 1874.Google Scholar
29 Gladstone to Ripon, October 4, 1874, in Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 299–305Google Scholar. The letter gives in brief the argument later advanced in Gladstone's pamphlet.
30 Ripon to Gladstone, October 6, 1874, and Gladstone to Ripon, October 8, 1874, in Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 303-05Google Scholar. The latter quotes from Gladstone to Emly, October 6, 1874.
31 Ripon to Gladstone, October 14, 1874, in Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 305-08.Google Scholar
32 Gladstone to Ripon, October 17, 1874, ibid., pp. 308-10. Gladstone's amende honorable to Ripon came when he republished the ritualism article in Gleanings of Past Years (1878) with a note that “some” recent converts would “whether with logical warrant or not, adhere under all circumstances to their civil loyalty and duty” (Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 311Google Scholar).
33 Ripon to Gladstone, October 19, 1874, ibid., p. 310.
34 Emly to Ripon, October 13 and 17, cited in ibid., pp. 310-11. Wolf's assertion that Ripon was satisfied because he had “no further need for anxiety as to his public career” is wide of the mark: Gladstone himself intended to retire from his public career. When Gladstone returned to office in 1880, he showed his confidence in Ripon by making him Viceroy of India.
35 Wolf, , Ripon, 1: 309.Google Scholar
36 Ibid.
37 Gladstone to Acton, October 19, 1874, in Acton Correspondence, p. 45.
38 Gladstone Diaries, 8: 537Google Scholar. Similar entries occur for the next four days.
39 Acton to Gladstone, October 21, 1874, in Acton Correspondence, p. 46.
40 Gladstone to Acton, October 26, 1874, ibid., p. 47.
41 Gladstone to de Lisle, October 24, 1876, in Purcell, E. S., Life and Letters of Ambrose Phillips de Lisle, 2 vols. (London, 1900), 2: 89Google Scholar. Gladstone had visited de Lisle on October 7-9, 1873: (Gladstone Diaries, 8: 398-99Google Scholar). They were both concerned with church reunion.
42 Döllinger to Gladstone, October 24, 1874, British Library Add. MS. 44444 ff. 330-32.
43 Gladstone to Granville, November 2, 1874, in Ramm, Agatha, ed., The Political Correspondence of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville, 2 vols., Camden 3rd ser., vols. 81-82 (London, 1952), 2: 458Google Scholar. This argument is elaborated in Altholz, , “Gladstone and the Vatican Decrees,” pp. 321-24.Google Scholar
44 Gladstone Diaries, 8: 539, October 30, 1874.Google Scholar
45 Acton to Simpson, November 4, 1859, in Altholz, Josef L., McElrath, Damian, and Holland, James C., eds., The Correspondence of Lord Acton and Richard Simpson, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1971-1975), 3: 319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46 Gladstone corrected the four proof sheets on the train to London on November 4th and “Made references and further corr. of Proofs and Revises” on the 5th (Gladstone Diaries, 8: 540-41Google Scholar.) That changes were made, including the interpolation of at least one paragraph, can be shown grammatically: the pronoun “they” in paragraph 11 has no antecedent in paragraph 10 and makes sense only if assumed to have followed immediately upon paragraph 9.
47 0n November 4th Gladstone sent (presumably uncorrected) proofs to Döllinger and (at de Lisle's suggestion) Newman, (Gladstone Diaries, 8: 540Google Scholar; Letters and Diaries of Newman, 27: 147Google Scholar). This suggests that he did not expect to make substantial changes.
48 Gladstone, , Vatican Decrees, p. 51.Google Scholar
49 Gladstone, , Vaticanism: An Answer to Reproofs and Replies (London, 1875), p. 11.Google Scholar
50 But “mental and moral” may have been a cliché, at least for Gladstone; we find “a life of mental and moral excess”: Gladstone to Laura Thistlethwaite, October 18, 1869, in Gladstone Diaries, 8: 563.Google Scholar
51 Matthew, H. C. G., Gladstone, 1809-1874 (Oxford, 1986), p. 245.Google Scholar