A Cisalpine Apologia

Extract

It is somewhat startling to find that decidedly Anglican body, the Society for Promoting Christian knowledge, acting as sponsor to a history of the domestic controversies of the English Catholics, even though that history be penned by a writer of the broad and liberal outlook of Miss Maude Petre. The Society indeed explains in a Prefatory Note that its own standpoint is by no means that of the author, and that it publishes her book only ‘in the hope that it will contribute towards the cause of Christian Reunion.’

The Lord Petre whose Life is here set forth was, in his common sense, strong-willed character, deep personal piety, very extensive charities, and constant patronage of struggling scholarship, a fine example of his class. In the present volume he figures almost entirely as the ostensible and social leader of the Cisalpine section of the English Catholic laity in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Charles Butler being the brains of the party. Miss Petre has not very much that is new to tell us of the complicated disputes and negotiations that led up to the Catholic Relief Act of 1791. She just goes over the ground already made familiar by Bishop Ward in his Dawn of the Catholic Revival, here and there supplementing that remarkable work by letters and papers drawn from the archives of the Petres, the Throckmortons, and other ancient Catholic families, and setting out at length documents hitherto known only in summary. Her main object seems to be to vindicate the memory of her great-great-grandfather and those associated with him from the aspersions of Dr. Milner and his school.