Freedom and Authority in Church and Society Maude Dominica Petre 1863-1942
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository FREEDOM AND AUTHORITY IN CHURCH AND SOCIETY MAUDE DOMINICA PETRE 1863-1942 by GRAHAM JAMES WILCOX A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Philosophy,Theology and Religion The University of Birmingham April 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT Maude Petre is a somewhat neglected figure mentioned today chiefly in regard to her association with the Catholic Modernist, George Tyrrell. The aim of the thesis will be to strive to retrieve her from this neglect by showing that she was a significant figure in her own right with a substantial body of published work. Attention will be given in particular to her writings in the later years of her life in which little interest has hitherto been shown. The thesis will endeavour to trace her main ideas as expressed in her published works and see how they developed over the course of her long life. The issue of authority and liberty in Church and society will be highlighted as one of the dominant themes of her writing. Her life and thought will be placed in the context of her age and its many changes both in Church and society and her writings will be related to the events of her own life as recorded in her own diaries. An attempt will be made in conclusion to evaluate the wider significance of her life and thought. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………...........................................................1 1.THE CONTEXT OF MAUDE PETRE’S LIFE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ENGLAND IN THE LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY. ………………………………................................................................... 7 a. The English Catholic Church in the late Nineteenth Century……………………. 7 b.The Ultramontane understanding of the nature of the Church and the first Vatican Council………………………………...............................................................................11 c.Challenges to the Ultramontane view of authority in the Church……………………15 d. The crisis of English Modernism………………………………..................................18 e.The triumph of anti-Modernism and the inter-war period………………………….. 22 f. The position of women in this period………………………………............................24 2.MAUDE PETRE’S EARLY LIFE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HER IDEAS (1863-1903)……………………………...............................................................27 a. Origins and upbringing……………………………….................................................27 b.The issue of vocation and entry into a religious order………………………………..29 c. Early writings: ‘Aethiopum Servus.’……………………………….............................30 d.Important friendships and relationship with George Tyrrell: ‘An Englishwoman’s Love Letters.’………………………………......................................................................33 e. ‘Where Saints Have Trod ’: the questioning of the ascetic ideal…………………… 38 3.THE CRISIS OF MODERNISM AND ITS AFTERMATH (1907-1912)………….43 a. ‘Catholicism and Independence ’: the nature of religious freedom and obedience…43 b. The final years of Tyrrell and his death………………………………........................ 48 c. The faithful witness: ‘Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell ’………………… 50 d ‘Local pseudo-excommunication’: problems with the hierarchy…………………… 58 e. A distancing from Von Hügel………………………………..........................................60 4.THE ANALYSIS OF MODERNISM :AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH (1912-1914) …………. ………………………………................................................................................64 a. ‘The Advantages and Disadvantages of Authority in Religion’…………………………64 b. Rawlinson’s ideas on Authority………………………………......................................... 66 c. ‘Modernism: its failure and its fruits’: Authority and the Catholic Church…………… 67 d. ‘Modernism: its failure and its fruits’: Christology and the historical question………………………………................................................................................... 77 e. ‘Modernism :its failure and its fruits’: Modernists and the future of the Church………………………………..................................................................................... 79 5.THE EXPERIENCE OF WAR AND ITS IMPACT ON MAUDE PETRE’S THOUGHT (1914-1918)……………………………............................................................ 82 a. ‘Reflections of a Non-Combatant’: idealism and reality in a situation of war…….. 82 b.‘Christianity and War ’: how can Christians fight one another ?……………………… 95 c.‘Machiavelli and Modern Statecraft’: the politics of reality in the modern world……… 99 d.‘Religion and Patriotism ’ :the loyalty of Catholics to the British state………………. 102 e.‘Democracy at the Cross-Roads ’: popular democracy and the danger to liberal values.. ………………………………............................................................................................... 104 6.THE POST-WAR YEARS ; POLITICS AND THEOLOGY(1919-1930) …………. 112 a.The League of Nations: vision and reality in the international community……………112 b.The Two Cities’: realising the City of God in the City of Man…………………………118 c.Theology resumed -finding a place for the Church ………………………………........ 130 d.Theology resumed-the continuing issue of Christology………………………………... 132 e.The ecumenical movement -facing ecclesial reality………………………………..........134 f.Retrospective -Von Hügel and Tyrrell contrasted and compared……………………….137 g. The Ninth Lord Petre’: Cisalpinism and Modernism………………………………... 143 h. Lammenais and the paradox of religious certainty………………………………........ 147 7.THE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH MODERNISM (1930-1937). …………………… ..154 a. Her final years ………………………………..................................................................154 b. Alfred Fawkes-Catholic and Anglican Modernism compared……………………… 156 c. ‘Tyrrell’s religious thought’- the spiritual need of humanity………………………….157 d. ‘Von Hügel and the Great Quest’-the issue of mysticism…………………………… 158 e. ‘Von Hügel and Tyrrell ’- the analysis of a relationship …………………………… 160 f. ‘My Way of Faith’- a personal retrospective ………………………………................... 164 g. Reactions to ‘My Way of Faith ’……………………………….......................................177 8.THE ANALYSIS OF FRENCH MODERNISM (1933-1942)…………………………181 a. Loisy-the tragedy of spiritual isolation………………………………..............................181 b. ‘Alfred Loisy: His Religious Significance’ a tribute to an old friend………………… 182 c. Reactions to ‘Alfred Loisy’:his significance for Maude Petre………………………….198 d.Other Frenchmen- Laberthonnière, Bremond and Desjardins ……………………….. 204 9.POLITICAL AND CULTURAL THEMES (1927-1942)……………………………...210 a. Fascism and the liberal tradition……………………………….......................................210 b.Bolshevism - a rival religion………………………………..............................................213 c.William Temple and the limitations of classic liberalism perceived…………………….217 d.The reality of war and nationalism again………………………………........................ 218 e.‘Poetry and Prayer’-art as the vehicle of the Eternal………………………………...... 223 f.D.H.Lawrence -the sacramental nature of the material world…………………………. 226 g.Her last years……………………………….......................................................................227 10.CONCLUSION ;THE WIDER SIGNIFICANCE OF MAUDE PETRE………… 231 APPENDIX 1. DECREES ON INFALLIBILITY AND PRIMACY………………….237 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………….............................................................. 238 1 INTRODUCTION. In considering the aims of this thesis, consideration must first be given to the wider historiographical context out of which the thesis has arisen. The Modernist movement in the Catholic Church in England in the opening years of the twentieth century has received wide attention, often placing it in the larger context of continental Catholic Modernism especially in France and Italy. Key works here would be those by Vidler (1934 and 1970), Ranchetti (1969), Reardon (1970), Loome (1979), Daly (1980) and Jodock (2000). All these contain material on the Modernist movement in England but more particular studies of this can be found in Schoenl (1982) and in the studies of the leading figures of English Catholic Modernism especially Von Hügel in Bedoyère (1951) and Barmann (1972) and Tyrrell in Sagovsky (1990). Maude Petre was a close friend of the last two and their ideas and writings were important for her. But in this wider historiography Maude Petre appears very much as a minor figure and in some studies is more or less ignored. The consensus has tended to be that of Vidler that her ‘life and thought were so closely bound up with Tyrrell’s that they could not be satisfactorily considered apart’ (1970,p.109). Up to Crews’s study of her (1984) she was given little attention in her own right. There is Walker’s obituary article (1943) where he writes as a personal friend in praiseworthy terms of her character but ignores her writings, Hamilton’s article (1967) which is largely about her book