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19Th- and 20Th-Century Roman Catholic Churches Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary

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19Th- and 20Th-Century Roman Catholic Churches Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary 19th- and 20th-Century Roman Catholic Churches Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary Historic England’s Introductions to Heritage Assets (IHAs) are accessible, authoritative, illustrated summaries of what we know about specific types of archaeological site, building, landscape or marine asset. Typically they deal with subjects which lack such a summary. This can either be where the literature is dauntingly voluminous, or alternatively where little has been written. Most often it is the latter, and many IHAs bring understanding of site or building types which are neglected or little understood. Many of these are what might be thought of as ‘new heritage’, that is they date from after the Second World War. For over two hundred years after the Act of Uniformity (1559) outward observance of the Roman Catholic faith was illegal in England. The building of public places of worship did not resume until the end of the 18th century, gathering pace after Catholic Emancipation (1829) and the restoration of the hierarchy (1850). The 20th century saw accelerated expansion. This is therefore a relatively modern building stock, with approximately two thirds of more than 3,000 churches dating from the 20th century, and from the 1950s and 1960s in particular. Although there are stylistic crossovers with Anglican and, to a lesser extent, Nonconformist church design, Catholic churches have a distinct character, driven in large part by liturgical function. The building type has evolved over the years to meet changing liturgical and other needs. Today, a decline in the number of priests and demographic and pastoral change means that many Catholic churches face an uncertain future. This guidance note has been written by Andrew Derrick and edited by Deborah Mays and Linda Monckton. It is one is of several guidance documents that can be accessed at HistoricEngland. org.uk/listing/selection-criteria/listing-selection/ihas-buildings/ Published by Historic England September 2017. HistoricEngland.org.uk/advice/ Front cover The interior of St Monica, Bootle, Merseyside, by F X Velarde (1936), described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘epoch-making’. Contents Introduction .........................................1 1 Historical Background .................2 1.1 Reformation to 1790 ....................................2 1.2 Relief Acts to Emancipation ........................2 1.3 Restoration of the Catholic hierarchy ........3 1.4 20th century growth ....................................3 1.5 The Second Vatican Council and beyond ..5 2 Chronology and Development of the Building Type .....................6 2.1 Liturgy and architecture: The Counter- Reformation model ......................................6 2.2 1790-1829: Emergence from the shadows .. 7 2.3 The triumph of Gothic .................................8 2.4 Italian, Byzantine, Romanesque and basilican models ........................................11 2.5 Catholic Arts and Crafts .............................12 2.6 Experiments in contemporary design ......14 2.7 After the Second Vatican Council ............15 3 Associations ..............................18 4 Change and the Future ..............20 5 Further Reading .........................21 5.1 Contact Historic England ..........................22 6 Acknowledgements ...................23 Introduction The medieval parish churches which are such a feature of the English landscape were built for Christian worship according to the Latin (that is, the Roman Catholic) rite. That ceased to be the case at the time of the Reformation, and while a handful of medieval churches have returned to Catholic use, the vast majority of Catholic churches in use today were built in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is therefore a building stock of relatively recent date, the scale and significance of which has often been overlooked. The Roman Catholic Church is the world’s largest There are over 3,000 Catholic parish churches and Christian church, with an estimated 1.285 billion chapels in England, mainly in urban and suburban members, or one in six people. It is governed areas; there are relatively few rural examples, by the Pope, through the Roman Curia. Despite but those that survive are often amongst the the popular perception of the Church as a oldest and most important. Nearly all of these monolithic and centralised organisation, power churches have been visited under the Taking Stock and administration are mainly devolved to the programme, an architectural and historical review local level, authority residing with the diocesan of Catholic churches in England undertaken by bishop. Places of public worship are controlled Historic England in partnership with the dioceses. by, and belong to, the diocese in which they are located, except when they are owned by one of This introduction to Heritage Assets for Roman the religious orders. In addition to a church, each Catholic churches concerns public places of parish may have a presbytery (priest’s house), parish worship. It does not consider private a parish hall, a school or a convent, usually or institutional chapels, or those attached to attached to or near the church. The church is the convents and monasteries (for the last of these centre of practising Catholics’ spiritual life and a separate introduction is available). religious observance, the place where they attend Mass and receive other sacraments. < < Contents 1 1 Historical Background 1.1 Reformation to 1790 The Catholic Mass became illegal in England in 1559, under Queen Elizabeth I’s Act of Uniformity. Thereafter Catholic observance became a furtive and dangerous affair, with heavy penalties levied on those, known as recusants, who refused to attend Anglican church services. The seeds of a new underground church were planted with the foundation in 1568 of the College at Douai in Flanders (now northern France), from which missionary priests were trained and sent out to sympathetic safe houses in England. Many of Figure 1 these priests were to meet death by hanging, Torture of the Derbyshire priest Ralph Sherwin at drawing and quartering in the Elizabethan period. the Tower of London in 1580, as depicted in stained glass of 1931-2 by Hardman of Birmingham at While the penal laws remained on the statute A W N Pugin’s St Mary, Derby. Sherwin is one of Forty Catholic martyrs of the Reformation canonised books, violent persecution diminished under the by Pope Paul VI in 1970. Stuarts, although Catholic hopes for improvement were not helped by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which prompted further executions and suspicion. In the later Stuart period, the situation was made more complicated by the open or private Catholic prevented from buying new land, barred from the faith of some monarchs, and by their Catholic professions, army and universities and forbidden marriages. James II was openly Catholic. On his to own a horse worth more than £5. Catholic accession in 1685 the penal laws were suspended, activity declined, and open displays of Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy restored, and the country allegiance were seldom seen. A notable exception divided into four Districts, each led by a Vicar being in central London, where public worship Apostolic (bishop to missionary territories). took place unhindered in chapels attached to the embassies of foreign Catholic monarchies. These developments were nipped in the bud by James II’s flight in 1688 and the accession of William III, ushering in the Glorious or 1.2 Relief Acts to Emancipation Protestant Revolution. The penal laws were re-established, and practising as a priest made In 1776 the Government approached Richard punishable with life imprisonment (the last priest Challoner, Vicar Apostolic for London, for help to be so punished being in 1767). The laity was in recruiting Catholics to fight in the American 1 < < Contents 2 War of Independence. In exchange for this the serving the missions (as they were known) from government set up a committee of laymen to 2,000 to 3,000. At the start of the 20th century, the consider a relaxation of the penal laws. A Catholic estimated Catholic population had risen to 1.5m, Relief Act brought before Parliament in 1778 or 4.6% of the general population of England and allowed Catholics to buy and inherit land and Wales. Catholic culture was strong, introverted, protected clergy from prosecution for fulfilling and in some areas clannish in character; Catholics their priestly role, but made no specific provision had their own schools, their own social clubs and for church building. The Act prompted a fierce were firmly discouraged from marrying outside backlash, culminating in the Gordon Riots of 1780, the faith. when many Catholic properties were sacked. The Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791 allowed 1.4 20th century growth Catholics, subject to the swearing of an oath of loyalty to the monarch, to practice their The present Catholic parish system did not come religion without fear of prosecution, and this into effect until 1908, when England ceased to be included the building of churches. However mission territory directly answerable to Rome bells and steeples were not permitted, and as and became instead subject to the Church’s a rule church buildings of the early post-Relief normal system of canon law. This formally Act years were architecturally understated. took effect in 1917. However, confidence grew in the 1820s, culminating with the passing of the Catholic There were an estimated 1.7m Catholics by Emancipation Act in 1829, when most of the 1911, rising to 2.4m (5.7% of the population) by remaining barriers of penal times were removed. 1941. Numbers were greatest in the industrial Catholic heartlands, especially Lancashire, County Durham, the West Midlands and London. 1.3 Restoration of the Catholic While the main Catholic centres remained in the hierarchy urban areas, there was increasing growth in the suburbs. Except in Durham and Lancashire there In 1850, Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic was very little rural presence, although travelling hierarchy in England and Wales, with the missions were increasingly established to sow creation of thirteen new dioceses, each headed the seeds of future rural parishes. Numbers were by a diocesan bishop.
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