The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 and Church Building: Farm Street, Mayfair

 


The Act that led to some level of Catholic Relief in England was not a licence for all Roman Catholic activity in this country. The Act still envisioned the suppression of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and other religious orders and at the time there were only fifty four priests in the Jesuit order in England. In 1838 the Roman Catholic weekly periodical The Tablet was initiated with a Quaker, Frederick Lucas as its editor. This publication soon developed into an influential force within the Roman Catholic Church in England. Closely linked with this, an unknown Subscriber to the Tablet, writing from an address close to the Jesuit college, Stonyhurst sent a letter to the Jesuit Provincial who lived in Worcester with a donation of seven hundred pounds and a covering note which read:

To a subscription towards building a church in London to be dedicated to the Ever Immaculate Blessed Virgin and to be called “The Immaculate Conception”. Offer up with heart and soul every Saturday the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in honour of the Immaculate Conception for the reconversion of England and if this devotion become general we may be certain of the re-establishment of the true faith in our unhappy country”.

This donation was used to start the work that led to the building and development of the Church in Farm Street, Mayfair in London. Many eminent Roman Catholics throughout England and continental Europe gave donations and gifts of fixtures and fittings towards the church. The Vicar Apostolic of London granted the Jesuits a site to build the church, arguing that it was needed as the number of Roman Catholic Baptisms was increasing due to the number of immigrants entering London. The aspiration for the Church was national rather than parochial (it would be more than one hundred years later that the church would become a parish church) – to provide a worshipping centre within London’s most eligible quarter, Mayfair.

Father Lythgoe became the Jesuit Provincial in 1841 and began fundraising towards building the church. Among the donations was one from the Earl of Shrewsbury who suggested AWN Pugin should be the architect, but Lythgoe had already appointed J.J. Scoles. Scoles built the church in the Gothic style. For the furnishings Pugin did become involved- designing the high altar in 1846. Contributions of money aided the furnishing of the church and the subsequent building of another aisle in which several chapels were located.

All the furnishings were designed to glorify God, yet were lavish in their composition. This leads us to wonder about the extent to which a building can glorify God in balance alongside the extent to which it boasts about the amount of money or skill available to those involved in the construction and design.



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