I arrived here last evening in perfect health, and very happy to be back again. I dined on Saturday at the President’s at Paris, who (I must tell you how annoyed I am at it—it makes me miserable) suddenly presented me with the Cross of Officer of the Legion of Honour! Of course I could not say no, but hope to be forbidden accepting it. Meanwhile it makes me unhappy.
Yours, &c., &c., A. Panizzi.”
A second decoration, the Royal order of “Saint Maurice and Lazarus” of Sardinia, was presented to him a few years later, in December, 1855, in which year Victor Emmanuel visited London with Cavour. Of this last honour, considering by whom it was conferred, Panizzi may possibly have been prouder than of his first, but, with innate modesty, he forbore to ask the requisite permission to accept either, and preferred to remain almost to the end of an honourable life undecorated;—despising medals, orders, and unreal designations which, he well knew, could not add to his reputation.
In the year 1851, shortly after his return to England, there landed on these shores the bugbear of Popery in its most appalling form, which scared the natives of the island into a state of mind bordering on temporary imbecility. Those who remember the Papal Aggression[[C]] will also, with shame, remember the foolish fanaticism that burst forth in every quarter, the undignified terror of many who should have known better than to put so little confidence in their own cause, and the extravagant and senseless rumours with which the air was filled. To this unseemly panic Lord John Russell’s notorious Durham Letter materially contributed; but although there was no ground for alarm, there was, it cannot be denied, abundance of room for indignation. Many men of the most tried judgment and unquestionable moderation (albeit their voices were well nigh drowned in the general clamour), who treated the abrogation of the ancient sees by the Pope, and all other his bruta fulmina with the contempt they deserved, were, nevertheless, not disposed to sit down calmly under an insult to the Church and people of England, aggravated by the studied offensiveness with which it was offered. Such as these were the last, however, to see the necessity for, and did their best to oppose, the construction of such a steam-engine to crack a cockchafer as the notorious “Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.” Happily, this clumsy machine has been rarely, if ever, set in motion, and after some years of useless existence has, as all know, been finally broken up. It was impossible that Panizzi, as a moderate Roman Catholic, should have joined in the general outburst, or lent himself to swell the ranks of the crew around him. But he had been brought up in a country where the power of the priesthood has something of reality, and wherein the behests of the Pope are of a little more importance than they ever have been, or ever will be, in this realm. He was thoroughly imbued with that dislike and horror of clericalism which those of the Latin branch of the Church, when once they have broken free, yea, but a little, from the more rigorous bonds of their religion, seldom fail to show. It would be hard, then, to judge Panizzi severely, if he seems to have shared the alarm prevalent at the time, and to have betrayed some dread of the consequences of the Pope’s invasion of England. Let it be remembered, too, that he was an Italian before he was an Englishman; and that nothing could more effectually have roused his ire, than the insensate conduct of Pius IX., “the most foolish man,” as some one has well said of him, “that ever sat in the Papal chair.”
[C]. In a Consistory holden in Rome, 30th September, 1850, Pius IX. named fourteen new cardinals, of whom four only were Italians. Amongst the ten foreigners was Dr. Wiseman, at the time Vicar-Apostolic of the London district, who was at the same time nominated Lord Archbishop of Westminster. On the 27th of October following, Dr. Ullathorne was enthroned as Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, in St. Chad’s Cathedral in that town. The same day a pastoral letter from Dr. Wiseman was read in all the Roman Catholic chapels of his See, and on its becoming generally known that all England had been parcelled out into Romish dioceses, the strongest indignation[indignation] was expressed throughout the empire.
With this apology for any seeming weakness, or extravagance, in Panizzi’s judgment of the Papal Aggression, the following letter on the subject is laid before the reader:—
“British Museum,
February 18th, 1851.
“My dear Haywood,
I have written Kings and Popes, and I don’t see why what is there said does not apply to England. You say it is a Protestant country. The United Kingdom was Protestant before 1829, but I don’t see now how you can say it is Protestant. As to the Church of England, I am not sure that in point of numbers it exceeds much the Catholics, and as the latter are eligible to all offices and places, with one or two exceptions, as well as Protestants, I cannot understand why the events which have happened in other countries are not considered a precedent here. Suppose you had a Catholic Minister here—or, indeed, suppose a Catholic Peer or Member of Parliament was to be treated as Santa Rosa was in Piedmont, would not that be interfering in temporal affairs? And why should not, in the time and when the opportunity offer, an English Catholic be treated as the Piedmontese was for his conduct in political affairs. Of course, neither you nor I mind being refused the Sacrament or a burial in a consecrated place; but is it nothing that the family of a man who is himself indifferent to it should be harassed or distressed in this way? Is not the conduct of the Bishops at Thurles a serious interference with the power of the State? You seem to me to be of Roebuck’s opinion that nothing should be done, which astonishes me in a man of practical sense as you are. Show me a country where the interference of the Popes has not had to be checked, except the United States of America, and I do not suppose you are prepared, like Roebuck, to take all the consequences of such an exceptional precedent. Moreover, show me a country where the Pope has dared, of his own accord alone, to upset the old diocesan partition, and establish a new one, and appoint at once thirteen Bishops. The agitation shown at this moment is proof enough that the Pope and his supporters have an enormous power in this country.