NOTTINGHAM
133
NOTTINGHAM
valued at $2,800,000. The land belonging to Notre
Dame is valued at $400,000. In the main library are
eixty-five thousand volumes, while libraries in various
departments have about ten thousand volumes.
William Alan Moloney.
Nottingham, Dioce.sb of (Nottinghamien), one of the original twelve English Dioceses created at the time of the restoration of the hierarchy by Pius IX in 1850, embraces the counties of Nottingham, Leices- ter, Derby, Lincoln, and Rutland, which were com- prised in the old Midland District or vicariate, when at the request of James II in 1685, the Holy See di- vided England into four vicariates, the London, the Northern, the Midland, and the Western. Prior to 1840 when the number of vicars Apostolic was in- creased from four to eight, the Midland District had consisted of fifteen count ies. In 1850 Nottingham could count only twenty-four permanent missions, many of these little better than villages. For the most part they originated from chaplaincies which had through penal times been maintained by the Catholic nobility and gentry, or had been founded independently by them. Among these there existed foundations of sev- eral religious orders. In Derbyshire the Jesuits had missions at Chesterfield and Spink Hill; in Lincoln- shire at Lincoln, Boston, and Market Rasen. The Dominicans were settled in Leicester, the Fathers of Charity carried on several missions in Leicestershire, and the Cistercians occupied their newly founded Abbey of Mount St. Bernard in Charnwood Forest.
From the appearance of the Jesuits in England in 1580 at the special request of Dr. Allen, they had done much by their devoted labours to keep alive the Faith in the Nottingham diocese. Of their missions men- tioned above some were among the earliest of the So- ciety in England dating back some three hundred years. Derby was included in the district or college of the Society called the "Immaculate Conception", founded by Father Richard Blount, about 1633, first Provincial of the English Province. Extinct for many years it was partially revived in 1842 as Mount St. Mary's College, when the present college and convic- tus was established by the then provincial, Father Randal Ly thegoe. After the Reformation, the English Province of the Friars Preachers ceased to exist, until resuscitated at Bornhem in Flanders by Philip Howard (q. V.) later cardinal, who became the first prior of the Dominicaas in 1675. The first introduction of the English Dominicans from Bornhem was at Hinck- ley, whence for many years Leicester was served by them at intervals. Their mission at Leicester was put on a permanent basis only in 1798 by the purchase of a house by Father Francis Xavier Choppelle. The present church of the Holy Cross was begun by Father Benedict Caestrick in 1815 and was opened in 1819. The dedication under the title of Holy Cross was adopte<l no doubt on account of the celebrated relic of the Holy Cross brought from Bornhem, and now in London. After the lapse of three centuries a monas- tery of the Cistercian Order was resuscitated in Eng- land by the foundation of the Abbey of Mount St. Bernard in Leicestershire, made possible by the as- sistance of Ambrose Phillips de Lisle of Grace Dieu Manor, who after his conversion in December, 1825, devoted all his energies to the spread of the Faith in England. This he hoped to accomplish by the re-es- tablishment in the country of monastic institutions. In 1835 he purchased about two hundred and twenty- seven acres of wild uncultivated land in Charnwood Forest and presented it to the Cistercians. Beginning with one brother who lived alone in a four-roomed cot- tage, the community rapidly increased, and a larger building was erected as well as a small chapel, opened by Dr. Walsh 11 October, 1837. This also in a short time proving insufficient, the Earl of Shrewsbury gen- erously offered them £2,000, but on condition that a
new monastery should ho erected, choo.sing for that
purpose the present site of the abbey. It was built
from designs by Augustus Welby Pugin. In 1848 by
Brief of Pius IX the monastery of Mount St. Bernard
was raised to the dignity of an abbey, and Father
Bernard, the first mitred abbot in England since the
Reformation, was consecrated 18 February, 1849. In
introducing the Cistercians into England, de Lisle had
hoped that they would undertake missionary work
and with this view he had built three chapels, at Grace
Dieu, Whitwick, and the abbey. On the score of
their rule, however, they declined to take charge per-
manently of the missions. De Lisle then decided to
bring from Italy members of the Order of Charity.
After much negotiation with the head of the order,
Father Gentili came to Grace Dieu as chaplain. This
was the commencement of the settlement of this order
in the diocese. In 1841 Dr. Walsh made over to them
the secular mission of Loughborough founded in 1S32
by Father Benjamin Hulme. The buildings were too
small to permit of a novitiate and a college of their own
which they were desirous to establish. To carry out
this twofold object, about nine acres were purchased;
here the foundation stone of the new buildings was laid
in May, 1843, and in 1844 was opened the first college
and novitiate house of the institute in England. The
Sisters of Mercy had come to Nottingham in 1844, and
in 1846 entered their convent in close proximity to
the cathedral.
The first Bishop of Nottingham was the Rt. Rev. Wilfiam Hendren, O.S.F., b. in 1792, consecrated 10 September, 1848, as Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, transferred to the Diocese of Clifton, 29 Sept., 18.50, and to Nottingham, 22 June, 1851. The cathedral church of St. Barnabas is of the lancet style of architecture, and is considered one of the best specimens of the work of Augustus Welby Pugin. Owing to ill-health Dr. Hendren resigned in 1853 and was succeeded by Dr. Richard Roskell, b. at Gateacre near Liverpool, in 1817. He was sent to Ushaw and afterwards to Rome, where he took his degree and was ordained in 1840. He was consecrated in the cathe- dral by Cardinal Wiseman on 21 September, 1853. During his episcopate a number of missions were founded in the various coimties of the diocese. In Lincolnshire, through the generosity of Thomas Arthur Young of Kingerby Hall, not only was there a church and presbytery built at Gainsborough and Grimsby, but the Premonstratcnsian order was re-introduced into England at Crowle and Spalding. In 1874, ow- ing to Dr. Roskell's ill-health, the i^ope appointed the Rev. Edward Gilpin Bagshawe of the London Oratory his coadjutor. The same year, however. Dr. Roskell tendered his resignation and Dr. Bagshawe was consecrated at the London Oratory 12 November, 1874. Numerous missions necessitated by the devel- opment of the mining industry were ojjencd during his administration, and various communities of nuns in- troduced into the diocese, which he ruled for twenty- seven years. He resigned in 1901 and in 1904 was transferred to the titular Archbishopric of Seleucia. Rt. Rev. Robert Brindle, D.S.O., his successor, was born at Liverpool, 4 November, 1837. The first Catholic chaplain to receive the pension for distin- guished and meritorious service, as well as Turkish and Egyijtian orders and medals, he was, on his retirement from the army in 1899, on the petition of Cardinal \'aughan, appointed his assistant, and on the resig- nation of Dr. Bagshawe, received his Brief to the See of Nottingham 6 November, 1901.
In 1910 there were in the diocese 32,000 Catholi(\s; 84 secular, and 44 regular, priests; 75 churches with missions attached, 31 without missions; 6 convents for men, and 9 for women.
Foley, Records: Purcell, Life of Ambrose Phillips dc lA^le; Priory Church of Holy Cross, Leicester; Jewitt and CRUlKSHAt^K, Cistercian Records in Guide to Mt. St. Bernard's Abbey,
W. Crost.
