John Douglass (bishop)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

John Douglass (December 1743–8 May 1812) was an
English Catholic The Catholic Church in England and Wales (; ) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th century, when Pope Gregory I through a Roman missionary and Benedictine monk, Augustine, ...
prelate who served as
Vicar Apostolic of the London District The Apostolic Vicariate of the London District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by a vicar apostolic who was a titular bishop. The apostolic vicariate was created in 1688 and was dissolved ...
from 1790 until his death in 1812.


Life

The son of John Douglass and Brigit Senson or Semson, he was born at
Yarm Yarm-on-Tees, or simply Yarm, is a market town in North Yorkshire, England. It lies on a meander of the River Tees, extending south-east to the River Leven, North Yorkshire, River Leven and south to the village of Kirklevington. A civil parish i ...
,
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
, in December 1743, and at the age of thirteen he was sent to the
English College, Douai The English College ( French: ''College des Grands Anglais'') was a Catholic seminary in Douai, France (also previously spelled Douay, and in English Doway), associated with the University of Douai. It was established in 1568, and was suppresse ...
. There he took the college oath in 1764. He went to the English College in
Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...
, as professor of humanities, arriving there 27 June 1768. At a later period he taught philosophy. Suffering from poor health, he left Valladolid on 30 July 1773, and was priest of the mission of Linton and afterwards at
York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
.


Vicar apostolic

While he was a missioner at York he was selected by the Holy See for the London vicariate, in opposition to efforts made by the "catholic committee" to have Charles Berington translated from the Midland to the London district. The appointment caused controversy, and Berington addressed a printed letter to the London clergy, resigning every pretension to the London vicariate. Opposition to Douglass was withdrawn, and he succeeded James Talbot as vicar-apostolic of the London district. His briefs to the
titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...
of Centurio were dated 25 September 1790, and he was consecrated 19 December the same year, in St. Mary's Church,
Lulworth Castle Lulworth Castle, in East Lulworth, Dorset, England, situated south of the village of Wool, is an early 17th-century hunting lodge erected in the style of a revival fortified castle, one of only five extant Elizabethan or Jacobean buildings of ...
,
Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, by
William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...
,
titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...
of
Acanthus Acanthus (: acanthus, rarely acanthuses in English, or acanthi in Latin), its feminine form acantha (plural: acanthae), the Latinised form of the ancient Greek word acanthos or akanthos, or the prefix acantho-, may refer to: Biology *Acanthus ...
, and Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District. The London District included the home counties, the West Indies with the exception of
Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
, and the
Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...
of
Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...
and
Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...
. The Catholic Relief Act, passed in June 1791, repealed the statutes of
recusancy Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...
in favour of persons taking the Irish oath of allegiance of 1778. It was Douglass who suggested that this oath should replace the oath which was proposed during the debates on the measure and warmly discussed by the contending parties. The act likewise repealed the oath of supremacy imposed in the reign of William and Mary, as well as various declarations and disabilities, and it tolerated the schools and religious worship of Roman Catholics. He was a determined opponent of the
royal veto of the appointment of bishops A royal veto of the appointment of bishops (also known as the Veto controversy in Irish history) was proposed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1808 to 1829 during the move towards Catholic Emancipation. According to the ...
. St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, owed its existence to Douglass, with its president Gregory Stapleton settling there with his students at his invitation from 15 August 1795, after their imprisonment during the French Revolution. Douglass also had to deal with the influx of French Catholics fleeing the
Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
. By 1794, there were 1,500 French priests in London, for whom Douglass established eight French chapels. Most of the French clergy returned to France by 1805. He censured the Blanchardists who refused to accept the
Concordat A concordat () is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 Douglass was one of the first members of the "Roman Catholic Meeting", organised in May 1794 in opposition to the . Douglass was one of the first members of the "Roman Catholic Meeting", organised in May 1794 in opposition to the Cisalpine Club. John Milner (bishop)">John Milner John David Milner (December 28, 1949 – January 4, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and left fielder from to for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Montreal ...
submitted his ''Letters to a Prebendary'' to Douglass for revision. Douglass erased nearly one-half of the original contents before sending it back to the author, who printed the work in its curtailed form. Douglass died at his residence in Castle Street, Holborn, on 8 May 1812. William Poynter, who had been appointed his coadjutor in 1803, succeeded him in the vicariate-apostolic of the London district.


Works

An account by Douglass of the state of the catholic religion in his vicariate in 1796 is printed in Brady's ''Episcopal Succession'', iii. 180 seq. He published some charges and several pastorals, two of which were translated into Spanish. He also for many years published "A New Year's Gift" in the ''Laity's Directory''.


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Douglass, John 1743 births 1812 deaths English College, Douai alumni 18th-century Roman Catholic bishops in England Apostolic vicars of England and Wales 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in England