The Phial of Blood Controversy and the Decline of the Liberal Catholic Movement

Abstract

The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a major rift within the ranks of English Catholicism. Following the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850, the Ultramontanes began to consolidate their hold on the channels of ecclesiastical authority. Led by the flamboyant Nicholas Wiseman, they began to dominate the newly established English Catholic hierarchy, supported in their efforts by a tide of Irish immigrants, a reservoir of talented and dedicated priests trained at the English College in Rome and a wave of Oxford converts who, in the wake of the Gorham case, thirsted for a fount of unswerving ecclesiastical authority. The domination of the Ultramontanes, both in England and on the continent, meant that Liberal Catholicism was decidedly on the defensive, seeking to combat a rising tide of intellectual and scientific. intolerance. The period from mid-century until the promulgation of the Syllabus of Errors in 1864 was a crucial one in this struggle for intellectual autonomy. It was marked by several events which placed the emerging concepts and theories of scientific inquiry in direct conflict with the authority of the Church as is most sharply demonstrated in the convoluted and intense debate which came to be focused upon an ancient Christian artifact, the ampolle di sangue or the phials of blood.