Roman Catholic education in England in the nineteenth century, with special reference to William Bernard Ullathorne

Abstract

Until 1870 education in England was mainly the domain of private, corporate and ecclesiastical enterprise, but in 1870 the English State laid the foundation for a national system of primary and secondary education in the form of the new Elementary Education Act. The Act did not declare education to be a purely secular matter, nor did it allow the Church to be involved in education on a nondenominational basis under State supervision. The Education Act established the so-called "dual system", the division of elementary education into Board and Voluntary schools. One of the most prominent contributors to English Catholic attitudes on education in the second half of the nineteenth century was William Bernard Ullathorne (1806-1889), who was a fierce opponent of the "dual system". After a number of years in Australia as Vicar General, he returned to England in 1840 where he subsequently became Vicar Apostolic of the Western and Central Districts. On the re-establishment of the English Catholic hierarchy of bishops in 1850, Ullathorne was made Bishop of Birmingham. He resided in Birmingham until 1888.It is the aim of this work to determine and explain the core of W. B. Ullathorne's long and extensive influence on the educational debate in the last century. It aims at establishing the ways in which he influenced both the laity and the hierarchy in their concepts of what an ideal Catholic education should be. It also examines Catholic attitudes towards the State's new paramount role as the provider of education. This will be done through an extensive study of Ullathorne's writings and correspondence on education, as well as newspapers and periodicals throughout the years 1850-1889.