HISTORY OF HALLAM DIOCESE

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Older than England, Younger than Everyone

Our Catholic community in this region originates before Yorkshire was Yorkshire, before Derbyshire was Derbyshire and certainly before the nations of these islands became defined as they are today. But although Christianity in Hallam is much older than what we call "England", our Diocese is the youngest in the country! Born as recently as the 30th May, 1980, Hallam is entering its 21st year - a coming of age as the whole world celebrates the Lord of all Ages. What follows is a short history of those followers of Christ who have walked these local paths before us and who have entrusted to us the faith which has gathered us together this day.

From Jerusalem to Hallam

Pentecost Day is often described as the Birthday of the Church. The once fearful disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. They hid no more. They went out, they began to speak foreign languages to share the Good News of Jesus. They were anointed with fire! They travelled beyond Jerusalem, beyond Israel - often in mortal danger. They brought the message of Christ to Rome with courage for belief in the Lord often meant persecution and death at the hands of the authorities. Despite such dangers, the Word spread to the very edge of the Roman Empire - to the lands of Britain. Historical tradition has it that perhaps as early as 209, Alban was the first inhabitant of England to be martyred for the faith. Certainly by the turn of the next century there were a number of local "overseers" or "Bishops" from Britain present at a gathering in Aries, France. The Roman presence in our area at Doncaster and Templeborough is well documented and we can surmise from St. Bede's history of the Church that our region hosted small isolated communities of faithful Christians in those far off days.

Conversions, Kings and Christianity

At York in 306, Constantine the Great was proclaimed Roman Emperor. Just six years later he embraced Christianity in 312. Suddenly it became possible for the faith to flourish openly throughout the Empire. Although the Romans gradually abandoned Britain, the faith diffused throughout the British Isles, becoming particularly strong over the next two centuries in Western Celtic parts of the mainland and Ireland. As the Celtic missionaries began to evangelise the tribes of the North of England, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine from Rome in 597 to cover the southern Angles. From Canterbury, Augustine and his followers evangelised northwards. Meanwhile, inspired by St. Patrick, Aidan, Cuthbert, Hilda and others raised the banner of Christ high in Cumberland and Northumbria. The most famous missionary in our area at this time was Paulinus, a priest also sent by Pope Gregory in 601. Paulinus baptised many people in our region and Bede mentions that a huge number of converts were baptized in the river Trent at "Tiolf Ingercestre" on the boundaries of our diocese between Gainsborough and Newark. Moreover, Paulinus affords us one of the earliest specific dates we have in our Christian history through his baptism of the pagan king of Northumbria, Edwin, at York in 627. Paulinus was appointed Bishop of York and set about building a stone church there. In our own area the remains of early churches at Littleborough, Bradwell and Bolton on Dearne date from this period.

Celts, Canterbury, York and the Invention of School!

As communities of the Celtic and Canterbury traditions began to rub shoulders, a great gathering at Whitby took place in 664 to harmonise feast days and customs. In the century that followed, the Church flourished. The diocese of York became more and more important, comprising the whole of the present counties of South, East, West and North Yorkshire. Archbishop Egbert founded the famous school of York and among its famous scholars was Alcuin. An able liturgist and historian, Alcuim later became royal advisor to Charlemagne, and is credited throughout Europe for reviving the schooling system! The Archbishops founded four great Minsters: York itself, Ripon to the West, Beverley to the East and Southwell (beyond Mansfield) to the South. What is now the diocese of Hallam was within the compass of their work. The Minsters were served by secular canons and were centres of missionary and evangelistic activity in the country round about.

The Marvel of the Monasteries

As the first Christian millennium gave way to the second, our region became increasingly rich in religious communities. As well as being fountainheads of the faith, monasteries were an important part of the social and economic life of the region. The largest Abbey, Roche, was founded by Richard De Bully of Tickhill and Richard FitzTurgis for the "White Monks" or "Cistercians." This community followed the monastic life developed by St Bernard and to this day, the local High School is dedicated to his honour. Roche is situated just east of Maltby, at the Northern end of an area once covered by Sherwood Forest. It is mentioned in legend as a place where Robin Hood went to Mass. Substantial remains of the Abbey Church still survive and a diocesan pilgrimage is still made there on Trinity Sunday.

The Original Caring Service and Drop-In Centre

Monasteries served as hospitals, centres of learning, and medieval "drop-in" centres. Communities of monks were the equivalent of medieval social services and they were well represented throughout our area. Work sop Priory, founded by William de Love tot in 1103, was established for a community of Augustinian Canons. This still serves as the Anglican Parish church of Worksop and has kept its beautiful 12th century nave and exquisite 14th century Gatehouse. In the same vicinity, Welbeck Abbey, near Worksop, was founded by the Premonstratension canons in 1153. Welbeck now houses an army Sixth Form College, its Catholic Chaplaincy being served from St. Mary's Worksop. The same community founded Beauchief near Sheffield in 1175 and dedicated it to the martyr, St Thomas a-Becket. Again the present day Catholic Church of Our Lady of Beauchief and St. Thomas honours their tradition.

An Unusual English Innovation

Blyth Priory near Retford and Monk Bretton near Barnsley were both founded by French Benedictine monks. Benedictine nuns lived at Wallingwells in the present parish of Oldcotes and small Hospitals were given by Norman Overlords to the parishes of Blyth, Bawtry and St Leonard's Sheffield. The most revolutionary order of the time was founded by Gilbert of Sempringham. The Gilbertines had a community at Mattersey, built on the banks of the river Idle near Retford. They were the only medieval order to be founded by an Englishman and were unique in that nuns and canons shared the same houses, even if they were separated by a wall in church!

Mystery and Misery

The Medieval period is sometimes thought of as a golden age of the Church in our region. The main towns of the district which we know as Hallam, Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham, Barnsley, Chesterfield and Worksop were served by large parish churches. Exemplars of this period would be the Church of St Peter and St Paul that is now the Cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Sheffield and the "College of Jesus" which the new Archbishop of York, Thomas Rotherham built to grace the town of the same name in 1480. As the number of Catholics became more populous, so methods of communicating the faith became more and more imaginative. A wonderful feature of this era were the Mystery Plays which sought by drama to teach the truths of the faith through street theatre performed in village squares. Happily, as exemplified by our Pageant of Faith, this tradition has been revived in our own day.

Defender of the Faith?

The reign of Henry VIII which saw the break with Rome began in 1509. Hitherto, England in general, and Henry in particular had been very faithful to Catholic tradition. Walsingham was the most popular Marian shrine in Europe and Henry had been accorded the title "Defender of the Faith." However, between 1527 and 1533, in his efforts to gain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry eventually decided to challenge the papal authority of Clement VII. The Pope in turn excommunicated Henry after his marriage to Anne Boleyn was solemnized by Thomas Cranmer. The clergy meanwhile were intimidated by accusations of "praemunire" that is, breaches of royal privilege in favour of the Papacy. They were pardoned on payment of a fine and acceptance of the King's authority over the Church.

Time of Turmoil

The whole community of faith was thrown into confusion, and subsequent decades saw violent religious convulsions of society which all Christians can regard with sorrow from our contemporary vantage point. Monasteries were destroyed and their communities dispersed or murdered. Henry's son, Edward VI rejected Rome but when Mary came to the throne she reversed the persecution. Elizabeth 1(1559-1603) chose a compromise whereby she repudiated the authority of Rome, but retained much of the pattern of Catholic Liturgy. At this time England was almost constantly at odds with Catholic Spain, hence those loyal to Rome were readily accused of treason. By the middle years of Elizabeth's reign, West and South Yorkshire possibly had no more than 1,000-2,000 adult Catholics. Fines, confiscation of property and, after 1570, the threat of imprisonment and execution, discouraged all but a few from the practice of the Faith.

Local Heroes John Anne and William Richardson

Although vocation to the priesthood has always involved personal challenge, it certainly became a perilous calling in those days. Since it was no longer possible to train for the priesthood here in England, newly created seminaries at Douai, Rheims, Valladolid and Rome were established for the English mission. The first martyr from this area was a man named John Amias (alias Anne) of the family of that name of Burghwallis and Frickley. He was executed on the Knavesmire at York on the 16th March, 1588. A widower who had been engaged in the clothing industry, John Anne was captured by the "Pursuivants" (priest catchers) in Cleveland. The last priest from our area to suffer the penalty of death for exercising his priesthood in the reign of Elizabeth I was William Richardson alias Anderson. He was a native of Wales, near Kiveton Park. Richardson was possibly a convert who later trained for the Priesthood at Rheims and at Valladolid. He was apprehended whilst working in London and was executed at Tyburn on 17th February 1603, a week before the death of Queen Elizabeth herself.

The Padley Martyrs

We have more detailed accounts of two other local priests, Robert Ludlum, born near Sheffield, and Nicholas Garlick, a former Tideswell schoolmaster. The agents of Lord Shrewsbury arrested Ludlum and Garlick at the Padley Manor House of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert. Padley, which had become a centre of Catholic influence in the High Peak, was like a small castle, surrounded by moorland and thick woods. It is said the two were arrested whilst offering Mass and were executed on the 24th July 1588 on Derby Bridge, together with Richard Simpson, a fellow priest. Some 350 years later, the manor house was purchased for the Diocese of Nottingham by Mgr. Charles Payne in 1933 and is now jointly used as a pilgrimage shrine by the dioceses of Hallam and Nottingham. The two Priests were declared venerable in 1891 and were beatified in 1929.

Persecution of the Recusants

By the end of the 16th century the Catholic Church was reduced to a small number of resilient lay people grouped around gentry who managed to support a "Massing Priest". Such families in our region included the Annes of Frickley and Burghwallis, the Fitzherberts and the Eyres of Hassop, the Reresbys at Thrybergh and the Mores at Bamborough. This latter family were descended from St Thomas More, through his son, John. Thus although the Catholic population grew steadily during the 17th and 18th centuries, they were legally obliged to practise the Faith in secret. "Recusants" as they were called, often married discreetly before a priest and witnesses - if a priest could be found! There really was a shortage of priests in those days and we read of some missioners being obliged to hear up to 600 confessions! Although the children of the wealthy were educated in France or Belgium, often by Religious Communities, Catholic schools in England were rare, small and clandestine. Indeed our own diocese boasts a good example. Jesuit Fathers ministering and teaching at Spinkhill during the 17th century under the protection of the Pole family were eventually able to establish Mount St. Mary's College in 1842.

From White Sheets to Gothic Churches

Gradually, under the patronage of Catholic nobility, centres of worship grew up. Worksop Manor had come into the possession of the Howard family who were Dukes of Norfolk. Hathersage and the villages of North Derbyshire had substantial numbers of Catholics. In the Sheffield area the faith was maintained by the Revell family at Stannington. At Nethergate Hall, the home of the Revells, it was the custom when Mass was to be said for a white sheet to be hung on a certain bush as a signal to Catholics in the countryside. Slowly, circumstances began to change, and the story of St. Marie's is a good example. In 1701, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, sent his agent, John Shireburn, to live in Cambridge Street. He first built a hidden chapel there and when he moved to the "Lord's House" at the comer of Fargate and Norfolk Row in 1710, he built another unobtrusive chapel into the attic space beneath the roof. Although registers of Sheffield "papists" were still being reported to the Archbishop of York during the 18th Century, the Reform acts of 1778 and 1791 allowed Catholics more leeway to own property and practise the faith. The garden of the Lord's House was extensive, a proper Chapel was built there in 1816 and Fr Charles Pratt masterminded the building of the current St. Marie's in 1850. Fr Charles died at 38, never having seen the completion of his dream. However, the stonemason supervising the work, a non-Catholic craftsman called Benjamin Gregory, secretly arranged for a tomb to be built for Fr Pratt. At dead of night, he removed the body from St. Bede's Rotherham and interred him in St. Marie's where he lies to this day.

The Restoration

The old Yorkshire District became the Diocese of Beverley and Dr John Briggs became its first bishop. Dr Joseph Hendren, a Franciscan, became the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Nottingham. On 29th September 1850, Pope Pius IX restored normal Church organization to England and Wales. Later, in 1878, the Diocese of Beverley was sub-divided, creating the Diocese of Middlesborough and the Diocese of Leeds with Robert Cornthwaite becoming first Bishop of the latter.

Option for the Poor - A Second Spring

In the early and Mid 19th century, Yorkshire experienced an influx of Catholic immigrants drawn into the vortex of the world's first Industrial Revolution. Seeking work in the mills, factories and collieries of the region, families arrived from all over the world, from Poland, Italy and particularly Ireland. To assist in the pastoral and educational care of these people, many of them living in overcrowded properties, dynamic Religious orders founded Houses in Sheffield.

The Vincentians, a Congregation of Mission Priests, set up a church in the Crofis area of Sheffield in 1851 The Daughters of Charity founded a house and school in Sidly Street, the first of their foundations in England. Later they opened a hospital and in time their work was augmented by the Sisters of Mercy and the Little Sisters of the Poor. These brave religious lived and died in the service of the poor, having an average life expectancy well below 40 years, mirroring the suffering of those to whom they ministered. The turn of the century saw the arrival of Carmelite contemplatives in 1911. Their monastery at Kirkedge on the hills outside Sheffield still flourishes today.

Education Education Education

The contribution of the Church to education was phenomenal. The Notre Dame Sisters of Namur arrived in 1861 and dedicated themselves to the work of educating the children of the Catholics of Sheffield. The Brothers of the Christian Schools taught in St. Vincents Parish and a Grammar School for boys was founded by the De La Salle Brothers in 1923. This later amalgamated with St. Paul's to become All Saints in 1976. Bishop Ellis of Nottingham often said that he would rather open a school than a church because they fostered such endeavour and community spirit. He was standing in a strong tradition. Over this whole period, through the great generosity of the Catholic faithful, fine schools were founded from the original St. Mary's Chesterfield in 1865 to St. Michael's Barnsley and Pope Pius Wath in the 1960's. Amalgamation meant that the new McAuley school at Cantley became the biggest school in the diocese in 1981. Alongside the wonderful work accomplished in our parish primary schools, the contribution of dedicated teachers in Hallam has been of inestimable value to us all.

Friends in Faith

This period saw a time of expansion and consolidation in the Church in our region. The industrial towns of Yorkshire produced numerous vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life. Ireland, too, provided a great number of dedicated priests and sisters for both the Leeds and Nottingham dioceses. Missioners in turn went from our own county to Africa, South America and the Far East. By 1950, the celebrations for the Centenary of the Restoration of the Hierarchy were held amidst great rejoicing. The Catholic population of England was estimated at nearly 3 million and was in confident mood. 'A Catholic School for every Catholic child' was seen as an achievable reality. The Second Vatican Council (1962-66) convened by Pope John XXII, defined its task as renewing the life of the Church and bringing up to date its teaching, discipline and organisation. It saw as one of its great goals the Unity of Christians. At last, much of the pain of the previous four centuries began to abate, as Christians of all denominations began to discover their common baptismal heritage in the love and mercy of Father, Son and Spirit.

The Birth of a Diocese

The Second Vatican Council declared that "Bishops must be able to carry out their pastoral function effectively among their people ... with a proper determination of territorial limits." With this in mind, Bishop Wheeler of Leeds appointed Gerald Moverley as an auxiliary Bishop with pastoral responsibility for the southern part of the diocese. Over the next decade or so, ideas were advanced about the feasibility of a diocese which would include South Yorkshire and the Northern part of the Nottinghamshire diocese. At one stage, a cigar shaped "Zeppelin diocese" from Glossop to Cleethorpes was mooted. In the end, the more homogenous region around Sheffield was designated by Pope John Paul II as the Diocese of Hallam with 50 parishes from Leeds amalgamated with 16 from Nottingham. The name of the new Diocese was taken from the Saxon name of the Manor of Sheffield and its surrounding townships. The new diocese united the Trent Valley region with its association with the Pilgrim Fathers; the Dukeries area around Worksop and the historic High Peak of Derbyshire; the great City of Sheffield and its hinterland; the former medieval market towns of Chesterfield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and the former coal rich villages which surround them.

A Coming of Age

Bishop Moverley was consecrated first bishop of the new diocese on 30th May 1980. St. Marie's was designated the Cathedral and the old St. Charles School became the Pastoral Centre. Despite suffering from serious heart problems, Bishop Moverley had a gift for organisation. Curial departments were set up for Education, Youth, Finance and Tribunal work. The Caring Service was established and the annual pilgrimages to Lourdes and Walsingham began. Bishop Moverley retired on 8th July 1996 and died on December 12th of that year. He was buried in the crypt of St. Marie's Cathedral. The present Bishop of Hallam, John Rawsthorne had been consecrated an auxiliary of Liverpool to Derek Warlock in 1982. He was appointed as Bishop of Hallam on 3rd July 1997 to lead the diocese into the new millennium under the patronage of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Can We Drink The Cup?

In the 1980's, when interviewing a candidate for the priesthood, Bishop Moverley pointed out that "all the heavy industries are collapsing, the population is declining, do you still want to work here?" Not only is it true that there are socio-economic difficulties in our area, but the wider social picture is one which seems to mitigate against a sense of faith and human dignity. An acceptance of greed as an engine of the economy and widespread disdain for the value of human life from conception to grave is prevalent. Moreover, while Jesus may be regarded an ethical figure from history, his radical claim to be Son of God is generally ignored. Our faith seems out of step with contemporary trends and we worry about the shortage of priests, religious and young people in our church.