he catacombs of Rome. The
clergy of the Catholic church in England, although they did not and could
not have inaugurated the Cambridge and Oxford movement, recognized its
importance, and freely seconded what it was beyond their power to
initiate. Foremost amongst those who were ever ready to afford comfort and
encouragement to the able and inquiring men who sought the one true fold,
was the learned ecclesiastic of world-wide renown who, a little later,
bore so conspicuous a part in the re-establishment of the sacred hierarchy
in England. This highly-gifted divine was a willing worker in the great
Master's field. His labors were beyond even his great powers; and so his
career, though brilliant, was comparatively short. The cause which he so
well sustained is one which cannot suffer an irreparable loss; and great
would be the joy of the pious and devoted Cardinal, so early snatched
away, if it were given him to behold the rapid developments of the church
which, in his day, he so ably and successfully upheld.

(M32) If the increase of Catholics in England was rapid during the decade
which preceded, it was much more so immediately alter the restoration of
the hierarchy. This event appears to have given a new impetus to the
growth of the church and her salutary institutions. Religious communities
multiplied under the fostering care of the Cardinal Archbishop, and the
encouragement which the Holy Father never ceased to afford. From 80, at
the accession of Pius IX., they rose to 367; and schools and colleges
increased from 500 to 1,300. The number of priests in Great Britain was
more than trebled. It grew from 820 to 1,968, whilst churches and chapels
rose in proportion--from 626 to 1,268. The number of dignitaries and other
ministers of the Church of England, by law established, who, within the
same period, embraced the Catholic faith, is estimated at over one
thousand. There were, at the same time, numerous conversions among the
laity. All this, together with the natural growth of population and
immigration from Ireland, accounts for the increase of Catholics
throughout the British isles in the days of Pius IX., as well as for the
great additions to the number of their clergy, churches, religious and
educational institutions. Monsignore Capel ascribes these extraordinary
developments in great measure to the action of that section of the Church
of England which is known as the High Church or Ritualist division of the
Establish