112
Shortly after the outbreak of the German KvUur* kampf, toe Prussian Government, without the knowl-
edge or co-operation of Ledochowski, passed an ordi-
nance that, after Easter, 1873, all religious instruction
in Posen should be imparted in the German language
only. It was but natural that the Polish people
should object to such an unjust ordinance, especially
since most of the children were either entirely igno-
rant of the German lan^age or understood it only
with difficulty. When the Government ignored the
urgent request of the archbishop to revoke the ordi-
nance, he issued a circular on 23 February, 1873, to the
teachers of religion at the higher educational insti-
tutions, ordering them to use the vernacular in their
religious instructions in the lower classes, but per-
mitting the use of the German language in the higher
classes, beginning with the secunda. Pius IX ap-
S roved this act of the archbishop in a Brief dated 24 [arch, 1873. All the teachers of religion were obedi- ent to their archbishop and, in consequence, the Government deprived them of their positions. Ke- lson being thus no longer taught at many institu- tions, the archbishop erected private religious schools, but in an ordinance of 17 September, 1873, the Govern- ment forbade all pupils of the higher institutions to obtain religious instruction at these private schools. As all protests of the archbishop proved useless, he dis- regarded the unjust ordinances of the Government, and, after being fined repeatedly, he was finally ordered on 24 Isovember, 1873, to present his resig- nation. The archbishop's answer was that no tem- poral court had the right to deprive him of an office which God had imposed upon him through His visi- ble representative on earth. Before he was formally deposed, he was arrested between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning of 3 February, 1874, and carried off to the dungeon of Ostrowo, because he refused to pay the repeated fines imposed upon him. While in prison, he was created cardinal by Pius IX on 13 March, 1874. The Prussian Government declared him deposed on 15 April, 1874. On 3 February, 1876, he was re- leased from prison, but was ordered to leave Prussia. He continued to rule his diocese from Rome, and was sentenced to imprisonment for "arrogating episcopal rights" on three occasions, viz., 9 Feb. and 26 May. 1877, and 7 Nov., 1878. After being appointed aecretarjr of papal Briefs in 1885 he voluntarily re- signed his archdiocese in the interests of peace. In 1892 he became Prefect of the Propaganda, an office which he held until his death. An official reconcilia- tion between the cardinal and the Prussian Govern- ment took place when Emperor William II visited Rome in 1893.
BrCck, Geachichte der katholiachen Kin-he in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundfrt, IV (Mainz, 1901), 147-50 et alibi: Hor.AN in The Iri§h Ecdeaiastical Review^ fourth series, XII (Dublin, 1902), 289-301.
Michael Off.
Leeds (Loinis), Diocesb of (Loidensis), em- braces the West Hiding of Yorkshire, and that part of the city of York to the south of the River Ouae. Though one of the fourteen dioceses now comprised in the Province of Westminster, it. was not erected at the time of the restoration of the English hierarchy by Pius IX in 1&50. For in that year the Holy See, whilst anticipating and providing for its ultimate division, created for Yorki*hire the See of Beverley, with jurisdiction over the entire county then known to the ecclesiastical authorities as the Yorkshire Dis- trict. As that of Lancashire, this vicariate had Ixien made in 1840 by Gregory XVI out of a portion of the original Northern District, first establislied by Inno- cent XI, in 1688.
Dr. John Briggs, President of St. Cuthbert's College, Durham (1832-36), and last vicar Apostolic of this extensive territory, which included seven counties of the North of England, and the Isle of Man, was, in
1833, eonsecrated as Bishop of Trachis in parUbfiimp
and coadjutor of the Northern District, to which hs
succeeded in 1836. In 1839 he returned the number
of CathoUcs within his vicariate as about 180,000, of
whom only 13,000 were in Yorkshire. Having in
1840 been appointed to the Yorkshire District, Dr.
Bri^s, by a aecree of Propaganda approved by Pius
IX, 23 Sept., 1850, was translated from Tracms to
Beverley, which see he resigned, 7 Nov., 1860. He
died at York, 4 Jan., 1861. Eventually senior bishop
of the restored hierarchy, his episcopate was one long,
heroic struggle to provide schools and churches lor an
ever-growing destitute Catholic population — ^the out -
come of many years of Irish immigration. So early as
1838, Bishop Brings deplored th^t great numbers of
his people were witnout pastors, without chapels, and
without schools for their children; of whom, in 1845,
he stated that, in Yorkshire alone, no less than 3000
were receiving no Catholic education whatsoever —
a class, ten years later, known to have numbered,
throughout England and Wales. 120,000.
Dr. Briggs was succeeded in the See of Beverley by Dr. Robert Comthwaite, canon of Hexham and New- castle, and formerly rector of the English College. Rome (1851-57). He was consecrated by Cardinal Wiseman, 10 Nov., 1861. Subsequently, Dr. Com- thwaite obtained from Rome a Brief, dated 20 Dec., 1878, though not published until 6 Feb., 1879, dividing the Diocese of Beverley into those of Leeds and Middles- brough — that of Leeds lying, for the most part, to the south of a line running east and west through the County of Yorkshire, marked by the courses of the Humber, the Ouse, and the Ure, but embracing also a small [>ortion of the county north of the Ouse in- cluded within the parliamentary division of the West Riding. Of the 152 clergy of Beverley (who in 1850 had numbered 69) 98 were transferred to Leeds; of its 123 churches and cliapels (which twenty-nine years before were 61) Beverley surrendered to Leeds 85; whilst of its 141 schools (in 1850 in all 31) 105 were transferred to the larger of the two new dioceses, carrying with them more tlian four-fifths of the 15,677 children formerly in attendance within the Diocese of Beverley.
Dr. Comthwaite having petitioned the Holy See for assistance, he received as coadjutor Dr. William Gordon, a member oC the Leeds Chapter, and after- wards his vicar-general, and rector of the diocesan seminary. The last priest ordained by Dr. Briggs in 1859, he was consecrated as Bishop of ArcadiopoUs in partibus, and coadjutor of Leeds cum jure succes^ sioniSf 24 Feb.. 1890, to which see he succeeded upon the death of liis predecessor, 16 June, 1890. His coadjutor, Dr. Joseph Robert Cowgill, was appointed fifteen years later cum iure successionis. At that time financial agent of the diocese^ and canon of the Chap- ter, he was consecrated as Bishop of Olenus in parti- bus, 30 Nov., 1905.
With an estimated Catholicpopulation of about 106;- 000, mostly operatives, the Diocese of Leeds now con- tains 138 churches and chapels, served by 163 clei^, of whom 36 are members of religious orders and congrega- tions. Of its 150 elementary and other schools, 70 are taught by religious. Among other memorials of Dr. Comthwaite's episcopate, l^sides 39 churches and chapels, and its diocesan seminary at Leeds, the diocese possesses houses of the Little Sisters of the Poor, for the aged and infirm, at Sheffield and Leeds; industrial schools for boys and girls at Shibden and Sheffield; St. Mary's Orplianage for Girls and St. Vuicent's Working Bo>^' Home, at Leeds; and, at Boston Spa, St. John's Institution for the Deaf and Duml^ — one of the largest of its kind, and in efficiency second to none in the kingdom. During Dr. Gordon's government of the diocese, much-needed secondary schools for boys have been established at Leeds and Bradford: of these, St. Michael's College, Leeds, b^ing erected
