Page:VCH London 1.djvu/461

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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY passed a resolution against the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts/" but the growth of Nonconformity inevitably increased the spirit of tolerance. By 1827 the sentiment of the City had changed;" in 1829 Peel was presented with the freedom for his work in favour of Catholic emancipation, and this was followed by an address from the Common Council petitioning both Houses of Parliament to support the measure."' In 1830 the inscrip- tion charging the Roman Catholics with causing the Great Fire was removed from the Monument,"* and in the same year the Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed by Parliament. The change in public opinion enabled the Church to perform her work, and services openly ; in 1792 the first Roman Catholic chapel in West- minster was opened in York Street, but was closed in 1798 for lack of funds. The same fate met the chapel established by the Neapolitan embassy in Great Smith Street in 1802. There was afterwards a temporary chapel in Dartmouth Street, and in 1 8 1 3 was built the church of St. Mary, Horseferry Road, enlarged in 1852."' In 18 14 there were twelve chapels in London and the City served by thirty-one priests, and an estimated Roman Catholic population of 49,800 ; in 1829 the Roman Catholic population had increased to 146,000 out of an estimated total of 1,500,000."' The important chapel of St. Mary Moorfields, pulled down a few years ago, was opened in 1820, whea it succeeded the two secret chapels which existed there as early as 1740;"^ twelve other London chapels were enumerated in 1835."' The Papal Bull of 1850 was followed by the organization of the diocese of Westminster under Cardinal Wiseman,"' but the fine cathedral was not used for service until 1902; including this and the largely-attended St. George's Cathedral there were, in 1904, fourteen chapels in Westminster and South wark."" When the Huguenot refugees flocked to London in 1686'*' they found in Threadneedle Street a French Protestant church which had existed since 1550."' The number of the new immigrants necessitated the building of another church in Aldersgate in 1686, and of churches in Spitalfields and Hungerford Market in the following year. By 1688 twelve more churches were established in the Savoy, Castle Street, Leicester Square, Spring Gardens, Dean Street Soho, and other parts of London,"' and the Royal Exchange was specially opened on Sunday for the accommodation of French Protestants between the times of morning and afternoon service."* In 1904 there were three French Protestant churches in Westminster out of the seven foreign Protestant churches in the metropolis."^ The prejudice which, in 1676-7, would have banished the Jews from the City'" found an expression in 1704—5 when several German Jews attempted to erect a new synagogue within the walls, but were prevented by the Common Council."^ But though labouring under disabilities, extended "' Corp. Rec. Journ. Ixxii, fol. 70. '" Ibid, ci, fol. 174-7, 180. '" Ibid, cii, fol. 376-73. "< Welch, op. cit. 167. '" J. E. Smith, St. John the Evangelist Par. Mem. 245. "* Gasquet, op. cit. 1 24-7. "' Welch, op. cit. 150 ; Harting, Cath. Lond. Missions, 82. "' Metropolitan Eccl. Dir. 148 et seq. '" Blomfield, Mem. ofC. J. Blomjield, ii, 140. '" Mudie-Smith, Relig. Life of Lond. 108, 182, 259. '" Cooper, Foreign Protestants, 35-59. '" Burn, French Protestant Refugees, 24.

  • " R. Lane Poole, Hist, of Huguenots of Dispersion, 80-6.

'" Ivimey, Life of William Kiffin, 108 ; Rec. Corp. Repert. xciii, fol. ()zb. "* Mudie-Smith, op. cit. 107, 126, 182. "« Rec. Corp. Repert. Ixxxii, zilb. Ibid, cix, fol. 199, 215. 373 iil