THE Roman Catholic Church of _Our Lady of Victories_, commonly called the
Pro-Cathedral, situate in Newland-terrace, Kensington, is a very fine,
yet simple structure in early English style of Gothic architecture; but
is so hidden by the houses behind which it has been placed that the real
effect of the building is lost, and one can therefore only make a guess
at the probable general appearance. The building is sufficiently lofty,
however, to be easily seen from a distance, and its high-pitched and
crested roof, with miniature angled and decorated spire, breaks up the
sky line somewhat pleasingly. Upon closer inspection the north front
(the church is built N. and S.) possesses some very excellent detail.
The centre doorway is double, recessed and handsomely treated with
polished granite shafts, and the doors are surmounted by a seated figure
of the Saviour. The buttresses with ancient pinnacles are effective, and
the general treatment of this front, though executed in simple brick and
stone, is very bold. The architecture of the interior is also very
boldly treated, and even more than the outside is strikingly plain—one
might say white. This is accounted for by the absence of stained glass
and coloured decorations of any kind, a defect which we understand is now
about to be remedied. There are six altars besides the high altar.
Looking up the nave towards the latter, the effect is certainly very
good, and the polished granite columns and carved stone caps surmounted
by the lofty arcade and clerestory and simple roof together make up a
very excellent interior. The chancel is apsidal and has a groined
ceiling, and is lighted by a very plain window on each side of the apse.
The aisles are interspersed with the altars and confessionals, and the
altar to the Virgin has an elaborate reredos, over which are various
figures, the centre one being, as the Roman Catholics say, “Our Lady.”
The organ, a very fine one, is mounted on granite columns at the north
end of the nave, and is approached by a rather awkward open and spiral
staircase, and the columns are confusing, which we do not think adds to
the good effect of the church. The font is very nice indeed and carved
in relief; on the four sides are the emblems of the Evangelists; it has a
handsome oak cover, but, like the building itself, is lost in a corner.
The benches are very plain, and the aisles are intended to be filled with
chairs. The pulpit is enormous, and we must say unsightly; and the gas
standards, like the pulpit, strike one as being too large, and appear to
offer great obstruction to sight and sound.
The movement for a new Roman Catholic Church in Kensington began about
six years ago, on account of the small dimensions of the former chapel in
Upper Holland-street. The area of the latter was 71 ft. by 21 ft., that
of the new church 144 ft. by 58 ft., making a difference of 6,861 square
feet area; and the architect, J. Goldie, Esq., has made good use of the
space at his disposal. There are 820 seats, of which 180 are free. The
pews in the centre have 470 seats; the sides are occupied by chairs, and
those on the right are free. By an extension of the same system, the
church can accommodate about 1,100 persons. The works were commenced in
1867, and the church opened on July 2nd, 1869. The total cost, including
the organ, is about 27,000_l._ Of this a considerable portion remains as
a debt; which circumstance will prevent a most desirable improvement in
the entry from the main road for some time to come. At the opening Dr.
Manning made it his _Pro-Cathedral_—_i.e._, the church which he would use
instead of a cathedral, until his own should be finished. The enterprise
has been much assisted by the Very Rev. Mgr. Capel, the Travelling
Chaplain of the Marquis of Bute, and the present principal priest of the
church. The other clergy attached are the Rev. R. F. Clarke and the Rev.
James O’Connell.
Intending to visit the church on Easter Sunday morning, we made a
preliminary visit on Saturday afternoon. Although busy preparations were
going on for the great ceremonial to follow, it was open for worship; and
during our stay, from five to half-past six P.M., a considerable number
came and went for prayer and confession, sprinkling themselves with the
_holy water_ from the vases both on entering and retiring, and bowing the
knee towards the high altar. The majority of the comers were females,
many of them young; but not a few older women, and some both young and
old of the other sex. Those who intended confession gathered near the
“confession boxes,” of which there are two. The one most in request was
that on the east side, occupied, as confessor, by the Rev. Monseigneur
Capel. The other, on the north side, was held by the Rev. Mr. O’Connell.
A number of young persons on their knees awaited opportunity near the
former and some near the latter. The box or cell known as the
Confessional is a small wooden structure, fixed against the wall, having
three niches concealed by curtains. In the centre one sits the
confessor, his surplice being just visible where the curtains should join
over the dwarf door; and on either side a niche into which the penitent
enters, communicated with by the priest through a grated aperture. The
visitor gently taps at this, and the confessor listens to hear the
whispered complaint, and whispers back his reply, his queries, his
comfort or admonition. Most that entered within the curtain were young
women, apparently of the servant class, but to this there were a few
exceptions, and in one instance a young man entered. As we tarried a
great lady came, closely followed by her footman in powdered wig. It was
the Countess of —, known in West-end circles during the London season.
She has a handsome presence, and entered the church with a cheerful,
beaming countenance. Addressing an instruction to her servant, he went
to a small side chapel near the chancel, and soon returned with a young
dark official in a dingy cassock, who might have been taken for an ardent
Carmelite under all the depression of protracted fasting and bodily
neglect. To him the Countess gave a note or a card, which he deposited
with Mgr. Capel at the Confessional. Shortly both priests left their
boxes and walked up the centre aisle to the side chapel, the Countess
following. In about fifteen minutes they returned, and the lady took her
departure. She was much altered in countenance, looking sad and
discomposed.
On Easter Sunday—the great day of all the days in the year with the
Catholics—at eleven A.M., commenced the performance of High Mass, and
Archbishop Manning, as announced, was present, and preached the sermon.
The church was well attended, but not crowded. There was no rush to
obtain the “shilling” or “six-penny” seats, and a large number remained
unlet to the end. This charge for the seats probably kept many out; but
it is understood to be a necessary measure, in consequence of the heavy
debt on the place, the large current expenses of the services, and the
general poverty of the people. In the congregation were several
notabilities; and far up towards the chancel the white hair and
expressive features of Mr. Bellew, the well-known dramatic reader, were
visible. He was until recently a clergyman in the Church of England, and
is now a layman in the Romish Church at this place. It was impossible to
repress a reflection on the score that the public reader in the pew and
the principal actor in the scene were both during the better half of
their days ministers in the Protestant Establishment. The first view of
the ceremony revealed a crowd of priests and mass attendants variously
arrayed and employed. One faced the altar at a little distance, swinging
a censer vessel, to the time and motion of the pendulum of a clock.
During the ceremony he appeared several times in the same position and
act. A number, grouped round the Archbishop on his throne, having a
gorgeous canopy and draped in scarlet and amber, were very busy in
adjusting their vestments. The movements, to the uninitiated, might seem
a simple toilette operation, but were really part and parcel of the
ceremony, every one having a symbolical allusion to the events of the
commemoration. Even the style and colour of the dresses were charmed by
occult references, not traceable to the outsider. Taking off the
Archbishop’s mitre and replacing the tall cloven covering on his head,
which occurred several times, was a great formality, performed by a
priest with the most tender and reverent care, all the others devoutly
witnessing. The rising and stepping forth of the Archbishop, with his
huge silver crook, to bow or prostrate himself before the _altar_, and to
adore the _sacrifice_, were luminous points of interest, and brought into
view a _tout ensemble_ and tinsel of ornate worship never to be
witnessed, except at High Mass in a Romish Church. To describe all the
acts of this most intricate and complicate ceremonial would not be
possible in this article. The flitting of acolytes with candles, the
processions, the swinging of censers filled with incense, until the altar
and chancel were enveloped in a cloud; the wafting of the perfume to the
congregation till it reached the very limits of the church; kissing the
altar, and all the mysterious movements thereat; the changes of books,
the brief Latin recitations, the tinkling of bells, the elevation of the
Host, all allied with perpetual animation, make up a whole which it is
difficult, indeed, either to describe or understand. To witness it lays
very large demands both upon the patience and gravity of ordinary
mortals, and is liable to trouble even the conscience of a genuine
Protestant.
The choir accompanied the performance with the grand music of Mozart’s
7th Mass, Herr Carl Stepan singing the principal bass with admirable
effect, and the treble being well sustained by the boys. The organist is
R. Sutton Swaby, Esq., of Gordon-cottages, Hammersmith. This instrument,
built by Messrs. Bryceson Bros., is classed among the finest of the day.
It has four manuals and a powerful pedal organ. In all there are
fifty-four stops, and the solo stops, including the _voix celeste_ and
the _voix humaine_, are considered particularly fine. Mr. Swaby is
master of a very superior instrument, and feels pleasure on Sunday
evenings after service in giving the people an opportunity of hearing its
different effects by playing a short selection of music in varied styles.
On Sunday morning the offertory was accompanied with the _Hæc Dies_, and
the Hallelujah Chorus formed a grand voluntary at the end. During the
execution of this the Archbishop, crook in hand, the priests, and altar
servants formed and walked in procession down the centre aisle and round
the church to the side chapel, preceded by the acolytes with candles.
The prelate waved his hand as he went in token of blessing the people,
and the chief priests bore his train. Dr. Manning appeared in the
closing scene to move feebly and to be well-nigh exhausted.
The sermon came in the midst of the service, a procession escorting the
Archbishop to the pulpit. On reaching it, turning to the priests in the
rear, he delivered to one his crook, and bowing his head another took off
his mitre, and, wishing to be free from all impediments, he handed to
them the book-rest and book, and, advancing to the front bareheaded and
without book or paper, commenced an extempore discourse on John xi. 25:
“I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Although somewhat aged of late,
the Doctor retains remarkable strength and clearness of voice. As to the
doctrine of the sermon, it was in the main in unison with the
requirements of the Christian pulpit, being a review of the Saviour’s
humanity in his incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection. This
latter event was most graphically portrayed in its various circumstances,
and in the Christian’s hopes and interests which centre in it, in that
chaste and elegant language for which the Archbishop is noted. The
course of remark offered an opportunity for putting forward some of the
distinguishing dogmas of Popery, but the preacher did not seem to avail
himself of it. Having, however, done with the text and its doctrines, he
launched into political questions connected with the Papacy. An article
had appeared on the previous day in the _Times_ treating of their
services on Good Friday; and admonishing the Catholics to fall in with
the course of “modern civilisation.” This the Archbishop called a
“petulant, senseless, and clamorous” article; and stigmatised “modern
civilisation” as the “world going its own course, without God, Christ, or
religion.” He inveighed keenly upon this point, referring to the present
and past condition of Paris as the “centre of so-called modern
civilisation,” and confidently predicted that the temporal power of the
Pope, which had been so _wickedly_ assailed, could never be shaken. By
that he meant not the mere possession of “a bit of land,” but “that
independence of all earthly power and control with which the Vicar of
Christ was invested.”
The Roman Catholic population of Kensington is from 1,800 to 2,000, a
large proportion being of the poorer classes and principally the Irish
residents. Three poor schools are supported—a boys’ school in Upper
Holland-street, educating about 70 or 80; a girls’ and infant school in
Earl’s-court, educating about 50; of which more than half are reported to
be Protestants; the third school (girls’ and infants’) is by
Kensington-square, with about 150 children. There are no district
churches attached; but the clergy supply the convent in
Kensington-square.
The congregation at the _Pro_-Cathedral is said to have greatly increased
since the opening; and the collections now reach an average of 30_l._ per
Sunday.