Editing William Ewart Gladstone (section)

===Anti-Catholicism===
{{Further|Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom}}
Gladstone had a complex ambivalence about Catholicism. He was attracted by its international success in majestic traditions. More important, he was strongly opposed to the authoritarianism of its pope and bishops, its profound public opposition to liberalism, and its supposed refusal to distinguish between secular allegiance on the one hand and spiritual obedience on the other.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Josef L. |last=Altholz |title=The Vatican Decrees Controversy, 1874–1875 |journal=Catholic Historical Review |volume=57 |issue=4 |date=1972 |pages=593–605 |jstor=25018950 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25018950 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612053950/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25018950 |archive-date=12 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=H. S. C. |last=Matthew |title=Gladstone: 1809–1898 |date=1997 |page=248}}</ref><!---What does this gave to do with Catholicism? On the other hand, when ritual practices in the Church of England - such as vestments and incense&nbsp;–  came under attack as too ritualistic and too much akin to Catholicism, Gladstone strongly opposed the passage of the [[Public Worship Regulation Act 1874|Public Worship Regulation Act]] in 1874.<ref>{{cite book |first=David W. |last=Bebbington |title=William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain |date=1990 |page=226}}</ref>--->

In November 1874, he published the pamphlet ''[[The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance]]'', directed at the [[First Vatican Council]]'s dogmatising [[Papal Infallibility]] in 1870, which had outraged him.<ref>{{cite book|first=William Ewart |last= Gladstone|title=The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: A Political Expostulation |url=https://archive.org/stream/a628791400gladuoft#page/n3/mode/2up|publisher=John Murray|place=London|year=1874|edition=1 |access-date= 10 June 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref> Gladstone claimed that this decree had placed British Catholics in a dilemma over conflicts of loyalty to the Crown. He urged them to reject papal infallibility as they had opposed the [[Spanish Armada]] of 1588. The pamphlet sold 150,000 copies by the end of 1874. [[Henry Edward Manning|Cardinal Manning]] denied that the council had changed the relation of Catholics to their civil governments, and Archbishop [[James Roosevelt Bayley]], in a letter which was obtained by the ''[[New York Herald]]'' and published without Bayley's express permission, called Gladstone's declaration "a shameful calumny" and attributed his "monomania" to the "political [[seppuku|hari-kari]]" he had committed by dissolving Parliament, accusing him of "putting on 'the [[cap and bells]]' and attempting to play the part of [[Lord George Gordon]]" in order to restore his political fortunes.<ref name="nyherald-infallibility">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Infallibility. The Manning-Gladstone Controversy. Archbishop Bayley's Views. |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1874-11-22/ed-1/seq-5/ |work=New York Herald |location= |date=22 November 1874 |access-date=27 April 2021 |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427205300/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1874-11-22/ed-1/seq-5/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Yeager |first=M. Hildegarde |author-link= |date=1947 |title=The Life of James Roosevelt Bayley, First Bishop of Newark and Eighth Archbishop of Baltimore, 1814–1877 |url= |location=Washington, D. C. |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |pages=393–396}}</ref> [[John Henry Newman]] wrote the ''[[Letter to the Duke of Norfolk]]'' in reply to Gladstone's charges that Catholics have "no mental freedom" and cannot be good citizens.

A second pamphlet followed in Feb 1875, a defence of the earlier pamphlet and a reply to his critics, entitled ''Vaticanism: an Answer to Reproofs and Replies''.<ref>{{cite book|first=William Ewart |last= Gladstone|title=Vaticanism: an Answer to Reproofs and Replies|url=https://archive.org/stream/a622102400gladuoft#page/n3/mode/2up|publisher=John Murray|place=London|year=1875|edition=1 |access-date= 10 June 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref> He described the Catholic Church as "an Asian monarchy: nothing but one giddy height of despotism, and one dead level of religious subservience". He further claimed that the Pope wanted to destroy the rule of law and replace it with arbitrary tyranny, and then to hide these "crimes against liberty beneath a suffocating cloud of incense".<ref>{{cite book |first=Philip |last=Magnus |title=Gladstone: A Biography |location=London |publisher=John Murray |date=1963 |pages=235–236}}</ref>
[[File:Portrait of Hawarden 1877 William Gladstone (4672759) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Gladstone at Hawarden in 1877]]