Labadists

 Laban

 Labarum

 Jean-Baptiste Labat

 Philippe Labbe

 Labour and Labour Legislation

 Moral Aspects of Labour Unions

 Jean de La Bruyère

 Labyrinth

 Stanislas Du Lac

 Lace

 Diocese of Lacedonia

 François d'Aix de la Chaise

 Jean-Baptiste-Henri Dominique Lacordaire

 Diocese of La Crosse

 Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius

 James Laderchi

 St. Ladislaus

 René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec

 Laetare Sunday

 Pomponius Laetus

 Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette

 Joseph-François Lafitau

 Louis-François Richer Laflèche

 Jean de La Fontaine

 Nicolas-Joseph Laforêt

 Charles de La Fosse

 Modesto Lafuente y Zamalloa

 Lagania

 Pierre Lagrené

 Jean-François La Harpe

 Jean de La Haye (Jesuit Biblical scholar)

 Jean de La Haye

 Philippe de la Hire

 Diocese of Lahore

 Diocese of Laibach

 Laicization

 James Lainez

 Laity

 Lake Indians

 Charles Lalemant

 Gabriel Lalemant

 Jerome Lalemant

 Jacques-Philippe Lallemant

 Louis Lallemant

 Teresa Lalor

 César-Guillaume La Luzerne

 Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck

 Alphonse de Lamartine

 Paschal Lamb

 Lamb in Early Christian Symbolism

 Peter Lambeck

 St. Lambert

 Lambert Le Bègue

 Lambert of Hersfeld

 Lambert of St-Bertin

 Jacques and Jean de Lamberville

 Louis Lambillotte

 Denis Lambin

 Luigi Lambruschini

 Ven. Joseph Lambton

 Diocese of Lamego

 Félicité Robert de Lamennais

 Jean-Marie-Robert de Lamennais

 Family of Lamoignon

 Johann von Lamont

 Louis-Christophe-Leon Juchault de la Moricière

 Wilhelm Lamormaini

 Lampa

 Lamp and Lampadarii

 Lamprecht

 Early Christian Lamps

 Lampsacus

 Lamuel

 Lamus

 Bernard Lamy

 François Lamy

 Thomas Joseph Lamy

 Francesco Lana

 The Holy Lance

 Giovanni Paolo Lancelotti

 Archdiocese of Lanciano and Ortona

 Land-Tenure in the Christian Era

 Pope Lando

 Jean-François-Anne Landriot

 Lanfranc

 Giovanni Lanfranco

 Matthew Lang

 Rudolph von Langen

 Benoit-Marie Langénieux

 Simon Langham

 Langheim

 Ven. Richard Langhorne

 Richard Langley

 Diocese of Langres

 Stephen Langton

 Lanspergius

 Lantern

 Luigi Lanzi

 Laodicea

 Vicariate Apostolic of Laos

 Diocese of La Paz

 Pierre-Simon Laplace

 Lapland and Lapps

 Diocese of La Plata

 Archdiocese of La Plata

 Albert Auguste de Lapparent

 Volume 10

 Victor de Laprade

 Lapsi

 Ven. Luis de Lapuente

 Laranda

 Lares

 Armand de La Richardie

 Diocese of Larino

 Larissa

 Joseph de La Roche Daillon

 The Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

 Henri-Auguste-Georges du Vergier, Comte de la Rochejacquelein

 Diocese of La Rochelle

 Dominique-Jean Larrey

 Charles de Larue

 Charles de La Rue

 La Salette

 Missionaries of La Salette

 René-Robert-Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

 Ernst von Lasaulx

 Constantine Lascaris

 Janus Lascaris

 John Laski

 Baron Joseph Maria Christoph von Lassberg

 Orlandus de Lassus

 Marie Lataste

 Flaminius Annibali de Latera

 Christian Museum of Lateran

 Saint John Lateran

 Lateran Councils

 Ecclesiastical Latin

 Latin Church

 Christian Latin Literature

 Classical Latin Literature in the Church

 Brunetto Latini

 La Trappe

 Pierre-André Latreille

 Latria

 Lauda Sion

 Lauds

 Laura

 Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie

 Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva

 Jean de Lauzon

 Pierre de Lauzon

 Lavabo

 Diocese of Laval

 François de Montmorency Laval

 Jean Parisot de La Valette

 Laval University of Quebec

 Lavant

 Charles-Honoré Laverdière

 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de Lavérendrye

 Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère

 Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie

 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

 Law

 Canon Law

 Influence of the Church on Civil Law

 Common Law

 Moral Aspect of Divine Law

 International Law

 Natural Law

 Roman Law

 St. Lawrence (2)

 St. Lawrence (1)

 St. Lawrence Justinian

 St. Lawrence O'Toole

 Lay Abbot

 Lay Brothers

 Lay Communion

 Lay Confession

 Paul Laymann

 Lay Tithes

 Lazarus

 Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem

 St. Lazarus of Bethany

 Diocese of Lead

 The League

 German (Catholic) League

 League of the Cross

 St. Leander of Seville

 Diocese of Leavenworth

 Lebanon

 Lebedus

 Edmond-Frederic Le Blant

 Charles Lebrun

 St. Lebwin

 Emile-Paul-Constant-Ange Le Camus

 Etienne Le Camus

 Joseph Le Caron

 Diocese of Lecce

 François Leclerc du Tremblay

 Chrestien Leclercq

 Lecoy de La Marche

 Claude Le Coz

 Lectern

 Lectionary

 Lector

 Miecislas Halka Ledochowski

 Diocese of Leeds

 Camille Lefebvre

 Family of Lefèvre

 Jacques Le Fèvre

 Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie

 Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples

 Legacies

 Legate

 Literary or Profane Legends

 Legends of the Saints

 Diocese of Leghorn

 Legio

 Oliver Legipont

 Legists

 Legitimation

 Charles Le Gobien

 Louis Legrand

 Ven. Louise de Marillac Le Gras

 Arthur-Marie Le Hir

 Abbey of Lehnin

 The System of Leibniz

 Ven. Richard Leigh

 Leipzig

 University of Leipzig

 Diocese of Leitmeritz

 Jean Lejeune

 Jacques Lelong

 Louis-Joseph Le Loutre

 Diocese of Le Mans

 Lemberg

 Henry Lemcke

 François Le Mercier

 Jacques Lemercier

 Thomas de Lemos

 Le Moyne

 Simon Le Moyne

 Pierre-Charles L'Enfant

 Adam Franz Lennig

 Charles Lenormant

 François Lenormant

 Denis-Nicolas Le Nourry

 Lent

 Publius Lentulus

 Pope St. Leo I (the Great)

 Pope St. Leo II

 Pope St. Leo III

 Pope St. Leo IV

 Pope Leo V

 Pope Leo VI

 Pope Leo VII

 Pope Leo VIII

 Pope St. Leo IX

 Pope Leo X

 Pope Leo XI

 Pope Leo XII

 Pope Leo XIII

 Brother Leo

 St. Leocadia

 St. Leodegar

 Leo Diaconus

 Diocese and Civil Province of Leon

 Diocese of León

 Luis de León

 Leonard of Chios

 St. Leonard of Limousin

 St. Leonard of Port Maurice

 St. Leonidas

 St. Leontius

 Leontius Byzantinus

 Leontopolis

 Lepanto

 Leprosy

 Leptis Magna

 Diocese of Le Puy

 Michel Le Quien

 Diocese of Lérida

 Abbey of Lérins

 Leros

 Alain-René Le Sage

 Lesbi

 Marc Lescarbot

 Pierre Lescot

 Diocese of Lesina

 John Leslie

 Leonard Lessius

 Lessons in the Liturgy

 Louis-Henri de Lestrange

 François Eustache Lesueur

 Lete

 Charles-Maurice Le Tellier

 Michel Le Tellier (1)

 Nicolas Letourneux

 Ecclesiastical Letters

 Leubus

 Leuce

 Michael Levadoux

 Louis Levau

 Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier

 Levites

 Leviticus

 Lex

 Juan Bautista de Lezana

 Michel de L'Hospital

 Libel

 Libellatici, Libelli

 Liberalism

 Libera Me

 Libera Nos

 Matteo Liberatore

 Liberatus of Carthage

 Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum

 Liberia

 Pope Liberius

 Ven. Francis Mary Paul Libermann

 Liber Pontificalis

 Liber Septimus

 Liber Sextus Decretalium

 Libraries

 Ancient Diocese of Lichfield

 St. Lidwina

 Ernst Maria Lieber

 Moriz Lieber

 Bruno Franz Leopold Liebermann

 Diocese of Liège

 Liesborn

 The Master of Liesborn

 Liessies

 Life

 Methodius I

 Ligamen

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 Ligugé

 Lilienfeld

 Aloisius Lilius

 Lille

 Lillooet Indians

 Archdiocese of Lima

 Limbo

 Pol de Limbourg

 Diocese of Limburg

 Diocese of Limerick

 Diocese of Limoges

 Limyra

 Thomas Linacre

 Archdiocese of Linares

 Diocese of Lincoln

 Diocese of Lincoln (Ancient)

 William Damasus Lindanus

 Justin Timotheus Balthasar, Freiherr von Linde

 Wilhelm Lindemann

 Ancient Diocese and Monastery of Lindisfarne

 Abbey of Lindores

 Anne Line

 John Lingard

 Linoe

 Pope St. Linus

 Diocese of Linz

 Lippe

 Filippino Lippi

 Filippo Lippi

 Luigi Lippomano

 Lipsanotheca

 Justus Lipsius

 Patriarchate of Lisbon

 Diocese of Lismore

 School of Lismore

 Thomas Lister

 Franz Liszt

 Litany

 Litany of Loreto

 Litany of the Holy Name

 Litany of the Saints

 Lithuania

 Litta

 Little Office of Our Lady

 Diocese of Little Rock

 Paul-Maximilien-Emile Littré

 Liturgical Books

 Liturgical Chant

 Liturgy

 Liutprand of Cremona

 Diocese of Liverpool

 Livias

 Llancarvan

 Diocese of Llandaff

 Llanthony Priory

 Ven. John Lloyd

 Garcia de Loaisa

 Vicariate Apostolic of Loango

 Loaves of Proposition

 Benedictine Abbey of Lobbes

 Ann Lobera

 Loccum

 Lochleven

 Stephan Lochner

 Loci Theologici

 Matthew Locke

 William Lockhart

 Ven. John Lockwood

 Diocese of Lodi

 Logia Jesu

 Logic

 The Logos

 Johann Lohel

 Tobias Lohner

 Diocese of Loja

 Lollards

 St. Loman

 Peter Lombard (1)

 Lombardy

 Etienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne

 London

 Diocese of London (Ontario)

 James Longstreet

 Félix Lope de Vega Carpio

 Francisco Lopez-Caro

 The Lord's Prayer

 Lorea

 Francisco Antonio de Lorenzana

 Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti

 St. Lorenzo da Brindisi

 Lorette

 Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross

 Claude de Lorrain

 Lorraine

 Lorsch Abbey

 Loryma

 Karl August Lossen

 Lot

 Lottery

 Antonio Lotti

 Lorenzo Lotto

 Loucheux

 St. Louis IX

 Louis XI

 Louis XIV

 Bl. Louis Allemand

 St. Louis Bertrand

 Sister Louise

 Louisiana

 St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

 Ven. Louis of Casoria

 Louis of Granada

 St. Louis of Toulouse

 Diocese of Louisville

 Brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes

 Notre-Dame de Lourdes

 University of Louvain

 Love (Theological Virtue)

 Low Church

 Low Sunday

 Lübeck

 Diocese of Lublin

 Giovanni Battista de Luca

 Frederick Lucas

 Archdiocese of Lucca

 Diocese of Lucera

 Lucerne

 Lucian of Antioch

 John Lucic

 Lucifer

 Lucifer of Cagliari

 Crypt of Lucina

 Pope St. Lucius I

 Pope Lucius II

 Pope Lucius III

 Diocese of Luçon

 St. Lucy

 St. Ludger

 St. Ludmilla

 Ludolph of Saxony

 Ludovicus a S. Carolo

 Karl Lueger

 Diocese of Lugo

 Francisco de Lugo

 John de Lugo

 Diocese of Lugos

 Bernardino Luini

 Gospel of Saint Luke

 Lulé Indians

 Jean-Baptiste Lully

 Lumen Christi

 Luminare

 Lummi Indians

 Gottfried Lumper

 Pedro de Luna

 Lund

 Lunette

 Diocese of Luni-Sarzana-Brugnato

 Lupus

 Christian Lupus

 Ottmar Luscinius

 Jean-Baptiste-Alphonse Lusignan

 Melchior Lussy

 Lust

 Martin Luther

 Lutheranism

 Aloys Lütolf

 Diocese of Lutzk, Zhitomir, and Kamenetz

 Luxemburg

 Abbey of Luxeuil

 Lycopolis

 Lydda

 John Lydgate

 Lying

 John Lynch

 William Lyndwood

 Archdiocese of Lyons

 Councils of Lyons

 First Council of Lyons (1245)

 Second Council of Lyons (1274)

 Lyrba

 Lysias

 Lystra

Diocese of Liverpool

Liverpool (Liverpolium), Diocese of (Liverpolitana), one of the thirteen dioceses into which Pius IX divided Catholic England, 29 September, 1850, when he re-established the Catholic hierarchy.

In addition to the Isle of Man it contains all North Lancashire (Amounderness and Lonsdale Hundreds), and the western portion of South Lancashire (West Derby and Leyland Hundreds), whilst the eastern portion of South Lancashire (Salford and Blackburn Hundreds), constitutes the Diocese of Salford. The diocese at present (1910) has a Catholic population of 366,611 souls. There are 184 public churches and chapels and 172 public elementary schools containing 74,100 children and 1720 teachers. There are 458 priests, 332 secular and 126 regulars including 59 Jesuits, 36 Benedictines, 10 Redemptorists, 7 Passionists, 7 members of St. Joseph's Society for Foreign Missions, 4 Fathers of the Holy Ghost, and 3 Oblates of Mary Immaculate. There are also the Irish Christian Brothers and the Brothers of Charity and in some 70 convents there are 1000 nuns belonging to the various orders or congregations of the Sisters of Mercy, Faithful Companions of Jesus, Sisters of Notre Dame, Good Shepherd Sisters, Sisters of Charity, Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters of Nazareth, Carmelites, etc. In various institutions provision is made for the blind, the aged poor, unemployed servants, penitents and fallen women, whilst for boys and girls there are orphanages, homes and refuges, poor-law schools, industrial and reformatory schools, etc. The following table contains statistics of the principal towns of the diocese:

  • Liverpool - Pop. (1910) 760,000 - 143,000 Catholics - 140 priests - 39 churches - 29 convents
  • Preston - 117,000 - 34,000 - 26 - 7 - 7
  • St. Helen's - 95,000 - 24,000 - 26 - 9 - 4
  • Wigan 89,000 - 19,000 - 16 - 6 - 2
  • Warrington - 73,000 - 9,000 - 9 - 4 - 1
  • Bootle - 70,000 - 21,000 - 14 - 4 - 0
  • Blackpool - 63,000 - 4,000 - 6 - 3 - 1
  • Barrow - 62,000 - 5,000 - 5 - 3 - 1
  • Southport - 48,000 - 2,000 - 3 - 2 - 1
  • Leigh - 45,000 - 7,000 - 8 - 4 - 0
  • Lancaster - 41,000 - 4,000 - 5 - 2 - 3
  • Chorley - 30,000 - 7,000 - 7 - 4 - 0


EDUCATION

Elementary education is provided in 172 Catholic schools attended by 74,000 children. Higher education for girls is given in the convents of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Liverpool, St. Helen's, Birkdale, and Wigan; of the Faithful Companions of Jesus in Liverpool and Preston; of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary at Great Crosby; of the Sisters of Mercy at Liverpool; and of the Holy Child Jesus at Preston and Blackpool. The great training college of the Sisters of Notre Dame at Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, trains female teachers for all parts of England. For boys there are in Liverpool the Catholic Institute under the Irish Christian Brothers, and St. Francis Xavier's College under the Jesuit Fathers, who have also a Catholic College in Preston, whilst in St. Helen's there is a Catholic Grammar School under the secular clergy and lay masters. St. Peter's College, Freshfield, trains boys in the humanities, before they enter the Foreign Missionary College established by the late Cardinal Vaughan at Mill Hill, London. The ecclesiastical students for the diocese make their preparatory studies at St. Edward's College, Liverpool (established in 1842) and then study philosophy and theology at the diocesan seminary of St. Joseph's, Upholland, near Wigan.


HISTORY SINCE 1840

From 1688 to 1840 Lancashire was subject to the Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District of England. In 1840 the Northern District was divided into three districts: the Northern District (Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, now the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle), the Yorkshire District, now the Dioceses of Middlesbrough and Leeds, and the Lancashire District containing with all Lancaster, the Isle of Man, and Cheshire. The first Vicar Apostolic of the new Lancashire District was Bishop George Hilary Brown (b. 13 Jan., 1786), who after being for twenty-one years rector of St. Peter's, Lancaster, was consecrated on 24 August, 1840, at Liverpool, by Bishop John Briggs, with the title of Bishop of Bugia in partibus, which in 1842 was changed to Bishop of Tloa in partibus. In 1843 Dr. James Sharples was consecrated coadjutor, but died in August, 1850. The following month the Lancashire District was broken into three parts, Cheshire became part of Shrewsbury Diocese, South-eastern Lancashire became the Salford Diocese, and the rest of Lancashire with the Isle of Man became the Liverpool Diocese, of which Bishop Brown remained bishop. In 1853 be obtained another coadjutor, Canon Alexander Goss, of St. Edward's College (b. 5 July, 1814, at Ormskirk), who was consecrated by Cardinal Wiseman as Bishop of Gerra. Bishop Brown died, 25 January, 1856, and was succeeded by Bishop Goss, who ruled as ordinary for seventeen years and died, 3 October, 1872. After an interval of five months Canon Bernard O'Reilly (b. 10 January, 1824, at Ballybeg, County Meath, Ireland), was consecrated by Cardinal Manning 19 March, 1873. During his long episcopacy of twenty-one years he opened some twenty-two churches in Liverpool city and the immediate neighbourhood, but his special work was the diocesan seminary of St. Joseph at Upholland, of which the foundation stone was laid on the feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph, 18 April, 1880, the college being ready to receive the students on 22 September, 1883. Two years later, on Trinity eve, 30 May, 1885, the first body of students were raised to the priesthood within its walls. Its second rector, Mgr John Bilsborrow, was taken from it in 1892 to become Bishop of Salford. Bishop O'Reilly died on 9 April, 1894, and was buried in the seminary.

Canon Thomas Whiteside (b. at Lancaster on 17 April, 1857; ordained priest in Rome, 30 May, 1885), who was the third president of the seminary, was, at the age of thirty-seven years, consecrated fourth Bishop of Liverpool by Cardinal Vaughan. The increase in the number of clergy since his accession has made possible more thorough pastoral work. During the years 1890 to 1905, the number approaching Easter Communion increased from 146,000 to 186,000; those attending Sunday school from 138,000 to 180,000, some 16,000 non-Catholics were received into the Church, whilst about two million communions are received in the course of the year by about 250,000, who have made their first communion. A very large proportion of the Catholics of the diocese, especially in the towns, are of Irish birth or descent, though in the country parts and in North Lancashire many old Lancashire Catholic families remain which during the ages that have elapsed from the Reformation have never lost the faith.

Originally Lancashire belonged to the Kingdom of Northumbria and the Diocese of York, but in 642 Southern Lancashire became part of Mercia and of the Diocese of Lichfield. Henry VIII, in 1542, made Chester, including South Lancashire, into a separate diocese. In Queen Elizabeth's time it is the Protestant Bishop of Chester who complains that there is a confederacy of Lancashire Papists, and that "from Warrington all along the sea-coast of Lancashire, the gentlemen were of that faction and withdraw themselves from religion" (i.e., from attending the Protestant service). For this crime fifty Lancashire Catholic gentlemen were arrested in one night, and in 1587 six hundred Catholic recusants were prosecuted. A yearly fine of £260 was the penalty paid in some cases for twenty years for refusing to attend the Protestant service, and after death refusal of Christian burial. At Rossall, in North Lancashire, was born Cardinal Allen, the founder of the Seminary of Douai, which in five years sent a hundred priests to face the martyr's death in England. Amongst the Lancashire martyrs were the Ven. George Haydock, b. 1556 at Cottam Hall, Preston, and martyred in 1589 at the age of 28 at Tyborne; Ven. John Thulis, b. at Upholland, near Wigan, and martyred at Lancaster in 1616, Ven. Edmund Arrowsmith, b. at Haydock, near St. Helens in 1585, and in 1628, at the age of 43, martyred at Lancaster. His "holy hand" is still devoutly kept in the church of Ashton-in-Makerfield.

In addition to the manliness of the Lancashire character and the example of sacrifice given by the Lancashire gentry, the Gerards, Blundells, Molyneuxes, Andertons, Cliftons, Scarisbricks, Gillows, the close connexion which Lancashire has always had with Ireland has done much for this preservation of the faith. Traces of this connexion are seen in the old St. Patrick's Cross of Liverpool which was supposed to mark the spot where St. Patrick preached before sailing to Ireland, and in the pre-Reformation chalice still preserved at Fernyhalgh, near Preston, which bears the date of 1529 and an inscription testifying that it was given by "Dosius Maguire, Chieftain of Fermanagh". Again the Irish famine of 1847 filled the Lancashire towns with Irish exiles so that hardly one can be found without its church of St. Patrick to mark their devotion to him who brought them their Catholic Faith.

The Catholic Directory, 1850-1910; Liverpool Catholic Annual, 1880-1910; Hughes, Liverpool Quarant' Ore Guide, 1895-1910; Hughes, Catholic Guide to Liverpool, 1903; Liverpool Catholic Times and Catholic Fireside; Gibson, Cavalier's Note-book; Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire; Cheetham Society.—Norris Papers and Chauntries of Lancashire; Haydock Papers; Burke, History of Catholic Liverpool, 1910; Blundell, Crosby Records; Challoner, Missionary Priests; Camm, English Martyrs; Crosby Records.—Harkirke Burial Register; Fishwick, History of Lancashire; Picton, Memorials of Liverpool and Liverpool Municipal Records; Camden, Britannia; Leland, Itinerary; Muir, History of Liverpool, 1907; Baines, Commerce and Town of Liverpool; Brooke, Liverpool as It Was; Dixon Scott, Liverpool; Gillow, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., passim.

JAMES HUGHES