Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

surrender my crozier into the hands of a knot of lawyers & fox hunters? … Believe me, Dr Sir, a different
mode of proceeding must be followed if Emancipation is ever to be gained. 11
In an undated letter sent apparently some months later, in which he reported that he was
unable to find a priest for Gage’s sister-in-law, Milner went on:
I am sorry that you prefer writing to me on trifling subjects of antiquity to the all-important & everlasting
concerns of Religion...the last time I had the honour of hearing from you, there was question of our taking
the Civil-Sword Oath, which proved to be what I then pronounced it the Oath of Supremacy for refusing
which the great More lost his head. 12
Milner’s religious position was what was known as ‘Ultramontane’, that is he
looked to Rome as the only source of ecclesiastical authority. His objection to the terms
on which Emancipation was being offered in the bill presented to the Commons in March
1821 was that it required Catholics to subscribe in effect to the Oath of Supremacy,
setting, as he saw it, the state above the church. He had lost no time in publishing a
pamphlet, which appeared on 13 March and was intended to rally the Catholic population
against the bill. To many of the laity, especially those of the gentry like Gage who were
happy to reach an accommodation with the Established Church in secular matters,
Milner’s approach seemed unnecessarily divisive and inflammatory. By the time of this
second letter to Gage the bill had fallen in the Lords but Milner was busy rousing the
Irish clergy in support of his views. Gage had clearly chosen to ignore the whole subject,
rather than risk a quarrel. It was a dislike of confrontation reflected in his antiquarianism.
He was not passive. He was more than willing to enter into public controversy on a
purely antiquarian matter, such as the alterations to York Minster, but on subjects of
Catholic history and politics he sought to avoid dispute and to a great degree succeeded.
Thirteen years later, when Milner was dead and Catholic Emancipation a legal
fact, Lingard and Gage were still in correspondence. Thanking Gage for a copy of his
paper on Anglo-Saxon ritual on 22 April 1834, Lingard remarked, not for the first time,
11 Hengrave mss 21/1/84.
12 Hengrave mss 21/1/93.
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