Catholic Committee

The Cisalpine Club was an association of Roman Catholic laymen formed in England in the 1790s to promote Cisalpinism, and played a role in the public debate surrounding the progress of Catholic Emancipation.

The principles of Cisalpinism represented a reaction against the attitude hitherto traditional among Roman Catholics, which seems to have begun about the time of the death of James Francis Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender", in January 1766. Up to then they had been staunch Jacobites, and had looked to the restoration of the Stuarts as the only chance for a revival of their faith. About this time, however, by what one contemporary writer called "one of those singular revolutions for which no cause can be assigned", they gave up their former political aspirations, and accepted the reigning House of Hanover.

One likely cause was that from January 1766 the Papacy did not recognise James's heir Charles as a sovereign, which disconnected Catholicism from the Jacobite movement.

Part of this reaction was a suspicion of the wisdom of their ecclesiastical rulers, who, they became convinced, had adopted in the past a needlessly strict attitude, opposed to English national aspirations and which (they contended) had been dictated by the Court of Rome.

They reverted to the Oath of Allegiance of the reign of King James I, which they declared themselves willing to take, while some even maintained that the Oath of Supremacy could be interpreted in a sense not inconsistent with the Roman Catholic faith. These were the principles which animated the Catholic Committee (1782–92) in its struggle for Catholic emancipation. The two chief leaders were Lord Petre and Sir John Throckmorton, both members of old recusant families, who had suffered much in times past under the Penal Laws. They had the active assistance of Charles Butler, a lawyer, who acted as secretary to the committee. The greater number (though by no means all) of the Catholic aristocracy, who in those days were the practical supporters of religion, sympathized with them and, in a modified degree, some of the clergy, especially in London. One bishop, Charles Berington, was on their side, and Father Joseph Wilkes, O.S.B., who was a member of the committee, went to great lengths in supporting them. Dr James Talbot, Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1781 to 1790, also allowed his name to be added and showed a weakness in opposing them which he regretted on his death-bed, and which made the task of his successor, Dr Douglass (1790–1812), a difficult one.

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