Papal Aggression crisis

A political and religious controversy in Britain following Pope Pius IX’s restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England in 1850. The creation of Catholic dioceses with territorial titles was widely condemned by Protestants as an assertion of papal authority, provoking strong public opposition and legislation restricting the use of such titles. The controversy also revealed divisions within institutions such as the Athenaeum, whose members included both supporters and opponents of the government’s response.