Universalis Ecclesiae

Not to be confused with Ad Universalis Ecclesiae.

The restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England in 1850 provoked strong reaction. This Punch cartoon, published in November of that year, depicts the Pope as "The Guy Fawkes of 1850 – preparing to blow up all England!"

Universalis Ecclesiae was a papal bull of 29 September 1850 by which Pope Pius IX recreated the Roman Catholic diocesan hierarchy in England, which had been extinguished with the death of the last Marian bishop in the reign of Elizabeth I. New names were given to the dioceses, as the old ones were in use by the Church of England. The bull aroused considerable anti-Catholic feeling among English Protestants.