ABSTRACT
FROM The Times, 7 November, 1850. Almost too well-known to require introduction, the Durham Letter is probably the most famous assault made on English Catholicism in the nineteenth century. Dr Maltby, the Bishop of Durham, had written publicly to the Prime Minister complaining about the ‘insolent and insidious’ nature of the ‘Papal Aggression’ implied by the creation of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850. Russell’s reply not only linked the government with the popular clamour against the Catholics, but associated the High Church party inside the Establishment with the subversive designs of Rome.
