 | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
History of The Tablet
The following account is a summary of "1840-1990 A Commemorative History, The Tablet" by Michael Walsh
The Tablet was founded in 1840 by Frederick Lucas, a Quaker convert to Catholicism at the age of twenty-seven. Lucas was brought to Catholicism by Thomas Anstey, a member, like Lucas, of the Middle Temple and also a convert. On his conversion in December 1838 he published a pamphlet entitled "Reasons for Becoming a Catholic"; it ran to three editions in the year. It took him a week to convert his fiancée to Catholicism. On his return from a tour of Belgium he became a contributor to the quarterly, the Dublin Review , which, despite its name, was published in London. A number of leading Catholics felt the need for a weekly publication and Father R. Lythgoe SJ, the priest who had converted Lucas, suggested that he take the task on. Lucas chose the name, The Tablet, and the first edition came out on 16 May 1840. The title piece was very modern in style and a quotation from Edmund Burke adorned the masthead: "My errors, if any, are my own: I have no man's proxy". Lucas made clear in the third issue just what he meant: "With the exception of the Irish the world has exhibited hardly an instance of long-enduring passive courage to be compared with that of the British Catholics. Every class has displayed this quality most admirably in a manner which its peculiar position required. There has been but one thing wanting, and that is that they should know when and how to lay aside the defensive tactics which their former situation compelled them to adopt …." The Catholic community in England at this time was sharply divided between the largely urban poor, many of whom were Irish immigrants, and the "old" Catholic families, often of considerable wealth. Because the latter were comparatively few in number, converts like Lucas strengthened them both numerically and intellectually. It was this group that The Tablet served: selling at 6d, it was expensive. However, Lucas swiftly showed himself a champion of the underprivileged. The paper carried a wide mix of news, both political and legal as well as religious. Politically, The Tablet's readers were mostly supportive of the Whigs because they had campaigned for the full emancipation of Catholics, even though, when it arrived the Tories were actually in government. Catholics on the whole preferred moderation, not wishing to draw attention to themselves. This was not Lucas's editorial style. When the paper began Lucas had two principles: first that the paper should be properly financed, and second that he should have full editorial control. The paper was initially backed by two leather merchants, the Keasley brothers. But when they were declared bankrupt in 1841 Lucas went into partnership with his Protestant printer, John Cox, who already printed pamphlets for a number of Catholic organisations. Cox paid £100 for his stake. At the time of the deal, with a number of subscribers, profit looked inevitable. By the time of the summer elections of 1841, however, Lucas's moderation had disappeared. His erstwhile supporters were alienated by his support of the Catholic cause. For example, a Catholic landowner in South Lancashire, Sir John Gerard, called upon his tenants to vote for a Protestant Tory rather than a Catholic Whig. Lucas bitterly attacked him in The Tablet at the end of June and July. Catholic landowners were shifting allegiance to their natural allies, the Tories. Together with Cox, also a Tory, these landowners conspired to oust Lucas and replace him with Michael Quin, the former editor of the Dublin Review. The attempt failed because of Daniel O'Connell's open support. Relations between Lucas and Cox were irreparably soured. Lucas wished to change printer and the paper continued to lose money; he gave Cox's firm a month's notice. Cox objected to this, so Lucas replied that he would bring out The Tablet at his own expense. Cox then broke into his office and took the list of subscribers. Cox's rival publication, still called The Tablet, was edited by Michael Quin. There was much controversy over which distinguished Catholics supported which paper. Lord Shrewsbury was on Cox's side, who was at odds with O'Connell. Lucas was disparaging of the Catholic aristocracy in general. The coadjutor bishop of the Midlands, Nicholas Wiseman, cancelled his subscription to the original Tablet, now called The True Tablet, in April 1842. Lucas printed letter, together with one of support from O'Connell. This brought in 500 subscribers in a single morning, decisively tipping the balance in his favour. Cox's publication expired on 23 July 1842. Many Catholics sympathised with Lucas, and when in 1842 he announced the need for £1,000 to keep the paper going, the money was furnished in less than a month. It came from the Catholic aristocracy, several bishops, seminaries, religious orders, clergy and the laity. Money came from as far as Belgium and Portugal. In January 1843 an enlarged paper was produced, its original name restored, with an image of the Virgin Mary at the head of the leader, together with the words "Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei genetrix ("We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God"). This act of piety was too much for some readers, who felt it an uncomfortable marriage. Lucas soon moved the Virgin Mary to the inside leader page. Lucas's brother wrote that his policy was to unmask bigotry against Catholicism. In this he angered his friends and foes. Lucas railed against the Earl of Arundel's support of the the priority of the existing country's Church establishment within schools, in March 1843. Many Catholics supported the Earl's stance. Lucas's opposition, however, eventually won him wide support. Lucas had style and wit, but The Tablet was most notable for its invective. Lucas offended the hierarchy with his criticisms of the way the Church was run. He successfully advocated the establishment of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Britain. He objected to the establishment of diplomatic relations with the papal court. Lucas had supported Wiseman's appointment as assistant bishop for the whole of South-East England, but they found through subsequent visits that they did not get on. Lucas also fell out with Anstey, his trusted old friend, over a parliamentary bill. They soon ceased to communicate. By 1851 Lucas had moved to Dublin. His attitude to Ireland and the Irish had undergone a profound change (one Tablet advertisement had said "An Irish person will not suit"). At first he had supported the 1801 Act of Union, but after a visit to Ireland in 1843 he was converted to the cause of repeal. Irish issues began to dominate the paper. To a series of proposals about Ireland and universities emanating from Westminster Lucas asked: "Are the Bishops awake?": He succeeded in waking them up and the bishops wrote to the government to protest at the proposals. He became so fascinated with Ireland, coupled with the hostility of the English to this, that he determined to move to Dublin. He announced the move on 10 November 1849 and wrote: "Those who think that my departure leaves an opening for some cowardly, truckling, time-serving, twaddling Government hack, whose congenial business it will be indite falsehoods and betray the Church, are respectfully informed that no such individuals have the slightest chance of success, and if I can make good my footing in Duboin, I will undertake to keep the field as clear of those peddlars and their packs as ever I have been able to do in London." Lucas soon turned his attention to politics and became Member of Parliament for Meath on 26 July 1852. Hitherto, according to Lucas's brother, The Times and other English papers had ignored The Tablet. As soon as it moved to Ireland they started quoting from it. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Clarendon, denounced it as "one of the most offensive and virulent newspapers in Europe". Lucas's last journalistic battle involved Ireland. The Vatican's Congregation of Propaganda had long been anxious about the involvement of Irish clergy in the movement for repeal of the Act of Union. Lucas did not have a high regard for the abilities of the Irish bishops, but admired the parish clergy greatly, who were, to his mind, the only articulate spokesmen for the Irish poor. He was annoyed when the hierarchy stopped them taking part in political meetings. Lucas published a letter from the cardinal prefect Giacomo Fransoni, supporting priestly interference in politics where religion or charity impelled them to do so. Cardinal Cullen and the hierarchy remained opposed and Lucas determined to plead the case of the clergy in Rome. He passed through London where he received testimonials of support, even from Cardinal Wiseman. He arrived in Rome in December 1854, but had to return home suddenly in May 1855 broken in health. He died in Windsor on 22 October. He was 53, and had edited the paper he founded for 15 years. Lucas's successor was also a convert, this time from Anglicanism, the 34-year-old John Wallis who had been called to the Bar in 1847. He went to Dublin to buy The Tablet on Lucas's death, but was no friend of Irish national aspirations. He quickly relocated the paper in London. His political views were as trenchant as those of Lucas, but as a Tory. There was dissension among the paper's staff, some of whom were embarrassed by Wallis's attacks on the Catholic liberals in Parliament. Wallis was on good terms with Cardinal Wiseman, and the paper remained a semi-official forum for publication of papal documents. The title-piece became bold and undecorated gothic, aping the major establishment newspapers of the day. Like The Times, news and features became intermingled. It was still an expensive purchase. The Tablet's closest Catholic rival was The Weekly Register, owned and edited by another convert, Henry Wilberforce. He was in trouble at the beginning of the 1860s and attempted to sell his paper to The Tablet. But The Tablet itself, supported by a Mr Keating, was declining in circulation. Keating felt it was the paper's views on English Catholic Whigs (or Liberals), Irish MPs and the Archbishop of Westminster which was causing the decline. The partnership ended early in 1868 and Wallis withdrew to become secretary of the Catholic Union. He later entered the consular service in Egypt where he eventually rose to be a judge in Alexandria. The new owner was Father Herbert Vaughan who was Catholic to the core, and his family had an honourable tradition of recusancy. The eldest of 13 children, where all five girls had become nuns and six of the eight boys priests (and three of them bishops), Herbert Vaughan was pious, energetic, imaginative, well travelled and well educated, though not notably intelligent. Vaughan was in favour of the definition of papal primacy and infallibility, shortly to be proclaimed at the First Council of the Vatican. Reasonably wealthy, he was able to buy The Tablet for a modest sum. He had travelled in the United States and was impressed by the power of newspapers there. In 1878 he was given the Dublin Review, which remained in the possession of successive archbishops of Westminster for nearly a century. Vaughan was inexperienced in editorship but played a large part in editing the paper, working late at night translating papal documents. The emphasis of the paper was changed from a newspaper format to that of a serious magazine and it began to call itself a 'Weekly Review'. The pages were more generously set, type faces were altered from modern to old style and the paper was better printed. The new editor proclaimed a new liberalism, supporting Gladstone's efforts to disestablish the Irish Church. However, he lost none of The Tablet's vituperative style, writing of Benjamin Disraeli: "Mr. Disraeli, with that crookedness of conduct which is habitual to him but unparalleled in any other public man, stiles his convictions for the interest of party". Opposed to the "spurious Liberalism" of the Continent, Vaughan supported the "great truths" of Pius IX, such as the Syllabus of Errors of 1864, which rejected the belief that the "Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile and adjust himself to progress, liberalism, and modern civilisation". He announced that there would be freedom of speech in The Tablet but on papal infallibility, there was no debate. He was convinced that it would become a Catholic dogma. Other journals, particularly the Weekly Register, published letters opposing the doctrine, but The Tablet only did so when it became clear that the definition of infallibility of the Pope would become victorious. During the council itself Vaughan produced a supplement called "Vatican", which was so ultramontane that criticism even emanated from Rome. The Pope, however, naturally approved and Vaughan returned from a trip to Rome in 1870 with a commendation from Pius IX, which was to adorn the head of The Tablet for the next 66 years. Vaughan's uzltramontane convictions cost him very many readers. Some egregious errors were caused by The Tablet's eagerness for joining debates. On 14 March 1870 the Standard claimed that John Henry Newman had described the promoters of infallibility as "an insolent and aggressive faction". The Weekly Register denied Newman had said anything of the sort and Newman denied it himself in a letter to the Standard. Vaughan supported Newman, writing that he could never have used the words attributed to him. Unfortunately he had, because the Standard was able to produce the letter from which the words were taken, and Newman was forced to admit to them in a letter, which the Standard printed alongside an unflattering comment on The Tablet. Once Vaughan became Bishop of Salford he could not play so direct a role in the paper's management and it was passed over to his assistant George Elliott Ranken, a long-standing friend and a convert. A lawyer who had forfeited his fortune on his reception into the Church in 1849, he had worked in the War Office and then settled in Rome where he became a Privy Chamberlain to Pius IX. He returned to England in 1871 to work on The Tablet, first as assistant to Vaughan and then in full charge. The policies remained those of the proprietor. He was possibly the most devout of The Tablet's editors, and the most unassuming. In July 1880 Cardinal Manning wrote to Vaughan that the owner of the Weekly Register was ready to part with it for £2,000. Vaughan told him that £2,000 was too much and Manning eventually paid £300 to prevent the Weekly Register either collapsing or falling into the hands of the Jesuits. He had in mind an amalgamation with The Tablet but eventually decided to keep them separate to discourage any new journals, whose quality he could not predict. Manning made over the editorship of the Weekly Register to Wilfrid Meynell. Vaughan was put out by the gift to Meynell, because he viewed the Weekly Register as a direct competitor. But the Cardinal was concerned as The Tablet, under Wallis, had been a divisive force in English Catholicism. Manning wanted Vaughan to stay out of the Home Rule controversy since four-fifths of English Catholics were Irish. Vaughan defended The Tablet's independence and did differ with Manning on a number of issues, but they remained close. Manning died on 14 January 1892. Vaughan succeeded him, as Archbishop of Westminster and Cardinal. In 1884 the editor of The Tablet became John G. Snead-Cox, born in 1855 and a relative of the Vaughan family through his mother. Called to the Bar, he had swiftly moved to journalism. He had briefly assisted George Elliot Ranken before the latter's ill-health forced him to retire. Snead-Cox held the post to 1920, his 36 years in office the longest in the paper's history. J.J. Dwyer wrote of Snead-Cox's editorship that it "consolidated the position of The Tablet and raised it to the rank of a first-class periodical…. Characterised by lucidity, courtesy and dignity. … Snead-Cox, by origin an English country gentleman, was naturally and by conviction a Conservative. The controversies of the period found many Catholics, especially those of Irish origin... in sharp opposition to his views. Thus it came to pass that the legend... that The Tablet is 'anti-Irish', was confirmed and strengthened…". Others, mostly ladies, complained of Snead-Cox's stiff opposition to the Women's Suffrage Movement. These things, however, did little or nothing to offset the solid merits of the paper … there was very little criticism from those who actually purchased and read the paper". Snead-Cox conducted Vaughan's (ultimately abortive) campaign to unite the seminaries of southern England in one major seminary at Oscott through The Tablet, and followed Vaughan's line on several issues such as the campaign against the recognition of Anglican orders and the duty of Catholics to convert Anglicans. Vaughan sometimes used The Tablet as a notice-board: he announced, for example, on 25 April 1893 that Catholics were to be allowed to go to Oxford and Cambridge. The biologist and Catholic convert St George Mivart was excommunicated by Vaughan for trying to reconcile Catholic doctrine and the theory of evolution after his views were attacked in a Tablet leader. Following a letter of complaint to Vaughan (as the paper's owner), and a subsequent request by Vaughan to sign a profession faith, he was excommunicated. In June 1881 Vaughan wrote to Lady Herbert of Lea that "I must do all I can to increase its [i.e. The Tablet's] efficiency and to get fresh subscribers". He wished to leave The Tablet equally to the Archiepiscopal See of Westminster and to his foundation at Mill Hill. Vaughan's final instruction gave legal possession of The Tablet to Mgr Dunn, Fr Henry and Joseph Weld respectively his secretary and later Bishop of Nottingham; the rector of Mill Hill; and the leading member of the legal firm, now called Witham Weld, still the Westminster diocesan solicitors. Snead-Cox continued to edit the paper under Archbishop Bourne. In 1910 Snead-Cox suggested that Burns & Oates, a Catholic publishing company of which he was a major shareholder, take over the management. Under the direction of Wilfred Meynell, Burns & Oates changed the title-piece to a Caslon face, with the full point at last disappearing at its end. The editions of 1914 looked particularly fine. The Tablet stayed with Burns & Oates until 30 June 1918. A decade after Vaughan's death there was alarm about a decline in subscriptions. A meeting of the Tablet trustees in June 1914 admitted that the improved Universe in England and the recently founded Jesuit weekly America, in the United States were providing increased competition. Snead-Cox had made the paper eminently respectable and had attracted eminent Catholic writers, especially historians. After his decision to retire in 1920, his assistant James Milburn, a few months short of 60, became editor. Born in York and educated at Ushaw and then London University, he had taught at Ushaw and St Bede's, Manchester. Vaughan came to know him at St Bede's and had invited him to become sub-editor of The Tablet in 1895. Despite the economical way the paper was run, his editorship saw a plunge into financial crisis, the cause of which was an increase in expenses, and not a fall in sales. Staff salaries and pensions were cut. The paper was managed by a Mr Magnani and during Milburn's illness run by his assistant G. Elliot Anstruther. But the editorship of the paper passed to Ernest Oldmeadow, who offered his salary of £500 to help pay for assistance in running the paper. Oldmeadow had been a Nonconformist, a minister at Halifax in Nova Scotia. Born in 1867, he became a Catholic at aged 30. At the age of 42 he founded a highly successful wine business after writing a handful of novels. J.J. Dwyer described him as "a genial, humorous man of the world with wide interest, a bon vivant, too". In September 1927 the Diocese of Westminster acquired No. 6 Adam Street, the Adelphi, for The Tablet. There Oldmeadow would write, standing at a high desk, wearing a hat. Since Snead-Cox, it had been the practice of the editors to visit Archbishop's House once a week to receive instructions. Oldmeadow claimed that these were generally formal and with no instructions given. The Cardinal urged him to "keep on with the Anglican controversy". The Tablet had never been sympathetic to the Church of England. Early in 1841, Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle, a convert to Catholicism from the age of 16, had written to The Tablet advocating the joint use of the revivified Use of Sarum by Anglicans and Catholics. Lucas had reacted with "an explosion of vulgarity", Phillipps said. A series of conversations at Malines in Belgium between Catholics from the continent and members of the Church of England were undermined by Oldmeadow, despite Bourne's encouragement of Cardinal Mercier, the Archbishop of Malines. In January 1928 Pope Pius XI published Mortalium Animos, an encyclical warning Catholics against inter-church involvement. Editorially, Oldmeadow continued a campaign against Lord Halifax and Mercier. Perhaps the most notorious example of Oldmeadow's prejudices concerned Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Black Mischief, which appeared in the latter half of 1932. In a section headed 'New Books and Music to Buy or Borrow or Leave Alone', written by Oldmeadow himself, appeared the following words "…his latest novel would be a disgrace to anybody professing the Catholic name. We refuse to print its title or to mention its publishers…". Waugh's friends rallied to his side, including Tom Burns, aged 26, whose letter to The Tablet, signed by twelve writers including Eric Gill, Wyndham Lewis and Douglas Woodruff, stated that "these sentences exceed the bounds of legitimate criticism and are in fact an imputation of bad faith". In reply Oldmeadow published an account of Black Mischief, together with his comments. One unexpected ally was Marie Stopes, who was mentioned in Waugh's book and who wrote to The Tablet agreeing with Oldmeadow. Oldmeadow saw The Tablet as a vehicle for a moral crusade, backed by Cardinal Bourne. Weld found this attitude distasteful. When the future (and highly successful) editor of the Catholic Herald, Michael de la Bédoyère, wrote to The Tablet to express his shock at a recently deceased judge being described by Oldmeadow as a "gross sinner", Oldmeadow published a defence, adding "Although M de la Bédoyère would have us receive his misrepresentation of us as from the Savile Club [the address printed in the paper] he has written to us on the letter-paper of a writer who signed the lamentable Remonstrance of the Twelve". More tangible consolation came the following year when Oldmeadow was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great, an honour offered at the same time to Chesterton and Belloc. But by this time The Tablet was struggling and many writers had died or been alienated. Oldmeadow was writing more and more of the paper himself. When Archbishop Arthur Hinsley succeeded Cardinal Bourne in 1935, money was still going to Westminster and Mill Hill, but there was nothing left to pay the contributors and not much to pay the editor. In January 1926 the printing of the paper moved to Thomas de la Rue of Bunhill Row and a much higher quality of paper was used. Nonetheless there was a modest surplus due to a decrease in expenses. But at the same time non-Church-related advertisers, of whom there had at one time been many, were withdrawing their support due to the drop in circulation. Oldmeadow wanted to establish a company to bring in new money and sell the paper on railway stations. He wanted to push the circulation up to at least 10,000 and proposed developing the literary side of the paper and halving the price. Neither Weld nor Magnani, the manager, liked this plan and they both blamed Oldmeadow for the current parlous state of the paper. Then Anstruther announced his resignation as assistant editor. These matters were discussed at a meeting of the trustees on 8 October 1935. Hinsley hardly knew Oldmeadow and didn't even read the paper. On 6 November Weld wrote to Oldmeadow: "After His Grace and the Superior General [of Mill Hill] expressed the opinion that they could not spend Diocesan funds and trust funds for the Missionary Society in running The Tablet at a loss, the Trustees passed a resolution to sell the paper and the matter was placed in my hands for that purpose". Hinsley's own first intention was to sell The Tablet to the Bishops in equal shares and then run it as the organ of Catholic Action, but the bishops would have none of it. It was decided to offer the paper to Oldmeadow for £900. If he could not find the money Weld proposed "to form a group of young Catholics who are interested in literary matters to take over and finance The Tablet". After several unsuitable potential purchasers approached, Tom Burns, an editor of Longmans Green, made a firm offer of £500. Space for The Tablet was made in their Paternoster Row offices and Adam Street was no longer needed. The Archishops requested that Joseph Keating SJ, editor of The Month, be put on the editorial board as a form of liaison. The owners-to-be suggested that Father David Mathew, Chaplain at London University and Father Ronald Knox would be ecclesiastical advisers. The Burns group also suggested that, just as Snead-Cox had written the biography of Vaughan on his retirement, Oldmeadow should be commissioned to write that of Bourne. So after nearly 68 years of clerical ownership, the paper was sold back into lay hands, despite a last-minute plea by the Archbishop of Birmingham. There was a sad and most bitter letter from Oldmeadow to Weld, dated 7 February 1936. Oldmeadow had learnt that Burns had "conceived some extremely bitter feeling against me…. And it now appears that the very men who have hindered The Tablet from making profits are to be rewarded by gaining possession of the paper." The first meeting of the Board of the newly-established Tablet Publishing Company took place on 5 March 1936, with the two founder directors, Douglas Woodruff and Thomas Ferrier Burns, resolving to appoint Mr Magnani as secretary. Then their friends Arthur Hungerford Pollen and Frederick Walter Chambers were elected as directors, followed by the distinguished historian Christopher Dawson. Douglas Woodruff became editor, aged 39. He had had a brilliant university career, a debating tour of the English-speaking world, a stint at Sheffield University and then a post on The Times, for which he continued to write regularly. He started a humorous column "Talking at Random", where he describes himself as "The Chesterbelloc of the post-war Church". The first issue under new management contained letters of congratulation from several Archbishops. A statement of intent claimed "The function of The Tablet as its new Board conceives it is to endeavour to interpret not only the Church to the outside world but the outside world to those members of the Church who need a general survey." The paper immediately became less 'churchy' and became a paper for the laity though the clergy read it avidly. Week after week it opened with a lengthy, and magisterial, survey of foreign affairs. Woodruff combined his own vast store of information with gleanings from many refugees from all over Europe who found their way to his flat. Distinguished writers, literary figures and historians, clergy and lay, returned to the columns of The Tablet. The paper became part of the furniture of Catholic middle-class households. The Latin quotation from the Brief of Pius IX which had graced the front cover since 1870 disappeared. A new title-piece was produced in Gill's Perpetua face. Then a complete redesign followed with the whole paper set in Times Roman only three years after that face had become available. It was among the best designed journals of its era, impressively magisterial in its presentation. Cheap printers were found in Reading and volunteer labour was summoned. Woodruff's wife, Mia, found herself doing paste-ups. The sum of £3,000 had to be raised to tide the paper over the first years and Tom Burns proposed buying the serial rights to Chesterton's autobiography, They cost £500, but undoubtedly added to the numbers of subscribers. When the group bought the paper, total sales ran at 2,766: a year later they were 4,015 and rising at 10 a week. Hilaire Belloc wrote to Woodruff in 1936 to say, "I have not seen such good reviews anywhere else", and in 1940: "It is the only Review which has knowledge of foreign affairs and I read it avidly". Evelyn Waugh, on the other hand, wrote to Woodruff in 1946: "It may be The Tablet is addressed to a particular type of reader who happens not to be me. But what type? And if he exists is he worth writing for?" Woodruff claimed that there was not a British embassy abroad, or a foreign embassy in London, where it was not read. D'Arcy Osborne, the remarkable British Minister to the Holy See during the war years, told Woodruff in October 1941 that three copies came through the Foreign Office; one marked with passages to be brought to the Pope's attention, was sent to the Vatican, one to the Jesuit headquarters, and the third circulated among fellow diplomats. One of the most remarkable coups during Woodruff's occupation of the editorship was to publish a piece by the Pope. In 1963 an article (11 May) by Woodruff entitled "Pius XII and the Jews: Could more have been done?" incited the then Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop O'Hara to send it to Cardinal Montini of Milan, proposing that Montini could give valuable information about what Pius XII did for the Jews. Montini wrote a letter for publication in The Tablet. Between his writing it - on archiepiscopal paper - and its being delivered, Cardinal Montini had become Pope Paul VI. The piece, therefore, duly appeared under the papal name. There was simultaneous publication in Osservatore Romano. Woodruff's success was not only due to happy accident and good contacts but also to the fact that there was considerable intellectual ferment allied to outstanding literary talent during the 1930s. This group included Christopher Dawson, Arnold Lunn, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Douglas Jerrold and E.I. Watkin, not to mention Hilaire Belloc and a string of clergy such as Martin D'Arcy SJ, David Knowles OSB, Philip Hughes and the brilliant Ronald Knox. Woodruff was the centre. There were problems though. Alfred Noyes's study of Voltaire, published by Sheed & War was serialised in The Tablet. The Holy Office ordered the book's withdrawal from circulation, but later Noyes brought out the book with a non-religious publishing house. The publicity was bad for the Church and Hinsley was worried that Noyes would go back to Anglicanism. Noyes was one of the very many distinguished contributors to the centenary issue of The Tablet, published 18 May 1940.
Indeed Woodruff's argument was forceful, employing history and political science to justify Franco's action. He wrote: "There I began to understand that I was in a new Vendée, and that what was going on was really a religious war a new crusade against the destructive forces of Moscow". Woodruff acknowledged that his opinion was a minority one amongst Catholics, most of whom were Labour supporters. Some Catholics raised a voice in opposition, notably the Dominican publication Blackfriars and the group associated with Eric Gill. An exception to Woodruff's conservatism came with the British, French and Israeli invasion of the Suez Canal zone. He insisted that the appropriate forum to resolve the dispute was the United Nations. His views occasioned a deluge of letters, but he never changed his stance. Woodruff made a mistake with Ireland. Archbishop Williams of Birmingham wrote to him on 8 June 1941: "I do not think you are doing any good by your writings on the Irish question." The Irish Prime Minister, John Costello, accused The Tablet of "the vilest slanders on Irish Ministers". Later, when Toms Burns went on a business trip to Ireland shortly after The Tablet had purchased The Universe, he reported that The Universe's representative in Ireland did not want The Tablet connection to be known. The owner of The Universe, Sir Martin Melvin, had died intestate and his solicitor, Sir Roy Pinsett, concluded that Woodruff was the appropriate person to inherit it. Pinsett was a devotee of Moral Rearmament and offered Woodruff the paper on condition he and his wife visit the Moral Rearmament centre at Caux in Switzerland. They went, remained unconvinced, and came back owners of Associated Catholic Newspapers, by exchange of share, seemingly bought with The Universe's own substantial funds. Burns & Oates Holdings was created to control this empire, which eventually also included the Clergy Review, Burns & Oates publishing and shops and Spes Travel. The Tablet flourished in the Fifties. The circulation had already doubled by the time the war came and in 1950 the average weekly sale was over 13,400, its peak during Woodruff's editorship. In 1951 came the first price rise in more than 110 years: from 6d it went up to 9d! Woodruff thought the war had helped boost the Tablet's circulation and reputation. The paper shortage meant there could only be 16 pages and this cut costs and made journalists write more concisely. Thirty-nine, Paternoster Row was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940. Books, papers and copies were lost. The offices moved to Reading for the duration, though Woodruff operated from Marble Arch. Immediately after the war the paper moved to 128 Sloane Street where it remained until the building was pulled down in 1960. Woodruff's final office was at 14 Howick Place, near Westminster Cathedral. On 5 August 1961 The Tablet's assistant editor, Michael Derrick, died. He had joined in 1938 and Woodruff had relied on him heavily. His talents complemented Woodruff, and he had an encyclopaedic knowledge of matters ecclesiastical. Then came the Second Vatican Council, the great event of his final years as editor. Woodruff had called for greater openness in church affairs, such as when Rome instructed the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Griffin, to resign as one of the four presidents of the Council of Christians and Jews. He wrote "Decision without reasons are far removed from the spirit of government in this country". He welcomed the inauguration, and his survey of the first session, in the issue of 8 December 1962, was very positive in tone. He attended each session of the Council, providing his readers with regular reports. His conservatism showed itself from time to time but for the most part his welcome seemed sincere. Aware of the tensions that would emerge between those with a pre-conciliar and post-conciliar mentality, his final judgement was not an obvious one: "If a man had to try to compress into one sentence what the Second Vatican Council had done, he could say with most confidence that it has further enhanced and reinforced the already great authority and power of the Pope." Woodruff rejoiced when his old friend Cardinal Montini became Pope Paul VI in June 1963, but he was to be disappointed. He wrote that "the Church's European past is now being rapidly left behind, as the Statue of Liberty comes into view". Despite all his positive reportage, for him Vatican II destroyed the institution which he had loved from his earliest years. When Vatican II ended in December 1965, Douglas Woodruff, already well over retirement age, was running a paper with a very healthy circulation and which appeared to have a secure basis in a profitable company, Burns & Oates Holdings. But the holding company was not a success. In 1963 B&O Holdings were making a loss except on B&O Retail and The Universe. The Universe's print order was 300,000, making it the largest selling religious weekly in the world. Its income began to support The Tablet. Worryingly, The Tablet had been the only Catholic paper not to increase its circulation as a consequence of Vatican II. A survey in 1966 found that the readers were in the highest socio-economic category, but no less that 72 per cent of them were 55 years old or more. Burns told Woodruff that the paper was dying on its feet. Burns was Woodruff's heir apparent, but the board had first to persuade Woodruff to retire. Burns saw a coming crisis and wrote a memorandum in August 1966 that The Tablet should "take stock of its position" and among the consequences of the Council, he particularly mentioned ecumenism. The responsibility and potential influence of the paper, he claimed, "are greater at this time than at any other in its hundred years of history. If Catholicism in England has emerged from the ghetto, this must not suggest a merge with the surrounding word. Ecumenism is not the last refuge of feeble ecclesiastical minds but a gathering of strength from all the sources and resources of Christian values in face of the ultimate challenge of atheism, in all its expressions in personal and political life. Late in 1966 Tom Burns, not yet editor, received an anonymous parcel of documents. He realised they must have come from friends on the US weekly, National Catholic Reporter. They were the final report of the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth, the outcome of which was a proposal to revise the traditional Catholic teaching on the subject. Burns persuaded Woodruff, who was initially dismissive, to publish the text. Many of the experts were lay men and women, one of whom, Dr Colin Clark, was a director of The Tablet. Unfortunately, when Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae was published in the middle of the following year, many thought that the report had been betrayed. Woodruff's retirement was announced in 4 February 1967 issue: he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the following year. Tom Burns, a founding director of The Tablet Publishing Company, had considerable experience of publishing - including running his own journal, Order. During the war he had been press attaché to the British embassy in Madrid. On his return to England, he took charge of Burns & Oates and became chairman. He was now 61 years old. His appointment announcement implied that there would be no change to editorial policy. The full text of Humanae Vitae was published on 3 August 1968 and Burns wrote "neither joy nor hope can we derive from the Encyclical itself". But he went on to say that this was not necessarily a criticism, more an issue of authority: "A new chapter in the relationship of the Pope with his bishops and with the faithful at large has now opened on a sombre note. There will be doubt and dismay about the Church herself among her more reflective members, a new bravado in some sectors: a mutual distrust. Some readers wrote to congratulate Burns, others to criticise him. That same issue held Woodruff's last "Talking at Random". Woodruff wrote in December 1968 that the Pope was upset by an article on the encyclical. Burns replied that he heard with "great joy and gratitude" that the Pope was reading The Tablet. The Apostolic Delegate wrote that "it is our duty to help The Tablet find its old equilibrium again". Woodruff was unhappy with the way The Tabletspoke out on the canonisation of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in October 1970 (written by Thomas Corbishley SJ). He was "concerned" [he said,with]…"the tone of the Church editorials, with their suggestion of being rather disaffected towards the Holy See, over-anxious about what Anglicans are going to feel, even opposing canonisations". But Burns held to his convictions. At Burn's seventieth birthday in 1976 Woodruff's speech at the dinner concentrated on his achievement as a publisher, rather than as editor. Two years later, Burns wrote Woodruff's obituary for The Tablet and noted how "for him it (the Church) seemed to be falling apart, for many others it was pulling itself together", but the lengthy appreciation in the issue of 18 March 1978 was generous to Woodruff's many virtues. Burns' stance over Humanae Vitae had been a brave one and cost the paper much in terms of circulation, which dropped to 8,500 in 1978. In ecclesiastical terms, the paper was seen as radical, and politically as right of centre, so it lost readers both ways. In the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s, Burns also took an independent line. Contrary to other Catholic papers, Burns supported the British and Lagos Government, rather than the rebel and largely Catholic, Biafrans. In 1967 Burns & Oates Publishing was sold to Herder and Herder of Freiburg. Three years later the firm pulled out of England. More significant was the sale of The Universe, which was sold for £240,000 at the beginning of 1970. In 1971 The Tablet was bought by Tom Burns himself. Henceforward it had to pay for itself. Burns had already made efforts to extend the paper's outreach. He built bridges with the Irish and in 1968 an Irish supplement was begun. The Tablet dining club was instituted and the Board of Directors was widened to include more business people. July 1972 saw a new, specially designed, title-piece, and a revamped front page. But the circulation continued to drop as the prices rose. Burns had approached a number of people to give money in form of shares and looked to both individuals and religious houses. Some capital was acquired, but not enough. In 1974 the Editor launched a discreet appeal. This was more successful, as a succession of wealthy backers made donations. The Tablet Trust was therefore established in May 1976, as a registered charity. An impressive body of trustees was headed by the Duke of Norfolk with Sir John (now Lord) Hunt, the Cabinet Secretary, as its vice-chairman. A wide range of talent and expertise included the novelist Graham Greene, the economist and writer Barbara Ward and Frank Doria Pamphilij, an Englishman married into a noble Italian family, who was resident in Rome. By the end of the year all shares in The Tablet Publishing Company had been donated to the Trust. Shortly afterwards the paper reached its "bedrock" of subscribers and circulation began to creep back up. The year of Burns' retirement, 1982, was a dramatic one, marked by the Falklands War and the visit to Britain of Pope John Paul II. For the Falklands War, Burns urged moderation and the mediation of the United Nations. The paper's stance won commendation for its independence of mind from Harold Evans, then editor of The Sunday Times, in a BBC survey of the weekly press. In the weeks before the Papal visit The Tablet invited more than two dozen contributors to write what they would say to John Paul if they were allowed five minutes alone with him. The topics were amazingly varied, ranging from human rights in the Church and the world, to the ordination of women and the need for married clergy. At the close of the these events John Wilkins became editor. He had previously worked at The Tablet in 1967 as Burns' assistant, leaving in 1972 for Central Talks and Features of the External Services of the BBC. Like so many previous editors, he was a convert, but one under the inspiration of Vatican II. Having weathered the storm of Humanae Vitae alongside Burns, he did not come to the editorship to change the paper's direction. He meant to make the news more immediate and the political stance a little more radical. In his first editorial, on 10 July 1982, he wrote, "We are committed to orthodoxy that 'wild truth reeling but erect' of which Chesterton spoke. We believe in the dogmatic principle, as Newman did, whose example John Paul II commended so strikingly at Coventry … Nor should The Tablet be a paper of any particular party, whether of Church or State. It has a distinctive stance, but we believe no party has a monopoly of truth ... Since his editorship circulation has gradually increased to its peak today of well over 20,000. The ecumenical dimension initiated by Burns has meant that readers now come from both inside and outside the Catholic Church. In 1840 Frederick Lucas set out to create a paper that was radical in politics but traditional in religion. His commitment was to independence of mind in politics and, as he discovered in his last tragic clash with the Irish hierarchy, to independence of mind within the broad boundaries of the Catholic faith. One hundred and sixty years on, The Tablet is, happily, back where it began. John Wilkins retired at the end of 2003 and was succeeded by Catherine Pepinster, the first woman editor in The Tablet's history.  |
||||||||||||||
The Tablet was preoccupied with the civil war in Spain and according to Mary Craig, "plunged head first into the fray on Franco's side, with Douglas, who went to Spain to see the situation at first hand, contributing leading articles in support of the anti-Republican side". Many of Woodruff's friends saw Franco as saviour of the Church, a not unreasonable view given that the Republicans slaughtered over 4,000 priests and religious, the Nationalists less than a score.