London

LONDON. - Capitale della Gran Bretagna e metropoli dell'Impero, in posizione eccentrica rispetto all'isola, ricopre un'area di ca. 1800 kmq., compresi il nucleo centrale e il suburbio, con una popolazione di oltre 8 milioni di ab. The central nucleus consists of the City, where the primitive nucleus of the Roman city was, arising on the terrace that now overlooks the Thames valley, near London Bridge: the surrounding area of the port, the East End, the West End, the South Side, the surroundings of the centers of Hampstead Garden, Willesden, Greenwich (from where the observatory was recently transferred because of the smoke of the surrounding factories), Brentford, Harrow on the Hill, Norwood, Wimbledon, Richmond, Romford, etc.

THE ANCIENT DIOCESE OF L

In 314 the first mention of Christian L. is found, with the participation of its bishop Restitutus at the Council of Arles. After the Anglo-Saxon invasion, St. Augustine re-established the diocese of L. in 604, appointing as its bishop St. Mellitus, who was later transferred to Canterbury in 619. He founded the cathedral of St. Paul and, outside the city, the abbey of St. Peter at Westminster. Among his most illustrious successors were St. Erconwald (675-93), St. Dunstan (958-61), Robert of Jumièges (1044-51), William the Norman (1051-75), Gilbert Foliot (1163-1189), Simon of Sudbury (1362-75), William Warham (1501-1504), Cuthbert Tunstall (1522-30) and the last, Edmund Bonner (1553-69), deposed by Elizabeth in 1559, when the diocese became Protestant. The Catholic diocese never extended across the Thames, but when in 1688 Innocent XI divided England into 4 apostolic vicariates (or districts), that of L. included south of the Thames the counties of Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, the islands of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, as well as (north of the river) Middlesex, Essex, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also the British possessions in North America (until American independence). Among the apostolic vicars of the district was the great Richard Challoner (1758-81). In 1840 Gregory XVI raised the districts to eight, removing Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire from the London one. In 1850 Pius IX re-established the hierarchy, and L. north of the Thames, with Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Essex, became the archdiocese of Westminster (v.), and south of the river the diocese of Southwark with the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. In 1882 the diocese of Portsmouth was formed by removing from Southwark, Berkshire, Hampshire, the islands of Wight and those of the Channel. In 1917 the county of Essex was removed to form the diocese of Brentwood.

Since 1174 the city of L. counted 126 churches besides some monasteries and convents. The majority were lost in the fire of L. of 1666 and in Wren's baroque rebuilding, but one of the ancient churches (not parochial), St. Etheldreda's Ely Place, passed to the Spanish ambassador Gondomar (1620-24) and then in 1876 was obtained by the Rosminians and opened as a Catholic church.

In 1947 the total population of L., the city with its 28 "suburbs," was 8,203,942 inhabitants, of whom about 400,000 were Catholics. An exact statistic is almost impossible, because very many, although employed in L., live outside it. The public churches in Westminster number 74 with-

and 71 private, in Southwark 52 public and 22 conventual.

L. has very numerous Catholic societies for the defense and propagation of the faith, for culture, for charitable works, etc. It is impossible to mention them all, but among the principal ones are: the Catholic Association (for pilgrimages), the Catholic Record and Catholic Truth Societies, the Catholic Prisoners' Aid Society, the Catholic Union, the Pontifical Court Club, the Newman Association, the Aged Poor Society (founded in 1708); the Benevolent Society for the Aged and Infirm Poor (1761), the Catenian Association, the Associations of Catholic Trade Unionists and that of Catholic Managers and Employers, and the Catholic Nurses Guild, the Cath. Parents Association, the Cath. Social Guild, the Cath. Police Guild, the Cath. Scout Guild, the Cath. Teachers Guild, the Cath. Young Men's Society, the Crusade of Rescue (to prevent Protestant proselytism), the Knights of St. Columba, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and that of St. John Chrysostom (to provide legal advice especially to the indigent), also the Legion of Mary, the Union of Catholic Mothers, the Catholic Doctors Guild, the Young Christian Workers, etc., also the University of London Catholic Association and the Catholic Guild of Israel.

In L. are published the well-known Dublin Review (quarterly), and the periodicals Mouth, Clergy Review, Blackfriars, Catholic Gazette, Westminster Cathedral Chronicle and Southwark Record, Duckett's Register (monthly), the Tablet, Catholic Times, Universe and Catholic Herald (weekly).

Also to be noted are the Catholic publishers Burns and Oates, Sheed and Ward, Sands, Douglas Organ, Hollis and Carter. - See pl. CIV.

Enrico G. Rope