PLYMOUTH, Diocese of
Sparse examples of *p.* [plutocracy] are found in antiquity, where the preponderant influence of the propertied classes was certainly not lacking. Carthage is cited, and for more recent times Venice, though these correspond poorly to the modern meaning of the term. True *plutocracy* is a phenomenon linked to the modern capitalist system, which, having enabled the concentration of wealth in few hands through the creation of large and powerful industrial bodies, could not avoid the possessors of capital invading the most sensitive nodes of social life, establishing a capillary and suffocating dominion over governments and their directives, dictated through the action of a hidden power at their disposal. Capitalism and *plutocracy* are twin phenomena born of the introduction of machinery and the progress of industrialism. To combat them, every social movement inspired by Marxist ideas proves inadequate, for it rests on the same error of overvaluing material and earthly goods, opposing the selfishness of capital with the selfishness of class, and private *plutocracy* with state *plutocracy*. Only a spiritualistic conception, which restores the hierarchy of values, can be an antidote to the dominion of wealth through its more equitable distribution among social classes.
Antonio Messineo
The braided decoration develops and flourishes further in the Lombard (v. ENOCH. Cott., VII, col. 1519), Carolingian, and Roman periods up to that of the Cosmati.
Plymouth, Diocese of - Lighthouse and coastal view.
Bishops of Plymouth: P. Barrett (1928–46). The cathedral was begun in 1856. In 705 the episcopal see of Wessex was established at Sherborne (Dorset), from which in 910 the new diocese of Crediton (Devonshire) was taken, transferred to Exeter in 1049, comprising Devonshire, and after 1049 also Cornwall, previously a diocese whose cathedral was at St. Germans. The Protestant diocese of Truro was founded in 1876. In 1075 Sherborne was transferred to Salisbury. This region abounds in very beautiful ancient churches, e.g., Exeter Cathedral, St. Germans (formerly a cathedral), Wimborne, Ottery St. Mary, and Lancaster. Ruins of abbeys are found at Tor, Buckland, Ford, Milton, Tavistock, and elsewhere. In the 16th century Devonshire and Cornwall heroically resisted national apostasy, especially in the Western Rebellion of 1549, which was suppressed with great ferocity with the aid of continental mercenaries, among whom were many Catholics. Their leader, Sir Humphrey Arundell, a confessor, was executed at Tyburn on 27 January 1550. The diocese produced martyrs for the Church: Bl. Richard Reynolds (1535); Cuthbert Mayne, protomartyr of seminarians (1577), Thomas Ford (1582), Thomas Hemerford (1584), William Way (1588), John Cornelius or O’Mahony, son of Irish parents (1594), and the Venerable John Griffith (1539), John Adams (1586), John Hambley (1587). The birthplace of Bl. John Slade is uncertain. Notable among faithful families are the Arundells of Lanherne, whose house became a Carmelite convent in 1794, the Welds of Lulworth, and the Cliffords of Ugbroke. At Lulworth, where King George III was a guest in 1789 and 1791, John Carroll, first bishop of Baltimore and the first Catholic bishop in the United States, was consecrated in 1790. Among the oldest missions are Ugbroke (1671), Chideock (1810), and Selderer (1843). Notable converts from the 19th century onward include Sir Henry Trelawny (d. 1834), Robert Stephen Hawker, the poet (d. 1875), and Mary St. Leger Harrison, daughter of the Protestant Charles Kingsley, who died in 1931.
In 1882 the ancient Buckfast Abbey was purchased by a community of French Benedictines (Congregation of Cassinese), who celebrated the first Mass there in October of that year and began rebuilding the abbey in the style of the 12th century. The magnificent work was completed and the church consecrated in 1932.