thumb|right|Portrait of Walmesley held in the [[Wellcome Collection]]

Charles Walmesley, OSB (best known by the pseudonyms Signor Pastorino or Pastorini; 13 January 1722 – 25 November 1797) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of the Western District. He was known, especially in Ireland, for predicting the downfall of Protestantism in 1821–5 and the triumphant emergence of the Catholic Church. He was a member of the Benedictines.

<!--type = Bishop <!—————————— Orders ——————————-!>

| ordination =

| ordinated by =

| consecrated = 1732

| consecrated by = Cardinal Frederico Rovere !-->

Early life

He was the seventh son of John Walmesley of Westwood House, Wigan, Lancashire, was educated at the English Benedictine College of St. Gregory at Douai (now Downside School, near Bath); and made his profession as a Benedictine monk at the English Monastery of St. Edmund, Paris (now Douai Abbey, near Reading), in 1739. Later he took the degree of DD at the Sorbonne.

Walmesley's scientific attainments soon brought him into notice as an astronomer and mathematician. He was consulted by the British Government on the reform of the calendar and introduction of the "New Style" in 1750–52, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and the kindred societies of Paris, Berlin, and Bologna.

In 1789 when the action of the "Catholic Committee" threatened seriously to compromise the English Catholics, Walmesley called a synod of his colleagues, and a decree was issued that the bishops of England "unanimously condemned the new form of oath intended for the Catholics, and declared it unlawful to be taken". The issue was over the form of an oath of loyalty to George III, necessary for Catholics to engage with the official world. The previous oath had been defined in the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1778.

On 15 August 1790, Walmesley consecrated John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States,

An 1823 refutation by "Pastor Fido" (also a pseudonym) was titled: "Pastorini proved to be a bad prophet, and a worse divine".

William Carleton's popular short story, The Poor Scholar, quotes an Irish supporter of Pastorini speaking in Hiberno-English: "An', doesn't Pastorini say it? Sure, when Twenty-five comes, we'll have our own agin, the right will overcome the might – the bottomless pit will be locked – ay, double bolted, if St. Pether gets the kays, for he's the very boy that will accommodate the heretics wid a warm corner; an' yit, faith, ther's many o' them that myself 'ud put in a good word for, after all."

A number of his letters are in the archives of the Diocese of Clifton. Portraits exist at Downside, Douai Abbey, Clifton, and Lulworth.

See also

  • Catholic Church hierarchy
  • Catholic Church in England and Wales
  • Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops
  • Roman Catholicism in England and Wales

Notes

Sources

  • Editions of Walmesley's Christian Church History