The Pope might order a Catholic to murder Queen Victoria, claimed Gladstone in a pamphlet he published in 1874, and the Catholic would have to â?? for the Pope was infallible. The notion was laughable, but Gladstone knew some people would take it seriously.
His pamphlet provoked John Henry Newman to write his celebrated Letter to the Duke of Norfolk â?? running to 150 pages in print. At the end comes the famous toast: â??To the Pope, if you please, â?? still, to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.â?
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