Mark Aloysius Tierney

Mark Aloysius Tierney

Born at Brighton, Sept., 1795; died at Arundel, 19 Feb., 1862. After his early schooling with the Franciscans at Baddesley Green, Warwickshire, he was educated at St. Edmund's College, old Hall, which he entered in 1810 and where he was ordained priest, 19 Sept., 1818. He remained at the college as professor and procurator in 1818-19. He then served as assistant priest at Warwick Street, London, and afterwards at Lincoln's-Inn Fields till his ill-health necessitated his removal to the country mission of Slindon in Sussex. In 1824 he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel, where he spent the rest of his life, devoting himself to historical and antiquarian studies. His chief object was to bring out a new edition of Dodd's "Church History of England", which should incorporate all the documents collected by himself and Kirk. The first volume appeared in 1839, but on the publication of the fifth volume in 1843 the work was unfortunately discontinued, as the revival of the history of the seventeenth-century disputes between seculars and regulars was thought inopportune and gave offence. Meanwhile his position as an antiquarian had received public recognition, for in 1833 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and in 1841 a Fellow of the Royal Society. He also acted as secretary to the Sussex Archaeological Society. After the restoration of the hierarchy he became the first canon penitentiary of the Diocese of Southwark, having long been a member of the old chapter. Shortly afterwards, his relations with Cardinal Wiseman, whose policy he disliked and mistrusted, became very strained. Arising out of Tierney's biographical sketch of Lingard, a controversy began between them on the well-known question whether Lingard had been created a cardinal in petto, by Leo XII, and Cardinal Wiseman addressed to his chapter a letter complaining of Tierney's criticism of his "Recollections of the last Four Popes". In answer to this Tierney wrote the "Reply to Cardinal Wiseman's Letter to his Chapter" (1858), which was not published. He also wrote "The History and Antiquities of the Castle of Arundel" (London, 1834) and several controversial pamphlets. For a time he acted as editor of the "Dublin Review", succeeding Quin the first editor.

LOWER, Worthies of Sussex (Lewes, 1865), 341; B. WARD, Hist. of St. Edmund's College (London, 1893); IDEM, The Eve of Catholic Emancipation, III (London, 1912), appendix; W. WARD, Life of Cardinal Wiseman (London, 1897); Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., S.V.

EDWIN BURTON