Throwing the Cat

In the tumultuous days of the early nineteenth century, when Reform and Riot were in the air of England and the French Revolution loomed large across the Channel, Archbishop Howley sat on the throne of Augustine in Canterbury.

Howley was an old-fashioned High-Churchman and an opponent of Reform, which prompted an angry mob to attack his carriage on the rough streets of Canterbury. Howley's Chaplain exclaimed:

"Your Grace, they have thrown a dead cat at me!" To which the prelate replied, "You may thank God, sir, it was not a live one."

There's a moral in that, if you care to draw it, for today's Church.

LSP