The Italian Baroque style and the Oratory in London

The Church of the London Oratory, built in 1884, reflects the nature and role of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, an Italian religious institute of the counter-reformation period. The Gothic style which dominated church architecture throughout much of the nineteenth century was deemed unsuitable for the Oratorians' church. In so far as architecture can reflect an ideology, the Baroque style came to represent, in ecclesiastical terms, the Ultramontane movement.;The essentially popular nature of the Italian devotions introduced by Faber in England also played a role in the selection of the Baroque style.;Another aspect of the Baroque style was its popularity with the builders of places of entertainment in the mid-Victorian period. Thus, several London clubs, and many of the new city hotels, were built in the style. These were new institutions in society, as was the Oratory, and were in keeping with the Victorian enthusiasm for progress.;It is within this context of ecclesiastical and secular architectural trends that the design of the Oratorians' church must be considered. Ecclesiastical fashions of mid-Victorian England reflected and were reflected in secular taste as well. This can be illustrated in Newman's observation that the age was one for "external secularism," which is "precisely Oratorianism." (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...