[1] The act was introduced by Prime Minister Lord John Russell in response to anti-Catholic reaction to the 1850 establishment of Catholic dioceses in England and Wales under the papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae.

Although the Acts of Union 1800 had united the established Churches of Ireland and England, both the 1829 and 1851 restrictions were ignored in Ireland, on the basis that the Roman Catholic dioceses had never lapsed, and papal appointees had continually retained the same pre-Reformation names used by the Anglican dioceses.

Thus they did not name the relevant see that of Bristol, but that of Clifton; not Exeter, but Plymouth; not Canterbury, but Southwark.

In 1850, in response to the Catholic emancipation legislation, Pope Pius IX set up a hierarchy of dioceses in England and Wales in Universalis Ecclesiae.

Guy Fawkes day in 1850 saw numerous symbolic denunciations, and a handful of cases of violence.

The Roman Catholic community unofficially used the territorial titles, although the bishops themselves carefully stayed within the letter of the law.