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CHAPTER XX....concluded
Returning to Charleston, Dr. England addressed himself, with renewed energy, to his great labours. He now commenced a course of lectures which laid the foundation of a fame that ere long spread through every State in the Union, and attracted the attention of the most thoughtful and intellectual. The first was on the Existence of God; the second on the Nature and Necessity of Religion; the third on the Establishment of the Church by Our Saviour; the fourth on the Marks of the True Church, 'exhibited in the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and in that alone.' These discourses, which were continued during Lent, were not without result; for, under date of April 28, there are recorded in the diary the names of several converts, including that of 'a lawyer of eminence.'
In the last week of Lent the Bishop published a catechism, which, he says, 'I had much labour in compiling from various others, and adding several parts which I considered necessary to be explicitly dwelt upon under the peculiar circumstances of my diocese.'
The number of communicants in Charleston in the Easter fortnight (1821) was 250.
'April 26. Established the Book Society, and had the necessary measures taken to establish a general committee, and to have the Society extended throughout my diocese.'
The following passage, though descriptive of the condition of the Catholics of that day in a Southern State, was just as applicable to most other parts of the Union, save where a priest was regularly stationed. Indeed, it as accurately represented the condition of Catholics in a vast number of places in thirty years after it was written. It was written of Wilmington:--
May 16th.--Celebrated Mass at my lodging, and gave an exhortation to those who attended. After breakfast met the Catholics, about twenty men: not a woman or child of the Catholic faith. No priest had ever been fixed here, nor in the neighbourhood. A Rev. Mr. Burke had spent a fortnight here about twenty-five years before, and a Jesuit going to some Spanish settlement spent two or three days in the town about the year 1815, and baptized the children of Mr. ----; but their mother being a Methodist, they were not educated in the faith. The Catholics who lived here, and they who occasionally came hither, were in the habit of going to other places of worship--Episcopal Protestant, Methodist, and Presbyterian--and had nearly lost all idea of Catholicity. I spoke on the necessity of their assembling together on Sundays for prayer and instruction, and of their forming a branch of the Book Society, to both of which they readily agreed, and then recommended their entering into a subscription to procure a lot for a church, and to commence building, as I would take care they should be occasionally visited by a priest. I also exhorted them to prepare for the sacraments.
I received an invitation from the pastor and trustees of the Presbyterian Church to use their building (the best in the town), which upon consideration I accepted. I was waited upon by the Protestant minister, who offered me his church also, which of course I declined, as having accepted of the other. In the evening I preached to a very large congregation, on the nature of the Catholic religion.
Here was a fitting occasion for the zeal of the young Bishop; and we find him daily exhorting his own little flock, and also preaching each evening to large and attentive congregations--'On the nature of Redemption, the Mission of the Apostles, and the Authority of the Church to explain the Scriptures and teach the doctrines of Christ by her traditions.' Nor was his labour without fruit, as he established a branch of the Book Society, raised by subscription 1,160 dollars for a church, and received some converts of note.
Among the entries of May 12th, there is this record: 'Baptized George Washington, aged three years, son of Patrick Murphy and Rebecca Lear; sponsor, J. P. Calhardo.'
'May 20. .... Was requested by some Protestant gentlemen to preach twice this evening, as I was to leave town in the morning. I complied with their request, and preached at half-past three and at seven o'clock, to very full congregations. There was created in Wilmington a spirit of inquiry, and the prejudices which were very general against Catholics were removed.'
In a place near South Washington, we are told that John Doyle, an Irishman, is the only Catholic. In Newbern we find a state of things exactly the reverse of that described in Wilmington. In Wilmington there were twenty Catholic men, and not a single woman or child of the faith; but in Newbern there are 'upwards of twenty Catholics, principally females.' A priest had visited them seven months previously. Here the Bishop baptized two converts, 'men of colour.'
In North Washington the Catholics were 'few and generally negligent.' No priest since the previous year. 'The Methodists have a meeting-house, the Baptists a temporary place, but there is no other house of worship.' The Bishop not only preached in the Court-house in the evenings, but said Mass in it in the mornings; and the congregations increasing, the converts, including people of colour, coming in, and favourable impressions being made upon others, who took time to consider what they should do, we are not surprised to learn that 'the Baptist and Methodist leaders were drawing off the hearers to the best of their power.'
On his arrival in Plymouth he finds but one Catholic; but in a day after he discovers a second. Still, he is well received, and actually establishes a Book Society. 'Finding,' he says, 'an anxiety to hear me, I consented to remain, and preach twice this day, to about 40 persons at eleven o'clock, and to a much larger congregation at five o'clock, at the Academy, which was the only public building in the town.' For three days he preached, both morning and evening; on the third evening he 'preached to a very crowded congregation in the Academy, after which the Book Society met, and elected their officers.' It was on that evening that the Bishop discovered the second Catholic in the town.
In other places he finds a few Catholics, the greater number attending the Methodist or Baptist places of worship, there being no Catholic church, and the visits of a priest being 'few and far between.' Whatever the nature of the congregation, whatever its admixture of nationalities, Irish are to be found amongst them; thus, next to a high-sounding Spanish name, we alight upon a Daniel Flynn, a Michael Dempsey, or an Ignatius Crowley. Deputations wait upon him to request he will preach in Protestant churches or in Court-houses, which he generally does, and with advantage to the cause of truth. But converts are lukewarm, and Catholics relapse into indifferentism; and priests cannot be had, or are not always reliable, being discouraged by the hardships of a seemingly unpromising mission; and troubles and perplexities plant the Bishop's mitre with plentiful thorns; and rheumatisms rack his bones, and fevers break down his strength; and, to add to his afflictions, poverty oppresses him. 'I was frequently,' says the Bishop of three great States, 'without a dollar, from the wretched state of the income, and the bad disposition of the infidel portion who professed to belong to the flock.' Still, in spite of incessant toil in the mission, and drudgery in his seminary, and the constant pressure of poverty, he continued to extend his Book Society, and establish in Charleston, in 1822, a weekly newspaper, called The United States Catholic Miscellany, which, under his management, became one of the most potent means of vindicating the faith, and refuting the calumnies so constantly circulated by its opponents; in fact, it soon grew to be a power in the country.
'December 28th, 1822. Columbia. I preached in the House of Representatives, at the request of the Legislature.'
'April 24th, 1823. Celebrated Mass and exhorted, and after dinner returned to Camden, and stopped by invitation with Mr. Salmond, a Presbyterian.'
'April 24. Mr. Salmond was kind enough to find the Catholics and to bring them to me. They consisted of the following persons (French, Spanish, and Irish names), to whom I gave the usual commission. I gave them some books, and heard the confession of one who presented himself. At the request of the inhabitants I preached in the evening, in the new Presbyterian Church, to a very large congregation. I afterwards baptized three children.'
With one other extract we shall conclude a notice of the Bishop's diary, from which sufficient has been given to afford the reader a true picture of a mission throughout which Catholics were thinly scattered, and in which they had to depend, in a very great measure, upon their own steadfastness to retain even a semblance of their faith. In purely country districts--perhaps not visited for years by a clergyman--matters were necessarily worse; notwithstanding which there were many, many instances of Irish Catholics keeping the faith alive under the most discouraging circumstances.
April 29th, 1823.--Fayetteville. Heard confessions, celebrated Mass, and exhorted; had four communicants--baptized a child. I found that the congregation had regularly prayed together on the Sundays and holidays, until the sickly season, when they fell off. I endeavoured to prevail upon them to resume the good practice. Superseded the former commission, and issued a new one to John Kelly, Dillon Jordan, Laurence Fitzharriss, Doctor James Moffet, and Daniel Kenny. Was invited to preach at the State House. In the evening I again saw the Catholics, and exhorted them to persevere--spoke to several individually. At eight o'clock I preached in the State House to a very large and attentive audience.
As years went on, so did the fame of Bishop England increase, until the time came when, from one end of the Union to the other, his name became a household word with Catholics of every nationality, who recognised in him a champion fully equipped, and equal to the good fight. The feeling of his own countrymen towards him cannot be described, so intense was their pride in his great qualities --his power of pen and tongue, his resistless force as a controversialist, his capacity for public affairs--the nobleness and grandeur of his nature, which all men respected, and which made for him the fastest friends among those who were not of his Church. There were other great and good bishops, who by their saintly character and holy lives commanded a respectful toleration for their faith; but Bishop England extorted respect for his religion by the matchless power with which he unfolded its principles to those who crowded round him wherever he went, and refuted the calumnies and misrepresentations that had been the stock-in-trade of the enemies of Catholicity for centuries. Like all Irishmen, of that day as of the present, Bishop England at once became an American citizen, thoroughly identified with his adopted country, proud of her greatness, jealous of her honour, loving her beyond all others, save that old land whose recollection lay warm in his heart.
END OF CHAPTER XX.
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