Chapter VII: Private Life And Crosses Of F. Spencer

It could scarcely be supposed that the self-denying, laborious life of F. Spencer in West Bromwich, which has been already alluded to, could be one of those effervescent fits that pass away with the newness of change, when one remembers his life as a Protestant minister. He did not abate one iota of his mortifications or labours, but he became systematized with them, and managed, under the advice of his director, to keep from extremes. He no longer scrupled paying for a conveyance, if he thought the object of his journey was worth more than the coach-fare. For letters, he followed the same rule, though, as he was in a position to obtain franks very frequently, he had not so much difficulty to put up with in the matter of paying heavy postage. To bear these remarks out, we have some of his own letters, but the letter of a lady, who made his acquaintance some time about 1835, and had frequent opportunities of observing him up to the time of his becoming a Passionist, will be more satisfactory than snatches of sentences here and there, which accidentally tell what he was doing.

"In the year 1835 I first became acquainted with the Catholic
religion, and, in consequence, with the Hon. and Rev. George
Spencer, who instructed and afterwards received me into the Church.
From that time till the present I never for a moment doubted of his
extraordinary sanctity. He never in all his discourses with me,
which were numerous, spoke of anything but with an aim to the glory
of God. I knew his housekeeper at West Bromwich, a very good woman,
who has been dead many years. She told me that she many times found
him, very early in the morning, {241} cleaning his own shoes, and
she dare not let him see her for fear of confusion. She often
remarked that he spent a very long time in the exercise of prayer
and meditation. He was so zealous for the salvation of souls that
whenever he saw any new comer in his chapel he would find them out,
go to their houses and speak with them; he thus brought many into
the Church. Although he was insulted in all kinds of ways, on his
walks, he rejoiced and thanked God for all. When he opened his
mission in Dudley, rather than go to a public inn he slept, wrapped
up in a large rough cloak, on the bare floor of what served as for
sacristy, and continued to do so for some time until he had a proper
place prepared. Many nights at his own home he used to disturb the
bed a little, but it was found that he had not lain in it at all for
the whole night. When he was instructing me in the year 1836, he
broke a blood-vessel, and though the blood literally flowed from his
head into a dish, he continued on the instructions. He visited the
sick constantly. On one occasion he went to see a poor woman, who
had not one to attend her; she became very restless whilst he was
there, and wanted to go downstairs; he wrapped her up in a blanket
and carried her down. She was no sooner down than she wanted to be
brought up again; he brought her up, too; she got quiet then,
listened to him, and after a short time expired before he left the
room.

"At one house where he visited, a child was suffering from a bad
mouth, so that it was quite distressing to look at it. Father
Spencer laid his finger on the child's tongue, and said, 'It will be
well;' in a half-an-hour afterwards it was quite well. Once my
grandmother was at the point of death; he came and blessed her, and
in a day or two she was quite well." Miraculous cures are wrought
very frequently by priests' blessings. "Whatever thou blessest shall
be blessed," is not pronounced in vain at their ordination; and "we
must," as Father Ignatius would say pointedly to those who reflected
little on them, "remember that our Lord's words do deserve some
little attention." Faith can remove mountains, and it is only proper
and just that faith could do something less. Since the faith of the
person {242} "made whole" is often as powerful as the faith of the
servant of God, each side escapes the vanity of having wrought
wonders, by attributing the effect to the other. "He generally went
to the kitchen himself, or other places, to get what he wanted, and
would often do without a thing, rather than trouble his housekeeper
or a servant, if he knew them to be engaged. He wished to be not
only his own servant, but the servant of everybody as far as he
could. He used to beg of my father and me to pray that he might
become poorer than the poorest man we ever knew. He even once asked
my father to pray that he might become so poor as to be compelled to
_lie down and die in a ditch_. I never saw him out of heart or in
the least discouraged, however difficult a case he might come
across: he would generally say, 'We must go on, rejoice and thank
God; it will all come right in the end.' One of his former high-up
friends and he were walking by a lunatic asylum once, and his friend
remarked that he should soon be fit for admission there. This he
used to relate with as great glee as if he had received a first-rate
compliment, perhaps greater. When he visited our house in the
country once, he struck his head against a beam somewhere, and I was
astonished at hearing him exclaim, 'Served me right.'"

Several dear friends die about this time, and the conflict between affection and religious detachment is beautifully pourtrayed in the yielding of the former to the latter by several remarks of his own and others, which we subjoin.

He hears of the death of Cardinal Weld about the beginning of the year 1837, and thus writes to Mr. Phillipps about it: "You have heard, of course, of Cardinal Weld's death. I have felt that it is to me like the loss of a father almost; for he treated me as a child, as no doubt he did a great many more. But we must not give way to sorrows, for we have enough to do with our feelings in the battle against present evils, without wasting them on evils which are irremediable." The next death he heard of was that of the Honourable George Quin, a nephew of his, and he wrote to Mr. Phillipps: "That is another warning to us to pray better for the remainder, when one of our four families is {243} carried off before the fruit of our prayers appears." Somewhere about this time Lord Lyttelton dies also, without having succeeded in the project he formed last year, nor did poor Father Spencer succeed much in bringing him over to his side. He always respected this good brother-in-law, and the feeling was returned. He felt greatly for his loss, as well as for the bereavement of his sister. To add to his trials, a change comes over the relations between him and his family. Hitherto it was stipulated that Father Spencer was to be always received as a welcome guest provided he never spoke on religious subjects. The Bishop thinks it, as of course it was, unfair to place restrictions upon him, and not leave the matter to his own discretion. It was not quite becoming for a priest to pay visits, and keep his lips closed by contract on everything that was proper to his sacred character. On the other hand, the family did not like to have their agreeable parties disturbed by controversy, which was likely to draw out hotter words than was suitable to the state of things. Both sides had some kind of reason to show, and Father Spencer was placed between them. He communicated the decision of his bishop to the more influential members of the Spencer family, but he found they would not bend. He cheerfully gives up visiting, and even consoles some of his friends who manifest their concern that he should be debarred a pleasure so innocent and apparently so justifiable. How much he felt this, notwithstanding his cheerful resignation, may be seen from the following testimony, of one who knew him well, to the affection he had for Lady Lyttelton, his sister, who still survives:--

"In the year 1837 Mr. Mackey (Mrs. Mackey writes the letter) was
engaged painting a picture for Father Ignatius, for his chapel at
West Bromwich, and we saw a great deal of him. He was devotedly
attached to his sister, Lady Lyttelton, and he often used to speak
of her loving care of him when a boy; and once, when I quoted those
lines of Gray:--

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"'See the wretch that long was toss'd
On the stormy bed of pain,
At once regain his vigour lost,
And breathe and walk again.

The meanest note that swells the gale,
The simplest flower that scents the dale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening Paradise--'

he was much affected, and said he had not heard them since his
sister, Lady Lyttelton, repeated them to him after recovering from
an illness when he was young. There was, also, a song he sang
occasionally at our house, because she liked it, and had taught it
to him. He sang it with such feeling that it always moved me to
tears, and as soon as I heard of his death I began to sing it, and
it kept recurring to me all day. I seemed to rejoice for him in the
song. These are the words: they are Moore's:--

"'The bird, let loose in Eastern skies,
When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam.

But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay:
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.

So grant me, Lord, from ev'ry care,
And stain of passion free,
Aloft through virtue's nobler air,
To wing my course to thee.

No sin to cloud, no lure to stay,
My soul as home she springs,
Thy sunshine on her joyful way,
Thy freedom on her wings.'

He was always very much moved when speaking of Lady Lyttelton."

It was no small sacrifice to submit with cheerfulness to the circumstances which prevented him visiting this sister, now that she had become a widow and had need of a consoler to help herself and children to bear their affliction. He simply says: "I find all my crosses and vexations to be blessings; and directly I made the sacrifice of feeling to duty, God sent me the best set of catechumens I have had yet. {245} Among others, a man and wife who have been _male_ and _female_ preachers, among the Primitive Methodists, or Ranters."

His great friend and director, the Rev. Mr. Martyn, was the next of whose death he heard. This good and virtuous priest was more than a friend to Father Spencer. He served his novitiate to the work of the English mission, under his direction in Walsall, for three months before he came to West Bromwich. He had been his confessor and guide in all his practices of piety until now. He managed his affairs with as much interest as if they were his own; he was ever ready with his counsel and assistance, and seems to have taken the Dudley mission as soon as Father Spencer had built the church there. Father Spencer preached his funeral oration, and paid the last tribute of respect to his mortal remains in the very spot where he so often profited by his counsels. Here there was no cause of regret, except for the good priest's widowed flock, for his saintly life gave strong hopes of a blessed eternity.

It was said, in a former chapter, that he gave all his money to the Bishop, and had sums given him now and again, of which he returned an account at stated times, to see if the way in which he spent them would be approved of. It may be interesting to know how he kept these accounts. Fortunately a few leaves of the book in which they were noted have been found among his papers, and from them we make the following extract:--

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1838. £ s. d.

Dec. 1. Mrs. Nicholl's rent paid up to Nov. 12 1 0 0
Advanced to Mr. Elves 0 10 0
Mr. Davis, for a walk to Walsall 0 1 0

2. Letter to Paris 0 1 5

3. Omnibus to and from Birmingham 0 2 0
Given to Bridget Cullinge 0 2 0
Shoe-string 0 0 6
Mrs. Cooper.
Housekeeping 1 1 7
Washing 0 5 8
Postage 1 1 9½
Watchman 0 0 9
Mr. Elves 0 3 6
Betsy Hawkins, quarter's wages 0 15 0
Mrs. Cooper, towards wages 5 0 0
Advanced to Mr. Elves 5 0 0

4. Mrs. Whelan 0 10 0
John and Barney White, for a message 0 1 0
Elizabeth Morley 0 1 0

5. Armytage, 6d.; Mrs. Brown, 1s. 0 1 6
Coals, paid Mr. Pearse 1 6 3

6. P. O'Brien, 2s.; Peggy, 1s. 0 3 0
Boy who brought horse 0 1 0
Gordon, butcher's bill 5 19 0
Sealing-wax 0 0 6
Letter to Dr. Wiseman 0 2 3

7. Mrs. Cottril, 1s. 6d.; Mrs. Gale, 1s. 0 2 6
Turnpike, 8d.; Chs. Gordon, 6d. 0 1 2

8. Gig-whip, 2s. 6d.; turnpike, 8d. 0 3 2
Morris, for Mrs. Callaghan's rent 0 15 0
Shenton, for holding the mare 0 1 0
Clothes-brush 0 2 6

9. Conway, 7s.6d.; school-window mended,6d 0 8 0

10. Turnpike, 4d.; horse at Dudley, 6s. 0 6 4
Hat at Domely's 1 1 0
Mrs. Brown, tailor's 0 2 0
Gloves 0 1 10
Armytage, 6d.; lucifers, 2d. 0 0 8

11. Stuff to make a collar, &c. 0 3 9
Two dozen Douay Catechisms 0 4 0
Carriage of parcel to Dr. Fletcher 0 1 2

12. John Collinge, 1s.; P. O'Brien, 2s. 0 3 0
Adv. to Mr. Elves 0 1 0

13. Adv. to Mrs. Cooper, for wages 6 0 0
Housekeeping 0 17 10
Ribbon for stole 0 5 2
Parcel, 8s. 2d.; postage, 3s. 8d. 0 11 10
Washing, 4s. 9d.; Mr. Elves, 8d. 0 5 5

To this may be added, that on the credit side he puts his instalments from the Bishop, and every single penny he gets in the shape of offerings, seat-rents, alms, &c., &c. There have also remained, between some of the leaves of this account-book, a few little slips of paper, on which he pencilled whatever he paid or received when away from home, so as to be able to note it down when he came back. It {247} may be well to remark that the extract given above cannot be taken as an average of his expenditure, as December is a month when bills come in thicker than in other months of the year.

It will be remembered that this mode of managing his household affairs, was the result of the trial Father Spencer made of the vows of religion in his secular state, which has been alluded to in a former chapter.

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