Chapter LIX: Part II: Excelsior! (7)

The faith, though persecuted, was kept alive among the whites by the Maryland Jesuits, who continued to adhere to their flocks. Nor did the suppression of their Society in 1773 dissolve this bond, for by an association among themselves they retained their missions; and as their property was not confiscated here as was everywhere done in Europe, they retained that also. In 1805, Bishop Carroll, himself an ex-Jesuit, obtained from the superior in Russia, where the Society still subsisted, the privilege of affiliation with it for the late members of the order in Maryland. The bishop then confirmed them in the possession of their missions, and thus the Society resumed its footing in Maryland nine years before it had been restored all over the world by Pius VII. Among the young men who joined it in 1806 was the now venerable Father McElroy, who, in his ninetieth year, retains the zeal and energy of younger days. The Jesuit province of Missouri was, as before stated, an offshoot from that of Maryland, and some fathers of the western province are still living who made their novitiate in Maryland. Bishop Vandevelde, of Chicago, and subsequently of Natchez, where he died in 1855, was one of these. The present Vicar Apostolic of Kansas, a Jesuit from Missouri, perpetuates amidst his Indians the traditions of the mother province.

The old Catholic families of Maryland, sustained and encouraged by their pastors, and preserving the faith amidst obloquy and disfranchisement, have contributed their full share to the distinguished laity of their country, to the ranks of the religious of various orders, male and female, the secular clergy, and the episcopate. Their honorable record is too full to admit of a reference to individuals, were this even the place for it; but we might recall, among prelates, the names of Archbishops Carroll and Neale of Baltimore, and Bishops Fenwick of Boston, Fenwick of Cincinnati, and Miles of Nashville. Archbishop Eccleston of Baltimore, although a Marylander by birth, was of Protestant family, and was himself a convert. Bishop Chanche of Natchez was also a Marylander, but the child of refugees from San Domingo. The sees of Wheeling, Natchez, Chicago, and North Carolina are filled by sons of Maryland, the descendants of a later immigration. Even in colonizing other states, the faithful children of Maryland formed a nucleus of Catholicity, as in Kentucky, wherever they went. By a happy dispensation, this colony, grown into a diocese, and governed by a scion of one of these old families, the late eminent and beloved Spalding--gave him back to the archiepiscopal chair of his ancestral state.

In later, as in former times, Maryland has been the “land of the sanctuary” for the oppressed of other lands, and the trials and triumphs in which her own children have borne part have been shared by the strangers who have taken refuge within her borders. When, in 1770, a solitary Jesuit from Whitemarsh in Lower Maryland visited Baltimore, then an insignificant settlement, and so poorly provided as to Catholic worship that the priest brought his own altar-furniture, and had to say Mass in a private house, a large part of the flock in attendance was composed of Acadians who had been cruelly transported from their homes by the British government. Still later, the French Revolution threw upon her shores those devoted clergymen whose virtues and whose labors have shed so much honor on the church of their adopted country. The institutions of religion and of learning which they founded in Maryland have educated for civil life or for the church men who have attained the highest eminence in one or the other. The founders of or the preceptors in these institutions have filled sees in various portions of the country--Dubois at New York, David at Bardstown, Flaget at Louisville, Dubourg at New Orleans, Maréchal at Baltimore, and Bruté at Vincennes, all now deceased, besides the present Bishop of St. Augustine, among living prelates. St. Mary’s Seminary at Baltimore has seen advanced to the mitre, from among her Levites, Bishops Reynolds of Charleston, O’Reilly of Hartford, and Portier of Mobile; while Mount St. Mary’s, the “mother of bishops,” has given to the American hierarchy from among hers, Archbishop Hughes of New York, Bishops Quarter of Chicago, Gartland of Savannah, Carrell of Covington, Young of Erie, and the living archbishops of New York and Cincinnati--probably others.

The subsequent revolution in San Domingo drove hither also whites who escaped with little more than life, and blacks whose fidelity to their masters and to their religion withstood the shock of those terrible times. Among the former were the parents of Bishop Chanche; also, young Joubert, who, after becoming a priest, devoted himself to the blacks, that he might overcome his horror for the race that had massacred his parents; in furtherance of this lofty act of self-renunciation, he formed a community of religious women of color, whose first members were creoles of San Domingo. The Oblate Sisters of Providence still flourish, and impart the blessings of secular and religious education to the young of their sex and color. Finally--for we must hasten to a close--it is a noticeable fact that New England, which sent forth its Puritan colonists to harass the Marylanders and persecute the Jesuits, is now a portion of the Jesuit province of Maryland.

The great length to which this paper has expanded will preclude the possibility of giving any space to the history of the missions of France in Louisiana, and those extending from Canada into what is now New York and into the regions west of that state. This omission will be the more pardonable inasmuch as the history of the French missions is better known to Catholic readers than much of our other remote ecclesiastical history. There is one page, however, in these annals, touching the Christian settlements on our northeastern border, that we cannot pass over without notice. The town in the British Provinces now known as Annapolis was the point where Catholicity made its first foothold in any portion of the region north of us, at least the first since the time of the Northmen. Here, in 1608, two Jesuit missionaries arrived, who in 1613 were to be the pioneers of the Abnaki mission in Maine. The Recollects, a branch of the Franciscans, began their labors in Quebec in 1615. Other religious men, and some communities of pious women, came to their assistance. Notwithstanding wars between the various tribes, in the course of which the once powerful Hurons were almost annihilated, the missionaries had gathered together, by 1685, a number of Christian villages of Indians on the St. Lawrence, of which three still exist. Thence, missionaries were sent to the shores of Lake Superior, to the tribes south of the lakes, to Arkansas, and to the lower Mississippi. The heroic lives, the sufferings, and the death of Jogues, Brébeuf, and Lalemant, and so many other holy men who consecrated their lives to these missions, are almost familiar themes.

Of the Abnaki mission referred to above, and which was established on Mount Desert Island at the mouth of the Penobscot, nothing remained after a few years except a solitary cross guarding the grave of a French lay-brother, who died from wounds received in an attack made on the mission by the English from Virginia. The fathers were carried off by them on this occasion, and narrowly escaped being put to death by the authorities of Virginia. Thus, as Mr. Shea remarks, the first Abnaki mission was crushed in its very cradle by men who founded a colony in which the Gospel was never announced to the aborigines.

In 1642, an Abnaki who had been rescued from death by a Christian Indian, in one of the forays made by the pagan Iroquois on their neighbors, extolled the virtues of the Christians so highly on his return home that his people sent for black-gowns. Father Druillettes was sent to them in 1646, and the wonderful change effected by him in the few months of his stay excited even the admiration of the English, whose countrymen in Massachusetts were at this time enacting cruel laws against the religion and the order to which F. Druillettes belonged. In 1650, he returned to the Abnakis, and was received by them at Norridgewock, their principal village, amidst volleys of firearms, and with every demonstration of delight. A banquet was spread in every cabin, and he was forced to visit all.

“We have thee at last,” they cried; “thou art our father, our patriarch, our countryman. Thou livest like us, thou dwellest with us, thou art an Abnaki like us. Thou bringest back joy to all the country. We had thought of leaving this land to seek thee, for many have died in thy absence. We were losing all hopes of reaching heaven. Those whom thou didst instruct performed all that they had learned, but their heart was weary, for it sought and could not find thee.”

At the same time that Druillettes was planting the faith among the Abnakis--who have preserved to this day the precious legacy bequeathed to them--Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, certainly a well-meaning man and a credit to the times and to the people among whom he lived, was endeavoring to christianize the Indians of Massachusetts--an attempt which the cruelty and rapacity of his countrymen would have rendered abortive, even if his barren theology had been able to affect anything in their behalf. So Drake, the Indian historian, admits that even among Eliot’s nominal disciples there was not the least probability that one-fourth of them were sincere believers in Christianity. Eliot himself said, before his death, “There is a dark cloud upon the work of the Gospel among the poor Indians.” In King Philip’s war even the Indian ministers threw off all disguise and took up arms against their white Christian neighbors. This last struggle against their destroyers resulted in a total ruin of the Indians. The Puritan, imagining himself the chosen of God, and regarding the Indians as Amalekites and Canaanites whom he was to exterminate out of the promised land, fell upon them with fire and sword.

Even the innocent son of King Philip, the last of the family of Massasoit, was sold into slavery to Bermuda by the men whose children have since lifted the finger of scorn at the population of the South, among whom England forced the institution that lately perished amid the throes of civil war--forced it by the aid, in part, of the vessels and the means of the pious fathers of New England. Father Druillettes, strange to say, visited Eliot, by whom he was hospitably received and entertained, and who invited him to pass the winter under his roof. But this visit to New England was probably one of business, and the father was soon with his beloved Indians again.

Father Rale was among the successors of Druillettes. An expedition of New Englanders destroyed his church and village in 1705, but the cession of the territory to England by France in 1713 restored temporary peace to the Abnaki mission. A deputation of their chiefs therefore visited Boston, and called upon the governor to solicit means for the rebuilding of their church. As Protestantism is always ready to interfere with religious enterprises which it could never itself have succeeded in, this exponent of the religion of New England offered to rebuild their church at his own expense if they would dismiss their missionary and take a minister of his own choice. The reply of the indignant spokesman of the Indians is worth quoting:

“When you first came here,” said he, “you saw me long before the French governors, but neither your predecessors nor your ministers ever spoke to me of prayer or the Great Spirit. They saw my furs, my beaver and moose skins, and of this alone they thought; these alone they sought, and so eagerly that I have been unable to supply them with enough. When I had much, they were my friends, and only then. One day my canoe missed the route; I lost my path, and wandered a long way at random, until at last I landed near Quebec, in a great village of the Algonquins, where the black-gowns were teaching. Scarcely had I arrived, when one of them came to see me. I was loaded with furs, but the black-gown of France disdained to look at them; he spoke to me of the Great Spirit, of heaven, of hell, of the prayer which is the only way to reach heaven. I heard him with pleasure, and was so delighted by his words that I remained in the village near him. At last the prayer pleased me, and I asked to be instructed: I solicited baptism, and received it. Then I returned to the lodges of my tribe, and related all that had happened. All envied my happiness, and wished to partake it; they too went to the black-gown to be baptized. Thus have the French acted. Had you spoken to me of the prayer as soon as we met, I should now be so unhappy as to pray like you, for I could not have told whether your prayer was good or bad. Now I hold to the prayer of the French; I agree to it; I shall be faithful to it, even until the earth is burned and destroyed. Keep your men, your gold, and your minister: I will go to my French father.”

In the unsettled condition of the boundaries, the New Englanders continued to make incursions upon the territory of the Abnakis. In one of these expeditions, Father Rale barely escaped capture, but his celebrated Abnaki dictionary was pounced upon and carried off, and now forms one of the treasures of the library of Harvard University. In 1724, he fell a victim to the persistence of his enemies. Notwithstanding these cruelties, the Abnakis, in the war of the Revolution, took part in the defence of the soil against England with the people who had desolated their home and put to death their beloved pastor. Orono, the Penobscot chief, bore a commission throughout the Revolution, and distinguished himself during the war as much by his bravery as by his attachment to his religion, never consenting to frequent Protestant places of worship.

These sketches, grown so much more lengthy than we had expected, and yet restrained with difficulty within their present bounds, must now close. May they be read with the attention the _subject_ deserves, and thus serve to awaken the honest pride of our fellow-Catholics in the past history of their church on the soil of the United States. May our men of culture, stimulated by the appeal that shall be made to them by the reading classes, spread far and wide the affecting story of the church’s triumphs and reverses in our land, with all the glorious details of the lives and deaths of its heroes and martyrs! May this history grow to be a familiar one to the generation that is rising and the generations that shall succeed it. We love our country, and none dare question our love but they who would have the statute-books bristle with laws against us such as the genius of our institutions forbids and the fathers of the Republic rejected. Let us show our love for it by mingling the memories of all that is dear to us in the career of our religion with all that is noble and inspiring in the civil history of our land, our fair heritage of political and religious freedom.

NOTE.

THE MISSION ESTABLISHMENTS OF CALIFORNIA.--The plan of the
early missionaries in Florida and New Mexico had been to form
the converts into villages near the Spanish settlements, in
which they were trained to the usages of civilized life. In the
numerous Christian villages thus spread over the country, all
civil functions were exercised by the chiefs, the missionaries
confining themselves to those of a spiritual nature only. The
progress of the Indians under this system was slower than was
desirable, and experience led to an improvement in the manner of
conducting the missions that were subsequently established in
New Mexico and California. In the latter, the missionary went
in the first place attended by a small guard, with a colony of
Indian converts, herds of cattle, and a plentiful supply of
agricultural and other implements. Chiefly through the converted
Indians, the surrounding natives were drawn to the mission.
The next step was to proceed to the erection of the mission
building, a rectangular structure eighty or ninety yards square,
with a court-yard in the centre, which was adorned with trees
and fountains. The church and the pastor’s residence occupied
one side, and galleries surrounded the court, opening upon the
rooms of the missionaries, stewards, and travellers, the shops,
schools, store-rooms, infirmaries, and the granary.

A part of the buildings entirely separated from the rest, and
called the monastery, was reserved for the Indian girls, where
they were taught by native women to spin and weave, and received
such other instruction as was suited to their sex. The boys
learned trades, and those who excelled were promoted to the rank
of chiefs, thus giving a dignity to labor which impelled all to
embrace it. Once in the mission, the native was instructed in
Christianity, and constrained to labor. Many of the missionaries
being skilled in mechanical art, the Indians were formed to every
trade, and the surplus products of their industry were exported
yearly in exchange for necessary European goods. The Indians were
apportioned into sections, each under a chief who led his party
to church or to labor, and who was not backward in enforcing
promptness. Against this the Indian at first rebelled: but, as
all his wants were satisfied, he soon became attached to his
manner of life, and would draw others of his countrymen in, whom
he easily persuaded to submit to the routine.

Many learned Spanish thoroughly, and all acquired a knowledge
of the Christian religion, which they faithfully practised.
Thus they gained two great benefits--peace and comfort in this
life, and means of attaining happiness in the next. Those
who visited the missions were amazed to see that with such
petty resources--most frequently without the aid of white
mechanics--the missionaries accomplished so much, not only
in agriculture, but in architecture and mechanics; in mills,
machines, bridges, roads, and canals for irrigation; and
accomplished it all by transforming hostile and indolent savages
into laborious carpenters, masons, coopers, saddlers, shoemakers,
weavers, stone-cutters, brickmakers, and lime-burners. Around the
mission building arose the houses of the Indians and of a few
white settlers; at various distances were ranches or hamlets,
each with its chapel. In a little building near the mission-house
was a picket of five horsemen, who were at once soldiers and
couriers.

The regulations of the mission were uniform. At daybreak, the
_Angelus_ summoned all to the church for prayers and Mass, after
which they went to breakfast. Then all joined their respective
bands, and proceeded to their regular labors. At eleven, they
returned to dine, and rested till two, when labor recommenced,
and continued until the ringing of the _Angelus_ bell, an hour
before sunset. After prayers and beads, they supped, and spent
the evening in innocent amusements. Their food was the fresh
beef and mutton plentifully supplied by their herds and flocks,
cakes of wheat and Indian corn, peas, beans, and such vegetables
as they chose to raise. The missionaries themselves, bound by
vows of poverty, received only food and clothing. The Indians of
a mission were not all of the same tribe, but perfect harmony
prevailed, and when the season of work was over, many paid
visits to their countrymen, and seldom returned alone. Sometimes
a zealous Christian would visit his own tribe as an apostle, to
announce the happiness which was attainable under the mild rule
of the Gospel. In this way the missions constantly received new
accessions, for the good missionaries had the art of making labor
attractive. All the men and women in the mission were, moreover,
well and completely dressed.

It will be seen that this discipline was strict, and the Spanish
government, at the time of the forcible withdrawal of the
Jesuits, wished to bring odium upon them in connection with this
system of administration of their origination. The Franciscans,
however, who succeeded the Jesuits, continued the method of their
predecessors, convinced of its expediency. An attempt on the
part of the government to alter it, in the establishment of a
mission near the mouth of the Colorado, on its own principles,
a few years after the expulsion of the Jesuits, only resulted
in cruel outrages upon the Indians by those who were placed in
the temporal administration in lieu of the Franciscans. These
outrages provoked rebellion, and led to the massacre of the civil
functionaries, and of the religious as well. The government did
not repeat the experiment.

Forbes, the author of a work on California, after commending
the labors of the California Jesuits, says of their successors,
“The best and most unequivocal proof of the good conduct of the
Franciscan fathers is to be found in the unbounded affection and
devotion invariably shown towards them by their Indian subjects.
They venerate them not merely as friends and fathers, but with
a degree of devotedness approaching to adoration.” He adds,
“Experience has shown how infinitely more successful the Catholic
missionaries have been than the Protestant.” These and many other
testimonies from unprejudiced sources might be given to show
the state of happiness in which the Indians formerly lived. An
American traveller, Bartlett, who in 1854 visited the mission
of San Gabriel, to which at one time five thousand Indians were
attached, says, “Humanity cannot refrain from wishing that the
dilapidated mission of San Gabriel should be renovated and its
broken walls be rebuilt, its roofless houses be covered, and its
deserted halls be again filled with its ancient industrious,
happy, and contented population.”

Two classes of persons, therefore--as Marshal remarks in his
_History of Catholic Missions_--“have been instrumental in the
irreparable injury inflicted on the Indian tribes: Mexicans who
had forfeited their birthright as Catholics, and Protestants
who had never possessed it. Affecting to follow the precedents
of modern European policy, of which the chief maxim seems to be
the exclusion of all ecclesiastical influence in the government
of human society, the Mexican civil authorities resolved to
secularize all the missions. The result has been as in every land
where the same experiment has been tried, a swift relapse into
barbarism, from which the church alone has saved the world, the
immediate decay of material prosperity, and a vast augmentation
of human suffering.

“History might have taught the Mexicans to anticipate these
inevitable fruits. When England laid her hand on the possessions
of the church, which had been for centuries the patrimony of
the poor, she took her first step towards her present social
condition. Prisons and workhouses became the dismal substitutes
for monasteries, and jailers supplanted monks. England has not
profited much by the change. The new institutions are at least
ten times more costly than the old, and the benefits derived
from them have been in inverse proportion. They now receive only
prisoners, and disgorge only criminals; while a whole nation of
heathen poor, a burden on the present resources of the country
and a menace for her future destiny, have sunk down, as even
English writers will tell us, to the level of the most degraded
tribes of Africa or America, and are as utterly void of religion
or of the knowledge of God as the Sioux, the Carib, or the
Dahoman.”

FOOTNOTE:

[200] Those who are curious on this point are referred to the _Mystic City of God_, by the Ven. Maria de Agreda, a Spanish Carmelite nun.

THE PROGRESSIONISTS.

FROM THE GERMAN OF CONRAD VON BOLANDEN.