Chapter XLV

1844-1857.

Episode in Dr. Ryerson's European Travels.--Pope Pius IX.

One of the many episodes in my European travels which I have been requested by many to narrate led to my presentation to Pope Pius IX., and is as follows:--

On my arrival in England on my first educational tour, near the end
of 1844, I was invited to a Christmas dinner party at the house of
an English clergyman, where I was introduced to a young Russian
nobleman, by the name of Dunjowski, who had attended lectures in
several German universities, and came to England to learn the
English language, in which he soon became a proficient. During his
residence in England he became acquainted with a number of
distinguished men, noblemen and others; among whom were the late
Rev. Dr. Chalmers. This young Russian nobleman, having learned that
I was on a tour of investigation of the educational institutions of
Europe, proposed before the close of the evening to join me in
investigating the educational institutions of western and central
Europe, with a view to his writing an account of them on his return
to St. Petersburg. I accepted his proposal; and in the course of a
few weeks we commenced our tour through Holland and Belgium to
Paris, of which some account will be found in the extracts from my
Journal in the preceding Chapter.

At Paris my Russian friend conceived the idea of attending another
course of lectures on some branch of Roman law at Tubigen. We
parted, but he changed his mind, and instead of attending an
additional course of lectures in a German university, he proceeded
to Rome. A few weeks after my arrival there, I felt a tap on my
shoulder at the dinner table, and, on looking up, I recognized my
young Russian friend, who was already speaking Italian, with as
much fluency as he had spoken English, French, and German, when we
parted at Paris six weeks before.

We renewed our travels together, after having completed our tour of
Rome, with its antiquities and institutions; we proceeded to Naples
by stage, where we spent several days in examining its College of
Nobles and other educational institutions, including its
antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, Vesuvius, etc. In the
College of Nobles we met an American Priest, who was President of
the Roman Catholic College at Georgetown, near Washington, and
invited him to take a seat in our carriage the next day on an
excursion to Herculaneum and Pompeii. In the course of the day a
religious discussion took place between the American Priest and the
Russian, who was very fond of controversy. I took no part in it,
but I thought the Priest had rather the best of it. The result was,
my Russian friend was persuaded to go into a house of retirement
near Rome, and devote some weeks to solitary prayer, fasting, and
meditation. I never afterwards saw him or heard from him for eleven
years, though I remonstrated with him, and wrote him from Florence,
entreating him to reconsider what he was doing; but he said that
what I spoke and wrote rather confirmed him in his course, than
diverted him from it.

When making my third educational tour on the Continent of Europe, I
was, with my daughter, at Munich, in Bavaria, about the beginning
of 1857, and while at dinner at our hotel, I felt two hands placed
upon my shoulders; on looking up, I recognized, notwithstanding his
present dress, my old friend, Dunjowski, who embraced and kissed me
as a brother. After dinner we retired to the parlour, and talked
over the past. I asked him what he had been doing these eleven
years, how he had become transformed from a Russian nobleman,
scholar, and lawyer, into a Roman Catholic priest, in full
canonicals. He told me that after we separated at Naples, eleven
years before, he went into a house of retirement at Rome, and by
prayer, fasting, and meditation, devoted himself to God and His
Church, without reserve of rank, fortune, or country; that he had
ultimately decided to be a Catholic; that he had studied theology
four years in France; that he had been appointed a Missionary to
the North, and had been some years a Missionary to the Lapps, and
had preached before the Kings of Denmark and Sweden; that he was
then Missionary Apostolic to all the Catholic Missions in Europe
and America, north of latitude 60; and that he might yet visit
Canada. This extraordinary man had mastered the languages of the
various countries in which he had travelled and laboured, and gave
my daughter specimens of his writing in twenty-seven different
languages. I never knew a man of more disinterestedness, more
devotion, and singleness of purpose, than Mr. Dunjowski. He was up
and out at prayers to his church before five o'clock, in the
terribly cold mornings the last of December and the beginning of
January, in one of the coldest capitals of Europe.

On the other hand he asked me what I had been doing during the last
eleven years. I replied that I had devised and brought into
operation a system of public instruction, which had been approved
by the Government and Legislature, and by the people at large, whom
I had consulted, in the several counties of Upper Canada. He wished
to know what I had done in respect to his co-religionists. I shewed
him the provisions of our School Act, and the Regulations founded
upon it in respect to Roman Catholics in Upper Canada. My Russian
friend thought that nothing could be more just and fair than these
clauses of the law and regulations, and requested permission to
shew them to the Pope's Nuncio (an Italian Archbishop), at the
Court of Bavaria. The Pope's Nuncio was so pleased with them, that
he requested the loan of them until he got them translated into
German, and published in the Bavarian newspapers, to shew how
fairly the Roman Catholics were treated under the Protestant
Government of Upper Canada. The Pope's Nuncio afterwards desired me
to call upon him; and during the interview, after some
complimentary remarks, requested me to be the bearer of a medal
from the King of Bavaria to Cardinal Antonelli, at Rome. I readily
accepted the honour and the office, and found the Pope's arms and
seal a ready passport when I got in a tight place among the
avaricious Italian Custom House officers.

Dr. Ryerson thus describes his interview with Pope Pius IX.:

On my arrival at Rome I duly delivered my letters of introduction,
and the King of Bavaria's medal to Cardinal Antonelli who received
me with the utmost courtesy, offered me every facility to get
pictures copied by my own selection at Rome, and proposed, if
acceptable to me, to present me to His Holiness the Pope. I readily
accepted the attentions and honours offered me; but told the
Cardinal that I had a young daughter, and young lady companion of
hers, whom I should wish to accompany me; His Excellency said, "By
all means."

On the day appointed we went to the Vatican. Several foreign
dignitaries were waiting in an ante-room for an audience with the
Pope, but the Methodist preacher received precedence of them all.
"Are you a clergyman?" asked the Chancellor, who conducted me to
the Pope's presence; "I am a Wesleyan minister," I replied. "Ah!
John Wesley. I've heard of him," said the Chancellor, as he
shrugged his shoulders in surprise that a heretic should be so
honoured above orthodox sons of the Church. We were then in due
form introduced to the Pope, who received us most courteously, and
stood up and shook hands with me and with whom I conversed (in
French) for nearly a quarter of an hour; during the conversation
His Holiness thanked me for the fairness and kindness with which he
understood I had treated his Catholic children in Canada. Before
the close of the interview, His Holiness turned to the young ladies
(each of whom had a little sheet of note paper in their hands) and
said, "My children, what is that you have in your hands?" The girls
curtsied respectfully, and told His Holiness that they brought
these sheets of paper in hopes His Holiness would have the
condescension and kindness to give them his autograph. He smiled,
and wrote in Latin the benediction: "Grace, mercy, and peace from
God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord," and then kindly gave
them also the pen with which it was written.

Thus ended our interview with Pope Pins IX., of whose unaffected
sincerity, candor, kindness, and good sense, we formed the most
favourable opinion, notwithstanding the system of which he is the
head.

Dr. Ryerson also mentions another interview which he had:--

In addition to my letters of introduction to Cardinal Antonelli, my
Russian friend, Dunjowski, gave me a letter of introduction to
Father Thyner, the keeper of the Archives at Rome, and an intimate
personal friend of the Pope; in which letter he referred to the
school systems of Upper Canada, in reference to Roman Catholics.
Father Thyner wished to see the Canadian school law and
regulations, and shewed and explained them to the Pope, who
afterwards spoke of their fairness and kindness, in my interview
with His Holiness.

Father Thyner was once Librarian to the King of Prussia, and being
a Roman Catholic, he went to Rome, where his varied learning and
high character soon obtained him a high position at the Vatican.
He, as well as the Pope, in his early life was an enemy of the
Jesuits, and was regarded by them as such throughout his whole
life.

I had a severe illness of some weeks at Rome, during which Father
Thyner visited me almost daily, but never said one word to me on
the grounds of difference between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

During my last visit to England in 1876-7, I spent part of a day at
the residence of the Rev. Wm. Arthur, A.M., who showed me the works
in his library from which he had derived the principal materials of
his masterly work on _The Pope and The People_. Among other works
he shewed me some volumes written by Father Thyner, containing an
account of the proceedings of the Council of Trent. "Why," I said,
"I know Father Thyner personally," and related my acquaintance with
him. Mr. Arthur said in reply, "This work is the chief source of my
knowledge of the proceedings of the Councils of Trent;" and added,
"Father Thyner having determined to publish an account (which had
never before been published) of this Council, was forbidden to do
so, and banished, or driven from Rome, when he went to Hungary, and
published his great work on the Councils."

I have observed in the papers, that Father Thyner died in Hungary a
year or two since. He was a man of profound learning, of fervent
devotion, of great moderation in his views, of uncompromising
integrity. I visited him in his convent, near Rome, and drank the
juice of the grape grown in his own garden, and pressed by his own
hand.