Old Catholic Maryland and its early Jesuit missionaries

Front matter

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Old Catholic Maryland

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Chapter I

When the Pilgrim Fathers of Maryland, flying from cruel persecution in England, set sail from Cowes, in the beautiful Isle of Wight, in 1633, they had as companions of their voyage the Jesuit missionaries, Frs. Andrew White, John Altham, Timothy Hayes and Brother Thomas Gervase. The story of their voyage in the Dove and Ark, as told by Father White, is a charming and touching narrative. Before starting, on the Feast of St. Cecilia, *^a gentle east wind blowing," they piously consecrated their little fleet to God, the Blessed Virgin, St. Ignatius, and all the Guardian Angels of Maryland. As they dropped down the British Channel, here and there along the shore some faithful and loving friends waved them a parting adieu, and knelt down to invoke blessings upon their heads. At Yarmouth and Hurst Castles they were greeted by cheerful salutes of artillery. Much, indeed, did the exile band need encouragement. A dangerous way spread out before them. Besides the storms and fogs to be faced, other sources of fear awaited them. Turks and Pirates, at the time, everywhere infested the seas and caused terror and dismay in the breasts of even the boldest who had to plough the deep. The protection of God and His Saints seemed the only shield for the poor pilgrims. On one occasion of distress they invoked the aid of St. Clement, and received by the powerful intercession of that Saint the needed succor. Almost every day, after losing sight of land, they encountered new perils. Still, in the very midst of their trials and dangers they kept heart. Men of Faith never lose courage, never despair. On a pleasant evening, when the waters enjoyed a more than ordinary repose, they had some real, some home-like pleasure in racing with a fine merchant ship called The Dragon,

After many delays, and much moving in out-of-theway directions, the Pilgrims sailed out from the coast of Spain to the Fortunate Isles, and thence steered for Barbadoes. At Montserrat they m,et a colony of Irishmen who had been banished from Virginia on account of professing the Catholic Faith. After leaving behind them the last of the Caribbee Islands, they at length reached Point Comfort in Virginia. There they remained for a few days. On the 3rd of March they entered the Chesapeake Bay. '' We turned," says Father White, '* our course to the north to reach the Potomac River. The Chesapeake Bay, ten leagues (thirty Italian miles) wide flows gently between its shores ; it is four, five, and six fathoms deep, and abounds in fish when the season is favorable ; you will scarcely find a more beautiful sheet of water. Yet it yields the palm to the Potomac river, which we named after St Gregory.

*' Having now arrived at the wished-for country, we allotted names according to circumstances. And indeed the Promontory, which is toward the south, we consecrated with the name of St. Gregory (now Smith Point), naming the northern one (now Point Lookout) St. Michaels, in honor of all the angels. Never have I beheld a larger or more beautiful river. The Thames seems a mere rivulet in comparison with it ; it is not disfigured with any swamps, but has firm land on both sides of it. Fine groves of trees appear, not choked with briers or bushes and undergrowth, but growing at intervals as if planted by the hand of man, so that you can drive a four-horse carriage, wherever you choose, through the midst of the trees. Just at the mouth of the river we observed the natives in arms. That night fires blazed through the whole country, and since they had never seen such a large ship, messengers were sent in all directions, who reported that a canoe like an island had come with as many men as there were trees in the wood. We went on, however, to Heron's Islands, so called from the numbers of these birds that abound there. The first island we came to we called St. Clement's Island.

" This island is covered with cedar and sassafras trees and flowers and herbs for making all kinds of salads, and it also produces a wild nut tree, which bears a very hard walnut with a thick shell and a small but very delicious kernel. Since, however, the island contains only four hundred acres, we saw that it would not afford room for the new settlement. Yet we looked for a suitable place to build a fort (perhaps on the island itself) to keep off strangers, and to protect the trade of the river and our bounderies, for this was the narrowest crossing-place on the river.

** On the day of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, in the year 1634," continues Father White, '' we celebrated on this island the first Mass which had been ever offered up in this part of the world. After we had completed the Sacrifice, we took upon our shoulders a great cross which we had shaped out of a tree, and advancing in order to the appointed place, with the asl6 OLD CATHOLIC MARYLAND AND

sistance of the Governor and his associates and the other CathoHcs, we erected a trophy to Christ, the Saviour, humbly reciting, on our bended knees, the Litanies of the Holy Cross with great emotion;'

The final resting-place chosen by Leonard and George Calvert, brothers of Lord Baltimore, and the two ** hundred gentlemen adventurers and their servants " who sailed from England in the Dove and Ark, was the little Indian village, known in Maryland history as St. Mary's City. The fact that this ill-fated town"^ has almost entirely disappeared has long afforded writers a theme for much beautiful and pathetic description. At present scarcely *' a stone is left upon a stone " to remind the visitor that it once existed. A few scattered bricks, and a vault, the very names of whose occupants are unknown, are its only relics now.

We may affirm, without fear of contradiction, that St. Mary's County, in which St. Mary's City was located, is one of the most hallowed spots on this continent. As Mr. Bancroft said, it was at one time '' the only home of religious freedom in the wide world."t Dedicated itself to the Virgin Mother, nearly all its rivers and creeks, its farms and villages, its roads, woods, and hills have been placed under the protection of saints and angels. The Mass-bell has been heard for more than two centuries in all its hamlets, and the Clean Oblation^ which was foretold by the prophet, has been offered up in hundreds

^ "St. Mary's never had more than sixty houses, but the settlers call town any place where as many houses are as individuals required to make a riot; that is twenty." Rec. Eng. Prov. Series vii.

t Bancroft's Hist. U. S. vol. I, 246, 247, Boston, 1839.

aye, in thousands of its devout old homes. It has been sanctified by the labors and sufferings of devoted missionaries, and by the faith and charity of a pious and truly Catholic people.

St. Mary's County was, from its first settlement by European colonists, a Catholic colony, and is to this day, thank God, nearly as Catholic as Belgium, Ireland, or French Canada. It is true that the Protestant party, helped by the English Protestant or Puritan government, was, from time to time, in power, and finally, in the Revolution of 1689, gained complete ascendency; still the mass of the people always were Catholic.

Mr. Davis, a Protestant author, writes as follows on this subject:

" St. Mary's was the home — the chosen home — of the disciples of the Catholic Church! The fact has been generally received. It is sustained by the tradition of two hundred years and by volumes of unwritten testimony ; by the proceedings of the privy council ; by the trial of law cases ; by the wills and inventories ; by the land-records and rent-rolls ; and by the very names originally given to the towns and hundreds^ to the creeks and rivulets, to the tracts and manors of the country. The State itself bears the name of a Roman Catholic queen. Of the six hundreds of this small county, in 1650 five had the prefix St. Sixty tracts and manors, most of them taken up at a very early period, bear the same Roman Catholic mark. The creeks and villages, to this day, attest the widespread prevalence of the same tastes, sentiments, and sympathies."

St Mary's City was selected as the headquarters ot the missionaries. The wigwam of an Indian chief was converted into a place of worship, and thus the poor hut of a savage became the first chapel in Maryland. '^ As this humble shelter," writes Mr. Bernard Campbell, *' must have been too small to admit the colonists, it is most probable divine worship was performed in the open air. How interesting must have been the spectacle presented on the first Sunday after the landing, when the venerable priest (Father Andrew White), assisted by his fellow missionaries, celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, with all the pomp and splendor which the humble means of the colonists enabled them to impart to the August Rite. Their Church was the great temple of nature ; the beautiful river of St. Mary spread her broad and mirror-like bosom at their feet ; around them were the deep forests, which, under the gentle influence of spring, had now begun to form the leafy canopy that sheltered our infant church.'* The idea of Lord Baltimore in sending Jesuits to Maryland was to afford the colonists all the succors and advantages of religion. He thought also of the poor savages who sat in the shades of unbelief But, no doubt, he gave them only a secondary thought. But the missionaries could hardly be expected to confine their ardent zeal to the little band of settlers at St. Mary's, while the woods around them were dark with the night and gloom of souls who lived in ignorance of all great Christian truths, to whom the clear vision of the Light of the World had never appeared. We know that almost immediately after the landing of the passengers of the Dove and Ark, Father Altham began his work of evangelizing the Indians. Father White, after describing the celebration of the First Mass on St. Clement's Island, thus writes : '* Now when the Gov-

ITS EARLY JESUIT MISSIONARIES. I9

ernor had understood that many princes were subject to the Emperor of Pascatawaye, he determined to visit him, in order that, after explaining the reason of our voyage, and gaining his good will, he might secure an easier access to the others. Accordingly, taking along with our pinnace another, which he had procured in Virginia, and leaving the ship (the Ark) at anchor, he sailed round and landed on the southern side of the river. And when he had learned that the savages had fled inland, we went on to a city which takes its name from the river, being also called Potomac. There the young king's uncle, named Archihu, was his guardian and acted as regent in the kingdom ; a sober, discreet man. He willingly listened to Father Altham, who had been selected to accompany the Governor, for I was still kept with the ship's cargo. And when the Father explained, as far as he could, through the interpreter, Henry Fleet, the errors of the heathen, he would ever and anon acknowledge his own ; and when he was informed that we had come thither, not to make war, but out of good will towards them, in order to extend civilization and instruction to his ignorant race, and show them the way to heaven and at the same time with the intention of communicating to them the advantages of commerce with distant countries, he gave us to understand that he was pleased at our coming. The interpreter was one of the Protestants of Virginia, and so, as the Father could not stop for further discourse at the time, he promised that he would return before long. 'That is just what I wish,' said Archihu, * we will eat at the same table ; my followers too shall go to hunt for you, and we shall have all things in common.' " In the beginning our missionaries were obhged to reside at St. Mary's City, and not among the Indians as some of them desired. From their headquarters, however, they sallied forth, from time to time, in order to convert the savages. Love and esteem for the lives of the priests seem to have been the motive which urged the rulers of St. Mary's not to allow them to remain for any long period among the Indians. The Annual Letters for 1637-8, say: ** Though the authorities of this colony have not yet allowed us to dwell among the savages, on account both of the prevailing sickness and of the hostile disposition shown by the barbarians towards the English, to the extent of murdering a man from this colony who had gone amongst them for the sake of trade, and also of entering into a conspiracy against our whole nation ; still we hope that one of us will shortly secure a station among the barbarians. Meanwhile, we devote ourselves more zealously to the English ; and, since there are Protestants as well as Catholics in the colony, we have labored for both, and God has blessed our labors. For among the Protestants nearly all who came from England in 1638, and many others, have been converted to the faith."

Great piety, fervor, and peace soon reigned among the inhabitants of St. Mary's. Many of the leading gentlemen there made the Spiritual Exercises according to the method of St. Ignatius, and became exemplary Catholics. *'As for the Catholics," say the Annual Letters for 1639, *' the attendance on the Sacraments here is so large, that it is not greater among the faithful in Europe, in proportion to their numbers. The most ignorant have been catechized, and catechetical lectures have been delivered to the more advanced every Sunday ; on feast days they have been veiy rarely left without a sermon. The sick and the dying, who were numerous this year and dwelt far apart, have been assisted in every way, so that not a single person has died without the Sacraments. We have buried very many, but we have baptized a greater number."

The early government of Lord Baltimore's colony was patriarchal, and all the settlers lived something after the manner of the chosen people of old. It was not until their numbers had considerably increased that they thought of framing a code of laws and establishing a political constitution. In 1635, was convened the first popular assembly of Maryland, consisting of the whole body of '' freemen," by which various regulations were framed for the maintenance of good order in the Province. Two years later on, the second assembly of Maryland was convoked. To this council the Jesuit missionaries. Fathers White, Copley and Altham were summoned. The third assembly, was held in 1639, and was rendered memorable by the introduction of a representative body into the provincial constitution.

The infant colony of Maryland found itself surrounded on all sides by evils and dangers. The principal part of Lord Baltimore's followers, as Catholics, could hope for no help, no protection, no friendship from their Protestant parent country. They might well be thankful, indeed, to the rulers of that kingdom for being permitted to forsake without stripes and blows, their ancestral homes and hearths, and their rich and broad domains. Their nextdoor neighbors, the Virginians, watched them with an eye of envy and hatred. The Indians who surrounded them in the beginning, for the most part, were friendly towards them ; but how long could they rely on the fickle friendship of those red warriors whose " axe," as one of their chiefs truly said, ''was always in their hands ?"

It is a fact of history, admitted even by Protestant writers, that the Catholic founders of Maryland treated the Indians in the most humane and Christian-like manmer. " Governor Calvert," says Kilty, " made a free and fair purchase of the natives with articles suited to their state of life, and brought from England for that purpose. The prudence and justice which dictated this policy in preference to the forcible intrusion which had marked the commencement of the first Southern plantation, appeared to have governed the subsequent proceedings of the Proprietary and his Officers for extending their limits of possession." Still the redmen, sometimes stirred up by jealousy, at other times excited by the deceitful words of desperate plotters, who hated to see the Catholic colony flourishing like a garden, made deadly onslaughts upon the *' pale-faced " inhabitants of St. Mary's City.

In 1 64 1 the Indians grew extremely hostile to all who were not of their race. The war whoop of the fierce Susquehannoughs could be heard almost within a bow-shot of the little capital of the Maryland settlement. Their light steps could be heard by attentive ears in all the encircling woods. At dusk, too, their bark canoes could be seen by watchful eyes gliding silently among the tall reeds on the banks of the St. Mary's River. Often the flight of a frighted duck, or the cry of a heron, was the only signal given that the Indian foe was near. We cannot easily picture to ourselves the disturbed condition of life led by the peaceful and virtuous followers of Lord Baltimore during these days. They rested, if rest they could under such circumstances, with their defensive weapons at their pillows. The missionaries, who had their headquarters at St. Mary's City, shared in all the trials and hardships of the period. For a time, as they were mere prisoners, and could not accomplish the sublime end for which they had come, they thought of removing from the Capital to some place of more security, and in which, or from which, they could carry on their apostolic labors. '' Even the devoted and fearless missionaries," says a Protestant writer, '' began seriously to think of abandoning their station, and establishing themselves at Potupaco, which was less exposed to the ravages of the cruel and warlike Susquehannough tribe."

About 1644, one year before the arrest of White and Fisher, St. Mary's City was endangered by the rebellion of the pirate Ingle and the desperado Claiborne. The infamous histories of both these bad men are too well known to need a recital here. We allude to them at present as being the probable cause of the removal of the Fathers from the Capital to St. Inigoes. In the above year, when Claiborne took St. Mary's City by force, the missionaries were immediately obliged to fly for safety. It has been stated that they then retired to St. Inigoes. This was a part of the property taken possession of by the Fathers on their first landing with the pilgrims in Maryland.

After some time Claiborne was expelled from St. Mary's City, but he and his Puritan party again succeeded, in 1652, in becoming masters of it. It is not our intention to depict the battles fought between the contending parties from that time to the beginning of 1658, when the Lord Proprietary was once more reinstated in his lawful rights and authority. But as many of the facts that help to form the history of that period will throw some light upon the story of our missionaries, we shall glance at them in passing.

After the defeat of Governor Stone, in 1655, the Puritans took many distinguished prisoners to Annapolis. Among these were Governor Stone himself, Colonel Price, Captain Gerard, Captain Lewis, Captain Kendall, Captain Guither, Major Chandler and all the rest of the councillors, officers, and soldiers of Lord Baltimore. Among the commanders and soldiers who fought with Governor Stone, we are told, were many papists. From these was taken all their " consecrated ware." *'The consecrated ware " consisted of '^ Pictures, Crucifixes, and rows of Beads, with great stores of Reliques." Historians tell us that the Puritans of Providence, now Annapolis, several days after the fight on the Severn, put to death, in cold blood, four of Governor Stone's men. These were William Eltonhead, one of the council. Captain William Lewis, John Legatt and John Pedro. Persecution again raised its " red right hand " in Maryland. The Catholics were prohibited from voting, and it was *' enacted and declared, that none who profess and exercise the Popish (commonly called the Roman Catholic) religion, can be protected in this province by the laws of England formerly established, and yet unrepealed ; nor by the Commonwealth of England, etc. ; but to be restrained from the exercise thereof' Liberty was granted to all "provided'' it *'be not extended to Popery or Prelacy."

The Puritans sacked and plundered the Fathers' Residences at Portobacco and St. Inigoes. The following is the Annual Letter for 1656: "In Maryland, during the last year, our Fathers have passed safely through grievous dangers, and have had to contend with great difficulties and trials, as well from enemies as from our own people. The English who inhabit Virginia had made an attack on the colonists of Maryland, although their own countrymen, and having guaranteed their lives on certain conditions they carried off the Governor of Maryland, with many other prisoners. Their promise was, however, treacherously violated and four of the captives, of whom three were CathoHcs, were shot dead. Rushing into our houses they cried out death to the impostors as they called us, determined on a merciless slaughter of all who should be caught. But the Fathers, under the protection of God, passed in a boat before their very faces, unrecognized by them. After which, their books, furniture, and whatever else was in the house, fell a prey to the robbers. With almost the entire loss of their property, private and domestic, and with great peril of their lives, they were secretly carried into Virginia, where they now are suffering from the greatest want of necessaries, and can find no means of support. Tbey live in a mean hut, low and confined, not much unlike a cistern, or even that tomb in which the great defender of the Faith, St. Athanasius, lay concealed for many years. To their other miseries this inconvenience is added, that whatever comfort or aid under the name of stipend was this year destined for them from pious persons in England has been lost, the ship in which it was carried being intercepted. But nothing distresses them more than that there is not a sufficient supply of wine to enable them to offer up the Holy Sacrifice. They have no servant, either, for domestic use, or for directing their way through unknown and suspected places, or even to row and steer the boat when needed. Often over spacious and vast rivers, one of them, alone and unaccompanied, passes and repasses long distances, with no pilot directing his course than divine Providence."

In 1688, the Orange Revolution swept over England; James was dethroned, and William and Mary took his place. The hopes of the Catholics were dashed to the ground, and these saw with dismay a new reign of terror inaugurated. Catholic schools and chapels were everywhere closed, and priests and schoolmasters proscribed and banned. The next year, 1689, the English Revolution extended to America.

It does not enter into the scope of this book to tell how the Puritans took forcible possession of St. Mary's City. A full account of this sad event may be found in any history of Maryland. Suffice it is to say, that the venerated Catholic settlement was for a time in the hands of the bigotted '' Committee of Safety," and that this body passed over the government to Governor Copley. The first act passed by the Assembly convened by this gentleman was one recognizing the title of William and Mary. ''The next was an act making the Church of England the established church of the province, and thus putting an end to that equality in religion which had hitherto been Maryland's honor. It provided for the division of the ten counties into thirty-one parishes, and imposed a tax of forty pounds of tobacco upon each taxable person, as a fund for the building of (Protestant) churches and the support of the (Protestant) clergy," Governor Copley died on the 12th of September, 1693, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, his former Secretary, assumed the government ad iiiteriin as President until a new Governor should arrive.

A new Governor soon arrived in the person of Francis Nicholson, well known in the histories of New York and Virginia. It is supposed by some that Nicholson was at one time a Catholic. I found, in '* The Documentary History of New York," the following sworn testimony to that effect :

Affidavits Against Nicholson,

The depositions of Nicholas Brown, Aged Twenty three Years, the said Deponent declares that he being in the Service of Y^ late King Anno One thousand six hundred Eighty Six some time in July and August, did see Frances Y^ late Heu* Governor of Y^ fort at New York severall times in Y^ Masse, but especially two times in Y^ Kings tent at Hunsloheath in old ingland, being there to Exercise his devotions, & did Y^ same upon his Knees before the Alter in the papaist Chappel, where the Mass was said, that himself, this deponent is ready to Confirm and declare upon Oath in testimony of the truth & have hereunto Set my hand. In New York this 12th day of Septem^ Anno 1689.

Signed Nicholas Brown.

1689 the 13th f^^ in New York Then appeared before me Nich^^ Brown Sz: sworn before me the aforesaid to be the truth.

" Soon after his arrival,'' writes Scharf, "Governor Nicholson convened the Assembly to meet on the 21st of September, not in St. Mary's but at Anne Arundel town, afterwards called Annapolis. This choice foreshadowed the doom of the former city, the cradle of the province ; and at this session the removal of the seat of government was decided upon. The reasons alleged for the change were not without weight ; but it is probable that the true motives were to be found in the fact that St. Mary's was especially a Catholic settlement, was, beyond other towns, devoted to the proprietary government, and was closely connected with all those ties and associations which it was the policy of the new government to break up. Great was the consternation at St. Mary's at a change which brought her certain ruin, and a pathetic appeal was made to the Assembly to reconsider their action. Pathos and humility were but thrown away on the Lower House, the coarse and almost brutal scorn of whose reply shows the acrimony of the dominant party. Remonstance and appeal were all in vain. The ancient city was stripped of her privileges, of everything that gave her life, and she was left to waste and perish from the earth. Her population departed, her houses fell to ruins, and nothing is now left of her but a name and a memory."

It was in the year 1694, that the seat of government was moved from St. Mary's to Annapolis.

Father Andrew White was born in London, it is said, in the year 1579. Little is known of his early years, but we may well suppose that they were passed in the practice of virtue and in severe application to study. The great evangelist of America comes before us at once in history as a priest crowned with a halo of science and piety. We hear of him as a newly-anointed priest at Douay in 1605, and the following year we see him cast into prison for the faith, and thence, with forty-six other clergymen, driyen into perpetual banishment. He then retired to Catholic Spain and became professor in one of the English or Irish Colleges there. Soon after this he resolved to join the sons of St. Ignatius, and for that purpose left Spain and proceeded to Louvain. Of Father White's novice-home we wrote the following brief sketch, a few years ago, for the Woodstock Letters :

Near the Cliateaii Cesar, or Castrum Caesaris, Louvain, high up on Mont-Cesar, stand three or four private dwellings and a ruined stable. Few, even among the students of Louvam, know that these dwellings occupy the site of the old English Jesuit Novitiate, and that the stable itself was once a part of that hallowed house. When the English Fathers of the Society of Jesus were driven from their own country, in 1607, they rented a house on Mont-Cesar, and used it for a novitiate. This novitiate was opened by Father Parsons, in the same year, with six priests, two scholastics, and five lay-brothers. God gave this novice-home a singular and wonderful benediction — he gave it an apostle and a martyr. While Hugh O'Neill, Prince of Ulster, occupied the Chateau Cesar, near him, in the humble Jesuit novitiate, Andrew White, the future Apostle of Maryland, and Thomas Garnett, a future martyr, were passing their days of probation in prayer, penance and manual labors. As The O'Neill spent several months on Mont-Cesar, and knowing him to be the great Catholic hero of his time, we may take it for granted that he often visited the exiled English priests, and that he often saw the novices. White and Garnett. How proud the old chieftain would have felt had the future destiny of these two young men been revealed to him !

Father White began his novitiate on the first day of February, 1607. Besides Garnett, Father White had for a fellow-novice the illustrious Father Henry More, the historian of the English Province and the great grandson of the martyred Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. Among confessors for the faith, among the descendants, the near relatives of martyrs, the future Apostle of Maryland laid the foundation of his religious perfection and caught the flame that burned in his great heart as he traversed the forests or sailed the rivers of the New World.