BISHOP GEDDES CONTINUES HIS LITERARY LABOURS—MR. HIPPISLEY AND NATIONAL SUPERIORS—BISHOP GEDDES A PEACE MAKER—ARRIVALS FROM SPAIN—ORDINATIONS—BISHOP HAY INJURED BY A HORSE—MR. ALEXANDER INNES IMPRISONED—HOSTILE PREJUDICE DIMINISHING AT GLASGOW—BISHOP GEDDES TENDERLY CARED FOR—PECUNIARY DIFFICULTY AT GLASGOW— BISHOP HAY ABUSED—BISHOP GEDDES MAKES PEACE—HIGH OPINION OF MISSION AT ROME—PURPOSE TO HAVE A LARGER SEMINARY AT HOME—A COADJUTOR DESIRED—ALEXANDER CAMERON DIGNISSIMUS—THE SAME CHOSEN—THE ARMY LIBERAL—LIFE OF ST. MARGARET TO THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES—CLAIM OF THE BISHOPS FOR THE COLLEGE PROPERTIES IN FRANCE—THEY SEEK ADDITIONAL REPEAL OF THE PENAL LAWS—REPRINT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT—LIBERALITY OF SIR JOHN LAWSON, “THE FLOWER OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC GENTRY.”

Bishop Geddes was still able to continue his literary labours, and with his wonted activity. Dr. Gleig alone kept him busy, and at work of the most agreeable kind. This indefatigable writer had just prepared an article on Purgatory, founding on “The Papist Misrepresented and Repre­sented.” In this essay the learned doctor showed that the doctrine was perfectly harmless and not peculiar to the Church of Rome. There appeared in a former edition of the Encyclopedia an account of Purgatory which he considered very absurd. But the doctrine he thought, when fairly stated, was exceedingly reasonable. He requested that the Bishop would write for him a short paper on canonization under the word saint, or to refer him to a good and fair account of it, such as he remembered having seen in Bishop Hay’s Scripture Doctrine of Miracles. Dr. Gleig, moreover, consulted the Bishop in regard to the Roman Catholic view of the Real Presence in the Eucharist, which he proposed inserting under the word, transubstantiation, or the Lord’s Supper. It must be owned that the non-juror’s edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica freely opened its pages, with most exemplary impartiality, to a fair statement on both sides of every vexed question.
We now find diplomacy at work. Mr. Hippisley, as powerful at Rome as ever, applied with his wonted energy, to the apparently hopeless task of obtaining national superiors for the British Colleges. Mr. McPherson, as representing the Scotch Bishops, cordially seconded his endeav­ours. What may be called an accident, held out for some time a prospect of success. Serious disturbance occurred in the Irish College, consequent upon the misrule of its Italian masters. The students appealed to Mr. Hippisley. The diplomatist promptly took up their cause, and addressed Cardinal Livizani, the protector of the Irish. The Cardinal replied in polite terms, but not to the satisfaction of Mr. Hippisley, who, in turn, expressed his regret that his arguments had not weighed with his Eminence, adding, moreover, that “he trusted to the wisdom and justice of the venerable Sovereign whose moderation, sweetness and goodness have gained for him so much glory, and won all hearts.” The British envoy lost no time in carrying the case to the Pope, pleading earnestly for Irish superiors to the College, and for justice to the students. He also addressed to Cardinal Albani, Dean of the College of Cardinals, a letter in which much kindness of heart was mingled with the politician’s instinctive love of negotiation and diplomacy. The vigorous appeals of Mr. Hippisley, meanwhile, backed by his threats of asking his own Govern­ment to interfere, gave, at last, a fair prospect of success to the cause for which the Bishop had been so long contending. The death of Campanelli, the English protector, destroyed this pros­pect. Albani and others concerned in the matter condemned the proposal to make any change. The support of Cardinal Antonelli at Propaganda was lost to the advocates, of national superiors by his resignation, at the time, in consequence of his increasing infirmities. His successor, Cardinal Gerdil, although good and able, was too aged and too little acquainted with Scotch affairs efficiently to replace him. The English College, notwithstanding, obtained a sort of promise that a national superior would be appointed at the next vacancy.

Some difference having arisen between the two priests at Aberdeen and Bishop Hay, the mistrust entertained by the latter was done away with by the peace-loving Bishop Geddes, who assured the senior Bishop that there were no two clergymen in the country who had his welfare more at heart. It was a source of consolation to Bishop Geddes to contribute towards peace and unanimity.

This year (1795) Mr. Rattray and Mr. John Sharp, so favourably known afterwards in the missions, were expected from Spain; and the same year Mr. Andrew Carruthers and Mr. Andrew Scott, both, at a later date, Bishops, the former at Edinburgh and the latter at Glasgow, were ordained priests by Bishop Hay at Aberdeen. Mr. Charles Gordon, destined to be for many years the popular priest of Aberdeen, and who at the time wanted two or three months of the age required for priests’ orders, was on the same occasion promoted to the rank of deacon. The day after the ordination the Bishop conducted Mr. Scott to the mission of Deeside, for which he was destined, and introduced him to the congregation. The Bishop on returning happened to pass a man who was leading a young horse, and at the moment the Bishop was passing the animal turned suddenly round and kicked him on the shin. The blow was at first very painful; but he thought nothing of it till he reached Aberdeen, when it was found to be so bad as to oblige him to keep his room for several weeks. He was thus prevented from giving any assistance with the duties of Easter-tide.

During the reign of terror in France, considerable anxiety was caused to the Bishops by the imprisonment of Mr. Alexander Innes, who had been temporarily appointed Principal of the Scotch College at Paris. When some kind of order was restored, however, he was set at liberty.

Mr. Farquarson, lately appointed to Glasgow, as successor to Mr. Alexander McDonell, gave at this time a very favourable account of the mission there. In a letter to his friend, Mr. McPherson, he stated that he had been ten days on duty in the western city. There was no lack of work; every­thing was quiet and prejudice was wearing off. Andrew Carruthers, recently ordained, was to be his neighbour in the mission of Drummond. There was an emigrant French priest at Glasgow, one at Dundee, one at St. Andrews, and two at Edinburgh, besides several in Galloway. They all hoped soon, on the conclusion of peace, to return to their own country. Bishop Hay, Mr. Farquarson adds, was about to repair to the North and spend the summer there. He was heartily tired of managing the pecuniary business of the mission, there being a deficit which he knew not how to make up in consequence of some losses, the late increase of missionaries and bank stock calls. He intended in three or four years to retire from office giving up all concern with the mission’s money concerns. But, who would condescend, after him, to undertake the charge? In the same letter Mr. Farquarson says that Bishop Geddes could not be better cared for. His nephews are all attention to him, especially, the younger of them, Mr. Chas. Gordon. One of them is constantly, day and night, beside him. Bishop Hay forwards or orders for him whatever is thought beneficial. He is greatly and almost constantly pained all over his joints, legs, thighs and arms. In a short time he will not be able to get the spoon to his mouth. His head and trunk of body are still sound. His intellectual faculties are better than ever. His appetite is rather too keen; and he is becoming bulky and astonishingly weighty. He dictates commonly, an hour, every day, either for the Encyclopedia or the history of our missions. He is always in good humour and deems himself, in all respects, extremely happy, yet longs for death. His wishes, I assure him, being contrary to those of all others, will not be heard for some years.
The ardour of Mr. Farquarson’s predecessor had carried him a little too far when at Glasgow. There were embarrassing pecuniary difficulties; and the congregation were in danger of losing their church for arrears of rent. It was finally agreed that the rent should be reduced to £30 instead of £40. It was also decided to ask the congregation to pay this lesser sum and the rent of the priest’s house, but nothing else.

It cannot but be recorded with deep regret that some of the clergy should have thought proper to speak harshly and even abusively of the venerable Bishop. That so eccentric an individual as Mr. Charles Maxwell should have done so is little to be wondered at. He appears to have been connected with a little club of censors, and signed himself K. G. K. (Knight of the Gordian Knot.) He was known among his more intimate associates as “Sir Ned.” He wrote letters to Mr. MacPherson filled with bitter reproaches against Bishop Hay, his arbitrary measures and his overbearing temper. This Maxwell, Mr. MacPherson and Mr. Farquarson joined with a few others in censuring, and not unfrequently maligning among themselves everything that Bishop Hay undertook, all of them, however, acknowledging that his intentions were good and honest. Bishop Geddes listened to their complaints; and sometimes communicated them to the senior Bishop. But on all such occasions he strenuously laboured to maintain peace, or, at least, outward harmony. In this he was admirably successful, insomuch that the absence of public disputes among the Scotch clergy was mentioned as one of the reasons why their little church stood so high in public opinion at Rome, and so favourably contrasted with the noisy disputes which from time to time distracted the English clerical body.

The annual letter to Rome this year (1795) was dated from Aberdeen. In a letter to the Holy Father, the Bishops informed him of their purpose to establish a larger seminary at home, in order to, supply for their losses in France.

In October, Bishop Hay consulted the agent at Rome, Mr. McPherson, on the subject of a coad­jutor. In his reply, the agent recommended Mr. Farquarson, an ex-administrator, as a man, he humbly thought, in whom nothing was wanting to fit him for so important an office. It might be, he added, that his judgment was somewhat influenced by the sincere friendship and affection he had always entertained for the late rector of Douai College; but, he must candidly own, at the same time, that, if he were called upon to name another for the position, he should be quite at a loss. Meanwhile, the increasing illness of Bishop Geddes was rendering the question of the coadjutorship every day more pressing. In July, 1797, Bishop Hay was with his coadjutor at Aberdeen, and thence despatched letters to Propaganda on the necessity of appointing a coad­jutor. He wrote, at length of the state of incapacity to which long illness had reduced, Bishop Geddes, and the infirmities which age, hard and incessant labour, together with constitutional headaches, had brought upon himself. His memory in particular, he said, was much decayed, as he found to his inconvenience when anything occurred requiring fixed attention and recollection of the past. He, in consequence, entreated the congregation of Propaganda to grant him another coadjutor, and proposed, as was the custom, three persons, as fit for the office. First was named, dignissimus, Alexander Cameron, rector of the Scotch College of Valladolid, whose abilities and character stood very high in the estimation of all who knew him. The second, dignior, was Mr. John Gordon, vice-rector of the same College, and a man of exemplary piety and of such reputation for learning as to be commonly known at Valladolid as an oracle of theological science. The third, dignus was Mr. Donald Stewart, an excellent and meritorious missionary priest. The persons named had been all educated at Rome; and this, as Bishop Hay well judged, was no slight recommendation. The application was received at Rome at a time that was very unfavourable to the rapid despatch which Bishop Hay so much desired. The months of September and October were then, and are still, considered by the Romans as vacation time, on which no kind of business should intrude. All who had the means, retired to the country. The Scotch agent, notwithstanding, was so much in favour with the authorities at Propaganda, that they consented to have the matter promptly despatched, without waiting for a meeting of the congregation, or audientia S. S. mi. There was a marked inclination to name Mr. John Gordon, so much were the Cardinals moved by the splendid character given to him by the Bishops. The agent, however, holding out for the selection made by the Bishops, the choice fell on Mr. Alex­ander Cameron, who then became Vicar-Apostolic of the Lowland district of Scotland, with the title of Bishop of Maximianopolis, I. P. I.

It may now be placed on record, as showing the greater liberality with which our soldiers were treated, that the commandant of a fencible regiment gave orders that the men should attend the churches of their respective denominations. The Saturday after their arrival at Dundee he addressed them in the following terms: “You that are Roman Catholics divide, and stand at my right; you of the Church of England on my left; and let the Presbyterians remain where they are. You Roman Catholics will go to-morrow to the Seagate where the Roman Catholic priest, Mr. Pepper, lives; you of the Church of England to the English chapel; you of the Church of Scot­land, to the Kirk. But see you go, all of you, from the parade ground, in rank and file, with a drummer and fifer at the head of each division.” The name of the officer who thus acted was Colonel Baillie.

Bishop Geddes, at this time, December 1795, wrote at some length to Bishop Hay notwith­standing the increased severity of his ailment. Among other things, he requested that the Bishop would send his. “Life of St. Margaret” to the Society of Antiquaries. The signature, the only part of the letter in his own hand writing, is weak and unsteady, still, however, retaining much of the character of his old style.

As the English Bishops had applied for restitution through the British Government of their prop­erties at Paris and Douai, with the best hopes of success in the event of peace being concluded between the two countries, there was no reason why the Bishops in Scotland should not make a similar application. The Lord Advocate and Mr. Henry Dundas, whom they first addressed on the subject, returned a very favourable answer and promised to keep their application in mind when the proper time came. They also memorialized Mr. Brodie, M. P., on the subject of their losses which they estimated at 30,000 livres of annual income. They, at the same time, directed the attention of this gentleman to another grievance for which they sought redress. Their fellow-Catholics in England, according to the recent Act, repealing so far the penal laws, were now free to erect seminaries at home for the education of youth. By some oversight, however, in the Scotch Act, the clause which was intended to prohibit them from educating the children of Prot­estant parents, was so worded as to amount to a prohibition against their educating their own children.

For some years there had been a great demand among the Catholics of Scotland for copies of the Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, in English. So far back as 1790 Bishop Geddes spoke of this matter to Bishop Hay on which occasion the Bishop suggested that Dr. Challoner’s New Testament, at least, should be reprinted. To meet the expenses of such a reprint, Sir John Lawson, of Brough, whom Bishop Geddes described as the flower of the English Catholic gentry, offered to subscribe £50 on condition of Bishop Geddes superintending it. Mr. Robertson, a Benedictine priest of Ratisbon, would willingly undertake the editorial drudgery. Bishop Hay was satisfied that a great demand for the English Scriptures had existed for eight or ten years previously. In 1782 he had consulted Chalmers, the Aberdeen printer, about a reprint. Chalmers, after a few days’ consideration, offered to reprint for £250 an edition of the whole Bible in every respect similar to the London edition, so that the four volumes of the Old Testa­ment might be sold at 5s. bound. The Bishop was well pleased with the coadjutor’s proposal to have a reprint, but his financial condition would not allow him to advance any money. With the aid of Sir John Lawson’s subscription, however, Bishop Geddes was enabled to commence the work of reprinting the New Testament. He was resolved that the type, paper and binding, should be good, as everything connected with religion ought to be; and he hoped to see it sold at 2s. It was his intention to follow Bishop Challoner’s edition with as few alterations as possible. Bishop Hay was particularly averse to changes, whether in the text or in the notes. People had been long accustomed, he said, to Bishop Challoner’s edition, and they might be startled at finding alterations. More than this, Benedict XIV., in his preface to the Index Expurgatorius, made honourable mention of the translation. This was some sanction, surely, the Bishop thought, although not a formal document.