by Rev. Aeneas McDonnell Dawson

CONVERSIONS—BISHOP GILLIS AND OTHER WRITERS—THE EX-KING OF FRANCE—DEATH OF MR. MENZIES—HIS LAST WILL—MAGNIFICENT FUNERAL—BISHOP GILLIS A DIPLOMATIST—HIS SUCCESS IN OBTAINING FUNDS FOR THE MISSION—CAUSES THE LIBRARY OF THE SCOTCH COLLEGE AT PARIS TO BE REMOVED TO BLAIRS—DEATH OF THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND ALEXANDER M’DONELL AT DUMFRIES—HIS FUNERAL AT EDIN­BURGH—IN 20 YEARS HIS REMAINS TRANSFERRED TO KINGSTON—THE CHURCH AND HOUSE OF ST. MARY’S, EDINBURGH, GREATLY IMPROVED— GUILD OF ST. JOSEPH—SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT OF PAUL—BISHOP GILLIS AND THE “FREE CHURCH”—NEGOTIATIONS CONCERNING THE SCOTCH MONASTERY AT RATISBON—FINAL DECISION—RENCH ROYAL FAMILY AT EDINBURGH— THE COUNT DE CHAMBORD—RELICS OF SAINT CRESCENTIA—RELICS OF SAINT MARGARET—PERTH BANQUET AT BIRTH OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL, 1840— GREAT PROGRESS, CONSOLING TO THE BISHOP IN HIS OLD AGE—HIS DEATH.

Conversions were not as yet very frequent in Scotland. That they were not impossible, however, circumstances occasionally showed. Towards the close of Bishop Carruthers’ career, in the year 1850, Viscount Fielding came to Edinburgh in order to be received into the Church, together with Lady Fielding. They applied to the coadjutor Bishop, before whom they made their abju­ration. This had scarcely been done when the Viscount’s father, the Earl of Denbigh, accompa­nied by his chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Baylee, arrived, in the hope of being able to prevent his son and daughter-in-law from taking what he considered a false step. To his great mortification, however, it was too late. As if to make amends he and his clerical friend sought and obtained an interview with Bishop Gillis, at which Mr. Baylee raised a discussion on several tenets of the Catholic Church. The conversation, or controversy, lasted three hours; but led to no result. Soon after, Mr. Baylee published a very unfair account of the interview in the Morning Herald. Bishop Gillis was obliged, in consequence, to insert in the same paper a counter statement for his own vindication. An unprofitable newspaper correspondence was the result. But it was not of long continuance. It lasted, however, long enough to show how little justice was to be expected from the public press of the time. The unfairness of the Herald’s report imposed on Bishop Gillis the necessity of publishing a pamphlet, in which he gave in detail the facts and arguments that had been brought forward. This work, although it had no effect on the opinions and prejudices of Mr. Baylee and his right honourable patron, was circulated, along with the coadjutor’s other learned writings, and won for him, apart from his episcopal character, a high place among men of letters.

Another able writer of the time among Catholics was the Reverend James Stothert, a graduate of Cambridge and a convert to the Catholic faith. Of Mr. Stothert’s ability as a writer and lecturer we need no better proof than the elegant lectures which he delivered at Edinburgh, and which gave so much delight to all who heard them.

Mr. William Turnbull, a member of the Edinburgh bar, was well known in those times as a man of letters and a zealous antiquary. He was for some time secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; and was succeeded in that office by Principal Sir Daniel Wilson, now at Toronto. Mr. Turnbull, like Mr. Stothert, was a convert to the Catholic religion. Dr. Kemp, of the medical profession, was also a convert, and did honour to his profession by the elegance of his writings. Another convert, Sir William Drummond Stewart, was one of the first who travelled through and explored the Rocky Mountains of America, and was well known throughout those wild regions as “the hospitable Scotchman.” What he wrote about his travels entitles him to honour­able mention among literary men. His nice appreciation of the fine arts was well shown in the tasteful decorations and whole style of the elegant chapel which, at a cost of £16,000, he erected near his family mansion, Murthly Castle.

Mr. Clerk, son of Sir George Clerk, Bart., of Pennycuick, so long known in Canada as the editor of the Montreal “True Witness,” and much distinguished by his able writings, was a convert of the time. James Browne, LL.D., who so well illustrated portions of Scottish history, and who was also a convert to the Catholic Faith, fills, and is well entitled to fill, a high place among the literary characters of Edinburgh. The brothers, Alexander and George Miller, of the British army, grandsons of Lord Glenlea of the Court of Session (the Supreme Court of Scotland), and sons of Colonel Miller, who fell at Waterloo, are well entitled to an honourable place among the distinguished converts of the period.

If correct, elegant and judicious composition of sermons can give any claim to literary reputa­tion it eminently belonged to the Rev. Alexander Badenoch. It is to be regretted that he left no writing to impart instruction and perpetuate his memory. The ex-King of France, Charles X, who attended regularly at St. Mary’s Church, where Mr. Badenoch was the senior priest, was heard to say that he showed much feeling in his sermons. Mr. Smith, editor of the Catholic Magazine of those times, and the first that appeared, must not be forgotten. His work ably promoted the cause of letters as well as that of religion. It would be a grievous mistake not to mention the venerable John Sharpe who after having laboured long in the mission, was Presi­dent of Blairs’ College in Bishop Carruthers’ time. Under his rule, and without the aid of punishments, the highest discipline prevailed.

The Reverend William Bennet was one of the gifted men of Bishop Carruthers’ time. He laboured many years in the mission, and was distinguished for both piety and learning. He joined the Society of Oblates and was Professor of Greek and English Literature for several years in the University which that Society founded and conducts at Ottawa, Canada. He died there at the advanced age of 73 in 1887.

In the time of Bishop Carruthers’ that illustrious scholar, Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman, paid several visits to the clergy and Catholics of Edinburgh. Colonel McDonell of that time who lived long at Edinburgh, wrote a remarkable work, called “the Abrahamida,” in which he endeavoured to prove that the people of Scotland are descended from the Patriarch, Abraham. His work and the idea it maintains were only known to the Colonel’s private friends, as he never published it.

Charles Glendonwyne Scott was a striking figure in the society of those days. He was called and was in reality, Mr. O’Connell’s “Head Pacificator for Scotland.” The mission lost its best bene­factor when John Menzies, Esq., of Pitfodels, departed this life on the 11th of Oct., 1843. Bishop Gillis returned from an intended tour to Germany in time for the funeral, which was conducted with all the pomp becoming a friend of the Church who was so deeply lamented. Bishops Kyle and Murdoch were present, together with many of the clergy from various parts of Scotland. The Guild brethren, in full costume, appearing in procession from St. Mary’s Church to the Chapel of St. Margaret’s Convent, where the interment took place, added much to the solemnity of the services. Meanwhile, some of the populace mistook the brethren for priests; and certain murmurings were heard about so many “Romish” priests being in the city. This may not have amounted to much. Nevertheless, the police officers thought it advisable that the Guild men should not return in their uniform; and counselled them accordingly. Bishop Carruthers was unavoidably absent, being from home and not having had notice in time. Mr. Menzies’ testa­mentary settlements had been partly executed in 1834: To St. Margaret’s Convent he bequeathed a considerable sum of money, together with a small landed estate, for the benefit of the community established there. Bishop Gillis he appointed his residuary legatee, and willed to him, besides, the property and house of Greenhill, where Mr. Menzies had spent the last years of his life, and, along with it, the plate and furniture. The library also, he left to the Bishop during his life, appointing that it should afterwards belong to the future College of the Eastern District. The testator directed, moreover, that the debts of the two churches of Edinburgh should be paid out of his funds. Legacies were left to each of the three Vicars-Apostolic for building new churches in the Highland portions of the Western district, and for erecting a new church at Aber­deen. In addition there were several bequests to individuals; so that almost the whole of Mr. Menzies’ property was devised for ecclesiastical and charitable purposes in Scotland.

Soon after the appointment and consecration of Dr. Gillis as coadjutor, Bishop Carruthers had good reason to congratulate himself on the diplomatic ability and success of the newly appointed Bishop in obtaining additional funds for the use of the mission. Hitherto the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which originated at Lyons in 1822, and had one of its directing councils at Paris, had confined its benefactions to missions outside of Europe. When Bishop Gillis applied for some aid to the struggling missions of Scotland the reply was given that the Society could not deviate from the purpose for which it was founded, even in favour of the poorest European mission. The Bishop was not to be defeated. Availing himself of his acquaint­ance in France, and finding himself sustained in his views by several religious and influential persons, he set about establishing another charitable society for giving assistance in European missionary countries, on the same plan as that of the institution already in existence. In this endeavour he was eminently successful. The devout Catholics, who at first favoured his views, and lent him their countenance, continuing to sustain him, the new institution, called l’ceuvre du Catholicism en Europe (the work of Catholicity in Europe), was established at Paris. The prospects of this undertaking were in a short time so good that the first Society became alarmed for its prosperity. Its councils, dreading the influence of the rival institution, laid the whole case before the Holy See. It was there decided that there should be only one society, as the interests of two rival societies might often clash and injure each other; it would tend more to promote the general good, that the missions of all countries, whether European or other, should in future, receive aid in proportion to the necessities of each mission and the means at command of the Society for granting aid. It was, no doubt, cause of regret that a good work with such excellent prospects, should be abandoned. Meanwhile, it had produced its fruit. The council of the orig­inal, or rather, the united society entertained favourably the case of the Scotch missions, and ever since they have shared abundantly in its distributions.

The influence of the coadjutor was still further employed in obtaining that all that remained of the library of the Scotch College of Paris, should be transferred to Blairs. In May, 1839, he returned to. Scotland.

A singularly distinguished son of Scotland, where were spent the earlier years of his ecclesias­tical career, justly claims honourable mention here. Urged by his sacerdotal zeal the Honourable and Right Rev. Alexander McDonell, of Kingston, had traversed the Atlantic Ocean and revis­ited the scenes of his earlier labours in order to obtain some assistance for his recently estab­lished diocese in Canada, It was not however, the will of the Great Master that he should continue his work in the vineyard; and he was called suddenly to his reward a day or two after his arrival at Dumfries, in Scotland, on the 14th day of January, 1840, (For details see Biography by Chevalier W. J. McDonell, of Toronto, Canada.) It was resolved, on the occasion, to do the greatest possible honour, as was fitting in the case of a prelate who had been so eminent in his day as a Bishop, and, in trying times, had done signal service to both Church and State. The remains were conveyed to Edinburgh in order to be temporarily deposited in the vaults of the chapel of St. Margaret’s Convent. The funeral services were conducted with extraordinary pomp at St. Mary’s Church. Nothing of the kind so splendid had been seen at Edinburgh since Royalty ceased to have its abode in the Scottish capital. A magnificent funeral car was provided, a procession formed, and all that was mortal of the great Bishop conveyed to the Convent, there to await transference to the seat of his Canadian diocese. Twenty years later, one of his succes­sors, Bishop Horan, effected the change and laid down in their final resting place the remains of Kingston’s first Bishop.

When Bishop Carruthers gave over the charge of Edinburgh and its two churches to his coad­jutor, the latter made several improvements in St. Mary’s Church. The pews were in great part renewed. A new altar with appropriate furniture, and a new pulpit were erected. A screen of elaborately carved oak was placed at great cost around the sanctuary, and within it an episcopal throne and a choir organ. The chief organ, meanwhile, was repaired and enlarged, and the church newly painted and decorated within. The house in which resided the Bishop and clergy was also considerably improved. The walls were raised a few feet and new furniture provided.

It was at this time also that Dr. Gillis, with the consent of the Bishop, instituted the Holy Guild of St. Joseph. It was his good fortune also to favour the establishing in Edinburgh of the well known Society of St. Vincent of Paul. This brotherhood that followed so closely in the footsteps of its sainted patron, although it originated in Paris so late as 1833, in a short time had branches all over France, and somewhat later, in every country where there are Catholics. At Edinburgh there are three conferences.

At this time (1846), Mr. Frederick Monod, a Calvinist minister, directed, under the auspices of the Free Church of Scotland, a volume of calumnies and misrepresentations against the Catholic Church. The Bishop considered it his duty to reply. He, accordingly, prepared an elaborate refu­tation of Mr. Monod’s book and addressed it to the assembly of the Free Church, which was then in session. No answer was received, and it is not known what impression the Bishop’s work produced on the Free Church mind; but the volume remains a monument of its author’s learning, moderation and literary skill.

Bishop Carruthers, at his advanced age, could ill dispense, even temporarily, with the presence at Edinburgh and aid of his coadjutor. It was, nevertheless, resolved that the latter should proceed to Ratisbon in Bavaria, as representative of the Vicars-Apostolic of Scotland, in order to obtain if possible, that on the decease of the last Scotch Benedictine, Prior Deasson (Dawson,) the Monastery of St. James should be secularized and converted into a Seminary for the Scotch missions. Such a demand was not unreasonable, as all the properties connected with the Monastery, had been gifted to it by Scotchmen, noblemen and others interested in the cause of Scotch education. The Bishop had taken care to provide himself with letters of introduction from the ex-Royal Family of France. He succeeded, moreover, in interesting in favour of his view the Bishop of Ratisbon and the surviving Religious. He then repaired to Munich and obtained an audience of the King, who received him with favour, entertained his application, and referred him for a final answer to his Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs. It appears to have been no easy matter for this Minister to manufacture a reply. For it was not given till after a delay of four months, when everything asked for was refused, and a threat held out, at the same time, that if the Monastery were not supplied with subjects, Scotch Benedictines, within six months, it would be delivered to Bavarian members of the same Order. The Bishop replied to this extraordinary State paper, which was wholly founded on erroneous assumptions, in a memorial which was called “Reclamations,” and which set forth the claims and rights of the Scotch mission to the whole property, proving beyond question, that it was the intention of the founders and benefactors to promote the cause of the Catholic Religion in Scotland, and not to benefit the Bavarians. He pointed out, moreover, how unjust it would be to alienate the Semi­nary from the Scotch mission, declaring it to be nothing less than an act of spoliation. The Bavarian Ministry were proof against argument. Meanwhile, Bishop Gillis submitted the memorial to Lord Palmerston, at the time Foreign Secretary, and requested him to use his influ­ence with the Court of Bavaria in order to obtain more reasonable terms. The British Minister promised to give his aid and suggested that the memorial should be presented to him in a more condensed form. This was done; and the Government, through their envoy at Munich, Mr. Milbank made a representation to the Bavarian Ministry. This action was not without its effect. The threatened measure was suspended, and the matter in question was referred for final deci­sion to the Holy See. There even, the niggardly spirit of the Bavarian Ministry so far prevailed that only £10,000 was allowed to Scotland in lieu of all the properties bestowed by Scotchmen on the Monastery of St. James of Ratisbon. It was a condition of this decision that the sum mentioned should be applied in aid of additions to the Scotch College at Rome. The negotiations lasted eight months, the two or three last of which the Bishop spent at Bruges. In March, 1849, he returned to Edinburgh.

The pontificate of Bishop Carruthers was further illustrated by the sojourn for some years, at Edinburgh of the ex-King, Charles X., and the exiled Royal Family of France. All kind and proper attentions were shown them by the Bishop, his coadjutor, the Rev. Alexander Badenoch, and the other priests of the time. A special pew was fitted up for them in St. Mary’s Church, where they regularly attended, and a private passage opened from the Bishop’s house to the church.

The grandson and heir of the exiled King Henri Duc De Bordeaux, better known, afterwards, as Count De Chambord, had his earlier education at Edinburgh. Later in life, when a young man, he revisited the scenes of his youth in Scotland. He was treated everywhere with attention and every mark of regard. He paid a visit to St. Margaret’s Convent, and held a levee there attended by His Grace, Mgr. le Duc De Lèvis, Admiral Count Villaret Joyeuse and his preceptor, M. De Barande. Several persons of distinction friends of his family availed themselves of the opportu­nity to honour him with their friendly greetings. The chaplain, who as such, and also as senior priest of Edinburgh, assisted the good sisters in doing the honours of the house, in the absence of the Bishop, requested Mgr. De Lèvis to present to the Prince, the venerable Sister Agnes Xavier, informing him that she was the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, and a convert to the Catholic Faith, the first Scotch lady who, since the Religious Revolution, became a Reli­gious, and one of the first colony of Religious Sisters who occupied St. Margaret’s Convent. To hear all this was a new pleasure to the Prince, who was a good Catholic.

In 1842, a new honour was added to the pontificate of Bishop Carruthers by the arrival in Scot­land of the relics of one of the early martyrs. This good fortune was due to the zeal of a Catholic lady, Mrs. Colonel Hutchison, who, on occasion of a visit to Rome, had an audience of the Holy Father, Gregory XVI., at which she was introduced as a convert from Protestantism, and a liberal benefactress of the Scotch missions. The Pope was so pleased that he asked her to name any favour it might be in his power to grant. The good lady expressed her wish to obtain the relics of a saint for her “eldest daughter.” On learning that this was no other than Saint Margaret’s Convent, Gregory XVI. immediately ordered that the body of Saint Crescentia, Virgin and Martyr, should be confided to Mrs. Hutchison. On her return home, in company with Bishop Ullathorne, she was arrested at Leghorn, having been mistaken for a person of the same name who had aided in the escape of Lavalette in 1816. Bishop Ullathorne on reaching London, drew up a statement of the case, which was presented to Lord Aberdeen by Lord Cunningham, (a judge of the Supreme Court) Mrs. Hutchison’s brother. The British Minister lost no time in communicating with Prince Metternich, and an apology speedily put an end to the trouble. A list of “contraband” individuals was no longer kept on the frontier of Lombardy where many British travellers had been stopped and turned back. In future there could be no such annoyance. The case of relics which Mrs. Hutchison carried with her was an additional source of anxiety to her during her misadventure. She succeeded, however, in bringing it safely to Edinburgh; and the relics of Saint Crescentia, having been duly presented to the Ursuline Sisterhood, were deposited in an elegant shrine, designed by the celebrated architect, Pugin, and manufactured by Bonnar and Carfrae, of Edinburgh.

Somewhat later, Scotland and the Convent were enriched with a relic of Queen Saint Margaret, obtained from Spain through the exertions of Bishop Gillis, when Vicar-Apostolic. But we must not anticipate.

One of the latest acts of the Bishop, now far advanced in years, was to preside at the re-opening of the enlarged and improved Church of St. John, at Perth. He asked on that occasion the writer, who had preached in the forenoon, to give a second sermon at the Vesper service. On the latter suggesting that it would be more acceptable to the congregation to hear a few words from their Bishop, the aged prelate addressed to them a short but very feeling allocution. In connection with Perth it may be mentioned, as shewing the advancing liberality of the time, that on occasion of a banquet given by the municipality, 1840, in honour of the birth of the Princess Royal, now Empress Dowager of Germany, the Lord Provost invited the priest in charge at the time, and included him in the toast of the clergy, to the great satisfaction of the numerous company.

It was a source of great consolation to the venerable Bishop in his declining years, to observe the progress which religion had made during his comparatively short pontificate. The number of churches and clergy had increased and was still increasing; the cause of Catholic education was daily gaining ground; Catholics from being a disliked and dreaded sect, were become popular; religious societies had begun to be introduced; the community of St. Margaret’s, with its two houses, had gained by its successful pains in the work of education and its charitable care of the sick, the affection of the Catholics and the esteem of the general public. The Bishop was now eighty-three years of age, and having lived to witness all that he could expect or hope for, he was prepared to say, like the saintly Simeon, “Now, O Lord, dismiss Thy servant in peace for my eyes have seen the advance of Thy salvation.” He was still active, however, and perse­vered in visiting the missions; insomuch, that it was remarked that he thought he could never do enough of duty. His last visit was to Dunfermline, the chief seat of the Fifeshire missions, which he had caused to be founded. He was there the guest of the writer for the better part of a day; and after an early dinner returned to Edinburgh, apparently in his usual good health, He had scarcely reached the capital, however, when he was attacked with typhus fever, which, in its fatal course of eleven days, put an end to his career, but not until after he had participated in all the consolations of religion and set a bright example of Christian fortitude and patience. His death was generally lamented and spoken of in the public prints as that of the “the much beloved prelate.”

    


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