CHAPTER VIII.

Association Of Prayers For The Conversion Of England.

It was in the year 1838 that he began the great work to which his life and energies were afterwards devoted--the moving of the Catholics everywhere to pray conjointly for the conversion of England. Before this time he and a few of his friends prayed privately, said or heard masses for this intention, and encouraged one another by letters and conversations to perseverance in so holy a practice. Now he went to work on a larger scale. How this change in the working of his zeal was brought about will be best seen from a letter he wrote to Dr. Briggs in November, 1838. Before, however, quoting it, it may be well to remark that the cause of his going to France with Mr. Phillipps was that he was breaking down in health, hard-worked by two laborious missions, for which he had no assistant since Mr. Martyn's death, and that his doctor advised change of air and rest. Here is the letter:--

"London, Nov. 5, 1838.

"My Dear Lord,--I hope I shall be doing right to explain to your lordship the real circumstances of the transaction which, you may perhaps have been told, has been adverted to in _The Times_ newspaper of Nov. 3, and some other paper since; which states, from the _Gazette de France,_ that I have been at Paris, with Mr. Ambrose Phillipps, busy in establishing an association of prayers for the conversion of England to the Roman faith. I am certainly ready to plead guilty on this charge; but I do not find cause to repent of it. However, a good thing may be done so out of place and out of time as to make it not worth much, and it may be necessary, therefore, that I should explain myself before I am approved of in what I have been {249} doing in Paris. In the first visit which I paid to the Archbishop on my arrival at Paris, I was saying, what I say continually, that what we want above all in England is good prayers; and that it would be a great benefit if the French would undertake to unite in prayer for us. I did not think of making any proposal for an actual arrangement of the kind till the Archbishop himself (then Monseigneur Quelin) encouraged, and almost obliged, me to do all I could by the zealous manner in which he took up the idea. He appointed that I should meet him after two days at St. Sulpice, where seventy or eighty of the clergy of Paris were to be assembled to offer him an address of thanks for a retreat which he had given them. After the business was concluded, he introduced me to them, and having explained how I came to be there, he proposed that they should undertake to pray for the conversion of England on every Thursday. The proposal was most favourably received, and I heard of its being acted upon by many offering their mass on the first Thursday. This encouraged me to go on. I obtained a circular letter of introduction to the superiors of religious houses, and visited about twenty of the principal. All of them undertook to offer their prayers as I asked them, and to write to their sister houses through France. The General of the Lazarists, and the Provincial of the Jesuits, undertook to recommend it to their brethren; but what I thought more satisfactory yet was, that all the Archbishops and bishops whom I could meet with in Paris promised to recommend the prayers in their dioceses and provinces; so that it appeared to me that there was reason to say that all France would soon be united in this prayer, and I trust other countries of Europe will follow their example. I remember, at the time when your lordship received me with much kindness at Halford House, on our speaking of the importance of prayers being regularly said for the conversion of England, and you told me of what had been done at Ushaw under your direction. I forget whether I said to you that I had then lately adopted the practice of offering my mass every Thursday regularly for that intention. I took this from the nuns of Mount {250} Pavilion, with whom I had become acquainted the summer before, but especially what they do on Thursday, when there is high mass and exposition all the day, and a solemn act of reparation for the outrages committed against the Divine Eucharist. It seemed to me that this was a devotion peculiarly suited to the object of obtaining from Almighty God graces for England, one of whose most crying sins is; _the blasphemy of the Blessed Sacrament authorized by law for three centuries_.

"I had only proposed the idea, however, to a few priests of my acquaintance, to unite in saying mass for England on that day, and was rather waiting for some plan to be suggested for a general union of prayers in England by some one of authority. But, as nothing had been done, and when I found myself engaged in this pursuit at Paris, it was necessary to propose something definite, I have nothing better than to request prayers from all the faithful for England, all days and at all times, but especially to offer mass on Thursday, if they be priests and at liberty, or communion, or assistance at mass, or visits to the Blessed Sacrament, or, in short, whatever they did for God, particularly on that day, for England's conversion.

"The manner in which this request was accepted by all the good people whom I saw was most consoling to me; and it appears to me that I am bound to make it known in England, to those whose judgment is most important, and whose approval would most powerfully recommend the Catholics in England to correspond with the zealous spirit exhibited in behalf of our country by France.

"It is not for me to suggest to your lordship what might be done. I only venture to hope that you may think this matter perhaps worthy of your attention, and will perhaps mention it to the clergy as occasion may present itself. I would add, that in France the superiors of several seminaries were most ready to undertake to recommend it to the students, and it pleased me particularly to interest those communities in behalf of England, because the devotion might so well spread in that way through all classes. Would your lordship think fit to mention the subject at Ushaw? {251} I have nowhere asked for any particular prayers to be said as that might be burdensome; but simply that this intention might be thought of at least, if nothing more was done in reference to it.

"I beg again to be excused for my boldness in thus addressing you, and am your lordship's

"Obedient humble servant, "George Spencer."

The passage he alludes to in _The Times_ was as follows:--

"The Hon. and Rev. George Spencer, brother to the present Earl, who was converted from Protestantism to the Catholic faith some years ago, has lately been passing some time at Paris, with Mr. Ambrose Phillipps, a gentleman of distinction of Leicestershire, eldest son of the late member for the northern division of the county. They have been busily occupied there in establishing an association of prayers for the conversion of this country to the Roman faith. They have had several interviews with the Archbishop of Paris on this subject, who has ordered all the clergy to say special prayers for this object in the _memento_. A number of the religious communities in France have already begun to follow the same practice."

This paragraph was taken up, of course, and commented upon by the second-rate papers. To be sure, the whole thing was magnified into nothing less than a grand stir for a Papal aggression, which, if it did not make the English shore glitter some day with French bayonets, was certain to cram every workshop and church with Jesuits in disguise.

The Bishops were all favourable to Father Spencer's zealous ideas; they gave him leave to speak on the subject with all the priests; they mentioned it in their pastorals: but they did not wish him to go too publicly to work, as they rather feared the spirit of the times, and did not know when another Gordon riot might arise and overthrow what they had been building up since the Emancipation. In the meantime, the work was progressing rapidly. A Dutch journal reached him which let him know that all the seminaries and convents in Holland had given their Thursday devotions for England. A good {252} priest wrote from Geneva to say that the programme should be widened, and that all heretics and separatists ought to be included as well as England. To this Father Spencer consented after some deliberation, and in the space of about six months all the Continent were sending up prayers for England's conversion. He makes speeches at formal dinners and public meetings, and always introduces this topic; whereupon the reporters conceive a terrible rage, and puff the matter into all the taverns and offices of London, Liverpool, and Manchester. Of course, all this is accompanied with gross misrepresentations and personal abuse. Of the former point he thus speaks in a letter:--"The misrepresentations, as far as I have seen them in the public papers, by which they have endeavoured to obstruct the proposed good, are so glaring that I think all thinking persons must be benefited by reading them." "My notion was to ignore the English public altogether, and go on with my work as if it did not exist." "The opposite papers have certainly helped me and well, in making the matter as public as I could wish, without a farthing's cost to me, and in a way in which I cannot be accused of being the immediate agent of its publicity, as it was put about as though to annoy me, but they are pleasing me without intending it." This was the good-humoured way in which he took all that was personal in the journalistic tirades. It gives one an idea both of his great zeal and the great virtue with which he accompanied it.

He now writes to the Irish Archbishops, and receives very encouraging answers. So much did they enter into his sentiments that, in a meeting of the Irish episcopate in Dublin, they gave his proposals a good share of their attention, and approved of them.

This he accounted great gain. It was the prayer of the martyr for his persecutor, of Stephen for Saul, and of Our Lord for the Jews. Poor Ireland had groaned and writhed in Saxon bondage for centuries. She saw her children scattered to the winds, or ground by famine and injustice beneath the feet of the destroyer; and, at the voice of a Saxon priest, she turned round, wiped the tear from her eye, {253} pitied the blindness of her oppressor, and offered up her sufferings to Heaven to plead for mercy for her persecutor. The cry was a solemn universal prayer, framed by her spiritual leaders, and carried to every fireside where the voice of the Church could drown the utterings of complaint. F. Spencer thought more of the prayers of the Irish than of all the Continent put together; these were good, but those were heroic. He began to love Ireland thenceforward with an ever-increasing love, and trusted chiefly to the faith and sanctity of her children for the fulfilment of his zealous intentions.

He pushed his exertions to Rome also, by writing to Dr. Wiseman, and asking him to see the devotion carried out in the Eternal City and the provinces. It met the same success as in France, Belgium, Holland, and Ireland. There is a letter extant which Dr. Wiseman wrote to F. Spencer about this time (it is dated Ash Wednesday, 1839), and it must be interesting, both for its intrinsic merit as well as the giving an evidence of the harmony of feeling and sentiment that bound the great cardinal and the zealous priest together since their first acquaintance until they both went, within a few months of each other, to enjoy the eternal reward of their labours in England and elsewhere, for God's glory:--

"Rome, _Ash Wednesday_, 1839.

"My Dear Friend,--I must not delay any longer answering your kind and interesting letter. Its subject is one which has long occupied my thoughts, though I never contemplated the possibility of enlisting foreign Churches in prayer for it, but turned my attention more to exciting a spirit of prayer among ourselves. I will enter on the matter in hand with the most insignificant part of it, that is, my own feelings and endeavours, because I think they may encourage you and suggest some thoughts upon the subject. In our conference this time last year, I spoke very strongly to the students upon the wants of England, and the necessity of a new system in many things. One of the points on which I insisted was the want of systematic prayer for the conversion of England, and, at the same time, of _reparation_ for her defection. I observed that it is the only country {254} which has _persisted in_ and _renewed_, in every generation, _formal acts of apostacy_, exacting from every sovereign, in the name of the nation, and from all that aspired to office or dignity, specific declarations of their holding Catholic truths to be superstitious and idolatrous. This, therefore, assumes the form of a national sin of blasphemy and heresy--not habitual, but actual; it is a bar to the Divine blessing, an obstacle of a positive nature to God's grace. It calls for contrary _acts_, as explicit and as formal, to remove its bad effects. Now what are the points on which this blasphemous repetition of national apostacy has fastened? They are chiefly two: Transubstantiation and the worship of the Blessed Virgin. These, consequently, are the points towards which the reparation and, for it, the devotion of Catholics should be directed in England. I therefore proposed, and have continued to inculcate this two-fold devotion, to our students on every occasion. I have for a year made it my daily prayer that I might be instrumental in bringing back devotion to the Blessed Eucharist, its daily celebration, frequent Communion, and _public_ worship in England; and, at the same time, devotion to the Blessed Virgin, chiefly _through the propagation of the Rosary_. (My reasons for the choice of the Rosary I shall, perhaps, not be able to explain in this letter.) Allow me to mention, as I write to you, quite confidentially, that the idea struck me one afternoon that I happened to be alone in the Church of St. Eustachio, observing that the altar of the Blessed Sacrament was that of the Madonna; this led me to earnestly praying on the subject of uniting those two objects in a common devotion in England, and offering myself to promote it. Several things led me to feel strongly on the subject which, being trifles to others if not to myself, I omit. First, as to the Blessed Eucharist, my plan was different from yours in one respect, that, instead of fixing on one day, I proposed to engage priests to say mass for the conversion of England on different days, so that every day twenty or thirty masses might be said for its conversion, and in expiation to the Blessed Sacrament. At such a distance from the field of action, I could do but little; I therefore made the few priests who have left since last {253} year at this time put down their names for two days a month, for mass for these purposes, intending to fill up my list as I could. One of them, Mr. Abraham, writes that he observes his engagement most punctually. With all deference, I submit to you whether, while Thursday remains the day for general prayer, every priest (for I should think none would refuse) would choose a couple of days a month, or a day each week, for these purposes. In a sermon in the Gesù e Maria, last spring, I alluded to a hope I fondly cherished, that public reparation would before long be made in England to the Blessed Sacrament, and this brought me a letter from a devout lady, earnestly begging I would try to have something done in that way, and naming persons in England most anxious to cooperate in anything of the sort. My idea was borrowed from my excellent friend, Charles Weld, and consisted in _Quarant' Ore_, not confined to one town, but making the circuit of all England, so that by day and night the Adorable Sacrament might be worshipped through the year. I have proposed it to Lord Shrewsbury, for I think it should commence with the colleges, convents, gentlemen's chapels, and large towns, in which I trust each chapel would consent. As the Exposition at each place lasts two days, it would require 182 changes in the year, or, if each would take it twice a year, 91. There are about twenty-five religious communities and colleges; the chapels in large towns could afford to make up other twenty-five. I think that many pious people would like to have the _Exposition_, and gladly contribute the expense, and the _giro_ might be published for the year in each directory. I must say I should set myself against the common practice of keeping the Blessed Sacrament in a _cupboard_ in the vestry, without a light even, and never having an act of adoration paid to it, except at mass. Security from sacrilege must be purchased, but not by a sort of sacrilege which it always looked to me; the faithful should be encouraged to visit the Blessed Sacrament during the day. Secondly, as to the devotion to the Blessed Virgin, I proposed the forming of Confraternities of the Rosary, and, while Saturday should be the general day for the devotion, I would have different congregations {256} fix on different days, so that each day the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin might be invoked upon us and upon our labours, and reparation be made to her for the outrages committed against her. I offered Mr. Oxley and Mr. Procter to write a little treatise on the Rosary, if they would disseminate it. _One_ of my reasons for preferring the Rosary, both for myself and English Catholics, is what ordinarily forms an objection to it. Pride, when we come to pray, is our most dangerous enemy, and I think no better security can be given against it than to pray as the poor and ignorant do. Do we then _wish_ that God should judge us by the standard of the wise who _know_ their duty, or by that of the poor little ones? If by the latter, why spurn the prayers instituted for them, and say, 'We will not use them, but the prayers better suited to the learned.' The 'Our Father' was appointed and drawn up for men who said 'Lord, teach us how to pray.' It is a prayer for the ignorant, as is the Rosary. But more of this another time. It was my intention to have begun daily prayers for England last St. George's Day; I was prevented from drawing them up, but hope to begin this year. In the meantime, I took out of our archives a printed paper, of which I enclose a copy, showing that prayers for the conversion of England, &c., have in former times occupied the attention of our college, which blessed beads, &c., for the purpose of encouraging them, and that the Holy See conferred ample spiritual privileges upon the practice. You will see how the Rosary is particularly privileged. This paper, through Giustiniani, I laid before the Congregation of Indulgences to get them renewed for prayers for England, and was told that it would be better to draw up something new, suited to present times, when Indulgences would be granted. So far as to my views and ideas before your better ones reached me, and I willingly resign all my views and intentions in favour of yours. Now, as to what is doing here. On the Feast of St. Thomas we distributed to all the cardinals that came, a copy of your sermon received that morning, with a beautiful lithograph of St. Thomas, Cant., executed in the house at some of the students' expense, to propagate devotion to him. {257} Cardinal Orioli declared that he had for years made a _memento_ for England in his mass, and Cardinal Giustiniani told me the other day that every Thursday he offers up mass for its conversion. There is a little religious weekly journal published here for distribution among the poor, and it has lately been in almost every number soliciting prayers for the same purpose. Its principal editor, an ex-Jesuit, Padre Basiaco, called on me the other evening, and told me, as a singular coincidence, that since he was in his noviciate he has made it a practice to pray on Thursday for that object. To show you to what an extent the pious custom is spreading, the Austrian Ambassador the other evening told me that his little boys (about seven and eight years old) prayed every Thursday morning for the conversion of England; and that having been asked by their mother on that day if he had prayed for it, one of the little fellows replied, 'No, mamma; it is not Thursday.' Surely God must intend to grant a mercy when He stirs up so many to pray for it, and that, too, persons having no connection with the object, except by zeal or charity. I am going, in a day or two, to concert with Pallotta the best means of propagating this devotion, both in communities and among the people. I perfectly approve of enlarging your original plan so as to embrace all that are in error. I am in favour of giving expansion to charities in any way, and _Catholicising_ our feelings as much as our faith. We are too insular in England in religion as in social ideas. This was one of my reasons for wishing to have the _oeuvre_ unconnected with domestic purposes, which would, however, be benefited by the greater energy which the spirit of charity would receive by being extended. I am endeavouring to excite in the students as much as I can the missionary spirit; all the meditations are directed to this. By the missionary spirit I do not mean merely a parochial, but an apostolic spirit, where each one, besides his own especial flock, takes an interest in, and exerts himself for the benefit of the entire country, according to the gifts he has received. Remember me in your prayers, and believe me your sincere and affectionate friend,

"N. Wiseman."

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