400 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



Boston. Philadelphia, and Bardstown. Ky . ami Dr. 

 Carroll was made ArelibUhop of Baltimore, retaining 

 jurivlKtion over tlie Catholics in Maryland ami the 

 thward (in tlio Atlantic ami westward 

 t.i tin- M!-- ; " ; i'pi. Some parts held for a lime by 

 England and fapain had eventually come under na- 

 tional control. The French Revolution sent to the 

 United States many priests of preat learning, zeal, and 

 piety. The Sillpituns founded a theological seminary 

 at Baltimore. tln> memlxTs of the old Society oi 

 t'oundod Georgetown College, and established a hifrh- 

 school :it New York, reorganized in connection with 

 the body in Russia, and were finally fully restored by 

 the Pope in 1815. English Dominicans driven froui 

 Belgium founded a province of the order in^Kentucky ; 

 a community of Carmelite nuns from Europe was 

 established at Port Tobacco, Md. ; one of the Visita- 

 tion order was organized by Bishop Leonard Neale. 

 the coadjutor and successor of Carroll ; the Sisters of 

 Charity were founded by Mrs. Eliza A. Seton, a New 

 Yoik lady who entered the Catholic Church, and 

 similar bodies were founded in Kentucky by Bishop 

 David and Rev. Charles Nerinckx. A combined 

 seminary and college was established at Emmittsburg, 

 Md., and schools in various parts. The printing of 

 Catholic books almost impossible in eowoul <Iays 

 began : the Bible was printed in 1790 and 1805, as 

 well as devotional, instructive, controversial, and apol- 

 ogetic works. 



The cession of the vast province of Louisiana to the 

 United States in 1803 and of Florida in 1820 added a 

 considerable Catholic element to the population. These 

 provinces after being made subject ecclesiastically to 

 the Bishop of St Christopher of Havana in 1787 had 

 been erected into a diocese in 1793, but at the time of 

 the cession were without a bishop, and in a state of 

 disorder, with few clergymen and neglected parishes. 

 Bishop Carroll was appointed Administrator, but could 

 do little to restore discipline or revive religion. He 

 finally under authority from the Pope appointed Rev. 

 William Du Bourg Administrator, who, in 1815, was 

 consecrated Bishop of Louisiana and the Florida,*. 



The Catholic population in the United States up to 

 this time was mainly of native birth, with some ac- 

 cessions by immigration and the children of those who 

 reached the country after 1783, but the close of the 

 wars of the French Revolution was followed by a great 

 tide of emigrant* from Great Britain and in time 

 from other parts of Europe, a large proportion of. 

 which was Catholic. These new-comers followed the 

 lines of the great public works, and improved means 

 of communication and helped to build un the North 

 and West, where the Catholic body rapidly increased 

 in numbers and influence, the slave labor at the South 

 generally excluding them from that section. In the 

 movement of the older population westward Catholics 

 were also largely represented. Sees were established 

 at Richmond and Charleston in 1820; at Cincinnati in 

 1*21. A few years afterwards the great diocese of 

 I/iuisiana was divided and sees erected at New Orleans 

 and St. Louis, while Alabama and Florida were as- 

 signed to a Vicar Apostolic, who soon became Bishop 

 of Mobile. 



The necessity of concerted action as to discipline 

 had been felt, and in 1829 the first Provincial Coun- 

 cil of Baltimore was held, Archbishop Whitfield 

 presiding, nearly all his suffragans, and Bishop 

 of St Louis, though not of the province, attending. 

 Great difficulties had arisen in Charleston, Norfolk. 

 and Philadelphia, from the action of trustees of 

 churches, who claimed the right of nominating and 

 instituting priests, and refused to admit or recognise 

 priests appointed by the bishop of the diocese. The 

 trouble in Philadelphia lasted for yearn and the diocese 

 wag at this time actually managed by an administrator. 

 The council declared expressly that no right of pa- 

 tronage vested in the trustees and maintained the 

 right of each bishop to appoint and remove priests in 



se, and directed the interdiction of any church 

 where the trustees refused to receive the prie- 

 pointed or refused him the usual salary. By this time 

 the Catholic body numbered about 5(10,000, under an 

 archbishop. 9 bishops, alxmt 2iK) priests, and with nn 

 many churches, several theological seminaries, 8 col- 

 leges, and 20 academies fur young ladies. The strong 

 prejudice against the Catholic Church about this time. 

 was increased by publications issued in England in op- 

 position to the emancipation of the bodvin the British 

 isles. Similar publications appeared here, like that 

 fiction ascribed to Maria Monk, and one of the results 

 was the destruetioii by a mob of the Ursuline ('(invent 

 at Charlcstown, Mass. , in I *.'!!. resulting in the death of 

 one of the nuns. (Sec KHITS.) 



In spite of this movement the growth of the Catholic 

 Church increased. Bistlops were established at De- 

 troit in 1S32. Vinccnnes. I ml., in 1S:;4, Duliu<|ue, Iowa, 

 Nashville. Tenn., and NaU he/.. Miss., in 1837. Ivich 

 new see became a centre where a bishop labored to 

 build up churches and institutions. Aid was afforded 

 to these struggling churches by the Association for the 

 Propagation of the Faith, a s ; tblished in 



France to aid foreign missions, mainly through the in- 

 fluence of Bishop Du Bourg of 1/misiana, and by the 

 Leopold Verein, a similar organization at Vienna, i m- 

 anating from the appeals of Bishop Rdse 1 , first Bishop 

 of Detroit. Catholic papers, magazines, and books 

 increased in number and circulation, and attempts were 

 made to revive and extend the old Catholic missions 

 among the Indians. Those in Maine had always been 

 maintained ; that in Northern New York was attended 

 from Canada ; work was renewed among the Ot- 

 tawas, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, Kickapoos, and 

 Kansas, by the Redemptorists, Jesuits, and secular 

 priests like Baraga and De Seilles. Tribes on the Rocky 

 Mmintains hearing of the Catholic faith sent to St 

 Louis for priests, and Father Peter J. DeSmet became 

 the apostle of the Flat heads and other mountain 

 tribes. In 1843 bishops were established at Little 

 Rock, Ark., and Pittsburg, Pa., and the next year 

 at Hartford, Chicago, and Milwaukee, and Oregon 

 Territory w *s formed into a Vicarial* Apostolic in 

 1843. 



About this time a question arose which has often 

 inflamed the public mind. The early schools of the 

 country were all under church control, but others 

 grew up, all aided by the Suite. In New York frauds 

 brought church schools into disrepute, and the schools 

 of the Public School Society at New York alone re- 

 ceived aid. These were distinctly Protestant in manage- 

 ment, teachers, books, and tone, and Catholic children 

 were subjected lo constant annoyance. The petition of 

 the Catholics for the revival of the former aid to their 

 schools raised the famous school question, never yet 

 satisfactorily adjusted. Bishop Hughes, of New York, 

 distinguished himself in a debate before the New 

 York Common Council, and a system of State schools 

 grew up and spread to many States, but the original 

 difficulty remains. The discussion in 1 842 roused great 

 opposition, and a political party, "Native Americans," 

 opposed to Roman Catholics, and to the influx of 

 foreign mechanics, was formed. The attempt of the 

 party to hold meetings in a part of I'hiladi Iphia largely 

 populated by Irish Catholics led to furious riots 

 in 1844, in which two Catholic churches, a convent, 

 and many houses of Catholics were destroyed before 

 the authorities could restore order. At this time (1 844) 

 the Catholic churches in the United States numbered 

 21 dioceses, 1 vicariate, 634 priests, 61 1 churches, with 

 a population of 1,300.000. 



The annexation of Texas in 1845 added an old 

 Catholic district, and the subsequent war with Mexico 

 added to the national domain New Mexico, Cali- 

 fornia, and Arizona, with white and Indian Catho- 

 lics. Texas had been from 1689 the scene of missions 

 founded by a remarkable man, the Ven. Anthony 

 M argil ; New Mexico had been directed for two cen- 



