PURCELL, JOHN B. 



673 



immediate suburbs there are now over thirty 

 Roman Catholic churches. 



In 1839 Bishop Purcell was made assistant 

 prelate at the pontifical throne, and in 1850 

 he was promoted to the archbishopric of the 

 province of Cincinnati. Being in Rome, in 

 1851, he received the pallium from the Pope's 

 own hands. The Vatican Council was held in 

 1869-70, and Archbishop Purcell was one of 

 the American prelates who were present and 

 took part in its discussions and proceedings. 

 On the special point of the denning of the 

 Pope's infallibility and making it an article of 

 faith, he was constrained to record his vote 

 against it. On two occasions the archbishop 

 showed himself to be a very able debater and 

 an effective public speaker. The one was in 

 1837, when he held a discussion for seven days 

 with Alexander Campbell, founder of the sect 

 of Disciples, or Campbellite Baptists. The 

 discussion was published and widely circu- 

 lated. The other occasion was later, when, at 

 the age of threescore and ten, he encountered 

 an infidel orator, named Vickers, and defended 

 Christianity. This discussion also was pub- 

 lished under the title, " The Roman Clergy and 

 Free Thought " (1870). Other publications of 

 Archbishop Purcell's were Lectures and Pas- 

 toral Letters ; an introduction to the American 

 edition of Kenelm H. Digby's " Mores Catholici, 

 or Ages of Faith " (3 vols., 1847) ; Diocesan 

 Statutes, Acts, and Decrees of Three Provincial 

 Councils held in Cincinnati ; and a series of 

 school-books for use in Roman Catholic schools 

 in his diocese. 



The latter years of this prelate were much 

 disturbed by financial difficulties. Like some 

 other Catholic bishops and priests in America, 

 Archbishop Purcell permitted his brother, the 

 vicar-general, to receive money on deposit, at 

 interest. Through bad management and care- 

 lessness, though with no purpose of dishonesty 

 or fraud, his diocese was found to be a loser 

 to the amount of $3,500,000. In December, 

 1878, the archbishop assumed the whole re- 

 sponsibility for these, transactions and made 

 a public statement, saying that he was very 

 deeply in debt, and unable to meet the de- 

 mands upon him. A large number of suits was 

 brought against him, ard he made an assign- 

 ment of all his property, real and personal, to 

 his brother, the Rev. Edward Purcell, who in 

 turn assigned the property to John B. Mannix, 

 an attorney, for the benefit of the creditors. 

 - The property assigned included the archbish- 

 op's residence, the old St. John's Hospital 

 building, the cathedral school, and some land 

 on the outskirts of the city. Most of the ac- 

 counts with the depositors, it was found, had 

 been kept on loose bits of paper, many of which 

 were lost, and some, having been made over 

 VOL. xxiii. 43 A 



thirty years ago, were almost illegible from age. 

 In the eight years 1871-'78 he had paid about 

 $580,000 in interest, and before the beginning 

 of that period he is supposed to have paid in 

 the same way $1,500,000. 



The former assignment having been unsatis- 

 factory to some of the creditors, Archbishop 

 Purcell made a personal assignment of his 

 property, March 13, 1879. Three days later 

 the trustees appointed to take charge of the 

 property made their report. They found that 

 there were 3,485 creditors, presenting claims to 

 the amount of $3,672,371.57. Besides this, the 

 Very Rev. Edward Purcell individually owed 

 $117,000 and $85,000, the latter being secured 

 by a mortgage on real estate. They were at a 

 loss, they said, to ascertain the disposition of all 

 this property. They saw no reason to suspect 

 dishonesty or intentional fraud, but they thought 

 that bad investments, shrinkages, misplaced 

 confidence, and unbusinesslike management 

 had caused the trouble. The 'archbishop there- 

 upon published a letter, saying that the indebt- 

 edness of the diocese did not exceed $1,000,- 

 000 in equity. A large part of the debt, he 

 affirmed, was accumulated through paying in- 

 terest. For twenty years, he further declared, 

 he had supported the Diocesan Seminary with- 

 out taking a collection. He had bought a 

 church library of 16,000 volumes, nnd had 

 brought many priests from Europe. His broth- 

 er Edward, he said, had never put a dollar of 

 the church money to his own use. lie freely 

 acknowledged that he was honestly indebted to 

 his 3,000 creditors, and thanked the people 

 for their offers of assistance. Up to October, 

 1879, the amount collected toward defraying 

 this vast debt was not more than $75,600 not 

 enough, in fact, to pay the interest since the 

 assignment. Early in 1883 the debt still 

 amounted to $3,500,000. The litigation grow- 

 ing out of the receiving of moneys on deposit 

 by Very Rev. Edward Purcell, vicar-general and 

 brother of the archbishop, was at last decided 

 by the court, which gave the case a long and pa- 

 tient hearing. The archbishop, having on his 

 brother's insolvency, assumed his liabilities, 

 the question arose, what property became lia- 

 ble by this assumption of the debt. The cred- 

 itors claimed everything that stood in his name. 

 The court (Smith, Justice) held that property 

 acquired and improved by him as bishop, with 

 means acquired by him in that capacity, was 

 liable for such a debt; but that churches, 

 schools, etc., erected by congregations from 

 their own means, were not liable, although by 

 a rule of the Church the legal title of the realty 

 was in such bishop, and that such congrega- 

 tions were liable to the creditors only to the 

 extent of loans or advances made to them by 

 the bishop. 



