Archbishop John Carroll.
Baltimore and Maryland have had no citizen more distinguished or generally respected than the Most Reverend John Carroll, first Archbishop of Baltimore and first Primate of the United States. He was universally beloved while living and generally regretted at his decease. Dr. Carroll was born in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in 1735, and was a kinsman of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Charles Carroll, Barrister, springing from the same noble stock. He was the son of Daniel and Eleanor Carroll and first saw the light within a few miles of the birthplace of Thomas Clagget, the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, and the first one of that Church consecrated in the United States. The little old-fashioned house in which he was born is still standing. In his veins ran the blood of two old Maryland families, his mother being a woman of many accomplishments and one who left a deep impress upon the mind and habits of her distinguished son. Dr. Carroll’s early training was directed by her. As a youth of eleven years, he entered the Jesuit School at Bohemia Manor, named St. Xaverius, where he spent one year as a preparation for entrance into the school at St. Omers, in French Flanders. After six years of study at St. Omers, he entered in 1753 the novitiate of the Jesuits at Watton, where he spent two years in preparation for an ecclesiastical career and four years later at the college of the Society at Liege. On February 2, 1771, he was ordained a Priest and a member of the Society of Jesus. He surrendered his patrimonial fortune to the Jesuits under the laws of the Order. The agitation against the Jesuits being then under way in France, and the Government having suppressed the Order, Dr. Carroll with his colleagues was expelled from St. Omers and fled to Bruges in Belgium. He was later chosen by the Order in France to act as Secretary in correspondence with the French Court. His correspondence with the Government was extensive, but was without avail as far as causing the prohibition against the Society to be removed, yet he created a favorable impression on both sides by his thorough knowledge of French and Latin, and the manner in which he handled the situation. Pope Clement XIV finally on August 16, 1773, promulgated his famous Brief, which he had signed a month before, suppressing the Society of Jesus, and Dr. Carroll, having shared the prosecutions and brief captivity of his colleagues, sought and found refuge in England, where he was selected by Lord Houston, a Roman Catholic nobleman, to be tutor to his son and in that capacity made a tour of Europe with his pupil.
On the breaking out of the American Revolution, Father Carroll returned to Maryland to share the fortunes of his native land, his experiences in England having by no means created within his breast respect or love for her much vaunted institutions. He rejected many solicitations to remain in England, preferring to cast his lot with his own countrymen in what appeared at that time to be a struggle to the death. He secured faculties as a secular Priest from the Vicar Apostolic of London “in partibus infidelium” as it was then known in the annals of the Vatican, and landed in Virginia on June 27, 1774. Passing over into Maryland he took up his abode with his mother, on Rock Creek, and having placed himself under the direction of the Vicar General, in Maryland, Rev. John Lewis, he carried on mission work from Rock Creek to Aquia Creek, in Virginia. The congregation gathered in a small room in his mother’s mansion. It soon grew so large that St. John’s Church was built with Dr. Carroll as pastor. The Revolution when it broke found the old Catholic families in Maryland on the side of the colonists and Dr. Carroll naturally was one of the most ardent adherents of the patriot cause. During the Revolution he established himself near Baltimore, where he became the assistant to the Rev. John Ashton, a zealous priest, who had the honor of celebrating the first mass ever said in Baltimore. Father Carroll’s talent as a Pulpit Orator soon attracted attention even from non-catholics. St. Peter’s Church was often thronged with persons of many religious faiths, who came to hear his sermons. Because of the fact that his reputation for piety, learning and eloquence became so extensive and that through his long sojourn in France, he had become thoroughly familiarized not only with the French language but with the French people, he was appointed in February, 1776, by the Continental Congress, in company with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Judge Samuel Chase, on a commission to proceed to Canada in behalf of the patriot cause. The object of the journey was to create sympathy in Canada among the French Canadians in particular, with the American cause and to induce them to revolt against Great Britain. However, the Canadians proved indifferent; a survival of the intense hatred which had existed for generations previous between the French Catholic Colonists of Canada and the Protestant Colonists of the Colonies, who were prior to the Revolution pro-English and anti-French in sympathies. Therefore all hopes were disappointed and the mission failed. This refusal to throw off the yoke of the oppressor was a decision which it is but reasonable to suppose that the French Canadians have long regretted, as their present unrest and discontent illustrates they have not, even today, succeeded in securing happiness under the rule of the English and are still an alien people in Canada. The defeat of Montgomery before Quebec and the strong opposition of the Canadians to union with the Colonies rendered all efforts toward inciting revolt during the Revolution unavailing. Father Carroll and Judge Chase finally gave up the undertaking in disgust and returned home, leaving Franklin and Charles Carroll to continue the negotiations, which, however, proved fruitless.
After the American Revolution was begun, the Catholics within the several states, and they were most numerous in Maryland, became anxious for a separation from England. Many attempts had been made to give the Colonies now embraced in the United States a bishop of their own, as it had been deemed impossible for them to live under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec, who was under English rule, and the Archbishop of Mexico, who was under Spanish rule. As political reasons had kept a Protestant Episcopal bishop or church of England bishop from the Colonies, so State reasons had also made the Catholics Colonists unwilling to accept an English prelate to govern them spiritually. The Revolution precipitated many things and solved many problems concerning the Colonies and their inhabitants. The year of 1783 for instance after liberty had been established found both the Catholic and the Anglican churches in the United States both considering the question of having bishops of their own who would be Americans and the founders of American hierarchies. As is known, the efforts of the Protestant Episcopal churches or Anglican, as they were then termed in Maryland and later of those in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia, resulted in the consecration of Bishop Seabury of Connecticut, by the Scotch non-jurors in 1784, and of Bishop White of Pennsylvania and Samuel Prevost of New York in 1787 by English prelates. Father Carroll, while he did not engage actively in the War of the Revolution, was an ardent and active patriot, the more so because the Bill of Rights adopted by the First Assembly of Maryland held under the free Government, had bestowed full citizenship upon him and all Catholics and he was therefore in an unfettered position to work for the cause.
A portion of what Father Carroll did for the patriot cause was told in an interesting article published in the Catholic Mirror of February 10, 1900, which is quoted: “A century ago, on February 16, 1801, it was publicly announced that the sleeplessness of George IV. was occasioning extreme anxiety to the British royal family. On that day William Pitt resigned, because of the king’s refusal to give effect to the spirit of the recent union of Great Britain and Ireland by removing the disabilities of his Catholic subjects. It is interesting to note that an American bishop, as recalled in the following paragraphs, was responsible in part for the King’s insomnia: Benjamin Franklin was sent by Congress to France to intercede with the King in behalf of the Colonies. He was not successful. One bright morning he was sitting in the waiting room of the King’s palace for an audience, looking downhearted and forsaken, for he had received a letter from Washington, saying: ‘If France did not send over her army, the cause must fail, for his troops were commencing to mutiny and he could not raise funds to pay them; they had no rations, their feet were on the ground and cut and bleeding from the cold.’ Franklin, looking downcast and woebegone, as he was revolving Washington’s letter in his philosophical mind, was aroused from his melancholy stupor by a voice calling: ‘Mr. Franklin! Oh, Mr. Franklin!’ Franklin jumped up and rubbed his eyes. It was the Pope’s nuncio. ‘I have good news for you,’ he said. ‘I have just got consent of the King to send over a French army and navy to aid your countrymen.’ Franklin, astonished, threw himself on his knees and clasped the hand of the nuncio, kissing it several times. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Rome has saved my country. America will never forget it for Rome! The Catholics shall have all the rights the Protestants have. Convey to his Holiness the Pope my thanks for all the American people. We shall never, no never, forget it for Rome.’ The nuncio said: ‘Mr. Franklin, you must thank Father Carroll (Bishop Carroll) for it was he who induced the Pope of Rome to send me here in the interest of the American people. His letters in favor of your cause were laid by me before the French King and Cabinet, and success has crowned his efforts.’”
So, readers, if you want to learn something of the man who next to Almighty God and Washington gave your flag and country, turn to the Catholic Cathedral at Baltimore and see his tomb. Washington himself said: “Of all men whose influence was most potent in securing the success of the Revolution, Bishop Carroll of Baltimore was the man.” The English King called him “the rebel bishop, Washington’s Richelieu, the prime minister and adviser of Congress, the man who got the Pope of Rome to use his influence at the French Court for the Americans.” “No, no, sir,” he said, turning to Mr. Pitt, the prime minister of England, “I shall never sign a bill granting Catholic emancipation after the action taken by the rebel Catholic Bishop of Baltimore. He had America detached from my dominions by the aid of the French army and navy and by the force of Irish Catholics. No, no, Mr. Pitt, you need not stop to argue the question with me, my mind is made up on that question.” “Then,” said Mr. Pitt, “if that’s your majesty’s determination, I cannot remain in office, for I am pledged in one of the articles of union between England and Ireland to grant Catholic emancipation. It is necessary to save the union of the British empire. I must resign.” “Then,” said the King, “do so, do so.” So Pitt resigned like a man and Catholic emancipation was not granted for twenty years after this.
This shows what Ireland suffered for American independence. It also shows that Bishop Carroll’s influence was instrumental in securing our independence. The people of Boston turned out to receive the French army, which was led by a Catholic priest, with a crucifix in his hand, through the streets of Boston. All the ancient burgesses of Boston turned out and went to the Catholic Church in compliment to the French and all the old English statutes against the Catholics were repealed.
This is the record of the day. The incidents narrated in the foregoing article throw some light on the services of the illustrious clergyman to the American cause and also show why he was elevated to the primacy of the Catholic Church in America. Subsequent to the Revolution, when full freedom dawned on the former Colonies, the Catholics in the several states, and they were most numerous in Maryland, desired no connection with England, religiously, because English Catholics were at that time proscribed persons and without political rights or standing before the law, although it is true that active persecution had ceased. Yet still although freemen the American Catholics were under the jurisdiction of the English Bishops, or Vicars Apostolic, and it was this connection that it was desired to sever, so that the Americans could have absolute independence religious as well as political. Father Carroll was one of the six priests who met on June 27, 1783, in Baltimore and held a conference at which the necessity of being independent of England was considered. At this conference were present Father John Ashton, the ex-Jesuit priest, who may be fitly styled the Nestor of the Catholic priesthood of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Rev. Leonard Neale, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore. On October 11, 1784, Father Carroll took part in a second conference, at which a plan of Government for the Catholic Church in the United States was drawn up, which included nineteen rules for the Government of the Clergy, was also adopted and a chapter of body corporate was formed, of which Father Ashton was chosen procurator general and he was given charge of all the church property in the Union. The chapter at a subsequent meeting at Whitemarsh, Prince Georges County, resolved to found Georgetown College, Father Ashton being named as one of the first board of directors. Father Carroll was made vicar general in 1786; in 1788 in company with Father Ashton and Rev. Robert Molyneux, afterwards vicar general, drew up a petition asking that the American Catholic Church be given greater liberty by being put under the charge of a bishop directly responsible to the Congregation of the Propaganda, which at that time was understood to be dominated by French influence. This petition was successful, and Father Carroll was unanimously nominated for the proposed prelacy.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, at that time residing at Passy near Paris, as the American Ambassador to the Court of France, who was aware of Father Carroll’s charming manner, learning and ability, was able to use his personal friendship to assist in having the distinguished divine elevated to the episcopacy. But at first Father Carroll had no idea of aspiring to be bishop, and in fact the petition which was sent to a friend of his in Rome to be brought before the Pope asked that the Rev. John Lewis be appointed for the United States, with power to confer confirmation and to do temporarily other duties pertaining to the office of bishop. But, it is said that through the French minister to the United States a plan had been started to place a French bishop over the church in this country and Dr. Benjamin Franklin, ignorant of the position of the Catholics of the United States and of their wishes, was induced at first to lend his aid to the plan; but Father Carroll’s name was mentioned and he immediately recommended him to the Authorities at Rome. The Vatican was impressed with the recommendations of Dr. Franklin, whose fame was then as universal as that of Washington and who was the idol of the Courts of the Continent; thus a Protestant Quaker became a potent power in naming the first Primate of the Catholic Church in the United States. On June 7, 1784, Pope Pius VII., ratified the appointment of Father Carroll as prefect apostolic and the nuncio at Paris calling on Dr. Franklin to acquaint him with the appointment notified him that Father Carroll would be probably made a bishop.
Accepting the office in 1785, Father Carroll began his visitation and made a call for more priests. At this time his salary, 210 pounds sterling, was paid by the Chapter, the organization formed in 1784, which was composed solely of ex-Jesuit Fathers. A few years only were necessary to show the propaganda as well as all others interested in the growth of the Catholic church in America, the necessity for the appointment of a bishop for the new country, one who would be endowed with full powers of consecration and authority. So a petition to that effect was again forwarded to Rome signed by Father Carroll and the Reverends Robert Molyneux and John Ashton. This petition was sent through the Spanish minister, with whom Father Carroll had talked in reference to the subject, during a visitation to New York. Through his energetic course and his knowledge of the needs and hardships of the American mission as shown in his “Address to the Roman Catholics of the United States,” published in 1784, in reply to a paper of the Rev. Charles H. Wharton and in his report to Cardinal Antonelli, prefect of the Propaganda, in 1785, Father Carroll had demonstrated the wisdom of his having been chosen prefect apostolic. Cardinal Antonelli replied to the petition on July 12, 1788, and communicated to the signers authority from the Pope to call a meeting of the American Clergy and nominate a candidate for bishop and select a See. Accordingly they called a synod or conference at Whitemarsh, Md., and by a vote of 24 to 2 selected Father Carroll as the candidate for bishop and Baltimore was unanimously selected as the place of the See. Father Carroll wrote in reply to a communication from his fellow clergymen, notifying him of what they had done, that “he was by that event deprived of all expectation of rest and pleasure henceforward” and filled “with terror with respect to eternity.” The nomination was approved on September 14, 1780, by the Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation and Pius VI. issued on November 6th following the bill erecting the See of Baltimore and appointing Rev. John Carroll bishop. Father Carroll accepted the appointment and sailed at once for England to be consecrated.
Father Carroll was the recipient of numerous courtesies while in England, but soon hurried back to organize and develop his See. He returned to America early in October, landing at Baltimore on December 7th. He was received at Light Street dock by the Catholic laity and escorted to a palace which had been provided for him at the corner of Charles and Saratoga Streets. On the following Sunday old “St. Peter’s church,” which was selected as a pro-Cathedral, was crowded with citizens of all denominations, to hear the new bishop speak. He made an impressive address, in which he said: “In this, my new station, if my life be not one continued instrument of instruction and example of virtue to the people committed to my charge, it will become in the sight of God a life not only useless but even pernicious.” Shortly after his accession, Bishop Carroll received the Rev. Charles Nagot and several other Sulpitian Fathers, who had been sent to Baltimore by the Superior General of the Order at Paris, Father Emery, at the request of Father Carroll, to establish a seminary for the education of young men for the priesthood.
Father Emery had laid before Bishop Carroll in England shortly after his consecration a plan for the establishment of a seminary in Baltimore. To this plan Father Carroll had given his approval. Five seminarians accompanied the Sulpitians to this Country. It is told that on the same ship there was a young Frenchman who was then misled by Voltaire’s infidel teachings, but who later became converted to the doctrines of Christianity and consecrated his brilliant imagination and fascinating style to the service of religion and became the author of “The Genius of Christianity.” He was the illustrious Count de Chateaubriand. Acting under Bishop Carroll’s advice, Father Nagot and his companions rented a house in West Baltimore located on the present Paca Street, near Franklin, known as “The One Mile Tavern,” and there they opened on October 3, 1791, the now famous institution, St. Mary’s Seminary. This institution may be indeed styled the mother of the American Catholic priesthood. Probably more Irish-American young men have been educated within its walls than of any other nationality.
A letter to General Washington congratulating him on his open advocacy of religion and morals and upon the many notable honors that had been paid him, was presented to the great tribune by Bishop Carroll, Thomas Fitzsimmons and Thomas Lynch in 1792, on behalf of the Catholic clergy and laity of Baltimore. This letter contained many lofty sentiments, among them the following: “You encourage respect for religion. There is prospect of a nationality peculiarly Democratic, because while our country preserves independent politics and policies we shall have a well-founded title to claim from her justice, equal rights of citizenship, as well as the price of our blood spilt under your eyes, as of our warm exertions for her defence under your auspicious conduct—rights indeed the more dear by the remembrance of former hardships. While we pray for the preservation of these rights we expect the full justice of them, from the justice of those states which still restrict them.” It will be observed that the gentlemen who signed this letter were all of Irish connection, judging from their names, which are distinctively Gaelic. At this time the Federal Constitution was being discussed and the American Catholics had good reason to fear that the persecution and intolerance as well as the deprivation of political rights which had prevailed in regard to them in Colonial days, might be favored and legally declared in the provisions of that instrument. For there were those in and out of the State of Maryland who despite what Catholics and Dissenters had done in the battlefield for the achievement of American liberty and despite the aid of Catholic France which made the securement of that liberty possible were disposed to establish a State religion and to deny religious liberty at least to their fellowmen, excluding Catholics from all political rights, although there had been many Catholics in the Continental armies battling for the political rights of New Jersey and kindred “blue law” states. But these patriotic Catholics did not throw down their arms because of these abominable enactments, for their patriotism was too intense to be weakened by impulses of resentment. Therefore the American Catholic was none too sure of his status in this Country and it is even a fact that efforts were made before the Maryland Legislature to have an established church; in other words, a state religion in Maryland, and that the Anglican or Episcopalian church should retain the same relation to the State of Maryland as it had to the colony of Maryland. But a vigorous agitation led by Bishop Carroll on behalf of the Catholics and Rev. Dr. Allison for the Presbyterians effectually prevented such a proposition from being made a law. On February 22, 1800, Dr. Carroll delivered a memorable sermon in his Cathedral on the life and character of the illustrious Washington, who had died on the December 14 preceding.