One objection made against this scheme touched him on a tender point—his love of country. Many Catholics, especially English converts, thought the words of Ecclesiasticus applicable to England: "Injuries and wrongs will waste riches: and the house that is very rich shall be brought to nothing by pride: so the substance of the proud shall be rooted out."—Eccl. xxi. 5. These were of opinion that England must be humbled as a nation, and deeply too, before she could be fit for conversion. This Father Ignatius could not stand. He writes, in a letter to Mr. Monteith: "As my unicum necessarium for myself is the salvation and sanctification of my own soul, so my wishes and designs about England, which, according to the order of charity, I consider (in opposition to many English Catholics, especially converts), I ought to love first of all people, are, singly and only, that she may be brought to God, and in such a way and under such circumstances, as may enable her to be the greatest possible blessing to the whole world. I have heard plenty, and much more than plenty, from English and Irish Catholics (very seldom, comparatively, from those of the Continent), about the impossibility of this, except by the thorough crushing of the power of England. I say to all this, No, no, no! God can convert our country with her power and her influence unimpaired, and I insist on people praying for it without imposing conditions on Almighty God, on whom, if I did impose conditions, it would be in favour of His showing more, and not less abundant, mercy to a fallen people. Yet, though I have often said I will not allow Miss This, or Mr. That, to pronounce sentence on England, still less to wish evil to her (particularly if it be an English Mr. or Miss who talks), I have always said that if God sees it fit that the conversion should be through outward humiliations and scourges, I will welcome the rod, and thank Him for it, in behalf of my country, as I would in my own person, in whatever way He might think fit to chastise and humble me."
He returned to London in the beginning of 1855, to give the retreat to our religious. His next work was a mission, given with Father Gaudentius in Stockport. After that, he gave a mission with Father Vincent in Hull; in returning from Hull, he stopped at Lincoln to visit Mr. Sibthorpe. He spends a week in our London house, and then gives a retreat by himself in Trelawny. His next mission was in Dungannon, Ireland, and as soon as he came to England for another retreat he had to give in Levenshulme to nuns, he takes advantage of his week's rest to visit Grace Dieu, and have what he calls "a famous talk" with Count de Montalembert, who was Mr. Phillipps's guest at the time.
The scene of his labours is again transferred. We find him in July giving a mission at Borris O'Kane, with Father Vincent and Father Bernard and another immediately after, at Lorrha. At one of these missions, the crowd about Father Ignatius's confession-chair was very great, and the people were crushing in close to the confessor's knees. One woman, especially, of more than ordinary muscular strength, elbowed back many of those who had taken their places before she came; she succeeded in getting to the inner circle of penitents, but so near the person confessing that the good father gently remonstrated with her. All to no purpose. He spoke again, but she only came nearer. At length he seized her shawl, rolled it up in a ball, and flung it over the heads of the crowd; the poor woman had to relinquish her position, and go for her shawl, and left Father Ignatius to shrive her less pushing companions. His fellow missioners were highly amused, and this incident tells wonderfully for his virtue, for it is almost the only instance we could ever find of his having done anything like losing his temper during his life as a Passionist. He gives a retreat in Birr, in Grantham Abbey, a mission in Newcastle, and another in St. Augustine's, Liverpool, before the end of the year.
It was his custom, since his first turning seriously to God's service, to be awake at midnight on New Year's Day, and begin by prayer for passing the coming year perfectly. He is in St. Anne's, Sutton, Lancashire, this year. He begins the new year, 1856, by giving a mission with Father Leonard in our church at Sutton, with a few sermons at a place called Peasly Cross, an offshoot of the mission we have there.
We close this chapter by a notion of Father Ignatius's politics. He was neither a Whig, a Tory, nor a Radical. He stood aloof from all parties, and seldom troubled himself about any. He says in a letter to a friend who was a well-read politician:—"How many minds we have speaking in England!—Gladstone, Palmerston, Bright, Phillipps, yourself, and, perhaps, I should add myself, and how many more who knows? all with minds following tracks which make them travel apart from each other. I want to set a road open, in which all may walk together if they please—at least with one foot, if they must have their own particular plank for the other."
CHAPTER XIV.
Another Tour On The Continent.
The Provincial once more sent Father Ignatius to beg on the Continent. He tried to do a double work, as he did not like to be "used up" for begging alone, and the plea of begging would find him access to those he intended to consult. This second work was a form into which he cast his ideas for the sanctification of the world. The way of carrying out these ideas, which has been detailed, was what he settled down to after long discussion and many corrections from authority. The pamphlet which he now wrote had been translated into German by a lady in Münster. In it he proposes a bringing back of Catholics to the infancy of the Church, when the faithful laid the price of their possessions at the feet of the Apostles. He proposed a kind of Theocracy, and the scheme creates about the same sensation as Utopia, when one reads it. Like Sir Thomas More, Father Ignatius gives us what he should consider a perfect state of Christian society; he goes into all the details of its working, and meets the objections that might arise as it proceeds. The pamphlet is entitled Reflectiones Propositionesque pro fidelium Sanctificatione."
On February 14, 1856, he leaves London, and halts in Paris only for a few hours, on his way to Marseilles. There he sees the Archbishop, and begs in the town; he returns then to Lyons, where he has several long conferences with Cardinal de Bonald. We find him in Paris in a few days, writing circulars to the French bishops, of whom the Bishop of Nancy seems to have been his greatest patron. He writes a letter to the Empress, and receives an answer that the Emperor would admit him to an audience. In a day or two Father Ignatius stands in the presence of Napoleon III., and it is a loss that he has not left us the particulars of the conference in writing, because he often reverted to it in conversation with a great deal of interest. He found at his lodgings, on returning from a quête a few days after, l,000f. sent to him as a donation by the Emperor.
His good success in the Tuileries gave him a hope of doing great things among the élite of Parisian society. He is, however, sadly disappointed, and the next day sets off to Belgium.