Arrived in Tournai, he sends a copy of the French circular to the Belgian bishops. This does not seem to be a petition for alms, as we find him the same evening travelling in a third-class carriage to Cologne, without waiting for their Lordships' answers.
During his begging in Cologne, he says mass every morning in St. Colomba's (Columb-Kille's) Church; perhaps the spirit of hospitality was bequeathed to the clergy of this Church by their Irish patron, for he appears to have experienced some coldness from the pfarren of Cologne.
In Münster he is very well received. The Bishop is particularly kind to him, and looks favourably on his Reflectiones; besides that, his lordship deputes a priest to be his guide in begging. Father Ignatius notes in his journal that he preached extempore in German to the Jesuit novices, and that one of the fathers revises and corrects the German translation of the Reflectiones. The priest deputed for guide by the Bishop of Münster was called away on business of importance, and Father Ignatius finds another. This Kaplan "lost his time smoking," and our good father gave up, and went off by Köln to Coblentz.
He finds the bishop here very kind, but is allowed to beg only of the clergy; the Jesuits give him hospitality. A cold reception in Mantz, and a lukewarm one in Augsburg, hurry him off to Munich. He submits the Reflectiones to Dr. Döllinger, who corrects them and gives them his approbation.
From Munich he proceeds to Vienna. A part of this journey, as far as Lintz, had to be performed by an eilwayen or post car. The driver of this vehicle was a tremendous smoker, and Father Ignatius did not at all enjoy the fumes of tobacco. He perceived that the driver forgot the pipe, which he laid down at a hoff on the way, while slaking his thirst, and never told him of it. He was exulting in the hope of being able to travel to the next shop for pipes without inhaling tobacco smoke, when, to his mortification, the driver perceived his loss, and shouted out like a man in despair, Mein pfeiffe! Mein pfeiffe!—My pipe! My pipe! To increase his passenger's disappointment, he actually turned back a full German league, and then smoked with a vengeance until he came to the next stage.
Father Ignatius sends a copy of the Reflectiones to Rome, on his arrival in Vienna, and presents it with an address at an assembly of Bishops that was then being held.
He has audiences with the Emperor and Archduke Maximilian, now Emperor of Mexico, as well as with the Nunzio, and all the notabilities, clerical and secular, in the city.
Immediately after, somehow, he gets notice to quit from the Superior of a religious community, where he had been staying, and all the other religious houses refuse to take him in. He was about to leave Vienna in consequence, as he did not like putting up in an hotel, when some Italian priests gave him hospitality, and welcomed him to stop with them as long as he pleased. As a set-off to his disappointment, the Bishop of Transylvania is very kind to him, and Cardinal Schwartzenberg even begs for him. He met the Most Rev. Father Jandel, General of the Dominicans, in the Cardinal's Palace, and showed him the Reflectiones. The good disciple of St. Thomas examined the document closely, and Father Ignatius records his opinion, "he gave my paper a kick." Notwithstanding this sentence, he went on distributing copies every where; but his tract-distribution was stopped in a few days by a letter he received from our General.
When he sent the little pamphlet to Rome it was handed for criticism to the Lector (or Professor) of Theology in our retreat, who was then Father Ignatius Paoli, the present Provincial in England. The critique was very long and quite unfavourable; it reached him, backed by a letter from the General, which forbade to speak about the counsels for the present. He records this sentence in his journal in these words:—"June 17. A letter from Padre Ignazio, by the General—Order to stop speaking of the counsels, &c. Stop her, back her. Deo gratias!" This was a favourite expression with him whenever a Superior thwarted any of his projects: it was borrowed from the steamboats that ply on the Thames, and Father Ignatius considered himself as in the position of the little boy who echoes the orders of the master to the engineers below. He used to say, "What a catastrophe might one expect if the boy undertook to give an order of his own!"
Whilst in Vienna he received a letter from Father Vincent, telling him of our having established a house of the order near Harold's Cross, Dublin. Father Ignatius accompanied Father Vincent when they were both in Dublin, before the German tour began, in his search for a position, and Rathmines was selected. The excellent parish priest, Monsignor Meagher, had just opened his new church, and laboured hard to have a religious community in his district. He therefore seconded the intentions of our people, and in a short time a house was taken in his parish, and every day cements the connexion between us and this venerable ecclesiastic. A splendid edifice has since been built during the Rectorship of Father Osmond, and chiefly through his exertions.