Of course, affection was almost expected from Pius X, and when Father Martín returned to Rome with his health slightly improved, his reception by the Pope was like that of a son coming from the grave to the arms of his father. Later on he kept himself informed about Father Martín's suffering and prayed for him several times every day. "We cannot spare such men" was his expression; and when at last the General died, the Pope was deeply affected. "He was a man of God," was his exclamation, "A saint! A saint! A saint!" At the election of Father Wernz, Pius X spoke of the great good he had done to the whole Church by his profound learning as teacher in the Gregorian University. "There was scarcely any part of the world," he said, "where his merit was not acknowledged. He was known to all as the possessor of a great, solid and sure intelligence; of vast erudition which found expression in his learned treatises on the Law of Decretals, and which won the applause of all who were versed in canon law."
Another mark of this esteem for the Society, though an unwelcome one, was the elevation of so many of its members to ecclesiastical dignities by the Sovereign Pontiffs. First, in point of time, was the selection of John Carroll to be the founder of the American hierarchy. It was all the more notable because Challoner, the Vicar Apostolic of London, had repeatedly said that there was no one in America who measured up to the height of the episcopal dignity. The sequel proved that the Pontiff was wiser than the Vicar. We have already called attention to the fact not generally known that there was another Jesuit appointed to the See of Baltimore; though he never wore the mitre. He died before the Bulls arrived. His name was Laurence Grässel, and he had been a novice in the Society in Germany at the time of the Suppression. Carroll describes him as "a most amiable ex-Jesuit." Shea records the fact that "the Reverend Laurence Grässel, a learned and devoted priest, of whose sanctity tradition has preserved the most exalted estimate, revived the missions in New Jersey which had been attended by the Reverend Messrs. Schneider and Farmer." (Vol. II.)
Leonard Neale, who succeeded Archbishop Carroll in the See of Baltimore, was a Jesuit priest in Liège at the Suppression. Before returning to his native country, he spent four years in England and four more in Demerara. In Philadelphia, when vicar general of Bishop Carroll, he was stricken with yellow fever while administering to the sick during the pestilence. Later he was made president of Georgetown College, and in 1801 was appointed Coadjutor of Baltimore. The successor of the illustrious Cheverus in the See of Boston was Benedict Fenwick, who had entered the Society in Maryland eight years before Pius VII re-established it throughout the world. The first Bishop of New York also would have been a Jesuit, Anthony Kohlmann, had not Father Roothaan, entreated the Pope to withdraw the nomination.
Anthony Kohlmann was born at Kaisersberg in Alsace, July 13, 1771. The outbreak of the French Revolution compelled him to leave his country when he was a young man and betake himself to Switzerland to continue his interrupted studies. He completed his theological course and was ordained a priest in the College of Fribourg. In 1796 he joined the Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart, and labored for two years in Austria and Italy as a military chaplain. We find him next at Dillingen in Bavaria as the director of an ecclesiastical seminary. By this time the Fathers of the Faith, Paccanari's organization, had united with those of the Sacred Heart, and Kohlmann was dispatched to Berlin and subsequently to Amsterdam as rector of a new college in that place.
As soon as he heard that the Jesuits in White Russia had been recognized by the Pope, he applied for admission, and entered the novitiate at Duneburg on 21 June, 1803, and in the following year was sent to Georgetown as assistant-master of novices. While holding that position he travelled extensively through Pennsylvania and Maryland to look after several groups of German colonists who had settled in those states. When the ecclesiastical troubles of New York were at their height, Bishop Carroll selected Kohlmann to restore order. With him went Father Benedict Fenwick and four scholastics. He was given charge of that whole district in 1808. There were about fourteen thousand Catholics there at the time: French, German and Irish. In 1809 he laid the corner stone of old St. Patrick's, which was the second church in the city. He also founded the New York Literary Institution as a school for boys, on what is now the site of the present cathedral, but which then was far out of town. In 1812 he began a nearby school for girls and gave it to the Ursuline nuns, who had been sent from Ireland for that purpose.
Father Kohlmann rendered a great service to the Church by the part he took in gaining a verdict for the protection of the seal of Confession. He had acted as agent in the restitution of stolen money when the owner of it demanded the name of the thief. As this was refused, he haled the priest to court, but the case ended in a decision given by the presiding Judge, DeWitt Clinton, that "no minister of the Gospel or priest of any denomination whatsoever shall be allowed to disclose any confession made to him in his professional character in the course of discipline enjoined by the rules or practices of such denomination." This decision was embodied in a state law passed on December 10, 1828. His controversy with Jared Sparks, a well-known Unitarian, brought his reply entitled "Unitarianism, theologically and philosophically considered." It is a classic on that topic.
As mentioned above, Kohlmann was designated Bishop of New York, but at the entreaty of the General of the Society, the Pope withdrew his name. In 1815 he returned to Georgetown as master of novices, and in 1817 was appointed president of the college. In 1824 he was called to Rome as professor of theology in the Gregorian University and occupied that post for five years. Among his students were the future Pope Leo XIII, Cardinal Cullen of Dublin, and Cardinal McCloskey of New York. Both Leo XII and Gregory XVI held Kohlmann in the highest esteem and had him attached to them as consultor to the staffs of the College of cardinals and to several important congregations such as that of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs; of Bishops and Regulars; and the Inquisition. He died at Rome in 1836, in consequence of overwork in the confessional.
It might be of interest to quote here a passage from the "Life of John Cardinal McCloskey" by Cardinal Farley: "About this time Father McCloskey suffered the loss of a very dear and devoted friend, Father Anthony Kohlmann, S. J. As pastor of St. Peter's, Barclay Street, he had been the adviser of the young priest's parents in New York for many years. He had seen him grow up from childhood, and had been his guide and friend in Rome. It is therefore but natural that he should express himself feelingly on the death of this holy man, as in this letter addressed to the Very Rev. Dr. Power:
Rome, April 15, 1836.
'Very Rev. dear Sir:
'It is truly with deep regret that I now feel it my duty to acquaint you with the news which, if not already known to you, cannot but give you pain. Our venerable and most worthy friend, Father Kohlmann, is no more. He has been summoned to another world, after a warning of only a few days. On Friday, the 8th. inst., he was as usual in his confessional. During the course of the day he was seized with a violent fever which obliged him to take to his bed, and on Sunday morning, about five o'clock, he was a corpse. On Monday, I had the melancholy pleasure of beholding him laid out in the Church of the Gesù, where numbers were assembled to show respect for his memory, and to view for a little time his mortal remains. His sickness was so very short that death effected but little change in his appearance. He seemed to be in a gentle sleep, such calmness and placidity. His countenance seemed to have lost nothing of its usual fulness or even freshness. And such was the composure of every feature, that one could hardly resist saying within himself: He is not dead, but sleepeth. His loss as you may well conceive, is deeply regretted by the members of his Order here as well as by all who knew him.
'As for myself, I feel his death most sensibly, having lost in him so prudent a director, so kind a father and friend. You also, Very Reverend and dear Sir, are deprived by his death of a most active and valuable friend in Rome.'"
In Hughes's "History of the Society of Jesus in North America" (I, pt. ii, 866) there is a quotation from the "Memoirs" of Father Grassi which refers to Father Kohlmann and calls for consideration. He is described by the odious name of Paccanarist. As a matter of fact, Kohlmann joined the Fathers of the Sacred Heart in 1796, three years before Paccanari was even heard of. In April 1799, by order of the Pope, the Fathers of the Sacred Heart were amalgamated with Paccanari's Fathers of the Faith, but from the very beginning there was distinct cleavage between the two sections; and in 1803 when it became evident that Paccanari had no intention of uniting with the Jesuits in Russia, Kohlmann was one of the first to separate from him and was admitted to the Society in that year. If he was a "Paccanarist," then so were Rozaven and Varin.