Отдел четвертый. Материальная и нравственная сила Римского католицизма

XV. The rapid development of material wealth of the Roman Catholic Church and its causes. Sources of material well-being. The meaning of male and female monastic orders. Management of church property. "Trusteeism" and the fight against it. Protestant tendency of state laws on church property. Cathedral protest against it. Property and debt. – XVI. Acclimatization of Roman Catholicism on American soil. Conversions to the Roman Catholic Church. Historical examples of conversions and their connection with various periods of the historical life of Roman Catholicism in the country. The Tract Movement and its echo in America. Anti-Catholic movements and internecine warfare and their significance in increasing conversions to the Roman Catholic Church. Quantitative and qualitative significance of converts. Nothing can be more striking than the difference between Roman Catholicism at the end of the last century and the present in terms of external greatness and prosperity. This is the difference between two extremes - wretched poverty and grandiose luxury. Less than a hundred years ago, along the entire vast stretch between Philadelphia and Canada, there was not a single Catholic church and not a single permanent priest. In New York there lived only a small group of Catholics, numbering about a hundred people, who went to Philadelphia for Easter services. 609 With the declaration of political independence and the establishment of freedom of religious confession, greater freedom of action opened up for the hierarchy in organizing church life and it hastened to satisfy the religious needs of its remote and abandoned flock. In 1783, the Jesuit Farmer made his way from Philadelphia to New York and celebrated Mass there - in the upper floor of a carpenter's shop - for lack of other premises. 610 In 1786, exactly ten years after the declaration of independence, the foundation of the first Catholic Church was laid in New York - a small brick building for the construction of which the Spanish King Charles III donated ten thousand dollars. 611 Currently, this building no longer exists, and in its place stands a large church of St. Peter's, which still serves as an ecclesiastical and historical shrine for the Roman Catholic population of New York. The insignificant brick church of a small group of “papists” did not attract anyone’s attention and apparently did not foretell any particular success. But in fact, she was like a mustard seed that soon grew into a majestic tree. Churches, one after another, began to grow in rapid succession, and soon Roman Catholicism not only surpassed all Protestant denominations in the city with its churches, but also erected a church, which, in terms of architectural grace and luxury, has no equal on the entire American continent, namely the Church of St. Patrick's, in New York, on Fifth Avenue. 612 This majestic church, presenting an immeasurable contrast not only with the carpenter's shop in which the mass was celebrated a hundred years ago by the Jesuit, but also with the first church built with the generous donation of the Spanish king, serves as the fullest expression of the external greatness and prosperity which Roman Catholicism achieved during the period of less than a hundred years of its existence. 613 The same process of development of the welfare of the Roman Catholic Church took place throughout the country, and everywhere during the hundred-year period of its existence free from persecution, Roman Catholicism managed to erect churches that, in the ordinary course of life, should have required many centuries of effort. 614 The welfare of the church, as an institution freely accepted and maintained by society, is naturally completely dependent on both the size and the goodwill of society itself. In the first respect, the increase in the prosperity of the Roman Catholic Church finds a simple and natural explanation in the increase in the size of the Catholic population itself. The process of this increase was shown above. It was not limited to natural slow growth, but surged in a stormy stream - in the form of European emigration. “The millions of strangers who sought a new homeland in America could not bring their churches with them,” says a Catholic writer. They had to acquire them here, and the American priest, of necessity, became a builder and financier. When the extraordinary resettlement began in 1847, we had only 812 churches, many of which were small buildings, hastily constructed and completely inadequate to the needs even of those who erected them. Many of them have since been demolished, rebuilt or replaced with substantial brick or stone buildings. This in itself is a work of considerable value; but when we take into account that since that time no less than four thousand three hundred (4,300) churches have been added to this number, we are not lost in amazement at the greatness of the work accomplished in such a short time. And, moreover, these newest buildings are not at all of the same rough and fragile quality as they were fifty years ago, but on the contrary, many of them represent excellent examples of strong construction and architectural art. The glorious cathedrals, especially those that adorn Baltimore, Albany, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Boston and other episcopal seats, are examples of design, strength and grandeur, of which every country and every age could be proud. The same can be said, but with special force, about the Cathedral of St. Patrick's in New York - this majestic epic in marble, from the high spitz of which the brilliant emblem of our salvation is destined in the near future to shine on a million faithful followers of the cross." 615 The fact that both the rapid construction of churches and their maintenance are closely dependent on external emigration is also established by the fact that most churches in New York, as well as in other cities, had their builders mainly emigrants and mostly Irish. 616 The Cathedral of St. Patrick, this pride of Roman Catholicism, owes its appearance to the Irish population of New York, which all consists of immigrants and their descendants. 617 The building of churches is the first and most visible expression of the religious zeal of the Roman Catholic population; other manifestations of it are also associated with it, manifested in zealous offerings for church needs. The Irish people are distinguished by their extraordinary devotion to Roman Catholicism, and this is quite understandable in view of their historical destiny. This is a long-suffering people who have suffered so many troubles like no other people in Europe. He was deprived of all land property and given up as a sacrifice to the English exploiter lords, who reduced him to extreme poverty and periodic starvation. For his devotion to Catholicism, until the beginning of the second quarter of the current century, he was deprived of all political rights, was persecuted and did not have the right to use his native language. In this severe struggle he lost everything, forgot his language and the glory of his nationality, and all that he had left as a legacy from the historical past was his Catholic faith, and he attached himself to it with all his soul as the only national treasure. 618 When unbearable calamities forced him to leave his homeland and in large numbers to seek a new fatherland in America, he naturally suffered his religious zeal, which, under the new circumstances of life in an unknown country, was even stronger from the fact that he constantly had to turn to the clergy as his only adviser and leader. In view of this, the first thought of the Irish emigrants when settling on the soil of the New World was to build a church, 619 and pioneer huts were already being built near it. The people generously contributed their wealth to the maintenance and management of this religious and public church, and that is why the well-being of the church not only went in parallel with the development of the well-being of the people, but also faster than it. As for the method of collecting and forming church property in the Roman Catholic Church, it consists in the usual donation of parishioners for church needs, in payment for the celebration of masses and church services. But besides these usual methods, American practice has developed several special sources of church income. One of the main sources is the wills left by wealthy people, according to which all or part of their property is bequeathed to the church. Testaments in favor of churches are also known in Europe, but in America they reach an unusually wide development, and constitute one of the characteristic phenomena of American life. Every American considers it his sacred duty to allocate a portion of his property to public needs - educational, charitable or religious, and their number can be judged by the fact that annually the budget of the country's educational department receives up to 10 million dollars solely from this source of voluntary bequests. 620 There is no exact data to determine the amount of property collected by the church through wills. But if we take into account that the religious area is one of those three for which voluntary donations are predominantly used, then we can form an approximate idea of ​​the amount of this amount, compared with the amount of donations for the educational cause. 621 Sometimes a single donation reaches a huge amount - hundreds of thousands of dollars. 622 Another way is the so-called annual church bazaars - The Church Fairs. During the year, various donations of things are made to the church, which at certain times are offered for sale, sometimes at certain prices, and sometimes by auction, and are thus converted into pure value. 623 Finally, one of the surest sources of income is the sale of seats in churches. This sale has become extremely widespread in America, so that there are almost no free churches at all. Sales are made annually at certain times, or at fixed prices, or even by auction, and there are examples of remarkable competition. 624 When, to determine prices, the first auction was opened for places in the new Cathedral of St. Patrick, instead of the nominal price of $150, first places were paid $6,000. 625 The amount of this income can be understood from the fact that the gross income from the sale of seats in the Cathedral of St. Patrick's, at face value, is $29,160. 626 With this sale, a place is rented out only for a certain number of masses, and since in Catholic churches there are usually several masses a day, visitors to the church pay specially for each time the place is occupied, and in general, the very entrance to the church of outside pilgrims who do not have a rented place is purchased for a certain amount, from 10 cents to 1 dollar, depending on the nature of the service. 627 The most important agency in the accumulation of church property is the monastic orders - male and female. These are one of the most active pioneers of the Roman Catholic Church, not only spiritually, but also materially. The success of their activities in this regard can be judged by the fact that from Europe the orders sent only a few brothers or sisters to America, providing them with barely sufficient funds for the first acquisition. 628 After a few years, the brothers and sisters not only managed to provide for their existence with their own means, but also had the opportunity to begin substantial construction of monasteries on the lands acquired as property, and now throughout the entire United States the traveler constantly encounters monastic castles, huddled in all areas distinguished by the best beauties of nature. The monasteries owe the rapid development of their well-being not only to the usual religious zeal of the Catholic population, but also to their active social activities. Among American orders, only a few have a specifically contemplative character. Most of them conduct lively social activities - educational and charitable. Almost all of them have educational or charitable institutions, which are supported partly by voluntary donations, partly by fees, and partly even at the state expense. We have highlighted above what enormous sums the New York State Government pays annually to Catholic charitable institutions. But an even more important source of income for monasteries are their educational institutions - colleges, academies and schools. If elementary schools are maintained partly at the monastery’s own expense and no tuition is charged, then the so-called colleges and academies have the character of private, expensive boarding houses. These colleges and academies are closed schools in which students receive both education and full maintenance during the course, with a certain annual fee. And this fee is very high, as can be seen from the following examples. The New York College of the Brothers of Christian Schools, the so-called Manhattan College, sets out the following conditions in its advertisement: “For maintenance, linen and tuition for a ten-month season - $800; entrance fee $10; for medical assistance – 10 dollars; for vacation time at the college 40 dollars. Special fees are charged for teaching music, German and Spanish, drawing, and for using apparatus in the study of chemistry and natural philosophy. Books are sold at reasonable prices. Payment for half a season of five months is made in advance.” 629 Thus, the annual fee in this college rises to $400, meanwhile it is overcrowded with students, so that according to statistics of 1876, there were 740 students in it, 630 who thus gave the college an annual income of more than $250,000. Another Roman Catholic college in New York, maintained by Jesuits, the so-called “College of St. John" (St. John College, charges $340 for boarders, in addition to special fees for language and art tuition, and $60 for visiting boarders. 631 In 1876 there were 200 students, 632 giving the college an annual budget of $68,000. 633 The same prices approximately prevail in other colleges and seminaries. If we take into account that in the United States there are 107 colleges and seminaries, with a round number of up to 20,000 students, then obviously the annual income of male orders from this article must be considered in the millions of dollars. 634 Women's orders derive even more income from this source. According to the latest statistics, convents in the United States operate 511 female academies or boarding houses. 635 The pay in them is as high as in the men's colleges. So "Mount St. Academy" Vincent's Academy of Mt. St. Vincent, a few miles from New York, charges $250 a year for tuition and maintenance, besides a special fee for music, languages, etc., which raises this amount to $300. 636 In 1876 There were 200 students in the academy, 637 thus giving the academy an annual budget of $60,000. Our Lady of Maryland Institute charges $375 per year. In the last academic year, as can be seen from its circular, there were 110 pupils at the institute, 638, which amounts to an annual budget for the institute of $44,250. Some of the colleges, such as the academy at the Presentation Convent in San Francisco, have up to 700 students. 639 If we take the average number of one hundred (100) pupils to each academy, then this will make the total number of pupils in the academies run by sisters more than fifty thousand - (50,000), 640 which in monetary terms gives the female orders from this source alone, with an average fee of $200, an enormous annual budget of ten million dollars (10,000,000). In view of the figures presented, it should not be surprising that the welfare of the Roman Catholic Church has developed proportionately faster than that of the country itself, as can be seen from the following statistics. In 1850 the entire value of the property of the United States, according to the government census of that year, was determined to be $7,135,780,228; in 1860 it increased to $16,159,616,068; in 1870 to $30,668,518,507; finally, for 1880 it is determined at 50,000,000,000 dollars. 641 The percentage increase in the wealth of the country will thus be for the decade 1850 - 1860. about 125 percent, for the next decade about 86 percent, and for the last decade 1870–1880. will be about 60 percent. If we take the value of property belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, it is expressed for the corresponding years in the following figures. In 1850 her property was valued at $9,256,758. In 1860 it rose to $26,744,119; in 1870 it was valued at $60,985,556; finally, in the last year's census it is supposedly determined at 100,000,000 dollars. 642 That is, the value of Roman Catholic Church property increased by 189 percent in the first decade from 1850 to 1860, by 128 percent from 1860 to 1870, and by 60 percent in the last decade. Thus, while the country's wealth increased by 125 percent in the first of these decades (1850–1860), the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church increased by 189 percent. In the second decade, the country's wealth increased by only 86 percent, while the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church increased by 128 percent. 643 Over the last decade, due to the lack of accurate data, the percentages of increase have been assumed to be equal, although undoubtedly, judging by previous decades, the property of the Roman Catholic Church increased faster than the total property of the country. Along with the sources and methods of collecting property values, the system of its management itself is very important, and in this respect the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States presents very interesting data determining both its attitude towards church property and its attitude towards American property laws. According to the laws of most states, property can be owned either by an individual or by any community or association - commercial, industrial or religious. Any religious society, represented by its trustees, easily receives corporate law (incorporation), that is, it is recognized as an individual with the right to own property and accept property under deeds of gift and wills. This right is usually limited to a certain amount, but it is much higher than what is necessary for the community. Even if the amount of property value exceeds a certain maximum, then in this case it is easy to satisfy the legal requirements by allocating a new center for the property, by building, for example, a new church, etc. 644 In view of such legalization, all the necessary conveniences and benefits are provided for the church management of property. The Church, as a community, obviously has the same right to the ownership of property as any other association in the state. This is how it really exists in reality. Each church, through its elected trustees, has corporate rights, freely collects property, owns and disposes of it according to its needs and requirements, without any interference from outside civil authority. This order of things would seem to be most favorable to the Roman Catholic Church, whose main principle is the independent management of church property, in accordance only with its own decrees and rules. In fact, it turns out to be not particularly favorable and was the source of numerous and very serious difficulties for her. The fact is that the civil legislation in this, as in many other respects, adopted a Protestant point of view, which turned out to be in conflict with the basic spirit of Roman Catholicism as an ecclesiastical organization. Recognizing corporate law for the church community, the legislation, according to Protestant views, recognized the parish as the highest corporate unit, and limited it to corporate law. From the Protestant point of view, the parish is truly the highest corporate unit, an independent whole that does not have a higher legal authority on which it could depend. It is completely different in the Roman Catholic Church. A parish in it is not an independent legal unit, but only an integral organic part of a higher unit, namely the diocese, on which it is completely dependent and from whose representative, the bishop, it receives all its rights and all its governance. It is clear that this difference is fundamental, and therefore the legislation, having adopted the point of view of one of the related parties, thereby became in conflict with the other side. And since it accepted the Protestant melancholy point of view, it thereby became in conflict with the point of view of Roman Catholicism. This fact has been the source of difficulties for the latter to this day, and at one time the movement he made threatened with serious harm to the integrity of his organization itself. This is precisely the so-called “trusteism”, a movement hostile to the Roman Catholic organization, which has found encouragement and support in the legislation reviewed regarding the corporate law of a religious community - a parish, not a diocese. The history of the struggle of the Roman Catholic hierarchy with this movement is not only interesting from a general historical point of view, but also very important in the sense of understanding the principles of the Roman Catholic Church in the management of church property. The trustee movement got its name from the word trustee, which means trustee, guardian, and when applied to the church field means a church trustee in the broad sense of the word. Trustees play a very important role in American church life. All the power of church administration is concentrated in their hands - not only in property, but also in spiritual terms. They, in their own person, represent the religious community before the state and receive corporate rights in their name. In most cases, by right of election by the parish, and in some cases, when the church was built with their private funds, by the right of the owners, they are the complete owners of the church: they find sources for its maintenance, sell church seats, hire choirs and music orchestras, and finally, the most important right, find the best pastor-preacher within their means, pay him a salary and, if dissatisfied, replace him in order to find a better one. Apart from the parish, they do not have any higher jurisdiction over themselves and in their actions are consistent only with the voice of the parishioners and the interests of the church. This order of parochial government is deeply rooted in American ecclesiastical life and constitutes a particular manifestation of the general principles of American social life, which has a strong tendency towards decentralization and the concentration of independent jurisdiction in each more or less separate social unit. Given this order of things, the structure of the church-religious life of the Roman Catholic Church, with its opposite tendency to steady centralization, naturally found itself immediately in conflict with the prevailing principles. There was inevitably a clash between these two opposing orders of things, and it was not slow to occur, expressed in the movement of trusteism. The Roman Catholic population, with the weakness of the church organization and its small numbers at the end of the last century, being completely surrounded by the Protestant population, could not help but succumb to the influence of the latter. The result of this influence was that already from the end of the last century there began to be a tendency towards parish self-government and to limit the power of the bishop. The parish began to take an active part in church governance and the idea arose of electing a priest in addition to the bishop and, moreover, according to the Protestant model, bearing in mind not those qualities that are determined by the canon law of the church, but his preaching talent. 645 On the first occasion, the idea was not slow to appear in action. After the opening of worship in New York, Franciscan Vgelan was appointed pastor of the church in 1784. Before he had served for a year, another Franciscan, Nugent, arrived in New York and began to intrigue against the first, trying to take his place. Since he had better preaching talent than Vgelan, the parishioners took his side and asked Jesuit Farmer to remove Vgelan. The Jesuit immediately realized the danger of the trend for the strength of the church organization and tried to pacify them. But the parish did not want to hear anything, and the trustees threatened to appeal to the legislative assembly with a petition to give them the legal authority to dismiss the priest if they were dissatisfied with him. 646 All attempts at pacification were in vain. The trustees were aware of their strength, and although they did not appeal to the legislative assembly, as they had threatened, they decided to survive Vgelan using home remedies and stopped the Sunday money collection in his favor. Since this was the only source of his content, the Franciscan had no choice but to leave and yield to his enemy, who took his place. 647 This was the first outbreak of Trusteism, and although it was subsequently extinguished, thanks to the energy of the first Jesuit bishop, John Carroll, it was an ominous omen for the subsequent peace of the church. And indeed the subsequent history represents an almost uninterrupted struggle of the church hierarchy with the tendency of trusteism, which declared itself at every opportunity, first in one point, then in another, and sometimes not without success. 648 If trusteeism was not everywhere successful in limiting the rights of the bishop regarding the appointment and dismissal of pastors, then in relation to the management of church property it made enormous gains, so that little by little church property came under the full control of trustees. This order of things became common, and although it was in complete contradiction with Roman Catholic church law, according to which the bishop is the complete and unlimited owner of church property, for a long time no bishop dared to enter into an open fight against trusteeism. Indeed, this struggle required extraordinary willpower and indestructible energy, since trusteeism already had a solid foundation and was based on established custom. Nevertheless, as contrary to church law, trusteeism could not count on permanent dominance; the hierarchy could not make peace with it and was only waiting for an opportunity to engage in a decisive battle with its enemy. This opportunity presented itself when an even more energetic coadjutor, the later famous Archbishop of New York Hughes, was appointed to the episcopal see of New York as an assistant to the energetic Bishop Dubois. Trusteeism at this time had reached wide proportions in New York and the trustees were in complete rebellion against episcopal authority. The young energetic coadjutor decided to crush this movement and, to a large extent, succeeded in doing so. Bishop Dubois vigorously defended his rights as a hierarchical spiritual administrator. 649 His coadjutor did not limit himself to defending these rights, but vowed to crush trusteeism in its very essence, on its economic soil. The fight was not going to be easy. Truesteism reached its highest tension, did not want to recognize episcopal authority and disposed of church property without control. But the shrewd coadjutor noticed the weak side of trusteism in its very strength, and directed his blows at it. Trusteeism, carried away by the successes achieved, degenerated into the despotic arbitrariness of the trustees, who ceased even to comply with the voice of the parishioners and disposed of church property as simple property, making it the subject of financial speculation. This naturally led to a cooling of a significant part of the parishioners, and Yuis took advantage of it. He addressed this part of the parishioners with a protest against the illegal actions of the trustees and found sympathy in them. Taking advantage of this first success, he embarked on a more effective measure of the fight against trusteeism and addressed the people with an appeal - “to forward their mites not to rebellious trustees, but to their legally appointed pastors, whose maintenance, according to the laws of the church, was obligatory for them.” 650 His appeals made an impression on the Catholic population, and so a public movement began to discuss the issue. A huge meeting gathered, at which Yuis was given the chairmanship. Based on the pastoral appeal of Bishop Dubois to his flock, he laid out before the meeting with such clarity and force the abnormal state of things that the meeting determined to conform in the future the entire system of church government to the canons of the church. 651 Trusteism was thus dealt a moral defeat, but in fact it continued to exist until, through the abuse of its administration, it finally deprived itself of ground. Viewing church property as a subject of speculation, the trustees embarked on all sorts of speculative ventures. Soon, however, some of them brought the matter to a dead end, so that the trustees of five churches, out of the total number of eight churches existing at that time in New York, declared bankruptcy. At one church of St. Peter found himself in debt of over one and a half hundred thousand dollars. 652 The situation of these churches was hopeless, since they were subject to auction to satisfy creditors. Bishop Yuis took advantage of this opportunity for the final defeat of Trusteism. He made every effort to collect a certain amount of money, and through a contract he bought all these churches into his own property, thus becoming the head of these churches, not only by the right of bishopric, which the trustees denied, but also by the right of owner, which they could no longer deny. 653 Defeated in New York, trusteeism nevertheless continued to exist in other cities. Rejoicing at his success in the fight against the trustees, Bishop Yuis, at the diocesan synod convened in 1842, developed “rules regarding the management of church property without trustees” 654 and demanded their application in practice. But the rules have met with opposition from some trustees. The trustees of St. Church showed particular persistence. Louis, in Buffalo (New York State). They not only did not want to submit to the demands of Jutes, but twice sent a deputy to Rome to petition for their rights. In the midst of the struggle, even the church was closed. The Pope instructed his nuncio Bedini to consider this matter. In 1853 the trustees had an audience with the nuncio and presented him with a memorial containing their complaints against Bishop Yuis. The Nuncio sent them a written decision with the decision that the parish should submit to the request of the bishop, that the trustees should implement this decision as soon as possible, that the management of church property belongs to administrators appointed by the bishop, who are in charge of all the property of the church and at certain periods present to the bishop and the faithful attending the church an account of their management. 655 This resolution severely disappointed the trustees, and on the very day of its receipt they sent the following response to the nuncio: “... We see nothing in your Excellency’s response (Excellency) except a repetition of the demands made by the venerable Bishop Timon, 656 i.e., complete submission, so that our Act of corporate law (Act of incorporation) should be destroyed and that a special committee be appointed in place of trusteeship by the one who was the cause of our difficulties. Before these difficulties began, we had never interfered in spiritual matters, leaving them entirely to the pastor and bishop; but as for the material side, we always had control over it, subject, however, to an annual audit by the bishop and pastor - in relation to the amounts spent and received, and the pastor always found everything in order. As for the destruction of the act of corporate law, there is not a shadow of sense in this, since we think that the property side has nothing to do with the spiritual side...” 657 The final reply of the nuncio, dated October 26, 1853, declares this response of the trustees to be “truly painful,” reproaches the trustees for their complete lack of respect for Catholic principles, and bemoans their sad situation if they continue to persist. 658 Bishop Timon issued a pastoral letter to the parish of the Church of St. Louis, threatening to excommunicate those who persist. The threat had no effect, and then the bishop, on June 22, 1854, officially declared the seven “so-called trustees of the Church of St. Louis,” whom he named by name, “excommunicated by the great excommunication,” adding then that “all who will henceforth assume the office of trustee of the church of St. Louis, in order to continue the present sacrilegious opposition to ecclesiastical discipline, will ipso facto incur the same great excommunication.” 659 Excommunication turned out to be a powerful remedy, and Trusteism could not resist it. Trustees of the Church of St. Luisa gave in and submitted to the bishop. The trustees of other churches followed them, and thus little by little one of the most dangerous movements for the success of Roman Catholicism in the United States, which arose under the influence of Protestantism, was crushed. But broken in its external manifestation, trusteeism could not be completely destroyed in the sense of a tendency, since its foundations are rooted in the spirit of the very social life of the American people, in the nature of its social institutions. Therefore, having been defeated in an open struggle, Trusteeism began to seek for itself a secret refuge in this spirit, and to a large extent succeeded in this, so that for a time it even threatened to deprive the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the newly acquired fruits of its victory. This was especially true in New York State. The State Legislature viewed with some displeasure the success achieved by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the struggle for its rights, 660 and almost considered its policy in relation to the administration of church property incompatible with the republican institutions of the country. The trustees noticed this mood and tried to resort to it to restore their rights. A favorable opportunity for this soon presented itself. The main enemy of Trusteism, Archbishop Huis, after the victory he achieved, went to Rome in triumph to be present at the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The trustees took advantage of this circumstance and, in his absence, submitted a petition to the state legislature to restore their violated rights. 661 The petition found sympathy in the legislature, the majority of which was anti-Catholic and clearly influenced by the just ended anti-Catholic Know-Nothing movement. 662 Consequently, the petition was accepted and the legislature framed a “church property law,” which not only deprived the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the right to manage and own church property, but in some cases bordered on confiscation of church property. Assuming that the majority of the legislature, as representatives of the ruling party or exponents of the popular will of the state, are the owners of all real and personal property in the state, and that the real owners are only the simple maintainers thereof, they have decreed that all property held by any person in an ecclesiastical office should, on his death, be given to the parish, if he has a corporate right, and, in the absence of the latter, to the people of the state. 663 Another regulation provided that no deed relating to property held for religious purposes should be considered legal or enforceable unless it was made in the name of the corporation. 664 It is clear that these decrees not only significantly violated the rights of the Roman Catholic Church regarding self-government according to its own church laws, but also established by law the very opposite of its self-government, and finally, and worst of all, the Roman Catholic hierarchy was deprived of all the fruits of the victory over trusteeism that had just been achieved and which had cost extraordinary efforts. Trusteeism received legal recognition, and the trustees, as representatives of the corporate law of the parish, received full control over church property. Even more, the bishop could not transfer his right to church property, in the event of death, to his successor bishop; he had to transfer it to the parish or trustees, and thus the church property bought by Archbishop Yuis again, after his death, passed to his mortal enemies - the trustees. 665 When Archbishop Huis returned to his diocese, this law poisoned his spiritual joy on the occasion of the happy proclamation of the new dogma. He saw that the victory he had won had again slipped from his hands, and the hated trusteeism was again proudly raising its head, now relying not only on ordinary law, but on a specific, legally formulated legal provision. But the energetic archbishop did not think of giving up his rights and immediately began agitation against the new legislation. Here the church already entered into a struggle with the state, but the archbishop did not stop at such a struggle, just to ensure his rights. He filed a strong protest in the legislature, destroying the very foundations on which the new legislation was built. These were based on the complaints of the trustees that the archbishop demanded from them a formal renunciation of their rights to the church property in charge of them in favor of his personal right to this property, and the assurances of member of the Senate Brooks that the archbishop of New York had thus seized into his power an enormous property valued at five million dollars. 666 The archbishop conducted his case against the trustees with such tact that he forced them to abandon their belief that he required them to renounce their rights in his favor. Senator Brooks remained, and against him Huis wrote a whole polemical book, under the title: "Bruxiana", and not only shattered his assurances of the tendency of personal seizure of property attributed to the archbishop, but also proved the inconsistency of the very figure by which the value of the church property of his diocese was determined, and also revealed the secret springs by which this unjust legislation was put forward. 667 This strong protest did not remain fruitless, especially since the internal inconsistency of the law itself, which undermined the foundations of property, was soon revealed, 668 and it was finally repealed by the legislature of 1863, after its eight years of existence. 669 Instead, a legal provision was adopted which represents a certain compromise between the rights of the hierarchy and the trustees, and is that corporate law is granted to all Roman Catholic parishes and churches, but this corporate law in any case has its highest jurisdiction in the bishop and in the vicar general of the diocese, the pastor and trustees being appointed by the bishop. 670 Thus, in the state of New York, the Roman Catholic hierarchy finally achieved some recognition of its rights regarding the management of church property. But since jurisdiction over religious matters exclusively belongs to the local government of individual states, it is natural that the state’s attitude to the issue of managing church property is not the same in different states. While in one State this attitude is more or less satisfactory to the Roman Catholic Church, in another State it continues to be contrary to its wishes. Thus, in the Puritan states of New England, the laws regarding the management of church property are completely based on the Protestant principles of parochial independence from any higher jurisdiction, and therefore the rights of Roman Catholic bishops are limited in favor of the trustees. In 1866, Bishop Fitzpatrick attempted to present a petition to the Massachusetts Legislature for a reform of the laws regarding the administration of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical property according to the plan adopted in the State of New York, namely, that "the various Roman Catholic churches or congregations in this republic should be authorized to assume corporate power, with the same rights of property and possession as religious parishes enjoy by law, and that such corporate the power in any case should be vested in the bishop and the vicar general of the diocese in which there may be such a church or congregation, and the pastor of such church or congregation and two laymen should be appointed by the said bishop, vicar general and pastor, or a majority of them.” 671 The petition was submitted for consideration to the “committee of parishes and religious societies,” naturally consisting of the majority of the Puritan clergy, and this committee gave a unanimous response unfavorable to the petitioners. This review is a characteristic document in the sense of clarifying the position of the issue of managing church property in the state of Massachusetts, so some excerpts from it are not superfluous. “With such an order, say the committee, parish or public corporations would in any case be only nominal. The actual corporation would consist of three clergy and two laymen of their choice since the members of the parish community have no say in the appointment of their nominees. In short, parish corporations would have no corporate powers at all. We affirm with all certainty that such an anomalous society can never be created or legalized by an act of legislation. It would be contrary to the whole theory and purpose of our civil and religious institutions. At present, the title deeds for all Roman Catholic ecclesiastical property in the state are in the name of the bishop and are in his hands. In his will he leaves everything to his successor, since there is no law against it - although in reality he does not own a single dollar of the entire value. Thus Bishop Williams 672 comes into possession of all the numerous and valuable fortunes which the late Bishop Fitzpatrick either received from his predecessor, or acquired by his own administrative means. The possession of such property, which now rises to hundreds of thousands and millions (of dollars) and in the future can increase indefinitely and indefinitely, gives the holder of the bishopric, as everyone should see, enormous power of influence, both ecclesiastical and political. And this power would certainly not be diminished if the change proposed by the petition before us were made... The Committee sees no reason why those who build church buildings, and who so abundantly support their pastors, bishops, and other ecclesiastics, should not have control of these buildings in their own name, as their fortified property for religious purposes, under the existing laws of the republic. The corporate organization and government of Roman Catholic parishes or societies would, we have no doubt, find general acceptance among their members; and, according to our American principles and experience, would give them more intelligence, self-respect, and all the qualities of usefulness as good citizens. It would be a gross injustice, an abuse of power, inexcusable in the legislature of Massachusetts, whatever may be done in other places, if any of our fellow citizens were deprived of the fullness of that freedom to which, by the good pleasure of our God, we are so much and clearly indebted. And we would probably and undoubtedly have deprived our Roman Catholic fellow citizens of it if we had granted the request of the petitioners" 673. Thus, the claims of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to the right to manage church property in accordance with its own canonical law were found by the Massachusetts Legislative Assembly to be incompatible with the general structure of the socio-political life of the republic and rejected as violating the rights of citizens to self-government. Therefore, trusteeism still prevails in New England more than in all other states of the country. 674 The struggle of the hierarchy with trusteeism and the government on the issue of managing church property, although apparently concerned individual dioceses and localities, could not but worry the entire church, and its vicissitudes were therefore reflected in various councils that took place during the period of the struggle itself. The councils closely followed the ups and downs of the struggle and made various resolutions that determined the church's view of this issue and took various measures towards its most favorable solution for the church. The highest expression of the ecclesiastical view of Roman Catholicism on the issue of managing church property was found in the definitions of the second full council of Baltimore. The prelates of the council took this subject very seriously and devoted a whole section to it, presenting a careful compilation of the various decrees of previous councils, comparing them with the general canon law of the church and with the instructions of the Roman curia, and ending with the prelates' own definition regarding the rights of the church in the administration of property in relation to trustees and the government. 675 “In order to better arrange, say the prelates, the administration of church property and to suppress the abuse of lay trustees, the first council of Baltimore decreed: Since lay trustees often abuse the right given to them by the civil power, to the great harm of religion and not without embarrassment to the believers, we eminently desire that no church hereafter be built or consecrated unless it is transferred (adsignata) a written document to the bishop of the diocese in which it is to be built, for the divine service and use of the faithful.” 676 The bishop is declared the full owner of church property with the right to transfer it to his successor by will. The order of transfer is determined by the decree of the “Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith” of December 15, 1840, “the essence of which is as follows: every bishop must make a will by which one of the co-bishops of his country, whom he considers more worthy (idoneum) in the Lord, is appointed heir, with the purpose that, being thus heir, he transfers to the successor of the deceased bishop all the property that passed to him by right inheritance. But this, however, should in no way be expressed in the will itself, but should be made known to the so-established heir by letter, which he must burn after reading. A bishop who has a coadjutor must make him his heir.” 677 The prelates repeat the determination of the Seventh Provincial Council of Baltimore that "all churches and other ecclesiastical property, acquired either by offering or donation of the faithful, for use in works of charity or religion, belong to the bishop (ad Ordinarium pertinere), unless it is declared in writing that they are transferred to some monastic order or congregation of priests for their use." 678 Repeating the definition of the first full council of Baltimore, the prelates “strictly forbid the laity to interfere with the management” of church property “without the voluntary consent of the bishop. If they invade this administration without any permission, turn it into their own use, or wrest from their hands even the legis praesidio that is entrusted to the trust and care of the bishops, we declare to such that they are ipso facto subject to the punishment determined by the Fathers of Trent for the daring thieves of the property of the church.” 679 Finally, the prelates themselves determine the property status of the church in relation to the general legislative principle of the state and say: “Whereas in the United States all citizens and settlers are permitted to live freely and unmolested according to the principles of their religion, as the civil laws themselves acknowledge and proclaim; then it seems that nothing at all should prevent us from accurately fulfilling those laws of the church that were decreed by councils and supreme pontiffs for the acquisition and proper storage of church property. Therefore, the Fathers wish to set forth and clearly expose before the eyes of everyone and in the fullest light for the state itself the true right of the Church in relation to the receipt, maintenance and administration of sacred property, which are the essence of the lands on which churches are built, the churches themselves, presbyteria, schools, cemeteries and other such things, so that Catholic citizens are allowed to strictly follow (ob oculos habere) the laws and regulations of the Catholic Church. This same complete freedom can only exist if the laws and regulations made by the church itself are allowed to be fully implemented and are thus given civil force. They give protection to every right; abuses that occur accidentally are stopped; and the power of bishops not only does not increase, but rather decreases, by decrees made by the church itself. For in order to be able to protect themselves from the undue intrusions of secular tribunals, which barely recognize, and in practice do not recognize at all, the laws of the church, there is nothing left for the bishops to direct the whole matter according to the rule of church laws except that they be given the fullest administration of property in the face of the civil authority. Since this recognition of the laws and ecclesiastical tribunals does not yet exist in some states, we consider it our duty to so arrange (nostrum est ita res componere) that in in places where civil laws would not make better provisions, difficulties arising for the freedom of the church or for the safety of property from civil laws were eliminated or reduced as far as possible. In order to indicate to the lay trustees the proper limits and manner of their election, we extend to all the churches of these provinces the decrees that were made at the third provincial council in New York and recognized by the apostolic seat, and we advise them to be followed everywhere. They are as follows: 1) No one should be accepted as a trustee about whom, during the selection itself, or a little earlier, it became known that he gave his name to some secret society or did not receive the Easter sacraments. 2) Let the trustees understand that it is completely unlawful for them to transfer even the slightest part of church property for their own use under any pretext, or for the use of others, except with the permission of the bishop and in compliance with the apostolic decrees regarding the alienation of church property. 680 3) Except for ordinary expenses, the trustees are not allowed to ask for any special business a sum of money in excess of three hundred dollars (scutatos nummos), unless the bishop expresses his consent in writing. 4) Let the trustees know that the power to appoint the pastor of the church, whether to keep him in office or not, belongs to the bishop. The bishop alone has the power to determine a certain amount of money for the shepherds of souls for their maintenance; and the trustees are not allowed to delay, reduce, or increase this salary. 5) The pastor has the power to appoint an organist, choristers, sacristan, guard or minister, teacher (if there is a school in the parish), and other persons of this kind who serve the altar or church. 6) Let the trustee beware, without consulting the pastor, of prescribing any law or rule for the congregation. If any disagreement occurs between the pastor and the trustees, and they cannot reconcile this disagreement themselves, then let the bishop decide the dispute, whose court and sentence everyone must obey.” 681 “We therefore declare it to be a general law of the Catholic Church that all those who in any manner manage ecclesiastical property, they have the right to do so only with the consent of the apostolic seat or the bishop, and in their administration are subject to the power and jurisdiction of the bishops, or, si exempti sunt, to the power and jurisdiction of those whom the apostolic seat appoints.” 682 The main idea of ​​these regulations is obviously that stewards of church property in parishes should not do anything without the consent of the bishop. “To observe this law, and to secure himself from the danger of the incursion of secular tribunals, there is no other course left for the bishop than to appear before the civil authority and claim his right to the complete administration of all the property belonging to his church as a single corporation. Some of the states have recognized this right. In others it is not yet recognized. Therefore, the council's decrees offer the best means for avoiding or at least reducing the inconvenience arising from such a state of affairs. They require that mutual provision be accepted on the part of the bishop and the trustees. Upon his appointment to the see, the prelate must make a will and give a copy of it to his metropolitan. In addition to the property of which he is the sole owner, he must be ex-officio president of all trustees that own parish property in the eyes of the law.” 683 Having made the stated decisions as palliative measures for the best possible implementation of the canon law of the church under these inconvenient circumstances, the prelates naturally did not consider their work to be over. They decided to solemnly express their protest against government restrictions regarding the management of church property in accordance with the canon law of the church. They expressed this protest in their pastoral message to the clergy and people. 684 “Regarding, they say, with pleasure the fact that hitherto the general and state governments of our country, except for some short intervals of excitement and delusion, have not interfered with our ecclesiastical organization or our civil rights, we have cause for regret, however, that in many States we are not yet legally permitted to take such measures for the security of ecclesiastical property as would be in accordance with the rules and discipline of the Catholic Church. We gratefully acknowledge that in some States we have been granted in this respect all that we could reasonably ask for. The right of the church to own property, whether churches, houses for the clergy, cemeteries, or schools, orphanages, etc., cannot be denied without depriving it of the necessary means to achieve the purpose for which it was established. We know the imaginary grounds for this refusal to recognize the church's corporate right, except on the condition that in the management of church property it conforms to the general laws established for this purpose. These laws, however, are for the most part based on principles that she cannot accept without deviating from her practice from the beginning, as soon as she was given the freedom of worship. They are an expression of distrust of church authority as such; and are the fruit of perverted ideas that were made about the activities of the church in past centuries. To impose upon her a system of administration of her property, which is foreign to her principles, and which is borrowed from those who have rejected her authority, is the same as if the civil power were to prescribe to her the doctrines which she should preach, and the worship by which she should honor God. Instead of endeavoring to refute the various grounds given for this denial of the rights of the church in some States, we are content with the formal protest with which we make this denial; and we briefly note that even under the assumption, which we by no means admit, that such denial is the result of legitimate motives, this denial in itself is incompatible with the full measure of that church or religious freedom, which we supposedly enjoy. It is not an unimportant subject or one that would not have practical consequences of the most outrageous nature. Due to the fact that we are not allowed to manage church property on Catholic principles, we are not only forced to place church property in conditions of extreme contingency; but in at least one of the states of the United States, namely Missouri, even laws were passed according to which all church property not maintained by corporations was subject to monetary taxation; and the express purpose of this decree was hostility to the Catholic Church. In concluding these remarks, we simply point out the attempt made in that State to make the administration of ecclesiastical ministry subject to a condition imposed by the civil authority.” 685 Thus, with regard to the management of church property, in the proper sense, the Roman Catholic Church, despite the important results achieved in this regard, considers itself oppressed by the state. But she managed to achieve more important results in relation to the management of another type of property, which, being essentially church property, nevertheless apparently has a separate existence and independent purpose. Such is the property belonging to various Roman Catholic educational and educational institutions: colleges, higher schools and boarding schools for girls, managed by various monastic orders. The Government of the United States treats these institutions more favorably than the Roman Catholic Church itself, and subjects them to special legislation which gives them complete freedom. “The states generally, without much difficulty, give corporate rights to these institutions, and their property is completely in the possession and management of the council of these institutions, consisting of the rector, and the chief officers of the college or institute, and sometimes friends, who are from time to time elected as trustees. Thus many colleges are maintained, run by the Jesuits and other orders.” 686 However, even in this respect there are not without obstacles, and the whole matter depends on the general mood of the legislation of a certain state in relation to Roman Catholicism. Thus, the legislature of the Puritan state of Massachusetts stubbornly refused to give corporate rights to the Jesuit college of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, although it apparently satisfied all the legal conditions for this. 687 From the data presented it is clear that in relation to the issue of managing church property, Roman Catholicism in the United States does not yet enjoy the independence and freedom that it considers necessary for the successful development of its external well-being and which, in its conviction, belongs to it due to the principle of separation of church and state proclaimed by the state and the freedom for church-religious life that follows from it. In this case, the more surprising is the fact that even under such, in his mind, constraining circumstances, he managed to develop his external well-being to enormous proportions, determined by the above figure for the value of his church property. But this success will be even more amazing if we compare it with the success of other religious communities and sects. At the beginning of the independent political life of the country, a hundred years ago, the Roman Catholic Church was the poorest and occupied the last place, in terms of its property value, among American confessions. A hundred years later, this attitude changed radically and by the centennial anniversary of the country's independence it already occupied the first place among the same confessions, in terms of property, 688 which, of course, it still occupies. But a sketch of the development of the material well-being of the Roman Catholic Church and its state at the present time would not be complete if we did not at least briefly mention one side in this regard, which constitutes one of the characteristic phenomena in American church life, namely, the widespread dominance of speculative credit. Both the general structure of American life and the special position of American church parishes in the sense of independent legal and economic units led to the fact that each church, represented by its trustees, in material terms, became a financial company that freely borrows money on the security of its real estate. This, on the one hand, contributed to the development of the material well-being of the churches and the vibrancy of their financial transactions, and on the other hand, led to immoderate speculation, burdening the churches with debt obligations, which sometimes, in case of unsuccessful operations, ends in a disastrous catastrophe - complete bankruptcy and sale of the church at auction to satisfy creditors. This general speculative spirit could not help but penetrate into the Roman Catholic Church, especially under the reign of Trusteeism, and we saw what a disaster broke out over the New York churches in the 40s, when out of eight churches, five were sold at auction for debts and purchased by Archbishop Huis. With the strengthening of hierarchical control over church property, measures were taken to limit this evil, and the second Baltimore Council confirmed the determination of the first council that bishops and priests should not burden churches with debt. “We exhort the bishops,” said the prelates, to see that the priests, for the unwise construction or repair of churches, or for any other reason, do not burden church property by concluding debt obligations (aere alieno contrahendo), or destroy the faith by dishonoring religion: therefore, let them annually check the condition of the property and not allow them to borrow money on behalf of or for the church without written permission” 689. But the power of things turned out to be more valid than conciliar definitions, and in spite of them the churches constantly continued to resort to credit, on the widest scale, so that at present in New York, for example, only four Roman Catholic churches are completely free from debt, and the rest are all more or less burdened with debt, and the largest debt lies with the new Cathedral of St. Patrick. We have no data to determine the total amount of debt owed by the Roman Catholic Church, but a rough idea of ​​it can be formed from New York. The entire property of the Roman Catholic Church in it is determined at $11,176,500, and its debt is equal to $3,042,814, i.e., about ¼ of the entire property. Judging by this proportion, the entire amount of debt should rise to $25,000,000. 690 It is clear that with such severity it cannot do without financial collapse, as happened, for example, recently with the College of Mount St. Mary, who was mentioned above. 691 Having received freedom of religion, the Roman Catholic Church, as we have seen, deployed extraordinary strength and managed in one century not only to create a powerful organization, thanks to which the Catholic emigration that poured to the American shores became part of the church and was not lost among the Protestant population, but could at the same time raise the material well-being of the church to a high degree. Roman Catholicism, as has already been shown, owes its numerical growth almost exclusively to the newcomer emigrant population, and due to its composition, the church itself can be called an alien, an exotic plant on American soil, as it is often called by American publicists. In its main part, it is alien not only in its population, but also in the hierarchy itself, and those numerous monastic orders, male and female, which constitute one of the strongest strongholds of Roman Catholicism on American soil, are also alien elements that emigrated from Europe following the national emigration. But once it set foot on American soil, this church could not remain constantly alien to it and had to, of necessity, acclimatize and take root in new soil. Thanks to the harmonious organization and persistent energy of its agents, it began to work actively in this direction, and the material well-being, which was shown above, as acquired exclusively on American soil, constitutes its first and main success in this regard. Through her possessions she has firmly settled on the new soil, and they serve as the main sign of her acclimatization. But the material side alone is certainly not sufficient for the complete acclimatization of the church as a moral institution. For this, it is necessary that it also take root in the popular consciousness, and this is the most important condition for true acclimatization, since without it the church, even with strong material roots, would still remain morally alien to the American people. Having considered the material basis of Roman Catholicism on the soil of the United States, it is now very important to consider its moral foundations, the roots that it managed to take root in the moral consciousness of the American people. The expression of these roots can be those members of the church who are taken from the very environment of the native American population, namely converts from American religions to Catholicism. This is a very important question and the study of it will show how Roman Catholicism really stands firmly on American soil and what it can expect in the future. The question of the acquisition of Roman Catholicism on American soil through conversions, while important, seems at the same time very difficult to resolve satisfactorily. Accurate statistics have never been collected on the number of converts and therefore it is impossible to accurately determine their numerical strength. Meanwhile, the importance of such a definition is undeniable for determining the moral position of Roman Catholicism in the country, and it is already evident from the fact that Protestant and Catholic writers tirelessly break spears among themselves over the exact number of converts, the former being exposed as having a tendency to reduce it, and the latter as having the opposite tendency to exaggerate it. 692 But if it is impossible to determine the exact number of converts from Protestant-American confessions to Catholicism, then we can still say with confidence that this figure, while having great moral significance, at the same time does not represent numerical strength. In order to form an understanding of one and the other side of it, it is necessary to historically trace the most outstanding facts and examples of appeals, which, first of all, will clarify the consistent quantity and quality of appeals. At the end of the last and even in the first quarter of this century, Roman Catholicism was too weak, both in its numbers and in its ecclesiastical organization, to exert any moral influence on the surrounding confessions. On the contrary, he was the most abandoned and almost despised confession, so that moral strength was not on his side and he not only could not think about subordinating the Gentiles to his authority, but had to try in every possible way to protect his members and his organization from alien Protestant influence. From this it is clear that at this period of its history it could not have much hope of gains through conversions, and indeed it had almost none, with the exception of a few more or less isolated phenomena, which at the same time were balanced by the same losses in the form of converts to Protestantism. 693 Thus, at the end of the last century, Catholic historians noted the fact of the conversion to Roman Catholicism of the Congregational priest John Thayer, “a member of one of the oldest families in New England and a gentleman of more than ordinary thorough education.” 694 But even this conversion of the American Roman Catholic Church essentially owes not to its own moral influence, but to the influence of Rome. Thayer, having gone to Europe for scientific purposes, did not think of converting to Catholicism and was extremely prejudiced against it, and especially against the Jesuits, and only in Rome, having encountered the Jesuits, he submitted to their moral and scientific superiority and accepted the Catholic faith. 695 This was in 1783. Fifteen years after this we encounter the fact of native conversion and, moreover, not of an individual person. The circumstances of this conversion are very characteristic both of the position of the church and of the circle in which it began to make its acquisitions. In the remote wilderness of Virginia stood the sparsely populated village of Middleway, consisting of several pioneer houses. Pennsylvania native Adam Livingston, a Lutheran by faith, settled there. He was kind and hospitable and once took a traveling Irish Catholic into his home when he was ill; looked after him and buried him properly, but refused one thing, namely his request to send for a Catholic priest for him. He had never seen Catholic pastors and “in all likelihood, like many others, thought that they were living emissaries of Satan and had horns like their boss.” 696 This refusal caused many troubles for the good Lutheran. “His house was apparently given over to Satan for his amusement. His barns suddenly caught fire and burned down, no one knows how; his horses and cattle died; his and his entire family’s clothes, beds and bedding - all of this either burned or was cut into such small shreds that there was no way to repair it. Boots, saddles, harnesses - everything suffered the same fate; burning brands swirled around the floor for no apparent reason; all kinds of sounds tormented the ears of the whole family; the furniture moved and knocked at the most inopportune times, dishes crashed onto the floor and shattered into pieces.” 697 Such fun of Satan plunged the unfortunate family into grief and horror and brought fear to all the neighbors. The Lutheran turned to various Protestant pastors with a request to expel Satan, but Satan did not give in and one day instantly stopped the pastor’s lamentations by slamming a huge stone from the stove. 698 Livingston, in despair, did not know what to do. Then he had a dream, “so wonderful and so vivid, like a vision.” 699 He dreamed that with great difficulty he climbed a rocky mountain and there he saw a beautiful church and in the church a man - in such a robe as he had never seen, and there was a voice to him: “such a person can deliver you from disasters.” When he told this dream to his wife and neighbors, judging by the description of the attire, everyone came to the conclusion that the man was a Catholic priest. Not far away there was a Catholic pastor, in whom Livingston recognized the very person he had seen in his dream. The pastor sprinkled St. with water, the house and the entire dwelling of the unfortunate man and Satan's fun apparently stopped, but soon resumed again. Then another Catholic pastor, the Sulpician Prince Dmitry Golitsyn, took up the task of expelling Satan. Apparently relying on his princely authority, he “decided to completely expel the evil spirits; but as soon as he began to conjure the spirits, there was a terrible crash and roar, as if from countless chariots, and this affected his nerves so much that he could not control himself enough to continue reading the spells.” 700 Only later, together with the former pastor, did Prince Golitsyn finally defeat Satan and deliver from him not only the house, but also the souls of its inhabitants, since Livingston and his entire family subsequently accepted the Catholic faith, except for his wife, who “was never a sincere convert and always called herself Judas.” 701 The news of this defeat of Satan spread throughout the hitherto remote area and its result was the conversion of several people to Catholicism, so that “during one winter fourteen (14) people were converted as a result.” 702 Since the beginning of this century, history has seen several more examples of conversion, although they all stand alone and separately, not representing any permanent and developing phenomenon. Thus, during the first decade, the Catholic historian names six Protestant priests who converted to Catholicism, and says that even “the Episcopal Bishop of New York himself, Hobart, repeatedly expressed a desire to end his days in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church.” 703 Of these six converts, John Richards, a Methodist minister, attracts attention. He was a fanatically zealous preacher of Methodism and, with the purpose of spreading it, went to upper Canada to convert Catholics. In 1807, in the city of Montreol, he met with members of the Sulpician Order and even tried to convert them to Methodism. But here he met with strong opponents. The Sulpicians, for their part, gave him books expounding the doctrines of Roman Catholicism to read. He read them carefully and returned to the order “not to convert, but to receive further instruction.” 704 He spent several months carefully studying this system. “The further I go,” he writes in his diary, the clearer the truth becomes to me, so that I am fully convinced that no teaching has been so misinterpreted (as the Catholic one) as far as I can understand it. I see nothing in him except that which has the sanction of the word of God.” 705 Upon his conversion, he entered the Sulpician seminary, was ordained a pastor and preached Catholicism with the same zeal with which he had previously preached Methodism - to the considerable embarrassment of the Methodists, although this fact did not have significant consequences for the acquisition of new converts. Then, in the annals of the historical life of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, there appear, scattered here and there, examples of other conversions, the pursuit of which would be tedious and useless for our purpose. It is much more important to study those historical periods with which the largest number of appeals are associated. Such a study will clarify the dependence of conversions on certain historical conditions experienced by the Roman Catholic Church in America. The first signs of conversions, as one might expect, appeared soon after the liberation of Roman Catholicism from legislative restrictions and especially when, with the founding of the bishopric, the organization of the church began to strengthen. Hitherto persecuted, abandoned and despised, Roman Catholicism was hardly able to keep its own members from falling away, and undoubtedly many of them fell away either due to oppression, or simply due to the fact that for decades they had not seen Catholic priests, and therefore, having no moral support, succumbed to the influence of the surrounding Protestantism. 706 With the weakening of oppression and, especially with the founding of the bishopric, the church received more opportunities to support the Catholic population in the faith. The number of priests and missionaries began to increase and they penetrated into the most remote and remote wilds where Catholics lived. This naturally contributed to the revival of the faith of Catholics, gave them courage and they began to exert a moral influence, and above all, of course, on those who, due to previous unfavorable circumstances, had left their faith, but the spark of which could still glimmer in their souls. And therefore, with the appearance of a priest and with the moral influence of their neighbors, they again returned to the Catholicism they had abandoned. This process is also transparent in the event described, about which fourteen people came forward. In Virginia, where this event took place, harsh laws against Catholics prevailed, and Catholic pastors were so rare there that many did not see them all their lives and had no idea about them. 707 With the weakening of these laws, “wandering Irish Catholics” appeared, preaching Catholicism, Satan began to torment those who refused to give satisfaction to the Catholic soul, visions of the Catholic Church and Catholic priests began, and finally the priests themselves appeared, expelled the evil spirit from the dark Protestant country and - conversion to Catholicism began. 708 It is clear that all these facts point to the establishment of Catholic influence in an area in which Catholicism had hitherto been suppressed by fanatical Protestantism. It is not said about the converts who they were, but it is not impossible to assume that they were apostate Catholics. Meanwhile, Roman Catholicism began to grow and develop with extraordinary speed. His church organization, under the leadership of the energetic “patriarch of the American Church,” the ex-Jesuit Carrol, was quickly created and strengthened. The Jesuits and Sulpicians began educational activities in their colleges, which began to gather children of noble families into their walls, and the church itself, from abandoned and despised, became famous, acquired significant weight even in political terms, so that its bishop Caroll was in close relations with the leading statesmen of the country. 709 All this, of course, should have drawn the attention of other confessions to it. Representatives of various Protestant communities saw with amazement the growth of the hated papism, which they considered completely dead during the persecutions of the colonial era, and tried to counteract it. This led to a collision of the two doctrines and to a better mutual understanding of them. Protestantism could now act against Catholicism only by the force of moral and logical means, and at the very first serious clash it had to realize that it was not dealing with that pitiful community of ignorant and superstitious papists, which it was accustomed to imagine the Roman Catholic Church, but with a strong historical system, a certain logically developed dogma and with highly educated, persistent polemicists in the genus of the Jesuits and sulpician. From this it became possible that the religious preachers of Protestantism, when faced with the defenders of Catholicism, could not stand the fight, and instead of defeating papism, they themselves admitted defeat and converted to Catholicism. The Methodist preacher Richards and other Protestant ministers, whose conversion was mentioned above, mark this new period in the history of the development of the moral influence of Roman Catholicism in America. This reason, namely the logical instability of Protestantism as a system against Roman Catholicism in open struggle with it, became a constant motive for further conversions, and we see a whole series of conversions arising solely from the fact that one or another Protestant thinker, faced with Catholicism, could not withstand the logical competition with it. But such appeals, by their very essence, could naturally be isolated and therefore not noticeably associated with one or another period of history. However, even here a period stands out that entailed the acceleration and intensification of the action of this slow-acting cause, namely the period of the so-called “tractarian movement”. The Tract Movement originated in England and was an expression of reaction against the undivided dominance of Protestantism. Several ecclesiastics and professors at Oxford University, having devoted themselves to a careful study of patristic literature, came to the conviction that the Reformation was a fatal error; but they tried to show that the Church of England was still part of the Catholic Church and could restore itself to the original position of the Catholic Church by the perception of what, in their opinion, it had not rejected, but had only lost sight of during the troubles of the Reformed movement, namely, the teachings and discipline of the Catholic Church, which found undoubted confirmation in the patristic writings. To prepare public minds to accept these ideas and cut off Anglicanism from connection with the continental reformation, these Oxford theologians began in 1833 the publication of a series of treatises directed against the reformation and in defense of the teachings of the Catholic Church, translated and published patristic works, and even tried to restore monastic orders and Catholic asceticism. 711 These publications aroused keen interest both in England and in the United States. A fierce controversy began, which, however, only accelerated the movement, and soon all its culprits in England, one after another, converted to Catholicism, drawing along numerous followers. 712 This movement was reflected with all its force in America and its ideas found ardent adherents among the Episcopal clergy. His most zealous defender was Ives, Bishop of North Carolina; more moderate adherents were the bishops of Philadelphia and New York, as well as some of the laity. The clergy followed the bishops, and began to preach Oxford ideas everywhere. Bishop Ives began to actually implement these ideas and even founded the “Brotherhood of the Holy Cross” in imitation of the Catholic orders. The clergy in some places began to preach about the need for confession and tried to restore it like Catholicism. This movement created excitement in the episcopal world and was discussed at episcopal conventions. The conventions found this movement dangerous to the integrity and success of the Episcopal Church in America and took energetic measures against it. The Bishop of New York, who sympathized with the movement, was put on trial on charges of obscenity. The Bishop of Philadelphia was forced to renounce the see himself; Bishop Ives of North Carolina was put on trial, but his explanations temporarily satisfied his opponents, although the “brotherhood” was dissolved. 713 However, the movement was not suppressed. When its English leaders actually came to the final conclusion and accepted Catholicism, their example was not left without imitation in America. In New York alone, ten members of the Episcopal clergy converted to Catholicism, and there were isolated cases of conversion in many other large cities of the country - Baltimore, Philadelphia, etc. 714 It is remarkable that at the same time, the most ardent supporter of Oxford ideas, Bishop Ives, was held back longer than others from the final adoption of Catholicism, but he finally, apparently after a long spiritual struggle, 715 “left the position in which he acted as a priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church for more than thirty years, and as a bishop of the same church for more than twenty years, and sought the last admission in his life into the Holy Catholic Church as a simple layman without any prospects in the future, but only for the peace of conscience and the salvation of his soul.” 716 The movement of the ego, after the first tension, weakened over time and did not present such numerous appeals as before. But his influence constantly made itself felt throughout subsequent history, both through private conversions of members of the Episcopal clergy, and through the special revelation of his spirit during periods of testing of the Roman Catholic Church. Such a period was the period of anti-Catholic movements that worried the country especially in the 40s and early 50s, when the riots of “natives” and “know-nothings” were rampant. The first and main motive for these movements was the unusually rapid growth of Roman Catholicism in the country. And when the Oxford movement began and dozens of Protestant priests and bishops began to convert to Catholicism, it created a commotion in Protestantism, its dormant fanaticism awakened, preachers thundered against papism, and the laity began to burn and destroy Catholic churches and monasteries. But naturally, such a movement in the end could only give an even greater triumph to Roman Catholicism and strengthen its propaganda, which was justified in reality. This persecution of Catholics not only revived the dominance of Oxford ideas, but also awakened sympathy for it in many persons uncontacted with these ideas, and thus “thousands of good, sensitive people were driven by this movement into the true fold of the Roman Catholic Church.” 717 But if the period of trials during the anti-Catholic movements contributed to the strengthening and frequency of conversions to Catholicism, then the trials that the entire country suffered in the early 60s, during the internecine war between the North and the South, were even more important in this regard. This fratricidal war shook the entire state body and cost the people unusually great sacrifices. The division of parties during the war reached such extremes that there was no statesman in the whole country whose impartial judgment could be relied upon. Protestant sects and communities during this crisis became even more fragmented and mixed and did not represent a reliable support. Only the Roman Catholic Church continued to be united, with its powerful organization and with its indifference towards both fighting sides. This was the reason that it gained important weight politically, in the sense of a balancing force, and its famous representative, Archbishop Huis, as the only politically impartial person, was consulted by President Lincoln with his ministers and sent him on a diplomatic mission to negotiate with England and France. 718 Its women's orders acted with such dedication during the war as sisters of mercy that Congress found it possible to violate the direct legalization of the country's constitution about not transferring state funds in favor of any religious institutions and allocated a significant amount of money ($20,000) in favor of the order of "sisters of mercy" as a reward for their services. 719 At the end of the war, the country presented a picture of destruction and exhaustion, both physical and moral. True patriots despaired of the future of the nation. There was no ray of hope visible from anywhere, and the people with lively joy would welcome any phenomenon that would represent unity and strength, as a guarantee of a better future for the country itself. This was again the Roman Catholic Church, and when, soon after the end of the war, with general exhaustion and fragmentation, it exhibited unprecedented power and unanimity in the form of prelates of the second full Baltimore Council, the eyes of the people turned to it with such joy with which they had never looked at it before. In it the people began to see a symbol of their unity, which alone was capable of surviving the fatal crisis, and this had the consequence that many, tired of the trials of the period, began to seek refuge and reassurance in it. This movement coincided with the political mood caused by the war, and at the same time developed until the present time. Despite all its disastrous consequences for the well-being of the country, the internecine war had the beneficial result for it that it finally killed political separatism in it, which before the war constantly shook the state organism and gave rise to constant fermentation of both political and religious forces, expressed in extreme fragmentation in both respects. After the war, which killed the trend of decentralization, the opposite process began - centralization, which continues to this day and was clearly expressed in the presidential elections of the last 1880, when the Republican Party, namely the party of national centralization, dealt a mortal blow to the Democratic Party, which represents the old principle of decentralization that prevailed before the war. 720 The process of political centralization, having as its source events that deeply shook the entire national body, was reflected in all aspects of national life and most noticeably in religious life. With the blow to political separatism, there was also a blow to religious sectarianism. Religious ferment began to weaken noticeably, small sects disintegrated and merged with larger communities. 721 The greatest benefit from this process was the Roman Catholic Church, as the most prominent and representative community, distinguished by the strongest organization and having in its favor the charm of historical antiquity, which for the American people, who experienced the disastrous fragility of both political and religious fermentation with its continuous process of modification, has acquired special significance since the war. The process of national centralization continues now, and along with it religious centralization continues, and in the newspapers every now and then one can read about the facts of conversions of Protestants to the Roman Catholic Church, although again these facts are of an isolated nature, and conversions do not occur en masse. Nevertheless, at the present time, “there is hardly an American family, famous for its antiquity or distinguished for its social position or its wealth, which would not now have one or two representatives among converts to the Catholic Church,” the Catholic publicist solemnly declares. In some parts of the country there are parishes composed almost entirely of converts. Converts are to be found among archbishops, bishops and clergy, and a large proportion also belong to various learned professions or occupy positions of equal honor. Statistics show different things in this regard. In some dioceses the number of converts among those confirmed goes up to twelve percent, in others about seven percent, in some no more than five, and in others probably even less.” 722 The external historical circumstances with which the conversions were associated do not explain the very fact of the conversions. They contributed only to its discovery and in no case would they have produced it if internal causes had not acted behind them, making it possible for the very inclination to convert to arise. Therefore, the question of these internal causes receives full and important significance. There are many such reasons and only their totality was sufficient for the origin of the phenomenon under consideration. The obvious and most general reason lies in the very religious state of the American people. This people is distinguished by a remarkable intensity of religious feeling and is alien to that cold, soulless skepticism with which Western European peoples are permeated. His thought is constantly sensitive to religious truth and he seeks it with surprising intensity. This search for religious truth explains the religious ferment that was especially noticeable from the beginning of this century until the period of internecine war. In the absence of guiding principles and with the complete dominance of the Protestant principle - individualism, in religious consciousness, this fermentation could naturally only lead to the fragmentation of religious consciousness, as was in reality. Sects, one smaller than the other and more intolerant of each other, constantly stood out on the surface of this agitated and wandering sea of ​​religious consciousness and again blurred into it. Such intensity of feeling naturally could not last forever and, according to natural law, a reaction had to occur. Religious feeling began to tire of fruitless excitement, and religious thought, having learned the hopelessness of individualism, began to look for stronger social support. Hence, a weakening of religious ferment began to be noticed and small sects began to merge with larger religious communities. When turning to these large religious communities, thought could clearly distinguish between them two orders, one of which adheres to more or less the same principle of religious individualism, which was the cause of religious tedious fermentation, and the other adheres to a completely opposite principle - stable, historically strengthened forms of thought and life. In a word, thought encountered Protestantism and Catholicism as two opposing principles. If many, accustomed to the energy of religious thought and personal responsibility, could not immediately change the principle of individualism to the opposite principle of ecclesiastical authority and were satisfied only with a more stable form for the same principle in larger Protestant communities, then many also, most tired of the ferment, hastened to find peace in the Roman Catholic Church, which took upon itself all the responsibility that had become an intolerable burden for such persons. This trend found a correspondence in political consciousness, in which it received a new motive. Political separatism before the internecine war in the political consciousness was the same as sectarianism in the religious consciousness. When the first reached its highest tension and produced a political crisis, followed by a reaction in favor of political centralization, religious thought, which had previously shown signs of fatigue, found in this reaction a natural ally and moved even more strongly in the direction opposite to sectarianism. If, further, political thought, due to the reaction against the extreme separatism of the herd, sought support in a strong national organization, so that adherents of separatism began to suspect even the emergence of Caesarism, 723 then religious thought could most likely settle on such an organization that represented the most reliable support against the extremes of sectarianism. And only Roman Catholicism represented such an organization on American soil. Its powerful organization, based on proven historical foundations, its unshakable and unconditional authority emanating from one center, the unchanging stability of its forms - all this involuntarily inspired respect for it from those tired of the motley variability of forms and, in comparison, gave it an advantage over wavering, unstable and restless Protestantism. Finally, the very pomp of his worship, by which he differs in America from all other religions, also began to constitute one of his advantages when the era of severe Puritanism passed in the country and, with the increased comfort of life, an aesthetic feeling began to develop among the population. 724 After clarifying the general causes of the phenomenon under consideration, the question naturally arises about the environment from which the majority of converts come. American Protestantism presents many gradations in the pursuit of the general principle of individualism in faith. In some confessions it is accepted only with significant restrictions, so that the communities themselves constitute a kind of compromise between Protestant and Catholic principles, such as the Episcopal confession. Others, on the contrary, take the principle of individualism to its extreme limits, so that not only the principle of churchliness is denied, but the very basic dogma of Christianity is subject to restriction, as for example. in the Unitarian community. The rest occupy various gradations between these extremes of Christianity. What degrees of Protestantism produce more converts? It would not be surprising if the Episcopal confession produced the greatest number of conversions, since it stands in closest relation to Catholicism; but the question becomes much more interesting in view of the fact that the converts predominantly come from both extreme degrees, both Episcopalian and Unitarian. “The various Protestant sects,” says the Catholic publicist, deliver very unequal contingents to the small army of souls who daily return to the true faith. But it is a curious fact that the two sects which give the greatest number are the Episcopalians, who in their forms and traditions stand closest to the Catholic Church, and the Unitarians, who stand on the very opposite outskirts and apparently push their philosophical and rationalistic principles almost beyond the limits of Christianity. These two sects comprise the most enlightened and educated population of North America. On the other hand, the confessions which embrace the more ignorant classes, such as the Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, etc., produce, in proportion to their numbers, only a few converts.” 725 This phenomenon is apparently mysterious, but it logically follows from the religious state of these communities, as two extremes in the general ferment of the Protestant consciousness. A satisfactory explanation is provided by Hecker, the founder of the Paulist order in America. “The human mind is restless, he says, until it achieves unity and embraces universal truth. And this is achieved in two different, but equally legal ways. Those who are born in sectarianism, as soon as they allow their minds to act on their faith, will learn that they have only fragments of Christian truth; by following them to their logical connection with other truths contained in divine revelation, they gradually acquire knowledge of the totality of revealed truths. Upon reaching this stage of preparation, the divine character and mission of the Catholic Church appears before their mental vision. As soon as this is realized, joining its fold becomes a test of both their mental consistency and the sincerity of their faith in Christianity. This is the path that leads Episcopalians and others who still hold fast to one or more of the revealed truths of Christianity to the Catholic Church. The second class withdraws to the essential truths of natural reason. As soon as this ground is reached, the rejection of sectarianism logically follows, since the denial of any one truth of divine revelation involves the necessity of contradiction in the human mind. Dissatisfied with this, people of this class begin to seek a religion that agrees with the dictates of reason and finds its basis in the human spirit. The Americans, who rejected Protestantism on the grounds of reason (and there are many of them), made the discovery that the exposition of Christianity by the Catholic Church is consistent with the dictates of reason and that it calls to its goal all the faculties of human nature. This is the path of the Unitarians, which, in our opinion, is destined to become the great American road to the Catholic Church." 726 The foundations of this explanation, apart from its optimistic coloring in the Catholic sense, cannot be doubted and find justification both in the actual facts of conversions and in the logical process that produces them. In the latter case, in our opinion, along with the positive reason indicated by the Catholic writer, another, negative reason is almost more powerful, namely the protest of religious Christian feeling against the rationalistic extremes to which Protestant individualism ultimately leads. The fact of conversions from these two extreme denominations of Protestantism is confirmed even by the locality in which most of the conversions occur. The main center of the Episcopal Church is New York, and the center of Unitarianism and another extreme Protestant community, which has almost completely supplanted the principle of churchism and replaced it with the principle of complete individualism, namely congregationalism, is Boston. And in these two centers the largest number of calls occurs. 727 The reasons leading to conversion act slowly and imperceptibly, but the consequences of this action make themselves felt in many phenomena and sometimes even completely unexpectedly. Let's take the latest example. The famous American preacher, Dr. Beecher, pastor of the Congregational Church in Brooklyn (a suburb of New York), was considered one of the most liberal religious thinkers, almost standing outside the boundaries of the main Christian dogma 728 and in any case an implacable opponent of Roman Catholicism. Meanwhile, he recently created a real sensation in his parish when, in one of his sermons, he clearly expressed his sympathy for the Catholic Church. 729 Of course, he is still far from actually recognizing the superiority of this church over the system of congregationalism, but in this very expression there is a note of dissatisfaction with the latter. As for the number of converts, it is not possible to determine it with accuracy due to the lack of more or less complete and reliable data. But you can still form an approximate concept. The Catholic writer Robert Mullen estimated in 1852 that the number of conversions during the previous twelve years, when the post-Oxford movement period of conversions proper began, was as high as 20,000. 730 Fifteen years later another Catholic publicist put the number at 30,000, thus showing an increase of ten thousand in fifteen years. 731 If we take this process as normal, then for the present time the number of converts can be determined at 40,000; but since in recent decades, due to clear reasons, it has received greater stress, then to determine the real figure it is necessary to add several thousand, so that the figure of 45 or even 60 thousand will be more consistent with reality. This number determines the entire number of converts to the Catholic Church since the country's political independence. Quantitatively, this number appears to be very insignificant and in this respect constitutes a barely noticeable ingredient in the general Catholic population. If it had only a quantitative significance, then, as not constituting one of the main reasons for the spread and strengthening of Roman Catholicism in America, it could hardly even take a place in this study. But it has another important meaning - qualitative or moral and therefore deserves detailed study. It constitutes the vital root by which Roman Catholicism, like an exotic plant, is attached to the American soil. Without it, it would be a completely alien plant on an alien land and, as such, would not have an organic connection with this land and at the same time would not have a guarantee for future organic development. Meanwhile, this root shows that Roman Catholicism has enough vitality within itself to acclimatize to new soil, and on this are based its main hopes for the future. This value becomes even more important in view of the qualitative composition of this number. A Catholic publicist has said that the largest number of converts come from the most educated classes of society, 732 and in this respect he is largely right. When looking through the list of converts, one is involuntarily struck by the fact that these are mostly truly educated people, even by their very position - those people who consciously seek religious truth. From the examples of conversions given above, one could already notice that among them there are a significant number of priests and teachers of various communities and mainly the Episcopal Church, which even gave several bishops to Roman Catholicism from its midst. This fact is confirmed by more accurate data. Thus, according to the Catholic writer, over the past 50 years (1815 - 1865), no less than 41 clergy - priests and bishops - converted to Roman Catholicism from one American Episcopal Church. 733 This statement might be suspected of exaggeration, but it finds support in the episcopal data. Thus, the Episcopal magazine Banner of the Cross published a list of Episcopal clergy who converted to Roman Catholicism in the period 1815-1858 and this list included 38 people. 734 This number includes both priests and bishops, and some of the converts are now bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. 735 No fewer ecclesiastics, according to the Catholic writer, were converted from each of the other sects, especially the Congregationalists and Unitarians. 736 And nowadays one can often read in newspapers cases of conversion of priests of various Protestant communities to Catholicism, which indicates the ongoing process of acclimatization of Roman Catholicism on American soil. 737 What gives qualitative significance to this phenomenon is the remarkable fact that the converts are the most active and energetic champions of Roman Catholicism. 738 To confirm what has been said, it is enough to name only two names - Brownson and Hecker. Brownson, who died in 1876, was one of the most remarkable men in America. Born into Presbyterianism, he began from early childhood to seek the true church, re-examined the religious sects of Protestantism to the most extreme sect of the Unitarians and, not finding in them the satisfaction of his thirst for religious truth, he finally turned to the Catholic Church, and devoted all his energies to its cause. Possessing a high philosophical education and enormous literary talent, he founded his own magazine, The Brownson's Review, which for thirty years served as a repository for his brilliant experiments and apologies in favor of Roman Catholicism. “As a Catholic publicist he was truly a great man,” says the Catholic author, and accomplished a great deed for which he deserves eternal memory. He devoted the last thirty years of his life to this work with gigantic energy.” 739 The other person we named, namely Hecker, is none other than the famous founder of the American Paulist order, the current editor of the best Catholic monthly magazine at the present time, The Catholic World. He was born in New York of Protestant parents and also devoted himself to searching for the true church until he found it in Roman Catholicism. Hecker is a highly educated man, like all the members of the order he founded, and his articles constitute the adornment of the magazine he edits. He is also the founder of the Catholic Publication Society, which was cited as a model by the second full council of Baltimore and which brought incalculable benefits to the cause of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. 740 Finally, we can also point to Mother Seton, the daughter of a bishop of the Episcopal Church. Having converted to Catholicism, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to the new church, founded several charitable and educational institutions and the famous Catholic women's college of St. Mary's in Baltimore. “It may be said without exaggeration,” says the Catholic historian, that there has never been a woman in this century to whom the Catholic Church in the United States owes so much as to Mother Seton.” 741 Of other notable converts to Roman Catholicism we may name Bayley, who converted from the Episcopalian profession and was Archbishop of Baltimore until 1877, 742 and Wood, who, after converting from Protestantism, reached the highest holy rank as Archbishop of Philadelphia, which position he still holds. 743 The qualitative significance of the number of converts is further enhanced by the fact that many of the secular converts belong to noble and influential American families. “Romanism understands well the influence of persons of high social or political position,” says the Protestant author, and is therefore always ready to take advantage of this influence. He will go through sea and land just to make a proselyte in the family of a senator, or a governor, or a judge, or one of the highest ranks in the military authorities.” 744 The chief agency for these acquisitions are, of course, those numerous colleges and schools which are administered by the Jesuits and other orders, both male and female, and many of which are specially appointed for the children of the upper classes.” 745 The importance of this agency in the matter of conversion is evidenced by the fact that “at one time, out of forty Protestant girls sent to be educated in a monastery in Montreol, thirty-eight became papists,” 746 and in general, according to the calculations of the Catholics themselves, out of ten educated in monastery schools, seven converted to Catholicism. 747 In view of such importance of the Roman Catholic school in the sense of agency for the strengthening and consolidation of Roman Catholicism on American soil, the question of the organization of this school receives serious significance. But the Roman Catholic school serves not only as an agency for new acquisitions, but is of even greater importance as a means of protecting the Roman Catholic population from Protestant influence. In this regard, Roman Catholicism, in order to retain this powerful means of Catholicization, even entered into a struggle with the state, offering its own, secularized school. Both this struggle, and the goals and means of the fighting parties revealed in it, provide valuable material for understanding the position of Roman Catholicism in America, and therefore we devote a special section to the school question. “John Leary goes once a year to Philadelphia to obtain absolution,” the Protestant chronicler Watson ironically remarks about the Catholic in his “Annales,” Murray History, p. 194. Murray, History, ibidem; Shea, History, pp. 341, 342. See the description of this cathedral in the Church Bulletin for 1880 No. 2, in our letter from New York. By some chance, the windows from the altar of the current premises of the Russian Orthodox Church directly face the majestic Church of St. Patrick, and the view of them involuntarily awakens the thought of the comparative position of these two churches on the soil of the New World. A hundred years ago, Roman Catholicism huddled in the same inconspicuous and small room in which Orthodoxy now began its holy mission. During its hundred-year life, Roman Catholicism made enormous conquests and its church proudly towers over the entire capital of the American continent. Isn’t Orthodoxy also destined to reap a rich harvest on this new virgin soil, and isn’t it destined to see its own churches, the gospel of which will convene thousands of devoted hearts? – Let it be – See “Church Bulletin” No. 47, 1880. The speed with which Catholic churches are now being erected can be seen from the most recent case reported by the newspapers. About a year ago, Cardinal McClossky gave permission to a Catholic pastor in New York to form a new parish. The parish had to be created from almost nothing and many doubted the success of the enterprise. Meanwhile, on May 1, 1881, the solemn illumination of a magnificent church for this parish, valued at $100,000, had already taken place, and the parish itself had grown to two and a half thousand souls. See N. Y. Times, May 2, 1881. Catholic World, Vol. XXIII, p. 583. Murray, History, p. 567, 572. New York is the greatest Irish city in the world, with its Irish population far surpassing Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Spalding, The Religions Mission of the Irish people, p. 62–63. Murray, History, p. 567. North American Review, Jan. 1876, Art. "The Education in America 1776–1876", p. 225. In four years 1871-1874, a total of $33,000,000 was donated. A particular example of these donations to the cause of public education is the most recent fact, namely, the bequest of half a million dollars for collegiate education by the wealthy American Amaz Stoya, of Cleveland. N. Y. Herald April 18, 1881. A year earlier, another citizen of the same city bequeathed a huge sum of one and a half million dollars for higher education. N.Y. Times January 9 1880 “Hardly any country in the world is so accustomed to giving money for religious and social needs as ours,” notes an American publicist in an editorial in the N.Y. Times of April 3, 1881. Page 6. art. American Giving. As an example of this giving, we can cite the fact reported in the same newspaper that the ex-governor of the state of New York Morgan donated to the New York Theological Seminary, the so-called “Union theological seminary”, 200,000 dollars, of which 100,000 was specially designated for the purchase of a new place for it, and the other 100,000 for a library. See N.Y. Times, April 14. 1881. The Sun of May 22, 1881, reported another donation to the New York Theological Seminary. $90,000. N. Y. Herald, April 1680. Litigation of a large will. For the latest instance of a similar will, see the Sun, May 22, 1881, for the amount of $4,500. The description of such a bazaar can be read, for example. in the N.Y. Times, April 20. this year in the article: “St. Ann's Church Fair. For a description of one of these auctions, see the Church Bulletin for 1880, No. 35, in our American Notes. The figure is based on a table of nominal prices and the number of seats in the cathedral. See the table on the columns of St. Patrick's on Fifth Avenue in New York. Admission to the cathedral is 10 cents for side seats and 30 cents for center seats. We have two printed tickets, indicating the prices at which entry is allowed. For entrance to the Church of St. Stephen's, famous for its artistic singing and the splendor of its worship, is charged 25 cents. The price of 1 dollar is set for special occasions - such as a cathedral service of several prelates, etc. See eg Murray, History, pp. 378, 382, 406, 408, etc. Sadliers, Catholic Directory, 1881, in Notices Section, page 1: "Manhattan College." Murray, History, statistical table on page 480. Catholic Directory, Announcements Section, p. 3. Also, the College Program for 1860, p. 7. All these colleges are, in the full sense, financial, industrial institutions, and if in general they extract large interest on capital, then sometimes they cannot do without bankruptcy. So, most recently, one of the oldest Catholic colleges, namely the “College of Mount St. Mary" – Mount St. Mary's College, at Emmitsburg, declared itself bankrupt due to financial distress. The college found itself in a debt of $200,000; creditors were offered payment of 30 cents on the dollar. In the last year, the college had up to 150 students, and its annual income was estimated at $40,000. - See N. Y. Times of February 28, 1881. If we put the total fee per pupil at even 150 dollars, as it is determined in some provincial boards, then this will amount to a solid budget of 3,000,000 dollars. And with an average fee of $200, which will be closer to reality, the budget will rise to $4,000,000. Sadliers, Catholic Directory for 1881, statistical table on page 25. Academy of Mount of St. Vincent, program for 1881, p. 7. Murray, History, p. 447. "Nortre Dame of Maryland, Collegiate institute for young ladies, Baltimore county, Maryland." Program for 1880, pp. 9 (fee), pp. 13–16 (list of pupils). Murray, statistician. tab. page 447. This figure only determines the number of students from academies and so-called Select Schools. And the total number of girls taught by the sisters, according to the Catholic publicist in 1674, rose to 350,000 souls. Catholic World, Vol. XIX, p. 367. United States Census for the relevant years. The Census for 1880 has not yet been printed and the figures are compiled from fragmentary data, so that they have only approximate or probable accuracy. It is remarkable that the growth of the property of the Roman Catholic Church has been particularly rapid since very recent times, and as late as 1850 it was poorer than many other denominations in the country, as can be judged from the following statistics. The properties of the ten major denominations in the United States for the three decades from 1850 to 1870 are presented as follows: From this table it can be seen that as early as 1850 Roman Catholicism occupied fifth place in the series of confessions in relation to the value of property, and in 1860 it already took second place, which it held in 1870. In essence, this place is already the first, since under the name "Methodists" the qualification unjustly unites into one two factions of Methodists - Episcopal Methodists and Southern Methodists, who have no more in common with each other than with other Protestant denominations, according to the Episcopal Methodist pastor Mattison (Mattison's Romanism, p. 74). According to the census of 1680, which has not yet been printed, the Roman Catholic Church, according to general belief, will actually occupy the first place, even above United Methodism. See table in Catholic World, Vol. XXII, p. 710. Bishop Spalding in his article in Catholic World, Vol. XXIII: "Catholic Church in U.S. 1776-1676" already in 1876 expressed confidence that the Catholic Church occupies the first place in this regard. See Dalés Impressions of America. New-York 1879. p. 198, 199. Catholic Church in the United States, Hecker's pamphlet, New York, 1880, p. 22. Catholic World, Vol. IX, p. 504. “A good preacher, alas! “That’s all that those who never approach the sacraments desire,” Jesuit Farmer exclaims bitterly. “The various sectarians have scarcely any other rule for judging a clergyman than his talents for preaching, and our Irish parishes, such as New York, follow the same rule,” wrote the Jesuit Carrol on December 15, 1785. U.S. Magazine, Vol. VI, 102. Trusteeism achieved its greatest success in Philadelphia, so that the trustees forced Bishop Conwell to sign this treaty, according to which he ceded a significant part of his rights to the trustees. By the fourth article of this treatise (dated 1826), the bishop recognizes the right of the trustees to recommend appropriate persons to take the place of priests in the Church of St. Mary on the following terms: “The bishop must name the candidates and let the trustees know. If the latter do not find them suitable to occupy the position of pastor or assistant, then they must present their objections to the bishop. If the bishop insists, he appoints a committee of three ecclesiastics, of whom he himself is one person, to discuss the matter together with a committee of three trustees, and the voice of this committee must be respected by the bishop. If the committee is divided equally, two mediators are elected and their votes are given decisive weight.” This treatise, no matter how humiliating it was for the canonical dignity of the bishop, did not completely satisfy the trustees. Encouraged by the first success, they further increased their claims and forced the bishop to accept a new condition. In the new proposal, the trustees declared that they did not limit their rights in any way by the treaty made and intended to assert their claims in Rome, so that in the future no bishop would be appointed without the recommendation and approval of the Catholic clergy of the diocese. Such concessions on the part of the bishop caused terrible indignation against him on the part of the Roman Curia, and he was recalled to Rome. Peace in the church was restored only by his more energetic successor, Bishop Kenrick. Shea, History, pp. 220–225. Shea, History, p. 306. Bishop Dubois issued a strong pastoral letter against the lawless omnipotence of the trustees. Ibidem r. 395–397. See also the 1st note of our essay on page 231. The Rules for the Administration of Churches without Trustecs. New-York 1843. See Barnum, Romanism as it is, p. 555. Barnum, Romanism as it is, p. 556. For the Nuncio's letter, see New-York Freeman's Journal, November 5, 1853. Timon, the first bishop of the diocese of Buffalo, who acted with Bishop Yuis in the fight against trusteeism. Barnum, Romanism, p. 555. Shea, History, pp. 482–485. Barnum, Romanism, p. 556. Barnum, Romanism, p. 557. Shea, History, p. 404, 405. See this "Church tenure bill" in The laws of state New-York for 1855, Ch. 230. “The State Government,” says the Catholic historian on this occasion, made one of the most extraordinary regulations that can be found in the legislation of a civilized country; a decree which purported to take away from the bishop the property which he had purchased, and to transfer it, without any compensation, to the very trustees whose legal right to this property was sold by the definition of the law!” Shea, History; p. 405. See Brooksiana; or the controversy between Senator Brooks and Archbishop Hughes, grown out of the recently enacted Church Property bill. New-York, 1865. In the preface to this book, the Archbishop gives a historical overview of the Trustee movement in the United States, and especially dwells on exposing the wrongs done by it to the Church of St. Peter's, the cradle of Roman Catholicism in New York. According to this legislation, for example. no one could buy a piece of land for a chapel, and even if he paid for it, the deal was not considered legal. And whoever before this decree owned the property which he used for worship, then at his death it should pass not to his heir, but to some corporation, Shea, History, p. 437, 438. Barnum, Romanism, p. 558. Barnum, Romanism as it is, p. 558. Bishop Williams was the successor to Bishop Fitzpatrick, who died February 18, 1868, before the final settlement of the case. Shea, History, pp. 512, 513. Barnum, Romanism, pp. 558, 560, 561. “This state (Massachusetts),” notes the Catholic historian, “is the cradle of Puritanism in America, the real center of unbelief and Arianism, and is now distinguished by the same fanaticism and intolerance as in 1620.” Shea, History, p. 154. The spirit of trusteeism, however, continues to make itself known from time to time in other states. Thus, a bill was recently submitted to the Michigan House of Representatives “concerning taking away from the Catholic Bishops of Michigan the management and control of church property and placing it in the hands of a committee of the laity.” Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Camibelle, a member of the Catholic Church in Marshall, made a brutal attack on the government of the Catholic Church in the state. He stated that “bishops hold all ecclesiastical property in their own name, contrary to express law, and in the event of their death without a will, it may be lost to the people. The control of so vast a quantity of lands by one man, he declares, is contrary to the spirit of our institutions, and that such privileges are not accorded to any other denomination.” The Sun, May 1, 1881, b. 3, 7 column. Concilii Plenarii Baltimorensis II Acta et Decreta, Baltimorae MDCCCLXXVII. Titulus IV: De Ecclesiis Bonisque Ecclesiasticis tenendis tutandisque. §§ 182–204. Acta et Decreta, § 182, 183; p. 111. Acta et Decreta, § 189, p. 114. Acta et Decreta, § 195, p. 116. Acta et Decreta, § 197, p. 116. Italics belong to the original. See Acta et Decreta, p. 118. Acta et Decreta, §§ 199–201; pp. 117, 118. Acta et Decreta. § 202; p. 119. Catholic World, Vol. IX, p.505. Literae Pastorales concilii patrum, lingua vulgari, ad clerum populumque sibi commissum directae. Acta et Decreta, p. XXVII. Literae Pastorales, III. Relations of the Church to the state. Acta et Decreta, pp. XXXIV, XXXV. The law on church property adopted in the state of New Hampshire in 1879 is clearly anti-Catholic in nature. Under this law, “all property, real or personal, belonging to an ecclesiastical association or corporation, used exclusively for a place of worship, shall be free from taxes; but all such associations or corporations which hold church property over $10,000 in value shall be subject to taxation like all other property for the entire value of the excess.” Obviously, only small parish units can qualify under this law. And since Roman Catholic property is grouped in diocesan units, which of course in their value exceed the prescribed maximum of ten thousand dollars, it is subject to taxation and thus deprived of a significant advantage. For this law see Christian Statesman of April 21, 1881. North American Review, Jan. 1876, article “Religion in America 1776–1876,” p. 22-23, places this place second, but the learned Roman Catholic Bishop Spalding, in his article: "The Catholic Church in the United States in 1776-1876", says that the Roman Catholic Church "in this respect undoubtedly occupies the first place." And this is recognized by most authorities. Catholic World, Vol. XXIII decree article. Acta et Decreta, § 192, p. 115 Interesting statistics in this regard were recently compiled by the New-York Times. From them it appears that of all the denominations existing in New York, only one is free from debt, namely, the community of Friends or Quakers. Of the 345 parishes included in the statistics, only 120 had no debts, namely: 22 Protestant-Episcopal, 22 Methodist-Episcopal, 20 Presbyterian, 14 Baptist, 7 Dutch Reformed, 5 Jewish and 4 Roman Catholic. The remaining 224 parishes were in debt, the amount of which can be judged from the following statistical table: See above p. 313 4th note. Financial collapse sometimes reaches enormous proportions. In the spring of this year, the bank in Cincinnati, founded and managed by Archbishop Purzel, declared its insolvency. Creditors made claims in the amount of $3,800,000. “If it’s the case,” says the “N. Y. Times, "will be decided affirmatively (in favor of the creditors), the sale of half the Catholic churches and schools in Cincinnati will be necessary." N. Y. Times, May 8, 1831. The matter has not yet been resolved and will probably drag on for a long time. Compare on the one hand Mattison, Romanism, p. 74 and Barnum, Romanism as it is, pp. 670; on the other Hecker, Catholic Church in the U.S. p. 7; Catholic World, Vol. I, p. 14. Murray, History, p. 239, 242. Murray, History, p. 197. S. M. Brownson, Life of prince Demetrius Gallitzin, p. 101. Brownson, ibidem; Murray, History p. 210. Murray, History, p. 213. Brownson, Life, p. 107. Catholic historians attach very important importance to this fact, and a detailed description of it can be read in various courses on church history. See Murray, History, pp. 209–215; White, Sketch of History of the Catholic Church in the U.S. pp. 600 – 605, etc. Shea, History, p. 385; Murray, History, p. 242. Murray, History, p. 160, 195, 196. Brownson, Life of D. Gallitzin, p. 101. Brownson, Life of Gallitzin, 107. These treatises or tracts gave the name to the entire movement - the Tractarian Movement. This is indicated by his essay “Trials of mind” - tests of the soul. Murray, History, p. 308. Murray, History, p. 326. See more about this in our letters from New York, in the autumn issues of “Shores” for 1880, under the title: “Among the Yankees.” North American Review, January 1876, art. "Religion in America 1776–1876". See also above in the introduction. Hecker, The Catholic Church in the United States, p. 8. New York, 1880. The idea of Caesarism seriously agitated the country during the presidential elections of last year, especially when General Grant emerged as a candidate for a “third term” of the presidency. The Democrats also proclaimed the victory of the Republicans a victory for Caesarism. See our sketches of the presidential campaign in letters from New York "Among the Yankees", and the autumn issues of "Shores" for 1880. North American Review, January 1876 Art. "Religion in America 1776–1876" pp. 44–46. Currently, there is a general tendency to strengthen the aesthetic element in worship in American churches of all denominations without distinction. See also above. Catholic Word, Vol. I, 11. Hecker, The Catholic Church, p. 7. Catholic World, I, Vol. p, 11. This view of him was expressed on the basis of his sermons in the N. Y. Times for July 1880. See also Catholic World, Vol. XII, art. Beecherism. The Herald report of Beecher's sermon on Sunday, April 3rd of this year, states. “A deep silence fell upon Plymouth Church, and every ear strained, when Beecher said that he intended to relate an incident which he had not spoken of before. “Once, he said, a parishioner of my church, the mother of a young woman, came to me and said that her daughter was seduced by Roman worship and wanted to unite with this church. I said to her: “Tell your daughter to wait a year until her soul and her judgment are finally established, and if at the end of this time she finds that she is coming closer to God and heaven through this church, then let her come to me and I will take her hand and lead her to the gates of this church.” At the end of the year she still desired to join this church, and I sat down and wrote a letter to a venerable Catholic pastor in this city and said, “This lamb has found better pasture in your fields than in mine.” She united with the Catholic Church and is now a happy Christian girl in that community.” You could have heard a pin drop, such was the silence as Beecher related this incident, and then there was a real sensation when he added: “I would do it again if necessary, because when I talk about the unity of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I say only what I think.” The topic of the sermon was the question of the church, and therefore this fact takes on even greater significance in the mouth of the preacher of the extreme Protestant community. See N. Y. Herald of April 4, 1881. Mattison, Romanism, p. 74. Catholic World, Vol. IV, p. 459. Catholic World, Vol. I, p. 11. Catholic World, Vol. IV, p. 459. December 1866. Barnum, Romanism, p. 669. Barnum, Romanism, p. 670. “Although the number of priests among them (Catholics), says the Protestant author, is small compared with the number of Protestant clergy, they are still sufficient to supply all their churches, and, moreover, it is rapidly increasing. And what is especially alarming is that many of them are American by birth. Brownson (a former Unitarian minister) was born in this country. Don, in Newark, son of an Episcopal bishop. Hecker, in New York, the son of a Presbyterian father and a Methodist mother, still belonging to one of our New York churches, and two ministers in the east, sons of a Congregational clergyman. We knew of three cases where the sons of Methodists became Roman Catholic priests.” Mattison, Romanism, p. 71. Wed. Catholic World, Vol. IV, p. 469. The last cases of this kind that we have had occasion to read are two cases in December last year, when two converts to Roman Catholicism, one a Presbyterian minister and the other an Episcopalian from Philadelphia, were solemnly ordained in New York as Catholic priests. See N. Y. Herald of December 22, 1880. The Herald of April 27, 1861, reported a case of a new conversion to Roman Catholicism from the Episcopal Church, namely by the Episcopal priest Edward Gilliam, former rector of the church at Clinton, North Carolina. “And what the Methodist writer says even more alarmingly is that these Protestant apostates are the most zealous and intolerant of all the papal clergy in this country. Mattison, Romanism, p. 72. Catholic World, Vol. XXIII, p. 369. In addition to the magazine, Brownson published several separate books, among which a particularly remarkable book entitled: The Convert, in which he sets out the motives that led him to the adoption of Roman Catholicism. More detailed information about Hecker Art. in Murray, History, p. 388, 389. For a biographical sketch of Mother Seton, see Murray, History, pp. 416–418. An extensive monograph is dedicated to her: White, Life of Mother Seton. Murray, History, p. 594–596. Catholic Directory, 1881, b. 58. Catholic Directory, 1881 p. 152. For biographical information, see Murray, History, p. 596. Mattison, Romanism, p. 82. “The daughter of the late famous General Winfield Scott was raised in a convent and of course converted to Roman Catholicism. The son of the late Chancellor Walworth is now a Roman Catholic priest in Albany (the capital of the New York State). One convert, Preston, dedicated himself especially to the work of bringing converts into the Catholic fold.” Barnum, Romanism, p. 676. Mattison, Romanism, p. 76. Hecker, Catholic church, p. 76. Hecker predicted that Roman Catholicism would gain political advantage over Protestantism no later than 1900. See Barnum, Romanism, p. 680. 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