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105

ANDOVBR-HARVARD THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY

MDCCCCX
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

FROM THE BEQJUKST OF

MRS. LOUISA J. HALL
Widow of Edward Brooks Hall, D.D.,
Divinity School, Class of 1814
 f

1
 THE PRIEST

HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

 THE PRIEST

HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

BY
JAMES KEATINGE
CANON OF ST. GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL, SOUTHWARK, AND LATE DIOCESAN
INSPECTOR Or SCHOOLS

• Non vos me tlegistis ; sed ego elegi v»s, tt pesui pas ut

eatis, tt /nuturn afftratis, tt frtutus vtsttr manea/.'
Joan x».

SEVENTH THOUSAND

New York, Cincinnati, Chicago

BENZIGER BROTHERS
PRINTERS TO THE | PUBLISHERS OP
HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE BENZIGER'S MAGAZINE
1920
 Andovef- Harvard
THEOLOvCAT LIBRAE
CAMBKiLi^ MASS.
rfr<>Ot /Jit-

First Edition, November 1903.

Reprinted May 1904, January 1906,
September 1908.
Revised January 1914.
Reprinted January 1920.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY

B1H JOHNSON AND CO. LTD., YORK, ENGLAND.

(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved.)

REVERENTLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
TO THE MEMORY OF

JOHN BUTT
SOMETIME BISHOP OF SOUTHYVABK

TO WHOM THE AUTHOR OWES

MUCH THAT HIS MEMORY CHERISHES

MORE THAN HIS LIPS CAN TELL

 Nihil Obstat
JOANNES J. CANONICUS BRENAN
Center Dtfutmttu

Imprimatur
HERBERTUS CARDINALIS VAUGHAN
A rckUfitcopu* H 'tstmonasttrietuiA
Pig 17 yunii 1903
 NOTE.
The Author has taken the opportunity, afforded by
the need of re-printing, to add a few pages (211 and
216 et seqq.) dealing with the new situation created
by the issue of the Decree Ne temere of 2 August,
1907.
In making this addition he is greatly indebted to
his friend, Rev. Herbert Calnan, D.D., for his
valuable assistance.
January, 1914.
 PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION

My sincere thanks are due to the many friends who

have helped the circulation of this little book by
giving a general approval to its contents. But most
of all I desire to express gratitude to my brethren,
the rank and file of the Mission Clergy, for it is to
them chiefly that this venture has owed its success.
Superiors have done something ; the reviewers have
done more ; the readers have done most. The
priests who have bought the book, and, liking it,
have told others about it over the dinner-table or at
a conference ; the older clergy who have read in it
some passage which gives voice to their own experi
ence ; the younger priests who may have found help
in some of its counsels ; these are the men who have
rendered it the greatest service of all. Through
them it has come to pass that in a few months there
has been sold an edition of fifteen hundred copies of
a book which by its title and subject-matter appeals
to a very limited public. During these months I
viii THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

have made a host of friends at home and abroad ;

priests have written to me whose names are new to
me, whose faces I may never see. Like ships that
pass in the night, for one brief moment my life and
theirs have touched and each of us has gone on our
way rejoicing, the richer in the sympathy of a new
found friend.
I venture to claim that I have enough common-
sense to avail myself of criticism. Long ago it
was said to me : ' Invite the knife if you would
be strong and useful ; fret at criticism, and waste
a life-time.' Accordingly, I have taken care to
avail myself of the remarks of my critics. The
whole book has been revised ; two or three para
graphs which met with general disapproval have been
removed ; and at the end of the chapter on Zeal
some pages have been added dealing with the life of
the lonely priest on the country mission. To all
who are interested in the problems discussed, I
commend my book in the words of old Horace to
Numicius :
Vive, vale : si quid novisti rectius istis,
Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum.

St. George's Cathedral, Southwakk:

Id festo Pentecostes. MCMIV.
 PREFACE
TO

THE FIRST EDITION

Two years ago his Lordship the Bishop of South-

wark laid on me the duty and the honour of giving
the retreat to those preparing for Sacred Orders
at the Diocesan Seminary; last winter his kind
offer of a journey to India afforded me the un-
looked for leisure to prepare these notes for
publication. Though new in form, the work is not
new in conception. Much of it has been waiting
for this opportunity more years than I care to
remember ; and, in substance at least, all of it will
pass Horace's test :
Si quid tamen olim
Scripseris, in Metii descendat judicis aures,
Et patris, et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum,
Membranis intus positis.
My ' Metius judex ' has been the kindliest of
censors, and if my ' Father ' could do no more than
say ' imprimatur,' it was with him want of power
rather than want of will, for to the end I had reason
X THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

to hope that his Eminence would be able to give a

little word of godspeed to my book.
I have not been content with an imprimatur and
an official nihil obstat. It needs some courage to put
down in plain unvarnished words the obstacles which
may confront the new priest as well as the opportuni
ties given into his hands. If my attempt is to be of
service, dangers as well as helps must have their
place. I have not hidden from myself the possible
risks inherent in such a task. While refusing to ignore
their existence, it has been my endeavour to dwell
as little as may be on the perils of the priest's life.
In treading this delicate path I have had the wise
guidance of two friends who have counselled me at
every stage. To the Rev. T. B. Scannell, D.D., and
the Right Reverend Monsignor Canon Connelly I owe
grateful acknowledgment. Without their unstinted
help I should never have dared to put forth a volume
which touched on such subjects. Having mentioned
their names, it is incumbent on me to point out that
they are no more responsible for my misdeeds than is
the Censor deputatus. Crudities of style, faults of
manner as well as defects in matter, are mine alone.
Were it not for these friends, the critic would have
found many more shortcomings.
My desire is to give the fruits of the experience
which I have gathered during nearly twenty-seven
years of parochial work. Taking the ordinary life of
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION XI

a priest on the mission, I venture to address myself to

my younger brethren in the hope that my words may
be of service to them. My aim is to give them a
helping hand to order aright this life which is not
free from danger, to accomplish work which is not
without difficulty.

The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne,

Th' assay so hard, so sharp the conquering.

My subject falls naturally into two parts. First

comes the priest's personal life, the formation of his
character by the priestly spirit. Then come the chap
ters which are concerned with his every-day work.
The titles of these show how far I have tried to include
all the duties and offices which fall to the priest on the
mission at the present time.
I have been unable, even if willing, to abandon
the easier style and more familiar form of address which
belong to the spoken word as compared with the
written book. For close on thirty years it has been
my weekly task to write my sermon almost in full. I
tried, in middle life for the first time, to acquire an
author's style. I failed. In my trouble I wrote to a
friend for comfort and advice. In due time came a
card with two quotations and no word more. ' He
that would write in the grand style must first possess a
grand soul' (Goethe) was the first. And the second
was from Pascal, ' Quand on voit le style nature!, on
Xli THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

est tout e^onne- et ravi ; car on s'attendait de voir un

auteur, et on trouve un homme.'
In the writing, my task has brought me an un-
looked for blessing. A man cannot pass years in
thinking of his priesthood and its opportunities without
some profit to himself; he cannot spend months in
trying to set down in black and white the lessons of
his life, to crystallise his wandering thoughts into words,
without gaining something in denniteness and self-
knowledge. He knows now, as he never knew before,
the secret of his own shortcomings. The vision of the
mission-priest which he has been striving to paint
feature by feature has spoken at last, and it has
solved the riddle of his own imperfect life.
Had I known what labour was before me I should
have shrunk away in cowardice crying, 'A, A, A .
Domine Deus, ecce nescio loqui, quia puer ego sum '
(Jer. i. 6). But had I known too what joy this toil of
mine could bring, how it would lift my soul above the
fretting details of each day and give a larger meaning
to my life, I should have come back to pour out myself
before the face of God in humble, persevering prayer
that would not be denied, even as Elias prayed upon
Carmel, 'casting himself down upon the earth and
putting his face between his knees ' (3 Kings, xviii. 42).

St. George's Cathedral, Socthwark t

In festo Nativ. B.V.M. MCMIII.
 1

CONTENTS

PACK
Preface to Second Edition to
Preface to First Edition in

PART I
THE PRIEST'S CHARACTER

I
THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST
The home of his childhood—School-days—The first test—His
confessor—The seminary—The parting of the ways—
Retreats—Ordination I

II
RULE OF LIFE
Good intentions—Cardinal de Reti—Standing alone—Few
rules— Before and after breakfast— Use of the church—The
hard things first—Need of method—Weekly confession—
Clergy retreat 14

III
THE PRIEST AT PRAYER
The need of prayer—The difficulty of prayer—Meditation—
Books and methods—The end to be gained—Vocal prayer
—Our undertakings—The Divine Office— Its structure— A
summary of the Faith, a history of the Church—The Prayer-
book of the Ages ... 33
Xiv THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

IV
OUR DAILY MASS
fAGB
Ordained to say Mass—Difficulty of saying Mass well—The
manual actions—Devotion in Mass—Helps—Defects—The
Thanksgiving—The joy of Mass —Two Examples . . 51
Appendix : Examen (Dufrene) ...... 62

V
STUDY—A TASTE FOR READING
The reading of the Mission -priest—The value of reading—
Conference cases—A taste for reading a safeguard—What not
to read—Why we read—What to read—A favourite subject
—The value of history and literature—History of nations—
History of thought—Newman—The joy of the reading habit 66

VI
THE PRIEST'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS STRONG DRINK
Practical dangers in our life—Our attitude towards these—The
drink problem —Teetotalism the heroic safeguard—Other pre
cautions—Temperance in quantity—Temperance in quality—
When not to drink—The Levitical Law for the Priesthood
—Bishop Moriarty on the beginnings of intemperance . . 83

VII
THE PRIEST'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN
Woman before the coming of Our Lord—Woman under the
New Dispensation—The Virgin Mother and the women of
the Gospels—Women have claims upon our ministry—
Religious communities of women—The state of celibacy—
Dangers and safeguards—Infidelity to our vocation—Rapine
in the holocaust and the scourge of God—Confidence in God 95
 CONTENTS

VIII
THE PRIEST'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY
MM
Importance of a right view about money—The ordeal of riches—
Money wrecks the strong men—Archbishop UUathome's
farewell to his clergy—The difficulty of the money problem—
Avarice—Bishop Moriarty on this vice—Extravagance and
selfishness—Keeping accounts—Personal expenses—Learning
to go without . IIO

IX
THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL
The Priesthood as a profession or as a vocation—Zeal—The
motive of zeal—Counterfeits of zeal—True test of zeal—
Lowering our standard—St. Paul's retreat—Our first retreat
—The objects of our zeal—Our sinners and our saints—The
lonely priest ......... 123

PART II
THE PRIEST'S WORK

X
RECTORS AND CURATES
The Rector—His Ecclesiastical position—Unselfishness : the
condition of successful government— False relations between
the head Priest and his assistants—The true relation : partner
ship—Captain Mahan and Lord Morley quoted—The Home
Life—The Rector—Brother curates—The servants—Their
shortcomings—Callers—Punctuality in keeping appointments
—Recreations 145
<s>
Xvi THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

XI
PREACHING
PACK
Personal piety and requisite knowledge—Letter from Garriclc—
Use and misuse of books of Sermons—Choosing our subject
—Preparation of Sermon—The value of Writing, of Facts,
of Illustrations—Importance of intelligible Speaking and
Reading .... 17°

XII
THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL
His comfort in his first failures—Waiting for souls—Relapsing
sinners—Confessions of devotion—Their value and the dis
positions required—Children's Confessions—The instruction
and the Penance imposed— Failings—Jealousy—Its remedy—
Free trade in the Confessional —Want of discretion—Questions
—Almsgiving in the Confessional—Supreme need of personal
sanctity . 182

XIII
THE SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY
Baptism : Bad tradition in England—Administration of Con
ditional Baptism
Converts : Permission required from the Ordinary—Two classes :
those who have religion ; those who have none— Instruction
of the very ignorant—Ceremony of Reception—The Sacra
mental Confession
Formalities of Marriage : Two sets of legal requirements to be
fulfilled—Ecclesiastical formalities—Sponsalia - Ne tenure—
Civil formalities—Historical account—Civil requirements and
fees—The Priest's assistance in these matters—The Marriage
Certmony—The duty of the Registrar 20$
 CONTENTS xvii

XIV
PARISH VISITING
PAGE
Mission-work and parish-work—Religious Organisations which
have not Sacraments for individual souls—Its value for us—
The place of almsgiving— Mr. Charles Booth quoted—Our
dealings with various classes— Boys of the upper classes . 227

XV
THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
Different classes of institutions—The Priest's official position and
his real position—Personal influence—What it rests on—
Conscientious work—Trustworthiness—Our shadowy rights
—Finding out our people—What we can do with them—
What the care of an institution does for us—The World's
failures—Correspondence with officials—The World's ideal of
good work and the Priest's 233

XVI
THE PRIEST AND HIS SICK
The sick bed our harvest-field—The Church's ideal of our duty
to the sick—Confession early as possible—Temporal affairs—
Prayers in the sick room—The Last Sacraments—Holy
Viaticum—The dispositions—The innocent—The penitent—
The waster—Death-bed repentance 247

XVII
THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL
Importance of our Schools at the present day—Our debt to
Cardinal Manning—The Education Acts of 1902 and 1903—
The Priest's position in the School— His object : the School
Catholic in tone and character—Rocks to be avoided—The
priest's duty in the School—Religious instruction and Catholic
XVlli THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

atmosphere—Catechising—The Priest's office and the

teacher's—Sunday Mass—Monthly Communion—Children's
Confessions—Various Suggestions—Truthfulness—Honesty—
Purity—Support of our Pastors—Our non-Catholic Children
— Priestly reserve with Children—Vocation and its develop
ment 256

XVIII
SOCIAL WORK AND LAY HELP
Social work at the present day—Lay help—Our attitude towards
it—The wrong price and the right price—Lay help invalu
able—The classes for whom we work—Abiding power of
social work 2S6

XIX
THE MISSION PROPERTY
Repairs—Lumber—Sordes vide Ecclesia—Altar linen and vest
ments—Font and Tabernacle—The character of the church :
the character of the Priest 296

XX
EPILOGUE—MARY AND THE PRIEST
Our claim on her—Her power to help—Cultivating devotion
to her—The atmosphere of heresy—Love of the Blessed
Virgin in Catholic lands—The Vision of Dante—Practices
of Piety for ourselves and our People 303

APPENDICES
I. : The Provincial Synods 31 1
II. : XigUs sur Us mariages en Angleterre—The form of Mar
riage in French, German, and Italian 327
 THE PRIEST:

HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

PART I
THE PRIEST'S CHARACTER

I
THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST
El voccevit Dominus Samuel. Qui respondent ait: Ecce ego.—
I Reg. iii. 4.
Few persons outside the ranks of the clergy have
an intelligent knowledge of the making of a priest.
One man would tell you that we are flung into the
career at a tender age before we possess either the
knowledge or the judgement required for choosing
a state of life. Another would add to this that
while we are caught young we are kept in ignorance
of the world around and its doings during the time
of our preparation. And there is the man who
belongs to the class at which Newman pokes fun
in his lecture on 'Prejudice': '"Another young
priest : " he thinks we are born priests ; " priest "
is a sort of race, or animal or production, as oxen
B
2 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

or sheep may be, and there are young priests and

old priests, and black priests and white priests, and
perhaps men priests and women priests ' (' Present
Position of Catholics,' p. 257). Friends, too, will
sometimes ask us how it is that we became priests ;
what was it that led us to adopt this calling in
preference to others. To answer some such questions
as these is the purpose of this opening chapter.
Let us go back in memory to the days of our
childhood. Let us endeavour to note the various
stages in our career, to trace the footprints in the
sands of time and to mark how we have been led
by the hand of God. To most of us the thought
of our young days brings before us the picture of a
good Catholic home and the example of Christian
family life : a father with a great love truly, but
also with a strongly marked sense of duty ; a
gentle mother who prayed much and talked little,
who even in those far-off days cherished a secret
hope that there would be given to her house and
home a priest of the Most High God. The clergy
were always welcome in that quiet home, and when
they came we were encouraged to make friends
with them. At our mother's knee we learnt
our baby prayers, and when we grew older our
father took us in hand. He would teach us to
serve Mass, and many a stumble we made over the
unfamiliar Latin words, even after he had taught us
their sense and their sound. Then slowly, almost
anconsciously, began to grow within us the thought
that one day we too might stand at the altar. As
the young Samuel was taken to the Temple so our
 THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST 3
Anna took us to the House of God. Around the
church she led us. She bade us adore Jesus Christ
truly present in His earthly home. She showed us
the crucifix, and made the Stations themselves tell
us the story of the Way of the Cross ; she taught us
to pray to the Virgin Mother for purity and for
faith. On Sundays that silent father turned over
for us the pages of our prayer-book and bade us
watch the ceremonies, that we might learn from
them the Church's teaching on the sacrifice of the
Mass. These things were not left to others to show
us ; priest and teacher had their place assuredly in
our religious development, but father and mother
came first. No one could take their place, none could
adequately fulfil their task.
Then came schooldays, the beginning of a
new set of influences upon our character, a fresh
impress on our life. Scenes come crowding back
upon us as we conjure up the vision of those past
years. Orbilius plagosus from the days of Horace ;
lessons and games, masters and boys, holidays
and retreats, the daily Mass, and the frequent
communion, our first struggles, too, and our childish
fallings and risings. What was the strongest in
fluence at that time ; where do we find the most
abiding recollection ? We go back to our first
school. The playgrounds are there : smaller they
seem to us than of yore. The study hall, too,
with perhaps some memories of prizes as we look at
the roll of honour on the wall : something attempted,
something done. But these are dead things compared
with the recollection of some ol those who taught
B3
4 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

us. Eight years or more we spent at school, and

there stand out in the panorama two or three men
whose names mark stages in our student life. This
one, a steady plodder, set himself to teach us our
ignorance, and to make us accurate and painstaking ;
this other, young, brilliant, enthusiastic, gave us
a love of books rather than of prizes, of the pro
cess rather than of the result ; while our gentle,
patient confessor endeavoured to lift us beyond the
ken of earthly things to the eternal vision beyond.
But the strongest and most lasting of all influences
is the chapel and its liturgy. That, at least, is
still with us, ever lovely and ever new. The Church's
feasts and fasts, her seasons and her services, her
May devotions and November prayers—these were
born in our hearts here and are with us still. There
at the altar we made our communions, and there
at ordination we gave our young lives to God.
And our holidays had their influence, and
rightly so. We were to be in the world, though
not of the world, and in the world our lines would
be cast until the judgement. The world grew
very fair as we looked with boyish delight upon it
in the new freedom of holiday life. Companions of
younger days we met again, and their charm was
a snare to us. What did we know of the world's
failures and of Dead Sea apples ? ■ All these will I
give thee if thou wilt fall down and adore ' rang in
our ears. Temptation came to teach us, to winnow
the chaff from the wheat, and the first test of our
young life had our very soul in its grip. When
the holidays were over we returned to school,
 THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST 5

but with the scars of the conflict still red and sore.
In very truth victory was not yet ours. The fact
that we had gone back to school meant little more
than that we had beaten off the first attack. There
would be some rough tussles yet. Things had
changed at school, or we were other boys. In our
hours of study we found ourselves looking at the
page of Greek indeed, but gazing vacantly, for over
the book there floated fresh, young faces that took
possession of our minds ; our memory was busy
with the sweetness of past days, our imagination
with the future. We grew listless in our work,
arid in our prayers. Emulation no longer stirred
us, ambition was a dead thing. To strive for others
seemed a dull unmeaning task ; it would tax all
the energy we possessed to save our own souls.
We lay to and drifted. Masters and boys alike
marked the change. Our class-fellows rallied us,
and teachers and prefects found fault with us.
There was no doubt about it ; since our return we
had become unsatisfactory all round. It was not
so much the presence of actual evil as the absence of
actual good. The first crisis in our life was full upon
us. Others would come with added years ; how we
should meet them would depend much upon our
grit and staying power now. Our confessor saw
the change. He knew the symptoms well ; it
was not the first time that a sick soul lay bare
before him. God was speaking to us as he spoke
to Job out of the whirlwind—' Gird up thy loins like
a man ' (Jobxl.)—and we were resenting it in every
fibre of our being. ' Let the day perish wherein
6 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

I was born,' we were ready to cry, ' Why did I not

die in the womb ? Wherefore is light given to him
that is in misery and life unto the bitter soul ? '
(Job iii.). If this be the life you offer me, it must
go. It is too hard for flesh and blood. Other ways
there are, high and honourable, in which we can
save our souls, but here we are stifled, we cannot
breathe. The world was beckoning to us, day-dreams
of a future such as comes to other men danced
before our eyes. These bright things—our God
made them—were they not for us, too ?
What counsel was given to us by that wise
and patient confessor ? Did he fetter us with
chains, did he promise us the wrath of God if we
fell out of the ranks ? They who would think so
know little of the spirit of the Catholic Church.
Of every two boys who begin one is taken and the
other is left ; not more than half of those who
come to try their vocation persevere to the priest
hood. Our confessor would not hold us against
our will, no, not a day. He would not be re
sponsible to God for our possible failure hereafter
as priests. ' You are free to go,' he says to us
gently ; ' no vow binds you. Better go now than
fail later and end as a fallen priest.' But are
we ready to go, we ask ourselves. Are the visions
of our childhood, our hopes and prayers, to shrivel
up and wither away like flowers at the first touch
of frost ? He offers us our freedom ; are we
quite ready to accept it ? Humbly, and with
faltering lips, we ask him now for guidance and
ghostly counsel, and he gives us both. ' The deci
 THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST 7
sion,' he says, ' must be yours, yours alone, not
mine. It is you, not I, who must bear the burden.
My advice is very simple. Rest a while and take
time to consider. The time for your annual retreat
will soon be at hand. Till then, keep your rule, say
your prayers, and decide nothing. When the time
of retreat comes round you will have leisure and
every opportunity of threshing out the matter in
the sight of God. Leave your decision until then.
Meanwhile you are free, free as air to go or to stay,
but let your action rest on reason, not on impulse.'
Our mother's keen eye had noted the change,
but nothing could she do but watch and pray.
Even that loving mother dare not come between
our soul and God. We must be free to decide, free
even to our own undoing.
The time of retreat arrived, and there, in the
presence of God, cold reason, illumined by faith,
decided our future. The burden which the priest
hood entails was not hidden from us, neither was its
glory obscured. Both sides were put fairly and
truthfully, and we and no man else made the deci
sion. At the end of the spiritual exercises came the
parting of the ways. Some left to seek in the
smiling valleys an honourable and God-fearing life ;
others cried ' Excelsior ! ' and, greatly daring, hoped
that by God's grace they could live in the rarer
atmosphere of the holy mountains, the stepping
stones to God. We were of those who stayed.
This crisis had passed and our eighteenth or nine
teenth birthday found us still within the college
walls.
8 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

But it might not have been so. The first reason

why we go to an ecclesiastical seminary is to find
out whether God is really calling us to the priest
hood or to the life of a good layman in the world.
A vocation is more than a desire to serve God,
much more than a liking or an attraction. There
was a young man in the Gospel who came to Jesus
running, leaping, casting himself at his Lord's feet
and crying : ' Good Master, what must I do to
possess eternal life ? ' He had a real desire for
higher things, but who would venture to decide
that such a one had a vocation ? The test of self-
sacrifice was applied, and he failed. ' Well, go sell
what thou hast and give to the poor,' and the young
man went away sorrowful. Nec quisquam sumit
sibi honorem, sed qui vocatur a Deo tanquam Aaron
(Heb. v. 4). Lads of naturally good dispositions
may have such an attraction without any real voca
tion, and it is the first purpose of our training to
distinguish between the two classes of boys, rfon
vos me elegisiis sed ego elegi vos (Joan. xv. 16).
We had now finished our general education, and
the next stage was to specialise for our particular
profession. The Council of Trent (1545-63) made a
radical and far-reaching change in the education of
the secular priesthood, and, in accordance with the
law of that Council, we must go to an ecclesias
tical seminary for the prosecution of these profes
sional studies. Until the reform of the Council of
Trent the secular clergy received their theological
education as well as their earlier training at one or -
other of the universities in Christendom. In the
 THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST 0

earlier centuries almost all the learned were eccle

siastics, but with the revival of letters laymen
nocked to the great mediaeval universities. The
Council of Florence (1438) brought a large number
of Greek learned men to Europe, and the fall of
Constantinople in 1453 scattered Eastern scholars
and classical literature over the face of the Western
world, giving an immense impulse to profane
studies. One result was that on the Continent the
universities ceased to be satisfactory places for the
training of the clergy. In England, thanks to
William of Wykeham, and his foresight in founding
Winchester (1393) and New College, Oxford, these
difficulties did not arise to the same extent. In
the magnificent foundation of Christ Church,
Oxford, Wolsey adopted the same wise policy as
William of Wykeham, and had England remained
in the unity of the Catholic Church, the legislation
of Trent concerning the establishment of seminaries
might not have been needed in this country.
In the seminary we were to spend some four or
five years, and our entrance there marked a new
stage in our development. Hitherto our education
had been concerned with the studies that are re
quired for every profession. Now we were to begin
the special preparation necessary for our work as
priests. During these years our studies would
embrace a course of sacred theology, dogmatic and
moral, lectures on holy Scripture and on canon law,
as well as a portion at least of the history of the
Church.
Even if much of what we studied was somewhat
>
10 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

beyond our grasp, yet the tone and atmosphere

of the house were calculated to bring us in close
touch with the realities of our new life. The tonsure
and the different steps of ordination, the occasional
return to us of our fellow-students who had been
ordained and were actually on the mission, gave a
seriousness to our lives and a strenuousness to our
work quite new to us. The act of initiation into
the ministry when we solemnly chose the ' Lord for
the portion of our inheritance and our cup ' was
the first formal reception of us by the hierarchy
of the Church, and to all of us brought heart
searchings about the past and resolves for the
future. Then came another crisis in our lives.
Before we received the power and authority of the
priesthood we were obliged to give proof that we
were strong enough, with the help of God's grace,
to bear its burdens. Before the priesthood comes
the diaconate ; a year before the diaconate comes
the subdiaconate. If we take that step we bend
our necks to the yoke of the priesthood without its
rewards. Henceforth the obligations of perpetual
celibacy and of the daily recitation of the divine
office will become our lot even if we never reach the
priesthood. As we stand before the Bishop at the
ordination service he addresses us, giving to us a
final warning : ' Dearly beloved sons who are now
to be promoted to the sacred order of the sub
diaconate, you must again and again consider
attentively what a burden you this day aspire to of
your own free choice. As yet, you are free, and it
is lawful for you, at your will, to pass over to
 THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST II

worldly pursuits ; but if you take this order, it will

no longer be lawful for you to withdraw from your
purpose, but you will be permanently bound to the
service of God, whom to serve is to reign ; with His
help you will have to observe continency and to
remain always devoted to the ministry of the
Church. Wherefore while there is yet time, think
upon it, and if you still wish to abide by your holy
resolve, in the name of the Lord, come hither.' We
were now of full age, and if we were not to become
priests it was of supreme importance to betake our
selves to earthly employments. Our earlier crisis
helped us here. We knew better how to look the
matter in the face, and since our superior had never
hidden, but had always kept before us for years, the
importance of the decision we were to make, it was
not so perplexing to make up our minds. The deci
sion had to be made one way or the other, but our
long training had, at any rate, made a definite and
final decision possible to us.
Before we were allowed to receive orders we had
to make a retreat. During each of the four 01
five years of our preparation we had to spend ten
days in solitude and prayer, waiting humbly on the
voice of God. Ducam earn in solitudinem, et loquar
ad cor ejus (Osee ii. 14). We must look back on
these retreats, for they were truly landmarks in our
lives. For ten days we would be dead to this
world, as dead as man can be this side of the grave.
We would suspend our studies, we would cut off all
intercourse with others, we would have neither
father nor mother, neither friend nor foe. We
12 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

would stand in spirit before the judgement seat alone

with God. In the fierce light of that vision of God
our make-beliefs would shrivel up, the shell of our
self-love would crumble away. They would leave
the soul empty and naked, alone with God. During
those days only two beings would exist for me—
God and my soul. Down to the bed-rock of my
human responsibility I would go, and there I would
weigh and measure up the extent of my obligations.
The daily examination of my conscience, the weekly
confession of my sins for past years have made
known to me the weak places in my soul. In the
light of that knowledge I would look into the future.
Its dangers I would weigh, its perils I would reckon
ap, its graces and safeguards I would count, and
nothing else. Pleasure, comfort, riches, poverty,
hardship would have no place in my reckoning.
My soul alone with God ! What is His will, what
would He have me do, what should I wish to have
done when I stand at last at my judgement ? Ten
days of this retreat, and then at the end : In capite
libri scriptum est de me ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem
tuam. . . . Tunc dixi, Ecce venio (Heb. x. 7-9).
At last comes the morning of ordination. Scis
ilium dignum esse? the bishop asks, and my
superior replies : Quantum Humana fragilitas nosse
sinit, et scio et testificor ipsum dignum esse ad hujus
onus officii. While I lie prostrate on the ground
the litanies of the saints are sung, the bishop invokes
a triple blessing upon me ; then I am clothed with
the garments of joy, the sacred vestments of my
office ; my hands are anointed with holy oil ;
 THE MAKING OF THE PRIEST 13

missal and chalice are given into my keeping ; I

receive power to offer Mass for the living and the
dead, and the commission to forgive men their sins
in the name of God. Jam non dicam vos servos sed
amicos meos. My years of preparation have come
to an end ; I stand in the sight of angels and of
men a priest for ever, according to the order of
Melchisedec
14 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

II
RULE OF LIFE
Omnia honeste tt secundum ordinemfiant. — I Cor. xiv. 40.

Every man when he leaves the seminary intends

to do his best to save souls, his own especially. He
oftentimes even cherishes a secret belief that now
that he is come, the work of the conversion of Eng
land will really begin. In the present age men do
not become priests for a fat living or an easy life.
Time was when men took orders as a profession ;
time was when it was a carritre leading to wealth
and power.
In the Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz we have an
account of the resolutions he made before his
consecration. For nearly a century the Arch
bishopric of Paris had been held by some mem
ber of his family. After the death of Louis XIII.,
Anne of Austria named him Coadjutor to his
uncle, with right to succession to the Arch
bishopric of Paris (1643). In his ' M6moires ' he gives
the following account of himself and his retreat in
preparation for his ordination 1 : ' Comme j'6tois
oblige' de prendre les ordres, je fis une retraite a
1 Mimoires du Cardinal de Rett (seconds partie). CEuvres du
Cardinal de Rett (Hachette, 1870).
 RULE OF LIFE 15

Saint-Lazare, oh je donnai à l'extérieur toutes les

apparences ordinaires. L'occupation de mon in
térieur fut une grande et profonde réflexion sur la
manière que je devois prendre pour ma conduite.
Elle étoit très-difficile. Je trouvois l'archevêché de
Paris dégradé, à l'égard du monde, par les bassesses
de mon oncle, et désolé, à l'égard de Dieu, par sa
négligence et par son incapacité. Je prévoyois des
oppositions infinies à son rétablissement ; et je
n'étois pas si aveuglé, que je ne connusse que la plus
grande et la plus insurmontable étoit dans moi-
même. Je n'ignorois pas de quelle nécessité est la
règle des mœurs à un évêque. Je sentois que le
désordre scandaleux de ceux de mon oncle me
l'imposoit encore plus étroite et plus indispensable
qu'aux autres ; et je sentois, en même temps, que
je n'en étois pas capable, et que tous les obstacles
de conscience et de gloire que j'opposerois au dé
règlement ne seroient que des digues fort mal as
surées. Je pris, après six jours de réflexion, le
parti de faire le mal par dessein, ce qui est sans com
paraison le plus criminel 1 devant Dieu, mais ce qui
est sans doute le plus sage devant le monde : et parce
qu'en le faisant ainsi l'on y met toujours des pré
alables, qui en couvrent une partie ; et parce que l'on
évite, par ce moyen, le plus dangereux ridicule qui
se puisse rencontrer dans notre profession, qui est
celui de mêler à contre-temps le péché dans la dévo
tion. Voilà la sainte disposition avec laquelle je sortis
de Saint-Lazare. Elle ne fut pourtant pas de tout
point mauvaise ; car je pris une ferme résolution
1 Ce passage est souligné dans le manuscrit original.
16 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

de remplir exactement tous les devoirs de ma

profession, et d'etre aussi homme de bien pour le
salut des autres, que je pourrois £tre m^chant pour
moi-meme.' More than that he could not under
take. Let us judge mercifully. We have no such
temptation standing in our path. When we become
priests we mean at least to do our best to fulfil the
obligations of our state. And yet look six months
later, six years later, sixteen years later, and see how
the men have changed : ' Tempora mutantur, nos et
mutamur in Wis.' All were ordained on the same
day, all filled with the same hopes, strong in the
same desires, all determined to be good stewards in
the vineyard of the Lord. It is not chance or acci
dent that has wrought such a wide difference
amongst them. They have all had the same sacra
ments, practically all have had the same helps. It
depends, under God, upon themselves.
If I am to advise you let me begin by taking
stock of your position. You are ordained ; your
seminary life has come to an end ; you are appointed
to a mission. The bell that called you to each
duty will no longer ring in your ears, the eye of
your superior is no longer on you, the gentle word
of warning is no longer spoken. You are a free
man henceforth, free even to your own undoing.
' Lord of himself,' says Byron, ' that heritage of
woe ! ' Yet without this freedom, without the risk
which it entails, you would never grow to your full
spiritual height. Count it not a misery, as Byron
did, but reckon it a blessing, for without it you
would never rise to that sense of responsibility
 RULE OF LIFE

which is one of the conditions of all truly great

work.
When I began work on the mission, one of the
first thoughts that struck me was the helplessness of
my Bishop in all that referred to my priestly life ;
how little he could do to make or mar it.1 True, he
was able to make rules and publish ordinances, and
true it would be that if I broke them he could punish
me ; but how little he could do, say, during the first
year or two to make me a good priest or to save me
from becoming a bad one. He was far off, he could
not see, and if he could, if even I was living in his
own house, he could not help me to my meditation
or my confession or my office ; nay, he could hardly
keep me to the outward observance of my state of
1 Here I am reminded by a priest whose apostolic life has claims
on my deep reverence that I seem to ignore the duty of the Bishop to
look to the sanctification of his ordained priests as well as of his
seminarists. Let me define this duty in the words of the late Cardinal
Vaughan : ' The distinctive work of the Episcopate is to produce and
multiply a holy Priesthood. . . . The Bishop has no more important
and vital work than this. He bears the Office and the responsibility
of Paternity. He is a debtor to Christ, for Whom he acts, and he is
a debtor to the sacerdotal sons whom he has begotten in the Sacrament
of Order. A father may place his children in the hands of tutors, but
he does not thereby divest himself of responsibility for their training.
The Bishop bears the responsibility of a father. Circumstances inter
vene to determine the extent and weight of influence that a Bishop
will exercise over his sons. Each Bishop will account to God for his
own conduct, and for such opportunities as have come to his hand.
I am under a grave obligation to the priests whom I have ordained
during the last thirty years. . . . The obligation is to give them
the best assistance I can to become Apostolic men.' It was to con
tinue to fulfil this obligation that his Eminence wrote ' The Young
Priest,' from which my quotation comes (pp. 1-2). De/unctus adhut

C
18 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

life. He could degrade me when I had become a

bad priest, as he could reward me if I had become a
good one, but how little could he or anybody else
do in the making of one or the other. Then my
rector, what could he do ? One thing, one only.
He could set me good example, and he did. For
rector I had one of the gentlest, kindliest, holiest of
priests I ever met. His example I had, yes—the
example of a true priestly life, but what more ? He
could find fault if I did amiss in my work or neglected
my duties. But could he hold me when I was
slipping, could he lift me before I fell ? Could he
tell me that the salt was slowly losing its savour,
that meditation was a forgotten thing and my office
a task of routine, that my sick calls were a burden
to myself, and my preaching a burden to others ?
Frankly he could not, nor would I stand it if he
did. Then my confessor. He could do something
doubtless if he would and if I gave him a fair open
ing, but how often do we find a confessor who will
speak out to us, and how often do we give such a
one a chance ? Quis est hie et laudabimus eum ?
Priests' confessors are usually like the ghosts of our
childhood. They cannot speak until they are
spoken to. No. Let us realise that we have left
the seminary and its helps behind. It has done its
best to prepare us for this time ; now and hence
forth we depend, under God, upon ourselves, and
thereby we stand or fall.
When I was priest at Chatham I was invited to
the launch of a great battleship, the ' Barfleur.' At
a given moment the electric button was touched ;
 RULE OF LIFE *9
the stays and shores which held it up fell away, and
the vast hull glided slowly and steadily before our
eyes into the great waters beyond. Henceforth it
was beyond the help of stays and shores ; it would
fight through storms and tempests, dark nights,
and unfathomed seas, depending for its safety on
its own stability alone. So will be the life of the
young priest from the day he leaves the seminary
until the end comes. When a new man comes to
me fresh from ordination, my inclination is to speak
to him somewhat in this fashion. 'You have no
rules here except such as you make for yourself.
For ten or twelve years you have been living under
rules made by others and imposed upon you for your
good. These rules have done their best for you,
and now they are come to an end. Any rules you
want now you must make for yourself. You are
free to go to heaven or hell, your future depends on
yourself. You will have certain duties to perform.
I do not count them as rules, they are rather of the
nature of a bilateral contract, do ut des. The Bishop
sends you here as assistant priest to fulfil certain
duties. He bids me in return support you and
pay your modest salary. These duties have to be
done, rules or no rules. What rules you need and
what rules you will keep are those which will grow
up in your heart in times of meditation and prayer ;
those are your rules, and they must be made by
yourself if they are to be kept by you.*
Depending on ourselves, then, we must have
some rule of life, or, if not precisely that, we must
at least lay down the broad lines on which our
ca
20 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

life and its work are to be traced. First, then,

there is need of method, as in every work which
is to be done well and in a workmanlike manner.
The Pastoral Epistles are full of this thought. ' Care
fully study to present thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed ' (2 Tim.
ii. 15). ' Be thou vigilant, labour in all things ; do
the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry ' (2 Tim.
iv. 5). ' Labour as a good soldier of Christ ' (2 Tim.
ii. 3). The need of method and rule in our work
comes home to us in a striking way when we reflect
that there is no profession or calling in life in which
the work can be got through in a slovenly and
negligent manner more easily than in ours. I go
into chambers. The lawyer's desk is strewn with
papers, and his 'Leading Cases' are well thumbed.
His reputation, his future, the seat on the bench
depend upon his daily toil. The doctor has his sick
calls, and woe betide his practice if he neglects them.
The shopkeeper is at his business all day long wait
ing for customers until the shutters are put up. If
we waited like that in our confessionals, men would
cry out that we were saints. The men that work at
night, too, the captain on board ship and the rest—
these men know what work means. They do not
grumble : it is their living. It comes in the day's
work, as they say. I know of no walk in life where
a man can do less if he chooses than in the priest
hood, and yet be sure of the necessaries. One
reason seems to be this. Public opinion, which is
always a strong motive power, is very ill-informed
about the extent of our duties. The ideals of the
 RULE OF LIFE 21

average man are entirely different irom ours. See,

for instance, how easily a man may get a reputation
for zeal in an institution, or in a town, when he
himself would say of his work with St. Paul, ' /
count it all for nothing.'' Then, again, remember
oftentimes people do not want us ; we want them.
The drunkard will not complain of us because we
leave him alone, nor will the keeper of a bad house
cry out that we are slothful shepherds if we make
no effort to hinder his work. On the other hand,
turn over the pages of Holy Writ :
' J passed by the field of the slothful man and by
the vineyard of the foolish man : and behold it was all
filled with nettles, and thorns had covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall was broken down. Which
when I had seen, I laid up in my heart, and by the
example I received instruction. Thou wilt sleep a
little, said I, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold
thy hands a little to rest : and poverty shall come upon
thee as a runner and beggary as an armed man '
(Prov. xxiv. 30).
And read again in Ezechiel :
' Thus said the Lord God : Woe to the shepherds
of Israel that feed themselves : should not the flocks
be fed by the sfiepherds ? You ate the milk and you
clothed yourself with the wool and you killed that
which was fat : but my flock you did not feed. The
weak you have not strengthened, and that which was
sick you have not healed : that which was broken you
have not bound up and that which was driven away,
you have not brought (back) again neither have you
sought that which was lost. But you ruled over them
22 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

with rigour and with a high hand ; and my sheep were

scattered because there was no shepherd and they
became the prey of ail the beasts of the field. . . .
Therefore ye shepherds hear the word of the Lord :
As I live, saith the Lord, forasmuch as my flocks have
been made a spoil and my sheep are become a prey . . .
because there is no shepherd . . . behold I myself
come upon the shepherds, and I will require my flocks
at their hands ' (Ezechiel xxxiv).
And again, under another metaphor :
' // the watchman see the sword coming and sound
not the trumpet : and the people look not to themselves
and the sword come and cut off a soul from among
them, he indeed is taken away in his iniquity, but I
will require his blood at the hand of the watchman *
(Ezechiel xxxiii).
If, then, he is to do good work, the young priest
aeeds method, and that implies that he should lay
down at least the broad lines on which his life is to
be planned. If he thinks of making a rule of life,
there are certain principles which ought to be
borne in mind. His rules ought not to be many :
a few rules for his guidance, embracing the
main duties of his state. Further, he will err if he
makes his rule too detailed ; it ought to be large
and roomy, leaving, that is, a good deal of time
that is not precisely covered by rule so that he may
find place for new duties and the fresh openings
which always present themselves to a man full of the
spirit of his state. Again, he will not waste his
time making rules to be punctual at his public ser
vices or at his meals. These things he takes for
 RULE OF LIFE

granted. They come in his bond ; there is no ques

tion of will or wont in them. To say the least, he
is as much bound as any other servant of the public
to be punctual. He has no more right than a judge
or a railway-guard to keep people waiting for his
convenience or his pleasure. Further, we may take
it for granted that his instinct of consideration for
his servants as well as of courtesy towards his
brother priests will make him punctual at his meals
and home in good time at night (sub node maturius).
At the same time a priest's servants must
understand clearly that his duties come before their
convenience, and that in cases of necessity they
must be prepared for any discomfort to enable him
to fulfil his obligations to the sick or his duties as a
priest. It will be well in making our few rules to
take a high standard, and for this reason. The
standard will represent to us our high-water mark ;
we shall never get above it, and I might almost say
that we shall never live continuously at its level.
Hence, the higher our aim, within reason, the
higher the level we are likely to attain. Lastly, it
is easy enough to make rules. They look charming
on paper. Our business is to keep them, and the
best method I know of attaining that result is to
make them a large part of our weekly examination
of conscience in preparation for confession.
The first great division of the day concerns our
hour of rising and going to bed. The hour at which
we ought to rise will depend chiefly on the hour
of our Mass ; the hour at which practically we can
rise will depend on the hour of going to bed. There
24 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

fore, our resolution to go to bed in good time is

quite as important as our determination to get up
in good time. My experience is that of the two it
is harder to go to bed in good time than it is to rise
in good time, though each is hard enough, and to
do both well means to begin and end the day with
a solid act of mortification. We ought to aim at
getting seven hours' sleep each night, and rather
more than less in the earlier years of our life on the
mission. If we put our fixed time for rising at a
little more than an hour before the time for saying
Mass, we can settle definitely the proper time for
going to bed. Our aim ought to be to get a good
half hour before our Mass for our meditation, and
preparation for Mass. We ought to complete our
toilet, shaving, bath, and the rest, before we say
Mass. It is slovenly to do otherwise, and it is a
real waste of valuable time to be obliged to go back
to our bedroom to shave after our breakfast. I
remember Bishop Danell once saying of a priest
in his diocese : ' I have great respect for that man.
He gets up at six and shaves before he leaves his
bedroom.' It is a small matter, but life is made up
of such small things.
Now I am going to ask for a big thing. The
priest on the mission, especially if he is on a town
mission, is at everyone's beck and call as soon as
his breakfast is over. After that he can hardly call
any time his own. Letters have come, schools have
their claims, sick calls, the fresh duties which each
day brings, all insist on his attention and care. I
want you to put Almighty God in the first place
 Rule of life 25

and your own salvation. I venture to ask you to

aim at getting two hours before your breakfast for
Almighty God and the sanctifi cation of your own
life. Your meditation and your Mass will need one
hour. I ask you to give another to your thanks
giving and your divine office, and to go to breakfast
a free man, ad omne opus bonum instructus. As I
have said, this is a big thing to ask. Remember
what I said earlier about the need of a high standard
rather than a medium level. Take this as your
standard : aim at giving to God and your own soul
two hours before breakfast, and you will generally
succeed in giving at any rate an hour and a half.
But I am not quite content yet. If you think of it,
you will agree with me that most of us say too many
of our prayers in our rooms (or, shall I say, in tram-
cars), and too few of them in the church, in presence
of the Blessed Sacrament. To leave our room and
go to the church costs a little, but it is worth the
trouble, and the habit is soon formed. Prayer at
the best is always a difficult task to get through
even moderately well. Our surroundings at the time
of prayer have a good deal to do with our recollec
tion or our distractions. If when he gets up the
priest goes to his sitting-room to make his medita
tion before his Mass, the easy chair may be com
fortable, but the room is untidy as he left it when
he went to bed. Still more real is this objection if
he has only the one room in which he has slept.
In either case he is sure to find twenty things which
want doing before he begins his meditation or his
prayer.
26 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Let me plead for the habit of using the

church as our pious lay-folk do. The church is
not merely the priest's workshop, where he gives
the sacraments and preaches to others, it is his own
home, his sanctuary, and he is the appointed guar
dian of this dwelling-place of God with men. Here
at least the surroundings will help his prayer, not
mar it, and the sacramental presence of his God
will tend to warm his heart and to lift his first
thoughts above the teasing distractions of his daily
life. It is chiefly a question of habit. Some good
priests 1 have met to whom it seems hardly ever to
occur to go into the church except to minister to
others. When they have to say Mass or hear a
confession or give the evening service they go, but
hardly ever at any other time. God forbid that I
should condemn them. I can call to mind sterling
good priests who always said all their prayers (and
they were many) in their rooms. Nevertheless, the
practice I commend is the better. I ask you to aim
at making your meditation and thanksgiving in
the church, as well as your daily visit, from the
beginning of your mission life, forming the habit of
using the church rather than your own room for
your own sanctification and piety. Your prayers
will be easier to say and more fruitful, and it may
well be that your people will be edified when they
see you preaching by your daily practice what you
put before them with all unction in the pulpit and
the confessional.
You are now a free man, as far as your
formal prayers go, until the evening. Then
 RULE OP LIFE *7
will come your Matins and Lauds, your Rosary,
the evening service, or your visit to the Blessed
Sacrament. There is no particular advantage in
making these pious practices the latest events of
the day. Choose the time that falls in best with
your work. In a busy parish the later hours from
eight till ten or eleven on many nights will be filled
up with confessions, confraternities, instructing con
verts, not to speak of clubs and boys' brigades. I
knew one dignitary of the Church whose custom it
was to go through his evening pieties after the six
o'clock post had gone, and before his supper at
eight. After breakfast, a priest, especially in his
first years when the good or bad habits of a life
time are formed, has usually a couple of hours
before he is wanted in institutions, or the schools,
or the sick-room. In his earlier years he has few
letters and fewer ties. On the other hand, the daily
paper and his new-born freedom have strong attrac
tions. Careful observation of others as well as
experience of myself leads me to think that the two
hours after breakfast are the hours most easily
frittered away, if not entirely wasted. Yet those
are precisely the hours when a man is at his best
and freshest for reading or writing, the hours in
which the mind will absorb and assimilate most
easily any intellectual food that one can give it.
Let him note in school time-tables how the stiffest
work comes first in the day : in the seminary the
lecture in dogmatic theology ; in the elementary
school the arithmetic lesson. Let him make the
best use he can of that time and leave the news
28 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

paper in the dining-room. It will be fresh to

him after his lunch or dinner, when he has earned
some right to rest. What I ask is that he should
not begin his day's work by resting. It is quite
true that later on his increased correspondence, the
ties which grow with living in the same place for
years, the care of his household and the rest, may
claim much of the early part of the day. My point
is that when these things come he will have
already formed in his young days the habit of
industry after breakfast instead of idleness, and we
have Scripture warrant for hoping that when he is
old he will not depart from it.
Let me now, on the threshold of the day when
our active work for others begins, anticipate a diffi
culty which will surely arise. It is soon brought
home to us that we have not time for a tithe of the
things that want doing. In consequence of this
some things must be left undone. Which shall they
be ? The truth is, we always have time for the
thing we really want to do. On the other hand,
our tastes are so many, our attractions so various,
that no man has time for all. It is chiefly a ques
tion of precedence or importance. We have time,
or can make time, for what must be done, but not
for everything else. A man once told me that he had
missed all spiritual reading from his summer holiday
(when it came to an end) until the end of the
year. At his confessions, and almost every night,
he resolved to resume his good practice the
next day, and every morning something else came
first and there was no second. He was interested
 RULE OF LIFE

in his other work, and he was anxious to get at it as

soon as he could. Once it began he was engrossed
in its details until night came. At the end of
the year he determined to make this very attrac
tion a lever to force him back to his habit of
spiritual reading. He resolved to begin nothing
after his breakfast until he had done his spiritual
reading. He made this task of spiritual reading a
kind of toll which he had to pay before beginning
the work he wanted to do, and he found that the
spiritual reading usually got itself done, and, need
less to say, that other things did not suffer. Then,
again, it is only human to begin with the easiest,
the most attractive things of the day. That which
is harder to tackle, and perhaps the more important,
goes into the second place. There is no second
place and it is not done. No man has time for all.
In making our choice let us remember that we are
quite sure to do the easy, the attractive thing. We
may take that for granted. Take the hard thing
first, set our faces and see it through, and the easy,
the attractive thing will get itself done.
Then come our duty to our neighbours, our work
out of doors. This will consist in the main in visit
ing our sick, going the round of our schools, paying
our weekly or bi-weekly visit to the institutions in
our district, and finally visiting and so getting to
know our people in their own homes. These duties, *
of course, vary in different missions, and of each
I shall have to speak in some detail later on. In
laying down our rule of life it is enough to consider
them in general. They must be carried out with
30 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

some method if you are to make the best of the time

at your disposal. In some missions it is a useful plan
to extract from your pocket-book the engagements
already made for the day and put them down on a
card, together with the sick calls which need to be
attended or the letters which have to be answered
before night. This may well be done after break
fast. It will sometimes happen that the head priest
will give you letters to answer concerning cases in
your district. These you ought to acknowledge at
once. Three lines to say that you have received the
letter and that the matter will receive the necessary
attention will cost you little and will satisfy the
person who has taken the trouble to write on your
business. Oftentimes you will avoid friction and
save yourself subsequent correspondence by a mere
acknowledgment sent at once. In nine cases out of
ten no further letter will be required. Then, too,
when you appeal for help to those who may them
selves be hard pressed, do not forget to acknow
ledge any assistance they may give you, even though
you may receive less than you had hoped for.
The card with the day's work set out, or a
similar page in your pocket-book, will ensure some
method and much work. Incidentally such a card
may help your evening examination of conscience,
and sometimes will afford matter for your act of
contrition at the end of the day. In mission work
it is the tortoise, the man who keeps at it, who
wins, not the hare who gets through three days'
work in one and fritters away the other two. It
seems a small amount to ask that a man should
 RULE OF LIFE 3*
spend two hours in his district each of the five
days in the week, leaving out, that is, Saturday
and Sunday. It is only two out of the twenty-four
hours ; nevertheless it needs something like heroic
virtue to carry it on for any length of time. I
have never succeeded myself, and of the fifty-
two curates whom my Bishops have sent to me
I have not had many that succeeded in keeping
it up steadily, although nearly all of them have
been model priests. The difficulties that beset
this work I will discuss later. Aim at two hours
a day among your people ; do not be content
with less nor aim at more. There are other
duties of even greater importance at home.
In our rule of life also will come our weekly
confession. Usually a good day for going to con
fession and for finding one's confessor at home is
Friday. The end of the week coupled with the
obligation of abstinence tends to keep men at home
on that day. To this some will add a day of retreat
each month. In several dioceses such a day of
retreat at some religious house is arranged for every
month. For many years past the Jesuit Fathers
at Manresa House, Roehampton, have set aside the
second Monday in each month for this purpose, and
a number of clergy of Westminster, Southwark, and
Portsmouth dioceses take advantage of this ar
rangement for some quiet thinking and meditation
as well as for a leisurely confession. Then will
come our annual or biennial retreat at the time
and place appointed by the Bishop.
With this we bring to a conclusion our catalogue
32 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

of the main things which ought to find a place

in our rule of life. Of most of them, of course, we
shall have to speak more fully later on. With all
these helps, in addition to our long training in
the seminary, it would not be wonderful if we
became saints before our course was run. And yet
how different is the reality from the dream. As
students we look forward and begin to count up
years and months and days that must pass over
our heads before we go forth to our Master's work,
and they seem to our young eager eyes milestones
on an endless road. After twenty, thirty years
of mission life we look back on our student's life,
and it has shrunk to its due proportion. Ten,
twelve years of preparation. Well, we spent as
much as that, it may be, in our first curacy, and
since then how much have we lived through ! Our
young men see visions and our old men dream
dreams ; but when the visions have paled and the
dreams melted away, there remain to those who
have tried—the joy of a strenuous life, and the
memory of good service done for One Who never
forgets. Confidens hoc ipsum, quia qui ccepit in vobis
opus bonum, perficiet usque in diem Christi Jesu
(Phil. i. 6).
 33

III
THE PRIEST AT PRAYER
Hic est fratrum amator et popii'i Isracl ; hic est, qui multum orat
pro populo, et universa sanrta dvitate, Jeremias, propheta Dei.—
2 Mach. xv. 14.

Let me come now to the most important and most

difficult subject of prayer. It would be easy to fill
pages with quotations from approved writers. Let
me recommend humbly the little book on Prayer by
St. Alphonsus. I will do my best to be as brief as
the subject will allow, and as clear as God gives it
to me to write, for this chapter has been written
many times, and I am by no means satisfied.
If his priesthood is to be to him anything
but a lifelong burden, a priest must be a man
of prayer. By prayer I mean that raising up
of the heart and mind to God which the Catechism
speaks of, and not merely the prayer of petition,
which is of course one form, and that not the highest,
of prayer. As a priest he has to be prepared to
spend some three hours a day ordinarily in prayer
and spiritual exercises for his own sanctification, as
distinguished from his obligations to his people in
spiritual things. His Mass with its preparation and
D
34 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

thanksgiving will account for an hour at any rate ;

his office for about an hour and a quarter ; and if we
allot the remaining three-quarters of an hour or so
to his meditation, his visit to the Blessed Sacrament,
his rosary, his nightly examination of conscience
and his other little personal pieties, we shall not
be far out. Thus the need of being able to pray
comes first from the fact that in practice we are called
upon to spend some three hours a day in prayer.
Secondly, the priest must learn to pray because
his work demands that he should live in union with
God, that his heart and soul should be lifted to
God, that he should see life from God's point of
view and be saturated through and through with
the love of God, if he is to lift heavenwards dull
leaden souls of men. If he has no unction he can
not soften others ; if he knows not love he will never
move men. Prayer is the meat which will strengthen
and quicken that life of his ; it is the drink which his
soul cries out for, thirsting for God. 'As the hart
panteth after the living waters, so my soul panteth
after Thee, O God ! My soul hath thirsted after
the strong, living God. When shall I come and
appear before the face of God ? ' (Ps. xli. 1-3.)
From the need of prayer in our lives we pass
naturally to the difficulty of prayer. ' 1 can keep
accounts and run boys' brigades, I can attend com
mittees and work in the schools, but pray I cannot.
I kneel down and my thoughts run away ; when I
have been five minutes at such prayers as I manage
to get through, I am as if I had been praying for
hours.' Occasionally a man goes farther and says
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER ss
boldly that he can find no time for prayer. Let
me put this last out of court at once. His life
is built on wrong lines, utterly, radically wrong.
Until he has said his prayers, he has no time
for anything else. But for the other, who kneels
honestly, but cannot pray : the soul is dead, he says,
and the lips are dumb ! What of him ? This case
is so common that it is worth studying. Let us see,
in the first place, how far this difficulty in praying
is of our own making, and then let us see what God
exactly wants from us when He bids us pray.
My proposition is that the difficulty of prayer
comes not from us in the first place, but from
the nature of prayer itself. Anything that is
out of the ordinary is difficult. Ask a labourer to
sign his name on a post-office deposit book, or to
write down his address. At school he learnt to
write, but he has hardly written since. See him
seize the pen ruefully, look it up and down, change
his holding of it, take ink two or three times,
and generally work himself up before he can do
this unaccustomed thing. You have taken more
out of him than half a day's ploughing would do.
If prayer is difficult, it may be because it is
something out of the ordinary and not through any
fault of ours. It is no easy thing to gird up the
powers of soul and body required for prayer. The
truth is, the chief difficulty in prayer comes from
the fact that prayer is something out of the ordi
nary, something essentially supernatural, something
above the powers of nature, and that therefore we
need a continual effort to sustain ourselves in
pa
36 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

prayer. For a metaphor, let me say that a

man in prayer is a man out of his natural
element ; it is not natural, it is supernatural for
him to pray. Take me out of my element and
put me in another element which is not natural,
not congenial, and at once what happens ? The
bare keeping alive or existence which before was
an unconscious process becomes in this unnatural
or supernatural element a continual struggle, a
visible effort. Men, like Mummery and Whymper
and Norman Collie, who climb mountains and
scale peaks, tell us that after reaching an eleva
tion of 15,000 feet in the Himalayas the simple
effort to keep alive is a painful struggle in these
altitudes where the air is so rarefied that the
ordinary man is practically in a new element. Or
take a fish out of the river and throw it on tht
dry beach. From the days of Tobias the picture is
familiar to us. ' It began to pant before his feet.'
The poor thing gasps and wriggles and plunges in
desperate endeavour to get back into the water.
Why ? The water is its natural element ; the dry
land is not : hence its frantic struggle. You do not
blame the fish ; neither may you blame the man that
finds it hard to pray. We are of the earth, earthy ;
our natural element is dense, as dense as water.
In prayer our business is to lift ourselves right
out of this natural element of ours into the upper air,
which is the natural element not of this life, but of
the next. Do not tell me that the difficulty in prayer
comes entirely from ourselves ; it comes in the first
place from the nature of prayer. To my mind the
 THE PRIEST At PRAYER if
wonder is not that we find it difficult to pray, but
that we manage to pray at all ; not that we do not
succeed entirely, but that we succeed so well. Let us
clearly understand for our comfort that the real diffi
culty of prayer comes in the first place from the fact
that our lives here are natural, and to pray well we
must be supernatural. Our work here is so to spiri
tualise our lives as to make this rarefied, supernatural
atmosphere the natural element of our lives here, as
it will be hereafter. And this is precisely what God
wants us to do. The more supernatural our daily
lives, the nearer we are to God while on earth, the
easier will prayer become. Take an illustration.
A man gives his heart, his life, his whole being to a
woman in honourable love. Is it difficult for him,
does it need an effort, to fix his mind on her ? When
he is by her side, has he any difficulty in finding
what to say to her ? When he has been talking to
her for five minutes does he pull out his watch and
begin to ask himself if he may now leave her without
seeming wanting in love ? The difficulty in prayer
comes from itself, its own nature and not from us ;
as the love of God grows in our soul, the difficulty of
prayer melts away even as the snowflakes dissolve
in the noonday sun.
So far we have been considering how far this
difficulty in praying is of our own making, and I
think that the answer I have given ought to give us
courage to plod on patiently. I turn now to answer
my second question : What is it precisely that God
wants from us when we pray ? Does He want from
us a perfect prayer, or is what He wants from us the
38 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

striving and the endeavour to attain such a prayer ?

In other words, is it the result which He is looking
for, or the process ? It seems to me that if a perfect
prayer was what God wanted, He would not have
made me at all ; He would have made something
else. Consider for a moment. The most perfect
prayer which was ever made, the prayer of the
highest seraph or a prayer straight from the pure
heart of God's dear Mother, what value has it in
itself ? What value as something compared to
Almighty God ? Surely none. Whatever value it
has comes from the fact that God accepts it. Then
it cannot be the prayer itself, the prayer objectively
considered, which He wants so much. What He wants
is our endeavour, our striving, our struggle, the giving
of our free service to Him when we might have kept
it back. This is what God values in prayer. If it was
the result He looked for, a perfect prayer, He would
have built us on different lines. But He made us,
poor, frail human things with our limitations and
defects. He knows what is in us ; He knew that
we should fail a good deal, but He knew, too, that
much of our failure would be due not to want of
goodwill and endeavour, but to the frailty of our
complex nature. In times of spiritual dryness and
distraction we may take this thought for our com
fort. When the heavens above us are as brass, and
there is neither dew nor moisture in the evening
air, it will give us new heart to reflect that God
values our prayers for their intention, not for their
success, for our endeavour, not for the result. The
cross here, the crown hereafter.
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER 39
So it comes that prayer is to the priest what
wings are to a bird. In themselves wings are a
burden. A bird without wings will weigh less than a
bird with wings, but strip the bird of its wings and
feathers and it will not be able to do more than walk ;
give it wings and with them it is borne aloft in the
air of heaven. So with the priest. The obligation to
say Mass, to recite office and so many other prayers
is in itself a burden, yet it is a burden which if well
used will bear aloft all others and make the rest easy
and light to bear.
Let us now consider what we can do to fulfil this
important duty satisfactorily. Ante orationem prce-
para animam tuam, et noli esse quasi homo qui tentat
Deum (Ecclus. xviii. 23). In the last chapter I spoke
of the place where we are likely to be able to say our
prayers best, and I urged that as far as may be we
should use the church for our prayers. A man cannot
expect to do such a difficult thing as to pray well in
a tramcar. At the same time, prayer in a tram-
car and prayer in the street is quite a possible and
desirable thing. We may well distinguish between
prayer of obligation and prayer of simple devotion.
In offering our Mass, in saying our office, the nature
of these sublime acts of praise and prayer call for
the whole service of the reasonable man ; other
prayers which are not of obligation may well be said
with profit, walking or riding, and in similar cir
cumstances. If I choose in a tramcar to say a
rosary instead of reading the paper, who is to say
me nay ? I have no obligation to fulfil and out
of devotion I am giving my Master th e best I can.
40 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

I know that I shall be somewhat distracted, but I am

endeavouring to create around my life a super
natural atmosphere, and it is good to aim at this.
Meditation.—All through our college course and
in every retreat which we attend after our ordination,
the supreme importance of meditation is impressed
upon us. At the same time, I am free to confess
that never, in my twelve years of college life nor
since, have I received any practical instruction how
to make meditation. It never seemed to occur to
anybody to take me by the hand and teach me how
to fulfil this duty, by all accounts of such moment.
Then again, the meditation books which we used with
their mechanical structure sometimes repelled a
man ; but more often the fervent student considered
that his meditation was a success if he got through
the various mental gymnastics, mounting the rungs
of the intellectual ladder safely, with its three points
or landings, within the half-hour. Now the mechani
cal structure is a real help to almost every man teach
ing himself how to meditate. We are apt not to
like it, because it means work, not a vague saunter
ing through half an hour. It makes our efforts
definite, and has the merit of fixing our fleeting
imaginings on some special point. As we grow older,
this mechanical structure tends to drop to pieces,
and we let it go. It has served its purpose. It is a
scaffolding and has its uses while we are putting up
the walls, but it is not the building itself, and we
must ever remember that it is a means, not an end.
The object of this intellectual exercise is to set
the will on fire with love of God. As soon as we
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER

catch fire, the meditation is a success. After years

of striving we grow more accustomed to the effort
of lifting ourselves into the supernatural atmo
sphere of prayer. We have a longer life to look
back at, a fuller measure of mercy to thank God
for ; we can see more clearly how He led us across
the Red Sea of temptation and danger dry-shod
while the waters were held up on our right
hand and our left. What wonder is it that, if we
have been faithful to our practice of meditation, we
catch fire more easily now than we did thirty years
ago ? Hence my conclusion is that we may well
use that mechanical structure so long as it helps us,
but we must remember that the success of our medi
tation will always consist in the will catching fire
and not in intellectual acts. Concaluit cor meum
intra me ; et in rneditatione mea exardescet ignis
(Ps. xxxviii. 4).
It is well to make some general preparation
over night and there is an advantage in changing
our method and our book from time to time.
On confession days we shall often do well to take
for our meditation the examination of conscience
for our confession. Such a practice may help us to
avoid routine confessions. For our first point, for in
stance, we can consider Almighty God's share in our
past week : the way He has treated us, the openings
He has given us, the helping hand He has held out
to us over broken ground, the constant watchful
ness, ' the early and the latter rains.' That common
•ense, which sometimes serves you and me as a work
ing substitute for the virtue of humility, tells us
42 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

that had He not lifted us bodily out of that danger

we should have come to shipwreck. The joys and
successes of the week, too, all these rise up and
stand before us, spirits from the vasty deep, when
we ask what has been God's share in the week that
is past. Then for our next point we can consider
what our share has been in that last week. We
have seen what God has done for us. What have
we done for God ? Let our good works, too, rise up
that we may see their limitations ; our deeds of
virtue and their imperfections. Hold them up to
the light, make the best we can of them, and then
set the two records, the two pictures, side by side
and confess how poor and mean and shabby our
record is, even when we are at our best. And then
our third point would be our act of sorrow for the
past, our leaping resolve to do better next week.
Dixi, nunc ccepi : hcec mutatio dexterce AUissimi
(Ps. lxxvi. u).
A change of style, a change of book will often
help to strike out new sparks. Make plenty of
colloquy, plenty of vocal prayer, and acts of love
and sorrow and desire and the rest. Do not be
frightened now of breaking away from your subject
or of not finishing the orthodox three points. When
you have caught fire, your meditation is a success,
and you go to say your Mass with the light of God's
countenance burning on your face, even as the
glory of God lit up the face of Moses when he came
from the holy mount to carry out the work of the
Lord.
Vocal Prayer.—In reciting the office, in
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER 43
offering Mass each day, in saying our rosary, there
is a good deal of vocal prayer, and yet we often feel
that there is something wanting. We have been
giving to God other men's prayers, other men's
thoughts, other men's words rather than our own.
How much petition, for instance, is there in our
vocal prayer in a week ? We have, for example,
some work in hand, trembling in the balance between
success and failure. How often does it occur to us
to throw aside the letters we were going to write
about it, for instance, or the meeting we were about
to attend, and to go instead into the Presence
Chamber of God and to wrestle with our Master
in prayer until we have prevailed ? Our new
ventures, too—weigh them up ! They represent
plenty of work, a fair share of self-sacrifice, much
planning and real thought : how much vocal prayer ?
Our penitents ? A memento in our Mass—yes, but
what more ? Our converts, and the enormous im
portance of the work we are doing for them in these
few weeks while they are ' under instruction.' What
part does prayer for them play in our instruction of
them ? Do not tell me that you have not time ;
tell me rather that you have not time for the
work which usurps its place. Remember, too, for
your encouragement, that this is quite the easiest
kind of prayer, for it is talking to God about yourself,
and we are always interested in self. Try it. It
will teach you to pray, and when your confession-
day comes you will not have to say to your confessor
as it falls to so many of us to do :' I have been say
ing prayers for three hours and more each day and
44 THE PRIEST: HlS CHARACTER AND WORK

I have not once got near to Almighty God since this

day week.'
The Divine Office.—Of our vocal prayers the
Divine Office is the most important, both because of
its obligation on us and because of its structure,
consisting for the most part of the inspired Word of
God. There are two ways of saying office : we
may say it as a prayer from our own heart to
the heart of God ; or we may say it as a task,
with attention and reverence enough to fulfil our
obligation. To say it as a prayer we must take
pains. The place where we say it, the time which we
set apart for it, the precautions against distractions
and interruptions, all these things and more we
mean by taking pains. Then it is full of interest
if we attend to it or read it as we should read any
book that was not a task. It is full of instruction,
it abounds in information. Why, then, is our
recitation of the office so often unsatisfactory ?
Why is it that if we want really to pray, to lift up
our heart for a moment to God, our impulse is to
stop our office for that instant and give our desire
its way ? The truth is, that one of our difficulties
arises from the fact that the office is so full of food
for thought that we cannot stay to choose. We can
not see the wood for the trees. Our chief obstacles
lie in its length and in its depth of riches. We
do not grudge an hour and a quarter or even a
little more each day to its fulfilment, but we cannot
stay to make a meditation on each verse, and in
practice what was given as prayer soon becomes a
mill-horse task. But is there no middle course, no
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER 45
compromise ? It is worth while trying. We have
to give this hour and a quarter a day to the office,
let us try to find some way of making it a prayer to
fill our own souls with unction.
To say it well we must choose our time so that
we shall not be disturbed at every other moment.
The Royal Psalmist seems to suggest the early morn
ing for prayer in the words preevenerunt oculi met dilu-
culo, and again prceveni in maturitate et clamavi ;
and our Master warns us in the words : populus
hie labiis me honorat, cor autem eorum longe est a
me.
If we are to say it intelligently we ought to take
pains to know something about it. There are multi
tudes of books treating of the Divine Office from
every point of view, and it is no part of my duty to
do more than name a few of the more accessible of
these. The ' Explanation of the Psalms and Can
tides in the Divine Office,' written by St. Alphonsui
Liguori in the last years of his life, and dedicated to
Pope Clement XIV., was translated into English
nearly twenty years ago. Later came Rev. E.
Taunton's English edition of the ' Divine Office, from
a Devotional Point of View,' by the Abb6 Bacquez
of St. Sulpice. The great work of Gu£ranger,
' L'Annee liturgique,' in its English dress is too
well known to need more than a mention. Batiffol's
' Histoire du Breviaire Romain ' (1895) is quite a
small book of some three hundred pages costing
only three or four francs. Here a priest will find
displayed the whole growth of the Divine Office
from the days of the Catacombs to the time of
46 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Benedict XIV. It is easy to read and will give him a

lifelong interest in his daily task.
Some priests have the practice of annotating their
breviaries, in some places with information, in other
places with a pious thought in union with the psalm.
If you think of doing this you must be on your guard
against marking too many at first. Take one in
Lauds, another in the Little Hours, and one in Ves
pers or Compline, and try to express in one word the
idea of the prayer or the psalm, writing that word over
it. If, for instance, we were asked to summarise the
three prayers in the Mass between the Agnus Dei
and the Domine, non sum dignus, we should put down
the three words ' Peace,' ' Perseverance,' ' A worthy
Communion to-day.' It would not require much
knowledge of exegesis to write above the psalm
Laudate pueri in Vespers the word ' Praise,' or
1 Confidence ' over Principes persecuti sunt in None,
or ' Desire ' over the Deus, Deus meus of Lauds. Do
not attempt too much at once, and above all make
your own summary, putting down what the psalm
expresses to you, not to some one else. When I was a
subdeacon or a deacon, I made the mistake of taking
another man's breviary and copying out his headings.
The summaries to be of value to you must be the
offspring of your own personality. Another sug
gestion is not to transfer one's old headings from
breviary to breviary, but to begin again. If, for
instance, in the winter quarter you had put headings
to the psalms I have named, when you come to the
spring quarter take other psalms. The new head
ings will be fresh to you and may strike new sparks.
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER 47
We are told in the Life of St. Joseph of Cupertino
that in his endeavours to lift up the relaxed
clergy of Italy he took for the instrument of his
reform the Divine Office. He foresaw that, if he
could get that prayer recited digne, attente ac
devote, everything which he desired would follow.
Composed chiefly of Holy Scripture, and con
taining the Lives of men and women who through
the ages have illumined the Church of God, it is a
summary of the Christian faith as well as a history
of the Christian Church. Batiffol shows that it is no
dead thing, but living and ever growing, absorbing
into its service new glories with each successive age.
[Link] Newman wrote when still' a Protestant, ' There
is so much of excellence and beauty in the services
of the Breviary, that were it skilfully set before the
Protestant by the Roman controversialists as the
book of devotions received in their communion it
would undoubtedly raise a prejudice in their favour,
if he were ignorant of the circumstances of the case,
and but ordinarily candid and unprejudiced ' (' Tracts
for the Times,' No. 75). It is the official Prayer-
book of the Church, and this book she gives to the
young subdeacon on the day when he undertakes to
lead a celibate life, and to give himself for ever to God,
cui servire regnare est. The psalms of the Captivity
might have been written of English martyrs in the
dark days that followed the Reformation. Super
flumina Babylonis, illic sedimus, et flevimus, cum
recordaremur Sion. In salicibus, in medio ejus,
suspendimus organa nostra (Ps. cxxxvi). The
undying hope of our confessors for the return
48 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

of their country had its prototype in the wistful

longing of the children of Israel for the coming of
the Messiah, the Orient who would arise, with heal
ing in his wings. The sharp opposition shown to
St. Paul by the Jews of the Dispersion had its
parallel for us in the days of the re-establishment of
the Hierarchy. The silent spreading of the chosen
people from Bersabee to Dan over the land which God
had shown to their fathers makes a pattern for us to
follow in pegging out new claims, in planting through
England new outposts of the Catholic Church.
Dilata locum tentorii tut, et pelles tabernaculorum
iuorum extends, ne parcas ; longos jac funiculos tuos,
et clavos tuos consolida (Isaias liv. 2).
But it is not in historical parallels and visions of
ancient days that our office helps us most. The
Psalms are the inspired Prayer-book of the ages.
They ring true to every chord of the human heart.
Tristatur aliquis vestrum ? Oret. JEquo animo
est ? Psallat (Jac. v. 13). If life seems to dance
with joy before us, what more worthy expression
shall we find than in the last three psalms of the
book ? If we have fallen, where is the act of sorrow
deeper and yet more hopeful than the cry of the
Miserere ? If we would have a picture of the just
man's daily life, do we not read it often in the week
in the Beati immaculati in via ? When the angel of
death has ' given sleep to our beloved ' does not the
Psalmist bring us comfort : ' Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His Samts ' ? They put
into words, these psalms, every thought of the
throbbing hsart of man, they reflect every phase of
 THE PRIEST AT PRAYER 49
his changing life ; in life, in work, in triumph, pain
or death, in them we find expression, comfort, joy,
and even the confidence that enables us to go to
meet our Judge.
The other division of the office consists in the main
of the writings of the Fathers and the Doctors and of
the fives of the saints of God. The Gregories of the
Eastern Church, Cyril and Basil and Chrysostom,
who strove with the half-pagan empire of Constan
tinople and its iconoclast emperors for the cause of
Christ, stand before us. We hear them define the
dogmas of the Christian faith in terms and language
understanded of the people. In the West, Ambrose
and Leo and Gregory speak to us from Italy, Cyp
rian and Augustine from the African shore, while
Jerome, standing between both Empires, translates
the thoughts of the East into the language of the
West. And men of action are there as well as men
of thought. The martyrs of Rome, the Apostles of
Europe, the sons of St. Benedict, the brothers of
St. Francis, the children of St. Dominic all have
their niches here : reliqua autcm omnium sermonum
Asa, et universes jortitudines ejus, et cuncta quce fecit,
et civitates quas extruxit, nonne hcec scripta sunt in
libro verborum dierum regum Juda ? (3 Reg. xv. 23).
Then comes, too, the array of Catholic reformers :
now it is Bernardine, now Joseph of Cupertino, now
John Capistran and Vincent Ferrer followed by a
long procession of the apostles of Christian charity,
Camfilus of Lellis, Jerome Emilian, Vincwit of Paul,
and the rest whose names are written in the book of
life. Women, too, find their allotted place in this
E
SO THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK.

wonderful book, as martyrs, as virgins, as founders

of religious communities, as patterns of domestic
life. Agnes and Cecily, Clare and Theresa, the
Catherines and the Elizabeths have each their own
glory in ministering, like Salome and the Magdalen,
to the needs of the Saviour of the world. To the era
of the Reformation belongs too a kingdom of saints.
Philip Neri, Ignatius Loyola, Charles Borromeo
and Francis Xavier, soon to be followed by Francis
of Sales and Vincent of Paul, show us how God
speaks to us in all ages in divers ways and is wonder
ful in His saints. The age of the Persecutions, the
age of the Definitions, the age of the barbaric inva
sions, the age of the New Birth, each has its galaxy
of saints who were raised up by God to leaven the
world of their own days, to guide the spirit of the
times in which they lived and to teach men the
better way. As day by day we read their Lives, the
panorama of past centuries is slowly unfolded be
fore us. We see their deeds, we read their words,
and from their trials and victories we gain new
courage for our own daily life. Truly a wonderful
book is this Breviary of ours. It tunes our days to
the music of its psalms ; it fills our souls with the
Konderful things of God. In our life, it reminds us
ever that we have not here a lasting city ; at our
death, it bids us look for one that is to come. Quam
dulcia faucibus meis eloquia tua (Ps. cxviii. 103).
Invocdbitis me et ibitis ; orabitis me, et ego exaudiam
vos.
Quceretis me et invenietis, cum qucesieritis me in toto
corde vestro.—Jer. xxix. 12, 13.
 5i

IV
OUR DAILY MASS
Ab ortu soli* usque ad occasum, magnum est nointn meum
in gentihus ; et in omni loco sacrificatur, et offeriur nomini mce oblatio
munda, quia magnum est nomen meum in gentibus.—Mai. i. II.

On a certain day in our lives, ever memorable for

time and eternity, were said to us the words :
Accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium Deo, missasque
celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis, in nomine
Domini. We went through long years of prepara
tion, we vowed to live a lonely life, that we might
say Mass, that we might be ' Massing priests.' To
consecrate the Blessed Sacrament, the priest was
ordained ; to care for It, to watch over It and
to shelter It. So it comes that he lives under the
same roof with It ; his first thought in the morning
is of his Mass ; his daily Breviary is his prepara
tion and thanksgiving for Mass ; his last visit at
night is to Him his soul is knit to—the Holy One
of God.
My object in this chapter is to help you to say
Mass well. Maledictus qui facit opus Domini
fraudulenter (Jer. xlviii. 10). Of the reverence and
care which are due to the Blessed Sacrament itself
ii
52 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

I speak in another chapter. Let me speak of the

Mass. Si offeratis ceecum ad immolandum, nonne
malum est ? et si offeratis clauium et languidum,
nonne malum est ? Offer Mud duci tuo, si placuerit ei,
aut si susceperit faciem tuam, dicit Dominus exerci-
tuum (Mai. i. 8). To say Mass well is difficult,
and therefore the Church bids us prepare ourselves
for it as carefully as may be. There is the difficulty
of routine. We know, we believe all, but it is not
easy day after day to brace ourselves up for the
effort of saying Mass really well. Then, again, it is
always an effort to unite ourselves with God in
prayer, but the strain is considerably greater when
we are told to do something else at the same time.
It might not be hard to pray if, ' the world forget
ting, by the world forgot,' we could just kneel down
and think ; but we have to stand up and do, and
that makes praying harder.
In their way the manual acts are as important as
the mental exercise. In the Mass we serve God with
the whole man. Eyes and hands render worship as
well as the mind. The senses express by action
what the soul offers in thought. The bodily
actions ought therefore to be so familiar to us that
they express almost automatically what the soul is
saying to God. We must know them so well that
instead of being a hindrance they should be the out
ward and natural expression of the emotions which
are flooding our souls. Bishop Grant used to tell
men to begin by getting to say Mass correctly,
and without losing time (andante, so to speak).
When they had attained these excellencies, then to
 OUR DAILY MASS 53
look and pray for piety and unction. The fact is,
that until the whole Mass is so familiar to us that
we could say it from beginning to end without
adverting to what we are doing, that we could go
through it, so to say, with our eyes shut, we shall be
hampered in our efforts after piety. Our attitude,
our hands, our feet, our genuflections and different
degrees of reverences, our three voices, will all so
occupy us at the beginning as to make it practically
impossible to say Mass with due recollection and
devotion. Hence I am inclined to agree with a
Father who, in an ordination retreat, told us that
we might well begin to learn our Mass two years
before ordination. If we had done this, when the
time came that we had power to consecrate, the
whole action of the Mass would be so familiar to us
that it would need no effort, and all our care could
be concentrated on what is now new to us, that we
have in our hands for the first time the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ. I never like to see a man
learning his Mass when he is actually saying it. If
you think of it, it is not reverent to practise on our
Lord's Body and Blood ; let us do our practice on
bread and wine, and do it to such purpose and for
so long that when we come to say Mass no practice
is required, no lesson is to be learned.
This perfection we cannot acquire in the last few
weeks when a priest is told off to instruct us ; two
years seems hardly too much. Say, for instance, that
you give half an hour (not more) on your week days
for your last eighteen months or two years. You
will begin by learning a good deal by heart, and
54 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

you will learn a little at a time of the manual acts,

and that little well. If you have reached the Pater
Noster by the end of twelve months you will have
done a good year's work. You will always take
the Mass of the day, even though, till the end, you
hardly ever go through it all. The missal, the
chalice, the altar bread, the vesting, and the prayers
accompanying it, will be your first lesson. For
your next section you may perhaps take to the end
of the Creed ; the eyes, the hands, the inclinations,
the walking, the two voices (the third does not come
till the Orate fratres), to use these so correctly that
you can go through this part mechanically will take
some time. From the Creed to the Sanctus, with
its variations for black Masses, with a ciborium or
a benediction-pyx, will need some practice, and so
on. Each day you will begin, not at the vesting or
the beginning of Mass necessarily, but at the section
where you are. When you have mastered a new
section you will do well to revise your work, so to
say, for a few days. It is a rule in some dioceses
that the clergy in their retreat should make a prac
tice of reading through the rubrics and the Ritus
celebrandi Missam in the Missal. Where there is no
obligation of doing this, I would recommend an
examination such as I have appropriated from
Dufrene's Decem Triduana, which will be found at
the end of this chapter.
It is true that all this practice will not endow
us with piety or unction, but it will make such
things possible in our daily Mass. Our piety, too,
will be fostered, and we can defend ourselves to
 OUR DAILY MASS 55
some extent against routine if we make it a point
not to choose always the votive offices and the
shortest Masses. Black Mass, by all means, from
time to time and for special occasions, but do not
neglect the Church's gifts to us in her Breviary and
her Missal. The grand ferial Masses, nearly forty
of them in Lent, with their ' Stations ' awakening
memories in us of young days, it may be, and old
world churches dotting the Campagna ; the Old
Testament lessons in these Masses and the fourth
or fifth century collects, written for the most part
against the Pelagians ; the Advent Masses, too, with
their lessons from the prophets, Isaias and the rest,
with their ' tender leaves of hope,' the looking
for deliverance in the coming of the Saviour-God,
even the Orient who would arise with healing
in His wings ; the Ember Days redolent of the
days of our own ordination and our young life's
offering to our God ; the Angelic Doctor's Mass
of the Blessed Sacrament ; the red Mass of the
Holy Ghost, so little recked of in our land ; the
Masses in honour of God's dear Mother ; the tender
pleading Masses for the sick and for a happy death ;
the collects pro seipso sacerdote, pro tentatis et tribu-
latis, ad postulandam continentiam, and the rest :
do not tell me of the difficulty of routine in the
Mass until you have sucked these dry, these aids
to devotion which Mother Church spreads out before
us. Need I dwell also on the charm and freshness
of the stately old ferial offices on the days when
they may be said ? How seldom does the differ
ence in time amount to ten minutes in the day
56 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Give the ten minutes to saying the ferial office and

avoid routine.
Another help to devotion is to say Mass every
day and to have a fixed time for your Mass. Do
not make a superstition of daily Mass ; omit it
if there is a reason, but let there be a reason,
and have the reason over night as well as in the
morning. If you are not going to say Mass, decide
over night, and then there will be a reason which
will bear the light of day, not mere sloth. It is
well also to have a fixed time to ensure your saying
it ; hence I am against the practice of having a free
Mass, as it is called, in your church. In practice it
will mean, if you are of the same common clay as
the rest of us, that on many days when you could
have said Mass you will have omitted it. Thank
God, our practice of daily Mass in England is almost
universal. In other countries the daily honorarium
affords a lawful motive for regularity. It is only in
comparatively few churches in England that this
motive exists. Here we owe our present tradition
and practice to the piety and influence of Wiseman.
In his life Mr. Wilfrid Ward tells us of his resolve,
on coming to England, to preach the practice of
daily Mass to the clergy as well as devotion to the
Blessed Sacrament in the Quarant' Ore and other
ways. If we have few intentions, we may well offer
one Mass each week, preferably on Sundays, for
' ourselves and our penitents.' The Mass pro
populo, of course, is obligatory only on the Bishops.
Our next help towards saying Mass well is the
preparation we make for it. Mundamini, qui
 OUR DAILY MASS 17
fertis vasa Domini (Isaias lii. n). The remote
preparation is our life ; that we should live for it,
that we should keep in a state of grace to say Mass
well ; that we should make our weekly confession in
view of our daily Mass. Our immediate prepara
tion will consist of what meditation we can make,
with plenty of aspiration and colloquy. (The official
preparation being marked pro opportunitate Sacer-
dotis does not seem of strict obligation.) With
these points, too, it will be well to remember the
duty of living in charity with our brother priests
and neighbours. How can we say Mass with any
devotion and real joy if we are not on speaking
terms with one or another of those at our side ?
Qui non diligit fratrem suum quern videt, Deum
quern non videt quomodo potest diligere? (i Joan,
iv. 20).
From our helps let me pass to the defects that
want correction. One of these is indecent haste.
' More haste, less speed ' has its truth in saying Mass
as in other things. Do not clothe Him as Herod did
in a fool's coat. It is a prayer, it is a clean oblation,
it is a sacrifice ; offer it reverently and so with
out hurry. You are standing at the Altar repre
senting your people ; you are speaking in their
name ; you are confessing their sins and your own ;
you wear the stole of innocence, the girdle of con-
tinency, the maniple of sorrow—fletus et doloris—
of tears of devotion. Do not mar these fair things
in God's sight by undue haste. '
A defect that is of equal importance is wasting
time over Mass. I do not call it wasting time to
58 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

say the prayers with care and thoughtfulness,

that we may extract sweetness and strength from
them ; the waste of time to which I direct your
attention occurs in the actions of the Mass, not in
the prayers. There are three times in the Mass
when, if they are not careful, men simply throw
away their time with both hands—at the altar
before beginning Mass ; at the offertory and lavabo ;
and at the ablutions after the communion. The
time some of us take to spread the corporal and
to rearrange it before we are satisfied, and the many
hesitations we give way to at opening the Missal
are worth noting. It would be good for some of us
to see how fretful people become under this in
fliction. Then the offertory with the lavabo is an
opportunity for wasting time which, happily, comes
only once in each Mass ; but the worst of all is the
loss of time at the ablutions after the communion.
I have had a long experience in hearing other priests'
Masses and I know. If the time thus wasted in
action was given to prayer I should not find fault ;
if it was occupied at the Memento or at the oblation
(Unde et memores) immediately after the consecra
tion, or given to the three prayers before the com
munion, I should bow my head in humble rever
ence. Begin your Mass with the resolution that it
shall not occupy less than twenty-five minutes or
more than half an hour. Keep moving briskly
(andante, so to say) until the Sanctus. Let the
Memento be a renewal merely of a Memento pre
viously made, rather than an attempt to call to
mind now everyone for whom you have promised
 OUR DAILY MASS 59
to pray. If you have moved briskly you will have
time to dwell on the prayers in which is offered the
immaculate Lamb immediately after the consecra
tion, and you will be able to make your own the
three prayers before communion, for peace, for
perseverance, and for a worthy communion. Then
a fervent Quid retribuam with all your heart, and
then, without loss of time, to the end. It is in the
actions, not in the prayers, that time is frittered
away.
After Mass comes the thanksgiving. The offi
cial thanksgiving, with its canticle, its psalm, and
its three collects, would seem to be of obligation,
since there is no note about it indicating option.
It has its advantage, for sometimes after your Mass
you will have to take Holy Communion to the
sick, or to go to the confessional. You can, at any
rate, first make this definite official thanksgiving
before leaving the God of the Holy Eucharist for
the God of compassion in the confessional.
Resolve to take pains with your Mass in your
early days, and its grace and unction will stand to you
during life. Dark days may come to you ; calumny,
it may be ; anonymous letters to the Bishop ;
failure in your work ; in the Mass lies your sheet-
anchor. As years go on, anxiety may dog your steps
and weak health grow upon you ; a new king arises
that knows not Joseph ; the day, as you wake to it,
has lost its freshness, and distrust as a mantle is
wrapping you around. Here is your joy arid the
dayspring of your hope. In your early days, when
the fever of youth was ready to run riot in your
60 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

veins, you kept your head and you were faithful to

your Mass, and your reward comes now with no
stinted hand. The Mass nas so grown into your
life that if you had it not, you would fain lie down
and die.
Two scenes, one from an old priest's death
bed, another in a layman's letter. ' It is only
when you lose it, when you can never say it
again,' said an old priest to me last winter in Guy's
Hospital, ' that you know all that his Mass brings a
man—at least,' as he added, after a pause, ' at least
this side of eternity.' The old man had spent forty
years and more in the priesthood as a missionary.
Attacked by necrosis of the forearm, he had come
to Europe for treatment. The London surgeons
had taken off his arm, and there he lay a-dying.
' I would give the other arm,' he said, ' if it were
possible that I might say Mass once more.'
And my layman friend and his letter. He will
never know, for he, too, is gone. It was early in
March, 1900, just after the relief of Ladysmith,
that he wrote to me. Some eight and twenty days
those men were in their last advance, sleeping in
the open, dirty, ragged, unshaven. His work, as a
young doctor, was to attend the fever-stricken sick
at the base and the battle-stricken wounded in the
van. Now it was Colenso and its madly galloping
guns ringing over the veldt ; now it was Spion Kop
and its horrors ; now it was Langwane ; now it was
Pieter's Hill, following the creeping lines to action,
out into range and back with the bearers to the
hospital, giving first aid to the wounded. But these
 OUR DAILY MASS 61

were red-letter days in comparison with the cease

less round of sick and fevered men. Now and then
a cheery word and a nod from Father Collins or one
of the other ' padres,' but never a Mass and hardly
a prayer all that weary time. A young man, like a
hundred others out there from our colleges, doing
his duty day after day with sick and wounded,
dying and dead. And then the siege was raised, and
Ladysmith was once more free. On the Saturday
afternoon, he said, he entered with the relieving force.
Grimy and battered and ragged they seemed as they
marched through files of the men they had worked
to save, looking now like so many waxen corpses,
past the saluting point, and so out into the open
veldt again, some three miles from the fever-stricken
town. The Sunday came. Two thousand Catholics
and more gathered with him that morning around
the priest, bare-headed, but ragged like the rest,
standing on an ammunition waggon. The Rosary
they said, and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and
the De profundis, for those who were now awaiting
the last reveille. But no Mass yet, this bright
Sunday morning! The chaplain's altar would not
arrive for some days. The service ended, my young
friend mounted his horse and rode into Lady-
smith, reaching the shell-wrecked convent chapel
just before the elevation. ' I never knew, my
padre,' he wrote, ' how sweet it would be to hear
the Sanctus bell again, to see a priest in vestments,
to watch his hands uplifted, and to shut out the
sight and thought of grim-visaged war and dream
of myself once more as a boy in the college chapel
62 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

at home, with all my life before me, and to thank

my God with a full heart for the joy of Mass again.'
Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quce retri-
buit mihi ? Calicem salutaris accipiam et nomen
Domini invocabo (Ps. cxv. 12).
Bone pastor, pan is vere,
Jesu, nostri miserere :
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere :
Tu nos bona fac videre
In terra viventium.

EXAMEN
Quomodo Ritus et Cceremonias in Missa observo
1. Num relego subinde rubricas, aut illarum com
pendium, ut earum refricetur memoria ?
2. Quomodo varias corporis inclinationes, pro-
fundas, medias, minores solius capitis ordinate
exequor ?
3. Quam accuratus sum in oculorum et manuum
caeremoniis ?
4. Qua voce juxta rubricas nunc alta, nunc
depressa utor ?
5. An praemature ad alia transeo, prioribus
nondum finitis ? v.g. incipione ascendendo ad altare
Oramus te, Doming, per merita, etc. antequam junctae
manus super aram sint posits. Quando dico
clausulam collectarum, per Dominum nostrum, an
simul verto folia et inquiro alias collectas : aut
dicendo clausulam postcommunionis ad medium
altaris transeo, cum tamen junctis manibus per
 OUR DAILY MASS

severare apud librum oporteret usque ad finem

clausula ?
6. Num ad Confiteor facio inclinationem medii
corporis profundam quae duret donee minister ab
solvent Misereatur ?
7. Forte oscula infigo altari ad latus, et non in
medio ?
8. Dicone Kyrie eleison statim recedens a libro,
quod tamen dici debet in altaris medio ?
9. Num ad Gloria in excelsis oculos levo sursum,
qui tunc non sunt levandi ?
10. An sub Dominus vobiscum deprimo, aut
elevo manus : vel oculis per ecclesiam vagor : aut
dorsum ad altare indecenter acclino, casulas turpiter
plicando ?
11. Elevone sursum oculos ad Munda cor meum,
ut rubrica jubet ?
12. Dicone perperam Jube, tfomne, benedicere,
loco Jube, Domine, benedicere cum ibi a Deo petatur
benedictio ?
13. Incipione Credo sub accessu ad medium
altaris ?
14. Flectone genu dextrum usque ad terram sub
tncarnatus usque ad homo factus est inclusive ?
15. Dicone praepropere orationem Deus qui
humancB substantice, dum calici vinum infundo ?
16. Offerone calicem intentis ad Deum oculis ?
17. Facione crucem cum calice priusquam abso-
luta sit oratio Offerimus tibi ?
18. Quales cruces formo super oblata : an in-
formes tantum circulos, ac si muscas abigerem ?
64 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

19. An cruces, cum signo meipsum, decurto, et

non ad utrumque humerum extendo ?
20. An rapide cruces formo ?
21. Cum ad Gratias agamus oculos sursum levo ?
22. Servone accurate interpunctiones in praefa-
tione, dicendo : Domine sonde, pater omnipotens, et
non uno tractu, Domine sancte pater ?
23. An verba Memento, Domine, profero altiori
voce, quae dicenda sunt demisse ?
24. An sub memento manus ori admoveo, vel
supra faciem usque ad oculos teneo ?
25. An sub utroque memento manus elevatas
jungo ?
26. Num oculos in sacram hostiam et calicem
intentos teneo, cum elevo ?
27. An calicem detego, priusquam secunda vice
adorata sit sacra hostia ?
28. An calicem elevatum pono supra caput ?
29. Num ad elevationem S. Hostiae manus teneo
inferius junctas ?
30. Habeone sub memento mortuorum oculos in
SS. Sacramentum intentos ?
31. Dicone voce media Nobis quoque peccatoribus ?
32. An sub ipsa genuflexione jam dico per
omnia scecula sceculorum ?
33. Num ad nomen Jesu Christi, missa in calicem
particula, caput inclino ?
34. An calice nondum cooperto, aut Sacramento
nondum adorato, jam incipio Agnus Dei ?
35. Num genuflexionem jam facio, antequam
plene absoluta sit oratio Perceptio corporis ?
 OUR DAILY MASS 65

36. An cubitum sinistrum altari impono sub

Domine, non sum dignus, quod esset contra rubricam ?
37. An voce media dico Domine, non sum dignus ?
38. An sub eodem alterum pedem retraho, vel
incurvo : aut corpus indecore contorqueo ?
39. Num ante sumptionem fragmenta nimis diu
et scrupulose corrado, ita ut nonnisi pulvis colli-
gatur, et in calicem mittatur ?
40. An pollices et indices super calicem abluo
solo vino, cum accedere etiam debeat aqua ?
41. An digitos tunc abluo, antequam dicatur
oratio Corpus tuum, Domine ?
42. An claudo librum, completa nondum clau
sula, per omnia scecula sceculorum ?
43. Vel num clausulam absolvo sub incessu ad
medium altaris ?
44. An ultimum Dominus vobiscum incipio ante
quam venerim ad cornu evangelii ?
45. An evangelium S. Joannis absolvo sub
accessu ad medium altaris ?
46. Si unus tantum lalcus adest communicandus,
num perperam dico Misereatur tui ?
47. An celebraturus diligenter inspicio direc-
torium, ne quid errem in ritu, et orationibus di-
cendis ?
48. An missale adhuc in sacristia pra:paro, ne
ad altare cum fastidio populi diu quaerere oporteat
in libro ?
49. An cum decenti gravitate, sine affectatis
gestibus, cuncta peragere studeo ut non vituperetur
ministerium sanctum ?
F
66 THE DRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

V
STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING
Attende lectiani, exhortationi ct doctrince. . . . Ins/a in Wis.—
I Tim. iv.

In the chapter on our rule of life, I appealed for

the two hours after breakfast for intellectual work,
and begged that they might be devoted to study,
or at least to reading of some sort, which would
include our spiritual reading, study of theology, our
own special line of reading, and the like. The kind
of study that may be fairly expected to have its
place in the life of every priest on the mission is
that which leads to and fosters an intelligent interest
in theological and professional subjects. Study, of
course, is not the raison cTHre of our life on the
mission, but it is a powerful help and a means
towards effective work.
First will come our spiritual reading, and it
would be well that this should begin each day with
Hoty Scripture. If you make a rule of reading two
chapters of the Old Testament and two of the New
each week-day, you will get through the Old Testa
ment in about four years and the New Testament
in about ten to twelve months after allowing liber
ally for the many times when you will be prevented
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 67

from doing the day's task. Scripture phraseology,

Scripture illustration, as well as Scripture texts give
a character and a force to our preaching and writing
not to be gained elsewhere. When he held the
Chair of Poetry at Oxford, Matthew Arnold pub
lished three lectures on ' Translating Homer,' and
he laid down that the great mine of diction for
the translator was the English Bible. It may be
true that our Douai Bible lacks something of the
literary attraction of the Authorised Version. It is
enough to say that if our sermons are equal in style
to the Douai version we shall have made our mark.
' Nunquam,' said St. Jerome to Rusticus, ' nun-
quam de manu tua et oculis tuis recedat liber' the
same advice that he expresses more picturesquely
to Eustochium in the rhythmical lines : ' Tenenti
codicem somnus obrepat et cadentem faciem pagina
sancta suscipiat.' Then will come your ascetic works,
your Rodriguez, Frassinetti, and the like, your Lives
of the Saints, and the rest, of which there is little
need that I should treat at length. In reading the6e
Lives it is a good plan to have on a card (your marker
in the book) three or four leading dates in the saint's
life, that as you read you may have a right under
standing of bis place in the world as well as an
appreciation of the virtues that adorned him. The
Lives which, in addition to an account of the saints'
virtues, give also something of the historical setting
of the man's doings, will help us most. Miss Drane's
books, some of Healy Thompson's works, Cape-
celatro's Lives, are excellent examples of what I
mean. Taken in this way, as well as edifying us,
F2
68 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

the saint will live before our eyes, will educate as

well as sanctify us.
Of the work of preparation for our sermons I
propose to speak in the chapter on preaching ; it
is important that I should say something of study
proper as well. There are men who really do read
through their theology after they are ordained, one
treatise after another, carrying out conscientiously
the advice given by those who treat of the priestly
life. But it must be confessed that this methodical
work is rarely found in mission priests, although
there are always amongst us some conspicuous
examples of it. Nevertheless, a man can do a great
deal who reads ecclesiastical Reviews dealing with
theological and scriptural subjects, especially if he
does not confine himself to English periodicals. He
will do well to remember that he belongs to the
Universal Church and that what is of importance in
France, Catholic Germany, Italy, and the United
States ought to be of interest to him. The man
who reads such literature keeps up his interest in
professional learning, even though he may not rise
to the level of scientific study. He cannot fail to
discuss these matters with his brethren to his great
profit and theirs, for it is a real grace if the habit gets
fixed in a clergy house of taking for subjects of our
conversation not persons but things. When we talk
of things, it is about them ; when we talk of per
sons, how often it is against them !
Another means of keeping up our interest in
our professional studies is the monthly conference.
I am inclined to look on this as most valu
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 69

able, while I confess freely that for the most

part it is an opportunity which is entirely wasted.
The duty of the proponent differs altogether from
the work of the other members present. Their duty
is to give brief answers to certain definite questions
placed at the end of the case, and, later on, to dis
cuss the proponent's paper. How often it happens
that the proponent merely offers a translation of the
case, and tells his hearers what answers this author
and the other gave to similar questions propounded
long ago. So the conference ends. Of light, of
information, of general principles, or of history
there is none. No wonder that men look on such
a conference as a waste of time. To make these
conferences profitable, the paper of the proponent
should be the short essay of an educated man, not
merely the writing down of certain answers to a
few questions. After rendering the case into Eng
lish the proponent should endeavour to show its
exact meaning and scope. He should then lay down
the principles on which the decision would rest, or
the points of doctrine involved. Every dogma has
some history and has its place in the development
of the Church's work. There are always certain
names, dates, Councils, and definitions connected
with it. Sometimes, too, we can throw a flood of
light on the matter if we can detect the germ of this
dogmatic belief in the teaching of the Jewish
Church.
Most of our cases are, however, concerned with
moral theology. The history of moral theology has
yet to be written ; but it has a history, and even
70 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

with our limited knowledge we can show something

of the different ways in which the Church has re
garded different principles in different ages. Not
to be obscure and vague, let me give a concrete
instance. The subject proposed to the conference
for discussion is a case of bankruptcy, and of course
is concerned with the treatise De Justitia et Jure.
Surely the members of the conference would have a
right to expect the proponent not to be satisfied
with translating the case and answering the ques
tions proposed. All of them come prepared to do
that much. It would be his privilege to show
whether and, if so, how far the Church had given
up St. Thomas's principle, prior tempore, potior
jure, enshrined as it is in her legislation, and how
far she had accepted the modern position. He
would address himself shortly to the interesting
problem how far, say, the English law of contracts,
bargains, bankruptcy, and the like, is binding in
conscience. <
Other cases are concerned with canon law and
discipline. Every law has, or ought to have, a
reason for its existence, and therefore a his
tory. The great bulk of decrees of Councils are
disciplinary {de reformatio™) rather than dogmatic.
To understand and interpret the law aright we
ought to know something of the conditions under
which the law was made, something of the state of
things which it was meant to meet. Let one example
suffice. A conference case is concerned with the
law concerning solicitation and the penalties, and in
particular the obligation incumbent on the one
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 71

solicited of denouncing the offender. Now here is

almost a direct interference with the natural law
which obliges us to secrecy concerning the sins of
others, and allows us to make them known only
under particular circumstances to save ourselves.
But to oblige one under all circumstances to reveal
the guilt of another and almost to proclaim one's
own shame comes near to a breach of the natural
law. In a conference touching such a law, the pro
ponent would tell us who made it, where did it
first bind, when did it become universal, what was
the state of affairs which this terrible law was meant
to meet. The proponent's paper ought not to be
merely so many paragraphs of Ballerini or Hurter
neatly done into English or a page or two taken
bodily out of Wilhelm and Scannell's ' Manual,' but
should be the paper of an expert on a professional
subject. Who is there to say that when our cases
are proposed on lines such as I have ventured to
indicate, our conferences are not stimulating and the
subjects suggestive of many thoughts ?
In addition to study properly so called, I would
ask you to try to cultivate a taste for reading and
a love of books. I do not hope that the habit of
study will ever hold its own in ordinary men against
the attractions which meet us in our mission life,
unless it is shielded and fostered by a love of books.
A. taste for literature stimulates the mind and so
keeps up that interest in intellectual life that is of
first importance if we are to keep up any pretence
of study. Hence I claim that a taste for reading
and literature generally, so far from being an
72 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

obstacle, is a bulwark and a safeguard to our pro

fessional studies. Such an attraction stands to
study proper in the relation which the Angel of the
Schools claimed for philosophy in its attitude to
theology : ancilla sei utilis. At the same time we
must remember that reading has very real dangers
of its own. There is a book-problem quite as acute
as the wine-problem, as the woman-problem, as the
money-problem, but it differs from all these in that
it is entirely new. Reading with some young people
becomes something almost mechanical, grows into
such a habit that they do not in the least care what
they read provided they have plenty of printed
matter. Let me then begin with what not to read
In our busy life unless we husband our time very
carefully we shall get none for reading, so that it
behoves us first, when we have made the time, not
to waste it. At the present day, owing to the
immense impetus given in the last thirty years to
what is called elementary education, the world is
flooded with printed matter which many call reading.
Our bookstalls, sometimes our own tables, groan
under magazines and halfpenny papers, that spring
up like mushrooms and exist simply to kill time,
supported by the money of those who want reading
which may give information or not, but which must
not bother them to think. Some years ago I went
to see a priest, since dead, who had a good deal of
time on his hands. I found that he had just bought
a second-hand set of ' Temple Bar,' and was dili
gently wading through it, wasting his time over
belated astronomy of the fifties and stillborn novels
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 73

by forgotten writers. It gave him occupation ; it

saved him from the trouble of thinking ; but was it
reading ? On the mission we get very little time
for reading, and that only at the cost of a good deal
of self-denial. Do not give yourself to ' Strands ' or,
' Harmsworths,' or halfpenny papers, or ' Comic Cuts,'
if you mean to read. They are destructive of all
thought—nearly as ruinous of education as short
hand or typewriting. If I steal from a witty friend
and call such printed matter not literature but ' tit-
bitterature,' you will know what I ask you not to
read.
A word about newspapers and topics of current
interest. It is our right and often our duty to
know something of these. If you look through the
daily papers to see how little you need to know
rather than how much you can read, you will save
much time for better things. In London and the
big towns generally you can get most of the really
necessary information from the placards, and, if
your tastes incline to the sensational, the posters
of the evening papers will generally satisfy you ;
but you will do well to be content with the posters.
Leave the papers themselves to those who are
interested in the odds on coming events, ' White-
chapel horrors,' or ' all the winners.'
To answer the question what to read or how to
read, I would ask you first what do you aim at ?
What do we read for ? Why do we read ? Dio-
dorus Siculus tells us that over the entrance to the
Library of Rameses, in Alexandria, was inscribed
the legend : V™^* iarpsiov, the hospital of the
74 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

soul. Our great object in reading is to stimulate

thought, to set the mind working because it is only
by stimulating our intellect and will by thought
and reflection that we become educated. Now the
chief food for this thought and reflection is to be
found in reading. We become educated men, or,
perhaps better, our mind and character are formed
and moulded by the amount of reflection and
thought we indulge in. It is only what we digest
that forms and feeds the body ; it is only what we
assimilate by thought and reflection that nourishes
the mind and forms the character. But, you will
say, do we not read to get knowledge and informa
tion ? Certainly, but in the second place. Our
object in reading is first and foremost to stimulate
the intelligence and so to train the character by
thought and reflection ; our second object is to gain
the knowledge and information necessary for the
affairs of life. Our knowledge and information can
be tested by examination ; the training of our
character can be proved only by the life we lead,
and will be finally tested and rewarded duly when
we stand at the judgement seat. Vvxfjs larpelov,
the hospital of the soul, the old-world saying of
Rameses, should be the answer to the question, Why
do we read ? or if you will have Christian authority
for my thesis, I will remind you of St. Bernard's
words to Brother de Monte Dei : si quis ad legendum
accedat non tarn qncerat scientiam quam saporem.
' Crafty men,' says Bacon, in the best known of
his immortal essays, ' crafty men contemn studies ;
simple men admire them ; and wise men use them.
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 75

. . . Read not to contradict and confute, nor to

believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and
discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books
are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some
few to be chewed and digested. . . . Reading
maketh a full man ; conference a ready man ; writing
an exact man. . . .'
I take then the young man finishing his course,
and looking forward to his new life on the mission.
He is determined, God willing, to keep up his studies,
and he is convinced that he will not do so unless
he keeps up his interest in things intellectual. How
is he to set about it ? He has resolved to be on his
guard against wasting the two precious hours after
breakfast—how is he to employ them ?
First, has he any favourite subject. Let him
work at it : be it chemistry or modern languages, be
it mathematics or astronomy, or any other pursuit
that stimulates thought. But if he seems to have
no particular bent or strongly marked attraction,
what line is most likely to appeal to the interests of
the average man ? An educated man, we are told,
should know something about everything, and every
thing about something.
To one who aims at this, but who does not claim
to have any special bent, I would say, take up his
tory and literature for your general reading. I
believe that for such a man this course of mental
development is at once the most attractive, the most
easy of acquirement, and at the present time especi
ally is eminently useful. It was the first Duke of
Marlborough, the great general and founder of the
j6 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

family, who said that all the history he knew he got

from Shakespeare's plays ; and it is enough to men
tion the name of Scott to bring before your mind
what his novels did for the Catholic Church as well
as for the history of his native land.
Such reading is easy, because it does not need the
same severe scientific training as some other studies
in order that you may be able to take an intelligent
interest in it, though, of course, to write history is
quite another matter. Indeed, it is commonplace
to remark that history is generally the subject
that attracts men who take to reading late in life.
It is valuable, too, because it not only exercises
the intellect, but also engages the affections and
calls upon the judgement. ' The proper study of
mankind is man,' says Pope. In history, human
nature is best studied and surveyed. Gibbon tells
us in his autobiography that his indiscriminate
appetite for reading subsided by degrees into the
historic line, and he ascribed his choice to the
assiduous reading of the ' Universal History.'
Now, when I say take history for your serious
reading, I know that to some minds history is
simply a dry catalogue of names, an appalling list
of dates. I am not asking you to take history as
you would if you were to pass an examination in
it. I am asking you to read it for a general know
ledge rather as men of the world read. I have seen
somewhere an extract from a letter of Macaulay's
that illustrates what I mean. ' I read, however, not
as I read at College, but like a man of the world.
If I do not know a word, I pass it by unless it is
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 77

important to the sense. If I find, as I have of late

often found, a passage which refuses to give up its
meaning at the second reading, I let it alone.' 1
As to dates, I would have very few of them, and
only the leading ones at first, the others will grow
up of themselves with your reading. I was in a
school the other day. The master was giving a
lesson on the geography of France. Did he give
the boys an atlas ? No ; he sketched the bare coast
line on the blackboard, and they were to copy it
and to put in six only of the principal towns. The
next day they would add six principal rivers to
the maps when corrected. So we should build up
our dates.
Then, again, Arnold of Rugby advised reading
history backwards, beginning at our present cen
tury and tracing our present developments back to
their earliest germs. The knowledge that the great
Alfred let the griddle-cakes burn is not nearly so
important to our lives as that Cobden and Bright
brought about the repeal of the corn laws. Yet
the earlier story we learn years before the later
pregnant fact.
Then, again, Universal History should come
before the history of each particular country.
Freeman, in his excellent little book, ' The Unity of
History,' drives home this lesson, and Lord
Morley in one of his ' Miscellanies ' complains that
in American schools the history of the world begins
at 1776, the date, of course, of the Declaration of
Independence.
1 Life ef Mataulay, chap. VI.
78 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

To trace back the history of Europe, to see

as in a great dissolving panorama our modern
Germany, and Austria, and France, melting slowly
before our eyes into the Holy Roman Empire,
to people again with flourishing Churches the
northern shores of Africa, and to realise that for
more than a thousand years the Mediterranean was
actually the middle sea—the middle and the centre
of the world's life and history—to note the gradual
progress of Christianity and civilisation up the
courses of the great rivers of Europe, the Rhone,
the Danube, the Po, and the Rhine, to watch the
Apostles and the first missionaries in their tiny
coracles, creeping along the shores from cape to
cape, carrying their lives in their hands, and then-
Master's message of peace and goodwill in their
hearts, is a study which can never lose its charm
for thinking men.
Or, again, watch the barbarians coming from
the trackless plateaux of Tartary in the East, or
from the northern passes of the Alps ; see how, as if
a locust flight had passed over the fair plains of
Italy, the whole land is desolate and the Eternal
City stands alone :
The Niobe of Nations 1 There she stands,
Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe,

and see the Church taming, civilising, and making

Christians of these barbarians through the centuries,
building up where they had cast down, and gather
ing all nations and peoples into her fold.
If nations and peoples seem too much like a
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 79
fairy tale, take the history of thought, the gradual
history of types of sanctity, the steady growth
of Christian pity and charity for the afflicted.
Take Newman's ' Development ' to show the growth
of teaching ; take St. Simeon Stylites on his column
and compare his life of suffering with the life of
St. Philip in Rome a thousand years later, and see
how one type grows into the other, and how through
all the web and woof of human history runs a golden
strand stretching across the centuries and binding
the ages together. Take one of these, or all, and
make your hours of reading hours of joy and
mental growth, but never tell me that history is a
catalogue of barren dates, a piecing together of dry
bones !
And yet even history may have its drawbacks.
While it is most desirable to have one chief subject
of study it is not wise either in the interests of intel
lect or character to make our devotion so exclusive
as to shut out all enjoyment of other subjects. The
late Charles Darwin records in his autobiography
that while in his youth he had a taste for music, for
poetry, and literature, and was not destitute of
religious feeling, in his later life all these dropped
from him. He took no pleasure in poetry or music ;
literature no longer brought him enjoyment, even
Shakespeare became dull and unmeaning, and his
sense of religion seemed to have wholly died out.
To use his own words, it was as if he had been turned
into a machine for grinding out general laws from
particular observations. The late Dean Stanley,
who made the study of history the occupation
80 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

of his life, lost in time interest in all othei

subjects. The scenery of the Alps, which in his
youth delighted him, he looked on in his age with
indifference. But scenes of historic association,
however destitute of beauty or other attraction,
excited his keenest interest to the last.
And now let me pass to the type of book I would
have you read. Newman in his ' University Lec
tures * fifty years ago pointed out that our English
literature, coming from Elizabethan days, is essenti
ally Protestant, but Newman in the forty years that
elapsed between those lectures and his death did an
immortal work in attempting to provide us with the
beginnings of an English Catholic literature.
• Be Homer's works your study and delight,'
wrote Pope ; ' read them by day and meditate by
night.' For us priests, put the venerable name of
the great Oratorian in place of Homer, and we have
a golden rule which will lift us and make us, as far
as modern English books can, worthy of our high
calling.
For history, for doctrine in its popular rather
than its scholastic form, for poetry, for devo
tional reading, we can go to him certain to draw
a prize. For literary form and finish where
shall we study anything more satisfying than his
essays ? To read a man's inmost thoughts, and to
peer into a human soul naked and unashamed,
where, since Augustine's ' Confessions,' shall we
go in preference to the ' Apologia ' ? For honest
wrath and righteous denunciation, where find
such scathing invective as in the suppressed para
 STUDY. A TASTE FOR READING 81

graphs of the Achilli lecture beginning with the

rhythmical lines : ' You are a living proof that
priests may fall and friars break their vows,' while
we must go back to Milton and the Elizabethans to
recall a subject in dignity equal to the ' Dream of
Gerontius.'
Take, as a concrete instance of the kind of
general history that I have suggested, Newman's
lectures on the Turks, the history of more than a
thousand years sketched by a master's hand in less
than a hundred pages. Take your atlas (never
read history without an atlas), look for five
minutes, say, while you are reading the first three
pages, at the map of the world, from the Bay of
Biscay to the Yellow Sea of China ; mark the three
or four conspicuous places that he names, and you
will have equipment enough for the magnificent
panorama of history which he spreads out before us.
Let this instance suffice. Much more there is to be
said that I have not ventured to touch on—our own
poets and dramatists, novelists, or historians. Still
less have I attempted to bring before you the great
French writers, and especially the modern men who
write such perfect language. I am satisfied if I
have succeeded in making you feel that there is a
taste for reading to be cultivated, that it does not
mean such labour as would be needed for examina
tions.
Such a habit will keep up your interest in things
intellectual and will not suffer your professional
knowledge to become fossilised and out of date.
It will bring balm to your soul when failure may
G
82 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

have damped your courage; when age is creeping

on and throwing you more and more back upon
yourselves it will render you independent of others,
able to live without the young and active who so
often have no time for us, and though a taste for
reading will not save your soul it will carry you over
many pitfalls and will enable you more assuredly to
help others to the Kingdom of God.
And an old age serene and bright
And lovely as a Lapland night
Shall lead thee to thy grave.
 «3

VI
THE PRIEST'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS
STRONG DRINK
Ne intuearis vinum quando flavescit, cum spltnduerit in vitro
color ejus ; ingrtditur blandc, sed in novissimo mordtbit ut coluber, el
situt regulus venena diffundet. — Prov. xxiii. 31.
I address myself now to three practical dangers
that will meet us in our lives as priests. Let me
summarise them in the alliterative words : wine,
women, wealth : the drink-problem, the woman-
problem, the money-problem. It is hardly my busi
ness here to preach against them or to denounce them.
I take it for granted that you wish to avoid these
dangers as far as may be, and I want to help you in
your endeavour. Besides the supernatural aids of
prayer and the sacraments, of which I need not speak
to you, there are certain safeguards in the natural
order—teetotalism is one, for instance—which are
worth considering. Let me begin by discussing with
you what should be our attitude towards drink. We
know that there is one remedy for it which is heroic :
we can become teetotalers and so put it entirely out
of our lives. We want to know whether there are any
other safeguards short of this, for there are some of
us who would shrink from this remedy, and, as
practical men, we know that heroic deeds will never
be done save by a minority of men or women. We
a2
84 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

are prepared to look the danger straight in the face,

measure it up, and then, if we can, ' out of this
nettle, danger, pluck this flower, safety.'
There are those among us to whom the history
of thought rather than of battles, of human tenden
cies rather than of dynasties, is of abiding interest. f
To such men it is fascinating to look back through
the ages to consider the different ways, to gauge the
various methods of which the Church has made use
in different centuries in saving her children from
sin. While she always had supernatural aids she
never omitted to use the natural means within
her reach. In the earliest centuries her method
was to run away from sin. The Pagan world
was plague-stricken with vice. She fled from it,
and the ccenobia and lauree of Upper Egypt
in the Nile Valley, testify to her first systematic
attempt to combat sin : she ran away from it.
Centuries pass and the monastic system is founded
on the same root-idea. She carries off her sons into
the wilderness out of the cities of sin to save their
souls. Next came the system of the friars and the
mendicants. ' I cannot praise,' said Milton in the
' Areopagitica,' ' a fugitive and cloistered virtue,
unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies forth
and seeks her adversary.' The friars will have
their cloister, their inviolable retreat where certain
dangers may not come, but they will build this
fortress of theirs not in the wilderness but straight
in the heart of busy cities and of the haunts of men,
so that, in Milton's words, they may sally forth and
seek their adversary—sin. Unlike the solitaries of
Egypt or the monks of earlier days, the friars would
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS STRONG DRINK 85

mix with men and try to save the souls of others as

well as their own, but they would always have a
refuge within the cloister where none might follow
them. Later came, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, the regular clerks of different congrega
tions, who abandoned the shelter of the monastic
cloister and lived their lives out in the open, seeing
the same sights as other men, breathing the same
air, facing the same danger to combat the evil one
on his own ground.
In like manner, in meeting our dangers at the
present day, there are different attitudes that may be
adopted ; we may run away from the danger, resolv
ing heroically at all costs to cut it out of our lives, or
we may train our bodies and temper our wills by stand
ing up to it while we gather about us such defences as
we can find. In the matter of drink, for instance, we
can run away : that is, we can adopt the heroic
measure of total abstinence ; or we can take such pre
cautions short of that as may render us fairly safe.
Doubtless this is different advice from what used to be
given to us years ago. It is forced upon us by the fact
that heroic remedies are never adopted except by a
minority. Teetotalism, or total abstinence, necessary
for some, is good for all, but let us look also elsewhere.
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out ;
. . . They are our outward consciences ;
Thus may we gather honey from the weed
And make a moral of the devil himself.
We have to avoid not merely drunkenness, but
86 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

any approach to excess in drink. It is not enough

to avoid excess ; we must aim at being quite tem
perate and moderate in drink. What do we mean
by this ? What, in practice, is this moderation :
in what does it consist ? Temperance means a good
deal more self-restraint than avoiding excess or
drunkenness. We should say that a man was tem
perate when at the end of the day or of the meal he
could have drunk more and enjoyed his potation,
without its taking any effect on him or without his
feeling any effect the next day. The man who
knows he has had enough, who feels the next morn
ing that he took as much as was good for him last
night, is not, of course, a drunkard, and was not
drunk last night, but he was not temperate. The
truth is, that the temperance in drink such as I
speak of implies from year's end to year's end a
considerable amount of quiet self-restraint and a
degree of real mortification not to be despised.
The man would like more, could take more, and it
would do him no harm either to-night or to-morrow.
The man goes without. That man is a temperate
man, and every day he lives he is strengthening his
will-power by his self-control in this matter.
Consider for a moment : ' Except ye do penance,
you shall all likewise perish.' This was written, not
for one age or country but for all, and it means
something more than the self-restraint imposed on
us under the pain of sin by the Commandments.
Multum quidem peccavimus
■ .... .
Concede nostrum conteri
Corpusper abstinentiam.
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS STRONG DRINK 87

But how are we to do this penance ? To dig, we

are not able; to beg, we are ashamed. How many
of us can keep the laws of fasting even in the milder
form in which they bind us in England ? Doubtless
we are quite justified in our dispensations, but the
question remains, How much mortification of any
kind are we doing week in, week out ?
Utamur ergo parcius
Verbis, cibis etpotibus,
Somno, jocis

If not in fasting, then, are we doing any morti

fication in sleep—the number of hours or the kind
of bed ? Little enough, I fear. If other things are out
of the question, we might do worse than fix on
potibus, and aim at this mode of satisfying God for
our sins.
In the Allocution which he delivered on the
occasion of taking possession of his new see, the
present Archbishop of Westminster took the oppor
tunity of expressing his entire sympathy with the
temperance movement and gave his promise of
active support. We could do much to second his
Grace's efforts by counselling the practice of occa
sional teetotalism, say, for instance, during Lent. It
is a matter of common knowledge that, of our
people and perhaps of ourselves, very few are able
to observe the Lenten fast. The poor man's work
is hard ; the rich man's health is weak ; neither is
able to fast. Year by year we dispense more widely,
until the fair vision of the Church on earth doing
penance during the forty days of Lent for the sins of
88 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

men is fast vanishing into space. Of every hundred

persons lawfully dispensed, it is probably true that
ninety-nine could abstain from all alcohol on the
fasting days of the year. It might be possible by
our exertions to create a public conscience amongst
our people that where fasting, as at present under
stood, is out of the question, the practice of total
abstinence on fasting-days would provide a fair
working substitute for it. We might even hope to
see the days when the fasting laws of these northern
climates might be recast and assume a shape more
adapted to our conditions, and consequently more
widely observed. Carnis terat superbiam potus cibique
parcitas. Our first safeguard, then, is temperance
in drink, moderation in quantity, such as I have
.escribed, and we must remember that this needs to
be learnt by practice. It does not come naturally.
Our second safeguard lies in the quality of what
we drink. It is not difficult to acquire a taste
for light beer rather than strong ale ; while clarets
and hocks easily become more attractive than
sherries and ports. As to other kinds of drink, it
would be well and not too much to ask that we
should resolve to be teetotalers as regards spirits
for the first twenty years of our priesthood—say,
till we are forty-five or more, and even then, if we
take them, to make a rule to go without them for
one week in each month. As a safeguard, then,
even if rather a Sybaritic one, we may learn to
look to the quality of what we drink, and the self-
restraint this habit implies will count for the profit
of our body and the good of our soul.
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS STRONG DRINK 89

It is hardly fitting for me to discourse on these

things, though, in my philosophy, they have their
value. I am fully aware that this is a way of
putting the matter very different from that which
was usual some years ago. God forbid that I should
say a word against total abstinence. ' You are
moderate now, in your drink,' remarked the father
to us in the priests' retreat at St. Edmund's. ' How
do you know that you will be moderate at fifty and
not a drunkard at sixty ? ' I did not know, and
I took the pledge and kept it for six years. Fifty
I have reached now, and, at any rate, I know that
wine and spirits are a danger to me. That much
I have learnt, and I hope the knowledge will serve
me if I live to sixty.
All the world over amongst the upper and the
middle classes in the last forty years the use of
strong drinks has declined, and people constantly
look for taste and flavour rather than strength. The
late King Edward was credited with creating much
of this improvement. It is said that he introduced
the practice of allowing smoking in the dining-room
shortly after the ladies had risen from the table,
and there is no doubt that the after-dinner cigar or
cigarette has done much to kill the taste for brown
sherry and after-dinner port. In his amusing
book, ' Collections and Recollections,' Mr. Russell
has the following story : ' The late Lord Derby told
me that the cellar-books at Knowsley and St.
James's Square had been carefully kept for a
hundred years, and that, contrary to what everyone
would have supposed, the number of bottles drunk
go THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

in a year had not diminished. The alteration was

in the alcoholic strength of the wines consumed.
Burgundy, port, and madeira had made way for light
claret, champagne, and hock ' (i. p. 127).
Sir Andrew Clark used to say that, if we
had paraded before us on Constitution Hill all
the rising men who are making their mark and
winning their way we should find one charac
teristic common to them all. As soon as they
begin to come to the front they find that if they
are to succeed they cannot afford the luxury of
strong drink ; the higher they rise the less they
can dare to drink. Clark was certainly an honest
man, and his experience of men of mark was second
to none.
And now for another safeguard : When to
drink, or better, when not to drink. A good
rule is to drink only at meals, not between
meals. To drink at meals is natural and healthy ;
to drink out of meals is a habit easily contracted,
but by no means necessary to health or even to
comfort. It is not difficult to accustom oneself to
do without drink between meals ; it is almost entirely
a question of training. At the time of the capture of
Cronje at Paardeberg in the late war, several hun
dreds of our soldiers contracted enteric fever because
they could not be restrained from drinking even
contaminated water when no other was to be had
between hours. A number of letters from travellers,
soldiers, and others appeared in the ' Times,' tending
to show that drinking between meals was not a
necessity, but was merely a habit that might be
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS STRONG DRINK Qt

completely eliminated with a little care. Even

at meals themselves there is a time when not to
drink. Do not begin by drinking ; put in some
solid food first. If you are dining out, the sherry
and bitters before dinner, the glass of wine after
the soup, and the rest, will be an abomination to
you. Lay a good foundation, and do not, by taking
alcohol at this stage, spoil your appetite and the
healthy pleasure of feeding a hungry man. When
you have done so, take what you need to drink ;
your previous self-restraint has earned for you
some enjoyment. At long ceremonial dinners the
servants have a way of filling our glass before it
is empty, and we have a way of idly sipping at
it when we are doing nothing else. The dinner
occupies a considerable time ; we can keep no
account of what glasses we have consumed, and
it is extremely mortifying to discover at the end
of dinner that we have taken far more than we had
any wish for, and that for the rest of the evening our
efforts must be directed to looking after ourselves
instead of enjoying the company we are in.
Mixing our drinks, too, has sad effects, as all the
world knows. First it is a glass of sherry after the
soup, then some hock with the fish, then an indefinite
quantity of champagne, how much you never know
because your glass is refilled before it is emptied.
Then, if you are innocent enough, you will take
a glass or two of port, and you are surprised
at the effect. Whatever old topers may need
to stimulate their taste, your palate and mine are
fairly healthy, and we can enjoy our ceremonial
92 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

dinner on one or at most two kinds of wine. It is

no part of the host's duty, or even the butler's, to
keep you sober ; that is your own business.1 Their
business is to put before you plenty of good food
and drink, and leave it to your discretion what to take
and what to leave. My discretion on occasion of
these long dinners always compels me to have by the
side of my wine a tumbler of soda-water. When I
have nothing else to do and want to sip, I go to the
tumbler ; when I am eating I go to the wineglass.
Lastly, let me say a word about spirits. I think
that doctors are much to blame for the wholesale
way in which, for years past, they have recom
mended to their patients ' a little whisky with your
lunch or your dinner.' They save their conscience
by saying ' a little,' but they sometimes make big
drunkards. If you must have spirits, you will drink
less if you never have the bottle in your room—
if you have to send for what you want. A further
precaution is not to have the bottle sent up, but
only the amount you mean to take. If you require
more, at least have to send for it ; do not find it
at your elbow ready to be drunk.
Such considerations as these are so general, so
pagan, indeed, that they do not appeal specially to
priests. They are the kind of points we might look
for in a new twentieth-century Lord Chesterfield.
1 As old Horace has it :
Prout cuique libido est,
Siccat inasqoales calices conriva solutui
Legibus insanis ; seu quis capit acria fortis
Pocula, seu modioli urescit lactius.
II. Sat. 6, 67
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS STRONG DRINK 93

Writing to the Ephesians, St. Paul says : Nolite

inebriari vino, in quo est luxuria (Eph. v. 18). A
general law of this kind was not sufficient for the
priests. In the Mosaic law we find that it was
prescribed for them under pain of death that they
should not drink any intoxicating thing when em
ployed in their sacred ministry : Vinum et omne
quod inebriare potest, non bibetis, tu et filii tui, quando
intratis in tabernaculum testimonii, ne moriamini
(Levit. x. 9).
Let my last paragraph on this matter be given
in the words of the wise Bishop Moriarty, speaking
to his clergy in Synod in 1871 : 1
' Cases of intemperance come, like railway acci
dents, rarely and at long intervals. We do not ex
pect them, and when they pass by we have less fear
of another. I can place such a subject before you
only to enlist your charity in endeavouring to pre
vent even the accidental recurrence of such an evil.
It is the only scandal, or at least the only source of
scandal, that we have to fear in the clergy. And
though we have had only few and isolated cases
from time to time, yet we all feel the pain and dis
grace they bring on our sacred order. Having often
reflected with sadness on this subject, I have come
to the conclusion, which is impressed on me with
strong conviction, that the prevention and correc
tion of this habit must be effected by you, by the
public spirit of the body, and by the private charity
of individuals. A Bishop is very powerless in this
matter. It generally falls to his lot to punish when
1 Moriartv, Allocutions and Pastorals, p. 225.
94 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

the evil is incurable. Priests only can apply an

effectual remedy.
' This wretched habit steals imperceptibly, some
times on the inexperience of youth, sometimes on
the imbecility of age. I am convinced that it often
reaches its full development without any conscious
ness of moral guilt.
' The habit may steal insensibly upon the best of
men, and it is only the priest of the same household
or of the next parish who has an opportunity of
seeing the beginning of the evil. In this, the old
saying is superlatively true—principiis obsta, sero
medicina paratur—because the moral evil partakes
of the nature of a physical disease.
' The correction of this habit, when it begins to
take root, requires the constant watchfulness of a
friend and monitor. That is what you can give,
and what the Bishop cannot. For God's sake,
should any brother in your house or neighbourhood
give indications of ruin in this way, save him while
it is time. To remember that you have done so will
be a joy to your soul. In addition to private cor
rection when the case occurs, there should be a
strongly expressed public opinion in the body, con
demning intemperance as disgraceful and ungentle-
manly, and, above all, as opposed to the stainless
honour which should adorn our state.'
Attendite vobis tie graventur corda vestra in
crapula et ebrietate . . . . ut digni habeamini ....
stare ante Filium hominis (St. Luke, xxi. 34-6).
 95

VII
THE PRIEST'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS
WOMEN
Volo cmJUl vos esse sicut meipsum ; sed unusquisque proprium
donum haiel ex De*, alius quidem sic, alius vero sic. Diet autem rum
nuptis el viduis : ienum est UK* si sic pcrmancant, sicut el ego. —
i Cor. Tii. J, 8.

After a lapse of more than thirty years I have just

re-read Cicero's ' De Senectute ' and ' De Amicitia.'
It is worth noting that in the ' De Amicitia ' there
is no indication that the possibility of any friend
ship between a man and a woman ever occurred to
Cicero. The only type of friendship which he considers
is that which may exist between man and man.
Women to him were little higher than animals. In
Greek and in Latin civilisation the position of women
was the same. In no way were they equals of
men. ' In the writings of Xenophon,' says
Lecky (' European Morals,' Chapter V.), ' we have a
charming picture of a husband who had received
into his arms his young wife of fifteen, absolutely
ignorant of the world and its ways. He speaks to
her with extreme kindness, but in the language that
would be used to a little child. Her task, he tells
her, is to be like a queen bee, dwelling continually
at home and superintending the work of her slaves.
96 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

She must distribute to each their tasks, must econo

mise the family income, and take especial care that
the house is strictly orderly—the shoes, the pots,
and the clothes always in their places. . . . With
a very tender and delicate care to avoid everything
resembling a reproach, the husband persuades his
wife to give up the habit of wearing high-heeled
boots, in order to appear tall, and of colouring her
face with vermilion and white lead. . . .'
When we turn to the New Testament we are
almost startled at the different atmosphere which
surrounds us. The pagan ideal that I have de
scribed is very far from the attitude of our Master
towards the women whose lives touch His. Read
the Gospel of St. Luke, and learn the mission of our
Lord to womankind. Note, too, that it is in this
Gospel, the Gospel to the Gentiles, that this mission
comes most prominently before us. And fitly so,
for it was amongst the Gentiles that woman was
most degraded. And first for our instruction comes
the blessed vision of the Virgin Mother of God.
Foretold in the garden of Eden, described by Isaias,
honoured even in a blind unreasoning way by the
pagan people who raised an altar ' virgini paritures,'
she comes before us in the Gospels as the type and
model of woman's life in the ages to come.

And, if our faith had given us nothing more

Than this example of all womanhood,
So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good,
So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure,
This were enough to prove it higher and truer,
Than all the creeds the world had known before.
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN 97

All Christian womanhood would henceforth be

touched with the grace and glory of the second Eve
Her daughters would be blessed in Her who was
Herself blessed amongst women. And after her
come Elizabeth and Anna, the widow of Nain, and
the sinner of the city, and the rest. See how they
pass before our sight, Mary of Salome, Martha and
her sister ; the impulsive woman who lifted up her
voice, ' Blessed is the womb that bore thee ' ; the
women who in life ministered to Him of their sub
stance and in the tomb would give Him of their
service, companions of Jesus, faithful unto death.
Clearly women have their allotted place high and
honourable in the new dispensation. It is for us to
see that they are not thrust aside. They have their
claims upon our ministry. These must be met and
honoured even if danger lurks in their train. Where
should we be and our work were it not for woman's
faith and woman's love ? Our own mother's devo
tion, our mother's faith, her life, her courage, nay,
her very belief in us, did not these things go far to
making us what we are to-day ?
Happy he
With such a mother ! Faith in womankind
Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high
Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall
He shall not bind his soul with clay.
Amongst the women who have claims on us
surely those who have given their lives to God
come first. Laymen sometimes wonder at our lives,
and fair-minded men are known to point to us as
an instance of the power of the ' Church of Rome '
H
98 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

to adapt means to an end. I wonder some

times how many of us men could face the com
munity life of the easiest of the female orders or
congregations, with its every-day round and its
entire lack of that change of occupation which we
look on as an essential of rest and recreation. Just
think of it. We may take vows of poverty and the
rest, but we all get change of scene and occupation
from time to time, and an occasional Monday off.
Picture their life and ours ; weigh up God's gifts
to us and His gifts to them ; compare our priest
hood and all it means to us with their community
life and what it can give them when everything is
reckoned up, and resolve to see not how little but
how much you can give them to brighten and lighten
their lives of ceaseless toil and little earthly recom
pense.
It happens sometimes that the relations between
nuns and the mission clergy are not so harmonious
as might be desired. This may be the result of a
bad tradition, the embers of a quarrel which blazed
fiercely enough half a century ago. Before either
reverend mother or I was born there was a feud
between our predecessors, now happily resting with
God. The reverend mother of that epoch is said
to have prayed that venerable priest out of life, or
it may be that he took the side of a rebellious young
nun who had unpalatable views on the subject of
manifestation of conscience : hinc illce lachrymce. Or
we are a little jealous because there are some sym
ptoms of joy that ' one of our fathers ' is coming for
the confessions next week. Is there not on our part
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN 99

sometimes that want of interest in their confessions

and of sympathy with their work that would account
for this preference for other fathers ? The fact
is that both we and the nuns are quite capable
of being a little narrow and of seeing only one side
of the bargain. It is, of course, true that some
times they are unreasonable in their demands and
do not sufficiently consider the priest and the limita
tions which other work puts upon him. They ask for
Mass at an intolerably early hour because reverend
mother must have her breakfast before the sun
rises. They forget sometimes that the priest is kept
in his confessional till eleven at night, while they
are in their first sleep by nine ; reverend mother
must have her breakfast betimes. On the other hand,
we are often grudging and wanting in consideration
towards them. We make needless difficulties over
a confession day for reverend mother's feast. True,
they want an additional Benediction ; it is their all
here ; and we sometimes go out to dinner. It
may happen that they are a bit grasping ; it may
happen, too, that we do not give the return we
promised. In general, nuns and communities are
very much what we make them. If we are careful
to fulfil our part of the contract it will not be
difficult for us to resist unfair pressure or en
croachment on our good nature. But sometimes
I feel that they do not get from us as much con
sideration as if they were the workhouse officials
who paid us, and less than we should give them if
they were the ' sisters ' in one of our big London
hospitals. Let us look to this, for it ought not to
H3
IOO THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

be. Manum suam aperuit inopi ; et palmas suas

extendit ad pauperem. Os suum aperuit sapientice,
et lex dementice in lingua ejus. Date ei de jructu
manuum suarum, ct laudent eam in portis opera ejus
(Prov. xxxi.).
Let me turn now from religious communities to
the women in our congregation. From what I have
said it is surely clear that, according to our Master's
teaching and the practice of the Church, women
and their work have a definite place in our lives as
priests. They can do much for the extension of the
Kingdom of God, and it is our place to make use
of the assistance they can give us. While we gladly
accept this help, we must remember that, from the
beginning, men and women have been a danger to
each other, and that clergy on account of their
obligation of perpetual celibacy are bound in an
especial way to take the precautions needful in
presence of this danger. Carissimi, obsecro vos
tanquam advenas et peregrinos abstinere vos a car-
nalibus desideriis, quce militant adversus animam,
conversationem vestram inter gentes habentes bonam :
ut in eo quod detrectant de vobis tanquam de male-
factoribus, ex bonis operibus vos considerantes, glori-
ficent Deum in die visitationis (i Pet. ii. 11-12).
From time to time in the lessons of the second
nocturn in the Breviary we are told how the Saint,
when a young man egregia forma, was tempted and
harassed by muliercula qucedam, and finally had to
protect his chastity by thrusting out the creature
with a blazing faggot—titione fugavit. We may
never be called on to protect our chastity with a
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN IOI

burning faggot, but certainly to us, as to every

virtuous man, woman will be a danger all the days
of our life.
It is a convincing evidence of the high perfection
which the Church looks for in her clergy that she
requires of them the heroic state of celibacy. It has
been argued that this perfection ought to be de
manded only of the regular clergy. But the Church,
taught by the Spirit of God, has decided other
wise. It is her discipline, maintained consistently
with slight variations since Apostolic days, that it
befits those who are admitted to Holy Orders to
embrace all the perfection which is involved in the
vow of perpetual chastity and the obligation of
celibacy.
Now the fact that we are bound to celibacy has
an importance outside itself. Celibacy is an heroic
virtue, and for heroic virtue we need high sanctity.
If I am asked what degree of perfection or holiness
the Church demands of her priests, it is enough for
me to answer that she demands of them perfect
chastity and a life of celibacy. This obligation is
so heavy, its extent is so broad, that it either pre
supposes or leads to a high degree of personal
sanctity. Non omnes capiunt verbum istud, says
our Master, sed quibus datum est. Sunt enim
eunuchi qui de matris utero sic nati sunt, et sunt
eunuchi qui facti sunt ab hominibus, et sunt eunuchi
qui seipsos castraverunt propter regnum ccelorum.
Qui potest capere, capiat (Matt. xix. 11-12). Our
Lord here compares the suffering of this celibate life
to the pain a man would inflict on himself by bodily
102 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

mutilation, and St. Paul is not behind his Master in

appreciation of its difficulty when he says : Castigo
corpus rneum et in servitutem redigo ... (i Cor.
ix. 27). Castigo, in the original ({nrtoirtdfa) I bruise
my body, beat it black and blue, in my struggle
to preserve chastity.
Granted then this difficulty and its magnitude,
how are we to come out winners ? As I said in
an earlier chapter, there are two ways of dealing
with such dangers—we may run away, or we may
stand our ground, recognising this struggle as a part
of the day's work, as a thing always to be reckoned
with, and avail ourselves of what precautions we
can find. To shun every woman, to make our rule
nunquam solus cum sola, and sit sermo brevis et
iurus, and the like, would be in this matter what
teetotalism is as a safeguard against excess of drink,
or as the vow of poverty is in the matter of money.
Like other heroic remedies such safeguards are only
for the few. Women have souls and we have to save
them, and this same saving them may well have a
large share in our own spiritual progress. The self-
restraint it will call for, the constant watchfulness
required ever to remember that it is as God's priests
and not as fellow human beings that we are dealing
with them, may do much to train us for that home
beyond the stars where there is neither marriage nor
giving in marriage, where all are as the angels of
God.
There are, of course, different degrees of danger.
Take, for example, the women who are pious and
refined, but of a class rather inferior to our own.
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN 103

These have education enough to enjoy our company

and to value our notice. It may be that we are
the only educated persons they know who do not
give them orders, and naturally they are more
flattered by any little attention than our equals
would be. The woman that is the greatest danger
is usually one who is neither wholly good nor
wholly bad. The woman inclined to evil, but de
siring better things, seeks us for the peace that the
world cannot give. As God's ministers we bestow
it upon her, but the evil spirit whom we have
exorcised strives hard to find a new home in our
own hearts ' seeking rest.'
Then, also, every man desires appreciation and
sympathy, and unless he is on his guard he is led
to seek it where it will be given with no niggard
hand. How often it happens that we priests play
all unwittingly into the hands of the evil one by
our scant appreciation of the other man who lives
with us. Poor fellow ! He is young, a bit unformed
it may be ; he has not yet learnt to stand quite alone.
Our want of sympathy freezes him. Have we any
thing to answer for if he goes to others to get thawed ?
It is a matter of common knowledge that the musical
priest has a talent, attractive indeed, but a source
of danger to himself as well as to those with whom
he is wont to sing. In all this matter we must bear
in mind that the danger is two-faced. Speaking to
men, one naturally speaks of the danger that women
may bring them. But we must not forget that
men equally bring danger to women, and we who
are bound to celibacy are under an obligation that
104 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

they shall not find snare or danger in our habits

of life and conduct. The danger on either side
seldom comes from malice. Its beginnings are in
weakness and frailty of human nature, and then
we drift—principiis obsta.
Likewise is the danger which grows upon us with
age. As years pass over our heads, the young people
see that we are older than their fathers and mothers.
They do not suspect how disagreeably young a
man's heart can remain when he has lived a life of
self-restraint, even though his hair is grey. They
feel a child's real simple affection for the father
they have known so long, and they are ready to
show it in all innocence of heart. I heard a priest
say once to an old man half in joke, half in
earnest : ' Tell me, Canon, when does the safe time
come in these things ? ' To us younger men the
old man had been known for a generation or more
for his rigid life, and he answered : ' When I was
young I thought it came at sixty or even sixty-five,
but now I know that the safe time will come the
morning after my death.' No time is safe, no man
is safe. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. Amen.
Nevertheless, there are certain precautions which
have their value. I speak not of prayer, of the
sacraments, of meditation, of a good life. All those
I take for granted. My object is the humbler one
of putting certain natural precautions before you in
addition to the supernatural ones of your priestly
lives. A man whom I had known as a good lay
man and a married man. lost his wife and became
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN lO$

a priest. I remember a saying of his which struck

me at the time. ' It seems to me,' he said, ' that
I have now to continue to treat women as I did
when my wife was alive. In those days I had no
notion of making love to other women, or winning
their hearts. I had not learnt what novelists of
one type assure me is the practice in good
society of calling them by their pet names or
being called by mine. When my wife had been
dead some time, and I went again into society, I
rather stood aside and thought it right to give the
younger fellows a chance. I had no desire to get
married again ; my secret hope was that God might
let me become a priest. What right had I now to
endeavour to gather around me the pretty, young
faces in the room ? I was not going to marry any
of them. I was " out of it," and made it a rule to
keep out. I used of set purpose to talk to the
mothers rather than the daughters, and I found
that if I talked about the children and their futures
I gave myself that air of wisdom which always made
me welcome.' I think that we priests might do
worse than take as our rule the code of a good
Catholic layman in the world.
Another precaution is to keep the women about
us in their place, and that task is usually accom
plished simply and effectually by keeping ours.
There are occasions when the priest is tired.
He is alone, and time hangs heavily on his hands,
and the habit easily grows of finding his way to the
kitchen with or without an excuse. Be sure of it
he is always welcome, but he will pay for it, as we
106 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

shall see later. Keep your place and your women-

kind will keep theirs.
There is some safety also in multitude. Two
women in your house are better than one. If you
are to take your recreation with women or girls
you will do less harm if you are with a dozen at a
time than with one.
There is a real safeguard in great candour and
openness with our confessor. I am inclined to
think that older priests are more ready to make
use of this help to safety than younger. It is no
question of sin ; no obligation lies on us of speaking of
dangers, but there is a real defence in making known
to him in all humility our weak points even though
we have never sinned. Finally let us realise that
there is no real safety this side of eternity. . ' Age
cannot wither nor custom stale her infinite variety.'
Neither age nor long acquaintance nor great virtue
is a perfect safeguard ; there is nothing for it but
constant watchfulness. ' Magnos preelatos ecclesice?
says St. Augustine, quoted by St. Alphonsus, ' sub
specie corruisse reperi, de quorum casu non magis
prcesumendum quant Hieronymi et Ambrosii.'
Where they fell, let us be sober and watch.
It is well to realise the numberless ways in which
we can be unfaithful to our vocation. It is not
as if we might be content so long as we avoided some
definite outward act of sin. Almighty God is a jealous
God and he will have no rapine in our holocaust.
• Crebra munuscula,' says St. Jerome, ' et dulces
litteras et sudariola sanctus amor non habct ; h<ec
enim omnia carnem sapiunt et procul sunt ab amore
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN 107

casto' (Hieron.'Epis.'). The constant gratificaticn of a

taste for love poetry and sentimental novels will ener
vate and emasculate us, rendering us impotent for
the big things God asks of us. The devil will show
us many ways in which, without anything tangible,
we can prove unfaithful to the promise we gave
when the Bishop said to us : Proinde, dum tempus
est, cogitate, et si in sancto propositi perseverare
placet, in nomine Domini, hue accedite. One indi
cation of this danger is a want of reserve and reti
cence in our conversation with women. Is there any
woman to whom we tell almost everything which
affects us or interests us ? Do we talk over with her
our work, our future, our ambitions, our superiors,
our brother clergy, our servants, anything, and
everything ? Surely there is something unpriestly in
such an attitude to any woman on earth. ' Be
not a friend to any one woman ' (' Imitation,' Bk. I.
chap. 8).
There is yet another safeguard, powerful indeed,
but late in coming. It does not come until we
have to some extent failed. This safeguard is the
punishment with which a jealous God scourges us
for our smallest lapses of this kind. He will have no
rapine in the holocaust we have given Him. The
temptation to take something back from the whole
burnt-offering is always there, and if we yield to it
He scourges us. Sometimes temptation comes so
unremittingly as to make our life a burden as we
wake to it in the morning and a terror to us as we
lie down at night. Then, again, to those who have
eyes to see, it is striking to notice how any inordinate
108 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

affection of ours seems to curse and blight the

objects of it. Watch their future and you will see
the truth of what I say. They may be innocent
and any fault there is may be ours ; but one of
our punishments is to see that somehow we have
brought them misery. At other times they punish
us themselves with their tongues, and the story
does not lose in the telling.
In His mercy God scourges us. He will not
have His handiwork spoiled. The good tree He
pruneth that it may bear more fruit, and ruthlessly
He lops off branches which are very dear to us if they
stand in the way. In Scripture He shows us this
method of treatment in His dealing with Lot. Lot
was dear to Him, but Lot was allowing the things
of sense to come between him and His God, and
God would have none of it. Two warnings were
given him ; first, his home was spoiled by the enemy,
and then came the fire from heaven, and he fled
from the cities of the plain a ruined man, and
the old man stood at last on the brink of the grave
a blackened ruin, saved, indeed, yet only so as by
fire.
So long as you are doing God's work you can
cast out fear. It is when you are beginning to do
your own that danger comes. Mary, ' the mother
of fair love,' will keep watch and ward and pray
for you, and if the storm of temptation beats
around you, like Peter on the water you will see
the Master's hand outstretched, and above the
storm will be heard the whisper : Ego sum ; noli
timere.
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN IO9

Et ut scivi quoniam aliter non possum esse con-

tinens, nisi Dens det ; adii Dominum, et deprecatus
sum ilium, et dixi ex totis preecordiis meis : Deus
patrum meorum et Domine misericordite, qui fecisti
omnia verbo tuo. . . . Da mihi sedium tuarum assis-
tricem sapientiam, et noli me reprobare a pueris tuts
(Sap. viii.-ix.).
110 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

VIII
THE PRIEST'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS
MONEY
Bcatus dives qui inventus est sine macula, tt qui pest aurum nan
aiiit, nec speravit in petunia et thesauris I Quis est hic, et laudabimus
eumffecit enim mirabilia in vita sua,—Ecclus. xxxi. 8-9.

One of the first difficulties which will beset a man

after his ordination is money, and usually his first
failure consists in the improper use he makes of it.
It is profitable, then, to consider what should be
our attitude towards money. To us secular priests
it is of importance that we should have right views.
We do not take any vow of poverty, no matter
how often it may be our lot to keep it. We have
money in our pockets, much or little ; we must
have the control of some, for we have to meet the
personal needs which arise in our lives. The control
of money, with the responsibility that it entails, is
of great educational value to us in the beginning of
our life. Hence it is important for his full develop
ment that a secular priest should not be left too
long in statu pupillari. Let him have, at any rate,
some modified responsibility as early as possible,
even if he begins by getting into debt. It is
painful to note sometimes an absence of any
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY III

sense of responsibility in a man who has reached

middle age, and is apparently sane and of sound
judgement. Usually you will find that such a
one has always had others to lean on, and that
if he got into difficulties there were friends to help
him out. The young priest has had practically
no money, and ordinarily no responsibility for
money before his ordination. The money comes
first, the failure second, and then is developed the
new sense of responsibility which does so much to
brace him up and steady him, to make a man of
him. Often, too, in his first years a young priest
lives from hand to mouth ; when he has money
it burns in his pocket until he has spent it, and in
this there is a certain subtle selfishness, for he puts
it out of his power to help others or even himself
in any sudden emergency.
The history of the Church shows us that she
has stood every trial better than the ordeal of riches.
Persecution bled her, but it left her stronger ;
heresy searched her and winnowed the chaff from
the wheat ; the barbarians from forests primeval,
with their lusts and their blood-feuds, swept over
her fair face, and she tamed them till the lion and
the lamb lay down together with a little child their
leader. But riches and wealth ! The history of
their working in the Church of God reveals to us
how nearly she was shipwrecked. The evil one took
the Spouse of Christ into his foul hands, and, carrying
her up into a high mountain, displayed before her
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,
saying, ' All these will I give thee,' and she would
112 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AKD WORK

have fallen down and adored were it not for the

promise of her Founder that the gates of hell should
never prevail against her. Riches a danger to her,
money a danger to us, and yet we need it and must
gather it for our work. Hence the importance of a
right view in regard of it.
The three dangers that I have called the wine
problem, the woman problem, and the money
problem, attack priests in varying degrees. Speak
ing generally, and with large limitations, I am in
clined to say that the men who are not merely
attacked but wrecked by wine or women are the
weaklings of Christ's priests ; the men whom money
wrecks are the strong men, the men of grit and
derring-do on whom the Bishop has a legitimate right
to count for good yeoman service in the Church's cause.
In 1888 came the retirement of the great Bishop
Ullathorne, whose long reign and wise rule had
borne such rich fruit in the Midlands. For more
than forty years he had been preaching sermons,
writing pastorals, composing spiritual treatises,
while a favourite part of his apostolic work lay in
the spiritual direction of many of the religious com
munities of his diocese. When the end of his
active life came his clergy gave him a farewell
address. What think you, in replying to this, did
he take for his parting counsel, looking back on his
reign of two-and-forty years ? What would help
them most, these men whom he had begotten in
Christ Jesus and was now handing over to another I
He had written on the endowments of man, on
humility ; he had discoursed learnedly on patience ;
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY 113

he had told the stirring history of the days of ' Papal

aggression ' and his own share in the creation of the
new hierarchy, and now what should his parting
instruction be, knowing that they should hear his
voice no more ? Taking the words of a great saint,
his last message to the clergy of Birmingham was :
' If the temporalities go wrong, the spiritualities are
sure to get into disorder.' Do not say, then, that I
am too worldly minded and of the earth earthy, if
I attribute immense importance to the right atti
tude towards money. At the least I am offending
in good company.
One of the saddest things I know is the wreck
of a promising priest through want of experience in
money matters : that want of a sense of proportion
which sometimes does not come till too late. The
Bishop finds a young man full of zeal and resource,
prudent and tactful in his dealings with others, and
well reported on by his head priest. The one thing
his superior has usually to take on faith is his power
of dealing with money, his amount of self-control,
self-denial—in a word, his power of going without.
From having £30 or £40 a year of his own, he finds
that he has passing through his hands at any rate
ten times that amount, and it may be much more
if he has received a really important appointment.
Now comes the test of his life, and to many it spells
failure. Go to that man some years later. Where
is the optimism, the high resolve, the courage with
which he faced difficulty when he was a curate ? Has
his zeal gone too, you ask, as you look around ; has
everything gone ? He watches you curiously ; he
1
114 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

knows what is passing through your mind ; the

dreams of his young days come back to him in
sleep, but in his waking hours he is embittered
and soured, a cynic for the rest of his life. What
is the secret of his failure ? There is no breach
of his vows, no excess in drink. What is it ? He
could not see that now, with his £400 or £500 a
year, he is a poorer man than he was with £40. He
had yet to learn that riches and poverty are relative
terms, not to be determined by what a man has
got, but by what he has to do with what he has
got ; that the poor man is not the man that has
the fewest shillings, but the man who is financi
ally at the bottom of his own class. The curate
with £40 may be rich ; the rector with £400 may be
poor.
Let me then come to the rocks on which we
may make shipwreck. All that might be said of
the commercial spirit in a priest will find its place in
the chapter on zeal. In this chapter let me say
something on extravagance and avarice, which are
the faults mainly to be guarded against : the lavish-
ness of youth, the avarice of old age. Alieni
appetens, sui profusus, said Sallust of Catiline.
Too grasping in getting ; too eager in spending—
there are our two dangers.
For the vice of avarice there seems less to
be said than for any other of the failings to which
flesh is heir. We remember from our days of the
classics how even the pagans, who made gods of some
of the other vices, detested avarice. We recollect
how the Roman poet gives the lowest place in hell
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY 1 15

among parricides to those qui divitiis soli incubuere

repertis, adding, quce maxima turba est (Virg. ' JEn.'
vi. 610).
Milton makes the spirit of wealth less attractive
than any other of the fallen angels.

Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell

From heaven ; for ev'n in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught, divine or holy, else enjoy'd
In vision beatific.

Avarice was the ruin of the one bad Apostle.

It ought to be most unnatural in followers of
Him who had not where to lay His head, and
yet often it is looked upon as the clerical vice.
Bishop Moriarty tells us that the laity hate the
vice of avarice in a priest more than any other.
' When they talk of a priest or of the priesthood
there is no more frequent subject of conversation
than our love of money or the amount of money
that we receive or possess. They will forgive a
drunken priest and give him help ; they would even
shed a pitying tear of sorrow for a fallen priest, but
they despise and hate an avaricious priest. Avarice
they never pardon, either in hfe or in death. To
them it is as the sin against the Holy Ghost. It is
quite clear that if the first preachers of the Gospel
admitted none to Mass who could not pay, and drove
hard bargains for their presence at the weddings of
the first Christians, the world would never have
been converted ' (' Allocutions ' pp. 61-63).
1a
Il6 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Spiritual writers point out that while our

Lord contented Himself with warning people in
words against other vices, He made a scourge and
Himself whipped the money-lenders out of the
Temple. He does not give special warnings against
intemperance, nor does He mention vices contrary
to holy purity, but He constantly dwells on the
need of disinterestedness in priestly work : Gratis
accepistis, gratis date (Matt. x. 8). Non erit eis
icereditas, ego hcereditas eorum ; et possessionem non
dabitis eis in Israel, ego enim possessio eorum (Ezech.
xliv. 28). It is worth our notice, too, to see how
the germ of avarice survives such antiseptics as
the presence of great holiness and the working of
miracles. Judas had lived with his Master for
years ; Ananias and Sapphira were in the first
enthusiasm of their conversion. In the books of
Kings we find a like instance in the history of Giezi,
the servant of Eliseus. The prophet had cured
Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy, and had stead
fastly refused all gifts and favours : ' As the Lord
liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none.'
But Giezi, the serving man, said within himself : ' As
the Lord liveth, I will run after Naaman and receive
something from him,' and he did. But the prophet
smote him. ' The leprosy of Naaman shall also stick
to thee and to thy seed for ever ! ' And Giezi went
out from him a leper white as snow. (4 Kings,
v. 27.)
There is also that other form of selfishness in our
attitude towards money which consists in extrava
gance. We cannot keep monev : it burns in our
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY 117

pocket, and moreover we are always in debt or on

the brink of debt. We teach our wants to grow
faster than our income, so that we are never any
better off. I have known men to be for years in
receipt of good and sufficient salaries, and yet never
to have had self-restraint enough to pay in their
subscription to the Sick Clergy Fund of their diocese.
I have even known cases where men have put off
paying the 5s. or the 7s. 6d. subscription to the
Deceased Clergy Association literally for the three
years of grace after their ordination. They had not
self-restraint enough to part with those few shillings !
If they fell sick their brethren in the priesthood
would doubtless, in their charity, have sent out
begging-letters to keep them out of the workhouse ;
if they died some generous priests would have put
forth a piteous appeal to the brethren for a stray
Mass for a man who had been too selfish to part
with the few shillings needed in his young days. The
way to become better off is, not to strive to increase
our income, but rather to diminish our expenditure.
The Post-Office Savings Bank affords us an excel
lent way of saving money and practising thrift. It
is easy to deposit money in the bank, difficult to
get it out.
Another indication of the laziness and selfishness
that go with extravagance is the reluctance to keep
any account of money. I am ready to grant that
there are men who cannot post ledgers, though
when it comes to a test and is worth their while,
when, for instance, the grant for the schools is depen
dent on a certain level af accurate bookkeeping,
Il8 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

the priest always manages to attain the necessary

•minimum of skill. Without being an accountant or
a bank clerk every man can put down in a day-book
on the left-hand side the money he gets, and on
the right-hand side the money he spends. There is
a peculiar form of insolence rampant in some men,
who are too selfish and too well off to keep accounts.
They will say blandly : ' Oh ! of course so-and-so
keeps his accounts ; he has a gift that way.' On one
occasion a young friend of mine excused himself for
having neglected his routine of preparing his sermons
and visiting his sick and his schools by declaring
that he happened to have been born tired ! The fact
is, we are all born tired, and we are all born selfish,
and we are all born mean, and unless we intend to
conquer these failings we have no right to become
priests, no right to impose on God's poor for our
support. You will get some money as salary, as
stole-fees, as alms for Masses, &c, quite from your
early days. Put it down and put down also what be
comes of it. If you are really clever, at the end of
a month or a quarter it will be possible for you to
add up both sides and see how you stand. Your
average life as an assistant priest in England is
about six or seven years. If you carry out this
simple practice for that time you will have laid
the foundation of a habit which will serve you in
good stead.
Let me remind you of the importance of
entering in a book, or otherwise putting on record,
the alms received for Masses and the alms received
for the poor. In the case of Masses, you will enter
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY 119

also the date when the obligation was fulfilled ; in

the case of poor-money you will enter the amounts
bestowed in charity.
When your turn comes to receive the charge of
a mission, and often before that time, you will have
sums of money small and large which are intended
for a number of different purposes. Experience
of myself and of others shows that it is a mistake
to make use of many small books for these accounts
—penny cash-books, and the rest. Have one cash
book, and one only, and put down everything in
that except possibly your personal expenses, of
which later. If you do not know bookkeeping
enough to post the different items to different ac
counts, it is a pity, but it can be remedied. A bank
clerk, or a shopkeeping parishioner will be glad to
do it for you, and all will come out right provided
that you keep your own cash book quite simple
and straight, putting down in it every receipt
and payment. Liabilities, of course, and debts
must not go down—only what you have actually
received and what you have actually paid.
Then comes the question of personal expenses.
Sometimes a priest is heard to say : ' I get no
•alary from my mission ; when I have paid my way
there is nothing left.' In a regular Order the per
sonal needs of the members are supplied either in
money or in kind from the community purse. In
the case of a secular priest a salary is given that he
may supply the same wants according to his taste.
In each case he gets either money or the money's
worth. What a man usually means when he says
120 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

that he gets no salary is that when the mission

funds have supplied all his personal needs as well
as the expenses of the mission, there is nothing
left. Quite true ; but for all that, he gets his
salary whether he draws it in a cheque, or in
clothes, books, and holidays. It is that he may
be able to pay for these personal things that he
receives a salary in addition to his house and sup
port.
With all this, cases, of course, arise where
the priest gets so little for clothes and other per
sonal expenses that it may be true to say that he
gets little or no salary. A friend here and there
may make him a present, which meets his modest
needs. Nevertheless, he will do well to put down in
his cash book on the right-hand side each quarter or
each month the amount of salary that is due to him,
as if it were paid and not to put down his personal
expenses at all. He is just as much entitled to
his salary as to his food, and, even if he does
not get it, putting it down or charging it to the
revenues of the church helps to show to himself, his
successor, and the Bishop, the true position of that
mission. A priest does not lose any money by so
doing, he is not worse off, and if the mission does not
meet its legitimate expenses the book shows the
amount that the congregation really has received
from the priest. The fact is, when a man is badly
off he is very ready to keep accounts. The man
who is not willing to do so is just the one that
always has money in his pocket and is by no means
anxious to know himself or to tell others how much
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS MONEY 121

he is spending on his own comfort. If you would

do your full duty by your mission and by yourself,
keep at least a day book (of sufficient size to last
for some years, and not to be mislaid), with every
transaction entered.
As a test of what your future in this respect is
likely to be, let me ask you a few questions. What
do you do with money now ? Can you save it ;
can you keep it for your holiday in the summer ?
Your Easter offerings, are they usually forestalled
by debt ? Does money burn in your pocket and
teach you what to want ? Do you create new
wants faster than any salary can supply them ? If
you do, do not accept a mission until you have
learnt the secret of going without. It has been my
happiness to know during my life one or two apostolic
men, men who cared nothing for money. These
men kept their accounts with painful accuracy,
but they seemed possessed of the strange notion
that, had they wanted to have money in their
pockets and what money could give, they would
not have become priests. There was a freedom
about their way of looking at life which was refresh
ing. You felt that they were taking the Sermon
on the Mount as if it meant just what it said. They
were in no wise solicitous for their life, what they
should eat, nor for their body what they should
put on. They seemed to carry neither purse nor
scrip, nor two coats, neither did they bow down to
the rich man by the way. Junior fui, etenim
senui ; et non vidi justum derelictum, nec semen ejus
qucerens panem (Ps. xxxvi. 25). These men had
122 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

learnt to go without ; they knew what they had

promised when they undertook to be followers of
Him, Who was born in another man's stable, and
was buried in another man's grave. Si vis perfectus
esse, vade, vende qua habes, et da pauperibus, et
habebis thesaurum in ceelo; et vent, sequere me
(S. Matt. xix. 21).
 123

IX
THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL
Omnium me senium feci, ut plures lucrifacerem. Factus sum
fudceis tanquam Judaus, ut Judaos lucrarer. Factus sum infirmis
infirmus, ut infirmos lucrifacerem ; omnibus omnia factus sum, ut
omnesfacerem salvos. —I Cor. ix. 19-22.
There are two ways in which we can fulfil the
obligations we have taken upon ourselves in seeking
and accepting priest's orders. We can undertake
the work which lies before us as a profession or as
a vocation. In each case we can fulfil our obliga
tions honourably. The difference lies rather in our
attitude towards our duties than in the amount of
work done. If we regard our priesthood as our
profession, we shall carry out the duties laid upon
us while at the same time our interests may be far
away. If our priest's work is to us a vocation
we shall refuse to put limits to our work or to
distinguish what is of obligation on us and what
is not, we shall say humani nil a me alienum
puto, and our embrace will be as wide as the range
of human misery. After the death of Dr. Creighton,
the late Bishop of London, there was published in
one of the monthlies a paper of his entitled ' A Plea
for Knowledge.' It was a lecture which he was to
124 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

have delivered at the Midland Institute in Birming

ham. In it occurred a sentence to this effect :
' I have profound pity for the man who con
ceives of his work merely as a means of earning his
livelihood, who feels that his true life only begins
when he quits his office or his workshop. Surely
we must all recognise that our life is mainly our
work, and that what we are must be shown in what
we do.' Zeal consists, then, not in the amount of
work done, but in the way we look at the work
before us, in the spirit in which we attack it. Zeal
may be described almost as genius was—an
infinite capacity for taking pains, putting no con
scious limits to our exertions, but doing the best
we know for the work in hand. ' Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do, do it earnestly ' (Eccles. ix. 10).
' The main secret of Macaulay's success,' said
Trevelyan in his ' Life,' ' lay in this, that to extra
ordinary fluency and facility he united patient,
minute, and persistent diligence. He knew well, as
Chaucer knew before him, that
There is na workeman
That can both worken well and hastilie.
This must be done at leisure parfaitelie '

1 Macaulay never allowed a sentence to pass

muster until it was as good as he could make it.
He thought little of recasting a chapter in order to
obtain a more lucid arrangement, and thought
nothing whatever of reconstructing a paragraph
for the sake of one happy stroke or apt illustration.'
We sometimes mistake the interest, genuine as
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 125

it is, that a man may take in his profession, for zeal.

That zeal in general costs little and is little worth.
Zeal of any value will concern itself with individual
persons and definite things. The zealous man hears
of a case, a family, a man needing a priest's help.
He will not wait till he can classify and label him,
nor will he delay until he has created a new organi
sation to deal with such cases ; he will go just
right away, as our transatlantic cousins say,
leaving his ninety and nine, to see what can be done ;
he will go before lunch rather than after dinner ; he
will go to-day rather than next Friday week ; he
will begin by doing, not by talking ; it will be time
enough to talk about the case when he has done
something with it. In every mission where there
is more than one priest there will arise odds and
ends of work which belong to nobody in particular.
If each man holds to his bond and his pound of
flesh the work will not be done at all, and yet it
may mean just the eternal difference between
heaven and hell. Take, for instance, the common
case of a sick-call that comes to your house, but does
not belong to you. The sick person is in the neigh
bouring mission, but the messenger has come to the
church or the priest that he happens to know, and
the person is seriously ill. It is true that there is
time to send the messenger from pillar to post, time
to explain to him that the sick person lives on the
other side of the road, and the rest, and that he
must find out another church which he does not know
in the opposite direction. Poor sick man, nobody's
child truly, only God's. The man of zeal will go
126 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

himself, and, having done what is needful, will re

port the case to the proper priest of the district and
leave the future to him. The head priest always
knows the man he may appeal to when he is in a
difficulty ; the maids, too, know the man who will
not make objections if they come to him with a case
that has no claim on anyone except Almighty God.
Again, we must not confound zeal with com
mittees and organisations. These things are good
and necessary ; there must be methods and organi
sations, but oftentimes they lead to a woeful waste
of time. The priest is often put on these committees
not because he is particularly wanted, but because
he cannot get the idea out of his head that
nothing can go right if he has not a finger in it. A
cynic defined the best committee as consisting of
three members, of whom two always stayed away. If
we can see how many committees we can escape
rather than how many we can serve on, we shall
probably save more souls, and the committees will
not suffer much.
If, however, we accept a place on a committee,
we must do our share of the work honestly. It is a
common complaint against Catholics, laymen as
well as priests, who are put on local committees of
various kinds, that they do not take their fair share
of the work involved. In some cases they never
attend ; in others they attend only when their own
interests are involved. Always in a small minority,
Catholics have to depend, not on the two or three
votes which they can command, but on their personal
influence with fair-minded men on these boards.
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 127

Such influence is gained only by steady, conscien

tious work, only by bearing our full share of the
common burden. If we would help our own to the
full extent, we must be equally ready to take an
interest in those of all other religions and of none.
To Catholics in such positions I would say : Do not
live in your own world entirely : there are fish worth
catching outside your net. Do not avoid non-
Catholic clergymen or local persons of weight out
of shyness or of distrust of their principles. You
will gain much more by being friendly than by
keeping aloof. If you are friendly, you may do
them good and break down prejudice. If they look
on you as a friend, they will probably be ashamed
of interfering with your children or putting obstacles
in the way of your work. If they are members of
boards and councils they may do you innumerable
good turns. Some years ago a priest was put on a
local committee for the Queen's Jubilee nurses. He
never attended the meetings and was eventually
removed to make way for a Protestant minister, and
now when the priest's presence is needed in the
interest of Catholic nurses he cannot get in. What
ever your own feelings may be, give those outside
the credit for meaning to deal fairly by you until
you have proof to the contrary.
The motive of our zeal ought to be the salvation
of those souls for whom our Master died. Our
motive will require constant watching ; on it de
pends the value of our doings in God's sight.
There are so many ways in which we can be utter
failures before God, even while doing much work.
128 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Martha, Martha, solicita es et turbaris erga plurima :

Porro unum est necessarium. We must be on our
guard to supernaturalise our work, and this we
do by seeing to it that the end for which we
are working is God, not self. Motives may be bad
or mixed, imperfect or good. It is very seldom in
our present circumstances in England that a man
works hard and unsparingly merely that he may
come to the front and get on. Nevertheless a man
sometimes finds that the motive of his work is
because it is his and no one else's ; because it is his
brigade, his confraternity, his school, and not for a
moment because it is God's brigade, God's confra
ternity, God's school children.
Let us see where zeal of this character leads ; let
us try to estimate its value as well as recognise its
particular danger for us. While pondering on these
things one evening, there came to me an urgent sick-
call. On my way home I stood aside in a crowded
thoroughfare. Barrows and stalls and benzoline
lamps, salesmen shouting, buyers pushing, while
here and there a man stood out on the pavement,
arms bared to the elbow, sharpening his knife and
shouting, ' Buy, buy, buy ! '
The priest who works for himself will have plenty
to do ; he will estimate his zeal by his success.
Judge him by the number of hours he works, he
is a zealous man ; judge him by the energy he
displays, he is a zealous man ; judge him by results,
the money in the plate, the number of heads at
Mass on Sunday, he is a successful man. A nation
of shopkeepers ! If we may use the word, he ' runs '
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 1 29

his confraternity, his work, his church, as the mer

chant runs his business, and his reward is a like
success. Now mark carefully the particular danger
of this success. This priest does precisely those
very things and avoids those very things which the
priest possessed by the spirit of zeal will do and
avoid. This priest, like the man in the shop, will
be regular and businesslike at his work, punctual
in the discharge of his duties, will leave nothing to
chance. With all these good points it is still
possible to find that there is nothing supernatural
about him. He does the same things that the
supernatural man does, but from a motive purely
natural—because it is his own work, because he
loves success and counts no exertion too great to
attain it. The works are right, but the motives
are wrong, and, not being a man of much penetra
tion except where success is concerned, it is long
before he has even an inkling that his labours are
for self and not for God. He sees his works and
they are good, none better, but for the rest he is
blind. ' I know thy works,' writes St. John to the
Angel of the Church of Laodicea, ' . . . . thou
sayest : I am rich and have gotten wealth and I have
need of nothing ; and thou knowest not that thou
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind
and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried
in the fire, that thou mayest be made rich ; and
white garments that thou mayest clothe thyself,
and that the shame of thy nakedness may not
appear ; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that
thou mayest see ' (Apoc. iii. 15-18). To how
K
I30 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

many of us do these sayings come home ; to how

few of us do our confessors ever think of saying
them ? In the lives of good, earnest men, as well
as in my own, have I seen this danger, and how
very seldom have they or I had a word of friendly
warning that our works were vain and of no account :
that we were labouring for the meat that perisheth.
Years have passed over our heads, years which the
palmer-worm hath left and the locusts have eaten,
and all these years we have worked, all unwittingly
it may be, for human motives and earthly ends,
and neither priest nor prophet has stood in our
path to make known to us that we had not yet
in our making a grain of the supernatural, that
we were doing God's work for our own ends. Pro-
phetce tui viderunt tibi falsa et stulta ; nec aperiebant
iniquitatem tuam ut te ad posnitentiam provocarent ;
viderunt autem tibi assumptiones falsas, et ejectiones.
Plauserunt super te manibus omnes transeuntes per
viam ; sibilaverunt, et moverunt caput suum super
filiam Jerusalem : Heeccine est urbs, dicentes, per-
fecti decoris, gaudium universe terra ? (Lam. ii.
14-15).
Zeal, then, must not be confounded with success.
God asks for zeal ; it is not in our power to com
mand success, nor does He ask for it. Ego plantavi,
Apollo rigavit, Deus autem incrementum dedit. To
what touchstone can we put our zeal to test
it ? Where can we strike it to see whether it will
ring true ? Success is not the test of zeal, neither
is the full plate, nor the crowded church. We may be
adding field to field, improving the property of the
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL I3I

diocese, bettering our church and school : nay, even

that supreme excellence, we may be paying off the
debt and winning praise in synod and pastoral and
yet not have zeal. We may even get approval—
no easy thing—from the witty cynic who wrote in
the ' Weekly Register ' a year or two ago, telling
the young clergy that the only books they need
trouble about after their ordination are a
Breviary, a Bradshaw, and a Bank-book. We
may pass the money test triumphantly—and, mark
you, the money test is a real test of work —and yet
be men without zeal. I know of only one test of
zeal, and that is subtle and difficult of application
by ourselves, though our confessor can help if he
takes pains with us. The one test of zeal I know
is the effect of our work upon ourselves, upon our
own souls. If we ring true under that test, then
are we men of zeal. Take the last year, the last
five years, and our work during that period. The
test is, not whether we have won success, not whether
our bank balance is larger, our church and schools
better equipped, not whether our numbers are
greater, and our name in the mouths of all men.
The test is : have these years, these works, brought
us nearer God ? Do we pray more, do we give longer
hours to God each day as the work grows heavier,
do we love more, do we ask for less return from
others, do we care more for God and less for success
than we did one year, five years, ago ? There is
a test that will not fail. It is a hard test, but it
is better that we should know now than learn our
132 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

failure for the first time at the judgement seat of

God.
In the twelfth century there was an Arch
bishop of Canterbury named Baldwin. He had been
a Cistercian monk and had won for himself quite
early in life a well-deserved reputation for sanctity.
While still quite young he was made abbot. Later
he became a bishop, and finally he was raised to
the Primatial See. The Pope had occasion to write
to him, and addressed him thus : ' Baldwino monacho
ferventi, Abbati calido, Episcopo tepido, Archiepiscopo
frigido.' And this test, what does it reveal to us ?
During these five years have we become zealous men
or are we Baldwins ? As I have said earlier, it is very
rare in these days to ordain a man who has not a
high ideal of his calling. Yet how many Baldwins
we are. It is so easy for a man to be full of zeal
and good work for six months. The novelty of the
thing is enough. But see him three years, six years
after, and what may we sometimes find ? Quomodo
obscuratum est aurum, mutatus est color optimus ?
Filii Sion inclyti, et amicti auro primo, quomodo
reputati sunt in vasa testea, opus manuum figuli ?
(Lam. iv. i). Not only has he developed into an
imperfect priest, but what startles us is to discover
that he is willing to remain in his tepidity, prepared
now to be an imperfect priest.
What is the history of this change ? Inter
course with the world, the struggle of life, the
res angusta domi it may be, the eternal quest for
pence, or something of all these together dragged
him down first. With the misery and imperfection
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 133

of his days there came inevitably the discrep

ancy between the reality and the ideal which he
had set up for his guidance in life. He cannot
be at peace as he is. and to attain peace he
must do one of two things : he may lament his
shortcomings and renew the struggle onwards and
upwards and so find peace ; he may go into re
treat and so regain his standard and get back his
weights and measures ; or he may find peace and
do away with the discrepancy between the ideal
and the real, by lowering his standard and pull
ing down his ideal to the level of the real, and
so obtain peace by being content now to live as
an imperfect priest. ' Peace, peace, and there was
no peace.' He is soon told, and soon he is ready
to argue, that he is a secular priest and so not
bound to aspire to the perfection of the religious
state. The saying, true enough, is beside the mark.
It is enough for my purpose to say that he is a
priest of God.
Oh ! the pity of it. Others have helped him.
His young piety was not pretty and gave oppor
tunities. Some sneered at his ideals, feeling them
selves rebuked by his life ; others said : ' Oh !
yes, it is all very well for the seminary, but
when a man comes on the mission he soon finds
out that these things are impossible.' Impossible !
Why the very word settles the matter ; it is outside
discussion—impossible ! What wonder if he sinks
to the level of his company. I have been told that
in the army men can predict with fair accuracy the
future career of a subaltern from the set towards
 134 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

which he gravitates during the first few months after

he joins. In the priesthood there must be different
sets and various strata as in every other profession.
And so he sinks, so it happens that he is not merely
imperfect but content to remain so. No single
confession, no isolated resolution will put right that
young man's life. Nothing but a retreat will
do what is needed. For him it is not merely to
repent and begin again. He has to change the
whole of his view of life. He has gone utterly
wrong in his judgement of things. He has to get
his bearings correct, and nothing but a retreat will
do that for him. Ducam eam in solitudinem, et
loquar ad cor ejus (Osee ii. 14).
In the Acts of the Apostles we have an instance
of this need and value of a retreat. In the ninth
chapter we read of Saul of Tarsus breathing forth
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of
the Lord and going to Damascus to drag them back
in chains to Jerusalem. Outside Damascus he is
struck down. ' Who art thou, Lord ?' 'I am Jesus
whom thou dost -persecute? Now note Saul's next
words and the reply they elicit, for these bring out the
point I am insisting on. ' Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do ?' Paul confesses ; he is utterly, entirely
i wrong, and in that noble way of his submits at once.
No excuses, no explanations, no palliations ; absolute,
unqualified submission ! All his life has been woven
wrong. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?
How does the Master treat him ? This one con
fession, this one grand act of submission, is it
enough ? Will that Master give him something to
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 135

do in return for such an act of sorrow ? Truly it

counts for him unto forgiveness of the past, but
there is the future to be faced. The whole of
Saul's life was wrong, built on false lines, and
there is nothing for it but to pull it down and re
build it. No one act of contrition, grand as it is,
is enough, and so the word comes : ' Arise, go into
the city ; there it shall be told thee what thou must do.'
With feeble hands outstretched, trembling, and
sightless, he is led into the city. Three days he
remains there, blind and dumb, neither eating nor
drinking. And then, his retreat ended, he is baptized.
And yet he is not ready for his work. A vessel of
election to the Gentiles, to kings, and to the children
of Israel he will be, but he is not ready yet. Three
years he will spend in Arabia, communing in secret,
adjusting his levels, finding his new bearings, re
building that strenuous life of his, this time to the
Christian pattern. Benjamin lupus rapax ! So with
the soul I have put before you. No one confession,
however earnest, will mend that life for good.
Nothing but a retreat will straighten out what has
grown so crooked. Hence it is that the first retreat
a priest makes after his ordination is of such excep
tional importance. He knows now the dangers of
the life and the weakness of his safeguards, and, if
need be, it is not too late to pull down and to begin
to build up again.
I have now put before you the nature of zeal,
the counterfeits of zeal, and the test of zeal. There
now remains for me to say something of the objects
of our zeal.
136 THE PKIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Our zeal will impel us to look first after the

sinner, to bring him to a sense of his guilt, to lead
him to better things, to show him the more excel
lent way. ' I am come to call not the just but sinners
to repentance.'' The priest of zeal is impelled to
leave the ninety and nine and to seek after the one
lost sheep. A great truth, doubtless, that the
greater need a soul is in the greater its claim on us.
Nevertheless, we must not strain this saying. People
that are in the grace of God have their claims
too, even though they are more ordinary and less
interesting. Most of our work will be with common
souls and humdrum lives. The fact is that many
of us have had the claims of sinners so dinned into
our ears that we are in danger of forgetting the
rightful claims of the saints of our congregation. I
remember a retreat given at St. Edmund's College
more than twenty years ago when this spirit was
very rife. The good father, in the peroration of his
instruction on zeal, bade us look for ' virgin souls,'
and by 'virgin souls' he meant, he said, those souls
which had never had the hand of absolution raised
over them !
There is danger sometimes of sneering at the
pious people and criticising our ' saints ' ; ostenta
tiously belittling them and boasting of our neglect
of them. My belief is that sometimes we do too
much to save the boy and too little to make him
save himself. To hear some men talk one would
be inclined to think that no girl or woman had a
claim upon our ministry if she had not lost her
virtue. Do your best for the sinner that does not
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 137

want you. Weary and disheartening as the work

is, you will get your reward ; but do not forget the
pious penitent or the good lad who is trying to
save his own soul. They are not unworthy of your
care. It is quite true that our pious penitents
are often troublesome ; they are no more perfect
than we are. Still, they have claims, and while
some may be a grievous burden, as a class they are
our mainstay.
It is our saints, not our sinners, who build
our churches and pay off the debt ; it is our saints
who beg week after week for the schools and
extend the Kingdom of God. It is to saints,
whether they be our parents or pious benefactors,
that we owe our education and our priesthood ; it
is the saints who have made possible our ministra
tions to the sinner, to the drunkard, to the adulterer,
to the hooligan, to the fallen woman, to the pick
pocket. In novels or Byronic poems, or on the
lips of eloquent preachers, sinners are very pic
turesque. Properly written up, painted, or preached,
they are far more interesting than any saints of my
acquaintance. Esau, the hunter, is a more attrac
tive figure than Jacob, the plain man dwelling in
tents.
In practice, however, my sinners are quite
commonplace and by no means desirable. The lazy
out-of-work who loafs at the corner of his favourite
public-house half the day, leaving the wife to slave
to get bread for the children ; the little woman, quiet
and plausible, who will lie and lie and lie again to
your face, and when she has got the shilling will
138 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

drink it and come back with another lie to-morrow ;

the sordid fellow who will make love to the house
maids and rob them of their wages ; the bully of the
streets ; the smug respectable Pecksniffian swindler ;
the private money-lender who ministers to the wife's
extravagance ; the foremen or forewomen who grind
down the hands and then cheat their masters ; the
men and women with stories of darker hue needless
to describe—these are the sinners that I have to do
with in my every day unromantic life. They have
souls, and my Master died for them, and we must
work for them, suffer for them, answer for them,
and save them when we can ; but they will never
fight our battles nor keep our churches open nor
build our schools.
It is on the men and women who live on their
sacraments and are willing to support their church
that our ministry rests, and these come chiefly from
the good boys and girls who were best at home
and at school, regular at Mass, and training them
selves for self-denying, honourable lives. To
them and their forebears we owe it that we are
priests at all, that we have a church and a
'school in which to save souls and teach our little
ones the way to God. Work for the sinner with
might and main ; catch him, save him if he gives
you half a chance ; never spare yourself if you
can detect one grain of self-denial, one little bud
of a desire for better things, but remember to the
end that you cannot save him against his own will.
And when you have done your part, remember that
there are others too besides the prodigal. The
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL 139

elder brother in the parable, in spite of his limita

tions, had his claims. It was to Jacob, the plain
man dwelling in tents, a bit of a coward, perhaps,
and not to Esau, the brave, bold, skilful hunter, that
the Promise was given. >
And now, before I end this part of my subject,
let me turn my thoughts for a moment to my
brother, the lonely priest, who has few of the helps
which I have been describing to sweeten and keep
wholesome his priestly life. To some men the
life of loneliness is indescribably hard. Occupa
tion wanting, pleasant intercourse with others want
ing, money wanting, work not to be created save
by genius or by something nearly as rare, what
is such a one to do ? How is he to get through
the six days that intervene between Sunday and
Sunday, when he sees again human faces of his
own kith and kin turning towards him while he
breaks to them the bread of life ?
Here, let me confess it honestly, experience
fails me and books are dumb. Dr. Barry tells us in
his ' Newman ' that ' all great literature is autobio
graphy.' I suppose that every book is autobio
graphical in its limitations. I have said nothing of
the priest face to face with intellectual difficulties ;
nothing of that other as he holds a brief for the
Church in a roomful of keen-eyed thoughtful men ;
nothing of the young man with no taste for books,
eating out his heart in a lonely mission, wearily
longing to be up and doing. These things and
others have never touched my life. At times I have
stood and watched them wide-eyed and wonder
140 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

ing, but only dimly reading the picture before

me. To help others in these straits the texture
of my soul is too hard, my sympathy too narrow.
My life has had too much happiness, too little
pain. Every morning, as I rose to greet it, brought
me new interests ; every night, as I lay down,
came with dreams of the morrow. What am I
to say to my lonely brother, who am I, to dare
to help him ? Nearly forty years ago two small
boys were quarrelling. The elder had found fault
with the younger for some supposed failure to
do his duty. The younger, in defending himself,
flashed out: 'you are nothing but another "Tom
Tulliver," ' and it was true ! I have never forgotten
the saying, or my hardness in judging others where
if I have not failed it is because I have not been
tried. Want of money a difficulty ; want of society
a greater ; want of work greatest of all. I can
not help the lonely priest to money, still less to
society; but I can suggest that if he cannot find
work, at least he may try to find occupation.
One of the busiest men I ever met was a
priest who had no school and only some forty
souls to care for. He had not work, but he was
always occupied. Bishop Butt told me that when
he went to Arundel in the fifties he soon found
that he must learn to waste time intelligently.
He could not do more than a certain amount of
visiting in his district ; gardening was irksome in
the winter ; so he betook himself to chemistry,
rendering the house uninhabitable with fearful and
wonderful smells. Another man I knew whose
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL I41

mission revenues came from a few cottages. These

he kept in good repair himself, and after many
failures became quite a decent carpenter. Every
man can handle a paint-brush, and most men can
dig a garden. Some men have reared poultry,
and others have bred shorthorns. Such things as
these at any rate give occupation, and are suggested
as rest and change from our priestly work. But
there is also reading, and even, let me add, writing.
' No taste for books,' you say. Well, but such
a taste is to be acquired. We all have to begin.
If we have not the reading habit, nevertheless it
may be won, and with less mortification than is
implied in the fulfilment of the duties of our state
of life.
Two points are worth remembering. First, not
to attempt much at first, and to begin the day,
when we are brightest and at our best, with our
new venture. A man is taken suddenly from all
the interests, lights and shadows, of a big town
mission and flung into Sleepy Hollow. If you
can get him to begin each day with one hour's
solid reading or writing, you will have gone far
to make his life glow with interest. A man I
knew was a good athlete and interested in all
forms of sport. He recognised that if he were
to be a good priest he must cultivate the read
ing habit. He set himself to read Alison's ' History
of Europe,' reading for one hour a day. Long
before he was within sight of the later volumes
he found himself busily engaged reading other
books on the same period, and now, while the
142 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

fame of his football and cricket is forgotten, his

name as a wise confessor and an able preacher
will live long.
It is well also to take up some subject or work
which is not entirely new to you. The elementary
stages of any new study are for the most part
drudgery, and drudgery is good only for boys.
Hence, if you know something of mathematics
and nothing of Hebrew, keep to figures and
eschew the language of the Chosen People. If you
have been through your French grammar, keep
to that and leave German for the day when the
reading habit possesses you and you are compelled
to study German for the sake of what it can open
to you. One reason why the lonely priest fails to
become a reading man is because he tries to take
up some new subject of which he knows nothing ;
after some time, the years of drudgery which he
must go through before getting any pleasant result
sicken him, and he is spoiled, perhaps for ever, as a
man of books.
My other point is to take up something which
will lead to some results within a reasonable space
of time. My supposition is that you are reading
not for the love of study, but to preserve your
priestly spirit. It will be a help in such a case
to apply yourself to something which will yield
results in the near future. Most of us know enough
French to be able to understand French books
on our own professional subjects. With some
practice, and without real drudgery, we might
make very tolerable translations of chapters or,
 THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL

indeed, of whole volumes of the great French

Catholic writers who are illuminating the Church
of God. I need not go back to the days of Nicolas,
Montalembert, Lacordaire or Dupanloup to find
examples of books which would have a sterling
value for us, and would find a market if they were
well done. Why is it that Batiffol's ' Histoire
du BreViaire Romain ' is translated by a Protestant
clergyman ? Why is it that Didon's ' J6sus-Christ '
is given to us in its English dress by a lady ?
Dupanloup on catechising is another example.
' Les Origines ' by Guibert has been translated, and
the English version of ' Les Origines ' by Duchesne
is out. I picked up the other day in a bookseller's
shop a translation of Abb6 Loisy's ' L'Evangile et
l'Eglise.' Turning over the pages, I came across a
passage in which the learned author's words about
the virginal birth of our Lord were applied in
the translation to the Immaculate Conception of
his Blessed Mother. Why do our country priests,
with time hanging on their hands, leave these books
to be rendered into English by others not of the
faith?
The lonely priest ! My heart goes out to him
in his silent watch and ward over the outposts of
the Church of God. Alone he is, but not forgotten,
not forsaken. Jacob was alone when he slept
at Bethel the first night out from his father's home
under the broad canopy of the stars ; Elias was
alone when he fled before the wrath of Jezabel.
Alone indeed, but not forsaken. For Jacob, as
he smiled in sleep, God painted visions of angels
144 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

with rosy wings ascending and descending from

earth to heaven ; to Elias as he fled the Almighty
gave rest and food under the juniper tree, and in
the strength of that food the Prophet arose and
walked for forty days, even to the Mount of God,
Horeb. One only was alone and forsaken too, and
He was God. Once only in the earth's history did
that cry of anguish ring true, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ? and He who uttered
it was God as well as man.
Salvum me fac, Deus, quoniam intraverunt aqua
usque ad animam meam. Infixus sum in limo pro
fundi, et non est substantia. (Ps. lxviii. 2.)
 PART II

THE PRIEST'S WORK

X
RECTORS AND CURATES.
Qui bene prasunt presbyteri, duplici honore digni habeantur.—
I Tim. v. 17.

In considering the relations between head priests

and their assistants it seems to me that I ought to
address myself to the rector rather than to the
curate, for the assistant priest is for the most part
very much what the rector makes him.
The tendency of ecclesiastical legislation in
England in these later years is to give the head priest
the position of a quasi-parish priest so far as concerns
those under his control, while keeping him entirely
in the position of a missionary priest so far as re
gards his relations to his bishop and other superiors.
The ultimate responsibility in everything con
cerning the mission is his, and his alone, and
he alone is directly responsible to the bishop.
That he may fulfil adequately his responsibilities,
the bishop allots to him other priests who receive
146 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

from the bishop their faculties ' cum dependentia

a Rectore ecclesice.' Hence his first duty as rector
will be to learn something of the art of government.
Ars est artium regimen animarum (St. Greg. M.
' Regula Pastoralis,' i. 1). For, observe, he has to
govern without having at his back either martial
law or seminary law ; yet govern he must if the
work is to get itself done. Anyone, we are told,
can govern in a state of siege ; but if the head
priest's government results in a state of siege it
stands self-condemned.
In the seminary the word is, Do this and he doeth
it ; if he doeth it not, the word is Go, and he goeth !
But with the assistant priests in a mission it is
different. The rector did not appoint them, neither
can he dismiss them ; they are his partners, not
his hired servants. Again, he has not the bishop's
power with regard to them. In order to further
the spread of the faith in England it has been
thought well by the Holy See to withhold from
the secular clergy in this country many of the rights
that belong to their status. They have neither
parishes nor freeholds, neither ordinary jurisdic
tion nor fixity of tenure. One reason why assistant
priests become failures is because the rector tries
to govern as if he had martial or seminary law at
his back. It is not the curate alone who is respon
sible for the failure in this case. Bacon well says :
' It is most true as was anciently spoken : The place
sheweth the man : and it sheweth some to the better
and some to the worse : Omnium consensu capax
 RECTORS AND CURATES 147

imperii nisi imperasset ; said Tacitus of Galba, but of

Vespasian he saith : Solus imperantium Vespasianus
mutatus in melius ' (' Of Great Place'). His first work,
then, as rector is to govern men whom he did not
appoint and cannot dismiss, who are under no vow
of obedience to him and who are endowed with a
healthy sense of independence. That he can do it,
and that he does it so often with conspicuous suc
cess, speaks volumes for his large-mindedness and
self-restraint, as well as for the priestly instinct and
generosity of the men who obey.
The first lesson a rector learns is, that if he is
to rule others he must begin by governing himself,
oftentimes sinking himself and sacrificing his own
wishes and his own methods that the work itself
may be done somehow. In his essay on literature
Lord Morley tells us that ' Politics are a field
where action is one long second-best and where the
choice constantly lies between two blunders.' What
is said of politics is likewise true of the art of govern
ing. The successful head priest will learn to be con
tent sometimes with the second-best. The question is
not how much he has a right to command, but how
much he is likely to get done. And if he will be con
tent to lead where he can never drive, to make the
pace himself rather than spur on others, to set the
example rather than give the order, to say ' Come '
rather than ' Go,' he will have almost always for his
reward the richest service and the sweetest joy a
ruler can win : the generous willing help of men who
love him, and who, because they love him, find
148 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

their joy and their content in working for him and

with him.
Noblesse oblige. So far as his rule is selfish or
self-seeking, so far will it be a failure. He may
get the absolute best if he presses, but in the
long run he will do better for his work by accepting
the second-best. If he merely considers the theo
retical best, which often only means just what suits
himself best and his personal comfort, he may get
the obedience the law claims for him, but never the
loyalty and never such service as love alone can
buy. The service he wants, the service that will
endure, is the service that his men render, not
because he commands or orders, but because he has
brought them along with him—because they see
what he sees. And this power of making others see
eye to eye with us, and the obedience that it breeds,
the voluntarium obsequium of the ' Exercises,' is not
given save to those who live for their work, not for
themselves, who forget their own aims and reck
nothing of their own success if only the others
will stand in with them and work with them un
grudgingly, not counting the cost, for the saving
of souls.
Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

Let me sum up these general considerations in

the wise words of Bacon : ' Preserve the right of thy
place, but stir not questions of jurisdiction ; and
rather assume thy right in silence and de facto than
voice it with claims and challenges. Preserve like
 RECTORS AND CURATES 149

wise the rights of inferior places ; and think it more

honour to direct in chief rather than to be busy in
all ' (Essays, ' Of Great Place ').
Before laying down the lines of the true relation
which ought to exist between the head priest and his
assistants let me glance first at some false and mis
chievous relations that occasionally arise.
Sometimes one comes across a mission with
several priests where practically each one has an
independent command. There is very much work
to be done. The division of the various duties is
carefully mapped out. Each man does his own
work, and looks on it as so exclusively his own that
he is ready to resent the interest which anyone else,
even the chief, may take in it. One consequence is,
that the welfare of the mission as a whole does not
appeal to any of the curates, and the waste of
effective power in that mission recalls to us the dis
organisation of the French army in 1870, or of oui
own in the late war. In every mission from tims
to time comes work for souls that belongs definitely
to no one in particular. Work such as this may
go begging : none of them will look at it. In
missions like this the rector tends to become merely
the procurator in the house and the timekeeper in
the church. The curates, while working hard, are
tempted to work for themselves only and their per
sonal success rather than for the saving of souls ;
the spirit of brotherly unity is impaired, and some
times the demon of jealousy and evil-speaking
creeps into such a house. Nevertheless, with hard
working men it is far better that the head priest
 150 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

should fail by overlooking them too little than that

he should cramp and stifle their young energies and
newborn zeal by minute rules and tiresome super
vision.
Another false relation exists where the assis
tants are so dependent that each can do nothing in
his own department without the formal consent of
the head priest. If you are to get good work out
of a man give him his head as you would a horse,
provided he is on the right road. Zeal and energy
are valuable assets, but they easily become stale-
Give your man his work, and then, in God's name,
leave him to do his best. Two points bear in
mind : if the work succeeds, be it guild, schools,
confraternities, or boys' brigade, whatever it is, it
* must develop. Leave him, therefore, free to work
out its normal development, and do not hamper him
with a fear of your disapproval or your veto ; secondly,
do not impose on him your methods. He is doing
the work, not you. Let him do it in his own way.
Probably your method is better than his. If it is,
he may find his way to it later. Your business at
the present stage is to get the work out of him, not
to do it yourself. Leave him free as to methods
if you would get the results best for the work and
best for him. Then be moderate in your expecta
tions and generous in your appreciation of any
results he may achieve.
Be to his faults a little blind ;
Be to his virtues very kind.
Men in authority do not make half enough use
 RECTORS AND CURATES

of the enormous power that a kind saying or

a word of praise rightly bestowed gives them.
Many years ago a bishop entrusted the carrying
out of what he looked on as the work of his life to a
young priest who had not held any position of re
sponsibility before. Naturally, the priest looked for
ward with a good deal of anxiety to the ordinary's
first visit. The bishop came, made many inquiries,
asked all kinds of questions, went into everything
most carefully, but neither that day nor the next
did he give any indication of approval or blame—
hardly, indeed, did he make a suggestion. At last,
when the visit came to an end, the priest could stand
the suspense no longer, and, when asking for the
bishop's blessing, he blurted out : ' If, my lord,
there is anything to be changed or ' ' Thank
you,' said the bishop ; ' if I have any fault to find
I will tell you at once.' It never occurred to the
good man that a little word of praise, some note
of encouragement, would have smoothed the pillow
of that man's anxious nights and might have been
taken gratefully as a return for his whole-hearted
zeal.
Be kind to your man, and especially be on your
guard not to confine your comments to his failures.
There are plenty of people to tell him of those. If
you take the trouble to tell him of his good points
he will be ready to work till he drops, and you will
have made an earnest man of him. Do not expect
him to do the work as well as you would do it your
self. If he could, he might have a title to be rector
instead of curate. And remember, too, that an
152 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

assistant, or one who is not in command, can afford

to be bolder in his experiments and to risk failure
more easily than you on whom all ultimately de
pends. The very feeling that he has another to fall
back on, and so that he is not finally responsible,
gives him a freedom in his methods which will often
win admirable results. ' Boldness,' says Bacon in
his immortal Essays, ' boldness is ever blind, for it
seeth not dangers and inconveniences. Therefore it
is ill in counsel, good in execution ; so that the right
use of bold persons is that they never command in
chief but be seconds and under the direction of
others. For in counsel, it is good to see dangers ;
and in execution, not to see them, except they be
very great.'
But there is a lower depth still and more nearly
fatal to the curates and the mission than either
of the false relations considered above. There is
the head priest who wants to do everything him
self and actually does whatever is done in the
mission. He has assistants, but he has zeal also.
He knows that he is the ablest of the group, and
on the plea that his people are entitled to the best
the clergy can give them, he essays to do everything
himself. Of course he is the ablest of the group.
That is an excellent reason why he is head priest
and not curate, but it is no reason why the others
shall do nothing. His curate, he will tell you, can
not preach, so he takes all the sermons himself.
Naturally the bulk of the confessions fall to the
older priest ; the catechising in the schools, the sick
calls, they all come to him, because nothing definite
 RECTORS AND CURATES '53
his been allotted to the assistants, and to them
nothing goes except the stray crumbs that fall from
the head priest's table. The next stage is for the
rector to fall sick and then complain that the
others do nothing, that all the work falls on him.
Meanwhile the young men are eating out their
hearts in bitterness, seeing work which may not be
done, and having their young lives spoiled by the
idleness that is forced upon them. What will make
such a rector realise that God's grace does not come
exclusively through his facility of speech ? Labia
sacerdotis (not rectoris necessarily) custodient scien-
tiam. When will he realise that he has obligations
to his assistant clergy as well as to his flock ? He
has to train the one while he is saving the other.
Burke bids rulers bear with inconveniences until
they fester into crimes. The shortcomings of the
assistants are only inconveniences, he must not
magnify them into crimes. He has to overlook ; let
him also look over. A head priest of such a tempera
ment is not fit to have charge of a mission where
there are assistant priests. Put him at a smaller
place where his unfortunate theories will do less
harm and cannot spoil a brother priest's life.
From these false relations it is a relief to turn to
the true relation that ought to exist between the
head and the members, between the rector and his
curates. The aim of every manager is to get as
much good work as he can out of his assistants,
and a parish is governed by the same principles as
any other concern which calls for the combined
efforts of several men.
154 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

The first principle is, that all the priests in the

same mission are partners in a joint concern, and
that the true relationship of the rector to his assiii-
tants is that of the senior partner to the junior
partners of a firm. They are partners—that is, all
are equally interested in the success of the firm,
though all are not of equal authority. There is *
senior partner and there are juniors, but the juniors
are partners, not clerks. It is not, then, right to con
ceive the position as if there was one head and that
the others were merely clerks or servants ; all are
partners, all share a joint responsibility, greater or
less, according to their position in the firm. Hence
the first desire of every partner should be the pro
sperity of the whole firm, and second, the success of
his own particular department. Nothing which
touches the firm's welfare should be without
interest for each partner.
Once we have grasped clearly this idea of partner
ship, with the joint responsibility which it entails, it
is not difficult to see in a general way the obligations
of the senior to the junior partners and of the assist
ants to the head priest. If the junior partners are
to take an intelligent interest in the doings of the
firm, it is clear that the senior partner must from
time to time talk over the position of affairs, at
least in an informal way, and let the others know
the general lines of his policy and aims. Men resent
it sometimes very bitterly if they hear for the first
time of some project or new development not from
their chief, but in the house of some favoured
parishioner. The help of our brethren in our work
 RECTORS AND CURATES 155

is worth having ; let us see that we do not forfeit it

by ' bad form ' of this kind. There are, of course,
occasions when we cannot take them into our con
fidence in the earlier stages, as there are men who
can never keep counsel ; but even then we can
usually manage that our brethren learn things that
concern their work from us rather than from our
people. ' If thou have colleagues,' says Bacon (' Of
High Places '), ' respect them and rather call them
when they look not for it, than exclude them when
they have reason to look to be called.'
With regard to the duties entrusted to his assis
tants, the rector will make it his business to know
the general lines of work that each man is following.
He will make opportunities to draw them out on
their work, to talk it over, to discuss its possibilities
as well as its difficulties. He will sometimes make
suggestions as to methods of work, but will be most
chary of insisting on these. By showing his interest
he will magnify the importance of the work in the
younger man's eyes, and by leaving him free as to
methods he will help to develop that sense of re
sponsibility without which the best kind of work is
never done. In Captain Mahan's ' Life of Nelson '
we read : ' In all cases of anticipated battie Nelson
not only took his measures thus thoughtfully, but
was careful to put his subordinates in possession
both of his general plans and, as far as possible,
of the underlying ideas. ... In communicating his
ideas to his subordinates he did not confine him
self to official intercourse ; on the contrary, his
natural disposition impelled him rather to familiar
156 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

conversation with them on service subjects. " Even

for debating the most important naval business,"
we learn through his confidential secretary at this
period, " he preferred a turn on the quarter-deck
with his captains, whom he led by his own frankness
to express themselves freely, to all the stiffness
and formality of a council of war " ' (Mahan, ii.
216-7). In his Life of Walpole Lord Morley has
a chapter on the Cabinet and its functions in the
English constitution. The part of interest to us
at this moment is the section where he discusses
the position of the Prime Minister and his relation
to his colleagues. The Cabinet is jointly respon
sible for the doings and public utterances of its
members, and the Prime Minister is the official
spokesman of the whole. Mr. Gladstone, Lord
Rosebery, and the younger Pitt are quoted. The
sayings are of interest to us, and make the parallel
that I am suggesting. Mr. Gladstone, speaking of
the perfectly organised administration of Peel in
1841-6, declared that ' nothing of importance was
matured or would even be projected in any depart
ment without his personal cognisance, and any
weighty matter would commonly go to him before
being submitted to the Cabinet.' Lord Rosebery
says : ' The Prime Minister is senior partner in every
department as well as President of the whole,' and
Lord Morley adds that Pitt insisted on the absolute
necessity of this doctrine, and that the Premier
should possess the principal place in the confidence
of the king.
Having treated of their work, let me pass now to
 RECTORS AND CURATES 157

the home life of the clergy in a house where there is

more than one priest. It is a naughty saying that
there is only one thing worse than being a curate,
and that is having one. It was a rector who said
that. Doubtless the other men could give as witty
a summary of the same subject from their point of
view. It is hard, this living together of men of
different ages, position, and tastes. It is not good
for man to live alone, and nature bids him take a
wife to be the companion of his life. Yet it was
necessary to institute a sacrament to enable the
man and wife to live together and to put up
with each other's shortcomings. These clergy have
not the call to community-life implied in a voca
tion to the religious state ; they certainly are not
married to their brother curates or rectors ; they
have not even chosen each other. It is the bishop
who has joined them together for better or worse.
Strange it would be if there were not difficulties
sometimes and opportunities for friction at all
times.
First there is the rector. He has his faults like
the rest of us. I have known good fellows, excellent
rectors themselves now, who have lived with, and,
if I may use the expression, have lived down, cross-
grained cantankerous chiefs in whose eyes nothing
was right. I think I divine their secret now.
First, they resolved not to see that these old men
were vain and jealous, close and mean. Verily there
is great virtue in the blind eye. Then they made
up their minds never to defend themselves. How
are you to shoot the bird that will insist on perching
158 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

on the barrel of your fowling-piece ? Then to see it

through ; not to appeal to the bishop, not to ask for
a change. The fact is, the bishop knows the state
of things as well as the curate, and he is just about
as helpless. Heroic virtue, my friends, yes, and
now their own fund of patience and forbearance,
and, above all, their own power of influencing others,
are part of the fine flower of chivalry they have
grown in their own souls, the earthly portion of the
reward whose fulness awaits them hereafter. I
once asked a funny fellow how he lived through
a life such as I have described. For answer he
said : ' Uo you know Campbell Walker's " Cor
rect Card " ? ' (a whist book ; it was before the days
of bridge). I nodded assent. ' Then,' he said, ' read
again the chapter, " How to treat a bad partner."
It is of no use trying to cure him. I bear with him
until the bishop cuts for a new deal, and meanwhile
I play my own hand.'
Then there are our brother curates. It is not
well to be always contending for our rights, but
there is such a thing as ignoring orders which a man
has no right to give us. ' Preserve thy right of
place,' as I have already quoted from Bacon, ' but
stir not questions of jurisdiction, and rather assume
thy right in silence and de facto than voice it with
claims and challenges.' Our average life as an
assistant priest is about six years ; I had fourteen.
Then there are the servants. As a general rule
servants are very much what we make them. It
is true that sometimes we are badly treated by
them, but sometimes, too, a young man forgets
 RECTORS AND CURATES 159

himself, is rude, overbearing, and ready to take

offence, mixes himself up in the sordid squabbles
below stairs, taking the part of the housemaid who
looks after his room against the housekeeper whom
1 he hardly ever sees. ' There is a class of persons,'
said Mr. Balfour once in a speech, 1 that is always
ready to see slights and to take offence. They are
ever guarding their honour and are nervously fearful
that anything should soil it. You know the people.
They are those who are not quite at home in their
surroundings. They were not born to their present
position. If they had inherited it, they would have
taken for granted that others mean to be civil and
courteous in dealing with them.' We shall do well to
take our position for granted. Let us make up our
minds once for all to start with the assumption that
though it is our sad fate to be curates and inferior
persons generally, yet servants do not set out with
the intention of being rude to us, neither have they
a burning desire to slight us. It is just one of the
smaller trials of an assistant priest, and the same
may arise with regard to teachers, the housekeeper,
sacristan, and the rest. A blind eye at times is a
great peacemaker, and a resolve not to see rudeness
or incivility too easily may sometimes save us many
an hour of misery. Servants, as I have said, are
mostly what we make them. If they are flighty
and light, and forget their place, it may sometimes
be because we have taken too much notice of
them, or talked too much to them. The maids
are very pleased to win notice ; they will work
their nails off to please a man who shows them
160 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

a little preference. The housekeeper holds them

with a tight hand when they are downstairs, and
we may be sure that any attention we may show
them will be duly retailed for the edification of the
others, and that the story will lose nothing of its
picturesqueness in the telling.
Perhaps the most responsible, certainly the most
difficult, and, in general, the most unsatisfactory
work done in a big clergy-house is what is called
answering the door. Who amongst us has not
waited with what patience he could while he has
rung and rung and rung again ? I am not surprised
to find in the rules of some religious communities
that the portress is a person of a good deal of impor
tance, and that she is to be very carefully selected,
[f we put a boy at the door he is sometimes clean,
and always impudent ; if we put a man, he bullies
the poor, while he is ready to kiss the feet of the glib
man in a frock coat who travels in family bibles
for the maids and superannuated atlases for the
masters; if we have a woman there, she resents
the good looks of her sisters who seek the priest
in their trouble ; she leaves them standing in a
draughty passage or an unlit hall, and then con
veniently forgets to tell the priest of their coming.
The boy is sharp but untrustworthy, while the man
and the woman run each other pretty close in total
inability to sample your callers and in general crass
stupidity. I have heard it whispered, too, that
sometimes the clergy themselves are not so helpful
as they might be. Men hate being disturbed for
people of whom they can guess nothing, except that
 RECTORS AND CURATES l6l

the probability is that these enemies of their peace are

on a begging expedition. Usually the maid gets the
name wrongly, and the priest sends back a message
that he cannot help the case. Later on he finds
that the person sent from the door was one whom he
had tried to find at home times without number.
The maid's stupidity, and his own perversity, have
had their due reward, and he must begin again under
an added disadvantage or he will never get those
children into a Catholic school.
I wish that I could find a satisfactory solution
of this difficult problem, for it is one of the most
general and one of the most unsatisfactory features
about big clergy houses. We spend hours and hours
tramping the streets, compassing land and sea to
make one proselyte, and when he comes to our
door we let him slip through our fingers. We are
the servants of the people. Our people support us
and have a right to come to us, and the support of
the rich is given partly that we may be able to do
our duty to God's poor. If they do persevere suffi
ciently to get inside the door I think that usually
we ought to try to see them ourselves, for fear of
missing some chance that may not come again. I
know that it is very hard and a great waste of time ;
still, I see nothing else for it as a general rule.
Sometimes—and especially if they are begging and
have absolutely nothing to do—a civil message that
you are engaged at the moment, but will come in
half an hour, will get rid of them, or, better still,
will get you an inkling of their business. If you
can get that, the position is simple, but the difficulty
M
1 62 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

is that the maids are ' mostly fools.' If they ask

straight out, 'Is it a sick call ? ' the answer will
of course be ' Yes,' and you will be brought down
to the door to find that he is the sick man himself,
sick and weary, and sorely needing a half-pint, that
he has tramped all the way from Birmingham to
see you because your namesake there told him
that you would assist him ! The problem would be
more than half solved if the maids had brains enough
to be able to find out to some extent what the
people have come about, for the priest would then be
able to decide without loss of time what to do.
Some rules we might make for our own guidance.
The- first is that in a big mission, where there is
more than one priest, no servant ought to be ex
pected or allowed to ' take in ' the particulars of a
sick call. Such a duty demands some professional
knowledge. The urgency, the sacraments received,
the possibility of Holy Viaticum, and such like, can
be properly noted only by a priest, and if the priest
is out whose case it is, the general rule of the house
ought to be that some other priest, and not the
maid, should be called on to take in and enter the
particulars in the sick-call book. It is not fair to the
servant or to the sick to expect her to touch work
of such vital importance. A good practice in many
busy missions is to have, in addition to the sick-call
book, a slate or a book in which the maid is allowed
to write. She will enter names and addresses of
callers and their messages when the priest is out, or,
better still, she may allow the callers, if sufficiently
educated, to enter their own messages. As a
 RECTORS AND CURATES

general rule, verbal messages are unsatisfactory, and

it is seldom that they are correctly delivered.
Some years ago, on Easter Sunday evening, at
St. George's Cathedral, we put in the benches,
according to our custom on Bishop's days, copies of
the C.T.S. excellent leaflet, ' How to become a
Catholic.' The next morning came by post a letter
stamped and addressed : ' The Clergy, St. George's
Cathedral, Southwark, S.E.,' and inside nothing but
a copy of this leaflet. One paragraph had a racy
addition. The sentence ran thus : ' Go to the
Sacristy (vestry) door and tell the first person you
meet that you want to speak to a priest ; or go to
the clergy-house and ring the bell and make the same
request' This latter part was underlined and
heavily scored, and then was added in lead pencil :
' And get a saucy answer.'
I preserve that envelope and paper as a scourge
for my own back. Sometimes it has its uses, too,
for the edification of a new maid.
Let these remarks suffice for our duties to the
other members of our household. Let me now say
a word about our obligations to those who come to
the house or the church to see us. They are prin
cipally included under the words punctuality and
courtesy. Punctuality, we are told, is the courtesy
of kings. Let it be one form of our courtesy also.
At the same time we may well be on our guard
against an exaggerated importance of punctuality.
In these busy days of railway trains and Greenwich
mean time the Anglo-Saxon mind is apt to look on
punctuality as one, at least, of the ten command
164 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

ments, if, indeed, it has not one of the two tables of

the law all to itself. Just as men will tell you
gravely that Poor Richard's pagan saying : ' Cleanli
ness is next to godliness,' comes in the Bible because
Wesley used it, so they will maintain that un-
punctuality is one of the seven deadly sins, if, indeed,
it is not one of the four sins crying to heaven for
vengeance. The virtue, if it be one, came in with
Black Forest clocks and has been dry-nursed by
railway trains during the last seventy years. Before
that, when a priest was going to say Mass, he rang
a bell and the people came ; now he rings a whole
peal of bells and they stay away. In less feverishly
active countries than ours to this day, if you ask
what time the ' festa ' begins, they will tell you, with
a shrug of the shoulders, when the ' vescovo '
arrives.
The custom in England is to have times definitely
set apart for definite duties, and we have a respon
sibility to keep to those times. Some priests are
always unpunctual, never in time for any duty,
always away when they ought to be at home, and
the curious thing is, that if you ask them, they have
always a ready and excellent reason for their absence
on this particular occasion. Unpunctuality of this
sort is a form of selfishness and want of consideration
for others. Servants resent unpunctuality at meals,
and the head priest has reason to find fault when
dinner is provided for four or five men and he has
to eat it alone. ' If they do not tell me,' he says,
' they might at least have the civility to let the
housekeeper know. These are the men who will
 RECTORS AND CURATES

feel badly treated to-morrow because they have cold

shoulder for dinner.' My experience is that ser
vants do not grumble at extra work for a priest who
is considerate of them. If such a one is late for
meals they will cheerfully keep hot plates and hot
meat for him, for they know that he must be de
tained by duty. But they do resent carelessness
and unpunctuality, and it is want of consideration
of this kind that breeds in them bad temper and
worse cooking.
Punctuality is also of first importance in keeping
the appointments we have made. I have seen men
who have an appointment—say with a convert for
instruction—calmly ignore the whole thing when
something more attractive crops up. They will let
the convert come, only to learn from the maid that
the priest is out for the day. From time to time,
but only occasionally, these things come to the know
ledge of the head priest, and then the men resent
it keenly if he ventures to suggest that there is some
thing wanting in their notions of courtesy and good
breeding. Letters come to them, or are handed on
to them by the chief because relating to their work,
and a week or ten days later the rector gets another
letter, generally of a more or less acid flavour, to
inquire whether the first letter has been received.
Business people expect us to be businesslike in our
dealings with them. Letters can always be acknow
ledged at once, even if we are not in a position to
give a complete answer.
Then, again, my new curate is ' called upon ' by
some rather punctilious person. He is a bit shy
l66 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

and nervous, and he will not brace himself up to

an effort new to him now perhaps, but one which
will be required of him from time to time till he
dies. He will not face the trouble of returning
the call ; he knows that he is in the wrong, and of
course he gets angry with the people whose kindness
has put him in the wrong. Then he gets hurt and
resentful if people suggest that his conduct leaves
something to be desired. Who is in fault ? These
are small matters, doubtless, but most of us are
small men ; when we become great men we may
afford to set aside such observances, but until that
hour arrives let us remember that our life is
made up of small things such as these. ' Little
things on little wings take little souls to heaven.'
Let me take for my last point in this chapter on
the young priest's home life the important subject
of his recreations.
First, we must remember that proper recreation
is of first importance. It is not waste of time any
more than is going to bed ; it unbends the bow and
brings into play another set of mental fibres or
physical muscles. Recreation is of innumerable
kinds—physical exercise, games pure and simple,
intellectual amusements ; but the essence of recrea
tion is that it is in some way a change of occupation.
In this wide sense it is needful for all, old as well as
young, while the particular form it may take de
pends on the particular character of our ordinary
work as well as on our age and tastes. We may look
on it as settled that recreation is needed by all,
 RECTORS AND CURATES 167

and that in every rule of life this need must be

reckoned with and provided for.
In general, one may lay it down as a principle
that if we can get or take our recreation at home
with our brother priests it is better to do so than to
accustom ourselves to seek it in the houses of oui
parishioners. This is the practice in religious com
munities where great stress is laid on the import
ance of this observance. I have heard a shrewd
priest say that he could not get his recreation at
home, that he would not take it with his people, and
that when he needed recreation he made it a point
to go outside his mission to seek it. When he was
at home he was, so to say, always on duty ; when
he wanted to be off duty he went away. On the
other hand, I knew another who made it a point to
propose a rubber of whist to his curates one night
in each week, feeling that he was doing a good
work in accustoming them to take their recreation
at home. Quam bonum et jucundum habitare fratres
in unum.
While a prudent writer dare not suggest a rule
that a priest ought never to take his recreation in
the houses of his people, yet it is certain that
such a practice has sometimes disadvantages. It
exposes the priest to a charge of favouritism, it
tends to bring him into ordinary parish gossip and
sometimes into mission squabbles. Even when all
due precautions are taken it is somewhat difficult to
be on terms of familiar intercourse with people and
at the same time to retain that priestly reserve which
168 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

befits one who has to administer to them the sacra

ments and to break to them the bread of life. God
forbid that I should say that it is impossible. All
that I ask is that we should realise that such a prac
tice has its dangers and drawbacks, like many other
excellent things. ' When I listen to your sermons,
Monseigneur,' said Louis XIV. to a famous preacher,
' I am terrified ; when I see your life I am reassured.'
How often is there in a busy town mission a
Catholic house where the clergy are made welcome.
I picture to myself the prosperous husband and the
bustling wife, good as gold, fair and forty. Four
or five children there may be, the younger ones
serving in the sanctuary, or an elder boy perhaps
studying for the Church, with two or three girls,
fresh and smiling, innocent and good. They are
not highly educated ; their staple of talk is of
persons rather than of things. What wonder if we
find our ease there ? What wonder if we put on
our slippers and put off our manners ? We are a
pack of young people all together. It is just school
days over again, the freshness and innocence of it
all, only something pleasanter, for some of these are
growing girls instead of young men, and we are now
priests whom all are a little ready to worship, a little
slow to criticise. Hence our tongues wag. Ourselves
first, our work, our little difficulties, our sick-calls, our
likes and dislikes. Then, perhaps, come our little
grumbles : other people and their defects. Little by
little we fall below our level and become, it may be, a
little loud and vulgar, and we are not long before we
take to calling the girls by their Christian names, and
 RECTORS AND CURATES 169

the head priest by his surname. No real sin in all

this, though there may be some danger to us and to
them, but it is not the picture we drew at college of
our relations with our flock, and yet how much
darker I could paint its dangers without exaggera
tion.

/
170 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

XI
PREACHING
Prcedica verbum : insta opportune, importune ; argue, oisecra, in-
crefa in omni oatientia et doctrina. —2 Tim. iv. 2.

Let me come now to a duty which most of us dread,

even though we might be ready to give long years
of our life in return for success in fulfilling it—the
duty of preaching. Under this title I take merely
the ordinary ability to expound clearly and simply
to our people the truths of faith and the duties of a
Christian life. Of the gifts of oratory which adorn
our great preachers I have nothing to say. The
question that I have to answer is this : An impor
tant part of your ordinary work on the mission will
be to preach the Word of God ; Evangelizare patt-
peribus misit me, said my Master of Himself ; to us
He says Predicate evangelium omni creatures. How
are you to fulfil this charge ? Let me speak of what
is required of you as preachers of the Word of
God. First is required 'unction ; secondly, know
ledge.
Unction is one of the fruits of personal holiness.
It will spring from a life of prayer, from a spirit
of priestly zeal. Underneath every sermon there
ought to be a fountain of unction bubbling up with
 PREACHING 171

your words, ready to flow over the souls of your

hearers. Fons aqua in vitam ceternam salientis.
You are preaching to them because you want them
to serve the God you love, to avoid sin and to go to
heaven. The one desire of your life is to save those
men for whom your Master died. Hence it comes
that, whether you are preaching a dogmatic sermon
or relating the life of a saint, whether you are tracing
back the historical development of some doctrine or
giving a simple catechetical instruction, there will
be always present that spirit of zeal which manifests
itself to our listeners in this quality of unction.
The power which flows from this is independent of all
oratorical gifts and natural talents, and is the fruit of
the personal sanctity of the man who is speaking.
There is a letter extant from Garrick, the actor, to a
young preacher, which illustrates how this unction
would manifest itself in his work :
' My Dear Pupil,—You know how you would
feel and speak in the parlour to a dear friend who
was in imminent danger of his life, and with what
energetic pathos of diction and countenance you
would enforce the observance of that which you
really thought would be for his preservation. You
would not think of playing the orator, of studying
your emphasis, cadence, or gesture. You would be
yourself. . . . What you would be in the parlour
be in the pulpit, and you will not fail to please, to
affect, to profit.'

The other equipment every preacher requires is

knowledge, and knowledge cannot be acquired or
 172 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

even kept up without reading and study. Unless

you make it a practice to read your Holy Scripture
as well as your office, you will never have that
familiarity with the sacred text which good preaching
requires. It is not so much texts that we Catholics
require in our sermons ; it is illustrations, examples,
and teaching cast in a Scriptural mould. With the
aid of a Concordance it is not difficult to string
together a series of isolated texts. What we should
seek in preaching is the familiarity with Holy Scrip
ture which seems to find instinctively in the Gospels,
in the history of God?s chosen people, or in the teach
ing of the prophets, just the illustration and often
even the very turn of expression that is needed to
drive our point home. Bishop Hedley's books, which
I think were all originally sermons, are conspicuous
instances of this particular form of excellence, while
Bishop Hay's works are invaluable for their assort
ments of Scripture texts.
You will now, not unnaturally, expect me to
say something of the use and misuse of books of
sermons. Our right use and our wrong use of them
depend chiefly on whether we have something to
say or whether we have to say something. If we
have something to say we shall probably use books ;
if we have to say something we shall probably
misuse them.
Books may be used for two purposes : to save
us thinking, or to make us think. To use them to
save us thinking is to misuse them ; to use them to
make us think is to use them. But the fact is, if
you have a sermon to preach, to begin with books
 PREACHING 173

is to begin at the wrong end. Begin with yourself,

and having got what you can out of your own head,
you may go to books. Poor stuff it may be,
but it is your own ; it will give to your sermon all
through that note of personal effort, of individual
ownership which attracts men to listen. There is
something here to listen to ; it is not out of books,
it is spun out of a living, feeling man. Then go to
books—Bossuet, Newman, Wiseman, Hedley, and
the rest, and take what you will. What you take
now you will make your own. Long before you
preach it to others you will have digested and
assimilated it and made it part of your mental
equipment. In Wilhelm and Scannell's ' Manual
of Theology' you have Catholic teaching thrown
into English idiom. It is only those who have
tried conscientiously to put the teaching of Fran-
zelin or Hurter into words which our people can
grasp who can realise adequately the service which this
work has rendered to all who endeavour to expound
the Church's doctrine to the English-speaking races.
In addition to the Catechism of the Council of
Trent, we have the ' Manual of Christian Doctrine,'
Howe's ' Catechist,' the ' Clifton Tracts,' and the
hundreds of booklets published by the Catholic
Truth Society. The man who wants to make people
listen will go through life somewhat in that frame
of mind which the Master commended in the unjust
steward. Every time the steward met a tenant,
every time he crossed a field, he said to himself :
' Now thou canst be steward no longer.' And he
prepared for the evil day. The young preacher
174 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

will be always preparing for—next Sunday. All the

week through he has that coming sermon at the
back of his head. As he reads his paper or hears
the man in the street he listens to what the world
is saying or thinking ; from time to time he finds
something that fits in, and he smiles softly as he
says to himself : ' That will help me next Sunday.'
And this our life . . .
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I now address myself to the practical questions :

what ought you to preach , what principle should guide
you in choosing your subject ? In the book of Malachi
the writer severely reproved the priests because they
offered on the altar of God mouldy bread (Mai. i. 7).
In preaching the Word of God you have to break
to men the bread of life. See to it that it is well
prepared, well baked, not stale, not mouldy. It is
not unknown to give French rolls when men need
cottage loaves, and sometimes we put them off with
unbaked dough or mouldy crusts. God has sent us
to these people to be to them as fathers. Quis ex
vobis patrem petit partem, numquid lapidem dabit illi ?
Aut piscem, numquid pro pisce serpentem dabit illi ?
(Luc. xi. 11).
When you ask me what you must preach, I
answer you by asking another question : ' What
do you know ? ' Preach that, and not what you
do not know. Take what you know, and, out
of the things you know best, select what will be
most helpful to your people. You are not bound
 PREACHING 175

to the Sunday Gospel, neither are you bound to

draw a moral or to end with a blessing, valuable
as these things are in their place. What is of
obligation is to give them the best you have—what
you know, what you know best, and not what
you do not know. What does the young priest
know best ? Usually the dogmatic theology lec
tures have occupied the chief part of his time in
the seminary. That being so, he would naturally
incline to instruction rather than to exhortation.
Neglect of grace, of life's opportunities, sin, drunken
ness, gambling, and the rest need unction, and in
exposition gain so much from life and the preacher's
experience, that the young priest will do well
to leave such subjects alone until he has some
unction, until he has had some life and experience
to draw upon. Subjects of the hortatory class are
apt to lead the young, unpractised preacher to waste
himself in vapourings and to become a mere wind
bag. Hence, speaking generally, the ordinary man
will do well to begin with instruction. We can
always gather information and give it out, and the
people will always listen to facts. When preparing
instructions, illustrations innumerable will crowd
upon us. We have no less than twelve articles of
the Creed and Seven Sacraments, even if we leave
the Ten Commandments as well as the command
ments of the Church to the older clergy.
Again, it is not difficult to get up the account,
say, of an Epistle, its setting in the Apostle's life ;
the old notes of seminary days will give you all
that. Such an instruction will do more good than a
176 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

general exhortation which is apt to fizzle out in

commonplaces. Or take for your subject the scope
of one of the Gospels. Read the suitable chapter
in Coleridge's ' The Life of our Life ' (2 volumes).
It is worth more than half-a-dozen volumes of
ordinary sermons. There you will find the scope
and end of each Evangelist set forth with much
beauty and in all clearness, and, in addition, the
complete story woven into one from the four
separate strands. There is also the series of
monographs (in French) by Allard, Batiffol and
others on the early history of the Church. You
have Lives of the Saints, the feasts of the Church,
and the Catholic Dictionary at your elbow to help
you. Add to these your dictionaries of the Bible
and your Vigouroux's ' Manuel Biblique,' and you
find material fairly worked up for hundreds of
sermons of a character which men will listen to
with profit and enjoyment. What is all this but
catechizing ? Provided you call it preaching and
avoid the word catechizing, as Dupanloup once said,
at the end of a long course of instructions in Notre-
Dame, people will come and your work will prosper.
Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown proposed as things forgot.
Having settled that you are to preach what
you know best, how are you best to prepare your
self and your sermon ? Undoubtedly by writing.
' Writing [maketh] an exact man,' says Bacon.
Writing is a merciless critic of ignorance. Until
you put your knowledge to the test of writing it
 PREACHING 177

down in black and white you will never be clear

about your limitations. When you are going to
preach on any topic, try first to put down on paper
out of your own head just what you want to say.
You will agree that it is better to discover your
limitations and to remedy your ignorance before you
go into the pulpit or attempt to teach others.
There are certain mechanical helps which have their
value. In writing there is an advantage in choosing
large paper rather than small ; there is a virtue in a
big margin, and sometimes even in writing on alter
nate lines only, so as to leave room for after-thoughts
that gather around as the subject grows upon you.
Do not go to other wise men or their books until you
have written down all your own wisdom. Do not
be frightened of new paragraphs, of new ideas, of
lines left blank to be filled in later. Paper is cheap
and eyesight is precious. Write on what comes
to you without too much care for sequence ; all that
will come later.
It is a mistake at first writing to attempt to
elaborate our thoughts. Get them down first just
as they come. It is ideas you want first, let the
working out come later. There was a posthu
mous paper by Bishop Creighton published lately,
from which I have already quoted. It is only the
essay in the rough. It would have been elaborated
and worked up before delivery, but it was never
delivered. Its structure is noteworthy. The ideas
are all there, but the paper is written in short,
direct, scrappy sentences. Yet all he wanted
to say is there. Had he lived we should
N
178 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

have read it in the well-balanced periods of the

historian of the Popes of the Reformation.
Do not change your subject. Hold fast to it if
your life is to be useful and your work fruit
ful ; keep to it always, even though it seems hard
and unsatisfactory in working out. Good work will
always tell, even if this particular sermon is not
worthy of your reputation. We are apt to think
that our friends expect a great deal from us. As a
rule they are content if our success is quite moderate.
When you have got down what it occurs to you
to say, and when you have perhaps added some of
the thoughts of other men, you will then attempt
to put your subject in the order that best suits
it. You will have to cut out many of your first
thoughts. They would lead you too far ; they are
not lost, they will come in again at another time.
I have often observed in men who have to preach
a few defects worth noting. One is to choose a text
and then say nothing about it. They seem to think
that because its meaning is clear to those
who have studied the words in their context it
is equally clear to those who have not. Some
times, too, they will crown their ineptitude by
straightway quoting a second text before explain
ing the first. A caution worth giving is, that you
should seldom apologise for yourself, your presence,
your subject, your sermon. ' He began by stating
that he was unable to treat this great subject
worthily,' said one of the Oxford converts of a friend,
' and he took three-quarters of an hour to prove
that proposition.' Do not tell your hearers of your
 PREACHING 179

ignorance ; leave them to find it out. Preachers,

again, sometimes hamper themselves by proposing
to show that the subject they have taken is appro
priate to the occasion, and will go so far some
times as to put aside a subject because it does
not conform to this canon of theirs. Hoc volo, hoc
jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas is reason enough for
any sermon on ordinary occasions, provided that
it contains what is worth saying. The real reason
why you have taken this subject ought to be that
with your limitations you thought that you could
do more good to souls with this subject than with
another.
Having now put your subject in its orderly form,
if you will write it out pretty fully you will know
it in a way which will fairly ensure that you shall
give your people of your best. If you have an
illustration or a ' purple patch ' which depends for
its effectiveness on the way that it is put before the
audience, write this out in full, even though in the
delivery it seems a little too ornate to be quite in
keeping with the rest. Many find it better and
more convenient for reference, and for getting them
up, to write their sermons on sermon-paper rather
than in books. A bundle of sermons for each of your
earlier years, tied up neatly and docketed, ought to
be a proof of industry and of the formation of good
habits. If you want to find them afterwards without
difficulty, you may easily make an index according
to Sundays or subjects. Your experience will be that
these sermons of your young days, carefully written
though they be, will not be fit to Dreach again as
N3
l8o THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

they stand, but they will give you solid facts and
good illustrations which will have their value in your
later years.
When you come to the actual preaching you will
find the value of solid facts. In the nervousness of
delivery, moral reflections are apt to ooze out, but
facts stand to us like rocks. If it will help you to
keep to your subject, by all means have just the
headings of your points on a slip of paper with you
in the pulpit. You do not go there to say a lesson
off by heart, but to preach as good a sermon as you
can prepare. Therefore, if notes help you, take
some with you, but let them be very few or you will
be hampered by them or tied to them. Do not
attempt to learn your sermon off by heart. In
order to be effective in speaking, you must repeat
yourself in a way which would be intolerable in a
written composition. Do not spare yourself in the
first years of your priesthood, when your character
is plastic and habits are formed. Having done your
best, go to your sermon with assured confidence
that good honest endeavour always tells in the long-
run, and that you are working for a Master who
repays every attempt ninety and a hundred fold.
Lastly, let me put in a plea for reading de
cently. I cannot teach it ; all I can do is to ask
for it. I ask you in all seriousness to take pains
to speak and read as if you mean what you are
saying, and as if you want others to get hold
of it. Read the thing over beforehand. It is not a
bad plan to have the Sunday notices read out at
dinner on Saturday by the priest who will have to
 PREACHING i8t

read them to the people the next day. If the

writing of the head priest is difficult to make out,
the younger man has an effective remedy in his
hands by making a fair copy of it for his own use.
Anything is better than the slovenly stumbling
which sometimes shocks us in men who could do
quite well if they would take a little trouble. The
notices we want to impress on the people's minds,
the Epistle and Gospel are a sermon in them
selves. The public prayers are meant to touch men's
hearts as well as honour God : how little we do with
them. Of course it is easy to overdo, and it is
better to underdo than to overdo. A reading that
is a bundle of emphases grates on our ear. The
reader has not yet gained the artistic sense that
shows him that monotone has a value as great as
emphasis, but at least such a reading witnesses to
the pains he has taken. Too many of us speak
badly and read worse.
Quam pulchri super montes pedes annuntiantis
et prcedicantis pacem, annuntiantis bonum, pnvdi-
cantis salutem, dicentis Sion : Regnabit Deus tuus !
(Isaias Hi. 7).
l82 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

XII
THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL
Accipitt Spiritum sanctum. Quorum remiserUis peccata, remit-
tuntur til. —S. Joan. xx. 22.

I come now to the sacrament which of all others

appeals to the priest's heart, and makes God's sun
light dance on a life that may be very drab. It
is, of course, a truth that the power to absolve is
given to the priest not for his own sake but for the
sake of his penitents. At the same time it is very
true also that if there was no sacrament of penance
to administer many more priests would lose the
spirit of the vocation, the savour of their ordina
tion. To many of us the work of the confessional
has been the salt which has kept our priesthood
sweet and wholesome. When we first come on the
mission it often happens that our self-confidence
melts away under the strokes of failure. There is
no doubt about it, whatever we are, we say to our
selves, we are no preachers. In spite of what vanity
hides from us we cannot help seeing the people
yawning and shifting in their seats ; we cannot
hold them or make them listen. We find our sick
calls difficult, we have not the unction of the Holy
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 183

Spirit which is given to humble persevering prayer ;

while house-to-house visiting is simply appalling
if we have no definite business to transact.
With strangers we are shy and awkward, and even
the children in the schools seem too many for us.
These things will all come right, and in due time
we shall ' find ourselves.' Many failures will at last
point the way to catch our people's ear. As we get
to know our flock the visiting may even become
a pleasure, and as to the schools, the children will
make the music of our lives ; but these things are
not yet. What is there at present that we can do ?
Where shall we find some compensation for our
other failures ? For answer let us try the confes
sional ; at least we can sit there quietly, waiting in
all patience for our Master to send us sick, weary
souls to heal and comfort. If we cannot preach to
a multitude, we can talk to one soul. Be sure of it
the fish will rise, sinners will come if so be that we
can possess our souls in patience and just wait.
And here younger priests often make a mistake.
They do not understand the virtue of patience, the
need of waiting if they are to become confessors of
power. They go to the church at the appointed
time, they sit ten, or it may be twenty, minutes ;
no one comes and they go off. They will never be
confessors, never get the large following which a
priest loves unless they learn to wait. Why should
everybody or anybody leave his confessor at once
because you have come upon the scene ? Vixerefortes
ante Agamemnona. As doctors and other profes
sional men say, you have to build up a connexion.
I84 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

It will surely come, but only on condition that you

buy the practice by waiting. I am by no means
sure that a course of waiting for penitents, a
course of having nothing to do in the confes
sional, is not as important in its own way for the
development of a good confessor as his course of
study. What I am sure of is that some of the
faults of confessors come from their getting penitents
too cheaply, too easily. If you are waiting half the
night in a cold church and nobody wants you, if you
have nothing to do but watch the crowds gathering
at another man's box and slowly melting away,
when there comes some poor soul who cannot wait
an hour for his ordinary confessor, you will be found
in just the disposition that our Master desired for
you when He sent you sanare contritos corde.
Be patient ; the fish will rise, but only if you know
how to wait. Like all other good things in this
world, for this we must pay the price. Let us wait,
redeeming the time.
Let me pass now to our penitents. The great
multitude of our confessions will be those of ordinary
good Christians presenting no particular features of
interest. These form the staple of our work as con
fessors, and of them I must speak fully later. Let
me begin by speaking of those deep in sin who are
struggling and striving towards better things, who
need, and usually get, all the loving help that a
priest can give. Every priest would, of course,
work to save such souls, but he does not get them
often. If you are really very much in your confes
sional, and are devoted to it, you may pick up one
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 1 85

such soul in a month, and, of course, you will have

in addition those you have helped before who come
back to you as old friends.
One of the first anxieties of such a priest will be
concerning his treatment of recidivi. We are told,
and rightly, that common sense is dangerous and
unsafe as the chief guide in dealing with human
souls. We go for light and leading to our theo
logical text-books, but somehow they do not help us
as we think they might. They do not appear to
take into account conditions and circumstances
which seem to us vital factors in our decision. One
gleam of light comes when we discover that the most
recent writers understand our difficulties best, even
though they, too, lag somewhat behind our needs.
At first sight we are inclined to distrust the impres
sions given us by the latest books. We say to our
selves that every new book is laxer than its prede
cessor, easier in its interpretation of law, more ready
to excuse or palliate faults, and that this is the reason
why we are anxious to follow its teaching. I do not
think that this is the full reason. The most recent
books appeal to us most strongly. The more nearly a
book approaches our own time the more readily is it
likely to appreciate the particular form of difficulty
which besets us, and its answer tends to satisfy us
not necessarily because it is more lax, but because it
grasps better a situation that did not exist when older
theologians wrote. Hence, while I should take my
principles from the giants of theology—De Lugo,
St. Thomas, Suarez—I am inclined to seek at the
lips of the latest of their disciples who can get an
1 86 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

imprimatur the practical application of these prin

ciples to our present needs.
In dealing with these relapsing sinners I have
always felt that theologians are apt to lead us a
little astray with their mathematical rules. These
holy men lived and wrote in the days of strong faith
and of deep and abiding fear of hell. We live in
days of weak convictions and diluted faith. The
extraordinary revolution in theological thinking
which has taken place in the various Protestant com
munities in England, well within the memory of
living men, has not been without its effect upon us,
our teaching, and our lives. The recoil from the
sternness of great Protestant teachers like Bishop
Butler led men to resolve to make religion attractive
at almost any cost. The winning aspects of religion
were always to be presented to men ; services might
be liturgical but must be what is called ' bright,'
and the whole theological position, the relation of
man to his Maker and of Almighty God to the crea
ture of His hands, was summed up in the musical
and most scriptural phrase : ' The Fatherhood of
God.' For a counterpart amongst ourselves we
find indications of a similar spirit in the publication
of Faber's ' All for Jesus,' and especially in his
vindication of the absence of a chapter on mortifi
cation. His object was to bring before men ' The
easy ways of divine love.' The undesirable ten
dency of this most excellent teaching lay in the fact
that it weakened the sense of human responsibility
to an all-seeing Judge, who would render to every
man according to his works, and Mr. Gladstone
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 1 87

might be quoted to show that the concept of sin

as an offence against God was slowly fading away.1
Hence it is, as I have said, that we live in an age
of weak convictions and diluted faith. It seems
fair to argue that where a man has strong faith and
a deep fear of hell, a deliberate sin in him has far
more obstinacy and wilfulness, guilt and revolt, than
when a man has merely the weak watery faith which
meets us to-day. For an instance of my meaning,
take the sin of blasphemy. There are those who
would maintain that this sin hardly exists in Eng
land because there is needed for its full guilt a
strong lively faith as well as the occasion. An
ordinary Englishman blasphemes : it is little more
than anger and grave irreverence, while in an Italian
in his moods of fury, with his strong vivid perception
of God, the same words would mark for a moment,
at any rate, absolute hatred of Almighty God and
defiance of the Most High. I think, therefore, that
in dealing with relapsing sinners there is much to
be said for the view that in times such as ours
sin may often exist without possessing the same
obstinate character which it had in days of brighter
faith, and that consequently relapsing sinners may
get absolution on easier conditions than when sin
implied a greater sense of revolt against God.
I am strengthened in this view by the contrast
that is forced upon my sight between the death-beds,

1 ' Ah,' said he slowly, ' the sense of sin—that is the great want in
modem life ; it is wanting in our sermons, wanting everywhere ! ' This
was said slowly and reflectively, almost like a monologue.— Talks with
Mr. Gladstone, by Hon. L. Tollemache, p. 96.
1 88 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

say, of St. Alphonsus's sinners and of mine. In his

' Preparation for Death,' as well as his ' Glories of
Mary,' we come across descriptions of the death
beds of many sinners. They seem to me to be all
alike in one particular. They have such a lively
faith, such a keen sense of the judgement to come,
that they die in despair. I wish I could awaken
faith enough in my dying sinners to give them a
wholesome fear of hell. In all my years of death
beds I have never had a case of final despair. My
sinners die in presumption. Surely this, again,
seems to point to the fact that in these days of weak
faith there is often wanting that deliberate malice
in relapsing sinners which made it necessary in other
days to be able to recognise very definite signs of
improvement before giving absolution to relapsing
sinners. Nowadays we ask : ' How long did he
keep good ? ' ' Did he resist at all since his last
confession ? ' ' Did the last absolution have any
good effect ? ' If it did, in God's name repeat it.
He has come back to you again at a time when sin
sits lightly on men. Absolve him, yes, and pray to
God with all earnestness for that mysterious and
loving power of unction by which the confessor
who is a man of prayer lifts that poor fluttering
soul even to the very lips of God, there to find its
kiss of peace.
Let me pass now to those penitents and those
confessions of devotion which form the staple of
our duty as confessors. These confessions, weekly
or monthly, of ordinary good Christians who
have no grievous sins to confess sometimes give us
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 189

anxiety. We give absolution indeed, but the teasing

doubt from time to time attacks us whether these
penitents have the dispositions necessary for the valid
recaption of the sacrament. It is clear that they
possess what we may call the passive dispositions ;
they are in the grace of God, and they mean fully
to stay in His favour and to save their souls. The
question which presents itself to us is how much is
required in the way of active dispositions and new
formal resolutions in order that they may get the
benefit of the sacrament of penance. They come to
us with their imperfections and human failings, no
very deliberate turning away from God in even
lesser things; they say that they are sorry, and
repeat their act of contrition, and we give them
penance and absolution. Small wonder if we get
anxious about these when we turn from our prac
tice to our text-books and read there the disposi
tions required for valid absolution.
This consideration affects so many of the confes
sions we hear that it is quite worth while looking the
matter in the face. Let me begin by taking stock of
the acts of the penitent in the sacrament of penance.
Let me ask whether these acts have any natural
value, any value of themselves ; whether, for in
stance, they would be worth anything if Jesus Christ
had never instituted the sacrament of penance.
The sacrament of penance calls for the performance
of certain acts by the recipient. He has to examine
his conscience and so find out how he stands with
Almighty God. If he finds that God has anything
against him, he must get sorry for that sin because
IOO THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

it has offended God, and get to wish that he had

never done it ; and finally, he has to promise that if
God gives him pardon, he will avoid all sin in future
and even the occasions which may lead him to sin.
These are the acts of the penitent, and my point is
that even if there were no sacrament of penance at
all, no confession, no priestly absolution, still these
acts are of value, and are required of every creature
who has sinned if he wants pardon, because they
are the natural steps whereby we seek forgiveness
of one whom we have wronged. Protestant, Jew,
heathen, anyone and everyone who has sinned, must
go through these acts to get pardon, even though
he has not the sacrament of penance and cannot
kneel to a priest in confession.
History shows us how the value of these natural
acts was understood in the ages of faith by relating
the fact that when a priest could not be had,
it was not uncommon for a layman in danger of
death to confess to another layman, although
knowing perfectly well that the layman had no
power to absolve. Hence, if frequent confes
sion did nothing more for us than this, it would
be of supreme importance in our spiritual life in
that it affords the opportunity and crystallises
our duty of making these natural acts by which we
seek God's pardon. But, as we know, the sacra
ment of penance does far more than this. Our
Saviour took these natural acts and raised them to
the dignity of a sacrament, sealing them with His
approval. By our acts we have, with God's grace,
put ourselves in the dispositions necessary for
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 191

pardon ; by God's act, through the ministry of his

priest, we receive that forgiveness which is bestowed
on us by the words of absolution.
Thus we are not surprised to find that the Church
and her spiritual writers encourage this habit of
frequent confession quite apart from the presence of
grievous sin, and that her saints have constantly
practised it. ' Wash me yet more from my iniqui
ties and cleanse me from my sins.' I think that in
the case of these ordinary confessions of devotion
we are inclined sometimes to demand too much
contrition or too definite a sorrow and resolution.
Our sorrow need not do more than correspond to
our fault ; our return to God ought to be parallel to
our backsliding from Him. We cannot fairly ask
our penitents that their sorrow and their return
should be greater and more definite than their fault
and their backsliding. In other words, if there is
little wilfulness in our faults, there is not much
room in our sorrow for real amendment. Granted
that the Church encourages confessions of this kind,
it seems to me that a general wish and desire, a
hope and a prayer that the future may find us less
frail and more generous, will include the sorrow
needed for the validity of absolution in such
confessions.
Children's confessions come in much the same
category. We send them to confession at a very
early age. We may note that often children of
tender years are incapable of formal mortal sin.
We cannot fairly claim from them more definite
sorrow than there was wilfulness in their childish
192 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

faults. They constantly accuse themselves of sins

they have never committed, ' to make sure,' as they
say. Our questions may well be most sparing, leav
ing them in good faith whenever it is at all possible.
Let me now say something about the few
words the young priest may say to the weekly or
monthly penitent, and the penance he gives. There
is no doubt that we have here an opportunity of
encouraging and sanctifying souls very dear to
God. If we content ourselves with giving merely
absolution and a penance we often miss a
chance. There are, of course, souls that want
to be left alone and are better left alone ex
cept when the confession makes it our duty to
speak. At all times mere commonplaces of piety
are useless. Let us speak by all means if we
have something to say, but not merely to say
something. The confessions we are considering will
not usually give us much help ; we cannot strike
new sparks for ever out of the hardy annual type of
imperfection such as distractions in prayers, greedi
ness, and want of charity. It is likely to be fresher,
and therefore more real, if we have some little word
to say on the Gospel or the Epistle which they can
recall at Mass to-morrow—or on the feast we are
keeping, or the season we are passing through. Take
something that appeals to our own heart ; we are
likely to make it effective with our penitents and we
are not bound to show the fitness of our particular
topic. If it appeals to us, it will probably appeal
to them. On the eve of the first Friday in each
month my confessions are usually very numerous.
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 193

Fancy my weariness and my penitents' dismay if

every month in the year I had to discourse to each
on the marvels of the first Friday. Let us choose
what helps ourselves best.
Then, again, I am sure that we confessors miss a
good deal by giving routine penances. Let me plead
for some originality in our penances, an occasional
breaking of new ground, a little respite from the Hail
Maries, Our Fathers, and Salves which so often seem
the only arrows in our quiver. In these degenerate
days our people do not know their prayer-books,
nor do they use them as men used them forty years
ago. In spite of the multiplication and cheapening
of prayer-books, it is quite rare to see persons
make use of them in preparing for the sacraments.
At Mass things are a little better, but practically
it is only at Mass that the average Catholic makes
use of a book at all.
I am sure that our sense of religion would gain
if we said from time to time the Universal Prayer,
the Penitential Psalms, the Thirty Days' Prayer, the
Acts, the Litanies, the prayers for the four Seasons,
and the rest, as some of us were taught to do in
our childhood. Nowadays our good people hardly
know that there are such prayers. It is not easy—
experto crede—to get such prayers accepted as a
penance, but the practice is of such value in broaden
ing the basis of our spiritual life that it is worth
trying. The penitent will at once say : ' 1 have not
my book,' or ' I do not know it off by heart.' Even
if we put it to them that to get the book and to find
the prayer in it may well be a part of the penance,
o
194 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

they will think us faddy and troublesome, and we

shall not succeed unless we insist. I remember
taking some pains in this matter with a small religious
community, but with modified success. At the end
of the ' Prayers of St. Gertrude ' there is tacked on
a prayer entitled ' Life Everlasting,' the pen of the
translator being finely dipped in the well of English
pure and undefiled. I wished to introduce this
prayer to the knowledge of these sisters, and
thought to do so by giving it as a penance. At
first the fact that it was not written by, let me
suppose, ' one of our fathers ' seemed a bar to its
adoption. I got my way only when I pointed
out that its author, St. Augustine, was a very
respectable man, and, indeed, a ' Father of the
Church,' even though he had not the advantage of
being ' one of our fathers.'
Let me bring this topic to an end with a story
against myself, illustrating the same need of in
sisting on and so teaching the use of a prayer-book.
Many years ago I received into the Church a peasant
farmer, his wife, and his two girls. ' Who drives
fat oxen should himself be fat.' He was bovine
himself in disposition, and very docile. I noticed
him on Saturday evening kneeling outside my con
fessional, and was pleased to see him using his
prayer-book diligently. I had never taught him to
use a book, and made a mental note of my neglect.
I went over to him to say how pleased I was to see
him preparing himself for his confession with the
help of a book. ' But why are you reading that
particular part ? ' said I, noticing that the open page
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL I95

had no relation to confession. ' It's my daaghter's

buke,' said he, a slow smile stealing over his broad
face ; ' it oopened there.' For his preparation for
confession he was reading the solemnisation of the
sacrament of marriage ! I recognised how wanting
had been the course of instructions with which I
had prepared him for his reception, and yet !
The subject of our relations and duties towards
those who are called our pious penitents and to
those who may have the germ of a religious vocation
raises questions which have been treated in the
chapter on zeal.
It only remains for me now to point out some of
the failings which may mar our usefulness as con
fessors, some of the rocks that may make shipwreck
of our work as priests.
Let me take first the danger of jealousy. Ega
quidem sum Pauli ; ego autem Apollo ; ego veto
Cephce ; ego autem Christi. Divisus est Christus ?
(1 Cor. i. 12). I will begin by admitting at once that
this temptation does not attack the younger clergy
as strongly as the older men. It is especially the
danger not so much of those beginning their career
as of those who have made some progress and have
done some good work. Still, the temptation to
jealousy in relation to other confessors and those
whom we look on as our penitents may arise very
early in our pastoral life. I do not know any vice
which is more clever in hiding itself under a fair
exterior, any vice that may take more graceful
forms or counterfeit better the grand and mascu
line virtue of zeal. Even when we have driven it
01
196 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

out of our soul by a strong act of the will it may get

back by a side door and under new disguises. ' He
must increase and I must decrease,' said the Baptist
when men came to stir his jealousy by telling how
all the world had gone after Jesus, whom John had
baptised. There is one safeguard which will help us
in times of temptation : from the first day of our
ministry we must preach, practise, and uphold to
the full the cry of free trade in the confessional.
Forewarned is forearmed, a resolution of this kind
has its value in our lives.
A new priest comes to the mission energetic,
attractive, eloquent in the pulpit, full of zeal.
You know the type ; it is so easy, indeed so in
teresting to be zealous, to be an apostle, a real
mission father, for a whole month. Before the
month ends and the moon changes he has gathered
around his confessional half the feather-heads in the
congregation. You say, perhaps a bit sourly, they are
brainless feather-heads ; all the same they have left
you and gone to him. In your heart you know, you
cannot help knowing, that he is selfish and that he
is shallow. Nevertheless, he is a success and you
are not. It becomes hard to keep a perfect guard
over your tongue ; to listen to his praises from lips
which last week and for many weeks were occupied
with yours ; hard, at any rate, not to damn the
fellow with faint praise. Bear it. The mortifica
tion will make your work more spiritual, it will
brace you to greater effort for those who remain,
and remember, above all, that neither sarcasms nor
petting, nor anything you can do, will bring them
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL I97

back. Of that be certain ; you cannot bring them

back, but you can very easily show yourself under
new and surprising colours unless you are on
your guard. Full, absolute free trade in the con
fessional at all times and under all circumstances
must be our first principle in dealing with those who
come to us.
Then, again, a priest of very different calibre
may come and carry all before him. This man—
let us admit it honestly—deserves his success ; he
has all the gifts which we desire, and, in addition, we
recognise that he is a man of God. We rather fancy
our own zeal and methodical work, but, by the side
of his, ours is a sort of zeal in general, while his is
zeal in particular ; our zeal for the most part is
abstract, his is concrete. Tell him of one soul which
needs his help and he will leave his ninety and nine
and go that day after the one. To us it seems as if
he was always in the church, always in his district,
always ready for a stray confession, always as if
waiting for a new convert. He says more prayers
than the rest of us together, and yet he seems to
have more time than others to take on any new
work that comes his way. This time it is not only
the feather-heads—they will go too, and he will
make something of them—not only the cranks or
the ' saints,' who are ready to gush over him by day
and confess to him by night, who desert us, but the
good solid penitents, sober Catholics of the ' Garden
of the Soul ' type whom we looked on as pre-eminently
our own by reason of our general sanity, modera
198 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

tion, and common sense. Young piety is often un

graceful ; we can easily pick holes in his methods
while we look a bit grimly at the results. Here
again, there is nothing for it but entire free trade in
the confessional ; full and generous appreciation of
his work, crushing down, by secret prayer and bodily
mortification if need be, the jealous devil which is
fighting for mastery within us that it may put
poison into his work and wreck for a lifetime our
own power for good.
Another point for watchfulness is a certain want
of discretion in talking of confessional matters. I
need not say that I am not referring to the Sigillum,
but there is sometimes a temptation to freedom
in talking of these matters which is irreverent to
the sacrament and unbecoming in God's priest.
We can find plenty of excuses for talk of this kind.
We say with truth that we need guidance, that we
must thresh out the matter, and the rest. Be it so.
But as a safeguard let us make a rule never to do the
threshing out in the dining-room, in the presence of
other priests and perhaps of servants, and to leave
the guidance required until we next see our con
fessor.
Now let me come to the troublesome matter of
questions in the confessional. The fewer, of course,
the better, every book tells us. We may well bear
in mind that the integrity required in confession is
subjective, not objective. No objective integrity is
possible ; neither man nor angel nor devil can ever
declare with full integrity the guilt of the sin as it is
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 1 99

in the sight of God. To Him alone is known the

sin in its objective integrity. The integrity which we
are bound to seek for is subjective, and varies as
much as one person differs from another. The
theologian and the child, the dying labourer whose
death-bed confession is his first, and the educated
Catholic, confessing the same sins, will differ from
each other in every way. Where they will all agree
will be in their honesty. Each one, prince and
peasant, philosopher and child, will try to tell the
sin honestly as it presents itself to him, and will so
fulfil the obligation of integrity. Remembering this
principle will sometimes save a scrupulous confessor
from asking questions which are not of strict
obligation for the sacramental integrity of the
confession.
Finally, although it sounds hard to make a rule
never to give alms in the confessional, still I would
suggest it, even if, like other human rules, it is
sometimes more honoured in the breach than in the
observance. You have to protect the sacrament
from profanation and your people from sacrilege.
In the confessional you are at the impostor's mercy ;
no bell to ring, no servant to negociate, get over,
hoodwink, or tell lies to. The church is open, the
priest cannot get away, the man's turn will surely
come if he waits. Never teach him that going to
confession or to the confessional will bring him an
alms, or you will have to answer for sacrileges
as countless as autumnal leaves that strow the
brooks in Vallombrosa. The woman who comes at
200 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

ten o'clock at night for the price of her lodgings was

in much the same need at ten o'clock that morning,
but had she come in the morning you would have
had opportunities of inquiry she never meant to
give you. Tell her to come to-morrow morning at
ten ; give her nothing to-night ; it is not her first
night out, and do not teach her to make you respon
sible for her sufferings when she has not given you
a fair chance.
And when all is done, when you have worked
for years in different churches of the diocese under
varying conditions, when instinct tells you that the
end is coming quickly, that the curtain is ready to
fall, that your little part in the world's play is
nearly done, you will lie down on your death-bed
and look back on the years of your life.
Eheu ! fugaces, Postume, Postume,
Labuntur anni ; nec pietas moram
Rugis et instanti senectse
Afferet, indomitsque morti. ,

The history of your confessional will spread

itself out like a panorama before your eyes. What
will you miss most in that story ? What will then
seem to you to have been the element most lacking
in your life's work as a confessor ? Was it judge
ment, was it compassion, was it knowledge, was it
shrewdness and penetration, was it decision and
clearness of vision, was it patience, was it unction
and personal piety ? J udgement came to us in inter
course with other men ; pity compassed us round
as we learnt the story of human life ; slirewdness
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 201

and penetration grew on us with added years and

wrinkled brow ; patience came and filled our souls
as we sat and waited for those who would not have
us ; decision and clear vision found us after many
wanderings ; knowledge came, too, in a strange un-
looked for way, in the baring before us of the souls
of men ; but unction and personal piety—of that we
have never had enough. Thirsty souls drew near
to us to drink in the quenching love of Jesus cruci
fied. We shed a hard bright light upon their lives,
but never a ray of warmth or the softening dews
of heaven. We bade them avoid sin, and for
reasons we gave them low, sordid, selfish motives,
of the earth earthy, because the higher motives,
Love suffering, God dying, had so little reality for
ourselves, so weak a grip on our own leaden lives. As
the light of our little day is fading and the shadows
gather round, the shell of our self-love crumbles,
and underneath we see, as we never saw before,
that what failure there has been in our confessional
is due to our lack of unction, our want of prayer.
We have worked and toiled and moiled, we have
studied and read, but we have not prayed enough.
From time to time it has been that our penitents,
by their saintly lives and silent humbleness, have
brought us nearer to God. If we have failed with
them it is because we have forgotten to become
men of prayer. Love is the fulfilling of the law,
prayer is as the life-blood of the true confessor.
Make him a man of prayer, of humble, faithful,
persevering prayer, and he will lift souls from the
slough of sin, ay, and keep them near to the feet
202 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

of God, and at his judgement those whom he has

succoured will rise up around him and call him
blessed.
Qui condolere possit its qui ignorant et errant,
quoniam et ipse drcumdatus est infirmitate (Heb.
v. 2).
 803

XIII
THE SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND
MATRIMONY
Sic nos existimet homo ut ministros Christi, et dispensatoret
mysttriorum Dei.—I Cor. iv. I.
Putabat Pharao se stare super Jluvium, de quo ascendebant septem
boves, pulchru et crassce nimis. . . . Rursum dormivit, et vidit alterum
somnium : Septem spiccc pullulabant in culmo una, plence atque
formosce. —Gen. xli. I, 5.

Baptism.—Under the conditions of our life in

England the sacrament of baptism demands parti
cular care. When our royalties set the example of
deferring baptism for a couple of months, loyal
Englishmen will be remiss in this matter. A
lax conscience is created in the community, and
public opinion has its full effect on our people as
on others. Instead of being brought for baptism
within a day or two after birth, as the Church's
legislation supposes, the child is very often a
month or six weeks old before being brought to
the font. In the army, on the contrary, the tradi
tion is very satisfactory. Possibly the King's regu
lations have something to do with this. It is there
laid down that no child is to be taken 'on the
strength,' and no allowance is to be paid for the
204 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

child, until the father produces the baptismal certifi

cate to his commanding officer. We ought to do
what we can to create a better conscience amongst
our people in this important matter. One thing we
can usually do, and it may have a good effect. We
can always refuse to church the woman until the
baby has been baptized. Public opinion sets far
more store by churching than by baptism. In the
eyes of the lower classes churching is looked on as
the hall-mark of a woman's virtue, attesting that
her baby has been born in lawful wedlock. Public
opinion rules our people too, and sometimes it is
their only form of a practical conscience. Hence
our women are anxious to be churched, while they
are ready to put off the baptism for frivolous reasons,
just as if they were royalties. Churching is not a
sacrament, and we can point out to them blandly
that the Church does not care very much whether
they are churched, but does care very much for that
baby's soul, and that when baby is safe we shall
be ready to bless its mother, and not before.
Then come the rules appointing the different
ways in which the sacrament of baptism is con
ferred. Infant baptism is administered to all who
have never been baptized, whether they be infants
or adults, but there is sometimes a diocesan rule that
we must ask for permission to baptize adults with
the infants' form. Conditional baptism is conferred
when there is reasonable ground for doubting either
the fact of a former baptism or the validity of it.
To those who have already attained the use of
reason so as to be capable of sin and of the sacra
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 205

ment of penance, conditional baptism is administered

with holy water and not with baptismal water, and
all the ceremonies are omitted except the essential
one of pouring the water and saying the words.
Hence this baptism need not take place at the font.
When conditional baptism has to be conferred on
children who have not attained the use of reason,
the Congregation of the Holy Office has ruled that
this baptism is to be administered secreto, but with
all the rites and ceremonies of infant baptism except
that in pouring the baptismal water the conditional
and not the absolute form is used.
Converts.— An important part of our duty as
missionary priests is fulfilled in the due instruction
and reception of converts. The bishops lately have
found reason to be dissatisfied with the results of
our instruction and reception of converts, and they
have forbidden us to receive any without obtaining
the permission of the ordinary in each case. This
permission is not granted until we have reasonably
satisfied him that the neophyte has been properly
instructed, especially in the Catholic teaching on
the Church's office and the Pope. The bishop,
moreover, expects an assurance from us that the
convert will be looked after by some Catholic
during the early days of his new life.
Converts may be divided into two classes. There
are those who were conscientious and real adherents
of some religious body not in communion with the
Catholic Church. Then there are those who are
only nominal members of any Church, and in prac
tice recognise only the law of nature and the code of
206 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

public opinion as guides of conduct. Each class has

its own good points as well as its difficulties ; each
class has something to unlearn as well as something
to learn. Those first mentioned have usually an
idea of a Church and have some sense of the super
natural. This is all to the good. Still, they need
definite and careful instruction on the Church's posi
tion and claims, and it sometimes happens that it
is quite necessary to point out to them and get them
to realise clearly why their former position was un
tenable. We must remember that the educated
men and women who come to us for instruction are
usually steeped to the lips in private judgement. If
we are to receive them, they must pass through the
Caudine Forks ; they must deliver up their arms
wherein they trusted, for unless they become as
little children they shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom. Private judgement they must leave behind
them in its native home. If it has brought them
in, see to it that it does not take them out. ' They
went out from us, but they were not of us.'
The other class is far larger, and we must be
prepared often to find that with them it is the first
time that religion has entered into their lives at all.
What these will need first of all is careful and de
tailed instruction in the supernatural character of
the Church, in the meaning of revelation, in the
existence of a law above and beyond the law that is
written on the fleshly tables of men's hearts. It is
a real difficulty to impress this cardinal teaching on
grown men and women to whom it comes home for
the first time in their lives. You have to make them
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 207

realise that there is a divinely appointed ruler who

will enter into their daily lives, a ruler whom they
will have to obey not merely when they like, but
when they do not like; you will have to bring
home to this free-born hearty Englishman that
there is on earth an infallible teacher who is right,
not merely when he sees him to be right, but is
equally right and equally to be obeyed when his
bluff English common sense would tell him that the
teacher is wrong. It is not an easy task, and it was
our failure in this part of our instruction of converts
that brought on us, the rank and file, these new
regulations of the bishops. When we have burnt
this principle into their souls, then we may begin and
take them through the catechism page by page.
As far as possible, our instructions will follow the
Socratic method of questions to them rather than of
exposition from us. We want to find out what they
know and we want them to find out what they do not
know. Questioning is the best method to show us
their knowledge and themselves their ignorance.
Even when our instruction is expository in form we
ought to drive home our teaching by informal ques
tions at the end. As to the answers we shall get, let
us remember, for our comfort—and we pity ourselves
a good deal when we are instructing the very dense
and the ignorant—that they may know very much
more than they are able to express. The faculty of
putting their knowledge into words is often inde
pendent of the knowledge itself. God judges them
according to their opportunities and their capabili
ties, and usually we can get sufficient proofs of
208 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

implicit faith, at any rate, to justify us in receiving

them. St. Alphonsus has some cheering sayings
touching the communions of the very ignorant
Italian peasants whom his missioners came across,
and the very slight knowledge which would suffice
provided that there were evidences of good will.
Our poor pagans may be judged as leniently.
Let me give an instance of the dense muddle-
headed people that we may have to deal with. In
Sussex I received a middle-aged woman, a cripple.
She could not get to the church, which was three
miles away, and I went to her cottage once a week,
and after some two or three months I received her.
She was able to read a little, and was very satisfac
tory for several years. One day, however, she re
fused to see me, and told her grand-daughter to
tell me that she would have no more to say to Roman
Catholics, and the rest. I insisted on seeing her,
and she gave me her reason. A neighbour had given
her a copy of a short History of Rome in the form of
question and answer entitled ' Catechism of Roman
History.' Therein she learnt how Tarquin's daughter
drove her chariot over the dead body of her father on
the way to the Senate House. I seem to recollect in
the book a rough sketch of the occurrence. If the
Romans did that—well, she was no Roman any
more, and nothing would move her. Was it true
or was it not ? was her own sufficient reply to
all my explanation. The words ' catechism ' and
' Roman ' were too many for me ; the picture of
the fatal chariot and the damsel was damning
evidence which could not be gainsaid. With such
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 209

make an act of faith that they have a soul some

where, and then do your best to save it. No man
can do more.
The reception will take place when they have
been carefully instructed in all that the catechism
includes under the Articles, Prayer, and the Com
mandments, as well as the two sacraments of baptism
and penance. It is usual to give some little instruc
tion on the Blessed Sacrament before reception, but
it is best with ordinary converts to give the full course
of instruction on the Holy Eucharist after recep
tion. It is very seldom that you will find people
that can undergo a whole hour's instruction with
profit. Perhaps their visit to you may occupy an
hour, but an instruction lasting half an hour or
three-quarters will be as much as is good for them.
The length of time that we have people under in
struction has its value as well as the amount of
instruction we give them. Hence it is almost an
injustice to them to receive them hastily. Ten in
structions before reception, occupying ten weeks,
one instruction each week, would produce ordinarily
a better convert than the same number of instruc
tions given in five weeks. Remember that it is not
merely the loyal acceptance of a series of propositions
logically proved that is required ; it is the change of
the whole man, a complete revolution in his attitude
towards life, oftentimes a whole building up of the
sense of moral responsibility. All these things take
time as well as teaching, and time is a great element
in bringing about such a change and acclimatising
the neophyte to his new surroundings.
p
210 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

The ceremony of reception consists of the pro

fession of faith, the conditional baptism, the absolu
tion from censures in foro externo, and conditional
absolution in foro interno. The little book entitled
' Form for the Reception of Converts,' by the Bishop
of Newport, published by the Catholic Truth Society,
has, I understand, superseded the former instruc
tion on the reception of converts as well as the
synodal decrees. The rule about the confession
is that confession is always to be made when the
neophyte has already reached the age of reason
and is baptised under condition. In other cases no
confession is needed. As to the confession, you will
usually make it yourself for all except the well
educated, and it will mostly be in the form of
questions, going through the commandments in a
general way in your own non-technical words. You
will bear in mind that your penitent is not a Catholic
trained theologian, but a poor Protestant layman
who probably never examined his conscience in his
life until you taught him that he had a conscience to
examine. It is manifest that he is bound to confess
only what he recognised to be wrong at the time he
committed the offences. There is no obligation on
him to read his present knowledge into his past
sins. The sorrow, the love, the good resolve of a
son at his father's knees ; look to these things with
care, and he will do you credit.
Formalities of Marriage.—In all that has to do
with the solemnisation of marriage, you will always
remember that you have to take into consideration
two sets of laws and regulations, two lawgivers, and
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 211

that if you go wrong it is usually the young couple

that suffers. As mission priests we are bound to
know our business and to save them from errors
which may have serious effects. Therefore we need
caution in every stage of our dealing with the sacra
ment of marriage. Our people are much handi
capped by this double administration, and it results,
amongst the poor at any rate, in numberless mar
riages in Protestant churches and registry offices.
My belief is that the present civil formalities result
in more harm each year to the Catholic body in
England than all the mixed marriages celebrated
with a dispensation mixtce religionis. In 1893 a
select committee was appointed by Mr. Gladstone,
then Prime Minister, to report on Nonconformist
grievances in the present state of the marriage law.
Our bishops were invited to represent our case to
the committee, but what they did had no effect, and
the two-fold administration has still to be faced.
I. Ecclesiastical Formalities.—Let me begin with
the Church's rules.
Betrothals. — We must first notice that
Betrothals now fall under the legislation of the Church.
The decree Ne temere (2 August, 1907) lays down the
conditions necessary for a valid engagement to marry.
Thus it becomes easy in given cases to determine
whether or not the impedient impediment called
' Sponsalia,' or the diriment impediment called
' publicae honestatis,' has been incurred. These
impediments are not incurred unless the Betrothals
are valid. And, by the above-named decree
Betrothals are not considered valid unless the
following conditions have been complied with.
ra
212 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

They must be contracted by means of a written

document, signed (i.) by both parties, and (ii.) by
either the parish priest, or the local ordinary, or at
least two witnesses.
The inability of one of the parties to write,
involves the necessity of (a) a note to that effect in
the document, (b) the additional signatures of (i.)
another witness and (ii.) the parish priest, or the
local ordinary, or two witnesses as above. The
document must be properly dated with the day of
month and year. All through the decree, the term
' parish priest ' is to be taken not only in its strict
canonical sense, but also to include all priests who
have been entrusted with the general care of souls
in the district concerned.
First inquire prudently about any former
marriage of either party, and, where one is not a
Catholic, the possibility of an invalid marriage
arising through the divorce laws will not be absent
from your mind.
Having decided that you can deal with the
marriage, you will take names and addresses of each
of the parties for the publication of the banns.
These are to be published on three consecutive
Sundays or holidays at the principal (or parochial)
Mass in the church of the district to which each
party belongs, and not necessarily in the church
where the marriage is to take place. When the
banns are to be published in two churches, you will
either send the notice yourself to the priest of the
other church, or tell the young people to see him
themselves, but the first plan is usually preferable.
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 21$

The next point that will come before you will

be to settle whether any dispensation will be re
quired that the marriage may be valid and lawful.
There are some fifteen classes of impediments
which render marriage invalid, as well as four
which render it illicit. Hence the possible need of
a dispensation is quite a practical question. If
you can, you will pass on the applicants them
selves to the bishop and his officials who are
brought up to make the necessary inquiries. If
this is not possible, you must state a case for
the ordinary's decision. In doing this it is better
not to put the case merely in the form of a letter
to the bishop. You will do well to write it on
foolscap paper on one side only, leaving a margin
for the bishop's notes. You will put your name and
address at the top and a date at the end, and you
will forward it with a mere formal covering letter.
If the ' supplica ' is drawn up in Latin, the bishop's
chaplain will be grateful to you, in case the petition
for the dispensation has to go through the bishop
on to Dataria or Penitentiaria.
The first Bishop of Southwark issued to his
clergy a very full instruction on the marriages of
foreigners. This instruction has long been out of
print, and I make no apology for reproducing what
may be of use still. It is useful in some churches to
have the forms of marriage consent given in other
languages. In addition to the Southwark instruc
tion I give the French, Italian, and German forms
in common use in an appendix.
The dispensation which we have to apply
214 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

for most frequently arises from the impediment

mixtce rdigionis. The Church always discourages
mixed marriages, but grants permission for them
for grave reasons, and this permission takes the
technical form of a dispensation. The reasons
commonly regarded as sufficient are, hope of the
conversion of the non-Catholic party ; the difficulty
of the Catholic obtaining otherwise a suitable partner
in life ; the danger of a non-Catholic marriage ; the
saving of the woman's good name, and the like. If
a dispensation is granted, the following conditions
are imposed : The marriage is to take place only in
a Catholic church ; all the children of the mar
riage of both sexes are to be baptised and brought
up Catholics ; the non-Catholic undertakes to put no
obstacle in the way of the Catholic party fulfilling
the obligations of a Catholic. These promises
have to be signed by the non-Catholic party, and
there may be no nuptial blessing and no nuptial
Mass. When you have got the information re
quired, you will tell the Catholic party to return in
a week, bringing the non-Catholic, and by that time
you will usually have received the dispensation from
the bishop with the promises to be signed. When
the Protestant comes you may be able to get him,
if not to put himself under instruction, at least to
let you put before him the teaching and practice of
the Catholic Church. Sometimes this can be done
prudently by yourself, and always it is easier for
you to do it, and it is likely to be more effective,
than for the Catholic party to attempt it. You will
then inquire about his baptism and his liber status,
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 215

and, being assured of these, it may be well to

explain to him that it is not he that needs the dis
pensation, but that the Catholic requires permission
to marry, without sacrificing his or her religion, one
who is not a member of the Catholic Church.
You will now put before Catholics the necessity
of going to their duties in good time before the
marriage, and, when prudent, you may ask them to
bring you an audivi from their confessor. When
both are Catholics, try to arrange for a nuptial
Mass, which is no mere ornament, but is an integral
part of the blessing which the Church reserves for
her children at this solemn moment of life.
Lastly, you will have to instruct them in
the civil formalities to be observed by them. Before
treating of these, let me give a word of advice. Put
all the disagreeables (and it is sad to see how few
marriages go through quite smoothly) at the first in
terview, when the young people are most anxious to
get the business settled in good train. They are more
reasonable then than they will be afterwards, and
they resent it if, at the second or third interview,
you spring something new upon them. In addition
to these points concerning their duties as Catholics,
there is also the question of an offering to the priest.
They know that it is right and usual to give an
offering, but they do not know how much is ex
pected of them. We may not make a charge, nor do
we make it a condition that we should receive an
offering at all. At the same time it is often best to
mention at the first interview that it is right to make
an offering to the Church on the occasion of the
2l6 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

marriage, and if there is an approved tariff, as in

some dioceses, you may usually call attention to it.
You want this marriage, then, to be both valid
and lawful, and you are a little uneasy at the
remembrance of the ' Ne temere ' decree. Your
marriage will be valid if you satisfy the four condi
tions that follow :
1. You must be either the ordinary of the
diocese in which the marriage takes place, or the
priest in charge of the mission in which the
marriage takes place, or a priest delegated by
one or other of them. You may note that it is
not required that either one of the pair be your
own ecclesiastical subject ; if you marry them in
the church of the mission of which you are the
priest-in-charge, or the curate or the visitor armed
with authority delegated to you by the priest-in-
charge or by the Bishop, you will have satisfied this
first condition.
2. There must be two witnesses in addition to
yourself.
3. You must be assisting at this marriage of your
own free will at the invitation of the parties, and not
forced by violence or threats.
4. You yourself must make the formal inter
rogations and receive the replies expressing due
consent.
All those conditions must be fulfilled if the
marriage is to be valid.
It will be lawful under the following condi
tions :
1. You must have satisfied yourself that the
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 217

parties are free to marry. You will do this by

(i.) interrogating the parties themselves or (ii.) by
obtaining baptismal certificates—for since Easter
1908 marriages must be noted against the record of
baptism of the parties concerned, and by getting
this record you ought to get information thus of any
previous marriage ; and (iii.) calling the banns at
the chief Mass on three consecutive days on which
Mass is of obligation. When and how these banns
may be dispensed you will know from your Moral
Theology.
a. At least one of the pair must either have a
domicile within the territory over which you have
jurisdiction (whether delegated or ordinary), or have
lived within that territory for at least a month. If
neither of these alternatives can be met, you must
get permission from the ordinary in whose diocese,
or the priest in whose mission one or the other of
these alternatives has been complied with. Other
wise you break these regulations and you lose your
right to the stole fees. Nevertheless, it is not
delegation that you are asking for now, but
simple permission, and permission ' rationabiliter
praesumpta ' or even ' interpretativa ' will suffice.
And a grave necessity will excuse you from getting
permission at all ; but in that case you will make a
written note of this necessity.
3. Where people with no fixed abode are con
cerned, you must refer the matter to the Bishop, or
to the proper authority appointed by him, and
obtain his permission. But here again grave
2l8 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

necessity will justify you in marrying the couple

without having obtained this permission.
4. The marriage should take place in the church
to which the bride belongs. Yet if this is in
convenient the obligation ceases. But make a
written note of the inconvenience too.
One more obligation, and that a double one,
affects the parish priest, or his representative in
charge of the parish. The marriage must be
entered in proper form (i.) in the marriage register of
the parish in which it took place, and (ii.) against the
record of baptism of the parties concerned (or at
least of the Catholic party in the case of a ' mixed
marriage ').
These entries must be made by the parish
priest himself, or by his representative in charge of
the parish, and not by the priest who was merely
delegated to assist at the marriage. If the baptism
or baptisms in question took place elsewhere,
notification must be forwarded to the place or places
concerned, and duly entered in the baptismal
register.
The decree also provides for two extreme cases,
as follows :
1. If for reasons of conscience or to legitimatise
offspring two people ought to be married, and there
is imminent danger of death, and neither the local
ordinary, nor the parish priest, nor a delegate of
either of them can be obtained, then the marriage
may be validly and licitly contracted before any
priest and two witnesses. But this priest must see
to it that the marriage is duly entered in the
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 219

registers mentioned above ; and if he fails to do so

then the obligation falls on the contracting parties.
2. If for a period of a month (thirty days)
neither the local ordinary, nor the parish priest,
nor a delegate of either has been accessible, then
marriage may be validly and licitly contracted by
the simple interchange of consent between the
parties, in the presence of two witnesses. But these
witnesses must then see that the marriage is duly
entered in the registers mentioned above ; and if
these witnesses fail to do so, then the obligation
falls upon the contracting parties.
II. Civil Formalities.—As a matter of history, it
is not without interest to note that when the con
science of England was roused to seek to prevent
the ' Fleet Marriages," as they were called, and to
find a remedy for such clandestine unions, our
statesmen took practically the decree of the Council
of Trent against clandestinity and translated its
provisions into English statute law. It is also note
worthy that the conscience of England did not
1 A multitude of clergymen, usually prisoners for debt and almost
always men of notoriously infamous lives, made it their business to
celebrate clandestine marriages in or near the Fleet. They performed
the ceremony without licence or question, sometimes without even
knowing the names of the persons they united in public-houses, brothels,
or garrets. They acknowledged no ecclesiastical superior. Almost
every tavern or brandy shop in the neighbourhood had a Fleet parson
in its pay. ... It was proved before Parliament that on one occasion
there had been 2,954 Fleet marriages in four months, and it appeared
from the memorandum books of Fleet parsons that one of them made
£SJ in a single month, that another had married 173 couples in a
single day. —(England in the Eighteenth Century, Lecky, Vol. II.
chap. iv. p. 115.)

-
220 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

awake until two hundred years after the conscience

of Rome in this matter. The decree against clan
destine marriages was made in the Council of Trent
in 1563 ; Lord Hardwicke's Act became law in
1753. It is also worth remembering that England
delayed to accept the Gregorian Calendar, being
again some two centuries behind Rome in her
astronomy as in her marriage laws. Until Lord
Hardwicke's Act was passed, the law of England in
regard of marriages was the pre-tridentine law of the
Church as it existed in the days of Edward the
Confessor before the Conquest. So long as the young
people were married by a clergyman of the Church
of England, no other formality was required for
legal marriage.
Lord Hardwicke's Act ordained that all mar-
riages should be celebrated by a clergyman of the
Church of England in a church in presence of
two witnesses, after three consecutive publications
of banns. Thus it came about that Catholics,
Puritans, and the rest, had all to go to a church of
England in order that their marriage might be legal
in the eye of the law. During the passing of this
Act it was pointed out that Anglican clergymen
might refuse to marry non-baptised persons. For
the relief of these, and not for love of religious free
dom, it was provided that Jews and members of the
Society of Friends should be married under similar
regulations in their own synagogues or meeting
houses.
Eighty years later England had again outgrown
her marriage laws. The age of big towns and factory
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 221
industries was opening, and the reform law of 1832
had given voice and power to millions who were dumb
before. An old Lancashire priest told me that when
he was a boy, before the passing of the Act of 1836-7,
there was only one church in Manchester where any
inhabitants of that growing town could be legally
married. The new Act left the Church of England
with all her privileges untouched, but provided an
alternative way of getting married. Marriages
might now be legally solemnised in places other
than churches of the Establishment. Certain
State officials called registrars were created. Their
duties were to keep accurate registers of all the
births and deaths occurring in their districts. And,
further, they were to keep registers of all the mar
riages that took place outside the Church of Eng
land. The Registrar-General registers, on certain
conditions, other places of worship for the solemni
sation of marriages, and, in addition, the office of
every superintendent-registrar is also a place recog
nised for the legal solemnisation of marriage. These
new registrars were made responsible for the fulfil
ment of all the conditions necessary for legal mar
riage in all marriages which took place outside the
Established Church. They were bound to be pre
sent on the occasion of all these marriages. They
were to take no part in the function, but when it
was over they were to hear a declaration made and
to fill up the civil register with all the particulars to
be recorded. Jews and Quakers were left, like the
Church of England, in possession of the special
treatment accorded under Lord Hardwicke's Act.
222 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Since 1837 persons may get married legally with

out any religious ceremony at all. They may go
through the formalities if they prefer in the office of
the superintendent-registrar, and their marriage is
accepted as valid in the sight of the law. As the
law now stands, when any people wish to be married
in a Catholic church they must put up the banns in
the office of the superintendent-registrar of the dis
trict where each party resides. The registrar may
not take notice of marriage from the parents or
from anyone except one of the parties themselves.
The names remain in the office for twenty-one com
plete days, and if no one has lodged an objec
tion to the marriage during that time the registrar
issues his certificate (a blue paper) to that effect,
and the marriage may be solemnised in the church
named on the certificate by any priest on any date
within three calendar months of the first giving in
the names to the registrar. Thus, if the banns were
put in on January 1, the certificate could be had at
the registry office on January 22, after 8 a.m., and
the marriage could take place that day, or any day
between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. up to and including
March 31. The registrar requires to know the name
and address, the age, and the state (widower or widow
or single) of each party, the official name of the church
where they intend to be married, which is supposed
to be the usual place of worship of one of the parties,
and is situated within two miles of the registry
loffice. Banns are accepted at various times in the
day ; no general rule can be given. They are not
accepted on Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday,
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 223

and bank holidays. On Saturdays, too, the office

usually closes at 2 p.m.
The civil law, like the ecclesiastical, requires a
domicile. For a marriage ' by certificate,' as it is
called, the residence of a month is required ; a
marriage ' by license ' allows the ceremony to take
place with much less delay. The case of a marriage
' by special license ' does not concern us. This form
of license can be granted only by the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and concerns only those marriages
which are solemnised according to the rite of the
Church of England. Its effect is practically to set
aside the whole of the English marriage law in much
the same way as the Pope can dispense a Catholic
couple from the whole law of the Council of Trent.
It is interesting to us as showing how closely those
who reformed the marriage laws in England copied
from us laws and practices that had stood the test
of time.
The fees to be paid to the registrar or his deputy
for an ordinary marriage ' by certificate ' are : is. to
be paid on putting in the banns, and is. on taking
out the blue paper twenty-two days later. If the
parties live in different civil districts these fees have
to be paid in each district. When the marriage
ceremony takes place, the sum of 5s. is to be paid to
the registrar who is present. In the case of mar
riage ' by license ' these fees are increased, and there
are some other expenses, bringing up the cost to
£2 14s. 6d., instead of ys.
When you have accepted the banns, it will be
well for you to explain to the people the civil
224 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

formalities, and especially the ys. which they (or

you) must find. Remember that to them marriage
is an unfamiliar event, and that all these technicali
ties are a Chinese puzzle, while to us they are of
almost daily occurrence. Hence it is well that, in
addition to getting our ecclesiastical formalities
fulfilled, we should help them in complying with
the civil conditions. We are anxious for Catholic
marriages. Let us get a name for ourselves for
making them easy and, if possible, cheap.
In many cases we shall do well to write down for
the young couple the name and address of the super
intendent registrar of the district as well as the hours
of his attendance at his office. This information
is given in the ' Kelly ' or other local directory
to be found in the nearest public library, and might
quite properly find a place at the beginning of the
banns book. If you are willing to help them so far,
you may for safety add the official name of the
church where the marriage is to take place. It is a
serious matter to discover on the morning of the
marriage that a blundering registrar's clerk has
written down the name of the church next door
instead of yours, and that the certificate enables
them to be married at the Protestant church of
St. George the Martyr, while their intention is to
be married at the Catholic church of St. George's
Cathedral. If we make an error in the ecclesiastical
formalities the bishop can often dispense us, but if
the registrar goes wrong the marriage has to wait,
no matter where lies the fault. Lastly, in big
missions the new priest will add his own name to the
 SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM AND MATRIMONY 225

paper in order to make sure that the young people

will know what priest to ask for when they come to
make final arrangements. It is sometimes thought
best for the priest himself to undertake to summon
the registrar. He can tell the young couple to bring
him ' the blue paper ' (certificate) when they get it
from the registrar's office. He will then arrange
with them the hour of the wedding and give due
notice to the registrar. The priest is usually better
able than the people to hold his own if the registrar
makes difficulties, and, above all, there is less danger
of mistakes. For this reason oftentimes the regis
trars themselves prefer the course I suggest.
At the appointed time you will have the certifi
cate (or both, if there are two) in the sacristy for the
inspection of the registrar, and on his arrival you can
begin the marriage. In the Ordo administrandi there
is given an instruction to be read before the ceremony
as well as an exhortation after the nuptial blessing.
While these are not of obligation it will be well to
read at least the exhortation at the end of the cere
mony. The long nuptial blessing is in Latin. The
English exhortation brings home to the friends as
well as to the young couple the reason for the sacra
ment of marriage and its obligations. After the
ceremony comes the declaration which the bride and
bridegroom make in presence of the registrar. In
many cases the priest himself reads to the bride
groom and bride this declaration. You will not
permit the registrar to perform any ceremony him
self, nor need you allow him to use your sacristy as
an office for giving marriage certificates. You can
Q
226 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK.

give your own, which is good enough for all practical

purposes. In large towns it is rare for a priest to
have difficulties with the registrar, but in smaller
towns where he may be a local preacher himself,
trouble sometimes arises.
Sacramentuin hoc magnum est ; ego autem dico in
Christo et in Ecclesia (Ad Eph. v. 32). 1
1 For ' R6gles sur les Manages en Angleterre,' see Appendix, p. 317.
 227

XIV
PARISH VISITING
In quamcvmqiu domum inircevtritis, primum dicite : Pax kuU
iomui. —S. Luc. x. 5.
In an earlier chapter I suggested that we might
aim at giving two hours on the week-days to getting
to know our people by visiting them in their houses.
In Catholic countries systematic visiting is hardly
thought of ; in England it has much of the
nature of an obligation. For centuries our title was
Missionary Apostolic and our country was within the
jurisdiction of the congregation de Propaganda Fide.
Pius X. has changed our status but not our work.
Hence it is that there rests upon us a special obliga
tion to seek, as well as to save, that which was lost.
Whatever limits in this direction may be lawful
for a beneficed clergyman in a Catholic country,
the very reason why we in England become priests
is to undertake missionary in addition to paro
chial duty. Like the Apostles of old, Thomas
and Paul, Peter and Andrew and the rest, we are
vowed to go forth, lonely men without purse
or scrip, to preach the Gospel to every creature.
Like Patrick in Ireland and Xavier in India, like
228 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Boniface in Germany and Augustine in England,

it is ours, by the call of God, to gather new sheep
into the fold of Jesus Christ. There is a danger
that this ideal may be forgotten. The round
of our duties tends to grow more definite ; our
organisations, formerly fluid, are apt to become
fixed ; our churches multiply, and our districts,
growing smaller and more defined, take on some
of the characteristics of parishes. Fifty and sixty
years ago it was not unknown in the large towns
for a priest, fired with the zeal of a missionary,
to pitch his tent in some forgotten court and labour
there for the sheep who had no shepherd. Wise
man's Life and Grant's give us the names of Hodgson,
Kyne, and others whose memories are in ever
lasting benediction.
Further, this systematic visiting is almost forced
upon us by public opinion and the circumstances
which surround our lives.
Speaking generally, clergy of other denomina
tions have little to offer to individual souls in
their churches. Their services and their sermons,
as with us, are intended for the multitude. Our
sacraments, especially the sacrament of penance with
all that it implies, are entirely individual. To
touch individuals the clergy of other denominations
must visit them, and thus a public opinion grows
up that this systematic visiting is an essential part
of the duty of every clergyman engaged in parish
work, and it is looked for from us too. Indeed,
under our present condition as missioners, it can
not be dispensed with. There are those who will
 PARISH VISITING 229

not come to us. Some of them do not want

us ; others want us and will respond, but only if
we go to them, leaving, if need be, the ninety-
nine. There are those to whom a visit may mean
a new beginning and a fresh start. Without
visiting we shall hardly get the knowledge requisite
for fruitful work and effective preaching. We must
know our people in their workaday clothes in their
own homes. A house-going parson, it is said, makes
a church-going people. Granting, then, that we
mean to give some time to such visiting, there are
some points to be borne in mind.
One of our first difficulties will probably be con
nected with almsgiving. We do not go to distribute
alms or to bribe people to lead practical Catholic
lives. Almsgiving is an obligation on us as on all
other Catholics, but it is for the people to support us,
not for us to feed them. Almsgiving has, of course,
its place, but it must be the exception rather than the
rule in our visiting. A priest has something besides
money to give. In reading Mr. Charles Booth's
book on ' Religious Influences ' (in London), one
constantly comes across ruthless condemnation of
the injury which almsgiving, as it is practised in
London, is apt to bring in its train. Give when you
know the people, not before ; give when there is
sudden and exceptional need, and when you give at
all, give generously. The shilling dropped here, or
the half-crown there, chiefly to get rid of importu
nate beggars, impoverishes ourselves and degrades
them. It is difficult, this almsgiving, and the task
is rendered far more difficult by the indiscriminate
230 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

bounty of those others who go to the same street*

and not unfrequently to the same houses.
' The work,' says Mr. Booth, speaking of a well-
known Anglican church, ' has been very futile on
the religious side, and on the social side positively
mischievous. Huge sums have been raised by
rather questionable means and spent none too
wisely. There is a considerable and remarkable
consensus of opinion that the evil conditions of the
neighbourhood have been accentuated by the action
of this church.' In another place a vicar says to
Mr. Booth : ' I do raise my emphatic protest against
the pauperising which follows. . . . Either as a re
ward for, or to promote attendances at services,
doles and gifts in money or kind are distributed often
with a lavish hand with the most utter disregard
of all sound principles of charity. As a result, there
are many who go from mission-room to mission-
room for what they can pick up.' ' But this reck
less charity,' continues Mr. Booth, ' is not by any
means confined to irresponsible missions. The
churches complain of each other. Sisters are almost
beyond control in this matter.' ' Incense and
candlesticks don't matter,' said the most outspoken
of the clergy here ; ' the real question is relief. If
that is put on a right basis the Church will do some
good, if not, not ' (' Life and Labour of the People
of London,' Charles Booth, Third Series, iv. 18-24).
With us, so far as I know, nothing like this
exists, but it is well that we should recognise that
almsgiving has its mischievous side. With some
the giving of money is the first means which occurs
 PARISH VISITING 231

to them when there is a question of relieving dis

tress. It ought to be the last, not the first. There
are few of us who will not admit that we have often
given alms to save ourselves trouble. We give a
shilling, we appease our conscience, and we save our
selves an amount of trouble and work which many
shillings would not pay for. Whether we have really
helped the beggar is quite another question, but we
have got rid of him. To give money, especially in
small sums, is easy ; to do real work is hard. For
good cases in real need a priest will usually find
philanthropic agencies near at hand, but to make
use of these means trouble and work. The Charity
Organisation Society helps generously, and usually
with good results, those cases which succeed in passing
its severe tests. But for one case which it would
assist I have a dozen which have real claims upon my
time and my purse. A knowledge of rescue homes,
of orphanages, a supply of hospital letters will do
more permanent good in most cases than any money
we can afford to give. When these fail, then we
may give money, but let almsgiving of the money
kind be rather our last than our first resource.
In dealing with our people we have to be on our
guard against ill-treatment and harshness with the
poor, over familiarity with the middle-class, undue
subservience to the rich. You are not likely to
forget the poor, but let the rich also have your
sympathy and help. Give them credit for having
kindly feeling and good intentions towards you, and
when appearances may be against them give them
the credit of the doubt, remembering that they, too,
232 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

are not without concealed anxieties and troubles.

Make it a special point to lay yourself out to make
friends with the boys and girls of all classes. With
those socially below us we generally do this well,
and they look up to us, and the thought that Father
So-and-So is and has been always interested in them
may be a turning-point to safety in a time of danger.
We do not do enough to win the confidence
of boys of the higher classes. Most of them
leave home for school at an early age, and when
they come home for good we are distant and shy
with them. Begin with them before they go to
school ; in their absence make a point of speaking
to their parents about them, and keep up a know
ledge of them in their holidays. You will find them
often shy and constrained, but it never occurs to
them that you are shy too. Do not think that the
richer folk look down upon the clergy. If you are
shy with them and avoid them on this account you
are creating the very coldness of which you com
plain. Your kindliness and your refusal to think
hardly of them create and foster affection between
the priest and his people of every grade in society.
Bear with them if you find them distant ; they
probably think the same of you. In most cases it
is only shyness which we call pride.
Paupercula, tempestate convulsa, absque ulla
consolatione, ecce ego sternum per ordtnem lapides
tuos (Isaias, liv. n).
 233

XV
THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
Ecce exiit qui seminal seminare. —Matt. xiii. 3.

A very important part of a priest's work in most

town missions is his duty in public institutions, such
as hospitals, asylums, infirmaries, workhouses, and
the rest, as well as his dealings with the officials
who control them.
Let me begin by making clear our standing in
these various institutions. In some institutions
we are paid for our work ; in others we receive no
thing. We may be paid either by the Government
out of the Consolidated Fund or by the local
authorities out of the rates, or by the trustees or
managers of some institution. Speaking generally,
the priest who is appointed by some authority to
do a work, and is paid for doing it, usually has
more defined rights than the unpaid man ; and,
further, the higher the authority and the wider its
power, the less danger there is of any harsh treat
ment of priest or inmates. Hence navy and army
chaplains, prison chaplains, and the like, who are
appointed by the Government, have strictly defined
rights to enable them to carry out their duties,
234 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

and these rights are especially valuable in that they

were created to protect such people as ours, who
are always in a minority. For the most part these
men receive the same rate of pay that is given
to the Church of England clergyman of the same
standing. The Catholic instructors, as they are
called, appointed by boards of guardians and
similar local authorities, are not usually paid at the
same rate as the Church of England chaplains. In
most cases they are not paid at all, but every year
the feeling of fair play to us is growing steadily.
Finally, there are hospitals, infirmaries, asylums,
4pd the like which are not under the local autho
rities at all, but are in the hands of private
trustees, who are not responsible to public autho
rities and are not dependent for their income
on the popular vote. These may be classed gene
rally as Church of England preserves. The priest
hardly ever gets anything beyond permission to
visit patients at his own expense. What power he
gets is just that which his own personal influence
wins for him as the tale of his years of unpaid
work mounts up.
A priest's official position, then, is usually
stronger or weaker according to whether he is a
paid servant of the institution or, in the eyes of the
officials, merely a voluntary worker. His real posi
tion and his effective power for good depend almost
entirely on the personal influence he has acquired
with the staff of the hospital, especially that part
of the staff which he comes across every day.
In this personal influence neither ecclesiastical
 THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 235

position nor priesthood counts for anything. The

drawback is, that usually each man has to begin
again and work his way up, though, of course, it
sometimes happens that a course of exceptionally
good work has created a tradition in favour of the
Catholic priest. This personal influence depends less
than we are apt to think on natural gifts and attrac
tions. These things have their value, say, for the
first month. Undoubtedly they help a man to make
a good start, but unless there is something behind
them they go for less than we are disposed to think.
A priest's power in such places depends first
and foremost on his honest, conscientious work. The
officials, the staff, can always see and value that.
They know perfectly well the weariness of that
daily round. What strikes them specially with us
is that the chief part of our work is of a personal,
individual character ; dull work which makes no
noise and wins no glory. We are not conducting a
service or preaching a sermon ; it is evident to all
that we are come to this one poor battered soul to
pour oil and wine into its wounds and to set it up
again. In the long run few can stand out against
the man who does his work conscientiously and
minds his own business. One of the early proofs of
such a priest's power is the eagerness of the officials
to make his work as effective as he can desire it to
be. It is remarkable to see the very real pains which
they will take to secure this end.
In the second place, his personal influence and
consequent power for good depends on his keeping
rules loyally, and so creating in the minds of the
236 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

officials the impression that he can be entirely trusted.

In some institutions, such as prisons, lunatic asylums,
fever hospitals, and the rest, he is not fit to be
admitted if he cannot be trusted to keep the rules,
and in almost every great institution there is a
certain pietas to be observed towards it which will
hinder him from proclaiming from the housetops its
limitations and human failings.
Sometimes a priest is bound to ask for excep
tional treatment or a dispensation from the ordinary
rules. He will get it usually if he has a good name.
It happens, for instance, that a patient is put into a
special small ward, and the doctors give orders that
no one is to be admitted. Here is a great oppor
tunity for the sort of man whom you describe best
by saying that he was born to be in opposition. He
insists on his rights forthwith, and in he goes. One
result is that the position of all the Catholics in this
hospital may be worsened for years to come, while
his own endeavours to work will be thwarted
henceforth in every ward. Given the real need,
given that the patient is dying, or that it is not
prudent to delay till later in the day, we must go in at
all costs, but not until we have tried what a tactful
appeal can do. We must be willing to wait, regard
less of our own convenience ; unless it is necessary
for the patient's sake we must not insist if they
offer to allow us to go in later on—for instance,
when the effect of the chloroform has worn off. Our
personal influence and our good name for abiding
by rules will help us here, and even if the great
surgeon, who hardly knows of our existence, gives
 THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 237

the order, the sister who knows our daily work will
help us in this matter. A sister in a big hospital
told me, years after it occurred, how struck she was
with the reply which a young priest made her.
It was important that he should visit a particular
patient that day ; it was extremely difficult to come
back later ; at the same time the rules of the hospital
forbade him to visit that patient at the time. The
sister said : ' Of course, it is against the rules, but
I should do it now. It really does not matter.'
' But it does matter, sister,' was the grave young
man's reply. ' I'll manage to come back before I go
to bed. It matters a very great deal that I should
not get a name here for disregarding rules.'
There is no question here of truckling. Our
business is to do what we can for our Catholic
patients and to make the work of those who succeed
us here more satisfactory than we found it.' In in
stitutions not under public management it is useless
to fight for rights which we do not possess. We have
no jumping-off ground to start from. In the years
I had to visit a big London hospital there was one
ward which was always ' screened ' against me. To
avoid difficulties I took to going my rounds in this
ward on the days when visitors were allowed to
see patients. Bishop Butt told me that when he
was at Webb Street in 1853 he had to adopt this
plan in order to get into Guy's at all. A good deal
of water has run under London Bridge since those
days. I looked on it as a real grievance to have to
go at that particular time to find out whether any
of the patients were Catholics, but there was no
238 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

help for it until some more modern sister was put

in charge. This particular ward was set apart for
cases of young married women who had need of
surgical treatment. If I claimed what rights I
might be said to possess, what would have been
easier than to retort that if I brought a note from
the husband of a patient I should be allowed in, or
if a patient asked for me I should be admitted !
What should I have gained ?
Let me now come to the knotty point how we
are to find out our Catholics in the wards. In in
stitutions under public control there is usually little
difficulty. In prisons and workhouses, in infirmaries
and army hospitals, a legal creed register is bound
to be kept and its testimony is almost final. The
creed register is not infallible, but it is meant to be
a protection to minorities and therefore deserves our
respect. Mistakes will occur in it, and when they
do happen they are generally against us and in
favour of the majority. Catholic patients often do
not want us half so badly as we want them. If we
are wanted by those who are not entered as Catho
lics, we shall usually do well to acquaint the sister
or the warden, or make the patient ask them for us
himself.
The matter becomes more difficult in institu
tions not managed by any public authority.
In these there is no obligation to keep creed regis
ters. Often the officials profess blandly to have no
concern with any religion, which, being translated
into practice, means : There is one God, and the
Church of England is His prophet here ! At the
 THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 239

same time most of these establishments do, as a

fact, keep an informal creed register either in each
ward or at the porter's lodge. Such a register is
less satisfactory than the one mentioned above,
and to pin our faith to it betokens a spirit of child
like credulity quite too innocent for this naughty
world.
In practice the most satisfactory method is to go
around the wards and ask each new patient himself.
To carry out this plan methodically, and to avoid
asking the same patient twice, we should do well to
keep in our hospital pocket-book the date of our
last visit to each ward, and then to ask only those
whose bed tickets show that they have been ad
mitted on or since that date. If the lodge porter
keeps a register, it cannot do harm to consult it,
provided we do not depend on it. Our attitude
towards the register which the sister may keep in
the ward is not so simple. If we ask the sister for
the names of any new Catholic patients, it then
seems ungracious and suspicious to go around and
ask the new patients ourselves, and we cannot trust
every sister. It is not a question so much of the
honesty of the sisters with us as of the interest they
take. Some of them, of course, have no religion
themselves, and the religion of their patients has no
kind of interest for them. I am inclined to think
that the best practice is not to ask the sister, but
to go round oneself. If she offers information, by
all means accept it, adding that you will just ask
the new patients, for sometimes they will tell you
when they will not tell the staff nurse.
240 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

And now, having found your patients, what can

you do for them ? Why, nothing less than every
thing ! You have to minister to the good ; to re
claim the bad. You have to convert the sinner ; to
prepare him to live well if he goes out, to die well
if he stays in. It would hardly be an exaggeration
to say that the administration of the sacraments in
these institutions is the least part of your work.
There are those whom you will find good and
ready for all the help you can give them. They
have lived on the sacraments and have loved
their faith, and now, in the hour of weakness and
suffering, religion brings them comfort and balm.
For them you will do all that zeal prompts you,
and their prayers and merits will plead for you
in your striving for those other souls whom you
want for God, but who, as yet, do not want you.
And you will find those, too, who have forgotten
their religion and neglected their faith. There was
a time in their history when faith really touched
their souls and religion had a place in their
daily lives. In such souls faith is never entirely
dead this side of the grave ; it may be rejected,
trampled on, cast aside, but there is still life in it.
To you it is given to breathe upon the dead embers
until they burst into flame once more. It can be
done ; it is done every day by priests of zeal, but it
takes time. Here is no question of three sacraments
and the last blessing (C. V. X. B.) in half an hour.
The sick man is in your power ; he may be here for
months, and he will need those months and your help
during those months if he is to amend a life of sin.
 THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 24 1

Mark, it is his work, not yours ; he must do the

work himself. You have to help him to do it. It
is no question of just a confession and the last
sacraments. To administer these may case your
conscience, but they will do little to bring that dead
soul back to life. It is nothing less than a retreat
that God has given him—that sick bed and the
priest of zeal !
No question of confession yet, it may be ; he is
hardly fit to make it profitably even if he would ;
the little talk day by day until, as your footstep
sounds in the ward, he wakes from his uneasy doze
and turns smiling to welcome you ; the story of his
early life, his father's home, his mother's prayers ;
a little act of sorrow before you leave him and you
are one day nearer that man's confession, and he is
one day nearer the feet of God. Childhood's days
and boyhood's visions pass before him in the watches
of the night, the joy of his first communion lives
again for him, love of the crucifix you have given
back to him, the peace and hush of absolution come
back in his dreams and smile at him. These things
gather around him slowly with their pictures of
what might have been, and there comes at last
from the heart of the prodigal the strong cry which
you have been waiting for all these months : ' / will
arise and I will go to my Father.' You have done
your part in helping him ; you have made him do
the work, and it will last. Give him the Church's
ministry now ; it will be worth something, that Egc
te absolvo ; soothe this battered soul with the oil
of anointing, per suam piissimam misericordiam
K
242 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

indulgeat tibi Dominus, some comfort now in that

prayer of faith ; bring to him viaticum—food for
that last journey—while you say with confidence
Accipe, frater, viaticum corporis Domini nostri Jesu
Christi . ... in vitam ceternam. You have laid up
for yourself treasure in heaven, and you have
done something against the day of your own
death-bed.
One institution is enough for a man's life ; it may
well be his parish. There is nothing like it, both
because it gives him such opportunities and because
it keeps his back bent to his daily burden, his
muscles taut for his daily toil. A district may stay
unvisited and schools neglected, our sermons may
be unprepared and our confessional may be shirked,
but the care of an institution keeps us in the traces.
The administration of the sacraments is the easiest
part of our work ; to make souls fit to receive the
sacraments and to prepare them to meet their God,
there is our daily task.
And there are other institutions where there are
men and women, not, indeed, on beds of sickness,
but still urgently needing the priest's ministrations.
In prisons and workhouses you will find the world's
failures. Sometimes it is drink, more often it is
utter loafing laziness which has brought them low,
and always with such there is the old story of
neglect of religion. And with these, chaek by jowl,
are poor things who have failed through no fault of
their own, the world's failures, a part of the price we
pay for modern prosperity. You can do something
to brighten the lives of all these. God is their
 THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 243

Father as He is yours ; you can do something to

show yourself to be their friend as well as their
priest. Papers, books, visitors, snuff, tobacco,
flowers, will all betoken your interest in them, and
showing this interest you will find your way to
their hearts. If you try, you may get them to
Mass and even to the sacraments, and their coming
[Link] little worth. They come because you worry.
What you have to do is to get them to worry to
come. You will generally find amongst them some
decent Catholic inmate. Begin by making friends
with him, and through him you will get to know
the others. It is hard work and slow, but it is fine
exercise for the work of a missionary priest to spend
one afternoon a week amongst the world's failures,
to try to get inside their hearts and plant there a
stray seed or two of hope.
The miserable have no other medicine,
But only hope.

Another matter of importance in dealing with

officials is correspondence. We are apt to make
mistakes in conducting it, and mistakes injure our
work even more than ourselves. The chief points to
remember are : first, it is better in small matters to
begin at any rate with a personal interview rather
than with an official letter. Again, keep to the point,
and bring that out clearly. Never let eloquence enter
into these business matters in word of mouth or in
writing, and remember that ' eloquence ' is often a
faqon de parler for sayings which might deserve a
more objectionable name. The late Queen, who
K3
244 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

never saw the funny side of things, once said of

Mr. Gladstone : ' He talks to Me as if I were a
public meeting.' It is not unknown for clergy to
speak or even write as if they were at a public
meeting instead of dealing with an automaton clerk
in the circumlocution office. Newman complained
once of the conflagration which some zealous spirits
amongst us enkindled by their wild words and over
bearing deeds, leaving to others the task of putting
it out. It is the bishop who, for the sake of souls,
has to set to work to quench the flames these
eloquent stalwarts are so proud of. Surtout, point
de zHe.
In like manner, sarcasm is fatal to the
cause you have at heart. Your business is to win
your case, not to score a laugh from your friends.
Write the letter, if you will, put in all your eloquence,
polish up your satire until, ' like a razor keen, it
wounds with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen ' ;
break your butterfly upon a wheel, and when it is
all done, the best that you can do, put it care
fully away in a drawer ' to be read a second time
that day six months.' Read that production of
your best wit again after six months and see how
weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable it has all become,
and thank me for having laughed you into writing
a dull, honest Englishman's letter. Always bear in
mind that correspondence of this nature is not
personal, that your neat razor-edged satire may
never go beyond some clerk or office boy, who will
make a precis of the points and does not take a jot
of interest in the whole matter. Those of us who,
 THE PRIEST IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 245

in our schooldays, had to learn by heart long

extracts from Pope will call to mind his words :
Satire 's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.

Usually it will be found more convenient to use

paper of foolscap size, and to write on one side only
of the paper. You will, of course, keep copies of
all the letters of this kind which you have to write,
and you will file the whole correspondence in the
mission archives for the guidance of your successor.
He may possibly learn from it how not to do it next
time.
It happens sometimes that non-Catholics speak
well of our efforts in their institutions and praise us
for our work. If we consider it, we find that they
usually praise us for the wrong thing. They send
us to examine our conscience when they tell us that
we never give any trouble, which, being interpreted,
may mean that we neglect our work ; and it
makes our ears tingle to be told that we have
no sectarian narrowness and are good fellows all
round. It never occurs to them to praise us for
saving souls or bringing back sinners to God. I
was invited once to preach in a fashionable church
in Brighton. It was many years ago when I
dreamed that if I worked steadily I might yet
become a preacher. The occasion was the first
Sunday in July, the Feast of the Precious Blood.
My subject naturally lent itself to dogmatic treat
ment, and I spared no pains to dilute my Franzelin
sufficiently to be understanded of the people. It
246 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

made me wince on the following Saturday to read

what was meant for praise in the local papers.
The local journalist who came to write up a de
scriptive report of the whole function summed up
my efforts by saying that ' there was a praiseworthy
absence of dogmatism throughout the sermon, and,
indeed, it might have been preached in any Wes-
leyan chapel.'
Our ideal of a priest's work is entirely different
from the ideal of the average Englishman. He has
been taught to look upon the parson's sermon as
the one thing necessary, and we constantly find our
work reckoned up by the number of formal services
we hold in the week, or the number of times that
we have initialed the visiting-book. You may
preach to the negligent in these places for a lifetime
without making one pulse beat a second faster.
Your real work is with the individual soul.
Sermons are most necessary, of course, but they
seem to be for those already converted. You must
first convert your sinner by the grace of God joined
to your personal influence and loving care. Then
you may preach to him, for now there is something
inside him that will echo to your voice, a chord which
will vibrate to your words.
In viam gentium ne abinitis, et in civiiates Samari-
tanorum ne intraveritis. Sei potius ite ad oves, quce
perierunt, domus Israel. Euntes antem predicate,
dicentes : Quia appropinquavit regnum ccelorum. In-
firmos curate, nwrtuos suscitate, leprosos mandate,
dcemones ejicite (Matt. x. 5-8).
 247

XVI
THE PRIEST AND HIS SICK
Infirmatur quis in veiis f Inducat presbyteros Ecclesia. —Jac. t. 14.

I have already spoken of the arrangement in the

clergy house for ' taking in ' sick calls, and we have
seen that it is not fair either to the sick or to the
housemaid to allow this important duty to be dis
charged by the servants. The priest himself ought,
whenever possible, to take in the particulars of the
new sick call.
There is a difference between ' sending for the
priest,' and ' letting the priest know.' Our people are
usually told that if a man is away sick from his work
for a second day, it is well to let the priest know.
If the friends are going to send for the doctor, it is
not enough merely to let the priest know. In that
case they will send for the priest, and he must go.
In each case, even if there is no question of last
sacraments, you will get an opportunity with this
soul and you will take advantage of it. At other
times you seldom get to see him ; now he is on his
sick-bed, he cannot get away, and this illness may be
nothing less than a retreat for him and his whole
house, if you happen to be a man full of the spirit
of your vocation.
248 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

To give him the last sacraments and to write

C. V. X. B. after his name in the sick-call book
at home is sometimes the smallest part of your task.
Here more than anywhere comes into play the
unction, the piety, the personal holiness of the priest.
If you want to give him the last sacraments and
so get him off your mind, if he is a careless
man he will probably consent to the arrangement.
He is ill, he knows that until this business is got
through he will have you about him; he wants
to be rid of you, and, for his peace of mind,
consents. One of the things I fear most at my
own judgement is the number of times I have
given the sacraments to those whom I had not
first made worthy of them. We know, of course,
that the sacraments work ex opere operato, but after
allowing fully for those effects we shall do badly
if we are content with them. We want effects too
ex opere operantis if we are to make sure of that
man's soul, and for these we need a well of holiness,
a fountain of unction in our own heart.
You will not always be able to do all that ought
to be done. You are summoned late, or the illness
is sudden, and death is imminent. You must then
give the sacraments, and for the rest trust to the
uncovenanted mercies of God ; you have done your
best. What I am anxious for is that this poor
man, lingering on his dying bed, should not run the
risk of losing his soul because your idea of your
duty to him is bounded by those four mystic letters
C. V. X. B. entered after his name in the sick-call
book. That such a conception of duty may exist is all
 THE PRIEST AND HIS SICK 249

too evident. In earlier days the fewness of clergy,

the distances, and other circumstances, made it often
difficult for men to do more than give the last sacra
ments. In this way the tradition might grow up
that this is the ideal to be set before men even when
they can carry out much more easily than in past
times the mind of the Church in their service of the
sick. The instructions in the ritual suppose the
priest to be present at the agony and the death, as
well as when giving the sacraments. One hears
of a custom in Catholic countries of the parish
priest, if he is called away, leaving his stole on the
dying bed to show that he will return at once. The
first Council of Westminster lays down that we
should pay frequent and even daily visits to the
dying. In 1863 Cardinal Barnabo, writing to the
Bishops of Ireland, comments on the practice of the
curate giving all the sacraments at one visit without
usually returning again, and he points out that this
practice is entirely foreign to the spirit of thfl
Church.
It is desirable always to get at least some con
fession out of the sick man at our first visit. I
would be content with an imperfect confession
rather than get none at all. De Lugo lays down
that the obligation of integrity lies on the penitent,
not on the confessor. If at our first visit we can get
him just to confess what seems to him amiss in his
life, we may be able to give him absolution and wait
for better things later on before we give the other
sacraments. It is good to make a point always to
say some prayers, just a few, even though there is
250 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

no danger. People are always prepared to have

some prayers when the priest comes to the sick
room. If the priest opened a black bag and began
straightway to vest for Mass, they would not be
surprised. The one thing which will surprise them is
that we should come and go without doing anything
more than a lay friend would do. Sometimes it
may be necessary to inquire prudently whether the
sick man has set in order his worldly affairs. Great
practical hardship may come to those he loves if he
dies intestate. Cases occur in which the faith of the
children will depend upon the appointment of a
guardian. These things have to be faced. The
sooner they are disposed of, the better will be our
chance of directing his thoughts to the importance
of dying well.
As to the prayers we should use in the sick room
we shall do most good if we make use of those
which the sick man knows best, those which are most
familiar to him. The prayers in the ritual for the
sick and dying are very beautiful, entirely appro
priate, and would be a help to the sick man if he
knew anything about them. Even with sick or
dying priests, it is questionable how much help these
ritual prayers would afford, used indiscriminately.
Look at the position. The man is seriously ill, if not
dying. All his efforts are concentrated on fighting
the pain, on keeping alive. Even in health he was
not fond of long prayers. He is so little capable of
any mental effort now, that you will do well to
choose the prayer he knows best, even though it
has no special relation to the sick bed. I asked a
 THE PRIEST AND HIS SICK 251

good old woman once what prayer she would like,

intending to say the Litany of the Blessed Virgin
after I had given her the sacraments. She promptly
answered : ' The thirty days' prayer,' and I fished
out her well-thumbed book and said it. Her two
boys were soldiering in India. For thirteen years
and more she had said that prayer for them every
day. Incapable as she was of fresh mental effort,
that particular prayer, with its familiar phrases and
the association of years, probably helped her more
than any other. We shall do well, then, always to
say some prayers and to choose familiar and easy
prayers at such a time. The form and structure
of the Litanies render them very appropriate for
such occasions. So also we may help the sick man
with little acts of contrition, of desire, aspirations
of love, prayers for patience, and the rest, if we are
careful, as the ritual warns us, not to give him too
much at one time.
When we have arranged to administer the sacra
ments it is well to have the room prepared before
hand—the holy water, the table with its white
cloth, the crucifix and candles, standing where the
sick man can see it without straining. The other
members of the family ought to be in the sick room
ready to welcome our divine Master. We can easily
send them out on to the landing when we have to
hear confession, but we ought to have them present
again as soon as that is over, that they may be there
for the administration of holy viaticum and ex
treme unction. It sometimes happens that we can
not give holy viaticum when it is expedient to give
252 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

the other sacraments. We must always bear in

mind the obligation of giving holy viaticum before
death. The fact that the sick man cannot receive
it to-day does not exempt us from the duty of
administering it to-morrow. Until we have suc
ceeded, we must by no means reckon that our work
for that soul is at an end. I remember noticing
once that out of five deaths in a week in a district
only one of the departed had received holy viaticum,
while all five had received the last blessing in
addition to the sacraments of penance and extreme
unction.
I have left for the last the important matter
of dispositions, the dispositions in which I want
my sick man to die. It is our happiness from
time to time to attend the young, the saintly, the
innocent—souls which seem to have gone through
life almost unknowing sin. And there are those
others, too, finely attuned souls who have tasted
sin and have done penance ; their course has been
strewn with rocks, ' cast down, but not perish
ing ' (2 Cor. iv. 9) ; but they have known repent
ance and begun again ; they have wrestled and
fought, and in the end have won. These also
we have rejoiced to attend. Speak to one of them
of God's mercy and pardon, and his eye softens and
a wistful look comes across his face ; he could tell
you something of God's patience and pitying love ;
never will he forget that. Si oblitus fuero tut,
oblivioni detur dextera mea. Adhccreat lingua mea
faiicibus meis, si non memincro tui (Ps. cxxxvi. 5).
Hold up the crucifix before his eyes, you are bringing
 THE PRIEST AND HIS SICK 253

back to him a lesson of love well learnt ; whisper to

him the sweet name of Mary, and his countenance
will brighten with soft memories of her helps
in the life which is ebbing away, and his hand
clutches yours more tightly as his greyish lips move
in prayer. To all these and more we are disciples
rather than masters ; we trace the finger of God on
their lives, we can see where grace has leavened
their souls.
But the others, those others whom you and I
know too, whom we have to save, for they will
never save themselves !
The good die first,
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
Burn to the socket

And what of these and of the men whose hearts

are dry as summer dust ; what have we to do for
them ? We have to waken up in those dry-as-dust
hearts faith and hope and love which have slept for
many a day. Fear will hardly touch such men in
these days ; it may, but only when there is some
germ of love. It is love which we have to awaken
in those souls, and, mark you, our task is to make
them love persons and things and truths which for
years past have gone out of their lives. It can be
done ; every day that the sun rises it is done by
devoted men before the sun sets, because their God is
with them and it is His work. Here, if anywhere
in life, a priest feels his helplessness, recognises that
personal piety and unction, and the spirit of prayer
are needed to carry him through. For what has he
254 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

to do ? If the sacraments were mechanical tricks, or

if contrition was merely a routine form of words,
the sick man would see it through almost cheerfully
to be rid of you. But you have to change that
man's life, you have to turn him inside out ; what
was black you have to make white ; what was
crimson you have to leave as snow. If the dying
man was well disposed, it would not look impossible.
Even if he were in good health, but now ! it
must be done now, for time and death wait for no
man, and your Master died to save this soul ! Now,
when every limb is racked with pain and his whole
strength is burnt up in the fierce struggle to keep
alive, you have to stand before him and in an hour
or a day to undo, to pick to pieces and put together
again that wasted sinful life of his, for that is what
contrition and repentance mean. It can be done,
it is done, as I have said, every day, but for you and
me to do it, with our weak faith and faltering prayers
and with our hearts dry as summer dust too ! No
wonder that we are bidden to become men of prayer,
of unction, of personal piety, of undying faith, if to
move mountains and to work miracles of this kind
is to be our daily task.
A death-bed repentance ! Ay, one I know, and
that is recorded that you and I may learn that such
things are possible even in fallen man, and, learning
it, may take heart of grace to do our Master's work.
One I know, only one, and even that has its awful
side. Domiiie, memento met du;n veneris in regnum
tuum, said the penitent thief ; and the answer came :
Hodie tnecum eris in Paradiso. But there are two
 THE PRIEST AND HIS SICK 255

thieves hanging there by the Cross of Jesus ; one

repents, a death-bed repentance if you will ; but
the other, look at him and learn the rest. Sprinkled
with the blood of the Lord Who was dying at that
moment to save him, he would not hear, he would
not repent, he would not be saved, and the bad
thief blasphemed and went to his own place.
Si quis ex vobis erraverit a veritate, et con-
verterit quis eum, scire debet, quoniam qui converti
fecerit peccatorem ab errore vice suce, salvabit animam
ejus a morte, et operict multitudinem feccatorum
(Jac. v. 19, 20).
256 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

XVII
THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL
Veitite, filii, auditt me; timorem Domini doccbo vot. —Pg.
xxxiii. 12.

In the seventies the late Canon Oakeley delivered

to the students of St. Thomas's Seminary, Ham
mersmith, an admirable series of lectures on
the practical work of the priest on the mission in
England. These lectures were published later
under the title of ' The Priest on the Mission,' and
the pages of this present book show from time to
time the debt its author owes to that model
missionary priest. It is a fact not without
significance that my present subject has no place in
Oakeley's book, except in a short paragraph or two.
When Oakeley delivered those lectures our missions
had practically few schools worthy of mention at the
time. Writing thirty years later we recognise that
any book treating of a priest's work in England and
passing by this subject would be rightly considered
to be grievously wanting. Incidentally the progress
we have made in this matter marks one portion of
the debt which Catholics in England, English and
Irish, owe to the memory of Cardinal Manning. In
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 257

considering his attitude to University education, in

looking at his desire that our microscopic dioceses
should each have its own seminary, complete and
self-sufficing, the verdict of many is : he meant well.
In his attitude to Catholic public elementary educa
tion all are agreed to say : he did well. Wiseman
was our Nehemias, rebuilding for us ' the wall of
Jerusalem which was broken down and the gates
thereof which were consumed with fire ' (2 Esdras,
ii. 13). Manning was our Simon ' the high priest
who in his life repaired the house and in his days
fortified the temple. . . . It was he that took thought
for his people that they should not fall. . . . He shone
in his days as the morning star in the midst of a
cloud, and as the moon at her full. And as the sun
when it shineth, so did he shine in the temple of God '
(Ecclus. 1. 1-7).
The radical changes wrought by the Educa
tion Act of 1902 make it impossible for me to
put before you our work in the future in the same
detailed way as I could have done before this Act
was passed. In the past our chief duty always
was the religious instruction and the formation of a
Catholic character in the children under our care.
In order that our claim to do this might be assured
we undertook the duties of establishing and manag
ing these schools and making ends meet. From
time to time it happened that our chief duty was
obscured and perhaps neglected by reason of the
imperious need there was of gathering money to
pay our way and keep the school open. In the
future the religious instruction and the safeguard-
S
258 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

ing of the Catholic tone of our schools will be our

chief and may be our only duty under the Act.
Let us at least do well what is left to us to do.
My remarks for the most part will be confined to
our public elementary schools. There are many
secondary schools, but of these so few are under the
priest of the mission that I may well pass them by.
Of the comparative advantages of boarding-school or
home life for older children of a higher class I need
say nothing. I do not know that anyone has
summed up the difficulties of the problem better
than the late Mr. Justice Denman, who answered :
' If you send your boy to school he comes back a
sad dog ; if you keep him at home he grows up a
poor devil.' Neither am I concerned with school
management or the education question except so
far as it affects the missionary priest. Hence I
confine myself here to his duties in his public
elementary school. It will be well to look at his
legal position, his statutory duty, and the delegated
jurisdiction which may be granted to him by the
local education authority.
The legal position of the priest in Catholic public
elementary schools is that he will be one of a board
of six managers. The chief business of this board
will be to safeguard the character of the denomi
national teaching. In order to carry out this duty it
will have in its hands the appointment and dis
missal of the teachers. The managers will deter
mine the character of the religious teaching and the
persons to give it. The statutory duty of this
board will be to provide and keep up the school
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 259

premises, playground, offices, and the rest, free of

cost to the education authorities during the ordinary
school hours, the question of tenants' repairs being
settled between the authority and the six managers.
Further, the education authority may delegate
any of its powers in respect of this school to the
six managers, except the power of levying a
rate.
Of the board of six managers, four of them,
called trust managers, are appointed by the bishop
and trustees of the diocese ; the other two, who
need not be Catholics, by the local education
authority. The board appoints its chairman and
correspondent ; it must meet at least once a quarter
and keep a record of its proceedings. In practice
it will usually work out that the rector of the mis
sion will be the correspondent if not the chairman
of these managers and that much of the daily
routine will be left to him.
Doubtless in this arrangement, which is essenti
ally a compromise, there will be opportunities for
friction if either party so desires, but on the whole
it gives us great opportunities. These opportuni
ties are no gift or dole to us ; we have won them
fairly, we have paid for them in full. Manning's
ideal, ' a place in a Catholic school for every Catholic
child,' the struggle of thirty years to reach that
ideal, the sacrifices of priests, teachers, and people
up and down the country to provide schools and to
meet the ever rising level of elementary education—
these things are the price our fathers and ourselves
have paid. The new Act does not lighten the
s2
200 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

burden resting on the clergy and faithful, but at

least it gives us, for the first time in our history,
a fair field for our Catholic children ; it makes it
possible to give them the same start in the battle of
life which the Primary School children of England
have had for thirty years and more.
The scope of our duties under the new Act is
much more narrow than formerly. Our teachers in
direct and indirect ways will be less subject to us,
and we must be on our guard not to claim more
than our right. In early days especially we shall
be watched rather closely. Let us show from the
beginning that we accept the new position loyally
and are anxious to abide by it honestly in respect
to our teachers and fellow managers. The Church
of Christ will not come to an end because other
people have rights as well as ourselves. Hence the
question of Sunday duty may need fresh considera
tion. We shall probably be wise if we limit our
claim on Sundays to the presence of the teachers
ordinarily at the children's Mass. If we want them
for Sunday school we ought certainly to pay them
for coming, but better not to want them. The
Sunday catechism, under present conditions, is of
little worth as a means of teaching children their
religion. The effective teaching of religion is carried
out in the day school on five days a week ; what
more the children learn during their school life they
get at home and at their mother's knee.
Another point needing fresh consideration under
the new conditions will be the time at which re
ligious instruction is given. There is no financial
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 26l

reason now why the religious instruction should be

given while the children are finding their way to
their places in school ; it might be best now in some
schools to put the religious instruction after, instead
of before, the two hours' secular instruction, closing
the registers half-an-hour earlier than we have done
hitherto. It may be advisable also in some country
schools to see that time is provided for religious
instruction at every meeting of the school.
The experience of thirty years has taught us
that it is possible to have a school which is in
nothing Catholic except that it is built and sup
ported by Catholic money. Once such a school
gets into existence the priest is almost powerless to
cure it. It has no Catholic tone and is a barren
mother of Catholic converts. In order that a
Catholic school may be satisfactory in tone and
character it must have a majority of Catholic
children as well as zealous Catholic teachers. To
ensure this majority needs some care. Once the
school is opened and put under the education
authority it loses its power of picking and choosing.
In law it is bound to take all comers without dis
tinction until it is full ; in practice it is the rubbish
shoot of the neighbouring schools.
The best remedy seems to be to open your school
some time before you put it under the education
authority. Open it ; select your children carefully ;
do not be in a hurry to get it full. That will come
later. Quality and character are your chief needs at
first. Carry it on not as a public elementary school
but as a private adventure school at first until you
262 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

have got the children you want and the school fairly
full. Then you may put it under the local authority
without fear, and the new children whom you may
have to accept will be a minority to be leavened by
the others, not a majority to form the tone of the
school. Until you have put it under the local
authority you will have to pay the entire expense,
but that is a small amount in comparison with the
whole cost of opening a new school, and your good
ship will be launched with a fair wind. Another
plan which may be useful is to see that the trustees
do not make over to the managers at first the whole
of the premises erected. One floor may be given at
first for school purposes, the others being let to the
priest for club, boys' brigade, playrooms, and the
rest. I have known cases, too, where the denomi
national managers were successful in cutting off a
part of the premises of a school already under
Government, devoting the part cut off to other
purposes. What Catholic children there were in
the neighbourhood were already in the school. By
reducing materially the accommodation they ren
dered themselves unable to take any more non-
Catholic children.
We do not desire to do anything unfair to the
community, but we are determined that our schools
shall be in reality, as well as in name, Catholic
schools. To attain this end we must take care that
the Catholic element in the school is not swamped
at the start. Once submerged, experto crede, it will
never rise to the top. Give us our own waifs and
Strays ; we want them all, and we will do our best
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 263

with them. In them we shall have enough to tax

all our energies. Do not fill our schools with the
weeds from other men's gardens.
Under present conditions the schools are the
most efficient means we have to bring up our chil
dren of the elementary school class good Catholics.
Hence comes our desire first to make the schools as
efficient, as attractive as possible, and, secondly, to
get into them all our children. If we had no other
reason than this we should be most anxious for the
excellence of the secular instruction in our schools.
While it is usually a desirable thing to get all our
children to come to our schools and to assist with
their teachers at the children's Mass, we must be on
our guard against indiscreet zeal. I remember a
teacher once reporting to me some children for
being absent from Mass. It was true that they did
not come to the children's Mass, but he knew as
well as I did that the good German father and
mother took all their boys and girls—a whole
quiver full—every Sunday to the High Mass with
themselves. Sometimes children living in our dis
trict may be attending a school belonging to the
neighbouring mission. True, they belong to us and
ought to be in our school, but if they are at a Catholic
school, in God's name leave them there, at any rate,
until you can say that there is no child of yours
attending a non-Catholic school. Free trade is as
eminently desirable in Catholic schools as in the con
fessional. Almost always it is educationally bad
for a child to change schools, and oftentimes it
turns out that when the child first went to your
264 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

neighbour's school the parents were living in that

district and have since moved into yours. The new
priest is tempted to try to get them to his own
school. Let him learn to leave them alone and to
live on good terms with his neighbours.
In large schools it is difficult even for zealous
men to keep in touch with all the children, new and
old. It is often of considerable value to have each
week a list sent in of children ' admitted or left '
during the week. Before each name will be A
(admitted) or L (left) ; after each name will come
the address, followed by letters denoting the sacra
ments received. (B. P. E. C.) The trouble to the
teachers is infinitesimal ; all the information except
the last matter has to be put into their admission
register, and a plan which calls upon the teacher to
supply early and accurate information about the
sacraments is not without advantages. In large
missions these weekly returns from the departments
coming in on the Friday evening may be left in the
dining-room. The priests of the different districts
can initial the names belonging to them to show
that they have themselves taken the particulars.
In some schools there will be a list of children
preparing for first communion. Before children are
allowed to make their first communion, the priest
will do well to make sure that they have been
validly baptized. I have come across most curious
instances of neglect of baptism, and in one class of
twenty-four children in a new neighbourhood many
years ago I discovered on careful inquiry no less
than ten who had always passed as Catholics, but
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 265

who were in need of either absolute or conditional

baptism.
Some clergy have also lists of irregular children
sent in each week in order that they may visit them
and drive them into school. Good work is often
done by this means provided that the priest
attempts to do something more with parents than
getting the truant to earn his mark. Teachers are
apt to expect too much in this way from the
priests. The clergy are not attendance-officers,
and the teachers with their two free days every
week have quite as much time as the clergy, and in
this matter quite as much influence with the parents.
It is a curious fact that Board School teachers visit
the parents of the children far more than voluntary
teachers. The truth is the zealous Board School
teachers—and many of them are as devoted to the
children's interests as ours are—have no one to ask,
and so do the visiting themselves, with very great
profit, let me add, to their work.
Indirectly all lists of this sort are of great value
to the new priest just come into the parish. In his
early days, just when he is full of enthusiasm, it
is quite difficult for him to find himself and to make
work. Laymen sometimes talk as if the head
priest can take the new man into the streets,
saying : ' There is your district. Go and save
some souls, as many as you can.' This is nonsense.
Work must grow up about a man, and all growth
takes time. The value of these lists is that they
quicken growth. Tell the man to call on these
people, to begin work with them. He has now a
266 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

reason for going to a definite street and a particular

house. Almost certainly he will find ' his parish *
there— his hands full of work growing out of those
first visits. Besides attendance at Mass there are seven
sacraments, and many of those whom he visits would
be all the better if they received more of them.
These points will suffice to show the opportunities
which his position as manager of the schools puts
into the priest's hand for extending the kingdom of
God. Let me now pass to his duty as a priest in
the mission school.
What is this work of his in the school ? In
what does it precisely consist ? What is he to aim
at ? How is he to know whether he is succeeding
or failing ? Does success lie in repeating the words
of the catechism or knowing accurately the Kings
of Israel and Juda? 1 Is it the ' whole duty of man '

1 Children pass in crowds and shoals through the academics which

our passionate shepherds manage and superintend. They stream forth
over the world after years and years of so-called religious education j
and what have they learnt ? Let the opponents of voluntary schools
give ear. These children can tell you who Huppim and Muppim and
Ard were ; they know the lai itude of Beersheba, Kerioth, and Beth-
gamul ; they can tell you who slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day ;
they have ripe views upon the identity of Nathanael and St. Bartholo
mew ; they can name the destrvictive miracles, the parables peculiar to
St. Luke, and, above all, they have a masterly knowledge of St, Paul's
second missionary journey. . . . Take any of these ' religiously educated *
children and ask them what one must do to make life nobler and less
sordid? How may there be an increase of grace? They simply
look puzzled. Ask them how one worships, and Whom ? They
ire silent. Ask what one does if one falls into sin, and how one
obtains the remission of sins, mentioned in the Apostles' Creed ?
They have not a notion. Well, then, what are the seven deadly sins
to avoid ? or the seven gilts of the Holy Ghost to pray for? What
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 267

to have a hundred per cent, of the children present

in school or at Sunday Mass ? These things are all
good ; all have their place, but the priest's duty
embraces more than all these. Stated in general
terms, his duty in his school is to take care that the
tone and atmosphere there are essentially Catholic,
that a Catholic note and a supernatural character
are indelibly stamped on the children's lives before
they quit us. Their aim in the future is to be, not
merely Cheeryble Brothers or Colonel Newcomes,
not merely good pagans of altruistic tendencies,
not merely honourable men or citizens who 'think
imperially,' but, in web and woof, Catholic and
Roman in every fibre of their being.
It was for this reason that earlier in this chapter I
ventured to insist on the need of having a majority of
Catholic children if ours was to be a Catholic school.
The character of a school depends primarily on its
tone and atmosphere, and only in a secondary
degree on the instruction imparted. Catechism may
be repeated accurately, Bible history known well,
and the school may fail to be a Catholic school in
any effective sense. The tone of a school and its
atmosphere depend, not on lessons or instruction,
but on the ideal set before the children in the lives,
are the means of grace? Are any of these more urgently needed than
others? There is no reply to these questions. Dr. Clifford and all
his friends from the land of Dagon need not alarm themselves. Church
children know nothing more about the Divine Liturgy than if they had
been bred at Wcstbourne Park Chapel itself. —Huppim and A/uppim,
by Charles L. Marson. ' 7he sons of Benjamin were . . . Muppim,
and Huppim, and At a" (Genesis, xlvi. 21). (A. R. Mowbray & Co.
Limited, Oxford.)
268 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

the conduct, the practice of those to whom nature

itself teaches the children to look for their models
and patterns. Manager, teacher, and even the top
class, each has a share in forming and maintaining
the tone and character of the school. What these
value, the children will prize ; what these put second,
the children will hold as of no account. Children
cannot judge yet ; but the faculty of admiration is
great within them, and what they admire they are
ever ready to imitate. Hence it is that the parti
cular kind of religious instruction imparted in that
school is only one of the factors which determine its
tone. Catholic instruction, doctrinal explanation,
nay, even preparation for the sacraments may
conceivably be imparted in a non-Catholic atmo
sphere. These things are all most valuable, and
if they sufficed to make satisfactory Catholics we
should have been contented with them.
And now a step farther. What is this Catholic
character which we want to impress on our children •
in what does it consist ? What is precisely this
Catholic tone and atmosphere which ought to be the
dominant feature of our schools ? Shall I answer
by saying that it consists in looking at life not from
the purely natural but from the supernatural point
of view ? Shall I call it the conviction that we have
not here a lasting city, but that we look for one that
is to come ? We are called to aim at something
higher than being good citizens and honourable
men. We are responsible beings. Our life here
belongs to God, and at the end of it we must give
an account of every thought, word, and deed that
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 269

make up that life. We are destined for heaven.

God has founded a Church to guide and teach us
the way there. Sin is the obstacle in our path to
heaven. To help us in our struggle with sin He has
given us grace and the sacraments ; in the crucifix
He has shown us the guilt of sin ; in the fair vision
of Mary Immaculate He has shown us human life un
spoiled by sin : ' Our tainted nature's solitary boast.'
The practical realisation of these truths is
the Catholic atmosphere of which we speak. The
one aim of our Catholic schools is to bring up our
children in this atmosphere, to train them by
example to look on their little lives now and in the
future from the supernatural point of view.
Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,
Sich ein Character in dem Strom der Welt,
said Goethe. ' Talent develops itself in solitude ;
character in the stream of life.' It is only in the
stream of life, in the rush and jostling of the crowd
around us, that our character slowly forms and
hardens into its shape. This struggle, this push
and jostle, begin in our school days when first we
learn the difference between right and wrong. The
bent which our characters will take comes to us in
these young plastic days when we look with all our
eyes on the lives of others, too young to judge, to
weigh, to criticise, but not too young to love, to
imitate, to follow with blind unfaltering faith. 'A
young man according to his way, even when he is
old, he will not depart from it ' (Prov. xxii. 6).
Such is the tone we require in our schools to
make them web and woof Catholic. The next ques
270 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

tion is : How am I to know whether I am suc

ceeding or failing in this high endeavour ? What
shall be my test ? This time the test is so plain and
simple that he who runs may read. Our own lives,
our own daily practice supply it. Tell me what is
the most important thing in the school. The answer
to this simple question will show whether we are
succeeding or failing. What is the most important
thing in the school ? The merit grant, the feasts
of the Church, H.M. inspector's visit, the religious
lessons, the cookery competition, the classes for the
sacraments ? What place do the holidays of obliga
tion hold in the life of the school ? Have they any
other significance except that they pull down the
average for that week ? Have we a statue of
B.V.M. ? Is it much broken ? The crucifix, is it
fly-blown ? Our pupil teachers ? They must pass
the scholarship examination or else—but the re
ligious examinations, must these be passed too ?
The month of May and its flowers ; November and
its Masses ; Lent and its Way of the Cross, as well
as its offerings for destitute children. Are we a
little coy about this last form of piety while we
approve entirely of the November Masses ? I need
not labour the point ; the way these things are done,
their place in the life of the school, will tell us
enough. The children know quite well what comes
first in the eyes of the priest, in the eyes of the
teacher. The same comes first in theirs ; it is
nature's law with the child. He imitates first, he
judges later. ' Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings ' let our judgement be here ; it will be
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 27 1

just and true : they know not yet how to flatter or

to lie.
Let me pass now to the various duties of the
priest which help to form the atmosphere and keep
up the Catholic tone in the school. The first of these
is Catechizing. The provincial synods ordain
that the priest is to catechize in his school at least
once a week. The question arises how best he may
fulfil this duty. Let him always remember that both
priest and teacher have their place and their work in
the religious instruction of the children. A priest
once summarised for me this double duty by saying :
' It is the teacher's duty to put the catechism into
the children's heads ; it is the priest's to get it into
their hearts.' That the priest should make himself
responsible for the religious instruction in the sense
that it is his concern and not the teacher's would
be an error detrimental to the true interests of the
school ; that he should leave it entirely to the teachers
would be a mistake equally grave. The teacher's
work will tend to be more scientific than the priest's ;
the priest's conception of his duty may well be more
fatherly than the teacher's. The teacher's work
will be of the nature of a lesson, the priest's rather
of the nature of an instruction. In his own way the
priest will be as regular and methodical as the
teacher, but it will be after the manner of a priest,
not of a professional teacher. Occasionally he may
approach the teacher's methods, but then it will be
because he is examining the children rather than
instructing them. The priest has no vocation
and no need to be a second-rate teacher. Each
272 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

vocation, each one's work, is distinct and has its

own excellence.
Ordinarily the priest will endeavour to take the
different classes in turn so that within a certain
time practically every child in the school will
have passed through his hands. Some priests of a
methodical turn of mind have a catechism reserved
for themselves in each standard or division. In
side the cover is written the particular section of
the diocesan syllabus that is the work of these
children for this year. Such a catechism will be
useful when examining the children in what they
have already learnt from their teacher, and it will
tend to keep the priest fairly within the limits of
the children's work in his instruction. This last
point is of some importance. I have seen priests
and even diocesan inspectors wasting the precious
hour of religious instruction with theological gym
nastics that would be more in place in the diocesan
conferences than in an elementary school.
Besides the ordinary catechizing there are also
from time to time special classes for preparation for
the sacraments. Here, too, the priest will be careful
not to take the work out of the teacher's hands.
There is room for both and work for both in pre
paring children for confession, confirmation, and
holy communion. Even when the teacher has done
all that lies in him there is plenty for the priest.
Labia sacerdotis custodicnt scientiam, et legem re-
quirent ex ore ejus, quia angelus Domini exercituum
est (Mai. ii. 7). His instruction will take much of
the mechanical lesson for granted and will often be a
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 273

fatherly talk to the children. He will try to put

some unction into his words, some piety into their
little souls. They are always genuinely interested,
and he will find them very receptive if once he can
overcome his mauvaise honte.
The form of confession, the prayers to be learnt,
even the examination of conscience, and the teaching
about integrity will not occupy him so much as the
sorrow of heart, the resolutions for the future, the
meaning of the crucifix, the reasons why they should
be sorry. In the communion class he will spend his
time in teaching the children the kind of acts their
love would prompt them to make before and after
holy communion ; he will ask them to make for
him there and then, in their own words, the act of
faith, or the act of thanksgiving, the act of desire,
or the act of homage. He will lead them on to
suggest themselves how they should spend the
previous evening, how they could ask the help of
their Immaculate Mother in this great act ; in a
word, his aim will be to get them so interested that
they would rather seem to be teaching him and pre
paring him to receive his God. On the other hand,
the subtleties connected with the obligation of
fasting from midnight, and the like, he may for the
most part leave to his budding pupil teachers to
revel in. In confirmation he will be careful to
supplement the scientific lesson by showing that
the sacrament does not act as a spell or a charm,
but gives us power to become soldiers of Christ,
and that this power is to be developed and to be
brought to its perfection by our Christian lives.
T
274 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

They will listen with all their ears if he takes

the opportunity of showing our Master preparing
the Apostles themselves nearly two thousand years
ago, little by little, step by step, for the reception of
the sacraments, just as he is doing with them to-day.
In the sacrament of penance, for instance, the
various stages of its revelation to the Apostles :
first, the promise that at some time they should
receive a mysterious power of binding and loosing ;
then the miracle on the paralysed man let down
through the roof, and Christ's claim to forgive sin
as man ; and finally, the evening of the resurrection.
So in preparing children for their first communion
he will picture to them Christ preparing His Apostles ;
the promise of the living bread in John vi., and the
fulfilment of that promise years after, pridie quam
pateretur ; the miracles preparing them for it as
well as the types foreshadowing it. Let these in
stances suffice. I think that they mark my distinc
tion between the scientific lesson of the teacher and
the wider and more devotional instruction that
comes well from the priest. When you have the
opportunity you will learn much by listening to a
good teacher, and once you realise the difference
between the character of your instruction and the
teacher's lesson you will suffer less from shyness in
your work. Remember it is the work for which
you were ordained, ' to instruct many unto justice.'
If you will, take the children in a class-room for
your instruction. You may be more at ease there.
Do not take a whole class if they are too many for
you. Can you hold the attention of three children
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 275

for a quarter of an hour ? Begin with three ; next

week you will hold six if you are clever and take
pains. It has been said with truth that the effect
of a sermon is greater or less in inverse proportion
to the number who hear it. A sermon to an audi
ence of twenty or fifteen may well have a greater
effect than the same words spoken to two hundred or
a hundred and fifty. You can hold twenty, but not
two hundred ; three, but not thirty. Begin with
three then, if need be, but resolve at all costs to
make your work in the school a success. If we
have any love in us at all we ought to have unction
enough to touch those three small souls, and when
we have made their eyes glisten and their cheeks
flush with all a child's love for Jesus and His dear
Mother our half-hour has not been spent in vain.
Sunday Mass and Monthly Communion.—To get
into personal relations with the children who miss
Mass on the Sunday the priest usually makes it his
business to go into school on the Monday and to
interview each defaulter separately out of earshot
of the other children. It is very seldom that the
children are entirely responsible. The sparse attend
ance at the children's Mass during the holidays
reveals to us the small amount of trouble the parents
take about the religious bringing up of their little
ones. The contrast between the attendance at Mass
during the school time and during holidays shows
something of what our children owe to the influence
of the Catholic school.
Then we have the duty of the children's confes
sions. I have seen many plans tried ; each has its
ta
276 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

good points and each its drawbacks. I have seen

children's confessions heard in the church, heard in
the schools ; I have seen the children brought in
droves once a month and all hands piped on deck
to absolve them. I have also seen children in
select parties, personally conducted for the most
part, once a week. All these plans and others I
have seen tried with varying success. One of the
most successful men with children that I ever had
with me had one method for the non-communicants
and a different one for those who had made their
first communion, and his plan, though entailing
much work and calling for almost blind faith, seems
to have produced the best results. The non-com
municants he took himself entirely ; they were not
old enough to need a choice of confessor, and they
were so young that they did need a priest who
would take pains with each of them and even teach
them while he was hearing their confessions. Every
Wednesday or Friday a small party would come
to the church, personally conducted by a young
teacher. He would not have more than ten or
twelve each day ; they would be weary waiting, he
said, if he had more, and if he had a larger number
he could not take pains with each. Oftentimes,
too, he would prepare them himself ; standing
facing them in the benches for five or six minutes
he would go through a child's examination of con
science aloud for them ; then, holding a crucifix
before them, would give them a little object lesson
on our Lord's sufferings to teach them to get
sorry. That priest meant business with those little
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 277

souls. What wonder if he had some success with

them !
For those who had made their first communion he
had another method. The only thing fixed about
their communion was the particular Sunday of the
month on which they were to go. He abolished the
special time for their confession, and he would not
hear of their being heard in droves. His aim was
to eliminate school discipline and class-room rules
from their monthly communion so that its regularity
should not depend on their school life, and that the
practice of monthly communion might survive their
schooldays. Thus the child was taught to choose
its own confessor and to go itself at the ordinary
time when confessions were heard without being
sent. When the plan was first tried it was a sad
failure compared with the automatic regularity
obtained when the children were sent by their
teachers to confession. But even such a failure gives
pause for thought. If it is a failure now to leave
children their freedom and try to teach them to use
it wisely, may it not be a failure hereafter when they
have left school and are entirely free ? Train them
now for their days of freedom, and if we fail at first
we can at least renew our efforts in the school and
try with patience to win them to better things.
Another point of importance is the teaching of
the moral virtues. Our catechism follows the
method of the Commandments, which prohibit cer
tain things rather than teach their opposites. The
catechism deals with sins rather than virtues ; it
tells us how to keep out of hell rather than how
278 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

to get into heaven. The teacher, following the

method of the catechism, falls into the same way,
and so does the priest. For many years I was quite
learned in my instructions on the obligation of resti
tution to small boys who never got a chance of
stealing anything more than mother's sugar or a
bit of father's tobacco. I taught all about the
guilt of stealing, nothing of the virtue of honesty ;
something of the sin of telling lies, little of the
courage of telling the truth ; a shy word, perhaps,
of the wickedness of all impurity, but nothing at all
of the saintliness and the power of self-restraint,
and hardly a word of the beauty of holy purity. I
am almost inclined to go so far as to say that in
this matter of definite teaching of the moral virtues
of truth and honesty our Catholic schools are not
up to the level of the best non-Catholic schools.
At the same time I confess that imperfect
as our teaching may be in the matters of truth
and honesty, we seem to be the only people who
dare even to touch the question of purity at all.
All who treat of the question of morality in schools
confess that we manage to put into our children,
and especially into our boys, a keen sense of the
wickedness of impurity, even if we fail to teach
them much of the beauty of the opposite virtue.
Outside the Catholic Church the whole subject is
often smothered away and the existence of this evil
ignored. Ignorance is not always innocence.
As to honesty and truth-telling, we are very apt
to take these two natural virtues for granted ; we
have so much to teach, so much definite dogmatic
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 279

instruction to give ; we have to take so much care in

preparing them for the sacraments, that we are apt to
do no more than put before the children the sins to
be avoided instead of the virtues to be cultivated.
Moreover, again, scientific teaching of moral virtues
is far more difficult for the young teacher than
plain matter-of-fact statements of dogmatic truths
or the straightforward laws of the Church which
our children have to know. For instance, to teach
children the method of making confession is far
easier than to teach them to be sorry for sin, yet
the sorrow is immeasurably more important than
the act of telling their sins. Thus we are in danger
of taking for granted these moral virtues ; we do
not realise sufficiently that they need teaching ; we
act as if our little ones took them in with their
mother's milk, and we start from the supposition
that they are all honest and truthful.
To these small beings it is natural to lie, super
natural to tell the truth ; natural to pick and steal,
supernatural to go without. Consider for a moment.
The child has done wrong. The natural instinct of
self-defence bids it take refuge somewhere: but where
except in a lie ? The boy wants something badly ;
he cannot work for it, he cannot earn it as you and
I can ; unregenerate nature tells him to steal it.
It is the only way open to him to get it, and he
wants it very much. If we made it a practice to
take as a first principle that these pretty lisping
babes are born thieves and natural liars and that
our business is to turn them into honest and truth-
loving boys and girls, we should not see so many
280 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

heart-breaking failures when they go to business,

when, for the first time in their lives, they find
their honesty tested by the handling of other men's
money.
Another lesson which seems strangely neglected in
our schools is the obligation of supporting our clergy.
When first I was appointed diocesan inspector of
schools I had to report to my bishop that I had not
found a single school in the diocese, not even my
own, where this important matter was intelligently
and carefully taught. In examining children on
the first commandment of the Church—the duty of
hearing Mass on Sundays—I found them nearly
always little moral theologians ; they knew how
much of Mass they must hear ; they could tell me of
the bodily presence, the intellectual attention, nay,
the causes excusing from Mass ; distance, health,
bad boots, as well as bad weather. Of all these
things they could discourse fully and learnedly.
But when we came to an obligation precisely
parallel the children knew nothing of it. Both
obligations are founded in the law of nature, and
both are laid upon us by the Church. Each has the
same sanction ; each is of grave importance, and
yet one is known fully and accurately, and the
other is hardly known at all. No wonder, then,
if our young people grow up thinking that the
obligation of supporting churches, schools, and
pastors rests upon their parents. We are not en
tirely blameless if, when they themselves become
parents, they hug the comfortable delusion that
they fulfil all their duty to God and man in this
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 28 1

matter by putting a penny in the plate on Sundays,

if they think that they can afford it.
Let me here say a word on our duty to the non-
Catholic children in our schools. We have some
responsibility for them, and, according to our oppor
tunities, God will require their souls at our hands.
We cannot prepare them for the sacraments, but we
can and must do our best to prepare them to win,
by patient prayer and self-examination, those same
things which the sacraments make so easy for us.
In other words, while teaching our own to live by
the sacraments we must teach these others to live
without them. Mark you, an occasional instruction
on these lines to the non-Catholic children will do
much for our own. It will bring home to ours that
the sacraments are means and helps, tools if you
will, to be made use of, not charms or tricks to
save us trouble, nor royal roads to heaven. - And,
further, I am convinced that the interest taken by
teacher or priest in developing the non-Catholic
child's religious life on the only lines on which it
can be done will do more to bring that child
into the one true Church than all the prettinesses
and pieties with which we rightly attract our
own. We do not want non-Catholic children in our
schools, but the law obliges us to accept them if we
have room. We must never forget that they have
souls to save, and that we have to answer to God
for the use we have made of our influence over
them during the most plastic years of their lives.

These are the special points which seem to me of

282 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

importance in our work in the schools. Before I

bring to a conclusion this long chapter there are
two considerations of a general character on which
a few words may be of value.
In our dealings with children of all classes we
must never forget that we are priests, and in our
conduct we must be careful to keep before their
eyes a high idea of the reverence which belongs to our
sacred office. Sometimes we allow ourselves a cer
tain softness in dealing with them. Petting from
us is apt to spoil them by making them effeminate
and peevish, and it is not good for us. The longer
I live the more it comes home to me that any
softness, even let it be blameless, has to be paid
for with interest sooner or later. In becoming
priests we have made a holocaust of ourselves to
God, a whole-burnt offering, keeping nothing back.
We have studied human life in every form, and
in token of our entire surrender of self we have
cut out of our lives the gratification of this
strongest of human passions, this most imperious
of human desires, and laid it humbly and rejoicing
at our Master's feet. We have vowed that in return
for our royal priesthood we will never satisfy these
desires of our nature ; we will lead lonely lives, self-
contained and single, all the days of our pilgrimage
below. Our God is a jealous God ; He will have no
rapine in this holocaust, no taking back. Believe
me, if there be any taking back, we always pay the
price—ay, pay it full measure !
The other matter of a general nature, on which a
word may come in here, is vocations. It would be
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 283

well if every mission priest made it a point to ask

himself from time to time what efforts he is making
to extend the kingdom of God in the way of voca
tions. Some priests seem always to have some
vocations in the process of development amongst
their young people, the lads and growing girls.
Where we mission priests fail most is in developing
vocations amongst the good boys in good homes of
the upper middle and the upper classes. We fail
there. We get a large number of vocations of
girls from those classes, but not by any means a fair
proportion of boys. When we turn to the lower
middle class the proportion of boys who would like
to become priests is far greater. This is not the
place to discuss the causes ; it is enough to call atten
tion to the fact. What, then, are the principles to
be borne in mind in this matter of fostering voca
tions ?
The first principle is to recognise that a vocation
is at first only a tiny seed in the soul, and needs
careful cultivation if it is to grow. It is our place,
as experts, to detect the presence of this seed, to
distinguish it from a mere attraction to a refined
life, to piety and a love of sacred things, and, having
found it, to give it the atmosphere, the light, the
nourishment necessary for its growth and develop
ment. The sudden call to leave all things and
follow Him : St. Peter throwing down his nets and
tackle ; St. Paul struck blind on the road to Damas
cus—these are extraordinary calls and need not be
taken into account. God's providence works in the
ordinary ways of growth and development.
284 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

How, then, are we to develop this germ that it

may become a vocation and have its fruit in due
time in the priesthood ? I am inclined to say : do not
make known your discovery or your surmise at all, at
any rate yet, to the boy or girl. Later on the ques
tion may come to you from their own nervous falter
ing lips, and it is better so. Your work now will
be not to allow many practices of piety, but to aim
at getting a few, very few it may be, but these well
done. Daily Mass possibly, weekly confession and
holy communion certainly, as well as some practice
of mortification or self-denial. This last is most
important, and if kept up perseveringly is a clear
sign of God's call to higher things. We must
learn to distinguish the germ of a vocation from
what is merely an attraction to piety and the things
of God. Boys may be attractive and fond of us
and fond of serving at the altar, and yet have
nothing more than the love of piety which comes
from the example of a Christian mother, from the
atmosphere of a good home.
In endeavouring to test what may be a
vocation there are three or four indications which,
without being decisive tests, will have rightly an
influence on our judgement. Is the home a good
one ? Are the parents good and practical Catholics ?
What is their reputation amongst their neighbours ?
Is there any known vice—any immoderate love of
drink in either, the mother especially ? How have
the other children turned out ? Has the father
the healthy ambition to succeed honourably in
life and to do his duty by his family ? If he is
 THE PRIEST IN THE SCHOOL 285

of a lower class, has he endeavoured to rise in life

or is he a feeble creature too lazy to keep a situa
tion and always ready to hang on to others ? These
are nothing more than indications. The only one
to my mind approaching a test is a boy's own
perseverance in sticking to his practices of piety.
It is for this reason that I urge strongly that the
priest should always look for some practice of self-
denial. There is a certain type of boy, rare it may
be, but not unfindable, who will never fail you,
never make excuses, will always keep his word.
He may have a certain dourness about him, may
even be a bit slow and unattractive, but at least he
has got some backbone, and that counts for much.
There is a germ worth cultivating ; it may be the
beginnings of a fine character. * Spes messis in
semine.'
286 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

XVIII
SOCIAL WORK AND LA Y HELP
Considerate, fratres, viros ex vobis boni testimonii, plenos Spiritu
Sancto, el tapientia, quos constituamus supet hoc opus. —Act. vi. 3.

Thirty years ago, if a priest had a church, a

house, a school, and a debt, he looked on himself as
well set up in life. Nowadays he needs a theatre
as well. The enormous development of social work
has been one of the striking notes of the latter
years of the nineteenth century. ' We are all
socialists now.' To the minds of many thoughtful
men, whose instinct is to look below the surface,
this characteristic is another sign of the decay of
belief in the supernatural which is so marked in
these days. This decay has reached such a level
that to the average man in the street sin is
known only as an offence against man, not as
an offence against God. Belief in responsibility
to God has gone, but the desire of self-sacrifice, of
rendering unpaid service survives, and altruism
decks itself out in the clothes of Christian charity.
' I do not know whether there is a God,' my neigh
bour is taught to say, ' but I do know that there is
man and that he suffers. Let me gratify the im
perious desire which works in me to give personal
 SOCIAL WORK AND LAY HELP 287

service, by helping him.' Hence arises that fierce

hatred of pain—particularly physical pain—which
impresses us. so much in modern literature : pain,
entirely an evil, to be got rid of at all costs. While
Father Tyrrell preaches eloquently and bravely the
Catholic doctrine of pain created by God, and there
fore good ; a tonic, and therefore health-giving even
for man, the shrieking sisterhood will have none of
it, and foams at the mouth when there is a question
even of an animal suffering pain.
Oh I Christ, if there were no hereafter
It still were best to follow Thee :
Tears are a nobler gift than laughter ;
Who wears Thy yoke alone is free.
Catholics as a body set a firm face against this
Pagan horror of pain ; but the present-day philo
sophers of the pavement, the Ouidas and the Co-
rehis, from whom our factory hands drink in their
gospel of life, carry the day. Delenda est Carthago.
All pain must go ! Hence one strong incentive for
social work.
And there is another more Christian, more nearly
supernatural. There is often a genuine desire to
get at a man's soul. God himself wins us to toil by
letting us go hungry if we are idle. Now all animals
are most easily won through their stomachs. If we
want to train a yoke of performing animals, we teach
them through their appetite. Hence this desire to
save our neighbour's soul impels us to win him by
feeding his body. And, again, we have divine
authority for such good work in the injunction :
' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'
288 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Social work may be defined as ' our service of

others in which religion takes a second place : ser
vice of their bodies for the sake of their souls.'
Now in this work we come clearly upon the pro
vince of lay help. This social work of ours is not
sacramental, nor in its essence is it teaching, save
by example, nor is it offering sacrifice. Hence it
by no means requires an ordained priest to carry it
out. Nor is there any reason, except one, why we
may expect that he will succeed better than others.
However imperfectly the clergy fulfil it, their pro
fession is to look after the welfare here and here
after of others ; to other men this task does not
come as a profession, but as a work of supereroga
tion which is taken up when they are so inclined,
and may be dropped without backsliding. No one
could claim that the layman was bound to continue
indefinitely his social work. That it is not his pro
fession would be a complete defence of him.
But the priest's position is somewhat different.
He can hardly let the undertaking come to an end
because the layman has quite justly exercised his
right to withdraw. At any rate, if he does, the work
for which he was ordained will certainly suffer.
Hence in practice the ultimate responsibility tends to
rest on the priest, because even social work touches
him as a professional and the others as amateurs.
God forbid that I should underrate in any way
the layman's work. As in the nineteenth, so in
the twentieth century we have our Gorres, our De
Maistres, our Ozanams, our Montalemberts. This
lay apostolate is one of the glories of our age. In
 SOCIAL WORK AND LAY HELP 289

the later middle ages and in modern times up to the

last century, men who were drawn to the service of
others became priests or friars, while women became
nuns. In these days, thank God, apostolic zeal is
no clerical preserve. Men and women in the world,
with their professional and family ties, are ready to
give not only their substance but their own personal
service to save the little ones of Christ.
What, then, ought to be our attitude towards
lay help. We must welcome it heartily and use it
to the full, even though its promoters are not any
more perfect than we are ourselves. We must be on
our guard lest our professional spirit should make us
ready to put obstacles in its way. We must recog
nise that, like every good work, it will cost us some
thing, and we must be prepared to pay the price.
The clergy are very human, and, like all profes
sional men, are very conservative, and their tendency
is to look on lay helpers just as the average hide
bound army man looks on the territorial. When
you have said that you have said all. The clergy
are not more tenacious than others ; it is merely
that they have a professional spirit like other
bodies and want to keep what they have. Until
Blessed Thomas More was made Lord High Chan
cellor of England, it was almost the unbroken
custom that this office should be held by a bishop,
probably because a bishop was usually better edu
cated than the King's other subjects. We may
imagine how hands were lifted up in horror when,
for the first time, this great office was bestowed on
a layman. As I have said, one of the great consola-
U
2Q0 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

tions of modern times is that this spirit of apostolic

zeal is not confined to the clergy, but burns brightly
in the lives and doings of lay folk, men and women.
We must always remember the saying noblesse
oblige. Our office, our sacred character, our
supernatural powers give us an influence, especially
with the genuinely good, which may be abused.
Even in these days of the layman's independence
it is possible for a priest to be somewhat of a
despot in his own mission and in his work. ' The
tyranny of a priest (for it sometimes may become
even that) over a layman,' says Bishop Moriarty,
'is hateful for the same reason as the tyranny of
a woman. The priest shields himself behind the
privilege of his order, as the woman does behind
the privilege of her sex. You cannot hit him, you
cannot fight with him, you cannot oppose him on
equal terms.'
Lay help has its difficulties undoubtedly, but
they are lessening every day as the true sphere of
influence of each, layman and priest, is taking shape.
When social work and lay help grow up from within,
as they ought, serious difficulties ought not to arise ;
but when some busybody comes along, a new-comer
into the mission it may be, and says to the pnest
' Let there be lay help and social work,' the lay help
may or may not come, but foul weather will surely
come and threaten to wreck all social work for
many a day to come.
I am inclined to think that in this matter we do
not suffer as much as the clergy of the Established
Church. A correspondence in the ' Spectator * some
 SOCIAL WORK AND LAY HELP 29 1

years ago brought home to me this view. The

complaint of the Anglican clergy is that while the
laity are anxious to do work and there is an abund
ance of work for them to do, the abundance and
the anxiety do not relate to the same things. The
abundance is of laywork ; the anxiety is for clerical
work ; the laymen want to preach. It was sug
gested to me once to have laymen to preach (but
not in the church) a young men's retreat. Why
not ? The example of St. Francis of Assisi and
others was good enough for me. I welcomed the
suggestion and the men. The idea was that they
knew the dangers of city life and could talk straight.
And they did ; but the weak point in the ar
rangement was the audience. I accosted a young
man, of the type we wanted, but he was outside,
not inside the door. ' Go on,' he said, though his
pronunciation differed from my spelling ; ' why
can't we have a priest to preach to us like anyone
else ? Aren't we good enough ? ' It was of no use
for me to assure him he was too good ; the objection
was fatal and my lay retreat died an early death.
Take courage, you will not have that price to pay.
You may keep your pulpit in peace.
Another price : there was a day, but that, too,
is past and gone, when the men took their price in
minor liberties and small impertinences, and the
women expected you to dangle at the end of their
apron-strings, while, in the work God gave you to
do, they ' played such fantastic tricks before high
Heaven as make the angels weep.' Lay popes are
bad enough, but lady popes are worse. Then,
v2
292 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

indeed, was the life of a priest a burden to him and

lay help an unclean accursed thing. That price no
man or woman will call on you now to pay.
Another price : and one which we ought by no
means to pay, is when the result of lay work is
merely to add to ours. It is not hard to find the
layman (or lay woman) who will take command,
expecting you not merely to give him the rudder,
but to stand by all the day and half the night
patting him on the back and bidding the passers-by
observe how well he steers. You might as well do
it yourself. By all means let him work ; give him
full control and full responsibility. Let him have
his own way, even though it is not your way ; but
make it clear to him from the first that you are not
going to leave the Word of God to serve tables, that
you cannot give up your confessional on a Saturday
night even to grace his magic lantern show with
your presence or to take the chair at his lecture
on Ruskin. If the result of lay help is to carry off
the priest from the work for which he was ordained,
let him do his social work himself, without lay
help, as best he can.
Another price : if the layman is to do the work,
he asks to be allowed to do it in his own way. Here
is the right and the true price of his work, but it is
somewhat saddening to see how often we are un
willing to pay it. He does the work ; let him have
the responsibility ; fall in with his arrangements even
though they are not ideal nor of the best. If he
pays the piper, either in money or in personal service,
let him call the tune. And remember that it is
 SOCIAL WORK AND LAY HELP 293

with young priests rather than with the older men

that the social working layman has difficulty. The
younger priests are usually working more eagerly
and are more deeply interested ; they are also often
more insistent and know less of give and take than
the older men. Let all be on their guard not to
wreck good work, let them pay the price if at all
possible.
And if you have lay help of the right sort—and
have it you will if you are tactful and ready to pay
the price—bless God for His mercy to your mission.
The Church lives on love, not on fear. If she is
strong in the hearts of her children she can go
forward with confidence unto the perfect day.
What happier picture is there for a priest than to
see young men and young women, in the hey-day
of their youth, with their life before them and their
ambitions beckoning them on, giving of their time
and their gifts, not for a day or a week, but for
years together, to the service of their brethren
without fee or reward. Your boys' brigade and
your sewing class, your girls' club and your young
men's cricket, your choir and your school collectors—
these will be to you a tower of strength in your
mission, apostles of yours in every street, if you
have courage and generosity enough to pay the
price. Be not frightened of making mistakes ; a
man who never makes a mistake never makes any
thing. The world will not come to an end, and he
can begin again. Many years ago I asked my head
priest to set on foot a certain work which wanted
doing. He would not do it himself, but he gave
294 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

me every encouragement to try. I knew that I

should fail ; I was sure that he would succeed. It
was all to no purpose ; he bade me try. I tried
and failed, and tried and failed again, and then I
gave it up. I said to him rather bitterly : ' If
you had tried, as I asked, you would have suc
ceeded,' and he answered with a kindly smile :
' Better the young man and his failure than the
old man and his sloth.' I have learnt something,
at least, from my failure and good work is still
done.
My last point is to consider for whom we are to
carry on these social works. Do not subscribe to
the heresy that it is only for bad boys and worth
less girls that we have to work. Good boys and
good girls also need our help and have a claim on
our zeal. I do not believe in mixing the good and
the bad. I should not try to make a rotten
apple good by storing it with sound fruit. In
some of your organisations religion will be the
dominant note ; in others amusement. If I could
formulate a rule my inclination would be to say
keep your standard for good boys and girls rather
high, seek quality rather than quantity ; keep your
level rather low for those whom you want to hold
by hook or by crook. But do not confuse your
standards ; each has its own excellence, each
satisfies a definite need.
Then remember that this social work is parti
cularly the office of the younger priest. He has the
physical energy, and the strain is less for him. Do
not expect the old man to dance at children's tea
 SOCIAL WORK AND LAY HELP 2Q$

fights or to spend his evenings at bagatelle. He

has done his turn !
And, lastly, remember that men and lads are
not stand-off and stiff ; they are only shy. If
you are shy they have some reason for thinking
that you are stand-off, because you are on your
own ground here and because your education and
position are above theirs. Help them out of their
shyness, and make these lads your friends and
worshippers for life. As years go on, and you travel
through the world, here and there—in India, or
Ireland, or Canada, or London—men, seeing that
you are a priest, will sidle up and talk to you.
They are now married and have children, and you
will find that they have kept the faith bright and true.
And when you go farther and look more closely
you will find in their heart of hearts a hidden shrine
in which lives the hallowed name of a priest whose
memory has been their talisman during life. You
knew him ; he is dead now. He struck you as
rather second rate ; but that commonplace man
has done his work. His name will ring through
broad eternity, and his memory will be accounted
unto many for righteousness. De te, amice, fabula
narretur. In days to come see to it that the same
story may be told of you !
//* stmt quos habuimus aliquando in derisum et
in similitudinem improperii. Nos insensati, vitam
illorum cestimabamus insaniarn, et finem illorum sine
honore ; Ecce quomodo computati sunt interJilios Dei,
et inter sanctos sors illorum est (Sap. v. 3-5).
296 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

XIX
THE MISSION PROPERTY
Fide/is dhpcnsator et prudent quern constituit Dominus tupra
familiam suam, ut del Mil in tempore tritui mensuram.—S. Luc
xii. 42.

The rector has the management of all the property

belonging to the mission. His position is that of an
owner who has a life interest in entailed property.
He may take and may use the revenue of the property,
but he has first to keep the property in good repair
and hand it over to his successor in as good order at
least as he received it. Under the heading of mis
sion property come real property, the church, the
school buildings, the clergy house, and moveable
property, the due furnishing of these places.
Iron-work, brick-work, wood-work, drains, roofs,
and gutters are all liable to wear and tear, and need
care and repairs. They will not repair themselves ;
and if left untouched they make us, or those who
follow us, pay dearly in the end. I do not mean
that we are to begin our life at a new mission by
opening up all the drains, but merely that when we
find one blocked we must see to it at once. So of
gutters and roofs. It is of the nature of leaves to
fall in the autumn and of birds to build in the
 THE MISSION PROPERTY 297

spring, and autumn leaves and spring bird-nests

are quite fatal obstacles in the way of an otherwise
well-built and well-intentioned gutter and stack-
pipe. Hence in the early winter certainly, and
sometimes, too, in the late spring, it is well to send
a man with a ladder to explore and clean out gutters
and stack-pipes, not waiting until the sweating wall
and the sodden bricks proclaim that there is a
block in the pipes, and that it has already done
mischief. Slates again have a troublesome way of
coming loose or falling off, and with roofs and drains
at all times, and painting and pointing from time
to time, we have much to do each year if we are to
be good stewards of the mission property entrusted
to our care.
Then again we have something to do for the
inside of church or house, and for the furniture ;
walls get dirty, and woodwork gets broken, carpets
wear out, and curtains look shabby, vestments
get frayed, and altar linen yellow, and all this
without any carelessness or fault. From time to
time we may well examine our conscience on these
things, and see whether we are keeping things up
to the mark. Here is a crucifix the worse for wear,
there a chair which cannot be sat on, a second-hand
fender we shall never use again, a discarded
missal, a broken picture—who is there who does
not see how our sacristan or' ourselves keep these
things, hugging them, and unwilling to part with
them be they never so useless ?
I made a voyage once in a man-of-war. Every
forenoon, at four bells or six, the commander made
298 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

a round of his ship, accompanied by the head of

each department. His business was to receive
complaints and to see that everything was in its
place and all work finished according to Navy
regulations. If we made a parade through our
house once or twice a year, followed by the house
keeper, or made a descent on the sacristy presses
and the lumber cupboards, or made a round of the
schools and their offices, with the teachers, what a
heap of rubbish there would be for the dustman
next day ! I tried once myself, but I never got
beyond the house. I found that there were no less
than six lumber rooms. I stumbled over chairs
without legs, broken washing basins, disused lamps,
the remains of a crib, a second-hand dog-kennel
(chain and collar complete, and straw too). I
picked up the arm of a broken crucifix, and dis
covered a superannuated bicycle. My misfortune
was that I had the rooms and that they were
unused. When anything was broken or became
useless it was carried off there out of the master's
sight. We see the same in schools. The head
master's room or head-mistress's is nearly always
a lumber room of sorts. In one school which I
visited I was struck with the extreme neatness
and tidiness, and I said to the nun in charge : ' Of
course you have no head-mistress's room.' ' No
indeed,' she began, and went on to pour forth her
grievances. ' But how did you know ? ' she asked
at last when she paused to take breath. ' No
school could be so tidy if you had any place to store
 THE MISSION PROPERTY 299

rubbish,' was my grave reply ; ' when a chair is

broken you either get it mended or burn it next
morning—in other schools it finds its way to the
head-teacher's room, and stays there.'
In sacristies it is the same. Vestments we will
not look at, candlesticks crooked and awry, a gas-
stove which does not work, and the rest ; we cannot
use them, we will not make away with them, and
there they lie. It was only the other day that,
visiting one of the handsomest churches in the
diocese, I came across a hatchment of Bishop
Danell's coat-of-arms. It had been painted for
his requiem Mass more than twenty years ago,
and, of course, has never been needed since.
All this lumber breeds dirt, dirty church, dirty
sacristy, dirty linen, dirty house. Either get things
mended or burn them straight off.
The wag who made an index to the Salford
edition of the four Provincial Synods of West
minster gives a cross-reference to this effect :
' Avaritia vide Rector.' In a like spirit under the
word ' dirt ' in my index I should like to put
Church—' Sordes vide Ecclesia.' Not that it is true
to say that our churches are dirty any more than
to say that rectors are avaricious. The meaning
of the Salford editor is that if we find avarice any
where, the likelihood is that it will be discovered
amongst rectors and men of a certain age rather
than amongst those in the first bloom of youth.
My point is that if we find dirt anywhere in the
mission property it will be more likely to be in the
300 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

church than in the house.1 See that you do not

lodge your Master worse than yourself. Dirty
altar cloths are more common than dirty table
cloths ; dirty corporals than dirty handkerchiefs.
We cannot all have magnificent churches, but we can
all keep sweet and tidy what we have ; if we cannot
have richly embroidered vestments and costly lace,
we can have them clean and untorn.
I am of opinion that it is sometimes a mistake to
buy very costly vestments, because even when they
have become unfit through dirt and age we are
tempted to go on using them on account of the
original value they had a hundred years ago. I
remember seeing what had been a very rich and
costly vestment used by a priest on Easter Sunday.
He had plenty of plain clean vestments, but none as
costly as this, but in fact it was perfectly foul with
dirt and age. A museum is the place for such things.
Put them in a glass case, write underneath the
words of the Greek poet (especially if they are of the
Gothic pattern) rh irpiv veXcopia, and use for the
service of the Church plain vestments clean and
sweet. In like manner in buying vestments do not
look for miracles of embroidery and needlework. Buy
for great days vestments which will last twenty years
with care, and leave your successor to provide for
his own day.
Clean church, clean sacristy, clean things ; now
1 • Do you call that clean ? ' shouted Father Letheby in My New
Curate, pointing to the drippings of the candles. ' Yerra, what harm
is that,' answered the chapel-woman, ' a bit of blessed wax that fell
from the candles ? Sure, 'tis of that they make the Agnus Deis.'
 THE MISSION PROPERTY 301

let me ask you which is likely to be the dirtiest

place in a clean church. Think for a minute, or
better, walk around your own church and look :
the penitents' side of the confessionals may take a
high place, but the music cupboard in the organ
gallery will run it hard. There is no doubt that in a
clean and well-cared-for church the two places where
there is the most likelihood of dirt are the baptismal
font and the tabernacle. The reason is clear :
the priest alone has the keys. When he goes to
them it is not to clean them but to administer
sacraments, and when he has done this he locks
them up again till he has to go the next time. Do
not blame the priest, but recognise the difficulty, and
resolve not to wait till these places are dirty, but
to keep them clean. Occasionally, for instance,
one may move the Adorable Presence to a side
altar in order to get the tabernacle properly cleaned,
or one may leave the font open to get it put in
proper order. One thing is certain, these places,
like all others, get dirty, and another thing, they
cannot clean themselves. For a similar reason the
corporal is the piece of altar linen that is most
likely to be used in a soiled state. The sacristan
persists in keeping it in the burse, instead of in a
box with the pall and amice and purificator, so that
it is never seen except when we are at the altar
just beginning Mass. In the same way, in one's
sick-call cases sometimes the corporal is yellow, and
the little towel worse. Each time we go to a
sick call we mean to change the linen on our return ;
when we get back we have forgotten all about it,
302 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

and the things lie in our drawer till they are wanted
next time.
I mention these things because we are such
creatures of habit, and good habits are formed
almost as easily as bad ones. It is little more than
a century ago since the Bishops of a Provincial
Council had to forbid the clergy of the province to
carry the Blessed Sacrament to the sick between
the leaves of their breviaries. Do not tell me that
the men who grew up in this state of things were
men of little faith or of careless lives. They were
apostolic men of the seed of martyrs, some of them
martyrs themselves, and yet this custom grew so
common that it had to be forbidden in solemn
synod. Care about small observances betokens a
spirit of living faith, and is the food of zeal. Life
is made up of small things, and it is the small things
about a church which seem to matter and to give it
its character. Almost every church has its cha
racter writ large upon its face, and for the most
part its character is the character of the head priest.
One church will tell you quite plainly that its
rector is a man of ease, while another will show that
the head priest leaves nothing to chance, and does
not mind taking pains.
Vocavitque rex Ioas Ioiadam pontificem et sacer-
dotes, dicens eis : Quare sarla tecta non instauratis
templi ? Nolite ergo amplius accipere pecuniam juxta
ordinem vestrum ; sed ad instaurationem templi reddite
earn. Prohibitique sunt saccrdotes ultra accipere
pecuniam a populo, et instaurare sarta tecta domus
(4 Reg. xii. 7-^8).
 303

XX
EPILOGUE. MARY AND THE PRIEST
Mulier, eccefilius tuns.
Ecct mater tua. —Joan. xix. 26.

And now for my last help in our priestly work.

Let me speak of one who will never fail us even
though we fall, for she has a mother's love for every
priest. Let me end my little book as I hope to end
my life on earth, with Mary's image in my heart,
with her dear name upon my lips.
I need not argue about the right our office
gives us to her help, I need not prove that
we have claims on her assistance. Surely for all
this it is enough to say that we are priests, and
that she is the Mother of the Great High Priest ;
enough to say that to us was said : ' As the Father
hath sent me, so I send you ' ; enough to realise that
to an Apostle, a priest like ourselves, a messenger
of Christ, it was said ' Behold thy mother ' ; enough
to remember that it was of a priest like ourselves,
bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, that Jesus
said ' Behold thy son*
Neither need I dwell on her power to help us.
She is the Mother of God, and of Him it is
3°4 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

written Erat subditus Mis. Before His hour was

come, came that marriage feast at Cana, ' This be
ginning of miracles. . . Never before had she
seen a miracle ; never before had He worked
one ! And now there was no crying need of one,
and His hour was not yet come. Neither did she
ask for one ; merely ' they have no wine.' See her
whole-hearted confidence, ' whatsoever He shall say to
you, do ye.' All most true that there were reasons in
plenty why a miracle should not be worked, and yet
aquce rubescunt hydrice, as the Epiphany hymn has it,
' the conscious water saw its God and blushed.' And
why was it wrought, this miracle out of due time ?
Because our Master would show men, on the
threshold of His great life of wonder, that although
all the rest of creation had changed for Him now,
Mary would ever remain the same, once His Mother,
always His Mother, here on earth, hereafter in
heaven, always to ask and always to be heard as
long as God is God.
We have our claims upon her, then, and she has
the power and the will to help us. How are we
best to get this help in all the abundance that we
need for our life and work as priests ?
To get the devotion to Mary which our lives
require we must grow it ourselves, and when we
have it we must cultivate it all our days. It will not
do to take for granted our devotion to her, nor will
it suffice to let it grow of itself. Weeds grow of them
selves and grow apace ; flowers need cultivating.
Before I approach the question how to grow and
cultivate this devotion to Mary let me begin by
 EPILOGUE. MARY AND THE PRIEST 30$

showing why we may not take it for granted, why

it may not be left to grow of itself, why this devotion
to Mary needs cultivation, real spade work, if it is
to do for us what we want. We must never forget,
we priests in England, that we are born and nurtured,
surrounded by an atmosphere of heresy. In it we
live and move and have our being, we cannot
escape it, we must always reckon with it, we must
ever be on our guard lest it taint and affect our
Catholic life. It is in a sad sense, but a most true,
that we are not as the rest of men. Not to us is
given the child's spontaneous love for its mother,
Mary, content in the knowledge that where God
has given honour we may give honour too without
fear ; that where He has loved we may follow humbly,
loving too. Is not ours sometimes a love which
weighs its service and counts its acts ? Love such
as this, given grudgingly, and in scant weight and
measure, is the fruit of Protestant surroundings.
The atmosphere of heresy has infected us, and we,
all Catholic though we be in faith, do not bring
forth flowers like the sons of other lands. In Italy,
in Spain, in Ireland, love of the Mother of God is
drunk in by the little ones with their own mother's
milk. The street corners tell the children of her
power, the very hills proclaim her name ; the niches,
the way-side lamp, the rude inscriptions on their
country roads, all tell the same tale of a love strong
as death, of a love almost born with them, the love
of the children of the land for God's dear Mother.
Bear with me a while if I endeavour to put
before you the fair vision of the Mother of God as
x
J06 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

she is mirrored in Catholic lands. In the Paradiso,

Dante is led from star to star surveying the beati
tude of the saints of God. With Beatrice for his
guide and interpreter, he passes from the moon to
Mercury and Venus. He enters the sun and wanders
through the twelve circles of saints such as we see
depicted in Botticelli's Assumption in the National
Gallery. From Mars he is led to Jupiter, and
then to Saturn, the seventh heaven, and at last,
with Beatrice still by his side, he reaches the
empyrean. Here she quits him, returning to her
throne. In her place he finds beside him an old
man, robed, as the rest, in glory : Bernard of
Clairvaux, whose office it is to lead Mary's client to
the feet of the ever blessed Mother of God. And
Bernard kneels and prays for the pilgrim, and thus
the glorious vision ends.
O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son I
Created beings all in lowliness
Surpassing, as in height above them all 1
Here thou to us, of charity and love
Art, as the noonday torch ; and art, beneath,
To mortal men, of hope a living spring.
So mighty art thou, lady, and so great,
That he, who grace desireth, and comes not
To thee for aidance, fain would have desire
Fly without wings. Not only him, who asks,
Thy bounty succours ; but doth freely oft
Forerun the asking. Whatso'er may be
Of excellence in creature, pity mild,
Relenting mercy, large munificence,
Are all combined in thee.
Such love as this, almost natural to the sons
 EPILOGUE. MARY AND THE PRIEST 307

and daughters of Catholic lands, is not for us save

where it is taught and learned and won by study,
meditation, and prayer.
We grow this devotion in ourselves and in
others by practical everyday methods, by our
interest in her feasts, her Rosary, her May altar,
her October devotions. There is a right as well as
a wrong way of carrying out these definite things.
If our people feel that these feasts and devotions
play a real part in our lives they will not be slow to
follow. We grow this devotion by preaching Mary ;
not by mere prettinesses, or the latest fashions in
piety, not by little French pictures of red hearts
lying on a green sward, and purple doves pecking at
them ; not by far off analogies and strained com
parisons which can only be explained by being ex
plained away ; but by preaching good solid dogma.
Mary has her place, high, honourable, unassailable
in the Christian economy, and our quaint conceits
cannot and do not better it. Her maternity,
the root of her dignity ; her sinlessness, her greatest
joy ; her bodily assumption, her reward ; these are
everlasting, and will give us food for all our days.
In the confessional we may not take for granted
the devotion of our penitents to the Blessed Virgin,
but we must see to it and cultivate it. Give them
practices of piety in her honour, teach them to feel the
charm of her Litany, accustom them to look forward
to her feast-days. Their devotion will grow, but
it needs care and cultivation like ours. Then again,
how much are we doing with the children in the
schools ? Are we taking their piety for granted ?
308 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

Is it the teachers or ourselves who bid them bring

flowers in May for her altar, or say a decade of the
beads in October ?
Remember, as I have said, that these things are
not natural in England, they have to be grown :
are we growing them ? In our own prayers, in
our preaching, in our visits to her statue will
be grown and shown our own personal devotion.
Vocal prayer in plenty for all our wants, prayer to
her for our penitents in their temptations, prayer
to her after hearing confessions when we are weary
with a long night, and prayer before. In these
ways and in others which love soon finds we shall
grow our devotion to the blessed Mother of God,
always standing on our guard against taking it for
granted. Teach the young child to come to her
with its first big sorrow, to fold its little hands,
and kneel before her image and tell that gentle
mother all its grief. The mother, too : tell her to
come that she may pray for her brave boys far
away fighting their battle of life ; and bid the old
man come, in the evening of his days, with tottering
steps and slow, to lay down at her feet the burden
of his years, the sorrows and joys of a chequered
life.
And here let me end with her name upon
my lips. Many other things I fain would say.
Thoughts come surging over me of things forgotten,
things unsaid. In your future life as priests you
will have your burden and your trial. Such is the
price of every good work done for God. If you are
faithful you will have your reward even here, here
 EPILOGUE. MARY AND THE PRIEST 309

on earth in the joy of your work, in the blessing it

brings, and in the peace of God which passeth all
understanding.
Maria, mater gratiae,
Dulcis parens dementias,
Tu nos ab hoste protege,
Et mortis hora suscipe.
 APPENDICES

I
THE PROVINCIAL SYNODS1
Obtditt prapositis vestris, et subjcuete tit; ipsi enim pet-vigilant,
quasi rationem pro animabus vestris rtddituri, ut cum gaudio hot
factant, tt non gementes.—Heb. xiii. 17.
St. Isidore in the lessons of his feast describes the duties
of a priest : Cujus prce ceteris speciak officium est Scripturas
legere, percurrere Canones, exempla Sanctorum imitari.
Leaving for the present the questions of reading Holy
Scripture, and following the examples of the Saints, our
duty here is percurrere Canones.
St Isidore mentions two kinds of ecclesiastical reading,
that of the Scriptures and that of the Canons. In old times,
before the invention of printing, a priest's library consisted
of little more than a copy of the whole or part of the Bible,
and a copy of the Decretals or an abridgment of them. In
such wills of priests as have come down to us of the four
teenth and fifteenth centuries three or four books generally
comprise the literary treasures bequeathed. I have noticed
1 This paper is taken almost entirely from an unpublished instruc
tion by the late Reverend Father T. E. Bridgett, [Link].R., which has
been kindly put at my disposal by the Very Reverend Father Bennett,
Provincial of the Congregation of our Most Holy Redeemer.
312 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

that there is always a volume of canon law, and some part

at least of Holy Scripture. The poorer priests had perhaps
a copy of the ' Gemma Ecclesiastica,' written by Giraldus
of Wales, or John Mirk's rhymed ' Instructions to Parish
Priests ' ; or just as likely they had nothing at all beyond
the mutilated church books and a small MS. volume which
comprised their own miscellaneous and disorderly notes
made during their course of study. I mention this because
we scarcely realise the enormous advantage we possess over
our mediaeval predecessors, an advantage which lays upon
us the greater weight of responsibility that the rich have
beyond the poor.
But on the other hand the multiplication of books of
theology and of ascetic treatises in our days has caused
priests sometimes to neglect to go to the fountain-head
either in Scripture or Tradition. There are not many of us
now who make our spiritual reading or our meditation
directly in Holy Scripture, and perhaps still fewer who take
down the books of canon law from our shelves.
There is an old story that a wag once called upon to
define canon law replied : ' Rerum prceteritarum inutilis
qutzdam cognitio? The canon law of which I have to speak
is not concerned with the res prcetcritot nor is the knowledge
of it useless. It is the modern dress of the old canon law,
adapted to our present circumstances, and given to us in
those four provincial synods which have been held in the
last fifty years. John of Athona, an old English canonist
of the thirteenth century, complained that there was 'no
country in which so many ecclesiastical laws were made as
in England, and no country where they were less kept.'
And the late venerable Father Bridgett, [Link].R., to whom
we clergy owe so much, told us in a retreat at St. Edmund's
College that in giving retreats he was often surprised to
find clergy who confessed to knowing little of the diocesan
decrees and nothing of the provincial synods, and he com
 APPENDIX I 313

pared them to those at Ephesus (Acts xix.) who when asked

' Have ye received the Holy Ghost ?' replied ' We hare not
so much as heard if there be a Holy Ghost.'
Since there-establishment of the hierarchy in 1850 there
have been held four provincial synods of Westminster.
The first was held at St. Mary's, Oscott, in 1852, the second
in 1855, the third in 1859. The fourth was held at St.
Edmund's College, Ware, in 1873. At the first three
Cardinal Wiseman presided ; the last took place during the
episcopate of the then Archbishop Manning. The first
and fourth are our chief concern. The second and the
third treat chiefly of Cathedral Chapters, of financial matters,
of church building, seminaries and church property. They
are important, doubtless, but the first and fourth are of
more general application, and to them chiefly I will direct
your attention. To compress my subject further within
reasonable limits I propose to treat only of the duties of the
clergy. As to the rights of the clergy, there is little danget
of our forgetting them, and this does not pretend to be a
treatise of canon law. Old John Mirk (saec. xiv.) in the
rhymed instructions of which I have spoken excuses himself
from treating of certain matters, and I would shelter myself
under his authority :
I hold it but an idle thing
To speak much of tithing ;
For though a priest be but a fonne [i.e. fool)
Ask his tithing well he can.
Let me recommend Epitome Synodonim (Art and Book Co.,
London and Leamington, 1894), compiled by the Right
Rev. Mgr. Canon Connelly, which gives in short form the
legislation of the four provincial synods of Westminster
and possesses an admirable index rerum.
3U THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION OF SECULAR PRIESTS IN

ENGLAND.
In the first provincial council the Bishops expressed
their desire that since the hierarchy had been re-established
so also the normal parochial system might be introduced.
The circumstances of the country would allow this hope to
be carried out only very gradually ; but as a beginning they
decreed that some of the missions should be made rectories
and the priests in charge of them should be called mis
sionary rectors. The tendency of the synods has been to
give a good deal more power than at first to the head priest
of a mission, whether missionary rector or not This is es
pecially noticeable in the fourth synod, which calls all head
priests rectors, and ordains that assistant priests shall receive
their faculties ' cum dtpendentia a rectore Eulesia' To the
rector are entrusted the church and the people, the schools,
the presbytery, and all the property of the mission, and even
the clergy who serve it Consequently he only and exclu
sively is responsible to the Bishop for everything. Both by
law and custom the rector and the assistants live in the
same clergy-house, but this house is the house of the rector
so long as he holds the office of rector and the faculties of
the diocese, and to him only belongs the right to administer
and rule it, and not the right only but the obligation. At
the same time the other clergy are not his servants but his
coadjutors. They are appointed by the Bishop to the
church, not hired by the rector. Their duty is to assist
him in all things ; his chief duty is to see that the work is
done.
We may sum up roughly but fairly accurately the
present position of the head priest by saying that the
tendency is growing to give him, as regards his coadjutors,
the position of a Parochus, while as regards his Bishop he
remains strictly a missionary priest possessing only delegated
 APPENDIX I
jurisdiction, being amovibilis ad nutum Episcopi, and having
no claim to any boundaries of his mission outside the actual
church and house.
i. Personal Obligations.—In the synods we find certain
things forbidden, other things ordered or at least recom
mended. It is forbidden under pain of suspension incurred
ipso facto, the absolution from which is reserved to the
Ordinary of the priest affected, to be present at theatrical
representations in public theatres. This was a censure of
old standing renewed in the first provincial synod and
affects all in holy orders. In the fourth synod this was
amplified so as to include places servingfor a time as public
theatres.
a. It is forbidden to take part in clamorous hunting
with horses and hounds, in public dances or unlawful games,
as well as in suppers or banquets that last late into the
night This is a republication of a canon of the Council
of Trent.
3. It is recommended not to go frequently to places of
public concourse or recreation even though such places be
respectable (honesta), and the reason assigned is lest the
impression go abroad that such clergy are idlers or of
unpriestly habits (animi minus sacerdotalis, iv. 53).
4. The clergy should return to their homes in decent
time (sub node maturius, iv. 53), unless kept out by duties
of necessity or charity.
5. Dress.—It is forbidden to wear secular dress even on
a journey. The clothes should be black or of a dark
colour. In the house it is most fitting to wear the cassock
and biretta. The Roman collar must be worn not only (as
ordered in the first synod) when exercising the sacred
ministry, but always (iv. 54). It is forbidden to grow
whiskers or beard, and reference is made to a letter on the
subject from the Holy See to the Bishops of Bavaria in
1863.
316 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

6. Residence.—A priest may not live in lodgings or in a

private house without leave of the Bishop. Neither may
any priest, whether head priest or assistant, be away from
his mission on a Sunday without leave. Further, assistant
priests are instructed to give notice (monere) to the head
priest whenever they absent themselves even for a day.
No women except servants may live in the clergy
house without the leave of the Bishop, nor may the school
mistresses or pupil teachers or those who serve in the house
sit at table with the priests. Lastly, the women servants
should be of advanced age, of proved modesty and prudence
and of spotless life.
7. Money matters.—With regard to these the first synod
ordains (I. xxiv. 9) that no priest may exercise trade.
Further, he may not undertake the administration of tem
poral affairs without the Bishop's leave. The fourth synod
(x. 12) adds to this an instruction to the clergy to refuse
steadfastly to accept the care of the money of others,
especially of the poor.
8. The common table in the clergy house is desired by
the fourth council, and the clergy are reminded that fre
quent absence weakens if not breaks the bond of brotherly
love among the clergy. Further, the synod recommends
recreation in common.
9. The duty of study, of reading Holy Scripture and ot
spiritual reading generally, is insisted on, and the Bishops
are exhorted to examine the younger clergy from time
to time before granting them renewal of their faculties.
Lastly, the rule is laid down ordering ecclesiastical con
ferences of the clergy and insisting on the obligation of
attending at least every second year the clergy retreat pro
vided by the Bishop.
 APPENDIX I 317

THE PRIEST IN RELATION TO HIS PEOPLE : HIS

MAGISTERIUM.
1. Status Animarum.—The first synod ordains that
the rector shall keep a Liber status animarum according to
the model given in the Roman Ritual. The fourth synod
lays on the assistants the burden of helping the rector in
this work by keeping it up to date so that accurate
information may be furnished to the Bishop for his visit
ad limina.
2. Archives.—The registers of baptism, marriages, con
firmations, and deaths are to be kept in a safe place, and
also a complete collection ol all documents belonging to
the mission, and of all pastorals and papers coming from
the Bishop.
3. Extent of his charge.—The fourth synod reminds the
clergy that they have obligations towards all the souls in the
district, both Catholics and non-Catholics, in the vineyard
of the Lord.
4. Catechetical Instruction. — This is ordained to be
given in the church in words suited to the capacity of the
children.
Further, instruction is to be given by the clergy in the
schools at least once a week (IV. xvii. 6), and all (Catholic)
schools, both public and private, are to be watched over
and often visited by the clergy.
5. Missions.—The fathers of the first council urge upon
the clergy the need of missions from time to time, and of
other extraordinary means of bringing souls to the feet of
Jesus Christ
6. Recreations.—The fourth synod approves and blesses
the efforts of the clergy who endeavour to hold their people
together by providing them with lawful recreation, but adds
that excursions and similar amusements are to be repressed
rather than encouraged.
318 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

7. Sources of his obligations.—The fourth synod bids

the clergy remember that they live on the alms of the
faithful because they are missionary priests. Hence they
owe to their flocks the service of their lives. Further, by
their promise of obedience given at ordination they have
bound themselves to do the work assigned to them by the
Bishop ; and thirdly, there is for many of them the obliga
tion imposed by ordination titulo missionis.
THE PRIEST IN RELATION TO HIS PEOPLE : HIS
MINISTERIUM.
The first provincial council reminds the clergy that
while it is difficult if not impossible in England to surround
the administration of the sacraments with the splendour
befitting them, yet the priest of reverence and piety can do
much to make up by internal devotion the lack of exterior
observance. The synod ordains that there should be a
fixed time and place for the administration of the sacra
ments. Nevertheless the priest will not refuse to give
them at other times under reasonable circumstances. He
is bidden to wear surplice and stole except in case of
necessity or where circumstances of time or place do not
allow this. He should preach often on the sacraments,
using as the basis of his instruction the Catechism of the
Council of Trent. He should observe all due care and
reverence in the administration of them and should carry
out accurately every detail of the rubrics.
THE SACRAMENT OF THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST.
The first provincial council has a striking homily on
the Blessed Sacrament and makes many prescriptions to
the end that It may be surrounded with all honour and
reverence (I. xviii.).
The Materials for the Holy Sacrifice.—It is prescribed
that the altars, vestments, and sacred vessels, even if not
 APPENDIX I 319

rich, must at least be tidy, clean, and decent. There must

be nothing torn or squalid. The paten, the cup of the
chalice and of the ciborium must be of silver, gilt within ;
the vestments of silk j the alb, surplice, and altar-cloths of
pure linen. In shape the vestments are to be brought to
the Roman pattern. The corporals and palls and altar
linen must be untorn and perfectly clean, and must be
often washed. Where there is no subdeacon it is the duty
of the priest himself to wash the palls and corporals. The
making of altar-breads must be given to trustworthy persons,
as, for example, to nuns. The wine may not be bought
from taverns or from every wine merchant, but great care
must be exercised to get pure wine, and the Bishops must
see to this.
Saying Mass.—The fathers of the first council would
wish that Mass should be said daily by all priests or at
least very frequently, and that the days and the hours of
the week-day Masses should be made known to the people.
Priests may not duplicate (except on Christmas Day)
without written permission from the Bishop or the Vicar-
General. On holidays of obligation there ought to be an
early Mass (I. xxiii. 1).
Ceremonial and Singing.—On Sundays and festivals
Mass should be celebrated as solemnly as possible. Care
must be taken that the rubrics are obeyed. When Mass
is sung without deacon and subdeacon the priest must
remember that he is not at liberty to alter the ceremonial
according to his own fancy. The singing at Mass must be
grave and devotional. The boys in the schools should be
taught to sing so that female concerts (ut feminarum,
maxime pretio conduttarum, in choro concentus . . .) may be
excluded from the church. The music must not be of
such a character as to interrupt the Mass except where the
rubrics allow this. The fourth synod goes at considerable
length into the question of church music. It bids priests
320 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

observe the prescriptions of the Ceremonial of Bishops

concerning the use and silence of the organ. It forbids
advertisements and announcements in which the names ot
singers or musicians or the kind of music are published.
It orders that if advertisements or placards are used, they
shall contain nothing more than the names of the celebrant
and the preacher, and the purpose for which the collection
is to be made. Finally, rectors may not draw up, nor allow
others to draw up, critical descriptions of the art and the
execution of the singers as if they had given a theatrical
performance.
Foundation Masses.—All questions concerning founda
tions for Masses are to be referred to the Bishop (IV. x. 1 1),
and a table of such foundations should hang in the sacristy
or, according to the instruction of the Sacred Congregation
of the Council (given in Appendix VII. to the fourth synod),
semperque in loco magis patenti et obvio.
Certain privileges are granted in the matter of Requiem
Masses, which may be found at the beginning of the
diocesan order each year. It is ordered that the rubrics of
the Missal, and, in small churches, of the Rituale Parvum of
Benedict XIII., be strictly followed in the services of the
last three days of Holy Week. On Maundy Thursday
and Holy Saturday one Mass only may be said in each
church. Mass may not be said on these days unless the
whole function be carried out. This rule, however, does
not forbid the Holy Saturday service in a church where
there is no font
Holy Communion.—The first synod counsels the clergy
to exhort the faithful to receive Holy Communion frequently
provided they are in proper dispositions. There is an im
portant instruction on carrying the Holy Eucharist to the
sick (I. xviiL 12) : 'On account of the circumstances of the
country, the most Holy Viaticum cannot, without danger of
sacrilege and scandal, be carried publicly and solemnly to the
 APPENDIX I 321

sick. On that account permission has been already granted

by the Holy See to carry It secretly and without a light
Nevertheless, the priest must be ever mindful that he has his
hidden God with him, and that he is carrying Him for the
consolation of His sick. Therefore with reverence and devo
tion, as it were fixed in contemplation, he will carry the most
Holy Sacrament to the house of the sick in a small bag,
richly or at least decently adorned and hung around his neck.
And since the dwellings of our poor are often so wretched
that the Holy Viaticum can scarcely be decently administered
in them we greatly commend the custom of taking with
one or sending before a case (cafisula) containing all that is
necessary for the reverent administration of the Blessed
Sacrament. After communion of the sick the pyx must be
taken back to the church as soon as possible and put back
in the tabernacle until it has been purified.'
Renewal. —The consecrated hosts, both those reserved
for Holy Communion and that reserved for Benediction,
must be frequently renewed. The fathers of the council
do not lay down any definite time, but in a note there is
quoted a decree from the Provincial Synod of Oxford of
1222, that is, within ten years after the fourth council of
Lateran, in which it is ordained that the consecrated hosts
should be renewed every week.
Reservation.—There is a special instruction concerning
the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in the private
chapels of gentlemen's houses. In cases where this privilege
is obtained, Mass must be said there at least once a week,
and the key of the tabernacle must always be in the custody
of the priest : solus sacerdos penes se earn teneat (I. xviii. 7).
Nothing may be kept in the tabernacle except the vessels
containing the Blessed Sacrament, neither relics, nor oil-
stocks nor chalice. The ciborium must be covered with
white silk or cloth of gold, and a light must burn before
the tabernacle day and night
V
322 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK
Benediction with the Monstrance may not be given
without the Bishop's leave. As to the less solemn form of
Benediction with pyx or ciborium, no leave is required.
(S. R. C, No. 3875, Nov. 30, 1895.) The Bishop's permis
sion is also required for processions (except for those
prescribed by the rubrics).
THE OTHER SACRAMENTS.
Baptism.—The teaching of the Church on this sacra
ment should be frequently explained, and the administration
of it should be carried out with all solemnity. In every
church to which cure of souls is attached there should be
a font in a fitting place in which the baptismal water is
always kept. The font should be kept locked and, where
possible, railed in. Except in case of necessity baptism
may not be administered with water unblessed or with water
blessed for any other purpose. To the rector belongs the
right of administering solemn baptism; other priests per
form it by his leave (I. xvi. 1). The holy oils and other
requisites for baptism ought to be kept in the baptistery
with all reverence and cleanliness. If they are reserved in
the sacristy they ought to be kept by themselves, apart
from other things. The entries in the baptismal register
must be made by the priest himself and in the form pre
scribed. Baptism may not be administered (saving in case
of necessity) outside the church except in those cases
permitted by the ritual, and then only by leave of the
Bishop. This rule, however, does not refer to stations or
remote chapels to which the priest goes at definite times.
Sponsors must be Catholics. —Children (impuberes), those
not confirmed, and those who have not fulfilled their Easter
duties, and ecclesiastics, may not stand as sponsors.
Children of non- Catholics may be baptized if the
consent is given to their being brought up as Catholics, and
provided they have a Catholic sponsor.
 APPENDIX I 323

All converts are to be baptized at least conditionally

unless certain proof can be given that at their baptism
everything necessary was done both as regards matter and
form. This baptism is not to be performed publicly, but
privately, and without ceremonies and using holy water, not
baptismal water. Further, amongst the appendices to the
fourth synod there is an instruction from the Holy See that
confession must not only be counselled, but required, and
that it must be integral (IV. Appendix xviii.).
It will be convenient to bring these rules up to date by
adding certain instructions that have been given to the
Bishops by the Holy See since the publication of the decrees
of the last provincial synod in 1873.
In an instruction to the Bishops of England dated
January 20, 1900, the Congregation of the Holy Office
distinguishes three different modes of reconciling non-
Catholics to the Church.
a. When baptism is conferred without condition, the
convert does not make any abjuration of heresy nor is
absolution given, since baptism suffices for all, bi.t in the
case of adults the profession of faith is made.
b. Where baptism is administered conditionally, first
the convert makes the abjuration of heresy or the profession
of faith in the vernacular ; then is given conditional
baptism, and lastly absolution from censure, also under
condition.
c. In cases where baptism is not given, the convert
makes the abjuration or the profession of faith as above,
and then is absolved from censures.
Children under fourteen need not make a formal abjura
tion nor need they be absolved from censures ; for them it
will be sufficient that they shall make profession of faith by
reciting the Apostles' Creed.
After reception, those who have been (b) baptized con
ditionally, and those (e) whose former baptism has been
y2
324 THE PRIEST : HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

accepted as valid are bound to make a full confession of the

sins of their former life. The absolution will be conditional
to those who [Link] conditionally baptized, and without
condition to those who have been received without baptism.
Lastly, there is the question of children baptized by
non-Catholic ministers, and brought to the priest before
they have reached the use of reason. In answer to a
dubium sent by the Bishop of Nottingham, the Congrega
tion of the Inquisition ordered that in this case baptism was
to be administered sub condition*, secreto tt cum atremoniis
in Rituali Romano prascriptis.
The Sacrament of Confirmation.—The first council
dwells on the extreme importance of this great sacrament in
a country like ours. It exhorts the clergy to instruct the
people on its effects and suggests that confirmation ought
to be hastened rather than deferred, on account of the
tender age at which many of our children leave school
(L xvii.).
The Sacrament of Penance.—The first council ordains
that confessionals, according to the number of the clergy,
be erected in the churches ; that women may not be heard
elsewhere than in the confessional except in case of illness
or deafness, and then only in a place where they can be
seen by others. In the confessional the priest is to wear
surplice and purple stole. Children are not only to be
admitted, but are to be attracted to confession, and the
priest is to dispose them for absolution. The fathers con
demn the practice of putting off the giving of absolution
until the time of first Communion. The faithful are free
at all times, even at Easter, to go to confession where they
will, and no priest may decline to hear a confession on the
ground that the penitent belongs to another congregation.
The clergy are warned against putting any obstacle in the
way of those who wish to confess elsewhere. They are for
bidden to accept any offering for hearing confessions, and
 APPENDIX I 325

they are to observe definite days and hours for hearing con
fessions in each church.
The Sacrament of Extreme Unction.—The faithful are
to be exhorted not to put off till the last moment the
reception of this great sacrament Those in attendance on
the sick are admonished that if the doctor be a non-
Catholic they must insist that he makes known to them
when there is danger.
The oleum infirmorum must be kept in a decent place,
and under lock and key, if possible, in the church or
sacristy.
The Sacrament of Holy Order.—The synodal decrees
concerning this sacrament refer chiefly to Bishops, and so
may be omitted here. There is one (I. xxi. 6) that is of
some importance to a certain number, and so we may refer
to it The Bishops point out that those who are ordained
titulo patrimonii sui are not free to leave their own diocese
without the Bishop's consent, and they quote a constitution
of Benedict XIV. to this effect.
The Sacrament of Matrimony.—The fathers of the first
council warn the clergy that this is an intricate subject
needing accurate knowledge and great prudence. The
clergy are to instruct their people thoroughly on the
sanctity of marriage, and to instil into them a horror of
contracting marriage except according to Catholic rites.
The banns are to be published and the priest is to use
every endeavour to induce the contracting parties to go to
confession and to Holy Communion before marriage.
Marriages are to be celebrated only in churches having a
district with cura animarum. A proper register of mar
riages must be kept Mixed marriages may not be cele
brated until the dispensation has been granted by the
Bishop, and the three promises obtained from the parties
concerned. At first it was sufficient in cases of mixed
marriages that the promises by the non-Catholic party
326 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

should be made verbally. For many years past it has been

customary to get written promises signed. These are
usually printed on the back of the form of the dispensation
granted by the Ordinary of the Catholic party. In apply
ing for a dispensation it is well to remember that it is the
Catholic party, not the Protestant, who needs and should
ask for the dispensation. Where there is danger that the
parties may have come in fraudcm legis the priest may do
nothing without having first had recourse to the Bishop.
Dispensations must be applied for in proper form, and may
not be granted viva voce or by a simple letter, but always
by a proper document
In the appendix to the second provincial council there
are two documents touching this matter. One refers to
cases where the baptism of one of the parties is doubtful,
the other is an instruction on the proof of liber status
required for a second marriage. The discussion of these
belongs rather to ecclesiastical conferences.
The fourth provincial council has an important decree
on matrimonial causes. It points out that they belong
entirely to the forum externum, and that it is competent for
the Bishop only to hear and decide them. The clergy
are reminded that they have no power to pass judgement
Their duty is to inquire into the facts and circumstances
and to collect the proofs and documents, and then to have
recourse to the Ordinary to whom the decision belongs. In
the appendix to this fourth synod there are no less than six
documents relating to these matters.
Hac meditare, in his esto, ut profectus tuus manifestus sit
omnibus. Attende tibi et doctrines ; insta in illis ; hoc enim
faciens, et teipsum salvum facies, et eos qui te audiunt.—
i Tim. iv.
 327

II
REGLES SUR LES MARIAGES EN ANGLETERRE
Les Strangers qui veulent contracter Mariage en Angleterre
doivent d'abord s'adresser a leur Curd en France, ou ailleurs,
pour en obtenir les pieces suivantes qui sont absolument
necessaires :—
1. Un certificat attestant qu'ils sont libres de tout
empdchement canonique.
2. Que leurs bans ont dtd publids ou qu'ils en ont eu
dispense.
3. La delegation du Curd de l'un au moins des dpoux
qui autorise un Pretre nomine" par lui a benir leur Mariage
en Angleterre. Le Curd pourra se servir de cette formule :
'Ego infrascriptus Parochus Ecclesise 5. Petri apud Boloniam,
Dioeceseos Atrebaten., deputo et delego R. D. F. R. Sacer-
dotem Ecclesise .S. Francisci, Londini, vel alium Sacerdotem
ab Ordinario dictae Ecclesise eligendum, qni loco et nomine
meo benedicat matrimonium contrahendum in eadem
civitate inter Annam Barrett hujus parceciae et Joannem
Prince parceciae S. Josephi apud Lutetiam Parisiorum. In
cujus fidem, etc Datum apud Boloniam die
mensis anni 186 .
' L. t S. Josephus M. Parochus.'

Outre les Certificats qui attestent l'absence d'empeche-

ment et la publication des bans, les personnes domiciliees
dans les pays Catholiques doivent ne pas oublier surtout de
328 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

présenter cette remise ou délégation de leur propre Curé,

puisqu'elles restent sous sa jurisdiction jusqu'à l'époque
où elles aient acquis leur domicile ailleurs.
2. Avant de venir en Angleterre ils doivent s'assurer de
tout ce que la loi de leur pays exige pour la validité et les
effets civils de leur mariage, même quand il est contracté en
Angleterre.
3. A leur arrivée en Angleterre ils doivent présenter les
pièces énumérées plus haut au Prêtre de l'église Catholique
dans la paroisse duquel ils demeureront, le priant de
les examiner, et si elles sont en règle, de publier leurs
bans.
4. Mais la loi civile d'Angleterre défend aux Ecclési
astiques de célébrer un mariage, sous peine de nullité civile,
et des travaux forcés pour le Prêtre qui l'aurait célébré, sans
la présence de l'officier civil au moment du mariage. Cet
officier civil porte le titre de Deputy Registrar, et pour
obtenir sa présence la loi exige qu'un des parties se
présente au bureau de son Supérieur le Superintendent
Registrar du district civil où les parties demeurent. Les
époux doivent lui déclarer qu'ils veulent se marier dans
telle église Catholique qu'ils lui nommeront, et cette
église doit être fréquentée par l'un d'eux pendant le temps
de son séjour en Angleterre. En outre, les époux doivent
déclarer si leur intention est que leur mariage (même après
la publication des bans faite à l'église en France ou en
Angleterre) soit célebré par bans civils, ou avec dispense des
bans civils. Si les époux ne désirent pas se marier de suite,
ils doivent se présenter chez le Superintendent Registrar,
après sept jours de résidence dans son district, lui donner
leurs noms, leur âge, leur domicile Anglais, et déclarer qu'ils
veulent se marier par bans. En faisant cette déclaration ils
doivent lui payer un Shelling. Après 21 jours, les époux
doivent retourner chez lui, et en payant encore un Shelling,
ils peuvent retirer son certificat qui autorise leur mariage.
 APPENDIX II 329
Au jour du mariage, le mari doit nécessairement présenter
ce certificat, puisque sans cette pièce le mariage serait nul
et défendu. Un ou deux jours avant celui fixé pour le
mariage les époux doivent porter ce certificat au Prêtre ou
au Sacristain de l'église Catholique où le mariage doit avoir
lieu, le priant d'avertir le Deputy Registrar d'être prêt au
jour et à l'heure qu'ils indiqueront au Sacristain. Les
mariages ne peuvent être célébrés que de huit heures à trois
heures. Au moment du mariage le Deputy Registrar doit
recevoir cinq Shellings de la part des époux, sans que le
Prêtre reste pour cela privé de ses droits. Ainsi le mariage
par bans suppose et exige avant la célébration, sept jours de
domicile avant la déclaration faite au Superintendent
Registrar, et 2 1 jours après ; et que l'on lui donne un
Shelling en faisant la déclaration et un autre en retirant son
certificat Au moment du mariage, outre le certificat du
Superintendent Registrar et la présence du Prêtre, le
Deputy Registrar et deux témoins sont encore requis.
0 Après le mariage Catholique auquel le Deputy Registrar et
les témoins assistent, le mariage civil a lieu en présence du
Prêtre et des personnes déjà nommées dans la Sacristie ; et
le Député en enregistrant le mariage reçoit cinq Shellings
pour ses droits.
Quelquefois, des personnes ne veulent pas attendre les
38 jours préscrits par la loi dans le cas d'un mariage fait
par bans civils : elles doivent alors agir de la manière
suivante. L'un des époux passe quinze jours dans le
district de l'église Catholique où le mariage doit être
célébré, et au bout de ces quinze jours, il se présente au
Superintendent Registrar, auquel il déclare qu'il veut se mariei
avec N. N. demeurant à . . . âgée de . . . sans bans civils,
et dans telle église Catholique. (La dispense de bans
civils ne détruit pas l'obligation des bans ecclésiastiques.)
Le Registrar reçoit alors deuxguinées (2/. as.) et pourvu que
celui des époux qui n'a pas complété 15 jours de résidence,
330 THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

ait été depuis un jour dans l'endroit où le mariage doit être

célébré, il obtient après l'intervalle d'un jour entier écoulé
depuis la demande la permission de célébrer le mariage.
Ainsi, si A.B. se présente au Registrar en chef Lundi, il
peut retirer son Certificat le Mercredi matin, et s'il l'a retiré
à temps et a fait avertir aussi le Prêtre et le Deputy Registrar,
le mariage peut avoir lieu le Mercredi même. A l'occasion
du mariage, il faudra présenter au Deputy Registrar le
Certificat de son Superintendent et lui donner xos.
Ces dépenses et ces conditions sont imposées par la loi
Anglaise, et le Prêtre ne peut en obtenir dispense de
l'autorité civile.
L'on comprend que ces ordonnances de la loi Anglaise
sont en sus de celles de l'Eglise, et des règlements qu'elle a
faits, soit pour les bans ecclésiastiques, soit pour la confession
qui doit précéder le mariage, et autres conditions de la loi
ecclésiastique, auxquelles les époux doivent se conformer.
Les Catholiques ne peuvent pas se dispenser d'observer ces
formalités civiles quoiqu'ils ne puissent pas les approuver

TRADUCTION FRANÇAISE DES PAROLES DU RITUEL

POUR LE MARIAGE.
L'époux étant à la droite de l'épouse, le prêtre demande :
N. N., voulez-vous prendre N. ici présente pour votre
légitime épouse conformément au rit de notre mère la sainte
Eglise ?
R. Je le veux.
Le prêtre demande à l'épouse:
N., voulez-vous prendre N. ici présent pour votre
légitime époux conformément au rit de notre mère la
sainte Eglise ?
R. Je le veux. ,
L'époux, tenant ta main droite de Pépouse, dit en suivant
leprttrt:
 APPENDIX II 331

Moi N., si la sainte Eglise le permet, je vous prends N.

pour mon épouse véritable pour vous avoir et vous garder à
partir de ce jour, que vous soyez meilleure ou pire, plus
riche ou plus pauvre, en maladie et en santé jusqu'à ce que
la mort nous sépare. Et sur tout cela je vous engage ma
parole.
Elle retire sa main et puis reprend celle de répoux en
disant:
Moi N., si la sainte Eglise le permet, je vous prends N.
pour mon véritable époux pour vous avoir et vous garder à
partir de ce jour, que vous soyez meilleur ou pire, plus riche
ou plus pauvre, en maladie et en santé jusqu'à ce que la mort
nous sépare. Et sur tout cela je vous engage ma parole.
L'époux met Panneau avec de for et de rargent dans la
main droite de Fépouse en disant :
Je vous épouse avec cet anneau, je vous donne cet or et
cet argent, je vous fais l'hommage de ma personne et le don
de tout ce que je possède.
Puis l'époux met l'anneau successivement sur le pouce et
les trois premiers doigts de la main gauche de la femme en
disant:
Au nom du Père, et du Fils et du St. Esprit. Ainsi
soit-il.
Note A.—Après la célébration du mariage dans l'église
les époux feront la déclaration suivante en presence du
Deputy Registrar dans la Sacristie.
Note B.—Je déclare solennellement que je ne connais
aucun empêchement légal pourquoi moi (name) je serais
point uni en mariage à (name). J'appelle ces personnes ici
présentes de témoigner que moi (name) je te prends (name)
pour être mon mari légalement (ou ma femme mariée
légalement).

The form in German runs as follows :

i. Wollen Sie dièse hier gegenwârtige N.N. (name of
33* THE PRIEST: HIS CHARACTER AND WORK

the bride) zu Ihrer rechtmässigen Ehefrau nehmen nach

dem Ritus unserer heiligen Mutter der Kirche ?
2. Wollen Sie diesen hier gegenwärtigen N.N. {name of
the bridegroom) zu Ihrem rechtmässigen Ehemann nehmen
nach dem Ritus unserer heiligen Mutter der Kirche ? [Wilt
thou . . . Church?]
3. Ich nehme Dich, N.N., zu meiner rechtmässigen
Ehefrau und verspreche von diesem Tage an bis zum Tode
im Angenehmen und Unangenehmen, in Reichthum und
in Armuth, in Gesundheit und in Krankheit mit Dir zu
leben, da die heilige Kirche dieses gestattet.
4. Ich nehme Dich, N.N., zu meinem rechtmässigen
Ehemann und verspreche von diesem Tage an bis zum
Tode im Angenehmen und Unangenehmen, in Reichthum
und in Armuth, in Gesundheit und in Krankheit mit Dir
zu leben, da die heilige Kirche dieses gestattet. [For : I
take thee . . . troth.]
5. Mit diesem Ringe verbinde ich mich mit Dir, dieses
Gold und Silber schenke ich Dir, mit meinem Leibe diene
ich Dir und mit all' meiner Habe beschenke ich Dich.
[For : With this ring . . . endow.]
6. Ich erkläre feierlich, dass ich kein gesetzliches
Ehehinderniss kenne, welches mir verbieten würde, die
Ehe mit N.N. einzugehen. [For : I solemnly . . . to.]
7. Ich rufe diese hier gegenwärtigen Personen als
Zeugen an, dass ich, N.N., Dich, N.N., zu meiner rechtmäs
sigen Ehefrau nehme.
8. Ich rufe diese hier gegenwärtigen Personen als Zeugen
an, dass ich, N.N., Dich, N.N., zu meinem rechtmässigen
Ehemann nehme. [For : I call upon . . . wedded (wife
. . . husband).]

The form in Italian is as follows :

D. N.N., volete prendere N.N. qui presente per vostra
legittima moglie secondo il rito della santa Madre Chiesa ?
 APPENDIX II 333

R. Si.
D. N.N., volete prendere N.N. qui presente per
vostro legittimo marito secondo il rito della santa Madre
Chiesa ?
R. Si.
Io N.N. prendo voi N.N. per mia legittima moglie (mio
legittimo marito) per avervi sempre nella prosperità e
sventura, nella ricchezza et nella povertà, nella infermità
e nella sanità, finché la morte non ci divida.
Con questo anello io vi sposo ; quest' oro e quest'
argento vi dono ; colla persona mia vi faccio omaggio ;
tutto ciò che posseggo vi dono e vi prometto la mia
fedeltà.
r

JL