Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/117

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SOCIETY


93


SOCIETY


little later the "Irish mission" was regularly organized under Irish superiors, beginning with Fr. Richard Fleming (d. 1590), professor at Clermont College, and then Chancellor of the University of Pont-a- Mousson. In 1609 the mission numbered seventy- two, forty of whom were priests, and eighteen were at work in Ireland. By 1(517 this latter number had increased to thirty-eight; the rest were for the most part in training among their French and Spanish confreres. The foundation of colleges abroad, at Salamanca, Santiago, Seville, and Lisbon, for the education of the clergy, was chiefly due to Father Thomas White (d. 1622). They were consolidated and long managed by Fr. James Archer of Kilkenny, afterwards missionary in Ulster and chaiilain to Hugh O'Neill. The Irish College at Poitiers was also under Irish Jesuit direction, as was that of Rome for some time (see Iri.sh College, in Rome).

The greatest extension in Ireland was naturally during the dominance of the Confederation (l()42-.')4), with which Father Matthmv O'Hartigan was in great favour. Jesuit collrgcs, schools, and residences then amounted to thirteen, with a novitiate at Kilkenny. During the Puritan domination the number of Jesuits fell again to eighteen; but in 16S5, under James II, there were twenty-eight with seven residences. After the Revolution their numbers fell again to si.\, then rose to seventeen in 1717, and to twenty-eight in 1755. The Fathers sprang mostly from the old Anglo-Norman families, but almost all the mission- aries spoke Irish, and missionary labour was the chief occupation of the Irish Jesuits. Fr. Robert Roch- ford set up a school at Youghal as early as 1575; university education was given in Dublin in the reign of Charles I, until the buildings were seized and handed over to Trinity College; and Father John Austin kept a flourishing school in Dublin for twenty- two years before the Suppression.

Some account of the work of Jesuits in Ireland will be found in the articles on Fathers Christopher Holywood and Henry Fitzsimon; but it was abroad, from the nature of the case, that Irish genius of that day found its widest recognition. Stephen White, Luke Wadding, cousin of his famous Franciscan name- sake, at Madrid; Ambro.se and Peter Wadding at DiUingen and Gratz respectively; J. B. Duiggin and John Lombard at Ypres and Antwerp; Thomas Com- erford at Compostella; Paul Sherlock at Salamanca; Richard Lynch (1611-76) at Valladolid and Sala- manca; James Kelly at Poitiers and Paris; Peter Plunkett at Leghorn. Among the distinguished writers were William Bathe, whose "Janua lingua- rum" (Salamanca, 1611) was the basis of the work of Commenius. Bernard Routh (b. at Kilkenny, 1695) was a writer in the "Mcmoires de Trevoux" (1734- 43), and a-ssisted Montesquieu on his death-bed. In the field of foreign mi.ssions O'Fihily was one of the first apostles of Paraguay, and Thomas Lynch was provincial of Brazil at the time of the Suppression. At this time also Roger Magloire was working in Marti- nique, and Philip O'Reilly in Ouiana. But it was the mission-field in Ireland it. self of which the Irish Jesuits thought most, to which all else in one way or other led up. Their labours were principally spent in the walled cities of the old Engli.sh Pale. Here they kept the faith vigorous, in spite of per.secutions, which, if sometimes intermitted, were nevertheless long and severe. The first Irish Jesuit martjT was Edmund O'Donnell, who suffered at Cork in 1575. Others on that list of honour are: Dominic Collins, a lay brother, Youghal, 1602; William Boyton, Ca.«h"el, 1647; Fathers Netter\-ille and Bathe, at the fall of Dro- gheda, 1649. Fr. David Galway worked among the scattered and persecuted Gaels of the Scottish Isles and Highlands, until his death in 1643. (See also Fitzsimon; Malone; O'Donnell; Talbot, Peter; Irish Confessors and Martyrs.)


Scotland. — Father Nicholas de Gouda was sent to visit Mary Queen of Scots in 1562 to invite her to send bishops to the Council of Trent. The power of the Protestants made it impossible to achieve this object, but de Gouda conferred with the queen and brought back with him six young Scots, who were to prove the founders of the mission. Of these Edmund Hay soon rose to prominence and was rector of Cler- mont College, Paris. In 1584 Crichton returned with Father James Gordon, uncle to the Earl of Huntly, to Scotland; the former was captured, but the latter was extraordinarily successful, and the Scottish mission proper may be said to have begun with him, and Father Edmund Hay aiifl John Drurv, who came in 1585. The Earl of Huntly became the Catho- lic leader, and the fortunes of his party passed through many :i strange turn. Hiii the Catholic vic- tory of Glenlivet, in 1594, aroused the temper of the Kirk tosuch a pitch that James, though averse to severity, was forced to ml- vance against the Catholic lords mui eventually Huntly was constrained to leave the country and, then return- ing, he submitted to the Kirk in 1597. This put a term to the spread of Catholicism; Father James Gordon had to leave in 1595, but Father Abercromby succeeded in reconciling Anne of Denmark, who, however, did not prove a very courageous con\ert. Meantime the Jesuits had been given the management of the Scots College founded by Mary Stuart in Paris, which was successively removed to Pont-a-Mousson and to Douai. In 1600 another college was founded at Rome and put under them, and there was also a small one at Madrid.

After reaching the English throne James was bent on introducing episcopacy into Scotland, and to reconcile the Presbyterians to this he allowed them to persecute the Catholics to their hearts' content. By their barbarous "excommunication", the suffer- ing they inflicted was incredible. The soul of the resistance to this cruelty was Father James Anderson, who, however, becoming the object of special searches, had to be withdrawn in 1611. In 1614 Fathers John Ogilvie (q.v.) and James Moffat were sent in, the former suffering martyrdom at Glasgow, 10 March, 1615. In 1620 Father Patrick Ander.son (q.v.) was tried, but eventually banished. After this, a short period of peace, 1625-7, ensued, followed by another persecution 1629-30, and another period of peace before the rising of the Covenanters and the civil wars, 1638-45. There were about six Fathers in the mission at this time, some chaplains with the Catho- lic gentry, some living the then wild life of the Highlanders, especially during Montrose's campaigns. But after Philiphaugh (1(545) the fortunes of the royalists and the Catholics imderwent a sail change. Among those who fell into the hands of the enemy was Father Andrew Leslie, who has left a lively account of his prolonged sufferings in various prisons. After the Restoration (1660) there was a new period of peace in which the Jesuit missionaries reaped a considerable harvest, but during the disturbances