CHAPTER VI. MISSIONARY PRIEST IN LONDON. 1730-1738. OF Challoner's life as a simple priest in London we have hardly any information. Scarcely any of his letters written during that time are extant; his work was not such as to be recorded in diocesan archives, and his early biographers pass over eight years of his life, from 1730 to 1738, almost in silence. Barnard confines himself to an account of the works he then published; Milner is content with a page of generalities; and Butler, though he ventures on a more detailed account, yet includes in it incidents clearly of a far later date. The following is his description of Challoner's daily life at this time: "From his arrival in London, till he was consecrated Bishop, he was a perfect model of a Missionary Priest. He avoided more intercourse with the world than was necessary; he was most assiduous in the discharge of all his functions, and gave, what these did not employ of his time, to prayer and meditation. At six o'clock in the morning he rose said his morning prayer, and made an hour's meditation; he seldom omitted to celebrate Mass; he said the office of the Church, as far as his employments admitted, at the hours prescribed by the Rubric. After Mass, he remained for some time at home, and received all who had business with him. Afterwards, when his duty called him abroad, he went out, and endeavoured to return soon enough to allow himself some time for prayer and recollection before he dined. His visits among his flock were not unfrequent, and generally made at the time of tea; but he carried piety and recollection with him, wherever he went, and diffused them among all that were present. He was very cheerful, and the cause of cheerfulness in others; but he stopt very short of mirth. He was always serene, affable, unaffected, prudent and charitable; never said anything which tended, even remotely, to his own advantage; he always listened with modest attention, and interrupted no one, unless the glory of his God, or the defence of his neighbour made it necessary. He reproved with the greatest gentleness. His conduct abundantly verified the golden maxim of St. Francis of Sales, that 'a good man is never outdone in good manners'. . . . His visits were always short, and nothing, except the most urgent necessity, ever kept him from returning to his abode at a very early hour, that he might be in the way to hear confessions, to give advice, to catechise, to attend to the calls of the sick or dying, or to exercise any other missionary duty, for which it should be necessary or expedient that he should then be found at home." 1 To this Milner adds, that "Like the Apostle of the Gentiles he considered himself as the debtor of all men, who stood in need of his spiritual assistance, nevertheless he considered himself as particularly commissioned to preach the gospel to the poor, whose cellars, garrets, hospitals, workhouses and prisons were much more agreeable, as well as familiar, to him than the splendid habitations of the great and opulent".2 When we recall what the prisons of those days were, before John Howard had stirred the conscience of the nation to reform these hot-beds of moral and physical corruption, we may well imagine into what an inferno of debauchery, blasphemy and misery the disguised priest must constantly have penetrated. Scenes of violence and immorality must have grown sadly familiar to him as he wended his way through the filthy alleys and courts of St. Giles. Dressed as a layman in the brown clothes that the clergy then usually wore, he walked the streets of London on his errands of mercy, only venturing to assume the vestments of his office when within the sheltering walls of an embassy or behind the fast-drawn bolts of a garret door. We do not even know where he lived, though it was probably in the same neighbourhood, to the north of Holborn, where he afterwards dwelt as bishop. Devonshire Street, Red Lion Street, Lamb's Conduit Street and Gloucester Street, in 1" Life," Catholic Magazine, 1831, p. 649. 2 Life of Challoner, p. 7. all of which he resided at one time or another, lie close together near Red Lion Square. It was a convenient district for him, not far from Lincoln's Inn Fields with its Catholic settlement, near to the miserable district of St. Giles where so much of his work lay, and yet within easy distance of country lanes and green fields on the north. One of the advantages of his return to England would naturally have been that he would have more frequent opportunities of seeing his mother. But shortly after his return she died, it would seem suddenly, for he was not present at her death or burial. Bishop Milner records her death on the 29th of March, 1731, and adds that "her son's active employments in the service of God did not permit him to attend the funeral, his place, however, as chief mourner, was supplied by a near Catholic relation, one Mr. Friend, who was Steward to the Right Honourable Lord Petre ".1 Had a fatal termination to her illness been expected Dr. Challoner would certainly have been by his mother's side, but if, as we may infer, her death occurred suddenly, he may well have hesitated at taking the long journey to Winchester and back for the funeral, especially as the time between death and burial was short, and the news would take two days to reach him. She was interred in the old Catholic churchyard of St. James near Winchester Castle, interesting because it was the only burying-place then in Catholic hands, and consequently the only spot in which Catholic burial could be given. Her grave-stone bore the inscription-2 t MRS. GRACE CHALLONER DIED MARCH 29TH 1731 AGED 62 YEARS. From his first arrival in London he must have taken his place among the leading priests, as befitted the reputation he 1 Life of Challoner, p. II. 2 For an account of St. James's Cemetery, see Catholic Magazine, 1832, p. 174. The inscription is given by Dr. Milner in his Life of Dr. Challoner, and is recorded in the Winchester Registers. See Catholic Record Society's Publications, vol. i., Miscellanea, i., p. 243. had brought with him from Douay; and that he did actually do so is shown by the fact of his election as a member of the chapter, two years after his return to England. To be chosen a "capitular" was an honour only bestowed on those priests who were prominent for their services and highly regarded by their brethren. The chapter had been appointed in 1623 by Dr. William Bishop, the first vicar apostolic of England. He had meant it to fill the functions of a cathedral chapter in advising and assisting the bishop, though owing to the fact that the twenty canons who composed it were scattered throughout England, and could only rarely meet, it is obvious that it was necessarily of a very exceptional character. One of the main objects in the foundation of this chapter was to preserve jurisdiction in case of the bishop's own death. Dr. Bishop applied to Rome for official confirmation of this act, but his death took place, and no such formal confirmation was ever received, though the Congregation of Propaganda recognised the existence of the chapter and allowed it to exercise certain jurisdiction. Dr. Bishop's successor, Dr. Richard Smith, not only continued the chapter, but gave it the privilege of electing its own canons and even the dean himself, without ratification, if the vicariate should remain vacant after his own death. In the event it proved fortunate that this provision had been made, for on Bishop Smith's death, in 1655, no further appointment of a vicar apostolic was made for thirty years. During the whole of this period the chapter exercised jurisdiction, making its reports to Propaganda and issuing faculties to the clergy. When Dr. John Leyburn was created vicar apostolic in the reign of James II. he received instructions to act independently of the chapter, and from that time it never exercised its former authority. Yet till the Restoration of the Hierarchy by Pope Pius IX. in 1850, it continued 1 See Dr. Bishop's letter to his Roman agent, 25th Sept., 1623. Dodd, Church History, Tierney's ed., IV., cclxxxiii. 2 Dodd, Church History, iii., 140-41. 3 For a fuller account of the position of the chapter, see infra, chap. xvi. "The chapter had, it appears, offended Rome by constantly refusing to receive a vicar apostolic and demanding an ordinary. Moreover, when Rome offered to confirm the chapter on condition of having the appointment of some of its officers, they absolutely refused such a condition" (Mgr. Ward, Catholic London a Century Ago). in possession of all its ancient privileges; the most eminent priests of each generation, including most of the vicars apostolic themselves, were members, and it remained the one body, election to which set a seal of something like public recognition to a priest's career.1 Challoner was elected to the chapter at a "consult❞ held in May, 1732, together with his former colleague at Douay, Dr. Matthew Beare, and Dr. Charles Umfreville, usually known as Fell, the author of the Lives of the Saints, and a man of somewhat unfortunate notoriety in his day." The election, however, gave rise to disputes among the members of the chapter, some of whom questioned its validity, owing to certain irregularities in the procedure, and it was ultimately declared invalid by the General Assembly of the chapter. Owing to this decision the election of Challoner, Beare and Fell was quashed. There was in reality no objection to Challoner or Beare and they were both re-elected a short time after; but the dispute concerning Dr. Fell continued unabated. With this controversy, however, Dr. Challoner was in no way concerned, except that when it was referred to Bishop Petre at a much later date the bishop consulted both Challoner and Beare, and in the letter which he addressed to the dean of the chapter, finally declaring the election invalid, he mentions that he had availed himself of their counsel.3 In May, 1736, Dr. Challoner was chosen "Controversial Writer" to the chapter, an office which he held till February, 1757, when he resigned it and was succeeded by his friend Dr. William Walton. It was an office that was easier to fill with success then than it would be now. The teaching of the Church was at that time far less understood, and the general charges brought against her doctrines and practices were marked by mistakes, misrepresentations and even calumny. Attacks such as these were easy of refutation, especially to one 1On the Restoration of the Hierarchy the chapter resolved itself into "The Old Brotherhood of the Secular Clergy," under which name it still exists, a venerable relic of our past ecclesiastical history. 2 The condemnation of his Lives of the Saints at Rome and the unfortunate incident of the election here referred to, made him the subject of considerable discussion and unfavourable comment during his later years. 3 Letter, Bishop Petre to Dr. Ryder, 10th Feb., 1736 (O.S.), 21st Feb., 1737 (N.S.). Westminster Archives (Papers, 1736-40), |