ENGLAND, John, R. C.
bishop, born in Cork, Ireland, 23 September 1786; died
in Charleston, South Carolina, 11 April 1842. He was educated
in the schools of Cork, and studied law for two years, but in
1803 entered the theological College of Carlow. Here his progress
in his studies was so brilliant that after his second year he
was selected to deliver public lectures on religious subjects,
he also devoted much of the time given hint for recreation to
the instruction of the militia stationed in the town. He also
founded an asylum for unprotected females that afterward suggested
the plan of the Presentation convent, and established free schools
for the education of poor boys. In 1808 he was recalled by his
bishop and appointed president of the theological seminary at
Cork. he took a leading part in the agitation for Catholic emancipation,
and, with the view of helping the cause of religious liberty,
founded the "Chronicle," which he continued to edit
till his departure from Ireland.
When the see of Charleston, embracing
the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia,
was founded, Dr. England was nominated its first bishop.
As he had determined to become an American citizen, he refused
to take the oath of allegiance exacted from Irish bishops
on their consecration. After some difficulty he was consecrated
in Cork in 1820, and arrived in Charleston the same year.
Bishop England had many obstacles to contend with. There were
only two priests and two Churches in the three states under
his jurisdiction, and his flock was made up chiefly of poor
Irish emigrants and refugees from Santo Domingo. In order
to provide priests for his diocese he opened a classical school
in Charleston and the success that attended his efforts in
this respect enabled him to support several of his ecclesiastical
students. Not only did he succeed in training a body of educated
missionaries for his Church, but also he largely contributed
to the revival of classical learning in South Carolina. Several
schools were reopened, and the College of Charleston, which
had suspended for some time, resumed its studies.
He infused new life into the Philosophical
literary association of Charleston as soon as he became
a member, and did much to suppress dueling, not by intemperate
denunciations, but by forming the most influential gentlemen
of the state into an anti-dueling association. His address
in reprobation of the practice before this body is considered
a masterpiece of argument and persuasion. He was invited by
congress to preach in the hall of representatives at Washington,
and was the first Catholic clergyman on whom this honor was
conferred. To explain and defend the doctrines of his Church
he established the "United States Catholic Miscellany"
at Charleston. It was through the columns of this periodical
that most of Bishop England's writings found their way to
the public. His influence was felt in every part of the Catholic
Church in this country, and his influence at Rome was decisive
in all ecclesiastical affairs connected with the United States.
Citizens of every creed attended his courses of lectures,
which he delivered in all the great cities of the Union. Nothing,
however, endeared him to the people of Charleston so much
as his heroism during the frequent visitations of the yellow
fever, when he continued at his post night and day.
In 1831 he visited Ireland and obtained
the services of three nuns of the Ursuline order, by
whose aid he established the Ursuline schools of Charleston°
He also founded orphan asylums, boarding schools, and free
schools, which he placed under the charge of Sisters of Our
Lady of Mercy. He conceived the plan of assembling the prelates
in council for mutual aid, and has been styled " the
author of our provincial councils." he visited Europe
four times in the interests of his diocese, was sent twice
as apostolic delegate from the pope to Haiti, and was offered
an Irish bishopric, which he declined. On his return from
Europe in 1841 malignant dysentery broke out among the steerage
passengers, and his attendance on them was incessant until
he was attacked by the disease himself, He finally died from
its effects, which were heightened by overwork, immediately
after homing. Dr. England increased the number of Churches
in his diocese to seventeen, and left a numerous and well
organized clergy behind him.
His principal works are " Discourse
before the Hibernian Society of Savannah" (Charleston,
1824) "Explanation of the Construction,
Furniture, and Ornaments of a Church " (Baltimore)
"Letters on Slavery"and "Works"
edited by Bishop Reynolds (5 vols., Baltimore, 1849).
First Bishop of Charleston, South
Carolina, U.S.A.; b. 23 September, 1786, in Cork, Ireland;
d. at Charleston, 11 April, 1842. He was educated in Cork until
his fifteenth year, was then taught privately for two years,
and entered Carlow College, 31 August, 1803. In his nineteenth
year he began to deliver catechetical instructions in the parish
chapel and zealously instructed the soldiers in garrison at
Cork. He also established a female reformatory together with
male and female poor schools. Out of these schools grew the
Presentation Convent. He was ordained priest in Cork, 10 October,
1809, and was appointed lecturer at the cathedral. Wherever
he preached people thronged to hear him. Pending the opening
of the Magdalen Asylum he maintained and ministered to many
applicants. In the same year he published the "Religious
Repertory", established a circulating library in
the parish of St. Mary, Shandon, and attended the city jail.
In the elections of 1812 he fearlessly exerted his influence,
maintaining that, "in vindicating the political rights
of his countrymen, he was but asserting their liberty of conscience".
In the same year he was appointed president of the new diocesan
College of St. Mary, where he taught theology. In 1814 he vigorously
and successfully assailed with tongue and pen the insidious
Veto measure which threatened disaster to the Church in Ireland.
Next to O'Connell's his influence was the greatest in the agitation
which culminated in Catholic Emancipation. To help this cause
he founded "The Chronicle"
which he continued to edit until he left Ireland. in 1817 he
was appointed parish priest of Bandon. (The bigotry and prejudice
of this city at that time may be conjectured from the inscription
over its gates: "Turk, Jew or Atheist may enter here, but
not a Papist.") In spite of the prejudices which he found
there, he soon conciliated men of every sect and party.
He was consecrated Bishop of Charleston
at Cork, 21 Sept., 1820, and refused to take the customary
oath of allegiance to the British Government, declaring his
intention to become a citizen of the United States as soon as
possible. He arrived in Charleston 30 Dec., 1820. Conditions
were most uninviting and unpromising in the new diocese, which
consisted of the three States of South Carolina, North Carolina,
and Georgia. The Catholics were scattered in little groups over
these States. The meagre number in Charleston consisted of very
poor immigrants from Ireland and ruined refugees from San Domingo
and their servants. In 1832, after twelve years of labour, Bishop
England estimated the Catholics of his diocese at eleven thousand
souls: 7500 in South Carolina, 3000 in Georgia, and 500 in North
Carolina. South Carolina was settled as a royal province by
the Lords Proprietors, who brought with them the religion of
the Established Church, and it was only in 1790 that enactments
imposing religious disabilities were expunged from the constitution
of the new State. Religious and social antecedents and traditions,
and the resultant public opinion, were unfavourable, if not
antagonistic, to the growth of Catholicism. The greatest need
was a sufficient number of Catholic clergy. This sparsely settled
section, with scattered and impoverished congregations, had
not heretofore attracted many men of signal merit and ability.
Bishop England faced these unfavourable conditions in a brave
and determined spirit. The day after his arrival he assumed
formal charge of his see, and almost immediately issued a pastoral
and set out on his first visitation of the three States comprising
his diocese. No bishop could be more regular and constant in
these visitations. He went wherever he heard there was a Catholic,
organized the scattered little flocks, ministered to their spiritual
needs, appointed persons to teach catechism, and wherever possible
urged the building of a church. During these visitations he
preached in halls, court houses, State houses, and in chapels
and churches of Protestant sects, sometimes at the invitation
of the pastors. When in Charleston he preached at least twice
every sunday and delivered several courses of lectures besides
various addresses on special occasions. He successfully advocated
before the Legislature of South Carolina the granting of a charter
for his diocesan corporation, which had been strongly opposed
through the machinations of the disaffected trustees. In 1826
he delivered, by invitation, an eloquent discourse before the
Congress of the United States. It was the first time a Catholic
priest was so honoured. He was chiefly instrumental in having
the First Provincial Council of Baltimore convened, and pending
this, formulated a constitution for his diocese defining its
relations to civil and canon law. This was incorporated by the
State and adopted by the several congregations. He also organized
conventions of representative clergy and laity in each of the
States in his diocese, to meet annually. In 1840 these were
merged into one general convention. He held a synod of the clergy,
21 Nov., 1831, and in 1832 established a seminary and college
under the name of "The Philosophical
and Classical Seminary of Charleston", hoping with
the income from the collegiate department to maintain the seminary.
Notwithstanding his many and varied duties he devoted himself
to this institution as teacher of classics and professor of
theology. Organized bigotry soon assailed it, reducing the attendance
from one hundred and thirty to thirty; but he continued and
it became the alma mater of many eminent laymen and apostolic
priests. In the words of Chancellor Kent, "Bishop England
revived classical learning in South Carolina". In 1822
he organized and incorporated a Book Society to be established
in each congregation, and in the same year his indefatigable
energy and zeal led him to establish the "United
States Catholic Miscellany", the first distinctively
Catholic newspaper published in the United States. It continued
to be published until 1861 and is a treasury of instructive
and edifying reading. He also compiled a catechism and prepared
a new edition of the Missal in English with an explanation of
the Mass. He was an active member of the Philosophical Society
of Charleston, assisted in organizing the Antiduelling Society,
and strenuously opposed Nullification in a community where it
was vehemently advocated. His intense loyalty to his faith led
him into several controversies which he conducted with a dignity
and charity that commanded the respect of his opponents and
elicited touching tributes from some of them at his death.
In 1830 he established in Charleston
the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy "to educate females of
the middling class of society; also to have a school for free
colored girls, and to give religious instruction to female slaves
; they will also devote themselves to the service of the sick".
Subsequently their scope was enlarged, and branch houses were
established at Savannah, Wilmington, and Sumter. In 1834 he
further promoted education and charity by the introduction of
the Ursulines. In 1835 Rt. Rev. William Clancy arrived from
Ireland as the coadjutor of Bishop England, but, after a year's
dissatisfied sojourn, he requested and obtained a transfer to
another field. Bishop England had originally asked for the appointment
of the Rev. Dr. Paul Cullen, then rector of the Irish College,
Rome (afterwards the first Irish cardinal), as his coadjutor.
A striking phase of Bishop England's
apostolic character was manifested in his spiritual care
of the negroes. He celebrated an early Mass in the cathedral
for them every Sunday and preached to them at this Mass and
at a Vesper service. He was accustomed to deliver two afternoon
sermons; if unable to deliver both, he would disappoint the
rich and cultured who flocked to hear him, and preach to the
poor ignorant Africans. In the epidemics of those days he exhibited
great devotion to the sick, while his priests and the Sisters
of Mercy volunteered their services in the visitations of cholera
and yellow fever. His personal poverty was pitiable. He was
known to have walked the streets of Charleston with the bare
soles of his feet to the ground. Several times the excessive
fatigue and exposure incurred in his visitations and ministrations
prostrated him, and more than once he was in danger of death.
Twice he visited Hayti as Apostolic Delegate. In 1823 he was
asked to take charge of East Florida and, having been given
the powers of vicar-general, made a visitation of that territory.
In the interests of his impoverished
diocese he visited the chief towns and cities of the
Union, crossed the ocean four times, sought aid from the Holy
Father, the Propaganda, the Leopoldine Society of Vienna, and
made appeals in Ireland, England, France, Italy, wherever he
could obtain money, vestments, or books. After Easter, in 1841,
he visited Europe for the last time. On the long and boisterous
return voyage there was much sickness, and he became seriously
ill through his constant attendance on others. Though very weak,
notwithstanding, on his arrival in Philadelphia, he preached
seventeen nights consecutively, also four nights in Baltimore.
With his health broken and his strength almost exhausted, he
promptly resumed his duties on his return to Charleston, where
he died, sincerely mourned by men of every creed and every party.
His apostolic zeal, saintly life, exalted character, profound
learning, and matchless eloquence made him a model for Catholics
and an ornament of his order.
Most of his writings were given to
the public through the columns of the "United
States Catholic Miscellany", in the publication
of which he was aided by his sister, a woman of many-sided ability
and talents. His successor, Bishop Reynolds, collected his various
writings, which were published in five volumes at Baltimore,
in 1849. A new edition, edited by Archbishop S.B. Messmîr
of Milwaukee, was published at Cleveland in 1908
source:
REYNOLDS. The Works of the Rt. Rev. John England, 5 vols.
(Baltimore 1849; Cleveland ed. Messm r, 1908); SHEA, Hist.
Cath. Ch. in U.S. (New York, 1889 92); O'GORMAN, A Hist. of
the R. C. Ch. in U.S. (New York, 1895); CLARKE, Lives of the
Deceased Bishops (New York, 1872); Catholic Miscellany (Charleston,
April, 1842) files; REUSS, Biog. Cycl. Cath. Hierarchy of
U.S. (Milwaukee, 1898); The Messenger (New York, 1892), 370
74; Ibid. (1890), 769 82; AM. CATH. HIST. SOC., Records (Philadelphia,
March June, 1895); READ, Sketch of Bishop England; O'CONNELL,
Catholicity in the Carolinas and Virginia; MORAN in The Seven
Hills Magazine (Dublin, June, 1907).
P.L. DUFFY
Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
