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BERNARD   VAUGHAN,   S.J. 


A 


Nihil  obstat : 

INNOCENTIUS   APAP.,   O.P., 

Censor  depufatus. 


Imprimatur  : 

EDM.   CAN.   SURMONT, 

Vic.  Gen. 


Westmonasterii, 

die  I  AuGUSTi,  1923. 


,l/> 


I  LefunY  1 


C^ 

^ 


Father  Bernard  Vaughan 


BERNARD  VAUGHAN,  S.J 


BY 


C.  C.   MARTINDALE,  S.J 

Author  of   The  Life  of  Robert  Hin^h   Benson, 

The  Life  of  C.  D.  Plater,  S.J., 

The  Goddess  of  Ghosts,  etc. 


It  is  by  means  of  the  preaching  of  '  folly ' 

that  C'.od  has  thought  well  to  save  them 

that  beheve." 

/  Corinthians,  i,  21  (Westminster  Version] 


^•' 


Willi   I  LLl  SI  RATIOS' 


LONGMANS.    GREEN    AND    CO 

39    PATERNOSTER    ROW.    LONDON,    E.C.  4 

NEW    YORK.    TORONTO  ^  " 

BOMBAY.    CALCUTTA    AND    MADR.\S    / 

1923  /^  f 


X 


t\ 


TO 

SAINT  MARY'S   AND   SAINT  MICHAEL'S, 

COMMERCIAL   ROAD, 
EAST. 


Made  in  Great  Britain. 


FOREWORD 


My  Dear  Canon  Ring, 

As,  I  think,  you  know,  I  accepted  to  write 
this  Memoir  with  a  good  deal  of  reluctance  and  yet 
witli  a  certain  pleasure. 

First,  I  felt  quite  incapable  of  doing  it  properly. 
I  am  not  sure  that  anyone  could  do  it  properly.  For 
after  all  a  memoir  ought  to  be  able  to  make  a  reader 
know  what  the  man,  about  whom  it  is,  was  like. 
But  how  could  anyone  convey  what  Fr.  Vaughan 
was  like  ?  It  was  very  seldom  what  he  did,  or  even 
what  he  said,  that  so  "  got  h(jld  of  "  people,  but  his 
special  way  of  saying  tilings  and  doing  them.  \\'hy, 
the  very  tone  of  his  voice,  its  extraordinary  changes, 
ought  to  be  "  conveyed  "  to  anyone  who  wants  to 
know  what  he  was  "  like  " — and  how  can  that  be 
done  in  print  ?  And  his  deluge  of  vitality,  in  which 
you  were  either  swept  forward  or  swept  under, 
which  delighted  you  or  drowned  you — how  can  a 
book  show  that  ? 

Then  I  have  to  own  that,  like  many  other  people, 
I  was  not  nuuh  in  love  with  the  special  methods 
and  mannerisms  which  made,  not  for  his  force,  but 
for  his  fame.  That  is  no  criticism  on  him.  but  a 
warning  against  myself ;  let  no  one,  in  this  matter 
of  mere  taste  judge  him,  but  me.  and  discount 
my    opinions    accordingly.     I    used    to    chaff    him 


vi  FOREWORD 

quite  frankly  about  it.  I  used  to  tell  him  that 
while  I  would  put  up  with  hearing  him  lecture, 
if  I  had  to,  yet  I  would  walk  miles  not  to  hear  him 
preach.  It  was  part  of  his  immense  goodness  that 
one  could  say  that  sort  of  thing  to  him,  and  rely 
on  his  understanding.  In  fact,  he  used  to  retort 
in  kind. 

Again,  when  I  had  begun  to  try  to  write  the 
Memoir,  I  felt  often  in  despair  when  whole  tracts 
of  his  life  seemed  to  afford  no  evidence  at  all.  Prac- 
tically no  documents  were  available  for  any  of  his 
earlier  years  in  the  Society  of  Jesus.  But  how  can 
one  study  a  man's  development  if  one  knows  nothing 
of  his  youth  ?  And  when,  later  on,  hundreds  of 
sermon-notebooks  began  to  descend  upon  one,  and 
thousands  of  newspaper-cuttings  to  beat  about  one's 
head,  how  disconcerting  to  find  that  there  was  very 
little  use  to  be  made  of  any  of  them. 

The  character  of  the  evidence,  then,  satisfied  me 
that  the  book  must  anyhow  be  a  short  one. 

As  for  mannerisms,  well,  what  were  they  compared 
to  what  I  called,  and  shall  go  on  calling,  his  immense 
goodness  ?  For  I  believed  thoroughly  in  Fr. 
Vaughan.  I  believed  him  to  be  good,  and  greatly 
good.  He  had  a  real  humility,  a  most  generous 
heart,  a  most  long-suffering  charity  ;  and  he  was, 
really,  the  most  simple  of  men.  Unless  this  sim- 
plicity be  recognised  along  with,  and  in,  all  his 
performances,  he  is  being  misunderstood  from  A 
to  Z.  But  how,  in  a  written  sketch,  can  one  "  con- 
vey  "  simplicity  ?  It  is  the  one  thing  that  cannot 
be  illustrated  by  elaboration. 


FOREWORD  vii 

Well,  1  have  thought  that  by  means  of  a  Memoir 
I  might  at  least  connect  the  thought  of  him  with 
the  thought  of  you  and  of  your  Mission.  For  a 
lumdred  who  knew  about  his  Society  Sermons, 
not  more  than  one  or  two  know  about  his  work 
among  the  poor  and  the  desolate,  or,  if  they  do, 
have  not  been  slow  to  quote  it  as  one  more  piece 
of  play-acting.  No.  Even  before  I  went  into  those 
East  End  homes  along  with  }ou,  I  felt  sure  that 
I  should  hnd  there  an  unforgetting  gratitude.  There, 
he  was  happy.  He  knew  that  there  he  would  not 
be  criticised  for  shallowness,  nor  asked  for  contro- 
versy, nor  praised  for  being  a  "  man  of  the  world," 
"  broad-mind«^d."  despite  his  priesthood  and  his 
Catholicism.  Not  but  what  there  were  many,  even 
in  that  Far  West,  who  had  eyes  to  see,  and  were 
not  taken  in  by  journalists — or  his  own  journalism. 
But  in  the  chapels  of  poor  convents,  and  at  \-our 
street  corners,  he  could  in  all  simplicit}',  and  well 
at  ease,  speak  of  the  Love  of  God,  the  Name  of 
Jesus,  the  Motherhood  of  Mary,  the  joys  of  heaven, 
and  none  would  doubt  him. 

Therefore  may  these  pages  be  of  service  at  least 
to  you. 

I  am.  Dear  Canon, 

Yours  very  sincerely  in  Clirist, 

C.    C.    MARTINDALE.    S.J. 

Mount  Street. 


Those  who  have  helped  me  are  too  numerous  to  thank  by 
name.  I  ought,  however,  to  mention  in  particular  the 
members  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  family,  especially  Major  C.  J. 
Vaughan,  of  Courtfield  ;  and  Fr,  E.  King,  S.J.,  who  so 
kindly  arranged  many  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  papers  before 
I  had  time  enough  to  plunge  into  what  would  else  have 
been  their  chaos.  May  I  say  at  the  outset  that  I  do  not 
propose  to  quote  much  verbatim  from  his  sermons  ?  They 
were  sermons,  and  not  essays,  and  scarcely  bear  quotation. 
Even  his  lectures,  in  which  I  think  the  real  man  revealed 
himself  rather  than  in  his  sermons,  were  hardly  meant  to 
be  fixed  in  print.  His  books  are  still  accessible  ;  but 
even  these  were  "  occasional  "  rather  than  intended  as 
permanent  contributions  to  Catholic  literature.  It  will 
be  seen  how  far  from  valueless  I  think  them  :  all  the  same, 
I  doubt  whether  quotation  is  the  best  way  of  conveying 
their  worth  to  those  who  never  knew  the  writer. 


CONTENTS 


PART   I— THE   PREPARATION' 


I.      AT   HOME 


II.      AT   SCHOOL 


III.      FIRST   YEARS   AS   A   JESUIT 


15 

27 


PART   II— THE   DAY'S   WORK 


I.      AT   MANCHESTER 


II.      IX   MAYFAIR 


III.      IN    THE   EAST   END 


IV.      ABROAD 


V.      THE    LAST   YEARS 


39 

75 

121 

147 
iSi 


PART    III— ADVESPERASCIT 


I.      SOUTH   AFRICA 


II.      THE    NURSERY 


III.      EPILOGUE 


210 


220 


230 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


To  face  page 
FATHER   BERNARD   VAUGHAN  -  -  Frontispiece 

From  a  Photograph  by  Pirie  MacDonald,  New  York. 


FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN  AND  THE  CHIEF  OF  THE 

IROQUOIS   TRIBE        -  -  -  -  156 

From  a  Photogiaph. 


FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN  IN  CHINA  -  I78 

From  a  Photograph. 


PORTRAIT,   WITH   AUTOGRAPH,    I915  -  -  182 

From  a  Photograph  by  Dinham  &  Sons,  Torquay. 


PART   I. 


THE  PREPARATION 


This  good  Religious  livde  like  a  Bee  in  ye  spirituall  hive 
of  holy  Religion,  still  gathering  hony  and  improving  in  vertu 
by  all  occasions  .  .  for  being  borne  and  bred  in  pyety,  by 
soe  worthy  Catholick  parents,  she  expresst  great  sentiments 
of  devotion  in  thos  her  younger  years,  but  not  ye  least 
inclination  to  a  Religious  life  ;  but  Allmighty  God  who 
certaynly  had  desighned  her  for  on  of  his  cheefe  magazines 
of  spirituall  ritches,  toucht  her  hart,  with  soe  efficacious 
a  call,  yt  notwithstanding  all  thos  naturall  oppositions 
well  were  many  in  her,  fomented  by  ye  craft  and  malice  of 
our  inuisible  enemy,  yet  she  firmly  resolued  upon  a  Reli- 
gious life  ;  and  with  such  vigor  and  courage  undertooke 
yt  cource,  and  continued  it,  with  soe  much  constancy  and 
zeale  as  was  of  great  example  and  edification  to  all.* 


AT    HOME 

IT  seems  odd  that  the  first  difficulty  encountered 
in  \\Titing  a  memoir  of  Bernard  Vaughan,  should 
have  been  the  discovery  of  his  birth-place. 
Having  alwa3^s  been  under  the  impression  that  he 
was  born  at  Courtfield,  his  family's  old  home,  we 
were  not  indeed  disconcerted  on  finding  that  the 
room  of  his  birth  was  being  shown,  at  a  shilling  a 
head,  in  an  Irish  village.  Few  are  the  beds  in  which 
Queen  Elizabeth  did  not  sleep.  But  it  was  puzzling 
to  find  that  in  the  Jesuit  register  the  record  that  he 

*From  the  Memoir  of  Dame  Clare  VaiiKban,  O.S.B.,  who  eutered, 
in  1056,  the  Benedictine  Monastery  four.ded  at  Boulogne  in  1O52.  The 
Lady  Abbess  was  her  aunt,  and  tlic  Bishop  of  Boulogne  who  professed 
her  was  a  friend  and  disciple  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  and  cousin  to  M. 
Olier.  She  died  November  loUi,  16S3.  Uae  Community  having  moved 
to  Pontoise.  Dame  Clare  was  daughter  of  Richard  Vaughan  and  Bridget 
Wigmore.  The  Memoir  was  written  by  the  Lady  Abbess,  Anne  Ne\-iUe, 
daughter  of  Henry  Lord  Abergaveany,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three. 


2    LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

was  born  at  Courtfield  is  carefully  erased,  and  in 
insula  Jersey  substituted  for  it.  No  enquiry  could 
discover  that  Bernard's  parents  so  much  as  visited 
the  Channel  Islands,  though  a  surmise  that  they 
might  have  done  so  during  one  of  his  father's  re- 
current spells  of  economising  was  advanced.  The 
handwriting  in  which  the  correction  was  made  is 
recognisable,  but  the  writer  has  passed  beyond  the 
reach  of  enquiry,  and  why  he  made  it  is  not  likely 
to  become  known.  Anyhow,  the  Courtfield  chapel 
register  makes  it  clear  that  he  was  born  there  on 
September  20th,  1847,  and  was  baptised  on  the 
22nd  by  the  Rev.  Augustin  Neary,  the  parish  priest 
and  chaplain,  his  godparents  being  "  John  Steinmetz 
and  Elizabeth  de  la  Pasture."  He  was  named 
Bernard  John. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  relate  in  detail  the  history 
of  the  Vaughans  or  even  of  their  house.  That  has 
been  done  by  more  than  one,  and  most  accessibly 
and  adequately  by  Mr  J.  G.  Snead-Cox  in  his  bio- 
graphy of  Cardinal  Herbert  Vaughan,  Bernard's 
eldest  brother.  Bernard  grew  up  with  a  great 
devotion  to  his  family,  it  is  true  ;  but  it  was  not  his 
descent  from  contemporaries  of  King  Arthur  that 
preoccupied  him.  It  was  the  fidelity  of  his  ancestors 
to  the  Catholic  Faith  of  which  he  was  proud  ;  and 
indeed  it  was  not  till  the  early  days  of  Elizabeth 
that  the  Vaughans  settled  at  Court  Field  —  as 
Bernard,  when  a  boy,  still  used  to  write  the  name-i- 
in  the  south-west  corner  of  Herefordshire,  six  miles 
from  Ross. 

Their  record  of  fine,  imprisonment,   and  double 


AT   HOME  3 

land-tax  was  superb.  Of  the  50,000  acres  that  they 
once  possessed,  only  a  fragment  was  saved  for  them. 
The  house  saw  Jesuit-hunts,  and  in  William  of 
Orange's  time,  Richard  Vaughan  was  tied  to  his 
bed-post  while  his  chaplain,  Father  James  Richard- 
son, was  hiding  in  the  lime-kiln.  .  .  .  The  \'aughans 
had  always  been  Royahsts  ;  and  the  time  came  when 
they  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  Hanoverian  alle- 
giance, and  in  the  '45  two  of  them  rode  off  to  Scot- 
land. After  Culloden,  they  had  to  make  for  Spain, 
and  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  strain  of  southern 
blood,  infused  b}'  their  marriages  into  the  family, 
somehow  worked  itself  out  in  the  passion,  if  not  in 
the  effusiveness,  of  their  descendent,  Bernard,  who, 
for  these  characteristics,  seemed  to  many,  who  did 
not  really  know  him,  somewhat  un-Englisli.  The 
son  of  the  elder  of  these  two  brothers,  Richard,  the 
great-grandfather  of  Bernard,  returned  to  England, 
and  found  the  estate  still  his  ov/n  :  but  he  could 
not  live  there,  and  it  was  his  son  wlio  rebuilt  the 
present  house. 

WTiether  or  no  any  of  the  old  house  could  have 
been  saved — it  is  said  that  the  stens  alone  of  its 
lovely  terraced  gardens  would  have  sufficed  to  build 
the  modern  house — cannot  be  now  judged.  At  any 
rate,  it  was  in  this  solid  homo  of  stone  and  plaster 
that  Bernard  was  born.  It  still  lacked  the  Gothic 
chapel  that  now  astonislies  the  Georgian  cubism  of 
the  main  building,  and  Mass  was  said  in  the  room 
that  has  now  been  reconstructed  to  form  the  librar}'. 
But  the  Grecian  pedimented  front,  with  its  flat 
Ionic    pilasters,    is    unchanged,    though    the    semi- 


4    LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

circular  porch,  with  its  frieze  of  wreathed  ox-skulls, 
may  have  been  put  up  in  his  life-time. 

Courtfield  looks  south  and  west  from  a  shelf  in 
a  spur  of  hill  long  enough  to  merit  almost  the  name 
of  a  peninsula,  so  does  the  Wye  sweep  round  it. 
The  hill  has  forced  the  water,  first,  to  turn  back 
upon  itself  and  to  run  north-east,  and  then,  twisted 
once  more  back  round  the  steep  promontory,  to 
hurry  south  and  west.  No  wonder  the  swift  cur- 
rent, flung  thus  violently  to  and  fro,  plays  all  but 
the  tricks  of  the  stream  of  the  Dardanelles,  and 
makes  the  river  dangerous  to  any  save  the  strongest 
swimmers. 

To  left  and  front  of  the  house,  the  deer-park 
drops  quickly  down  to  the  water,  and  many-folded 
hills  rise  steep  once  more  on  the  further  side.  Even 
in  Bernard's  boyhood  these  valleys  were  beginning 
to  recognise  their  modern  values,  and  a  viaduct  was 
built  to  serve  the  Lydbrook  tin  works,  the  smoke 
of  whose  chimneys  can  tell  you,  now,  by  its  direc- 
tion, whether  the  day  will  rain,  or,  by  its  cessation, 
that  the  miners  over  in  Wales  are  on  strike ;  and 
their  copper  coloured  trickle  makes  an  edge  of 
poisonous  slime  along  the  stream.  At  least  the 
southward  valley  did  not  then  present  the  red- 
brick buildings  of  some  cable-works  which  only  the 
summer  trees  suffice  to  screen. 

But  you  can  get  high  enough  to  forget  these  sores 
on  the  country's  face  ;  and  through  fields  with 
gnarled  hawthorn  hedges,  and  woods  misted  with 
April  larches  or  a  pageant  of  beechen  red  and  tawny 
in  the  autumn,  you  can  climb  to  see  five  counties 


AT   HOME  5 

spread  before  you,    with   spires  and   farms  hardly 
different,  from  that  height,  from  their  ancient  selves. 

John  Francis  Vaughan,  grandson  of  the  Richard 
who  returned  from  Spain,  married,  first,  in  1830, 
Eliza,  daughter  of  John  Rolls,  of  The  Hendre,  a 
convert,  and  the  aunt  of  the  first  Lord  Llangattock. 
These  were  the  parents  of  no  less  than  fourteen 
children,  of  whom  Bernard  was  the  eleventh.  Six 
of  his  eight  brothers  became  priests,  and  all  his 
sisters  became  nuns. 

Colonel  Vaughan  was  a  man  whom  his  children 
loved  deeply,  but  whose  own  affection,  though  pro- 
found,   was   undemonstrative,    and   his   quality    of 
strength  was  not  without  its  sternness.     The  Life 
of  his  eldest  son,  Herbert,  offers  a  good  picture  of 
that  home,  to  which,  in  days  when  everything  was 
shut  to  Catholic  gentlemen  save  the  army  and  the 
land,  he  devoted  himself,  at  first,  altogether.     His 
children  were  brought  up  with  that  austerity  which 
our  liimsy  age  derides  or  scientihcally  disapproves. 
He  would  never  allow  them  down  to  dessert,  nor  to 
receive  dainties  that  might  be  sent  up  to  the  nursery 
from  the  dining-room.     They  dined  at  their  parents' 
lunch,  but  even  then  were  given  no  great  libertv. 
Bernard  once  refused  a  dish,  saying  he  didn't  fancv 
it.     "  I  do  not  wish  my  boys."  said  his  father,  "to 
indulge    in    fancies    about    food.     Fancies    are    the 
privilege  of  your  sisters."     And  once,  when  on  the 
contrary  the  boy  displayed  too  great  a  liking  for 
some  dish,  his  father  told  him  that  it  was  a  poor 
thing  to  be  a  slave  to  any  appetite  or  practice.     A 
flash  of  the  future  audacity  on  Bernard's  part — he 

B 


6    LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

reminded  his  father  that  at  the  end  of  dinner  a  large 
snuff-box  was  always  brought  to  him,  and  that  he 
took  from  it  a  "  big  pinch."  Colonel  Vaughan 
remained  silent  for  a  moment,  then  sent  for  the 
box,  and  threw  it  into  the  fire.  "  There  goes  the 
box,"  he  said.  "  And  that  is  the  end  of  that  bit 
of  slavery."  And  I  am  assured  that  once,  when 
Bernard  was  accused  by  a  gardener  of  having  stolen 
fruit,  he  innocently  informed  his  father  that  it  must 
have  been  the  birds.  The  Colonel  was  betrayed 
into  a  rash  allusion  to  "  two-legged  birds,"  and  his 
son  was  not  slow  with  the  suitable  retort.  The 
Colonel  controlled  himself.  .  In  fact,  he  was  always 
a  man  of  deliberate  self-control.  Once,  when  they 
were  out  partridge  shooting,  Herbert's  gun  some- 
how suddenly  went  off  just  as  the  party  were  collect- 
ing for  lunch,  and  the  whole  charge  "  whizzed  past 
his  father's  head."  The  Colonel,  after  one  quick 
glance  around,  said  :  "  Well,  now  let  us  unpack  the 
basket."  No  wonder,  then,  that  he  insisted  on 
practices  which  should  lay  the  foundations  of 
character.  His  boys,  even  when  quite  small,  had 
to  stand  on  chairs  in  the  presence  of  guests,  and 
relate  where  they  had  been  and  what  they  had 
seen  and  done.  Shyness  ranked  as  vanity,  and 
vanity  in  a  boy  was  shameful.  Bernard,  on  one  of 
these  occasions,  displaying  early  symptoms  of  true 
dramatic  sense,  and  totally  possessed,  I  may  say, 
by  the  reality  of  what  he  was  saying,  had  to  relate 
that  he  had  fallen  off  his  pony.  In  his  excitement 
he  now  fell  off  the  chair — but  he  saved  himself  from 
too  much  chaff  by  crying  :    "I  fell  just  like  that !  " 


AT   HOME  7 

These  children,  too,  had  to  sit,  during  catechism 
lessons,  among  the  villagers,  and  the  chaplain  was 
told  to  be  especially  severe  with  them  ;  and,  in 
their  gifts  to  the  "  poor,"  their  father  wished  that 
they  should  show  real  generosity,  and  offer  not 
their  second-best  or  worn-out  toys  alone,  but  what 
they  valued. 

As  for  his  mother,  Lady  Lovat,  now  of  the  Visita- 
tion, Harrow,  tells  me  that  almost  her  earliest 
recollection  of  Bernard,  then  but  a  little  boy,  is 
his  absolute  adoration  for  her  memor\'.  She  was  to 
him  the  very  incarnation  of  motherliness,  of  holiness, 
indeed  of  all  perfection. 

Not  that  the  training  she  gave  was  empt}'  of 
austerity.  "  Sickness,"  she  said,  when  someone 
rebuked  her  for  taking  the  children  to  a  cottage 
where  there  was  fear  of  infection,  "  would  be  a  small 
price  to  pay  for  the  exercise  of  this  Christ-like  privi- 
lege ;  but  God  will  take  care  of  my  children  where 
my  love  fails."  Yet  this  was  in  her  rather  an 
effect  of  her  amazing  love  for  God  and  trust  in  Him, 
than  of  any  severity  of  disposition.  While  she 
tolerated  nothing  that  could  "  spoil  "  her  children, 
her  gentleness  could  be  doubted  by  none.  When 
she  entered  the  nursery,  each  child  raced  to  be  the 
first  to  kiss  her  hand.  She  would  sit  on  the  floor 
among  them,  gi\ing  them  her  crucitix  or  medals 
to  touch,  or  would  put  her  watch  by  their  ears  and 
tell  them  that  life,  like  the  watch,  was  ticking  itself 
out.  Someday  God  would  refrain  from  winding 
up  the  little  beating  hearts,  because  He  wanted 
His  children   to  come  home.     Thev   knelt   around 


8    LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

her  at  their  prayers,  and  then  were  carried  in  her 
arms,  two  together,  into  the  chapel ;  on  feast-days 
they  could  kiss  the  altar-cloth,  or  the  altar  itself. 
The  best  flowers  must  be  for  the  chapel,  not  for 
her  own  room  ;  and  the  nursery  shrines  were  always 
a-flower.  Often  during  the  day,  even  in  lesson- 
time,  she  would  come  into  their  room  and  remind 
them  of  God's  love  and  how  Our  Lord  had  suffered 
for  them  and  must  not  be  grieved  ;  later  in  the  day 
they  had  her  example  among  the  poor,  whose  floors 
she  swept,  and  whose  beds  she  made.  In  the  even- 
ing she  played  her  harp,  or  sang  hymns  or  her  own 
songs,  or  recited  ;  and  she  reminded  her  children 
that  this  was  but  discord  compared  to  the  harmonies 
of  heaven.  And  by  every  trick  they  tried  to  keep 
themselves  awake  till  she  should  have  passed  from 
cot  to  cot,  crossing  the  children's  hands  and  praying 
them  to  sleep. 

Her  own  prayers  followed,  and  they  must  have 
been  such  that  their  power,  surely,  is  not  and  never 
will  be  spent.  While  she  prayed  in  the  chapel,  her 
daughter  Gwladys  used  to  follow  her,  and  was 
amazed  at  the  transformation  of  her  mother's  face. 
She  thought,  at  first,  that  her  mother  must  be 
asleep,  so  calmly  her  eyes  stayed  closed.  Then  one 
day  she  asked  her  why,  when  she  was  praying,  she 
always  became  so  much  prettier.  Mrs.  Vaughan 
just  laughed,  and  said,  looking  to  the  Tabernacle, 
"My  darling,  Jesus  is  there."  Gwladys  kept  goi^g 
back,  after  that,  to  the  chapel,  repeating  to  herself, 
with  her  eyes  on  the  little  door,  "  Jesus  is  there." 
No  wonder  her  life  grew  into  what  it  did.     Mrs. 


AT   HOME  9 

Vaughan,  it  is  said,  recited  the  whole  divine  office 
daily,  and  always  refused  to  ask  for  any  temporal 
favour  for  her  children.  Once,  when  Herbert  begged 
her  to  ask  that  the  day  might  be  fine  for  their 
shooting,  she  smiled,  and  said  that  she  would  pray 
that  every  one  of  her  children  might  serve  God  as 
priest  or  nun.  The  Cardinal,  in  his  austere  old  age, 
never  forgot  that  ;  and  even  those  two  of  her  boys 
who  were  never,  in  fact,  ordained,  tested  their 
vocation  in  seminaries,  though  the}'  found  it  was 
God's  will  that  they  should  practise  and  proclaim 
their  faith  as  laymen. 

Will  it  be  thought,  perhaps,  that  such  a  house- 
hold must  have  been  sicklied  with  a  pallid  cast  of 
piety  ?  No  one  who  has  an}^  knowledge  of  a  Catholic 
home,  or  a  Catholic  noviciate,  should  dream  it. 
Nor  was  it  so  at  all.  No  home  more  happy  ;  more 
full  of  good  merriment.  The  house  must  have  been, 
half  its  time,  in  uproar.  The  **  Vaughan  spirits  " 
were  famous.  In  hare  and  hounds,  in  blind-man's 
buff,  above  all,  in  theatricals,  they  found  their 
outlet.  Not  but  what,  on  due  occasions,  the  very 
theatricals  were  sanctified.  On  the  feast  of  the 
Holy  Innocents,  the  children  used  to  dress  up  in 
the  habits  of  different  religious  orders,  and  "  preach 
each  other  down,"  sa\s  Father  Bernard  \'auc:han. 
"  till  the  result  was  a  sort  of  pandemonium,  ending 
in  clouds  of  incense  and  a  blaze  of  candles  round 
the  school-room  statue,  where  we  made  peace." 

The  human  tragedy-  came  in  1S53,  when  Mrs. 
Vaughan  died.  Soon  after  this.  Colonel  \'aughan 
went  to  the  Crimea,  and  the  famih-  was  settled  at 


10   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Boulogne.  It  was  here  that  Lady  Lovat  first  saw 
the  children.  Her  mother,  Mrs.  Weld-Blundell,  a 
sister  of  Colonel  Vaughan's,  spent  some  time  there 
to  act  as  mother,  so  far  as  might  be  possible,  to  the 
forlorn  children.  After  two  years,  Colonel  Vaughan 
returned,  and  finally  married  as  his  second  wife 
Mary,  daughter  of  Joseph  Weld,  of  Lulworth.  But 
not  at  once  could  be  bring  himself  to  go  back  to 
Courtfield,  and  part  of  the  time  at  least  he  lived 
in  London.* 

Bernard  grew  up  to  boyhood  in  the  atmosphere 
of  vocation.  Unnecessary  to  repeat  the  story  of 
his  eldest  brother's  abdication.  But  Herbert,  who 
for  the  magnificence  of  his  manners,  used  to  be 
known  at  his  school  at  Brugelette  as  Milord  Rosbif, 
even  then  was  finding  himself  drawn  up  to  the  level 
of  the  spirit  and  tone  of  the  place,  which  were 
*'  extraordinarily  high  "  ;  and  the  qualities  of  the 
future  Cardinal,  who  took  for  his  motto,  Amare  et 
Servire,  and  even  at  Stonyhurst  had  held  himself 
to  be  the  "  servus  perpetuus  "  of  Our  Lady,  and  was 
to  be  glad  to  be  called  **  St.  Joseph's  little  slave," 
cannot  have  failed  to  be,  even  imperceptibly,  an 
influence.  The  ecclesiastical  career  of  the  other 
brothers  is  known  ;  but  I  think  that  Bernard's 
affinities  were  with  his  sisters  by  preference.  Mary, 
who  was  by  two  years  his  elder,  was  especially 
devoted  to  him,  and  it  is  sad  that  later  on  he 
destroyed  all  her  letters.  In  1866  she  entered  St. 
Augustine's  Priory,  Newton  Abbot,  taking  the  names 

*It  was  during  this  time  that  Bernard  made  friends  with  Father  F. 
Faber,  and  often  served  his  Mass. 


AT   HOMK  II 

of  Clare  Magdalene  ;   she  died  in  1884,  having  been 
sub-prioress   and   prioress,    despite   grave   illnesses. 
Bernard,  who  was  to  wurk  so  much  exteriorly,  and 
was  ever  to  remind  himself  that  the  external  things 
that  were  his  vocation  had  their   high  value    "  in 
God,"  but  else  were  idle,  could  have  sympathised 
with  her  cry  when  they  congratulated  her  on  having 
put  her  "  heart  "  into  a  piece  of  work — "  My  heart 
in  a  bit  of  work  ?     No  !    my  heart  is  with  Jesus." 
"  But  after  all,"  she  recalled  to  herself,  "  this  work 
was  for  Him."     But  the  sojourn  at  Boulogne  had 
a  more  direct  effect  in  the  eldest  sister,  Gwladys,  for, 
desirous  of  joining  the  Visitation,  she  shrank  from 
entering  the  convent  at  Westbury,  where  three  of 
her    aunts   had   already    entered,    lest    the    family 
connection,  so  to  say,  might  win  her  priN-ileges,  and 
in    1856   returned   to    the   Visitation   convent    she 
already  knew  and  loved  on  the  heights  above  Bou- 
logne.    "  God  is  worth   more   than  all  this,"   she 
cried   at   the   heart-breaking   moment    of   farewell. 
Not  at  once  could  she  learn  to  become  "  the  Lily  of 
Christ,"  as  they  ended  by  calling  her.     She  had  a 
brilliant  gift  of  satire — inherited — who  would  have 
guessed   it  ? — from   her   mother,   herself  an  expert 
caricaturist  till  she  renounced  this  dangerous  amuse- 
ment.    And  she  used  to  laugh  at  the  novices  who 
loved  the  minuti^  of  piety.     "  I  wanted  something 
grander."     She  died  a  few  years  before  her  sister 
Mary.     But  I  suppose  that  the  sister  who  has  caused 
the  fragrance  of  uncanonised  holiness  to  float  widest 
through  the  Church  was  Clare,  born  in  1843.     This 
child,   with  her  southern  mingling  of  passion  and 


12   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

indolence,  who  had  hated  the  middle-class  proprieties 
of  Boulogne,  entered  the  convent  of  Poor  Clares  at 
Amiens  in  April,  1861.  The  action  seemed  insane. 
How  should  a  girl,  so  weak  that  even  in  that  rigorous 
home  she  had  been  dispensed  from  the  Friday 
abstinence,  support  the  Franciscan  fasts  ?  It 
remains  that  she  did  so  ;  the  Poor  Clares  ate  no 
food  till  mid-day,  and  then  only  vegetables,  and 
nothing  else  save  bread  and  beer  at  6  p.m.  They 
rose  for  Matins  at  11-30  p.m.,  and  their  worship 
lasted  till  3  a.m.,  and  their  second  rising  was  at 
5-30  a.m.  Insufficient  was  all  this  to  allay  the 
child's  thirst  for  suffering — she  entered  when  not 
yet  twenty — and  she  went  from  holiness  to  holiness 
till  her  exquisite  and  most  peaceful  death. 

By  a  happy  chance,  a  little  note,  by  Bernard 
himself,  survives  to  throw  a  flash  of  light  upon  the 
family  life  led  by  the  brothers  and  sisters  in  London 
during  this  time.     I  quote  it  almost  in  full  : 

My  remaining  sisters  felt  the  loss  of  Gwladys  most 
terribly.  She  was  so  clever,  so  amusing  and  so  sympathetic 
that  the  wrench  seemed  almost  more  than  they  could  bear. 
About  this  time,  Herbert  used  to  ride  up  to  London  from 
Old  Hall  and  exhort  and  encourage  us  to  undertake  works 
of  piety  and  charity  such  as  our  Mother  practised.  He 
stimulated  our  desire  of  doing  good  among  the  poor,  but 
alas  !  all  effort  to  carry  into  execution  any  scheme  was 
frustrated  by  a  governess  who  practically  ruled  the  house 
with  a  rod  of  iron.  She  was  as  good  as  she  was  rigid. 
Her  name  was  Pole,  and  of  course  she  went  by  the  name 
of  the  North  Pole.  She  thawed  partly  under  a  talk  frorrf 
Herbert,  who  protested  that,  at  any  rate,  we  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  visit  some  poor  school,  and  he  made  arrange- 
ments with  Father  Zanetti,  S.J.,  who  had  been  his  master 


AT   HOME  13 

at  Stonyhurst,  to  let  us  visit  and  give  clothes  and  enter- 
tainments to  the  Jesuit  poor  school  children  at  Westminster. 

In  those  dehghtful  visits  I  remember  how  my  sisters 
always  selected  the  poorest  and  least  favoured  children 
to  be  the  recipients  of  their  special  attention.  I  remember, 
too,  what  their  answer  was  to  the  teachers  who  suggested 
that  there  were  nicer  children  on  whom  to  lavish  their 
gifts  and  affection.  Herbert  told  us  their  reply  was  that 
it  was  far  better  always  to  make  the  most  of  the  poorest 
and  dirtiest  children  for  then  it  would  be  easier  to  discover 
whether  we  were  working  for  ourselves  or  for  Our  Lord. 

Encouraged  by  their  successes  in  Westminster,  my  three 
sisters,  Teresa,  Clare  and  Mar>-,  who  one  after  the  other 
became  a  Sister  of  Charity,  a  Poor  Clare,  and  a  Canoness 
of  St.  Augustine,  conceived  a  plan  of  gratifying  their  desire 
still  further  to  help  the  poor,  while  eluding  the  vigilance 
of  our  keen-e\-ed  governess.  About  eleven  o'clock  at  night, 
when  all  the  house  was  quiet,  they  would  get  up  and  dressing 
themselves  in  poof^  clothes  would  stalk  their  way  to  the 
front  door,  sallying  forth  heavily  laden  with  food-stuff 
and  other  things  for  the  sick  and  needy.  These  expeditions 
took  place  once  or  t\nce  a  week  during  a  long  winter,  and 
with  good  reason  do  I  still  bear  them  in  mind,  because 
the  part  allotted  to  me  was  deadly  dull.  It  was  my  business 
to  keep  awake  b}'  walking  up  and  down  the  cold  hall,  with 
half  a  dozen  socks  for  foot-wear  so  as  to  soften  my  tread, 
till  it  was  their  pleasure  to  return  home.  I  had  to  listen 
for  their  gentle  tap  at  the  door,  and  often  enough  it  was 
nearly  one  in  the  morning  before  they  put  in  an  appearance. 
They  could  not  always  get  back  just  when  they  wanted, 
for  the  movements  of  the  policeman  on  his  beat  had  to  be 
watched  and  the  passers-by  had  to  be  eluded.  While 
they  were  away  I  was  supposed  to  say  the  rosarj'  for  a 
blessing  on  their  work  and  to  encourage  me  to  keep  to 
my  post.  Herbert  was  quoted  as  saying  we  might  take  it 
as  a  general  rule  that  work  was  blessed  in  the  measure  in 
which  it  was  disagreeable  ;  and  they  reminded  me  of 
Father's  saying  that  it  was  not  when  sitting  his  charger 
at  a  review  but  in  standing  in  the  trenches  under  fire  that 
a  soldier  proved  his  worth.     It  was  hard  enough  ha\'ing 


14   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

to  get  up  in  the  middle  of  the  night  and  pace  a  dark  hall 
for  two  hours,  but  it  was  harder  still  having  to  get  up 
again  in  the  morning  and  be  at  the  Oratory  for  seven  o'clock 
Mass.  But  there  was  no  shirking  duty  :  it  had  to  be  done. 
To  meet  the  expenses  which  these  expeditions  entailed, 
nearly  everything  my  sisters  possessed  worth  having  was 
pawned  or  sold  through  the  good  services  of  a  footman 
who  had  been  with  us  for  a  long  tim.e,  and  had  become  a 
devout  convert.  Of  course  my  sisters  were  often  imposed 
upon,  but  they  only  laughed  when  taken  in,  exclaiming, 
"  Anyhow,  our  Blessed  Lord  never  told  us  to  give  to  what 
is  called  the  deserving  poor  only."  They  abhorred  the 
qualifying  adjective  deserving. 


II 

AT  SCHOOL 

AS  for  Bernard  himself,  he  went  to  school  at 
Stonyhiirst,  arriving  there  on  the  curious 
date,  June  2ist,  1859.  Why  any  boy  should 
time  his  arrival  for  the  middle  of  the  summer  term, 
remains  a  problem. 

Many  traditions  bound  him  to  the  place.  He  was 
a  great-grandson  of  the  Thomas  Weld  who  gave 
Stonyhurst  to  the  "  Gentlemen  from  Liege  "  as  the 
Jesuit  exiles  and  their  students  were  then  called, 
for  Teresa  Weld,  his  daughter,  married  William 
Vaughan  in  1803.  Both  Bernard's  grandfather  and 
father  had  been  at  Stonyhurst,  and  Herbert  had 
spent  the  years  from  1841  to  1847  there.  The  late 
Fr.  Charnley,  then  a  master  at  Stonyhurst,  related 
that  on  meeting  the  new  boy  for  the  first  time,  he 
asked  his  name.  "  My  name  is  Bernard  Vaughan," 
was  the  answer  ;  "  and  I  am  going  to  be  a  Jesuit." 
Some  of  the  following  details  arc  taken  from  the 
Stonyhurst  Magazine. 

Bernard,  who  was  not  quite  twelve  yet,  went  for 
a  short  time  to  the  preparatory  school,  Hodder 
House,  but  in  September,  i860,  began  in  the  class 
of  "  Figures  "  at  the  College  itself,  under  the  rector- 
ship of  Fr.  Clough.  This  class,  a  large  one  of  some 
forty  boys,  was  held  in  what  is  now  called  the  Bayley 
Room  :    his  master  then  and  for  the  next  few  years 


i6   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

(for  masters  in  those  days  took  their  classes  up 

almost  through  the  entire  school)   was  Fr.    (then 

Mr.)    John    Kartell.       Fr.    Joseph    Johnson    soon 

succeeded  Fr.  Clough  as  rector,  and  on  April  25th, 

1862,  wrote  to  Colonel  Vaughan  that : 

Bernard  is  a  very  good  child.  He  is  very  desirous  of 
advancing  in  his  studies.  His  Superiors  without  exception 
speak  very  creditably  of  him.  He  seems  to  take  great 
pleasure  in  doing  any  little  work  about  the  altar,  and 
I  need  not  say  that  he  is  very  neat  in  all  that  he  undertakes. 

The  reports  remained  good,  but  the  boy  had  a 
sufficiency  of  liveliness  and  was  popular.  He  cer- 
tainly did  not  shine  in  studies,  but  while  on  the  one 
hand  we  find  no  evidence  to  endorse  the  verdict  of 
a  friend  of  his,  that  he  was  the  "  dunce  of  the  school," 
we  feel  it  hard,  too,  to  believe  in  the  adjective 
"  plodding,"  that  has  been  applied  to  him.  At  least, 
it  is  agreed  that  he  showed  no  symptom  of  future 
notoriety  unless  it  were  a  notable  aplomb,  of  which 
the  boyhood  of  Fr.  Plater  reminds  us. 

"  He  was  often  out  of  bounds,"  a  contemporary  has 
written,  "  and  generally  without  unpleasant  consequences. 
Once  the  Provincial,  coming  from  the  infirmary  for  dinner, 
met  Bernard  carrying  away  a  roast  hare,  secured  outside 
the  Community  refectory.  The  Provincial,  deceived  by 
the  boldness  of  the  marauder,  passed  on  ;  the  hare  did  not 
return. 

Protests  have  been  entered  against  a  statement 
that  he  "  plagued  his  masters  to  distraction."  It  is 
true  that  another  contemporary  writes  that  *'  for 
one  thing  he  was  notorious — always  talking,  andl' 
more  or  less,  apparently,  in  communication  with 
all  parts  of  the  house,  with  items  to  match."     And 


AT  SCHOOL  17 

Fr.  Thurston  has  also  said  that  "  he  was  a  centre 
of  mischief  wherever  he  went,  mimicking  with  an 
air  of  supreme  innocence  the  most  august  authorities 
to  their  faces,  but  yet  somehow,  inoffensively,  and 
without  a  particle  of  malice." 

I  take  it  that  there  was  a  geniality  about  Bernard 
Vaughan  which  enabled  his  superiors  to  give  him 
plenty  of  rope.  One  thing  has  never  been  said  of 
him — that  he  sulked  ;  and  another  will  never  be 
suggested — that  in  his  words  he  tried  to  hurt  his 
fellow.  Much  can  be  allowed  to  such  characters. 
Besides,  it  seems  certain  that  in  those  more  spacious 
and  unexamined  days,  a  school  like  Stonyhurst  had 
at  times  the  air  less  of  a  barracks  than  of  a  country 
house.  Even,  it  could  assume  the  appearance  of  a 
family  party.  It  was  full  of  boys  who  were  some 
sort  of  cousin  to  one  another — Maxwells,  Vavasours, 
Welds,  W'eld-Blundells,  Cliffords,  Tempests,  Vau- 
ghans,  Stourtons,  de  Traffords,  and  on  Sundays  it 
was  the  custom  for  relatives  to  walk  together.  On 
these  occasions  he  made  one  of  a  great  clan,  which 
patrolled  the  playground  in  a  mass. 

What  is  perhaps  unexpected  is  that  he  showed 
no  sign  of  oratorical  eminence — or  indeed  of  eminence 
of  any  sort.  It  is  true  that  his  school-fellow,  Fr. 
Herman  Walmesley,  recalls  that  quite  early  in  his 
Stonyhurst  career  Bernard  competed  lor  the  Speak- 
ing Prize,  and  standing  "  bolt  upright  with  that  firm 
expression  of  mouth  and  Vip  so  well  known  later  on," 
recited  "  Casablanca  in  a  loud  and  musical  voice." 
But  we  are  not  told  that  he  succeeded  in  winniner 
the  prize.     In  fact,  another  school-fellow  of  his  has 


i8   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

written  that  while  "  he  spoke  prologues  pretty  well 
(that  is,  presumably,  on  the  "  Academy  Days,"  or 
Class  Speech-days),  he  was  a  failure  on  the  stage  "  ; 
and  another  :  "  Not  merely  was  he  inconspicuous 
in  studies,  but  not  even  in  elocution,  nor  in  the 
Christmas  acting  did  he  appear  ;  perhaps  in  Syntax 
(the  top  class  but  two)  he  did  not  compete  to  get  a 
place  in  that  coveted  body  of  Christmas  actors. 
It  was  only  in  Rhetoric  (the  top  form)  that  a  usual 
compliment  was  paid  to  him,  that  of  admitting  into 
the  actors'  company  some  venerable  Rhetorician 
who  had  never  got  in  yet." 

None  the  less,  it  is  recorded  that  he  took  part  in 
several  of  the  plays  that  were  more  frequent  at 
Stonyhurst  in  those  days  than  they  are  now.  In 
1864,  at  Christmas,  he  played  "  Daubenton,"  the 
magistrate,  in  The  Lyons  Mail,  and  "  Malcolm  "  in 
Macbeth,  and  also  a  prominent  part  in  a  farce.  The 
next  year,  he  acted  in  Speed  the  Plough  as  "  Sir  Abel 
Handy,"  took  the  part  of  "  Box  "  in  Box  and  Cox, 
and  of  "  The  Prince  of  Wales  "  in  Henry  IV,  Part  I. 
In  this  he  is  said  to  have  scored  a  triumph,  and  again 
at  the  "  Grand  Academies  "  of  1864,  when  he  recited 
Satan's  soliloquy  from  Paradise  Lost.  He  also  acted 
in  the  holidays  in  little  plays  composed  by  Cardinal 
Wiseman,  at  the  London  home  of  his  friends,  the 
Zulueta's.  Fr.  F.  de  Zulueta  tells  me  that  his  sister, 
Mme.  Merry  del  Val,  recalls  how,  many  years  later, 
Bernard,  then  a  priest,  entered  the  room  elocuting 
lines  from  his  old  part,  never  forgotten.  Cardinal 
Wiseman  was  very  fond  of  Bernard,  and  once,  on 
arriving  at  Ross,  cried  to  Herbert  Vaughan,  who  was 


AT  SCHOOL  19 

meeting  him  :  "1  have  a  present  for  you  !  "  and 
revealed  from  beneath  his  great  Roman  cloak  the 
tinv  Bernard,  whom  he  had  brought  unexpectedly 
from  Stonylmrst. 

As  for  games,  he  attained  no  great  proficiency  in 
them,  though  he  played  cricket  creditably. 

His  piety  was  genuine  and  had,  even  in  church, 
something  uf  the  largeness  that  he  loved — when 
he  swung  the  thurible  he  always  gave  it  the  full 
length  of  its  chain,  a  feat  that  demands  some  skill, 
especially  when  the  thurifer  is  kneeling  down.  His 
devotion  to  Our  Lady  was  marked,  and  he  com- 
mented on  the  identity  of  his  initials  with  those  of 
her  best  title. 

None  the  less,  some  of  the  qualities  which  are 
fostered  by  games  were  certainly  his.  It  is  regret- 
table that  I  cannot  make  sure  of  the  date  of  the 
following  little  incident,  but  Fr.  Herman  W'almesley, 
who  relates  it,  thinks  that  it  quite  likely  happened 
when  Bernard  was  at  school.  A  fire  broke  out  in 
one  of  the  rooms  over  the  front  entrance  to  the 
College.  The  alarm  was  at  once  given,  but  ap- 
pliances in  those  days  were  poor.  Bernard  ran  off 
at  once  to  the  back  yard  of  the  College — no  short 
distance — mobilised  the  entire  staff  of  laundry  maids, 
arranged  them  in  single  file,  and  had  buckets  of  water 
passed  along  till  the  hre  was  put  out.  Another 
incident — the  following  seems  its  true  version — 
showed  not  so  much  his  presence  of  mind,  as  the 
aplomb  I  have  already  mentioned.  In  July,  1S66, 
Cardinal  Manning  and  Cardinal  Reisach,  then  Cardi- 
nal-Prefect   of     Propaganda,     visited    Stonylmrst. 


20   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Bernard  Vaughan,  who  had  left  Stonyhurst  scarcely 
a  month  before  (June  20th,  1866)  astounded  the 
College  by  rolling  up  to  it  in  the  Cardinalitial  retinue, 
and  resumed  for  the  occasion  his  office  of  thurifer.* 
Possibly  his  character,  with  its  lights  and  shades, 
stands  out  best  in  a  letter  to  his  father  written  on 
March  19th,  1866.     I  quote  it  almost  in  full : 

My  Dearest  Father — There  has  been  so  much  work  to 
be  done  of  late  in  preparing  for  examinations,  that  I  have 
not  been  able  to  answer  your  last  till  now. 

The  examinations  on  the  whole  have  been  successful,  but 
there  is  so  much  matter  to  be  mastered  in  Rhetoric  that 
there  is  not  sufficient  time  to  bestow  on  the  different  branches 
of  study,  so  that  those  in  which  I  find  most  difficulty  are 
not  thoroughly  learnt.  However,  I  make  use  of  every 
available  moment  for  study,  and  generally  remain  up  till 
ten,  which  gives  me  a  couple  of  extra  hours  for  application. 

I  am  certain  of  taking  one  prize  this  year,  and  rather 
expect  two  or  three.     [Did  he  win  even  one  ?     I  doubt  it.] 

There  is  a  prize  given  for  Religious  Essays,  and  examina- 
tions in  the  same,  and  so  far,  it  is  rather  a  stiff  contest 
between  me  and  G.  Clifford,  a  school-fellow  of  mine,  the 
son  of  Sir  Charles,  a  very  clever  fellow  always  heading  the 
class  and  has  each  year  carried  off  all  the  litterary  [sic]  prizes, 
as  success  always  attends  him  in  that  line 

I  was  sorry  to  learn  by  your  letter,  that  you  had  been 
troubled  with  small  bills  incurred  by  my  prodigality.  I  fear 
that  I  must  plead  guilty  to  some  of  them,  but  certainly  not 
to  Warner's  if  he  sent  in  his  bill  for  unpaid  photographs 
taken  of  me,  for  it  was  three  years  since  I  was  taken  by 
him,  and  what  is  more  I  have  the  most  distinct  and  vivid 
recollection  of  handing  over  to  him  damages  to  the  extent 
of  7s.  I  think  or  thereabouts.  The  expenses  incurred  from 
other  vendors  I  should  have  paid,  had  they  forwarded  me 
their  accounts  as  I  enjoined  them — I  am  very  sorry  ±0 
have  put  you  to  so  much  inconvenience  on  my  account, 

*It  is  by  error  that  Bernard  is  stated,  in  a  printed  notice,  to  have  left 
in  1865. 


AT   SCHOOL  21 

and  it  shall  be  f)ositively  the  last  time  such  a  thing  shall 
happen. 

You  kindly  promised  to  send  me  a  £i  some  time  or 
other,  but  it  would  be  a  greater  satisfaction  to  me,  if  you 
desist  from  your  purpose,  in  order  that  by  that  means  I  may 
be  conscious  of  having  in  some  way  defrayed  my  own 
expenses. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  find  that  you  take  so 
acceptable  and  favourable  view  of  my  future  prospects. 

I  am  fully  aware  of  the  many  obstacles  I  shall  have  to 
surmount  before  being  consigned  to  my  new  home,  as  also 
the  prodigious  trial  of  abdicating  my  free  will,  and  leaving 
my  best  and  most  beloved  Father,  of  bidding  adieu  to 
Mary  and  all  my  belongings  to  whom  I  feel  unmitigated 
attachment,  but  I  feel  so  certain  that  I  am  called  to  em- 
brace this  great  state  of  life,  that  nothing  can  debar  me 
from  entering  upon  it  with  generosity  and  great  zeal. 

Even  as  I  write  these  lines  I  can  scarce  help  giving  way 
to  my  feelings  when  I  picture  myself  having  to  leave  you 
perhaps  for  good  and  all,  but  with  the  help  of  God's  grace 
one  can  achieve  wonders,  and  on  it  are  based  all  my 
hopes. 

[He  then  begs  his  father  to  come  to  Stonyhurst  for  a  visit, 
and  promises  him  that  if  he  should  choose  to  make  a  retreat 
there  it  should  be  given  him  by  Fr.  Clare,  his  own  confessor, 
whom  he  describes  as  a  "  grand  spiritualist  "  and  the 
"  first  Mission  and  retreat  giver  they  have."  I  should  not 
be  surprised  if  this  rhetorical  preacher  exercised  a  consider- 
able influence  upon  Bernard's  development.] 

He  concludes — Uncle  Richard  [a  Jesuit  at  Stonyhurst] 
is  flourishing.  He  far  prefers  having  no  seat  in  the  Ministr\* 
in  fact  he  is  waxing  quite  robust  and  corpulent  at  his  new- 
post.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  Frank  is  doing  so  well 
at  Pau  and  making  progress  in  all  the  requisites  of  man- 
hood. I  expect  that  he  will  appear  with  a  formidable  pair 
of  whiskers — not  a  Newgate  frill  hke  Uncle  Richard's. 

In  his  holidays  he  had  not  shown  the  tastes  of 
his  brothers.  The  only  sur\'ivor  of  these,  the  present 
Bishop  of  Sebastopolis,  wxites  to  me  that  Bernard 

c 


22   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

took  very  little  interest  in  country  sports  and  pas- 
times, and  seldom  if  ever  joined  him  and  his  brother 
Reginald  in  the  fishing,  shooting,  ferreting,  riding, 
boating  and  bathing  which  made  their  delight. 
He  preferred  to  visit  his  cousins  at  The  Hendre,  or 
going  to  Llanarth  where  the  Herberts  lived,  or  to 
Ross  or  Monmouth,  where  he  called  on  the  priests 
of  those  parishes.  On  the  other  hand,  he  loved  to 
appear  at  the  concerts  and  theatricals  which  were 
got  up  to  entertain  the  servants  or  tenants,  and  in 
the  country  houses  round.  Bishop  John  Vaughan 
went  straight  from  Downside  to  Monte  Cassino,  and 
never  saw  Bernard  again  till  the  young  Jesuit  served 
his  brother's  First  Mass  in  1876.  Whether  or  no 
this  distaste  for  the  outdoor  sports  in  which  his 
brothers  so  markedly  took  pleasure,  was  what  earned 
him  the  nickname  of  his  youth,  "  Betty  Vaughan," 
I  cannot  now  judge.  However,  I  learn  from  the 
Tuam  Herald  that  Bernard  went  often  with  his 
father  to  Achill  in  the  west  of  Ireland  and  used 
thoroughly  to  enjoy  the  peaceful  country  life  there. 
The  Vaughans  owned  property  in  County  Mayo, 
and  were  on  the  happiest  of  terms  with  their  people, 
and  to  the  Mulleranny  Hotel  there  Fr.  Bernard 
Vaughan  returned  long  afterwards  when  he  went  to 
preach  at  the  opening  of  a  new  church  at  Castlebar, 
and  found  that  he  was  not  forgotten.  At  least  in 
Ireland  a  taste  for  sport  seems  to  have  been  aroused 
in  him.  From  an  undated  letter  addressed  "  Kyle- 
more,"  I  can  quote  :  ' 

....  I  never  was  in  such  a  lovely  place  before  this 
It  is  to  my  mind  quite  perfect.     The  house  situate  on  the 


AT   SCHOOL  23 

side  of  a  great  mountain  which  is  covered  with  timber, 
and  the  lake  is  stretched  in  front  of  the  house,  so  that  one 
can  get  a  salmon  at  any  time.  ...  I  am  out  the  whole 
live  long  day  sometimes  on  the  Bay  kilhng  great  number 
of  wild  fowl.  I  killed  five  golden  plover  with  a  single 
cartridge  one  day.  I  shall  not  be  able  to  have  any  shooting 
in  England  so  I  think  it  wise  to  have  a  little  here  where 
all  manner  of  game  are  to  be  found. 

When  he  left  Stonyhurst,  he  put  in  some  months 
of  deliberate  enjoyment  before  entering  the  novi- 
ciate according  to  his  plan.  The  Duke  of  Beaufort, 
who  lived  not  far  off,  at  Troy  House,  was  so  pleased 
with  Bernard's  enchanting  manners,  that  he  offered 
Colonel  Vaughan  to  get  the  boy  into  a  really  good 
regiment,  should  he  choose  to  enter  the  army.  But 
Bernard  was  later  on  to  say  that  he  had  definitely 
]iut  his  money  on  the  noiy  and  not  on  the  rouge. 
Hunting,  as  well  as  the  theatricals,  was  made  possible 
for  him  by  his  kinsfolk,  the  Rolls,  and  the  young 
man  was  everywhere  feted,  I  think  from  the  convic- 
tion that  he  ought  to  see  a  little  more  of  the  world 
before  eclipsing  himself  for  so  many  years.  It  is 
strange  to  reflect  that  Bernard,  having  danced  one 
night  till  four  at  Troy  House,  never  returned  there 
until,  as  a  London  priest,  he  went  down  to  welcome 
some  French  exiled  nuns  who  had  bought  it.  And 
it  was  at  a  dance  that  he  suddenly  told  his  partner 
he  was  going  to  be  a  priest.  *'  You  ?  "  she  ex- 
claimed. "  You,  who  love  the  world  and  dancing 
so  much  ?  "  "It  is  because  I  love  it  so  much," 
he  is  said  to  have  replied,  "  that  I  am  leaving  it." 
The  answer  made  a  deep  and  enduring  impression. 

As  the  autumn  advanced,  he  made  a  sort  of  tour 


24   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

in  order  to  bid  good-bye  to  those  of  his  sisters  who 
had  entered  convents.  Just  before  starting  for  this 
tour,  he  wrote  to  his  step-mother  :  *'  How  about 
my  gun  ?  I  must  sell  it,  because  I  must  have  a 
watch  at  Manresa,  Now  I  can't  get  this  watch 
without  the  wherewithal." 

Curious  sidelight  on  this  extravagant  young  man. 
He  had  no  watch  .  .  .  and  no  one  was  prepared  to 
give  him  one.  Had  he  always  done  without  one  ? 
Had  he  so  often  lost  his  that  a  parental  gift  was  no 
more  to  be  hoped  for  ?  Had  he — ^well — pawned  it, 
so  that  the  preliminary  explanations  dared  not  be 
offered  ?  Insoluble  mystery.  It  remains  that  this 
youth  who  danced  till  four  with  duchesses  had  to 
sell  his  gun  to  get  the  watch  which,  I  may  add,  he 
would  not  have  been  allowed  to  keep,  or  at  anyrate 
to  use,  in  his  noviciate. 

He  went  first  to  Newton  Abbot,  where  his  sister 
Mary  was  an  Augustinian  Canoness,  and  found  her, 
he  writes,  "happiness  itself,  as  gentle  and  pretty 
as  ever — she  seems  the  life  and  soul  of  the  Com- 
munity and  the  Nuns  are  devoted  to  her.  She  has 
no  headaches  or  pains  in  the  back,  which  formerly 
used  so  to  worry  her."  He  added  that  he  proposed 
to  leave  for  Boulogne  on  the  next  day  or  the  day 
after,  as  "  I  have  heard  from  Fr.  Weld  who  says 
I  may  enter  my  Noviceship  any  time  next  month 
[this  was  November  27th,  1866],  now  that  he  is 
satisfied  Our  Lord  has  given  me  the  offer  of  th 
Religious  life,  etc.  What  a  happiness  when  I  shal 
be  firmly  settled  down  at  Manresa.  I  look  forward 
with  great  longings." 


.1 


AT   SCHOOL  25 

He  shared  his  sister's  vigil  before  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  that  night  from  nine  to  eleven  o'clock, 
and  thus  bade  her  farewell  in  the  inseparable 
Presence.  He  postponed  his  crossing  for  a  day  or 
two,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  written  "  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Thames  "  on  December  5th,  when  he 
was  returning.  He  had  visited  the  Jesuit  Provincial 
and  Fr.  Clare  at  Hill  Street,  where  they  had,  at 
that  time,  their  London  head-quarters,  and  then 
sailed  for  Boulogne  where  he  stayed  with  the  Cliffords 
and  saw  his  sister  Gwladys  for  several  hours,  he  says, 
each  day.  Thence  he  went  to  Paris  where  he  "  saw 
everything  and  many  friends."  He  only  spent 
twenty-four  hours  there,  however,  and  the  "  every- 
thing "  seems  to.  have  consisted  mainl}-  of  churches, 
from  one  of  which  to  the  other  he  "  rushed."  He 
also  met  and  somehow  "  spent  some  hours  "  with 
the  "  celebrated  Fr.  Marie  Ratisbonne  who  was 
converted  by  a  vision  from  Our  Lady.  He  is  a 
remarkably  clever  kind  man. — Yesterday,  \\'ednes- 
day,  I  spent  with  the  Bishop  of  Amiens  who  nearly 
cried  when  he  saw  me,  so  strong  is  his  affection  for 
Clare."  The  Bishop  took  him  to  see  Fr.  Felix,  a 
very  famous  Jesuit  preacher  of  the  time,  with  whom 
he  spent  an  hour  or  two,  and  then  visited  the  French 
Jesuit  Provincial,  "  a  most  sanctified  mortified  man." 

Of  course  we  went  to  the  Poor  Clares  who  are  so  wonder- 
fully poor  and  yet  so  rich.  The  Poor  Clares  kept  the  grating 
open  the  whole  time  so  that  I  saw  the  whole  Community 
and  the  place  where  Clare  prayed  so  fer\TntIy.  The  Mother 
Abbess  told  me  that  Clare  used  to  stand  on  a  chair  so  as  to 
be  nearer  Heaven.  .  .  .  To-day  or  to-morrow  I  go  to 
Roehampton — I  am  d\-ing  to  be  there. 


26   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

On  December  9th  he  does  in  fact  write  from 
Manresa  House  : 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  I  arrived  here  in  due  time 
to  keep  the  festa  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  and  though 
somewhat  depressed  in  spirits  yet  am  quite  thoroughly 
happy.  Certainly  it  is  very  hard  to  give  up  one's  relatives 
and  friends  and  bid  adieu  to  the  world  and  its  pleasures, 
and  yet  considering  for  whom  it  is  done,  how  very  little 
it  is  ! 

Now  that  I  am  about  to  become  a  Religious,  I  am  deter- 
mined to  fight  tooth  and  nail,  hand  and  foot,  to  crush  every 
trial  and  surmount  every  difficulty  for  the  love  of  the  Sacred 
Heart  of  our  great  and  noble  Master,  Christ  Jesus.  And 
what  example  have  I  before  me  in  my  eight  brothers  and 
sisters  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  religion  to  urge 
and  cheer  me  on.  Now  beloved  Father  pray  that  I  may 
have  great  generosity,  a  large  big  heart  and  that  all  its 
love  may  tend  to  one  aim,  a  greater  love  of  Our  Lord  and 
His  holy  will.  As  yet  I  am  but  a  postulant  but  in  a  day 
or  so  I  commence  my  retreat  and  a  few  days  after  I  hope 
to  take  the  habit  and  keep  it  for  ever.  I  am  so  fearful 
they  wiU  turn  me  away  ;  unless  I  am  ordered  away,  I  shall 
never  leave  but  will  fight  to  the  last.  .  .  .  Love  to  darling 
Mary  and  believe  me  my  own  darling  Father  your  beloved 
and  ever  devoted  affectionate  son,  Bernard  J.  Vaughan, 
in  a  few  days,  S.J. 


Ill 

FIRST   YEARS   AS   A   JESUIT 

WITH  Bernard  Vaughan's  entry  into  the  novi- 
ciate a  period  of  eclipse  begins,  in  which  the 
darkness  is  but  the  more  complete  because 
of  the  few  starry  ghmmcrs  we  discern. 

As  for  the  noviciate  itself,  we  are  told  that  he  was 
cheerful  and  observed  the  rules  :  that  is  all.  A  ver^- 
few  letters,  colourless  on  the  whole,  survive  ;  I  quote 
from  one  of  them,  written  to  his  step-mother,  whom 
he  called  by  her  Christian  name,  Mary,  and  who,  at 
the  advice  of  Fr.  Clare,  had  refrained  from  visiting 
him  at  Manrcsa  : 

Though  I  did  not  accept  the  dispensation  without  a 
certain  pang,  yet  when  you  continued  to  say  Fr.  Clare  was 
the  cause  of  your  not  coming  on  here  I  took  it  for  granted 
that  it  was  the  best  thing  for  both  parties  and  no  doubt 
it  would  have  done  me  no  good  and  our  meeting  would 
have  been  all  over  by  this.  I  doubt  not  but  your  Angel 
Guardian  or  some  other  blessed  inhabitant  of  Heaven 
prompted  you  to  go  and  see  Fr.  Clare  and  thus  it  has  turned 
out — a  little  cross  for  us  both,  a  fine  pill  for  one  to  swallow 
for  which  I  was  prepared  by  my  most  glorious  Retreat. 
.  .  .  This  life  is  most  happy  most  blessed  and  rendered 
more  so  by  the  continual  little  trials  we  are  called  uf>on  to 
make  for  the  love  of  the  Sacred  Heart.  Though  repugnant 
at  times  to  flesh  and  blood,  yd  most  sweet  and  savour\' 
to  the  spirit.  The  Novices  are  all  most  perfect,  so  exem- 
plary, while  as  you  know  full  well  the  reverse  is  depicted 
in  grand  relief  in  me — always  wild,  never  with  that  recollec- 
tion which  I  should  have.  Pray  then,  fond  Mar\',  for  me 
that  I  mav  be  more  assiduous  in  this  noble  work. 


28   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Later  on  he  says  that  he  is  "  flourishing,  too  great 
a  flow  of  spirits,  though  even  now  I  feel  rather  like 
flat  porter,  and  am  very  sober  for  a  Vaughan — ^in 
fact,  I  feel  marvellously  subdued  and  often  wonder 
within  myself  how  such  soberness  could  have  been 
brought  about." 

After  the  due  two  years,  during  which  his  high 
spirits  are  said  to  have  helped  "  many  "  to  perse- 
vere, he  took  his  own  vows  and  went  straight  to 
St.  Mary's  Hall  at  Stonyhurst,  to  study  philosophy. 
He  did  this  for  three  years,  1868  to  1871,  under  Fr. 
E.  I.  Purbrick  as  Superior.  Thence  he  passed  back 
to  the  College,  where  he  was  made  Assistant-Prefect 
of  Philosophers,  again  under  Fr.  Purbrick  as  Rector, 
and  with  Fr.  William  Eyre  for  immediate  superior. 
Lest  it  should  be  supposed  that  Bernard  Vaughan, 
during  this  time,  was  engaged  in  teaching  abstract 
thought,  I  will  recall  that  the  name  "  philosophers  " 
was  given  to  such  young  men  as  desired  to  get  some 
sort  of  after-school  education  but  were  still  precluded 
from  entering  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  It  is  true  that 
a  certain  dose  of  scholastic  philosophy  was  adminis- 
tered to  them,  far  from  uselessly.  But  it  cannot  be 
maintained  that  their  chief  occupations  were  any- 
thing so  transcendent.  It  was,  in  fact,  more  impor- 
tant that  those  in  charge  of  them  should  have  a 
sufiiciency  of  those  graces  which  might  assist  young 
men  to  behave  properly  in  ordinary  social  life,  than 
that  they  should  be  deep  or  subtle  thinkers.  Ber- 
nard Vaughan  suited  his  post  well.  Nor  was  he  ax 
all  lacking  in  qualities  which  should  add  to  the 
hilarity  of  his  associates.     Now  for  the  first  time  he 


FIRST   YEARS   AS   A   JESUIT  29 

reveals  his  remarkable  powers  of  mimicry.  Fr. 
Tickell,  the  parish  priest,  was  a  man  to  whom  such 
tricks  were  disagreeable.  "  You  will  not,  sir,"  he 
severely  said  to  Mr.  Vaughan,  "  take  in  me."  The 
challenge  was  accepted.  In  a  few  days  a  distin- 
guished-looking youth,  of  sporting  and  fashionable 
air,*  appeared  at  the  door  and  enquired  for  Fr. 
Tickell.  The  young  man  asked,  as  a  great  favour, 
to  be  shown  round  the  college.  For  two  hours,  Fr. 
Tickell  acted  as  most  courteous  and  informative  of 
cicerones.  The  time  for  farewell  came  ;  Fr.  Tickell, 
put  on  the  track  by  some  suspicious  remarks  of  his 
guest,  exclaimed  :  "  It's  you,  Mr.  Vaughan.  I  knew 
you  all  along."  But  the  old  man  was  so  angry  that 
he  ordered  his  horse  and  rode  for  two  hours  to 
collect  himself.  It  is  said  that  much  later,  at  St. 
Beuno's,  he  threw  consternation  into  that  sedate 
establishment  by  dressing  up  as  a  nun,  and  pene- 
trating into  regions  forbidden  to  the  female  foot. 
But  there  are  a  number  of  stories  of  this  sort,  none 
of  them  able  to  be  brought,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  to 
the  point  of  proof. 

One  other  incident  is  related  of  his  stay  at 
Stony  hurst. 

Bernard  \'aughan  added  to  his  philosophical 
duties  that  of  being  Master  of  Ceremonies  in  the 
church.     The   altar   staff   had   the   pri\-ilege   of   an 

♦It  is  also  alleged  that  he  came  <lisfruised  as  a  Noiiconfonuist  Minister, 
and  that  Father  Tickell  was  glad  to  be  kind  to  so  promising  a  neophyte. 
Tliis  is  quite  luilikely.  Mr.  John  Myer.<cough,  coachman  at  Stonyhiirst. 
remembers  that  Bernard  \'aughan  brought  a  "  letter  of  introduction  " 
from  Miss  Winstanley  of  Ch;ughley  Manor,  a  lady  interested  in  the  poor 
of  the  parish  ;  and,  that  he  borrowed  riding-breeches  from  a  Philosopher. 
As  Bernard  was  then  also  Green-room  manager,  "  fashionable  "  clothes 
vroiild  have  been  easier  come  by  than  a  parson's. 


30   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

annual  walk  and  tea,  instead  of  afternoon  schools, 
in  return  for  their  labours.  This  was  called  the 
"  good  four  o'clock."  To  a  small  boy  who  had  some 
light  task  of  reading  aloud  at  Sodality  meetings,  he 
suggested  that  he  too  had  better  ask  the  Rector 
for  a  "  good  four  o'clock."  The  boy  timidly  de- 
murred. "  I  will  tell  you  what  he'll  say,"  answered 
the  prefect,  wise  in  men.  "  You  will  make  your 
request,  and  he  will  say  :  '  Don't  you  think  that 
such  a  duty  brings  its  own  reward  ?  Is  it  not  a 
reward  in  itself  ?  '  Then  you  will  reply :  '  Yes, 
Father.  God  rewards  the  soul ;  it  is  for  you  to 
reward  the  body.'  Go  and  ask  him."  The  boy 
went ;  all  turned  out  exactly  as  had  been  foretold. 
"  Father  Purbrick,  his  back  to  the  fire,  gown  gathered 
up,  delivered  himself  of  those  identical  words,  and, 
upon  the  pert  solution,  capitulated." 

In  1873,  he  was  sent  to  Beaumont  College,  Old 
Windsor,  and  remained  there  four  years.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  popular,  and  an  efficient  stage- 
manager  :  else,  I  know  nothing  of  him  during  this 
time  ;  and  from  all  this  period  one  epigram  survives. 
"  Do  you  still  ride  ?  "  he  was  asked.  "  No.  A 
Jesuit  has  only  one  horse,  and  he  keeps  his  towel 
on  it."  Thence  he  passed  to  St.  Beuno's,  where  he 
did  theology  for  four  years.  I  am  told  that  he  most 
carefully  drew  up  all  his  theological  theses  in  a  form 
such  that  he  should  be  able  to  use  them  for  sermons. 
Indeed,  a  little  attention  will  nearly  always  detect 
a  strong  skeleton  of  theology  even  in  the  mo^t 
rhetorical  of  his  discourses.  He  was  ordained  after 
the  third  year  on  Sept.  20th,  1880,  his  thirty-third 


FIRST   YEARS   AS   A   JESUIT  31 

birthday.     On  this  occasion,  Cardinal  Manning  wrote 
to  him  the  following  letter  : 

Archbishop's  House,  Westminster,  S.W. 

September  14//;,  18S0. 
My  Dear  Bernard, 

Thank  you  for  writing  to  me  of  your  ordination.  I  will 
not  forget  you  in  the  Holy  Mass,  and  ask  for  you  that  you 
may  have  health,  strength,  grace  and  many  years  to  serve 
our  Good  Master — you  will  find  how  Good  He  is  the  longer 
you  live 

May  God  keep  you,  my  dear  Bernard,  always  affectionately 
yours  in  Jesus  Christ,  H.  E.,  Card.  :   Archbp. 

Many  thanks  for  the  "  Memorial,"  of  which  however 
I  had  no  need  for  I  never  say  Mass  without  an  express 
memento  of  your  dear  Father  and  of  Mrs,  Vaughan.  .  ,  . 
always  yours  affectionately. 

WTien  he  left  St.  Eeuno's,  he  returned  to  Beaumont 
as  "Sub-Minister,"  that  is,  to  assist  the  priest  whose 
charge  it  chiefly  was  to  look  after  the  material  side 
of  the  College.  It  is  recalled  that  he  used  to  super- 
vise the  bojs'  behaviour  in  the  refectory,  standing 
in  a  sort  of  niche  in  front  of  the  fireplace.  He  poured 
forth  torrents  of  denunciation  upon  the  ill-mannered 
which  a  servant  used  admirably  to  imitate.  He 
was,  however,  also  given  the  charge  of  coaching  the 
boys  for  their  plays,  and  also  the  actors  of  the  Beau- 
mont Union,  who  yearly  gave  a  play  there.  It  is 
exasperating  that  this  period  consists  chiefly  of 
lacuuc-e,  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  memoir,  for  one 
would  wish  to  know  how  Fr.  Vaughan's  acquain- 
tanceship began  to  develop  as  it  forth\dth  did,  and 
how  he  came  to  know  so  intimately  Mr.  Richard 
Holt  Hutton.  then  editor  of  the  Spectator,  and  liN-ing 


32   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

not  far  off  at  Englefield  Green.  Certain  it  is  that 
Mr.  Hutton  constantly  welcomed  Fr.  Vaughan  as  a 
guest  to  dinners  at  which  the  young  priest  met  all 
sorts  of  most  interesting  persons,  including,  I  think. 
Lord  (the  Mr.  Arthur)  Balfour,  and  many  others, 
the  manner,  and  what  is  more,  the  point  of  whose 
conversation  he  managed  at  once  to  make  his  own  ; 
and  though  he  was  not,  and  never  was  to  be,  an 
expert  in  the  departments  of  any  one  of  them,  he 
would  return  to  Beaumont  and  be  able  to  relate 
with  the  most  sensitive  accuracy  what  had  been 
talked  about.  Mr.  Hutton  had  unbounded  admira- 
tion for  Fr.  Vaughan's  histrionic  talent  ;  and  in 
an  account  of  Macbeth,  v/hich  the  Beaumont  Union 
had  acted  under  Fr.  Vaughan's  management,  he 
wrote  that  when  Fr.  Vaughan  made  choice  of  the 
ecclesiastical  career,  "  a  great  impresario  had  been 
lost  to  Europe." 

The  only  other  incident  in  which  he  played  a 
discernable  part  was  consequent  on  the  attempt  to 
assassinate  Queen  Victoria  in  1882.  The  news  that 
she  had  been  fired  at  excited  the  greatest  emotion 
at  Beaumont  College,  and  preliminary  Te  Deums 
were  sung  in  thanksgiving  for  her  escape,  that  of 
the  younger  boys,  we  are  told,  "  fading  off  into  five 
Our  Fathers  and  five  Hail  Marys,"  since  the  long 
hymn  rather  bafHed  them.  However,  the  loyal 
College  wanted  to  send  up  an  address  of  congratula- 
tion, but  was  ignorant  of  the  etiquette  governing 
such  matters.  The  Rector  therefore  asked  a  neigh- 
bour. Lady  Bulkeley,  to  write  to  Lady  Biddulph  at 
the  Castle,  to  see  if  a  deputation  of  boys  might  go 


FIRST   YEARS   AS   A   JESUIT  33 

there  to  present  their  liumage  as  the  Eton  boys 
had  done.  No  answer.  After  a  day  or  two,  the 
Rector  conceived  the  plan  of  actually  sending  to 
the  Castle  to  enquire  if  a  reply  was  to  be  fortli- 
coming.  Lady  Bulkeley  lent  her  carriage,  and  Fr. 
Vaughan  was  put  into  it  and  sent  to  Windsor,  where, 
having  invaded  Lady  Biddulph,  he  borrowed  one 
of  her  servants  and  attacked  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby. 
He,  after  a  pessimistic  moment,  listened  to  Fr. 
Vaughan  who  was  explaining  that  he  was  after  all 
"  an  Englishman,  a  Priest,  and  a  Jesuit,"  so  that 
there  could  be  no  doubt  about  his  loyalty  or  of  that 
of  his  confreres,  while  the  seal  set  by  Her  Majesty's 
visit,  for  which  he  was  petitioning,  on  that  of  the 
boys  of  Beaumont  would  be  a  most  impressive  one. 
Moved  by  these  declarations,  Sir  H.  Ponsonby  set 
the  necessary  machinery  in  motion,  and  in  a  day 
or  two  the  Queen  appeared  at  the  gates  of  Beaumont, 
and  received  the  due  address  and  spoke  with  much 
graciousness  to  the  Rector  and  the  boys.  The  visit 
had  echoes  far  and  wide.  Congratulations  poured 
in  upon  the  College  in  its  turn,  and  it  was  felt  that 
by  her  kind  act  the  Queen  had  indeed  made  it  quite 
clear  that  the  Jesuits  and  their  charges  were  recog- 
nised by  her  as  loyal  subjects  and  trust  wort  h\- 
Englishmen,  especial!}'  as  she  spontaneously  sent 
to  enquire  whether  an  extension  of  the  hohdays 
would  be  objected  to  by  the  Jesuit  staff.  It  was  not. 
All  ended  happily.  The  extension  was  given  :  the 
red  drugget  and  the  hydrangeas  were  put  away  ; 
and  Fr.  Bernard  \'aughan  went  off  to  Manresa  for  his 
Tertianship  and  for  a  \ear  no  more  is  heard  of  him. 


34   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

It  is  quite  certain  that  he  had  long  ago 
resolved  to  make  a  name  by  preaching.  Some 
considerable  time  before  this  he  had  indeed 
preached,  presumably  for  practice,  so  flamboyant 
a  sermon,  that  his  Jesuit  hearers  had  been 
dissolved  in  laughter.*  He  demanded  lessons  in 
elocution.  The  professor  told  him  to  recite  Mark 
Antony's  famous  speech.  Bernard  Vaughan  said 
he  had  come  to  learn  ;  would  not  the  professor 
show  him  how  ?  The  professor  did  so,  and  his 
pupil  then  imitated  him  so  exactly  that  the  poor 
man  was  angry.  "Do  it  your  own  way,"  he  said, 
"  Don't  imitate  me."  Bernard  did  it  his  own  way, 
and  the  professor  is  said  to  have  owned  that  it  was 
better  done.  At  anjnrate,  from  this  time  forward, 
Fr.  Vaughan  took  his  own  path  in  preaching,  with- 
out attending  much  to  advice  and  not  at  all  to 
criticism.  In  fact,  when  he  was  "  professed  of  the 
four  vows "  on  February  2nd,  1897,  after  being 
assigned  a  humbler  position,  that  of  Spiritual  Co- 
adjutor, in  1884,  and  when  everybody  assumed  that 
this  was  due  to  his  powers  of  preaching,  he  did  not 
indeed  deny  this,  but  asserted  with  some  vehemence, 
at  the  dinner  given  in  honour  of  the  occasion,  that  he 
had  never  received  any  help  in  his  special  vocation, 
but  rather  hindrance,  and  that  anything  he  had 
achieved  was  due  to  his  own  laborious  years  of 
practice. 

The  fact  remains  that  so  abruptly  does  he,  in  the 
next  part  of  his  life,  blossom  out  as  a  remarkable  a|id 
much   sought-after   preacher,   he   must  have  been 

♦However,  in  1883  he  preached  with  success  at  Farm  Street,  and  even 
earlier  at  Biarritz. 


FIRST   YEARS   AS   A   JESUIT  35 

very  hard  at  \vork  thithertu  no  less  in  exercising 
himself  in  elocution,  than  in  collecting  all  manner  of 
material.  I  am  nt)t  sure  how  early  notes  were 
started.  In  Fr.  \'aughan's  room  at  Mount  Street 
were  two  vast  receptacles,  each  over  six  feet  long, 
and  a  coup)le  of  feet  deep  and  wide.  One  of  these 
held  a  score  of  immense  volumes,  containing,  so  far 
as  one  can  guess,  every  newspaper  report  or  comment 
that  he  could  collect  or  that  agencies  might  send, 
from  1896  onwards,  and  also,  thousands  of  loose 
clippings.  The  tragic  duty  of  coping  with  these  pulpy 
masses  of  thrice-chewed  print — for  a  huge  quantity 
of  it  was  composed  of  reports  of  reports,  and  pro- 
vincial extracts  from  larger  London  papers — was 
facilitated  for  me  by  the  good  offices  of  one  of  Father 
Bernard's  friends,  who  had  stuck  a  ver\'  great 
number  of  cuttings  into  the  volumes  I  mentioned. 
But  in  the  other  chest,  was  correspondence,  note- 
books, t\^ed  copies  of  addresses,  and  loose  sheets 
of  all  sorts,  and  innumerable  little  packets  of  post- 
cards or  of  half-sheets  tied  together  with  tape,  con- 
taining, now  a  mere  line,  now  the  scheme  of  a  whole 
sermon.  I  cannot  believe  that  he  ever  looked  at 
them,  for  the  dust  of  just  twenty  years  has  settled 
on  them  ;  and  while  even  on  the  topmost  layers 
the  London  grime  has  descended  in  a  thick  hhn, 
below,  it  has  seemed  to  work  into  the  very  texture 
of  the  paper.  But  even  after  the  expenditure  of  a 
fortune  in  soap  and  water  I  have  not  been  able  to 
ascertain  when  the  earliest  notes  are  to  be  dated. 
I  cannot  be  sure  that  I  have  found  his  own  theological 
notes  ;  if  what  survives  is  indeed  liis  own,  it  is  what 


36   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

anyone  might  have  envied,  such  minute  synopses 
of  certain  theses  are  preserved,  in  exquisite  hand- 
writing and  elaborately  underlined  in  red  ink.  But 
though  he  might,  I  suppose,  in  his  hours  of  scien- 
tific endeavour,  so  depersonalise  his  script,  yet  you 
would  expect  to  find  in  germ  some  at  least  of  his 
later  characteristics,  like  his  very  noticeable  "  g." 
Three  very  heavy  volumes  exist,  however,  which 
seem  to  be  in  the  same  handwriting,  and  these  con- 
tain plans  of  sermons,  and  not  only  are  they  totally 
devoid  of  rhetoric,  from  which  Fr.  Vaughan  could 
not  keep  away  even  in  quite  short  notes,  but  they 
in  their  turn  seem  to  be  in  the  same  handwriting  as 
some  pages  at  the  head  of  which  is  written  "  Kenelm 
Vaughan  Vaughan,"  so  that  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  all  these  were  notes  of  Fr.  Kenelm  Vaughan's 
which  he  handed  over  to  his  brother.  My  belief 
was  rather  shaken  by  the  discovery  of  one  very  old 
sermon  on  Our  Lady  which  reads  just  like  one  of 
the  sermons  which  novices  preach  in  the  refectory 
during  the  month  of  May,  and  it  is  written  on  the 
same  blue  paper  as  is  used  for  the  notes  headed 
"  Kenelm  Vaughan."  But  this  very  sermon  has  a 
marginal  note  in  one  place  which  is  in  a  hand  defi- 
nitely like  what  Bernard's  afterwards  became,  so 
after  all  I  do  not  think  that  any  of  these  early  notes 
and  sermons  can  be  his.  But  whatever  his  method 
of  work,  his  amount  of  work  must  all  through  his 
life  have  been  enormous. 

Such  then  was  the  obscure  preface  to  the  much 
advertised  life  into  which  the  young  man  was  being 
called. 


PART   II. 


THE   DAY'S   WORK 


D 


In  (the  meditation)  on  retyrement  I  discovered  yt  I  did 
not  govern  my  going  out  or  in  of  solitude  by  obedience  or 
charity,  but  by  my  ovme  inchnation  lyke  ye  crow  ;  doing 
my  exterior  action  wth  clamor  and  bussell,  to  be  minded 
by  creatures  wch  hath  rendered  ym  ungrateful  to  God 
unprofitable  to  my  soule,  odious  and  ridiculous  to  others  ; 
wch  I  must  indeavor  to  reforme. 

I  SEE  .  .  .  yt  I  am  very  unfit  to  serve  God  in  ye  nature  of 
a  spowse,  but  my  way  must  be  as  a  poore  unworthy  hand- 
mayde,  yt  must  serve  him  with  great  respect,  and  loving 
reverence  in  ye  spirit  of  pennance  and  contrition  like  ye 
poore  publican,  and  never  seeke  or  give  way  to  sensible 
devotion  for  feare  yt  natur  and  ye  Divcll  may  disceave 
me  by  it.* 


AT   MANCHESTER,    1883-1901 

FATHER  Bernard  Vaughan  was  sent  in  1SS3  to 
Manchester  in  no  official  position,  but  as  a 
priest  on  a  staff  which  had  not  even  its  Rector 
in  the  house.  In  those  days  the  Church  and  resi- 
dence of  the  Holy  Name  was  in  a  group  whose  chief 
superior  resided  at  St.  Helens.  The  immediate 
superior  was  the  late  Fr.  W.  Lawson. 

None  the  less,  the  work  of  the  house  was  impor- 
tant, not  alone  because  it  was  in  Manchester,  but 
because  of  the  position  of  tlie  buildings.  At  that 
time  the  neighbourhood  was  residential.  Fields  lay 
behind  the  presbytery,  now  buiJt  over.  It  then  took 
twice  as  long  to  get  into  the  cit}'  as  now  from  t^\'ice 

*From  the  Journal  of  Dame  Clare  Vaughaa. 


40   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

that  distance.  Even  when  Fr.  Vaughan  left  Man- 
chester, there  were  but  horse-trams  plying  up  and 
down  the  Oxford  Road,  drawn  by  those  hard  and 
seasoned  animals  on  whose  help,  you  may  say,  half 
the  Boer  War  depended.  Then  Manchester  grew 
out  along  that  road,  and  the  property  depreciated. 
Big  houses  became  lodging  houses  or  business  pre- 
mises ;  families  occupied  single  rooms  ;  the  stucco 
flaked  itself  off  the  despondent  architecture,  and  the 
people  of  the  Holy  Name,  which  had  numbered  but 
1,500,  with  forty  children  in  the  schools,  increased  by 
leaps  and  bounds.  The  congregations  now  are 
greater  than  those  of  the  days  of  Bernard  Vaughan, 
and  the  parish  has  been  multiplied  just  five-fold. 

And  the  work  may  be  greater  still.  For  the  pulsa- 
tions of  the  city's  life  are  forcing  it  even  now  still 
outward.  The  mean  houses  are  coming  down.  The 
Oxford  Road  presents,  to-day,  a  strange  mixture  of 
magnificence  and  squalor.  Vast  empty  patches  and 
great  screens  of  placarded  boards,  alternate  with 
palatial  infirmaries,  splendid  picture-galleries,  and 
noble  cinemas.  Buildings  are  rising  of  reinforced 
concrete  whose  opulent  adornment  will  soon  abash 
out  of  existence  the  modest  Georgian  porticos,  the 
graceful  little  fanlights,  and  the  plaster  pilasters. 
And  the  railroad  alterations  may  shift  the  whole 
centre  of  gravity  of  the  stations. 

Almost  opposite  the  red-brick  University  buildings, 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Name,  built  in  1871  and  not 
added  to  since  then,  heaves  its  height  up  like  a  liner 
among  skiffs.     It  is  an  ornate  yet  substantial  GothicJ' 
and  still  lacks  the  spire  which  Fr.  Vaughan  was 


IN   MANCHESTER  41 

intermittently  to  think  of  building.  But  of  his 
work  for  this  edifice  I  speak  below. 

He  arrived  then  in  1883,  and  fur  three  years  1  lind 
no  record  at  all  of  his  activities,  save  one  rather 
naive  newspaper  remark,  that  he  used  the  Holy  Name 
as  his  head-quarters,  and  went  about  the  country 
preaching.  It  is  said,  however,  that  his  work  so 
fatigued  him  that  in  1885  he  was  sent,  in  May,  to 
Rome  to  recuperate  and  stayed  there  two  months. 
But  of  all  these  years  no  details  at  all  survive.  How- 
ever, in  i\Iarch,  1886,  he  is  being  reported  at  full 
length,  and  is  beginning,  at  the  Holy  Name,  a  really 
fine  course  of  sermons  on  the  "  Christian  Constitu- 
tion of  States."  It  is  quite  likely  that,  as  often  later, 
he  had  got  someone  to  "  devil  "  for  him  ;  but  he 
certainly  showed  power  in  his  setting  forth  of  Leo 
X Ill's  famous  encyclicals,  and  the  remaining  three 
sermons  of  the  course,  on  Christianity,  the  Friend  of 
Freedom  :  Christianity,  the  Patron  of  Learning  ; 
and,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  Christianity,  the  Inspira- 
tion of  Art,  were  discourses  that  merited  the  over- 
flowiing  congregations  of  which,  it  was  already 
noticed,  a  large  number  were  non-Catholics.  Other 
courses  of  sermons  followed  in  cpiick  succession,  of 
which  one  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  was  far  more 
of  the  kind  which  most  people  have  come  to  asso- 
ciate with  Fr.  Vaughan's  name-  -  on  "  Men  of  Mark," 
of  whom  he  chose  couples  :  Feli.x  and  Paul  ;  Herod 
and  John  ;   the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican. 

The  two  changes  in  Fr.  Vaughan's  position  at 
Manchester  were  due  to  his  being  made  first  superior 
of  the  Holy  Name,  in  18S8,  and  then  Rector  (1893), 


42   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

the  last  post  involving  the  care  of  several  outlying 
missions,  some  of  them  small.  He  did  not  approve 
of  these  small  missions,  and  considered  them  dead- 
and-alive  places  and  wrote  to  Rome  (when  he  remem- 
bered his  rectorial  duty  of  writing  at  all)  to  advise 
their  suppression  or  at  least  that  they  be  handed  over 
to  other  care.  I  cannot  pretend  that  he  knew  forth- 
with how  to  command.  We  can  make  all  allowances 
for  clashing  temperaments ;  but  we  need  not  pretend 
that  they  do  not  clash.  There  is  a  singular  demo- 
cracy if  not  republicanism  within  the  Jesuit  system, 
and  the  office  of  Superior  does  not  include  the  right 
to  claim  any  personal  pre-eminence,  perhaps  least  of 
all  when  in  manner  as  in  personality  a  superior  is, 
like  Fr.  Vaughan,  pre-eminent.  I  think,  that  in  the 
story  of  Fr.  Vaughan,  where  there  is  so  little  evidence 
for  change,  growth  and  the  like,  we  can  in  this  matter 
at  least  detect  development.  For  we  shall  have 
the  chance  of  saying  that  the  methods  and  manners 
which  actually  earned  him  a  Roman  rebuke  for 
harshness,  did  not  survive.  The  man  who  gave  old 
priests  severe  and  public  snubs  or  "  penances " 
became  known  throughout  the  province  for  his 
delicate  kindnesses  to  those  who,  like  lay-brothers 
and  young  students,  never  could  repay  them.  And 
if,  as  some  say,  he  advertised  his  own  sermons,  not 
those  of  his  confreres,  and  even,  kept  the  "  live  " 
topics  to  himself,  I  expect  that  he  was  quite  genuinely 
convinced  that  it  was  he  who  could  treat  them  best, 
and  that  since  they  could  not  be  preached  twice 
he  had  better  appropriate  them;  and  he  at  least 
thought  that  he  was  generous  in  inviting  preachers 


IN   MANXHESTEK  43 

to  como  from  outside  on  notable  occasions,  even 
though,  as  he  lamented,  the  hnancial  loss  was  no  less 
notable.  And  1  like  to  sa}^  at  once  that  an  aged 
jiriest  has  written  to  me  that  he  personally  found 
Father  Bernard  a  most  kind  and  considerate  su- 
perior ;  that  he  chose  for  himself  a  small  room  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  house  and  gave  up  the  superior's 
room  to  one  of  his  mon  who  needed  comfort  ;  took 
sick  calls  at  night  to  save  trouble  to  his  weary  fellow- 
workers,  and  was  noticeably  kind  on  occasions  where 
forget  fulness  or  carelessness  might  have  called  for 
sharp  rebuke.  But  just  as  it  takes  time  to  learn  to 
be  severe  without  hurting,  so  does  it  to  acquire  the 
grace  of  kindness  without  condescension,  and  when 
Fr.  Vaughan  first  came  on  as  superior,  he  was,  well, 
still  at  the  beginning  of  his  time. 

I  remember  that  when  Fr.  Vaughan  had  only  just 
left  Manchester,  and  I  was  duly  at  work  on  Aristotle's 
Ethics,  I  used  to  amuse  myself  with  visualising  the 
Magnificent  Man  described  by  that  philosopher,  in 
terms  of  Fr.  Vaughan.  The  Magnificent  Man,  when- 
ever expense  was  called  for,  was  lavish,  though, 
while  clearl}'  never  mean,  he  would  yet  contine  his 
lavishness  to  noble  occasions,  and  not  squander 
money  over  trivialities.  But  he  would,  without 
incurring  rebuke  for  that  vulgarity,  spend  freely 
what  and  when  and  as  he  should,  and  derive  great 
pleasure  from  doing  so,  attending  not  to  the  amount, 
but  ihc  manner.  The  Magnificent  Man  perceived 
that  works  in  honour  of  gods  or  of  the  State  made  a 
special  demand  on  his  Magnificence,  and  if  he  was 
personally  a  man  of  family,  his  performances  could  be 


44   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 


T 


yet  more  magnificent ;  even  if  he  built  himself  fine 
houses,  he  was  a  sort  of  civic  asset,  and  what  made 
for  the  enduring  splendour  of  his  clan,  glorified,  too, 
his  city.  And,  while  he  never  idly  displayed  his 
wealth,  so  never  would  he  spoil  the  perfection  of  a 
work  merely  by  refusing  to  spend  upon  it  so  mean  a 
thing  as  money.  .  .  .  Even,  one  could  ask  one's  self 
if  Fr.  Vaughan  at  all  realised  in  himself  the  qualities 
of  Aristotle's  Properly  Proud  Man — for  whom  no 
translator  yet  has  discovered  the  one  right  word. 
This  was  the  Grand  Seigneur  who  claims  the  great 
things  he  deserves.  .  .  .  He  is  no  gaping  grabber  for 
what  exceeds  his  worth,  nor  yet  the  prudent  medio- 
crity who  asks  but  the  mediocre  things  that  fit  him  ; 
nor,  of  course,  the  timorous  and  slinking  nonentity 
who  dares  not  claim  at  all.  He  wants,  as  a  prize, 
what  we  give  to  the  gods  as  a  right — Honour  ;  he 
is  virtuous,  else  simply  he  were  not  Great  at  all ;  but 
he  knows  that  virtue  should  be  crowned.  He  scorns 
dishonour  while  never  meriting  it,  and  even,  the 
honours  which  he  knows  he  ought  to  get,  and  gets. 
Hence  he  is  often  considered  supercilious.  He  takes, 
but  he  repays  with  more  than  he  took,  and  in  effect 
keeps  his  own  arrogance  only  for  the  arrogant.  He 
never  shows  off  at  the  expense  of  the  weak,  and  none 
more  affable  than  he  towards  the  "  middle  class." 
He  fares  forth,  slow  in  gait ;  he  speaks  in  deep  tones, 
but  does  not  shout,  for  nothing  hurries  or  excites  him, 
seeing  that  he  holds  few  things  to  be  important. 

Aristotle  was,  in  reality,  quite  capable  of  distin- 
guishing between  a  personality  and  a  personage,  '' 
but  it  is  possible  that  he  might  have  taken  some  time 


IX    MANXHKSTl-R  45 

before  deciding  which  of  the  two  he  was  contemplat- 
ing in  Fr.  Vaughan,  as  he  strode  magnificently 
through  Manchester,  tall,  with  frock-coat  tightly 
buttoned,  hat  swept  superbly  right  off,  as  to  cotton- 
magnate,  so  to  crossing-sweeper — for  they  all  of  them 
recognised  him,  and  they  regarded  him  without  any 
doubt  as  a  "  civic  asset."  Doubtless  he  started  with 
advantages.  Brother  of  the  active  and  scarcely  less 
splendid  bishop  ;  of  noteworthy  ancestry  ;  ver^' 
handsome  in  the  large  and  massive  manner ;  having 
a  voice  still  flexible  and  "golden"  when  he  willed; 
and  with  that  quality  about  the  whole  of  him — which 
his  fellow-citizens  were  the  ver}^  men  to  observe  and 
to  appreciate — of  being  certain  to  "get  there"  what- 
ever walk  in  life  he  chose,  he  was  certain  to  impose 
himself. 

Let  me  speak  first  of  what  is  easiest — the  church 
he  had  charge  of.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the 
invisible  mortgage  of  £15,000  upon  the  property 
failed  to  interest  him.  Perhaps  he  made  no  effort 
to  pay  it  off.  He  thought  it  could  wait.  The  first 
thing  was  to  make  the  church  worthy  as  a  church. 
Suitably  enough,  the  first  adornment  with  which 
I  find  him  concerned,  was  a  pulpit  of  marble  and 
mosaic  that  should  be  adequate  to  the  edifice.  Little 
by  little  tlio  na\e  became  populated  with  white 
statues  which  should  minister  to  devotion  without 
riveting  unduly  the  artistic  ej'e.  A  side-chapel, 
hitherto  unused,  shone  out  in  gold  and  blue  and  was 
dedicated  to  Our  Lad\'  della  Strada.  whose  picture 
St.  Ignatius  had  venerated  and  is  still  thronged  with 
homage  and  splendid  witli  lights  and  flashing  votive 


46   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

hearts  in  the  Gesu  at  Rome.  Later  on,  the  picture 
was  crowned,  with  magnificent  ceremonial,  with 
crowns  that  Fr.  Vaughan  had  personally  presented  to 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff  for  his  benediction.  On  this 
occasion,  said  the  city  press,  "  to  describe  the  interior 
of  the  church  would  be  impossible."  It  had  indeed 
been  much  improved  by  the  installation  of  electric 
light,  an  event  which  Fr.  Vaughan  signalised  by  a 
sermon  having  for  text :  Fiat  Lux.  A  tradition 
insists  that  at  a  certain  moment  of  the  discourse,  the 
preacher  cried  these  words  aloud  with  special 
vehemence,  whereupon  the  electric  arcs,  as  they  then 
were,  leapt  into  radiance.  Tall  stained  glass  win- 
dows were  put  in  the  sanctuary  and  a  reredos  rose  in 
pinnacles  to  the  height  of  forty  feet.  Within  the 
pinnacles,  coloured  electric  bulbs  were  disposed,  a 
method  of  illumination  which  was  afterwards  quite 
forbidden.  Impossible  further  to  catalogue  the 
adornments  lavished  by  Fr.  Vaughan  upon  his 
church.  What  is  worth  insisting  on  is,  that  these 
decorations  were  never  allowed  to  remain  what  I  may 
call  idle.  With  a  truly  medieval  sense  of  symbolism, 
Fr.  Vaughan  kept  talking  to  his  folk  about  what 
their  church  contained,  and  it  was  emphatically  their 
church,  and  the  statues  and  the  windows  were  made 
to  tell  to  them  each  its  story,  till  the  stained  glass  by 
no  means  merely  kept  out  light,  and  till  no  Town 
Hall  rows  of  civic  effigies  ever  stood  for  half  so  much 
to  the  passer-by  as  did  the  white  statues  placed  by 
Fr.  Vaughan  for  the  worshippers  to  watch. 

Father  Vaughan's  idea  of  his  church's  work  was 
by  no  means,  need  I  say,  confined  to  its  interior. 


IN    MANXHESTER  47 

Singularly  enough,  perhaps,  the  Holy  Name  lacked 
anv  large  Hall  that  might  be  used  for  secular  or 
semi-secular  purposes.  Fr.  Vaughan  was  one  day 
to  affirm  that  such  a  Hall  was  as  necessary-  as  the 
church  itself.  He  resolved  to  build  one.  For  this 
purpose  he  accordingly  decided  to  have  a  bazaar, 
but  such  a  bazaar  as  even  Manchester  had  not  yet 
seen.  I  may  interpolate  that  he  had  to  defend  him- 
self publicly  on  the  whole  question  of  the  moraUty 
of  bazaars,  seeing  that  the  Anglican  Bishop  Ryle  of 
Liverpool  had  been  vigorously  attacked  for  opening 
anv  such  thing  as  a  bazaar,  and  most  of  Fr.  Vaughan's 
own  methods,  including  this  one,  were  the  object  of 
periodical  onslaughts  b}'  the  Manchester  Noncon- 
formist clerg^^  Having  decided  that  bazaars  were 
not  sinful,  he  proceeded  to  prepare  one.  It  was  held 
October  I4th-i8th,  1890,  in  the  St.  James's  Hall, 
which  was  turned  into  nothing  less  than  the  Piazza 
of  St  Peter's,  Rome,  complete  with  obelisk  and 
fountains.  At  the  back  rose  the  facade  of  the  basi- 
lica, with  the  perspective  adapted  so  as  to  enable  you 
to  see  the  Dome.  Under  the  colonnades,  stalls  were 
symmetrically  disposed.  An  imposing  list  of  Patrons 
was  compiled,  beginning  with  the  Pope  and  the 
Mayor  of  Manchester,  and  as  for  peeresses,  it  was 
impossible  to  keep  pace  with  them.  The  costumes 
were  Italian,  modelled  with  a  certain  freedom  on 
those  of  the  cities  to  one  of  which  each  stall  was 
dedicated  :  touches  of  Spanish,  Alsatian,  and  Eliza- 
bethan dress  prevented  any  accusation  of  pedantr\', 
and  the  colour  heliotrope,  which  was  just  then 
fashionable,  thous^h  seldom,  we  understand,  to  be 


48   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

seen  in  Italy,  cooled  down  the  general  flamboyance 
of  the  scene.  Minnehaha  Minstrels,  Mr.  Murphy's 
Banjo  Band,  the  Tussaud  Amateurs,  and  an  exhi- 
bition of  British  Engineering  and  Telegraphy  proved 
that  Italian  sympathies  need  not  be  exclusive,  and 
even  the  clergy  could  attend  the  plays  in  the  marion- 
nette  theatre.  The  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  Rail- 
way ran  special  trains  ;  more  than  8,000  people 
entered  the  hall  on  the  Saturday  night  alone,  and 
the  "  gate  "  by  itself  paid  aD  expenses. 

It  was,  I  think,  at  this  bazaar  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
exhibited  an  Egret.  Near  its  shrine,  a  placard 
announced  duly,  "  To  the  Egret,  3d."  A  placard 
hard  by  further  announced  :  "To  the  Egress,  3d." 
Those  who,  anxious  presumably  to  visit  what  they 
took  to  be  the  Egret's  bride,  found  themselves  in  the 
street,  were  sometimes  rather  ruffled  by  this  mis- 
adventure. Yet  had  they  but  known,  Fr.  Vaughan, 
as  by  a  singular  chance  of  desultory  reading  I  have 
discovered,  must  himself  have  been  taking  lessons 
from  the  autobiography  of  Mr.  Phineas  F.  Barnum, 
who,  in  his  earliest  days  of  showmanship,  finding 
that  people  tried  to  get  out  by  the  turnstile  through 
which  they  entered,  put  up  this  very  indication — 
"  To  the  Egress."  To  his  astonishment,  and  not  by 
calculation,  he  found  that  people  took  this  for  a 
side-show,  and  were  ready  with  their  coin.  .  .  . 
However,  the  happy  accidents  of  one  man  become 
the  wise  choices  of  his  successors,  and  even  the 
evicted  were  glad  to  pay  another  3d.  to  get  back 
into  Fr.  Vaughan's  bazaar.  But,  I  am  told,  the 
Nonconformist  conscience  took  the  matter  seriously. 


IN   MANCHESTER  49 

Fr.  Vaughan  was  roundl}'  called  a  cheat.  The  ^d. 
had  rankled.  His  retort  was  characteristic.  "  I 
didn't  wafii  them  to  use  that  egress,"  he  plaintively 
affirmed  :  "I  even  made  a  charge  on  them  for  using 
it  !  "  This  genial  showman  felt  at  home  when 
Buffalo  Bill  came  to  Manchester.  Fr.  Vaughan  took 
Bishop  Clifford,  Bishop  Hedley,  and  Mr.  Isherwood 
of  Marple  Hall  round  the  show  and  into  all  the  tents 
(most  of  the  Indians  were  Catholics),  made  them 
drive  in  the  Deadwood  Coach  and  presented  them 
to  Buffalo  Bill  himself,  a  great  friend  of  his.  A 
stream  of  jokes  flowed  from  Fr.  Vaughan's  lips, 
punctuated  by  Bishop  Clifford's  chuckle  and  the 
Johnsonian  criticisms  of  Bishop  Hedley.  Could  but 
some  New  Lucian  retail  for  us  that  conversation  ! 

I  have  no  intention  of  cataloguing  the  other  bazaars 
that  Fr.  Vaughan  inaugurated  or  opened  or  attended, 
in  Manchester  or  elsewhere.  None,  not  even  Naples 
in  Manchester,  came  near  the  glory  of  the  Roman 
one.  And  its  performance  was  better  even  than  its 
promise.  The  Holy  Name  Hall  was  built  and 
solemnly  opened  in  1893  on  the  occasion  of  the 
church's  silver  jubilee.  The  day  was  rendered 
exceptionally  auspicious  owing  to  the  presence  of 
Cardinal  Vaughan  who  had  just  returned  to  Man- 
chester for  the  first  time  since  his  elevation,  though 
I  am  free  to  own  that,  with  the  sense  of  rigid  justice 
that  characterised  him,  he  somewhat  dashed  his 
brother's  feelings  by  an  announcement  made  from 
the  Holy  Name  pulpit  just  before  his  sermon.  He 
recalled  the  decree  of  the  Westminster  Synod  which 
forbade  any  publicity,  as  by  means  of  adyertisement, 

V 


50   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

being  given  to  the  music  which  was  to  be  sung  at 
religious  services,  a  decree  which  had  been  violated 
wholesale  on  the  present  occasion.  He  said,  after- 
wards, that  he  had  felt  all  the  more  bound  to  do  this 
because  Father  Bernard  was  his  brother,  lest  the 
least  favouritism  should  be  surmised.  However,  he 
preached  a  magnificent  sermon,  and  in  the  evening, 
together  with  the  Bishop  of  Salford  and  the  late 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  others,  opened  the  Hall.  It 
had  been  designed  by  Mr.  Kirby,  of  Liverpool,  and 
consisted  of  a  gymnasium,  billiard  rooms,  reference 
library,  reading-room,  reception  and  recreation 
rooms,  committee  rooms  and  offices,  and  the  Hall 
itself  which  measured  40-feet  by  90-feet.  The 
bazaar,  with  its  45,000  visitors,  had  realised  a  sum 
of  £7,350,  and  Sir  Humphrey  de  Trafford  presented 
Fr.  Vaughan,  during  the  ceremony,  with  a  cheque 
for  another  £1,000  "  from  his  affectionate  flock  and 
friends  far  and  near."  But  Fr.  Vaughan  gave  good 
measure  for  his  takings.  "  Pat,"  he  would  say,  or 
**  Mat — you  see  the  money  pouring  in  ?  Well,  look, 
at  it  pouring  out  !  Let  'em  see  we  know  how  to 
give  ! 

In  this  building  Fr.  Vaughan  proposed  to  house  a 
number  of  good  works.  In  the  July  of  that  year, 
1893,  he  wrote  to  the  late  Duchess  of  Newcastle  : 

Here  am  I  back  again  in  the  shafts,  very  full  of  vigour 
for  any  amount  of  collar  work  if  they  will  give  me  the  reins. 
I  have  been  in  penal  servitude  for  a  couple  of  months  doing 
nothing  but  looking  after  my  health.  I  broke  down  for  a 
bit  but  am  up  again  and  in  good  condition.  .  .  .  You  wiU 
be  pleased  to  hear  my  club,  servants'  home,  registry  office, 
and  night  refuge  are  doing  well.     Before  autumn  sets  in 


IN    MAM  HESTER  51 

I  hope  to  have  arranged  a  programme  for  bi-weekly  enter- 
tainments for  the  people — and  lectures  in  cooking,  book- 
keeping, etc.,  for  all  young  men  and  women  needing  such 
helps.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  have  a  big  building  right 
against  one's  house  wherein  all  that  may  be  carried  on. 

The  ¥rvc  KntL-rtainrntTits  ^vere,  perhaps,  the  most 
novel  of  these  enterp>rises*  and  certainly  a  very 
generous  and  civic-minded  one.  There  was  always 
a  concert  or  a  little  play,  and  there  were  refreshments, 
though  for  these  a  small  price  was  charged.  At  half 
time  Fr.  Vaughan  made  a  short  speech,  on  some 
neutral  topic  like  Work  or  Friendship,  or  Thorough- 
ness, though  ever}'  now  and  then  he  explained  a 
subject  like  Darwinism,  or  preached  an  honest  little 
sermon,  and  certainly  he  never  left  out  the  spiritual 
element  from  the  discourse.  I  do  not  know  how 
long  these  free  entertainments  went  on  for  ;  but 
Fr.  Vaughan  came  to  be  recognised  by  all  as  one  of 
the  most  public-spirited  men  of  the  city.  Few  were 
the  luncheons  on  civic  occasions  to  which  he  was 
not  invited  :  he  sat  on  every  platform  :  he  was  able 
to  ask  down  to  Manchester  distinguished  persons 
whose  names  were  of  great  assistance  to  the  officials. 
If  he  "  abolished  "  people  by  his  sweeping  methods, 
he  also  loyally  produced  and  exhibited  them.  On 
one  such  occasion,  the  ice  became  tliin,  for  the 
Protestant  Bishop  of  Manchester,  Dr.  Moorhouse, 
had  had  a  controversy'  with  him,  and  had  refused 
to  propose  some  vote  of  thanks  to  a  well-known 
princess  when  he  heard  that  Fr.   X'aughan  was  to 

•I  should  say  that  Sjimcthiiit:  very  like  them  had  Kui.c  been  civen  in 
Livcrpciol.  The  laic  Fr.  Dubberley  used  to  have  Free  Concerts,  which 
were  packed  with  cavjer  listeners.  A  collection  was  made  at  them  for 
meals  he  olTcrcd  to  the  very  poor. 


52   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

second  it.  The  result  was  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was 
asked  to  propose  it,  and  began  to  come  forward  from 
his  seat  at  the  back  of  the  platform  to  do  so.  "I 
think  you  can  speak  quite  well  from  where  you  are," 
said  the  distinguished  chairman,  rather  anxious  lest 
the  ice  should  altogether  crack.  "  I  could  not 
dream,"  answered  Fr.  Vaughan,  "  of  saying  things 
about  Her  Highness  behind  her  back."  As  usual, 
the  whole  hall  cheered. 

In  the  long  run,  it  was  clear  that  though  opinions 
might  differ  as  to  the  value  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  views  on 
social  subjects,  there  could  be  no  doubt  about  his 
interest  in  them.  He  had  his  eye  on  the  detailed 
application  of  the  principles  as  well  as  on  the  theory, 
and  would  not  only  speak  on  socialism  in  the  ab- 
stract, but  pounced  right  on  to  scandals  of  the  most 
concrete  sort  and  sometimes,  as  we  shall  see,  got 
into  trouble  for  it.  But  he  was  no  cleric  of  the 
sacristy  ;  and  ended  by  being  on  such  good  terms 
with  the  city  at  large  that  he  could  permit  himself 
jests  at  which  men  of  average  nerves  might  have 
shied.  Thus,  he  once  entered  a  butcher's  shop  and 
announced,  very  loud :  "  There  is  not  a  piece 
of  meat  in  this  shop  fit  to  eat."  The  butcher  dis- 
played signs  of  imminent  apoplexy,  but  before 
disaster  could  occur,  Fr.  Vaughan  proceeded  :  "I 
never  could  manage  raw  meat."  A  variant  of  this 
tale  says  that  Father  Bernard  made  his  joke  at  a 
bazaar,  about  game  that  people  had  been  buying. 
Whatever  the  occasion,  the  Protestant  press  took  it 
seriously.  "  These  jests  must  cease,"  it  urgea! 
"  Such  Jesuit  equivocation  will  not  do." 


IN    MANXHESTER  53 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  so  much  felluwship 
in  his  jests  as  in  his  beneficence,  that  it  was  very 
seldom  indeed  he  stepped  over  into  Aristotle's 
cha])ter  of  the  Properl\-  Pr(jiid  Man.  The  feast  of 
his  profession  was  marked,  the  present  Archbishop 
of  Bombay  recalls  to  me,  by  his  inviting  over  from 
Stonyhurst  all  the  younger  members  of  the  teaching 
stafi  there,  and  giving  them  a  day  and  a  dinner  fit 
for  the  Prince  of  Wales.  "  He  made  us  feel  what 
he  always  wanted  young  scholastics  to  feel,  that 
whatever  else  happened  he  was  always  the  friend  of 
young  men."  The  man  who  "  abolished  "  people  was 
quite  capable  of  visiting  sick  old  women,  sending 
their  exhausted  nurses  to  take  rest,  and  sitting  up 
a  whole  night  at  their  bedside  ;  and,  though  a  good 
deal  later  on.  I  know  that  he  remembered,  at  four 
in  tiie  morning,  that  he  had  promised  to  go  to  see  a 
very  sick  person,  and  had  forgotten  the  promise. 
At  once  he  rose,  and  walked  1  know  not  how  far 
through  a  most  stormy  night  to  call  then  and  there 
at  the  nursing  home,  lest  the  patient  might  be  tossing 
in  feverish  expectation  of  his  \4sit.  There  is  a 
strange  story,  which  he  related  with  profound  con- 
viction, about  a  convert  from  Judaism  who,  after 
his  change,  was  harrassed  by  what  he  believed  to  be 
the  personal  presence  of  the  devil.  Crucifix  and  holy 
water  were  useless  to  drive  the  obsession  away.  Fr. 
Vaughan  went  so  far  as  to  sleep  in  the  man's  room, 
and  despite  the  alnn)St  cynical  hard-headedness  of 
which  he  was  capable,  was  couNinced  of  the  presence 
there  of  evil.  "  Wliatever  it  was."  said  the  priest, 
"  it  did  come.     I  was  so  terrified  that  I  could  not 


54   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

move.  If  you  had  set  my  bed  on  fire,  I  could  not 
have  moved."  It  is  said  to  have  been  far  from  the 
only  case  of  such  experiences.  He  insisted  that  the 
stench  of  evil  made  itself  perceptible  to  the  very 
nostrils,  and  he  would  explain  what  he  meant  by 
that,  leaving  little  enough  to  the  imagination. 

During  this  period,  he  spoke  on  the  following  social 
or  civic  subjects — the  Hst  is  far  from  exhaustive:— 
''The  Christian  Constitution  of  the  State":  "The 
Arrival  of  Democracy  "  (in  the  Victoria  Hall,  Hind- 
ley)  ;    another  series  on   "  The  Potent  Factor  on 
Social  Evolution  "  ;   and  yet  another  on  "  Wealth." 
His  address  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall,  on  behalf  of  the 
National   Lifeboat   Institution,   became   famous   at 
the  time  through  his  justification  of  his  own  presence 
there,  he  being  one  who  belonged  to  the  "  oldest 
life-boat  institution  in  the  world,  with  Blessed  Peter, 
the  fisherman,  looking  after  it."     (Long  afterwards, 
he  was  to  adapt  this  quip  when,  in  America,  he  was 
the  guest  of  honour  at  a  dinner  of  Insurance  mag- 
nates.    He  said  that  there,  too,  his  presence  was 
appropriate,  as  he  was  more  heavily  insured  against 
fire  than  any  of  them,  and  because  he  was  a  member 
of  the  oldest  insurance  agency  in  the  world.)     He 
spoke,  too,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Wigan  Co- 
operative   Society   in   the   Drill    Hall,    Wigan,    on 
"  Labour  and  Competition,"  and  I  will  say  here  that 
he  loved,  and  was  loved  in,  Wigan,  though  he  re- 
morselessly used  its  name  for  purposes  of  chaff. 
He  was  waiting  there  one  day  for  a  train,  just  under 
the  name  of  the  station  displayed  in  vast  letters  for' 
all  to  see.     "  What,"  said  he  to  a  porter,  "  is  the 


liN    MANCHESTER  55 

name  of  this  station  ?  "  "  Wigan,  sir,"  said  the 
porter.  After  a  few  minutes  he  pursued  the  porter 
to  the  other  end  of  the  platform.  "  What,"  said  he 
once  more,  "  did  you  say  the  name  of  this  station 
was?"  "  Wigan,"  repeated  the  man.  Then  the 
train  came  in,  and  Fr.  Vaughan,  together  with  several 
citizens  of  that  place,  boarded  it.  "  Surly  folks,  the 
Wiganites,"  said  he  to  the  indignation  of  his  fellow- 
travellers.  "  I'll  show  you."  He  put  his  head  out 
of  the  window,  and  hailed  the  same  porter.  "  Por- 
ter," said  he,  "  What  did  you  say  this  station  was 
called  ?  "  "  Oh,  go  to  blazes  !  "  replied,  this  time, 
the  porter.  **  There !  \Miat  did  I  tell  you  ?  " 
asked  Fr.  \'aughan  triumphantly  of  the  carriageful. 
And  he  loved  to  relate  how  a  Mayor  of  \\'igan,  ha\'ing 
led  him  round  the  region  committed  to  him,  and 
having  at  last  come  to  its  frontier,  turned  to  him 
and  said  :  "  There,  Father  Vaughan.  Where  I've 
taken  you,  I'm  king.  Set  but  your  foot  across  that 
line,  and  I'm  nobbut  an  ordinary  duffer  Hke  your- 
self." I  confess  I  have  adapted,  slightly,  the  ver- 
nacular of  these  two  tales,  but  I  do  so  the  less 
anxiously  because  I  have  to  own  that  I  am  never 
quite  sure  whether  the  stories  Fr.  \'aughan  appro- 
priated to  himself,  were  genuinely  his.  He  was  quite 
unblushing  over  that.  Hut  nobody  minded.  He 
would  begin  a  speech  with  the  words — "  As  I  was 
entering  this  Hall,  a  citizen  of  your  magnificent  city 
said  to  me,  '  Father  Wiughan,  .  .  .  '  and  he  would 
then  retail  some  story  of  the  stone  age.  But  so 
admirably  would  he  relate  it,  that  though  one's 
grandfather   in   his   cradle   might   have   deemed   it 


56   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

already  old,  it  came  from  Fr.  Vaughan  as  new,  and 
the  Hall  rocked  with  delighted  laughter.  He  spoke 
again  on  "  Co-operation  "  both  in  Manchester  and 
in  North  London,  and  for  the  Catholic  Boys'  and 
Girls'  Free  Trading  Homes  in  Liverpool ;  and  a  speech 
on  the  condition  of  the  destitute  spoken  at  West 
Didsbury  in  the  Public  Hall,  is  the  first  sign  I  see 
of  his  having  gone  deeply  into  a  subject  which  was 
so  much  to  preoccupy  him  later  on.  And  he  de- 
lighted the  one  thousand  "  cabbies  "  of  Manchester 
and  Salford,  by  addressing  the  Hackney  Carriage 
Owners  and  Drivers'  Society,  recently  inaugurated. 
As  for  his  sermons  at  the  opening  of  new  churches, 
they  chiefly  bring  home  to  one  the  vast  number  of 
new  churches  that  were  then  being  opened,  and  as 
for  his  sporadic  sermons,  lectures  and  addresses,  they 
need  no  tabulating.  From  Eastbourne  to  Glasgow, 
and  from  Clongowes  to  Norwich,  his  voice  became 
familiar. 

But  there  were  two  crises,  as  it  were,  in  his  Man- 
chester period  that  really  did  win  him  notoriety. 
One  was  a  sermon  on  **  Gambling."  I  have  said 
that  Fr.  Vaughan  chose  for  his  sermons  topics  which 
were  of  vital  interest  to  his  hearers,  and  precisely 
because  he  insisted  so  much  on  the  supernatural,  he 
was  practically  forced  to  talk  in  detail  on  the  natural 
elements  of  life,  both  in  order  to  contrast  them  with 
the  eternal  and  absolute,  and,  lest  a  false  conscience 
should  arise  about  them  and  lest,  sin  being  surmised 
where  no  sin  was,  weaker  souls  might  abandon 
altogether  the  Christian  effort.  Hence,  in  Man- 
chester,   he   willingly    used   trade    expressions — he 


IN    MANXHESTER  57 

liked  to  say  that  he  belonged  "  to  the  firm  that  defied 
all  comjietitiun,"  and  was  for  ever  talking  about 
"  delivering  the  goods  "^and  I  really  think  that  he 
acquired  and  never  quite  lost  the  "  Manchester 
accent."  It  is  certain  tliat  he  ncwr  did  acquire 
the  special  brand  of  Cockney  that  does  duty  in  Park 
Lane.  And  he  was  fond  of  taking  his  illustrations 
from  cards.  "  Life,"  said  he,  "  is  a  game  of  whist. 
Some  play  for  riches,  and  diamonds  are  the  trumps  : 
some  for  power,  and  clubs  are  trumps  ;  some,  for 
love,  and  hearts  are.  But  the  fourth  hand  is  always 
held  by  Death,  who  takes  all  the  tricks  with  spades." 
In  February,  igoo,  then,  he  preached  a  sermon  on 
"  Gambling  "  which  was,  I  judge,  the  true  beginning 
of  his  fame  outside  Manchester  and  in  the  secular 
press.  For  the  sermon  was  heard  of  b}*  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Horton,  a  Nonconformist  minister,  who  fell  into 
such  paroxysms  of  rage  that,  did  not  Fr.  Vaughan 
in  his  rej^ly  to  him  quote  long  paragraphs  from  the 
Doctor's  statement,  it  would  be  impossible  to  believe 
that  it  had  ever  been  made.  When  the  Doctor 
accused  Fr. Vaughan  of  encouraging  betting,  it  was 
easy  to  re-quote  the  incriminated  sermon  which  most 
vigorously  deprecated  it  ;  when  he  said  that  such 
criminal  indulgence  was  part  of  a  campaign  organised 
by  the  Jesuits  for  the  enslavement  of  English  youth, 
and  that  one  could  not  wonder  tliat  "  the  Roman 
Church  is  sweeping  on  to  the  conquest  of  England," 
seeing  that  a  Church  "  that  says  '  Do  it  and  wel- 
come '  is  bound  to  win  the  day,"  a  Cliristian  could 
wonder  what  had  become  of  the  minister's  faith  in 
Christ ;   but  when  the  Doctor  defined  all  betting  as 


58   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

"  stealing  by  mutual  arrangement,"  just  as  duelling 
was  to  be  deemed  "  murder  by  mutual  arrangement," 
it  was  impossible,  after  a  due  use  of  logic,  to  keep 
away  from  jest,  and  Fr.  Vaughan  concluded  his 
rebuke  to  the  fanaticism  which  made  all  betting 
sinful  by  the  remark  : 

I  must  confess  that  I  have  little  sympathy  with  the  young 
divine  who  leapt  for  joy  because  he  had  discovered  that  it 
was  a  sin  against  the  eighth  commandment  to  steal  a  run 
at  cricket,  and  one  against  the  sixth  to  bowl  a  maiden  over. 

But  the  reverberations  of  the  press  were  heard  in 
all  parts  of  England,  and  interviews  and  articles 
began  to  be  asked  for. 

Earlier  than  this,  however,  Fr.  Vaughan  had  had 
a  public  controversy  with  Dr.  Moorhouse,  then 
Anglican  Bishop  of  Manchester.  It  is  clearly  not 
my  business  to  outline  here  Fr.  Vaughan's  method 
of  managing  the  most  tedious,  surely,  of  our  con- 
troversies, especially  as  the  actual  substance  of  the 
lectures  was  prepared  for  him  at  St.  Mary's  Hall, 
Stonyhurst,  by  the  Revs.  E.  Hull  and  J.  Besant, 
S.J.  But  as  usual  he  mastered  the  material,  and 
dealt  with  it  most  effectively.  Frankly,  the  Bishop 
must  have  been  rather  unpopular,  or  Fr.  Vaughan's 
popularity  must  have  been  even  greater  than  I  con- 
ceive it,  to  have  accounted  for  the  absolute  furore 
excited  not  only  by  a  course  of  sermons  preached  on 
the  Bishop's  attack  on  Catholicism,  but  by  another 
course  of  lectures  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall.  The  series 
began  on  April  24th,  1895,  and  ended  on  December 
22nd,  and  in  that  Hall  anything  up  to  6,000  people 
listened  to  those  long  and  very  closely  reasoned  and 


I 


IX    MAN'CHESTER  59 

learnedly  illustrated  discourses.  The  enthusiasm 
rose  to  fever-])itch,  and  once  at  least,  the  horses  were 
taken  from  Fr.  Vaughan's  carriage  and  he  was 
dragged  triumphantly  back  to  the  Holy  Name.  Nor 
was  it  a  packed  house  in  the  partisan  sense,  for  non- 
Catholics  made  up  a  very  large  part  of  the  audience. 
I  think  that  the  robust  common-sense  of  Manchester 
was  quite  frankly  intolerant  of  the  Bishop's  very  old- 
fashioned  onslaughts  on  the  Roman  Catholicism  of 
which  the  concrete  examples  belied  altogether  the 
bogey  set  up  for  execration,  and  it  is  quite  clear  that 
Fr.  Vaughan,  in  the  destructive  part  of  his  speeches, 
had  a  very  easy  task.  The  line  of  argument,  in  the 
constructive  part,  is  that  familiar  to  all  who  know 
the  ordinary  Catholic  apologetic.  What  was  special, 
was  the  forcefulness  of  the  exposition,  and  the  quick- 
ness of  the  repartee.  In  the  middle  of  one  lecture,  a 
man  in  the  audience  rose  and  began  to  shout.  "  You 
are.  Sir,  the  Bishop  of  Manchester  ?  "  asked  the 
orator.  "  No,  Fm  not."  "  Ah,  I  can  only  deal  with 
one  man  at  a  time,  and  at  present  1  am  dealing 
with  the  Bishop  of  Manchester." 

Perhaps  I  had  better  say  at  once  what  I  think  was 
Fr.  Vaughan's  feeling  about  Anglicanism. 

No  one  who  remembers  even  a  little  about  Fr. 
Vaughan's  career  will  forget  that  his  friends  were  to 
be  found  within  an\'  and  every  denomination,  or 
again,  outside  of  any.  1  need  not  explain  that  he 
had  full  sympathy  with,  and  showed  all  kindness  to, 
any  of  his  fellow-men  who  were  at  least  sincere.  In 
Manchester  itself  he  gave  a  lecture,  by  request,  to  a 
crowd  of  enthusiastic  Nonconformist   ministers  on 


6o   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

**  Why  I  am  a  Jesuit."  But  for  non-Catholic 
denominations  as  such,  as  versions  of  Christianity, 
as  claimants  to  be  Christ-founded  churches,  he  had 
no  patience  whatsoever.  After  all,  it  was  in  his 
blood  to  feel  himself  a  son  of  the  immemorial  Church 
of  the  land ;  he  could  not  but  regard  the  Establish- 
ment as  a  parvenu.  It  was  the  intruder  who  had 
done  nothing  but  damage,  and  he  derided  and 
denounced  its  pretensions  ruthlessly.  And  again, 
as  a  citizen  of  the  world-Church  of  Rome,  he  could 
spare  no  time  to  consider  an  institution  which  at  its 
widest  belonged  to  a  British  Empire.  Therefore, 
by  temperament  he  did  not  want  to  think  of  the 
Establishment  at  all.  However,  it  forced  itself  on 
his  notice,  and  usually  by  way  of  claiming  to  be  a 
part  of  the  Church  of  which  he  was  himself  a  son. 
This  seemed  to  him  a  blasphemy  if  you  took  it  seri- 
ously, and  intrinsically  so  absurd  that  the  theories 
by  which  it  should  be  defended  deserved  no  polite- 
ness. So  when  occasion  demanded  it,  he  attacked, 
and  his  attack  was  not  polite.  He  did  not,  like 
Newman,  see  any  more,  in  Anglicanism,  a  bulwark 
against  infidelity.  In  his  Manchester  days,  "  Anglo- 
Catholicism  "  was  not  the  much-advertised  pheno- 
menon it  has  since  become ;  but  modernism  was ;  and 
on  seeing  the  Anglican  church  honey-combed  with 
modernism,  he  diagnosed  a  new  apostacy  indeed, 
but  one  that  was  sure  to  come,  and  the  sooner  it 
revealed  itself,  the  better.  And  he  remorselessly 
drew  attention  to  the  jettison  of  Christ  made  by  the 
protestant  pilots.  But  what  he  really  possessed, 
though  he  may  scarcely  have  been  explicitly  aware 


IX    MANXHESTKR  6i 

of  it,  was  a  clear  perception  that  the  \vhc)Ie  mental 
attitude  of  Anghcans  towards  the  notion  "  Church  " 
was  aUi'n  from  his  own.  It  is  indeed  customary  to 
find  that  members  of  the  "  cathohcising  "  party, 
though  great  propagandists,  are,  while  vague  in 
reality  about  all  tlogmas,  vaguest  and  least  well 
instructed  about  the  fundamental  notion  of  what  the 
Church  really  is.  Not  only  the  Anglican  perspective 
is  quite  different  from  the  Catholic,  but  two  different 
things  are,  in  realit}',  being  looked  at.  Hence  I  do 
not  think  that  he  would  have  allowed  that  any  real 
rapprochement  was  being  brought  about  even  by  the 
"  highest  "  of  the  high.  He  looked  rapidly  at  each 
theory  that  was  presented  to  him,  saw  it  in  perspec- 
tive, and  had  done  with  it.  "  It  is  not  the  Church 
of  England,"  he -was  told,  "  that  has  broken  away 
from  Rome,  but  Rome  from  England."  "  I  gravely 
fear,"  he  would  answer,  "  that  in  the  next  equinoc- 
tial gale,  Lambeth  Palace  may  blow  away  from  one 
of  its  tiles."  This  is  not  a  sympathetic  way  of 
treating  the  matter,  I  know  ;  still,  it  is  a  quite 
intelligible  way,  and  perhaps  one  that  appeals  to  all 
those  who,  like  him,  are  desperate  to  see  that  the 
Anglican  problem  is  after  all  a  side-issue  ;  that 
England  is  simpl\-  not  Anglican  at  all.  whatever  else 
it  is  ;  that  the  tragedy  is,  the  national  apostacy  from 
Christ.  Hence  it  altogether  irked  liim  to  be  drawn 
aside  into  quarrels  :  he  wanted  to  preach  Christ  and 
the  Cross,  and  did  so  as  loud  as  ])ossible. 

During  this  period,  lie  four  times  left  England  for 
the  continent  :   once,  as  I  have  said,  in  1SS5  ;  again, 


62   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

after  the  great  bazaar,  when  he  spent  January  and 
February  of  1891  on  the  Mediterranean  coast :  in 
1897  he  preached  the  Lent  at  San  Silvestro  in  Rome, 
and  in  1898  was  once  more  on  the  Riviera  for  Lent. 
No  doubt  it  was  during  his  first  visit  to  Rome  that 
he  made  sufficient  acquaintance  with  Leo  XIII  to 
be  able  to  get  from  him  the  portrait  specially  painted 
for  the  Rome  bazaar  when  the  time  came  to  ask  for 
it ;  but  it  was  on  the  second  that  he  must  have  taken 
the  crowns  for  the  della  Strada  picture  to  be  blessed 
by  him.  Then,  too,  it  must  have  been  that  his 
eloquence  caused  somebody  to  say  that  he  must 
surely  be  no  Englishman.  "  He  is  not,"  Leo  is  said  to 
have  retorted.  "  He  was  born  on  Vesuvius  and 
sent  over  to  England  to  cool."  So,  too,  after  a 
sermon  at  the  Gesii,  "  It  can't  be  an  Englishman," 
they  said,  "  He  gesticulates  too  much  and  is  never 
at  a  loss  for  a  word."  Still,  once  he  was  all  too 
English.  He  had  come  with  some  friends  to  Siena, 
and  there  found,  in  an  empty  church,  the  tongue  of 
St.  Bernardine  of  Siena,  a  popular  preacher  on  just 
those  topics  that  delighted  Fr.  Vaughan,  exposed 
among  candles  on  an  altar.  "  I  will  give  it  to  you 
to  kiss,"  said  he,  and  mounted  the  steps  to  take  the 
reliquary.  But  it  was  tied  to  the  altar  with  some 
string,  and  as  he  was  wrestling  with  this,  the  parish 
priest  came  in.  Fr.  Vaughan,  who,  "  like  Parson 
Adams,"  had  "  scarcely  any  cassock,"  or  rather 
none,  was  taken  for  a  Protestant  tourist  behaving 
according  to  schedule  in  a  church,  and  a  scene 
ensued.  He  found  it  quite  difficult  to  get  leave, 
next  day,  to  say  Mass. 


IX    MANCHESTER  63 

During;  these  Roman  visits,  too,  he  made  ac- 
quaintance with  the  General  of  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
then  Fr.  Martin,  with,  whom  he  came  into  closer 
contact  however,  when  the  General  himself  came 
throui^^li  Manchester  during  his  visit  to  England, 
after  which  he  changed  the  place  of  the  rectorate 
from  St.  Helen's  to  the  Holy  Name. 

As  for  the  visit  in  1898,  it  had  its  interest  owing 
to  his  meeting  at  Cannes,  with  King  Edward  \'II, 
then  Prince  of  Wales,  and  with  many  members  of 
other  royal  houses,  those  especially  of  Bourbon  and 
Braganza.  Myths  have  grown  up  around  this  topic 
for  which  I  have  no  desire  to  go  guarantee.  Nor  have 
I  thought  it  desirable  to  use  permission  to  quote 
from  the  great  number  of  letters  which  Fr.  \'aughan 
continued  to  receive,  henceforward,  from  members 
of  the  Royal  Famil}'  of  England.  It  may  be  suitably 
said,  perhaps,  that  after  a  sermon  at  Cannes  an 
equerry  came  to  ask  Fr.  Vaughan  if  he  would  object 
to  the  presence  of  the  Prince  at  the  next  Sunday's 
sermon,  which  was  to  be  upon  the  Magdalen.  Fr. 
Vaughan  asked  how  he  could  object,  and  was 
answered  that  it  was  feared  he  might  be  nervous  to 
have  so  many  royalties  at  his  sermon.  He  said  : 
"  I  am  accustomed  to  preach  as  in  the  presence  of 
the  King  of  kings,  and  shall  nt)t  be  made  nervous 
by  the  presence  of  anyone  else  whomsoever."  The 
Prince  asked  for  the  notes  of  the  sermon ;  none  had 
been  made.  Tlie  Prince  asked  for  it  to  be  written 
out,  and  that  is  how  this  particular  sermon  came 
to  be  printed.  After  this,  the  Prince  came  not 
seldom   to   hear   Fr.    \'''audian,    and   invitations   to 


64   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Marlborough  House,  and,  later,  to  Buckingham  Palace 
were  frequent.  It  is,  however,  a  special  pleasure  to 
be  permitted  to  say  Fr.  Vaughan  became  well  known 
later  on  to  King  Manuel  of  Portugal  and  to  the 
Queen-Mother  ;  the  King  was  not  only  an  admirer 
of  the  priest,  but  also  a  friend  when  exile  made 
friendship  doubly  valuable.  Fr.  Vaughan  several 
times  said  the  midnight  Christmas  Mass  at  Fulwell 
Park,  and  generally  was  the  guest  of  Their  Majesties 
for  two  days.  The  last  time  he  said  Mass  there  was 
in  1920.  I  need  only  add  that,  in  matters  other  than 
purely  personal,  Fr.  Vaughan's  knowledge  of  many 
North-of-England  towns,  enabled  him  to  be  of  real 
use  on  the  occasion  of  royal  visits  there,  by  ex- 
plaining to  those  who  made  the  visits  and  to  those 
who  received  them,  the  conditions  of  the  towns  in 
question,  and  the  good  will  and  hopes  of  the  visitors. 
I  will  here  quote,  as  being  hitherto,  I  understand, 
unpublished,  two  letters  received  from  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Westminster  by  his  brother  about  this 
time  : 

St.  Joseph's  Foreign  Missionary  College,  Mill  Hill, 
London,  N.W.     March  10th. 

My  Dearest  B. — I  shaU  be  glad  to  hear  of  what  success 
you  had  on  the  Riviera  in  the  way  of  audience,  and 
especially  in  the  way  of  conversions. 

Do  not  overdo  your  strength,  or  you  may  (though  younger) 
break  down  as  I  have.  Not  more  than  five  courses  a  week 
— and  not  quite  the  whole  line  of  the  Riviera  at  once. 
Remember  I  hope  you  will  enrol  as  many  as  possible  in  the 
Archconfratemity  of  Our  Lady  of  Compassion.  Ycu 
probably  have  the  right  and  the  diplomas — of  which  I  send 
you  one.  I  could  also  send  you  a  few  copies  of  my  Manual 
for  the  Confraternity,  if  it  would  be  of  any  use. 


IX    MANCHESTER  65 

You  should  get  as  many  prayers  for  conversions  as  possible. 
I  am  spending  four  or  five  days  (or)  a  week  at  M.  H. — I  have 
plenty  of  time  for  desk  work  and  am  engaged  in  the  matter 
of  Ecclesiastical  Education  the  day  being  spent  at  the  table 
or  the  tabernacle.  I  think  I  am  decidedly  better — better 
than  when  on  the  Riviera.  Much  walking  or  any  physical 
exertion  are  still  impossible.  .  .  .  God  bless  you. 

Archbishop's  House,  Westminster,  S.W. 

April  26th. 

Dearest  Bernard, — I  should  hke  to  know  how  you  are 
after  the  six  weeks  of  work  and  excitement  which  must 
have  been  an  unusual  tax  even  on  you. 

I  hope  you  will  have  some  converts  as  a  result.  Moral 
subjects  draw  Protestants  as  much  as  doctrinal  ones,  when 
they  are  far  off. 

We  have  had  over  1,200  conversions  in  this  diocese  during 
the  year  1897.  I  think  the  Bishop  of  S(alford)  was  to  have 
given  the  Salford  Synod  his  number — but  I  have  not  heard 
what  it  amounted  to. 

As  to  health,  I  am  decidedly  better  than  when  I  left  the 
Riviera,  and  I  am  now  undergoing  a  diet  to  reduce  weight 
and  add  to  stamina.     Yours  affectionately,  H.  C.  V. 

I  managed  three  hours  of  Synod  of  which  three-fourths 
was  Allocution  without  much  effort. 

What,  then,  were  Fr.  Vaughan's  feelings  when  he 
heard  that  the  time  was  nearing  when  he  must  go 
from  Manchester  ?  He  was  sorry,  for,  the  simple 
fact  is,  that  he  had  enjoyed  it  all  immensely  And 
he  had  developed  a  real  and  most  warm  love  for  the 
great  city.  If  it  had  suited  him  to  perfection,  he. 
too,  had  suited  it  ;  and  1  imagine  that  when  Man- 
chester has  decided,  after  the  considerable  tests  that 
it  is  likely  to  impose,  that  a  man  thoroughly  suits  it, 
there  will  be  no  limit  to  the  genial  goodwill  that  it 
will  show  him.     No  doubt  Manchester  is  in  manv 


66   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

ways  quite  different  from  other  great  cities  of  the 
North,  but  it  is  a  northern  city,  and  no  one  has  ever 
said  that  any  part  of  Lancashire  is  finnicky.  There 
was  then  an  open-hearted,  bluff,  massive,  even  at 
times  uproarious  goodwill  shown  by  Manchester  to 
Fr.  Vaughan,  which  he  liked,  being  himself  most 
open-hearted  and  built  all  through  on  a  fine  and  large 
scale,  and  being  by  no  means  altogether  averse,  on 
due  occasion,  to  uproar.  He  had — not  basked : 
that  is  too  lazy — but  revelled  and  exulted  in  the 
publicity,  in  the  popularity,  and  yet,  as  everybody 
knew,  and  knew  with  admiration,  he  had  not  made, 
and  could  not  make,  one  penny  off  it  for  himself. 
Well,  he  had  enjoyed  himself,  and  liked  Manchester,  ^ 
and  Manchester  liked,  was  proud  of,  and  enjoyed 
him.  He  meant  what  he  said,  when  he  announced 
that  his  address  henceforward  would  be  in  London, 
but  his  home,  Manchester ;  that  he  had  many 
perches,  but  only  one  nest.  And  it  was  now  that  Fr. 
Vaughan  had,  with  the  help  of  his  superiors  in  Eng- 
land and  in  Rome,  to  begin  not  only  to  reject  the 
rumours  but  the  persistent  offers  of  a  bishopric.  To 
Wales,  to  Salford,  and  to  Bombay  he  was,  in  talk 
at  least,  despatched  ;  and  even,  his  amused  eye 
caught,  on  his  grey  horizon,  the  flicker  of  the  Hat. 
In  this  chapter,  I  have  perhaps  tried,  and  later 
I  shall  try- — speaking  with  that  simplicity  which 
I  think  Fr.  Vaughan  would  have  approved — ^to  take 
the  wind  out  of  the  sails  of  many  a  critic.  If  he  is 
accused — and  many  accused  him  thus — of  hunting  t, 
publicity,  of  preaching  sensationally,  of  clerical 
shop-window  dressing,  I  should  like  to  be  the  first 


IN    MANCHESTER  67 

to  insist  upon  just  all  that,  and  to  go  on  to  say  that 
he  was  quite  right  in  doing  so.  Take  publicity.  He 
took  care  that  his  sermons  should  be  reported,  and 
provided  reporters  with  typed  copies — verbatim, 
full,  and  condensed — of  what  ho  meant  to  say.  If 
he  judged  a  thing  worth  saying,  he  judged  it  worth 
listening  to.  But  not  all  possible  listeners  could  get 
into  his  church,  packed  as  it  always  was,  and  though 
he  had  to  call  to  the  stifling  crowds  at  the  bottom 
of  the  building,  or  clinging  precariously  to  pedestals 
or  railings,  "  Come  up  here  ;  come  inside  these 
altar-rails ;  make  yourselves  comfortable.  Isn't 
this  God's  House  ?  God  is  your  good  Father."  So, 
he  was  glad  that  through  the  press  his  words  should 
reach  the  folks  who  had  stopped  outside.  But, 
it  must  reach  them  right.  Reporters  find  it  hard  to 
take  a  man  down  exactly  if  he  speaks  as  fast  as 
Fr.  Vaughan  sometimes  spoke.  And  they  are 
human  ;  they  want  copv,  and  "  good  "  copy.  So 
they  alter,  or  colour  up  what  they  hear.  And  they 
will  omit  the  duU  parts  ;  but  to  them,  the  dull  parts 
are  the  theological  ones,  the  teaching  parts.  And 
theology  is  so  exact  that  even  to  alter  its  formulas 
at  all,  is  likely  to  produce  a  false  theology.  But  a 
Catholic  priest  cannot  risk  false  theology  going  out 
under  his  sanction.  He  can  never  be  irresponsible  in 
the  pulpit,  nor  even  on  the  platform.  His  doctrine 
is  not  his,  but  the  Church's,  that  is,  Christ's.  In  other 
groups,  unorthodoxy  may  be  the  very  bait  which 
catches  congregations  :  and  anyhow,  where  there  is 
no  touchstone  of  orthodoxy,  it  matters  little  what  is 
said.     But  to  a  Catholic,  it  matters  all  in  all.     And 


68   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

even  with  the  greatest  care,  mistakes  cannot  be 
precluded.  Behind  the  reporter,  to  whom  a  typed 
copy  and  a  mug  of  honest  ale  can  be  imparted,  sits 
the  invisible  editor,  with  his  blue-pencil.  I  think 
that  in  every  case  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  having  got  into 
trouble,  this  was  due  to  some  careful,  qualiiying 
sentence  of  his  having  been  omitted  either  by  the 
reporter  or  the  editor.  What  he  said  in  the  pulpit, 
was,  first  filleted  ;  then,  hotted  up  for  the  general 
press,  then,  served  up  as  hash  by  the  local  ones ; 
so  that  if  he  so  much  as  suggested  that  the  conditions, 
say,  of  "  living  in  "  did  not  always  make  for  the 
morality  of  shop-girls,  this  firm  or  that  of  milliners 
would  all  but  start  legal  proceedings  against  him  ; 
if  he  said  that  Protestantism  was  a  dying  cult,  letters 
poured  forth  whose  writers  urged  that  they  knew 
several  virtuous  Protestants. 

Then,  sensationalism.  I  shall  have  more  to  say 
about  that  in  the  next  chapter.  Here  I  want,  near 
the  outset,  to  insist  that  Fr.  Vaughan's  sermons  were 
not  as  a  rule,  or  in  their  bulk,  at  all  sensational.  He 
usually  began  them  haltingly,  with  a  curious  chopped- 
up  wilful  accuracy.  You  saw  that  he  was  thinking, 
and  was  resolved  to  say,  and  that  his  hearers  should 
hear,  exactly  what  he  meant.  Even  when  the 
sermon  became  flowing,  he  would  suddenly  revert  to 
his  harshest,  driest  enunciation,  clipping  the  syllables 
off  and  throwing  them  at  you  like  wooden  blocks. 
He  would  do  this  even  when  using  some  of  his  oddest 
phrases,  as  though  defying  you  to  quarrel  with  them. 
For  example,  he  liked  to  think  of  God's  entry  into 
our  world  through  the  Incarnation  as  an  onrush,  a 


I 


IN    MANCHESTER  69 

swooping  forth  of  love,  and  he  would  often  use  the 
phrase  from  the  Canticle  which  speaks  of  the  Beloved 
as  leaping  and  "  skipping  over  the  hills."  To  most 
of  us,  that  Orientalism  comes  as  a  none  too  pleasant 
shock.  But  defiantly  he  pelted  you  with  that  sort 
of  phrase  ;  and  if  it  was  often  said  that  he  succeeded 
because  he  knew  just  what  his  audience  wanted,  he 
also  knew  just  what  he  liked  himself,  and  was  clear 
that  his  audience  should  not  be  let  off,  but  should 
hear  it.  In  his  "  denunciations,"  too,  which,  if 
you  read  them,  sound  as  if  they  must  have  been 
howled  or  hissed,  as  often  as  not  he  would  be  using 
this  trenchant,  acid,  voice,  sometimes  an  almost 
croaking  voice,  that  never  suggested  so  much  as 
the  possibility  of  loss  of  self-control.  This  was  also 
true  for  his  "  slang."  To  read  him,  you  might  have 
thought  he  used  it  through  being  slip-shod,  or  even, 
through  a  childish  vanity  which  might  be  prompting 
him  to  exhibit  his  up-to-date  knowledge  of  the 
world's  jargon.  To  hear  him,  you  would  not  have 
been  tempted  to  think  that.  It,  too,  was  curtly, 
or  even  brutally  chucked  at  you — yes,  much  in  the 
way  in  which  Newman  makes  the  devils  in  the  Dream 
of  Gcrontius  say  they  are  "  chucked  down  "  from 
heaven.  It  was  the  violent  word  needed,  and  not 
unique  in  Newman,  wliom  no  one  would  call,  I  sup- 
pose, wantonly  slangy. 

\\']iat  was  more  open  to  criticism,  was  his  rhetoric. 
Some  people  dislike  rhetoric  altogether,  and  doubly 
in  the  pulpit.  This  is  an  affair  of  taste,  and  personal. 
But  all  may  ask  that  if  rhetoric  be  used,  it  be  good 
rhetoric.     Fr.  Vaughan's  was  often  very  bad.     Well, 

F 


70   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

non  omnes  omnia.  But  I  should  never  admit  that 
in  his  sermons  there  was  only  rhetoric,  good  or  bad. 
He  took  immense  pains  in  working  them  out,  and  did 
not  bluff  his  audience.  I  was  often  touched  by  his 
requests  for  information  or  correction  on  points  of 
fact,  say,  on  some  detail  of  pagan  cult  or  belief.  He 
would  certainly  struggle  to  twist  the  fact  into  some- 
thing more  dramatic. — "  May  I  say  so  and  so  ?  " 
he  would  ask  ;  and  when  one  answered  "  No,"  he 
would  sigh  and  loyally  not  say  it. 

What  his  critics  worst  objected  to,  was  the  moment 
which  nearly  always  came,  when  he  "  let  himself 
go."  Sometimes  the  moment  lasted  the  whole 
sermon.  His  audience  might  sympathise  with  him, 
or,  if  they  did  not,  they  would  simply  loathe  life 
while  the  sermon  lasted.  "  I  could  not  prepare," 
he  wrote  to  Lady  Shephard.  "  I  had  just  to  let 
myself  go.  It  must  have  sounded  awful  rubbish 
and  twaddle  to  non-Catholics.  Tell  X  that  next 
time  he  must  come  and  hear  me  on  some  subject 
more  common  to  us  both."  If  you  did  not  like  his 
extraordinary  shouts,  or  strident  outcries,  no  saw, 
no  thumbscrew  could  have  been  a  worse  torture. 
But  many  most  certainly  liked  them.  At  Man- 
chester, he  concluded  a  sermon  by  leaning  over  the 
pulpit  and  saying  to  his  hearers  :  "I  love  you  ; 
I  love  you  ;  I  love  you,"  in  three  perfectly  different 
voices.  "  Every  tooth,"  said  some  one  whose  own 
sense  of  humour  was  in  abeyance,  "  every  tooth  was 
on  edge."  But  no.  I  heard  of  an  old  lady  who  in 
her  simplicity  had  come  for  miles  just  to  hear  him 
say  that,  for  he  often  said  it,  and  no  doubt  fully 


IN    MANXH ESTER  71 

meant  it.  And  again,  after  a  sermon,  a  priest  had 
come  from  the  church,  and  had  described  it  as  "  the 
usual  stuff."  But  immediately  on  his  words,  a  lady 
called  on  this  priest,  in  floods  of  tears  :  the  sermon, 
someliow,  had  been  just  what  she  needed  :  her  whole 
hfe  was  changed,  deeply,  and  lastingly.  A  friend  of 
his  has  told  me,  not  without  some  satisfaction,  that 
a  cultured  person,  emerging  from  one  of  Fr. 
Vaughan's  sermons,  summed  it  up  in  the  one  word  : 
"Flap-doodle."  No  doubt  it  was  nearer  Ella  Wheeler 
Wilcox  than  Walter  Pater,  for  style  ;  but  after  all, 
sermons  are  meant  to  be  listened  to,  and  an  audience 
nurtured,  if  not  on  Mrs.  Wilcox,  at  least  on  Mrs. 
Glyn,  would  not  have  hearkened  to  the  reasoning  of 
Aquinas.  The  "  soft  raiment  "  of  diction,  or  even  of 
subtle  or  novel  views,  were  not  there  to  attract  ; 
and  since  no  one  ever  called  Fr.  Vaughan  a  wind- 
shaken  reed,  he  may  profit  by  the  tliird  option 
offered  long  ago. 

Not  that  he  thought  of  himself  in  exaggerated 
terms.  He  knew  his  limitations,  which  plenty  of 
people  made  sure  that  he  should  know,  but  also,  his 
powers.  If  they  were  third-rate,  as  he  judged  them 
to  be,  use  them  he  would  to  the  utmost.  "  If  all 
1  were  good  for  were  to  sweep  a  crossing,"  he  de- 
clared, "I'd  do  it  so  tliat  all  London  would  cry  out 
— Come  and  see  Vaughan's  crossing  !  "  And.  "  I  am 
the  Lord's  sheep-dog.  If  He  says  to  me,  Bernard, 
go  and  bark  ;  1  will  go  and  bark  as  loud  as  I  can. 
Round  'em  up  !  Fetch  'em  in !  Then  when  He 
says  to  me  :  Bernard,  to  heel  !  back  I  come,  with 
my  tongue  hanging  out."     Not  but  wliat  he  knew 


72   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

that  the  words  and  the  ways,  which  he  used  both  as 
counters  in  life's  game  and  as  the  genuine  expression 
of  his  self,  were  liked.  He  would  roar  with  laughter 
at  his  own  fireworks,  and  then,  with  a  wave  of  the 
arm,  a  tilt  of  the  chin,  and  a  triumphant  smile,  would 
cry,  '*  They  like  it !  "  And  so  they  did.  Who  has 
not  heard  of  his  laying  the  foundation-stone  of  a 
suburban  church  in  Manchester,  and  mounting  a 
shaky  platform  some  twenty  feet  high  whence  he 
preached  while  the  building  behind  him  was  actually 
going  on  ?  Men  climbed  up  and  down  ladders,  and 
mixed  the  mortar,  and  in  the  street  below,  electric 
trams  ground  their  way  by.  Fr.  Vaughan  seized 
the  occasion  :  he  spoke  of  building,  and  traffic.  In 
two  or  three  minutes,  not  only  the  building  opera- 
tions had  paused,  but  the  very  trams  were  stationary, 
and  passengers,  drivers  and  conductors  were  added 
to  an  audience  which  had  risen  from  twenty-five  to 
hundreds. 

Yet,  though  he  gave  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor  ; 
though  after  a  sermon  he  was  found  to  have  had  to 
hang  his  soaked  linen  up  to  dry,  such  had  been  his 
exhaustion,  if  he  had  had  no  charity,  of  what  use  was 
all  that  ?  Had  he  had  no  interior  life,  of  what  pur- 
pose to  chronicle  thus  the  husk  ?  But  never  was  he 
forgetful  of  the  only  thing  that  counted.  All  through 
his  life  he  had  loved  to  preach  on  Prayer,  "  the  Food 
of  the  Soul."  Always  had  he  insisted  that  for  this 
there  was  no  substitute.  Disunited  from  God,  the 
soul  was  bound  to  starve.  Hence  his  had  always 
been  a  true  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament. 
Unable  to  stay  long  at  any  occupation,  long  prayers 


IN    MANCHKSTKR  7J 

would  liLive  bec-n  iinpossiblc  to  him,  and  his  wcic 
short.  But  they  were  very  frequent,  and  his  chief 
"  devotion  "  was  the  making  of  many  httle  visits, 
in  which  rapidly  he  asked  from  Our  Lord  in  the 
tabernacle,  grace  to  do  the  next  action  well,  and  to 
pass  the  hour  aright.  And  since  he  was  but  too 
well  aware,  in  the  delicacy  of  his  conscience,  that  the 
act  might  have  been  better,  the  hour  holier,  never 
a  day  passed  without  his  purifying  his  life  by  means 
of  the  sacrament  of  penance.  Every  day,  he  went 
to  confession,  tersely,  humbly,  and  carefull}-.  And 
to  my  mind,  his  real,  personal  attitude  in  life  ex- 
presses itself  in  a  line  he  wrote  to  an  old  friend, 
Henrietta  Duchess  of  Newcastle.* 

"  Heaven  !  "  he  wrote,  when  beginning  to  suffer,  as  he 
early  did,  from  insomnia.  "  An  everlasting  holiday  !  How 
enchanting  it  will  be.  Pray  that  I  do  not  miss  it.  And, 
rather  later ;  "  Let  us  often  ask  ourselves  during  this 
(Lent)— Who  ?  What  ?  Why  ?  Who  suffers  ?  What  does 
he  suffer  ?  Why  does  he  suffer  ?"  To  the  end  of  his  life  he 
repeated  to  himself  these  questions.  And  he  answered  them 
thus  : 

Wlio  ?  My  best,  my  constant  friend,  my  Master,  Brother, 
Lord,  God  and  All. 

What  ?     He  suffers  cverj'thing  and  from  everybody. 

Why  ?  For  me  whom  in  love  He  created,  in  love  re- 
deemed, in  love  has  pardoned  and  sanctified. 

In  tuni  we  may  put  another  triple  question. 

Who  offends  Him  ?  A  poor  worm  of  the  earth  dependent 
absolutely  on  His  hounty.  A  creature  made  to  His  image 
and  likeness,  a  child  raised  tt)  the  dignity  of  co-heir  with 
Christ,  etc. 

♦This  lady,  who  luul  been  received  into  the  Church  in  Fr.inc«  some 
time  before  she  know  I'r.  V.uich;ui,  died  .it  WiHidtord  in  I'li  v  She  h.id 
always  gencrou.sly  helped  I-"^.  Vauplian,  and  her  name  as  benefactress  can 
be  read  in  the  Chapel  of  Our  Lady  dcUa  Strada  at  Manchester. 


74   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

What  is  my  offence  ?     Then  the  catalogue  of  our  sins. 

Why  do  I  offend  Him  ?  To  gratify  what  I  should  crucify, 
etc. 

Do  pray  for  me  and  pray  for  great  gift  of  prayer,  and 
love  of  Our  Lord.     This  is  only  for  you. 

The  supreme  Jesuit  authority  had  approved  of  his 
work  at  Manchester,  had  congratulated  him  on  his 
men's  Sodality  that  sent  such  numbers  to  Com- 
munion, and,  after  the  Moorhouse  lectures,  on  the 
practice  of  speaking  in  public  halls  as  well  as — 
almost  rather  than — ^in  churches.  The  General  pre- 
sented these  lectures  to  the  Holy  Father,  and  ob- 
tained for  the  lecturer  the  Apostolic  Benediction. 

Having  then  preached  some  three  sermons  a  week 
ever  since  he  had  come  to  Manchester,  he  preached 
once  more,  on  the  text:  "Rise  up  and  go  forth, 
thy  place  is  no  more  here,"  and  then  left  the  city 
without  any  farewell. 


II 

IN    MAYFAIR 

AS  long  ago  as  1881  Fr.  Vaughan  had  preached 
a  course  of  sermons  on  the  Divine  Life  of  the 
Soul  at  the  Jesuit  church  in  Farm  Street, 
But  he  had  come  seldom  enough  to  London  during 
his  Manchester  period.  On  the  whole,  he  knew  little 
about  London,  and  London  knew  nothing  at  all  of 
him.  In  so  far  as  anyone  was  aware  of  his  arrival, 
they  were  apt  to  ask  what  "  the  man  from  Man- 
chester "  was  likely  to  make  of  the  metropolis.  "  He 
will  find."  people  said,  "  that  that  sort  of  thing  will 
not  do  here."  And  it  is  possible  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
half  felt  so  too.  Perhaps  he  had  not  fully  reaUsed 
the  extent  to  which  South  Africa  had  been  providing 
millionaires,  and  how  the  architecture  of  Park  Lane 
was  bulging  and  twisting  and  courageously  com- 
bining styles  hitherto  thought  disparate,  at  the 
behest  of  imaginative  wealth.  In  the  romances  of 
Mr.  Anthony  Hope,  much  of  the  spirit  of  that  remote 
age  may  be  re-discovered.  Yet  we  hasten  to  agree 
that  glazed  tiles  and  tena-cotta  mouldings  were  not 
yet  at  their  work  of  making  Mayfair  look  like  a  rich 
provincial  suburb.* 

In   the  midst  of  all   this,   stood  the  little  Jesuit 

•I  proptnsc  in  thi.s  section  to  describe  the  scirt  of  life  Vr.  X'aughan  led  at 
Mount  Street  till  loio,  when  he  went  to  Montreal.  I  make  no  attempt 
to  do  so  chronoIok;ic.T.lly  or  even  exhaustively  :  noteworthy  incidents, 
characteristic  occupations,  and  thus  (1  hope)  a  due  general  impression 
are  all  I  want  to  allude  to  and  provide. 


76   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

"  chapel,"  as  the  maps  sometimes  still  describe  it. 
Begun  in  1844,  it  opened  on  to  the  peaceful  mews 
above  which  stare  the  back-windows  of  many- 
storied  Charles  Street.  At  that  end  of  the  church 
(in  which  Fr.  Brownbill  received  Gladstone's  "  two 
eyes,"  as  he  called  Manning  and  Hope  Scott,  and 
where  Manning's  first  apostolate  was  housed)  rises 
the  earlier  residence  of  the  Jesuit  fathers,  where 
their  writing  staff  still  dwells.  But  after  a  while, 
at  the  other  end  of  the  church,  and  of  a  garden 
patiently  green  between  high  walls  and  under  films 
of  soot,  some  benefactors  built  the  house  known  as 
114,  Mount  Street,  where  Fr.  Vaughan  actually  lived 
— not,  as  popular  diction  demands,  in  Farm  Street. 
From  his  high-up  corner  room,  he  could  contemplate 
the  disused  cemetery  on  to  which  Audley  Street 
chapel  backs,  or,  craning  his  neck  to  the  right,  he 
might  look  across  Mount  Street  and  perceive  the 
dignified  corner  of  Grosvenor  Square.  From  three 
directions,  on  nights  when  dances  summoned  the 
world  to  those  elect  districts,  motors  whirled  past, 
tilting  each  time  the  lid  of  the  local  drain  and  letting 
it  fall  back  with  a  crash  not  agreeable  to  one  already 
suffering  badly  from  insomnia.* 

In  Fr.  Vaughan's  room  were  some  high  book- 
shelves, but  practically  no  other  furniture  save  what 
was  strictly  needed  ;  a  big  crucifix  hung  opposite 
the  foot  of  his  bed  ;  and  on  his  mantelpiece  was  a 
curious  and  Spanish-looking  water-colour  of  his 
mother. 

*I  am  not  sure  that  this  was  the  room  that  Fr.  Vaughan  had  at  the 
beginning  ;  it  remains  that  all  those  rooms  have  practically  the  same 
outlook  and  are  not  adapted  to  people  suffering  from  insomnia.  Fr. 
▼aughan  never,  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  took  drugs  for  his  complaint. 


I 


IN    .MAVi<AIR 


// 


At  first  it  did  indeed  look  as  if  Fr.  Vaut<han  had 
fallen  like  a  stone  into  the  London  pool,  and  gone 
down  witlKHit  a  ripple.  However,  an  unexpected 
kindness  was  done  him  b}'  Protestant  agencies. 

The  Chatham  ayid  Rochester  News,  in  the  summer 

of  1901,  published  a  letter  signed  "  Loyal  Protestant" 

which  declared  that   Bernard  Vaughan,  brother  of 

the  Cardinal,  had  taken  the  "  Jesuit  Oath,"  from 

which  the  following  words  were  quoted  : 

"  I  do  renounce  and  disowTi  my  allegiance  as  due  to  any 
heretical  king,  prince,  or  state-named  Protestant  or  obe- 
dience to  any  of  their  inferior  magistrates  or  officers,  etc." 

Fr.  Vaughan's  solicitors  thereupon  commenced  an 
action  for  libel  against  the  journal,  which  appealed, 
naturally,  to  "  Loyal  Protestant  "  for  his  evidence. 
The  "  Loyal  Protestant  "  answered  that  he  was  sure 
he  had  seen  the  Oath  in  print  somewhere,  and  had 
taken  it  for  granted  that  Fr.  Vaughan  must  have 
sworn  that  oath.  The  Chatham  and  Rochester  News 
then  went  carefully  into  the  matter,  and  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  allegation  was  "  absolutely 
unfounded,  and  that  the  Jesuits  take  no  such  oath 
as  that  alleged,  (and)  we  feel  in  honour  bound  to 
express  our  regret  that  we  had  inadvt  rtently  allowed 
any  such  fraudidiuit  imputation  upon  the  loyalty 
and  good  faith  of  the  Kew  Bernard  Vaughan  to 
appear."  Naturally  I'r.  Vaughan's  solicitors 
accepted  this  full  and  honourable  apology,  which 
was  "  fortunate,"  said  th.'  News,  "  for  '  Loyal 
Protestant  '  as  well  as  for  ourselves." 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  this  controversy, 
which  is  one  that  drops  periodically  from  the  moon 


78   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

to  occupy  and  waste  the  time  of  busy  men,  might 
thereafter  have  ceased.  But  not  at  all.  A  Pro- 
testant journal,  called  The  Rock,  now  defunct,  pub- 
lished on  August  23rd  an  article  called  "  Jesuit  Out- 
laws," in  which  the  editor  of  the  News  was  taken 
violently  to  task  as  a  fool,  if  not  a  knave.  **  For," 
said  The  Rock,  **  another  of  these  outlaws,  Mr.  Ber- 
nard Vaughan,  (one  steeped  in  sedition)  commences 
an  action  against  the  editor  of  The  Chatham  and 
Rochester  News.  Why  has  the  truth  been  kept  from 
that  editor,  that  even  were  that  oath  the  Father 
Vaughan  is  alleged  to  have  taken  proved  false, 
Jesuits  cannot  be  libelled.  They  are  outlaws,  and 
outlaws  have  no  legal  rights,  either  as  corporations 
or  as  individuals."  Unfortunate  Rock.  If  it  had 
only  kept  proper  names  out !  It  might  still  supply 
a  somewhat  slimy  foothold  to  those  who  cared  to 
perch  upon  it.  But  having  described  Fr.  Vaughan 
as  an  "  infamous  son  of  Loyola,"  and  a  confrere  of 
men  "  who  own  no  nationality,  no  law,  save  the  will 
of  their  own  General,  who  were  the  sole  cause  of 
two  revolutions  here,  and  who  every  day  perpetrate 
crimes  against  our  laws  and  constitutions  by  inciting 
Romanists  to  rebellion  and  to  another  civil  war," 
it  laid  itself  open  to  reprisals.  When  it  heard  that 
an  action  was  being  laid  against  it,  it  apologised  to 
the  extent  of  saying  that  the  words  "  steeped  in 
sedition  "  had  slipped  in  by  "  an  unfortunate  over- 
sight." Fr.  Vaughan  did  not  accept  this  apology, 
and  The  Rock  spent  a  long  time  in  collecting  money  . 
for  what  it  called  a  "  test  case."  It  helped  itself 
by  placards  and  caricatures  and  by  meetings.     Also 


IN   MAVFAIR  79 

the  case  was  several  times  adjourned,  not  owing  to 
any  application  from  the  Jesuit  side  ;  and  even  when 
it  did  at  last  come  on  for  a  hearing,  The  Rock's 
solicitor  went  suddenly  sick,  but  since  no  affidavit 
to  that  effect  could  be  produced,  the  Judge  refused 
to  accede  to  the  application.  The  case  therefore 
came  on,  on  June  2nd,  1902,  in  the  King's  Bench 
Division  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  before  Mr. 
Justice  Wills  and  a  special  jur}'.  Sir  Edward  Clarke. 
K.c,  Mr.  Hugo  Young,  K.c,  and  Mr.  Denis  O'Conor 
were  for  Fr.  Vaughan,  plaintiff,  and  Mr.  Blackwood 
Wright,  for  the  Defendant.  Mr.  Macaskie,  K.c,  had 
the  ungrateful  task  of  cross-examining  Fr.  \'aughan. 
The  only  points  he  could  really  make  were  that  Fr. 
Vaughan  could  not  remember  exactly  the  various 
details  of  the  insulting  passages,  so  that  he  could 
not  have  minded  very  much  about  them  ;  that  he 
had  suffered  loss  neither  of  mone^^  nor  hospitality 
through  the  libel  ;  that  not  he,  but  his  superiors, 
would  pocket  the  damages,  if  any  ;  and  that  tech- 
nically he  required  a  license  from  the  Home  Secretar}' 
in  order  to  reside  in  England  and  had  not  got  one. 
An  attempt  to  rouse  odium  thcologicum  was  made,  by 
rehearsing  the  stock  accusations  made  against  the 
Society,  and  in  particular  Fr.  de  Luca's  book  on 
Canon  Law  was  quoted.  Fr.  \'aughan  pointed  out 
that  it  contained  notliing  novel  nor  peculiar  to  the 
author,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  embodied 
decretals  of  which  many  dated  from  ancient  cen- 
turies when  the  unity  of  Christendom  still  existed 
and  was  recognised  as  of  paramount  importance  by 
all,  and  that  Fr.  de  Luca's  theories  about  the  right 


8o   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

of  the  Church  to  persecute  were  indeed  but  theories 
inapplicable  at  the  present  day.  He  then  announced 
with  some  vehemence  that  he  was  glad  to  have  this 
opportunity  of  publicly  stating  that  he  rejected  and 
repudiated  all  such  speculative  theories  and  views 
(on  this  particular  subject)  as  monstrous  anachron- 
isms, and  concluded  that  he  might  say,  with  Cardinal 
Manning,  that  since  the  unity  of  Christendom  had 
been  broken  up,  "  the  use  of  persecution  for  those  who 
hold  religious  opinions  contrary  to  ourselves  would 
be  a  crime  and  a  heresy."  For  the  energetic  form 
of  this  statement  he  was  somewhat  criticised  later 
on.  However,  after  an  admirable  speech  by  Sir  E. 
Clarke,  and  a  very  impartial  but  quite  relentless 
summing  up  by  the  judge,  the  jury,  after  an  absence 
of  less  than  half  an  hour,  gave  a  verdict  for  the 
plaintiff  with  £300  damages,  and  some  time  after 
this  The  Rock  finally  crumbled  and  blew  away  in 
powder  upon  the  breeze. 

Established  thus  in  the  eyes  of  all  London,  by  far 
the  most  striking  figure  in  a  court  packed  as  though 
for  a  divorce  suit,  his  "  thousand  years  "  of  family 
loyalty  made  quite  plain  to  the  exclusive,  and  his 
bonhomie  having  captivated  the  others,  Fr.  Vaughan 
became  without  any  further  trouble  a  London  per- 
sonage. But  much  more  than  by  this  was  he  abso- 
lutely flung  up  against  the  attention  of  a  far  wider 
world,  not  by  the  Smart  Set  Sermons,  about  which 
everyone  has  heard,  but  by  the  concert  at  the  Albert 
Hall,  in  1904,  of  which  I  speak  in  the  next  section. 
Naturally  all  London — I  might  say,  all  England — 
was  thrilled  to  learn  that  Mme.  Patti  was  to  sing. 


IN   MAYFAIR  8l 

and  in  fact  did  sing,  once  more  at  the  Albert  H:ill, 
and  even  those  who  knew  it  as  Mme.  Patti's  Concert, 
were  forced  to  use  the  alternative  description,  and 
call  it  Fr.  \'aiighan's  C(jncert.     Above  all,  it  was  an 
astonishment  to  learn  that  the  Farm  Street  priest 
had  all   this  while  been  working  in   W'hitechapel. 
And  even  then,  the  next  event,  if  not  in  his  public 
English  life,  at  least  for  his  own  feeling  and  mind, 
was  his  going  to  Rome  in  the  winter  of  that  year  to 
preach  in  honour  of  the  Jubilee  of  the  Definition  of 
Our   Lady's   Immaculate   Conception.     I   need  not 
dwell  upon  Fr.  Vaughan's  very  childlike  devotion  to 
Our  Lad}'.     It  coloured  the  whole  of  his  life,  and 
this  visit  to  Rome  gave  him  new  strength,  especially 
as  it  brought  him  once  more  to  the  feet  of  Pius  X, 
for  whom  he  justly  felt  a  very  profound  veneration. 
In  the  season  of  1906,  Fr.  Vaughan  preached  ser- 
mons which  he  afterwards  published  in  book  form 
under  the  title  The  Sins  of  Society.     The  sermons 
themselves   were   preached   without    manuscript   or 
note,   but  can  have  been  but  little  different   from 
the  printed  version.     The  book  ran  into  at  least 
fourteen   editions,    and   was   pubhshed    by    Kegan 
Paul  &  Co.     To  it  he  prefixed  some  pages  in  which 
he  quite  frankly  owned  that  he  had  sought  to  make 
a  sensational,  and  so,  an  emotional  appeal,  for  by 
no  other  road,  he  held,  could  he  reach  the  intelli- 
gence, let  alone  the  spiritual  innermost,  of  those  he 
hoped  to  make  his  hearers.     In  the  preface  he  also 
says  that  he  means  to  write  an  epilogue  which  shall 
suggest  remedies  for  the  ills  he  has  diagnosed.     But 
he  does  little  more,  there,  than  to  pray  for  a  riddance 


82   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

of  agnostic  philosophy,  and  a  return  to  a  national 
belief  in  Christ.  He  dwells,  too,  in  this  epilogue  on 
the  vice  of  race-suicide,  relatively  unstressed  in  the 
sermons. 

As  for  the  sermons  themselves,  they  had  every 
kind  of  success,  including  that  of  "  scandal."  Farm 
Street  church  was  crammed  Sunday  by  Sunday  with 
crowds  described  as  obviously  smart  or  patently 
suburban  according  as  each  paper  thought  its 
readers  had  been  there  or  had  not :  the  congregation 
thronged  the  nave  and  aisles,  overflowed  into  the 
chapels,  sat  on  altar-rails  or  pillar  pedestals,  and  was 
marshalled  into  queues  outside  by  policemen  who 
regretted  their  Sunday  rest.  Society  leaders  gave 
"  Vaughan  luncheons."  Prominent  peers  were  said 
to  be  much  distressed.  People  mentioned  an  All- 
Catholic  petition  that  the  sermons  might  be  stopped  ; 
and  again,  certain  portals  were  announced  as  for 
ever  closed  to  the  Smart  Set  who  in  no  conceivable 
circumstances  could  have  been  pictured  knocking 
at  them.  Journalists,  annoyed  that  their  thunder 
had  been  stolen,  and  resolute  that  no  one  should  say 
with  impunity  what  they  had  not  said  first,  proved 
the  most  profitable  foe.  They  quoted  parallels : 
already  they  knew  the  name  of  Jeremiah,  and  soon 
learnt,  and  made  puns  on,  that  of  Savonarola. 
Juvenal  came  next,  and  had  some  success  ;  but 
Lucilius — secuit  urbem — was  a  thought  too  recondite 
and  never  really  throve.  John  Bull  condemned  Fr. 
Vaughan  for  blatancy  and  self-advertisement  ;  and 
John  Strange  Winter,  who  certainly  ought  to  have'' 
known  all  about  it,  attacked  his  "  slipshod  Enghsh  " 


IN    MAYFAIR  83 

and  diagnosed  hysteria.  Punch  devoted  one  of 
Blanche's  Letters  wholly  to  the  sermons,  and  was  at 
least  good-temj)ered  ;  but  Mr.  Filson  Young,  in  the 
Outlook,  proved  himself  a  master  of  tlie  methods  he 
shrieked  against.  To  make  uj),  .Mr.  G.  W.  E.  Russell 
recalled  the  really  interesting  career  of  the  Rev. 
G.  II.  Wilkinson,  who  also,  at  St.  Peter's,  Eaton 
Square,  in  1870,  "  spoilt  a  London  season  "  by  his 
attacks  on  all  classes  of  society,  though  a  writer  in 
the  Free  Press  declared  that  a  Jesuit  denouncing 
marital  infidelity  was  but  Satan  reproving  sin,  and 
that  the  jewel  was  but  "  gold  in  a  swine's  snout  "  ; 
whilst  a  well-known  doctor,  with  piercing  intuition, 
told  the  Daily  Mirror  that  he  could  see  that  Father 
Bernard's  views  on  divorce  were  **  strongly  tinged  " 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  belief  in  the  indissolubility 
of  the  marriage  bond.  As  the  sermons  proceeded 
a  real  emotion  became  manifest.  Societv  found 
defendants.  Y'ou  could  always  tell  when  the  critics 
were  angry  or  anxious,  for  then  they  mocked.  I'r. 
Vaughan  was  denounced  alternately  as  a  shrewd 
charlatan,  making  mone}'  for  Farm  Street,  and  again 
as  a  naive  hermit,  tricked  by  tales  told  to  "  make 
his  flesh  creep."  His  transparent  sincerity  forbade 
any  vogue  to  the  former  accusation  ;  his  twentv 
years  in  Manchester,  his  experience  in  the  con- 
fessional, his  work  in  the  East  End  known  by  now. 
and  his  whole  manner,  soon  silenced  the  latter.  But 
it  had  to  be  elaborately  explained  that  only  a  small 
section  of  "  society  "'  was  surely  being  aimed  at. 
It  was  indeed  argued  that  no  "  smart  set  "  existed. 
Delinquent   duchesses  were   merely    Mrs.    'Arris    in 


84   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

disguise.  Anglican  Archdeacons  showed  that  society 
was,  if  anything,  steadily  improving,  and  that  there 
was  much  good  in  all  of  us,  at  any  rate  in  Belgravia ; 
and  Dr.  Horton  said  that  the  same  was  true  for 
Bayswater.  It  was  found  safest  to  allude  to  Marie 
Corelli  and  **  Rita,"  and  to  say  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
had  beaten  them  at  their  own  game.  Thus  an  air 
of  good  humour  and  also  of  superiority  was  pre- 
served, and  yet  the  preacher  himself  might  feel 
complimented  and  continue  to  buy  the  paper. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  bought  few  if  any — their 
own  representatives  sent  him  quite  enough — and 
continued  to  preach  as  he  pleased.  His  first  sermon 
had  been  on  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican,  and  had 
denounced  the  unreality  of  what  he  had  not  been  the 
first  to  call  "  society  "  :  the  sermon  made  a  sensa- 
tion but  provoked  but  slight  criticism  :  he  defended 
it  on  the  ground  that  the  Church  caters  for  human 
creatures  and  does  not  feed  them  with  what  they 
cannot  possibly  eat.  "  Is  that,"  people  said,  "  the 
best  food  that  you  can  give  them  ?  "  "  No,"  he 
answered,  "  but  it  is  the  best  that  they  can  digest." 
But  that  he  meant  to  do  more  than  deride  the 
idiocy  of  the  pleasure-seeking  rich,  was  clear,  when  he 
described  the  three  months  of  the  season  as  a  three- 
act  drama  which,  if  it  did  not  turn  out  to  be  but  a 
bad  farce,  ended  as  tragedy.  The  second  sermon, 
on  Dives  and  Lazarus,  aroused  the  first  real  contro- 
versies, as  well  as  the  caricatures  and  cartoons,  which 
began  when  he  said  that  Society  was  as  rotten  as 
any  tinned  meats  from  Chicago.  Hereupon  voices 
were  heard  saying  that  Fr.  Vaughan  provided  no 


IN   MAVFAIR  85 

remedies  fur  the  ills  that  he  rebuked,  and  never  went 
to  the  roots  of  things.     Mr.  L.  Chiozza  Money,  in 
the  Daily  News,  asked  him  to  scarify  the  rich  not  as 
rich,  but  as  usurers,  and  to  turn  his  eyes  to  the  due 
distribution  of  wealth.     The  Labour  Leader  asked 
him  to  consider  how  fortunes  were  made,  not  how 
they  were  spent,  and  even  Mr.  G.   K.  Chesterton 
entered  the  lists,  in  a  rage,  not  with  Fr.  Vaughan, 
but  with  those  who  catalogued  the  charities  of  cer- 
tain colonial  millionaires  to  show  how  good  rich  men 
might  be.     There  is  no  doubt  that  this  last  sort  of 
criticism  was  of  value  to  Fr.  Vaughan,  since  it  led 
him  to  attend  3'et  more  closely  to  social  and  economic 
problems,  and,  with  more  knowledge  to  back  him, 
to  speak  with  more  power.     The  third  sermon  was 
on  Herod  the  Tetrarch  and  the  marriage  bond,  over 
which    the    press   got    into    inextricable    confusion 
between   Salome   and   Herodias,   and   seldom   spelt 
"  Antipas "    correctly.     One    journal   added    much 
to  the  joy  of  the  land  by  an  enchanting  error — it  said 
that  Fr.  Vaughan  had  asked  that  immoral  ladies  be 
tattooed.     Alas,  he  had  begged  nothing  more  drastic 
than   their   taboo.     It   remains   that   that   Sunday, 
which  occurred  in  Ascot  week,  became  known  as 
the  First  Sunday  after  Ascot.     The  fourth  sermon, 
placed  first  in  the  book,  was  on  the  Prodigal  Son, 
and  dealt  with  gambling  and  it  was  this  that  really 
roused  the  rage  of  the  clubs.     Father  Vaughan,  as 
I  said,  explained  very  clearly,  when  in  Manchester, 
the  ethics  of  gambling,  and  did  so  once  more  now  : 
but  this  proved  too  stiff  for  the  reporters,  who  were 
content  to  exhibit  the  preacher  as  a  Puritan  kill-joy. 

G 


86   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

A  similar  treatment,  then,  of  an  identical  subject, 
having  caused  Fr.  Vaughan  to  be  pictured,  there,  as 
a  licentious  Cavalier,  here,  as  a  Puritan  and  a  prude, 
it  is  probable  that  each  set  of  critics  had  really  felt 
themselves  palpably  hit  by  the  indictment,  and  that 
Fr.  Vaughan's  reasoned  via  media  was  the  right  one 
just  because  both  sets  of  extremists  called  it  wrong. 
He  preached  once  more,  on  "  Magdalen  in  May  fair," 
and  described  the  methods  by  which  marriages  were 
engineered  when  dollars  were  needed  to  regild 
coronets,  or  when  a  title  was  felt  to  lend  vicarious 
fragrance  to  the  coins.  Non  olet,  Vespasian  said  ; 
but  nostrils  were,  in  1906,  still  not  so  numbed  as  his 
then,  or  ours  now. 

There  was,  after  a  space,  a  final  sermon  at  Farm 
Street ;  but  the  season  was  then  over  :  "  London  " 
was  empty  ;  and  since  the  sermon  dealt  chiefly  with 
the  ruin  and  starvation  of  the  French  clergy,  the 
earthquake  at  San  Francisco,  and  the  disaster  at 
Valparaiso,  it  aroused  but  little  interest. 

People  smiled  when  it  was  announced  that  Fr. 
Vaughan  had  gone,  after  this,  to  drink  the  waters 
at  Harrogate,  and  thence,  by  way  of  Lord  Edmund 
Talbot's,  to  Ugbroke  Park,  where  Lord  Clifford  of 
Chudleigh  was  entertaining  Queen  Natalie  of  Servia. 
But  a  certain  reaction  had  occurred  ;  the  smile  might 
be  legitimate,  but  it  was  without  malice  even  though 
people  did  not  know  how  cruelly  Fr.  Vaughan  was 
suffering  from  sleeplessness,  and  also  from  the 
diabetic  illness  which  was  to  cause  him  much  distress 
and  was  already  discernable.  The  press  itself  was 
now  acknowledging,  far  from  ungraciously,  his  conl- 
plete  sincerity,  nay,  simplicity.     He  had  seen  that 


IN   MAYFAIR  87 

there  was  a  mass  of  very  bad  behaviour  in  our  midst, 
and  none  but  a  fool  would  have  denied  that  ;  he  saw, 
too,  what  one  had  to  be  rather  less  of  a  fool  to  see, 
to  what  it  was  leading  the  country.  He  saw  that  it 
was  unusuall\-  noisy,  and  very  ricli,  and  easily 
imitated  in  a  meaner  way,  and  that  there  was  just 
then  an  unusual  readiness  so  to  imitate.  To  put  the 
centre  of  one's  life's  gravity  in  money  ;  to  spend 
money  in  showy  pleasures  while  you  have  it  ;  to 
think  lightly  of  marriage  and  of  the  duties  of  mar- 
riage, are  attractive  vices  which  the  crowds  do  not 
need  to  have  stimulated  in  tliem  by  the  example  of 
a  tiamboyant  class  they  watch,  imitate  and  deride. 
Fr.  Vaughan  was  frankl}'  disgusted,  and  alarmed. 
At  least,  they  had  better  be  told.  Very  well,  he 
would  tell  them.  _  For  that,  he  must  be  heard.  Other 
attractions  made  themselves  kno^\'n  by  means  of 
placards.  He  chose  five  "  pictures,"  he  said,  from 
the  Gospels  and  placarded  them.  People  should  see 
and  hear.  W  hen  the  gibe  was  produced,  that  the 
only  empty  places  in  London  were  the  churches,  he 
said,  "  Very  well,  I  will  hll  mine."  And  he  did,  and 
in  Ascot  week,  too.  Having  gained  a  hearing,  he 
kept  it.  The  congregations  increased.  And  when 
readers  of  the  Monday  newspapers  said  :  "  He  merely 
serves  up  The  News  of  the  World  garnished  with 
ecclesiastical  sauce  piquanie,"  they  did  not  know 
that  they  were  not  given  the  spiritual  parts  of  the 
sermon  to  read,  nor  even  the  reasoned  parts.  And 
perhaps,  few  even  grasped  tliat  the  denunciation  was 
not  the  body  of  the  sermon,  but  the  contrast  meant 
to  make  the  sequel  more  cogent.     Still,  the  audience 


88   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

had  to  listen,  and  not  a  few  were  pricked,  not  in 
palate  alone,  but  in  heart.  Paid  bills  astonished  the 
dressmakers,  and  wages  made  servants  happy. 
True,  there  were  still  the  sweating-dens,  nor  was 
co-operation  everywhere  established — ^in  short,  there 
was  no  national  revolution  ;  but  the  fringe,  those 
who  were  in  danger  of  being  influenced  by  the  bad 
public  opinion,  who  did  not  quite  dare  to  express 
even  to  themselves  their  disgust  at  the  evil  exhibi- 
tion offered  them,  were  refreshed  and  encouraged. 
So  do  not  judge  the  sermons  by  canons  that  never 
were  the  preacher's.  The  sermons  were  not  like, 
and  did  not  emulate,  the  sensational  novel.  Miss 
Marie  Corelli  may — one  never  knows — have  meant 
to  write  good  English  ;  Dr.  Emil  Reich,  then  lec- 
turing at  Claridge's,  may  have  believed  his  impres- 
sionism was  real  thinking  ;  and  Mr.  G.  B.  Shaw 
certainly  tossed  about  a  number  of  ideas  and  argued 
vivaciously  around  them.  But  Fr.  Vaughan  cared 
little  how  he  said  a  thing,  provided  he  said  the  thing 
he  meant  to  say.  "  Do  you  know,"  he  asked  a 
reporter,  *'  that  my  five  nun-sisters  are  all  praying 
in  heaven  that  I  may  say  the  right  thing  ?  But 
I  fear  I  am  responsible  for  the  way  in  which  I  say  it." 
What  he  wanted  to  hand  over,  through  the  impres- 
sions he  might  make,  was  principle  ;  and  he  held  his 
principles  to  be,  quite  simply,  truth.  Let  them  hear 
the  truth.  The  Truth  shall  free  them.  And  one 
press-notice — I  think  exactly  one — shows  that  its 
writer  could  detect  what  he  called  the  "  vein  of 
love "  that  ran  all  through  the  sermons.  Fr.» 
Vaughan  loved  those  whom  he  scourged.     Did  they 


IN   MAYFAIR  89 

guess  that  ?  Who  knows  !  But  none  who  knew 
him  need  have  the  shghtest  doubt  tliat  that  was  true. 
He  loved  God  :  he  loved  souls.  He  was  wretched 
to  see  that  an  idle  or  a  jaded  world  could  lind  no  time 
to  know  God,  nor  the  supreme  manifestation  of  love, 
and  the  key  to  all  riddles,  God  Incarnate.  "  What 
urges  me  to  preacli,"  he  said,  "is  the  consciousness 
that  God  loves  these  people — inhnitely  more  than 
I  do,  and  is  using  me  as  an  instrument  for  helping 
them." 

The  Sins  of  Society  had  an  amazingly  good  press. 
Those  who  read  the  book  reahsed  how  far  less  sensa- 
tional had  been  the  sermons  tlian  the  reports  had 
led  them  to  expect.  The  next  series  of  such  sermons, 
which  was  not  in  fact  preached  till  the  Lent  of  1907, 
may  therefore  b£  here  alluded  to. 

It  is  difficult  to  do  even  a  good  thing  twice.  Fr. 
Vaughan  proposed  to  speak  on  the  chief  incidents 
in  the  Passion  of  Our  Lord  ;  but  rather  as  in  his  tirst 
series  he  gave  a  "  picture  "  of  some  parable  or  inci- 
dent in  the  Gospels  and  then  affixed  to  it  a  denuncia- 
tion of  some  vice  not  closely,  though  sufficiently, 
connected  with  it  ;  so  here,  the  connection  between 
the  two  parts  of  his  sermons  was  of  the  loosest.  In 
the  first,  he  related  the  history  of  the  Agon>'  in  the 
Garden,  and  drew  a  general  contrast  between  the 
Mind  it  imj^lied  in  Our  Lord  and  that  of  the  "  worldh- 
world."  It  was  the  difference  between  a  view  of 
sin  sufticient  to  break  tlie  Divine  Heart,  and  the 
"  reinterpretations  "  of  sin  in  whicli  those  lind  refuge 
who  have  not  strength  of  mind  to  tolerate  the  old 
conxictions  that  concerned  sin.     The  second  sermon, 


90   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

on  the  Sin  of  Caiaphas,  went  aside  from  the  main 
topic  to  the  prevalent  doubts,  expressed  in  Anglican 
pulpits,  as  to  the  Divinity  of  Christ ;  but  the  press, 
which  had  concentrated  on  the  shopping-frauds 
mentioned  in  the  first  sermon,  here  altogether  occu- 
pied itself  with  the  strictures  on  the  cult  of  pets,  and 
on  the  craze  for  *'  mascots  " — to  use  a  word  in  vogue, 
I  think,  a  little  later.  Similarly  the  third,  which 
was  on  Pilate  and  his  disbelief  in  the  possibility  of 
finding  out  what  Truth  was,  supplied  the  oppor- 
tunity of  saying  that  Fr.  Vaughan  attacked  the  Stage, 
though  the  tricks  of  fashionable  ladies,  who  wished 
to  get  much  for  little,  as  from  doctors,  filled  out  their 
columns.  The  next  sermon,  on  Herod,  had  its  topic 
ready  indicated  ;  and  the  next,  had  its  moral  no 
less  obvious,  on  The  Sin  of  the  Jews,  who  chose 
Caesar  for  their  king.  On  Palm  Sunday  he  did  not 
preach  ;  but  on  Easter  Day  he  spoke  on  the  moral 
resurrection  of  the  race  of  which  he  held  he  saw  some 
premonitory  symptoms.  The  Good  Friday  sermons 
proper  to  the  devotion  of  the  Three  Hours  were  also 
preached  by  him  and  call  for  no  comment.  In  fine, 
the  most  visible  result  of  this  set  of  sermons  was  an 
interminable  correspondence  about  pet  dogs. — **  She 
insists,"  he  kept  lamenting,  "  that  she  will  see  her 
pet  again — ^but  she  doesn't  say  where  .  ."  and  a 
briefer  but  more  pithy  one,  mainly  with  tradesfolks, 
on  their  fraudulent  customers.  These  sermons  ap- 
peared in  book  form,  Society,  Sin,  and  the  Saviour. 

But  if  Fr.   Vaughan  did,   without  the  slightesu' 
doubt,  hit  very  shrewdly  home  when  he  described 


IN    MAVFAIR  91 

in  detail  from  the  pulpit  the  sort  of  mean  tricks  on 
tradesmen  of  which  plenty  of  his  hearers,  or  next 
day  readers,  were  guilty,  he  had  not  the  slightest 
intention  of  letting  oft  the  tradesfolks  when  he 
thought  they  needed  chastisement.  Xo  one,  of 
course,  is  going  to  suppose  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was 
supercilious  towards  the  shopman  world.  I  should 
say  that  one  of  his  real  sacrifices,  made  when  he  left 
Manchester,  was,  precisely,  his  friendship  with  so 
many  whose  vocation  was  trade  on  a  large  or  a  small 
scale.  In  London  he  used  to  try  to  meet  them  and 
did  so  in  a  measure. — "  One  day,"  a  boot-maker 
writes  to  me  from  London  (it  is  true  he  shoes  the  feet 
of  royalty  itself),  "a  handsome  merry  gentleman 
walked  into  my  shop  and  enquired  if  anyone  sick 
was  expecting  him,  and  mentioned  he  was  Fr. 
Bernard  Vaughan.  I  had  a  little  chat  with  him, 
and  found  he  had  been  given  the  WTong  address. 
[Well  .  .  perhaps.]  '  We're  both  in  the  same  trade,' 
he  said.  '  We  both  look  after  souls.'  "  But  how 
much  less  geniality  there  is  in  London  than  in  Man- 
chester, and  how  bewildered  are  boot-makers,  how 
shocked  are  butlers,  how  flustered  are  most  footmen, 
by  any  hint  of  friendliness.  That  is,  at  the  outset  ; 
the  first  and  the  last,  perhaps,  will  yield.  But  the 
butlers  .  .  .  !  To  resume.  Far  from  letting  his 
friends  off,  when  he  thought  they  needed  a  rebuke, 
He  once  returned  to  Manchester  and  in  the  course 
of  his  sermon  said  : 

If  Jesus  looked  upon  the  garrets  of  the  slums  of  our  cities, 
would  He  weep  ?  If  He  went  into  the  pro\-ision-dealcr's 
shop  and  saw  re-dried  leaves,  cla}-,  and  currant-sweepings 


92   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

put  into  the  working-man's  tea,  and  the  borax  compound, 
starch  and  glycerine  put  into  his  cream  and  milk,  what 
would  He  think  ?  What  about  the  peroxide  of  hydrogen, 
potato  and  other  stuffs  in  his  bread ;  what  would  He  say 
of  those  aniline  dyes,  refuse  and  putrid  rubbish  in  His 
children's  jam,  and  of  the  sodium  sulphite  to  brighten  up 
stale  meat ;  and  what  about  the  flabby  fish  freshened  up 
by  what  he  would  not  mention.  [I  think  the  reporter  could 
not  catch  the  words,  here,  and  that  Fr.  Vaughan  said 
"  formalin."]  You  will  say  that  these  things  are  rare. 
That  is  not  the  point.  The  point  is,  Are  they  there  ?  Our 
Lord  would  weep  to  see  that  the  poor  man's  small  pittance 
instead  of  buying  him  nourishment  was  getting  him  some- 
thing pernicious.  He  would  see  tradesmen  who  looked  as 
smart  and  clean  as  the  goods  in  their  windows,  which  were 
labelled,  like  the  tombstones  of  their  friends,  with  lying 
epitaphs.  He  would  say  :  Unless  you  are  on  your  guard, 
you  will  be  making  trade  an  organised  system  for  robbing 
working  men  of  seven  shiUings  in  the  pound.  My  command- 
ment is  :  Thou  shalt  not  steal,  even  when  you  are  not  found 
out.  Some  of  you  may  be  in  trade  and  think  I  am  hitting 
hard  at  you.  I  am  if  you  are  guilty  ;  if  you  are  not  guilty 
you  will  be  glad  that  I  have  spoken  because  of  those  that 
are. 

Forthwith  an  indignant  meeting  of  the  Manchester, 
Salford,  and  District  Grocers'  Association  was  held, 
to  consider,  first,  the  action  of  the  Local  Government 
Board  which  had  objected  to  the  treatment  of  rice 
with  talc  for  the  purpose  of  polishing  it.  That,  it 
was  urged,  was  the  fault  of  the  public  which  would 
leave  his  stock  on  the  hands  of  the  honest  grocer 
who  should  choose  to  sell  only  an  unpolished  rice. 
But  while  the  Local  Government  Board  was  "  known 
for  its  stupidity,"  Fr.  Vaughan' s  remarks  had  been 
scandalous  if  not  libellous.  "  Give  a  lie  an  hour's 
start  and  you  cannot  overtake  it."     "  The  grocers 


IN   MAYFAIR  93 

were  harrassed  and  persecuted  as  no  other  body  of 
traders  were."  Accrington,  Coventry,  Nottingham 
and  other  places  protested  no  less  vigorously.  Fr. 
Vaughan,  in  reply,  referred  his  assailants  to  the 
National  Pure  Food  Association,  which  poured  out 
what  it  held  to  be  good  evidence,  and  an  acrid  corres- 
pondence ensued  to  which  I  need  not  further  allude, 
as  the  controversy  then  passed  out  of  Fr.  Vaughan's 
hands.  He  had,  moreover,  very  carefully  guarded 
himself  against  the  charge  of  indiscriminate  invec- 
tive, and  had  no  doubt  but  that  he  was  in  possession 
of  a  sufficiency  of  facts  to  justify  his  speaking  in 
the  way  he  did. 

On  this  occasion,  it  had  been  felt  that  Fr. 
Vaughan's  words  would  have  been  the  excuse  for 
rash  generahsation  at  the  expense  of  grocers.  In 
September,  1907,  about  two  years  earlier,  he  had 
made  a  speech  at  the  National  Vigilance  Association, 
at  the  Westminster  Palace  Hotel,  in  which  he  ex- 
claimed against  the  dangers  of  "  Living  in."  "  If 
they  Hve  in,"  he  cried,  "  God  help  them."  There- 
upon the  Secretary  from  the  Drapers'  Chamber  of 
Trade  Offices,  Cheapside,  entered  a  protest,  and  Fr. 
Vaughan  retorted  that  he  had  not  so  much  as  men- 
tioned drapers.  Rut  it  was  uri;t'd  that  lie  had 
alluded  to  shop-walkers,  and  had  seemed  to  refer 
to  a  particular  shop,  and  that  everyone  would  sup- 
pose that  drapers  in  particular  were  meant.  Fr. 
Vaughan  offered  the  organ  of  the  Shop  Assistants' 
Union  as  j~»rcn'iding  enough  facts  to  support  what 
he  said,  if  those  of  his  personal  experience  were 
doubted.     Again,   the  controversj*  passed  into  the 


94   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

press,  and  the  Manchester  Guardian  approved  the 
suggestion  {made,  I  think,  by  the  Drapers*  Associa- 
tion themselves)  that  a  commission  be  appointed  to 
examine  the  problem  of  living  in.  I  have  not  tried 
to  follow  up  the  results  of  this  discussion — very 
vigorous  action  was  soon  taken,  quite  independently 
of  Fr.  Vaughan,  by  certain  journals  and  associations  : 
there  was  even  a  strike — but  as  for  Fr.  Vaughan's 
part  in  it,  I  should  judge  that  he  knew  perfectly  well 
the  limitations  of  his  role.  He  was  not  the  man  to 
specialise,  and  to  devote  his  time  to  organising  com- 
missions on  particular  subjects,  but  to  air  the  sub- 
ject, and  if  concrete  results  came  about,  such  as  a 
commission  arranged  by  competent  persons,  he  felt 
that  he  had  helped  towards  this  to  the  extent  of 
which  he  was  capable.  And  as  I  have  often  said, 
he  really  did  "  docunlent  "  himself  as  fully  as  possi- 
ble before  speaking,  and  had  far  too  great  a  sense 
of  fairness  to  make  sweeping  assertions  that  never 
could  be  verified.  At  the  back  of  all  such  onslaughts, 
was  a  passionate  pity  for  the  disinherited  or  dis- 
approved. In  this  connection,  he  used  to  say  that 
bazaars  ought  to  be  engineered  if  only  to  teach  the 
ladies  who  held  the  stalls  to  realise  a  little  of  what 
they  made  the  girl  behind  the  counter  to  endure 
when  they  went  shopping.  And  he  was  never  slow 
with  his  good  word  for  barmaids.  The  girl  at  the 
bar,  he  announced,  properly  paid,  is  better  off  than 
underpaid  girls  at  the  counter.  But  underpay 
the  barmaid,  and— well,  "  if  the  spirit  is  served,  the 
body  is  destroyed,"  one  way  or  the  other,  by  starvi 
tion    or    the    streets.     And    he    went    everywhere 


IN    MAYFAIR  95 

lecturing   on    the    Living    Wage    according    to    the 
principles  of  Leo's  encyclical. 

He  certainly  did  always  try  to  get  back  to  princi- 
ples, though  in  a  sense  his  were  spiritual,  and  there- 
fore still  more  ultimate  than  the  merely  economic. 
But  again,  at  that  time  when  facts  required  to  be 
brought  home  to  the  imagination,  and  "  sweated 
labour  "  was  a  topic  more  often  heard  of  than  it 
is  now — we  have  become  feebly  much  more  academic 
— he  did  a  great  service  in  placarding  facts.  His 
address  in  tlie  Manchester  Free  Trade  Hall,  April, 
1908,  on  Sweating,  was  only  one  of  a  hundred  that 
he  gave.  In  the  Weekly  Dispatch  of  January  igth 
of  that  year,  he  had  written  on  "  Why  1  am  fighting 
Sweating,"  but  was  careful  as  usual  to  speak  only 
of  what  he  called  "  the  sweating  set."  But  he  illus- 
trated his  contentions  by  facts  relating  to  the  hook 
and  eye  industry  in  a  great  midland  city.  It  had. 
said  he,  fifty  button  factories,  and  twelve  hook  and 
eye  factories.  288  hooks  and  288  eyes  had  to  be 
sewn  to  cards  and  linked  for  id.  A  pack  of  these 
meant  C)d.  Out  of  this  had  to  come  needles  and 
cotton,  and  the  work  came  to  three  farthings  an  hour, 
totalling  3s.  3^.  a  week.  Again,  in  January,  he  spoke 
at  the  Queen's  Hall,  in  London,  on  behalf  of  the 
National  Anti-Sweating  League,  on  the  eve  of  the 
opening  of  Parliament.  With  him  on  the  platform. 
or  felh)w  speakers,  were  men  like  Lord  Dunraven, 
Bishop  Gore,  G.  B.  Shaw,  and  Charles  Dilke.  Who 
shall  tell  Ikav  much  effect  this  meeting  had  even  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  which  jiassed  the  second 
reading  of  the  Sweated  Industries  Bill  in  the  week 


96   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

previous  to  the  further  sermons  he  devoted  to  this 
sub]  ect  both  at  Farm  Street  and  at  the  Carmes  ?  Yet, 
"  Say  nothing,"  he  had  been  begged  :  "for  the 
kiddies  will  die  if  I  have  not  these  skins  to  pull  to 
pieces  " — the  speaker  was  making  is.  6d.  for  "  pull- 
ing "  sixty  rabbit-skins.  "  I  cannot  imagine,"  he 
was  crying  everywhere,  "  anything  sadder  than  not 
to  have  friends  among  the  poor.  Not  to  know  the 
poor  is  not  to  know  Jesus  Christ.  And  is  that  how 
you  house  Him  ?  I  have  just  come  from  a  room  fit 
to  shelter  two  persons.  In  it  twelve  machines  work 
all  day.  At  night,  the  machines  are  removed, 
straw  is  put  down,  and  men  sleep  there  till  2-30, 
when  they  are  turned  out,  and  the  room  is  re-let  till 
6-30,  when  the  machines  are  brought  back."  He 
was  constantly  quoting  the  line  :  "A  single  sordid 
attic  holds  the  living  and  the  dead."  He  had  seen 
the  thing  :  the  father  was  there,  drunk  in  his  misery  ; 
two  children  were  playing  in  the  ashes  ;  the  wife 
lay  dead.  He  would  not  even  rebuke  the  drunken 
widower.  Very  little  drink,  he  reminded  his  hearers, 
upsets  a  starved  stomach.  Champagne-drinkers 
can't  abuse  the  poor-man  drunkard.  As  for  himself, 
he  said,  he  was  sick  and  ill  for  three  days  after 
twenty  minutes  in  that  room. 

No  wonder  that  he  carried  on  the  indictment  of 
sweating  to  its  consequences,  and  among  these  were 
noticeable  the  slums.  Humanise  a  man,  he  begged  ; 
then  you  can  civilise  him  ;  then  Christianise  him  ; 
leave  God  to  canonise  him.  But  do  your  own  share 
in  this  co-operative  work  !  At  Sheffield,  in  the  same 
year,  he  was  attacking,  with  fearful  vehemence,  its 


IN    MAYFAIR  97 

slums,  thuugh  lie  drew  his  illustrations  wholly  from 
London  life.  In  its  East  End,  he  said,  one  man  out 
of  every  three  died  outside  his  home  ;  including  the 
West,  one  out  of  every  five.  Out  of  11,000  volunteers 
for  the  Boer  War,  only  3,000  were  accepted  as  fit, 
only  2,200  as  of  moderate  build.  At  Sheffield  he 
took  his  examples  from  elsewhere,  not  having  made 
himself  feel  sure,  I  suppose,  what  the  conditions  of 
that  town  were  ;  but  after  a  visit  to  Leeds,  while 
on  the  one  hand  he  got  himself  taken  round  the 
worst  parts  and  professed  surprise  at  the  improve- 
ment upon  what  he  had  seen  twenty  years  previously- . 
he  did  not  in  tlie  least  hesitate  to  write  soon  after  in 
the  Yorkshire  Post  :  "  Your  Town  Hall  needs  the 
vacuum  cleaner  and  your  slums  the  pick-axe  and  the 
shovel."  I  hastily  protect  myself  (and  him)  by 
saying  that  all  this  occurred  half  a  generation  ago  : 
but  my  point  here  is,  that  if  he  wanted  to  say  a  thing, 
he  most  certainly  said  it,  and  felt  he  could  rely  upon 
his  being  understood  at  least  half  the  times.  Nor 
was  there  much  resentment  :  the  North  is  proud. 
but  it  loves  a  hard-hitter.  He  often  had  severe 
things  to  say  of  much  that  might  be  found  in  Brad- 
ford. But  after  a  visit  there  in  191 1,  the  Mayor 
said  that  they  would  have  to  rent  the  railway  station 
for  his  next  visit,  such  were  the  crowds.  His  inspec- 
tion of  the  place,  though  he  had  gone  there  actually 
to  speak  at  St.  George's  Hall  for  hospitals,  had  been 
fairly  thorough.  As  at  Grimsby,  he  made  a  point 
of  examining  in  minute  detail  the  fishing  ci>nditions, 
so  at  Bradford,  after  his  Mass,  he  went  straight  to 
the  business  premises  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  thence 


98   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

from  warehouse  to  warehouse  till  noon  when  he  was 
the  centre  of  a  welcoming  crowd  in  the  Exchange. 
He  even  collected  samples  of  raw  material.  "  I  have 
been  wool-gathering  all  the  morning,"  he  told  the 
interviewer,  as  they  stood  near  the  window,  Fr. 
Vaughan  gesticulating  in  a  cheerful  way  to  the 
delighted  crowds  who  made  it  almost  impossible  for 
his  carriage  to  reach  the  railway  station.  Even  when 
there  was  fierce  dissension,  there  was  seldom  bitter- 
ness on  either  side.  Once,  it  is  true,  he  had  sharp 
sorrow  in  his  voice,  when  he  commented  upon  what 
he  saw.  In  September,  1909,  he  returned  from 
Carlsbad  and  went  to  Braemar  for  an  after-cure. 
Perhaps  his  own  acute  physical  suffering,  and  the 
knowledge  of  how  much  his  friends'  generosity 
helped  him  to  alleviate  it,  made  him  the  more  eager 
to  speak  as  he  so  often  did  for  hospitals.  He 
preached,  during  his  "after-cure,"  in  the  Catholic 
Cathedral  of  Aberdeen  for  the  Morningfield  Hospital 
for  Incurables.  The  Aberdeen  Free  Press  considered 
that  of  the  2,500  who  heard  him,  not  more  than  1,000 
were  Catholics.  He  took  for  text  his  favourite  one  : 
''  Seeing  the  city,  He  wept  over  it,"  and  pictured 
Christ  looking  down  at  any  great  modern  city, 
Glasgow,  Edinburgh — not  only  "  white  palatial 
Aberdeen." 

If  Our  Lord  were  here  to-day  pleading  for  the  object  for 
which  I  am  standing  in  this  pulpit,  would  you  see  the  tears 
upon  His  cheeks  ?  I  think  you  would.  There  is  a  hospital, 
not  far  away,  where  some  beds  are  vacant,  while  hands  are 
stretching  forth  and  tears  and  cries  are  uttered  to  be  laid  on 
them,  and  they  cannot  be  filled  because  a  population  of 
150,000  people  cannot  support  eighty  poor  people  suffering 


IN   MAVFAIR  99 

from  incurable  disease.  I  am  ashamed  to  think,  I  am 
really  ashamed  to  think,  that  in  Aberdeen  this  great  popula- 
tion can  provide  for  its  sick  forty-two  beds  onl}'.  Is  it  that 
the  expense  is  so  great  ?  Do  the  physicians  and  the  surgeons 
make  inordinate  demands  ?  They  go  ever^'where,  our 
I^hysicians  and  our  surgeons,  the  largest-hearted  men  in  the 
kingdom,  lending  their  invaluable  aid,  but  their  arms  are 
tied  because  the  citizens  have  closed  their  hands  and  shut 
up  the  wards.  It  is  a  disgrace  upon  Aberdeen,  a  disgrace, 
a  blot,  which  must  be  wiped  out  with  the  tears  of  your  hearts. 

He  calculated  that  it  took  is.  6d.  a  day  to  keep  a 
bed  occupied — ^^28  a  year.  Next  day,  in  an  inter- 
view, he  developed  practical  suggestions.  Families, 
parishes,  could  found  beds  ;  people  should  go  round 
and  collect,  not  send  mere  letters.  In  the  church, 
he  said,  he  had  been  shocked  to  find,  at  the  collec- 
tion, endless  threepenny  bits.  "  Aberdeen  was  a 
mint  for  small  change."  However,  after  the  sermon. 
he  had  gone  outside  and  found  a  new  congregation 
of  cabbies  and  chauffeurs,  and — need  I  say — had  at 
once  preached,  from  the  church  steps,  a  sermon  to 
them  too.  And  also  needless  to  say,  not  one  of  them 
but  had  contributed  his  generous  sum. 

I  would  like  to  add  immediately  after  this,  part 
of  a  speech  he  made  at  Blackpool.  You  will  see  that 
in  it  he  is  quite  free  with  the  criticisms  he  wants  to 
make,  and  yet  in  how  genial  a  tone  he  makes  them  ! 
That  is  because  he  was  familiar  with  and  verv  much 
liked  Blackpool.  He  liked  the  noise  and  the  crowds, 
and  if  anyone  had  called  the  place  vulgar  he  would 
have  been  breezily  contemj^tuous  and  thought  what 
a  lot  the  critic  lost  if  he  could  see  no  more  about  it 
than  that.     He  exulted  in  its  friendliness  :    he  must 


100  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

have  chuckled  with  pleasure  to  see,  as  his  train 
steamed  in,  how  the  backs  of  the  houses  advertised, 
with  their  full  address,  ''  Mrs.  X,  from  Clitheroe  "  ; 
"  Mrs.  Z,  from  Blackburn,"  so  that  their  visitors 
might  know  where  to  find  a  full  compatriot.  Imagine 
entering  London,  and  seeing  on  those  dingy  walls 
the  homely  word  that  "  Mrs.  Y,  of  Harrow,  of  Ash- 
ford,  of  Birmingham,"  might  be  found  there,  and 
would  be  right  glad  to  entertain  you.  But  pre- 
cisely because  he  could  feel,  in  Lancashire,  so  much 
at  home,  even  when  opening  his  bazaars  he  could 
plunge  right  down  into  advice.  He  would  applaud 
the  "  progress  "  he  saw  round  him,  the  honest  two- 
penny shows  to  which  he  had  been  so  frankly  glad 
to  go  himself,  the  sight  above  all  of  the  family 
parties  enjoying  themselves.     But  then  : 

Instead  of  appearing  at  this  bazaar  "  supremely  happy," 
I  feel  a  poor  forlorn  creature  because  all  those  beautiful 
electric  lights  round  Talbot  Square  were  being  removed 
before  I  left.  I  knew  Blackpool  ever  since  Blackpool  was  a 
child,  when  the  Catholic  Church  in  Talbot  Road  was  one  of 
the  few  outstanding  buildings,  and  when  the  sea  did  not 
appear  to  come  within  a  mile  of  where  it  now  holds  up  its 
mane  and  flings  itself  across  land  beyond  the  hmits  of  Black- 
pool. Mr.  Mayor,  you  should  mark  those  hmits  by  the  finest 
pier  jutting  out  into  the  sea  that  the  country  has  seen.  Let 
it  be  an  object  lesson  to  those  who  are  neglecting  our  httle 
island  on  the  other  side.  Furthermore,  when  I  think  of  the 
crowded  homes  in  the  summer,  we  must  have  camps  for  boys 
and  camps  for  girls,  where  they  can  drink  in  the  sunshine, 
bathe  in  the  sea,  partake  of  the  bracing  breezy  atmosphere, 
and  go  back  with  no  microbes  to  ravage  them  and  destroy 
their  homes.  We  are  too  crowded.  Let  us  try  to  extend 
our  dominions  round  and  about  Blackpool.  Instead  of 
letting  the  sea  take  away  from  us,  let  us  go  forth  towards  thi' 
sea  and  build  up  by  the  power  of  the  architect.     My  friend. 


IN    MAVFAIR  101 

Alderman  Mather,  lias  told  us  that  he  can  restore  the  Catho- 
lic Church.     If  he  can  do  that  he  can  do  anything.     And 
there  is  another  thing  I  want  to  see  in  Blackpool.     On  the 
promenade  between  the  North  Pier  and  tlie  Victoria  Pier,  on 
that  great  desert  of  drab  and  grey,  I  want  to  see  little  sunken 
cases  here  and  there,  so  that  the  eye  may  be  relieved  by  the 
red  geraniums  and  the  green  grass,  and  forget  the  weird 
waste  of  grey,  sometimes  under  a  sky  too  grey  already.  Now, 
Mr.   Mayor,  here  is  a  fine  opportunity.     You  know  that 
Blackpool,  unless  it  is  quite  crowded,  looks  wanting  in  colour 
and  I  want  to  see  plenty  of  colour,  more  especially  for  those 
who  come  from  the  cold  grey  dull  towns  and  villages  of 
Lancashire  and  Yorkshire.   I  want  to  see  prettiness.   I  would 
do  away  with  all  the  drab  benches.     I  would  have   them 
bright  green.     Have  bright  colours  ;  lighten  the  people  up  ; 
make  them  forget  the  dull  cares  of  the  past  life  ;   let  them 
renew  themselves  and  the  face  of  the  earth  at  bright  breezy 
bracing  Blackpool.     Lift  up  the  lights  and  keep  the  prices 
down,  and  you  will  have  a  safe  resort  for  our  working  brothers 
and  sisters  from  the  towns  and  cities  of  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire.    I  hope  that  Blackpool  will  never  be  "  improved  "  to 
be  the  ideal  resort  for  the  genteel,  but  for  the  bread-earner, 
who  needs  the  sea  and  all  its  bracing  breezes.     There  is  no 
liner  race  of  men  and  women  on  earth  than  our  Lancashire 
folk,   yet    I   find   them   stunted   and   narrow-chested,   and 
bleached  and  anaemic,  from  many  causes  that  I  will  not  go 
into  now,  and  I  say  it  is  the  great  mission  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  Blackpool  City  Fathers,  to  see  that  our  hardworked 
brothers  and  sisters  should  have  a  grand  holiday.     And  how 
well  they  behave.     They  are  an  object  lesson  to  the  smart 
set,  whom  some  of  them  I  hear  are  trying  to  get  among  them 
at  Blackpool.     They  are  not  taken  up  with  vice,  indecency, 
bad  language  and  dnmkenness.     You  can  move  about  among 
them,  as  I  have  done,  and  feel  you  are  proud  to  hear  them  and 
feel  the  homy  hand  of  the  labourer  in  your  own.     Keep  your 
lights  up.  so  that  you  may  do  away  with  the  police.     Lights 
are  far  better  than  police,  and  I  saw  that  to  my  advantage 
yesterday  after  a  long  walk.     We   ought   to   protect   our 
brothers  and  sisters  who  are  tempted  like  the  rest  of  us,  so 
keep  your  hghts  up  and  you  keep  a  clean  conscience  and  a 

H 


102  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

pure  body,  with  a  soul  like  a  pearl  in  the  rough  shell.  Have 
nothing  to  do  with  slum-land  in  Blackpool.  Mr.  Mayor,  if 
anybody  wants  to  live  in  a  slum,  let  him  go  and  hve  wherever 
he  Hkes  so  long  as  he  keeps  away  from  Blackpool.  We  have 
no  room  for  slums  here.  There  are  poor  houses,  and  cheap 
houses,  but  no  slums.  The  slum  breathes  the  microbe  which 
ravages  the  physical  and  moral  being  ;  and  so,  Mr.  Mayor, 
no  slums.  And  so  every  day  I  wish  Blackpool  to  merit  more 
completely  its  splendid  motto  of  "  Progress." 

I  shall  quote  only  a  few  more  instances  to  show 
how  far  was  Fr.  Vaughan,  in  his  London  ministry, 
from  absorbing  his  energies  in  mere  denunciation. 
Whenever  he  saw  a  philanthropic  cause  that  he  could 
help,  he  helped  it.  More  than  once  during  the 
earlier  part  of  his  stay  at  Mount  Street,  he  spoke  on 
behalf  of  those  indigent  gentlewomen  whose  lot  is  so 
undeservedly  cruel :  at  the  same  time,  he  used  always 
to  urge  the  importance  of  teaching  girls — all  girls — 
some  useful  work  or  other :  he  examined  very 
closely  the  conditions  of  the  employees  in  a  great 
London  establishment,  and  then  consented  to  write 
a  "  message  "  for  it  that  was  advertised  broadcast 
and  at  least  let  people  know  the  sort  of  thing  a  shop 
had  to  be  before  Fr.  Vaughan  would  care  to  recom- 
mend it :  he  replaced  Lord  Balfour  of  Burleigh  at 
a  meeting  on  behalf  of  the  Victoria  Working-Men's 
Club  at  Richmond ;  he  spoke  for  the  Catholic 
Nurses'  Guild;  he  announced  and  propagated  the 
establishment  of  six  bursaries  at  a  big  London  school 
in  memory  of  his  brother,  the  Cardinal ;  he  spoke 
for  an  orphanage  at  Hull,  when  the  Mayor  took  the 
chair  despite  vigorous  Nonconformist  protests-^ 
'*  As  though  I  ought,"  said  the  Mayor,  "  to  have 


IN    MAVIAIR  103 

resented  anyone  save  a  Nonconformist  trying  to  do 
good  "  ;  and  again,  for  the  after-care  of  the  Blind, 
Deaf  and  Crippled  Children  at  Bridgewater  House — 
and  alwcivs  one  of  his  chief  preoccupations  will  be 
the  well-being  of  those  children  whom  he  so  warmly 
loved,  and  who,  with  their  unerring  sense,  showed 
that  they  knew  his  love  was  not  a  pose  and  always 
thronged  him  without  a  hint  of  shyness.  For  other 
orphanages  he  spoke  in  theatres,  as  at  Grimsby,  and 
for  Fr.  Berry's  Homes  at  Liverpool,  and,  need  I  say, 
he  did  all  he  could  for  the  stage,  saying  that  not  even 
among  the  poor  had  he  found  a  charity  and  generosity 
to  surpass  that  ui  the  "  profession  "  for  its  suffering 
members.  He  presided,  in  fact,  at  the  Playhouse,  in 
London,  May,  191 1,  on  behalf  of  the  Actors'  Or- 
phanage Fund,  along  with  Lady  Tree,  Miss  Ellen 
Terry,  Miss  Lilian  Braithwaite,  Messrs.  George 
Alexander,  Cyril  ]\Iaude,  George  Grossmith  and 
Harry  NichoUs,  and  no  doubt  others,  several  of  whom 
were  always  his  very  good  friends,  and  he  was  de- 
voted to  the  Catholic  Stage  Guild.  He  spoke  for  the 
National  Societ}^  for  the  Relief  of  the  Blind  in  J  une, 
1910 — nearly  all  these  instances  are  taken  from  tiie 
years  1908-1910 — under  the  Lt)rd  Mayor  at  the 
Mansion  House  ;  for  the  Lifeboats  in  many  different 
places  ;  and,  as  I  said,  on  a  great  man\'  more  sub- 
jects in  many  more  i)laces  than  1  here  indicate. 

What  1  should  like  to  be  allowed  to  insist  on  after 
looking  over  this  sort  of  list  that  I  lui\e  made,  is  my 
disgust  when  people  say,  first,  about  Fr.  Vaughan 
that  he  was  fond  of  lime-light.  He  may  have  been  : 
but  what  he  liked  doing  with  it  was,  turning  it  on  to 


104  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

the  subject  he  was  talking  about.  He  had  no  objec- 
tion whatever  to  being  deluged  with  lime-light  if 
that  would  make  people  look  at  him,  and  then,  listen 
to  what  he  wanted  to  say.  But  he  never  wanted 
the  lime-light  on  himself  to  keep  it  on  himself.  He 
never  kept  it  there  ;  no  one,  most  certainly,  has  the 
right  to  say  that.  To  say  so,  were  the  extreme  of 
ungenerosity,  and  of  untruth.  When  he  was  ex- 
hausted, when  he  knew  well  what  cruel  nights  of 
torturing  insomnia  the  nerve-strain  of  lecturing 
would  inflict  upon  him — ask  him  for  something  in 
the  name  of  the  children,  of  the  blinded,  of  the 
worker,  the  sweated,  the  drunkard,  the  prostitute, 
he  would  get  up  and  come  and  do  it.  Now  frankly, 
I  regard  it  as  more  of  a  spiritual  feat  to  keep  yourself 
in  the  Ume-light  unselfishly,  than  to  keep  out  of  it 
altogether.  And  if  at  times  Fr.  Vaughan  liked 
feeling  himself  in  the  lime-light — and  most  certainly 
he  liked  it — ^well,  he  looked  very  well  by  lime-light  1 
The  papers  that  jeered,  condescended  to  talk  about 
money.  Certainly  a  deal  of  money  flowed  through 
Fr.  Vaughan's  two  hands.  Some  one  said,  laugh- 
ingly, when  a  boy  had  swallowed  a  threepenny  bit, 
"  Send  him  to  Fr.  Vaughan — he  can  get  money  out 
of  anyone."  So  he  could  :  but  who  kept  it  ?  Cer- 
tainly not  he.  His  personal  poverty  was  complete. 
He  could  dress  right  glossily,  when  the  environment 
insisted  on  it ;  but  if  you  knew  him  well,  you  saw 
him,  most  times,  in  deplorable  seam-worn  clothes. 
And  when  he  went  to  South  Africa,  a  friend  was 
appalled  to  find  that  he  was  sailing  with  scarcely  b 
coin  beyond  what  would  be  needed  by  the  exigencies 


IN   MAYFAIR  105 

of  the  journey,  and  absolutely  insisted  that  he  should 
accept  what  should  serve  to  get  him  at  least  the 
usual  comforts.  But,  said  this  same  friend,  had  Fr. 
Vaughan  chosen  to  let  his  penurious  state  be  known, 
what  a  rain  of  ducats  would  have  fallen  on  him  ! 

Mgr.  Provost  Brown,  of  Southwark,  tells  me  that 
he  first  came  into  contact  with  Fr.  Vaughan  "  when 
'  Education  Bills  '  were  to  the  fore  and  there  was 
much  talk  of  the  unequal  treatment  of  the  Voluntary 
Schools  by  the  State  and  the  hardships  to  which  they 
are  subjected,  haNing  to  carry  on  without  the  rates 
which  were  drawn  up  to  support  their  rivals,  the 
Board  Schools.  Father  Bernard  wTote  strongly  on 
the  subject  and  once  contrasted  the  many  millions 
spent  annually  on  the  Board  Schools  with  the  small 
Government  grant  given  to  the  Voluntary  Schools. 
In  his  anxiety  to  make  a  good  case  he  included,  so 
far  as  I  could  see,  all  the  capital  sums  as  well  as 
amounts  spent  on  annual  maintenances  since  1870 
bv  the  School  Boards.  Unfortunatelv  Blue  Books 
showed  that  the  huge  total  he  mentioned  did  not 
mean  the  annual  expenditure  by  School  Boards  but 
the  whole  of  the  money  raised  by  them  from  Rates 
since  they  were  established.  Cardinal  \'aughan  ad- 
vised me  to  wTite  to  his  brother  about  this  :  I  did 
so  ;  but  in  reply  received  only  a  i:)ost-card  -'  My 
dear  Sir, — No  doubt  you  think  you  arc  right.  I  think 
I  am  right  !  God  bless  you.  Bernakd  \'aughan. 
Mgr.  Brown  cannot  feel  sure  that  Fr.  Vaughan  even 
realised  he  was  a  priest,  but  the  incident  caused  no 
ill  will.  Later  on  he  and  Fr.  \'aughan  knew  one 
another  well,  and  when  the  Provost  was  ill  Father 


io6  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Bernard  used  often  to  come  and  sit  by  his  fire  and 
"  talk  very  intimately."  "  Few,"  says  Mgr.  Brown, 
"  who  knew  him  only  as  an  orator,  guessed  his 
extraordinary  goodness  of  heart  and  his  readiness  to 
encourage  others.  Appreciation  of  his  utterances 
was  very  dear  to  him,  and  became  still  dearer  as  his 
vital  energy  decayed,  but  he  was  never  slow  to 
notice  what  others  achieved,  and  above  all  did  many 
acts  of  kindness  in  an  unobtrusive  way.  Towards 
the  end  his  life  seemed  saddened  by  the  loss  of  health, 
but  anything  that  could  be  done  for  God's  Church 
always  appealed  to  him,  and  enabled  him  to  arouse 
something  of  the  old  enthusiasm,  and  he  was  always 
a  man  of  profound  religious  feeling." 

It  remains  that  Fr.  Vaughan's  brusquing  of  the 
situation  could  not  always  win  so  intelligent  a  pardon, 
especially  among  those  who  never  met  him  at  close 
quarters. 

The  one  point  that  seems  legitimately  to  be  made 
was,  that  Fr.  Vaughan  refused  to  argue  when  he 
should  have  done  so.  Of  course,  when  a  man  is 
talking  from  a  pulpit,  he  exasperates  a  certain 
number  of  his  hearers  precisely  because  they  cannot 
contradict.  But  even  when  men  stood  up  and 
shouted  at  Fr.  Vaughan  on  a  platform,  he  was  not 
always  happy  in  his  retorts.  Sometimes,  he  just 
snubbed  the  heckler  rather  heavily.  That  is  of  no  use. 
Then,  after  a  lecture  on  "  Socialism,"  in  the  Large 
Hall  of  the  Exhibition  Buildings  at  York,  at  which 
the  Sheriff  of  York  presided,  he  received  the  following 
very  courteous  letter  from  the  York  I.L.P.  :         I' 


IN    MA VI- AIR  107 

Dear  Sir, — The  members  of  the  York  Independent 
Labour  Party  (a  Socialist  organisation)  instruct  me  to  write 
asking  you  if  you  would  be  wiUing  to  debate  the  subject — 
Sociahsm,  with  an  exponent  of  Sociahsm  to  be  chosen  by 
the  I.L.P. 

The  chairman,  of  course,  to  be  neutral,  and  agreed  to  by 
both  yourself  and  the  one  chosen  to  speak  on  behalf  of 
Socialism. 

I  may  say  that  on  Monday.  March  27th,  we  are  to  have  a 
visit  from  Mr.  \Vm.  C.  Anderson,  the  chairman  of  the 
National  Independent  Labour  Party,  and  we  would  suggest 
that  if  possible,  and  if  you  are  wiUing,  that  be  the  date  for 
the  proposed  debate. 

I  enclose  stamped  envelope  addressed  for  reply,  which 
kindly  let  me  have  as  early  as  possible.     Yours  faithfully, 

J.   W.    E.\KNSHAVV. 

To  this  Fr.  Vaughan  replied  : 

Dear  Sir, — I  am  too  overwhelmed  with  work  to  under- 
take the  business  you  so  kindly  offered  me. 

Life  is  a  rush,  and  the  many  tempting  things  offered  one 
have  to  be  declined  in  order  that  more  pressing  work  may  be 
done.     Yours  tnily.  Bernard  Vaughan. 

That  looked  like  shirking,  and  was  surely  felt  as 
such  by  the  recipients  of  his  answer.  I  do  not  tliink 
it  was  sliirking,  for  as  a  rule  his  engagements,  it  is 
(juite  true,  were  compiled  whole  months  in  advance. 
But  had  he  felt  able  to  carry  the  debate  through 
well.  I  think  it  was  such  a  chance,  that  he  would 
have  made  time  for  it.  Fr.  Plater's  life  is  full  of 
instances  of  the  enormous  value  of  even  an  hour's 
friendly  explanation  of  seemini^ly  liostile  points  of 
view.  It  might  almost  be  thought  better  so  to  meet, 
and  to  be.  for  the  moment,  defeated  in  mere  argu- 
ment, than  not  to  meet  at  all.  For  a  good  argument 
is  not  always  at  one's  beck  and  call,  but  good-\nlI 


I08  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

always  is,  or  should  be,  and  everyone,  save  the  very 
ill-conditioned,  recognise  sincerity,  and  respect  prin- 
ciple. For  my  part,  I  should  have  preferred  Fr. 
Vaughan  to  have  said  that  he  was  not  a  good  debater  : 
he  required  to  prepare  very  carefully  what  he  meant 
to  say  :  that  he  had,  after  all,  his  method,  which 
was,  to  speak  at  considerable  length  and  not  in  the 
quick  give  and  take  of  debate,  when,  moreover,  the 
constant  reference  to  particular  instances  tends 
always  to  obscure  those  great  principles  on  which 
alone  he  wanted  to  dwell.  He  might  even  very  well 
have  declared  that  he  disliked  the  whole  method  of 
debating,  as  calculated  to  lead  nowhere — for  who 
has  ever  drawn  much  enlightenment  from  a  debate, 
or  been  converted  by  one  ?*  Still,  the  impression 
made  was  that  he  acted  de  haut  en  has,  and  his  very 
famous  lecture  at  the  Queen's  Hall,  on  March  loth, 
1909,  when,  under  the  presidency  of  the  late  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  he  asked  a  very  gilded  audience  whether 
Socialism  were  indeed  Liberty,  and  not  Tyranny, 
was  an  instance  of  what  looked  like  a  preference  for 
speaking  to  packed  houses,  where  applause  was  a 
foregone  conclusion.  What  I  have  said  about  Fr. 
Vaughan's  fighting  propensities  ought  to  suffice  to 
make  any  such  accusation  idle. 

If  I  had  to  point  to  one  sort  of  place  in  which  he 
felt  himself  not  at  home,  I  should  say,  the  Univer- 
sities, meaning  by  that,  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  He 
went  to  Cambridge  once  or  twice,  but  I  do  not  know 
what  they  thought  of  him  there.  It  was,  however, 
at  Cambridge  that  he  made  one  of  the  two  retorts  J» 

*I  find  that  later  on,  in  America,  he  did  say  practically  this. 


IN    MAVrAIR  109 

that  every  paper  has  quoted  ever  since.  He  was 
shown,  wht-n  hinching  at  Trinity,  a  famous  portrait 
of  Hem}-  Vm  by  Holbein.  "  What  would  you  do, 
Fr.  Vaughan,"  he  was  asked,  "  if  Henry  stepped 
down  from  the  frame  ?  "  "I  would  ask  the  ladies 
to  leave  the  room,"  he  answered.  At  Oxford,  he 
gave  the  Catholic  Undergraduates'  Conferences  in 
1905,  on  The  Body  of  Christ  ;  and  spoke  at  the  Town 
Hall  on  the  Censor's  role  in  literature  ;  and  he  spoke 
at  the  Union  at  least  once,  at  the  end  of  1907  ;  that 
is  an  assembly  which  admits  of  and  even  may  admire 
rhetoric,  far  from  accustomed  to  it  though  it  be. 
I  think  Fr.  Vaughan  spoke  there  about  the  "  Im- 
morality of  Speed."  Public  Ministers  hurry,  he  said, 
because  they  must,  not  because  they  like  it.  But  in 
smaller  gatherings  at  Oxford,  he  was  not  at  his  ease. 
Not  indeed  that  his  audience  was  likel}'  to  be  very 
much  wiser  than  he  was  :  but  because  it  was  perhaps 
more  sophisticated,  and  probably  far  more  conven- 
tional, and  certainly  man}'  times  more  self-conscious 
than  he.  Touch  its  quivering  limbs,  and  away  it 
stampedes,  over  all  the  fields,  like  a  nervous  foal. 
At  one  such  meeting  of  undergraduates.  I  remember 
that  a  man  interpolated  an  orthodox  remark  on, 
I  think,  Birth-Control.  "  I  should  like,"  said  Fr. 
Vaughan,  "  to  shake  that  young  man  by  the  hand." 
The  youth  wilted.  "  Not  wishing,"  another  wrote  to 
me  after  a  similar  experience,  "  to  be  made  a  public 
exhibition  of.  I  fled  the  moment  we  adjourned." 
And  I  can  myself  recall  meeting  Fr.  \'aughan  near 
Hyde  Park  Comer.  I  turned  back  to  walk  with  him 
up   Park    Lane,    just    inside   the   railings.     On   the 


110     LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

other  side  of  the  carriage- way,  two  young  men  passed 
by  who  knew  me  uud  sahited.  "  Who  are  those  ?  " 
demanded  Fr.  Vaughan  in  his  high  voice.  **  Intro- 
duce me,"  I  beckoned  them  across  and  said,  **  These 
are  so  and  so  :  this  is  Fr.  Vaughan."  He  seized  one 
of  them  by  the  hand,  and  chipped  the  other  hand  on 
his  companion's  shoulder.  "  Splendid  !  "  he  cried. 
"  Magnihcent.  You  are  the  men  we  want.  The 
Empire  needs  you.  Hundreds  of  you.  God  bless 
you  !  "  The  young  men,  beetroot-red,  melted  into 
Piccadilly,  vovNdng  eternal  vengeance,  and  for  my 
part  I  promised  Fr.  Vaughan  that  if  he  behaved  like 
that  again.  I  would  speak  to  him  no  more  in  public. 
He  just  laughed,  and  so  did  I.  And  so,  in  the  long 
run — a  good  long  run — did  they. 

From  all  this  please  gather,  that  from  the  picture 
of  Fr.  Vaughan  you  must  banish  at  least  all  features 
proper  to  the  thin-lipped  ascetic,  the  fanatic,  the 
kill-joy  ;  all  those  proper  to  the  suave  and  hand- 
washing ecclesiastic  ;  and  all  those  suitable  to  the 
subtle  diplomat.  Please  see  in  him  a  very  simple 
man,  aflame  with  the  most  genuine  indignations, 
ready  tor  the  most  straight-forward  friendships ; 
ready  to  laugh  with  open  delight  with  those  who  did 
not  mind  an  honest  laugh  ;  very  shy  of  the  shy,  and 
of  the  pompous  or  dogmatic  or  languid  and  over- 
exquisite  ;  and  totally  averse  to  the  endless  qualifi- 
cations which,  for  the  sake  of  a  donnish  accuracy, 
finish  by  robbing  a  statement  of  any  discernible 
meaning  whatsoever.  He  was  far  more  inclined  to 
hurl  a  massive  statement  at  you,  making  sure  thatl- 
in  itself  it  meant  no  more  than  it  should,  and  leave 


IN    MAYFAIR  in 

to  you  the  task  of  chipping  off  the  exaggerations 
that  had  made  it  so  jaggedly  strike  your  attention. 
Before  quite  leaving  this  element  in  Fr.  \'aughan's 
career — his  association  with  public  movements  con- 
cerning morality  and  general  well-being — I  may  quote 
his  guarded  approval  of  Sunday  amusements  and 
especially  music  ;  he  would  have  liked  the  Franco- 
British  Exhibition  "open  on  Sunday  afternoons,  but 
not  so  that  excursion  trains  could  have  come  from 
Manchester"  :  his  energetic  support  of  games  and 
sport,  including  boxing,  provided  always  Mr.  Roose- 
veldt's  ideal  were  verified — he  had  declared  that  he 
did  not  want  men  who  could  say  they  had  done  some- 
thing in  tlie  Olympic  Games  twenty  years  ago,  and 
nothing  else  ever  since — and  Fr.  Vaughan,  who 
really  had  some  affinities  with  Rooseveldt  in  more 
ways  than  one,  objected  only  to  those  "  sportsmen  " 
who  confined  themselves  to  looking  at,  talking  about, 
and  betting  on  sport.  As  for  the  presence  of  ladies 
at  prize-fights,  he  ct)uld  not  speak  calmly  of  it, 
knowing  quite  well  the  special  sort  of  sensuality  that 
mostly  sends  them  there.  In  his  denunciation  of 
bad  literature,  he  recognised,  indeed,  the  due  role 
of  a  censor,  but  insisted  that  the  proper  tiling  to  do 
was  to  provide  good  books ;  and  as  for  the  idea  that 
"  art  "  palliated  everything  however  lewd,  he  could 
not  bear  that  either,  and  therefore  spoke  loudly 
against  the  "  living  pictures  "  which  were  about  that 
time  so  much  talked  about,  especially  as  no  one  in 
his  heart  supposed  that  people  went  to  see  them  in 
the  throes  of  a  higli  artistic  passion.  However,  tliis 
opinion  so  annoyed  Mr.  W.  R.  Titterton,  in  a  weekly 


112  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

paper,  that  he  asked  for  a  bonfire  to  be  made  of  these 
"  midnight  crawlers  " — the  clergy — on  the  top  of 
which  Fr.  Vaughan  should  be  consumed,  showing 
that  Mr.  Titterton,  too,  approved  of  the  censorship. 
I  confess  I  am  not  now  quite  sure  whether  this 
occurred  a  propos  of  the  Pictures  or  of  a  criticism  of 
some  statues  in  a  London  street  which  were  con- 
sidered unsatisfactory.  Poor  things,  they  were 
early-Epstein,  invisible  save  from  the  top  windows 
of  the  building  opposite,  and  anyhow  doomed  soon 
to  be  clad  in  London  grime,  and  could  not,  one  would 
have  thought,  have  done  any  harm  to  anybody.  It 
was,  perhaps,  a  pity  that  Fr.  Vaughan  accepted  so 
readily  the  urgent  invitations  that  he  should  asso- 
ciate his  name  to  all  such  protests  indiscriminately. 
Yet  he  was  very  far  from  condemning  music-halls. 
In  a  foggy  climate,  he  said,  they  were  a  necessity. 
You  could  not  have,  in  a  London  drizzle,  the  open- 
air  restaurants  of  Paris.  And  he  would  have  appre- 
ciated the  words  of  M.  F.  J.  de  Tessan,  in  La  Liberie, 
who  declared  that  he  still  found  the  English  music- 
halls  tres-familial :  you  saw  there  the  apotheosis  of 
the  Good  Detective.  "  La  police  dans  toute  cette  his- 
toire  avait  le  dernier  mot :  c'etait  le  point  essentiel. 
J'admets  bien,"  added  he,  "  que  certains  promenoirs 
sont  des  docks  fleuris  et  encombres  d'ou  I'on  s' 
embarque  pour  Cythere —  "  but,  unless  I  err,  Fr. 
Vaughan  saw  that  particular  element  modified. 

And   as   for   horse-racing,    he  was  often  sharply 
criticised  by  Nonconformist  organs  for  saying  that 
he  hoped  King  George  would  keep  up  King  Edward's., 
stables  ;    but  he  considered  royal  support  of  this, 


IN    MAYFAIR  113 

as  of  every  sport,  of  high  importance,  as  helping  the 

sport  not  to  degenerate  yet  more.     He  spoke  often 

too  on  the  Education  Hills  of  the  hour,  but  the  need 

for  quotation  has  passed  along  with  these. 

Of  specilically  Catholic  works  in  which  he  took  a 

personal  share  (besides,  that  is,  preaching  for  them — 

these  would  be  too  numerous  to  mention).  I  cannot 

but  allude  first  to  the  Catholic  Women's  League. 

This  was  inaugurated  in  1905,  in  the  Cathedral  Hall 

at   Westminster,   under  the  presidency'  of  Cardinal 

Bourne.     Its  ideal  was,  to  give  to  every  woman  who 

was  willing,  the  opportunity  of  ministering  to  her 

sisters  who  had  need.     It  had  been  pointed  out  that 

there  were  three  chief  difficulties  in  its  way.     The 

first   was   the   Modernist    panic,    just    then    at    its 

height.     It  was  felt  to  be  dangerous  so  much  as  to 

start  anything  at  all.     Then  the  Feminist  movement 

was   then    expressing   itself   in    terms   of    militant 

suftragism,  and  the  whole  movement  was  thus  ijetting 

a  bad  name  :   in  fact,  those  who  lived  secluded  never 

heard  about  women's  share  in  public  interests  save 

in  terms  of  suffragism.     Finally,  there  had  been  no 

evidence  so  far  that  Catholic  women  could  find  scope 

for   their   activity   outside   the   purely   religious   or 

charitable  organisations  that  had  for  long  existed. 

Miss  Fletcher,   who  describes  this  state  of  things, 

tells,   too,   how   the  C.W.L.   obtained  the  spiritual 

guidance  of  Fr.  V'aughan  : 

One  fitiH-ire  stood  out  as  unimpeachably  Catholic, 
thoroughly  national,  who  could  be  seen  in  our  imagination 
standing  four-square  to  criticism,  even  slaying  our  mis- 
guided enemies  !  On  the  one  hand  was  the  tempting  thought 
that  this  outstanding  figure  would  act  as  a  wind-screen  when 


114  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

gales  prevailed,  on  the  other  was  just  a  doubt  as  to  whether 
he  would  consent  to  leave  the  women  at  the  wheel,  whether 
he  would  really  believe  in  the  existence  of  the  shore  for  which 
we  were  making.  Overtures  began,  interviews  took  place, 
and  all  difficulties  disappeared  in  the  face  of  Fr.  Vaughan's 
absolute  honesty  and  far-seeing  wisdom.  But  so,  too,  did 
the  comfortable  idea  of  the  wind-screen  !  Those  interviews 
were  stimulants,  and  made  of  some  of  us  sternly  resolute 
persons.  For  this  was  in  substance  what  he  said  : — I  am 
not  sure  if  your  movement  is  a  sound  one  or  not.  I  certainly 
see  difficulties  and  some  dangers.  Don't  expect  me  to  ask  a 
single  person  to  join  you  ;  don't  expect  me  to  advocate  your 
work  in  general  assemblies.  If  people  join  you  they  must  do 
so  because  they  believe  in  the  work  you  are  setting  out  to 
do,  not  because  I  ask  them  to.  They  must  look  into  things 
for  themselves  and  not  take  my  approval  as  a  guarantee  of 
safety.  If  God  is  blessing  the  work  it  will  grow  in  spite  of  all 
difficulties.  My  part  will  be  to  remind  you  to  pray  suffi- 
ciently, to  put  spiritual  ideals  before  you  and  to  remind  you 
to  live  up  to  your  motto  (he  always  seemed  to  have  a  real 
affection  for  our  motto).  I  was  not  one  of  those  present  at 
the  prehminary  talks,  but  I  have  a  very  distinct  recollection 
of  the  interview  in  which  he  finally  gave  his  consent.  He  was 
visiting  Oxford  as  the  guest  of  the  Newman  Society,  and 
gave  half  an  hour  in  a  very  busy  day  to  the  question. 

The  terms  of  the  agreement  reached  were,  that  on  the 
secular  and  practical  side  we  should  carve  our  own  way 
without  any  criticism  and  advice  from  him.  Any  question 
of  Catholic  principle  referred  to  him  he  would  do  his  best  to 
answer,  and  he  would  at  all  times  exhort  us  to  prayer. 

It  was  an  ideal  entente,  and  it  worked  admirably.  He 
always  came  to  the  annual  meetings  which  were  concerned 
with  work  done  and  new  programmes  planned,  and  in  his 
brief  speeches  always  swept  us  up  to  the  plane  of  spiritual 
realities.  He  never  refused  an  invitation  to  speak  at  a  public 
meeting  organised  by  the  League,  and  the  Annual  Retreats 
which  he  gave  to  the  Central  membership  were  continued  up 
to  last  year.  When  first  he  became  Spiritual  Adviser  the 
League  existed  only  in  London,  each  Branch  as  it  came  intoj' 
being  had  its  own  Spiritual  Adviser,  so  that  he  came  to  belong 


IN    MAYFAIR  115 

to  the  Central  Membership.  In  early  years  he  often  paid  sur- 
prise visits  to  the  ofhct-,  always  (so  it  seemed  to  the  workers, 
anxious  to  make  a  good  impression)  when  they  were  at  their 
busiest  and  in  their  most  untidy  state.  Sometimes  when  a 
Committee  was  sitting,  then  he  would  efface  himself  in  some 
comer  while  the  debate  proceeded,  always  anxious  not  to  dis- 
turb any  work.  Sometimes  he  dropped  in  at  tea  time,  and 
always  the  kindness,  the  wit,  and  the  encouragement  of  his 
talk  heartened  the  ofhce  staff. 

That  he  did  bear  the  brunt  of  much  criticism,  and  much 
opposition,  which  never  came  to  our  knowledge,  I  have  Uttle 
doubt.  He  knew  that  enough  and  to  spare  reached  us  and 
he  scrupulously  refrained  from  passing  on  such  news. 

I  believe  myself  he  drew  no  little  amusement  from  the 
businesslike  attitude  we  cultivated.  I  remember  that  for  our 
Second  Annual  Meeting  we  had,  in  our  inexperience,  drawn 
up  too  crowded  a  programme,  and  all  the  speakers  invited 
had  accepted.  The  Cardinal  had  honoured  us  by  consenting 
to  preside,  and  we  had  pledged  ourselves  that  the  meeting 
should  not  exceed  one  hour  and  a  half.  The  Committee  in 
the  privacy  of  its  Council  Chamber  had  the  courage  to  decide 
that  ten  minutes  should  be  the  maximum  for  any  speech.  It 
fell  to  my  lot  as  President  to  communicate  this  decree  to  our 
illustrious  speakers  !  Fr.  Vaughan  was  sitting  next  to  me, 
and  I  remember  handing  him  a  shp  of  paper  with  what  then 
seemed  the  audacious  conditions,  as  the  least  awful  way  of 
performing  my  dreaded  duty.  He  turned  and  looked  at  me 
in  a  way  which  mercifully  showed  that  his  sense  of  humour 
had  been  aroused,  but  said  never  a  word,  and  I  ftlt  that  an 
eagle  was  looking  down  upon  an  impertinent  sparrow.  When 
his  turn  came  to  speak  1  wondered  if  he  would  administer  a 
snub  by  choosing  his  own  time.  As  he  finished  he  held  out 
his  watch  to  me,  the  hand  pointing  exactly  to  the  tenth 
minute,  nnirmured  "  obedience."  and  resumed  his  seat,  need- 
less to  say  to  the  intense  regret  of  the  audience. 

I  can  only  attempt  to  sum  up  the  impression  he  conveyed 
in  all  his  dealings  witli  us,  as  that  of  authority  that  was 
wholly  spiritual,  and  a  personality  that  was  entirely  humble. 
Let  us  try  to  realise  the  great  debt  we  owe  him  for  his  long 
friendship. 


Ii6  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Another  Catholic  work  in  which  Fr.  Vaughan 
shared  was,  to  anticipate  a  Httle,  the  Motor  Mission. 
A  fuller  account  of  it  is  given  in  the  Life  of  Mgr. 
R.  H.  Bejison,  ii,  209,  sqq.  It  was  organised  in 
1911  at  Brondesbury  Park,  and  Fr.  Vaughan  soon  was 
preaching  from  the  motor's  steps  in  East  Anglia. 
When  Kensitites  came  calling  out  "  No  Popery  1  " 
he  called  it  louder  still,  only  he  meant,  said  he, 
"  Know  Popery."  "  We  will  follow  you,"  said  they, 
"  wherever  you  go."  "  Just  what  we  want,"  he 
retorted ;  "  follow  us  to  the  end."  They  were 
honest  fellows  for  the  most  part,  and  rather  liked 
being  photographed  alongside  of  Fr.  Vaughan,  for, 
deeming  that  theirs  must  be  but  a  dry  job,  he  had 
asked  them  in  to  have  tea,  and  they  came.  They 
seem  to  have  been  puzzled  by  the  dogma  of  hell ; 
he  kept  repeating  that  he  could  say  nothing  from 
experience,  but  only  what  he  had  learnt  at  school. 
"  At  school  ?  "  *'  Yes  :  my  school  was  the  Church, 
my  master,  Jesus  Christ."  Haverhill  refused  the 
missioners  its  Town  Hall,  so  they  took  the  Corn 
Exchange,  a  more  suitable  place,  said  Fr.  Vaughan, 
for  chaff.  Certain  it  is  that  the  meetings,  which 
began  with  booings  and  hustling  ended  in  cheeis. 
"  We  are  both  on  the  same  road,"  said  one  heckler 
in  a  moment  of  supreme  toleration.  "  We  are," 
answered  Fr.  Vaughan :  "  but  won't  you  turn 
round  and  come  my  way  ?  It's  hot  down  there  : 
up  here  it's  breezy."  And  as  for  questions,  "  I  will 
answer  as  well  as  I  can,"  he  said.  "  But  we  have 
only  one  infallible  Pope  and  I  am  not  he."  1, 

Meanwhile  he  was  preaching  Lent  and  Advent 


IN   MAYFAIR  117 

or  "  seasun  "  courses  of  sermons,  none  of  them  what 
any  stretch  of  imagination  could  call  sensational. 
In  the  Advent  of  1908,  he  spoke  at  the  Cathedral  on 
The  Divine  Promise,  the  Eucharist,  carrying  on  thus 
the  work  done  by  the  Eucharistic  Congress  of  that 
year,  and,  needless  to  say,  he  had  helped  to  prepare 
the  minds  of  Catholics  all  over  the  country  by 
preaching  in  preparation  for  it.  In  Advent,  1909, 
his  course  at  Farm  Street  was  :  "Is  England 
Christian  ?  "  and  in  the  May  of  that  year,  he  spoke 
there  too  on  Characteristics  of  Christ  —His  courage 
and  energy  ;  constancy  and  kindness  ;  compassion 
and  sympathy  ;  charity  and  gentleness  :  His  Cross 
and  His  Crown.  In  the  Lent  of  1909  he  preached 
there  on  The  Gospel  of  Doing  Good — its  Author, 
Importance,  Motive,  Method  and  Reward  ;  and  in 
June,  sermons  on  St.  Joan  of  Arc,  which  formed  later 
on  the  substance  of  a  small  book.  These  courses  doubt- 
less disappointed  the  press  :  but  that  on  Marriage 
gave  rise  to  all  sorts  of  new  controversies — especiall\- 
with  the  Nonconformist  journals,  because  the  ex- 
treme practicality  of  the  sermons  caused  them  to 
say  :  "  Is  that  all  ?  Where  is  the  Christian  ideal  ?  " 
"  Sir,"  quoted  the  preacher  :  "I  have  given  you 
reason  :  I  cannot  give  you  understanding  too." 
At  anyrate,  not  one  of  this  class  of  critic,  so  far  as 
I  can  see,  could  dare  to  recognise  the  sacramental 
value  of  Christian  marriage,  nor  assign  its  indisso- 
lubility to  its  divine  Guarantor,  Our  Lt>rd.  At  the 
Carmelite  Church  in  Kensington,  he  preached  several 
sermons  on  Character,  a  subject  he  was  already 
treating  in  lecture  after  lecture  :    and  he  went  to 


ii8   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Manchester  to  preach  four  sermons  on  "Is  Rehgion 
Worth  While  ?  "  and  renewed  somewhat  of  his  old 
triumphs  there. 

Of  his  lectures,  many  just  now  dealt  with  the 
Accession  Declaration  and  the  Coronation  Oath  of 
the  King.  Fr.  Vaughan  knew  perfectly  well  what 
King  Edward's  opinion  of  those  formulae  had  been, 
and  was  convinced  that  his  son's  would  be  much  the 
same,  as  indeed  the  event  proved  that  they  were. 
However,  Fr.  Vaughan's  speeches  on  the  subject 
probably  helped  to  reform  public  opinion  not  a 
little  on  so  undesirable  an  anachronism.  And  he 
talked,  or  wrote,  on  Mormonism,  Spiritualism, 
Christian  Science,  Retreats,  Lourdes,  and  many  other 
things  which  all  came  back  to  the  same  thing — the 
need  of  Catholic  principle  and  Catholic  character  in 
a  world  that  was  disintegrating  for  lack  of  them. 
But  the  chief  topic  of  the  lectures  of  these  years  was 
certainly  Joan  of  Arc — enough  to  say  that  in  the 
February  alone  of  1910,  besides  his  course  of  sermons 
on  her  at  Manchester,  he  spoke  about  the  "  Match- 
less Maid,"  as  he  habitually  called  her,  at  Doncaster, 
Leeds,  Liverpool,  as  well  as  in  London  and  in  Dublin, 
and,  later  on  that  year,  at  Stonyhurst,  Brighton, 
Preston,  and  to  the  Royal  United  Service  Institu- 
tion. I  think  it  was  on  her  too  that  he  addressed 
2,000  Catholic  troops  in  South  Camp  at  Aldershot. 
Everywhere  the  crowds  flocked  to  him  :  in  Liver- 
pool, after  the  Lord  Mayor  had  presided,  and  a 
Congregationalist  minister  had  moved  a  vote  of 
thanks,  the  Orangemen  of  St.  Domingo  Pit  rose  in. 
their  wrath  and  marched  about  with  fifes  for  his 


IN    MAYFAIK  119 

undoing.  Bui  lo,  Ik*  marched  back  liiinstlf  with 
them  to  St.  Francis  Xavier's  school,  wliere  he  was 
hvin^^  and  spoke  yet  another  speech  to  the  motley 
assemblage  from  the  steps. 

And  at  due  intervals  Fr.  Vaiighan  disappeared  :  it 
was  announced  that  he  had  withdrawn  to  some 
countr}-house  or  other,  which  was  indeed  true,  and 
who  can  grudge  him  that  refuge  from  the  machine-gun 
lire  of  talk,  the  worse  than  cinema-studio  glare 
beating  on  tired  eye-balls  ?  For  Fr.  Vaughan,  when 
he  did  not  go  to  such  places  merely  as  head-quarters 
whence  he  issued  forth  to  preach  at  a  neighbouring 
church,  to  open  yet  more  bazaars,  to  present  colours 
to  boys'  brigades,  or  prizes  at  county  sports,  did  not 
go  there,  either,  to  pillow-light  or  to  slide  down 
banisters,  which  even  his  own  sermons  might  lead 
you  to  suppose  -^ve^e  the  main  diversions  of  such 
haunts  ;  but,  to  be  let  altogether  alone,  which  his 
hostesses  were  quite  wise  and  kind  enough  to  do. 

Out  of  these  facts,  then,  and  in  spite  of  them, 
were  fashioned,  during  these  years,  the  man  and  the 
myth.  By  dint  of  hearing  so  much  about  him,  no 
one  knew  what  he  was  like.  The  editor  of  John  Bull 
himself  proved  his  intuitive  knowledge  of  men  by 
sitting  next  to  him  at  lunch  and  then  declaring  him 
to  be  "  the  typical  Irish  priest."  Ladies  called  on 
Bond  Street  jewellers  to  seek  the  diamonded  rings, 
the  sealskin  coats  which  Fr.  \'aughan  said  really 
smart  dogs  wore.  Portraits  appeared  in  the  Aca- 
demy of  Vw  \'aughan  in  swirling  sable  draperies. 
The  colour  of  his  voice  was  sensed  by  occultists. 
Drury  Lane  exhibited  The  Sins  of  Society  complete 


120  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

with  Longchamps  and  Miss  Constance  Collier  at  the 
bridge-table,  and  the  placards  half  suggested  that 
Fr.  Vaughan  would  preach  between  the  acts.  Glossy 
society  weeklies  made  of  paper  mercifully  so  full  of 
clay  that  it  has  probably  already  crumbled  into 
unlamented  dust,  showed  by  their  very  vulgar  gibes 
that  the  preacher's  shafts  found  every  chink  in  their 
armour,  and  made  it  quite  impossible  for  you  to 
spend  so  much  as  one  week  without  talking  of  him. 
The  pink  sporting  papers  were  unable  to  recover  from 
their  delight  at  hearing  that  he  had  told  a  parson 
who  had  refused  a  cigarette  on  the  grounds  that 
we  were  not  sent  into  this  world  to  smoke,  that  this 
was  the  world  he  preferred  to  get  his  smoking  over 
in,  and  credited  him  with  every  jest  they  could, 
including  all  Mr.  Justice  Darling's.  "Sp}'"  carica- 
tured him  admirably  in  Vanity  Fair ;  material  was 
stored  up  for  the  only  quite  malicious  travesty, 
to  be  found  in  a  novel  by  Mr.  Wells,  written 
when  Fr.  Vaughan  was  dead.  He  kept  the  king's 
conscience ;  he  baptised  dukes  and  married  off 
millionaires  and  rescued  Park  Lane  maidens  from 
the  pawn-shop.  And  in  the  midst  of  this,  the  most 
simple-minded  of  men  kept  his  head,  said  his  prayers, 
and  went  regularly  each  week  to  Wliitechapel  to 
catechise  small  ragged  boys  and  girls. 


Ill 

IN   THE    EAST    END 

IT  does  not  take  long  to  reach  Commercial  Road — 
by  Tube  to  the  Bank,  and  then  'bus.  And  when 
you  have  reached  it,  you  may  be  disillusioned,  so 
wide  is  it  and  so  lined  with  decent  shops  and  ware- 
houses. If  you  think  that  the  cinemas  look  vai,^uely 
ecclesiastical,  that  is  because  they,  like  so  many  of 
the  warehouses,  have  been  Dissenting  chapels.  There 
is  little  Dissent  in  that  part,  for  the  "  middle  class  " 
has  dwindled,  or  seems  now  to  be  Hebrew,  so  will  you 
see  on  shop  after  shop  tlie  Russian,  Pohsh  and 
German  names  that  are  really  Jewish  ;  so  ubiquitous 
are  the  placards  that  you  must  try.  raking  up  old 
memories,  to  transliterate  ;  and  so  noticeable  is  it 
that  the  only  large  religious  building  that  you  pass 
till  you  come  to  the  huge  Catholic  Church,  is  a  red- 
brick Synagogue.  But  there  is  no  difliculty  in 
recognising  St.  Mary  and  St.  Michael's,  despite  the 
one  rival  that  T  saw,  unscrupulously  advertising 
"  Mass,"  for  by  its  porch  stands  out  white  and  un- 
compromising the  great  Crucifix  put  up  in  memory 
of  Father  Bernard  Vaughan's  Mission,  in  loii.  with 
its  challenge  :  "  Who  is  this  ?  How  is  tliis  ?  \\'h\ 
is  this  ?  "  beneath  it. 

Your  first  thought  probably  is  :  What  can  the  cost 
of  labour  and  material  have  been  when  this  massive 
church  was  built  ?     This  vast  stone  church  with  its 


122  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

sculptured  porches  and  arches  ;  its  lodge,  where 
you  ring  to  be  introduced  through  catacomb-like 
corridors  into  its  presbytery,  grey  stone  too,  with 
mullioned  windows,  and  faces  of  angels  and  pleasant 
little  devils  peeping  at  you  from  the  corners  of  the 
doors,  and  the  stone  Annunciation  under  which  you 
pass  into  the  garden  !  Garden  ?  Yes,  and  a  garden 
in  which  Father  Mathew  talked  of  temperance,  and 
Daniel  O'Connell  of  Liberty,  and  where  nowadays  a 
consequential  cock  struts  among  clucking  hens.  But 
his  time  is  short — at  least  I  hope  so.  For  all  but  one 
of  the  group  of  cottages  that  makes  one  side  of  the 
garden  and  is  part  of  Lucas  Street,  have  been  bought 
by  Canon  Ring,  the  Rector,  and  will  make  room  for 
a  great  Nursery  and  Elementary  School,  and  Con- 
tinuation and  Central  Schools,  to  which  twelve  East 
End  parishes  will  send  their  children,  and  the  garden 
will  become  their  playground.  A  good,  broad  play- 
ground, where  one  may  breathe  despite  the  smoke 
from  the  tall  chimney  of  Frost's  rope-works  that 
drifts  down  over  the  church's  roof. 

Lucas  Street,  just  beyond  the  church,  is  where 
Fr.  Vaughan,  as  I  shall  tell,  had  his  little  room, 
downstairs  at  the  back.  The  street  stretches  out 
looking  extraordinary  desolate  :  asking  myself  why 
this  was  so — for  the  January  afternoon  was  no  more 
yellow-misted  than  in  Commercial  Road  itself — 
I  felt  it  might  be  due  to  the  houses  having  no  drip- 
stones above  their  windows ;  their  faces  stared 
blankly  at  you,  as  if  their  eyelids  had  been  clipped 
off.  And  then,  the  ground-floor  had  a  sort  of  pathosi 
about  it ;    the  tops  to  the  doors  were  arched,  and 


IN    THE   EAST   END  123 

there  were  wooden  shutters  half  off  their  hinges  ; 
it  h)uked  as  if  it  might  have  tried  once  to  be  pic- 
turesque and  even  dignihed,  but  had  given  up  ;  and 
lower  down,  an  immense  raihvay  arch  took  the  whole 
street  at  a  stride.  Business  roared  by  with  a  rush  ; 
the  poor  street  was  just  not  reckoned  with. 

Back  to  Commercial  Road,  and  then  down  another 
street  almost  parallel  to  Lucas  Street,  and  here,  on 
the  one  side,  the  huge  red  schools,  with  their  1,200 
children  to  shelter,  and  next  door,  what  was  once 
the  Anglican  church-school,  abandoned  now,  turned 
into  assembly  rooms,  I  think,  educational  driftwood 
left  by  the  current  sweeping  towards  secularism. 
But  opposite  the  Catholic  Schools,  the  heavy  Hall  of 
Our  Lady,  yellow-black,  whose  arches  rose,  like  the 
towers  of  Troy,  at  the  bidding  of  sweet  music.  For 
to  the  money  gained  at  the  great  Concert  in  the 
Albert  Hall,  when  Mme.  Patti  came  back  to  enchant 
London  at  Fr.  Vaughan's  request,  this  Hall  owes 
its  existence. 

After  this,  I  lust  my  bearings  as  the  streets  went  in 
and  out  and  strange  little  courts  opened  from  them — 
a  narrow  entry,  and  a  blank  wall  facing  \ou,  and 
houses  on  each  side,  a  dozen  feet  apart.  Here  was 
Warton  Place,  and  soon,  Manor  Court,  and  Giles 
Place,  and  the  old  Periwinkle  Street,  and  after  a 
while,  St.  James's  Place,  an  alley  five  feet  wide, 
tiny  houses  on  the  one  side  and  a  wall  on  the  other. 
And  finally,  Shovel  Alle\',  into  which  you  get  by  its 
handle,  an  arched  passage,  where  surely  the  sun 
shines  never.  It  is  in  these  places  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
spoke,  leaning  from  window,  or  perched  on  table 
or  on  box. 


124  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

In  the  festering  heats  of  summer,  these  little  paved 
courts  with  their  blind  walls  must  be  appalling, 
and  even  on  the  January  day  of  dusty  wind  when 
I  went  through  them  there  was  a  sense  of  stifling 
there.  But  what  struck  me  most  just  then  was 
their  silence.  At  other  hours,  I  have  no  doubt, 
they  are  noisy  enough  ;  but  who  knows  whether  the 
impression  of  life  having  been  largely  silenced  might 
not  remain  ?  I  felt  that  Fr.  Vaughan  might  have 
wished  to  bring  his  large  vitality  down  there  simply 
to  put  that  into  the  place—"  I  came  that  they  might 
have  life — and  more  abundantly."  At  least  I  felt 
that  the  Church  was  the  one  place  where  those 
whose  outlet  was  not  the  public  house  alone  or  the 
cinema,  that  that  Cathohc  Church  was  the  one  place 
where  deadened  men  and  women  might  count  on 
revival.  Warm  in  the  gusty  winter,  as  all  dwelt-in 
places  are  ;  cool  in  the  summers  ;  and  silent,  not 
because  there  was  nothing  to  say,  or  worth  the 
saying,  but  because  its  message  was  too  intimate 
for  words.  And  even  materially,  it  is  a  wonderful 
Church. 

It  is  very  wide,  and  a  mysterious  little  chapel  far 
up  on  the  left — ^it  used  to  be  a  nuns'  chapel — ^seems 
to  suggest  to  you  distances  always  more  remote  from 
the  daily  toil.  And  by  successive  levels  you  mount 
to  the  High  Altar,  past  the  Communion  rails  that 
stretch  significantly  right  across  the  building.  Like 
the  churches  of  the  wise  Middle  Ages,  this  one  is 
the  "  poor  man's  book,"  so  filled  is  it  with  storied 
glass  and  pictures.  And  let  no  one  forthwith  super-  I 
ciliously  suppose  an  art  which  might  offend  a  cultured 


IN   THJ-:    EAST   ESI)  125 

taste.  W'utt's  St.  Juan  of  Arc  has  settled  there  ; 
there  are  careful  copies  of  Murillo  and  of  Diirer,  and 
there  is  at  least  one  genuine  Guido  Reni  !  And  I  was 
astonished  at  the  Memorial  Window  in  the  chapel 
to  the  right,  so  well  was  it  thought  out,  and  so  rich 
and  yet  restrained  in  colouring  ;  it  is  a  Eucharistic 
window,  where  Our  Lord  reveals  His  Heart  of  Love 
to  St.  Margaret  Mary,  and  round  her  stand  Tarcisius, 
St.  l^ascal  Baylon,  St.  Clare,  St.  Juliana.  The 
parishioners  have  need  to  be  called  and  recalled  to 
the  Bread  of  Life — their  manhood  was  more  than 
decimated  by  the  \\'ar  !  At  the  foot  of  the  great 
Calvary  at  the  far  end  of  the  church,  what  sorrows 
have  not  sobbed  themselves  out  ;  at  the  altar-rails 
on  which  that  window  looks  down,  what  new  life  has 
not  been  offered  to  the  heart-broken  by  the  Bread 
of  the  Strong  there  given.  Pius  X,  whose  tall  por- 
trait hangs  near  the  Calvary,  must  see  with  gladness 
those  altar-rails  re-thronged  at  his  behest. 

How,  then,  did  Fr.  Vaughan  find  his  way  down 
here  ? 

The  history  is  perhaps  obscure.  I  will  tell  what 
the  tradition  at  Commercial  Rocd  is. 

Even  at  Manchester,  he  had  said  he  would  try  to 
take  gold  from  Mayfair  and  put  it  into  Shoreditch  ; 
and  when  he  arrived  at  Farm  Street,  his  brother,  the 
Cardincd,  was  still  viiv  anxious  to  see  tlie  Faith 
preached  out  of  doors  ami  in  Halls  which  non- 
Catholics  might  enter  wlu-n  they  fought  shy  of 
churches.  Those  were  the  days  of  the  heroic  preach- 
ing of  Fr.  Bede,  O.F.^L,  under  his  railway  arch  in 
Bethnal    Green.        That     was    altogether    to    His 


126  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Eminence's  liking.  It  is  even  said  that  the  Cardinal 
himself  did  some  of  his  earliest  priestly  work  down 
there — evidence  of  his  having  had  a  confessional 
there  is  offered,  and  it  is  thought  that  the  parish 
priest  of  those  days  would  not  have  tolerated  the 
invasions  of  a  young  priest  from  St.  Edmund's 
(where  Herbert  Vaughan  was  living  at  the  time  I  am 
speaking  of)  had  he  not  held  a  definite  place  on  his 
staff.  But  I  confess  that  the  author  of  his  biography 
makes  it  very  hard  to  see  where  any  regular  work  in 
the  East  End  of  London  can  be  inserted.  None  the 
less,  the  tradition  is  very  strong,  and  it  is  clear  that 
the  Cardinal  much  wished  every  priest  ordained  in 
his  diocese  to  have  some  direct  experience  of  work 
among  the  poor,  and  an  "  Apostolic  College  "  was 
indeed  organised  under  Canon  Akers  and  Fr.  Amigo 
(now  Bishop  of  Southwark)  in  1897. 

However  this  may  be,  soon  enough  after  Father 
Bernard's  arrival  in  London,  he  communicated  to 
the  Cardinal  that  Farm  Street  did  not  absorb  half 
his  available  energy  ;  and  in  igoi  the  Cardinal 
applied  to  the  superior  there  and  obtained  leave  to 
make  use  of  his  brother  in  the  East  End.  It  has 
always  been  part  of  the  very  clear  ideal  of  the  Society 
that  its  members  should  if  at  all  possible  include  in 
their  lives  a  certain  amount  of  teaching  the  Faith  to 
the  illiterate.  The  permission  was  therefore  gladly 
given,  and  every  Tuesday  afternoon  Father  Bernard 
went  down  and  catechised  the  children  of  the  schools 
of  that  parish  and  gave  them  Benediction.  He  did 
this  regularly  without  missing  a  Tuesday  till  he  went! 
on  his  tour  in  America,  save  on  school  holidays. 


IN   THE    EAST   END  127 

After  thut  tuur.  he  resumed  in  the  hite  autumn  of 
1912,  and  continued  regularly  till  1918  when  he 
changed  the  day  to  Wednesday. 

It  was  on  March  22nd,  1902,  tliat  he  paid  his  first 
visit  to  the  parish  and  preached  in  the  open.  This 
took  place  in  a  court  still  full  of  Catholics,  and  called 
Mayfield  Buildings.  Make  the  connection,  please — 
Mayfair  to  Mayfield.  Among  his  allies  were  the 
Blue  Nuns,  that  is,  the  Sisters  of  the  Little  Company 
of  Mary,  in  whose  convent  he  stored  during  the  week 
the  great  crucifix  he  took  round  with  him.  The 
sermcm  was  finished  and  the  Sisters  liome  again, 
by  seven. 

In  the  Pall  Mall  Magazine  for  February,  1907, 
Mr.  Charles  Morley  wrote  a  pleasant  article  which 
I  would  like  to  quote  in  its  entirety.  It  was  called  : 
"  London  at  Prayer  ;  the  Man  with  the  Bell  and 
the  Cross."  Mr.  A.  C.  Michael  illustrated  it  with 
true  accuracy  and  much  sensitiveness  to  the  spirit 
of  the  thing.  Mr.  Morley  tells  how,  after  much 
enquiry,  he  reached  the  church,  and  assisted  first 
at  the  catechising  by  Fr.  Vaughan  of  some  1,000 
children.     After  this  was  over  : 

I  slipped  out  quickly  and  stood  in  the  rain  watching  the 
hosts  of  children  come  pouring  through  the  jwrch,  presently 
bearin.cj  with  them  the  prirst,  all  smiles,  ahliough  he  was  so 
crushed  and  jostled.  He  wedged  himself  against  the  gate, 
and  looked  down  benevolently  upon  all  those  upturned  faces, 
with  a  kindly  jest  for  one,  a  laugh  for  another,  and  a  blessing 
for  all.  They  climg  to  his  cassock  until  I  thought  it  would 
be  torn  asunder,  they  hung  round  his  legs,  they  fastened  on 
to  his  arms,  crying.  "  Father  !  "  "  Father  !  "  to  attract  his 
beaming  eye.  "  Bless  you  !  "  "  Bless  you  !  "  "  Bless  you  !  " 
"  Now  get  away  home  ;  you'll  all  be  wet  through."     "  WTiy. 


128  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Patsy,  where  are  your  boots  ?  "  "  Got  none  !  "  "  Oh,  well 
— be  a  good  boy,  and  they'll  come  soon  enough."  "  What ! 
Bridget  Dooly,  you  shouldn't  be  out  in  this  weather  ;  be 
off — be  off  with  you.  Bless  you,  my  child,  bless  you." 
"  The  meeting's  at  eight  o'clock  sharp  :  tell  your  father  and 
mother  to  come."  I  wonder  he  was  not  smothered.  "How's 
your  mother,  Teddy  ?  "  "  Has  your  father  got  any  work 
yet?"  "No,  you  can't  come  ;  you  must  go  to  bed.  Haven't 
got  a  bed  ?  Well,  stop  indoors  then,  or  that  cough  will  get 
worse."  "Be  off  with  you.  Goodnight — goodnight."  "  God 
bless  you,  my  child — God  bless  you."  And  he  hustled  them 
gently,  now  with  his  hands,  now  shook  his  cassock  at  them 
as  though  he  wore  wings,  and  they  fled  with  shrieks  of 
laughter. 

But  the  evening  was  not  finished. 

There  had  been  a  slight  misunderstanding  at  the 
outset  of  the  whole  enterprise.  The  Cardinal  had 
delayed  to  communicate  officially  to  the  Rector  of 
the  parish  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was  to  come  thus  into 
his  domain.  A  paragraph  in  the  press  was  his  first 
definite  notification  of  what  was  going  to  happen. 
No  wonder  then  that  it  was  felt  that  Authority  was 
acting  rather  beyond  its  bounds.  The  local  clergy 
were  a  little  shy  of  the  invasion,  though  they  were 
never  anything  but  most  kind  to  the  missioner  per- 
sonally. In  the  spring  of  1903,  however,  Fr. 
Vaughan  maintained  he  would  be  at  once  more  free, 
and  less  trouble  in  the  presbytery,  if  he  took  a  room 
for  himself.  He  found  one  at  33,  Lucas  Street — a 
tiny  room  at  the  back  on  the  ground  floor.  There 
he  established  himself,  at  a  rent  of  2s.  6d.  a  week — 
it  would  be  quite  7s.,  I  may  say,  to-day — and  fur- 
nished it  with  a  camp  bed,  a  couple  of  chairs,  and  a  ' 
gas  fire.     Mr.    Morley   describes  how   on   the  way 


IN    THI-:    KAST   END  129 

thither  after  the  catechism,  he  invested  in  two  chops 
and  some  mashed  potatoes,  all  of  which  he  carried 
off  with  him  in  two  paper  bags.  Arrived  in  his  room 
he  cunningly  cooked  them  in  what  I  should  have 
thought  to  be  a  rather  inadequate  pan.  However, 
there  it  lies,  still  by  his  fire-place  in  Mount  Street, 
where  I  am  writing.  There  was,  too,  an  old  man 
at  a  street  corner  who  sold  hot  potatoes,  and  who 
used,  when  he  saw  him,  to  consider  it  a  privilege  to 
give  him  a  couple  to  carry  home  with  him.  His 
shopping  was  not  very  experienced  at  first.  An  eye- 
witness tells  liow  he  appeared  very  early  one  morning 
and  demanded  some  milk  for  his  breakfast.  "  Cer- 
tainly," said  the  lady  at  the  shop.  "  Where's  your 
jug  ?  "  "  Madam,  I  have  none.  Could  you  hire 
me  one  ?  "  "I  can,"  she  said.  "  But  I  have  only 
lemonade  bottle's.  And  you  must  leave  a  deposit." 
"  Certainly.  How  much  ?"  "  Twopence."  "  Madam. 
I  will  leave  a  sovereign."  She  thought  he  was  mad, 
till  his  companion  assured  her  of  his  respectability. 

But  he  could,  too,  be  severe. 

In  Commercial  Road  it  is  important  to  get  what 
you  pay  for.  It  is  tlierefore  the  custom  to  weigh 
the  loaf  you  receive,  and  if  it  is  short  weight,  a  slice 
is  added.  A  certain  baker  objected  to  doing  this 
wlien  Fr.  \'aughan's  clients  arrived  witli  bread 
tickets.  "  This,"  he  said,  "  is  charity.  I  have  no 
call  to  weigh  loaves  tluit  are  being  given."  But  in 
Commercial  Road  there  is  much  self-respect  and  it 
is  dangerous  to  allude  to  charity.  Next  day,  Fatlicr 
Bernard,  at  the  head  of  a  procession  of  mothers, 
arrived  at  the  shop.     *'  Give  me  the  scales,"  he  said. 


130  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

"  I  am  going  to  do  the  weighing  myself."  He  did 
so,  adding  the  sHce  exactly,  when  needed.  "  Ladies," 
he  said,  as  he  handed  out  what  was  due,  "  this  is 
not  charity,  but  my  gift  of  bread  to  my  very  good 
friends." 

To  resume.  After  his  supper,  a  small  boy  would 
arrive,  and  together  they  went  forth,  the  boy  carrying 
a  tall  and  vividly  painted  crucifix,  and  Fr.  Vaughan 
with  a  bell.  He  took  also  the  stole  that  Pius  X  had 
given  him.     I  quote  again  from  Mr.  Morley's  article  : 

We  set  off  down  the  narrow  street  at  a  rapid  rate.  "  A 
star,  a  star  !  "  cried  our  leader,  casting  one  look  up  at  the 
heavens.  "  I'm  glad  it's  line  for  you  ;  just  look  in  at  the 
windows  as  we  go."  I  looked,  and  saw  into  room  after  room, 
where  pale,  shadowy  men  and  women  were  bending  over 
clothes,  sewing  and  basting  as  though  for  dear  life,  with  sullen 
embers  in  the  grates,  upon  which  rested  irons  and  kettles, 
pots  and  pans,  dimly  lit  with  oil  and  gas.  "  Ah,  Jews,  Poles, 
and  Russians,  and  Germans,"  said  the  Father — "  work — 
work — work — steady,  industrious,  thrifty,  Hving  on  next  to 
nothing,  taking  any  wages  ;  but — but  they  have  driven  all 
our  people  out.  What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  "  So,  our  little 
procession  marched  down  the  street,  growing  larger  every 
moment,  for  sharp  eyes  picked  the  Father  out  of  the  gloom, 
attracted  by  the  cassock,  blacker  even  than  the  night ; 
children  seemed  to  drop  from  the  skies  or  leap  out  of  the 
earth,  raced  up  and  looked  up  at  the  laughing  face,  each  with 
a  greeting,  an  "  'Alio  !  fahver,"  from  the  boys,  in  husky 
tones  ;  a  look  with  eloquent  eyes  from  the  girls,  a  lisp,  and 
whispers,  for  he  would  halt  for  a  moment  here  and  there. 
It  was  during  one  of  these  pauses  I  first  noticed  that  he 
carried  a  big  bell,  holding  it  by  the  tongue,  for  he  used  it 
to  pat  the  head  of  some  more  than  usually  demonstrative 
youth,  and  as  we  turned  into  another  street,  narrower,  and 
even  darker,  he  exchanged  tongue  for  handle  and  began  to 
ring  it  vigorously.  "  Ding-dong,  dong-ding,"  it  rang,  the  1 
sound  rousing  up  the  echoes  even  in  this  dank  and  murky 


IN   THE    EAST    END  131 

})lace.  "  Jangle-jinglc-jangle,  ding-dong,  bell."  Now  did 
heads  peer  out  of  windows  and  doors  ;  now  did  more  children 
swarm  out  of  the  vaix)urs  ;  rough  men,  muffled  about  the 
neck,  hanging  round  the  doors  of  taverns,  looked  up,  and 
lifted  tiicir  caps  as  we  passed  by,  or  came  out,  pot  in  hand, 
to  hear  the  news  ;  housewives,  hurrying  home  with  milk,  or 
hsh,  or  coals,  or  firewood,  stopped  to  gaze  ;  the  masters  and 
mistresses  of  those  poor  little  shops  forgot  their  customers 
for  a  moment  ;  I  saw  even  a  waggoner  perched  up  aloft,  no 
doubt  drenched  and  cold,  move  his  hat  out  of  respect.  So 
deeper  and  deeper  we  penetrated  the  crooked  streets  under 
the  loom  of  wall  or  warehouse,  now  passing  through  the  pallid 
light  of  farthing  shop,  of  beer  shop,  of  coal  and  green  shop, 
of  parlour  converted  into  workshop  fitted  with  tools,  passing 
by  courts  and  alleys,  and  narrower  streets  running  down  to 
the  river,  which  seemed  fathomless  and  full  of  boding  in  the 
night.  "  Ding-dong,  bell,  dong-ding."  Here  we  crossed 
the  road,  and  entered  another  street,  darker  than  the  other, 
meaner,  more  ominous,  with  a  lamp-post  or  two,  a  shadowy 
bridge  far  away.  We  marched  a  few  yards  and  halted  by 
the  mouth  of  a  dreadful  court,  at  whose  entrance  hung  one 
lamp.  I  wondered  if  it  was  Periwinkle  Court,  but  the 
Father  was  too  much  engaged  to  talk  to  me.  He  was  in  the 
centre  of  a  mob  of  children.  No,  we  went  on,  and  turned 
sharply  into  a  passage,  scarcely  wide  enough  for  two  men 
to  walk  abreast,  with  a  high  wall  on  one  side  of  it  and  cottages 
on  the  other,  and  stretching  far,  far  into  the  distance,  its 
length  indicated  by  a  few  shadowy  lamps.  It  is  a  pass  where 
a  desperate  man  could  hold  an  army  at  bay.  "  This  must 
be  worse  than  Periwinkle  Court  !  "  I  thought,  "  and  the 
Father  intends  to  try  my  nerves — as  if  I  hadn't  seen  enough 
to  follow  him  to  the  lowest  depths  that  London  has  to  show  !" 
"  Ding-dong,  ding-dong,  ding-dong.  bell.  Who'll  come  to 
our  meeting  ?  Who'll  come  to  hear  good  news  ?"  Bang, 
bang  !  thump,  thump  !  '*  Anybody  in  ?  Not  come  honu- 
from  work  \et  ?  You'll  come — it's  quite  line  !  Now,  you 
will  come  ?— that's  right."  The  reflection  of  the  fire  flame 
shoots  out  into  the  night,  the  door  closes,  and  we  are  in  the 
dark  again.   .  .  . 

"  Ding-dong,  bell  !  "  At  last  we  loft  the  pass,  and  emerged 


132  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

into  broader  ways,  and  at  length  came  to  Dunstan's  Court, 
an  open  place  formed  by  three  blocks  of  dwellings.  "  Ding- 
dong,  bell !  " — the  heads  were  thrust  out  of  windows  alow 
and  aloft,  figures  loomed  at  doorways  and  in  staircases.  Then 
a  woman,  with  great  bare  arms,  carried  out  her  kitchen  table, 
and  placed  it  under  the  single  lamp  which  hung  on  one  of 
the  walls.  Tim  removed  the  cloth  from  the  Cross,  and  reared 
it  up  against  the  lamp,  so  that  the  light  shone  upon  that  poor 
agonised  figure,  so  torn  and  bleeding.  Tim  took  charge  of 
the  bell,  and  then  asked  me  for  the  case.  He  opened  it,  and 
handed  the  stole  to  the  Father,  who  put  it  on,  got  on  to  the 
table,  and  after  a  few  words  of  welcome  called  for  a  hymn, 
which  was  evidently  well  known.  It  was  a  remarkable  scene. 
There  must  have  been  three  or  four  hundred  people  gathered 
together  in  the  Court  :  children  in  the  front,  big  and  little, 
boys  and  girls,  babies,  many  ragged,  not  a  few  shoeless  and 
stockingless,  most  of  them  hatless,  smeared  with  grime  and 
mud,  many  others  with  collars  and  shining  with  soap  and 
scrubbing  ;  in  the  middle  distance  women,  old  and  young, 
many  worn  and  paUid  and  bent  with  labour,  others  still 
rosy  and  in  the  flush  of  health,  strange  to  say  ;  in  the  back- 
ground against  the  wall  and  at  the  outer  rim,  men,  grim, 
even  savage  some,  others  open-faced,  though  poor  and  paUid, 
and  almost  beaten  by  the  fury  of  the  battle,  others  hang-dog 
and  ashamed  to  be  here.  But  every  eye  was  upon  the  Cross 
and  the  preacher  on  his  table  under  the  lamp,  with  that  stole 
glittering  and  shining  upon  his  bosom. 

The  last  echoes  of  hymn  mingled  with  the  wind,  and  the 
priest  cried  :  "  Now  we  will  say  '  Our  Father,'  "  and  the  air 
was  filled  with  the  low  munnurings  of  many  voices.  "  And 
now  '  Hail,  Mary  !  '  "  The  hps  began  to  move  again,  and 
by  the  low  hum  you  would  have  thought  that  swarms  of  bees 
had  suddenly  descended  upon  the  Court.  The  ground  was 
soaked  with  rain  and  mud,  but  some  knelt,  aU  bowed 
reverently,  the  boys  and  men  bare-headed.  The  preacher 
then  began  to  speak.  Suddenly  some  husky  voice  shouted 
from  a  top  window  :   "  The  poor  cannot  be  good." 

There  was  an  intense  silence  in  the  crowd,  as  though  they 
were  shocked  by  the  interruption,  which  was  evidently  re-' 
garded  as  a  breach  of  good  manners  whilst  the  Father  was 


IN   THE    EAST    END  133 

amongst  them.  The  Father  looked  round  gravely.  "  \\'ho 
says  such  things  ?  Do  you  think  the  rich  are  happy  ?  Why, 
they  have  not  a  want  which  they  cannot  satisfy  !  " 

"  /  know."  he  cried,  "  you  have  not  the  good  things  of 
this  world  ;  we  are  poor,  and  our  want  is  bread  and  tea  and 
meat  and  rent.  /  know  how  hardly  you  are  often  put  to  it, 
how  you  have  to  starve  your  own  selves  in  order  to  feed  your 
httle  ones  ;  /  know,  too,  what  a  trial  it  is  to  keep  pacing 
about  looking  for  work  and  finding  none."  Then  he  pointed 
to  that  bleeding  form,  and  a  hush  fell  on  the  Court.  "  What 
did  our  blessed  Lord  suffer  on  your  account  ?  Bear  without 
murmuring  the  starvation  wage  on  which  you  have  to  try 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together.  Of  course  we  must  do  our 
best  to  remedy  this  bad  state  of  things,  which  God  must 
regard  as  a  disgrace  upon  our  Empire  ;  but  after  you  have 
done  your  best  to  make  your  yoke  a  bit  lighter,  you  must 
go  to  our  dear  and  blessed  Lord  and  just  study  the  poverty, 
labour,  and  want  in  which  we  find  Him." 

Then  came  another  dramatic  silence,  broken  by  the  dis- 
tant notes  of  a  barrel-organ,  the  groan  of  a  cart,  the  dull 
hum  of  life  ;  and  from  my  place  against  the  wall  I  saw  all 
those  eyes  fixed  intently  on  the  Cross. 

"  Now  where  is  that  man  who  said  the  poor  cannot  be 
good  ?  "  "  Gone,  Father."  "  Gone,  has  he  ?  Fm  sorr>'. 
Don't  beheve  him.  And  one  word  before  we  go.  The  people 
of  the  West  End  may  not  know  what  want  is — but — but — 
I  know  them  pretty  well — and  I  can  tell  you  that  their 
state  is  not  so  much  worth  having  after  all.  I  dare  say  they 
have  never  known  what  it  is  to  want  a  meal,  but  there  are 
other  pains  and  pangs  worse  than  the  want  of  a  dinner. 
There  is  the  want  of  love,  the  want  of  peace  of  conscience, 
the  want  of  the  desire  of  God  and  of  His  home  in  Heaven. 
Now  an  '  Our  Father,'  and  one  more  for  those  who  lie  sick 
and  ailing  in  this  poor  place,  and  one  more  for  him  or  her 
who  is  the  next  to  die."  A  hymn — a  prayer — and  he  dis- 
mounted from  the  table. 

Then  I  saw  a  scene  of  wild  confusion,  in  the  middle  of 
which  stniggled  the  Father,  pushed  this  way  and  that  by 
the  heaving  mass  of  children.  I  escaped  to  a  doorway,  and 
there  saw  the  shimmer  of  a  small  bronze  cross  which  was 


134  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

being  kissed  by  innumerable  lips.  Some  caught  at  it  with 
their  fingers,  and  clutched  it ;  the  weaker  men  driven  back, 
but  put  out  their  hands  to  touch  it ;  a  httle  giri  carrying  a 
poor  withered  babe  a  few  months  old  besought  him  to  touch 
her  burden's  face  with  it ;  a  mother  brought  out  her  sick 
child  ;  a  weary  labourer  came  up  and  kissed  it  fervently. 
I  wondered  how  the  Father  stood  his  ground  ;  but  at  last 
the  Court  began  to  clear,  the  greater  Cross  was  covered,  the 
stole  was  placed  in  its  case,  and  we  walked  away  quickly, 
followed  by  many  a  "  Goodnight "  and  "  God  bless  you." 

Sometimes  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  accompanied  Fr. 
Vaughan — unrecognised — and  recited  the  rosary  in 
St.  James's  Square  (Oh !  not  the  Norfolk  House  one !), 
or  rang  the  bell,  an  office  shared  with  loiterers  whom 
Fr.  Vaughan  collected  as  he  passed.  There  was  too 
a  harassed  harmonium  which  survived  its  rough 
journeys  for  some  time.  Either  the  nuns  played,  or 
lady  visitors,  among  them  Lady  Edmund  Talbot, 
now  Lady  FitzAlan.  I  find  it  interesting  that 
Cardinal  Vaughan,  whose  views  of  the  Salvation 
Army  are  usually  gathered  from  his  disagreement 
with  Cardinal  Manning  as  to  its  virtues  {Life  i,  481) 
used  to  encourage  the  nuns  who  were  rather  shy  of 
seeming  to  imitate  its  methods.  He  assured  them, 
on  his  many  visits,  that  at  least  it  brought  the  Name 
of  Our  Lord  to  ears  that  had  forgotten  it.  That  is 
what  Fr.  Vaughan,  too,  did.  Marriages,  Canon  Ring 
assures  me,  were  in  great  numbers  rectified  ;  bap- 
tisms were  many  ;  things  unheard  since  school-days 
were  brought  to  life  again  in  souls. 

In  1903,  Fr.  Vaughan  began  to  work  on  behalf 
of  the  Boys'  Brigade,  and  it  was  probably  the  clear 
necessity  of  their  not  only  having  some  kind  of  uni^ 
form,  but  of  paying  something  for  it  (for  you  do  not 


IN    THE   EAST   END  135 

respect  what  is  not  yours,  or  that  you  have  md 
earned),  that  made  him  first  think  of  his  clotliing 
club,  for  which  he  either  begged  clothes,  or  got  them 
straight  from  factories  that  he  knew  in  Lancashire. 
But  in  either  case  he  always  insisted  that  a  fraction 
of  the  cost  be  paid  by  the  boys.  He  had  a  special 
hobby  of  warm  socks  and  boots  for  the  men. 

It  was  in  the  late  autumn  (jf  1903  that  he  first 
brought  from  her  retirement  at  Broadway  Mme.  de 
Navarro  (Miss  Mary  Anderson),  who  organised  and 
gave  for  him  a  great  concert  in  the  People's  Palace, 
Mile  End  Road.  Probably  never  before  or  since  has 
there  been  such  an  audience  in  that  building.  At 
least  2,000  children  formed  its  nucleus.  To  them 
at  intervals  buns  and  oranges  were  distributed. 
Opinions  differ  as  to  how  the  second  part  of  the 
concert  was  carried  through.  It  is  said  that  Father 
Bernard's  strident  voice  was  the  onl\'  recognisable 
one. 

In  1904  Canon  Ring  succeeded  the  late  Rev. 
Andrew  Dooley  as  Rector,  and  he  says  it  was  clear, 
at  first,  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was  a  little  shy  of  him.  and 
nervous  as  to  how  long  their  relations  would  con- 
tinue amicable.  "  We  fairly  disaj^pointed  the  pro- 
phets. I  early  saw  in  him  a  surprising  humility  and 
charity,  and  I  think  he  credited  me  with  some  feeling 
for  the  poor.     This  was  for  him  sufficient." 

The  first  event  of  Canon  Rmg's  rectorate  was  the 
concert  at  the  Albert  Hall  whicli  brought  about  the 
sensational  reappearance  of  Mme.  Adelina  Patti 
(Baroness  Cederstrom).  London  could  not  beheve 
its  ears  :   the  Hall  was  packed  :   a  golden  river  rolled 


136  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

away  to  Whitechapel  and  Our  Lady's  Hall  was 
built.  At  this  concert  Fr.  Vaughan  "  talked " 
between  the  parts.  To  every  soul  in  that  huge  place 
every  word  was  audible.  As  he  succinctly  put  it — 
"  Patti  sang,  and  /  spoke." 

On  November  4th,  1908,  Mme.  Patti  came  for  the 
second  time  to  the  Albert  Hall  to  assist  Fr.  Vaughan's 
East  End  enterprises.  Miss  Ada  Crossley  and  Mr. 
Santley  sang,  and  Sarasate  played,  and  her  goodness 
of  heart  revealed  itself  in  the  seven  songs  that  Patti 
sang  to  an  audience  of  8,000.  As  the  proceeds  of 
the  first  concert  had  gone  to  making  a  club-house 
for  men  and  boys,  so  the  £1,000  that  were  brought 
in  by  this  one  were  destined  to  help  the  orphanage 
and  to  establish  the  clothing  club  I  mentioned,  where 
clothes  should  be  sold  to  the  poor  "  for  just  a  frac- 
tion more  than  would  be  got  for  them  in  the  pawn 
shop."  The  clothes  were  to  be  especially  children's 
clothes  and  besides  this,  a  "  fresh-air  fund  "  was  to 
be  raised  which  should  get  the  children  out  of  London 
for  a  space  of  summer. 

After  three  years,  then,  of  hard  work,  Fr.  Vaughan 
still  found  himself  confronted  with  the  eternal 
question  of  How  to  keep  together  the  young  men  ? 
The  children  he  had  catechised  were  growing  up  and 
had  to  work  in  the  hours  at  which  he  had  brought 
them  to  the  church,  and  perhaps  were  otherwise 
occupied  when  the  time  for  street-preaching  came. 
To  build  one  of  those  Halls  which  he  thought  quite 
as  much  needed  as  a  church,  had  become  for  him  an 
oppressive  problem.  Quite  unexpectedly  a  sit|j 
opposite   the   schools   came   into   the   market.     In 


IN   THE   EAST   END  137 

1906,  the  Duchess  of  Norfolk,  in  the  presence  of 
Cardinal  (then  Archbishop)  Bourne,  laid  the  founda- 
tion stone  of  a  Hail  which  was  eventually  built  at 
a  cost  of  £3,000.  One  characteristic  little  story 
survives  about  this.  A  very  generous  lady,  who 
had  j)romised  a  considerable  sum  of  money  to  the 
building  fund,  felt  herself  undesirous,  after  a 
difference  of  opinion  with  Fr.  Vaughan,  to  place  the 
second  half  of  it  in  his  hands.  "  Madam,"  he  said, 
"  I  am  just  the  Master's  errand-boy,  who  will  take 
your  gifts  to  the  poor  if  you  wish  it.  I  am  a  religious, 
and  shall  not  be  a  penny  the  richer  if  you  make  me 
your  present,  nor  can  I  be  personally  poorer  if  you 
don't."  The  matter  ended  in  smiles,  and  an  arrange- 
ment was  made  whereby  the  rent  of  the  Hall — for 
the  land  was  only  leasehold — was  permanently 
lowered  in  return  for  a  sum  of  money  down,  which 
formed  the  residue  of  the  promised  gift. 

Not  till  1907,  April  2nd,  was  the  Hall  opened, 
quietly  and  without  ceremony.  Fr.  \'aughan  could 
not  attend,  nur  was  there  a  formal  opening  later  on. 
Nor  was  a  plan  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  realised — that 
prominent  music-hall  artistes  should  come  down 
week  by  week  and  give  their  "  turns  "  free  to  the 
crowds  they  were  certain  to  attract.  A  lecture  by 
Fr.  Vaughan  was  to  have  followed.  None  of  the 
local  clergy  felt  cpiite  competent  to  cope  with  such 
a  situation,  especiall\'  when  recurrent  weekly,  and 
least  of  all  when  Fr.  Vautjlian  miizht  not  be  there 
himself  ;  "  and,"  says  Canon  King,  "  with  that  tact 
and  humility  and  unselfishness  which  always  marked 
his  dealings  with  us,  he  abandoned  his  preferences 


138  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

and  even  his  hobbies  and  adjusted  himself  to  men 
and  circumstances." 

It  was  to  this  Hall,  however,  that  Mr.  Tommy 
Burns,  the  World's  Champion  Heavy- Weight,  came 
on  the  invitation  of  Fr.  Magrath  of  St.  Mary  and  St. 
Michael's,  and  Mr.  Pat  O'Keefe,  with  great  good 
humour  and,  I  may  say,  with  a  display  of  remarkable 
skill,  consented  to  be  duly  pummelled  by  the  famous 
pugilist.  Enthusiastic  crowds  assisted  at  the  fight, 
and  a  flash-light  photo  shows  Fr.  Vaughan  top- 
hatted,  frock-coated,  chin  out,  and  altogether  most 
militant,  on  the  platform,  alongside  of  Mr.  Tommy 
Burns  and  his  sparring-partner,  alike  wreathed,  if 
I  dare  say  so,  in  the  most  coy  and  artless  smiles. 
Next  day  half  the  press  was  patting  the  priest  on 
the  back  for  a  sporting  parson,  and  the  other  half, 
with  a  good  many  pulpits,  beat  the  irresponsive  air 
with  indignation.  Well,  no  ;  not  irresponsive  quite. 
The  sound-waves  travelled,  and  months  later  echoes 
came  back  from  Australia,  where  the  Catholic 
pugilist  was  having  to  defend,  in  the  press,  Fr. 
Vaughan's  reputation  from  Nonconformist  on- 
slaughts ;  and  then  years  passed,  and  the  War  came, 
and  I  found  myself  equipped  with  a  topic  among 
men  who  were  enchanted  to  find  that  I  knew  the 
priest  they  had  heard  so  much  of,  and  over  whose 
common-sense  and  geniality  they  had  waxed,  long 
ago,  enthusiastic.  In  England,  "  lime-light  "  had 
of  course  been  mentioned.  Well,  it  is  a  kindly  light 
whose  rays  reflect  thus  around  the  world  the  figure 
of  a  man  who  becomes  the  friend  of  those  who  neveil* 
saw  him,  and  inaugurates,  by  the  very  mention  of 


IN   THE   EAST   END  139 

his  name,  yot  other  friendships  whicli  may  end, 
who  knows  ?  in  the  renewal  of  a  friendship  with  God 
that  had  been  broken.  F(jr,  wliile  it  is  much  to  find 
that  God's  priests  are  not  hostile,  no  priest  will  be 
fully  satisfied,  1  suppose,  with  the  friendships  he 
enjoys  until  they  have  won  God's  smile  to  ratify 
them. 

Fr.  Vaughan  did  not  keep  his  friends  wholly  inside 
London.  When  he  could,  he  took  the  children  out 
for  expeditions.  Twenty  four-in-hands  proceeded 
once  a  year  to  Epping,  and  troops  of  children  were 
turned  loose  to  play  in  the  Forest.  Fr.  Vaughan 
here  displayed,  it  is  recalled,  his  singular  mixture  of 
disposition.  He  was  the  "  life  and  soul  "  of  the 
party,  and  yet,  sighed  the  poor  man  who  could  not 
endure  anything  less  than  the  speed  of  a  motor-car, 
"  If  I  had  to  travel  to  Glasgow  at  this  pace,  I  should 
be  mad  long  before  I  got  there."  For,  once  he  had 
got  as  far  as,  say,  Leytonstone,  even  the  galloping 
horses  could  not  prevent  the  journey  becoming 
intolerably  tedious  to  him.  Arrived  at  the  Forest, 
the  children  were  given  their  buns  and  oranges 
while  Fr.  Vaughan  and  the  teachers  had  their  meal. 
Then  he  played  games,  rode  donkeys,  threw  coker- 
nuts,  till  it  was  time  for  the  children's  tea.  At  this 
he  waited  on  them,  and  the  photographers  on  him, 
till  twilight  fell.  The  journey  to  and  from  Epping 
took  the  party  througli  Woodford,  where  the  late 
Duchess  of  Newcastle  had  taken  a  house,  at  Car- 
dinal \'aughan's  request,  to  make  a  centre  for 
Catholic  activities.  Her  grand-daughter  had  mar- 
ried Fr.  Vaughan's  nephew,  Major  Charles  Vaughan, 


140  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

who  lived  there  too  ;  and  the  Duchess,  who  had 
spent  many  years  in  devoted  service  of  the  very 
poor  at  her  own  East  End  Settlement,  was  overjoyed 
when  Fr.  Vaughan's  guests  halted  at  her  house,  and 
made  her  feel  that  despite  old  age  and  the  illness  that 
her  labours  and  severe  penances  had  certainly 
brought  upon  her,  she  could  still  do  something  for 
Our  Lord  in  the  person  of  His  poor. 

I  suppose  that  the  great  event  of  Fr.  Vaughan's 
sojourn  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mary  and  St.  Michael's 
was  the  Mission  of  1911,  which  lasted  from  April 
23rd  to  May  14th.  It  was  preached  by  Fathers 
O'Neil,  Hassan,  Riley,  and  Bernard  Vaughan,  S.J., 
and  had  a  great  success.  Five  thousand  came  to 
the  services  of  the  first  Sunday,  and  even  on  week- 
days there  were  always  thousands  there.  Altogether 
it  was  reckoned,  there  were  some  64,000  attendances. 
Children's,  and  general  processions  went  through  the 
streets,  crucifix  at  their  head  ;  and  at  intervals, 
Bernard  Vaughan  preached  at  the  corners,  and  a 
band  brought  the  tunes  of  hymns,  forgotten  by  too 
many,  back  to  the  ears  and  hearts  of  hundreds. 

But  the  "  incident  "  of  the  Mission  was  the  giving 
of  some  "  Dialogues  "  in  the  church,  in  which  Fr. 
Vaughan  and  one  other  priest  "  talked  "  together 
in  the  characters  of  pastor,  and  of  penitent,  or  un- 
repentant layman.  At  once,  a  storm  blew  up. 
First,  the  thunder  merely  muttered.  Was  not  this 
an  innovation  ?  In  England,  perhaps,  but  not  in 
Italy,  where  the  sense  of  the  dramatic  is  not  thought 
a  wicked  thing,  and  where  a  speaker  known  as  the  1 
Ignorante  is  publicly  catechised  in  church.     But,  the 


IN     llIK   EAST   END  141 

congregation  laughs.  Well — who  does  not  laugh, 
human  nature  might  enquire,  when  for  once  you  find 
someone  who  knows  less  than  you  do,  or  at  least 
when  it  is  not  you  who  are  asked  to  exhibit  in  public 
your  lack  of  information  ?  And  learned  medievalists 
harked  back  to  Miracle  Plays  :  in  these,  the  Devil 
provided  dehghted  spectators  with  comic  relief; 
they  beheld,  with  glee,  a  discomforture  not  their 
own  ;  and  who  shall  suppose  that  our  Catholic  an- 
cestors watched  the  snubbing  of  Satan  quite  in 
silence  ?  Doubtless  there  was  an  uproar.  A  tar 
more  weighty,  or  shall  I  say  ponderous,  objection 
was,  that  Fr.  Vaughan  used,  when  taking  the  lay- 
man's part,  a  deal  of  slang.  It  was  not  slang,  but 
honest  Cockney  dialect.  But,  it  was  urged,  sermons 
should  be  in  as  beautifuJ  an  English  as  possible. 
The  so-called  uneducated  can  quite  well  appreciate 
a  good  thing  when  they  see  or  hear  it.  Certainly  : 
Fr.  Vaughan,  who  was  later  on  to  insist  that  soldiers, 
in  camp  or  hospital,  could  quite  well  recognise  good 
music  and  ouglit  to  get  it,  would  have  been  the  last 
to  deny  that  what  you  offered  to  anyone  should  be, 
if  not  the  best  of  its  kind,  at  least  the  best  that  you 
could  give.  But,  he  would  continue,  these  Dialogues 
are  not  sermons,  but  as  different  as  possible  from 
sermons.  Should  it  be  said  that  none  but  the  most 
pure  English  was  ever  suitable  in  church,  he  would 
quite  simpl\-  luiw  disagreed.  He  would  liave  said 
that  he  could  not  have  produced  the  effect  he  wanted 
so  satisfactorily  in  any  otlier  way  -he  used  business- 
jargon  freely  in  Manchester,  and,  though  less  freely, 
the  idiotic  slang  of  Mayfair,  which  was  real  slang, 


142  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

in  that  elect  demesne.  But  Catholic  doctrine,  it  was 
truly  said,  can  be  stated  in  the  simplest,  yet  the  most 
dignified  language.  No  doubt :  but  whether  the 
working-man's  own  thoughts  can  be  so  conveyed, 
may  be  debated.  Fr.  Vaughan  wanted  to  produce 
his  listeners  thinking  aloud  :  and  to  do  that  he  had 
to  take  not  only  the  thoughts  out  of  their  head,  but 
the  words  in  which  they  would  have  articulated 
them,  could  they  have  done  so  at  all,  out  of  their 
mouths.  Thereupon  the  objection  reduced  itself  to 
this — Would  those  have  been  their  words  ;  and  if 
so,  would  not  the  hearers  have  held  themselves  in- 
sulted by  the  very  accuracy  of  the  imitation  ?  No 
working-man  talks,  it  was  said,  in  such  torrential 
Cockney,  least  of  all  with  a  priest,  for  whose  sake 
he  grooms  his  language,  any  more  than  schoolboys 
use  the  extraordinary  jargon  with  which  Mr.  Kipling, 
for  example,  equips  them  in  Stalkey  and  Co.  That 
author  made,  as  it  were,  a  catalogue  of  slang,  and 
resolved  to  get  it  all  in  at  all  costs.  And  once  more, 
no  one  likes  to  feel  he  is  **  talked  down  to." 

Whether  Fr.  Vaughan  did  his  Cockney  well,  I 
cannot  be  asked  to  judge.  I  have  heard  him  talk 
French,  Italian,  American  so  as  to  keep  whole  room- 
fuls  in  helpless  laughter  for  an  hour,  yet  all  these 
languages  were  spoken  by  him  with  complete  in- 
accuracy ;  and  as  I  have  said,  his  Lancashire  talk 
was  frequently  all  wrong,  yet  gave,  most  certainly, 
the  due  delightful  impression.  Nor  have  I  ever 
heard  that  a  Lancashire  audience  resented  his  stories. 
I  do  not  print  any  of  the  dialogues,  though  one  can  ^ 
still  be  read  in  the  Tablet  of  that  date,  because  I  do 


IN   THE   EAST   END  143 

not  suppose  that  what  Fr.  Vaughan  said  was  very 
like  what  he  wrote  in  the  case  of  the  dialogues  any 
more  than  in  that  of  his  sermons.  And  I  am  quite 
sure  that  not  one  of  his  actual  hearers  felt  he  was 
being  talked  down  to.  They  liked  to  reahse  that 
their  priest  knew  their  thoughts  from  inside  their 
own  skulls,  and  his  abounding  geniality  left  them 
in  no  doubt  at  all  about  his  friendliness.  He  was 
talking  for  them,  and  not  for  the  flattered  critics  of 
stalls  or  of  dress-circles.  And  they  proved  their 
own  friendliness  by  flocking  not  only  to  the  dia- 
logues but  to  his  confessional,  so  much  so  that  he 
had  to  put  up  a  notice  over  it — "  Men  Only."  And 
after  the  Mission  he  was  given  a  gun-metal  watch, 
with  this  inscription  :  With  love  and  gratitude  to  our 
Father  and  Friend.  A  Love-token  from  East-Enders. 
No  one,  who  knows  the  kind  of  man  who  subscribed 
for  it,  dare  see  in  this  anything  but  sheer  sincerity  ; 
and  happy  the  man  who  inspired  the  love  that 
prompted  the  gift. 

He  was  willing,  in  fact,  to  discuss  privately  the 
legitimacy  of  his  method,  and  examined  closely, 
without  answering  them,  the  public  criticisms  passed 
upon  it.  He  was  hurt  when  they  stooped  to  pick 
up  the  weapon  of  personality  that  lay  so  ready  to 
every  hand.  He  swept  to  one  side  the  word  "  buf- 
foonery," and  he  smiled  to  fmd  that  America 
thought  his  "  vaudeville  performances  "  to  be  "  un- 
dignified." He  was  sorry  if  he  had  hurt  men  with 
whom  he  was  anxious  to  be  on  good  terms,  but 
harboured  no  resentment.  He  allowed  fully  for 
other  people's  feelings  ;   but  when  he  was  convinced 


144  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

that  such  and  such  a  method  proved  useful  and  was 
good,  he  went  on  with  it  serenely,  leaving  those  who 
had  no  mind  to  it  to  damn  it  as  they  pleased.  Some- 
what befoie  this  date,  Fr.  Ring  had  written  to  the 
Provincial  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  as  follows  : 

2ist  January,  1909. 
Very  Rev.  Dear  Fr.  Provincial, 

I  have  often  thought  of  thanking  you  for  the  generous 
help  you  give  me  in  permitting  Fr.  Bernard  Vaughan  to  work 
amongst  the  children  and  people  of  Commercial  Road. 

One  cannot  weigh  or  measure  the  results  of  any  priest's 
work  :  but  in  the  confessional,  in  the  homes  of  the  people, 
and  in  the  spirit  and  activities  of  young  and  old  we  see  and 
feel  Father  Bernard's  useful  example  and  personal  influence. 

To  the  clergy  of  this  house  he  is  an  example  of  the  highest 
ideals. 

Only  a  day  or  two  ago  one  of  my  young  colleagues  re- 
marked that  he  never  met  a  more  charitable  priest  than 
Fr.  Vaughan.  "  You  never  hear  him  make  an  unkind  or 
uncharitable  remark  about  anyone,"  said  this  young  priest. 
So  popular  and  so  able  a  man  might  be  pardoned  some- 
times for  not  suffering  fools  gladly  ;  and  indeed  many  jokes 
go  round  at  his  expense  and  at  mine.  Sometimes  priests 
chaff  me  and  my  colleagues  for  allowing  Father  Bernard 
to  do  all  our  work  for  us.  I  hear  that  I  am  jealous  of  him, 
and  other  stupid  and  idle  sayings. 

He  must  endure  groundless  gossip. 

Materially,  socially  and  spirituall}''  he  is  doing  an  immense 
service  to  our  poor  people  and  each  and  all  of  the  priests 
who  labour  or  have  laboured  with  me  here  are  like  myself 
deeply  grateful  to  him. 

Fr.  Sykes,  who  was  then  Provincial,  wrote  back 

thanking  Fr.   Ring  most  warmly  ;    and  after  the 

Mission  Fr.  Ring  v^ote  again  to  the  then  Provincial, 

Fr.  J.  Brown,  insisting  that  those  who  had  not  heard 

the   dialogues   could   not   possibly   judge   of   their 

character  or  probable  effect.     Fr.  Brown  answered  : 


IN    THI-:    EAST   END  1.^5 

My  Dear  Dean, — I  can't  thank  you  enough  for  your  most 
kind  letter.  It  was  so  thoughtful  of  you  to  write,  for 
naturally  I  was  a  good  deal  concerned  owing  to  the  stric- 
tures that  have  been  made  on  the  missioners  at  your  church. 
However,  you  have  set  my  mind  quite  at  rest,  both  by  your 
letter  in  the  Tablet  and  by  the  very  kind  one  you  have 
addressed  to  me.  .  .  . 

Personally  I  am  inchned  to  think  that  it  would  be  a  great 
gain  if  we  had  instruction  in  Catholic  doctrine  given  in  our 
Churches  in  the  dialogue  form — a  very  old  one — as  they  have 
it  in  Rome.  And  if  people  do  smile  in  Church  they  need  not 
mean  irreverence  by  it.  Anyhow,  I  hope  it  will  not  be  one 
of  the  points  of  etiquette  that  we  may  never  smile  in  heaven. 

Finall}-,  i  may  say,  that  the  General  of  the  Society 

wrote  to  him — not  indeed  about  the  dialogues  in 

particular,   but  about  his  East  End  work  and  its 

method  as  a  whole  : 

Dehghtful  news  reaches  me  from  all  sides  concerning  the 
apostolic  work  which  your  Reverence  carries  on  with  ad- 
mirable zeal  and  such  success  among  the  poorest  of  London's 
citizens.  I  am  told  that  you  have  adopted  the  method  of 
preaching  religion  which,  in  old  days,  was  followed  with  such 
rich  fruit,  by  St.  Francis  Xavier  and  other  Saints  of  the 
Society — you  address  the  people  in  public  squares,  streets, 
and  crossways  and  instruct  and  exhort  them,  and  compel 
them  to  the  practice  of  their  rehgion  and  the  use  of  the 
Sacraments.  "  Compel  them  to  come  in,  that  My  House 
may  be  filled  "  [Luke  xiv,  23).  This  zeal  of  your  Reverence 
has  excited  the  admiration  of  the  whole  Province  and  indeed 
of  the  whole  Society,  and  one  may  hope  that  other  Fathers 
may  lay  aside  all  fear  and  soon  advance  into  the  titld  that 
your  Reverence  has  opened  and  take  up  a  share  in  the  work. 
If  this  happens,  a  very  opportune  remedy  will  be  found  for 
the  anxiety  which  so  heavily  weighs  on  and  distresses  ec- 
clesiastical superiors — the  number  of  Catholics  who  con- 
tinually slip  away  from  the  bosom  of  the  Church  ("  leakage  "), 
and  a  stniight  road  \nll  be  built  for  the  conversion  of  the 
English  people. 


146  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

So  Father  Bernard's  voice  continued  to  make  itself 
heard  in  the  courts  and  alleys  and  church  of  that 
grim  district,  save  when  once  and  again  it  was 
drowned,  as  by  the  rattle  of  Mr.  Churchill's  in- 
effectual artillery  in  Grove  Street  not  many  yards 
away,  where  Peter  the  Painter  and  his  fellow- 
murderers  had  dug  themselves  in,  and  were  making 
a  last  despairing  bid  for  life. 

Of  this  part  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  work  I  need  say  no 
more  save  that  on  June  i6th,  17th,  and  i8th,  1921, 
a  bazaar  was  held  in  Our  Lady's  Hall  for  the  Con- 
tinuation Schools  which  I  mentioned  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter.  King  Manuel  of  Portugal  and 
Queen  Augusta  opened  the  first  day's  proceedings, 
with  Fr.  Vaughan  in  the  chair,  nor  was  this  the  only 
time  that  royalty  came  to  Stepney  at  the  priest's 
request.  It  was  just  after  his  first  series  of  Society 
Sermons,  I  think,  that  the  ex-Queen  Natalie  of 
Servia  went  round  the  slums  and  courts  with  Fr. 
Vaughan,  and  endeared  herself  to  many  with  whom 
she  spoke,  though  they  had  no  idea  that  the  lady 
in  black  had  once  been  crowned,  and  had  endured 
tragedies  more  frightful  than  their  own.* 

*The  evidence  for  Fr.  Herbert  Vaughan's  work  in  the  East  End  is  as 
follows  :  (i),  In  July,  1856,  his  name  appears  in  the  baptismal  register 
as  baptising  infants,  not  converts,  as  the  other  curates  did.  It  is  felt 
that  the  rector,  Fr.  W.  Kelly,  would  have  had  no  use  for  "  roving  ecclesias- 
tics." (2),  There  is  a  tradition  that  Fr.  H.  Vaughan  had  a  confessional 
in  the  new-built  church,  which  succeeded  the  venerable  Virginia  Street 
chapel  in  which  the  baptisms  were  performed.  The  new  church  was 
opened  and  used  for  Mass  on  December  8th,  1856,  by  Cardinal  Wiseman. 
The  Catholic  population  of  the  parish  was  then  16,000,  and  it  is  thought 
that  Fr.  Vaughan  thus  got  his  views  "  intensified  "  as  to  the  need  of  an 
organisation  hke  Si.  Charles's  priests  to  carry  out  Wiseman's  wishes 
about  the  Oblates.  (3),  Herbert  Vaughan  went  to  St.  Edmund's  in  the 
autumn  of  1855,  while  the  Oblates  were  not  fvdly  organised  till  Whit- 
Sunday,  1857.  During  that  time  the  zealous  yovmg  priest  occupied  a 
very  difficult  position,  and  maj'  have  found  the  outlet  he  desired  from 
Ms  "  cold-storage,"  in  direct  work  for  souls  in  the  East  End.     On  the 


IV 

ABROAD 

FATHFJv  Vaughan  several  times  kfl  England 
in  order  to  preach  on  some  special  occasion 
abroad.  His  visits  to  Rome  have  already  been 
mentioned.  But  he  very  often  went,  too,  to  Ireland, 
and  his  temperament,  need  I  say,  exultud  in  the 
manifestations  of  faith,  piety  and  hospitality  he 
found  there.  Part  of  his  boyhood  was  spent,  as 
I  have  said,  at  his  father's  place,  Rosstucker  Castle, 
near  Clew  Bay,  "  with  Croagh  Patrick,"  as  he  loved 
to  tell,  "  looking  down  on  us  :  the  whole  family- 
used  always  to  climb  up  it  to  ask  a  blessing."  He 
used  to  be  told  that  "  beyond  that  horizon  is  New 
York."  He  reminded  his  hearers  of  this  when 
lecturing  in  the  Pavilion  at  Kingstown,  on  "  Ireland 
in  America."  But  much  earher  than  that,  he  saw 
a  lot  of  Dublin.     The  Freeman's  Journal  even  then 

other  hand,  it  is  thought  that  the  char.icter  of  Fr.  Kelly,  a  lino  but 
"  nii;pcil  "  priest,  will  have  accounted  for  the  brevity  of  Pr.  VauLihan's 
stay  there.  (4),  The  tradition,  that  Fr.  H.  VauRhan  w.is  there  as  a  younp 
priest,  has  been  continuous  at  SS.  Mary  and  Michael's,  »uiil  Father  Ilem.LrJ 
u.sc<l  to  speak  of  his  brother's  connection  with  the  pari.sh.  On  the  other 
hand,  Mr.  Snead  Cox  reminds  me  tliat  Herbert  Vauiihan,   •;  :  •> 

in  his  diary  the  "  consolations  "  t>f  his  six  yr  irs  .\t  St    I-Mnm  ^ 

to  his  work  amouK  young  priests,  :uul  in  tV 

perhaps  he  did  not  tind  his  Fast  End  work  .  ,  .  , 

The  late  Mgr.  Fenton,  in  a  memo  on  Herbert  Vaughan  s  work  at  that 
time  mentions  Hertford,  St.  Alb.an's.  and  Waltham  CnLW.  but  not  Com- 
mercial Road.  Wiseman  him.sclf,  when  defending  Uic  Oblatcs,  lays 
stress  on  V.uiijh.in's  work  here  or  there,  but  does  not  menti'>n  the  K-ost 
End.  M^>re<.)vcr,  he  was  fully  occupied  with  preparing  the  Oblate  organi- 
sation during  1856,  and  not  yet  dis^x>uragcil.  This  legitimate  argument 
from  silence  certainly  makes  it  doubtful  if  Herbert  Vaughaa's  sojourn 
in  London  was  substantial.  But  his  impressions  of  its  value  may  have 
revived. 


148  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

says  that  it  was  once  his  wish  to  be  aggregated  to 
the  Irish  Province  of  the  Society  and  to  be  stationed 
at  Gardiner  Street,  such  were  the  inspiring  scenes  he 
witnessed  there.  But  he  also  never  visited  it  without 
going  round  the  slums  with  the  Dublin  clergy,  and 
alluded  freely,  in  England,  to  the  spiritual  happiness 
which  alone  rendered  Hfe  there  tolerable.  He  in- 
terested himself  very  personally  in  various  schemes 
for  their  improvement.  There  are,  he  said,  all  sorts 
of  excuses  for  their  existence  hitherto.  But  it  is 
the  fool  who  makes  the  excuses  ;  the  hero  starts  to 
redress  the  wrong.  Both  in  Dublin,  where  he  spoke 
more  than  once  in  the  Rotunda,  and  at  Cork,  where 
he  spoke  for  the  Fr.  Mathew  anniversary,  he  drew 
enthusiastic  crowds,  though  here  too  he  was  as  frank 
as  he  was  gay,  and  implored  all  concerned  to  develop 
Irish  university  education,  without  which,  he  urged, 
the  proper  proportion  of  young  men  would  never 
occupy  the  positions  they  deserved ;  and  again, 
after  lecturing  on  Character,  he  could  be  followed 
by  a  distinguished  Irish  prelate  who  said  that  every- 
thing seemed  taught  in  the  Irish  schools  save, 
precisely,  what  Fr.  Vaughan  meant  by  "  character." 
Such  was  at  first  his  ascendency  that  he  could  lec- 
ture with  no  less  success  in  Belfast  itself,  on  Joan 
of  Arc,  in  the  Ulster  Hall,  and  was  pleased  to  find 
the  provision  made  for  teaching  Catholic  philosophy 
in  the  University  there.  At  other  times  he  spoke 
at  the  St.  Patrick's  Training  College,  Drumcondra, 
and  at  the  dedication  of  various  churches  in  different 
parts  of  the  island,  and  twice  preached  the  Lent  V 
in  Dublin.     But  his  popularity  never  survived,  first, 


ABROAD  149 

his  eflurt  to  explain  the  late  Duke  of  Norfolk's 
political  position — the  Duke,  who  believed  in  the 
old  political  arrangement,  thus  found  himself  on 
platforms  alongside  of  bitter  anti-Catholics, — and 
above  all,  his  reprobation,  later  on.  of  Lord  Mayor 
McSwiney's  hunger-strike.  But  outside  Ireland  it- 
self he  had  no  warmer  friends,  to  the  end,  than 
Irishmen. 

Fr.  Vaughan's  hrst  distant  expedition  was  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Eucharistic  Congress  of  Montreal, 
held  from  the  7th  to  the  nth  of  September,  1910. 
Those  held  previously  at  London,  Liege,  Cologne, 
Antwerp,  Brussels  and  Jerusalem,  superb  as  they 
were,  had  this  in  common — they  were  held  in  ancient 
lands  accustomed  in  some  sort  to  these  vast  inter- 
national pageants  and  professions  of  faith.  Mon- 
treal itself,  despite  hallowed  memories  of  religious 
and  secular  history,  yet  felt  itself  near  a  beginning, 
and  looked  forward  rather  than  back.  Indeed,  as 
the  Papal  Legate,  Cardinal  VanuteUi,  pointed  out, 
this  was  the  first  international  Eucharistic  Congress 
to  be  held  in  America  at  all.  Montreal,  however, 
took  its  very  rise,  in  a  fashion,  from  the  Altar.  A 
devout  group  left  France  in  1642,  after  Mass  and 
Communion  at  Notre  Dame,  and  arrived  in  the 
island  of  Montreal  on  the  i8th  of  May,  ha\-ing  vowed 
to  dedicate  it  to  the  Holy  Family  ;  and  the  first  act 
of  these  pilgrims  was  the  celebration  of  Mass,  and 
throughout  the  day  of  their  coming  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  remained  exposed  upon  Its  improvised 
altar.  Since  then  the  devotion  of  the  city  to  the 
Eucharist  has  not  slackened.  On  this  great  occa- 
sion I  should  like  to  recall  how  the  Legate,  after 

L 


150  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

the  ceremonies  of  the  reception,  went  straight  to 
the  prisons  of  Quebec  on  the  invitation  of  the  Arch- 
bishop. To  these  children  of  the  One  Father,  the 
first  blessing  and  encouragement  were  given,  and 
their  souls  associated  to  the  splendours  of  that 
collective  act  of  worship  that  their  eyes  would  never 
see. 

I  cannot  linger  over  the  Midnight  Mass  at  Notre 
Dame,  when  the  20,000  who  crushed  into  the  church 
were  only  the  half  of  those  who  had  hoped  to  enter, 
and  for  two  hours  six  bishops  gave  the  Bread  of  Life 
to  those  who  came  to  the  Communion-rails  ;  nor  on 
the  incredible  scenes  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Royal 
during  the  open-air  Mass  of  the  Saturday,  when  a 
whole  population  poured  out  to  flood  the  new  Cal- 
vary with  worshippers  ;  nor  on  the  Procession  of 
the  Blessed  Sacrament,  in  which  45,000  walked,  and 
which  took  four  hours  and  a  half  to  pass  the  City 
Hall.  Fr.  Vaughan's  own  address  was  upon  the 
place  that  Holy  Communion  should  hold  in  modern 
life,  and  he  was  well  able  to  show  that  without  what 
it  symbolised  and  caused,  life  sank  from  level  to  level 
of  impoverishment,  until  the  spiritual  thing  within 
us  was  like  to  die  out  altogether. 

The  effect  produced  by  Fr.  Vaughan  during  this 
Congress  was  by  no  means  due,  however,  in  the  main, 
to  this  devotional  address.  In  any  case  the  language 
question  in  Canada  was  setting  problems  which  made 
the  air  electrical  for  anyone  who  chose  to  allude, 
however  tactfully,  to  them.  To  these,  indeed,  Fr. 
Vaughan  made  no  reference.  His  crossing  had  been! 
characteristic — he  left  Liverpool  by  the  Empress  of 


ABROAD  151 

Irchuid  and  made  such  friends  witli  the  stokers, 
among  whom  lie  and  otht*r  priests  (I  tliink)  said 
Mass,  that  they  brouglit  the  ship  into  Quebec  an 
hour  before  time  .  .  and  he  was  so  infectiously 
delighted  at  having  missed,  he  said,  not  a  single 
meal,  that,  a  Cardinal  declared  later  on,  he  saved 
quite  a  number  of  other  ]X'rsons  from  sea-sickness. 
But  when  the  ship  reached  purl,  the  crew ,  I  ha\"e  been 
told,  "  swarmed  up  the  sides  of  the  ship  "  in  their 
eagerness  to  bid  good-bye  to  the  priest  they  had 
come  to  love,  wijiing  away  with  oily  rags  the  tears 
that  blinded  them.  He  then  filled  in  the  space  be- 
tween his  arrival  and  the  Congress  b}'  a  sermon  and 
a  lecture.  On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  September  4th, 
he  preached  before  some  3,000  people  in  St.  Patrick's 
Cathedral,  on  "Sacrifice,  the  Soul  of  Religion." 
Nearly  all  the  sermon  was  occupied  with  explaining 
this  theme  ;  then  he  dwelt  on  the  Sacrifice  of  Calvary, 
foreshadowed  in  the  histor}^  of  the  Jews,  and  con- 
tinued and  applied  in  the  Mass.  Where  the  Mass 
was  removed,  belief  in  the  saving  sacrifice  of  Christ 
was  fading  too,  and  he  deplored  that  this  was  happen- 
ing in  his  own  land.  The  Reformation  was  working 
out  its  fated  consequences,  and  while  tlie  part  of 
the  nation  that  was  still  Christian,  and  held  to  tlie 
eternal  salvilic  value  of  Christ's  death,  was  "  creep- 
ing back  "  to  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  Mass,  the 
rest  was  "  drifting  away  "  into  Agnosticism.  The 
lecture,  that  same  evening,  was  in  the  hall  of  the 
Monument  National,  to  about  2,500  people,  in  the 
presence,  as  the  sermon  had  been,  of  Cardinal  Logue. 
He  had  been  invited   to  give  it   b\-   the  Montreal 


152  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Catholic  Social  Study  Club,  which  had  wirelessed  its 
petition  to  him  while  he  was  still  on  the  high  seas. 
Its  theme  was  his  favourite  one  of  Character-building. 

He  woke  next  day  to  face  a  perfect  pandemonium, 
which  showed  him  that  for  the  first  time,  perhaps, 
in  his  life,  he  had  stirred  up  a  hornet's  nest.  Sacri- 
fice the  soul  of  Religion  ?  Mass  the  soul  of  Christian- 
ity ?  Then  Protestantism  was  a  religion  without 
a  soul  .  .  Protestants  had  no  souls.  .  .  Nay,  the 
reproved  religion  was  dying  out  in  any  case,  owing 
to  race-suicide,  till  the  prolific  Catholics  should 
possess  the  land  .  .  ?  Was  this,  it  was  shrieked, 
a  fit  theme  for  one  who  was  enjoying  the  hospitality 
of  a  Dominion  still  largely  Protestant  ?  Of  a  city 
whose  non-Catholic  inhabitants  had  contributed 
large  sums  to  the  success  of  the  Congress  ?  Where 
Lord  Strathcona  had  lent  his  house  to  distinguished 
visitors  ?  Others,  chiefly  clergymen  and  earnest 
women,  argued  hotly  that  the  Mass,  being  a  mere 
external  ceremony,  could  not  be  a  soul  to  anything, 
and  that  anyhow  all  Roman  Catholics  were  so 
unspiritual  that  souls  were  the  last  thing  they  should 
talk  about  and  that  Fr.  Vaughan  ought  to  be 
requested  to  leave  Canada. 

No  doubt  Fr.  Vaughan  had  said  a  thousand  times, 
and  practically  verbatim,  what  these  angry  critics 
said  he  would  never  have  dared  to  breathe  in  Eng- 
land ;  yet  this  very  statement  of  theirs  seemed  to 
prove  that  they  did  not  guess  what  the  religious 
temper  of  England  was  ;  and  similarly,  I  think  it 
is  quite  possible  that  Fr.  Vaughan,  of  whom  it  wal- 
always  being  said  that  he  "  sensed  "  at  once  and 


ABROAD  15:; 

accurately  wliat  his  audience  wanted  and  gave  it  to 
them,  did  not  as  a  matter  of  fact  on  this  occasion 
do  so.  His  experience  had  been  collected  almost 
entire]}'  among  his  own  countrymen,  or  in  the  very 
special  atmosphere  of  Rome.  So  I  feel  sure  he  did 
not  at  tirst  guess  the  wisest  way  of  saying  what  he 
certainly  \k-vvv  intended  to  leave  unsaid.  He  ma\' 
well  have  disconcerted  those  who  naturally  wished 
the  Eucharistic  Congress  to  be  a  time  of  peace  and 
goodwill  and  supernatural  charity  to  all  men.  On 
one  occasion  at  least,  a  church,  to  every  cornice  and 
pedestal  of  wliich  people  were  clinging  to  hear  him 
speak,  found  that  it  had  to  listen,  in  the  interests 
of  prudence,  to  someone  else.  But  that  it  was  not 
thought  that  he  had  substantially  compromised  the 
aims  of  the  Congress  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  he 
was  invited  to  stay  on  and  to  speak  yet  further  in 
Montreal  after  the  Congress  should  be  over,  and  to 
tour  the  rest  of  the  Dominion,  delivering  lectures. 
That  the  commotion  was  at  least  in  the  greater  part 
a  newspaper  affair,  seems  shown  by  his  forthwith 
being  invited  to  address  the  Catholic  Sailors'  Club  in 
Montreal  itself,  where  to  an  enormous  crowd,  of 
wliich  hundreds  were  sailors,  he  spoke  upon  general 
subjects  amid  rapturous  apj^lause.  He  explained 
the  point  of  the  incriminated  sermon  with  lucid 
brevity,  and  made  it  clear  that  while  he  had  tlie  most 
perfect  respect  {or  an\  honest  man,  however  liercelv 
Protestant,  and  would  never  dream  of  decrying  his 
personal  religious  virtues,  nothing  in  the  wide  world 
would  prevent  liiin  horn  assessing  non-Catholic 
religious   systems   when    needful,    and    condemnint^ 


154  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

them  if  he  found  them  wanting,  as  he  then  proceeded 
to  do  without  further  objections  from  the  press  or 
from  anyone  else.  He  repeated  this  defence  fear- 
lessly later  on,  more  than  once,  as,  for  example,  in 
New  York,  where  he  took  the  wind  out  of  every- 
body's sails  by  quoting  Bishop  Sellew,  of  James- 
town, N.Y.,  to  the  effect  that  Protestantism  as  such 
was  decaying  :  "he  seems  almost  willing,"  said  Fr. 
Vaughan,  "  to  give  it  a  respectable  funeral :  I  never 
intended  to  say  as  much  as  this  Methodist  Bishop." 
His  frankness,  courage,  and  above  all  personality 
won  the  day  ;  when  the  Congress  was  over  he  went 
on  to  Toronto,  where  he  spoke  at  the  Empire  Club, 
on  September  15th,  with  results  which  can  best  be 
estimated  from  a  letter,  part  of  which  I  quote  : 

.  .  .  The  telegraphic  and  newspaper  conspiracy  to  pre- 
judice the  community,  even  the  Catholic  community,  against 
[Fr.  Vaughan]  has  completely  broken  down.  Some  thought 
the  use  of  the  term  "  soulless  religion  "  unhappy.  It  was 
used  in  an  address  to  Catholics  entirely,  and  nobody  there 
during  its  delivery  took  exception  to  it.  Only  when  the 
newspapers  framed  up  offensive  headlines  was  the  public 
mind  inflamed.  .  .  .  Fr.  Vaughan  came  here  to  Toronto, 
and  was  my  guest  for  a  day.  This  is  supposed  to  be  the 
centre  of  militant  Protestantism.  But  it  is  not.  There  is 
no  safe  place  for  mere  negation  now  in  the  world.  .  .  .  We 
introduced  him  into  the  very  inner  guard  of  the  enemy's 
fortress — the  Empire  Club  of  Canada — where,  hanging  a 
most  conclusive  and  uncompromising  argument  for  the 
Church  on  patriotism  and  loyalty  to  the  Empire,  he  did 
Catholicity  more  good  than  any  man  who  had  opened  his 
mouth  here  in  a  long  time.  Why,  although  he  minced  no 
matter  connected  with  Catholic  belief,  and  by  the  method 
of  exclusion  showed  the  nothingness  of  Protestantism,  the 
work  was  so  well  done  that  a  cheer,  the  hke  of  which  has' 
seldom  rent  our  rafters,  went  up  from  every  throat  in  the 


ABROAD  155 

great  gathering.  .  .  .  The  world  likes  a  courageous  man. 
His  triumph  here  in  Toronto  was  a  wonderful  one.  May  he 
return  again  and  again.  A.  E.  Burke,  President  of  the 
Catholic  Church  Extension  Society  oj  Canada. 

Before  leaving  Montrciil,  however,  which  he  did 
on  September  14th,  he  visited  the  Iroquois  Indian 
Reserve  at  Caughnawaga  on  the  St.  Lawrence  river. 
1  quote  a  paragraph  from  Fr.  K.  J.  Devine's  fas- 
cinating book  :  Historic  Caughnawaga,  from  the 
preface  : 

During  its  existence  of  two  and  a  half  centuries,  the  village 
witnessed  many  memorable  scenes,  when  haughty  chieftains, 
surrounded  by  warriors  in  paint  and  feathers,  seized  the 
tomahawk  and  started  on  the  war-path  as  allies  of  the 
French  ;  or  when  in  times  of  peace  they  mingled  with  dis- 
tinguished visitors  hke  Count  Frontenac,  the  Marquis  de 
Beauhamois,  Chevalier  de  Calliere,  the  Marquis  de  la  Jon- 
quiere,  whom  they  received  with  military  honours,  Comte 
de  Bougainville,  who  consented  to  adoption  into  their  tribe. 
General  de  Montcalm,  who  chanted  with  them  their  stirring 
war-songs  ;  or  when,  as  docile  children  of  the  Cathohc 
Church,  the  only  power  that  ever  curbed  their  savage  inde- 
jDendcnce,  they  humbly  hstcned  to  distinguished  missionaries 
such  as  Fremin,  Chauchetiere,  Cholenec,  Bruyiis,  De  Lauzon, 
the  De  Lambervilles,  Lafitau,  the  historian  Charlevoix,  and 
many  others. 

After  the  cession  of  Canada  to  England  in  1763,  the 
Caughnawaga  Indians  held  fast  to  their  faith  and  to  their 
French  missionaries,  but  they  yielded  entire  allegiance  to 
the  British  Crown.  Sir  William  Johnson,  whose  prestige 
rivalled  that  of  any  of  the  governors  of  the  French  regime, 
exercised  his  intluence  and  reconciled  the  warriors  to  the 
change  of  flags  ;  and  when  the  occasion  offered,  they  fought 
as  bravely  iind  died  as  stoically  as  they  did  under  the  French. 

To  this  tribe,  then,  Fr.  \'aughan  paid  his  visit  and 
was  solemnly  made  a  member  of  it  by  the  aged  chief 


156  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Sosiohahio,  who  gave  him  the  name  "  Rawennen- 
hawi,"  which  means  "  Word-of-God-Carrier."  A 
charming  photograph  exists  in  which  the  priest  is 
seen  standing  among  the  chief's  grandchildren, 
while  the  old  man  himself  is  seen  attired  in  full 
native  ornamentation. 

Fr.  Vaughan  also  paid  a  brief  visit  to  Niagara  ; 
he  even  composed  here,  during  a  second  visit,  some 
verses  on  the  contrast  between  the  peaceful  convent 
where  he  was  entertained  and  the  tumult  of  the  Falls. 
I  may  here  say  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was  not  only  fond 
of  quoting  what  one  must  confess  to  be  sheer  doggerel, 
provided  the  sentiments  were  pious,  but  even  of 
writing  it.  He  took  a  really  child-like  pleasure  in 
rhyme,  and  even  would  declaim  distichs  from  Pro- 
testant hymns,  which  are,  I  suppose,  the  model  for 
pious  verse,  in  the  middle  of  his  sermons.  I  like 
this  trait  in  him  ;  but  I  feel  no  duty  of  quoting 
what  he  wrote  in  this  department. 

He  left  Toronto  early  next  day,  and  no  sooner  was 
he  on  the  express  train  from  Fort  William  to  Winni- 
peg, than  the  passengers  "  rushed  "  him  for  a  sermon. 
An  improvised  rostrum  was  set  up  in  an  observation 
coach,  and  his  voice  made  itself  easily  heard,  it  was 
noticed,  above  the  roar  of  the  wheels.  His  subject, 
startling  though  it  may  seem,  was  "  Soul-Culture." 

At  Winnipeg  he  lectured  twice,  and  the  Manitoba 
Hall  was  crowded  to  hear  him  speak  on  a  theme 
which  ended  in  a  panegyric  of  Imperialism.  In  that 
city  he  received  the  heartiest  welcome,  and  his 
simplicity  stood  him  in  good  stead,  for  he  embarked  \ 
also  on  the  frankest  declaration  of  the  perils  of 


FaTIIKR    Hf.KNARO   VAI'C.HAN    AM)  THE  CHIKK 
OK  THK   IrCh^.HOIS  TRIBF. 


AP.ROAl)  157 

democracy,  though  lie  said  he  could  applaud  the 
existence  of  that  phenomenon  at  least  in  Canada, 
for  there  it  had  developed  on  very  good  lines. 

Thence  he  went,  so  far  as  I  can  reconstruct  his 
route,  to  Chicago.  He  proceeded  to  the  Loyola 
University,  and  tliat  very  day  lectured  to  2,500 
Knights  of  Columbus  on  "  Association."  "  The 
'  Society-man,'  "  he  said,  "  is  no  better  than  a  tramp 
—he  refuses  to  associate  with  his  fellow-men."  Later 
tliat  day  he  >'isited  two  missions,  one  of  which  at 
least  was  under  the  care  of  the  Paulist  Fathers,  with 
whom  he  was  ever  the  best  of  friends — though  even 
their  spirit  of  enterprise,  he  suggested,  might  prove 
insufficient  for  tlie  vast  work  to  be  done.  "G«» 
round  with  a  bell."  he  said,  "  as  I  do  in  London, 
and  compel  them  to  come  in." 

Next  day  he  lectured  to  the  University  students 
and  visited  the  County  Hospital,  and  exulted  to 
fmd  tlie  full  facilities  given  to  Catholic  ministrations 
there,  two  priests  devoting  the  whole  of  their  time 
to  the  sick — without  salary,  as  he  pointed  out  when 
they,  perhaps,  felt  diffident  of  doing  so. 

From  the  hospital  he  went  to  the  Harrison  Police 
Station — "  noted,"  a  commentator  assures  us, 
"  among  the  police  stations  of  the  world."  Bernard 
Vaughan  with  complete  serenity  asked  what  exactly 
was  proved  by  that.  True,  a  Judge,  who  was  hearing 
a  case  wlien  he  arrived,  with  great  courtesy  broke  it 
off  to  enter  into  conversation  with  liis  visitor.  Fin- 
ger-prints, too,  were  taken  for  his  edification  ;  but 
when  he  was  shouTi  the  cells — "  as  usual,"  says  the 
same  enthusiastic  guide,  "  the  place  was  crowded, 


158  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

there  being  four  or  five  prisoners  in  most  of  the 
cells  " — ^he  waxed  hot  over  this  promiscuity  in  which 
prisoners  of  the  most  varied  classes  were  then  kept. 

After  this  he  "  toured  the  down  town  district," 
and  visited  the  Italian  colony  in  its  slums.  He  was 
enchanted  with  what  he  saw  there,  despite  the  fact 
that  in  one  tenement  he  found  eighty-six  persons 
living  on  one  floor.  At  once  he  was  at  home  :  the 
children  flocked  round  him ;  he  talked  his  un- 
blushing Italian  to  them,  and  ended  by  singing 
"  Santa  Lucia,"  accompanying  himself  on  his  '*  Caro- 
line hat."  "  If  the  Irish,"  he  cried,  as  he  blessed 
the  kneeling  crowds,  **  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  the 
Italians  are  the  sunshine  of  life."  He  was  fond  of 
pointing  out  that  the  Italians  could  be  happy  on 
a  slice  of  melon  and  a  ray  of  sunlight,  and  argued 
from  this  that  since  in  England  the  British  working- 
man  did  not  care  for  melon  and  never  got  the  sun- 
light, he  ought  not  to  be  grudged  his  glass  of  beer. 

He  left  that  night  on  the  Twentieth  Century,  Ltd., 
for  New  York. 

In  New  York  he  preached  one  great  sermon  in  St. 
Patrick's  Cathedral,  and  others  elsewhere,  and  one 
can  see  from  the  reports  that  in  his  crowded  days 
he  got  up  many  contemporary  statistics  concerning 
that  city  and  its  history.  He  never  went  anywhere 
without  doing  this  if  possible  ;  and  though  it  is 
certain  that  to  generalise  on  what  you  have  seen  in 
a  two  or  three  days'  visit,  is  of  the  utmost  danger, 
an  outsider  may  well  collect  a  bird's  eye  view  and 
perceive  what  a  place  has  come  to  stand  for,  more) 
easily  than  one  who  has  spent  his  life  immersed  in 


ABROAD  159 

its  affairs.  In  Xew  York  he  spoke  chiefl\'  un  Social- 
ism and  on  Divorce,  especially  the  latter.  He  was 
fiercely  answered,  niainl\'  ab(jut  Birlh-Kcstricticjn, 
his  most  ardent  antagonist  being  Mrs.  Ida  1  lusted 
Harper.  "  the  Suffragist  Leader,"  we  are  told,  in 
New  York.  Hut  here,  too,  he  based  liimself  entirely 
on  statistics  and  comments  supjilied  by  non-Catholics, 
especially  judges.  The  reports  of  his  sermcms  are 
pleasant  and  rather  startling  reading,  not  least  after 
his  invective  against  the  multi-millionaire.  "  We 
have,"  one  said,  "  no  divine  who  could,  or  would 
dare,  to  speak  like  this."  Another,  who  found  that 
he  looked  "  like  a  fighter,  not  a  philosopher,"  con- 
cluded :  "He  must  have  been  like  this  priest,  the 
man  who  said — '  One,  with  God,  is  a  majority.'  " 

Here,  too,  he  visited  the  slums,  spending  almost  an 
entire  night  there,  he  related.  These  slums,  like  the 
others,  made  him  happy.  "  They  are  a  Paradise," 
said  he,  "  compared  to  ours  in  England,"  such 
happiness  did  lie  find  there  among  the  polyglot 
Catholic  po}>ulation.  "  God  would  feel  at  home," 
he  said,  "  in  your  slums." 

At  the  other  extreme  he  lectured  on  Joan  of  Arc 
at  the  Brooklyn  Academy-  of  Music,  a  Jesuit  hall 
recently  opened.  Boxes  were  sold  at  twi-nty-five 
dollars,  and  3,000  people  filled  the  hall.  Hut  by  now 
he  was  meeting  with  American  as  well  as  Canadian 
criticisms  of  his  assertion  that  Protestantism  was  a 
dying  faith.  Almost  immediately  after  his  depar- 
ture, the  Bisho]i  of  London — who  has  been  very 
often  compared.  I  tmd,  with  lurnard  Wiughan,  al- 
though I  should  not  like  to  explain  why  I  think  the 


i6o  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

comparison  peculiarly  idle — had  raised  wild  enthus- 
iasm among  the  non-Catholic  population  by  asking  : 
'*  Why  am  I  not  a  Roman  Catholic  ?  "  "  Because," 
he  replied,  after  a  solemn  pause,  "  Because  I  am  an 
EngHsh  Catholic,  thank  God."  It  may  be  doubtful 
how  much  pleasure,  or  even  meaning,  this  conveyed 
to  the  French-speaking  population  of  Montreal, 
especially  as  he  also  asked  :  "  Why  am  I  not  a 
Dissenter  ?  "  and  replied  :  '"Because  there  is  nothing 
to  dissent  from."  This  communion  in  negation  was 
not,  however,  taken  up  in  New  York,  where  the 
Presbyterian  Ministers'  Association  of  Greater  New 
York,  who  retorted  that  it  was  Cathohcism  that  was 
dying,  begged  Fr.  Vaughan  to  "look  at  Spain." 
Ancient  myths  about  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  also 
rehearsed,  unreliable  theme  for  panegyric,  which 
were  answered,  though  not  by  Fr.  Vaughan,  on  the 
spot.  His  least  expected  defender  was,  however, 
Mr.  Holmes,  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah,  who 
declared  that  provided  Fr.  Vaughan  admitted  that 
Catholicism  was  dead,  for  the  Inquisition  functioned 
no  more,  he  was  perfectly  right  in  saying  that  Pro- 
testantism was  dying,  if  not  defunct ;  it  was  banished 
from  the  home,  outlawed  from  education,  and  lay 
altogether  outside  pohtical  or  social  reform.  Were 
every  Protestant  church  shut,  and  every  minister 
silenced,  it  would  not,  said  this  singular  pastor, 
make  the  slightest  difference  to  anyone. 

Fr.  Vaughan  continued  placidly  making  the  due 
retorts.  To  rich  women  he  said  he  would  rather  see 
them  taking  in  washing  than  taking  in  men ;  to  some^ 
plutocrats  with  whom  he  was  lunching,  and  who, 


ABROAD  i6i 

despatching  telegrams  and  answering  'phone  calls 
during  the  meal,  told  him  that  he  would  say,  in 
England,  that  America  was  losing  no  time,  he  re- 
marked, "  No  ;  but  Eternity."  "  I  will  chuck  the 
'  good  time  '  "  he  said,  "  for  the  sake  of  a  good  eter- 
nity." He  deplored  to  find,  among  his  Protestant 
brothers,  that  the  Bible  was  used  no  more  as  a  fixed 
rule  of  faith,  but  rather  as  a  limp  accordion.  "  Let 
politicians,"  he  exhorted,  "  live  above  the  snow- 
line ;  run  up  your  Stars  into  a  clear  crisp  air,  and 
let  your  Stripes  be  felt  by  all  who  wTong  your  country 
by  defying  the  laws  of  God  and  of  the  Fatherland." 
Having  made  sixty  speeches  in  his  thirt\'  days' 
visit,  he  left  for  home  on  the  Oceanic,  and  held  three 
services,  by  request,  when  still  at  sea  on  Sunday — 
he  said  Mass  in  the  steerage,  introduced  an  orchestra 
he  had  formed  from  the  passengers,  and  preached  on 
The  Soul's  Voyage  over  the  Sea  of  Life  ;  preached 
again  after  breakfast  in  the  first  saloon  on  Trust 
in  Our  Lord  in  Life's  Sea  of  Trouble  ;  and  once  more 
in  the  evening  on  The  Soul,  the  Body's  precious 
Freight.  Besides  this,  he  lectured  on  the  Immor- 
tality of  the  Soul,  Mr.  Edison  having  recently  dis- 
turbed consciences  by  his  denial  of  that  doctrine  ; 
he  was,  urged  the  great  discoverer,  a  collection  of 
cells  merely,  and  why  should  he,  then,  go  to  heaven 
any  more  than  New  York  should,  which  was  a  similar 
collection  of  citizens  ;  and  why  should  the  brain 
go  thither  any  more  than  one  of  his  own  phonograph 
records.  To  these  philosophical  conundrums  Fr. 
Vaughan  opposed  a  rather  tart  repl\",  which  in  such 
circumstances  may  most  certainly  be  forgiven  him. 


i62  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

On  arriving  home,  he  went  to  and  fro  speaking 
on  his  experiences  which  had  given  him  great  joy, 
and  had  left  him  full  of  admiration  for  the  two  great 
countries  he  had  visited,  together  with  the  convic- 
tion that  Catholic  principles  alone  would  preserve 
the  noble  qualities  he  had  seen  in  the  midst  of  the 
destructive  forces  he  had  also  noticed,  and  develop 
the  national  life  to  its  due  perfection. 

Father  Vaughan  made  a  second  tour  through  the 
United  States,  beginning  on  September  23rd,  1911, 
and  ending  on  April  13th,  1913.  This  tour,  I  gather, 
was  made  desirable  because  of  his  growing  insomnia, 
but  became  the  occasion  of  earning  money  on  behalf 
of  the  Zambesi  Mission,  so  that  however  much  he 
might  enjoy  himself,  he  could  know  that  the  trip 
was  not  a  purely  selfish  one. 

I  do  not  think  I  need  describe  it  in  detail.  Any 
such  attempt  would,  to  start  with,  involve  me  without 
any  doubt  in  a  hundred  errors,  since  to  reconstruct 
his  itinerary  from  the  sheaves  of  undated  newspaper 
clippings  which  seem  to  form  its  sole  record,  would 
be  nearly  impossible.  But  then,  not  much  is  lost. 
A  list  of  towns  visited  and  lectures  given  would 
inspire  no  imagination. 

He  seems  to  have  gone,  first,  from  New  York  to 
Boston,  where  the  Rev.  R.  J.  Campbell  was  preaching 
at  the  same  time.  The  comparisons  are  not  illu- 
minating, save  that  the  reporters  seem  agreed  that 
the  Jesuit  was  the  more  optimistic  of  the  two. 
During  his  stay  in  Boston  he  must  have  spoken  to 
40,000  persons,  and  his  main  theme  was,  "  Why* 
am  I  a  Cathohc  ?  "     In  four  sermons  he  dealt  with 


ABROAD  163 

four  answers  :  "  Because  it  means  Incorporation 
with  Christ,  Membership  with  Christ,  Life  with 
Christ,  and  Sacrifice  with  Christ."  And  I  should  hke 
to  mention  here  that  it  is  often  said  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
eschewed  the  mystical  element  in  religion.  I  doubt 
that.  It  is  quite  true  that  he  saw  so  much  of  the 
fashionable  pseudo-mysticism  that  occupies  the 
feverisli  or  the  jaded  brains  of  uninstructed  folks, 
and  heard  so  much  of  its  jargon,  that  he  tended  to 
distrust  altogether  the  word  itself  and  seldom  if 
ever  used  it.  But  from  the  very  beginning,  when  he 
preached,  at  Farm  Street,  his  course  on  "Christ,  tlie 
Life  of  the  Soul,"  he  was  very  faithful  to  this  topic 
which  is  the  theme  of  all  genuine  mysticism.  In- 
corporation with  Christ  is  surely  the  most  sublime 
and  profound  of  all  Christian  dogmas,  and  carries  the 
soul  onwards  into  the  very  recesses  of  the  mystical 
life.  So  while  he  hated  the  thing  that  masquerades 
as  mysticism,  he  was  by  no  means  only  the  shrewd 
pragmatist  that  some  would  seem  to  think  him. 
During  his  sta}^  then,  at  Boston,  he  preached  these 
substantial  and  dogmatic  sermons,  and  also  visited 
all  manner  of  schools  and  convents,  romped  with 
children — Irish,  Italian — and  received  bouquets  of 
yellow  chrysanthemums,  eacli  blossom  with  its  gold 
coin  attached  "  to  help  in  lifting  the  Londt>n  fog," 
a  graceful  notion,  able  to  veil  the  too  crude  gift  that 
must  none  the  less  be  given.  It  is  pleasant  to  read 
how  large  a  part  these  talks  with  cliildren  played  as 
Fr.  Vaughan  moved  about  among  the  dense  Catholic 
population  of  the  Boston  Archdiocese — it  numbers 
no  less  than  900,000  souls,  and,  although  the  Zambesi 


i64  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

collections  may  have  suffered,  how  generously  he 
spoke  on  behalf  of  this  necessitous  enterprise  or  that. 

By  way  of  Providence,  he  went  to  Toronto  and 
there  preached  the  Advent. 

From  Toronto  he  went  by  way  of  Niagara  to 
Buffalo,  and  everywhere  it  was  noticed  that  his 
audiences  were  still  better  than  they  had  been  on 
his  earlier  visit,  and  that  no  ill  effects  of  the  storms 
of  that  date  survived,  though  they  still  had  their 
echoes — Fr.  Vaughan  was  accused  of  having  upset 
the  Laurier  Government  by  his  Montreal  utterances. 
To  re-establish  peace  and  good  will,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
C.  O.  Johnson,  of  the  Queen  Street  Methodist  Church, 
announced,  during  this  second  visit,  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
should  not  be  allowed  to  draw  all  Toronto  to  listen 
to  his  **  pretty  things."  He  must  be  unmasked,  his 
apostacy  uncovered.  Mr.  Johnson  would  do  it. 
The  Ne  Temere  Decree  was  his  weapon.  As  it  had 
done  in  Austria,  Spain,  Italy,  Portugal  and  South 
America,  so  here  in  Canada,  said  this  orator,  the 
decree  would  throw  thousands  of  children  upon  the 
street  and  demoralise  the  whole  Dominion.  Let  but 
the  Church  get  sufficient  power,  and  she  would  pro- 
nounce all  Protestant  parents  everywhere  to  be 
living  in  adultery,  all  Protestant  children  illegitimate. 
"  The  audience  clapped  their  hands  and  tapped  their 
feet,"  says  a  journal  under  the  headline,  '*  Protestant 
and  Catholic  Clinch  at  Long  Range,"  and  in  conse- 
quence, perhaps,  of  Mr.  Johnson's  declaration  that 
the  Roman  Catholic  Christ  was  not  the  Protestants' 
one,  the  non-Catholic  audiences  flocked  to  Fr. 
Vaughan's  lectures  to  compare  the  two.  The  \x^ 
shot  of  this  episode  was  that  Fr.  Vaughan  had  to 


ABROAD  165 

contradict  a  ubiquitous  rumour  that  lie  was  to 
succeed  Archbishop  McEvay  in  the  See  of  Toronto, 
and  the  local  press  no  doubt  soon  undertook  to  make 
the  meaning,'  of  the  Ne  Tcmere  clear  even  to  those 
who  did  not  want  to  know  it.  Christmas  closed  in 
friendliness. 

By  way  of  Niagara  Fr.  Vaughan  went  to  Savannah 
and  within  an  hour  or  two  was  talking  at  a  children's 
Mass  and  lectured  afterwards  to  crowds  who  braved 
some  of  the  worst  weather  they  could  remember, 
to  hear  him. 

Earl}'  in  January  he  was  back  in  New  York,  but 
began  his  work  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  speaking 
much  on  Joan  of  Arc,  and  this  led  him  also  to  speak 
often  on  Sufl'ragism.  But  he  certainly  arrived  in 
America  rather  on  edge  about  the  whole  subject 
owing  to  a  discussion  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
weather,  that  occurred  on  board  the  5.S.  Minnetonka 
on  liis  way  across.  Mr.  Harry  Phillips,  a  well-known 
suffragist,  had  been  invited  to  express  his  views  to 
the  passengers  and  had  in  his  turn  invited  Fr. 
Vaughan  to  preside.  The  address  was  agitated. 
At  least  twice,  waves  struck  the  ship  so  violently 
that  lecturer  and  lectured  were  flung  from  their 
seats,  we  are  told,  in  an  undignilied  heap.  The  result 
was  that  when  Fr.  \'auglian  robustly  disagreed  with 
the  whole  of  Mr.  Pliillips's  argument,  tempers  rose 
high  and  a  sex-war  broke  out,  so  that  when  later 
on  in  the  voyage  Fr.  Vaughan  gave  one  of  his 
favourite  "  readings  "  from  the  poets,  Mr.  Philhps's 
faction  would  not  come.  I  feel  safe  in  sa\ing  that 
Fr.  Vaughan's  views  on  the  whole  subject  of  woman's 

M 


i66  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

public  role  were  what  would  be  called  old-fashioned. 
Or  should  I  rather  say,  his  instinctive  preferences  ? 
For  the  C.W.L.  and  many  of  his  close  friends  among 
women  of  very  active  life  would  be  able  to  tell  that 
he  was  not  only  not  a  "  woman-hater,"  as  many 
described  him,  but  fully  in  favour  of  their  doing  the 
new  sorts  of  work  which  the  times  were  asking  for. 
But  it  must  be  recalled  that  the  methods  of  militant 
suffragism  had  been  dazzling  the  eyes  of  many  to 
the  principles  and  ideals  that  lay  behind  them  ;    it 
was  against  the  method  that  he  really  used  to  in- 
veigh, not  the  sex  nor  its  vocation.     Besides  this, 
I  think  that  his  mother  had  set  for  him  an  exquisite 
ideal  that  he  never  thought  or  wished  to  see  sur- 
passed, and  she,  of  course,  had  lived  when  home-life 
and  "  charity  "  were  the  ultimate  horizon.     Every 
now  and  then,  Fr.  Vaughan  would  speak  as  if  these 
horizons  were  his,  too,  and  again,  he  would  some- 
times make  rather  rough  jokes  about  women  and 
their  doings  which  would  not  seem  to  all  in  the  most 
perfect  taste.     I  do  not  know  whether,  when  he  was 
asked  the  eternal  question — **  Where  would  you  be 
if  it  wasn't  for  a  woman  ?  "  he  really  answered  : 
"  Eating  ice-cream  in  the  garden  of  Eden,"  or  even 
whether,  if  indeed  he  said  it,  he  invented  it.     But 
I  think  it  is  true  that  when  a  lady  called  out :   "  Tell 
Bobs  the  army  will  never  be  right  till  you  give  women 
more  hberty,"  Fr.  Vaughan  replied  :    "  Tell  mothers 
the  army  will  never  be  right  till  they  give  us  more 
infantry."     As  for  Fr.  Vaughan's  persistent  attack 
on  Birth  Restriction,  it  may  be  possible  to  writ^a 
line  on  that  later  on.     It  remains  that  Fr.  Vaughan 


ABROAD  167 

arrived  111  America  with  the  not  quite  undeserved 
reputation  of  being  out  of  sympathy  with  the  ambi- 
tions of  so  many  of  the  finest  characters  among 
American  w(jmanhood,  and  his  invective  against 
suffragism,  often  repeated  during  this  tour,  did  Uttle 
to  mitigate  the  indignation  felt  by  many  who  would 
otherwise  have  been  his  hearers  and  indeed  admirers. 
In  February,  Fr.  Vaughan  began  to  preach  the 
Lent  at  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral.  Enough  to  say,  as 
to  the  attendance,  that  in  that  great  church  there 
never  was  room  enough  for  his  congregations,  and 
that  he  declared  that,  coming  late  one  Sunday  and 
trying  to  force  his  way  in  through  the  main  door, 
he  was  told  that  there  was  no  more  room  save  in  the 
pulpit  and  that  he  replied  that  he  would  take  that, 
then.  The  sermons  had  Socialism  for  their  theme. 
The  first  was  on  Socialism  and  the  Papacy  ;  the 
second,  on  Socialism  and  the  State  ;  the  third,  on 
Individualism  ,  the  fourth,  on  Marriage  ;  the  fifth, 
on  Socialism  and  Religion ;  and  the  sixth,  for  Easter 
Sunday,  on  Socialism  and  Social  Reform.  It  was 
Cardinal  Farley's  first  Easter  as  Cardinal,  and  his 
presence  added  very  much  to  the  splendour  of  the 
occasion.  Tlie  material  for  these  sermon-lectures 
had  long  ago  been  collected  for  Fr.  Wiughan  by  Fr. 
Plater,  S.J.,  though  I  cannot  tell  how  far  the  use 
made  by  Fr.  l^later  of  the  facts  he  supplied  would 
have  coincided  with  Fr.  Vaughan's.  Fr.  Husslein, 
S.J..  was  also  to  be  thanked  for  help  given.  The 
six  conferences  were  supplemented  by  four  more, 
Socialism  and  the  Rights  of  Ownership,  and  the 
Duties  of  Ownership,   Socialism   and   its   I^omises 


i68  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

and  Socialism  and  the  Christian  Sociahsts.  These 
ten  conferences  were  prepared  for  publication  during 
Fr.  Vaughan's  ensuing  tour  in  the  North- West,  and 
appeared  in  book  form,  Socialism  from  the  Christian 
Standpoint,  Macmillan,  New  York,  1912.  Oddly 
enough,  Mgr.  Benson  was  preaching  and  lecturing 
during  the  same  Lent  in  New  York  :  Benson,  too, 
took  Socialism  for  the  topic  of  at  least  one  lecture  : 
it  would  have  been  instructive  to  contrast  the  two 
preachers,  who  yet  were  more  like  one  another  than 
might  at  first  seem  conceivable  :  but  I  cannot 
find  that  much  comparison  was  made.  New  York 
was  large  enough  to  contain  the  two  of  them,  since 
they  could  remain  sufficiently  wide  apart.  Neither 
would  have  been  happy  in  the  other's  company, 
Fr.  Vaughan  would  have  infuriated  Mgr.  Benson, 
while  Mgr.  Benson  would  have  seemed  ineffectual 
to  Vaughan.  Yet  where  Benson  was  a  boy,  Vaughan 
was  a  child  ;  where  Benson  was  iridescent,  ironic, 
shrill,  fancyful,  secretive  about  himself  and  passion- 
ately interested  in  the  individual  cases  that  came 
into  his  path,  an  explorer,  a  convert,  frail-seeming 
and  thus  pathetic,  Fr.  Vaughan  was  flamboyant, 
caustic,  an  elocutionist,  a  skilled  apostle  of  the 
obvious,  frankly — -almost  brutally — self-advertising 
("  Have  you  ever  taken  a  back  seat,  Fr.  Vaughan  ?  " 
an  Anglican  Archdeacon  rather  raspingly  enquired. 
"  I  will  examine  my  conscience,"  answered  he, 
"  and  if  I  have,  I  will  write  and  apologise."  The 
retort,  I  hold,  was  courteous),  and  delighting  in 
crowds  and  the  massive  impression,  and  perfectly 
unskilled  in  minute  analysis  of  this  mind  or  of  that ; 


ABROAD  169 

a  rooted  Tory,  though  with  his  eyes  wide  open  and 

far  more  aware  than  the  would-be  medieval  Benson 

of  the  good  elements   in   a   vulgarised   world   that 

Benson  sim])l\-  loathed  ;  and  as  for  his  appearance — 

the  Times-Star  wTote  as  follows  : 

He  has  the  figure  of  an  officer  of  cavalr>',  the  glowing  and 
audacious  eyes  of  a  brilliant  woman,  nose  and  jaw  so  nut- 
crackered  that  at  first  glance  one  fears  he  has  forgotten  to 
pick  his  teeth  up  from  the  dresser  [sit  venia],  and  the  tonsure 
of  the  militimt  priest.  One  may  conceivably  (the  writer 
continues)  disagree  with  what  Fr.  \'aughan  says,  but  it  is 
most  unlikely  that  one  will  forget  it. 

These  two  men,  therefore,  united  in  the  deepest 
things  of  all,  in  a  quite  passionate  devotion  to  Our 
Lord  and  to  the  Catholic  faith,  similar  in  many  of 
their  preferences,  fiercel}'  divergent  in  their  fas- 
tidiousness— for  each  had  his  own — swept  the  crowds 
to  St.  Patrick's  or  to  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes  or  first  to 
the  one  and  back  to  the  other  once  again.  Small 
wonder  that  such  journals  as  were  socialist  were 
annoyed.  They  all  reported  Fr.  Vaughan  at  great 
length  -not,  this  time,  by  dictation — and  made  few 
comments.  True,  the  Daily  People  professed  that 
it  w(nild  have  been  a  disappointment  not  to  see  a 
Roman  Catholic  dignitary  "  wearing  out  his  teeth 
on  the  file  "  of  Socialism,  and  found  Fr.  Vaughan 
"  up  to  the  mark — the  mark  of  the  capitaHst  political 
stump-speaker  with  whom  recklessness  of  allegations 
is  a  characteristic,  and  the  chucking  of  big  bluffs, 
and  none  too  big,  the  most  cherished  method."  And 
a  great  deal  was  heard  of  the  anti-socialist  Catholic 
campaign  engineered  from  Rome  by  means  chiefly  of 
Fr.  Vaughan,  and  two  socialists,  Messrs.  Lindgren 


170  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

and  Schwartz,  sought  for  the  arrest  of  Fr.  John  L. 
Belfort,  rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  on  the 
grounds  that  he  had  tried  to  incite  to  murder  and 
violence  by  an  anti-sociahst  article.  Everywhere 
the  Knights  of  Columbus  were  of  the  utmost  help  on 
these  and  other  occasions. 

Between  or  after  his  New  York  sermons,  Fr. 
Vaughan  spoke  at  Washington,  D.C.,  and  Jackson- 
ville, Fla.,  at  St.  Augustine's,  and  very  soon  went 
north  again  to  Detroit,  reaching  it  via  Boston,  and 
then  again  south  to  Cincinnati,  where  he  was  corralled 
in  the  Emery  auditorium  by  three  militant  and  yet 
most  courteous  suffragist  ladies  who  extracted  from 
him  none  but  the  non-committal  replies  which  by 
now  he  had  schooled  himself  to  make.  It  is  true 
that  his  journey  was  already  beginning  to  tell  upon 
him,  and  his  lecture  had  been  given  only  after  a 
postponement.  Here,  too,  Mgr.  Benson  either  just 
preceded  or  just  followed  him.  By  way  of  Kansas 
City  he  reached  Denver,  where  he  enjoyed  himself 
immensely.  He  had  attacked  that  city  very  forcibly 
because  of  its  declining  birth-rate  ;  but  the  nickname 
he  gave  it — Paris  of  America — ^healed  the  very  wound 
it  sought  to  make,  and  the  criticisms  were  greeted, 
so  far  as  I  can  see,  with  delight.  Certainly,  his 
picture  figured  everywhere,  surrounded  by  prints 
representing  the  various  modern  dances  which  at 
that  time  he  was  denouncing.  He  was  taken  out 
to  a  gold  camp  and  gave  an  address  to  the  miners 
which  is  said  to  have  delighted  them. 

At  this  point  the  records  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  totJf 
are  in  such  inextricable  confusion,  and  the  gaps  in 


ABROAD  171 

them  are  so  many,  tiiat  1  will  <jnl\-  say  that  he  seems 
to  have  gone  by  way  of  Los  Angeles  to  San  Fran- 
cisco and  thence  to  Vancouver  and  Seattle  and 
Pendleton  in  Oregon.  At  San  Francisco  he  gave 
the  retreat  of  which  I  here  print  the  advertisement  : 

LiPK,  the  Soul's  Jouruey.     "  I  go,  and  return  no  more."     Job  x,  ii. 

The  Ikvitation. 

pATiiiiK  BKR.N.iRi)  Vaughan,  S.J.,  Cordially  invites  you  to  accompaoy 
hiin  on  the  "  GoMcu  Gate  "  limited  E-vpress,  which  is  scheduled  t  j 
leave  San  Francisco  via  "  El  Camino  Real  "  for  the  "  Paradise  of 
the  Soul."  on  Wednesday,  January  8th,  3  p.m.,  and  is  due  to  arrive 
on  Thursday,  January  23rd,  at  8  a.m. 
Academy  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  San  Francisco,  New  Year's  Day,  1913. 

Notice  to  Passengers. 

"  We  exhort  you,  that  you  receive  not  the  Grace  of  God  in  vain  ; 
for  behold  !  Now  is  the  acceptable  time  ;  Now  is  the  Day  of  Salva- 
tion."    //  Cor.,  vi,  I,  2. 

Rise  up  and  ro  forth,  your  resting  place  is  not  here.  M\ch.  •».  10. 
We  have  not  here  a  lasting  city  ;  we  seek  one  to  come.  Heb.  xiii,  14. 
We  are  sojourners  before  Thee,  and  there  is  no  stay.     /  Par.  xrix,  15. 

Equiphent. 

1. — See  that  you  are  on  the  right  track. 

2. — Expre.ss  your  lugi^age  through  in  Advance. 

3. — Make  good  use  of  the  Observation  Car. 

4. — Thank  God  you  are  ou  a  I'iner. 

5. — Be  kindly  to  your  Felluw   Passengers. 

6. — Be  sure  you  slow  into  the  right  Depot. 

N.B. — Be  on  Time. 

Information  Bureau. 

"  My  days  have  been  swifter  than  a  post  ;  they  have  fled  away,  and 
have  not  seen  good."     Job  ix,   25. 

"  Our  time  is  as  the  passing  of  a  shadow  ;  there  is  no  going  back. 
Wtsd.  it,  5. 

"  The  sun  rose  up  with  a  bximing  heat  and  parched  the  grain  ;  and 
the  flower  thereof  fell  off,  and  the  beauty  thereof  perished  ;  s«' 
also  shall  some  rich  fade  away  'n  their  ways."  Lam.  ix,  11. 
"  Dearly  beloved,  I  beseech  you  as  strangers  and  pilgrims  to  re- 
frain .  .  .from  desires  which  war  against  the  soul  "  /  J^ftrr  it,  11. 
N.B. — No  Sleepers  on  this  Limited.  No  Return  Tickets.  First 
CLi&s  only. 

It  may  be — Now-or-Nevcr. 
Grace,  like  tue  Express,  waits  for  no  man. 

This  part  of  his  tour  finished  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  with  a  sight  of  a  "  Round  up  "  at  Pendle- 
ton, an  exhibition  that  lasted  three  days  and  must 
certainly  have  been  a  superb  display  of  horseman- 
ship which  thoroughly  deserved  the  praises  he 
bestowed  on  it.     I  can  imagine  that  Fr.  Vaughan, 


172  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

sated  altogether  by  the  dinners  whose  menus  sur- 
vive though  I  don't  transcribe  them,  and  the  cloying 
diet  of  applause  which  was  added  to  them,  will  have 
been  glad  at  last  to  watch  a  thing  quite  perfect  in 
its  kind  in  which  he  was  not  the  protagonist.  Fr. 
Vaughan,  who  had  been  haunted  earlier  in  his  visit 
by  Mr.  Campbell  and  Mgr.  Benson,  here  found  that 
no  less  a  rival  than  Dr.  Anna  Shaw,  the  foremost 
woman  suffragist  in  the  United  States,  was  arriving 
at  the  same  time  as  he  did,  and  though  I  cannot 
make  sure  whether  her  train  was  sufficiently  on 
time  to  allow  the  cowgirls  who  shared  in  the  display 
to  meet  her,  Fr.  Vaughan  was  made  to  feel  thoroughly 
at  home  by  being  welcomed  at  the  station  by 
"  mounted  cowboys  in  their  wild  and  careless  trap- 
pings and  by  Indians  in  all  their  bravery  of  colour," 
and  had  at  his  disposal  "  the  old-time  stage  coach- 
and-four,"  while  the  whole  procession  was  led  "  by 
the  cowboy  band  with  chaps  and  sombreros,  playing 
'Let  her  buck.'" 

It  had  certainly  been  his  intention  to  return,  after 
Victoria  and  Vancouver,  through  Calgary,  Edmon- 
ton, Saskatoon,  Regina,  Winnipeg,  Port  Arthur, 
to  Toronto.  He  went  to  the  first  two  places,  but 
after  that  I  lose  sight  of  his  track,  though  he  was 
fond  of  relating  how  he  enjoyed  the  Yukon. 

Of  that  stay  in  the  North  I  can  find  but  few  records. 
I  can  safely  say,  however,  that  he  liked  it  more 
than  any  other  part  of  his  trip.  In  the  lack  of  per- 
sonal comments  made  bv  himself,  I  think  it  wisest 
to  quote  the  following  extract  from  a  paper  whose  V 
name,  unfortunately,  is  torn  off  the  cutting  I  possess  : 


ABROAD  173 

Father  Vaughan  Mushes  in  North,  After  a  Long 
Trip  in  Yukon  and  Klondike,  he  says  Alaska  was  Good 
Buy.  Praises  the  Country.  Tells  of  Grand  Scenery, 
Picturesque  People  and  Work  of  Church  among   Natives. 

Rev.  Bernard  Vaughan,  the  English  Jesuit,  says  the 
United  States  drove  a  good  bargain  when  it  purchased 
Alaska  for  $7,000,000.  And  Father  Vaughan  has  seen  only 
a  strip  of  the  territory.  He  came  back  on  the  steamship 
City  of  Seattle  \'esterday  from  Skagway.  He  sailed  north 
a  month  ago  on  the  Admiral  Sampson,  traversed  the  Yukon 
district  and  crossed  over  into  the  Klondike  to  Dawson. 

While  in  the  North  Father  Vaughan  was  the  guest  at  a 
banquet  at  which  the  menu  was  made  up  of  bear  pie,  caribou 
steak,  moose  tenderloin,  leg  of  mountain  sheep,  grouse,  wild 
<luck,  salmon,  crab  and  trout,  and  the  chef  was  a  Chinese 
and  the  waiter  a  Japanese. 

The  venerable  priest,  who,  when  he  is  in  England,  labors 
among  the  slums  of  London,  became  a  musher,  went  up  and 
down  the  creeks  among  the  miners  and  preached  to  them. 
He  lectured  in  a  dozen  mining  towns,  speaking  on  a  wide 
range  of  subjects,  though  he  says  some  phase  of  sociahsm 
was  the  theme  that  he  was  asked  to  discuss  most  frequently 
in  the  Coast  towTis.  Any  man  who  was  ready  to  take  off 
his  coat  and  put  his  back  into  his  work  was  welcome. 

"In  Alaska  they  do  not  ask  you  what  you  are,  or  whence 
you  came,  or  how  much  you  ha\e  got,  but  only  what  you 
want  and  what  you  will  do  for  it,"  said  I'athcr  \'aughan. 
He  says  he  found  the  miners  to  be  a  hearty,  honest  and  good- 
natured,  open-handed  class  of  men. 

"  The  miner's  life,"  said  the  Father,  "  symbolized  that 
of  the  zealous  Christian.  It  was  made  up  of  faith,  it  was 
buoyed  up  by  hope,  and  at  length  it  stnick  gold,  that  pre- 
cious ore  which  was  the  symbol  of  charity,  for  which  every 
man  in  right  earnest  about  his  mission  in  life  sought  till  it 
was  found.  It,  too.  was  the  current  coin  in  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  There  was  faith,  hope  and  charity,  but  the  best 
of  these  was  charity.     Circulate  it  widely." 

He  mingled  with  the  natives  and  says  he  found  them  sin- 
gularly courteous,  reverential  and  truthful.  He  was  touched 
by  the  piety  of  the  Catholic  members  of  the  tribes  and  says 


174  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

they  compare  favourably  with  the  whites  of  his  country  in 
their  simple,  fervent  practices  of  religion.  He  preached  to 
them,  he  received  some  of  them  into  the  church  and  officiated 
at  their  weddings. 

Father  Vaughan  says  he  found  the  Cathohc  church  doing 
good  work,  zealous  work,  among  the  natives  and  whites, 
the  priests'  self-sacrifice  in  their  devotion  often  rising  to 
quiet  heroism.  One  priest  he  found  mending  his  own 
clothing  and  cooking  his  food.  He  found  it  cost  more  to 
live  in  the  North  than  it  does  in  London,  but  if  hving  comes 
high,  he  said,  wages  in  the  Klondike  were  correspondingly 
skyward.  Fancy  a  gardener  on  cin  Englishman's  estate 
getting  a  dollar  an  hour.  Father  Vaughan  found  one  near 
Dawson  getting  that  wage,  and  a  Japanese  cook  drawing 
$i8o  a  month,  a  maid  $86  and  a  night  watchman  $i6o,  and 
when  he  bought  a  daily  paper  he  parted  with  two  bits. 

Father  Vaughan  says  there  was  quite  a  flutter  aboard  the 
City  of  Seattle  when  the  passengers  awoke  to  find  the  vessel 
ashore  near  Ketchikan.  One  woman  passenger  who  met  the 
priest  as  she  stepped  from  her  stateroom  said  she  was  sure 
the  steamship  had  struck  an  iceberg.  "  I  told  her,"  said 
Father  Vaughan,  "  heaven  was  as  near  by  water  as  by  land," 
but  she  seemed  to  doubt  it. 

"  During  the  voyage  we  did  pass  near  scores  of  icebergs," 
he  said  ;  "  nay,  hundreds  of  them,  some  near  Taku  glacier 
beautiful  beyond  description  ;  bear,  too,  swimming  after 
salmon.  We  several  times  saw  schools  of  whale  floundering 
about  and  giving  every  indication  they  had  a  keen  suspicion 
we  were  without  harpoon  or  whale  gun.  Some  of  them  were 
more  than  lOO  feet  long." 

Father  Vaughan  was  to  have  spoken  in  St.  James' 
cathedral  this  evening,  but,  owing  to  the  delay  in  his  arrival, 
the  address  has 'been  postponed  until  to-morrow  evening. 
His  subject  will  be  "  Reason  and  Revelation."  He  will 
leave  this  week  to  visit  Yellowstone  park  and  on  his  return 
to  this  city  he  will  likely  make  an  address  in  some  public 
hall.  He  will  go  east  on  his  way  home  through  the  Canadian 
Rockies. 

Father  Vaughan,   it  is  quite  clear  from  another 


ABROAD  175 

cutting,  studied  very  closely  the  process  of  mining 
for  gold,  and  applied  it  skilfully  to  the  Christian 
method  of  self-discipline.  He  evinced  much  admira- 
tion for  the  efficiency  of  the  local  police  purity 
squads,  and  examined  as  many  of  the  social  institu- 
tions of  the  region  as  he  could.  All  over  the  world 
a  mining  population  seems  to  display  the  kindest 
geniality  if  but  it  receive  sincerity  and  cheerfulness, 
and  both  these  qualities  were  eminently  Fr. 
Vaughan's.  So  he  never  ceased  to  love  his  memories 
of  Alaska  and  the  Klondike. 

Had  his  tour  satisfied  him  ?  I  cannot  tell.  Yet 
I  think  it  ought  almost  thoroughly  to  have  proved 
to  him  how  little  one  can  take  for  granted.  "  As  a 
pleasure  tour,"  a  priest  has  written  to  me  from  one 
of  the  cities  Fr.  Vaughan  visited,  "  it  was  very 
gratifying  ;  but  as  a  lecture  tour,  it  did  not  come  up 
to  expectations."  I  can  perfectly  understand  that. 
Fr.  Vaughan  had  not  chosen  his  subjects  well,  nor 
enough  of  them.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  had  half 
a  dozen  lectures  prepared,  and  though  as  a  story 
teller  he  was  excellent,  even  his  stories  could  be  but 
half  ajipreciated,  since  the  Lancashire  and  even  the 
Cockney  dialect  in  whicli  many  of  them  were  told 
seemed  merely  odd  to  the  listeners.  Then,  alas, 
publicity  cuts  both  ways.  It  is  all  very  well  to  be 
advertised  and  reported  ;  but  when  that  has  been 
done  half  a  hundred  times,  and  the  same  tales  told 
and  re-told,  the  ensuing  half  a  hundred  lectures  are 
apt  to  sound  flat.  Socialism,  even  before  he  came, 
was  a  wearied  topic  ;  and  his  view  of  suffragism  gave 
real  annoyance.     What  he  really  "  got  home  "  on, 


176  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

as  he  quoted,  were  the  lectures  on  Joan  of  Arc  and 
on  Character.  But  even  in  these — for  he  always 
prefixed  some  paragraphs  de  circonstance — he  fell 
into  the  error  of  using  the  local  slang.  There  is  most 
certainly  no  harm  in  slang  dexterously  applied.  But — 
well,  he  was  not  always  dexterous.  Is  there  a  thing 
that  sets  one's  teeth  worse  on  edge  than  familiar 
slang  unfamiliarly  used  ?  Uncles,  on  visits  to  small 
nephews  still  at  school,  little  guess  how  their  efforts 
to  be  boys  among  boys  infuriate  the  nephew.  And 
the  tragedy  was  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was  not  even  an 
uncle  from  whom  much  may  be  tolerated  in  view  of 
the  hoped-for  coin.  While  Fr.  Vaughan,  in  America, 
gave  himself,  perhaps,  a  few  of  the  airs  of  an  uncle, 
it  was  his  hosts  who  contributed,  and  very 
generously,  the  coin.  In  fact,  a  Denver  audience 
did  not  applaud,  and  Fr.  Vaughan  was  hurt. 

Many,  too,  of  Fr.  Vaughan's  audiences  were  ex- 
ceedingly refined,  and  had  looked  forward  to  a 
different  sort  of  diction.  His  roughnesses,  they 
could  appreciate  :  but  not  his  slovenlinesses.  And 
after  all,  he  could  be  too  easily  beaten  on  that  field. 
What  chance  had  headlines  like  :  Religion  s  Friend 
is  Science,  Eloquent  Vaughn  Says :  against  Short 
Arm  Jolts  from  Fra  Elhertus  :  "  Into  his  wonderful 
storehouse  of  knowledge,  of  wit,  of  wisdom,  and  of 
words  which  he  Melds  into  epigrams  that  inspire 
and  endure,  Elbert  Hubbard  dipped  generously  at 
the  Tramway  Auditorium  last  night,  impaling  on 
the  barbs  of  his  mental  lances  delectable  intellectual 
dainties  for  appreciative  audience."  This  gentle-^ 
man's  jests  pursued  Fr.  Vaughan  no  less  than  the 


ABROAD  177 

earnest  suffragist  and  the  eminent  preachers  ;  and 
I  confess  that  if  amusement  was  what  I  sought, 
I  should  have  preferred  Mr.  Hubbard,  through  whose 
crackling  epigrams  shone  a  good  kindliness  and 
much  common  sense,  to  his  rivals.  I  think  Fr. 
Vaughan  had  the  right  to  feel  happy,  and  did,  no 
less  than  his  hearers,  when  he  spoke  frankly  Christian 
things,  that  he  had  thought  out  thoroughly  and 
always  felt  most  deeply,  from  the  smaller  pulpits  of 
convents  or  the  altar  steps  of  schools  ;  or  laughed 
among  the  small  Italian  children,  or  came  back  from 
the  simple  world  of  the  Klondike  to  Douglas,  and, 
as  his  farewell  to  America,  received  into  the  Church 
some  Taku  Indians,  married  two  of  them,  and  was 
delegated  to  administer  the  Sacrament  of  Confirma- 
tion to  yet  others.  The  priest's  hours  of  most  joyous 
joy  are  those  when  he  can  leave  speech  to  one  side, 
and  use  anointed  hands  for  tasks  that  admit  of  no 
mistake. 

Fr.  Vaughan  came  back  by  way  of  Tokyo  and  was 
there  invited  to  give  two  lectures,  one  to  the  Univer- 
sity students,  one  at  the  Peers'  Club.  Never  before 
had  a  Catholic  been  allowed  to  speak  to  the  students 
in  their  hall,  and  they  gave  liim  a  great  welcome. 
H.H.  Prince  Tokugawa,  President  of  the  House  of 
Peers,  had  collected  a  remarkable  audience  to  hear 
Fr.  Vaughan.  He  was  himself  "  the  heir  and  repre- 
sentative of  that  illustrious  family  of  Regents  who 
governed  the  Japanese  Empire  while  the  Emperor 
was  kept  in  'golden  custody,'  that  is,  till  1867."  It 
was   this    very    family    which    had   persecuted    the 


178  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Catholic  Church  from  1613  onwards,  and  had  found 
so  many  priests  faithful  even  to  death. 

Fr.  Vaughan  chose  for  his  subject.  Socialism,  the 
present  unrest  and  the  need  of  religion.  Professor 
Ishikawa  interpreted  what  Fr.  Vaughan  said.  I 
understand  that  Socialism  (in  the  revolutionary  and 
anti-religious  sense,  which  was  always  that  in  which 
Fr.  Vaughan  used  the  word)  is  not  a  pressing  problem 
in  Japan.  I  have  been  assured  that  a  hierarchy  of 
discipline  is  still  on  the  whole  well  preserved  there. 
So  Fr.  Vaughan's  speech,  which  made  a  truthful 
review  of  the  state  of  things  in  Europe,  will  have 
been  useful  as  a  warning  rather  than  as  advice  for 
actual  application.  It  may,  too,  have  served  to 
corroborate  the  excellent  habits  of  mind  which  are 
said  to  exist  in  nearly  all  classes  of  Japan,  and  will 
thus  have  merited  the  applause  which  crowned  the 
astonishing  honour  done  to  Fr.  Vaughan  by  these 
two  invitations.  He  also  addressed  an  assembly 
of  Japanese  ladies  on  the  ideal  of  womanhood  that 
was  his. 

In  China  he  stayed  but  a  short  time  only,  nor  did 
he  see  more,  I  think,  than  Shanghai.  He  visited  a 
college,  and  the  University  in  the  French  concession. 
Almost  at  once  after  his  arrival  on  March  ist,  how- 
ever, he  had  been  begged  for  a  pubhc  lecture.  There 
was  the  usual  rush  for  tickets.  On  the  7th  of  March, 
"  the  doors  of  the  Town  Hall  were  besieged  an  hour 
before  the  advertised  time.  When  the  doors  were 
opened,  in  they  poured  like  an  irresistible  stream, 
without,  however,  there  being  any  disorder  what^ 
ever.  .  ."     The   audience   was   naturally   far   from 


ABROAD  179 

wholly  Catholic  ;  in  fact,  two  non-Catholic  bishops 
and  several  Protestant  ministers  were  there  and  the 
most  cordial  feelings  prevailed. 

By  way  of  Paris,  where  the  religious  revival  much 
impressed  him,  Fr.  Vaughan  arrived  home  in  England 
on  April  15th,  after  eighteen  months'  absence  from 
England,  having  travelled  30,000  miles,  and  delivered 
quite  four  hundred  speeches  to  half  a  million  people. 

Had,  then,  his  time  been  wasted  ?  In  spite  of 
what  I  said  about  his  American  tour,  1  do  not  think 
so.  For  himself,  it  had  been  an  enchanting  ex- 
perience, and  people  had  really  been  extremely  kind 
to  him.  Even  for  his  confreres,  the  lesson  that  there 
was  a  world-wide  and  not  merely  local  work  needing 
to  be  done,  and  one  that  could  be  done  by  English- 
men, was  valuable.  It  was  inspiring  to  realise  that  a 
special  contribution  might  be  made  from  our  land, 
deemed  so  far  from  Catholic  initiative.  Whether 
substantial  good  of  any  definite  sort,  was  done,  may 
be  doubted.  But  a  spirit  was  diffused  and  much 
encouragement  given.  And,  when  you  try  to  assess 
the  feeling  for  Fr.  Vaughan  that  survived  the  thrill 
of  the  moment,  it  certainly  had  in  it  a  strong  element 
of  affection— the  thread  of  simple  love  that  was  in 
the  man  had  not  escaped  the  audiences  who  admired 
and  criticised  the  rhetoric.  It  is  strange  how  no 
amount  of  the  mediocre  can  annul  the  real  and  the 
good,  when  that  is  there  ;  and  most  certainly  it  was 
there,  and  the  quiet,  straightforward  friendly  talks 
and  jests  and  advice  have  survived  and  are  remem- 
bered and  quoted,  and  a  sense  of  Fr.  Vaughan's 
true  largeness  of  heart  and  height  of  ideal  was  kept, 


i8o  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

just  as  in  himself  he  found  that  he  recalled,  and 
would  love  to  speak  of,  the  thronging  children  of 
the  slums,  and  the  tremendous  mountains  and  the 
fir  trees  and  the  snow,  when  he  forgot  the  terrible 
tedium  of  the  official  dinners  and  their  opera  singers 
and  the  pearls,  and  the  interviews  and  epigrams, 
and  the  elaborate  illusion  of  success.* 

*He  kept  and  valued  a  little  address — doubtless  one  of  many — from 
the  citizens  of  Whitehorse,  Y.T.,  and  of  the  surrounding  country,  which 
told  how  they  appreciated  "  the  fact  that  we  address  ourselves  to  one 
who  is  taking  his  rank  as  one  of  the  foremost  lecturers  of  the  time  and 
we  trust  that  upon  the  completion  of  your  tour  into  this  exclusive  mining 
district  of  the  Yukon,  that  you  will  feel  that  you  have  been  most  warmly 
received  and  your  work  very  greatly  appreciated  by  all  without  respect 
to  creed  who  will  have  had  the  pleasvire  of  meeting  and  hearing  you.  In 
conclusion  permit  us  to  thank  you  for  the  opportunity  you  are  affording 
us  in  this  visit  and  to  wish  you  good  health  and  bon  voyage." 

That  was  the  kind  of  letter  that  warmed  his  heart. 


THE   LAST   YEARS 

WIIEX  Fr.  Vaughan  returned  from  America, 
it  soon  became  evident  that  he  had  aged 
ver)'  much.  It  is  true  that  ten  years  of  life 
remained  to  him  ;  but  he  did  nothing  on  any  large 
scale  during  them  nor  did  he  initiate  anything  really 
new.  No  doubt  into  these  years  the  period  of  the 
War  inserted  itself,  during  which  everybody  was 
living  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  as  for  Fr.  Vaughan. 
he,  as  we  shall  see,  was  during  those  years  so  called 
upon  to  speak  on  every  imaginable  subject  that  he 
certainly  had  no  time  to  learn  about  any  of  tliem 
thoroughly.  Those  years,  for  him,  were  practically 
one  long  improvisation.  x\part  from  that,  he  was 
living  on  what  he  had  b\'  now  acquired.  I  cannot 
pretend  that  I  think  his  tour  in  America  did  him 
any  good.  Physically,  no  one  could  have  stood  that 
racket  at  his  age  ;  and  spiritually.  I  think  it  accus- 
tomed him  to  need  excitement  more  than  he  had 
liitherto.  If  only  he  could  have  realised  that  even 
in  America  his  improvised  harangues  and  his  hun- 
dred-time repeated  lectures  had  not  served  their 
purpose  fully  !  Had  he  but  been  willmg  to  retire 
for  complete  rest  and  done  some  reading  and  really 
careful  writing  !  He  came  back,  said  he,  with  his 
youth  renewed,  if  not  like  the  eagle's,  at  least  like 
the  corncrake's  ;    and  he  was  not  quite  wrong.     It 

N 


l82  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

was  noticeable,  soon,  that  he  dragged  his  foot  some- 
what :  I  began  to  ask  myself  whether  he  were  not 
deliberately  adopting  the  mannerisms  of  an  old  man  ; 
his  face  fell  in  at  the  temples  and  round  his  mouth 
and  the  croaking  voice  he  had  liked  to  speak  with 
especially  at  the  beginning  of  his  sermons,  became 
more  habitual ;  he  took  to  reading  his  addresses, 
and  could  not  always  hear  the  questions  or  comments 
at  the  end  of  them,  and  this  annoyed  him.  I  remem- 
ber that  he  came  to  Oxford  to  read  a  paper  on 
Spiritualism.  It  was  not  at  all  a  success  :  he  had 
assumed  he  would  be  speaking  entirely  to  Catholics, 
whereas  the  hall  was  three-quarters  full  of  others. 
His  point  of  view — that  spiritualist  phenomena  were, 
if  not  fraud,  due  all  of  them  to  diabolic  agency,  did 
not  commend  itself  even  to  his  Catholic  hearers, 
and  he  made  no  attempt  to  attend  to  an  attitude, 
which  was  a  very  honest  scientific  and  psychological 
one.  In  consequence  he  merely  ridiculed  the  quite 
courteous  and  most  defensible  speeches  that  followed 
his  paper,  and  the  effect  was  deplorable.  None  the 
less,  he  was  convinced  that  the  paper  had  been  a 
great  success.  This  showed  that  he  had  failed  to 
"  sense  "  as  of  old,  or  had  been  quite  unwilling  to 
discover  beforehand  the  probable  temper  of  his 
audience  :  and  though  he  asked,  as  ever,  for  hints, 
I  do  not  think  he  now  attended  to  them  or  even  really 
tried  to.  In  fact,  I  think  he  had  given  up  trying  ; 
he  could  do  what  he  could,  and  it  was  useless  to  ask 
anything  else  from  him.  Unwilling  to  cease  work, 
he  carried  on  with  very  great  courage,  since  the  efforl 
tired  him  terribly  ;   and  there  were  frequent  flashes 


THIC    LAST    YEARS  183 

of  his  extraordinary  charm,  and  of  the  old  vivacity, 
and  of  his  tenderness  and  human  understanding. 
But  you  could  see  that  life  was  withdrawing  itself, 
or  revealing  its  presence  more  by  sudden  flares, 
than  by  a  steady  glow  or  even  the  mighty  conflagra- 
tions, so  to  say,  of  his  triumj)hant  days. 

Age  brought  with  it  disabilities,  no  doubt,  but  also 
the  consolations  of  his  "  jubilee."  In  December,  1916, 
he  had  completed  fifty  years  in  the  Society.  Not 
only  did  his  English  confreres  show  in  very  many 
ways,  especially  the  promise  of  prayers  and  Masses, 
their  sincere  respect  and  affection,  but  from  all  over 
the  world  recognition  reached  him  and,  what  to  him 
was  of  unequalled  value,  the  renewed  and  specific 
approbation  of  the  General  of  the  Society  and  of 
the  Holy  Father  himself.  Already  from  more 
Generals  than  one,  messages  of  good  will  had  rejoiced 
his  earlier  years — even  in  1904  the  General  of  the 
time  had  congratulated  him  on  a  miraculous  escape 
he  had  had  when  his  bicycle  had  been  knocked  over 
in  a  London  street.  "  Birotis,"  said  Fr.  Martin. 
"  in  aeternum  valedicens,  vehiculis  publicis  utatur  ." 
and  now  Fr.  Ledochowski  sent  him  the  promise  of 
fifty  Masses  for  his  jubilee.  In  101)5  the  Holy 
Father  had  first  given  to  Fr.  X'aughan  the  right  to 
bless  crucifixes  with  the  addition  of  certain  privi- 
leges in  the  matter  of  mdulgences.  and  in  1909  this 
was  repeated.  Now,  in  the  December  of  1916,  Pope 
Benedict  not  only  gave  to  Fr.  \'aughan  the  privilege 
of  using  a  portable  altar,  but  wrote  to  him  personally 
as  follows  : 


i84     LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

To  Our  dear  son,  Bernard  Vaughan,  S.J.,  London. 
Benedict  XV,  Pope. 

Dear  Son, — Health  and  the  Apostohc  Benediction.  Both 
for  your  own  sake,  dear  son,  and  for  Our  own,  we  rejoice 
that  you  have  reached  by  God's  goodness  an  age  at  which 
you  can  renew  that  joy  which  was  yours  when,  fifty  years 
ago,  you  entered  upon  the  reUgious  Ufe  of  the  holy  vows. 
For  your  own  sake,  since  We  fully  realise  what  an  unfailing 
treasure  you  must  have  stored  up  for  yourself  in  heaven, 
after  so  long  a  life,  after  so  much  work  done,  and  having 
adorned,  and  still  adorning,  that  more  holy  state  of  Ufe  with 
its  appropriate  virtues  ;  and  on  Our  own  account,  since  an 
opportunity  is  thus  offered  of  congratulating  you — as  we  do, 
most  affectionately, — as  a  soldier  who  has  fought  out  his 
campaigns  with  so  much  honour,  we  further  desire  that 
the  privilege  of  a  portable  altar  may  in  some  sense  make 
the  joy  of  this  fifty-years  jubilee  a  permanent  one,  and 
with  all  our  heart  we  impart  to  you  that  privilege,  so  that 
never  may  the  occasion  be  lacking,  as  for  yourself,  so  for  the 
Universal  Church,  of  propitiating  God  with  the  Sacrifice  of 
Salvation.  To  Our  love  and  goodwill  towards  you  We  also 
add  the  Apostohc  Benediction,  and  most  lovingly  in  Our 
Lord,  dear  son,  we  impart  it  to  you  and  to  your  fellov/ 
rehgious  that  it  may  ensure  for  you  all  heavenly  graces. 
Given  at  Rome  at  St.  Peter's,  December  14th,  1916,  in  the 
third  year  of  Our  Pontificate.     Benedict  XV,  Pope. 

In  writing  thus,  I  have,  of  course,  anticipated,  and 
the  aging  process  was  quite  gradual.  The  delight  of 
having  Fr.  Vaughan  back  caused  him  to  be  invited 
everywhere  to  give  an  account  of  his  tour,  and  as, 
on  his  return  from  his  first  one,  he  got  into  bad 
trouble  with  the  Canadian  press  for  seeming  to  decry 
the  Canadian  weather  by  comparison  with  the  salu- 
brious airs  of  New  York,  so  now  he  was  denounced 
under  the  deceptive  cupola  of  St.  Paul's  for  talking ' 
**  balderdash "    when   he   went   about   saying   that 


THE    LAST   YEARS  185 

travel  had  convinced  him,  as  it  dues  or  should  con- 
vince anyone,  that  the  Catholic  Church  was  the 
only  live  church  surviving. 

He  said  this  first  at  a  tremendous  meeting  of 
welcome  he  received  from  his  East  Enders.  One 
thousand  men  belonging  to  the  Guild  of  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  there  assembled  to  cheer  him  home.  At 
this  meeting  the  Mayor  of  Stepney,  not  a  Catholic, 
w^as  present  and  offered  Fr.  Vaughan  at  once  a  com- 
phment  and  a  challenge.  "  If  there  is,"  he  said, 
'*  so  tremendous  a  difference  between  the  worship 
and  doctrine  of  the  Catholics  and  those  of  others, 
there  should  be  a  con'esponding  one  in  life.  I  have 
a  tremendous  ideal  of  a  Catholic.  Light  has  been 
vouchsafed  to  you  that  has  not  been  to  me.  I  cannot 
be  a  Catholic  at  the  present  moment.  I  have  not 
the  behef.  But  you  who  believe  all  there  is  to 
beheve,  ought  to  be  a  much  better  people  than  the 
others.  I  am  sorry,"  said  the  Mayor,  "  for  having 
wandered  from  the  point."  "  No,"  cried  Fr. 
Vaughan,  "  you  are  right  on  it." 

His  relations  with  Anglicanism  as  such  did  not 
become  more  amiable,  though  as  usual  members  of 
ever\'  denomination  won  his  personal  respect  and 
gave  him  theirs.  The  controversy  connected  with 
the  name  of  Kiku\u  was  agitating  minds,  and  Fr. 
Vaughan  spoke  much  upon  this  house  di\ided  against 
itself,  sometimes  with  humorous  consequences.  I 
have  already  told  how  the  Egress  incident  and  the 
Uneatable  Game  episode  earned  for  liim  quite  des- 
perate rebukes  from  the  Nonconformist  press  :  and 
I  may  mention  that  once,  when  with  perfect  good 


i86  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

humour  he  had  told  an  Eastbourne  audience  that : 

The  authorities  in  your  church  contradict  themselves  as 
consistently  as  the  weathercocks  over  your  School  of  Art. 
I  noticed  yesterday  that  while  one  pointed  to  the  north, 
the  other  pointed  to  the  north-east.  If  one  is  to  the  south, 
another  is  to  the  south-west.  Each  is  living  its  life  of 
splendid  independence,  so  that  in  Eastbourne  you  can 
rejoice  in  having  any  kind  of  weather  you  like. 

the  local  press  was  very  hurt.  It  explained  elabor- 
ately that  the  vanes,  being  eighty  feet  apart, 
naturally  shifted  about  owing  to  the  various  "  cur- 
rents of  wind  that  smote  them."  "  Exactly,"  said 
Fr.  Vaughan.  And  after  a  speech  on  the  Anglican 
National  Mission  in  1916,  he  was  reported  as  having 
said  that  "  no  matter  how  many  dinners  were  eaten 
or  how  many  were  given,  there  would  be  no  dif- 
ference," and  an  indignant  storm  arose — the  Mission 
did  not  intend  to  give  dinners  :  was  Fr.  Vaughan 
accusing  it  of  touting  thus  for  success  ?  whereas 
what  he  had  said  was  that  no  matter  how  many 
drums  were  beaten  or  missions  given,  the  effect  would 
be  slight.  Not  but  what  he  was  fond  of  these 
gastronomic  metaphors.  "  Anglicanism,"  he  often 
said  "  was  a  meal  a  la  carte,  at  which  you  ate  what 
you  pleased,  and  did  not  quarrel  with  your  vis  a  vis, 
whose  taste  might  differ  ;  whereas  the  '  simple  Bible 
teaching  '  that  was  still  recommended  would  no  more 
feed  the  soul  than  reading  the  menu  would  the 
starving  body." 

But  I  can  honestly  say  that  he  took  no  pleasure  in 
attack.  I  repeat,  heresy  and  schism  were  not  that 
on  which  his  eye  cared  to  dwell.  He  had  no  wish 
to  feel  uncharitable,  and  they  made  him  feel  so.     He 


THK    LAST    YEARS  187 

was  quite  incapable,  and  knew  himself  so,  of  entering 
into  the  singular  states  of  mind  which  were  those  of 
his  opponents  and  he  could  only  speak  of  them  and 
to  them  as  he  himself  could  see  them.  His  Kikuyu 
sermons  are  laboured  :  the  theme  was  not  what  he 
would  choose  ;  but  when  at  the  end  he  can  turn  his 
eyes  to  the  Faith  and  to  the  True  Church  of  Christ, 
he  is  happy.  At  the  end  of  such  a  sermon  he  spoke 
til  us  : 

And  now.  my  Catholic  brethren,  let  me  address  myself  to 
you  and  let  me  exhort  you  to  love  the  Faith  that  is  in  you 
as  your  greatest  treasure  out  of  Heaven.  It  is  the  Pearl 
beyond  price  of  all.  It  is  the  only  thing  that  matters,  the 
one  gift  that  is  worth  while. 

It  will  take  the  duration  of  eternity  to  thank  God  for 
calling  us  into  His  Church,  in  which  alone  is  found  peace  for 
the  mind,  rest  for  the  heart  and  guidance  for  the  will.  O  Holy 
Church  !  O  Bride  of  Christ !  O  Mother  of  men  !  How  can 
I  adequately  express  my  unstinted  gratitude  for  all  thou  art 
in  Thyself  and  for  all  thou  art  to  me.  In  thyself  all  glorious, 
without  spot  or  vsTinkle.  altogether  holy  and  without  blemish, 
thou  hast  come  down  the  ages  trampling  error  under  thy 
feet  and  holding  aloft  the  torch  of  truth  and  the  mirror  of 
justice  in  thy  spotless  hands.  True,  on  thy  garments  I  sec 
the  blood  of  battle  and  on  thy  brow  the  sweat  of  toil,  but  in 
thine  eyes  is  the  fire  of  youth,  in  thy  step  the  spring  of  hope, 
and  on  thy  lips  the  note  of  truth  and  the  song  of  triumph. 
Princes  and  peoples  may  arise  up  to  assail  and  slay  thee,  but 
they  can  but  inflict  wounds  and  utter  vain  things  ;  they 
may  check,  but  they  cannot  stay  thy  progress  ;  they  may 
condemn  but  they  cannot  despise  thee  ;  they  may  threaten, 
but  they  cannot  silence  thee  ;  for  thy  message  is  to  all  men 
and  thy  mission  to  all  time. 

O  Holy  Mother  Church  !  who  on  thy  lap  hast  nursed  us 
and  at  thy  bosom  fed  us.  and  within  thy  sheltering  arms 
folded  and  taught  us  ;  O  thou,  who  art  our  light  in  darkness, 
repose  in  certitude,  comfort  in  sorrow,  and  strength  in  weak- 
ness, rise  up,  we  beseech  thee  in  the  majesty  of  thy  strength. 


i88  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

and  come  forth  with  thy  pitying  eyes  and  outstretched  arms 
to  gather  to  thy  embrace  and  fold  to  thy  heart  our  separated 
brethren,  who  Hke  sheep  without  a  shepherd  are  gone  astray 
on  the  uplands  swept  by  contrary  winds  of  doctrine,  or  are 
being  lost  in  the  valleys  below,  where  the  mists  of  doubt,  like  a 
fog  upon  the  river,  press  forth  from  the  burdened  heart  of 
so  many  bewildered  souls  the  prayer,  "  O  God,  if  I  am  to 
believe,  teach  me  what  it  is  I  am  to  beUeve,  and  in  Thy 
mercy  send  me  a  teacher  from  whom  I  am  to  learn  it,  that 
before  I  depart  hence  I  may  find  repose  in  certainty,  and 
so  end  my  days  in  peace.     Amen." 

During  this  last  part  of  his  life,  Fr.  Vaughan  was 
often  asked  to  publish  his  memoirs. 

"  I  feel  no  call  or  inclination,"  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
John  Long,  who  knew  him  well,  *'  to  do  so.  Instead 
of  leaving  behind  me  a  monument  I  want  to  prepare 
one  before  me.  The  last  milestones  on  the  way 
homeward  are  being  passed  and  I  am  so  intensely 
interested  in  what  is  coming  that  I  feel  cold  about 
what  I  am  leaving.  It  is  no  use  writing  unless  one's 
heart  is  in  it."  (December  20th,  1920.)  And  again, 
**  I  have  never  kept  a  diary.  I  note  some  of  my 
faults.  A  man  is  never  impressed  by  his  successes 
if  he  has  a  modicum  of  common  sense,  but  by  his 
faults  only.  My  monument  is  not  behind  me  but 
before  me."  And  to  Mr.  Hilliard  Atteridge  he  wrote 
that  when  he  was  dead  he  would  be  very  dead  indeed, 
so  that  no  memoir  would  be  written  by  him.  ''  And," 
he  added,  "  I  should  have  to  leave  out  all  the  best 
stories."  All  the  same,  one  may  regret  that  he  did 
nothing.  At  least  he  would  have  been  able  to  con- 
tradict a  good  many  myths.  But  he  did  not  care  to 
do  even  that.     As  long  ago  as  1907  he  had  written  : 

"  I  have  ceased  to  contradict  what  women  say  Father 


THE   LAST   YEARS  189 

Vaughan  said.  As  she  '  heard  '  me  saying  it,  what  would 
be  the  use  of  my  denying  it  ?  Nothing  matters.  It's  all 
right.  Don't  mind  'em.  ...  J  did  not  write  about  these 
matters  for  if  I  attended  to  them  all  there  would  be  no  time 
for  real  work.  Life  is  made  up  of  trivial  misunderstandings 
which  for  the  most  part  right  themselves  and  when  they 
do  not.  must  be  borne.  It's  all  right.  Bless  you.  Never 
worry." 

However,  he  had  already  published  a  small  book 
which  I  have  not  yet  mentioned,  on  Joan  of  Arc, 
which  derives  an  extrinsic  importance  because  of 
the  notes  made  by  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  in  the  margin 
of  the  copy  kept  at  Mount  Street.  The  nucleus  of 
this  book  was  formed,  need  I  say,  by  the  lecture  on 
the  "  Matchless  Maid  "  which  he  so  often  gave.  It 
was  charmingly  illustrated  by  M.  Gaston  Huissiere. 
who  made  but  one  slip — he  gave  Jeanne  yellow  hair 
and  blue  eyes,  whereas  she  was  dark,  as  Mr.  Lang 
pointed  out.  The  Cardinal  Archbishop  wTote  a 
preface,  and  this,  with  Fr.  Vaughan's  own  Foreword, 
made  the  object  of  the  book  quite  clear.  It  was  not 
to  be  a  work  of  erudition,  nor  yet  just  devotional. 
It  was  to  help  those  Catholic  women  who  felt  the 
call  to  activity  and  who  did  not  wish  to  lose,  in  their 
obedience  to  this  modi'rn  duty,  the  spiritual  ideals 
and  iniluence  more  easy  to  preserve  and  exert  in 
their  secluded  liie  hillK-rto. 

The  story  is  told  with  simpliciiy,  .md  the  morale 
are  gently  dr;iwn.  They  concerned,  as  a  rule,  tlio 
importance  of  true  character,  without  which  a  girl 
who  lived  as  she  did  could  ne\er  have  survived 
spiritually  intact  the  chances  of  her  strange  history. 
To  the  chapters  that  contain  the  story,  Fr.  \'aughan 


igo   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

added  an  apologetic  one.  A  recurrent  criticism  on 
his  lecture  was  that  the  Church,  which  was  now  for 
beatifying  her,  had  at  the  first  condemned  her,  and 
also,  had  been  miserably  ungrateful  in  waiting  so 
many  centuries  for  her  rehabilitation.  He  points 
out  that  the  tribunal  "  which  sentenced  her  to  death, 
cannot  by  any  effort  of  the  imagination  be  regarded 
as  a  valid  ecclesiastical  Court,"  and  Mr.  Lang  here 
laconically  puts  in  the  margin:  "Bien."  As  for  the 
rehabilitation,  it  was  accomplished  within  twenty- 
five  years  of  her  death  by  Callixtus  III.  Mr.  Lang 
adds  a  note  of  exclamation  in  the  margin  when  Fr. 
Vaughan  quotes  the  opinion  that  the  **  change  of 
attitude  "  towards  Joan  which,  after  centuries  of 
comparative  neglect,  became  visible  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  was  accelerated  by 
the  influence  of  John  Wesley,  who,  says  Fr.  Vaughan, 
was  not  a  little  affected  by  Scotch  writers.  "  The 
Scotch,"  he  says  "  were  almost  without  exception 
true  to  their  tradition  about  Joan,"  and  here  the 
margin  contains  nothing  but  the  severe  letter  s, 
which  Mr.  Lang  would  have  replace  the  ch  which 
so  shockingly  terminates  the  national  designation. 

Mr.  Lang's  notes  are  of  substantial  value,  and 
should  be  attended  to  in  any  second  edition.  Here 
and  there  he  adds  but  a  query  ;  elsewhere  there  are 
definite  corrections,  some  of  mere  slips.  But  again, 
his  erudition  makes  certain  what  few  could  be  sure  of, 
as  when  he  alters  Fr.  Vaughan's  statement  that  Joan 
bribed  a  bell-ringer  (p.  4)  with  handfuls  of  wool  from 
her  sheep,  and  finds  from  Ducange  that  what  she  ' 
gave  were  probably  small  cakes.     At  times  he  gently 


THE    LAST    YEARS  191 

checks  the  writer's  exuberant  imagination — as  when 
Fr.  Vaughan  says  she  rode  on  a  sable  charger,  whereas 
that  beast's  colour  is  unknown.  Tlie  notes  are 
characteristically  humorous,  as  when  tht*  author 
says  that  "  Jeanne  passed  a  very  trying  summer." 
and  the  margin  dryly  observes  :  "  Rather  !  House 
burnt.  .  .  '  or  when,  to  the  remark  that  "  God  Him- 
self helped  her  to  win  a  way  into  the  brusque  soldier's 
heart,"  Mr.  Lang  appends  that  it  "  took  about  six 
weeks."  But  he  contributes  besides  the  historical 
corrections  that  the  little  book  badly  needed,  and 
the  personal  Hashes  that  recall  his  pleasant  manner 
to  our  memory,  one  set  of  comments  which  has  this 
interest — Fr.  Vaughan  did  not  insist  nearly  so  much 
as  he  might  on  tlie  preternatural  element  in  Joan's 
history.  One  instance  is  this — Fr.  Vaughan  says 
that  on  tlie  occasion  of  her  first  vision  she  "  recog- 
nised the  rudiant  form  of  St.  Michael."  though  it  is 
certain  that  not  until  she  had  seen  him  many  times 
did  she  know  who  tlie  apparition  was.  Similarly 
Bernadette  at  Lourdcs.  \Miatever  she  may  after  a 
while  ha\-e  surmised,  it  was  long  before  she  even 
guessed  who  was  the  Lady  she  kept  seeing  in  the 
Grotto.  A  recurrent  vision  wliich  puzzles,  is  far 
harder  to  rationalise  than  one  which  at  once  explains 
itself  ;  you  construct  a  hallucination  from  material 
you  already  possess.  There  is  here  opportunity  for 
a  psychological  study  of  real  interest. 

It  were  of  course  foolish  to  seek,  in  this  little  book, 
for  what  it  never  dreamt  of  claimiui;.  It  is  the 
memorial  of  an  enthusiasm  wliich  its  wTiter  very 
sincerely   felt,  and  which  he  will  be  glad  to  have  us 


192  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

commemorate  ;  and  I  suppose  that  he  did  more 
than  any  one  man,  in  this  country,  to  bring  back  to 
popular  veneration  the  name  and  image  of  the  holy 
child  to  whom  our  nation  did  a  wrong  for  which  no 
reparation  can  be  excessive. 

He  also  wrote  and  published  later  on  in  the 
National  Life  Series  a  short  book  called  The  Menace 
of  the  Empty  Cradle.  The  first  part  was  a  reprint 
of  an  article  on  "  Race  Suicide  "  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  and  After.  The  second  part  contained  a 
number  of  letters  extracts  from  which  had  been 
printed  in  that  bulletin,  and  also  from  many  news- 
papers that  had  criticised  what  Fr.  Vaughan  had 
said,  favourably  or  the  reverse. 

At  the  outset  he  condescended  to  notice  the 
criticism  of  those  baser  society  papers  which — too 
unintelligent  to  be  able  to  distinguish  between  their 
and  his  ideas,  ideals,  and  motives,  or  just  cadging 
for  a  snigger, — ^had  kept  calling  out  that  he,  a  celi- 
bate priest,  ought  not  to  defend  or  demand  large 
families. 

Not  caring  to  risk  his  pearls,  Fr.  Vaughan  began 
by  stating  that  he  based  his  argument  not  on  religion 
but  on  considerations  of  citizenship  : 

My  object  in  writing  is,  as  a  British  citizen  who  cannot 
fail  to  recognize  the  gradual  trend  of  the  nation  toward 
selfish  and  individualist  hedonism,  with  a  consequent  appall- 
ing amount  of  personal  unhappiness,  resulting  in  great 
measure  from  the  positive  repudiation  of  marital  obligations, 
to  ask  my  fellow-countrymen  this  question  :  "  Are  the 
homes  of  England  still  the  foundation  of  England's  great- - 
ness,  or  are  they  being  tampered  with,  not  to  say  under- 
mined, by  selfishness,  luxury  and  sin  ?  " 


THE    LAST    YEARS  193 

He  then  anticipates  the  argument  that  individuals 
are  under  no  obligation  to  the  State,  but  briefly, 
having  assigned  the  limits  of  the  reciprocal  obliga- 
tion involved  in  his  book  on  Socialism.     Here,  he 
speaks  just  as  he  does  about  the  wTongness  of  stand- 
ing out  of  the  War.     The  State  exists  :   every  citizen 
in  a  thousand  ways  profits  by  its  existence  ;   to  take 
a  selfish  view  of  marriage  was  to  sin  against  civic 
justice.     The  statistics  he  then  offers  show  that  the 
selfishness,  which  he  sees  to  underlie  the  misuse  of 
any  natural  function,  has  its  roots  deeper  than  the 
particular  misuse  of  the  function  he  is  here  consider- 
ing.    He  sees  no  doubt  in  the  insensate  self-indul- 
gence of  those  who  have  much  money  the  direct 
cause  of  their  refusal  to  have  large,  or  any  famihes  ; 
but  it  is  still  b\-  tlie  selfishness  of  the  very  rich  that 
the   destitute   or   impoverished   middle   classes   are 
practically  driven  to  deny  themselves  large  families. 
His  merciless  condemnation  of  the  luxurious  is  due 
largely  to  the  fact  that  it  is  they  and  their  behaviour 
who  created  and  perpetuate  the  miserable  state  in 
which  others  have  to  live.     The  ill-housed  and  ill- 
clothed  ought  not  to  be  in  those  conditions  ;    that 
they  are  so,  is  scarcely  their  fault  at  all  ;    the  axe 
nuist  be  laid  to  the  root  of  a  very  different  tree.   And 
he  maintains  tliat  only  by  thus  attacking  the  true 
roots  of  the  evil,  will  redress  be  found,  and  not  by 
introducing  yet  another  misuse  of  life,  such  as  the 
birth-restrictionists  demand.     The  ideal  of  marriage 
and  of  home  must  be  preserved,  no  matter  how  much 
the    suffering    even    of    many    individuals    at    the 
moment. 


194  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

In  his  answer  to  those  who  pathetically  asked  what 
they  were  to  do  meanwhile — since  the  cure  of  sick 
society  will  not  be  achieved  in  an  hour  or  a  year, 
he  had  but  to  answer  that  the  Church,  which  always 
supports  human  nature  in  the  fullest  sense — that  is 
by  no  soft  sympathy  only,  but  by  encouraging  its 
development  along  the  only  lines  that  are  psycho- 
logically right — ^repeated  her  old  command  of  self- 
control.  To  that,  the  reply  nearly  always  was,  that 
the  thing  was  impossible.  And  the  reply  was  backed 
by  many  allegations,  part  medical  and  partly  psycho- 
logical. I  certainly  regret  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was 
perhaps  ill-equipped  for  attacking  the  question  on 
its  psychological  side.  His  statistics  were  such  as 
were  then  available  ;  I  understand  that  even  now 
they  are  inadequately  collected  ;  had  Mr.  HaUiday 
Sutherland's  book  existed  when  Fr.  Vaughan  was 
writing,  he  could  have  improved  this  part  of  his 
work.  But  what  is  quite  as  important,  he  barely 
touched  on  :  that  is,  the  nature  of  mental  control 
as  distinguished  from  repression.  While  he  was 
right  in  refusing  to  permit  himself  the  moist  senti- 
ment that  disfigures  such  literature  as  is  associated 
with  the  name  of  Dr.  Marie  Stopes,  he  was  not  able 
to  show  with  that  tenderness,  which  rests  upon 
wisdom,  any  method  of  self-government.  No  doubt 
he  suppHed  ideals  and  motives  :  but  he  scarcely  so 
apphed  them  as  to  neutralise  the  myriad  influences 
that  flatter  inclination,  such  as  art,  amusements 
and  light  literature  supply,  so  strongly  reinforcecj 
by,  precisely,  the  falsely  scientific  works  of  the 
restrictionists. 


THE    LAST    YEARS  195 

But  I  would  nut  have  it  thought  that  Fr.  Vaughan 
was  once  more  adoj)ting  the  methods  of  sensational- 
ism. 1  f e  really  studied.  He  had  his  eye,  as  much  as 
anyone,  on  the  tangle  of  causes  and  effects.  He 
watched  systems,  and  the  cost,  of  education  :  he 
niver  forgot  the  relation  of  wages  to  work  and  to 
life.  His  sympathy  with  "  liard  cases  "  none  could 
doubt.  But  he  never  would  take  the  easy  wav  out 
of  a  difficulty,  and  never  would  allow  that  a  wrong 
situation  could  be  cured  by  wrong  methods,  and  he 
held  that  those  were  wrong,  which  interfered  with 
the  man  as  a  whole,  and  therefore  in  the  long  run 
with  society  itself.  He  had  in  his  mind,  we  may 
aver,  two  very  strong  principles  :  one  was  the 
Supremac}'  of  God,  the  other,  the  goodness  of  human 
nature,  despite  its  sins. 

The  War  naturally  brought  a  great  pressure  to 
bear  on  Fr.  Vaughan,  not  only,  as  upon  all,  from 
within,  but  in  the  shape  of  endless  invitations  to 
speak  for  war-charities  and  the  like. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  that  from  the  very  moment 
of  the  assassination,  to  which  even  now  we  lind  too 
little  imjiortance  attached,  he  tirml\  i)redicted 
anarchy,  and  he  kept  asserting  and  reasserting 
throughout  those  years  the  economic  and  social 
ujiheavals  that  we  have  witnessetl,  even  when  such 
l^rophecies  seemed  cjuile  uut  of  keeping  with  the 
duty  of  t)ptimism.  He  thought  that  ni»  pessimism 
could  be  worse  than  that  which  sliould  succeed  hopes 
defeated.  "  We.  who  learned  as  little  from  the 
South  African  War,"  he  insisted,   "  as  the  French 


196  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

did  from  the  Franco-Prussian,  will  have  to  suffer 
much  and  long."  I  would  like  it  remembered  that 
never,  on  the  thousand  occasions  of  patriotic  speeches 
and  sermons  to  which  I  shall  allude,  did  he  fail  to 
inculcate  the  austere  lessons  of  the  duty  of  self- 
examination,  self-rebuke,  and  self-reform.  I  have 
once  more  wondered  at  the  fate  which  beset  him  in 
regard  of  all  these  speeches.  Both  from  the  quota- 
tions that  were  made  from  them,  and  from  the 
criticisms  that  were  passed  on  them,  you  would  take 
him  to  have  been  but  a  Jingo-priest,  profiting  by  the 
pulpit  to  clash  the  cymbals  of  hate  or  to  pour  forth 
slop-pails  of  sentiment  on  the  heads  of  canonised 
**  lads  in  khaki  and  boys  in  blue."  It  would  be 
foolish  to  deny  that  his  utterances  were  sometimes 
out  of  place  or  lacking  in  good  taste.  Yet  the  one 
which  raised  even  in  England  a  storm  of  indignation, 
was,  in  its  context,  at  least  quite  logical.  It  was 
spoken  at  the  Mansion  House,  on  January  25th, 
1916,  when  he  said  that,  "  Our  business  is,  to  keep  on 
killing  Germans.  Somebody  has  got  to  be  killed, 
and  do  you  suppose  we  ought  to  be  killed  in  view  of 
the  motive  we  have  gone  out  to  fight  for  ?  There- 
fore we  have  to  kill  a  sufficient  number  of  that  tre- 
mendous army  so  as  to  entitle  us  to  dictate  terms  of 
peace.  I  know  I  shall  receive  to-morrow  a  batch  of 
letters  asking  me  if  I  am  a  priest  of  God.  I  am.  An 
unworthy  one,  I  know.  But  the  alternative  before 
us  is — "  and  he  developed  the  option  of  conquering 
or  being  conquered,  not  dwelling  at  the  time  on  the 
possibility  of  a  merely  more  chaotic  chaos  on  this 
side  and  on  that.     There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that 


illl'.    LAbi     VLAKb  197 

he  took  the  view  of  thr  ordinary  Enghshmdn,  that 
right  was  massively  on  the  Enghsh  side,  and  that 
sheer  treachery  had  disfigured  the  action  of  our 
enemies.  Tliat  being  so,  he  did  not  hesitate  when 
the  necessary  consequences  of  this  behef,  namely, 
the  concrete  duty  of  fighting  as  hard  as  was  possi- 
ble, set  themselves  before  him.  The  "  batch  of 
letters  "  most  certainly  came  in  :  all  sorts  of  un- 
expected people  professed  themselves  shocked, 
chiefly,  I  suppose,  because  of  our  national  horror  of 
putting  things  into  words — for  in  this  very  declara- 
tion of  our  duty  of  "  kilhng  Germans  "  I  am  quite 
sure  there  was  no  spirit  of  hate  or  even  of  self- 
righteousness.  Once  Fr.  Vaughan  had  made  up  his 
mind  that  it  was  his  duty  to  bayonet  a  man,  I  expect 
he  would  have  done  it  with  energy,  and  have  forth- 
with administered  to  him  the  sacraments  with  warm 
and  genuine  affection. 

This  did  not  prevent,  as  was  but  natural,  his 
remarks  being  hotly  resented  in  Germany.  It  was 
said  there,  that  he  had  stated  things  that  were 
ethically  wTong.  This  was  not  so  ;  again,  the  press 
had  misquoted  him.  But  he  had  used  expressions 
about  foreign  rulers  that  to  me,  at  least,  seem  at  the 
worst,  unkind  and  untrue,  at  the  best,  undignified. 
\Miat  he  seriously  condemned  in  Ciermanx*,  the 
German  episcopate  also  condemned,  and  he  had  the 
corresponding  versittn  of  it  to  condemn  among  our- 
selves, and  did  so.  But  Fr.  Vaughan,  bi  ing  a  mem- 
ber of  a  corporation,  the  Society,  which  has  the  name 
of  being  singularly  unanimous  in  its  views,  had 
clearly  put  his  German  Jesuit  confreres  into  a  most 

o 


198   LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

uncomfortable  position.  Naturally  they  protested, 
in  a  dignified  and  guarded  letter,  copied  forthwith 
into  the  whole  British  press.  That  this  was 
"  natural,"  Fr.  Vaughan  himself,  of  course,  per- 
ceived and  declared.  He  defended  in  pulpit  and  on 
platform  and  in  print  the  German  Province  of  the 
Society,  composed  as  it  was,  he  wrote,  of  men 
"  learned,  loyal,  patriotic,  and  zealous,"  for  whom 
he  had,  personally,  but  "  esteem  and  affection." 
At  least,  he  urged,  the  protest  and  what  had  pro- 
voked it  helped  **  to  knock  the  bottom  out  of  the 
old  charge  that  Jesuits  all  the  world  over  were  as 
like  as  bricks  in  a  wall."  German  Jesuits  loved 
Kaiser  and  Fatherland  as  we  love  King  and  Country  ; 
and  to  join  the  Society  did  not  strip  a  man  of  his 
personality.  All  his  life  he  had  liked  to  maintain 
that,  consistently  with  perfect  loyalty  to  his  "group," 
he  had  never  ceased  to  be  "  Bernard  Vaughan  "  ; 
and  rather  later,  when  crying  out  from  the  top  of 
one  of  those  tanks  where  he  spoke  so  much,  and 
exhorting  everyone  to  offer  his  last  coin  and  his  last 
ounce  of  energy,  he  retorted  to  someone  who  called 
out  that  such  were  not  the  Pope's  views — "  Why 
should  they  be  ?  Common  or  garden  folks  like  you 
and  me  have  the  right  to  our  own  opinions  ;  much 
more  an  august  personage  like  His  Holiness." 

The  simplest  way  of  ascertaining  Fr.  Vaughan's 
real  views  on  the  European  tragedy  is  to  read  them 
in  his  What  of  To-day  ?  published  in  1915,  by  Cassell's, 
and  censored,  by  accident  or  design,  by  a  German 
priest  resident  in  England — the  late  Fr.  Strassmaier, ' 
an  Assyriologist  of  world-wide  renown  and  endeared 


THE    LASi     VEARS  199 

to  many  hundreds  of  our  own  fulks  by  long  decades 
of  devoted  service.  The  book  was  sold  for  the  benefit 
of  Belgian  refugees,  and  dedicated  to  King  Albert. 
Lord  Roberts,  a  very  short  time  before  his  death, 
wrote  to  Fr.  Vaughan  that  his  overwhelming  work 
alone  prevented  him  from  writing  a  preface  for  the 
book,  else,  a  "  congenial  task,"  and,  said  he,  in  a 
second  letter,  Father  Vaughan  was  most  welcome 
to  use  the  first  one  as  introductory.  The  rest  of  the 
book,  after  the  war-essays,  is  filled  with  chapters  on 
the  various  subjects  in  which  Fr.  Vaughan' felt  him- 
self most  at  home — Sport,  Advertisement,  Labour, 
Sweating,  Social  Reform,  Democracy,  Feminism, 
Marriage,  the  Servant  Problem,  Spiritualism,  and 
Old  and  the  New  Spirits  discernable  in  England,  and 
other  essays  on  more  directly  religious  topics  but  not 
as  a  rule  directly  Catholic  ones.  His  ideas  are, 
wrote  (I  think)  The  Guardian,  those  of  the  best  sort 
(jf  "  man  on  the  'bus  "  ;  and  indeed  I  fancy  that  this 
book  is  by  far  the  best  in  which  to  study  the  ideals 
that  Fr.  Vaughan  stood  for,  and  that  a  real  service 
was  rendered  to  minds  which  liked  to  be  helped  to 
think  clearly,  by  the  many  simple  distinctions  il 
drew  and  by  its  straightforward  examination  of 
cunent  catchwords.  The  book  had  a  deservedly 
good  press,  and  as  good  a  sale,  and  in  it,  moreover, 
are  to  be  found  all  the  elements  of  that  lecture  on 
Character  he  was  so  fond  of  giving,  which  1  there- 
fore need  not  quote.  The  tlieme  had  become  even 
more  important  at  that  liour  of  crisis. 

Fr.  Vaughan  therefore  went  speaking  e\'ciywhere 
for  the  Red  Cross,  on  the  Irish  regiments,  for  which 


200  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

he  had  a  perfect  cult,  especially  after  he  returned 
from  a  short  visit  to  France  some  time  in  1915  ; 
for  Miss  Lena  Ashwell's  fund  for  Concerts  at  the 
Front ;  on  President  Wilson's  peace  note  ;  at  the 
Aeolian  Hall  on  the  National  Call  to  Prayer  ;  for 
the  League  of  Remembrance,  the  Women's  League 
of  Service  for  Motherhood,  and  at  very  many  camps 
to  which  non-Catholic  chaplains  invited  him  almost 
as  much  as  the  Catholic.  His  life  may  be  pictured 
if  I  set  down  no  more  than  his  engagements — other 
than  sermons  and  much  else,  I  have  no  doubt,  that 
I  do  not  find  noted — from  the  end  of  June  to  mid- 
September,  1916.  I  see  that  he  spoke  during  that 
time  for  an  endowment  scheme  connected  with  the 
Veterans'  Club,  at  the  Mansion  House ;  in  the 
Rodney  Hut  at  Crayford  ;  in  the  Empire  Theatre 
at  Cardiff  and  His  Majesty's  Theatre,  Carlisle  ;  for 
the  Montenegrin  Red  Cross,  and  at  the  Automobile 
Club  for  Russian  and  Pohsh  Jews.  He  spoke  at 
a  Hyde  Park  Hotel  tea  for  the  wounded,  and  at  a 
Sunderland  House  concert  for  Belgian  prisoners  in 
Germany  ;  at  a  girls'  club  in  Mile  End  Road,  and  at 
a  display  at  Beaumont  College.  He  was  a  guest 
at  a  souvenir  lunch  at  Grosvenor  House,  and 
preached  at  the  Liverpool  Irish  Requiem  in  Liver- 
pool when,  too,  along  with  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  a 
good  friend  of  his,  he  spoke  at  the  concert  that  took 
place  in  the  evening.  Small  wonder  that  when, 
about  that  time,  the  craze  for  filming  celebrities 
began,  he,  with  Cabinet  Ministers,  appeared  on  the 
pictures  ;  and  it  was  recognised  that  the  two  men 
who  "filmed"  by  far  the  best  were  Fr.  Vaughan 


THE   LAST   YEARS  201 

and  Mr.  Will  Crooks,  and,  as  a  third.  Mr.  Lloyd 
George.  Besides  this,  I  will  onl\'  add  that  on  March 
4tli,  1917.  he  spoke  for  Sir  Llerbert  Tree,  who  had 
organised  monthly  lectures  at  His  Majesty's  Theatre 
in  aid  of  war-charities,  and  defined  *'  An  Empire's 
Measure  of  Greatness  "  to  be  that  of  the  character 
of  its  citizens.  Sir  Arthur  Pinero  was  in  the  chair. 
Perhaps  at  no  other  time  did  Fr.  Vaughan,  from  his 
sensitive  appreciation  of  men's  instincts,  so  clearly 
foresee  and  state  post-war  slogans,  and  criticise  them 
all.  He  relentlessly  drove  his  hearers  back  to  prin- 
ciples, and  forward  to  prayer,  and  the  death  of  the 
late  Duke  of  Norfolk  was  providing  him  with  the 
strongest  of  arguments  for  his  double  thesis.  And 
indeed  a  more  perfect  example  of  supernaturalised 
character  could  not  be  wished  for.  Simplicity  and 
nobility  of  mind  ;  gentleness  and  strength  ;  robust 
sense  of  humour  and  habit  of  fun,  and  a  most  deep 
spirit  of  prayer  and  a  true  mortification  were  com- 
bined in  that  great  Catholic.  Some  letters  survive 
in  which  he  thanks  Fr.  Vaughan  for  pra3ers  collected 
and  Masses  said  during  his  illness,  and  the  Duke's 
astonishment  that  so  many  should  have  cared  thus 
to  help  him  was,  to  my  mind,  as  significant  as  his 
earnest  desire  for  all  the  help  he  could  obtain  in  the 
hours  when  his  life  was  reaching  its  consummation. 
And  it  would  have  been  wholly  in  keeping  with  the 
Duke's  wish,  that  Fr.  Bernard  found  himself  unable 
to  go  to  the  funeral  of  his  very  old  friend  :  he  was 
receiving  into  the  Church  a  Canadian  private  soldier. 
A  humorous  incident  di\*ersifted  these  days.  He 
had  lied  from  the  noise  of  London  to  take  refuge  at 


202  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Cromer,  where  Lady  Shephard,  an  old  friend  of  his, 
was  staying.  She  tells  me  how  Fr.  Vaughan,  who 
daily  drove  in  to  Mass  in  a  baker's  cart  driven  by  a 
very  small  boy — ^used  to  go  bicycling  in  the  after- 
noon. Once  he  landed  at  a  village  inn,  and,  in  the 
abundance  of  his  good  will  asked  the  landlady  so 
many  questions,  that  she  telephoned  for  the  police, 
being  convinced  he  was  a  German  spy.  So  Fr. 
Vaughan  knew  by  experience  what  it  meant  to  pass 
some  hours  under  arrest,  in  the  cells.  And  it  is 
solemnly  recorded  that  when  he  was  lecturing  to 
wounded  soldiers  in  Blackpool,  in  1916,  a  legless 
soldier  ran  all  the  way  back  to  hear  him.  .  .  It  is 
certain  that  at  these  informal  talks  he  was  immensely 
successful.  His  talks  began  with  stories,  became 
serious,  relapsed  into  a  string  of  stories  inimitably 
told,  and,  after  a  space  for  questions,  ended  with 
the  blessing  of  God.  His  devotion  to  these  sufferers 
was  most  genuine.  Once,  at  Wimbledon,  he  wit- 
nessed the  disedifying  spectacle  of  civilians  pushing 
their  way  on  to  a  tram  and  elbowing  wounded 
men  off  the  step.  He  simply  swept  the  intruders 
away,  and  helped  the  men  to  mount.  A  cheer  arose. 
"  Don't  cheer  me,"  he  snapped.  "  Hiss  yourselves." 
Besides  this,  I  will  but  recall  the  procession  which  he 
led  from  Westminster  Cathedral  to  the  Shrine  of 
St.  Edward  in  Westminster  Abbey.  He  had  expected 
fifty  pilgrims  :  five  hundred  arrived  ;  at  their  head 
was  borne  the  great  East  End  Crucifix  which,  it  was 
his  dying  wish,  should  pass  into  the  possession  of  the 
Catholic  Evidence  Guild. 

After  the  War,  he  continued  as  well  as  he  might 


THK    LAST    YEARS  203 

to  help  forward  the  various  relief-funds,  such  as  St. 
Dunstan's,  which  he  visited  along  with  Sir  Arthur 
Pearson,  for  whom  he  had  the  highest  admiration. 
"  They  work  here,"  he  dictated,  "up  to  their  best, 
and  not  down  to  someone  else's  worst,"  and  his  letter 
was  transcribed  from  Braille  shorthand  notes  by  a 
blind    operator.     He    was    Vice-President    of    the 
Chaldean  rehef  fund,  and  from  the  Editor  of  The 
Record  of  the  "  Save  the  Children  "  fund,  Mr.  Edward 
Fuller,  came  afterwards  a  most  touching  tribute  to 
the  work  Fr.  Vaughan  had  done  for  the  starving 
children  oi  Europe.     "As  a  world-traveller,"   Mr. 
Fuller  wTote,  "an  intimate  observer  of  human  nature, 
and  a  worker,  for  many  years,  among  the  congested 
populations  of  Manchester  and  London,  no  less  than 
as  a  Father  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Fr.  Vaughan 
realised  the  significance  of  the  child  in  the  corporate 
life  of  the  community,  and  for  this  reason  we,  who 
believe  in  the  universal  child,  are  the  poorer  because 
of  his  death." 

And  it  is  pleasant  to  know  that  his  work  was 
remembered  in  the  true  spirit  of  friendship.  Thus 
the  Major  late  commanding  the  Stepney  Battalion 
of  the  East  London  Volunteer  Regiment.  wTote  in 
192 1  to  invite  him  to  dine  with  the  officers  at  the 
Holborn  Restaurant.  "  We  are  all  so  hoping,"  he 
said,  "  that  vou  will  show  your  interest  in  East 
London  h\  making  one  of  us  as  you  did  during  the 
war  when  we  were  so  delighted  to  see  you.  If  \ou 
can  and  will  come.  I  will,  with  your  permission, 
call  upon  you  to  say  a  word  or  two.  Just  a  few- 
words  from  you  will  do  us  much  good,  those  of  us 


204  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

who  have  lost  brothers,  sons  or  nephews — and  we 
do  want  a  few  words  of  comfort  now  and  agam 
from  those  in  authority  Hke  yourself."  Major 
Freyberg  also  tells  me  that  Fr.  Vaughan  had  not 
only  dined  with  and  addressed  the  ofi&cers  of  the 
Stepney  Volunteers  in  1918,  but  in  that  same  year 
had  attended  a  concert  and  entertainment  at  the 
People's  Palace  at  which  H.R.H.  Princess  Beatrice 
was  graciously  present. 

During  the  evening  Father  Bernard  Vaughan  gave  an 
address  and  his  appearance  on  the  stage  was  the  signal  for 
all  the  children  in  the  galleries  to  rise  and  shout  their  words 
of  welcome  and  then  followed  the  address  deahng  patheti- 
cally with  all  the  East  End  had  endured  so  patiently,  and 
giving  words  of  encouragement  for  the  future.  Then  he 
went  on  to  impress  upon  all  the  beauty  of  and  necessity  for 
a  healthy  family  life.  He  pointed  out  our  own  Royal 
Family  and  the  example  they  furnished  to  the  whole  Nation, 
and  then  he  made  a  touching  allusion  to  the  Jews  he  met 
at  the  East  End,  saying  that  in  the  sanctity  of  their  family 
life  there  was  so  much  which  Christians  could  copy. 

Then  he  went  on  to  indulge  in  humorous  anecdotes  and 
made  us  all  laugh  so  greatly  that  we  had  almost  exhausted 
our  stock  of  risibility  when  the  stage  was  occupied  by  a 
well-known  comedian,  although  it  was  not  long  before  he 
got  in  touch  with  his  audience,  and  so  all  progressed  in  true 
East  End  manner. 

After  the  Princess  had  departed  amid  every  token  of 
loyalty  and  respect,  I  noticed  the  crowd  outside,  instead  of 
diminishing,  was  increasing  every  minute,  so  I  said  to  the 
Officer  in  charge  of  the  Police  :  "Do  they  know  the  Princess 
has  already  gone  ?  "  "  Lor,  bless  3^ou,  Sir,"  he  said, 
"  they're  waiting  for  Father  Bernard  Vaughan  and  here  he 
comes."  But  the  attitude  of  the  crowd,  mostly  children, 
soon  proved  his  words  to  be  true,  and  such  wild  and  un- 
governable enthusiasm  bars  all  description.  Women  may 
often  be  mistaken  in  their  love  ;   men  are  not  infrequently 


Till-:    LAST    YKARS  205 

wanting  in  loyalty,  but  children  in  their  love  and  loyalty 
never  err. 

Unfortunately  for  me  and  my  brother  Otlicers  we  never 
did  have  the  great  pleasure  of  a  few  words  from  him  again, 
although  we  sent  him  many  an  earnest  invitation,  but  he 
wrote  to  our  Mess  President  that  much  as  he  liked  coming 
to  us  there  were  other  matters  to  see  to.  Missions  and  so 
forth,  which  he  considered  had  a  prior  claim  over  what  he 
looked  upon  as  enjoyment. 


PART  III. 


ADVESPERASCIT 


As  our  heavenly  maker  best  knowcs  ye  mould  wee  ar  made 
of  and  provides  accordingly  for  our  ad\antage  and  safety  ; 
so  her  naturall  temper  being  hott  and  fyer\',  he  ballanst 
yt  uivacity  of  humor  by  such  deepe  apprehensions  and 
scrupulous  fears,  as  kept  her  in  great  humility  and  submis- 
sion .  .  antl  (she  so  prepared  for  death  when  she  suffered) 
from  deep  apprehension  and  a  constant  timorous  conscience 
(that)  would  put  her  into  great  frights  and  diflicultyes, 
seconded  by  ye  malice  of  ye  inuisible  enemy,  in  wh  you  might 
still  discover  ye  force  and  efficacy  of  thos  former  endeavors 
she  had  still  used  in  her  recource  to  God,  and  submission 
both  to  Ghostly  fathers  and  Superiors  wch  was  now  her 
only  solace  and  remedy. 

And  as  her  devotion  to  ye  Bd  Sacrament  was  most  exem- 
plar and  known  to  all  to  be  wt  she  cheefly  aymed  to  be 
excellent  in,  so  our  Deere  Lord  vouchsafed  her  that  high 
favour  as  yt  wn  wee  were  almost  past  hopes  of  her  capacity 
to  receave  her  Viaticum  ;  tow  fathers  of  the  Society  with 
our  owne  Ghostly  fathers  and  chaplin  wth  all  ye  Communit\- 
praying  by  her,  as  beleeving  her  neere  her  end  ;  having  :dl 
ye  remarks  of  a  dying  person  both  in  her  countenance  and 
motions  ye  Superior — wn  the  commendation  of  ye  soule  had 
binn  all  repeated  said  to  her  D.  Clare  if  you  desire  absolu- 
tion bow  yr  head  wch  she  immediately  did,  and  ye  Ghostly 
father  gave  her  absolution.  Ye  Superior  agayn  sayd  to 
her  D.  Clare,  if  you  desir  to  receave  our  Bd  Lord,  as  >t 
Viaticum,  l)ow  yr  head  ;  she  presently  did  soe  ;  and  lookt 
up  with  a  great  cheerfullness,  and  on  of  ye  fathers  speaking 
to  her  to  prepare  to  receave  her  heavenly  spows  her  Lord 
and  her  God,  she  shewed  thos  evidences  of  devotion,  and 
present  right  understanding  of  yt  great  action,  as  with  much 
joy  they  brought  ye  Bd  Sacrament,  wch  she  receavde  wth 
much  peace  and  devotion,  to  ye  great  comfort  and  edifica- 
tion of  all  yt  were  present,  and  tni  evidence  of  AUmighty 
God's  peculiar  favoure  and  mercy  to  her  soule. 

Memoir  of  Dame  Clare  Vaughan. 


SOUTH   AFRICA 

ON  April  7th,  1922,  Father  Vaughan  left  for 
South  Africa  on  the  Arundel  Castle,  Union- 
Castle  Line,  and,  partl}^  owing  to  the  kind 
influence  of  his  friend  Lord  Inchcape,  the  officials 
did  all  in  their  power  to  make  the  trip  pleasant  for 
him.  He  was  genuinely  grateful,  and  often  alluded 
to  the  admirable  arrangements  of  the  steamer,  not 
least  for  the  third-class  passengers.  Sermons  and 
lectures,  he  said,  were  not  insisted  on  ;  but  he  was 
always  made  chairman  of  sports,  entertainments 
and  concerts,  which  does  not  sound  restful,  and 
despite  the  letters  I  have  received  relating  his  high 
spirits  and  series  of  puns  perpetrated  for  the  sake  of 
his  companions,  the  record  of  his  ecstatic  enjoy- 
ment of  the  sunsets  tells  most  of  the  healing  value 
of  the  voyage.  And  a  different  healing  was  offered 
by  messages,  of  which,  for  friendliness  sake,  I  will 
quote  two  : 

I  am  sincerely  sorry  to  read  in  the  press  to-day  that  you 
are  so  ill.  But  I  humbly  and  sincerely  pray  that  God's 
blessing  resting  on  the  medical  skill  and  nurses  attending 
you  that  you  will  soon  recover  again.  England  can  ill  spare 
at  the  present  time  such  an  earnest  outspoken  God's  messen- 
ger. You  do  not  know  me  but  I  remember  370U  weU  thirty 
years  ago  coming  to  X  station  to  visit  Y  HaU.  I  was 
station  master  there  about  six  years  from  the  opening  of 
that  Hne  and  you  used  to  go  and  speak  so  free  and  jolly 
to  my  late  wife  in  the  station  house.     God  bless  you,  dear 


SOUTH    AFRICA  211 

Father  \  auglian,  \ours  most  respcctfullx-,   X.   V.,  a   Pro- 
testant. 

And,  this  time,   from  South  Africa  itstlf  : 

Cead  mile  FaiUe  to  South  African  shores.  For^ve  me 
writing  and  trouhhng  you  with  this  scribble,  but  a  Man- 
chester fellow  cannot  possibly  help  it.  And  a  ineinber  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Doctrine  Confraternity  will  ever 
cherish  the  reverent  memory  for  the  Vaughans. 

On  ins  arrival  at  the  Cape  he  was  forthwith  inter- 
viewed by  the  Cape  Times  and  the  Cape  Argus,  to 
whom  he  made  a  characteristic  little  speecli  on  the 
need  of  principles  if  the  true  success  were  to  be  ob- 
tained, but  emphasised,  chiefly,  his  joy  at  being  able 
at  last  to  see,  though  so  late,  South  Africa.  He  was 
then  welcomed  by  the  Catholic  Federation,  and  by 
the  representatives  of  The  Southern  Cross  which  has 
preserved  admirable  reports  of  the  visit.  He  was 
forthwith  motored  to  the  Bishop's  House,  where 
he  paid  due  respects,  and  thence  to  the  Marist 
College,  Rondebosch,  Belmnnt,  where  he  spoke  to 
the  three  hundred  boys  and  obtained  the  correct 
half-holiday.  Thence  to  the  Good  Shepherd  Con- 
vent at  Claremont  ;  and  thence  to  the  Dominican 
Convent,  W'ynberg.  Here  he  made  another  speech 
whicli  was  really  fresh  and  happy  and  entranced  the 
children  even  before  the  half-holiday  was  announced. 
and  he  was  then  allowed  to  lunch  at  a  h.otel.  Alter 
lunch  the  lu^spitable  lady  whose  cars  were  at  liis 
disposal  took  liim  to  Nazareth  House,  where  the 
children's  band  met  liim  and  he  spoke  yet  again, 
and  then  called  at  the  Sanatorium  kept  by  the 
Sisters  of  the  Holy  Famih-  where  he  was  to  spend 


212  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

some  time  later.     Finally,  he  was  given  a  "  quick 
run   round    the    Mountain "    and   returned   home. 
Such  was  the  first  day  of  the  South  African  rest-cure. 
He  then  continued  his  voyage  in  the  Arundel 
Castle,  landing  at  Port  Elizabeth  for  a  few  hours 
where  he  was  met  by  Bishop  MacSherry  and  the 
local   clergy,    and   finally   landed   at   Durban.     He 
stopped  for  a  few  days  at  the  Cathedral  House  as 
the  guest  of  the  Bishop,  and  then  for  better  rest 
went  to  the  Sanatorium,  a  nursing  home  conducted 
by  the  Augustinian  nuns.     Here  he  remained  three 
weeks,  and  it  was  a  special  joy  to  him  to  meet  there 
Dr.    Margaret    Lamont,    the    well-known    Catholic 
medical  missioner,  whom  he  had  received  into  the 
Church  almost  exactly  sixteen  years  before.     He  had 
not  forgotten  that,  all  those  years  ago,  he  had  pro- 
mised to  give  Holy  Communion  to  her  and  to  her 
husband.     He  now  redeemed  his  promise,  and  she 
on  her  side  was  able  to  tell  him  he  had  been  right, 
when,  to  her  anxious  question,  whether  as  a  woman 
doctor  she  would  win  acceptance  among  the  con- 
servative Catholic  folk,  he  had  answered  that  to  be 
a    Cathohc   is    worth    anything.     Just    as   he    was 
starting  for  America  he  had  written  to  Dr.  Lamont 
who  was  then  working  in  wild  places  of  New  Zealand, 
how  glad  he  was  that  she  knew  how  to  combine  the 
duties  of  motherhood  with  baking  bread,  looking  after 
wounded  settlers  and  sick  Maoris,  and  now  he  could 
see  for  himself  the  sight  of  natives  at  Communion, 
and  what  problems  were  set  by  a  town  so  full,  as 
Durban  was,  of  Indian,  Chinese,  and  Japanese  non- 
Christians,  as  well  as  of  Zulu  and  Basuto  natives. 


SOUTH   AFRICA  213 

Tears  ran  down  his  face  when  he  saw  the  native 
converts  at  their  Mass.  He  was  happy  to  have  a 
Cathohc  doctor,  M.  Fran(;ois,  to  attend  him,  and  lay 
for  hours  looking  at  the  view  from  his  verandah 
which  to  him  seemed  no  less  beautiful  than  the  Bay 
of  Naples,  which  he  called  God's  own  cinematograph. 
To  a  visit  from  the  Natal  Advertiser,  who  was  anxious 
to  know  whether  there  would  be  another  course  of 
"  society  sermons,"  he  seems  to  have  talked  of 
little  else  save  the  splendour  of  the  sunset  and  the 
stars.  However,  he  reverted  after  a  space  to  his 
favourite  themes,  but  yet  again  returned  with  ever 
renewed  affection  to  his  memory  of  the  natives  at 
Communion.  I  have  no  doubt  at  all  that  when 
Fr.  Vaughan  spoke  of  his  ''  brothers  "  or  "  sisters  " 
among  the  sick  or  the  slighted,  that  is  exactly  how- 
he  felt  towards  them. 

When  he  left  Durban  in  the  middle  of  May,  he 
attended  the  procession  at  the  Cathedral  in  honour 
of  Our  Lady,  and  since  it  was  felt  tliat  hundreds 
would  be  disappointed  if  they  heard  no  word  from 
him,  he  was  persuaded  to  speak  for  a  moment  from 
the  pulpit  after  the  sermon.  Even  from  this  httle 
sermon  he  could  not  exclude  a  reference  to  the 
African  sunlight  and  the  stars,  but  on  the  whole  he 
dwelt  on  the  will  to  suller  which  must  be  theirs  who 
have  the  wish  to  love.  Thus  was  concluded  his 
life's  course  of  Mary-sermons,  which  had  begun  at 
the  foot  of  Our  Lady's  statue  long  ago  at  Stony- 
hurst.  Certainl\-  Fr.  Bernard  Wiughan  had  been 
the  very  faithful  and  knightly  servant  of  God's 
Mother. 


214  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

From  Durban  Fr.  Vaughan  returned  in  the 
Windsor  Castle  to  Port  Elizabeth,  where  he  was  met 
by  the  Rector  of  St.  Aidan's  College,  Grahamstown, 
to  which  he  was  on  his  way.  He  remained  there 
for  a  few  days,  guest  of  the  parents  of  one  of  the 
boys  of  that  college,  and  then  went  on  by  sleeping 
car  to  Grahamstown,  finding  the  journey  very 
tiring.  He  was  glad  to  be  back  in  a  house  of  his 
fellow- Jesuits,  and  really  rested  at  last.  His  health 
visibly  improved.  He  talked  little,  but  drove  to 
many  places  and  was  received  with  much  honour 
at  the  Rhodes  University  by  the  Chairman  of  Senate 
and  the  professors.  He  also  attended  a  concert 
given  in  the  Town  Hall  by  the  very  fine  Cape  Town 
Orchestra  then  on  tour,  and  to  his  great  pleasure 
the  conductor,  Mr.  Theodore  Wendt,  was  presented 
to  him.  All  denominations  were  anxious  that  he 
should  give  an  address  at  the  Town  Hall,  but  he  had 
to  insist  that  his  doctor  had  absolutely  forbidden 
any  such  thing.  But  he  spontaneously  offered  to 
address  the  St.  Aidan's  boys  in  the  college  chapel, 
and  spoke  very  quietly,  and  the  more  impressively, 
on  the  unique  friend  that  Our  Lord  can  be  to  those 
who  will  accept  that  privilege. 

One  characteristic  incident  occurred  after  a  drive 
to  Fort  Brown,  once  a  military  and  now  a  police 
outpost  some  sixteen  miles  from  the  town.  He, 
with  the  rest  of  the  St.  Aidan's  community,  went  on 
some  way  beyond  the  Fort  to  picnic  by  a  river. 
A  Kaffir  woman  came  down  to  draw  water.  Fr. 
Vaughan,  ignorant  of,  or  ignoring,  the  conventions, 
insisted  on  taking  down  cakes  and  tea  to  the  good 


SOUTH    AFRICA  215 

womiin  who  could  not  sj)eak  11  word  of  English, 
"  and  who  must  have  been  considerably  astonished 
at  this  unwonted  attention  from  a  white  man.  Th<' 
chauffeurs  were  agape  at  the  sight."  Well,  he  would 
have  said,  first  quite  simply  and  then,  I  daresay, 
defiantly,  slie  was  his  sister.  "  If  only,"  he  had 
said  to  a  reporter,  "  we  would  treat  them  as  human 
beings,  witli  a  handful  of  love  thrown  in." 

Visitors,  from  the  Deputy  Mayor  downwards, 
thronged  to  see  Fr.  Vaughan,  who  tired  himself 
too  much  with  the  courtesy  of  his  response,  and  as 
usual  told  story  after  story  to  the  dchghted,  yet 
anxious  community.  The  effort  did  indeed  exhaust 
him.  He  should  have  stayed  longer  at  Grahams- 
town,  and  done  much  less.  He  left  evidently  but 
little  better,  and  by  Port  Elizabeth  went  soon 
afterwards  back  to  Cape  Town,  and  established  him- 
self in  the  Sea  Point  Sanatorium  already  mentioned. 
While  he  was  there  he  WTote  the  following  letter  to 
the  mother  of  a  friend,  who  was  suffering  from  a 
very  painful  illness  and  much  distress  of  mind,  li 
is  characteristic,  and  is  the  last  I  shall  have  to  quote  : 

The  past  is  dead  and  buried  :  don't  dig  it  up.  The 
future  is  not  yet  bom  ;  don't  anticipate  it.  Live  in  the 
living  present  and  don't  spend  the  time  in  worrying  about 
yourself,  but  in  thinking  about  God.  You  shall  have  five 
Masses  that  when  you  are  relieved  of  your  Cross  you  may 
have  a  non-stop  flight  for 

The  Crown. 
Make  trust  your  cxpre^ion  of  love. 

Strange  mingling  of  the  deeply-felt  and  genuine 
sympath}',  with  the  sincere  terseness  of  epigram,  the 
terrible    worn-out    metaphor,    meant    even    at    its 


2i6  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

freshest  for  journal  or  for  platform,  the  generous  will 
to  offer  spiritual  help,  and  the  one  touch  of  profound 
conviction  at  the  end. 

While  he  was  here,  he  called  on  General  Smuts  at 
Groote  Schuur,  the  residence  left  by  Cecil  Rhodes  to 
future  Prime  Ministers  of  the  Union.  There  he  had 
a  long  and  interesting  conversation,  of  which,  natu- 
rally, there  is  no  record.  Still,  he  must  have  been 
fascinated  by  the  quaint  house,  with  its  mingled  air 
of  Holland  and  of  Africa,  its  white-pillared  verandah, 
ornate  gables,  and  twisted  chimneys,  and  by  the 
amazing  view — the  Devil's  Peak,  or  the  Winberg, 
"  Wind-Mountain,"  as  the  early  settlers  called  it,  a 
tall  cone  visible  through  pines  from  the  stoep  at  the 
back  of  the  house,  and  Rhodes's  favourite  view.  He 
cannot  but  have  been  enchanted  by  the  Mountain 
of  which  the  first  blue-and-silver  vision  from  the  sea 
so  thrilled  him,  and  which  he  at  last  had  time  to 
contemplate,  as  it  rose,  all  "  mellow  browns  and 
greens  and  dazzle  of  silvery  trees "  from  "  the 
feathery  yellows  of  grassy  undergrowth."  This 
harmony  of  orange,  brown  and  gold,  with  its  silvery 
shadows,  rose  into  a  sky  at  whose  blue  he  never 
ceased  to  marvel. 

It  was  regrettable  that  he  consented  to  address 
a  public  audience  in  the  City  Hall  before  leaving 
Cape  Town.  The  arrangements  were  made  by  the 
Catholic  Federation,  and  the  enthusiasm  was  amaz- 
ing. At  least  three  thousand  filled  the  Hall,  and 
hundreds  could  not  find  room.  The  reports  were 
kind  in  their  comments — as  usual,  the  text  of  the 
speech  had  been  supplied  to  them  beforehand.     But 


SOUTH    AFRICA  217 

it  remains  tliat  only  those  who  sat  right  forward 
could  licar  what  Fr.  Vaughan  was  saying.  The 
moment  he  came  upon  the  platform,  it  could  be  seen 
that  here  was  an  old  man,  obviously  exhausted. 
The  Cape  Argus  describes  him  as  follows  : 

Immediately  behind  the  Mayor  he  came,  an  elderly, 
nionk-Uke  figure,  with  more  than  a  hint  of  austerity  about 
his  clean-shaven  face,  alive  with  sharp  edges  and  clean 
curves  ;  he  was  wearing  a  black  skull  cap,  sombre  clerical 
coat  buttoned  tightly  straight  down  the  front,  and  his  long 
hands  were  tightly  clasped  in  front  of  him.  There  was  a 
burst  of  applause,  then  a  standing  welcome.  With  hands 
still  clasped  the  old  man  bowed  in  courtly  fashion  to  the 
right,  then  to  the  left,  and  then,  turning,  behind  to  the 
people  on  the  platform.  With  an  impassive  face  he  took 
his  seat.  Then  out  over  the  expanse  of  faces  roved  his 
eye.  He  was  "  taking  in  "  the  audience  after  the  manner 
of  the  experienced  speaker,  searching,  it  seemed,  section 
by  section,  sensing  it,  "  listening  in  "  to  it. 

His  face  is  alive  with  character.  The  old  painters  loved 
such  a  type.  They  would  have  rejoiced  to  bring  out  ever}- 
line  in  it,  every  deep  curve,  every  rich  fold.  The  forehead 
is  well  rounded,  with  cur\'ing  furrows  across  it,  and  an  un- 
common cleft  down  the  centre.  Large  blue  eyes  look  out 
from  under  arched  eyebrows.  The  passionately'  moulded, 
rather  sharp  nose  has  the  dilated  nostrils  that  reveal  the 
high-strung  temperament.  The  mouth  is  large  and  mobile. 
Jaw  and  chin  are  large,  square  and  finnly  set.  A  hard  man 
to  move  out  of  a  line  of  action  when  once  he  has  made  up 
his  mind.  Tremendous  rigidity  of  purpose  reposes  in  that 
jaw.  In  repose  the  face  is  mild.  When  a  smile  ripples  over 
it  the  wrinkles  twinkle.  The  eyes  laugh,  and  the  sensitive 
mouth  quivers  with  feeling.  Like  a  monk  he  may  appear 
at  times,  but  he  is  a  vorv  hnm.m  monk. 

The  speech,   which  was  on  MaiTiage,   lasted  for 
lialf  an  hour.* 

♦Before  be  left,  a  taleuted  member  of  the  South  .\frican  clergy  sent  to 


2i8  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

The  return  voyage  on  the  Gloucester  Castle  was  a 
time  of  suffering,  and  he  had  Httle  or  no  sleep  till 
he  arrived  in  London.  Yet  he  preached  a  short 
sermon  to  the  passengers  who,  on  their  side,  were 
of  the  utmost  kindness,  and  if  at  any  time  it  was 
known  that  Fr.  Vaughan  was  trying  to  sleep,  word 
was  passed  round  and  all  noise  ceased. 

Such  then  had  been  his  rest-cure.  It  is  certain 
that  he  had  been  accepted  in  South  Africa  as  a  public 
man :  his  advent  had  been  cabled  beforehand ; 
reporters  and  photographers  dogged  his  steps ; 
eminent  persons  called  on  him.  Certainly,  too,  he 
came  as  a  rehgious.  His  clothes  were  deplorable 
—he  brought  only  one  pair  of  trousers,  and  when 
these  were  torn,  he  had  to  remain  perdu  while  a 
brother  mended  them.  He  had  had  his  hat  dyed, 
and  this  had  made  it  shrink  so  much  that  his  rector 
at  Grahamstown  had  to  buy  him  another.  Had  he 
pictured  himself  as  due  for  some  foreign  mission  ? 
Frankly,  I  wish  that  had  been  what  he  experienced 
in  South  Africa.  It  was  much  to  have  found,  here 
too,  the  great  Cathohc  fraternity,  and  to  have 
received  so  fine  a  hospitality  due,  in  the  long  run, 
just  to  that  Catholic  fellowship  ;  but  I  wish  he  could 
have  gone,  behind  the  fiat  and  the  pointed  mountains 
and  the  feathery  yellow  grass  and  the  marigolds, 
to  that  Kasaka,  that  "  impenetrable  bush,"  where 

the  Southern  Cross  a  most  ingenious  "  chronogram  "  : 

renoVatVs  tibl  Vigor  IWent  VsqVe  aqVIlae         95 
noVo  IgnesCIs  Igne,  soCI  Ignatll  -  -       212 

gaVDet  afrorVM  teLLVs  -  -  -     1615 

1922 


SOUTH   AFRICA  219 

others  of  his  confreres  were  digging  wells  and  teach- 
ing the  nati\'es  io  build  walls  of  churches.  I  wish 
it  might  have  been  the  native  Zambesi  mission  he 
had  seen,  and  I  believe  that  the  joy  he  felt  when  he 
watclied  the  Catholic  and  patriotic  wcjrk  so  well 
done  at  St.  Aidan's  would  have  been  redoubled  by 
what  he  might  have  seen  beyond  Dunbrody  and 
among  the  Matabele  of  South  Rhodesia  and  in 
Mashonaland  and  awav  with  the  Batonsra. 


II 

THE   NURSERY 

WHEN  Fr.  Vaughan  arrived,  on  July  19th,  at 
Tilbury,  it  was  evident  that  he  was  again 
very  ill.  He  spent  but  a  few  hours  in 
London,  and  then  left  for  the  Jesuit  house 
for  convalescents  at  Burton  Hill,  Petworth.  A  taxi- 
collision  en  route  agitated  him,  and  by  now  the 
microbe  of  activity  had  so  fastened  itself  upon  the 
mind  of  the  sick  man  that  the  silence  and  the  soli- 
tude (save  for  a  few  companions  ill  like  himself) 
became  intolerable  to  him.  Nothing  could  be  gained 
by  keeping  him  where  he  was  miserable,  and  he  left 
for  London  once  more  on  August  7th.  He  passed 
one  night  there  only,  and  then  took  refuge  with  his 
very  faithful  friends  at  Derwent  Hall.  He  arrived 
there  wretched  about  himself  and  certain  that  he 
could  not  sleep.  He  patrolled  the  house  and,  as 
had  been  noticed  on  his  last  visit  to  Courtfield, 
could  not  stop  still,  but  kept  entering  and  re-entering 
the  rooms  where  he  would  find  company.  He  slept, 
or  dozed,  of  course,  more  than  he  thought  he  did  ; 
still,  he  was  haunted  by  the  terrible  fear  of  a  com- 
plete collapse  of  brain.  "  Unless  you  and  your 
community  get  me  sleep,"  he  wrote  to  the  Poor 
Clares,  "  I  shall  be  following  Connie.  It  may  be 
that  God  wishes  this  ;  if  so.  Blessed  be  His  Will. 
But  insomnia  cannot  be  carried  on  without  armfuls 


THL   NURSERY  221 

of  grace.  See  what  can  be  done — end  or  mend. 
Bernahd  Vaughan."  He  dragged  his  foot  a 
Httle,  but  not  more  really  than  before,  and  I  am  told 
that  he  should  not  be  described  as  having  had  a 
stroke.  Still,  he  became  too  timid  to  say  Mass, 
even  on  Sundays,  and  willingly  consulted  doctors, 
who,  though  by  no  means  hopeless,  ended  by  advising 
a  removal  to  the  nursing  home  at  Sheffield  which 
is  kept  by  the  Sisters  of  Mercy.  He  appeared  then 
to  be  suffering  from  paralysis  agitans,  and  on  August 
26th  he  was  given  the  Last  Sacraments.  None  the 
less,  he  was  able  to  be  moved  to  the  Jesuit  College 
of  Mount  St.  Mary's,  near  Chesterfield,  not  far 
distant. 

Yet  even  among  the  many  kindnesses  of  that 
house,  he  began-to  feel  that  he  wanted,  as  he  put  it, 
to  get  back  to  the  "  nursery,"  and  on  September 
3rd,  he  travelled  up  to  London  in  an  invalid  coach, 
and  thence  went,  with  his  nurse  EJrother  Bavister, 
to  Manresa  House,  by  ambulance.  Through  his  long 
life,  he  had  had  affectionate  hospitahty  shown  to 
him  in  how  many  houses  :  yet  it  was  best  of  all.  he 
found,  to  have  now  come  home. 

A  long  gallery  runs  from  end  to  t-nd  of  Manresa 
House  ;  the  windows  down  one  side  of  it  look  into 
the  quadrangle  by  which  \ou  approach  the  door  ; 
on  the  other,  staircases  take  you  up  into  the  house 
itself.  To  the  extreme  left,  doors  on  either  side  of 
the  gallery  lead  into  the  chapel  and  into  two  small 
rooms  respectively,  and  between  tlu-se  doors  is  the 
glass  one  at  the  end  of  the  gallery  by  which  you  go 
out  into  the  grounds.     To  Fr.  Vaughan  was  given 


222  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

the  first  of  the  two  small  rooms,  so  that  he  could 
easily  be  taken  out  into  the  chapel  and  the  garden. 
Indeed,  he  could  sit  just  outside  his  own  door,  and 
look  straight  across  the  gallery  into  the  chapel  and 
see  the  altar.  "  This,"  he  said,  "  is  the  best  house 
in  the  Province,  and  this  is  the  best  room  in  the 
house."  Yet  the  room  is  white-washed,  has  no 
carpet  and  no  curtains,  and  contains  only  such 
furniture  as  is  strictly  needed.  It  is  about  sixteen 
feet  by  twelve.  Into  such  narrow  limits  the  life 
of  Fr.  Vaughan  had  now  confined  itself. 

On  the  first  evening  he  asked  for  the  novice-master, 
Fr.  Peers-Smith,  to  visit  him.  "  I  want,"  he  said, 
"  to  be  received  here  as  a  novice,  and  to  be  treated 
as  such  in  every  way."  More  than  once  he  asked, 
"  I  am  a  novice,  am  I  not  ?  "  and  would  not  rest 
until  he  had  been  given  an  order  of  the  day,  that  he 
might  keep  it  and  know  that  the  spending  of  each 
hour  was  ruled,  not  by  his  choices,  but  by  obedience. 
The  "  order  "  was  very  simple  :  it  consisted  of  cer- 
tain prayers  to  be  said  with  his  brother-nurse  or  with 
the  novice-master  himself — the  Rosary,  the  Litany 
of  the  Holy  Name,  and  the  Litany  of  Our  Lady  in 
the  evening.  Naturally  he  adhered  to  his  life- 
time's practice  of  daily  Confession,  and  received 
Holy  Communion  every  day.  Sometimes  he  could 
assist  at  Mass  in  his  wheeled  chair  ;  and  during 
October  was  several  times  wheeled  to  the  place 
where  special  devotions  to  Our  Lady  were  being 
offered. 

During  the  day  he  was  glad  to  associate  himself 
with  the  novices  in  every  way  he  could.     "  I  wish 


THE   NURSERY  22' 


_» 


I  could  do  '  indoor  works  '  for  you,"  he  said  to  the 
novice  who  was  wheeling'  him  back  to  his  room  ; 
and  when  he  was  asked  if  the  noise  made  by  the 
novices  in  their  quarters  over  his  head  did  not  dis- 
turb him,  "  Oh,  no,"  he  answered,  "  1  hke  to  hear 
the  feet  of  my  brother-novices  tramping  about  doing 
the  work  of  God."  And  again,  when  the\-  were  all 
coming  out  of  the  chapel  after  their  evening  medita- 
tion. "  Listen  to  them,"  he  said.  "  I  love  to  hear 
the  feet  of  my  brothers  who  have  given  themselves 
to  God  and  are  serving  Him  so  well.  It  is  music 
to  me."  At  first,  when  he  could  not  sleep  at  night, 
he  would  ask  to  be  wheeled  into  the  chapel,  and 
remained  there  for  an  hour  or  so,  "  talking  to  Him 
about  my  brothers  that  they  may  do  His  work 
better  than  I  have  done." 

Those  who  have  read  the  Life  of  Cardinal  Vaughan 
may  have  been  struck  to  see  how  he  too  passed  from 
the  affectionate  solicitude  of  Derwent  Hall  to  Mill 
Hill,  the  house  to  which  he  gave  his  early  priestl\ 
love,  leaving  London  lina]l\'  to  one  side.  They  will 
be  more  profoundly  moved  to  know  that,  like  the 
Cardinal,  Fr.  Vaughan  experienced  in  this  last 
chapter  of  his  life,  a  spiritual  agony.  No  doubt 
the  character  of  his  illness  predisposed  his  mind  to 
something  of  the  sort.  But  this  was  a  far  deeper 
thing  than  that.  It  had  nothing  now  to  do  with  the 
anxious  restlessness  that  had  made  first  one  place, 
then  another,  companionship,  and  then  lonehness. 
so  irksome  to  him.  To  the  Cardinal,  in  those  ail-but 
latest  hours,  faith  became  a  dream,  and  hope  impossi- 
ble.    Life  had  run  wasted  in  illusions.     The  Cardinal 


224  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

triumphed  over  that  fear,  disgust,  and  grief.  And 
Father  Bernard,  in  similar  hours  of  derehction,  would 
listen  with  docility  to  what  was  said  to  comfort  him, 
but  would  answer  :  "  Yes,  how  often  have  I  said 
that  to  others  ;  but  I  feel  nothing  of  it  now  myself." 
Then  he  would  recover  himself  and  say  :  "I  take 
your  word  for  it  entirely,  Father  ;  Our  Lord  will 
never  leave  me."  "  You  have  had  a  great  career," 
said  one  to  him.  "  You  have  done  much  for  Our 
Lord."  "  Full  of  faults,"  he  answered.  "Yet  I 
hope  I  am  in  God's  favour."  "  At  least,"  said 
another,  perhaps  more  wisely,  "  you  have  not  been 
silent  about  Our  Lord's  goodness  to  souls.  And  he 
who  has  confessed  Him  before  men,  him  shall  He 
too  confess  before  His  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 
In  this  he  found  much  help.  "  Indeed  I  have  not 
been  silent,"  he  replied.  "  And  He  has  been  grand 
and  wonderful  to  me."  Yet  to  a  visitor  whom  he 
trusted,  he  owned  that  his  life  had  been  a  "  martyr- 
dom." 

We  need  not  dwell  on  this.  Something  of  this  sort 
must  surely  be  the  Purgatory — the  purgatorial  ex- 
perience persistent  perhaps,  and  please  God,  through 
life — of  one  whose  vocation  has  been  to  work  very 
hard  and  to  produce  much  that  is  external.  Even 
while  doing  it,  he  may  have  a  loathing  for  his  work  ; 
his  visible  and  audible  efforts  may  be  dust  and  ashes 
to  him — ^less,  perhaps,  because  he  is  himself  tempted 
to  think  that  his  own  work  counts  (for  who,  that  had 
any  vision  of  the  reality  of  God  could  yield  to  that 
illusion  ?)  than  because  he  sees  it  is  what  others 
notice,  and  that  to  them  his  life  seems  to  be  made 


THE   NURSERY  225 

up  of  that,  and  laudable  for  that.  Father  Vaughan, 
in  his  humility,  could  not  but  be  tempted  to  fear 
that  they  might  after  all  be  right,  that  there  had 
been  nothing  else,  that  he  had  indeed  built  up  a 
life  of  stuff  proved  already  unenduring,  that  had 
ah-eady  shrunk  into  ghostliness  and  vanished,  with- 
out even  waiting  for  the  verdict  of  its  Judge. 

That  is  why  it  became  so  glorious  for  him  to  feel 
that  now  at  least  there  could  be  no  more  to  do  or 
say  ;  that  there  could  be  no  more  of  the  world's 
great  cheat.  Life  had  witlidrawn  itself  from  lure 
of  invective  or  duty  of  controversy,  from  requests 
to  organise  or  to  amuse  ;  from  the  innumerable  faces 
that  had  so  thronged  him  round  ;  from  the  dangerous 
zones  of  royalt}*  and  the  almust  too  easily  won, 
the  certainl}'  no  less  lovable  love  so  richh^  given  by 
the  disinherited  ;  from  the  traffic  and  the  towns, 
from  the  glitter  and  the  lies  of  London,  from  the 
journeyings  hither  and  tliither  across  continents. 
With  extreme  rapidity  the  perspective  had  closed 
in.  Four  narrow  white- washed  walls  simt  all  the 
visions  out.  The  false  transhgurations  of  reality 
had  gone,  and  left  him  willi  "  Jesus  only."  Every- 
thing else  had  now  ri-liutiuished  liim,  and  just  a 
good  death  remained  now  to  be  died  by  him. 

Therefore  the  Crucihx  that  Pius  X  had  indul- 
genced  for  him,  was  rarely  out  of  his  hand  ;  and  the 
centre  of  his  da}'  became  the  Communion  hour.  All 
his  life  he  had  had,  for  favourite  devotion,  short 
"  visits  "  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  At  Manresa, 
he  asked  how  he  might  make  them  better.  It  was 
suggested   to   him   that    he   should   often    make   a 


226  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

Spiritual  Communion,  and  unite  himself  to  Our 
Lord  as  often  as  he  could,  to  make  up  for  the  Mass 
he  could  no  more  say.  At  once  he  answered : 
**  This  is  what  I  do.  Do  you  approve  of  it  ?  I  say 
just  this — I  believe  ;  I  hope  ;  I  love  ;  I  grieve  ; 
I  trust.  Then  Corpus  Domini  lesu  Christi  custo- 
diat  animam  meam  in  Vitam  Aeternam.  Amen. 
And  as  thanksgiving,  the  Anima  Christi.''  He  also 
said  :  "I  offer  the  wound  and  torment  of  Our  Lord's 
right  hand  for  the  Church  and  for  all  who  work  for 
souls.  I  offer  the  wound  and  torment  of  His  left 
hand  for  all  who  pray  for  me  or  help  me  in  any  way, 
and  whom  I  ought  to  help  and  pray  for.  I  offer 
the  wound  and  torment  of  the  right  foot  for  the  poor 
sufferers  in  Purgatory,  and  those  of  His  left  foot  for 
poor  sinners  and  for  those  in  danger.  I  offer  His 
wounded  Heart  in  gratitude  to  His  Father  and  there 
I  leave  myself." 

An  external  consolation  was  that  he  found  at 
Manresa  his  very  old  friend,  Fr.  de  Zulueta,  in  whose 
loving  counsel  he  had  confidence  ;  also,  the  letter 
that  reached  him  a  few  days  before  his  death,  from 
the  English  Assistant  of  the  Society  in  Rome,  con- 
veying to  him  the  sympathy  and  encouragement  of 
the  Father  General,  as  well  as  a  picture  of  St.  Ignatius 
on  which  His  Paternity  had  written :  "  Father 
Bernard  Vaughan.  God  bless  you,"  and  had  signed 
his  name.  "  How  consoling  for  His  Paternity," 
Fr.  Vaughan  then  said,  "  to  be  able  to  find  so  much 
good  in  me."  And  he  affirmed  that  there  was  one 
memory  in  which  he  could  take  happiness  now. 
"  Never,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  I  shown  any  resent- 
ment to  criticisms  that  I  was  theatrical,  affected, 


THE   NURSERY  227 

or  insincere  in  the  {)ulpit.  And  tliey  have  never 
kept  me  from  doing  work  that  Our  Lord  seemed 
to  want  me  to  do." 

The  first  sign,  1  hear  from  Manresa,  that  he  was 
really  weakening  was  tliat  he  could  no  longer  see  the 
novices  who  went  twice  daily  to  his  room  at  12-15 
and  at  4-45  to  read  short  passages  of  the  Imitation 
and  of  the  New  Testament  to  him.  He  had  genuinely 
looked  forward  to  their  visits,  and  would  often  add 
a  few  words  of  encouragement  before  they  went  away. 
Thursday,  October  26th,  was  the  last  day  they  came  ; 
the  passage  to  be  read  was  never  deliberately 
chosen  ;  but  that  night  the  novice  opened  the  New- 
Testament  at  St.  Luke  xxiv,  the  story  of  the  journey 
to  Emmaus,  and  the  last  words  actuall\'  read  were  : 
**  But  they  con^strained  Him,  saying  :  Stay  with 
us,  for  it  is  towards  evening  and  the  day  is  far  spent. 
And  He  went  in  with  them."  On  Sunday,  29th, 
it  was  thought  better  to  anoint  liim  again,  as  he  had 
expressed  the  wish  for  this  himself.  His  state  of 
recurrent  coma  then  grew  more  pronounced,  though 
for  a  few  moments  at  a  time  he  would  be  himself. 
The  novice-master  went  into  his  room  that  evening 
as  usual,  and  found  him  very  tired.  "  The  end 
seems  far  away,"  he  said.  Then  he  clasped  his 
crucifix  and  said  fervently  :     "  My  Jesus,   mercy." 

On  the  Monday  he  received  Holy  Communion  as 
usual  at  6-10,  and  then  he  was  fully  conscious,  pray- 
ing and  raising  his  arms  a  little  as  he  often  did.  At 
mid-day  he  had  been  transferred  to  his  couch,  and 
when  the  novice-master  came  back,  he  recognised 
him,  repeated  his  name  several  times,  and  then  said  : 


228  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

"  I  really  don't  know  where  I  am,  spiritually  or 
bodily.  I  don't  even  know  what  day  or  what  time 
it  is."  He  was  reminded  that  it  was  the  feast  of 
St.  Alphonsus  Rodriguez,  patron  of  the  lay-brothers 
of  the  Society.  "  A  beautiful  Saint,"  he  said,  lifting 
his  hands.  "  A  beautiful  day."  He  was  asked  if 
hq  were  in  any  pain.  "  Weary,  all  over,"  he  said. 
**  I  really  don't  know  where  I  am."  "  You  are  in 
Our  Lord's  Heart."  "  Yes,  I  trust  Him.  That  is 
all."  He  was  helped  to  repeat  the  aspiration : 
"  Heart  of  Jesus,  I  trust  in  Thee."  This  had  helped 
him  more  than  anything  throughout  his  illness. 
He  repeated  it  with  the  greatest  simplicity  and  love. 

He  was  unconscious  that  night  at  the  hour  at  which 
he  was  accustomed  to  receive  absolution,  but  when 
on  Tuesday  morning  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was 
taken  to  his  room,  he  was  praying  to  himself  and 
seemed  fully  conscious.  But  when  the  ciborium  was 
carried  to  his  bedside,  his  eyes  and  mouth  remained 
closed.  "  Will  you  not  let  me  give  you  Our  Blessed 
Lord  ?  "  the  priest  asked.  "  Certainly  I  will,"  he 
answered  very  gently.  But  the  request  had  to  be 
repeated  a  second  and  a  third  time  before  he  actually 
received  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  which  he  did  with 
great  reverence,  and  he  at  once  drank  up  the  little 
glass  of  water  that  his  infirmarian  offered  him. 

About  ten  minutes  later  the  novice-master  was 
fetched  back,  as  the  last  change  was  beginning. 
The  prayers  for  the  dying  were  said  and  other 
prayers,  till  the  bell  rang  for  Mass  at  7-5.  He 
remained  living  till  the  end  of  Mass,  and  just  as  the 
novice-master,  who  had  celebrated  it,  was  beginning 


THE   NURSERY  229 

his  thanksgiving,  the  brother  fetched  him  back  once 
more  to  give  him  a  last  Absolution,  and  Fr.  \'aughan 
died  then  very  jieacefully. 

Before  night  came,  London  seemed  placarded 
from  end  to  end,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  news, 
with  the  announcement  of  this  death.  But  to  the 
room  where  his  bod>'  was  laid  out,  very  few  came, 
and  they,  not  the  potentates  of  this  world.  But 
some  very  poor  people  came,  and  one  old  woman 
walked  almost  shoeless  from  Westminster  to  say 
goodbye  to  the  priest  who  had  been  kind  to  her 
and  to  her  child.  To  the  Requiem  at  Farm  Street 
on  November  3rd,  royalties  came  in  plenty  ;  but 
they  brought  no  better  crown.  The  Absolutions 
were  given  by  the  Cardinal  Archbishop,  and  the  Mass 
was  celebrated  by  Dr.  Herbert  Vaughan,  Father 
Bernard's  nephew.  The  funeral  took  place  that 
day  at  Kensal  Green,  and  despite  the  heavy  rain, 
a  great  crowd  came  to  it.  Especially  dear  to  Fr. 
Vauglian  must  have  been  the  fidelity,  there,  of 
Manchester. 


Ill 

EPILOGUE 

TO  study  Fr.  Bernard  Vaughan  has  meant  to 
study  a  method  and  a  personaUty.     Few  saw 
beyond   the   method,   for   even   considerable 
intimacy  might  fail  to  enable  you  to  reach  the  real, 
shy  man  who  shrank  behind  his  many  masks.* 

As  for  the  method,  I  have  said  that  it  was  quite 
deliberately  adopted.  In  What  of  To-day  ?  he  has  a 
whole  chapter  on  Advertising,  the  transcript,  I 
think,  of  an  address  given  to  those  whose  business 
advertising  was.  With  the  utmost  frankness  he 
declares  his  intention  of  advertising  his  wares  in 
every  legitimate  way.  But  notice,  he  is  clear  that 
no  amount  of  advertising  will  avail  the  man  whose 
wares  are  worthless.  Advertising  was  simply  the 
arresting  of  attention  and  the  telling  of  men  where 
best  to  get  what  most  they  want.  He  knew  quite 
well  that  there  were  many  sorts  of  work  he  could 
not  do  ;  but  advertise  he  could,  and  determined 
to  do  it.  He  knew  also  that  there  were  many  who 
hated  any  advertising  :  all  placards  appeared  to 
them  vulgarity.  WeU— there  were  others.  There  were 
a  good  many  whom  advertisement  did  reach  when 
nothing  else  would  :  if  they  were  vulgar,  so  for  their 
sakes  would  he  too  be.  (Not  but  what  he  could  be 
indignant  with  those  who  superciliously  looked  down 

♦Despite  all  challenges,  I  am  not  going  to  compare  Fr.  Vaughan  with 
Savonarola,  Bossuet,  or  Spurgeon. 


EPILOGUE  231 

on  folks  as  "  vulgar."  Yet  you  may  imagine  how 
bitter  it  was  to  his  very  strong  sense  of  breeding 
when  he  knew  that  people  were  deriding  his  "  vul- 
garity." Despite  the  pointed  tearing  teeth,  he 
persevered  with  the  "  vulgarity  "  that,  he  hoped, 
would  save.) 

Nor  will  I  forget  that  he  was  quite  aware  that 
often  his  advertising  was  not  the  best,  even,  in  its 
line.  He  saw  with  sick  disgust,  his  failures.  He 
was  most  easily  depressed — the  very  sight  of  empty 
chairs,  at  a  sermon  or  speech,  upset  him,  and  it  was 
a  kindness  to  have  them  taken  away.  He  fully 
expected  Our  Lord  to  say  to  him :  "  X'aughan, 
you're  poor  stuff.  But  you've  done  your  best  for 
Me."  And  so  he  had,  consistently,  for  many  very 
long  years. 

Does  this  mean  he  did  not  enjoy  himself,  at  his 
work  of  advertising  God  ?  Of  course  he  enjoyed 
himself,  whole-heartedh'.  He  seemed  to  me  always, 
when  not  just  a  child,  a  noisy  boy,  romping  in  God's 
presence.  He  loved  the  uproar,  the  fun  even  of  the 
fight,  the  dressing  up.  the  hot  theatric  air.  And  ii 
is  to  me  a  pleasure  to  find  that  a  distmguished  pre- 
late has  written  tt)  me  almost  this  very  thing. 

With  all  his  ways,  Father  Bernard  \v;is  never  anything 
but  a  ehild,  a  child  playing  a  part,  conscious  of  his  onnti 
short-comings,  discovering  as  he  went  on  that  he  could  make 
up  for  want  of  talent  by  anotlier  power  which  was  all  his 
own,  never  afraid  to  acknowledge  the  gifts  of  others  and  to 
use  them — the  famous  Manchester  lectures  are  a  case  in 
})oint — and  never  for  a  moment  deceived  by  the  flatter}'  of 
men.  He  described  himself  as  "  the  big  dnmimer,"  and 
said  that  others  must  play  the  instruments.     His  so-called 


232  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

acting — so-called  because  even  for  himself  it  was  an  evolu- 
tion ;  he  played  at  playing  a  part — and  his  so-caUed  power 
of  repartee  were  a  discovery  rather  than  a  natural  gift ; 
he  did  what  he  did  because  he  found  it  worked  for  the  glory 
of  God,  and  he  had  the  humility  to  put  on  motley  before 
the  public,  and  play  the  big  drummer  at  the  church  door. 
This  I  think  can  be  shown  from  that  ease  and  simphcity  with 
which  he  could  put  it  all  aside  when  alone,  like  a  schoolboy 
undressing  in  a  greenroom.  Were  I  to  write  the  life  of 
Father  Bernard  I  think  I  would  arm  myself  against  the 
judgment  that  he  was  "  a  born  actor,"  and  would  make 
much  of  his  likeness  to  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  in  that  he 
deliberately  adopted  this  garb  as  his  means  of  serving  God. 
"  Stultus  propter  Christum  "  ;   a  motto  which  needs  a  hero. 

That  Fr.  Vaughan  never  erred  in  his  chosen  task, 
who  would  be  so  silly  as  to  say  ?  Doubtless  at  times 
he  was  piqued  to  have,  so  to  say,  the  spot-light  off 
him.  The  champion  entertainer  that  he  knew  him- 
self to  be,  deserved  the  centre  of  the  stage,  took  it 
unthinkingly,  and  was  surprised  if  the  attention  of 
the  audience  wandered.  That  merely  is  to  say  that 
a  perfect  equilibrium  is  hard  for  a  human  creature 
to  preserve,  especially  if  he  indulges  in  acrobatics. 
The  acrobatics  of  the  philosopher  lend  themselves 
to  lost  equilibrium  quite  as  much  as  Fr.  Vaughan's 
sort  did.  A  Hildebrand  is  sometimes  sure  to  be 
hard,  and  the  sons  of  consolation  now  and  again 
may  weaken.  What  I  cannot  admit,  is,  that  for 
any  appreciable  time,  he  played  false  to  his  very 
high  ideals.  Even  his  mannerisms  were  sincere. 
They  were  not  unnatural,  since  they  had  become  a 
second  nature.  To  take  the  comparison  that  sug- 
gests itself  to  me  at  the  moment.  I  have  always 
felt  sure  that  De  Profundis  was  a  sincere  book  ; 


EPILOGUE  233 

and  Aubrey  Beardsley,  had  lie  lived  to  draw  Saints, 
as  he  hoped  to  do,  and  had  drawn  them  like  Salome, 
would  still  have  been  sincere.  It  is  nervous  work 
to  make  these  two  comparisons  :  the  point  is,  that 
Fr.  Vaughan  shouted  because  he  felt  hke  shouting, 
and  also  because  he  had  found  that  when  he  shouted 
people  hstened.  So  he  did  it  for  those  two  reasons, 
and  not,  for  example,  because  he  thought  people 
paid  to  see  him  go  through  his  paces,  and  that  it 
was  expected  of  him  to  shout  at  least  twice  per 
sermon.     "  He  was,"  writes  a  careful  critic  to  me  : 

So  thoroughl}-  natural  and  unaffected  and  so  unlike  there- 
fore most  other  people.  If  one  had  got  his  sj'mpathy  and 
attention — he  was  very  absent-minded  and  "  wandering  " 
— one  found  one  had  received  a  real  opinion  from  the  mouth 
of  a  babe  in  heart  though  not  in  years.  He  was  so  sur- 
prising in  never  "having  grown  up — or  left  the  nursery',  to 
which  he  said  he  was  glad,  at  the  end,  to  return.  We  met 
tor  the  last  time  in  Hyde  Park.  He  was  stalking  along 
with  stately  gait — like  Parson  Tralliher — "  like  a  goose  only 
he  stalked  slower."  Had  he  stalked  faster  or  found  fewer 
distractions  on  the  way,  I  would  have  taken  him  to  the 
statue  of  Peter  Pan  in  Kensington  Gardens,  and  said, 
"  That's  j'ou,  though  you  are  seventy  years  of  age  and  a 
Jesuit  at  that." 

Enough.  The  world  is  unsatisfactory,  and  also, 
it  contains  all  sorts  of  people.  Impossible  to  treat 
them  all  in  the  same  way.  Impossible  to  treat  the 
unsatisfactory  ones  in  the  ideally  satisfactory  way. 
Therefore,  said  ho  in  effect,  if  by  my  queer  way  of 
behaving  1  can  help  some  unsatisfactory  persons, 
in  that  way  shall  I  behave.  I  am  myself  unsatis- 
factory. But  1  do  m\'  best.  I  have  the  approba- 
tion of  mv  conscience,  of  small  children,  of  numbers 


234  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

of  unhappy  people,  of  my  Provincial,  and  my 
General,  and  of  the  Holy  Father.  Good  enough. 
Let  us  proceed  in  peace. 

So  much  then  for  the  method.  A  word  on  the 
man.  Let  us  assume  that  a  selfish  man  cannot  be 
great,  nor  really  good,  nor  certainly  humble  nor 
lovable.  It  has  been  said  to  me  roundly  :  "  Fr. 
Vaughan  was  not  lovable.  Number  One  preoccupied 
him  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else."  I  cannot 
admit  it.  I  think  that  he  was  humble,  lovable,  and 
had  in  him  elements  that  were  great. 

How,  if  he  were  not  lovable,  was  it  that  children, 
as  we  have  heard,  so  loved  him  ?  A  small  boy,  in 
service  at  Mount  Street,  refused  to  take  his  after- 
noon off,  simply  to  see  Father  Bernard  come  home, 
I  know  not  whence.  And  another  spent  four 
shillings,  saved  from  wages,  so  as  to  frame  Father 
Bernard's  photo  worthily.  And  I  have  found  another 
who  was  quietly  buying  up  photos  and  even  pam- 
phlets written  by  the  priest  he  believed  in.  I  have 
mentioned  how  beloved  he  made  himself  by  the  lay- 
brothers,  whose  honourable  service  and  tedious  life 
too  often  may  go  unnoticed,  and  how  shy  young 
men,  passing  through  Mount  Street,  would  always 
find  him  come  up  to  them  and  display  the  keenest 
interest  in  what  they  were  doing  and  thinking,  and 
never  would  he  talk  about  himself  and  his  own  doings 
till  they  had  said  their  say,  and,  as  was  bound  to 
happen,  asked  him  about  himself.  He  had  a  true 
devotion  to  the  "  under-dog  "  :  who  less  in  sym- 
pathy with  "  modernism  "  than  he  ?   yet  to  the  end 


EPILOGUE  235 

he  preserved  his  affection  for  Fr.  Tyrrell,  and  would 
never  speak  harshly  of  him.  1  know  it  was  a  pain 
to  him  that  in  America  and  in  South  Africa  he  could 
not  display  the  sympathy  he  felt  for  the  coloured 
races  as  he  would  have  wished.  He  had  a  great 
liking  for  the  tale  of  the  negro  who  complained  to 
the  Lord  that  time  after  time  he  had  tried  in  vain 
to  get  into  a  certain  fashionable  church.  "  Never 
mind,  Sambo,"  answered  He.  "  For  years  I  have 
been  trying  to  get  into  that  church  Myself !  "  His 
genialitv  was  impervious,  almost  always,  even  to 
that  rudeness  which  may  be  worse  than  insult. 
He  did  not  mind  the  rough  chaff  of  two  Protestant 
pitmen  in  some  train,  who  began  by  jeering  at  him 
as  a  Jesuit.  "  Haven't  you  horns  and  a  tail  ?  " 
they  said.  "  Well,  no,"  he  replied.  "  I  am  a  freak. 
But  you  should  see  the  others  !  "  It  ended  by  one 
of  the  men  offering  him  half-a-crown,  for  charity,  as 
"  from  a  pal,"  and  asking  for  "a  prayer  for  me  and 
for  the  kid  that's  sick."  Only  once  have  I  heard 
of  rudeness  being  quite  too  much  for  him.  That, 
too,  was  in  a  train,  and  a  passenger  by  his  conversa- 
tion had  exasperated  the  whole  carriageful.  WTien 
he  dismounted  Fr.  Vaughan  put  his  head  out  of  the 
window.  "  Sir.  you  have  left  something  behind," 
he  said.  The  man  came  hurrying  back.  "  W'liat  ?  " 
he  asked.  "  Merely,"  said  Fr.  Vaughan.  "  a  bad 
impression." 

Humility  demands  that  you  should  not  only  see 
yourself  in  perspective,  but  that  you  should  not  fear 
to  own  up,  when  suitable,  to  the  shortcomings  that 
you  thus  discern.     Fr.   Vaughan  saw-   his  sermons 


236  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

thus,  and,  when  he  was  not  sure  of  himself,  or  felt 
his  inspiration  dwindling,  would  ask  for  help.  Es- 
pecially was  this  so,  as  I  have  said,  when  deep  theo- 
logy was  involved,  and  thus  it  came  about,  as  I  have 
been  reminded,  that  the  late  Fr.  Maher,  a  deep  and 
careful  thinker,  could  say  after  listening  to  a  Sermon 
of  Fr.  Vaughan's  on  the  Eucharist,  that  never  had 
he  heard  a  better  exposition  of  that  mysterious 
dogma.  But  also  in  his  quite  popular  sermons  he 
would  ask  for  help.  When  preparing  one  of  the 
sermons  in  the  course.  Society,  Sin  and  the  Saviour, 
he  found  himself  hung  in  mid-air.  Not  another 
word  could  he  put  down.  He  sought  out  one  of  his 
fellow- Jesuits  in  another  house,  and  begged  him  to 
do  it  for  him.  His  confrere  read  the  manuscript, 
and  found  that  it  had  reached  the  point  where  iambic 
metre  usually  began, — and  so  composed  a  rhapsody 
as  like  Father  Bernard's  perorations  as  he  could. 
The  next  Saturday  he  went  to  Mount  Street,  entered 
Father  Bernard's  room,  drew  himself  to  his  full 
height,  pitched  his  voice  at  its  highest  tenor,  and 
proceeded  to  declaim.  Father  Bernard  instantly 
realised  what  was  happening,  leapt  from  his  chair, 
pursued  his  visitor  round  the  room,  and  finally  sat 
him  down  with  a  cigarette  and  made  him  re-read  the 
peroration,  which  he  duly  accepted.  It  is  printed 
in  the  book,  but  is  so  indistinguishable  from  the  rest 
of  the  sermons,  that  the  true  author  declares  he 
cannot  now  remember  which  page  is  his.  Another 
time,  when  making  his  retreat  at  Beaumont,  he 
wandered  into  the  room  of  another  confrere,  who 
asked  him  if  he  knew  Browning's  Prospice.     He  took 


EPILOGUE  237 

it  away,  brought  ii  back,  and,  "  Thai  ^  a  ihk 
thing,"  he  said.  "  Koad  it.  Read  it  aloud."  The 
young  man,  with  tear  and  trembhng,  did  so.  Fr. 
Vaughan  walked  to  the  window,  rested  his  arms  on 
the  sill,  and  stared  out  towards  the  Beaumont 
beeches.  "  Read  it  again,"  he  said  when  it  was 
finished  ;  and  after  the  second  reading  exclaimed  : 
"  That's  fine !  Splendid !  I'll  use  that  in  my 
Easter  Sunday  sermon  in  the  Cathedral.  '  Fear 
death  ?  To  feel  the  fog  in  my  throat,  the  mist  in 
my  face.  ...  I  was  ever  a  fighter,  I  ;  So — one  fight 
more.'  "  Years  later,  this  same  friend,  then  a  priest, 
and  on  the  eve  of  going  to  France  as  military  chap- 
lain, was  visited  at  Mount  Street  by  Fr.  Vaughan. 
Both  were  feeling  grave — twenty  other  Jesuit  chap- 
lains had  left  the  da}'  before.  Fr.  Vaughan  sat  down 
on  the  bed — no  chairs  were  left  vacant  in  the  littered 
room.  "  Well,"  he  cried,  "  Isn't  it  splendid  ?  What 
would  Father  Ignatius  have  thought  of  it  ?  "  And 
suddenly  he  passed,  with  complete  simplicity,  into 
a  talk  about  Our  Lord. 

I  think  that  in  this  simplicity  I  am  right  in  seeing 
a  sign  of  greatness.  At  least,  a  man  who  is  not  at 
heart  simple,  cannot  be  great.  Though  Fr. 
Vaughan's  sheer  delight  in  size  and  intensity  does 
not  by  itself  show  a  genuine  appreciation  of  great- 
ness, I  think  that  coupled  with  this  simplicity,  it 
does.  His  very  rlietoric — his  naive  devotion  to 
phrases  like  "  this  mammoth  metropolis,"  "  I  raise 
a  clarion  call  " — meant  that  he  liked  the  words 
because  they  corresponded  to  a  real  state  of  mind. 
He  would  have  liked  to  run  down  streets  cr>*ing  : 


238  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

"  Isn't  it  grand  to  be  a  Catholic  ?  "  "  Isn't  the 
Catholic  Church  splendid  ?  "  Splendid  and  grand 
were  words  very  meaningful  to  him.  Yet  all  he 
asked  to  be,  in  heaven,  was  Our  Lady's  errand  boy. 
WHien  he  could,  he  made  off  to  a  Poor  Clare  Convent 
the  other  side  of  London,  and  laughed  to  think  how 
near  he  was  to  the  fuss  and  the  talk,  and  yet  how 
utterly  lost  to  all  that  side  of  life.  He  had  a  niece 
there  as  abbess,  and  liked  to  call  the  nuns  his  "  thirty 
nieces."  "  How  many  nieces  have  I  now  ?  "  he 
would  ask  on  each  visit.  The  first  time  he  went 
there,  to  give  the  nuns  a  retreat  about  the  Passion 
of  Our  Lord,  he  genuinely  thought  that  the  nuns 
would  ask  him  to  observe  the  rigorous  fast  that  they 
did  themselves,  and  arrived  charged  with  tins  of 
distressful  fish  paste  and  with  bloaters.  When  he 
found  he  had  ordinary  meals,  he  sent  his  food-stuff 
into  the  Enclosure.  Nearly  every  day  he  used  to 
go  out  and  buy  herrings,  which  he  brought  home  for 
the  Community  dinner,  and  helped  to  cook  them 
himself  in  the  extern  sisters'  little  kitchen.  Once  he 
found  there  a  sick  Sister  who  ought,  he  judged,  to 
lie  out  in  the  garden.  But  there  was  no  shelter  ; 
so  he  went  home  and  fetched,  heaven  knows  whence, 
a  large  tent,  and  put  it  up  himself.  He  always 
met  the  Sisters  once  at  recreation,  and  kept  them, 
as  he  so  well  knew  how  to  do,  in  fits  of  laughter  with 
his  stories  till,  no  one  knew  quite  how,  he  found 
himself  talking  what  they  agreed  to  be  "  the  highest 
spirituality."  This  power  of  just  being  spiritual 
served  him  for  sheer  argument.  A  convert  lady  once 
asked  him  to  explain  to  her  the  rosary  and  other 


EPILOGUE  239 

matters.  He  was  stayinjL,'  in  a  country  house  at 
that  time,  resting',  and  they  sent  him  for  a  motor 
drive  with  her.  He  simply  said  the  rosary  along 
with  her,  meditating  aloud,  and,  she  says,  "  my 
difficulties  vanished  just  by  stating  them  to  him." 

His  patriotism  was  of  this  simple  sort  :  he  was 
enthusiastic  about  England,  but  he  quite  well  saw 
her  faults,  and  certainly  announced  them.  Such, 
too.  was  his  devotion  to  the  Society  to  which  he 
belonged.  In  many  ways  so  seemingly  "  ex-lex  "  a 
man  had  a  hard  time  in  it.  He  was  often  misjudged 
and  knew  it,  and  could  well  account  for  it,  and  even 
speak  of  it,  but  never  with  bitterness.  He  acted  as 
he  thought  St.  Ignatius  would  have  acted— and 
this  meant  that,  obedience  well  attended  to,  one 
should  go  ahead  without  troubling  what  even  one's 
friends  might  think,  if  but  the  course  seemed  right. 
Also,  he  had  none  of  the  pettiness  which  seeks  to 
draw  everything  to  one  church,  or  to  one  set  of 
men.  You  cannot  imagine,  in  his  case,  any  mean 
rivalries,  as  between  secular  and  regular,  or  between 
this  gioup  of  regulars  or  that.  "  To  my  thinking," 
he  wTote,  "  a  great  deal  too  much  is  made  of  the 
^^'here — it  does  not  matter  where  we  are,  but  what 
we  are.  If  you  like  to  be  a  Child  of  Mary  at  Farm 
Street,  well  and  good.  If  not,  still  well  and  good. 
I  can't  imagine  our  dear  and  blessed  Lady  much 
caring  where  you  please  her,  but  how  you  do  it." 
"  Life."  he  kept  repeating.  "  is  not  a  piece  job,  but 
a  love  affair." 

It  was.  frankly,  in  this  spirit  of  child-like  love  that 
he  went  about  his  work  for  God.     He  saw  sin  itself 


240  LIFE  OF  FATHER  BERNARD  VAUGHAN 

as  dreadful  because  love  had  been  offended.  A  girl, 
brought  up  in  a  convent,  had  married  a  non-Catholic 
and  in  a  Protestant  church.  He  had  tried  des- 
perately to  avoid  the  disaster,  but  in  vain.  "  Alas," 
he  cried,  "it  is  too  late.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has 
passed  by.  Save  Me  from  My  friends  will  be  the 
cry  of  Christ.  A  convent  girl !  "  And  in  this  same 
light  he  saw  suffering,  his  own  included.  "  I  know 
from  what  Hand  I  am  receiving  all  this  pain  and 
affliction,"  he  wrote.  "It  is  from  Our  Lord's 
wounded  Hands,  and,  you  know,  a  wounded  hand 
can't  really  hurt  you  much."  Not  to  all  might  that 
turn  of  phrase  appeal.  But  be  sure  that  to  him  it 
was  no  mere  "  conceit." 

It  will  not  be  forgotten  that  Fr.  Bernard  Vaughan 
daily  cleansed  his  soul  in  the  Sacrament  of  Penance, 
and  that  the  favourite  devotion  of  his  life  was  to 
visit,  briefly,  but  often,  the  Blessed  Sacrament. 
With  this,  went  the  practice  of  constant  spiritual 
Communion,  and  in  1912  he  circulated  a  leaflet  with 
a  prayer  about  it,  asking,  too,  for  prayers  in  view  of 
his  imminent  journey  to  America. 

During  this  Year  of  Grace,  I  promise  our  dear  and  blessed 
Lord  that  I  will  live  my  life  from  visit  to  visit  to  Him  in 
His  Tabernacle  Home,  on  the  Altar.  There  I  will  unite 
myself  with  all  the  Masses  that  are  being  said  in  different 
quarters  of  the  globe.  Moreover  I  will  beg  our  divine  Lord 
to  allow  me  to  make  spiritual  communion  at  each  one  of 
them,  pleading  with  Him  to  fill  my  soul  with  all  the  graces 
needed  to  make  me  as  pleasing  as  I  may  be  to  Him  here,  in 
exile,  so  far  away  from  the  Face-to-Face  Vision  in  my 
Eternal  Home.  This  practice  of  uniting  myself  with  Holy 
Mass  and  of  receiving  Spiritual  Communion  I  will  make 
constant  use  of  during  the  day.  It  will  be  my  best  prepara- 
tion for  daily  Mass  and  daily  Communion. 


EPILOGUE  241 

And  one  December  25th,  "Gift-piving  Day,"  he 
concluded  a  "  Message  "  to  a  Catholic  journal  thus  : 

Dearest  Jesus,  on  this  gift-giving  da}'  I  offer  myself  with 
all  that  I  am  and  have  in  life  and  death  to  be  entirely  Thine. 
I  give  Thee  my  work — do  Thou  give  me  rest.  I  give  Thee 
my  sorrows — do  Thou  give  me  comfort.  I  give  Thee  my 
sufferings — do  Thou  give  me  support.  I  give  Thee  my 
trials — do  Thou  give  me  triumph.  I  give  Thee  time,  do 
Thou  give  me  Eternity.  But  above  all  things  what  I  want 
is  Thy  promise  that  I  shall  hear  from  Thy  sacred  hps  when 
I  am  called  from  exile  to  Home,  from  earth  to  heaven,  the 
only  word  that  can  satisfy  me — "  I  am  thy  reward  exceeding 
great.  For  what  have  I  in  heaven,  and  beside  Thee  what 
do  I  desire  on  earth  ?  Thou,  God  of  my  heart,  and  my 
portion  for  ever." 

These  words  of  Father  Bernard's  were  sincere. 
That  is  how  he  felt  about  his  life,  and  how  he  hoped 
to  feel  when  he  should  die.  It  has  been  hard,  here 
and  there,  not  to  appear  to  be  writing  an  "  apolo- 
gia "  ;  and  again,  I  may  have  been  mistaken  for  a 
contemptuous  critic.  Certainly  the  temptation  has 
been  strong  to  exaggerate,  and  say  harsher  things 
than  anyone  else  is  likely  to.  And  it  has  been  diffi- 
cult to  foriret  that  there  are  manv  who  dislike  even 
what,  in  him,  has  been  praised.  It  remains  that 
man\-  thousands  of  souls,  thank  (lod,  could  see 
m  Fr.  Bernard  \'aughan  a  noble-hearted  man,  simple 
as  a  child,  very  wearied  by  the  world,  and  yet  on 
fire  to  help  it,  in  such  ways  as  he  knew,  for  the  love 
of  God  and  of  our  Lord.  Xor  shall  1  think,  hence- 
forward, of  East  London  or  of  any  of  the  vast  sad 
areas  of  life,  without  seeing  in  them  a  tiny  figure, 
Fr.  Vaughan,  going  to  and  fro  with  his  bell  and 
calling  aloud  that  God  loves  His  children,  and  that 
he  loves  them,  too. 


INDEX 


Aberdeen  ;    98. 

Accession  Declaration  ;    118. 

Africa,  South ;  B.V's.  visit  to, 
210-219. 

African  millionaires  ;  South,  Their 
architectural  enthusiasms,   75. 

Aidan's  St.  ;  College  at  Grahams- 
town,    214. 

Alaska  ;    173. 

Albert  Hall ;  Mme.  Patti's  concerts 
at,    135,   136. 

Anglicanism  ;    59,  185,  186. 

Aristotle's  Ethics ;    43,  44. 

Art  and  Morality  ;   1 1 1. 


B 


Bazaars  ('  Rome  in  Manchester  ')  ; 

47.   48. 
Beaumont  College  ;    B.V.  Master  at, 

30 ;    Sub-minister  at,   31-33. 
Benedict  XV  ;    183. 
Benson  ;    Mgr.  R.  H.,   168. 
Beuno's  ;    St.,  B.V.  Theologian  and 

ordained  at,  30-31. 
Birth  Restriction  ;    192-195. 
Blackpool ;    99. 
Boston  ;     162. 
Boulogne  ;    10,  25. 
Bradford ;     97. 
Brown  ;   Mgr.  W.,  105. 
Browning  ;    Robert,  236. 
Buffalo  Bill ;    49. 
Bums  ;  Mr.  Tommy  ;  pugilist,  138. 


Cambridge  ;    108. 

Campbell ;    Rev.  R.  J.,  162. 

Canada  ;    visits  to,  149-157  ;    164- 

165;    172. 
Cannes  ;    Sermons  at,   63. 
Cape  Town  ;    211-212  ;    215-218. 
Cathechism  ;    in  East  End,  126. 
Catholic     Boys'     Brigade ;      134. 
Catholic  Women's  I,eague  ;   1 13-1 15. 


"  Character "  ;  lecture  on,  118, 
148,  152,  etc. 

Chicago  ;    157. 

China  ;    178. 

Children  ;  B.V's.  devotion  to,  127, 
135.  139.  158,  203,  204,  cf.  234. 

Clare  ;    Fr..  21,  25,  27. 

Colimibus  ;    Knight  of,  157,  170. 

Conscience  ;  Nonconformist,  Delic- 
acy of,  48,  52,  56,  102,  138. 

Courtfield  ;    2-5. 


Denver ;     170. 

Derwent  Hall ;    220. 

"  Dialogues  "  in  Church  ;  140-145. 

Drury  Lane  :   Sins  of  Society  at,  119. 

Dubberley  ;    Fr.,   51,  etc. 

Dublin  ;    visits  to,  148. 

Durban  ;    212. 


East  End  of  London  ;    B.V's.  work 

in  ;    XX,   121-146  ;     185. 
Edison  ;    Iklr.,  doubtful  immortality 

of,  161. 
Edward  VII  ;    King,  63. 
Egress ;     The   ambiguous,    48. 
Empty  Cradle  ;    The  Menace  of  the, 

192. 
Epping ;    Excursions  to,   139. 
Eucharistic   Congress  of  Montreal ; 

149-153- 


Faber  ;    Fr.  F.  W.,  10,  n. 
Farm  St.   Church  ;     75,   76. 
Food  ;    adulteration  of,  91,  92. 


Gambling ;  B.V.  denounced  for 
denouncing,  85  ;  denounced  for 
not  denouncing,  56. 

Glyn  ;  Mrs.  Elinor  ;  see  Mrs.  Ella 
Wheeler  Wilcox,  71. 

Grimsby  ;    97. 


INDEX 


243 


H 


Hall  ;    Our  Lady's.  123  ;    136-138. 
Holy    Name    Church    (Manchester), 

39-41  ;      Hall    of;      47,     50-51  ; 

B.V's.   work   at,   45-74. 
Hortou  ;    Dr..  56,  84. 
Hutton  ;    Richard  Holt,   31,   32. 


I 


Ireland  ;  the  Vaughan's  property  in, 
22,   147,  visits  to,   147-149. 

I.L.P.   (York)  ;     106-107. 

Iroquois ;  B.V.  made  member  of 
tribe  of,    155-156. 

Italians  at  Chicago  ;    158. 


Japan  ;      177-178. 

Jiiigo-isra  ;     accusations   of    against 

B.V.,    196. 
Joan  of  Arc  ;   81,  117.  118,  159,  189- 

192,    etc. 
John  Bull  ;    82,   119. 
Jubilee;     B.V's.    Sacerdotal,    183. 


Klondike 


K  _ 

173.  174- 


Lamont  ;    Dr.  M.,  212. 
Lang  ;     Andrew  ;      1 89- 192. 
Leeds  ;     97. 

Leo  XIII  ;   encyclicals  of,  95  ;   views 
on  B.V's  Vesuvian  qualities,  62. 
Limelight  ;    proper  use  of,  138. 
Liverpool;     Orange-men   at,    118. 
Living  In  ;    93,  94. 
Lucas  St.  E.  ;     122. 

M 

Manchester  ;    B.V.  at,  39-74  ;    91. 
Manning  ;     Cardinal,    19,    134. 
Manresa  House  ;    noviciate  at,  27, 

28  ;    last  days  at  and  love  for, 

211-229. 
"  Marriage  "  ;    subject  of  B.V's.  last 

great  speech,  217. 
Mary  and  Michivl's;  SS..  85,  121-122; 

124-125  ;   Mission  at,  140-143. 
"  Mass     the     Soul      of     Religion  "  ; 

sermon  at  Montreal,  151. 
Mathew  ;     Fr.,    122. 
Montreal;     149-155. 
Moorhouse  ;     Bishop,   51  ;    58. 
Motor  Mission;     the,    110. 


N 


Natalie;    Queen  of  >«-iw.i.     ■-,    J40. 
Navarro  ;   Mme  dc  ,Mary  Anderson), 

135- 

New  York  ;  158  sq.,  167  sq..  paradise- 
like slums  of,  159. 

Newcastle  ;    Henrietta,   Du.  ^t         : 

50.  73.   139- 
Niagara  ;     1 50. 

Nonconfuniiists  ;       B.V's.      friendly 

relations    with,    59. 
Norfolk;    Henry  I>ukc  of,  134,   14^, 

201. 


O'Connell  ;  Daniel,  122. 
O'Keefe  ;  Mr.  Pat.  138. 
Open-air  preaching  in  T 

134  ;    with  Motor  1  . 
Oxford  ;     109,   162. 


127- 
116. 


Patti  ;    Mme.,  80,  81,  135-136. 

People's  Palace  ;    The.    135,  204. 

Peter  the  Painter  ;     146. 

Petworth  ;     220. 

Pius  X  ;    81. 

Poor  Clares  ;   The,  238. 

Portugal  ;     H.M.    King    Manuel    of, 

O4,   146. 
Purbrick  ;    Fr.  E.  I..  28,  30. 


liing  ;    Canon  T.,  %'ii,  134,  135,  137, 

M4.  M5- 
Rock  The  :  libel  action  against,  77-80. 
'  Round  Up  '  at  Pendleton,  Oregon  ; 

171. 


San    Francisco  ;     advertisement    of 

retreat  at,  171. 
Shangh.\i  ;     178. 
Sheflield  ;    90. 

Stns   oj   Socirty :     The,    Si-89. 
Slang  ;    use  of.   14 1-142  ;    misuse  of 

176. 
Smuts;     General,    216. 
Socialism  ;  lectures,  etc.  on,  106.  loS, 

159.  167-170  ;    17S. 
Sociaiism  from  the   Christian  stand- 

point.  16S. 
Society,  Sin,  and  the  Saviour  ;  89-90. 
Stage  ;    The.  and  the  Catholic  Stage 

Guild,    103.    112. 


244 


INDEX 


Stony  hurst ;  at  School  there,  15-26  ; 

with   the   '  philosophers'   there, 

28-30. 
Suffragism ;     113,   165,   170. 
Sweated  Industries  ;    95-96. 


Tokyo  ;      177. 
Toronto  ;     154, 
Trade-scandals  ; 


155.    164, 
91-96. 

u 


165. 


United  States ;    visits  to,    157-177. 


Vanutelli ;     Cardinal,    149-150. 
Vaughan  ;      family    record    of    the 

family,   2-3. 
;    Clare,   Dame,  O.S.B.  ;    i,  39, 

209. 
;  Clare,   sister  of   B.V.,    11-12, 

13.  25. 
• ;  Ehza  {nee  Rolls),  mother  of 

B.V.,   5,   7-9. 
;  Gwladys,    sister   of    B.V.,    8, 

11,  25. 

;  Herbert,   Cardinal,   2.   9,    10, 

12,  49,  64,  65,    125,    126,    134, 
I45n,   146. 

;  John  Francis,  father  of  B.V., 

5-7,  9,   10,   13,  20. 
;  John  (Bishop  of  SebastopoUs), 

21,  22. 
;  Mary  (nee  Weld  ;  second  wife 

of  J.  F.  Vaughan)  ;    10,  13,  27. 

;  Mary,  sister  of  B.V.,  10,  24. 

;  Teresa,   sister  of   B.V.,    13. 

Vaughan,  Bernard  John  ;    boyhood 

at  home,  1-14  ;  23-26  ;  influence 

of  his  father,  5-7  ;  of  his  mother, 

7-9- 
Boyhood   at   school,    15-23. 
In  the  Noviciate,   27-28  ;    earlier 

years    in    the    Society,    28-30  ; 

Ordination,   30 ;    early  priestly 

work,    30-36. 
At  Manchester  ;   39-74.     At  Farm 

St.,   75-120 ;     181-205.     In   the 

East    End,     121-146.     Abroad, 

61-64  ;    81  ;    147-180  ;    210-219. 
Last   days ;     220-229. 
His  spirit  of  prayer  and  devotion 

to  the  B.  Sacrament,   72,   120, 

225-226,    228,    239,    240,    241  ; 

cf.  163  :    to  the  Blessed  Virgin, 

19,    81,    213,    222. 


His  personal  poverty  ;  104,  105, 
218. 

His  extreme  kindness,  especially 
to  those  less  able  to  repay  hirn  ; 
13-14.  43.  53.  88,  89  ;  see 
chapter  on  East  End  ;  106,  177  ; 
212,213;  229;  234;  235;  238. 
etc. 

His  docility,  himiility  and  child- 
likeness  ;  his  knowledge  of  his 
limitations  ;  71.  73,  81,  87,  94, 
no,  222-229,  230-232,  233, 
236,   237. 

Elocutionary  talent  and  develop- 
ment ;  6,  17-18,  29,  32  ;  34  ; 
cf-   35-36. 

Sermons  (coiurses  of)  ;  41,  81-90, 
117-118,    162,   167,   etc. 

Sensationalism  ;  only  inter- 
mittent ;  68,  69,  81,  no,  and 
uses  of  publicity,  67,  103-104, 
168,    230. 

Interest  in  social  topics;  41,  51, 
54,  56,  91-103,  111-115,  and 
see  under  Socialism  and  War- 
work. 

Sport ;  his  views  on,  22,  23,  iii, 
112,    138. 

Refusal  to  write  personal  memoirs ; 
188. 
Victoria  ;     H.M.    Queen,    at    Beau- 
mont, 32,  33. 

w 

War-work  ;     195-205. 

Weld  ;  Thomas,  donor  of  Stonyhurst 

to  the  Jesuits,  15. 

;    John,  of  Lulworth,  10. 

Westminster     Abbey ;      War-time 

pilgrimage   to,   202. 
What  of  To-day  ;    198,   199. 
Wigan  ;     panegyric   of,    54. 
Wilcox  ;  Mrs.  Ella  Wheeler,  71. 
Wilkinson  ;     Rev.   G.   H.,   83. 
Winnipeg  ;     156. 
Wiseman  ;    Cardinal,  18. 
Women's  role  in  the  Church  ;    166  ; 

see  C.W.L. 


Yukon  ;    The,  172. 

z 

Zambesi     Mission  ;      Collection     in 
United  States  for,  162. 


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BX  4705  .V35  M3  1923  SMC 

Martindale,  C.  C.  (Cyril 
Charlie).  1879-1963. 
Bernard  Yaughan,  S.J.  / 

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