CHURCH: History of Catholics in York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
________________________________________________
Notes on the History of Catholics in York County

IN CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE FIRST
CATHOLIC PARISH IN YORK, ST. PATRICK'S PARISH,
AND OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE MEETING OF
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS IN YORK

October 9th-15th, 1927

To the memory of the Clergy of France, whose timely and lavish generosity had so 
notable a part in the success of the War of the Revolution.

Here is reproduced a translation of the first page of the receipt for $6,000,000 
voted to King Louis XVI. for the prosecution of the War for American 
Independence. It bears Savalette's signature.  The translation is as follows:

"I, Charles Pierre Savalette, King's Counsellor, Keeper of the Royal Treasury, 
doth depose to have received moneys in this city of Paris from M. Francois David 
Bollioud de Saint-Jullien, receiver general of the clergy of France, to the sum 
of twenty-nine million, one hundred and eighty-one thousand, six hundred and 
twenty-nine livres, three sou, one denier (farthing) in gold louis, silver and 
currency, making a free gift of thirty millions voted to His Majesty to assist 
(certain) needs of the State, by Messieurs the clergy of France in their general 
assembly held by permission of the King of this city of Paris in the year 
(1781)."

Hon. Thomas L. Montgomery, Librarian,
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Friend Montgomery:

During our Sesqui-Centennial performance of about two weeks ago, Miss Anna 
Gamble prepared a paper entitled "Notes on the History of Catholics in York 
County", which seems to me to be of sufficient interest to be filed with the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and I will send you the copy which Miss 
Gamble sent to me for that purpose. On page 16 of this pamphlet you will find a 
reference to Baron de Beelen, about whom we have had some correspondence.

Yours very truly,

Rick E. Cochran (signature)
REC.RF


INTRODUCTION

The following pages make no pretension to be other than a collection of notes 
from various sources to show the Catholic people of York County the richness of 
their history.  Perchance our non-Catholic friends may also realize with us 
something of the high romance of the Catholic adventure in the new world here in 
our own prosaic locality where, in a busy industrial life, we expect so little 
romance.

The history of York County touches the history of the world at so many 
unexpected angles.  The religious wars of Europe, the Stewart uprisings, the 
tragic history of the Jesuits, their suppression and their restoration, the 
equally tragic history of Louis XVI., and the French Revolution, all had their 
repercussions among the hills and along the water courses of our own 
countryside.

York County has had its Old Mortality, that quaint character described by Sir 
Walter Scott, who, after one of the Stewart uprisings, went about Scotland with 
his chisel and mallet, cutting more deeply the inscriptions on the tombstones of 
the Covenanters, so that later generations might not forget the heroes he loved 
and the cause for which they died.  So in the Conewago Valley, John T. Reily, a 
newspaper man, on his own printing press, has preserved for us the records of 
births, deaths and marriages, old deeds and documents, together with the 
traditions of the old people of the Conewago Settlement living during his time.  
He has thus collected in many volumes all that he could gather to perpetuate the 
history of his beloved Conewago, mother of Pennsylvania Catholicism, covering a 
period of over two hundred years.

It would therefore be impossible to collect notes on the Catholic history of 
York County without making extensive use of Reily's researches.  The 150th 
Anniversary of the Church in our locality would not be complete, therefore, 
without a full acknowledgement of his long years of labor against great 
difficulties.

Reily made no pretensions to being a trained historian.  He called his work "a 
mass of free, raw material, collected, preserved,--the wheat gathered in the 
barn of Catholic Church history to be put to better use by abler men in after 
years, the chaff to be scattered by the winds of time.....The Collection is the 
work of our hands through means saved by the practise of self-denial in little 
pleasures and possessions, and the work done in such spare moments as are 
allowed in life in business.  Every form we put to press, sheeted every sheet 
and set up and distributed much of the type. It shows what can be done, little 
by little, in a year or two, even under adverse circumstances of poverty and bad 
health....It has been impossible to make a complete index, for every page is 
filled with names, dates and facts....The reader will take into consideration 
the mass of work and the fact that we had to pick it up one minute and lay it 
down the next.  For the rest, we ask the broadest and most favorable 
construction...."  Introduction to Vol. II, Collections and Recollections.

A complete set of Reily's Collections and Recollections is now almost impossible 
to secure; no more than two volumes were available for these notes.

For the notes on the French Alliance acknowledgments should be made to Miss 
Elizabeth Kite, who supplied the documentary references.  Indebtedness to the 
Reverend Doctor Peter Guilday, of the Catholic University, for Professor 
Dwight's address at Faneuil Hall, Boston, on the French clergy's gift to 
America, should also be expressed.

Thanks are also due to Miss Marie P. Borgel for her unwearied help in typing and 
retyping these notes, and to Miss Myrtle B. Duke for her generous assistance in 
acting with Miss Borgel as secretary during the process of work in collecting 
this material.

A.D.G.


CATHOLICS OF MARYLAND FIRST IN
ANNALS OF MARYLAND TO MAKE
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BASIS OF STATE

George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, secured from Charles I. of England a 
charter for a Catholic colony in America where the persecuted Catholics of Great 
Britain might find a refuge.  George Calvert himself drew up the charter, but 
did not live to receive it, so that it was issued to his son, Cecil, June 20, 
1632.

The charter defined by explicit bounds a tract of land containing nearly double 
the present area of Maryland, embracing what is now the State of Delaware, a 
tract in southern Pennsylvania, including what is now part of York and Adams 
Counties, and the valley lying between the north and south branch of the Potomac 
River.

Complete religious toleration had been from the foundation of the Colony the 
inviolable rule and practice of the provincial government.  In 1649, the second 
Lord Baltimore drew up and submitted to the Assembly the famous Act of 
Toleration, "the first," in the words of the historian Bancroft, "in the annals 
of mankind to make religious freedom the basis of the State."  The majority of 
the Assembly were Catholics, but the act was passed without a dissenting voice.


MARYLAND CATHOLICS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY
THEY HAD ESTABLISHED FOR OTHERS

There were several Puritan rebellions against the proprietaries by malcontents 
who had sought refuge in Maryland from Virginia, where they had been required to 
conform to the Church of England.  These people who had been permitted to 
practice their religion without hindrance, and had not been taxed for the 
support of a state church as they had been taxed in Virginia, felt it to be a 
grievance to be ruled by a "Papist."  During their short usurpation of 
authority, they revoked the Act of Toleration and declared Catholics ineligible 
to office.  Later on Lord Baltimore was again reinstated, and religious 
toleration re-enacted.

Finally, however, after many disturbances by those who wished to secure a 
Protestant ascendancy, the malcontents took advantage of the Orange Revolution 
in England (1688) to overthrow the proprietaries entirely.  William and Mary 
were appealed to, and the third Lord Baltimore, "without the charge of a single 
offense against him, except that he was Catholic, without a trial by a jury of 
his peers, against his earnest protest, and notwithstanding the remonstrances of 
a respectable number of Protestants in several of the counties, was deprived of 
all civil and political authority conferred upon him in the charter, and 
remained so deprived until his death in 1715."  (Article "Maryland," in the 
Catholic Encyclopedia.)

Maryland was converted into a Royal colony, and a governor was sent over from 
England.  Encouraged by the English government, the new provincial authorities 
now began a reign of bigotry and intolerance that ended only with the 
Revolutionary War.  Catholics in Maryland were deprived of every vestige of the 
religious freedom they had extended to others.  It became a penal offense for 
them even to send their children to France to be educated in the Catholic faith.  
The purpose was to drive the Catholics out of Maryland entirely.  Charles 
Carroll, father of Carroll of Carrollton, wrote, "Maryland is no longer a fit 
place for a Catholic to live in."  After consulting with others of the great 
landholding families of Maryland, he went to France and began negotiations for a 
large tract of land in Louisiana, where the Catholics of Maryland might emigrate 
in a body.  Some Catholic families did leave Maryland and came up into 
Pennsylvania.  Others later went west as far as Kentucky.


LINE DRAWN BETWEEN TWO PROVINCES MAKES CONEWAGO
PROVIDENTIALLY A PENNSYLVANIA SETTLEMENT

The drawing of the temporary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1732 
seems providential; for it left Conewago definitely within the bounds of 
Pennsylvania and thus free from the vexations and disabilities of the penal laws 
of Maryland.  Mass was still being said secretly in the home of Colonel Owings, 
but eight years after the temporary line was run, the Society of Jesus sent out 
from Germany two missionaries to minister to the Germans of Pennsylvania.  One 
of these was Father Wapeler, who in 1741, the year after his arrival, built the 
log church at Conewago.


FIRST WHITE MAN TO VISIT
YORK COUNTY, A FRENCHMAN

According to Walter George Smith, the distinguished jurist, who has made 
researches in the early history of Pennsylvania, the first white man to enter 
the State of Pennsylvania was a Frenchman who came from Canada, Etienne Bruelle, 
a companion of Champlain.  He explored the valley of the Susquehanna River from 
New York to Maryland in the winter of 1615-16, as described by Champlain in an 
account of his voyages.  (Article on Pennsylvania, Catholic Encyclopedia.)


PENN'S IDEA OF GOVERNMENT
THOROUGHLY CATHOLIC

Wiliam Penn organized his colony in 1681.  He enacted laws that established 
religious liberty for all who believed in one Almighty God.  In the preface to 
his "Frame of Government" may be found Penn's fundamental views on political 
questions.  Thus he wrote:  "Governments rather depend upon men than men upon 
Governments; let men be good, and the Government cannot be bad; if it be ill, 
they will cure it.  Though good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws 
may -art (i.e. lack) good men and be abolished or evaded by ill men; but good 
men will never want laws nor suffer ill ones.  That, therefore, which makes a 
good constitution must keep it, viz.: men of wisdom and virtue; qualities that 
because they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully propagated 
by a virtuous education of youth.  For liberty without obedience is confusion, 
and obedience without liberty is slavery."  (Article on Pennsylvania, Catholic 
Encyclopedia.)

Walter George Smith, in the above quoted article, says that Penn's tolerance of 
other forms of belief was in no way half-hearted and that he inspired the 
Society of Friends with feelings of kindness towards Catholics.  He adds that 
during the French and Indian War, when hostility to France led to an attack upon 
the Catholics of Philadelphia by a mob after Braddock's defeat, the Quakers 
protected them.


THE COLONIAL CATHOLICS
OF PENNSYLVANIA

The first priest who can accurately be traced in Pennsylvania was Rev. John 
Pierron, of Canada, who, in 1673, made a tour through Maryland, Virginia, and 
New England. The orderly history of the Church in Pennsylvania begins in 
1720....In 1727 there came to Philadelphia 1,155 Irish, besides their servants.  
Later in the same year 5,600 arrived, and 5,655 in 1729.  This migration 
resulted from the unjust laws drove from the north of Ireland, between 1700 and 
1750, some 200,000 Presbyterians, most of whom came to Pennsylvania.  (Catholic 
Encyclopedia, Pennsylvania.)

"The Scotch Presbyterians who defended Londonderry were treated little better 
than the Irish Catholics who besieged it."  (Encyclopedia Britannica, Ireland.)

The Catholics during the Colonial period were Irish, Scotch, French, German, and 
a few English.  The First German Catholics accompanied Pastorius and his little 
band of Mennonite weavers to Germantown in 1683.  Afterwards the Germans came in 
large numbers and the Catholics among these made up the greater part of the 
Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

A remnant of the Acadians were settled in Lancaster County, and probably some of 
them drifted to York.  The citizens of Lancaster petitioned the Legislature for 
the passage of an act to disperse the inhabitants of Nova Scotia who had been 
thrown upon them; and it was enacted that the overseers of the poor of the 
several townships make provision for them and secure them employment.  Such of 
their children whose parents or friends were unable to maintain them were to be 
bound out to kind masters and mistresses, on the best terms that could be 
obtained, until they were of age, on condition the children were taught to read 
and write English.  (See Rupp's History of Lancaster County, pp. 303-306)  Rupp 
states that the so-called Scotch-Irish refused to take the Acadians as bound 
servants, but that the Germans received them.  That the Acadians were driven 
from their homes in Nova Scotia for their religious faith, no one disputes.  
Their lot was a tragic one wherever they went.  The Quakers treated them with 
kindness, though Governor Morris called them "scorpions in the bowels of the 
country."  (Guilday, Life and Times of John Carroll.)

Anthony Benezet, a Philadelphia Quaker, in a letter written "17th of 10th month 
1779" to the French Minister Plenipotentiary, Conrad Alexandre Gerard, says in 
regard to the Quaker attitude towards Catholics:

My Dear Friend:

The uprightness which I have had occasion to observe in thy sentiments, and the 
kindness which thou hast shown me, encourage me to salute thee with a veritable 
affection; and I believe that thou wilt permit me to communicate to thee my 
feelings upon some matters which are of consequence with respect to that 
Christian philosophy which is the foundation of all truth....

We can with truth and hardihood appeal to all who survive of the ancient 
inhabitants to testify that Quakers from the first establishment in this 
country, have desired liberty of conscience and that quality of justice, in 
favor of the different sects which have come to establish themselves here.  
Notably the Roman Catholics, against whom the English populace have always had a 
particular prejudice.  When the Quakers were in the Government, and also as 
private individuals, they have protected them so far as was in their power.  
Testify the thousands and thousands of francs which we raised among ourselves to 
aid the poor Acadians when banished from their country, and the pleadings which 
we presented in their favor to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, to the Governor of 
Acadia, and to the King of England himself, by the hand of our Proprietor, 
Thomas Penn.  We have even obtained a considerable subscription to pay a lawyer 
to plead their cause at the Council of the King....(Translated from the original 
in the Correspondence of Gerard aux Affaires Etrangeres, Paris.  Published in 
American Historical Records, 1920, E.S.K.)

During the French and Indian War, the Pennsylvania authorities were suspicious 
that the Catholics of the Missions might be favorable to the French, and General 
Louden, commander of the British Army, on April 28th, 1757, ordered an 
examination of the Catholics in York and Cumberland Counties.  The report showed 
that the number of Catholics in York County under the pastoral care of the Rev. 
Matthias Manners, were 116 Germans and 76 Irish.  It is possible that this fell 
far short of the actual number of Catholics in this part of Pennsylvania. No 
evidence that they had done anything to aid the French was forthcoming.  On the 
contrary, the following unmistakably Irish names appear signed to a petition 
from the citizens of York County appealing to the Governor for aid against the 
attacks of the Indians, immediately following the defeat of the provincial 
forces at McCord's Fort, April 2nd, 1756:  James Murphy, William McCleary, 
William Carney, Andrew Shannon, John Carnahan, John Murphy, Arthur McConeme, 
James Carroll, John Carrol.  Among seven men killed in Captain Hance Hamilton's 
Company from York County, in an attack on the Indians at Sidling's Hill, are two 
Irish names, John McCarty and John Kelly.

Dr. Peter Guilday, in his Life and Times of John Carroll, estimates the number 
of Catholics in the colonies at the time of the Revolution as roughly 20,000, 
out of a population of 3,000,000.  The most of these were in Maryland, the rest 
in Pennsylvania.  The number of crypto-Catholics in the other colonies is 
unknown.  They were not permitted to practice their religion and had no priests 
to minister to them.


CONEWAGO, THE FIRST CATHOLIC
SETTLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA

The Conewago settlement in what is now York and Adams Counties was the first 
Catholic settlement in Pennsylvania.  From Prince George's County, Maryland, 
came John Digges, a Catholic gentleman of Cavalier stock, a lineal descendant of 
Sir Dudley Digges, who lost his life in the service of Charles I. of England.  
Sir Dudley's son, Edward, became one of the first Governors of Maryland and his 
son William settled permanently in the Colony.  One of William's sons, Edward, 
married Mary Carroll, a sister of Archbishop Carroll.  Another son, Ignatius, 
was the father of John Digges, of "Digges Choice."

On January 14th, 1726, this John Digges obtained from Charles Calvert, the 
fourth Lord Baltimore, a grant of ten thousand acres of land where the towns of 
Hanover and McSherrystown now are situated.  The whole of Penn Township, part of 
Heidelberg, in York County, and parts of Conewago, Germany and Union Townships, 
in Adams County, were included in this grant. This original title to the land 
was given twelve years before the temporary line between Pennsylvania and 
Maryland was run, and nine years before the heirs of William Penn had purchased 
from the Indians the rights to lands west of the Susquehanna River.  John Digges 
took up this unoccupied land under the advice of a famous Indian chief named 
Tom, from whom Tom's Creek, near Frederick, Md., is named, and it became known 
in the subsequent boundary disputes between the two provinces, as "Digges' 
Choice."

The first settlers on Digges' Choice were English Catholics from Maryland.  
Later German and Irish settlers in Pennsylvania, many of them Catholics, pushed 
west of the Susquehanna River.

John Digges, soon after he obtained his grant of land, came to Conewago and 
settled, bringing with him a surveyor, Colonel Robert Owings, and some colored 
servants.  His son, Dudley, married the daughter of John Lilly I., who came from 
London, England, and settled at Conewago in 1730.  The next oldest documentary 
evidence, according to Reily, is a land title of John Digges to Adam Johns, 
conveying land to him near the place where Robert Owings resided, called "The 
Blue Spring."

During the border troubles between Maryland and Pennsylvania, Dudley was killed 
in a land dispute, February 26th, 1752.  His father, John Digges, presented a 
petition to Benjamin Tasker, President of Maryland, stating that his son had 
been murdered within the Province by Martin Kitzmiller, and others.


A COLONIAL CAUSE CELEBRE

The trial was a famous one and took place in York in the Fall of 1752, in a 
private house.  The Attorney Generals of the respective Provinces attended, 
Tench Francis representing Pennsylvania and Henry Darnall, a connection of the 
Digges family, representing Maryland.  The Chief Justice of the Province of 
Pennsylvania presided, the two Associates assisting.  The Secretary of the 
Province, Richard Peters, attended and was a witness, and afterwards sent to the 
Penns in England a detailed account of the trial.  (This letter is published in 
full in Reilly's Collections and Recollections, Vol. II, pp. 252-257.)

John Digges, soon after his son Dudley was killed, returned to Maryland, where 
he died in 1760.


EARLY SETTLERS OF YORK COUNTY

Settlers from Maryland had pushed northward through Baltimore County and reached 
the Codorus Creek almost as early as 1700.  The local histories of York and 
Lancaster Counties show that from 1700 to 1720 the "barrens" and the land along 
the Codorus Creek to the Susquehanna River was originally settled by 
Marylanders, most of whom were Catholics.  Those who came into the Valley of the 
Codorus about 1750 were Protestants.

John Digges had given grants to numerous settles on his tract, and these, with 
other titles in the southern part of York County, were the cause of constant 
trouble between Maryland and Pennsylvania until the Mason and Dixon line was 
run, in 1768.  There had been long litigations in Chancery between the two 
Provinces subsisting since 1683, and many orders in Council for temporary 
settlements.  John T. Reily, in his Conewago Collections, says that the claims 
to the Digges land were never settled, but seemed to have died out.  "The 
majority of the settlers acted honorably, as can be seen from the old deeds 
still preserved.  Most of them held titles under Lord Baltimore first, and after 
the temporary line was run, in 1739, they secured releases from the Penns."

Many of the original families of the Conewago settlement are still living in the 
neighborhood.  Their descendants can be found at this time throughout 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

At Conewago, according to Mr. Reilly, the records of the old tombstones, partly 
preserved, show births as early as 1696, and the earliest death 1730.


CONEWAGO CHAPEL, THE MOTHER
PARISH OF PENNSYLVANIA

Conewago Chapel, near McSherrystown, is not only the mother church of the 
Catholic Parishes of Pennsylvania, but it is the oldest place of religious 
worship of any denomination west of the Susquehanna River.  It was founded by 
the Jesuit Fathers as early as 1721, when the first mass was said by the Rev. 
Joseph Greaton, S.J., at the home of Colonel Robert Owings, an old stone house, 
still standing about a quarter of a mile from the site of the present church.  
The first log church was built in 1741.  The present stone edifice was erected 
in 1787, and was the first church building in the world dedicated to the Sacred 
Heart, the second being the Royal Basilica at Lisbon.  (See Life of St. Margaret 
Mary Alacoque, by Rt. Rev. E. Bougaud, D.D., pp. 381-382.)

The parsonage was built at the same time as the church, and the entire group of 
buildings is of red sandstone dressed and quarried at East Berlin.  The farm 
attached to the church was at that time 500 acres.

When the present church was erected, according to John T. Reily, it was "one of 
the largest buildings for public worship as yet in the interior of the country 
exclusive of towns and cities."

In an article on Germans, the Catholic Encyclopedia says about Conewago Chapel 
during the time Father Pellenz, S.J., was superior:  "It is not probable that 
there was any larger or indeed appreciable number of Catholics in any other 
colony at that time, with the exception of Louisiana, whose French inhabitants 
shared and honored their religion, whereas most of the English colonies had 
severe laws against the 'Papists.' "  Reily says of Conewago, "Being a Catholic 
settlement with friendly Protestant neighbors, there is no record of the 
Catholics ever having been disturbed."

Conewago Chapel bore the name of St. Francis Regis, in earlier times, and as a 
Mission received aid from the Society of Jesus in England.  From 1760 to about 
1800 money was received from the Sir John James Mission Fund of London.

"People are buried there who were born as early as 1650 or before.  It was 
missionary territory as early as 1700...."

"Rev. Joseph Greaton, S.J., came to Maryland in 1721, and was the first 
missionary of Conewago until about 1730, when he extended his labors across the 
Susquehanna, which resulted in laying the foundation for the Catholic Church in 
Lancaster and Philadelphia.  From 1730 to 1741 other Maryland missionaries 
followed him at Conewago, holding services at the home of Robert Owings.  In 
1741 Rev. William Wappler, S.J., built a log 'Mass House' at Conewago.  It was 
attended from Hickory, then Baltimore County, Md.  In 1765 the church was 
enlarged, and a room or two added by the first resident pastor, Rev. Matthias 
Manners, S.J., who came to Conewago about 1750.  In 1787 the present church was 
built by the Rev. James Pellenz, S.J."  (John T. Reily's Collections and 
Recollections, Vol. II, p. 2)


THE OWINGS HOME--THE FIRST
"MASS HOUSE" IN PENNSYLVANIA

"Among those who came to the settlement with John Digges was Colonel Robert 
Owings, a surveyor.  He was born in 1692 and died at Conewago in 1759.  He had a 
grant of 500 acres, called Bear Garden, by letters patent, granted and dated 
October 8th, 1733, from 'The Right Honorable Charles, Lord Baron of Baltimore, 
and Avalon,' etc., 'under the great seal of said Province.'  This tract bordered 
on Slagle's Run and the Little Conewago, and extended eastward, now three farms, 
in possession of the Sneeringers.

"In the center of the tract, on a slight elevation, is this colonial homestead.  
Previous to the arrival of Colonel Owings and the Digges family this spot had 
already become a sacred place.  For as early as 1721 the first Mass was said 
here and instructions given for the benefit of the Christian Indians inhabiting 
the Conewago Valley, for this was the gateway through which the Jesuit 
Missionaries from Maryland made their journeys by way of Lancaster and 
Goshenhopen to Philadelphia.

"A burying ground was attached to this place, and the house continued to be used 
for church purposes until the log church was built, in 1741, a quarter of a mile 
southward, on a higher elevation, now occupied by the present building of 
Conewago Chapel.

"The Owings' home, with its large room and wide hall, in which people used to 
stand to hear Mass, was evidently built with that intention, and was supplied by 
friends in Maryland with altar furnishings and vestments, the chalice belonging 
to Bohemia Manor, being brought to Conewago in 1750.

"It was built to appear as a private dwelling, so as not to be an open violation 
of the penal laws of England.  Churches so built were called 'Mass Houses.'  The 
church at Conewago had three rooms, one in which services were held and two that 
were used for house-hold purposes." (J. T. Reily's Conewago Collection, pp. 43-
44.)


ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH, YORK

St. Patrick's Church, York, began also as a "Mass House;" and the records of its 
early history have long been lost.  Judge Gibson, in his History of York County, 
says:

"In attempting to write the history of this Church, it is difficult to get 
accurate information.  As early as 1750, John Moore secured lot 395, the present 
site of St. Patrick's Church.  On June 20th of the same year, John Moore shortly 
erected thereon a stone dwelling house.  In 1776 it was purchased from the heirs 
of Casper Stillinger by Joseph Smith, who presented it to the then small 
Catholic congregation to be used as a place of worship....The York congregation 
was presented with a place for the freedom of worship the same year our 
forefathers were presented with the inestimable boon for which they labored so 
long, viz.:  Liberty and Independence.  After considerable remodeling, this old 
stone dwelling house was converted into a place of worship and dedicated."

When the first Mass was said in York is not known, as there are no records of 
the parish until 1776.  The congregation was in existence as early as 1750, and 
was attended by the Jesuit Missionaries from Conewago.  After its dedication, 
the old stone house continued to be used until 1809 when, to quote Mr. Prowell, 
in his History of York County:

"Rev. Thomas (?) Neale, of Georgetown, Maryland, now District of Columbia, 
visited York, and finding the church too small, determined to build a new one.  
As there was some doubt about the legality of the deed, Father Neale resolved to 
obtain a new deed, and succeeded in having the heirs of William Penn grant him 
the following deed:

"To the Rev. Thomas Neale, in trust for his heirs and assigns, to and for the 
only proper use, and in behalf of the Roman Catholic Congregation of York, their 
successors and assigns forever.  Sealed in the presence of John Small and John 
Forsyth.' "


THE JESUITS WHO VISITED YORK
MEN OF DISTINCTION

The Jesuit fathers who visited York and Conewago to administer the Sacraments to 
the local Catholics were among the most cultured men in the Colonies.  Those 
from Maryland came from the English gentry, and some of the German priests who 
developed Conewago as a Mission were members of some of the noblest families of 
Europe; and all of these priests were educated in the great universities of 
Europe.  The landholding families of Maryland usually sent their children, girls 
as well as boys, to be educated abroad, a custom which the Maryland authorities 
tried to stop.  The Neales, the Diggeses and the Carroll families all gave more 
than one son to the Society of Jesus.  The names of two of the Neales are 
attached to the deeds of the churches, both of Lancaster and York.  A Thomas 
Digges was superior of the Jesuits from 1750 to 1753.  John Digges, of Digges' 
Choice, had a son, John Digges, Jr., who entered the Society of Jesus and died 
in 1749.


REV. JOSEPH GREATON, S.J. AND
SOME OF HIS SUCCESSORS

The records of the English Province of the Society for Jesus say that 
Catholicity was introduced into Pennsylvania "about the year 1720," by Rev. 
Joseph Greaton and others.  (Laity's Directory for 1822, quoted by Reily.)  
Father Greaton was born in 1680, entered the Society for Jesus July 6th, 1708; 
was ordained and came into the Province of Maryland in 1719.  Besides 
establishing the Mission at Conewago, he built old St. Joseph's, at 
Philadelphia.  He labored there until 1750, being Superior of the Missions in 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, which were associated together.  In 1750 he was 
recalled to Maryland, and died at Bohemia in 1752 or 1753.

Rev. William Wappeler, S.J., who built the first log church at Conewago, was 
said by Archbishop Carroll to be a man of "much learning and unbounded zeal," 
and is said to have reclaimed many to the faith of Christ during the eight years 
he remained in America.

He was born in Westphalia, in 1711, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1728.  
He was sent to America in 1740, and built not only the log church at Conewago, 
but the first log church at Lancaster, both in 1741. Ill health compelled his 
return to Europe in 1748, and he died at Bruges in 1781.

Rev. Matthias Manners (Sittensberger) was the first resident priest at Conewago.  
He began his labors in this vicinity about 1750, and must have been the first 
priest to have visited the Catholics of York.  He was born in the diocese of 
Augsburg, Germany, in 1719, and died at Bohemia Manor, Md., in 1775.  John T. 
Reilly says that he was regarded by the people of Conewago as a "great man" --
and acted in the capacity of a Provincial.

Rev. James Pellenz, S.J>, Superior of Conewago from 1768 to 1800, who built the 
present Conewago Chapel, was born in Germany in 1727 and entered the Society of 
Jesus in 1744.  He filled the office of Vicar General for Bishop Carroll in 
1791, and was present at the first Council of Baltimore.  He died at Conewago, 
March 13th, 1800, and is buried under the church.

"Rev. Adolphus Lewis De Barth (Walbach) was a Conewago off and on from 1800 to 
1826.  He became manager of the estate in 1811, for those who held the title on 
the part of the Society of Jesus and was at that time a resident of Adams 
County, according to the Letter of Attorney from Rev. Francis Neale, on file in 
the Recorder's Office of said county.  Father De Barth was the son of Count De 
Barth and Maria Louisa de Rohme; born at Munster, Upper Rhine, Nov. 1st, 1764; 
ordained at Strasburg in 1790; driven from France by the Revolution, he came 
with his father to America; assigned to missionary duty by Bishop Carroll, he 
labored at Bohemia Manor, Lancaster and Conewago; was Vicar General to Bishop 
Egan, and after Bishop Egan's death was Administrator of the Diocese; and 
himself twice declined the Bishopric.  He was the brother of Colonel John De 
Barth Walbach, U.S.A.  Father De Barth is remembered by some of the old citizens 
of Conewago as a very earnest, faithful priest, and a cultured man....

"The names of two distinguished priests are met with at Conewago, who deserve a 
short notice, for few are acquainted with their history; they are Rev. Virgil 
Barber, in 1836, and Father Samuel Barber, about 1845.  Daniel Barber, a 
Congregationalist minister in New England, became a Catholic in 1816.  Virgil 
Barber, his son, also a Protestant minister, entered the Church with his father.  
He was born May 9th, 1782; went to Rome in 1817, was ordained there, labored in 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, became Professor of Hebrew in Georgetown College, 
where he died March 27th, 1847.  Mrs. Virgil Barber and their four daughters 
became Sisters, and the son, Samuel, joined the Society of Jesus (Reily's 
Conewago Collections, pp. 157-158.)


PRINCE DEMETRIUS GALLITZIN

One of the most famous missionaries of America was Prince Augustine Demetrius 
Gallitzin.  He was the second priest ordained in America by the newly elected 
Bishop John Carroll.  Prince Gallitzin added 6,000 converts to the Catholic 
Church during his missionary activities.

In 1795 Father Gallitzin was appointed missionary to a vast territory in 
Pennsylvania, western Maryland and Virginia.  For four years he made Conewago 
his headquarters, as it was the gateway into the western and northern part of 
Pennsylvania.  From Conewago he went on his long journeys by sledge into the 
Allegheny Mountains, suffering all the hardships of the missionary and the 
pioneer.  He was a man of slight frame and delicate health, and the story of his 
achievements in spite of almost insurmountable difficulties, is one of the 
romances of Pennsylvania history.

The Rev. Prince Gallitzin was the son of Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, Russian 
Ambassador at the courts of France and of the Netherlands, Chamberlain and Privy 
Councillor of the celebrated Catherine II. Of Russia.  He was the friend of 
Voltaire and of Diderot, and brought up his son in an atmosphere of skepticism 
and contempt for religion.

The mother of Father Gallitzin was born Countess de Schmetten, daughter of one 
of the heroes of Frederick the Great, Field Marshall Count de Schmetten.  She 
was a woman of great cultivation, and in the German city of Munster she 
surrounded herself with a court of scholars and literary men, among whom was the 
poet Goethe.  While influenced by the skepticism of her age, she was at heart 
deeply devout.  She had been brought up a Catholic and finally returned to the 
faith of her childhood.  She contributed towards the conversion, in 1800, of the 
famous Count de Stollberg, which had such a profound effect upon many circles of 
German society.  It was to the prayers of his mother that must be attributed the 
conversion of young Demetrius.

Prince Augustine Demetrius Gallitzin was born at the Hague, the 22nd of 
December, 1770, while his father was Ambassador from Russia to the Court of the 
Netherlands.  He was born and bred in the schismatical Greek Church, but he 
ascribes his lack of religion to the intimacy of his family with "a certain 
famous French philosopher."  All his relatives were either Greeks or 
Protestants, but he said that he "resolved to embrace that religion which upon 
an impartial inquiry should appear to me the pure religion of Jesus Christ.  My 
choice fell upon the Catholic Church, and at the age of about seventeen I became 
a member of that Church."

The young Gallitzin was destined by his family for a military career in the 
service of Russia.  He was, therefore, appointed aide-de-camp to the Austrian 
General Von Lilien, who commanded an army in Brabant in the first campaign 
against the French Revolutionists.  The sudden death of the Emperor Leopold, and 
the murder of the King of Sweden determined both Prussia and Austria to exclude 
foreigners from military service. As Russia was not taking part in the 
hostilities, young Gallitzin was debarred from participation in the European 
War.  His parents therefore decided that he should spend two years in travel in 
America.

He landed in Baltimore October 28th, 1792, with letters of introduction to 
Bishop Carroll.  He had at first no thought but of travel and observation in the 
new world.  But the Reign of Terror, and the military successes of the French 
Jacobins, with what seemed to be the subversion of the whole social order in 
Europe, directed his thoughts more than ever to religion and to the uncertainty 
of wealth and worldly honors.  He decided, therefore, to enter the priesthood 
and to offer himself to the American Mission.  Archbishop Carroll afterwards 
said that he never knew anyone to have had a clearer vocation.

For years he was the only priest in what are now the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, 
Altoona and Erie, and part of the Diocese of Harrisburg.  But he had the 
Russian's love of the land, and he believed that only by Catholic settlements 
would the Church become rooted in America.  He deplored the collection of poor 
immigrants at the seaports, and set about plans to purchase a large tract of 
land in Pennsylvania where the poor could settle, and own their own land.  Hence 
his great experiment in what is now Cambria County, which with sawmills and 
equipment, absorbed, according to Father Heyden, his biographer, at least 
$150,000.  It was all that he was able to save from his almost fabulous fortune 
which he had sacrificed by becoming a priest and by remaining in America.  The 
story of his struggle with debts and with the financial burden of this 
experiment is one of the most interesting and pathetic stories of American 
pioneering.

We have heard a great deal about that other great Russian, Count Tolstoi-his 
love for the peasants and his sacrifices of wealth and rank, to live as a 
peasant on the soil.  But how many Americans have heard of this Russian in the 
American forests, greater than Tolstoi not only in rank but in self-abnegation?  
The gigantic sacrifices of this Russian Prince and Catholic priest in the wilds 
of Pennsylvania is part of the history of our country of which every Catholic 
should be proud. (See Life of Prince Gallitzin, by the Very Rev. Thomas Heyden, 
of Bedford, published by Murphy & Co., 1869.)


BARON DE BEELEN BERTHOLF

St. Patrick's Church, York, can lay claim to a distinguished layman whose 
prolonged residence in York has become a matter of historical importance.  "When 
Joseph II. attempted to open the River Scheldt, he designed to establish 
commerce between Belgium and the United States, and to promote this end he sent 
the Baron de Beelen Bertholf to reside in Philadelphia, not as an accredited 
minister, but as an observer and correspondent.  When the Continental Congress 
adjourned its sessions to York, the Baron also removed there, and made that his 
home pretty much until his death.  Local tradition says that he lived there in 
great style.  The Conewago Jesuits were well acquainted with the family.  His 
son, Anthony, lived in Pittsburgh (see Lambing).  He had another son who died 
East, and a death record at Conewago of a Francis Beelen may be the same....The 
Baron and his wife are buried at Conewago.  When the new part was built, in 
1850, it covered their graves, and the marble slab was laid in the floor in the 
aisle near the Blessed Virgin's altar.  It reads:  "In memory of Frederick E. F. 
Brn. De Beelen Bertholf, who departed this life the 5th of April, 1805, aged 76 
years.  Joanna Maria Theresia, his wife, who departed this life the 11th of 
September, 1804, aged 72 years.  May they rest in peace."  It is said that a 
contagious disease prevailed when the Baron died.  The man who brought the body 
from York left the coffin standing in front of the church and hurried away.  
There it stood all day, everyone in dread of the disease.  Towards evening 
Father De Barth sent over to the Lilly farm for help, and two colored men came 
and assisted him in the last sad duty in the burial of the once distinguished 
man."  (Reily's Conewago Collections, p. 158.)

The records at the Register's Office at the York County Court House show that on 
April 10th, 1805, letters of administration were granted on the Estate of 
Frederick E. F. Beelen to Francis de Beelen and William Jenkins; that on the 
20th day of May, 1805, Francis de Beelen presented to the Orphans' Court a 
petition averring that Frederick Eugene Francis Baron de Beelen died seized of a 
house and seven acres of land in the village of Bottstown adjoining land late of 
Christian Sinn, Jacob Gartner, Jacob Carroll and the Borough Line, which means 
the west line of the Borough of York; that Bottstown was a village in West 
Manchester Township adjoining the Borough of York; that he died intestate, 
leaving to survive him five children, Francis, the petitioner; Antonius, a son; 
Theresia, intermarried with Charles H. Bantley; Philipinna, intermarried with 
William Jenkins; praying the Court to make petition.  On June 25, 1805, this 
real estate was awarded to Francis de Beelen at a valuation of $1,246.44.

In the York Historical Society Rooms, at the Court House, is a pen and ink 
sketch of Baron de Beelen.  It shows him driving to Mass at St. Patrick's 
Church, and was drawn by a contemporary named Lewis Miller, a wood carver by 
trade.


DR. POCHON, WHO
INTRODUCED USE OF TOMATO

Another interesting Catholic layman who settled in York during the French 
Revolution, was a physician named Pochon, a short account of whom is found in 
Reily's Conewago Collections, pp. 105-6.

"In 1777, Dr. Charles Julien Pochon left Arras, Calais, France, for San Domingo, 
and settled in Trou, on a plantation named "Roche-Platte."  In 1780, he married 
Francoise Genevieve de la Porte, who was the widow Perthius....In June, 1790, 
this Dr. Pochon, with his wife and son, Charles Francois Pochon, and Fanchette, 
a slave, came to Hanover, York County, Pa. (Notary's Certificate).  In August, 
1793, they all removed to York; while there Dr. Pochon sent for tomato vines, 
and, planting them, introduced that vegetable which was then unknown.  This 
tradition in the family is confirmed by outside testimony.  We often heard old 
Mr. Oaster relate that the people said the Frenchman was crazy when they saw him 
eat the tomatoes which they thought were poison and long classed as "uhnghrout" 
by the old Germans, now a popular dish and canned by the million.  The son, 
Charles Francois Pochon, 9 or ten years old, was sent to St. Mary's College, 
Baltimore....Dr. Charles Julien Pochon was naturalized in 1805.  It is not known 
whether his wife Francoise Genevieve de la Porte, died in America or during a 
stay abroad.

"In the early part of the last century there was quite a French colony in 
Baltimore and Dr. Pochon knew many of the priests at St. Mary's, where his son 
was being educated.  At a dinner there he first met Prince Gallitzin, known as 
Father Schmid with whom he became intimate.  When the son grew up he shared the 
friendship Father Gallitzin often visited them; and they rode over the mountains 
in Cambria County, to stay with him, wrapped in great robes, which also served 
to cover the horses. (John T. Reily's Conewago Collections, pp. 105-106.)


FOUNDATION IN AMERICA OF TWO GREAT
FRENCH RELIGIOUS ORDERS PART OF EARLY
HISTORY OF YORK AND ADAMS COUNTIES

It is not generally known that what is called the "Seminary Farm," near 
Abbottstown, has been associated with the foundation in America of two great 
French religious orders, the Sulpicians and the Cistercians or Trappest monks.  
The place is at the foot of the Pigeon Hills about five miles north of Hanover, 
on the borders of York and Adams Counties.

There was in America no organized community of priests since the suppression of 
the Jesuits in 1773; so that Bishop Carroll's greatest need was the development 
of a native American clergy.  This he could not hope to do without a seminary.  
The Sulpicians, who had been suppressed in France during the Revolution, filled 
this need of the infant Church in America, and St. Mary's Seminary, in 
Baltimore, was established.

In 1806, Father Nagot, the venerable Superior of St. Mary's, established a 
school for boys in the Pigeon Hills to prepare them for entering the Seminary at 
Baltimore.  According to Reily, in his Conewago, a Collection, the land was 
originally taken up by warrant from the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, issued 
July 26th, 1750, to Henry Gearnhart (or Kingheart, illegible in old deed), and 
descented to the Lorimores.  It contained about 273 acres, and was conveyed to 
Joseph Heront, April 4th, 1794, for one thousand pounds, gold and silver, which 
would seem to have been a very high price.  He improved the property, opened a 
select school and called it "Herontford."  He was a private gentleman who came 
from France during the Revolution to escape the Reign of Terror.  He purchased 
the land as above the same year of his arrival in America.  On August 1st, 1812, 
he was ordained to the priesthood and entered the Order of St. Sulpice.  He 
became treasurer of St. Mary's College, Baltimore.  His name is last mentioned 
in the deeds of the Seminary Farm about 1810.  In 1817 he went to the Island of 
Martinique, where he died April 8th, 1818. He was born in Lyons, France, in 
1755.  To continue in Reily's own words:

"On the Feast of the Assumption, 1806, the Abbe Dillet, a Sulpician founded at 
Pigeon Hills, 'a college intended to give a religious education to boys, whose 
piety and qualities seemed to show a decided vocation for the priesthood.'  
Pupils were received on the recommendation of their confessor.  Conewago 
furnished some of the students.

"June 3rd, 1830, the 'Seminary Farm' was conveyed by deed from John Tessier, 
president of St. Mary's, Baltimore, to Lewis Regis Deluol, his successor.  He 
also came in possession of an adjoining tract, the deed of which he obtained 
from Thomas C. Miller, Sheriff of Adams County.  This latter tract was no doubt 
the property of Francis Marshall, who was intimate with Father Deluol, and whose 
history is not very clear.  Father Griffin knew him well, and thinks he was of 
German origin more than French, probably from Alsace.  His name is signed to 
various old deeds and conveyances, and he wrote it 'Franz Marschall.'

"There were several other old families of Marshalls, of which Francis and Joseph 
were descendants.  They were doubtless French people and may have come to that 
vicinity with the Noels and Dellons, who settled there from France about the 
beginning of the 1700 era.

"Father Deluol fixed up the Seminary property as a retreat for students during 
vacation.  There was a fine chapel and buildings, with large gardens and 
orchards.  The premises were laid out in walks and lawns and everything made 
attractive and inviting.  It continued to be used by the students in the summer 
until 1849 (so generally given), when St. Charles College took its place.  The 
deed from Father Deluol to Henry Eichelberger is dated 1847.  Once every year, 
on St. Ignatius' Day, the services at Conewago were conducted by the priests and 
students from the seminary, who would march over to the Chapel in grand 
procession." (John T. Reily's Conewago Collections, pp. 84, 88, 158.)


AN ATTEMPTED TRAPPIST FOUNDATION

The Cistercian Trappists, having been driven out of France by the Revolution, 
determined to form a foundation in America.  They had formed a colony at 
Amsterdam and also at Lullworth, England, where formerly a Cistercian Abbey had 
existed.  In 1802 Dom Urbain Guillet was entrusted with the foundation of an 
American monastery of La Trappe.  He assembled twenty-four monks and sailed from 
Amsterdam May 24th, 1802, on board the Sally, a Dutch vessel flying the American 
flag to escape the risks of war, Holland being the ally of France in her war 
against England.  The Sally arrived in Baltimore September 25th, 1802, and Dom 
Guillet was received by the Superior of the Suplicians, Father Nagot.  From 
Baltimore they proceeded to the Seminary Farm near Abbottstown.  The Catholic 
Encyclopedia, in an article on Cistercians, thus describes this interesting 
event:

"About fifty miles from Baltimore, between the little towns of Hanover and 
Heberston, was a plantation known as Pigeon Hill, which belonged to a friend of 
the Sulpicians.  Being absent for some years, he left them the power of 
disposing of it, as they should deem proper.  This large and beautiful residence 
was well provided with provisions by the goodness of the Sulpicians.  In the 
woods near by were found all kinds of wild fruits.  The Trappists installed 
themselves at Pigeon Hill.  M. de Morainvilliers, a French emigrant, a native of 
Amiens, and pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore, used his influence with 
his parishioners to procure for the newly arrived community the aid necessary 
for their establishment.  But everything was dear in the country, and the money 
which Father Urbain had destined for the purchase of land did not even suffice 
for the support of his community.  Eighteen months had already passed since the 
arrival of the colony at Pigeon Hill, and the true foundation had not yet begun.  
Dom Urbain had not accepted any of the land which had been offered him...."  He 
and his monks, therefore, left the Seminary Farm, and proceeded first to 
Kentucky and then to Missouri, where they established themselves on an Indian 
burial mound that became known as "Monks' Mound."  Reily says that while the 
Trappists were at Pigeon Hill, they dug the well on the Seminary Farm.


THE PARADISE CHURCH
AND ORPHANAGE

"The Catholic Church, at first called Brandt's Church or Pigeon Hills in 
Paradise Township, York County, about one mile north of Abbottstown, has a very 
interesting history, but much confused.  In the settlement of the country at an 
early date, several French, a few Irish and a number of German Catholic families 
located near the Pigeon Hills, around Abbottstown and towards East Berlin.  At 
one time the church was right flourishing in numbers, but later on many families 
removed to Conewago and elsewhere.

"Probably the first Mass in the neighborhood was said at Abbottstown by Father 
de Barth in the beginning of the present century (the nineteenth). Mass was 
occasionally said at the house of Wm. Jenkins, a prominent Catholic of that 
place.  The Jenkinses were probably a Maryland family, but not related to those 
at Conewago.  There are few descendants of the family; none that we know.  One 
son died about forty years ago, and is buried at Paradise Church.  One of the 
Reily's living in the West married a daughter of William Jenkins, and one of the 
sons of Baron de Beelen married another. The Wises were among the oldest 
Catholic families; the property now owned and occupied by the Clunks was their 
homestead, and there Mass was said at stated times.  This might have been about 
the period of 1800.

"Among the first Goschenhoppen settlers was the Brandt ancestry from Germany.  
From there Frederick Brandt removed to near Abbottstown, but at what date we 
have been unable to discover.  His tract of land, now the Paradise Church 
property, is called "Brandtsburg" in the patent from the Commonwealth, a full 
title to which he obtained June 28, 1809.  The same tract had been granted by 
warrant from the Proprietaries to Matthias Bouzer, dated October 28th, 1746.  
Frederick Brandt paid $460.73 into the Treasury of the State, which, with the 
moneys paid by Matthias Bouzer, gave him a clear title to the land.

"Frederick Brandt was an intelligent and industrious man, and a good Catholic.  
He had no children, and no relatives on his side, according to his will.  Mrs. 
Brandt's maiden name was Keens....Frederick Brandt built the house now on the 
church farm; part of it was used as a chapel before his death and after, until 
the stone church was built, in 1844.  Brandt's mill was one of the first in the 
neighborhood....

"Frederick Brandt made his will February 9th, 1815, 'being of advanced age.' He 
left his personal property to his wife, with whose 'advice and consent' he 
determined to appropriate his real estate for the benefit of his religion and 
his country....Therefore he bequeathed his dwelling and plantation and mills, 
and a five-acre tract lately purchased of Clement Steuthabeker, to his wife 
during her life or widowhood, and after her death then the same to Rev. Francis 
Neale, of Georgetown College, 'his heirs and assigns forever, in order to 
establish thereon as soon as convenient a school or seminary, or any other house 
of education for the purpose of bringing up youth in useful literature and 
Christian piety.' ...The executors were Michael Dellone, Wm. Jenkins and the 
testator's wife.  Witnesses, Franz Marschall, Michael Strausbach, and John 
Breighner, Recorded in York, Jacob Barnitz, Register.  There is a codicil dated 
January 26th, 1820, in which he bequeaths to Rev. Francis Neale a five-acre lot 
purchased of Isaac Latschaw, and appoints James McSherry Executor in place of 
Wm. Jenkins, de'd.  John L. Gubernator wrote the mill...." (J.T. Reily's 
Conewago Collections, pp. 88-90, published 1885.)


RT. REV. JOHN CARROLL, THE FIRST BISHOP
OF THE HIERARCHY OF THE UNITED STATES

Until after the Revolutionary War, the Church in America had been under the 
jurisdiction of Bishop Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of England, residing in 
London.  As the clergy in America were, throughout the colonial period, all 
Jesuits, the missions were carried on under their superiors until the 
suppression of the Society in 1773.

After the separation of the thirteen states from Great Britain, the necessity 
for the organization of the Church in America with an American hierarchy was 
apparent.  The outstanding abilities of Father Carroll, and his popularity with 
Catholics and non-Catholics alike, marked him at once as the logical person for 
this high office.

John Carroll was born in 1735 at Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Md., 
the third son of Daniel Carroll and Eleanor Darnall, one of the richest and most 
highly educated women of her time.  Like so many of the Catholic girls of the 
colonies, she had been sent to Europe to finish her schooling.  Their second 
son, Daniel Carroll, known as the Commissioner, the proprietor of the land upon 
which Washington is built, was almost as distinguished in Revolutionary history 
as his more famous cousin, Carroll of Carrollton.

John Carroll began his education with his cousin, Carroll of Carrollton, at the 
Jesuit Academy at Bohemia Manor, and spent six years at St. Omer's, in French 
Flanders.  In the meantime his father died, and in 1753 he became a member of 
the Society of Jesus, and began his studies at Liege, where he spent fourteen 
years.  He was ordained priest at the age of 34, and taught philosophy and 
theology at St. Omer's and at Liege for four years.  The winter of 1773 and '74 
he spent in traveling through Europe as the preceptor of the son of Lord 
Stourton, and spent a short time as the guest and chaplain of Lord Arundell, at 
Wardour Castle.  After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, in 1773, Father 
Carroll returned to America.  On entering the Society of Jesus his vow of 
poverty obliged him to surrender his share in his father's fortune to his 
brothers and sisters.  He lived with his mother at her home at Rock Creek.  On 
account of the laws against Catholics in Maryland, there was no public Catholic 
Church in the colonies.  Father Carroll therefore built a small frame chapel on 
his mother's estate, where he said Mass when he was at home, and began the hard 
life of a missionary in Maryland and Virginia, riding sometimes twenty-five 
miles on sick calls.


THE CANADA MISSION

In 1774 the Quebec Act had been passed, whereby England gave religious 
toleration to the French Canadians.  Thereupon, in the words of the eminent 
English historian Cardinal Gasquet (quoted by Guilday), "The drum ecclesiastic 
was beaten for all it was worth by the bigots both in England and America."  The 
storm of opposition to this act by many in the colonies, especially in New 
England, had much to do with keeping Canada firm in her allegiance to England.  
The first Continental Congress hoped, however, to obtain at least the neutrality 
of Canada.  So a committee composed of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and 
Carroll of Carrollton was appointed to go to Canada and secure, if possible, 
Canadian co-operation.  "The strategic importance of Canada to the American 
cause was obvious from the beginning of the war.  The New England colonies could 
easily have been isolated by a British force working southwards from Quebec." 
(Guilday.)  By a special resolution (February 15, 1776) Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton was requested to prevail upon Mr. John Carroll to accompany the 
Committee to Canada, to assist them in such matters as they shall think useful.

Father Carroll accepted this appointment, but he had no illusion about the 
fruitfulness of such a mission.  "A brouillion of an interesting memorandum by 
Father Carroll, now in the Baltimore Cathedral Archives, shows that he did not 
accept the invitation of Congress without weighing well the risk he ran in thus 
mingling religion with politics.  The remarkable part of his acceptance is that 
he foresaw the futility of the mission to Canada."  Dr. Guilday gives this 
letter at length (Life and Times of John Carroll, pp. 96-97), from which we 
quote these words:  "I have observed that when ministers of religion leave the 
duties of their profession to take a busy part in political matters, they 
generally fall into contempt, and sometimes even bring discredit to the cause in 
whose service they are engaged."

In spite of all the efforts of the committee, Canada could not be moved from her 
loyalty to Great Britain, who had just given her religious liberty. Neither 
could the Canadians easily forget the intolerance of the "Bostonais."  Dr. 
Guilday quotes:

"On rappela a M. Carroll que la religion catholique n'avait encore jamais ete 
toleree dans telles et telles des provinces insurgees; que les pretes en etaient 
exclus sous des peines tres severes et les missionaires envoyes chez les 
Sauvages etaient traites avec rigueur et cruaute.  On lui demanda aussi pourquoi 
le congres, qu'il disait si bien dispose envers les catholiques, avait fortement 
proteste a Londres contre la religion romaine et contre les avantages qu'on lui 
accordait en Canada....les gens instruits se rappelaient encore des cruautes 
inouies et des perfidies sans nombres exercees par la Americains envers la 
nation Acadienne, tache indeleble...."

Bishop Carroll visited Conewago in 1784 and administered Confirmation, and again 
in 1811.  He placed the number of communicants at Conewago, on his first visit, 
at 1,000.

The late Mr. Richard Reilly, of Lancaster, in a paper read before the Lancaster 
Historical Society, June 6th, 1924, says:  "A reference to a visit of Bishop 
Carroll to Lancaster on July 8th, 1798, is found in "Der Deutsche Porcupein Und 
Lancaster Anzeigs Nachsichten, (Anglice, the German Porcupine and Lancaster 
Intelligencer), under date of Wednesday, July 11th, 1798, as follows: 'On Sunday 
the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carroll, Bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States of 
America, conducted services in the local Catholic chapel.' "

It is extremely likely that on one, at least, of these three visits, and perhaps 
on all of them, Bishop Carroll stopped at York, as the ordinary route of travel 
for all the Catholic missionaries of those days was from Maryland to Conewago, 
through York to Lancaster, and on to Goschenhoppen, Berks County, to 
Philadelphia.

Bishop Carroll sent to Rome a report on the Maryland Catholics in which he 
stated there were 9,000 freemen, 3,000 children and 3,000 negro slaves.  He 
added that despite the dearth of priests that the more prominent families of 
Maryland are "still Catholic in faith, sufficiently religious, though prone to 
novel reading and dancing."

John Carroll was elected Bishop at a meeting of priests, by a vote of 24 out of 
25, and was appointed by Pope Pius VI. the 6th of November, 1789.  He was 
consecrated in 1790 at Lulworth Castle, England, and was consecrated Archbishop 
in 1808 with suffgran sees at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Bardstown.  
He died in 1815.

The following is a description of Archbishop Carroll by the Rev. Dr. C. I. 
White:  "Though of low stature, he had a commanding and dignified appearance.  
He wrote them [Latin, Italian, French] not less readily and tersely than his 
own.  He mingled often in gay society, relished the festivities of public life 
and the familiar intercourse of both clergy and laity of the Protestant 
denomination.  He was wholly free from guile, etc., ...."  (Catholic 
Encyclopedia, John Carroll.)


CATHOLICS AND THE REVOLUTION

The Revolution opened with a fierce outburst of bigotry, especially in New 
England, against the Catholics, on account of the Quebec Act, which granted 
religious toleration to the French Canadians.  This bigotry subsided when 
Congress began to make diplomatic overtures to draw Canada and the Indians of 
the northwest and in Maine into the cause of the colonists.  Washington issued 
an order on "Guy Fawkes Day," the 5th of November, forbidding his soldiers to 
observe the day by burning the Pope in effigy, as was the custom.

Dr. Peter Guilday, in his Life and Times of John Carroll, thus describes the 
situation:  "The French Alliance, the friendly attitude of Spain during the 
American Revolution, the loyalty of the Catholic Indians of Maine; the 
assistance of Father Gibaut in the West; the active co-operation of the French 
Army, and the gift of six million dollars by the Catholic Bishops and priests of 
France to the new Republic, in 1780, gave a very different outlook to the 
religious causes of the Revolution.  The anti-Catholic spirit, therefore, would 
seem to have died out among the patriots only to linger with all the bitterness 
of defeat among those who hated to see the colonies free and independent.  
Probably the last phase of the bigotry which left a smirch on the Revolution is 
the treason of Benedict Arnold for the eye that guided his defiant vindication 
of his disloyalty had lately seen 'your mean and profligate Congress at Mass for 
the soul of a Roman Catholic in purgatory, and participating in the rites of a 
Church against whose anti-Christian corruption your pious ancestors would bear 
witness with their blood.'

"This refers to the Requiem Mass at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, for the 
soul of Juan de Miralles, the Spanish Agent, who died at Washington's Camp, 
Morristown, N.J., April 28th, 1780.  Arnold was present, not having had courage 
to decline, as did Dr. Benjamin Rush, because attending was not compatible with 
the principle of a Protestant."  (Griffin, o p. cit., Vol. I, p. 257; Arnold's 
proclamation that Loyalists, etc., p. 188, Life and Times of John Carroll, Vol. 
I, p. 84.)

Dr. Guilday says "it is impossible to discover any Catholic of important social 
or financial standing who sided with Great Britain in the struggle."  On the 
contrary, we have conspicuous among the leaders of the Revolution the names of 
many Catholics:  Commodore Barry, who helped to found the American Navy; General 
Stephen Moylan, Muster-Master General to the Army of the United Colonies, and 
the Colonel of the Light Horse Dragoons; Colonel John Fitzgerald, aide-de-camp 
and secretary to General Washington; Thomas Fitz-Simons, of Philadelphia, and 
Daniel Carroll, the brother of Archbishop Carroll, both members of the 
Convention of 1789 that framed the United States Constitution; Orono, the 
Catholic Chief of the Penobscot Indians; Patrick Colvin, of Trenton, who helped 
to provide Washington with the boats with which he crossed the Delaware, and 
many others.  Besides these, we have the many Frenchmen who came to America to 
fight for our independence:  d'Estaing, De Grasse, Rochambeau, and the two great 
Poles, Kosciuski and Pulaski, both practising Catholics.  Lafayette neglected 
his religion, but, according to Dr. Guilday, returned to it before his death.

"The American Army, judging by the regiment lists we possess, would seem to be 
predominanately made up of Irish and French soldiers.  That the majority of the 
French adherents to the cause were Catholic is now an established fact; the 
assertion scarcely needs proof that the 7,800 French soldiers at Yorktown, 
together with the 20,000 men in the fleets of DeGrasse and De Barras, were of 
the Catholic faith."

Dr. Guilday divides the Catholics who aided in the success of the American 
Revolution into four classes:  Those residing in the colonies; the Catholic 
Indians of Maine and of the northwest; Catholic Canadian volunteers in the 
Revolutionary Army; and the French and Spanish allies.

The Catholics of the provinces staked their all on the success of the 
Revolution.  They hoped that the states for which they fought and died would 
treat them better than the mother country had done, and that the penal laws of 
the colonies would be modified in their favor.  In this they were not mistaken.

"The effort by the first Continental Congress to enlist the Canadians in 1774-
76, and the Alliance with the French had had a considerable effect upon the 
leaders of the Revolution....This gave the tone to the religious aspect of the 
post-Revolutionary period, and it was a foregone conclusion that when the 
Constitution should be written, the principle of religious liberty, or to put it 
more accurately, dis-establishment, should find a prominent place in its 
clauses.  (Guilday, Life and Times of John Carroll, p. 206.)


PATRICK MCSHERRY MEMBER OF YORK COUNTY
COUNCIL OF SAFETY DURING THE REVOLUTION

Patrick McSherry owned a large tract of land covering all the ground around 
McSherrystown and much of the surrounding country.  He had his original title 
from the Digges family, but he had patents also from both Provinces and a 
release from the Carrolls. (J. T. Reily, Conewago Collections, p. 39.)

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the first Council of Safety for York 
County was elected by the freeholders assembled in the Court House at York, 
December 17, 1774.  The second Committee was later elected by popular vote from 
each township in the County, and was double the size of the first.  Only those 
men interested in protecting the rights of the Colonies were chosen.  The name 
of Patrick McSherry appears on this Committee of Safety.

The term of Associators was applied to patriotic citizens of Pennsylvania who 
united in the early days of the Revolution, before the Declaration of 
Independence, to resist the encroachments of the British Government upon the 
liberties of the Colonists.  Catholics almost to a man joined these voluntary 
organizations.  Unlike the English and German non-resisting groups, or the 
Church of England clergy, they had neither conscientious scruples nor self-
interest in remaining loyal to the crown.


THE CONWAY CABAL

It was while Congress was holding its sessions in York that the famous Conway 
Cabal was hatched.  It is well known that this was an attempt by certain 
powerful members of Congress, notably Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and their 
followers who used Conway as a blind, to descredit Washington and to replace him 
by Horatio Gates, whom the party in Congress had succeeded in placing at the 
head of the army of the North, in time to receive the surrender of Burgoyne at 
Saratoga.

The inefficiency of Gates in a subordinate position was later demonstrated, but 
during the winter of 1778 the Cabal worked desperately to put him at the head of 
the American Army (See John Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, p. 44.)

January 23, 1778, Congress voted Lafayette a commission as commander of an 
expedition which afterwards proved a complete fiasco.  Lafayette came to York in 
obedience to a summons by the Board of War, and was received with enthusiasm by 
the intriguers against Washington.  During the famous banquet given in his 
honor, Gates, as president of the Board of War, presented him with his 
commission as Major-General.  What followed is described by Lafayette in his 
Memoirs, as quoted by George R. Prowell in his History of York County:

"I arose from my chair and referred to the numerous toasts that had already been 
offered in the interests of the American government and the prosecution of the 
war.  Then I reminded all present that there was one toast that had not yet been 
drunk.  I then proposed the health of the Commander-in-Chief at Valley Forge.  
After I had done this, I looked around the table and saw the faces of the 
banqueters redden with shame.  The deep silence then grew deeper.  None dared 
refuse the toast, but some merely raised their glasses to their lips, while 
others cautiously put them down untasted."


CARROLL OF CARROLLTON
HELPS DEFEAT THE CABAL

"Of the Conway Cabal, as far as it affected the members of Congress, we have no 
certain knowledge.  The movement was headed by the Lees and the Adamses; but it 
was resisted and ultimately defeated by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Morris 
and Duer."  (Quoted from Scharf's History of Maryland in the "Life and 
Correspondence of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, by Kate Mason Rowland, Vol. I, 
p. 236.)

The conspiracy was so far successful that the Board of War was enlarged to 
include some of the bitterest enemies of Washington.  Gates was made president 
of the Board and Conway inspector of the Army.  However, through the efforts of 
Carroll, Morris and Duer, Congress passed a resolution renewing Washington's 
extraordinary powers, including power to promote officers and to remove them.  A 
committee, with Charles Carroll of Carrollton as chairman, was appointed to 
acquaint Washington that he was again made commander-in-chief; and General 
Conway was permitted to resign his commission.

Carroll spent three months at Valley Forge helping Washington to reorganize his 
army.  Washington prepared a memoir of 50 folio pages in the form of a letter 
which was the basis of the report which Carroll, on his return to York, April 
13th, presented to Congress.

Other committees upon which Carroll served, while Congress was in York, was one 
on which James Smith, of York, served, concerning the loyalists, John Penn and 
Benjamin Chew.  He also served on a committee of three to whom was referred "The 
Representation of the Bishops and Elders of the United Brethren settled in 
Pennsylvania."


"THE FIRST CITIZEN OF THE LAND"

"Charles Carroll of Carrollton," in the words of Dr. Peter Guilday in his Life 
and Times of John Carroll, "was unquestionably one of the foremost Americans of 
the Revolutionary period.  His Letters of the First Citizen, written against the 
famous jurist, Daniel Dulany, in 1773, won him a prominence he never afterwards 
lost.  His action in the burning of the Peggy Stewart; his outspoken attitude on 
independence in the Maryland Convention and in the first Continental Congress of 
1774; his commission to Canada in 1776; his signature to the Declaration of 
Independence on August 2, 1776; his loyalty to Washington in the foiling of the 
Conway Cabal; his three months' residence at Valley Forge with Washington and 
the American troops; his part in bringing about the French Alliance; his 
assistance in organizing the Bank of North America with Robert Morris, Chase and 
others; his later career as the First Citizen of the land down to his death, in 
1832--these gave him a place in our annals of which all Americans are proud."  
(Vol. I, pp. 73-74.)

Charles Carroll was born in 1737.  His grandfather had come to Maryland from 
England, in 1688, as a result of the persecution of the Catholics that followed 
the accession of William and Mary to the throne, and was made attorney-general 
under the third Lord Baltimore.  The same year, however, Lord Baltimore was 
deprived of his rights and Maryland became a royal Colony.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton and his cousin, Father John Carroll, who 
afterwards became Archbishop of Baltimore, were educated together at the Jesuit 
School at Bohemia, Md.  The following year they crossed the ocean to the college 
of St. Omer's, in French Flanders, where Charles remained six years.  After 
attending the Jesuit College at Rheims, and the College of Louis le Grand, at 
Paris, he studied civil law at Bourges, afterwards taking apartments at the 
Inner Temple, London, where he continued the pursuit of law for several years.  
He returned to America in 1765, and on the breaking out of trouble between 
England and her colonies, he threw himself into the controversy with great 
energy.  In spite of the fact that he was disfranchized and ineligible for 
office, because of his religion, having "no more rights than a negro," he was 
elected with others by the citizens of Anne Arundel County, and Annapolis, with 
full powers to represent them in the provincial Assembly.  "By this act the 
prejudices against the Catholics were swept away.  From this time he served his 
country for a period of twenty-seven years."

Maryland had instructed her delegates to the Continental Congress, January 11, 
1776, "to disavow in the most solemn manner, all design in the Colonies for 
independence."  Carroll opposed this position strenuously and was responsible 
for the withdrawal of Maryland's opposition to independence.

In February, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Carroll one of a Committee 
with Franklin and Chase to visit Canada in order to secure the alliance of the 
Canadians in the struggle for independence, as has already been described in 
notes on John Carroll.


CARROLL OF CARROLLTON SIGNS
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Carroll was elected to the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776.  He took his 
seat on July 18th, and signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd.  
"Of all the signers, he risked the most.  He was the wealthiest man in the 
colonies at the beginning of the Revolution, his wealth being estimated at 
$2,000,000."  (Catholic Encyclopedia.)  Franklin describes Carroll in a letter 
dated February 18th, 1776, as "a gentleman of independent fortune, perhaps the 
largest in America--a hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand pounds sterling; 
educated in some university in France, though a native of America; of great 
abilities and learning, complete master of the French language, and a professor 
of the Roman Catholic religion; yet a warm, a firm, a zealous supporter of the 
rights of America, in whose cause he has hazarded all."  (Guilday's Life and 
Times of John Carroll, Vol. I, p. 94.)


CARROLL OF CARROLLTON AND
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

The adoption of the Articles of Confederation, on November 16th, was the first 
business of Congress in York.  Copies were submitted to the states and a 
translation made and sent to France in order to obtain recognition of the United 
States Government by Louis XVI.  These articles as they were finally adopted 
represented a triumph for Maryland and for the statesmanship of her 
representatives, one of whom was Carroll of Carrollton.  While Congress was in 
session in Philadelphia, Maryland had introduced a resolution to the effect that 
if, as a result of the war then being waged, the territory west of the 
Alleghenies should be acquired by the confederation from Great Britain, they 
should become the common property of all the states free for the entrance of all 
the inhabitants of the country and regulated and governed by Congress as the 
trustee of all the states.  Maryland took the stand that she would not sign the 
articles of the confederation until the six states claiming the western lands by 
reason of "from sea to sea" clauses in their charters from the crown, surrender 
these claims to Congress, to become in time independent states and members of 
the union.  This resolution by Maryland met with great opposition from the 
landed states, especially from Virginia.  Maryland, alone and unsupported by any 
other state, remained firm and ultimately triumphed.

John Fiske, in his Critical Period of American History, says that but for the 
position taken by Maryland on this question, the union would not have been 
formed; or if formed, would soon have been broken in pieces by the conflicting 
claims of the landed states. (See Catholic Encyclopedia, Maryland.)


"HARD MONEY" BROUGHT TO YORK

This probably was the first installment of the French loan of eighteen millions 
which Franklin received the 28th of February, 1778.

Mr. George Prowell, in his History of York, says:  "Congress ordered the Board 
of War to give directions to General Heath, in command at Boston, how to bring 
to the United States Treasury, at York, the hard money belonging to the 
Government....This money was put in charge of Captain James B. Fry, who had been 
a member of the famous 'Boston Tea Party.'  The wagon in which the money was 
brought to York passed through Massachusetts, crossing the Hudson at Fishkill, 
arrived at York in charge of two companies of Massachusetts troops.

"The money was deposited in the home of Archibald McClean, then used as the 
United States Treasury building, in the northeast corner of Center and George 
Street, where the First National Bank now stands."

There has been considerable controversy in York about the "hard money" which 
Congress ordered General Heath, in command at Boston, to send to York.  This 
money was believed by the people of York to have been the first installment on 
the money promised by the French Government.

The Historical Committee of the York Sesquicentennial made inquiry of the 
Treasury Department at Washington; and finding that there was no record of "hard 
money" having been received while Congress was in York, decided that the 
tradition about the "hard money" should be abandoned.  However, Miss Elizabeth 
Kite, who for more than twenty years has been studying the documents in the 
libraries of France, England, and America, began to make a thorough 
investigation of the question thus raised.  In an article in the Editorial Sheet 
issued by the National Catholic Welfare Conference for September, 1927, Miss 
Kite says that the report of the Board of War has not been discovered among the 
papers of Continental Congress, nor has any mention of the reception of the 
money been found in contemporary correspondence, with the single exception of a 
letter written by Major-General Heath to Congress on the day -------- --olution 
ordering him to forward to York the "hard money" belonging to -------- States 
was passed.  Heath says:  "I hope in the course of this week to ---------- solid 
coin to the Treasury Board."

However, Miss Kite ------ in the contract which the Comte de Vergennes and Dr. 
Franklin drew up and ----ed, July 16, 1782, mention is made of twenty-one 
installments on the French loan, the first of which was February 28th, 1778, of 
750,000 livres."

Miss Kite's comment is as follows:  "Undoubtedly the money which constituted 
this first installment was immediately sent to the Continental Congress, as it 
was the distinct purpose of the French Government to support the Colonial 
currency to the extent of its ability at the time.  It was the first loan that 
the Royal Government had been willing to make, though in the previous year the 
King had given outright two million livres (the livre is the equivalent of a 
franc) to the Commissioners in Paris for their necessary expenses, and permitted 
them to make a private loan of another million.  Just as the so-called National 
Archives in Paris only recently were made to yield proof of the part played by 
the clergy of France in financing the War, so untold documentary treasures 
remain to be discovered by some one with the money, the time and the patience to 
search through the dusty volumes of French and American Archives still 
unexplored.  Then light will be thrown upon the providential and dramatic 
arrival of these 'hard dollars' at York....

"Meagre mention of the loan is no proof against it, because secrecy was one of 
the conditions of French aid.  France did not declare war against England until 
May 20, 1778, but meantime had been secretly assisting the Colonies, a fact 
which, had it been known to the British, would have precipitated war before 
France was prepared for it.  The Contract of 1782 shows that the money was 
received by the American representatives, February 28th, 1778, the date of the 
closing of the transaction.  We are therefore permitted to suppose that the coin 
was immediately placed on board ship and sent to Boston, in which case it would 
have reached that city by the end of April, a period of twenty-one days."

In a second article for October, carried by the National Catholic Welfare 
Council Editorial Sheet for October, Miss Kite shows how the York story may very 
easily be true.  Vessels in those days sometimes made the transit in less than 
thirty days from France to Boston. There is no doubt that as soon as Franklin 
touched the money it was shipped at once to America, since the most crying need 
of Congress was some solid coin to back the millions of paper dollars that were 
printed while Congress sat in York.  The only hard money then current in America 
was Spanish silver, called dollars or piastres, worth about one and two-thirds 
of a French livre each.  The first installment of the loan amounted to 750,000 
livres, so this is quite a little short of the story.  We know, however, that at 
about the same time the French money should have arrived in Boston, General 
Heath received a sum of money from General Burgoyne in "solid coin" as payment 
for six months provisions, etc., for his captured army.  The Journals of 
Congress speak of this money, although cryptically, and it is quite possible 
that the two sums (that from Burgoyne was not less than 96,521 Spanish dollars, 
and may have been rather more) were brought together by the same conveyances to 
York.

However, the actual coming to York of the first installment of the "hard money" 
from France is a matter of small importance.  We know that France actually 
turned over to Franklin the first installment of the loan while Congress was in 
York.  Even if the Spanish dollars surrendered by Burgoyne were received in 
York, it can also be shown that this was the direct result of the secret aid of 
France through the medium of Beaumarchais which reached America during the 
spring and summer of 1777 in the form of munitions of war and other supplies.  
Without this aid there could have been no protracted campaign in the North 
ending in the surrender of the British Army. (See N.C.W.C. Editorial Sheet for 
October, 1927, article by Miss Kite.)


COUNT CASIMIR PULASKI

Count Casimir Pulaski, whose name has been so associated with the history of 
York, and who gave his life for the cause of American Independence, was a Polish 
soldier, born in 1748, in Podolia.  He took a prominent share, under his father, 
Count Joseph Pulaski, in the formation of the Confederation of the Bar and the 
military operations which followed, becoming ultimately commander-in-chief of 
the Polish patriot forces.

Driven into exile about 1772, Pulaski went to America and joined the army of 
Washington in 1777.  He distinguished himself at once in the Battle of 
Brandywine and was made a brigadier-general and chief of cavalry by Congress, 
then meeting in York.  He fought at Germantown and in the battles of the winter 
of 1777-1778.  He resigned his command March 28, 1778, in order to organize an 
independent corps known as "Pulaski's Legion."  (See Catholic Encyclopedia, 
Pulaski.)

Pulaski's Legion was recruited chiefly in Pennsylvania and Maryland. By a 
resolution of Congress, while in session in York, March 28, 1778, Count Casimir 
Pulaski was authorized to raise and organize a corps of sixty-eight light-horse, 
and two hundred foot.  In 1779, the Count made York the rendezvous of his 
legion, before his march to South Carolina.  In the assault upon the British 
before Savannah, October 3, 1779, Pulaski rendered great service and fell 
mortally wounded.  He was carried on board the U. S. Brig, Wasp, where he died.  
He commanded both the American and the French cavalry.  According to George R. 
Prowell, he recruited about twenty men from York County.  His headquarters were 
on the west side of North George Street near Centre Square.

On the fourth lot below Clark Alley, on the east side of North George Street, 
York, stood for fifty years an old public inn.  Says Mr. Prowell in his History 
of York County, Vol. I, p. 660:

"It was known as the Count Pulaski Tavern and contained a portrait of this 
Polish nobleman....He was a man of fine military bearing and imposing presence.  
While in York he was a frequent visitor at the home of John Fisher, the noted 
clockmaker, and as a token of friendship gave the latter two silver shoe buckles 
and two silver knee buckles, now owned by the Historical Society of York County.  
Pulaski had his recruiting station in a building which stood on the west side of 
North George Street, on the second lot from the square."


ARMAND'S LEGION AT YORK

"Armand's Legion was quartered at York from December 25, 1782, to November, 
1783.  It was commanded by a noted French soldier, who had served ten years in 
the Guarde du Corps of Paris.  He came to America and volunteered in the cause 
of the Revolution, May 10th, 1777, when he was commissioned by Congress a 
Colonel under the name of Charles Armand, concealing his rank of Marquis de la 
Rouerie.  Congress authorized him to raise a corps of French soldiers in number 
not exceeding two hundred.  About one-half of his command, however, were 
Americans....

"There were a number of soldiers in York County who had served in Armand's 
Legion during the Revolution.  Among them were:  John Gottlieb Morris, surgeon, 
promoted from surgeon's mate, died in York in 1808; Leonard Bamagartel, resided 
in York County in 1835; John Glehmer, resided in York in 1828; Conrad Pudding, 
died in 1825; Conrad Stengle, died in York before 1826; Owen Cooley, York, March 
25, 1777; John Eurich, York, March 9, 1777; Adam Brandhefer, York, February 26, 
1777; John Michael Joch, January 25th, 1777.  Died in York County in 1849.

"During the time that Armand's Legion was in York his men were quartered in log 
houses at the northwest corner of Duke and Philadelphia Streets.  One row 
extended westward on Philadelphia and another north on Duke Street.

"...In February of the following year (1780) his command was incorporated with 
Pulaski's Legion and both participated in the southern campaign under Gates, 
whom he severely criticized for his inefficiency at the battle of Camden.  In 
1781 he went to France to procure clothing and accoutrements for his Legion, 
returning in time to take part in the battle of Yorktown and surrender of 
Cornwallis in October, 1781.

"After the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Armand's Legion, composed 
of about 200 Dragoons, accompanied Washington's Army to the vicinity of New 
York.  In February, 1783, Armand was ordered to report to General Greene in the 
southern department, and in December of the same year he came from Virginia to 
York.  While here he met Colonet Hartley, with whom part of his Legion had 
served in the expedition against the hostile Indians in northern Pennsylvania 
and southern New York.  Colonel Armand remained with his Legion for a period of 
eleven months.  Before his departure, in November, 1783, James Smith, Colonel 
Thomas Hartley, Archibald McLean, and others presented him with the following 
address:

YORK TOWN, November 18th, 1783

To Brigadier General Armand Marquis De La Rouberie:

Hearing that your Legion is about to be disbanded, and that you will soon return 
to your native country, we, the inhabitants of York, in Pennsylvania, express to      
you the high sense we entertain for the strict discipline, good conduct and 
deportment of the officers and soldiers of your corps, whilst stationed amongst 
us for ten months past.

We return to you our hearty thanks, as well for the attention you have paid to 
the property and civil rights of the people.  Be pleased to communicate our 
sentiments to Major Shaffner, and all your worthy officers, and assure them we 
shall ever hold them in the greatest esteem.

We pray that you may have an agreeable passage across the ocean, and that you 
may receive from your illustrious actions, performed in support of liberty and 
the liberty and the honor of the allied arms, and are with great regard your 
most &c. James Smith, Thomas Hartley, Archibald M'Clean and others.

General Armand made the following reply:

YORK, November 19th, 1783

Gentlemen:

I received your polite address of the 18th, and from its impression on my 
feelings, and of the officers and soldiers of the legion, I am truly happy in 
giving you our united and most hearty thanks.

If the legion has observed that good conduct, which merits the applause you give 
it, I conceive that in so doing, they have only discharged their duty, and 
obeyed punctually the orders and intention of His Excellency, Gen. Washington, 
whose exemplary virtues, talents and honor, must have raised ambition to some 
merit in those, who, like the corps I had the honor to command, placed their 
confidence in him.

Permit me to say, gentlemen, that soldiers cannot be guilty of misconduct where 
the inhabitants are kind to them, also are attached to the cause of their 
country, and so respectable as those of York.  I think it my duty to thank you, 
it was encouraged and supported by your conduct towards them.

I shall only add, that although the greater part of us will shortly return home, 
the conclusion of the war rendering our longer stay unnecessary, we shall be 
happy again to join the army of America, if in future our service should be 
deemed of importance.

I have the honor to be with ete.

ARMAND, MARQUIS DE LA ROUERIE.

(Geo. R. Prowell's History of York County, Vol. I, pp. 121-123.


THE FRENCH ALLIANCE

While the Cabal was defeated in York, the American Army at Valley Forge was 
being drilled by European officers secured by Silas Deane, most of them before 
the arrival of Franklin in France, December, 1776.  All of these officers--
Lafayette, de Kalb, von Steuben, l'Enfant, du Portail, Armand, Pulaski, etc., 
remained loyal to the Commander-in-Chief in this crisis.

The secret aid permitted by the French Government, which reached America in the 
spring of 1777, had enabled the army to hold its own in the field, ending in 
October in the victory of Saratoga.  The news of this victory brought to a 
conclusion the treaties between France and America.  The preliminary treaties 
were signed before the end of December and early in February, 1778, they were 
concluded.

The French Government immediately ordered one of its fastest sailing vessels, 
the Sensible, to make ready to carry the precious documents, entrusted to Simeon 
Deane, brother of Silas Deane, to America.  (See Sparks' Writings of Washington, 
Vol. V, p. 353.)  They arrived in Casco Bay, April 13th, whence the messenger 
proceeded to York.  En route Simeon Deane spread the glad tidings.  As he passed 
through Bethlehem, he sent a line to Washington at Valley Forge, and hurried on 
to York.

Mr. Prowell, in his History of York County, describes his arrival in York.  He 
says Simeon Deane crossed the Susquehanna at Wright's Ferry, reaching York at 3 
p.m., May 3.

"This was Saturday afternoon.  Congress had adjourned for that week.  
Immediately after Simeon Deane rode through Centre Square, Martin Brenise was 
ordered to ring the bell in the cupola of the Court House to call Congress 
together.

"There was great rejoicing among all of the delegates and the people of the 
town, for the arrival of this news meant even more than the decisive victory of 
the American Army at Saratoga, and the surrender of Burgoyne.

On Monday, May 4th, the Treaty of Alliance was unanimously adopted by Congress.  
A resolution was passed that "This Congress entertain the highest sense of the 
magnanimity and wisdom of his most Christian Majesty, for entering into a treaty 
with these United States, at Paris, on the 6th day of February last; and the 
commissioners, or any of them, representing these states at the Court of France 
are directed to present the grateful acknowledgements of this Congress to his 
most Christian Majesty, for his truly magnanimous conduct respecting these 
states in the said generous and disinterested treaties, and to assure his 
Majesty, on the part of Congress, it is sincerely wished that the friendship, so 
happily commenced between France and these United States may be perpetual."


CATHOLIC FRANCE, NOT PHILOSOPHIC
FRANCE, HELPED AMERICA

In the editorial sheet of the National Catholic News Service of Sept., 1927, 
Miss Elizabeth Kite thus describes the attitude of Catholic France:

"It would be absurd to suggest that either Louis XVI. or his Minister was 
without political ambitions.  With all their hearts they wished to see the 
balance restored between England and France.  They early saw in the insurrection 
of the Colonies the providential means of establishing that equilibrium which 
they knew would be to the advantage of all the world.  None the less, the basis 
of their policy was justice.  Finally, when it was decided to give assistance to 
the Colonies, it was with a generous not a grudging hand that it was given.  It 
was an act of true Christian charity in that it required faith; faith in 
humanity as well as in Almighty God.  What Protestant Prince would have dreamed 
of risking actual money in such an apparently hopeless cause as that of the 
Colonies seemed in 1778?  Frederick of Prussia?  No, not money, nor anything 
resembling material help, though historians have tried to make out that his 
friendliness amounted to practical aid.  It amounted to nothing of the kind.


SPAIN GIVES AID.

"Later on Protestant Holland made a loan, but only with French security! She had 
not faith enough to risk her money otherwise.  Spain, in 1776, gave a million 
for 'the service of the Colonies' and later made a loan, but then, Spain, too 
was Catholic.  And even in France those who accepted reason rather than faith as 
their guide, likewise denied aid to America.  When, in the spring of 1776, the 
Comte de Vergennes called together four members of the Cabinet of the King and 
laid before then his now famous 'Considerations,' in which was set forth the 
situation of France as regarded England and America, he requested from each 
member a memoir expressing an opinion.  Turgot, the great philosopher, the 
single anti-Catholic member of the Cabinet, was the only one who vetoed aid to 
the Colonies!  It was not philosophic France, but Catholic France, France of the 
old regime, that aided America.  It is to Catholic France that America owes her 
debt of gratitude."


MASS ON THE HIGH SEAS FOR THE
SUCCESS OF THE AMERICAN CAUSE

A few weeks later the government of Versailles ordered a fleet to be sent out to 
America, to lend its aid to the new nation.  At the same time it was determined 
further to strengthen the bond between the two countries by naming a minister 
who should reside at the seat of Congress.

This post was given to Conrad Alexandre Gerard, the secretary to Vergennes, 
minister of foreign affairs, who had successfully conducted the above 
negotiations.  Admiral d'Estaing was the commander of the fleet, centered at 
Toulon on the Mediterranean, that was to go out to America.

It was the 20th of May before all was in readiness.  At this date the vessels 
had been collected off the coast of Spain outside Gibraltar.  It was a moment of 
profound significance in the history of our independence.  The starting of the 
fleet was a virtual declaration of war in our favor, and this turning-point of 
the world's history was marked by the offering of a Mass on the high seas, 
asking the blessing of Heaven upon the united forces.

In the log of the Languedoc (the Admiral's ship) for May 20th, 1778, is the 
following entry:

"The general wished up to announce our destination that morning to all the fleet 
with the declaration of war, and at 9 o'clock, at the signal, all the captains 
opened their instructions.  The general had a Solemn High Mass said in order to 
begin by asking God to give us victory over our enemies.  M. le Cte. d'Estaing 
appeared in grand uniform, as also the officers and M. Gerard, whose title of 
Minister Plenipotentiary of his Very Christian Majesty to Congress, and Consul-
General, was thereby declared.  We decorated the ships, ran up flags at ten 
o'clock during the Mass which had been preceded by the blessing of a stack of 
arms.  At eleven M. le Cte. d'Estaing himself read in the presence of all, the 
new ordinance....The Equipage responded by cries of 'Vive le roi.' "(La 
Participation de la France dans l'Etablissement des Etats-Unis, H. Doniol, Vol. 
III, p. 233.)

At the news of the coming of the French fleet the British evacuated 
Philadelphia, withdrawing within their lines around New York.  Congress then 
left York and returned to Philadelphia on the 14th of July, 1778.  The fleet 
dropped anchor in Delaware Bay.  When the newly-appointed Minister stepped 
ashore at a point within the present site of the city of Chester, he was met by 
a delegation from Congress who conducted him to Philadelphia, where he was 
lodged in what had previously been the headquarters of General Howe.


FIRST CELEBRATION OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,
A "TE DEUM" BY ORDER OF THE FRENCH MINISTER

The Reports of Gerard, written at intervals of a few days each, during the 
period he resided in America (July, 1778-Sept., 1779) are a mine (as yet almost 
unworked) of Revolutionary history.

Being a practical and exemplary Catholic, his first act was to provide himself 
with a "good-living priest to reside at the legation of the King," chosen from 
the chaplains who accompanied the fleet.

At various times during his stay on occasions of public interest, the Catholic 
chapel of St. Mary's, Philadelphia, was used for divine service, in which the 
members of Congress, the military chiefs, and other persons of importance, 
united.

In Report No. 102, dated Philadelphia, July 6, 1779, Gerard writes to the French 
Foreign Misiter, the Count de Vergennes:

"Believing it to be conformable to the wishes of the King that I should give 
some public expression of joy on the occasion of the anniversary of the 
Declaration of Independence, which all America is celebrating, I could think of 
nothing more appropriate under the circumstances when a part of the populace of 
Philadelphia lack bread, that to have a Te Deum sung in the large Catholic 
Chapel which was loaned me for the purpose.  The solemnity took place yesterday.  
The members of Congress, the Executice Councils, the Magistrates, the Military 
Chiefs, attended with many of the principal citizens.  The ceremony seems to 
have given general satisfaction.  It is the first Te Deum that has ever been sun 
in the Thirteen States and it is believed that the eclat of it will have a good 
effect upon the Catholics of the place, many of whom are suspected of not being 
very deeply attached to the cause of America." (Trans. Elizabeth S. Kite.)


WASHINGTON ORDERS ARMY TO GIVE
THANKS FOR PROVIDENTIAL AID

Baron de Kalb, writing to the Prince de Broglie from Valley Forge, May 7, 1778, 
thus describes the celebration of the news of the French Alliance:

"The order from Congress to Gen. Washington for the rejoicing on account of the 
Alliance, came in the night of the 5th and the 6th.  As everything was prepared, 
its execution was not put off longer than the morning of the 6th.  The chaplains 
of the brigades read the precis of the treaty at the head of the camp, with a 
prayer of thanksgiving and a discourse.  The one that I heard at the second 
line, which I commanded that day and where Washington was present, was most 
eloquent, very touching, and all to the glory of the powerful Prince whom God 
has raised up to establish and protect a newly-born state.  I was singularly 
pleased with it.

"Three salvos of thirteen pieces of artillery (this number was fixed because of 
the thirteen Confederate States) and musketry was fired.  After the first they 
cried three times, 'Long live the King of France.'  After the second, 'Huzza for 
the powers of Europe, friends of America,' and after the third, 'Hurrah for the 
United States of America.'  On the return of the troops, all the officers of the 
army, invited to that effect by the Commander-in-Chief, assembled before the 
artillery park, where there were tents and tables spread for everybody.  The 
repast was merry.  There was a profusion of fat meat, strong wine and other 
liquor. All the soldiers of the army (ten thousand men strong) had an allowance 
of brandy.  Everyone is enchanted with the King's generosity.  They sing his 
praises; they vow to him an eternal and boundless gratitude.  They can hardly 
recover from the astonishment with this disinterestedness of the monarch has 
thrown them.  There is no doubt of the sincerity of their feelings.  The Tories 
even know not what to say, because it is so noble, so sublime, and so far above 
any hope they could conceive that their joy is inexpressible.  All hearts 
therefore seem to belong to Louis XVI."  (Stevens, Facsimiles, No. 7.)

Washington received the official information of the Alliance from the President 
of Congress several hours after writing the orders for the day for May 8, 1778.  
Under the caption "After Orders," the following appears in the "Order Book of 
the Revolution ":

"AFTER ORDERS, MAY 5, 1778.

"It having pleased the Almighty Ruler of the Universe propitiously to defend the 
cause of the United American States and finally by raising us up a powerful 
Friend among the Princes of the Earth to establish our Liberty and Independence 
upon lasting foundations, it becomes us to set apart a day for gratefully 
acknowledging the divine Goodness and celebrating the important Event which we 
owe to his benign Interposition." (Here follow the orders described in the above 
letter of Baron de Kalb.)


MONEY FOR AMERICAN CAUSE THE
GIFT OF THE FRENCH CLERGY

Before closing this brief account of the aid of Catholic France in establishing 
our independence, it is of interest to note that a very large part of the sums 
of money given to America or loaned to her by the French King, as well as the 
other vast sums in the prosecution of the war by the French themselves, was a 
gift of the French Clergy.

In the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 796, will be found the following:

"The Clergy (of France) who had raised sixteen million livres ($3,200,000.00) in 
1779, gave thirty million more ($6,000,000.00) in 1780 for the expenses of the 
French Government in the war for American Independence, to which they added, in 
1782, sixteen million, and in 1785, eighteen millions."  (Taken from Manuscripts 
and Archives nationales series G8, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.)


THE FRENCH CLERGY'S GIFT TO AMERICA
From an address made by Professor Thomas Dwight in Fancuil Hall, Boston, 
January, 1907.

On May 25, 1905, Rt. Rev. John S. Michaud, D.D., Bishop of Burlington, Vermont, 
called our attention to the subject, calling it "a vital event in our history 
and when every assistance, no matter how small or great, should not be forgotten 
by us.  Look it up and see if the goods were delivered or not.  In either case, 
the good intention was there on the part of the French clergy."  A priest in 
Paris had, twelve or fifteen years before, called the Bishop's attention to the 
matter, saying:  "The French clergy, in spite of their royalistic ideas, was the 
supporter of the War of Independence without even a word of censure for the 
democratic principles expressed in said Declaration.  The French clergy, 
therefore, has done its share for your independence."

Investigation was made.  The record is herewith presented, showing the 
deliberations and action of the clergy of France met in General Assembly:  "The 
Minutes of the General Assembly of the French Clergy, held at Paris, in the 
Convent of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine (Grands Augustins), in the year 
1780," published some two years later in a very portly volume that is now a 
great rarity, is a rather out-of-the-way place in which to find material 
relating to Catholics and of the American Revolution.  A copy of the work is not 
in the Library of Congress, the Harvard College Library, the Boston Public 
Library, the New York Public Library, the University of Pennsylvania or other 
American institutions where sought.  Examination made in the National Library at 
Paris secured the transcript used in the preparation of the following account:

Without the aid given by France the cause of England's revolted colonies was a 
hopeless one, for that time at least; and without the timely aid given by the 
Church to the French monarchy, that government might not have been able to 
continue the war to a successful issue.  This episode, not known or ignored by 
historians, is well worth recording.  It is related here in the very language of 
the official record.

By royal decree dated October 30, 1779, the regular quinquennial Assembly of the 
French Clergy was called to meet on Monday, May 29, of the following year.  The 
first meeting was held on the date assigned, at which a committee on credentials 
was appointed.  The Assembly consisted of two delegates from each of the sixteen 
ecclesiastical provinces, one for the Hierarchy and one for the lower clergy.  
At the second session, on the 31st, this committee reported the following 
delegates as duly qualified.  All should be numbered among those who aided in 
gaining American Independence:

Province of Rouen.--Cardinal Dominique de la Rochefoucauld, Primate of Normandy, 
etc., and Very Rev. Canon Pierre Charles Honore Bridelle, his Vicar-General.

Toulouse.--Archbishop Etienne Charles de Lomenie de Brienne, and his Vicar-
General, V. Rev. Siegnelai Colbert de Castehil.

Reims.--Most Rev. Alexandre Angelique de Tallyrand-Perigord, Archbishop-Duke, 
hereditary Legate of the Holy See and Primate of Belgic Gaul, and his Vicar-
General, V. Rev. Canon Francois Louis Casimir de Lageard.

Aix.--Its Archbishop, Most Rev. Jean-de-Dieu Raimond de Boisgelin, and his 
Vicar-General, V. Rev. Melchoir de Forbin; and in addition, as general agent of 
the clergy, V. Rev. Thomas Pierre Antoine de Boisgelin, of the Diocese of St. 
Brieux, and honorary C.G. of Aix.

Arles.--Most Rev. Jean Marie Dulau, Primate and Prince, and R. Rev. Henri 
Charles Dulau d'Allemans, of the Diocese of Perigaux, Hon. V. G. of Rouen.

Auch.--Archbishop Claude Marc Antoine d'Apchon, Lord of Auch and Primate of 
Novempopulania and Navarre, and V. Rev. Canon Marc Antoine Frederic de Gautier 
de Montguers, V. G. of Couserans.

Sens.--Rt. Rev. Jean Antoine Timsequ, Bishop of Nevers, and V. Rev. Canon Adrien 
de Robien, V. G. of Auxerre.

Lyones.--Rt. Rev. Gabriel Francois Moreau, Bishop of Macon, and V. Rev. Louis 
Marie Pierre de Denays de Queynadeue, V. G. of Chalon.

Narbonne.--Rt. Rev. Charles Francois Simon Vermadois de Saint-Simon-Rouvroy-
Sandricourt, Bishop and Count of Agde, and V. Rev. Gabriel Cortois de Pressigny, 
V. G. of Langres.

Albi.--Rt. Rev Jean Marc de Royere, Lord and Baron of Ferrieres, Bishop of 
Castres, and V. Rev. Louis Marie Regis de Berard de Montalet-Alais, V. G. of 
Cambrai.

Tours.--Rt. Rev. Urbain Rene de Herce, Bishop and Count of Dol, and V. Rev. 
Francois de Herce, his V. G.; agent, V. Rev. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-
Perigord, V. G. of Reims.

Bordeaux.--Rt. Rev. Jean Louis D.Usson de Bonnac, Bishop of Agen, and V. Rev. 
Armand Joseph de Rangouse de Beauregard, his V. G.

Embrun.--Rt. Rev Antoine Rene de Bardonenche, of the Diocese of Grenoble.

Vienne.--Rt. Rev. Fiacre Francois de Graves, Bishop and Count of Valence, and V. 
Rev. Canon Aime Francoise de Corbeau de Saint-Albin, V. G. of Vienne.

Bourges.--Rt. Rev. Francois de Bonac, Bishop of Clermont and Count of Brioudes 
and V. Rev. Joseph de Galard-Saldebru, V. G. of Lectoure.

Paris.--Rt. Rev. Alexandre Amedee de Lauzieres Themines, Bishop of Blois, and V. 
Rev. Canon Francois Charles Chevreuil, Chancellor of the University and V. G. of 
Paris.

Cardinal de Rochefoucauld was elected President, and as Vice-Presidents the 
Archbishops of Toulouse and Reims and the Bishops of Nevers, Macon and Agde.  
Two former agents, the Abbes de Jarente and de la Rouchefaucauld, were chosen as 
Promoter and Secretary respectively.  The various committees were not appointed 
until June 6.

It was at the sixth session, two days later (Thursday, June 8, 1780), that the 
subject with which we are here concerned was broached.  On that occasion a 
letter from the King was read announcing that he had sent to the Assembly three 
commissioners to communicate a special request in connection with the enormous 
cost which the war with England in behalf of the revolted American colonies had 
entailed.  After the reading of this letter the senior royal commissioner, M. 
Feydeau de Marville, addressed the Assembly as follows:

"You are aware of the constant care which the King has taken since his accession 
to the throne to make his subjects happier and to perfect the administration of 
his kingdom, and you have approved of the measures his wisdom has adopted to 
carry out plans so important.

"We would have reaped in the most efficacious manner the fruits of his paternal 
solicitude, had not the increase of revenues which his Majesty has secured by 
his plans of order and economy been devoted to guaranteeing the interest made 
necessary by the conduct of the war; but we should none the less be filled with 
gratitude for the arrangements that have until now preserved the peoples from 
additional taxes.  At the same time an expensive war is being carried on in all 
parts of the world, and the most formidable navy that France has even had has 
come into being through solicitude equally glorious to the King, consoling to 
his subjects, and alarming to his enemies.  But the need of fresh resources and 
the obligation of husbanding the various branches of credit has impressed upon 
you in advance, gentlemen, the service your zeal can render to his Majesty.

"You have been in the habit of giving testimony to this effect; and it is a 
striking mark of confidence, enhanced by that with which his Majesty has been 
inspired by the knowledge of the fidelity and zeal of your illustrious head, 
that the King invites you to share in the success of his arms, so as to hasten 
the return of peace, which will ever be the first object of his desires.

"His Majesty, having weighed what he had reason to expect from your devotedness 
to his interests and glory, and what in the present circumstances the needs of 
the State demands, feels convinced that nothing would better comply with his 
wishes than the request he has commanded us to make of you of a voluntary free 
gift of thirty million livres ($6,000,000); but at the same time his Majesty has 
authorized us to announce to you that it is the intention to come to your aid, 
by paying into your receiver's treasury a million a year for fourteen years, 
beginning with 1781.  This pledge will be couched in the most solemn forms, and 
the King is disposed to adopt those which you may see fit to prefer.

"Such a sum, thus returned every year to your treasury, will, as it were in 
advance, considerably reduce the amount of the gratuity he has asked of you, 
without in his estimation diminishing the value of your efforts; and it is with 
pleasure, no doubt, that you will, on an occasion of such moment to the State, 
turn to account the credit which the wisdom of your administration and his 
Majesty's constant protection have so justly merited for you.

"The promptness and ease with which your loan will be effected, by sustaining 
and animating the general credit, will give his Majesty's enemies a fresh proof 
of the abundance of his means and the extent of his resources, especially, if by 
your eagerness to defer to his Majesty's request, you uphold in the mind of the 
nation that confidence in his justice and wisdom which, while war is raging, 
constitutes his strength and consolation."

To this appeal the Cardinal President made answer:

"At all times the clergy have regarded and will ever regard as one of their most 
sacred duties that of proving their zeal for the service of the King and the 
interests of the Fatherland.  A mere glance cast at the accumulated debts and 
the enormous obligations they have contracted justifies their great efforts for 
the needs of the State; they will glory in not letting these sentiments be 
changed by any circumstance; but, however well disposed they may be to give the 
most striking proofs of this at the present time, they see with regret, 
gentlemen, that they cannot disguise from you the surprise and astonishment 
aroused in them by the request you have just made.  Their annals present no 
similar example, even in the most critical times.  Animated, however, with the 
desire to give the King a mark of our respect and devotedness, and disposed to 
make the greatest sacrifices to please him and to comply with his beneficent 
views, we will examine as to what are the burdens which the clergy can 
undertake, what relation they bear to our duties and abilities, and we will lose 
no time in informing you of the result of our deliberation."

The royal commissioners having then withdrawn, the Abbe de Jarente thus 
addressed the Assembly:

"My ministry would seem easy to you if there was now question of inviting you to 
lavish of your own property; but you are the careful guardians of that of the 
Church.  Excessive and multiplied gifts, a debt already enormous, revenues 
impaired by lack of circulation, and the needs of the pastors, whose claims will 
be submitted to you, seem to impose a just moderation on your liberalities.  Now 
when the people hear war spoken of only to bless the wisdom that has relieved 
the taxes with a beneficent economy, the clergy alone feel demands that would 
astonish even those most clever in exaggerating their resources.  My zeal for 
the Fatherland forbids me language that your position would perhaps make 
necessary.

"But, full of confidence in your noble efforts to find means which I am very far 
from seeing, I like to nurse a general illusion on seeing France battling for 
the common cause, and, by a glorious distinction the clergy alone called to the 
honor of contributing to the freedom of commerce and security on the high seas.  
I ask, my lords and gentlemen, that you deliberate by provinces on the request 
that the royal commissioners have just made in his Majesty's name."

The President then asked the members of the Assembly to consider the source of 
the request while discussing the subject.  Consequently, as well on the matter 
as on the form, profound and ripe reflections were made, as well as very 
judicious observations on an object so important and one which by its very 
nature merited closest attention.  After these examinations and discussions the 
provinces were called; and it was unanimously agreed to tell the King's 
commissioners that the Assembly, filled with the constant zeal that ever 
animated the clergy for the King's service, were disposed, on an occasion on 
which they felt the greatest efforts might be necessary, to give his Majesty the 
most striking proofs of this, but the enormous amount of the sum he had asked of 
them, and the nature of the pledges he designed to propose to them, requiring of 
them an examination in keeping with the confidence of the provinces, and 
justifying to their own minds the excess of their zeal by the knowledge of their 
means, they hoped that the King would understand why at that time they reached 
no definite conclusion, but yet, so as not to injure his Majesty's service, they 
authorized their receiver-general to accept the amounts that would be offered to 
him.  Word was then sent to the royal commissioners of what had been done, and 
the session closed.

The subject was brought up again only at the ninth session on Monday, June 12, 
when the Archbishop of Toulouse made a luminous report from the committee to 
which it had been referred and which unanimously recommended the grant.  After 
some discussion of the report, the roll was called by provinces, and all voted 
in the affirmative.  The recorder of the minutes then states:

"In consequence the Assembly, persuaded as much by the vastness of the sum asked 
of it by the disposition which the Government has designed to make her known to 
it, that it is his Majesty's intention not to call upon the clergy for any 
extraordinary aid during the course of the present war; reassured as to such 
requests by the principles even of the administration, pursued by his Majesty, 
principles which would not permit him, for the sake of a slight advantage, to 
risk the reputation of his resources, and to sacrifice a valuable credit that 
can be upheld only as long as it is well handled; considering that the present 
circumstances may make useful an extraordinary effort that impresses his 
Majesty's enemies by making known to them the immense resources which he can 
find in the love of his subjects and the confidence of the various orders of his 
State; touched especially by the wisdom and goodness of his Majesty, who has 
hitherto succeeded in meeting the cost of an expensive war without imposing new 
taxes; and full of the hope so consoling to the shepherds of the peoples, that 
if their gifts cannot wholly obviate these imposts, they can at least lighten 
their burden or defer the time when they must be made; so confiding in his 
Majesty's justice that he will not, without apply a remedy, learn of the many 
impairments and encroachments of every sort experienced and further threatened 
by the property of the clergy, which cannot be lessened or encumbered without 
diminishing the source of their gifts and weakening the security of their 
pledges; the Assembly, actuated by these considerations, having, after a 
reasonable delay, justified to itself and to the provinces whose interests have 
been confided to it a deliberation which cannot serve as an example, as it has 
not itself furnished one, has thought it could shut its eyes as well to the 
condition of the affairs of the clergy exhausted by their gifts as to the excess 
of the request that has been made of it; and happily, on so interesting an 
occasion, to give to the King a striking proof of its devotedness and fidelity, 
it has unanimously agreed to grant to his a sum of thirty million livres 
($6,000,000) as a gratuity, subject to the clauses and conditions of the 
contract which will be concluded between his Majesty and the clergy and also to 
accept the offer that has been made to it through the royal commissioners of one 
million a year for fourteen years, and in regard to the forms that may be 
followed in the turning over of this million, the terms of which his Majesty has 
deigned to leave to the choice of the Assembly, it has referred the details to 
the commissioners of the old bonds, as well as those of the use to be made of 
this million and of the means by which the Assembly may meet the payment of the 
gratuity."

It was at the same time decided to lay before the King a list of the grievances 
on which the Assembly was to present memorials to his Majesty.  The presiding 
Cardinal said:  "That it was to the point to inform the King of the deliberation 
which the Assembly had just reached, and that, if agreeable to it, he would have 
the honor of writing his Majesty, and would entrust the Abbe de Perigord with 
his letter; which was agreed to."

The grant was really larger than at first sight appears; for the Church had to 
raise the money by the sale of the bonds on the security of its realty.  These 
bonds for the first year bore five per cent interest, and four per cent 
afterwards; while the million a year paid back out of the income of the royal 
farms from October 1, 1781, was only three and a third per cent.  And even this 
was cut off by the Revolution of 1789.