| First bishop of the hierarchy of the United States of America,
first Bishop and Archbishop of Baltimore, b. at Upper Marlboro,
Md., 8 Jan., 1735; died in Baltimore, 3 Dec., 1815. His father,
Daniel, born in Ireland, settled at Upper Marlboro, where he
became a merchant, and married Eleanor Darnall, a relative of the
wife of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. She was very rich and had
been well educated in France. Their first son died in infancy;
their second, Daniel, figured prominently in Revolutionary
history. John, their third son, was probably baptized at Boone's
Chapel, now Rosaryville, Maryland. When twelve years of age, he
went to the Jesuits' grammar school at Bohemia in Cecil Co.,
Maryland, where he was "assiduous in study, pious and amiable".
After one year there, he went abroad to St. Omer's College in
French Flanders, and for six years pursued a liberal education
with "marked capability of mind, attention to studies and docility
and kindness of manner". His father died in 1750, and in 1753 John
Carroll joined the Society of Jesus. In 1755 he began his studies
of philosophy and theology at Liege, and after fourteen years
(1769) was ordained priest at the age of thirty-four. The next
four years he spent at St.-Omer and at Liege teaching philosophy
and theology. During the winter of 1772-3 Father Carroll travelled
through Europe as preceptor, with the son of Lord Stourton. Upon
his return to England he was, for a short time the guest and
chaplain of Lord Arundell at Wardour Castle. This year, 1773, Pope
Clement XIV issued (21 July) and published (16 August) at Rome,
the Bull suppressing and dissolving the Society of Jesus. This
news reached Father Carroll 5 September, and after writing a
vindication of the Society he had to provide for his future course
of life. In the following spring he returned (26 June) to Maryland
and hastened to his mother's home at Rock Creek, with whom and
other intimates he had faithfully corresponded while in Europe. As
a result of laws discriminating against Catholics, there was then
no public Catholic Church in Maryland, so Father Carroll began the
life of a missionary in Maryland and Virginia. He built a tiny
frame chapel on his mother's estate and here on Sundays (in her
house on weekdays) he said Mass when at home. During the next two
years he devoted the time left from his devotions to the study of
ancient literature and current topics in order to increase his
knowledge; yet he did not neglect his social obligations. Apropos
of his support at that time he himself wrote: "Catholics
contributed nothing to the support of religion in its ministers;
the whole maintenance fell on the priests themselves. . .the
produce of their lands was sufficient to answer their demands."
In 1776, when a committee composed of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel
Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton was about to be sent by
the Continental Congress to seek the neutrality of Canada during
the War of Independence, "by a special resolution (Feb. 15)
Charles Carroll of Carrollton was requested to prevail on Mr. John
Carroll to accompany the committee to Canada, to assist them in
such matters as they shall think useful". He accepted the
honourable office, and spent the remainder of the winter in
Canada; he found, however (Shea, Life and Times of the Most Rev.
John Carroll, New York, 1888, 148-53), that it was too late to
discuss the question of union with the revolted colonies, or even
neutrality, and returned to New York at the end of May in company
with Benjamin Franklin. His influence on his fellow-countrymen
even at this period may be surmised from the fact that, though out
of the constitutions adopted by the Thirteen States, only four did
away with the old Penal Laws and allowed Catholics absolute
equality with other citizens, yet these (Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Virginia, and Maryland) were situated nearest to Father Carroll.
During these years he chose to live with his mother, then seventy
years old, and refused to accept an assignment elsewhere by Father
Lewis, formerly Superior of the Jesuits in Maryland, and now
Vicar-General of the Vicar Apostolic of London (or the Western
District). Father Lewis, however, did not consider him entitled to
support from the income of the property belonging to the Jesuits,
although he had to labour very hard, often riding twenty-five
miles on sick-calls. (Shea, op. Cit., 85-86); Campbell in U.S.
Cath. Magazine, Baltimore, 1844, III, 364,365.)
When the war was over Carroll and five other priests met at
Whitemarsh, Md., 27 June, 1783, to discuss ways and means to carry
on their missionary work and hold their property intact. They held
a second meeting 6 November, 1783, and a third 11 October, 1784,
at the same place, when they formulated the draft of the
regulations binding all the clergy of Maryland. Thereby every
priest was maintained and given thirty pounds a year, and each
priest agreed to offer ten Masses for every priest who died there.
The adopted the following:
"It is the opinion of a majority of the chapter that a
superior 'in spiritualibus', with powers to give
Confirmation, grant faculties, dispensations, bless oils,
etc., is adequate to the present exigencies of religion in
this country. Resolved therefore,
"1st, That a bishop is at present unnecessary.
"2nd, that if one is sent it is decided by the majority of
the chapter that he shall not be entitled to any support from
the present estates of the clergy.
"3rd, That a committee of three be appointed to prepare and
give an answer to Rome conformable to the above resolution."
In response to a petition sent by the Maryland clergy to Rome, 6
November, 1783, for permission for the missionaries here to
nominate a superior who should have some of the powers of a
bishop, Father Carroll, having been selected, was confirmed by the
pope, 6 June, 1784, as Superior of the Missions in the thirteen
United States of North America, with power to give confirmation.
He was asked to send a report of the state of Catholicity in the
United States. This same year a minister named Charles Henry
Wharton, a Marylander, an ex-Jesuit, and distant relative of
Father Carroll, attacked the Church, and was answered by Carroll
in "An Address to the Roman Catholics of the United States of
North America". Its aim and spirit may be gauged from one of its
passages wherein Carroll said: "General and equal toleration, by
giving a free circulation to fair argument, is a most effectual
method to bring all denominations of Christians to an unity of
faith." The work was published at Annapolis in 1784, and is the
first Catholic work written by an American Catholic published in
the United States. Father Carroll was, all the while, distracted,
personally wishing the rehabilitation of the Society of Jesus and
to remain himself a Jesuit. But officially seeing the need of a
bishop, and that too an American, he decided to accept the pope's
appointment of himself, and forthwith as Prefect Apostolic sent
(Feb., 1785), to Cardinal Antonelli, his acceptance of that
office, but urged that some method of appointing church
authorities be adopted by Rome that would not make it appear as if
they were receiving their appointment from a foreign power. A
report of the status of Catholics in Maryland was appended to his
letter, where he stated that 9000 were freemen, 3000 children, and
3000 negro slaves; that some of the more prominent families,
despite the dearth of priests (there being then only nineteen in
Maryland) were still Catholics in faith, sufficiently religious,
though prone to dancing and novel-reading. The pope was so pleased
with Father Carroll's report that he granted his request "that the
priests in Maryland be allowed to suggest two or three names from
which the Pope would choose their bishop". In the meanwhile Father
Carroll took up his residence in Baltimore (1786-7), where even
Protestants were charmed by his sermons delivered in old St.
Peter's church. He took an active part in municipal affairs,
especially in establishing schools, Catholic and non-Catholic,
being president of the Female Humane Charity School of the City of
Baltimore, one of three trustees for St. John's College at
Annapolis, founder of Georgetown College (1791), head of the
Library Company, the pioneer of the Maryland Historical Society,
and President of the trustees of Baltimore College (1803).
He represented to Congress the need of a constitutional
provision for the protection and maintenance of religious liberty,
and doubtless to him, in part, is due the provision in Article
Sixth, Section 3, of the Constitution, which declares that "no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any
office or public trust under the United States", and also the
first amendment, passed this same year by the first Congress, that
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: (for a more
cautious view see SHEA, op. cit., 348).
Church troubles, Trusteeism in New York, and Nationalism in
Philadelphia, at this time decided the priests of Maryland (March,
1788) to petition Rome for a bishop for the United States.
Cardinal Antonelli replied, allowing the priests on the mission to
select the city and, for this case only, to name the candidate for
presentation to the pope. Twenty-four of the twenty-five other
priests in the meeting voted for Father Carroll. Accordingly on 6
November, 1789, Pope Pius VI appointed him bishop. His
consecration took place in Mr. Weld's chapel at Lulworth Castle,
England, 15 August, 1790, at the hands of the Rt. Rev. Charles
Walmesley, Senior Vicar Apostolic of England. Bishop Carroll
returned to Baltimore in triumph, 7 December, when he preached an
appropriate and touching sermon in St. Peter's church. Troubles in
Boston required him soon to go thither, where he removed much
prejudice.
In common with their fellow-citizens, the Catholics of the
United States hailed with joy the election of George Washington as
first president under the new Constitution. Before the
inauguration Bishop Carroll, on behalf of the Catholic clergy,
united with the representatives of the Catholic laity (Charles
Carrollton, and Daniel Carroll of Maryland, Dominick Lynch of New
York, and Thomas FitzSimons of Pennsylvania) in an address of
congratulation, admirable for its sentiments of exalted patriotism
["An Address from the Roman Catholics of America to George
Washington, Esq., President of the United States", London, 1790,
fol.; reprint New York, 1865, facsimile and notes; see Shea,
op.cit. , 349-50, and ibid., the memorable and cordial reply of
Washington (12 March, 1790) "To the Roman Catholics of the United
States", in which he says: "I presume that your fellow-citizens
will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the
accomplishment of their Revolution, and the establishment of your
Government, or the important assistance which they received from a
nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed." The
original of this reply is preserved in the Archives of the
Archbishop of Baltimore]. It may not be out of place to quote here
the noble words of Bishop Carroll himself, addressed (10 June,
1789) to a maligner of Catholics: "Their blood flowed as freely
(in proportion to their numbers) to cement the fabric of
independence as that of any of their fellow-citizens. They
concurred with perhaps greater unanimity than any other body of
men in recommending and promoting that government from whose
influence America anticipates all the blessings of justice, peace,
plenty, good order, and civil and religious liberty" (Brent, 97,
see below; Shea, op.cit., 153).
On 7 Nov., 1791, he held the First Synod of Baltimore, attended
by twenty-two priests of five nationalities. To train priests for
his diocese of three million square miles, Bishop Carroll had
asked the Fathers of the Company of Saint Sulpice to come to
Baltimore, where they arrived in 1791 and started the nucleus of
St. Mary's College and Seminary. Bishop Carroll issued his first
pastoral letter 28 March, 1792; very practical, yet tender,
appealing for support for the clergy by means of the offertory
collections. In 1793 for the first time, Bishop Carroll conferred
Holy orders, the recipient being the Rev. Stephen Badin, the first
priest ordained within the limits of the original thirteen of the
United States. In 1795, he ordained to the priesthood Prince
Demetrius Gallitzin who was to add 6,000 converts to his flock. In
1798, Bishoop Carroll won an interesting and important lawsuit,
the famous Fromm Case (Shea, op.cit., 448-5), in which Judge
Addison, President of the Court of Common Pleas of the Fifth
Circuit of Pennsylvania, decided that "The Bishop of Baltimore has
the sole episcopal authority over the Catholic Church of the
United States. Every Catholic congregation within the United
States is subject to his inspection; and without authority from
him no Catholic priest can exercise any pastoral function over any
congregation within the United States." In 1792, says Shea
(op.cit., 486-7) he interceded with Washington in regard to
missions among the Indians; eventually the president recommended
to Congress a civilizing and Christianizing policy among the
Indians, one result of which was the acceptance of the services of
a Catholic priest, to whom a small yearly salary was allowed.
After the death of Washington, Bishop Carroll "issued a circular
to his clergy (29 Dec., 1799) in regard to the celebration of the
22d of February as a day of mourning, giving directions for such
action as would be in conformity with the spirit of the Church,
while attesting to the country the sorrow and regret experienced
by Catholics at the great national loss" (Shea, op.cit., 495).
Having been invited by the unanimous resolution of Congress, in
common with the clergy of all denominations and congregations of
Christians throughout the United States, he preached a panegyric
of the president in St. Peter's church in Baltimore, 22 February,
1800, which was regarded by all who heard it, or read it in print
(Baltimore, 1800), says Shea, (op.cit., 495), as one of the most
masterly which were uttered on that day. Episcopal orders were
conferred for the first time in the United States by Bishop
Carroll on Bishop Neale, his coadjutor, with right of succession
to the See of Baltimore. Plans for building his cathedral now
occupied Bishop Carroll's mind, and on 7 July, 1806, he laid the
corner-stone on ground bought for $20,000, and the seventh design
of the architect, B.H. Latrobe, was accepted.
In 1808, Bishop Carroll became Archbishop, with suffragan sees
at New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown. At a meeting
held in Baltimore in 1810, Archbishop Carroll, with Bishop Neale
and three of his suffragans, drew up some important regulations
for the welfare and direction of their clergy and people (See
BALTIMORE, PROVINCIAL COUNCILS OF). Owing to ill-health Archbishop
Carroll had to decline the proffered honour of laying the
corner-stone of Washington's Monument in Baltimore, in the autumn
of 1815. His end was now approaching. To a Protestant minister who
said to the dying prelate that his hopes were now directed to
another world, Archbishop Carroll replied: "Sir, my hopes have
been always fixed on the Cross of Christ". A short while after he
said, "Of those things that give me most consolation at the
present moment, one is that I have always been attached to the
practice of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary; that I have
established it among the people under my care, and placed my
diocese under her protection." On 22 November he received the last
sacraments, after which he made a touching discourse to the
priests present. "The whole population of Baltimore", said a
letter from a relative, were "constantly calling to inquire about,
and to urge permission to see him." The funeral Mass was offered
in St. Peter's pro-Cathedral and the body temporarily laid in the
chapel of St. Mary's Seminary till 1824, when the cathedral crypt
was ready for the deposit it still guards.
"Archbishop Carroll, though of low stature, had a commanding
and dignified appearance", wrote the Rev. Dr. C. I. White. "The
configuration of his head, his whole mein, bespoke the
metropolite. . . . He wrote them (Latin, Italian and French) not
less readily and tersely than his own. He mingled often in gay
society, relished the festivities of polished life, and the
familiar intercourse of both clergy and laity of the Protestant
denomination. He was wholly free from guile, uniformly frank,
generous and placable; he reprobated all intolerance. . . . He
ranked and voted with the Federalist party. He loved
republicanism. His manners were mild, impressive and urbane."
A Baltimore paper of the day said of the burial: "We have never
witnessed a funeral procession where so many of eminent
respectability and standing among us followed the train of
mourners. Distinctions of rank, of wealth, of religious opinion
were laid aside in the great testimony of respect to the memory of
the man." Another Baltimore paper said: "In him religion assumed
its most attractive and amiable form, and his character
conciliated for the body over which he presided, respect and
consideration from the liberal, the enlightened of all ranks and
denominations; for they saw that his life accorded with the benign
doctrines of that religion which he professed. In controversy he
was temperate yet compelling, considerate yet uncompromising.
Brent says he had "sound judgment, real piety and pre-eminent
talents". "The discourses from the pulpit, and the pastoral
letters of Archbishop Carroll were alike distinguished for their
unction and classical taste. His voice being naturally feeble, the
exertions which he made to be distinctly heard from the pulpit
rendered his elocution less agreeable there than in other
situations requiring less force of lungs. His colloquial powers
and resources were great and rich, and his kind and benignant
feelings always prompted him to apply them to the best of
advantage. There was an irresistible charm and elegance indeed in
his conversations."
The archives of the Baltimore cathedral contain the original
Brief making Father Carroll Superior of the Missions in the United
States, and erecting the See of Baltimore and appointing bishop
Carroll, copies of the Briefs raising Baltimore to an
archiepiscopal see and conferring the pallium on Bishop Carroll,
also very many of his official and private letters, etc.
LOUIS O'DONOVAN
Transcribed by John Looby
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