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The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints

A >> Alban Butler >> The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints




At a very early age our author was sent to a school in Lancashire, and
there applied himself to his studies with that unremitted application
which, in every part of his life, he gave to literature. Sacred
biography was even then his favorite pursuit. A gentleman, lately
deceased, mentioned to the editor that he remembered him at this school,
and frequently heard him repeat, with a surprising minuteness of fact,
and precision of chronology, to a numerous and wondering audience of
little boys, the history of the chiefs and saints of the Saxon aera of
our history. He then also was distinguished for his piety, and a
punctual discharge of his religious duties. About the age of eight years
he was sent to the English college at Douay. It appears, from the diary
of that college, that Mr. Holman, of Warkworth, (whose memory, for his
extensive charities, is still in benediction in Oxfordshire and
Northamptonshire,) became security for the expenses of his education.
About this time he lost his father and mother. The latter, just before
she died, wrote to him and his two brothers the following beautiful
letter:

"MY DEAR CHILDREN.

"Since it pleases Almighty God to take me out of this world, as no doubt
wisely foreseeing I am no longer a useful parent to you, (for no person
ought to be thought necessary in this world when God thinks proper to
take them out;) so I hope you will offer the loss of me with a
resignation suitable to the religion you are of, and offer {016}
yourselves. He who makes you orphans so young, without a parent to take
care of you, will take you into his protection and fatherly care, if you
do love and serve him who is the author of all goodness. Above all
things, prepare yourselves while you are young to offer patiently what
afflictions he shall think proper to lay upon you, for it is by this he
trieth his best servants. In the first place, give him thanks for your
education in the true faith, (which many thousands want;) and then I beg
of you earnestly to petition his direction what state of life you shall
undertake, whether be for religion, or to get your livings in the world.
No doubt but you may be saved either way, if you do your duty to God,
your neighbor, and yourselves. And I beg of you to make constant
resolutions rather to die a thousand times, if possible, than quit your
faith; and always have in your thoughts what you would think of were you
as nigh death as I now think myself. There is no preparation for a good
death but a good life. Do not omit your prayers, and to make an act of
contrition and examen of conscience every night, and frequent the
blessed sacraments of the church. I am so weak I can say no more to you,
but I pray God bless and direct you, and your friends to take care of
you. Lastly, I beg of you never to forget to pray for your poor father
and mother when they are not capable of helping themselves: so I take
leave of you, hoping to meet you in heaven, to be happy for all
eternity.

"Your affectionate mother,
"ANN BUTLER."

Though our author's memory for the recollection of dates was, in his
very earliest years, remarkable, he found, when he first came to the
college, great difficulty in learning his lessons by heart; so that, to
enable him to repeat them in the school as well as the other boys, he
was obliged to rise long before the college hour. By perseverance,
however, he overcame this disheartening difficulty. Even while he was in
the lowest schools, he was respected for his virtue and learning. One of
his school-fellows writes thus of him: "The year after Mr. Alban
Butler's arrival at Douay, I was placed in the same school, under the
same master, he being in the first class of rudiments, as it is there
called, and I in the lowest. My youth and sickly constitution moved his
innate goodness to pay me every attention in his power; and we soon
contracted an intimacy that gave me every opportunity of observing his
conduct, and of being fully acquainted with his sentiments. No one
student in the college was more humble, more devout, more exact in every
duty, more obedient or mortified. He was never reproved or punished but
once; and then for a fault of which he was not guilty. This undeserved
treatment he received with silence, patience, and humility. In the hours
alloted to play he rejoiced in the meanest employments assigned to him
by his companions, as to fetch their balls, run on their errands, &c.
&c. Though often treated with many indignities by his thoughtless
companions, on purpose to try his patience, he never was observed to
show the lest resentment, but bore all with meekness and patience. By
the frequent practice of these virtues he had attained so perfect
evenness of temper, that his mind seemed never ruffled with the least
emotion of anger. He restricted himself in every thing to the strictest
bounds of necessity. Great part of his monthly allowance of
pocket-money, and frequently of his daily food, went to the poor. So
perfectly had he subjected the flesh to the spirit, that he seemed to
feel no resistance from his senses in the service of God and his
neighbor."

As he advanced in age his learning and virtue became more and more
conspicuous. Monsieur Pellison,[1] in his life of the famous Huet,
bishop of Avranches, observes, that "from his tenderest youth he gave
himself to study; that at his rising, his going to bed, and during his
meal, he was reading, or had others to read to him; that neither the
fire of youth, the interruption of business, the variety of his
employments, the society of his friends, nor the bustle of the world,
could ever moderate his ardor of study." The same may be said of our
author. He generally allowed himself no more than four hours sleep, and
often passed whole nights in study and prayer. All his day was spent in
reading. When he was alone, he read; when he was in company, he read; at
his meals, he read; in his walks, he read; when he was in a carriage, he
read; when he was on horseback, he read; whatever he did, he read. It
was his custom to make abridgments of the principal works he perused,
and to copy large extracts from them; several bulky volumes {017} of
them have fallen into the hands of the editor. Many were surprised to
see the rapidity with which he read, or rather ran through books, and at
the same time acquired a full and accurate knowledge of their contents.

Footnotes:
1. Histoire de l'Academie, 1 vol. 102.

II

After our author had completed the usual course of study, he was
admitted as alumnus of Douay college, and appointed _professor of
philosophy_. The Newtonian system of philosophy was about that time
gaining ground in the foreign universities. He adopted it, in part, into
the course of philosophy which he dictated to the students. He read and
considered with great attention the metaphysical works of Woolfe and
Leibnitz. He did not admire them, and thought the system of
pre-established harmony laid down in them irreconcilable with the
received belief or opinions of the Roman Catholic church on the soul;
and that much of their language, though susceptible of a fair
interpretation, conveyed improper notions, or, at least, sounded
offensively to Catholic ears. The late Mr. John Dunn, his contemporary
at the college, frequently mentioned to the editor the extreme caution
which our author used in inserting any thing new in his dictates,
particularly on any subject connected with any tenet of religion. After
teaching a course of philosophy, he was appointed _professor of
divinity_. On this part of his life the editor has been favored by a
gentleman deservedly damed for his erudition and piety, the reverend
Robert Bannister, with a long letter, of which the reader is presented
with an extract.

"I was contemporary with Mr. Alban Butler in Douay college eight years;
viz. from October, 1741 to October, 1749. But as I was but a boy the
greater part of that time, I had not any intimacy with him, nor was I
capable of knowing any thing concerning his interior, the manner of his
prayer, or the degrees to which he ascended in it, or any extraordinary
communications or elevations to which the Holy Ghost, the great master
and teacher of contemplation, might raise him. All that I can say is,
that he opened Douay college great door to me and a gentleman whom I
knew not, but who was so good as to bring me from Lisle in his coach, on
Sunday between ten and eleven, the 15th of October, 1741; and the first
sight of him appeared to me then so meek and so amiable, that I thought
I would choose him for my ghostly father; but another, I suppose in
rotation, adopted me. Mr. Alban was my sole master in my first year of
divinity in 1749, and dictated the two treatises _De Decalogo et De
Incarnatione_; he also presided over my defensions upon those two
treatises, and over Mr. James Talbot's (the late bishop of London) upon
universal divinity. As to heroic acts of virtue, which strike with
admiration all that see or hear of them, I cannot recollect more than a
uniform, constant observance of all the duties of a priest, professor,
and confessarius. He was always at morning meditations, seldom omitted
the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass, which he said with a
heavenly composure, sweetness, and recollection; studying and teaching
assiduously, dictating with an unwearied patience so equally and
leisurely, that every one could, if he wished to do it, write his
dictates in a clear and legible hand; nor do I remember that he ever
sent a substitute to dictate for him; so exact and punctual he was in
his duty as a professor. I never knew one more ready to go to the
confession-seat, at the first intimation of any, even the least or
youngest boy. He heard his penitents with wonderful meekness; and his
penetration, learning, judgment, and piety, were such as to move them to
place in him a singular confidence. He frequently visited the military
hospital, to instruct, exhort, and hear the confessions of Irish
soldiers. He sometimes assembled a number of them (when they happened to
be quartered in Douay) in the college-church of St. Thomas of
Canterbury, and preached to them. In one of his sermons I remember he
told them, for their example and encouragement, that there are more
soldiers saints than of any other vocation, or state, or condition. As
poor, and often distressed, Irish men and women frequently came to
Douay, he was always ready to relieve them, and administer both corporal
and spiritual succors. It can never be forgotten what attention,
solicitude, and care he had, in the year 1745, of our English soldiers,
wounded and maimed, who were brought prisoners to Douay, and quartered
in the barracks, in great numbers, after the battle of Fontenoy. He
animated both by words and example all the young priests, and all in
holy orders at the college, to visit them, to instruct and instil into
them serious thoughts of saving their souls by embracing the only saving
faith, and by true repentance.{018} He also procured for them temporal
succor and relief so beneficently, that the duke of Cumberland, then
generalissimo of the British and allied armies, being informed of it,
promised him a special protection whensoever he came over into England.
Scarce any thing affords one a better proof of Mr. Alban's eminent
spirit of piety and great understanding, discretion, and light in
spiritual matters, than his familiarity and friendship with M. Jean
Baptiste de Villers, president of the seminary des Eveques in the
university of Douay, who died October the 7th, 1746, the death of a
saint, after having lived the life of one for seventy-eight years. This
M. de Villers was eminent in all supernatural and moral virtues, but he
concealed them under an amiable simplicity, and a plain unaffected
behavior or exterior, unless charity and zeal for the glory of God and
salvation of souls required their open and full exertion; and,
notwithstanding his great learning, (which he had acquired by an
excellent genius and diligent application to sacred studies,) and his
great and solid fund of piety, he was as docile as an infant; so
timorous and diffident of his own judgment, that he would neither do nor
decide any thing without counsel. With this sentiment of diffidence and
humility, he often visited (says M. Leroy, the faithful imitator and
writer of the history of his life) a young professor, a foreigner, (that
is, Alban Butler,) and passed an hour or two in his company in the
afternoon, once every week, and sometimes twice, several years, until
his edifying death. Their conversation together was solely about various
points of morality; about the direction of souls, and the method of
arriving at perfection in every action and intention; how to teach
devout persons a habit of making continual aspirations to God, by acts
of love, oblation, entire sacrifice of their hearts, of humility, &c. M.
de Villers would not suffer more than half a small fagot to be kindled
for him in the severest weather, saying to Mr. Alban, 'the other part
may serve some poor person.' As to wine, or any other liquor, he never
drank any but at meal-time. I remember to have heard an instance of Mr.
Alban's meekness, for I am not a witness of it. When he was presiding
over one of his students in divinity in the public hall of Douay
college, a disputant, who was probably much offended at some proposition
in the thesis, as being opposite to some favorite opinion of his school
or religious family, said to him with intolerable rudeness, _habes mel
in ore, sed fel in corde_: to which he made no reply, nor showed the
least resentment. Mr. Alban Butler was totally averse to the system of
probabilism, and to all assertions that favor laxity in morale. This is
evident from the dictates which he delivered to us, from his treatise
_De Decalogo, de actibus humanis_, in his _Epitome moralis
sacramentorum_, &c. It is still more evident from his _Epitome de sex
prioribus conciliis [oe]cumenicis in calce tractanus de Incarnatione_, that
he had the highest veneration for the holy see, and for him who sits in
the chair of St. Peter; that he constantly held and maintained the
rights and singular prerogatives of St. Peter and his successors, in
calling, presiding over, and confirming general or [oe]cumenical councils;
the pope's superiority over the whole church, and over the whole college
of bishops, and over a general council; the irreformability of his
doctrinal decisions in points of faith and morale; his supreme power to
dispense (when there is cause) in the canons of general councils; in
short, the plenitude of his authority over the whole chorus, without
exception or limitation, _Nihil excipitur ubi distinguitur nihil_."

III.

From the letter of which we have presented the reader with an extract,
it appears what our author's sentiments were on the nature and extent of
the spiritual power of the see of Rome. It has frequently been said that
he was the editor of doctor Hulden's _Analysis Fidei_: had this been the
fact, it would have been a strong proof of an alteration of his
sentiments on those points; but, after particular inquiry, the editor
finds the assertion to be wholly unfounded.

On the celebrated questions, _Of the infallibility of the Pope, and his
right to the deposing power_, our author thus expresses himself in one
of his letters on Mr. Bower's History of the Popes; "Mr. Bower having
been educated in the Catholic schools, could not but know that, though
some private divine think that the pope, by the assistance of some
special providence, cannot err in the decisions of faith solemnly
published by him, with the mature advice of his council, or of the
clergy or divines of his church, yet that this is denied by others; and
that the learned Bossuet, and many others, especially of the school of
Sorbon, have written warmly {019} against that opinion; and that no
Catholic looks upon it as an article or term of communion. It is the
infallibility of the whole church, whether assembled in a general
council, or dispersed over the world, of which they speak in their
controversial disputations. Yet this writer, at every turn, confounds
these two things together only to calumniate and impose on the public.
If he had proved that some popes had erred in faith, he would have no
more defeated the article of supremacy, than he would disinherit a king
by arraigning him of bad policy. The Catholic faith teaches the pope to
be the supreme pastor of the church established by Christ, and that this
church, founded by Christ on a rock, shall never be overcome by hell, or
cease to be his true spouse. For he has promised that his true Spirit
shall direct it in all truth to the end of the world. But Mr. Bower
never found the infallibility of the pope in our creed; and knows very
well that no such article is proposed by the church, or required of any
one. Therefore the whole chain of his boastings which is conducted
through the work falls to the ground.

"What he writes against the deposing power in popes, certainly cannot be
made a reproach against the Catholics of England, France, Spain, &c. It
is a doctrine neither taught nor tolerated in any Catholic kingdom that
I know of, and which many Catholics write as warmly against as Mr. Bower
could wish."

IV.

While our author continued at the college of Douay, his first
publication made its appearance: this was his _Letters on the History of
the Popes, published by Mr. Archibald Bower_. That gentleman had entered
into the society of Jesus, and acquired a reputation for learning and
talents. He came into England, embraced the religion of the established
church, and endeavored to recommend himself to the favor of his new
friends by his History of the Lives of the Popes. He also published an
account of his escape from Italy, and of his motives for quitting it.
The truth of the account became a subject of controversy. It was
disbelieved, not only by Catholics but by Protestants. Dr. Douglas, the
present bishop of Salisbury, wrote an excellent pamphlet to expose its
falsehood and absurdity. It carried great improbability on the face of
it. Mr. Bower was a lively writer, and defended himself with adroitness;
but he was not equal to the composition of the history which he
undertook to write. He was of the numerous list of authors who, when
they sit down to write, have to learn what they shall write, rather than
to write what they have already learned. The errors which our author
exposes in his letters are sometimes the errors of a very young writer.
The letters are written with ease and good-humor; they show various and
extensive learning, a vigorous and candid mind. They met with universal
applause.

V.

In the year 1745, our author accompanied the late earl of Shrewsbury and
the honorable James Talbot and Thomas Talbot on their travels through
France and Italy. He wrote a full, entertaining, and interesting account
of them. As it will be published, the editor makes no extracts from it
in this place. He was always solicitous that the noble personages
committed to his care should see whatever deserved attention, and be
introduced to persons distinguished by their rank, talents, or virtue.
He drew out for them a comparative view of the Greek, Roman, and Gothic
architecture; an account of the different schools of painting; and an
abridgment of the lives, and remarks on the different characters, of the
most eminent painters. These will be found in his travels. He kept them
from all stage entertainments: "The stage entertainments," he says, in
one of his letters, "I can give no account of, as we never would see
any; they being certainly very dangerous, and the school of the passions
and sin, most justly abhorred by the church and the fathers. Among us,
Collier, Law, &c.; among the French, the late prince of Condi, Doctor
Voisin, Nicole, &c., have said enough to satisfy any Christian; though
Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, are still more implacable
enemies of the stage. However, we saw the stages for their architecture,
where this was curious." His opinion of the evil tendency of stage
entertainments continued with him through life.

VI.

On his return from his travels _our author was sent on the English
mission._ He {020} had long been engaged in his great work of the _Lives
of the Saints_, and was then bringing it to a conclusion. He naturally,
therefore, wished to be settled in London, for the convenience of its
public libraries, and the opportunities it affords of intercourse with
men of letters. But the vicar-apostolic of the middle district claimed
him as belonging to that district, and appointed him to a mission in
Staffordshire. This was a severe mortification to our author; he
respectfully remonstrated; but the vicar-apostolic was inexorable, and
required his immediate obedience. A gentleman who lived in the same
house with him at the time, has mentioned to the editor, that he was
with him when the summons came; and that on receiving it, he appeared
much hurt, retired for half an hour to his oratory, and soon after set
off for his country mission.

From Staffordshire he removed to Warkworth, the seat of Francis Eyre,
esquire, to whom these sheets are dedicated. He had the highest opinion
of a good missioner, and frequently declared that he knew of no
situation so much to be envied, while the missioner had a love of his
duties, and confined himself to them: none so miserable, when the
missioner had lost the love of them, and was fond of the pleasures of
life. "Such a one," he used to say, "would seldom have the means of
gratifying his taste for pleasure; he would frequently find that, in
company, if he met with outward civility, he was the object of silent
blame; and that if he gave pleasure as a companion, no one would resort
to him as a priest." He had a manuscript written by a Mr. Cox, an
English missioner, who lived in the beginning of the present century, in
which these sentiments were expressed forcibly and with great feeling:
he often mentioned it. But no person was less critical on the conduct of
others, none exacted less from them, than our author. He was always at
the command of a fellow-clergyman, and ready to do him every kind of
good office. To the poor, his door was always open. When he resided in
London, in quality of chaplain to the duke of Norfolk, he was under no
obligation, strictly speaking, of attending to any person except the
duke himself and his family; but he was at the call of every one who
wanted any spiritual or temporal assistance which it was in his power to
afford. The poor, at length, flocked to him in such numbers that, much
in opposition to his wishes, his brother, with whom he then lived, was
obliged to give general orders that none of them should be admitted to
him. He was ever ready to oblige. Moss. Olivet relates of Huet, the
bishop of Avranches, that he was so absorbed in his studies as sometimes
to neglect his pastoral duties; that once a poor peasant waited on him
respecting some matter of importance, and was refused admittance, "his
lordship being at his studies:" upon which the peasant retired,
muttering, with great indignation, "that he hoped they should ever have
another bishop who had not finished his studies before he came among
them;" but our author's "being at his studies," was never a reason with
him for refusing to see any one. It was often unpleasant to observe how
much his good-humor, in this respect, was abused.

VII.

Our author did not remain long in Staffordshire. Edward, duke of
Norfolk, (to whom the present duke is second in succession,) applied to
the late Mr. Challoner for a person to be his chaplain, and to
_superintend the education of Mr. Edward Howard_, his nephew and
presumptive heir. Mr. Challoner fixed upon our author to fill that
situation. His first residence, after he was appointed to it, was at
Norwich in a house generally called the duke's palace. Thither some
large boxes of books belonging to him were directed, but by mistake were
sent to the bishop's palace. The bishop opened them, and finding them
fall of Roman Catholic books, refused to deliver them. It has been
mentioned, that after the battle of Fontenoy, our author was very active
in serving the English prisoners, and that the duke of Cumberland
returned him thanks for his conduct, and made him an offer of his
services, if he should have occasion for them after his return to
England. On this seizure of his books, our author applied to the duke;
his highness immediately wrote to the bishop, and soon after the books
were sent to their owner.

Mr. Edward Howard, by our author's advice, was first sent to the School
of the English clergy, at a small village near Douay, called Esquerchin,
of which the most pious and respectable Mr. Tichborne Blunt was
president. After some years he was sent to complete his education at
Paris; and thither our author accompanied him. Mr. Edward Howard was the
Marcellus of the English Catholics; {021} never did a noble youth raise
greater expectations; but he was suddenly taken ill and died after an
illness of a few days. On that melancholy occasion the family expressed
great pleasure in the recollection of the religious education he had
received from our author.

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