Archbishop Samuel Eccleston and the history of the Catholic church in the U.S.
Samuel Eccleston was a Sulpician priest from Maryland. He became the fifth bishop to head the entire Catholic church in the U.S. He reigned from 1834-1851.
CONTENTS
3. Sensationalist Anti-Catholic Books
- Christians are capable of Atrocities
- Christian leaders are prone to abusing their authority to manipulate their people
- Catholics are a Despised Minority
- Christians esteem Despicable leaders
1. Early Years
Samuel Eccleston was born in 1801 in Maryland. His father was an Episcopalian cleric.
The family sent Samuel to St. Mary’s College in Baltimore. It was staffed by priests from the Sulpician Order.
Inspired by one of his teachers, Samuel became Catholic in 1819. Later that year, he decided to enter the priesthood. He enrolled at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.
In 1825, Eccleston was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal.
The Sulpicians sent him to France for further studies. Then in 1827, he was back in the U.S. and assigned as a faculty member and vice president of St. Mary’s Seminary.
In 1834, Archbishop James Whitfield needed assistance. Pope Gregory XVI appointed Eccleston as coadjutor archbishop of Baltimore.
2. The Fifth Bishop
Archbishop Whitfield died in 1834. Thus Eccleston automatically succeeded him as the fifth archbishop of Baltimore.
At age 34, he was the youngest cleric to become archbishop in the history of the archdiocese.
3. Sensationalist Anti-Catholic Books
Lymann Beecher
A Presbyterian minister named Lymann Beecher (1775–1863) was the most respected religious voice of his era.
In 1835 he published a book called A Plea for the West, in which he envisioned Catholic immigrants eventually taking over the midwest and giving it to the pope.
Maria Monk
Maria Monk (1816–1849) was a Canadian woman who had been in a Catholic asylum in Montreal.
She published a damning indictment of the Catholic church. It was called Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, or, The Hidden Secrets of a Nun’s Life in a Convent Exposed (1836).
Her book exposes a systematic sexual abuse of nuns, as well as infanticide of the resulting children, by Catholic priests in her convent in Montreal. The book sold 300,000 copies!
However, in our day, the book is considered by scholars to be an anti-Catholic hoax.
Rosamond Culbertson
Rosamond Culbertson wrote a novel called Rosamond (1836). It was about the sexual practices of a priest in Cuba.
He kidnapped Black men, killed them, ground up their bodies, and made human sausage.
Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna
Another book was by Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (1790–1846). She was a popular Victorian English writer and novelist. She wrote under the pseudonym of Charlotte Elizabeth.
She wrote nine children’s books about nice Protestant children who get lured into “popery” by a manipulative priest. In the story, a Bible debate ensues, and the wandering child is won back to the truth, along with the Catholic priest.
One of her books sold 40,000 copies in its first week.
4. The Bible Riots
This incident is also known as the Philadelphia Nativist Riots, and as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots.
The word “Philadelphia” means “brotherly love.” However, it was a city of frequent fights, especially over elections. In 1842, one such issue concerned the reading of the Bible.
In those days Francis Patrick Kenrick was the Catholic bishop of Philadelphia. On November 10, 1842, he wrote to the Board of Controllers of public schools, asking that Catholic children be allowed to use a Catholic Bible in class instead of a Protestant Bible.
Nativist groups began spreading a false rumor that Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from public schools. Also, the American Protestant Association reacted heavily. Also, an ex-priest named William Hogan, who was a popular figure on the Protestant lecture circuit, fanned the fires.
In those days, there was a minor political party called the American Republican Party. Their platform was anti-Catholic and anti-immigration and nativist. They were a precursor of the American “Know-Nothing” Party.
The May Riot
On May 3, 1844, the American Republican Party held a rally in a predominantly Irish part of Kensington. Some Irish residents attacked the platform where the speakers were standing, and the nativists retreated.
On May 6, the nativists returned. During the rally, it began to rain. The meeting was moved into a nearby market. Inflammatory remarks continued, and fighting soon broke out between the local Irish Catholics and the nativists. The fight spilled outside the market. Shots were fired.
The nativists attacked the Seminary of the Sisters of Charity as well as several Catholic homes before the riot ended. Numerous people were injured, and some were killed.
On May 7, an angry mob of nativists marched to Kensington, where gunfire broke out between nativists and Catholics.
The nativists set fire to and destroyed the Hibernia fire station, thirty homes, and the market where the violence had begun the day before. A bystander was shot dead. The state militia had to be called in to quell the disturbance.
On May 8, an angry mob of nativists again marched to Kensington, where gunfire again broke out between nativists and Catholics.
The nativists burned down St. Michael’s Catholic church and rectory, as well as the Seminary of the Sisters of Charity, which they had attacked a few days before. They also attacked several homes before soldiers arrived and the fire was contained.
A separate angry mob of nativists burned down St. Augustine Catholic church, along with its theological library and rectory, cheering as the steeple fell.
During the riots, at least fourteen people were killed and an estimated fifty people were injured.
The July Riot
Father John Patrick Dunn was the pastor of the Church of St. Philip Neri in the Southwark District.
On July 3, he was warned that the parish might be attacked during an upcoming parade.
To prepare for the possible violence, the church applied for permission to have an arsenal of weapons that a volunteer company would use in case the church was attacked. This was authorized by Governor David R. Porter. The parish received 25 muskets from the Frankford Arsenal.
Five of the muskets were discovered to be defective and were sent back to be repaired.
On July 5, some nativists observed those five muskets being returned to the church. An angry mob numbering in the thousands gathered at the church. They demanded that the sheriff remove the weapons.
Sheriff Morton McMichael and two aldermen searched the church. They removed twelve muskets. There were other armaments, but the sheriff withheld that information so the crowd wouldn’t revolt.
The angry mob demanded a second search. The sheriff and search party found fifty-three muskets, ten pistols, a keg of gunpowder and ammunition. To avoid inciting the mob, the sheriff kept the search party inside the church and did not remove the armaments.
However, the news got out.
On July 6, a huge crowd gathered. A militia of 150 men was present to protect the church. The mob pelted the soldiers with rocks. At midnight the militia commander ordered his men to fire a cannon, so as to disperse the crowd.
However, a former U.S. Congressman named Charles Naylor was present. He shouted, “Belay that order!” The militia arrested him and held him inside the church.
The crowd threatened to burn down the church unless Naylor was released.
On July 7, the crowd had a cannon. The mob used it to attack the church building. Eventually they breeched a wall. They broke into the church and released Naylor. The angry mob cheered for him and carried him home on their shoulders.
The soldiers were commanded to clear the street. But the mob stoned the soldiers. After the mob attacked a captain, the order was given to fire on the mob, resulting in seven fatalities and nine injuries.
A full battle ensued. The militia eventually captured the two cannons from the crowd. Later, the crowd dispersed.
At least 15 people, including rioters and soldiers, were killed in the riot, and at least 50 people were injured.
The mayor realized he was losing control of the city. He requested help from the governor. The governor sent in Federal troops.
An estimated 5,000 militia were needed to stop the violence.
Aftermath
Who was to blame? The parish for stockpiling weapons? The Irish immigrants? The American Republican Party? The nativists?
In 1847 St. Augustine parish received a partial reimbursement and was able to start to rebuild.
Later, Louis Levin was elected to congress on the platform of limiting the number of immigrations.
The city of New York feared similar violence. The mayor and the bishop conferred. For his part, the bishop placed armed guards at all Catholic parishes.
Bishop Hughes said that if but one Catholic parish is burned, all of New York will look like Moscow!
Bishop Kenrick ended his efforts to influence the public education system. Instead, he began encouraging the creation of Catholic schools.
5. Our Observations
Observation 1. Christians are capable of Atrocities
Christians in the American Republican Party knowingly spread lies, provoked a riot, participated in Hate-Crimes, burned down a church, and murdered.
Being in Christ, being born again by the Spirit, did not remove their hatred or violence, their ignorance or gullibility.
Observation 2. Christian leaders are prone to abusing their authority to manipulate their people
The highly respected Reverend Lymann Beecher published a book filled with lies. But people trusted him. Thus he manipulated them in the direction of hate.
Reverend Beecher also preached three highly inflammatory sermons based on hatred. Thus he again manipulated his hearers in the direction of hate. Immediately after his sermons, the populace went out and committed acts of violence against a minority group.
Observation 3. Catholics are a Despised Minority
For much of U.S. history, Catholics were a despised minority. The Bible Riots are but one example of that.
Underneath the veneer of politeness among Bible-believing Christians in the U.S., there has been a seething cauldron of hatred against Catholics and other minorities.
Observation 4. Christians esteem Despicable leaders
Reverend Lymann Beecher was filled with hatred. Yet his book was based on lies and meant to provoke hatred.
How can this despicable person be the most respected religious voice of his era?
HISTORY – U.S. CATHOLIC
MAJOR ERAS:
- The Spanish Missions in New Mexico: 1540 to 1616
- The Spanish Missions in Florida: 1549 to 1763
- The English Missions in the Mid-Atlantic region: beginning in the 1570s
- Catholics and the American Revolutionary War: 1775–1783
- Archbishop John Carroll: 1774-1815
- Archbishop Leonard Neale: 1815-1817
- Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal: 1817 -1828
- Archbishop James Whitfield: 1828 to 1834
- Archbishop Samuel Eccleston: 1834-1851
- Archbishop Francis Kenrick: 1851–1863
SEE ALSO: References, Church History
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.