yard of Christ, not vested with ordinary jurisdiction annexed to their office, but exercising it as a delegated and extra-hierarchical commission."

1

He explained that no valid grounds had been given him for withdrawing faculties from Father Whelan, and he told them that if that priest left, he could not under the instructions from Rome empower either Father Nugent or the Rev. Huet de la Valinière to officiate in New York, so that they would be without a priest to say mass for them. As to their threat of attempting to drive Father Whelan from the altar by process of law, Dr. Carroll wrote: "I cannot tell what assistance the laws might give you; but allow me to say, that you can take no step so fatal to that respectability in which as a religious society you wish to stand, or more prejudicial to the Catholic cause. I must therefore entreat you to decline a design so pernicious to all your prospects; and protesting against measures so extreme, I explicitly declare, that no clergyman, be he who he may, shall receive any spiritual powers from me who shall advise or countenance so unnecessary and prejudicial a proceeding."

99 2

Much of the spring was devoted by Dr. Carroll to visitation and conferring the sacrament of Confirmation. On the 13th of March he began a letter to Cardinal Antonelli, but before completing it received a letter from him repeating the satisfaction of his Holiness Pope Pius VI. at his report on the condition of the Church in the United States, and removing the restriction in regard to missionaries contained in his original instructions."

Very Rev. John Carroll to Trustees, New York, January 25.

Same to Rev. Mr. Nugent, January 17, 1786; same to Rev. Mr. Whelan, January 17, 1786; same to Messrs. Lynch and Stoughton, January 25, 1786; same to Rev. Mr. Whelan, January 28, 1786.

3 Cardinal Antonelli to Very Rev. J. Carroll, July 23, 1785.

Before he completed the letter to Rome he had to deplore the loss of two excellent and devoted priests, Rev. Luke Geissler, who died at Conewago on the 10th of August, and Rev. Ferdinand Farmer, who expired just a week afterward at Philadelphia.' Both were of that band of excellent missionaries whom the Jesuit provinces in Germany had sent to America to attend their countrymen, but whose labors were given unstintedly to all Catholics. Rev. Luke Geissler, born in 1735, entered the Society of Jesus in 1756 and became a professed Father in 1772. He had then been in this country for six years, and died, after twenty years' labor in this fold, Lancaster and its missions being especially blessed with his ministry.' Rev. Ferdinand Steynmeyer, known on the American mission as "Father Farmer," was one of the most illustrious priests connected with the Church in the British colonies and the Republic in its early days. He was a fruitful laborer at Lancaster and Philadelphia, with their dependent stations; as successor of Father Schneider he attended the scattered Catholics in New Jersey, from Delaware Bay to Greenwood Lake, and founded the Catholic Church in New York State, exercising the ministry at Warwick, Fishkill, and New York City, organizing the church in the last-named place. He was born in the Circle of Suabia, Germany, October 13, 1720, and was received into the Society of Jesus September 26, 1743. He solicited an appointment to the work of spreading the Gospel in China, but in obedience to his superiors came to America. "He began his mission at Lancaster, where he resided six years, in all the poverty and humility of an apostle." Then he became con

Two priests-one English, the other from the Lower Rhine-arrived before August. Rev. Dr. Carroll to Cardinal Antonelli, August, 1786. 2 Foley, "Records of the English Province," vii., p. 291.

DEATH OF REV. F. FARMER.

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nected with St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia. While laboring as an obscure missioner in Pennsylvania he corresponded with learned societies in Europe, who recognized his great mathematical ability. When Rev. Dr. Carroll was appointed Prefect-Apostolic, he found the Rev. Mr. Farmer a wise counsellor and a prompt and ready coadjutor in the great work confided to him. His merit was recognized by all, and he filled, as trustee of the University of Philadelphia, a position which revived prejudice has since made inaccessible to a Catholic. Undeterred by failing health he set out in 1786 to visit his New Jersey missions. It was the last priestly work of the apostle of that State. He then crossed into New York and baptized seven near Warwick, Orange County, one of them James Shea, son of Cornelius and Frances. Then we find him at Mount Hope and Ringwood. His carefully kept Register closes with an entry on the 30th of July.

The Registers kept by this great and learned priest are still preserved, and are one of the consoling monuments of early Catholicity in Philadelphia. His funeral sermon was preached by his associate, Rev. Robert Molyneux.'

The Very Rev. Dr. Carroll felt deeply the loss of this able clergyman, and described him as a priest who had spent many years at Philadelphia in the practice of all kinds of virtue and labor for the salvation of souls, and closed his life full of merits by what may well be regarded as a most holy death.'

The project of erecting a church at New York was advancing by the energy of St. John de Crêvecœur and the patron

Foley, "Records of the English Province," vii., p. 739; Molyneux, "A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Rev. Ferdinand Farmer, who departed this life the 17th August, 1786, in the 66th year of his age.' Philadelphia, C. Talbot, 1786. Reprinted by the late Rev. J. M. Finotti, Boston.

Very Rev. John Carroll to Cardinal Antonelli, January 12, 1787.

age of Don Diego de Gardoqui. Father Whelan and the trustees of the congregation undertook the erection of the edifice with courage, adopting a plan beyond their actual means, but hopefully looking forward to future progress. It was to be a handsome brick structure, with a square tower, forty-eight feet front by eighty-one in depth. They addressed petitions for aid to the Kings of France and Spain, the latter forwarded through Don Diego de Gardoqui, who furthermore consented to lay the corner-stone.' This ceremony took place on the 5th of October, 1785, between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock, in the presence of a large assemblage. The Spanish minister placed in the corner-stone specimens of the coinage of King Charles IV. struck that year, and in conformity with the desire of the congregation named the church St. Peter's. They were not, however, able to proceed with the work at once, but continued collecting funds for the purpose in New York and Europe.

2

Their appeal to the French King seems to have met with no response, active and generous as Mr. de Crêvecœur had shown himself: that to King Charles IV. of Spain was at

1 Don Diego de Gardoqui to the Conde de Floridablanca, New York, September 3, 1785. The petition inclosed is signed by José Ruiz Silva, Henry Duffin, and Stewart, and states the purchase of ground, the difficulty of collecting means on account of the poverty of the faithful, many of whom had lost all in the late war. Very Rev. John Carroll to Cardinal Antonelli, January 12, 1787.

"New York Packet," October 10, 1785. Gardoqui to Conde de Floridablanca, November 21, 1785, inclosing translation of a report of the ceremony. Crêvecœur, Vie de St. John de Crêvecœur," Paris, 1883, p. 109, etc.

3 Authorization of Trustees to Mr. de Crêvecœur to collect in France; Circular of Catholics to open a subscription. Carton du Consulat de New York. Unfortunately the books are no longer extant to show the amount he obtained from the faithful here and elsewhere. They were still preserved in my boyhood, and my grandfather's name appeared. Crêvecœur's successor as Consul to New York, Mr. Otto, a Protestant,

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, N. Y.

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once taken into consideration, and it was at first proposed to give funds from the revenues of Mexico; but as this might prove a long and tedious way, Señor Gardoqui was directed to pay one thousand dollars as the contribution of his Catholic Majesty. The Trustees received the money in June, 1786, and addressed the Spanish Minister expressing their obligation to King Charles, and subsequently asked him to select a pew for the perpetual use of the Spanish legation.' The Very Rev. Prefect-Apostolic also wrote to Don Diego de Gardoqui to express his thanks for the generosity manifested by the Spanish monarch."

Meanwhile a carpenter's-shop which stood on the leasehold property they had acquired on Barclay Street was fitted up as a temporary chapel. It was not till the 26th of May following that an advertisement appeared in one of the New York papers, calling for proposals from masons and carpenters. Notwithstanding the feeling that had been excited against him, Father Whelan pushed the work on actively during the summer. The Catholic body felt a reasonable pride at its progress, and urged the Prefect-Apostolic to solicit the faculty to consecrate it on its completion.

wrote January 2, 1786: "It would be impolitic to support Catholicity too openly. Mr. Otto has accordingly refused to give the Catholic priest at New York contributions solicited for rebuilding the Church burned during the war. Mr. de Gardoqui has made a donation and laid the corner-stone."

'Letters of the Marquis de Sonora, December 3, 1785; January 28, March 13, 1786. That of March 18 announces the king's donation.

Letter and receipt of Trustees, June 20, 1786; October 28, 1786. Very Rev. John Carroll to Don Diego de Gardoqui, November 14, 1786, inclosed in letter to Conde de Floridablanca, December 31, 1786. An Italian gentleman, Mr. Trapani, whose grandsons were my schoolfellows, told me in my boyhood of his attending mass in this structure. 5 "New York Gazetteer and County Journal," May 26, 1786; "New York Packet," June 1, 1786.