CHAPTER XX. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The Church in the United States-First Catholic Worship in the CountryThe Settlement of Maryland-Jesuit Missionaries—Archbishop Carroll and his Vast Work-Introduction of Religious Orders-The Growth of the Church-Distinguished Members-The Plenary Councils. THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. VEN in the territory now embraced in the United States this ancient Church preceded all other Christian denominations. As early as 1521 Vasquez de Ayllon commenced a settlement on one of the rivers flowing into the Chesapeake, and the Dominican friars who attended him reared the first Catholic chapel on our soil, where for months the rites of the Church were offered; but the commander died and the settlement was abandoned. The expeditions of Narvaez and De Soto had clergymen with them, but no settlements were formed, and these pioneer ministers of religion perished amid the hardships of the march. Impelled by the account of a survivor of one of these ill-fated expeditions, the Franciscan Father Mark, of Nice in Italy, penetrated in 1539 to New Mexico. Others followed and began missions, only to be murdered by the Indians. In 1595 the Spaniards occupied the country, and founded Santa Fé. The Catholic worship was established, and has continued almost uninterruptedly in that territory for nearly three centuries. In an outbreak against the Spaniards, at the close of the seventeenth century, many of the missionaries perished. THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 307 Some Dominican priests were slain in Florida in 1549 while trying to convert the natives; and Tristan de Luna, in 1559, had a Christian shrine at Pensacola. When St. Augustine was begun, in 1565, a Catholic chapel was erected, and from that time the services of the Church were regularly offered. At St. Helena, on Port Royal Sound, and later on the banks of the Rappahannock, there were Catholic chapels as early as 1571. For many years St. Augustine had its Franciscan convent, and chapels within and without the walls. Missions were established among the Indian tribes by the Jesuits and then by the Franciscans, and the Timuquans, Apalaches, and other tribes embraced Christianity. In 1699 Pensacola was founded and a Catholic church erected there; but the Indian missions were finally almost extirpated by Carolina and Georgia. Many devoted missionaries were slain amid their pious labors to regenerate the aborigines. Texas was settled by the Spaniards, and a town grew up at San Antonio, with church and convent, while missionaries planted the cross among the Indian tribes from the Rio Grande to the Sabine. The Catholic Church was the only Christian body here for a century and a quarter. Upper California was settled about the time of our Revolution, and the Franciscans established a series of Indian missions whose names are still retained. They were finally destroyed by the greed of the Mexican government, just before our conquest of the country. As in Florida, the Catholic Church in New Mexico, Texas, and California has its list of missionaries who held life less precious than the cause of Christ. North of our territory lie Canada and Nova Scotia, settled at an early day by Catholic France. The worship of the Church of Rome was celebrated beneath rude temporary structures at Boone Island, in Maine, and subsequently at Mount Desert, early in the seventeenth century. The very year the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock a Franciscan priest in sandalled feet crossed the Niagara River from Canada, and preached Christ, and him crucified, to the Indians of Western New York. A few years later two Jesuits met the Chippewas at Sault St. Mary's, by the outlet of the most remote of the Western Lakes, and one of them, the gentle yet intrepid Father Jogues, returned to die by the tomahawk, while endeavoring to imbue the minds of the Mohawks with the sweet spirit of Christ. In the latter part of the seventeenth century there were Catholic chapels on the Kennebec and coast of Maine, from the Mohawk to the Niagara, at Mackinaw, Sault St. Mary's, Green Bay, and Kaskaskia. Early in the last century Detroit had a church. Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes were the next seats of Catholicity. At the South, New Orleans and Mobile were founded and Catholic churches were established, Capuchins laboring in the settlements, and Jesuits and missionary priests among the Indian tribes. The Ursuline Nuns at New Orleans began to labor as teachers and nurses. These churches and institutions, from Maine to Louisiana, were subject to the bishops of Quebec. In the English colonies Catholicity began its life in Maryland coeval with the settlement, two Jesuit priests having formed part of the first body of colonists, taking up lands and bringing over men to cultivate them. By the leader of this mission, Father Andrew White, Catholic worship was first offered on St. Clement's Isle, in the Potomac, on the 25th of March, 1634. This was a most important epoch in the history of the Church and of the United States as well. The events of those days, from which such glorious results have since been obtained, possess an enduring interest and cannot be too frequently considered by every patriotic and Christian citizen. Lord Baltimore having received from Charles I. the charter of Maryland, hastened to carry into effect the plan of colonizing the new province, of which he appointed his brother, Leonard Calvert, to be Governor. The first body of immigrants, consisting of about 200 gentlemen of considerable rank and fortune, chiefly of the Roman Catholic persuasion, with a number of inferior adherents, sailed from England, under the command of Calvert, in November, 1632, and after a prosperous voyage landed in Maryland, near the mouth of |