its interests had not been consulted by the choice that had been made of so inefficient a chairman. He trusted however that the indulgence which had been extended to him on former occasions would not be denied to him on the present, and that the cause of charity would not be allowed to suffer through the incapacity of its advocate in the chair. After some comments upon the nature and objects of the institution which they had met to support, he proposed, "Success to the German Catholic chapel," which was drank amidst long and loud cheers. The rev. Wm. Morris then rose, and hoped the company would extend to him every allowance for the shortness of the notice, and the unprepared state in which he had been called upon to plead the cause of the German chapel, like a lawyer who has his brief put into his hand when entering the court in which he has to advocate its contents, he had been at a very short notice requested to undertake the task of addressing the meeting now before him in behalf of the chapel which had been raised for them and their fellow countrymen. He felt the less diffidence, unprepared as he was, on the present occasion, from the recollection of the liberal manner in which his appeal on a former one had been met in the same cause, a cause which he was always ready to assist by his feeble advocacy, the interest of which, he had near his heart. The rev. gentleman, in addressing the company at some length, took occasion to point out the importance of a place of worship like the one they had met to uphold, to the foreigner who had left his own country, his kindred and his friends, and who had but the consolation of religion, to dispel the surrounding gloom of a strange and friendless laud. He also alluded to the present necessities of the chapel, and described in a feeling and delicate manner the situation of its funds, which precluded it from affording to its worthy and zealous pastors, any but a scanty and inefficient support. After warmly recommending cause for which he pleaded, the reverend gentleman concluded by entreating the company to shew by their liberality on that evening, their zeal for the honour of God's house, and he called upon them to surpass, by the amount of their donations, the collection of the preceding year. The rev. Francis Muth then followed, and addressed the company in the the AMBROSE CUDDON, Printer, 2, German language for the same object A collection was made, which we were told amounted to upwards of sixtyfive pounds. The right rev. Dr. Bramston proposed the chairman's health, who returned thanks in an appropriate speech, in concluding which he took occasion to congratulate the meeting upon the honour which his lordship had done it by his presence, and gave his health. The health of the rev. Wm. Morris was given, and the rev. gentleman returned thanks. The rev. F. Muth returned thanks in an excellent speech after his health, and that of his colleague, the rev. J. Becher, had been drank, and proposed the health of the Catholic clergy of the At Paris, on the 24th of Aug. John M'Neal, M. D. aged 34. On the 27th ult. Mr. Thomas Leadbitter, aged 66, late of 1ottenham Court Road. Suddenly, on the 1st inst. Mrs. Hargitt, wife of Mr. C. Hargitt, of York. Same day, at Chelsea, Mrs. Winefred Flint, aged 71. On the 3d, at Paris, aged 84, the rev. John Daniel, formerly president of Doway college; he afterwards held the presidency of Old Hall Green for a short time, to which post he was succeeded by the late bishop Stapleton. For several years past, he has resided at the house, formerly the English college at Paris, and is known to the literary world by his history of the Anglo Saxon church. On the 4th inst. at Preston, in Lancashire, Mrs. Mary Sharrock, aged 79. On the 5th inst. Joseph Battie, Esq. late of Kensington. He was deputy commissary in the service of the honourable East India company. On the 10th, John Webb Weston, esq. late of Sutton Hall, Surry, On the 16th, Mr. Robert Fogg, late of Warwick-street, Golden-square, aged 33. On the 11th, the rev. Robert Blacoe, of Fernehaugh, near Preston. Lately, Mr. Joseph Binter, of Oxford-street, aged 67. Carthusian-street, Aldersgate-street. THE Catholic Miscellany ; AND MONTHLY REPOSITORY OF INFORMATION, FOR NOVEMBER, 1823. BIOGRAPHY. RICHARD CRASHAW. "Poet and Saint! To thee alone were given Next that of Godhead and humanity. Ah wretched we, poets of earth! but thou Wer't living the same poet which thou'rt now. Cowley's Lines on the Death of Crashaw. THE life of the poet, Richard Crashaw, in his conversion -to the Catholic faith, presents a remarkable instance of the force of sincerity and disinterestedness in leading to the knowledge of truth, and of the efficacy of that religion in withdrawing his affections from the enjoyments of life, and from the prospects of worldly gain, which he sacrificed for his conscience. Being brought up in staunch Protestant principles, and educated for the protestant ministry, of which he for sometime exercised the functions, his conversion to the faith and subsequent life and death in the profession of and strict adherence to the tenets of our holy religion, would have an interest for Catholic readers, exclusive of the excellence of some part of his writings, and of the poetry which he has left behind him. His name is little known or spoken of in the present age, though the circumstance of his works having gone through several editions, in his life time, shows that they were held in some estimation, about the period of their appearance. His works, it is probable, have been read only by those, who in these days of stupendous accumulation of literary productions, in their admiration for those of the first modellers of English versification, have sufficent patience to make their way, through much rugged metre, to arrive at some natural imagery, and to wade through much dull reading to catch now and then a lively sally, or participate in the poetic glow of the fervid or sublime. On this account, some notice of the writings of Crashaw may be acceptable to the readers of a Miscellany; and if his life possesses an interest, in the developement of the piety and religious feeling that characterized it, so also will be found in his works some specimens of poetry, worthy of being extracted from the dust and cobwebs in which they seem enveloped. Richard Crashaw was born about the beginning of the seventeenth century, his biographers have not been able to ascertain the precise year, but from various accounts, it is clear that his birth took place very close upon the year 1600. His father, William Crashaw, is believed to be the same person of that name, who was minister of White Chapel parish, in the County of Middlesex, and who distinguished himself by his anti-catholic zeal. Chalmers says " he was a divine of some note in his day, and a preacher in the Temple Church, London," and his name is in the title pages of some works of which he was author, principally directed against the Catholics. A work published in 1608, and entitled “A translation of the life of Galeacus Carraciolo, the Marquis of Pico, who forsook all the attractions of rank and wealth, for the quiet enjoyment of the reformed religion, being converted by Peter Martyr," was the production of his pen. A translation of a poem, published in 1616, being "The complaint, or a dialogue between the soul and body of a damned man,"* and in the same year a small work entitled, “A manual for true Catholics, or a handful, or rather a heartful, of holy meditations and prayers," are also ascribed to him. In an old number of. the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1794, there is mention made of a work with the following curious title, "A mittimus to the Jubilee at Rome, or the rates of the Popes * There is a Work of this nature said to be from the pen of St. Bernard. Custom-house, sent to the Pope as a new year's gift, from England, this year of Jubilee, 1625, and faithfully published out of the old latin copie, with observations upon the Romish textby William Crashaw, Bachelor of Divinity, and Pastor of Whitechapel, 1625, 4to." The father of the poet, Crashaw, it will have been perceived by the titles of his works, was no slight opponent of Roman Catholic doctrines, and there can be but little doubt, that he early instilled into his son's mind as much of his own gloomy zeal against them as he possibly could. At an early age, he sent him for education to the Charter-house, where having been put upon the foundation, Richard Crashaw improved in an extraordinary degree under the celebrated Dr. Brook,* of that establishment. He was afterwards sent to Cambridge, and in a few years took a bachelor's degree in Pembroke Hall. His application to his studies at the University were unabating, and he appears in the course of them to have displayed great talent, and to have advanced rapidly in the sciences. Whilst at Cambridge, he published some Latin poems in the year 1634, which being chiefly devotional, exhibit traits of that religious feeling, by which he was afterwards led to seek for truth in the bosom of the Catholic Church. Of this collection of poems many have been deservedly extolled, for their purity of style and language, and for the "Ovidian graces" with which they abound.-An examination of his productions as they appeared, would extend our remarks to a length unsuited to the character of this Miscellany, they may form matter for a separate insertion, while we confine this to the incidents of the poet's life. It may how * Upon the death of Dr. Brook, Crashaw wrote the following epitaph, which is published in his Works, it has deservedly been styled a " quibbling epitaph," and the conceit it contains, appears to accord little with the depth of feeling such a subject might be supposed to inspire. "A Brook whose stream so great, so good, Was lov'd, was honour'd as a flood, Whose banks the Muses dwell upon, More than their own Helicon, ever be worthy of notice, while upon the subject of this volume of his poetry, that among the latin poems of which it consists, is to be found a line which contains the original idea of the well known verse on our Saviour's miracle at the marriage-feast at Canaan, which has been attributed to various poets, and among others, to Dryden ; "The conscious water saw its God and blush'd." If there is any merit in the idea, which is, perhaps, a conceit little adapted to the dignity of the subject, it belongs exclusively to Crashaw, who first broached it in the following line upon the same subject: "Nympha pudica vidit Deum et erubuit." Richard Crashaw took a degree at the university, in 1641, and being soon after ordained, became engaged in the duties of the Protestant ministry. He is described, upon his first entry upon his function, as having made himself very popular by his preaching, which evinced, in style and delivery, great warmth and energy, not unmixed with enthusiasm; and he appears to have possessed considerable zeal in the cause of his religion. There is one remarkable circumstance in this part of his life, to the instrumentality of which, under heaven, may be attributed in some measures, his conversion to the Catholic faith. He had a great veneration for some of the saints in our calendar, which he displayed even then in some parts of his poems; and the life and virtues of St. Theresa, attracted in particular his attention and gained his admiration. This feeling he evinced in a marked manner in a poem he wrote in honour of that saint before, his conversion.* After he had embraced the Catholic religion, his admiration became a more hallowed feeling of devotional respect, and he celebrated the virtues of the Saint in another poem, in which he laments the errors in which he was involved at the time he had written the former. His conscientious scruples would not allow him to accede to the covenant submitted to the members of the universities in 1644, and he was consequently expelled upon his determina * See the life of St. Theresa in "Lives of the Saints," by Alban Butler, in which mention is made of, and some lines extracted from, this latter poem. |