SUDDEN DEATH OF FATHER LOCKHART, O.C.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 38, 8 July 1892, Page 18

SUDDEN DEATH OF FATHER LOCKHART, O.C.

(Liverpool Catholic Times, May 20.) Deep and widespread regret was caused in London on Sunday by the announcement cf the death of the Bey Father Lockhart, of the Order of Charity, one of the most prominent figures in the Oxford Movement of fifty years ago. The Bad event, which was terribly sudden, took place at the preqbytery of the Church of St Etheldreda, Elyplace, on Sunday morning. For some years past the rev gentleman has beeo failing more or less in health, and has suffered "acutely at times from gout. Last winter, while in Rome, he had a rather sevtre attack of gout in the stomach, which caused his friends some anxiety on his behalf. He said Mass each day daring last week, and on Saturday night assisted in the confessional until ten o'clock, and at supper manifested bis usual geniality at table, chatting with the other clergy of the mission for half-an-hour before retiring to rest. A few days before he had remarked to his brother priests that ha had never felt better in his life, and he then arranged to sing the High Mass on Sunday Morning and to preach on the Sunday evening at St Etheldreda's. He retired to rest about a quarter to eleven, and next morning, after having made his usual visit to the Blessed Sacrament— a devotion which he never omitted— he went at about half-past eight to the room of Father Jarvie, and complained of feeling very unwell, saying he feared the gout had returned to his stomach. He, therefore, begged Father Jarvis to sing the High Mass in his stead and to make all the necessary arrangements on account of the change in the Mass. He also asked that Father Bone should know he was ill, and go to him as soon as that gentleman had fioished the Mass he was eayiDg at the time. He returned to his room, and on the two prießtß going to him shortly afterwards he was found lying dead on the bed. His death must have taken place between half-past eight and a quarter to nine o'clock. Two neighbouring doctors were immediately sent for, but on their arrival they at once pronounced life to be extinct. When the Bad announcement was made at the later Masses the scenes were pathetic in the extreme, as Father Lockhart wag a familiar friend to all and a benefactor to many of the congregation of St Etheldreda's. The deceased priest was a descendant of Sir Walter Scott, being the grandson of the great novelist's biographer. Born seventy-two years ago, he was sent in 1839 to Oxford, and when John Henry Newman became the leading light of the Tractarian movement, young Lockhart, who was a graduate of Exeter College, was one of Newman's most earnest disciples, and when the late Cardinal wao con-

demned by the University of Oxford on the publication of the famons tract No. to, Lockhart, on the advice of Manning, followed his chief into the community he had established at Littlemore. At that time Newman was endeavouring to reconcile Catholic principles and discipline with the Cbnrch of England, and Mr Lockhart was one of those who believed that the doctrines of the old Church could be revived under the agisof the Establishment. But bewaa destined to be the first of the Tractarians to see the falseness of his position, On one of his holiday journeys, 1843, be met with the late Father Gentile, of the Institute of Charity, founded by Antonio Bosmini, and on his return to Oxford announced to Dr Newman his intention of seeking Admission to the Catholic Church. In an articles on Cardinal Manning which be contributed to the last number of the Dublin Review, Father Lockbart gives the following interesting account: " The Oxford Tracts and other publications of Newman, Pusey, Eeeble, and others of the Catholicising school at Oxford, had been read by my mother and sister from the beginning, and they became what would then have been called very High Church. I did not care about such studies and wetit to the University resolved to keep clear of Tractarianism, and so I did tor my first year. But I read ' Froude's Bemaina ' and Faber'a ' Foreign Churches and Foreign Peoples.' These opened to me an entirely new view of Christianity. Hitherto I bad, without reflection, really thought that Catholics were not, properly speaking, Christians. The 'Book of Homilies' of the Church of England, containing its most authoritative statements and doctrines, said that before the Reformation of Christianity in the Protestant countries, the nominally Christian world • for 800 years had been drowned in damnable idolatry.' The Thirty Nine Articles, as they stand in the ' Book of Common Prayer,, denounce in such termß ' the errors of the Cburcb of Rome,' which, a B there stated, seemed co glaring, that I was led naturally not to think of Roman Catholics as Christians. 1 supposed that Protestantism was the same as primitive Christianity. I had indeed some Catholic cousins, and they were living near us. I could not doubt that they were good. I supposed they were better than their creed, that their goodness bad kept them from being idolaters, and that some day they wonld become good Protestants like the rest of us. I knew Thomas & Kempia' < Imitation of Coriet,' a favourite book of my father's and that the writer was a Catholic of course, too good to imbibe the errors of bis system. But, in fact, I had never reflected on religious questions or even spoken on them with a Catholic. When once I had discovered, from reading Froude and Faber, that the Catholic Church was Christian, and was the old Christianity of England, a great reaction took place in my mind, and I reflected a good deal on the matter. I returned to Oxford after the vacation. Tract 90 was, I think, published about this time by Newman, and this confirmed all the notions that bad been growing up in my mind. Newman's sermons at St Mary's deepened all my thoughts. Pusey's sermons .nd tracts about Baptism completed the moral and intellectual revolution — 1 began to have a notion of sin — of my personal sins. It happened that I now read a Catholic book, Milner'a ' End of Controversy,' aud I saw clearly, for the first time, that the Church of England professed to hold the ancient Catholic doctrine of Confession and Absolution. It was plainly stated in the ' Church Prayer Book,' in the ' Service of Ordination,' and of the ' Visitation of the Sick.' This was just what I felt in need of ; on the other hand, the neglect of what it admits to be a divine institution of such immense importance to the soul, and this for three hundred years by the Church of England, unsettled my faith in its being any part of the Catholic Cburcb. I was on the point of becoming a Catholic. The vacation came and I returned home, and my mother seeing my state of mind was greatly distressed, begge i me to see Arcbdeacon Manning." He then tells how be saw Manning who wanted him to go back to Oxford and take hia degree, and then become a clergyman. He

advised him to seek work among the poor and ignorant in some one of our great eitiea. Lockhart returned home and his friends were greatly comforted by bis comparatively composed state of mind. His narrative continues : " I tried to go to confession to a very High Church Cathedral dignitary who, I believed, was of the same advanced school as Newman and Manning, but be was bo taken aback by my proposal, evidently the first time anyone had proposed to go to confession, that in bis perplexity he left the room, I supposed to take advice from bis lady-wife. When he came back, he said he really could not undertake to hear my confession withont consulting the Archdeacon. So I went away. The vacation over, I returned to Oxford, and, for the first time in my life, I began in earnest, working hard at my studies. In doe time I passed my final examination, and took my degree — in order to which I had to take an oath or make a subscription that " the Pope hath no authority in this realm of Eng« land." This I felt I could never do again, yet I must do it if I took orders in the Church of England. A little before this, Archdeacon Manning came up to preach, in his turn, the University Sermon. I heard him, and the result was that I resolved to go to confession to him. So far as I can remember, I think the Archdeacon advised me, then or soon after, to accept a kind offer I had received from Newman to go and stay with him at Littlemore and prepare for ordination: This be certainly would not have done, had be not thought it was the last chance of keeping me in the Chnrch of England ; for he and Newman were not in each other's confidence, and Tract 90, which was an attempt of Newman to reconcile the 39 Articles with the Council of Trent, had amazed and shocked him much. He thought it likely to send some at least to Borne, if it retained many, as Newman hoped, in the Church of England, About a year after this, I became a Catholic, in Auguet, 1843. This time at Oxford was the last I saw of Archdeacon Manning ; we did not meet again until I greeted him in London about seven years afterwards, when he had just made his submission to the Catholic Church and was staying in South Audley* Btreet." After leaving Littlemore, Father Lockhart went to Borne and joined the Order of Charity. He was ordained, and soon afterwards returned to England. The first few years he spent as a mission preacher, travelling all over England, Scotland, and Ireland with the late Father Farloog and other Fathers of the Order. In the spring of 1854 Cardinal Wiseman, at Manning's instance, entrusted to him the founding of the mission at Kingaland, where he laboured zealously for some time with Father Lewthwaite. The old church and crypt of St EtLeldreda in Ely place, the ancient chapel of the town bouse of the Bishop of Ely for probably two centuries before the " Bef jrmatioo," were put up for sale by the Welsh Episcopalians, wbc then bad possession of it. Father Lockhart purchased the property and Cardinal Manning put him in charge of the mission, sayiog, " I wanted you to come here because I wished you to launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft. For some time the crypt alone was used, the upper portion of the building being in much need of renovation. Father Lockhart laboured with remarkable zeal for the improvement of the mission. Since bis appointment as Procurator of the Order, be has been obliged to reside in Borne for some months each year, and was well and highly esteemed by both the late and the present Pontiff. la his own parish he was very popular by reason of his strong sympathies in the cause of labour, and he was an especial favourite among the Irish portion of his flock. His tall, stately figure was a familiar one among the slums and alleys of Saffron bill and Leather lane. He was a most earnest advocate of temperance principles and a strong upholder of the League of the Cross, of which there is a flourishing branch in the parish. He took part in many of the openair meetings of the League. On one occasion, some four or six yean ago, when speaking on Clerkenwell green, be was stopped by the police on the g «und that the meeting was of a political character,

but afterwards received an ample apology from the superintendent of the division for the mistake made by his subordinates. Besides his parochial work, he was constantly going about giving missions and preaching retreats. His death will be an almost irreparable loss to the Order of Charity. Of its founder, Bosmini, he was a faithful disciple. Whenever Rosmini's philosophical teachings were impugned and this happened pretty frequently— he wsb quick to explain and defend. His " Life of Bosmini " shows how thoroughly biß spirit was steeped in that of the great man whom he had taken for bis guide, and also proves his skill end ability as a biographical writer. He also wrote '• Toe Old Beligioa " and " Non Possamus," a work in defence of the temporal power of the Pope. Father Lockhart had a lively sense of the value of the Press, and was one of the founders of the Catholic Opinion newspaper, afterwards incorporated with the Catholic Times. He was aIBO proprietor of the Lamp, for which be wrote many articles and serial tales. One who was personally acquainted with him writes: — "The Catholic body in London has lost in him one of its most eminent figures, and the society to which he belonged, one of its best and dearest members. He was once described to me as ' the soul of kindness,' aud such he ever was to all who were brought into contact with him. He was a finished scholar, and in his manner and bearing bore the stamp of the perfect gentleman. His attachment to the land of his birth was rooted and lasting, and I was once taken to task by him for alluding to Charles Edward as ' the Young Pretender.' "