place.' St. Meinrad is depicted in his desert cell.
Each altar has a separate crowd, and in a church
so vast each crowd has room to pray apart ; but
when the mass commences in Our Lady's chapel,
every eye is turned, and every head is bent to-
wards this miraculous shrine.

Our Lady's chapel, dark and sombre, stands
* beneath the painted dome, and in the centre of a

\ painted nave, as those who built it meant that it

^j Y should look a tomb in one vast field of flowers.

^ ^ A small black shrine, with figures carved in

J ^ wood and painted white, with open griU in front,

^ and two small entrance-doors, this chapel is about

"Y the size of the Holy Sepulchre. Six lamps were

^ once kept burning at the shrine ; each Catholic

Canton in the League supplying oil for one un-
dying lamp ; but now the Radicals are masters,
they have let these lights die out for lack of
oil. No light is wanting now ; for every pilgrim



/



FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 219

has it on his soul to give one dip at least; and
every comer of the shrine, from grill to shaft and
ledge, is reeking with the stench, and cracking
with the heat of melting wax.

A priest and his assistants stand within the
holy place. Around the iron grills and sombre
shafts, a mighty throng of pilgrims swarm to
pray ; three thousand at the least ; in whom
the passions that are more than mortal bum with
a mysterious flame. To aU these prostrate souls,
the figure of the Virgin is no log of withering
pine, all carved and overlaid, but an abiding
eidolon, in which the woman without sin has
taken up her rest. Except before the Iberian
gate in Moscow, where the picture of the Black
Virgin of Iberia hangs, my eyes have seen no
sight like this before Our Lady's shrine. All
passions seem to sway these groups by turn.
One instant they are dumb with terror of the
burning hghts ; next moment they are wild and
loud with the exulting chant. Some beat their
faces on the flags ; some toss their arms above
their heads; and some cry out in pain and
passion, * Mary, Mary ! save us, save us from
the deathless pit.' A dozen women start upon
their feet and fumble in their skirts for coin.




220 THE SWITZERS.

' A light, give me a light ! ' they scream, A
church official sells them dips, which they ignite
and fasten to the marble shrine, till the funereal
chapel is one mass of burning stars. A low and
musical voice intones the mass. A . tiny silver
bell rings out the points ; and when the host
is raised, a gunshot crashes through the aisles,
and every heart leaps up. A pause a listening
wonder till the echoes die away from choir and
vault ; and then a cry of rapture greets that
miracle which is renewed from day to day that
transformation of the actual flesh and blood into
the\ visible bread and wine.

When mass is ended, every face seems flushed
with an unearthly light, as though these pilgrims
have been blessed with glimpses of an unknown
world. It passes from them in a moment like
a smile ; but while it lingers on their brows
and in their eyes, these shepherds from the alps,
these weavers from the hamlets, are as lovely in
their rapture of expression as a brotherhood of -v
painted saints..

From five to six we loiter in the ample have ; y
inspect the votive pfl'erings nailed on door and
slung on rail a waxen doll, a bit of half-burnt
rag, a daub of some miraculous cure each offer-



FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 221

ing with an image of the Virgin and her Child ;
move forward with the crowd from shrine to
shrine, and drop a prayer at each in turn St.
Anne, St. Joseph, and St. Benedict in chief ; per-
use the list of abbots who have reigned and died
here, from St. Eberhard, Count of Franconia, 959,
down to the Reverend Celestin Miiller, of Schme-
rikon, Canton St. Gallon, 1845 ; including third
upon the list St. Gregory, (called a son of Edward
the Elder, king of England, brother-in-law of kaiser
Otto), in whose person the abbot of Einsiedeln
was created an imperial prince.

At six o'clock the sun rises, and at six o'clock
there is a special service for the rising of our con-
vent sun, St. Meinrad. In this special service we
include St. Eberhard, and the other holy men who
aided him to found this temple in a desert place.
When this is done, a priest and acolyte repair to
one of the side altars, where they chant a verse,
and then turn round upon the kneeling crowds,
and bless the rosaries which the pilgrims carry in
their hands. Some pilgrims take advantage of
the priest to get his blessing on a dozen things
besides their beads a charm, a crucifix, a bunch
of ribbons, nay, a box of toys by holding them
in front of him together with the beads. No



222 THE SWITZERS.

charge is made for blessing these mementoes of
Einsiedeln, but a pilgrim who has money in his
purse is taught the duty of investing some of it
with God. Upstairs there is a passage with a
grill, at which a priest is stationed to receive
such gifts, and bless the bringers with a special
grace.

At seven o'clock, the abbot, Heinrich IV.,
comes down into the church, attended by his
clergy, and ascends his throne, while three supe-
rior priests perform high mass in the grand sanc-
tuary ; a picturesque and noble rite, regarded
merely as a work of musical and scenic art. Three
organs and a band assist the choir ; these organs,
raised aloft in singing galleries, are extremely fine
in tone. A learned Benedictine, Pater Schubiger,
known as author of the ' Roses de Marie,' makes
the music, and in part conducts the service.
Abbot Heinrich Schmid, of Baar, in Canton Zug,
a grave and passive man, with ample face, white
hair, and noble aspect, looks the prince which
pious pilgrims call him, though his temporal rank
and power are gone. The three officiating priests
are richly clothed ; the singers are concealed from
sight ; and when the host is raised the cannon
fired three thousand kneeling figures bend their



FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 223

temples to the floor, and fling their arms about
in ecstasies of pain and bliss.

At eight o'clock there is a sermon, chiefly an
account, in ghostly phrase, of the fifteen mysteries
of the rosary. A rosary was a form of prayer before
it was a string of beads a form of prayer divided
into three parts and fifteen decades so called from
each decade retaining ten Ave Marias. To say a
whole rosary, with its fifteen Pater Nosters, and
its ten times fifteen Ave Marias, is to do a good
and perfect work. It is a saving office of the
Church ; a solace to the poor, the ignorant, the
despised of men ; to those for whom our Lord was
sent, from whom He chose his twelve Apostles,
and on whom He built his everlasting Church.

At nine we break our fast ; but soon return
from inn and guest-room to the confessional.
This confessional, called a Penitentiary, and dedi-
cated to the Sinner of Magdala, is a low and
vaulted chapel, built among the graves of ancient
monks a dark and noisome place, in which a
single lamp biuns dimly, and a watery kind of
light creeps in through grated openings in the
wall A dirge is being howled behind a screen.
A solitary priest is serving in the gloom. Dark
frescoes, chiefly smoke and fire, adorn the



224 THE SWITZEES.

roof. Along this chapel of the Magdalen, two
rows of penitential chairs are placed for the con-
fessors and the pilgrims twenty-eight in number
each confessional marked, according to the lan-
guage spoken by the ghostly father, as either
German, French, or Komonsch. In each a priest
is seated, listening to a tale of sin and shame,
while troops of penitents are kneeling, rank on
rank, each waiting for his call. At some con-
fessionals two penitents are busy with one priest.
Much practice makes men perfect in all trades,
even that of searching hearts. These fathers
have no time to lose. They shrive four hundred
sinners on an average every day the whole year
round. To-day the number to be heard is close
upon two thousand souls ; and, let these fathers
labour as they may, this crowd of sinners yearn-
ing to be cleansed will not be all confessed and
shriven before the hour of midnight chimes.

At three o'clock come vespers in the sanctuary,
sung by an invisible choir. At the cry of praise
all voices drop, and every one kneels down. First
ring the boyish altos, then the men roll in with
middle note and bass. All female lips are closed,
for in these Cathohc offices a woman has no place.
At half-past three o'clock the fathers march in



FEAST OF THE EOSAEY. 225

ranks along the nave, into the Virgin's chapel,
where they chant a special service at her shrine,
A pilgrim looks upon this office as the crowning
worship of his day. His heart may now be light
and glad ; he may have told his sin and got his
shrift. His beads and trinkets have been blessed,
and in his rapture he is like a little child. Instead
of praying, he can praise ; instead of grovelling, he
can now adore. When this great act is over, there
is still more blessing of the rosaries, along with
books and medals, candles, rings, and rolls of wax.
At four o'clock we go away to dine, and come
again at seven o'clock for complines. It is dark
again ; and yet the duties of the Penitentiary
are still going on. A gun-shot breaks the mur-
mur of a thousand eager tongues. Lay brothers
sweep the lights out ; and a crowd of pilgrims
turn their faces to the world. Yet many stay
behind; and when you steal into the church at
midnight you may find some penitents lingering
in the Magdalen's vault.



Q



226



CHAPTEE XXIII.

LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES.

' Yes : we are the last/ says Pater Morel, Rector
of the seminary, as we cross the square ; ' the
last of our old Order in this country, where we
held in former days so many abbeys of the highest
class St. Gallon, Muri, Bheinau, Dissentis, and
Pfaffers, for example. All these great establish-
ments have fallen. We, of Meinrad's Cell, are left
alone; it may be, under Providence, for our
labour's sake. Who else would take the charge
of all these penitents V

With the sole exception of Einsiedeln, aU the
Benedictine abbeys in this country have been
seized by orders from the Cantonal officers, and
their lands and goods divided by the state, as
convents have been seized by orders from the
royal officers in Italy and Spain. These abbeys
only suffer in the common wreck of all religious
houses, whether those of Capuchins, Augustines,



LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 227

Jesuits, or Franciscans. The Switzers want their
money, and these Switzers take this money with
no more remorse of mind than the ItaHans feel
in seizing Rome.

One instance may be cited. On a spot of
land surrounded by the Rhine, and looking over
into Baden, stands the great Benedictine abbey of
Bheinau ; once a famous seat of learning and a
home of all the liberal arts. A school is wanted
by the public, and as Bheinau is supposed to be
extremely rich, a bill is brought into the Council,
authorising the state to close that abbey, turn the
monks adrift, and seize their lands and goods
for public use. In vain the fathers plead that
what they have belongs to Holy Church. In
vain they offer to divide their wealth. In vain
they ask for leave to found a college, build an
hospice, raise the pay of Cathohc priests. The
bill is passed, the abbey seized. A sum of
3,328,000 francs is taken from the Order, and
dispersed as follows :

To the parish of Rheinau . . 250,000 frs.

Pensions to dispossessed fathers . 300,000

Given to Catholic Communes . . 700,000

Spent on schools .... 2,078,000

3,328,000



228 THE SWITZERS.

What is done at Rheinau has been done
elsewhere, according to the local need. The
great abbey of St. Gallen has been turned into
a barrack and infirmary ; that of Dissentis, from
which the Prince-abbot, Christian von Castelberg,
defied and damned the Swiss Reformers, has been
turned into a secondary school for boys. The not
less splendid abbey of Pfaffers is a lunatic asylum,
and the abbot's palace at Kagatz an inn.

Five reasons have been given by writers on
the Benedictine Order for the favour which sur-
rounds the fathers at Einsiedeln : first, the high
protection of their Virgin ; next, the grace of
their religious calling ; third, the homeliness of
their manners; then, the state of their relations
with great people ; fiifth, the visible utility of
their presence on the spot.

There is another reason still the poHcy of
that homely saw which hints that a wise house-
keeper should not kill a bird that lays him golden
eggs.

The porches of the abbey look into the town ;
a very curious town ; what Canterbury was when
knight and reeve, and clerk and nim, rode into
it on pilgrimage with the abbot and the wife
of Bath. Einsiedeln is a town of inns and shops.



LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 229

and all ablaze with signs and flags. St. Meinrad
has a separate flag from Canton Schwyz, a
blood-red field, on which, instead of a simple
cross, is limned the Virgin and her Child. St.
Meinrad's banner floats from nearly every door
and ciU. One line of tall, squat houses fronts
the church and belfries ; every house in that long
line, save one, a public inn. These inns are known
by saintly names St. John, St. Joseph, and St.
Catharine ; Holy Anchorites, Three Kings and
Cloister Gardens with the Sun, the Forest, and
the Peacock. Pilgrims of the wiser sort avoid
all inns with saintly names. In rear of these
large houses stand a motley grOup of taverns,
dropping in the scale of comfort as they back to
narrow lanes and courts, untU you find some
poorer guest-rooms, where the peasant -pilgrims
lodge by tens and twenties in a single room. In
such poor rooms the pilgrims pack themselves by
night on shelves. The charge is nowhere high;
and in these modest staUs it is one penny each,
paid down at night before ascending to your shel
Much trade is driven in rehcs, pictures, beads,
and photographs in crosses, medals, rings, and
cotton prints in earrings, candles, books in
amulets, gingerbread, and charms as weU as in



230 THE SWITZERS.

the things that will not keep in sausages, cigars,
and schnaps. The street is full of shops, and the
arcades beside Our Lady's spring are full of
shops. Yet this large Gentile court is not enough,
and wings of timber-sheds run off on either side
the convent walls, like booths in country fairs,
where objects still more trashy tinsel saiuts
and wooden dolls are spread along the boards
for sale.

The dealers in these articles of devotion have a
bad name in the convent, which these dealers
seem to treat as lawful prize, provided for them by
then* saints. In fact, the Commune of Einsiedeln
claim the abbey of Einsiedeln as their own. They,
not the fathers, are, they say, the permanent
owners. They are natives of the soil, while many
of the fathers are not Switzers bom. The fathers
come and go ; the villagers hve and die upon the
spot.

Some years ago, when putting in this claim,
the Commune seized the lordship of this abbey,
with a great part of the forests, lands, and farms
belonging to its lord. An armed band profaned
the holy place, and Heiorich Schmid, the abbot,
was obhged to yield. The last poor remnant of
his princely power was gone ; and henceforth,




LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 231

he and his must keep on terms with village
may:or and village council if they wish to live
in peace. Where once the abbots reigned, they
have to sue ; and men who used to grovel in
the dust before their thrones, now take their
money and their goods as lightly as a German
company levies war- tax on the conquered French. . r^'
The Commune feel, however, that they must ^
not go too far ; it would not serve their turn ^^
to drive these fathers from St. Meinrad's CeU into
some other place. They might secrete their
Virgin once again, and then the tide of pilgrims
would be turned another way.

In seeking strength abroad against these foes
at home, the fathers are supposed to turn with
too much longing to each rising sun. When
kaiser Francis Joseph was a mighty potentate,
the monks approached him with a prayer that he
would take them under his august protection, like
his ancestors the Dukes of Austria. Francis
Joseph sent them gracious words, together with
his portrait. After Solferino, they approached
Napoleon III. Hortense, on making pilgrimage
to Einsiedeln, wrote these words : ' I wish to place
myself and my infants under the protection of the
Holy Virgin.' They reminded him of these good



232 THE SWITZERS.

words ; he sent his portrait, and a gilded chan-
delier. They next approached the Pope, and
got his portrait and his blessing. Prussia could
not be neglected, Lutheran though she is ; and
they contrived to get a small and unobtrusive
portrait of her king. But after Sadowa, they
felt how much that small and unobtrusive por-
trait was unworthy of so great a man. Re-
minding Wilhelm that St. Meinrad was a Hohen-
zoUem, they succeeded in procuring for their
abbey an enlarged and powerful portrait of the
kaiser-king.

Except the pilgrim's mite, the fathers have no
visible income to maintain their sacred edifice and
conventual buildings other than the proceeds of
their schools. These Benedictine schools, of which
my host is Rector, have a fame in Catholic homes,
like that of Zurich schools in scientific homes. The
Reverend Pater Morel is a poet, of the class and
rank of our own Southwell. His reHgious reve-
ries, mostly turning on the graces and perfections
of his Patroness, are read in many cities of the Old
World and the New. A copy of his poems lies
before me in two volumes, with the imprint of
New York. But, like his brethren of a brighter
time, he is a man of many sides ; a critic, an



LAST OP THE BENEDICTINES. 233

historical writer, and an antiquary. In his hands
the seminaries seem to hold their own ; two hmi-
dred names are on his books ; and yet, in going
through the class-rooms, one is struck with the
great number of foreign scholars in these famous
schools. Not many of the traders of Einsiedeln
send their children to the monks.

A goodly number of these pupils are intended
for the priesthood ; but the sciences and arts are
widely taught. Much time is given to music in
its many branches ; singing, both in solo and in
chorus ; playing on the several kinds of horn, pre-
siding at the organ, and composing masses, over-
tures, and psalms. A thousand years ago, the
Benedictines of these districts had a great renown
as singers. Pater Schubiger, ex-chapel-master of
Einsiedeln, has composed a history of the St.
Gallen school of singing from the eighth century
to the twelfth. A something of this antique fame
remains, and since the Benedictine abbey of St.
Gallen was suppressed, this art, like many of her
sisters painting, carving, casting, building, has
to seek a home in this last refuge of the learned
and despairing monks.

A hundred members make the last society of
this illustrious order; seventy fathers, fifteen



234 THE SWITZERS.

acolytes, and fifteen lay brethren ; in the whole
a hundred souls devoted to religious work ; in-
cluding all that books and arts can offer to their
church. These numbers may not be increased,
though the conventual buildings might contain
five hundred more. One hundred fathers are
supposed to be enough to do what needs be
done ; to say the masses, hear confessions, sing
vespers, and receive the pilgrim pence. Schwyz
rules it so ; and from the Canton there is no
appeal.

All other bodies in this country have some
liberty of action. Take the League of Griitli,
'the Firing Club, the International, the Society of
Public Usefulness ; all these societies, and hun-
dreds like them, are allowed to make their own
rules, admit their own members, and increase
their numbers as they please. The Benedictine
fathers at Einsiedeln, though they owned this
hamlet long before the name of Schwyz arose, are
not permitted by their Canton to receive one monk
beyond the hundred fixed for them by law.

A hundred fathers are not many for the work
they have to do. Much farming, gardening, cook-
ing, carving, painting, modelling, and the like,
must needs be done. Not only have the great



LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 235

basilica and the convent to be kept in order, but
a number of dependent shrines demand some care.
St. Meinrad's well, a chapel on the road to Biber-
bruck, requires some care ; the chapel on Mount
Etzel needs some care ; the nunnery In der Au
requires some care. Fifteen lay monks are not too
many for these various tasks. Nor are these
brethren men to waste their time in hedge and
ditch. Brother Mannhardt is an excellent carver.
He has carved and built an altar-piece, which, in
a showy Roman style, is not imworthy of his
convent in her better days. Brother Blatter, a
professor of design, not only teaches in his class-
room, but repairs and ornaments his church. One
learned brother has the care of coins and medals,
while another takes the stables and the farms.

A dozen services a-day, not counting the con-
fessions, have to be performed in pubhc, with the
pomp and awe of Catholic worship. Schools have
to be kept, and visits paid. Some study must
be done, and many visitors, who take up time,
must be received. A band of seventy monks
and fifteen acolytes would not seem many for
these various labours ; but the service of con-
fession is the greatest work of all. If seventy
monks had nothing else to do but shrive the



236 THE SWITZERS.

penitents, they could not lead an idle life. Above
four hundred pilgrims kneel to them each day
throughout the year; six sinners to each monk
the whole year round.

Yet some of these hard-working fathers find
the time to write ; and write such books as learned
men can praise. The abbot, Heinrich, has the
reputation of a scholar. Pater Brandis has an
European name.

'We are the last,' sighs Pater Morel, as we
pass from room to room now echoing to our
steps of this magnificent seat of learning. 'Yes;
St. Gallon, Muri, Dissentis, were once oiu" rivals
in the work of God ; but they are gone the way
of instruments used up and thrown aside ; and
we of Meinrad's Cell are left to carry on the work
alone. We do our best, although it is not much.
We try to keep alive some sense of sacred art
some love of sacred music some desire for
sacred letters in an age devoted to material
things. We do our duty, as the task is laid
upon us, and we hope to do that duty to the
end.'



237



CHAPTER XXIV.

CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES.

No cause could justify the wrongs the open
and intentional wrongs inflicted on religious
orders in . this country, but a strong conviction
working in men's minds, and driving them to
acts beyond excuse on lower grounds, that these
religious orders are the foreposts of an enemy
planted on their soil. In such a case appeals are
vain ; the public safety is the highest law.

No man with eyes to see can Hve in Switzer-
land a month without perceiving that this strong
conviction, whether it be right or wrong, is one
of the primary forces in all public life. What
else has driven the Jesuits from the soil ? Their
case is very hard. A man is bom in Bern ; he
goes to school in Paris ; he returns in after-Hfe
to Bern, with five or six of his old school-fellows.
He and they are members of some foreign league
or order. No one cares about them. Every Switzer



238 THE SWITZERS.

is a member of some dozen leagues, societies, and
orders native orders, foreign orders, private,
civic, and religious orders. He begins by being a
member of his Commune, of his Canton, of his
League. He is a member of the Sunday
Society, the Society of Public Usefulness, the
Swiss Alpine Club, the Band of Pio Nono, the
Griitli Society, the International, the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul, the League of Peace and
Liberty, the Federal Shooting Association, the
Society of Freemasons. He may be a member
also of many local guilds and orders; singing
circles, democratic clubs, academies of art, gym-
nastic unions, fire brigades, trade societies, anti-
quarian and historical societies, and natural-his-
tory clubs. A Switzer has organization on the
brain. In two Swiss Cantons, and one Half-
canton, an inquiry made into the number of
societies known, and registered, gives the follow-
ing facts :

In Schaffhausen, 87 Societies to . 35,500 souls.
Baselstadt, 126 . 40,683

Geneva, 220 . 82,876

In the several Cantons more than four thou-
sand orders, bands, and societies are known.
These bands and orders are of every sort and



CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES. 239

size, with ends the most dissimilar in view. In
Switzerland a man may be a Turk, a Jew, a