CARDINAL MERCIER

By the death of Cardinal Mercier the Church has lost one of its most eminent prelates, and Catholic scholarship one of its best known and most distinguished representatives. Scholars, as a rule, do not shine as men of action. Absorbed in intellectual problems they lack the tact, deftness and flexible tenacity of purpose to deal with men, and bring living questions to successful issues. This scholar, two-thirds of whose life was spent in almost cloistral seclusion, faced and over-ruled to the advantage of his country and the benefit of civilization, the most awful tempest, that had hitherto devastated the earth. For the past twelve years the world has rung with his name. It must, then, be well worth while to show why he has acquired such tremendous vogue, and to give a brief but authentic sketch of his career and achievements.

Desiré Joseph Cardinal Mercier was born Nov. 21st, 1851, in the little village of Braine l'Alleud on the very edge of the battlefield of Waterloo. Indeed Wellington's Dutch-Belgian allies rested in that village on the memorable eighteenth of June 1815. The future Cardinal's father, Paul-Leon Mercier, was an artist of some merit, but he died quite young leaving a widow with seven small children. His mother, Madame Barbe Mercier (née Croquet), was known in the neighborhood as la sainte Madame Barbe. This lady's devotion passed to her children; for in addition to the cardinal, she gave three daughters to God, one of whom, Soeur Marie Madeleine Mercier of the poor Clares, has left behind her a reputation of sanctity. The Merciers would seem to have made the best of this world; two uncles of our hero, Messieurs Adolphe and Siméon Mercier, occupied high governmental positions; while a cousin, Edouard Mercier, was cabinet minister no less than three times. His mother's people seem to have centered all their energies on the other world; her brother Mgr. Adrien-Joseph Croquet was a missionary for forty years among the Indians of Oregon, by whom he was called "the saint of Oregon." Her step-brother, Abbé Anthyme Charlier, Dean of Virginal, was also noted for his piety, and he, besides directing his nephew towards the altar gave the young priest

during his vacations his first practical lessons in the pastoral ministry. Desiré made all his studies at Malines; his humanities at the Collège Saint-Rombaut, his philosophy at the Petit Séminaire, his theology at the Grand Séminaire. At Christmas 1873 the then Rector of the Collège du Pape at Louvain asked young Abbé Mercier to become his prefect of studies. He accepted, and on April 4, 1874, he was ordained priest by the papal Nuncio, Mgr. Cattani. Present at the ordination was the Nuncio's secretary, Mgr. Vannutelli, who still survives to-day as Dean of the College of Cardinals. For three years Abbé Mercier remained at Louvain and followed the Grand Cours de Théologie. In July 1877, he obtained his Licentiate, and his defense of the theses he sustained on that occasion was a very brilliant performance. In October 1877, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Petit Séminaire at Malines. There he remained some five years acquiring a perfect knowledge of Flemish, English and German; a good working knowledge of Italian and Spanish; and laying broad and deep the foundations of that immense philosophical knowledge, which was in later years to make him the boldest leader of the Neo-Thomistic movement. In 1879 Leo XIII called on all Catholics to rally around the philosophy of St. Thomas. The following year the Pontiff requested the Belgian bishops to found a Thomistic Chair at Louvain. Financial and other obstacles kept the project in abeyance for a while, and it was not until July 1882 that the Chair was definitely established and its occupant, Abbé Mercier, nominated. Before his classes opened the new Professor went to Rome, was received by the Holy Father, and at the Pontiff's desire had several conferences with the most prominent representatives of Thomism in Italy, namely, Zigliara, Liberatore, Prisco and Talamo. After these interviews Mercier drew up his own Programme and submitted it to the Pope. Leo accepted the project almost in its entirety, and gave as his express wish that the courses should be given not in Latin but in French. Abbé Mercier gave his inaugural lesson in the auditorium of the Collège du Pape in the presence of the then Rector of the University, Mgr. Pieraerts. There seemed small likelihood of his ever being known outside the narrow circle of a quiet university town. But the new teacher's charming personality, the solidity

and probity of his character, the influence he quickly acquired over his pupils, and his extraordinary knowledge of thinkers from Aristotle to William James soon gave him an unique position in the University. His ideals and ambitions expanded. He saw new worlds of intellectual endeavour and conquest unfold their tempting mirage before his eyes. One professor could never suffice to teach all the branches of philosophy, much less to place Neo-Thomism on a secure and dignified footing, which would enable it to hold its own with Kantism, Hegelism, Bergsonism and the other philosophies taught in the non-Christian universities of Europe. Why not instead of one Chair found a whole Faculty of Thomistic Philosophy at Louvain? Why not be fully abreast with the science of our day as St. Thomas was with that of his? Why not have the observation of the laboratory go hand in hand with the erudition of the lecture-hall? Why not have a Catholic philosophical Review able to bear comparison with Mind, The Metaphysical Review, Kantstudien or any other? Only in a technical publication of the kind could philosophical questions and difficulties be treated with that abundance, rigour, method and expert knowledge such abstruse speculations called for. Why not have a Seminary which might be a veritable nursery of Catholic philosophers, and from which they might swarm, as from a hive, to carry Neo-Thomism to the ends of the earth? In 1889 Leo XIII approved of the establishment of such a Faculty and gave 150,000 francs towards its foundation. The necessary preliminary steps towards the fulfilment of the splendid dream demanded much careful thought, planning and laborious removal of difficulties, but at last in 1892 Mgr. Mercier-for some considerable time past a domestic prelate— made a start with seven seminarians. Such was the tiny seed and unpromising beginning from which the Séminaire Léon XIII, l'Institut Supérieur de Philosophie and the Revue NeoScolastique germinated. The French have a pithy proverb which says: ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute. It applied admirably in this particular case, for once the start had been made the new venture grew rapidly. The buildings sprang up as if by magic; help and helpers flocked around the Founder; new students appeared from the most unexpected quarters, and in four or five years the Faculty of Mercier's dreams was func

tioning perfectly. In later years, when immense success had come, he loved to talk of the unpropitious openings of his career and to point to us, his pupils, a little moral. In fond memory I have preserved perfectly the tones of the voice, the play of feature and gesture with which he told the following little story. One day, then, he was worried more than usual; the work he had undertaken was crushing the life out of him, and he was short of money. A caller was announced. "Tell him," said the harassed professor, "I cannot see him to-day, I am too busy." The servant departed with the message of dismissal. But his master immediately began to hesitate, what if his refusal did harm to his visitor, if it closed the door to some conscientious enquirer, if it awoke antagonism in some embittered, disappointed soul? Hotfoot on the servant followed the master to see this unwelcome arrival. He found before him a gentleman whom he did not know at all. The unknown praised his work and initiative, hoped it would soon expand and prosper, and to the professor's amazement presented him with a very generous offering.

The mainspring of the Thomistic Faculty and Neo-Scholastic movement was Mgr. Mercier himself-eager, enthusiastic, ardent, enterprising, yet never expecting from others what he was not perfectly prepared to do himself. But all this strain and effort had told on him, and at forty-eight when I first knew him he looked aged and careworn, and I remember hearing him say he did not expect to live more than ten or at most fifteen years. His features were irregular but kindly; the forehead extremely wide and domeshaped with arching brows; the teeth large, white prominent; the eyes of light brown, glorious, inspiring, with a strange glowing brilliancy that I noticed also in the eyes of Leo XIII. His character was kindness personified; I never heard a harsh word from him. I never saw him angry or impatient. His power of work was enormous. He rose punctually at five; said mass for his pupils at six; and all day long and up to a late hour at night he wrote his books, or studied old and new philosophers in view of coming lectures or review articles. Over the mantel in his study was inscribed in artistic Gothic characters labora sicut bonus miles Christi Jesu, and he fulfilled the admonition to the letter. This study was a large, chill, comfort

less room lined with books from floor to ceiling. His writing table was of common varnished pine. Another table large and square and laden with books also stood in the room; two or three common wooden chairs; a small armchair, a plaster bust of St. Thomas, a round stone picked up at the birthplace of the Angelic Doctor, which served as a paperweight, an oil painting of his mother, a kneeling stool and nothing more. This austere room was the workshop of a hard student, and the cell of an ascetic as well. On his writing table there always stood a long narrow box filled with small cards alphabetically arranged. On these cards he jotted down the ideas he proposed to set forth; the reflections they suggested to him; the passages of authors in support or rebuttal. This was the mine from which he would quarry his books. The next step was to write a rough draft of his work called in French a brouillon. The Belgians are thrifty folk with a horror of waste. For this draft Mgr. Mercier used all the scraps and oddments of paper that presented themselves -the backs of envelopes and circulars, blank pages torn from letters and the like. Only barely the centre of the pages was written upon leaving a large margin on each side for additions and corrections. His handwriting was very small, and extremely difficult to decipher, and the rough draft looked like a collection of hieroglyphics. The draft was then put into the hands of a professional copyist-typing was utterly unknown in those days-who wrote it out in most beautiful copperplate. This copperplate was then multiplied by some printing process and was known as the cours autographié or lectures in autograph. These sheets were then distributed to the class, and tested, polished and perfected by actual teaching. Mgr. Mercier had an interleaved copy himself, on which he wrote the corrections and modifications he deemed advisable. And it was only after long tests of that kind-tests that sometimes extended over several years that he gave his books to the printers and definitely published them. In the Essai de Bibliographie of Cardinal Mercier's works published in 1924 I notice that while his Criteriologie generale has had no less than eight editions, his Criteriologie speciale is extant only en tirage autographié and his Theodicée likewise. In his very interesting Literary Recreations Sir Edward Cook points out that frequently the First Thoughts of