quired a table. To be thoroughly consistent, they insisted that an Altar, though it might in one sense be called and serve the purpose of a table, was a dangerous thing because it tended to keep up the idea of sacrifice. Altar is the correlative of Sacrifice, therefore do away with your altars and substitute honest tables with legs. Table is the correlative of Supper. Of course, if I had chosen to contest the point with the Bishop, I could have proved my view of the case as clearly as he did his, and could have fortified it with a Catena Patrum quite as voluminous and respectable as his. That is really what is the matter with the Episcopal Church, not to say Protestantism generally, and at the time I am speaking of I was making the discovery. You can prove she teaches almost anything you like. I also began to realize in a most convincing way that the power of the Bishops of that church was extremely arbitrary, and that those very men who were most bitter against what they characterized as the tyranny of the hierarchy of Rome, were those who were ever ready, when occasion seemed to offer, to come down with a heavy hand upon those who opposed them."

That portion of the Bishop's address referring to the controversy was ordered by the Convention to be printed in five hundred copies.

The pamphlet is still extant under the title: "Reasons for Refusing to Consecrate a Church with an Altar."

It is an interesting and somewhat amusing commentary on Bishop McIlvaine's zealous crusade that, in the second St. Paul's Church, on the corner of Broad St. and Monroe Ave., which in 1889 replaced (without improving upon) the structure erected by Mr. Richards, an uncompromising altar occupied the chancel. In the present or third church, begun in 1903 under the direction of the present energetic Rector, Rev. John Hewitt, the altar is made the central and dominating idea of the whole structure, is called the Altar of the Divine Presence, and is in every respect as elaborate and thoroughly Catholic in design, except for the apparent absence of a tabernacle, as the altar of any Catholic Church in the world.

CHAPTER VIII

CONVERSION

1848-1852

Mr. Richards' continued ill health had given cause for serious solicitude to himself and his friends. From youth he had been subject to a severe and obstinate dyspepsia, which was increased by any prolonged mental application. During the year 1847, his sister Isabella, to whom he was deeply attached and who had married Mr. James Howell of Keokuk, Iowa, died at her home there and Henry went on with the intention of bringing her children to their grandparents in Granville. This journey of a few weeks made with the primitive means of traveling then available, the saddle and the stagecoach, had the effect of restoring his vigor to such an extent that it was hoped he might be able to go on with his work. But he soon fell back and felt it necessary to insist that his resignation should be accepted by the Vestry and congregation, in spite of their great unwillingness to let him go. This persistent illness, breaking up a career that had begun so favorably, seemed a great misfortune; but as

the event proved, it was in truth the greatest of blessings. By it, the pilgrim on the road to Catholic Truth was led to scenes where he could observe that Faith in practical operation, and this just at the time when his mind had been prepared by a long course of reading, thought and discussion to understand and appreciate its supernatural efficacy. By the month of November, 1848, he had decided upon a journey to New Orleans and a somewhat extended stay in that city, with a view to transferring his family thither later and taking up his permanent residence in the South in case circumstances should seem to justify the step. His prospects were not indeed very bright, but his courage did not fail. He was naturally of a very cheery disposition, in spite of the fits of depression due to illness, and it was particularly characteristic of him not to worry over temporal needs or worldly interests. His simple confidence in God's tender providence never deserted him throughout life, and the words "Deus providebit, God will provide," were frequently on his lips. Two relatives, Levi Buttles and Hamilton Smith, entrusted to him the task of introducing into New Orleans an invention which they confidently expected to prove a commercial success. Hamilton Smith was afterward for many years Professor of Physics at Hobart College, where he gained a

high reputation in the scientific world, especially for his discoveries and inventions in photography. Another friend, Charles Scott, proprietor of the Ohio State Journal, desired Mr. Richards to look up a section of land in Arkansas, to which Scott held an original patent, and if possible sell it for him.

Arrived at Cincinnati, where he was to take the steamboat that was to convey him down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, Mr. Richards found that the diocesan Synod of the Catholic Clergy was in session under Bishop Purcell, and that on the following day, which was Sunday, strangers would be admitted as usual to the services in the Cathedral. He had made such progress in Catholic principles, in spite of his stout disclaimers of Romeward tendencies, that a strong curiosity had been awakened in him to know something of the Catholic Church. He therefore attended the Solemn Vespers. The gathering of Bishops and priests was large for those days, for the clergy had just finished their annual retreat, under Bishop Whelan of Richmond, followed by a synod of the diocese. According to Mr. Richards' notes, the venerable Archbishop of Baltimore was also present; but this is probably a mistake. The general impression made upon his mind by this, his first experience of a Catholic service, was, as he records, very