BUTLER
91
BUTLER
of the Penal Laws. He was elected secretary to the
committee of Laymen appointed for this end, and he
put his heart and soul into the work. This brought
him into the dissensions which unhappily existed
at that time between laymen and the bishops. From
the first Butler sided with the former, and the
"Blue Books", which were the official publications
of the committee, were almost entirely written by
him. Notwithstanding the internal dissensions
among the Catholic body, the bill for their partial
relief was passed through Parliament in 1791, and
Butler, the first to profit by the enactment, was
called to the Bar that year. The disputes connected
with the Catholic Committee brought Butler into
direct conflict with Milner, then a simple priest.
Early in the nineteenth century, when the Veto
Question arose, Milner, by this time a bishop, be-
came the strong opponent of Butler, against whom
he wrote and spoke for many years. In the end, by
the aid of O'Connell, Catholic Emancipation was
passed in 1829, without the concession of any kind
of veto.
With such an active life, both professional and political, we may wonder how Charles Butler could have found time for any literary pursuits; but by a habit of early rising, a systematic division of his time, and unceasing industry, he contrived, as he himself tells us, to provide himself with an abun- dance of literary hours. His writings were many, and their variety indicate an extraordinary versa- tility of talent. He could write with facility on such different subjects as law, history, music, social ques- tions, and Holy Scripture. Among his own pro- fession his work on Coke-Littleton, on which he collaborated with Mr. Hargrave, is best known; among the general Catholic public his "Historical Memoirs of English, Scottish and Irish Catholics" was most read. This work brought him again into conflict with Bishop Milner, who replied with his Supplementary Memoirs".
diaries Butler was married in 1776 to Mary, daughter of John Eyston, of Hendred, Berks, by whom he had one son. who died young, and two daughters. In private life he was a devout Catholic; c'.cii Milner admitted that he might with truth be called an ascet ic. livery Catholic work of importance numbered him among its chief subscribers. He sur- vived his opponent. Dr. Milner, and lived to see Catholic emancipation. One of the consolations of his declining years was his elevation to the dignity of King's Counsel after the passing of the Act, an occasion on which he received a special message of congratulation from the king.
There are two miniatures of him in possession of bis grandson, Judge Stonor,one of which is the origi- nal of the engraving in the first edition of the "His- torica] Memoirs": were is also an oil painting of him .is ,i boy at Douai, and a bust at Lincoln's Inn. His chief works are: " Bargrave's Coke on Littleton" (eight editions. 1775-1831); "On Impressing Sea- men" (1777): "Horse Biblicse" (1797 1802); "Life of Alban Butler" (1800); "Hone Juridicse Subsecivas" (1804); Lives of Fenelon (1811 I and Bossuet (1812); "Trappist Abbots and Thomas a Kempia" (1814); "Symbols of Faith of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant Churches" (1816); "The French Church" (1817); "Church Mum." (1818); "His- torical Memoirs of English, Scottish, and Irish Catholics" (three editions, 1819 22l; "Reminis- cences" (1822); "Continuation of Alban Butler's Saints' Lives" (1823); "Life of Erasmus" (1825); "Book of the Roman Catholic Church" (1825); vindication of preceding (1826 : appendix to same
- "Life of Grotius" (1826); "The Coronation
<>ath" (1827); "Reply to Answers" to same (1828); "Memoirs of d'Aguesseau and Account of Roman and Canon Law" (1830).
RrTI.F.R, RrminisrrnrrK: t'nnmt in Diet. Nat Biog.; < '.It -
low, Bibl. Dirt. Eng. Cath.; Amherst, (nth. Emnn>
Mii.nf.h, Svvpbem. Memoirs; Busenbeth, Life <>' w
WARD, Catholic London a I '< ntury A<jn; t 'nth. Manazini' I s;ej ; Stonor in Law Review (1S36).
Bernard Ward. Butler, Mary Joseph, first Irish Abbess of the Irish Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Grace, at Ypres, Flanders, b. at Callan, County Kilkenny, Ire- land, in Dec, 1641; d. at Ypres, 22 Dec., 1723. Sent to be educated under the care of her aunt, Lady Ab- bess Knatchbull of the English Benedictine Dames at Ghent, she petitioned, when twelve years old, to be re- ceived into the order, a request granted two years later. She made her religious profession 4 Nov., 1657 at the English Benedictine convent at Boulogne, at the age of sixteen. In 1665 the mother-house of Ghent made another foundation, at Ypres, with I lame Beaumont as abbess, but as the house did not thrive under her auspices, n was decided, upon her death in 1682, to convert the house at Ypres into a national foundation for the Irish Benedictine nuns of the va- rious houses founded from Ghent. Dame Butler ac- cordingly was sent to Ypres in 1683. and. on the death of the second abbess, in 1686, was elected Abbess of the Irish Dames of Ypres, 29 August. Soon after her election she was called upon to take a leading part in a new Benedictine foundation in Dublin, set on foot by King James II. By letters-patent or charter, which is dated in the sixth year of his reign, and still preserved in the convent of Ypres, King James con- fers upon this his "first and chief Royal Monastery of Cratia Dei", an annuity of one hundred pounds sterling to be paid forever out of his exchequer, and appoints his "well-beloved Dame Mary Butler abbess. Her brother was King James's Chief Cup- bearer for Ireland, a title hereditary in the Butler family, as their name implies. Having overcome many difficulties Abbess Butler set out for Dublin in the year 1688, and in passing through London was presented with her nuns in the Benedictine habit to the Queen at Whitehall. Towards the end of the year she arrived in the Irish eapital. and took up her abode in a house in Great Ship Street. Here the Divine Office and regular observance were at once begun and a school opened. About thirty young girls of the first families were entrusted to the nuns for their education and no less than eighteen of them expressed a wish to become religious. But the good work was rudely interrupted by the entry of the usurper William's forces into Dublin, after the battle of theBoyne (lor 11 July, 1690). The convent was sacked by his soldiery, and the nuns forced to seek refuge in a neighbouring house, but the church plate
and other treasures wire saved by the presence of mind of a lay sister, Placida Holmes, who disguised herself in secular clothes, ami mingled with the plunderers, (hi the closing of I he Dublin convent, the Duke of Ormonde assured his cousin. Abbess Butler, of llis special protection, should she consent
to remain in Ireland, bul she decided to return to Ypres. upon which the duke procured for her. from the Prince of Orange, a pas-port (still preserved at Ypres) permitting hei and her nuns to leave the
country without molestation.
• in her arrival al Ypres lie resin I conventual
life in extreme poverty "I'll only a feu l:i\
to assist her. So greal indeed was their destitution that the bishop strongly urged her to sell the house and retire whithersoever lie plea ed, inn he would
not abandon the work, and her faith was rewarded, for at length in t he year I TOO. she had the happiness
of professing several new subjects (among them two Irish ladies from the French Court) who assisted her in keeping up the choir and regular observance
continued to govern her flock with much «
and discretion until the year 17_M. when she died in the sixty-sixth year of her religious profession, and
