They  all  were  very  serious  and  spoke  very  kindly,  recom-


VICE-PRESIDENT    OF    ST.    EDMUND'S       63

mending  themselves  in  turn  to  my  prayers.  When  I  shut
my  eyes  and  they  thought  that  I  was  asleep,  they  began
to  talk  about  me,  about  my  having  been  in  Rome  and
spoken  to  the  Pope,  about  going  to  England,  and  how  I
should  some  day  be  a  Bishop,  &c.,  and  when  I  stopped
them  by  opening  my  eyes  they  innocently  begged  my
pardon  for  speaking  about  me."

During  his  stay  in  Munich  Herbert  Vaughan  had
several  long  interviews  with  Dollinger,  who  seems  to  have
spoken  to  him  with  great  freedom,  especially  with  regard
to  the  condition  of  religion  in  Austria  and  the  influence  of
the  Jesuits  on  education.  For  instance,  "  he  affirmed  that
history  could  show  no  parallel  case  of  a  nation  keeping  up
the  externals  of  religion  while  paralysing  its  spirit  as
Austria  had  done.  Her  influence  was  very  prejudicial  to
religion  in  Northern  Italy,  where  she  still  ruled.  'The
Bishops,5  said  Dollinger,  '  had  recently  met  in  Synod,  and
the  only  decree  they  published  was  one  ordering  the
clergy  to  wear  three-cornered  hats.'  The  Jesuits  had  the
education  of  all  Germany,  and  this  proceeded  on  a  prin-
ciple which  did  great  mischief — viz.,  making  everything  of
Latin  and  almost  neglecting  German  ;  also  in  considering
that  all  their  men  were  fit  to  teach,  and  again  in  con-
stantly removing  and  changing  them.  They  also  educated
the  clergy — the  Bishops  had  no  Episcopal  Seminary  but
left  all  to  the  care  of  the  Jesuits,  and  these  excelled  often
in  theology  but  seldom  in  science  or  literature."

Dollinger's  opinion  of  Catholics  in  England  is  re-
corded :  "  Dollinger  has  been  much  pained  by  the  un-
polished manner  in  writing  and  general  ignorance  of  our
old  English  Catholic  clergy  as  to  their  own  language.
