Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/409

 Baggs of Derry, a younger branch of the illustrious house of O'Neil of Tyrone.

His father being a member of the established church, he was sent first of all to a protestant academy kept by a Mr. King at Englefield Green in Berkshire. Early in 1820 his father died suddenly at Demerara, three days after hearing of the death of a friend for whom he had become security for 60,000l. Upon the news of this double calamity Charles Baggs was removed by his mother from Englefield Green to the then well-known catholic seminary of Sedgeley Park. There he remained for exactly a year, namely, until the June of 1821, when, at the instance of Bishop Poynter, vicar-apostolic of the London district, he was transferred as an ecclesiastical student to St. Edmund's College in Hertfordshire. For three years he continued his studies there with intense application. Having won greatly upon his superiors by his docility and intelligence, he was in the summer of 1824 sent to the English College at Rome, in the Via di Monserrato, which thenceforth, from the date of his arrival there on 9 June, became his home for sixteen years. The academic honours won by him were numerous. In 1825, besides contending for the second prize in logic, he won the first prize in mathematics. In 1826, again, he secured not only the first prize in Hebrew, but the first also in physics and mathematics. In 1827 he was pronounced 'laudatus' in theology, and was awarded the first prize in sacred scripture.

His remarkable ability was shown in a signal manner on 25 Sept. 1830, when, in the presence of a distinguished audience presided over by Cardinal Zurla, he held his ground as a Latin disputant against all comers in the maintenance of his unusually ample theses as a theologian. They embraced fifty in regard to Holy Writ, forty-one in regard to dogmatic theology, and sixty in regard to ecclesiastical history. This display, which won for him his doctor's cap at the early age of twenty-four, is still commemorated in the volume entitled 'Theses ex Theologia Universa et Historia Ecclesiastica quas sub tutela et auspiciiseminentissimi principis Placidi Zurla S.R.E. Cardinalis Tituli S. Crucis in Jerusalem SS. D. N. Pii Papæ VIII in Urbe Vicarii, etc. et Collegii Anglorum Patroni propugnandas suscipit Carolus Michael Baggs eiusdem collegii alumnus septimo Kal. Septembris facta cuilibet mane indiscriminatim vespere autem post tertium singulas oppugnandi facultate. Romæ,. Apud Leopoldum Bourlieum,' 4to, pp. 48.

He was ordained in his twenty-fifth year (Dec. 1830) to the priesthood, having in the previous month been ordained subdeacon and deacon. He took high rank in the English college as a teacher. For several years he occupied the chair of professor of Hebrew. His knowledge of French and Italian in particular, as well as of Spanish and German, was remarkable. As a pulpit orator he was not long in becoming known outside the walls of San Tommaso degli Inglesi. His earliest published discourse was one on the supremacy of the Roman pontiffs, delivered on 7 Feb. 1836, in the church of Gesù e Maria in the Corso, and was issued from the press immediately afterwards, with an appendix (in 8vo, pp. 79), dedicated to Cardinal Weld. In the following month, 8 March 1836, appeared his 'Letter addressed to the Rev. R. Burgess, Protestant Chaplain at Rome' (8vo, pp. 58); a controversial argument, which in the same year was translated into Italian by Dr. Baggs himself and by Augusto Garofolini, both versions being printed separately at the Tipografia delle Belle Arti.

During the rectorship at the English College in Rome of Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman, Dr. Baggs was appointed, as early as in 1834, to the post of vice-rector. By his holiness Pope Gregory XVI, with whom he was always an especial favourite, he was nominated a 'cameriere d'onore,' and in the same pontificate was created a monsignore. A monograph from his hand, entitled 'The Papal Chapel described and illustrated from History and Antiquities, by C. M. Baggs, D.D., of the English College at Rome, Cameriere d'Onore to his Holiness,' appeared at Rome in 1839 (8vo, pp. 44), inscribed to Monsignore Charles Acton. It is still widely popular as a handbook for English-speaking visitors. The same may be said also of another larger work by Dr. Baggs, which was published almost simultaneously. This was 'The Ceremonies of Holy Week at the Vatican and S. John Lateran's. Described and Illustrated from History and Antiquities. With an Account of the Armenian Mass at Rome on Holy Saturday, and the Ceremonies of Holy Week at Jerusalem. By C. M. Baggs, Cameriere d'Onore, &c.,' 8vo, pp. 132. The dedication of the book last named to Hugh Charles Lord Clifford of Chudleigh is dated English College, Rome, 16 March 1839.

During the following year Baggs published at Rome another ecclesiastico-archæological work of curious elaboration, entitled 'The Pontifical Mass sung at St. Peter's Church on Easter Sunday, on the Festival of SS. Peter and Paul, and Christmas Day, with a Dissertation on Ecclesiastical Vestments,' 8vo, 1840. This work he formally dedicated