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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, September 6, 1912 [2]

VIII Floriangasse 63

Vienna

6 September 1912Friday.

Dear Mildred,

I have been meaning to write to you for a long time; but when I emerge from the ArchivesThe Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (Archives of the City and Province of Vienna). my head refuses to produce anything I should care to submit to your eye. Now that Elisina is here to lend a hand we are getting on rather well, and I hope to be finished in a couple of days. There is some good stuff among what I have transcribed—the Imperial ambassador writes to the Bishop of ArrasAntoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517–1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, a Burgundian statesman who became bishop of Arras in 1540 and who was as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsburgs. about affairs in England under Edward VI,Edward VI (1537–1553), king of England and Ireland between 1547 and 1553. speaks of the activities of the reformers: “ung chacqung croit tenir le S. Esprit au poing.”“Each one believes to have the Holy Spirit in view.” But I don’t approve of my way of picking the plums out of the Calendar for you—they are not many, God knows, and I fear you may not open the bulky book when it appears unless I hold out hopes of something interesting.

In a few days they are going to open a Eucharistic CongressOn the 23rd Eucharistic Congress of September 12–15, 1912, in Vienna, see John W. Boyer, Culture and Political Crisis in Vienna: Christian Socialism in Power, 1897–1918 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 321–28. See also letter of September 6, 1912. here, which some 200,000 strangers are said to be going to attend; and Vienna is already black with rooks and jackdaws. They are a most fleshly looking crowd, and many Catholics here are very much against the tricks they are going to play. They have brought an old Monstrance to Vienna that is supposed to have done Kaiser MaxMaximilian I of Hapsburg (1459–1519), Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519. The display of a monstrance containing the Holy Sacrament, now in the Laxenburg Castle, supposedly saved Maximilian I on the cliff of Martinswand. some good turn or other, and are proclaiming that it will heal the sick, so great numbers of pestiferous folk of all conditions are expected to come and try its effects. As the Congress guests are to be lodged as far as possible in the schools, you may imagine that parents are not best pleased.

Our plans are at present to leave here for Budapest in about 8 days—thence to Fiume, Pola, Parenzo, Triest, Grado, Aquileia, Cividale etc Venice, all very fast, to Besançon, where we must be early in October. I do pray we may get back to Paris before you have gone. Please let us know when your plans are settled. Give my love to Robert.

Yours always sincerely

Royall Tyler

Our address: here till the 16th; then Budapest, Hotel Jägerhorn, 2 days; then chaos for a few days, then Venice Hotel Cappello Nero.

 
Associated Places: Vienna [Wien] (Austria)