At this time the council and the Catholic world had to bewail the death of
two very eminent Fathers. Cardinal de Reisach was a man of great and
varied learning, of large and refined culture of mind, and was fitted in a
special way to understand the diversities of thought which met in the
Vatican Council. His loss to the Holy See, great as it would have been at
any time, was more seriously felt at the meeting of the council, in
preparing for which he had borne a chief part. Cardinal de Reisach was not
only one of the foremost members of the Sacred College in the public
service of the church, but in private life he was greatly and deservedly
loved for his genial and sympathetic character.
The late illustrious Bishop of Southwark, the Right Rev. Thomas Grant,
whose zeal induced him to proceed to Rome in the height of a serious
illness, was also torn away from the cares of this life and the affection
of many friends, when, a little later, he was about to address a luminous
discourse to the assembled Fathers. Whilst he stood in the midst of them,
there occurred a crisis of his malady from which he never rallied. He was
visited on his deathbed, which was that of the faithful servant, by Pius
IX., who held him in the highest esteem.