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Title: Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847 - Of Things Concerning the Church and Education
Author: Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Language: English
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Transcriber's note:
The Table of Contents lists the main topics addressed in
each page of the introduction, of the journals and letters,
and of the conclusion. Minor modifications have been made
to clarify its structure.
The work is followed by summaries of "new works in
miscellaneous and general literature" from the same
publisher. This has been separately printed and paginated,
and is preceded by its own index.
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capitals have been converted to full capitals.
JOURNAL IN FRANCE IN 1845 AND 1848, WITH LETTERS FROM ITALY IN 1847,
Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education.
by
THOMAS WILLIAM ALLIES, M.A.
Rector of Launton, Oxon.
London:
Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,
Paternoster-Row.
1849.
London:
Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-street-Square.
TO
OUR SPIRITUAL MOTHER, THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND,
IN THE HOPE
THAT ALL HOLY EXAMPLES MAY PROVOKE US TO LOVE AND TO GOOD WORKS.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
Introduction 1
Separation and its Evils 2
Mutual Misconceptions 3
Difference in Facts not Principles 4
Position of Church in France 5
General Infidelity 6
Missionary Congregations 7
Educational Establishments 8
Spirit of this Journal 9
JOURNAL IN 1845.
Petit Séminaire at Ivetot 10
Discipline of the House 11
Catechising 12
Refectory 13
Day's Employment 14
Churches of Rome and England 15
Caudebec 16
Church of Caudebec 17
Jumiêges; S. Georges de Boscherville 18
Rouen 19
Curé of the Cathedral 20
Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes 21
High Mass at Cathedral 22
Notre Dame de bon Secours 23
Ex Voto Tablets 24
Cultus of Blessed Virgin 25
Schools in the Aitre de S. Maclou 26
Dames de l'Adoration du S. Sacrement 27
Mantes: Church of Notre Dame 28
Paris 28
Sœurs de la Charité 28
Séminaire de S. Sulpice 29
Employment of their Day 30
Studies 32
Rules of Life 32
Rule in "Retreats" 34
"Appels" passed through by Candidates 36
Fasts and Jours Maigres 36
Professors have no Salaries 37
Chapel of Garde-Malades 38
S. Denis Restored 38
Parish of S. Sulpice 39
Bishop Luscombe's Chapel 40
M. De Fresne: Number of Christians in Paris 41
Day of the Sisters of Charity 42
Distinction between Primacy and Supremacy of Rome 43
M. Théodore Ratisbonne 44
Cultus of the Blessed Virgin 44
Conversion of M. Alphonse Ratisbonne 45
M. Martin Noirlieu 48
Parish of S. Jacques 49
Dinner at Bishop Luscombe's 50
Mr. Parkes 50
Controversy on the Holy Eucharist 51
S. Sulpice: Grands et Petits Séminaires 52
Studies at S. Sulpice 53
Authorities as to the Dogma of the Roman Church 54
Jesuits: Dames de l'Assomption 55
Their Rules and Objects 56
Value of the Real Presence 57
M. Poileau's School 58
Conversation with M. Galais 59
S. Thomas: Suarez 60
M. D'Alzon: French Preaching 61
L'Abbé Migne's Establishment 61
Conférence de S. Vincent de Paul 62
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 63
Chapelle Expiatoire 63
Scene at Church of S. Marguerite 64
Discussion on Miracles 64
Refutation of common Infidel Arguments 65
Miracles no certain Proof of the Truth 67
Why there may be none now 67
Anecdote 68
Sermon: giving of Prizes 69
Montmartre: its Calvaire 70
Unauthorised Inscription 70
Church 71
Views of Paris and London 71
M. Galais 71
Conversation with Supérieur of S. Sulpice 72
Le Père Lacordaire: conversation 72
Tiers Ordre of S. Dominic 73
University 73
The Anglican Movement 73
Invincible Ignorance alone excuses not joining the Church 74
Danger of Corruption in the Will 75
Dom Guéranger 77
Anglican Orders 77
Addresses to the Blessed Virgin in Eastern Liturgies 78
Carmelite Nuns 78
Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes 79
Penitentiary: Contrasts of Paris 80
Notre Dame de Lorette: La Madeleine 81
L'Abbé Ratisbonne 82
Culte of the Blessed Virgin 82
Prayers for the Dead 83
Pantheon 85
Toulouse: Conversation 85
Hotel de Cluny 86
Séminaire d'Issy 87
Maison des Carmes 87
Assemblé Générale de S. Vincent de Paul 88
Sermon on his Fête 90
Position of Royal Family 91
Reims: Cathedral 92
Church of S. Remi 95
Séminaire 96
Practice of Confession 97
Laon: its Site and Cathedral the Type of that of Reims 98
S. Quentin: Church 100
Mass for the Dead 101
Peronne: Amiens 102
Cathedral 103
Grounds of its superior Beauty to other Churches 104
Comparative Proportions 106
General Impression of the Church in France 107
Journey to Abbeville 108
Conversation with Fellow-Traveller 109
British Chapel at Boulogne 110
Home 111
LETTERS FROM FRANCE AND ITALY, 1847.
Change of Religious Condition since Revolution of 1830 112
State of Workmen in Paris 113
Progress of the Church 114
Les Missions Etrangères 115
Sœurs de la Charité 116
Genoa: Père Jourdain 117
Barefooted Carmelites 118
Ospitaletto 118
Pammatone: Albergo dei Poveri 119
The Ascetic and Monastic Life 120
Dress of the Women: Churches 121
Milan: Visit to Manzoni 122
State of the Clergy and Church 123
Rosmini's Philosophy 123
Duomo 124
Perpetual religious Service 126
Visit to l'Addolorata and l'Estatica 127
Previous Account of Maria Domenica Lazzari 128
Cavalese: Approach to Capriana 130
Cottage of Domenica 130
Her State (Thursday) on entering it 131
Her altered Condition (Friday) 132
Conversation with her 133
Points of her Case 134
Neumarkt: Caldaro 136
History of Maria Mörl 136
Visit to her 137
Impression made by these Cases 139
Second Account of Visit to l'Addolorata and l'Estatica 140
Avignon; Genoa; Milan 141
The Duomo; S. Charles Borromeo 142
Desenzano; Riva; Trent 143
Capriana: History of Domenica 144
Her state at the Visit 145
Conversation 146
Points of her Case 147
View of her Case 148
Maria Mörl, l'Estatica 149
Position of Trent 150
Third Account of Visit to l'Addolorata and l'Estatica 150
Interview with Bishop of Trent 151
Road to Neumarkt 152
Cavalese and Capriana 152
State of l'Addolorata 153
Dates respecting her Case 154
Her State on Friday 155
Impression of her Case 156
Her apparent State of Mind 157
Visit to l'Estatica 158
Verona; Venice 159
The Pozzi and Piombi 160
Ducal Palace and S. Mark's 161
Catholic and Uncatholic Worship 162
Grand Canal 163
Impressions of Venice 164
Scene on Grand Canal 165
Skill of Gondoliers 167
S. Giovanni e Paolo: Religious Worship at Venice 168
Milan; Duomo: Feast of the Assumption 169
Early Communion 170
JOURNAL OF 1848.
Church of Graville 172
Ivetot: Addresses to Confirmans 173
Life of the Priests here 174
The Archbishop: Confirmation 175
Address of Archbishop 176
The Confirmation 176
Verses on a Tutor's Mishap 178
Fécamp: Abbey Church 179
Notre Dame de Salut 180
Rouen 180
Carmelite Nunnery 181
Archevêché 182
Labour of the Confessional 183
Notre Dame de bon Secours 184
Dinner with the Archbishop 185
High Mass in Cathedral 186
Roman Catholic Worship 187
The Incarnation applied to Daily Life 188
Seminary of M. L'Abbé Lambert 189
Value of Celibacy in conducting Education 190
Notre Dame de Mantes 192
Paris 193
L'Abbé Ratisbonne 193
Aspect of Paris 194
Bishop of Langres 195
Missionary Life in China 196
Père de Ravignan 197
Les Missions Etrangères: Salle des Martyrs 198
M. Voisin: Religion of the Chinese 199
M. Galais: View about the last Revolution 200
New Archbishop of Paris 201
Conversation with Père de Ravignan 202
Supérieur Général des Pères Lazaristes 203
Foundation and Objects of this Institution 204
Their Missions: Greek Church 205
Miraculous Cure of a Novice of the Sisters of Charity 206
Conversation with this Novice 208
Société de la Rue Picpus 210
Its Founder and Objects 211
Benediction at M. L'Abbé Ratisbonne's Chapel 214
Conversation: Story of an Apparition 215
Another Apparition, to M. Ratisbonne 217
Conversation with M. Gondon 218
Interview with Bishop of Amatha 219
Society of the Maristes 219
Missions in Oceania 220
Hôpital Necker 222
Institution des Aveugles 223
Les Enfans Trouvés 225
Conversation with le Père de Ravignan 227
Liberalism in the National Assembly 228
The Roman Primacy 228
Distribution of Prizes at petit Séminaire 229
Les Dames de Bon Secours 232
M. de Montalembert: his Reception 232
Opinion of the State of England 233
Anecdote of General Bédeau 234
S. Germain des Prés 234
Modern Martyrs in China 235
Gerente's Painted Glass 236
Mr. A. Coppinger: State of France 237
The last Revolution 238
M. Defresne: Conversation 238
Religion at Ecole Polytechnique 239
M. des Billiers: Prospects of France 240
Conversation with M. Gondon 241
Benediction at the House of the Sisters of Charity 242
Unpublished Letters of S. Vincent de Paul 243
M. des Billiers: Anecdote of a Legitimist 244
Sermon at S. Roch 245
Service of l'Archiconfrèrie du très Saint Cœur de Marie,
at Notre Dame des Victoires 248
Address of l'Abbé des Genettes 249
Père de Ravignan-- 250
M. des Billiers: the Claim of Universal Jurisdiction 251
M. Gabet: State of Thibet 251
Discovery of Grand Lama 254
Religiousness of the Eastern Mind 255
Cure of Blindness before the Shrine of S. Vincent de Paul 256
Mr. Coppinger: Conversation 257
Le Père Lacordaire: the Primacy 258
Government of the Papacy 259
Value of Oral Tradition 260
Una Fides: Unum Corpus 262
Separation inexcusable 264
M. Defresne 264
Cure of Blindness 265
M. Bonnetty 266
M. l'Abbé Pététot 266
Effects of last Revolution 266
His Visit to l'Addolorata and l'Estatica 267
Reception at Comte Montalembert's 270
M. Galais: Miracles in the Church 271
The Jesuits 272
Principles of the Representants 272
Infidelity of the Masses 273
The Law of Continence 274
Le Père Lacordaire in the Assembly 276
The National Assembly 277
Père de Ravignan: State of the Church in France and Italy 278
The Fewness of the Saved 279
The Papal Primacy 280
Bossuet's Gallicanism 281
La Madeleine: Address of M. Pététot 282
Dress of the Clergy 283
Dinner at M. de Noirlieu's 284
The late Archbishop 284
Catholicism and Protestantism in France 285
Oppression of the Church 286
Funeral Oration on the Archbishop 286
His Character and Sacrifice of Self 287
Couvent des Oiseaux 289
Value of the Vie de Communauté in the Work of Education 290
Les Dames du Sacré Cœur 292
Maison des Carmes 293
Reminiscences of this House 294
Its Connection with the late Archbishop 295
Prizes given to the Blind 296
Dames de la Visitation 296
Importance of _Vocation_ 298
Subject of the Blessed Virgin's Intercession 299
It is involved in the Communion of Saints 300
Œuvre de S. Nicolas 301
Its Object and Rules 302
Instruction given 304
Work of the Sisters of Charity in it 304
Superintendence of the Brethren 305
Rewards: Recreations 306
Its Founder, M. de Bervanger 307
Work of the Celibate 308
Anglican and Roman Catholic Education 309
Sœurs de la Charité 310
Their Superior's Pastoral Letter 311
Account of the Two Cures before the Shrine of S. Vincent 311
Surgeon's Attestation 312
Detailed Relation of the Cure of the Sister Marie Javelle 315
Detailed Relation of the Cure of Céleste l'Allemand 320
Observations on these Cures by the Superior General 324
Orleans: Bourges 326
Cathedral of S. Stephen 326
Seminaire: Conversation with Superior 328
Amiens 330
CONCLUSION.
Prominence and Power of the Doctrine of the Real Presence 331
Its Relation to the Priesthood and Monastic Orders 333
Its Connection with the Doctrine of the Intercession of
Saints 334
And with the System of Confession 336
Importance of this System 337
And of the Doctrine of the Forgiveness of Sins 338
The Church of Rome a Church in Action 339
The Want of Signs and Symbols among us a real practical
Deficiency 340
Use of the Latin Language in Services of the Church 342
Reservation of the Cup 344
Preaching without Book 345
Aspect of the French Church 346
Its Bishops and Priests 347
The Daily Sacrifice 348
The Cure of Souls 349
Theory and Fact 350
Education of the Priesthood by the S. Sulpiciens 350
Importance of an uniform Type and Discipline 351
Want of this and of a dogmatic Standard among Ourselves 352
Appointment of Bishops 353
Preparation of Missionaries 354
The whole Roman Communion 356
1. Its Extent 357
2. Its Doctrine, uniform and systematic 361
3. Its Internal Discipline 363
4. Its Vital Principle 364
5. Its Generative Power 365
Conclusion 366
APPENDIX.
Tableaux des Devoirs d'un Seminariste 368
INDEX. 383
INTRODUCTION.
Of the vast number of English men and English women who have travelled
on the Continent in late years, comparatively few, I imagine, have
deemed it worth their while to give much thought and attention to the
action of the Church in the countries they have visited. Doubtless all
have entered the material fabrics of Roman Catholic worship, but
generally it has been to treat them as public monuments, rather than
as "the house of prayer for all nations." But how many of those
travellers who enjoy leisure and independence have made it their study
to understand those manifold institutions for the education of the
clergy or the laity, for the consolation of the suffering, for the
instruction of the poor and outcast, or for the advancement of the
interior life, by which the Church christianises the world, and lays
hold of the heart of humanity? I am not now expressing an opinion
whether the whole Roman system be true or false, pure or corrupt; I am
looking at it simply as a _fact_. And in this view, perhaps, there is
no object on the face of the earth so worthy of contemplation by the
thoughtful mind as the Roman Church. As an English Churchman, I do not
think it truthful, honest, christian, or safe, to shut my eyes to such
a _fact_ existing in the world. It seems to me that one ought to
endeavour to understand it. Those who strive to rekindle ancient
animosities, those who take not the trouble to understand doctrines as
taught by their professors, but wilfully misconceive and mis-state
them; those even who rest contented in a state of separation, do they
not sin against Him, who in the days of His humiliation prayed to His
Father, "that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I
in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me." Do they in the least realise the fact that
the Church of England considers the Church of Rome to be quite as
truly a part of the Church Catholic as she is herself?
Thus it is that between the two communions there has grown up a
prodigious ignorance of each other's true state. I have found well
informed Roman Catholic ecclesiastics ignorant that we possess a
ritual, use fixed prayers, have a regular hierarchy; while scarcely
any one is aware that we have a form of absolution as categorical as
their own, and one which presupposes special confession. They
are in the habit of taking for granted that we have no succession,
besides asserting that our orders are invalid through defect of the
formularies. The present Pope, conversing lately with an English
clergyman, seriously inquired of him, whether we administered, what,
in condescension to the supposed feelings of his auditor, he termed
"la cena," once a year; and whether we passed the cup from hand to
hand? Two notions, I imagine, which must have given him the poorest
impression of the Anglican communion which a Roman Catholic could
have. And in conversing with theologians, they ordinarily direct
themselves against merely Protestant feelings and arguments, such as
touch the Lutherans and Calvinists abroad, or dissenters here, but
which have nothing to do with English Churchmen.
But Roman Catholic ignorance of us is, I think, almost exceeded by our
ignorance of them.
Would that I could be in any degree instrumental to the removal of a
prejudice, or the clearing up of a misconception. My means of
observation have not been large, my time very limited; but I have seen
enough to be convinced, that those who hate and denounce the Roman
Church most violently, do not hate and denounce her more than she
would that thing which they suppose to be the Roman Church.
If both sides knew each other well, if all had been done which
could be done for a reconciliation, and the present state of enmity
and opposition still subsisted, it would indeed be a grievous prospect
for the future; but when ignorance and misapprehensions make up so
much of the difference between the Churches, are we not to hope for
better things? Is not Providence teaching us, by what is taking place
on both sides, that the Church of God in all lands must unite against
the common foe? Is He not removing on both sides the impediments to
that union?
Moreover, an English Churchman conversing with a Roman Catholic will
find, in proportion as both are earnest-minded, that they have
generally the same friends and the same enemies, the same likings and
the same antipathies, which, if the great heathen philosopher be
correct, is a strong proof of an inward identity.[1] Very rarely
indeed will they differ in _principle_, though sometimes in _facts_;
the inward character will be the same in both.
The only merit of the following journal, if it have any, is the
attempt to see things as they are in the Roman Catholic system; to put
off all preconceived prejudices, not condemning that which is contrary
to what one is accustomed to meet, but endeavouring to understand the
principle on which it rests. It is nearly restricted to France,
but perhaps that country is for more than one reason the most
interesting part of the Roman Catholic communion at present. There the
divorce, which all the governments of Christendom are now enacting on
the Church, has been accomplished with the most harshness, contumely,
and tyranny. The ample estates surrendered by the French clergy, in
noble reliance on the generosity of their country, have been taken
possession of by the state, which, admitting that the vast majority of
its people are Catholic at least in profession, has recompensed this
surrender by a grant to the clergy, yearly repeated, not a dotation
once for all, and that in amount so unspeakably mean and inadequate,
that every Frenchman of honour and feeling must blush for his country
as he thinks upon it. The immense majority of curés throughout France
receive from the state a stipend of 32_l._ a year, in larger
populations this is extended to 48_l._, in the largest of all to
60_l._ Moreover, in France the state has done or is doing, what in
England it will also do if it can; it sets up in every parish a
schoolmaster without a creed, to teach children all kinds of useful
knowledge, from which only a definite creed is excluded, and to be an
antagonist to the clergyman in his proper sphere. Then the existing
generation of Frenchmen has been brought up since the tide of
infidelity swept over their land; in too many cases they are not
only infidels in present practice, but even their childish thoughts
and associations were not Christian. The full harvest of the terrible
convulsion of 1789 is being reaped--alas, it is far from being yet
gathered in! Infidelity not only stalks openly through the land, but
bears open sway in it. There is nothing on which all those with whom I
spoke were more agreed than that "le respect humain" was against the
Church and against religion. What a fact is this alone, whereby to
estimate the state of a country. If "hypocrisy be the homage which
vice pays to virtue," where stands that country whose public opinion
requires no hypocrisy in the open profession of unbelief? For these
and other reasons, then, I conceive that the Church of God is best
seen in France working by her own intrinsic powers, not only unaided
by the world, but most cruelly afflicted by it, and so externally
oppressed and degraded, that nothing but the irrepressible life of the
Gospel could penetrate and leaven society under such conditions. God
grant that such a state of things be not preparing in England--and if
it be, God grant likewise that the Church, in the day of her need, may
have servants and handmaidens, priests, teachers, and sisters of
charity, as disinterested, laborious, patient, and zealous, as He has
raised up for her in France. This further may be said, that, if France
as a nation be ever brought afresh under the yoke of her Saviour,
no condition of human society need be despaired of; nor the
capacity of the Church of Christ to overcome any amount of obstacles
doubted.
Of course the institutions mentioned in this journal are but samples
of a multitude. None will feel more than the writer its great
incompleteness. Still this is a field of observation which has been
little worked; so that the mere partial breaking of its surface may
produce fruit.
It may be as well to put together here the five congregations in
France mentioned in different places of the journal, which are engaged
in missionary work. They are "la Congregation des Prêtres de la Mission,"
or, "les Pères Lazaristes," Rue de Sèvres, 95.; the "Séminaire des
Missions Etrangères," Rue du Bac, 120.; the "Congrégation des Sacrés
Cœurs" (Séminaire de Picpus), Rue Picpus, 9.; the Jesuits, and the
Maristes. The "Congrégation du Saint Esprit," for forming priests for
the colonies, Rue des Postes, 26., I did not visit. These, with the
"Congrégation de la Miséricorde," form all the French missionary
establishments. I think no one can give even a transient look at the
course of life pursued by the St. Sulpiciens for the education of the
clergy, without admiration of the astonishing care of the interior
life taken by them, and the pains they are at to ascertain the due
vocation for so special a work.
The chief establishments of the Church for education are the grands
séminaires in each diocese, for preparation for holy orders; and the
petits séminaires, both under the direction of the bishops, the latter
receiving boys for all sorts of professions. In these two classes of
establishments alone, as a general rule, is strict attention paid to
the religious training of the pupils. The royal colleges, which extend
all over France, have been by all described to me as in the most
corrupt moral condition, and as suffering their professors to instil
systematic infidelity into their pupils. Of course the vast majority
of the youth of the country is educated in these colleges. The result
is seen in their lives. For the female sex, the chief congregations
devoted to education are "Les Dames du Sacré Cœur," in Paris, Rue
de Varennes; "Les Dames de Notre Dame" (couvent des Oiseaux, Rue de
Sèvres); "Les Dames de la Visitation." Each has a great number of
houses through France and elsewhere. For the poorer classes, "Les
Frères de la Doctrine Chrétienne," and the various sisters of charity,
are of incalculable benefit: they are very numerous, and widely
spread. Their disinterested and loving labours would be the greatest
of blessings to our parish priests, engaged in conflict with a hard
practical heathenism on the one side, and on the other, with various
forms of dissent, the essence of which may be said to consist in a
complete negation of the Church's office in the scheme of
redemption, and, generally, of all objective belief beyond the
sacrifice of our Lord for the sins of men, and the operation of the
Holy Spirit.
It will be seen throughout, that I do not consider non-appreciation of
the good in the Roman Catholic faith and practice a necessary
ingredient of the English Churchman's character. I am quite convinced
that the reunion of the English Church with the Church of Rome would
be an incalculable blessing to the whole Church of God, and to the
whole human race. Whoever made the separation, we need not despair of
such a reunion; the right accomplishment of which good persons, on
both sides, may earnestly hope and pray for.
[1] Arist. Rhet., lib. 2. 4.
JOURNAL.--1845.
_Tuesday, June 24._--Reached Southampton from Oxford in good time,
and left by the packet at 10 P.M. We passed the experimental fleet
off Portsmouth, had a very fair passage, and were at the mouth of
Havre about ten: but for two hours we could not enter; the swell was
considerable. At Havre, took our places to Ivetot, which we reached
about half-past-nine. The country rich but uninteresting.
_Ivetot, June 26. 1845. Thursday._--We called on M. Labbé a little
before ten, and were with him till half-past-three. His brother is
Supérieur of the Petit Séminaire, in which are 225 youths. The whole
payment, on an average, is 360 francs per annum for board and
instruction; some paying as little as 200 francs, some as much as 500,
but no difference whatever is made between them. The children are
evidently on the most affectionate terms with the masters. "There are
twelve priests, a deacon and sub-deacon, and three clerks in minor
orders."--_M._[2] They attend confession once a month, and it
is very rare that they fail in this: this is the rule of the house;
but should any avoid it much longer, his confessor would not speak to
him authoritatively at all, or send for him, but rather take an
opportunity of referring incidentally to his absence. This hardly ever
fails. "They generally thank him for doing so, the reason being
something about which they were unable to get themselves to break the
ice."--_M._ They live entirely with their pupils; sleeping, eating,
playing, teaching: in the centre of a large dormitory, with beds on
both sides, was a bed, nowise distinguished from the rest save that it
had a chair beside it; here the Supérieur sleeps. His salary is 1000
francs a year; that of the others about 600. They said, laughing, that
it was hardly what a servant in England would receive. The Supérieur
has a very pleasing and paternal aspect. We heard him catechise the
children in the chapel for some time; their answers were good. Several
were on the sacraments, and the reply to them definite and
precise:--'Which is the most indispensable sacrament?' 'Baptism.' 'How
many sorts of baptism are there?' 'The baptism of water, of blood, and
of desire.' 'Can any sacrament be administered by other than a
priest?' 'Yes, baptism in case of necessity.' 'Can any other?' 'None,
Sir.' 'What conditions are necessary to receive the sacrament of
Penance?' 'Five.' 'Are there any of those more indispensable than
others?' 'Yes, fervent sorrow for sin past, and a resolution not to
offend God by sinning any more.' 'If a priest conferred absolution on
a person who gave no outward sign of penitence, from his state of
sickness, would it benefit him?' 'If he was able to make interior
actions of the soul, it would; not otherwise.' ('The Church,' said M.
Labbé in explanation, 'would prefer bestowing a sacrament _often_
inutilement, to denying it once where it might benefit.') 'Which are
the three chief Christian graces?' 'Faith, Hope, and Charity.' 'Which
is the most perfect?' 'Charity.' 'Why?' 'Because it presupposes the
other two' (I think); and, again, 'because it will last for ever.'
'Will Faith last for ever?' 'Non, Monsieur.' 'Why?' 'Parceque, quand
nous verrons Dieu, nous n'aurons pas besoin de le croire.' 'Will you
see God?' 'Oui, avec nos propres yeux.' 'You have just received
confirmation; what does it make him who receives it?' 'Un parfait
Chrétien.' 'Etes-vous donc un parfait Chrétien?' With hesitation,
'Oui, Monsieur.' 'Etes-vous un Chrétien parfait?' 'Non, Monsieur.'
'Quelle est la différence?' 'Un parfait Chrétien est celui qui a tous
les moyens pour parvenir au salut--un Chrétien parfait est celui
qui est sans péché' 'En y-a-t'il?' 'Non, Monsieur' (with hesitation).
'Non, mon enfant, il n'y en a pas.'
"The chapel is a pretty and simple building of the early decorated
character, designed by Père Robert, who was formerly an engineer. The
windows and buttresses are in excellent taste; and the ceiling, though
of sham stone, is so well done that I doubted whether it were not
real, though a look at the buttresses, after seeing the interior,
would convince one of the contrary. There is a subterraneous chapel,
or rather a crypt which will be one, which I like particularly. Père
Robert showed us his design for ornamenting the east end of the
chapel, which is in excellent taste."--_M._
We dined with them at twelve "in the refectory. There was a crucifix
at one side, in the middle of the long room; and before it stood the
Supérieur while we said grace."--_M._; and we supped with them at
seven, in the midst of 180 boys. Absolute silence was kept, and a
youth at a tribune in the middle read first a verse or two of the
Gospels, and then some of 'Daniel's History of France.' Nothing could
be more simple than their dress; the masters were distributed at
intervals down the tables. The school was to educate laymen and
ecclesiastics together, and they showed with pride a young man who had
become priest out of their house, just twelve years after his
first communion. This is generally in the twelfth year, but earlier or
later according to the state of the individual. They take their first
communion after special confession, and _before_ confirmation; we
narrowly escaped seeing this sacrament conferred by the archbishop,
who had only left two days before. Confession begins at seven
according to _rule_, but generally before that age _in fact_.
At 5 a.m. They rise. Half an hour to get ready.
5½ to 6¼. In chapel; prayers and mass.
6¼ to 8. Study in silence, in school-room.
8 to 8¼. Breakfast, with reading Lives of Saints.
8¼ to 8½. Recreation.
8½ to 10½. Class. Vivâ voce lecture.
10½ to 12. Study.
12 to 12½. Dinner, with reading.
12½ to 1½. Recreation.
1½ to 3. Study.
3 to 4½. Class.
4½ to 5. Recreation.
5 to 7¼. Study.
7¼ to 7¾. Lecture Spirituelle, and Evening Prayers; the time at
which the Supérieur took notice of anything which
had occurred, gave advice, &c.
7¾ to 8¼. Supper.
8¼ to 8¾. Recreation. Then a minute or two of prayers in chapel,
and bed.
Study commences always with the hymn beginning "Veni Sancte Spiritus,"
the collect for Pentecost, and "Ave Maria." One half holiday,
Thursday. "Afterwards we walked in their little garden and play
ground. It being Thursday, the boys went out to walk with some of the
clerks. Some, however, remained about the premises, doing some
of the painting, &c. that was required. Much of the work has been done
by them. They carried all the bricks and mortar while the chapel was
building, &c. &c. They seem to be quite a family."--_M._
We talked on many subjects respecting the Churches of Rome and
England. In their opinion we are utterly heretical and dead. But M.
Pierre Labbé, who was chief spokesman, and a very clever talker,
admitted, that in case of invincible ignorance, that is, where the
person was, with all his endeavours, unable to see that the Church of
Rome was the only true Church, (supposing we had the succession, which
he more than doubted,) such person might receive the grace of the
sacraments. And this he also applied to the Eastern and Russian
Churches. He said, if things should ever come to a large, or anything
like a national, accession from England to the Roman Catholic faith,
the question of Anglican orders must be settled, and the Pope "se
gratterait la tête" what to do.
The point we remarked in this school was the intimate terms on which
the masters appeared to be with the boys; it was not only that their
presence during lesson time served to keep order, but that their
influence was everywhere at all times. Confession, doubtless, is the
root of this. Thus the Supérieur at catechism gave, as rewards, small
pictures, which each boy receiving kissed him on the cheek.
There was the greatest hilarity and cheerfulness, mingled with
respect, in presence of the master. We left these good people with
great admiration of their zeal, and appreciation of their kindness to
us.[3] M. Robert would take us on our way to Caudebec on Friday
morning. He conducted us in a cab belonging to the house, for the
homeliness of which he apologised. We passed a rich and occasionally
diversified corn country to Caudebec, over one of Henri Quatre's
battle-fields; there were no signs of it now. I asked him if Louis
Philippe had brought about a revolution, or only slipped in to prevent
a republic: he replied, "Quand on jette une pierre par la fénêtre, il
faut bien qu'elle tombe."
_Rouen, June 28. Saturday._--The church of Caudebec is of great
beauty, of the 15th century, covered in every part with rich
sculpture, especially the western façade, which the Calvinists greatly
injured. I went over every part of it with the curé, and up the tower,
which is terminated by a curious flêche, something like Strasburgh,
formed into crowns, marvellously rich. The height about 180 feet. The
view from the top is very striking. The great defect of the interior
is that the east end has two windows instead of three, or one,
at the apse; the nave is very narrow. There was over the jubé, now
removed, a rood with Adam at the bottom of it receiving the Blood in a
cup, representing the fallen humanity restored by our Lord. A north
and south aisle without transept. Caudebec is in a very pretty
situation, within the cleft of the hills, with the river flowing at
its feet; on each side rises the wooded amphitheatre formed by the
banks of the Seine: there is a plain on the other side of the river;
it might serve for the site of a great city. The church is equal to a
small cathedral.
The curé has a pleasant presbytère to the north; he treated us with
the greatest kindness. The government allows 1000 francs yearly to the
restoration of the church; so it goes on bit by bit. There is a
remarkable pendant in the Lady Chapel, said to be fourteen feet long:
the curé assured me that he had ascertained it was not supported by
anything. There is in the chapel to the south a sepulchre with
exceedingly rich canopy, and a gigantic figure of Christ, "by which a
woman seemed to be praying with great devotion. I can fancy it a great
help to meditation."--_M._
We set out in an indifferent cabriolet for Rouen by Jumiêges, and St.
Georges de Boscherville; a fine road in parts. Jumiêges is a mournful
ruin, the nave with its western towers and the arch to the east
standing still; the latter of gigantic proportions, the arch being at
least eighty feet high, is grievously cracked, and may fall any day.
To the east of this little remains; it has been almost entirely
carried away, being the most beautiful part of the church, of early or
decorated character. To the south are the walls of an elegant
decorated chapel of St. Peter; the ruins are covered with brushwood or
trees, the arches daily threatening to fall. The garden has a very
fine view of the high banks of the Seine; there is a pleasant
wilderness. M. Caumont has made himself a very picturesque residence
of the old gateway and adjoining buildings. The western façade, with
its two towers of equal height and nearly similar form, is very simple
but grand. I mounted rather more than 200 steps to the top of the
northern: unluckily it had been raining, and there was no sun. It
commands the high banks of the Seine for a considerable distance.
St. Georges de Boscherville is indeed a most stately and majestic
Norman church, bearing its burden of nearly 800 years as if it had
been built yesterday. Its west front, with two stories of three
windows, each over a fine recessed door, and turrets of singular
beauty and later style, is very imposing. There is a massive central
tower with a high spire of Norman, slated, I suppose near 200 feet
high. The interior offers all the simple and solemn grandeur of which
that style is capable; the one idea is perfectly carried out
from top to bottom, as in St. Ouen the Decorated, so here the Norman.
I should imagine it to be a perfect model of the style.
We got into Rouen not till after dark Friday night; went to the Hotel
de Normandie; not a nice house, dreadfully noisy, being in the street
where the two diligences, by the most wondrous evolutions, contrive to
worm themselves through the lanes of Rouen into their dens.
_Saturday, June 28._--After breakfast M. set off with our letter to
the curé of the cathedral, to whom M. Labbé had recommended us. He was
going away in the afternoon, but asked us to dine at twelve; this is
one of the few fast days in the year out of Lent, and we only agreed
to go on condition that he should change nothing of his usual fare. He
gave us potage maigre, fish, omelette. He was going to leave Rouen in
the afternoon for a few days, so we left very early; and we much
regretted this, for I have heard that he enjoys a very high reputation
as confessor and spiritual guide.
"It being a fasting vigil with them, they dine without meat at twelve,
and are allowed to take a snack in the evening, not a full meal. He
asked questions about the course of studies at Oxford, and whether
there was not in England an inclination 'to imitate their ceremonies.'
I told him I hoped the tendency was something more than that,
&c. &c. We asked him about philosophy in the French Church. He said
they used chiefly that of Aristotle, and that one could only find
particular branches well worked out. They were much occupied in
fighting Cousin. He and his four vicaires have a parish of 15,000
souls to look after. They have also many confessions to receive from
other parishes; but for the Easter communion every one is expected to
go to his own parish priest, or at least to communicate at his own
church. He says Rouen is rather a religious place. I did not ask him
the proportion of communicants, for fear I should seem to be inquiring
for criticism. He was obliged to leave us soon after dinner, but sent
us on to one of his vicaires, who took us to the house of the Frères
des Ecoles Chrétiennes, and introduced us to one of them, who showed
us the chapel, dormitory, &c. The founder of the order, the Père de la
Salle, is buried behind the altar. There are seats for the brethren,
and there is a room or gallery looking in at the west end for the
boys, who only enter the chapel on Sundays and saints days for the
Salut du St. Sacrement. They use this gallery for their morning and
evening prayers, which, I believe, are those at the end of the
Catechism. The brethren are laymen, but they have two aumoniers who
say mass in their chapel twice a day. They have not the breviary
services to say, being occupied all day with their schools, but
they hear mass, use the rosary, attend the salut, &c. There are
thirty-nine brethren, and they have a normal school, _i.e._ a
training school, of forty young men. They do not admit them under
seventeen. Their course is about three years. They prepare them for
'l'instruction primaire' of the superior kind, that is, extending to a
little history, chemistry, and the like, (and some of them learning
also modern languages,) but not comprising Latin or Greek.
Twenty-seven of the brethren, however, are occupied in schools about
the town, in which, if I understood right, there are as many as 2500
children. We could not see the cabinets of mineralogy, &c. or the
chemical laboratory. There were two or three little organs for music
lessons. The dormitories had separate cells, with a passage along the
line of them. One of the brethren sleeps in each dormitory, and stays
up till all are gone to bed, to be sure that good order is kept. They
are licensed by the university, and some of the scholars are supported
or helped by the government."--_M._
_Yesterday, June 29. Sunday, St. Peter's day._--We went to high mass
in the cathedral at ten, but though we had looked out the service as
well as we could, and were just on the outside of the higher gate of
the choir, we could not in general follow; only at the Gospel and the
Creed we regained our footing. Certainly the words of the
service, incomparably beautiful as they are, must be in the main lost.
We could not, even by observing the gestures, with the book before us,
follow them; the priest's voice is hardly ever heard. A poor woman
beside me chaunted through the Nicene Creed in Latin, and at vespers
at St. Ouen many female voices were doing the same with the Psalms.
The really edifying thing is the devotion of the people, who look upon
it as a sacrifice, and do not seem to require that perpetual
stimulating of the _understanding_ as among us. For there was no
sermon either at the cathedral or St. Ouen, save after the Gospel a
very short address, as it seemed, in the nave, but nobody moved from
the choir. This service lasted an hour and a half; then we had our own
service in private. We next went to the Musée d'Antiquités, where
there is a small series of stained glass windows, some very good. We
had a fine view of Rouen, north of the Boulevard. At 3 o'clock vespers
at St. Ouen, chanting of Psalms, followed by the exposition of the H.
Sacrament. A good many people, chiefly women. They took part
generally. Here again some Psalms we could find in the Paroissien, and
others not. This too lasted an hour and a half; the singing was very
good, and the organ came in with great effect. The whole tone of this
service, as simply devotional and thanksgiving, without instruction or
exhortation, struck us much. After this, dinner at five at the
table d'hôte. We have frequent occasion to think with approbation of
the Emperor of Russia's edict, "It is forbidden to wear a beard after
the manner of ourang outangs, Jews, and Frenchmen." After dinner we
walked to the top of St. Catherine's, and enjoyed the beautiful view
over Rouen, and also went on to Notre Dame de bon Secours. This is a
new church, of the style of the 13th century, of extraordinary purity
and grace; the eastern end already finished, and full of stained glass
windows. It has ten bays, and three windows in the apse. It quite
surpasses any modern church I have seen in beauty. All the vaulting,
both of nave and aisles, is in stone or brick. It has many
ex-votos,--plain slabs let into the wall: I copied some.
J'ai prié
la Sainte Vierge,
et elle a guéri ma fille.
1837.
Gage de ma reconnaissance.
J'ai prié la Sainte Vierge,
et elle m'a exaucée,
en protégeant ma fille.
Elbœuf le 3 Oct., 1838.
A. G.
A la T. S. Vierge,
le 7 Août, 1821,
Aux pieds de cet autel
J'ai obtenu la guérison
d'une maladie de 20 ans.
A. B.
Ex. voto.
Une maladie cruelle
menaçant des jours précieux,
nous avons prié Marie
dans ce temple,
et Dieu
a rendu M. Motte, Curé
de la Cathédrale de Rouen,
à ses élèves
et à ses nombreux amis.
8bre, 1824.
There is a very beautiful tower surmounted by a pretty spire. The
church stands on the edge of the hill, near 400 feet above the Seine.
_June 30. Monday._--M. and I went over St. Ouen inside and outside
to-day. The more I see of this church the more I am struck with its
singular grace and beauty, and the mode in which prodigious strength
is veiled. Within, it appears of unequalled lightness, while without,
the eye may discern the enormous counterbalancing weight of buttress
and flying arch, which enabled the architect to rear the centre,
pierced as it is with windows, to such a height. The disposition of
the whole choir and eastern end internally is especially graceful; for
instance, the view sitting behind the high altar facing the Lady
Chapel. We attended a low mass in the Lady Chapel. After dinner
M. P. Labbé unexpectedly came in, and talked a couple of hours. He
endeavoured to explain to us the idea with which the Roman Catholics
regard the Blessed Virgin, the occasion of which was my reading to him
the ex-votos cited above. The communion of saints, as a practical
doctrine, has had so little power among us, and assumes so very
important a place in Roman theology, that we seem to be unable to
understand each other on this point. And thus what is the most natural
feeling of his heart to a pious mind in the Roman Communion wears the
appearance of idolatry to a pious mind in the Anglican. "We talked
with him on the system of particular devotions. He said it was carried
to excess by some trying to exalt one practice, another another; but
that a good confessor would keep it very much in check, by recommending
people not to charge themselves with fresh observances."--_M._
_Tuesday, July 1._--I assisted at M. Labbé's mass in the Lady Chapel
of the cathedral, and was able to follow him pretty well; but almost
the whole Canon is pronounced secretly. At present, certainly, I
cannot help regretting that one cannot _hear_ and follow words so very
grand and touching. He breakfasted with us, and then took us to boys'
and girls' schools in the old _aitre_ (_atrium_) of S. Maclou, "round
which was a cloister ornamented with figures of the Dance of Death.
The rooms round it are now used for schools for the poor of S. Maclou.
One of the Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes showed us his class, who
answered M. Labbé pretty well on the catechism. One of them then wrote
on a black board at his dictation: 'J'espère, mes chèrs enfans, que
vous vous montrerez, toute la vie, dignes des soins que les bons
frères ont pris de vous;' which sentence they were made to discuss
grammatically. Some of them were puzzled by the place held in the
sentence by 'toute la vie,' and it was some time before they made out
that it was governed by 'pendant' understood, and held the place of an
adverb. They showed us some maps they had drawn, which were neat
enough. Their manner to their teacher was very pleasing. We then went
on to the girls' school, which is very numerous, and kept in the same
set of buildings, chiefly up-stairs, by some réligieuses who are not
of any regularly established congregation, but are under a vow, and
are recognised and encouraged by the Church. Some of them were at
work, others reading. We could not judge of them further than that
they seemed to be in good order, and that it was pleasant to see them
taken care of by persons devoted to the work simply for charity. We
went on, through some narrow and dirty streets, to the Hôpital
Général, where they take in all manner of sick people. It is a
government institution, but is under the care of certain sisters, who
are devoted to that work. I believe they have not any very strict rule
besides. We saw the Supérieure, and a good many of the others; and the
sick people seemed to be kept very clean and comfortable. There is an
altar in each infirmary ward, but they have not the little marks of
religion at each bed's head, which one would find if the thing were
wholly in the hands of the Church."--_M._ He then took us to a convent
of Benedictine Ladies de l'Adoration du S. Sacrament. The peculiarity
of their rule is, that day and night there is always some one in
adoration of the Holy Sacrament. Their night office is from half-past
one to three. They eat maigre all the year. "They have only two hours
in the day when they are allowed to speak, except upon matters of
strict necessity."--_M._ The Supérieure spoke with us from behind a
double grating, which was besides veiled; at M. Labbé's request she
withdrew the veil, that we might see her costume; but her face was
entirely covered, though doubtless she could see us, herself unseen.
The whole dress was black. "She spoke very quietly and simply. The
congregation was instituted after a time when many altars had been
profaned, to make a kind of reparation for the insults that had been
committed against our Lord through His blessed sacrament."--_M._ In
the schools and the infirmary, I was struck by the prodigious
advantage of their being entrusted to professed religious persons. In
the evening we went round the cathedral: it is in every respect
_inside_ inferior to S. Ouen, and not particularly graceful; but
outside its northern and southern fronts are not to be surpassed for
beauty and elegance of design, while its western one will be of great
grandeur and exceeding richness when completed; walked once more round
S. Ouen with fresh admiration.
_Wednesday, July 2._--At twelve we started by railway for Paris;
stopped at Mantes four hours: went over Notre Dame; much delighted as
in 1843. The west front up to the gallery one of the most elegant I
know. They are building the last stage of the northern tower. Reached
Paris at 8 o'clock: got a "modeste appartement" at the Hôtel d'Espagne.
_Thursday, July 3._--We called on Miss Young at l'Abbaye aux Bois,
and sat talking some time. She gave us an introduction to a sœur de
la charité, by whom we were partly taken and partly shown over their
large establishment in the Rue du Bac. The chapel is neat, and has a
series of nice pictures: this is pointed out as the place where the
Blessed Virgin appeared to one of the sisters or a novice; her image
at the appearance is represented on the miraculous medal: it was
before the picture over the altar on the right hand. The name of the
sister is kept secret, and will be so till she is dead; but the
other circumstances have been disclosed by the priest who received her
confession, M. Aladel, one of the Pères Lazaristes, who direct the
Sisters of S. Vincent de Paul. They have 300 sisters, who are
dispersed hence all over France, and continually replenished; they are
erecting a very handsome building, which will accommodate 300 novices.
The vows are not perpetual, but for terms of years; but it is rare
that any who have once taken them fail to renew them. Went to
Toulouse--curious bookshop; he has sometimes 100,000 volumes in his
possession. M. found Justinianus there. Notre Dame outside struck me
very much; its west front only wants lofty spires on its towers to be
perfect. The interior, with all its spaciousness, is deficient in
grace, and after S. Ouen we felt quite discontented with it.
S. Germain des Près is a fine church, especially the choir and
apse--Norman work. In the evening we saw M. Bonnetty, and had some
talk with him. We were running about nine hours to-day.
_Friday, July 4._--Went to breakfast with Miss Young, and had a long
talk with l'Abbé Carron, formerly secretary to the archbishop. He was
very polite and cordial, and offered us every thing in his power. From
him we obtained an account of the day's occupations in the Séminaire
de S. Sulpice, which I took down from his mouth as follows,
incorporating with it some further information given me by M. Galais,
professor of canon law therein:--
5 a.m. They rise; recite the "Angelus" (angelic salutation).
5 to 5½. Dress, come down stairs; the most pious go for two or
three minutes before the Holy Sacrament.
5½ to 6½. Vocal prayer for ten minutes, and then prayer for the
rest of the hour, each by himself, kneeling, without
support.
The Professor says his prayer aloud, in order to
teach the pupils, on his knees, in the hall.
6½ to 7. Mass; those who have communicated attend another mass
for returning thanks, which may last to 7¾. The
rest mount to their rooms.
7. Reading of Holy Scripture in private.
8 to 8¼. Breakfast,--dry bread, wine, and water; nothing else
allowed, save that in case of necessity milk or soup
is sometimes given. Each reads in private.
8¼ to 9½. Preparation of theological lesson in their rooms.
9½ to 10½. Lesson in theology. Morale.
10½ to 10¾. Visit to the Holy Sacrament.
10¾ to 11¾. Deacons have a lesson in theology; the rest a singing
lesson for half an hour, and then go up to their
rooms.
11¾ to 12. Private examination of conscience. During seven
minutes, meditation, kneeling, on some fact of the
New Testament; and for the next seven, Tronson read.
12 to 12½. Dinner. For three minutes a chapter of the Old
Testament read aloud, then the life of a saint, or
ecclesiastical history. They end with the Roman
Martyrology for the morrow. Then a visit to the Holy
Sacrament for a minute: recitation of the Angelus.
Dinner consists of a little soup; one dish of
meat, potatoes, or "legumes." For dessert, an apple,
or such like. Drink, wine and water.
12½ to 1¾. Recreation. At 12¾ talking is allowed for the first
time in the day. Letters are delivered. The
Professors are bound by their rule to take their
recreations with their pupils: they make a great
point of this.
1¾. Recitation of the "Chapelet;" sixty-three Paters and
Aves.
2 to 3½. Private study in their rooms. From 2 to 3½, class of
ecclesiastical singing four times a-week. From 2 to
5¼ adoration of the Holy Sacrament by each person
for half-an-hour.
3½ to 4½. Theological class. Dogma.
4½ to 4¾. Visit to the Holy Sacrament.
5¼ or 5½. According to the season, bell for all in holy orders
to say their breviary. Time for conferences.
6½ to 7. "Glose,"--spiritual reading by the Superior.
7 to 7½. Supper. One dish of meat, "legumes," salad, wine and
water. Reading at all meals. Talking never allowed
but at the Archbishop's visit once a-year. A chapter
of the New Testament read; a verse of the "Imitation
of Jesus Christ."
7½. They go before the Holy Sacrament; recite the Angelus.
7½ to 8½. Recreation.
8½ to 8¾. Evening Prayers; litanies, vocal, with private
examination of conscience. Mount straight to their
rooms, or go first before the Holy Sacrament. The
Superior remains in his place: each, in passing
beside him, accuses himself of any outward faults
committed during the day against the rules.
9 to 9¼. Bed time; at 9¼ to be in bed. Each has a room to
himself; a table, a bed, a candlestick, and
fire-place. A priest sleeps in each corridore.
SPECIAL LECTURES.
Hebrew; two courses.
Moral Theology; a great course. Young men admitted who have already
studied the elementary course--about forty or fifty.
Canon Law; a special course.
From Easter to the vacation they are instructed in the duties of a
pastor in great detail.
Private study of the Holy Scriptures by each half an hour a day.
At three o'clock on Sundays, at S. Sulpice, the young men exercise
themselves in catechising, except from Easter to the vacation.
Before the first communion there is catechising at S. Sulpice for two
months thrice a-week, (not by the pupils).
OBSERVATIONS.
There is much sickness: (the building has not gardens or sufficient
space for recreation attached to it).
Not time enough for study.
The vacation is from Aug. 15. to Oct. 1.
The cassock is always worn.
They confess themselves every week, ordinarily in the morning during
the meditation. They choose their own confessor among the masters, who
are at present twelve, but the number is not fixed. As to communicating,
they are free; but are exhorted to do it _often_. Often is all the
Sundays and festivals. Some communicate besides two, three, four,
five, times a week, especially as the time of their ordination
draws near. The priests every day. After the communion twenty minutes
"action de grâces." On entering the seminary a general confession of
the whole past life is made. At the commencement of each year, after
the vacation, in October, a confession of the year is made. At the
beginning of each month there is a retreat for one day, ordinarily the
first Sunday. _Direction_ is twice a month. It is intercourse between
each young man and his director for the purpose of making known his
inward state. There is a general _retreat_ after the vacation for
eight days; in this no visits allowed; no letters received; no going
out into the city. There are recreations, but the rest of the day is
consecrated to prayer, to confession, and to sermons. Each has his own
rule (règlement particulier), which he draws up in concert with his
confessor.
The day, the hour, and the mode of using the following exercises, to
be determined on with the director.
Private examination of oneself.
Confession.
Holy Communion.
Direction.
The monthly retreat.
La Monition.[4]
Any special reading.
Accessory studies.
What has been determined on by the director, relatively to the
preceding exercises, is to be written in the "règlement particulier"
of each.
The main resolution necessary to insure the fruits of the seminary is
fidelity to the "règlement," and especially to silence at the
prescribed times, and to the holy employment of one's time.
The virtues to be studied are, collectedness, the thought of the
presence of God, modesty and good example, charity and humility,
religion and fervour in the exercises of piety.
The order of exercises for a day in the annual _retreat_ is as
follows:--
5 a.m. Rise; preparation for prayer; short visit to the Most
Holy Sacrament.
5½. Prayer.
6½. Messe de communauté.
7. Preparation for general confession, or for that of the
annual review, and especially for that of the time
spent in the vacation.
8. Breakfast.
8¼. Petites heures.
8¾. Reading, or "direction."
9¼. Visit to the Holy Sacrament.
9½. "Entretien."
10½. "Délassement," during which there may be either
reading or "direction."
11. Writing of one's resolutions, and then reading the
prescribed chapters of Holy Scripture.
11¾. Private examination.
12. Dinner, followed by the Angelus, and recreation.
1¾. Vespers and Compline; recollecting of oneself, to
examine how one has done the morning's exercises.
2¼. Reading, with meditation, of the chapters of the
Imitation.
3¼. Visit to the Holy Sacrament.
3½. "Entretien."
4½. Matines and Lauds; writing of resolutions. Then
"délassement," as in morning at 10½.
6. Recitation of "chapelet," meditated.
6½. A spiritual lecture.
7. Supper, followed by the Angelus, and recreation.
8½. Prayer; examination of conscience.
9. Bed; making preparation for (the morning's) prayer.
The following means are recommended for profiting by the "retreat."
1. From its commencement have your "Règlement particulier" approved by
your Director; agree with him on the employment of your time, on the
subject of your reading, on the manner of preparing your confession.
2. Read the chapter of the Holy Scripture and of the Imitation marked
in the "Manual of Piety," and never omit this reading.
3. Observe silence carefully, save at the time of recreation, and if
you are obliged to speak, ask leave to do so.
4. Do not read or write any letter.
5. If you experience dryness, disgust, repugnance, discouraging
thoughts, as generally happens in retreats, communicate them
immediately to your Director, and follow his advice, as the most
assured means of overcoming temptations.
6. If you have already made a general confession at the Seminary,
employ the time after mass till breakfast in examining yourself on the
manner in which you have done your actions in the Seminary the past
year, how you have combated your defects and your ruling passion, and
how you have practised the virtues which you proposed to acquire.
7. Study especially inward recollectedness, confidence in our Lord,
and in the Most Holy Virgin, serious and deep examination of your
conscience, and a great desire "de faire un bon Séminaire."
8. After the Retreat tell your Director your feelings and resolutions,
and busy yourself immediately with drawing up your "règlement
particulier."
There are, moreover, retreats for eight days before each ordination.
Exposition of the pontifical is given. Before the ordination of any
individual is decided on, there are two "appels" to be gone through;
1st, that of outward conduct; 2d, that of inward conduct, decided by
all the masters in common. If these are passed there is a third
examination of himself and his fitness for the ministry to be gone
through by the pupil in private. Fourthly, if he is thoroughly
persuaded of his vocation, his confessor finally decides whether he
shall be accepted for the ministry or rejected. The ordinary payment
made by each pupil is 700 francs a year, but this, in case of
necessity, or of promising persons, especially when recommended by
bishops, is reduced to 400.
In Lent one meal and one collation (a half meal) are allowed: the
first at mid-day. Meat is permitted on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and
Thursdays, by the archbishop's "mandement." Fridays and Saturdays are
maigre days through the year, but not fasts. The other fasts of the
year are very few, the greater number having been abolished by the
Concordat. They are Christmas Eve, Whitsun Eve, St. Peter's Eve,
the vigils of the Assumption and All Saints.
M. Gaduel told me that the good professors of S. Sulpice receive no
salary whatever. They live, he said, as children in a father's house,
provided with everything they want, but they are not given money. If
one has need of a coat, he asks for it, and has it. Should they be
taken ill, and be unable to continue their functions, they will be
supported and tenderly provided for all their days. They take no vows,
and can leave when they please; and they retain whatever private
property they may possess. Those who have none receive 100 francs a
year for their charities; for you know, he said, they cannot go into
the city without a sou. Thus their life is entirely detached from the
cares of this world, from the desire of wealth, and all that attaches
to it. Yet is it, from its sedentariness and severely abstract
pursuits, as well as from the continued pressure on the heart and
conscience, a trying life. Health, I imagine, is only maintained by
the weekly relaxation of Wednesday, and the annual vacation of two
months in August and September.
We talked on many other subjects with M. l'Abbé Carron. He was very
desirous to explain the honour paid to the Blessed Virgin Mary. One
and all reject with horror anything like adoration being offered
to her, or that she is anything more than the most favoured _channel_
of grace.
At two we went to M. Bonnetty, who took us to the house of the
Benedictines, then in Rue Notre Dame des Champs, where we saw the Abbé
Guéranger, a very pleasing person. Talked of editions of the Fathers,
the labours of the Benedictines, the movement in England. He struck me
as very mild and charitable. In the library M. de Montalembert was
sitting writing. We did not know who it was at the time.
On the opposite side of the street, through a private door, we entered
into a most beautiful little chapel just erected in the style of the
thirteenth century. It belongs to some religious garde-malades,
connected with the sisters of charity, who were saying their office as
we came in. The architecture is exceedingly rich: all the windows of
painted glass. I have never seen anything so exquisite as this chapel.
The apse was richly painted and decorated. Afterwards we set off for
S. Denis, but gave it up. Looked into S. Eustache, an imposing church
of the _renaissance_, very lofty and spacious. Also S. Germain
l'Auxerrois, which is interesting. It has been restored since the
riots, and is being filled with painted glass.
_Saturday, July 5._--Set off for S. Denis: the abbey has been
wonderfully restored since I was there, and is now exceedingly
imposing and interesting. The aisles round the choir have been most
richly painted and decorated, the central roof not yet. All the
windows are of stained glass, forming a complete sketch of French
history, wherein Dagobert and S. Louis, Napoleon, Louis XVIII. and
Louis Philippe, strangely figure. The tombs of François I. and Louis
XII. are very beautiful. The western front resembles Mantes in
character; very beautiful; pinnacles of the spire curious and most
pleasing. We went to drink tea with Miss Young, her mother, a French
lady, and an Irish priest, M. Macarthy, who assists at S. Sulpice. He
said the seats there were let to a woman for 35,500 francs per annum.
The chief duty of a Catholic is not to go to mass, but to confess and
receive absolution. Before marriage every one is compelled to confess,
but they do not necessarily receive absolution. This priest's
conversation gave one a notion that to common minds the confessional
would often be as it were wiping off an old debt, and beginning a new
score. "He said there were about 14,000 or 15,000 communicants at
Easter in that parish out of a population of 50,000. He seemed to
think many might be people who would fall back again into grievous
faults, but nearly all at the time had good intentions. I rather
thought he made too little a matter of the probability of many falling
back: but I may have been mistaken. He said, however, that
S. Sulpice was not a measure of Paris, being the most pious parish in
the city. He said also, that there was very little temptation to
hypocrisy, religion being rather at a discount in public opinion. I
should hope from this and other accounts, that there was a very
considerable leaven of true piety in this place, bad as it is."--_M._
_Sunday, July 6._--The heat excessive. We went to Bishop Luscombe's
chapel: many staid to the Holy Communion. "There was a discontented
French priest there, who, I fear, is going to set up for himself. I
had a little talk with the Bishop between services. He has, if I am
not mistaken, a totally false view of the position of the French
Church. He thinks it is falling to pieces, as a man might think Oriel
was coming down, if he did not know there was a live Provost and
Fellows inside to repair it when necessary. The discontented go to him
and tell him their tale, as the college weapons might fall on the head
of any one in quad; and of course they do their best to make him think
that all is as rotten as they are. The Roman Catholic clergy, I
believe, do not know much of him, or he of them, and he is shut out
from the sight of what is best among them."--_M._
At five dined with M. Bonnetty. We found there two priests, one of
whom, M. D'Alzon, was going to preach at Notre Dame des Victoires that
evening for the archiconfrèrie du sacré Cœur de Marie. He seemed an
able man, was vicaire general of Nismes, a person of property, who was
bent on taking orders. He could not understand how we could preach
with a book before us; said no one would listen in France. The other
priest, M. Jacquemet, was a very pleasing modest person. We adjourned
to the garden of the missions étrangères; met there M. Drach, who had
been chief rabbin. He has written a book on the harmony of the
Synagogue and the Church; seemed to think he could settle the
difficulty concerning the day of the Passover by Jewish traditions.
M. Bonnetty took us to Mrs. Ryon's in the Place belle Chasse. The heat
excessive.
_Monday, July 7._--We called on M. Defresne; much struck by his
conversation. He said all that was best in religion was at Paris: out
of a million of inhabitants there were 300,000 going to mass, and
50,000 _practising_ Christians; this was the kernel of religion in
the country, the pure gold. He justified the shops being left open by
the government on Sunday, for the people generally being without
belief, it would be an act of sheer tyranny to shut them. Louis
Philippe was now employing against the Jesuits the same arbitrary
power he had used to expel l'Abbé Châtel. On religious matters he did
not seem to understand how an instructed person could remain
with good faith out of the Roman Church. The Puseyites, he seemed to
think, did not belong to the Establishment. M. Defresne speaks with
remarkable energy; we both wished to have another talk with him.
Thence we went to the Pères Lazaristes; M. Aladel received us, gave us
the rules of the sisters of charity. Their chief work being the relief
of the sick, &c. they have no office, properly so called, and their
hours are subject to variation. They rise, winter and summer, at 4 to
4½; 4½ to 5½ meditation, prayer, a subject for meditation given the
evening before; 5½ hear mass--this is the ordinary time, but it
varies: for instance, they would attend the church in their immediate
neighbourhood at whatever hour it might be. Every day spiritual
reading,--the Chaplet: it lasts a long half hour; has many special
prayers added by their founder, which cannot be seen. In the evening a
second meditation for half an hour, always before six o'clock. Vocal
prayers before bed time, at half-past eight. Subject of meditation
given. These exercises of piety are never given up, as in cases of
extreme sickness the sister attending waits till the others have done,
and is then relieved by them. They do not go out after nightfall.
Dinner at half-past eleven. Supper at six. Their duties are,
1. visiting the sick; 2. attending hospitals; 3. dressing the sick at
their own house; 4. keeping schools at their own house. Each
school belongs to a sister, who is generally the same; one takes care
of the linen, another of the kitchen, and so on. M. Aladel then
attacked us on matters of controversy; could not conceive persons of
intelligence and good faith remaining out of the pale of the Roman
Church. Indeed, this is universally the _first_ thing with them--to
be in communion with Rome. Without unity they can conceive no
holiness, nor self-devotion, nor even sincerity. We said we admitted
the primacy of Rome, but not an absolute power; and referred back to
the times of the early Patriarchs, as St. Athanasius. His reply was,
that the Pope allowed them to institute their own Bishops, and where
this permission was not openly expressed it was implied; a mode of
assumption which soon puts an end to all difficulties. The Greeks and
Russians were schismatics, but far nearer than we. To him, as to every
other Roman Catholic with whom we conversed, the English Church is
simply a mass of heresy and schism. We regretted the controversial
language of this conversation. Called on M. Labbé, and had a friendly
talk with him. He describes the actual state of the Colleges of the
University as horrible in point of morality. He is now, at forty-five,
sitting down to the study of Greek, to pass his degree of M.A. at the
University, in order that he may be privileged to teach under it. At
Lady Elgin's in the evening, whither M. Bonnetty conducted us,
we found a lively party in the garden. The chief conversation was on
magnetising, there being a young man of great powers that way present,
but he declined giving us any specimen of his power: he said it took
too much out of him, and sometimes bestowed on him the maladies he
relieved others from. Thus, he succeeded in transferring a lady's
headache to himself. The heat very great to-day.
_Tuesday, July 8._--We called on M. Théodore Ratisbonne, a man of
about forty-two, with striking Jewish physiognomy, gentle and pleasing
in manner. I was very much struck with his conversation. We said we
came to learn as much as we could of Catholic institutions. 'As for
Protestantism,' said he, 'I believe it has produced good fathers of
families, good morals, kindly social feelings, and so on; but as for
perfect devotion of the heart to God, it seems to me quite barren. But
the soul should not walk, she should fly.' On the worship of the
Blessed Virgin, so called, he said, 'Place yourself in the presence of
Jesus Christ, for He is ever present, He is always the same. You would
see beside Him the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles. You would throw
yourself at his feet; but having done so, would you have no thought
for His mother? Would you turn your back upon her? Would that be a way
of gaining His favour? Or, place yourself at the foot of the
Cross, remember His last words, and how can any Christian have other
than filial feelings towards her? But there is not a child of the
poorest Catholic peasant who would for an instant confound the
reverence paid to the mother of his Lord with the worship due only to
God. C'est une horreur. Elle est une simple créature, une fille
d'Adam, notre sœur; mais elle a réçu la grace d'être mère de Dieu.
Moi, je baise un tableau de ma mère, de mes sœurs, de mes amis; et
je ne baiserais pas celui de la Sainte Vierge? Je fléchis le genou
devant les rois de la terre; je ne le fléchirais pas devant elle?' He
took up a book by a Protestant minister, I think of Geneva, and read
to us with great indignation the account he had made up of a Roman
priest's sermon on the Blessed Virgin--the _adoring_ her, and so on.
He said the Protestant remarks on that subject were full of bad faith,
and were in the highest degree shocking to Catholics. I asked him
about his brother's conversion: he said, over and above the printed
account which I had seen, 'My brother, two hours after his conversion,
was seen by Cardinal Mezzofanti, who was ready to throw himself on his
knees in adoration to God. Nothing was known of my brother at Rome,
and at first great apprehensions were entertained as to what his
character might turn out to be. He had never read two pages of the
Bible, never received any religious instruction whatever, was
altogether of a light and superficial character. The Blessed Virgin
appeared to him as close as I am to you; she made a motion to him that
he should remain quiet under the divine influence. On rising out of
his ecstacy he had received intuitively the knowledge of the Christian
faith. He came and lived three months with me; I never talked with him
as to what he should do; I carefully abstained from exercising any
influence over him. I had, indeed, great apprehensions of him, as to
what his future life would be. At the end of that time I said to him,
I am going to offer mass for you, to know what your future vocation
will be. He replied, without the slightest hesitation or emotion, I am
in no doubt about that. Two courses are open to me: one is to become
a priest and live here with you; we should be two brothers
together,--that would be, indeed, a delightful life: the other is to
enter the Company of Jesus. I do not know what that is, but I shall
become a Jesuit. I was very much astonished. As tu bien réflechi, je
lui dis?--Je n'y ai pas réflechi, mais la S. Vierge me l'a dit.--Alors
je me tus, je ne dis plus une parole. He knew so little what the
Jesuits were; he had so great an apprehension what would happen to
him, that when he left me he agreed that, if he was unhappy, he would
put a certain mark in his letter for me to come and see him. I went
after a time to see him: I found him engaged in cleaning the
dirtiest parts of the house. They had put him on the severest trials
to test his resolution; he surmounted them all, and now, since he has
been three years among them, he has never had even l'ombre de peine.
_I believe that he has more than once received a repetition of the
grace he had at Rome_, but I have never asked him on the subject. His
vocation has been marked out by the Blessed Virgin for the conversion
of the Jews. My uncle is worth from six to seven millions of francs:
he has disinherited my brother, who has renounced every thing. He
built a small church near here: before going into the order of the
Jesuits he distributed all his property to the poor, as is their
custom; previous to his conversion he had never had vision or anything
of the kind.'
M. Ratisbonne, seeing we were greatly interested in all he said,
warmed in his manner, and before parting he gave each of us a small
book; mine is a Catechism. I told him how much I had liked his life of
S. Bernard. 'Ah,' he said, 'you have had the patience to read that.' I
begged him to allow me to call on him again before leaving. We then
went to Miss Young's, where I wrote down as much as I could remember
of our conversation, which had greatly moved me. Thence M. Carron took
us to several booksellers; we also called on M. Galais at the
Séminaire S. Sulpice, and delivered our letter; as he had a
class shortly after, we proposed coming again on Thursday. We then
adjourned to the church a short time, to various libraries, and did
not get home till late.
_Wednesday, July 9._--Called on M. Martin Noirlieu, Curé of St.
Jacques; we found him very affable, and desirous to oblige. Talked
about the state of things in England, and said we were most desirous
to see things as they were, and to get rid of all prejudice. I said
the _culte_ of the Blessed Virgin was that which stood most in our
way; and remarked, how in their litanies to her, after a simple
address to the different persons of the Holy Trinity, there followed a
reiterated invocation of her under many various titles, throwing, as
it were, into the shade the Godhead. He excused this, because in those
litanies her intercession was especially requested, and spoke of other
litanies to Jesus, &c. He also said the Church was in no way committed
to those popular devotions of the Archiconfrèrie, &c. He, for example,
had had nothing to do with them at all; but lately he had had occasion
to preach severely against the idea of any virtue being supposed to
reside in images themselves. He strongly recommended Bossuet's
Exposition, as being a faithful account of the Church's doctrines.
There was strict unity as to dogma, but within that limit there were a
vast number of things which might or might not be true. He has been
curé since 1836; about 300 communicants every Sunday in his
parish, which has 15,000 people. Among them are many Jansenists. At
Easter rather less than half the people communicate; he excused there
not being more by their having _severe_ notions on the subject. Spoke
favourably of his people. Walked with us to S. Etienne; a strange
mixture of Gothic and Renaissance, with some fine features; the tomb
of S. Geneviève, which he said was of the fourth century. Thence to
S. Gervais, a fine church of the latest Gothic, the Lady Chapel of
which has been most beautifully restored and decorated; there are five
painted windows, and four very interesting frescoes by Delorme, of
incidents in her life. The whole church is to be done after the same
manner. The government, too, are going to spend 80,000_l_. in
thoroughly restoring Notre Dame: all the windows are to be of painted
glass. There is a curious pendent crown, wrought in stone, in the roof
of this chapel. M. Noirlieu invited us to be at a "conférence," which
he would hold with some of his parishioners on Saturday, who assisted
him in the instruction of the poor. He left us, and we went to see la
Sainte Chapelle, but were disappointed, as a ticket from the architect
is necessary. Here, too, scaffolding is up, and restoration in full
progress. We then mounted the towers of Notre Dame, and enjoyed for
some time that noble view of the stateliest of modern cities. I
never felt more admiration of this magnificent city than on this
visit: one is ever painfully contrasting the meanness of our public
buildings, and the wretched appearance of our brick houses in London,
with the noble quais and palaces of Paris. These towers themselves are
of wonderful solidity, and evidently built for spires; in truth, they
ought to be double their present height. Here is, however, a great
want of towers and spires in this view, such as there must once have
been at Paris. We took a peep also at the great bell,--an immense
creature. At five o'clock we went to dine with Bishop Luscombe: found
him in his picture gallery, which he took great delight in showing us.
We met here a Mr. Parkes, an American clergyman, who was elected
Bishop of Alabama two years ago, but declined on the score of health.
He is an interesting person. I had a long conversation with him on the
state of the Church in England, America, and France. He, too, has a
strong notion of Roman corruption, but is quite ignorant of their
practice and services, having never read even the Mass. I endeavoured
to persuade him, on the ground of the Church's decided voice, that the
validity of baptism did not depend on the administrator; but he
seemed to think there was equal authority for the doctrine of
Transubstantiation. I said, as to that there were really only two
Ideas on the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist: the one was a real
true objective presence of our Lord's Body and Blood; and the other no
presence at all, but an impression produced by faith on the
individual,--a commemoration, or what not. If we agreed, as we did,
with the Church of Rome in the former view, it was better not to fight
about the mode in which she has stated it, her real intent being to
force a shuffling and evasive party to accept or reject the truth
distinctly. The Church of England, rejecting the Roman definition, has
not herself fenced the truth on the Protestant side, which may make us
more forbearing as to condemning the Roman mode of statement, being,
as we are, entirely of accord with her as to the real truth, which
lies at the bottom of the controversy--the Christian's highest and
inconceivable blessing. He thought that high and low in the Church of
England could not long go on together, and heartily wished we might
get rid of state interference and control at any cost. 'Meet in
convocation,' said he, 'and if you are turned out of doors, adjourn to
the street; suffer anything and everything, but do not let the state
control you.' We walked home with Mr. Parkes: he seems a most sincere
and candid person.
_Thursday, July 10._--M. Galais took us over the Séminaire de
S. Sulpice. There is nothing remarkable in the building. The pupils
are rather more than 200: their appearance is very devout; they seem
of low rank in life generally, and this is no doubt the case,
but with exceptions; for instance, we heard today of the son of M.
Ségur, who is there. Each pupil has a small room to himself, which
opens on the corridor; it has a bed, table, little stove, and hardly
anything more, with a crucifix and little statue of the Blessed
Virgin, belonging to the house. They make their own beds: they are not
allowed to enter each other's rooms at all, but, if they wish to speak
to one another, the stranger stands in the passage, and the occupant
at his door. The whole is under the inspection of the archbishop, who
has a chamber here, but does not often come. There are twelve masters.
The state of instruction as regards the Church is as follows in France
generally. In each diocese there is one or more petits séminaires,
which are for children, not only such as are to be ecclesiastics, but
laymen also. These are the only schools in which morals and religion
are made a primary consideration; and, therefore, though they have
nothing to do with the university, and are excluded from all
privileges, they are sought after by the sounder part of the
community. To these succeeds, for ecclesiastics alone, the grand
séminaire for each diocese; this of S. Sulpice is the most eminent in
France. The studies are for five years; two in philosophy, three in
theology. They are thus arranged, as we took them down from the
lips of M. Galais.
PHILOSOPHY (FIRST YEAR).
Logic, Psychology,--morning.
Arithmetic, Geometry, beginning of Algebra,--evening.
SECOND YEAR.
Théodicée } morning.
Morale }
Geology }
Physics } evening.
Astronomy }
Chemistry }
Sometimes, perhaps in half the dioceses of France, these two years of
philosophy are contracted to one. The three years of theology are thus
arranged:--
FIRST YEAR.
Morale. Le traité de actibus humanis.
" de legibus.
" de peccatis.
" de decalogo.
Dogme. " de vera religione.
" de vera ecclesia.
" de locis theologicis.
SECOND YEAR.
Morale. De jure et justitia.
De contractibus.
Dogme. De Trinitate.
De Incarnatione.
De gratia.
THIRD YEAR.
Morale. De sacramento pœnitentiæ. (Under this head would fall the
whole direction for the guidance of souls.)
De matrimonio.
De censuris et irregularitatibus.
Dogme. De sacramentis in genere.
De baptismo.
De confirmatione.
De Eucharistia.
De ordine. (There is also a special course on this.)
De extrema unctione.
A course of Holy Scripture twice a-week, exclusive of private study
of it.
Authors used:--
Bailly, 8 vols.
Bouvier, Institutiones Theologicæ.
Carrière, De Jure, et Justitia, &c.
Tronson, Forma Cleri.
These three years of theology are sometimes expanded to four.
For the dogma of the Roman Church, M. Galais said, the canons of the
Council of Trent, with the acts of the councils generally, were the
only _authentic_ or _symbolic_ sources; next to this comes
catechismus ad parochos. Bossuet's Exposition is regarded as quite a
standard book; likewise Moëhler's Symbolism. He recommended strongly,
for the interior life, "Louis de Grenada," "Rodriguez," "S. François
de Sales;" spoke highly of Olier's life.
We were greatly pleased with M. Galais' courtesy. He took us also over
the library, which is very good indeed; beginning with a complete
collection of the Fathers, through the schoolmen, down to modern
times: it was arranged chronologically. "He pointed out to us
'Tronson's Forma Cleri' as giving the best idea of their whole
discipline."--_M._ At M. Bonnetty's we found M. l'Abbé d'Alzon, who
kindly took us to the convent of the Dames de l'Assomption, Rue des
Postes. In passing, we looked into the chapel of the Jesuits, in their
house at Paris, which has made such a noise. They are about 20 here,
and in all France 210: and these few, but picked and valiant men, fill
with dread the hosts of the freethinkers and infidels in France; they
know not how to meet them but with persecution. We were greatly
interested indeed with the Dames de l'Assomption. We saw the
Supérieure and a sister, which latter was English. We had a long
conversation, in which she explained the object of their society,
lately founded--to communicate a Christian education to the children
of the higher ranks, especially of the aristocratie de l'argent, who
of all ranks in France are most alienated from religion. The
Supérieure spoke with much feeling and intelligence, and with that
beauty and distinctness of expression which makes the French language
so pleasing in a female mouth. She said they had been much
struck, in their experience, with the mass of knowledge and
accomplishments which existed out of the Church and the sphere of her
influence, or rather in antagonism to her. Beside the usual vows of
chastity, poverty, and obedience, they took a fourth--to extend the
kingdom of the Saviour to the utmost of their power; and the best
means to do this, they thought, was to lay hold of the education of
the higher ranks, and impress on it a religious character. 'This could
only be done,' she said, 'by a religious congregation; for how can
those who live in the world, and seek after its prizes, form their
pupils to the contempt of the world? How can those who work for riches
themselves teach others to live above them? How, especially, can the
children of the rich be strongly impressed with Christian truth save
by those who themselves bear the cross?' 'Religious orders,' she said,
'are like branches which, one after the other, spring out of a tree;
the trunk itself lasts on, but the branches, it may be, after a time
drop off, and give place to others. We do not desire that our order
should last when it ceases to be useful, and therefore we have
strictly provided that it should possess no funds after the
acquisition of the house and garden, which is necessary for our
existence: all that we allow is, that any sister may have a pension
for life--but this is not necessary; if we find any one of suitable
disposition and acquirements, we should be happy to admit her
without any. Besides this we receive payments from our pupils: we
think it more Christian to work for our living; nor would our pupils
be in a comfortable position if they did not pay us.' These sisters
recite _all_ the offices of the Breviary in Latin, but not during the
night, but anticipating them: they rise at five, go to bed at ten;
they attend Mass daily, and have an hour of meditation every morning,
and half-an-hour in the evening. 'But,' said M. D'Alzon, 'you know
that, wherever there are religious orders, there must be one secret
source of strength--intimate union with the Saviour.' 'You mean,' I
said, 'that which springs from the Real Presence.' They all agreed;
and the Supérieure continued--'We could never sustain this life, were
it not for the thought that we were spouses of Christ--that is the one
thought which is the centre of our life.' I said, 'I am sure there are
thousands of young persons in England who would enter into religious
orders if we had them.' She agreed, and said, 'they must not be purely
active, but largely contemplative; there was something pensive and
melancholy in the English female character, which shrunk back from a
purely active life such as that of the Sisters of Charity.' They were
astonished and much gratified when I read to them the Absolution in
the Service of the Sick, which pronounces absolution, by virtue
of the priestly office, _categorically_, not declaratively: they
agreed that it was perfectly Catholic. The demeanour of these
ladies--the four that I saw--struck me exceedingly: it was gentle,
perfectly that of ladies, yet intellectual: like that of those who
felt they had a noble mission, and had courage to execute it. Their
dress also is very becoming--a dark robe with a white hood, and white
cross on the centre of the breast. All their servants take the same
vows, eat at the same table; the only difference being, that they are
less intelligent and accomplished.
In the evening we went for a short time into the gardens of the
Tuileries; I had never before seen the orange trees out there, and the
gay and cheerful spirit of the scene struck me, so much more brilliant
than the aspect of our parks.
_Friday, July 11._--M. was poorly with a headache, so I went alone to
M. Galais at the Séminaire, who sent a young priest with me to M.
Poileau's school, about a mile to the south-west of Paris. There are
more than 300 pupils there; it is the largest establishment of the
kind not in connection with the university. I saw the chapel, which
was very neatly arranged, and the infirmerie, in which was a priest;
there were several beds ranged in alcoves on each side, and some sick
boys in them; a relation had come to see one, and one who seemed by
her dress to be a sister of charity, another. The boys sleep in
dormitories, ranged much in the same manner; it so happened that the
head of the establishment and the next person to him were both away,
and the rooms being locked we did not go into them. We saw a class
preparing for their first communion. The rule of the house is that
they confess constantly, but communion is left open. The boys pay
40_l_. a year each, and the masters receive the same sum, besides
board and lodging. The house was encompassed with gardens, and an
exercising ground, with poles, &c. for the boys; their ages run from 7
to 18 or 19: sometimes the conscription finds them there. My conductor
had been drawn for the conscription, and had to pay 1800 francs for a
remplaçant. He said about forty were drawn yearly on a city of 7000 or
8000; he was the eighty-first or so, but there were so many of those
who drew before him incapacitated from one cause or other, that he and
several beyond him came into the forty eligible. On returning I went
to M. Galais again, as he had invited me, and he talked to me near two
hours and a half. I thought him very well instructed and clear-headed;
he gave me a sketch of the disputes of the Thomists and Molinists on
Grace; and the system of Suarez on the subject, the science absolue,
science moyenne, and science probable of God. The Church holds the two
extreme points; on the one hand the absolute necessity of the grace of
God anticipating, as well as capacitating, every human movement,
on the other hand, the free concurrence of the human will, but she
does not attempt to define, as matter of faith, the mode of their
coexistence. He seemed to think Suarez, next to St. Thomas, was the
greatest of theological minds. Once, in a dispute with a Dominican,
the latter produced a sentence of St. Augustine which told strongly
against Suarez; he kept silence, but when his turn came to reply, he
said, 'That sentence is not in St. Augustine;' the other repeated that
it was. 'It is not,' returned Suarez; 'I know St. Augustine by heart,
and that sentence does not occur in his writings.' They searched, but
were unable to find it anywhere. That evening his conscience smote
Suarez for having said publicly, though with truth, that he knew St.
Augustine by heart, and he confessed himself on account of it. On the
subject of the Holy Eucharist, I inquired whether the Church would
require more than that after the words of consecration the Body and
Blood of our Lord were really and truly present, independent of the
faith of the individual: he said, 'Yes; she would require a belief
that the bread was destroyed, (détruit,) that its substance was
changed, and its appearance, or accidents, only remained, to meet our
senses. There were many opinions _how_ this took place, but none of
them were _de fide_, provided the thing was believed.' M. Galais gave
me much more information respecting the seminary, which I put
opposite the former remarks thereon. It seems to me that no greater
care can be taken to form the inward mind to the duties of the
sacerdotal office, and to exclude all who have not a genuine vocation.
Nothing can exceed the kindness of M. Galais in giving information. In
the evening we went to St. Severin, to hear M. D'Alzon preach: we lost
our way, and were late, and so at too great a distance to hear him
well. He spoke on the Real Presence, the junction of the Divinity with
the Humanity, and the blessings thence flowing forth, rather with
passion and feeling than with deep reflection. His incessant action
contrasts strongly with our quiet manner. I can well imagine that
reading his sermon would be quite insupportable to him, as well as to
the people. At the same time such sermons as Newman's would be lost on
them. I cannot but think that speaking from the pulpit without book
ought to form part of our education.
_Saturday, July 12._--M. D'Alzon took us over M. l'Abbé Migne's great
printing establishment. It contains 175 workmen, and everything is
done therein; binding, stereotyping, as well as printing, and selling
besides. He produces a very large octavo volume in double columns,
Latin for five francs, and Greek and Latin for eight francs: the
former he is about to raise to six francs. His patrology is to contain
200 such volumes of Latin authors, and 100 of Greek: 46 are come
out. The cheapness is wonderful, and necessary for the small incomes
of those who would chiefly want such books, and the execution fair. M.
Migne is a priest, and acts not from a desire to gain, but to assist
the clergy. However, the Archbishop has forbidden him to say Mass at
present.
We looked into the Louvre for an hour to-day, and enjoyed the glimpse
of the pictures: the first time we have so indulged ourselves.
In the evening went to M. Noirlieu, who introduced us into a
conférence de S. Vincent de Paul. About 40 young men present, of the
rank and age of students, who meet weekly; they each take about a
couple of families to visit and assist. This sort of thing exists in
33 parishes in Paris. Here there are about 50 members, in S. Sulpice
120. It is a visiting society, but under better rule than ours; and it
was pleasing to see, as being formed out of exactly that part of
society which is generally most alienated from such works. They gave
us a copy of their rules. "The abbé himself had less to do with it
than I had expected, but I believe he has an instruction in his church
on Sunday evening, especially for the workmen whose families are thus
visited. They conclude the meeting with short prayers, in which, by
the bye, there occurs an invocation of the Blessed Virgin, which all
repeat aloud, and which I did not like to repeat with them, being the
one I mentioned, some time ago, as not being fully approved at
Rome. These things are a puzzle to me. I can blink them for a time,
but when I come into close contact, I feel them again, and wonder much
how they can agree, not with infallibility, but with the wisdom which
I feel otherwise fully disposed to allow to the Church of Rome. This
particular case is _in favour_ of Rome. But then Rome allows and
sanctions what must almost necessarily involve things to which I
cannot reconcile myself. The system of devotion to the Blessed Virgin,
as it now stands, wants some foundation beyond all they tell me of
when I ask them to give an account of it. Perhaps, in their own mind,
they consider that the mind of the Church expressed in her perpetual
practice is the real ground; but for the Church being so minded I am
sure they do not assign sufficient grounds. If such grounds there are,
they must be found in mediæval revelation; at least, I can hardly
conceive mere development going so far with any authority."--_M._
_Sunday, July 13._--Went to Bishop Luscombe's service. He preached.
In our return, we looked into the Chapelle Expiatore--one certainly of
the most touching spots of Paris. Under the statues of Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette respectively are inscribed their last words--golden
words indeed--which can hardly be read, especially on the spot
where their bodies rested for twenty-one years, without tears. In the
evening we went to the Ecole des Frères Chrétiens, 6. Rue du Fleurus,
and were conducted by some of the brethren to the most extraordinary
scene we have witnessed in France. It was a meeting held in the parish
church of S. Marguerite, to give prizes to the assiduous members of
the society of S. Francois Xavier, which is composed of artizans, who
attend periodically to be instructed. After Vespers and Compline,
Monseigneur the Archbishop of Chalcedoine was introduced, under whom
the séance was held. The curé then briefly stated the course of
proceedings, and presently commenced a dispute between M. l'Abbé
Massard, prêtre directeur, and M. l'Abbé Croze, on the subject whether
there were or were not miracles; the former maintaining the negative,
the latter the affirmative. The usual philosophical objections were
put by l'Abbé Massard, very fairly and with great vivacity, and were
answered by l'Abbé Croze with vivacity still greater and superior
ingenuity. Constant approbation and laughter attended both question
and answer, there being a large number of women outside the barrier in
the aisles, the workmen members occupying the nave, and all seemed to
relish to the utmost the nature of the colloquy. It was, indeed,
extremely well imagined to convey to minds of that class a ready
answer to specious philosophical objections against the truth of
religion; and, though no doubt previously arranged by the two
disputants, had all the air of being poured forth with extreme
volubility on the spur of the moment. To give a notion of the
thing:--"M. Massard proposed the subject of Miracles; and on being
asked, What about miracles? said, he should dispute against them.
L'Abbé Croze asked him what he meant by miracles. M. Massard began,
personating an eager and hasty infidel, with a rough account of them.
'I don't mean to give a philosophical definition; I mean what every
body means--an extraordinary thing, such as one never saw--in fact, an
impossible thing.' L'Abbé Croze complained that this was too vague,
and gave his own definition--'an act surpassing human power, and out
of the ordinary course of nature, and which consequently must be
referred to some supernatural power.' L'Abbé Massard then made a
speech of some length about the impossibility of miracles, and the
absurdity of some that were found in history, and concluded by denying
all. M. Croze made him begin to repeat his arguments one by one,
saying, he would then serve him as Horatius did the Curiatii. M.
Massard said, in repetition, 'God cannot work a miracle, for it would
be a disorder; it would be against his own laws,' &c. L'Abbé Croze
said, 'he could not see why He, who makes the sun rise every day,
might not stop it one day, as the maker of a watch can stop the
watch. A miracle is no exertion of force in the Almighty, no more than
for one who walks to stop walking an instant,' &c. M. Massard changed
his ground, and"--_M._--urged Hume's argument, that even if a miracle
were acted before our eyes, we could have no proofs that it was a
miracle equal in force to the antecedent improbability that a miracle
would be done. M. Croze pulled this to pieces, to the great amusement
of the auditory. 'What,' said he, 'can anything be more ridiculous
than to tell me that proofs are wanted, when a miracle is done before
my eyes? If I see a man whom I well know in the last stage of
sickness, witness afterwards his death and burial, and, a year or two
after that, that man reappears before my eyes, do I want any proof of
the miracle? If I meet an ass in the street and say to him, Ass,
speak, philosophise; and he forthwith opens his mouth and argues, do I
want any proof that it is a miracle? If I meet an ox going along, and
I say, Ox, fly; and he flies, do I want proof of the miracle? If one
evening all the women in Paris were to become dumb, and could not
speak'--here a burst of laughter broke from all parts of the church,
and it was some time before the orator triumphant could proceed. "M.
Massard said, 'Well, but there have been sorcerers and magicians who
performed miracles; Moses was met by sorcerers who did the same
miracles that he did.' Croze--'Not the same: they imitated one or two,
but then failed.' He went on with an eloquent apostrophe to Moses,
ending with an allusion to the final plague; and then he went on
further to illustrate the difference between divine and diabolical
miracles, by the history of St. Peter and Simon Magus. M. Massard
said, 'But if any one were to work as many miracles by the power of
the devil as are recorded in Holy Scripture, must we then believe
him?' M. Croze--'No; we have been told that Antichrist will work
miracles at the end of the world; but we are assured that God has
wrought them in proof of His religion, and He cannot have deceived us.
Therefore we may safely reject any pretended revelation that is
contrary to what we have received.'"--_M._
The last question was, 'You have well proved that there can be, and
have been, miracles, but now I wish to put an objection to you, which
I think you will find it very hard to answer. How is it that God works
no miracles now?' M. Croze rejoins, 'Is that your great difficulty?
There are fifty answers I might give you. As, for instance, that God
does not choose to work them now, and certainly we have no right to
ask His reasons; or, that now His religion is established, it has no
need of the confirmation of miracles. These and numberless other
answers might be given, but I prefer showing you, that it is not
at all desirable miracles should be worked. Two medical charlatans
once went into a town, and, in order to get themselves practice,
instead of putting out that they had specific remedies for the gout,
or the liver, or the digestion, or what not, they declared, on that
day three weeks, they would go in broad daylight into the cemetery and
raise to life any whom they were asked to raise, however long he had
been dead. The bait took; their house in the mean time was besieged
with patients, for it was naturally supposed that they, who could
raise the dead, could cure the living. In the mean time, as the day
approached, the more timid said to the other, 'What shall we do, for
if we do not raise the dead man we shall certainly be stoned.' 'Don't
be afraid,' said the other, 'I know mankind better than that;' and,
indeed, the next day a middle-aged man came to them, and offered them
a considerable sum if they would go away without raising the dead.
'Ah! Messieurs,' said he, 'j'avais une si méchante femme.' Another
burst of laughter throughout the church. 'I had such a shrew of a
wife. God in his goodness has been pleased to relieve me of her; if
she should be the one you pitch upon, I should be a lost man.'
Presently came two young men, and said, 'Ah! Messieurs, an old man
died the other day and left us a great fortune: if you raise him up, I
am afraid we shall be lost men, for he will certainly take it from us
again.' Not long after came the magistrates, who had reason to
fear lest a certain person, who was now quietly out of the way, should
return to life and trouble them. And they besought and authorised our
charlatans to leave the city before the appointed day. So you see it
would be a very undesirable thing to have the power to work miracles.
So I might answer you; but I, for my part, believe there have been
miracles in modern times.' Here he cited some, which I did not catch.
Such was the nature of this conférence between M. Massard and M.
Croze, which latter had a countenance remarkable for finesse and
subtilty and comic humour. Profaneness to the church was supposed to
be guarded against by stretching a curtain before the altar at some
little distance.
This was followed by an energetic and rhetorical sermon from L'Abbé
Frappaz, on the love of Christ, and on faith, hope, and charity, which
was listened to with great attention, and applauded more than once.
"After this they sang 'Monstra te esse matrem' to a lively hopping
air."--_M._
Then came a long distribution of prizes, in books and pictures, to the
most attentive members, which were delivered to each by the Archbishop
of Chalcedoine, while at intervals the choir struck out verses of a
hymn in honour of St. Francis Xavier, which was echoed through the
church. In the mean time the curtain had been withdrawn, and the altar
brilliantly lighted up for a salut pontificalement célébré.
This, however, we did not stay for, as it was already past ten.
_Monday, July 14._--We went up to Montmartre, having a letter for the
curé; but we found that he had moved to Charenton, behind Père la
Chaise. Round the church there is a small garden, with the Stations,
which terminate on the north side in a Calvary; there are the three
crosses, and figures as large as life, on a little rocky eminence;
beneath is the sepulchre, with a recess for the body, a window and two
doors: on the south side a small chapel of Notre Dame des Sept
Douleurs, in which she is represented with Christ in her arms.
Underneath is the following inscription, which we copied as a specimen
of expressions, such as, though unauthorised by the Roman Church, are
continually found in and about churches, and do much harm:--
"Ne sortez pas du Calvaire sans invoquer Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs.
Elle pleine de grace, le soutien des malheureux, la consolation des
affligés, le refuge des pécheurs, et des opprimés.
"Elle vient du mont Valérien; elle opère des grands prodiges,
adressons nous à elle avec confiance; elle nous sera propice, et nous
consolera dans nos peines. Priez pour nous, Mère de Dieu, qui avons
recours à vous."
We showed this to M. Galais in the evening: he censured it, declared
it was contrary to the rule, which required that no such thing should
be set up without the authority of the Bishop, and said he would
have it made known to the Archbishop of Paris.
The church is very old, plain and ugly outside; its apse misappropriated
into a telegraph station; inside it is a little better: Norman in
style. The chief interest about it to us was that here St. Ignatius de
Loyola made his first profession.
We enjoyed the prospect of Paris from the hill below; but that of
London is, I think, finer; for this _general_ view wants grievously
the towers and spires of the middle ages: in that vast expanse there
are but few buildings which soar above the common range. Notre Dame,
S. Jacques de la Boucherie, The Pantheon, Les Invalides, and one or
two others, seem as nothing in that great city.
We visited M. Galais again this afternoon, as he was going out to
their maison de campagne, for his retreat of eight days, to-morrow. He
was reciting his Breviary when we entered his chamber; he begged
permission to continue, then knelt down for the Lord's Prayer, and
after that talked with us above an hour. He also took us to the
Supérieur. I told him we were desirous to learn all we could of their
discipline. He said the seminaries had been originally established
with a view to cultivate the interior life, and as places of religious
recueillement,--the young men going to the Sorbonne for instruction.
All this had been put a stop to at the Revolution; and now, the
university being under the direction of infidels, they were obliged to
make their seminaries serve for instruction as well as for works of
piety. They wished to have a chair of Ecclesiastical History. He
inquired about the state of Christian philosophy at Oxford, and said
they looked for something to be done on that subject, where the stress
of the battle with infidelity now lies. He also asked whether as
careful a guard was kept over young men preparing for orders as with
them: on which point we were ashamed to answer. M. Galais invited us
to their maison de campagne, and we agreed to go on Saturday.
_Tuesday, July 15._--We ventured to call on the Père Lacordaire, and
were richly rewarded for our boldness, inasmuch as we had more than an
hour's very animated talk with him. Behold a veritable monk, a St.
Bernard as it were, returned again in the vigour of manhood; in his
white Dominican dress he looked the very beau idéal of the Church's
warrior, armed at all points for the encounter with heresy, and
walking serene and fearless amid the troubles of life and the shock of
falling systems. A fresh and rosy countenance, a keen dark eye, and
most animated expression, contributed to form one of the most striking
figures I have ever beheld. I thought it was worth coming to Paris to
see him. Perhaps the knowledge that he was a most eloquent preacher
had something to do with this feeling. "I asked him about the
Tiers Ordre de S. Dominic. He said that it was under no vow, but they
might add to their profession the vow of celibacy (chastity they call
it always), or that of obedience, or both. The rule, as modified by
authoritative dispensations, may be observed with tolerable ease by
persons living in society. Father Lacordaire himself, as superior of
the Dominicans in France, has received from Rome certain dispensations
for those who may embrace the third order; and there are already some
fifty of them, if I remember right, in Paris."--_M._
We talked about the Anglican movement. He spoke also of the miserable
state of the University in France; that, instead of being local, it
was extended every where, and so had no body, no coherence. Its
professors were bandied about, from one end of France to the other, at
the pleasure of the government. He said they were engaged in a great
contest for the liberty of the religious orders: that was nearly won:
it would certainly arrive. Protestantism showed its deadness by
producing no monastic institutions: there was no sign more convincing
to his mind than this. If we had a true spring of life among us, how
could we have failed to put forth what is so undeniably accordant with
the spirit of the cross? After we had talked some time, I said, 'I
should like to put a question to you. Suppose a person of intelligence,
of perfect good faith, who is ready to make any sacrifice for religion,
who uses all possible means to attain to the truth; suppose such a
person, firmly convinced that the English Church is a branch of the
Catholic Church; though unhappily separated from the Roman Church;
would you condemn him--that is, put him out of the pale of salvation?'
'Monsieur,' said he, 'there is only one thing which can excuse a
person for not belonging to the Church, and that is invincible
ignorance. You know in certain cases even the heathen may be saved.
But such a person cannot be in invincible ignorance; for there are
only three things by which a man can be prevented from seeing the
truth: either the truth in itself must be of insufficient power to
convince him; or there must be a defect of understanding; or a
corruption of will. But the first is out of the question. The truth of
itself must always be sufficient: to suppose otherwise would be to
censure God. Either then there must be a defect of understanding, but
in the cases of the leaders of the Anglican movement, that is out of
the question, because they are men of great powers of mind, of great
distinction; there remains only then the corruption of the will,
which, indeed, is often so subtle, that men are unconscious of its
influence. Nevertheless, in the sight of God it is the will which in
such cases leads astray, and then such men are condemned, and cannot
plead invincible ignorance--when indeed you come to the individual, I
will not attempt to judge: it is written, "nolite judicare," for it is
utterly impossible for any human being to know the inward state of
another. But I only say of the class that such persons cannot plead
invincible ignorance--for the truth itself, as I have said, cannot be
insufficient; and their intellectual powers are such, that in these
also there can be no impediment; consequently the obstacle must be in
the will, however unconscious the individual may be of it. A thousand
considerations of family, of fortune, of habit, and what not, surround
a man, and insensibly warp him, but he is still under condemnation,
for it is his own will that is corrupt. If I were to go into a public
square in Paris and raise three men from the dead, would all that saw
it believe?' 'Certainly not,' I said. 'Why then is that? There is some
secret obstacle in their will.' We tried in vain to make him
understand that a person might be conscientiously convinced, after the
most patient study, that the Church of England was part of the true
Church, but in vain. It was plainly an idea that he could not and
would not receive.
I put the case of the Greek and Russian Churches. He exempted the poor
and illiterate from censure, but in the case of the instructed he said
it must be the spirit of schism which secretly turned them away from
the truth. I said there were bishops and monks and multitudes of
persons of a devoted and severe life on their side, who failed to see
the claims of the Roman See. 'Ah,' he said, 'it has always been so; in
our Saviour's time they ascribed his miracles to Beelzebub; how was it
that they who saw Lazarus raised from the dead went and informed the
chief priests of it?' In short, so complete a conviction of the truth
of the whole Roman system possessed his mind, that he was utterly
unable to conceive a person of ability and sincerity coming to any
other conclusion. We only put the case hypothetically, but he would
not admit it even so; he said, it is morally and metaphysically
impossible.
"I said, 'I wish I could show you the interior of a mind like that of
----. Born and educated in Anglicanism, he has given great attention
to religious truth, and in particular to the points in question. He
has no desire but to be in the Catholic Church and to labour for it,
but he believes that the Church of England is a branch of it,
unhappily separated for a time by peculiar circumstances from the
rest; and now in a state of appeal. In remaining where he is, he
believes he is doing his duty. What do you think of such a case?' He
said, 'I cannot judge of individuals,' but, &c. over again. He spoke
as if he did not know much of England. I said to him, 'the question
after all is one of fact: there are facts in England with which you
are not acquainted.'"--_M._
He did not seem acquainted with the peculiarities of our position. He
spoke with great energy and ability. I can fancy what his force in the
pulpit must be.
We went to M. D'Alzon, who conducted us to Dom Guéranger; he received
us with great kindness. The Pope has just erected a bishopric at
Perth, in New South Wales, and one of his élèves is going out there;
he suddenly resolved upon it three weeks ago, and seems quite in high
spirits at the thought of it. There are now one Roman Catholic
archbishopric and three bishoprics there,--Sydney, Hobartown,
Adelaide, and Perth. They said Dr. Flaget, Bishop of Bardstown, had
been sent out with his pontifical and a paper mitre; 'as for his
cross,' said Dom Guéranger, 'he could cut that out of a tree.' We put
nearly the same question to him as to the Père Lacordaire, but he was
more indulgent in his answer. He said, provided such a person was
strictly sincere, and used every means to discover the truth, he must
be judged to belong to the soul of the Church, though he was separated
from its body, and would be saved. He said our formularies for the
consecration of bishops and priests were deficient, so that, granting
the succession even, it would be more than doubtful whether they were
true bishops and priests; but being pressed he admitted that the Roman
Church had never yet been called upon to decide the point, and
that in fact it was not decided, though there was a general opinion
among them about it. When I told him that Coleridge had collected
50,000_l._ for St. Augustine's, and what was the object of it, he was
much astonished. 'If you English were restored to the Church,' he
said, 'you would evangelise the world; Spaniards and Portuguese,
Italians and French, must yield to you, with the resources you
command.' Talking of liturgies, he remarked spontaneously, how those
of the East were full of addresses to the Blessed Virgin: half or a
third of every page was devoted to her. They went before the Roman
Church in that respect. When the Council of Ephesus gave her the title
of 'Mother of God,' there were public rejoicings throughout the city
in consequence. He did not seem to like admitting that the prayers of
St. Ephrem to the Blessed Virgin were not authentic; said it was his
style. (Morris tells me the style of his Syriac works is very
different from that of his Greek, and the matter much deeper.) At
parting he expressed a wish, that if we came to Paris again, we would
come and see him. We took a look at the beautiful chapel of the
Sœurs Garde-Malades, with fresh admiration of it. We had expressed
a wish to M. D'Alzon to see some sackcloth and instruments of
penitence; so he took us to a house of Carmelite nuns of St. Therèse,
near the Luxembourg: one of them conversed behind the grille and
curtain, which was quite impervious to the sight on both sides. It is
part of their special duty to pray for the conversion of Protestants.
These Carmelites discipline themselves every Friday. The sister showed
us some of their instruments of discipline; corporal austerities,
however, by all that we could learn, are not common, nor are they
generally allowed by confessors, partly that the health of few will
allow of them; partly, there is a danger of pride thence arising.
_Wednesday, July 16._--M. D'Alzon came and breakfasted with us, and
afterwards took us to the establishment of the Frères Chrétiens, Rue
du Faubourg St. Martin, 165., where the Supérieur Général, Frère
Philippe, received us. There was little to see in the house, as they
expected the Strasburg railway would come through them and drive them
away. He said the number of brethren altogether was 4000; of pupils
under them, adult and children, 198,000: they increase yearly. They
were almost dispersed at the first revolution, but returned again
through Cardinal Fesch, who found four of the brethren, who had taken
refuge at Lyons, and brought them to Paris. Frère Philippe is very
plain and homely: his picture, by Horace Vernet, has made a great
sensation here.
M. D'Alzon then took me to a house of priests in the Rue de la
Planche. I had a long talk with two of them. The first was a
confessor to a penitentiary, in which eighty women are received at the
cost of the city of Paris. His account of their penitence was
touching. It is rare that any leave them without being thoroughly
changed, provided they stay long enough. But the picture which he gave
of the depravity general in Paris on this head was frightful. It is a
wonderful spectacle, the close contact into which the most sublime
self-devotion and the most abandoned sensuality are brought in this
great city; on the one hand, consider the daily prayers and
mortifications, and works of charity of those Carmelites, who are ever
engaged in interceding for the conversion of sinners; of those nuns of
the Adoration, who are ever contemplating the most wonderful of
mysteries; of those Ladies of the Assumption, who dedicate the talents
and accomplishments God has given them, under the vows of poverty,
obedience, and chastity, to the direct furtherance of his kingdom; of
those solitary and homeless priests--without father and without
mother, without ties of family or worldly possessions, truly after the
order of Melchisedec--who are ever offering the most holy Sacrifice,
and building up the mystical body: on the other hand, think of that
gulph of libertinage and selfishness, which is ever swallowing fresh
victims--hearts young and unsuspicious, warm and confiding--polluting
body and soul with the dregs of uncleanness, and hurrying them
away too often into the presence of the Judge. No tale of misery ever
told in fiction surpasses that which is daily enacting in Paris again
and again. Amid such things we live, and truly we have need both to
pray ourselves, and to call upon all spirits of the just made perfect
to intercede for us and for our brethren. And yet it is the same flesh
and blood--the same body, soul, and spirit--the same _man_, which is
thus fearfully working for the devil, or thus heroically fighting for
God. O mystery of the grace of God and of the human will, which is
past finding out!
In the evening we visited, for a short time, the church of Notre Dame
de Lorette, which is sumptuously decorated inside with paintings all
over; it has a double row of pillars each side. The subjects seem
chosen with great judgment, and the legends are more truly Catholic
than one often sees. The expense of this church must have been
enormous. We also looked into La Madeleine--very beautiful indeed it
is, and as grand as the Grecian style can be, but it furnishes one
with the best proof that such is not the proper style for a church.
_Thursday; July 17._--We looked into La Madeleine again, at the Messe
du midi. Its sumptuousness is astonishing. If, however, it were not
safer to admire than to criticise in such cases, one might observe how
vast a space is lost in the walls and arrangements of the
interior, the breadth which strikes the eye being only fifty feet,
while the real breadth of the side walls is at least eighty. Its
architecture seems the inversion of that of St. Ouen or Amiens,
inasmuch as it makes the least effect out of the greatest means, while
the other makes the greatest effect out of the least means; all seems
aerial and heaven-pointing in the one style; while the other seems
unable, with its vast bulk, to rise from the earth, and perpetually
crosses the eye with its horizontal lines--faithful images both of the
religions they represent.
We found l'Abbé Ratisbonne at home, and had a long talk with him. I
mentioned to him the objectionable words addressed to the Blessed
Virgin, which I had seen at Montmartre and in the little book; he made
the usual excuse that such things are not done by authority, and also
that the French language was weak, and so, in expressing heavenly
affections, it might so happen that they used words which, in
strictness of speech, were too strong, but the conventional use of
which formed their exculpation. Thus it was common to say of a very
fine picture, 'quel _adorable_ tableau,' and so the word
'infiniment;' but these applied to the Blessed Virgin in strictness of
speech become objectionable. Much therefore must be allowed to the
weakness and indistinctness of human language, on the one hand,
and to the fervour of filial love longing to pour itself forth, on the
other. 'We are children of God,' he said; 'we speak to him as
children, not as wise men; we ask the indulgence given to infants.'
And so again, as respects the Blessed Virgin. He said he had been
converted from Judaism at twenty-three, had seen much of Protestants
before that time, but their prayers and their whole style of thinking
had disgusted him; he had never been at all drawn to them. He had been
a priest ten years, and was now forty-two. We had much talk on the
Anglo-Roman controversy. I said, we thought ourselves Catholics
already, that we had been born and bred in the English Church, which
was to us the portal of that great building of the Catholic Church. He
approved of that metaphor, which served to give him a better notion of
our position than anything else we said, though, like every other
Roman Catholic, he could not admit for a moment that we were in the
Church. He said, a Protestant minister, an optician, had expressed to
him his belief in the efficacy of prayers for the dead, which appeared
to him under this image: it was as if a number of figures were thrown
into the shade, out of the sun's rays; while between them and the sun
are other figures who enjoy his full light: these, like certain
glasses, reflect that light upon the figures in the shade. Thus it is
that the prayers of the blessed especially succour the faithful
dead. He had often used this image in sermons. I pressed him with the
existence of the Greek Church, on the one hand, and the acknowledged
developement of Papal power, on the other; but no Roman Catholic ever
hesitates to excommunicate individual or church which is not _de
facto_ united to the Roman See; unity with them is indeed a first
principle--a sublime and true belief in itself, though perhaps certain
facts may modify the application of it. He said he had thought
continually of us since our visit, and had the greatest esteem for us,
that he had prayed for us daily, as he did for England; that fair
England, if she could be again, as she once was, the Island of
Saints--what a means for the conversion of others! At our parting, he
begged our prayers for himself. I said, if I came again to Paris, I
should hope to be allowed to see him again. Our conversation was so
disjointed that I can remember but little of it, but it turned on the
_offences_ which alienated us from them. He denied repeatedly the
thought of adoring the Blessed Virgin. He had moved his lodgings to
the Rue du Regard, 14., in order to overlook a house and garden
opposite, in which were lodged a female community of converts from
Judaism, over whom he watched. The Supérieure was with him when we
came. He spoke of our silence as to the Blessed Virgin and all saints;
that we made a wall of separation between them and us, whereas
the whole Church was one, vividly affected with the joys and sorrows
of its several members. M. tried to show that, in the present state of
things, silence might conceal very deep and reverential feelings. He
seemed not to think this satisfactory, and in truth it applies only
partially.
We went to the Pantheon; its interior has the coldness and deadness
which naturally belongs to the tombs of those who die without the
Christian's hope. It looks exactly what it is,--the shrine of human
ambition--a vast coffin holding a skeleton. If it were made a church
hereafter, as surely it must be, it might be made to equal the
Madeleine in magnificence. We mounted and enjoyed the fine view: there
is a triple dome,--sufficiently bungling, I think.
We called in at Toulouse's, and while there he discovered that I was
not a Roman Catholic; whereupon he began to persuade me, with the most
affectionate solicitude, that I was in a self-evidently wrong
position. He asked how I justified the schism. 'I don't understand,'
he said, 'how you could be Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman one day, and
wake the next and find yourselves Catholic, Apostolic, and not Roman.'
I answered that we had indubitably the ancient succession; that the
evil passions of men on the one hand, and the extravagant claims of
the Papacy on the other, had caused the separation, which I
deplored. But still I hoped, that, though in an anomalous state, we
had what was strictly necessary to the essence of a Church. I
mentioned, too, the position of the whole Eastern Church. I showed him
the dangerous and extravagant language used towards the Blessed Virgin
in the Psaltery of St. Bonaventure: he could not answer that, and
reserved it to show to a priest; but he maintained that the work was
St. Bonaventure's. I said, 'All that St. Gregory the Great, who sent
St. Augustine into England, claimed for himself; all that St. Leo
demanded, or that St. Athanasius and St. Basil granted to the Holy
See, I am ready to give.' He finished with expressions of kind concern
for us.
_Friday, July 18._--Went to M. Bonnetty, who, with M. D'Alzon, took
us to the Hôtel de Cluny: it is full of curious objects of the Middle
Ages. I remarked one exquisite bit of glass--a pretty chapel--the
remains of the Roman baths. There was something in the air of to-day
which inspired me with such lassitude that I could hardly drag myself
about, so we did very little. After dinner we looked into La Madeleine
and went on to Bishop Luscombe's, where we took tea.
_Saturday, July 19._--A little better to-day. At La Madeleine during
part of a Low Mass; my admiration for this building increases greatly;
it produces much the same effect as St. Peter's, deceiving the
eye by its great proportions. We spent a couple of hours in the
boundless galleries of the Louvre. The long gallery contains few
pictures that I should much desire to possess: save in the last
compartment, and the first room, and none certainly interest me more
than that great picture of the battle of Eylau. Thence we went to M.
L'Abbé Gaduel, 1. Rue Madame, who took us to the Maison de Campagne of
S. Sulpice, at Issy. It is an old royal chateau, much dilapidated, for
the good seminarists do not pretend to much comfort in their house; it
would seem as if they intended their discipline to serve as a
winnowing fan for all light and worldly spirits. They have, however,
spacious gardens behind. We were shown a summer house in which Bossuet
and Fénélon held a long conference on the subject in dispute between
them, and agreed on statements together, which are put up in the room,
though the interest of the latter is much gone by in the totally
different state of things at present. Eighty young men study
philosophy here. We saw and talked some little time with M. Faillon,
the Supérieur, a man of learning. M. Galais was out, and we only met
him returning on his way from Paris on foot. Coming home we went into
the Maison des Carmes, now in repair. M. Gaduel took us into the
passage out of which the priests, after stating to the authority the
act of their death, were led forward down three steps into the
garden, at the bottom of which the assassins fell upon them and
murdered them. No spot in Paris touched me more than this. There is
what appears to be the marks of a bloody hand in the passage still;
but there is no other record of that ruthless deed. The church has
nothing remarkable about it: but what devoted heroism on the one side,
and what infernal madness on the other, have this house and garden
witnessed! How many martyrs here won their crown. Truly it is holy
ground, and the blood there shed is yielding a rich harvest of
Christian grace in the Church which has sprung up out of its ashes
with the strength of a young eagle. In the evening we went to the
assemblée générale of S. Vincent de Paul, 2. Rue neuve Notre Dame,
under the patronage of the Archbishop of Chalcedoine. The president
gave in a long speech an account of their doings; but he was old, had
lost his teeth, and dropped his voice, so that we lost very much of it.
"The beginning of his speech was about S. Vincent de Paul himself. The
society had just come into possession of some relics of him, and
especially a letter in his own handwriting, containing some counsels
of charity. For some reason or other he was not able to produce the
letter this evening; I should have liked to hear it, for his words are
worth gathering up. He also said that he had been to see his
birth-place; and that the house he was born in had been removed stone
by stone, and a chapel put in its place. The village had lost its old
name, and taken his; an old oak, known in his history, where he kept
pigs for his father, was still alive, and came out in leaf before the
other trees. The president cautioned them against any departure from
their rules; against admitting members who were only 'braves hommes,'
without being religious; against attempting to bring in secondary
motives to induce the members of any 'conférence' to work; against
reserving their money for their own districts, instead of putting it
into the common fund of the conférence: against a slight and lazy way
of visiting the poor, a 'visite de corridor,' as he called it, instead
of a 'visite assise.' He said they ought to sit down and talk
familiarly, and take the little dirty children by the hand, &c. &c.
Finally, a good many of them being students, he gave them some advice
about young students recommended to them from the country, especially
to take care that they were sent straight to them, and not left first
to get into bad company. He described how some friend in one of the
provinces sends you a note by some youth whom he describes as a 'petit
ange,' and who, after six weeks' residence in Paris, comes and brings
you his note, his eye already tarnished, his manner bold and loose,
'un ange déchu.'"--_M._
There were present full two hundred, chiefly young men, in a little
amphitheatre. It was commenced and ended with prayer, which claimed
the intercession of S. Vincent. This is his fête day. They mentioned
four branch societies established at Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin,
and Edinburgh.
_Sunday, July 20._--I gave up the attempt to go to Bishop Luscombe's
Chapel, as there was no communion. Heard High Mass at La Madeleine.
The music very good, and the dresses splendid; not more than an hour.
At two o'clock went to Vespers there: there was chanting of Psalms, an
hour, and then a long sermon, more than an hour, on the virtues of
S. Vincent de Paul. The preacher used a great deal of action, and gave
me the idea of having very much got up his discourse, which was
confirmed by seeing him in the evening at Notre Dame des Victoires,
where we heard the commencement of the same sermon, but did not stop.
The subject of it seems to have been a very great and good man; the
sermon was a sort of abstract, I believe, of the Saint's life by the
Bishop of Rodez. There was a passionate address to the Saint in the
middle, with eyes uplifted to heaven. A great many people, chiefly
women; many ladies,--but I do not think it was a favourite preacher.
We gave up the conférence of S. Francis Xavier at S. Sulpice, having
so much to do to-morrow, though much to our regret; but late hours
and great exertions here have tried us both, and we shall be
very glad of a change.
We walked through the Tuileries just before dark; a great multitude of
citizens.
_Monday, July 21._--We were occupied all the morning in packing up
and calling on MM. D'Alzon, Bonnetty, and Noirlieu--the latter out. We
left Paris a quarter past six, on a very fine pleasant evening. Having
the two first places in the malle poste, we enjoyed the drive very
much as long as it was light--we reached Reims in eleven hours, a
quarter after five, without much fatigue. I slept at intervals, and
when I awoke admired the brilliant moonlight, Venus, and Jupiter,
through one or two forests, or at least woods, which we passed. The
road generally very flat, with these exceptions. Our companion was a
gentlemanly Frenchman, with whom I had much conversation. He seemed to
be much attached to the present Royal Family, whom he spoke of as
acquainted with them, and maintained that the King was a religious
man--that he heard Mass daily; the Queen was a model of piety. He
thought their dynasty would stand; and not the least, because they
would never submit to be exiles; they would either keep the throne, or
die for it. The great mistake of Charles X. was quitting France; if
you go away everyone is against you; if you stay, a party is sure to
rally round you. He seemed to think the issue might have been
different had Charles X. remained. But there was no chance of a
restoration now; the great mass of the country was satisfied. He spoke
well of the Duc de Nemours, still more highly of the Duc d'Orléans,
and said the Comte de Paris was a very promising boy. He regretted the
want of an _hereditary_ peerage in France, and the little
independence that body possessed in consequence. I remarked the
smallness of fortunes: that 60,000 francs a year were thought a good
fortune for a peer. He said not fifty peers of France possessed that;
many could not keep their carriage. Spoke of the clergy as not high
enough in point of acquirements--he did not say their discipline or
piety was defective, but that they were not a match in information,
ability, and powers of mind, for those opposed to them. Wished the
higher classes would send their sons into orders,--a Royal Prince, for
instance, would be a good example. The tax on land in France is nearly
one-fifth of the _produce_; very heavy; 200_l._ a year in land a
deputy's qualification. Soon after getting to our inn, which was right
opposite the west front of the Cathedral, we attended a Low Mass, and
at eight o'clock a chanted Mass: it was a Mass for the dead. The
outside of Reims is all that can be conceived of beauty, grandeur,
unity of conception, delicacy and boldness of execution; and this,
though the one great design of the architect has not been
completed, for the four towers of the transepts have had no spires
since the great fire of 1491; and the western towers are also without
theirs, and so end incompletely, the eye positively requiring them.
The design of these towers is very singular; and the skill with which
a strength sufficient to support spires 400 feet high is veiled, so as
to make the towers appear quite pierced and open, seems to me one of
the greatest marvels of architecture. The prototype exists in the four
towers of Laon, which have the same design in embryo; but this is so
enriched, expanded, and beautified by the architect of Reims, as to
become his own work in point of originality, and certainly in grace
and boldness not to be surpassed. The superiority of the western
front, even over that of Amiens, is very marked--indeed, I think it
perfect; and the whole of the rest of the outside of the church
reaches nearly the same degree. No words can convey any notion of it.
The north-west tower was half covered with scaffolding; for here, as
every where, great reparations are going on. To the interior I do not
give _quite_ so much praise, though it is still of exceeding
grandeur, simplicity, and beauty: perhaps, were _all_ its windows
like those of the clerestory, the effect might equal or surpass that
of Chartres. The west end is, I think, the finest which I know,
bearing in mind Amiens and St. Ouen; in addition to a rose window of
exceeding brilliancy, and colouring inexpressible, which, forty
feet in diameter, crowns the top, there is a smaller one over the
doorway, answering to the deep recess of that matchless portal
outside. This is a feature of great beauty, though the glass is far
from equalling that of the upper rose. There is happily no organ here,
but at the end of the north transept, where it has not quite so much
to spoil. The transept is inferior to the rest of the church in style.
It was restored after the great fire in 1491; and this part of the
church, with the whole of the choir and arrangements of the eastern
chapels, struck me as decidedly inferior to Amiens. There is not,
indeed, generally the same impression of vastness and wondrous height
produced on the mind. The pillars are cylinders with four columns at
the corners, like Amiens, very simple and severe; but the strength is
not quite enough veiled. We went all round the galleries inside and
outside, up the centre belfry, which rises ninety-two steps over the
top of the vaulting, with an interval of about ten feet besides. It is
a forest of wood, and had once a spire of wood, which since the fire
has not been restored; this and the six towers have been covered
'provisoirement en ardoises,' as the guide told us, 'mais ce
provisoirement a duré long temps;' indeed, from 1491 to our time,
without much chance of being improved. We went up the great towers,
and could hardly admire enough the delicacy and boldness of the
four corner turrets in open work. The present towers are 240 or 250
feet high; they would, I think, equal or surpass Strasburg and
Antwerp, had they spires. The immense quantity of sculpture all over
this exterior cannot be conceived, nor the ingenuity with which it is
made to serve for decoration. A day is far too short a time to carry
off the impression of it. The mind is fatigued and exhausted during
many a visit, and is not at ease till it has sufficiently mastered the
whole, in order to fix itself for admiration and contemplation on some
particular part. It would be a week's good work to see it, and it
should be visited once a year by all those who talk of the darkness of
the Middle Ages, and the greatness of the nineteenth century, which is
sorely taxed to keep in repair what they constructed, and has not
sufficient piety to restore a part where the architect's design has
been left incomplete. Such parts remain, like the window of Aladdin's
palace, to show that a materialising philosophy, with all its improved
physical powers, remains at immeasurable distance behind the efforts
of faith and piety. M. Cousin should be sent to study truth on his
knees in Notre Dame of Amiens, or of Reims.
In the midst of seeing the cathedral we walked to St. Remi, a mile,
taking the ramparts. They offer a good view of the cathedral, and one
of the country round, like Wiltshire, but backed by fine hills
to the south; but in this open country, and along all that line of
hills, the famous vine of champagne flourishes. St. Remi is an immense
church, 350 feet long, besides the Lady Chapel: Norman, with pointed
arches; the choir with its stained windows very good; seven in the
apse. The tomb of St. Remi was under repair; it is between the high
altar and the east end; so the statues of the twelve peers were ranged
six on one side and six on the other side of the great altar _pro
tempore_. This church is a very grand and fine one, and, except in the
presence of the cathedral, would take a day to see. Its west front has
been strangely tampered with, but reminds one still, especially the
turrets, of St. Georges de Boscherville; but this is greatly the more
spacious church of the two.
We spent all the day in going about, passing through the internal
galleries of the cathedral; the curve in the nave is very perceptible.
The roof was poorly painted for the sacre of Charles X. with white
fleurs de lis on a blue ground; it is very massive in its vaulting,
the pitch, perhaps, not perfectly agreeable to the eye.
We had a letter from M. D'Alzon to the Archbishop, but he had left
Reims a day or two before; we had another from M. Gaduel to the
Supérieur of the Séminaire, which _M._ took in the afternoon. About 8
o'clock we both went there, and had some talk with him and the
professors, one of whom, M. Lassaigne, gave us a translation of
Gioberti against Cousin, and recommended me Le Prêtre Juge et Medicin
dans le Tribunal de la Penitence, which I got. I gathered from their
discourse that confession is the great chain which holds together the
whole Christian life; it is practised weekly by the pupils: communion
is entirely free. A great many priests of the neighbourhood confess
still to the supérieur (M. Aubry), their old teacher: forty he said. I
asked them if they could conceive a Christian life maintained without
confession: they said, hardly; that it was involved in our Lord's
words, "whose sins ye do retain," &c., which power could only be
exercised upon each individual case, after knowledge of the facts,
such as of course can only be obtained by auricular confession. I
alleged to the Supérieur the strong expressions often used to the
Virgin Mary, instancing "les satisfactions infinies du Fils de Dieu et
de sa Mère:" he condemned them and _this_. I spoke of St.
Bonaventure's Psalter; he did not seem acquainted with it, and
regretted that I did not stay till the morrow, when he would have gone
over it with me, and weighed the words. But at last he said, St.
Bonaventure is not the Church, though he is a saint and doctor of it.
They were very kind and cordial, and I should have liked to see more
of them.
_Wednesday, July 23._--At 5 o'clock the bell of the cathedral sounded
long and loud over our heads, leaving no excuse for those who chose to
slumber on. I got up, and found two places by the diligence for Laon.
M. was in a great hurry, so I exercised a piece of self-denial and
woke him, and we hurried off. It was, indeed, with great regret I
departed from under the shadow of that noble church, feeling that I
left so much of its beauty undiscerned, or rather so few of its forms
impressed on the mind. We were four hours and a half reaching Laon,
from 6 to 10½, in the intérieur; two fat women and a child made it
latterly very uncomfortable. The country flat for some way, then hills
and fine prospects. But the position of Laon is very remarkable
indeed, a triangular hill rising out of a great plain: in short,
another Enna, though not so lofty. The resemblance is very marked
indeed, and presented itself to me again and again. Near to one corner
of the triangle rises the cathedral, with its four lofty towers, two
at the west end, and one at each end of the transept; there are the
beginnings of two others, and all six were intended to have had spires
as lofty as themselves; the south-west had one, which was taken down.
Their present height is, the S.W. 220 feet each, (French,) the N. and
S. 235. They are very striking, but want their crown of spires, and
are in the most splendid situation for such a building which I
ever saw. The view is accordingly very extensive, to the north flat,
but to the south terminated by fine hills. We viewed these towers in a
great number of positions, on the promenades, and from another corner
of the triangle, to the south. The church within is very stately;
early English, 400 feet long, and quite uniform in style, or at least
with only here and there a decorated window, as in the S. transept.
The curve of the roof is very beautiful; after Reims it struck us as
low, though at least 80 feet high. The west front is fine, though the
portals require more work to conceal their vast depth. I could not but
greatly admire the skill of the architect of Reims, who had evidently
studied and adopted the towers and western front of this church, which
is said in its time (1130) to have been the finest in France, and yet
has produced a work incomparably more beautiful, and quite original.
Laon has a double triforium, making four stages in its interior.
We walked about here a great deal. The situation is one of the finest
I have ever seen; it inspires a sort of elevation in the mind. Beyond
the church a caserne is building, and a fort already made--a bad
exchange for the tower of Louis d'Outremer. The church of St. Martin
is very disappointing inside, being very low. As the diligence was
full for the night, we hired a cab, to take us to St. Quentin. It took
us from 5½ to 11½, stopping half an hour at La Fère. Road
generally flat, and very bad indeed, having no pavé to La Fère. We saw
a village church or two, Norman in style. Our conveyance was one of
the most uncomfortable I ever experienced; besides that we were
overwhelmed with bags and coats. Our driver served at eighteen in one
of Napoleon's battles, and had carried off a token in a sabre cut on
the cheek; it was the battle of Fleury, where, he said, "L'Empereur
était trahi." So the French guide-book says of the battle of Crecy:
"Les Français perdirent 30,000 par la faute du Comte d'Alençon."
_Thursday, July 24._--We are at l'Hôtel du Cygne: comfortable enough.
The church is of first-rate beauty; the nave, from its great height
and purity of style, even more striking than that of Reims _inside_;
and so the transept: but the choir and many parts of the church have
swerved from the perpendicular, and are braced with iron,--a sad
drawback. The architect has raised his central building, with extreme
boldness, to an enormous height; but he has not thrown strength and
breadth enough into his aisles to resist the pressure. The windows
throughout of geometric tracery, remarkably beautiful; and the pillars
of the nave spring from the ground to the roof without capital at the
lower arches, and are of great beauty, an advance certainly on Reims,
and in one respect on Amiens, in that they are not merely cylinders,
with columns at the four corners, but have two colonnettes
introduced again between these, which produces an effect of great
lightness. Beautiful end of north transept, a decorated window below,
an open triforium of eight lights, and a vast decorated window
terminating in a great rosace above--stained glass. The apse of seven
windows, with most brilliant stained glass, beginning from a second
transept of great beauty, making a double cross, the southern part
flamboyant. I think the nave of this church, and the apse and
arrangements of its chapels might be profitably studied as an almost
perfect specimen; it may compete with Amiens and St. Ouen, and
undoubtedly surpasses Reims. Height, 128 English feet; vaulting of
roof very beautiful. We went in at 11 o'clock, and found preparations
for a funeral of some importance: presently all the choir was filled
with well dressed persons; and the body being deposited under a
catafalque, surrounded with burning tapers, in the centre of the nave
and transept, mass was chanted. The black velvet chasuble, and the
copes and other robes to match, like all the dresses of the Roman
clergy, are very handsome. We went into the upper part of the choir,
but I could not avoid noticing with what indifference most of the
attendants on the funeral treated the holiest rite of the Church; they
were, no doubt, unbelievers; and some ragged boys close beside me were
a serious annoyance, incessantly spitting, laughing, and talking.
The west end of this church has been barbarized in the style of
1681, most ugly to behold; it seems to have been intended to have two
towers, but no part of them at present exists. We went through the roof
of the church, and caught a view from the strange-looking steeple which
rises over the croisée. The country round is not remarkable--flat, and
in parts wooded. Rest of the day spent in writing. Found some common
prints of details in the life of the Holy Family which pleased us.
_Friday, July 25._--At 6 o'clock we started by the diligence to
Amiens by Peronne--had the coupé with an English woman, who got in a
few miles on the road. The country not remarkable--some hills and a
fertile succession of corn-fields. Reached Peronne a little before
nine, and breakfasted there. Several fortifications and drawbridges
both entering and going, but they did not seem kept up with much care.
The Church, de la Renaissance, not remarkable. The rest of the road to
Amiens a fine broad country, with occasional hills, of average beauty.
No view of Amiens cathedral but from the last hill, a few miles off,
and then it looked small, I suppose from the vastness of the plain in
which it stands. We did not reach Amiens, a distance of only 82
kiloms. from St. Quentin, till after three o'clock. At the last stage
some young seminarists got out of the rotonde, and were met by their
mother and sisters, as it seemed: they were apparently peasants,
very humbly clad, and of the most ordinary demeanour. I saw what
education had done for the young men (who had not received the
tonsure): even the retired life and poor salary of a country curé
would be a great elevation in the scale of society to them. I would
not mention this invidiously, but the lot of the French Curé de
Campagne has sometimes appeared to me so painful, that it was a relief
to see its bright side even in a material point of view.
I went to my old quarters at the Hôtel de France, and we were shown
into the same room I had occupied two years before. We got a light
dinner and set off to the cathedral. The first sight of its west front
was almost painful after that of Reims, there being certainly a
confusion and want of harmony in its parts; while the southern tower
being left twenty feet lower than the northern combines to spoil the
effect. But I was no sooner in the interior than a full sense of its
prodigious superiority to every other building we had seen established
itself on my mind; and the impression my first visit two years ago
made was more than repeated. Only St. Ouen may enter at all into
competition; but the vast proportions of Amiens, combined with the
great purity of its style, more than counterbalance the, if any,
superior grace and lightness of the other. In the evening we walked
out to the west, in the hope of catching a good view of the
cathedral, but we could not find the right place. Amiens has nothing
else remarkable which fell under our observation.
_Saturday, July 26._--After breakfast we went to the cathedral, and
passed over all the galleries inside and outside, and the roofs. The
best external view from the building itself is on the north tower; the
arcs boutants of the choir and the whole arrangement are much more
striking than those of the nave. The guide, a very intelligent man,
assured us there was no danger apprehended within or without to any
part of the building. As far as M. and I could judge, we thought it
would last as easily for the next 500 years as it had gone through the
last. The view through the eight compartments of the upper chamber of
the central clocher is pretty; it seems to fit into so many frames the
city and the vast plain in which it stands. We saw the towers of
Corbie. In the inside I noticed four particulars of its great
superiority, over and above the unequalled proportions of the whole.
1st, The triforium and its windows, especially of the choir; these
windows commence on the east side of the transept. In the rest there
are arches, which have been filled up with masonry from the beginning.
I think this triforium superior to that of St. Ouen, chiefly from the
geometric character of its forms; whereas those of St. Ouen approach
to the perpendicular. Each bay has six divisions, save the five
of the apse, which have four.
2nd, The windows of the clerestory, all of pure geometric tracery. I
measured one on the south side of the nave, nineteen feet three inches
wide, clear light.
3rd, The north transept end. A rosace above, of most brilliant glass,
thirty-six feet in diameter; open gallery of fifteen divisions.
4th, The whole arrangement of the aisles round the choir. There are
open chapels north and south, extending the whole four bays of the
choir, which give great lightness to it; while the seven arches of the
apse correspond to as many chapels. The Lady Chapel is beautiful,
though not so much developed as that of St. Ouen.
By the advice of the guide we went down to the river, immediately to
the north of the cathedral; from the other side of which, by a little
tree in front of a house painted green, is, perhaps, the best external
view of the whole mass from east to west. Even here, however, almost
all the windows of the aisles are covered by houses; on another branch
of the river, a little further north, rather more of these is
discovered. The near view from the extreme corner of the bishop's
garden is good; and the corresponding one to the south-east, as far
back as the street will allow, rather better. This gives the beauty of
the east end. But no complete view of this wonderful building
outside can be obtained, from the closeness of the houses; and that
which would be the grandest ornament of the finest city in the world
cannot even be seen in its full proportions.
The vaulting of Amiens is 140 feet (English) high; the ridge of the
roof outside reaches to nigh 200. Its internal and external galleries
must be traversed before the spectator can estimate the enormous pile
of masonry which that fabric contains. It can only be matched, I
think, by Milan. Amiens is only 442 feet in length, including the Lady
Chapel. In this also the French architects have shown great skill, for
an excess in this respect would have diminished the great effect
produced by their stupendous height. York or Canterbury would be
dwarfed beside Amiens, though the former exceeds it by 82 feet, and
the latter by 88 feet in length. But the height of the vaulting of
Canterbury nave is 80 feet, of York 99, of Amiens 140. It is a sad
result of a visit to the French cathedrals, that the Englishman must
be content to recognise ever after the immense inferiority of his own
in the one characteristic feature of Christian architecture,
elevation. A noble race of men they must have been, and not of the
tiger-monkey kind, who had hearts to conceive and hands to execute
such works as these. Overflowing with inward life must the Church have
been, who could impress such a character on her sons. Here,
indeed, may the Churchman feel, "He built His sanctuary like high
palaces; like the earth which He hath established for ever." Those
were the ages of faith, hope, and love; it would be well if the life
which glowed in those mediæval bosoms manifested itself by works in
ours.
"_Amiens. Feast of St. James, 1845._--I do not intend to say much
about things in general, but as you have touched on them, I do say a
few words. I am, I may say, fully convinced that neither the worship
of saints, nor the use of images, nor the withholding of the cup, at
all affect the life of the Roman Church. What I have seen has led me
to reflect bitterly on Mr. Bowdler's '_Quid Romæ faciam?_' The answer
is, all that you try in vain to do in England. For, in sober truth, he
has only told us that what exists there in _practice_ exists with us
in _theory_. However, I agree with him that it is our duty to put it
in practice at home. But, how to get ecclesiastics to live in
primitive brotherhood and in primitive poverty? How to bring people to
confession? How to induce candidates for holy orders to submit to
education? How to get the opportunity of restoring the daily
sacrifice? How to warm our churches with devotion, so that people may
come in, and be cheered and helped in their prayers, &c.? These are
questions to which he has supplied no answer, and the answer is
not easy. It requires every allowance for the reserved and retiring
character of the English to hope that we are not, even in comparison
with the French, a fallen people. Still, were it not for _one_ person
who thinks otherwise, I should view our failings calmly, as a mere
hindrance to be surmounted, and even take easily the painful
separation there is between us and so much that I must admire,
considering it as the result of an over-technical system on the one
side, and an unformed one on the other--a result that would vanish as
the one grew in life and the other in consistency."--_M._
We determined to leave this evening, that we might secure an early
passage from Boulogne on Monday morning. So at half-past-five we took
the diligence to Abbeville. It is an unusually pleasant drive thither,
partly by the river side, well wooded, a good road, and occasionally
diversified. We even went by one country house which had a fine flower
garden and lawn, and might have passed for English. It was so
unusually neat and nicely kept, that I inquired if it was a private
house. We had the coupé with a French gentleman, with whom I had
considerable talk. He was a fair representant of the tone of mind
produced by the first revolution; spoke with enthusiasm of the
military and naval establishments of France, the accomplishments
required of all officers, the preference given to pure merit,
the equality which subsisted in all the relations of Frenchmen;
contrasted his own country in these respects with ours. He claimed the
full possession of liberty, which I denied to them; but I fully
admitted the passion for equality and the existence of it. I observed
that, by their law of inheritance, they had destroyed all equilibrium
in the state, all power but the central power of the government, which
was continually increasing. He spoke with passionate fondness of the
late Duke of Orleans, that he had a marvellous gift of speaking,
attached every body to him, was exceedingly brave and able every way.
I asked if he thought Louis Philippe had contrived the revolution. He
said he could not acquit him as to that. The whole of his family were
patterns to France, whereas, he said, the Duke de Berri was a beast,
an animal. He seemed to think there would be attempts on Louis
Philippe's death, but they would not succeed; the country generally
was well satisfied with his rule. He defended the system of passports
as admirable, but when at Abbeville his own was kept some time being
deciphered he waxed impatient. He defended the conscription too, and
abused the construction of our army; nothing but the firmness of the
English character produced good soldiers out of such materials. He
seemed to think all property in England descended to the eldest son,
and abused our horrible aristocracy. I said the old Saxon blood
loved an aristocracy and would always have it.
We reached Abbeville just after dark, got some coffee, and rested a
few hours at the Hotel d'Angleterre. At half-past-two the diligence
from Paris took us up, and landed us at Boulogne between nine and ten.
A fine rich country all along, but with nothing remarkable, except
perhaps the site of Montreuil, a brow something like Windsor.
_Sunday, July 27._--Went to the British Chapel, in the Rue du
Temple--a miserable meeting-house begalleried all round, with one
pulpit for the prayers and another for the sermon, flanking a table in
the midst. The reading and the preaching quite in correspondence.
Indeed the sermon, which was without book, was one of the most
extraordinary productions I ever heard: its tone may be imagined, from
the speaker calling our Lord "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords--and
Emperor of Emperors." "What was half an hour to speak of immortal
things to an immortal soul!" The chapel was very full of well-dressed
people, whose demeanour was as little religious as can be conceived;
but they were bidden to beware of the superstition of the Roman
Church, and of the seductions to the animal nature which it afforded.
Later we walked into the upper town, and, after dinner, along the
sands, and over the cliffs home. But the view of Boulogne on
every side is dreary and wretched; and I should never stay there an
hour longer than was necessary. We were at l'Hôtel de l'Europe--civil
people, and excellent table d'hôte.
_Monday, July 28._--At six this morning we left Boulogne, and crossed
to Folkstone in two hours and five minutes; a very fast vessel. We
breakfasted at the hotel near the beach, got through the custom house
rather quickly, were ready for the half-past-nine train, and in London
shortly after one o'clock. M. and I called on E. Hawkins and Acland,
and then went down to Eton, and I home to Launton.
[2] The observations between inverted commas, and ended with the
letter _M._, are taken, by permission, from the journal of my
fellow-traveller, the Rev. C. Marriott.
[3] It should be mentioned that the two brothers Labbé set up this
school some twenty years ago, without any resources, and have
maintained it ever since, living upon Providence, gradually building
accommodations for their scholars, a chapel, &c.
[4] "La monition consiste à faire connaître à celui, qui nous a
chargés de lui rendre cet office de charité, ses imperfections et ses
défauts extérieurs contraires aux vertus Chrétiennes et ecclésiastiques."
LETTERS FROM FRANCE AND ITALY.--1847.
Hotel Windsor, Rue de Rivoli,
7th July, 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
* * * The weather for the last three or four days has been melting. We
have had plenty to do, and have been well occupied, instructed, and
pleased. Last evening we dined with M. Defresne, a very clever, able,
and energetic talker. He is a great friend of the old Royal Family,
and calls Louis Philippe the greatest scoundrel under the sun. We met
l'Abbé Pététot, curé of St. Louis d'Antin, one of the parishes of
Paris, with 18,000 inhabitants; he has eight curates, besides
occasional assistance. They give the most astonishing account of the
change which has taken place in France in the last fifteen years in
religious matters. Formerly a young man dared not confess that he was
a Christian, or show himself in a church; now the bitter sarcasm and
ridicule with which all religious subjects were treated have passed
away; earnestness has laid hold of the mind of the nation, and
even those who are not Christians appear to be searching for the
truth, and treat Christianity as a reality, and conviction with
respect. Even now, _not one young man in a hundred is a Christian_. I
asked l'Abbé Pététot particularly, if he felt sure of this proportion,
and he confirmed it. Out of the thirty-two millions of French, they
reckon two millions who are really Christians, practising confession;
many of the others send for a priest in their last illness, confess,
and receive the sacraments; but M. Defresne thought this very
unsatisfactory, as we should. They are making great exertions to
christianise the class of workmen, the great majority of whom are not
even nominally believers. You may judge of their life by the fact that
they live with many different women in common, sometimes after a time
selecting one of these, and confining themselves to her, but without
legitimate marriage. The Church has gained about 15,000 of this class
out of a hundred thousand in Paris, and worked a great reformation. At
St. Sulpice they have every other Sunday a meeting of these, called
conférences, at which they are addressed by different persons, clergy
or lay, on religious, moral, or instructive subjects. We went to the
meeting on Sunday night, and were much pleased with what we saw and
heard. Their minds are laid hold of and interested; by drawing
together they get a sense of union and the force of numbers, and
are encouraged by each other's progress; they see their superiors in
knowledge and station exerting themselves for their improvement.
L'Abbé Pététot told us he had preached _eighty_ times last Lent,
seven times in one day. This is entirely without note. Their labour
must be very great. His manner of speaking is very pleasing, and I
think the priests generally speak with great propriety, and with an
abundance and arrangement of matter which is not common with us. We
have just returned from a visit to M. Martin Noirlieu, once
sub-preceptor of the Duke de Bordeaux, and now a curé at Paris. He has
been in England, and speaks favourably of us. He thinks there is much
good and real religion in the people of England, though very
defective, and though the Church is suffering under many abuses. He
said they computed that the Bishop of London received as much as all
the French Bishops put together. The state of things here is totally
different from what it is with us. There is no state religion, no
temptation whatever to pretend to be a Christian if you are not. The
consequence is, that there is little hypocrisy; infidelity is openly
professed by a great number. On the other hand, the believers are so
from real conviction, and generally after a personal conversion; there
are comparatively few hereditary Christians.
The Church is gradually gaining, but much more in the higher
than in the lower ranks. There are 800 priests in Paris; they want 400
more: before the great Revolution there were 5000.
On Monday we were taken to see the house of the Priests for foreign
Missions. They count many martyrs in late times in China, &c. There
are the bones of several in their museum; Chinese pictures of the mode
in which they were tortured, expressed to the life with a frightful
reality. The mother of one of these martyrs is living now, and had
sent to her the original picture of her son's martyrdom, drawn by
Christians in China. There is a long frame of wood, which they were
forced to carry round the neck, and which prevented them from taking
any rest. Young men are regularly trained here for missionary work;
their disposition and talents attentively considered; above all their
vocation, and without this is very decided, they are not allowed to
attempt so perilous a task. Indeed, where the reverse of honour, or
ease, or wealth, or leisure, or anything that delights the natural
man, is all that they can expect in this life, they are not likely to
have any hypocritical aspirants for the work of a missionary. As for
sending out a man with a wife and children to convert the heathen, the
idea would appear to them too ridiculous. Near adjoining to these we
saw the central establishment of the Sœurs de Charité; they have
six hundred sisters here, many novices. They count about 6000
all over the world, and are increasing rapidly. They were entirely put
down at the great Revolution, so that this is all since 1801. They
renew their vows annually; there are instances, though very rare, of
sisters retiring. Every sister passes one week of the year in what is
called a _retreat_; that is, a complete self-examination and inquiry
into the past year, progress made in things spiritual, &c. This is
likewise the case with every monk, nun, or priest. These _retreats_
are productive of great effects.
_July 8._--We dine to-day with M. Defresne again, to meet M. Martin
Noirlieu.
We have had l'Abbé Labbé here three hours this morning. We are going a
round with l'Abbé Carron at two. We have the dinner in the evening, so
do pretty well.
Yours sincerely,
T. W. ALLIES.
Genoa, July 20, 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
* * * The last six days we have spent, as well as the heat would allow
us, in enjoying the different views which this most superb city
presents. My companions, who have both seen Constantinople, seem to
reckon it only inferior to that. To begin with the beginning: we
presented on Wednesday our letter to the Père Jourdain, a Jesuit; and
no sooner was it delivered, than, without reading it, or any sort of
preface, except W's reply in the affirmative to the question whether
he was a Catholic, he began a most furious attack on us as rebels
outside of the Church, Protestants, and what not. It so happened,
however, that the points he took were just those which I had most at
command; so he did not get much by his assault, was obliged to beat a
retreat several times, and finally left us all three convinced that
reasoning was not his forte, and that at least in his case the Jesuits
were not employing gentle insinuation as a means of converting, He
has, however, never renewed the battle since, but been very obliging,
and given us every assistance in his power. Among the sights he
directed us to was St. Anne's, a house of barefooted Carmelites, on
the back of the hills some few hundred feet aloft, commanding the most
delicious views of the city, the bay, the sea, and the mountains
round. A straggling and precipitous garden was covered with vines
festooned on trellis work, through which one caught the blue sky, and
water, and towers and domes brought out against them with full effect.
Then, after seeing the long, cool corridors inside, each of which had
a window opening on this gorgeous scene, and the little chamber of
each brother, furnished with a poor bed, some little pictures, a
crucifix, and the most necessary furniture; and on hearing the quiet
tenor of every day's life, the only fear was, whether there was enough
of the cross in it. But doubtless the being under obedience, the
having every day's work portioned out for one, supplies all that is
wanted; and however calm it seemed, every chamber, as it had the
figure of the Crucified, so it was conscious of the secret cross borne
by its occupant. They are occupied in instruction, and have a school
of novices. Genoa is particularly rich in charitable foundations; her
merchant princes cannot be accused of neglecting the poor and
suffering, nor of so assisting them as to show that they thought
poverty a crime and an offence. We have seen three great buildings
which have moved our admiration in this way. The Ospitaletto contains
444 sick men and women: it is served by six Capucins and fifteen
sisters of charity. Mass is said every day at half-past-five and six
o'clock, at altars so placed in the different wards that every person
can see. They are confessed by the Capucins, and communicate
every fortnight. All Genoese are received freely here, others pay a
small sum. Again, the hospital called Pammatone, endowed by various
noble Genoese, can receive 1000 sick; it had more this last winter. It
is served by eighteen Capucins and thirty-four sisters. We saw here,
in a shrine over the altar, the body of St. Catherine of Genoa, who
died in 1510, after serving thirty-two years as a sister here. It is
apparently solid and quite uncorrupt. The other great building, which
we saw yesterday, is the Albergo dei Poveri--a poor house in fact, but
as unlike an English poor house, as poverty in the person of the
Blessed Virgin and our Lord is unlike poverty as treated by a board of
guardians, and kept alive on the smallest pittance they can devise. It
is a most magnificent building, with four huge courts, the chapel in
the centre, of which the altar is commanded on one side by a great
chamber for the men, and on the other side by one for the women; while
in front it is open to the public, and behind to an infirmary for the
sick.
In all these buildings what most pleases one is the bringing home the
entire offices, hopes, and consolations of religion to every
individual soul. I do not see how this can be done without sisters of
charity, and the system of confession. Everything I see impresses on
me more and more our own need of a complete renovation and
restoration, if we would rise as a communion to be a reality and not a
sham. Yesterday we visited the Fieschine, an institution for educating
orphan girls, of which it now holds 187. They are taught reading and
writing and work of all kinds, the most beautiful embroidery,
artificial flowers, &c. It was founded by the Count Fieschi, and is in
the patronage of his family, directed by a chaplain, and a superior,
with the rules of a convent, but without any vows, as a great many
marry out of it. The full recognition of the ascetic and monastic
life, as a Christian state, and the highest in its kind, is of
incalculable importance. For want of this, all our great institutions,
whether for the maintenance of learning, or the direction of youth, or
the care of the sick, fail just where they ought to be strong; they
have no _authority_; the world, its views, and principles, and
measures, rule in them as in ordinary life; and the reason why is,
that the very life which alone is above the world, its wants, and its
measures, is excluded and condemned. We have men, we have minds, we
have money; but how are we to get back principles which we have in
practice given up? The under-valuing celibacy, the not possessing
religious orders, seems a system of christianity without the cross.
_July 21._--We go on to Milan by the courier to-day, and I shall post
this letter on our arrival there to-morrow, after that to
Venice, which is my farthest point. I shall return through Basle, to
which place write me a line as soon as you receive this. The heat here
is overwhelming,--there is no getting cool, even at night. Instead of
a bonnet, all women here, ladies and commonalty, wear a muslin shawl,
which is pinned on the top of the head, and descends down behind to
the waist: it is most pleasing and graceful. They are, besides, often
good looking, and have a natural breeding and look of blood about them
which seems quite extinct in France. The majority of the women over
the men in the churches here is as great as in France. The buildings
themselves are full of various marbles, painting and gilding,
sometimes to excess, but often the effect is very beautiful. The music
is much too theatrical for my taste. Several masses going on at once
in a church strike one as strange, and for devotion, at least
habitually, I prefer the Low Mass which one can follow without
difficulty, and which is of a moderate length, to the accompaniment
with music, which distracts. Their evening service, when they have
any, is the Benediction, or exposition of the Holy Sacrament. The
Jesuits here seem to have plenty to do; the professed house is
supported by charity alone. When we go to visit Père Jourdain, he
seats us on his bed, for chairs he has not for company: I believe they
may not possess anything as private property, not even a souvenir of
friends. There is a reality about that order at least which
ensures respect.
* * * * *
Yours very sincerely,
T. W. ALLIES.
Milan, July 23. 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
We took our letter to Manzoni last night, and found him sitting, after
dinner, with Madame. Considering that he lives very retired, we may
think ourselves three fortunate birds of passage to have had an hour's
conversation with the author of the Promessi Sposi. He is from 60 to
65 years of age, with greyish hair and a pleasing kind look. He spoke
of James Hope and Gladstone; with great warmth of the latter, saying
it was a satisfaction to speak with such a man. Newman he regretted
not having seen as he passed through, being then in the country. I
mentioned his great reputation with us. "He has the same here," he
said. I inquired if he could tell us anything about the Estatica and
Addolorata, who are not far from Trent, and whom we wish to see. He
replied that one person of his acquaintance who had seen the
Addolorata was profoundly struck, and quite convinced of the reality
of her state. On further conversation, it turned out that this person
was no other than his wife's son by a former marriage, who was
at this moment gone on a second visit to the Addolorata with a
physician, for the purpose of taking an accurate account of her state.
He is to return on Monday, and then we hope to hear his report. I
asked if the clergy here were learned; he said there were learned men
among them, but the Church was held in a state of most oppressive
thraldom by the government; the bishops cannot hold a visitation, nor
communicate with Rome, without permission, nor punish a parish priest
without the sentence of a tribunal directed by laymen. This thraldom
dates from the emperor Joseph II. What seemed most to interest
Manzoni, and on which he spoke at length, was the philosophical system
of his friend Rosmini; a complete system, according to his account, of
great originality, thoroughly opposed to the _sensuous_ philosophy of
modern times, and preparing the mind for the faith. He made all error
to consist in the _will_, not in the _mind_; and was a most
inexorable logician, carrying out every principle, and never leaving a
fact in abeyance. Manzoni seemed thoroughly interested in Rosmini, and
expects great results from his works, of which there are already
fifteen vols. published, which have begun to make an impression. He
got more and more animated as our visit went on. I found his Italian
clear and easy to understand; nor did he address us at all in French,
which his lady (a second wife) seemed to prefer. He spoke with
compassion of the miserably infidel state of France, and quite
admitted my remark that a great change seemed to be passing over the
mind of men everywhere, and that they were in the process of being won
back to the faith, as in the last century they were falling from it.
The Church was the best friend of all governments, for they must be
bad indeed for the clergy not to support them; and yet their position
was one of jealousy towards the Church. As we bowed ourselves out of
the room, he came forward cordially and said "Shake hands," the only
words not Italian which he had spoken; and so we left him much
gratified, and with the prospect of another visit on Monday. We were
several hours in the cathedral yesterday; and at five this morning
mounted to see the early morning view outside. The view, when clear,
is most wondrous, embracing the range of Alps for a couple of hundred
miles. This morning it was only partially open, just to the north, but
still very fine. Shelley's lines on the Euganean Hills are most
thoroughly Italian, and render the scene, so far as words can:--
"Beneath is spread, like a green sea,
The waveless plain of Lombardy,
Bounded by the vaporous air,
Islanded by cities fair;
Underneath day's azure eyes,
Ocean's nursling, Venice, lies," &c.
As for describing the building inside or out, it is utterly vain to
attempt it. Suffice it to say, that the greatest of all Gothic
cathedrals must be allowed to be a beautiful bastard, full of
inconsistencies and irregularities, and even serious faults, yet so
grand and profoundly religious, that one gives up all criticism in
disgust. As we walked on the marble roof this morning, and watched
that multitude of aerial pinnacles so clearly defined against the cool
blue sky, I thought it would be as utterly beyond Walter Scott or
Victor Hugo, or any other master of human language, as it was beyond
me, to convey to one who never saw it any idea of this building. Human
language, then, being an instrument confessedly so poor and weak, what
extreme folly it is to rest upon it in religious mysteries; to think
that we can penetrate into realities by its aid, when we cannot even
describe the objects of sense. If Milan cathedral be indescribable, it
would be strange indeed if words could exhibit the mystery of the
Trinity. We must wait for intuition before we approach eternal things;
that is, we must be beyond the bounds of time ere we can comprehend
what does not exist in time. Prayers may be said to be always going
on, at least during the day, here; as we entered, a Mass was already
proceeding: there is a succession of them from dawn till noon. I
confess I prefer one daily celebration, at which all who are
disposed, especially clergy, should assist, not merely as reverencing
the mystery, (which, however, is far and far beyond our manner of
neglecting it,) but as partaking of it. On the other hand, this mode
sets forth a continual worship; the building itself seems a perpetual
offering made to God; by day and night it pleads the Passion of His
Son and the graces of His saints. I do not know whether this mute
intercession is most striking when it is crowded with worshippers, or
when, as we saw it at eight last night, two single lamps twinkled in
its immense obscurity, and the last light of day was feebly visible
through the coloured windows. As we were standing thus under the
lantern, we heard a voice at the other end of the church, "_si
chiude, si chiude_." One could hardly help wishing to stay there the
night. It would certainly require a bold heart, but I think I could do
it, if I thought I could get an answer to one or two questions. The
shrine of St. Charles Borromeo, a pope's nephew--nobleman, archbishop,
and cardinal--who was worn out with austerities at forty-six, seems a
fit approach to the invisible world: where Ambrose taught, and
Augustine was converted, and over all the Blessed Virgin's hands are
stretched--a fit place for reaching the truth. We intend to go on
towards Venice on Tuesday; we think of stopping at Verona, and going
north into the Tyrol, to see the Addolorata. I do no not know if
you have heard of her. She has now been many years subsisting almost
without nourishment, having on her hands, feet, and side the marks of
our Saviour's wounds, and on her head a series of punctures
representing the Crown of Thorns. Blood drops from all of these on
Friday. I spoke with an eye-witness of this at Paris. The thing seems
marvellous enough to go a hundred miles out of one's way to see it.
Yours very sincerely,
T. W. ALLIES.
_Account of a Visit to the Addolorata and Estatica, in the Tyrol._
Trent, August 1, 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
Since I last wrote to you, I have seen two sights more remarkable than
any that ever fell under my own observation before, and than any that
are likely to fall again. I mean to give you as short an account of
them as will convey a real notion of them.
Maria Domenica Lazzari, daughter of a poor miller now dead, lives in
the wild Alpine village of Capriana, in the Italian Tyrol, which we
had a walk of four hours through the mountains to reach. She was born
March 16. 1815, and up to the year 1833 lived the ordinary life of a
peasant, blameless and religious, but in no respect otherwise
remarkable. In August, 1833, she had an illness, not in the first
instance of an extraordinary nature; but it took the form of an
intermittent fever, confining her completely to her bed, and finally
contracting the nerves of her hands and feet, so as to cripple them.
On the 10th of January, 1834, she received on her hands, feet, and
left side, the marks of our Lord's five wounds; the first appearance
of these was a gradual reddening of the various points beneath the
skin; this was strongly marked on a Thursday, and on the following day
the wounds were open, blood flowed, and since that time they have
never undergone any material change. Three weeks afterwards her family
found her in the morning with a handkerchief covering her face, in a
state of great delight, a sort of trance; on removing the
handkerchief, letters were found on it marked in blood, and Domenica's
brow had a complete impression of the Crown of Thorns, in a line of
small punctures, about a quarter of an inch apart, from which the
blood was flowing freshly. They asked her who had torn her so (chi
l'aveva così pettinata?) she replied, "A very fair lady had come in
the night and adorned her." On the 10th of April, 1834, she took a
little water with a morsel of bread steeped in it; from that day to
this she has taken no nourishment whatever, save the Holy Sacrament,
which she receives weekly once or twice, in the smallest possible
quantity. Some years ago, when the priest had given her the Host,
sudden convulsions came on, and she was unable to swallow It; the
priest tried repeatedly to withdraw It, but in vain, the convulsions
returning as often as he attempted it, and so It remained forty days,
when It was at last removed untouched. We were assured of this by the
Prince-Bishop of Trent. From the time that she first received the
stigmata in January, 1834, to the present time, the wounds have bled
every Friday with a loss of from one to two ounces of blood, beginning
early in the morning, and on Friday only: the quantity of blood which
now flows is less than it used to be. The above information we
received chiefly from Signor Yoris, a surgeon of Cavalese, the chief
village of the district in which Capriana lies. We carried him a
letter from Signor S. Stampa, son-in-law of Manzoni, whom we met at
Milan last Sunday, and who had just returned from a visit to Domenica,
exactly a week before our own. He appeared quite overwhelmed at what
he had seen, and gave us an exact account, which our own eyes
subsequently verified. We reached Cavalese from Neumarkt on Thursday,
having taken especial care so to time our visit that we might see
Domenica first on Thursday evening and then on Friday morning, so as
to be able to observe that marvellous flow of blood which is said to
take place on Friday. Signor Yoris most obligingly offered to
accompany us; accordingly we left Cavalese shortly after one o'clock
on Thursday, and reached Capriana by a wild road through a mountainous
valley, in four hours. As we got near the place Signor Yoris said, "I
will tell you a curious instance of Domenica's acuteness of hearing.
My wife and I were going once to visit her; when we were eighty or a
hundred yards from her house, I whispered to my wife to go quietly,
that we might take her by surprise. We did so accordingly, but much to
our astonishment she received us with a smile, saying that she had not
been taken by surprise, and alluding to the very words I had used." He
showed us the spot where this had occurred, and it was certainly an
acuteness of sense far beyond anything I can conceive possible. We
went straight to Domenica's cottage, and knocked at the door. Her
sister was out, but in a few minutes she came from a cottage a little
below, and let us in. At the inner end of a low room near the wall, in
a bed hardly larger than a crib, Domenica lay crouched up, the hands
closely clasped over the breast, the head a little raised, the legs
gathered up nearly under her, in a way the bed clothes did not allow
us to see. About three quarters of an inch under the roots of the hair
a straight line is drawn all round the forehead, dotted with small
punctures a quarter of an inch apart; above this the flesh is of the
natural colour, perfectly clear and free from blood; below the face is
covered down to the bottom of the nose, and the cheeks to the same
extent, with a dry crust or mask of blood. Her breast heaved with a
sort of convulsion, and her teeth chattered. On the outside of both
hands, as they lie clasped together, in a line with the second finger,
about an inch from the knuckle, is a hard scar, of dark-colour, rising
above the flesh, half an inch in length, by about three-eighths of an
inch in width; round these the skin slightly reddened, but quite free
from blood. From the position of the hands it is not possible to see
well inside, but stooping down on the right of her bed I could almost
see an incision answering to the outward one, and apparently deeper. I
leant over her head, within a foot of the Corona on the forehead, and
closely observed the wounds. She looked at us very fixedly, but hardly
spoke. We heard her only cry 'Dio mio' several times when her pains
were bad. She seemed to enter into Signor Yoris's conversation, smiled
repeatedly, and bent her head. But it was an effort to her to attend,
and at times the eyes closed and she became insensible. By far the
most striking point in her appearance this evening was that dry mask
of blood descending so regularly from the punctured line round the
forehead; for it must be remarked that the blood has flowed in a
straight line all down the face, as if she were erect, not as it would
naturally flow from the position in which she was lying, that is, off
the middle to the sides of the face. And what is strangest of all,
there is a space all round the face, from the forehead down to the
jaw, by the ears, quite free from blood, and of the natural colour:
which is just that part to which the blood, as she lies, ought most to
run. After about three-quarters of an hour we took leave, intending to
return the first thing in the morning. Don Michele Santuari, the
parish priest, on whom we called, was out; he returned our visit for a
minute or two, very early the next morning, but was going to his
brother's again.
_Friday evening, July 30th._--When we visited Domenica at half-past
five this morning, the change was very remarkable. The hard scars on
the outside of her hands had sunk to the level of the flesh, and
become raw and fresh running wounds, but without indentation, from
which there was a streak of blood running a finger's length, _not_
perpendicularly, but down the middle of the wrist. The wound inside
the left hand seemed on the contrary deep and furrowed, much blood had
flowed, and the hand seemed mangled; the wound of the right hand
inside could not be seen. The punctures round the forehead had been
bleeding, and were open, so that the mask of blood was thicker,
and very terrible to look at. The darkest place of all was the tip of
the nose, a spot, which, as she was lying, the blood in its natural
course could not reach at all. It must be observed again, that the
blood flows as it would flow if she were suspended, and not recumbent.
The sight is so fearful that a person of weak nerves would very
probably be overcome by it; indeed, Signor Stampa and his servant were
both obliged to leave the room. While we were there Domenica's sister,
who lives alone with her, stood at the head of her crib with her hands
under her head, occasionally raising her. We fanned her alternately
with a large feathered fan, which alone seemed to relieve her; for she
is in a continual fever, and her window remains open day and night,
summer and winter, in the severest cold. She seemed better this
morning, and more able to speak, and at intervals did speak several
times. I asked her to pray for us, she replied, "Questo farò ben
volentieri." "Prega che l'Inghilterra sia tutta Cattolica, che non ci
sia che una religione, perchè adesso ci sono molte." She replied, I
believe in the very words of the Catechism, "Si; non vi é che una sola
religione Cattolica Romana; fuori di questa non si deve aver
speranza." She observed, that other English had asked the same thing
of her. She has light and sparkling grey eyes, which she fixed
repeatedly on us, looking at us severally with great interest.
We told her that the Bishop of Trent had requested us to call on him,
and give him a report of her; and asked her if she had anything to
say. She replied, "Tell him that I desire his benediction, and that I
resign myself in every thing to the will of God and that of the
bishop. Ask him to intercede for me with the Bishop of all." I said,
"Piu si patisce qui, piu si gode dopo." She replied, "Si: si deve
sperarlo." Before we left, W---- repeated, "You will pray for us," she
bowed her head; "and for all England:" she replied, "Quanto io posso."
After nearly an hour's stay we took leave, hoping that we might all
meet in Paradise. There is an altar in her room, at which Mass is
celebrated once a week, and many small pictures of saints. Every thing
betokens the greatest poverty.
It is most hard to realise such a life as Domenica's continued during
thirteen years. The impression left on my mind as to her state is that
of one who suffers with the utmost resignation a wonderful and
inexplicable disease, on which the tokens of our Saviour's Passion are
miraculously and most awfully impressed.
The points in her case which are beyond and contrary to nature are
these:
1st. For thirteen years she has neither eaten nor drunken, except that
very small portion of the Host which she receives once or twice weekly.
2d. On the hands and feet, inside and outside, she bears the wounds of
our Lord; both sides run with blood; whether the wounds go through is
not known; and on the left side is a wound which runs also.
3d. She has on the brow, as I saw and have described, and I believe
all round the head, the mark of the crown of thorns, a series of
punctures, and a red line as if of something pressing on the head.
4th. All these wounds run with blood at present, and during thirteen
years have done the like, regularly, and at an early hour on Friday,
and on that day alone.
Combining the first and fourth fact, we get a phenomenon which sets at
utter defiance all physical science, and which seems to me a direct
exertion of Almighty power, and of that alone. "Medical men," said
Signor Yoris, "have been in abundance to see her, and have studied her
case; but no one has furnished the least solution of it." He assured
me he had seen the wounds on her feet a hundred times, and that the
blood flowed upwards towards the toes, as we saw it did on the nose.
Since for the last two years she has been contracted and drawn up by
her disease the feet cannot be seen. She has refused to allow any man
to see the wound on the side, as it did not require to be medically
treated; but offered that any number of women, of her own village, or
the wives of medical men, might see it. She is a good deal
emaciated, but not so much as I have seen in other cases. Nothing can
be more simple and natural than her manner and that of her sister.
Their cottage is open at all times. Domenica may be closely seen, all
but touched and handled. Indeed around that couch one treads
instinctively with reverence; the image of the Woe surpassing all woes
is too plainly marked, for the truth of what one sees not to sink
indelibly on the mind. No eye witness, I will venture to say, will
ever receive the notion of anything like deceit.
We returned to Neumarkt on Friday, and on Saturday morning, July 31st,
walked nine miles to Caldaro, to see the other great wonder of the
Tyrol, Maria Mörl, called the Estatica. On arriving, we presented the
Bishop of Trent's letter to the dean, and in about an hour, were
conducted to the Franciscan convent; from this one of the friars
conducted us to the monastery, within the enclosure of which, but only
as a lodger, Maria Mörl has withdrawn. The main points in her history
are these. She was born in October, 1812; she lived from her earliest
years a life of great piety; about the age of eighteen, in the year
1830, she suffered violent attacks of sickness, in which medical aid
seemed to be of no service. At this time she began, after receiving
the Holy Communion, to fall into trances, which were at first of
short duration, and scarcely remarked by her family. On the Feast of
the Purification, 1832, however, she fell after communicating into an
ecstacy lasting twenty-six hours, and was only recalled by the order
of her confessor. In June, 1832, the state of ecstacy returned every
day: in August of the year 1833 it became habitual. Her ordinary and
habitual position is kneeling on her bed, with her hands joined under
the chin, her eyes wide open, and intently fixed on some object; in
which state she takes no notice of any one present, and can only be
recalled by her confessor charging her on her vow of obedience.
But I may now as well describe what we saw. In a few minutes the friar
had taken us to the garden door of the monastery; we entered a passage
where he left us for a short time, and returning, told us to open a
door which led into a bedroom; I opened another door, and found
myself, before I expected, in the presence of the most unearthly
vision I ever beheld. In a corner of a sufficiently large room, in
which the full light of day was tempered down by the blinds being
closed, Maria Mörl was on her knees on her bed. Dressed entirely in
white, her dark hair came down on both sides to her waist; her eyes
were fixed intently upwards, her hands joined in adoration and
pressing her chin. She took not the slightest notice of our entrance,
nor seemed to be aware of our presence at all; her position was
considerably thrown forward, and leaning on one side; one in which, on
a soft bed especially, it must have been very difficult, if possible,
to remain a minute. We gazed at her intently the whole time we were
allowed to remain,--about six minutes. I could see a slight trembling
of the eye, and heaving of the frame, and heard one or two throbs, but
otherwise it would have seemed a statue, rather than anything living.
Her expression was extremely beautiful and full of devotion. Long
before we were content to go, the friar intimated his impatience. I
asked him to cause her to pass out of her ecstacy, and recline on the
bed. He went near to her and spoke a few words in a very low tone;
upon which after a slight pause, she slid, in an indescribable manner,
down from her kneeling position, her hands remaining closed together,
and her eyes wide open, and her knees bent under her, how I cannot
imagine.
She is said to spring up again into her former position, as often as
her state of ecstacy comes upon her, without disjoining her hands; and
this we should have liked to see, but the friar was urgent that we
should leave, and we accordingly obeyed. The sleeves she wore round
her wrists prevented our being able to see whether the stigmata were
visible, which she bears on her hands and on her feet. The Bishop of
Trent afterwards told me we should have asked the confessor to
order her to show us the former. These were first observed in 1834.
Now, though what we saw bears out the accounts given of the Estatica
so far as it went, yet I must admit that we did not leave her with
that full satisfaction we had felt in the case of the Addolorata.
Maria Mörl's state in its very nature does not admit the bystander to
such perfect proof as that of Domenica Lazzari. Had we remained half
an hour or an hour instead of six minutes, it must still have been a
matter of faith to us how long these ecstacies continue, and how often
they recur. None but those who live daily with her can be aware of all
her case. I can only say that what we saw was very strange and very
striking, and when the Bishop of Trent informs us, as he did, a few
hours ago, that these trances continue four or five hours together, I
must entirely believe it. _He_ had seen the stigmata on her hands,
and she had rendered him, as her superior, the same obedience which
she gives to her confessor. If I may venture to draw any conclusion
from what I have seen, it is, that it appears to be a design of God,
by means of these two young persons, to impress on an age of especial
scepticism and unbelief in spiritual agency such tokens of our Lord's
Passion, as no candid observer can fail to recognise. Neither of these
cases can be brought under the ordinary laws of nature; both seem to
bear witness in a different, but perhaps equally wonderful
manner, to the glory of God as reflected from the Passion of His Son
on the members of His Body.
Ever yours,
T. W. ALLIES.
P.S. Maria Domenica Lazzari died about Easter, 1848, aged thirty-three
years.
Albergo dell' Europa, Trent,
Aug. 1. 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
I do not know whether I said anything about writing to you before I
left England, but I feel persuaded that you must be sufficiently
interested in our peregrinations to justify me in inflicting a letter
upon you. P. tells me he wrote from Paris, up to which time he has
doubtless given you full particulars, and from which point I shall
take up the chronicle of our movements. We left Paris on the 9th of
July, after having been much pleased and interested by what we had
seen there, and came by a forced march (and in hot weather a severe
one) in the malle poste to Lyons on S. Irenæus' Day, but, by an
unfortunate delay, too late to see the archbishop officiate in the
church, and according to the rite of his patron and predecessor. At
Lyons we took the Rhone, and steamed to Avignon (the scenery quite
equal in my opinion to that of the Rhine), where we stayed for
four hours, endeavouring, in spite of heat and some fatigue, to call
up visions of French popes, disconsolate Petrarch, or the devout Laura
with her green gown and well bound missal gliding towards the church
of St. Clair. At last we were hurried off to Aix, and finally to
Marseilles, where we just hit upon the moment of departure of the
Neapolitan packet, which after coasting along the beauties of the
Cornice road landed us at Genoa, where we pitched our tent to rest for
a few days. We had a letter to Padre Giordano at the Jesuits' College.
He began by a most polemical conversation with Allies on the "Tu es
Petrus," &c., but afterwards dropped the subject altogether; he was
exceedingly civil, offered us every information we needed, and gave us
access to every thing we wanted to see. In this manner I found Genoa
far more interesting than I had expected. It is a most beautiful and
most Italian city, and has, as to outward appearance, lost nothing of
its character in the days of the republic; and its institutions for
the support and relief of the poor, the sick, and the religious, gave
an additional source of interest beyond that for which I was prepared.
From Genoa we came by Pavia to Milan, where we staid five days: for a
city so celebrated and so important in ancient times it is remarkable
and much to be regretted that its ancient character is so completely
lost. Milan is now quite a modern city, with the exception of a
very few solitary buildings; the cathedral itself, wonderful as a
structure, and beautiful to the end of the chapter, is quite
indefensible in the eyes of a thorough-going Goth, and is after all
only a very successful vagary of a bastard style. The beauty of the
material, the exquisite finish of the sculpture, and fine proportions
of individual parts, with the costly and vast effect of the whole, do
however quite disarm one's critical inclinations, and the interior is
(as we saw it on Sunday last with the choir filled by the scarlet
robes of the chapter of the cardinal see, and the nave almost filled
by people of every sex and station,) one of the grandest I know, and
loses nothing by its intimate connection with S. Charles Borromeo,
who, by the way, appears to me to have been among the best of the
_reformers of the 16th century_. St. Ambrose's Church still remains,
though I should think little, with the exception of a few minor
ornaments, belonged to his time, beyond the atrium, the pulpit, and
bishop's chair. The valves of the door from which he repelled the
emperor are also here, though at the time they belonged to another
church. They show a spring in which S. Augustine's baptism is said to
have been performed, and also the garden mentioned in the
"Confessions" as having been the scene of his conversion; but for
these two I do not think they claim more than a great probability,
and entire accordance with all that is known on the subject, the
tradition of the actual spots having been lost, and only recovered two
or three centuries ago. From Milan we made an expedition to this place
in order to see the two wonderful phenomena of which Lord Shrewsbury
wrote an account some years ago,--the Estatica and Addolorata. We left
Milan on Monday, and had a fine sub-alpine drive to Desenzano on the
Lake Garda, with which we were very much pleased, and up which we
steamed to Riva; from thence to Trent, where we introduced ourselves
to the bishop as three Oxonian priests and professors, begging his
highness (he is prince-bishop) to give us letters to Caldaro, as the
Estatica is only visible on this being granted. He received us with
all possible courtesy, and instantly gave us the necessary
introduction, begging us to lay before him our impressions of the
matter on our return here: he talked much of Wiseman, Newman, and
Pusey, making the admission with regard to the latter that "scrive
come Cattolico." He told us he was himself by birth a German, and that
Englishmen were especially welcome to him as countrymen of St.
Boniface, the apostle of his native country. We left Trent for
Neumarkt, twenty miles distant, on Wednesday, and on Thursday passed
over some very fine Tyrolese mountain scenery to Cavalese, where we
had an introduction to the physician of the place, who has
always attended the Addolorata since the commencement of her malady,
(and this we had through the kindness of Manzoni's step-son, whom we
had met at his house in Milan,--it was no small satisfaction to me to
meet the author of "Promessi Sposi," &c.) and with whom we walked over
to Capriana, about twelve miles distant, where Domenica Lazzari
abides. I think her case such a supernatural portent, and, it may be,
one of such deep interest to members of the Church, that I shall fill
the other side of the sheet with such an account of her as I have room
for. Maria Domenica Lazzari is thirty-two years of age, the daughter
of a poor miller in Capriana, one of five children, a sister unmarried
with whom she lives, both parents being dead, a sister married in the
village, and two brothers, who do not bear a very high character. She
herself from childhood was very virtuous and pious, extremely
attentive to all active duties, and worked like other girls, though
always remarkable both for natural cleverness and her attention to
religion. In 1833 she was attacked by an intermittent fever, which
left her extremely weak, and after which pains were felt by her in her
hands, feet, and head; in April, 1834, she for the last time drank
some water and ate a piece of bread, since which time she has never
eaten nor drunk except in partaking of the Blessed Sacrament. In the
same year she received the stigmata, which are most evident and
apparent, and from which a large quantity of blood flows _every_
Friday without exception, and on no other day. It was in order to test
this that we contrived that our arrival should take place on a
Thursday, repeating our visit on the following day. We arrived at
Capriana about five in the evening, and went at once to her house,
which is a little peasant's cabin chiefly built of wood, in the
outskirts of the village, her only attendant being her elder sister, a
simple unsophisticated peasant girl. We found her lying in great
suffering in a bed about the length of a child's crib, a contraction
of the muscles having followed upon her illness, and reduced a
formerly tall person to the length of about three feet. At first she
was unable to speak to us, but our companion (her physician) fanned
her for some time with a large fan, which seemed to relieve her, and
in a little time she revived. While she lay in this state I examined
her very closely. The stigmata are _most_ evident on both sides of
the hands, and in a very regular circle round the forehead; these were
perfectly dry, the hands being white and clean with the exception of
the actual punctures of the stigmata, which are about the size of a
silver fourpence, the wounds of the forehead being such as a penknife
might have made; and the blood which had flowed on the previous Friday
was dry, and covered her face as low as the upper part of the nostril,
giving all the appearance of a blood-stained mask, the blood in
this case not following the inclination of her present recumbent
position, but, (as is the case also in the wounds on the feet,)
following the lines it _would take_ in a _pendent_ posture. The
costal wound is on her _left_ side. We staid in the room about
three-quarters of an hour, and then retired; we returned at five
o'clock the next morning, and found her much better, the wounds on the
forehead and hands were _all_ open, and blood exuding from all: she
talked with greater ease than she had done before. She begged us to
take her salutations to the Bishop of Trent, to beg for his blessing
upon her, and his intercession for her with the "Bishop of all;" "and
I," she said, "in my turn will pray for his highness as much as I am
able." We commended ourselves and all England to her prayers, telling
her that now there were many religions in England, but that we should
pray that all might be one: her answer was, "E una religione sola,
Cattolica, Romana, fuori di questa non si deve aver speranza" (this I
should think came from her catechism). She said all the English she
had seen had given her the same account of their country, and promised
to pray both for us and for England "quanto io posso." We saw her
confessor for a few minutes, and I wish we could have had some
conversation with him, but he was just starting to pay his brother a
visit at the bottom of the valley, and we would not detain him.
In the course of conversation with Mr. Yoris, and the natives of
Capriana and the neighbourhood, we gained many other facts connected
with her which I have not room for here; this will convey to you some
notion of this most extraordinary portent, of the supernatural
character of which any eye witness would, I am sure, do violence to
his reason and judgment by doubting, and which physicians,
philosophers and bishops have all agreed in asserting as being without
explanation according to physical laws, and which I can look at in no
other light than as a representation, vouchsafed for the edification
of the Church and warning of sinners, of the Passion of the Son of
God. The supernatural points in her case I take to be: 1. her existing
for more than thirteen years without food, during which time the
nails, hair, &c., have continued to grow; 2. the reception of the five
wounds; 3. the periodical effusion of a quantity of blood on every
return of the day of our Lord's Passion: 4. the course taken by the
blood flowing from the wounds, quite at variance with the natural law
of fluids. We have, I assure you, been very much impressed by this
case, and what to me makes it the more peculiar is, that, in former
cases in which the stigmata have been granted, they have appeared (as
in the cases of S. Francis of Assisi, S. Theresa, or S. Catherine) as
the seal of consummate sanctity, or the reward of intense
meditation on the subject of the Passion, whereas in the present
instance there is nothing to lead one to suppose either one or the
other, in any extraordinary degree. The impression conveyed to me by
my visit was, I confess, very considerable, though it was more one of
great suffering and resignation, than of any extraordinary tokens of
grace, in the object of our visit. There is, I take it, no
_necessary_ connection between the extraordinary phenomena which her
body bears and extreme sanctity, though one might expect it. Her life
has always been extremely virtuous and pious, (the country people
spoke of her as "bonissima ragazza"), and her long and intense
suffering appears to have chastened and subdued her spirit to a state
one would consider well disciplined to meet death, but nothing that I
saw led me to suppose the lofty religious abstraction, the spiritual
fervour, or super-human yearning of the soul for God, which one looks
for in the female saint. Far be it from me to pry into the Divine
intentions in this extraordinary appearance which we have witnessed,
but if He who does all things to bring back our erring race to Himself
destines her merely to be a living representation of the sufferings of
the Son of God (and to serve no higher purpose than that for which we
should erect a crucifix), men of faith will not fail to derive benefit
to their souls, amidst their thanks for a token of the divine
goodness, in contemplating this memento of our Lord's Passion, while
it may serve in some cases, we may hope, to warn the scornful that a
day will come when they will in like manner have to "look on Him whom
they pierced."
I have not yet spoken to you of the Estatica, whom we saw yesterday;
and though I cannot say that her case may not be equally interesting,
yet as its details are taken more from credit, I have the less to say
from personal investigation.
Maria Mörl is the daughter of a nobleman of Caldaro, whose fervour in
devotion has gradually grown to ecstasis, and an entire abstraction
from the world, and constant continuance in what the spiritual writers
call the "unitive" life: the ecstasis continues from four to five
hours at a time, and only ceases from bodily weakness, or at the
command of her confessor. She converses with her spiritual directors
and superiors alone, rarely eats, her only sustenance being
occasionally a morsel of bread and a few grapes. She has been in this
state for years, and lives in and upon incessant acts of devotion. She
is kept very close and retired in a Franciscan convent, and none are
allowed to see her without a letter from the bishop. We found her as
she had been described to us, wrapt in the most complete ecstasis, and
certainly, as a representation of a devotional figure, nothing could
be more striking or more beautiful; but as, from the very nature
of the case, her ecstasis must cease by communication with the visible
world, it was to us nothing more than a spectacle. I have room,
however, for no more, and must have already wearied you with this
epistola Tridentina, at the length of which I am ashamed. We have just
been to the bishop, who has been most courteous and obliging, and
given us several facts connected with the above mentioned. This place
is a most comely city; the hills of Tyrol stand about it, ὥσει
θέατρον, with snowy peaks beyond them, and the Adige comes rolling
from the mountains an "exulting and abounding river." I cannot help
thinking what delightful "constitutionals" the dons of 1545 must have
had after their hot work in the council. Excuse prolixity, and
Believe me ever yours,
JOHN H. WYNNE.
Hotel Europa, Trent, August 1. 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
* * * From Milan we went to Desenzano, to begin an expedition to see a
very great wonder in the Tyrol, of which I must give you an account.
We went by the Poste to Desenzano, the southern point of the lake of
Garda, and from thence steamed all up that most beautiful sheet
of water to Riva. From Riva we took a ricketty machine, called by
courtesy the Post, to Roveredo, and on hither to Trent. First I must
tell you, we had an introduction to Manzoni at Milan from a friend in
Paris; and his son-in-law had just returned from seeing one of the two
persons who were the object of our present pilgrimage--the Addolorata
and the Estatica, whose case was set forth, some few years ago (about
three or four), by Lord Shrewsbury. The first of these has received
the stigmata of the Passion, from which blood issues every Friday--the
crown of thorns, the nail-holes in the hands and feet, and the wound
in the left side; and the second lives in a continual trance. We met a
lady in Paris, a Roman Catholic, who had seen them, and spoke much
about both, but not very satisfactorily to our minds. We determined
accordingly, if possible, to visit them ourselves, and received full
instruction from Signor Stephano Stampa at Milan as to the route and
all other needful circumstances. Well, at Trent we went to the bishop;
for one of these persons, Maria Mörl, the Estatica, lives in a
convent, and may not be seen without a letter from the bishop, which
we hardly expected would be granted to any persons not Romans.
However, we wrote _Artium Magister_, Oxford, upon our cards, and sent
them in. He received us very politely, granted at once the petition
for a letter, begged us, if possible, to call on him and give
him our opinion on the cases in returning; "for," said he, "we cannot
pronounce about either case, especially the Estatica, while they live,
and the end is uncertain;" and he further thought every one who had
the opportunity should make an unfettered judgment for themselves. At
the conclusion of the interview he gave us his blessing, and by noon
we were on our way in an omnibus to Neumarkt, up the valley of the
Adige; grand castellated rocks overgrown with brushwood, some 12 or
1700 feet, on either side of this rapid river. Neumarkt is a stupid
little place; and we were considerably imposed upon by the worthies
there, who might have put us at once in the way to our point. Next
morning, Thursday, 29., we took a carriage to Cavalese, a small town
in the mountains, a post and a half distant; and after breakfast
there, we found out Signor Yoris, a medico, to whom Signor S. Stampa
had given us a letter of introduction. He was very civil, and offered
to accompany us to the village of the Addolorata, whose name is
Domenica Lazzari. This place is called Capriana, and we walked thither
in something less than four hours, a distance (I supposed) of about
nine or ten miles. This was across a range of hills, and up the valley
of a tributary to the Adige: the hills covered with forests of spruce
and pine, and very beautiful. We got to Capriana about 5 P.M.; and
I will give you an abridgment of notes I wrote that evening for
the rest of the account. Reached Capriana at five, turned to the right
to the house--almost the outside of all, the meanest we saw--and after
some minutes the sister arrived and let us in. The room at first dark,
too dark to see more than the figure contracted in the bed, and the
face dark with blood as low as the bottom of the nose, and a little
lower on each side. The medico drew aside the curtain, and we saw
plainly the stigmata on the back of the hand, and the marks round the
forehead in a straight line, about an inch below the hair in the
middle. The marks are about a quarter of an inch apart in an even row
as far as the hair, and for three or four marks under it. The medico
told me they go all round. There were other marks below the first down
to the eyebrows, but whether so regular as the first I could not tell
for the quantity of blood clotted and dried on the face. The blood has
flowed straight towards the bottom of the face, and not trickled
sideways to the bed. There has been a good deal this week. The hands,
which are much wasted, are clasped continually on the top of the bed
clothes, and are marked a little above the centre with the stigmata
(the nail holes); the scar extends half or three quarters of an inch
all round, slightly red. The wound is cicatrised with a dark spot of
dried blood in the centre. Inside (as well as I could see, the
hands being clasped,) the left palm seems to have a long white wound
right into the flesh, which is covered all round with dried blood.
That on the face is so dark and continual, that, from the holes of the
_spicæ_ (thorn marks) to the nose, it is just like a dark mask. Her
breast is curved up to a close convex, and the legs drawn up till
almost doubled from convulsions. The medico says she was once as tall
as I am. Twelve or thirteen years since she has eaten anything but the
Blessed Sacrament, and that in the most minute portions possible.
The following are the correct dates:--
10th April, 1834. Nothing eaten since.
10th January, 1834. Stigmata, hands, feet and side.
31st January, 1834. Crown of thorns.
An altar is in the room, at which the bishop allows mass to be
celebrated once or twice every week, according to the convenience of
the priest, and on saints' days.
We spoke of the bishop. She was much interested also in all that the
doctor said. He kept fanning her with a large feather fan: her only
relief. She suffers most on Thursdays. The issue of blood Fridays
unaccompanied with pain: rather a relief. A woman and boy came to see
her. Cheerful when _freer_ from pain (she always suffers). Was told
we were English. Looks very intently at one. Light blue or blue
gray eyes; hair fine,--a cold brown. Face awfully wasted. Her smile
sweet. Says, when most in pain, "Dio mio, mio Dio!" Friday morning, at
five, we were again with her. She was in an insensible state: waking
up at intervals. The hands still clasped, but the head shaking, and
her teeth chattering. The blood was bright red and fresh (flowing)
from all the upper row of holes and the rest, though clotted below
generally, for she suffers great heat of fever. The wounds of the
hands were open and ran, but outside (on the surface) the blood had
run down the back of the hand in a broad stream to a little below the
wrist, and there stopped; one small current had trickled across to the
bottom of the hand. It was clotted. I looked as close as I could by
stooping to the inside of the left hand. My impression was of an open
wound, much deeper; long, with lips standing out upon the upper side;
much blood had run over the inside of her hand: it ran to the wrist
and all over the palms. Her teeth whole, though the two centre much
apart. Her face, above and below the blood, was not livid, but of a
good complexion. Her voice when she spoke was much stronger than
yesterday. She saw me trying to draw the outline of her face, and
said, she supposed a portrait would appear of her. We commended
ourselves and England to her prayers. All English (she said) who had
seen her had done the same. She commended herself by us to the
Bishop's blessing and intercession with "Il vescovo di tutti,"
(something she said quite indistinct). This is the substance of my
notes written on the spot. I must add to it, that every Friday since
the date above, and only on Friday, the wounds have bled; that the
doctor told us he had seen her feet a hundred times, which are marked
like the hands, but the blood runs _up_ towards the toes; as it does
up the nose, which we saw. Her side wound has been seen by several
women, her sister among others, whom we talked much to. She was
perfectly simple, wanted no money, and treated her sister more as an
invalid than anything else. The Dr. Yoris's presence was, I think, a
very great advantage to us. It put all reserve out of the question, if
any would otherwise have been observable, and enabled us to see her
more as she always is, and no doubt to stay longer, to draw the
curtain aside, &c. My impression was of great awe at the sight: the
day Friday, and the supernatural facts of the flow of blood from a
person taking no nourishment or food of any kind, the course taken by
the blood,--but the sight of the dark mask of blood was what first and
most painfully struck me. The simplicity, and apparent domesticity, of
her way of speaking--her smiling and answering the doctor's
questions--struck me next. As he said, a secular question is answered
in the tone of this world, a religious one in that of the other.
She seems conscious herself of nothing beyond God's chastisement for
her sins; therefore she is shy of showing or speaking of herself
beyond what is necessary as information to serious inquirers. The
wound in her side she refused to show any man, though she said any
number of women, physician's wives, if they would, might see it, for
it needed no medical treatment. She does not seem conscious of being
in any extraordinary or miraculous way the vehicle, as such, of Divine
Grace; but she is patient, exceedingly, and strives, as she says, to
do all God's will. Nothing remarkable in a religious way is recorded
of her early character. "Una buona ragazza," the doctor called her,
but no more; he said especially not "bigotta." Is it not a palpable
evidence of our Lord's presence to us in His sufferers, to bring home
the actuality of what is taught us of the spiritual things we have
been born into, yet to confound spiritual pride? "Thy ways are in the
sea, and Thy paths are in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not
known."
Next morning we went to Caldaro, a beautiful village about nine miles
or eight from Neumarkt, and, by aid of the Bishop of Trent's letter,
saw Maria Mörl, the Estatica, but were only allowed to see her for
five minutes. She knelt on her bed, with her hands together under the
chin: her attitude was leaning forward, and inclined to the right in
such a position as I cannot keep myself in without support; nor
do I think, from the overbalance of the body, it could be done
naturally. Her face has much beauty, her eyes are dark and full, hair
long and black, and her skin as pale as that of a dead body or a wax
figure; not a muscle moved; and except a very slight oscillating
motion of the body occasionally, and the breathing, there were no
signs of life in her, though I saw once the eyelid quiver slightly.
The friar who took us in, a Franciscan, told her to lie down; which,
after a moment or two, she did; only falling back in the bed, with her
legs from the knee unmoved. She gave two slight sort of groans or
sighs. Her hands remained just as they were, and the eyes were fixed
on the same spot. After a short visit, the friar took us out,--talking
a German which we could none of us understand. When we got to the door
of the house, we asked him, in Latin, if we could see her again: he
answered, "Eam vidistis, eam vidistis," and left us.
We walked back to Neumarkt, and yesterday evening started in the
Bolzano omnibus back to this place. Fare you well. * * * I have given
you as short as I could this marvellous account.
* * * * *
J. H. POLLEN.
Venice, August 5. 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
* * * We staid at Verona one clear day: it has very interesting
churches, and a noble river, the Adige, "exulting and abounding," as
Byron says; and many Shakspearian associations, besides very quaint
and mediæval bits of architecture. But my time is waxing short, and a
greater attraction was near. So yesterday we _squudged_ ourselves
into a merciless omnibus, which carried twelve insiders thirty miles
in the space of six hours to the railway at Vicenza; and the said
railway brought us on just in time to reach Venice by the last light
of day. Very striking indeed is the approach to Venice, on a bridge
two miles long over the Lagune, very striking because so appropriate
to a city which is like no other. The evening was unfavourable, for it
rained, which has scarcely happened to us before; notwithstanding, our
excitement was great; I do not think I have felt so much curiosity
about a place since I entered Rome nearly thirteen years ago, and
could scarcely believe I was there. Though a great part of to-day has
been rainy Venice does not disappoint me. The Doge's palace, the
piazza, and piazzetta of St. Mark, and his church, are quite unique;
so is the great canal, with its host of middle age palaces. We have
been to-day both in the pozzi and the piombi, the ancient
prisons of the republic, the former terrible for their darkness, the
latter for their heat; both seldom disgorging the prisoner save to
death; and what a death, at least in its circumstances, and in the
case of political offenders. The cells were all cased in wood, with
hardly any light; but when the criminal in politics had confessed his
fault, and was condemned, he was transferred to another cell in the
middle of the night, a foreign priest was admitted, received his
confession, and absolved him. The priest issued from the cell, and
turned to the left, the criminal to the right, and rounding a corner
not a yard off, was placed on a seat, a cord passed round the neck,
and strangled. Behind the seat a door opened, a gondola received his
corpse (for it is just at the level of the water), carried it to the
cemetery, and no one, wife or child, knew more of his destiny than
this: that the invisible inquisition of state had laid its hand upon
him, and that he _was not_. I said to the old guide, who had a fine
Venetian head, "I suppose you do not regret not living in those
times?" "But _I do_ regret it," he replied; "Venice was then a
republic; there was more commerce, and life was easier; and it was
just owing to her wise treatment of criminals that she maintained
herself so long; and had she kept that treatment to the end, she would
not have fallen: mine was a very ancient Venetian family. It is to
foreigners," he added, "that I say all this; writers have
greatly exaggerated about these prisons." As I stood on a spot at
which hundreds of human beings, during the long course of that
terrible rule, had yielded up their lives in the darkness of a gloomy
passage, more fearful at least to the thought than the gaze of a
furious multitude, or the rack itself, I could not agree with the old
man, though I was surprised at such a flash of old Venetian spirit.
That same ducal palace, which is among palaces what the great mediæval
cathedrals dedicated to Notre Dame are among churches, has these
dungeons below; the state reception apartments of the Doge above; and
over them again those other prisons of the piombi, or leads--a
somewhat strange position for the drawing-rooms of the head of a
state. Italian churches are as unlike ours as two things called by the
same name can well be. They are full of marbles on floor and walls,
paintings, gildings, shrines, images, tapers, perpetual services, and
seldom wanting at least in some worshippers. St. Mark much exceeds my
expectation. It has five domes covered with mosaic and figures in rich
gilding, columns of finest marble, bronzes, multitudes of precious
objects, but with a solemnity far beyond all these, which makes one
feel that one is in a temple, a place of worship, of bowing down to
the Infinite, not of addressing man himself through a part of him
which has shared in his general fall--the understanding. This, I
think, is the main difference between Catholic and Uncatholic
churches. Then, again, that vision of the Blessed Virgin and Child, so
often repeated, and under so many different phases, is inexpressibly
consoling. It really seems to me that the more men dwell upon the
Incarnation, the more they will associate the Blessed Virgin with our
Lord, and the saints with Him and with her; they will not analyse and
divide, but rather always seem to be touching the skirts of His robe
of glory, in every one of those who have suffered and conquered in His
name; and most of all in the Mother, who was and is so unspeakably
near to Him. Thus the Protestant sees in her "a dead woman worshipped;"
the Catholic, the mother of all Christians; the Protestant sees in the
saints "deified sinners;" the Catholic, living members of His body, in
whom His virtue now dwells without let of human corruption. In short,
I think Keble is no less true than beautiful when he says,
"What is this silent might, making our darkness light,
New wine our waters, heavenly Blood our wine?
Christ, with His Mother dear, and all His saints, is here,
And where they dwell is heaven, and what they touch divine."
Now this is just the idea which an Italian church conveys.
Our room looks out on the end of the Grand Canal, into whose waters a
slight jump would convey one some fifty feet down. It is one of the
greatest thoroughfares and finest views in Venice. Gondolas are
perpetually flitting by; I had my first glide in one to-day for
several hours up and down the Grand Canal. I can't say I feel the
smallest sympathy with the ruling spirit of ancient Venice, but it is
something to be on a spot so long the seat of empire; I feel that I
shall _feed_ for the ensuing year on this excursion, and this adds
much to its pleasure. We were all delighted with Trent: it is
magnificently situated in the midst of mountains, with that wild rapid
Adige sweeping through it. The church in which the Council sat is, of
course, very interesting. We called twice on the bishop; first to ask
his permission to see the Estatica; secondly, to give him our report.
He received us with the greatest politeness, talked about Church
matters in England, and perhaps was gratified, if not surprised, by
three English priests falling on their knees to receive his
benediction. I hope you got my long letter of the 1st of August,
giving our visit to Capriana and Caldaro. We all look back on that
with great satisfaction.
_August 6th._--Venice this morning is in all its beauty; we have just
taken a gondola for the day, to visit churches and paintings,--Titian's
finest are here. We take coffee morning and evening in the Piazzetta
of St. Mark, the great resort. It is with great difficulty one can get
along without an officious shoe-black insisting upon the satisfaction
of cleaning that part of one's dress. If they happen to be dirty, the
creature can no more be driven away than a hungry mosquito; he buzzes
round and round and round, till the only way is to stop and let him
draw his sous.
Yours very sincerely,
T. W. ALLIES.
Milan, August 14. 1847.
MY DEAR ----.
I left Venice yesterday morning, on my way home, alone, I am sorry to
say, for my two companions proceed to Bologna and Florence, and will
not be back in England till the end of September. It seems to me quite
a different thing now I have to go by myself; and the only comforting
thought is, that every step brings me nearer home. I am not likely to
lose much time on the road, and I hope to be with you on the day I
mentioned in my last; viz., Tuesday, the 26th.--I meant to have
written to you again from Venice, but our days went swiftly there, and
when we returned in the evening I was too much tired for the exertion.
Venice will remain as a strange and beautiful dream in my remembrance.
After all that one had heard it required sight to realise a city
rising out of the water on all sides, whose streets are canals,
whose doors open by flights of stairs on the water, whose carriages
are gondolas, and the most agreeable kind of carriage I ever was in;
for one reclines in them most lazily, like lotos eaters, and sees
palace and church, and all sorts of strange-looking heterogeneous
buildings sweep gently by, in a sort of sleep; while every now and
then comes a bit of semi-eastern architecture, rich ogee windows, and
arcades which perfectly delighted me, and quite as often we wound
through narrow, dirty, motionless canals, that seemed just suited to a
purpose they no doubt often served,--the drowning troublesome bodies.
But one sight we saw which you would have thoroughly entered into. On
Sunday afternoon, as we got into a gondola, the gondolier informed us
that he could not take us at the accustomed fare that evening, from
six to eight, for it was his especial harvest time, that all the world
went to the music on the Grand Canal. Accordingly, after looking for
some time at the Euganean hills and Friuli mountains, which are a
glorious sight to the north of Venice, we bade him take us to meet the
music on the Grand Canal. This is about 200 feet wide, winds most
beautifully through the city, having the Rialto bridge about the
middle, and is bordered by the finest palaces. We soon met the
Archduke's gondola, and behind it a great crowd of others covering the
whole breadth of the canal, shouldering and elbowing each other,
the gondoliers shouting, watching every one else's gondola as well as
their own, applauding or blaming, as might be. Each boat has one man
on a little covered deck near the stern, where he balances himself
admirably, and mainly directs the boat, serving both as oar and
rudder, and another not quite so near to the prow. In the middle
ladies recline on cushions, and no Hyde Park carriage serves to set
off beauty and fashion so well as those wicked barks of Venice, which
have screened so many tricks both of man and woman, for so many
hundred years. On this occasion, however, the part of the boat which
serves for shelter, coolness, or concealment, as it may be,--that is,
a sort of cabin, covered with crape, is taken away, and the cushions
afford a full view of whatever they carry. Into this press and throng
of little gallies we passed with the rest; the scene every moment
changing, the gondoliers vociferating, the boats seeming in perpetual
collision, now jammed close together, and again emerging into a few
feet of clear water, the band playing close behind us. Every now and
then adventurous boats came from the other direction, and how they
made themselves a way into a throng that seemed quite full before was
the wonder. Some of the gondoliers were dressed in fanciful liveries,
which added much to their appearance. This was all in the last light
of day, and we agreed that we had never seen so interesting and
original a piece of fun. A single gondolier thus standing on his
little deck will guide his boat with admirable skill, and though it is
near forty feet long, he will make it turn the corners of the
narrowest canals, and wind through opposing boats without touching.
For this purpose, when he approaches a corner which he has to turn,
perhaps at right angles, of course not knowing what is coming the
other side, he sings out in good time, Stalí, or Staprimí; answering
to starboard and larboard; and thus collisions are generally avoided,
though barges act in an unkind and domineering manner towards their
slighter brethren, and move about with a consciousness that they are
the "iron pots" against the "earthen." These canals are not always
free from another danger, as we were near learning to our cost. The
last evening, as we emerged from one of the thousand bridges, came a
violent smash into the boat, which made me jump. It was a whole wine
bottle which descended, and broke itself on W----'s back.
Providentially he was not much hurt, but I thought it might just as
easily have been my head, which was uncovered at the time, and which
it would certainly have broken. I suppose it was done thoughtlessly,
but we could not discover the person. Almost all our time was spent in
the open air at Venice, with occasional visits to the picture
galleries and churches. We were all much struck with the number
of persons attending services on week days. There are Masses
perpetually going on, sometimes two or three at different altars, from
early in the morning till past noon, and each would have its circle of
worshippers, men as well as women. Besides, persons would be kneeling
in all parts. The largest church in Venice, S. Giovanni e Paolo, a
very fine one, full of grand tombs of the ancient Doges, had the
exposition of the Holy Sacrament for five days over the Great Altar,
which was fitted up with crimson hangings all round, and a great
quantity of lights; in the centre, in a remonstrance, the Host was
exposed, places for kneeling stretched a great way down the church. I
was in it almost every day, and always saw a great many kneeling and
saying their prayers. We heard a sermon in St. Mark's on Sunday, about
the different modern systems of physical philosophy, and their
manifold absurdities. Morning and evening we took our coffee, often
relieved with ices, in the Piazza of St. Mark, which in the evening is
a great rendezvous, and serves the ladies in the summer instead of
receiving company at home. Then we used to walk under the Doge's
palace, and talk of things past, present, and to come, of which the
two former were the pleasanter. We were generally very unanimous,
liking the same buildings, the same pictures, and the same principles;
disliking with one accord that huge variety of beard and whisker
and moustache, in which "Young Italy," no less than "Young France,"
luxuriates. The journey here took twenty-three hours from Venice, the
heat and dust dreadful. To-morrow I shall see the Feast of the
Assumption, which you remember we passed together at Amiens four years
ago. On Monday my place is taken to Lucerne, thirty-two hours' journey
from here, so that night I shall begin to scale the Alps by the St.
Gothard pass, descending on that most lovely lake, and the worst part
of my journey will be over. _August 15th._ I went just now to see the
sun rise from the top of the cathedral. As I entered it just before
five, I found a good many people, mostly of a poor class, already
there. At five a priest entered, and began communicating people before
the rails of an altar in the transept. This is done very rapidly; as
with only a previous blessing he takes the pyx from the tabernacle
over the altar, in which the Host is reserved, and holding a Host
between the fingers and thumb, makes with It the sign of the cross,
saying in Latin, "The Body of the Lord preserve thy soul to eternal
life," and puts It on the tongue. When I came down an hour after, I
saw a much larger number, and after celebrating Mass he began
communicating a fresh set. In this way a great number can receive in a
morning at different altars, without much waiting. As for _effect_,
they understand it well here; the lights burning on and before
the altars, and the deep religious gloom of the duomo itself,
especially in early morning, add all that can be added to the
solemnity of such a scene. This is going on without intermission, till
the High Mass at eleven. It certainly looks to me very like reality.
Yours very sincerely,
T. W. ALLIES.
JOURNAL.--1848.
_Paris. Windsor Hotel, Rue de Rivoli, July 18. 1848._--I have been
nine days in France, and the kindness of friends has not left me an
hour to put down my thoughts. Yet assuredly, in so utter a change of
one's usual habits and sights, the mind has been more affected than
during many weeks of sedentary occupations. But when one has been
profoundly moved either by a religious service, or a conversation, or
place or building, it is a great effort to sit down, collect one's
thoughts, and turn one's eyes inward on oneself. Generally, too, by
the end of the day we were so fatigued that such an effort became
physically impossible.
We left Southampton at five P.M., on Saturday, the 8th July. A good
deal of wind, and sea rough. Passed off Portsmouth the fleet of ten
men-of-war, one three decker, St. Vincent, 104 guns; four two deckers;
and five frigates. Most majestic they looked unmoved amid the
freshening waves. I can never see a ship of war without my heart
bounding. Byron has exactly expressed one's feeling:--
"She walks the waters like a thing of life,
And seems to dare the elements to strife."
At five we found ourselves on the quai at Havre. The douane here is so
polite as to keep one's luggage till eight o'clock--a kindness which
is carried still further by the police, as the visa of passports does
not commence till eleven. So I proposed to walk to the beautiful
Norman church of Graville, the pendant of our own St. Cross, half way
up that delightful côte which looks down on the embouchure of the
Seine, and the high coast of Honfleur and Caen. The view from the
terrace of the old Priory is most charming; and behind the church a
most picturesque cemetery stretches up the steep hill. There is a
perfect cross a little to the west of the church, which is very
pleasing. We found the church empty, and said our English office
before one of the altars. I do not like the effect of two windows in
the apse, which symbolise, I suppose, the Two Natures, but otherwise
this church is a beautiful specimen of a Norman parish church.
However, its nave has been recently defiled by most protestant-looking
pews; and under the tower, just before the chancel, there actually is
to be seen a squireen's pew, with a table and cloth in it. The chapel
and image of the Blessed Virgin were the most pleasing. At three we
went on to Ivetot, and found a most kind welcome from our
friends. They lodged us in a house they have lately purchased, in
their garden, where, for the first time in my life, I had the honour
of a silver bason and ewer. We supped in the refectory, at a table in
the middle, with M. le Supérieur. Silence is kept at the meals, and
one of the pupils reads from a pulpit on one side. The pupils act as
servants in turn during the meal.
_Monday, July 10._--We heard two sermons, morning and afternoon, from
M. P. L. Labbé to the confirmands, fifty-nine in number. Our friend's
manner was mild and paternal, yet full of zeal and unction. His
morning subject was, "You have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we
cry Abba Father." He distinguished between servile fear and filial
fear--between Jewish bondage and Christian adoption; beseeching his
hearers ever to cherish in their hearts the sense of God's paternal
love, and that "we can never know how much God loves us in this
world;" and then he urged them, if ever they fell into sin, to fly to
God at once for pardon, never distrusting Him, however great their own
unworthiness; reminding them that the tribunal of penitence was ever
open to them. In the afternoon his subject was, "Ye shall receive
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be
witnesses unto me." That at confirmation there was a _larger_
infusion of the Holy Spirit than at baptism--what it was to be
witnesses to God--witnesses by our whole life and conversation. These
two addresses much pleased me, both as to manner and matter.
We had the privilege of saying our English office in their chapel,
where the single lamp marks the presence of the Holy Sacrament. How
great a blessing is this, that the Lord of the Temple dwells bodily in
it--how great a realising of the Incarnation. The chapel is a very
pleasing imitation of the middle Gothic style, built from the designs
of M. Robert, who, being a pupil of the Ecole Polytechnique, gave up
all prospects in the world for the hard and painful life of a priest
in a petit séminaire: and not only he, but all who are there, seem to
have their daily life supported by a spring of charity in themselves;
and the great self-denial which accompanies it seems borne as if it
were no weight at all, for they look for the recompense of the reward.
During the five days we passed at Ivetot we remarked again and again
to each other the atmosphere of fraternal charity which all seemed to
breathe. There was no looking for success in the world--no thought of
gaining wealth; but the one thing in view was to train the children
committed to them as members of Christ and heirs of His kingdom. This
one thought pervaded all their actions. In the evening the
Archbishop of Rouen came, attended by his vicaire général, M. Surgis.
The masters and ourselves supped in private with him; and I was
confounded at being put on his right, as P. was on his left. His own
affability, however, and the unaffected kindness and ease of his
demeanour with his clergy, soon made one feel comfortable.
_Tuesday, July 11._--The confirmation was at nine. The pupils formed
in procession along the corridor into the chapel, some sixty or eighty
of the rear in albes, followed by the masters and some other clergy,
the cross and crosier immediately preceding the Archbishop; we
followed behind, and then mounted to the latticed tribune at the end
of the chapel, whence the whole disposition of the congregation, the
multitude of albes, the altar dressed for the Holy Sacrifice, and the
splendid habit of the Archbishop, formed a most pleasing scene. He
said Mass, and communicated, I should think, a hundred pupils; as they
knelt two and two all up the chapel and received successively from his
hands, nothing could be more solemn. There was a moment in this
service particularly touching--the Archbishop took his crosier in his
hand and standing before the altar said, "Benedicat vos omnipotens
Deus, Pater, et Filius +, et Spiritus Sanctus." It seemed like the
great High Priest Himself blessing His people. After Mass he stood
before the middle of the altar, and, requesting them to be
seated, addressed them for about twenty minutes. His manner was a
mixture of grace and simplicity most pleasing to behold; indeed, his
whole demeanour represented exactly the priest, the father, and the
bishop, and left behind it a perfume as it were of the heavenly
hierarchy, among whose earthly counterpart he ranked. He enlarged upon
the triple blessing bestowed upon us by the Holy Trinity, in creation,
in redemption, and in sanctification. Presently he spoke of the Holy
Eucharist as an extension of the Incarnation, (rapétissant) gathering
it up into little; and of Christ therein really, substantially, and
personally present in us. His vicaire général said, that in daily
confirmations during two months he never repeated himself, but varied
each address. He had no note, and spoke without effort. Then followed
an examination of the confirmans by himself during about thirty-five
minutes. He took boys here and there and asked them questions on the
elements of the faith, the sacraments, &c., in so low a voice that I
could only catch the general import. Then came the confirmation
itself, which, like our own, is very short. He stood at the middle of
the altar, and stretching out his hands towards the people, called
down on the confirmans kneeling before him the sevenfold gifts of the
Holy Ghost:
"The spirit of wisdom and understanding.--Amen.
"The spirit of counsel and ghostly strength.--Amen.
"The spirit of knowledge and true godliness.--Amen.
"Fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy fear, and sign them with
the sign of the cross of Christ unto eternal life."
The repetition of the Amen at intervals by the confirmans gives a
feature to this prayer which our own does not possess. Then the
confirmans, two by two, came kneeling to his chair before the altar,
and he signed them on the forehead with the holy chrism, naming each
by his Christian name as he said, "I sign thee with the sign of the +
cross and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of
the Father+, and of the Son+, and of the Holy Ghost+. Amen." The
service occupied three hours; but in country parishes it is not
usually preceded by the Mass.
We had then a grand dinner at a table placed in the middle of the
refectory, several clergy, friends of the house, being present. There
was plenty of talking, the rule of silence being suspended by the
presence of the archbishop.
In the evening there was a solemn Benediction, at which the archbishop
did not officiate, but was in a chair near the altar.
After dinner, two of the pupils, one from the older and one from the
younger division of the school, recited verses before the archbishop,
and the whole school seemed delighted at the words of kindness
he addressed to them. I heard our friend, in one of his addresses,
remind them that the archbishop was the head and master of the house,
and so they all appeared to feel him to be.
In the evening we were all collected, in a somewhat suspicious manner,
for some exhibition in a long hall, at the end of which a carpet was
spread, and a chair placed for the archbishop. I asked M. Robert what
was coming; but he replied, "Pour nous autres Français, vous savez,
nous sommes des fous: il faut que nous rions de tout!" I will not say
that the entertainment verified his former proposition, but certainly
it did the latter. M. Picard, curé of the cathedral of Rouen, took out
a paper, and began reading a copy of verses by himself, commemorating
a recent fall from his horse of one of the tutors. At each verse the
boys took up couplet and refrain, and sung it with hearty good will.
This continued for some twenty or thirty stanzas. The boys needed but
the hint. I thought to myself, I doubt whether it would improve the
discipline of Eton to collect the boys in the long school room
together to commemorate an equestrian lapse of my friend C. or A.,
supposing them to have met with one. The refrain,
"Quel est ce cavalier là
Qu'il mene bien son dada,
Tra-la-la tra-la-la,"
sounded by 250 voices, still rings in my ears. This was succeeded by
another song, recited in the same manner, on M. Robert's propensities
to study the moon.
We supped, as before, upstairs, and had some pleasant conversation
with the archbishop.
_Wednesday, July 12._--The archbishop sent for us this morning,
inquired into our views in visiting France, and gave us each an
Imitation of Christ and a small cross which he had blessed. He
expressed in the most cordial manner his pleasure at seeing us, and
pressed us to visit him at Rouen. After an early dinner, M. P. L.
Labbé insisted on taking us to see the old abbey church of Fécamp; we
went partly by railway, and, as the diligence was waiting for the
train from Havre, walked some three miles, and then took a char-à-banc
from Goderville. We went to the curé's house at Fécamp: but he was
building, and so we all lodged with M. l'Abbé Lefevre, formerly curate
there, but now living with his sister without any direct charge. M.
Labbé kept us, both at supper and dinner the next day, in continual
merriment by his stories.
_Thursday, July 13._--M. Beaucamp, the curé, took us all over the
magnificent abbey church, dating from the 10th to the 12th century,
and near 400 feet long. He pointed out the variations in style and
construction. It sadly wants the whitewash removed. This was
last evening. This morning he took us _en pélérinage_ to Notre Dame
de Salut, a chapel built by our Henry I., and one of four on this
coast. The view was glorious over land and sea, the crag being 400
feet high. The poor fisher-women at times mount the _côte_ on their
knees, to make vows for their husbands' safe return. The pays-de-caux
is a fine rolling country, with groves of beech at intervals, a broad
expanse looking most rich and prosperous. Fécamp is stuck in a deep
valley between lofty downs. We enjoyed particularly M. Lefevre's
hospitable reception, and went back for supper at Ivetot. The weather
is delightful--a brilliant sun, with plenty of air.
_Friday, July 14._--M. P. L. Labbé, in his extreme kindness, would
take us to Rouen to lodge in the house of M. Picard, curé of Notre
Dame. It is in places a very pretty road to Rouen by the railway. We
were able to say our English office quite uninterrupted in the Lady
Chapel of the cathedral about eleven. M. Labbé staid with us all that
day, taking us to different places. Amongst others, he carried us to
the Carmelite nunnery, where we heard, but did not see, a sister who
had been there fourteen years: she was formerly confessed by him, but
in all that time he had never seen her. The rule is that none but
father, mother, sister, or brother, can have the curtain of the grille
drawn back, behind which the sister speaks to her visitors. She
was telling us how her little nephews saw her when they were very
young and came with their mother, but when a little older were no
longer allowed this privilege: so the mother sat on one side, with the
curtain drawn back before her so that she could see her sister; but
the children on the other, with the curtain drawn, could only hear
her. This pained them so much that they did not like to visit her. The
sister's conversation was anything but sad: she spoke with most lively
interest of a Carmelite nun lately departed at Tours, who had foretold
all the disasters under which France was now suffering, ascribing them
to the general godlessness, specially on two points--the blaspheming
of God's name and the profanation of the Lord's Day. She gave us
prayers composed with reference to this. When M. Labbé told her that
we were not united to the Roman Church, she made a considerable pause,
and seemed to draw her breath as if something unexpected had come upon
her; then she said that she should pray earnestly for us, and that
every Thursday with them Mass was said with special intention for
England. She went for the prioress, who likewise spoke for some time;
she had a most clear and pleasant voice, which it was delightful to
hear.
In the afternoon M. le Curé and M. Labbé took us to call on the
archbishop. He was very cordial--asked us to dine that day; and when
we said we had already dined, repeated his invitation for Saturday,
including M. Picard and his vicaire, M. de la Haye. Labbé was obliged
to return. Before we left he insisted upon taking us over his palace.
There is a splendid suite of rooms, terminating with a noble library:
he has been collecting the portraits of his predecessors: he is
himself the eighty-ninth archbishop. His palace is kept in repair at
the public expense of the department, and three rooms are even
furnished for him, an annual visitation of the furniture, as he
himself told us, taking place. This archevéché is the ancient
building, and of very great size--built as strong as a fortress: he
showed us a window from which he had lately watched a barricade in the
street below and saw a man killed. He took us last to the chapel--a
plain Grecian building: hither the remains of the Empress Maud, lately
discovered at the abbey of Bec, have been placed provisionally. It was
only at her own earnest prayer, that the emperor, her husband, allowed
her to be buried in a monastery, saying that she was too great a lady
to be buried save at Rouen. The archbishop said that he seldom
celebrated publicly in the cathedral, only about four times a year,
"mais par la miséricorde de Dieu je dis la messe tous les jours dans
ma chapelle."
M. le Curé's usual hours are to dine at twelve, before which he takes
nothing, and to sup about eight. He asked two or three clergy
continually to meet us, at one of these meals, during the three days
we were with him. His reason for taking nothing before noon, is that,
after saying Mass, he is continually so occupied by his parishioners,
that many times he would be unable to breakfast, so he thought it
better to make the rule absolute. The confessional is a very heavy
burden--a couple of hours daily, on an average; and, before great
fêtes, sometimes seven hours at a time. Labbé told us he had once
confessed for twenty-three successive hours. This is a duty to which
they may be called at any hour of the day or night. M. Picard and his
curate, M. de la Haye, could hardly find time to dine with the
archbishop on Saturday, at seven in the evening, and stole away as
soon as they could.
_Saturday, July 15._--Our good M. Labbé returned to Ivetot this
morning; he had surrendered to me his room. In the afternoon M. Picard
took us about to the Hôtel de Ville--the ancient Benedictine abbey of
S. Ouen: in the public library here we were shown the most magnificent
gradual, full of very beautiful drawings. It had been used one hundred
years before the Revolution, and, I should think, was unique, as we
were told. The garden and corridors were occupied by National Guard;
but M. le Curé's presence obtained us permission to survey the
wonderful church, the masterwork of middle and late pointed Gothic, on
that side, together with its portail des marmouzets, of matchless
beauty. At S. Vincent's we saw eleven windows of very brilliant
painted glass, which surround the choir, and are visible at once. We
then walked up Mount St. Catherine, from whence the view of Rouen and
the surrounding hills is charming. I have always thought the site of
this city one of the finest I have ever seen, and it looked so to-day,
under a July sun. We went on to Notre Dame de bon Secours, which is
now nearly finished: the inside and western façade pleased us much.
The latter has three portals, after the manner of the great mediæval
churches dedicated in honour of Notre Dame, and is well combined and
harmonised. The inside is of the architecture of our Edward II.; very
good upon the whole: all the windows of painted glass, not unmixedly
good, but the whole effect very striking. It has cost 40,000_l._,
begged or given by the curé: a noble work indeed. The ex-votos are now
inserted into the northern aisle. We should have liked to stay much
longer here, but were hurried to return to the archbishop's dinner. We
did not dine till half-past seven; nine in number, at a round table in
a large hall. He apologised that it was a maigre. But, with the
several kinds of fish, no one could have desired a better
dinner. The archbishop, myself on his right, P. on his left, MM. Les
Abbés Picard, De la Haye, Surgis, two others, and M. Barthélemi, the
architect of bon Secours. We were struck by his conversation--he
seemed a Christian architect, which is a rare and valuable thing.
During the evening the deplorable state of France, the overthrow of
fortunes, the general cessation of trade, and the frightful excesses
of the late conflict, were talked of. The archbishop mentioned a man
taken with arms in his hand, who was on the point of being executed by
the soldiers, when the general officer interfered, and, by his
solicitude, saved his life. The culprit took a pistol from his waist,
said "Mercie, Colonel," and shot him dead. He was immediately cut to
pieces. Every one seems to agree that the Republic cannot last--that
there must be a monarchy; yet that minds are so embittered, and
passions so excited, that France must come to this only through
lassitude of suffering. No one knows what a day may produce. In Rouen
there is great suffering--the shop-keepers sell nothing--the workmen
have no employment. At Havre the warehouses are crammed with goods,
for which there is no sale. Landed property, if forced to be sold,
will not fetch half its value. No one can tell how long this will go
on, or what will be the end of it. France is in complete paralysis.
The source of all this misery is a wide-spread infidelity,
united with the rage for material enjoyments, and a refined taste in
pursuing them.
The scale of the archbishop's household seemed to me decent and
proper, without being that of the Grand Seigneur in any respect. I
liked and respected him much more than if he could have had the twenty
liveried servants of his predecessor the Cardinal Archbishop Prince of
Croï, when high almoner to Charles Dix. He is now the earnest and
laborious head of a toiling and suffering but most charitable and
devoted clergy. The one hope of France lies in her children being
taught from the cradle the via crucis, via Regis.
_Sunday, July 16._--Fête du sacré cœur de Jesu. After our own
office in the morning we have been nearly six hours at the cathedral
to-day, between High Mass in the morning--and Vespers, sermon,
compline, and benediction in the evening. Certainly the key note of
all the Roman services is, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us." The presence of the Incarnation broods like a spirit over all:
gives meaning to every genuflection at the altar; life to every hymn;
harmony to that wonderful array of saints, with the Virgin Mother at
their head, who intercede with the most Holy Trinity, and join their
praises with the angelic hosts, and the voices of feeble men suffering
the conflict of the flesh. Around the Incarnation drawn out, applied
to daily life, brought before the eye and the heart, enfolding
the penitent at the confessional, exalting the priest at the altar,
the whole worship revolves; children unconsciously live on it;
mothers, through it, look on their children, till maternal love
becomes itself deeper, warmer, and holier. Through it and by it the
priest bears his life of toil and self-denial so easily, that charity
seems like the breath by which he lives. What is the secret of this?
It is that daily approach in the morning to the Most Holy One; that
daily reception of Him, which deifies flesh and blood.
Such has been the impression of to-day's worship; it was _devotion_
indeed: that is, the ascending of the heart to its own Lord: not a
perpetual effort to work on the understanding, but the lifting of the
higher power, the spirit in man, by which all are equal, to God. This
begins with the holy Sacrifice in the morning, and ends with the
exhibition of that same tremendous Sacrifice, the Incarnation of Love,
in the evening. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," is the
first and last: He comes amid a cloud of His saints: they are powerful
because they are His: their works are mighty because He works in them,
their supplications prevail because they, being flesh and blood, have
become partakers of the Word made flesh. She, most of all, whose most
pure substance He took to make His own for ever: so that what came of
her is joined in hypostatic union with God, and is God. Thus
seen, the communion of saints is a real thing, embracing our daily
life at a thousand points, the extension and drawing out of the
Incarnation, understood by it, and in it. To those who do not realise
that tremendous Presence at the altar the saints are so many sinful
men and women made gods and goddesses, and those who reverence them
idolators. How much do people lose by such a misconception: how
utterly do they fail to perceive the length and depth and breadth and
height of the Truth: they halve and quarter the Incarnation and boast
that they alone understand it. These multiplied prayers and hymns seem
to them a form, the bowing of the body a mockery, for they discern not
Him who walks amid the golden candlesticks--it is emptiness to them,
for He is not there.
The archbishop was kind enough to have us placed in the choir, just
below the sanctuary.
At dinner at twelve M. le Curé had invited M. Surgis, M. de la Haye,
and his two other curates, one of whom preached in the afternoon on
the necessity of the cross, first to the righteous and then to
sinners: he enlarged upon the many ways in which God brings both to
Him by the application of suffering, humiliation, &c.
In the evening M. le Curé took us to pay our respects to the
archbishop once more. We heard much talk again of the deplorable state
of France. He was very cordial to us, hoped we should not get
near a barricade, and expressed his satisfaction at having met us.
_Monday, July 17._--I had a quiet walk round St. Ouen and to the Lady
Chapel there. I can fancy being able to retire to that church once a
day being a consolation to many a life of toil. Yesterday, after the
services, we seemed fit for nothing but to mount its roof and look on
the great works of God around one there. At two we took a carriage to
the seminaire of M. l'Abbé Lambert, Bois Guillaume. He is a person of
fortune, who to satisfy his father entered the Ecole Polytechnique,
and studied there for some time; but as soon as his father would
consent, became a priest, to which he had always felt a vocation, and
has given up his fortune to build a college for boys of the higher
class. He has a beautiful spot on the top of the hill to the north of
Rouen, covered with a garden, an orchard, and rows of beech trees of
some sixty years' growth. He has now fifty-two boys, and eight
priests, with himself, to instruct them. The object is to give a
really Christian education, without directing the boys to enter into
orders, which parents generally of that rank are much set against.
Thus they only hear Mass twice on week days. We had a long
conversation with him. He seemed much to regret the want of
independence produced by, or at least existing in, French
education. He receives a government inspector every year, though his
house is his own. This inspector objected to the beds of his pupils
having curtains, as making surveillance more difficult. I told him of
my surprise to find at M. Poileau's academy, near Paris, a rule that
two sick boys should never be in the infirmary alone. He said he
should have expected such a rule. He inquired with interest about the
independence of the English character. It struck me forcibly here what
an immense advantage the rule of celibacy offers to the Church for
education. Here were eight masters for fifty-two boys, and yet the
pension so moderate as 1000 francs. At Eton, where the cost is nigh
four times as great, the number of boys at the same proportion would
require ninety-six masters, instead of about sixteen. But here all
personal advancement is given up. There is no increasing family to be
supported: personal gain or honour is neither _the_ motive, nor _a_
motive, but simply the higher one of fulfilling a great duty, and
winning a bright crown. This complete self-devotion seems necessarily
killed by the marriage tie, so that the highest works both of the
priesthood and of education are thus cut off; and it may be doubted
how far, in the present relation of the state to the Church all over
the world, any body of ministers who are involved in the closest ties
with the world can meet the exigencies of the times, or maintain the
most necessary and fundamental liberties of the Church, either
as to dogma or as to discipline. The great masses seem every where to
be in such a state of irritation, or ignorance, or prejudice, that
nothing but the spectacle of great and daily self-denial, of zeal and
learning, combined with poverty, and exhibited in the persons of those
drawn from the people itself, or of those who surrender a higher rank
to belong to the people, will make any great and permanent impression
on them. The more I reflect, the more it appears to me that the
priesthood and the ecclesiastical colleges of France have in them this
element of success.
M. Lambert's college is to be a quadrangle, of the style of the old
chateaux in Louis XIV.'s time. Two sides are nearly finished. It will
be a very pleasing and appropriate building when completed, and is
from the design of M. Robert. The boys now sleep in two dormitories,
which, like all the house, are scrupulously clean and neat, the
masters among them, the only discernible difference being a little
wider space between a master's and the adjoining bed.
In the course of to-day, I asked a person well qualified to judge,
whether the university colleges were now in a better state as to the
morals of their inmates: the answer expressed a fear that they were
even worse.
We left our kind host M. Picard this afternoon, and went by
railway to Mantes. It is a fine and noble country all the way; the
view of Rouen as one passes over the bridge, under Notre Dame de bon
Secours, is of ravishing beauty. The lofty banks of the Seine, 400
feet high, accompany one at a little distance, most of the way--and
twice a tunnel cuts through them, and comes out suddenly on the
peaceful banks of the river again. The country is cut on a broad and
large scale, which contrasts strongly with the limited and smaller
prospects in England. We reached Mantes just in time to have a look at
the beautiful church of Notre Dame, worthy of its builders, Blanche of
Castile and S. Louis.
_Tuesday, July 18._--We attended a Low Mass at six this morning, in
the Lady Chapel at Notre Dame; there were a good many people, sisters
of charity, and Christian brothers, and several communicants. This
church is one of great purity and chasteness, and full of symbolism.
The numbers seven and three perpetually occur in the windows and bays.
There are seven bays of the nave, and seven round the apse--seven
great rose windows over the vaulted triforium round the apse: many
most beautiful windows of geometric tracery, with trefoils arranged in
threes. In each bay of the nave the triforium has three smaller bays
formed by most elegant colonnettes. The western façade, up to the
gallery, is of rare dignity and beauty.
We reached Paris at a quarter past ten, and in a few minutes were on
our way to our Hotel Windsor; the soldiers were bivouacking in the
railway station. I was then more than five hours writing my journal
from the beginning. In the evening we walked to Notre Dame, along the
quais, and to the Hôtel de Ville. The thoroughfares were thronged with
National Guards, and an idle or unoccupied population. Woe to the
nation of which these are rulers.
_Wednesday, July 19._--We went to the Séminaire d'Issy to call on M.
Galais, but found him out. Returning we called on M. l'Abbé
Ratisbonne, and had a long conversation with him. I explained the
motive of my coming to Paris; he was astonished to hear that there
were yet persons of information and good faith among us who believe
that Roman Catholics adore the Blessed Virgin, and put her, in some
sort, in the place of our Lord. He said it was not honourable to
impute such things to them; that she was a simple creature, advanced
by God to the highest possible honour of being mother of our Lord. If
there were nothing else objectionable in Protestantism, the disregard
of the Blessed Virgin alone would repel and disgust him. Did the
Apostles, in the presence of Christ, turn their back on his mother?
"If," said he, "I had the honour to be acquainted with your mother, as
I have to be acquainted with you, I should take good care in speaking
to you not to turn my back on her." The conversation turned on
the Pope's Primacy, both in an historical point of view, and still
more as a moral necessity; but when I urged that the Episcopate was as
a chamber of Peers, in which the Pope held the first rank, he agreed,
and said he was primus inter pares. He remarked on the bad way in
which history had been written, and how little modern citers of
original authors could be trusted as to expressions, which he had
found numberless times in writing his life of S. Bernard. I inquired
after his brother, who is now a deacon in a house of Jesuits,
département de la Sarthe, I believe. Before parting he arranged for a
subsequent meeting.
After dinner we walked again by the quais to Notre Dame--but it was
already shut. The space round La Sainte Chapelle being part of the
Palais de Justice was in full military occupation, and we did not see
how to get in. Every where enormous numbers of National Guards are to
be seen in possession of great public buildings, as so many garrisons
in an enemy's land. We walked up the Rue S. Jacques, but there are
very few traces of the very hot combat which is said to have raged
here; how, indeed, that very narrow and ascending street could have
been taken at all, is matter of wonder. If occupied throughout its
whole extent by the insurgents, it must have been a most deadly battle
field.
We called on M. l'Abbé Noirlieu, but found that he was in the country.
_Thursday, July 20._--Presented a letter of introduction to
Monseigneur Parisis, Bishop of Langres. He is short, about sixty years
of age, with very determined countenance. We had a rather long
conversation, in which he promised to be of any service he could to me
in seeing Catholic matters, and sent out for an Abbé to conduct us to
different places; but as he did not find him at home, he appointed us
to come at seven P.M. When I told him that the worship of the
Blessed Virgin was very generally imputed to Roman Catholics, he
seemed much astonished, and thought that was gone by. "We account
her," he said, "a simple creature, who has received from God the
highest possible grace, to be the mother of our Lord. But all that she
has is derived: to have life in one self, or to derive it from
another, is an infinite difference." I spoke of Dr. ---- and his book,
and how little he appeared to me to have caught the Catholic idea. For
instance, he had represented it as the duty of the French Bishops to
defend the throne of Louis Philippe, rather than the Catholic faith.
"It is wonderful, indeed," replied the Bishop, "how he can have
supposed that, for we have been engaged throughout, and I foremost, in
a struggle with Louis Philippe." He sketched the objects which we
ought to see. "You must not look for the faith among the mass of
the people here, for they have it not, but in religious houses,
foreign missions, Catholic institutions, &c.--You have not had
martyrs, I think, in the last twenty years: we have had many; and it
is remarkable to observe how entirely the scenes of the first ages
have been reproduced; the spirit of Christ has given birth to
precisely the same answers to questions put to martyrs as of old by
the spirit of the devil; and torments as terrible, tearing of the
flesh, and hewing in pieces, have been borne. I was dining not long
ago at the Foreign Missions, and was saying that the life of a
missionary in China was not good, when all present cried out at once,
clapping their hands; 'Oh, yes; but it is good--it is good.' French
missionaries have subsisted," he continued, "for a long time without
even bread, which is much for us, though not for you; while yours go
out with wife and children, pour faire le commerce." I spoke with
wonder of Monseigneur Borie's life, and how he had been able to eat
even rats, as the natives in Cochin China did. The late Archbishop's
martyrdom was mentioned by him with fervour; and he spoke very kindly
of Dalgairns, whom he had ordained.
We went again at seven to the Bishop of Langres, who arranged for M.
l'Abbé des Billiers to take us round to different persons, and
especially the Père de Ravignan.
_Friday, July 21._--Went at half-past ten to the Bishop of Langres,
who told us of the new concordat between the Pope and the Czar, which
would appear to recognise the authority of the Roman Catholic Bishops
much more than the French government does. He seemed to think it a
great gain. M. des Billiers then took us to the Père de Ravignan: we
found M. l'Abbé de Casalès, Member of the National Assembly, with him,
and had a lively conversation for about half an hour. Le Père de
Ravignan and M. de Casalès both maintained that Mr. Newman's theory of
developement was open ground. "Tout chemin mène à Rome," said the
latter. "I know, by experience, how hard a matter it is to attain to
the truth--that it is long in coming. It is the grace of God--not
study, brings it. Thus, we have every feeling of charity for the great
movement in England." They did not appear to think that Mr. Newman's
theory and that of Cardinal Bellarmine intercepted each other; and as
we were five, there was no good opportunity of setting forth our
conception on that point. Le Père de Ravignan has the most pleasing
and attaching demeanour of any person I have met with--he seems the
Manning of France. He begged us warmly to come to-morrow, any time
from seven to twelve A.M.; assuring us that he did not think it lost
time to converse with us. He spoke with great respect of Dr. Pusey.
M. des Billiers then took us to Les Missions Etrangères, Rue du Bac.
One of the professors accompanied us to La Salle des Martyrs; round
this apartment are ranged pictures by Chinese Christians, representing
the martyrdoms of Monseigneur Borie, M. Cornay, and the tortures
inflicted on native Christians; against one side are five cases, with
glass fronts; that in the centre contains the nearly complete skeleton
of M. Borie: on each side are the bones of M. Cornay, and M. Jaccard;
those of a native Chinese priest, a martyr, and reliques of
S. Prosper, sent from Rome. On the opposite side is a long case
containing memorials of different martyrs: chains, a letter written by
M. Borie under sentence of death, his stole, parts of the cangue of
native priests martyred, and also in a case the complete cangue of M.
Borie, a frightful instrument of torture when fixed to the neck, and
carried day and night, as it was by him under sentence of death, from
July to November, 1838. The young missionaries make a visit here every
evening, and pray before these relics of their brethren, soliciting
their intercession,--a fitting preparation, I thought, for so
difficult a task. Over the door was a print "of the seventy servants
of God," martyred in Cochin China and those parts in the last few
years.
In this house are about fifty young missionaries preparing to go into
the East; of whom about twenty go out yearly. Many come there as
priests, with strong recommendations from their several séminaires,
bishops, &c. There is accordingly no fixed period for ascertaining
their vocation, or instructing them. The readiness to give up friends
and relations at home is a great step towards that perfect self-denial
which is required for this office.
We were introduced to M. Voisin, who had been eight years in China,
and returned in 1834. His account of the Chinese was that they were
very ready to receive the Christian faith; that the notion of altar,
sacrifice, and priest, was familiar to them; that they would not
receive, indeed, a naked religion. Every house has its altar, and they
burn incense before tablets containing the five words--Heaven, Earth,
Relations, the Emperor, the Master. He showed us such a tablet, and a
Christian one, on the other hand, which set forth the existence of one
God, eternal, all wise and all good, creating all things out of
nothing, The government alone stands in the way of the conversion of
the Chinese. He said that the remarkable resemblance to Catholic rites
and tenets found in Thibet dates from Franciscan and Dominican
missionaries who laboured there with effect in the 13th century. The
most ancient MS. of the Chinese are found not to go higher than the
year 150 A.D., so that all discovered resemblances to Christian
mysteries may have come from an early dissemination of the faith
in China. They receive without hesitation the mysteries of the Trinity
and the Incarnation, but reason against that of the perpetual
virginity of the Blessed Virgin.
We saw here a professor who was under sentence of death in Cochin
China, but escaped.
M. Galais took us this evening over the garden of the séminaire at
Issy. I asked him for his view of the last revolution. He said he had
two, and could not, unhappily, see which was most likely. First, that
it was the purpose of God to punish to the utmost the wickedness,
sensuality, and unbelief of the rich bourgeoisie, the middle class,
who were willing to have religion as a police for the lower orders,
but not as a spiritual rule of life; and in this point of view the
most terrible convulsions might be expected. But, also, he was not
without a hope that, as the Church in the 5th century had laid hold of
the barbarians and moulded them into Christian polities, which for so
many centuries bore noble fruits, so now, if she faithfully fulfilled
her mission, if her priests were seen devoting themselves with a
fervent charity to the task of teaching and converting the masses who
are without God, and set bitterly against his Church, a like result
might ensue, and society be saved from these extreme horrors. If the
new archbishop was a man of organisation and capable of setting up
institutions to penetrate the masses, there were many men of the
most devoted charity among the clergy of Paris, who would second and
carry out his design. I asked what had been the especial merit of the
Bishop of Digne, for which he had been chosen to succeed at Paris. He
said that there had been for some time complaints among the clergy
respecting that excess of power given to the bishops by the last
concordat, by which three-fourths even of the curés of their dioceses
are 'amovibles' at their pleasure; so that only the curés in cities
and towns are 'inamovibles;' whereas according to the ancient canon
law all were so, except upon a regular ecclesiastical judgment. Now it
not unfrequently happened that the bishop, for good reasons doubtless,
but not always acceptable to the incumbent, removed a curé, and hence
a strong desire had arisen to limit the bishop's power in this
respect. The late archbishop had it in contemplation to erect a
tribunal in his diocese, without the judgment of which a curé should
not be displaced. The Bishop of Digne had already done this, and
likewise given a constitution to his chapter, which also was a thing
much desired by the chapters generally.
_Saturday, July 22._--The Père de Ravignan received us this morning
with the utmost cordiality. We had a full hour's conversation,--not at
all polemical, for with that fraternal charity of his polemics never
came to one's thought. He seemed to think the future state of
France in the highest degree uncertain: that for the Church little was
to be hoped from the false liberalism of the day--they would maintain,
as long as they could, the state of subjection in which the Church is
held. I observed that the Holy See alone was a defence to the bishops
in such a state of things; otherwise the National Assembly might take
it into its head to meddle with doctrines. It will not do that, he
said: Elle se briserait. Yet even the abject poverty of the bishops
has turned to good. It is known that they have not the hundredth part
of what is wanted for the good of their dioceses--nothing for the
petits séminaires, and very little for the grands séminaires; and so
they are largely assisted by the charitable. He spoke of the delight
it was to him in reading the Fathers to see that it was the very same
Catholicism then as now. I asked if he found _every thing_ in them.
That, for instance, one of our most eminent theologians and preachers
had told me that he had searched throughout St. Augustine for every
single mention made of the Blessed Virgin, by means of the Benedictine
Index, and had not been able to find one instance of her intercessory
power being recognised, nor that any other relation of her to the
Church, save an historical relation, was supposed. He replied that it
was not St. Augustine's subject to speak of the Blessed Virgin; that
he wrote against the heresies of his day, as the other Fathers,
against the Pelagians, Donatists, Manicheans: that, however, he
mentioned the Blessed Virgin's fêtes, which involved her culte. St.
Jerome, however, who was a little earlier, in his work against
Jovinian, had treated of that subject. I inquired after M. Alphonse
Ratisbonne: he said he had been his confessor shortly after his
conversion. The facts of that, and its lasting effects, could not be
denied: his sacrifice of his betrothed, his fortune, everything,--his
sudden change from an obstinate Jew to a Christian. He was baptized in
their Church in Rome, after a retreat of eight days. The Père de
Ravignan, at parting, gave us each a copy of his little book, "De
l'Existence des Jésuites." I asked if I might come again: he replied,
Come ten times,--as often as you like. We were both charmed with the
calmness and charity of his manner. He speaks slowly, and seems to
weigh every word. Logical force is said to be the great merit of his
preaching.
M. des Billiers took us to the Pères Lazaristes, and we had a somewhat
long talk with M. le Supérieur Général. He was good enough to give us
a sketch of the objects for which his congregation was founded, to
this effect:--About two hundred years ago, a lady was desirous to have
the poor upon her estates better taught and instructed in the faith
than they had been, and proposed for that purpose a certain endowment.
But it so happened that no religious society then existing would
accept the proposal. Thus S. Vincent de Paul was led to establish his
congregation of priests; in the first instance, for the instruction of
the poor on this lady's lands: by and by more and more came to him for
assistance, and his institution grew by consequence. It came to have
four objects in view. First of all, to provide good priests for
country parishes: at that time the priests throughout the country in
France were very ignorant, and the people, of course, much neglected,
and scarcely knowing the first elements of the Faith, for seminaries
had not yet been established according to the decree of the Council of
Trent. But, secondly, as good priests could not be made without
training, S. Vincent de Paul had in view to educate them well in
seminaries for the evangelising of the poor; and to this day, the
Supérieur said, they were restricted to the care of the poor, and do
not preach in cities at all, save in hospitals. Moreover, the third
object was, that they might direct in perpetuity the Sisters of
Charity; for the special task of these Sisters being to attend the
sick, and, if need be, to convert or instruct them, the Saint
considered it of the utmost importance that their own spiritual needs
should be consulted for by a religious order specially charged with
that care, and, consequently, he put both his congregations under one
head; and the Supérieur Général of the Pères Lazaristes is likewise
Supérieur Général of the Sisters of Charity. The fourth object,
which grew out of the former three, was foreign missions; for wherever
Sisters of Charity go, the Fathers must go also, working in relation
to them, and with regard to the poor. They have now 600 missionaries,
chiefly in the East: their labours extend to Syria, Smyrna,
Constantinople, China, Brazil, the United States. They have at
Constantinople 1200 children in their schools, of various creeds: no
attempt at conversion is made in these schools: they are free to
accept, or not, the religious instruction; but the Supérieur said,
they were generally very glad to accept it. The moment, he said,
liberty of conscience is allowed in Turkey, the Turks will be
converted in large numbers. They are already strongly inclined to
Catholicism: for the Greeks they have a supreme contempt; but they
trust and respect the Catholics: in money transactions the Sublime
Porte chooses a Catholic agent. I inquired if the orthodox Greek
Church (whom he called schismatic) had no missions: he said, it has
neither missions nor schools--it is utterly dead--its priests are
profoundly ignorant. These people have sinned against the Holy Ghost.
He extended this charge of ignorance to the Russian priests. I
observed that I had been told by an eye witness that the Church in
Russia had the same sort of hold on the mass of the population as it
had in the Middle Ages in Europe; but he seemed to think both
people and priests densely ignorant. Many converts, he said, are made
to Catholicism from the Armenians and other sects; but hardly any from
the schismatic Greeks; however, as soon as they are instructed, they
will give up their schism. The Pères Lazaristes direct ten séminaires
in France; the S. Sulpiciens twenty: the Société de la Rue Picpus two;
the Maristes one or two; the rest are directed by diocesan priests
chosen by the bishop. As we rose to leave I asked him if the Sœur
de Charité were still living to whom the vision of the Blessed Virgin
had been granted. He replied that she was. But you have heard, I
suppose, the miracle which has happened lately. We said we had not. A
young novice, he continued, of the Sœurs de la Charité, on the 30th
April last, received, in attending a sick sister, a most violent
luxation of the vertebral column. The surgeon considered her case so
full of danger that he refused to operate on it without calling in
another. The head was turned round and pressed closely on the left
shoulder; paralysis had seized on the left side, and the right was
beginning to be affected. The surgeon said an operation might be
performed, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it failed. She
had been several days in this state; the Supérieure of the Sisters was
asked for a written authorisation to operate on her; she did not like
to agree to this, unless the patient herself demanded it. At length
they determined on a neuvaine of prayers to S. Vincent de Paul,
the feast of the translation of whose relics they were then
celebrating. This began on Sunday, the 7th May. After this had begun,
the patient expressed the most earnest desire to be carried into the
church of S. Vincent de Paul, and to be laid before the shrine
containing his relics over the altar. She had the most confident
persuasion that she should be cured by his intercession. Her
confessor, as he told me, set himself against it as much as he
could--he had given over her case, and was going to administer the
last sacraments to her on the next day. At her repeated request it was
referred to the Supérieur Général, and he gave his consent that she
should be carried on a couch to the church between four and five in
the morning. The Supérieur said to himself, as he told us, the case is
desperate; if she dies on the way it will be no worse than it is now.
She was accordingly carried to the church on Tuesday, the 9th of May,
and laid before the altar; as the Mass went on, at the Gospel she took
her face with both hands and pushed it round from where it had been
pressed on the left shoulder beyond its proper place to the right. At
the elevation she tried to rise, but to no purpose. She received the
Holy Communion with the utmost difficulty, and in the greatest pain;
but, before the priest had finished the Mass, she rose of her self
from her bed, perfectly cured, and knelt down. She staid in the
church while another Mass was said, en action de Graces; and then
walked back to the house of the Sisters of Charity in the Rue du Bac
(about ten minutes' walk). The Bishop of Carcassonne, who was in the
church, about to say Mass at the time, was told by the Supérieur
Général what had happened. He said to her, "Doubtless, you prayed
fervently?" "No, my Lord," she replied; "I did not pray; I believed."
("Non, Monseigneur, je ne priais pas; je croyais.")
After this account I inquired of the Supérieur Général whether we
might be allowed to see and speak with the young person to whom this
had happened; "for," I said, "people in England will simply disbelieve
it." He consented, and sent for a priest to take us to the house of
the Sisters of Charity, with a request to the Supérieure to let us see
the novice. This priest was her confessor; and from him we heard a
great deal in confirmation of the above account; how hopeless her case
had appeared, and how bent she was upon being carried before
S. Vincent's shrine, which he had discouraged as much as possible. We
also saw the Mère Supérieure, who gave the same information. At length
the novice herself was introduced, who told the same tale in a very
simple and natural way. She described herself as in such a suffering
state that she did not attempt to pray in the church; that she heard a
sort of crack in her neck, and thereupon thrust her face round
from the left to the right side--so that the sister who was with her
put it back just right; but after this she continued in extreme pain
and weakness; tried in vain to rise at the elevation; and only a
little after receiving the Holy Communion felt suddenly quite well.
She had never since felt the least return of her pain. I asked her how
the accident had happened. She said she had taken up the sick sister
to support her, when, by some mishap, the whole weight of her body
fell on her neck. Others told me that her confidence of being healed
had been so great, that before she was carried to the church she had
said to the sister waiting on her, "You may put my 'couvert' in the
refectory for to-morrow, for I shall return on foot." When the surgeon
came, after her return, to see her, the sister told him that the
patient had no need of his services. "What! she is dead!" he said.
"No," replied the sister, "she is cured." "She is cured! How?" He then
asked to see her; and was obliged to confess that it was a perfect
cure. M. Hervé stutters a little, and his agitation at finding a
patient in such a state so unexpectedly cured added to this defect. I
was told that he shook her head about in every direction, exclaiming,
"C'était cassé! c'était cassé! c'était cassé!" There is accordingly
the attestation of the Supérieur Général of the Pères Lazaristes, of
the Supérieure of the Sisters of Charity, of the priest confessing the
patient, and of the patient herself, for this cure; besides the
sisters who spoke of it to us.
We drove in the evening to Notre Dame, St. Gervais, and La Madeleine.
The latter was lighted, and many were at private prayer before the
Holy Sacrament, or waiting for confession.
_Sunday, July 23._--Our own office at home. Part of High Mass in St.
Thomas d'Aquin. The churches in Paris have a certain official air. I
like them better in the provinces. M. des Billiers took us to the
Société de la Rue Picpus, and presented us to its Supérieur, the
Archbishop of Chalcedoine (formerly Latin Archbishop of Smyrna). He
gave us a sketch of the rise and objects of this society. In 1794
l'Abbé Coudrin, seeing the destruction and desolation of all holy
institutions, was inspired with the thought of founding a religious
society at once to repair by the perpetual adoration of the Holy
Sacrament of the altar, day and night, the disorders, crimes, and
profanations of every kind, which were taking place; to bring up youth
in the knowledge of the truths of salvation, together with the
elements of profane science; to form young Levites, by the study of
theology, for the service of the sanctuary; to bring back to God, by
preaching, an alienated people; and to evangelise the heathen. L'Abbé
Coudrin at this time was in daily danger of his life, and was
concealed in a barn. At the end of the year 1794 a pious lady, Madame
Aymer de la Chevalerie, just delivered from prison, into which she had
been thrown, with her mother, for having concealed a Catholic priest,
offered her assistance to l'Abbé Coudrin, to carry out his designs
with regard to her own sex. Hence arose les Dames des Sacrés Cœurs
de Jésus et de Marie, who devote themselves to the perpetual adoration
of the Holy Sacrament, and to the education of young females, and who
now count more than twenty establishments in France, and two in Chili,
one at Valparaiso, and the other at Santiago. All these establishments
are directed by priests of this Congregation.
The Abbé Coudrin gathered by degrees a number of young persons round
him, and succeeded in setting his Congregation on foot, which was
recognised in 1817 by Pius VII. In the year 1837 he died, having
witnessed many establishments of his Congregation in France; the
foundation of one at Valparaiso: many of his disciples evangelising
the Polynesian islands, and two of his children bishops, M. Bonamie,
first Bishop of Babylon, and then Archbishop of Smyrna, and M.
Rouchouze, Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceania. On his death the former
was chosen for the government of the Congregation by its general
chapter.
At present the Congregation has, besides twenty-four establishments in
France, two houses in Chili, and two in Belgium; one at Louvain, the
other at Enghien, for instruction of youth. It has about one hundred
missionaries, priests and catechists, in the Sandwich Islands, the
Marquesas, Oceania, and elsewhere.
The object of the institution is to retrace the four periods of our
Lord's life: His infancy, His hidden life, His evangelical life, and
His crucified life.
With respect to our Lord's infancy, gratuitous schools are kept for
poor children; and larger schools, to which a certain number of young
persons is admitted free of charge, according to the resources of each
establishment. Those intended for the Church are here prepared for
their sacred functions.
As to our Lord's hidden life, all members of the Congregation are to
imitate it by repairing in the perpetual adoration, day and night, of
the Most Holy Sacrament, the wrongs done to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus
and of Mary, by the sins which are committed.
Priests imitate our Lord's evangelic life by the preaching of the
Gospel, and by missions.
Lastly, all members of the Congregation should recall, so far as in
them lies, our Saviour's crucified life, by practising with zeal and
prudence works of Christian mortification, specially in the mastery of
their senses.
In 1833 Gregory XVI. entrusted to the Society of Picpus the missions
of Eastern Oceania.
There are houses for the novitiate at Issy, near Paris, at Louvain,
and at Graves, near Villefranche. It continues not more than eighteen,
nor less than twelve months. Here are priests and candidates for the
priesthood, preparing themselves to live under the laws of religious
obedience, and to devote themselves either to the instruction of
youths, or to missions, or to the direction of souls, in the post
assigned to them by their obedience; or to deeper studies, which shall
enable them to serve the faith according to the talents God has given
them.
Young men and adults likewise are received, who, without being called
to the ecclesiastical state, wish to consecrate themselves to God for
the advancement of His glory, and the assuring of their own salvation
by the practice of religious virtues.
Priests besides, and laymen, are received as boarders, who, desirous
not to remain in the world, wish to prepare themselves in retirement,
and the practice of the virtues of their estate, for their passage
from time to eternity.
This society has just applied to the government for permission to send
out chaplains with those who shall be transported for their
participation in the late revolt. I do not know a higher degree of
charity than this; and many other priests have inscribed themselves
for this service.
In the chapel we saw one of the brethren continuing the perpetual
adoration of the Holy Sacrament.
The archbishop spoke in terms of great contempt of the ignorance of
the Greeks; and likewise anticipated a large conversion of the Turks,
whenever liberty of conscience is allowed. He had just sent out some
missionaries to Oceania.
Both going and returning, we passed the spot at the entrance of the
Rue du Faubourg S. Antoine where the late archbishop received his
death wound. The house near was severely battered, and in different
places along the Rue S. Antoine, and in the Faubourg, were the marks
of balls; but altogether the insurrection has left much fewer traces
behind than one could have expected.
Returning we looked into the Sainte Chapelle, S. Louis' peerless
offering in honour of the Crown of Thorns. It is a perfect gem of the
13th century, and the under chapel is almost as beautiful; but nothing
has been done since last year. All round works were going on in the
Palais de Justice, though it was Sunday. Indeed, in this respect, the
aspect of Paris generally is that of a heathen city.
At four we went to a Benediction at M. l'Abbé Ratisbonne's house, to
which he had invited us. His sisterhood of Converted Jewesses sung the
Psalms very nicely. Nothing, to my mind, can be more solemn or
touching than this ceremony, when the priest takes the ostensoire in
his hand, and blesses the people, Benedicat vos Omnipotens Deus,
Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus. One seems to hear the
words of God Himself.
We then adjourned to the parloir, with M. Ratisbonne, Lady ----, and
Mr. ----, a Scotch minister. Here we conversed about various matters;
magnetism, true and false miracles, &c. They asked about my visit to
the Tyrolese Stigmatisées. Lady ---- told a story, in one point of
which, in spite of its bizarrerie, I found something which strangely
takes hold of the mind. We had been talking of that Egyptian
witchcraft by which an unknown person is said to be seen in a child's
hand. She observed that M. Laborde had purchased this secret, and had
been able to do the thing;--having afterwards become a Christian, he
abstained from it. Lord ----, it seems, had told her respecting one of
the ---- family, that he had come back from Italy with the firm
persuasion that he should not survive a certain day: the source of
this persuasion was, a prophecy made to him by a Venetian sorceress,
and to two of his friends, who both died violent deaths at the time
specified. Lord ---- treated this notion of Mr. ---- as an
imagination; however, he made him promise that he would visit him on
the day he mentioned. After going to England, Mr. ---- returned to
Paris, and there Lord ---- met him again. One day the friends who were
with him told him that Mr. ---- was ill with a fever, and though he
thought himself better, and intended to go to a ball at Lady
Granville's, they thought ill of him. In a short time Mr. ---- died. A
few days after Lord ---- had been dining, and the dessert had just
been removed, when the door opened, and the figure of Mr.---- walked
into the room. Lord ---- said, 'What ----, is that you? I thought you
were dead.' The figure assented. 'Will you take a chair?' said Lord
----. 'Are you happy?' An expression of indescribable sadness passed
over the face, and he shook his head. 'Can I do any thing for you?'
said Lord ----. Again he shook his head. 'Why, then, have you appeared
to me?' 'Because of my solemn promise,' the figure said. 'Since,
then,' replied Lord ----, 'you say I can do nothing for you, I beg one
favour of you,--that you would go away, and never return again.' The
figure complied, and walked out of the room. I don't think I should
have thought this story worth repeating, but for M. Ratisbonne's
remarks on it. He said, 'I can well believe this may have happened,
for we are surrounded with beings that we know not. A sense is wanting
to us, and if but a veil dropped, we might see this room crowded with
beings who look on us. Besides, appearances of this kind are
continually happening, and I believe it from what occurred to myself.'
'Occurred to you!' I said. 'What do you mean?' 'I had been called in,'
he answered, 'once at Strasburgh, to administer extreme unction to a
young married lady. I found her in the agony of death, screaming
fearfully; her husband was supporting her in his arms on the bed. I
administered the last unction to her; and an effect followed which I
have often observed: she became calm, and died in the utmost peace.
Some days afterwards I was in my room about noon, looking out on the
garden. Suddenly I saw her within two steps of me, the same exactly as
when living, but with a great brightness all around her. She made a
motion to me of inexpressible sweetness and happiness, as if thanking
me for a great service, and disappeared. At the first moment I felt a
thrill like an electric shock; but this passed. I mentioned this
vision afterwards to a friend, and to her husband. I had known but
little of her.' I asked if he was quite sure this was not an illusion,
but he had no doubt about it. Of the many stories of this kind one has
heard this is the first told me by the person to whom it happened.
The heat to-day was intense, and it was followed about eleven o'clock
by a violent thunder-storm and torrents of rain.
_Monday, July 24._--P. left me at twelve. I dread exceedingly the
being alone in Paris, but for the object I have in view I must try to
get on a few days.
Called on M. Bonnetty, who was very cordial. He asked about the
movement in England, and the state of minds. Likewise on M. Gondon, to
deliver Mr. N.'s letter. I had a very long talk with him on the
state of minds in England. He expressed the greatest dislike of the
Tablet; said Dr. Wiseman had done all he could against it. Dr. W. had
multitudes of letters from persons asking what they should do if they
became Catholic. He spoke with feeling of the great sacrifice those
made who did so; that, if married especially, all means of subsistence
were closed to them; and their family often gave them up. He asked
what those who had been converted did. I said I believed many were in
great difficulties. Louis Philippe had, during his reign, appointed
more than half, or nearly two-thirds, of the French bishops: his
notion was to get "des Evêques complaisans; mais il avait la main
malheureuse." Except three or four, all that he had appointed had
proved themselves men of firmness and courage; and had not been
willing to sacrifice the liberty of the Church to his smiles. I
inquired if the late Archbishop had not once been too much inclined to
the liberal side. Louis Philippe, he said, had appointed him in that
hope; but he had opposed the utmost firmness to the king's attempt; so
that latterly the King called him a downright porcupine,--there was no
laying hold of him on any side. Twice his addresses to the King had
not appeared in the "Moniteur," which was as great an insult as could
be offered. I remarked what a great blessing it was to the French
Church to have firm and courageous bishops. He spoke with
enthusiasm of the choice of the Bishop of Digne for Paris; it was
better than could have been hoped for: he was a man of great energy,
and would leave no abuse uncorrected. The late Archbishop had some
little Gallicanism, but the new one was entirely Ultra-Montane.
I was some time at La Madeleine this evening. This church is never so
grand as when the solitary lamp is burning before the altar, and a few
worshippers here and there come, in the silence of the evening, to
offer their prayers. I observed several common soldiers who thus came
in, knelt for a short time, and went out again.
At nine went with M. Des Billiers to see the Bishop of Amatha, Vicar
Apostolic of Western Caledonia. He was lodging in a house of the
Maristes, Rue du Mont Parnasse; and had all the simplicity of a
missionary. He received us in his sleeping-room, which was not even
ordinarily comfortable. We had an hour's conversation with him. His
society has been lately established, the actual Superior General being
its founder--it is named after the Blessed Virgin; they take the three
vows, and are bound especially to the practice of simplicity. The
objects of their institution very much resemble those of the Société
de la Rue Picpus. They have now four bishops in Western Oceania. "We
did not choose this sphere for our labours," said the Bishop,
"the Pope assigned it to us." The bishop lately massacred in those
parts was of their society. The Bishop of Amatha has in all twenty-six
missionaries under him--he is going out with eleven; and this very
day, after many fruitless attempts, has received the promise of a free
passage in the first government ship, for himself and his companions.
As the transit costs 2000 francs a head, this was matter of great
importance to him, as he has 40,000 francs to set him off, with his
missionaries, from the Société de la Propagation de la Foi; but
nothing for his after support. Thus, they live by cultivating the
earth--and, he says, the natives are only excited to labour by seeing
them labour. When asked whether the savages were more inclined to
Protestantism or Catholicism, he answered, "They are ready to take
whichever comes first; but in the long run we expel the Protestants.
They see that we are consistent and invariable in what we teach--that
we come and settle among them without wife or children; that we do not
trade; and so they are unable to assign any motive for our conduct but
charity to them; and this in the end works upon them." By the bishop's
account he and his missionaries live in the midst of the savages. He
seems about thirty-eight or forty years of age--able to "endure
hardship," and quite willing, in a state of the most apostolic
poverty. He knew and spoke highly of Bishop Broughton--also had
heard a high character of Bishop Selwyn. I said, there was not upon
the earth a bishop of a more Catholic heart or greater charity than
he. He said, he heard he had put down trading among his missionaries,
and brought them into order. "He is living," I said, "just the same
life which you have described, cultivating the earth with his
missionaries." The bishop's expression was, "We try to make the
savages men, and then Christians. We have been calumniated as though
we were agents of the French government; this will tell you," he said,
"whether that is true:" and he read me an official letter refusing him
a free passage. "This would not have been were we government agents."
He spoke highly of the Anglican missionaries, but very badly of the
Methodists--"they will do anything by any means, against us--but the
others are men of education and good faith, and act honourably." Two
Anglican ministers in Sydney, he said, had lately gone over to them;
and a third, the best preacher in the city, was expected. They had a
splendid cathedral there, which had cost 40,000l., and some 15,000
Catholics--the Anglicans about 2000, the Methodists 10,000. (I am told
this is entirely incorrect; the numbers of the English Church are far
greater.) "We want but England to be Catholic," he said, "in order to
convert the world; men we can send in abundance in France, it is
your resources we need." I said, "You must pray for that." "We do pray
constantly for it," he said. He alluded to the corrupt state of morals
in Sydney. At parting he regretted he could not answer my visit, as he
was going to Auvergne, his own country, to-morrow, to see his family
before leaving France.
It is, I think, impossible to conceive a higher degree of charity than
the going to live among savages in Oceania. Banished from country and
friends, without family ties or support from domestic affections--in
danger at times of massacre, and always subject to every species of
personal discomfort. If this be not an Apostolic life, I am unable to
conceive what is.
_Tuesday, July 25._--Went to a Low Mass at S. Roch: this is a poor
uncomfortable church. I do not like the demeanour of people at Paris,
compared with those in the country; they seem afraid to show reverence.
M. des Billiers took me to the Hôpital Necker, for men and women, near
the Rue de Sevres: his friend the almoner took us round; he seemed an
example of the old French character, polite and gay, with a natural
spring of cheerfulness, which woke a corresponding chord in every one
he addressed. I was pleased to see, as we went through the wards, in
which were several wounded in the affair of June, how every face
of man, woman, and child lighted up with pleasure as he addressed
them. This hospital is served by eighteen sisters of charity. After
this nothing would do but he must take us to l'Institution des
Aveugles, though he left a party in his own rooms. I have never been
over an institution more interesting or more worthy of support than
this. I had a feeling of dread in entering, to see all around me boys
and girls deprived of the most precious of the senses--here, however,
charity seems to have done all that is possible to alleviate their
loss. They are employed in a great variety of occupations, not only
reading, writing, and music, but in carpentering, printing, turning
with the lathe, making shoes and slippers, and a great many other
trades. Boys on one side and girls on the other were walking about the
house and the garden as freely as if they possessed the blessing of
sight--all seemed cheerful and even happy. We watched with
astonishment a blind boy using a sharp instrument in turning the
lathe, with as much precision and fearlessness as if he saw. Many
likewise were practising music, and the sudden smiles which mantled
over their countenances every now and then were pleasant to behold. I
bought for twelve francs a pair of candlesticks, turned and polished
with the utmost nicety,--all done by the blind. The eye can detect no
inequality or variance in the work; they are as if they came out
of a first-rate shop in London or Paris. It is true that this
spectacle was after all not without pain; for even while feeling the
charity which had successfully devised so many occupations for
creatures lying under such a loss, the expression of each face,
deprived, as it were, of its soul, afflicted one--and here were two
hundred young people of both sexes in this condition; very often
likewise their faces were otherwise deformed. We asked one lad to read
to us: he passed his fingers rapidly over letters raised a little
above the paper, and read us tolerably fast a passage respecting
English rule in India, in which, oddly enough, my own name occurred.
Another mode of reading, not by letters, but by other marks
representing letters, and similarly raised, seemed more difficult, or
the reader had less practice. Another blind man wrote a short sentence
which we dictated to him respecting our visit. This seemed done by a
very complicated instrument, which had about sixteen points, capable
of forming all the letters and figures, in a sort of square hand;
several of these points went to make a single letter; and they were
touched by the hand as rapidly as I have seen lace-makers fix their
pins. One blind boy kindly directed us over to the female part of the
house: they move up and down stairs and about the corridors without
hesitation. Our friend and conductor had a kind word for every
different party, and seemed quite at home. It would have been
impossible to be out of sorts in his company; he was ever chirruping
round one.
Afterwards M. Des Billiers walked with me to the Enfans Trouvés, Rue
d'Enfer. I had once before seen a house of this kind at Rouen, and
this renewed all one's feelings of admiration and love for S. Vincent
de Paul. If ever charity flowed in any human breast, it was in his.
When people scruple at admitting some material miracle, such, for
instance, as that mentioned above, wrought before his shrine, they
forget that the whole life of this saint was a spiritual miracle
infinitely more astonishing. It is a simple exercise of God's
_creative_ power attending, it is true, on the virtue flowing over
from our Saviour to His saints, that a malady is removed by the
intercession of a saint, whose relics are approached in faith, but
that man's naturally selfish and fallen spirit should become a shrine
of self-denying, patient, suffering, and conquering love, from the
baptismal font unto the grave, is a miracle of God's _redeeming_
power, of His election working in union with His creature's will,
which does, indeed, awaken the greatest astonishment. "Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto
my Father." It is said not to the Apostles, nor to those on whom
they laid their hands, nor to the first ages merely, but without limit
of time.
In the room where the infants exposed are first received there are
eighty-five cradles; many of them were tenanted, some by infants
apparently dying, or, again, only that day received; one was lying,
just arrived, not yet undressed, washed, and clothed,--the children of
shame and disease, too often; always, I fear, of misery; one could not
look upon them without the deepest commiseration, or the highest
regard to those sisters of charity, (for this hospital there are
thirty-two), who fulfil their mission towards these the veriest
outcasts of the world. The sister who took us round told us that
twelve a day were baptized on an average; sometimes as many as thirty.
If they survive the first few days, they are sent into the country to
be nursed; but they are brought up in different houses, instructed for
various trades, and kept, if necessary, till twenty-one years of age.
At present the use of the tower is suspended during the day, but at
night infants are so received, left sometimes without rags to cover
them; a little badge is put on each, and any particular marks about
them noted. In the day they are received upon the attestation of a
public officer. We went through the ophthalmerie, and infirmerie. It
was most interesting to see these little creatures of various ages,
but nearly all suffering, finding from those who had become
their parents in Christ the mercy which their natural parents had not
shown them. I said to the sister that I feared they had few English
among them: she assented. When will my country be foremost again in
these works of saintly charity, in this bearing of the cross amid the
sins and miseries of a fallen world? Would that instead of so much
earthly wealth she were once more the isle of Saints. But this is
impossible, so long as she denies, despises, or misunderstands the
honour due to the virgin estate of those consecrated to God, or the
power of Christ's sacrifice conveyed from the Lord to His members.
_Wednesday, July 26._--Had about an hour's conversation with the Père
de Ravignan. He asked me if I knew the Comte de Montalembert, said his
intended preface to the life of S. Bernard, on the religious orders,
had already swollen to three volumes: he regretted that the Père
Lacordaire was not at Paris, for me to see him. I asked why he had
quitted the National Assembly. That, he said, has caused us some pain.
His own generous nature led him to think that he might induce the
liberal members there to extend their liberality to the Church, and to
countenance liberty of teaching; but he soon found his mistake in
this; they were false liberals, ready enough to apply their principles
to state matters, but not ready to carry them into the domain of
thought. They were liberal _against_ the Church, and despots
_over_ it. M. Lacordaire had not entered the Assembly to gratify any
wish of his own; he sat there on the Mountain; but this state of
things, this difficult and confined position in which he could not act
freely, was most repugnant to his disposition. So he resigned; it
might have been better fully to have considered the reality before
hand. As to the salaries given to the clergy, Le Père Lacordaire was
not for discontinuing them. No doubt, miserable as they are in amount,
and given in exchange for ample estates, it would be desirable to do
without them, were it possible. But as the clergy is mainly drawn from
the lower classes, this is not possible; and the small "casuel" they
receive for baptisms, marriages, and interments, is necessary to eke
out their scanty incomes. It was sad to see such a remuneration made
to its clergy by a Catholic country, while England, he said, allowed
such comparatively liberal stipends to the same class.
I asked him what were the strongest books on the Roman Primacy. He
said the Brothers Ballerini, and Valemburg's Controversies. I remarked
that for nearly three years my attention had been fixed on this
subject, and that I had pursued it through Councils and Fathers down
to the conclusion that the Pope had indisputably a primacy of order
(or honour) in the whole Church, but had not a primacy of jurisdiction
over the East. He did not advance anything new on this point. He
quoted the usual passages of S. Irenæus, S. Victor, St. Cyprian, St.
Augustine. I had considered, I said, all these, and a great multitude
of others, but still my conclusion was against the primacy of
jurisdiction, as concerning the Oriental Church. He then attempted to
meet this by the paucity of documents in early times; but I said those
which actually existed told against the Roman claim. "Suppose," said
he, "you were to admit the Roman hypothesis; would you not find it
solve all the passages?" I said this was the very way in which I had
studied the question, and come to just the contrary conclusion. He
said that he understood English, and would read my book, which I had
offered to send him, and let me know his answer to my view.
I was struck again with the charity of his manner, and with his
likeness to Manning. Went for half an hour to the adjoining church of
S. Vincent de Paul. His shrine is still open over the altar. I saw
various articles, clothes, books, crosses, carried up and put against
the glass covering his relics, for the purpose of blessing them.
At one went to the distribution of prizes at the Petit Séminaire, 21.
Rue N. D. des Champs. The four vicaires généraux of the Chapter of
Paris sat in front, to crown with a chaplet the gainers of the prizes,
and to present books to them and those who gained an accessit.
There were a good many other clergy, and a tolerable number of laity,
men and women, present, friends evidently of the young men and boys. I
could not but be struck here, as elsewhere, with the great number of
plebeian and unintellectual faces among the clergy, (to which,
however, the four vicaires généraux, and some others, were
exceptions.) As for the laity present, male and female, it was a mass
of unredeemed ugliness. One of the professors read an address to the
pupils of full a half hour, passing in view the whole life of the late
Archbishop, his studies, labours, writings, acts, and lastly, his
martyrdom and burial, not forgetting his solicitude for them. One of
the last of his public acts was the coming there on Whit-Sunday, a
fortnight before his fatal wound. I did not think this address
good--it was monotonous both in tone and delivery;--very remarkable is
the difference in the sound of the French language when read and when
spoken. The recitation is so peculiarly spondaic, stiff, and
conventional, in the former case; while, in the latter, it is easy and
flowing. When this was done, the giving of prizes began. It took an
hour; and no wonder, for at least two hundred wreaths and two hundred
sets of books, single or double, were to be distributed. Many indeed
received several wreaths and prizes. The winners came forward,
ascended four or five steps, and were successively crowned and
saluted on each cheek by one of the Vicaires Généraux; now and then
they were taken to a friend or relative, male or female, when present,
to receive their crown. It was put on the head, and then carried in
the hand. I thought that at least the principle of emulation was not
discouraged. But the great number of subjects which were rewarded was
as remarkable as the number of prizes. It seemed as if they never
would end. There was Excellence and Sagesse: Greek, Latin, and French
composition; Latin verse; Philosophy, Rhetoric, Geography, English
Language, &c.; and most of these divided into different forms. No
merit could be said to be neglected. There was a first prize, and a
second, and sometimes three accessit besides; and some reached nine,
or even ten rewards. I dare say they all felt as young Greeks
receiving the laurel crown. Certainly the mounting those steep stairs,
in order to receive their crown, must have been a nervous operation.
At the conclusion, one of the Vicaires Généraux rose, and delivered a
few words to the pupils with great simplicity and ease; the day of
return was then announced for Thursday, 5th Oct. I marked many
ingenuous and pleasing countenances among the successful candidates. A
father near me was in a state of the greatest excitement at the prizes
of his son, a lad of thirteen.
I went over for a few minutes to the exquisite chapel of Les Dames de
bon Secours, or Garde-Malades: it was quite silent; and I could enjoy
its beauty without interruption. I was told yesterday that the labours
of these sisters by sick beds materially shorten their life; and that
they enter the society with the full consciousness that the service
they undertake is injurious and often fatal. Their work is, to attend
on sick persons of good condition, and to use the opportunity, which
sickness rarely fails to present, of directing the thoughts to
religious subjects. A payment of five francs a day is made to the
institution for their services.
Went to M. Gondon, who took me to the Comte de Montalembert's
reception. The Bishop of Langres there, M. l'Abbé de Casales, two
other members of the Assembly, also M. Bonnetty, M. de S. Chéron,
translator of Hurter's Life of Innocent III., and about ten other
gentlemen. La Comtesse was in Belgium, visiting her family. I had some
talk with the Bishop. M. de Montalembert began a conversation about
England, which interested me. "I am in great fear for you; if you
resist the present crisis, as you did the first revolution and
Napoleon, it will be a great glory. The glory of England is already
great, but that will be almost miraculous. It is the struggle of
paganism against religion. I admit that you have in England a larger
amount of religion on the whole than any other country has:
c'est une réligion bien mince, you will agree with me: there are very
few among you who hold an integral Catholicism; but, however, religion
of some sort there is. Yet, in spite of this, the great mass of your
people is become heathen; they look at your books and your lives, and
believe there is no other life, for you have taught them practically
there is none. It is all very well to tell them that, were property
divided among all, they would get some eleven shillings a week;
whatever it be, they will try for it: if they do not believe the next
life, they will try to get something of this. And then look at the
state of things all over the Continent. If England outrides this
storm, it will be marvellous. I wish she may with all my heart, but
she alone remains." He seemed to think the German and Italian unities,
if constituted, would alter the balance in Europe. As for the state of
France no one, I imagine, can tell what is coming. M. de Montalembert
and two others are the only members of the old House of Peers sitting
in the Assembly. There is a fair number of old deputies; but the great
mass of the rest are utterly unworthy, from education, position, or
any merit whatever, to represent France. They are not up to any of the
questions which present themselves. And from such an Assembly France
is to receive a constitution. Of the French generals at present in
power, M. Bédeau is the only one who is religious: I heard
lately a remarkable trait of him. When in Africa with his army he met
a priest, went forward to him, took him aside to some distance, and
confessed to him; he then returned to his army, and said, if any one
liked to follow his example, he would wait for him; they were going to
fight, and no one could calculate the chances of war. How many did the
like I did not hear.
_Thursday, July 27._--M. des Billiers came to go with me to M. Hervé,
the surgeon of Les Sœurs de la Charité, to get his account of the
material facts attending the healing of the novice on the 9th of May.
We found him out, but Mad. Hervé gave the same account as we had
before received; and told us if we would call later we could see M.
Hervé. I did so, and he then said that he had deposited a medical
account of the whole thing with the Sisters, which I might see in the
Rue du Bac.
I went again to call on M. Noirlieu, but found him out. On the way
went into the old abbey church of S. Germain des Prés: since I was
last there the whole choir has been painted. I think this is the most
pleasing and impressive of all the churches at Paris. I could not be
there without emotion, considering the long line of Benedictines who
had worshipped within those walls, and deserved so well of the Church
of Christ by studying and editing her great Fathers. I saw
commemorated in one monument three great names--Mabillon,
Descartes, and Montfaucon; of the second, I think it was said, "qui
luce, quam indagavit, nunc fruitur:" this comprehends everything,--to
enjoy that light. O utinam!
I have been looking to-day at a short account published here: "Sur les
soixante-dix serviteurs mis à mort pour la foi en Chine, en Tong-King,
et en Cochin-Chine, déclarés vénérables par notre S. Père le Pape
Gregoire XVI." It is a wonderful history: the deeds and sufferings of
the early Church exactly reproduced in our own times. These martyrs
were even more savagely tortured than those of old by the Romans. And
some of them are only four or five years older than oneself, some of
them natives of China, younger; so that while I have wasted my days in
vanity, others, sharers of this same flesh and blood, have entered the
noble army of martyrs. And if charity dispenses the place of the
redeemed in the mansions on high, near to their Lord assuredly will be
their place, who passed from the midst of a deceiving and voluptuous
civilisation, unstained and unallured, into the midst of a population
lying in the valley of the shadow of death; low, grovelling, filthy in
mind and body, and this to save some souls, if it might be, out of
that otherwise condemned mass. It would seem as if out of corruption
at its worst degree the highest, purest, and most self-denying
charity were to go forth, to show that God's arm is not shortened, and
that we might be, if we would, all that the martyrs of old were.
Moreover, the people of Cochin China are naturally of a peculiarly
timid disposition; yet many have been found to emulate the courage of
European priests and bishops, in bearing the most prolonged torments
and trials. What a horrible thing does it seem, that we should be
practically taught, that the system which produces these men is such a
corruption of God's revelation as is but a step removed, if removed at
all, from idolatry.
Walked about the gardens of the Tuileries and through the Boulevards
this evening: the population of Paris seems to pour itself out with
delight here; and no wonder, for what great city has so pleasing a
place of recreation for all classes, not the great and rich merely, as
the gardens of the Tuileries. To me especially they bring back long
past years. But I don't at all like being alone in this Babylon.
_Friday, July 28._--I met the Bishop of Langres and a party, who went
over Gerente's painted glass manufactory, 13. Quai d'Anjou. He seems
to have reached the colours of old glass, and showed us the process by
which all the appearance of antiquity is given to new glass. By means
of acids he produces imperfections in glass which was smooth and
clear; thus heightening the tone of other parts. Even chemists
have been unable to discern the difference between two pieces of
glass, one ancient and one modern. He said ---- was a humbug; Waille
was the best English worker, but Hardman would be so soon.
Went into Notre Dame for some time: in spite of the grandeur of many
parts of this church, I always feel dissatisfied with it as a whole.
Went also to S. Severin, to a little chapel of the Blessed Virgin, the
altar of which, and figure of the Virgin and Child, please me much.
Took a letter from Labbé to M. Dupanloup, but he was not in Paris.
Called likewise twice on M. Defresne, but he was out; and took a
letter to the Bishop of Orleans, but he could only be seen between
eight and nine in the morning. In the evening I found Mr. A. Coppinger
at home, and had a long talk with him. He seems to think there is no
chance whatever for Henri Cinq; that the sentiment of loyalty, of the
duty even of obeying authority, is in the multitude utterly extinct.
The rich shopkeeping classes are universally unchristian; so that in
repressing the last émeute of June, even the revolters behaved with
more respect in the churches than the Garde Nationale sent to fight
them. The root of French misfortune is the thoroughly bad education
given to men in all but the ecclesiastical schools. They regard
Christianity as if they were outside it; the Gospel as a very
beautiful book, doubtless, but not one commanding obedience from
them. Living upon a civilisation, the whole force of which is derived
from Christianity, they think that they can dispense with this the
root of society, and construct society on their own superficial
theories. The revolution of February took every one by surprise, even
those who brought it about; it was the result of secret societies
which had been existing for years; but though they felt their power,
and thought that they might, perhaps, overturn a ministry, they did
not calculate on casting out a dynasty. The last revolt had been very
perfectly organised: it had a great many leaders, each with so many
hundred men under him; these leaders well paid, but the common men
fighting gratuitously for what was supposed to be their own cause.
Though near ten thousand men are now in prison, it is not supposed
that many of these leaders have been captured. And so what may happen
in the winter is a subject for much fear.
_Saturday, July 29._--Went at eight this morning to call on M.
Defresne. He was very cordial, asked about our visit to the Tyrolese
Stigmatisées--had heard from Manzoni that we had been to him. He soon
got into his usual animated tone of conversation. The events of
February and June had had a beneficial effect for the clergy, in
bringing out their charitable care for the wounded, to which even the
saying of Mass had been postponed. L'Abbé Etienne had just been
dining with him, so that he too had heard of the healing of the
novice. A friend whom he named as the Poet Reboul came in: we all
agreed that the life of S. Vincent was a greater miracle than any
thing wrought by God in virtue of his intercession. M. Defresne
engaged me to come again on Tuesday morning, and proposed a dinner for
us three.
Mr. A. Coppinger returned my call, and offered to be of any service in
showing me institutions, &c. He attested the great charity and
devotion of the clergy. This has the most intimate connection with the
celibate. He did not seem to think there was much improvement in the
morals of the different educational establishments of the University.
In his own time at the Ecole Polytechnique out of 200 scholars not
above a dozen would be practical Christians; for not only was all
religious instruction utterly neglected, but the professors, often
infidels, would inspire them with a contempt and dislike for religion.
Now the Ecole Polytechnique had 250 scholars, and perhaps a quarter of
them might be sincere Christians. When once they were known as such,
the probability was that they would be very decided and earnest: they
were sometimes members of the society of S. Vincent de Paul for
instructing the poor.
Went to M. des Billiers to ask him to accompany me to the Rue du Bac,
to obtain a copy of M. Hervé's attestation of the miraculous
cure. We found the original of this no longer in their possession, it
having been sealed up and deposited, with other documents, near the
shrine of S. Vincent. They had a copy of it, which I proposed to copy,
and then take it to M. Hervé for his signature. This was done; and I
hope to obtain it to-morrow. I asked M. des Billiers what he thought
of the permanency of the republic. His conviction is that it cannot
stand, but that the time of its duration may be indefinite from a few
months to ten years. He believes that France is entirely monarchical:
but it will probably require great sufferings and an exhaustion of the
country for the monarchy to return. The obstacle is, that the middle
classes, the bourgeoisie, who now reign, dread with the monarchy a
cortége of noblesse and clergy. Could they be fully persuaded that all
ranks would share alike, and that no attempt would be made to revive
old privileges, they would be for the monarchy; for they want trade,
confidence, and a firm government, and this the republic cannot give.
The person of the monarch is not so clear; for though all educated and
thoughtful people must see that a monarchy must rest on a principle,
and that legitimacy alone has that principle, yet the name of Napoleon
has still a vast influence throughout the poorer classes. The
restoration had lost a fine opportunity. It was really very popular at
first, and had it applied the principles of liberty to the
Church and the nation, might have maintained itself: instead of this,
it honoured a few individual ecclesiastics, thereby creating a great
ill-will against the Church, but acted towards the whole body of the
Church in the most illiberal spirit, keeping it under lock and key.
Called on M. Gondon: we talked about the cure of the novice. I told
him I was engaged in collecting the proofs of it. M. Gondon thought
that the Benedictines and Dominicans were not destined to take root
afresh in France: he pointed to the position of the Père Lacordaire in
proof of this. With very great abilities, especially the power of
carrying away his auditors by his eloquence, he could with difficulty
maintain one very small house in France. In the middle ages such a man
might have founded an order. He heard his celebrated sermon on the
first Sunday after the revolution of February, in Notre Dame. From
beginning to end "c'était un délire." The father is just returned to
Paris. He observed that late events in England must have convinced
reflecting people how completely our Church was the puppet of the
ministers of the day. Louis Philippe had tried to play the same game
in France as had been played in England in the appointment of bishops,
but the grace of consecration had been too strong for him. I replied
that this was not quite fair, for we too had men of courage
among us; and I quoted Bishop Selwyn's energetic and successful
protest against the attempt of a secretary of state to sacrifice the
rights of the natives in New Zealand.
I then went to the Sœurs de la Charité, and soon found myself in
their secrétariat, engaged among a number of sisters in copying M.
Hervé's attestation. It was enclosed in a sort of pastoral letter of
M. l'Abbé Etienne to the sisters throughout the world, dated 31st May,
1848; expressing his confidence that the bark of S. Vincent would
weather the storm of this revolution as it had the last of 1830, if
they were faithful to their rules, and fulfilled their ministry with
zeal. I found likewise that, three days after this cure, there had
been another of a person afflicted with blindness for seven months,
and I determined to go into this case likewise. The sisters went to
the Benediction at five: soon after I followed them to their chapel.
It was a most touching sight to see so large a number of sisters and
novices in worship together before the Host. Here then, I thought,
were before me so many female hearts offering up to God daily the
sacrifice of themselves in works of charity; they have made the
voluntary surrender of the pleasures of home, of feelings dearest to
the natural man; there is no holding back in their offering: it is
complete, and penetrated with charity. Here are hundreds kneeling
in front of me who dedicate their labours to the hospital and
the sick bed, going forth into all lands, and making the healing of
the body a means to cure the soul. If ever there was any institution
on which the sunlight of God's countenance may be supposed to rest, it
is surely this.
It was settled that I should return on Monday to continue my extract.
M. Defresne told me this morning that the Pères Lazaristes possess a
great number of S. Vincent's letters in MS., giving the most minute
directions as to cases of conscience and details of practice, which
were written to his fathers during his long experience, and which show
the most marvellous knowledge of the heart and the most acute
practical judgment. It is an instance of his wisdom that he directed
the sisters for thirty years by word of mouth, and at last wrote down
for them the rules which he had found work efficiently in that time. A
real constitution exists before it is written, just as model French
constitutions cease to exist before the ink which enunciates their
principles is dry.
M. des Billiers told me to-day of an old French Legitimist of
distinction, who, like most of his party, refrained for a long time
from exercising the franchise after Louis Philippe's accession,
because it involved an oath of fidelity to him. They found at length
the inconvenience of this, when they wanted to elect a Legitimist
deputy; and the old man was much pressed to take the oath. He refused
for a long time, but at length said he would go. As his purpose became
known, and he was much respected and looked up to, there was much
expectation at the polling-place what he would do. When called upon to
take the oath, he said, "M. le Président, allow me to tell you a
story. I remember being with his Majesty, Louis XVIII., King of
France, when a young prince came before him, confessed his faults,
and, falling at his feet, promised an unalterable fidelity. We all
know how that prince has kept his oath. Now I promise and swear,
(repeating the formulary of the oath), fidelity to Louis Philippe, and
I will keep my oath as he kept his." Every one was convulsed with
laughter, and the President could hardly stifle his: but he intimated
that he could not allow the oath to be taken with that reservation.
The old man repeated it again, by itself, but the effect had been
produced, and every one saw with what purpose he took it.
But who can regret that so foul a villany as the supplanting a king, a
kinsman, and a benefactor, has met with retribution even on earth?
_Sunday, July 30._--I have just heard at S. Roch a sermon which
lasted more than an hour and a quarter, delivered, for the most part,
with great rapidity, and a vehemence of tone and action which would
have frightened an English audience. The preacher, l'Abbé
Du----, showed very considerable power both of thought and expression.
I should have preferred a less rhetorical display, both in manner and
matter. But power there certainly was. "My thoughts are not your
thoughts, saith the Lord." He began by saying we were all under the
reign of a sophism; this sophism was, under a great variety of shapes,
the preferring the present life to the future. He then dwelt with
great force and beauty on our Saviour's life on earth, that He was
God, and that He was a carpenter; that He worked for his daily bread.
Now God can do nothing but what is perfectly good and wise; therefore,
when He assumed this servile condition, it was a work of perfect
wisdom and goodness. He came to do His Father's will. And this one
condition runs through all degrees of human society, alone making them
acceptable to God,--to do God's will. Glory, genius, success, the
wonder and admiration of our fellow men; all this is nothing. To do
the will of God will alone open the kingdom of heaven--Jesus Christ
stands ready to open the kingdom of heaven to generation after
generation of those who, sealed by the fore-knowledge of God, and
working with His grace, do His will--and to those alone. There was no
key to the present state of things, to these terrible conflicts, this
incessant agitation, but one; that life was but a day's labour,
an hour's--nothing in comparison of eternity. This life was not the
proper condition of humanity. It was fallen--the Saviour's proper work
was to restore it to its normal condition; but that normal condition
can never be here. Here it is a work of reparation, slow, painful,
full of obstacles in proportion to the depth of the fall, but always
merciful. Who would give a patient the full nourishment which he could
take in health? Now, here we are all patients of Jesus--all--and to
our latest moment. We shall never return to our normal condition on
earth, but in eternity. You are all workmen and workwomen; idleness is
a capital sin--idleness will shut out from heaven--Jesus Christ has
taught us to work, every one in his estate. The work is one, though
the condition may vary,--to do God's will. It will not be asked us
whether we had genius, skill, power to embrace the works of God in our
thought; but one thing only will be asked us,--whether we have done
our work; that very work which God set us,--to do His will. And this
is why society is suffering now to its utmost depths. This world is
made the end, the limit, the object, the reward--eternity is put out
of sight. "On a ôté Jesus Christ au travailleur de la pensée, au
travailleur de l'art, au travailleur de la terre. Et nous souffrons,
nous souffrons tous--nous allons de souffrances en souffrances." Thus
the question of labour is insoluble. Men think of repaying the
young girl's sacrifice who works day and night for the support of her
parents; who denies herself every gratification to which she might
innocently aspire, with a little more wages--or the mother's tears,
who suffers for her family, or the father's continued exertions, with
a few pieces of money. Jesus Christ did not so: he assigned to labour
a far different reward--he would give it no reward at all on earth--he
would give it eternal life. He then drew a vivid picture of the
priest's life of toil, suffering, instruction, and benediction. What
was the end of this work? It was eternal life. The greater the
humiliation, the greater the suffering, the more absolute the cutting
off of all human sources of enjoyment or requital--the more the will
of God was done, the greater the reward in heaven. To man, no matter
what his condition on earth, or the powers of his mind, to man working
with grace and inspired by grace, the kingdom of heaven, according as
he has done the will of God, will be given. This, and this alone, is
the remedy for all the ills of society; and we are under the dominion
of a sophism, because this truth is set aside.
There was rather a numerous congregation, by far the greater part
women; not many persons of education, I should imagine--yet the sermon
in tone was far beyond the reach of any but the educated.
This morning at eight I was at Mass here, a short High Mass;
there were many communicants. But I have never been in a church so
inconvenient in one respect, there were hardly any prie-dieus; the
consequence is, that people sit nearly all the time, or just bend the
knee against their chair; it is no easy matter to kneel on the floor,
so encumbered with chairs. I think there is far less reverence in the
outward demeanour of people at Paris than in the provinces.
Went to the evening service at Notre Dame des Victoires: I wished to
be present at one of the meetings of the Archiconfrérie du très-saint
Cœur de Marie. There was a large congregation, which at length
filled the church: some thirty or forty members round the altar of the
Blessed Virgin; of the rest nine-tenths at least were women of the
lower classes. Vespers were sung, the congregation joining with
remarkable unanimity. This indeed gives a particular and most pleasing
character to the service of the Archiconfrérie. Then the Abbé des
Genettes, founder of the brotherhood, a silver-haired old man, mounted
the pulpit, and spoke in the most familiar and practical manner on the
text "Beware of false prophets." His manner was in calmness the very
opposite of that of this morning's preacher. He contrasted the
disobedience to parents which now prevailed, the debauchery and
wickedness all around them, with what he had known fifty or sixty
years ago. They had been struck for this, and the rod was still
suspended over their heads; he besought them to repent. When this was
over, he read from a paper requests for the prayers of the
Archiconfrérie for so many men, so many women, parishes, bishops, &c.;
among which I heard in immediate juxtaposition "270 Protestants, 69
Jews." He likewise read a letter of thanks for their prayers, to which
was attributed the conversion of a desperate sinner, and such letters
he said he was receiving every week. He implored them to be very
fervent in their prayers for the objects named to them. There would be
in the week, he said, three especial days: Tuesday, the feast of St.
Peter _in vinculis_. He read them the account of this from the Acts.
It struck me, from the attention with which they listened to this,
that they were not accustomed to read it. He then passed to the Pope,
as successor of St. Peter, who was now, it might be said, in a sort of
moral captivity. He earnestly and repeatedly besought their prayers
for him, who was suffering at the hands of ungrateful subjects on whom
he had showered benefactions. Not that the bark of St. Peter could
ever be overwhelmed by the waves: it was secure by the divine promise;
but they might so far persecute the Pope as to gain for him the crown
of martyrdom. More than twenty times since his accession the Holy
Father had commended himself to their prayers by means of
persons coming from Rome. They should all now pray for him every day.
He should be in his confessional that day at six A.M., for several
hours; again from half-past-two till five; and from seven till nine,
in order that they might prepare themselves for the plenary indulgence
attached to this Church on Thursday. He notified likewise a fresh
religious service, for the soul of the late archbishop, on Monday, 7th
August, at Notre Dame. They should all pray earnestly for the holy
archbishop: it may be that he had washed out with his blood his sins,
and needed not their prayers; but they should pray for him. He then
descended for the benediction. The whole congregation seemed to have
one heart and one voice in the hymns which followed. This service
lasted from seven to half-past-nine, and was very interesting.
_Monday, July 31._--Went to the Père de Ravignan. He told me that,
since our last conversation, he had been looking in "Tournely," where
he found a passage on the primacy of jurisdiction, which seemed to him
quite convincing. He gave me a note for the Père Lacordaire, but my
visit was cut short by an appointment, so he begged me to come again.
Went to M. des Billiers: he attacked me again on the primacy of
jurisdiction. I said that the Ultramontane theory, when pushed to its
absolute issue, demanded the infallibility of the Pope singly; that,
indeed, this was involved in the primacy of jurisdiction; that
the Pope had exerted the supreme power of withdrawing their authority
from the French bishops when it seemed to him for the good of the
Church. He did not like to admit that the primacy of jurisdiction
involved infallibility, because infallibility of the Pope is not a
dogma. But here lies precisely the difficulty of their position. Roman
Catholics want, for the completion and impregnability of their system,
the infallibility of the single papal chair, and this is precisely
what has been ever denied by large schools among them, and is not even
now an article of faith. For that they are the universal Church, that
their dogma alone is true, that the Greek and every other communion is
heretical or schismatical, or both, all this depends on the
infallibility of the single papal chair. I said that, if they would
prove the Greek Church to be in schism, I should give up our cause.
We went to see M. Gabet, at the Pères Lazaristes, who has been ten
years in Central Tartary, or Thibet; gone through great dangers and
privations; has come back safe; and is going out again. He was with a
brother missionary, who remains at Macao till he rejoins him. His
account of Thibet is most interesting, and in many respects very
surprising. They have many Catholic practices there--such as holy
water, the religious celibate. The Lamas, or priests, are very
numerous. Two-thirds of the men of the country live in religious
celibacy; and he believes that this is a real celibacy. He and his
companions lived for six months in a great community of 5000 lamas;
they were, perhaps, of ten different nations, and spoke four different
languages. During that time they had not observed the least
impropriety among them. They are religious, pray much, and have a
complete contempt for those who do not pray. Faire l'esprit fort among
them is a sure way to be thought little of. But this religion is very
superstitious: they have not the power to choose what they should
embrace and what refuse; they have the instinct and the need of
religion very strong, but not discernment of what is true religion.
Thus, if you read to them the Gospel, they will adore Jesus Christ,
Pilate, Caiaphas, &c. Theirs is not an "incroyance raisonnée" like
Protestantism, but a cloud of superstition which obscures their sight.
He anticipated that Christianity would make large progress among them,
because of their religious spirit. There is as yet no religious
establishment in Thibet. All over Asia the ministers of religion
observe continence. The character of priest and married man is to
their notions incompatible. They look for a complete denial of self in
one who would teach them religion. There are no laws against foreign
religions in Thibet, as there are in China. A great number of the
female sex also live in continence, though not so many as of
men. I asked him how he accounted for the connexion between so many of
their usages and Catholicity. He said some were of opinion that they
had derived them from Catholicism; but as they are exceedingly
tenacious of their rites, he did not himself think this: others again
thought that Catholicism had borrowed from them. Neither of these
views was necessary. There was no trace whatever of Christian
missionaries having been among them. He thought that all the
resemblance which was to be found in their rites, customs, and belief,
might be accounted for as relics of the one true faith communicated to
all the world originally, and handed down by tradition. This faith had
been guarded in its purity among the Jews by a written law, and other
institutions: but other nations had possessed it likewise, and
retained it more or less corrupted. They had no bloody sacrifices, but
offered wine, water, corn, and especially paper. He had been well
treated on the whole: they had converted two Lamas--one of these had
lately written to him: he had sent the letter to the Society for
Propagation of the Faith at Lyons, for he believed there was no one in
France who understood the Mongolese language. That of Thibet is taken
from Sanscrit; but the continuous line above the letters which exists
in the latter language is broken at each letter in this. But the
strangest thing of all is the Grand Lama, who is at once High Priest,
King, and Divinity. They believe in the transmigration of souls, and
suppose that Buddha continually becomes incarnate for the redemption
of man. When the Grand Lama dies, they wait till a successor is made
known to them. And here M. Gabet said that, allowing for some
jugglery, it was impossible not to conclude that there was diabolic
agency at work. The present Grand Lama is a boy of ten years old; the
son of a poor woodcutter 600 leagues from the Grand Lama's residence.
The Grand Lama is discovered by a child of a few months or a year old
announcing that he is the Grand Lama who died--that his soul has
passed to him. Thereupon the most particular inquiries are made. A
commission is sent to the spot, and the utensils used by the late
Grand Lama are put among a number of others just like them; they then
demand of the infant which belonged to the Grand Lama, and he replies,
this and this was mine. Were this merely an arrangement of the men in
power, would not have chosen the son of a poor man, at a great
distance. They had not been, it is true, ocular witnesses of these
things; but from what he had heard, he could not doubt that there were
"des prestiges diaboliques." Under the Grand Lama there is a king for
the management of temporal matters, and four ministers; these conduct
matters in an interregnum. They had lived in intimacy with one
of these four ministers. The missionary in these countries must be
prepared for the most absolute self-denial--he must carry his life in
his hand. He noticed that throughout Hindostan the religious
indifference of the Europeans (save the Spaniards and Portuguese)
injured them exceedingly in the opinion of the natives. With them
religion is a first need of life: it does not matter so much what
religion it is--to pray is sufficient; but a man who does not
pray,--who has apparently no religion at all--is one of the lowest of
beings in their eyes. The English might save themselves an immense
expense if they showed themselves devoted to their religion instead of
indifferent.
M. Gabet has a very pleasing countenance: moustache and long beard,
plentifully mixed with grey hairs. He looks in vigorous health. Yet
when he went to the East he was delicate. He believes that the
constitution adapts itself to the rigours of climate. The cold of
Tartary is intense. From this high table land the rivers of Hindostan,
China, and Siberia all take their sources. They slept continually on
the earth; up to midnight, while the body was warmed with the day's
exercise, they maintained some heat, but from that time to the morning
they froze. Their only nourishment was wheat or oats, moistened with a
little tea. He is going back to Great Tartary. We had no introduction,
but nothing could exceed his readiness to hear and answer our
inquiries: and he offered to give us again any information in his
power.
We got from him the address of the young person who was cured of her
blindness in the chapel of S. Vincent on the 12th May, three days
after the former cure of the neck. We drove at once to see her at one
of the houses of the Sisters of Charity, Rue de l'Arbalète, 25. We
told the Sister who received us for what purpose we were come; she
assented to it, went out, and brought back immediately the young girl.
She is fourteen; very simple and homely in appearance, and looks the
daughter of a peasant. She said, in answer to our questions, that it
was hearing of the other cure which put it in her thoughts to go to
S. Vincent's chapel, and ask for his intercession. She was taken there
on Friday, May 12th, at 6¼ a.m., by the Sister who was then with us. I
asked her if she could see at all in going there. She replied, "Not
the least." She knelt and assisted at the Mass, but nothing took
place; but "as soon as I received our Lord, I saw perfectly." "Could
you not see at all the instant before?" "Not at all." "And the instant
after you saw perfectly?" "Yes." "The cure did not come then by
degrees?" "No; it was instantaneous." The disease called amaurosis had
subsisted from the month of September before; and every variety
of cure having been tried in vain, all treatment had been given up for
a month previously. It was accompanied with violent pains in the head.
Since the cure she has seen perfectly: she appears to be quite free
from any disease in the eyes now. While she and the Sister were gone
to the chapel, the rest united themselves at home at Mass in intention
for her cure. I said I was going to copy the account of this at the
Rue du Bac, when the Sister offered me a MS. copy, which would save me
that trouble. And, as it contained the report of the physician who had
attended her, we took it at once to get his signature, Rue Mouffetard,
94. He was out, but his wife received us, and it was settled that I
should come to-morrow, between twelve and one, when he would be at
home. The testimony of this young girl was so clear that I saw no
possibility of doubting the effect produced.
I dined with Mr. Coppinger and his two sons: since 1824, he has
resided here. The account they give of the irreligion of the
shop-keeping class, and of the wretched education which has tainted
the springs of French society, is terrible. They said by far the
greater number of men at Paris dine away from home in public places,
and often leave their wives and families to fare poorly at home, while
they themselves feast at a restaurateur's. It appears that on the
Sunday night of the last émeute the alarm at Paris was extreme:
the rebels were thought to have the best of it; and it was their known
intention to sack the quarter of the Tuileries and the Chaussée
d'Antin. They think that the present state of things cannot last: but
what is to come nobody can tell.
_Tuesday, August 1._--This evening I had nearly an hour's talk with
Le Père Lacordaire. He remembered that M. and I had called on him
three years ago. I recalled to his mind what he had said, that
well-informed and sincere persons could not remain out of the Church
of Rome. Since then I had been especially studying the question of the
Roman Primacy, and yet the conclusion to which I had come, after a
most careful examination of antiquity, was in favour of a primacy of
order, but against that of jurisdiction. He dwelt on the obscurity of
the first three centuries: they were times of persecution, in which
the popes had other work to do than to defend their primacy. Yet how
remarkable it was that at the Nicene Council this primacy was seen at
once emerging from the storm. The legates of the Roman Pontiff
presided there. I observed that Hosius, Bishop of Corduba, who signed
the first, was not marked as Roman legate, whereas the two priests who
followed were; that it was as imperial commissioner, and friend of
Constantine, that he presided. He seemed disposed to assume that
Hosius must have been papal legate. I said that I by no means
impugned the primacy, but entirely recognised it: my defence was in
the difference between a primacy and an absolute monarchy: for the
claim of universal jurisdiction, as at present exercised, amounts to
that. He said they did not consider the papacy an absolute monarchy at
all: they who lived within it felt that in fact it was limited in a
great number of ways. There were rights inherent in bishops which the
Pope could not touch: he could not suspend them from the government of
their dioceses without cause given, and a regular ecclesiastical
judgment rendered; he could not take from the priest his right to
offer the Holy Sacrifice, or to confess, without the like judgment. I
quoted the calling in of all the powers of the French episcopate in
1801, because it seemed to the Pope for the good of the whole Church.
He admitted the case, and that the power did exist; but it was
altogether an exceptional case, such as had never occurred before. I
said that in controversy it was necessary to push principles to their
absolute issue: it was natural enough that they, born and living under
the papacy, should not feel it to be an absolute monarchy. He quoted
Bellarmine as saying that it was a monarchy tempered by aristocracy
and democracy. The Pope could not destroy the episcopate. I said our
new converts maintained that he could: that if all the bishops of the
world were on one side, and the Pope on the other, he could make
a new episcopate. "I regard," he said, "as anticatholic, such opinions
as these." He dwelt on the primacy of Peter, as shown forth in the
Acts: nothing seemed to him clearer or more marked. He seemed to argue
as if, the primacy granted, the degree to which its power was extended
was a mere matter of discipline, of arrangement and growth in the
Church itself. Besides, there was another point: without living in a
system it is nearly impossible to understand it. Invaluable as
Scripture is, and written tradition, the works of Fathers, Councils,
&c., they are _writing_ after all: without a living _oral
tradition_, they will not be understood. The Church holds the truth as
a living body; it circulates in her veins. We see the same sort of
thing all around us. A young man may study diplomacy for four, five,
six, years; he may have the history and treaties of Europe at his
fingers' end: this knowledge is excellent; but he wants one thing,
without which he could never be a diplomatist--practical initiation;
this will be the most valuable part of all his knowledge. You may know
perfectly how to sew, but could any one make a coat without seeing
others make it, and the practical acquaintance with many little
points? This was seen most strongly in religious orders: there was a
traditional life in them of which no mere knowledge could take the
place. "I had studied well the rules of the Dominicans, but
until I saw their practical working I could not understand them at
all. Or again, in ten minutes' conversation with a person, you will
catch more of their mind and feelings, and tone of thought, than by
studying ten volumes of their works. There is something in the contact
with persons for which no study can make up. Or again, the sight of a
city. Half a day in a place will give you a better notion of it than
all the descriptions ever written. You drink in the knowledge of it at
all pores. I have read a great deal about London, but I assure you
that I am unable to form any notion of it to myself. The mere look of
the place would instruct me more than any books. Now such is the force
of oral tradition in the Church: it is the life of an organised body
which dwells in its members. Only think what would laws be without
jurisprudence: why the most important part of all laws is their
interpretation; if a man had the most perfect knowledge of the laws
themselves, he would be no jurisconsult without knowing their
practical application. Now this is a sort of knowledge which fails you
entirely, being outside the Church; thus it is that we have no
difficulties, while you are perpetually seeing them." I said, "I found
it very difficult to represent our real position to them. The question
was, not whether one _might_ be a Roman Catholic, for of that I had
no doubt; we all admitted that they were a part of the Church.
The question was, whether I was _forced_ to become a Roman Catholic;
to deny all my past life; supposing that we had the succession, and
formularies which conveyed the episcopate and priesthood,--whether I
should be forced to affirm that the grace of the Sacraments was
intercepted by the sin of schism or heresy. We saw and deplored the
division of the Church; but might not such a state of things be
allowed, as in the great Western schism the Church was, as a fact,
divided for forty years; might it not then be for 300 years?" "As to
that," he said, "supposing the question of faith did not exist,
supposing you could interpret the Thirty-nine Articles in a Catholic
sense; granting there were no variance as to the number of the
Sacraments; supposing that you individually, or the whole English
Church, were to admit the faith of the Roman Church,--for _you_ must
come to her, not _she_ to you,--then there would be the _una Fides_,
but there would still remain the _unum Corpus_. Now every branch that
is severed from a tree does not immediately die, it may sometimes be
planted afresh, and take root beside the parent trunk; it may even
bear leaves and some fruit, but that will not be unity. The Greeks
have a vast deal in common with us. Supposing that the question of the
Procession could be resolved by explanations on their part, there
would only remain the authority of the Roman See to be admitted by
them. You again have retained much more than the Lutherans and
Calvinists. What you have of good is ours, is Catholic. If persons
among you believe in God, believe in the Redemption, lead a holy life,
bring forth good works, I do not deny that all this is Catholic in
them; if they are ignorant as to the sin of schism or heresy, this,
which is good in them, may be sufficient for their salvation. When I
hear persons saying there is this or that good in Protestants, I
always admit it; I say this is a portion of the truth they have
carried away from us; they have a certain root, and yet they are not
joined to the tree. Why, Mahomet himself carried away much truth from
the Catholic faith; and though he mixed and adulterated this,
Mahometanism lives still by those remains of truth. So it is with
those who have separated from the Church; the full life remains in
her; unity is in her alone: portions of the truth, portions of life,
may exist in other bodies; may suffice for the salvation of those who,
by no fault of their own, and with no consciousness of their own, are
in those bodies; but she alone has the full truth, she alone is one.
Whether you can exist with safety out of her depends on the degree of
your personal knowledge." I said, "It is very hard to represent to you
one's difficulties." "Because," he replied, "they are matters of
detail: you may study the question for sixty years and never come to a
result, unless you lay down clearly general principles. Grant
that the Church in Luther's time was in a frightful state of
corruption, that great tyranny had been exercised in England by the
Pope; grant this and much more--would that excuse separation? There
are always such causes as this at work. Men are not quite absurd. They
do not make revolutions for nothing, as we have just seen. Why, Louis
Philippe, was turned out, rightly or wrongly, because by his conduct
he had made nobody care to defend him. Grant that there were these
causes for your separation, does that excuse the state of schism?"
He quoted S. Cyprian's conduct as proving that reference was made to
Rome, asserted that the Pope presided at _all_ the general councils.
Throughout his conversation it struck me that he was weak in facts,
but strong in principles; and this seems to apply to the whole Roman
controversy on this point.
Here Count Montalembert came in, and, as it was very late, I retired.
He begged to be remembered to M., and asked if I was going to stay
some days longer.
This morning went to call on M. Defresne. No sooner was I there than
he began to read me parts of his friend M. Reboul's poetry, in a
whirlwind of enthusiasm. This continued, with one little interval of
detestation expressed for Louis Philippe, till breakfast. M. Reboul
was there, and read, at his request, his verses on the death of
the archbishop, treating it as a sort of expiation. M. Defresne is
full of charity towards the Puseyites, as he called them, but he
seemed not to be quite aware that we formed a part of the English
Church.
I then went to the other side of Paris to see M. Fernet, the surgeon
who attended the young girl so strangely cured. He entirely confirmed
her having been completely blind: she used to come to him with her
companions, crying, and after many vain attempts to relieve her, he
sent her to M. Sichel, a famous oculist: but he could do nothing. He
saw her a few days after she recovered her sight: she then saw
perfectly. Amaurosis is a paralysis of the nerves of the eye: it is
sometimes cured, but then gradually, and not instantaneously. He added
a few lines to the certificate stating that he had examined her after
the cure, and found the sight quite restored. After this interval the
cure might be esteemed complete. I inquired if he had any way of
accounting for this cure. He said, none whatever. It was a phenomenon
which he could not explain. He mentioned that he had been told she had
once before seen for an instant, and then lost her sight again.
Hearing this, I went to her pension again, to ask for an explanation.
The mother told me that, at Christmas last, when she took the Holy
Communion, she had for an instant seen the priest, and then became
blind again; that before September her sight had been more or
less affected, but that from September till May it had been quite lost
save this momentary restitution.
Calling on M. Bonnetty afterwards, I mentioned this and the other
case. He said they were very cautious and backward in assenting to
such things. As to the loss of the Pope's temporal power, he did not
believe 200 millions of Catholics would suffer him to be deposed by
four lawyers, who were the instigators of disaffection. Others,
however, anticipate that the time is come for this temporal
sovereignty to be given up, and that the spiritual power may come
forth the brighter when it is gone.
_Wednesday, August 2._--Called on M. l'Abbé Pététot. The last
revolution has had a happy effect on the side of religion. The utmost
respect has been paid to the priests; they have never ceased a moment
to go abroad _en soutane_. In 1830 they were obliged to give this up
for two years, and only recovered popularity by their devotion to the
sick in the time of the cholera. But now they have come to the priest
to bless the trees of liberty. He had blessed six. They even went in
procession with the Cross, which is contrary to the laws, and woe to
him who did not take off his hat. But this is the only good side of
the late movements. Commerce is at a standstill; and the very
boutiquiers talk freely of the necessity of having a king. Paris
subsists by articles of _luxe_, and a republic is not favourable to
these. But what is coming nobody can see. In the riots of June, the
insurgents had possession of the church of S. Paul, in the Faubourg
S. Antoine. The curé induced them to go elsewhere; and, before leaving
the church, they came to him for his blessing, saying they were going
to fight: and so they went forth to kill and be killed. But all the
middle class--the bourgeoisie--is profoundly hostile to religion: they
will do anything to prevent its gaining influence. Although liberty of
teaching would follow naturally from the principles of the republic,
yet the Assembly has just passed a law on primary instruction as bad
as can be; and another on secondary instruction will follow like it.
Religion does not make any way with these classes; money is their
idol. A workman or poor woman will give five francs to a charity,
where these people think much of ten sous.
M. Pététot, with two companions, went, last September, to see
l'Addolorata and l'Estatica. They were at Capriana on the Thursday
evening and Friday morning, 9th and 10th September. They saw the
wounds of the hands and forehead, as we did, quite dry on the evening,
and in the morning fresh with blood. The sister had gone out both
evening and morning, and they had to find her, so that Domenica was
left alone. Her state, in the six weeks which had elapsed since
our visit to that of M. Pététot, seems to have become much worse. She
was quite unconscious, and terrible to behold. All three were
profoundly convinced of the truth of the stigmata and of the miracle.
They went from Paris on purpose, with the full intention of rigorously
observing the facts. One of the party was then a pupil of the Ecole
Polytechnique: has since become priest. They were likewise three days
at Caldaro, and saw l'Estatica several times. They saw her elevated in
trance on the tips of her feet, _extremis digitis_,--"so," said M.
Pététot, "as I could not have remained a minute, and that on the soft
bed." They saw her repeatedly shoot herself from the recumbent
position to the kneeling one. The Holy Sacrament was exposed the day
when they found her in trance on the point of her feet. They addressed
her through her confessor, and recommended to her prayers a design
which they had in their thoughts. After she had prayed for it, they
inquired if God had made known to her the subject of it. She assented:
said that it was pleasing to God, but that one of those who took part
in it would shortly withdraw from it. "Fortasse unum ex vobis Deus
excipiet seu tollet; non agitur de morte," the confessor interpreting
said. This has since taken place. The information she gave was so
precise as to their design, which it was impossible for her to have
divined, that they were quite convinced of its having been made
known to her preternaturally.
I asked M. Pététot which had made the greatest impression on him. He
said, the Addolorata by far; that her case made him inclined to
believe the other. This produced an effect quite of a different kind
from the former. He equally believed both. He saw the stigmata on her
hands, which we did not, as her sleeves covered them. It appears the
confessor is quite weary of accompanying people to see her; they were
some time before they got on with him, only after saying that they had
come from Paris on purpose. I was much pleased with the ample
corroboration given by M. Pététot to our own visit.
He spoke of the priest at Capriana as the worst specimen he had met
with; he would scarcely speak of l'Addolorata; treated it as nothing
extraordinary. They found out the secret of this afterwards, that the
Austrian government prohibited its being mentioned. An ecclesiastic at
Trent quoted to them Tacitus, that it was not allowed to them to think
or to express their thoughts. The priest was continually _à la
chasse_; so he was the two days we were at Capriana.
Called on M. des Billiers: we had a little skirmish about the Primacy.
In the evening went with M. Gondon to the Count de Montalembert's. The
new Archbishop of Paris, now Bishop of Digne, came in accompanied by
the Bishop of Langres; he looks an Italian prelate, full of courtesy;
I should think his affability will stand him in good service. There
were several representatives, M. de Cazalès, M. de Falloux, l'Abbé
Sibourg,--and M. Bonnetty, M. Le Normand, Guizot's successor at the
Sorbonne. The conversation was chiefly on the state of politics, the
doings of the Assembly, M. Proudhon's recent developement. M. de
Montalembert was the liveliest and best converser. He said he was
greatly obliged to M. Proudhon; they were in a cavern with a gulph at
the bottom of it, and Proudhon had lighted a torch to show them where
the gulph was. "What good will the torch do, if no one will beware of
the gulph?" one of the company said. "Nevertheless, I am much obliged
for it," said M. de M. "I shall wave it about and make use of it." He
could not understand the selling of livings in England, and asked if
it was not simony. I said it was, and done in defiance and by elusion
of the law. He wondered that bishops were obliged to institute,
however dissatisfied with the fitness of the presenté. I said, in the
actual state of things, our only hope was in the liberty, firmness,
and integrity of the priesthood. All the company seemed to have the
worst opinion of French prospects. As we went home with M. Le Normand,
he observed on the misconception of their position by the Quarterly
lately, which seemed shocked at the acceptance of the republic by the
Church; as if it was possible to do anything else. I said it was a
sentiment of loyalty among us, which dictated that feeling. "Loyalty,"
he replied, "is entirely extinct in France; it is a fiction, and it is
useless to attempt to conjure it up."
_Thursday, August 3._--Called on Père de Ravignan, but he was out.
Went for some little time to the Chapel des Dames du bon Secours. It
is a delightful feeling to get out of the noise and glare of the world
into that exquisite little shrine. Then went to Issy, and was two
hours with M. Galais. I asked his opinion about modern miracles, and
whether one could in good faith deny the material facts in the cases
which had come under my notice. He said there could be no doubt that
God did occasionally work miracles; and he did not see how the facts
could be denied here. I remarked, that the chief difficulty seemed to
be, why such and such cases were chosen more than others, as they had
to our eyes no peculiar fitness. He observed, that there seemed
analogous cases in the Gospel, where our Lord appeared often to heal
out of a sentiment of compassion to the individual; and there are a
multitude of cases where the details are not given, but it is said,
curavit omnes, He healed them in globo. I asked which nation in the
Roman Church was at present most conspicuous for its missionary
exertions. He said, the French by far; there are ten French for
one Italian missionary. Will the Jesuits get more liberty of action
under the Revolution? He thought not. There was no disposition to
apply the principles of liberty either to the Jesuits or the other
religious orders. They had the reputation of being very "habiles;" and
"habiles" they certainly were, but not so much as they were esteemed.
He doubted if they had been wise under Louis Philippe's government; it
was known that in their colleges out of France, Brugelette for
instance, devotion to the elder branch was inculcated. Now, the wise
course seemed to be to accept the government de facto, as the Fathers
of the Church did. They troubled themselves very little who was
emperor. Had the Jesuits done so, they would not have been suspected
by Louis Philippe; and so, perhaps, would have had colleges entrusted
to them. I asked what the actual position of the Church with regard to
the state was. "There are," he said, "in the Assembly sixty--it may be
as many as a hundred--good Catholics; but all the rest are
indifferent, or even hostile to us. The immense majority are bent on
resisting the influence of religion." "It seems to me then," I said,
"a kind of miracle that you subsist at all." "It is so," he replied.
"The thing in our favour is that, small minority of the nation as we
are, we are firm, compact, and banded together, while our enemies are
divided in every way. They have no common principle, and so they
have a dread of us, a fear of our succeeding in winning back the
nation to religion, by which they would fall into a minority. The real
feeling which influences this unbelieving mass is the lust of
domination; they have got their feet on the neck of religion, and they
mean to keep it there. For this reason they will allow no liberty of
teaching if they can help it." "But I suppose you have won ground
since 1802; have you not?" I said. "We have won and we have lost," he
replied. "Doubtless the clergy are better constituted now; there is a
great devotion among them. Our bishops are in the main well chosen,
and do their duty. They understand the crisis, and are fully convinced
that they must fight the battle stoutly, and make no concession. But,
on the other hand, in 1802, though religion had been overthrown, and
impiety had publicly triumphed, yet the great mass of the nation had
received a Christian education. It is the reverse now; this mass is
now unbelieving, they have not been brought up as Christians, their
first impressions were not in favour of religion." "You are then as
missionaries among unbelievers," I said. "Precisely so. And this
enormous unbelieving mass has the greatest jealousy of us. We only ask
fair play; liberty, not privileges; and this they will do every thing
to keep from us. They are making, quietly but definitely,
efforts to secularise, as they call it, the education of girls; that
is, knowing the importance of first impressions, and of the female sex
on society, they would take this primary education out of religious
hands. There are infernal plots abroad. They dread us, and have a
feeling, that if we were allowed a fair trial we should win our
ground. I am convinced that we should reconquer France if we were only
allowed liberty of action. Even the multitude who seek to satiate
themselves in sensual enjoyments, even these come to us sooner or
later for aid. Few after all can gain these enjoyments, and those who
do, feel that they have not reached what they were seeking for. And
then in the young clergy I am continually seeing instances of the most
touching generosity and devotion. Many give up fair prospects, and
fortunes, and surrender themselves wholly to their ministry." I
remarked, what a difficulty the law of continence must impose on those
who had to determine the vocation of young men. "You have, indeed," he
said, "named the true difficulty." "The readiness," I added, "to
embrace such a law, must be in itself the touchstone of a ministerial
vocation, for it involved a continual sacrifice; and feelings, which
were very pronounced at one time, might not continue." "It is so," he
said. "Here is the most trying and embarrassing part of our duty. We
do not always succeed. It is most hard to judge if a young man
of twenty, who appears devoted, will continue so. Yet, I assure you, I
have known many whose most secret thoughts have been laid open to me,
and who were pure as angels. I was once acquainted with a man of great
capacity, but an infidel. He was thoroughly persuaded that continence
could not be really observed by the French clergy. He set himself to
work, and made for many years the most minute inquiries. The result
was, that he discovered many horrors; but he likewise was completely
convinced that continence was maintained by a great number. Now this
could only be, he knew, by a supernatural gift; and it had such an
effect on him that he became a good Catholic."
M. Galais afterwards went through Migne's Cursus Completus Theologiæ,
pointing out the most valuable treatises in it. He strongly
recommended Klee's Manual of the History of Christian Dogmas, and
Pouget's Institutiones. Their examinations begin to-morrow, and their
vacations in four days. He looks forward to taking the waters
somewhere. They absolutely require a change of scene and occupations.
I called on Mr. Coppinger this evening, and staid to tea with them.
_Friday, August 4._--Called on M. ----, who had promised to take me
to the Assemblée Nationale. He said the Père Lacordaire had completely
failed in the Assembly: first he had taken his seat on the
Mountain, shaking hands with the most advanced of that party; then he
spoke for the first time, in defence of Ledru Rollin, to the
consternation of his friends: and, lastly, he seemed quite bereaved of
his usual eloquence, uttered nothing but trivialities, and was at a
loss for words. All this he conceived had deeply wounded him, and he
had resigned his seat to the great disgust of his constituents, who
had been pained first at the line he took, and then by his retirement.
He was always eccentric, and took a course of his own: he had
professed that his seat in the Assembly was incompatible with a
religious life, but he did not live here en communauté, but alone, and
was engaged with M. Ozanam and others on a journal, the Ère Nouvelle,
which was in the highest degree a political life. But he liked to be
unlike other people. Padre Ventura, in his funeral oration on
O'Connell, had ascribed R. C. Emancipation to the fear of England; so
Le Père Lacordaire lauded the Duke of Wellington and Sir R. Peel to
the skies for granting it, in his funeral oration of last February, to
the great disgust of the Irish, John O'Connell, and the rest, who were
present.--It was no easy matter to get into the Assembly: I was an
hour waiting, after sending in my name to the Comte de Montalembert,
and then the Tribune was full, and it was near another hour before I
got in. The Chamber is an immense room, in the form of a horse
shoe, at the bottom of which is the Tribune, and behind it the seat of
the President, and sundry officers; while the benches of the
representatives are ranged eleven deep, one above another, round the
other three sides. The speakers were heard very plainly, though I was
at the very furthest point from them: strangers sit in galleries at
some height above the members, on both sides and at the bottom. When
there is agitation, the sound of voices is like the roar of the sea.
But there was nothing interesting to-day. The President, M. Marrast,
said, "M. Fayet a la parole," and I heard the Bishop of Orléans speak
twice, but very briefly. The speakers were generally very rapid; there
was a great want of dignity both in their manner, and in the general
aspect of the Chamber. They sit uncovered. I listened for about two
hours, and came away congratulating myself that I was not a
legislator, specially in the National Assembly. It seemed to me a
place for the violent to succeed in, and for the good and thoughtful
to fail in. I watched the representatives going in for some time;
generally speaking, they are anything in appearance but distinguished.
The presence of an armed force on every side gives likewise an
unpleasant feeling to an Englishman.
_Saturday, August 5._--Was an hour with the Père de Ravignan this
morning--one of the pleasantest I have spent in France. Really his
kindness and charity to a complete stranger are more than I can
express; and I was quite confounded when he thanked me repeatedly for
coming to see him. I told him I had not seen any institutions for the
education of the other sex, and he gave me notes to three. He agreed
with M. Galais in thinking that France was at present that part of the
Roman Church in which there was most movement. "Italy is always the
head and heart: there are, and always have been, there many
ecclesiastics of a holy life. Still it cannot be doubted that a
certain reform is wanted there--a reform, of course, to be wrought
_by_ the Church, and not in separation from her. This is only saying
that where there are men, there is a natural tendency to degenerate.
We have passed through this reform in France." I asked whether he
thought, if liberty of teaching were granted, that the Church would
regain the mass of the population. He hesitated. A certain effect
would doubtless be produced: the mere establishment of a house of
education in every diocese would be a considerable step. It was very
difficult to know the number of practising Catholics in France. There
were not above two millions of Protestants. Out of the million of
Parisians there might be from a hundred to a hundred and fifty
thousand who communicated at Easter, men, women and children: of women
one half were Catholic; of men, perhaps, one-twentieth. Paris was one
of the worst places in France; so, again, the North generally, and the
centre, Bourges, Berri, le Nivernois. On the other hand, in Bretagne
and the South religion was much more general. He then passed to a
subject which was of peculiar interest to me, as touching the sorest
place of a parish priest. "Suarez," said he, "has a discussion on the
fewness of the saved, whether this is said with reference to the world
or to the Church; and he applies it to the world, but not to the
Church. I think he is right; this is the result of a ministry of
twenty years, in which I have necessarily had large experience--it is
the feeling, also, of our fathers generally. You know the Church
teaches that _at_trition only, combined with the Sacrament of
penitence, avails to salvation--attrition arising from motives of fear
rather than of love. _Con_trition by itself, one act of pure love by
the soul, avails even without the Sacrament, if there be a firm
purpose and desire to receive it. God has no desire for the sinner's
death. Jansenism has done great harm on this subject, by inspiring a
sort of despair which is most dangerous." I observed that purgatory was
the necessary complement of such a doctrine. "It is so," he said, "and
though God is alone the judge of the sufficiency of those acts of the
dying, yet we may hope that a great number come within the terms of
salvation, whatever purifying process they may afterwards require." I
asked if Jansenism was not well nigh extinct? "It is, in France," he
said, "but it is still strong in Piemont and in Portugal." He then
reverted to the Primacy, and spoke of the force of that superiority
which is discernible through every century in the Papal See. Not one
passed in which, even from the East, some appeal was not made to it.
M. de Maistre spoke of a "présence réelle" of the Papacy being
sensibly felt throughout the whole history of the Church. I said I
rested our defence entirely on the difference between Primacy and
Monarchy. There were two great powers in the Church of divine
origin--the Papacy and the Episcopate. In the earlier centuries the
latter had been most sensibly felt: but in modern times the former.
"With regard to discipline," he said, "I might allow that; but as to
the hierarchy, and as to dogma, the relation has always been what it
is now: the hierarchy, even the Eastern patriarchs, always were as
strictly bound to the Roman chair as the bishops now. They felt the
Pope was their superior." I said I had been unable to see that. I had
searched far and wide for evidence of it. The patriarchs of
Alexandria, in their own district, and, later, the patriarchs of
Constantinople, throughout the East, had judged as absolutely as the
Pope in the West: independence was a wrong word to use; but they
seemed to enjoy as complete a liberty of action in their sphere as the
Pope in his. He observed, with regard to Bossuet's Gallicanism, "We
have been preserved from the ultimate consequences of those principles,
but they might have conducted to a sort of Anglicanism--the two
touched each other. But," he added, "Le cœur et la prière vous
éclairera. L'étude est souvent difficultueuse; ce n'est pas que
l'esprit n'ait pas ses propres fonctions. But light comes from the
heart. I shall often think of you, and pray for you." I said I thought
of leaving Paris on Thursday, and should like to pay him a last visit
on Wednesday. "I fear I shall be ordered out of town by my physician;
but I will try and return on Wednesday." "You must not think of it," I
said; "but are you not well?" "My throat is unwell, which prevents me
from preaching." "That is just it," I said: "I should have thought
myself most fortunate if I could have heard you preach." He embraced
me at parting; and wished to call on me, which I would not hear of.
Certainly, if ever there was a heart of Christian kindness, it is that
of the Père de Ravignan.
M. des Billiers showed me a very interesting MS. letter from
S. François de Sales to Mad. Chantal. Went again to call on M.
Noirlieu, but found him out, and to the Archevêché to get a ticket for
the service of Monday, but the secretary was out. In the evening
walked along the Boulevards; there was the usual tide of men and
women, but here, as everywhere else in Paris at present, there was a
total absence of all that seemed distinguished in either sex: a
respectable equipage is rarely seen. I doubt whether I have set eyes
on a lady since I have been here.
_Sunday, Aug. 6._--Went to La Madeleine at 10, expecting a Mass, but
it was the end of a Benediction, and then to my amazement saw M.
L'Abbé Pététot in the pulpit. Presently he explained that he was
there, the curé of the parish having given in his resignation, and the
vicars general of the chapter having appointed him to take care of the
parish, until the new archbishop should nominate another curé. He
earnestly requested their prayers both for the parish under such
circumstances, and for the person to be named. In every parish the
responsibility was great, but peculiarly so there, where not only so
much good was to be done, but where the example would have a wide
influence on others. The curé is much to be compassionated with the
care of 50,000 souls. The time would allow him but a short exhortation
to them. He then read a few prayers: gave out a neuvaine of prayers
beginning on that day, and preceding the feast of the Assumption, to
be directed for the tranquillity and well-being of France, by order of
the vicars general. It was not, of course, of obligation. The Psalm
_Miserere_ should be said each day, and "Sacré Cœur de Jésus, prenez
pitié de nous. Cœur immaculé de Marie, priez pour nous." He then read
the account of the Transfiguration, and began with remarking on the
wisdom of the Church in bringing before us at stated times particular
subjects of contemplation. Thus the thought of heaven, which the
Transfiguration suggested, she called to our minds on the Second
Sunday of Lent, and on Ascension Day, and on All Saints. It was a
thought peculiarly necessary and good for us. What would our life with
all its pains and afflictions be, without heaven? How could we
understand anything that passed here below? "car la terre sans le ciel
serait la negation la plus formelle de Dieu." Without the thought of
heaven we should be exposed continually to two opposite dangers,--on
the one hand despair, on the other too great attachment to the world.
M. Pététot's delivery is particularly graceful, and has something
quite paternal and attaching in it. I thought his dress most becoming;
over the baue he wore a canon's tippet, dark, and bordered with pink,
while his stole, embroidered with gold and joined over the breast,
contrasted well with the other colours. No more consummate _bêtise_
have we committed, than the giving up the proper dress of the clergy;
and assuredly never was there a greater mistake, than to consider it a
question of superficial importance. Alas! for the day of coldness and
neglect, when the English priest changed his cassock for the layman's
coat. But I fear the outward form seldom fails to be an index of the
inward spirit; the body here is the clothing of the soul. From the
time the chasuble was relinquished, the keys were no longer used, and
both, I believe, will be restored or remain in abeyance together.
At three, a sermon at La Madeleine on humility: it was a good plain
discourse, setting it forth as the first and most necessary of
Christian graces, springing from the consciousness of our personal sin
and misery, in feeling which consisted the _precept_, and in desiring
to be treated accordingly the _counsel_ or perfection of humility.
This was followed by the Benediction, in which were the prayers for
the neuvaine.
Dined with M. Martin de Noirlieu. He said the archbishop's death had
been an époque for the Church. His funeral was a real triumphal
procession, such as France had not seen since the great revolution.
Seven hundred priests took part in it. His body was borne uncovered.
Every one, especially the military, pressed to touch it, so that the
white gloves and stockings became quite black. An intense feeling had
been excited by his sacrifice: the people had never been so well
disposed to the Church. It looked to the priests now for comfort and
support, and had confidence in them. He saw daily the effects of this
in his parish. He had been treated with more respect to-day than
he had ever known before. A movement towards religion was certainly
begun in France, which must go on; it would require time, but it would
spread wide. Catholicism was still a power in France; and, what was
very certain, it must be either this or nothing. There was no
inclination to Protestantism. Some Protestant ministers wished to
bless the trees of liberty, but the people would not hear of it. "Who
are you?" they said; "we want the priests of Pie Neuf." He said the
republic was hated and could not last: already Henri Cinq was in many
mouths. What was very remarkable in the archbishop's death was, that
he was not at all likely to have done such a thing. It was not in his
character. He had a great dread of death. At twelve o'clock on the
Sunday he had not thought of it: he then hastily dined and set off
with his vicars general to M. Cavaignac. The enthusiasm which his
presence everywhere produced was wonderful. The soldiers rendered him
martial honours by a spontaneous feeling, and the people knelt for his
blessing. That passage on foot was a triumphal march. In the midst of
his agony he said, "Eloignez vous, mes amis; je ne vous édifie pas."
M. de Noirlieu and his brother, a young priest, asked many questions
about the movement in England. The view he had taken was, that
Puseyism would lay hold of many Catholic truths which it found in
antiquity, such as the sacrifice of the Mass, but would not
admit that extension of power which was now claimed for the Pope. He
observed, however, that those who went over took the most extreme line
of Ultra-Montanism. The appointment of Hampden must have done us much
injury. I observed that among them the Church was working under such
oppression that anything but Catholicism would be destroyed by it. For
instance, in every commune the schoolmaster, generally a person
without faith, is set up by the government as an antagonist to the
priest. The attempt to make education a mere affair of the state was
thoroughly anti-christian. He agreed that it was only the "sêve
intarissable" of Catholicism, ever mounting up afresh, which kept them
alive. M. de Noirlieu has juster notions of the English Church, and
makes larger allowances in favour of our state, than any other
ecclesiastic I have met.
_Monday, August 7._--I was at Notre Dame by half past eight, for the
ceremony in honour of the archbishop. The church became gradually very
crowded. I was in time to get a seat very near the pulpit. Mass
began at ten. Most of the clergy of Paris were present; some
representatives; the Cardinal de la Tour d'Auvergne, a venerable old
man of 80, who officiated; the Bishop of Langres; and the Bishop of
Quimper. Just before eleven M. L'abbé Cœur began his funeral
oration, which lasted two hours and forty-three minutes. When
about half over, the poor old cardinal, who, of course, was fasting,
could hold out no longer; he was obliged to go out, and finished the
Mass in silence in the choir, while the sermon continued. Thus its
inordinate length broke the order of the service. The preacher was not
without merit, but his delivery was very bad, and he was obliged
continually to spit; an operation which would come on in the middle of
a sentence, and was once repeated six times in the most disagreeable
manner. The eloquence of Demosthenes himself could not have sustained
such an interruption; and I could not help wishing that the Père
Lacordaire, whom I saw present, had been in his place. The sermon
contained a sketch of the life and labours of the archbishop,
especially praising his simplicity, learning, courage, complete
independence of state or personal interests. That he had fully
understood the mission of the Church in these latter times, to
consummate the alliance between religion and his country. He had it
much at heart to form in the Ancienne Maison des Carmes, rendered so
illustrious by the blood of martyrs in 1792, a new school of prophets,
eminent at once for science, piety, and courage. He was a great
encourager of learning in the clergy. Their efforts in behalf of "la
liberté d'enseignement," would be the honour of the French episcopate
in the eyes of posterity. The archbishop was powerful in his
life, but much more so in his death. His death was the real apology of
the sacerdoce, which had been attacked. It could not be defended by
books; it required a martyrdom: "le martyre est un grand maître de la
raison; il ne discute pas, il montre." A hundred years of teaching
could not have proved what his blood shed in the Faubourg S. Antoine
had established. Nor was his death brought about by an "entrainement
du caractère: c'est l'apologie du sacerdoce et du Christianisme." The
preacher dwelt at great length on the "new times,"--that the Church
was essentially indifferent to all governments: it was the life of
humanity. He then gave a Christian explanation of liberty, equality,
fraternity; and finished with an address to the archbishop: they did
not believe that he needed their prayers, which, however, they would
offer for him.
This sermon, besides its inordinate length, was deficient in
connection and choice of subjects: it was far too general. Had it been
well delivered, parts would have been very interesting; but,
considering that the occasion was quite unique--the death of an
archbishop and martyr--it must be considered a failure. I was more
than five hours and a half in Notre Dame.
Went to M. des Billiers, who conducted me to the Couvent des Oiseaux,
for the Supérieure of which le Père de Ravignan had given me a
letter. The Sisters of Notre Dame were founded by the Bienheureux
Fourrier, for the purpose of educating. But their houses, though
conducted on the same principles, are independent. This is of very
great extent,--has a very handsome chapel, with oak fittings, and a
rich marble altar; a very costly library, including a large collection
of engravings of different schools, museum of natural history, and
every thing which can contribute to the ordinary education of young
ladies. Nothing that I have seen in Paris interested me more than this
house; nor was I ever more struck with the advantages which la vie de
communauté presents. There are here, between mères and sœurs, 116
religieuses, who are occupied in directing the education of 240 girls;
at least, there were this number before the events of February: there
are at present only 50; but it is just before the vacation, and a
large number have been withdrawn, either from the fears of their
parents, or their inability, since those events, to pay the pension.
They employ, besides, sixteen masters, for music, languages, &c. The
terms are 1800 francs a-year. There are one hundred pianos in the
house, and every thing that I saw was on a like scale of abundance and
richness. They attend Mass daily. We went to a Benediction in the
chapel; and after this the aumonier conducted us all over the
house,--the class-rooms, dortoirs, garden, &c. A religieuse
sleeps in each dortoir; the beds have not even curtains, so that there
is the most perfect surveillance. A pupil is never left with a master
alone, but one of the sisters is present at the lessons. No private
establishment could possibly compete with this: three millions of
francs, the almoner told us, had been laid out upon it, first and
last; every thing is done for the pupils by the religieuses, nor have
they any servants, save for the garden. They give, besides,
instruction gratuitously to a large number of poor children,
separately from their pensionnaires. The almoner told us he gave two
instructions to the upper, and two to the lower classes, every week.
He had got together an immense collection of maps and engravings, a
volume for each department of France, in order that the pupils might
have pictures of all that was described to them; for which he quoted
to me--
"Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures,
Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus."
The great extent of this house, the number of the rooms, the
perfection of all its accommodations, astonished me. The number of
teachers, in comparison to the taught, is far beyond anything we have;
not less difference is there in the pains taken with their religious
instruction, and the moral surveillance exercised over them. But the
most pleasing thought of all was, that personal interest was not
the prime agent, nor an agent at all in this. These nuns acquire
nothing from their pupils personally: the house, it is true, is
necessarily supported by the pensions; but all that remains goes to
the instruction of the poor, or the decoration of the chapel, or the
advantage of future generations of scholars in the accommodations of
the house. The teachers do not get rich upon the taught, not to speak
of the poor who are instructed gratuitously at the same time. The
number of persons engaged allows of the greatest attention being paid
to any individual case requiring it, and the primum mobile is charity.
How great the superiority in all points of view to any private
establishment. Gain entering in changes the motive of all this: from a
work of love, it becomes a profession; self-sacrifice vanishes, as
personal interest appears. They have English and Irish pupils here, as
well as of other nations: even some Protestants. The garden is quite
sufficient for all purposes of recreation. The age of the pupils
ranges from ten to eighteen or twenty. Some remain till they marry.
Accompanied M. Bonnetty to Lady ---- in the evening.
_Tuesday, August 8._--My visit to the Couvent des Oiseaux yesterday
sharpened me for that to the Dames du Sacré Cœur to-day. Le Père de
Ravignan had given me a note to Madame D'Avenas. We had a great
deal of talk with her, which not unfrequently took a controversial
turn; and she seemed particularly well informed on such points. The
congregation of Sacré Cœur was only founded, she told us, in 1800;
they now have about fifty houses in France, three in Rome, others in
Piemont (lately sequestrated by the state), in the United States, one
at Acton, near London,--in all, about seventy. At eighteen they may
commence a noviciate, which lasts two years: they can then take the
vows for five years: at the end of which time, being of twenty-five
years at least, they can, if they please, take the final and
irrevocable vows. There are one hundred Sisters in this house, which
is the old palace of the Ducs de Biron, in the Rue de Varennes, having
a garden of immense extent behind it. Their scholars, before the
events of February, amounted to 160: all is done for them by the
sisters, who have no servants, except for the garden. They have
masters for the different arts: the pension, exclusive of these
masters, is 1000 francs. The Supérieure Générale of all these seventy
houses resides here. They are founded uniquely for education. Some of
the class-rooms are very magnificent--the old reception rooms of the
palace. But, generally speaking, the house is not equal in its extent
or fitting up to Les Oiseaux; but the garden is far more extensive.
Madame D'Avenas walked over it with us; and amid its groves one
can hardly believe that one is in Paris. Both Madame D'Avenas and M.
des Billiers attacked me on the state of separation of the English
Church, and the schism it had thereby incurred: this, I said, depended
on the degree to which the Papal claim is true.
Called on M. ----, who gave me a deplorable account of the state of
things here: that the chiefs of the party for the République
Rouge--Louis Blanc, Caussidiere, and Ledru Rollin--were supported by
General Cavaignac secretly: that the rapport just given to the
Assemblée had re-awakened the most furious passions, and that a fresh
insurrection might break out at any time.
In the evening called to thank the bishop of Langres for the service
he has been to me in procuring for me the company of M. des Billiers,
who, together with M. Farel, his Vicaire Général, returned with me and
talked some time.
_Wednesday, August 9._--Went with M. Farel over the Carmes, the scene
of the massacre of 175 priests on September 2, 1792, among whom were
the Archbishop of Arles, and the Bishop of Saintes. The Supérieur
conducted us over the house and garden; he showed us the room in which
the revolutionary tribunal sat; the passage through which the victims
were hurried to be dispatched; and at the bottom of the garden the
orangery, now a chapel, into which they fled, and which retains
on its floor, and on the seat which runs along its inner wall,
numerous traces of blood. There is, especially, the mark of a head on
the bench, where the crown of hair is still visible, which must have
been dripping with blood to have left such a trace. No spot in Paris
has such interest for me as this: none is so glorious to the Church of
France: none carries such an omen of future triumphs. Between this
orangery and the house is a small circular piece of water, on the edge
of which several likewise were massacred. In a small vaulted chamber,
up stairs, are the marks of three rapiers against the wall, which the
assassins, sleeping there at night, seem to have put to stand there,
dropping with blood. And in this very room Madame Tallien, the Empress
Josephine, and the Duchess D'Aiguillon were confined seventeen days,
as appears by an inscription in pencil on the wall, asking how long
liberty should be a vain name, and signed "Citoyenne Tallien,
Josephine Beauharnais, D'Aiguillon." Even here the reminiscences of
this house do not stop;--in the garret many of the Girondins were
confined, and the walls are covered with their indignant remarks; many
from the Latin poets, in heathen style,--some written in pencil, some
in their blood. It is a curious contrast, as one turns away from this
chamber, to see over another door one of the old inscriptions of the
Carmelites remaining:--"Quod delectat, momentum est: quod
cruciat, æternum est." It is, as the late archbishop said, "le monde
Païen, and le monde Chrétien, vis-à-vis." He had purchased this house
as a place for the encouragement of the higher studies of theology
among the clergy; the design was not completed at his death, but there
are about forty here, of whom twelve are masters. He has added another
to the noble band of martyrs, the unequalled patrimony of this
building: his heart has just been carried to the chapel, where we saw
it in a glass case. Surely neither their blood, nor his, has been shed
in vain. He seems to me worthy to rank with the Archbishop of Arles,
who, when his name was called out by the murderers, stepped forth from
amid the priests seeking to shelter him, and said, "C'est moi. Je suis
celui que vous cherchez." He was struck down and massacred. The same
power enabled the late archbishop, not a man careless of his life, nor
of great physical courage, to present himself fearlessly among enraged
combatants, and when suffering extreme tortures from his wound not
even once to ask his physician for aid. If ever any sacrifice was
voluntary, it was his: and this notion of making expiation with his
blood for his flock seems to have given him supernatural force.
The Abbé des Billiers had got me a ticket for the distribution of
prizes at the Institution des Aveugles. The crowns and books
were almost as numerous as at the petit séminaire: here, however, the
ceremony had an especial interest, as all the scholars had to surmount
exceeding obstacles arising from their loss of sight. There were,
notwithstanding, a great number of subjects for which prizes were
given; and the whole was terminated by a concert, in which the boys
and girls were performers. Music is one of the things in which they
most excel, and the source, doubtless, to them of peculiar
enjoyment--the sensations it excites may replace to them, in some
degree which we cannot imagine, the loss of sight. This spectacle,
however, is not without pain, as well as interest, to the beholders,
as I experienced in going over the house itself a few days ago.
_Thursday, August 10._--M. Farel took me to the Dames de la
Visitation, Rue d'Enfer. As they are cloitrées, we could not see their
house, but we conversed a little with the Supérieure. M. Farel said
smilingly to her that they looked to the prayers and intercessions of
the visitandines for the maintenance of public tranquillity; and when
the affairs of the Church did not go well, it was because the
visitandines did not do their duty. Vraiment, the Supérieure replied,
not displeased at the remark; and then she sent for four English
sisters, with whom I had a long talk. Three of these English sisters
had been converted, one, eight years ago, from a state of utter
unbelief; the other two, six and three years ago, being members of the
Church of England. The fourth was born a Catholic. None had any
distinct idea of the Church of England. They all expressed themselves
delighted with their condition. There are several months of trial
before admission to the noviciate, which lasts at least a year and a
day, after which they may take the final vows. They told me it not
unfrequently happened that persons wishing to remain, and having
apparently all the dispositions suitable for the religious life, were
refused by the superiors, but that their judgment had never been known
to have been deceived in those whom they accepted: a special light was
given them to that end. The primary object of their order was prayer
and intercession, and they received among them persons labouring under
various bodily infirmities, who would not be accepted elsewhere; their
rule was not severe as to bodily austerities. Their founder,
S. François de Sales, had assured them that the number of infirm
persons they admitted would never be so large as to diminish the
efficacy of the order. They likewise had schools attached to their
houses; but no nun was occupied more than two hours a-day in school.
They have about 180 houses--one in England, at Westbury, near Bristol;
some in the United States. The number in each house was thirty-three,
but in the great towns they passed this number. Before the
events of February they had sixty pupils. I observed that the not
knowing or not considering the careful attention paid to the subject
of _vocation_ was the cause of many prejudices in England against the
religious orders. One of the four, a novice, said, when she came to
visit her sister, before her conversion, she had the greatest dread of
entering the house, but she had found it quite different from what she
expected. We had a great deal of conversation about late conversions,
that of Mr. Newman especially. I said, Roman Catholics in England
seemed to me to commit a great fault, and especially converts. The
moment they had left us, it seemed their object to depreciate to the
utmost the Church of England; instead of allowing what we undoubtedly
possessed, and pointing out with charity and kindness the particulars
in which they presume us to be deficient, they delight to condemn us
en masse, in the most harsh and insulting manner. I noticed the Tablet
as instinct with this spirit; and when this came from men who for
years had been fighting on our side, it was the more offensive. It was
in strong contrast with the charity and kindness one met with in Roman
Catholics abroad.
Called on Lady ----, who had asked me to dine with her to-morrow. She
spoke to me seriously on a subject which, she said, had been much upon
her mind. Living for a long time among Roman Catholics, she had
come to the knowledge of a vast number of answers to prayer addressed
through the Blessed Virgin to God. Without rejecting evidence which on
any other subject she should admit to be conclusive, she could not
refuse her belief to the efficacy of these prayers, and yet her whole
mind revolted from addressing an invocation to the Blessed Virgin.
Moreover, she believed that, in the minds of the ignorant and
superstitious in the Roman Communion, the Blessed Virgin was an
obstacle to their approaching God,--they stopped with her. And yet
these prayers were undoubtedly answered. Did God then vouchsafe a
reply to the love which evidently dictated these prayers? To her
Protestantism seemed to have called forth the manly virtues,
independence and self-possession; whereas Catholicism developed itself
in far greater tenderness of spirit and affection. She showed me a
passage from Padre Ventura, strongly setting forth the paternity of
God the Father and the maternity of the Blessed Virgin in parallelism,
and compassionating those who held either without the other. But to
Protestants the Blessed Virgin was a merely historical being, having
no present existence; they did not mean to dishonour her, but they
simply never thought about her.
I said it appeared to me that the Intercession of the Saints for the
Church on earth and its particular members could not but be an
essential part of the Communion of Saints, and this once being
granted, the pre-eminent position of the Blessed Virgin accounted for
the effects wrought by her intercession; that those who had carried
her power to the highest yet made it a simply intercessory power.
"Monstra te esse matrem" was the highest exhibition of her authority.
When the mind comes to reflect upon her, and the position she holds,
so unapproachable by any other creature, it can hardly fail to come to
these results. The greater tenderness and devotion of spirit
discernible among Roman Catholics must be on account of their so
vividly realising the Communion of Saints, and this specially in the
case of the Blessed Virgin. We must not reason from the ignorant and
superstitious members of the Roman Church, any more than from the
apathy and utter deadness of heart and irreverence apparent in so many
of our own people. The cultus of the saints may be idolatry to those
who do not realise the ineffably higher office of our Lord. I can
conceive their asking, What good can the bones of dead men do? But
when the reality of Christ's presence in the tabernacles of their
flesh is felt, I could not see how the grace and glory bestowed by the
Head upon his members detracted from Himself, as the source and giver
of it. The Communion of Saints, therefore, would account for the
answers given to prayers for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.
But how could the Saints know of the prayers made to them? I said I
saw no difficulty in the view of divines, that those who enjoyed
the vision of God, beheld in Him the needs and requests of their
brethren in the flesh.
Lady ---- has an odd notion of the soul slumbering till the
Resurrection, which, I said, she must allow me to say, was simply
false doctrine.
I took leave of M. Bonnetty afterwards. M. Farel took me to the
establishment of S. Nicolas, for the education of orphan and other
children, and their apprenticing to various trades, Rue Vaugirard, 98.
This has been set on foot and conducted for about twenty years by
Monsignor de Bervanger. He has collected out of the streets of Paris a
thousand gamins, whom he receives at a small pension--twenty francs a
month for orphans, twenty-five for other children; lodges, boards,
instructs, and teaches them a vast number of trades. Of these he has
even at present seven hundred: but the Revolution of February has cost
him a diminution of three hundred. Five hundred of the garde mobile,
who lately saved Paris, have been brought up by him. He observes that
the difficulty for children destined to live by manual labour is how
to join elementary studies, especially that of religion, with their
apprenticeship to a trade. Without religion a workman does not find in
all his life rule for his conduct, consolation in his toils, or hope
for the future. Thus establishments uniting these advantages answer a
deep need of society, and this has been the chief aim of the
Œuvre de S. Nicolas since its institution in 1827, _i.e._, to
succour orphans, to give them a love of virtue and labour, and prepare
them, by the practice of religious duties, to become not merely good
workmen, but good Christians. For this purpose an hour and a quarter
is given every day, except Thursday, to the study and explanation of
the Catechism, the Gospel, and Sacred History. The pupils are arranged
in fourteen divisions, according to their age and intelligence. They
are taught by priests approved by the archbishop--these are ever among
them, not only in their work and studies, but at their recreations,
instructing them to be content with the position assigned to them by
Providence, and to bless Him amid the most painful toils and
privations, out of regard to an eternal recompense--sentiments which
the example of these priests in surrendering themselves to so
charitable and self-denying a life must be very powerful in inspiring.
The children are specially instructed and prepared for their first
communion and confirmation.
The establishment has within it twenty-five ateliers for pupils whose
parents or guardians desire to leave their children till the end of
their apprenticeship; for the children only attend these workshops on
an express request. Care will be taken to put to good Christian
masters the children not able to profit by this advantage. A
great number of those brought up here are already set at the head of
these workshops. Their younger brethren will find with them the same
religious usages, and as it were the same family.
They are occupied in these workshops eight and a half hours a day.
They have a class two hours every day, except their friends desire
them to pass this time in the workshop, to perfect themselves in their
employment. If their work should be suspended, they attend the classes.
The apprenticeship lasts two, three, or four years, according to the
trade. When finished they may remain in the establishment; and what
they earn beyond their maintenance may be deposited in a savings'
bank. The parents can select for their children what trade they like,
after considering their tastes, physical powers, and intelligence.
Though these workshops are an increase of charge to the establishment,
yet, as it does not seek to make a pecuniary speculation, the payment
for the children in them is no larger than for the youngest, though
their board is more expensive. Moreover, those who work require a
larger amount of food.
All the earnings of the apprentices belong to the masters of the
workshops, who have thus an interest in their progress, and in
conforming themselves to the rules of the house, from which they are
liable to be dismissed. On their side, they provide the tools.
They have no power to inflict punishments, but report to the brethren.
The studies comprehend reading, writing, arithmetic, and orthography;
the elements of French grammar, geography, and history; analysis of
grammar and logic; book-keeping, linear-drawing, practical geometry,
vocal music, the most complete instrumental music, gymnastics, and
swimming; such primary instructions in natural philosophy, chemistry,
and natural history, as are applicable to daily life; mensuration and
horticulture.
The children do not remain in study more than two hours and a half
following, nor occupied on the same subject more than from half an
hour to an hour and a half. Those not in the workshops have eight
hours of class and study, excepting the youngest, who have only six,
as they rise later. Each class has from fifty to seventy scholars at
most.
There is a small examination several times a year.
The food is prepared by sisters of charity. It is wholesome and
plentiful, and shared by the masters. There is breakfast, dinner, and
supper, besides the goûter.
Sisters of charity take charge of the infirmary, kitchens, refectory,
linen, and washing: "they know that all holiness which isolates us
from those who have need of our assistance is false."
Most careful provision is made for the cleanliness of the
children. Warm water is supplied in winter; baths at all times. Every
child is supplied yearly with a pair of summer and winter pantaloons
new; those of the year preceding become every day's clothing.
House-work, in which the brethren have aid from the children out of
class time, is paid to them. Long experience shows how much better for
the children this is than when it is made a punishment. Moreover, some
children have such need of motion, that great harm may be done them if
it be refused them.
"All which appears low to the eyes of men, is an object of emulation
among _religious_, whose vocation aims at the most perfect conformity
with the counsels and example of our divine Saviour. Like Him, they
dare to touch the Leper banished from man's society; like Him, they
despise Pharisaic censure. They would deem themselves unworthy to
belong in so privileged a manner to the service of a crucified God, if
their heart was under the influence of human opinion, if regards even
to their health, which a sensitive conscience often shows them to be
superfluous, could arrest them in the accomplishment of their labours."
The brethren sleep in the dormitories among the children. One of them
invariable keeps watch in these dormitories, which are lighted. The
most careful and rigorous surveillance is exercised. The eldest rise at
5½; the youngest at 7. In winter they go to bed at 8; in summer at 8¾.
Good marks are given to the children, which three times a year are
exchanged for books, &c. Marks of conduct, work, and application, for
each week, are hung up in the parloir. So likewise the places obtained
in the compositions of the week; and the notes of three months, which
are sent to friends. Pupils who constantly maintain themselves on the
table of good conduct for three months are entitled to a reward. There
is a solemn distribution of prizes every year before the short
vacation, on the Sunday following 15th of August.
Extraordinary recreations are provided at times; as in summer a long
promenade, in which the pupils take with them a day's provisions.
During the recreations of each day, the brethren make themselves
children with their pupils, authority disguising itself under the
shape of affection. This is the most favourable moment for studying
character. They endeavour to gain the confidence of those in whom they
have observed bad dispositions by employing the most attractive means
of religion, and they have often the consolation of making them
teachable and happy.
It is a great point to occupy the children during their recreation,
and so to brace the body by exercise, that their nights may be sound
and their health good.
Parents can see their children any day, but only at play time,
and when they are not in disgrace. They cannot take their children out
but on a few particular days.
Punishments are inflicted as sparingly as possible. No master may
strike a child.
Children are received from eight to twelve years old. Those under ten
are sent in general to the Maison succursale, at Issy. Twenty francs'
entrance are paid besides the pension. The number is limited to 1000.
We had first an interview with Monsignor de Bervanger, the founder of
this work, to whom, I should think, it must supply perpetual
occupation. He sent a most pleasing boy round with us to the different
parts of the establishment. In many of the various ateliers work has
been suspended; this is an effect of the revolution: in many we saw
the pupils at work under their 'chef.' They reach such perfection in
their work, as to obtain an easy sale for it, and to gain their
subsistence. A large number were playing in high spirits. The premises
are necessarily of great extent, and certainly it is a bold and
immense experiment, and most interesting. It is not the least
astonishing that Monsignor de Bervanger set it on foot without private
funds: but its maintenance involves a large degree of ever active
charity, both in the brothers of S. Nicolas, who teach these boys,
that would otherwise be the refuse of Paris, and who eat and
sleep in the midst of them, and in the Sisters of Charity, by whom the
kitchen, infirmary, refectory, &c. are served. Thus without the
'celibat' in both sexes, this and every other work of high charity
falls to the ground. Not only on the score of expense would it be
impossible to conduct such a house without the aid of those who
disregard money altogether as a remuneration; not only would it be
difficult to find so total a surrender of time and of the whole man in
any who had household ties to bind them: but as certain devils cannot
be cast out "save by prayer and fasting," so there would seem to be a
like proportion of means to end in particular applications of the
Cross's healing power. It would appear to be a necessary condition for
the restoration of the suffering masses of society, that the highest
blessing of the natural man--family life--should be voluntarily
surrendered by those who are to be God's instruments in this special
work. They who are seen amid the toil and sweat of every day's task to
be living a supernatural life of charity,--they, and they alone, can
gain the affection of the world's outcasts, and lighten the burden of
the Cross which they have first themselves so borne. As I went over
this house, and saw its inmates, I comprehended in some faint degree
the amount of charity which such a life must require. The musical
service, performed by these children themselves on Sunday, is
described as very well done, and very interesting. Many of their
friends come to hear. I thought their chapel confined for so large a
number.
A little book which Monsignor de Bervanger gave us contains a pretty
full account of this institution, from which I have taken many
particulars given above. He observed that an Englishman not long
before had paid them several visits. He was most struck by the terms
of intimacy in which the masters lived with the pupils. This has also
struck me pointedly wherever I have seen educational institutions in
France. There the wall of separation does not seem to exist, which
shuts out the English tutor or master from the real state of his
pupil's mind, from his prevailing habits, and natural tone of thought.
With us, the boy before his master, and the boy by himself or with his
schoolfellows, are two beings wholly distinct. Seldom, indeed, can the
tutor get at the real living soul with whom he has to deal; still
seldomer mould and direct the development of his moral powers. It is,
to the best of my belief, a _generic_ difference between Anglican and
Roman Catholic education.
As we were walking home, M. Farel told me that in the diocese of
Langres alone there were five hundred institutions of Sisters of
Charity. "Do you not mean," I said, "five hundred Sisters?" "No," he
replied; "not a commune is without them." I asked to how many
several parent houses they might belong: he said, to about five. Thus
the Sisters of S. Vincent de Paul only form a portion of those
dedicated to this work.
_Friday, Aug. 11._--I copied the rest of the account of the cure
which happened to the novice at the Rue du Bac. The Sisters asked me
if I had seen the child who was cured of blindness. I said I had, and
that she seemed to me of very limited intelligence, and extremely
simple. One of them answered, "Yes; I asked her what she thought when
she recovered her sight, to which she replied, 'C'était drôle à
voir.'" While I was sitting among a number of the Sisters of Charity
transcribing the account, their great cheerfulness--one might almost
call it merriment--of tone was remarkable; they were those engaged in
the general management of the house at the Secrétariat. There is
something too in their faces which indicates inward peace. They look
happy. I took the opportunity of reading the pastoral letter of the
Abbé Etienne, their superior general, in which the account of the
cures was contained. It was written to encourage them amid the
unsettled state of public affairs. He reminded them that the
Revolution of 1830 opened with a much more threatening aspect towards
religion; and yet the period of eighteen years which they had since
passed through had been one of unexampled progress and prosperity to
their Institution. The times in which their founder S. Vincent
de Paul lived were likewise most unsettled, but he only saw in that a
larger opportunity for charitable exertions; he had promised his
children, that so long as they were faithful to their rules the Divine
protection should never fail them, and God had, beyond doubt, granted
these two miraculous cures to the intercessions of S. Vincent at the
opening of another momentous crisis to assure them that their Saint
had not lost his power with God. He felt the greatest confidence in
their zeal and charity and spirit of union, which made his own task
light. Before leaving the house I visited their chapel again, which
has to me a peculiar interest, on account of what is said to have
taken place there.
I here insert the account of the cures, which I copied from the
original, and the attestations, which I procured from the two surgeons
who had treated the several cases. The superior-general thus
introduces the mention of these two cures:--"This is not all, my very
dear Sisters. At a time when, perhaps, yet greater trials are in store
for the Church and for us, and when, perhaps, likewise, yet greater
mercies are to reward our faith, God has thought fit to set, as it
were, the seal of His Omnipotence on our confidence, and to show by
prodigies all the power of S. Vincent's protection at the throne of
Divine Goodness. Two astonishing cures have taken place this
year before the shrine of S. Vincent, during the 'neuvaine' of the
translation of his relics. I do not qualify them as miracles, because
the ecclesiastical authority alone has the power so to term them. But
my heart feels the need of bringing to your knowledge the details
concerning them, because I know all the joy and edification which you
will experience in them, and how proper you will esteem them to
encourage you to draw closer the ties which bind you to your holy
calling, and to lead you to appreciate the designs of God for our two
families, if we are faithful in corresponding to them. I shall preface
the account of each healing by the certificate of the medical man,
which sets forth the state of the patient at the moment when it took
place."
"_Attestation du chirurgien sur la maladie de la sœur Marie Javelle._
"Le 2 Mai 1848 j'ai été appelé au couvent de la rue du Bac, n° 132,
pour la sœur Marie Javelle, âgée de 24 ans, que j'ai trouvée
couchée, ayant la tête inclinée sur l'épaule gauche, qu'elle touchait
presque, avec raideur des muscles du cou, impossibilité de la ramener
à sa position naturelle, et douleur vive, augmentée par les moindres
mouvements. On m'apprit que cet état avait été la suite immédiate d'un
coup violent, porté par mégarde sur la tempe droite.
"M. Lenoir, chirurgien de l'hôpital Necker, vit cette malade avec moi
le lendemain 3 Mai. Sans rejeter la possibilité d'un simple torticolis,
nous eûmes, ensemble, la pensée d'un déplacement d'une apophyse
articulaire du côté gauche de l'une des dernières vertèbres cervicales.
"Le danger de la réduction de ces déplacements, que nous fîmes
connaître à la supérieure, l'absence jusqu'ici d'accidents graves,
nous déterminèrent à nous borner à l'application des moyens propres à
calmer la contraction des muscles du cou.
"Les jours suivants, les accidents augmentèrent. Il survint de la
fièvre, la tête s'inclina davantage sur l'épaule; la malade eut de la
peine à boire, ce dont je m'assurai en lui voyant avaler, par saccades
convulsives, quelques gorgées de liquide. Le bras gauche devint
douloureux jusqu'à la main, dont le contact retentissait péniblement
jusqu'au cou; il était dans une extension continuelle, avec raideur
tétanique qui ne me permit point de le changer de place. Le membre
inférieur gauche, d'abord engourdi à sa partie supérieure, présenta
aussi de la raideur.
"La respiration était un peu gênée. Les facultés intellectuelles
conservaient leur pleine intégrité. Les choses étaient dans cet état
le 8 Mai, à sept heures et demie du matin. Nous avions exprimé des
craintes plus graves que les jours précédents. La supérieure
n'avait pas osé permettre des tentatives de réduction dont nous avions
annoncé les conséquences possibles, auxquelles la malade, bien
résignée, se serait prêtée volontiers.
"Le 9 Mai, à sept heures et demie du matin, sans aucune manœuvre
chirurgicale qui soit à ma connaissance, j'ai vu dans le cabinet de la
sœur Buchepot (première directrice du noviciat de la communauté) la
jeune sœur Marie Javelle, debout, marchant facilement, portant sans
effort sa main sur sa tête, celle-ci revenue à sa rectitude naturelle,
le cou ayant repris sa forme, sa souplesse, et exécutant tous les
mouvements.
"Paris, le 10 Mai, 1848."
Having forwarded my copy of the above to M. Hervey de Chegoin, he
returned it to me, with the following attestation, written at the
end:--
"Je certifie cette copie conforme au procès-verbal que j'ai avéré de
la maladie de la sœur Marie Javelle.
"HERVEY DE CHEGOIN,
"Médecin des hôpitaux, &c."
Accompanying it with the following note:--
"Monsieur, j'ai signé bien volontiers la copie que vous m'avez
adressée: elle est aussi exacte que le procès-verbal lui-même est
l'expression de la vérité dans l'exposé des symptômes pendant huit
jours, et de leur disparition subite et complète après la
circonstance qui l'a précédée.
"J'ai l'honneur d'être,
"Monsieur,
"Votre très obéissant serviteur,
"HERVEY DE CHEGOIN.
"31 Juillet, 1848."
The relation of the cure itself is as follows:--
"_Detailed relation of the healing of the Sister Marie Javelle._
"The Sister Marie Javelle, twenty-four years of age, after having
proposed three months at S. Stephen, entered into the community of the
Daughters of Charity, Feb. 17. 1848. Having been appointed to nurse in
one of the infirmaries on the night of 30th April to 1st May, in
supporting a patient who fell back on her head, she twisted her neck,
and so considerable a derangement took place, that it continued in
that position. The next day inflammation ensued, and the surgeons
called in were themselves alarmed at the gravity of the accident.
Before attempting an operation as dangerous as the injury, and which,
touching the spinal marrow, might cause instant death, all remedies
were tried, but to no purpose. The nerves contracted, the head became
stiffly fixed on the shoulders, presently the arm and left leg
became paralysed, and the pains so violent, that at times the patient
feared not being able to bear them. All her hope was in God: she
begged of him courage, resigned herself to His will, and besought much
the Blessed Virgin, whom she tenderly loves, and who has already given
her special marks of protection. At length came Sunday, 7th May, day
on which commenced the 'neuvaine' of the translation of S. Vincent de
Paul. That day she had the consolation of communicating in bed, with a
morsel of the Host, for her throat being twisted, she joined to her
other sufferings that of not being able to swallow more than some
drops of water, and that with incredible effort and pain. She
expressed a desire to make, in union with the Seminary, a 'neuvaine'
to S. Vincent to obtain a cure. On Monday the surgeon declared, that
he had no hope but in the success of the operation, and dangerous as
it was he pressed it. It was thought requisite to speak plainly to the
patient, and tell her, that she would either be healed by means of the
operation, or remain an invalid all her life, asking her which she
preferred. I shall be composed, she replied, in doing the will of my
Superiors, being assured that I am doing that of God. However, it was
resolved to finish the 'neuvaine' before attempting anything. Sister
Mazin, our most honoured mother, had sent her before a morsel of the
waistcoat of our blessed Father S. Vincent. In the night of the
7th to 8th May the patient had the strange fancy to swallow a morsel
of this. Not venturing to do it without speaking, she waited till the
morning, when, by help of a little water, she swallowed some threads.
Scarcely had she done so, when she felt the most perfect conviction
that she should not die, and that she should obtain her cure by the
intercession of S. Vincent. At one in the afternoon, seeing near her
one of the directresses of the seminary, she told her, that could she
see the Saint's shrine, and touch it, she should be immediately cured.
It was observed to her that this latter was impossible; but she so
urged the former, that we were touched by it, and endeavoured from
that time to find means to satisfy her keen desire. With the consent
of our excellent superiors, a litter was procured; it was arranged as
well as we could: and after passing a whole hour in dressing her
suitably, at four in the morning on Tuesday, 9th May, she was put on
the litter, and the dangerous passage from our house to the chapel of
S. Vincent de Paul was undertaken. She was accompanied by the Sister
Azais, Sister Girardot, second and third directresses of the seminary,
Sister Martha Velay, formerly mother of the seminary, Sister
Boscredon, employed in the seminary, Sister Bonneau, third infirmière,
who had herself attended on the young patient, by Dominic Belyn,
called Louis, and John Scipio, called Baptist, both servants of
the house, who carried the litter. During the passage the patient
suffered much. In spite of herself complaints escaped her, and
especially when the litter was set down in the church she felt so keen
a pain that a cry burst from her. The moment she perceived the Saint's
shrine, she looked at it with the most lively confidence, and felt an
extraordinary movement in her person. At the beginning of Mass she
felt inclined to join her hands; in fact, her left arm recovered the
necessary strength, and her hand reached the other again. At the
Gospel a movement like her first caused her to take her head with her
hands, and turn it without difficulty to the other side. At the
elevation of the Mass, Sister Azais, who was near her, told her to try
and rise; she made the attempt, but was unable, and answered, that it
was not yet time. She had continued to suffer much up to this point.
At length the Communion was brought her. Her throat was so closed,
that she felt a great pain, but this was the last. Some minutes
afterwards she came down readily from the litter, unassisted by any
one. After this Mass she heard, as a thanksgiving, that of M. Etienne,
our superior general,--came back on foot, and from that day, far from
preserving the least feeling of her injury, she is better than she
ever was. This is attested by the sister on whom the miracle has taken
effect, who has signed the present act, as have the witnesses
named above.
"Marie Azais, Cecile Girardot, Marie Javelle, Marthe Velay, Justine
Boscredon, Josephine Bonneau, Dominique Belyn, and Jean Scipion.
_Note._ "It is well to observe that, on the 2nd of May, the surgeon
of the house, M. Hervé de Chegoin, was called in alone to see Sister
Marie Javelle, and the case appeared to him so grave, that, not liking
the single responsibility of it, he begged to join a colleague, whom
he brought the next day.
"The 8th of May, the last day on which M. Hervé had seen her before
her cure, he had found her so ill that, on the morrow, when he was
told that Sister Javelle had no further need of his services, he asked
if she was dead.
"The young sisters, then composing the seminary, begged that their
names should be joined to this act, to attest its truth, and to put
themselves in a special manner under the protection of S. Vincent.
This writing being to be inclosed in a silver gilt heart joined by a
chain of the same to a head in silver gilt likewise, the whole has
been put into the hands of our most honoured father, M. Etienne, to be
deposed on the shrine of the saint."
The second case is as follows:--
_"Attestation du Médecin sur la Maladie de Madlle. Céleste l'Allemand._
"Je soussigné, médecin, demeurant à Paris, Rue Mouffetard, 94.,
certifie que la nommée Marie Céleste l'Allemand, agée de quatorze ans,
native de Jussy, département de la Haute Saône, résidant actuellement
à Paris, Rue de l'Arbalette, 25., dans l'Ouvroir des Jeunes Economes,
a été traitée par moi, puis par M. Sichel, pendant environ huit mois,
pour une amaurose complète; et que les divers traitements employés,
tant par moi que par mon confrère, n'ont nullement amélioré la
position de cette jeune personne, quoiqu'ils aient varié à l'infini
depuis le mois d'Octobre dernier jusqu'au mois d'Avril, où elle a
cessé tout traitement."
"Signé, FERNET, D. M.
"Paris, 23. Mai, 1848."
"_Relation of the Miraculous cure of a Child of Mary, de l'Ouvroir
des Jeunes Economes._
"We, the undersigned children de l'Ouvroir des Jeunes Economes,
established at Paris, Rue de l'Arbalette, 25., certify the truth of
the following details of the sudden cure of one of our dear
companions, named Céleste l'Allemand, child of Mary, of our ouvroir.
This companion, aged fourteen, had entirely lost her sight from
the month of September, 1847. Six medical men, successively called in
to attend on her, had exhausted all the resources of their art upon
her without obtaining the least result. They had declared that the
optical nerves of our young companion were paralysed, and that she was
struck with a complete amaurosis; consequently all medical treatment
had ceased since last April.
"Painfully affected at this sad state of our companion, we resolved to
consecrate to Mary the month of May, then beginning, in the intention
of obtaining her cure by the intercession of the most holy Virgin.
From the 1st of May our young companion went to pray every day before
the altar of Mary, with the firm confidence that the immaculate Mary
would restore her sight before the end of her favourite month. But on
the 9th of May, the news of the striking cure worked on a young sister
of the seminary of the Daughters of Charity, by the intercession of
S. Vincent de Paul, and before his relics, exposed in the chapel of
the Priests of the Mission on the occasion of the '_neuvaine_,'
celebrated yearly in honour of the translation of his body, suggested
to us the desire to recommend our young companion to this great saint.
Permission was granted to Céleste l'Allemand to go to pray before the
relics of S. Vincent de Paul. It was Friday, 12th May, on which she
went to the chapel of the Lazarists, Rue de Sèvres, 95., accompanied
by two of our mistresses, Sister Dumargat and Sister Desbré. We were
all fully convinced that she would obtain her cure by the intercession
of Mary, our good [mother], and S. Vincent. Not being able to
accompany Céleste to the chapel of S. Vincent, we heard the holy Mass
in the chapel of our house, uniting ourselves to her in heart and
spirit. As to our companion, she heard a Mass celebrated at a
quarter-past-six, before the altar of the holy Virgin in the chapel of
the Lazarists, and received there the Holy Communion. At the moment
she received our Lord, her sight was suddenly restored to her; and a
violent pain in the head, which she had felt from the moment of her
loss of sight, disappeared at the same time. The sister who
accompanied her, ignorant of what had taken place in her, took her by
the hand again, after the Holy Communion, to reconduct her to her
place. Our young companion, fearing to disturb her in her
thanksgiving, let her do so without informing her what had happened to
her. But a quarter of an hour afterwards she made known to her her
happiness; and to prove to her the reality of her complete cure, she
changed her position herself, and named to her different surrounding
objects, which she perfectly distinguished. After having heard a Mass
of thanksgiving, she hastened to return to us, to make known to us her
happiness. Though we expected to see her return healed, on account of
the greatness and simplicity of her faith, a lively joy and gladness
broke forth not the less in all the house on her arrival. It was who
should see her first, to congratulate her on the signal favour of
which she had just become the object. After this first explosion of
our gladness, we assembled to chant in choir the Magnificat, during
which tears of joy streamed from our eyes: then we went to the chapel
to sing the Te Deum and the Regina Cœli. Immediately after, Céleste
wrote with her own hand a letter to her parents to inform them of her
miraculous cure.
"Our young companion having been presented to M. Aladel, our good
director, was named by him Marie Vincent, in gratitude for her cure,
obtained at the altar of the Most Holy Virgin, in the chapel of
S. Vincent, before his relics exposed.
"From the day of her cure, Céleste has resumed all her ordinary
occupations, which she had been forced to interrupt during nine
months: she reads, writes, and works at her needle with the same ease
as she did before her eyes were attacked.
"Paris, 30. May, 1848."
M. Fernet attached to this paper, which I gave him to read, the
following:--
"Je soussigné, Docteur Médecin, demeurant Rue Mouffetard, 94.,
certifie la jeune Marie Céleste L'Allemand a été revue par moi
quelques jours après la guérison, et que je me suis assuré que la vue
était entièrement rétablie.
"FERNET.
"Paris, ce 1ᵉʳ Août, 1848."
After giving these two accounts, the Superior General, M. Etienne,
thus continues his pastoral letter:--
"In presence of these facts, my very dear sisters, I am induced to
remind you, that S. Vincent considered as a visible sign of the
protection of heaven over your company the altogether wonderful manner
in which one of his first daughters came out safe and sound from the
midst of the ruins of a house in which she was, and which, in falling,
had buried forty persons, who there perished. This fact was, in his
eyes, a sensible proof that God had taken pleasure in his rising work,
and reserved for it a comfortable future. It seems to me that if he
were to speak to you himself to-day of the two cures which I have just
been relating to you, he would not fail to point them out to you as
testimonies of the designs of divine providence with regard to you,
and as motives which should reassure you against all the fears that
the disturbances of social order may inspire. Would he not say to you,
as he said then, that your company being the work of God, in like
manner as He has known how to raise it up in His compassion for
the poor, so will He well know how to sustain it in the moment of
trial, and to preserve it from every unfortunate event which might
threaten its existence. I confess to you that at the sight of these
signs of his protection, at a time which has so many points of
resemblance with that in which he lived, I cannot avoid seeing the
same career of charity which he so gloriously passed through open
afresh before you. * *
"As a thanksgiving for the two miraculous cures worked on the 9th and
12th of last May before the shrine of S. Vincent, a general communion
shall take place in each house on the day fixed by the Sister serving
it."
In concluding this subject I must add that I by no means sought for
such facts as these cures--they came in my way while engaged in other
inquiries: I did not think it fit or honest to turn away from them so
coming, but endeavoured to ascertain the truth by every means in my
power. I now set them forth with the evidence which I was able to
collect about them. I am also bound to say that, since I have come to
the knowledge of these cures, I have been informed, on the best
authority, of two results, approaching at least to the same miraculous
character, following immediately from the reception of our Lord in the
Holy Eucharist. These occurred very lately in the Anglican communion.
_Saturday, August 12._--I had heard so much of the grandeur of
Bourges Cathedral, and the beauty of its windows, that I determined to
judge for myself. So this morning left by the 8 A.M. train for Orléans
and Bourges. Up to Etampes the country is pleasing and broken in
parts. From thence to the forest of Orléans is an immense plain, rich
in produce, but treeless, dull, and flat as a pancake. From Orléans to
Vierzon is another immense plain, desert, sandy, and solitary; after
this the country improves to Bourges. Visited the cathedral at
Orléans: the western front is fine, well arranged, and forming a
somewhat striking unity; but the interior is bare, poor, and most
displeasing to the eye, which is pained at so bad an imitation of
Gothic. As soon as I reached Bourges I went to the cathedral: the west
front, in spite of its five deeply recessed portals, the central one
of which is very beautiful, sadly disappointed me--it is totally
deficient in unity, and will bear no comparison with that of Amiens,
not to mention Reims. The towers are positively ugly; the worst effect
being produced by buttresses, which protrude in the most inelegant
shape, their strength not at all veiled by ornaments. The interior is
very grand: it is peculiar in having no transept, but double aisles
continued throughout, the nearest of which to the centre is of
inordinate height. Round the choir the huge lancet windows, crowned
with roses, are of great beauty; but unfortunately they are not
complete, as at Chartres, with the effect of which I do not think
Bourges will bear a comparison. The pillars, of which there are twelve
on each side from the west front to the apse of the choir, are
cylinders with eight engaged columns; they look lighter than those of
Amiens and Reims, and very lofty from the height of the first aisle,
which must be seventy feet, and has a triforium like the centre.
Grand, however, as Bourges is in some respects, I should not put it in
the first rank of churches, with Amiens, Milan, Cologne, Reims, and
St. Ouen. It is in the first style, like Chartres. The apse has none
of the magic lightness of Amiens, Cologne, or St. Ouen. From the north
tower is an immense view over the country, which has some eminences,
but not strongly marked features.
In the streets nothing but soldiers or national guards are to be seen.
It would appear that the purpose for which men are sent into the world
is to bear arms. There could not be a heavier condemnation of the
Republic than the outward aspect of society. There was, however, a
special cause for this. Three hundred, I believe, of the national
guard at Paris had come to visit their brethren at Bourges, and were
to be entertained at dinner the next day in the garden of the
archevêché, on which the state, with its usual insulting dealing
towards the Church, has laid its hands from the time of the
first revolution. So likewise, it has robbed the church at Bourges of
the grand séminaire, an immense building, and turned it into barracks.
_Sunday, August 13._--Was at a Low Mass and part of the High Mass in
the cathedral. A great number of soldiers, guards, and country people
enter in, and lounge and sit about, without a very religious
demeanour. Called at one at the Séminaire, with a letter for the
Supérieur, M. l'Abbé Ruel. He talked with me some time, and then sent
one of the séminarists and a priest to show me about Bourges. He
inquired of the state of things in England; our studies at Oxford. I
lamented our state of separation: if the religious feeling of England
were united with the Roman Church, the world might be converted. In
any case, the state of separation itself was most disastrous to both
sides; it wasted the life of the Church. If the truth was altogether
with them, as they asserted, then, of course, our loss was fatal
indeed; but even then the Roman Church in the loss of England had
suffered her right hand to be cut off. Whether we were with her or
against her would make all the difference in her conflict with the
world. He assented, and observed that England had been the island of
saints. I afterwards remarked that my attention had been particularly
drawn to the Roman Primacy. He said the disputes as to the
Gallican liberties had fallen to the ground; but I thought he
intimated that the Gallican feeling was not extinct. Whatever the
theory might be, the sway of the Roman See was, in reality, very
gentle. It felt its way beforehand, and only acted according to the
spirit of the Church. I said my great difficulty was, that all history
was for Gallicanism, while the Ultramontane theory was evidently the
only entire and consistent one, which would bear out all the acts of
Rome. I asked if the revolution had produced any change at Bourges. He
said, none at all. Louis Philippe had fallen because he had sunk into
general contempt--he had become esteemed "un homme d'argent." The
priest and séminariste conducted me to the house in which Louis XI. is
said to have been born, but the present walls are evidently of the
Renaissance. It is occupied by a small sisterhood. We went also
through the Hotel de Ville, the house of Jacques Cœur, and to the
cathedral. There is a very fine crypt under the choir and its aisles.
Bourges has little interesting save its Cathedral. The climate is damp
and unhealthy, from the marshes near. I left by the last train in the
evening, at eight o'clock, and slept at Orleans.
_Monday, August 14._--Left Orleans at 7, Paris by 11. Left it at 7
for Amiens: we went through a most violent thunder storm about half
way.
_Tuesday, August 15._--At the cathedral during part of one High Mass,
and the whole of the second, when the bishop officiated pontifically,
and gave afterwards the Papal Benediction. It was nearly full of
people. I never felt the superiority of this building more than
to-day; the interior is pre-eminent for unity, simplicity, and
grandeur. I was sorry to miss the vespers and sermon at three; but I
left to reach Boulogne in time for the packet, and got to Folkstone
shortly after eleven.
CONCLUSION.
There are certain doctrines in the Roman Catholic Church, which are
brought into such prominence in practice, and are in their own nature
so very powerful, that they make that faith appear _in its actual
exercise_ quite another thing from the faith prevailing among
ourselves, although there be really no essential difference between
the _true mind_ of the English, and that of the Roman Church. I say
the _true mind_, that which forms the basis of the Prayer Book; that
of which the Prayer Book faithfully carried out would be the verbal
developement. Whether the true ἠθος of the English Church will ever
prevail actually within her, cast out the puritan virus, and collect
and animate the whole body of Catholic truth which her formularies
still contain, remains yet to be seen.
In the meantime I am greatly struck with the power exercised in the
Roman Church by the great dogma of the Real Presence. It is the centre
and life of the whole. It is the secret support of the priest's
painful self-denying mission; by it mainly the religious orders
maintain themselves; the warmest, deepest, lowliest, most triumphant
and enraptured feelings surround it: the nun that adores in
silence for hours together, one from the other taking up that solitary
awful watch in the immediate presence of the King of Kings; the crowd
of worshippers that kneel at the blessed yet fearful moment when earth
and heaven are united by the coming down of the mystical Bridegroom
into the tabernacle of His Church; the pious soul that not once or
twice but many times during the day humbles itself before Him; the
congregations which close the day by their direct homage to Him, as
present to the three-fold nature of man, body, soul, and spirit; all
these attest the deep practical import which the dogma of the Real
Presence exerts on the Catholic mind. Are not their churches holier to
the believing soul, than was the temple of Jerusalem when the visible
glory of the Lord descended on it? For does not the single lamp
burning before the shrine indicate a Presence inexpressibly more
condescending, gracious, and exalting to man? In Catholic countries
the offering of direct adoration, the contemplation of the mind
absorbed in the abyss of the Incarnation, never ceases one instant of
the day or night. It is the response of the redeemed heart for ever
making to Him, "Who when He took upon Him to deliver man did not abhor
the Virgin's womb." When I contrast this with--what is still too
common in this country, though happily growing less so daily--the
beggarly deal or oak table covered with worm-eaten cloth, or
left bare in its misery--with the deserted or pew-encumbered chancel,
from which every feeling of reverence seems for ages to have
departed--or with the pert enclosure domineered over by reading-desk
and pulpit, and commanded all round by galleries: and on which,
perhaps once a month, the highest mystery of the faith is commemorated
among us, I do not wonder at the Roman Catholic, who regards the
English Church as a sheer apostacy, a recoil from all that is
controlling, ennobling, and transcendental in faith to a blank gulf of
unbelief.
The very existence of the Roman priest, the compensation for all he
does or suffers, depends on that half-hour of the day when he meets
his Lord. What an inexpressible privilege to have been preserved to,
nay, almost enjoined upon, all her ministers. And how could the monk
and the nun live but on the continual food of the Holy Eucharist, and
the steadfast contemplation of the Incarnation? England has banished
the monk and the nun, and popularly, in spite of her formularies,
accounts the priesthood more than half a heresy; she has no provision
among her institutions for the Christian Brother and the Sister of
Charity, though her poor are perishing for lack of the bread of
heaven, and her sick dying in uninstructed heathenism, and her young
carried about with every blast of doctrine, ever learning and
never coming to the knowledge of the truth. And together with those
self-denying orders, which bear witness to the exuberant life welling
forth out of the depth of the Church of Christ, England has banished
the dogma of the Real Presence, not indeed from her theory, but still
from being that vital and pervading practical truth which should
animate and reward the labours of every day, and turn into consolation
all the sorrows of humanity.
O that the Spirit of God might breathe the life of every day's
practical action into those ancient Catholic formularies which are at
present a reproach to our degeneracy! O that our deep and large
chancels of old time, the figure of our buried Lord's sepulchre, might
once more be the Bridechamber, where the risen Saviour descending
should hold daily communing with His Church!
Most intimately connected with the dogma of the Incarnation, and its
symbol, the Real Presence, is that of the Intercession of all Saints,
especially of the Blessed Mother of God: nay, this may be said to be
the continuation and carrying out of the Real Presence, so that
wherever that is truly and heartfully believed, this will be, within
due bounds, cherished and practised. For the truth that our Lord has
assumed our flesh, and communicates that flesh to His true believers,
leads directly to the faith that they who are departed and at rest
with Him, and delivered from all stain of sin, do indeed "live
and reign" with Him, and have power with God. And if this be true of
the least saint, who by the mercy of God has been thought worthy of
the Beatific Presence, in how much higher a degree is it true of Her,
to whom by the assumption of her pure flesh Christ was brought so
inconceivably near? And shall not we who are engaged in so weary a
conflict call upon all saints, and Her especially, to aid and befriend
us? "O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord,
praise Him and magnify Him for ever!" Yea, praise Him, and magnify
Him, by praying and interceding for us, who, high as ye are, and low
as we, you exalted to glory, and we buffeted by the flesh, and led
into error in the spirit, are yet your brethren by virtue of the Flesh
and Blood of the Incarnate God, which made you what you are, which is
the earnest to us of being one day what you are. Praise and magnify
the common Lord who bought us, by supplicating larger supplies of His
grace on us His suffering members. And may not we ask you, who dwell
in sight of the Eternal Throne, but who once, like ourselves, bore the
burden and heat of the day in this earthly wilderness, may we not ask
you to turn your regards on us, to intercede for us before Him, whose
members you are in glory, and we in trial? Of the redeemed family one
part is with God and one on earth. Is there to be no communion
between them, when one part most needs the aid of the other? Is this
derogating from the glory of Christ? What a strange perversion of
error which can so esteem it! Surely it is a sense, a spiritual touch,
as it were, of the "cloud of witnesses," which inspirits Catholic
hearts to win the battle, which enables the most lonely to feel that
he is not alone, that he is encompassed and aided by heavenly hosts.
Accordingly the intercession of saints, especially of the Blessed
Virgin Mother, is a living truth in Catholic countries: it accompanies
the doctrine of the Real Presence, and works in subservience to it.
Doubtless where the former is not vividly held, the latter will be
repudiated, and, perhaps, counted idolatrous. It would, indeed, be
wholly out of proportion with the cold creed of the Unitarian or the
Sectary: it might lead those to fall down and worship at the feet of a
servant who did not behold in that servant the one image of the Lord,
the seal and impress of the only Begotten, which claims all glory for
the Lord of glory.
And a concomitant of the true doctrine of the priesthood is that
system of confession which is the nerve and sinew of religion in
Catholic countries. The English prayer-book says of every individual
priest, "whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose
sins thou dost retain, they are retained." Here is the whole Catholic
doctrine stated. Now this the Roman Church not only says, but
acts upon. And its strength lies, accordingly, not in anything that
meets the eye, gorgeous cope, or chasuble, or procession, or majestic
ceremonies symbolising awful doctrines; not in anything that meets the
ear, whether chanted psalm, or litany, or sermon touching the
feelings, or subduing the understanding; though all these it has, its
strength lies deeper in the hidden tribunal of conscience. The good
Christian is not he who attends mass or sermon, but he who keeps his
conscience clean from the attacks of sin, who, overtaken in a fault,
has straightway indignation upon himself, and submits himself to the
discipline which Christ has appointed for restoring him. The efficacy
of the pastor must entirely depend on the knowledge of his people's
state, and his power to correct their sins, and to guide them in their
penitence. How he can possibly have this knowledge, or power, or guide
them at all without special confession, I see not: nor how he can ever
exercise the power conveyed to him at his ordination, and lodged by
Christ in His Church for ever. This is the true bond between the
pastor and his flock: the true maintainer of discipline, and
instrument of restoration. Accordingly, in Catholic countries, we see
the priest truly respected, cherished, and obeyed _by his flock_,
however much he may earn the dislike and suspicion of the worldly and
unconverted: in Protestant countries we see the pastoral office
a nonentity; the shepherd of his flock is virtually a preacher of
sermons. He knows the plague is ravaging them, but they will not bear
the touch of his hand: he must see them perish one by one, but they
will not let him help them: when mortification has begun, then he is
called in to witness a hopeless dissolution, or to speak peace, peace,
where there is no peace.
The dogma of the Incarnation and the Real Presence has again the
closest affinity with that of the Priesthood. Christ is present in His
Church, for the Priest in the tribunal of penitence is as God Himself.
How vain, how worse than blasphemous, would be the attempt to absolve
from sin,--surely the maddest infringement of Divine Power which
mortal ever imagined,--had not He, the partner of our flesh and blood,
said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are
retained;" and "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world." No blasphemy can approach the Church's blasphemy, if it be not
God's truth; and if it be, so deeply touching the secret springs of
discipline, in what state is a branch of the Church of Christ, which
utterly neglects this truth in practice, and allows it with impunity
to be denied, and derided, and calumniated? Whose children from their
infancy have scarcely ever heard it? Whose full-grown men turn
from it in all the hardness of rebellious manhood? And if it be what
it is, either a Divine Power, or a diabolic deceit, can that be at
once the Gospel, which has it and which has it not?
Here then, again, we have no new thing to take up with, but simply to
practise what we already solemnly profess.
Thus the perpetual recurrence to the doctrine of the Real Presence,
the prominence given to the Intercession of Saints, especially of the
Blessed Virgin, and the real putting forth of apostolic power in the
tribunal of penitence, are striking features in the Roman Communion.
By these she proves that she has living power as a portion of Christ's
Church, by living upon and dealing with the most awful powers: as she
holds the true doctrine, "Believe that this is so, because I say it,
and I say it because it has come to me from Christ through His
Apostles," so she exhibits the convincing proof of her mission:
"Believe that I am the Church, for behold me exercising the
supernatural powers of the Church." This is that inward proof which
convinces, which is nothing technical, merely intellectual, or matter
of argument, but like St. Augustine's "Securè judicat orbis
terrarum,"--"A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." And the
Anglican portion must prove, in act as well as in theory, her identity
with this of Rome, from whom she has her succession, and with
that other great Oriental Communion, the joint-witness herein of
Catholic truth and practice. Her prayer-book has the deepest
accordance with the Catholic system. Will she in act continue to put a
false interpretation on the words of her own formularies, or will she
read them practically in the sense of those from whom she took them?
Among minor things, which yet we have suffered loss and harm in giving
up, may be reckoned the custom of crossing with holy water on entering
a church, with hearts as directed, full of reverend thoughts, and of
"trust in the merits of Jesus Christ," and the custom of bowing on
passing the altar. It is sad to contrast the manner in which English
abroad and at home enter the House of God with the reverence shown by
the right-minded in Catholic communities. A still more to be regretted
omission is that of the Crucifix, which might, with much edification,
appear prominently at least in one part of the church, over the
rood-screen or over the altar. How often, in France or Italy, passing
some retired village, or at a turn in the road, may one admire a
Crucifix, large as life, sanctifying the village green, or making a
shrine of some leafy recess? How often does the tedious ascent of a
hill bring to mind, by its wayside memorials, the hill of scorn up
which He, our only hope, slowly toiled in suffering? Is it not a
tenderness to the tired wayfaring man to bring before his
thoughts the very form of Him in whom all labour is made sweet? Who
that has climbed the rocky stairs of the S. Gothard pass has not felt
refreshed and inspirited by the Cross crowning the heights which look
down on the last valley of the Italian side? As the way before him
becomes narrower and steeper, frowning in arid desolation, and shut in
as it seems on all sides, that Cross is to Christian thought a sign
and token, that through the sternest valley and up the hardest height
there is yet a way, though we see not our path before us. In faith the
traveller goes on till height after height is won, and terrace after
terrace surmounted, and the one road opens before him. Shall then the
English labourer, doomed beyond most others to be a hewer of wood and
drawer of water, be deprived of the aid of those symbols which shall
tell him that this too may be made the way of salvation? Has his
duller eye and less imaginative thought less need of the painting and
the sculpture to inform them? Has he become more reverential since
remembrances of his Saviour have been put out of his sight? Does his
bearing in the House of God show a more chastened and humbled spirit
of contrition since the Rood has been taken from before his eyes on
which the God-Man was portrayed in suffering? What!--are those who
deem it almost the whole of religion to put forward continually the
sacrifice of the Cross, consistent in removing carefully out of
sight the visible representation of that sacrifice? Is every memorial
of our redemption to be scrupulously swept away from the face of the
country?--nay, even from the interior of our churches? Out upon that
detestable puritanism, devoid alike of heart and imagination, which
has so successfully laboured to take away from England--once
pre-eminently the isle of faith and love--every outward characteristic
of a Christian land. I am, with shame, obliged to feel and confess
that a pious Roman Catholic, coming to England, so far from being
touched by the purity of our faith, or the warmth of our love, would
probably be shocked at every step by a subtle irreverence, which has
affected our whole tone of thought and mode of action in holy things.
It is become the atmosphere which we breathe, by which even the
instinct of the true Christian mind is so deadened, that it cannot be
aware, without going out of it, how much we have lost
On the other hand, there are parts of the Roman discipline which have
struck me very unfavourably. First, the employment of the Latin
language in all the administration of sacraments, and in most of the
public services. That in the middle ages, before modern languages had
attained order, consistency, and beauty, and while they still appeared
mere hewings of Latin by the barbaric sword, ecclesiastics
should have been unwilling to desecrate, as it were, so solemn a
service as the Mass, by rendering it into misshapen ever-changing
sounds, I can well conceive. But this state of things has long passed
away: nor can I imagine how a devout population can endure to have the
Psalms of David chanted, and the most holy and most beautiful form of
words which ever was put together, recited in a tongue they understand
not. Even those who can fully enter into the stateliness and
imperishable beauty of the Latin tongue must surely feel it a grievous
disadvantage, that devotions, which should carry the whole heart with
them, are not presented through the medium of that mother tongue, the
accents of which speak to every man's heart by the force of a thousand
nameless associations, as those of no other tongue can. How, indeed,
in country parishes, where there is little music, interest can be kept
up in the services, I do not understand. It is true the Sacrifice of
the Mass does not depend on the language by enunciating which it is
consummated; but was that sublime harmony of thoughts and words the
most elevating intended to be inaudible? For even at a Low Mass, when
I had the book before me, and the officiating priest at the distance
of ten feet, the whole Canon of the Mass was inaudible. In a chanted
Mass it is out of the question distinguishing any words. I should feel
this more than I can express. Besides that it gives scoffers the
pretext of saying that the Roman Church aims at making her services a
mere spectacle, or mainly a spectacle,--an infamous calumny indeed,
but which this unhappy locking up her praises and prayers in the Latin
tongue tends to substantiate. Sure I am that if the Anglo-German race
be ever restored to the communion of the Latin Church, as I fervently
pray that mercy may be reserved for them by God, this custom as
regards _them_ must be changed. It is a matter of discipline, merely,
of course; or, whatever I might be tempted to think of it, I should
not so speak.
Again the reservation of the cup to the sacrificing priest, an
admitted innovation and exercise of authority, is one for which I can
see no adequate reason. And though the doctrine of concomitancy seems
involved in that of the Real Presence, and I, for one, should recoil
with horror from the thought that almost every one in the Latin
Communion has been for ages deprived of the participation of the chief
Sacrament, and though one may allow that this custom was very
prevalent before it was enacted, and arose out of reverence, and
renders the administration of the Sacrament much easier, still I
cannot reconcile myself to the necessity of it. Granting that power
exists in the Church to order it in case of necessity, wherein lies
that necessity? In case of a reconciliation this point must surely be
granted, as it was granted to the grand Duke of Bavaria, though
he was induced not to avail himself of the grant.
Preachers in the Roman Church use no book: it seems the people would
not tolerate a written discourse. The result is, that sermons are much
more rhetorical, and rather appeal to the affections and feelings than
to the understanding. The French mind certainly would not endure the
sort of cut and dried essay which is often given in England; yet an
appreciation of logical order and sound reasoning is the very
characteristic of the French mind. More southern nations would still
less enter into the style of preaching in vogue with ourselves. I
think it is a grave question whether the faculty of expressing one's
thoughts in public without book should not be made a part of every
priest's education. The ancient Fathers all did so. Is not our own the
only portion of the Church where a contrary practice prevails? And
dangerous as it would be for the generality of Anglican priests to
attempt to speak on grave points of doctrine without their book before
them, yet surely by a special education the power may be acquired to
combine accuracy of thought with readiness of expression. Orthodoxy
has no natural connexion with a written sermon. At least the power of
illustrating any given subject without book is a precious means of
influence. And what is the priest without influence?
No more interesting spectacle is there in the world, to my eyes, than
the aspect and attitude of the French Church. Fifty years after such
an overthrow as no other Church ever survived, behold forty thousand
priests at work, under eighty bishops, in the great task of winning
back their country to the faith. Despoiled of all territorial power,
of all political authority as priests, of the possession even in fee
of a single church, parsonage, or palace; reduced to a state of even
apostolical poverty, and receiving a miserable salary paid as to
merchants' clerks by the government; with a temporal power jealous of
all spiritual influence, and the whole mind of the nation infected
with infidelity--year after year they are winning ground, they are
making themselves felt; they present a front before which even the
tyranny of centralisation pauses in its career, counts ever and anon
the cost of the conflict, and recoils from its aggression. In the very
midst of the corruptions of Paris we are told that fifty thousand
converts, the pure gold of the Church, exist as a centre which is ever
drawing more around them. Infidelity itself talks of the religious
movement, and fears it, and would fain expel its most tried and
valorous champions--two hundred destitute men, who begin their
profession by the renunciation of their goods. How is all this done?
What power is this which makes its way against such tremendous odds?
If any fact was ever patent in history, it is this--let us not
be ashamed to own it--_it is the power of the Cross_. The bishop,
residing in a palace which he has not the funds even to keep in
repair, with a smaller income than a little tradesman or a country
attorney, has no other channel for his cares and affections than those
five hundred priests, who, with the pay of day-labourers, yet charged
with the intimate knowledge and perilous guidance of souls, look up to
him as their head and support, their defender and champion. And in
every village there is one at least, linked to earth but by a
spiritual tie, a member of a great hierarchy, through whom the
Redeemer rules visibly on the earth. He is cut off from almost all
participation of temporal things, but the larger is his portion of
things spiritual: he reflects, in his degree, the true Melchizedek.
Removed from us but by a narrow strait we see bishops at 400_l._ a
year, archbishops at 600_l._, bound to celibacy, truly ruling their
clergy, serrying their ranks against the enemy, and fearing nothing,
were it but that they have nothing to lose; standing, where the bishop
ought to stand, in the first ranks against the attacks of infidelity.
There, again, the priest detached from all human ties, representing in
his life already that state where they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, in his spiritual character greater than all other men,
in his temporal condition lower than most.
Consider now the duties and habits of our own Church, in its present
practical working, by the side of this of France. In the one, every
bishop and priest offers daily the tremendous Sacrifice. Daily he has
to appear in that most awful presence, where nothing unclean can
stand: daily he is armed against those spiritual conflicts, for
himself and others, which he has to undergo, receiving "the holy Bread
of eternal life and the Cup of everlasting salvation." In the other,
the priest at rare intervals, in the vast majority of instances only
once a month, approaches the Source of life and health. But what is
the inward condition under which each approaches it? The one is under
complete spiritual guidance, taught, as a first element of spiritual
life, that constant and rigorous self-examination must be practised,
and for every sin willingly committed after baptism penance be
undergone and confession made: the other, left to himself in that work
most perilous to human frailty, the conduct of one's own spiritual
state; nor, again, that thus left to himself, he can work by a chart
in which the hidden shoals are pointed out, and his progress noted.
All, on the contrary, in this inward life, so unspeakably important,
is left a blank. How can he guide others who has never been taught to
guide himself, or submit himself to another's guidance? For as
to the duties of the priest, in these two Churches--in the one, the
very main duty, which is far more important than all others, is the
secret guiding of consciences, laden with guilt and in various degrees
of purification: all public ministrations are immensely inferior in
importance to this. Whereas in the other Church, it is these public
ministrations which alone exist in any degree of efficiency. Not one
Anglican priest in a hundred has ever been called to receive a
confession, or unfold the terms of reconciliation to a guilty soul.
Indeed so much is this the case, that the notion of the priest in most
parishes is extinct: it is the minister and the preacher who have
taken his place. Again, in the one Church a compact body of doctrine
and a line of preaching are set forth in the catechismus ad parochos:
in the other, it frequently happens that two adjoining priests are at
issue on the very first principles of Christian doctrine; whether, for
instance, there be or be not a Christian priesthood; whether there be
or be not grace in the sacraments. Again, in the one Church, for the
more devoted spirits religious orders and councils of perfection
exist, and celibacy is the condition of all superior spiritual
vocations; in the other it is yet in practice doubtful, whether
councils of perfection are not inventions of the Evil One, and whether
the putting forth of celibacy as meritorious be not an infringement of
the one Sacrifice offered on the Cross.
Perhaps this contrast might be carried farther, but it is an
unpleasant task to show how Anglicanism (meaning by that expression
not the real system of the prayer-book, but that which has practically
forced its way to a great extent into the pale of the English Church,)
is gold largely mingled with earthly alloy. A divine work is at
present interfered with by commixture of an heretical element, leaving
us only a fervent hope and prayer, that by the long suffering mercy of
God a seed may still remain, which in due time by most unambiguous
works of love shall prove its identity with the ancient Church of the
Island of Saints, and become one fold under one Shepherd.
"Christ only, of God's messengers to man,
Finished the work of grace which He began.
List, Christian warrior, thou whose soul is fain
To rid thy mother of her present chain;--
Christ will unloose His Church; yea, even now
Begins the work, and thou
Shalt spend in it thy strength, but, ere He save,
Thy lot shall be the grave."
The work of educating the French clergy is largely in the hands of the
Congregation of S. Sulpice, a celibate body of course, and whose
members are not paid, but merely clothed and boarded. They necessarily
teach one uniform dogma, that is, within that sufficiently wide range
of doctrine on which the Church has set her immutable seal. More than
this, they impress one uniform sacerdotal mould and type, and
exercise one discipline on all committed to them. It results, of
course, that all who go forth from them, passing through their various
public and private scrutinies, are trained and practised combatants to
the extent to which their teaching goes. More yet than this; a severe
ascetic and self-denying character is from the beginning attached to
the sacerdotal life; they take the Apostle literally, "no man that
warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;" parents who
consent to their children entering into the priesthood think and speak
of it as "a sacrifice;" those who look forward to it have it so set
before them, and can count the cost before they take the first step.
Few situations to which they can afterwards be called require the
exercise of greater self-denial than has been expected from them from
the first. Does not this point out to us the quarter from which a
reform among ourselves must proceed? Surely before the laity can
become sound churchmen, the priesthood must be _uniformly taught_;
"the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law
at his mouth." But High Church and Low Church, not to mention the
interminable shapes of distinction in individual minds between and
beyond them, are utterly incompatible with each other. After the dogma
of the Trinity they part company. Until then the Anglican Church
teaches her priests an uniform dogma, and moulds them in a
severe and uniform discipline, she cannot hope for any other fate,
than that her bosom should be rent with interminable heresies and
divisions. The existence of the Séminaires, and the order of
S. Sulpice, is a reform in the Roman Church. Are we never to
_reform_? Not by introducing novelties, but by recurring to ancient
practices. The continual encroachment of the world upon the Church
rendered it necessary to promote Seminaries as places of spiritual
retreat for candidates for Holy Orders; and when, as a consequence of
the Revolution, the course of study in the university became quite
secularised, it became also necessary to detach the candidates
altogether from that course, and to provide all that was requisite for
instruction as well as for inward discipline within the walls of the
Séminaire. This, as to instruction, is not completely done yet. But it
is in course of doing. Now does not that necessity which sprung up in
the French Church exist just as much among ourselves? Are our
Universities at present a fit school for preparing men for a life of
the utmost patience, self-denial, and humiliation? Is the sacerdotal
type impressed there at all? Is anything like an uniform dogma known?
Is it not precisely there that moral control is relaxed, and habits of
indulgence are commonly introduced? Is there any attempt made to form
the inward life, and discern a man's vocation? Oh, is it not the
severest censure of our Universities even to mention such things? And
without any special training, without any knowledge of his inward
state, the young man who has been accustomed to unrestricted company,
to studies almost exclusively classical or mathematical, to every kind
of worldly amusement and sport, or to travel at the time of life most
perilous to innocence, is taken and made a priest of, and sent to the
"Cure of Souls," in a parish. Can any state of deeper practical
corruption than this be well imagined? Or any system more thoroughly
opposed to that pursued in the Church, which is proverbially mentioned
among us as "corrupt?"
Surely the establishment of a system of "Séminaires" among ourselves,
a course of close and effective moral discipline for the candidates
for orders, and the inculcation of one uniform dogma, must precede any
real change for the better among us. God grant that such a change may
come!
Another evil has arisen from this absence of a fixed type in the
clergy, and of a dogmatic standard in our Church. Both in France and
England the State has seized upon that most precious prerogative of
the Church--the nomination of her chief pastors: both in France and
England the State has ceased to be either Catholic or Christian.
Perilous then at the best it is, that a power not necessarily
religious should take to itself the choice of those who are to
fill the Apostolic Chairs. But this peril is so far lessened in France
that the State must at least appoint one who has had a priest's
education, has been moulded by the great Christian mother into the
character first of her child and then of her minister, and, whatever
his other qualifications be, will acknowledge her in her true
unearthly character of the spouse of Christ, and defend her privileges
before all things. This is the Church's guarantee in France,--not a
sufficient one--but something. And, moreover, lest this character
should by possibility be wanting in any nominee, power is reserved to
the Apostolic See to refuse institution to such a one. But in
England,--in this miserable diversity of belief in the bosom of the
Church herself, this utter absence of dogmatic teaching,--the State
may select at its pleasure the Erastian, the Latitudinarian, the
Sabellian, the Low Churchman--the man, in short, that it wants for its
own evil designs against the Church, and place him in a position where
he commands the obedience of the Church's children. A fatal power, of
which we are suffering the results.
On one more point there is a striking contrast. In the French Church
there are special communities, as we have seen, (les Pères Lazaristes,
les Missions Etrangères, &c.) for instructing those who are willing to
give themselves to missionary work. In their institutions the
bent of the mind, the special aptitude for so pre-eminently difficult
a work, the vocation, in short, of these candidates is carefully
attended to: those who have been themselves engaged in missionary
work, and have the advantage of experience, direct their studies and
discipline: none but those who are most single-minded and unreserved
in their devotion are allowed to undertake the work of an apostle. On
our part, what sort of labourers,--how grounded, disciplined, and
tried,--have we been sending forth to be the Church's forlorn hope in
her assaults on the strongholds of heathenism? Men who found
difficulty in being employed in England from defective education or
other causes: men who looked to get their 300_l._ a-year, and marry
upon their missionaryship: or again, Lutherans from Basle, smuggled
into the garb of English churchmen through the Church Missionary
Society: nay, till very lately, a number of our missionaries have had
no orders!!
At "Les Missions Etrangères," to inspirit the zeal of the students,
they have brought back to them the bones and relics of those who have
suffered for Christ in foreign lands. There have been such in China,
within the last few years, men who, if now living, would only be
entering on the middle period of life. And not long ago there were two
missionaries in that country who were condemned to death. One was
executed; the other was saved by the accidental coming of a
French frigate off the coast the very morning of his execution. He
returned to France, and when he came to "Les Missions Etrangères" he
was shown, among other relics, the bones of his companion, with whom
he had so nearly suffered. His fortitude forsook him at the sight; he
could hardly support himself, and cried, "Ah! why did that unhappy
frigate appear? But for that my bones would now be here, and my soul
had been in heaven."
And now, as we leave the French Church, let us glance a moment at that
whole community of which it is but one, though an important member. My
whole design in the foregoing pages has been to bring before sincere
and candid minds facts which otherwise might not be presented to their
notice. Facts have an objective existence; if we shut our eyes to them
they do not cease to be. The sun shines, though we are blind to its
rays. Wisdom utters her voice in the streets, though none listen to
her. Now incomparably the most important facts in the Roman Church are
those which concern not merely a member of it, but the whole
Communion: _e.g._ its extent, its doctrine, its internal discipline,
its vital principle, and its generative and expansive power. If under
these heads we consider the Roman Church, taking it merely as a fact,
like the British monarchy, is it too much to say, that no work of
art, no discovery of genius, no scheme of philosophy, physical
or metaphysical, earthly or heavenly, no history of human deeds in
doing or in suffering, no political constitution, no scientific
confederacy, no association of monarchs or of peoples, no past or
present civilisation, nothing about which men have wearied themselves
in research and discussion, is so worthy of patient thought and humble
consideration as is that Communion. The following are a few reasons
for the above observation:--1. The Roman Catholic hierarchy depends on
the Pope as its centre of unity, and as the divinely-appointed Head of
the Church on earth. From him all its bishops receive canonical
institution, that is, the grant of spiritual jurisdiction.
Accordingly, they sign themselves Bishops "by the mercy of God, and
the grace of the Holy Apostolic See." What, then, is their number, and
into how many countries do they extend? The following is as near an
approximation to the truth as I can make.
IN EUROPE.
Archbishops. Bishops.
Bavaria 2 6
Austria 9 24
Hungary 3 22
France 15 65
Spain 8 53
Belgium 1 5
Prussia 2 6
Hanover - 2
Bavaria 2 6
Baden 1 4
England } Vicars { - 11
Scotland } Apostolic { - 5
Ireland 4 23
Portugal 4 17
Poland 1 8
Switzerland - 4
Russia 1 5
Holland } Vicars { - 5
Norway & Sweden } Apostolic { - 1
Greece 1 3
Ionian Islands 1 1
Turkey in Europe 3 4
Epirus 1 1
Servia 1 -
Bulgaria } Vicars { - 1
Archipelago } Apostolic { - 2
Italy--
Milan and Venice 2 17
Modena - 4
Naples and Sicily 22 81
Parma - 4
States of the Church 8 62
Sardinia- 7 34
Tuscany 4 18
Malta 1 -
___ ___
Total in Europe 102 498
IN ASIA.
Patriarchs. Archbishops. Bishops.
Asia Minor - - 2
Eastern Asia (Syria, &c.)--
Maronites 1 7 2
Syrians 1 1 4
Melchites 1 6 5
Armenian, Cilicia 1 - -
Babylon, Chaldean 1 4 5
India - 1 1
Syria - - 1
Arabia - - 2
Persia (Vicars Apostolic) - - 1
India - - 7
Asia beyond Ganges - - 6
China (Bishops) - - 3
(Vicars Apostolic) - - 10
___ ___ ___
Total in Asia 5 20 49
IN AFRICA.
Bishops.
Egypt 2
Cape and Mauritius 2
Algiers 1
Centa and Tangiers (Isles under Portugal) 2
___
Total in Africa 7
IN AUSTRALASIA.
Archbishops. Bishops.
Australia 1 3
New Zealand - 1
Batavia - 1
Polynesia - 3
___ ___
Total in Australasia 1 8
IN AMERICA.
Archbishops. Bishops.
North--
English Possessions 1 5
United States 1 23
Mexico 1 10
Central America 1 4
West Indies 1 2
South--
United States of the South 1 8
Venezuela 1 2
Bolivia 1 2
Peru 1 4
Chili 1 4
Paraguay - 1
Plata 1 3
Brazil 1 7
_Vicars Apostolic._
English Possessions - 2
Texas - 1
Antilles - 3
Hayti - 1
Guiana - 2
___ ___
Total in America 12 84
TOTAL.
Patriarchs. Archbishops. Bishops.
In Europe - 102 498
In Asia 5 20 49
In Africa - - 7
In Australasia - 1 8
In America - 12 84
___ ___ ___
5 135 646
Here, then, is one spiritual empire, stretching over all the continents
of the earth, entering into so many various nations utterly different
in manners, language, origin and temper. This empire, though outnumbered
in some few of these nations by other Christian Communions, yet has no
one other set over against it, equally wide-spread, united, and
claiming like it universality. And its functions, though necessarily
exercised in this world, sometimes in friendship with, sometimes in
opposition to, the civil power, have to do exclusively with man's
relations to the unseen world. So that it is strictly in this aspect a
"kingdom of heaven" on earth, whose several members hold together by
their common union with one chief.
2. But further, this hierarchy, thus numerous, thus widely spread, and
thus united, are in possession of a vast body of doctrine, which they
maintain to have descended to them from our Lord through His Apostles.
This body of doctrine is uniform, coherent, systematic, forming a
whole which comprehends all the relations of man to God from the
formation of the first man to the general judgment of the world. These
bishops, and the priests under them, are not in the habit of disputing
what this body of doctrine is: for, as to all that concerns the
Christian life, it has long ago been clearly defined and established.
In the long course of eighteen hundred years disputes about it have
indeed arisen: they have then been terminated by common consent:
individuals who took a different view about them from the whole body
have been obliged to leave it, and the truth has only come out the
more sharply defined from these contests. Moreover, as this doctrine
claims to be _revealed_, and as all revelation must be partial, as a
light shining amid darkness, penetrating it indeed on all sides, but
leaving indefinite spaces beyond unillumined, there are a multitude of
questions more or less touching on this doctrine, yet not comprehended
in it, or decided by it. Only enough is, by the consent of all members
of this hierarchy, decided, so as to leave the Christian in no doubt
as to any point concerning his salvation, or as to any practical means
of obtaining it. There is no split in this doctrine, dividing its
professors into separate camps: no internal opposition of principles
reproduced in external divisions. It is one logical whole. If fresh
doubts as to any point not yet decided be raised by the ever-active
intellect of man, then the hierarchy, either collectively or by tacit
adherence to the voice of its chief, declares and decides the point
mooted. This body of doctrine, thus possessed and taught by this
hierarchy, is termed _the Faith_, and it is necessary for every
simple member of the Communion to hold and believe it. It is clear
that no such body of doctrine could exist without a power coexisting
at all times to declare what does or does not belong to it: for
were it simply written in a book, interminable disputes would arise as
to the meaning of the book. Just as the English law, the work of ages,
exists in a great number of volumes, but requires no less for its
practical daily working the decision of a supreme judicial authority.
The sovereign declares in his courts of justice what is _the law_:
the Church declares in her court what is _the Faith_. This in civil
matters, is government; in spiritual, it is infallibility: without it,
in the state there would be no one authority, in the Church no one
Belief: this would be dissolved in anarchy, and that distracted by
heresy.
3. But thirdly, this great spiritual empire, with an hierarchy thus
widely extended yet thus closely united, and a code of belief at once
so large and so definite, erects its tribunal for the heart and
conscience of every one belonging to it. In virtue of certain words
spoken by its divine Founder to His Apostles, it intervenes as a
living power between man and his God, exercises the most special
authority of its Head, and retains or remits sins in His name. It does
not recoil before the pride, the self-will, the independence of human
nature, but grasps it in its inmost recesses, and compels it to hear
on earth the voice of the Judge of quick and dead. The authority it
claims is so vast, so fearful, so incalculably important to those who
live under it, so beyond the natural powers of man to exercise,
that it is manifestly either divine or diabolical. For hundreds of
years it has formed the subject of numberless reproaches directed
against this empire by those who belong not to it: yet it subsists
still: there is no sign of its being surrendered or modified. It
subsists under all forms of civil government, absolute or
constitutional monarchies, or wild democracies, whose very symbol is
the entire independence of the human will. And what is remarkable, the
most devoted and saintly men who have lived under this spiritual
empire, and whose lives were a continued sacrifice of their own
leisure, toil, sufferings, and will to God, have been most zealous to
uphold, and most skilful to exercise, this tribunal over the
consciences of men. It has been now for many generations the chosen
taunt of the unbeliever, and the constant practice of the saint.
4. But further, this empire dares to offer up the dearest affections
of the natural man to the more uninterrupted service of God. It
requires of all those whom it employs in the office of teaching a
surrender of the liberty to engage in those ties which the Gospel
itself seeks, not to proscribe, but to sanctify. Thus the Communion,
which honours marriage as a sacrament, requires of all members of its
hierarchy, down to the subdeacon inclusively, to abstain from it. It
regards them as the militia of the Church; and "no man that
warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life." Multitudes
there are besides, both of men and women, who accept not only this
condition, but voluntarily embrace the vows of poverty and obedience
in addition. To all these this spiritual empire promises one only
compensation, great indeed, but received by faith alone; that, in
proportion as they surrender all delight arising from the creature, and
bring their will into subjection to another, the larger shall be their
inheritance in the Creator; the more absolute the union of their will
with His. And on this super-human life, founded in self-renunciation,
and supported by Divine love, all great works in the Roman Communion
depend. Not only is it the condition of the whole hierarchy, of all
who have the Church's commission publicly to teach her belief, but the
task of education, from the highest to the lowest classes, and the
manifold labours of charity for the sick and poor, are all committed
to those who give this proof of the sincerity of their vocation.
5. Lastly, in this spiritual empire there are a great number of
institutions or congregations of men specially intended for its wider
extension among yet heathen nations. To the conditions above
enumerated they must add a yet more special aptitude for the most
difficult and laborious work; a yet more complete surrender of human
praise, reward, comfort, or support. Sisters of charity are seen
to cross over the ocean to the extremity of the world, that they may
work in combination with missionaries, whose task it is to live among
savages, and to make them first men, in order that they may hereafter
be Christians; both alike without endowment, in simple dependence on
Providence, trusting to the labour of their hands for maintenance,
putting their lives in the power of the faithless and fickle savage,
and showing him, by their own homelessness, that they but live and
labour for him. Nor has the blood of martyrs wholly ceased to flow.
Seventy persons in China, Tonking, and Cochin China, have in the last
fifty years borne witness with their lives to the faith of
Christ--some of them Frenchmen and Spaniards, but some likewise
priests and catechists taken out of one of the naturally feeblest
races of the East, whom the grace of God nerved to endure torments
unsurpassed for their severity in the earliest persecutions of the
Church.
Whatever be the imperfections of human agents, is there not enough in
all this to make us behold the working of a Divine and supernatural
power? Should we not each, in our several spheres, labour and pray for
reconciliation and unity--the adjustment of differences--the mutual
understanding of Christendom? One alone can do this--let it be our
first and last request to Him.
"O Thou, who doest all things
whereby to bring again our race to Thee,
that it may be partaker
of Thy divine nature and eternal glory;
who hast borne witness
to the truth of Thy Gospel
by many and various wonders,
in the ever-memorable converse of Thy Saints,
in their supernatural endurance of torments,
in the overwhelming conversion of all lands
to the obedience of faith,
without might, or persuasion, or compulsion;--
end the schisms of the Churches,
quench the haughty cries of the nations,
restore the wanderers,
knit them to Thy Holy Catholic Apostolic Church,
and receive us all into Thy kingdom,
acknowledging us as Sons of Light;
and Thy peace and love
vouchsafe to us, O Lord our God."
APPENDIX.
I subjoin the following, as giving a further view of the Seminary of
S. Sulpice, which could not so well be incorporated into the Journal
itself.
Picture of the duties of a seminarist who desires to sanctify and
prepare himself worthily to fulfil the functions of the holy
ministry:--
"Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy
profiting may appear to all." 1 Tim. iv. 15.
"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be
formed in you." Gal. iv. 19.
"It is behoving that the clergy, who are called into the Lord's
inheritance, should direct their lives and manners so as to offer a
picture of seriousness, composure, and religion, in their dress,
gesture, demeanour, conversation, and all other respects."--_Council
of Trent, Sess. 12. on Reformation._
"Bishops are to charge their clergy, of whatever degree, that they
give an example to God's people in manner of life, conversation, and
knowledge; remembering what is written, 'Be ye holy, for I am
holy.'"--_Council of Trent, Sess. 14. on Reformation._
I. OBJECT OF THE SEMINARY.
"Ye see your calling." 1 Cor. i. 26.
The seminarist who desires faithfully to fulfil his duties, and to
advance in the graces of the seminary, never forgets that the object
for which he has gone there is to become a holy priest, and to acquire
the virtues and the knowledge necessary to the Lord's ministers.
"Let seminaries be instituted for the education of the clergy in
piety, religion, and ecclesiastical discipline."-_Council of Trent._
This general object of the seminary includes the following particular
objects:--
1. That he should reform within himself the false maxims of the world
by the principles of the faith.
"Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. The
fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth;
proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Eph. v. 8.
2. That he should cleanse himself from his sins and their miserable
remains by penitence, especially that of the heart.
"Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." Luke, iii. 8.
"A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." Ps. li.
3. That he should become a perfect Christian by exercising himself in
piety and the practice of virtues.
"Exercise thyself unto godliness." 1 Tim. iv. 7.
4. That he should acquire the ecclesiastical spirit.
"We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God." 1 Cor. ii. 12.
5. That he should apply to the study of the ecclesiastical sciences.
"Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine." 1 Tim. iv. 16.
II. VOCATION.
"And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of
God, as was Aaron." Heb. v. 4.
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." John, xv. 16.
In order to know whether he is called by God to the ecclesiastical
estate, the seminarist studies the marks of vocation, and gives an
account to his director of his actual disposition, and of his conduct
before his entry into the seminary.
The principal marks of vocation are--
1. To have no other intention but the glory of God and the salvation
of souls.
"I seek not mine own glory." John, viii. 50.
"I have ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your fruit should remain." John xv. 16.
2. To repent of one's sins, preserving in the heart contrition and the
feeling of one's unworthiness for a state so holy and so sublime as
that of the priesthood.
"My sin is ever before me." Ps. li.
"My heaviness is ever in my sight." Ps. xxxviii.
3. To love the rule of the seminary, observe it exactly, and be very
faithful to direction.
"O my God, I am content to do it; yea, Thy law is within my heart."
Ps. xl.
4. Not to seek to please the world.
"If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." Gal.
i. 10.
5. To practise the Christian virtues, and to aim at the perfection of
the ecclesiastical state.
"Ye are the salt of the earth. Ye are the light of the world." Matt.
v. 13.
6. The most necessary and the most certain mark is the decision of his
director, when he has given him complete knowledge of himself, after
having prayed with fervour and purity of heart.
"He that heareth you, heareth me." Luke, x. 16.
III. SPIRIT OF THE SEMINARY.
"If any one has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom.
viii. 9.
The seminarist who wishes to profit by his stay in the seminary, and
by its exercises, strives to direct his conduct and actions according
to the spirit of our Lord, which is entirely opposed to that of the
world. The features of that spirit are--
1. To give oneself to God without reserve, and to do for Him all one's
actions.
"My son, give me thy heart." Prov. xxiii. 26.
"Do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. x. 31.
2. Detachment from the world.
"Ye are not of the world." John, xv. 9.
"The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. vi. 4.
3. Inward collectedness, and the presence of God.
"Walk before Me, and be thou perfect." Gen. xvii. 1.
"Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Luke,
ii. 19.
4. Ready, entire, and perfect obedience.
"And he was subject unto them." Luke, ii. 51.
"Obey them that have the rule over you." Heb. xiii. 17.
5. Fraternal charity.
"This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved
you." John, xv. 12.
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another." John, xiii. 35
6. Love of study, and the ecclesiastical sciences.
"Ye are the light of the world." Matt. v. 14.
"The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law
at his mouth." Mal. ii. 7.
IV. MAXIMS OF THE SEMINARY.
"He who heareth my words and doeth them shall be likened unto a wise
man who built his house upon the rock." Matt. vii. 24.
The seminarist proposes during his stay to confirm himself, by
frequent meditation, in the maxims of the faith as to the fundamental
truths of salvation, and of ecclesiastical perfection, and to conform
his whole life to them.
1. Salvation.
"One thing is needful." Luke, x. 42.
"What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul?" Matt. xvi. 26.
2. The excellence of the Christian's calling.
"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the Sons of God." 1 John, iii. 1.
"We are the children of God; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ." Rom. viii. 16.
3. The eminence of the priesthood.
"Every high priest is ordained in things pertaining unto God, that he
may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." Heb. v. 1.
"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and
stewards of the mysteries of God." 1 Cor. iv. 1.
4. Denial of self.
"If any one will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me." Matt. xvi. 24.
"Not my will, but Thine, be done." Luke, xxii. 42.
5. Union with Jesus Christ, by imitation and dependence.
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Phil. ii. 1.
"I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. ii. 20.
V. GENERAL RULE.
"As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy."
Gal. vi. 16.
1. Faithfulness to the general rule is for the seminarist the most
assured means of sanctification, and the most excellent preparation
for the holy ministry. By fulfilling it perfectly he is constantly
pleasing to God: inasmuch as he conforms himself in all things to His
holy will.
"Obey them that have the rule over you." Heb. xiii. 17.
"I do always those things that please Him." John, viii. 29.
2. He regards the intention, which gives their value to actions.
"The Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam. xvi. 7.
"The king's daughter is all glorious within." Ps. xlv.
3. Among the different motives proposed by faith he prefers that of
charity.
"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren." 1 Pet. i. 22.
"Love is the keeping of her laws; and the giving heed unto her laws is
the assurance of incorruption." Wisd. vi. 18.
4. He is especially exact in rising in the morning; in the preparation
for, and resolutions made in, prayer; in the holy employ of his
time; and in silence: and he fails not to examine himself every day on
these capital points.
"A heave offering of the Lord." Numb. xxxi. 29.
"Rise up betimes, and be not the last." Eccles. xxxii. 11.
"Before thou prayest, prepare thyself, and be not as one that tempteth
the Lord." Eccles. xviii. 23.
"Be not faint-hearted when thou makest thy prayer." Eccles. vii. 10.
"A time to keep silence, and a time to speak." Eccl. iii. 7.
"If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." 1 Cor. xi. 31.
VI. PARTICULAR RULE.
"He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in
much." Luke, xvi. 10.
The seminarist takes all pains to draw up well his particular rule,
and to leave out nothing of whatever can contribute to his
sanctification.
1. He marks out the employment of every moment of the day which is not
destined to common exercises, as well as how he will occupy himself on
festivals or days of leave.
"Let all things be done in order." 1 Cor. xiv. 40.
2. He sets before him an intention for every action.
"Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ." Col. iii. 17.
"Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all for
the glory of God." 1 Cor. x. 31.
3. He distinguishes the virtues to which he will give especial heed,
as well as his particular devotions and mortifications.
"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness." Matt.
v. 6.
"If ye live according to the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, by the
Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live." Rom.
viii. 13.
4. He determines the subject of his particular examination, the time
and manner in which he is to do it, as likewise his occupations during
the holy mass, the chaplet, and his visits to the Most Holy Sacrament.
5. He marks the anniversaries of the graces he has received; his
resolutions in his monthly retreats; in his ordinations; the
circumstances in which he has been most vividly touched by the love of
God. He does not omit the rule he is to follow during vacations.
VII. CHRISTIAN AND ECCLESIASTICAL VIRTUES.
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the
believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith,
in purity." 1 Tim. iv. 12.
"In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works; in doctrine
uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity." Tit. ii. 7.
The seminarist regards the seminary as a school of Christian and
ecclesiastical virtues, which he must acquire before he enters upon
the holy ministry.
1. He sets before him constantly, as example, our Lord Jesus Christ.
"I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to
you." John, xiii. 15.
2. He applies at first to the three means necessary to attain
holiness; frequent reflection on his actions and their motives;
prayer; mortifying, specially of the imagination, the senses, and his
private judgment.
"The whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart."
Jer. xii. 11.
"Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." Luke, xviii. 1.
"They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts." Gal. v. 24.
3. He makes humility the foundation for the acquisition of virtues.
"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." 1 Peter,
v. 5.
4. He applies specially to the virtue most necessary for him, and most
opposed to the inclinations of corrupt nature, such as contempt of
one's self, support of one's neighbour, &c.
"I will follow upon mine enemies, and overtake them; neither will I
turn again until I have destroyed them." Ps. xviii. 37.
VIII. DEVOTIONS OF THE SEMINARY.
"Exercise thyself unto godliness.
"Godliness is profitable unto all things." 1 Tim. iv. 7, 8.
Practices of devotion support piety, and contribute to progress in
holiness and perfection. The most suitable to the seminarist are:
1. Devotion towards the august Trinity.
"So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son." John,
iii. 16.
"I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that
He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." John,
xvi. 17.
2. Devotion to the Most Holy Sacrament.
"The love of Christ constraineth us." 2 Cor. v. 14.
"Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy." Heb. iv. 16.
3. Devotion to the Cross.
"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. ii. 20.
"God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Gal. vi. 14.
4. Devotion to the sacred Heart of Jesus.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Rom. viii. 35.
"Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Matt. xi. 29.
5. Devotion to the most holy Virgin.
"Behold thy mother." John, xix. 27.
6. Devotion to the holy Apostles, to holy Bishops, and to holy
Priests.
"Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their
conversation." Heb. xiii. 7.
7. The seminarist addresses every day prayers to his guardian angel,
to his patron saint, and for the refreshment of souls in Purgatory.
IX. READING OF THE SEMINARY.
"Give attendance to reading." 1 Tim. iv. 13.
The reading of works which develop the rules and spirit of the
seminary, which treat of Christian and ecclesiastical virtues, of
fitness to receive holy orders, as likewise that of the lives of
saints, is indispensable to the seminarist. The following are those
which he will chiefly read:
Manual of Piety. 8th edition.
The Good Seminarist. 2d edition.
Practice of Direction, of the monthly Retreat, and of Monition.
Manual of the Seminarist. By M. Tronson. 2d edition.
Treaty on Obedience. By M. Tronson.
Nepotian; or, The Pupil of the Sanctuary.
The Spiritual Combat.
The Presence of God, the Faithful Mirror, and the Golden Book.
The Spirit of Christianity. By Father Nepveu.
Christian Infancy. By M. Blanlo.
Catechism of the Interior Life. By M. Olier.
Practice of the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ. By S. Liguori.
Excellence of Devotion to the holy Virgin. By Father Galliffet.
Treaty on Holy Orders. By M. Olier.
Ecclesiastical Instructions. By M. de Lantages.
Meditations of Chenart, specially for vacations.
Life of Berchmans, S. Louis de Gonzaga, Calixtus Frèze, Antony Gohier,
S. Vincent de Paul.
X. DIRECTION.
"Ask council of all that are wise." Job, iv. 18.
One of the most important exercises for maintaining fidelity to one's
duties, and for acquiring perfection, is communication with the
director. It is the means of avoiding self-deception, fickleness,
disturbance, and lukewarmness. The seminarist will find, in careful
reading of the preceding articles, what ought to form the matter of
his direction. He will make a special point of the following
particulars, which he should never omit in intercourse with his
director.
1. _General and Particular Rule._--How far do I keep my engagements?
What are the points in which I feel most difficulty or repugnance?
What have I done to establish myself in the virtues of obedience and
self-denial?
2. _Prayer._--What preparation do I make for it? What method
have I followed in this exercise? What are my resolutions? Have I put
them in practice? What fruit have I hitherto derived from my prayers,
and what is my desire to profit by them? What difficulties do I meet
with?
3. _Virtues._--What progress have I made in thoughtfulness, humility,
and purity of intention? and what conquests have I gained over
heedlessness, vanity, self-love, and my ruling passion?
4. He will not fail to communicate to his director his pains,
temptations, dryness and hardness of mind; as, likewise, the books he
has, what he has read, those with whom he has intercourse, the visits
which he makes and receives.
5. He never goes out from direction without taking a practical
resolution in concert with his director.
"A faithful friend is a strong defence, and he that hath found such an
one hath found a treasure." Eccles. vi. 14.
XI. MONTHLY RETREAT.
"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak
comfortably to her." Hos. ii. 14.
The object of the monthly retreat is: 1. More deeply to examine the
conscience; 2. To make firmer resolutions for the correction of
faults; 3. To choose the most effective means to advance in virtues,
and specially to be confirmed in the life of faith, and in contempt of
the world, by a serious preparation for death.
In order to profit by this exercise, the seminarist sets before him
the following considerations:
1. To learn his ruling and oftenest recurring fault; for instance,
love of the world and its pleasures; sloth and want of application to
his duties; fear of humiliations; inclination to slander and
unfavourable judgment of his neighbour; liking for his own will and
opposition to obedience.
2. To search into the causes of lukewarmness and slackness; habitual
heedlessness; little preparation for prayer and attendance on
Sacraments; frivolous reading and conversation; indisposition for and
want of openness in direction; irresolution in complete surrender to
God, in avoiding slight faults, and in seeking the society of the most
earnest.
3. To examine the most necessary virtue, and pursue the practices
fitted to acquire it; to meditate seriously on the necessity of
obedience, humility, self-denial, charity, good example, in the holy
ministry.
4. To write down his feelings and resolutions, communicate them to his
director, and read them over frequently.
XII. ORDINATIONS.
"Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and
counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke,
xiv. 28.
One of the principal duties of the seminarist is to prepare himself
with the greatest care for receiving holy orders, considering that, in
proportion to the preparation, is the abundance of the grace which
they confer.
1. He will read attentively the Pontifical, and works treating of
ordination, to learn the excellence of holy orders, their office,
their obligations, the virtues they require, the disposition to be
brought to them.
2. He will prepare himself for ordination by practices of piety; by
deeper examinations of conscience; by more frequent communications
with his director; by uniting in prayer with those who receive the
same orders.
3. After ordination he will take pains to preserve the grace which he
has received, by fulfilling the resolutions he has written down and
the advice of his director.
"Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Cor. ix. 13.
4. He will mark the anniversaries of his different ordinations, to
stir himself up at those times in the practice of ecclesiastical
virtues, and especially of a hearty religion; a continual modesty; a
holy and exemplary life; an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls.
"I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is
in thee, by the putting on of my hands." 2 Tim. i. 6.
"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a
feast to the Lord throughout your generations." Exod. xii. 14.
INDEX.
A.
Addolorata, visit to, 127-136
Second account, 143-149
Third account, 151-157
M. Pététot's account, 267
Amatha, Bishop of, interview with, 219
Amiens, cathedral, 102-106, 330
Apparition, story of, 215
To M. Ratisbonne, 217
Asceticism and monasticism, 120
Assemblée Nationale, 277
Assumption, ladies of the, their institution,
rules, object, 55
Aveugles, Institution des, 223
Prizes given at, 296
B.
Billiers, M. l'Abbé des, conversation with, 240
His anecdote of a legitimist, 243
On primacy of jurisdiction, 250
Bishops, appointment of, in France and England, 353
Bonnetty, M., 266
Boulogne, British chapel at, 110
Bourges, cathedral, 326
Seminary, 328
C.
Carmelite nuns, 78
Carmes, Maison des, 87
Scenes which passed there, 293
Caudebec, church of, 16
Celibacy, its value in the work of
education, 190, 290, 305, 308
Chapelle expiatoire, 63
Christians, number of, in Paris, 41
Church, importance of considering its action abroad, 1
General impression of its action in France, 107, 346
Its bishops and priests in France, 347
Progress of, 113
French and English, contrasts in, 346-356
Clergy, payment of, in France, 5
Importance of their dress, 283
Cluny, Hotel de, 86
Communion at Easter, rule about, 20
Confession, practice of, 97, 349
Confessional, labour of the, 133, 250
Importance of its discipline, 337
Confirmation, account of, 173-178
Congregations, missionary, 7
Couvent des Oiseaux, 289-291
des Dames du Sacré Cœur, 291-293
des Dames de la Visitation, 296-298
Coppinger, Mr. A., conversation with, 237
Dinner with, 257
D.
Defresne, M., conversation with, 41, 112
Effect of last revolution in favour of clergy, 238
M. Reboul's poetry, 264
Denys, S., restoration of, 39
Des Genettes, address of M. l'Abbé, 248
Direction, what it means, 33
Dogma, want of standard of, 353
E.
Education, national, in France, 5
Establishments for, 8
Anglican and Roman Catholic, 309
Enfans Trouvés, 225
Estatica, visit to the, 136-139
Second account, 149-150
Third account, 157-158
M. Pététot's, 268
Eucharist, controversy on the Holy, 51, 60
F.
Fasts, rule upon, 19
Fécamp, abbey church, 179
Notre Dame de Salut, 180
Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes, 20
School kept by them, 26
Their numbers, &c., 79
G.
Gabet, M. l'Abbé, conversation with, 251
Account of Thibet; Celibacy of men and women;
Religious rites; Choice of Grand Lama;
Religiousness of Eastern mind, 252-255
Galais, M. l'Abbé professor at S. Sulpice, 51
Conversation with, 59, 71
His view of the last revolution, 200
Opinion of modern miracles, 271
Principles of the representants, 272
Infidelity of the masses, 273
Law of continence, 274
Garde-Malades, chapel of the, 38
Lives of the Sisters, 232
Genoa, bare-footed Carmelites, 117
Ospitaletto, 118
Pammatone, 119
Albergo dei Poveri, 119
Le Fieschine, 120
Churches, 121
S. Georges de Boscherville, 18
S. Germain des Prés, church of, 234
Gondon, M., conversation with, 218
Louis Philippe's choice of bishops, 241
Graville, Norman church of, 172
Guéranger, L'Abbé Dom, 38, 77
I.
Ignorance, Roman Catholic, of English Church, 3
Invincible, sole excuse for not joining the Church, 74
Incarnation, its presence in Roman Catholic worship, 186, 331
Infidelity, general in France, 6
Intercession of saints, its connection with
the Incarnation and the Real Presence, 334
Ivetot, Petit Séminaire of; discipline of house; catechising;
refectory; day's employment; opinion of Church of England;
of Anglican orders; influence of masters on scholars, 10-16
Confirmation at, 173-178
J.
S. Jacques du haut pas, parish of, Easter Communions
and population, 49
Conference of S. Vincent de Paul, 62
Jourdain, le Père, 117
Jumiêges, ruins of the abbey of, 17
L.
Labbé, M. l'Abbé., _See_ Ivetot
Lacordaire, le Père, interview with, 72
Tiers ordre de S. Dominique; university;
his opinion of Anglican churchmen, 73-76
On the Roman primacy, 258
The Papacy as a government, 259
Value of oral tradition, 260
Una Fides: unum Corpus, 262
Separation inexcusable, 264
His conduct in the National Assembly, 276
Lambert, M. l'Abbé, his seminary, 189
Langres, Monseigneur Parisis, bishop of, 195
Laon, its site, cathedral, 98
Latin language, its use in the Church, 342
Lazaristes, les Pères, 203-206
Lorette, church of Notre Dame de, 81
Luscombe, Bishop, his chapel, 40
Dinner with, 50
M.
Madeleine, church of la, 81
Mantes, church of Notre Dame, 28
Early communion at, 192
Manzoni, visit to, 122
Martyrs, modern, in China, 235
Migne, M. l'Abbé, his establishment, 61
Milan, Duomo, 124
Feast of Assumption, 169
Early communion, 169
Miracles, discussion upon, 64
Anecdote on pretenders to, 68
Reasonableness of, 225
Missionary life in China, 196
In Oceania, 220
Missions, Etrangères les, 115, 198, 355
Montalembert, le Comte de, his opinion
of the state of England, 232
Reception at his house, 270
Montmartre, Church and Calvaire, 70
N.
Necker, Hôpital, 222
S. Nicolas, Œuvre de, 301-309
Noirlieu, M. Martin de, 48
Dinner with, 284
Account of archbishop's funeral, 285
Catholicism and Protestantism in France, 285
Notre Dame de bon Secours, 23
Votive tablets at, 23
Church finished, 184
O.
Orders, case of Anglican, 15, 77
Orleans Cathedral, 326
P.
Pantheon, 85
Paris, Archbishop of, Monseigneur Denys Affre, his funeral, 284
Oration on, 287
Connection with Maison des Carmes, 295
Parisis, Monseigneur, Bishop of Langres, 195
Parkes, Mr., American Church; conversation with, 50
Penitentiary, 79
Pététot, M. l'Abbé, his visit to l'Addolorata
and l'Estatica, 267
Address at la Madeleine, 282
Philosophy, study of, in French Church, 20
Picard, M. l'Abbé, 19, 180
his occupations, 183
Piepus, Société de la Rue, 210-214
Poileau, M. l'Abbé, his school, 58
Preaching, French, M. D'Alzon, 61
without book, 345
Presence, the Real, controversy on, 50
Its daily practical value, 57
A realising of the Incarnation, 174
Connection with the cultus of the Saints, 300, 334
With the priesthood and monastic orders, 333
With system of confession, 336
Its prominence and power, 331
Priesthood, its connection with the doctrines
of the Incarnation and the Real Presence, 333, 338
Education of, in France, 350
Priests, life of, in Séminaire, 174
Ordinary life of, 247
Puritanism, one of its effects in England, 340
Q.
S. Quentin, Church at, 100
R.
Ratisbonne, M. Alphonse, his conversion, 45, 203
Ratisbonne, M. l'Abbé Theodore, 44
Conversations with, 82-84, 193, 194, 215
Apparition to him, 217
Ravignan, le Père de, 197
Conversation with, 201
Liberalism in the Assembly, 227
The Roman Primacy, 228, 250, 280
The state of the Church in France and Italy, 278
Fewness of the saved, 279
Bossuet's Gallicanism, 281
Reims, Cathedral, 92
Church of S. Remi, 95
Séminaire, 96
Reservation of the Cup, 344
S. Roch, sermon at, 244-248
Rome, Primacy and Supremacy of, 43
Roman Church, authorities for her dogma, 54
Her living power, 339
Her extent, 356
Uniform and systematic doctrine, 361
Internal discipline, 363
Vital principle, 364
Generative power, 365
Rosmini, his philosophy, 123
Rouen, curé of Cathedral, 19, 21, 180, 183
High Mass at Cathedral, 186
St. Ouen, 24, 184
Dames de l'Adoration du S. Sacrement, 27
Carmelite nunnery, 180
Rouen, Archbishop of, Monseigneur
Louis Blanquart de Bailleul, 175
His address at confirmation, 176
His archevêché, 182
Dinner with him, 185
S.
Sacrifice, the daily, 348
Séminaires, grands et petites, 52
Grands, 352
Petit, distribution of prizes at, 229
Petit. _See_ Ivetot.
Separation, evils of, 2
Services, Roman Catholic, devotional
rather than instructive or hortative, 22
Sisters of Charity, Rue du Bac, 28
Their day's employment, 42, 116
Cure of a novice, 206-9
Benediction at their house, 242
Their cheerfulness, 310
Account of the cures wrought in their house,
with attestations of the medical men, 311-326
Suarez, anecdote of his memory, 60
S. Sulpice, Séminaire of, 29
Employment of day, 30
Special lectures, 32
Rules of life, 32
Rules in _retreat_, 34
Means to profit by _retreat_, 35
Appels to be gone through by candidates, 36
Fasts and jours maigres, 36
Professors without salaries, 37
Furnishing of rooms, 52
Course of studies, 53
Library, 55
Maison de campagne at Issy, 87
Character of their whole education, 350
Tableau des devoirs d'un Seminariste. (_Appendix_).
S. Sulpice, parish, number of Easter Communions, 39
T.
Toulouse, M., book-shop of, 29
Conversation with, 85
Trent, Prince-Bishop of, visit to, 143, 151, 163
Trent, its position, 150, 163
V.
Venice, the Pozzi and Piombi, 160
Ducal Palace, 161
S. Mark's, 161
Scene on Grand Canal, 165
Skill of gondoliers, 167
S. Giovanni e Paolo, 168
Verona, 159
S. Vincent de Paul, conférence of, 62
Assemblée générale of, 88
His congregation, 203-206
Cure attributed to his intercession, 206-209
His charity, 225
Cure of blindness attributed to his intercession, 243, 256, 257, 265
His unpublished letters, 243
Full account and attestation of the cures
of Marie Javelle and Céleste l'Allemand, 311-325
Virgin, the Blessed, Roman Catholic idea of, 25
Cultus of, 37
M. Ratisbonne's account of it, 44, 84, 193
M. Noirlieu's, 48
Virgin, the Blessed, cultus of, Bishop of Langres' account of, 195
Devotion to, reflections on, 63
Addresses to, in liturgies, 78
Expressions used of her, 97
Mention of her in S. Augustine's works, 202
Subject of her intercession, 298-300
Appearance of, to M. Alphonse Ratisbonne, 45, 46
To a Sister of Charity in their chapel, Rue du Bac, 28, 206
Vocation, importance of, 36, 298
Voisin, M. l'Abbé, missionary in China, 199
W.
Workmen, morals of, in Paris, 113
Worship, Catholic and Uncatholic, 162
Roman Catholic, 186
X.
Xavier, S. François, society of, 64
THE END.
LONDON:
SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW,
New-street-Square.
NEW WORKS
IN MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL LITERATURE,
PUBLISHED BY
MESSRS. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
CLASSIFIED INDEX.
AGRICULTURE & RURAL AFFAIRS.
Page
Bayldon on Valuing Rents, etc. 6
Crocker's Land Surveying 10
Davy's Agricultural Chemistry 10
Fresenius' " " 12
Johnson's Farmer's Encyclopædia 16
Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture 19
" Self-Instruction for Farmers, etc. 18
" (Mrs.) Lady's Country Companion 18
Low's Breeds of the Domesticated Animals 20
" Elements of Agriculture 20
" On Landed Property 19
" On the Domesticated Animals 19
Parnell on Roads 24
Stewart on Transfer of Landed Property 29
Thomson on Fattening Cattle, etc. 30
Topham's Agricultural Chemistry 31
ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND ARCHITECTURE.
Ball on the Manufacture of Tea 6
Brande's Dictionary of Science, etc. 7
Budge's Miner's Guide 7
Cartoons (The Prize) 8
Cresy's Encycl. of Civil Engineering 9
D'Agincourt's History of Art 10
Dresden Gallery 10
Eastlake on Oil Painting 11
Evans's Sugar Planter's Manual 11
Gwilt's Encyclopædia of Architecture 13
Haydon's Lectures on Painting & Design 13
Holland's Manufactures in Metal 17
Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art 15
Loudon's Rural Architecture 19
Moseley's Engineering and Architecture 23
Parnell on Roads 24
Porter's Manufacture of Silk 17
" " Porcelain & Glass 17
Reid (Dr.) on Warming and Ventilating 25
Steam Engine (The), by the Artisan Club 5
Ure's Dictionary of Arts, etc. 31
Wood on Railroads 32
BIOGRAPHY.
Andersen's (H. C.) Autobiography 5
Bell's Lives of the British Poets 17
Dunham's Early Writers of Britain 17
" Lives of the British Dramatists 17
Forster's Statesmen of the Commonwealth 17
" Life of Jebb 17
Gleig's British Military Commanders 17
Grant (Mrs.) Memoir and Correspondence 12
Haydon's Autobiography and Journals 13
James's Life of the Black Prince 15
" Eminent Foreign Statesmen 17
Kindersley's De Bayard 16
Lal's (M.) Life of Dost Mohammed 23
Leslie's Life of Constable 18
Mackintosh's Life of Sir T. More 20
Maunder's Biographical Treasury 22
Roscoe's Lives of Eminent British Lawyers 17
Rowton's British Poetesses 26
Russell's Bedford Correspondence 6
Schopenhauer's Youthful Life 27
Shelley's Literary Men of Italy, etc. 17
" Eminent French Writers 17
Southey's Lives of the British Admirals 17
" Life of Wesley 29
Taylor's Loyola 30
Townsend's Twelve eminent Judges 31
Waterton's Autobiography and Essays 32
BOOKS OF GENERAL UTILITY.
Acton's (Eliza) Cookery Book 5
Black's Treatise on Brewing 6
Cabinet Lawyer (The) 8
Collegian's Guide 8
Donovan's Domestic Economy 17
Foster's Hand-book of Literature 12
Hints on Etiquette 13
Hudson's Executor's Guide 15
" On Making Wills 15
Hume's Account of Learned Societies, etc. 15
Loudon's Self Instruction 18
" (Mrs.) Amateur Gardener 18
Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge 22
" Scientific and Literary Treasury 22
" Treasure of History 22
" Biographical Treasury 22
" Natural History 22
Parkes's Domestic Duties 24
Pocket and the Stud 25
Pycroft's Course of English Reading 25
Reader's Time Tables 25
Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 25
Riddle's Eng.-Lat. and Lat.-Eng. Dict. 26
Robinson's Art of Curing, Pickling, etc. 26
" Art of Making British Wines 26
Rowton's Debater 26
Short Whist 27
Suitor's Instructor (The) 29
Thomson's Management of Sick Room 30
" Interest Tables 30
Webster's Encycl. of Domestic Economy 32
Zumpt's Latin Grammar 32
BOTANY AND GARDENING.
Abercrombie's Practical Gardener 5
" and Main's Gardener 5
Ball on the Cultivation of Tea 6
Callcott's Scripture Herbal 8
Conversations on Botany 9
Evan's Sugar Planter's Manual 11
Henslow's Botany 17
Hoare On the Grape Vine on Open Walls 14
" On the Roots of Vines 13
Hooker's British Flora 14
" Guide to Kew Gardens 14
Lindley's Theory of Horticulture 18
" Orchard and Kitchen Garden 18
" Introduction to Botany 18
" Synopsis of British Flora 18
Loudon's Hortus Britannicus 19
Loudon's Hortus Lignosus Londinensis 19
" Encyclopædia of Trees & Shrubs 19
" " Gardening 19
" " Plants 19
" Suburban Gardener 19
" Self-Instruction for Gardeners 18
" (Mr.) Amateur Gardener 18
Repton's Landscape Gardening, etc. 25
Rivers's Rose Amateur Guide 26
Rogers's Vegetable Cultivator 26
Smith's Introduction to Botany 28
" English Flora 28
" Compendium of English Flora 28
CHRONOLOGY.
Blair's Chronological Tables 6
Bosanquet's Chronology of Ezra, etc. 7
Bunsen's Ancient Egypt 7
Nicolas's Chronology of History 17
Riddle's Ecclesiastical Chronology 26
COMMERCE AND MERCANTILE AFFAIRS.
Banfield and Weld's Statistics 6
Baylis's Arithmetic of Annuities 6
McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce 20
Reader's Time Tables 25
Steel's Shipmaster's Assistant 29
Symonds' Merchant Seamen's Laws 29
Thomson's Tables of Interest 30
Walford's Customs' Laws 31
GEOGRAPHY AND ATLASES.
Butler's Ancient and Modern Geography 8
" Atlas of Modern Geography 8
" " Ancient Geography 8
" " General Geography 8
De Strzelecki's New South Wales 10
Erman's Travels through Siberia 11
Forster's Historical Geography of Arabia 11
Hall's Large General Atlas 13
M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary 20
Mitchell's Australian Expedition 22
Murray's Encyclopædia of Geography 24
Parrot's Ascent of Mount Ararat 24
Schomburgh's Barbados, and Map 27
HISTORY AND CRITICISM.
Bell's History of Russia 17
Black Prince 6
Blair's Chron. and Historical Tables 6
Bloomfield's Translation of Thucydides 7
" Edition of Thucydides 6
Bunsen's Ancient Egypt 7
Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul 9
Cooley's Maritime and Inland Discovery 17
Crowe's History of France 17
Coulton on Junius's Letters 9
De Sismondi's Fall of the Roman Empire 17
" Italian Republics 17
Dunham's History of Spain and Portugal 17
" Europe in the Middle Ages 17
" History of the German Empire 17
" Denmark, Sweden and Norway 17
" History of Poland 17
Dunlop's History of Fiction 11
Eastlake's History of Oil Painting 11
Eccleston's English Antiquities 11
Foster's European Literature 12
Fergus's United States of America 17
Gibbon's Roman Empire 12
Grant (Mrs.) Memoir and Correspondence 12
Grattan's History of Netherlands 17
Grimblot's William III. and Louis XIV. 12
Halsted's Life of Richard III. 13
Harrison On the English Language 13
Haydon's Lectures on Painting and Design 13
Historical Charades 13
Historical Pictures of the Middle Ages 13
Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions 16
Keightley's Outlines of History 17
Laing's Kings of Norway 16
Lemprières Classical Dictionary 18
Macaulay's Essays 20
" History of England 20
Mackintosh's History of England 17
" Miscellaneous Works 20
M'Culloch's Dictionary, Historical, Geographical,
and Statistical 20
Maunder's Treasury of History 22
Milner's Church History 22
Moore's History of Ireland 17
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History 23
Nicolas's Chronology of History 17
Passages from Modern History 28
Ranke's History of the Reformation 25
Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 25
Riddle's Latin Dictionaries 26
Rome, History of 17
Rowton's British Poetesses 26
Russell's Bedford Correspondence 6
Scott's History of Scotland 17
Sinnet's Byways of History 28
Southeby's Doctor, etc. 29
Stebbing's History of the Christian Church 17
" Church History 17
Switzerland, History of 17
Sydney Smith's Works 28
Taylor's Loyola 30
Thirlwall's History of Greece 30
Tooke's Histories of Prices 30
Turner's History of England 31
Zumpt's Latin Grammar 32
JUVENILE BOOKS.
Amy Herbert 5
Callcott's Home among Strangers 8
Gertrude 12
Gower's Scientific Phenomena 12
Historical Charades 13
Howitt's Boy's Country Book 14
" Children's Year 14
Laneton Parsonage 18
Mackintosh's Life of Sir T. More 20
Marcet's Conversations--
On Chemistry 21
On Natural Philosophy 21
On Political Economy 21
On Vegetable Physiology 21
On Land and Water 21
Marryat's Masterman Ready 21
" Privateer's-Man 21
" Settlers in Canada 21
" Mission; or, Scenes in Africa 21
Passages from Modern History 28
Pycrott's Course of English Reading 25
Twelve Years Ago 31
MEDICINE.
Bull's Hints to Mothers 7
" Management of Children 7
Copland's Dictionary of Medecine 9
Elliotson's Human Physiology 11
Holland's Medical Notes 14
Lane's Water Cure at Malvern 16
Latham On Diseases of the Heart 18
Pereira On Food and Diet 24
Sandby on Mesmerism 26
Thomson On Food 30
MISCELLANEOUS.
Blessington's Fugitive Fancies 6
Carey's Past, Present, and Future 8
Cartoons (The Prize) 8
Cocks's Bordeaux, its Wines, etc. 8
Collegian's Guide 8
Colton's Lacon 9
Coulton On Authorship of Junius 9
De Jaenisch On Chess Openings 10
De la Gravière's Last Naval War 10
De Morgan On Probabilities 17
De Strzelecki's New South Wales 10
Dresden Gallery 10
Dunlop's History of Fiction 11
Field On Prison Discipline 11
Gardiner's Sights in Italy 12
Gower's Scientific Phenomena 12
Graham's English 12
Grant's Letters from the Mountains 12
Hobbes's (Thos.) complete Works 14
Hooker's Kew Guide 14
Howitt's Rural Life of England 15
" Visits to Remarkable Places 14
" Student Life of Germany 15
" Rural and Social Life of Germany 15
" Colonisation and Christianity 15
Hume's Account of Learned Societies 15
Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions 16
Lane's Life at the Water Cure 16
Loudon's (Mrs.) Lady's Country Companion 18
Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays 20
Mackintosh's (Sir J.) Miscellaneous Works 20
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs 21
Necker De Saussure's on Education 24
Plunket On the Navy 25
Pycroft's Course of English Reading 25
Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 25
Richter's Levana 26
Riddle's Latin Dictionaries 26
Roget's Economic Chess-board 26
Rowton's Debater 26
Sandy's Mesmerism 26
Sandford's Parochialia 26
Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck 27
Southey's Common-Place Book 29
" Doctor, etc. 29
Suitor's Instructor (The) 29
Summerly's Sea and Railway 29
Sydney's Smith's Works 28
Thomson on Food of Animals, etc. 30
Walker's Chess Studies 31
Willoughby's (Lady) Diary 32
Zumpt's Latin Grammar 32
NATURAL HISTORY IN GENERAL.
Catlow's Popular Conchology 8
Doubleday's Butterflies and Moths 10
Gray and Mitchell's Ornithology 12
" " Accipitres 12
Kirby and Spence's Entomology 16
Lee's Taxidermy 18
" Elements of Natural History 18
Stephen's British Beetles 29
Swainson on the Study of Natural History 17
" Animals 17
" Quadrupeds 17
" Birds 17
" Animals in Menageries 17
" Fish, Amphibia, and Reptiles 17
" Insects 17
" Malacology 17
" Habits and Instincts 17
" Taxidermy 17
Turton's Shells of the British Islands 31
Waterton's Essays on Natural History 32
Westwood's Classification of Insects 32
NOVELS AND WORKS OF FICTION.
Callcott's Home among Strangers 8
Dunlop's History of Fiction 11
Hall's Midsummer Eve 13
Lady Willoughby's Diary 32
Madame De Malguet 21
Marryat's Masterman Ready 21
" Privateer's-Man 21
" Settlers in Canada 21
" Mission; or, Scenes in Africa 21
Pericles, a Tale of Athens 24
Southey's Doctor, etc. 29
Twelve Years Ago 31
ONE VOLUME ENCYCLOPÆDIAS AND DICTIONARIES.
Blaine's, of Rural Sports 6
Brande's, of Science, Literature, and Art 7
Copland's, of Medicine 9
Cresy's, of Civil Engineering 9
Gwilt's, of Architecture 13
Johnson's Farmer 16
Loudon's, of Trees and Shrubs 19
" of Gardening 19
" of Agriculture 19
" of Plants 19
" of Rural Architecture 19
M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary 20
" Dictionary of Commerce 20
Murray's Encyclopædia of Geography 24
Ure's Arts, Manufactures, and Mines 31
Webster's Domestic Economy 32
POETRY AND THE DRAMA.
Aikin's (Dr.) British Poets 27
Chalenor's Walter Gray 8
Collier's Roxburghe Ballads 9
Costello's Persian Rose Garden 9
Flowers and their Kindred Thoughts 11
Goldsmith's Poems, illustrated 12
Gray's Elegy, illuminated 12
Howitt's (Mary) Ballads 14
L. E. L.'s Poetical Works 16
Linwood's Anthologia Oxoniensis 18
Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome 20
Mackay's English Lakes 20
Montgomery's Poetical Works 23
Moore's Irish Melodies 23
" Lalla Rookh 23
" Poetical Works 23
Moral of Flowers 23
Poets' Pleasaunce 25
Rowton's British Poetesses 26
Shakspeare, by Bowdler 27
Sophocles, by Linwood 28
Southey's Political Works 29
" British Poets 27
Spirit of the Woods 29
Thomson's Seasons, illustrated 30
" with Notes, by Dr. A. T. Thomson 30
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND STATISTICS.
Banfield and Weld's Statistics 6
M'Culloch's Geographical, Statistical,
and Historical Dictionary 20
M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce 20
" Literature of Polit. Economy 21
" On Succession to Property 21
" On Taxation and Funding 21
" Statistics of the British Empire 20
Marcet's Conversations on Polit. Economy 21
Symond's Merchant Seamen's Law 29
Tooke's Histories of Prices 30
Twiss's (Dr.) View of Political Economy 31
" Schleswig-Holstein Question 31
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL WORKS, ETC.
Amy Herbert, edited by Rev. W. Sewell 5
Barrett's Old Testament Criticisms 6
Bloomfield's Greek Testament 7
" College and School ditto 7
" Lexicon to Greek Testament 7
Bunsen's Church of the Future 7
Burder's Oriental Customs 7
Burns's Christian Philosophy 8
" Christian Fragments 8
Callcott's Scripture Herbal 8
Closing Scene 8
Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul 9
Cooper's Sermons 9
Coquerel's Christianity 9
Dale's Domestic Liturgy 10
Dibdin's Sunday Library 10
Discipline 10
Englishman's Hebrew Concordance 11
" Greek Concordance 11
Forster's Historical Geography of Arabia 11
" Life of Bishop Jebb 11
From Oxford to Rome 12
Gertrude, edited by the Rev. W. Sewell 12
Hook's (Dr.) Lectures on Passion Week 14
Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures 14
" Compendium of ditto 14
Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art 15
Jebb's Correspondence with Knox 15
" Translation of the Psalms 16
Kip's Christmas in Rome 16
Knox's (Alexander) Remains 16
Lancton Parsonage 18
Letters to my Unknown Friends 18
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs 21
Margaret Percival 21
Milner's Church History 22
Miracles of Our Saviour 22
Moore on the Power of the Soul 23
" on the Use of the Body 23
" on Man and his Motives 23
Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History 23
Parables of Our Lord 24
Parke's Domestic Duties 24
Pitman's Sermons on the Psalms 25
Ranke's Reformation 25
Renaud's Matutina 25
Rest in the Church 25
Riddle's Letters from a Godfather 26
Sandford On Female Improvement 27
" On Woman 27
" 's Parochialia 26
Sermon on the Mount (The) 27
Shunammite (The Good) 27
Sinclair's Journey of Life 28
" Business of Life 27
Sketches (The) 28
Smith's (G.) Perilous Times 28
" Religion of Ancient Britain 28
" Sacred Annals 28
" (J.) St. Paul's Shipwreck 28
Soames's Latin Church 28
Southey's Life of Wesley 29
Stebbing's Christian Church 17
" Reformation 17
Stephen's Church of Scotland 29
Sydney Smith's Sermons 28
Tate's History of St. Paul 29
Tayler's (Rev. C. B.) Margaret 30
" " Lady Mary 30
Taylor's (Jeremy) Works 30
" (Isaac) Loyola 30
Tomline's Introduction to the Bible 30
Turner's Sacred History 31
Twelve Years Ago 31
Walker's Elementa Liturgica 31
Wardlaw On Socinian Controversy 31
Wilberforce's View of Christianity 32
Willoughby's (Lady) Diary 32
Wilson's Lands of the Bible 32
Wisdom of Johnson's Rambler, etc. 16
Woodward's Sermons and Essays 32
" Sequel to Shunammite 32
RURAL SPORTS.
Blaine's Dictionary of Sports 6
Ephemera on Angling 11
Hawbuck Grange 13
Hawker's Instructions to Sportsmen 13
Jones's Norway Salmon Fisher 16
Loudon's (Mrs.) Lady's Country Companion 18
Pocket and the Stud 25
Stable Talk and Table Talk 29
THE SCIENCES IN GENERAL, AND MATHEMATICS.
Baker's Railway Engineering 5
Bakewell's Introduction to Geology 5
Brande's Dictionary of Science, etc. 7
Brewster's Optics 17
Conversations on Mineralogy 9
De la Beche on the Geology of Cornwall, etc. 10
Donovan's Chemistry 17
Farey on the Steam Engine 11
Fosbroke on the Arts of the Ancients 17
Gower's Scientific Phenomena 12
Herschel's Natural Philosophy 17
" Astronomy 17
Holland's Manufactures in Metal 17
Humboldt's Cosmos 15
Hunt's Researches on Light 15
Kater and Lardner's Mechanics 17
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia 17
" Hydrostatics and Pneumatics 17
" and Walker's Electricity 17
" Arithmetic 17
" Geometry 17
" Treatise on Heat 17
Low's Chemistry 19
Marcet's Conversations on the Sciences 21
Matteucci On Physical Phenomena 21
Memoirs of the Geological Survey 22
Moseley's Practical Mechanics 23
" Engineering and Architecture 23
Owen's Lectures On Comparative Anatomy 24
Peschel's Physics 24
Phillip's Palæozoic Fossils of Cornwall, etc. 24
" Mineralogy, by Prof. Miller 25
" Treatise on Geology 17
Portlock's Geology of Londonderry 25
Powell's Natural Philosophy 17
Ritchie (Robert) on Railways 26
Topham's Agricultural Chemistry 31
TRAVELS.
Allan's Mediterranean 5
Borrer's Campaign in Algeria 7
Costello's (Miss) North Wales 9
Coulter's California, etc. 9
" Pacific 9
De Strzelecki's New South Wales 10
Dunlop's Central America 10
Erman's Travels through Siberia 11
Gardiner's Sights in Italy 12
Harris's Highlands of Æthiopia 13
Jones's Norway Guide 16
Kip's Holydays in Rome 16
Laing's Tour in Sweden 16
Mackay's English Lakes 20
Marryat's Borneo 21
Mitchell's Expedition into Australia 22
Parrot's Ascent of Mount Ararat 24
Schomburgk's Barbados 27
Schopenhauer's Pictures of Travel 27
Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck 27
Tischendorff's Travels in the East 30
Von Orlich's Travels in India 31
Wilson's Travels in the Holy Land 32
VETERINARY MEDICINE.
Miles On the Horse's Foot 22
Pocket and the Stud 25
Stable Talk and Table Talk 29
Thomson on Fattening Cattle 30
Winter On the Horse 32
NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS
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Game, and forming an Encyclopædia of Reference. By George Walker. 8vo.
10_s._ 6_d._ sewed.
WARDLAW.--DISCOURSES ON THE PRINCIPAL POINTS OF THE SOCINIAN
CONTROVERSY--the Unity of God, and the Trinity of Persons in the
Godhead--the Supreme Divinity of Jesus Christ--the Doctrine of the
Atonement,--the Christian Character, etc. By Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. New
Edition. 8vo. 15_s._ cloth.
WATERTON.--ESSAYS ON NATURAL HISTORY, Chiefly Ornithology. By Charles
Waterton. Esq., author of "Wanderings in South America." With an
Autobiography of the Author, and a View of Walton Hall. New Edition.
Foolscap 8vo. 8_s._ cloth.
SECOND SERIES. With Continuation of Mr. Waterton's Autobiography. New
Edition. Fcap. 8vo. with Vignette by T. Creswick, A.R.A. 6_s._ 6_d._
cloth.
WEBSTER.--AN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY: Comprising such
subjects as are most immediately connected with Housekeeping; as, The
Construction of Domestic Edifices, with the Modes of Warming,
Ventilating, and Lighting them--A Description of the various Articles
of Furniture, with the Nature of their Materials--Duties of Servants,
etc. etc. By Thomas Webster, F.G.S., etc. etc.; assisted by the late
Mrs. Parkes. New Edition. 8vo. with nearly 1,000 Woodcuts, 50_s._
cloth.
WESTWOOD (J. O.)--AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF
INSECTS: founded on the Natural Habits and comparative Organisation of
the different Families. By J. O. Westwood, F.L.S. etc. 2 vols. 8vo.
with numerous Illustrations, 2_l._ 7_s._ cloth.
WILBERFORCE (W.)--A PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE PREVAILING RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS
OF PROFESSED CHRISTIANS, in the Higher and Middle Classes in this
Country, contrasted with Real Christianity. By William Wilberforce,
Esq. M.P. for the County of York. New Editions. 8vo. 8_s._ boards.
12mo. 4_s._ 6_d._ cloth.
WILSON.--THE LANDS OF THE BIBLE VISITED AND DESCRIBED, In an Extensive
Journey undertaken with special reference to the Promotion of Biblical
Research and the Advancement of the Cause of Philanthropy. By John
Wilson, D.D. F.R.S. Honorary President of the Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society, etc. 2 vols. 8vo. with Maps and numerous
Illustrations, 1_l._ 16_s._ cloth.
WILLOUGHBY (LADY).--SO MUCH OF THE DIARY OF LADY WILLOUGHBY as relates
to her Domestic History, and to the Eventful Period of the reign of
King Charles the First (1635 to 1348). Produced in the style of the
period to which "The Diary" refers. New Edition. Square foolscap 8vo.
8_s._ boards; or 18_s._ bound in morocco (_by Hayday_).
WILLOUGHBY (LADY).--SOME FURTHER PORTIONS OF THE DIARY OF LADY
WILLOUGHBY, which do relate to her Domestic History, and to the
Stirring Events of the latter years of the reign of King Charles the
First, the Protectorate, and the Restoration (1648 to 1663). New
Edition. Square foolscap 8vo. 8_s._ boards, morocco, 18_s._ (_bound
by Hayday_).
WINTER (J. W.)--THE HORSE IN HEALTH AND DISEASE: Or, Suggestions on
his Natural and General History, Varieties, Conformation, Paces, Age,
Soundness, Stabling, Condition, Training, and Shoeing. With a Digest
of Veterinary Practice. By James W. Winter, M.R.C. V.S.L. 8vo. 10_s._
6_d._ cloth.
WOOD.--A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON RAILROADS, And Interior Communication
in General; containing numerous Experiments on the Powers of the
Improved Locomotive Engines, and Tables of the comparative Cost of
Conveyance on Canals, Railways, and Turnpike Roads. By Nicholas Wood,
Memb. Inst. Civ. Eng. etc. 3d Edition. 8vo. with Plates and Woodcuts.
31_s._ 6_d._ cloth.
WOODWARD.--ESSAYS AND SERMONS. By the Rev. Henry Woodward. M.A.,
formerly of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Rector of Fethard, in the
Diocese of Cashel. New Edition. 2 vols. fcap. 8vo. 14_s._ cloth.
WOODWARD.--A SEQUEL TO THE SHUNAMMITE: Being a Series of Reflections
on 2 Kings iv. 17-35. By the Rev. Henry Woodward, M.A., Rector of
Fethard, in the Diocese of Cashel, and formerly of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. Fcap. 8vo. 6_s._ cloth.
ZUMPT (PROF.)--A GRAMMAR OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. By C. G. Zumpt, Ph.D.
Professor in the University, and Member of the Royal Academy of
Berlin. Translated from the 9th Edition of the original, and adapted
to the use of English Students, by Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D., Rector of
the High School of Edinburgh; with numerous Additions and Corrections
by the Author. New Edition. 8vo. 14_s._ cloth.
[_August 31, 1848._
London: Printed by M. MASON, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Apparent typographical errors have been corrected, though
inconsistent hyphenation has been retained.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847 - Of Things Concerning the Church and Education" ***
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