of Valois when she married Henry II. of Navarre, who, as well as her
first husband, the Duc d’Alençon, descended from the Armagnacs. Henry and
Margaret made their solemn entry into Auch in 1527, and the latter, as
Countess of Armagnac, took her seat as honorary canon in the cathedral.
Her arms are still over the first stall at the left, beneath the lion
rampant of the Armagnacs--a stall assigned those lords as lay canons, in
the time of Bernard III., who was the first to pay homage to S. Mary of
Auch.
Margaret’s grandson, Henry IV., united the title of Armagnac to the crown
of France, and Louis XIV., on his way from St. Jean-de-Luz, where he was
married to Maria Theresa, the Infanta of Spain, passed through Auch, and,
attending divine service in the cathedral, took his seat in the choir as
Count of Armagnac.
Napoleon III. accepted the title of honorary canon of this church.
The cathedral at Auch is remarkable for the stained glass windows of
the time of the Renaissance, which Catherine de Medicis wished to carry
off to Paris, and the one hundred and thirteen stalls of the choir, the
wonderful carvings of which rival those of Amiens. Napoleon I., on his
return from Spain, admired and coveted these beautiful stalls, and wished
to remove the old rood-loft which concealed them from the public. He
endowed the church with an annual sum, and expressed his regret so fair
a _Sposa_ should be bereaved of its lord--the hierarchy not being fully
restored in France at that time.
The canons of the cathedral were formerly required to be _nobilis
sanguine vel litteris_--noble of birth or distinguished in letters.
That they keep up to their standard in learning seems evident from
the reputation of one of their number, the savant Abbé Canéto, one of
the most distinguished archæologists of the country, whose works are
indispensable to the visitor to Auch and the surrounding places.
It is quite impressive to see these venerable canons seated in their
carved stalls, worthy of princes, singing the divine Office. Their capes,
we noticed, are trimmed with ermine, probably a mark of their dignity.
To wear furs of any kind was in the Middle Ages an indication of rank,
or, at least, wealth. The English Parliament made a statute in 1334
forbidding all persons wearing furs that had not an income of one hundred
pounds a year.
In this church is the altar of Notre Dame d’Auch, the oldest shrine
of the Virgin in the province, first set up at ancient Elusa by S.
Saturninus, the Apostle of Toulouse, and brought here by S. Taurin in the
IVth century, when that place was destroyed by the barbarians.
The similarity of S. Saturninus’ devotion to that of the present day
is remarkable--devotion to Mary and the Chair of Peter. Everywhere he
erected churches in their honor, as at Elusa, now the town of Eauze.
At Auch he dedicated a church to the Prince of the Apostles, where now
stands the little church of S. Pierre, on the other side of the Gers,
once burned down by the Huguenots.
The paintings of the Stations of the Cross in the cathedral were given by
a poor servant girl, whose heart at the hour of death turned towards the
sanctuary where she had so often experienced the benefit of meditating
on the Sacred Passion that she was desirous of inciting others to so
salutary a devotion.
In one of the chapels is a monument to the memory of M. d’Etigny, whose
statue is on the public promenade--the last Intendant of the province,
who employed a part of his immense fortune in building the fine roads
that lead to the watering-places in the Pyrenees, which have added so
much to the prosperity of the country. But he was one of those _cui bono_
men who always sacrifice the picturesque and the interesting on some
plea of public utility. He destroyed the mediæval character of the city,
with its narrow streets, curious overhanging houses--of which a few
specimens are left--and ancient walls with low arched gateways, made when
mules alone were used for bringing in merchandise. When any sacrifice
is to be made, why must it always fall on what appeals to the eye and
the imagination? Why must some people insist on effacing the venerable
records of past ages to make room for their own utilitarian views? There
are too many of such palimpsests. Is not the world large enough for all
human tastes to find room to express themselves?
We had, however, no reason to grumble at M. d’Etigny’s fine roads among
the mountains, which saved us, in many instances, from being transported
like the ancient merchandise of Auch, and we nearly forgot his enormities
when we found ourselves at Bagnères-de-Luchon under the shade of the fine
trees he planted in the Cours d’Etigny, where tourists and invalids love
to gather in the evening.
M. d’Etigny also took an interest in the religious prosperity of
the country. On the corner-stone of a church at Vic Fezensac is the
inscription: _Dominus d’Etigny me posuit_, 1760. This church was built
by Père Pascal, a Franciscan, out of the ruins of the old castle of the
Counts of Fezensac, which he obtained permission to use in spite of the
town authorities, by applying to Mme. de Pompadour, then all-powerful
at court. Do not suppose the good friar paid the least homage to
wickedness in high places by so doing. On the contrary, he boldly began
his petition: “Madame, redeem your sins by your alms.” Instead of taking
offence, the duchess profited by the counsel. The _père_, returning
from Auch with the royal permission, met some of his opponents, wholly
unsuspicious of the truth, to whose pleasantries he replied: “Let me
pass. I am exhausted, for I carry in my cowl the ruins of the castle of
Vic.”
Auch in those days was only lighted by the lamps that hung before the
niches of the Virgin, and the only night-watchman up to the last century
was the crier, who went about the streets at midnight calling aloud on
the people to be mindful of their soul’s salvation and pray for the
dead. This practice was called the _miseremini_, because the crier
sometimes made use of the words of Job sung in the Mass for the Dead:
_Miseremini, miseremini mei, vos saltem amici mei, quia manus Domini
tetigit me_--“Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my friends! for the
hand of the Lord hath touched me.” It was also called the Reveillé, from
the beginning of the verses he sometimes chanted:
“Réveille-toi, peuple Chrétien,
Réveille-toi, c’est pour ton bien.
Quitte ton lit, prend tes habits,
Pense à la mort de Jésus Christ.
A la mort, à la mort, il faut tous venir,
Tout doit enfin finir.
Quand de ce monde tu partiras,
Rien qu’un linceul n’emporteras
Ton corps sera mangé des vers
Et peut-être ton âme aux enfers.
A la mort, à la mort, etc.
Tu passeras le long d’un bois,
Là tu trouveras une croix,
Sur cette croix il y a un écrit
C’est le doux nom de Jésus Christ,
A la mort, à la mort, etc.”
This crier acted the part of a policeman, keeping an eye on the
evil-doer, and watching over the safety of the town. If he discovered a
door ajar, he entered and aroused the inmates. A startling apparition
he must have been to the offenders of the law. He wore a death’s head
and cross-bones embroidered before and behind, and carried a small bell
in his hand, which he rang from time to time as he passed through
the narrow streets with his lugubrious cry. Of course he was a public
functionary of importance. He figured in full costume in the great
religious processions and took a part in all the public festivities.
On the sunny terraces of Auch grow the seedless pears which have been so
renowned from time immemorial that they have their place in the annals of
the city. We have fully tested the qualities of these unrivalled pears,
and can sincerely echo all that has been said in their praise. Duchesne,
the physician of Henry IV., an empiric of the school of Paracelsus, and a
famous person in his day, does not forget in his _Diæteticon_ to mention
them among the most famous productions of his country. He places them in
the first rank, and those of Tours in the second. According to him, they
originated in the town of Crustumerium in Italy, and their name, derived
therefrom, was softened by the Italians into Cristiano, whence that
of Bon Chrétien, as they are sometimes called, though not their right
name. Others call them Pompéienne, because, as they say, introduced by
Pompidian, an ancient bishop of Eauze. But everybody with a proper sense
of the case will stoutly attribute them, in accordance with the popular
tradition, to the great S. Oren, whose blessing gave them their rare
qualities, especially the peculiarity of being seedless when the trees
grow within the limit of the city, though this is by no means the case
with those that grow in the environs.
Dom Brugelles, a Benedictine of last century, mentions this peculiarity
in his Chronicles of the diocese, and says they were in such demand in
his time as to be worth sometimes thirty-six francs a dozen.
Père Aubéry, in his Latin poem of _Augusta Auscorum_, is enthusiastic in
their praise: “How I love the aspect of these fair gardens enclosed among
sumptuous dwellings! What a wealth of flowers! And the trees bear a fruit
still more worthy of your admiration. The Pompéienne pear, delicious as
the ambrosia of the gods, was reserved for the soil of this city alone.
The trees without its walls, even those that grow close to its trenches,
do not produce the like. This most glorious of fruit is an inappreciable
gift of heaven and earth, which is praised throughout the kingdom and
sold at a great price in distant lands.[145]
“The pears of the fertile gardens of Touraine cannot be compared to
those whose old name of Pompéienne is now lost in that of Bon Chrétien.
The pears at Tours are as inferior to those of Auch as other honey in
sweetness to that of Hybla. Nay, should the gods themselves by chance
know of these trees, should they taste of these Auscitain pears so
delicious to the palate, they would despise the dishes served at their
celestial banquets--yes, scorn the flowing nectar and sweet ambrosia that
feed their immortality.
“And as the admirable name of Bon Chrétien is only given the pears that
grow in the gardens of the city, and belongs not to those produced
elsewhere; as it is only within these walls they acquire so agreeable
and appetizing a flavor, their name is a presage that the inhabitants
shall never be infected by the contagion and venom of heresy--a scourge
that has attacked almost all the towns of Armagnac--and that the Mother
of Christ, patroness of Auch, by averting this poison, shall keep them
faithful to the rites of their ancestors, and fill them with eternal love
for the ancient religion.”
M. Lafforgue, in his _History of Auch_, says these pears are so
prized that they are often presented to princes, governors, and other
distinguished characters. When Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, passed
through Auch on her way to join her husband Philip V., in Nov., 1714,
the city consuls offered her, as they had done the Dukes of Berry and
Burgundy in 1701, some of the _poires d’Auch_. Twenty dozen, which cost
one hundred and forty-three livres, were presented her in straw boxes
made by the Ursuline nuns.[146]
When Mr. Laplagne, a native of this part of the country, and Minister of
Finance under Louis Philippe, boasted in M. Guizot’s presence, with true
Gascon expansiveness, of the seedless pears that grow on the terraces of
Auch, the latter, with the distrust of certain great minds, expressed
some incredulity. M. Laplagne resolved to convince the President of
the Council publicly, and procured at some expense an enormous pear,
ripened on the very terrace which a century before had produced the fruit
so vaunted by Dom Brugelles. Fifty guests were invited to witness the
result. They assembled around the table, in the centre of which was
displayed the wonderful pear from Auch. M. Guizot could hardly believe
his eyes at such a prodigy, and declared himself convinced. The dessert
was impatiently awaited. The Minister of Finance, certain of victory,
insisted on M. Guizot’s opening the pear. It was set before him. He cut
it in two with some difficulty--it contained four large seeds!
In spite of this exceptional case, the _poires d’Auch_ (their right name,
by the way) that grow within the limits of the city are generally without
seeds. The superabundant pulp seems to stifle them. They are still the
pride of the place, and it was only a year or two ago a number were sent
to his Holiness Pius IX.
Père Aubéry, whom I have quoted, was connected with the college at Auch,
formerly under the direction of the Jesuits. S. Francis Regis was also
for some time one of its professors. Among the eminent men educated here
may be mentioned Cardinal d’Ossat, who, when _chargé d’affaires_ at Rome,
succeeded in obtaining the absolution of Henry IV. from the Holy See. He
was a poor country lad, whose condition, exciting the pity of the canons
of Trie, they made him a choirboy, and sent him to school. He became
successively a charity scholar of the Jesuits at Auch, the _protégé_ of
Cardinal de Foix and his secretary of embassy at Rome, and, finally,
_chargé d’affaires_ at the Papal court and Cardinal-bishop of Bayeux. He
died at Rome in 1604, bequeathing the little he possessed to the poor
and his two secretaries. This celebrated diplomatist was an honor to his
country and the church that developed his talents.
The famous Nostradamus was another pupil of this college.
Bernard du Poey, a disciple of Buchanan, and a poet of some note, was
professor here when the college was under the direction of laymen. We
give one of his epigrams, written while connected with this institution:
“Lucis amore simul fœdam protrudimus omnem
Barbariem: tenebris nec patet ista domus.”
“The love of light makes us cast away every vestige of barbarism: this
house opens not to darkness.”
“Barbarism”--“light”--“darkness”--a jargon often heard in our day also,
and it still finds its dupes. The would-be metaphysicians and theologians
who use it should meditate on this sentence of Berkeley’s: “We first
raise a dust, and then complain we cannot see!”
Once more on the way. It is not till we approach Rabastens we see an
opening in the outer range of the Pyrenees, and behold Mt. Maladetta
raising heavenward its glittering diadem of glaciers. Behind is Spain,
religious Spain, “land of an eternal crusade” and wondrous saints.
Rabastens is one of the most ancient towns in Bigorre, and celebrated in
the religious wars: It was here Blaise de Monluc received the frightful
wound in his face which obliged him to wear a mask the rest of his life,
and gave him the leisure to write his Commentaries, which Henry IV.
called the Soldier’s Bible. This old warrior, deprived of nearly all his
limbs, coolly relates a thousand incidents of incredible bravery in the
boasting manner of a true Gascon, that does not ill become a book written
for the defenders of Gascony.
Twelve miles or so further on is Tarbes, the _chef-lieu_ of the Hautes
Pyrénées--“gentille Reine.”
“Bigourdaine,” as Jasmin says, “splendidement assise au milieu de la
plaine la plus fraiche, la plus fertile et la plus variée.” The water
from the Adour, first brought here to fill the moat that surrounded the
city, is now used to turn mills and fertilize the meadows, which are
wonderfully fresh, affording a charming contrast to the mountains in the
background.
The foundation of Tarbes is lost in the remoteness of time. Its
occupation by the Romans is evident from the camp still pointed out in
the vicinity. Bigorre, of which it was the principal city, was made
a _comté_ in the VIIIth century, and its succession of counts was
uninterrupted till Henry IV. ascended the throne of France. Its first
count was Enéco (or Inigo) Arista, or The Bold, who became King of
Navarre, and rivalled the Cid in prowess.
Bigorre was ceded to the English by the treaty of Brittany, but when
war again broke out between England and France two great barons of the
province, Menaud de Barbazan and the Sire d’Anchin, as Froissart relates,
seized the city and castle of Tarbes, and all Bigorre rose to expel the
English, who only continued to hold for a time the impregnable fortresses
of Lourdes and Mauvezin. This Lord of Barbazan was a companion in arms
of Du Guesclin and took sides with the Armagnacs, his kinsmen, in their
famous contest with the house of Foix. His son, Arnauld Guilhem de
Barbazan, was the valiant knight who wore so worthily the fair flower of
a blameless life that he received the title, which he was the first to
bear, of the _chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_, conferred on him by
his contemporaries. Monstrelet says he was a noble knight, prompt in
action, fertile in expedients, and renowned in arms. He was the leader
in the famous encounter between seven French and seven English knights
at Saintonge in 1402, when the latter challenged the French to a trial
of arms out of love for _les dames de leurs pensées_. The French knights
began the day by devoutly hearing Mass and receiving the Holy Body of the
Lord. Jouvenel des Ursins depicts the fearful encounter, which took place
in presence of a vast number of spectators, among whom was the Count of
Armagnac. Lances were shivered and terrible blows given with sword and
battle-axe, but it was Barbazan who decided the day, and the English were
forced to acknowledge themselves defeated. The conquerors, clothed in
white, were led in triumph to the King, who loaded them with presents. To
the Chevalier de Barbazan he gave a purse of gold and a sword on one side
of which was graven, _Barbazan sans reproche_, in letters of gold; and
on the other, _Ut lapsu graviore ruant_. This sword is still preserved
in the Château de Faudoas by the descendants of Barbazan’s sister. The
chivalric deeds that won it were commemorated not only in the chronicles
of the time, but in three ballads of Christine de Pisan.
Barbazan was as noble in heart as heroic in action. He took sides with
Count Bernard VII. of Armagnac against the Duke of Burgundy, but, when
the latter fell a victim to treachery, he indignantly condemned the
crime, and said he would rather have died than had a hand in it. He
fought side by side with Dunois, Lahire, and La Trémouille, at Orleans,
Auxerre, and many another battle-field. His last exploit was to rout
eight thousand English and Burgundian troops near Chalons, with only
three thousand, a few months after the atrocious murder of Joan of Arc,
under whose white banner he had fought.
So valuable were his services that the king conferred on him the
magnificent title of “Restaurateur du royaume et de la couronne de
France,” and added the _fleurs-de-lis_ to his arms. Soldiers received
knighthood from his hands as if he were a king. When he died, he was
buried at St. Denis among the kings of France with all the honors of
royalty--a supreme honor, of which there are only two other instances in
French history--Du Guesclin and Turenne.
The feudal castle of Barbazan is on a steep hill a few miles southeast
of Tarbes. The Roman inscriptions found there show it to be of extreme
antiquity. On the summit of the hill is the chapel of Notre Dame de
Piétat, built by Anne de Bourbon, Lord of Barbazan, to receive a
miraculous Madonna that had long been an object of veneration to the
people around. He founded two weekly Masses here, one in honor of the
holy name of God, and the other of the Virgin, and he bequeathed lands
for the support of the chapel, which is still a pious resort for pilgrims.
The Cathedral of Tarbes is built on the ruins of the ancient fortress
of Bigorre, which gave its name to the surrounding province. The
bishops have an important place in the annals of the country. Under the
Merovingian race of kings they held the rank of princes, and were the
peers of the proudest barons in the land. We find several saints in the
list--S. Justin, S. Faustus, and S. Landeol, whose venerable forms look
down from the windows of the chancel in the cathedral. Gregory of Tours
mentions S. Justin, and speaks of a lily on his tomb that bloomed every
year on the day of his martyrdom.
Bernard II., a bishop of Tarbes in the year 1009, merits the admiration
of posterity for his efforts to relieve his flock during a terrible
famine of three years, in which people devoured one another to such an
extent that a law was made condemning those who ate human flesh to be
burned alive. The holy bishop, like S. Exuperius of Toulouse, sold all
the vessels and ornaments of the church, and gave all he possessed, to
alleviate the wants of his people.
His successor stayed a civil war that broke out, to add to the distress
of the country, by assembling the chief lords of the land and conjuring
them not to add fire and pillage to the horrors of famine, but rather
seek to disarm the vengeance of heaven by their prayers. He established
the Truce of God in his diocese, and had the happiness of seeing peace
and abundance restored to the land. These old bishops seemed to have some
correct notions of their obligations, though they did live in the darkest
of the Middle Ages!
In the time of a bishop who belonged to the house of Foix appeared a
comet which alarmed all Europe. The Pope profited by the universal terror
to recommend a stricter practice of the Christian virtues, in order, as
he said, if any danger were at hand, that the faithful might be saved.
The Bishop of Tarbes instituted public processions on the occasion.
It was a Bishop of Tarbes, the Cardinal Gabriel de Gramont, who in
the XVIth century played so important a part in the negotiations
between Henry VIII. of England and the Pope to dissolve the marriage
of the former with Catherine of Aragon. The king pretended to act from
conscientious motives, and said the Bishop of Tarbes confirmed his
scruples. We need something more than the mere word of a monarch who
violated the most solemn promises and obligations to induce us to believe
in the complicity of the bishop, though, deceived by the representations
of the king, and alarmed at the consequences of a rupture with the Holy
See, he may have endeavored to temporize, that the crisis might be
delayed.
Tarbes was taken by the Huguenots under the ferocious Count de Montgomery
in the XVIth century. He devastated the cathedral, and burned its fine
organ, its altars, vestments, choral books, library, and chapter-house.
The bells were melted down, the bishop’s house pillaged and burned, as
well as the residences of the canons, the convents of the Cordeliers,
Carmelites, etc. The bishop was forced to retreat to the mountains,
where, charmed by the picturesque heights above the valley of Luz, he
re-established the springs of S. Sauveur, and built a little chapel with
the inscription: _Vos haurietis aquas de fontibus Salvatoris_; whence the
name since given this watering-place was derived.
It is recorded of a bishop in the XVIIth century, as something
extraordinary, that, contrary to custom, he allowed his flock, in a time
of famine, to eat meat during Lent on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
He probably had the liberal proclivities of Bishop Hébert of Agen,
already mentioned!
Finally, it was a Bishop of Tarbes who, in these days, restored four
devout chapels of the Virgin, of ancient renown in the country, but
profaned at the Revolution and left desolate, and gave them back to Mary
with priests to minister at their altars: Notre Dame de Garaison, in a
valley of the Hautes Pyrénées; Notre Dame de Piétat, overlooking the
plain of Tarbes; Notre Dame de Poueylahun, on a picturesque peak that
rises from the valley of Azun; and Notre Dame de Héas, the Madonna of
shepherds, in a hollow of the wild mountains near the Spanish frontier--a
powerful quadrilateral for the defence of this diocese of Mary. The
memory of Bishop Lawrence will likewise be for ever associated with
the church of Notre Dame de Lourdes, for it was he who, by his zeal,
prudence, and spiritual insight contributed so greatly to its foundation.
It became the cherished object of interest in his old age. He begged for
it, labored for it, and watched over the progress of the work. His last
act before attending the Council of the Vatican was a pilgrimage to the
sacred Grotto, and while at Rome his heart was constantly turning to this
new altar in Mary’s honor, and testifying great joy at the splendor of
the solemnities. He died at Rome in January, 1870, and his remains were
brought back to Tarbes for burial.
At Tarbes we changed cars for Lourdes. Here we received our first
impressions of the great religious movement in the country, manifested
by the immense pilgrimages, which rival those of the Middle Ages. We
encountered a train of pilgrims with red crosses on their breasts and
huge rosaries around their necks. There were gentlemen and ladies, and
priests and sisters of different religious orders. Among them was a
cardinal, whose hand people knelt to kiss as he issued from the cars.
They all had radiant faces, as if they had been on some joyful mission
instead of a penitential pilgrimage. But one of the fruits of penitence
and faith is joy in the highest sense of the word. Spenser wisely makes
the proud Sansfoy the father of Sansjoy.
Leaving them behind, we kept on in full view of the mountains along a
fine plateau called Lanne Maurine, or the Land of the Moors. The Moorish
invasion, though more than a thousand years ago, has left ineffaceable
traces all through this country. The traveller is always coming across
them. In one place is the Fountain of the Moors; in another the Castle of
the Moors; and there are many families who still bear the names of Maure
and Mouret. The Lanne Maurine is so called from a bloody combat which
took place here to dispute the possession of the plain. It was a priest
who roused the people to arms and led them against the infidel, whom they
smote hip and thigh. A grateful people have erected an equestrian statue
to his memory at the entrance of his village church.
We were now rapidly approaching Lourdes. Already the Pic du Gers rose
out of the valley sacred to Mary, and the heart instinctively turns from
everything else to hail the new star that has risen in these favored
heavens to diffuse the pure radiance of the Immaculate Conception!
A LITTLE BIRD.
In his cage my blithe canary, swinging,
Trills with merry voice a roundelay;
From the early sunrise he is singing,
Chirping, flying, flitting all the day.
They who call it cruel thus to hold him
Never saw his joyous, twinkling eyes,
Never heard the something that I told him
Once, beneath delusive April skies:
When my hand drew back the sliding casement,
Bidding him be happy and go free,
Thinking all the while, in self-abasement,
Never more a jailer stern to be.
So I left him, lingering, fearing, sighing,
Loath to watch him soar and speed away,
Loath to see him from my roof-tree flying,
Sad to miss his songs and pretty play.
Evening fell, and in my chamber lying,
Wondering where the bird had found a nest,
What was that around me feebly flying,
What was that low drooping on my breast?
Ruffled plumage, tiny pinions weary,
Every flutter seemed a throb of pain;
Ah! the prison-house was not so dreary,
Tired Robin had come home again!
They who deem it cruel thus to hold him
Should have seen the wanderer’s listless eyes
Greet the loving care so quick to fold him
Safe and warm from show’ry April skies.
Never morning now but sees him flitting
In and out, as happy as can be;
Never twilight but it finds him sitting
Drowsy-eyed, a willing captive he.
Birdie, warbler, beautiful canary!
Trill the fulness of thy roundelay;
Of the rippling sweetness never chary,
Sing, my pretty Robin, all the day!
EARLY ANNALS OF CATHOLICITY IN NEW JERSEY.
The first navigators who are known to have sailed along the seaboard,
and perhaps to have landed on the soil of that part of America now
called New Jersey, were Catholics, and in fact made their voyages before
Protestantism was heard of. These hardy men were Sebastian Cabot, a
Venetian in the service of King Henry VII. of England, who sailed from
Bristol in the month of May, 1498, and, proceeding considerably to the
north, afterwards turned south and followed the coast-line as far as
the Chesapeake; and John Verazzano, a Florentine in the pay of the King
of France, who, taking a southerly course to America in 1524, proceeded
along the coast from Florida to the fiftieth degree of north latitude,
and is supposed to have entered the harbor of New York. The earliest
colony established here was about 1620, when Dutch Calvinists (emigrants
from Holland) settled the town of Bergen; and in 1638, a party of
Swedes, who were Lutherans, made several settlements on the shore of
the Delaware. They were under the patronage of their celebrated Queen
Christina, who later became a Catholic. In 1664, a grant of the country
between the Connecticut and the Delaware rivers was made by King Charles
II. of England--the Swedes having been subjugated by the Hollanders, and
these in their turn by the English--to his brother the Duke of York,
who afterwards was a sincere convert to the Catholic faith, and reigned
as James II. That portion of this territory which is now New Jersey
was sold by the royal patron to two proprietors, one of whom was Sir
George Carteret; and it was in his honor that it received its present
name, for his having defended during the Parliamentary war against the
Revolutionists the island of _Jersey_, which is one of the so-called
Channel Isles on the coast of France, and is full of ancient churches and
other memorials of the Catholic faith, introduced there by S. Helier in
the VIth century.
But apart from the name there was nothing that recalled the Catholic
religion in New Jersey. The most intense anti-Catholic sentiment was
prevalent, and the bitter fanaticism of the mother country was extended
even to these parts with perhaps increased virulence. Thus, in 1679, the
26th of November was appointed a day of thanksgiving in the colony for
deliverance from what was called “that horrid plot of the Papists to
murder the King (Charles II.) and destroy all the Protestants!”--which
was the infamous affair of Titus Oates, gotten up maliciously against
the Catholics to have still another pretext for persecuting them. The
whole province having been divided into two parts, called respectively
East and West New Jersey, the latter was settled, to mention only
the English-speaking population, mostly by members of the Society of
Friends, commonly called Quakers, from England, but the former by
Scotch Presbyterians and Congregationalists from New England; and of
this part Robert Barclay was appointed first governor for life, but,
having power to name a deputy, he remained in Scotland. This miserable
man, after having become a Catholic in France, where he had an uncle a
priest, who was at the expense of educating him, relapsed into heresy
shortly after returning to his native country, where his religion was
proscribed, and finally joined the Quakers, for whom he wrote the
famous _Apology_. A circumstance in the life of this apostate shows
well the constancy of the royal convert who lost three kingdoms for his
faith, and must have reminded him of his own instability upon the same
matter. Barclay was in London in 1688, probably on business connected
with his government of East New Jersey, and solicited an interview with
King James. The revolution was already breaking, and his treacherous
son-in-law, afterwards William III., was on his way to dethrone him;
when, standing by an open window of the palace, his Majesty observed to
the governor that the wind was fair for the Prince of Orange to come
over: whereupon Barclay replied that it was hard no expedient could be
found to satisfy the people. The king declared he would do anything
becoming a gentleman except “_parting with liberty of conscience_, which
he never would while he lived.” The king was indeed a martyr to this
principle, and how much it was despised by his Protestant betrayers may
be seen, to give an example out of these parts, from the instruction
given in 1703 to Lord Cornbury, governor of the Jerseys (as well as
of New York), “to permit liberty of conscience to all persons _except
Papists_”; and this barbarous intolerance continued as long as the
colonies remained united to England. Every now and then glaring cases of
anti-Catholic bigotry, calculated only to perpetuate civil dissensions
sprung from religious differences, were found in the history of the
colony; as, for instance, in 1757, when the principal edifice of the
College of New Jersey at Princeton was named by Governor Belcher _Nassau
Hall_--“to express,” he said, “the honor we retain in this remote part
of the globe to the immortal memory of the glorious King William III.,
who was a branch of the illustrious house of Nassau, and who, under
God, was the great deliverer of the British nation from those two
_monstrous furies_, _Popery_ and slavery.” About this period there were
a few Jesuit priests in Maryland and Pennsylvania; and the earliest
account that we have of Catholics in New Jersey is in 1744, when we
read that Father Theodore Schneider, a distinguished German Jesuit who
had professed philosophy and theology in Europe, and been rector of a
university, coming to the American Provinces, “visited New Jersey and
held church at Iron Furnaces there.” This good missionary was a native
of Bavaria. He founded the mission at Goshenhoppen, now in Berks county,
Pennsylvania, about forty-five miles from Philadelphia, and ministered
to German Catholics, their descendants, and others. Having some skill in
medicine, he used to cure the body as well as the soul; and, travelling
about on foot or on horseback under the name of Doctor Schneider
(leaving to the _Smelfunguses_ to discover whether he were of medicine
or divinity), he had access to places where he could not otherwise have
gone without personal danger; but sometimes his real character was found
out, and he was several times raced and shot at in New Jersey. He used
to carry about with him on his missionary excursions into this province
a manuscript copy of the _Roman Missal_, carefully written out in his
own handwriting and bound by himself. His poverty or the difficulty of
procuring printed Catholic liturgical books from Europe, or, we are
inclined to think, the danger of discovery should such an one with its
unmistakable marks of “Popery” about it (which he probably dispensed
with in his manuscript), fall into the hands of heretics, must have led
him to this labor of patience and zeal. Father Schneider, who may be
reckoned the first missionary of New Jersey, died on the 11th of July,
1764. Another Jesuit used to visit the province occasionally after 1762,
owing to the growing infirmities of Father Schneider, and there still
exist records of baptisms performed by him here. This was the Rev. Robert
Harding, a native of England, who arrived in America in 1732. He died at
Philadelphia on the 1st of September, 1772. But the priest principally
connected with the early missions in New Jersey is the Rev. Ferdinand
Farmer. He was born in South Germany in 1720, and, having entered the
Society of Jesus, was sent to Maryland in 1752. His real name was
Steenmeyer, but on coming to this country he changed it into one more
easily pronounced by English-speaking people. He was learned and zealous,
and for many years performed priestly duties in New Jersey at several
places in the northern part, and seems to have been the first to visit
this colony regularly. In his baptismal register the following among
other places are named, together with the dates of his ministrations:
a station called Geiger’s, in 1759; Charlottenburg, in 1769; Morris
County, Long Pond, and Mount Hope, in 1776; Sussex County, Ringwood,
and Hunterdon County, in 1785. The chief congregation at this period
was at a place called Macoupin (now in Passaic County), about fifteen
miles from the present city of Paterson. It was settled in the middle of
the last century by Germans, who were brought over to labor in the iron
mines and works in this part of the province. Two families from Baden
among the colonists were Catholics; and the first priest who visited them
is said to have been a Mr. Langrey from Ireland. Mount Hope, not far
from Macoupin, used to be visited by Father Farmer twice a year, and by
other priests, as occasion might require, from Philadelphia. Except the
Catholics in the northern parts, there were very few scattered about New
Jersey before the American Revolution. The schoolmaster at Mount Holly
in 1762 was an Irish Catholic named Thomas McCurtain, and one of his
descendants is the distinguished scholar and antiquarian, John G. Shea.
The Catholics in these colonies before American Independence were subject
in spiritual matters to the Bishop (vicar-apostolic) of London, who used
to appoint a vicar-general (the superior of the Jesuits in Maryland) to
supply his place. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773,
the vicar-general. Father John Lewis, was the late superior of the order
in this country. The visits of the missionaries to New Jersey seem to
have been interrupted during the Revolutionary War; but a number of very
distinguished foreign Catholics serving in our army honored the land by
their presence in such a cause. Among them we find Lafayette, Chevalier
Massillon, De Kalb, Pulaski, Kosciusko, and Mauduit du Plessis, the
engineer officer who fortified Fort Mercer, at Red Bank on the Delaware,
with so much skill that the attacking Hessians were thoroughly repulsed.
In the months of August and September, 1781, the French troops under
De Rochambeau marched diagonally across the State from Sufferns (just
over line) in New York, by way of Pompton, Whippany, Byram’s Tavern,
Somerville, Princeton, and Trenton. An army chaplain, the Abbé Robin,
published a little book in 1782, describing this French expedition from
New Port to York-town; but, regrettably, he gives his readers not a word
about any Catholics that he may have met or heard of in New Jersey.
After the evacuation of New York by the British in 1783, there was a
prospect of collecting the few scattered Catholics on Manhattan Island
into a congregation, and the venerable Father Farmer used to go twice a
year to visit the faithful there, across the northern part of this State,
stopping on his way to officiate at Macoupin. On the 22d of September,
1785, the Rev. John Carroll, who had been appointed by the Pope superior
of the church in the United States and empowered to give Confirmation,
set out on a tour to administer this sacrament at Philadelphia, New York,
and (as he writes to a friend) “in the upper counties of the Jerseys and
Pennsylvania, where our worthy German brethren had formed congregations.”
In this year Rev. Mr. Carroll computed the number of Catholics under his
charge at sixteen thousand in Maryland, seven thousand in Pennsylvania,
and two thousand scattered about the other States. The number of priests
was nineteen in Maryland and five in Pennsylvania. We learn how small was
the grain of mustard-seed of the church in this part of the world less
than a hundred years ago, when we see that there was no resident priest
at that time between Canada and Pennsylvania; and it used to be said
contemptuously (so Watson has it in his _Annals_): “John Leary goes once
a year to Philadelphia to get absolution.” This worthy man therefore,
who was certainly living in New York in 1774, had to leave that city and
cross the whole of New Jersey before he could perform his Easter duties.
The earlier editions of Catholic books printed in the United States
were generally gotten up by subscription, and a perusal of the lists of
subscribers is interesting, as giving some idea of the number, zeal,
and original nationality (conjectured from the form of patronymic) of
the Catholics at the time. Thus, to the first Catholic Bible published
in the United States, at Philadelphia in 1790, only six out of the four
hundred and twenty-seven subscribers were from New Jersey. These are
Joseph Bloomfield, Attorney-General of the State; James Craft and R. S.
Jones, Burlington; John Holmes, Cape May; Alexander Kenney, near (New)
Brunswick; and Maurice Moynihan, Atsion; but in considering this, the
most interesting to us of any lists of subscribers to early Catholic
books, we must remember that the names are not all of Catholics; and of
these six from New Jersey the last three only are considered orthodox by
Archbishop Bayley in his appendix to the _History of the Catholic Church
in New York_ (2d ed.)
The massacre of 1793 in the Island of Hayti drove a number of French
Catholics to the United States, some of whom settled at Mount Holly,
Elizabethtown, and other parts of the State, but we do not know that they
did anything for the church. Catholic advance was to come from quite
another immigration. In 1805, or earlier, the Rev. John Tisserant, one
of the French clergy driven from home by the Revolution, was living at
Elizabethtown. He was an excellent man, and may be considered the first
resident priest in New Jersey, although he cannot be said to have been
_stationed_ here by authority. He returned to Europe in June, 1806. The
minister of the Presbyterian church at Whippany (Morris County) from 1791
to 1795 was Calvin White. “His ministry, though brief, was useful,” says
the historian. He afterwards connected himself with the Episcopalians,
and finally became a Catholic. A conversion of this kind at that period
was sufficiently remarkable, we think, to be mentioned in notes on the
Catholic Church in New Jersey.
In the year 1808, the dioceses of New York and Philadelphia were erected,
with the northern part of New Jersey within the former and the southern
within the latter diocese. This arrangement continued until 1853; and
while it lasted religion made some progress here, but slowly. The Rev.
Richard Bulger, a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, having come to the
American Mission, was ordained priest by Bishop Connolly of New York, in
1820. He was assistant at the cathedral in New York, and thence regularly
attended Paterson, where he devoted himself to the Catholics gathered in
that manufacturing town, and scattered about the upper part of the State.
The church at Paterson is mentioned in the Almanac of 1822; it being then
the only one in New Jersey. The pastor was exposed to inconvenience,
insults, and hardship. One evening, for instance, a bigoted ruffian threw
a large jagged stone into his lighted room, the shutters or window-blinds
having been left unclosed, and he had a narrow escape from a hole in his
head. On another occasion he was rudely turned out on to the muddy road
with his Breviary and bundle from a country cart, the driver of which had
given him a lift until he discovered that he was a priest. The account,
however, says that it was the farmer’s _wife_ who “declared that he
should not remain in the wagon”; and the man afterwards applied to Father
Bulger for instruction, and was received into the church, but we do not
hear of the conversion of the scold--perhaps because (as an old poet says)
“Women’s feet run still astray,
If once to ill they know the way”!
--_Habington._
About 1825, that part of New Jersey under the jurisdiction of the Bishop
of Philadelphia used to be visited occasionally by clergymen from beyond
the Delaware, and stations were established at Pleasant Mills and
Trenton, which continued to be served, but without resident pastors (we
believe), until the diocese of Newark was erected. The city of Newark
had a pastor about 1830 in the person of Rev. Gregory Pardow, who was
in 1834 the only priest actually residing in New Jersey. After this
period churches were erected not only in the principal city, Newark, but
also in Jersey City, Perth Amboy, Belleville, Madison, New Brunswick,
Elizabethtown, Macoupin, and other centres of population. The church at
Macoupin was erected in 1841 by Father John Raffeiner, a native of the
Tyrol, who came to this country in 1833, and used to visit the Germans
scattered through New Jersey; and in 1842 a church in Newark for the
German Catholics was erected by Father Balleis, a Benedictine monk. On
the 30th of October, 1853, the Rt. Rev. J. R. Bayley, at the time a
priest in New York, was consecrated first bishop of Newark, the diocese
being coextensive with the State; and, on his taking possession of his
see, found thirty-three churches and thirty clergymen. Since then the
advance of the Catholic religion here has been rapid; and when Bishop
Bayley was transferred to Baltimore, he left to his successor what is
considered, we believe, one of the completest dioceses in the United
States--a disciplined clergy, religious orders of both sexes, diocesan
seminary, college for higher education, academy for young ladies, select
and parochial schools, orphan asylums, hospitals, cemeteries, and other
Christian institutions, in a flourishing condition. The progress of the
church during these latter years has been before the eyes of all; and
as we have intended to limit ourselves to the period anterior to the
erection of New Jersey into a diocese, in making notes on Catholicity in
the State, we now end them, if even a little abruptly.
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MANUAL OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. Translated from the French of
Rev. T. B. Boone, S.J., by Mrs. Annie Blount Storrs. New York:
The Catholic Publication Society. 1875. 18mo, pp. 509.
The publication of this manual supplies a real want which many devout
persons have felt, and which they will now find fully satisfied. It is
a companion for the altar, a treasure of pious reading, of meditation
and prayers, for Mass, Communion, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament,
Confraternities, and days of special devotion, such as Corpus Christi
and the Forty Hours’ Adoration. It is translated from the French by
an accomplished lady well fitted for the task, and has been carefully
examined and corrected by several clergymen of New York who are
distinguished for their learning and piety. The approbation of the
Cardinal is the best proof of the excellence of the work, for, apart
from the authoritative character of his sanction, no one is better able
to appreciate a work of this kind, or to judge of its merits, than His
Eminence; and we are assured that he has not simply contented himself
with the examination requisite to make sure that this manual is orthodox
in doctrine, and therefore fit for publication, but has warmly interested
himself in its translation and preparation for the press, on account of
his high estimate of its value. In Belgium, where devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament especially flourishes, it is the favorite book of its kind.
The treatise on frequent communion is especially thorough and important;
and there is one, also, on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus--a
devotion so intimately connected with that of the Blessed Sacrament of
the Altar. We need not add, after this, that we recommend the manual
in a special manner to religious communities, and to the faithful
generally. We trust that their own personal experience of the benefit and
consolation to be derived from its use will secure their cordial assent
to the praise we have bestowed upon it, and that it will become as
popular here as it is in Belgium.
THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. By Louis Veuillot.
Translated into English by the Rev. Anthony Farley. From the
Seventh French Edition. New York: The Catholic Publication
Society. 1875.
At last we welcome in English a work published eleven years ago. Written
in answer to Renan, “It is truly,” says the translator, “what our Holy
Father Pius IX. calls it, ‘A vindication of the outraged Godhead of
Christ.’” The letter of the Holy Father is prefixed to the table of
contents.
We transcribe what the translator says in apology for reproducing the
work at this late hour:
“Appearing as it does some time after the existence of the
original work, it might seem that the object of the book had
ceased to be, had been forgotten, or was of no moment to the
public of our day and of our country. But when we remember
the deep impression produced by Renan’s work--an impression
stamped (it would seem indelibly) upon the religious literature
and religious teaching of our times--we have to admit that a
vindication of Christ, _the God-Man_, is as necessary to-day
as it was when the new Voltaire appeared to shock religious
sentiment in France and in the world. ‘Christus heri et hodie,’
is the war-cry of the foes, just as much as the trust and
comfort of the faithful lovers of the God-Man.”
Next comes Louis Veuillot’s preface, which should be read with more
attention than is generally accorded to prefaces. Indeed, we think few
who begin to read it will hesitate to go through. The author reminds us
that himself was once a sceptic; and throws a light upon the unbelieving
mind--upon the cause and nature of unbelief--which only such a man with
such an experience can throw.
His aim in writing Our Lord’s life is to show the overwhelming force
of the simple Gospel story. He contends (and we are sure he is right)
that, while the “deniers and falsifiers of the truth have been admirably
refuted in every objection raised by them,” yet, “since their supreme
art lies in feigning and producing _ignorance_, the essential point
should be to reply especially to what they do _not_ say. This is what we
unavoidably forget” (pp. 17, 18). Then, referring to Renan, he continues:
“The last of those wicked impugners of the divinity of
Christ our Lord who has rendered himself celebrated has well
understood, in a book of five or six hundred pages, how to
speak of Jesus Christ without pointing him out. Perpetually
avoiding all that belongs to God, with the same stroke he
perverts all that belongs to _the man_. This artifice of
weakness is the only strength of the book. It has drawn the
apologist into the discussion of trifles in which the Man-God
completely disappears. The refutations are excellent, but they
leave us ignorant of what Jesus Christ has done, and for what
purpose he came into the world. Thus it is not Christ who has
the case gained, yet less the laborious reader of so much
controversy; it is this miserable man, who has proposed to
himself to betray God and his neighbor.”
And again:
“The clement wisdom of Jesus has not been left to the mercy of
sophists, nor to the resources of reason, nor to lowliness or
feebleness of faith. It has foreseen the weakness of the mind
of man, and has prepared a succor always victorious. It is not
necessary to ransack the libraries, to collect together so
many dead languages, so much history, so much physics, so much
philosophy, to know with certainty him who came to save the
little ones and the ignorant. The bread of life is as easy to
find as the material bread, on the same conditions. A simple,
faithful Christian or member of the Church of God, a man of the
world, provided he may have studied a few books and heard some
instruction, can render an account of his faith far better than
the ‘savants,’ the pretended unbelievers, are in a condition to
give an account of their incredulity. The Gospel is sufficient
for that.
“The Gospel contains motives conclusive of the faith in Jesus
Christ, true God and true man--motives, reasons, which the
Saviour himself has put forth. We can paralyze, by the contents
of the Gospel, the sophistry of the infidel, without being
shocked by its contact. What does it matter that the sophist
should amass notes against the sincerity of the Evangelists, if
we have clear proof that he of whom the Evangelists speak is
God? On bended knees, before _the Real Presence_, one is not
tempted to withdraw from its contemplation in order to consider
or view more closely this vile apparition of blasphemy. We
are by no means bound to extract from it open avowals of
repentance.”
Then he gives the reason for this sufficiency of the Gospel:
“There are different degrees in the region of the mind;
discussion belongs to the inferior degrees. In discussing, man
is pitted against man; the reason of the one seems as good as
that of the other. In expounding, we place God against man.
“This exposition of the truth must get the preference when God
is absolutely and personally in the case. From the apex of
those lofty heights the voice of man properly avoids discussing
with nothingness, lest weak human reason might be inclined to
believe that nothingness could reply; that the beauty of truth
might appear alone in the presence of the absolute deformity of
falsehood.”
And again:
“Among infidels ignorance of the Gospel is generally complete;
among a great many Christians it is hardly less so. They know
the Gospel by heart, and they do not understand it. They
have not read it with care, with order, such as it has been
delivered. They do not know how to explain it or meditate on it
as they ought. Whosoever sees in the Gospel only the letter,
does not understand even the letter; and whosoever seeks for
morality only in its pages, does not find the morality they
contain.”
Lastly, he dismisses Renan’s _Life_ in the following masterly words:
“As to a certain malicious book which unhappily signalizes the
age in which we live, we have been obliged to refer to it two
or three times. We could have wished not to touch on it. The
first sentiments of Catholics on this deplorable book have
become much modified since they have been enabled to perceive
more exactly the malicious industry of the author. While we see
him assume the task of ignoring, we are convinced he is yet far
from having lost the faith. He dare not look upon the crucifix
face to face--he would fear to see the blood trickling down.
In his conscience he declares himself a traitor. This is the
confession which we read in his book, turned resolutely away
from the light of day. We blame this miserable man, and we
detest and abhor his crime; but he is to be pitied, and every
Christian will be happy to say to him what Ananias said to
Saul: ‘My brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, _who appeared to you on
the road whence you are coming_, has sent me to meet you, so
that you may receive your sight.’”
A DISCOURSE COMMEMORATIVE OF HON. SAMUEL WILLISTON. By W.
S. Tyler, Williston Professor of Greek in Amherst College.
Springfield, Mass.: Clark W. Bryan & Co. 1874.
The venerable gentleman commemorated in this discourse died on the
18th of July, 1874, at an advanced age, after a life which is in many
respects remarkable and worthy of lasting remembrance. His history is
interesting, as presenting the most distinctive and admirable traits of
the genuine old-fashioned New England type of character. It is remarkable
on account of the great works which he performed during his lifetime. It
is honorable and worthy of remembrance on account of the great example
it presents to wealthy men, of a man who realized the proper position
which men of large fortunes ought to take in the community, as public
benefactors, as founders, as stewards of wealth for the common good.
Mr. Williston was the son of a poor country clergyman whose salary was
$300 a year. Disappointed in his early efforts to obtain a liberal
education by an affection of the eyes which debarred him from the
pleasure of reading all his lifetime, he set himself to the task of
making a fortune that he might have the means of promoting education and
in other ways benefiting his fellow-men, especially those of his own
neighborhood and commonwealth. He was successful in this undertaking,
and, besides the large fortune which he left at death to his heirs, he
is said to have bestowed a million of dollars in public beneficent works
during his lifetime, and to have bequeathed more than half that sum by
testament for similar purposes. He was the second founder of Amherst
College, the founder of the Williston Seminary at Easthampton, and of
the beautiful town of that name, which Prof. Tyler says “he found a
mere hamlet, and left one of the richest and most beautiful towns in
Hampshire County, a great educational and manufacturing centre, with
beautiful farmhouses (villas they might almost be called) and several
model villages clustered about elegant churches, and a model seminary
of learning.” Mr. Williston gained during life, and left after him, the
reputation of a man of integrity, probity, and high moral principle. His
religious belief, which was that of the old-fashioned Congregationalists
of Massachusetts, was his guiding and dominating idea, and he followed it
up in practice consistently and conscientiously. The portrait prefixed
to Prof. Tyler’s discourse is one very pleasant to look upon, and shows
the face of an honest, sensible, good man, surmounted by an expansive,
intellectual forehead, and set firmly upon a manly bust. One excellent
feature in Mr. Williston’s character was his adherence to the principle
that good education and healthy civilization must rest on a religious
and Christian basis. In this respect, he contrasts favorably with a
large and increasing class of Protestants, who are taking sides openly
with infidels in the accursed work of secularizing education, and crying
up merely material or intellectual progress. His panegyrist, Prof.
Tyler, writes admirably upon this theme. This discourse, apart from
the interest given to it by the truly noble life which it describes,
is in itself remarkably full of fine thoughts, showing the effect of
the deep study of the classics to which the learned author has devoted
his life. We are pleased to notice the calm and just manner in which he
touches incidentally upon some topics connected with the Catholic Church.
Speaking of the honor which is due to those men who are founders of
institutions useful to mankind, in a truly philosophical strain, and with
illustrations drawn from both pagan and Christian history, he proceeds to
say: “There are no names more hallowed in the Catholic Church than the
founders of those monasteries which, with all their sins, have the merit
of keeping religion and learning alive through the darkness and confusion
of the Middle Ages. The founders, too, of those religious orders whose
influence has been felt to the remotest bounds of Christendom, what
veneration is felt for them by all good Catholics, from age to age!
The names of S. Benedict, S. Dominic, S. Francis, and Ignatius Loyola
have been canonized and embalmed in the religious societies which they
established.” The fact that these words were pronounced in the pulpit of
the chapel of Amherst College gives them a peculiar significance. We do
not consider them as denoting any Catholic tendencies in Prof. Tyler or
his associates, but merely a diminution of power in the old Protestant
and Puritan tradition, and the existence of a more philosophical and
eclectic spirit. The rationalizing movement which is disintegrating
Protestant societies carries away a great deal of prejudice and error on
its tide. It threatens also to sweep away the remnants and fragments of
truth. Amherst, seated on the remote hills of Hampshire, has been safer
from the flood, hitherto, than Cambridge and New Haven. Nevertheless,
it must be invaded by the rising waters in its turn. There is nothing
but the Catholic Church which can stand, when knowledge and reason
take the place of the ignorance and credulity necessary to a blind
following of the Reformation. The remnant of orthodox Protestants must
therefore follow the inexorable logic of Luther’s principle into its
consequences of sheer rationalism, or make their way back to Catholic
faith. Individuals may remain stationary, but the mass has to move,
and even the works of men who are both great and good rest on a sandy
foundation, which will be undermined in a short time unless they are
built on the rock of Catholic stability. Mr. Williston, we have no doubt,
did his best, not only to create temporal well-being and prosperity,
but also that which is higher, more lasting, and directed toward the
eternal good, which is the chief end of man. Numbers of generous and
noble hearts, like himself, have endeavored and are now striving toward
the same objects, from the same motives. They are the pillars of the
commonwealth, the real peers of the realm, the chief bulwark of our
political and social state amid the horde of base, corrupt intriguers and
demagogues, mammon worshippers and spendthrifts, crowding our legislative
halls and marts of business, and flaunting in vulgar show through our
streets. It is impossible, however, that the work which they strive
singly to accomplish, whether for education, philanthropy, political
reform and progress, or the promotion of the Christian religion, should
be successfully performed except through Catholic unity and organization
in the communion of the one true Church. If all the enlightened and
virtuous men and women in the United States who believe that Jesus Christ
is the Saviour, and Christianity the salvation of mankind were united in
faith and directed by one authority, there is nothing which they could
not accomplish on this vast field which God has given us, and which at
present is to a great extent mere wild land. In conclusion, we express
our thanks to Mrs. Emily G. Williston and the other executors of the Hon.
Mr. Williston for their courtesy in sending us a copy of this discourse,
which is printed in a most beautiful and tasteful manner.
THE CHILD. By Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans. Translated,
with the author’s permission, by Kate Anderson. Boston: Patrick
Donahoe. 1875.
Mgr. Dupanloup is one of the most eloquent orators and writers of France.
The theme of the present book, which might have been handled in an able
and complete and yet dull manner by another, is treated in a spirited,
glowing, fascinating style by the illustrious Bishop of Orleans. It is a
charming, attractive, and most important theme, handled by one who was
a most enthusiastic and successful teacher of boys and youths before
he became a bishop. Every parent, and especially every mother, should
read this book; so also should those who have the charge of children
and young people in schools or elsewhere. It is more specifically and
precisely suitable to the case and condition of boys, as is natural,
considering that the author has been more immediately engaged in the
care of colleges than of convents. Yet, in general, its principles and
instructions are appropriate for girls also, children being very nearly
alike in most respects, whether they are boys or girls. In respect to
the moral training of boys, there are some instructions very plainly and
yet delicately given in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters, which are
specially necessary for a very large class at the present day and in
our very corrupt state of society. In the wealthy and fashionable circle
of American society, the children are very generally spoiled. Who is not
familiar with the fast boy of fourteen, whose outward and visible sign is
a blue ribbon on his straw hat, and with his sister of twelve, in short
clothes, sparkling with jewelry, but dim-eyed, pale-faced, and thin, from
keeping late hours and other precocious dissipations? The end of these
fast young people is usually tragical. If not so, they are at the best
wilted and spoiled, like bouquets of flowers which have remained for a
whole day among lighted candles.
We regret to say that many of our wealthy Catholics, especially those
who have suddenly acquired riches, strive to emulate in the race of
extravagance and luxury the most utterly worldly class of people, who
live professedly for mere earthly enjoyment. Their children are therefore
trained in a way which is morally the very opposite of the Christian and
Catholic method. In a lesser degree, the same loose, indulgent, soft,
and effeminate style of bringing up children prevails in families where
the spirit of the parents is less worldly and more religious. Boys and
girls do not remain children long enough, and are not treated as children
ought to be treated. They are too precociously developed into young
ladies and gentlemen. So far as our observation extends, the education
at home and at school which our Catholic boys of the more affluent class
are receiving is much more defective in respect to religion and morality
than that of the girls. They are more spoiled at home, and are less
amenable to wholesome discipline and intellectual training at school than
their sisters. They are also exposed to much greater danger of becoming
essentially irreligious and vicious, and going utterly to ruin, before
or soon after they attain their majority, and therefore great errors in
their early training are more deplorable. All parents, and especially
mothers, who are not wholly careless and frivolous, must perceive clearly
and feel deeply the vital importance of this subject of the early
training of boys. Let them read carefully and frequently this choice book
of Bishop Dupanloup, and they will understand better how to reverence
that wonderful and beautiful being--a regenerate child; how to train the
child for the duty and the solid happiness of its earthly life, how to
educate it for heaven.
SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. By N. L. Thiéblin. Boston: Lee &
Shepard; New York: Lee, Shepard & Dillingham. 1875.
The corps of professional writers for the great newspapers of Europe
and America is remarkable in many ways for talent, enterprise, courage,
sagacity, and skill in that style of composition which is the most
effective for the purposes of the secular press. Its _esprit de corps_
is not very high as regards truth, the eternal principles of right and
devotion to just and noble causes. It is to a great extent mercenary,
unscrupulous, time-serving, skeptical, and superficial. Incidentally it
often serves the cause of right and truth with great efficacy, and no
doubt wages a very successful war on many evils and abuses in favor of
certain temporal interests, diffuses a vast amount of information, and
contributes its full quantity of force to the wheels that make the world
spin round with an ever-increasing velocity. Certain of its members have
made themselves truly famous in this present age by their explorations
and their chronicles of wars or other great contemporary events, that
almost rival Livy and Cæsar. It is only necessary to mention the names of
Russell and Stanley as illustrations of this statement.
Mr. Thiéblin has won a high place among these brilliant writers for the
press, by his extraordinary courage and enterprise in following up, first
the military movements of the Franco-Prussian war, and more recently
those of the Carlist campaigns, and his very great talent in describing
what he has seen and learned with so much perseverance and effort. He
is a good specimen of the corps to which he belongs. Apparently a mere
free-thinker in respect to all the higher order of truth, solicitous only
to see and narrate what is transpiring on the earth, an intellectual
knight-errant and free lance, without any kind of allegiance to any
power higher than the _Pall Mall Gazette_ or the _New York Herald_, he
is brave, good-humored, witty, and graphic; a keen observer, a charming
narrator, with a great deal of justice and impartiality, and evidently
telling the truth about those things which can be apprehended through
the senses, and which his mind is capable of understanding. There are
a few offensive remarks about Catholic matters, a few jeering allusions
to things beyond his rather limited sphere of vision, and a moderate
quantity of the usual newspaper political wisdom, upon which we place,
of course, a very low estimate. The real substance of the book, however,
which is the testimony of the writer respecting what he learned by
personal observation respecting the army of Don Carlos and the state of
things in Spain, is of the highest value and interest. We have not read
a book with so much pleasure for a long time. The author takes us right
into the Carlist camp and the romantic Vasco Navarrese country where Don
Carlos is king, into the company of his generals and soldiers, into the
houses of the parish priests, and among the loyal, religious peasantry.
He has no sympathy with the religion of the Spaniards or the cause of
Don Carlos, and his favorable testimony to the piety, morality, bravery,
and good discipline of the faithful soldiers and subjects of the gallant
prince are beyond cavil. The history of the eccentric and famous Curé of
Santa Cruz is most curious. The authentic narrative of facts concerning
the Carlist movement makes it evident to our mind that the prospects
of ultimate and complete success in the effort of Don Carlos to gain
possession of the kingdom are very encouraging. Mr. Thiéblin does not
confine himself to an account of his experience in the Carlist camps.
He gives a great deal of information gathered from the visits he made
to the quarters of the Republicans, personal observation of the state
of things in Madrid and other places, and conversations with prominent
personages. He can appreciate what is admirable in Spain and the
Spaniards much better than most non-Catholics; and being wholly free from
Protestant sympathies, perceives clearly and ridicules freely the sham
of Evangelical missions with their invariable concomitant of boastful
and calumnious lying. As a very good sort of heathen, and an extremely
clever man, with a fine taste for what is beautiful, and an eclectic
habit of mind, he gives just and charming descriptions of many things in
that Catholic country and people--in short, understanding the principles
and causes which have produced that which he partially approves, but
cannot estimate at its full worth, as he would do if he were a thorough
and intelligent Catholic, in respect to the state of Catholic religion
and piety in Spain, his account of the lapse from ancient faith is
partly correct, but one-sided and imperfect, as that of a foreign and
anti-Catholic observer must be. In respect to morality and general
well-being and happiness, he is a competent witness, and his testimony
shows how much better, happier, and more refined, in the true sense, the
Spanish people, even in their present disorganized state are, than the
mass of the population in England or the United States. In regard to
Spanish politics, he sympathizes, of course, most perfectly with Castelar
and the orderly, moderate Republicans, and next to these with the party
of Don Alfonso. He makes an elaborate argument in favor of the claim of
this young prince to be the inheritor of all the rights of Ferdinand VII.
In our opinion, Don Carlos has the most valid title to this inheritance.
But as we have no time to prove this, we must waive the question of
legitimacy.
There is another right which has precedence of any right to inherit the
throne: This is the right of the Church and nation to have restored
and preserved the ancient heritage of the Spanish nation, those laws
and institutions, and that government which are necessary to the
religious and political well being of the whole people. The régime of
the Christinos was destructive to both, and almost the whole nation
acquiesced in the expulsion of Isabella. We do not think that the
majority of even that portion of the Spaniards who are at present
subject to Don Alfonso really consent to his rule, or that there is any
guarantee that it will be better than that of the late queen. He has
been taken up by the Liberals as a _pis aller_, and is only tolerated by
the greater part of those who are loyal to the religion and constitution
of the Spanish monarchy. Don Carlos, as his own published statements,
particularly his recent letter to Louis Veuillot, prove, is the champion
of religious and political regeneration. It is, therefore, desirable that
his claim to the crown should be lawfully ratified, and receive whatever
may be requisite to make it a perfect right in actual possession, by the
act of the Spanish nation. We may say the same of the Comte de Chambord
in respect to the throne of France. This is a sufficient reason why
Catholics, even American Catholics, who are faithful to the Republic
here, because it is an established and legitimate order, should be
hostile to the Republican party in Spain and France, and to any kind
of patched-up liberalistic monarchy in either country, and wish for
the success of Don Carlos and Henri de Bourbon. There are some very
good Catholics who think differently, even such staunch champions of
the Catholic cause as our illustrious friend the Bishop of Salford,
the editor of the _London Tablet_, and Dr. Ward. They seem to us to be
mistaken and inconsistent, and we agree personally with the _Civiltà
Cattolica_ and the _Univers_ that the cause of Charles VII. and Henry V.
is the same with that of Pius IX. considered as a temporal sovereign, and
closely connected with the triumph of his rights as Sovereign Pontiff.
We have, moreover, the confident hope that the one will yet reign over
regenerated Spain and the other over regenerated France, after the
infamous Prussian tyranny shall have been trampled in the dust, and
the usurper of the Quirinal shall have met the fate of all foregoing
oppressors of the Holy See.
DIOS, PATRIA, Y REY is the true watchword of beautiful, Catholic, unhappy
Spain.
A PILGRIMAGE TO THE LAND OF THE CID. Translated from the French
of Frederic Ozanam. By P. S. New York: The Catholic Publication
Society. 1875.
This little volume, by the eminent writer and lecturer Prof. Ozanam,
supplies much that was wanting in the one just noticed, in its
appreciative sketches of Catholic objects and traditions. The book was
the result of a tour made a year before the author’s death. It would be a
good travelling companion in the country described, or elsewhere.
A FULL CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION (preceded by a Short
History of Religion), from the Creation of the World to the
Present Time. With Questions for Examination. Translated from
the German of the Rev. Joseph Deharbe, S.J., by the Rev. John
Fander. First American Edition. _Permissu Superiorum._ New
York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1875.
“This is the most celebrated catechism of the century, has been most
extensively approved and brought into use, and will be of great service
to those who are employed in teaching young people the Christian
doctrine, as well as for the instruction of converts.”
We can add nothing to the above notice of the London edition of this
catechism, which heretofore appeared in this magazine, except to say that
the American edition has been revised and corrected, and adopted into the
Young Catholic’s School Series.
THE VICTIMS OF THE MAMERTINE. By Rev. A. J. O’Reilly, D.D. New
York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1875.
_The Martyrs of the Coliseum_ will have prepared the reader for another
treat in this later work of the same author. Dr. O’Reilly is one of
the most diligent workers of the rich mine of Christian traditions
so successfully explored by Cardinal Wiseman, in the preparation of
_Fabiola_. The author properly claims great authenticity for the records
of this prison, the high position of its victims rendering the task of
identification one of comparative ease. While the world is being filled
with the exploits of “the heroes of paganism, who were at best but
tyrants and murderers,” we should not ignore the deeds of those truer
heroes--the persecuted champions of the early Christian Church.
THE SPIRIT OF FAITH; or, What I Must do to Believe. By Bishop
Hedley, O.S.B. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1875.
This _brochure_ is made up of a series of lectures delivered in St.
Peter’s, Cardiff, by its right reverend author. The reader will not
have proceeded far to be convinced of the opportuneness of the subjects
discussed, and the competence of the writer, who may also be recognized
as a former contributor to these pages.
SERMONS FOR EVERY SUNDAY IN THE YEAR, AND FOR THE LEADING
HOLIDAYS OF OBLIGATION. By Rev. William Gahan. With a Preface
by the Right Rev. Dr. Walsh. Edited by Rev. J. O’Leary, D.D.
New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1875.
The reverend clergy will be content with the announcement of a new
edition of these standard discourses. Their quality was long ago
determined.
THE CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XXI., No. 125.--AUGUST, 1875.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by Rev. I. T.
HECKER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
THE PERSECUTION IN SWITZERLAND FROM THE REVUE GENERALE.
For seven months have we kept silence on the religious persecution in
Switzerland. Not that during that interval the rage of the persecutors
has become appeased; very far from it. But the spectacle they afford
is so repulsive to the conscience that the pen falls from the hand in
disgust whilst narrating their exploits. Nevertheless, we suppose it
may be of service to give a complete although succinct history of the
violence and hypocrisy of Swiss liberalism. And for that reason we renew
our recital.
Up to the present time, the persecution has only raged in two dioceses,
the smallest, Geneva, and the largest, Basel. But elsewhere the fire
smoulders beneath the ashes, and everything goes to prove that, if the
liberals should succeed in overthrowing the church in the cantons where
they have inaugurated their barbarous and intolerant rule, they will
continue their efforts even into the heart of the country. Already,
indeed, here and there, outside of the two just-named dioceses, they
reveal their intentions by isolated measures.
Thus at St. Gall, the cantonal council, the majority of which consists of
Protestants and free-thinkers, has forbidden the Catholic clergy to teach
the Syllabus and the dogma of Papal Infallibility; and, as the clergy
have refused to obey such an order, the Council of Public Instruction
has withdrawn from them the teaching the catechism during Lent, and has
placed the duty in the hands of schoolmasters in absolute dependence on
the state. This example betrays the intention of liberalism, in the name
of liberty, no longer to tolerate any religion but such as is fashioned
by its own hand. This intention is now betraying itself openly in the
two dioceses of Geneva and Basel. It is useless to speak of the rights
of Catholics consecrated by treaties, to invoke the respect due to their
conscience; useless is it to adduce in their behalf the religious
equality which they scrupulously maintain in the cantons, such as Lucerne
and Freyburg, where they have the superiority; useless to insist on their
patriotism, and on their loyal submission to laws which do not encroach
on the domain of religion. No, there are no rights for Catholics, there
is no justice for them; and when it is a question of attacking them, the
end justifies the means.
This is no invention of ours. We will cite a few examples in support of
our assertion.
M. Teuscher in the canton of Bern, and M. Carteret at Geneva, have
founded churches to which they have assigned the name of Catholic, which
they support with unusual zeal. Now, in the journal of these churches,
the _Démocratie catholique_, which is published at Bern, of the date of
January 2, is the following statement: “Ultramontanes are malefactors,
and there is no liberty for malefactors.” It may be objected, that these
words are merely the expression of an individual opinion. Let us listen
then to M. Carteret, speaking, about the same time, before the Grand
Council of Geneva: “Ultramontanism is dangerous; it is necessary to
combat it, to make on it a war of extermination and without mercy; it is
affectation to dream of being just and equitable with such an adversary.”
A little later on, in the same assembly, a credit was voted for the
maintenance of candidates for Catholic cures, whose rightful possessors
had been arbitrarily ejected; and when M. Vogt expressed his astonishment
that the canton should keep a tavern for liberal _abbés_, a deputy
exclaimed, “We shall act as we please.”
It would seem impossible for cynicism to go beyond this. But no; the
brutality of despotism was able to surpass even it. At the moment
when, in the canton of Soleure, the people were summoned to vote
the suppression of the secular foundations, of which we shall speak
presently, one of their journals published the following: “If we should
be conquered, and the _blacks_ should defeat the measure, _we shall
handle the knife_.” It sounds like a sinister echo of 1793.
What can be the object of the persecutors? Is it the substitution of
Protestantism for Catholicity? Scarcely. Protestants who really believe
in their religion disapprove of these iniquities. The object is akin,
rather, we may be sure, to the sentiment lately given utterance to by
the Pastor Lang of Zurich: “We are slowly but surely approaching the
end towards which the development of our spiritual life is urging us,
to wit, _the suppression and disappearance of all churches_.” The same
sentiment had been expressed during the debates on the federal revision
by M. Welti. “He who would wish to be free must not belong to any church.
No church gives liberty. The _state_ alone gives that.” In other words,
the ideal to be aimed at is the reign of the state over soul as well
as body. After this, can we wonder at the cry of alarm issuing from a
quarter not at least to be suspected of Catholic bias? It is a Protestant
journal--_l’Union jurassienne_--which exclaims, “The star of liberty
pales, the shadows of spiritual despotism are gathering around us.”
But the cry is lost in the desert. Despotism throws those who exercise
it into a kind of intoxication; every one of the excesses to which it
commits itself becomes the source of fresh ones. Its last word is
proscription, when it is not the scaffold.… In the diocese of Basel the
crimes of liberalism have been perpetrated principally at Soleure, in the
Jura, and at Bern. We will review them successively.
At Soleure, the Benedictine monastery of Maria-Stein, the collegiate
church of Schoenwerth, and that of S. Urs and S. Victor have been
overthrown at one stroke.
The monastery of Maria-Stein was founded in 1085, and had cleared and
cultivated the country. But the church can no more reckon upon the
gratitude of its enemies than upon their justice. They determined to
seize the property of the convent, to convert the building into a
madhouse, and to mock justice with the bestowal of a trifling alms on
the religious thus iniquitously dispossessed. At the first news of this
project, the ex-Father Hyacinthe again gave expression to the indignation
he had exhibited before on similar provocation, and sent to the abbot of
the monastery a protest against “this attack on property and religion.”
The foundation of the collegiate church of Schoenwerth, situated near
Olten, dates from the Xth century. It had only five canons, who served
four parishes, and gave instruction in the schools. That of S. Urs and S.
Victor from the VIIIth. It was erected into a cathedral in 1828; when the
residence of the Bishop of Basel was transferred to Soleure. Its chapter
has kept perpetual watch for nearly a thousand years at the tombs of the
Theban martyrs. These venerable memories arrested not the arms of the
spoilers. What was wanted was to punish the canons of Schoenwerth and of
Soleure for their loyalty to their bishop, and at the same time to get
possession of the endowments they administered.
Consequently, the suppression of the two collegiate churches, as well as
of the monastery of Maria-Stein, was submitted to the popular vote. It
was adopted by 8,356 votes against 5,896. But when it is remembered that
the majority included about 3,000 Protestants, besides the manufacturing
population of Olten, who are in complete subjection to the tyranny of
their Freemason employers; that more than 3,000 timid Catholics abstained
from voting, and that the women and children were not consulted, there
can remain no doubt that once again a Catholic majority has been
sacrificed to a coalition of Protestants and free-thinkers.
However it may be, this vote remarkably facilitated the object the
liberals have had in view for some time, namely, of abolishing the
chapter of Basel. This chapter consisted of canons from seven states of
the diocese--Bern, Basel, Thurgau, Aargau, Soleure, Zug, Lucerne. The
state of Soleure having suppressed its own, and the states of Aargau and
Bern being urged to do the same to theirs, the conference of the diocesan
states, on the 21st December, decreed the suppression of the chapter
itself and the sale of its effects. The support of five of these states
had been procured. No heed was taken of the opposition of Lucerne and Zug.
And it is asserted that it is in the name of religious liberty that
Swiss liberalism has deprived the diocese of Basel of its bishop and
its chapter! But what cares liberalism for the rights of Catholic
consciences? However, in thus decapitating the diocese it was carrying
out a purpose on which it was inexorably bent. It had long resolved
to create a national church calling itself Catholic, and it hugged the
illusion that the suppression of the Catholic bishoprics would contribute
to the success of this design. It is in pursuance of the same object that
it opened in Bern, in the month of October, a faculty of Old Catholic
theology.
These facts display a complete change of tactics on the part of unbelief.
In the last century, Voltaire and his satellites tried to batter down
the church, without dreaming of putting anything in her place. They
failed. Their successors of to-day adopt another plan. It is to create
anti-Catholic churches, calling themselves Catholic, to which they do not
belong, whose dogmas they abjure, and whose priests they despise. They
trust thus to satisfy the people, whilst retaining for themselves the
benefits of unbelief.
Next, in the month of October, the government of Bern opened, in the
federal capital, a faculty of theology, which it called “faculty of
Catholic theology,” and it invited chiefly foreigners to occupy its
chairs. It nominated dean of the faculty a German, that unfortunate Dr.
Friedrich of Munich, who was amongst the first to follow Döllinger in
his perversity, and they appointed as his subordinates a few apostates
picked up wherever they could find them. Eight students, almost all from
the canton of Soleure, the real focus of Swiss liberalism, were enrolled.
With such a contingent, the dream of a national church does not appear
certain to be realized. But the government of Bern flatters itself that
in time the number of students will increase, and that it will thus have
at its disposal submissive agents ready to assist it in its detestable
undertaking, the perversion of the Jura.
The Jura! It is impossible to cast a glance around that unfortunate
country without being filled with gratitude to God for the religious
heroism it perseveres in displaying in the presence of a powerful and
treacherous enemy who is striving to crush it utterly.
It is notorious that the ninety-seven parishes of the Jura have been
arbitrarily reconstructed by the government of Bern; and that, after
having reduced them to the number of twenty-five, it finally increased
them to forty-two. Nothing has been left undone to place at the head of
every one of these an apostate priest. But in spite of all its efforts
it has only been able to muster seventeen. Besides, what trouble do the
recruits swept up from all the by-ways of Europe cause them! Some have
already sent in their resignation.
Thus it was with Giaut, curate of Bonfol, who, in a public letter
announced his abandonment of the mission he had assumed, “because he saw
no immediate prospect of the realization, in the Jura, of his aspirations
and ideas.” Of the same kind was the course pursued by d’Omer Camerle,
who, on his withdrawal, declared that the new clergy, “utterly despised
by the liberals and execrated by the ultramontanes, were attempting a
work which was entirely useless if not contemptible.” Others have been
obliged to escape, or had to evade justice.
We have before narrated the misfortunes of Rupplin. His rival Naudot,
arrested for abduction of a minor, was condemned to six months’
imprisonment. In his defence, made by himself, he demanded, “Am I more
guilty than Giaut, _curé_ of Bonfol, who calls himself Guiot; than
Choisel, _curé_ of Courgenay, whose real name is Chastel; than Déramey,
who calls himself Pipy?” We must, however, state to his credit that he
abjured his errors and returned into the bosom of the church.
At Bienne, the intruder, St. Ange Lièvre, threw off the mask, and
married a Protestant named Tsantré-Boll. The union was blessed by M.
Saintes, a Protestant minister, after an address by M. Hurtault, from
Geneva, who complimented his colleague “for having had the courage to
throw off the yoke of bondage imposed upon him by the Roman papacy.”
This was overshooting the mark. The intruders may commit all imaginable
escapades without provoking attention. But they must not marry. It
reveals prematurely the programme of the free-thinkers of Bern, who, in
order to conciliate the population of the Jura, declare that they have
no intention to meddle with the dogmas of the church. Accordingly, the
“Provisionary Catholic Synodal Commission,” in a letter addressed to
“MM. the curates of the Jura,” “severely rebuked the deplorable example
given by M. St. Ange Lièvre, and promised to demand from the authorities
a remedy, which could not be refused if another member of the clergy
should venture to violate the venerable laws of the church.” Ludicrous
imbecility! They will try to hinder for the future a renewal of these
wanton freaks, but they respect what has been already perpetrated. And
so M. Lièvre and his Protestant wife remain at the head of the parish of
Bienne!
But do any of the intruded meet with success in their propaganda? No! At
Alle, Salis rings the bell for Masses which he does not say. At Bienne,
only twenty or thirty persons attend the service of St. Ange Lièvre. At
Delémont, the chief place of the district, enjoying a radical priest, a
radical president of the tribunal, radical functionaries, so empty is the
church usurped by Portaz-Grassis that, on the 7th of January, the council
of the parish gave vent to the following cry of distress in a circular
addressed to “Liberal Catholics”: “The religious question in the Jura
being intimately associated with the political one, it is important, now
that our national church is constituted on solid and legal foundations,
that all liberals should support this church and sustain the majority
of the Bernese people in the steps that have been taken. [It must be
remembered that the majority of the Bernese people is Protestant.]
“Yet is our worship little frequented, and our enemies proclaim
everywhere that our church is deserted.
“In presence of this carelessness--we may say, even of this culpable
indifference--we make a last appeal to the patriotic sentiments of the
liberal Catholics of Delémont, beseeching them to assist more regularly
at the Sunday Mass, and above all to induce their wives and children to
be present at it. If Catholics [!] will not show more zeal in supporting
the liberal curate and the council of the parish, the latter will resign
_in globo_ the charge entrusted to it.”
Nothing, however, discourages the government of Bern, and in conformity
with the law of worship, voted some months ago, it has obliged the new
parishes of the Jura to proceed to the formation of parochial councils,
and to the nomination, or rather confirmation, of the intruding curates.
But here, also, what deception! Out of 12,000 electors, only the tenth
part voted. In 28 communes, not a single elector presented himself at
the ballot. In the others, the number was laughably small. At St. Imier,
for instance, out of 1,933 electors, only eight answered the summons. At
Moustier, out of 1,429, only 24. No less significant are the numbers of
votes polled for the elected curates:
Fontenais: M. d’Abbadie (Frenchman) had 77 votes out of 1,651 electors.
Courtemaiche: M. Coffignal (Frenchman) had 15 votes out of 1,683 electors.
Undervelier: M. Salis (Italian) had 13 votes out of 1,046 electors.
Courroux: M. Maestrelli (Italian) had 60 votes out of 1,557 electors.
Roggenburg: M. Oser (German) had 40 votes out of 465 electors.
Bislach: M. Schoenberger (German) had 33 votes out of 669 electors.
Dittengen: M. Fuchs (Austrian) had 33 votes out of 667 electors.
Bienne: M. St. Ange Lièvre (Frenchman) had 50 votes out of 1,040 electors.
Imagine the Bernese government being eager to confirm nominations made
under such circumstances!
As to the Catholics, they continue to assemble in barns and cart-sheds,
and there to lift with faith their hands towards heaven, and to rest
firm in their fidelity. This attitude only aggravates the rage of their
persecutors. We have already spoken of the suppression of the Ursulines
of Porrentruy. The last remaining religious congregation in that town
could not long escape the same fate. It was that of the Sisters of
Charity of Ste. Ursanne, who had for twenty years ministered in the
hospital for the poor of the chief town of the Bernese Jura. They began
with seizing their chapel and handing it over to schism. Then, without
any pretext, they cast into prison the Superior and two of the Sisters,
where they remained four days. At length, one fine morning, they were
informed that they must leave the place within four hours; at the
expiration of which period, if they had not left, “they would be forcibly
expelled.” The execution soon followed the sentence; and these religious
ladies, whose presence had only been known by good works, were, in their
turn, compelled to tread the path of exile!
In spite of the implacable intolerance of their enemies, the Jurassians
do not cease petitioning the federal authorities; and to the number of
9,000 they have demanded the restitution of their churches and of their
ecclesiastical property, the re-establishment of the Catholic worship,
and the recall of the 97 priests unjustly expelled. The restitution
of the churches, and the re-establishment of the Catholic as a public
worship, have been flatly refused, on the plea that there cannot exist
in the canton any other public Catholic worship than that established
by the law of January, 1874! But the federal council, notwithstanding
its notorious hostility, shrunk from an open and avowed approbation of
the ostracism of the faithful priests; and it requested of the Bernese
government an explanation of the reasons which, in its opinion, justified
the continuance of that rigorous measure; reserving to itself to give a
subsequent decision on the appeal which had been made to it.
Opinions are divided as to the real intentions of the federal council,
and at the moment when we write the definitive decision has not been
announced. But whatever may be the fate of the appeal, the situation of
the church in the Jura will remain no less lamentable.
Whilst the Jurassian population give, thus, an example of fidelity worthy
of the first ages of the Christian era, the tempest has burst upon the
Catholic parish of the town of Bern.
This parish possesses a church built by the late Mgr. Baud, predecessor
of the present curate, M. Perroulaz, and paid for by the alms of the
Catholics of the entire country. The schismatics cast longing eyes upon
it; but their designs were for a while impeded by the fear of displeasing
the ambassadors. This fear was unfounded. For since the overthrow of
governments caused by the detestable policy of Napoleon III., there is no
longer an Europe; and everywhere violence and injustice, having nothing
to fear from the once protective influence of the great powers, commit
themselves to every license. It is thus, then, they set about to compass
their end.
First, an assembly of the parish was convoked to elect a parochial
council. But as such an assembly owes its existence to the late law of
worship, and as the faithful Catholics could not consequently take any
part in it, the council was chosen by one hundred out of three hundred
and sixty electors. Scarcely was it installed when it received a request
from the professors of the Old Catholic faculty of Bern, that the
church might be placed at their disposition, for their Masses, worship,
and preachings. It eagerly acceded to this request, and desired M.
Perroulaz to open the gates of the church to the schismatic priests of
the university. He refused. They ordered him to give up the keys. He
did nothing of the kind. They went to his house and took them from him;
and on Sunday, 28th February, Dr. Friedrich and his accomplices took
possession of the sanctuary. M. Perroulaz, to avoid scandal, assembled
his parishioners for the celebration of their worship in the great
hall of the Museum. Thither they flocked in crowds. Foremost amongst
the worshippers were the ambassadors of France, Austria, Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Brazil, etc. Thirty years ago, such a demonstration of the
diplomatic body would not have remained without results. But in the
year of grace 1875, “might makes right,” and the petty tyrants of Bern,
supported by certain foreign cabinets, satiate with impunity their hatred
of the church.
But even this did not content them. It was not sufficient for them to
have deprived Catholics of their church. They wanted, further, to compel
M. Perroulaz to say Mass in it together with the apostates. The Council
of State designed, in this way, to place him in a position in which they
might be able, in due form of law, to relieve him of his functions. On
his refusal it decided to institute a process of revocation; and, pending
the trial, it suspended him! Then he was driven out of the presbytery,
and a Bavarian impostor was installed in his place. What! After having
despoiled the faithful of the sanctuary built by their own hands and
with their own money, they command them, besides, to make common cause
with renegades, and make it a crime in their pastor to assemble them
elsewhere to adore God according to their conscience. At Rome, under the
pagan emperors, the Christians had the freedom of the Catacombs; at Bern,
in 1875, even such freedom would be grudged by the ingrates whose cradle
was enlightened by the rays of divine truth!
At Geneva affairs are as gloomy as in the canton of Bern. Last August,
at the moment when we were relating the high-handed proceedings of the
government, M. Loyson had just distinguished himself by breaking his
connection with the lay chiefs of the schism. “I will not engage,” he
said, “in useless discussions with men who confound liberalism with
radicalism, Catholicism with the _Profession of Faith_ of the Savoyard
vicar.” The poor apostate would, we suspect, have been but too glad to
return to the venerable church which received his first oaths. But how
dispose of Mme. Loyson and the little Emmanuel? He continued therefore
schismatic, and he announced that he should remain at Geneva “until the
election of a bishop, who, with his synod, was the only authority,” he
added, “which he could recognize in the religious order.” In pursuance of
this secession, he founded a free worship, which has a small number of
sectaries as its following.
As to the official church, its misfortunes are beyond calculation. The
town of Geneva itself was favored with three curates, each receiving
from four to five thousand francs a year, and a few vicars. After
the retirement of M. Loyson, the second of the three curates--M.
Hurtault--left, in order to occupy one of the chairs of the Old Catholic
faculty at Bern. It was, no doubt, to console the new church in these
bereavements, that one of the vicars, M. Vergoin, in imitation of his
accomplices, took to himself a wife in the person of a Freyburg damsel.
However, the law of the organization of religious worship enjoined on all
the curates and vicars of the canton the oath of obedience to the laws.
The Council of State shrunk for a long time from the application of this
provision in the rural communes. At length, yielding to the impatience
of the “Catholic Superior Council,” it decreed that the oath should be
taken on the 4th September by the seventeen curates and the two vicars
officiating in the country.
On the appointed day, a large crowd assembled around the entrance of the
town-hall. Not a priest summoned presented himself. They, too, were proud
to wear the device of Mgr. Lachat: _Potius mori quam fœdari!_--“Death
rather than shame!”
Immediately afterwards, the Council of State pronounced the aforesaid
cures vacant, and suppressed the pay of their occupiers from October 31.
This measure was communicated to the “Catholic Superior Council,” with
the view of its filling the vacancies.
Great was the embarrassment of the latter. As a commencement, it demanded
of the Council of State the power of disposing of the country churches
from the 31st October. The reply was that it had only to apply to the
municipal authorities. It then devised the plan of publishing in the
journals, amongst the advertisements, a notice to the effect that “the
registry was open at the office of the superior council for the offices
of curate and vicar in twenty-two parishes of the canton, which had
become vacant in consequence of death, dismissal, and revocation.” When
at length it had found a candidate, it resolved to present him to the
parish of Grand-Saconnex, one of the nearest to Geneva, and which on
that account appeared to it to be ripe for schism. But only thirty-three
electors out of one hundred and sixty-six responded to the call. It was
less than a third, and the election was abortive in consequence.
Such a check was suggestive. The measure decreed on the 4th September
was not put in force, except that the salaries of the faithful curates
remained suppressed. But they revenged themselves by annoying the
Catholics in every possible way.
We will cite two instances.
An Old Catholic interment having taken place at Hermance, after several
provocations, the population threw some stones on the coffin of the
defunct. The blame was immediately laid on the curate, and he was
expelled from the canton on the pretext that “he troubled the public
peace,” said the decree, “by his preachings, and excited hatred of one
another among the citizens.” No accusation could be more serious than
this. For, indeed, had he been guilty of it, it was before the courts he
should have been brought. But all that was wanted then was to punish the
parishioners for having, a few days before, given an ill reception to two
intruders who had attempted to pervert the village.
The second is a yet sadder incident. One fine day, an Old Catholic
inhabitant of Geneva, named Maurice, who lived close to the Old Catholic
church, took it into his head to have his infant child baptized by the
intruding priest, Marchal, in the Catholic Church of Compesières, used
for two communes, Bardonnex and Plan-les-Ouates. On the arrival of the
cortége, the mayors of these communes, habited in their scarfs of office,
and surrounded by their subordinates, opposed its entry into the church,
and forced it to beat a retreat. At the news of this there was great
consternation at Geneva.
The whim of M. Maurice was not only a violation of the liberty of
religion; it was a wanton provocation, since he belonged to the commune
of Geneva, and could have had his child baptized in the church of S.
Germain, of which the schism had taken possession. No matter. The
Council of State took advantage of the incident, and ordered the mayors
of Compesières to keep the parish church open for baptism of the little
Maurice. At the same time it ordered thither some squadrons of gendarmes
and of carabineers, and, thanks to this display of the public force, a
locksmith was able to force open the doors of the sacred edifice. They
had it sealed with the borough-seal, and a huge placard was stuck on it,
bearing the following inscription: “Property is inviolable.” Before the
profanation, a delegate from the communal authorities of Bardonnex and of
Plan-les-Ouates had communicated to the invaders a final protest.
Any commentary would be superfluous. We limit ourselves to quoting
the following words of the _Journal de Genève_: “What has passed at
Compesières has but too quickly justified the mournful forebodings
inspired by the violent policy which is growing from bad to worse in
official quarters. We persist in demanding that a stop be put to this
sowing the wind at the risk of reaping the whirlwind.” But the object
had been achieved. The Catholics had been outraged, and a pretext had
been made for dismissing M. de Montfalcon, mayor of Plan-les-Ouates and
president of “l’Union des Campagnes.”
It appears, however, that this was not enough. In the bosom of the
“Catholic Superior Council,” M. Héridier exclaimed: “We must follow
the course of the Bernese government.” Such bitter hatred can only
be accounted for by the negative results of the country enterprise.
The firmness of the Catholics, in fact, increases, instead of growing
fainter, and they are unanimous in adopting the sentiments of a speaker
of the “Union des Campagnes,” who exclaimed lately: “Whatever happens
we will not be found wanting. If they despoil us of our churches, they
can only take the walls; they cannot take our souls. We will follow our
stripped and proscribed altars even into the poverty of a barn or the
darkness of a cavern. If they hunt our priests from their presbyteries,
we will offer them an asylum under our modest and friendly roofs. If they
rob them of their salaries, we will share with them the wages of our
labor and the bread of our tables.”
A special cause of irritation to the liberals and free-thinkers was the
circumstance that scarcely had the Catholics been despoiled of the church
of S. Germain before they bought, to replace it, the Temple Unique,
formerly occupied by the Freemasons, and which they dedicated to the
Sacred Heart. Accordingly, no sooner had the elections for the renewal of
the Grand Council given a majority to M. Carteret, before that gentleman
set to work to inflict a fresh blow upon the Catholics, by robbing them
of the Church of Notre Dame. This magnificent church was built in 1857
by means of subscription collected throughout the Christian world by
Mgr. Mermillod, and M. Dunoyer, the dismissed curate of Geneva. The
subscriptions had been given, we need scarcely say, on the faith of the
Catholic worship, and that alone, being celebrated in the church; and for
seventeen years no other had been celebrated there.
For a long while M. Carteret and the free-thinking liberals had been
casting longing looks on this prey. They had been impeded in their
designs by energetic resistance, and, amongst others, by that of the
ex-Father Hyacinthe. But at last they lost patience, and at their
instigation, backed by the pressure of a populace whose worst passions
they had inflamed, the Grand Council, at the beginning of January,
adopted an order of the day requiring the prompt execution of the law of
2d November, 1850.
This law, which had bestowed upon Catholics the land on which the sacred
edifice is built, enacted that the administration of the church should
be entrusted to a commission of five members, chosen by the Catholics of
the parish of Geneva. By demanding the putting in force of this clause,
they hoped to form a commission of Old Catholics who would hand over the
church to the radicals concealed under a schismatic mask.
We do not intend to discuss here the question of right; although it
appears clear to us that they could not justly turn against Catholics
a stipulation which had been made expressly in their favor. The mere
equity of the case should have sufficed to prevent, under existing
circumstances, the application of the clause. This was the view taken
by two distinguished Protestants who had not abandoned all regard for
justice--M. Naville and M. de la Rive. The latter, in a remarkable
production, observed: “There is not, I think, an impartial mind, which,
looking at the matter from the point of view of simple equity, will not
decide in favor of that one of the two churches which has borne the whole
of the large outlay by which the value of the original grant has been
increased more than tenfold. The spot on which now stands one of the most
splendid monuments of our city would be still a waste space but for the
sums collected and furnished precisely by those persons whose possession
of it is now disputed. Notre Dame is exclusively the work of the priests
and faithful of the Catholic Church. That is a notorious, undisputed
fact.”
There could be no reply to language so true and striking. Moreover, one
of those who had collected the subscriptions, in a published letter,
stated that “the principal part of the sums employed in the erection of
the building had been subscribed by Roman Catholics throughout the world,
and that he could assert and prove that those who are separated from the
Catholic Church had nothing whatsoever to do with its construction.”
But these protests were useless. Had, however, the sectaries the pretence
that they were in a majority in Geneva, and that they had need of Notre
Dame? By no means. And the _Chronique radical_ remarked it, demanding:
“What will you do with the church of Notre Dame? Can you fill it?”
Indeed, no! They will never be able to fill it. But the object was to
wrest it from the faithful--from those who flocked to it in crowds,
whose registry records, in 1874, 260 Baptisms, 170 Burials, 60 Marriages,
174 First Communions, and 30,000 Communions of adults; and for whom five
Masses were celebrated every Sunday. Here, once more the end justifies
the means.
The Council of State, moved thus to put in force the law of 1850,
convoked the electoral body, deciding, as a preliminary, that the
citizens of Geneva alone should take part in the election. To understand
the importance of this qualification it will suffice to observe that
there are in the canton of Geneva 25,000 Catholic foreigners,[147] and
that, by depriving them of the right of voting, the Catholic strength
would be seriously weakened.
In spite of this subterfuge, there was every prospect of victory for
the faithful, when, on the very eve of the elections, the 6th February,
during the afternoon, the number of electors which, in the morning,
stood at 1,500 only, was raised to 1,924. Whence these recruits at the
last moment had been procured may be easily conjectured. The _Courrier
de Genève_ asserted that it saw come to the poll “a band of unknown
individuals who appeared to be formed in brigades.”
Thanks to this reinforcement, the free-thinking list obtained a majority
of 187 votes.
The commission thus elected immediately entered upon its duties, and
instead of taking their church away from the Catholics, it hurriedly
decided that “the inhabitants of the right bank of the Rhone and of the
Lake, who belong to the religion recognized by the state, should be at
liberty to perform in the temple the ceremonies of Baptism, Marriage, and
Burial,” and that it reserved for itself to take what steps it might deem
advisable to take against ecclesiastics who should give occasion to just
complaints, specially in aught that concerns the public peace, obedience
to the laws, and the respect due to magistrates.
These resolutions were on the point of being executed when Mgr.
Mermillod, M. Dunoyer, as representatives of the subscribers, and M.
Lany, rector of Notre Dame, claimed, before the courts, the ownership of
the edifice.
Do judges still exist at Geneva? It remains to be seen.
But this was not all. On the 6th April, at five o’clock in the morning,
the recently-elected commission had the doors of the church broken open
by a locksmith, protected by a squad of gendarmes and police-agents;
after which seals were placed on the doors, and further worship
interdicted!
The situation becomes thus more and more critical. M. Carteret envies
M. Bismarck his laurels, and, supported by all that is evil in Geneva,
we must expect to see him rush headlong to the utmost extremities. Far
distant, indeed, is the time when one could talk of Swiss liberty. The
violence of every description which has gone on increasing in the old
Helvetic land demonstrates that despotism can run riot as savagely under
a republican form of government as under any other; and that they who cry
out the most lustily against the tyranny of kings are themselves tyrants
of the worst kind when they have power in their hands.
It is clear that in the course they are pursuing the Swiss radicals
will not suffer themselves to be distanced by any one. They have formed
a vast association, called the _Volksverein_, at one of whose meetings,
held at Olten last autumn, a programme was voted containing the following
clause: “The moment has arrived for the application of the principles
which are the foundation of the new federal party. In order to crush
for ever the influence of Ultramontanism it is not enough to emancipate
from the church the individual as such, it is necessary that churches
themselves should be governed democratically and nationally and that
every hierarchical institution be suppressed, as dangerous to the state
and to liberty; and that, by virtue of Art. 50 of the new constitution,
the existing bishoprics be suppressed by the federal assembly.” The
hypocrites! They dare to take the name of liberty upon their lips! True,
the “National Convention,” and the Paris “Commune,” they too scribbled
the word everywhere!
The demonstrations, the principal of which we have indicated, must end
in the definitive constitution of the projected national church, before
which all will be expected to bow the knee, as the pagans demanded of the
primitive church to adore their false gods. Active negotiations for this
object are being carried on between five states of the ancient diocese
of Basel, the cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Ticino, Geneva, etc. It
has been decided to have a bishop. All will be required to submit to
this bishop. But he will have a superior in the form of a synod composed
of sectaries of all creeds or of no creed, and these will enjoy, in his
regard, the right of deposition. It is asserted that M. Reinkens will
consecrate the new bishop. The consecration of an apostate does not share
in the promise of indefectibility.
Anyhow, the Old Catholics will not succeed in erecting a serious edifice.
To found a church there are needed faith, zeal, devotedness, religious
conviction. Radicals and free-thinkers have none of these.
Without belief of any kind, their one aim is the overthrow of all
religion. Let them, then, seize our churches--let them decree the
formation of an ecclesiastical hierarchy! The profaned churches will be
deserted, their priests will be despised, and again they will be taught
the lesson that the Living God does not preside over schismatics and
heretics!
COFFIN FLOWERS.
And doth Saint Peter ope the gates
Of heaven to such a toll?
Or do you think this show of flowers
Will deck my naked soul?
Perhaps you wish the folks to know
How much you can afford;
And prove upon my coffin-lid
You don’t “let out,” nor board.
Oh! cast an humble flower or two
Upon my funeral bier;
And drop upon my lifeless form
One true, love-speaking tear.
But take away these shop-made things,
They mock my sighs and groans;
And soon, like me, will rot, and show
Their framework, like my bones.
God only asks if my poor soul
A wedding garment wears.
A bridal wreath? Yes, make _it_ up
Of flowers. God’s flowers are prayers!
ARE YOU MY WIFE?
BY THE AUTHOR OF “PARIS BEFORE THE WAR,” “NUMBER THIRTEEN,” “PIUS VI.,”
ETC.