during the Lent of 1819, copied and abridged from a short pamphlet,
written by a M. Fransoy, a lawyer of that city; which being published by
a layman on the spot where the events in question recently took place,
possesses the most probable claim to accuracy and impartiality. The
writer begins by describing the demoralization and ignorance occasioned
by the Revolution, "which had completely realised," he observes, "in the
kingdom of the lilies all the misfortunes foretold by the prophet
Jeremiah. The people of Avignon, who had remained without instruction
during this period of horror and barbarism, were soon infected with that
gross ignorance which assimilates men to brutes: and in a short time
this field of the Lord, once so fertile, only produced brambles and
thorns; the evil plants choked the good, and the tares every where
devoured the corn. Scarcely, however, was the Catholic worship restored
in France by the concordat, before religion shed among us some rays of
its former light. Dazzled by the majesty of religious ceremonies, the
people were jealous to emerge from their revolutionary blindness. The
dearth of ministers was the cause that instruction only distilled drop
by drop upon this people famishing with want."
The scanty manner in which this dearth had been occasionally supplied
for some time, excited a longing to participate in the instructions of
the new Mission, which had already visited Arles, Valence, and Tarascon,
under the sanction of the state; and whose claims to religious authority
the writer defends by precedents unnecessary to enumerate here. On the
first Sunday in Lent, 1819, its proceedings were commenced at Avignon,
by a solemn procession, which made the circuit of the principal streets
of the town, singing penitential psalms, and halted on the hill of Notre
Dame; where an inaugural sermon was delivered on a spot called Calvary,
and supposed to represent that sacred place. The multitude, assembled by
curiosity or a better feeling, was so great, that two of the
missionaries found it expedient to address them at the same time from
different stations. One of these was M. Guyon, the director of the
Mission; of whose eloquence and animation, as a preacher, the author
speaks highly.
On the succeeding day, the nine ecclesiastics composing the Mission
attached themselves respectively to the different churches of the town,
and called in the assistance of the neighbouring clergy, as confessors
to those persons whom their discourses might affect most strongly. This
step was rendered the more necessary, inasmuch as the common people of
the vicinity understand French merely as the Welsh do English, and
converse only in their native Provencal with any facility. If we may
believe their zealous eulogist, the effects which the missionaries had
anticipated immediately followed, and their utmost exertions, as well as
those of their new associates, were taxed to satisfy the spiritual wants
of the populace. "The Avignonese," says the narrative, "hungered so
after the word of God, that the gates of the churches were besieged from
three hours before daybreak, by those who flocked to be present at the
morning exhortation. The inhabitants of the country and the neighbouring
communes walked during a part of the night, in order to secure seats;
each anxiously sought to place his chair many hours beforehand, and
caused it to be kept, in fear that another might deprive him of it; the
churches were so full, that it was hardly possible to move in them. The
eagerness to obtain room was so great, that indecorous and even
scandalous scenes took place among the wives of the populace; they
quarrelled for chairs and seats with a ferocity, _qui les mettoit
souvent hors du cercle de la politesse civile et Chretienne_." (Perhaps,
as a townsman, he is unwilling to be more particular). "More than twenty
thousand individuals were assembled in the churches at every service;
and a circumstance which proves how admirably each missionary and
associate fulfilled his particular task is, that each parish gave the
preference to the persons attached to it, and none allowed the
superiority to its neighbouring quarter. Like mothers, who can see
nothing more perfect than the children to whom themselves have given
birth, each parishioner acknowledged no better men than the missionaries
appointed to his own church. MM. Guyon, Menoult, and Bourgin, shone as
much at St. Agricol, as MM. Ferrail and Levasseur at St. Pierre; and MM.
Gerard and Rodet in the church of St. Didier, as much as MM. Fauvet and
Poncelet in that of St. Symphorien." To the character of M.
Levasseur[32] the writer bears honourable testimony, as a young man who
had devoted time, talents, and a liberal private fortune, to the cause;
and whose exertions on this occasion impaired a naturally delicate
constitution. "From four in the morning to eight or nine at night, their
time," he says, "was for many days occupied in public or private
instruction, and in visiting the hospitals and prisons; and forty
missionaries would have been necessary to have completely accomplished
what these nine took cheerfully upon them."
[Footnote 32: "Ce vertueux jeune homme paroit deja consomme dans l'art
Evangelique; ses instructions sont aussi sublimes qu'elles sont precises
et pathetiques; il joint a ses grandes qualites un amour ardent pour les
pauvres; il consomme annuellement les revenus d'un patrimoine majeur a
de bonnes oeuvres dans les cours des Missions. Une foule de faits
attestant ses liberalites journalieres."--_Fransoy's Memoir_.]
The effects of their preaching were manifested by the number of
penitents who flocked to confession, which, during the second week of
the mission, increased to such an extent as to render access difficult.
The missionaries, unable to meet the wishes of all at once, gave an
obvious preference, not to the more habitually devout, but to those
classes of persons whose attendance was most unexpected. "Dissipated
young coxcombs, disabled soldiers, dragoon officers with fierce
mustaches, and worldly-wise men with formal wigs," says our author,
"met with attention and encouragement, to the exclusion of those whose
habits of piety deserved it better." The apparent injustice of this
procedure he excuses by the plea, "that it was necessary to quit the
regular fold in order to recover these lost sheep"--that "the stouter
and better worth catching the fish were, the more anxious should they be
to secure them in the net of the Prince of Apostles." When separated
from the figurative bombast by which a Frenchman frequently obscures a
sensible reason, this plea seems fair enough: provided that the motives
of the missionaries were unmixed with spiritual vanity, and the pride of
creating a strong sensation. It was no doubt most consonant to the
purposes of a special mission like this, to accomplish that which was
most difficult, and to make an impression, while the opportunity lasted,
on a class of persons least accessible to the usual means of religious
instruction. The example of such, if permanently reclaimed, would
naturally be more striking than that of others, and influence public
opinion more strongly, and this may furnish some excuse for a conduct
which, in the ordinary course of things, would have been unjust and out
of place.
A large part of the tract is occupied by accounts of several solemn
ceremonies which ensued, "for the purpose," says the author, "of
striking the senses of the lower orders, who are not sufficiently
affected by argument." These, as in the instance of the general
communion, were rendered more imposing by the attendance of the civil
and military authorities, and most persons of rank and wealth in the
vicinity. Nor did they degenerate into mere processions and pompous
forms, if the narrative is to be trusted. The missionaries appear on
every occasion to have availed themselves of the excitation of the
moment, in calling forth such feelings as must be approved by Christians
of every country and persuasion, and which, among Frenchmen, may not be
the less sincere for being expressed somewhat extravagantly. In the
account of the Amende Honorable, a solemn act of profession of
repentance, the following passage occurs:--"He (the missionary) drew an
affecting picture of our unhappy country, oppressed by the burden of
impiety and anarchy. He rapidly enumerated the series of crimes produced
by license and want of faith. He implored the pardon of the most holy
God in the name of all; and he proclaimed in a loud tone of voice,
mutual forgiveness between enemies. All his questions were interrupted
by the tears and sobs of his audience. 'Do you feel contrition and
repentance,' said he, 'for your offences against God?'--'Yes.' 'Do you
ask pardon sincerely?' The congregation again answered 'Yes.' 'Does
every one of you individually pardon his neighbour all the injuries and
offences which he may have received from him?'--'Yes.' 'Do you renounce
all hatred, all enmity, all revenge?'--'Yes.' 'Do you promise God to
live in future as becomes good Christians, in a perfect union and
concord among yourselves?'--'Yes.' 'Do you promise fidelity, respect,
and love, to the monarch who governs France, to the princes of his
blood, and his representatives, and submission to the laws?'--'Yes.' The
pen can but imperfectly describe the effect produced by these questions
of the missionaries, and the answers of the congregation. No countenance
but wore the expression of grief and repentance, no cheek but was wet
with tears. The officiating priest who held the host in his hand, then
pronounced in the name of the God of mercy, his holy pardon; the
Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Te Deum, were thundered forth; and
the festival concluded with the benediction of the host. The innumerable
crowd of individuals present, each holding a lighted taper, presented a
magnificent spectacle." In describing the renewal of the baptismal vow,
the next ceremony which took place, the author says,--"This act was held
in so solemn a manner, that it will remain eternally engraved in the
memory of the Avignonese. A magnificent altar was displayed to the sight
of the faithful: a great number of priests in their sacerdotal habits
encircled this altar, which a thousand tapers and a thousand sacred
objects rendered more dazzling, and the holy sacrament was majestically
exposed on it. After the performance of the anthems appropriate to this
august ceremony, the missionary delivered a discourse, as forcible as
it was sublime, on the object of the festival, which produced the
greatest impression on his congregation. The eternal book of the gospel
was then held up to the people. They were summoned to swear to the
observance of the precepts of the Lord, contained in that book.--'We
swear it,' answered the congregation. All their baptismal vows were in
turn repeated, ratified, and confirmed by the congregation, with an
effusion of tears which might have affected the hardest hearts. Their
cries, their tears, and their sobs, were more eloquent than the
addresses of the missionaries. The minister in his chair seemed to
receive the promises and the vows of his parishioners, as Ezra formerly
received those of the people of Israel."
After the consecration of the Avignonese and their children to the
service of the Virgin Mary and the general communion, which followed the
ceremonies last described, the great cross, which now stands near the
cathedral, was carried in procession to the place of its erection, on
the 18th of April. So great a sensation had been excited by the
expectation of this ceremony, and so anxious were all ranks to
participate in it, that "the town," says the narrator, "swarmed like an
ant-hill (fourmilloit) with strangers, the inns and private houses
afforded no more room, and they who could find no quarters, covered the
roads during the whole of the preceding night."
The number of persons employed to assist in the procession amounted to
twenty thousand, including the civil and military authorities, the
monastic establishments, the neighbouring clergy, and a limited number
of inhabitants from each parish. The cross, amounting in weight to three
tons and a half, was supported on a frame constructed so as to admit one
hundred and twenty bearers at once. These were relieved from station to
station by detachments from all ranks and professions, selected from
innumerable claimants, and amounting altogether to two thousand men.
Having thus traversed thirty principal streets, the inhabitants of which
vied with each other in decorating their windows with garlands and
tapestry, the cross was borne to the terrace on the Roche Don, and
erected in sight of more than eighty thousand individuals, who crowded
the hill above, the extensive space of ground adjoining, and the windows
and roofs of the houses. "The whole discourse pronounced on the
occasion," says the narrator, "was as affecting as it was energetic. The
orator at length closed it, by exhorting his audience not to forget the
cross and their religion. 'Remember,' said he, 'that you are Christians
and Frenchmen; fly to the foot of the cross as Christians in all your
misfortunes, and it will be your consolation; as Frenchmen, you will
there learn to be faithful to your country, and submissive to your
king.--Et d'un ton plein de franchise il s'ecria, Vive la Croix, vive la
Religion, vive la Roi--L'auditoire repeta les memes mots avec la meme
enthousiasme, et y ajouta, 'Vive les Missionaries.'"
On the 19th, the following day, a solemn service was performed for the
dead in the cemetry of St. Roch; and the Mission was closed by sermons,
exhorting the people to perseverance in the religious vows which they
had voluntarily made. Having thus performed their proposed duties, the
missionaries prepared for a private departure. The affectionate zeal of
the people, however, would not allow the execution of this plan; and
numbers, consisting chiefly of the national guards, kept watch at the
doors of their lodgings all night; and in the morning they were besieged
by a crowd of persons desirous to take leave of them. At the special
request of these visitors, among whom were some of the most
distinguished inhabitants of Avignon, they performed an additional
service at the foot of the newly-erected cross, and were escorted out of
the town amidst the acclamations of the multitude, who persisted in
drawing their carnages a certain distance. Many persons accompanied them
on horseback and in coaches as far as Orange.
To the practical effects of the Mission, the writer bears the following
testimony.--"Prudence restricts us from naming individuals; and yet we
can vouch, that many husbands, separated from their wives and living in
concubinage, have put away their mistresses and re-established their
legitimate wives in their houses. After the revolutionary horrors which
have afflicted our city, there existed inveterate hatreds and
animosities, founded on real offences. Well! union and concord have
removed many of these intestine divisions, many deadly enmities have
been laid at rest, many resentments have been stifled; great numbers of
enemies have made the sacrifice of all their revengeful feelings. A
citizen, round whose neck one of the revolutionary hangmen had actually
fixed the noose for the fatal suspension, perceived his executioner in a
state of penitence during the Mission, and approaching the communion
table--'I congratulate you,' said he, 'on your reformation, and I pardon
your offences against me, as I would God may grant me his pardon and
peace.' The porters of the Rhone, who had been long at variance, have
been many of them cordially reconciled: the invalids of the national
guard have also mutually vowed a perpetual friendship."
Whatever the interests and prejudices of M. Fransoy may be, it is
improbable that he would have risked his professional and private
reputation, by misrepresenting recent occurrences on the spot where they
took place; and certainly his narrative places the Mission in a new
point of view, both as to its conduct, its reception, and its effects.
It is, indeed, natural enough that such wits as do not affect either
much knowledge or much interest on religious subjects, should indulge
in desultory sarcasms (and the Hermite en Provence prudently does no
more) on such instances of spiritual Quixotism as may possibly have
occurred. The absurd[33] choice of hymn tunes, the petulant zeal of one
or two ecclesiastics, and the rueful countenances of some of the
penitents, though they prove nothing as to the main question, present a
ludicrous picture to the imagination, and have been made the most of by
the fictitious correspondent of the Hermite. It is also natural enough
that the violent Liberaux, who view with distrust every measure
countenanced by government, should treat the Mission as a mere engine of
policy; that the avaricious should consider the donatives received on
its behalf as squandered away; and that a large class of persons, who
are inveterately sceptical as to their neighbour's good motives, and
childishly credulous as to his bad ones, should pronounce it a mere
manoeuvre of bigotry. The little tract in question, however, addressed
to the experience of eye-witnesses of all that it describes, tells a
different story, though its effect may be weakened by the ludicrous
_naivete_ of its style. It describes the missionaries as addressing
themselves particularly to those who stood most in need of their
instructions, and who were most likely to treat them with derision; as
availing themselves of the favourable reception which they experienced
from the Avignonese, to preach the duties of forgiveness and
reconciliation, both private and political, and to dwell on the
practical and fundamental parts of Christianity.
[Footnote 33: See the letter introduced in Jouey's Hermite en Provence.]
Had they, indeed, in a public manner, denounced the vengeance of Heaven
against the murderers of the unfortunate Brune, or pointedly rebuked the
religious and political animosities subsisting in the south of France,
they would have given a proof of their sincerity, but at the risk of
much of that good which it was desirable to use their temporal influence
in effecting. Instead, therefore, of giving unnecessary offence, they
laboured to eradicate from the minds of their hearers the seeds of
hatred and uncharitableness, and to divert their attention from their
private bickerings and dissensions, to the common guilt of all in the
sight of Heaven. The very object which, from all we learn respecting the
state of feeling in Languedoc and Provence, appears particularly
desirable, appears also to have been sought, not only by repeated and
fervent exhortations, but by the exaction also of public vows and
promises, so as to enlist the sense of shame as much as possible, in
favour of the general forgiveness which the missionaries preached. Their
exertions also, always supposing the tract in question to be entitled to
credit, were rewarded by the conduct of their penitents, some of whom
put away their vices, and others their mutual animosities. If this be
fanaticism, then it were to be wished that such fanaticism should
prevail widely in the south of France. "Out of the same mouth cannot
proceed blessing and cursing;" and if the secret object of the Mission
be to denounce the disaffected, or preach crusades against Protestants,
it must be owned that their public labours at Avignon savour but little
of such a purpose, as far as all appearances go.
There is, it is true, something extravagant and bordering on stage
effect, in many of the ceremonies performed, and expressions used, as
recorded by the pen of M. Fransoy. An Englishman, however, is not always
a fair judge of the best means of influencing the mind of a Frenchman,
more particularly a south-eastern one. The Provencaux possess, both in
appearance and in character, the strong characteristics of a people born
under a burning sun; at once lively and ferocious, strongly led away by
the excitement of the moment, and ardent in their partialities and
antipathies: in short, the same romance of character is perceptible
among them, which, in the dark ages, peopled the country with
troubadours. The mass of such a people, particularly when profoundly
ignorant, may not be accessible to cool argument; and the manner and
style of oratory which would disgust a reasoning Scotch peasant, or
English mechanic, may be exactly adapted to act on the temperament of an
Avignonese. The surest test, therefore, of the character and design of
the Mission, will be the practical effects which it produces on the
conduct of its congregation, as well as the future application of those
liberal donatives, which have excited so much unfavourable feeling
against it. Time and fair play alone can justify the motives of those
who planned and conducted it. The question in the mean time is, not
whether they may or may not have occasionally gone to the lengths of a
"zeal without knowledge," but whether or not their purpose has been to
instruct and benefit their fellow-countrymen according to the best of
their power and belief, and without reference to political party.
CHAP. VIII.
PONT DU GARD--NISMES--MONTPELIER--CETTE.
MAY 13.--This day was fixed on for a journey to Vaucluse, the road to
which is better adapted for the accommodation of two wheels than of
four. M. Durand, our voiturier, attended accordingly with one of his
portly mares harnessed to a sort of cabriolet, very much resembling an
Irish noddy. Its high boarded front reaching to our chins, and the
little fat person of Durand rather incommoded than accommodated on a
cushion tied to the shaft, and much too near the mare on every account,
formed a grotesque combination but little in character with what ought
to have been a voyage of sentiment. The deficiency in pathos, however,
was made up by the poor mare, who bewailed her absent companion with
such incessant roarings, as to draw many cuts of the whip, and "sacra
carognas," from the unrelenting Durand. We were struck, by-the-by, more
than once during this day's route, by the Spanish and Italian
terminations of the Provencal patois. A village which we passed, on an
insulated height commanding the road, and crowned by ruined
fortifications, is laid down as Chateau Neuf in the map, and called by
the peasants Castel Novo. A man of whom we inquired the distance to
Avignon, answered "Tres horas," using not only the words, but the method
of computation which a Spaniard would employ.
Whether we really reached our place of destination, or were stopped
short by intense heat and execrable roads, were interested, or
overturned, this deponent saith not, nor indeed is it necessary. One may
be pardoned for omitting the mention of a subject already so fully
described as Vaucluse, its rocks and fountain, its associations, and
even its eatables; for some travellers have dwelt on the subject of its
excellent bisque, or crayfish soup, and its eels, a solace, no doubt,
to[34] that gentle degree of melancholy, which Fielding affirms to be a
whet to the appetite.
[Footnote 34: "And do not forget the toasted cheese." Vide _Matilda
Pottingen_ in "The Rovers."]
"And, says the anatomic art,
The stomach's very near the heart;"