In June, 1790, the constitution of the Church of France was re-cast.
Its revenues had been seized to pay the debts incurred by Louis XIV and
his successors. The cahiers of the third order had asked with unanimity
for this. Thus the endowments of the Church saved the country from
bankruptcy. But though the third estate had expressed their desires for
the confiscation of ecclesiastical property, they had protested their
profound attachment for the religion in which they had been brought up.
Consequently, the National Assembly undertook the maintenance of the
Clergy by the State on certain conditions perfectly just and reasonable.
That those who had fattened on the 'patrimony of the poor' under the
old system should revolt against a constitution which cut down their
revenues, destroyed their privileges, and restrained their arbitrary
exertion of authority, is not surprising.
Monseigneur de Narbonne, whose revenues and benefices had exceeded
80,000 francs, found himself suddenly reduced to live on 30,000
francs, and the bills for the re-furnishing of the palace for the
reception of the prince were not yet paid.
The 16th of January, 1791, had been fixed by the municipality of
Évreux for receiving the constitutional adhesion of the clergy. The
bishop had addressed an epistle to the curés of his diocese, in which
he resumed all the arguments directed against the civil constitution,
and quoted the saying of Esprémesnil: 'It is a constitution unheard-of
in the Church, which annihilates all jurisdiction, all ecclesiastical
authority, and the Assembly, whence it emanates, can only be compared
to the sovereign council of the Jews which crucified Jesus Christ.' He
concluded by declaring that, for his part, he would never submit to it,
and he bade all his clergy reject it as impious.
Monseigneur de la Ferronnais, Bishop of Lisieux, protested against the
execution of the decree, till the opinion of Rome had been taken. He
summoned an assembly to concert plans of resistance, and presided over
it himself. It was, however, but thinly attended.
These examples and exhortations only touched the minority.
At Évreux, only one incumbent and three young curates refused the oath.
The other seven incumbents and all the ecclesiastics exercising public
functions, each in his parish, after the high mass, descended to the
choir gates, and in a distinct voice pronounced their adhesion, in the
presence of the people and the municipal authorities.
At Bernay, all the clergy, even those who, through not exercising
ministries salaried by the State, were not required to give in their
adhesion, took the oath, and a sermon was preached on the occasion
by Lebertre, curé of La Couture. Some days after, the Abbé Deshayes
preached to a crowded congregation in favour of the constitution,
taking for his text the words of the Gospel, 'Peace be unto you;' and
the municipality were so pleased with the discourse that they ordered
it to be inscribed in the parish register.
At Andelys, the four perpetual curates took the oath. At Brionne, M.
Bordeaux the priest, who had followed the same course, in a sermon
defended the new constitution as being, if not faultless, at least an
honest attempt to rectify old abuses. At Breteuil, on the contrary, M.
Parizot de Durand refused his adhesion, and his two curates followed
his example; but two other priests in the same place signed the
protestation.
Monseigneur de Narbonne persisting angrily in his refusal, the
episcopal seat of the department of Eure became vacant. The election
of a fresh bishop was therefore necessary, and, for this purpose, a
convocation of the electors was made.
The election was not direct, but in two degrees. The grand electoral
college was composed of about six hundred members. Their number, the
variety of their social situations, were conditions proper for assuring
an independent and intelligent vote. The principle admitted, the
election of a bishop,--who, it was required, had served in the diocese
for fifteen years,--could be confided with some security to such a
reunion of men. It was, however, vitiated by the fact that those most
immediately under the authority of the bishop, viz. the clergy, had but
a fractional influence in the election. This must be borne in mind when
we read of the resignation and apostasy of some of the constitutional
bishops during the reign of Terror.
Those who had most power in the electoral college were the men of
advanced philosophic opinions, whereas those with deep religious
sentiment were nowhere. Consequently, in some instances, those were
elected bishops whose attachment to the fundamental doctrines of
Christianity had been sapped by the dissolvent philosophy of the 18th
century.
The electoral Assembly was convoked for Sunday, Feb. 13. High mass was
celebrated in the cathedral by M. de Corval, curé of Petit-Andely,
assisted by M. Rever, curé of Couteville. The service concluded, the
procureur-général of the department opened the session, and said to
the electors:--'We dispense with recalling to you your duties and
obligations. We count on your patriotic zeal, and we are assured that
in your selection you will be determined by your judgment as to whom
is most worthy of confidence and of the esteem of the public.'
The votes were taken, and Thomas Lindet was proclaimed the bishop
elect; 238 suffrages were given to him, and 180 to M. Rever.
A courier was immediately despatched to Paris to announce the result
to Lindet, who at once posted to Évreux, and arrived there before the
Assembly dispersed.
'Sir,' said the mayor to him, 'if the department of Eure had known an
ecclesiastic more virtuous than you, it would have preferred him to
you.'
On the 15th of February, the roar of cannons, the ringing of the
cathedral and the parish-church bells, announced to the people that
they had a new bishop,--a representative of the new law, of liberty,
justice, and equality. The arrival at the highest ecclesiastical
function of a congruist curé who had not been preceptor or confessor to
princes, a man without noble birth or fortune to recommend him, was a
spectacle proper to excite the enthusiasm of the nascent democracy.
The bishop elect was, however, as yet without canonical confirmation
and episcopal consecration.
His institution ought to have been asked of the Archbishop of Rouen,
his metropolitan, but the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld was out of his
see, having refused the oath, and was not yet replaced.
This situation could not be prolonged. The presence of the
constitutional bishop in Évreux became daily more necessary. The
directory of the department of Eure addressed to Lindet an invitation
to come and take possession of his diocese as soon as possible, and
requested him to demand institution at the hands of any bishops of his
choice.
Thomas Lindet hastened to obey. He was consecrated on the 6th of
March, 1791, in the chapel of the Oratoire, at Paris, along with the
Bishops of Beauvais, Châteauroux, and Moulins, by Gobel, Bishop of
Lydda, and the Bishops of Quimper and Dax, who had subscribed to the
constitution. A few days after he joined in consecrating the Bishop
of the Seine-Inférieure, in the cathedral of Rouen, and was himself
afterwards confirmed by the new metropolitan.
On Sunday, March 27, Thomas Lindet was solemnly installed in the
beautiful cathedral of Évreux, before a vast congregation. After
vespers a Te Deum was sung as an act of thanksgiving for the
convalescence of the king, and the same day he despatched a circular
round the diocese, to announce his intention of making a pastoral
visitation.
He left the cathedral, when the service was concluded, by the private
door into the palace gardens. It was the same door through which he
had passed the night that he had been locked in the minster.
But his mind did not revert to the past: it was occupied with the
future. He had taken his place at the helm of the vessel, and he
foresaw breakers ahead, and felt that the gale was rising from every
point of the compass. He was not sanguine. On the contrary, he was
dispirited; his elevation to the episcopal throne did not jump with his
wishes, for Lindet was not personally ambitious.
He was resolved to do his best, to work the diocese thoroughly, and to
set an example of simplicity of life and devotion to the causes nearest
his heart--Liberty and Catholicism. But, at the same time, he owned
to himself, that if he found resistance among the clergy and laity,
his heart might fail him. He was impetuous, but he had not the gift of
patient endurance. That he would find some opposition to his claims
was certain, but it could be overcome by conciliatory conduct and by
diligent discharge of his duties, unless--and there rose before him a
prospect which made him quake--unless the pope should pronounce against
the Constitutional Church.
As this prospect arose to dismay him, he encountered the ex-bishop, De
Narbonne-Lara. Both were in episcopal purple, with pectoral cross and
cape; Lindet wore as well a lace surplice.
'I have expected to meet you,' said the ex-bishop. 'Indeed, I have
waited here on purpose.'
'Monseigneur,' said Lindet, 'I am glad of the opportunity of speaking
to you, that I may give expression to my regret that you should have
felt yourself unable to take the constitutional oath, and thus have
forced me into incurring responsibilities which I tremble to feel upon
my shoulders.'
'This is nonsense,' said De Narbonne; 'you have courted it. You curés
have been driving matters on to this point for the purpose of stepping
on our necks into our thrones.'
'I beg your pardon,' answered Lindet; 'you are altogether mistaken;
we had no ambition except for the Church, for ourselves individually
none,--none whatever. For myself, I may assure you, my Lord, I had
neither the wish nor the expectation of being a bishop, least of all of
taking your place.'
'You a bishop!' exclaimed De Narbonne, his red face flaming with
passion. 'Do you call yourself a bishop? Pshaw! who will accept you as
their prelate?'
Lindet, determined not to resent the insolence of the ex-bishop,
replied with moderation: 'You cannot be unaware, Monseigneur, that
the vast majority of the clergy in this diocese have signed the
Constitution.'
'Wait a bit,' said De Narbonne, threateningly; 'when his holiness
speaks, they will be of another mind.'
'Are you sure that the holy father will refuse to recognise the
Constitutional Church? Why should he? We hold the Catholic faith; we
have the same orders, sacraments, and ritual. There is absolutely no
divergence on any religious point between the Church of the old régime
and the Church now. The only point on which a difference has arisen has
been a political question,--a political one only.'
'Be the point what it may, he will anathematise you.'
'Then,' answered Lindet, 'alas for religion! At present, the Church
has advanced, haltingly, I admit; for _that_, the like of you are
responsible; but it has advanced with the tide that is setting in,
and, what is more, it can control and direct that tide, and no other
power but the Church can, at the present time, do that. Everything
is in flux except the faith, and that will be the rallying-point. We
shall, may be, have a republic, but it will be a Christian republic.
If the holy father were to throw the apple of discord among us now, if
he were to break into two factions the Church of France, by forbidding
the faithful to accept our ministrations, then he will unchain the
hell-dogs, and roll France in blood. My Lord! it is your own doing that
this see has become vacant; it is through no influence exerted by me,
that I have been elected your successor. The times are threatening.
I shall have to bear on my shoulders the burden of this diocese in a
period of extraordinary excitement. I pray you give me your episcopal
blessing for the work. If ever you see your way towards accepting the
Constitution, I will vacate the see at once. I pray your fatherly
blessing.' He bent on one knee.
'No,' said De Narbonne, sulkily; 'my blessing you shall never have. My
advice I give you, as you once gave me yours. I warn you that shortly
all you constitutional bishops will be anathematised by Rome, all the
priests will be ordered, on pain of excommunication, to abstain from
acknowledging you, and the faithful will be forbidden to accept the
ministrations of bishops and priests who have taken this accursed oath,
at the risk of damning their souls eternally.'
'My God!' exclaimed Lindet.
'Yes, such will be the action of the holy see.'
'Then,' said Lindet, vehemently, 'if that be the conduct of the
successor of S. Peter, it is high time that his supremacy should be
modified into a primacy; lest at some future occasion, relying on
powers he has assumed, he use them to wreck the Church. We have just
upset the principle of absolute monarchy in the field of politics, we
must overthrow the same principle in the domain of religion.'
He turned from the ex-bishop, and entering the palace, shut himself
into the library and wrote a letter to the pope, imploring him to use
caution, and not, on a point of trifling consequence--the disendowment
of the Church--to wreck Christianity in the whirlpool of the Revolution.
It need hardly be said that his letter remained unanswered, and that
the prognostications of the ex-bishop were verified.