“THE MASTER CHRISTIAN”--(_Continued_)
Of many interesting incidents which mark the Cardinal’s stay in Paris,
the most sensational is the sermon of the Abbé Vergniaud and the
extraordinary scene at its close.
Marie Corelli gives a wonderfully realistic word-picture of the scene in
the famous church on a notable occasion. The Abbé’s sermon, which
appears in its entirety, is scathingly sarcastic. In it he bitterly
denounces the hypocrisy alike of people and of churches, especially the
Roman Catholic Church, which he attacks for the ban it places upon many
things, even discussion; he declares that all the intellectual force of
the country is arrayed against priestcraft, and that the spirit of an
insolent, witty, domineering atheism and materialism rules us all. “But
what I specially wish to advise you--taking myself as an example--is,
that none of you, whether inclined to virtue or to vice, should remain
such arrant fools as to imagine that your sins will not find you out.”
And then the Abbé makes open confession, before the congregation, of his
past life.
“I was a priest of the Romish Church as I am now; it would never
have done for a priest to be a social sinner! I therefore took
every precaution to hide my fault;--but out of my lie springs a
living condemnation; from my carefully concealed hypocrisy comes a
blazonry of truth, and from my secret sin comes an open
vengeance....”
The report of a pistol shot sounds through the church as the last words
are uttered. A young man has fired at the preacher. It is the son
seeking his vengeance at last. Manuel prevents the bullet from reaching
Vergniaud, who immediately announces to the astonished congregation that
he will not make a charge: “I decline to prosecute my own flesh and
blood. I will be answerable for his future conduct,--I am entirely
answerable for his past! He is my son!”
It is upon the persecution of Cardinal Bonpré in consequence of the
attitude he adopts towards the Abbé Vergniaud after this sensational
incident that Marie Corelli builds her chief indictment of the Vatican
executive. An agent of the Vatican, then in Paris, is Monsignor Moretti.
He calls at the Sovrani Palace. There he has an interview with the
Cardinal, the Abbé, and the latter’s son Cyrillon. Moretti upbraids
Vergniaud for his conduct, correctly describing him as a faithless son
of the church, and meets with the retort, “The attack on the Church I
admit. I am not the only preacher in the world who has so attacked it.
Christ Himself would attack it if He were to visit this earth again!”
The remark is characterized as blasphemy, but, on the Cardinal being
appealed to, the good Bonpré states his failure to perceive the alleged
blasphemy of “our unhappy and repentant brother.”
“In his address to his congregation to-day he denounced social
hypocrisy, and also pointed out certain failings in the Church
which may possibly need consideration and reform; but against the
Gospel of Christ or against the Founder of our Faith I heard no
word that could be judged ill-fitting. As for the conclusion which
so very nearly ended in disaster and crime, there is nothing to be
said beyond the fact that both the persons concerned are profoundly
sorry for their sins.... Surely we must believe the words of our
Blessed Lord, ‘There is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that
repenteth, than over ninety-and-nine just persons which have no
need of repentance.’”
This forgiveness of sin which Christ preached and which Marie Corelli
claims that the Romish Church does not practice, is the basis of the
differences of Cardinal Bonpré with Moretti, and afterwards with the
Pope. Vergniaud, still unrebuked by Cardinal Bonpré, declares to Moretti
that there is a movement in the world which all the powers of Rome are
unable to cope with, the movement of an ever-advancing and resistless
force called Truth, and that God will shake down Rome rather than that
the voice of Truth should be silenced.
The Abbé’s declarations, as the Vatican emissary points out, mean his
expulsion from the Church. Before the interview closes there comes the
declaration by Cyrillon Vergniaud, the son of the Abbé, that he is “Gys
Grandit,” a powerful writer of essays that are the creed of a “Christian
Democratic” party--that advocate of Truth to which the Abbé had
referred. The announcement is startling to all three clerics, the more
so as the young man proceeds to utter his views, a stern denunciation of
the Church’s practices, with such rebukes as: “Does not the glittering
of the world’s wealth piled into the Vatican,--useless wealth lying idle
in the midst of hideous beggary and starvation,--proclaim with no
uncertain voice, ‘_I know not the Man_’?” with the added declaration
that there is no true representative of Christ in this world--either
within or without the Romish Church--though even sceptics, while denying
Christ’s Divinity, are forced to own that His life and His actions were
more Divine than those of any other creature in human shape that has
ever walked the earth!
In the further argumentative passes between Moretti and Gys Grandit,
the former holds that the Church of Rome is a system of moral
government, and that it is proper to thrust out of salvation heretics
who are excommunicate, and that if our Lord’s commands were to be obeyed
to the letter it would be necessary to find another world to live in.
These propositions the Christian Democrat absolutely denies, and urges,
on the other hand, that it may be possible that we may be forced to obey
Christ’s commands _to the letter_ or perish for refusing to do so. For
permitting such remarks to go unreproved, Moretti, as the interview
closes, intimates that, in reporting the matter to the Pope, the
attitude of Cardinal Bonpré will be explained. Further offense is given
by the appearance of Manuel upon the scene, and by some remarks the lad
makes upon the subject under discussion.
Clouds are gathering heavily over the horizon of the saintly Bonpré,
who, accompanied by Manuel, proceeds to Rome after this most
unpropitious preliminary to an audience at the Vatican. He is further
troubled, immediately after his arrival at the palace of his
brother-in-law, Prince Sovrani, by being informed of the “miracle” of
Rouen--the recovery of Fabien Doucet, of which he now hears for the
first time, though all Rome has been talking loudly of it. Bonpré is
decidedly in bad repute at the Vatican, and it is determined that he
shall be made to suffer for his defense of Vergniaud. He adds to his
offenses by denying all knowledge of the Rouen lad’s cure.
Manuel and Bonpré visit St. Peter’s, which does not please them, and at
last they are received by the Pope. Here all Marie Corelli’s criticism
of the Romish Church is concentrated in the appeal which is made by the
child-Christ to His Holiness. He asks him why he stops at the Vatican
all alone.
“You must be very unhappy!... To be here all alone, and a whole
world outside waiting to be comforted! To have vast wealth lying
about you unused, with millions and millions of poor, starving,
struggling dying creatures, near at hand, cursing the God whom they
have never been taught to know or to bless!...
“Come out with me!” continued Manuel, his accents vibrating with a
strange compelling sweetness, “come out and see the poor lying at
the great gates of St. Peter’s--the lame, the halt, the blind--come
and heal them by a touch, a prayer! You can, you must, you shall
heal them!--if you will! Pour money into the thin hands of the
starving!--come with me into the miserable places of the
world--come and give comfort! Come freely into the courts of kings,
and see how the brows ache under the crowns!--how the hearts break
beneath the folds of velvet and ermine! Why stand in the way of
happiness, or deny even emperors peace when they crave it? Your
mission is to comfort, not to condemn! You need no throne! You want
no kingdom!--no settled place--no temporal power! Enough for you
to work and live as the poorest of all Christ’s ministers,--without
pomp, without ostentation or public ceremonial, but simply clothed
in pure holiness! So shall God love you more! So shall you pass
unscathed through the thick of battle, and command Brotherhood in
place of Murder! Go out and welcome Progress!--take Science by the
hand!--encourage Intellect!--for all these things are of God, and
are God’s gifts divine! Live as Christ lived, teaching the people
personally and openly;--loving them, pitying them, sharing their
joys and sorrows, blessing their little children! Deny yourself to
no man;--and make of this cold temple in which you now dwell
self-imprisoned, a home and refuge for the friendless and the poor!
Come out with me!
“Come out with me and minister with your own hands to the aged and
the dying!” pursued Manuel, “and so shall you grow young! Command
that the great pictures, the tapestries, the jewels, the world’s
trash of St. Peter’s, be sold to the rich, who can afford to place
them in free and open galleries where all the poorest may possess
them! But do not You retain them! You do not need them--your
treasure must be sympathy for all the world! Not one section of the
world,--not one form of creed,--but for all!--if you are truly the
Dispenser of Christ’s Message to the earth! Come--unprotected, save
by the Cross! Come with no weapon of defense--‘heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils! Freely ye have
received, freely give! Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in
your purse,’--come, and by your patience--your gentleness--your
pardon--your love to all men, show that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand!’ Walk fearless in the thick of battles, and your very
presence shall engender peace! For the Holy Spirit shall surround
and encompass you; the fiercest warriors shall bend before you, as
they never would if you assumed a world’s throne or a world’s
sovereignty! Come, uncrowned, defenseless;--but strong in the
Spirit of God! Think of all the evil which has served as the
foundation for this palace in which you dwell! Can you not hear in
the silence of the night, the shrieks of the tortured and dying of
the Inquisition? Do you never think of the dark days, ten and
twelve hundred years after Christ, when no virtue seemed left upon
the earth?--when the way to this very throne was paved by poison
and cold steel?--when those who then reigned here, and occupied
Your place, led such infamous lives that the very dogs might have
been ashamed to follow in their footsteps!--when they professed to
be able to sell the Power of the Holy Ghost for so much gold and
silver? Remember the words, ‘Whoso shall blaspheme against the Holy
Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the
world to come.’ Look back upon the Past--and look out upon the
Present! Try to understand the suffering of the forsaken
people!--the pain--the bewilderment--the groping for life in
death!--and come out with me! Come and preach Christ as He lived
and died, and _was_, and _is_!
“Come out with me ... for there are wonderful things in the world
to-day!--wonderful, beautiful, and terrible! Take your share in
them, and find God in every glory! For with all the wisdom and the
splendor,--with all the flashing light of Heaven poured out upon
the darkness of the Sorrowful Star, its people are weary,--they are
lost in the confusion and clamor of their own desires--they would
fain serve God, but know not where to find Him, because a thousand,
ay a million churches stand in the way! Churches, which are like a
forest of dark trees, blocking out the radiance of the Sun! God,
who manifests His power and tenderness in the making of the
simplest leaf, the smallest bird, is lost to the understanding and
affection of humanity in the multitude of Creeds! Come out with
me,--simple and pure, gentle and strong! Tell all the lost and the
wandering that there never was, and never will be but one God
supreme and perfect, whose name is Love, whose work is Love!--and
whose Messenger, Christ, pronounced the New Commandment Love,
instead of Hate! Come out with me while it is yet day, for the
night cometh when no man can work! Come and lift up the world by
your very coming! Stretch out your hands in benediction over kings
and beggars alike!--there are other roses to give than Golden ones
to Queens! There are poor women who share half they earn with those
still poorer--there are obscure lives which in their very
obscurity, are forming the angel-nature, and weaving the angel’s
crown,--look for these in the world--give _them_ your Golden Roses!
Leave rulers and governments alone, for you should be above and
beyond all rulers and governments! You should be the Herald of
peace, the Pardoner of sin, the Rescuer of the fallen, and the
Refuge of the distressed! Come out with me, and be all this to the
world, so that when the Master comes He may truly find you working
in His vineyard!
“Come out with me ... or if you will not come,--then beware!...
beware of the evil days which are at hand! The people are wandering
to and fro, crossing all lands, struggling one against the other,
hoarding up useless gold, and fighting for supremacy!--but ‘the day
of the Lord shall come like a thief in the night, and blessed is he
who shall be found watching!’ Watch! The hour is growing dark and
full of menace!--the nations are as frightened children, losing
faith, losing hope, losing strength! Put away,--put away from you
the toys of time!--quench in your soul the thirst for gold, for of
this shall come nothing but corruption! Why trifle with the Spirit
of holy things? Why let your servants use the Name of the Most High
to cover hypocrisy? Why crave for the power of temporal things,
which passes away in the dust of destroyed kingdoms? For the Power
of the Spirit is greater than all! And so it shall be proved! The
Spirit shall work in ways where it has never been found before!--it
shall depart from the Churches which are unworthy of its Divine
inspiration!--it shall invest the paths of science!--it shall open
the doors of the locked stars! It shall display the worlds
invisible;--the secrets of men’s hearts, and of closed
graves!--there will be terror and loss and confusion and shame to
mankind,--and this world shall keep nothing of all its treasures
but the Cross of Christ! Rome, like Babylon, shall fall!--and the
Powers of the Church shall be judged as the Powers of Darkness
rather than of Light, because they have rejected the Word of their
Master, and ‘teach for doctrine the commandments of men’! Disaster
shall follow swift upon disaster, and the cup of trembling shall be
drained again to its last dregs, as in the olden days,
unless,--unless perchance--You will come out with Me!”
This address has such an effect on the Pope that at its conclusion he
falls senseless. Bonpré and Manuel, the former now without a friend left
at the Vatican, take their departure, and shortly afterwards it is
deemed expedient for them to leave Rome for shelter in England, the idea
being intimated that the authorities of the Church were determined to
make a prisoner of the Cardinal, and inflict upon him some undefined
evil.
So far as the book is concerned apart from its central theme, the
interest is held by the light touches of the loves of some charming
people, and also of a very frivolous roué, the Marquis Fontenelle. This
very “up-to-date” French nobleman is ultimately, to the relief of every
one and the regret of few, killed in a duel with his own brother, the
great actor Miraudin. To make this melodramatic incident as striking as
possible the author kills both the brothers. The Marquis is a character
who says and does what would seem to be impossible things.
Notwithstanding his immoral propensities he has a certain pleasing
fascination that almost inclines one to regard his faults with
tolerance. His faults are many, but let it be said to his credit at
least that he recognizes them. His views of men and women and love are
extraordinarily callous and cynical, yet it is an absolute fact that the
prototype of the Marquis Fontenelle exists, and holds and openly
expresses the views to which in this book he is made to give utterance.
And, evil as he is, he also is conquered at the last by the true
character of a sweet, pure, womanly woman. It is such who conquer all
evil.
The Comtesse Sylvie Hermenstein, an altogether delightful lady, marries
Aubrey Leigh and leaves the Church of Rome. The story of her doing so,
of the struggles of the Romish priesthood to retain her and her wealth,
and of the methods by which they endeavored to attain that end, is in
itself a stirring narrative.
Marie Corelli is altogether pleasing, not only to those who approve the
mission of her book, but to many of her most severe critics, in her
account of the life which Leigh in younger days had led in a Cornish
fishing village, working as one of themselves amongst the rugged,
true-hearted, brave men who with all their roughness of character are
perhaps stauncher in a simple faith in God than many of those who
ostentatiously worship in fine churches. She pens, too, many delightful,
humorous, and pathetic pictures of the French peasantry.
Quite another story is the love, or, rather, two loves, of Angela
Sovrani. When we first make her acquaintance--a woman, yet one of the
finest artists in the world--she is betrothed to Florian Varillo, a man
with a character of almost impossible evil. We wish we could regard the
character as _absolutely_ impossible. Varillo is also an artist,
handsome, unprincipled, egotistical to the worst degree, believing
himself great and holding the view--once generally held, but now to a
large extent exploded--that woman’s work cannot be equal to masculine
effort. Angela has for years been engaged upon a picture which she hopes
will be a masterpiece. No person--not even father or lover--has been
permitted to gaze upon the canvas. A date for the uncovering and
inspection of the picture is fixed. Alone in her studio the evening
before, Florian begs admittance in order that he may inspect the picture
that night, owing to a journey which he must take early on the morrow.
Angela consents. “Come and see.” The concealing curtain is removed and
Florian recoils with an involuntary cry, and then remains motionless and
silent, stricken dumb and stupid by the magnificent creation which
confronts him.
“The central glory of the whole picture was a figure of Christ....
Kingly and commanding.” Near by are seen the faces of many pre-eminent
in the history of the time. The Pope is shown fastening fetters of iron
round a beautiful youth called Science. The leader of the Jesuits is
counting gold. The forms of men representing every description of
Church-doctrine are beheld trampling underneath them other human
creatures.
“And over all this blackness and chaos the supernal figure of the
glorious Christ was aerially poised,--one Hand was extended, and to
this a Woman clung--a woman with a beautiful face made piteous in
its beauty by long grief and patient endurance. In her other arm
she held a sleeping child--and mother and child were linked
together by a garland of flowers partially broken and faded. Her
entreating attitude,--the sleeping child’s helplessness--her worn
face,--the perishing roses of earth’s hope and joy,--all expressed
their meaning simply yet tragically; and as the Divine Hand
supported and drew her up out of the universal chaos below, the
hope of a new world, a better world, a wiser world, a holier world,
seemed to be distantly conveyed. But the eyes of the Christ were
full of reproach, and were bent on the Representative of St. Peter
binding the laurel-crowned youth, and dragging him into
darkness,--and the words written across the golden mount of the
picture, in clear black letters, seemed to be actually spoken aloud
from the vivid color and movement of the painting. ‘Many in that
day will call upon Me and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, and done many
wonderful works?’
“‘Then will I say to them, I never knew you! Depart from Me all ye
that work iniquity!’”
And what of Angela and Florian? Painter and sweetheart regard the work.
Varillo’s first remark is, “Did you do it all yourself?” That is the
first verbal stab. Others follow, killing the joy of Angela. And the
verbal stabs are but the prelude to one with steel; for Varillo,
maddened by jealousy, determines to kill Angela and then to persuade
the world that _he_ has painted the picture. Angela, happily, is not
killed. Varillo, who escapes, enters into a conspiracy to declare and
maintain that the great picture is his. He is got out of the world and
out of the book by perishing in a fire at a monastery to which he had
been taken. Such treachery it is almost impossible to conceive. Yet
those who condemn the incident should remember some of Marie Corelli’s
own personal experiences, with which the world has now to some extent
become acquainted. Angela subsequently marries Gys Grandit.
Throughout the book there are a good many discourses by Aubrey Leigh and
Gys Grandit on the subject of Christian Democracy. What seems to be the
main desire of this party is “a purified Church--a House of Praise to
God, without any superstition or Dogma.” We must confess, however, that
we recognize the truth of the remark made by Gherardi--one of the Roman
prelates--“You must have Dogma. You must formulate something out of a
chaos of opinion”; and neither through Manuel, Aubrey Leigh, nor Gys
Grandit does Marie Corelli tell us how she would build up this simple
universal church of which she speaks so much. We may, however, expect in
a further book to have Miss Corelli’s constructive conceptions on the
subject. The basis of it all is, at any rate, that the main feature of
all worship should be praise of the Almighty and His Divine Son; and, as
a true believer and an artist, she would have the churches not only
essentially houses of Praise, but buildings worthy of the high purpose
for which they are erected. In “The Master Christian” she gives us her
stepfather’s poem as indicating Aubrey Leigh’s ideal on the subject:
If thou’rt a Christian in deed and thought,
Loving thy neighbor as Jesus taught,--
Living all days in the sight of Heaven,
And not _one_ only out of seven,--
Sharing thy wealth with the suffering poor,
Helping all sorrow that Hope can cure,--
Making religion a truth in the heart,
And not a cloak to be wore in the mart,
Or in high cathedrals and chapels and fanes,
Where priests are traders and count the gains,--
All God’s angels will say, “Well done!”
Whenever thy mortal race is run.
White and forgiven,
Thou’lt enter heaven,
And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate,
Where welcoming spirits watch and wait
To hail thy coming with sweet accord
To the Holy City of God the Lord!
If Peace is thy prompter, and Love is thy guide,
And white-robed Charity walks by thy side,--
If thou tellest the truth without oath to bind,
Doing thy duty to all mankind,--
Raising the lowly, cheering the sad,
Finding some goodness e’en in the bad,
And owning with sadness if badness there be,
There might have been badness in thine and in thee,
If Conscience the warder that keeps thee whole
Had uttered no voice to thy slumbering soul,--
All God’s angels will say, “Well done!”
Whenever thy mortal race is run.
White and forgiven,
Thou’lt enter heaven,
And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate,
Where welcoming spirits watch and wait
To hail thy coming with sweet accord
To the Holy City of God the Lord!
If thou art humble and wilt not scorn,
However wretched, a brother forlorn,--
If thy purse is open to misery’s call,
And the God thou lovest is God of all,
Whatever their color, clime or creed,
Blood of thy blood, in their sorest need,--
If every cause that is good and true,
And needs assistance to dare and do,
Thou helpest on through good and ill,
With trust in heaven, and God’s good-will,--
All God’s angels will say, “Well done!”
Whenever thy mortal race is run.
White and forgiven,
Thou’lt enter heaven,
And pass, unchallenged, the Golden Gate,
Where welcoming spirits watch and wait
To hail thy coming with sweet accord
To the Holy City of God the Lord!
In the closing of the story we find Cardinal Bonpré threatened by the
Pope with severe punishment unless he parts with Manuel, and the
Cardinal’s dignified and argumentative reply. The two part, but it is
not at the bidding of the Pope. There is a beautiful description of the
last night on earth of the Cardinal and of a vision beheld by him--a
Dream of Angels, “Of thousands of dazzling faces, that shone like stars
or were fair as flowers!”
* * * * *
So the Cardinal passes away to his eternal rest:
“And when the morning sun shone through the windows ... its wintry
beams encircled the peaceful form of the dead Cardinal with a pale
halo of gold,--and when they came and found him there, and turned
his face to the light--it was as the face of a glorified saint,
whom God had greatly loved!”
* * * * *
And of the “Cardinal’s foundling”--what of Him? Many wondered and
sought to trace Him, but no one ever heard where he had gone....
Some say He has never disappeared,--but that in some form or
manifestation of wisdom, He is ever with us, watching to see
whether His work is well or ill done,--whether His flocks are fed,
or led astray to be devoured by wolves--whether His straight and
simple commands are fulfilled or disobeyed. And the days grow dark
and threatening--and life is more and more beset with difficulty
and disaster--and the world is moving more and more swiftly on to
its predestined end--and the Churches are as stagnant pools, from
whence Death is far more often born than Life. And may we not ask
ourselves often in these days the question,--
“When the Son of Man cometh, think ye He shall find faith on
earth?”
That is the question that Marie Corelli asks the world through “The
Master Christian.”