Chapter VIII: A Startling Disclosure (9)

[146] We were shown some of these curious boxes at S. Oren’s Priory. The straw of different colors is woven in figures, giving the effect of a kind of mosaic, or cloth of gold, according to the quality. The nuns formerly made candlesticks for the altar in this way, which were both unique and beautiful.

[147] There are in the canton 47,868 Catholics, of whom 25,000 are foreigners; and 43,639 Protestants, of whom only 9,000 are foreigners. So that the Protestant electors numbered 10,000 against 16,000.

[148] Waiter.

[149] On the relative modes see THE CATHOLIC WORLD for May, 1874, p. 179.

[150] This same subject has been developed under another form in THE CATHOLIC WORLD for January, 1875, p. 495 _et seq._

[151] Which is still extant.

[152] The following is another interesting passage from a fragment of Kirke White:

“Hark, how it falls! and now it steals along,
Like distant bells upon the lake at eve,
When all is still; and now it grows more strong,
As when the choral train their dirges weave,
Mellow and many-voic’d; where every close
O’er the old minster-roof in echoing waves reflows.

“Oh! I am rapt aloft. My spirit soars
Beyond the skies, and leaves the stars behind.
Lo! angels lead me to the happy shores,
And floating pæans fill the buoyant wind.
Farewell! base earth, farewell! my soul is freed;
Far from its clayey cell it springs.”

It is remarkable, also, that Goethe represents Faust as in the very act of swallowing poison, to escape from the miseries of life, when the song of an Easter hymn, sung in procession, falls upon his ear, and charms away the thought of suicide.

[153] Vol i. p. 250.

[154] _Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_, p. 120.

[155]

Hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules
Euisus arces attigit igneas.--_Hor._ Carm. iii. 3.

[156] We are indebted for the principal portion of the events mentioned in this sketch to the beautiful narrative lately published by the Rev. Giovanni Spillmann, S.J.

[157] The words _soulier_ and _savate_ mean _shoe_, and _old shoe_.

[158] The arms of Lourdes consist of three golden towers, the central one bearing an eagle with a silver trout in its mouth, referring to the legend of the fish brought by an eagle during the siege and dropped on the highest point of the castle, still known as the _Pierre de l’Aigle_. Mirat hastened to send it to Charlemagne as a proof his _vivier_ still furnished good fish.

Bernard, Count of Bigorre, with his wife Clémence, went on a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de Puy in the year 1062, and there consecrated himself and his province to the Virgin, in presence of the chapter and many lords, among whom was Arnaud Guillaume de Barbazan. Moreover, he agreed to pay her a tribute of sixty sols annually.

[159] In the archives of the Tower of London we read: “No. 9 de concedendo Joanni de Bearn armigero, custodiam castri de Lourdes et patriæ de Bigorre, nec non officium senescalciæ; de Bigorre, teste Rege, Westminster, 20 Januarii, 1383.”

[160] The poet Musset thus sings of the Artist-Princess:

“Ce naïf génie
Qui courait à sa mère au doux nom de Marie,
Sur son œuvre chéri, penchant son front rêveur
A la fille des champs qui sauva sa Patrie
Prête sa piété, sa grace et sa pudeur.”--

“This simple genius,
Who, at the sweet name of Marie, to her mother ran--
To the daughter of the fields, the deliverer of her country,
Lends her own piety, modesty, and grace.”

[161] The writer is indebted to M. l’Abbé Huot for portions of the foregoing.

[162] By the help of God and S. Peter, I swear to be good and loyal to the town; to seek its welfare and avert all evil; to take counsel in doubt, do justice to the small as well as the great; as former mayors have done, and better if I know. So help me God and S. Peter.

[163] Article--“Dominique de Gourgues.”

[164] This church was sacked and burned by the Huguenots. De Gourgues can hardly have sympathized with the destroyers of his mother’s tomb, to say nothing of several generations of ancestors.

[165] See Letters of Charles IX., Catherine de Médicis, and M. de Fourquevaulx ambassador at Madrid, published by the Marquis Duprat.

[166] Evidently for ship provisions.

[167] “Letter of the Bishop of Orleans to the Catholic Committee.”--_Univers_, January 7, 1872.

[168] See the number of February, 1875--“Education on the Radical Plan.”

[169] Laboulaye’s measure concerning higher instruction. The reporter recognizes in it the right of families themselves to choose tutors for their children, and also the right of associations formed with the view of instruction.

[170] A recent speech delivered at Belleville by the leader of French liberalism, M. Gambetta, gives a sufficiently exact idea of this kind of civil constitution. See the political journals of April 26, 1875.

[171] _Ancienne et nouvelle discipline de l’Eglise touchant les bénéfices et les bénéficiers_, 2ᵉ part., liv. ii. ch. 26, 27; 3ᵉ part., liv. ii. ch. 18-23.

[172] _Conc. Trid._, sess. xxii. _de reform._, cap. 18.

[173] “Quæ omnia, atque alia ad hanc opportuna et necessaria, episcopi singuli, cum consilio duorum canonicorum seniorum et graviorum, quos ipsi elegerint, prout Spiritus Sanctus suggesserit, constituent; eaque ut semper observentur, sæpius visitando, operam dabunt.”--_Conc. Trid._, loc. cit.

[174] “Pietas ad omnia utilis est, pro missionem habens vitæ quæ nunc est, et futuræ.”--1 Tim. iv. 8.

[175] _Summ. Theol._, 1. 2. q. xc., art. 3.

[176] We quote at length the remarkable passage from which these words are quoted. It occurs in an allocution of the Holy Father to the cardinals, delivered in the Secret Consistory, Sept. 5, 1851, in which his Holiness announces the concordat which had recently been concluded with the Spanish government “The great object of our solicitude was to secure the integrity of our holy religion and to provide for the spiritual wants of the church. Now, you will see, the concordat arranges that the Catholic religion, with all the rights it enjoys by virtue of its divine institution, and of rules established by the sacred canons, should be exclusively dominant in that kingdom; every other religion will be openly banished from it and forbidden. It is, consequently, settled that the manner of educating and instructing the youth in all the universities, colleges or seminaries, in all the public and private schools, will be in full conformity with the doctrine of the Catholic religion. The bishops and heads of dioceses, who, by virtue of their office, are bound to labor with all their might to protect the purity of Catholic teaching, to propagate it, to watch that the youth receive a Christian education, will find no obstacle to the accomplishment of those duties; they will be able, without meeting the least hindrance, to exercise the most attentive superintendence over the schools, even the public ones, and to discharge freely, in all its plenitude, their office of pastor.” Is not this, in exact terms, the thesis here defended?

[177] The following proposition has been condemned by Pius IX. in his Encyclical _Quanta cura_: “Optimam societatis publicæ rationem civilemque progressum omnino requirere, ut humana societas constituatur et gubernetur, nullo habito ad religionem respectu, ac si ea non existeret, vel saltem nullo facto veram inter falsasque religiones discrimine.”

[178] Incredible as this may seem, it is nevertheless true.

[179] “Nomine loci videtur intelligi superficies realis corporis circumdantis, non tamen secundum se solum, sed prout immobilis, hoc est, prout est affixa tali spatio imaginario” (_De Sacr. Euch._, disp. 5, sect. 4).

[180] Loc. cit., sect. 5, n. 123.

[181] Corpus Christi non est in hoc sacramento sicut in loco, sed per modum substantiæ.… Unde nullo modo corpus Christi est in hoc sacramento localiter.--_Summ. Theol._, p. 3, q. 76, a. 5.

[182] Sed contra: omnia duo loca distinguuntur ad invicem secundum aliquam loci contrarietatem, qua sunt sursum et deorsum, ante, retro, dextrum et sinistrum. Sed Deus non potest facere quod duo contraria sint simul; hoc enim implicat contradictionem. Ergo Deus non potest facere quod idem corpus localiter sit simul in duobus locis.--_Quodlib._ 3, q. 1, a. 2.

[183] A bird in hand, etc.

[184] Full title of the original publication: _Origine et Progrès de la Mission du Kentucky_ (Etats-Unis d’Amérique). Par un Témoin Oculaire. Prix, 1 fr. au profit de la Mission. A Paris: chez Adrien Le Clere, Imprimeur de N. S. P. le Pape, et de S. E. Mgr. le Cardinal Archevêque de Paris. Quai des Augustins, No. 35. 1821.

[185] And even now, for one or two dollars an acre, fertile land can be purchased in the vast extent of country watered by the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Arkansas, etc.--that land which Bonaparte sold to the United States in 1801 for ten million dollars. Kentucky produces in abundance all sorts of grain, especially corn, and also sweet potatoes, tobacco, cotton, flax, hemp, and indigo. In the month of February the inhabitants tap the maple tree, in order to procure a liquid which they boil until it is reduced to syrup or sugar. The wild grape-vine grows to the height of thirty or forty feet, but the grapes are small and the wine acrid; moreover, Americans do not understand the culture of the vine.

[186] When it is necessary to cross a desert, or when the guide loses his way in the forest--which is of frequent occurrence--then the missionaries are obliged to spend the night in the woods, to sleep on the ground near a large fire, by the light of which they read their Breviary.

[187] The city of Detroit and the church were accidentally burned seventeen years ago. The city was afterwards rebuilt and captured by the English, assisted by the savages, during the last war with the United States. Since the conclusion of peace there has been a cathedral built, to which the Sovereign Pontiff has attached an episcopal seat in perpetuity. The missions of Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and Post Vincennes were then almost entirely formed of French Canadians. With regard to all the territory mentioned in this narrative, one can consult M. Arrowsmith, an American geographer, whose work can be found in Paris at Dezauche’s, Rue des Noyers, No. 40.

[188] Several years previous M. Badin, after having received the vows of a few pious persons, and having had donated to him a hundred acres of land, had a monastery built for the same purpose; but as it was a frame building, it was, through the carelessness of the workmen, burnt before being completed.

[189] We here submit an extract from an English letter written the 15th of March, 1820, by Father Fenwick to the author of this notice: “I hope that this will find you in good health and on the point of returning to America. It will be a great pleasure for me to see you again and to hear from your lips the particulars of your trip. If possible, bring me home some pictures. With gratitude would I receive some for the altars of the Blessed Virgin and S. Joseph, as also any other church furniture or books, such as the lives of the saints of the Order of S. Dominic by Father Touron, the history of the miracles of the holy fathers, or any other works on those subjects. If you saw my relative, M. J. F., I flatter myself sufficiently to hope that you remembered me to him, and that you laid before him the needs of my mission. We have built three churches, and only for one of these three do we possess sufficient ornaments and other articles necessary for divine service.”

[190] We have to-day in the United States five bishops of French origin: Bishop Maréchal, born at Ingré, in the Diocese of Orleans, third archbishop of Baltimore; Bishop Cheverus, of Paris, first bishop of Boston; Bishop Flaget, born in Auvergne, bishop of Kentucky, and Bishop David, of the Diocese of Nantes, his coadjutor; and, finally, Bishop Dubourg, bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, who resides in St. Louis on the Mississippi, in the State of Missouri. The see of Philadelphia became vacant by the death of Bishop Egan, and that of New York is occupied by Bishop Connelly, an Irishman of the Order of S. Dominic. The number of American bishops is continually increasing. New Orleans and the Floridas are too far from St. Louis; the Dioceses of Baltimore and Bardstown are too extensive; and, moreover, the number of Catholics is daily increasing, in consequence of the immigrations from Europe and from conversions.

[191] By his writings you can judge the man; and we can give you no better idea of the mildness, humility, and modesty of the Bishop of Bardstown than by inserting here extracts from several letters which he wrote from Baltimore to his vicar-general in Kentucky. His zeal, his disinterestedness, and his self-abnegation are equalled only by his confidence in divine Providence: “God be my witness that I do not desire riches; and I would a thousand times rather die than be attacked by this craving. The less we possess, the less worried will we be with regard to it; but there are some things necessary, and it is upon you that I depend to procure them for me. I must rely upon the friendship which you have for me to ask you, my dear M. Badin, henceforth to provide for my wants. After all, you desired it; for if it had not been for you, I would never have been made bishop. We will have eight or nine trunks filled with books and other articles. The distance is great and transportation very high; the trip and the transportation will cost more than 4,000 francs, and we have not a cent. We can only wait until Providence comes to our rescue. To lessen my expenses I will leave the servant who offers me his services in Baltimore; and I would even leave my books there, did I not consider them essential to our establishment. In order not to increase your expenses I will only bring with me M. David, and we will both be but too happy to share your mode of life, however humble it may be. If the bishopric had only presented difficulties of this nature, I would not have hesitated so long before accepting it. Providence calls me to it despite myself, and it was useless for me to travel over land and sea in order to evade this charge. All my trouble was lost. God seems to exact it of me that I bow my head to this weighty yoke, even though it should crush me. Alas! should I stop sufficiently long to consider my weakness and my troubles, I would fall into despair, and hardly would I dare take one step in the vast career that is opening before me. To reassure myself it is necessary that I frequently recall to mind that I did not install myself in this important post, and that all my earthly superiors in a manner forced me to accept it.”

From Baltimore, where he had more than one hundred miles by land and three hundred miles by water over which to travel to arrive at Bardstown, he writes thus: “Remember that for the use of seven or eight we have but one horse, which I destine for M. David, as he is the least active among us. For myself and the other gentlemen, we will go on foot with the greatest pleasure, if there is the least difficulty in travelling otherwise. This pilgrimage will please me exceedingly, and I do not think it derogatory to my dignity. I leave it all to your judgment, and I would be very glad to have sufficient money to join you at Louisville; the remainder of the journey will be entirely at your expense. That the will of God be done, I would a thousand times prefer going on foot rather than to cause the slightest murmur; and you did very well to recall the subscription which had been started for my benefit, as it would only have tended to alienate people from me. It was, however, but right that people anxious to have a bishop among them should furnish him means to reach them. There is nothing I would not do for the sanctification of my flock. My time, my work, my life even, is consecrated to it; and, finally, it will only remain for me to say that I am ‘an unprofitable servant, having done only that which I ought to do.’”

Divine Providence, whose intervention he had merited by his zeal and his resignation, supplied, as if by miracle, in some invisible way, the needs of the prelate, who on the 11th of June, 1811, arrived at St. Etienne, the residence of M. Badin, with two priests and four scholastics. There he found the faithful on their knees singing holy canticles, the women nearly all robed in white, and some of them still fasting, although it was then four o’clock in the afternoon, as they hoped to assist at his Mass and receive Holy Communion from his hands that very day. An altar had been erected under some shrubbery to afford a shade where the bishop might rest himself. After the Asperges he was conducted in procession to the chapel, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin being sung meanwhile; and then followed the ceremonies and prayers prescribed in the Pontifical for such an occasion. M. Badin lived in a little frame house, and, in consequence of the expenses incurred to rebuild the burned monastery of which we have already spoken, he with difficulty was able to build two miserable little huts, sixteen feet square, for his illustrious friend and the ecclesiastics who accompanied him. Finally, one of the missionaries slept on a mattress in the attic of this whitewashed episcopal palace, whose sole furniture consisted of one bed, six chairs, two tables, and the shelves for a library. The bishop resided here one year, and he considered himself happy to live thus in the midst of apostolic poverty.

[192] The Dominican Fathers, assisted by their novices, with their own hands performed a great deal of the work on their monastery and the beautiful church of S. Rose. Like them, the scholastics afterwards made bricks and lime, cut the wood, etc., to build that of S. Thomas, the seminary, and convent of Nazareth. The poverty of our establishment forces them to devote their hours of recreation to this work. Every day they spend three hours in gardening, in working in the fields or in the woods. Nothing could be more frugal than their table, and that of the two bishops is no better; pure water from a spring is their ordinary drink. Neither could anything be more humble than their clothing--imagine fifty poor scholastics who are obliged to cover themselves with rags, and to borrow decent clothes with which to appear in the town.

Bishop Flaget hopes that pious and charitable persons who are not able to send him money for his cathedral will endeavor to send clothes or books necessary for the studies and the clothing of his beloved scholastics.

[193] Since the appointment of Bishop Dubourg to St. Louis, the too distant mission of Illinois, which was part of the Diocese of Bardstown, has been attended by this prelate, whose residence is in the vicinity.

[194] Eight of these buildings are brick and stone, and the others frame.

[195] Besides the bishops and the missionaries, the students and servants in the seminaries and convents are included in this number.

[196] Here rest the bones of Blessed Brother Claus von der Flüe, placed here when this church was built, anno 1679.