Religion and the reign of terror; or, The church during the French revolution

Front matter

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RELIGION

Preface To The Abridgment

The book here presented to tlie American reader is, in the main, an abridgment of a work, recently published in Paris, by the distinguished Protestant divine M. Edmond de Pressens é, the object of which is to describe, from an enlightened Christian stand-point, the vicissitudes of religion and its relations to the civil power in France, during the eventful years from 1789 to 1802. Some of the motives which have influenced me in its preparation in English are the following : The intrinsic general interest of the subject ; its special interest for Americans ; the peculiar stand-point and personal qualifications of the author ; and, finally, the careful criticisms of the religious character of certain world-historical personages, to which the nature of the work naturally leads.

Of the general interest of whatever throws light on this great revolutionary crisis of humanity, I need scarcely speak. Of the crisis itself Mr. Alison uses these words : " There are few periods in the history of the world which can be compared, in point of interest and importance, to that which embraces the progress and

6 PKEFAOE TO THE ABEIDaMENT.

termination of the French Revolution. In no former age were events of such, magnitude crowded together, or interests so momentous at issue between contending nations. From the flame which was kindled in Europe, the whole world has been involved in conflagration, and a new era dawned upon both hemispheres from the eflects of its expansion. With the first rise of a free spirit in France, the liberty of North America was established." Mr. Jones, the continuator of Russell's history, speaks in similar terms. " We are now brought," says he, " to enter upon a subject of such fearful magnitude, so portentous in its origin, and terrific in its consequences, that the annals of the human race scarcely present us with its parallel. The French Revolution introduced a new state of society in Europe." A standard German encyclopedia speaks as follows : " The French Revolution constitutes one of the grandest epochs in the history of human society. He who regards it as a mere incidental event has not examined the past, and is unable to look into the future. It is an event which came forth out of the womb of the centuries. So judges Madame de Staël ; and she is right." M. Michelet says : " I define the Revolution as the advent of Law, the resurrection of Right, and the reaction of Justice. I see upon the stage but two grand facts, two principles, two actors, and two characters — Christianity and the Revolution. The Convocation of the States-Ceneral, in 1789, is the

PREFACE TO THE ABRIDaMENT. T

true era of the birth of the people. On the eve of the opening of the States-General the mass of the Holy- Ghost was solemnly said at Versailles. It was certainly that day, or never, that the people might sing the prophetic hymn : Thou wilt create peoples^ and the face of the earth shall he renewed?'^ Such is the general manner in which this event is spoken of "both by the friends and the enemies of France. The merit of M. de Pressensé's book is, that it presents an exhaustive view of one of the special phases of this Revolution, namely, the religious— a phase which, though among the most important, has yet had the misfortune either of being treated with neglect, or of being perverted and distorted by skeptics, to the prejudice of Christianity.

The special interest of the French Revolution for republicans lies in the nature of the interests that were at stake. It was, on the one hand, a struggle of liberty against absolutism, free thought against spiritual despotism ; and, on the other, of Christianity against a godless philosophy ; it was, therefore, a struggle in the interest of the very principles which lie at the basis of American greatness. But the great Revolution made shipwreck : the name of liberty was tarnished by the most atrocious crimes ; Christianity seemed for a moment to have gone down in a night of blood and delirium, amid the triumphant orgies of a foul-mouthed Atheism ; and, finally, political liberty was trampled in the dust, and forced to

8 PKEFAOE TO THE ABEIDGMENT.

give place to the most absolute of despotisms. How came this to be the result? Why did the principles which have succeeded so well in America meet only with disaster and failure in France ? The question is interesting. For more than half a century the political and spiritual despots of Europe have been using the excesses of the French Revolution as a bugbear to frighten their ministers and subjects from every effort in favor of liberty and Church reform. "Unless you desire to renew the horrors of the reign of terror^ and to be subject to the disgusting domination of an unwashed mob, do not limit the authority of your legitimate rulers ; unless you wish the extinction of religion, and the triumph of vice and Atheism, do not question the pretensions of your priests, or presume to suppose that the Church can exist without being salaried and governed by the State." And, unfortunately, this argument has too often succeeded, to the detriment of enlightened liberalism. To the too common excessive censure of the French Revolution, and especially to the prejudices thereby created against the causes of liberty and free-churchism, the book of M. de Pressens é is a sufficient and convincing reply. These holy causes of liberty and free-churchism are triumphantly vindicated, and the true cause of the miscarriage of the Revolution assigned, namely, a radical misconception as to the extent to which a government may legitimately interfere with per-

PKEFACE TO THE ABRIDGMENT. 9

sonal liberty, and as to the proper relations of the civil power of the Church.

As to the exact stand-point of the author, he has clearly enough expressed himself in his preface. " My book," says he, " is animated with a profound love of general liberty, but, above all, of the liberty of the soul and the conscience. I am thoroughly convinced that religion and liberalism are the natural allies of each other. I hope I have written in that impartial spirit which guarantees against passion and injustice. I am with the Revolution whenever it serves the cause of liberty, and against it whenever it violates it by so-called measures of public safety. I confess, in fine, that I cannot see the denouement of this grand struggle, in the foundation of a despotism without caste, at the beginning of this century.

"The question of the relation of the spiritual to the temporal, so passionately debated by our fathers, is yet far from being settled. It is of the highest moment to the cause of the nation and of modern civilization. On its proper decision depends the triumph of a true over a false liberalism. Full liberty of worship guarantees the absolute independence of the conscience, and thus erects the surest barrier to the encroachments of the State on the rights of the individual. It therefore gives a mortal blow to that oppressive centralizing system of politics which sacrifices the citizen to the State, and the indi-

10 PEEFACE TO THE ABRIDGMENT.

vidual to the collective sovereignty. The question is of wide scope. The solution which imposes itself on my mind is that which Mirabeau foresaw, which Lafayette and Madame de Staël openly adopted, and presented in vain to their contemporaries ; and which, therefore, presumptively breathes of -the true spirit of 1789. May the bitter experience of those who had the honor of proclaiming it, and the misfortune of so often violating it, enlighten our path ! I trust I have succeeded in presenting the salutary lesson which is taught by our great Revolution, thus contributing my feeble part to the revival of a true public spirit in France, a cause in which no one takes more interest than myself." Such is the modest and yet high ambition of the author. His stand-point is essentially liberal — republican.

As to his qualifications for the task little need be said. Those who are conversant with the highest critical journals of the day know how eminent is his rank for learning and piety, not only in France, but throughout Europe. He stands at the head of the evangelical French clergy, and shares his energies between the functions of the pastorate and those of the critic and writer. He is the author of the best Church History in the French language, and has the honor of being the most successful antagonist of Renan. His Life of Jesus places him in the front rank among the recent champions of Christianity.

Last, though not least important, might be mentioned

Preface To The Abridgment. 11

as lending interest to the present work, the bold and candid criticisms of character which it contains. The brief foui-teen years of the French Revolution witnessed the rise and fall of a succession of the strangest characters which appear on the pages of universal history. How grand, how weh-d, how ghostly are, in turn, the reminiscences which hover around the names of Mirabeau, Desmoulins, Danton, Hébert, Chaumette, Anacharsis Clootz, Marat, Charlotte Corday, Robespierre, Talleyrand, Bonaparte, and many others ! Nor are certain associations of this epoch destitute of peculiar interest : such are the Girondists, the Jacobins, the Atheists, the Deists, and the Theophilanthropists. All of these characters and associations are taken up, discussed, dissected, and, finally, weighed in the balance of a philosophic Christian judgment. I will mention as of special importance, the chapters which treat of the civil and religious policy of Napoleon. If any one thing more than another could shake one's confidence in the justness of the severe verdict of the author as to the baneful, the anti-liberal tendency of the Napoleonic system, it would be that so bold, so free-spoken a book has been permitted to be published under the present régime.

As a whole, and apart from the intrinsic worth of its subject-matter, the work leaves on the mind the most salutary impression. It breathes of a generous cosmopolitan spirit, and brings the reader into closer sym-

12 PREFACE TO THE ABRIDGMENT.

pathy with the great suffering heart of humanity. It discloses the frightful depths of degradation to which society inevitably sinks when it breaks loose from the authority of God. It reveals in the bosom of a Church which seemed to be dead in ritualism and sin, as soon as the hour of trial came, examples of Christian heroism and devotion which have not been surpassed since the days of the apostles.

A word as to the manner in which the work has been prepared in English. The original is an octavo volume of four hundred and seventy-five pages. The present is not strictly a translation, but rather a digest. Some portions, not so interesting to the non-French reader, have been closely condensed, while others have been slightly enlarged by additions of historical or elucidating details. As to the essence of the book, however, its spirit, its doctrines, its judgments, I have endeavored to be faithful to the author.

The biographical notes which I have subjoined to the volume will not, I trust, be devoid of value.

J. P. Lacroix.

Ohio "Wesletan University.

Contents

Preface Page 5

Introduction

SITUATION OF THE CHURCH OF FRANCE AT THE EVE OF THE REVO- LUTION— STATE OF OPINION AS TO LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF WORSHIP.

The Keligious Question and the Kevolution — Condition of the Ancient Church of France — Close Alliance with the Ancient Begime — Catholicism alone recognized — Eiches and Privileges of the Church — Subordination to the Civil Power — Concordat of Francis I. and the so-called Gallican Liberties — Increasing Dependence on the King — Decline of Faith — Maxims of Intolerance — Public Opinion against the Church — Toleration universally demanded — ^Religious Liberty poorly understood — Fatal Influence of Rousseau — Illiberal Opinions of the Clergy — Difference between the High and the Inferior Clergy 19

Chapter I. Legislative Preliminaries — The First Debate On Liberty Of

WORSHIP.

Opening of the States-General — Union of the three Orders— Role of the Mob in the Revolution — The Common People favorable to Religion—Memorable Night of the Fourth of August— Instances of Clerical Self-denial— Abolition of Tithes— Declaration of Human Rights— First Debate on Liberty of Worship — Discourse of Mirabeau — Spirit of the Majority of the Assembly 49

CHAPTER n.

DISCUSSION ON THE PEOPEBTT OP THE CLERGY— ATTITUDE OF THE DIFFERENT PARTIES — SUPPRESSION OP THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Churcli Property before the Revolution— The Question comes up in the Assembly — Propositions of Talleyrand and Mirabeau — Three Groups of Opinion— Opinion of the Right— Opinion of the Left— Malouet— Mirabeau— Resolution of the Assembly— The Revolution not Radical enough— Powers of the State over the Ancient Corporate Societies—The True Solution — The Ecclesiastical Committee — New Propositions— Alienation of the Property of the Clergy— The Monastic Orders — Proposal to Salary the Clergy— The Debate —Wrath of the Right— Motion of Dom Gerle— Excitement in Paris— Eailure of the Motion— Inconsistency of both Parties— Reparation made to the Protestants—Civil Rights granted to Jews and Comedians Page 66

CHAPTER m.

THE CIVIL CONSTITUTION OF THE CLERGY — THE ASSEMBLY TRANS- FORMED INTO A COUNCIL.

Plan of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy — Discussion — Retroactivity admitted — This Constitution faithful to the Ancient Begime 91

CHAPTER IV.

FIRST RESISTANCE OF THE CLERGY — TROUBLE AT NIMES AND MONT- AUBAN — POLITICAL OATH IMPOSED ON THE CLERGY — PATHETIC SCENE IN THE ASSEMBLY — ADDRESS OF MIRABEAU TO THE NATION — PAMPHLET OF CAMILLE DESMOULINS.

War breaks out between the Revolution and Religion — Effect of the Measures of the Assembly on the Country — Trouble in the South and in Alsace — Massacres at Nimes — ^Beginning of Resistance at Rome — Proposition to impose on Ecclesiastics an Oath of Fidelity to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy — Discourse of Mirabeau — First Effects of the Decree — Perplexity of the King — He Sanctions the Decree — Pathetic Scene in the Assembly — Violence of the Radicals — Decree against those who Refuse the Oath — Apologetic Address — Eloquent but Inconsequent Address of Mirabeau — Pamphlet of Camille Desmoulins 99

CHAPTER V.

SCHISM IN THE CHURCH— CORRESPONDENCE WITH ROME— DEBATE ON THE LIBERTY OF WORSHIP— DISCOURSES OF SIEY^S AND TALLEY- RAND— DISSOLUTION OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

Annexation of Avignon to France — Letter of the Pope to the Bishops— Repljf of the Bishops — Brief of the Pope — The Leading Bishops of the new State Clergy— Their first Movements— Eidiculous Charge of Bishop Gobel— Irritation of the Paris Populace against the Non-juring Clergy— Eesolution of the Municipality against Non-conforming Temples— The King Hindered from going to Church at St. Cloud— Eiot against Religious Liberty— Noble Attitude of Lafayette— Discourse of Talleyrand — Sieyes defends the same Cause — Increase of Religious Strife— Translation of the Ashes of Voltaire to the Pantheon —Close of the Assembly— The Attempted Flight of the King hastens the Crisis— Criticism on the Constituent Assembly Page 119

BOOK IL

THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY AKD THE NATIONAL CONVENTION UNTIL THE PEOCLAMATION OF THE SEPARATION OF CHUECH AND STATE.

CHAPTER I.

THE RELIGIOtrS STRUGGLE IN THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.

Composition of the New Assembly — Extravagance of the Girondists — Situation of the Country — Popular Violence against the Non-jurors — Condition of La Vendee — Important Report — La Vendée desires simply Liberty of Worship — Rising in the South — Blindness of the Papal Court — Massacre at Avignon — Amnesty procured for the Guilty by Vergniaud — Letter of Chenier in favor of a Separation of Church and State — Measures against the Emigrated — Fauchet demands the Persecution of the Non-jurors — Wise Discourses of Tome, Ducos, and Gensonne — Violence of Isnard — Iniquitous Decree of the 29th of November, 1791 — The King Vetoes it— Noble Petition of the Municipality of Paris — Contrary Petition of the Demagogues — Petition of Camille Desmoulins — Effects of the Veto in the Provinces — Shameful Persecution of Non-jurors and Nuns — Protest of the Refractory Clergy — New Brief of the Pope — Disorders in the State Clerg}' — Further Persecution — Abolition of the Clerical Costume — Roland Countenances Illegal Persecutions — Feebleness of the Moderates— Persecuting Decree of May 25, 1792— The Violation of the Palace on the 20th of June— Terrible Discourse of Vergniaud against the King — Persecution Redoubled— The Massacre on the 10th of August — The Massacres of September 141

Chapter II

THE CHURCH DURING THE NATIONAIi CONVENTION UNTIL THE ABOLI- TION OF THE SALARIES OP THE CLERGY.

Character of the Convention — Formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal— The Majority hostile to Religion — First manifestation thereof — The Masses of Paris as yet Religiously Inclined — New Form of the Oath — Transportation — Numerous Non-jurors Condemned to Death — The Constitution — Plans of Condorcet and Robespierre — Constitution of 1793 — Debate on the Liberty of Worship — Robespierre Defends the Salarying of the Church by the State— Attacks on the new State Church — Gigantic Efforts of the Revolution — The Reign of Terror — The Municipality of Paris at the Head of the Movement — The Atheistic Calendar — First Public Outbreak of Atheism — Inauguration of the Worship of Reason in the Convention — Shameful public Apostasies— Noble Christian bearing of Deputy Gregory — Spoils of the Churches brought to the Municipal Authorities — Organization of the Worship of Reason — Impious Orgies — Measures of Persecution — Entire Pi-oscription of Religion — Robespierre Attacks the Atheists — His Discourse at the Jacobin Club — Ignoble Recantation of Hébert and Chaumette — Change of Tone of the Convention — Robespierre has the Liberty of Worship Proclaimed — Hypocritical Decree on the Liberty of Worship— Condemnation of the Dantonists — Discourse of Robespierre on the Supreme Being — Festival of the Supreme Being Voted —Celebration of the Festival— The 9th of Thermidor Page 187

Book III. The Period Of The Separation Of Church And

STATE.

CHAPTER I.

MEASURES OF THE CONVENTION IN REGARD TO RELIGION FROM THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE TO THE EXPIRATION OF ITS POWERS.

Immorality of those who overthrew Robespierre — Their impiousness — Continuation of the Oppression of the Priests— Sufferings of the Priests on the Pontoons — Gregory Pleads their Cause — Fine Discoui-se of Gregory — Cambon Proposes to Abolish the Salaries of the Clergy — His Proposition Adopted — Motion of Boissy d'Anglas — Law on the Liberty of Worship — Rigorous Measures against the Dissenting Clergy— Good Effects of Toleration in La Vendée— Church Edifices Restored to the Parishes— Worship under Strict Police— Proposition to Eeplace Christian "Worship by the Deistical Civic Festivals- Constitution of Tear III— Final Measure of the Convention against the Priests — Close of the Convention Page 249

CHAPTER n.

RELATIONS OF CHURCH AÎO) STATE UNDER THE DIRECTORY.

. Shameful Rule of the Directory— The Directory the Sworn Enemy of the Liberty of Worship— Violence of the Directory against the Papacy— Treaty of Tolentino— Camille Jordan on the Liberty of Worship—Fine Discourse of Royer-Collard— Cbw^ d'état of the 18th of Fructidor — Renewal of Persecution against the Church— Compulsory Observance of the Deistical Festivals — Imprisonment of Pope Pius VI. and his Death at Valence — ^End of the Directory 272

CHAPTER IIL

THE ALTARS RESTORED BY LIBERTY.

Moral Condition of the Nation under the Directory — Hostility of the Official and Dissident Catholic Clergy — Establishment of the Theophilanthropist Worship — Us Character— Progress of the Dissident Worship — It Prospered without Help from the State — ^Resuscitation of the Constitutional Church — Role of Gregory in this Work — Large Congregations in the Churches — Severe Morality of the Constitutional Church — Worship Re-established in Forty Thousand Parishes— Council of the Gallican Clergy in 1797 — Its Acts — Second Council Dissolved by Bonaparte — Situation of Protestantism at this Epoch — The Altars Restored before the Concordat 292

Book IV. The Concordat

CHAPTER I.

PREPARATION FOR THE CONCORDAT.

Political Circumstances which led to the Concordat — The real Obiect of the Concordat — Opinions of Napoleon on Religion — He regards it merely as an Instrument of Governing — His Speech to the Priests at Milan — His Private Opinions — Religious Liberty Inconsistent with Despotic Régime — First Measures of the Consuls in regard to Religion

r> O

—Negotiations with Rome— The Civil Constitution of the Clergy serves as a Basis — Public Opinion unfavorable to these Negotiations—Explanations of the First Consul— Eeligious Discussion Forbidden Page 317

CHAPTER IL

CONCLUSION OF THE CONCORDAT.

The Negotiations — The Slowness of Rome Irritating to the First Consul — Threatenings of Rupture— Gonzalvi comes to Paris — Opinion at Rome favors the Concordat— Its Conclusion — Opposition in the French Legislative Bodies — Purgation of the Legislature — The Organic Laws of Germinal, Tear X— Legislation of Germinal, Tear X — The Concordat presented to the Tribunate and Legislature — Discourse of Portalis — Of Lucien Bonaparte — Proclamation of the Concordat — Ceremonies at Notre Dame — Proclamation of Bonaparte — Public Opinion is not Favorable 345

Chapter III. Effects Of The Concordat — Conclusion

Effects of the Concordat — Suppression of the Liberty of Worship- Moral Enslavement of Protestantism — Episcopal Flatteries to the new Monarch — Servility of the High Clergy — Wonderful Imperial Catechism — Careful Surveillance over the Clergy — Severe Measure against all who do not submit — Debates with Rome — The Pope is insulted— Open Rupture — ^Imprisonment of the Pope — Napoleon regrets the Concordat — Cardinal Pacca Opposed to the Temporal Power of the Pope — Conclusion 359

Biographical Notes 385

INTRODUCTION

SITUATIOIiT OF THE CHUECH OF FKAISTCE AT THE EVE OF

THE EEYOLUTIOîir STATE OF OPIlSnOJS" AS TO LIBERTY

OF CONSCIENCE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF WORSHIP.

I DESIRE to review the history of the relations of Church and State during the French Revolution, from the moment when this great movement broke out over France and Europe, drunk with youth and enthusiasm, and inspired with an inexperienced ardor for universal reform, to the unpropitious hour in which it seemed organized forever in force and glory in a spirit the very contrary of the principles which had animated it at its onset. Napoleon has been fondly styled the heir of the French Revolution ; nevertheless, the great and generous spirit of 1789 had most decidedly ceased to live before he became master of France. Because the blood of the ancient races did not course in his veins, because he did not re-establish the privileges of caste, it has been the fashion to view him as the armed representative of that Revolution, and as its triumphant missionary. It has been pretended that he caused it to enter the capitals of absolutist Europe at the gallop of his warhorse ; and yet the fact is, that the first capital he entered as all-powerful general, was Paris itself — Paris submitting to absolute power, rejuvenated by victory, and thus renouncing the very principles which had animated it with enthusiasm ten years previously. For, whatever may be said by hired sophists, ever ready to laud and beautify servitude, the essence of 1789 was the great principle of general liberty. Civil equality is only one of its consequences. And as soon as this is detached from the vigorous trunk which produces it, one of two things is certain to result — either it withers and perishes, (for privilege springs most generally from the arbitrary,) or there remains thereof merely a vain semblance, a mass of dry leaves driven at the will of every capricious breach. This sudden abortion of one of the noblest movements of humanity continues to be the most worthy and interesting problem of contemporary history. The problem has been treated, as a whole, by many eminent minds. My ambition is less vast. I desire to confine myself to a single one of its many phases — to write the history of religion during the French Revolution, to mark the real progress accomplished at the opening of the liew era, to signalize honestly the faults committed, to indicate the fatal mistake which gradually led to the legalized enslavement of the Church, and, without excusing the final excesses of a power which knew no con-- trol, to seek in anterior history the causes which almost necessarily led to them. Such is my design. There is no surer means than this of comprehending the cruel disappointments from which we are still suffering ; for I am thoroughly convinced that nothing contributed more fatally to the downfall of liberty than the errors of our fathers as to the mode of organizing religion in

INTKODUCTIOK. 21

France. An attentive study of the progress of the French Revolution demonstrates that that which checked the chariot of liberty, so grandly sent forth at the start, and j&nally precipitated it into the bloody disgrace of terrorism, was precisely an inadequate comprehension, and a too hasty decision^ of the question of religion.

Though the French Revolution had proclaimed immortal truths, and recognized sacred rights, yet when it attempted to infringe on the sacred domain of conscience it excited the most invincible opposition. This opposition exasperated it, and turned it aside from the path of fruitful and lasting reforms. It irritated its proud and formidable genius, and led to the extinguishment of its benefits in a long paroxysm of wrath. This eighteenth century, which seemed so thoroughly skeptical, was really troubled more deeply by the question of religion than by any other. It is well to recognize this to the honor of humanity. In spite of appearances the heart of mankind is more profoundly moved by spiritual than by material interests. This explains the paramount importance of questions of this class, even when they relate merely to the civil organization of religion, for the question of form is readily confounded with the question of essence. And to defend the absolute liberty of the conscience is one of the first duties of religion.

In the France of to-day the problem which was broached in 1*7 8 9 is still unsolved. The concordat which Napoleon imposed on, or rather, extorted from, the Pope, has resolved no difficulty. Like every arbitrary act, it has only served to complicate the situation.

Our own blunders, however, are much less excusable than those of our fathers, for we cannot overbalance them by real and signal reforms. In fact of tolerance, they had said every thing from the very start. To-day we enjoy their conquests, which no reaction has been able to compromise, so securely are they based on eternal right. But let us temper with discriminating criticism the admiration they so legitimately inspire. Giving them due credit for the great truths they proclaimed, let us frankly signalize the elements of falsehood and injustice which their system involved. And for this we are the better prepared, inasmuch as we can now clearly see that in their mistakes they were much rather timid conservatives than daring reformers. They were influenced by the ideas of ancient France at the very moment when they thought they had constructed against them the most formidable instrument of war. It is from this source that the Revolution had learned to strengthen beyond measure the central power, and to give to the State what belonged alone to the individual. It is no wonder that the new wine could not be confined by the old vessels. I shall hope to have rendered a real service to my country if I can clearly point out the shoals on which, for a short time only, as we assuredly believe, one of the noblest of revolutions has made shipwreck.

In attempting to understand the mutual relations of the Church and the State, at the eve of the French Revolution, the first thing which strikes us is their close association as to politics, and their profound separation as to theory and aspiration. This contrariety becomes more and more violent the further we advance. It led finally to the fatal blunder which divorced liberalism in France from the Christian religion. It was precisely the political union that provoked and envenomed the moral separation. The Church was, so to speak, incrusted in an order of things which shocked the public conscience ; the altar had been the strongest support of the ancient and now hated system of government. Every reformatory and progressive aspiration, meeting in this system an obstacle and barrier at its very start, was naturally led to attack it with unmeasured violence. The result was, that the liberal cause soon became alienated from the Church and identified with irreligion. AU who were young of heart and ardent for the vindication of right and liberty, were in so far predisposed to reject Christianity without hesitation. Life, profound conviction, conquering proselytism, were all on the side of a skeptical philosophy. The Church was not only stationary in the midst of this life, but even undertook the vain task of arresting and beating back the rising flood of enthusiasm. The eighteenth century was imbued with one of the grand ideas born of the Gospel. I mean the idea of humanity, the idea of human right vindicated in the face of those caste privileges which are its negation. It was found that the Church had taken sides in advance against the very principles which it should have been the first to proclaim, since it had in its own hands the book which had disseminated and caused to triumph in the Roman empire the immortal words, (the chart of equality and true liberty,) that in Christ there is neither bond nor free.

Thus by the fault of its representatives, the very religion which had taught the world the ideas of humanity and right, came to be regarded by liberal spirits as the very foe which they must first conquer in their work of vindicating principles which itself had first proclaimed. In the confusion of the age, the ancient pagan view was defended by the pretended successors of those who had once overthrown it ; and the social and humane principles of Christianity were defended by those who were resuscitating the naturalism of the pagan world — ^the impure source of all the injustice and abuses of despotism. Thus the most discordant elements were mingled together ; justice and religion, which should have been indissolubly joined, were violently and perniciously separated. They fought in opposing armies, and every stroke dealt by the one on the other weakened them both. This fatal divorce, though dating far back in the past, had been renewed and consummated at the close of the seventeenth century by one of the greatest crimes of history — by the murderous expulsion of that portion of the religious public which was not bowed under the yoke of Romish unity. The ruins of the Jansenist community of Port Royal, and, above all, those living remains of the Protestant Church who were bound as slaves, and forced to row the galleys of the Mediterranean, or who sought at the risk of life to meet together in the desert for worship, reminded continually an emancipated and indignant generation of the pernicious union of religious with civil despotism, and of the severe discipline they had sufiered under the ferule of that devout and all-powerful Papist, Madame de Maintenon, during the last years of Louis XIY. This ferule had been too long the scepter of France, and France had been compelled to too bitter a penance for the early sins of the most selfish of monarchs.