Unpublished memoirs of the internuncio at Paris during the Revolution, 1790-1901.

Front matter

O H 9

O W

V

Preface

By abbe BRIDIER.

A FEW years ago, I happened to be in Rome, and was living in the Via delle quattro Fontane, a charming and favorite resort of the French clergy, as the guest of M. Captier, the official representative of Saint Sulpice at the Vatican.

One day my friend received a visit from Signor AUessandro Bossi, a Roman lawyer, who said to him, —

"I have in my possession certain memoii-s in manuscript of one of your former bishops, M. de Salamon, internuncio at Paris during the Revolution. I should like to dispose of them. Would you care to have them? "

At the same time he handed him three little volumes, tre piccoU volumi, to speak like Signor Bossi.

At the head of the first was written this classic motto :

and beneath it, in large letters :

*' To Madame de Villeneuve, nee Comtesse de S^gur."

On the last sheet of each volume was the following declaration :

" Certified to he a correct copy of the original.

Louis DE Salamon, Bishop of Orthozia."

All the rest was written In another hand, and in Italian.

X PREFACE.

M. Captier did not even suspect that a bishop named Salamon had ever existed, but he thought the document might be of interest in connection with the history of the Church of France. He was too busy, however, to follow the matter up, and he sent Signor Bossi to me.

I received the manuscripts of the internuncio, read them carefully, and was enchanted with the narrative and with the personality of the writer. At the same time, certain parts of these memoirs seemed to me to be, from an historical point of view, nothing less than a revelation. In short, M. Captier had not been mistaken : the work deserved to be made known.

But had it not been published already ? This was the question I put to myself, on turning again to these words : " Certified to he a correct copy of the original. ^^ What I held in my hands was, after all, only a copy. Consequently there existed, or had existed, an original. Where? In France, no doubt, the na^rrative having been dedicated to a Frenchwoman, Madame de Villeneuve-Segur. Had this original text escaped the searchers? The thing appeared hard to believe. They are so numerous, so greedy, and the morsel was so dainty. Hence, doubt and hesitation. How was I to know that this unpuhlished work was not TQd,]lj published^ forgotten, perhaps, in the obscure recesses of our French libraries, or scattered in the second-hand bookstores along our quays?

I submitted these reflections to Signor Bossi.

"True," he said, " I never thought of that."

" I can easily believe you," I answered ; " these doubts occur only to the buyers."

It was settled that I should clear up this difficulty, and, in the mean time, the precious tre piccoli volumi were to remain in the hands of M. Captier.

A little after, I returned to France, and began my researches.

I wrote first to the family of Madame de Villeneuve-

PREFACE. xi

Segur, since it was to this lady the work was addressed. I then visited Avignon, Carpentras, Saint-Flour, and Rouen, places where the internuncio had lived. I consulted his biographies in the biographical dictionaries.^ I had recourse to MM. Delisle and d' Auriac, whose courteous and intelligent co-operation dispensed me from the necessity of making tedious investigations in the Rue de Richelieu, and I acquired the certainty that this document had never been published, and, in fact, that its existence was utterly unknown.

I wrote to M. Captier, sending him the stipulated price, and he forwarded me the manuscripts. Signor Bossi was happy.

And I was not less happy than Signor Bossi; for, though I had searched with zeal, it was with the very ardent hope of finding nothing.

And now, from whom had the seller received the tre piccoli volumi? From a family, once in easy circumstances, who had been the hosts of Mgr. de Salamon.

This was all I could get out of Signor Bossi. He had pledged himself to secrecy with regard to everything else.

It is not much, and yet it is enough to enable us to make a guess, at least, at the truth.

Received into the house of a noble family when he arrived in Rome, the prelate desired to make some return which might express his appreciation of this hospitality. What should he offer? Clearly, nothing could be more agreeable to his entertainers than these pages, entirely permeated with his own personality. Moreover, the thing was easy, the work having already been composed for the benefit of Madame de Villeneuve.

He employed a skilful scribe ^ to make a fair copy on

1 In those of Barjavel, Feller, Michaud, and Larousse. The best is that in Feller, enlarged by Pe'rennes.

2 Evidently one of the masters of the craft. Accordingly, he used xii PREFACE.

fine paper, revised and signed it with his own hand ; and this was his present.

These three little volumes, preserved with such care, so pretty and so fresh — when they were new — were kept by this rich family for a long time.

But books, as Horace says, have their destinies, — the destinies of their possessors themselves.

Poverty entered and sat down by the hearth. After many other things had gone, the library was sold, all of it save these manuscripts, the dear memorials of happier days and of a much-loved guest. Then, as their wants grew more pressing, they told themselves that this work, too, had a venal value. It would tide them over their difficulties for a time, and so it was decided to offer it for sale.

But they felt as those feel who are committing some evil deed ; they enveloped the transaction in mystery, and took every precaution to hide their secret. Such is, perhaps, the explanation. It is not novel, it has accounted for the appearance of many documents of the same kind, and this fact renders it plausible.

It enables me, at least, to explain to my readers how the copy of these Memoirs came into my hands.

As for the original, it has undoubtedly disappeared. But what does it matter? My copy, bearing the signature of the prelate, and certified by him to be a faithful transcript of the original, is quite as valuable as the original; and, in this belief, I deliver it to the public.^

gold dust ! There are particles of it still adhering to the paper. The scribe was not very well acquainted with Italian, for the errors are numerous,

1 I add here a curious fact, communicated to me by M. Boulay de la Meurthe.

' The following passage occurs in Forneron's " Historic des Emigres," Vol. II. : —

*' When the Abbe Salomon, ex-clerical councillor in the Parliament

PREFACE. xni

of Paris, was prosecuted as a returned emigre, Merlin of Douai advised the judges to condemn him, and, when he was acquitted, used several ingenious arguments to persuade them to transfer him before another tribunal."

As the author did not give any authority, M. Boulay questioned him on the subject. He said, —

" I have read the Memoirs of this personage, but I cannot tell you any more, for they were given to me in confidence, and / have taken a -pledge of secrecy respecting them"

This is exactly what Signor Bossi said to me. "Was it my copy, or was it the original, that Forneron saw 1

At all events, he must have read over the manuscript carelessly, for the internuncio signs himself very legibly de Salamon, and nowhere does he speak of having been prosecuted as a returned emigre.

Contents

Page

INTRODUCTIO:Nr xvii

Book I. My Martyrdom

Chapter Page

I. The Arrest of the Internuncio .... 5

II. The Police Office of the Mairie .... 17 m. The Decree of the Commune on the First

OF September, 1792 26

IV. The First Night in the Abbaye .... 36

V. Sunday in Prison 44

VI. Preparing for Death 51

VII. The People 64

VIII. The Massacre 70

IX. A Happy Diversion 79

X. The Examination 86

XL In the Violon 95

XII. Free! 105

Epilogue Ill

XVI CONTENTS.

Book II. My Life During The Terror

Chaptee Page

I. The Chambre des Vacations 117

II. The Warrant of Arrest 130

III. The Couvent des Anglaises 141

IV. Through Paris 150

V. The Internuncio leaves Paris 159

VI. In Search of a Lodging 165

VII. A Week of Checkered Fortunes .... 180

VIII. The Two Fugitives 191

IX. Together again . . . , 197

Epilogue 204

Book III. My Trial Under The Directory

I. Pius VI. and the Directory 213

11. The Conspiracy of the Internuncio . . . 222

III. The Indictment 232

IV. At the Grande Force 239

V. The Conciergerie .......... 249

VI. The Criminal Tribunal 255

VII. A Second Summons for the Internuncio . 265

VIII. A Coup d'Etat 270

IX. At Last 278

X. The Acquittal 287

I. Why And When The Memoirs Were Written

Mgr. de Salamon was not at all anxious to write the story of his adventures. It was not that the task frightened him : he had a fluent pen, an excellent memory ; his recollections were still vivid, and, besides, he had always been in the habit of taking notes.

But he had also prejudices that no longer affect our age: he feared to be considered by his fashionable associates a mere scribbler, that is to say, one of those unhappy people who barter their intellect for hire, and " compose to live."

Moreover, he was modest, or, at least, was not afflicted with the modern passion for notoriety, and did not care that his personality and his sentiments should seiwe as food for the curiosity of the public.

Consequently, the hunters after memoirs — and they were numerous at the time, for the game was plenty — were politely shown the door, when they approached him, among others, the Abbe Sicard, teacher of the deaf and dumb.

The latter would have given much to have the adventures of his comrade in the violon, as he calls the internuncio, because both of them were shut up in one of those little prisons in the Abbaye, called violons.

b xviii mTRODUCTIOK

He desired to join them to his own, and publish them in the " Annales Catholiques," which he was about to issue. ^ They would create a sensation, and bring in subscribers.

Having failed in his own person, and, indeed, met with such a reception that he could not very well make another assault, he sent a bookseller, he himself remaining in the dark, with an offer of three thousand francs.

But the internuncio was an ex-magistrate; "More tricks than one he knew full well." He scented this one immediately: "I know who sent you," he answered; " go, and take your money with you." The messenger turned on his heels.

Yet at this moment — it was during the Terror — the internuncio had not, to use his own expression, " a sou in his pocket or a bit to put between his teeth."

Only at the behest of a sovereign, would he depart from his resolution, and that sovereign was ' ' the great, the immortal Pius VI. ! " as he delights to term him. A few days after leaving the Abbaye, he sent him an account of the massacres ; still, it was a sort of diplomatic document, brief, concise, and drawn up in Italian.^

The fortress seemed, then, impregnable, when Madame de Villeneuve made her preparations to carry it.

She had long been intimate with the internuncio. She had heard him often relate his adventures. They had charmed her,^ he related them so well. But she desired to enjoy them comfortably, at her ease ; in other words, she wished to read them.

1 The first number, in fact, contains the narrative of the Abbe Sicard.

2 I have not been able to lay my hand on it. It would have been interesting to compare it with the first book of the Memoirs.

8 She was the daughter of Comte de Segur, grand master of ceremonies to the Emperor, and sister of the author of " Napoleon and the Grand Army." She married Baron de Villeneuve, treasurer general of the city of Paris. One of her daughters married Count Balbo, the Sardinian ambassador at Paris, whose name figures unpleasantly in the Memoirs.

INTRODUCTION. xix

Still, she was well aware of the scruples of the narrator. She understood and respected them; they were quite in accordance with her own notions of what was proper. She therefore gave him her word that the manuscripts should never leave her hands. And, if some accident in the future should render this promise unavailing, there remained another safeguard against eventualities, — it was to have the work written in a foreign language. Now, she spoke and wrote Italian quite as well as the internuncio himself. The number of Italian poems of her own composition, still in the possession of her family, is decisive on this point. Why should he not write his memoii'S in Italian? This would be putting a barrier, the Alps, so to speak, between himself and the public. Who should ever hit on the idea of going to look for him there ?

Add to this, that the fair petitioner was a very virtuous and amiable woman and a very determined woman as well.

Resistance was out of the question! The internuncio surrendered, and surrendered at discretion. He wrote his memoirs, then, without reserve or restraint, without distrust of the future. He lays bare his heart, has no hesitation in giving the names of persons, quotes friends and enemies, acts just as he would act if relating his adventures in the salons, — not forgetting to introduce an odd little calumny now and then.

Evidently, he had determined to bring his revelations to a stand at the end of the first book ; the conclusion proves this.

But the appetite of Madame de Villeneuve grew with what she was reading. He had to set to work again, to add the second book, then the third, — in fine, to tell everything.

This took place during the time M. Pasquier was Prefect of Police. Consequently, the Memoirs were written somewhere between 1808 and 1812.

XX INTRODUCTION

Now, in 1812, Madame de Villeneuve died, at the age of thirty-four. And so, like many other celebrated works, — pardon me for the comparison, — this, too, has been composed to satisfy the desires of a woman, and it is to Madame de Villeneuve that we owe it.

II

THE FAMILY OF THE INTERNUNCIO. HE ENTERS THE

PARLIAMENT OF PARIS.

Before entering on the examination of the Memoirs of the internuncio, it is well to say a few words of his birth and of his position in the Parliament of Paris ; for to them he was indebted, partly at least, for the favor with which he was regarded by Pius VI.

The Salamons (not Solomons, as it is often written) were long settled in the Comtat Venaissin.

The father of the bishop was a native of Saint-Roman de Mallegarde. He took up his residence in Carpentras, where he married Anne Esseyri, the daughter of a printer,^ and soon occupied the highest offices in the city. As first consul, 2 he stood at the side of Bishop d'lnguimbert when that famous benefactor of Carpentras laid the cornerstone of the magnificent hospital, still to be seen there. This was in 1750. The following years find him fulfilling the same functions, which, it may be remarked, by the way, rendered him second in authority to the rector himself,^ and could be conferred on the noblesse of the robe alone.

He had two sons : Alphonse, Baron de Salamon, and Louis-Sifferin, who is no other than our bishop.

1 She was of Italian origin. See Memoirs, p. 196.

2 The municipal magistrates were styled consuls.

3 The rector was the official representative of the Holy See in the Comtat.

INTRODUCTIOK xxi

The first was born in 1747. He was successively Secretary of the Archives of the Legation of Avignon and Vice-Seneschal of Montelimar, where he settled. He was mayor of this city when the Revolution broke out. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Conciergerie, during the closing days of the Terror, but was liberated on the death of Robespierre, and became mayor of Lyons during the Thermidorean reaction. His career, which has been very differently appreciated, was noisy and stormy enough to attract almost exclusively the attention of biographers, and to throw that of his younger brother in the shade. ^

Let us hope that these Memoirs shall assign to each his proper place, and, without adding to or detracting from the renown of the baron, whom, by the way, they do not even mention,^ show that the internuncio is, after all, the greatest glory of the family.

Barjavel, in his " Dictionnaire des hommes illustres de la Provence et du Comtat," places his birth in 1750. A more singular fact still is that the same date is found on the portrait presented by his own nephew ^ to the Musee Calvet, Avignon. If we are to believe his own testimony (and why not?) it makes him out ten years older than he really was. In book i. chapter xi. of the Memoirs he states that he was thirty-two in 1792. He must, therefore, have been born in 1760.^

Besides this date, which is, after all, a matter of little importance, he tells us that he was taught the rudiments of Latin atCarpentras. One of his schoolmates was that

1 See, on Baron de Salaraon, the " Histoire de Montelimar/' by M. de Coston.

2 It would seem natural that the internuncio should have said something of his brother, at least in Book III. But their political course was very different, and the internuncio had less liking for a moderate politician than even for a terrorist.

8 Ange-Marie-Alphonse de Salamon, who was receiver of indirect contributions at Montelimar.

* It is the date given in the biography in Feller.

xxii INTRODUCTION".

amiable Abbe Vitali, whom he was to see again, as he relates, on the field of slaughter, twenty-three years later, and who, unlike himself, did not escape the steel of the assassin.

Then, at the age of nine, he left his native country, which he was hardly ever to live in again, so to speak, and entered the College de la Trinite in Lyons, which was in charge of the Oratorians. What could have been the cause of this separation imposed on a child of such tender age? Perhaps the banishment of the Jesuits, who were forced to leave the splendid establishments they held in the Comtat and even in Carpentras. Perhaps, also, the parents of Mgr. de Salamon may have shared the unjust prejudices most lawyers entertained with respect to the order, and preferred to send their son where he might have masters of their own choosing.

At least, when once he had finished his course in the humanities, an excellent superior education was within his reach at home. We all know what was then the reputation of the University of Avignon. I imagine that the young student, while preparing for a clerical life, had already a judicial career in his eye, as well from taste as from family tradition. He was obliged to acquire a certain portion of theology, but the whole bent of his mind was toward law, and so we find him in 1780 doctor and fellow of that faculty, which was the brightest glory of the University of Avignon.

From that moment, honors began to crowd upon him ; indeed, they would naturally come to the son of a first consul of Carpentras, and the brother of a man high in the favor of the legate of Avignon.

It is not probable that the Abbe de Salamon ever visited Rome at this period ; but the position of his family explains suflSciently the origin of his relations with Pius VI. , and the kindness with which that great Pope treated him.

The Pope, in fact, named this young doctor, just fresh

INTRODUCTION. xxiii-

from college, Auditor of the Rota, a post formerly created by Cardinal d'Armagnac with the consent of Rome. It was already a nice opening, for the holder of the office was required to be forty years old, and the abbe was hardly half as much. Then, at twenty-two, a new favor. The deanship of one of the chapters of Avignon becoming vacant, the auditor immediately offers himself as a candidate, and as the new dignitary had to be a priest, he asks for a dispensation to enable him to be ordained a priest. The Pope grants it, adding graciously ' ' that he treated him on this occasion as he would have done a nuncio or a prince."^

" The inhabitants of the Comtat and of Avignon are regnicoles," says Expilly, in his " Dictionnaire des Gaules et de la France. "

This somewhat barbarous term signifies that, although subjects of the Pope, they had the right, as well as the Frenchmen of France, to fill all the offices of the realm. They were not the sort of people to allow such a privilege to remain a dead letter. A strong current set in from Avignon to Paris, and ecclesiastics were carried away by it as well as the rest. One evidence of this is that, among the seventy priests whom the Abbe de Salamon met in the Abbaye, he found two of his fellow-townsmen.^

It is not, then, surprising that when the seat of one of the clerical councillors in the Parliament of Paris became vacant, he should have purchased it. A place in the first judiciary of the kingdom was well worth the bench of an Auditor of the Rota and the stall of a dean of the chapter.

I have not been able to discover the date of this event, but it must have occurred previous to 1784, since he says he took a prominent part in the famous affair of the Diamond Necklace.

1 See book i, p. 7.

'■^ The Abbe's Vitali and Capparuis.

xxiv INTRODUCTION.

Besides, the portrait in the Musee Calvet, which was presented in that year, represents him as a member of the Parliament. This picture was, no doubt, a present from the young clerical councillor to his parents during his first vacation. The artist, Jean Baptiste Bourgeois of Avignon, has represented him standing, at full length, with the insignia of his dignity, in a black robe, the sleeves of which have a purple border, and with the band. The absence of the traditional cap is explained by the fact that he holds a sheet in his hand, and seems to be reading some report or other before the Chambre des Enquetes. The abundance of his hair and the care with which it is powdered are enough of themselves to confirm the confidences of which he is prodigal with regard to this portion of his person. •'■

Nothing can be more interesting than the physiognomy. The regular yet animated features, the sparkling eyes, which are full of intelligence, the thin, flexible lips, offer a singular mixture of virile energy and almost feminine distinction. The latter quality is predominant, and the one the spectator remembers best. In short, this portrait is a real illustration of the character of the internuncio, and explains, at least partially, the magnetism he exercised over all who approached hun.'^

The career of the young magistrate in the Parliament was very short.

In fact, he entered it only to witness the lamentable spectacle of its closing years, to see it engage in an interminable struggle with the court, oppose an obstinate resistance to the most wisely democratic measures, make repeated assaults on the royal authority, and fall at last beneath the blows of the States-General it had so ardently desu'ed.

1 He returns often to these details of his toilet. He attached great importance to them.

2 As is seen everywhere in his Memoirs.

INTRODUCTIOISr. xxv

III. The Internuncio. — His Memoirs. — Their Historical

VALUE.

It is with his memoirs in my hand that I now follow the career of the internuncio, not with the view of simply repeating his story, but to detach from them the principal facts that concern the Revolution in general, and the Church of France in particular.

The Chambre des Vacations having been established to fill the interim created by the suppression of the Parliaments, the Abbe de Salamon was appointed a member of it. He has given a summary of its history at the beginning of the second book of his work. The passage is interesting; and, under an anecdotal form, contains a certain amount of valuable information for whoever may wish to write a detailed history of the Parliament of Paris.

The author, indeed, was the only one of his colleagues who escaped the scaffold, and I do not believe there exists another authentic narrative of the last moments of this celebrated assembly.

At the moment when it was about to separate, that is to say, toward the end of 1790, Mgr. Dugnani had to leave Paris, where there was no longer either honor or safety for the representative of the Holy See. The Abbe de Salamon was appointed by Pius VI. internuncio in his place. The reasons for this selection will be seen in the Memoirs themselves.

But what the author does not tell us is that he had been for a long time before a candidate for this important post. The letters which I give at the end of the volume leave no doubt as to this. From 1786, he keeps the Cardinal Secretary of State informed of the events, both xxvi INTRODUCTION.

political and religious, that succeed each other with such rapidity. He notes carefully the progress and changes of public opinion, condemns or praises the conduct of the higher dignitaries among the clergy, and takes very good care that his own services shall not be forgotten. He even goes so far as to advise the adoption of such and such a measui-e. In short, he assumes the mission of official informant to the Holy See. He takes this mission so seriously that he is in dread of being compromised, should his letters be opened. So, to guard himself against the " Black Cabinet," an old institution it would seem, he is careful not to sign his letters dating from 1788.

All that Pius YI., therefore, had to do was to give his mission an official character.

The Memoirs throw a fuU light on this mission, about which little has been known until now, although it had considerable importance ; for it does honor to the Pontiff, who wished to show to the end, even under the Terror, the deep interest he took in the French Catholics and the French clergy, and to Mgr. de Salamon himself, who, by accepting these delicate functions at such a time, exposed himself to the greatest peril.

One of his first acts was to transmit to the metropolitans and to publish among the people the famous Briefs on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

It was a direct blow aimed at the partisans of this constitution. They tried to parry it, and found — it was necessary to find something — that these briefs were spurious. Hence a very vigorous quarrel between them and the faithful clergy. A word from the internuncio might have put an end to it, at least for men of good will. But he did not utter it, for a very excellent reason, — he would thereby have pointed himself out to the executioner.

However, in 1821, he had occasion to explain his connection with the Briefs in a letter to the " Ami de la Reli-

INTrvODUCTIOX. xxvii

gion."^ This important declaration, contained in a few lines, is, as it were, lost in the one hundred and sixty volumes of the review, and, doubtless, that is why it has escaped the notice of historians.

Well, he renews it in his Memoirs, and thanks to them, it can now take its place on the firm ground of history.

Henceforth, there can be no doubt as to the authenticity of these Briefs. They were received, forwarded in due canonical form to the metropolitans, confided to the printer, and scattered among the public by Mgr. de Salamon, the internuncio, the official representative of the Holy See.

The publication of the Briefs had no effect. Pius VI. knew this well, and this knowledge explains his long silence. The schismatic clergy were more and more favored, the orthodox clergy more and more persecuted. Then the internuncio, who was never given to speculation, but always a man of action, drew up an address, had it signed by the Catholics of Paris, and placed it in the hands of the king. At the same time, he transmitted a copy of it to the Pope. It is a fine page, honorable alike to the writer and to the signatories. It fully proves the official character of Mgr. Salamon, and, notwithstanding its length, I think it right to give it in full.

Address of the Catholics of Paris presented to the king on the Qth of October, 1791, and sent by the internuncio to the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VI.

Sire, — The Catholics of Paris have, for more than a month, been exiled from their temples, deprived of their worship, and exposed to all the outrages of fanaticism, without uttering a single word in protest.

Disciples of a Master who, when dying on the cross, prayed for his executioners, children of a religion whose first law is charity and whose chief benefit to the world is peace, they believed for a time that it was their duty to stifle their complaints and hide their sorrows in the depths of then- own