Part 2

Church of Graville 172 Ivetot: Addresses to Confirmans 173 Life of the Priests here 174 The Archbishop: Confirmation 175 Address of Archbishop 176 The Confirmation 176 Verses on a Tutor's Mishap 178 Fécamp: Abbey Church 179 Notre Dame de Salut 180 Rouen 180 Carmelite Nunnery 181 Archevêché 182 Labour of the Confessional 183 Notre Dame de bon Secours 184 Dinner with the Archbishop 185 High Mass in Cathedral 186 Roman Catholic Worship 187 The Incarnation applied to Daily Life 188 Seminary of M. L'Abbé Lambert 189 Value of Celibacy in conducting Education 190 Notre Dame de Mantes 192 Paris 193 L'Abbé Ratisbonne 193 Aspect of Paris 194 Bishop of Langres 195 Missionary Life in China 196 Père de Ravignan 197 Les Missions Etrangères: Salle des Martyrs 198 M. Voisin: Religion of the Chinese 199 M. Galais: View about the last Revolution 200 New Archbishop of Paris 201 Conversation with Père de Ravignan 202 Supérieur Général des Pères Lazaristes 203 Foundation and Objects of this Institution 204 Their Missions: Greek Church 205 Miraculous Cure of a Novice of the Sisters of Charity 206 Conversation with this Novice 208 Société de la Rue Picpus 210 Its Founder and Objects 211 Benediction at M. L'Abbé Ratisbonne's Chapel 214 Conversation: Story of an Apparition 215 Another Apparition, to M. Ratisbonne 217 Conversation with M. Gondon 218 Interview with Bishop of Amatha 219 Society of the Maristes 219 Missions in Oceania 220 Hôpital Necker 222 Institution des Aveugles 223 Les Enfans Trouvés 225 Conversation with le Père de Ravignan 227 Liberalism in the National Assembly 228 The Roman Primacy 228 Distribution of Prizes at petit Séminaire 229 Les Dames de Bon Secours 232 M. de Montalembert: his Reception 232 Opinion of the State of England 233 Anecdote of General Bédeau 234 S. Germain des Prés 234 Modern Martyrs in China 235 Gerente's Painted Glass 236 Mr. A. Coppinger: State of France 237 The last Revolution 238 M. Defresne: Conversation 238 Religion at Ecole Polytechnique 239 M. des Billiers: Prospects of France 240 Conversation with M. Gondon 241 Benediction at the House of the Sisters of Charity 242 Unpublished Letters of S. Vincent de Paul 243 M. des Billiers: Anecdote of a Legitimist 244 Sermon at S. Roch 245 Service of l'Archiconfrèrie du très Saint Cœur de Marie, at Notre Dame des Victoires 248 Address of l'Abbé des Genettes 249 Père de Ravignan-- 250 M. des Billiers: the Claim of Universal Jurisdiction 251 M. Gabet: State of Thibet 251 Discovery of Grand Lama 254 Religiousness of the Eastern Mind 255 Cure of Blindness before the Shrine of S. Vincent de Paul 256 Mr. Coppinger: Conversation 257 Le Père Lacordaire: the Primacy 258 Government of the Papacy 259 Value of Oral Tradition 260 Una Fides: Unum Corpus 262 Separation inexcusable 264 M. Defresne 264 Cure of Blindness 265 M. Bonnetty 266 M. l'Abbé Pététot 266 Effects of last Revolution 266 His Visit to l'Addolorata and l'Estatica 267 Reception at Comte Montalembert's 270 M. Galais: Miracles in the Church 271 The Jesuits 272 Principles of the Representants 272 Infidelity of the Masses 273 The Law of Continence 274 Le Père Lacordaire in the Assembly 276 The National Assembly 277 Père de Ravignan: State of the Church in France and Italy 278 The Fewness of the Saved 279 The Papal Primacy 280 Bossuet's Gallicanism 281 La Madeleine: Address of M. Pététot 282 Dress of the Clergy 283 Dinner at M. de Noirlieu's 284 The late Archbishop 284 Catholicism and Protestantism in France 285 Oppression of the Church 286 Funeral Oration on the Archbishop 286 His Character and Sacrifice of Self 287 Couvent des Oiseaux 289 Value of the Vie de Communauté in the Work of Education 290 Les Dames du Sacré Cœur 292 Maison des Carmes 293 Reminiscences of this House 294 Its Connection with the late Archbishop 295 Prizes given to the Blind 296 Dames de la Visitation 296 Importance of _Vocation_ 298 Subject of the Blessed Virgin's Intercession 299 It is involved in the Communion of Saints 300 Œuvre de S. Nicolas 301 Its Object and Rules 302 Instruction given 304 Work of the Sisters of Charity in it 304 Superintendence of the Brethren 305 Rewards: Recreations 306 Its Founder, M. de Bervanger 307 Work of the Celibate 308 Anglican and Roman Catholic Education 309 Sœurs de la Charité 310 Their Superior's Pastoral Letter 311 Account of the Two Cures before the Shrine of S. Vincent 311 Surgeon's Attestation 312 Detailed Relation of the Cure of the Sister Marie Javelle 315 Detailed Relation of the Cure of Céleste l'Allemand 320 Observations on these Cures by the Superior General 324 Orleans: Bourges 326 Cathedral of S. Stephen 326 Seminaire: Conversation with Superior 328 Amiens 330

CONCLUSION.

Prominence and Power of the Doctrine of the Real Presence 331 Its Relation to the Priesthood and Monastic Orders 333 Its Connection with the Doctrine of the Intercession of Saints 334 And with the System of Confession 336 Importance of this System 337 And of the Doctrine of the Forgiveness of Sins 338 The Church of Rome a Church in Action 339 The Want of Signs and Symbols among us a real practical Deficiency 340 Use of the Latin Language in Services of the Church 342 Reservation of the Cup 344 Preaching without Book 345 Aspect of the French Church 346 Its Bishops and Priests 347 The Daily Sacrifice 348 The Cure of Souls 349 Theory and Fact 350 Education of the Priesthood by the S. Sulpiciens 350 Importance of an uniform Type and Discipline 351 Want of this and of a dogmatic Standard among Ourselves 352 Appointment of Bishops 353 Preparation of Missionaries 354 The whole Roman Communion 356 1. Its Extent 357 2. Its Doctrine, uniform and systematic 361 3. Its Internal Discipline 363 4. Its Vital Principle 364 5. Its Generative Power 365 Conclusion 366

APPENDIX.

Tableaux des Devoirs d'un Seminariste 368

INDEX. 383

INTRODUCTION.

Of the vast number of English men and English women who have travelled on the Continent in late years, comparatively few, I imagine, have deemed it worth their while to give much thought and attention to the action of the Church in the countries they have visited. Doubtless all have entered the material fabrics of Roman Catholic worship, but generally it has been to treat them as public monuments, rather than as "the house of prayer for all nations." But how many of those travellers who enjoy leisure and independence have made it their study to understand those manifold institutions for the education of the clergy or the laity, for the consolation of the suffering, for the instruction of the poor and outcast, or for the advancement of the interior life, by which the Church christianises the world, and lays hold of the heart of humanity? I am not now expressing an opinion whether the whole Roman system be true or false, pure or corrupt; I am looking at it simply as a _fact_. And in this view, perhaps, there is no object on the face of the earth so worthy of contemplation by the thoughtful mind as the Roman Church. As an English Churchman, I do not think it truthful, honest, christian, or safe, to shut my eyes to such a _fact_ existing in the world. It seems to me that one ought to endeavour to understand it. Those who strive to rekindle ancient animosities, those who take not the trouble to understand doctrines as taught by their professors, but wilfully misconceive and mis-state them; those even who rest contented in a state of separation, do they not sin against Him, who in the days of His humiliation prayed to His Father, "that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Do they in the least realise the fact that the Church of England considers the Church of Rome to be quite as truly a part of the Church Catholic as she is herself?

Thus it is that between the two communions there has grown up a prodigious ignorance of each other's true state. I have found well informed Roman Catholic ecclesiastics ignorant that we possess a ritual, use fixed prayers, have a regular hierarchy; while scarcely any one is aware that we have a form of absolution as categorical as their own, and one which presupposes special confession. They are in the habit of taking for granted that we have no succession, besides asserting that our orders are invalid through defect of the formularies. The present Pope, conversing lately with an English clergyman, seriously inquired of him, whether we administered, what, in condescension to the supposed feelings of his auditor, he termed "la cena," once a year; and whether we passed the cup from hand to hand? Two notions, I imagine, which must have given him the poorest impression of the Anglican communion which a Roman Catholic could have. And in conversing with theologians, they ordinarily direct themselves against merely Protestant feelings and arguments, such as touch the Lutherans and Calvinists abroad, or dissenters here, but which have nothing to do with English Churchmen.

But Roman Catholic ignorance of us is, I think, almost exceeded by our ignorance of them.

Would that I could be in any degree instrumental to the removal of a prejudice, or the clearing up of a misconception. My means of observation have not been large, my time very limited; but I have seen enough to be convinced, that those who hate and denounce the Roman Church most violently, do not hate and denounce her more than she would that thing which they suppose to be the Roman Church.

If both sides knew each other well, if all had been done which could be done for a reconciliation, and the present state of enmity and opposition still subsisted, it would indeed be a grievous prospect for the future; but when ignorance and misapprehensions make up so much of the difference between the Churches, are we not to hope for better things? Is not Providence teaching us, by what is taking place on both sides, that the Church of God in all lands must unite against the common foe? Is He not removing on both sides the impediments to that union?

Moreover, an English Churchman conversing with a Roman Catholic will find, in proportion as both are earnest-minded, that they have generally the same friends and the same enemies, the same likings and the same antipathies, which, if the great heathen philosopher be correct, is a strong proof of an inward identity.[1] Very rarely indeed will they differ in _principle_, though sometimes in _facts_; the inward character will be the same in both.

The only merit of the following journal, if it have any, is the attempt to see things as they are in the Roman Catholic system; to put off all preconceived prejudices, not condemning that which is contrary to what one is accustomed to meet, but endeavouring to understand the principle on which it rests. It is nearly restricted to France, but perhaps that country is for more than one reason the most interesting part of the Roman Catholic communion at present. There the divorce, which all the governments of Christendom are now enacting on the Church, has been accomplished with the most harshness, contumely, and tyranny. The ample estates surrendered by the French clergy, in noble reliance on the generosity of their country, have been taken possession of by the state, which, admitting that the vast majority of its people are Catholic at least in profession, has recompensed this surrender by a grant to the clergy, yearly repeated, not a dotation once for all, and that in amount so unspeakably mean and inadequate, that every Frenchman of honour and feeling must blush for his country as he thinks upon it. The immense majority of curés throughout France receive from the state a stipend of 32_l._ a year, in larger populations this is extended to 48_l._, in the largest of all to 60_l._ Moreover, in France the state has done or is doing, what in England it will also do if it can; it sets up in every parish a schoolmaster without a creed, to teach children all kinds of useful knowledge, from which only a definite creed is excluded, and to be an antagonist to the clergyman in his proper sphere. Then the existing generation of Frenchmen has been brought up since the tide of infidelity swept over their land; in too many cases they are not only infidels in present practice, but even their childish thoughts and associations were not Christian. The full harvest of the terrible convulsion of 1789 is being reaped--alas, it is far from being yet gathered in! Infidelity not only stalks openly through the land, but bears open sway in it. There is nothing on which all those with whom I spoke were more agreed than that "le respect humain" was against the Church and against religion. What a fact is this alone, whereby to estimate the state of a country. If "hypocrisy be the homage which vice pays to virtue," where stands that country whose public opinion requires no hypocrisy in the open profession of unbelief? For these and other reasons, then, I conceive that the Church of God is best seen in France working by her own intrinsic powers, not only unaided by the world, but most cruelly afflicted by it, and so externally oppressed and degraded, that nothing but the irrepressible life of the Gospel could penetrate and leaven society under such conditions. God grant that such a state of things be not preparing in England--and if it be, God grant likewise that the Church, in the day of her need, may have servants and handmaidens, priests, teachers, and sisters of charity, as disinterested, laborious, patient, and zealous, as He has raised up for her in France. This further may be said, that, if France as a nation be ever brought afresh under the yoke of her Saviour, no condition of human society need be despaired of; nor the capacity of the Church of Christ to overcome any amount of obstacles doubted.

Of course the institutions mentioned in this journal are but samples of a multitude. None will feel more than the writer its great incompleteness. Still this is a field of observation which has been little worked; so that the mere partial breaking of its surface may produce fruit.

It may be as well to put together here the five congregations in France mentioned in different places of the journal, which are engaged in missionary work. They are "la Congregation des Prêtres de la Mission," or, "les Pères Lazaristes," Rue de Sèvres, 95.; the "Séminaire des Missions Etrangères," Rue du Bac, 120.; the "Congrégation des Sacrés Cœurs" (Séminaire de Picpus), Rue Picpus, 9.; the Jesuits, and the Maristes. The "Congrégation du Saint Esprit," for forming priests for the colonies, Rue des Postes, 26., I did not visit. These, with the "Congrégation de la Miséricorde," form all the French missionary establishments. I think no one can give even a transient look at the course of life pursued by the St. Sulpiciens for the education of the clergy, without admiration of the astonishing care of the interior life taken by them, and the pains they are at to ascertain the due vocation for so special a work.

The chief establishments of the Church for education are the grands séminaires in each diocese, for preparation for holy orders; and the petits séminaires, both under the direction of the bishops, the latter receiving boys for all sorts of professions. In these two classes of establishments alone, as a general rule, is strict attention paid to the religious training of the pupils. The royal colleges, which extend all over France, have been by all described to me as in the most corrupt moral condition, and as suffering their professors to instil systematic infidelity into their pupils. Of course the vast majority of the youth of the country is educated in these colleges. The result is seen in their lives. For the female sex, the chief congregations devoted to education are "Les Dames du Sacré Cœur," in Paris, Rue de Varennes; "Les Dames de Notre Dame" (couvent des Oiseaux, Rue de Sèvres); "Les Dames de la Visitation." Each has a great number of houses through France and elsewhere. For the poorer classes, "Les Frères de la Doctrine Chrétienne," and the various sisters of charity, are of incalculable benefit: they are very numerous, and widely spread. Their disinterested and loving labours would be the greatest of blessings to our parish priests, engaged in conflict with a hard practical heathenism on the one side, and on the other, with various forms of dissent, the essence of which may be said to consist in a complete negation of the Church's office in the scheme of redemption, and, generally, of all objective belief beyond the sacrifice of our Lord for the sins of men, and the operation of the Holy Spirit.

It will be seen throughout, that I do not consider non-appreciation of the good in the Roman Catholic faith and practice a necessary ingredient of the English Churchman's character. I am quite convinced that the reunion of the English Church with the Church of Rome would be an incalculable blessing to the whole Church of God, and to the whole human race. Whoever made the separation, we need not despair of such a reunion; the right accomplishment of which good persons, on both sides, may earnestly hope and pray for.

[1] Arist. Rhet., lib. 2. 4.

JOURNAL.--1845.