Part 2

Leaving Rome in company with M. Cacault, Cardinal Consalvi arrived at Paris at night, after a tedious journey of fifteen days, and took up his abode with Mgr. Spina and his theologian, P. Caselli, afterwards Cardinal. Early in the morning he sent to acquaint Bonaparte of his arrival, and to learn at what hour he could have the honour of seeing the First Consul. He inquired also in what costume he should present himself, as at that period the ecclesiastical dress had been abandoned by the French clergy. These communications were made through the Abbe Bernier, who, from having been one of the leaders in the war of La Vendee against the Republic, had taken a great part in the pacification of these provinces upon the terms offered by the consular government, and had thereby secured for himself the favour of Bonaparte. He was appointed negotiator on the part of the government, and brought to his task much theological knowledge, diplomatic skill, and the advantage of being agreeable to both the contracting parties. This ecclesiastic soon returned to Consalvi with the intimation that the First Consul would receive him that same morning at two o'clock, and that he was to come in the fullest possible cardinalitial costume. The Cardinal, however, did not gratify him in this latter particular, believing it to be his duty to present himself in the dress usually worn out of doors by cardinals when not in function. He was introduced to Napoleon under circumstances well calculated to embarrass a less evenly poised mind than his own. "I know", said the First Consul, "why you have come to France. I wish the conferences to be opened without delay. I allow you five days time, and I warn you that if on the fifth day the negotiations are not concluded, you must go back to Rome, as I have already decided what to do in such a case". Consalvi replied with calm dignity, and was soon afterwards conducted to his hotel. On the same day the Abbe Bernier came again to Consalvi, and asked him for a memorial setting forth the reasons which had constrained the Pope to accept the project which had been presented at Rome by M. Cacault. Although wearied by his long journey, the Cardinal spent the watches of the night in drawing up the memorial, which on the following day was communicated by the Abbe Bernier to Talleyrand, who, in turn, was to report upon it and lay it before the First Consul. The design of the memorial was to justify the refusal of the Concordat in the terms in which it had been drawn up by the French Government, and to show how reasonable and just were the modifications insisted on by the Pope. This design was not attained. Talleyrand wrote on the margin of the first page of the memorial these words, well calculated to confirm Napoleon in his idea that the Pope's minister was actuated by personal enmity towards the French Government: "Cardinal Consalvi's memorial does more to throw back the negotiations than all that has hitherto been written on the subject". These words, although they produced an unfavourable impression on the First Consul, did not however retard the negotiations. The fatigue of these negotiations was very great. Twice each day for many days beyond the five granted by Bonaparte, the Cardinal held conferences with the Abbe Bernier, always in the presence of Mgr. Spina and P. Caselli. The nights were frequently spent in drawing up and correcting memorials to be presented to the government. It was at this period in the negotiations that the limit which the Pope had placed to the Cardinal's powers was found to be of the greatest practical advantage. The Abbe Bernier, when any difficulty occurred, incessantly declared that, however strong his own convictions, he could decide nothing of himself without referring the matter to the First Consul. On the contrary, the Cardinal was never allowed to despatch a courier to consult the Pope and receive his commands. The pretext for this prohibition was, that the Concordat should absolutely be finished the next day. Under these circumstances, his limited powers were the only means left to Consalvi by which he might resist the pressure brought to bear against him. The orders he had received from the Pope were, not to break off the negotiations and refuse the Concordat because he could not make it as favourable as might be, but, on the other hand, not to sign it by overstepping those instructions given him before he left Rome, of which we have spoken above. For twenty-five days the conferences continued. Every nerve was strained to avert a rupture on the one hand, and undue concessions on the other. The consequences of a rupture were frequently laid before the Cardinal during these days, which he calls "days of anguish", by the Count de Cobenzel, Austrian ambassador at Paris. He was asked to consider that if the First Consul should break with Rome, and definitely separate from the head of the Catholic Church, he would, as he had often threatened, force Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, to become the accomplices of his apostacy.

Finally, after incredible fatigue, after sufferings and anguish of every kind, the day came which brought with it the long-looked for conclusion of their task. The Abbe Bernier, who reported every evening to Bonaparte the results of the daily conferences, at length announced that the First Consul accepted all the disputed articles, and that on the following day they should proceed to sign two authentic copies of the treaty, one copy to remain in the hands of each of the contracting parties. The project thus accepted, was substantially the same as the one which, having been amended at Rome, had been rejected by the French government before the Cardinal's journey, and which had led to M. Cacault's withdrawal from Rome within five days. It was arranged that the signatures should be six; three on each side. The Cardinal, Mgr. Spina, and P. Caselli, were to sign on behalf of the Holy See; Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the First Consul, Cretet, councillor of state, and the Abbe Bernier, on behalf of the French government. It was further arranged that the Abbe Bernier should call for the three ecclesiastics at a little before four o'clock on the following day, 14th July, and conduct them to the residence of Joseph Bonaparte, where the solemn act was to be completed.

"There", said Bernier, "we shall be able to do all in a quarter of an hour, as we have only to write six names, and this, including the congratulations, will not take even so long". He also showed them the _Moniteur_ of the day, in which the government officially announced the conclusion of the negotiations. He added, that on the next day, anniversary of the taking of the Bastile, the First Consul intended to proclaim at a grand dinner of more than three hundred guests, that the Concordat was signed, and a treaty concluded between the Holy See and the government, of far more importance than even the Concordat between Francis I. and Leo X.

Shortly before four o'clock the next day, the Abbe Bernier made his appearance, having in his hand a roll of paper, which he said was the copy of the Concordat to be signed. On their arrival at Joseph Bonaparte's, they took their places at a table, and after a short discussion as to who should be the first to sign, Joseph yielded that honour to the claims of the Cardinal. He took the pen in his hand, and then followed a scene which must be described in his own words: "What was my surprise when I saw the Abbe Bernier place before me the copy which he took from his roll, as if to make me sign without reading it, and when on running my eye over it, I found that it was not the treaty which had been agreed on by the respective commissioners and accepted by the First Consul himself, but one altogether different! The difference I perceived in the first lines led me to examine the rest with the most scrupulous care, and I satisfied myself that this copy not only contained the project which the Pope had refused to accept, but that it moreover included certain points which had been rejected as inadmissible before the project had been forwarded to Rome at all. This occurrence, incredible but true, paralysed my hand when about to sign my name. I gave expression to my surprise, and declared in plain language that on no account could I accept such a document. The First Consul's brother appeared equally astonished at hearing me speak so. He said that he did not know what to think of what he saw. He added that he had heard from the First Consul himself, that every thing had been arranged, and that there was nothing for him to do but affix his signature. As the other official, the state councillor, Cretet, made the same declaration, protesting his total ignorance, and refusing to believe my statement about the change of documents, until I had proved it by confronting the two copies, I could not restrain myself from turning rather sharply towards the Abbe Bernier. I told him that no one could confirm the truth of my assertion better than he could; that I was exceedingly astonished at the studied silence which I observed him to keep in the matter; and that I expressly called upon him to communicate to us what he had such good reason to know.

"With a confused air and in an embarrassed tone, he stuttered out that he could not deny the truth of my words and the difference between the copies of the Concordat, but that the First Consul had given orders to that effect, affirming that changes were allowable as long as the document was not signed. 'And so', added Bernier, 'he insists on these changes, because upon mature deliberation he is not satisfied with the stipulations we have agreed upon'.

"I will not here relate what I said in answer to a discourse so strange.... I spoke warmly of this attempt to succeed by surprise; I resolutely protested that I would never accept such an act, expressly contrary to the Pope's will. I therefore declared that if, on their part, they either could not or would not sign the document we had agreed upon, the sitting must come to an end".

Joseph Bonaparte then spoke. He depicted the fatal consequences which would result to religion and to the state from breaking off the negotiations; he exhorted them to use every means in their power to come to some understanding between themselves, on that very day, seeing that the conclusion of the treaty had been announced in the newspapers, and that the news of its having been signed was to be proclaimed at to-morrow's grand banquet. It was easy, added he, to imagine the indignation and fury of one so headstrong as his brother, when he should have to appear before the public as having published in his own journals false news on a matter of such importance. But no arguments could persuade the Cardinal to negotiate on the basis of the substituted project of Concordat. He consented, however, to discuss once more the articles of the treaty on which they had agreed before. The discussion commenced about five o'clock in the evening. "To understand how serious it was, how exact, what warm debates it gave rise to on both sides, how laborious, how painful, it will be enough to say that it lasted without any interruption or repose for nineteen consecutive hours, that is to say, to noon on the following day. We spent the entire night at it, without dismissing our servants or carriages, like men who hope every hour to finish the business on which they are engaged. At mid-day we had come to an understanding on all the articles, with one single exception". This one article, of which we shall speak later, appeared to the Cardinal to be a substantial question, and to involve a principle which, as has often been the case, the Holy See might tolerate as a fact, but which it could never sanction (_canonizzare_) as an express article of a treaty. The hour when Joseph Bonaparte must leave to appear before the First Consul was at hand, and "it would be impossible", says the Cardinal, "to enumerate the assaults made on me at that moment to induce me to yield on this point, that he might not have to carry to his brother the fatal news of a rupture". But nothing could shake the resolution of the Papal minister or lead him to act contrary to his most sacred duties. He yielded so far, however, as to propose that they should omit the disputed article, and draw out a copy of the Concordat in which it should not appear, and that this copy should be brought to Bonaparte. Meantime the Holy See could be consulted on the subject of the article under debate, and the difficulty could be settled before the ratification of the Concordat. This plan was adopted. In less than an hour, Joseph returned from the Tuileries with sorrow depicted on his countenance. He announced that the First Consul, on hearing his report, had given himself up to a fit of extreme fury; in the violence of his passion he had torn in a hundred pieces the paper on which the Concordat was written; but finally, after a world of entreaties and arguments, he had consented with indescribable repugnance, to admit all the articles that had been agreed on, but with respect to the one article which had been left unsettled, he was inflexible. Joseph was commanded to tell the Cardinal that he, Bonaparte, absolutely insisted on that article just as it was couched in the Abbe Bernier's paper, and that only two courses were open to the Pope's minister, either to sign the Concordat with that article inserted as it stood, or to break off the negotiation altogether. It was the Consul's unalterable determination to announce at the banquet that very day either the signing of the Concordat, or the rupture between the parties.

"It is easy to imagine the consternation into which we were thrown by this message. It still wanted three hours to five o'clock, the time fixed for the banquet at which we were all to assist. It is impossible to repeat all that was said by the brother of the First Consul, and by the other two, to urge me to yield to his will. The consequences of the rupture were of the most gloomy kind. They represented to me that I was about to make myself responsible for these evils, both to France and Europe, and to my own sovereign and Rome. They told me that at Rome I should be charged with untimely obstinacy, and that the blame of having provoked the results of my refusal would be laid at my door. I began to taste the bitterness of death. All that was terrible in the future they described to me rose up vividly before my mind. I shared at that moment (if I may venture so to speak) the anguish of the Man of Sorrows. But, by the help of Heaven, duty carried the day. I did not betray it. During the two hours of that struggle I persisted in my refusal, and the negotiation was broken off.

"This was the end of that gloomy sitting which had lasted full twenty-four hours, from four o'clock of the preceding evening to four of that unhappy day, with much bodily suffering, as may be supposed, but with much more terrible mental anguish, which can be appreciated only by those who have experienced it.

"I was condemned, and this I felt to be the most cruel inconvenience of my position, to appear within an hour at the splendid banquet of the day. It was my fate to bear in public the first shock of the violent passion which the news of the failure of the negotiations was sure to rouse in the breast of the First Consul. My two companions and I returned for a few minutes to our hotel, and after making some hasty preparations, we proceeded to the Tuileries.

"The First Consul was present in a saloon, which was thronged by a crowd of magistrates, officers, state dignitaries, ministers, ambassadors, and strangers of the highest rank, who had been invited to the banquet. He had already seen his brother, and it is easy to imagine the reception he gave us as soon as we had entered the apartment. The moment he perceived me, with a flushed face and in a loud and disdainful voice, he cried out:

"'Well, M. le Cardinal, it is, then, your wish to quarrel! So be it. I have no need of Rome. I will manage for myself. If Henry VIII., without the twentieth part of my power, succeeded in changing the religion of his country, much more shall I be able to do the like. By changing religion in France, I will change it throughout almost the whole of Europe, wherever my power extends. Rome shall look on at her losses; she shall weep over them, but there will be no help for it then. You may be gone; it is the best thing left for you to do. You have wished to quarrel--well, then, be it so, since you have wished it. When do you leave, I say?'"

"After dinner, General", calmly replied the Cardinal.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Memoires du Cardinal Consalvi, secretaire d'Etat du Pape Pio VII., avec un introduction et des notes, par J. Cretineau-Joly._ Paris, Henri Plon, Rue Garenciere, 8, 1864. 2 vol. 8vo, pagg. 454-488.

(TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT.)

ST. BRIGID'S ORPHANAGE.

_St. Brigid's Orphanage for Five Hundred Children._ Eighth Annual Report. Powell, 10 Essex Bridge, Dublin.

It would be interesting to trace the various arts and devices which have been adopted for the propagation of Protestantism in this country. Its authors certainly never intended to spread it through the world in the way in which the Gospel was introduced by the disciples of our Lord. The apostles gained over unbelievers to the truth by patience, by prayer, by good example, and by the performance of wonderful works. Their spirit was that of charity, their only object was the salvation of souls. So far from being supported by an arm of flesh, all the powers of the earth persecuted them and conspired for their destruction.

But how was Protestantism propagated in Ireland? By acts of parliament fraudulently obtained, by the violence and influence of two most corrupt and unprincipled sovereigns--Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. Under their sway great numbers of Irish Catholics were put to death because they would not renounce the ancient faith; convents and monasteries were suppressed because their inmates were faithful to their vows; the parochial clergy and bishops were persecuted and spoiled, and many put to death, because they adhered to the religion of their fathers, and would not separate themselves from the communion of the Catholic Church, spread over the whole world.

Moreover, the property of the Catholics was confiscated, and the nobles of the land were reduced to poverty, because their consciences would not allow them to bow to the supremacy of the crown in religious matters. What shall we say of the ingenious system of penal laws, which, with Draconian cruelty, was enacted against Catholicity? A father was not allowed to give a Catholic education to his children; and the child of Catholic parents, if he became a Protestant, could disinherit his brothers, and reduce his father to beggary. Catholic education and Catholic schools were proscribed. A Protestant university was instituted and richly endowed with confiscated property, in order that it might be an engine for assailing Catholicity, and a bulwark of Protestantism. Charter schools were established for the purpose of infecting poor children with heresy. A court of wards was instituted, in order that the children of the nobility might be seized on, and brought up in the errors of the new religion. It was in this way that the Earls of Kildare and other noble families lost their faith. Catholics were excluded from all offices of trust; they could not be members of parliament, they had no right of voting at elections, and they were not even allowed to hold leases of the lands from which their fathers had been violently and unjustly expelled. Such were the _evangelical_ arts adopted to spread Protestantism in Ireland. What a contrast with the means employed by Providence to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Thanks be to God, the faith of the people of Ireland overcame all the agencies which were employed for its destruction, and is now producing wonderful works of piety and charity at home, and bringing the blessings of salvation to foreign lands that heretofore were sitting in darkness and the shades of death. However, active efforts are still made to propagate the religion of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and it is hoped that what those corrupt and wicked, but powerful and despotic, sovereigns could not effect by fire and sword, by cruel penal laws, and confiscation of property, may be compassed by a degraded and contemptible system of pecuniary proselytism, which consists in collecting money in England for the purpose of bribing poor Catholics to become hypocrites and to deny their faith, or of purchasing children from miserable or wicked parents, in order to educate them in the religion, whatever that may be, of the Church Establishment, or more probably in no religion at all.

The Report of St. Brigid's Orphanage, mentioned at the head of this notice, gives most interesting details regarding this new method of propagating the errors of Luther and Calvin. This document, though brief, is most worthy of the perusal of every Catholic. It describes the activity and perfidy of the proselytisers, and it shows that they have immense resources, even hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum, at their disposal. The zeal of those men and their sacrifices in a bad cause, must be a reproach to Catholics, if they are not ready to stand forth and exert themselves in defence of the Holy Catholic and Apostolical Church, out of which there is no salvation.

The Association of St. Brigid in the few years of its existence has saved a large number of children from the fangs of proselytism. It has been able to perform so great a work of charity because its funds, though small, are managed with great economy. No expense is incurred for buildings, or for the rent of houses, or for a staff of masters and mistresses. The ladies who manage the orphanage receive no remuneration, but give their services for the love of God. The poor orphans are sent to the country, and placed under the care of honest and religious families, who, for five or six pounds for each per annum, bring them up in the humble manner in which the peasants of Ireland are accustomed to live. In this way the orphans acquire that love for God, and that spirit of religion, for which this country is distinguished, and, at the same time, they become strong and vigorous like the other inhabitants of the country, and are prepared to bear the hardships to which persons of their class are generally exposed in life. Were those children educated in large orphanages and in the smoky air of the city, they would perhaps be weak and delicate, incapable of bearing hard work, and likely to fail in the day of trial.

The education of the orphans of St. Brigid is not overlooked by the managers. They require the nurses not only to teach the children by word and example, but also to send them to good schools, where they learn reading, and writing, the catechism, and all that is necessary for persons in their sphere of life. Some of the ladies of the association call them together from time to time for examination, and considerable premiums are awarded to the families in which the children are found to have made the greatest progress. In this way great emulation is excited, and a considerable progress in knowledge is secured.

When the orphans grow up, as they are generally strong and healthy and able for farm work, they are easily provided for. Many of them are adopted by those who reared them. In this way great economy is observed, and this is a consideration which cannot be overlooked in a poor country like Ireland, where the charity of the faithful has so many demands upon it. However, everything necessary is attained, as the orphans are prepared to earn a livelihood in this world, and trained up in the practice of those Christian virtues and practices by which they may save their souls.