THE CHURCH DIFFICULTIES IN FRANCE FROM A FRENCH POINT OF VIEW

THE object of this article is to present, as far as possible, the present ecclesiastical situation in France as it is seen, known, and realised by French Catholics, who regret, and resent even, the misleading character and colour of the information of correspondents who influence English public opinion through the Press in an anti-papal and more or less pro-governmental spirit and purpose. Obviously it is not only fair but desirable that all sides in a great contest should be heard and realised; and therefore we have no quarrel with honest statements, ungarbled and unarranged, which represent the side, opinions, and acts of the present anti-Christian Government in France; nor, again, of discontented Catholics, whether laymen or clergy; of Protestants such as Sabatier; or schismatics such as Monsieur Durand Morimbeau, alias Monsieur Henri des Houx of the Matin; or Catholic journalists of the type of Monsieur Cornély of the Siècle; all criticism and information given in the open finds its value, its real value, sooner or later; but in this controversy our subject of complaint is that, with hardly any exception, such information is not given to the English press in the open, but is sheltered by the double advantage of anonymity and such noms-de-plume as 'A French Catholic,' 'A Catholic Priest,' 'A Roman Catholic Correspondent,' 'A Catholic Layman,' 'Another Catholic Layman'; and quotations are made from a very distinguished ecclesiastic,' 'a Bishop,' 'a well-known French priest.' It will be seen we are impartial in our stricture, for the articles in the Times by A Catholic Layman' have our whole sympathy and assent. But in such a contest as the present all who care for truth, and desire justice and the good of Christendom; desire supremely the kingdom of God; must put aside all personal considerations, and do battle openly according to capacity. As to our own correspondent,' of whatever newspaper, our complaint does not apply, their names being to be known by whoever so desires. The contributions of A French Catholic' in the Times, and still more in a Church of England newspaper from the same source directly, or by inspiration, are of a character which justify us in asking the name,

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and in reminding the English public that anonymous correspondents should not be given unlimited credence. The articles and letters referred to may, probably do, emanate from a Roman Catholic who possibly remains to some extent in communion with the Church of his baptism. Circumstances may have been hard on him, or he may have ill digested his circumstances; but no one, not even of the most liberal Catholics who are loyal to the Pope, could write in the spirit of the articles and letters referred to, which from beginning to end place even facts so as to lose all proportion and perspective, and distort and exaggerate, misstate, state what we know positively to be untrue, with an ability and malevolence which strike painfully French lay Catholics who read the Times, and still more painfully, and with a sense of shame, the present writer, when Church of England newspapers accept such correspondents as their authority. The few Frenchmen, lay and cleric, who read these Church of England papers are surprised, and have expressed their opinion that the choice of these correspondents has been, to say the least, unfortunate. It is, however, to their anonymous authorship we chiefly object. What would be thought if we, or any other member of the Church of England, undertook to supply La Croix, for instance, with Church of England controversies, or merely with an annotated edition of the Blue-books of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline, even if done in a different spirit from that which breathes through the writers we complain of? It may not be useless to add that a distinguished French jurist had the curiosity to wade through the four volumes of Blue-books referred to. He is no ultramontane nor intransigeant; he is full of common sense, and is a strong Churchman; he knows about as little as most of his countrymen as to the Church of England; added to which he is chronically amazed at the illogicalness of the English. We fear his amazement was not lessened, nor his respect increased, by the perusal of these Blue-books. Inevitably he exaggerated the importance of their contents. To him it seemed a revelation of petty intrigue and spying, of ignorant bigotry and personalities on the part of the extreme Protestants; as well as of leaders of both sexes of the various Protestant associations, whose zeal seemed to him often to lack the spirit of reverence and charity. He failed to understand the bishops and marvelled how certain clergy of the High Church party, if really sure of their tenets and faith, of their orders and sacraments, could attach supreme importance to accessories, however desirable, if not obligatory; and which, as causes of controversy, might retard the acceptance of the teaching intended to be inculcated. We succeeded to a considerable extent in reducing his impressions to more accurate proportions, but, nevertheless, there has remained in the Frenchman's mind this: that extreme pettiness, and a foolish, unworthy, and even un-Christian temper characterised the proceedings of the more Protestant; and that, with perhaps

two exceptions, the witnesses were confused and feeble; and that as for the Commissioners they were indeed what might be expected from such incoherence as is represented by English religious thought and teaching! We have been more successful in dealing with signed letters and speeches regarding the Church of England which occasionally are quoted in French papers; for we can explain the weight of Mr. Fillingham's 'honest verdict on Anglican Orders; also, having the honour of the acquaintance of the Archbishop of Canterbury and of many of the bishops, as well as knowing more or less of them all, we could vouch that the portraits drawn by Dr. Clifford were not from the life by a dispassionate Churchman, but were the inspirations of a fervid Nonconformist imagination; and again and again in the weary course of the Education Bill campaign did we point out that not even when suddenly clutching the sword of faith, and swearing by all the Thirty-nine Articles at once as a true member of the Church of England, were members of Parliament, otherwise not often found occupied in her interests and service, to be taken as mouthpieces of the more instructed and chronicly zealous Churchmen. But enough of this. The entente cordiale certainly tends to accustom the French and English nations to each other's grimaces and noises; that is something. Four years living wholly with the French, and among the French, in a wholly French milieu, only confirms us daily in the realisation of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of the English mind understanding the French, and vice versa; and in nothing is this more the case than in matters of religion; of etiquette; of wit, sense of humour, jokes. It is also difficult as to politics. As to religion, the complexities in England are resolved for almost every Frenchman into Protestant and Catholic; while for our own countrymen, in this enlightened twentieth century, religion in France is considered by a great majority of the British as

unfortunately Catholic; but still if it were not for the Pope and Rome it would not much matter; there are fortunately many Protestants who escaped the Edict of Nantes and all that, you know, just as we have our Dissenters; and if the Pope would only not interfere all would arrange itself as well as it can in a Catholic country, and the French Government would not be obliged to interfere either, and anyhow it is all the fault of the Pope now. Not that I am at all prejudiced; everyone respects him in Rome, and I even asked for an audience myself; only, just as I say to the Ritualists, you are neither one thing nor the other, be honestly Roman Catholic or Protestant; so I say, let the Pope manage his own affairs and keep to Italy and leave the French to manage theirs.

This quotation represents in a somewhat confused and not very relevant style the bulk of English public opinion as to the present Church question in France; and observant readers of the newspapers referred to, cannot have failed to notice the cleverness with which the red herrings are drawn and redrawn across the scent. Pope, and all which Rome represents; supposed jealousies of regulars and seculars;

(one seems to see the models of the witty sculptures of the Middle Ages reawakened to play their part). In more delicate handling references are made to intellectual sufferings, to the tyranny of the Index, to philosophy and exegesis crushed. A propos of the regulars and seculars, perhaps many in England do not know that before the expulsion of the religious Orders there were barely ten thousand monks who were priests as against the sixty thousand secular clergy now in France. And yet repeatedly we have seen it stated in English newspapers that the Pope's purpose and desire is to replace the secular by the regular clergy in the French parishes. This, indeed, was urged as an excuse, as the reason, for the impertinent conditions imposed by the Minister of Public Worship in the proposed contracts between clergy and municipal councils, that not only no foreigners (foreigners in villages!) but no regular clergy would be allowed as curés.

Human nature is the same everywhere, and doubtless there are individual preferences and prejudices among the clergy in France as among the clergy in other countries and Churches, and even occasionally among the laity. With the exception, however, of the Jesuits, there is no foundation whatever for the idea that there exists now in France any jealousy whatever of the regular clergy by the secular, or of the seculars by the regulars. Prejudices and preferences are to be found among themselves as to individuals, whether regulars or seculars, but not by the secular body of the body of regular clergy. There are many individual Jesuit priests who are much loved, esteemed, and trusted in France; but as a corporation the Jesuits seem to us to be looked upon more as a caste apart, to be looked at askance even, almost disliked, in a way not to be wondered at perhaps, representing as they do an organisation, though a long way behind the Freemasons, yet still very remarkable in solidarity, effectiveness, discipline. Remarkable also for the perfection of detail and application, of machinery and system in ethics, theology, philosophy, learning generally, and applied sciences; but all within an iron boundary of administrative authority, fossilised authority, which inevitably meets with increasing difficulties within the Church even, and would strike us as a dyke without a lock, doomed not only to be lost itself in a devastating flood, but to submerge and injure what it should have served to nourish and refresh, but for our certainty that so noble and devoted an Order will in the time of Providence understand and adjust its magnificent powers to the Divine Will, working on in new, or changed, manifestations of the same central Truth for which the Company of Jesus, from their great Founder downwards, have worked, and meant to work, whatever may have been, may be, their mistakes or failures. Thus much for the regulars and seculars. Now for Rome. Here let us quote the Archbishop of Besançon and Monsieur Georges Picot, member of the Institut de France, and

perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences Morales et Politiques,1 whose absolute absence of the spirit of 'intransigeance' is proved by the fact that in the thickest of the Dreyfus storm he was one of the few who openly expressed their indignation at the showing to the military tribunal some pièces d'accusation not shown to Dreyfus's lawyers. Since, most people allow the whole procedure to have been grossly mismanaged, but then Monsieur Picot was almost alone; and that although neither then nor now convinced of Dreyfus's innocence. We say nor now, since in France no change whatever has been made in public opinion by the late acquittal. The late proceeding of the Cour de Cassation was without precedent in thus unconstitutionally closing the matter, instead of, as always, sending back for fresh trial by a military court-and no doubt could be entertained of the capacity of the Government to see that the court was composed of unprejudiced members. This is referred to here as the surest way of inspiring the English public with confidence in Monsieur Picot, who also is one of those who signed the laymen's letter begging for the acceptance of the Associations Cultuelles. Speaking to us of the misunderstandings and misrepresentations in the English press (he is an English scholar), he said a few days ago that the campaign against the Church in France is worked by the Freemasons, and that Christianity is the object-twenty, even ten, years ago such a speech as Monsieur Viviani's in November last would not have been possible; for even those not Catholic were Deists and respected religion—that that speech, with its unblushing declaration of what had been achieved, and of the final blotting out of Christian light and faith, of the mockeries of Christian hope and prayer, had served as a great push to the campaign of the atheistic schoolmasters all over the country; that the voting by the Chamber to have this speech posted up in every commune was the triumph of Freemasonry. Monsieur Picot went on in his constitutionally hopeful spirit to the one cheering feature in this time of trial-the solid unity of Catholics finding their strength and rallying-point in their chief and centre, the Pope. He expressed the admiration he felt for British and Irish patriotism in times of national danger and struggle, instancing in particular the solid front made by British and Irish of all parties and of all opinions during the Transvaal war :

There were many differences of opinion before and after as to the policy which led to the war, but during the war, with very few insignificant exceptions, all divisions and criticisms were put aside, and the thought of country united you all. That, alas, in our politics seems impossible; but we in France find the same strength and unity in our Faith; and whatever differences of opinion

He was formerly Judge of the Tribunal de la Seine and Director of the Criminal Department of the Ministry of Justice; a man whose friendship is an honour, whether from the intellectual, philanthropic, or Christian point of view, as will testify our mutual friend, Lord Reay.

VOL. LXI-No. 364

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