Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and EducationAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
France -- Church history -- 19th century; Italy -- Church history -- 19th century
_Wednesday, August 9._--Went with M. Farel over the Carmes, the scene
of the massacre of 175 priests on September 2, 1792, among whom were
the Archbishop of Arles, and the Bishop of Saintes. The Supérieur
conducted us over the house and garden; he showed us the room in which
the revolutionary tribunal sat; the passage through which the victims
were hurried to be dispatched; and at the bottom of the garden the
orangery, now a chapel, into which they fled, and which retains
on its floor, and on the seat which runs along its inner wall,
numerous traces of blood. There is, especially, the mark of a head on
the bench, where the crown of hair is still visible, which must have
been dripping with blood to have left such a trace. No spot in Paris
has such interest for me as this: none is so glorious to the Church of
France: none carries such an omen of future triumphs. Between this
orangery and the house is a small circular piece of water, on the edge
of which several likewise were massacred. In a small vaulted chamber,
up stairs, are the marks of three rapiers against the wall, which the
assassins, sleeping there at night, seem to have put to stand there,
dropping with blood. And in this very room Madame Tallien, the Empress
Josephine, and the Duchess D'Aiguillon were confined seventeen days,
as appears by an inscription in pencil on the wall, asking how long
liberty should be a vain name, and signed "Citoyenne Tallien,
Josephine Beauharnais, D'Aiguillon." Even here the reminiscences of
this house do not stop;--in the garret many of the Girondins were
confined, and the walls are covered with their indignant remarks; many
from the Latin poets, in heathen style,--some written in pencil, some
in their blood. It is a curious contrast, as one turns away from this
chamber, to see over another door one of the old inscriptions of the
Carmelites remaining:--"Quod delectat, momentum est: quod
cruciat, æternum est." It is, as the late archbishop said, "le monde
Païen, and le monde Chrétien, vis-à-vis." He had purchased this house
as a place for the encouragement of the higher studies of theology
among the clergy; the design was not completed at his death, but there
are about forty here, of whom twelve are masters. He has added another
to the noble band of martyrs, the unequalled patrimony of this
building: his heart has just been carried to the chapel, where we saw
it in a glass case. Surely neither their blood, nor his, has been shed
in vain. He seems to me worthy to rank with the Archbishop of Arles,
who, when his name was called out by the murderers, stepped forth from
amid the priests seeking to shelter him, and said, "C'est moi. Je suis
celui que vous cherchez." He was struck down and massacred. The same
power enabled the late archbishop, not a man careless of his life, nor
of great physical courage, to present himself fearlessly among enraged
combatants, and when suffering extreme tortures from his wound not
even once to ask his physician for aid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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