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
We visited M. Galais again this afternoon, as he was going out to
their maison de campagne, for his retreat of eight days, to-morrow. He
was reciting his Breviary when we entered his chamber; he begged
permission to continue, then knelt down for the Lord's Prayer, and
after that talked with us above an hour. He also took us to the
Supérieur. I told him we were desirous to learn all we could of their
discipline. He said the seminaries had been originally established
with a view to cultivate the interior life, and as places of religious
recueillement,--the young men going to the Sorbonne for instruction.
All this had been put a stop to at the Revolution; and now, the
university being under the direction of infidels, they were obliged to
make their seminaries serve for instruction as well as for works of
piety. They wished to have a chair of Ecclesiastical History. He
inquired about the state of Christian philosophy at Oxford, and said
they looked for something to be done on that subject, where the stress
of the battle with infidelity now lies. He also asked whether as
careful a guard was kept over young men preparing for orders as with
them: on which point we were ashamed to answer. M. Galais invited us
to their maison de campagne, and we agreed to go on Saturday.
_Tuesday, July 15._--We ventured to call on the Père Lacordaire, and
were richly rewarded for our boldness, inasmuch as we had more than an
hour's very animated talk with him. Behold a veritable monk, a St.
Bernard as it were, returned again in the vigour of manhood; in his
white Dominican dress he looked the very beau idéal of the Church's
warrior, armed at all points for the encounter with heresy, and
walking serene and fearless amid the troubles of life and the shock of
falling systems. A fresh and rosy countenance, a keen dark eye, and
most animated expression, contributed to form one of the most striking
figures I have ever beheld. I thought it was worth coming to Paris to
see him. Perhaps the knowledge that he was a most eloquent preacher
had something to do with this feeling. "I asked him about the
Tiers Ordre de S. Dominic. He said that it was under no vow, but they
might add to their profession the vow of celibacy (chastity they call
it always), or that of obedience, or both. The rule, as modified by
authoritative dispensations, may be observed with tolerable ease by
persons living in society. Father Lacordaire himself, as superior of
the Dominicans in France, has received from Rome certain dispensations
for those who may embrace the third order; and there are already some
fifty of them, if I remember right, in Paris."--_M._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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