Reign of Louis XV. continued—The Bull Unigenitus—A Notary Public—G. N. Nivelle—G. C. Buffard—Death of Deacon Paris—Rise, progress, and acts, of the Convulsionaries—Persecution of them, and artifices employed by them to foil their persecutors—Lenglet Dufresnoy—La Beaumelle—F. de Marsy—Marmontel—The Abbé Morellet—Mirabeau the elder—The Chevalier Resseguier—Groubendal and Dulaurens—Robbé de Beauveset—Mahé de la Bourdonnais—Count Lally—La Chalotais—Marin—Durosoi—Prévost de Beaumont—Barletti St. Paul—Dumouriez. Religious intolerance, on the one hand, and disgusting fanaticism, on the other, contributed largely to swell the number of captives in the Bastile, and in other places of confinement. For many years after Pope Clement XI., at the instigation of the bigoted Le Tellier and Louis XIV., had thrown among the clergy of the Gallican church that ecclesiastical firebrand the bull Unigenitus, it continued to spread the flames of fierce contention, hatred, and persecution. The first individual for whom the bull found an abode in a prison was, I believe, a notary public. While the regency was held by the Duke of Orleans, the bishops of Mirepoix, Senez, Montpellier, and Boulogne, had the boldness to sign an act, protesting against the bull, and appealing from the pope to a future council; and, accompanied by a notary, they solemnly presented this act to the assembled Sorbonne. As to have imprisoned the four bishops would scarcely have been politic, they were only ordered to retire to their dioceses; the notary, of whom a scape-goat could more conveniently be made, was sent to the Bastile. Backed by power, the supporters of the bull were finally triumphant, and they did not fail to make the vanquished party experience the consequence of being defeated by men who did not consider forbearance as a virtue. It would be useless to dwell upon the many appellants who were chastised for having ventured to doubt the pontifical infallibility, and insist on referring the question in dispute to a future council; I will, therefore, only make mention of two individuals. Among those who were most active in opposing the bull Unigenitus, and who, consequently, were proscribed by its champions, was Gabriel Nicholas Nivelle; he was indefatigable in drawing up memorials and tracts, and soliciting appeals against it. He more than once contrived to elude his pursuers; but, in 1730, he was taken and committed to the Bastile, where he remained for four months. His zeal was, however, rather excited than cooled by this imprisonment; and, till his decease in 1761, when he was in his seventy-fourth year, he continued to be a determined opponent of the bull. Nivelle edited several voluminous works relative to the contest in which his party was engaged; the principal of which, in four folio volumes, bears the title of The Constitution Unigenitus denounced to the Universal Church, or a General Collection of the Acts of Appeal.