[1593] Yet, to meet the spiritual wants of all classes, there are still congregations which practise the most severe ascetic austerities. Thus, in 1883, a description of the Barefooted Clares in Paris shows that, out of eighteen members, but four are more than twenty-two years of age, the severity of discipline causing nearly all who enter to die young. No fire is allowed, even that in the kitchen being arranged to prevent access; sleep is only had on a narrow board, meat is only eaten on Christmas Day, and silence is enforced until some of the nuns lose the power of forming connected sentences.
[1594] The Pères de la Foi, also known as Adorateurs de Jésus and Paccanaristes, were Jesuits in disguise; the Société des Victimes de l’Amour de Dieu were Quietists. For the Report of M. Portalis, recommending their suppression, see Dutilleul, Hist. des Corporations Religieuses en France, Paris, 1846, pp. 411 sqq. For an exceedingly interesting sketch of modern French monachism, see also Ch. Sauvestre’s “Les Congrégations Religieuses” (Paris, 1867)—a work to which I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness for much that follows.
[1595] Décret du 18 Fév. 1809 Sect. II. Art. 8 (Dupin, Droit Ecclés. p. 295). This regulation, I believe, is still in force, and the members of these bodies are accustomed to renew their engagements every five years. From the position taken by Bishop Fabre, of Montreal, in April, 1883, in the case of a young woman who desired to leave her convent, I presume that the same regulation is in force in the Dominion of Canada.
[1596] For details, see Dupin, op. cit. pp. 285-298.
[1597] Chabot, Encyclopédie Monastique, p. xi. (Paris, 1827).
[1598] N. Y. Nation, May 29th, 1879. It is to the Paris correspondence of this journal that I am indebted for most of the details respecting the recent struggle between the religious orders and the state.
[1599] “Règle 91.—Qu’il ne laisse entrevoir aucune opinion, soit politique, soit théologique ou religieuse, contraire aux opinions du saint-siége.”—Sauvestre, op. cit. 215.
[1600] Le Pape et la Société Moderne, Paris, 1879, pp. 416-437.
[1601] Sauvestre, op. cit. pp. 123-4.
[1602] N. Y. Nation, April 21st, 1881.