5259 ([return])
[ Cf., in the above-mentioned biographies, the public and political discourses of the leading prelates, especially those of M. Mathieu (of Besançon), M. Dupanloup (of Orleans), Mgr. de Bonnechose (of Rouen), and particularly Mgr. Pie (of Poitiers).]
5260 ([return])
[ A fact told me by a lady, an eye-witness. In the seventeenth century it is probable that Fénelon or Bossuet would have regarded such a response as extravagant and even sacrilegious.]
5261 ([return])
[ Imagine the impression this might have had on ambitious men dreaming of establishing their own faithful parties. (SR.)]
5262 ([return])
[ Abbé Elie Méric, in the "Correspondant" of January 10, 1890, p. 18.]
5263 ([return])
[ "De l'État actuel du clergé en France" (1839), p.248, by the brothers Allignol. Careers of every kind are too crowded; "only the ecclesiastical is in want of subjects; willing youths are the only ones wanted and none are found." This is due, say these authors, to the profession of assistant-priest being too gloomy—eight years of preparatory study five years in the seminary, 800 francs of pay with the risk of losing it any day, poor extras, a life-servitude, no retiring pension, etc.—"Le Grand Péril de L'Église en France," by Abbé Bougaud (4th ed., 1879), pp 2-23.—"Lettre Circulaire" (No. 53) of Mgr. Thiebaut, archbishop of Rouen, 1890, p.618.]