VIII.
This missive reached Mgr. Laurence just after he had issued the ordinance already known to the reader, and had appointed a commission to examine the extraordinary works wrought by the hand of God.
Although singularly astonished and indignant at the fantastic account so gravely offered by the good minister as the truth itself, nevertheless, the bishop answered his letter in measured terms. Without expressing a complete judgment, in order not to hasten a premature solution of the matter, he rehabilitated the facts which had been so shamefully misrepresented. He set forth with great frankness the line of conduct which he and his clergy had pursued, until events had got to such a pass that it was necessary to interfere and order a commission of inquiry. To the minister, who, without knowledge or examination, had said, "Condemn," he answered, "I will examine."
"Monsieur le Ministre," wrote the prelate, "great was my amazement on reading your letter. I also am informed as to what takes place at Lourdes, and, as a bishop, deeply interested in reproving all that can harm religion and the faithful. Now, I can assure you that no such scenes as you describe exist, and, if there have been any occurrences worthy of regret, they have been transitory and have left no traces behind them.
"The facts to which your excellency alludes transpired after the grotto was shut up, and after the first week in July. Two or three children of Lourdes pretended to have visions, and behaved extravagantly in the streets. The grotto being then shut up, as I have said, they found means to get into it, and to offer their services to visitors stopped at the barricades, in order to touch their chaplets on the rock inside the grotto, and to appropriate the offerings received from them. One of them who was most remarkable for his eccentricities was a choir-boy in the church of Lourdes. The curé rebuked and drove him out of the catechisme, and excluded him from the service of the church.[101] The disorder was only transitory, and amounted only to the mischief of a few boys, which ceased as soon as it was reprehended. Such are the facts which overzealous persons have magnified into permanent scenes.
"I would be much gratified, M. le Ministre, if you would seek a fair statement of what has occurred from honorable persons who have remained here for some time in order to make personal observations of places, and to interrogate the child who is said to have had the vision. Such are Mgrs. the bishops of Montpellier and Soissons, Mgr. the Archbishop of Auch, M. Vène, inspector of thermal waters, Madame l'Amirale Bruat, M. L. Veuillot, etc., etc.
"The clergy, M. le Ministre, have up to this time maintained a complete reserve with regard to the occurrences at the grotto. The clergy of the town have shown a most admirable prudence. They have never gone to the grotto to give credit to the pilgrimage, nor, on the other hand, favored the measures of the administration. Nevertheless, they have been represented to you as encouraging superstition. I do not accuse the head magistrate of the department, whose intentions have always been good; but in this matter he has had an exclusive confidence in his subordinates.
"In my reply to the prefect, dated 11th of last April, which has been submitted to your perusal, I offered my hearty concurrence with the magistrate in order to bring this affair to a happy conclusion. But I have not been able to do what was desired of me, namely, to condemn from the pulpit, without examination, inquiry, or apparent reason, the persons who go to pray at the grotto, and to forbid all approach to it, especially when no disorder had been noticed, although on certain days the visitors amounted to thousands. Moreover, while the church has always some motive for her prohibitions, and while I myself was not sufficiently posted as to facts, I was also certain that amid the general excitement my words would have passed unheeded.
"The prefect, during the council of revision at Lourdes, on May 4th, caused the chief of police to remove the religious emblems left at the grotto, and, in an address to the mayors of the canton, stated that he had taken this measure by agreement with the diocesan bishop, an assertion which was repeated a few days afterward by the official organ of the prefecture. I was informed of this measure only by the journals and the curé of Lourdes.
"I hastened to write to the latter to cause the prefect's order to be respected. I made no complaint at that time or afterward of having been made an apparent party to a measure of which I had been left in ignorance. Although numerous letters were addressed to me entreating me to disclaim any share in it, I have refrained from adding any difficulty to the situation.
"After the religious objects had been removed from the grotto, we might have hoped to see the number of visits diminish, and the pilgrimage, so inconsiderately improvised, brought to an end. It was not so, however. The public rightly or wrongly pretended that the water from the grotto worked marvellous cures. The concourse became more numerous, and crowds came from the neighboring departments.
"On the 8th of June, the mayor of Lourdes issued a prohibition forbidding all access to the grotto. This was stated to be in the interest of religion and public welfare. Although religion might have been encouraged by it; and, again, although the bishop had not been consulted, he published no reclamation against these assertions; he kept silence for reasons above stated.
"You see, M. le Ministre, by these details, that the reserve of the clergy has not been complete in this matter; it has been, in my judgment, prudent. When able, I have lent my aid to the measures of the civil authority, and, if they have not met with success, it is not the bishop who is to blame.
"To-day, yielding to the petitions which have been addressed me from all quarters, I have concluded that the time has come when I can interest myself to good purpose in this affair. I have named a commission to collect the elements necessary for me to form a decision on a question which has moved the whole country around us, and which, judging from reports, seems likely to interest the whole of France. I am confident that the faithful will receive it with submission, since they are aware that no effort will be spared to get at the truth. The commission having been at work for some days, I have determined to render my ordinance public by having it printed, in hopes that it may help to calm spirits until the decision shall have been made known. I shall soon have the honor of sending your excellency a copy.
"I am, etc.,
"B. S., Bishop of Tarbes."
Such was the letter from Mgr. Laurence to M. Rouland. It was clear and decisive, and left nothing to be said by either party. The Minister of Public Worship did not reply. He re-entered his former silence. This was very wise. Perhaps, however, it would have been wiser for him never to have come out of it.
IX.
At the very moment when Mgr. Laurence, in the name of religion, ordered an inquiry into the unwonted events which the civil authority had condemned and persecuted and wished to reject à priori, without condescending even to examine; on the very same day on which the bishop's letter was mailed for the minister, M. Filhol, the illustrious professor of the faculty of Toulouse, delivered the final verdict of science on the water from the grotto of Lourdes. The conscientious and perfectly thorough labor of the great chemist reduced to nothing the official analysis of M. Latour de Trie, the expert of the prefecture, about which Baron Massy had made such a noise. M. Filhol testifies as follows:
"I, the undersigned, Professor of Chemistry to the Scientific Faculty of Toulouse, Professor of Pharmacy and Toxicology to the School of Medicine of the same city, and Knight of the Legion of Honor, certify that I have analyzed the water from a spring in the neighborhood of Lourdes. From this analysis it appears that the water of the grotto of Lourdes is of such composition that it may be considered good for drinking purposes, and of a character similar to that which is generally met with among those mountains whose soil is rich in calcareous matter.
"The extraordinary effects which are said to have been produced by the use of this water cannot, at least in the present state of science, be explained by the nature of the salts whose existence in it is detected by analysis.[102]
"This water contains no active substance capable of giving it marked therapeutic qualities. It can be drunk without inconvenience.