Letter XIX

FRAGMENT OF A NINETEENTH PROVINCIAL LETTER, ADDRESSED TO FATHER ANNAT

REVEREND SIR,
If I have caused you some dissatisfaction, in former Letters, by
my endeavours to establish the innocence of those whom you were
labouring to asperse, I shall afford you pleasure in the present by
making you acquainted with the sufferings which you have inflicted
upon them. Be comforted, my good father, the objects of your enmity
are in distress! And if the Reverend the Bishops should be induced
to carry out, in their respective dioceses, the advice you have
given them, to cause to be subscribed and sworn a certain matter of
fact, which is, in itself, not credible, and which it cannot be
obligatory upon any one to believe- you will indeed succeed in
plunging your opponents to the depth of sorrow, at witnessing the
Church brought into so abject a condition.

Yes, sir, I have seen them; and it was with a satisfaction
inexpressible! I have seen these holy men; and this was the attitude
in which they were found. They were not wrapt up in a philosophic
magnanimity; they did not affect to exhibit that indiscriminate
firmness which urges implicit obedience to every momentary impulsive
duty; nor yet were they in a frame of weakness and timidity, which
would prevent them from either discerning the truth, or following it
when discerned. But I found them with minds pious, composed, and
unshaken; impressed with a meek deference for ecclesiastical
authority; with tenderness of spirit, zeal for truth, and a desire
to ascertain and obey her dictates: filled with a salutary suspicion
of themselves, distrusting their own infirmity, and regretting that it
should be thus exposed to trial; yet withal, sustained by a modest
hope that their Lord will deign to instruct them by his illuminations,
and sustain them by his power; and believing that that of their
Saviour, whose sacred influences it is their endeavour to maintain,
and for whose cause they are brought into suffering, will be at once
their guide and their support! I have, in fine, seen them
maintaining a character of Christian piety, whose power . . . . . .
.. . . . . . .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I found them surrounded by their friends, who had hastened to
impart those counsels which they deemed the most fitting in their
present exigency. I have heard those counsels; I have observed the
manner in which they were received, and the answers given: and
truly, my father, had you yourself been present, I think you would
have acknowledged that, in their whole procedure, there was the entire
absence of a spirit of insubordination and schism; and that their only
desire and aim was to preserve inviolate two things- to them
infinitely precious- peace and truth.
For, after due representations had been made to them of the
penalties they would draw upon themselves by their refusal to sign the
Constitution, and the scandal it might cause in the Church, their
reply was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .