186] 
no other meeting of this nature has 
been attempted. 
, The public approved this exer- 
tion of authority, without inquiring 
into the reasons alleged by those 
who argued for the propriety of 
these meetings. They dreaded that 
spirit of obstinacy with which the 
generality of divines are apt to main- 
tain their opinions, and to disregard 
the mischiefs that may be occasion-~ 
ed by insisting on the obligation 
of receiving them as orthodox, 
and binding on the consciences of 
men. Though the revolution had 
diminished, in a great measure, the 
superstitious disposition of the times, 
enough remained to set the nation 
in flames ; and it was the duty of 
its rulers to discountenance and sup- 
press all religious discussions of this 
kind, which invariably tended to in- 
volve men in quarrels, and seldom 
elucidated the subjects about which 
they contended. 
The conforming and the nonjur- 
ing clergy fully confirmed these ap- 
prehensions, by the animosity they 
reciprocally displayed. The latter 
especially exhibited scenes of bi- 
gotry, that could not have been ex- 
ceeded in the darkest ages. Those 
who abjured the party of their an- 
tagonists, were not admitted into 
the congregation of the faithful, as 
they styled themselves, until they 
had been formally exorcised: 4 cere- 
mony which they deemed necessary 
to expel the evil spirit that might 
still be lurking within them. But 
what was still more scandalous, as 
well as more absurd, they would 
sometimes dig out of their graves 
the bodies of those who had been 
buried by confermists, and give 
them @ fresh interment, in order to 
insure their repose. 
Such absurdities, at the close of 
ag 
c 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
the eighteenth century, amply re- 
futed the assertions of those who 
represented the clergy of France as 
a rational and enlightened body 
of men. This might be true of 
numbers; but till the revolution 
had empowered men to think, an 
incomparable majorityof both clergy 
and laity were plunged in the deep- 
est ignorance and credulity. Some 
have thought there was more of 
hypocrisy than persuasion among 
the former: but their late sufferings 
have proved their sincerity. 
The conforming clergy seem, 
however, to gain ground. Their 
tenets appear more reasonable to 
the refieéting, and several of them 
are also decided republicans. Ctiris- 
tianity has been by some of them 
described as the great charter of the 
original rights of man, and the 
anion of church and state as anti- 
Christian, and inimical to liberty. 
While such principles are avowed 
by ecclesiastics, and countenanced 
by government, it can hardly be 
doubted but they will finally pre- 
ponderate; the sooner indeed, that 
all ideas of persecution are dropped, 
and the fanatical party left to in- 
dulge in all its extravagancies, with- 
out the least notice on the part of 
the state, which treats them with a 
silent contempt, that more effeétual- 
ly exposes them to ridicule, than 
could be done by the measures of 
restraint. 
This revolutionary spirit, in reli- 
gious matters, was not, in the mean 
time, confined to France. It had 
long been making a concealed pro- 
gress in Italy and Germany, and 
the French revolution gave it fresh 
vigour. In the Austrian Nether- 
Jands, the influence of the Romish 
clergy,and the submissive disposition 
of the natives, in the concerns of re» 
ligion 
