XXXIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



on to speak more and more pointedly of tlic sins of rulers and 

 the sins of the hicrarch}-, it grew intolerable to those who felt the 

 stroke of his invective, the pressure of his argument. There 

 seemed little hope of redress from " the secular arm." Audacious 

 as had been the rebukes which had been uttered from the pulpit 

 of Notrjc Dame against the sins of the government, arbitrary as 

 that government had been wont to be, in its dealings with free 

 speech, it is simple justice to say that it never attempted to limit 

 the liberty of this preacher. On the contrary, even the Emperor 

 himself, " knowing that he was a just man and a holy, preserved 

 him; and when he heard him, he did many things and heard him 

 gladly."* For, to the great honor of the Emperor, the friar was 

 invited to the Tuileries, to preach in tlie imperial presence. In 

 fact, what could secular government do in the case ? It is impos- 

 sible to fine a man under a vow of povert^y ; and penal imprison- 

 ment could have few terrors for the inmate of a Carmelite convent. 

 What then could be done? To complain to the Archbishop 

 would have been vain, for that Gallican prelate of the old school 

 was well known to bear little love to the complaining party, and 

 not a little to the offending monk. But there was a third re- 

 course, at once more easy, more certain, and more effective. And 

 this was, to the discipline — absolute, autocratic, inexorable, claim- 

 ing control both of soul and of body — the discipline of the Car- 

 melite Order. The General of the Order resides at Rome, 

 surrounded by the reactionary and despotic influences of which 

 that unhappy city is the metropolis, and accessible to whisper- 

 ings and accusations against his subordinates in every part of the 

 Avorld. The natural pride of such an Order in the fame of its 

 most illustrious member might be an adequate defence against 

 most charges, but not against so black and fatal a one as that of 

 sympathy with popular liberty and education, hatred of Pharisa- 

 ism, and a wide charity toward all true Christians, without as 

 well as within the pale of his own Church. " Open attacks and 

 secret misrepresentations" against the preacher of Notre Dame 



* Story of the dealing; of Herod Avitb John tlie Baptist. Mark, vi. 20. 



