xl FATHER HYACINTHE's LETTER 



Diime. I express my regrets for tins to the intelligent 

 and courageous bishop, who placed me and has main- 

 tained me in it against the ill-will of the men of whom 

 I have just been speaking. I express my regrets for it 

 to the imposing audience which there surrounded me 

 with its attention, its sympathies — I had almost said, 

 with its friendship. I should be worthy neither of the 

 audience, nor of the bishop, nor of my conscience, nor 

 of God, if I could consent to play such a part in their 

 presence. 



I withdraw at the same time from the convent in 

 which I dwell, and which, in the new circumstances 

 which have befallen me, has become to me a prison of 

 the soul. In acting thus I am not unfaithful to my 

 vows. I have promised monastic obedience — but Avithin 

 the limits of an honest conscience, and of the dignity 

 of my person and ministry. I have promised it under 

 favor of that higher law of justice, the " royal law of 

 liberty," which is, according to the apostle James, the 

 proper law of the Christian. 



It was the most untrammelled enjoyment of this holy 

 liberty that I came to seek in the cloister, now more 

 than ten years ago, under the impulse of an enthusiasm 

 pure from all worldly calculation — I dare not add, free 

 from all youthful illusion. If, in return for my sacri- 

 fices, I to-day am offered chains, it is not merely my 

 right, it is my duty to reject them. 



Tliis is a solemn hour. The diurch is passing 

 tlmjiigh one ol' tlie most violent crises — one of the 



