Xlii FATHER hyacinthe' S LETTER 



attacked aiul revolted by these false teachers in its most 

 indestructible and holiest aspirations. I protest above 

 all against the sacrilegious perversion of the Gospel of 

 the Son of God himself, the spirit and the letter of 

 which, alike, are trodden under foot l)y the Pharisaism 

 of the new law. 



It is my most profound conviction, tliat if France in 

 particular, and the Latin races in general, are delivered 

 over to anarchy, social, moral and religious, the princi- 

 pal cause of it is to be found — not, certainly, in Catholi- 

 cism itself — but in the way in which Catholicism has 

 for a long time past been understood and practised. 



I appeal to the Council nov/ about to assemble, to 

 seek remedies for our excessive evils, and to apply them 

 alike Avith energy and gentleness. But if fears whicli 

 I am loth to share, should come to be realized — if that 

 august assembly should have no more of liberty in its 

 deliberations than it has already in its preparation — if, 

 in one word, it should bo robbed of the characteristics 

 essential to an Œcumenical Council, I would cry to God 

 and men to demand another, really assembled in the Holy 

 Spirit, not in the si)irit of i^arty — really representing the 

 church universal, not tlie silence of some and the con- 

 straint of ulliers. '• For the luirt of the daughter of my 

 people am I Inirt. I am bhiek. Astonishment iiath 

 taken hoKl on nie. Is tliere no balm in Gilead — is 

 there no i)hysician there ? Why then is not the healtli 

 of the daughter of my people recovered ?" — Jeroninhy 

 viii. '?A,'Z2, 



