ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



sidered as national property. The reli- 

 gious orders were dissolved, and their es- 

 tates confiscated. When the National 

 Assembly attempted to impose upon the 

 clergy what they denominated the civil 

 constitution of the clergy, a refusal to 

 submit to it, and to that of taking an oath 

 to maintain it, was attended with the most 

 terming consequences. One hundred 

 and thirty -eight bishops and archbishops, 

 and sixty-eight curates, or vicars, were 

 on this account driven from their sees 

 and parishes. Numbers of these unfor- 

 tunate men were massacred in the streets, 

 while hundreds of them sought refuge in 

 this and other countries. Notwithstand- 

 ing these proceedings, on the 23th of 

 INlay, 1795, a decree was obtained for the 

 freedom of religious worship ; and on the 

 following June the churches in Paris were 

 re-opened, and divine service was again 

 performed with great ceremony. The 

 clergy have never since been molested in 

 France; but their power and influence 

 were greatly diminished : for though the 

 Moderecs, or Brissotine party, recalled 

 them, no establishment was made for 

 them, until Bonaparte, as First Consul, 

 procured the Pope's consent to the Con- 

 cordat, which the old Catholics assert 

 surrendered ail their rights and privileges 

 of the church to the secular head. 



By degrees the Pope of Rome has con- 

 tinued to lose his influence in France. 

 The number of Catholic clergy is now ve- 

 ry considerably reduced ; and all the re- 

 ligions orders in France, the Sisters of 

 Charity excepted, are abolished, together 

 with all public processions, pilgrimages, 

 &c. The French General, Bonaparte, 

 drove the late Pope, Pius VI. from Rome, 

 and compelled him to take shelter in a 

 Carthusian monasteiy, about two miles 

 from Florence, where he died, August 

 19th, 1799. The French army who took 

 possession of Rome, made no ceremony 

 in abolishing many of those rites which 

 for centuries hud been regarded as sa- 

 cred. A new Pope, however, has been 

 elected, who has taken the name of Pius 

 VII. This pontiff at present resides at 

 Rome, the seat of his ancestors, and has 

 often officiated in the Vatican. But his 

 power is gone, probably for ever. Bo;-a- 

 parte has lately seized on his temporal do- 

 minions, and driven his friends and coun- 

 sellors, the Cardinals, from his presence. 

 On the 19th of April, 1808, a most curi- 

 ous and interesting 1 state paper was pub- 

 lished by the Pope, entitled " Answer of 

 his Eminence Cardinal Grabrielli, first Se- 

 cretary of State, to the Note of his Excel- 



VO1,. V. 



lency M. Champagny, addressed to M. 

 Le Fevre, Charge d'Aifaires from the 

 Emperor of France." We lament that 

 our limits will not permit us to preserve 

 the whole of this curious document in 

 our pages. We may, however, remark, 

 that this paper is in answer to a demand 

 which the French ruler had made upon 

 his Holiness, to enter into an offensive and 

 defensive league with the other powers 

 of Italy, against all the enemies of France, 

 and also that the Pope should dismiss 

 from his court the Cardinals. To these 

 demands his Holiness replies in a spirited 

 but highly pathetic strain. He declares 

 in one part of his paper, that "His Holi- 

 ness, unlike other princes, is invested 

 with a two-fold character, namely, of So- 

 vereign Pontiff, and of' Temporal Sove* 

 reign, and has given repeated evidence 

 that he cannot, by virtue of this second 

 qualification, enter upon engagements, 

 which would lead to results militating 

 against his first and most, important office, 

 and injuring the religion of which he is 

 the head, the propagator, and the aven- 

 ger." 



The French Emperor had declared, 

 that in case the Pope would not accede 

 to his demands, he would seize upon the 

 temporal dominions of the Holy See. To 

 which his Holiness replies, that " If, in 

 spite of all this, his Majesty shall take 

 possession, as he has threatened, of the 

 papal dominions, respected by all, even 

 the most powerful monarchy, during a 

 space of ten centuries and upwards, and 

 shall overturn the government, his Holi- 

 ness will be unable to prevent this spolia- 

 tion ; and can only, in bitter affliction of 

 heart, lament the evil which his Majesty 

 will commit in the sight of God, trusting 

 in whose protection, his Holiness will re- 

 main in perfect tranquillity, enjoying the 

 consciousness of not having brought on 

 this disaster by imprudence or by contu- 

 macy, but to preserve the independence 

 of that sovereignty, which he ought to 

 transmit uninjured to his successors, as he 

 received it; and to maintain in its inte- 

 grity, that conduct which may secure the 

 universal concurrence of all princes, so 

 necessary to the welfare of religion." 

 What the final result of these negotia- 

 tions will be time only can determine ; 

 this, however, is certain, at present, that 

 the Roman Pontiff has lost his power and 

 authority in France. Nor are his pros- 

 pects much more favourable in other 

 countries. There is scarcely a Catholic 

 State in Europe that docs not every year 

 relax in its observance of the Romish 



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