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The Review ot Reviews 



PERE HYACINTHE 



THit^hequered career of this great pulpit orator, 

 who died last February is outlined in the Contem- 

 porary for June by Dean Fremantle. The Dean tells 

 how rap'dij he rose till he became Head of the 



Mask of P^e Hyacinthe, which now reposes in the 

 Capitol at Rome. 



Carmelite Order. His gift as preacher led to him being 

 appointed to preach the Advent Conjhences at Notre 

 Dame, the highest post to which a French priest could 

 aspire. Four thousand men of all classes crowded to 

 hear him. 



A CRISIS MET WITH COURAGE. 



The crisis of his life came wiicn tlie Vatican Council 

 was asked to decree Papal infallibility. Pere Hyacinthe 

 " went to Rome in May, 1869. to sec if there were aiiv 

 remedy ; but, finding thai the fatal step was inevitable, 

 he quietly waited for the assembly of the Council or 

 the pronouncement of the decree, and on the 20th of 

 September resigned his position in the (larmelit:; Order 

 and his place as Advent preacher at Xotre Dair. ' 



He had no me.ins of support : his sympatliiscrs were few, or 

 mute. He went forth, literally, " not knowint; whither he 

 went." It was an act of coiuatjc, a protest in favtmr of triilh, 

 of which few examples can he fminit in the history of the world. 



In the year following the decree he visited l,onilon, Rome, 

 and Munich, Iryini; to win adherents to his cause and to 

 counteract the mischief wdiicli had heen done. 



In 1872 he was married at Home to an American lady, llie 



widow ui Ml. Merinian , and the episcopal benediction which 

 gave ecclesiastical sanction to the future marriage was given ir, 

 Rome on May 5th ; but they lived apart till they met again ir 

 London in October. There the legal marriage was solemnised 

 .at the Registry in Marylebone. 



The liishop who gave the blessing to the marriage which was 

 ifterwards to take place was Monsignor Passavalli, titular Arch- 

 bishop of Iconium — a man of great distinction, who was chosen 

 !o preach the opening sermon at the Vatican Council. 



A CHURCHLESS WANDERER. 



Various endeavours were made to find the redoubtable 

 preacher a pulpit and a church at Geneva, but the 

 work there did not suit him. He resigned in August. 

 1874 :— 



When his friends thought that the time had come to n.ake 

 the attempt in Paris, which had failed in Geneva, they opened 

 for him a place of worship, first inl the Rue Rochechouart, and 

 ;hen in the Rue d'.'Vrras, where services were held in French, 

 though, like the Anglican Prayer Book, based on those of the 

 unreformed Church. These services often attracted large con 

 gregations. Many of all countries wished to hear the celebrateo 

 preacher, whose fire lasted to the end. But there was n^ 

 "Church." A few priests joined him from time to time, bj- 

 there was no prospect of a solid and enduring institution 



APPEARANCE. ELOQUENCE, INFUIENrE. 



The Dean gives this portrait : — 



P^re Hyacinthe was rather below the average m stature, bui 

 seemed to grow as he spoke and to dominate his audience. His 

 voice, his gesture, his articulation were consummate, and the 

 arrangement of his subject was perfectly clear. He possessed 

 also thai electric power which is the mark of the true orator. 

 But thai which gained his greatest power was his complete 

 sincerity, which made Mr. Gladstone, when presiding at one of 

 his Coiifi'reiues in London, speak of him as tl^ most loyal soul 

 he had eser known. There was nothing exaggerated and 

 nothing bitter in his speech, which was always well thought out 

 and suited to his audience. He was sought out and received 

 for interviews by almost all the leaders of thought, of literature, 

 and of society in Europe, such as (Jueen Victoria, the Kmpress 

 Frederick of Germany, the Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva), 

 the latter of whom wrote him an autograph letter on the death 

 of Madame Loyson, ending with the touching words : "On ne 

 pleure p.as, on s'atteud." Gambetta wished to have made him 

 a .Senator, and the list of those who on his death expressed their 

 sympathy with his family contains almost all the leaders of 

 political and philanthropic progress in France. 



WHAT HE BELIEVED. 



His final message to the world is : — 



(r) I have never denied Catholicism, nor answered the 

 anathemas of which I have been the object. I have hoped 

 against hope, though the darkness seems to thicken, and I have 

 to cry with the prophet, "Watchman! what of the night?" 

 (2) Let us louk to the future. Woe to the Churches which, like 

 Lot's wife, looked backwards. (3) We must hold fast to the 

 Biblical origins of our religion : but their revelation is not the 

 only one. God did not leave the nations without a witness for 

 Him. The Christianity of the future will mark the value which 

 each system has had in \.)\e fn-pay,ilH< t-vangelica, as it was 1 ailed 

 by the Fathers. (4) Science also is a divine revelation. It has 

 an affinity with Christianity, which wilt disclose itself in the 

 future according to the presentiment of Joseph Le Maistre. 

 (5) We must not dwell upon an everLasting doom, either in 

 this world or the next ; the gates will open, as the M.asler 

 taught, through a sincere conversion, even to the worst of 

 sinners, ami the Kingdom of ( lod be established. (6) The 

 ('hrislians of the future will reconcile the various elements of 

 human life which seem now to be divided : n.alurc with grace, 

 work with prayer, the needs of the body with those of the' soul, 

 labour with capital ; and the power which will reconcile them 

 is true, united, and reformed Christianity. 



