The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-18 00:00:00

Father Hyacinthe at Notre Dame.

Father Hyacinthe has preached his sixth and
closing cc conference " at Notre Dame (says the
Times' Paris correspondent), and to the last
moment the thousands who thronged to hear him
felt the same unbounded admiration as when
his genius first broke upon them. There has been
nothing like it since Lacordaire. Less declamatory)
less impassioned, less ambitious of rhetorical °ma'

ment, and appealing less to the imagination than
the great Dominican, Father Hyacinthe surpasses
him as a dialectician ; and never was his power ill
this way more manifest than in defending Chris-
tianity ° against Rationalism. In alluding to the
preacher on a former occasion I spoke of him as 3
Dominican. It was an error ; Father Hyacinthe is a
member of the order of Barefooted Carmelites, Car'
mes De'ckausses, the reformed branch of the original
Carmelites, named from Mount Carmel, and wh°
claim their descent from Elijah. Like his prede-
cessor in the same pulpit, Father Hyacinthe---*
whose name in the world was Loison, and whose
brother, the Abbe Loison, is now one of the vicars
of the Church,of St. Clotilde, in Paris—is remark'
able for his liberal opinions in political and his tole-
ranee in religious matters. But his liberalism,
though not less sincere than Lacordaire's, is better
regulated. The first sermons of the Dominican were
most discursive. He treated all the topics that in°st
interested and agitated the generation of 1834'
nationalities, liberty, politics, industry, railroads,
and Napoleon. The novelty of his style, the spice'
dour of his diction, the hardihood of his ideas, and
the recollection of the fierce struggles he had bee°
just engaged in together with Lameunais—all re'
spouded to the fermentation which pervaded society
at the time, and captivated those who heard Ilin1"
He was, however, then a member of the secular
clergy ; for it was some years later when he fix's'
appeared in the pulpit of Notre-Dame with his shaven
crown and arrayed in the white robe of the order.
His political opinions had been Republican, with
perhaps some tendency to Socialism, and he never,
entirely forgot them. The sermon he preached a'
St. Roch in 1853, and the discussion to which his
marked political allusions gave rise, occasioned
forced retirement from the pulpit.
In the sermons, or " conferences," which he 10
just concluded, and which attracted day after day se
many thousands, Father Hyacinthe did not indeed
show any fear of touching the perilous topic 0f
politics, but he mainly applied himself to combat
ing the notion that morality subsists and suffices
independent of religion. His language was correct
and chaste, and though he avoided meretricious er-
nament, there were occasionally bursts of elocutioll
which seemed to send a thrill among his hearer°'
The crowd who went to listen to him could scarcei?t
find standing-room in the spacious cathedral, audi
was no uncommon thing for 20f. or even 40f. to be
A
paid to secure a seat. Among his most constant all:
most attentive listeners was his mother, for wheel
place was always reserved opposite the pulpit, all t
the old lady, who sometimes seemed to forget Oar
the gifted orator was her own son, used to we°ll f°o
joy and pride when she was reminded of it by tl't
congratulations of those who knew her.
As I have spoken of the liberal opinions of
the
eloquent Carmelite, I cannot resist quoting on° 43r
two passages in his last conference, in which 0
establishes the distinction between the temporal and
spiritual authority of the Pope. He said—
" No one bows more lowly than I do before that throve!
venerable on two accounts—its weakness and its grandeur
—a throne invested with all the majesty of history, and
sceptre which is borne in the hands of an unarmed 0'
man. No one bows more lowly than Ido before him, of
wishes wishes for him longer and more glorious days. But 11°
declare with theology,with the Popes, with Pius IL
self, that the throne is not a theocracy. God, long ceTh7d
ries, and France have placed two crowns on theeaa,-
the successor to' St. Peter, who has united, but not cei';
founded, theta together. Theocracy is the governoeseol.
exercised by a Prince instituted directly by God
that object. But the Prince who governs the Bono
States does not govern them precisely because he 00
Pope; and the' Pope who governs our consciences Pio
not govern them precisely because he is a Prince. Ont 5
contrary, if by the decree of Providence these two crow
.
are laid together on his head, it is because it W;',,
necessary—to use an expression which cannot be too alt o
repeated, though it bo known to all—that those two Pe'vfj
should be united there in order_ to be better sepallwo
everywhere else."
r
In another part of the same discourse Fa-tileto
Hyacinthe adheres, in terms still more forruaL ,
the principle of liberty of conscience, and replidi3vP
and stigmatises violence : as
" There aro abuses in the religious order as wel" p,
purely human affairs. . . . The horror which this cal- to
tion of religious affairs excites in me will not force viol
conceal it. For my part I have never understood the 1:0
tory of tho Church in this point of view— to insult all to
is outside it, and to glorify all that is within it. Tll° Pioa
allotted to the sword in the world, if it be sometimes'
these aro happy moments—to defend justice and weanie
oppressed in the Church, is never to inspire in peoPle to
faith which they reject. To affirm that it is would bet of
repudiate the Gospel itself ; it would be at once an °,c0,11
folly and an odious crime. It would be an act of sigoe
folly, for the wise man should proportion the means Woe
end, and this end is faith, conviction, and the free ° ,ott
sion of the mind and the heart. Do you dosira and dolt i 4
believe that the sword can obtain such au object ? tto
madness, but it is also a crime, because if there be, o.s IV
tho majesty of God, a majesty which is inviolable, it le
majesty of man's conscience." the
What, perhaps, imparts additional force ve Ivo
liberal manifestation of the preacher is the so.`e,vo
approval of the Archbishop of Paris in an alloetiveco,
he pronounced after the close of these confereo
and in which I find these words :
o%ailv
"I thank and I congratulato the preacher for the al°
ple he has shown here; and oven though that el':etis
may not be followed elsewhere, it is well that Aver e 3
noble should be uttered in presence of an, auditory s_rnite•
that which has attended the Conferences of Notre-Ye

ETON COLLEGE.—Yesterday the Christy ei
tUa
cr
tion terminated with the return of the lower beYsistl
school. To-day the fifth form will arrivo, and the "60
form will reach tho college to-morrow, by which
whole of the scholars will have reassembled.