The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-09-14 00:00:00

FRENCH CREDULITY.

THE only power that exists in France indepen-
dent of, and essentially separate from, the Central
Government, is that of the Roman Catholic Church ;
and it may well be supposed that in the total ab-
sence of all interesting matter even a pastoral charge
from a bishop is welcomed and paraded as a happy
expedient for filling up the barren columns of a
newspaper, and creating a taste for a species of
literature which would once have found but little
favour in the eyes of Parisian readers. Faith in
the existing state of things and hope of any sub-
stantial amelioration have indeed fled, but instead
of that we have pastoral charges which faith can
barely swallow or hope adopt. The last performer
in this new line of business is the Bishop of Lucon,
who favours the faithful of his diocess with an ad-
dress marked alike by the grossest credulity and the
most grovelling superstition.
All ages, says this new light of the church, are
filled with the glories of the' incomparable Mother
of God, but our age, guilty as it may otherwise be,
has nothing to envy in this respect from the ages
which have preceded it. The assertion is broad
and simple; it amounts to saying that as many, or
more, miracles have been wrought at the present
time as in any other previous period of the Chris-
tian church. We will enumerate a few of the tales
which the people of France, who are not to be
trusted to know or deliberate upon anything con-
nected with their own affairs, are required to believe,
to embrace, and to vindicate. A medal, which is
only known by the title of " miraculous," has filled
the world with prodigies. Sometimes this superna-
tural piece of metal wrought a sudden conversion,
and sometimes the eyes of a statue of the Virgin
Mary move, and towns and provinces contemplate
this prodigy during entire months, and are through
its potent means turned to the way of salvation.
But the greatest of all wonders was the appearance
of the Virgin on the top of a high mountain for the
purpose of revealing to two little children who were
keeping sheep the mysteries of the kingdom of
Heaven. With a rare discretion, these children
declare what they have seen in a manner, we are
assured, which repels the idea of confederation be-
tween them. by revealing that which they were
allowed to reveal, and keeping silent on that which
they were ordered not to disclose. There is no
evidence of this astounding fact except that of the
two children, who differ from each other in many
material particulars, but so agree that the " whole
world," we are told, receives their testimony. The
mountain where this marvellous descent took place
has become the resort of innumerable pilgrims, and
each of these, according to the Bishop's account,
bears witness to the truth of the original story, by
affording his presence in confirmation of the fact.
But this is not all. The Virgin, says the &shop
of Lucon, stopped near a fountain and communi-
cated to it a celestial virtue and Divine efficacy.
The spring that once was intermittent has now be-
come permanent through the same Divine cause,
and it is in contemplation to erect a sanctuary on
the mountain of Lalette, to commemorate the descent
of the Mother of Heaven on that favoured spot.
And now comes the essence of the whole pastoral.
First, the appearance of the Virgin, on this occasion,
is permitted to he preached in the diocess of Lucon ;
a solemn service in commemoration of the miracle
is to be read in all churches of the diocess; and the
faithful are invited to make contributions for erect-
ing a temple to commemorate so great an event.
This is the kind of language in which the French
prelates address their flocks, and these are the
means by which the money of the faithful is sought
to be extorted.

We stand aghast at the amount of assurance
which is required in order to make the statement
that these miracles are well known and admitted by
the whole world, and at the brazen impudence which
makes such notorious falsehoods the means of ex-
torting money from the weak and credulous. In
this instance we see something more than an ex-
travagant or erroneous system of doctrine,—a de-
liberate attempt to obtain the money of the people
under the grossest and falsest pretences. The
Virgin wants money, and so she causes her statue
to wink its eyes. Stimulated by the same passion,
she changes an intermittent into a continuous foun-
tain, and reveals herself to two little boys, in order
that they may exhibit the reality of the vision by
contradicting each other's statements, and refusing
to modify either the one or the other.
We have been the more particular in noticing
this monstrous imposture, because it singularly
illustrates the treaty of offensive and defensive
alliance between the present Government of France
and the Roman Catholic priesthood, by which, in
consideration of their services, they are allowed to
nractise at will on the credulity of the faithful.
The press, which is dead to the voice of truth and
honesty, throws its columns open without remorse
to the promulgation of the most monstrous and
mischievous absurdities. Priestcraft plays into the
hands of despotism, and despotism in its turn per-
mits its journals to be the passive tools of sacerdotal
experiments upon their pockets. We are well ac-
customed in this country to the impostures of the
writers of begging letters, but we have not yet
been in the habit of tracing these productions to
the pens of our dignified and beneficed clergy. In
proportion as the Government of France alienates
from it the sympathies and good wishes of man-
kind, we are taught to believe that it increases in
the favour of Heaven, and that miracles are wrought
and the order of nature made to stand still in order
to shower peculiar favour on a land where few bear
rule except by virtue of their notorious disregard
not merely of religion but of morality.--Times,