Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1874-08-10
2RelieiOlrs Department..
vOLTAIRE DYING.


taire penned the following blasphemy !;
Twenty years more, and God will be
in pretty plight" Let US see what was
taking place precisely at the time indi-
Gated. On the 18th of February, 1776,
VOltaire was lying, as was thought, on
his bed of death. Racked and tortured
by remorse for past misdeeds, he was
most anxious to propitiate the God whom
he had insulted, and the church which
he and his band had sworn to destroy
and hence he resolved on addressing
minister of religion. in order to receive
the Sacrament of reconciliation. On
the Goth, then, he wrote the following
to the Able Gaultier: "You promised
me, sir, to come and hear me. entreat
you to take the trouble to call as soon
as possible" The Able went at once.
A few days latter, in the presence of
the same Able Gaultier, the Able Mig
not, and the Marquis de Villeveille, the
dying man made the following declara-
ton: 81, the undersigned, declare, that,
for these four days past. having been
afflicted with vomiting of blood at the
age of eighty-four and not being able
to drag myself to church, the Rev. the
Rector of St. Sulpice, having been pleas
ed to add to his other good works, that
of sending to me the Able Gaultier,
priest, l confessed to him, and if it
pleases God to dispose of me, l die in
the Holy Catholic Church, in which /
was born, hoping that the divine mercy
will pardon all my faults. If ever 1
have scandalized the church, ask par
don Of God and Of the church. March
2, 177S.-Voltaire." This document
deposited with Mons. Monet, Notary
Of Paris. 1t was also, with the per-
mission of YOltaire, carried to the rector
of Sulpice and to the archbishop of Paris
in order that they might say whether
or not the declaration was sufficiently
explicit and satisfactory.
Twice before, when dangerously i'll,
the wretched man had made abiect re-
fractions. But these he had not only
rejected when restored to health. but
passing from bad to worse, he poured
out fuller walls of his wrath against God
and Christianity. 1t was then of neces-
sity to receive the most solemn and full
abjuratiOn of past infdelities.
When Gaultier returned with the
archiepiscOpal answer, he was refused
admission to the dying man. The arch
conspiratOrs trembled at the apostacy of
their hero; and dreading the ridicule
which would fall upon themselves, it
was determined not to allow any minis
ter of religion thenceforth to visit him.
Finding himself thus cut off from the
consultations of religion, Yoltaire became
Infatuated, no reprOach, no curse, being
deemed bad enough for the D'Alemberts
and DlderOts who guarded him. "Be-
gone, he said, at is you who have
brought me to my present state. Be-
gone / could have done without YOU
all; but you could not have existed
without me-and what wretehed glory
have you procured mel" And then pray
ing. and next disappearing, now saying,
go, Christ, and next, Il am abandoned
by God and man, " ne wasted away his
life, ceasing to curse and blaspheme and
live on the 30th of May. 1778. These
facts were made public by Mons. Iron
chin, Protestant physician from Gene
va, who attended him almost to the last.
Horrlhed at what he had witnessed he
declared that to see all the furies of
Orestes' one only had to be present at
the death of Voltaire" voir
tO'rtes les t'aTes d Orsste IL n'y auast
qua Sc trOascer la mort de TcLtaire.'0
"Such spectacle" he adds, would ben
eht the young, who are in danger of los
ing the precious helps of religion" The
Marechal de Riehelieu, too, was 50 ter.
rlhed at what he saw that he left the
bedside of VOltaire. declaring that the
sight was too horrible for endurance
London Popular Journal.