Part 34 (2/2)
The Bishop of Meaux excused hi that he knew Greek, Syriac, and even Hebrew; but that, through a fatality, he was ignorant of the Gere A trumpeter was then sent out to ask if there was not in the country a Catholic priest as a Gerue Luckily one was found, and Madame de Maintenon, who is very, pedantic, even in the matter of toilet and ornaments, trembled with joy and thanked God for it But as her astonish her the priest! He was in coloured clothes, a silk doublet, flowing peruke, and boots and spurs The lady in waiting rated him severely, and was tereater casuist than she--decided that in these urgent cases one need holdaway the spurs froe; they pushed him into a confessional,--the curtain of which he was careful to draw before hiht the Bavarian Princess, who, not knowing the circumstances, confessed the sins of her whole life to this sort of soldier
Madaeneral confession on her conscience; she scolded Bossuet for it as a sort of sacrilege, and the latter, as only difficult and particular with simple folk, quoted historical examples in which soldiers, on the eve of battle, had confessed to their general
”Yes,” said the King, on hearing these quotations from the imperturbable man; ”that e, who, in effect, donned the shi+eld and cuirass at the tiain, to the Cardinal de la Valette d'Epernon, who commanded our armies under Richelieu successfully”
”No, Sire,” replied the Bishop; ”to generals ere si, ”were the confessions, then, null?”
”Sire,” added the Bishop of Meaux, ”circu Of old, in the time of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and much later still, confessions of Christians were public,--ether, and always in the open air Those of soldiers that I have quoted to madame were somewhat of the kind of these confessions of the primitive Church; and to-day, still, at the ives the signal for confession The regih, who hears them; and the almoner, raised aloft on a pile of druives the general absolution to eighty thousand soldiers at once”
This clear and precise explanation somewhat calmed Madame de Maintenon, and Mada,--in order to be regular, learned to confess in French
CHAPTER XV
Pere de la Chaise--The Jesuits--The Pavilion of Belleville--The Handkerchief
Pere de la Chaise has never donehinorant if he were the least in the world concerned, at the epoch of the Grand Jubilee, with those ecclesiastical attempts of which Bossuet had constituted hireat evenness of temper and character; an excellent tone, which comes to him from his birth; a conciliatory philosophy, which renders him always le individual, the happy combination of several men, that is to say, he is by turns, and as it ; a ood feeder; a man of the world, or a cenobite; a man of his breviary, or a courtier He knows that the sins of woodcutters and the sins of kings are not of the sahed in the saarb; he is much more so than they are by his 'savoir-vivre' His co; he loves him, and pities him because he sees his weakness He shows for his penitent the circu run he has made of him a spoiled child
This Pere de la Chaise fell suddenly ill, and with sy that the cabals each wished to appropriate this essential post of confessor
The Jansenists would have been quite willing to lay hold of it The Jesuits, and principally the cordons bleus, did not quit the pillow of the sickhad himself informed of his condition every half-hour There was a bulletin, as there is for potentates One evening, when the doctors were grave on his account, I saw anxiety and affliction painted on the visage of his Majesty
”Where shall I find his like?” said he to ence, such kindness? The Pere de la Chaise knew the bottoent ion with nature; and when duty brings me to the foot of his tribunal, as a hu on its knees, and he accoious commands which he is bound to impose on me”
”I hope that God will preserve him to you,” I replied to his Majesty; ”but let us suppose the case in which this useful and precious rant still this mark of confidence and favour to the Jesuits? All the French being your subjects, would it not be fitting to grant this distinction sometimes to the one and souish by this that hate or animosity by which the Jesuits see themselves assailed, which your preference draws upon them”
”I do not love the Jesuits with that affection that you seeest,”
replied the monarch ”I look upon theoverned corporation; but as for their attachment for ers to the soft e Before the triuued and exerted theates of Paris, and the Jesuits, like the Capuchins, at once recognised hi Henri, who knehat et the past; he pronounced himself decidedly in favour of the Jesuits because this body of teachers, nuood credit, had just pronounced itself in favour of him
”It was, then, a reconciliation between power and power, and the politics of randfather were to survive him and become mine, since the saround If God takes away from me my poor Pere de la Chaise, I shall feel this misfortune deeply, because I shall lose in hiood companion, a trusty and proved friend If I lose him, I shall assuredly be inconsolable for him; but it will be very necessary for me to take his successor from the Grand Monastery of the Rue Saint Antoine This community knows me by heart, and I do not like innovations”
The successor of the Pere de la Chaise was already settled with the Jesuit Fathers; but this er The Court was not condemned to see and salute a new face; the old confessor recovered his health His Majesty experienced a veritable joy at it, a joy as real as if the Prince of Orange had died
Wishi+ng to prove to the good convalescent how dear his preservation was to hi released hied him to watch over his health, the most important of his duties and his possessions