VOLUNTARY CONVERSION OF A COMMUNITY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), 15 February 1883, Page 3

VOLUNTARY CONVERSION OF A COMMUNITY.

A very singular circumstance has just occurred in the department of Puyde Dome., in France, where an entire commune, headed by its Municipal Council, lias suddenly been converted to tho Protestant religion. When we say converted, we arc, perhaps, hardly employing the right term, for to judge by the accounts received, the Protestant faith has been embraced rather from a desire to get the better of a French bishop than from any other motive. It seems that the inhabitants of the commune of Cliatel Guyon care very little about dogmas or theological matters: but they are, according to tho statement made at a recent meeting of the Municipal Council, imbued with religious sentiments, and in tho habit of attending church regularly The cure of the parish, however, was not a spiritual guide to the tastes of his nocks, and enjoyed neither the esteem nor confidence of tlie parishioners. Consequently the Bishop of ClermontFerrand was petitioned to remove him ; but the prolate, either finding the charges brought against tho cure were not corroborated, or from other reasons, declined to give the petitioners tlie satisfaction they desired. Thereupon, the municipal councillors assembled to deliberate on the situation, which resolved itself thus : The objectionable cure was a fixture on the one hand; whilst on the other the inhabitants of the commune absolutely refused to sit under him. to have recourse to his ministrations, or allow him to officiate at baptisms, burials, or marriages. This uncomfortable state of things it was felt could not continue. Since the priest could not be got rid of, owing to the Bishop's obstinacy, and the people would not go to the Roman Catholic Church so long as he officiated, there remained, in the opinion of theantborities, but one course open. The inhabitants had intimated their willingness to abjure the faith of their fathers and become Protestants; the municipal councillors determined to follow the same course : so it was forthwith put to the vote, and carried unanimously, that a Protestant church be built without delay, and that, pending its construction, services aeoording to Protestant rites he held in a building temporarily devoted to the purpose. A Protestant pastor, one learns, was hastily sent for, and thus the inhabitants of Cliatel Guyon have proved a match for the Bishop.