RELIGION AND HEROISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 211, 20 April 1877, Page 5

RELIGION AND HEROISM.

[Prom the Month.]

FAST THE FIBST. Ik discussing 1 the general question of the honesty of thn Catholic priesthood, and their internal belief in their religious professions, ""Dr. Newman makes the following 1 thoughtful remarks: ' I wonder (he says) that the self-devotion of our priests does not strike a Protestant in this point of view. What do they gain by professing a creed in which, if their enemies are to be credited, they really do not believe ? What is their reward for committing themBelves to a life of self-restraint and toil, and perhaps to a premature and miserable death ? . . . What could support a set of hypocrites in the presence of a deadly disorder, one of them following another in long order up the forlorn hope, and one after another perishing ? If they did not heartily believe in the creed of the Church, then I wilt say that the remark of the Apostle had its fullest illustration: " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, ■we are of all men most miserable." Protestants admire this, when they see it ; but they do not seem to see so clearly that it excludes the very notion of hypocrisy. Sometimes, when they reflect upon it, it loads them to remark on the wonderful discipline of the Catholic priesthood ; they say that no Church has so well-ordered a clergy, and that in that respect it surpasses their own ; they wish they could have such exact discipline among themselves. But is it an excellence which can be purchased ? Is it a phenomenon which depends on nothing else than itself, or is it an effect which haa a cause ? You cannot buy devotion at a price. "It hath never been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman. The children of Agar, the merchants of Meran, none of them have known its way." What then is that wonderful charm, which makes a thousand men act all in one way, and infuses a prompt obedience to rule, as if they were under some stern military compulsion ? How difficult to find an answer, unlebs you will allow the obvious one, that they believe intensely what they profess ! That heroism and self-devotion may be elevated and exalted by religion is an axiom requiring no proof ; but that all true heroism, all real self-devotion is founded on that faith "which is the substance of things to be hoped for," is not so fully apparent- still the evidence in favor of this view may be obtained without any very great difficulty, and whether we contrast the heroism manifested by the Catholic priesthood in the presence of disease and the certainty of death from contagion, or that which, not only the priesthood, but also all the religious orders as well as the laity have shown in battle and beside the ambulance, with that which is prompted by discipline and obedience, merely natural duty or patriotism, we cannot fail to mark the great contrast, and to feel that from the heart of every martyr who has fallen a victim to religious devotion and self-sacrifice, either in hospital or on the battle-field, or as one of those silent martyrs whose deeds are unknown and recorded only in the Book of Life, the cry has »one forth in its fullest significance: "They indeed have striven that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. * These thoughts have been brought strongly before us while reading a little book recently published in Paris, called I'HSroisme en Soutane, by General Ambert, and the following paper is entirely derived from this source, in the belief that at the present time of doubt and incredulity it cannot be without service to contemplate the heroism and self-devotion displayed by the French Catholic clergy and laity during the late war. and traced by the Author in his interesting book, from the very beginning of the contest to those days of madness which stained the streets of Paris with the blood of those martyrs— in the truest sense of the word— the martyrs of the Commune l Hardly had the war of 1870 commenced, before a great cry of grief was heard throughout France. The national pride had never sustained so severe a blow. Evil passions were awakened, and the burning breath of Revolution was felt in the air. The priests were aroused, and listened eagerly to the distant sounds. They would have been deaf to the joyful cry of victory, but the moans of a bleeding country penetrated their very souls They hastened to inarch towards t.,e scene of suffering. They came from all parts, without call and without watchwoid ,- or rather, the country called them, and their watchword was, " God and France !" «TT,trd- ce f diSti v ff " isb^ d l£ th jj n lliterateu *c and politics has said: for^l thT u rellgl ° n ?^ he firßt only one which has cared for all the weaknesses of humanity, mental weakness, frailty of sex, of age, and of condition; this alone has changed the world, » and is the political significance of that verse of Holy Scripture Zmitte spintwn tuum, et renovabis faciem terra." Some of the priests took their course towards the camps in order to assist the dymg soldier on the battle-field; others, without separating from their flocks, prepared these for the time of trial. Some organised ambulances, and became later the protectors of the villages, caring for the woundel, extinguishing the burning harvests, sustaining drooping courage, and proclaiming the rights of the poor and feeble. On many a winter night the priests might be soenT guidinthe young "mobiles" over the mountain paths, where they had gone astray and were likely to be surprised by the enemy. When the villagers saw, upon the distant horison, the lon<* i 5 c ? lu , u ? n . s wh _ l(ih announced the approach of the enemy, they al. fled, driving before them their frightened flocks, mothers carrying their infants, the elders slowly following with the weeping children. One man alone remained— the cure* of the village. The air had long resounded with the mournful toll of the bell, and at 1 Our article will be a very tree translation aud neceasarilv a very *«*«• abridgement, but wo aball endeavour to reuder it as f-titlifulasiiosalble r«f*r!w the reader for many most iaterrtting details to the book iteelf 11Os8lbIe > "wrang

this period there were but two voices heard in all France, the cannon and the church^ell. As soon as the enemy had arrived the bell was silent, and the curfi, armed with his breviary, would present himself to the General. How many villages, h%mlets/and farmhouses have been preserved by the prayers of the humble cure; how many wounds have been healed by his hand; how many times has he led into his presbytery, and warmed with his ch\rity. the exhausted soldier fainting by the wayside ! Among these poor village cures, many have paid for their devotion with their livei. They have fallen as the common soldier falla, without noise and without show; no echo haa repeated their dying words, and but too often the secret of their death has been carried into Prussia by some brutal soldier. When the war was declared the French army numbered only forty-si* chaplains. A single priest for a division of twelve thousand men was obviously insufficient. Applications came in on all sides, and became still more numerous in the time of disaster • one of thesemay be taken as an example of the spirit which inspired them all. The Abb 6 Testory, a canon of the Chapter of *t. Denis. wrote to the Minister of War—" I bes you will nominate me as chaplain of the army of the Rhine ; I will accept the lowest place, provided I cau only serve my country, and take care of our valiant soldiers on the field of battle." By the beginning of September more than ten thousand applications had been received at the Ministry of War. About a hundred Jesuits appeared on the field of battle ; many of them were wounded or killed during the war. In one of the battles of the army of the Loire a priest was carrying upon his shoulder a wounded soldier who still breathed ; a char re of German cavalry swep f all before it, and the priest received a sabre cut upon his face. This noble scar is still conspicuous upon the face of the Pere de Kochemontaux when he gives his benedic tion to the faithful. Three Jesuits died in Germany among the prisoners whom they were serving. All the religious orders, with| out exception, were represented in the service of their countryCapuchins, with their brown robes, their bare heads and sandalled feet, gave an example of courage, sanctifying poverty, and render* ing humility honorable. M-ray Dominicans might be named ; the Pontifical Zouaves were served by Fathers Ligier and GerUche, of the Order of St. Dominic. The 15th of December, 1870, witnessed the death of a religious of this order, in the ambulance of his con vent, brought to the grave by the hardships of war ; he was called Pere Antoine. In the world he had been called the B%ron Armand de Layre, and had also the diploma of a doctor at law. This is not the place to recall, the martyrdom of the Dominicans of Arcueil, but we may mention that before their assination these Fathers had transformed their house into an ambulance. The Order of Carmelites lost at Spandau Father Hermann, who, unwilling to abandon the prisoners, died of small-pox while serving the soldiers. A single convent of Trappists, that of Notre-Dame-des-Dombes, supplied thirty-five brothers to the troops, of l'Ain. The abbot of this convent, Dotn Augustin, took the care of the troops attacked by small-pox ; struck down in his turn he died, praying for. France. This abbot, Dorn Augustin, who had preferred the life of a Trappist to the world, was the Marquis d'Avezac de la Douse, of a noble and ancient family ; his ancestors, during the Crusades, had fallen by the side of St. Louis, while he, the Trappist, died among the common soldiers. Cistercians, Premonstratensians, Carthusians, Oratorians, and the Professors of the Sorbonne, all furnished chaplains to the army, or made themselves conspicuous in Germany by their efforts for th * good of the prisoners. In the midst of this host one class of men have merited the front rank — tlie Brothers of the Christian Schools In its pride the world gives them the name of " Freres Ignorant-ins !" but where were all the learned Academicians, the distinguished scholars, so famed for eloquence and literature ; the statesmen who govern the world, so sceptical and full of mockery ; where were all these in the hour when " Brother Ignoramus" fell upon the field of battle, busied with the removal of the dead ? On the Bth of December, 1870, the dead were being removed in waggons from Petit-Bry, < 'hampigny, and Croisy ; the Christian Brothnrs -who had charge of this were clearing away the snow in order to find the bodies of the fallen soldiers— they had not had an instants repose since the preceding night. Two Prussian captains were superintending the removal of the bodies of the German soldiers One of these captains, who had followed with kindly look the prodigious labors of the' brothers, said — " We have not se«n the equal of this in France." " With the exception of the Grey Sisters," said the other captain. During the campaign the Christian Brothers counted nineteen doaths in their ranks. One day they were marching outside the ramparts of Paris, having at their head the venerable Brother Philip, seventy-eight years old; a doctor belonging to one of tha ambulances, seeing them march thus in the face of death, cried out — " Blessings upon you for all the good you do, you humble serj vants of the soldiers! Truly youra is the true science— the science of charity, abnegation, and devotion, the science which makes heroes ; and Paris and France, when delivered, will say that you have deserved well of your country." The 19th of December, 1870, Brother Nethelme was struck by a Prussian ball, dying after two days of suffering. He was hardly buried when a young man presented himself to the Superior, Father Philip. " I have couie," said he, " from the department of Lozere, to take the place of my brother Nethelme, who haa just been killed." " Have you received the consent of your family P" asked the Superior. "My father and my mother," replied the young man, "kissed me and blessed me before I was allowed to depart." This indeed is chivalry in its heroic grandeur and moat sublime simplicity. ( To he continued )