The clear and sagacious mind of the Bishop of Tarbes could not fail of being deeply struck by the combination of events, the testimony of so many serious men, and the knowledge of their conviction after mature examination. Monseigneur Laurence judged that the time for speaking had arrived, and he at length broke silence. On the 28th of July, he issued the following mandate, which was immediately known throughout the diocese and produced an immense sensation; for every one felt that the extraordinary state of things which had engrossed public attention for so many months was at length approaching a settlement.
Mandate of Monseigneur the Bishop of Tarbes, constituting a Commission charged with furnishing an official report on the authenticity and nature of events which have occurred, about six months ago, on the occasion of an Apparition, true or pretended, of the Blessed Virgin, in a Grotto, situated to the west of the town of Lourdes.
Bertrand Sévère-Laurence, by the divine mercy and the favor of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Tarbes.
To the Clergy and Faithful of our diocese, health and the benediction in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Facts of grave import connected with Religion, which agitate the diocese, and are re-echoed far and wide, have occurred since the eleventh of last February.
Bernadette Soubirous, a young girl of Lourdes, aged fourteen years, is said to have had visions in the Grotto of Massabielle, situated west of the said town; the Immaculate Virgin is said to have appeared to her. A Fountain is said to have risen there. The water of this Fountain either used as a drink or applied as a lotion is said to have effected a great number of cures, which cures are said to be miraculous. People have come and still come both from our own and the neighboring dioceses, seeking the cure of their different maladies by the use of this water, invoking at the same time the Immaculate Virgin.
The civil Authorities have bestirred themselves in the matter.
From every quarter, since the month of March last, the ecclesiastical Authorities have been requested to explain their views touching this extemporaneous pilgrimage.
We at first thought that the time had not come for us to stir with any useful results in this matter; that, in order to establish firmly the judgment expected from us, it behoved us to proceed with sage deliberation, to distrust the first impulse of enthusiasm, to allow the public mind to calm itself, to afford due time for reflection and to beseech enlightenment for an attentive and satisfactory investigation.
Three classes of persons appealed to our decision, but from entirely different points of view.
The first consists of such as, refusing to enter into any examination of the question in point, see nothing in the occurrences at the Grotto, and the cures attributed to the water of the Fountain, but superstition, jugglery and means of duping others. It is evident we cannot embrace their opinion a priori and without serious investigation. Their organs talked at first—and that very loudly—of superstition, trickery and insincerity; they affirmed that the occurrences at the Grotto were grounded on sordid self-interest and culpable cupidity, and thus wounded the moral sense of our Christian population. To deny everything and to impugn the intentions of others is the easiest way, we allow, of solving difficulties; but, to say nothing of its not being very honest, it is unreasonable and more calculated to produce irritation than conviction in the minds of others. To deny the possibility of supernatural intervention is to become the disciples of a superannuated school, to abjure the Christian religion and to follow blindly the track of the infidel philosophy of the last century. As Catholics we cannot, in circumstances like the present, either take the advice of persons who deny that God has the power of making exceptions to the general laws which He has established for the government of the world, the work of His hands, nor can we enter into any discussion with them in order to ascertain whether such or such a fact is supernatural, inasmuch as they proclaim beforehand that the Supernatural is impossible. Is this as much as to say that, with regard to the question in point, we reject a full, sincere and conscientious discussion, enlightened by science and the progress it has made? Certainly not: on the contrary we challenge it. It is our wish that these facts should be first submitted to the severe rules of certitude which are admitted by sound philosophy, and that afterwards in order to decide whether such facts are supernatural and divine, there should be summoned to the discussions of these grave and difficult questions men who have devoted themselves to and are well versed in the science of mystic theology, medicine, natural philosophy, chemistry, geology, etc., etc.; in fact, that Science may be heard and pronounce its judgment.
Above all things it is our wish that no means of arriving at the truth be omitted.
There is a second class of persons who neither approve nor blame, but suspend their judgment; before pledging themselves to any opinion, they desire to know the decision of the competent authorities and are most anxious to have it pronounced.
There is lastly, a third and very numerous class of persons who have already formed their convictions, though somewhat prematurely, regarding the matter which engrosses us. They are waiting with the greatest impatience for the Bishop of the diocese to pronounce his judgment on an affair of so much gravity. Although they expect our decision to be favorable to their pious sentiments, we know sufficiently well their submission to the Church to feel assured that they will accept our judgment, of whatever nature it may be, as soon as it is made known to them.
It is therefore, with the object of enlightening the religion and piety of so many thousands of the faithful, of satisfying a want of the public, of fixing uncertainty, and of calming the minds of all, that we yield to-day to the pressure which has long been brought to bear on us from so many quarters, and endeavor to throw light on occurrences of the deepest interest to the Faithful, as affecting the worship of Mary and religion itself. We have resolved, for this purpose, to institute in the diocese a permanent Commission for collecting and authenticating any facts which may have already taken place or may arise hereafter in the Grotto of Lourdes, or in connection with it, for making them known to us and apprizing us of their character, and thus furnishing us with the elements which are indispensable to enable us to arrive at a solution of the question.
For These Reasons:
Having invoked the holy name of God, we have commanded and do command as follows:
Article 1.—A Commission is instituted in the diocese of Tarbes with the object of ascertaining:
1st. Whether cures have been effected by the use of the water of the Grotto of Lourdes, whether by drinking it or in lotions, and whether these cures can be accounted for naturally, or should be attributed to a supernatural cause.
2d. Whether the Visions which the child, Bernadette Soubirous, claims to have had in the Grotto are real, and, in that case, whether they can be accounted for naturally, or are of a divine and supernatural character.
3d. Whether the object which appeared demanded anything from the child or manifested any intentions to her? Whether the latter was charged with the communication of them, and to whom? And what was the precise nature of the demands, or intentions manifested?
4th. Whether the Fountain, flowing at present in the Grotto, was in existence before the date of the Vision which Bernadette Soubirous claims to have had.
Article 2.—The Commission will bring to our notice only such facts as are established by conclusive evidence; it will forward to us circumstantial reports on such facts, accompanied with its own opinion regarding them.
Article 3.—The deans of the diocese will be the principal correspondents of the Commission: they are requested to make known to it:
1st. The facts which shall have taken place in their respective deaneries.
2d. The persons who may be able to bear testimony relative to the existence of the above facts.
3d. Those who, from their scientific knowledge, may be able to enlighten the Commission.
4th. The medical men who attended the sick persons before their cure.
Article 4.—After previous inquiries, the Commission will proceed to an investigation. The evidence will be taken on oath. Two members, at least, of the Commission, will go to the place where an investigation takes place.
Article 5.—We earnestly recommend the Commission often to summon to its sittings men versed in the sciences of medicine, natural philosophy, chemistry, geology, etc., in order to hear them discuss the difficulties which may be, in certain points of view, in their line, and to learn their opinion. The Commission ought to neglect nothing, to avail itself of every possible source of information, and to arrive at the truth of whatever nature it may be.
Article 6.—The Commission will be composed of nine members of our Cathedral Chapter, the Superiors of the Grand and Little Seminaries, the Superior of the Missionaries of our Diocese, the Curé of Lourdes, and of the Professors of Dogmatic Theology, Morality, and Natural Philosophy of our Seminary. The Professor of Chemistry of our Little Seminary will be frequently consulted.
Article 7.—M. Nogaro, Canon-archpriest is named President of the Commission. Canons Tabariès and Soulé are named Vice-presidents. The Commission will name a Secretary and two vice-secretaries taken out of its number.
Article 8.—The Commission will commence its labors immediately, and meet as often as it may judge necessary.
Given at Tarbes, in our episcopal palace, under our signature, seal, and the counter-signature of our Secretary, 28th of July, 1858.
✠ BERTRAND SEVRE,
Bishop of Tarbes.
By command,
FOURCADE, Canon-Secretary.
The question, however, raised by these supernatural events, by the Apparitions, true or false, of the Virgin, by the gushing forth of the Spring, by the miraculous cures, genuine or counterfeit, could not, as all agreed, remain for ever in suspense. It was absolutely necessary that all these things should be submitted to a proper and severe investigation.
Strangers, who had not been in these districts except for a short season, had not been present at the commencement of these extraordinary events, and who had not been able, like the people of the country, to come to any reasonable conviction, were unanimous—in the midst of the different accounts and various appreciation they heard on all sides—in expressing their astonishment at the complete silence and apparent indifference of the ecclesiastical authorities. Much as they blamed the interference of the civil power, they did not less condemn the extent to which the religious power personified in the Bishop had kept aloof.
The Free-thinkers, interpreting the long hesitations and present attitude of the Prelate to their own liking, thought themselves sure of his verdict. The friends of M. Massy began to cry loudly that Monseigneur Laurence agreed with the Prefect in his appreciation of what had taken place. They threw on the Bishop the entire responsibility of the violent measures which had been adopted. “The Bishop,” they said, “might arrest the progress of Superstition by a single word. The only thing required was that he should boldly pronounce his judgment. The civil authorities have only been forced to act in his default.”
The believers, taking into consideration the evidence adduced of the miraculous facts, looked upon themselves as equally certain of a solemn decision in favor of their faith.
Others—and among these a great number of strangers—had not come to any conviction or decided views on the question, and sought to be relieved from their state of uncertainty by some definitive investigation. “Of what use are the religious authorities,” they observed, “if it is not to decide questions of this nature and to settle the faith of such as owing to distance, want of documents, or any other cause, are unable to examine and decide for themselves.”
The Bishop’s palace was besieged with complaints of this kind. To the murmur of the multitude was joined the voice of the classes usually termed enlightened, though frequently the little lights of earth made them lose sight of the Great Light of Heaven. An investigation was demanded from all quarters.
The supernatural cures continued to be effected. From a hundred sources official reports of these cures, signed by numerous witnesses, were forwarded to the residence of Monseigneur Laurence.
On the sixteenth of July, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bernadette had heard within her the voice which had for some months been silent, and which now no longer summoned her to the Rocks of Massabielle, then closed and guarded, but to the right bank of the Gave, into those meadows where the multitude used to assemble to pray, safe from prosecutions and the vexatious proceedings of the Police. It was about eight o’clock in the evening. Scarcely had the child knelt down and commenced the recitation of her chaplet, when the Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ appeared to her. The Gave, which separated her from the Grotto, had almost vanished from her sight as soon as the ecstasy came over her. She saw naught before her but the blessed Rock—to which she seemed to be as near as on former occasions—and the Immaculate Virgin, who smiled sweetly upon her as if to confirm all the past and shed light on all the future.
Not a word proceeded from her divine lips. At a certain moment She bowed Her head towards the child as if to tell her, “We shall meet again at some very distant period,” or to bid her a last farewell. After this She disappeared and re-entered Heaven. This was the eighteenth Apparition and it was the last.
In a different or entirely opposite sense, some strange events happened which it is of importance to point out. Three or four different times some women and children asserted that they had had visions like those of Bernadette.
Were these visions true? Was the Devil trying to mix up his mysteries with those of God in order to trouble them? Or were these singular phenomena attributable only to derangement of mind, ill-regulated enthusiasm, or the perverse and mischievous tricks of some naughty children? Or must we seek for some hostile hands, concealing themselves treacherously in the back-ground, who were pushing these visionaries to the front with the object of throwing discredit on the miraculous events at the Grotto? We cannot tell.
The multitude, with their thousands of eyes fixed on all these details, with their intuitive perception and the necessity they felt of coming to some conclusion, were less reserved in their judgments than we are ourselves.
The hypothesis that these self-styled visionaries were incited by underhand manoeuvres on the part of the Police assumed immediately, right or wrong, a very serious hold on the mind of the public, which had become deeply imbued with distrust. The two or three children who claimed to have seen Apparitions mixed up all kinds of absurdities with their story, which was in other respects sufficiently incoherent. One day they clambered over the barrier formed of boards which inclosed the Grotto, and under pretence of offering their services to the pilgrims, drawing some of the water for them, and of sanctifying their chaplets by contact with the blessed Rock, they received from them and appropriated to themselves sundry presents. Jacomet, who might so easily have arrested them, suffered them to remain unmolested. He sometimes affected to be unconscious of these strange scenes, ecstasies, and infringement of the Prefect’s orders, sometimes to be absent at the time they occurred. From these surprising proceedings on the part of the very crafty and sharp-sighted Commissary, every one concluded that it was one of those dark underhand pieces of roguery, of which men connected with the Police, and even with the Administration, are—too frequently, perhaps—considered capable.
“Baron Massy,” they said, “finding himself deserted by public opinion, and being convinced by experience of the impossibility of putting a stop to what was going on by the assistance of violence, is attempting to dishonor the miracles by fomenting false visionaries, of whom he will afterwards make a great fuss in the newspapers and with the government. Is fecit cui prodest.”
Whatever might be the value of these suspicions—and most probably they were unjust—such scenes might disturb the public mind. The Curé of Lourdes, roused by these scandals, lost no time in dismissing with disgrace the youthful visionaries from the catechism class, and declared that if anything of the kind occurred again, he would himself take care to institute a severe investigation and discover the real instigators.
The attitude and threats of the Curé produced a sudden and radical effect. The pretended visions ceased there and then, and nothing more was heard of them. They had only lasted four or five days.
The Abbé Peyramale made the Bishop acquainted with this incident. As for M. Jacomet he on his part forwarded to the proper authorities, a report, couched in hyperbolical and romantic language, of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.
This audacious attempt of those hostile to the movement, to dishonor it and alter its nature, added weight to the already very sufficient reasons with which the Bishop was urged to act. Everything combined to show that the moment for interference had arrived, and that the religious authorities should no longer delay their investigation and final judgment.
Some men of the highest consideration in the Christian world, such as Monseigneur de Salinis, Archbishop of Auch; Monseigneur Thibaud, Bishop of Montpellier; Monseigneur de Garsignies, Bishop of Soissons; M. Louis Veuillot, chief editor of the Univers; some personages less known, but of tolerable notoriety, Monseigneur de Rességnier, formerly deputy; M. Vène, Chief Engineer of the Mines and Inspector-General of the Pyrenean warm baths, and a great number of eminent Catholics happened to be in the district at the time. All of them had studied the extraordinary events which form the subject of our history; all of them had visited and interrogated Bernadette, and all of them had either believed or were inclined to believe in the truth of her story.
One of the most revered of our Bishops was said to have been unable to restrain his emotion on hearing the youthful Seer repeat her tale, so purely simple and bearing so strongly the impress of truth. On contemplating this little girl, on whose brow the gaze of the ineffable Mother of God had rested, the Prelate had not been able to resist the first impulse of his melted heart. He, a prince of the Church, had prostrated himself before the majesty of this lowly peasant-girl.
“Pray for me, bless me and my flock,” said he to her with a voice choking with emotion, and so agitated that his knees almost refused to perform their office.
“Rise, Monseigneur. It is for you to bless this child,” exclaimed the Curé of Lourdes, who was present at the scene, seizing the Bishop eagerly by the hand to assist him in rising.
However suddenly and rapid was the movement of the Priest, Bernadette had anticipated it; and full of confusion in her humility she bowed her head low beneath the Prelate’s hand. The Bishop blessed her, but not without shedding tears.
From the quiet fields and villages to the great capitals of Europe, people of every rank and nation were now being drawn toward Lourdes. Neither barriers nor official threats could keep them away from the place where God was making His presence known.
In proportion as the month of June drew to a close, the great bathing season in the Pyrenees was commencing.
Bernadette had returned to her father’s house at Lourdes.
The bathing places were soon thronged with invalids, tourists, travelers, explorers, others attracted by simple curiosity, and savants from every direction, coming by the thousand roads with which Europe is intersected. These sombre mountains, so solitary and wild all the rest of the year, were peopled by degrees by a mass of visitors, belonging, for the most part, to the highest circles of society of the great cities. From July, the Pyrenees are a faubourg of Paris, London, Rome or Berlin. French and foreigners meet each other in the refreshment rooms, elbow each other in the saloons, walk about in the mountain paths, and take excursions on horseback in every direction, along the banks of babbling streams, on the rugged peaks or the flowery turf of umbrageous valleys. Ministers, tired of active business; deputies and senators, weary of haranguing themselves or listening to the harangues of others; bankers, diplomatists, merchants, ecclesiastics, magistrates, authors, men of the world, come to lay in a stock of health, not only at these widely-famed springs, but in this keen and pure mountain air, which stirs up the blood to greater activity and renders the mind—I know not how—more sprightly and free to exercise its powers.
In this society, so varied; this throng of cosmopolites, so essentially fluctuating and diverse, representatives of every belief and every shade of unbelief, every school of philosophy grave or gay, every opinion and every system might have been found. It was a microcosm; it was an epitome of Europe, which in the natural course of things and at the appointed hour, Providence was ushering into the presence of the supernatural events and miracles which were taking place on the threshold of the Pyrenees. God was carrying out His eternal plans. In the same way as of yore, at Bethlehem, He had shown Himself to the shepherds long before He showed Himself to the royal Magi; so, at Lourdes, He had in the first instance summoned the lowly, the humble, the inhabitants of the lonely mountains; and it was only after these that He called together the rich and brilliant, the sovereigns of wealth, intellect and art, to become spectators of His divine work.
Strangers hurried to Lourdes from Cauterets, Barèges, Luz, Saint Sauveur, Eaux-Bonnes and Bagnères-de-Bigorre. The town was alive with dashing equipages, drawn, as is the custom of the country, by four stout horses, harnessed and decked with glaring colors and tinkling bells.
The great majority of pilgrims or travelers did not take much heed of orders and barriers. They defied threats of prosecution and repaired to the Grotto, some from a sentiment of religious faith, others actuated by a lively feeling of curiosity. They wished to see, and they did see the persons who had been cured. Bernadette received innumerable visits. In all the saloons at the warm-bathing establishments, the events we have related formed the topic of every conversation. By degrees public opinion was formed, no longer the opinion of the little nook of country of forty or fifty leagues which extends at the base of the Pyrenees from Bayonne up to Toulouse or Foix, but the opinion of France and of Europe, which were represented at that moment in the bosom of the mountains by visitors of every class, every idea and of every country.
The violent measures of M. Massy, inasmuch as they caused as much vexation to the curiosity of some as they did to the piety of others, were loudly blamed by all parties. The former declared them illegal, while the latter deemed them inexpedient; all agreed in declaring them utterly powerless to stem the prodigious movement of which the Grotto and the miraculous Spring formed the centre. The absolute certainty of the Prefect’s ultimate failure made even those judge him with severity who participated in his horror of the Supernatural, and who in the commencement would willingly have applauded his policy. Men in general, and more especially in the caste of Free-thinkers, judge the actions of those in power much more by their visible results than by philosophical principles. Success is the surest means of obtaining approval. Failure is a two-fold misfortune, for universal blame is almost always superadded to the public humiliation which attends a want of success. The Baron was suffering from the attacks of this two-fold misfortune.
There were circumstances when the zeal of the Police and the municipal courage of Jacomet himself were sorely tried. Illustrious personages sometimes transgressed the limits of the enclosure. One day there was arrested a stranger—a man with marked and expressive features—who was advancing towards the poteau, evidently with the intention of going to the Rocks of Massabielle.
“You cannot pass.”
“You will soon see whether I can pass or not,” replied the stranger as he entered carelessly the communal lands and directed his steps towards the place of the Apparition.
“Your name? I shall make out a report against you.”
“My name is Louis Veuillot,” answered the stranger.
While the report was being drawn up against that celebrated writer, a lady had passed the boundary a few paces behind and had gone to kneel against the barrier of boarding which closed the Grotto. From between the openings of the palisade she was watching the miraculous Spring gushing forth and was praying. What was she demanding of God? Was her soul turning itself towards the present or the future? Was she praying for herself, or for others who were dear to her and with whose destiny she was charged? Was she imploring the blessings and protection of Heaven for an individual or a family? No matter. This woman engaged in prayer had not escaped the vigilant eyes which represented the policy of the Prefect, the Magistracy and the Police.
The Argus quitted M. Veuillot and rushed towards the kneeling woman.
“Madame,” said he, “nobody is permitted to pray here. You are taken in the very act; you will have to answer for this before the Juge de Paix, presiding over the Correctional Tribunal, and without appeal. Your name?”
“Willingly,” said the lady. “I am the wife of Admiral Bruat, and Governess of His Highness, the Prince Imperial.”
No one in the world had a higher respect for the social hierarchy and established authorities than the formidable Jacomet. He dropped his accusation.
Scenes of this nature were often renewed. To prosecute certain persons was alarming to the agents of the Prefect and might have caused some uneasiness to that high functionary himself. It was a deplorable state of things. The powerful disobeyed the decree with impunity, while the weak were treated with the utmost severity.
The weights and measures used varied according to circumstances.
The population, less calm and less patient than the Bishop, carried away with enthusiasm on seeing the great things which were being enacted before them, and touched by the miraculous cures which were daily increasing in number, did not, however, suffer themselves to be arrested in their course by the violent measures of the Administration.
The most intrepid, in defiance of tribunals and fines, cleared the barriers and betook themselves to prayer in front of the Grotto, after having thrown their names to the Gardes who kept watch at the entrance of the communal lands. Among these Gardes were several who sympathized with the faith of the multitude, and these also got into the habit of kneeling at the entrance of the venerated place as soon as they reached the spot and before they were posted as sentinels. Placed, as they were, between the crust of bread which their poorly-paid position of Sergent de Ville, or Cantonnier, gave them, and the repugnant employment imposed upon them, these poor fellows, in their prayer to the Mother of the weak and indigent, threw the responsibility of the wretched orders they executed on the authorities, who forced them to act. Notwithstanding this, they strictly fulfilled their task, and duly reported the names of delinquents.
Although many believers, in the impetuosity of their zeal, would most willingly have exposed themselves to danger in order to go and publicly invoke the Virgin at the place of the Apparition, yet the style of jurisprudence adopted by M. Duprat was eminently calculated to fill the multitude with alarm, as his nominal fine of five francs, as we have explained, might mount up to an enormous sum. A sentence of this kind would have been utterly ruinous to many persons, more especially to the very poor. The majority of them accordingly endeavored to escape the rigorous surveillance of persecuting power.
Sometimes the Faithful, respecting the barriers at which the Gardes were stationed on the boundary of the communal lands, reached the Grotto by cross-roads. One of the party, left in the rear, kept a look-out and warned his companions, by a preconcerted signal, of the arrival of the police. In this manner invalids were, with considerable difficulty, transported to the miraculous Spring. The official authorities, on being informed of these infractions of their orders, doubled the number of sentinels and cut off all access by these paths.
Some might be seen swimming across the Gave, in defiance of the swiftness of its current, for the purpose of coming to pray in front of the Grotto and drinking at the holy Fountain. The darkness of night was favorable to these violations of the law, which daily increased in number, notwithstanding the zeal and activity of the Police agents.
The influence of the Clergy had been diminished, not to say compromised, by the reasons we have explained.
In spite of their efforts to conform themselves to the injunctions of the Bishop, the priests discovered their utter inability to calm the agitated minds of their hearers, and to impress upon them that even the arbitrary acts of Power were entitled to respect. “Only what is respectable can claim respect,” was a revolutionary watchword which found an echo in every heart. The personal ascendency of the Curé of Lourdes—loved and revered though he was—began to pale before the popular irritation.
Order was menaced by the very measures adopted under pretext of ensuring its maintenance. The masses, outraged in the belief they held most dear, oscillated between submission and violence. If, on the one hand, petitions to the Emperor were universally signed, demanding in the name of liberty of conscience the withdrawal of the Prefect’s decree; on the other, the boards with which the Grotto was closed were broken night after night and thrown into the Gave. Jacomet exerted himself in vain to discover who were the believers, with so little respect for Authority, as to commit a misdemeanor hitherto unknown to our codes—nocturnal prayer accompanied with the breaking open and destruction of fences.
In order to avoid rendering themselves liable to prosecution, the faithful often went to prostrate themselves against the posts which marked the exterior boundary of the communal lands. It was a silent protest against the measures of the civil authority, and, as it were, a silent appeal to the omnipotence of God.
On the day when the Court of Pau reversed the sentence pronounced by the Tribunal of Lourdes against one of the three women prosecuted for some trifling remarks on the subject of the Grotto, and confirmed the acquittal of the two others, the crowd collected in the vicinity of the barrier was immense, and uttered shouts of victory. They could not contain themselves and cleared the barrier in compact masses, without returning any reply to the summons and terrified shouts of the agents of Police, who, disconcerted by the check they had experienced at Pau, and feeling alarmed at coming into collision with so many thousands of men, retired and suffered the torrent to pass.
The next day orders and remonstrances from the Prefect came to revive the courage of the Police and to prescribe a still more strict surveillance. The force at their disposal was augmented, and dismissal in case of failure was hinted to the agents. Redoubled rigor was the order of the day.
Reports of a sinister nature, absolutely false, but craftily circulated and easily credited by the multitude, threatened the delinquents with imprisonment. The actual penalties not being sufficient, an attempt was made to produce a kind of panic in the mind of the faithful by the employment of imaginary menaces.
By some means or other, any open infractions of the law were prevented from being renewed for some days.
Sometimes, unfortunate creatures, coming from a distance, suffering from paralysis, blindness or some one or other of those melancholy infirmities which medical science leaves to their fate, and which God alone possesses the secret of curing, went to the Mayor and besought him with clasped hands to suffer them to seek their last chance of recovery at the miraculous Fountain. The Mayor, obstinately adhering to the Prefect’s programme, and displaying in the execution of the measure adopted that energy in trifling details with which weak minds often deceive themselves, refused, in the name of the higher Authorities, the permission which was demanded. Inexcusable cruelty, official reports were drawn up against the sick themselves.
The great majority of such, then repaired to the right bank of the Gave, immediately opposite the Grotto. There was collected there on certain days an innumerable throng, on whom the officials had no hold; for the land trampled upon by these multitudes belonged to private individuals, who believed they should bring down on themselves the benediction of heaven by permitting the pilgrims to come and kneel down in their meadows and to pray in them, their eyes turned towards the scene of the Apparitions and the miraculous Fountain.
About the time when these vast multitudes were being assembled, poor Bernadette, worn out by her asthma, and doubtless wearied by the visits of so many strangers, fell sick.
In his extreme anxiety to calm the public mind, and remove to a distance every cause of agitation, the Bishop availed himself of this circumstance to advise, indirectly, Bernadette’s parents to send her to the baths of Cauterets, which are not very far from Lourdes. It would be the means of withdrawing the youthful Seer from those dialogues, interrogations and accounts of the Apparitions, which every one received with avidity, and which served to feed the popular emotion. The Soubirous, uneasy about Bernadette’s state of health, and being unconvinced in their own minds that these perpetual visits were breaking her down, confided her to the care of one of her aunts, who was herself going to Cauterets. She offered to take upon herself the trifling expenses of the child’s trip, which would cost but little at that season of the year, when the warm-baths are almost deserted. The noble and the rich did not repair to them till somewhat later on in the year, and a few poor people from the mountains have Cauterets all to themselves during the month of May.
Bernadette, out of health, seeking silence and repose, and wishing to withdraw herself as much as possible from public curiosity, remained there drinking the waters for two or three weeks.
To believe is no easy matter. In spite of so many glaring proofs, Monseigneur Laurence had still some doubts and hesitated to act. His extremely learned faith, did not get over the ground so rapidly as did the faith of his simple-minded neighbors. God, who shows himself, so to speak, all at once to simple and ignorant souls, who cannot be enlightened by human studies, is sometimes pleased to impose a longer and more patient research on cultivated and highly-educated persons, who are capable of arriving at truth by the paths of labor, investigation and reflection.
Like the Apostle Thomas, when he refused to believe the testimony of the other disciples and of the Holy Women, Monseigneur Laurence would have liked to have seen everything with his eyes and touched everything with his hands. Of a precise intellect, rather inclined towards the practical than leaning towards the ideal, and naturally distrustful of popular exaggerations, the Prelate was one of those who—by I know not what peculiar instinct—gave a cold reception to the passionate feelings of others, and willingly supposed that we are apt to be led astray by our emotions and deceived by our enthusiasm.
Although, at times, he was deeply struck by so many extraordinary events, he was so afraid of affirming on slight grounds that they resulted from supernatural agency, that he might perhaps have run the risk of rejecting the idea altogether, or of only acknowledging it when too late, had not the grace of God tempered and confined within just limits that natural bent of his mind which we have just pointed out to our reader.
Not only did Monseigneur Laurence hesitate to pronounce his own judgment, but even to command an official investigation. A Catholic Bishop, and deeply imbued with the necessity of keeping up the external dignity of the Church, he was not without fears of compromising the gravity of this Mother of the human race, by launching her prematurely into the solemn examination of all these singular facts with which he had not himself a sufficient personal acquaintance, and which might, after all, have no foundation beyond the silly tales of a little shepherd girl, and the vain illusions of some poor fanatics.
There can be no doubt that the Bishop would never have advised the measures taken by the civil authorities, and they met with his decided disapprobation. But since the evil was done, was it not prudent to derive from it the incidental good which might be one of its results? Was it not wise—if, by chance, the popular belief and account were erroneous—to leave this pretended supernatural fact to its own resources and to allow it to fight its own battle by itself against the hostile investigation and persecution of M. Massy, the Free-thinkers and Savants, who had formed a league together to overturn Superstition?
It would be better, therefore, to wait and not to be in a hurry to engage in a conflict with the civil power, which might, perhaps, prove useless.
“I deplore the measures now taken as much as you do,” the Bishop was wont to observe in his own private circle to those who urged him to interfere; “but not being charged with the police department, nor consulted by any of the authorities, I can but let things take their course. Every one is responsible for his own acts. I have had nothing to do up to the present moment with the acts of the civil authorities as regards the Grotto, and I congratulate myself on having done so. Later on, the ecclesiastical authorities will see if there is anything to be done.”
Actuated by this spirit of prudence and forbearance, the Bishop desired the Clergy of his diocese to urge the people to remain calm and to employ their influence to make them submit to the decree of the Prefect.
It appeared to the Bishop that the wisest part would be to avoid all disorder; not to create new embarrassments; to favor even, from a feeling of respect for the principle of Authority, the execution of the measures ordered by the local government, and to see what turn events might take.
Such were the views of Monseigneur Laurence, as may be gathered from his correspondence at that period. Such were the considerations which determined his attitude and inspired his conduct.
Perhaps he would have reasoned very differently, had he possessed, at that time, the ardent faith of the multitude. But it was well that he reasoned and acted in this way; it was well that he did not yet believe. We subjoin some grave reasons.
If Monseigneur Laurence, with the prudence required of him as Bishop, regarded the matter with an eye to the possibility of its being grounded on error, God, in His infinite clear-sightedness, regarded it only as connected with the immutable certainty of His acts and truth of His work.
God willed that this work should undergo the proof of time, and should affirm its own claims by surmounting, without the assistance of any one, the painful barriers of persecution.
Now, if the Churchman, the Bishop, had from the very first believed in the reality of so many Apparitions and Miracles, would he have been able to resist the generous impulses of his apostolic zeal, or hesitate, for one moment, to interfere energetically against the persecutions of the faithful, against the enemies of the work of God?
If he had had entire faith in the fact that the Mother of God had really appeared in his diocese, demanding the erection of a temple to her own glory, and curing such as were sick, could he have balanced, for one single moment, between the will of the eternal Queen of Heaven and Earth and the paltry opposition of a Massy, a Jacomet or a Rouland? Certainly not.
With such a faith in his heart, the Bishop, like St. Ambrose of old at Milan, could not but have started up, cross in hand and mitre on head, in the very teeth of the civil authorities. Publicly, at the head of the believers, undeterred by any fear of man, he would have gone to drink at the divine Spring, to bend his knees before the blessed Rock which the Virgin had sanctified by the touch of her feet, and to lay the first stone, in that wild spot, of a magnificent temple to the Immaculate Mary.
But in thus defending the work of God in the Present, the Prelate would infallibly have weakened it for Futurity. The support which might have been afforded it in its commencement would have compromised it at a more advanced period, and laid it open to the suspicion of having emanated not from God but from men.
The more the Bishop kept himself outside the movement and displayed a repugnance, nay hostility towards the faith of the people, the more the supernatural work displayed its strength, in triumphing without any external assistance, by its own resources, its intrinsic truth and innate force—in defiance of the animosity or withdrawal of all that, in this world, bears the name of power.
Providence had resolved that this should be so, and that the grand fact of the Apparition of the most blessed Virgin, in the nineteenth century, should pass, like Christianity in its infancy, through trials and persecution.
It was, therefore, necessary, to carry out the divine scheme, that the Bishop, far from taking the initiative, should be one of the longest—I was going to say one of the hardest—to surrender, and should only yield at last, after all the rest, to the unexceptionable weight of the testimony adduced and the irresistible evidence of facts.
And for this cause was it that God, in His secret designs, had placed in the episcopal chair of the diocese of Tarbes the eminent and guarded man whose portrait we have sketched. For this cause had it pleased Him to withhold from Monseigneur Laurence, in the commencement, faith in the reality of the Apparition, and to keep his mind in a state of doubt notwithstanding so many astonishing events.
It formed part of His heavenly plan, under such circumstances, to confirm in the Prelate that temporizing and prudent spirit with which He had so largely endowed him, and to leave to his episcopal wisdom that character of long hesitation and extreme deliberation which, in the midst of the general effervescence, was unintelligible to the multitude, though the future was destined to show to the eyes of all its admirable results and providential utility.
The people possessed the virtue of Faith, but their impatient ardor would have willingly urged the Clergy to interfere prematurely. The Bishop had the virtue of Patience, but his eyes were not yet opened to the truth of the supernatural work which was being accomplished before him, and forcibly striking every one.
Complete wisdom, and all things duly proportioned, were, as is always the case, in God alone, who was directing all events, and whose almighty hand was turning to the fulfillment of His object and tending to the immutable order of His designs the enthusiasm of the multitude and the hesitation of the Prelate.
It was the will of God that the Church, in the person of the Bishop, should abstain from taking any important part, and, keeping herself constantly aloof from the struggle, should appear at the last moment only to close authoritatively this grand debate and openly declare the Truth.
The Clergy continued to refrain from repairing to the Grotto, and kept themselves studiously aloof from the movement. The orders of Monseigneur Laurence in this matter were rigidly obeyed throughout the diocese.
The masses of the population, cruelly agitated by the persecution of the Administration, turned with anxiety towards the ecclesiastical authorities to whom God had committed the direction and defense of the faithful, and looked forward to an energetic protest on the part of the Bishop against the violence done to their own religious liberty.
Their expectations, however, were not realized. Monseigneur preserved an absolute silence and suffered the Prefect to proceed. Further, M. Massy had it inserted in his journals that he was acting in concert with the ecclesiastical authorities, and, to the amazement of all, the Bishop did not contradict the assertion. The mind of the people was troubled.
From the very first, the extreme prudence of the Clergy had been little understood or appreciated by the ardent faith of the multitude. At the stage which events had now reached, after so many proofs of the reality of the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, after the gushing forth of the Spring, and so many cures and miracles, this excessive reserve on the part of the Bishop in presence of the persecutions adopted by the Authorities appeared to them an inexplicable disloyalty. The respect they entertained for his character or person did not entirely suffice to restrain the expression of popular murmurs.
Why not boldly pronounce his judgment at a time when the elements of certainty were so abundantly at hand from all quarters? Why not, at any rate, issue his orders for an investigation, or have the question studied and some examination of it undertaken, so as to guide every one’s faith and prevent misconception. Were not events, which were sufficient to bewilder the civil power, and cause the upheaving of whole populations, worthy of the Bishop’s attention? Did not the Prelate’s obstinate silence justify the Prefect in acting as he did? If the Apparition was false, was it not the duty of the Bishop to enlighten the Faithful on the subject, and arrest the progress of error at once? If it was true, was it not his duty to oppose himself to the persecution undergone by those who believed, and courageously to defend the work of God against the malice of men? Would not a single step taken by the Bishop, an investigation, for instance, instituted by him, have hindered the Prefect from entering on that course of persecution to which he had now pledged himself? Were the Priests and the Bishop then deaf to so many prayers and exclamations of gratitude which were rising from the base of this Rock, destined to eternal celebrity, on which the Mother of the crucified God had rested her virginal foot? Had the Letter killed the Spirit? Were they, like the Pharisaical priests mentioned in the Gospel, blind to the lightning-like splendor of so many miracles? Were they so occupied in administering the concerns of the Church, and so absorbed in their clerical functions, that the almighty hand of God, appearing outside the temple, was either entirely overlooked by them or deemed by them an incident of no importance. Was it then under such circumstances, when God was intervening and persecution beginning to rage, that the Bishop should walk last, as if he were bringing up the rear of a procession?
This clamor rose from the midst of the assembled throng and kept increasing. The Clergy were charged with indifference or hostility, the Bishop with timidity or weakness.
Owing to the logical course of events and the natural bent of the human heart, this vast movement of men and ideas, so essentially religious in its commencement, threatened to take an anti-ecclesiastical turn. The masses of the people, full of faith in the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Trinity, but full also of discontent—irritated against the prolonged keeping aloof of the Clergy, displayed a tendency to rush towards the Church in which the divine strength dwells, and to desert the sacristy, where, beneath the sacerdotal robes, is found but too often the feebleness of man.
Monseigneur Laurence continued, however, to preserve his attitude of reserved inaction. What were the Prelate’s reasons for resisting that voice of the people which is sometimes the voice of Heaven? Was it prudence inspired by God? Was it merely human prudence? Was it shrewdness? Was it mere weakness?
This somewhat brutal interference of the local Government with the question to which the scenes enacted on the banks of the Gave, for some months past, had given rise, implied on the part of those who governed not only the denial of anything supernatural having occurred, but further of its possibility. In fact had the Administration admitted for one moment the possibility of the Apparition they would have adopted very different measures. In that case their aim would have been to have had the matter thoroughly sifted, whereas the course now followed plainly tended to hushing it up.
One fact was absolutely certain: the cures effected. Whether produced by the mineral and therapeutic nature of the water, or by the imagination of the invalids themselves, or by means of direct miraculous agency, these cures were palpable and officially recognized by the incredulous themselves, who being unable to reject them, sought only to account for them in a natural way.
Hundreds and thousands of loyal witnesses—whose testimony was beyond all suspicion—affirmed unhesitatingly that their cure had been effected by the use of the water at the Grotto. Not one was to be found to whom it had proved fatal or in whom it had produced evil consequences. Why then have recourse to these prohibitive measures, these lofty barriers, this armed force, menacing personal liberty, and this system of persecution? Why, if such measures were permitted, were they not carried to their logical conclusion? Why not close every place of pilgrimage where the sick had recovered their health, every church in which the faithful owing to their prayers believed they had received some particular Grace from God?
Such were the questions asked in every quarter.
“If Bernadette,” observed some, “had simply discovered a mineral spring possessing powerful curative virtues, without alluding to Visions and Apparitions, what Authority would have had the barbarity to prevent invalids repairing to it for the purpose of drinking its waters? Under the rule of Nero such a thing would not have been attempted, and all governments would have voted a reward to the child. But here, invalids kneel down before commencing their prayers, and the understrappers of office, flaunting cotton, silver or gold lace, who kiss the dust before their own masters, are not pleased that others should prostrate themselves before God. This is the real question. It is prayer which is the object of their persecution.”
“But Superstition?” observed the Free-thinkers.
“Is not the Church at hand to watch and guard the faithful against error? Let her act in her own province, and do not transform the Council of the Prefecture into an Ecumenical Council, or a Prefect or Minister into an infallible Pope. What disorder has arisen? None. What evil has taken place which might justify your measures and prohibitions? None. The mysterious Spring has done naught but good. Suffer then the believing portion of the population to resort to it and drink of its water, if they see right to do so. Leave them the liberty of believing, praying and of being cured; the liberty of turning themselves towards God, and demanding from the powers on high some assuagement of their sorrows. Free-thinkers, tolerate the freedom of prayer.”
But neither the anti-christian philosophers nor the pious Prefect of the Hautes-Pyrenees consented to pay any regard to so unanimous a cry, and rigorous measures pursued their course.
That intolerance with which the Catholic Church is so unjustly reproached by the enemies of Christianity, is in reality the dominant passion of the latter. They are from their very nature tyrants and persecutors.
