Book 8 - Part 3

Outside the events themselves and the Miracle, the mandate of the Bishop of Tarbes was the center of attack. Philosophy, in virtue of the infallibility of its dogmas, was indignant at the idea of investigation, scientific study and experiments. “When an individual, laboring under hallucination, sends a paper on perpetual motion or squaring the circle to the Academy of Sciences, the Academy passes to the order of the day without losing its time in examining lucubrations of the kind. There is no place for investigation when Miracles are in question; in the name of reason, Philosophy passes to the order of the day. To examine supernatural facts, would be to admit their possibility and by so doing repudiate our own principles. In such matters proofs and evidence go for nothing. We do not enter into discussions on what is impossible, we shrug our shoulders and there is nothing to be said.”

Such was the theme on which turned—in a thousand different forms—the ardent and exasperated polemical discussion of the irreligious portion of the press. In vain did it obstinately persist in denials and misrepresentations; it dreaded any investigation. False theories delight in resting on the fleeting waves and indistinct mists of pure speculation. By I know not what instinct of self-preservation, they shrink from broad day-light and dare not descend with firm step on the broad plain of experimental method. They have a foreboding that defeat awaits them there.

In this desperate struggle against the evidence of facts and the rights of reason, the skin-deep liberalism of the Journal des Débats peeled off and fell, like theatrical varnish, leaving visible, with scarcely any attempt at concealment, the ground-work of furious intolerance which is concealed beneath the stately phrases of philosophy. The Journal des Débats, in an article from the pen of M. Prévost-Paradol, displayed its alarm beforehand at the immense range which the Report of the Commission and the verdict of the Bishop would infallibly have, and he made that his starting-point to appeal to the secular arm and to conjure Cæsar to put a stop to the whole matter.

“It is evident,” said he, “that a striking manifestation of the divinity in favor of a certain form of worship is a high testimony to its peculiar truth, its superiority to all the rest, and to its incontestable right to the government of souls. It is therefore an event of a nature calculated to bring in its train numerous adhesions, whether as regards dissenters or unbelievers; in a word, it is an instrument of proselytism.” He put in a strong light the political importance of the result of the inquiry.

“If this decision is favorable to the Miracle, it tends to a certain point, to break in that part of France the balance between the religious and the civil power. The Ministers of a form of worship in favor of which such prodigies are authenticated are vastly different personages from those anticipated, organized and placed under certain regulations by the terms of the Concordat. They have an influence of quite another nature over the population, and in case of any collection they dispose of it with an authority totally different from that of the Council of State and of the Prefect.

“We have sufficiently proved,” continued the writer in the Débats, “the importance which, in several points of view, the decision of the Episcopal Commission of Tarbes must necessarily have. Now, there is here a truth which we should bear in mind, and of which M. de Morny has just reminded the Council-General of Puy de Dôme with justifiable urgency. It is that nothing of importance can be legally done in France without the previous authorization of the Administration. If a stone cannot be moved, as M. de Morny well remarked, or a well dug without the consent of the Administration, how much more necessary must its consent be in order to establish a Miracle or found a Pilgrimage. Any one who is conversant with religious matters, and particularly with the opening of temples, or of schools of dissenting communes, knows perfectly well that the administrative authority has not one plea, but ten; not one article of the law, but twenty or thirty which confer on it supreme power in such matters. The meeting of the Commission of the Diocese of Tarbes may be prevented or dissolved in a hundred ways by the Concordat, by the penal Code, by the law of 1824, by the decree of February 1852, by the central authority, by the municipal authority, by all the authorities possible. Further than this, the decision of this Commission when promulgated may be annulled in reality by the legal opposition of the administrative authority to the erection of a chapel or to the licensed use of the marvelous water. The same authority has the power of prohibiting and dispersing all assemblages of persons, and of prosecuting their instigators, etc.”

Having reached this point, having warned Cæsar, and cried out lustily his caveant consules, the crafty writer resumed—for form’s sake—his mantle of liberalism. “What are we aiming at,” he observed hypocritically, “in establishing this preventive right of the Administration? Is it to exhort it to avail itself of it? God forbid?” And he thus rejoined, by a back door, the ranks of the friends of liberty.

In the departments, the journals tamely re-echoed those of Paris. The battle was commenced everywhere and by all. The sergeants, corporals, the rank and file of literature stepped to the front in the wake of the Marshals of Free-thought. At Tarbes, the Ère Impériale, inspired by the Prefect, rammed his carbine with arguments fresh from Paris, and fired close to the muzzle, every second day, at the Supernatural. The little Lavedan, itself, damped, it is true, by the water of the Grotto—and assisted, it is said, by Jacomet, exerted itself to level at the Miracle its hebdomadal pistol, which regularly missed fire once a week.

The Univers, the Union, the majority of the Catholic journals supported the universal shock gallantly. Powerful talents placed themselves at the service of Truth, which was still more powerful. The Christian press re-established the reality of History and put to flight the miserable quibbles of philosophical fanaticism.

“In face of the unexplained occurrences to which a supernatural character is attributed by the faith or the credulity of the multitude, the civil authority,” observed M. Louis Veuillot, “has—without information, but also without success—decided the question in the negative. The spiritual authority is now interfering in its turn; it is its right and its duty. Before judging, it seeks information. It has instituted a Commission, a kind of tribunal of investigation, in order to discover facts, study their nature, and to determine their character. If they are true, and possess a supernatural character, the Commission will say so. If they are false, or only produced by natural causes, it will state this. What more can our adversaries desire from us? Would they have the Bishop abstain, at the risk of slighting a grace which God might deign to grant to his diocese, or, in the other case, suffer a superstition to strike its roots deep into the hearts of the faithful?

“The Bishop cannot fail to have remarked the strangeness of this conviction, which is establishing itself among a whole people, on the word of a poor illiterate little girl. He must have asked himself the question—How came these cures, which are said to be effected by a few drops of pure water, either employed as a lotion or drank by the sufferers? And if there were in reality no cures, it is necessary for us to know why it was so generally believed that they had taken place. Now, supposing that the water is pure, as the chemists say, and that nevertheless the cures are certain, as has been affirmed up to the present time by many invalids and some doctors, we do not see any difficulty in recognizing in this supernatural and miraculous agency, with all due deference to the explanations offered by the Siècle.”

This vigorous polemical writer faced all his enemies at the same time. A stroke of his pen was sufficient to upset the absurd prejudice of denying Miracles altogether, and of refusing even an examination of those astounding facts which whole multitudes saw with their eyes and proclaimed on their knees.

“If M. Guéroult were told that, in the name of Christ, a great miracle was being performed on the Place de la Concorde, he would not go to see it. He would do well, since he is determined to remain incredulous; before such a spectacle he would not be certain of finding such a natural explanation as would dispense him from going to confession. But he would do better to see the Miracle and believe, yielding to the testimony which God, in His mercy, might be willing to give him. In either case, we would have him to understand that the crowd would not be much troubled at his absence, and would experience no uneasiness at hearing him declare that what had been seen was the simplest thing in the world, and that the crowd was merely suffering from hallucination. Things would pass in Paris exactly as at Lourdes. There would be a general cry that a Miracle had taken place, and, if it really was a Miracle, the Miracle would produce its effect; in other words, that many men who have not hitherto sought to decipher the divine will, or have not succeeded in doing so, would know it and put it in practice; they would love God with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind, and their neighbor as themselves. Such is the end God would attain by Miracles. Woe to those who refuse to profit by them.”

“Those who reject the Supernatural,” observed one of the ancients, “sap the foundations of all philosophy. They do so, in fact, and especially since the advent of Christianity, because wishing to withdraw God from the world, they are left without any explanation of the world or of humanity. This God whom they exclude, some deny His existence, in order to get rid of Him altogether; others banish Him into vacuity, as exacting nothing and having nothing to exact from mankind, whom he abandons to chance, after having created them in a freak of his disdainful power. Some, denying and affirming His existence at the same time, as if they wished to glut their ingratitude by a double insult, pretend to discover Him everywhere, which dispenses them from acknowledging and adoring Him anywhere. However, around them and within themselves, humanity cries aloud and confesses God. They answer with sophisms, which do not really satisfy them, and by sarcasms, the compass of which they, with difficulty, hide from themselves; and lastly, their science and their reason, driven into absurdities, stop their eyes and their ears. They sap the foundations of philosophy. Does God, compassionating the faith of the weak, which these false Doctors would abuse, show Himself by one of those unusual strokes of His power, which does not on that account cease to be one of the laws of the world? They reject it. Look! We do not wish to see! David has said of the sinner, ‘He has sworn in his heart to sin; he refuses to understand lest he should be forced to do well.’

“Ah! doubtless,” exclaims elsewhere the indignant logician, “there exists a miserable crowd at whom all these common-places may be boldly flung; but there are also, even at Lourdes, readers whose good sense rebels and asks what becomes of history, palpable facts and right and simple reason in systems of the kind, ‘with their decision to refuse all examination, and their negation a priori.’

“As to preventing the Episcopal Commission performing its duties, we doubt if there are laws conferring this power on the State; if there are, the wisdom of the State should abstain from putting them in force. On the one hand nothing could be more favorable to the growth of Superstition: popular credulity would go astray to its heart’s content, for ‘there is no law which can oblige the Bishop to pronounce his judgment on a fact of which he cannot know anything, and of which he is even forbidden to know anything.’ The enemies of Superstition have only one thing to do, which is to institute a Commission themselves, have a counter-investigation, and publish its result; provided, of course, that the Episcopal Commission concluded in favor of the Miracle. For, if it came to the conclusion that the facts were false or only produced by illusion, there was nothing more to be said on the subject.”

In the midst of the great excitement of the public mind, the Catholic press displayed truly admirable reserve, in refusing to pronounce any judgment regarding what had occurred at the Rocks of Massabielle and the miraculous cures. It did not wish to anticipate in any way the decision of the Episcopal Commission. It confined itself to refuting calumnies, gross libels and sophisms, to maintaining the grand historical thesis of the Supernatural, and to reclaiming, in the name of reason, the rights of investigation and the liberty of intelligence.

“The occurrences at Lourdes,” observed the Univers, “have not yet been either verified or stamped with any decided character. They may arise from miraculous agency, or from a mere illusion. The debate will be settled by the Bishop’s decision.

“As regards ourselves, we think we have replied to whatever has been advanced seriously, or merely speciously, respecting the affair at Lourdes. Here we shall pause. It was not our part to allow the press to incrust these facts with all the lies it could invent; it would not be our part to reply to the derision which it has showered so unsparingly upon them. Wise men will appreciate the wisdom and good faith of the Church, and, as is usually the case, after all this disturbance, Truth will obtain in the world her little nucleus of adherents,—pusillus grex—which is, however, sufficient to maintain the reign of truth in the world.”

We see that, in this vast polemical war, which was stirred up on this grand question of Miracles owing to the events at Lourdes, the two camps were animated with the most opposite spirit.

On the one side, the Catholics appealed for a fair investigation; on the other, the pseudo-philosophers dreaded the approach of light. The former said, “Let an inquiry be instituted;” the latter exclaimed, “Let all debates be cut short!” The motive of one party was liberty of conscience; while the other entreated Cæsar to suppress by violence this religious movement, and to stifle it, not by force of argument, but by the brutality of power.

Every one of impartial mind, placed by his ideas or position outside the mêlée, could not but perceive in the clearest point of view, that justice, truth, and reason, were on the side of the Catholics. For this, it was sufficient not to be blinded by the fury of the struggle or the force of prejudice.

Although the Administration, in the person of a Commissary, a Prefect, and a Minister, had unfortunately played a most foolish part in this grave affair, there existed one powerful man who had never acted in it, and who, whatever might be his religious, philosophical, and political ideas, was in a condition to decide with perfect impartiality. The fact of the Supernatural having manifested itself or not at the gates of Lourdes, was a matter of utter indifference, as far as his schemes and the progress of his own affairs were concerned. Neither his ambition, nor his vanity, nor his doctrinal views, nor his antecedents, were pledged on either side of the question. Where is the mind, which, in such circumstances, would not deal equitably, and give reason and justice their due? Men do not violate Justice and outrage Truth, except when they deem it of utility to trample them under foot, in view of some powerful interest connected with fortune, ambition, or pride.

The man of whom we are speaking was called Napoleon III., and was, by chance, Emperor of the French.

Impassible as was his wont, mute as the sphinxes of granite which guard the gates of Thebes, he followed the polemical combat, watching the fluctuations of the battle, and waiting until the conscience of the public, so to say, dictated to him his decision.

Book 8 - Part 2

To the official and officious enemies of Superstition, there remained one last weapon to be employed, one final struggle to be attempted. If the battle seemed to be definitely lost in the Pyrenees, they might possibly reconquer their position at Paris, and make themselves masters of public opinion in France and in Europe, before the cosmopolite band of tourists and bathers, on their return to their own firesides, should have spread everywhere their vexatious impressions and severe judgments.

A formidable campaign was organized by the irreligious press of Paris, the province and foreign countries, against the events at Lourdes and the Bishop’s pastoral letter.

While the generals of Free-thought were engaged in the decisive combat on this vast battle-field, the Prefect of the Hautes-Pyrenees, like Kellermann at Valmy, received instructions to maintain his line of operations—come what might—not to give way an inch and not to capitulate, at any price, in face of the enemy. They well knew Baron Massy’s intrepidity, and were aware that neither arguments, nor reason, nor moral considerations, nor the spectacle of the most astounding Miracles would triumph over his invincible firmness. He would hold his ground even though it were crumbling beneath his feet. Even the absurdity of their position would be ably defended by him.

The Journal des Débats, the Siècle, the Presse, the Indépendance Belge, and several foreign journals struck the blow simultaneously, and rushed to the attack with violence. The most insignificant journals of the most insignificant countries, deemed it an honor to figure in this muster of shields against the Supernatural. We find, in fact, among those which took part in the struggle, even a paltry little newspaper of Amsterdam, the Amsterdaamsche Courant.

Some, as the Presse for instance, by the pen of M. Guéroult, or the Siècle by that of M. M. Bénard and Jourdan, attacked Miracles in their very principle, declaring that they had had their day, that they did not enter into any discussion with them, and that in a question already judged a priori by the great lights of philosophy, to examine was inconsistent with the dignity of Free Examination.

“Miracles,” observed M. Guéroult, “belong to a series of civilization which is fast disappearing. If God does not change, the idea which mankind forms of Him changes from epoch to epoch in proportion to the degree of light and morality they have attained. Ignorant people, who have no suspicion of the important harmony of the laws of the universe, see everywhere those laws reversed. From day to day God appears to them, talks to them, converses with them and sends angels to them.

“In proportion as Societies are enlightened, men become educated, and the sciences of observation come to counterbalance the flights of the imagination, all this mythology vanishes. Man is not less religious on this account; he is in reality more so, but it is after another fashion. He sees no longer face to face gods or goddesses, angels or demons. He strives to decipher the divine will written in the laws of the world. Miracles, which at certain epochs, might be the conditions of faith and serve as exterior coverings of deep truths, have become in our days the bugbears of all serious convictions.”

M. Guéroult declared that if he were told of a most striking supernatural fact as being in the process of accomplishment in his immediate neighborhood, on the Place de la Concorde, “he would not go out of his way to see it. If such adventures can take their place for an instant in the superstitious baggage of the ignorant masses, they do but provoke in men of enlightenment—in those, whose opinion, in process of time, becomes that of the world—the repulsion of distrust and the smile of disdain.”

Other journals devoted themselves gallantly to the disfigurement of facts. At the same time that it attacked the very principle of miracles, the Siècle, in spite of the evidence adduced, and the vast body of water which the Spring produced daily, still stuck, in its capacity of a very advanced journal, to the hackneyed theory of hallucination and oozing.

“It seems to us a matter of difficulty,” observed M. Bénard, with all the pomp of learning, “how they managed to manufacture a miracle out of the hallucination, true or false, of a miserable little girl of fourteen years of age, and the oozing of some pure water in a Grotto.”

As to the miraculous cures they disposed of them by a single word. “The hydropathists also pretend to effect the most brilliant cures with pure water, but they have not yet proclaimed from the house-tops that they work Miracles.”

But the most curious specimen of the good faith of the Free-thinkers, or of their sagacious investigation of this matter, is to be found in the Dutch journal we named above, the grave narration of which was re-produced in the French papers. This friend of enlightenment instructed the world and recounted the events which had occurred as follows:

“A new manifestation, destined to rouse and nourish the ardor of the faithful for the worship of the Blessed Virgin, was imminent. The deliberations of the Bishops on this point resulted in the preparation of the famous Miracle of Lourdes. Every one knows that the Bishop of Tarbes has appointed a Commission charged with investigating the fact. The so-called conclusions of the Report of the Commission, which is composed of ecclesiastics and individuals paid by the Clergy, were prepared long before the first meeting. The pretended shepherd-girl Bernadette is not an innocent shepherd-girl, but a young girl belonging to the city, of highly cultivated mind and crafty intellect, who has passed several months in a nunnery where she has been duly tutored in the part she was to play. There, before a small number of confederates, trial-representations were given long before she was brought on the public scene. As we see, nothing was wanting to this comedy, not even rehearsals. If at any time there happens to be a dearth of dramatists at Paris, persons may be found among the superior Clergy who will fill up the gap in the most superior style. Besides, the liberal press has turned the whole affair into ridicule from beginning to end, and it is very possible that the Clergy, for their own interest, will recognize the necessity of being prudent.”

The information obtained by the journalists could only be compared with that which had captivated the simple faith of his Excellency, M. Rouland. The public, as we see, were not treated more respectfully than a Minister.

In this manner is not unfrequently formed the opinion of those who are termed by M. Guéroult, in his article, “enlightened men,” doubtless in allusion to the torrent of light which the press throws upon them.

Book 8 - Part 1

The mandate of the Bishop instituting a Commission of Inquiry, coupled with the analysis furnished by M. Filhol, took away from Baron Massy, M. Rouland and M. Jacomet, all pretext for persevering in violent measures as well as for maintaining round the Grotto rigorous prohibitions, barriers and sentinels.

In justification of the prohibition of trespass on the communal grounds they had said, “Considering that it is important, in the interests of Religion, to put a stop to the deplorable scenes at the Grotto of Massabielle.” Now, the Bishop by declaring the state of things to be sufficiently grave to warrant his interference, and by taking in hand the investigation of whatever regarded the “interests of Religion,” disarmed the civil power of this motive, which it had so loftily invoked.

In justification of the prohibition of going to drink water at the Spring which had gushed forth from beneath the hands of Bernadette when in a state of ecstasy, they had said, “Considering that it is the duty of the Mayor to watch over the public health; considering that there are serious reasons for believing that this water contains mineral compounds, and that it is prudent—before permitting its use—to wait until a scientific analysis shall make known the manner in which it may be applied by the science of medicine. . . .” Now by declaring that the water did not contain any mineral compound, and by establishing that it might be drunk with impunity, M. Filhol demolished, in the name of Science and Medicine, this pretended reason, “the public health.”

If then the civil power had alleged these motives as straightforward reasons, and not as specious pretexts; if it had acted “in the interests of Religion and of the public health,” and not under the influence of evil passions and intolerance; if, in a word, it had been sincere, and not actuated by hypocrisy, it would, in the present stage of events, have had nothing to do but to cancel its prohibitions and remove its barriers; it would have had nothing to do but to leave the people absolutely free to drink at the Fountain, whose perfect harmlessness had been proclaimed by Science; it would have had nothing to do but to acknowledge their right to go and kneel at the foot of those mysterious Rocks, where from henceforth the Church kept watch.

It did nothing of the kind.

To this solution of the question, so clearly pointed out by logical reasoning and conscience, there was one potent obstacle—Pride. Pride bore the sway from the bottom to the top of the ladder, from Jacomet up to Rouland, including, of course, the Baron, and all their philosophizing Sect. It seemed hard to them to recoil and surrender their arms.

Pride never submits. It would rather boldly intrench itself in the illogical than bow to the authority of Reason. Furious, beside itself, driven to the most absurd shifts, it raises itself to its full height against evidence. It says, “Non serviam,” like the Satan of holy writ. It resists, refuses to give way and becomes inflexible—until all at once the crash comes and it is contemptuously shivered into atoms.

Book 7 - Part 9

At the time when Monseigneur had just commanded, in the name of Religion, an investigation relative to those extraordinary facts which the civil authorities had condemned, persecuted, and wished to suppress a priori, without deigning even to study or discuss them; on the very same day, when the Prelate’s letter to the Minister of Public Worship was despatched, M. Filhol, the illustrious Professor of Chemistry in the Faculty of Toulouse, returned the decisive verdict of Science on the water of the Grotto at Lourdes. The conscientious and most complete labor of the great chemist annihilated the official analysis of M. Latour de Trie, that savant of the Prefecture, who had been so much cried up by the Prefect.

The undersigned, Professor of Chemistry to the Faculty of Science at Toulouse, Professor of Pharmacy and Toxicology at the School of Medicine in the same town, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, certifies to having analyzed a certain water coming from a Spring, which has gushed forth in the environs of Lourdes. . . .

The result of this analysis is, that the water of the Grotto at Lourdes may be considered from its component parts to be a water fit for drinking purposes, analogous to the majority of those which are met with on mountains whose soil is rich in lime-stone.

The extraordinary effects which are positively attributed to the use of this water, cannot—at least in the present state of science—be explained by the nature of the salts, whose existence is revealed by this analysis.

This water does not contain any active substance capable of endowing it with marked therapeutic virtues. It may be drunk without inconvenience.

(Signed) Filhol.

Toulouse, August 7th, 1858.

Thus when confronted with the examination of the celebrated chemist, all the pseudo-scientific scaffolding on which the Free-thinkers, Savants and the Prefect had with so much pains constructed their theory of extraordinary cures, fell to the ground. According to the verdict returned by true science, the water of the Grotto was not mineral, nor did it possess any curative virtues. And yet it effected cures. There remained nothing for those, who had audaciously put prominently forward false explanations, except the confusion attending their attempt and the impossibility from that time forth of withdrawing the public acknowledgment they had made of the cures accomplished. Falsehood and error were taken in their own nets.

Book 7 - Part 8

This letter reached Monseigneur Laurence precisely at the moment he had issued the Order with which the reader is acquainted, and had constituted a Commission of Inquiry regarding the extraordinary events which the all-powerful hand of God had brought to pass.

Although the Bishop could not but be extremely astonished and indignant at the extravagant stories which the Minister gave out as if they were truth itself, he replied in a tone of moderation to his Excellency’s letter. Without giving his own opinion on the matter in debate—as he did not wish from prudential motives to bring on a premature decision—he re-established the exact nature of the facts which had been so disgracefully travestied. He explained with equal clearness and frankness the line of conduct which he had followed himself and prescribed to his Clergy, until the increasing importance of the events around him had obliged him to interfere and to appoint a Commission of Inquiry. To the Minister, who, without knowing anything or examining any thing, urged him to condemn, he replied that he was engaged in investigation.

Monsieur le Ministre,—I read your despatch with great astonishment. I am also informed of what is passing at Lourdes, and, as Bishop, deeply interested in reprobating whatever is calculated to cause sorrow to Religion and the faithful. I am, therefore, enabled to inform you that the scenes you mention in your letter have never existed such as they have been described to you, and that if some things to be regretted have occurred they were of a very transient nature and have left no traces behind them.

The occurrences to which your Excellency alludes must have taken place since the closing of the Grotto and the first week in July. Two or three children of Lourdes took it into their heads to play the part of Visionaries and perform sundry antics in the streets. The Grotto, as I observed, being then closed, they found means of entering it and of offering their services to visitors, who had been stopped at the barriers, to bless their chaplets in the interior of the Grotto and to receive their offerings, for the purpose of appropriating them to themselves. One of them, who made himself most remarkable by his eccentricities—sometimes highly improper—was attached to the parish church at Lourdes, as chorister. The Curé gave him a severe reprimand, expelled him from the catechism class and excluded him from the service of the Church. This disorder was only transient. The public saw nothing in it beyond the frolics of certain children, which a few threats soon put an end to. Such are the facts which some too zealous persons have magnified in their reports into permanent scenes.

I should be glad, Monsieur, for you to obtain information as to what is passing at Lourdes from persons of birth and education who have stopped in that town in order to see the places for themselves, to converse with the inhabitants and with the child who has seen the Vision, such as the Bishops of Montpellier and Soissons, the Archbishop of Auch, M. Vène, Inspector of the Mineral Waters, Madame Bruat, wife of the Admiral, M. Louis Veuillot, etc., etc.

The Clergy have up to the present time kept altogether aloof, on the occasion of the affairs at the Grotto. The Clergy of the town have displayed admirable prudence, never going to the Grotto, in order to avoid giving credit to the Pilgrimage, but on the contrary favoring the measures taken by the authorities. And yet they have been reported to you as favoring Superstition. I do not accuse the first magistrate of the Department as his intentions have always been upright; but in this affair he has placed too much confidence in his subordinates.

In my letter in answer to the Prefect, bearing date April 11th, a letter which has been submitted to you, I offered that magistrate my sincere co-operation to bring this affair to a happy termination. But it was impossible for me to accede to his wishes by stigmatizing, from the Christian pulpit, without enquiry or investigation, those who were in the habit of going to pray at the Grotto, nor could I prohibit them from going there, more especially as no disorder of any kind was reported, though on certain days the visitors might have been counted by thousands. Besides the fact that the Church always assigns specific reasons for her prohibitions, and the information I had received on the subject was insufficient, I was also morally certain, that my words would not have been listened to at a moment when the minds of all were in a state of the highest excitement.

The Prefect, being at the Council of Revision at Lourdes, on the 4th of May, had the religious objects which were in the Grotto removed by the Commissary of Police at Lourdes, and, in a speech which he addressed to the Mayors of the canton, he said that he had taken that measure with the consent and approval of the Bishop of the Diocese—an assertion which was repeated some days later by the organ of the Prefecture. I was informed of this step by the journals, and by the Curé of Lourdes. I lost no time in writing to the latter desiring that the orders of the Prefect might be respected. I never complained either at the time or since that I appeared to have shared in a measure of which I was entirely ignorant. Although numerous letters have reached me begging me to enter my protest, I have refrained from doing so, not wishing to add to the embarrassments of the situation.

The objects of piety being removed from the Grotto, we might hope that the number of visits to the spot would gradually decrease and that this Pilgrimage, which had so unexpectedly sprung into existence, would be brought to a close. The public claimed, right or wrong, that the water which flows in the Grotto effected marvelous cures; the crowds became more numerous and people flocked to the spot from the neighboring departments.

On the eighth of June, the Mayor of Lourdes issued an Order, forbidding all access to the Grotto.

This Order was based on the interests of Religion and the public health. Although Religion had thus been brought prominently forward, and the Bishop had not been consulted, the latter did not make any formal expostulation; he kept silence for the reasons explained above.

You see, Monsieur le Ministre, from these few details that the reserve of the Clergy in this affair has not been pushed to extremes. In my opinion it has only been prudent. When I could, I co-operated with the measures taken by the civil authorities, and if they have not always been successful, it is not the Bishop who must incur the blame.

Now, yielding to the expostulations addressed to me from all quarters, I thought the time had arrived for me to occupy myself usefully with this affair. I have named a Commission for the purpose of seeking for and collecting the elements necessary to form a decision—as far as I am concerned—on a question which keeps the country in agitation, and which, to judge from the information which reaches me, seems to interest the whole of France. I am confident that the Faithful will receive my decision with submission, as they know well that I shall have neglected no means of arriving at truth. This Commission has been in operation for some days. I am determined to give every publicity to my Order by means of the Press, in the hope that it may contribute to calm the public mind while waiting for the promulgation of the decision. I shall do myself the honor of forwarding your Excellency a copy of it within a few days.

I am, etc., etc.,

B. S., Bishop of Tarbes.

Such was the letter of Monseigneur Laurence to M. Rouland. It was clear, it was conclusive, and it was unanswerable. The Minister of Public Worship did not reply to it. He resumed his former silence, in which he showed his wisdom. Perhaps he would have displayed still greater wisdom if he had never broken it.

Book 7 - Part 7

 

Monseigneur Laurence had scarcely issued this order, when a letter from M. Rouland, Minister of Public Worship, reached the Palace.

To understand well the terms in which this letter was couched, we will premise:

It is impossible to know beyond all doubt whether the Police or the Administration had instigated the false visionaries, or whether they were the innocent victims of universal suspicion, and it would be still more difficult to establish this point by regular documents. In such cases, the proofs, when any are in existence, are always destroyed by interested hands. To arrive then at the truth, there remains only the general complexion of events, and the unanimous feeling of a contemporary public—a feeling sometimes certainly very just, but often also imbued with passion and stained with error. In presence of such incomplete elements, of this shade mingled with light, and this light mingled with shade, a historian has only to recount authentic facts, to express his doubts, uneasiness and scruples, with regard to the rest, and to leave the reader to decide the question and determine in his own mind on which side the greater probability rests.

Whatever, therefore, was the reason, or the unknown hand which had instigated two or three street-boys to play the part of Visionaries, M. Jacomet, M. Massy, and their friends, displayed the greatest eagerness in exaggerating these childish tricks and turning them to the best advantage. They exerted themselves to the utmost to invite the attention of the multitude to this quarter, and to divert it from the really grave events, such as the divine ecstasies of Bernadette, the gushing forth of the Spring, and the cures of those that were sick, which had captivated the faith of the people. When the battle is lost on one point, eminent strategists endeavor, by some well-contrived feint, to lure the enemy towards a portion of the field full of ambuscades, and mines ready to explode as soon as they reach it. This is what they term, “making a diversion.”

The sudden disappearance of the false visions and false Visionaries before the aroused attention and far-seeing threats of the Abbé Peyramale, blasted, from the very first day, the hopes which had been conceived by the profound tacticians of the free-thinking party.

The good sense of the public remained firm on the true ground of the question, and did not allow itself to be deceived. This was not the case with the high-reasoning powers of the Minister, M. Rouland. Let us see how it happened that his strong mind was led astray.

Attempting one more desperate effort against the triumphant and irresistible force of circumstances, and employing the last resources of their genius to produce at all cost out of these paltry incidents a last chance of resisting defeat and of resuming the offensive, the Prefect and Jacomet had forwarded to the Minister of Public Worship, the most hyperbolical and fantastic picture of these childish scenes. Now, owing to an illusion scarcely conceivable in a statesman who had had experience of official life in these, our days, M. Rouland placed the blindest confidence in official reports. Faith is never lost, whatever may be said to the contrary, but it is often misplaced. Rouland, the philosopher, had no faith in Our Lady of Lourdes, proving her claims by cures and miracles, but he had faith in the Prefect and Jacomet. These two gentlemen then made him believe, that, under the shade of the Rocks of Massabielle, children had the audacity to play the part of priests, and that the people, represented by creatures of impure life, crowned them with laurels, or with flowers, etc., etc. They did not disguise to him the utter impotency of violent measures against the general agitation of the public mind. According to them, material force was vanquished and the civil authority at bay. The religious authority alone could save the situation by energetic action against the popular belief. Driven to desperation and knowing little of what became the dignity of a Christian Bishop, they dared to imagine that a pressure from the higher authorities judiciously brought to bear on Monseigneur Laurence, might determine him to condemn what was passing, and act according to their own views. For this reason they suggested to the Minister a personal appeal to the Bishop, as the best means of extrication from the present difficulties.

This was to urge his Excellency in the direction towards which he naturally inclined. M. Rouland was well-known to have a tendency to mix himself up with religious questions, and he experienced much pleasure in drawing up programmes for the guidance of the successors of the Apostles.

The Minister, notwithstanding his having been formerly Procureur-Général, never once thought of asking himself the question why—if the reports he had received were correct—the Parquet had not prosecuted before the tribunals the authors of the profanations brought to his notice. This strange inaction of the Magistracy with regard to these asserted disorders never once excited his suspicions.

Accepting then with a candor more ministerial than the romances of the Police and the Prefect and fancying that he saw his way clearly in the business; deeming himself a theologian of the first water and something more than an Archbishop, seeing that he was the Minister of Public Worship, M. Rouland, from the interior of his cabinet, formed a peremptory judgment on the actual state of things, and wrote to the Bishop of Tarbes a letter, which was in all respects a worthy counterpart of the one he had addressed at the commencement of the affair to the Prefect and which we have already quoted. It was from beginning to end impregnated with the same official piety. On re-perusing it to-day, by the light of historical truth, it is impossible to avoid smiling sadly at the manner—sometimes so monstrously barefaced—in which those who govern are at times deceived—we might almost say impudently mocked and held up to derision—by the inferior agents of their administration. We cannot in fact regard without a melancholy irony of mind the following letter, written by the very Minister who at no very distant period of time was to affix his signature to a paper authorizing the erection of a spacious church on the Rocks of Massabielle, in eternal memory of the Apparitions of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.

MONSEIGNEUR,— The latest intelligence I have received touching the affair of Lourdes appears to me to be of a nature calculated to cause deep sorrow to all sincerely religious men. These benedictions of chaplets by mere children, these manifestations in which may be remarked women of doubtful morality, these crowns placed on the heads of visionaries, these grotesque ceremonies, mere parodies of religious ones, could not fail of giving free scope to the attacks of protestant and other journals, if the central authority did not interfere to moderate the ardor of their discussions on religious subjects. These scandalous scenes do not throw less discredit on Religion in the eyes of the population, and I think it my duty, Monseigneur, to call anew your most serious attention towards these facts. . . 

These much to be regretted manifestations seem to me also to be of a nature to induce the Clergy to break through the reserve they have hitherto maintained. I can but make a pressing appeal on this subject to all your prudence and firmness, and ask you whether you do not think it advisable to reprove in the most public manner profanations of the kind.

Accept, etc. 

Rouland

Minister ofPublic Instruction and Public Worship. 

Book 7 - Part 6

 

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.