liberal progress He was twenty-eight years of
age; he was dressed as a layman, the slate of Paris not then permitting priests to wear tlieir clerical costume. His slender figure, his delicate and regular features, his chiselled forehead, the sovereign carriage of his head, his black and sparkling eye, an indescribable union of high spirit, elegance, and modesty in his whole appear- ance, were only the outward tokens of a soid which seemed reaily to overflow, not merely in the free con- flicts of public speaking, but in the effusions of intimate
friendship. The brightness of his glance revealed at once treasures of indignation and of tenderness ; it sought not merely enemies to combat and overthrow, but also hearts to win over and subdue. His voice, so vigorous and vibrating, took oi'ton accents of infinite sweetness. Born to combat and to love, he already bore the stamp of the double royalty of soul and of tal- ent. He appeared to me charming and terrible, as the tj^pe of enthusiasm for good, of virtue armed in defence of the truth. I saw in him one of the elect, predesti- nated to all that youth most desires and adores — ge- nius and glory." The articles published in the .1 venir speedily provoked the displeasure of the episcopate, and an early opportunity was sought to bring the 'trans- gressors to grief. This was found in an intemperate attack written by Lacordaire against Louis Philippe. Both Lacordaire and Lamennais ^vere cited before a jury for trial in January-, 1831 ; the former, however, pleaded the cause of the journal witli so much eloquence and abilitj' that both the accused were acquitted. Thus encouraged, they adopted more vigorous measures to se- cure liberty of education, in the face of an energetic opposition from the university. They announced that they would open a free school in the Frencli capital, and actually began teaching in Jlay, 1831. Tlie ])olice, however, soon put an end to this bold movement, and, as one of their number was a count (Montalcmbert), they were accused before a court of peers, and fined 100 francs. A short time after the papal see openly de- clared its opposition to them by an encyclical censure which Gregory XYI issued Sept. 18, 1832. Eejecting all their dogmas, it declared " the whole idea of the re- generation of the Church absurd, liberty of conscience a delirium, freedom of the press fatal, and invit)lable sub- mission to the prince a maxim of faith." Even before this papal censure had been publicly proclaimed the three chief editors oi UAvenir had gone to Rome, to prevent, if possible, any severe measures on the )iart of the pope. It was at this time that Lamennais i,.st de- cided to turn from the corruptions of Rome — from the corpse which he saw clearly it was in vain to attempt to resuscitate. Not so, however, was Lacordaire affect- ed. His imagination had been vividly impressed by the imposing ceremonies and glorious traditions of the Romish Church, and he was prepared at once to sub- mit to it " sicut cadaver." " The miseries, the infirmi- ties," says Montalcmbert, in his biography of Lacordaire, " inseparable from the mingling of evcrvtliing human with that which is divine, did not escape his notice, but they seemed to him as if lost in the mysterious splen- dor of tradition and authority. He the journalist, the citizen of 1830, he the democratic liberal, had wmpre- hended at the first glance not only the inviolable maj- esty of the supreme pontificate, but its difficidties, its long and patient designs, its indispensable regard for men and things here below. The faith and the duty of the Catholic priest had at once elevated that noble heart above all the mists of pride, above all the seduc- tions, all the temptations of talent, above all the intoxi- cation of strife. With the penetration which faith and humility confer, he passed beforehand upon our jireten- sions the judgment which has been ratified by time, that great auxiliary of the Church and of truth. It was then, I venture to believe, that (iod marked him forever with tlie seal of his grace, and that he gave him the assurance of the reward due to the invincilile fidel- ity of a truly priestly soul." Hereafter the man Lacor- daire is lost in the churchman, the active and iiKpiiring intellect confined, if not extinguished, liy the official re- ligion. His bond fde retractation of course drew upon him not only estrangement from his master, whose in- tellectual philosophy he ha<l never really adopted, and wliose retractation was never more than fiirmal, but the rejiroach of \\orldliness. It was due in realit}', how- ever, to a precisely opposite cause. His heart was iden- tified with the cause of the Church, and only his intel- lect with the Free-Church theorv. "Do not let ue
LACORDAIRE
184
LACORDAIRE
chain our hearts to our ideas," he said quite eariiestlj': ] and he evidently felt the delight in submission which always accompanies a sacritice of self for something one thinks higher and better than self. He thought he had detected a pride of systematic jihilosophy in the views of his master, Lamennais, and this had, he said, often galled and fretted him. lie believed that the Church, in condemning Lamennais and his school, had delivered him (Lacorilaire) '• from the most terrible of all oppres- sions, that of the human intellect;" and henceforth, though tender and respectful to his master in the ad- versity of papal disfavor, he really loved the Church the better for having humbled himself before her deci- sion, just as he woukl have loved God better fur having boweil his own self-will to the divine volition. The Church, he held, was higher than his intellect. His spirit, he fancied, had gained in vital power by humbling his own intellect before the mind of the Church. And so he embraced the first opportunity that presented it- self to convince the papal see of his sincerity. Lamen- nais had just appeared before the public in his Paroles dun croi/ant, and the book was selling extensively, and finding a very large circle of readers. Here was an op- portunity to break a lance in defence of Eome ; and, though the attack in this instance had to be directed even against his own former master, he hesitated not to enter the lists. He replied to Lamennais' book by his Considerations sur le syst'eme jjhilosophiqtie de M. La- mennais, a work which proved a total failure, and which Montalembert, the associate of Lacordaire — his bosom apostate from Lamennais — is obliged to admit as hav- ing been anything but successful. New honors, notwith- standing, soon sought out the devoted adherent to the cause of the Ultramontanes, first (in 1833 and 1835) in the offer of the editorship of the journal UUnivers, then lately established to further the LTltramontane princi- ples, and later in the proffer of a professor's chair at the University of Louvain. He desired none of these — the pulpit and the convent cell he had decided should be his future place of resort, " to speak and to write, to live a solitary and studious life;" he says in a letter of 1833, " such is the wish of my whole soul."