ALLIES'S FRANCE AND ITALY. *
THE Reverend T. W. Allies is one of those clergymen of the Established Church who hold opinions scarcely- consistent with its tenets as all but universally understood. He maintains the real presence ; he advocates the celibacy of the clergy, and the predominance of the priestly character, through ordination in the regular Apostolical succession, which Rome claims for her ministers ; together with confession, religions orders, and the practice of certain observances, such as bowing to the altar. We do not think we err in attributing to him a belief in a miraculous power still residing in the Church and occasionally displayed in working miracles, either by means of a saint or the eucharist, or both combined ; he has evidently faith in the alleged miracles of the Addolorata and the Estatiea. He disapproves of the language in which the Virgin and Saints are ad- dressed by the people in Romish countries ; but he appears to attach some Romish meaning to the "communion of saints" of the Creed, which induces him to differ little from the theoretical interpretation of the practice by Roman divines. His main objection to Popery appears to us to be historical. He has examined and written on the subject of the superiority or primacy of the Pope, and during the earlier ages of the Church he finds the claim unsupported. There is perhaps, too, at bottom, a little professional dissatisfaction at the charges of heresy and schism which the Romanists bring against the Anglicans ; but, theolo- gically speaking, we cannot see in what Mr. Allies essentially differs from a Romanist, or, if his views of the English Church were correct, what claim it would have to be called Protestant at all. It follows al- most as a sequence, that he looks forward to the union of Rome and England ; although the mode of effecting the union is not distinctly stated, if indeed it is present to his own mind.
Entertaining such religious views as we have described, and very justly looking upon Romanism as a fact to which it is neither "honest, Christian, or safe, to shut one's eyes," Mr. Allies has made three excur- sions to France, and one to Italy, within a few years, in order to inquire into the state of the Church and of religion in those countries. The ex- cursion to Italy was made in 1847, and only consisted of a short tour from Genoa to Venice through Milan ; the alleged miracles of the girl whose sympathetic wounds resembled those of the crucified Christ, and the other girl who lived in a state of ecstacy, forming the principal sub- ject of his attention. The inquiries in France, though chiefly limited to the districts lying along the two main lines of travelling from Paris to the coast, are much fuller and more interesting. The author is too biassed in his views, for his conclusions to be implicitly trusted or his panegyrics implicitly received ; in looking at Chriatiaiiity in France, he entirely ne- glects the two millions of Protestants ; and the facts not drawn direct from observation are derived from parties interested in placing things in the light most favourable to their own ideas. The book, however, will furnish a good account of the state of religious education in France ; of the activity and self-devotion of the priesthood, and of the religious sisters of various orders ; of the general state of religious feeling in the country ; and of the earnest, skilful, and commendable struggle the Romish priest- hood are waging against the indifference or open scepticism of the mass of Frenchmen. According to the informants of Mr. Allies, the State Universities are seminaries of infidelity and moral laxity; the bulk of the upper classes, the professions, and still more the bourgeoisie, are infidel from their education, their sensualism, and worldliness; the mass of the people from the training of the first Revolution, and from neglect. In Paris, about 300,000 out of the million go to mass, but only-some 50,000 can be reckoned as "practising Christians." To reconquer the domains of the Church, (which, be it said, were lost by its corruptions, coldness, and negligence,) the priesthood of the present day act indirectly by means of education in some form. The better classes are tempted by an excel- lent education at a cheap rate; schools are established for the education of the people so far as the means of the clergy go; seminaries are organ- ized for the training up of youth for the priesthood ; a spirit of devotion and self-denial enabling much to be done with little money. The class of workmen are attracted by societies and lectures analogous to our me- chanics institutions, but perhaps of a more dramatic and popular charac- ter; the sick and miserable are looked after in their bodily necessities, and, if they will permit, in their spiritual destitution. By these means, some converts are made from the canaille of the towns; more are hoped for; and a greater feeling of respect for the priesthood prevails among the people, as was seen in their conduct during the late Revolution. The book is more entitled to attention from the peculiar ideas and new information of the writer, than for any particular literary merit. Mr. Allies has the clearness and closeness of a scholar in his style ; the reality of a man actively engaged among his fellow men in his matter ; but he wants the unction and feeling of Newman and some others of the Trac- tarian school. The book is not wholly his own composition : two friends who accompanied him to Italy give their account of the Italian miracles, which substantially tallies with that of Mr. Allies ; and passages from the journal of the Reverend C. Marriott are blended with the account of the first tour.
A point raised by Mr. Allies more than once, was the possibility of salvation in the Anglican Church. He found, he says, a great deal of ignorance as to the truth of the case ; those he conversed with denying us "the succession," and confounding Churchmen with Dissenters. The age seems to have modified the dogma of no salvation beyond the pale * Journal in France In 1845 and 1848, with Letters from Italy in 1847. of Things and Persons concerning the Church and Education. By Thomas William Allies, ALA., Rector of Launton, Oxon. Published by Longman and Co. of the Roman Church, though but very slightly. In cases of "invineicle ignorance"—ignorance arising from obstacles that the individual could not overcome—safety is thought possible; but the celebrated preacher, le Pere Lacordaire, lays down the dogma with such limitations that it excludes all educated heretics, at least all in the class of our author, if he had an eve to his own case.
" After we had talked some time," Mr. Allies reports of his first interview with the orator, " I said, 'I should like to put aquestion to you. Suppose a.person of in- telligence, of perfect good faith, who is ready to make any sacrifice for religion, who uses all possible means to attain to the truth; suppose such a person, firmly convinced that the English Church is a branch of the Catholic Church, though unhappily separated front the Roman Church ; would you condemn him—that is, put him out of the pale of salvation?" Monsieur,' said he, there is only one thing which can excuse a person for not belonging to the Church, and that is in- vincible ignorance. You know in certain cases even the heathen may be saved. But such a person cannot be in invincible ignorance; for there are only three things by which a man can be prevented from seeing the truth,—either the truth in itself must be of insufficient power to convince him, or there must be a defect of understanding, or a corruption of will. But the first is out of the question. The truth of itself must always be sufficient: to suppose otherwise would be to censure God. Either, then, there must be a defect of understanding: but in the cases of the leaders of the Anglican movement, that is out of the question, because they are men of great powers of mind, of great distinction. there remains only then the corruption of the will; which, indeed, is often so subtle that men are unconscious of its influence. Nevertheless, in the sight of God it is the will which in such cases leads astray ; and then such men are condemned, and cannot plead invincible ignorance. When, indeed, you come to the individual, I will not attempt to judge: it is written, nolite jadicare; for it is utterly impossible for any human being to know the inward state of another. But I only say of the class, that such persons cannot plead invincible ignorance; for the truth itself, as I have said, cannot be insufficient; and their intellectual powers are such, that in these also there can be no impediment; consequently the obstacle must be in the will, how- ever unconscious the individual may be of it. A thousand considerations of family, of fortune, of habit, and what not. surround a man, and insensibly warp him; bat he is still under condemnation, for it is his own will that is corrupt. If I were to go into a public square in Paris and raise three men from the dead, would all that saw it believe?" Certainly not,' I said. Why, then, is that? There is some se- cret obstacle in their will.' We tried in vain to make him understand that a per- son might be conscientiously convinced, after the most patient study, that the Church of England was part of the true Church ; bat in vain.. It was plainly an idea that he could not and would not receive."
The stories of miracles, with their testimonies, which Mr. Allies has collected, are strange tales, equalling if not exceeding the business of the holy coat of Treves. The mockery of Parisian scepticism can hardly be wondered at when stories like the following are put forth as occurring in Paris.
"As we rose to leave, I asked him if the Scour de Charite were still living to whom the vision of the Blessed Virgin had been granted. He replied that she was. But you have heard, I suppose, the miracle which has happened lately? We said we had not. A young novice; he continued, of the Scours de la Charite, on the 30th April last, received in attending a sick sister a most violent luxatioa of the vertebral column. The surgeon considered her case so full of danger that he refused to operate on it without calling in another. The head was turned- round and pressed closely on the left shoulder ; paralysis had seized on the left side, and the right was beginning to be affected. The surgeon said an operation might be performed, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it failed. She had been several days in this state: the Superieure of the Sisters was asked for a written authorization to operate on her: she did not like to agree to this, unless the patient herself demanded it. At length they determined on a neuvaine of prayers to S. Vincent de Paul, the feast of the translation of whose relics they were then celebrating. This began on Sunday the 7th May. After this had be- gun, the patient expressed the most earnest desire to be carried into the church of S. Vincent de Paul, and to be laid before the shrine containing his relics over the altar. She had the most confident persuasion that she should be cured by his intercession. Her confessor, as he told me, set himself against it as much as he could: he had given over her case, and was going to administer the last sacra- ments to her on the next day. At her repeated request, it was referred to the Superieur General; and he gave his consent that she should be carried on a conch to the church between four and five in the morning. The Superieur said to him- self, as he told us, the case is desperate; if she dies on the way it will be no worse than it is now. She was accordingly carried to the church on Tuesday the 9th May, and laid before the altar. As the mass went on, at the Gospel she took her face with both hands and pushed it round from where it had been pressed on the left shoulder beyond its proper place to the right. As the elevation she tried to rise, but to no purpose. She received the holy communion with the utmost diffi- culty, and in the greatest pain; but before the priest had finished the mass she rose of herself from her bed, perfectly cured, and knelt down. She staid in the church while another man was said, on action de graces, and then walked back to the house of the Sisters of Charity in the Rue du Bac (about ten minutes' walk). The Bishop of Carcassonne, who was in the church, about to say mass at the time, was told by the Saserieur General what had happened. He said to her, Doubtless, you prayed fervently ? ' No, my Lord,' she replied; I did not pray: I believed.' e Non, Monseigneur, je no priais pas: je croyaier The following is an example of devotion to an object for the object's self, less rare upon the Continent than in this country, and more frequent in the Romish Church than in any other, we believe. "M. Gaduel told me that the good professors of S. Sulpice receive no salary whatever. They live, he said, as children in a father's house, provided with every- thing they want; but they are not given money. If one has need of a coat, he asks for it, and has it. Should they be taken ill, and be unable to continue their functions, they will be supported and tenderly provided for all their days. They take no vows, and can leave when they please; and they retain whatever private property they may possess. Those who have none receive 100 francs a year for their charities; for you know, he said, they cannot go into the city without a son. Thus their life is entirely detached front the cares of this world, from the desire of wealth, and all that attaches to it. Yet is it, from its sedentariness and severely abstract pursuits, as well as from the continued pressure on the heart and conscience, a trying life. Health, I imagine, is only maintained by the weekly relaxation of Wednesday, and the annuals vacation of two months in August and September."
The following is another example of the same spirit; though we manage something of the kind by subscription.
"Saturday July 12.—M. D'Alzon took us over M. rAbbi hfigne's great printing establishment. It contains 175 workmen, and everything is done therein; binding, stereotyping, as well as printing, and selling besides. He produces a very large octavo volume in double columns Latin for five francs, and Greek and Latin for eight francs ; the former he is about to raise to six francs. His petro- logy is to contain 200 such volumes of Latin authors, and 100 of Greek forty- six are come out. The cheapness is wonderful, and necessary for the small in- comes of those who would chiefly want such books, and the execution fair. M.
Migne is a priest, and acts not from a detice to gain, but to assist the clergy. However, the Archbishop itas forbidden h:m to say mass at present."
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