To say truth, it is
not very surprizing that numbers should be prejudiced against the
constitutional clergy. Many of them are, I doubt not, liberal and
well-meaning men, who have preferred peace and submission to theological
warfare, and who might not think themselves justified in opposing their
opinion to a national decision: yet are there also many of profligate
lives, who were never educated for the profession, and whom the
circumstances of the times have tempted to embrace it as a trade, which
offered subsistence without labour, and influence without wealth, and
which at once supplied a veil for licentiousness, and the means of
practising it. Such pastors, it must be confessed, have little claim to
the confidence or respect of the people; and that there are such, I do
not assert, but on the most credible information. I will only cite two
instances out of many within my own knowledge.
P____n, bishop of St. Omer, was originally a priest of Arras, of vicious
character, and many of his ordinations have been such as might be
expected from such a patron.--A man of Arras, who was only known for his
vicious pursuits, and who had the reputation of having accelerated the
death of his wife by ill treatment, applied to P____n to marry him a
second time. The good Bishop, preferring the interest of his friend to
the salvation of his flock, advised him to relinquish the project of
taking a wife, and offered to give him a cure.
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