The
cathedrals and parish churches yet standing were seized on by the
government at the introduction of the Goddesses of Reason, and the decree
expressly declares that they shall not be restored or appropriated to
their original uses. Individuals, who have purchased chapels or
churches, hesitate to sell or let them, lest they should, on a change of
politics, be persecuted as the abettors of fanaticism; so that the
long-desired restoration of the Catholic worship makes but very slow
progress.*--
* This decree prohibits any parish, community, or body of people
collectively, from hiring or purchasing a church, or maintaining a
clergyman: it also forbids ringing a bell, or giving any other
public notice of Divine Service, or even distinguishing any building
by external signs of its being dedicated to religion.
--A few people, whose zeal overpowers their discretion, have ventured to
have masses at their own houses, but they are thinly attended; and on
asking any one if they have yet been to this sort of conventicle, the
reply is, _"On new sait pas trop ce que le decret veut dire; il faut voir
comment cela tournera."_ ["One cannot rightly comprehend the decree--it
will be best to wait and see how things go."] Such a distrust is indeed
very natural; for there are two subjects on which an inveterate hatred is
apparent, and which are equally obnoxious to all systems and all parties
in the Assembly--I mean Christianity and Great Britain.
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