July monarchy as claimants of free instruction and under the second
empire in support of the temporal power of the Pope. - In this
militant attitude, the figure of the bishop is fully unveiled; the
titular champion of an infallible Church, himself a believer and
submissive; his voice is extraordinarily proud and defiant;[59] in his
own eyes, he is the unique depository of truth and morality; in the
eyes of his followers, he becomes a superhuman personage, a prophet of
salvation or of destruction, the annunciator of divine judgments, the
dispenser of celestial anger or of celestial pardon; he rises to the
clouds in an apotheosis of glory; with women especially, this
veneration grows into enthusiasm and degenerates into idolatry.
Towards the end of the second empire an eminent French bishop, on a
steamboat on Lake Leman, taking a roll of bread from his pocket,
seated himself alongside of two ladies and ate it, handing each of
them a piece of it. One of them, bowing reverently, replied to him,
"At your hands, my lord, this is almost the holy communion!"[60]



IV. The subordinate clergy.

The subordinates. - The secular clergy. - Its derivation and how
recruited. - How prepared and led. - The lower seminary. - The higher
seminary. - Monthly lectures and annual retreat. - The Exercitia. -
The Manreze du Prêtre. - The curé in his parish. - His rôle a
difficult one. - His patience and correct conduct.

A clergy submissive in mind and feeling, long prepared by its
condition and education for faith and obedience, acts under the sway
of this sovereign and consecrated hand.[61] Among the 40,000 curés and