4 2 4
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
being a hidden shame, \vas a pride and a glory: "L'Eglise regarde l'Inquisition comme l'apogée de la civilisation chrétienne, comme Ie fruit naturel des époques de foi et de catholicisme national." Gratry took the other side so strongly that there would have been a tumult at the Sorbonne, if he had said from his chair what he wrote in his book; and certain passages were struck out of the printed text by the cautious archbishop's reviser. He ,vas one of those French divines who had taken in fuel at Munich, and he welcomed K-irclte und K ire/zen: "Quant au livre du docteur Döllinger sur la Papauté, c'est, selon moi, Ie livre décisi( C'est un chef-d'æuvre admirable à plusieurs égards, et qui est destiné à produire un bien incalculable et à fixer l'opinion sur ce sujet; c'est ainsi que Ie juge aussi M. de Montalembert. Le docteur Döllinger nous a rend u à tOllS un grand service." This was not the first impression of Montalembert. He de- plored the Odeon lectures as usurping functions divinely assigned not to professors, but to the episcopate, as a grief for friends and a joy for enemies.
When the volume
came he still objected to the policy, to the chapter on England, and to the cold treatment of Sixtus V. At last he admired \vithout reserve. Nothing better had been written since Bossuet; the judgment on the Roman government, though severe, was just, and contained no more than the truth. There was not a word which he \vould not be able to sign. A change \vas going on in his position and his affections, as he came to regard tolera- tion as the supreme affair. At Malines he solemnly de- clared that the Inquisitor \vas as horrible as the Terrorist, and made no distinction in favour of death inflicted for religion against death for political motives: (c Les bûchers allumés par une main catholique me font autant d'horreur que les échafauds où les Protestants ont immolé tant de martyrs." Wiselnan, having heard him once, was not present on the second day; but the Belgian cardinal assured him that he had spoken like a sound divine. He described Dupanloup's defence of the Syllabus as a Inaster- piece of eloquent subterfuge, and repudiated his interpréta-
