John Ronge; The Holy Coat of Treves; New German-Catholic Church. Anonymous

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СКАЧАТЬ been made with regard to the supplies of provisions, that but a small rise of price in the necessaries of life was perceptible, which is certainly remarkable, when it is stated that in one week, at least 150,000 strangers visited the city, and in the whole time about 1,200,000. Truth also requires the remark—that, taken as a whole, matters were conducted with general decorum and regularity, though it requires but little knowledge of human nature to see that where there was such a miscellaneous concourse of people, often ill fed and ill lodged, the ordinary regulations and observances of society would be disregarded, and a strong encouragement and temptation be given to immorality and crime. Although it was officially stated that there was accommodation in the city and neighbourhood for 20,000 persons, still all the powers of military police, and clergy combined, could not prevent many mournful scenes of misery and vice. It is, by the way, a most significant fact that, along with the announcement now mentioned there was added, under equally official authority, the urgent request that "all citizens and strangers should avoid all criticism on religious matters or opinions." If anything were required to convince one that the high authorities of Treves were afraid of the effects of free discussion, or even doubtful allusion to what might well make the most bigoted inquisitive, this significant sentence is sufficient. Such were the scenes which, with every variety of incident, were being enacted at Treves—a melancholy exhibition of priestly power to give currency and strength to superstition and blind idolatry, as well as of the state of passive submission on the part of the people, to all that the Church, in the arrogance of its blasphemies, may command. The voice of politics was, for a time, hushed—the busy commerce of the city, and even the harvest labours of the field were silent—everything like this world's occupations and concerns were all alike neglected, to give pomp and emphasis to the sad spectacle of men's faith deceived and led astray by a piece of an old garment. Not merely from the poor villages in the vicinity, but from the enlightened towns on the Rhine, from Coblentz, and Bonn, and Cologne, the processions of pilgrims came. Take one specimen:—On the evening of the 22d September, a most numerous procession, which had left Cologne nine days before for Treves, returned. This procession was composed chiefly of the lowest classes, with a vast proportion of women of every age. A body of white-dressed girls had advanced a long way to meet the procession, bearing all kinds of church emblems in their hands—crucifixes, flowers, anchors, hearts, &c. The pilgrims were all supplied with medals and engravings of the Holy Coat, as well as with small books containing an account of its history and miracles. These were people who looked poor and miserable, and who evidently had not the means to undertake such a journey, and yet, such was the passion for visiting Treves, that the pawnbrokers reaped a rich harvest from the desperate attempts made to collect money enough to supply their bare wants during their absence from home, and to give their votive offerings to be applied as before mentioned. Cases the most heart-rending have been published of poor people parting with their last possessions to obtain means for the journey, from which they looked for such marvellous results. The sick even were carried thither, with the firm belief that they would be healed; and the debased devotion of the pilgrims broke out in such expressions—"Holy Coat, we pray to thee. Holy Coat, pray for us," and the like. The higher classes, of course, consulted their own convenience in their modes of travelling, employing the Rhine and Moselle steamers or their private conveyances; but it is melancholy to think, that such vast bodies of the respectable classes did lend their influence to these unholy exhibitions.

      But without entering into farther details let us hasten to the closing scene on the 7th October. At 2 p.m. the doors of the Cathedral were closed, and the ceremony of removing the holy relic from public view proceeded with in presence of the whole body of the clergy. At four the doors were re-opened, and Bishop Arnoldi delivered a discourse, to a vast audience, on the "Unity of the Church." At its close, began the procession of the civil officials, of teachers of all grades, of merchants and artisans, and of the guard of honour, dressed in black, with wax torches, through the transept into the choir, to join in the Te Deum. After the hymn of St. Ambrose had been sung, accompanied by the thunder of the cannon and the pealing of all the bells in the city and neighbourhood, the general procession advanced through the chief streets of the city. The committee were in front, followed by the guard of honour; they were succeeded by the different fraternities, all with wax candles—a strong choir of singers, then vast crowds of the people, with the various trades, each with their peculiar flags and emblems. They proceeded through the chief parts of the city to the palace of the Bishop, which was brilliantly illuminated. He, accompanied by the head Bishop of Verdun and the dignitaries of the Cathedral, dispensed the benediction. Then advanced from the arch-diocese of Cologne a torch-procession, accompanied by instrumental music. The whole proceedings were closed by the chorus—"Lord God! we praise thee," in the Cathedral. The chief streets of the city were illuminated in the evening, and the grand organ continued pealing. In the middle window of the Cathedral where, in former times, the exhibition of the relic had taken place, was a transparency of the Cross, with splendid emblematic devices.

      While all this was going on within the Cathedral, outside there was everything to call the mind of the devotee from the scene in which he had taken part; for, in addition to the jostling and bustle of the crowded city, there was everything in the way of the ordinary and extraordinary sights of a fair, to make him forget the feelings and object of his pilgrimage. Menageries, panoramas, plays, &c, all solicited the attention and money of those assembled, equally with the music and services of the Cathedral.

      The bishops who had officiated during the ceremonial from first to last, were those of Metz, Nancy, Verdun, Luxembourg, Spires, Limburg, Osnabrück, Münster, Cologne, with several from Holland. Each bishop entered the city amid the ringing of the church bells. The pilgrims from France did not enter the city in processional order, but their clergy were numerously represented. During the whole period, processions to the city were not uncommon. Controversies between several of the journals, as to many occurrences connected with the proceedings, have taken place. Charges have been advanced, and as flatly contradicted, so that we do not feel called on to detail either the nature of the charges or the defence. It is easy enough admitting exaggeration on both sides.

      It only remains to notice the inseparable adjuncts of such proceedings—the miracles which are said to have been effected. To a Protestant, who has not spent some time in a Catholic country, it must seem in the highest degree strange to hear of solemn statements, by opposite newspapers in support of, or in opposition to, certain pretended miracles; nay, not only so, but to have counter-medical certificates pitted against each other on the issue. Yet all this has lately been done. It would be worse than useless to recite the floating stories which one hears in the neighbourhood, about Protestant clergymen dying suddenly in the full possession of health, for having denounced the whole thing as a piece of imposture to a body of passing pilgrims, or of the many miraculous cures of sight, lameness, and the like. Yet, that all this is fact, any intelligent and inquiring tourist of the Rhine can testify. One case, in particular, created great interest, that of the Countess Droste-Vischering, a relation of the Archbishop of Cologne, who has been for many years unable to walk without the use of crutches, but who, after beholding the Holy Coat, was enabled, to the wonderment of all, to walk home unassisted. The plain truth comes out from her medical adviser—that she had been long suffering from a diseased knee-joint, that she resolved at all hazards to go to Treves, and that, while in a fit of ecstasy before the relic, she had excited a degree of energy, in stretching or bending the diseased limb, which had given the temporary relief, by relaxing the long rigid muscles. Since this period she has had relapses, and is, we believe, now using the crutches, which had been too hastily hung up in the Cathedral as a thank-offering for her marvellous restoration. Yet this simple story is paraded about and magnified into a miracle, to give still greater éclat to the Holy Coat and the church ceremonies connected with it. It would be useless to enter into other details, when all are equally barefaced. The above case may be selected as a rather better than average specimen of the popish miracles of the continent.

      And now, in finishing this part of the subject, we may be allowed to quote the opinion of one of the great organs of German Catholicism:—"Who can deny that this exhibition of the Holy Coat has been an event for the Rhine provinces and the West of Europe, which, in its consequences, must be of the greatest moment, whilst, for its grandeur, in church history it is СКАЧАТЬ