APRIL, 1865.
MEMOIRS OF MY MINISTRY.
THE UNITED DIOCESES OF CORK AND CLOYNE.
THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.
THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE CHURCH.
LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.
DOCUMENTS.
NOTICES OF BOOKS.
BY CARDINAL CONSALVI.
In the lonely hours of his exile at Rheims, whither he had been banishedby Napoleon for having refused to assist at the imperial marriagewith Maria Louisa, Cardinal Consalvi found employment in tracing frommemory an outline of the great affairs which had occupied him during hisministry as Secretary of State. It was no self-love nor mean desire ofpraise that induced the man of action thus to become the historian ofhis own deeds. To the same zeal which had nerved him in his conflictsfor the cause of the Church, do we owe the truthful record he has leftus of the fortunes of these conflicts in which the Holy See was soaudaciously attacked and so successfully defended. The thought that,perhaps, one day his words might be of advantage to the interests ofreligion, or might supply weapons for its defence, was a motive strongenough to influence him to undertake the task under circumstancesthe most unfavourable that can well be imagined. "I have drawn upthese memoirs", he writes, "at most critical moments; how critical,may well be imagined when I mention, that as soon as I have finisheda page I must hide it at once in a safe place, so as to secure it fromthe unforeseen perquisitions to which at all times we are exposed....I am without notes either to guide or to confirm my reminiscences.I have not the leisure, nor the tranquillity, nor the security, northe liberty which I require, if I would enrich my[302] narrative with commentsand becoming ornaments.... If God grant me life and better days, I hopeto give to my work all that perfection of form and style which is atpresent beyond my power".
But, whatever the narrative may lack in perfection of form and style,is abundantly compensated by the interest attaching to the eventsit describes. It sets before us a picture of the movement of Europeansociety during the stirring period of the Cardinal's administration. Theintrigues, and schemes, and falsehoods of diplomacy; the art of maskingambitious designs under generous language, and laying snares for arival's unwary feet; the dishonourable selfishness, the detestablehypocrisy—in a word, all that goes to make up the strategy of modernstatecraft, is laid bare in its pages by a master hand. And what lendsfresh interest to the subject is the contrast it offers between thebaseness of courts and the loyal rectitude of the Holy See, betweenthe plotting which on the world's side exhibits nought but the cunningof the serpent, and the honourable prudence on the part of the Churchwhich tells also of the simplicity of the dove. On the one hand we havea web of intrigue, each thread of which is meant to secure some perhapsundue advantage; on the other, a straightforward policy placing religionabove everything, and worthy of the Pontiff who is vicar on earth oft