had become
greater than ever. It was to the unbelieving a phenomenon in the moral
world of the nineteenth century, which they could neither comprehend nor
account for. They could only see that it was as a source of new life to
the church.

(M45) The education law of France, enacted in 1850, had given rise to
differences of opinion among earnest Catholics. These only increased after
the celebrated _coup d'etat_ of 2nd December. M. de Montalembert, who had
become hostile to Prince Louis Napoleon, on occasion of the iniquitous
confiscation of the Orleans property, M. de Falloux, and their friends of
the _Correspondant_, and the _Ami de la Religion_, insisted that they
ought not to accept the protection of Caesar in place of the general
guarantees which were so profitable to the liberty of the church. They
were right, as was but too well shown in the sequel. M. Louis Veuillot and
the writers of the _Univers_ opposed their views, and so they accused
these gentlemen of servility. But this was too much, as the event also
showed.

The congregation of the "Index" had condemned several French works, some
absolutely, and others only until they should be corrected. Among these
last were books generally used, notwithstanding their faults, in the
public schools, such as the _Manual of Canon Law_, by M. Lequeux,
vicar-general of the Archbishop of Paris, and the theology, so long in
use, of Bailly. The authors of these works at once submitted. One of the
sentences, however, that which affected the Dictionary of M. Bouillet,
greatly offended the Archbishop of Paris--Mgr. Sibour, who had signified
his approval of this publication. He blamed the _Univers_ and the lay
religious press in general. He formulated his complaints in a charge of
15th January, 1851, and by a still more vigorous one in 1853, which was
written at the instigation of a Canon of Orleans, M. L'Abbe Gaduel, who
had accused Donoso Cortes, in the _Ami de la Religion_, of several
heresies, and who complained of having been refuted in the _Univers_ with
a warmth that was far from respectful. Mgr. Sibour forbade the priests of
his diocese to read the _Univers_, and threatened with excommunication the
editors of this journal, if they presumed to discuss the sentence which he
had pronounced against them. A similar sentence came to be uttered by Mgr.
Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, against the same writers, condemning the
opinions which they held concerning the study of the clas