pealed
for teaching appointments; many faithful to their vows, went forth to
poverty, misery, and death.

The nuns and sisters gave more trouble, and the scenes that attended
their expulsion and that of the non-juring clergy burned into the
memories of the pious. "What do they take from me?" cried the _cure_
of St. Marguerite in his farewell sermon. "My cure? All that I have is
yours, and it is you they despoil. My life? I am eighty-four years of
age, and what of life remains to me is not worth the sacrifice of my
principles." Descending the pulpit the venerable priest passed through
a sobbing congregation to a garret in one of the Faubourgs. There were
but few, however, who imitated the dignified protest of the _cure_ of
St. Marguerite. Many a pulpit rang with fiery denunciations, which
recalled the savage fanaticism of the League. Some of the younger
clergy and a few of the bishops were on the side of the early
Revolutionists. The Abbe Fouchet was the Peter the Hermit of the
crusade for Liberty, and so popular were his sermons in Notre Dame
that a seat there fetched twenty-four sous. But the corruption and
apostasy of the hierarchy as a whole, and their betrayal of the
people, had borne its acrid fruit of popular contempt and hostility,
and the fanaticism of the worship of Reason answered the fanaticism of
the Cross. In Notre Dame and other churches, which became Temples of
Reason, statues of Liberty replaced those of the _ci-devant_ Holy
Virgin and every _Decadi_ services were held in honour of Liberty or
of the Supreme Being. _The Rights of Man_, the Constitution,
despatches from the armies and new laws were read. Prayers were made
to the Supreme Being and Liberty was invoked. Patriotic hymns were
sung, virtuous acts in the sections recited and addresses on morality,
the domestic virtues and other ethical subjects were given. In some,
an orator of morality was appointed. Births, marriages and deaths were
announced and--an essential detail--_collections_ were made in aid of
suffering Humanity. A _Decadi_ Ritual[175] was printed with a
selection of hymns and prayers to be used in the Temples of Reason.
The services were crowded, famous preachers often evoked tears, tracts
were published and saints of Liberty were in course of evolution. But
less than eight years after Robespierre's solemn Festival of the _Etre
Supreme_ all the hierarchy of the old religion returned, sixty
archbishops and bishops, and an army of pries