Course 3, Chapter 51

Christianity preserved and propagated. — Many Apologists for Religion. — Madame Louise of France. — Eighteenth Century, continued,

1. Did the church enjoy her conquests in peace?

The church did not enjoy her conquests in peace. She was attacked by an impious sect, known by the name of philosophers; who, developing the woret principles of Luther and Calvin, denied the best established truths, and the most sacred duties of man.

2. What more did they do?

They formed a league against religion, and endeavored to show that religion was opposed to the sciences; but they did not succeed. The most famous of these philosophers were Voltaire and Rousseau.

3. What was the life of Voltaire V

The life of Voltaire was unworthy not only of a

Christian, but even of an upright man. He was born near Paris, and finished his studies in that city. On leaving college, his conduct was such that his father drove him from the parental roof and sent him to Holland; whence he was sent back on account of his libertinism. After his return to Paris, his misconduct caused him to be put in prison; he cheated one bookseller, ruined another by a roguish imposition, and gave himself up to all the corruption of his heart and all his hatred of religion, until his death which oc curred in 1778.

4. What was his death?

His death was that of a man in profound despair. He was heard frequently repeating, in paroxysms of fury, the following words: / am abandoned by God and man. He had asked for a priest, but his associates would not suffer a priest to enter his room.

5. . Who was Rousseau?

Jean Jacques Rousseau, the second patriarch of impiety, was born at Geneva. Addicted to vice from his infancy, he became an habitual thief; abjured Protestantism to embrace the Catholic religion, which he left to return to Protestantism, and lived during twenty-five years in open libertinism.

6. What do you say of his works?

His works are so infamous, that the Protestants of Geneva, his native place, had the principal ones burnt by the public executioner.

7. How did he die?

Rousseau ended his career by a death worthy of his life: he first took poison, and then shot himself.

Q By whom were Voltaire and Rousseau refuted?

A. Voltaire and Rousseau were solidly refuted by Bergier, Nonotte, Bullet and Guenee; who avenged the truth, whilst Providence expiated, in a signal manner, the crimes engendered by false philosophy.

8. Who was the principal victim by whom God expiated these crimes? 29

338 CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

A. The principal victim was Madame Louise, of France, daughter of Louis XV; who, in the bloom of youth, quit the palace of Versailles to enter amonothe Carmelites at St. Denis, where she spent her life in prayers, fasting, and the practice of all the austeri ties of penance.