[31] - The lukewarm
remain, the sheep-like crowd which holds on to its rites: the
Constituent Assembly will seize them wherever it finds them, and, as
they are the same in the authorized as in the refractory church,
instead of seeking them with the priest who does not submit, it will
seek them with the one who does. But it will proceed without zeal,
without confidence, often even with distrust, questioning itself
whether these rites, being administered by one who is excommunicated,
are not of doubtful quality. Such a church is not sound, and we have
only to give it a push to knock it down. We will do all we can to
discredit constitutional priests: we will prohibit them from wearing
the ecclesiastical costume, and force them by law to bestow the
nuptial benediction on their apostate brethren; we will employ terror
and imprisonment to constrain them to marry; we will given them no
respite until they return to civil life, some admitting themselves to
be impostors, many by surrendering their priestly credentials, and
most of them by resigning their places.[32] Deprived of leaders by
these voluntary or forced desertions, the Catholic flock will allow
itself to be easily led out of the fold, while, to remove all
temptation to go back, we will tear the enclosure down.
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