"
And first, which is a great point, most of the incumbents in the town
parishes, in the three hundred collegial churches, in the small
canonicates of the cathedral chapters, belonged to better families
than at the present day.[68] Children were then more numerous, not
merely among the peasants, but among the inferior nobles and the upper
bourgeoisie; each family, accordingly, was glad to have one of its
sons take orders, and no constraint was necessary to bring this about.
The ecclesiastical profession then had attractions which it no longer
possesses; it had none of the inconveniences incident to it at the
present time. A priest was not exposed to democratic distrust and
hostility; he was sure of a bow from the laborer in the street as well
as from the peasant in the country; he was on an equal footing with
the local bourgeoisie, almost one of the family, and among the first;
he could count on passing his life in a permanent situation, honorably
and serenely, in the midst of popular deference and enjoying the good
will of the public. - On the other hand, he was not bridled as in our
day. A priest was not a functionary salaried by the State; his pay,
like his private income, earmarked and put aside beforehand, furnished
through special appropriations, through local taxes, out of a distinct
treasury, could never be withheld on account of a pr?fect's report, or
through ministerial caprice, or be constantly menaced by budget
difficulties and the ill-will of the civil powers.
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