Page:Guettée papacy.djvu/19

Rh this dogma, or belief, was not definable, because it was not taught either in Holy Scripture, or by Catholic tradition. To punish him for this act he was not included among the bishops invited. Deeply mortified at this omission, he wrote to the Pope touching it, and in a manner so submissive that he was at once rewarded with an invitation couched in the most gracious terms. The character of Mgr. Sibour was well understood at Rome as that of a weak and ambitious man, full of vanity and without fixed convictions, who could be won by flatteries and bought with promises. He was, therefore, received with studied politeness and lodged in the Vatican. His namesake and friend, M. Sibour, curé of the church of St. Thomas Aquinas in Paris, was made Bishop of Tripoli in partibus, and his friend, M. L'Abbé Darboy, the present Archbishop of Paris, was appointed Prothonotaire Apostolique. For himself he received the promise of a cardinal's hat. In return for these kindnesses he was constrained to sacrifice his Gallican friends among the clergy of Paris, and the promise made to that effect was well kept. M. L'Abbé Lequeux, his vicar-general, found himself dismissed to his old place among the Canons of Notre Dame; M. L'Abbé Laborde was persecuted and finally found no better refuge than the hospital, where he soon after died; M. l'Abbé Prompsault, who had been for nearly thirty years chaplain of the Hospice of les Quinze Vingt, was deprived of his position, left without resources, and subsequently died in the hospital not long after. Finally, forgetful or regardless of all the encouracrement he had given to M. l'Abbé Guettée in his resistance to the action of the Congregation of the Index, and of his repeated proofs of regard and confidence, he withdrew his support, deprived him of his place, and reduced him, like the others, to poverty. Here, however, he found a less submissive spirit. Roused by the injustice and tyranny of this act, M. Guettée printed a letter to Mgr. Sibour which proved a home-thrust to this vacillating prelate. It recounted all the facts of his past relations with the Archbishop, his patient endeavors to be at peace with the court of Rome, his offers of every reasonable submission, and earnest application directly to the Congregation of the Index, and