The  Napoleonic  era  was  a  mere  irregular  interlude  in
the  royal  succession.  These  Bishops  ignored  the
whole  popular  liberal  and  republican  movement  of
their  day.  They  belonged  wholly  in  spirit  to  the
older  period,  and  were  completely  out  of  sympathy
with  the  tendencies  dominant  around  them.  In  their
opinion  the  cause  of  Christianity  was  bound  up  with
the  Bourbon  dynasty,  "  and  a  priest  who  was  not
under  the  Bourbon  flag  seemed  an  enigma  to  the  more
moderate  and  a  sort  of  traitor  to  the  more  ardent."  1

Now  Lacordaire  made  no  secret  of  his  social  prin-
ciples. "I  remained  a  Liberal,"  he  said,  "when  I
became  a  Catholic,  and  I  had  not  been  able  to  hide  all
that  separated  me  in  this  respect  from  the  clergy  and
Catholics  of  my  time.  I  felt  myself  alone  in  these
convictions,  or  at  least  I  met  no  mind  that  shared
them."  2

His  attitude  was  accurately  expressed  in  the  cele-
brated sentence  uttered  in  later  years  :  "  I  die  a
penitent  Catholic  and  an  impenitent  Liberal."  And
this  attitude  created  distrust  and  suspicion  among  the
authorities  of  the  Catholic  world  in  France.
Lacordaire  felt  himself  mistrusted.  He  grew  dis-
couraged. He  wrote  in  terms  of  deep  depression  :  "I
am  weary  of  thinking  and  speaking.  I  am  like  the
theological  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Paris  ;  I  have

1  D'Haussonville,  Lacordaire.  -  Ibid.,  p.  22.
