A Papal Envoy During the Reign of Terror - Being the Memoirs of Mgr; De Salamon the Internuncio at Paris During the Revolution, 1790-1801 #231521

Cardinal Secretary of State up to the time of his arrest (aug. 27th and resumed it on the day but one following his release from the Abbey. Moreover, he tells us that, chiefly by the help of many pious women, who furnished him with safe means of despatching his letters, and equally safe addresses for those coming to him from Rome, he was able to continue this correspondence 'un molested and almost without interruption? All through the Reign of Terror, and up to the time of his imprison ment under the Directory. Yet, though extending over so short a period, these letters throw a clear light upon the position of the Abbé de Salamon. It would seem to have been an open secret that he was, as he repeatedly calls himself, the Papal Minister, the Representative and Envoy of the Holy See. More than this, he was, as one of the jury recognised at his Trial, the friend of the Pepe. He writes to Cardinal Zelada, as a son to a father, with great respect and affection, but with out a shadow of fear or constraint. His letters, despatched regularly every week, and often hurriedly written, are somewhat in the form Of a diary, informing the Cardinal of everything of importance that was happening in Paris and, as far as the Abbé knew, in France; and they are always accompanied by such newspapers, pamphlets, prints, and caricatures, as, he thought, would be of interest to the Pope.