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    preached , thundered , and ended by accusing to the government the abettors of the disorder which ravaged the flock entrusted to him . To an enlightened zeal , to courage resulting from a oure conscience , Marquis united both

    talents and fortune , which he sanctified by his manner of employing them . — Nothing was left undone to bring back his parishioners to a sense of duty . But one of the means which appeared to him most likely to promote this end , was annually to bestow on virtue a triumphal pomp , the expectation , and afterwards the remembrance of

    which might powerfully excite their hearts . The establishment of the Festival of the Rose , which for 30 many ages rendered Salen ^ y the asylum of purity of manners , served as a model to Saint-Sauveur , Mezidon , La Trinity , Saint-Agnan , Sur&ne , Romainville , &c , although , whilst crowning merit , many of these institutions were not able to

    banish from amongst them the most ancient of the diseases of the human mind , pride . Marquis sought the counsels and the aid of experience ; he endeavoured to give to his establishment a character suited to its situation ,

    and to render the triumph of virtue precisely that of Christian humility ; to expend the money destined for this festival in preparations for it and in charity , in order to prevent any encouragement being offered to avarice ; and , to interest all the families in this

    institution , an assemblage of both sexes were to be present at this ceremony , and it was resolved that religion especially , without which morality is destitute of support , should sanction this festival . Each head of a family was , on the day annually appointed , to

    designate the three most deserving girls , from amongst whom the curate , as the founder , reserved to himself , as well as to his successors , the privilege of naming the successful candidate . The two others ( her competitors ) occupied the most honourable places on each side ° f her . A solemn procession conducts

    this young woman through the village , immediately followed by the authors of her days , —a just reward for the good education they have bestowed on her . They omit not to pass by , the parental roof , the door of which had been the preceding evening ornamented with a garland ; and it is in the midst

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    of the sacred acts of religion that virtue receives its crown . Such ia a short account of the plan of this festival , to which the curate Marquis appropriated a pecuniary fund , the yearly payment of which was to defray the necessary expenses .

    It was patronized in 1778 by the Bishop of Metz , and the year following by the parliament of the same town . The editor of this article , who has been a spectator of similar festivals in different parts of France , declares , that he has no where met with this

    ceremony performed in so affecting a manner as at R 6 chicourt-le-Chateau , and no where has it produced more desirable results : it effected so rapid a change there , that the neighbouring parishes felt the happy influence of the empire which good example must ever possess . All the arguments which are

    opposed to these festivals , are refuted by the experience of the good which this tetter has produced , and by the continued good conduct of those young persons who have been crowned , who are models of propriety . Marquis dying in 1781 , the festival which he had established was maintained with

    dignity , and even perfected by his successor . But the most cruel persecution of which the Church Calendars have preserved the records , having shut up the temples which were not demolished , and seized the funds appropriated to the expenses of these

    institutions , did away with , or suspended , the Festivals of the Rose . However , the religious zeal which has perpetuated that at Salen 9 y and revived that at Surene , has also re-established , within some years , that at R ^ chicourtle-Chateau , where , notwithstanding the

    poverty of the funds , it is supported by the activity of a virtuous emulation . Marquis has published the two following works : Le Prix de la Rose de Salen ^ y aux Yeux de la Religion , avec le veritable Espr it de celle de Rdchicourt-le-Ch&teau , institute sur le

    Modele de la premiere : in 8 vo , Metz , 1780 . Id £ e de la Vertu Chrdtienne tir « Se de 1 'Ecrlture , et suivie de Conferences sur la F&te de la Rose , ex £ cut £ e h R ^ chicourt , en 1779 et J 78 O : in 8 vo , Dieuze , 1781 .

    It is just to transmit with honour to posterity the memory of this worthy curate , who has done so much for the

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    On the Formation of the Festival of the Rose at Rechicourt-le-Chateau . 269

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 269, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/13/