Calvin's men
in Vaud, if there must be any canonized. But what is it to us that thou
hearest mass, while we love the simple worship! Are we not equally men?
Does not the frost nip the members of Catholic and Protestant the same? or
does the avalanche respect one more than the other? I never knew thee, or
any of thy convent, question the frozen traveller of his faith, but all
are fed, and warmed, and, at need, administered to from the pharmacy, with
brotherly care, and as Christians merit. Whatever thou mayest think of the
state of our souls, thou on thy mountain there, no one will deny thy
tender services to our bodies. Say I well, neighbors, or is this only the
foolish gossip of old Benoit, who has crossed the Col so often, that he
has forgotten that out churches have quarrelled, and that the learned will
have us go to heaven by different roads?"
A general movement among the people, and a tossing of hands, appeared in
support of the truth and popularity of the honest peasant's sentiments,
for in that age the hospice of St. Bernard, more exclusively a refuge for
the real and poor traveller than at present, enjoyed a merited reputation
in all the country round.
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