When at last the plague became so serious
that travel and trade fell off greatly and quarantine began to be
established in neighbouring cities, an effort was made to enforce
compulsory vaccination. The result was, that large numbers of the
Catholic working population resisted and even threatened
bloodshed. The clergy at first tolerated and even encouraged this
conduct: the Abbe Filiatrault, priest of St. James's Church,
declared in a sermon that, "if we are afflicted with smallpox, it
is because we had a carnival last winter, feasting the flesh,
which has offended the Lord; it is to punish our pride that God
has sent us smallpox." The clerical press went further: the
_Etendard_ exhorted the faithful to take up arms rather than
submit to vaccination, and at least one of the secular papers was
forced to pander to the same sentiment. The Board of Health
struggled against this superstition, and addressed a circular to
the Catholic clergy, imploring them to recommend vaccination;
but, though two or three complied with this request, the great
majority were either silent or openly hostile.
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