"How many worshippers can the Cathedral contain?
Well, nearly 18,000," said the Abbe Plomb.

"But I need hardly tell you, I suppose, that it is never full; that even during the season for pilgrimages the vast crowds of Mediaeval times never assemble here.

Ah, no! Chartres is not exactly what you would call a pious town!" "It strikes me as indifferent to religion, to say the least, if not actually hostile," said the Abbe Gevresin.
"The citizen of Chartres is money-getting, apathetic, and salacious," replied the Abbe Plomb.

"Above all, greedy of money, for the passion for lucre is fierce here, under an inert surface.

Really, from my own experience, I pity the young priest who is sent as a beginner to evangelize la Beauce.
"He arrives full of illusions, dreaming of Apostolic triumphs, burning to devote himself--and he drops into silence and the void.