To compel him to decide was a great point for the Girondists.
The public feeling served their designs.

Religious troubles began to assume a political character.

In ancient Brittany the conforming priests became objects of the people's horror, and they fled from contact with them.

The nonjuring priests all retained their flocks.

On Sundays large bodies of many thousand souls were seen to follow their ancient pastors, and go to chapels situated two or three leagues from any dwelling, or in concealed hermitages, sanctuaries which had never been stained by the ceremonies of a constitutional worship.