Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1853

pg 170       Dame du Lac, and whether for the advancement of the Association or 
             for its humiliation, it was marked by events in which one could 
             not fail to recognize a providential intervention.  But the better 
             to grasp the chain of events that follow, it is well to take it up 
             a little farther back.  
                  It has already been intimated that in spite of the desire of 
             N.D. du Lac to live in peace with Sainte Croix, it never could 
             enjoy that boon except at remote intervals and for a few months at 
             a time.  More particularly during the last six years it was not so 
             much a religious life as an almost unbroken series of 
             altercations, explanations, prohibitions under pain of 
             disobedience, cruel reproaches, threats, etc.  In a word, the most 
             devoted and most upright souls had become the objects of 
             accusations and even the centre of uneasiness, heart-burnings, and 
             troubles.
                  Hence no more love for the duties of the community: life 
             itself was a burden.  F. Gouesse was mentioned as one of the 
             principal causes of this sad state of affairs.  The journey of F. 
             Sorin to France in 1852 had for its primary object to put an end 
             to these vexations, as injurious to the good of the mission as to 
             that of the individual members.