44 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



known as Maria Etch, or Mary of tlie Oak. It is built round an oak 

 tree, whicli stands just behind the altar, and is visited every year by 

 thousands of pilgriitis, who seek at tliis wonder-working shrine re- 

 demption from sin and relief for bodily infirmities. Here, too, the 

 chapel in the woods, now so popular as a place of pilgrimage, owes its 

 origin to the freak of a couple of boys, sons of a blacksmith, who 

 in 1710 placed an image of the Virgin of Loreto in the bark of an 

 oak, where it remained for a long time unnoticed and was gradually 

 overgrown, until only the face could be seen apparently peering out 

 of the trunk of the tree. This strange phenomenon now began 

 to attract attention and soon came to be regarded as a supernatural 

 apparition, and this belief was confirmed by rumors of miracles 

 wrought by it. The sacredness of the spot, however, did not pre- 

 vent the tree from being struck by lightning and partially destroyed 

 on August 13, 1805, so that now nothing is left of it but a dead 

 stump. With the jDredilection for logical non sequiturs peculiar to 

 hagiologists, the fact that no one was killed by this accident was 

 ascribed to the special j)rotection of the Virgin, and this inference 

 added greatly to the reputation of Maria Eieli. Why she should 

 have permitted the hallowed oak, which had borne her own image, 

 to be smitten by a bolt from the sky, could not be satisfactorily 

 explained, but was readily accepted as a divine mystery. Accord- 

 ing to the official record extending from 1732 to 1800, she showed 

 herself gracious seven hundred and seventy-nine times during this 

 period of sixty-eight years; since the beginning of the present 

 century the tokens of her favor have been innumerable, in proof 

 of which the skeptic is pointed to the mass of votive tablets and 

 thank-offerings. That the rules of evidence here applied should 

 suffice to convince ignorant peasants is natural enough. But how 

 is it with the priests, who have had a university education, and 

 are therefore supposed to be competent to see through such shal- 

 low and transparent fallacies? Are these men honest or not? Do 

 they really believe what they affirm, or do they uphold these absurdi- 

 ties merely because such teachings foster piety and strengthen the 

 power of the Catholic Church? Doubtless some of these ecclecias- 

 tics are hypocrites, but it would be unjust to assume that the majority 

 of them are practicing dissimulation and deceit. 



The true answer to these puzzling questions is to be found by 

 pointing to the kind of institutions of learning in which the clergy 

 receive their education. Take, for example, as a favorable speci- 

 men, the Academy of Miinster in Westphalia, which comprises 

 only two faculties, one of theology and one of philosophy, but 

 which, as regards the instruction imparted in these departments of 

 study, claims to be on a par with German universities in general. 



