WITCHCRAFT IN BAVARIA. 47 



deceased priests or, on extraordinary occasions, by holy angels sent 

 for that purpose. The feasts and fasts prescribed by the Catholic 

 Church are observed there; in this respect " the most perfect order 

 prevails in purgatory." Indeed, he seems to think that in no spot 

 on the surface of the earth are the offices so well done and the 

 conduct of the worshipers so earnest and exemplary as in this sub- 

 terranean place of expiation on the very confines of hell. It is no 

 wonder that under such circumstances there should be " kindled 

 in their glowing breasts an ardent longing for mansions in the 

 skies." 



In speaking of the final judgment. Professor Bautz refers to the 

 resurrection of the Virgin Mary and her ascension to heaven as 

 incontestable historical facts and describes these events in all their 

 details. The apostles, he informs us, were caught up into the air, 

 wherever they happened to be, and transported to Jerusalem, the 

 scene of her " glorious departure." On their arrival they saw angels 

 and heard the celestial hosts singing psalms. The body of the 

 Virgin Mother was buried at Gethsemane and escorted thither by 

 apostles and angels, the latter continuing to sing at her grave for the 

 next three days. On the third day Thomas also made his appear- 

 ance, this delay being due probably to the difficulty attending his 

 aerial transportation on account of the heavy burden of doubt 

 resting upon the mind of the inveterate skeptic. He was welcomed, 

 however, by the other apostles, who took him to the tomb in order 

 to show him the body of the deceased, when lo! it was no longer 

 there ; only the shroud lay on the ground and " emitted an inde- 

 scribable perfume." 



It would be tedious, as well as superfluous, to cumber our pages 

 with further citations. These few examples will suffice to show the 

 kind of academical instruction and intellectual discipline imparted 

 to young men in such institutions of learning as the one at Miinster, 

 in which Professor Bautz is a bright and shining light. What 

 wonder, then, that priests, who have been prepared for their 

 sacred calling by having their minds crammed with stuff of this 

 sort, and who have been taught to accept Tertullian's test of truth, 

 " Credo quia ahsiirdum" as the highest law of evidence and to 

 make the absurdity of any statement the ground of its credibility, 

 should be full of superstitious notions, especially as regards our re- 

 lations to the invisible world and the agency of the devil in human 

 affairs! " * 



* Since this article was written, a distinguished Catholic theologian, Dr. Hermann Schell, 

 Professor of Apologetics in the University of Wiirzburg, has published a book entitled Der 

 Katholizismus als Piinzip des Fortschritts, in which he ascribes the Catholic clergy's " in- 

 feriority in the independent exercise of their reason" to the same cause — namely, the per- 



