ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



821 



every kind of religions intolerance. Though 

 he did not expressly censure the legislation of 

 such Catholic countries as prohibit or restrict 

 the exercise of Protestant worship, nor the 

 Papal efforts for keeping, by means of concor- 

 dats, the Protestants excluded from the Catho- 

 lic countries, he did so impliedly by saying: 

 "I must confess that the enthusiastic devotion 

 for religious freedom by which I am animated is 

 not everywhere to be found among Catholics. 

 They desire freedom for themselves, but that 

 is of no great* merit ; men in general want 

 freedom of every kind for themselves. But the 

 freedom of creeds which we reject and deny 

 terrifies and troubles many among us. If we 

 inquire into the origin of this terror we shall 

 find that it rests on the notion entertained by 

 many Catholics, that freedom of worship is of 

 anti-Christian origin. The consequence of this 

 error have been seen in many bloodstained 

 and deplorable pages in the book of history, 

 though every impartial judge will confess that 

 the cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition and of 

 the edict of Nantes fell short of the horrors of 

 the British reformation and its reign of terror." 

 The sentiments of Count Montalembert were 

 received by the Congress with great applause, 

 and most of the papers of the Catholic world 

 bestowed likewise upon his speech an unquali- 

 fied approval ; but the Monde of Paris, with a 

 few other newspapers, rejected the views of 

 Montalembert as uncatholic. 



The Catholic Congress of Qermany held 

 its annual meeting at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

 There, as in Malines, the Congress claimed to 

 be in favor of liberty, but did not express an 

 opinion on the prohibition of Protestantism in 

 Roman Catholic countries. 



In a great many Catholic countries, the ques- 

 tion whether Protestants should have equal 

 rights with Catholics, was discussed with great 

 animation. The republic of Ecuador conclud- 

 ed a concordat with the Pope, which contains 

 the following articles: 



1. The Catholic religion is the religion of the State ; 

 consequently the practice of any other mode of wor- 

 ship, rejected by the Church, is forbidden in the re- 

 public. 



3. Every book forbidden by a bishop is confiscated 

 by the Government. 



6. The Government will lend the bishops its power- 

 ful aid in putting down every one who attempts to 

 lead the faithful into the paths of error. 



8. An ecclesiastic can be summoned to answer even 

 for offences against the common law, before an eccle- 

 siastical court alone. 



9. The Pope grants permission to the clergy to pay 

 taxes ; but in case they do not, they are accountable 

 for the failure, to their spiritual superiors only. 



. 11. Every church and cloister has the right of asy- 

 lum. No criminal can be seized in such places, witq- 

 out the express and particular consent of the authori- 

 ties of the church. 



The Government of the United States of 

 Colombia (formerly New Granada) have intro- 

 duced religious liberty. The Pope addressed an 

 encyclical letter to the bishops of New Grana- 

 da, in which he deplores cruel persecution con- 



ducted by the Government against the doc- 

 trines, authority, and rights of the Church, and 

 condemns the laws promulgated against the 

 clergy and ecclesiastical property. The Pope 

 censures the introduction of liberty of wor- 

 ship, and the conduct of the ecclesiastics who 

 obey iniquitous laws. He praises the firmness 

 of the bishops, for protesting against sev- 

 eral laws passed by the Government, and for 

 refusing to take the oath under the new Consti- 

 tution, and enjoins the members of the clergy 

 remaining faithful, together with the people, 

 to persevere in their faith, and to pray God 

 that the persecution may cease. 



In Spain, the legislation against Protestant 

 meetings continued to be strictly enforced. On 

 April 23d, 1863, the Court of Appeal, in Gra- 

 nada, passed sentences in the case of the Prot- 

 estants Matamoras, Trigo, and Albania. Mat- 

 amoras was condemned to nine years' punish- 

 ment at the galleys, Albania likewise to nine, 

 and Trigo to seven. The queen subsequently 

 commuted these sentences into an equal num- 

 ber of years of imprisonment. 



In one of the Austrian provinces, the Tyrol, 

 the bishops moved, at the Provincial Diet, that 

 the Diet request the Imperial Government to 

 exempt the Tyrol from the law which grants 

 to the Protestants of Austria equal rights with 

 the Roman Catholics, and to decree that no 

 Protestant parish should exist in the Tyrol; 

 that the public exercise of the Protestant re- 

 ligion be prohibited, and that Protestants shall 

 have the right of acquiring landed property, 

 only if authorized, in every case, by a special de- 

 cree. This motion, after long debate, was adopt- 

 ed by thirty-four against eighteen votes, but the 

 Imperial Government did not grant the re- 

 quest. 



The Roman Catholic Church continued to 

 make progress in a number of pagan countries. 

 In China, the Church enjoys the efficient pa- 

 tronage of the Government, and the native 

 Christians, among whom are a number of man- 

 darins, are in no way molested in the free ex- 

 ercise of their religion. Very favorable news 

 has been received from the missionaries in 

 Thibet. They report that whole villages are 

 embracing the Catholic religion, and that even 

 numerous bonzes are asking for missionaries. 

 The bloody persecution which for many years 

 has been desolating the Roman Catholic con- 

 gregations in Cochin China, has ceased. The 

 cession of several provinces of Cochin China 

 to France, and the establishment of a French 

 protectorate over the adjoining kingdom of 

 Farther India, make a rapid progress of the 

 Roman Catholic Church in Farther India high- 

 ly probable. 



In Japan, chapels have been erected in the 

 European settlements. In Africa, Madagascar 

 especially bids fair to witness the progress of 

 the Roman Catholic missions. In Turkey, the 

 movement among the Bulgarians toward a 

 union with the Roman Catholic Church has 

 again made some progress. 



