ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



715 



of their subjects would with greater exactness than 

 Catholics render to Caesar the things that were Cae- 

 sar's, and this precisely because they desire reli- 

 giously to render to God the things that are God's 1 



The civil authorities of some of" the cantons of the 

 Swiss Eepublic appear to have entered upon the 

 same path as the German Empire in deciding on the 

 dogmas of the Catholic faith in favoring apostates 

 and interrupting the exercise of episcopal authority. 

 The Government of Geneva, although bound by a 

 solemn treaty to guard and protect in its territory 

 the Catholic religion, has in the past years enacted 

 laws injurious to the authority and liberty of the 

 Church, and more recently has suppressed the Catho- 

 lic schools, has banished religious orders, and de- 

 prived others of the right of teaching. Lately it has 

 endeavored to destroy the authority which for many 



Sjars past our venerable brother Gaspar, Bishop of 

 ebron, legitimately exercises, and to deprive him 

 of his parochial benefice ; it has even gone so far as 

 to invite^ by public solicitation the inhabitants to 

 schismatically subvert the ecclesiastical government. 



Not less grave is what the Church suffers in 

 Catholic Spain from the hands of the civil power. 

 We have learned that a law concerning the endow- 

 ment of the clergy has been proposed and ratified, 

 by which not only are the solemn treaties and con- 

 vention broken, but absolutely every rule of rigbb 

 and justice is trampled under foot. This law, which 

 is calculated to increase the destitution and servitude 

 of the clergy, and to augment and increase the evils 

 done to that illustrious nation^ in these later years, 

 in the injury of faith and ecclesiastical discipline, by 

 a deplorable series of acts of the Spanish Govern- 

 ment, has called for the just and emphatic com- 

 plaints of our venerable brothers the Bishops of Spain, 

 as it now calls for our solemn expostulation. 



Sadder things are also to be told of that small but 

 impudent band of Armenians, who, especially at 

 Constantinople, have endeavored by audacious fraud 

 and violence to overwhelm the much greater number 

 who remain faithful in their duty and faith. Bely- 

 ing their Catholic name, they continue in opposition 

 to our supreme authority and their legitimate Pa- 

 triarch, who, expelled by their artifice, has been com- 

 pelled to fly, an exile, to us. By their craftiness 

 they have found favor with the civiljDower, so that, 

 notwithstanding the exertions of our legate extraor- 

 dinary sent thither to arrange this affair, and our 

 own letter addressed to the most serene Emperor of 

 the Turks, by force of arms they have converted to 

 their own use some of the Catholic churches ; they 

 have assembled in a caucus (conciliabulum) and have 

 appointed a schismatical patriarch, and have suc- 

 ceeded in depriving the Catholics of the rights which 

 they always up to this enjoyed through public agree- 

 ments. Concerning these troubles of the Church we 

 shall, perhaps^ deal more explicitly if our just pro- 

 tests are despised. 



But among so many causes for grief we rejoice, 

 venerable brothers, that you can be consoled, as 

 ourselves have been raised up from our affliction, by 

 the constancy and indefatigableness of the bishops 

 of these regions and elsewhere ; bishops who, girt 

 round the loins in truth and clad with the breast- 

 plate of Justice, and closely bound to this chair of 

 Peter, frightened by 



no dangers, cast down by no 



acon, o sngy and in a body, by word and 

 writing, by expostulations and pastoral letters, to- 

 gether with their clergy and faithful people, bravely 

 and with alacrity defend the rights of the Church, 

 of this Holy See, and of themselves. They restrain 

 unjust violence, refute calumnies, discover plots, de- 

 feat the audacity of the impious, and show to all the 

 light of truth. They strengthen the good, and they 

 oppose,_ to the assaults of the enemy attacking them 

 on all sides, the strength of a compact unity. To us, 

 afflicted with so many evils of the Church, they af- 

 ford a most comforting consolation and a powerful 

 help, which will certainly be greater if they take 

 care that the bonds of faith and charity, in which 



their minds and affections are joined, should become 

 daily closer. To secure this, let no one think it in- 

 opportune that those who, with the authority of 

 metropolitans, preside over the ecclesiastical prov- 

 inces, should confer with their suffragans in the best 

 manner that circumstances will permit on those 

 measures which will mutually unite and strengthen 

 them all in one mind and sentiment, and let them 

 prepare themselves to undergo with a unanimous 

 effort the difficult contest against the assaults of the 

 impious. 



The Lord has truly smitten us, venerable brothers, 

 with His sword, hard, great, and strong ; the smoke 

 of His anger -ascends, and the fire burns from his 

 face. But will God cast us down forever, or will He 

 not be appeased ? No ! for the Lord does not forget 

 to have mercy, and He will not stay His mercies in 

 His anger, for He is mighty to pardon, and He may 

 be propitiated by those invoking Him in truth, and 

 He shall pour out on us the riches of His mercy. 

 Let us endeavor to appease the divine anger in this 

 acceptable time of the advent of our Lord. Humbly 

 walking in newness of life, let us go to the King of 

 Peace who is about to come to announce peace to 

 man and good-will. The just and merciful God by 

 whose mysterious purpose we are permitted to sea 

 the sorrow of our people, and the sorrow of our holy 

 city, and to sit there when it is given into the hands 

 of the enemy. He will incline His ear to hear ; He 

 will open His eyes 'and see our desolation and the 

 city upon which His name is invoked. 



The troubles between the new German Em- 

 pire and the Roman Catholic Church arose 

 primarily out of the support given by Govern- 

 ment to the few Catholic priests and profess- 

 ors who refused to acknowledge the decrees 

 of the Vatican Council. 



Bishop Krementz, of Erm eland, having de- 

 clared Dr. Wollmann and Dr. Michelis, pro- 

 fessors of theology, excommunicated, the Prus- 

 sian Minister of Worship on the 28th of March 

 called the bishop to account, denying the 

 right of any religious denomination to cut off 

 any members from its communion without 

 leave of the state. The bishop, in reply, ad- 

 hered to his act as one of absolute duty on his 

 part, involving no civil rights, and in so far 

 not under the state control. The Government, 

 however, punished him by depriving him of 

 the usual salary paid to Catholic bishops. 



Another cause of dispute arose soon after, 

 in consequence of the appointment by the 

 Emperor of Cardinal Hohenlohe as ambassa- 

 dor to the Pope. Pius IX. declined to receive 

 a cardinal as ambassador from any power, as 

 it was against sound principle, constant usage, 

 and the express direction of the Council of 

 Basle, because the cardinals forming the Pope's 

 Council cannot at the same time represent 

 another government. 



The excitement consequent on these colli- 

 sions of the spiritual and temporal powers led 

 the German Empire to a course of open hos- 

 tility. On July 4, 1872, the Reichstag passed 

 the following law : 



WE, William, by the grace of God, Emperor of 

 Germany .King of Prussia, eto., in the name of tho 

 German Empire, with the assent of the Federal 

 Council, and of the Parliament, ordain as follows : 



I. The Order of the Society of Jesus, as ^well as 

 the monastic Orders and Congregations affiliated to 

 the said Society, are excluded from the territory of 

 the German Empire. The creation of establish- 



