Three Ideals. 91 



like the degree in which the recently made Church laws 

 of Germany violate them. Again, the English Church of 

 the sixteenth century was that of the entire people ; but 

 in Prussia the persecuted Church is that of but a portion, 

 and its legal rights and the claims of its members on the 

 State are different in different regions, according to the 

 date and the terms of the acquisition of such regions by 

 the Prussian kings. There is yet another contrast in our 

 favour. What we did we did openly and above-board, 

 but the German Government has by its agents added the 

 meanness of mendacity to brutal outrage ; since it has 

 now and again been asserted that the Roman Catholic 

 religion is not persecuted, and while papal supremacy 

 is not in express terms abolished, it is virtually and 

 effectively set aside and practically annulled. A new 

 State religion is, in fact, set up and sought to be forced 

 upon citizens by the May laws. To ask Roman Catholic 

 citizens to acquiesce in such laws is to ask them to 

 lie to apostatise from their religion, and at the same 

 time to pretend to adhere to it. In principle there is 

 no difference whatever between asking a Roman Catholic 

 of to-day to perform some outward act of assent to the 

 recent Church legislation of Germany and asking a 

 primitive Christian to burn incense to the genius of the 

 emperor. 



A demand on Roman Catholics to admit that Dr. 

 Reinkens is a Catholic bishop is a grotesque insult to 



