342 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEKSE. 



and the modern emancipation of reason ; on the other 

 hand, it unfortunately has in its 18,000,000 Catholics 

 a vast host of militant believers, who are unsurpassed 

 by any other civilized people in blind obedience to 

 their chief shepherd. 



The dangers of such a situation were clearly recog- 

 nized by the great statesman who had solved the 

 political ''world-riddle" of the dismemberment of 

 Germany, and had led us by a marvellous statecraft 

 to the long-desired goal of national unity and power. 

 Prince Bismarck began the famous struggle with the 

 Vatican, which is known as the cidtiir-kampf, in 1872, 

 and it was conducted with equal ability and energy by 

 the distinguished Minister of Worship, Falk, author of 

 the May Laws of 1873. Unfortunately, Bismarck had 

 to desist six years afterwards. Although the great 

 statesman was a remarkable judge of men and a 

 realistic politician of immense tact, he had under- 

 estimated the force of three powerful obstacles — firstly, 

 the unsurpassed cunning and unscrupulous treachery 

 of the Koman curia ; secondly, the correlative ingrati- 

 tude and credulity of the uneducated Catholic masses, 

 on which the Papacy built ; and, thirdly, the power of 

 apathy, the continuance of the irrational, simply 

 because it is in possession. Hence, in 1878, when the 

 abler Leo XIII. had ascended the pontifical throne, 

 the fatal " To Canossa" was heard once more. From 

 that time the newly-established power of Eome grew 

 in strength ; partly through the unscrupulous intrigues 

 and serpentine bends of its slippery Jesuitical politics, 

 partly through the false Church-politics of the German 

 Government and the marvellous political incompetence 

 of the German people. We have, therefore, at the 

 close of the nineteenth century to endure the pitiful 



