OUR MONISTIC RELIGION. 343 



spectacle of the Catholic " Centre " being the most 

 important section of the Reichstag, and the fate of our 

 humiliated country depending on a Papal party, which 

 does not constitute numerically a third part of the 

 nation. 



When the cultur-kampf began in 1872, it was justly 

 acclaimed by all independent thinkers as a political 

 renewal of the Reformation, a vigorous attempt to 

 free modern civilization from the yoke of Papal 

 despotism. The whole of the Liberal press hailed 

 Bismarck as a " political Luther " — as the great hero, 

 not only of the national unity, but also of the rational 

 emancipation, of Germany. Ten years afterwards, 

 when the Papacy had proved victorious, the same 

 " Liberal press " changed its colours, and denounced 

 the cultur-kampf as a great mistake ; and it does the 

 same thing to-day. The facts show how short is the 

 memory of our journalists, how defective their know- 

 ledge of history, and how poor their philosophic 

 education. The so-called "Peace between Church 

 and State" is never more than a suspension of 

 hostilities. The modern Papacy, true to the despotic 

 principles it has followed for the last 1,600 years, is 

 determined to wield sole dominion over the credulous 

 souls of men ; it must demand the absolute submission 

 of the cultured State, which, as such, defends the 

 rights of reason and science. True and enduring 

 peace there cannot be until one of the combatants lies 

 powerless on the ground. Either the Church wins, 

 and then farewell to all " free science and free 

 teaching " — then are our universities no better than 

 gaols, and our colleges become cloistral schools ; or 

 else the modern rational State proves victorious — 

 then, in the twentieth century, human culture, freedom, 



