office? We have the precedent of the congregations. WaldeckRousseau was the President of the Cabinet; he had framed a law that was certainly not a liberal law, but did not seem intended to crush all religious associations. Its chief defect lay in its arbitrary character; it was very difficult for a religious order to get authorized; an act of Parliament, preceded by a long inquiry, was necessary. But to dissolve a congregation, a simple decree issued by a Minister was sufficient. The government could suppress any congregation at any time without giving any reason, and there was no recourse at law against it. But then Waldeck-Rousseau gave assurances that the law was made only against some militant orders, such as the Jesuits and the Assumptionists; that the others had only to submit and would be allowed to live in peace. Many complied, sued for authorization and sent in the information required. Then Waldeck-Rousseau disappeared, Combes came in his place and executed the law most ruthlessly, without any regard to the promises of his predecessor. Not one congregation got the authorization; the information they had given was used against them; many that were authorized before were suppressed by decrees, and as a result thousands and thousands of men and women have sought religious liberty outside the frontiers of France.

It is therefore plain that a Minister's word is but a straw in the wind. The anti-clerical mob in the street and anti-clerical opinion in the press may become too strong for the intended moderation of the Ministers, and nobody knows what unexpected developments the entanglement of the social with the religious question may lead to. The advance of the lower classes may baffle the most skillful calculations. The future is a blank on that point.

Even if no churches are closed, much harm may be done. The clergy will be liable to be fined and imprisoned for celebrating public worship against the regulations of the law. The priests under twenty-six years of age will be called back to the barracks. Most probably church property will be confiscated, because that is not likely to cause disturbances. In December that property will be sequestrated, and after a year assigned to some secular charitable institution. So many of the Petits Seminires will be wiped out of existence in the midst of general indifference.

In spite of the efforts of the government, but as a consequence of their doings, a great struggle is beginning. Those who were chiefly afraid of death by atrophy rejoice at it. But that joy cannot but be mingled with some heaviness of heart if we think of the difficulties to be overcome, of the ruins and wrecks we must be prepared for, of the length of time this distressful period may last. No exact comparison can be drawn from the Kulturkampf. The

German priests had a great advantage; they had their populations at their back. Many French priests are captains without troops; they will have to fight single-handed or with a handful of retainers. It will be a hard fight, and the harder morally if it is not materially hard.

The two armies as yet have done nothing but skirmishing work; each tries to get information about the strategy of the other side The two general staffs are observing each other. I mean the Assembly of the Bishops and the Masonic Grand Lodge. Those two nonofficial councils may be said to be now more powerful in France than both houses of Parliament. What the Masonic Grand Lodge decides the Parliament will vote, and it will be executed as far as the resistance of the Catholics, led by the Bishops, will allow of it.

Even if the government came to some compromise and altered the law so as to make it acceptable to the Pope, the ground would be shifted, the conflict would not be so fierce, but the struggle would go on, because it is not against a few men sitting in debate Catholicism has to fight, but against a state of mind created and fostered by many powerful influences.

To conclude, however obscure the conditions of the future struggle may be, it is certain the French Catholics will have to fight hard for their religion. They will lose much; but their losses will be compensated if a number of them gain strength and acquire that toughness which in the end tires out all persecutors. No great upheaval, no sudden overturning of the government is to be expected, but a gradual strengthening of the religious fibre in the Catholic body is to be hoped for. A good effect that the present situation may have is to help Catholics and the clergy to realize a situation which has been somewhat obscured by the exaggerations of high-flown oratory. It is time to abandon that fiction of 36,000,000 of Catholics oppressed by 26,000 Freemasons. It is always good to know one's ground and dangerous to believe the numbers of the enemy are weak when they are strong. We are, in fact, a minority oppressed by a majority. The Freemasons are the leaders of the oppression, but they do not stand alone; they are surrounded by dense multitudes. We have to teach that majority that we have equal rights with them. This is where we stand; the position will appear more and more clearly as the withdrawal of State aid separates the faithful from the rest.

Another good effect of the present situation may be the reorganization of the parish system. In the irreligious regions its effects are deplorable. The parishes being mostly small, young priests are sent there even without having served as curates before, new-fledged from the Grand Seminaire. They are full of zeal, ready to work

for the salvation of souls. After a few months their zeal has been wrecked upon the solid rock of the indifference or hostility of their parishioners. They are soon convinced that nothing is to be done, and set down to live a life of isolation and idleness. They have nothing to do, because nobody comes to them, and many shun even their approach. Their catechism is their only occupation, and then the peasants scoff at them for doing nothing. These priests are lost forces.

It is the opinion of many a thoughtful Catholic that such regions should be treated as missionary countries, and the want of resources may lead to that solution. The small parishes with no good-will in the population will be unable to maintain a priest. Why then not have here and there centres where a few priests would live together, sheltered from the terrible dangers and depressing effects of isolation, and whence they would radiate to evangelize the neighborhood? This is a possibility which the pressure of events may convert into a fact.

So the dark outlook of the present hour is not without its glimpses of hope. The purifying and strengthening effect of sorrow may impart a new life to the Church. We are now taking a plunge into the unknown, and it may refresh and revigorate us. But the ways God is preparing to use to bring about that end are unfathomable

to man.

Paris, France.

ABBE HERMELINE.

PREACHING AND POPULAR ACTION.

PIUS X., POPE, TO HIS VENERABLE BRETHREN THE ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS OF ITALY.

Venerable Brethren, Health and the Apostolic Benediction:

W

ITH our soul full of fear for the strict account we shall have to give one day to the Prince of Pastors, Jesus Christ, with regard to the flock entrusted to us by Him, we pass our days in continual anxiety to preserve the faithful, as far as possible, from the most pernicious evils by which human society is at present afflicted. Hence we regard as addressed to us the word of the prophet: "Cry, lift up thy voice like a trumpet" (Is. lviii., 1); and we fail not, now by word of mouth and now by letter, to warn, beseech, reprehend, exciting, above all, the zeal of our brethren in

the episcopate so that each of them may exercise the most eager vigilance in the portion of the fold over which the Holy Spirit has set him.

The cause which induces us to raise our voice anew is of the gravest moment. It is a question demanding all the attention of your mind and all the energy of your pastoral office against a disorder from which the most baleful effects are already experienced; and if it is not removed with a strong hand in the most radical manner, consequences still more fatal will be felt in the progress of years. We have, in fact, before us letters from not a few of you, Venerable Brethren-letters full of sadness and tears, deploring the spirit of insubordination and independence displayed here and there amidst the clergy. All too surely a poisonous atmosphere largely corrupts men's minds in our days, and the deadly effects are those which the Apostle St. Jude formerly described: "These men in truth defile the flesh and despise dominion and blaspheme majesty" (Jude i., 8); that is, besides the most degrading corruption of manners there is an open contempt for authority and for those who exercise it. But that this spirit should penetrate in any wise into the sanctuary and infect those to whom the words of Ecclesiasticus ought most fittingly to be applied: "Their generation obedience and love" (iii., 1)—this is what overwhelms us with grief. And it is especially amongst young priests that this unhappy spirit is doing damage, new and reprehensible theories with regard to the very nature of obedience spreading themselves amongst them. And, what is more serious, as if to acquire new recruits for the growing troop of rebels, such maxims are being propagated more or less secretly amongst the young who in the enclosures of the seminaries prepare themselves for the priesthood.

Wherefore we consider it a duty, Venerable Brethren, to make an appeal to your conscience in order that, laying aside all hesitation, you should, with vigorous minds and not less vigorous firmness, exert yourselves to destroy this evil seed, fruitful in destructive consequences. Always remember that the Holy Spirit has placed you to rule. Remember the command of St. Paul to Titus: "Rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee" (ii., 15). Require rigorously from priests and clerics that obedience which is absolutely obligatory on all the faithful, but constitutes the chief part of the sacred duty of priests.

To prevent effectually the multiplication of these quarrelsome souls, it will be well, Venerable Brethren, ever to bear in mind the sublime warning of the Apostle to Timothy: "Impose not hands lightly upon any man" (I. Timothy v., 22). It is in truth the facility of admitting to sacred orders that naturally opens the way to a mul

tiplication of people in the sanctuary who do not increase joy. We know that there are towns and dioceses where, far from there being cause to lament a scarcity of clergy, the number of priests is much greater than the faithful need. Ah, Venerable Brethren, what ground can there be for imposing hands so frequently? If the scarcity of the clergy cannot be a sufficient reason for haste in a matter of such gravity, where the clergy are more numerous than the requirements demand nothing excuses from the most delicate caution and the greatest rigor in the selection of those who are to receive the honor of the priesthood. Nor can the urgency of the aspirants lessen the fault of a too ready facility. The priesthood, instituted by Jesus Christ for the eternal salvation of souls, is surely not a human profession or office to which every one who desires, for whatever reason, has a right freely to devote himself. Let the Bishops then promote to sacred orders not according to the desires. and pretexts of those who aspire to the priesthood, but as the Council of Trent prescribes, according to the necessities of the dioceses; and in promoting this they can only select those who are really fit, dismissing those who have inclinations contrary to the priestly vocation, the chief of which inclinations are a disregard for discipline and the pride of mind that begets it.

In order that youth who display qualities suitable to the sacred ministry may not be wanting we wish, Venerable Brethren, to insist with greater earnestness on what we have already pointed out several times, namely, the obligation that rests upon you-a most serious one before God-to watch over and further with the utmost solicitude the right conduct of the seminaries. Your priests will be as you have trained them. Most important is the letter on this subject which was addressed to you on the 8th December, 1902, by our most prudent predecessor, as a testament from his long Pontificate. To that we desire to add nothing new; we shall merely remind you of the rules it lays down; and we strongly recommend the immediate execution of our orders, published through the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, on the concentration of the seminaries, especially for the study of philosophy and theology, in order to secure in this way the great advantage resulting from the separation of the greater seminaries from the smaller ones and the other advantage, not less great, attaching to the necessary instruction of the clergy.

Let the seminaries be jealously maintained in the spirit that properly belongs to them, and let them remain exclusively destined to prepare youth not for civil careers, but for the exalted mission of ministers of Christ. Let philosophy and theology and the kindred sciences, especially Sacred Scripture, be studied in accordance with