The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-05-11

0EEmau press hfetS tnab tnOs0 0k~Austfla
VIII do we'll to accept the same position.
| The Pyouincjdl Correspondence of Berlin
| eynically warns the PretestRnts, whose re-
| nonstrapce against the reign of brute.forc
inaugurated by the Prussian Chancellor
becomes every day more energetic, that
'tif the Evangelical Church stands in the
/ way OF the Government, it must accept the
Consequences" Prussian Caesarism makes
| no distinction between Catholics and Pro.
testants when its own projects are ques-
| toned. And in this form Of Absoiutism
English journals, which used to profess I'M
dying attachment to liberty of conscience,
see nothing TO condemn. Some of them
even suggest that it would be well to in-
| troduce it in our own country.
ATTITUDE OF ITS VICTIMS.
Yet in Germany it only confirms in unity
of faith and courage all the lovers of Chris
tian liberty. The brutal nenaces Of Bis
marck are dispised by men, who knew that
God is on their side, and that He will con-
found all Hisepemies and theirs. To the
arbitrary DEGREES OF Berlin the noble Arch
bishop of Posen only replies by proclaim
ing the sentence of major excommunication
upon all lay teachers who shalt accept, in
the colleges Of the Archdiocese, the teach
ing fnnctions from which the clergy have
been violently deposed.d And as in Swi.-
zeriand Protestant ministers 60 to Ferney
to offer their respects to Mgr. Mermillod
ocratic Republic. SO in Germany the same
class openly avow their admiration of the
apostolic fortitHde of the Catholic pre!ates,
and theire disgust at the ignobIe tyranny
which vainly attempts to silence them. A
Protestant writer, " hose language we DO
not adopt, and who does not hesitate to
call the new German Emperor ga sauguin-
airy bypocrite," declares in a book quoted
by the Paris journals that: "he wishes to
put back the nineteenth century into the
darkest Of the middle-ages, to which he
appears himself to belong" Catholics will
be content to oppose this crowned persecu-
tor, not with hard words, but with the
more effective weapons of prayer and re-
signation. They appreciate SO we'll the
suicidal contest upon which he has entered,
that far from entertaining any fears for the
Church W hich he seeks to enslave, they
tremble only for the judgments which are
too likely to overtake himself. Long after
he and his allies have passed away, the
Church which he thought to destroy will
DO teaching the same truths which he re-
fused to hear, and guarding the sacred
liberties which lie attempted to crush. She
has out-lived more dangerous enemies, and
he will fiud, like all his predecessors, that
he has only hurt himself in attempting to
injure her.
PROGRESS OF ITS sYcoPHANTs.
Ifthere is any section of the Prussian
people more enchanted with Bsmarck's
ecclesiastical legislation than even the un-
believing Liberals" it is the little seets
of SO called "Old Catholics" Incapable
of adding to their scauty numbers, and
despised even by the Professionals of Ger
many, who only reply to their polite civil
lities by a shrug of the shoulders, the
handful Of vain and worldly professors
whose conciet has conducted them to apOs-
tasy have not obtained even such slender
success a. the Irvingites or the Plymouth
Brethren, Conscious oftheir own sterility,
their only consolatioJ IL to watch tee pro-
gress Of 3 persecution III which they are
themsolyee unworthy to snEfer. Syeop-
hants of che secular power, and cOnte1se TO
sue for ika eOntenapsuous patronage, e1iay
respectfully applaud the ontragesse which
Catholics Rra the Victims Tiieir power is
limiteI 60 Che creation of scandals, Ia m9,icl,
the civil auth ities, inspiEed from Heriin.
willingsy 4uperate, and theirrhieg delfeht
lieve IN DO form of Ghristianity /, bat Mhom
they gladly accept as allies, by which some
I Catholic Church. is forcibiy allotted to their
| imPious ministrations. Mean while, far
from gaining disciples from any class what
! ever, their own members are sconAtaaSiy
dininished, either by retractation9 or BE-
| sudden and upprepared death. Among
the examples of the latter, cited by the
German correspondent of Paris journal.
| are those of Baltzer, of Breslau. who died
suddenly at Rome, without the sacramento,
in the house of his associate, Knoodt Knorr,
Of Munich, whose coffin ourst nsunder at
the edge OF the grave, and cast out its
burden and Zenger, also of Munich, who
refused in his last moments the ministry of
his Brother sectaries, but learned to an
preciate them too late. Among the happier
examples of timely repentance are those of
Schwab at Warzburg, Rohden at Berlin,
Bauerband aud Dieringer at Bonn, Kraft
at Cologne, G@bel at Kedisburg, Nues-
baum at Munich, and Bernard Won Kief-
ersfelden, who died in the hospital at Tub
ingen, after bequeathing 1000 forms to
build Catholic Church.
THEIR DIssENsIoNs AND DECENTRALIZATION.
In the hope of concealipg the paucity of
their numbers, the survivors are now CON
centratiug at Bonn, where each has bis par.
~, and strives to acquire eminence above
all the rest: .Reuseh, Langen, Michelis,
Schultz, and TangermanD, head the Sepa,
rate fractions, while KnoOds and Reinkens
are said to moaopOliEe the spinsters of the
sect, who are reported to follow them from
what is pleasantly called Eoysoaiam mo-
tlvcs, or the irresponsible desire to emulate