Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1903-07-25
preme authority In the worth Of the
faithful soldier.

=.
faithful soldier
Particularly able and pertinent were
Cardinal Pecci's pastoral utterances
The Piedmontese government after
1t had absorbed Perugia, issued a
general conscription law, exempting
only one clerical student in every 20,'
900 inhabitants, and then only by pur-
chase. In vigorous letter to King
Victor Emmanuel, which was signed
by all the bishops of Umbria and the
Marches, Cardinal Pecci said:
In the griefs Of our souls we could
not persuade ourselves that with all
we hear about individual liberty such
liberty should not be allowed In the
most serious affairs with which man
has to deal In life-the choice Of his
own profession and the full liberty to
consecrate himself to God"
A few years later he issued a pas
toral letter on the redemption Of con-
scripted clerical students. In this he
showed that in the decade preceding,
the deaths Of priests exceeded by 80
the number of ordinations, and he es-
tablished a commission to collect and
administer fund for purchasing the
freedom of promising clerics.
In the Chair Of Peter.
In July, 1877, the cardinal accepted
the office of camerlengo or chamber
lain to Plus TX. This position includ-
ed the presidency of the apostolic
chamber and chief charge of the tenn
poral affairs Of the Holy See.
Then came the event So long and
so many times predicted, yet which
came at last with shock even to
those who had ben foremost in pre-
diction.
About sunset Feb. 7, 1878, died Mas
tai Feretti, Pope Plus TX.
The cardinals were locked up, but
were comfortably quartered, and were
to remain locked up until they should
have elected new pontiff.
It was the morning of Feb. 19 be-
fore the first ballot; it was the after
noon of the goth before the proclama-
tion-"Papam habemus"-"we have
new pope"-took by surprise the pa
tient crowds who had waited and
watched for So many hours, and the
long and eventful pontificate Of Leo
XIII began.
The days following the election were
absorbed largely by the ceremonies OF
homage repeated again and again by
the cardinals. In these days, too,
ho ARC o,dfnnpnc IN am
bassadors, prelates and princes.
AS Joachim Pecci had always had
great admiration for Leo XII he took
the name of Leo for his own, thus
making the 18th of that name.
, But whatever his qualifications for
the pontificate, and whatever his per-
sonal graces and abilities, he entered
no unchanged garden Of delight when
he emerged from the conclave, pope.
Shorn of it's temporalities, the new
pontiff found no such earthly grand
eur as to his predecessors had been
conceded the triple crown.
Italy abhorred him; the states OF
the church derided him; Catholic Eu
rope ignored him; Protestant Europe
ridiculed him.
The treasury Of the church was emp
ty and faith hung like loose and rain
soaked garment upon the Catholic
world.
Germany, under the blood and iron
regime of Bismarck, was aflame with
the "Kulturkampf;' France was in the
aftermath of the Voltairean apotheo>
sis; Austria was gasping for the
breath of liberal life.
Leo XIII began his mission with
out single appliance that had given
his predecessors Unreasonable want
age, even when the papacy was at
deaths door.
Barely was the crown of the three
blades on his head when he began
that prodigious combat which has
made the vatican the centre of the