THE PERSECUTION IN GERMANY EXPLAINED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 41, 7 February 1874, Page 9

THE PERSECUTION IN GERMANY EXPLAINED.

(From a GEBMAy Correspondent of the ' London Tablet.') (Continued from our last.) MYSTEBIUM IKIQUITATIS. The law against the Jesuits and the " Kindred " Orders is so plastic that by its instrumentality every one of the Religious Orders can be k sent into exile. To the unspeakable grief of seveial millions of Catholics in Germany, the Jesuits had already beea banished in 1872. One year later the Freemasons were longing for a further concession to them ; the Redemptorists, the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, the Lazarists, and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart followed tho Jesuits ■itito exile. Shortly after, in the summer of .1873, the Council of the Confederation hinted that in reality all the Religious Orders were related to the Jesuits, since all took the three vows, and especially that of obedience. For a time this advance upon the original draft of the law was thought sufficient. So, forsooth, religious obedience is dangeious to the State in an Empire whose main desire is to bring every one under the blindest obedience to its Neronian laws ; i i an Empire in which tho "Secret Brothers" are all powerful, though these very men are obliged to swear an absolute obedience to unknown leader?. Before two years have passed over our heads the last Sister of Charity will have been hunted over the frontier as a person dangerous to the State ; and not one Religious Order will be permitted to set foot again in Germany, if God docs not roll down from the mouut-ain-top the stone which is to crush the feet of the Colossus. Tha damage done to Churcl property has already reached an immense amount ; for the exiled Orders, especially the Ladies of the feacred heart, had purchased and richly provided large and expensive educational establishments, had acquired landed property, collected libraries and formed museums. These, of course, they could not take ■* way with them into exile. Deep and bleeding wounds have bojn i n

flicted upon some of the. most influential and highly respected families, whose soni and daughters have been sent into banishment for no other crime than that of being members of some Religious > Order. And now what judgment are we to pronounce on the four laws 6f the Church bill passed in May, from the eleventh to the fourteenth, 1873. Purely they are the most gal' ing that have ever been enacted by any Pope-persecuting tyrant from the days of Claudius down to our own time. True, that on some of the minor details of this monstrous legislation, the Bishope might be of the same mind as the Government. Yet on the other hind theTe are points in these laws, the execution of which would involve manifest apestacy. Witness the first paragraph of the second law, in which we find the outrageous proposition that authority in iratters of Church discipline over Church ministers is to be exercised only by ecclesiastical superiors who are natives of Germany. Thus, by a single stroke of the pen the Holy See of Rome has been excluded from our courts ; the Prussian Catholics have been, as it were, turned bodily into schismatics. Rather than submit to such a yoke a Bishop is bound to lay his head upon the block. With reference to the teaching and discipline of the clergy, a royal supreme court of justice has been established which is iv future to decide upon all Church affairs. This court is made up of unbelievers, Protestants and renegade Catholics ; consequently, as the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg remarked, " The Catholic Pi ussians are in many respects less well off' than their brethren in the faith in Russian Poland." How is it possible that any sensible Government can enter upon so unrighteous a war against the consciences of its Catholic subjects ; a war which must entail countless sacrifices and end iv a thorough defeat?

- Tbe only solution conceivable of the problem I believe to be the one which I have already propased : the Freemasons are cla/nouriagjbr their wages. Let mo put before you some special proofs of this fact. First| the nature of the law itself tells its own tale coucerr.ing the plotted destruction of the Catholic Church. The ecclesiastical stuJents in direct training for the priesthood are practically bound to learn their theology apart from Catholic seminaries ; for such conditions have been already i-TipGS.'d that these insti'utions must be shut up, since no Bishop caa tolerate the superintendence insisted upon by the Sate. To fit themselves for their profession, students of theology mu^t now submit themjelves to a Government examination iv German philosophy (?), German literature, and universal history. An examination, mind, through w hicli no other class of students is bound to pass. Jt is consequently a privilegium odiosum cleri in the truest sense (as should be remembered by those .vho are perpetually crying out against the privileges of the clergy) ; and it has the doubly pernicious effect of poisoning the minds of young men against theology, and of depriving the Church of a succession of priests. Supcradded to this grievance is the peculiar loi des suspects, by which law even any ecclesiastic about to be ins'ituted into a benefice may be rejected whenever the Government chooses to decide that the private political opinions of such person are not what they ought to bj — that is, not those of the State. On all and every matter the Catholic Church here is subjected to so ccmplete a dependence upon ihe Sate and its ofik-ials, that it" the hand of God Almighty d© not .intei fere to uphold, it, Ido not see how it can continue to exist. Hence we are all asking ourselves how it is possible that any Government, possessed of an ordina-y sliare of common sense, cm aim at the overthrow of the faith of a vast portion of its subjects. There are over eight millions of Catholics in the kingdom of Prussia alone, and yet the destruction of their Church is eage-ly sought after. Nor is this coveted end to be compassed by forcing us all to belong to some State religion, to tome positivo teaching of an established Church — as was done by Russia in the case of the Orthodox Greeks— but we are to be decatholised, uuchristianizad, reduced to "Human tariani«n." Gjod Leavens, that it should come to this! The continental Lodges all over Europe make no secret of their aim. Had the State intended simply to repel some alleged erieroachruoi > upon its rights on the pait of the clergy, a separation between Church anJ State *ould have been amply sufficient to remedy the complaint, and Catholus would have put up with this disestablishment, as being the leaser of two evils. There would have been question at most of a slight skirmish, of au attack upon an outpost : certainly not of c pitched battle, and of a war to the death, to be ended GoJ silos c knows when. But separation of Church and State iethe very tlnng that the Goveriime t wants to uvoid. This has been oifiuially acknowledged. Bismarck's Court Canoni&t, iFiiedberg, has openly announced tlmt the Church gains strength by being disconnected with the State, aud that ii must be so bouud and bandaged, that when the time comes for amputation it will not feel the operation. And the Libjivl deputy for Kardoff ga»e out the following sentiment in presence of the Prussian Diet : " Let tle Catholic Church be free ond it will conquer the >\orld." Taus tho. nature of Bismarck's legislation with reference to the Catholic Church is revealed by its very origin from the uiysierious und dai:ktie3fa-loving Sect ot the Freemasons. The same may be seen, Secondly : In tho cour-se of the Parliamentary debates. Logic, truth, and justice triumphed on tho benches where the Cat olic party in the Chambers called the Centrums-fractLa was seated. The falsehood on which the proposed legislation uas based was exposed v.'it'a eviJeueijeo entirely conclusive that the Englr-h Parliament would have voted ajaiusfc it to a man. But in Berlin it wasa different matter. Tiiere deputies hud to speak before a band of men sworn to follow a peculiar coin-so. Everything had been previously planned behind tho scenes and in secret. The Catholic deputies iudeed spoke of '' secret arrangements" and '' The Lodge." No attention was paid to them. Yet tbe pri&cipal speakers in favour of tho tyrannical laws were actually lneuioers of tho Secret Sect. It is a public secret, and the intimate conviction of all the Catholb deputies, that the Prussian Government id Iho tool of tbe Freemasons.

Thirdly : Facts that are of equal authenticity, but of secondary magnitude, give additional support to my proposit'on. An uuwont d activity has manifested itself ever since the conclusion of the late war, amongst the German Lodges. Soon after his return from France, the Crown Prince of Prussia delivered, iv the Grand Lodge of Germany, (Berlin, Juno 24th, 1870,) the significant addles, in consequence of which a journal was set on. foot to scatter, broa. least, principles .c;

Atheism and Humanitarianism. At once a universal bond of federation was established for all the German Lodges. Ritualistic and geographical boundaries were to be done away with, and a united force was to be brought to bear in one common conflict upon the Jesuits and yitramontanes. This was the origin of the confederation of tha Grand Lodges of Germany, May 19th, 1872, which had the two-fold object of doing away with what I may call partialism or particularism in politics, and of crippling, by means of a combined attack, the religious action of Jesuits, whether Catholic or Protestant. In plain English, all forms of positive Christianity were to be made away with. This confederation included eight German Grand Lodges, and five isolated ones, with three hundred and four Lodges of the Symbolic (tho three lowest) grades, and an effective of thirty thousand one hundred and twenty-seven Freemasons of the three lowest grades,* without taking into account those of the higher orders. Let ua now bear in mind that the majority of the " Brothers " are in influential positions : officials of the State, men well-known in the industrial and monied ranks, editors, official and officious, of the Liberal press, and that they all work together according to a preconcerted plan Let us remember too that they are backed by the mighty Chancellor of the Empire himself, aud that they in turn give him their support. We shall then be able to understand with what an infernal conspiracy the Catholic Church in Germany has now to contend. Scarce had the first steps been taken ■gains. Catholics when the Grand Lodge of Hamburg with five daughter lodges presented an Address to Bismarck, in which they tendered him their thanks for the courageous and sustained conflict that he had begun to maintain for liberty of thought and religious belief. This is the way m which a most barbarous tyranny against the conscience of Christiana is decked out in the garb of freedom ; and wo who groan m cnains aro made out to be the despots, the tyrant himself is hailed as the champion of liberty. During the combat against Christ imity as taught by positive Protestantism, the Lodge affiliated to itself the so-called Protestant Union (Verein) ; against our Church it made capital out of the scandal of the New Protestants old Catholics) . The heads of the Protestant Union, Bluntschh, Schenkel, Holtzmann, and Zittel, at Heidelberg ; the head priest Schwarz, m Gotha ; Professors Baumgarten, Holzendorf and Sydow at Berlin ; Melle and Maroliot, Ministers at Bremen, are all of them also holders of lmpoi tant posts in the Lodge f From the date of twi? 106 ! 11 " 8 th " I>rotestant Ulli °n in Darmstadt (3rd to sth Oct., ! 1871) the attack upon the Jesuits was arranged and matured, but tinder the inspiration of the Grand Lodges in Berlin a proposal was soon made to tho Chambers, which went beyond the original design of Bismarck, to bung all the Religious Orders under the law of banishment, and ad were unhesitatingly suppressed by our second Nero, then i at Warzm. Since that time there has been no end to proscriptions, ! and every day that dawns brings fresh and still more infamous laws. The scandalous "Janus-Christians," or New-Protestants, are hand and glove with the Protestant Union. Professor Michelis harangues in the ' Lo-lgcs at Constance and Freibu.g; the clumour for the annihilation , oi the Jesuits and the Papacy echoes beneath the roofs of their secret meeting-houses ; at Munich, Cologne, and Constance, the form of ex- ' pression used is identical with that which resounds in the Lodges of rhc Freemasons. And now that Bishop Eeinkens, once a poor wo°rkin<* ! lad at Bunchleit, near Aix-la-Chapelle, has been acknowledged by, and ! has taken the oaths to, tho Government of Berlin (Oct. 7th, 1873), the ' Minister of Public Worship gave a dinner in his honour, while the Cuthohc Bishops are on the eve of imprisonment, or are already heavily fined, and their seminaiies are deprived of the usual annual subsidy from the State. Bismarck and the Freemasons of the Symbolic grades, the Protestant Verein (Union), and the " Old-Catholics " had ■Iready gone to great lengths ; but behind them are the real loaders of the attack upon the Church, the members of the higher grades, whose , actions are generally shrouded in the deepest obscurity. Nevertheless of late some lew facts have come to the public knowledge— for instance, their Congress at Locarno, near Xovara, on November 3d, 1872, dur- ' ing the -very time that the public attack upon the Church was goin<* on. However, what concerns us chiefly is the third question ou "heir programme: "What new religion is to bo substituted for Catholicism ? " The decree proposes to introduce a new Faith and Cultus Judge of its nature from the following title : " The Few Bible of the Socialists, by Brother Kenan, (in four parts, comprising forty -one chapters,) inform of a Colechiwi."s Fourthly : The tourth proof of my assertion is of no less importance. I find n m the terminology of the Cabinet of the Chcncel'or In the newspapers in Bismarck's pay. as well as in his own diplomatic rorri'spor.clenoc, espicssions constantly occur which savour overmuch of the lan-n.-'g" familiar to Freemason orat >ry : such as the Interests of Humanity, Intellectual advancement retarded by the Papacy- the Kultiir-Kampfe, (Crusade in favour of Culture), the Necessity that moWn ideas should triumph; tho Emancipation of mankind from the llnvldom of medieval and sacerdotal authority, &c. Bi-marck has al-ta-ly t«.ce invited the English Government to join him ,n his Kultur-Kcvijfe. ilibt I attribute to the good sense of the English nation that ie as bi en twice answered with a simple negative? °The provub tells us thu/ we know birds by their song, a:id men by their gpeec'i. When statesmen like Bismarck are accustomed in their d-uio-in.nk o mmi'mcationd to use the jargon of the Lodges, the conclusion must Le clmr to every reflecting mind. Why, his veiy distinction between true Catholicism and Uitwmontanism is evidently coined in thi» same mint.

Fiiih\ : Tiic fifth argument is the following. On tho 21 t October, 1870, a decree ot tne Grand Orient of Paris, together with twelve ct<er Lodges summoned the King of Vru-sia and the Crown Pr.nco tcort! the Scciet Society, for tho 20th October, 1870, at seven 3ii il.o cvtnmj.', to '15, Kuo Jean Jacques Hoiiise-au; and because they fail, dto come, a price vu* put upou their head*, as a! aO upon the h tS i.B of ' .s-narck and Multke. Again, after the affair of Sedan, tho Lodge ot the " Philanthropes," at Brussels, declared it-elf against tho continuance of the war with France, by a resolution of the^lEth an I 25th Sep'emb r, 1870. This wus adopted by lh« Swiss Grand Lod-re «•' Alpu.a," and by many Italiau Lodges. Even ILnan, head tlxe-

ologian of the higher grade in the Society, declared himself as did all the members of the Lodge, in the bitterest terms against Prussia, and went so far as to be enthusiastic about the Jesuits, because by their means the people bad gained solidity and Judgment, and thus would be ready nil the sooner to take part in the war of revenge. But what a charge since that time has come over the spirit of tli6 dream of the Freemasons ! No sooner did Prussia come out in the character of n persecutor of the Church than the Brethren in Prance, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy overflowed with tenderness for the great, sublime, wise, and enlightened Prussia. The • Chaine d* Union (Dec, 1871, page 7, seqq.) declared that the decree of the Grand Orient of Paris, which we have already mentioned, was put out without any serious intention. The ' Revue des Deux Mondes,' the ' Siecle,' the 1 Temps,' the ' Dix-Neuvieme Sieole,' all newspapers written in the interest of the Freemasons, are full of admiration for Prussia, and represent the interests of Prussia in France more even than the interests of their own country. The same may be said of the so-called liberal press of Holland, Belgium, Switserland, and Italy. It is strongly marked by a tone of enthusiasm that transparently concoals the political tendencies which that press seeks to further.* Even free Switzerland, which no longer ago than 1870 showed so pronounced an enmity against Prussia, is quite happy under Bismarck's rule. And now a rumour is afloat that a combination is being formed with the object of annexing Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, to the Masonic Empire, as the prize of the next war ! Prussia, you may be sure, intends to do nothing for nothing. By its ecclesiastical policy it is weakening itself immensely as to its interior strength, so it has nochoice except to gain compensation by an increase of its external lorce. Aud thus the time is coming near, wheu we Catholics will be the only true patriots.

Ye?, Germany and Italy arc most closely allied with Switzerland as persecuting States. The " Mystery of iniquity " is no longer to thickly veiled as it was. Continental Freemasonry is mistress of fcho situation. Bismarck is its slave, ond if ever he refuses to follow its lead, a Pianori or an Orsini will be sent on his murderous mission to lay low the crafty statesman now caught in his own toils. Thus the position of Europe is becoming daily more ai d more defined. We are approaching a war between God and Belial, between the Church and the Revolution, between Christendom and modern Heathendom. Much as the phrase " religious war " cay sound offensive to certain ears, the plain truth is that one i 3 at hand and will soon burst out. The question is, to whom shall the victory belong ? It has been answered by Jesus Christ two thousand years ago. If wo aro not entering upon the last times, the Cross will be the conqueror. Ami after its triumph the fetters will fall from gtho anm of the Spouse of the Most lii;;h. The iran:icle3 will be removed from the wrists of tha Vicar of Christ, of the Bishops and of the clergy. The exiled shall return to their homes, sv d all thoso who, though led away by false guides btill krep the Faith, will recognise that there is one Faith, one liaptism, one Church. Then will the Mouern Scribes and the high priesls of the secret "Church of the Future" cry out ni,h their predecessors on the first Eaater morning : " Chr^t is risen. Now is our last en or worst than the first." But whut will be the fate of the persecutois of the Church ? That God only knows.

* Sco the ' Chaine d' Union,' 1573, p. 222, seqq.: The entire number of Symbolic Freemasons in lb7 - 2, was only twenty-two th. uaand nmo hundred and fortyseven ; that of the Lodges, two hundred aud thnteeu. An evident proof of the prodigious mcie,i3o of Fieemasonry in Germany. t This ia stated by Nafchusius in tho ' llallesche Volksblatt. 1 See too the 'Bieu Public' of Ghent, 10th June, 1869 X The Secret )l «,»• of the Fretmasoiis against Throw aad Altar: page 158, seqq.: At the Congress of Locarno no delegate from England was p o-,eut. * T)io \\ liter of these lines has nad at command the instructions seoret'v issued by the Fie^iuad ms of Germany, Holland, and in part SwiUeiUnd, as" well of Belgium. It is impossible to express in words what hatred of the Church animates all the Lodges since 1 87 1 Not a single syllable ia heard in the interest of their native country.