ENGLISH JOURNALS AND CATHOLIC PERSECUTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 72, 12 September 1874, Page 14

ENGLISH JOURNALS AND CATHOLIC PERSECUTION.

Fbom an article entitled " Our Protestant Contemporaries," in th»- * London Tablet,' we take the following extracts :— "The two English journals which most cordially approve the Bismarckian legislation against Christianity, on the ground that the State is above the Church and can brook no rival, are the * DailyNews ' and the ' Pall Mall Guzatte.' It is only fresh proof that god--less oppression finds its readiest advocates in Liberalism and unbelief. The Berlin correspondent of the former frankly admits that ' nospecific crime,' on the part of Catholics, ' can be named, because thereis none ; ' and that ' the movement against the Church,' in a country where Protestantism has ended in total apostacy, • was governed by considerations with which the conduct of the Church herself had nothing whatever to do* The admission deserves to be noted. The* sole motive, he confesses, is *to reduce the Church into proper subjeotion to $he civil power.' It is, says the ' Pall Mall,' with the same cynical candour, 'to separate the Catholic Churoh in the German Em pire from the Vatican,' that is. to make it cease to be Catholic ; and whereas the amiable Frederick William IV. was so weak as to desireonly 'good and pious Bishops,' his more robust successor is resolved' to have only those who are ' obedient to the State.' It is impossible to describe the real character and objects of the German persecution with more frankness.

" Catholics hove two things to say in reply to such apologists of" one of the most shameless persecutions which has ever raged sincepapan times. They observe, in the first place, that if the Apostleshad consented to do what is now required of the German Bishops, Christianity would not have lasted three weeks. It would, in fact, never have existed at all. Jesus Christ and bis Apostles took no moreaccount of the decrees of the civil power in spiritual things than theories in the streets. They died rather than obey them, and they conquered by dying. It was thus that Peter vanquished Caesar. Opposition to the State, the only sin organized in the ethics of Liberalism, was not only a virtue in the first Christians, but was at once the cause and the condition of the triumph of Christianity. " Catholics observe, in the second place, that to forbid obedienceto the Pope, is to forbid the Catholic religion. He is, by God's appointment, the ( Rock ' on which the Church is built, the supremepastor of sheep and lamb«, the centre of unity, the only unfailing witness of truth, and the source of all spiritual jurisdiction. Takeaway the Pope and there is an end of Christianity. Therefore, thegates of hell rage against him. But unless the end of the world is at hand, they will fail now, as -they have always failed before. The persecutor may seem to triumph for a moment, but we know what his end will be. And meanwhile, like our martyred forefathers, we bid him do his worst. Christians we are ; and, in spits of all that men or demons can do, Christians we shall remain."

The Fate o? thb Apostles. — All the Apostles were insulted by the enemies of their Master, and were called to seal their doctrines with their blood. Schumacher says :—": — " St. Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword, afc a distant city of Ethiopia. St. Mark expired at Alexandria, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. St. Luke was hanged upon, an olivetree in the classic land of Greece. St. John was put into a.cauldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterbanished to Patmos. St. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward. St. James the Greater was beheaded at Jerusalem. St. James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller's club. St Bartholomew was flayed alive. St. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors until he died. St. Thomas was run through the body with a lance, at Coromandel, in the East Indies. St. Jude was shot to death with arrows. St. Matthias was first stoned 'and thea be! eaded. St... Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica St. Paul after various tortures and persecutions was at length beheaded at Rome by the Roman Emperor Nero. Such waa the fate of the Apostles, according to traditional statements.