because they refused to rebel against God. The mighty army of Christian, of Catholic martyrs it ruthlessly slaughtered,, because, rather than prove disloyal to their great commander-in-chief, Jesus Christ, they preferred to disobey His subordinate officer, the State. Brave youth and gentle virgin, priest and nun and aged martyr, let the godless and uncatholic call you traitors and rebels if they will, but we venerate you as the heroes of the world, and yearn to follow your glorious example.. But who shall relate all the Church suffered from the State! Let the hills and caves of Ireland and the catacombs of Rome tell the story of her sufferings and her wrongs. While prating about liberty, the State refused liberty of conscience to the Catholic. Incapable itself of exercising spiritual authority, it forbade its exercise by the Church. Nay, while denying to the Church, which is at once human and divine, the least civil power, the State — which is purely human — dares to usurp spiritual authority by establishing national churches. Are not King Edward VII. and the Czar of Russia two worthy claimants to the honor of being successor to St. Peter? But apart from that, on the continent of Europe, in essentially Catholic countries, the Pope to-day cannot appoint a bishop without permission of the State; no marriage is valid except contracted before a magistrate; and only lately the Italian and French parliaments made it a criminal offence for any priest in the confessional or from the altar to object to any government ordinance, however unjust or unholy. One hundred and
