test the same as thousands of others brought up by them, like myself; not one will be found to contradict me. Hence I never cease wondering how any one can accuse them of teaching corrupt morality."[1] – From Germany three men may be quoted who are considered, by friend and enemy, as equally distinguished for gifts, for noble character, and for genuine patriotism: von Ketteler, von Mallinckrodt, and Count Ballestrem. It was in the early days of the Kulturkampf, when the laws for expelling the Jesuits from Germany were being discussed, that among others, these three stood up to defend the persecuted Order. Freiherr von Ketteler, the celebrated Bishop of Mentz, testifies: "As a youth I was sent by my parents to an educational institution of the Jesuits, where I spent four years. From home I brought with me such independence of character and such purity of morals, that had I noticed a shadow of what the world styles Jesuitical principles, I would have turned away from them with loathing and disgust. My parents, who enjoyed an entirely independent position in life, and who were filled with the purest and strongest love for their children and their true welfare, would not for a moment have left me in that institution, had they apprehended anything of the kind. There I witnessed nothing that ever shocked my youthful spirit trained in the purest principles of Christianity. I took leave of all my teachers with deepest reverence and with the firmest conviction that they were men who daily made on themselves the demands of severest morality." – Similar testimonies were rendered by Herr von Mallinckrodt, that chivalrous spirit who, with perhaps the
- ↑ Lettre, 7 février 1746. – Hughes, Loyola, p. 105.
