the tribute, He said to the Pharisees : " Render 10 Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God's" (Matt. xxii. 21).
4. In the same manner the apostles submitted to the laws of the State as long as it was possible to do this without breaking the laws of God, and they impressed this duty upon others. St. Paul did the same in these words : " There is no power but from God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the .ordinance of God."
Accordingly, the Catholic Church has always, and in the most positive manner, inculcated obedience to secular authority as a duty and a matter of conscience, and has opposed and condemned those who taught the contrary. Only if the secular authority commands anything which is actually sinful, one must obey God and the Church rather than men. He who asserts that Catholicism teaches the opposite, is a calumniator.
5. An old soldier was reproached with not having been sufficiently zealous in defending his native land. His reply was an eloquent silence; he showed the scars of the wounds which he had received while fighting his country's battles.
In like manner, we can point to the faithful services which Catholics have rendered to secular authority, even when the latter persecuted and oppressed them unjustly. Need I remind you with what patience, some thirty years ago, the Catholics of Germany and Switzerland bore the sad consequences of the so-called Kulturkampf.
6. Were such obedience practised everywhere, how soon would our deplorable conditions assume a different form! The spirit of the age is
