on it. The pictures of war which follow are derived mainly from a collection of soldiers' letters, edited by Ernest Daudet, from Les Soutanes sous la Mitraille, by the Abbé René Gaell, prêtre-infirmier, and from Le Clergé, Les Catholiques, et la Guerre, by Gabriel Langlois, with a preface by Mgr. Herscher, Archbishop of Laodicea.
Priests and ecclesiastical students are serving in the armies of the Republic in many capacities. Some are chaplains, regularly attached to the army ambulances and hospitals: the old virus of anti-clericalism was still active enough to delay their nomination till the eleventh hour. Others are doing the same work, but as volunteers under a scheme inaugurated by the late Comte de Mun. Still others are employed as stretcher-bearers or hospital attendants. The balance, the great majority, are fighting side by side with their fellow-citizens as plain soldiers of the Army of Liberation. This inclusion of priests in the ranks is peculiar to France. It dates from the adoption of the Two Years' Law, when, on the shortening of the term of military service, all exemptions were suppressed. It is hardly to be denied that the measure was inspired less by logic than by malice. But in actual working out it has recoiled singularly on those who saw in it a lever for the disintegration of the Church. The soldier-priests have been the little leaven that has leavened the whole mass.
