ished men of the Catholic world. Of this number Archbishop Geissel
of Cologne was one, and the King of Prussia, more liberal than certain
magnates of England, thanked the Holy Father, in an autograph letter, for
the honor thus done to the Catholic church of his country. Since that time
the Prussian monarch appears to have changed his sentiments as well as his
ministry.

(M30) Notwithstanding the noisy demonstrations in opposition to the
Cardinal Archbishop and his brother bishops, they were allowed to pursue
in peace their labors of Christian zeal. The English grumbled, as is their
wont. But discovering in time that they were neither attacked nor hurt,
the rights of liberty of conscience were respected, and no persecution
followed what it was at first the fashion to call the "Papal aggression."

(M31) The Emancipation Bill of 1829, by which liberty of conscience, which
was so proudly called the birthright of every Englishman, was extended to
Catholics, tended powerfully, no doubt, to promote the development of the
Catholic church. It grew also by emigration from Catholic Ireland, and
there were some conversions occasionally from the Protestant ranks. It was
not, however, till the decade immediately preceding the restoration of the
hierarchy, that there was a very marked and decided movement of the
educated and learned men of England towards the Catholic church. It is not
recorded anywhere that Catholic missionaries or envoys of the Pope had
penetrated into those sanctuaries of Protestant learning--the celebrated
universities of Oxford and Cambridge. There, at least, there was no "Papal
aggression," and tract upon tract was issued from the press of those seats
of learning, in which it was argued that the doctrines taught by the
Fathers of the first five centuries were the real Christian teaching which
all men were bound to accept. It appeared to have escaped the learned men
of Cambridge and Oxford that these were the very doctrines so
perseveringly adhered to by the long-ignored and down-trodden Catholics of
England.

This fact, however, flashed upon their minds at last, and they who were
lights in the Anglican establishment, which had been so long surrounded by
a halo of worldly glory, and to be connected with which was a sure title
to respectability, hesitated not to place themselves in communion with
those whose position as a church had been for so many generations like to
that of the early Christians who lurked in t