the episcopal
character, were now the chief pastors of the church of Holland. The king
also sanctioned the establishment of several religious communities, among
the rest the Society of Jesuits and the Liguorians. These arrangements
were joyfully accepted by the Catholics of Holland, and paved the way for
greater developments. These worthy people were, for a long time, believed
to be few in number, and scarcely more than nominally Catholics. Relieved,
at length, from the pressure of persecution, they astonished the world,
not only by their numbers, but also, and even more, by their zeal in the
cause of religion. According to the census of 1840, they were nearly
one-half of the entire population of Holland. Total population, 2,860,450;
Protestants, 1,700,275; Catholics, 1,100,616. The remainder was made up of
Jews and other dissenters. Thus were the Catholics of Holland as eleven to
seventeen. Since that time they have not ceased to increase. Nor have they
lost the high character which induced Pius IX., in 1853, to restore, the
king concurring, their long-lost hierarchy. An archbishopric, Utrecht, and
four episcopal sees were established--Harlem, Herzogenbosch, or Bois le
Due, Breda and Roermonde. This wise and necessary measure was followed by
an outburst of wrath on the side of the anti-Catholic party. But in
Holland, as in England, it soon subsided, and left only the impression
that Protestants and other non-Catholic people claim an exclusive right to
religious liberty. Pius IX. never ceased to entertain a high opinion of
the good Catholics of Holland. "Ah!" said he to visitors from that
country, "could we ever forget that these single-minded, loyal, patient
Hollanders formed the majority of our soldiers, who were not native
Italians, at Castelfidardo and Mentana."

(M34) Whilst in the old world, wherever really free political institutions
existed, the spirit of persecution quailed before the recognized principle
of religious liberty, in certain portions of the new it appeared to gain
strength, and to increase in the violence of its opposition to the liberty
of the church. This was particularly the case in New Granada, where
politicians, without statesmanship or experience, imagined that they had
made their people free, when they succeeded in separating them from Spain
and establishing a republic, in which the first principles of liberty were
ignored. It is not recorded that the clergy of New Granada sought to do
viole