lty, all collections and subscriptions, whether public or private, for
the requirements of public worship and the support of the clergy were
forbidden, and elective lay commissions were charged with the management
of all ecclesiastical property. Finally, all religious orders, as well of
men as of women, were suppressed, with the exception, and that
provisionally only, of such as were devoted to the care of the sick.

If Chancellor Bismarck really believed, at any time, that the Catholic
clergy were without faith and conscience, ready to submit to any terms the
State might impose, in order to save their incomes and the institutions of
the Church, he must have been greatly surprised when he found them all,
without exception, prepared to welcome poverty, imprisonment and exile,
rather than abandon the inalienable rights of conscience. On the 26th May,
1873, the Bishops of Prussia signed a collective declaration, in which
they stated, with regret, that it was impossible for them to obey. "The
Church," said they, "cannot acknowledge the heathen state principle,
according to which the laws of the State are the source of all right, and
the Church possesses only such rights as it pleases the State to grant. By
so doing, it would deny its own Divine origin, and would make Christianity
wholly dependent on the arbitrary will of men." In regard to temporal
matters connected with the Church they could afford to be less strict: and
so they authorized their people to take part in the election of the new
lay managers of the properties of the churches. This wise policy was
attended with the most happy results. The chancellor's plans were
everywhere completely marred. He had reckoned that the Catholics would
abstain from voting, and so allow a "liberal" (infidel) minority, however
small, to dispose of the churches and presbyteries.

In reviewing the news of the day, we have been accustomed to think of only
one or two more eminent prelates suffering under the lash of persecution.
The truth is, that the whole Church suffered. The persecution was as cruel
as an age which does not permit the shedding of blood would tolerate. The
bishops were crushed with fines on account of each act which they
performed of their spiritual office. Such fines they refused to pay, lest
they should acknowledge the justice of their condemnation. Their movable
property, accordingly, was seized and sold at auction, and they themselves
were immured in the prisons, wh