assert his opposition so energetically
as to bring about a separation." Those who think thus will then be
the right men and the chosen instruments for the acceptable work of
the reconciliation of the Churches, and the true unity of Germany.
Upon the day when, on both sides, the conviction shall arise vivid
and strong that Christ really desires the unity of His Church, that
the division of Christendom, the multiplicity of Churches, is
displeasing to God, that he who helps to prolong the situation must
answer for it to the Lord,--on that day four-fifths of the
traditional polemics of the Protestants against the Church will with
one blow be set aside, like chaff and rubbish; for four-fifths
consist of misunderstandings, logomachies, and wilful falsifications,
or relate to personal, and therefore accidental, things, which are
utterly insignificant where only principles and dogmas are at stake.

On that day, also, much will be changed on the Catholic side.
Thenceforward the character of Luther and the Reformers will no more
be dragged forward in the pulpit. The clergy, mindful of the saying,
_interficite errores, diligite homines_, will always conduct
themselves towards members of other Churches in conformity with the
rules of charity, and will therefore assume, in all cases where there
are no clear proofs to the contrary, the _bona fides_ of opponents.
They will never forget that no man is convinced and won over by
bitter words and violent attacks, but that every one is rather
repelled by them. Warned by the words of the Epistle to the Romans
(xiv, 13), they will be more careful than heretofore to give to their
separate brethren no scandal, no grounds of accusation against the
Church. Accordingly, in popular instruction and in religious life,
they will always make the great truths of salvation the centre of all
their teaching: they will not treat secondary things in life and
doctrine as though they were of the first importance; but, on the
contrary, they will keep alive in the people the consciousness that
such things are but means to an end, and are only of inferior
consequence and subsidiary value.

Until that day shall dawn upon Germany, it is our duty as Catholics,
in the words of Cardinal Diepenbrock, "to bear the religious
separation in a spirit of penance for guilt incurred in common." We
must acknowledge tha