tain limited time, they
would dismiss them from their dioceses; and that, should their
parishioners not be willing to provide the means for establishing and
supporting Catholic schools, they would withdraw from them their
priests." This looks like believing in the Catholic Church. From the
moment that the priests saw this determination of their bishop--the
people were overjoyed at it--_Catholic schools_, and, with them,
_Catholic life_, sprang up, and diffused itself at once all over the two
dioceses.

Let, then, everyone of our clergy take courage, and the Lord will
dispose the hearts of the rich and the poor in his favor;--the hearts of
the rich to provide him with means, the hearts of the poor to aid him,
by their prayers, in the promotion of so noble a work as is the
establishment of good Catholic schools.

CHAPTER XV.

ZEAL OF THE PRIEST FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN.

It is a matter of fact that the Protestant movement was chiefly directed
against the Papacy, and that it involved a hundred years of so-called
religious wars. This movement gave the princes who took the side of the
Church an opportunity, of which they were not slow to avail themselves,
to extend and consolidate their power over their Catholic subjects, and
to establish in their dominions monarchical absolutism, or what we may
choose to call modern Caesarism.

Under plea of serving religion, they extended their power over matters
which had hitherto either been left free, or subject only to the
jurisdiction of the spiritual authority. They were defenders of the
faith against armed heretics; and they pretended that this excess of
power was necessary, in order to succeed in their undertaking. A habit
of depending on them as the external defenders of religion and her
altars, of the freedom of conscience, and of the Catholic civilization
itself, was generated; the king took the place in the thoughts and
affections of the people that was due to the Soverign Pontiff, and by
giving the direction to the schools and universities in all things not
absolutely of faith, they gradually became the lords of men's minds as
well as bodies. In France, Spain, Portugal, and a large part of Italy,
all through the seventeenth century, the youth were trained in the
maxim--the Prince is the State, and his pleasure is law. Bossuet, in his
politics, did only faithfully express the political sentiments and
convictions of his age, shared by the great bo