on her birthday by some of the pupils of the upper school. The superior appealed to the Grand Duke, who coldly replied, that if the town chose again to insist on claiming these articles, he could not interfere. And there the matter remains at present.

The town council have also sent in a bill to the superior for all the expenses of the cultivation of the land, vineyards, gardens, &c., from May 7, 1877,1 to the end of September, when the sisterhood cleared out of the buildings. That is to say, they are to pay for the cultivation of the land and vines, the crops of which were enjoyed by the town. This the superior has refused to pay, and the question is still undecided.

No sooner was the society expelled, than the superior, who retained two or three sisters with her, made formal demand for permission to continue her private day-school. Private girls'-schools are permitted, and there are several in Freiburg. But that of the Ursulines was regarded as the best by far, and Protestant pastors and Jews sent their daughters to it, in full confidence that their religious convictions would not be tampered with. Insult was added to injury. No notice was taken of the application.

For six months the pupils came, but the superior did not dare to form them into classes, lest she should make herself amenable to the laws, which forbid the opening of schools without licence. It was only when she had made personal application to the Grand Duke that a tardy permission was accorded her.

The suppression of the Ursuline school for poor children was not effected without monster demonstrations of indignation, and appeals against it were numerously

The convent was suppressed on April 17, and from May 7 began the payment of the pension.

signed, but treated as waste-paper by town council and government alike.'

These acts of bigoted injustice unfortunately distract attention from the real grounds of the quarrel. The Catholics smart under present wrongs, and do not consider why it is that they are made to smart. If a flight is to be got out of a kite, it is not by jerking at its tail, but by pulling at it from a distance. If German Catholic opinion is worked into fury against the Empire, it will be by the Jesuits working the thread from afar.

It is said that Prince Bismarck is now desirous of conciliating the Catholics, to gain their support against the National Liberals. For this end mutual concessions will be made. Ultramontanism, as a political factor, is a creation of the Chancellor. He has made the existence of Catholics under the Empire intolerable to them, and they have combined to oppose his favourite measures. But Roman Catholics have no strong or radical prejudice against the Empire. They have suffered more in petty States than in great kingdoms, and under Grand Dukes far worse things than under Emperors. In spite of every attempt to excite the people made by the Jesuits, they have sat composedly expecting a change. They have felt that a great injustice has been done them, and that this will be recognised and redressed in the end. I was speaking to an old sacristan at Trèves when the bishop was in exile, and one of the parish priests in prison. It will pass,' he said. Once the Mosel ran with Christian blood to Mehring, and afterwards Constantine gave his palace for a cathedral. Governments are like women; they don't know their own minds, and change humour daily. Massacre did not kill the Church fifteen hundred years ago, and nagging won't hurt her now.'

6

The school, which cost the town nothing up to July 1877, cost the town 30,000 marks for the half-year ending Dec. 31, 1877.

There has been much that has been right in principle in the Kulturkampf, but the way in which it has been carried out has been a great wrong.

It was right that the education of the country should have been taken under the supervision and control of the State. It was right that those destined for the priesthood should be given something more liberal than the seminary system.

It was right that the Jesuits should have been expelled bag and baggage.

But it was wrong that these measures should have been carried out with violence, petty persecution, and injustice. Injustice is wrong, even in a right cause.

CHAPTER XIV.

PROTESTANTISM.

More light and light !--more dark and dark our woes.

Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 5.

A LATE Esquire Bedell of Cambridge, who, for thirty years, had executed his office of convoying the Vice-Chancellor to St. Mary's Church to hear the University sermon, was wont to say, 'For more than a quarter of a century I have heard every variety of doctrine preached in St. Mary's pulpit every Sunday and Saint's day throughout the year, and, thank God! I am a Christian still.'

Till the year 1540, the Rhenish Palatinate was Catholic, but, under the Elector Otto Heinrich, it was forced to become Lutheran. Otto Heinrich died without issue, and the Electorate passed to the Simmern-Zweibrücken house. Frederick (III.) was as hot a Calvinist as his predecessor had been a Lutheran, and in 1565 the churches of the Pfalz were swept of their altars and crucifixes and images. The Lutheran pastors were ejected and exiled, and fieryhot Predestinarianism was poured into the ears of the bewildered peasantry, who had not yet digested Justification. A remorseless persecution of those who held by the Augsburg Confession was carried out. But in 1579, Frederick was no more, and the Pfalz was again Lutheranised: the

Calvinist preachers were banished, and the Evangelical returned.

In 1585 the Palatinate was again purged of Lutheranism, and reformed after the pattern of Geneva. In the Thirty Years' war it fell into the hands of the Imperialists and was Catholicised again. Then, again, it reverted to the Elector and was re-Calvinised. Reckoning the changes of religion effected by the varying fortunes of the war, the Palatinate passed through ten changes in less than a century. Verily, the bauers must have thanked God that they remained Christian still. Much the same sort of thing occurred in other parts of the Empire. When the prince changed his faith, he made his people change also. Idstein was converted summarily to Lutheranism by Count John of Nassau. After the defeat of the Swedes at Nördlingen, it was given to the Elector of Mainz, and became Catholic. After the Peace of Westphalia it reverted to the Count, and was reconverted to Protestantism.

Wolfgang of Anhalt bought Köthen in 1546; he at once turned the priests out of the churches, purified them, and made the population Lutheran. Next year, after the battle of Mühlberg, Köthen fell to Count Sigismund of Lodron, and went back to Catholicism. In 1552, at the Convention of Passau, it was restored to Wolfgang, who at once converted his people back to Lutheranism. He died childless fourteen years after, in 1566, and his successor, Johann Ernst, forcibly made Köthen Calvinist in 1570.1 In 1556 Count Bernhardt von der Lippe conquered the county of Rittberg, expelled the Count from his land, and brought all the people to Calvinism. The

The exercise of the Lutheran and Catholic religions was strictly forbidden. It was not till 1698 that Prince Emanuel Lebrecht allowed a Lutheran church to be built in Köthen.