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Show MUM IN PARVO education Bill, of Which Mention Only Is a . Disgrace to England, Defeated in the House of Commons in December Roman Ro-man Catholic Peers of England Loyal to Their Religion They Have Always Supported Sup-ported Justice for all Religions, Knowing Their Own Will Prosper If Treated Justly Just-ly Several Protestant Bishops Avoided Avoid-ed the Responsibility of Voting Let the Mantel of Silence Rest Over Their Names (From the Lamp. Episcopalian Weekly.) The odious Education Bill, which has .so .'imitated .'imi-tated England for ten months past, was killed mi the House of Lords a fortnight before Christmas, more throush the intervention of a merciful Providence Provi-dence than through anything like united and fearless fear-less defense of the lambs of Christ's flock on the part; of ihe English bishops. By way of substantiation substantia-tion we quote from the Church Times' editorial of Hoeember 7: "We said last week that even as we went to press divisions might be in progress in the IIouo of j Lords which would give ihe bishops an opportunity Ij'or tardy courage. There was one such division, jand it was most instructive. It will be remembered ihat the bill, as it left the Commons, allowed facili-i. facili-i. "ties for special religious instruction in transferred, !' i schools on two days a week. An amendment moved ! I iin Committee by ihe Bishop of Oxford substituted :five days. On report. Lord St. Alwyn moved the restoration, of the two days' limit. The house di-'vided, di-'vided, and only twenty-throe peers were found to support the more generous measure. Among these J iwere the Duke of Norfolk. Lord Halifax and the j . 'Bishops of London, Xorwich, Oxford and Birmingham. Birming-ham. They desire the record. Five bishops scut- .tied into a place of safety where they might avoid K, i - ,1he responsibility of voting; we spare the mention i ' oi their names. ("It was admitted on all hands that the Church would be likely to make most use of such facilities, '. 'and the provision would apply chiefly to schools j which have been built by the Church for the 1 ""Church. It was a question of Church teaching. ,irovided and paid for by the Church, in Church schools. The Puke of Xorfolk voted for it; the '(Archbishop of York and two bishops voted against it. Other bishops declined 1o vote. Comment is jieedless, "But. one comment we will make. In this matter, mat-ter, as in all others, the Roman Catholic peers, led by the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Llandati. have acted with conspicuous loyalty. They have snatched it no advantages for their own religious connec-I connec-I .lion, though such advantages have been ostenta-' ostenta-' .tiously offered. They have seadily supported equal justice for all religions, confident that with even justice their own will prosper. We tender them our " -hearty recognition.'' After thus holding up the English Episcopate to i (Condemnation as a house divided against itself, i .md contrasting the solidarity of the Roman Cath- ! ' olic peers, fighting in solid phalanx as one man, the Times in its very next issue has the short -sighted-1 ness to comment as follows upon the French situa tion: "There is now open war between Church and State in France, and it must be confessed that the Papacy is responsible for bringing matters to tins 'deplorable pa-s. The French Episcopate, if it had been left to itself, Avould assuredly hsve found out a way of adapting the administration of ecclesiastical ecclesias-tical affairs to the requirements of the law. disagreeable dis-agreeable as it may have been. The law left the rhuivh in possession of most of the things requisite requis-ite for the maintenance of its worship, subject only to some regulations which, ridiculous as they in certain cases were, could without much loss of dignity dig-nity have been complied with."' Frenchmen being by nature no more courageous than Englishmen it is hardly likely that the French V Episcopate, "if left to itself," would prove any 1 jnore brave r united in the interests of the I Church in France than the English Episcopate I have shown themselves in their contests with the t Crown and Parliament since the days of Henry, Edward and Elizabeth Tudor. What the Times I complains lhal the French hierarchy were not por- milled to do i just what the English bishops did ! do in Ihe sixteenth century, they through fear of ! Hmry's lash "found out a way of adapting the :;d- ministration of ecclesiastical affairs to the require- jnents of the law. disagreeable as that law (the I royal supremacy) was." The aims of Henry VII I 1 md the present French government are identical I in one particular, viz: to abolish Papal Supremacy 1 an ecclesiastical power foreign to the state. Henry succeeded because the bishops f on red Caesar I inore than they feared God; so far the French gov- niment has been foiled because the French hier- . urchy and priesthood has stood to a man true to the I Vicar of Christ. The subservience of the English I I Episcopate for nearly four hundred years to the ,-ivil authorities of Great Britain has certainly not redounded' to ihe advantage and honor of the Eng- ish Church in any such illustrious way that the French clergy are inspired by the example across the channel to repeat the sad mistake which Arch- I bishop Warham and his colleagues so bitterly re- pouted of when alas, it was too late, j "The mayors of not loss than three hundred - md eighty-six French towns," says the Freeman's ! Journal, ''Lave sent in their resignations rather I Continued on Page. 5. . . J yj. . . "' m J ... ;,. - r , "'Win. .V MULTUM IN PARVO. Continued from Page 1. than consent to the taking down of the crucifixes in the schools, and several prefects have followed their example. In many places il. inhabitants have carried the crucifixes back to the schools in procession, and nailed them to the walls. Instances fi of" children being punished for having rosaries or prayerbooks in their possesion .are increasing, and the French papers are full of particulars of this sort of persecution. Throughout the country from end to end ihe names of God. Jesus Christ, and the Virgin Mary, and even of the saints, have been effaced ef-faced from ail the school books, and a teacher who recently opened school with the Lord's Prayer was immediately denounced by the Freemasons of the town, and lost his position within twenty-four hours for this awful crime ( !); but a teacher who held the crucifix in his hands for the children to spit upon as they went out of the school was immediately im-mediately promoted to a higher place." The Catholic Standard and Times gives another and ever sadder instance of how the campaign against Christianity is being conducted in France: "The Prefect of La Lo.civ has deiuande'd the secularization of the lying-in hospital at Monde, .and, pending that event, has decided that no infants born at the maternity hospital shall be baptized under un-der any pretext whatever. Even should the new- j born child be in imminent danger of death, the . mother is forbidden to ask for its baptism. Yet" ihe law of separation in its first article makes this declaration: 'The Republic assures liberty of eon-i science.' 'It guarantees the free exercise of re-i ligion.'" M. Clemenceau. M. Lriand and their associates would do well to remember that history has a way of repeating itself and take warning from the riwift retribution which overtook Xapoloou Bonaparte for his treatment of Pope Pius VII, holding the venerable ven-erable Pontiff a prisoner at Fontainobleau for five years. It was there that "the celebrated interview took place in which the successor of St. Peter said to ihe then master of Europe: "Emperor, take care. The God of old still lives. When your measure meas-ure is full He will break it in pieces." Twelve years later, when himself a prisoner at St. Helena, Xapoleon said to an attendant, who as a page had been present on the occasion when the 'Pope had spoken, "Do you remember those words of Pius YI his terrible predict ion?" "Yes, sire," the young- man answered, "he said, 'the God of old still lives; he will crush you to pieces.'" "lie was no false prophet," added the fallen emperor. 'My -sceptre has been broken, not by man. but by God." g Dom Oucranger thus completes the wonderful story: "A messenger from the island of St. lleien;; I S was one day ushered into the presence of Pius YM. 1 3 The exiled Xapoloou. whom he had consecrated Em - j i peror in the Church of Xotre Dame, and v:io-e after conduct had brought him under the ban of f excommunication, now besought, the Pontiff o A-low A-low him to b- readmitted to those spiritual hles-ings 'j of which he had been justly deprived. "Pius VII, who had so courageously braved pub- ij lie opinion by giving hospitality, at Rome, to the 5 members of the unfortunate Xapoleon family, readily read-ily complied with the request thus made of him; and the Holy Sacrifice of . the Mass was, shortly aflerw-.ird. offered up in the presence of the illustrious illus-trious exile of St. Helena. "But, before granting pardon, the justice of God had required a full and public expiation. lie, who had been the instrument of salvation to millions of souls, by restoring religion to France, was not toj be lost; but ho had impiously imprisoned the Sov-j ereign Pontiff in the castle at Fontainbleau, and ' j it was in that very castle that he had afterward U: I sign the doe .dof -his own abdication. For five years i he had held cantive the Vicar of Christ, for five ! years he himself had to endure the sufferings and j humiliation of captivity. Heaven accepted the (retribution, and left Mary to complete her victory. Reconciled with the Church, and fortified by the Holy Sacraments which prepare the Christian for eternity, Xapoleon yielded up his soul into the hands of his Maker, on the oth day of May the month that is sacred to Mary." May as good and ending come to the present political foes of Pope Piux X. As to what effect, the loss of temporalities will have upon the Church in France The Republique Fraucaise well says: "The Church accepts poverty. She will regain in moral prestige all she loses in material wealth. That is one of the far-reaching consequences which her enemies had not foreseen, and which is far more important than all the incidents of the present pres-ent conflict." |