Show POLISH catholicity heurion HeU ItelI gIon ZIOn the only tie these r R gard as 1111 unbreakable prom from the reign of boleslas the great to the crime of 0 1772 the partition of poland the chivalry of poland repelled ninety one tartar invasions any one of which it 1 successful would have hava nt at least jeopardized the existence of 0 european civilization says the amer can catholic review for many cen that chivalry was the sole bir bar rier ot of europe against the triumph 0 ot muscovite ambition and the reason oil it the success is to be found not I 1 in fit the me unquestionable valor of 0 the polish heart not in any solidity of the government which directed that valor lint but in the religious tie which bound the poles together the only tie tic which this restive people have ever regarded reg ardad as unbreakable this is the most salient fact in all polish history tho tha political constitution of poland wal wad the most faulty in christendom pron proba ably in the world and precisely because of that constitution her history Is that of an almost continual civil w dij a condition of things which in adv other land would have rendered foreign invasion synonymous with nation ill dl ruin but so long as the religious tie remained poland could have masters in the persons of her fractious nobles the entire people could bo be serfs and there would be but one law and one country for every for many centuries the battle limn of this warlike race was a beautiful canticle in lionor honor of our lady which had bad been composed by the martyr st adalbert the first apostle of northern poland and to mention only one of 0 the many customs which show how low the catholic spirit was wag identified with P polish c patriotism what a lesson the P polish 0 boy received when nhen while assisting at mass ho he noticed that at the reading of the gospel every noble drew his sword halfway half way out ot of the seaboard scabbard in sign of his sworn devotion to the faith even unto death |