liberty of conscience in the order politic, which had so long served the purpose of evil, and which perhaps is henceforth only to be subservient to good. In the meanwhile, the Church claims her rights, her divine constitution, which had long been violated and shackled by the secular arm. No one dares offer her any resistance. She takes possession of her own; her bishops assemble at Wurtzburg, for the first time since the Ponctuations d'Ems. The calmness and the gravity of their deliberations appear truly admirable, amid the sanguinary conflicts of political enmity. Their decrees are received with respect; their wishes are granted without any apparent repugnance.

In that very place where Ronge, that pitiful counterfeiter of Luther, had prophesied, amid the vociferous applause of the democrats and philosophers, the final ruin of the papal Babylon; in that very spot, monks, Jesuits, and Franciscans, again making their appearance in the detested habit, after ages of proscription, attract around their pulpits an eager, numerous, and indefatigable crowd, and render their missions one of the most striking events of contemporaneous history. In that place, where the Society of Gustavus Adolphus, which had undertaken, under the invocation of the devastator of Germany, to introduce Protestantism even into the last retreats of papal superstition, proudly flaunted; there, again, the great associations of Pius IX, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Boniface, are planted, take root, and are daily seen to spread their branches more and more, marching in front, and with rapid steps, to the conquest of Germany by faith and charity. Their solemn and annual assemblies at Mayence, Münster, Ratisbon, have at the same time both insured and sanctified the right of association. Their intelligent initiative combines the authority of the priest with the activity of the layman. Their courageous perseverance tends to reconstitute Germanic unity, so fruitlessly besieged by democracy, by founding it upon the cordial and fruitful union of the faithful of Prussia, Suabia, Westphalia, Bavaria, and the Tyrol. There, in fine, where Clement Augustus saw priests, led astray by Hermesianism,* and functionaries, whom the revolution was soon to punish for their blindness, brave his authority, and undermine it in the hearts of the people, a simple metropolitan vicar,+ himself at one time a laborer, without any other resources than his persuasive eloquence, founded, and is propagating with immense success, the work of Christian journeymanship for the moral and physical welfare of the workmen.‡ Everywhere the sacred fire is being rekindled. Inspired by the example of Belgium, vigilant and devoted bishops, with an ex-officer of cavalry at their head, but who has since been appointed as the successor of St. Boniface over the See of Mayenee, are engaged in the creation of a university, exclusively Catholic, at Fulda, where the young Levites may avoid the dangers of the too notorious universities of their respective countries. In Prussia, a Protestant, but intelligent and generous king, has promised that, under his sceptre, the Church shall never again return to those evil days, which she had so much reason to deplore before his time; and, in spite of opposite appearances, in spite of the new vexatious mea

*This dangerous doctrine has now been almost forgotten: fomented carefully by the bureaucracy and the rationalists, it had begun to pervade the most of the faculties of Catholic theology in the north of Germany. It derives its name from Dr. Hermes, a priest and professor at Bonn, who pretended to apply Kant's system to theology. Gesellenverein.

†M. Kölping.

§ Baron de Kettler, of the family of the last Grand Master of the order of the SwordBearers. His brother, likewise a Prussian officer, has just entered the order of the Capuchins.

sures, of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, we feel confident that he will keep his word. In Austria, a youthful and chivalrous emperor, only just emerged from boyhood, the worthy heir of Ferdinand II and Maria Theresa, destined, like her, to receive the empire when on the edge of a precipice, and resolved, like him, to fulfil in the first place his duty as a Catholic prince, inaugurated his reign by the abrogation of the legislation of Joseph II, and preluded the victory of his arms over the revolution, by the complete emancipation of the Church in his vast states.* In like manner, the Austrian episcopacy, formerly almost a stranger to all Catholic sympathies, behind that Chinese wall that separated it from the rest of the Church, now comes forward and vies with its brethren in France in its devotedness to the sovereign pontiff, in its zeal for the salvation of souls; and already its pious vigilance is beginning to be extended to the millions of Sclaves whom schism had separated from Catholic unity. If the rationalist and absolutist bureaucracy, grieved to see religion, instruction, and charity, escaping from its yoke, opposes a thousand obstacles to the realization of sovereign promises; if Bavaria, faithless to the finest traditions of her history, is obstinately resolved to remain behind Austria, and even Prussia, in shackling the action of the Church by the adoption of a vexatious and humiliating policy; if the governments of Baden, Mechlenburg, and those of some other states of secondary order, seem disposed to wrap themselves up in the anti-clerical habit which the great powers have just thrown off, there is nothing in all this to damp the courage of our brethren in Germany. The victory will be theirs. They will be obliged to purchase it by long and constant efforts; but the present already speaks for the future. There still remains, doubtless, much to be done, before a regime of perfect liberty and equity can be obtained; but the progress already made is immense. On emerging from a precipice by climbing along the acclivity of a steep mountain, it is good not always to keep the eyes fixed on the summit, lest the traveller should give himself up to fatigue and discouragement; it is expedient to turn round sometimes to measure the distance that he has passed over since he emerged from the abyss, were it merely for the sake of making sure of his strength, and justifying his confidence in ultimate success.

*See the imperial edict of the 12th of April, 1850, preceded by an intelligent notice by Thun, Minister of Public Instruction, against the ancient legislation, and especially against the Placet.

†The prince-bishop of Lavant, in Carinthia, has organized a union of priests destined to convert the Greco-Sclaves; in his pastoral of the 18th June, 1852, he associates his work with that which has been founded in France for the same object, and announces that Pius IX has sanctioned and blessed it.

See the reply of the Bavarian minister, of the 8th April, 1852, to the collective complaints of the bishops of the kingdom, bearing date 2d December. There exists in Bavaria an edict of religion, analogous to our French articles organiques, and which, issued subsequently to the concordat of 1818, arbitrarily annuls several of the essential dispositions of this synallagmatical contract, by borrowing from the Gallican and Josephist traditions the usual obstacles. The originator of this edict was a Protestant juris-consult, named Feuerbach, who boasts of it in the posthumous memoirs which his son, Louis Feuerbach, the too-celebrated professor of Atheism, has just published.

TO BE CONTINUED.

ASH-WEDNESDAY-LENT.

COMPILED FOR THE METROPOLITAN.

In the first ages of the Church, they who had committed some great sin, especially one of a public or scandalous nature, were deprived of the holy communion until they had done penance publicly and in a manner proportioned to the enormity of their crime. They were even excluded from the society of the faithful as long as they remained unwilling to submit to this penance. Such as were disposed to perform it, presented themselves, on the first day of Lent, at the door of the church, in the costume of penitents. The bishop then imposed ashes on their heads, after which prayers were offered up in their behalf by the clergy and people, and lastly, they were dismissed from the church until the fulfilment of the penance. They lived generally in retirement, engaged in arduous exercises, and fasted frequently on bread and water, according to their strength and the nature of their sins. They prayed long and in a prostrate position, watched much, lay on the bare ground, distributed alms, abstained from all amusements, and were debarred all unnecessary intercourse with the faithful.

The duration of their penance was determined by the canons of the Church, which proportioned it to the gravity of the sin which demanded satisfaction. The following will give some idea of the rigorous expiation to which the sinner was subjected. He who performed a servile work on Sunday or a festival, was required to fast three days on bread and water. Whoever conversed with another during the divine service, was condemned to a regimen of bread and water during ten days. The violation of a fast commanded by the Church, was punished with an abstinence of twenty days on bread and water. The usurer was condemned to a penance of three years: the fortune-teller or magician to seven years' austerity, and they who consulted such persons were obliged to do penance for five years. Greater crimes were punished with still greater severity. The pastors of the Church were authorized to abridge these penitential periods, in favor of those who exhibited an extraordinary fervor, and such as were deemed worthy of reconciliation, were absolved at the close of Lent.

The practice of the Church now-a-days is a remnant of her ancient discipline. She now invites all her children to receive ashes at the opening of the quadragesimal season, to remind them that it is a time of penance, and that if they wish to obtain the full remission of their sins, they must imitate the example of penitents in the earlier days, by satisfying the Divine justice. To inspire them with this salutary thought, the minister of God, in placing ashes on their forehead, addresses them in that solemn language, "Remember, man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." The consideration of death is one of the most efficacious means of animating the Christian to the expiation of his sins and the amendment of his life. The observance of Lent is of the highest antiquity in the Church, and was originally much more rigorous than at present. Fasting consists in eating only one full meal in the day, not before noon, and in abstaining from flesh-meat and other prohibited diet. In former times, the faithful did not take their meal until six o'clock in the evening: but the custom of eating at mid-day was gradually introduced, with the practice of taking some refreshment, called a collation, in the evening. The obligation of fasting is binding upon all Christians who have completed the twentyfirst year of their age. The law of abstinence extends to all, both young and old.

Many are dispensed from these penitential duties, in consequence of physical weakness or hard labor. Particular regulations on this subject are generally published by the chief pastors of the Church, for the observance of the faithful in their respective diocesses.

Though the present discipline of the Church is not what it was in primitive times, the obligation of doing penance is the same. A full reconciliation with God still requires a true conversion of the heart, the reformation of our life, and the performance of satisfactory works proportionate to the number and quality of our sins. Though Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, has offered a condign satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, we cannot participate in the benefits of his atonement, unless we co-operate with him in the expiation of our sins. The penitential acts which we perform, are accepted by the Almighty, in virtue of the great atonement once made on Calvary. In this sense did St. Paul "fill up those things which are wanting of the sufferings of Christ."-Coloss. i, 24. Fasting has also a particular efficacy in disengaging the heart from sinful objects, in weakening the passions and fortifying the Christian against the temptations of life. Hence St. Paul tells us: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become a cast-away."-I Cor. ix, 27. Such are the motives which should actuate the Christian in performing the lenten fast, which united with prayer and alms-deeds, will become an abundant source of heavenly blessings.

TRUE AND FALSE CHARITY.

ALL the notions of men at present respecting the very mode and form of exhibiting mercy to the poor, are utterly unlike those which universally prevailed in ages of faith. Compassion was then to be increased by the presence of the suffering object, from which every one now endeavors to escape, like Agar, unable or unwilling to endure the sight of what would awaken pity, and seeking relief in flight, exclaiming, I will not see the boy die. But moralists of the Catholic school remarked, that our divine Lord, who was animated with an ardent desire of suffering, acted differently: he approached the tomb of his friend Lazarus, and wept; he looked on Jerusalem, his dearly loved city, and groaned over its calamities. Jacob, they go on to observe, did not turn away from the view of his son's garment stained with blood. These were the patterns for those who were of the Mount. Thibaud, Count of Champagne, used to give shoes and vests to the poor with his own hand; and being asked once why he did so, he replied, that he chose to dispense them thus in order that, by giving and laboring personally, he might be the more moved to devotion and pity for the poor, and be disposed to practise always greater humility. "God hath given thee eyes," says Guy de Roye, explaining the five senses of nature, "in order that you might look on others with pity:" the last purpose for which modern philosophers would suppose they were intended; though in the divine oracles the symbol of mercy is the eye: but these men have reversed everything. Catholic charity is that which flies not from the view of misery and infirmity-which conquers the repugnance of sense by seeing only the immortal soul which suffers and is purified; the Catholic religion says, be generous, be merciful; relieve Christ in the person of the poor man, behold the sufferings of the wretched; and if the wretched do not come in your way, leave your way, and descend in search of them through penury's roofless huts and squalid cells,

The beneficence of the modern systems requires no such sacrifice. To own all sympathies, and exterminate the insidious pride that waits on riches, to cultivate compassion in practice, not in fancy, to sit and smile with poor men, "to kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of woe,-to live, as if to love and live were one,❞—this is not reformed religion, or law, the creed of those who look to thrones of earth for discipline. The modern beneficence has other ways; it sets out with the conviction of Chremylus, in the old play, that it would be doing the greatest good to men if poverty could be banished, for that is now the basis of all views of territorial improvement, so that the first step is always to weed out poor people from an estate. All this, indeed, is expressed in measured language; but do I exaggerate in estimating what is at the bottom? The new philosophy says, "be humane, relieve your fellow-men, without distressing yourself; there is no necessity for your coming in contact with these poor things; it would injure society if the disgustful and distressing sight of abject misery were seen. There are always proper persons to superintend the wretched; keep out of their way; and if they should obtrude themselves on your way, let the magistrate be apprised, let him protect you, and let the inscription over the doors of churches warn all devout persons from bringing disgrace upon their faith, by giving alms to the wretched beings that encompass them." Catholic charity came by hearing, and descended by faith into the heart; it was the result of a conviction that the words of Christ in the Gospel, respecting those who relieved and neglected the poor, would hereafter be fulfilled; it was essentially, therefore, an intellectual act. The bounty of men, who adopt the modern principles and manners, may be justly said to come in general by speculating or following the independent but capricious sentiment of a generous heart. Its effects, accordingly, are very different: with Catholics the giving of alms was an art, and, as St. Chrysostom adds, the most useful and precious of all arts. Whether it be so with the moderns, I will not pretend to determine; but, in that event, it has certainly made progress in a direction totally new. Their beneficence has no resemblance to that charity sung by Fortunatus, and ascribed by him to Sidonius II, Archbishop of Mayence:

Sis cibus ut populi, placide jejunia servas;

Et satias alios, subtrahis unde tibi.

As also to St. Nicetius, Archbishop of Treves, of whom he says:

Dum tibi restrictus maneas et largus egenis

Quod facis in minimis, te dare credo Deo.

It is rather that doubtful beneficence which is expected from flesh and blood excited, or the motives of secret vanity, which would be despised even by the Turks, who have a proverb never to trust men who are generous after they have dined, and which Aristotle, and the writers on physiognomy in the Middle Ages, would not have been more inclined to trust, who affirm, from what they think general experience, that merciful persons are pale of complexion, of phlegmatic temperament, easily moved to tears, and of abstemious manners. Michael Scot remarks, that their brain is of a frigid complexion, that they are easily alarmed, that their voice seems sometimes to fail as if they had a certain impediment, that their mouth is generally small, indicating that they are not formed for boisterous scenes, that they eat but little, that they are secret, modest, learned and pacific.

Cocles of Bologna, whose work appears also in the collection entitled “Infinita Naturæ Secreta,," adds, "Misericors est sapiens et disciplinatus et timidus et vere