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PREFACE
PREFACE
T HESE Considerations, written during the last six years’ residence in France, have already appeared in the Press of the United States. They were written from year to year without any thought of republication, which seems justified to-day by the acuity of the conflict between the Church and the French atheocracy, a conflict which cannot but interest Christians everywhere. J. N. B....
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Lyon , March 17th, 1900 . T HERE seems to be considerable misapprehension in the United States as to the status of the Catholic Church in France. “One iniquitous arrangement in France,” writes the Central Baptist , “is the support of the priesthood out of public funds.” In receiving stipends from the State the French clergy, however, are no more its debtors, nor its functionaries, than holders of French 3 per cents who receive the interest of their bonds. When that essentially satanic movement,
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THE TWO CAMPS
THE TWO CAMPS
May 25th, 1900. T O the thoughtful and sympathetic observer, France presents a singular spectacle of duality—two camps and two standards are confronting each other, neo-paganism and Christianity. By Christianity I mean, of course, Catholicism, for though there may be good Protestants, who adhere to some of the truths of revealed religion, such a thing as a good pervert French Protestant is a lusus naturæ , practically non-existent. It is a notorious fact that Protestants in France as elsewhere i
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THE ASSOCIATIONS BILL
THE ASSOCIATIONS BILL
May 4th, 1901. A YEAR ago I wrote in these columns as follows: “For twenty years the Government has been running its educational machine at immense loss, compelling the French to support their own schools as well as those they will not patronize. Nevertheless, State schools and colleges are so neglected that laws are being devised to compel parents to send their children to them. If all other means fail, the congregations of both sexes occupied in teaching will be suppressed.” Now this is the tr
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THE ASSOCIATIONS BILL
THE ASSOCIATIONS BILL
3rd April, 1901. F EW persons in the United States have the leisure or the means of following the debates of the French Chambers, and appreciating the Law on Associations, of which many garbled and falsified versions appear in metropolitan and other dailies. It is pre-eminently a project of tyranny and religious persecution. The sympathy of sectarian antagonism with anti-Catholic measures, in any part of the world, is always a foregone conclusion. It does not concern itself with the arbitrary ty
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ARBITRARY INCONSISTENCY
ARBITRARY INCONSISTENCY
16th February, 1901. T HE attitude of the Jacobin government in France towards the religion professed by nine-tenths of the inhabitants is truly instructive. After prating about liberty, fraternity, and equality, and the rights of man for a hundred years, the successors of the revolutionary Constituante are preparing to deal a deathblow at the most sacred rights of the individual, to overstep the most arbitrary acts of any regime, nay of the Inquisition itself. These, at least, only concerned th
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A PAGAN RENAISSANCE
A PAGAN RENAISSANCE
10th August, 1901. I N a previous article I asserted that the revolutionary spirit so rampant to-day is a new version of that renaissance of Paganism in the fourteenth century which culminated in the Protestant revolt. I find the same view expressed in Goldwin Smith’s recently published work on the United Kingdom. In a chapter on the Renaissance he writes as follows: “Our generation may look upon this period with interest, since it is itself threatened with an interregnum between Christian moral
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INCONSISTENT JACOBINISM
INCONSISTENT JACOBINISM
11th November, 1901. I N 1894, 1895, and 1896 I contributed several papers on the Eastern Question to the Progress . At that time public opinion was much excited and indignant over the massacres in Armenia, but none of the Powers who signed the Berlin Treaty thought fit to interfere. Massacres on a small scale were renewed from time to time, and a few months ago they reached considerable proportions; but nothing was done to punish the culprits, or to protect the victims of Turkish barbarity. Thi
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UNAUTHORIZED CONGREGATIONS
UNAUTHORIZED CONGREGATIONS
25th April, 1902. I HESITATE to write anything more on religious conditions at the present time, because I shall have to repeat what I have written in these columns since two years. My worst previsions have been realized. The Budget of Cults which I had hoped would be thrown as another sop to Cerberus, has been voted by a compact Ministerial majority. If the clergy of France, with the Holy See, do not themselves reject all connexion with a distinctly pagan government, and hold their own as the C
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A COMBES COUP DE MAIN
A COMBES COUP DE MAIN
23rd August, 1902. T HE elections of May, 1902, have not improved the situation in France. No efforts, as I said, however earnest, could now retrieve the political situation. For twenty-five years the “Grand Orient” has been gathering into its hands all the threads of power; ministers, presidents, cabinets are made, unmade, remade, as it suits the well-conceived plans of this band of sectarian Jacobins, who differ from other Freemasons in that with them God is both non-existent and l’ennemi to b
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LEGALIZED DESPOTISM
LEGALIZED DESPOTISM
15th February, 1903. A CURIOUS feature in the case of the doomed Congregations in France is that more than nine hundred awards were made to them for educational work during the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Leroy Beaulieu, who presided over this international jury, has written several articles, and a most scathing letter to M. Combes, on the subject of his malicious official calumnies. He, Brunetière, Paul Bourget, and many other distinguished Frenchmen have countersigned a Defence, presented by the
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DESPOTISM PLUS GUILE
DESPOTISM PLUS GUILE
6th June, 1903. T HE true character and scope of the Associations Bill can no longer be dissimulated. It should have been labelled “An Act for the suppression of religious congregations and Christian education preparatory to the suppression of Catholicism in France.” Nor is this all. It looks as if this Trouillot or Associations Bill, with its numerous articles, was merely a vulgar trap set by the Government to extract from the doomed unauthorized Congregations accurate information regarding the
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UNCHANGING JACOBINISM
UNCHANGING JACOBINISM
6th May, 1903. L AST August I described the true spirit and scope of the Associations Bill, as it is called, and which many supposed was a mere matter of domestic economy. It should have been called an act for the suppression of all religious associations preparatory to the elimination of Christianity in France. L’ennemi c’est Dieu. It is evident to-day that the law of 1901 was a mere trap set by the Government to obtain from the Congregations accurate information regarding their pecuniary resou
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DEATH OF WALDECK ROUSSEAU
DEATH OF WALDECK ROUSSEAU
August, 1904. I REFER my readers to what I wrote on May 4th, 1901, regarding the advent of the Waldeck Rousseau Cabinet, and its policy after the sudden and suspicious death of M. Felix Faure, rapidly replaced by M. Loubet. I then related how Socialist revolutionists were skilfully used to obtain a majority with which both Houses were packed to carry through the odious legislation of the last few years. The laws of 1901 (Associations Bill), and of July 7th, 1904, suppressing all teaching religio
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LIBERTY AND STATE SERVITUDE
LIBERTY AND STATE SERVITUDE
July, 1904. M ODERN democracy, which flatters itself that it has shaken off all the shackles of authority, is itself but an evolution of what it so loftily contemns. If we are free to-day, it is because our fathers have borne the yoke of Christ. In one of his sonorous paradoxes, Rousseau declared that “men are born free and everywhere they are in chains.” That all men are born free is as false a statement as that all men are born upright and virtuous. History and experience give the lie to both
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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
27th June, 1904. T HE Associations Bill, pre-eminently an act of oppression and religious persecution, has been rendered doubly odious by the many illegalities by which it has been surrounded, some of which I enumerated in my letter in the Evening Post of May 6th. Not long since, M. Decrais, ex-Minister of the Waldeck-Rousseau Cabinet, was elected by a large majority at Bordeaux, after he had branded the wholesale execution of the religious orders as “a violation of the spirit and the letter of
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A PAPAL NOTE
A PAPAL NOTE
13th June, 1904. T HE storm of words aroused the world over by a Papal diplomatic Note is another proof that the Papacy has lost none of its power and prestige, and is still, on this threshold of the twentieth century, the incarnation of moral power opposed to mere brute force, the right of the strongest. In reading the many silly comments on this Note in different parts of the globe, we are reminded of the brick thrown into the frog-pond and the emotion it caused. Long before M. Loubet went to
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FREEMASONRY
FREEMASONRY
December, 1904. W E cannot adequately appreciate the religious and politico-social conditions of countries like Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Belgium, unless we take into account the action of Freemasonry in all its ramifications—Carbonari, Grand Orient, Mafia, etc. There is eternal enmity between them and Christianity. It was said in the beginning: “I will put enmity between thy seed and the seed of the Woman,” etc. The Catholic Church being the largest, strongest, most accredited and influent
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FREEMASONRY
FREEMASONRY
21st January, 1905. I N these columns ( The Progress , December 10th, 1904), I referred to the recently published Manifesto of the Grand Orient of France (November 4th, 1904), defending its attitude with regard to the elaborate spy system, a veritable régime des suspects which they had established, not in the War Office only, but in every Department of State. The Press, both in England and in the United Sates, has been singularly reticent regarding this most remarkable document, whose authentici
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PART SECOND
PART SECOND
October, 1904. M. C OMBES , who proclaimed at the Chambers two years ago that he had taken office only to wage war on Clericalism, enumerated his deeds of prowess recently in a political speech at Auxerre. Fifteen thousand scholar establishments, strongholds of the ghostly enemy, had been demolished! “Gentlemen, you will grant that this is a great deal for a ministry obliged to fight at every instant for its own existence,” he exclaimed. We are now coming to the second part of the Jacobin progra
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ALCOHOLISM IN FRANCE
ALCOHOLISM IN FRANCE
July 10th, 1905. T HE Chambers continue the discussion of the Bill of alleged separation in a perfunctory, apathetic way, and it is curious that M. Rouvier, the successor of M. Combes, has never once condescended to speak or even to be present at these sessions. The utter lack of interest in these debates is misinterpreted to mean indifference on the part of the French public. This is not correct. It is, as I have often repeated, the great misfortune of France that people will not concern themse
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THE LAW OF SEPARATION
THE LAW OF SEPARATION
June 3rd, 1905. T HERE is still a persistent tendency in the Press to believe or make-believe that the Bill of alleged Separation, still pending in the French Chambers, means Separation as it is understood in England and the United States, and that the whole question is only one of dollars and cents, or of the suppression of the Budget of Cults. It is true that there is to be a partial repudiation of the National Debt by the suppression of the few paltry millions paid yearly to the French clergy
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CATHOLICISM IN GERMANY
CATHOLICISM IN GERMANY
Germany , August, 1905 . W HILE Freemasonry in France seems on the point of triumphing over Christianity by the destruction of all religious education and a law of alleged Separation of Church and State, it is interesting to recall that only thirty-five years ago Catholicism in Germany was as much menaced as it is in France to-day. Churches were closed, prisons were full of priests, bishops, and archbishops, and Bismarck, like M. Briand of France, swore he would never, never go to Canossa. In 18
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PSEUDO-SEPARATION
PSEUDO-SEPARATION
19th August, 1905. I N the past, marauding kings and robber barons bound to themselves their fighting lieges by investing them with vast tracts of stolen lands which they, in turn, distributed among their leal followers. The Third Republic has found a better way. To say nothing of the extensive network of electoral strongholds that they have established all over the country by unlimited and most abusive high licence, the masters of France have enlisted the enthusiastic support of myriads of pett
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THE PROGRESS OF ANARCHY
THE PROGRESS OF ANARCHY
12th October, 1905. T HE stories that are going the rounds of the whole European Press leave little doubt as to the fact, that a once great, free nation had her Foreign Minister, M. Delcassé, kept in office by the King of England while he was in Paris this spring, and that two months later, he was dismissed at the behest of Germany, who tore up the Anglo-French Convention regarding Morocco and inaugurated the Congress of Algeciras. No nation can act as France has done with impunity. [12] This is
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THE ABOLITION OF THE CONCORDAT
THE ABOLITION OF THE CONCORDAT
February 3rd, 1906. O N August 19th, 1905, I described some of the odious features of the alleged Separation Bill voted by the House of Deputies on July 7th, at “midnight, the hour of crime.” It may truly be ranked in that category to which Cicero referred when he said, “There are laws which are merely conventions among thieves.” “The vote of the Senate is a foregone conclusion,” I wrote. The order had been given; every amendment (there were about a hundred) was rejected automatically, and the l
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THE INVENTORIES
THE INVENTORIES
12th February, 1906. Y EAR by year, I have foreshadowed and characterized the programme of persecution, spoliation, and arbitrary tyranny which is that of the Judeo-Masonic coterie which governs France, by means of the Socialist vote. We have now reached the second part of this programme. In 1901 the Associations Bill was, according to Waldeck Rousseau, intended to give legal standing and liberty to the unauthorized as well as to the authorized Congregations. We all know, to-day, how twenty-seve
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DUC IN ALTUM
DUC IN ALTUM
20th August, 1906. “A ND the Lord said to Peter, Launch out into the deep,” Duc in altum . To-day again the successor of Peter has heard the word of command, Duc in altum . He has exercised that potentiorem principalitatem or eminent leadership ascribed to the Roman See by St. Irenæus in the second century, and the whole leash of anti-clericals are transported with rage and surprise at this grand act of Pius X, the one contingency for which they were not prepared. The previous encyclical ( Vehem
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SEPARATION
SEPARATION
24th November, 1906. D ISGUISE the fact as they may, there is religious persecution in France. Never since the days of Julian the Apostate has any war been waged against Christianity more malign, more insidious. The ancient Faith was crushed out, by sheer force, in England and in many parts of the Continent, in the sixteenth century. In France, too, it seemed, in the eighteenth century, as though Christianity had received its quietus by the same brutal means. But methods have greatly altered. Ma
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LIBERTY AND CHRISTIANITY
LIBERTY AND CHRISTIANITY
L IBERTY is, pre-eminently and indisputably, a product of Christianity and must diminish with every diminution of the faith. “Other influences,” writes Lecky, “could produce the manumission of many slaves, but Christianity alone could effect that profound change of character that rendered the abolition of slavery possible, and there are,” he says, “few subjects more interesting than the history of that great transition” ( History of Rationalism , II, 258). There is, indeed, no grander spectacle
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CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION
CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION
“A T the end of the fourth century,” writes Guizot, “the Church saved Christianity ... resisted the internal dissolution of the Empire and the barbarians, and became the bond, the medium, and the principle of civilization.... Had the Church not existed the whole world must have been abandoned to purely material force” ( History of Civilization , I, 38).... “When all was chaos, when every great social combination was vanishing, the Church proclaimed the unity of her doctrine and the universality
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APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Page 29 Séance du 28 Decembre, 1906. Au Sénat Journal Officiel , page 1236. M. D ELAHAYE : “M. Briand’s law is older than himself. We find traces of it in all the Masonic convents.... Gentlemen, why are we going to vote this additional law, as we did the first Separation Law, without changing an iota?... Because the lodges have so decided. “The Convent, the public should be told, is the general assembly of the lodges.... The Convent, called during the Revolution La Convention , is the source of
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