The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

504 SHAM REFORM AND REAL RE-ACTION.a council, to be interrogated on " the Catechism of the Christiandoctrine," and can only exercise their office hy 'permission; which simply means that the Jesuits are to dictatewhat is to be taught to the youth at Naples, whilst the civillaw will punish any deviation from their orders. By a decreeof the Minister of Instructionat Naples, issued in December1849, all students are placed under a commission ofecclesiastics, and are obliged to enroll themselves in somereligious congregation or society. All schools, public andprivate, are placed under the same arbitrary law. Theschoolmasters are bound to take all their pupils above tenyears of age to one of the congregations, and to makea monthly return of their attendance. Since that time,the atrociousteachescatechism described by Mr Gladstone, whichthat kings are divine, that popes can dispense withoaths, and that all liberals are the children of the devil,and willbe eternally damned, has been introduced into theschools, and is now conned by the children. In Austria andGermany they are not less busy attacking knowledge underpretence of diffusing it. Thus do the Jesuits strive to leadback the mind of Europe to its dungeon. The shackleswhich infidelity taught the fathers toriveted betimes upon the sons.throw off are to beIn the latter years of Napoleon''s career, the condition ofRoman Catholicism seemed desperate. It was then that asmall but brilliant band of literary men undertook to restoreits fortunes. Lamennais, de Maistre, Bonald, wrote argumentativeand eloquent works, defending Romanism and attackingits adversaries. Their works made a great sensation,and gathered a party around them.They leant mainlyupon the Roman Court, the restored Bourbons, and Metternich;they were absolutist in their politics, and their greatsuccess seduced them into measures of an extremelv despoticcharacter- Under Louis XVIII. bloody persecutionswere recommenced in the south of France, and the Jesuitskept assassins in their pay. Marshals of France were obligedto walk in processions and carry a candle, under tiie