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

518 NEW CATHOLIC LEAGUE.Francis Joseph furnishes another example of the historicalfact, that the vassals of the Church are uniformly the oppressorsof their subjects.That the Jesuit should nestle once more under the shadowof Schonbrunn, is not surprising ; but it may well astonish usthat Prussia should open its gates to these men. Yet thefact is as undoubted as it is melancholy. Frederick William,the professedly protestant King of Prussia, has takenthe viper to his bosom, and, with his kingdom, has joined thegreat anti-protestant league. This man's pedantry in speechmaking,and tinkering in the work of government,— his heroismin words and shortcomings in deeds,—his voice, whichis the voice of a Protestant, and his hands, which are thehands of a Papist,—make him the James the Sixth of Germany.In a recent tour in his dominion, he received thepopish bishops with smiles and genuflections, while he couldfind nothing but frowns and sharp reproofs for his protestantministers. And why? Because they had permittedthe Jesuits to outdo them in the courtly work of preachingthe doctrine of " divine right" and " implicit obedience."Constitutional journals are silenced, and liberal professors areexpelled. The Jesuits have undertaken to inculcate no preceptsbut those of order and loyalty, and therefore they arefree of Prussia. They have descended the Rhine, bringingsocial dissensions and family discords in their train, andhave now penetrated into all parts of the kingdom. Thereis no power in either the doctrines of Hegel and Fichte, orin the pietist party of Gerlach and Stahl, to resist the strideswhich despotic Austria is making towards political and ecclesiasticaldominion in Prussia. Let Austria once get herbarbarian but Catholic provinces into the German confederation,and the fate of Prussia as a protestant power issealed. The polypus arms of Roman Catholicism will bestretched over all northern Germany. Unhappy FrederickWilliam ! When he struck hands with Austria and theJesuits, ho little thought what woes he was entailing on hishouse and kingdom.