“ It is interdicted to the Catholics to teach school either in public or in private; on the other hand, heretical masters are hired in every diocese, and paid from the revenue of some benefices, to pervert our youth and imbue them with heresy. In fact, the heretics have obstructed every avenue by which our youth could receive instruction in this kingdom; and by their severe penalties and rigorous searches, they seek to render it impossible for any Catholic teacher to remain in the country. ”

“ Now we hold it very probable that as this spirit becomes more extended, its fruits will be these: men will become familiar with the teachings of Christian antiquity; and although this knowledge may be sought not for the sake of the doctrine itself, but as a preliminary to other studies, still, such is the divine power of truth, that, once revealed to the soul, it creates therein a wondrous craving after itself, which will dispose the soul for the grace of faith. ”

“ Then came the eight books of the Stromata, an unpretending mosaic, in which the loftiest problems of philosophy and theology are treated with great learning and rare penetration. These three works were, without doubt, connected together in the author's mind. The idea of the Word is the central point of Clement's entire demonstration; and in that idea we must seek the essential unity of his system. It is the Word which tenderly invites man; which instructs him; which guides him to his end by leading him to see the things of God in their profundity ”

“ Since conscientious investigations have proved to me that the so-called Reformation of the sixteenth century has but disfigured the type of the true Church of Jesus Christ, and that its principles, far from being salutary, are essentially destructive and the necessary cause of the effects which history has registered during three centuries—that the Protestant confessions and their apologists, instead of attacking the Church's genuine teaching, do but distort it to insure an easy victory ”

“ What happens when the examination papers exact from students a knowledge of science as well as of literature, physics, chemistry, natural history, and the different branches of mathematics? It is a well-known fact that, with the exception of a few intended for certain professions, young men are careful to forget as soon after examination as they can, the information it has cost them so much labour to acquire. ”

“ The Church has nothing to hope from men of this class; they lack a thorough and absolute thirst for truth; they are self-complacent; they imagine themselves to have received from heaven an extraordinary mission like the prophets; they assume the right to dictate to the infallible authority of the Church; to satisfy them, we must become syncretists, and ask them in what is it their pleasure that the Catholic Church should modify in its doctrines, its ceremonies, and its discipline; men of fine phrases, and not of action ”

“ Theile died shortly after. "He was a man of rectitude", says M. Laemmer, "and conscientious: I cannot think of him without a feeling of deep sorrow. You might read on his brow the painful and fruitless efforts he had made to attain to the fulness of truth and to that peace which the world cannot give" (p. 65) . Daily more and more disgusted with rationalism, and wearied with ineffectual efforts to reconcile the contradictions which everywhere appeared in theology, he now began to entertain serious thoughts of confining himself exclusively to philosophical studies. ”

“ But when the interests of religion or justice have convinced them that silence is no longer a duty, the history they consent to unfold can rarely be other than attractive and profitable, seeing that it describes a human soul's toilsome journey from error to truth. ”

“ This class of literature is regulated in its growth by very peculiar conditions, and must be judged according to exceptional laws. Its subject—the mysterious workings of grace in the soul—is such as rather to impose a reverent silence than to invite fulness of description; and so well do elevated souls appreciate the sacredness of such silence, that, except for interests of religion or justice, they are unwilling to bring before men those inner secrets of their hearts. ”

“ Now, the more clearly it is proved that the historical origin of Christianity is able to resist the crucial tests to which it has been submitted, the more shadowy and insubsistent do these capricious theories become. Hence, the study undertaken by M. Laemmer did in reality, by occupying him with the objective side of patristic teaching, most powerfully contribute to destroy in his mind the authority of Baur, Hilgenfeld, and the others of the Tübingen school. ”

“ M. Laemmer followed the course of the controversy, and found to his dismay that the arguments of Lessing had brought home to him the conviction that Lutheranism rested on a false basis. This was a great gain; but it was counter-balanced by a great loss. The ardour of his youthful admiration blinded him to the dangerous principles of indifferentism and doubt contained in his master's works, and particularly in his Education of the World. The third Fragment sets it forth as impossible, that all men should be brought to believe revelation on rational grounds. ”

“ For the heretics have learned by experience that there is no people in the world so attached to the faith of their fathers as are the Irish, in defence of which they often had recourse to arms, and risked their fortunes and lives. Seeing, therefore, that penal laws could not suffice to destroy their devotion to the Catholic religion, they had recourse to new arts, and by a disastrous counsel commenced to fill the country with English and Scotch colonies ”

“ There must be at this moment many thoughtful men in Germany, who, in virtue of this spirit, are engaged in the examination of the fathers and of the theologians of the Catholic Church, and, who, finding themselves, like Dr. Laemmer, between the ruins caused by Protestantism and the unbroken strength of Catholic teaching, are even now turning their eyes towards Rome, therein to seek her who was their mother of old. ”

“ But he halts in his march, laying himself open to the charge of Catholic tendencies, and could but be silent when reproached by Schenkel, who told him that Romanism was more honourable than the vacillating and intermediate position he had assumed. He resembles Stehl, Kliefoth, and others, who would wish to place in the same setting the jewels of Catholicism and those of Wittemberg; who rank together the theory nothing but the Bible, and the principle of authority; who are but half acquainted with Luther, and almost ignorant of Rome ”

“ The spectacle of division and discord which was exhibited daily under his eyes at Koenigsberg, helped to complete the work of destruction. Even his very prayer became a dry form, lacking all influence for good. The period of reconstruction commenced with the friendship that bound him to Lehnerdt, by whose influence were sown in his mind the seeds of a reaction, which, by the play of intellectual as well as moral causes, was afterwards developed into the fulness of Catholic belief. ”

“ The answer is, that it enabled him to shake off the influence of the Tübingen theories, which had hitherto held sway over his mind. The whole work of that school simply amounts to an attempt to submit to the all-powerful action of critical caprice the canon of Scripture and the most remarkable works of Christian antiquity, and to affirm all their own theories as indisputable facts, while they treat as fables the most authentic facts of history. ”

“ If we shall have succeeded in an humble way in showing the dignity of the marriage contract by the wise rules and discipline established by the Catholic Church, we will have performed a work agreeable, we are sure, to the readers of the Record, and attained at least one of the objects aimed at by its conductors. ”

“ In the world of books as in the world of men, evil lies very close to good, and wears its garb and mien; and how shall the inexperience of youth be able to see through the disguise, or how avoid becoming captive to its snares? ”

“ The favoured soul looks out from the shelter of its Father's house upon the perilous path it has just traversed, and gratefully traces the Providence by which its wayward feet were guided where so many strayed to their ruin ”

“ Modern French literature had no attractions for such a mind as his; the contemporary romance writers of that nation excited even his disgust. As Germany is considered by many to be the very home of perfection in classical studies, it will be interesting to hear the opinion Dr. Laemmer's experience has led him to form concerning the special dangers which beset middle school education at the present day:—
"I believe it to be a mistake", he says, "to make modern languages, mathematics, and the physical sciences occupy very much of the time appointed for the study of the classics ”

“ That extravagant cultivation of the natural sciences, so often substituted by our ministers in place of the lessons of Holy Writ, is as perilous as is the undue exaltation of man and of man's pretended victories over nature. ”

“ The laws of nature have never acknowledged any master save One—our Lord Jesus Christ—and in Him the saints with whom it has pleased Him to share His sovereignty" (p. 13) .
Whether the authorities at the gymnasium shared these views or not, we are not in a position to state. One thing, however, is certain,—much attention was paid there to the study of the German language and literature; much of our student's time was passed in the excellent library of German authors provided for the use of the scholars. ”

“ Moreover, having created a university in the city of Dublin, the seat of the viceroy and the capital of the whole kingdom, they employ every artifice to attract our children to its schools. Indeed, they could not possibly devise any scheme more iniquitous than that of thus corrupting our youth. ”

“ This subject was chosen for the concursus by Lehnerdt, who felt that Catholic [423] theology, from the beginning of the Reformation to the Council of Trent, was almost entirely unknown. M. Laemmer having resolved to become one of the competitors, at once set about the necessary study. He first examined the Protestant confessional books, in order to fix the points at issue between them and their adversaries. If he were to trust these authorities, nothing could be clearer than the stupid ignorance of the Catholics, and the wisdom of the Protestants. ”

“ Of the twenty-six universities of which the learned nation is so proud, six or eight are Catholic, 6 four are mixed, 7 and the remaining fourteen are exclusively Protestant. 8
Now, Dr. Laemmer was student successively at Koenigsberg, Leipsic, and Berlin universities, that is to say, at the very universities which at the present time are the chief seats of Protestant thought, both in philosophy and in theology. The leading Protestant schools in Germany are at present three in number, called respectively the neo-Lutheran, the Mediation, and the Tübingen, or historico-critical school ”

“ The pseudo-clergy not only seize on all the revenues, but exact payment for the sacraments of baptism and marriage, even when they are administered by the Catholic priests; the sum thus exacted sometimes amounts to four guineas or more, according to the will of the Protestant ministers, who make no account of the poverty and misery of the people. ”

“ At the same time, however, it is but right that we should observe the rubrics of the Ritual, as, the more accurate we are in doing so, the greater will be the uniformity of practice, which is most desirable.
The principles which we have laid down will enable us to answer question 4. We should not consider the pastor deserving of censure for using a cope on a very solemn occasion, though undoubtedly there is no mention made of it in the Ritual, whereas it is prescribed in the Pontifical for a Bishop ”

“ The different churches at Koenigsberg had preachers of every shade of doctrine. During the course of his studies M. Laemmer made trial of them all, but found not satisfaction in any. At length, in the midst of this Babel, he became acquainted with the man who was destined to exercise a most salutary influence on his life. That man was Lehnerdt, Superintendent-General of the province of Saxony. Born in Brandenburg, and educated at Berlin, in the school of Schleiermacher and Hegel, he escaped the pernicious influence of his masters by a profound course of historical studies. ”

“ He brought with him from home a good stock of elementary and grammatical knowledge; and soon discovered that his tastes inclined him to the study of literature more than to that of science. Ellendt, then rector of the gymnasium, was a man who possessed in a remarkable degree the power of making his lectures interesting to his pupils. Explained by such a master, Homer and Herodotus became in a short time the favourite authors of M. Laemmer, who, on the other hand, had no taste for what he calls "the tedious narratives of the Anabasis, and the pedantic tirades of the Cyropaedia". ”

“ We invite special attention to the happy result of historical studies in his case, because we see in it a promise of much future good for Catholic truth in Germany. The broad distinction between the German method of the present century and that of the past, lies in this, that the nineteenth century is the age of historical inquiry, whereas the last century was that of critical thought. ”

“ The priest ought to be guided by the Ritual, while he leaves to the bishop the observance of the Ritus Pontificalis as laid down in the Roman Pontifical.
We now proceed to answer the fifth and last question. The Rubrics require lighted candles in the blessing of the ashes, palms, and candles; but in the blessings referred to in the proposed question, the use of candles is not prescribed, though we think it would be very becoming to have lighted candles at a marriage even when there is no mass. ”