rank which she occupies amongst the Masonic powers; she is the executrix of all the lodges of the world, the attorney of the universal Revolution. This is her raison d'être; this is why she hesitates at no iniquity, braves the protests of outraged justice, and the remonstrances of states and sovereigns.

"Hence, at the present time, the Roman Pontiff, with the most admirable longanimity, the most correct diplomacy, has only been able to prove to the world that the enemies of the Church rule most of the governments of Europe; that the revolution is the irreconcilable enemy of the Church; that it possesses the governments, be they princes or presidents; that it has made them its prey, and that it is leading them to the abyss.

"It is the contrary as regards the people. Far from being alienated by these efforts made by the Pontificate with the governments, they have conceived great hopes. But the check to these negotiations, foreseen, has taught them to the contrary, and has united them more closely to truth and to the Holy See.

"In France, Germany, Belgium, the Catholic provinces of Russia, everywhere, the enthusiasm of the people for the Holy See is irresistible. From the people came the protests against the Italian usurpation. It is the people that resist the attempts of the sects; it is the people who succor the Pontiff in his distress, who hold out against the powers in defending the rights of the Church, as they have done in Germany; it is the people who, by their obedience, their delicate submission, their respect, maintain the power and dignity of the Holy See.

"Thus the movement to which thrones have yielded is not so unfavorable to the Church as it might be thought. Thrones, which are both ruled and undermined by the revolution, if they are no longer the support of the Church, the pillar of legitimate rights,— have lost their social utility. As the great body of the people remain faithful to the Church, there is still, in the depths of that diseased society, an element of salvation which prepares a new order of

things, wherein the Church will find again her splendor and her triumph.

"This attraction of the people towards the truth in its integrity has not diminished under the Pontificate of Leo XIII.; but the separation between the people and governments in the hands of the sects has widened. The throne having ceased to protect the altar, the protection of the altar has fallen to the care of the people.

"The diplomacy of Leo XIII., if it has failed to make the governments understand their real interests, has at least demonstrated this; that between the Church and the revolution no agreement is possible."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FIFTH YEAR OF THE POPE'S PONTIFICATE.

'HE success which attended the earlier years of

THE

Pope Leo's Pontificate continued to increase as the days lengthened, and he remained at the head of the Church. As the reader can perceive, it has become necessary to summarize the acts of his administration, in order to keep this volume within reasonable limits, and to give to the more important acts of the Holy Father and to the occurrences, especially, in the American Church, that prominence which they merit. It would be of the highest interest to reproduce, in full, all the apostolic letters of Leo XIII., but to do that would require a volume of greater bulk than this work; and some of his encyclicals, while, of course, possessing an interest for all Catholics, were more especially directed to the faithful of certain localities. That being the case, the author has deemed it fit to merely mention the fact and the date of the issuance of such documents, in order to reserve for himself an ampler space in which to deal with events that more intimately concern American Catholics. Passing, then,

to the year 1883, the first important event chronicled in that is the letter which the Holy Father, on the 1st of January, addressed to Cardinal McCabe on the condition of Ireland. These repeated communications which the Pope sent to the Irish prelates, in reference to the situation in Ireland, furnish convincing proofs that his Holiness had at heart, and that, too, in a very close manner, the spiritual interests of the Irish Catholics. His constant apprehension seems to have been, lest, carried away by the enthusiasm which accompanied the agitation for national rights they were making, the Irish people would lose sight, even temporarily, of their religious duties; and hence he lost no opportunity, when he could appropriately do so, of reminding them that, after all, their first allegiance was to the Church, and that it would profit them very little to gain their aims if they did so at the expense of their faith and religion. The month of February witnessed the death of one of the Sacred College, Cardinal Ignatius Morales Cardoso, the Patriarch of Lisbon; and the following month, March, saw the Holy See embroiled in a dispute with the Chilian Government, which dismissed the apostolic delegate, Monsignor Celestino del Frate. This dispute, thanks to the diplomacy of the Holy Father, has since been mitigated, and is now in a fair way of being settled. In May, 1883, the Holy Father addressed a brief to the Catholic Total-Abstinence Union of America. On the 30th of

the same month, he issued a circular letter proclaiming the constitution of the Third Order of St. Francis. On the 5th of June he witnessed a signal triumph of his policy by the introduction in the German Landtag of a bill modifying the Falk Laws. On the 14th of August he addressed a brief to the Archbishop of Vienna on the relief of that city in 1683; and four days later, he sent one to Cardinals De Luca, Petra, and Hergenröther, on the study of history. In September he issued an encyclical to the Universal Church, commending the devotion of the Holy Rosary. In October the apostolic delegate, whom he sent to Canada to arbitrate the university question there, solemnly entered the basilica at Quebec. On the 4th of November his appointee to the coadjutorship of Dublin, Right Rev. Nicholas Donnelly, was consecrated bishop of Canea; and on Dec. 13 Archbishop Elder of Cincinnati was invested with the pallium.

During the year, five eminent prelates of the American hierarchy died: to wit, Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati, July 4; Archbishop Wood of Philadelphia, June 20; Archbishop Blanchet, formerly of Oregon, June 18; Bishop Quinlan of Mobile, March 9; Bishop McMullen of Davenport, July 4; and Archbishop Perché of New Orleans, Dec. 26. Of Bishop McMullen a sketch has been already given. Subjoined are brief biographies of the others :

Most Rev. Napoleon J. Perché was born at Angers